“This is nothing special, a part of the city walls was a little brittle is all” The Guildmaster chuckled, cutting the growing intensity in half.
“Right..Can I still accept that quest anyway? I need to check something out”
At Michael’s words, he was handed another piece of paper containing the location of the wall that needed to be reinforced.
“Also take this, just in case” He also gave Michael his ID back, which for some reason now displayed the letter S on it.
“The magic plate reacts like that once it detects either a strong individual or somebody with royal blood, hence why you received the highest rank possible” The Guildmaster added before heading back to his chair.
‘Oh so F is the lowest with S being the highest, that’s a neat little system’ He thought as he glanced at the request he picked up earlier, it was D ranked.
Michael didn’t hang around for any longer than he should have, Lyra, the receptionist was still searching for anything related to conflict, whereas the Guildmaster seemed to go back to sleep.
‘Now not only am I a Saint, but also a Royal..’ He couldn’t hold back the chuckle that escaped as he walked out of the Adventurer’s Guild and headed straight for the designated wall.
Along the way, he saw a few people that looked similar to the ones he saw when he had first arrived, weird outfits and all.
Though with adventuring being a thing, it was not that odd anymore, some people just have strange preferences is all.
He noticed something strange that had been happening ever since he first arrived here.
Contrary to the trial itself, it was incredibly peaceful, if the prompt didn’t say there would be a war, he wouldn’t have even thought about it at all.
He couldn’t rule out the possibility of there being some sort of an inside war within the city itself, there were many other forms of war besides full on slaughtering each other.
However, for all the hints he was given thus far, he assumed there would be a battle involved, it was more of a hunch, but he still trusted himself.
After the system’s voice disappeared and he began being able to use mana more freely and efficiently, it felt like his mind had become clearer, as if it was no longer influenced by any external force.
Which according to Freya, was the system itself.
Michael finally arrived at the wall and he couldn’t help but admit ‘It looks like shit.’
There was a massive hole in the very middle with all the bricks scattered around the ground.
This was definitely the clue he was looking for.
Michael noticed a person picking up some bricks and laying them down inside of the collapsed hole.
He walked up to him and introduced himself “Hello I am Michael, I came here after accepting the request to reinforce the wall..what happened here?”
“Take a brick and piss off to the other side, I am working here” The man said as he waved Michael away.
‘Alright..fuck being nice.’
“Old man, I asked what happened here, didn’t I?” Michael said as he took the brick out of the man’s hands, earning an annoyed expression from him in return.
“I don’t know, a beast attacked or something, now give it back or I’ll shove a brick up your arse” The old man held out his hand, waiting for the brick to be returned.
Michael sighed and gave it back, going up to the hole in the wall and jumping through it, he was not going to do some menial labor when he had other stuff to do.
In front of him was a flat landscape, the grass seemed to have been burnt away, the smoky odor still hitting his nose.
‘Just what is going on?’ Michael could not comprehend what was happening, one side was a peaceful city, the other, a charred battlefield.
Whatever this trial was, he assumed the answer lay on the side of the empty battlefield, so he took a step forward onto the charred grass.
Immediately, he felt a difference in the air around him, the formerly smoky odor turned out to actually be warm as he could feel the air surrounding him heating up.
It was not anything that threatened his life, however, it was certainly something to take note of.
As he began stepping forward and walking away from the city wall, he began feeling a little dizzy, it was not the dizziness that he felt when his mana had been exhausted, it was more like as if he had been hit on the head by something.
Michael’s vision began to blur more and more the further he went, even his sense of balance had been impaired, to others it would look like he was some sort of a cripple.
He eventually stopped, it felt like his head would burst if he took another step forward.
Turning around and glancing at the city wall ‘Around 50 meters?’
Michael had been tracking each step along the way, he thought it might come in handy to know the limit of whatever this world was.
He could not see any further ahead as his vision was way too blurry at this point, so he decided to go back to the wall, tracking his steps backwards as well.
‘Much better’ He took a deep breath as he no longer felt like he was being suffocated.
The surrounding heat, however, began increasing in intensity, it was considerably hotter than before, so Michael did not bother dawdling and jumped back through the hole in the wall.
As soon as he did so, he saw a brick flying straight at his face, which he swatted away.
“I hope you know that what you just did can get me in huge trouble, get lost already” The old man grumbled and picked up another brick, preparing to throw it at Michael.
However, before he launched it, the ground shook and knocked him down.
Michael resisted the shaking and looked around, noticing that not only the ground but also the already unstable wall had begun shaking.
‘Shit..is it finally starting?’ As Michael thought that, the wall began crumbling and disappearing, revealing a grassy area that had been an ashen wasteland just a moment ago.
All of a sudden, a bunch of infantrymen appeared and marched right onto the grassy area, setting down some kind of flag Michael could not see the symbol of.
It was blurry.
A person bumped into him and walked to the very front of the small army, he then began to talk but Michael once again could not hear anything.
It was becoming a bit unsettling, no matter where he looked, past the city walls no sound came out, everyone walking around seemed lifeless yet they moved with purpose.
Michael did not know why he was getting so emotional over what basically appeared to be a game, it was not like they were real anyway.
However, deep down, he knew he was lying to himself, even after his mind had gotten clearer, he was still dishonest, back then and even now.
Suddenly, everyone stopped, the world turning gray for just a mere moment as in front of Michael’s eyes appeared a now red colored hologram.
[First Trial: Trial of War-Phase 2 Initiated]
