End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2), John Gold [ebook reader online txt] 📗

the power of the spell it’s using. For now, my limit is three hundred and twenty percent manipulation of the magic charge, while the maximum is a thousand percent and a manipulation skill of 1000.”

“Very interesting. What about the other skills you all have?”

“Hm,” the administrator says, looking at me like I’m some kind of idiot. It’s true, I’m only a kid without a class who just got a bump to my skills and levels. What’s the point of telling me? “I imagine that’s useful for you to know when you make your choice. Amplification is the same thing, though it boosts the strength warriors have in their body.” Oh, hey, I already have that. “It lets them do more damage. The limit is the same: ten times or Level 1000 for the skill. Accuracy for archers heightens their senses, slows time, and lets them shoot more accurately and do more damage.”

“What about the attributes? What’s the point?”

“You have to pay for everything. Amplification for warriors costs strength, and then health once your strength is gone. When mages run out of mana, they use their life force. It’s the same for archers. Basically, it’s an advanced way of using your physical and mental bodies, at least, the way they interact. Your body is a single whole. If you don’t have any strength left, it starts tearing itself apart to give you the energy you need. That makes sense. Just remember that Hunters feel twenty percent of the pain and suffering when they start to use their health instead of their strength.”

“Thanks for the explanation. Can I become a Hunter without having a class?”

“Sure. But, I’ll tell you this right now, young lady, it probably won’t happen. This year, the trial is going to be much harder than in other years.” A buzz breaks out around me. “It has nothing to do with how many of you there are; we’re in the middle of an undead invasion, and we’re going to help fight them off. Everyone who passes the trial and survives to the end will be accepted into the ranks of the Hunters.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, what is the League of Hunters?”

“You’ll find that out if you pass the trial, young lady.”

A portal opens behind the administrator, the players get up and start moving toward it, and the administrator continues.

“Everyone who’s here has the right to join the first trial. You’ll be split into four groups and sent to different parts of the continent, where your job will be to battle the undead for twenty-four hours. Anyone who survives will be given access to the second part. If you do die, you’ll get an invitation to go through the trial again next year.”

And they think I would turn down an opportunity like that?

***

Urius stepped into the room where the twelve trial judges were sitting. They appeared completely normal at first glance, but it’s hard to imagine how much destructive power there really was in one place. The strongest Hunters on the continent had gathered to complete a major order from the league.

The role of administrator was being handled by Urius, while the rest were in charge of organizing the trial, checking the participants, splitting them into groups, and balancing strength.

“Well, how are our little hunters? Anyone interesting?”

The girl in the fire mage costume was busy looking over the messages she’d received when she stepped through the portal. The players didn’t know it, but the portal collected detailed information about them before splitting them into even groups.

“I see twenty potential candidates this year. It’s a varied group, all of whom have been very successful thanks to their specialties. Oh, and we have two geniuses, a boy and a girl. The boy is evil incarnate.”

“You’re hard to surprise. What did he do?”

“Rank fourteen titan-killer, already has an amplification skill and eleven streams of consciousness. He could be an apprentice in any of fourteen magic schools even now. When we heard about a monster like that getting an invitation to the trial, we tried to scare him into stopping but he sniffed us out and threatened to kill us if we displayed any aggression. Just imagine, a kid who can’t even level up yet.”

“He scared you and you let him through?”

“He knew exactly where we were and how many of us there were, and his perception is a good two or three times lower than our invisibility. We’re Hunters, only alive because we’ve learned to trust our intuition, however silly that sounds. None of us wanted to take a step closer to him. You could feel a buzz and vibration in the magic space around him, the kind of thing you get with powerful spells.”

Urius covered his fist with a palm. He’d accepted half the people in the room into the ranks of Hunters, and what should have been just another trial was turning south.

“What does he look like? If he beats the first trial, send him on a suicide mission in the second. The world isn’t ready for monsters like that yet.”

“Oh, that’s the funniest part! He’s dressed up like a girl with long, golden hair.”

Urius doubled over laughing.

“Ooph-ph,” he continued when the laughter died away into a simple smile. “He’s only here because he thought he could pick up a hidden class, didn’t know anything about the hunters or our skills.”

“Do you think he’ll back out?”

“No, people like that don’t back out. He can get levels now, too. If not this year, he’ll be a Hunter next year. Okay, and who’s our second genius?”

“A girl. She was here last year, though she failed the first trial. You should remember her. She was in black plate armor and used a longsword. She used it like a swordsman.”

“Oh, right.” Urius laughed loudly, his whole expression betraying how excited he was to see the show.