Much to Marcello’s surprise, inside the golden treasure chest was a pair of pastel colored flamboyant billowed pants that looked like something a teen from an eighties movie would be wearing, except the silk used to make the pants were quite different from anything found on earth.

He used identify on the pair of billowed pants neatly folded in the large golden chest.

[Charismatic White Spider Silk Pants of Chakra (epic)] – Legends once said that a certain lizardfolk grand shaman once sported a particularly stylish pair of pants crafted from rare silk from the dangerous white spider. The pants granted the wearer greatly increased agility and walking speed, slipperiness due to the nature of the fabric used, along with increased immunity to freezing, burning, and poison. Some believe that even in death these spiders possess the ability to claw their way from the grave to seek vengeance against those who would dare wear their precious silk as pants, although it is believed that this is merely a rumor. +Large Bonus Agility ++Walking and Running speed +Freeze immunity +Burn immunity +Poison immunity +Enrage white spiders on sight +Style

A pair of epic pants! This was the highest rarity item he had ever encountered thus far. Marcello knew that they looked kind of silly and all, but he wasn’t complaining when he saw that they gave so many bonuses to things that he was sorely lacking, especially agility and walking speed which his class was particularly bad at.

He noted that large bonus verbiage description for agility actually meant +++++ or five plus signs, just in shorthand notation.

The fact that the pants enraged white spiders on sight kind of made him nervous, but the upside to the pants were too good to pass up on. Marcello promptly replaced his platemail legs with the pants, as the suit of armor he was currently wearing conferred no additional bonuses in its current locked state. If he evaluated his current armor as uncommon or rare rarity in its current state, then it was a no brainer to replace the pieces with epic tier equipment or even rare and uncommon items with better effects, even if it made him look absolutely silly when doing so.

It did kind of bother him to be like one of those characters in an rpg that wore equipment solely for functionality rather than fashion, leaving them to look like a strangely dressed clown.

Oh well. Like he usually said, a dead body wasn’t fashionable anyway.

With the pair of silky smooth buttery handfeel pants now on his legs, giving him a breezy lower half compared to the stuffiness of the platemail legs, he was ready to check the silver treasure chest. He went in descending order of chest rarity because obviously it was better to see the best loot first.

The silver chest was glowing with a silver white aura, and Marcello opened it happily, ready to receive more loot. The silver lid came off and revealed what seemed like a bottle in a fine silver wrapper. Marcello tore away the wrapper and revealed an opened flask containing a dusty old faded white pill. Marcello carefully picked up the pill and sniffed it, the foul smell and taste hit him hard in the face. A fresh coating of sweat started to pour down Marcello's face. His eyes started to water and then he sat down on the damp cavern floor and identified the pill, which was the size of a tangerine.

[White Powder Pill of Boundless Health] – A pill forged by a master alchemist. Grants the consumer a permanent hp bonus of ten percent of their current health. This pill must be consumed within one hour of discovery, as it is rapidly decaying.

It wasn’t like Marcello was dying for more hp, but it was nice to have in general. Time to eat the rancid looking pill.

He took the pill out of the bottle and popped it in his mouth, only to realize that it was like the devil himself had eaten the pill. He felt the strong urge to scream as his flesh sizzled and burnt in his mouth. Marcello quickly chewed and swallowed the white faded pill, then took out a flask of whiskey that he had saved for a special occasion from the tutorial store from his inventory and quickly put the flask to his mouth. He slowly drank down the whiskey and rested his head against the side of the chest as the white pill burned down his throat.

“Jesus christ…” Marcello groaned, feeling his entire body burn from the effects of the white powder pill of boundless health. He swiped open his status screen to see that he gained 28 extra hp, which took into effect the bonus health he received from the platform of the king’s downfall. Not bad.

Honestly, he had very little faith in the carpenter profession at the very beginning, but it was beginning to show its merits in a big way.

After spending ten minutes recovering from the white pill, Marcello moved onto the two bronze chests.

In the first bronze chest was a dagger, and in the second chest a ring.

[Dagger of Bleeding (uncommon)] – A dagger made by a competent blacksmith. Capable of producing lacerations that cause intense bleeding. +Bleed

It was an alright uncommon rarity dagger, nothing to write home about but decent enough to use in close quarters or just sell for some dough. Although it was the same rarity as his archeios javelin, he felt like the quality of the javelin was a bit higher than this dagger. After all, even within rarity tiers there was a range of quality.

The next item was the ring.

[Ring of Mana Regeneration (uncommon)] – A ring that amplifies mana regeneration by a moderate amount. +Wisdom

This one was a lot more useful for him now that he had his carpenter profession, which was quite a mana hog of a profession. There was an inherent mana regeneration effect in the terrestrial plane, which was the only reason why he could construct such a large wooden platform with his abysmal wisdom stat. Once he left this biome, Marcello would need to seek out mana regeneration items with high priority.

“Alright,” Marcello said to himself, standing up. He had completed the impossible trial and looted all of the treasure in the King Jaeger’s lair, stuff that he probably would never have been able to get to if the King Jaeger was still alive.

