Daemon stared at the floating notifications for a long moment.
"This is not right."
The silence that followed lasted exactly as long as it took for the full reality of what he had just read to sink in. Then the fury arrived.
"A level-thirty." He said it quietly, which was somehow worse than shouting. "A level-thirty. In a trial. In what universe is a level-thirty monster in a tutorial considered passable?" He thought of the old officer at the police station, with his steady voice and his reasonable advice, and felt a fresh wave of irritation. "The trial is very much passable," he had said. With a straight face.
In what world is a level-thirty in a trial, passable. And what the hell, the first trial of the tower was supposed to be a kind of tutorial. This is not a monster that was supposed to be in a fucking tutorial.
"I need to calm down," Daemon breathed. In and out. Slowly.
It helped, briefly. Then he started thinking about why a level-thirty had been here, and why a borrowed ability from a level-nineteen Ascender had been enough to kill it, and found he had no answers to either question — and the lack of answers made him furious all over again, this time at his own ignorance.
To say Daemon was enraged it would be un understatement. In Daemon's conclusion the appearance of the monster wasn't right. But he forced himself to stop. There were things he could figure out and things he couldn't, and right now wasn't the time for either.
What he did know: the labyrinth had rules. The type and level of creatures that appeared followed some kind of internal logic — a logic this encounter had violated completely.
He would think about that later. For now, he checked his status.
"Status"
***
Name: Daemon
True Name: N/A
Traits: N/A
Titles: [The Courageous Fool] | [Doubtless] | [Inconceivable Victory]
Race: [Human]
Level: 2 [EXP: 0/300]
Age: [17]
Classes: N/A
Talent: [Divergent of Error]
Talent Rank: A
Talent Ability: [Eyes of the Epigone]
Attributes: [Light; Darkness]
Stats
Stats
INT: 45
END: 55
STR: 46
DEX: 46
PER: 47
SPR: 72
MAG: 41
Free Points: 2
Equipment: [Blessing of an Abomination]
He read through it twice. The fury hadn't gone anywhere, but underneath it, quieter and steadier, something else had taken root.
He was still alive. He had gained two levels, three titles he hadn't read yet, and a piece of equipment with a name that raised more questions than it answered.
For now, that was enough to make Daemon think straight once again.
Before he could begin to answer that, a sound cut through the silence.
"Whoosh."
"Ahh…?" Daemon watched once more one of his flimsy understanding about the tower was getting destroyed.
A portal. Standing where nothing had been a moment before.
"You must be shitting me." Daemon stared at it. "A portal, don't tell me I have been set in one of the dungeons." A portal appeared in the first trial under only one circumstance: a party challenge and succeeds in beating one of the four dungeons hidden in the Basement. "No wonder there was a level-thirty here."
The four dungeons were designed for parties — groups of Awakeners at level nine or ten, with solid teamwork and good equipment . That was the baseline expectation.
"So why am I here?" he said slowly. "All four dungeons have to be sought out, and you have to meet all the requirements just to enter in them."
He turned it over in his mind. "And which one is this? The Graveyard of the Dead?" He frowned. "But there are no goblins in the Graveyard — and there was no Corpse Golem supposed to be in the Goblin Forest either."
None of it added up. So he set it aside.
"At the very least I made it to the end. I shouldn't waste any more time." He rolled his shoulders in excitement. "Let's see what I actually got."
***
[The Courageous Fool]
Rank: Uncommon
"There is a fine line between bravery and idiocy, yet you have managed to delete the line entirely."
Description: This title is granted to one who lacks the wisdom to fear and the sense to hesitate. You are a man sprinting toward a cliff, convinced you could fly—and remarkably, you haven't hit the ground yet.
Title Attributes
You are too oblivious to be terrified. Grants resistance toward fear.
Grants +5 to: [END], [STR], [DEX], [SPR], [Willpower], and [Sixth Sense].
***
The description of the title was definitely scoffing at him. But it came with a buff noteless, so he chose to be gracious about it.
Though he still was far from sure exactly how much the resistance to fear would help, as it was harder to quantify. The stats, however, were a bit more tangible as he looked at them. Five points across the board, out of nowhere, was nothing to complain about — whatever the message it arrived with.
***
[Doubtless]
Rank: Uncommon
"Wisdom is a burden that you have graciously declined to carry."
Description: To doubt is to be human, but you have transcended such trivialities. By embracing advice with absolute conviction, you have turned ignorance into an impenetrable armor. Truth cannot hurt you, for you have simply refused to acknowledge its existence. You are not right, but you are certain, and in a world of chaos, that is a terrifying power.
Title Attributes
Your reality is the only one that matters. Grants resistance toward mind manipulation.
Grants +5 to: [END], [SPR], [Soul], [Willpower], and [Sixth Sense].
***
This time Daemon wasn't amused at all, his mouth was twitching. "Alright. I get it. I'm dumb. Did you really need to give me two titles just to make your point?" He exhaled through his nose. "Let's see the last one. The one that at least has the decency not to sneer in its name. I'm hoping it changes the subject."
***
[Inconceivable Victory]
Rank: Legendary
"A single strike to shatter the heavens; a single victory to mock the wise."
Description: With one decisive blow, you ended a calamity that should have been impossible for you to defeat. Logic demanded your death; the records predicted your failure. By winning where the odds were non-existent, you have committed a crime yet you don't know it. This triumph is prodigious in and of itself; a victory that the world cannot conceive, yet is forced to accept.
Title Attributes
You carry the weight of an impossible feat. You exude a natural aura of authority and possess a high resistance toward Rank Suppression from beings of higher rank.
Grants +30 to all core stats: [INT], [END], [STR], [DEX], [PER], [SPR], [MAG].
Title Skill
[Path to Victory]
Type: Passive
Description: The Tower acknowledged your habit of succeeding against the impossible. When engaged in combat against a greater number of foes or an opponent of a higher Rank, your spirit burns brighter to bridge the gap.
Effect: Increases all attributes by 10% to 30% based on the disparity of power between the user and the enemy.
***
"Of all that's holy — a legendary title." Daemon stared at the screen, genuinely stunned. Then he read through what it offered, and the stun deepened into something closer to awe. "And it doesn't even make fun of me."
Despite everything, he couldn't help it. A slow, incredulous smile crept across his face. The first two titles had mocked him thoroughly — but they were still an increase in strength. And whatever the Blessing of an Abomination turned out to be, that was yet another unknown waiting to be unwrapped.
Not bad, he thought, for a situation that had gone wrong in almost every conceivable way.