EV B2 Chapter 20:

  I paused for a second, my brain not fully processing what I had just heard. After a couple of seconds, I realized—yes, that was not as surprising as it should have been. This place was cruel, violent, brutal— and more than just all of those things. Honestly, it surprised me that there hadn't even been a hint of sexual violence until this point. Even this was rather mild compared to what could have been happening.

  And... well, I was surprised that it happened in this trial, though this one did seem much more realistic than the previous ones. However, the issues we faced now seemed to echo more actual problems, such as having to deal with the consequences of your own actions rather than simply fighting beast after beast.

  I looked over at Astrid, who was looking back at me with a question in her eyes. What did she want me to do? Did she want me to take care of it? Or did she want to? I shrugged and gave her a nod, trying to indicate that if she wanted to do something about it, she could. Otherwise, I would.

  She looked at me and then lifted one shoulder and gestured with her head for me to go forward.

  Okay. I knew Astrid was more than capable of handling this by herself, but, well, I was pretty sure we hit the 20% mark and honestly didn't know what plan letting this play out and having the operators take care of it would do. But I felt that somehow influencing the situation so that the matter got resolved peacefully would be how we'd move the scenario past the current position. However, I was done with this, so I simply strode forward and brushed past the man talking with the girl standing in front of him.

  I looked up slightly, a couple inches, to meet his eyes. The fucker was tall and had a beard that reached down low with gray streaks in it. He was big and broad in a barrel-chested way that told me of real strength. And looking at the calluses on his hands told me that he was not at all unknown to weapons.

  Of course, none of that really mattered. The only time this would have mattered would be for first-time challengers from Valhalla—which I suppose technically I was. Maybe there were different difficulty settings or something because someone who's level 50 or even my level would have no problem dealing with this in straight combat. Which left it either as—this was not the correct option—or it would just get harder as we went on.

  After a solid couple of seconds of just sizing each other up, I tilted my head slightly and spat on the ground by his foot. I figured that was a clear enough challenge that I wouldn't have to say anything. Besides, I wanted to just finish this, and then we could leave.

  The man just looked at me—and started to laugh.

  Shaking my head, I groaned. I was just so fucking done with this whole challenge that I was half ready to just exit now and hope we hit the 20%. But... it, I suppose, wasn't going to hurt to see how this played out. Luckily, my patience paid off, and the whole thing only took about twenty minutes before they had a square of people holding shields, and the earl drew a sword and advanced on me.

  I looked around and saw Astrid and the other members of my group standing and watching. Jorg gave me a shrug, which I returned. This was slightly baffling. Was I supposed to make this look good, or was it, like, an actual fight? Or should I just kill the guy, and we leave after we determine that was the wrong answer and it was a dead end?

  It was a slightly annoying decision, but I decided to make it quick. I was quite done, and I was relatively confident that we hit the minimum required amount. So, as if he was moving in slow motion, I dodged the first swing, stepping back slightly and letting the blade whistle less than an inch from my nose before jumping forward, getting inside his guard, and slamming my elbow into his chin.

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  Only then did I bother to draw one of the hatchets from my belt and chop it into his wrist before kicking him to the ground and ending the fight. It was over in maybe three seconds, and the crowd hadn't really even gotten a chance to get into it.

  Still, I raised the bloody axe into the air above my head to an enthusiastic cheer. It wasn't wild, but it was certainly there. I lowered it and looked around, realizing that everyone was now looking at me.

  If the scenario could continue, we were obviously going to continue it—if it wasn't too much effort—as the rewards should only get better. But at the same time, I hadn't been opposed to ending the scenario by making a poor decision. Leaving felt wrong, though. So I waited, and so did everyone else.

  The square around me was deforming as the crowd generally migrated, moving around in front of me rather than swarming me or anything. Even the earl's own men didn't look angry or upset or anything. They just waited for me to talk, and I sat there relatively dumbstruck for about thirty seconds before I finally had some idea what to do.

  "People of..." I trailed off, realizing I had no idea what the village was called. So I just cleared my throat. "People."

  And then I launched into an impromptu speech. Really, it was no different than the many I had given in my boring office jobs. Rather than talking about quarterly goals, though, this one was about the future of the village and creating plans for the rest of the season.

  ***

  I went on and on for about five minutes before I finally wrapped it up, telling everyone to go home. The crowd dispersed, and soon, I was left standing there, feeling a little bit awkward as I stared at the rest of our party.

  "So," I said, drumming my fingers idly on my hip. "I think we head out or see where this goes. Thing One and Thing Two?"

  Both shrugged. One of them just said, "I'm pretty sure that we're at the 20% mark."

  Jorg and Astrid were slightly more personable and didn't bother hiding their identities, so I was able to get a better read of them—being able to see their faces helped. Jorg looked bored, and Astrid was wearing a slightly amused smirk.

  "I don't know. I kind of want to see you give some more speeches," she said. "That was inspiring."

  I was 90% sure she was being sarcastic, so I just rolled my eyes.

  "Seriously, though, I'm just about done here. I fucking hate this challenge, and I would like to move on to the next one."

  That got a laugh out of Jorg.

  "Yeah, I agree. Besides, the reward scaling is not bad, but unless we want to go all the way up to 50% or beyond, it doesn't really seem worth the time—judging based on how long people take to run the challenge," he said.

  I grimaced, not having bothered to look into that. That was something I should have been able to do with my previous background. Keeping track of numbers like that was just second nature before. Ever since I had died, though, I hadn't bothered to do it.

  Was it because I was becoming lazy? Or did I just not want to deal with it? I wasn't sure, but I didn't relish trying to figure that out for myself. Maybe I could get some sort of analysis done through Loki's organization.

  "So, ready to exit?" I said, feeling vaguely unsatisfied about leaving everyone—all the people—without my leadership. But they were just constructs, and they'd disappear when we left.

  Of course, I was hoping that the speech would push us a couple percentage points higher with only a few minutes of effort.

  "Sure."

  One by one, we pulled out our medallions and exited the challenge. I held my breath, but when the number appeared in the floating blackness, I released it in a slow, long exhale.

  22%.

  "Fuck yeah," I whispered as I was let out into the challenge hall and right into a huge crowd.