[ The first trial has been finished, please wait for the second trial to start. ]
Reign and the others found themselves in a white room while the system was talking to them. All of them were alone in the room as they patiently waited for the trials to continue. No wounds could be seen on their bodies and their mana was back to being full, it was a weird feeling, especially for Reign and Wolf who had even died previously.
“Dying sucks,” Reign says as he lies down on the warm floor of the room. He was looking at the ceiling while remembering the fights he had gone through previously. Not only him, but all of them were also doing the same as the first trial made them go all out and improve upon their skills. The knowledge of not being able to truly die was a sort of liberation they never felt before and made them abandon all notions of self-perseverance while fighting.
Ding!
[ Second trial is starting, good luck player. ] ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.
The system sounds out again as Reign and the others slowly get up and get ready for the next trial. A bright light flashes once again as they get transported once more.
[ Second trial has started, complete your mission and take the enemy general’s head. ]
Reign was transported in a forest as information was flowing into his brain. He was a vice-general of an army, the strongest amongst all. The general gave him a task, something that was almost impossible to do. Break through the side of the enemy’s army and kill their general. For his mission Reign was given 200 elite troops to command. They were all transported near the enemy’s location via spatial magic and were now located on the far left of the enemy.
Reign looks back at the soldiers as they all had determination written on their faces. All of them knew this was pretty much a suicide mission as both success and failure would end the same way for them, death.
Reign slowly moved with his troops. The first thing on his mind was to check the number of soldiers on the enemy’s side. Since this was a trial then it should be possible to complete it, right?
Reign and the soldiers slowly move through the forest as they gave it their all not to get seen. Suddenly Reign clads himself in lightning as he jumps towards a nearby tree. A swing of the blade could be heard followed by a thud. Reign gets down from the tree and he wipes off the blood lingering on his sword. As Reign had expected, there were enemy’s in the forest as well, one wrong move and they could be discovered before even getting close to the army.
After more than two hours of traveling and killing over 20 enemy soldiers, Reign was finally able to see the army. What was in front of him made him widen his eyes in disbelief as his mouth stood agape.
Thousands upon thousands of soldiers could be seen moving ahead. On the left side, Reign could see them clashing against another army as tens of them died every single second. Each army probably had more than 40 000 soldiers, and between him and the general were approximately 2 000 soldiers standing guard. Reign saw no way of breaking through such numbers, even if his soldiers were elites and much stronger than average soldiers were. The second they start their charge they would be surrounded on all sides as more soldiers would start pouring in from everywhere.
Reign sat down on the ground as he inspected the soldiers behind him. They were all clutching their weapons with full force as they watched the overwhelming number of soldiers standing in front of them. Some of them had slight hopes of surviving the mission previously but now, now they knew that it was impossible. The general was tightly guarded, more than their scouts had reported.
Reign slowly went to the soldiers as his mind raced at how he could achieve victory against such overwhelming odds.
In other halls, Shadow and the others were teleported to their own trials.
Shadow was on a hill overlooking a medieval city full of life. The 6-meter tall city walls were littered by soldiers who were patrolling around it. Archers were on the lookout while they talked with the other soldiers and laughed. Carriages and people would enter and exit the big city gate as they went their own merry way. The merchants would talk to the guards merrily while waiting for their wares to be inspected before being allowed entry.
Shadow’s task was simple, but similarly to Reign’s, it was one that left him with a headache.
[ Infiltrate the city and kill the king. ]
He had no idea how to even start this trial. Did the people down there even speak English? What if he couldn’t communicate with them?
That was of course highly unlikely as such a setting for a trial was simply too unfair. But still, how was he supposed to enter the city, should he simply walk down to the gate and act as he was a simple farmer that was entering?
Should he wait for nighttime before sneaking inside?
And what about the king, how was he supposed to even come close to him?
The castle was situated in the middle of the city and Shadow had a clear view of it. It was majestic, just like the castles you could see in movies and tv shows, it was quite bigger compared to the castle in their safe zone, that much was certain.
“Well, I guess I should go a bit back and try to talk to some people and caravans first, I need to understand at least the basic things here,” Shadow muttered as he got up and started going down. The mission gave no time limit so he was able to take things slowly, although he had a notion that the faster he finished things the better.
Tank was standing on the wall of a castle while looking at the approaching enemy army. Hundreds of soldiers were moving around the castle as they made preparations for the following battle.
[ Defend the castle until reinforcements arrive, time until the arrival: 2 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes. ]
Yup, Tank had to defend the castle from a whole army whose numbers were in the tens of thousands. Luckily for him, the castle was situated in a valley between two steep mountains. Traversing through the mountains was incredibly dangerous and attacking the castle from the sides was almost impossible. Because of that, the enemy army had to attack them from the front, and as such their numerical superiority was made less significant.
“Well, at least it’s nice to see someone we know here.”
Tank heard a familiar voice from behind him. Turning around his eyes widen slightly while looking at the four familiar figures.
“Captain!” The four soldiers salute him while wearing wide smiles on their faces.
“You guys, why are you here?” Tank asks the four elite soldiers he previously fought together with in his previous trial. He was surprised to see them here as he had thought that he would never see them again after the end of the first trial.
“After our expedition to the monster nest we were relegated to different positions, it was thanks to the captain that we managed to get promoted and stay under the same boss,” Julie speaks first while the others nod their heads.
“We never thought we would see you again captain, the destruction of the cave made us believe you were dead.” The big guy wielding a shield and halberd replied. His name was called Yair and he looked at Tank with an apologetic face after speaking. All of them had the same expression on their faces while Tank was befuddled with their words. Isn’t this just a simulation, how are these things even possible?
“We looked for you captain, we really did, but even when the troops arrived and cleared out the whole cave your body wasn’t found, we really thought you were gone.” The shield and sword-wielding man, Donovan speaks. His face showed worry but also relief as he looked at Tank who was surprised by the show of emotions. It should be known that in the first trial Donovan never really changed his facial expression, not even when he was happy or under duress while fighting.
“But it should be Colonel now, we are truly happy to see you again sir, we look forward to fighting beside you yet again.” The staff-wielding man, Ector speaks out while saluting Tank with a wide grin on his face. Tank shakes his head as he goes towards them while thinking of what to do during this trial. The numbers were completely against them and it would be a daunting task to successfully defend the castle for 3 days, but, with these guys here, Tank was somehow relieved and felt that everything would go fine.