""And that’s how Eons for supremacy began or that's how our text of the past tells us boy, although not much is remembered of that bygone era"
Vesper Tuned out the old mans rumbling about the history of their world or multiverse whatever that was and how the heavenly tutor worked.
Looking out at the starry night sky he thought 'would I ever be able to..."sigh"
What was he thinking?
To unlock the system or the heavenly tutor you first needed to be the age of 16 and once you became 16 you would wait for the winter solstice = when the system would whisk you away to put you through a trial, a terrifying challenge where you would fight a corrupted beast that the System calculates is appropriate for you, then you are thrust into a random scenario of the past on where you have to survive while the beast is constantly chasing you with only what you can find inside the trial or so he heard.
Vesper was an orphaned slum rat; his father was gone when he was just 6 years a old and his mother..."lets not think about her" how would he survive that kind of nightmare? What could he do? The solstice was in just 10 hours away, he had some hope but nothing to say he would survive that trial. That was why he was here asking the old coot some question before his fucking demise came.
"HEY!! OLD MAN"
"WHAT?? YOU SCRUNNY RAT"
"Enough of history can you tell me some tips so that I can sure fucking survive the trial in a week?" Vesper said while tangling the pouch with some coins to the old man.
"YOU-sigh... alright you’re lucky I needed some coin." the old man said after seeing the pouch
"So, what do you want to know boy?"
"As i said before tell me about your experience in your trial, how was it? how am I going to survive while being Sealed?" sealed was a term used to describe the stages of supremacy that the system used, mortal described the lowest level of cultivation that everyone was born with.
" WHAT SEALED? boy how the hell are you still Mortal at the age of 15, even the most untalented 12-year old's achieve Unchained status so they can at least have a wisp on there atonement of energies before the start of the trial" the old man stared at Vesper with astonishment.
Vesper gritted his teeth, did this old coot didn't think he knew that? he wouldn't be asking him of all people for ways to survive the trial if he was at the middle of the unchained hierarchy or even better at the peak grade of it, he wouldn't have to worry for his life so much. But growing up he noticed that whenever he tried to do to raise his cultivation with the method his mother showed him, the ambient qi wouldn't circulate through his body and not even the quack doctor next door knew what the hell was wrong with him.
"Just tell anything old man I don't have time left; don't you want this coin?" Vesper said sarcastically as he played with the pouch full of coin.
"Sigh- ok you brat, first thing first from what the Beggers sect branch says, the Heavens will choose a scenario and a beast depending on your personality, talent and cultivation level, but first you need to go to the solstice square as that’s one of many point of power of our planet where some high ranked individuals will watch over your body".
“I know why I have to go there but what do you mean watch over my body?” Vesper hadn’t known that the trial like an outer body experience.
“Hm how can I explain this... the solstice square has an underground section where the pull of qi and connection to the heavens is greeter for some inexplicable reason, you will be escorted there by high ranked warriors of the imperial army or some other high ranked family and be given a pod where your body will stay as the system takes you away, for us poor folk we go to the inner city square while the rich folk get to be supervised in a more well connected place that qi is more ambient than even the solstice square but sometimes there are time where even nobles comes to the solstice square so be careful. Is that clear and I assume you at least have a ticket to enter the inner gates as you seemed to know you had to go to the solstice square?”
Vesper nodded and indicated to continue
" Okey so about my trial, when I was your age my trial was a scenario to survive in an ancient forest that existed long ago on our planet presumably but I am still not sure as the stars were different from the night sky we see, I took over a body of a dead tribes member that was on some kind of expedition that still had his equipment on. I wonder for a bit but before I knew it a beast that was presumably my challenge beast from the system appeared.” The old man said a little terrified.
“That... abomination that was chasing me was a fallen beast, that’s Unchained in human our power scale if you don’t know, it was a fucking snake of utter proportions with a humanoid face and abysmal eyes that screamed of frenzy. I had seen many things since then, but that thing was and still is the most terrifying thing I have seen.”
The old man took a steady breath.
“Not natural, even today I get nightmares from it, corrupted creatures are more different than you run of the mill beasts here in our uncorrupted sector, if I haven’t blinded that accursed thing with the 2 extra daggers I had scavenged from the other corpses near me, I had escaped but was still half dead after that small battle from my successful attempt at blinding that thing was probably of the Cursed quality” the old man said.
Vesper sat there in astonishment but then a question came.
“Cursed quality? What's that? and what do you mean by body possessing? Aren't we just going as our self’s?”
The old man sighed before speaking
“First of all, no, you will be possessing the body of beings that long since died from the time when corruption was rampant, and the universe was declining with the heavenly scholar not yet existing. I don’t know why we take over bodies of people from the past that's above my understanding, ask a historian at the academy if you are interested, probably still the heavenly tutor changed 6 times since it first got introduced with the most recent being since before my trial a million or so years ago. Anyway, we are getting side tracked you know about cultivation levels but how don’t you know about soul essence?
