Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 23

His increased Perception sharpened his awareness of everything around him. At his level, the Stat was far from groundbreaking in the greater scheme of things. However, Aaron had been working with a handicap this entire time, training himself to pick up on the smallest of tells with almost no System assistance. Now, he had just tripled his Perception Stat, and he could feel the difference.

His memory was still lacking, and perhaps halving his free points into Perception and Intelligence would have made the trial easier, but how much memory did he actually need for the average fight? Maybe that was a dumb way of looking at things, but Aaron couldn’t come up with a good answer, and so he stuck to what he knew.

It still took a decent number of attempts before he managed to pass the trial. But with his Perception increased, Gorgon’s Time Dilation, and following the threads of fate, he was able to follow every tile with a decent degree of accuracy. All he had to overcome was his lack of memory, which he managed with a combination of hard work, skill, and a bit of luck, and he managed to complete the trial a few dozen attempts later.

Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

Stage one of [ Trial of Wit ] COMPLETED!

You have tested your memory and perception against the many moving tiles and have passed successfully.

Quest Rewards: Basic Pocket Shadow [ Uncommon ], Training Hall unlocked!

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

“Not even a single level up?” Aaron grunted. He figured this was going to happen with first-stage trials sooner or later; he had just hoped it’d happen a little later.

I’m going to have to work harder, it seems.

Surprising him, though, was the pocket shadow. Appearing before him was a pocket-watch-looking device. But when he took it and clicked the button on its side, a shadow copy of himself appeared.

“Oh, ye got a training shadow now,” Sooty said, throwing shrimp into his mouth as he casually walked out of the dining hall. “Looks like a basic one, but still, they can be handy to learn the ropes with.”

“So what, I can use this shadow for combat training?”

“Ye, basically. It won’t fight back, and its defenses will be pretty limited. But at least ye can test your new moves out on it.”

“I see.”

It was a handy item to gain, Aaron supposed, especially when he had just unlocked the training hall. And so with that thought, he decided to go check it out and see for himself.

The training hall looked like a typical dojo. Polished timber floors and not much else. There were some training dummies and punching bags at the far end, but nothing that screamed multiverse.

“Well, this is a bit of a letdown.”

“What were you expecting?” Sooty said, standing beside him and still crunching on shrimp, tail, head, and all.

“I dunno,” Aaron shrugged. “Like a training droid or something?”

“Well, you’re only looking at stage one,” Douglas said, appearing at their side. “It does get better, though I’m not supposed to say any more than that.”

“Training droids?” Aaron lit up. “Okay, maybe I will attempt more Trials of Wit. But for now,” he pulled the pocket shadow out of his pocket and clicked the button on the side.

The shadow flickered into existence a moment later, and Aaron widened into a fighting stance.

“It’s time to test this thing out.”

He could feel the shadow waiting for commands, but not much seemed to be available. There was no menu or any UI, but he could instinctively sense what he could and couldn’t command the shadow to do.

I guess I am becoming more in tune with this System.

Still, he tried to mentally order the shadow to attack him anyway. It didn’t work, and he hadn’t expected it to, but he wasn’t yet at a point where he was comfortable just going with his feelings.

He could, however, order it to defend itself. Activating his Skill and slowing time as he read the shadow’s threads of fate, Aaron began some light training. However, it quickly proved rather uneventful. The shadow just wasn’t anywhere near the training partner that the enemies within the trials were. Sure, it might have some use after the trials if he wanted to test a new Skill or battle plan, but here, it was effectively useless. It wasn’t like death was permanent against the trials, and since they were more effective to train within and provided rewards, he would just stick to completing trials and returned the shadow to his pouch.

“Eh,” Aaron exhaled. “Maybe this place will be more useful after I beat a few more stages.”

Disappointment settled in, and he took a moment to think about what room to upgrade to next since the magic trial was still crossed off his list. His cooldowns should have expired by now, and a cooking session was overdue. But he was itching to test himself properly, and completing another stage of the Trial of Endurance wasn’t a terrible idea. More and better ingredients would make a cooking session more productive. Still, it wasn't something he exactly wanted to do right now, since it was probably the least likely to help train his new abilities.

The Trial of Dominance was probably the one he wanted to do the most. There was no doubt in his mind that fighting multiple opponents at once was the next test he needed to pass. However, upgrading the store was useless unless he could get some money.

And that brought him to the Trial of Travels, which was more than a little tempting. The Viewing Room wasn’t game-changing, but he was curious to find out what an upgrade would provide. And a little scared… who knew what that assistant would try to show him?

