Bethany was glad to land on her feet rather than on the ground this time, the mud she felt under her feet was not an appealing addition to her outfit. She couldn’t take in more than that though, given the string of blue boxes taking up her eyeline. She turned her head to and fro trying to see around the squares blocking her vision. Unable to shift the things, she focused in on what it actually said:

First time accessing…. Initialising name, analysing for most common nomenclature.

ERROR TN632

Two names on record: Bethany and Solarslut. Accessing further processing power and running protocol FTN001.

ERROR TN632 resolved

Further processing reveals name to be Bethany granting Solarslut as title.

Title Gained: Solarslut (unique)

Unique title gained based on alternative name used before trial activity.

Changes mana type from earth (common) to cosmic (rare).

Rift: Staff (uncommon) Trial 1

Hit all the targets using a staff provided.

Time Limit: none

First Timer Notice

Think 'dismiss' to close notifications, and 'profile' to see your current status. Other features will be explained as necessary.

Having read through the boxes Bethany felt more confused than anything else. While Tem seemed to have explained a lot of the big picture stuff to her she was feeling let down about the actual logistics of it all. What was mana, did it matter that it had changed? More importantly why the fuck had the system attributed any legitimacy to her cruel nickname, was that stuck with her for life now? Having reread the boxes to make sure she fully understood what it was saying she thought dismiss and smiled as the boxes collapsed in on each other. Feeling reassured she could remove the boxes she decided to explore the situation completely and thought profile pulling up another box instantly.

Name

Bethany Oakfenny

Title(s)

Solarslut

Mana Type

Cosmic (rare)

Level

0

Skills:

n/a

Bethany found herself disappointed with the list, it didn’t actually have any more information than she had already picked up from the previous boxes. She dismissed the boxes once more and decided to take in her actual surroundings.

In hindsight Bethany realised it was probably foolish to not have immediately checked she was safe, but she was lucky enough it didn’t matter. She had been overwhelmed by all the new information and now she had a moment to think she could feel the adrenalin draining out of her as she came to terms with the fact that everything had changed irreversibly and worse, her life could be at risk.

Taking in the leafy surroundings once again Bethany found herself in a small clearing roughly the size of a building back home. Beyond the clearing were trees so thick it would take significant climbing and possibly a machete to leave the clearing on foot. To her left was a hip height wicker basket filled with around 25 wooden sticks of various lengths and thicknesses. She pulled one out and found it lighter than she expected and smooth to the touch. The stick had clearly been both sanded and varnished using a high-quality material.

Despite not knowing what she was doing Bethany tapped the staff against her hand experimentally and found it remarkably flexible and almost bouncy. She tried out another staff and found it similar but with slightly less flex. While all the staffs were clearly made to a high quality, they seemed to be a combination of different woods and different varnishes adorning the poles. Given the lack of time limit in this section Bethany took her time feeling out the staffs to decide which one she was most comfortable with.

In the end she settled with one of the shorter staffs in the wicker basket choosing one that came up roughly to her waist when stood on its end. This made it roughly the same size as the stick from her now destroyed butter churn and despite its very different nature, it felt more familiar in her hands. She picked one with a deep red varnish to it. This wasn’t an informed decision, but it was a shade she couldn’t remember seeing previously and she was enamoured with it. Having selected her weapon and giving it some practise swings she found it sat most naturally with her stronger hand, in this case her left, halfway up the staff and her right holding near the base.

Feeling vaguely comfortable with the weapon Bethany stepped up onto the small, raised paving stone in the middle of clearly that she assumed would properly start the trial she was undergoing. Stepping up Bethany saw a shift in the upper right of her field of vision. A small 0/25 appearing there. This caused her to be momentarily distracted as the first target swung into her vision, coming up from the ground. The first target was already beginning to swing back down when Bethany jumping into action hitting it and causing the counter in her vision to tick up slightly 1/25. However, being unprepared for the first target also meant she was behind before the arrival of the second and though she managed to again hit it as it began to swing away this wasn’t a sustainable method and she missed her first target at 5/25. At this no more targets appeared, and Bethany took a moment to catch her breath. She wasn’t exactly sweating but she felt a lot more tired than she felt would be healthy given how little she had done. Butter churning wasn’t exactly a high impact work-out and she didn’t exercise for the fun of it.