Vesper wanted to know what he meant by altered but he could learn of that when he was still alive after the trial, so he nodded to let the old man continue.
“Soul Essence is pretty much the quality and strength of your soul that corresponds with you cultivation and alignment strength with both humanoids and beast having the same 9 stage qualities, them being Mortal, Awakened, Saint, Omega, Sovereign, Chainless, Supreme, Sacred and Heavenly raising you soul quality for raising it there are many ways with the best ways being crafting mythical grade shards and... killing.” The old man said in a cold tone.
Vesper was about to ask how that was possible, but the old man continued.
“I don’t know the specifics but when you kill something or someone you get some of their essence that fills your soul until it brings it to the point it Ascends into a new realm or soul Essence”
“There are also soul classes which will be revealed to you by the System, soul classes are the level of quality your soul is made of. The better the quality the better and more powerful you soul is in accumulating power, starting from Common grade all the way to Legendary. Also, side tangent do you know about shards?”
Vesper Nodded confidently at that who didn’t.
“There 6 tiers of shards with 3 categories of shards”
A sigh could be heard from the old man after his confidant answer.
“No” the old man said disappointed.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“There are 9 Tiers of shards with 4 categories where the hell has your head been for the past 15 years, even if we aren’t actual citizens with no actual access to knowledge or even a way to use our Realm coins properly, to not know this basic information? Even then you could have gotten this information for a cost of labour or a good amount of materials from anyone that works at the Beggers sect information market.”
Realm coins was the currency of the system, they were something that could be used from everyone once they got access to the system but to actual use them, more than just buying material and basic equipment, you had to become an actual citizen of the Empire to use them on system run shops or so vesper knew.
Acquiring Coins came from completing tasked sanctioned by individuals and the system working together to reward you a set amount of said coin. People still used normal currency here and there to buy food and other trash, mostly this form of currency was used by those that weren’t citizens of the empire officially. Like Vesper and the other slum dwellers as most of them were refuges or orphans with no way of showing that they were citizens of the empire.
Vesper was the first of the group as his mother never had a way to show that she was born in the empire, so he was considered a son of a refuge and to why he didn’t know this shit.
Vesper stared at the old man with a glum expression before he sighed and stared down at the table and mumbled.
"ca..Casandra"
"Ah...oh, no need to explain then" while he shuffled uncomfortably.
Casandra was an information clerk and a notorious loan shark that was notorious for being a piece of shit to people that she didn’t fancy of just for the heck of it, she had great pull as a soulless cultivator with the talent of becoming a hegemon or a half step one in her branch that ruled over slums, because of that any other information broker wouldn't even let him in the sect branch for the past 2 years. The reason in Vesper’s case was that his late mother owed Cassandra a huge amount of coin and now that she died, he had to bear the fucking harassment and responsibly to pay the debt back.
"Anyway, when I was first taking the trial, I was a late Unchained brat, so the system gave me a quest after my fateful encounter with the beast to fight and slay the corrupted cursed serpent or evade it and find an escape exit" he coughed half embarrassed for some reason.
"After I almost died fighting that abomination with only succeeding in blinding it, I hid from it in fear for weeks, delirious and just short of starving after surviving from the environment and being chased by the still alive fucker, I luckily or not unluckily I fell into a bottomless hole which was the exit of all things"
Vesper heard and tried to suppress his laughter and failing miserably with the result of getting a death stare from the old man, still this made him happy to hear that the system would at least play fair and make him fight something as trashy as him and even if it was more powerful he had a way to escape, his hope had been rekindled but it wasn't enough he needed more information that just these snippets.
“What else?”
“Well I am happy you asked, as you seem to know jack shit, let me tell you that once the trial is over you will be Acknowledged by the system and depending on your performance it will give you a random shard quality again dependent on your performance, your soul quality will be revealed and give you and give you an achievement, , for your achievement again on how you performed will very, mine was [ Cosmic introduction] which everyone aquires and [E grade evolution] which is the second to last rating.”
“My soul class was revealed to be common with my finally being revealed alignment being Earth whisperer ...” the old coot saw Vespers eyes full of disappointment from his results and with that he cracked.
"You... YOU!!! DO YOU THINK THAT SOMETHING TO LOOK DISSAPOINTED AT”?
*SIGH* calming him self down "that's all I have to say to the likes of you, I will not reveal to you the shard I got nor any other information about the system but one final tip and a gift because at least you have the decency to pay me even if its just all your measly net worth as you told me". The old man mocked before breathing in and becoming serious.
"Fight and survive even of it seems impossible with your horrendous talent it because sorry to rain in on your parade there are no corrupted beings of the Sealed grade”
That one piece of information was all that was needed to crash any last embers of hope left in Vesper soul on surviving, after a minute of silence of not trying to sob he got not making eye contact with the old man.
“Sigh” the old man sighed before telling him.
“Hey, sit down, I’m not letting you leave with that kind of expression on your goddamn face”
Sitting back down crestfallen Vesper waited for the old man to continue.
