Trial of the Dragon

It was roughly five minutes until the bell rang, signaling the school day for most students to be done. It took another two minutes until the first students came through the big entrance doors leading out of the school. Kim was among those first students as she quickly headed over to John who had now switched over to watching things inside the Barrier. Well, not only the Barrier but also his Nexus. On a whim, he tried to do the same kind of thing he did with the Barrier with the Nexus, and it worked just the same way.

He was looking over the island in a bird’s eye perspective, the white mansion glowing in the soft light of the ambient lighting. He could see Gary and Thorn on the lawn outside the house, far apart from one another, seemingly napping in the shades of two trees. All in all, it looked very peaceful and serene.

Transreceptive Eye, Lv.8
Maximum Skill Level for current Level reached

And there was the level-up he had been waiting for. It was simply stupid to let an ability like that go to waste. Though he was now at a soft limit of the skill, but at least it would probably still level up with him.

As Kim approached him, John stood up and grabbed his backpack. Once she was close enough to hear him, he looked at her with a grin, “Moon, finally, I’ve been waiting for 10 minutes now for you to arrive.” He used the exact phrasing Kim had used earlier today to ‘reprimand’ John as he was arriving.

It was a fact obviously not lost on Kim, as she gained a soft red hue on her cheeks, “I came as quickly as I could, but then I assume you did so as well this morning… I can’t judge others just because of my way of transportation.”

John then had to ask what that was, “Well, what is your way of transportation?”

Kim just shrugged and slowly walked out of the entrance of the school while stretching, “I mostly run the way here. It is a good distance to get one to wake up, but not too far to be too exhausting.” Now that was something that John felt like he should be able to do by now. Thanks to all the stat boost he had gotten, this should not be a problem!

“Alright, that sounds good!”

And then they began to run, with Kim leading the way and John following her.

In hindsight, it did not sound good. John obviously forgot to ask how long they had to run to reach Kim’s home, and that oversight now had him heaving heavily from the exhaustion. It turned out that the distance Kim ran daily was about the distance of a half marathon, so about 13 miles, that meant 26 miles per day just to get to school and back… That simply felt insane to John. Well, at least he got something out of it!

Achievement unlocked: Clap Clap
Do something that a normal person would describe as an actual workout. You poor boy, now you know what normal people have to do to keep in shape. So be glad I don’t put you through this more!
+100 XP (XP Reduction applied)
+2 END
+1 STR
+1 AGI

Natural Threshold of 25 Endurance reached! HP per Endurance increased! Movement reduction by Armor reduced by 5%

That was very much so worth it, but he doubted that he would gain much more stats from actually working out, though that was something he had to try at a later date. For now, his main priority was to gain his breath again.

Kim looked at him a bit worried, “You’re not used to these kinds of exercises, are you? I wonder how you got the power to wield that weapon of yours…” to which John slowly rose up again, regaining something that was similar to a normal pulse.

“I told you, I’m the Gamer. I get my powers through the things I do and through leveling. I don’t need to exercise most of the time,” he said with a weak grin.

The Korean girl wrinkled her forehead to that, “That still seems highly implausible, but I assume it is not I who is going to be the judge of that, but my father. Now let’s get in and not let him wait.”

Now that John wasn’t busy with keeping his lunch in, he was able to see the building they were standing in front of. From the outside, it looked like a normal multiple story dojo, with the first floor being the actual dojo and a second story to house the people living here.

They entered the dojo and were immediately greeted by four people sitting on pillows on the far right of the hall. In the middle sat a middle-aged man with greying hair, clad in an ornate kimono. That was probably Kim’s father. His Observe confirmed that.

Kwang Moon
Lv. 56 Martial Arts Master
<Iron Tiger of the South>
RP: +5 (His daughter trusts you enough not to end you, so he’ll at least treat you with respect)

Next to him sat a… man?... in an expensive looking smoking and wearing a classical top hat. The most striking thing about his get-up was the the mask shaped like the skull of a big lizard, though. John was pretty damn sure that this man was Magoi Magus, the man he was supposed to bring that disk to.

Magoi Magus
Lv. 66 High Fateweaver
<Grande Fateweaver>
RP: +25 (You seem to have made some interesting friends. He likes people that are interesting)

To the left of Magoi sat someone that John would describe as concentrated edge. There sat a woman, maybe one or two years older than John, with black hair, black lipstick, a black dress, a black fishnet shirt, and black boots. The only thing not black about her was her pale white skin and her brown eyes. Her body was slim; she had small breasts and overall little obvious muscle. She looked at John with a lot of doubt and a raised eyebrow.

