|Welcome to the First Level Trial Obelisk Tower.|
|Commensing Biometric Scan of Student.|
|Scan Complete, Hello Student Björn “Ironside” Ragnarsson; I am the Obelisk Companion Artificial Intelligence known as Yennifer; you may call me Yenni.|
|Since this is your first time in the Trial Obelisk Tower, let me briefly explain the rules and how the Obelisk Market Place works.|
‘Of course, it’s named that.’ Brance thought as he smirked and listened to the soft and gentle female voice as she explained everything he already knew. The thought did appear in his mind to try interrupting her and having her skip the explanation, but he ignored it since that was something his brother would do and calmly waited for the AI to finish.
Eventually, after a few minutes, Yenni concluded her prescripted speech. A multiple-choice box appeared on the notification screen as the Obelisk AI read its contents aloud for Brance to follow along.
|You are currently at the starting area on Floor 1 and have five options to choose from. Would you like to hear your options? (Y/N)|
Reaching up, Brance poked the Yes button making the notification box change, and a list slowly began appearing as if someone was actively typing the words in real-time.
|Option One: Access the Obelisk Market Place.|
|Option Two: Advance to the Beginning of the Trial.|
|Option Three: View Trial Statistics.|
|Option Four: Save Progress and Exit the First Level Trial Obelisk Tower.|
|Option Five: Hear the Rules again.|
Brance stood in silence for a moment before tapping Option Two. Once he did, he felt his body go weightless again, a sign that he was being teleported. He opened his eyes in another room, one similar to the one he had just been in; however, dozens of torches were fastened to the wall all around the room and lit with bright red flames, giving it an eerie feel while allowing him to see properly.
|Welcome to the Beginning of the First Trial.|
|Your Virtual Avatar has been created, all of its specifications are the same as your actual body, and your Affinities, Skills, and Stats have all been perfectly recreated.|
|None of your Weapons or Armor have been replicated as per the rules of the Obelisk.|
|The Loadout “Training Gear,” has been selected as your current attire since it holds no defensive properties.|
|Current Floor: One.|
|Your first opponent will appear in One Minute; please prepare yourself for combat.|
Tapping the toe of his left sneaker on the solid ground, Brance loosened up his body a bit to get used to the feel of his Virtual Avatar. Even after spending years within the HBTC, he still could never stop being amazed by the technology and magical nature of Vinestra, and an adventurous smirk spread across his lips as he watched the timer count down.
|Now Summoning First Floor Opponent, Tier-1 Level 0 Fanged Rat.|
Brance watched as a swarm of Mana particles appeared in the center of the empty stone room and formed into the body of a young adult Fanged rat, just like he had faced back in the Egress.
“SCREEEE!” Seeing the human not far away, the Fanged Rat screeched loudly and rushed forward in hunger.
But Brance wasn’t concerned and calmly lifted his right hand, formed it into a finger gun, and channeled Terra Mana into the tip of his index finger.
“Bang.” He said as he activated [Stone Bullet.] firing off a thumb-sized rock at a speed nearly too fast for the naked eye. The next moment, the Fanged Rat’s head exploded like a watermelon, and the creature shattered into a particle cloud that floated back to the ceiling.
|You have successfully Killed the Level 0, Tier-1 Virtual Fanged Rat.|
|You have received a Perfect Score for the First Floor Trial.|
|You have received 5 Obelisk Kill Points.|
|You have received a 1000 Essence, XP Crystal.|
|You have received 3 Merit Points.|
|All rewards will be tallied and stored. You may access your balance from the Obelisk Market Place, which is open to you every five floors.|
|Congratulations, you have Cleared the First Floor. Would you like to continue to the Second Floor or Save and Exit?|
Without hesitation, Brance tapped continue and was teleported to the next floor. With a quick glance, he saw no noticeable changes and quickly pressed the button to begin the second trial.
Following the same pattern of arriving on the next floor, summoning the creature, and popping the creature’s head, Brance advanced quickly, killing all the different shades of Fanged rats that spawned until he reached the 11th floor where things changed.
Instead of a single rat, a new creature appeared, and it wasn’t alone; now, there were two sedan-sized green-furred wolves named GustWolves. Like their fur gave away, these creatures had an Affinity for Wind and used it to move around swiftly or coat their claws for extra damage when attacking. They were often found in packs of five to ten in the wild, and their appearance made Brance think for half a beat before popping their heads simultaneously with perfect accuracy.
|You have successfully Killed two Level 10, Tier-1 Virtual GustWolves.|
|You have received a Perfect Score for the Eleventh Floor Trial.|
|You have received 10 Obelisk Kill Points.|
|You have received two 1000 Essence, XP Crystals.|
|You have received 6 Merit Points.|
|All rewards will be tallied and stored. You may access your balance from the Obelisk Market Place, which is open to you every five floors.|
| Congratulations, you have Cleared the Eleventh Floor. Would you like to continue to the Twelfth Floor or Save and Exit?|
Taking a second to tally the points and crystals in his mind, Brance continued onto the 12th floor while contacting his brother through the mind link.
