B.F.HUUPS
patreon
Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2025-07-11 00:51:13 +0000 UTCEvasion [ Common ] Evade attacks with more oomph than simply stepping aside. When activated, Evade sends the user 1 meter in any direction at a speed affected by their Agility and Strength.
Unstoppable Combo [ Common ] Never give your enemies a chance to breathe. When activated, Unstoppable Combo chains your unarmed strikes into a deadly barrage of attacks, increasing their speed by 1% for each strike added to the combination. Any interruption to the combination resets the Skill.
Constant Momentum [ Uncommon ] In combat, you’re always moving, always keeping your opponents on their feet. Passively increases speed by 1% every 3 seconds as long as you remain in motion. If motion stops after the Skill has accelerated the user by 25% or more, the user gains [ Motion Sickness ] state, disorientating them and making them feel ill.
Easy Read [ Uncommon ] Your opponent is naked to your gaze. When activated, your senses are heightened, and your enemy is highlighted in a sensitive glow that changes colors as they move. Colors change depending on the actions made by your Read, allowing you to pick up on the slightest of tells.
Relentless Scourge [ Rare ] To your enemies, you are unrelenting, always moving forward. When activated, the user’s movement speed is increased by 10%, and the user gains resistance to any Skills that would prevent their movement.
Aaron carefully went down the list of Skills available and realized something—every Skill provided to him appeared to be related to his battle with the mage.
The fight with the mage had really been the only thing he had done since arriving in the trials. Sure, he had dabbled in the other trials and spoken to the assistant, but that was a fraction in time compared to his many deaths against the mage.
Does this mean that whatever I do whilst leveling up will affect my Skill options? Aaron pondered the thought momentarily, but ultimately it didn’t really matter. He didn’t have any options. He either found a way through the trials, or he did nothing and rejoined the multiverse as a weakling that everyone could push around. If he could find a means to complete the trials that would further cement whatever Skills he decided he wanted, then that would be great. Otherwise, he would still need to move forward; however he could.
Returning to the list, he got back to selecting a Skill.
Evasion was the first to be crossed off. It wasn’t that it was made, but it sounded mediocre, and the grade Common wasn’t doing it any favors.
Unstoppable Combo wasn’t much better. Sure, if he were able to keep a combination going for a long time, it would no doubt show its worth. But it would barely be noticeable if he only managed to get off two or three strikes before being interrupted.
Despite being Uncommon, Constant Momentum might have been the worst of them all. Sure, passively increasing his speed sounded pretty overpowered at first, but any interruption to that speed would leave him completely vulnerable from the sounds of it.
Easy Read was probably the first Skill that actually sounded tempting. Of course, he had already gotten great at reading the mage without the help of a Skill, but that didn’t mean the Skill wouldn’t aid him. Besides, he wouldn’t always be able to rely on being respawned. If he had only one chance to best an enemy, he’d have to make his reads a lot quicker, and a Skill like this would no doubt help in that regard.
Finally, he got to Relentless Scourge. It was immediately interesting just because it was Rare. He figured Rare was good, but he had to be smart about his selections. Just because something was Rare didn’t mean it suited him more than other Skills. However, the Skill itself was pretty damn good, he thought. Resistance to movement affecting Skills alone sounded useful, especially since he couldn’t take much of a beating in his current state. He needed to dodge, and if someone took that away from him, he was screwed. The kicker was that it also came with a movement speed increase. Sure, that wouldn’t help with his strikes, but did it need to? The fact was that Aaron was essentially debuffed in here, and if a Skill could give him a 10% movement increase, that would be massive.
Without further deliberation, Aaron selected Relentless Scourge. Now, it was time to check out the rest of his quest rewards.
As it turned out, there were more rooms to the Shadow Trials than just the hallway Aaron had first found himself in. However, they were all locked behind the trials, and the doors themselves were invisible until unlocked.
By completing a stage of the trials, Aaron had unlocked the dining hall. He now found himself sitting at an unusually long, obsidian table covered in all kinds of food, much of which he didn't recognize.
Twisting his fork through some kind of green noodles, Aaron smiled across the table. He could feel his dimples beginning to ache, as he had worn his smile ever since completing the trial stage.
“You can wipe that grin off your face. You managed to find a way through one of the trials. Good for you. But this hasn’t changed a thing. You won’t last much longer. Your fate was sealed the moment you arrived here.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Aaron rolled his eyes. The assistant could talk a big game, but his irritation was showing. He clearly didn’t like being wrong. “So, how many rooms are there in this place anyway?”
