Gamielle sat, glaring at the entrance to the Sixth Trial. The one that Ryan had gone through only a bit over a day ago. She knew that he was well over the power curve of the Sixth Trial but she also knew that powerful people could trip over themselves in crucial moments. Especially when it seemed like Ryan had no regard for his life either.
She could see him dying doing something stupid like trying to save a promising adventurer out of impulse.
But that wasn’t what really made her worried.
It was what was on top of the Trial entrance that distracted her.
Trial Capacity 1/?
It was a rare condition that happened once every couple thousand Trials. When something had gone so far off script from standard operating parameters that it changed the total capacity so nobody else could join.
Unlike most people, she knew a little more than that. It also meant a ruling was made. The Manager was dictating the Trial and the encounter, and that made her worried.
She knew just how far it was willing to go if it sensed even the tiniest hope that someone might be able to complete the Trial System. It did not make their lives safer, it made it more dangerous.
An entity gambling on odds.
Gamielle took a strand of faith, one she had isolated because it was not something she very much cared for.
A strand of superstition and sacrifice. Unfortunately, it was too fundamental to the nature of faith that was coming from Sector Thirteen. Every time she tried to form the gathering faith without it, it became too brittle.
Her fingers dangled that strand of faith, floating on the wind.
It would take her that much closer to that apotheosis. A brittle one but a true apotheosis with the faith of fervent millions. Her mother might have lost her mind but it was a brilliant one. Somehow she had swayed them all and Gamielle felt it.
A rushing tide of beliefs overwhelming the tide of reality. With this, she might even be able to rewrite the very fundamental concepts of this nascent universe. Even brush up against the Trial System itself.
All it would cost… was to accept that little strand.
She felt the chasm beneath her, that endless rush of nothingness beneath her as the realization that there was no such thing as solid ground beneath her feet.
All she could think about was innocent Ryan being dragged into all of this. Him dying and appearing as a Fallen.
The more she fell in love, the more it angered her so. He of all people, did not deserve any of this.
——
The Sixth Trial.
The first victim—test subject looked nervous. As they should be, Ryan himself wasn’t sure about this one. It wasn’t until he was actually faced with really trying out his hypothesis did all of his bravado start to melt and the doubts started to creep in.
It was possible that he had truly just dreamt up a solution that wouldn’t work, and if this didn’t work, then they really didn’t have a solution for fixing Pinkie.
Though when he thought about it like that, it wasn’t all bad. It just meant that they could use her as a monster spawner and he’d be missing out on the legendary feat here.
With that boost in confidence, the [Adventurer’s Guide] beamed with confidence at his current victim—er—student. No need to let a newbie see his doubts after all.
He put his hand on the researcher’s back, the others watching from the other side of incredibly thick, enchanted glass.
Ryan felt the class crystal taped to his arm tremble slightly as the world rippled slightly. The victim froze as the world trembled around him.
[Class Change: Rogue]
Ryan tried to emulate the Trial System here. A simple Common class that everyone had the option of picking. He felt the concepts of the [Rogue] first tremble from within—then the world and settled around the researcher.
Simple concepts were always there, all around them, all his skill did was make it resonate with the soul.
The concepts of a [Rogue] surrounded the researcher and that was… all it did.
When the skill finished and deactivated on its own the concept of a [Rogue] only stuck to Ryan and not the test subject. It hadn’t stuck to the researcher at all. They still had their eyes closed, expecting the worst.
When Ryan pulled his hand away the researcher blinked.
“Is that it?”
Ryan just stared at his hand. The skill had activated and the worst didn’t come. The other scenario he had hypothesized was a potential skill backlash but that hadn’t even come close either. In fact, that had been easy. As if using it on others was an obvious part of the [Class Change] skill and not overreaching.
…it just didn’t hold.
“Huh."
…
Ryan sat thinking while Fetterue and her assistants were throwing out hypotheticals left and right.
The test subject tried to describe what had happened.
“I felt the ripple you all are describing but it wasn’t magic or qi. Though there were traces of aura in there, maybe that was the mistake? Maybe it’s the left arm?”
They really were researchers. Now they had found something they’d never encountered before, excitement and obsession overrode their fear from his arm.
Ryan shook his head.
“Class orbs normally have aura in them that is somewhat different from your own. This felt more like…”
Ryan compared to when the [Class Change] skill changed his own class to what they had done just before. Ryan had latched onto that layer of concepts but the researcher? It had just slid off of him.