[Hey, I’m on floor 12; where are you.] Brance asked as he waited for the one-minute timer to tick down and spawn the predicted three wolves.
[Just finished floor 16 and am starting the 17th as we speak. Wait, did you say 12? What the hell have you been doing this whole time? I figured you would be neck in neck with me.] Jumping to the side and dodging an attack from one of the eight ScorchWolves he was fighting, Cynrik responded.
[Nah, unlike you, I am not racing for some made-up first place goal. I actually listened to all the rules Yenni explained in the beginning. I am guessing you didn’t bother and yelled “skip” a bunch of times until she stopped talking and gave you the options.] Uncrossing his arms, Brance quickly killed off the three GustWolves.
Brance’s remark caused Cynrik to stumble and nearly get blasted by a fireball from one of the wolves, to which he aggressively counter-attacked with a wave of Black flames that instantly obliterated all of his enemies.
|You have successfully Killed eight Level 16, Tier-1 Virtual GustWolves.|
|You have received a Perfect Score for the Seventeenth Floor Trial.|
|You have received 40 Obelisk Kill Points.|
|You have received eight 1000 Essence, XP Crystals.|
|You have received 24 Merit Points.|
|All rewards will be tallied and stored. You may access your balance from the Obelisk Market Place, which is open to you every five floors.|
| Congratulations, you have Cleared the Seventeenth Floor. Would you like to continue to the Eighteenth Floor or Save and Exit?|
|Congratulations, you….|
Annoyed by Brance’s provocation, Cynrik ignored the last notification and glared angrily at the floor beneath his feet, where he assumed his brother was located.
[Listen here, you little shit, I did not yell “skip” a bunch of times. I’ll let you know; I kindly requested that Yenni stop the tutorial and begin the challenges.] Cynrik snorted, but just as he was about to press the continue to the next floor button, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a strange sparkling item near where the corpse of a ScorchWolf had died a second ago.
[OH SHIT!] Rushing over, Cynrik slid to his knees on the stone ground and scooped up a tiny sparkling rock.
[Huh? What are you freaking out about?] Brance said as the timer cleared and more GustWolves appeared.
Brance’s question did not yield any response from Cynrik. Instead, Cynrik ignored his brother and continually moved his gaze from the notification floating in the air to the little stone resting in the center of his palm.
|Congratulations, you have earned a random reward from the potential items generated on the Seventeenth Floor.|
|An item has been randomly selected and stored in the body of one of the creatures using a random number generator.|
|You have received one Chaos Affinity Gem Piece 1/5 (Overall Fair, 3 Carats when all pieces are assembled.)|
Reading the notifications, Cynrik fell into a daze as he stared at the swirling storm of color moving around the small fragmented piece of Gem. It was mesmerizing seeing the grey, black, and red liquidized colors move.
[Cyn, OI, ASSHAT! What the fuck is happening.] Brance screamed as he tried getting his brother’s attention and killing the virtual creatures simultaneously.
[Brancie…there’s a Chaos Affinity….] Cynrik replied in a hushed whisper, almost as if afraid someone would overhear his thoughts.
[Huh, what are you on about? I’ve never heard of the Chaos Affinity; why are you…holy shit, did you actually get one?] Dropping the last GustWolf on his current floor, Brance skidded to a stop since he had been sprinting around avoiding attacks.
[Yeah, I got an Affinity Gem, well, a piece of one at least bu…Woah….] However, just as the words left his brain and entered the mind link, he felt the world spin and the ground come up from under his feet. The next thing Cynrik knew, he had collapsed onto his back, and Brance was screaming again.
But none of it was getting through to Cynrik as his unfocused eyes stared up at the spam of notifications he was receiving from Tobs. Feeling like he could barely breathe and trying not to focus on how rapidly his heart was pounding nor the crippling headache he was feeling, Cynrik did all he could not to begin panicking.
The sensations he was experiencing reminded him of what he had heard about when people have a heart attack; either that or shock had set in after hypothermia. His mind began slowing down, and he struggled to keep his eyes open. However, in this world, this sensation had another name, or at least one he had coined, Crippling Overdraft.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ Cynrik repeatedly thought as he tried regaining control over his body.
‘Tobs, d…do…do something about that fucking Gem!’ Noticing his vision was tunneling on top of his eyes fluttering, Cynrik clenched his fists tightly and, with the Aid of Tobs, triggered his Húðflúr and Æsir Mode. Next, raising his left arm towards the ceiling, Cynrik began pooling all the ambient, Dark, Fire, and Wind Mana from the surrounding room around his shakey palm, creating a baseball-sized compressed orb of Tri-Affinity Mana Particles.
‘C’mon, you son of a bitch, work.’ Unsteadily, Cynrik lowered the Tri-Affinity orb down to just above his heart, where his Codex was located, and forcefully pushed the ball of pure Mana directly into his chest.
[“RAHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH!”] Through clenched teeth, Cynrik yelled both out loud and in the mind link as he actively added the Mana into his body and began bombarding it with Killing Intent.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg-