Looking around, Elior examined the place he was dropped off. It's a jungle with old, green trees—hundreds of feet tall in the air. Flickering sunlight filtered through the gaps of leaves before coming to the ground; it was midday. After turning around for a moment, he found a pool nearby, quite big to call it a pool, though. It had clear water with no disturbance in it.
'It's always good to have water,' his thought was interrupted as lines of messages appeared in his eyes.
[User Elior, welcome to the trial zero of the guardians]
[Main task: Survive for three nights.
You have taken the first step towards becoming a full-fledged guardian. To be successful in the trial you need to collect the tokens hidden in the jungle. The more you collect, the better the result you would have in the trial. We wish you success.
Condition of clearing: survive four days in the trial.
100x Tokens.
Rewards: The title of Guardian Apprentice.
2 free stat points. And more.]
It's the same task Elior got for the first time. And spoiler alert, even if he died here he wouldn't actually die; he would be teleported back to earth in full-piece with only the memory related to the trial wiped.
His friend Ileana got her memory wiped in the previous time. Elior didn't know if it was good or bad for her, though. At least she didn't have to go through all the misery he felt.
Moreover, he didn't even have the slightest idea how she failed. Collecting a hundred tokens was not that difficult of a job. Even on his first try, Elior collected over two hundred tokens and that was even after playing slowly. Ileana was a smart girl, it would not be anything difficult for her, but his memory says otherwise.
In this trial, all you have to do was prove that you are worthy to be a guardian. They didn't just judge your capability in killing monsters, but everything. From your mindset, belief to your inclination. They watch everything.
"I need to remember that. Be good Elior," he mumbled, slapping both cheeks with his palms slightly.
Elior contemplated over his plan for a moment then he heard his stomach growled. He actually forgot to have breakfast today. With all the thoughts and the limited time he had, the thought of having food totally slipped out of his mind.
Elior sighed. "Guess, I'll hunt now," he muttered. He couldn't even think straight on an empty stomach, much less get busy with the primary task.
Elior took a direction towards the deeper into the wilderness as he walked on nonchalantly. And it seemed like the mother of God was with him as well. Without even moving for a couple of minutes, he felt a slight disturbance around a hedge.
Walking forward, with the crossbow in his arm loaded with arrows—Elior noticed the cause of the disturbance. A pair of rabbits, playing in the leaves with no care what was about to befall them.
"Nice," whispered Elior. He aimed the crossbow at the rabbits, making no sound. His hand was steady with a focused gaze. He pulled the trigger. The bolt shot through the air and hit the rabbit in the head. Instant death.
Elior shot again at its companion but this time his aim was a bit off mark hitting it at the little things' gut. It too died, though rather painfully, than its companion.
[You have learned the skill Archery level 1.]
[You have learned the skill Focus level 1.]
[Rabbit Level 1 (2x) have died. You receive 8 karma points.]
A few prompts came in, delivering the news. The prompts were transparent and at the corner of his vision, but it's only a bit less annoying. Elior made sure to stand by the prompts before another prompt came.
[You have levelled up. You have reached level 2.]
[You have gained 1 free stat point from levelling up.]
"That wasn't any bit surprising," Elior said. The first few levels up were always easy. "Now what should I do with 1 single point."
For the first twenty levels after each level up, a guardian gets a single free stat point. And after the first class, the single free stat point increases to two points. After the second class, the number increases to three and so on.
'So what's the most vital attribute for me now?' Elior thought. Examining his status window again, he found out the most he needed right now was strength, agility, dexterity, or mana. One point in strength or another physical attribute wouldn't do much good for now. So Elior directly appointed the single point to intelligence. One point in intelligence increases 10 points in Mana, like one point in the constitution gives ten points in health.
So now Elior had 130 in mana—which may sound a lot, but apparently was not.
Settling the points, Elior stooped to collect his booty. First, he picked out the two short arrows from the dead rabbits. Without even moping the blood from those, he stacked them in the carrier.
Then he picked the bodies of the rabbit; it was still warm, as scarlet blood was dripping from the wound.
"Sorry little ones; the world isn't fair," Wrik said as he carried the small bodies of the rabbit at a distance away from his body—fearing the blood might spill on his clothes. If he died here, all he would get was his memory wiped. It was not the same for two small rabbits. Then Elior flashed a smile. "But who I'm to judge? All I can say is, thank the mother of God for the food."
Elior walked in the deep forest. On his back were a tall spear and two dead bodies of small rabbits. Elior had already cleaned the blood from the rabbits in the pond. Now the only thing left for him to do was — grill them. But to do that he needed dry woods, as for fire he could make by the way his ancestors had made in the stone age.
After walking around for half an hour, Elior had collected a few dry branches that he needed. Unsurprisingly, the forest was full of this kind of thing.
Suddenly, he came to a halt, sensing some disturbances ahead. Elior slowly stepped forward, side by the trees, making no sound. The crossbow was already in his arm as Elior walked cautiously. After walking for a few moments, he got to see what caused the disturbances.
