Too Stubborn to Die

Defeating the clock tower was still a race against time, Aaron quickly realized as he stared up at the looming structure of light. He tried desperately to decipher its secrets as his body aged below, but it was no simple task.

There were no obvious means to stop himself from aging and, as a result, dying. And whilst he might have control over his spirit, the time he had to work with it was limited, since his Death Cheat trait wasn’t activating. Not only that, but in his spirit form, he wasn’t able to access his Skills, traits, or anything else that might assist with the task at hand.

And so, he was stuck as a helpless observer. Over the next few loops, he was able to gain a slightly better understanding of the clock and how it operated.

He believed it was summoned by some kind of magical formation, although that insight was far from being enough to help him defeat it.

He was essentially back to being a regular human in this form, albeit a ghost human, making solving the problems of the multiverse astronomically difficult.

However, he remembered his growing affinity with aether whilst in his spirit form, and decided it was time to tap into it. Because if there was one thing his spirit form seemed better at than his living form, it was the ability to control and harness aether.

With a goal in mind, he pressed his will against the task at hand. He would bend aether to his will and search for a means of applying it to the clock. And with any luck, it would help him decode the monolithic structure.

It took another dozen deaths to wrap his head around this new task, and to increase his understanding and ability to use aether whilst dead.

Harkening back to when he formed a forcefield against the axolotls and attempted something similar, albeit with aether. And eventually, he was able to push out and form a forcefield around him with the otherworldly energy, as he had done with mana whilst alive.

Except that this forcefield was very different. Since he himself was a ghost, existing within a plane between the living and… well, whatever came next, so did his forcefield. And it didn’t seem to directly interact with the world of the living.

Though that wasn’t to say that it couldn’t interact with the material, just that it was different, and with that difference came different rules.

Not only that, but the insights he gleamed from the ability were not the same as what he had gained from the mana forcefield. He couldn’t directly read into Skills or how they were formed. Nor did it tell him what the clock tower was.

Instead, the aether told him of a time before. It was the energy that everything was built of, and because of that, he could delve into the secrets of the clock’s very creation.

He died again and focused his resolve on peeking into hidden truths. Although, in truth, he was more infantile in this form than he was in his E-grade human state. But that wouldn’t stop him from learning whatever he could.

Even though the clock was far from a carbon lifeform, he could see glimpses into the moment between its conceptualization and its creation. It had been built, as suspected. Crafted by some otherworldly being with energy sourced from gods.

This tracked with what he knew about the trials and the beings that created them. He suspected that it was either the assistants or something related to them in some way.

This was an intriguing realization. He had entered the trial simply trying to beat it and gain some rewards. But in doing so, he had learned about a hidden truth regarding the builders of the trials themselves.

There was grandeur to it, and he suddenly saw the assistants in a very different light. They were more than just helpers. They were powerful, and perhaps played a bigger role in the multiverse, although he was far from understanding what that might be.

Even Rudolf… which was a distracting realization. That perv was… divine in some way, although not in the same manner that the gods themselves were.

He believed them to be some kind of builders and architects, although they seemed to lack the energy and power of gods. For what other reason would they need to call on their divine power to give life to this place?

There was obviously a secret to uncover, although it made sense that the gods were aware of whatever it was. Yet despite his relationship with Yendal and Oozagh, neither had told him anything about this.

Why was that?

Perhaps there was more to the multiverse than he first considered. A grand conspiracy in which the real truths were hidden behind a shroud of divinity?

Perhaps that was the true answer to reaching godhood? If so, he doubted he would get any concrete answers from the gods, even if they did want to see him succeed.

Such secrets that could represent the fundamental barrier between mortals and gods, and wouldn’t simply be disclosed thanks to flowery words. If there was a hidden secret within all of this, he would have to find it himself. But that was a task for a much, much later date.

Fortunately, having an ability that let him cross the thresholds of life and death seemed like the perfect ability to reveal such secrets. This was something he would have to continue to work on and refine, but if he were correct, it would provide great benefits over time.

After all, being able to look back through something’s history and take glimpses into how it was made was no minor thing.

Although the insights this simple trial had to offer were quickly diminishing, and whilst Aaron felt like he had touched on something important, he doubted he would learn anything further from it, for now.

It was time to return his focus to beating this thing.

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Honing his focus, he channeled the aether and used it to probe and inspect the clock. And soon, he discovered atmospheric aether being dragged into the clock, no doubt to be converted into mana.

A person or structure didn’t necessarily need to convert aether to mana to use mana, or other energy sources for that matter, as they could have reserves. In fact, most crafted items would rely on a store of energy, rather than being able to convert their own, which was far more complicated.

But this clock tower was obviously a step above such primitive creations. It made sense, though. The amount of energy it would require to power such a Skill that could not just capture him with its mental tricks, but then age him to death must have been incredible.

And if he could sense the aether, then it couldn’t hide from him. Following the energy, he tried to get a feel of it, but death dragged him away once more.

This was starting to get annoying. Unlike other trials where he could at least interact with the trial to prevent himself from dying so quickly, here he was entirely at the mercy of the clock tower and could only discover whatever he was able to before his body wasted away from old age.

