–

  He marveled once more at the feeling of flying–the rush of wind hitting his face as they soared upon the open, sparkling skies of The Realm. The rolling green hills below them rippled with the wind, like the waves of an emerald green ocean.

  Ryan sighed.

  “Hey Gamielle?”

  She didn’t respond, which should’ve been dangerous, even for him, since they hadn’t reached a leveled zone yet. Usually, silence from her meant danger, and at Cerul’s flying speed, the only things that were likely to attack them were high realm adventurers.

  But Ryan wasn’t fooled.

  “Can you stop being petty and can we talk for a bit?”

  Gamielle appeared next to him. Cerul shifted immediately with her presence nearby and cawwed lightly at her. She scratched Cerul’s feathers and narrowed her eyes at him, half expecting another trap.

  “What is it, Ryan?”

  “Well, I just wanted to talk to you about what Ozyell said. The Achievement part of the Trial System.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ryan eyed her and wondered if she was up to one of her tricks. Then he realized she genuinely didn’t know what he was asking.

  “You didn’t listen in?”

  “No, I actually respect peoples’ privacy.”

  “I distinctly remember you staring over me as I slept and seeing through the letter from the Manager.”

  “I respect the privacy of those I know. I didn’t know you back then.”

  “Huh.”

  “Don’t expect the same from my mom. Now what was it you wanted to talk about?”

  “Ozyell said something strange in our conversation. I was talking about how it felt that sometimes I was just following the path of the Manager and he said I should ask you about the achievement system.”

  Gamielle snickered.

  “Sorry–don’t get mad. I’m just picturing the Manager right now. It’s probably slamming its dumb golem face on its desk, annoyed that you believe you’re following the track it wants you to be on.”

  “So the Manager hasn’t set things up for me to succeed.”

  Gamielle made a face, then sighed.

  “It’s more complicated than that. I get why Ozyell told me to explain the achievement system now. Hmm… What do you know about the achievement system? Well more like what did your precious realmnet tell you about how the Trial System calculated realm grades?”

  Ryan ignored the jab, he was above that.

  “I know it’s calculates based on accomplishments multiplied by class relevance. Risk is included in accomplishments but what matters the most is impact and difficulty of what you’ve done. Kill a dragon at realm seven and you’d get a S+, even if your class was something like [Bard]. On the other hand if you play a magical concert for a Tyrant, a [Bard] could get an S+ while a [Warrior] might not even get an A. Isn’t that basically it?”

  “Mhmm. That’s pretty much it but there’s one crucial factor that isn’t known that well. It’s sort of factors into both accomplishments and class relevance. My mom only figured it out after experimenting and observing quite a few trialists.”

  Gamielle paused. Leaving the conversation in silence while they rode through the air.

  “Oh come on, don’t leave me hanging.”

  “Apologize.”

  “For what?”

  “ For humiliating me in front of Larix!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Now mean it!”

  “I can’t do the impossible Gamielle.”

  “You–you don’t even understand do you? I’m a parent figure to Larix! You don’t humiliate someone like that in front of their child!”

  Gamielle was actually, genuinely upset. It didn’t sound like a petty comeback she’d been cooking up for him. Ryan knew Larix looked up to Gamielle but never really made the connection of him being something like her child. In his defense, Larix looked like a middle aged man and Gamielle looked as young as Ryan did. Adventurers and elves often had some weird looking families.

  Still, she was right, humiliating someone in front of their child was a dick move.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Good. Now apologize for using me to rope Cerul in.”

  “Brrrpt!”

  “Now that’s too far. Can we go back to explaining the grand secret of achievement grades that apparently nobody knows about?”

  “It’s choice.”

  “What?”

  “The thing that’s missing out of your equation. Accomplishments are impact and difficulty AND choice. Class relevance naturally requires you to make choices so your accomplishments are tied into it. They’re all kind of one and the same thing really.”

  “I don’t understand. Choice matters?”

