21 Skills

I finally got three rewards which were 'delayed.' Well, four technically, if I count some additional EXP, but I'm referring to actual things I can use. How much more have I been denied? Is this discrimination on the base of my bloodline?

But on with the blasted bonus quest.

The thing that makes me call the bonus quest "blasted" is not the difficulty level. It is how I was forced to endure Silica's antics for an entire day.

But it should at least bring rewards. There hasn't been any real danger so far, after all, and there's only about two hours remaining.

I got two skills from completing this trial; Iron Torch and Emperor's Domination. Both sound useful, at the very least, and fairly powerful to go along with it.

Silica is somehow still asleep, and checking the system display message in front of me, it read as such after transforming from my completion rewards screen:

[Congratulations. These rewards include: Iron Torch (Skill), Emperor's Domination (Skill), Crown of Courage (Item), and Experience Points.

Check your inventory and skills tab to see your rewards.]

I'll assess my own rewards and then wake her up. By the time I'm done doing what I need to do, she will have enough time to check her rewards, assuming that this game bug affected her as well. It's not like it takes long, and I doubt she got as many rewards as me, if any, regardless... She barely did anything this whole time.

Well, that's going off the assumption that this game rewards merit - and I've done very well so far, even by my own high standards - rather than simply having been there and awarding everyone equally no matter what they do. I'm not sure about this part of it, but in the end, what do I care if she has a little less time to investigate her rewards?

My own personal interests come first, and I'd rather not get bothered by her.

Moving on with my own awards, I went to check my skills first. Confusingly, the game seems to have two tabs for 'skills,' one for abilities to use in battle and one for generic skills like wielding a sword and whatever. These are my first skills of the former kind, so I am obviously more inclined to check them first, rather than just another item.

My skill page had two new skills in there, as I thought. The skills each had a description, and the one named Iron Torch read as such:

[Iron Torch: Gives the user the ability to heat up weaponry in the user's hand (the user is immune to the heat), for up to 15 seconds. If you strike the opponent enough while it is activated, then the heat will grow until a blazing fire swirls around the weapon. It can set opponents on fire. Given for completing the bonus quest of the new Castle Scenario in the Hide and Seek Trials. (Extra Note: This skill is flame themed as a reward for completing the Pyromania achievement, by setting the throne room on fire.) (Active Skill)]

Haha… HAHA! 'It can set opponents on fire'? This is a great skill!

Imagine the reaction if Daisuki had been set on fire...

Though, these assumptions are based on the fact that this skill is not weak and retarded. If it can usually only heat up to a temperature equivalent to a gaming console that's been left on for too long, then it's useless. It would only be a minor inconvenience to whoever I fight. If the heat it releases is as powerful and hot as a fart, what use does it have?

None. That is the answer. It really depends on how quickly the heat can become extreme during a fight, before the skill ends. The only way to be sure is to test it out, but I don't have the time to do that right now.

As I said, I don't have the opportunity to test it out now, but I sure will later. There's also the other skill I got, but strangely, this one was colored gray, rather than the green of Iron Torch.

[Emperor's Domination: Gives the user an increased presence or a form of "aura" that intimidates those weaker than the user. Cannot be used in PvP combat. Given for completing the Castle Scenario in the Hide and Seek Trials. (Extra Note: This skill can only be used when wearing the Crown Prince's Laurel Wreath (Crown of Courage), it becomes "locked" when the user does not wear this item.) (Passive Skill)]

So that's why it's colored gray. Right above the skill name and description, there's small lettering that says this:

[This skill is currently locked. Please equip the Crown of Courage (The Crown Prince's Laurel Wreath) in order to use it.]

Why is the item that I got referred to by two different names? The one in the inventory and completion message I got called it the Crown of Courage, and this one calls it that, as well as the Crown Prince's Laurel Wreath.

Could it be the origin of this thing? I remember that the Crown Prince of the castle before had that laurel wreath on and had a strangely commanding presence, even as a painting and as a man who was already six feet under, so this item is either that prince's crown, or it's an item that was modeled or inspired off of it.

