The moment Michael pressed the button, he was transported to a whole new area, much like he saw the weird tree.
‘Where am I this time?’ He thought as he moved his limbs around, feeling relieved he was not being controlled like last time.
As the surroundings became clearer, he noticed he was located in some sort of a city, however, it looked fairly medieval, nothing like what the cities in either of his worlds looked like.
Eventually, people started appearing in his vision, it felt magical as one moment they were not there and in the next they were.
Suddenly a blue hologram appeared in front of his eyes, it looked familiar to his system, however, upon closer look, he noticed it was not.
[First Trial: Trial of War | Completion reward: +5% Synchronization]
‘War? And what does it mean by synchronization?’ He thought as he glanced around himself.
There were many people scattered all around, elderly, adults and even children, all of them had smiles on their faces.
Even the occasional guard he saw looked completely relaxed ‘How was this trial related to war in any way?’ He couldn’t help but think.
In the corner of his vision he noticed a few people that seemed a bit out of the ordinary.
They were dressed in weird clothing and had full sets of armor equipped, if anything they looked qualified to be the guards.
‘Maybe they are the actual guards?’ Michael wondered as he walked towards them, there were only 4 of them, however, they all looked rather fearsome.
As he finally approached them, standing just in front of them, a thought appeared in his head ‘What exactly am I supposed to ask them? Even though I am 12, I look like I have already gone through puberty..’
As Michael was debating how to use his age and ignorance to his advantage, the only man in the group spoke up.
“Whatcha doing kid, are ye lost?”
‘He’s short..’ Michael thought while maintaining his smile “Yes..this city is a bit big after all” He ended with a chuckle.
The man didn’t seem amused as he raised his eyebrow “Well ain’t you an idiot, head in that direction, the adventurer’s guild will help you find your way” He said, pointing towards a building that Michael had not seen earlier.
It had Adventurer’s Guild written on it, just like the man said.
Michael quickly nodded and thanked the man before heading straight towards the building.
‘It was definitely not there the last time I checked.. did it also appear like the rest of the people?’ He wondered as he approached the building and walked inside of it.
The inside looked like just any inn, people were huddled around drinking and eating, however, not only was there a bartender, but there was also some kind of a receptionist wearing professional clothing.
Before heading over to ask anything, he decided to take a look around the place, it seemed pretty spacious for a simple inn.
As his gaze landed on an irregular looking wooden wall, he saw a multitude of posters.
Michael grew curious so he decided to walk towards them, seeing a bunch of all sorts of requests written down.
{Find my stupid cheating husband -F- Reward: 2 Copper}
{Find my lost cat -F- Reward: 5 Copper}
Michael chuckled at some of the requests, though he noticed some that were more serious, one in particular had caught his eye.
{Reinforce the city walls -D- Reward: 1 Silver}
It seemed like the only request that was linked to his trial, he would have counted it off as mere coincidence, however, too much irregular stuff has happened since he arrived here.
Michael looked around and saw a few sentences carved into the wood, it said if one wanted to accept a quest, they needed to take it to the receptionist.
And he did just that, he ripped it off of the wall and walked over to her, placing the crumpled paper on the desk.
“Hello, I would like to accept this quest” He sounded stiff as usual.
“Sure, provide your ID” The receptionist replied in an uninterested manner.
‘Of course there would be something like that…’ Michael sighed inwardly, he knew he couldn’t just go up and show his Vivum ID, it wouldn’t slide in a world like this.
“Sorry..I don’t have anything like that.”
The receptionist looked him in the eyes and sighed, taking the quest poster and shoving it under the table “Go make one then.”
‘Why is everyone so rude” Michael thought, seeing some sort of a pattern here. “And how do I do that?”
“Here” The receptionist threw a small metal plate at him “Inject your mana into it, if you can’t, then just go away.”
Michael ignored her and proceeded to channel his mana into the metal plate, making it light up with a golden color, much like the orb earlier.
However, it did not shatter this time, it held on, turning a portion of the metal into a golden color.
The receptionist immediately ran over and frantically bowed “I apologize sir!”
She then stood straight and gestured for Michael to follow her.
‘No reason not to, I still have to figure out how to complete this war trial anyway’
They went to the back, and up a flight of stairs, arriving right in front of a door that had Guildmaster written on it.
She seemed to not show any courtesy as she kicked the door and barged into his offices.
“Lyra..What the fuck are you doing!” The man was startled out of his sleep and began scolding her.
However, she was adamant, all words going in one ear and out the other as she began recalling the situation that had just transpired a few minutes ago.
The Guildmaster’s anger quickly diminished as he looked at Michael with wide eyes.
“Young man, I apologize for the receptionist’s rudeness earlier, please sit down” He gestured towards the comfy looking sofa.
“Sure” Michael let bygones be bygones, he believed this world was fake anyway and making enemies would only add to his troubles.
“Young man, could I take a look at the Adventurer’s ID?” The Guildmaster asked politely and Michael handed it over to him.
He examined it for a moment and collapsed into his chair, seemingly exhausted after not doing anything at all.
Though as quickly as he collapsed, he instantly got up, regaining his composure.
“It is a pleasure to meet a royal such as yourself, please excuse the shabby state of my office”
‘Royal? What?’ Michael was confused, however, it did not seem like the Guildmaster would elaborate further.
He decided to suck it up and bullshit his way into information, as always.
“Be at ease, could you tell me a bit about the situation outside of the city? Any conflicts or abnormal happenings are what I want to know” Michael said in an authoritative voice.
Both Lyra and the Guildmaster flinched at the sudden change of tone, though they quickly began to act, one looking around the room for any information, while the other informed Michael of some conflicts that occurred.
However, it wasn’t anything that interested Michael, they were simple fights that broke out or someone stole something minor.
“Can you tell me about the request I tried taking earlier then?” At those words, the Guildmaster seemed confused as he went to ask the searching Lyra about it.
She widened her eyes and quickly ran back to her desk before bringing the poster back and giving it to him.
‘Is this really a fake world?’ Michael began having some doubts, everything and everyone seemed realistic enough to be mistaken for actual people, maybe because they were?
The Guildmaster’s eyes widened as he turned to Michael with a serious look.
“This is…”
