Too Stubborn to Die

Aaron could feel the energy flowing through his veins. But it was unstable. Failing to find proper purchase as it traveled through him. With a guiding hand, he could aid the stamina flowing through him, ensuring it reached its destination more efficiently.

But he needed to push beyond that.

Aaron believed this was possible. He had seen the orcs do it. Not only that, but the skills required a large amount of stamina, so surely it was possible. However, he quickly found that his stamina simply didn’t want to work like that.

Once again, the hour passed shockingly fast, and his meditation was broken. And once again, he felt frustration stabbing at him from the edges of his purview. He hadn’t fully grasped the message.

Climbing to his feet, he rubbed at his temples. He didn’t want to wait another twenty-four hours to meditate once more, but he hadn’t found the breakthrough he was looking for.

How? How did the orcs do it? Are those primitive monsters really just better than me?

Wait… primitive?

Aaron’s eyes brightened as he had an idea. Sure, stamina might be the best fuel for the body, but that didn’t mean he had to forget everything he’d learned so far. At least not until he had mastered it properly.

He restarted the trial, circulating stamina, and shot ahead of the spikes. Climbing the wall was still hard, but he did it. And when he reached the BFP, he pulled all of his aether into his body and leaped, pressing down and shooting the energy out through his feet. He shot up like a rocket, further than he had ever with aether alone. But not far enough.

However, he was on the cusp of something, and the moment he revived in the hallway, he raced back into the trial.

Several deaths followed as he tuned his stamina and aether to work as one. Stamina was endurance; it lasted and recovered, and when he needed to push it that extra inch, aether was injected.

That said, it wasn’t easy. At first, it had been like mixing oil and water, but as he got a feel for the two energies and how they interacted with one another, he could weave them together more naturally. And on his seventh attempt at the BFP, he flew through the air like a freaking superhero, bounding between buildings, and fell into a roll.

Of course, the spikes weren’t far behind, and so he had no time to celebrate, rolling straight back onto his feet and continuing his mad dash for the finish line.

He wasn’t out of the woods just yet. The course continued on, turning and climbing. Additional hazards were added, swinging axes and more pits to jump over.

For Yendal, the obstacles were nothing. The shadow didn’t appear to even acknowledge them. But for Aaron, who was dangerously underleveled, they were a serious problem, even the ones he had mastered. All it would take was a second of lost concentration for him to end up dead and be forced to start again.

And then he saw it. A big, flashing sign labeled finish. He smiled for the briefest of moments, for the entire corridor—walls on both sides—was a huge arrow trap. The moment he stepped upon it, arrows shot from all directions, turning him into a porcupine within seconds.

Aaron was somewhat of an expert at dodging by this point, at least for his level. The problem was that this required more than just the ability to dodge. If he could stand in one spot, or even dance around the trap as he pleased, then he was fairly certain he could dodge the arrows. But he was going to need to keep pace, otherwise the spikes would catch up.

Throughout the entire trial, he had been watching Yendal. In fact, he was always watching the enigmatic shadow whenever they did trials together. He had long accepted he wasn’t able to perfectly replicate the shadow’s style, but he had a feeling he needed to get back to basics.

Yendal never relied upon explosive energy to jump or dodge an obstacle. Weaving aether into his stamina like nitro injector boosting power into his veins. If he wanted to create distance in an instant, this would be a nifty trick, but it wasn’t how the shadow avoided being hit.

Yendal was grace and poise. As he had in previous trials, he would need to focus on that, all whilst cycling stamina to maintain his speed, lest the spikes catch up.

Aaron doubted it would be an easy task, but at least he had an idea of what he was trying to achieve. And so he got to work, training against the corridor of arrow traps.

A dozen deaths followed; occasionally, he died at earlier spots in the trial, but mostly he made it to the end. Yendal reached the traps before him, and each time he took the opportunity to watch how the shadow moved before making his own attempt.

The damn shadow looked just as smug each time he died. Aaron realized he was probably going a little crazy because the shadow had no face, at least none whose features could be discerned from it. But that didn’t stop him from imagining its smirking face. And as the attempts continued, it morphed from that, and soon he was imagining it laughing and cackling.

Despite his growing fears of insanity, the shadow’s smirking face was exactly the driving force he needed to push towards his goal.