It was time to move on. Marcello walked to the illustrious silver door and placed his hand on the doorknob, stepping out approximately nine and a third days after he entered.

[Objective: Find the exit and proceed to the next area 1/1]

[Trial complete]

[Assessing results]

[Rewards have been amplified due to trial difficulty: IMPOSSIBLE]

Clear bonus: 10,000

Monsters slain bonus: 40,371

Boss fight solo clear bonus: 300,000

Party size bonus multiplier: 190%

Number of players below maximum * 10%

No casualty bonus multiplier: 150%

Bonus available, no casualties sustained

TOTAL: 998,557 points

Title conferred: [Master of the Impossible Trial]

[Master of the Impossible Trial] – Survive and beat an impossible trial in a solo party. +5 to all stats.

Title conferred: [Pioneer of the Terrestrial Plane]

[Pioneer of the Terrestrial Plane] – You are the first human in your universe to travel to the Terrestrial Plane and emerge alive. As such, you have received a pioneer status. +5 wisdom +5 intelligence +1 Pioneer token

As access to the tutorial store has closed, tutorial points will be converted into system points.

TOTAL: 998,557 points

System points may be used to barter and trade in the greater universe. Although points are not the only form of currency in the planes, they are the only currency that will be accepted in system-provided stores like the tutorial store that you may find in your travels.

Impossible trial special reward conferred: Profession evolution.

Carpenter (practiced novice) -> Carpenter of the Ages (practiced novice)

A massive deluge of notifications appeared as Marcello stepped through the silver door and arrived in the hollowed out inside of a tree trunk which formed the modest abode of a small gnome man with a white beard and a straw hat holding a shell in his hand. A small unassuming bed lay beside the fire in a small circular hollow.

A wooden table served as a kitchen. In his hand a wooden scoop poured some broth on a piece of stale bread. The gnome raised his face and smiled as he stared up at the knight that had just walked into his home. A second hollow was carved out of the trunk beside the first which was barely visible in the dim light. The gnome carefully climbed down the tree trunk and stepped over the doorway where his tiny bed lay. He pulled back the thick straw tarp to reveal a soft brown blanket and sat down in his small bed and waited to see what the human knight would do.

Marcello spoke first. “Hi.”

The gnome smiled, looking up and down the tall human knight’s attire. “Nice pants,” was his first comment.

“Thanks. Er… who are you?”

The gnome laughed. “A strange human walks into my home out of nowhere, and asks me who I am? Well, surprises like this one are to be expected, with this job I’ve taken.”

“Job? Sorry, I don’t follow,” Marcello replied promptly.

“You see, I was approached by the system one day with a job. A lot of points for a pretty simple task. Just live in a forest for two months, and tell any humans that you encounter about a list of quests, if you so desire.”

“What quests?” Marcello asked, as he suddenly saw that there was a question mark floating above the man’s head. He was one of the quest givers that the system had talked about

“Who knows?” the gnome laughed. “Telling humans about the quests was simply a suggestion, not an order after all. So why should I tell you about the quests?”

“I don’t know,” Marcello shrugged. “I’m just as lost as you here…”

“Hm,” the gnome said in a pondering manner. “Well, there is one way I could give you a quest. You can trade me those nice fancy pants of yours for one of mine! Don’t worry if you can’t fit my pants, as I can sew you up a pair that will fit those giant legs of yours no problem!”

Marcello sighed. The gnome wanted his epic tier spider silk pants in exchange for quest information.

“Sorry, but no.”

“Drats,” the gnome cursed. “You’re a stingy one, aren’t you. How about this. Why don’t you tell me how you got those pants of yours, and if I like your story I’ll give you a quest?”

Marcello laughed. “You’re not even going to believe it if I told you, old man. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Yes, of course!” the old gnome said with a grin, taking out a tome with a quill in his hand. “Shoot.”

“So it all started when I was at home one night, just laying in bed on my phone. Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know what that is. Anyway, I was suddenly taken to this other universe, where…”

Many hours later…

A wide eyed gnome stared at the human knight in awe, his quill scribbling voraciously.

“And that was when the King Jaeger saw me. I tried to run, but it was far too late, and so it…”

-------

Meanwhile, in the rest of the forest, not a single human had seen a so-called quest giver yet. Some people were beginning to think that the system had lied to them, and that this entire third trial was just an elaborate prank. Although some human initiates were able to get past the high level wolves and enter into previously unexplored areas of the forest, progress from then on was blocked yet again by another set of higher level mobs.

-------

“That’s when I went into the cave, and found four treasure chests! One of them was a golden chest, and when I opened it… I found this pair of pants.”

“And after I took the rest of the items from the treasure chests, I opened the door again and ended up in your house here, talking to you.”

The gnome wearing a straw hat cheered at the end of the story, scribbling the last of his notes before slamming the tome shut.

“What a journey!” said the gnome in a jubilant mood. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Marcello!”

“Likewise, Garib,” Marcello replied with a smile. It felt good bragging about his experiences thus far, even if it was to a strange gnome living in the middle of a tree trunk.

“I am thoroughly impressed by your story,” Garib replied. “You deserve this quest more than anything else! Now you see, in the heart of the forest lies a strange grove…”