  It wasn’t something realmnet ever talked about. The idea that your choice mattered didn’t really make sense in the context Ryan understood. People achieved S grades by doing the impossible. By making their lives harder and accomplishing things others would have difficulty doing. Choice was never a discussion in that.

  “Of course it matters, dummy. Accomplishments are based on accomplishments. If someone else is forcing you to do those things then it becomes part of not yours. Hmm, unless you get a [Soldier] class and follow orders from a direct superior. But then it’ll still be your choice to follow them. Do you get it?”

  “That doesn’t make sense. The Manager and your mother took away my choices.”

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  “That’s why the Manager breaking decorum was such a big deal. It almost never takes choice away from Trialists, not unless it’s desperate anyway.”

  That still didn’t make him feel better.

  “I still got an S-grade though.”

  “That one took a little bit to figure out too. You got an S minus for your first Trial right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well we’ve identified one of the members of the special forces you managed to beat down. you really should’ve gotten an S flat, probably even an S plus for beating .”

  “Seriously? Even with the massive pre-knowledge nerf of the first Trial?”

  “That no longer matters when it’s completely messed up. That pre-knowledge nerf comes in two parts. One because you take away a lot of the difficulty and two, because you’re following someone else’s choices. Once again, someone else’s accomplishments. For a Trial where enough has changed? Where you defeat three incredibly capable operatives, willing and ready to kill everyone in their way? If you did it flawlessly, that should be an S plus.”

  “But because I had my choice taken away from me, it’s only an S minus.”

  “Now you get it.”

  “But your mother took away my choice at realm one. The Manager basically shoved the letter down my throat. I still got an S grade there. With all my choices taken away from me should it really have been higher?”

  Gamielle sighed.

  “Ryan, sometimes you are the most frustrating arrogant piece of dragonshit, and other times you are the most self-deprecating idiot I know. You defeated Zedart in a death match. Someone who I’ve said is the most talented [Swordsman] in recent generations. Neither my mom nor I expected you to win. I’m pretty sure my mom was planning on pushing Zedart as the lone blacklister while you were trained up in secret.”

  “Well shit, would’ve been really funny expecting me to revive then it turned out I died for real, huh?”

  “Yeah, would’ve been real funny. Until my mom decides the Manager’s lost its touch and starts torching both worlds.”

  This was before either Gamielle or the Witch Tyrant knew that Ryan had no safety life. He just imagined a world where he just lost to Zedart and he’d just died there. Ryan shook his head.

  “Poor Zedart. That dumbass would’ve had no chance at being a blacklister.”

  Gamielle side-eyed Ryan.

  “”

  –

  

  “How is he parrying [Fireballs]?! Why didn’t we get Mahjit first?”

  “STOP THROWING MAGIC AT HIM. WHEN IS KENHEART COMING BACK?”

  “We’ve still got fifty minutes.”

  “Manager’s damnit all. [Warrior’s Challen–”

  [Raw Determination] + [Cleave: Flat Side]

  –

  “Something tells me Zedart would have done quite fine at being a blacklister.”

  Ryan just shrugged. He couldn’t imagine Zedart being able to do what he did. What could one third realm do with a sword anyway? Make a bigger [Cleave]? Adventurers in modern times were more competent than that.

  “So what? You get Zedart blacklisted then raise me from the shadows? I’m still not seeing where my choice comes into play here.”

  “Maybe for that realm’s achievement score it would be low, but then she would have done what she’s doing now. Letting you make your own choices. Everything after the second Trial would be your own accomplishments.”

  “I’m still having a hard time understanding this. Choices are part of your accomplishments but if everything’s been set up from the start then is it really my accomplishment?”

  “And this is where you’re having a fundamental misunderstanding. There is no meticulous path you are following. Even with the Manager’s limited omniscience, it is impossible for it to predict every single action and path you are following, and even if it could, it would be the biggest trap of all. If the Manager could fine tune every path and make you walk down it, it would never be your accomplishments. Only the Manager’s.”

