Testing for Talent

While shifting his gaze to the cups and balls that were placed on the counter between him and Jekyll, Valyr went ahead and checked the quest he had received, making sure that the quest rewarded the two skills he needed for his Rank 1 class.

Ding!

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[Jekyll's Test]

Difficulty: D

After telling Jekyll the plight you're going through, the man has accepted to teach you the skills you sought out to obtain from him. However, as they say, nothing in the world is given for free. You have to prove yourself that you're worthy of the skills you ask of him.

Quest Requirements:

> Successfully pass Jekyll's test (0/1)

Quest Rewards: Affinity +100 with Jekyll, [Astute Eyes Lv. 1], [Astute Mind Lv. 1]

Quest Penalty: Affinity -10 with Jekyll, Level -5

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'It seems he hasn't fully forgiven me for what I've done earlier.' Reading through the description of the quest, Valyr was pleased to find out that everything was more or less the same with the quest in his memories. However, after finding out the penalty in failing the quest, he could not help but inwardly hiss and curse at how cruel Jekyll was. After all, the penalty meant that he had toiled to allocate 30,000 XP towards his levels for nothing.

Seeing that half of all the levels he currently had were at stake, Valyr looked at the items in front of him with a solemn expression, his gaze giving Jekyll the feeling that the man in front of him did not want to miss every single detail. Noticing this, a light smirk briefly appeared on Jekyll's face as he went ahead and explained the test he was going to give Valyr.

"Since you're only here for the skills and not to actually learn gambling, I'm going to give you the most basic of tests." Jekyll raised up one of the cups with a light smile. "I'm sure you've already heard of the cup guessing game. I'm gonna place the red ball under one of the cups, shuffle it around, and see if you could guess where the red ball ended up. Doesn't sound too hard now, does it?"

Seeing that Valyr was following along, Jekyll nodded in response. "Good. For this test of mine, we're going to do this game three times, with each consecutive round being significantly harder than the last. If you guess where the ball is correctly on all three rounds, then you get the skills you want. Perhaps, you might even be able to obtain the legacy you used as a reason to bring me out here."

While Valyr's eyes briefly widened at the mention of Jekyll's legacy, Jekyll continued to speak. "However, if you fail even one round out of the three, then say goodbye to your chances of getting the skills from me."

"Now, do you wanna start? Or do you wanna back out and find some other place to get the skills instead?" Hearing the question that came out of Jekyll's mouth, Valyr could not help but look at the man in front of him for a brief second, his brows furrowed as he pondered over it.

'The only other method available to me at the moment would be to buy it from a skill shop. However, I don't even have the funds to buy it from those places even I haggle the price down.' Valyr rubbed his chin in silence. 'As for the other methods, they're either too far away from me to be able to ascend to Rank 1 before the beta version begins, or I would need to ascend to Rank 1 to be able to access them.'

'I guess I'm being reminded that this is the only shot I have at getting the Rank 1 class I want.' As a bitter smile appeared on his mouth, his expression quickly became determined as he nodded at Jekyll. "Let's begin."

"Good answer." Flashing a grin at Valyr, Jekyll placed three cups upside down in between the two, only to raise one up soon after and place the red ball beneath it. Reminding Valyr of the cup with the ball inside, he then started to shuffle the three cups in various places, with Valyr keeping track of the cup with the ball with his keen perception.

After a while, Jekyll stopped shuffling the cups around, giving Valyr the chance to pick out the cup with the ball inside it. Unsurprisingly, as it was only the first round, Jekyll had gone easy on the shuffling, allowing Valyr to pick out the cup with the ball inside.

Nodding in satisfaction, Jekyll went ahead and repeated the same thing all over again, shuffling the cups around while Valyr kept track of the cup with the ball. However, just as he had mentioned before, with each consecutive round, the difficulty of finding the cup with the ball would grow increasingly harder. With that in mind, small gusts of wind arose in their surroundings as Jekyll swiftly shuffled the cups around, prompting Valyr to utilize the entirety of his perception just to barely keep up.

Thankfully, even after all of the swift shuffling Jekyll did, Valyr was able to point out the one with the ball inside, which meant that he only had one round to go before he would be able to obtain the two skills he needed. At this point, Jekyll could not help but become curious of the man in front of him, wondering how far he could push the third round and have Valyr still figure out which one had the ball. 'Out of all the people I've given this test to so far, only a couple people have been able to successfully pick out the one with the ball in the second round.'

'I wonder if he could give me a surprise and pick out the right one in this final round.' Inwardly smirking, Jekyll had come to a decision. 'If he does…'

'Then he's the one.'

"Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this one, because I'm not gonna hold back." Saying his piece, Jekyll went ahead and shuffled the cups around one last time. Though, unlike the second round where everything was just shuffled swiftly, to Valyr, it seemed that the cups on the counter had multiplied all of a sudden. He didn't know whether Jekyll had utilized an illusion skill out of nowhere or if Jekyll was shuffling the cups so fast that the cups left afterimages behind. All he knew was that he had to figure out which cup had the ball, or a great portion of his efforts so far would have gone down the drain.

'There's gotta be a way for me to figure out which one has it.' While Valyr was intently looking at the cups being shuffled, pushing his perception to its utmost limits to make sure he took in every detail, he eventually noticed that there was a slight peculiarity in Jekyll's movements. Whenever he touched a certain cup, he would lift his arm ever so slightly at a weird angle before it returned to normal. However, with how fast he shuffled the cups around, Valyr was certain that not even a single person would be able to figure that out at his level.

Nevertheless, as he had no other way to figure out which cup had the ball, he decided to trust his instincts and focus on the cup he touched with the weird movement beforehand. Surprisingly, Jekyll noticed the change in Valyr's focus amidst the shuffling, prompting a wide smile to appear on his face as he finally wrapped it up, lining up the three cups in front of Valyr.

"So, Valyr. Which of these cups among the three has the ball?" Jekyll looked at him, wondering if Valyr had figured out the trick.

"This one." In response, Valyr let out a light sigh before picking out the cup in the middle. For a brief moment, Jekyll's eye widened in surprise as he eventually let out a bit of carefree laughter. Looking at Valyr with a smile, he then lifted up the cup in the middle, revealing the red ball hidden underneath.

Naturally, seeing the red ball under the cup, Valyr could not help but be ecstatic, as well as relieved that he wouldn't have to find other ways to obtain the two remaining skills he needed. However, just as he was about to end it there and leave the gambling den, Jekyll's next few words quickly piqued his interest.

"I'm surprised that you've completed my test. Because of that, I'll keep my word and give you the skills you want. However…"

"Aren't you curious to find out how far you can go?"