Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 40

“Err, yeah. It’s pronounced Aaron, but close enough. So, you’re Mo’han, I take it?”

“That’s me! Have we met? How did you know my name?”

“What? No. I just inspected you.”

“Oh, right,” the comically muscled man face-palmed. “These System features take a little getting used to. I keep forgetting others can employ the abilities I can.”

“Didn’t they go through that stuff with you in the Tutorial?”

“They did! But I’ve always been a fast learner. So fast that I often move onto the next topic before completing the last.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works… but anyway,” Aaron shook his head. “You’re the first Tutorial taker to arrive here.”

“I AM! How did you know? Oh! Right, think before you speak, Mo’han!” The alien face-palmed again. “Your little slave here has told me all about your situation. Quite a fascinating predicament indeed.”

“He’s not a–”

“I suppose that makes us roommates of some kind, doesn’t it? Just two pals hanging out here whilst our universe integrates into the multiverse. That Douglas fellow tells me that my arrival was unusually early, so we might have quite some time before others show up. To think, you’ll be my first alien friend. Quite surreal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’ll say,” Aaron smiled. “Wait, do I look weird to you?”

“Well, weird is one way to put it. Puny and beige is another. And that hair. No horns, or even a beard? Unless that fluff is supposed to be a beard? And only two arms? I wonder how the females of your kind can even be attracted to such… Sorry, excuse me. I got carried away.”

“It’s fine,” Aaron forced a grimaced smile.

I suppose I should have seen that coming.

“So, what was the Tutorial like anyway? Did you have to like beat a boss or something to finish it?” Aaron asked.

As excited as Aaron was to meet an alien, he was even more so to learn a little about the Tutorial he was missing out on. After all, there was probably important information to glean.

“Sure did,” Mo’han pounded his chest. “Though I must say, it was rather disappointing. The boss put up a good fight, but, well, I had expected a little more. The drake was fierce, but surprisingly squishy. Perhaps I took too much time leveling. I was told not to rush the Tutorial and to take my time grinding levels before attempting the boss. But perhaps I was a little too strong by the time I finally challenged it. Live and learn! As we say on my world!”

Overleveled? I thought nobody was even supposed to be here until the last few weeks of the trial??? Just how strong is this guy?

“Wh-what level are you anyway?” Aaron muttered with uncontained amazement. “And how did you get inside the viewing room?”

“Level 98, nothing too amazing. I met Sooty here in the hallway when I arrived. He explained that you already had the second stage of this room unlocked, and if we wanted to use it together, I, too, would need the second stage unlocked. So, I got to work. I unlocked a bunch of other rooms as well. Why not, I thought. I also saw you, popping in and out of your trials, but you looked so focused. I dared not interrupt, fearing I might break your concentration.”

So this guy just speed ran through a bunch of trials that took me weeks, if not months, to complete? Man, that does not feel great.

“Unfortunately, we can’t actually use this room at the same time, though.”

“Wait, what?” Aaron said.

“Limitations of the second stage,” sighed the big guy. “We need at least the third stage unlocked to see others’ worlds, apparently. And the fourth stage or beyond is required to view past your own local system. Hey, wait! That’s an idea! What if we have a little race? Let us both unlock two more stages and see what we can share of each other’s worlds? I would love to learn more about your kind, little beigling.”

This isn’t going to end well for me, is it?

“Sure, why not. Let’s do this,” Aaron reluctantly agreed.

“Excellent! I live for the challenge. You have no idea how grateful I am to be stuck in here with someone equally fond of competing!” Mo’han smacked Aaron’s back playfully, almost toppling him to the ground. “Sorry, I–”

“It’s fine,” Aaron waved. “I’m good,” he choked for breath.

Damn, that was a freaking strong back pat!

“Shall we then? To the trials!” Mo’han cheered with a raised fist.

“To the trials,” Aaron agreed sheepishly.

Great, time to get clowned on by an alien I just met.

Wanting a break from Yendal after their rather strange exchange during his blessing, Aaron selected Oozagh and began another stage of the Trial of Travels.

Aaron materialized on a freaking rainbow that shone through what looked like space. Luckily, he had a few seconds before the trial actually began, because he was distracted looking around with amazement.

“This… this reminds me of a game I played as a kid.”

He didn’t immediately know what the go was with this trial, but when he looked across to Oozagh, the ogre tilted its head and then looked away.

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Wait, he doesn’t know what happened, does he? Of course he does. Great, just freaking great.

The ogre looked like he wanted to talk, but held back.

What’s up with that? Aaron thought when he saw the strange look written across the ogre’s face for a moment.

A second later, a buzzer sounded, dragging Aaron from his thoughts, and a moment after that, laser beams. Yes, that’s correct. Freaking laser beams began to blast the rainbow track, and Aaron took off, sprinting as fast as he could to keep ahead of the destructive beams raining down on him.

Aaron sped up, creating about three or four steps between him and the laser beams shooting at the ground behind him. And then, they started randomly shooting the course ahead of him, forcing him to dodge as he ran.

The undulating course weaved through the stars, and ahead, giant worms that looked like variants of the sand worms sailing through space began to bite into the track. Their bites took chunks out of the course with them and would no doubt kill him if they managed to bite him.

With [ Relentless Scourge ], stamina cycling through his body, and reading the threads of fate, Aaron dodged his way through the biting worms. Continuing to boost his speed, he was able to comfortably remain ahead of the lasers at his back, but the random blasts and giant worms were a different story.

