Trial of Enlightenment.

  The fairest trial in existence. No gods, no fate, no outside influence—only the System’s judgment. A trial that starts and ends with the System.

  Once every System Year, on the same sacred day, the Temples of Beginnings across the multiverse open their gates. Anyone 16 or older may enter. There is no limit to the number of participants. But they must be of Level 0.

  Upon stepping inside, each challenger chooses their own difficulty. There are five normal difficulty settings: Initiate, Adept, Challenger, Ascendant and Abyssal.

  The higher the difficulty, the lower the survival rate. And the rewards are of course better with higher difficulty.

  For Abyssal, the survival rate is roughly 10%.

  Those who do survive, however? They receive rewards beyond comprehension. The System always plays fair. High risk = high return.

  But what I’m attempting is even worse. The unspoken difficulty.

  The Godslayer difficulty.

  Unlike what the name says, I don't actually have to kill a god or anything. It's sort of a twisted joke by the system. Almost as if telling us that passing this difficulty level will be of the similar difficulty as killing a god. An impossible task.

  Our universe is already millions of years old and even then, we only know of a few handful survivors of this ordeal.

  But there is one single thing common in all their stories. It is the fact that they were all teleported to another universe. The main objective of this is to isolate the challenger from their comfortable home environment and throw them in a totally unknown environment without any guidelines.

  And that teleportation is the reason why I'm even trying to go through this crazy trial in the first place. If that shit can get me out of Andreas, then I'm satisfied. Future June can think about how to survive an impossible situation.

  I took a deep breath, then looked Anton dead in the eye.

  "Listen, Anton. I’m dead if I stay here. This is my only way out."

  Anton understood it too that I'll be dead if I even stay for a day on this planet. So he just looked at me with pity and started inhaling some chemicals with his vape.

  "If you are planning to go through this, then you should also know about the sacrifices that are required. Three sacrifices. All of your worldly possessions, one title of any rank and one uncommon rank General Skill."

  Ah, sacrifices. The worst part of The Godslayer Trial. It's just a mechanism for system to balance the scale.

  Basically, when a person attends Trial of Enlightenment they put their own life as a collateral. It is the price you bet for the reward you might receive later, after finishing the trial. But in this bloody trial, System thinks that the challenger's own life isn't enough to tip the scale. The potential reward is just too much. That is why the system has put up this three sacrifice system. Almost as if telling us that, 'You own life isn't worth much.'

  Anton was quick to catch on why I called him here,

  "So, you want my help with the first sacrifice?"

  "Yes. The Organization has some Credits stored in my name. I need you to transfer that back to me. It shouldn't be hard for you considering you have access to that account."

  "No, it wouldn't be hard. But Melissa will make a big fuss when she finds out."

  "Yeah, good luck with that. You can just transfer it directly to my system account."

  With some quick hand motion, the transfer was done and I received a notification.

  Anton Gomez, Human Lvl 105, has transferred 1,460 C to you.

  Current Balance: 3,249 C

  "Thanks, Anton." I stood up, stretching my shoulders.

  "Have you decided what your second and third sacrifice will be? I already know that you have at least one uncommon skill. You are our best unranked agent after all."

  "Thanks for the compliment, I guess. Yeah, I've decided on what I'll sacrifice."

  "That must hurt. You've worked hard to gain those skills."

  "Yeah. What can I do? My life is more important."

  "So… this is goodbye?"

  "Pretty much."

  "You’re not gonna say goodbye to your mom?"

  I scoffed. "Nah. That crazy bitch can handle herself."

  Anton chuckled, shaking his head. He knew very well how much of a menace my mom was.

  As I turned to leave, his voice rang out behind me.

  "Don’t die, kid."

  I didn’t respond. More like I couldn't bring myself to respond.

  Because the odds of me surviving today? Almost zero.

  The red sun was just beginning to rise as I approached the Temple of Beginning.

  The guards at the entrance barely spared me a glance. A quick scan of my ID, and they waved me through. Thousands of participant must've already entered the temple. Considering that the temple is still open, I can guess that Damien's death hasn't been found out yet. Good. More time for me to get the hell out of here.

  The moment I stepped inside, a soothing scent filled my senses. It was… relaxing. Too relaxing.

  The temple itself was unremarkable—just a vast, empty space with no discernible features. And yet, something about it felt immensely significant. It is said that the temple is different for every person. For me, it smelled like blood. System sure knows how to make a girl feel special.