Either way is fine, but it's most likely trying to hint the origins of the item with that name.

Back to the skill. It's not as good as Iron Torch could be, because it can't be used in fights with players and isn't as offensive, but it has plenty of potential uses. Intimidation from an increased "aura" is one of them, which I could use to pressure wicked villains into ceasing their evil acts like a true righteous man would do.

Moving on to the aforementioned item, it was put into the new slots of my inventory, with the description being information that I had already figured out.

[Crown of Courage: Also named the Crown Prince's Laurel Wreath, this item was formerly owned by the Warrior Crown Prince before being awarded to Hegemaniac due to completion of the Castle Scenario. Wearing it allows the user to operate the skill, Emperor's Domination, however, it must be worn at all times in order to operate the skill; not wearing it means that one cannot use Emperor's Domination.]

To have this skill be available for me to use, I need to wear an item. It's obviously not the best turn of events, since it's technically a restriction, but whether or not this is a crippling weakness or not depends on how easily it falls off.

If it falls off in the middle of battle, I lose a valuable item and become unable to operate one of my skills. If it stays on my head fairly easily, then I can do what I usually do while making sure it doesn't get knocked off my head. In that latter case, it's not that bad a turn of events. In the case of the former, I'd rather trade that useless skill and imbecilic item for some money.

Intending to test it out, I willed the crown out of my inventory.

It looked like a Roman emperor's laurel wreath in the painting and in the inventory, and it's confirmed now that I'm holding it in my hands. It's exquisite.

Putting it on my head, intending to test how easily it falls off, I noticed one thing.

The crown is too big to even rest upon my head, and instead it falls past it and rests on my shoulders.

How do I put it on when it's bigger than my head?

Trying to do it anyways, I put the crown around my head and held it there, hoping that something would happen.

And it did. The crown shrunk to fit my head perfectly.

The snug fit hurt my head a tiny bit, since the leaf design poked me, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Swinging my head around like a fool to see if the crown fell off, I got my results: it didn't.

I can't be sure of what would happen under very extreme circumstances, but if it stays on despite my attempts to knock it off my head, it should be fine in most situations.

If it still fails me even when I'm trying to get it off, there's something wrong with this game's design, though that has been obvious since day one.

Checking my skills tab once again to see if wearing it has had an effect on the skill itself, I saw that the gray color had switched to a green one, supposedly symbolizing that the skill can be used.

But Emperor's Domination is a passive skill, meaning that it's being used all the time or used automatically in its specific situation, so maybe the green doesn't represent it being ready to be used; it most likely just means that the skill isn't locked.

Checking the timer, I saw that I had only about an hour and a half remaining.

I'll just get it over with.

"Silica," I said, shaking her awake. "The trial has almost ended."

"Wait... a minute…" she responded, drifting back into sleep.

"Silica. Wake up," I said, more forcefully this time.

"..."

We're in a cave and she is sleeping on stone ground. How is she in a deep sleep in these circumstances?

Getting more rough, this time I just fully picked her up and put her on my shoulders like a sack of potatoes, and then I continued with treating her like a sack of potatoes by swinging her around while shouting at her. "Wake up! Wake up!" were my exact words.

"I- I'M AWAKE I'M AWAAAAKE!" she cried.

She also looks a little nauseous. Not my fault. She could have woken up before now; she made me resort to desperate measures.

Plus, I can never be in the wrong for anything I do to a Japanese person.

"Good," I said, putting her down. "The trial ended. I think you also got some rewards, check your inventory and skill tab just in case. I think the message that tells you what you've been rewarded has already disappeared because you were late to get up."

I'm assuming so due to my system display message having disappeared and replaced with a timer.

"Wh-why didn't you wake me up before then?" she asked, still looking sleepy and nauseous.

"I just woke up too."

