Bab 22: Chapter 22 - Mark of the Watcher
I tried to catch my breath as the emotionless voice returned once more.
"Trial two complete, evaluation: adequate. The third trial will begin in 90 seconds"
'well, that was... unpleasant. Though this new skill will be incredibly useful, since I recover quickly from most wounds, the pain is the biggest obstacle. This will give me an edge in desperate situations. Now, what's next, combat? intelligence?... Without knowing what this trial is for, guessing how I will be tested is rather pointless'
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[Pain Nullification]
Rank A
Manipulate shadow essence within your body to block your pain receptors and completely nullify pain.
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After a few more moments on my knees, I stood up and prepared myself for what was to come. Always punctual, the voice soon returned.
"Third trial: Mind"
As soon as the message ended, my surroundings warped. Suddenly, I wasn't standing in the underground chamber, I was standing in Sophia's office in Dragon's Perch. Sophia was pouring over the many documents on her cluttered desk. After a moment she found what she was looking for and turned to address me.
"So, as I was saying, there have been reports of increasing essence beast populations in the Garren Forest. I need you to... Hey, Magnus are you even listening to me?"
'Huh, waa, w-what but bu- '
I finally realized what was going on.
"GODDAMMIT"
I raised my right hand and begin casting [Carnage Pinwheel], Sophia exclaimed in surprise at my actions.
"What the hell has gotten into you Magnus?!"
I spoke between gritted teeth.
"You're. Not. Her"
The spiral of destruction plowed forward and destroyed Sophia along with her office, and I was once more in the underground chamber. No... not Sophia, I had watched her body get torn apart, I had watched her die.
"Sophia is dead, that was not her, that was not her dammit"
I barely heard the voice evaluating my performance as my mind was in turmoil.
"Trial three complete, evaluation: exceptional. The fourth trial will begin in 90 seconds"
I had never mourned Sophia's death, I had never even thought about it once since my rage had subsided on the day it had happened. My mind had eliminated the memory from my mind as a defense mechanism. But seeing her speaking to me again, even if it was only a cheap imitation, had removed the block from my mind and ripped the wound asunder. I was being assaulted by waves of emotions I almost never felt, sadness, anger, helplessness. I had never cared much about anything other than books, even getting sent to another world had had little effect on me. But finally finding something else, someone to care about, and then getting it tourn away from me in a short period of time was too much for my mind to handle.
I wasn't thinking much of anything anymore, I was just standing in the underground room with my hands on my head and tears streaming down my face, trembling. But the voice waited for nobody.
"Fourth trial: Multiple Combat"
The underground chamber expanded and turned into a hilly expanse of grass with a few scattered trees. Once the room finished morphing, a variety of creatures began forming, though I noticed none of this. Even my [Danger Sense] ringing in my ears couldn't snap me out of my current state.
When a Large red snake lunged at me, only my plethora of passive skills and the instincts that had been forming since my first battle saved me. I jumped back and quickly drew the sword at my waist before cutting the snake into two pieces at its midsection.
"I... need to... calm down"
My mind was still a mess, but I was in a dangerous situation, so I fell back on my old crutch. I took a deep breath and pushed all the feelings and memories away. Quickly, the wall of ice that had been cracked reformed, and my mind stilled. It was as if nothing ever happened.
'Open area, no choke points, uneven terrain, enemies all rank 2, earth bears, red snakes, vicious monkeys, charge boars, swift eagles. Ok, this should be easy'
The hoard of beasts was quickly approaching, so I used multiple sky steps to ascend into the air before pulling a quiver of arrows out of my subspace and casting [Conjure Steel Bow]. A ball of silvery light particles appeared in front of me and quickly condensed into a large Longbow almost as tall as me.
'Only the swift eagles are a threat at this altitude, so that means they die first'
I strapped on the quiver and drew, aimed, and loosed my first arrow. The insane draw weight of the bow sent the arrow rocketing away and straight threw the bodies of two swift eagles that were flying next to each other. As their corpses succumbed to gravity another arrow was already in the air. I spun like a very dealy top and loosed all twenty arrows in my quiver. Only a single swift eagle was left, diving straight at my eyes. But the so-called "swift" eagle's speed was that of a snail's before me. I released the bow and drew a dagger with my left hand, severing its neck in one motion.
"Air-borne targets eliminated, all that's left is to deal with the restless bunch on the ground"
With my repeated casts of [Sky Step], the land-bound beasts had no chance of reaching me and were gathered in a large group beneath my feet.