  A familiar voice echoed in my mind.

  You have entered a Safe Space.

  All combat is prohibited here.

  Welcome, Challenger.

  You have entered the Temple of Beginning.

  All conditions met for attempting the Trial of Enlightenment.

  Please choose the difficulty level for your trial.

  A long exhale escaped me. There was no turning back now.

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  "The Godslayer difficulty."

  A pause. Then, the System responded with their weird cheery voice.

  Are you sure about choosing this difficulty?

  "Yes. I’m sure."

  Sacrifices must be provided to the System for attempting this stage.

  1. All your worldly possessions will be converted into System Coins.

  2. One Title of any rank.

  3. One General Skill of Uncommon rank or higher.

  This is the part that stops most people from even attempting this difficulty.

  The first sacrifice—your worldly possessions—isn't that bad. For me, it was only around 3000 C.

  The second sacrifice, however, is painful.

  Titles are hard to get at Level 0. You can just sacrifice an Inferior-rank title, but still… losing a title hurts. The effects of titles are really useful in particular situation.

  But the third sacrifice?

  It’s the real deal-breaker.

  An Uncommon-ranked General Skill is beyond valuable. It is extremely hard to get a Uncommon ranked skill at level 0. I have two of them and both of them are gained through hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tear. One of them can only be gained after killing 100 sentient beings. So, you can already guess how big this sacrifice is.

  It is said that the general skills you have before awakening are the ones that make your foundation. So, in a sense I am sacrifice my own potential here. An extremely valuable sacrifice

  But I have no other choice.

  With a grim expression, I opened my Status Screen.

  Name: June Hart

  Race: Human

  Age: 16

  Title(s):

  Cold-Blooded III (Uncommon)- 5% increase in attack power when attacking someone with an intention to kill.

  Weapon Adept II (Common)- +10 in Strength and Dexterity while using multiple weapons at the same time.

  Soldier I (Common)- +5 to all stats

  Lurker I (Inferior)- +5 in Perception while being undetected.

  Vig: 11 (+5)

  End: 10 (+5)

  Str: 12 (+5)

  Dex: 15 (+5)

  Wis: 7 (+5)

  Int: 13 (+5)

  Per: 17 (+5)

  General Skill(s):

  Assassin’s Gambit (Uncommon) – Increases Critical Rate by 10% and Critical Damage by 50% when striking an unaware target.

  Life Steal I (Uncommon) - Replenishing HP by 5% after every kill. Active time is 15 minutes and the cooldown is 5 hours.

  Student I (Common)- Learning academic materials becomes somewhat easier.

  Weapon Master II (Common) – Increases weapon proficiency gain by 10%.

  Stealth II (Common)- Easier to stay undetected by enemies with lower Perception.

  Adventurer II (Common) - Combination of basic survival skills. Makes it easier to survive in harsh environments.

  Pain Resistance II (Common)

  Poison Resistance I (Inferior)

  Psychic Resistance I (Inferior)

  Identify (Inferior) - Lowest level identification tool. A gift from the system to every entity in the universe.

  I always feel a sense of pride whenever I look at my Status Screen.

  It’s a testament to my hard work. A record of my struggles. My stats and skill can be considered on a genius level for a 16 year old kid like me.

  Which is why it feels so gut-wrenching to give anything up from this beautiful masterpiece.

  But… it’s necessary. I mustn't lose my conviction.

  I’ve already decided what to sacrifice. For the uncommon skill portion, I've selected to sacrifice [Life Steal I]. Although it has a pretty sweet effect, I can get the better version of this skill if I can gain [Cold Hearted IV] title. Which also wasn't easy, considering the fact that I have to kill 1000 sentient being. But that's still possible. On the other hand, you can only gain [Assassin's Gambit] as a Level 0. And my own fighting style plays with it perfectly. So, sacrificing it wasn't an option.

  "Sacrificing 3,249 C, the title [Lurker], and the skill *[Life Steal I]." I said out loud.

  "Goodbye, my sweet sweet skills. I will mourn your loss."

  Evaluating Sacrifice...

  Evaluating Sacrifice...

  Evaluation Done!

  Congratulations! Your sacrifice has been deemed worthy.

  You will be teleported to your trial location shortly.

  Good luck in attempting the impossible, Challenger!