‘That was a fun trial’ Michael thought as he suddenly began drowning.
The moment he was teleported back, he landed in the fountain, it looked shallow from the outside, however, he couldn’t see the depth of it from the inside.
He was pretty deep down, thank god he could swim.
Michael swam back up and climbed out of the fountain, landing on his ass, then proceeding to lay down on his back.
‘So much for a warm welcome.’
His mana capacity was near rock bottom after the fight with the goblin leader or whatever that thing was.
His stamina was also not looking so good, he wanted to fall asleep right away.
However, he couldn’t, there was something he had to do before then.
And that was accepting the reward for completing the trial.
[First Trial: Trial of War – Reward: Synchronization +5%]
The part where it said Synchronization was glowing brighter than the rest, almost as if signifying he had to interact with it.
And so he did, he pressed on the glowing letters and another hologram popup appeared right below it, however, he was not able to view it as his eyes suddenly lost focus, making him drift into sleep nearly instantaneously.
He opened his eyes again and was met with some sort of a battlefield, it looked eerily similar to the one he was in mere moments ago.
‘Don’t tell me I am back again..’ Michael thought and tried moving, however, he was not able to.
It was the same as in the time with the tree, it felt uncomfortable being in your own body yet not being able to control it at all.
“Michael stop moping about and come get the bags” A voice resounded from behind him, it was the short man he first met when he got here.
“Coming!” Michael exclaimed and straddled along the road, nearly tripping on a small rock that was on the ground.
‘I can feel everything he’s feeling, why is this guy such a pussy..’ Thinking that, he decided to observe the happenings further.
This was the same city and the same people, he could recognize most of them at just a simple glance.
The events played out the same, he went to the adventurer’s guild, this time, however, with the people he met.
This Michael already had an adventurer’s ID, the only difference being that the golden color was not there and the rank was C, not S.
‘Why am I seeing these memories?’
They were assigned a quest to guard the city wall as there had been an increase in beast activity lately, something which the real Michael had not.
‘The events played out in a different order, everything eventually coming together, I guess this was the correct order’ He thought as he watched them stand by on the wall, nearly falling asleep from the boredom.
“Zack, can I really become an A-rank adventurer?” This Michael asked the short man in a naive tone, showcasing his childish nature.
Their age was the same, this one just acted more like it.
“Yes of course, just keep carrying our bags until then, got it?” Zack replied in a mocking tone and continued slacking off, giving Michael the task of looking over the wall while he slacked off.
‘No wonder I didn’t like that guy’
This Michael felt satisfaction every time he was validated by others, truly a pathetic sight.
However, as he was looking off in the distance, he saw an incoming horde of goblins, there were not that many of them, maybe 100 in total, a stark contrast to what Michael had to face in his trials.
“G-Guys! Goblins!” This Michael screamed as loud as he could, attracting the attention of both his party and the guards below him.
After that, the guards and adventurers gathered together, going out of the city gate and around towards the incoming goblins.
They all looked rather relaxed, the number wasn’t anything that could threaten them and in the end, they were just simple goblins.
This Michael walked high, brimming with arrogance, however, it did not last long as a weight bore onto him, a bag had landed right on his shoulders.
“Carry this, alright? I promise you will become a high ranking adventurer very soon, maybe even tomorrow” Zack said as he unsheathed a pair of daggers from his waist and pushed Michael to the back.
‘Oho? Is he finally feeling doubt?’
Michael dug his nails into his palm, drawing blood.
However, he still held himself back, his naivety excusing the injustice he was going through.
The battle was effortless, they did not suffer a single casualty where as the goblins were completely wiped out.
Zack took the lead in the fight, earning himself a bit of a reputation.
And then there was Michael, standing in the very back with all sorts of bags all around him, he was the designated bag boy.
However, all of a sudden, he heard an explosion behind him, what greeted his sight was half of the city aflame.
‘That’s somewhat similar, no fire pillars though’
It was all starting to come together, however, some things seemed overly exaggerated, the amount of goblins and the fire which seemed not too difficult to put out.
He was feeling the fear and panic that this Michael was going through, he could understand why, after all, unlike him, he was still a child.
‘What even is the message I’m supposed to get here’ He thought as the guards and adventurers finally put out the fires across the city.
‘A different Michael, similar to what Kevin told me, maybe this one is who he was talking about?’
The adventurers uncovered who was responsible for the fires, it was a group of fanatics who believed fire was the gateway to heaven.
When all seemed peaceful, the ground suddenly shook and an inaudible vibration caused Michael’s eardrums to burst.
‘Pain, confusion, fear and what else? oh, even more fear’ The only thing Michael understood about this synchronization so far was that there was more of him in what he only assumed was the past.
The Goblin leader from before had pierced through the city walls with his army of several dozen armored goblins, not as many as there were in his trial though.
However, the result was the same, the adventurers and guards perished without even putting up a fair fight, the strength of the goblin leader was the same even now.
This Michael’s fear overpowered him, seeing his ‘companions’ get brutally killed in front of him made him run away in cowardice, hiding himself under a bunch of rubble.
“Please.. please” His sobs rang out, if he was trying to stay hidden and quiet, he was doing a very bad job.
He was not found and the goblins finished their destruction, lighting the entire city on fire and eventually walking away.
‘So this is when it happens..’
Michael stood up and ran after the goblins into the grassy field, specifically for the leader.
And just as it had explained, a downwards slash was all it took to split him in half, thankfully he couldn’t feel the pain at that moment, Michael didn’t even want to imagine what being cut in half would feel like.
His vision shifted and went dark, however, it seemed he hadn’t come back to the temple yet, he was still located somewhere in the previous Michael’s memories.
“A dud, this makes it 812, at least this one wasn’t a fallen” A genderless voice resounded as Michael regained some feeling of his body eventually opening his eyes.
“Hm? You are conscious?”
In front of his eyes was a single figure which had no face, or nothing he could see anyway.
Everything around it was a blur, he couldn’t even identify its body features.
As Michael was about to try speaking, the Michael that had just died spoke first “W-Where am I?” His voice was laced with shock.
He had died just a moment ago, he was sure of it.
“You are home, well, not exactly, you are not fit to return here yet” It chuckled and pulled some sort of a strange object out of thin air and placed it on top of Michael’s head.
“Hopefully the next one does better than you” With those words Michael began feeling dizzy, however, what happened next shocked both of the Michaels.
Just before he lost consciousness he saw a familiar message, which this time, did not give him the option to choose.
[Do you wish to start anew?]