Once she’d caught her breath and adjusted her grip on the staff she stepped off the stone and back onto it assuming quite rightly that would be enough to cause the targets to reset. This time she wasn’t startled by the targets appearing and found the staff much more comfortable in her hands than it had been the previous time. She made it a full 13/25 into the process before failing again. The targets hadn’t appeared in exactly the same locations this time as they had the last, but she found she had to use similar steps to hit the targets of the same number each time. She spent about an hour or so before hitting the twenties. The issue wasn’t hitting any one particular target it was that as she went, she got slower and slower which got her behind the curve and once behind the curve she couldn’t catch back up.

Another hour later Bethany found herself on an attempt that was hitting all the right spots, she coasted past both 10 and 15 without any struggle and only found herself starting to slow down around the 18th target. Despite the slipping performance she managed to pass her record of 22 hitting the tail end of both 23 and 24. The 25th target was sliding away and Bethany was confident she would be able to hit it. She turned and began the strike when she pulled herself back. After all she had no time limit here. Sure, she was aware of a lack of food and was concerned about how the world would be when she returned but she also didn’t want to waste the opportunity she had. She let the target vanish and, taking a deep breath, started the process again.

It was about another two hours, including a small break, before Bethany felt confident enough to finish the trial and move on. By this point she was consistently reaching 24/25 and felt comfortable adding the 25th in without any real struggle. Stepping up she began her final attempt. Her moves had started to flow into one another and though she couldn’t predict where the next target would appear she found she would naturally end one movement in prime position to hit the next target. She wove through the challenge and for the first time collided her staff with the 25th target. As she hit it, she heard a high dinging and two rips in reality appeared in front of her. Through one she could see her home village, the other showed only a darkness that looked like if you enter you could fall through forever. Against her better judgement Bethany stepped through the dark portal gritting her teeth for the fall her body expected to occur.

Instead of falling she found her foot immediate hit solid ground as normally as if she’d stepped through a doorway. The staff she had been holding however disappeared into motes of light as it passed through the rift. The motes danced around her hand slightly before falling towards the ground, fading before they reached it. Again, Bethany found a blue box blocking her vision, this one was much smaller though.

Rift: Staff (uncommon) Trial 2

Hit all the targets using a staff provided.

Time Limit: 1 hour

Bethany dismissed the box much faster this time aware of the time limit and potential dangers. Having dismissed the box she saw that in the top right where the target counter had been previously now sat a timer that was counting down from sixty minutes. Bethany wisely decided she didn’t want to find out what happened when the timer hit zero and quickly took in her surroundings. She immediately found it was almost identical to her previous trial, wicker basket and all. The trees were slightly leafier, and it was later in the day than the permanent midday of the previous challenge but for all intents and purposes it was the same. For this reason, Bethany felt fairly confident stepping up to the stone grabbing the same staff as last time. Stepping up again she quickly took note of the counter that appeared just under her timer. This time she had to hit a total of 30 targets. However, all her training paid off as she reached 29/30 with relative ease. Once again, she stopped herself before hitting the final target. While she had successfully almost reached 30 it wasn’t with as much ease as the first 25 so once again, she allowed herself to train with the restrictions in place.

She considered trying one of the other staffs to be better prepared regardless of length of stick but after getting a dismal 8/30 she decided to commit fully to the shorter weapon she had started with. She trained until the timer had 15 minutes left on it. In theory she could have kept going but in practise she didn’t want to take the risk. Completing the Trial met her with the same sound as the previous time and she, more confidently this time, stepped once more into the darkness. Before she did so she noted the timer didn’t stop just because she had succeeded at the Trial.

The next two Trials were more of the same increasing the number of targets by 5 and decreasing the amount of time Bethany had by 5 minutes too. Having yet to properly struggle thanks to her preparations in the first trial Bethany was still feeling good as she stepped into trial 5.