A straight lie, and there's a plot hole in how I knew what the former system messages contained in that case, but I doubt she's smart enough to make the connection normally, let alone while tired and having just woken up.

"Alright..."

Now, time to check if my level has raised.

Looking at my experience bar first, I checked my level.

I was formerly level fifteen, and I am now level twenty-one.

A very good turn of events. This raises my power by a satisfactory amount, deserving of my actions.

Perhaps some of these EXP points come from my kills in the castle? If that's the case, then why am I not at a higher level? I killed multiple knights and a king, as well as completing a hard quest and bonus one virtually on my own; even ten levels doesn't satisfy that.

Though, there is a good chance of my calculations being wrong. I don't know how much it takes to level up that many times at my former level, I don't know exactly how this EXP system treats achievements, and I don't know exactly how I level.

When I level up multiple times from a large dump of EXP points, it probably requires a higher amount of EXP to gain each level. So perhaps levels would require a lot of EXP by now, and that's why my level didn't rise much higher.

I can't be sure of which method the system uses to level up, let alone the numerical values involved in it, so I can't say whether or not I was cheated.

Back to my strength increase.

With my level having increased by ten, I now have thirty free stat points to assign to STR and AGI.

As I intend to keep my build balanced, I put fifteen in each stat.

Receiving that euphoric sensation of growing stronger without any of the pain usually associated with it, I checked my stat points and the feeling of satisfaction from seeing my stat points each be at forty-two nearly made me laugh out loud.

"Nero, why are you smiling?" asked Silica, apparently finished with checking her inventory and skill tab.

"No reason. I was thinking of something… funny."

"Okay."

Moving on to probe what Silica has been rewarded with, I asked her, "What rewards did you get?" without playing too many mind games.

She won't see anything wrong with telling me, so why should I waste time and effort trying to manipulate her when I can ask her directly? With the trial just having finished, asking her what rewards she's received feels like a natural question and it's not as if she won't tell me; she trusts me, for whatever reason.

Making sure that she hasn't gotten any potentially dangerous - to me - items or skills is important.

"I… I didn't get any items or skills from this," she said with a saddened look. "Did you?

Looks like my assumption on receiving awards based on achievements or contributions was correct. And also, I obviously am not telling her the truth about my strength.

"I got this crown," I said, pointing to the laurel wreath on my head.

I don't know how she didn't notice it, but I won't question her at this point.

"Woah… that's so cool!" she exclaimed. "Can I touch it?"

"...Sure. Do it quickly, we don't have time to waste."

…Whatever keeps her content and unable to rebel against me.

Leaning down and letting her touch it for a second, I pulled my head back and checked the timer.

She fell asleep again, seemingly still tired under the effect of the dwale.

We have just over an hour left to prepare now, in case there are further quests. What are we preparing for? How are we supposed to prepare for it? We've been resting for twenty or so hours, if resting is what they want us to use this time for, making that purpose redundant. It feels like a waste.

The completion message never said anything about the next trial, so the only way I can prepare for it is hoping that it's not another hide and seek trial where I'll have to partly rely on Silica. After all, the penalty for these tasks has now reduced until I could survive failing it by killing her, so if the next quest is too tiresome I might just do that. I was extremely lucky with everything that happened in the castle, even if it was a logical order of events, so I either need to pray that it's a trial I can clear without having to rely on Silica, or I need to put it in overdrive and hope that my recently increased stat points and level carry me to victory.

Well, the best I can do is wait. At the very least, I no longer have to deal with that hodgepodge of nationalities in the castle. I heard English names, French names - as well as that guy speaking French - German names and more during my interactions and eavesdropping.

I can't stand British and French people. Old Germans were fine, though they are no longer as… great as they were before.

The early 1940's was a great time for Germany, not so much for the rest of the world.

So what do we do now? I suppose we wait out the timer, and then find out what's next.

But having to tow around this Japanese girl is so annoying.

As long as I get back to the Celestial Dynasty, this would have all been worth it, and I will no longer have to deal with the Japanese menace.