Moving on, he considered doing the Trial of Survival to upgrade the armory, and the more he thought about it, the better the idea sounded. Maybe he could get a better weapon? Or rather, gloves that might help. Sure, his main focus was growing stronger himself, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t use tools to help him pass the trials, and besides, with level-ups becoming harder and harder, he was going to need to be able to pass more difficult trial stages.

Actually, that might be a pretty good idea.

“Going somewhere?” Sooty asked.

“Trial time,” Aaron waved. “Keep yourself entertained.”

Reentering the Trial of Survival for the second stage, Aaron wore the Gi and selected Yendal the Empty-Handed again. However, this time, he wasn’t in an eerie forest. No, he was in an empty, undulating landscape of sand dunes. It was hot, but not as bad as the wasteland that the orcs lived in.

He glanced across to Yendal, who looked ahead, and then a moment later, began to glide across the empty landscape.

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“Okay, I guess we’re doing this again.”

Aaron followed, and the improvements he had made since arriving in the trials were undeniable. He barely sank in the soft sand, but he certainly didn’t glide like Yendal did. He could get pretty close to the shadow by activating Foxstep with the tabi shoes, but it drew on his mana, and still required perfect timing, jumping the moment his foot graced the sand beneath it.

He practised this as he followed the shadow, converting aether into mana to help himself keep Foxstep going longer. But it was far from a perfect solution. He could take the Gi off, he knew, but his instincts told him there was more to gain, so for now, it was staying on.

Sure, perfectly copying the shadow without the superpowered Stats of the System might be impossible, but what Yendal did was clearly more than just being powerful. He had seen none of the other creatures move like Yendal did, and was convinced that it was as much natural ability as it was power derived from Skills or Stat points. And if he was going to figure out how the shadow did it, he believed the handicap would help him bridge the gap between their natural abilities.

Then he was eaten by a giant worm bursting free through the sand beneath his feet, crushing him to death instantly as its razor-lined maw collapsed atop him.

The shadow, on the other hand, had been fine. Only one skyscraper-sized worm had appeared, and it had eaten Aaron, leaving the graceful shadow to glide across the sandy dunes in peace.

“Oh, so that’s how it is,” Aaron muttered as he appeared on the tiles. He had only seen it for a split second, but he was certain it was because of the difference in their steps.

The shadow had absolute control over itself, and he believed it was both showing him and sending him a message by the way that it ran through the trial. It had to be related to why the worm had only eaten him, and not the shadow. Also, this time, he didn’t even consider fighting the colossal worm. The werewolves were bad enough, but he was fairly certain his strikes wouldn’t even hurt this thing.

Is that it? Is it just how light-footed the shadow is? Or is there something else to it?

Aaron thought on this a moment before restarting the trial. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he was going to find out.

This time, when he entered the trial, he studied Yendal’s movements carefully. It took him a while to notice anything, and the shadow moved quickly, forcing Aaron to follow across the dunes. And like with his first attempt, the worm reappeared and ate him, leaving Yendal to continue gliding across the dunes.

He was convinced more than ever that it was the shadow’s footfalls that allowed it to continue while he got eaten. However, he did try a few other things. For one, he tried listening, and then weaving stamina and aether together and shooting out of the way as it attacked. Problem was, he could only hear the weakest of sounds just moments before the worm appeared, and wasn’t fast enough to dodge out of its colossal, gaping maw.

Reading fate didn’t work either. He needed to see his target to read their fate, and the worms were beneath the sand until they were atop him.

He didn’t doubt for a second that there were alternative methods to completing the trial, just that he wasn’t capable of them. If he was going to avoid getting eaten, he would need to follow the shadow’s lead.

As he did in the first Trial of Survival, Aaron spent the next few attempts trying to copy the shadow's movements, trying to perfect how it controlled its body and landed softly. But no matter how hard he tried, the results were always the same.

He was eaten by a big, fucking worm.

Four more deaths followed as he watched and studied Yendal’s shadow carefully. Its movements weren’t just graceful. He realized that the shadow’s feet straight up didn’t touch the ground. Not quite, at least. It was why it always appeared to be gliding just above the ground, because it was. Copying the graceful movements of the shadow had gotten him this far, but no amount of agility alone would allow him to glide.

There has to be another way. What am I missing?

It was then that Aaron had his lightbulb moment. He was always circulating stamina by now, but he was not expelling it like he had during the Trial of Travels, and therefore, had plenty of the stuff in reserve.