'The perfect targets for testing a new skill'
I raised my right had to the pseudo-sky that had appeared when the room changed form and cast [Iron Rain].
Dozens of crude iron spikes began condensing around me in the air. After five seconds, I brought my hand down, and with it came a deadly hail of metal. The spikes, accelerated by both my essence control and gravity, tore the hoard of weak beasts to shreds.
'Good performance, another useful crowd control spell; Only a handful survived'
A quick [Carnage Pinwheel] finished off the beasts and the room once more shrunk to its original size, the corpses dissolving into a silvery liquid that merged with the walls.
'Were those beasts just constructs? The feeling of cutting the eagle felt completely real. Whoever or whatever constructed this place must have means far beyond any I can comprehend'
As I contemplated the method in which the strange underground room was created, the voice returned.
"Trial four complete, evaluation: near-perfect, fifth trial will begin in 90 seconds"
'After multiple weak enemies, one strong one will be next. I should prepare'
I once more opened my subspace, pulling out my glaive along with another twenty arrows for my quiver. I strapped the glaive to my back and re-cast [Conjure Steel Bow] before half-drawing an arrow in preparation for the battle. I then activated [Essence Boost] and [Wind Dash].
"Trial five: Single Combat"
The room slightly expanded but stayed the same dull silver material. After a few moments, the walls stood still and an armored figure wielding a one-handed longsword and a buckler rose out of the ground like it was a still pool of water. As soon as it fully emerged, I drew and loosed an arrow at its neck while identifying it.
'It seems to be a human, but it's most likely another construct of some kind, once again identify is useless'
The human construct reacted quickly and managed to narrowly dodge the arrow by twisting its body to the side.
'Its speed is only slightly slower than mine, this won't be easy'
With my arrow dodged, it rushed me with its shield raised. I dashed back and left while firing an arrow at its chest in an attempt to slow it down. It moved its shield and blocked, but the sheer force of the arrow knocked it back. I shot one more arrow at the same place before releasing my bow and charging forward with my glave drawn. The construct avoided falling over by quickly crouching and moving its right leg back, taking a low stance. It had learned from its previous mistake and raised its shield at an angle to deflect the arrow instead of blocking it. I didn't give the construct any chance to retaliate and attacked it with a heavy swing to its right side. It made a short jump back to avoid the blade and then moved forward to try and close the distance between us. I backpedaled diagonally away from the construct and threw a knife from my right side with my left hand at its exposed armpit. the knife was too small and the distance too short for the construct to avoid or block it, so it sunk deep into its "flesh." But while its arm did seem to lose some strength because of the damage dealt to its muscles, it kept advancing without a pause.
'So its body works like a human's, but it doesn't feel any pain. Tricky'
I kept moving backward, but the wall was fast approaching. I leaned forward and cast sky steps behind my feet to quickly slow down and then accelerate forward with a thrust. As I lunged forward, I cast [Conjure Ice Armament] and [lightning Field], covering my body with an electrified suit of Ice.
To prevent itself from being skewered, the construct moved slightly to the right and positioned its shield to ward off the thrust while chopping at my arms with its sword. I followed through and turned to the right so that the sword hit my back. With its arm weakened, it couldn't cut through my armor, and as the sword connected it conducted electricity straight back to its wielder. Though it didn't drop the sword, electricity burns had formed on its arm, weakening it even further.
I discarded my glaive, conjured a shadow dagger in each hand, spun back towards the construct, and rushed it while beginning to cast [Carnage pinwheel] above me. It required a bit of extra effort to cast such a powerful spell in the middle of a melee, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. The construct readied its sword and shield to defend, but I jumped, twisted, and flipped over it, aiming to scissor off its head. A move I used relatively often. The Construct moved forward swiftly and got away from my dagger with just a small cut. But [Carnage Pinwheel] had finished forming, and the construct had just walked right under it. I willed it to fall, and the construct was blown to bits; Its armor and shield doing little to protect it.
'While it was strong, it didn't use any essence and wasn't particularly intelligent. I suppose there must be some limitation to the constructs abilities'
The room shrunk back to its original size, the destroyed construct dissolved, and the voice returned.
"Trial five complete, evaluation: exceptional. The sixth trial will begin in 90 seconds'
'How many of these trials are there? and what are they testing for? There doesn't seem to be any central themes besides testing someone's general survivability so far. Well its mostly pointless to guess at this point"
I picked up my discarded glaive and waited for the trial to start.