But the more he knew, the quicker he could head to the source and continue his investigation. There was another problem, though. He was anchored to his body. His spirit could move, but only a few meters away from his body. This provided another frustrating limitation when trying to inspect the huge clock tower that was some distance away.

Then again, he didn’t need to be beside it. Whilst getting closer would help, especially with his still fledgling ability to sense and control aether within spirit form, it wasn’t entirely necessary.

But there was something else he noticed as he sensed the aether being sucked into the clock. It was drawing on the energy of the trials themselves. That was how it could age him!

He could feel this strange energy separate from the raw aether. It seemed as if it was being pulled in from the atmosphere, but in truth, it was coming from the Shadow Trials themselves. The mega construct that retained and managed the power and energy required for all of the trials.

It was a power far beyond anything Aaron could comprehend, and he certainly couldn’t outcompete it directly.

He wondered how others would beat this trial. Then again, he wasn’t a spellcaster, and this was obviously designed for them. Perhaps there were all manner of means to defeat it for those competent with magic?

Nonetheless, he had a plan. In the following attempt, he expanded his mana barrier as large as he possibly could, enveloping him and the tower.

It was much weaker now, and he used his spirit side to infuse it with aether.

Maintaining this was no easy task, but he had a good feeling about it, and he sensed the energy seeping into the clock with greater accuracy by the second.

Aaron’s eyes went wide. It was as he suspected. With the barrier up, the energy flow could be slowed.

Still, it was far from stopping it, and far from saving his own aging body.

It took him a few more deaths to strengthen the barrier and to improve his touch at weaving the aether through the mana to stop external energy from piercing it.

But when he finally managed to do it, the inflow of energy into the clocks was halted.

It still managed to age him into a senile old man before it ran dry, but Aaron smiled, cracking his old lips and wrinkling the corners of his eyes as he survived its onslaught.

If not for being an evolved human, he probably still would have forgotten what was going on. But thanks to how far he had come, he could cling to reality in his pruned-up body.

But more importantly, he hadn’t even known this would happen. It seemed that when the energy flow had stopped, he could break free from the clock’s hold and resume control of his body.

There were aches and pains everywhere, and he felt like old floorboards, creaking with every movement. So, this was what it was like to be old?

He felt irritated for some reason. Like this was the fault of the younger generation for some reason, but he forced himself to remain focused on the task.

If he could complete the trial quickly, hopefully, he wouldn’t have to experience old age again anytime soon—as long as he kept evolving his race.

But for now, he was going to have to decipher this clock with his shaky, old, varicose hands.

He tried a few things. Drawing on its energy, firing Skills at the clock. Anything he could think of, not that any of it worked.

The clue he finally got was when he was about to reach out to use a Skill, and on second thought, retracted his hand.

It was a very simple action, but he noticed the light of the clock flicker.

“Jeepers, would you look at that?”

It might have gone unnoticed by some, but his Perception easily caught the light flicker, and it gave him an idea.

Eyeing the clock, Aaron took a step backward, and it flickered again.

“No… don’t tell me. Is that really all I had to do?”

This puzzle seemed too easy now, and if he was right, a small part of him was going to be pissed. A small part because the gains he had made were still worthwhile, but it would be annoying to realize he could have easily completed the puzzle at the start.

Aaron kept walking backward, and the clock’s light continued to flicker and dim.

And so he continued. He walked backward up to where the trial started, and then tried to sense for the same creation energy that he had felt in ghost form, the energy that ran the trial. He called on that energy, asking for it to recall him from this place. To return him to the hallway.

And the moment he did, the clock began flashing with bursts of light, and then shattering and falling apart.

“You’ve got to be kidding these old bones,” he groaned.

It really was that simple. He just had to turn back time to beat the damn thing.

Stage three of [ Trial of Magic ] COMPLETED!

You have tested yourself against a complex mana puzzle and managed to solve the problem.

Quest Rewards: Chameleon Cloak [ Elite ], Meditation Room upgrade to stage 3!

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

“I can’t believe that was it,” he muttered under his breath as he was returned to the hallway, and the aging effects wore off.

Sighing, he decided to quickly inspected his new reward.

Chameleon Cloak [ Elite — F Grade ]

This simple shape-changing cloak allows the user to change the appearance of their face. Warning: unlike more advanced polymorphic Skills and items, this does not affect either the user’s body or what others can see in the inspection window.

“Huh, not bad… might just be useful.”

The item was clearly not something that could be relied upon for some high-stakes stealth operation, but if Aaron just wanted to keep his face a mystery, then it would come in handy. Not bad for an F-grade item.

But his attention was quickly drawn away a second later as he heard commotion.

At the far end of the hallway, he saw the source. It was that Pentival guy, and he had cornered both Talia and Darius with a few of his thugs.

Oh, this isn’t good.

The last thing he wanted was for that creep to dig his tentacles in. In fact, talking with Darius might even be worse. What if the necromancer made some kind of deal to conquer Earth?

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I better go check this out.