“...Listen boy, even if all odds are against you bet on yourself and your abilities, you might be a talentless rat but for you to having survived in this dangerous and shitty environment means something is driving you forward whatever that is just keep on holding on to it. Crawl, bite, scratch, scam and kill.”
“These are one of many ways to the path to supremacy, nothings is easy in these accursed world so suck it up and move forward with determination and unyielding will!”
Hearing those words, Vesper was reminded of all the people that told him that he would never amount to anything from his dying mothers, the words people of the city said about him and his ilk to that one piece of shitty guard that loved to beat him he thought even if he doesn’t survive so what? He would push forward and succeed even to just spite those smug assholes that looked down on him.
The old man smiled at his determined look of defiance and spoke.
“One final thing. If you get the chance to get into the Military academy do so, for your own good, how you may ask? those who pass the trial with good qualities get a chance to go there so don’t waste it like me who was too arrogant and didn’t know any better. Those who get acknowledged are usually those who start making something with their fate and realize their destiny.
“Why would I go to place full of rich go snobs?” vesper said with apprehension even if he survived there was no way in hell he would go.
The old man just snorted with a look of pity.
“Because you can get a fucking chance to become a real citizen after graduating you nit wit, I have been regretting my decision ever since I found out all those years ago that those who graduated from the academy had a chance to get a citizen ship, I was so scared after my trial I flat out refused and just went home and once I learned of what I could get I was refused as it was a one of the time offer because my alignment was a little rare.”
Hearing that Vesper was astonished, he could get a citizen ship just by going and graduating from the academy?
Before he could ask for more, he saw a dagger flying at him moving on reflex its barley missed him continuing and hitting the wooden beam behind him.
"WHAT THE HELL OLD MAN" Vesper shouted in blatant anger.
"Humph, take that dagger it might not help you in the trial as its not a shard, it sure helped me back then after I finished the trial. NOW GO YOU UNGRATEFUL RAT!!" the old bastard said after releasing his killing intent infused aura that made his hairs stand up.
Vesper quickly stood up, pulled the dagger from the beam with all the strength he could muster and bowed to the old man out of sheer terror before running for the hills or in his case to the solstice hall where the trial takers would be whisked aways by the Wrathful heavens.
...
The old man watched the scrawny little rat go as he slammed the door behind him, shaking his head, the old man thought there was no chance in hell for him to survive with that shitty constitution of his but that foul personality of his might be his chance in at least surviving depending on his situation.
His personal situation regarding his trial was considered one of the lucky ones as if you being attacked by an abomination minutes after getting you bearings lucky.
One of the attendees told him after his trial, most didn’t even get weapon or even Armor when the trial began but were whisked in situations or societies that were already in the middle of being attacked by the corrupted beast that was their goal or something similar. Some had it easy at the start thinking they were safe but that was when calamity struck usually everyone had to struggle the were no exceptions nobles or not if you didn’t have the skills and determination, you just died and your body becoming an empty lifeless vessel for the attendants to dispose of.
He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pathetic shit, so he generously gave that speech even he didn’t really believe it, the brat was great at playing weak and pathetic, but the old man knew he hid something within. His eyes told him of a beast lying in wait for its prey it reminded him of him self a little when he was fighting and was trying to seize his destiny with eyes burning with the will to keep on moving forward no matter the cost it, was that kind of determination back then that allowed him to reach his current grade of peak soulless rank cultivator or E grade as the system designated it as.
But because of his mistake all those years ago his foundation was lacking and unsteady, he had no way to acquire better material or buy them and going outside the cities protective barrier to fight corrupt beast was out of the question with his pathways riddled with impurities after trying to ascend to hegemony with abusing beast cores for decades and his soul core unfiled from decades of inactivity now being stuck at awakened quality.
“If only I wasn’t that arrogant and scared when he was young, I could have gone into the academy and become something greater than a low rank adventurer and later a shitty gang member.”
" Well not my problem any longer if he survives, he survives though the last tidbit was mostly what he heard from others still it wouldn't hurt to give him some motivation now let’s see how much the brat gave me" open the pouch the old man paused.
"... this... THIS!!!!" spreading the bags content on the table there was only one bronze coin and a bunch of metal scraps but how? He saw the contents before, and he was sure he saw 5 bronzes and a fucking silver in there, scanning the pouch he saw that the was a neatly cut hole that someone could pull coins out discreetly the boy had played him like a fiddle.
"Mother F-"
So much for him on fearing him and being weak, did he just fall for the oldest trick in the book?
The old man run out his shack to catch the little shit, but he was long gone. Staring at road leading to the main city gates the old man started laughing.
“HAAHAHAH oh my side oh... maybe he will actually survive after all I don’t know why he seemed so worried with that kind of personality is beyond me”
Laughing a bit more the old man went back inside with his final thoughts being.
“If he survives, I will have to treat him for a drink... after I beat him up first”
