Chapter 449: Eyes of a Fury

Chapter 449: Eyes of a Fury

Three echoes appeared in the room, just as the glasses doubled again. With not enough space left on the counter they formed a second row floating in the air. The rules, however, remained the same.

Ready? the fury asked.

Before Dallion had a chance to respond, all glasses began moving about like butterflies. If the past shuffle was difficult, this one was outright impossible. Dallion did his best to follow what he thought to be the glass with the liquid, but after a few seconds, his eyes were stinging him so much that he had to blink.

So thats the trick, he thought. A blink wasnt much, but it was enough to let Diroh switch either the position of the glass, or have the liquid move to another. Quite tricky, though, within the rules. Whatever the trial was trying to teach him, it wasnt mere perception.

Want me to stop talking? she asked. Or do you want me to continue? Youll lose either way, but this way youll feel a bit better about yourself.

Wow. Glad you have a high opinion of me. Dallion gave up. With his perception level, it was impossible to keep up, not with her speed.

Im not Diroh, remember? Im just your thoughts and fears.

You still get some outside help, Dallion said, referring to the Moons. That was the wildcard that made this so much more complicated. If Dallion was certain that he was only dealing with his own fears, he could dismiss a lot of things as outright false and act accordingly. However, each trial had just enough doubt to make him wonder whether there wasnt some truth to it.

Thats the nature of the trial.

The glasses kept on floating and sliding until at one point they all froze in place. Giving into temptation, Dallion created an instance to look underneath the floating ones, but all he saw was a layer of glass. The trial had thought of something so simple.

Can you guys check a quarter? he asked, his echoes.

Sure.

No prob

Alright. Dallion took a step back. On three.

He split into twenty clones: sixteen to handle his section of the glasses and four more to observe the reactions of the echoes. The prize wasnt in Dallions section, which was bad. However, in one of his remaining instances, he heard an echo shout out it was among his glasses. Naturally, he switched to that instance.

Its here, the echo said loudly, then turned the glass around.

There was nothing there. Not only that, but the echo whod said so disappeared, leaving the glass to fall and smash into the floor.

I told you not to rely on echoes, Diroh said. And just to confirm the point, all of Dallions remaining echoes vanished as well. One of the remaining classes turned around, revealing the shimmering orange liquid. This time, though, it didnt remain in place, but darted at Dallion, hitting him in the shoulder.

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 5%

A red rectangle appeared in front of him. Its mere presence surprised Dallion. With the level he was aiming for being so far up, he had assumed that he only would get one shot at this. Apparently, things werent as harsh.

Why so surprised? The fury smirked. The point isnt just checking if youre good enough to go on higher, but to teach you if you arent.

Isnt that too much in my favor? Dallion waved the rectangle away. Completing trials in ways that they werent meant to be completed and such.

Without warning, the glasses started shuffling again. Like ballet dancers, they moved from thread to thread, swapping and turning. A breathtaking sight, to be sure, but not one that helped him. Diroh had been right to say that seeing the threads wasnt of any substantial help.

It was natural Dallion wouldnt be able to guess which glass held the liquid; after all, he hadnt seen where it had gone. Unfortunately, the next few times proved that wasnt the only reason for his failure.

Soon enough, half his health was gone and the pain in his eyes was back. Using music to find the liquid didnt work either. The trial had made it the same consistency as air, and the harpsisword refused to let him know if there was a way to detect it.

Pushing through the pain, Dallion persisted. No longer splitting into instances, he focused on only following the glass. The level of his body trait made it possible for him to keep on staring for over a minute without blinking.

Eyes on the prize, he kept repeating himself.

Finally, the movement stopped.

That one. He pointed, tears streaming from his eyes.

Are you sure? Diroh asked.

When she didnt receive a reply, the fury flipped the cup. A ball of range liquid floated from it.

Six so far. All the glasses split again, forming three rows above the counter. There were a total of a hundred and sixty-four glasses now, all ready to start the game. Ready to go on?

Give me a minute. Dallion closed his eyes.

The strain was too large for him to handle. In a few weeks, or maybe days, hed undoubtedly be better at this, but that was too far away in the future. There was still the trial to go through, not to mention the fight going on in the real world. The whole point of leveling up now was to be able to survive the encounter against the mage. By the looks of it, things werent going well. Dallion had doubts hed be able to complete the next round, let alone be up for another trial.

Thats a decision only you can make, dear boy, Nil said. If youd allow a few words of encouragement from an old man, I think you have what it takes to complete two trials.

Right Would that be enough, though?

If it werent enough, I wouldnt have insisted that you attempt it in the first place. The possibility is there right in front of you. Everything else depends entirely on you.

It always does.

A minute passed, then a few more. When the pain in the back of Dallions eyeballs had diminished enough for him to think straight, he opened them. Diroh was holding the glass with the orange liquid in it, patiently waiting for him to give the okay.

Go, Dallion said, playing a chord.

Faster than anything shed done so far, the fury threw the glass among the rest. Over a hundred pieces of glass moved about, bouncing between threads of air. For several seconds, the speed was on the verge of Dallions perception. After that, it became even faster. Everything disappeared in a general blur above the counter.

There was no way for Dallion to be able to track that, and with so many glasses he couldnt rely on combat splitting or echoes.

Youre pushing me to improve, Dallion said, more to himself than to her. All the rounds so far were to get me to think in a certain direction. And each time I failed to do so, you raised the stakes to get me to think.

No smile appeared on the furys face, but Dallion wasnt expecting one. He had already figured out what to do, or at least he thought so. If he was right, it was never about the numbers or the speed.

Gleam! Dallion thought and drew his whip blade.