  Ryan felt like he understood things a little more.

  “That’s why it keeps failing. Hundreds of iterations of the Trial System and it can’t succeed because it can’t force people to follow the path it wants it to.”

  “Yes and no. No I don’t think it’s half as good at predicting the future as it wishes it was–but yes it must leave you with your choices intact.”

  “Damn, that must be so frustrating. Knowing the path everyone could follow but seeing them not take it.”

  Gamielle flew back and tried to slap Ryan in the head, his right arm stopped it. Realistically she couldn’t get past his arm with enough speed without it being a blow that could shatter his skull–an invisible telekinetic force smacked him in the side of the head.

  “Don’t sympathize with it!” She scolded him, “If only you knew what it’s done, sympathy would be the last thing on your mind.”

  Ryan rubbed his head, annoyed at the fact that he couldn’t see or stop an invisible magical attack. He would have to figure out a way to combat that later.

  “I’m just saying. How long has the Trial System been going on for? I can’t imagine watching everything, knowing the path someone must take to complete its mission but it never happening.”

  The [Mage] side-eyed the [Rogue] that was almost definitely not following the path the Manager wished he was taking. Then she scoffed.

  “Yes, it’s an ancient stupid golem that’s constantly making a mess of worlds challenging the Trial System. Setting them on fire whenever it believes there’s a faint hope of completing something that’s NEVER BEEN COMPLETED BEFORE!”

  Gamielle started shouting at the sky, startling both Cerul and Ryan. They flew in silence for a couple of minutes. For some reason, flying in the sky felt so much better than before.

  “So… choices huh? Everything I do is my choice and neither the Manager nor your mother will interfere with what I do for fear of taking away my accomplishments?”

  “Eugh, now you know why we don’t tell people these things. Whatever you’re thinking of, don’t be an idiot. Remember, my mother has been studying the nuances of achievements for decades. She still ended up throwing you into a deathmatch. There are indirect ways to get around the problem of choices, like pushing you down a pit and arhggabbbgrl.”

  Gamielle started choking on her own words–or rather, started choking in midair. Her body tumbling far behind the fast-flying crow. Cerul squawked in panic and circled back. The [Mage] was hovering in midair, except now she was shaking her fist angrily towards a different direction.

  “Damnit Mom! I wasn’t talking abou–rgrhghg.”

  The [Mage] went back to suffocating in the open air. If it wasn’t from the force choking, Ryan would have believed that Gamielle was talking about the pit that she had thrown him and Zedart into.

  With the choking however…

  “If you’re talking about the Cataclysm Abyss in Sector Four then I was always planning on exploring it.”

  Gamielle huffed, then shook her fist at the air again. “See! The idiot was already planned on going there, there wasn’t a need for all of that!”

  This was a bit of dragonshit misdirection that he knew the Witch Tyrant wasn’t likely to fall for. The Cataclysm Abyss was in the leveled zone of Sector Four, a place where the monsters and traps were never cleared out to make it neater for fourth realm adventurers.

  The deeper you dove into the Abyss, the more horrors of dead civilizations surfaced from the dark. It was a mark of the brave and foolish that dared to descend just four miles deep. It was said that the weapon that ended the world that Sector Four came from could be found deep in that abyss.

  Now Ryan knew that was bullshit. If there was such a weapon, the Witch Tyrant would have already claimed it. Leveled zone or not, she was capable of punching through the restrictions and exploring it.

  Still, just in case the Witch Tyrant did push him down the pit…

  “Got any tips?”

  “I’m not allowed in Sector Four anymore. I don’t think that will change with me there.”

  Gamielle gave him a look. was the biggest bait that had been thrown at him. They flew a bit more across the vast landscape, Ryan’s mind going back to everything he could remember about Sector Four. His thoughts went to the adventurers who recorded their descent into that pit of chaos.

