Chapter 88
Chapter 88 - Frustration Builds a Man
"Ahaha."
"Hang in there, Contractor."
"I'll give you a reward when it's over."
In a pitch-black space where I couldn't see an inch ahead. In such darkness reminiscent of the veil trials.
The three Death God Sisters floating before me said such things.
They're mocking me. I wanted to talk back. But I didn't have the luxury to talk back.
It was because of the dark spheres that were frantically pounding my body even now.
"Aaagh! Kheuk! Wait! Time out! Hit my bone! T-this hurts to the bone!"
Thud, thud, thud!
Impact sounds ring out clearly from all over my body. Each time, my body flew around like a piece of paper.
My whole body was already in tatters. It feels like my internal organs are twisting.
I kept dry heaving. Because I'd already thrown up everything earlier, there was nothing left to throw up.
"Contractor. Does it hurt a lot?"
"But you need to get stronger. If you can't avoid it, let's enjoy it, Contractor."
"Isn't it fun, Contractor?"
Fun my ass, damn it!
I glared at the three Death God Sisters with wide eyes.
The three faces and the robes wrapping them slowly rotate in place in midair. All three faces are smiling brightly while looking at my pathetic state.
"Ahaha."
"Be happy."
"Yap, yap, yap."
I want to hit them. I want to beat those peacefully rotating smiling faces to a pulp.
But what can I do? All this pain started because I asked for it. They're only guilty of following my request.
Thud, thud, thud. Thud!
Before I could even sink into self-pity, dozens of dark spheres flew in simultaneously and started beating me up again. The stray thoughts in my head disappeared cleanly.
Instead, only one thought fills my mind.
'It hurts. It hurts so much...! I didn't know it would hurt this much!!'
Tremendous regret comes rushing in like a flood.
I wailed internally while cursing at my overconfident self from an hour ago.
"Get stronger, get stronger. Let's get even stronger!"
"It's sad we won't be able to see you as much when you get stronger...."
"But we can't let our precious Contractor get broken."
Looking at the three Death God Sisters still clapping and spinning around far away. My consciousness was pulled back to that foolish moment from an hour ago.
To that moment of my painful decision that created this damned situation.
* * *
"Alright alright. I'll let you class change to Night Stalker."
"What difficulty do you want?"
"Choose between Lowest, Low, Medium, High, or Highest."
Difficulty? What's with the sudden difficulty?
I raised my head in question, but soon remembered Zenon's words about having to overcome a 'trial' for class change.
This must be talking about the difficulty of that class change trial. I nodded belatedly.
"Are there differences depending on the difficulty?"
The Death Gods nodded simultaneously.
"There are. Class change rewards."
"If the difficulty is low, it's easier but you get fewer bonus stats and skills."
"If the difficulty is high, it's naturally the opposite."
I see.
Then there's nothing to hesitate about. Power naturally increases survival rate even if just a little.
Even if you can't eat, aim high. No going back, yes manly. For bonus stats and skills!
"A man obviously goes for the highest. I'm challenging the highest difficulty."
At my confident declaration, the Death Gods' faces brightened widely. But soon crumpled with what seemed like worry.
"But... Contractor. If you mess up, it might not finish today."
"The highest difficulty is really hard. We don't recommend it."
"Contractor. You could die. Just take the lowest difficulty like other people."
Have you ever had a Death God worry about your life? It's really scary.
I lowered my tail immediately.
"...T-then I'll just go one level lower to high difficulty."
I admit it. I honestly chickened out.
But when those bright sunflower-like Death God Sisters make gloomy faces and unanimously discourage me like that. Wouldn't it be weirder not to get scared?
It would be a big problem if the test gets prolonged and doesn't finish today like Unterdret said.
... Y-yeah. I pursued practicality. Let's go with that.
"High difficulty is hard too... I'm worried."
"Hmm. Our Contractor should be able to do it right? He endured death over 50 times after all?"
"R-right? He should be able to endure?"
The Death Gods Sisters muttering with somewhat anxious faces.
I had the urge to just quietly take the recommended lowest difficulty, but going that far would guarantee winning this year's coward award so I didn't.
Instead, I raised my voice confidently while full of tension.
"Enough already, just give me the test! A man doesn't go back on his word!"
"Didn't you already go back on your word?"
"Shh."
"Let's leave it at that."
The Death Gods giggled at my bluff and raised their hands to the sky.
Woong. The giant scythe floating above them seemed to resonate and slowly cut through the void. The pitch-black space split helplessly with bzzt, bzzt sparks.
And what poured out from the split gap was... dark spheres about the size of my head.
"We'll start the test now."
"Night Stalker's life is agility."
"So from now on we'll test your agility."
As they spoke, ping ping ping! The black spheres started flying in all directions.
After moving around quite a bit, they begin circling around me. There are quite a few. 20... no, seems like over 30.
... Oh damn. I can already roughly guess the content of the test. I swallowed dry saliva.
"So from now on, avoid these balls."
"You just need to survive until the 10-minute time limit ends."
"Simple right?"
Wait. The passing condition for the test is 'surviving'?
Don't tell me it means 'you might die'?
I let out a hollow laugh as I watched the spheres rotating around me. A bead of cold sweat trickled down my cheek.
"Well then."
"Trial of Class Change."
"Begin."
As soon as their words ended, THUD! A dull impact sound was heard.
When I carefully observed where it came from, it was from my stomach.
"Ugh... kuh, ack..."
I lowered my trembling head to look at my stomach. A sphere that had flown in at some point was burrowing into my stomach, emitting white steam.
'Wh-when did it...!'