Brow bent with determination, he followed the shadow through the trial. Gradually, over his next several deaths, Aaron’s control over his stamina continued to grow, allowing him to focus more on his movements and dodging the arrows.

But as his deaths racked up, he did notice something. It was the shadow’s movements. Or rather, how it moved. It was an extension of what he had learned previously from the shadow. But his lack of understanding had prevented Aaron from truly grasping what he was witnessing. Every muscle and fiber of the shadow’s being was enhanced with power gained from stamina, and a perfect equilibrium was formed. Every muscle moved just as much as it needed to, with just the amount of energy required.

The shadow’s steps weren’t just fluid, rolling from one to another, but the shadow’s very muscles and energy control mirrored that same fluidity, flowing from one action to another.

Jerky, sudden movements inherently cost more energy and slowed him down in the long term. The body had to be corrected, and that consumed energy and time. And the same was true for stamina and momentum. Pour too much into a movement, and then additional stamina and concentration would be required to counter the initial movement.

A powerful blow thrown at an enemy required energy to stop, as did too much power funneled into movement. Turning, jumping, and minor corrections. These all exhausted one’s stamina and broke one’s concentration.

He had been so focused on energy output that Aaron realised he had to some extent forgotten his previous lessons.

It also wasn’t just about the efficiency of movement, he realized as he watched the shadow before him. There were no misplaced steps. Unlike Aaron, it wasn’t solely reacting to its surroundings, but planning ahead.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The river couldn’t be halted and redirected whenever one pleased. It needed to be allowed to flow. He needed to flow. At first, he hadn’t thought that possible, since he didn’t know where the arrows would be until they were fired. But watching Yendal, he realized that he had been wrong. The shadow still followed its path, but its body was kept fluid, allowing it to move with the arrows shooting back and forth across the corridor.

There were two obstacles he needed to climb. The first he had just about mastered. His accumulated deaths in the trials had aided him in controlling his stamina to such a degree that he barely even thought about it anymore. The second was to weave that into the base skills he already possessed, allowing him to pass through the arrow traps without missing a step.

With every death that followed, he made it further through the arrow traps. Like Yendal did, he picked a path through the traps and stuck to it, and instead of letting the traps dictate his movements, he flowed around them.

The importance of this training became all too clear. He was dodging better and with more fluidity than he had ever before. It was the stamina flowing through his veins, circulated by him, and used to push him further than his stats could alone.

Again, he died. But the deep-set grin etched into his face spoke not of concern for this final obstacle, but excitement. He had grown his skills over his last thirty-two attempts at honing himself against the arrows, and thanks to it, had nearly perfectly integrated his new control over his stamina into the techniques he already knew.

Aaron’s body became like liquid, moving like a contortionist as it weaved through the arrows along his predetermined path. With this technique, he could effortlessly maintain his speed, energy usage, and all whilst dodging the incoming attacks.

The shadow still mocked him, of course, even if he had managed to master its own style to pass the final leg of the course to such a degree of precision that it almost maintained equilibrium with his regeneration, thanks to Faux Core.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to win the praise of the shadow, not yet, at least. And it glided through the finish line backwards, taunting him by gesturing to its wrist as if it were wearing a watch.

Still, nothing would bring his mood down as he dodged the final arrows and shot through the finish line alive. What’s more, he actually had more stamina remaining than he thought, thanks to his training.

Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

Stage one of [ Trial of Travels ] COMPLETED!

You have tested your speed against a deadly force and managed to reach the finish alive.

Quest Rewards: Tabi Shoes of the Inari [ Uncommon ], Viewing Room unlocked.

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

Ding!

[ Brawler ] has LEVELED UP!

11 → 12

“Oh?” Aaron’s brow perked as he reappeared in the obsidian hallway. There were a couple of takeaways that instantly stood out to him as he watched the notifications. Firstly, the experience provided by the stage one trials was decaying quickly, relative to his level. The other was, what was a Viewing Room? The other rooms had been pretty self-explanatory, but Viewing Room? Hopefully, it wasn’t some kind of weird voyeur thing.

But before he went to check out the new room and confirm what it actually was, he decided to Inspect his new reward item.