  People who chose to go deep just to prove themselves. They’d fight monsters likely left alone by the Witch Tyrant so people could challenge difficult tasks and…

  Ryan clicked his fingers.

  “I knew it!”

  “What?”

  “Adventurers, that’s why it works! You’re giving them choices instead of being forced to sign up as a recruit. You’re maximizing their ability to choose by giving them complete autonomy to choose. I knew adventurers weren’t just rebranded Trialists.”

  “Eugh.”

  Gamielle’s eyeroll was so exaggerated that even Cerul felt self-conscious.

  –

  Ryan felt a sense of settle in and around his gear and arm. It wasn’t like the static vibration of magic nor the rushing flow of qi. It settled around Larix’s robes and the Knives of Returning, around their enchantments and restricting them. Lowering their quality and strength to a grade of realm three. A similar feeling settled on his arm.

  It was like everything–the very nature of the world, from gravity to the very molecules of the air was rejecting his arm–then it was gone. His arm wasn’t like the gear he wore, is wasn’t being restricted.

  “Whoa, that felt weird.”

  “ was just the Trial System doing a scan of your body and gear. Now magnify that by a hundred times and having to suffer through it while an insane [Rogue] keeps going on about adventurers being the best thing ever.”

  Ryan ignored the last comment.

  “So, your magic is being reduced. It’s not just the Illusion Legend punching through all the resistances?”

  “You’re on the right track. It’s better if you figure it out on your own.”

  Ryan nodded, having a few theories but not a complete explanation for Gamielle’s presence in a leveled zone just yet. The fact that she could eat here meant that she existed physically within it. Gamielle also casted non-illusion magic. He assumed she was piggy backing on her mother’s illusion legend.

  But it couldn’t just be an illusion. Her reactions were far faster outside of leveled zones and she

  “You’re the manifestation of [Remembrance of the Fallen], skill is punching through leveled zone restrictions because you a skill being thrown through it. The Trial System is still reducing your capabilities if I’m understanding your hints right. The rest I don’t understand, you freely use both telekinesis and illusion magic. Does your Legend give you exceptions? Or are you just using your mother’s illusion Legend somehow?”

  Gamielle nodded thoughtfully.

  “Not bad, you got it mostly right. I am a skill and I do interact with my mother’s Legend. Like all skills I do get heavily reduced in capability while in leveled zones. The lower the leveled zone, the more I get restricted. You are wrong about one thing though. When I use magic, that isn’t illusion, that’s me. When I grabbed you with telekinesis and dragged you out, my output was being reduced to a standard realm three’s output.”

  “That’s dragonshit.”

  No realm three [Mage] would be capable of using [Telekinesis] to drag him across The Realm. Even without his Epics that wasn’t a feat that [Mages] were capable of doing. Free-form magic had to interact with both his aura, qi and mana in his body. Everything would interfere with her control.

  “It’s the truth. I have simply maximized my magical efficiency in a way that exceeds anything anyone in your silly realmnet videos have accomplished. I am a [Mage] through and through. I have developed my aura and circulatory channels to purely support my spellcasting. My class’s concept is almost truly just magic itself. You cannot even begin to grasp at what that means, .”

  “Now you’re just showing off.”

  Ryan thought of his new arm. His natural realm five arm that wasn’t getting restricted to a realm three grade level. It was the same as how monsters and Realmers could ignore leveled zones. As long as the growth wasn’t part of the Trial System, they could freely travel through them.

  He started to wonder.

  “You think your telekinesis can still drag me after my upgrades?”

  Gamielle gave him a grin.

  “Want to find out?”

  …

  Ryan wiped a trickle of blood off his face and flexed his arm. Gamielle had him outclassed, there was no question about that. Though he had a feeling that if there was a crowd watching then it would’ve been a different story.

  Still, the results of the little scuffle were clear–as well as Gamielle’s hidden implication. If he kept progressing like this, sooner or later, even the Witch Tyrant wouldn’t be able to stop him in a leveled zone.

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