Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 18

Experimental Cook [ Common ] Who needs recipes anyway? Passively improves the bonuses provided by dishes that don’t follow recipes.

Line Cook [ Common ] Technique and skill are overrated. You get the job done, and that’s good enough. Passively decreases cook time for dishes you created of E grade and below.

Unpicky Eater [ Common ] No need for Michelin Stars around here. As long as it’s food, it goes down the trap. Passively provides minor additional bonuses when consuming food of E grade and below.

Questionable Recipes [ Uncommon ] The recipes you put together are questionable at best. But heck, you’ll do it anyway. When activated, Questionable Recipes creates recipes from unusual ingredient combinations that wouldn’t usually qualify.

Aaron held back a groan as he read the Skill options available. Apparently, grinding out levels with Common ingredients was not the best way to level if you wanted decent Skills. It did at least make him more appreciative of the trials. Perhaps his Class would also be filled out with Common Skills if he had done the Tutorial like a normal person.

Not only that, but there were only four Skill options. Did that mean the System penalized you for unimpressive leveling? Aaron wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to be a little more careful going forward. Filling his slots with dud Skills was the last thing he wanted to do.

There was at least one Uncommon Skill available. And surprise, surprise, it was the one that caught his eye. Most of the others seemed limited to E grade, and whilst it might have been possible to upgrade the Skills to better versions of themselves, he was dubious about getting stuck with something that would quickly lose value.

There was also another issue with Skills like Experimental Cook. The dishes he had made without recipes were, quite frankly, useless. What good was increasing a +1 Stat bonus to +2 or even 3? Sure, it would be better than nothing, but even at his low level, it already sounded weak. By E grade, it would be essentially a rounding error.

No, there was only one Skill that sounded in any way interesting—Questionable Recipes. He already knew a recipe was more effective than something made without one. The questionable part made him wonder how valuable these recipes would actually be, but still, they should at least be an improvement on what he was currently making. And since there was no grade limit, the choice seemed like a no-brainer.

With that in mind, Aaron confirmed his selection and closed his status screen.

Returning to the Trial of Endurance for stage two beside the shadow of Oozagh the Rotund, Aaron glanced around to find himself standing in a circular room.

The room’s walls contained eerie statues. They were monstrous humanoids with tentacles coming from their mouths, and bent, angry eyes peering from their smooth, angular faces.

He turned to the ogre, but Oozagh didn’t do much. The room was entirely made of carved stone, and there didn’t appear to be any way out, and certainly nothing to eat. So, the ogre just stood there.

Okay, well, maybe he won’t be as helpful for every stage.

Aaron sighed, but he knew this was a distinct possibility. It would probably be too easy if all it took was befriending a single god’s shadow to ace your way through all the trials.

But he wasn’t given long to linger on the thought. A screeching pain assaulted his brain, and he fell to his knees, clutching his head and barely containing his own screams.

Like with stage one of the trial, the pain that he was put through transcended normal physical pain. It felt like something was worming its way into his brain, sending shockwaves of agony rippling out with every inch as they delved deeper.

His vision blurred, and his body trembled. The entire room felt like it was shaking, and the once stone statues looked alive as they peered into his depths through burning red eyes.

The assault was absolutely terrifying. Mortal harm was one thing. Aaron had gotten well and truly used to that, thanks to all of his deaths within the trials. But this was no pain he could simply shrug off. It was intimate, weaving its way through his very being.

It wasn’t just pain, either, he realized. Whatever was worming its way into him was taking control of him. Soon, his fingers moved against his will. At first, they simply jerked without order, and then his arms twisted upward, and his hands wrapped around his neck, his grasp tightening by the second.

It wasn’t just an attempt to strangle him; that wouldn’t work too well against stronger trial takers. High enough Vitality would make strangulation extraordinarily hard for all but those with the Highest Strength, and even then, it might not be very effective if Vitality was high enough. However, the strangulation was simply one limb of a multi-limbed attack that was assaulting his mind and body from every angle.

He could feel himself growing weaker. Whatever defense he had instinctively placed against the intrusion was crumbling by the second. His Vitality hadn’t even taken much of a hit, but he knew that whatever this was, it was nearing its goal.

This Trial of Endurance was not something that could be endured simply thanks to a high Vitality count. It was something else altogether. And at that moment, he realized that higher trial stages wouldn’t be so linear and easy to complete.

Not long after that, Aaron fell to the stone tiles and died.

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He awoke in the obsidian hallway, not even sure how he had died. But he wanted to find out.

Determination bent his brow, and he bounced back to his feet, charging straight for the trial. However, he did change one thing this time; instead of Oozagh, he returned to Yendal the Empty-Handed when selecting a shadow.

Sure, he might have already gotten the god’s blessing, and perhaps some would have told him to keep working alongside Oozagh; however, without anything to eat, he didn’t know how the ogre shadow was supposed to help. And just like his gut had directed him to select Oozagh for the first stage of the trial, it was now redirecting him to his old favorite. Besides, he still wanted to know what the shadow was smirking about.