If I had only been wearing leather armor, I would have surely gone to the Lord's side in one hit. Such a chilling certainty came over me.
And at that moment. The shriek of the air, "swoosh," stimulated my ears.
"D-damn it!"
I launched my body without time to think.
DUDUDUDU! Immediately after, countless balls shower down on where I had been. The balls hit the dark floor at a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.
The ground shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred.
"......"
Beyond imagination.
What the hell is this crazy speed? I'm supposed to dodge this? These things moving as fast as the Border Duke? Dozens of them?
In that brief moment when my feet were tied up in such idle thoughts. PING PING PING! Just as those things that were embedded in the ground all shot up into the sky at once, they turned and poured down on me from all directions.
"Aack!"
Left, right, duck down, roll on the ground.
Before I could gather my wits, a ball hit me in the back from behind. With a heavy THUD impact, my body was propelled forward like a bullet.
"Huh, huuk!!"
This is already a matter of survival. I need to use something to survive.
I immediately utilized the skill I had just obtained. Surely flying in the sky would be easier to dodge than being a ground-walker!
WHOOSH! The cloak fluttering behind my back split in two and transformed into massive wings reminiscent of a crow's.
Before I could even savor the lingering sensation of scattered feathers, the spheres poured in following me as I soared into the air.
'Damn it! To the left...!'
But there was one thing I hadn't considered.
Wings aren't organs that naturally come with humans, and. When flying for the first time, there's no way you could move freely.
"No wait! Where are you going!!"
THWACK! Contrary to my intention to move slightly to the left, my body shot out like a cannonball. Unable to handle the speed, I tumbled like a torn paper airplane.
By the time I managed to control the speed and start gliding, the spheres had already approached right before my eyes.
'No!'
I desperately twisted my body to dodge, but. I couldn't avoid all the balls.
THUD THUD THUD! Heavy impacts pounded my entire body.
"Kheuk!"
Several spheres grazed my body. Just grazing makes me dizzy.
So this is how it feels to get hit while having defense. Looking at how the pain is still dull, I must still have some defense left. But at this rate, it will probably all be depleted soon.
'Let's get down first!'
I forcefully flapped my wings that were hard to control and descended sharply. As soon as I landed on the ground, my cloak surged again, whoosh.
"Fatal Thorns!"
CRACK! The cloak repeatedly gathered and scattered, then transformed into ten swaying thorn tentacles. The edges, as well as the sides of the tentacles, were extremely sharp, making them more like soft swords than tentacles.
'Time to counterattack!!'
I struck all ten tentacles against the spheres' bombardment that was approaching moment by moment. Fortunately, controlling the tentacles was similar to the Seven Sword skill in mechanism, so it wasn't difficult to adapt.
SWOOSH! The tentacles, reading my will, poured down towards the spheres all at once. I watched them with anticipation. And soon the tentacles and spheres collided.
SLASH!
And I was shocked to see the tentacles tear like paper before the force of the spheres.
"This is crazy! They're not even fazed!!"
SWOOSH! I barely managed to duck my head to avoid a direct hit to my head from a sphere. Thanks to the tentacles slowing them down, I was able to dodge with my reflexes.
'Not yet!'
I can't give up like this. I drew Bestark and Espada and infused them with magic power.
CRACKLE! Sparks flew. The magic swords emanating blue energy and the black spheres began to paint the air in chaos.
'Seven Sword Pierce!'
PING PING PING! The launched blue magic swords collided head-on with the spheres.
Since the black spheres' destination was inevitably me, their movement patterns were quite simple. It wasn't difficult to strike each sphere with a magic sword.
KIING, KIKING!
But the magic swords also just crumbled in the air with such sharp sounds, unable to stop the spheres' advance.
It feels similar to Fatal Thorns. Rather than withstanding the attack... it feels like the attack itself is being absorbed.
"It's useless, Contractor. Attacks are against the rules in this trial."
"Those spheres will nullify all attacks."
"Ether won't work during the trial either, for your reference, Contractor."
Thanks for telling me so early, damn it!
After shooting a resentful glance at the Death God Sisters who were watching like spectators munching popcorn across the river, I jumped up from that spot again while breathing heavily.
BOOM!
Then the spheres prowling around inevitably crashed like meteors into where I had been.
The tremendous speed that could make my heart throb with the shockwave feels newly real.
"Ugh... uah! Damn... damn iiiit!"
After that, it was truly miserable.
I rolled on the ground like a madman, twisting my whole body and struggling with all my might.
"Kheuk! Th-this hurts to the bone!"
I barely managed to dodge by letting my instincts take over. But collapse came in an instant.
More and more spheres became impossible to avoid. Just when I noticed more spheres hitting vital points.
Puk! A ball slightly grazed my shoulder.
"Kuaaagh!"
I screamed. At the same time, I realized.
The pain was noticeably clear. Finally, my defense gauge had hit bottom.
My defensive stance crumbled from the unbearable pain, and I lost my balance for a moment.
Ah. It's over. I resigned myself internally.
Pububububuk!
With tremendous impact sounds, my internal organs twisted violently. Balls pounded my body from all directions. My skull rang and my vision blurred.
I collapsed there and curled up as much as possible. Above me, the balls mercilessly rained down.
"Aaaagh! W-wait! Time out! My, my bones! Brother! Sister! Save me! Just a momeeeent!"
As I flailed my whole body and shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Your job advancement test."
"As the school bully in charge."
"Has been replaced."
The Death God Sisters looked down at me with intrigued faces, swimming circles in the air.
I continued to get hit by spheres while screaming silent screams.