Hannah Sterling
Lv. 15 Umbramancer
<???>
RP: -10 (You look like a lot of hype about nothing. Until you haven’t proven your skills, she thinks you’re a wannabe mage. She would also prefer if you don’t ogle at her)
Sexual Preference: Being Dominated

On the right of Kwang sat another girl, wearing a school uniform. She had blue hair, flawless skin, and seemed to be pretty small, probably only reaching John up to his chest. She had big blue eyes, shining with curiosity as she looked at John, who looked straight back at her with an equally curious look. Something about her seemed...off.

Kaen Otoshidane
Lv. 18 Ordinary Highschool Student
<???>
RP: +15 (You smell like dragon, she likes that. You also seem to be a good guy, so there’s that)
Sexual Preference: Intimacy, Sauna

Okay, something was definitely up here, none of the people here seemed ordinary, and someone called “Ordinary High School Student” was certainly not ordinary…

Magoi seemed to have picked up John’s confusion, “Ohoho~, going straight to work, hm? Well, I wanted to put this test off until a bit later and let Kwang have the first word, but with your curiosity, you obviously jumped right in. Is it okay if I take over for now?”

The martial arts master only chuckled, “For me to object it’s too late now anyway since you already started. Well, go ahead, I’ll welcome the young man once you are done.” Magoi redirected his head back to John.

“Now, Mr. Newman, in front of you are four people. None, one, multiple or all have some kind of information falsified or suppressed. Tell me which ones you think do.”

John took a second to think about the things he had seen in those Observes, were there any other things that could be false? Coming to no other conclusion, he simply pointed at both girls sitting on the far ends of the groups. They both have things that I can't see, and Ms. Otoshidane has something that just looks really suspicious… Having ‘Ordinary Highschool Student’ as a class doesn’t seem right, especially with that high of a level. Also, something about her skin just doesn’t feel right. And Ms. Sterling just has a title I can’t see. If there are other things that are falsified, then I don’t see them.”

The High Fateweaver nodded with interest as he thought about what John just said, “Very well, that will suffice. So, in summary, you do have abilities that give you information about certain people, you are able to see obvious deceptions, but more advanced fakes are out of your reach for now. And just so you know, every one of us had some modicum of deception on them that gives false information. But this will suffice for now, I hand it back to you Kwang and apologize for my interruption.”

Kwang just shook his head, but quickly looked over at John again with a serious look on his face, “Now, let me welcome you into my dojo first, John Newman. You are here because my daughter has found you dabbling with things not entirely normal on school grounds. For that reason, I am here to judge if you are a threat or if you are a potential ally in the future. My friend Magoi is here to judge if you are competent enough in your skills so that he might offer you something to benefit everyone in this room. I will look at your combative skills and your overall powers, while Magoi will check your knowledge and your skills outside of combat. Any questions so far?” As John shook his head, the head of the Moon family kept going on, “Very well, then I will give the word to Magoi so that he can give you the overview of what you can expect in the next two or so hours.”

John quickly sent a text message to his mom, telling her that he was out with friends and that she didn’t have to wait up for him with dinner. Mr. Magus then stood up and walked around the room while speaking, “Now, this test will have three components: Combat, Barrier, and Knowledge. You will be judged on how well you can fight, how well you can build Barriers, and how much you know and how good you can gather new knowledge. That last part we already did partly, but the rest will come later.

“Now, for the combat part, you will get three different tasks. You will fight someone in a pure melee fight, with sparring weapons provided, with no use of your abilities. Then you will fight someone with your skills, and then you will fight something of my choosing to the ****. Don’t worry, there probably won’t be any harm is done to you, or at least nothing permanent. For the Barrier part of the test, we will judge two Barriers of your creation, one as close to reality as possible, the other freestyle. For the last part, the two of us will have a private interview so that you can freely talk if you so desire. Anything unclear?” John shook his head once again. “Good, then we can start with the combat test. Please put on any gear that you deem necessary.”

In an instant, the world around them shattered and they instantly stood in the center of an intricately designed room, fit to be inside the house of some nobleman. As all four of the people in front of him walked up to a platform from where they looked down on him, John had to ask, “Uhm… Who’s my opponent?”

“I am.”