“That’s not information you’re privy to. You can see and enter the rooms you’ve unlocked. Nothing more.”
“Okay, spoilsport. I was just asking. By the way, this is some strange-looking food you’ve got here,” Aaron continued, moving the topic on. The assistant had given him no reason to believe he could drag details out of him, and as such, didn’t see the point in trying.
“Strange? This spread has been expertly and delicately chosen to include the favorite dishes of all races across the newly integrated universe. There’s nothing st–”
“BURGERS!” Aaron exclaimed, diving forward and wrapping his hands around a double cheese he spotted between some humanoid daikon-looking thing and a bowl of suspicious purple stew.
“So,” Aaron said as he chewed—mouth stuffed with the burger. “What do you think I should spend my free points on, anyway?”
“Advising you on your level progression is not my job.”
“Alright, well, what about the trials? Can you give me any tips?”
“No, I can't. I can tell you what this place is, explain the rooms as challengers unlock them, and provide details on the rewards provided by the trials. And nothing else, so stop asking.”
“Well, you kinda told me about the tutorial before… so…”
“And that was a mistake brought on by what little empathy I possess.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Aaron said, pulling the Focus Stone from his pocket. “What about this thing? What can you tell me about it?”
“It’s a Focus Stone, one of the possible first-stage rewards. You could have figured that out for yourself, though. Had you used your Inspect Skill. Anyway, don’t go getting too excited. It isn’t anything particularly special. They’re often provided to weaker members of a galactic dynasty. They’re a means to help one focus and tune oneself to the System’s power, valuable gifts to those who lack talent and find themselves struggling to advance at the lower grades, and familiarize themselves with the System in general. Usually, it’s seen as little more than junk to the talented prospects that find themselves here. But the trials need something to give away at the lower stages.”
“So this thing is the multiverse’s equivalent of tech support?”
“Something like that, assuming I understood your idiom correctly.”
Aaron was only half listening, his attention already drifting away. This Focus Stone thing mightn’t have been some wonder weapon, but if anybody needed help at the lowest levels, it was him.
“So, how exactly does it work?”
The assistant’s face perked amusingly as he watched Aaron’s expression light up. “Of course, you would be interested in something like a Focus Stone. I haven’t used one myself, but I believe you just need to hold the stone whilst channeling a power granted by the System.”
“Like using a Skill?”
“Precisely.”
Aaron had wanted to get straight to training and testing out his new Focus Stone; however, two double cheeseburgers, a bucket load of fries, and a liter of soda put him into a short coma. And even though he could avoid sleeping by getting himself killed in the trials, it was kind of nice for a change.
The moment he sprang back to life, he got to work. He decided to hold off spending his free points until he decided what trial he would attempt next. And before he could decide what trial to attempt, he had to test out his loot.
Holding the Focus Stone in his hand, Aaron focused on the energy running through him and tried to feel for… well, whatever he was supposed to be feeling for. Minutes ticked by, and nothing happened. His old, pre-trial self would have already dismissed the stone as nonsense and thrown it away, but fighting shadows and being effortlessly reincarnated was a great way to change somebody’s perspective.
Before he even realized it, Aaron had lost track of time, and literal hours passed as he stood completely still holding the stone. He didn’t even notice when his mana was drained empty.
Again, without realizing— at least not consciously—he began meditating. It wasn’t chanting or any other kind of meditation found on Earth. No, this meditation directly affected his mana, increasing it much faster than it did so passively.
Gasping for air, his eyes flung open, and he stumbled forward, almost falling to the ground. Aaron had never been a spiritual person, but this felt special. On the surface, meditating mightn’t have been a big deal, but instinctively, he knew that what he had achieved was important—that he had taken a step that would help him on his journey toward surviving what was to come and passing more of the trials.
He attempted to activate his Skill again while holding the stone, but nothing happened. He wasn’t sure why and glanced down at the stone in his palm with a puzzled look.
Focus Stone [ Uncommon ]
A stone that assists the user to become one with the System and its all-present energy.
Cooldown: 23:58:45
“Huh,” Aaron thought. It was as if he intrinsically understood the System better now, and how he could use it to better himself. Sure, there were still a lot of gaps, but the focus stone had undoubtedly helped.
He hadn’t even focused on his Inspect Skill, or even thought about it. The stone’s description had just appeared effortlessly, as if it were natural and instinctual. Perhaps he would have learned to do that himself over time, but nonetheless, if this was the result of using the focus stone, he had undoubtedly saved time in his training.