"Trial six: Intelligence and problem solving"
'I was pretty spot on with my predictions'
The room did not change size, but instead, a large table formed in its center. On the table sat a large and detailed relief map with different colored flag pieces spread around it.
'This is a war map, I must have to solve a military encounter. Though I'm not much of a strategist, there are plenty of books on war and military strategy in my knowledge emporium. I should be able to pass'
Unlike the previous trials, the voice returned to give instructions.
"You are the general defending a mountain pass from an invading force twice your armies' size. You have at your disposal two units of infantry, a unit of cavalry, a unit of archers, and two rank 2 awaked generals. Besides its size, you know little of the enemy's army. Devise a plan to completely block the enemy with the least amount of casualties possible, then speak it aloud"
After the voice finished I began studying the layout of the pass, but after a few minutes, I noticed something strange.
'Wait a moment, isn't this the battle of Snide Pass, where General Francis is famous for holding off a huge advance without even losing a fourth of his men? So whoever devised this question took it from a famous moment in history? If that's the case for all of these questions, this will be surprisingly easy. I know exactly how all of the enemies plan to move, so I just need to modify General Francis' plan.'
I quickly rearranged the different pieces representing my army. Once I was finished, I explained my strategy, or rather a combination of my strategy and Francis'.
"Analysis complete, all enemies repelled, 4.76% casualties. Next question"
The war table morphed into a desk covered in papers.
"You are a scholar studying how natural essence interacts with animals and causes them to evolve into essence beasts. You have come a long way but are missing the final piece of the puzzle, study the documents on the desk and come up with a final theory"
'And this is Hempton's Grand Theorem of Beasts, It got infinitely close to the truth but was usurped 200 years later when a demon scholar found an ancient dragon that was willing to explain how it exactly worked. This is a relatively niche field of study, but it's information that's easy to find if you read the right book. Is this even really an intelligence test at this point? well it benefits me, so it doesn't matter'
I ignored the documents and wrote down the correct explanation exactly as the dragon had said it.
"Analysis complete, answer accuracy:100%. Next question"
There were eight more questions based on important events and discoveries throughout history. All of which I knew the outcome and optimal answer for. But on the 11th question, things changed.
"Final question: What determines the survival of the world? Speak your answer aloud"
'What determines the survival of the world? That's Incredibly vague. In the first place, what even counts as survival? It being physically intact? Its ecosystems being stable? The sentient races being alive?... I suppose I have to find the point of view of whoever created this place to have a chance at finding the answer. First of all, they're looking for someone caple of protecting themselves that has a strong body, mind, problem-solving skills, and knowledge base. So someone with qualifications for something difficult, most likely. And now the talk of the world's survival. Looking at all of the trials, there must be a hint, it doesn't make any sense to throw out a nonsense question at this point'
I pondered a few possibilities before coming to an answer.
'Someone with qualifications in multiple aspects, if you were only good at one of the aspects you couldn't pass, you need all of your abilities to be strong but also at an equilibrium. For something to survive under normal circumstances, its body needs to balance a multitude of factors. Balance, the answer must be balance, its the only thing that isn't completely baseless'
"Balance"
"Pass"
"Trial six complete, evaluation: near-perfect. All Trials have been completed, proceed forward"
'So that was it. Hopefully I can get out of here now, I lost enough time as it is'
The room changed once more, opening a tunnel directly in front of me. I waited a moment for something else to happen, then proceeded forward. The tunnel was dark and slanted downward, but after ten minutes of walking, I once more arrived in an open chamber. It was brightly lit by an invisible means and, unlike the trial room, made from stone. A single small pedestal stood in its exact center. As I approached it, the voice spoke once more.
"You who bears the marks of potential shall now bear the mark of the watcher and walk the path of true sight, place your dominant hand upon the pedestal"
'So the marks it talked about were metaphorical, not literal, didn't expect that. I wonder if this watcher is the one who created this place. Well, whatever this mark is, I doubt its harmful, and I have to accept it if I want to leave this place anyway'
With my mind made up, I raised my right hand and placed it on the pedestal. The moment I did, an invisible force held it in place and I felt a searing pain. The invisible force and the pain disappeared in a few moments, but in its place was a stylized black eye; embedded on the back of my hand like a tattoo. However, I had no time to study it as a familiar runic pattern appeared on the floor and I was thrown through space.
When my senses returned, I was once more in the wastelands, The silver pit nowhere to be seen.
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