As we walked down the pathway leading to where my trial will be I assume, I brought up my status window. These are the increases since we set out for the Consortium’s Vesper Phenom event.
[Name: Quinlan Noir]
[Race: Primordial]
[Level: 19. XP 11246/11246]
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[Primary Class: Primordial Villain 12 -> 19]
[Secondary Classes] fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
<Warrior 18 -> Stormblade 23>
<Elemental Sovereign 16 -> 24>
<Merchant 19>
[Health Points: 938 -> 1050]
[Mana Points: 1256 -> 1275]
[Vitality: 63 -> 70]
[Strength: 55 -> 56]
[Agility: 56 -> 57]
[Magic: 84 -> 85]
[Unused Skill Points: 15 -> 0]
[Unused Attribute Points: 0]
I used my ‘Unused Skill Points’ to unlock the Stormblade class and the five spells I did, so I will need to grind a bit. Once, or rather if, I pass this test, I will level up a few times since my XP is being stockpiled at the moment, and I did kill quite a few soldiers since reaching the end of level 19.
My classes also leveled up at a satisfactory rate, as far as I was concerned. I was very close to getting Elemental Sovereign level 25, which was the only requirement besides ‘mastering the basic elemental spells’ for me to have access to intermediate spells. Once I get back and wreck Selene and the rest of my enemies, level 25 will be done.
With my inner deliberations done, I glanced around, examining our surroundings. We’ve long since left the edge of this strange floating land, and were walking inwards. Since we were still not at the end of the other side of it, this place was evidently not a small island.
Within a few minutes, I saw silhouettes of man-made structures in the distance. A small town square welcomed us, with only twenty or so buildings. However, the buildings themselves were not at all shabby; in fact, they were made from some obsidian-colored metal and most definitely had the hand of a genius architect behind their construction. Maybe it was Björn or some other dwarven primordial’s handiwork. Well, I didn’t specifically ask them if Björn was a dwarf, but who are we kidding? The best blacksmith/artificer has to be a stocky midget, no?
Maybe I was turning slightly racist.
“Where’s everyone?” I asked when I realized that no one was walking around. Not only that, but I didn’t even hear a single sound from the homes. It felt like a ghost town.
“Asleep at different parts of the dimension. Once we realized that we were stuck here, most coped by hibernating for entire decades without waking up.” Luminara replied with a sorrowful tone.
I would like to say that doing that doing so sounded very unhealthy, but Malakar told me that he could live just fine if he turned into an embryo or the corpse of a 1000-year-old human, so doing this much sleeping must not be anything harmful to these OP existences.
Also, I was starting to pity my brethren. Their situation was truly not enviable. I honestly didn’t really care about the rest of them for now, but I definitely want to free the two kind souls who somehow ended up being my adoptive mothers, and Dragnar seemed to be a nice guy as well.
“We’re here, oink.” Karl decreed.
I had no idea why he was still sticking around with us when everyone besides me clearly wanted him to be anywhere but here. I was surprised to see that Dragnar had enough self-discipline to keep his hands to himself thus far. His disheveled exterior painted him as a simple brute, but since then I’ve learned that he was pretty intelligent. Also, according to Karl’s words, the giant had already been torturing him for a million years, so I guess with the appearance of a curious attraction in the form of yours truly he had better things to do.
I glanced ahead of us and saw a giant decorated monument. It was the main attraction of the miniature settlement since it towered over all other buildings, and it pulsed with otherworldly energy I’d never seen before.
[Entity Quinlan Noir, ready to begin the Rank-Up Mission?]
These words were not read from my systemic interface but straight from the surface of the monument. No other words could be seen anywhere else on it.
“Quinnie, are you mentally prepared?” Miri asked worriedly.
“Yes, you still have a lot of time. It might be smart to wait…” Lumi added with a similarly concerned voice.
Dragnar interjected with a stern, disapproving tone, though. “Do you want to lose your son just after meeting him, you two? We don’t know what his test will be, it’s possible that he won’t be taken to another dimension but has to do something here. With the divinity in the atmosphere, Quinlan can’t stay here for long or he will go insane and then die soon afterwards. Every moment not spent on completing the mission is a wasted one.”
“Ugh…” Both of my mothers grunted but offered no rebuttal. Evidently, they knew he was right.
“I’m as ready as can be.” I replied confidently while tightening my hold around their hands.
I couldn’t help but wonder what my trial will be. What was I lacking the most right now?
The obvious answer was ‘power’ since there were lots of individuals out there who would pose an existential threat to me should we cross paths. However, getting ‘power’ was not a trial, it was a lifelong journey of leveling up endlessly.
Maybe my compassion and empathy could be bolstered in such a test? It would be goofy as hell to get educated about the rights and wrongs of the world by the universe’s greatest entity, known as the Soul Records, but I could see the so-called mission being about something like that.
My knowledge was also lacking, maybe it could materialize an old sage who would be my professor and I would have to learn whatever he taught me and succeed in the Rank-Up Mission by passing a final test like a school exam.
“You can do it, Quinnie!” Miri shouted while lunging herself into my embrace energetically. She enveloped her arms around my waist and hugged me.
“We believe in you.” Lumi followed up with her own encouraging words as she hugged me from behind and nuzzled her head into my back.