Maybe the stone wasn’t a necessity in this new world, or rather, multiverse, but if it could help him unlock the secrets of the System, then he would have more time to spend working on the trials. Aaron needed to make use of every minute he had if he didn’t want to let the trial takers get too far ahead of him.
Tightening his grip around the stone, he felt new appreciation for his reward. Who cared what the assistant thought? This was a treasure.
He still had to figure out what trial to attempt next, and so, with his new enlightenment in hand, he walked toward the dial.
Placing his hand on the dial, Aaron scrolled through the options available. The Trial of Travels was the first to be crossed off the list. He doubted he was getting anywhere near completing that trial, even with his new Skill. At least not until he had well and truly improved his Stats. Next was the Trial of Wits; either Stats would help him with that one at some point, or maybe he would never pass it. He still didn’t have magic either, so Trial of Magic was out. And as good as he felt, he was fairly certain he hadn’t grown strong enough to endure the Trial of Endurance.
What he could complete, maybe, was the Trial of Survival or the Trial of Dominance, or, of course, he could take a crack at the next stage of the Trial of the Challenger. However, based on his earlier conversations with the assistant, the higher stages would be far more difficult.
Besides, he wanted to see how he measured up to the other trials anyway. It’ll have to be either the Trial of Survival or the Trial of Dominance.
Humming to himself, Aaron found himself leaning toward the Trial of Survival. The Trial of Dominance required taking out multiple foes, which wouldn’t be easy. Sure, he had gotten great at dodging, but that was against one enemy he could focus on. Against an entire group that was all likely stronger than he was? Yeah, he didn’t fancy his chances.
The Trial of Survival had a lot of strong enemies as well, but the goal was to survive and escape, not to defeat them, so that was different. It would be a change of pace, at least. After spending what was probably at least a week doing nothing but combat, an escape trial sounded more interesting.
Mentally confirming his selection, Aaron pressed down on the dial. There were eighteen shadows in total to pick from, and he figured he might as well try them all. Or at least, try different ones until he had a reason to stick with the same one.
He settled on a shadow named Yendal the Empty Handed and confirmed his selection. A moment later, the world spun around him as he was teleported into the trial.
A near instant later, he found himself standing in a night-shrouded forest. A silver moon shone in the sky, providing light, and howls carried on the chill air.
It was like something out of a nightmare, but without the fear of death, it was just one more obstacle for Aaron to grind through.
“Huh, where’s the shadow?”
Aaron looked around, but there was no shadow to be seen. It was night, perhaps they didn’t exist without light? He wasn’t sure about that theory. They weren’t normal shadows, after all. And if all it took were extinguishing the light to get rid of them, that would be one damn exploitable means of passing the Trial of the Challenger.
Disrupting his thoughts, a little arrow flickered into existence at the top of his vision. He waved his hand over it, confirming it was some kind of System thing, and shrugged.
“I guess I’m supposed to follow you.”
Aaron did just that. He followed the arrow. The terrain wasn’t overly difficult to get through. Underbrush covered the ground, but the evergreens that made up the forest weren’t too tightly packed. Still, thick boots and a walking stick would have been nice.
However, his thoughts regarding the difficulty of traversing the forest didn’t linger long. The howls that echoed through the night sky were growing louder with every second, and considering the nature of the trial, he had a sneaking suspicion they were coming for him.
Growing louder still, Aaron activated [ Relentless Scourge ] and broke into a run. He had no idea how far he had to go or how long his stamina would hold up, but he still figured running was his best option.
First, it was the yellow beads glowing through the surrounding darkness that he spotted. Then, it was the shadowy figures, briefly lit up by streams of silver light cutting through the canopy.
It wasn’t just that they looked mean and creepy as fuck, they were also obviously faster than him. A level 5 Skill wasn’t going to fix that, even a Rare one. Howling back and forth between one another, Aaron could only watch hopelessly as the silhouettes of his mysterious pursuers gradually surrounded him through the trees.
He kept running forward, telling himself that maybe he could outrun them if he just pushed himself hard enough. Though he knew he couldn’t. Through the trees, he watched as they glided past him effortlessly, and if not for the obvious trap they were setting up, they could have easily attacked by now.
Then, it all happened in an instant. From every direction, his pursuers closed in, surrounding him without an inch to spare. Even if he was the quicker of them, he knew in that moment his escape was impossible.
He could see them, catching glimpses of their gnarled expressions lit up by streams of silvery moonlight piercing through the forest canopy.
Dozens of NBA-sized werewolves stared him down with beady, yellow eyes.
“Great, just freaking great.”
