‘…’
Stark slept well that night, no dreams, no nothing, just comfortable sleep he greatly needed.
‘Best sleep ever~’ he mumbled.
And when he opened his eyes…
“OH COME ON!”
He was yet again in that black void, with nothing in view for what seemed infinity.
Then…
~FWISH, FWISH~
The other Stark, the one completely made out of aura, with only his eyes and mouth visible because of the white aura, appeared.
Crimson cracks were forming beneath his feet.
The background around it changed, it wasn’t a complete black void anymore, but the area around the doppelgänger became visible in a 10 meters radius: it was rocky ground with cracks of aura also spreading through this weird land.
This has never happened before, maybe the land would become more visible the stronger he got?
After all, they WERE in his mind, weren’t they?
‘…’ the other Stark didn’t speak like he used to, instead… he looked to his right, almost as if he was waiting for something.
And suddenly…
~FWISH~
Another Stark appeared… wait, what?
The other doppelganger’s body was made of white aura, and he was wearing a long laboratory coat, he also had two vials in his hands, each with a weird liquid inside.
‘Alchemist…?’ Stark thought.
“As you said!” the white Stark smiled, answering the original as it was capable of reading his mind.
“This guy appeared ever since you unlocked the [Alchemist] class and has been bugging me…”
‘So each class will create a doppelganger of myself…?’ Stark couldn’t deny he was interested to see what it would look like with 10 of them in here, it would probably be chaos though.
“Love me or hate me, I’m still here,” The Alchemist rubbed his two vials, beneath his feet the ground was completely white with a weird marble texture, resembling the ground of a laboratory.
And after only a few minutes of talking… the two Stark suddenly stopped whatever they were doing and turned toward the original.
“…”
“…”
Their eyes looked almost sad, although they had no pupils at all and their entire body was made of aura so it was hard to see.
“…?” Stark was confused, but… a panel suddenly appeared before him.
It was crimson in color, but its edges had vials, a merge of both [Domination] and [Alchemist] speaking to him.
And its content was… rather shocking.
[The Second Domination Trial is arriving soon.]
This was all that was written, and it was enough to make Stark’s eyes widen.
If the first Domination trial was already hard enough to kill off 4 of the most promising classifiers from this class… then what could the second one possibly be about.
[It is harder than the first, and it will start the moment you and the ‘others’ reach level 50!]
‘The others…’ Stark mumbled, it clearly meant that this Domination trial would yet again have him fight alongside others, with the possibility of only one person being allowed to survive again.
Plus, it being at level 50 would mean the difficulty would skyrocket.
“Ah shit… but I need to get stronger so can’t really escape that,” he sighed, and the two other Stark smiled.
[That’s all… for now…]
And so the two bowed before seeping back into the ground, and the entire realm began shaking like crazy.
‘Waking up…’ he thought as he looked up, a blinding light growing more and more in the void’s sky.
~FWISH~
~BWIING~
Stark woke up shortly after.
***
‘Shit…’ was Stark’s first thought as he got up from his bed, holding his forehead.
Another Domination Trial so soon was harsh, but if he didn’t get stronger, there was little to no chance he survived inside the ‘Rift Conqueror Academy’, basically… he was fucked either way.
‘I might as well try my luck with the Domination trial…’ he sighed as he opened his phone, he felt extremely hungry for some reason.
And when he checked the date…
“OH COME ON…!” three days had passed, three days he had spent completely asleep, three days, while felt like mere minutes inside his mind.
And of course, dozens upon dozens of messages from Lana appeared as soon as he was connected to his phone.
‘Here goes the tsundere…’ he didn’t bother to read any text beside the last one.
{Lana Moonless: I need to leave for a rift soon as the academy requires to get stronger, please send a message!!!!}
‘…’
{Stark Heartsouls: Have fun :)}
Obviously, he didn’t get an answer or even a read like he usually did since she was probably fighting monsters by this point.
‘Well… I also need to find a way to get stronger…’ he still had his own problems to solve, so he paced around the hotel room, thinking of his possibilities.
Looking for another secret rift was out of the question since they were extremely rare to begin with.
He could also try and conquer a random rift too, but most were owned by classifiers.
How do you somehow manage to claim a rift like Arthur did with [Sierra’s Death Path] you might ask?
Well, what else than money and power!
There are actually ‘Rift Auctions’ held in private places for the rich, and he effectively bought it from there, which seemed kinda weird as… you know… anybody can enter the rift if they find it…?
‘Heh~ I don’t know,’ Stark shrugged, not that interested in that as it wouldn’t help either, “But what about going outside?”
It was indeed risky, but if he spent long enough outside the barrier of Fellarburg, inside the semi-danger zone, then he could definitely gather experience quickly.
‘But… it’s not that convenient to do that, is it not…?’ Stark kept walking around, but his stomach quickly reminded him that he hadn’t eaten for three days straight, and that he should get to it before he died.
~CLANG~
He grabbed a plate and put it on the table before pulling out five different meals from his [Spatial Inventory]
But the moment he sat down… he noticed that there were things placed on his table.
‘Huh…?’ he was sure that they weren’t there before… ‘What the fuck?’
There were two envelopes on the table, each with the ‘Moonless’ family crest in the middle of it.
Stark immediately tried to reach for them, but this time, it was another crimson panel that stopped him.
[WARNING! You should eat quickly!]
[You have received the ‘FAMISHED’ status!]
[-10 HP…! -10 HP…! -10 HP…!]
‘HUH?’ his HP was reducing every second that passed.
[When you are extremely hungry, you do not die instantly, your HP just get reduced little by little, but if they do reach 0, you will die!]
“Huh, so it’s like in minecra-”
~ZAP~
“-100!”
‘Fuck…’ he quickly began to ate though and soon enough, the “FAMISHED” status disappeared, and his HP slowly began to go back up.
And once he was finished with all his food… he immediately grabbed both the envelopes and placed them in front of him.
If they were from the ‘Moonless’ family, then it obviously meant that it was Arthur who sent them, although that would indeed mean that he ordered people to infiltrate his room while he was asleep to deliver them…
‘…’ it was a rather disturbing thought, but he was confident [Focus] would have immediately woken him up if there was any sort of killing intent.
And so just like that, Stark opened the first envelope and began reading its content…
