Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 7

“So, is it just gonna be you and me hanging out this whole time, Douglas?” Aaron asked as he practiced, swinging his stabby fists through the air.

“Like I said, this place is a reward for the top tutorial rankers of your sector.”

“Oh, right. So, where are they?”

“The Tutorial lasts for 3 months, but in this space, time is dilated, so you have a year before the Tutorial finishes and those from your sector enter en masse. It’s technically possible for some of them to clear their Tutorials early and join you before then, but not likely.”

“Time is dilated?”

“Yes. One hour out there is four hours here. Pay attention.”

Douglas casually dropping the time dilation bomb shocked Aaron, but after a second or two, he decided it was best to just accept it rather than worry about how it worked.

“Right. Sorry. Well, sounds like more space for me. And I’m starting to get used to this Gi. It’s not actually too bad now. Maybe it’s time I tried another trial.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

Running away from werewolves had been great, but Aaron was itching to get back to combat. It was nice to be in control of the situation and be able to hit back instead of just fleeing.

Before placing his free points, he decided to give the Trial of Dominance a test run. Upon pressing the trial dial, Aaron decided to select Yendal the Empty Handed again for his shadowy companion. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but there was an eeriness about the shadow that appealed to him, and he wanted to learn more about it.

The Trial of Dominance began on a red, dry, and cracked landscape. The crimson sun near about crackled in the sky, and the air shimmered with heat.

“Oh, there are two of them,” Aaron murmured as he turned.

The second sun was more like the yellow one he knew. Together, they bore down on the desert landscape, and Aaron mused that at least he got to see a binary solar system first-hand, which was pretty cool.

Standing arms-crossed several feet away was the shadow. There was not a single shadow in sight, unable to exist against the two suns. Between that and the previous trial, it just about confirmed that the shadows weren’t affected by any light trickery.

Now, let’s figure out how to complete this thing.

The Trial of Dominance: Subjugate or eradicate the Irontusk Clan to complete the trial stage.

The task sounded simple enough, though Aaron was still far from certain he was up for it. Defeating a single shadow was one thing, but taking on an entire clan was something else entirely. Still, that wasn’t about to deter him, at least not until he had an idea of what he was up against.

Still wearing the training Gi, Aaron watched as the shadow turned and calmly walked. He was going to make the most of this, and he had a feeling there were gains to be made.

With a slightly raised brow, he followed the shadow, marching through the sweltering heat. For hours, he walked, sweat dripping from his brow and his back hunching further and further, but he spotted nothing besides cacti and thorny shrubs that hugged the cracked earth. And annoyingly, the suns didn’t appear to have an effect on the shadow.

However, his irritation was quickly dispelled when he spotted the white outline of huge bones reflecting the harsh sunlight. As Aaron got closer, he realized that tanned leather was stretched across the bones, creating a huddle of shelters. Remembering the trial details, he figured that this was likely the Irontusk Clan.

Swiftly returning his annoyance was the shadow, who just stood there, looking at the camp.

“Well, aren’t you supposed to do something? Like, show me the way?”

The shadow ignored him.

“Fine, I can do this myself,” Aaron huffed, pulling up his sleeves.

Marching toward the camp, it wasn’t long before he spotted the inhabitants. They looked about Aaron’s height, five ten, but were built like bodybuilders, oh, and they had greenish brown skin and tusks jutting out from the sides of their mouths.

“Are they… are they freaking orcs?” He muttered as he watched from a distance.

Aaron had come to accept the System and the story of the multiverse provided by Douglas over his many deaths. It was easy to imagine the impossible when you existed within a shadow realm where death was impossible. But still, seeing new, mythical species was pretty exciting, especially when he hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to gaze on the werewolves, since they tore him apart mere seconds after spotting him.

He counted two dozen orcs but had no idea how many were hidden within their tent-like shelters. Either way, he had to expect that every one of these orcs was stronger than he was. After all, just like the other trials, this was designed to be attempted by someone far stronger than himself.

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There wasn’t much in the way of things to hide behind, but luckily, it didn’t seem like the orcs were paying all that much attention to their surroundings, likely because their surroundings were desolate nothing

He spied on the orcs for a while, trying to devise a plan, when he spotted a group of three heading out from the camp. His gaze followed them as they wandered into the desert, and once they had passed him and created some distance, he followed after.

He wasn’t sure just how strong these orcs were, but considering they didn’t have the greatest level of awareness, he assumed they must make up for it in other ways. After all, a true Tutorial top ranker would likely possess some powerful Skills that they could use to attack the camp with, and if sneaking up on it was easy for Aaron, it likely was for others. Considering that, the orcs would need some serious firepower to make up for their oblivious nature.

Following them was a decent trek, taking several minutes before the orcs arrived at a small spring surrounded by palm trees. Crouching beside the water, they filled clay pots which they carried over their shoulders.

Aaron attempted to use his Inspect Skill, but it didn’t seem to work. It was only a Common Skill, and he had expected it might have limitations.

