Chapter 56

Aaron could barely keep his laughter down on the next attempt. He had survived a direct attack from a peak E-grade beast, and he had energy to spare.

Consuming the last of his adipose reserves, he shot into the air, chasing after the retreating bird with

[ Gust Step ]

.

He was still healing from the wounds as he flew after it, but he cared little for details like that. His Vitality Heart was pumping hard, and with each chest-thudding pump, his wounds healed further.

Closing in on the crow, Aaron threw food into his mouth as he flew after it. Had it been in peak condition, he wouldn’t have stood a chance at catching up to it, but the sonic beams it had fired greatly diminished its energy reserves.

However, this was still a peak E-grade beast, and Aaron could already see its speed increasing as it no doubt recovered from the barrage it had sent his way. He needed to act quickly, or the opportunity would be lost.

Focusing on the threads of fate, he pulled at the crow’s fate with all of his mental power. The result was barely perceptible to the naked eye, but it worked, slowing the bird just enough that he caught up to it before draining the last of his mana.

Grabbing hold of iron-hard feathers, he anchored himself to the bird’s back and ate while cycling mana and stamina. He had drained himself too much, but he was alive, and he had reached his enemy’s weak spot.

The moment he had enough energy, he began charging

[ Overclocked Haymaker ]

, aimed at its back, and struck. But a golden glimmer shone from the bird’s feathers, completely nullifying his attack.

“Bloody bird,” Aaron huffed as he took heavy breaths.

But before he could gather the energy to strike again, the bird took vicious defensive manoeuvres, knocking Aaron from its back and sending him crashing down.

Exhausted and out of position, there was little he could do against the peak E-grade beast, and moments later, death found him.

But the path to victory had been laid out before him, and Aaron was only getting better at surviving the crow’s attack. His next attempt saw him survive the powerful Skill with more energy than he had during the previous one, and he cackled with joy when he landed on its back a second time.

“You damn bird, let’s see how you like this!”

The golden shield appeared again, but Aaron had enough energy thanks to his mana anchors, stamina veins,

[ Faux Core]

,

[ Adipose Fusion ]

, the buff he had eaten before starting, and his mid-fight snacks that he could launch another haymaker immediately after the first.

This time, when the golden shield appeared, it flickered like it was about to break, but didn’t.

Again, he was thrown off its back after a prolonged period of bucking, and again, he came back stronger.

The third attempt saw the golden shield shatter on the third strike and the bird release a pained shriek.

“Gotcha!” Aaron growled as he landed the fourth haymaker, and blood spurted out, wetting the feathers around him.

Lurching, the bird swooped low, and Aaron could sense its resources running thin. The defensive Skill it was using didn’t come cheaply, nor did the sonic attack. At this rate, not even a high E grade beast would be able to keep their powers running forever.

Grabbing a few random handfuls of food as he rode the bucking bird, Aaron stuffed his mouth and prepared another strike. If this fight were to come down to a matter of endurance, he knew who he would pick to win.

It didn’t matter how out-leveled he was. Or how huge the bird’s mana pool and stamina pool were, he would keep chipping away until he got what he wanted.

The golden shield attempted to block his next strike again, but it hadn’t recovered enough mana, and shattered immediately, barely absorbing any power from his haymaker.

But this was a peak F grade pummeling into a peak E grade, and the power was vast. It would take far more than a couple of haymakers to end the fight.

“Still got some fight in ya?” He teased the crow. “Have another!”

This continued, Aaron eating and cycling energy as the crow’s bucks and turns grew weaker and weaker. Blood poured from the beast’s back, but its Vitality was stubbornly clinging to life.

But Aaron had killed enemies with more Vitality than this bird, and its healing wasn’t even as strong as the lizardmen, let alone the troll.

“You done yet?” Aaron mocked as he landed another haymaker into its back.

Feathers and gore burst free, spattering him, but Aaron just wiped his face and ate more food as he readied for another attack.

“You better bloody believe this next one is going to hurt!”

Stop, human! Please!

The terrified words entered straight into Aaron’s mind. But that wasn’t the most surprising or terrifying detail. No, that was the fact that one of the trial beasts had started talking to him. After all, he believed that nothing was real within this place.

Were the creatures and people in the trials not as fake as he first thought? That wasn’t about to stop him from beating things down with his fists. He had a job to do, after all. But it did present a mildly annoying moral conundrum.

Please, I beg of you! Human, halt your attacks!

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“You’re alive?” Aaron’s words twisted with incredulity.

Yes, human. Of course I am. Please, relent your attacks. I beg of you!

Aaron relaxed his fist, but did not dismount the giant bird. Just because it asked him to do something didn’t mean he was going to immediately do whatever it asked. After all, begging for your life the moment a fight doesn’t go your way is not a particularly surprising tactic. If he gave mercy to every enemy he met, he wouldn’t get far in the multiverse.

“I… how is that possible? I don’t get experience here… doesn’t that mean everything is fake?”

Correct. This body of mine is but an illusion. But I am very much real, let me assure you of that.

“Huh?”

The crow’s claim still made little sense to Aaron. The creatures and people he had found in the trials didn’t act like living beings. He had attempted many trials dozens of times, and never did his enemies appear to learn from his techniques or employ new counters of their own. It was as if he were just retrying a video game level, and his opponents were none the wiser.

“How is that possible?”