“Everything’s the same, the only thing that’s different is… you.”
Ryan pointed accusatorily at the poor test subject. A man in his thirties that had no experience with adventuring or the class Ryan had tried to push onto him.
“I’m the issue? How?”
“Have you ever had any desire to dive into trap-filled dungeons? Finding loot and getting fame that way?”
“No?”
“What about stealing the attention from the masses while giving the rest of the world a shit-eating grin?”
“Uh, no?”
“Well you should have said so from the beginning! Okay, let’s try that again, this time be a little more forthcoming with your wants and desires okay?” Ryan shook his head. “Seriously, you grew up in a society of adventurers and you don’t want to be a [Rogue]? No wonder you’re ashamed to bring it up.”
The researcher looked to Grand Mage Fetterue in confusion. She rolled her eyes.
“Ignore him, he’s masking his own failure with what he believes is funny.”
Ryan opened his mouth.
“I’m so insulted, I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Fetterue had hit the nail on his head though. The discussion and the time to think had given him a clearer image on what had gone wrong.
First of all, he was using the wrong class. As the cooldown came off, he ripped the [Adventurer’s Guide] crystal from his arm and felt the pang of sudden loss wash over him.
It… was starting to feel like an addiction.
Ryan shook his head and replaced the crystal with one he’d never used before, the one that was, in hindsight, the ideal for this.
[Class Change: Conceptual Neophyte].
Despite being called a mere ‘neophyte’, the rarity was an Epic. Ryan remembered how back in the manager’s abode it had been trying to compound the other classes together. This problem… was much simpler in comparison.
The second and the main issue was indeed with the researcher and how the Trial System worked. Unlike him, the Trial System did not force classes on you. You made the decision on what class you wanted to be. For a lot of people, they grew into the classes.
Now, he even felt like he knew what he was doing.
…Or at least he had the energy of someone that didn’t know enough to not know what they were doing. In other words, a neophyte.
Ryan gave the fellow researcher another smile.
“All right, we’ll try it again when my cooldown comes off. But first of all, while we wait, I want you to tell me your life story. Give me your hopes and dreams, your aspirations. Then tell me your greatest fears and secrets.”
Perhaps the test subject could feel the shift in energy because he now looked even less certain than the first time.
“Don’t worry, it’s all for a good cause.”
Thirty minutes of very awkward dialogue later…
They were back in the testing room, enchanted walls separating them from the rest of the viewers. The current victim was feeling truly embarrassed that he had been forced to reveal his deep admiration for Grand Mage Fetterue from when he was a boy.
Ryan did sympathize with that one.
“This time, I want you to think about that mode when you’re moving about in the lab. Going from one discovery to the next. That moment you liked when you rushed over to the library to find a book to push your understanding further. Okay?”
Just like back at Raidco’s Mastery, he had used [A Glimpse of Perspective] to better understand his test subject. With the combination of class, desire and all of the man’s juicy secrets, he put his hand on the dude’s back with confidence and said the words out loud.
“[Class Change: Student]”
The same happened as with the [Rogue]. The world rippled as the concept of a [Student] came to bear and settled on the man. The similarities stopped there. This time, the man’s own soul trembled, his presence increasing rapidly as it resonated with the concepts that it already embodied.
Only with more clarity than before.
[Class Change] leveled up!
[Class Change] level 2 -> 3!
The levels were nice but what came next was possibly more important.
Precursor Skill [Bestow Self-Concepts] (Rare) Learned!
That was the second precursor skill for the Epic. That actually meant that he’d taken another huge step in learning a Trial Epic.
The new [Student] however, did not feel Ryan’s sudden excitement. They just stared at their hands.
“I don’t feel any different?”
“Well of course not, you already were a student. But look up.”
They turned up, Fetterue’s face of shock towards him was likely the first time the man had ever seen the stoic woman show such emotion before.
“She can tell that your presence has gone up. If she could see concepts, she’d see that you’re resonating with the idea of a [Student] more than ever before. Besides, I’ve just confirmed it can work… and this my dear victim, is only the first step.”
…
This time the researchers were far more more animated in their discussion. For some reason, the new [Student] was the most hesitant about what they were doing.
“I don’t like this. It felt like he was ripping out something fundamental and shoving it into me?”
Ryan raised a finger.
“Okay, now say that in a way where it doesn’t sound like I assaulted you.”
“I am serious. I felt my very soul shake with what you did. The idea that you have changed it permanently…” The [Student] looked to Fetterue, “I don’t think this is something we… anyone should be messing with.”