What if I… yeah, that might just work.

It didn’t work.

Aaron attempted cycling stamina through his legs and feet, and then pushing said energy out through the soles of his feet. Problem was, stamina didn’t work like that. Stamina was intrinsic to his body. He had thought of it as an energy like aether, but unlike aether, it had a specific purpose.

When stamina was used correctly, there was no comparison between it and aether. It was stronger and more efficient. But as he had realized before, it came with conditions. What he hadn’t fully wrapped his head around was that the energy could only be applied within his body. He could expel aether out, but not stamina.

That threw his ill-conceived plan out the window. He had hoped to be able to use the energy to create a tiny barrier between his feet and the ground, since that was what Yendal appeared to be doing. But stamina wasn’t the solution.

He went back and forth for a while, trying to figure out how the shadow did it. But over a dozen deaths later, he was no closer to figuring it out.

Frustrated, Aaron watched Yendal as he attempted the trial again. He could use aether to fill the gap. He could concentrate the energy beneath the soles of his feet and walk on it. Problem was, it drained far too quickly. Aether had uses in small boosts, but there was no practical way he was using it for what he wanted.

Cycling stamina through his body, he considered other means to best the trial. He wasn’t about to give up just because he couldn’t match the shadow’s style perfectly. No, that wasn’t going to happen. If there was a way to beat this thing, he’d find it.

Eight more deaths followed as he slammed his head against the wall, following the shadow. And then he noticed something a little unexpected. He couldn’t see the worm, nor hear it, so he couldn’t dodge efficiently, but he could see Yendal, and when the worm was about to attack, the shadow sped up and created distance. This was the tell he needed.

During his next attempt, he let himself forget about his surroundings and concentrated on the shadow. The moment it rushed ahead, he concentrated stamina and aether into his legs and burst away, lunging high and far into the sky.

As expected, the worm shot free from the sand, its huge maw flying through the sky and chopping down on nothing. He had done it; he had dodged the huge beast.

Unfortunately, there was more than one, and his stamina did not last much longer. However, he still wore the Gi, and after returning to the hallway, he removed it. He had figured out how to predict the worms, and now it was time to beat this trial.

Restarting the trial, Aaron carefully cycled stamina and then began. Every time the worms attacked, he was one step ahead, shooting out of the way before they even appeared.

This continued half a dozen times before beads of sweat were tracing down every inch of Aaron’s skin, and his SP was drained dry. Soon, he was too exhausted to even step properly, and he began sinking into the sand. Foxstep helped a little, but its continued usage to gap-fill his drained SP quickly saw his MP drain as well.

Several moments later, he could do nothing as the sand beneath his feet began to drain, and a fraction of a second later, the jaws of the worm slammed shut around him.

In the end, his technique for beating the trial had become too costly. Even if stamina was far more efficient than aether, the amount it required to jump far enough away to avoid the gigantic mouth was just too much to keep up.

However, he had gotten better at using his stamina. In the Trial of Travels, he had still relied on aether for most of his explosive power. However, he realized that really wasn’t necessary for jumping. Instead, he had been using his stamina alone for power generation and injected aether into the sand beneath his feet to firm the ground and make jumping easier.

That wasn’t to say that the aether couldn’t be used like a rocket to propel him forward, but with enough stamina cycled into them, his muscles were fully capable of doing the jump themselves.

Of course, that also burned through his SP faster, but he had a way around it, and that was cooking. Not only did levels in his Profession provide additional Fortitude and, therefore, SP, but he could use his free points. Not only that, but perhaps he could make something that would aid him in the trial.

Oh, and Sooty had been collecting all the Uncommon and Rare ingredients while he had been attempting the trials. He now had a decent amount stocked up in his pouch, and it was the perfect storm to provide him with some growth towards his target.

Pulling his sleeves up and getting to cooking, Aaron got to work. He didn’t know if it was just his ogre taste buds and he was blowing smoke up his own arse, but he could’ve sworn he was getting better at cooking. The food actually looked half edible now, and he was kind of proud of it.

Ding!

[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!

9 → 10

Ding!

[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!

10 → 11

Experience rewarded for upgrading a recipe!

Ding!

[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!

11 → 12

It took him three days—which was a somewhat annoying distraction from the trial—and he used up all of the rarest ingredients he had stocked up, but he did manage to push himself to level 12, and created upgraded versions of his Cassarian bird and Slug Stew.

Not to mention his new, helpful dish, or the Skill he had to select.

A smile creased his face. He had a good feeling about this trial.