--
Cedric got rid of any displeasure he felt about his unexpected failure at the Trial of Body just now. He just alluded to something he's not expecting and decided not to beat himself over it too much.
He decided to move on and check what awaited him at the Trial of Spirit. He went in and experienced the same force that sucked him in, transporting him to a completely new location.
When his vision returned, he was surprised to find himself standing on an entirely different reality.
How could he tell that he's in a different reality? Well, for starters, his body has changed. He became much younger; a huge bulk of his hard-earned muscles were gone; his altitude field became lower, signifying that he shrank. But most importantly, he felt his senses very sluggish.
His thoughts moved at a snail's pace; the kind of vision his eyes provided him had completely disappeared, and finally, he felt so weak that it frightened him a little.
With what little he had to work with, the only reasonable logic his 'nerfed' mind could conclude is that he's in an alternate reality. A world where he's young and weak again.
'Not gonna lie, I don't really miss this part of me.'
Done observing whatever he could about himself, he turned his attention to his surroundings. Here, he discovered more clues that just made him more certain of his assumptions.
First, he knows where he's at. This tiny room he's in, the posters on the wall, the small cabinet next to the bedside table, the tiny lamp at said bedside table, the toys, scattered shirts that fit his tiny and weak body, the freshly ironed school uniform hanging next to the windows, the wooden floors stained with scratch marks here and there, and the scent of lavender filling the room...
'It's my room.' He inwardly mused.
To be more precise, it's the same room he had when he was still a child. He should be around 7 to 8 years old now.
'Which also means that...'
"Ceddie! You need to get up, Bud! If you don't, your mother will wake you up instead."
That deep and gritty voice coming from outside of his room shook Cedric out of his reverie. The sound reverberated through his entire being, causing him to feel a wave of emotions and memories that he had buried a long time ago.
"I-I'm up! I'll be down in a bit." He responded with a wince, cringing at how pitchy his voice turned out due to his youth.
His voice quavered a bit due to his unstable emotions. It was a little difficult for him to control it in this current state of his.
He stood up and did his best to move according to what his instincts told him to do. He faintly remembered his routine during these days, but they were all blurry, so he's just winging it for the most part, all while trying to make sense of what's happening around him.
He's been training hard all these years. He also studied hard whenever he could. His parents always tell him that no matter what kind of class template he awakens, he'll turn out to be awesome. His siblings also looked up to him greatly because of his maturity.
In the end, he got his wish; he awakened the swordsman template. It's a pretty common template and a decent one too.
This day should've been a happy one. They had plans on celebrating outside for a while. Then, tomorrow, his dad will enroll him in a training camp where he could explore his full potential so that he could survive his Hell Dives.
But all of that went down the drain in a blink of an eye.
Despite his awareness, she warned him of the obvious threat. Little Ceddie found himself unable to change anything.
He was forced to watch as his beloved family died in front of him, killed by demons who appeared out of nowhere and ruined this day for him. His newly awakened class template failed to give him any form of advantage against the murderers.
At some point, Cedric found himself watching as the authorities cremated the remains of his family. He felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment in himself because, in the end, he still failed.
'This is hard...' He thought to himself.
Even though he had seen this scene many times before, it's still as painful as the first time he experienced this loss. At this point, he already knew that this would never be painful for him.
By the time he received the ashes of his family, the scenery around him shattered like glass. He found himself returning to the actual reality and his clarity returning to him. A deep frown marred his face with a trace of helplessness within.
'Another failed attempt.' He mused inwardly as he stared at the floating system window in front of him.
**
[Trial of Spirit: 6th Stage]
[Your task is to rewrite your past the way you want it to be. However, you're only allowed to plant a single subconscious thought or influence on your past self.]
[This is a comprehensive trial; so long as you've made a substantial change in your past as you remembered it, it will be considered as passing this stage.]
[Of course, the more impactful the changes you made, the more generous your rewards will be.]
[You have 99/1000 attempts to clear this trial.]
**
'Even after 10 years, it's still hard to make a substantial difference, it seems.'