Tabi Shoes of the Inari [ Uncommon ]

Like the cunning and devious inari, these tabi shoes are the perfect footwear for those who wish to remain light on their feet and mobile.

Provides: Skill [ Foxstep ]: When activated, Foxstep allows the user to make an additional quick step; the step may be placed on any surface as if it were solid. +5 Agility, +5 Dexterity

Okay, that’s certainly something, Aaron thought. The additional Stats weren’t particularly amazing, but a free Skill? Now that was pretty cool, even if he did have to wear the shoes to use it. Sure, at some point, he might replace them and therefore, lose access to the Skill, but that wasn’t a problem for now, and not something he was going to fret over.

Aaron immediately put the shoes on and then placed his 2 free points into Fortitude. Fortitude directly increased his Stamina, and since the energy had proven so useful in the previous trial, he saw no reason not to keep investing in it. He had almost run out in that trial anyway, so until he needed another stat, Fortitude was the move.

With that out of the way, he opened his status screen and glanced over his newly upgraded self.

[ Name: Aaron Dober ]

[ Age: 23 ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Grade: F ]

[ HP: 500 ]

[ MP: 500 ]

[ SP: 1800 ]

[ Class: Brawler, lvl 12 ]

[ Profession: -, lvl 0 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: 31 (+7) ]

[ Vitality: 5 (+5) ]

[ Fortitude: 18 (+6) ]

[ Dexterity: 36 (+7) ]

[ Agility: 51 (+9) ]

[ Intelligence: 5 (+5) ]

[ Willpower: 5 (+5) ]

[ Charisma: 5 (+5) ]

[ Perception: 5 (+5) ]

[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer ]

[ Traits: - ]

[ Racial Skills: Inspect ]

[ Profession Passive Skills (0/3): - ]

[ Profession Active Skills (0/6): - ]

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

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

As useful as Faux Core was useful, it couldn’t be relied upon on its own. The trials had proven that time and time again. Not only that, but stamina had proven itself far more useful than relying on aether. In fact, if he found another way to improve his aether channeling, it would be best used to improve his stamina regeneration.

If stamina is the vehicle to actions, then I must ensure that it has plenty of fuel.

Looking at his Stats, it was a painful reminder that he needed to increase his Fortitude. Vitality was still important, as he didn’t want to turn himself into a complete glass cannon, but he couldn’t see how it would have an immediate effect on him in the same way additional Fortitude would.

Converting aether was still probably practical for mana, since he didn’t have a direct use for it yet. And even Vitality to some degree, assuming he could avoid taking too many hits. But it obviously wouldn’t and couldn’t substitute stamina. He simply needed too much of the stuff to be viable in combat.

His experiences had made it obvious that stamina would power every inch of his body, and he was going to need a shit ton of it.

Okay, free points into Fortitude, at least for now.

With his level up and stats settled, he slipped on his surprisingly comfortable tabi shoes. Then, he decided it was time to go and investigate this so-called Viewing Room.

Passing through the door, he found himself in a room that looked all too much like a home cinema one might find in a mansion. Except, instead of a projector, there was a hologram that filled the far end, or maybe augmented reality was a better description, since it covered the far wall like a screen, but also created holographic images that appeared to extend out from the screen.

“Welcome, trial taker,” said a voice from the shadows, and Aaron turned to see another of the strange, elephant-like aliens creep out from the dark corner of the room.

“Hi, I take it you run this place?”

“I do, yes. This is the Viewing Room. A special little place it is, for special little guests.”

“Why’d you have to go making it creepy?”

“Oh, there’s nothing creepy about this place. Unless you think spying on your unsuspecting peers is creepy?” The alien flashed a toothy smile.

“Yeah, that’s kinda creepy,” Aaron nodded.

“Oh, come now. I’m sure you’re dying to find out what’s happening to your little Earthlings, aren’t you?”

“Wait, you can show me other humans?”

“Oh, so it’s not so creepy now, is it?”

“No, it’s still kinda creepy. But… I have been here a while. It would be nice to get an idea of what everyone else is going through. Plus, I never got to see the Tutorial.”

“Right, I knew I could win you over, my precious little guest. Come, right this way. Take a seat, and we’ll have a little peeky into Earth’s Tutorials. Who knows what we might find? Maybe some delectable little treats.”