Unlike the ogre who just kind of stood there and did nothing much, Yendal dropped down into a meditative pose as the trial began and pressed his index fingers against his temples.

Aaron wasn’t exactly sure how meditating was supposed to fend off all-consuming pain and a mysterious death, but since he had nothing else to go on, he followed the shadow’s lead.

Maintaining focus during the mental assault was excruciatingly hard, and Aaron died soon after. But he wasn’t deterred, and he felt like the shadow was trying to tell him something; he just hadn’t grasped it yet. And so, he returned to the trial.

Almost thirty deaths followed as Aaron attempted to focus himself against the otherworldly pain. But again, as he always did, death by death, he was starting to understand the source of the pain.

He had assumed it was some kind of mental attack since entering the trial, but as he focused on where it came from, he realized it was a little deeper than that. This was a form of domination. The power didn’t need to kill him, he realized. By completing its domination of him, he died. You couldn’t be alive once expelled from your own mind and body, after all. It was a death of his very sentience. Whatever was left of him once these statues finished dominating him, it wasn’t Aaron anymore.

Understanding what was happening was one thing, but beating it was something else entirely. He had no Skills that would help him, and how would he use natural ability to battle against an invader within his own mind? He had no idea

But regardless of how impossible the challenge seemed, Aaron still believed there was something to Yendal’s meditation. So, he continued challenging the trial, copying the shadow and studying his own agonizing deaths.

A dozen more deaths flew by before he reached his first insight. Instead of hurrying back to the trial, he made his way to the kitchen.

There had been several ingredients that hinted at mental reactions. Previously, Aaron hadn’t put much thought into them. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was headed in this weird and mysterious multiverse, but he was sure it was a warrior's path, of some kind, and for that reason, had put little thought into mental pursuits.

But that was going to have to change. His results were not immediate. He mixed ingredients and experimented while focusing on a dish that would help him pass the trial, adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that as he concocted.

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Ding!

[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!

5 → 6

This level up was different. The last level he had gained in his Profession took many hours, but this one came in no time at all.

Of course, he had discovered a recipe, hadn’t he? It was either because of that or somehow his focus had helped.

Slug Stew of Resolution [ Common — F Grade ]

Provides: Minuscule Mental Hardening. Mental hardening strengthens the mind against external attacks. Mental Hardening is linked to the Willpower Stat, and the user’s Willpower increases the effectiveness of this condition.

This was exactly what he needed. He wondered if this was because of his new Skill, but had no way of confirming that, since he had been activating it with every dish he cooked since unlocking it. Not that it was an overly important quest to answer at that moment, he had work to do.

Aaron took one serve and munched down the surprisingly delicious meal, thanking his ogre gut once more for its indiscriminate nature. His Willpower was quite lacking, and he doubted this Common stew would be enough by itself. It was both Common and at the F grade. If something so basic was all it took to pass a second-stage trial, then they weren’t all that amazing.

Nonetheless, he still had to try it. However, he would soon learn that his intuition had been correct.

Aaron toyed with the idea of throwing all of his free, unspent points into Willpower. But he didn’t know if it’d be enough anyway. He was still horribly underleveled for the trials, and his Willpower sucked. He had 14 full points waiting to spend, but that wouldn’t bridge the gap between him and an E grade, even if that E grade had horrendous Willpower. He already knew that the strength they gained by reaching E grade was considerable, and the levels gained thereafter only served to reinforce the difference between the grades even further.

However, one thing was different when he attempted the trial after eating the stew. He felt clearer of mind. He could more accurately detect the intrusion assaulting him. Even if 14 points wouldn’t make him strong enough to pass the trial, it might strengthen him enough to understand the attack of domination better. But was that worth 14 points?

Aaron deliberated on this for a while. It wasn’t an easy decision, but ultimately, he figured that he would need more WIllpower to survive the multiverse sooner or later. And even if he gained more Willpower by other means in the future, by that point, 14 points probably wouldn’t be worth that much anyway. So, he spent the points.

[ Name: Aaron Dober ]

[ Age: 23 ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Grade: F ]

[ HP: 3100 ]

[ MP: 2700 ]

[ SP: 3300 ]

[ Class: Brawler, lvl 13 ]

[ Profession: Ogre Taste Tester, lvl 6 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: 33 (+7) ]

[ Vitality: 31 (+7) ]

[ Fortitude: 31 (+7) ]

[ Dexterity: 40 (+8) ]

[ Agility: 54 (+9) ]

[ Intelligence: 5 (+5) ]

[ Willpower: 27 (+7) ]

[ Charisma: 5 (+5) ]

[ Perception: 5 (+5) ]

[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer ]

[ Traits: Minor Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund ]

[ Racial Skills: Inspect ]

[ Profession Passive Skills (1/3): Questionable Recipes ]

[ Profession Active Skills (1/6): Concoct Toxic Gloop ]

[ Class Passive Skills (1/3): Faux Core ]

[ Class Active Skills (2/6): Thick Skinned, Relentless Scourge ]

Looking over his status, Aaron thought his Willpower wasn’t so bad now. It just needed a test run.