System-ordained quests. They can vary substantially. Some only give their likeness to the trials, and they themselves have nothing further to do with it. Others, like myself, can control our conjured forms.

“Conjured forms? So you’re not really here? Wait, why do you just let me keep using the same tactics then?”

One question at a time. You are correct, I am not truly here. But nonetheless, I beseech you to halt your attacks. To complete my quest and earn a reward that will greatly aid me in reaching the D grade and becoming a true beast lord, I need only defeat three more challengers. And you appear unfazed by dying in this place. Please, if you were to allow me my victory, I would be forever in your debt.

Aaron mused over the offer. He didn’t particularly want to ruin this crow's chances at growth, but he was also fairly confident that he wasn’t getting any repayment from the beast. He already knew the multiverse was impossibly vast, and the chances of them meeting again were nearly impossible. But the crow was right. It didn’t hurt him, at least not permanently, to let it kill me a few more times, and he had made quick progress against it. As long as he still managed to defeat this trial relatively quickly, it wouldn’t really affect him all that much. Of course, he assumed there was a chance some other beast would take its place, which had the potential to cause a problem.

Then again, why should he care?

The harsh reality of the multiverse was to fight for one’s survival and get stronger in the process. The crow was nothing to him, nor had it known of his resilience against death when they first met. It would be foolish to believe the crow would show him the same mercy, were the roles reversed. So why should he?

What a prick. Putting this on me. This is moral bribery, or something like that.

The bird knew that what it said was bullshit. Not that he could necessarily blame it for doing whatever was in its power to evolve, but he kinda pissed him off. Trying to push a moral dilemma onto him like that.

But at the same time, what if it was being honest? Three deaths weren’t much to Aaron. What was wrong with sowing a little good karma in the multiverse? Maybe it’d be a scam, but maybe it’d end up saving his life later down the line. It wasn’t like it would hurt him. But he also didn’t really feel like the idea of helping out someone who had no qualms about killing him and was trying to scam him. He wasn’t some kind of pushover.

Ahhh! Shit the bloody bed. This is what my future is going to be like, isn’t it? Everyone squirming for survival however they can.

It was in that moment that Aaron truly realized how much different the world was going to be after the trials. He had seen the integration through drastically distorted lenses, and that would all change relatively soon.

Quest Received: Challenge the Gigamorphed Blizzard Crow to a battle in a mortal arena for the chance to gain a special trial reward.

Caution: You will be transported to an arena where the life-saving mechanisms of the Shadow Trials will not be active. Participate at your own discretion. Note: normal titles, experience, and achievements will be unavailable for this battle. The only additional reward to expect is the quest reward provided by this quest.

Aaron read through the unexpected notification. It was a lot to take in. Why were there so many terms and conditions? That wasn’t normally a thing, was it? Probably because it was in the trials, but still…

No, human! Do not accept the System’s conniving notification! It intends to deceive you!

“Get fucked!” Aaron shouted back at the bird. “You’re no angel. How many times have you killed me?”

I knew you could survive—

“Bullshit. You had every reason to believe killing me would break my soul. But you did it anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame you for it, but you ain’t doing me any favors!” Aaron shouted and landed another haymaker, causing the crow to stagger and fall through the air several meters before gathering itself.

Please, I’ll reward you—

“Yeah? When? When will you reward me?”

When we meet again! Please–

“And when’s that gonna be?”

I don’t know, but–

A smile twisted Aaron’s lips as he remembered the Sphere of Binding. “Well, what about this then?” He said as he removed it from his pouch. “If you’re being honest, I guess you shouldn’t have a problem putting it in a contract?”

What kind of contract, human?

“I’ve got a Sphere of Binding here, so the System will enforce it. You’ll do everything within your power to see me repaid for this. If not, I dunno,” Aaron shrugged. “You’ll permanently cripple your growth.”

Maybe those conditions were harsh, but if he was going to help this crow reach D grade, then it only seemed fair that the crow agreed to put its future evolution on the line.

Please, human, a System-enforced contract isn’t necessary—

“You bloody bastard, I knew it! We’ll never see each other again, and you know it.”

Human, please—

“Shut up! You’ve got the contract if you want it.”

If the crow wouldn’t accept the contract, it was proof it had no intention of trying to repay him. However, there was more than just repayment to think about. If he accepted the quest, it would be a real fight with real stakes, and the crow had killed him many times. That wasn’t a decision he should rush into. On the other hand, the crow sounded scared. Had it shown him all it had?

Aaron mused on this a moment. He had a feeling that the offered quest wouldn’t hang around forever. If he didn’t accept during this attempt at the trial, he might lose the chance to.

Still, he didn’t actually know what the special reward was. Was such a vague reward worth risking his life over?

But he remembered what he had learned. The multiverse rewarded those willing to take great risks, and this was the greatest he had been faced with.

What chance did he have after leaving the trials if he backed down from an opportunity like this? Perhaps to some it might have seemed mad, but to Aaron, this was a chance to prove himself. A chance to prove that he wasn’t just capable of achieving things within the rules of the trials, where he could die endless times.

Perhaps insanity had finally taken him, because Aaron felt like even without a reward on offer, he would accept the quest. He was dying to challenge himself without the trial’s safety net.

Adrenaline pumped harder than ever before, and the thrill and excitement of real risk twisted a smile across his face.

“Haha, you’re fucking on! Let’s do this!”

Human nooo—

Aaron accepted the quest.