A wolf was tearing hungrily into something small that appeared to be a rabbit with its savage fangs. The wolf would reach Elior's waist-high if it stood straight. Wolves are the type that gets ferocious the more hungry it gets. And it seemed Elior disturbed it in that most important period.
Without waiting for the wolf to finish its meal, Elior shot a couple of bolts at its head, inhaling a deep breath. The wolf left the rabbit immediately, noticing his presence. It howled, teeth bared. One arrow hit the wolf at the sides of its head while it dodged the other one.
The wolf wasted no time launching itself at him; its feet ran like hell, covering the distance instantly.
Elior dropped the crossbow and equipped the spear from his back. Slowing his breathing, he readied himself for the shits to turn ugly.
The teeth of the Wolf were about to rip one of his arms when Elior jerked the spear with all his might. But that wasn't enough; clearly, the wolf won in the brawl of physical strength. Elior rolled a couple of times behind the wolf; he got up, instantly eyeing the wolf.
The Wolf didn't rest, lunged at him with its claws. Now, the conflict has turned into a brawl. The wolf was at the top while Elior was at the bottom, blocking the claw with the spear as he started to infuse mana into it.
The Spear tip grew sharper, and when Wolf was about to sink its teeth into his neck. Elior's eyes went cold. He pulled every bit of his strength he could manage into his leg and arms and pushed the wolf away.
The spear made a horizontal slash at its eye as the wolf howled. Elior didn't wait for the wolf to catch its breath and pierced the spear right at its neck. The mana infused spear didn't go like cutting butter as Elior didn't have that much muscle force, but it did the job.
The wolf howled in its last cry before going silent for eternity.
But it was not over. As Elior stood up from the corpse of the wolf and saw two more wolves, not any less hungry or savage—were advancing towards him with their teeth bared.
Elior took a deep breath in and circulated the mana thoroughly to the spear. He took his stance and waited for the wolves to jump at him. He jerked the spear at one at the front in its eye while the other one didn't just stand there, bared its teeth at his thigh. Elior didn't lose control of his balance but twisted his body after slashing the Wolf at the head before dropping a kick to the other.
The kick didn't have enough force behind it to jerk the wolf metres away, but it's more than enough to buy a blink of an eye. And that short amount of time was enough for Elior to deal a fatal blow to its neck.
Like the first wolf he killed, Elior pierced the neck of his target. And like the first one, this one too howled in agony before resting forever. Now there's only one left—the one he injured at the eye first.
"You should run away," Elior said as he eyed the remaining one. His breathing was still even though a bit faster than before. "Guess you will not."
The wolf howled as it jumped at him again. In response, Elior barely pointed the spear towards it before piercing with force again. The Mana infused spear felt some obstacles as it pierced its head. Elior had to firm his leg more to generate more force to end its life.
Elior finally relaxed, finishing the last one of the wolves. "Told you to run away," he said, looking at the dead wolf. "Look what it did to you."
Here's one difference between an RPG game and real life. Monsters or animals dropped nothing after you killed them apart from their corpses, and there was all this blood too.
Notifications came after one after another as Elior stood firm.
[Forest Wolf Level 4 died. You received 36 karma points.]
[You have levelled up. You have reached level 3.]]
[You have gained 1 free stat point from levelling.]
[You have learned the Skill Spearmanship Level 1.]
[You have learned the Skill Mana Application level 1.]
[Forest Wolf level 3 died. You received 16 karma points.]
[Forest Wolf level 4 died. You received 28 karma points.]
[You have levelled up. You have reached level 4.]
[You have gained 1 free stat point from levelling.]
[Congratulations! The skill Spearmanship levelled up to level 2]
[Congratulations! The skill Mana Application levelled up to level 2]
Elior spat as he read the notifications. He had levelled twice, killing off the three wolves. But he was not satisfied. The reason was his body. Not to mention the weak constitution, the balance of the body was not ideal. His body couldn't keep up with his skills. Maybe it's because he was thinking from the point of view of a veteran warrior.
"There's no shortcut in this," Elior said. "Let's collect the token now."
The place the Tokens could be found was where the beasts were most active. Actually, they wanted the participants to find the Tokens. If it couldn't be found, then what's the point of the trial in the first place. After searching around the dead bodies of the wolves, Elior found six parchment papers like tokens.
[You have found 6 trial zero tokens.]
Elior picked up the crossbow with the dead rabbits and got ready to move from here, but yet another disturbance stopped him from moving.
This time it was humans.
"Hey kid, don't move," a voice spoke out from behind.
Elior looked back to notice two identical-looking boys of his age standing there with their weapons ready. One with a sword while the other with a middle size bow. They were twins with blonde hair and a medium build. Both of them were quite good looking—it was quite difficult to tell apart who's better though.
But more importantly, Elior recognised these two fellas. They did something more than enough in his previous life that Elior remembered them. They had chased after him for two entire days after Elior had fled from them. If Elior was not wrong, their names should be Sarrat and Sarvat, though he didn't know which one was which.
"Give us the tokens and we might leave you in one piece," said the one with the sword. The other one was aiming the arrow at Elior.
Elior Couldn't help but flash a smile at that. He remembered they said something similar in their previous time as well.
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