Looks like I’m going to have to get closer.

There wasn’t much to hide behind, but then again, death wasn’t the end, so Aaron took his chances and moved forward. He got within a dozen meters without being spotted and attempted the Skill again.

Orc Tribesman: Level ???

The level was a complete wash. The fact that it wouldn’t even tell him what level they were, Aaron assumed that there was a gulf between them. However, it was interesting to note that the orc wasn’t labeled as a warrior, and Aaron had a feeling that might be as good as things were going to get.

Figuring this was likely his best chance to gauge the combat abilities of the orcs, he walked forward.

“Hey there, you dumb beasts.”

The three orcs turned and growled at Aaron. “Agbok, tatika ma!”

“Nak tatika na!”

“Okay, I’m guessing you didn’t understand me. Oh well, not like I came to chat anyway,” he said as he limbered up.

The battle began immediately, the three orcs rushing forward. But despite what he assumed was a huge level difference, it seemed that they didn’t actually have any special Skills, or even proper weapons. They were armed with tools, hammers, and rakes, and Aaron realized his suspicions had been correct. These weren’t warriors, but rather, workers.

Still, they likely greatly outleveled him, and that alone would put their Stats at a superhuman-like status compared to his.

Remembering his training, Aaron remained light and fluid on his feet as the orcs approached. His eyes were trained on his enemies, already reading them for tells, and honed in on even the slightest twitches and movements as he activated [ Thick Skinned ] and [ Relentless Scourge ].

The orcs attacked with unexpected aggression, one coming at him from the front, and the other two taking his flanks as though they had been prepared to corner him. The first to attack was the one in the middle. Aaron watched as it raised its stone hammer, and he saw it begin to swing. With reflexes honed from over a hundred deaths to the mage, and body control brought by hundreds of deaths to the werewolves, he planted his foot and began to dodge backward. Then, he woke up in the obsidian hallway.

The hell? he wondered.

He could have sworn he was going to dodge that attack. It wasn’t anything special–just a simple hammer swing–but he barely even saw it hit. One second, the orc was beginning his swing, and the next, Aaron was dead. He was fairly certain that the other two orcs hadn’t started their attacks yet, so it couldn’t have been them.

He went back into the trial, stalked the same trio of orcs, and challenged them the same way. This time, he tried paying extra attention to his surroundings. Like the first attempt, the middle orc struck first while the other two prepared their weapons. Like the first attempt, there was no one else around. No one who could have killed Aaron from behind. And like the first attempt, he died shortly after the orc raised his hammer.

This time, though. He saw it. Well, not quite, but he almost saw it. Just a moment before he woke back up in the hallway, he had seen the hammer blur, suddenly moving much faster than it had before. He thought he had a decent idea of what was going on, so he eagerly jumped right back in. He stalked the orcs to the oasis, jumped out to challenge them again, and this time, as soon as the orc raised its hammer, he jumped back.

The hammer swung through the air so quickly he was buffeted back another step by the wind, putting him too off balance to dodge the stab from the pitchfork orc, but as he died, he was grinning. He had seen it this time. He didn’t know exactly what was happening, but he had seen it and dodged it. He could work with that.

A dozen more deaths followed as he tried to figure out exactly what was happening. It wasn’t a phenomenon unique to the hammer orc. All of them did it. They prepared their attacks at normal speed, but the actual strike was much faster and much stronger. It was as though they were getting sudden surges of energy as they attacked.

His first thought was that it was a Skill, but he quickly discarded that idea. As he was able to dodge more and more of their strikes, he saw that it wasn’t limited to any particular motion. All their strikes had the same quality to them, no matter how they attacked, whether it was swings, stabs, or even kicks. Even when Aaron dodged back, they seemed to do the same thing for their movement, stomping on the ground and launching themselves forward with additional strength.

Or maybe, additional capital -S Strength, he thought.

It still could have been a skill, but Aaron recalled his experience with the Focus Stone and came up with a new theory. When he was using the stone, he had been able to sense his mana more clearly, but it was also more than that. There was more than just Mana. There were other types of energy–Stamina and Vitality, perhaps–and something more primordial that fueled them all.

He suspected that the orcs were using something like this to increase their attack power, and after his experience with the Focus Stone, he was fairly certain he didn’t need any specific Skill to do something similar. As he sat in the hallway after his most recent death, he pulled out the Focus Stone again.

Focus Stone [ Uncommon ]

A stone that assists the user to become one with the System and its all-present energy.

Cooldown: 00:00:00

The cooldown was over, and had probably been for a while. It was hard to keep track of time, dying constantly. And he really didn’t spend too much time in the trial hallways. Every time he died, he was refreshed and ready to go again, and so that’s what he did.

Now, though, he felt he needed it. He needed to better understand what the orcs were doing, and maybe even imitate them. He sat down on the ground and took a moment to center his mind. Then, he activated the stone, focusing on the System’s various energies, and a moment later, he gasped as his mind was flooded with new sensations.