It wasn’t just his Skills and stamina veins powering him through the course, though. He realized his senses were heightened beyond anything he had previously known. The laser beams that were on course to hit him seemed brighter than the others, and as such, were easier to dodge, even without reading their fate.

His ears picked up every sound, making quick reflex reactions that much easier. Reading fate was great when Aaron could see something, but if he couldn’t, it was massively hampered, which was exactly why his heightened senses were such a valuable boon.

New obstacles appeared in the trial, and Aaron was immediately alerted to them, thanks to his new blessing-earned Trait, and he could react accordingly. This was a massive improvement and greatly aided him in his attempt at the trial.

But Aaron didn’t have a second to waste, and so he powered on. Maybe it was impossible for him to beat the impressively powerful alien, but he didn’t want to get completely embarrassed by the guy. If he had to spend ten deaths on a trial that the alien cleared on the first attempt, he would be forced to hang his head in shame. Unwilling to let that happen, Aaron narrowed his focus and put everything into clearing the trial.

Luckily for him, he had grown a lot, and much of that growth was related to control and movement. He was no doubt better at dodging and evasion than most by now, and his awoken stamina veins allowed him to keep pace despite still being underleveled.

It was not easy, though. The swirling track went on for quite a while, and his stamina and mana were both draining quickly. Whenever there was a break in the endless attacks being fired at him from all angles, he stuffed his face with random foodstuffs and kept his stamina.

There were also complete sections of the course missing, which required him to leap through space. In another section, there were the kind of lasers you see in bank heist movies, except they cut things in half. But again, Aaron bent and twisted and came out the other side alive.

This continued for some time, but finally, he managed to race through the finish line.

Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

Stage three of [ Trial of Travels ] COMPLETED!

You have tested your speed against the stars and their deadly beams and reached the finish alive.

Quest Rewards: Skill Book: Gust Step [ Rare ], Viewing Room upgraded to level 3.

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

“Damn, not bad,” Aaron grinned. Completing trials on the first attempt was a fairly novel experience, but very much enjoyable.

“There you are! It’s about time! I was starting to worry something might have happened to you!” Mo’han exclaimed as Aaron returned to the obsidian hallway. “Now that that’s over and done with, shall we make our way to the viewing room?”

“Wait, what? You’ve completed both stages already?”

“Why of course… wait, don’t tell me…”

How? How is that even possible? I didn’t even fail… who is this freak?

“Yeah,” Aaron grimaced and nodded soberly. “That was my first trial…”

“No, it’s fine—all good, A-ran. Don’t mind me, take your time. As long as you need, please! I can wait. Patience is a virtue. Ignore me and carry on. Sooty can keep me company, can’t you, Sooty?”

“Can do,” Sooty nodded beside Mo’han. “Go get ‘em, bossman!”

Yeah, that doesn’t make me feel any better about it. And why do I feel like Sooty is closer to this guy he just met? Am I Jealous? No… there’s no way. Just a little worked up from the challenge. Yeah, that’s it.

Sighing, Aaron took a second to check out his newly won loot before heading into the next trial. He had already well and truly lost the race, and there was little more to lose by taking a short moment.

Skill Book: Gust Step [ Rare ]

Consume to learn: Gust Step. Gust Step uses one Active Class Skill Slot.

Provides: When activated, Gust Step pools a small amount of mana in the user’s feet, allowing them to take a single step in the air. Jumping can also be done, though the strength of the step is reliant on the amount of mana channeled into the Skill on use.

Aaron hummed over the Skill briefly. It sounded like a pretty good addition to the Skills he already had.

“Wait, Skill Slot?” He murmured aloud to himself.

“You don’t know about Skill Slots?” Mo’han said, stopping as he was turning for the viewing room to look back at Aaron. “I suppose you are a low level. Perhaps you haven’t reached the limit yet? Oh, and you didn’t get the Tutorial explanation. I keep forgetting that. Anyway, you get six active slots and three passive slots for both your Class and Profession. Don’t worry, though. Skills can be both upgraded and discarded for new ones, if you have the chance to learn something you prefer. You really did miss out on a lot skipping the Tutorial, A-ran.”

“I knew they were a thing, but I never really thought about them before,” Aaron said, rubbing his chin.

He had seen the little numbers next to his skill lists for a while now, but since he wasn’t even close to the limit, they had never been relevant to anything he did, so he barely gave them any thought.

“Wait, did you say that skills can be upgraded?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes!” said Mo’han. “As you master your skills, you may find new or more efficient ways to use them, and when you do, you will be able to upgrade them!”

“Huh,” said Aaron. “Woulda been nice to know earlier, I guess, but whatever.”

It now made a lot more sense that so many of his Profession Skills had been grade-limited. It didn’t make any sense to him at the time to pick a skill that would be irrelevant by the time he hit D grade, but if he could upgrade it or swap it out later, it was much more understandable. That opened him up to more skill options, now that he knew his decisions weren’t necessarily permanent.

As interesting as the options this information created were, though, that was all the explanation he needed to use the skill book. If he decided he didn’t like it, he’d just swap it out later. And considering it sounded like a pretty good fit for his current, yet murky idea of his path, there was nothing to lose.

“I can explain further, if you wish, A-ran.”

“No, no. That’s okay,” Aaron said after consuming the skill book. “I’ll be back in a minute. I’ve got a trial to smash.”

“That’s more like it! A fighter’s spirit! I see us becoming great friends already, A-ran! Now go, make your ancestors proud!”

He gives one hell of a pep talk, at least.

Turning for the trials, Aaron slapped his hand down on the dial and began the fourth stage.