She was silent, letting Ryan make the decision here. He bared his teeth at the ungrateful test subject.
“That, my friend… is something I agree with.”
They blinked at Ryan’s admission to it. It was the truth, the more he interacted with it, the more he realized just how vast concepts were. A damned [Neophyte] was an Epic class by itself.
He shook his head.
“Unfortunately, the civilization and a certain [Witch] I’m dealing with have already advanced far, far too much for me to stop here now.”
Besides, he couldn't stop, Ryan had taken the first true steps in copying the fundamentals of the Trial System itself. How many more steps until he could force its hand?
He couldn’t wait.
During the cooldown of the class change skills, of course, they did not just talk. Fetterue handed him an odd spherical device with a vast network of spell circles that made his head ring when he used [Spellweave Perception] on it.
“Try this and pour your volatile mana within.”
Ryan held the clear orb with his left hand and let some of his volatile mana rush in. It then did the standard thing his volatile mana did and start to flow uncontrollably, seeking out more and more of the mana structures.
Though unlike what normally happened, it just bounced off the circles randomly. Ryan frowned, almost entranced as his volatile mana started to synchronize and bounce off the walls together. Over time, it started to bounce perfectly in synchronization.
“Whoa, a dragonslayer—actually a twelfth realm [Witch] wasn’t able to make something like this.”
Even Grettfield gathered his volatile mana in mass amounts of modified crystals that had to be rushed to her house for safe-keeping. This orb could contain more of his volatile mana than ten of those.
Fetterue gave him a rare smile of pride.
“A mage’s best asset is time. Give us enough time and we will adapt to even ascendants themselves. I have other devices that you can use to practice your control. Once that’s done, I have enchanted weapons that you might be interested in using.”
Fetterue opened up a box, revealing very balanced knives with a clear cylinder embedded in the middle that also had similar magical spell circles as the orb.
Ryan reached out for one and she slammed the boxes shut before his fingers could come close.
“Only after you have mastered controlling your volatile mana, otherwise these will be wasted.”
Ryan bared his teeth in a grin.
“Ah, so that’s the angle you’re gonna play to get me to stay here longer.”
“I simply don’t want my life’s work to be wasted.”
That was how his second day of his Sixth Trial had ended, and how Ryan’s training began.
Day 3
“Your skill, [Spellweave Perception] makes no sense whatsoever. You read a spell, understand vaguely how it’s going to form, and you instinctively get an understanding of it. This implies mental influences on you from a skill?”
“It’s like a hunch. I can see a [Firebolt] appearing as it forms, you know?”
Fetterue just looked at him like he was an idiot.
“We just confirmed that I can open up a spell that you have never seen before and that skill will give you some level of insight. That is not how magic works.”
“Yeah, because it’s not magic, it’s a skill.”
She switched to looking like she wanted to strangle him.
“Yet you say this Trial System can give you a spell as a skill.”
“Yeah, because magic can be skills, but skills don’t necessarily have to be magic. Like, you have warriors that can use [Cleave], that’s not magic, right?”
“Then what nature of skill is [Spellweave Perception]?”
“Mental, magic and eyes?”
Fetterue rubbed at her head.
“If my guess about this spell skill is right, then it will scale towards your understanding of magic. You gain hunches if you’ve seen similar spells being cast? What if you increased the depth of your theoretical knowledge?”
…
“How do you not even know the most basic fundamentals of magic?”
“I don’t know, learning about magic isn’t in basic school curriculum it’s something mages learn when they're in realm four. I was a sword guy, not a magic guy.”
“Do you not have an interest in understanding the most fundamental force of your world? At least the elementary basics?”
Ryan opened his mouth then closed it.
“Yes? I mean, I can learn it now, can’t I?”
——
Fetterue was in her private workshop, drinking a bottle of hard magical liquor. She had sent Artigan away to study under one of her researchers. The newly crafted [Student] if she had gotten it right.
She had given an excuse that she needed to focus on the bag of holding but the truth was that she needed a break from Artigan’s antics.
It had been a long, long time since someone had tested her patience so much. Fetterue could not even send him away either, not when he was a treasure chest of so much untapped potential.
She took another swig of her drink and shook her head.
“There is no way that this was the ideal that higher civilizations aspired to for their children. I refuse to believe it.”
///
AN
Fetterue might not like it but this is indeed what Earth’s peak trialist looks like.