First things first Bethany elected to deal with the screens that had appeared, she hoped that would explain what had happened to her. After that she could worry about the world beyond the screens and sorting out her next step. Before that though she slipped off the backpack and brought her weapon to her hands, to ensure she was properly equipped in case anything attacked her without much notice. She put the backpack back on and tightened it as much as possible, as she didn’t want it’s weight leaving her off kilter. She pulled up her screens.

Sponsored Trial: Butter Churning (uncommon) 1

Trial Completed

Promised Trial Rewards: 10 Trial Credits (Butter Churning), 2 extra Trial Credits (unassigned), Trial Crafted Half-Staff

Bonus Reward: 2 Trial Credits (unassigned) converted to Trial Credit (Busking) and Trial Credit (bartering) due to performance at Trial.

Butter Churning (uncommon): Level 2 (10 Trials credits)

You are beginning to become more experienced in the process of butter churning.

Butter takes rough 5% less time to make and comes out 10% smoother.

Name

Bethany Oakfenny

Title(s)

Solarslut

Mana Type

Cosmic (rare)

Level

2

Trial Credits

17

Skills:

Half-staff (common)

1 (5 Trial Credits)

Butter churning (uncommon)

2 (10 Trial Credits)

Busking (common)

0 (1 Trial Credit)

Bartering (common)

0 (1 Trial Credit)

In the interim time Stilwart had explained Trial Credits further to Bethany. There were two main types. Those you were awarded for Trials that were reflected in skill levels and those that were either rewards for exception performances or could be traded for. These had no effect on skill level. Both types of Trial Credit could be spent without any adverse effect although Stilwart hadn’t explained how she could spent them with the system, instead insisting she focuses on collecting them. He also suggested if people could be easily convinced to part with them via trade and it didn’t feel too sleezy then it wouldn’t be Bethany’s worst idea. She told herself she wouldn’t take advantage of people like that. Probably.

The final screen turned out to be related to her current Trial, something she was curious about given the weird situation.

Trial: Trial Taking (ultra-rare) 1

Watch the Trial Taker and evaluate his ability.

Time Limit: n/a

This was something very different, somehow, she had bypassed Tem completely and ended up in a Trial for a skill she didn't even know existed. She found herself in a large room, with a small cot at the back. To the side was a table of refreshments and food. In front of her sat a large desk in front of an even larger screen that looked to be paused at the start of a video file.

Bethany wandered first over to the food, she wasn't in any rush, and she wanted to understand the general room before focusing in on the clear main focus of the Trial. Despite being unfamiliar with the technology a week ago Harri had shown her a computer several times and she reckoned she could parse the functions of the desk fairly quickly.

The snacks provided were clearly influenced by her presence as they were an eclectic mix of food she had come across and enjoyed on both Earth and Lexicoth. She helped herself to a couple of grapes as she perused and grabbed a small pastry and stuck the kettle on. While it boiled, she inspected the bed. It seemed fairly basic, comfier than the one she had at home but not as nice as the one she had on Lexicoth, something she was aware might be a common theme going forwards. Having wasted enough time procrastinating and with the kettle boiled she made a tea and approached the unfamiliar desk.

Again, it had clearly been based on what she was familiar with resembling the make of Harri's computer almost exactly. Bethany thumbed her necklace as she thought about Harri, it had been mere minutes since she'd seen her, but she was all too aware of how long it would be until they saw each other again. If ever.

She settled in at the desk and pressing a few buttons got the video to play. She found with the controller provided she could manoeuvre the camera to choose her angle, much like Guivenier's games. Bethany wondered what would have happened if she hadn't been exposed to that tech, would the room have matched her knowledge levels or would she just have had to learn how to work it.

The Trial she was watching was clearly a Sponsored Trial much like her most recent one had been. Unlike hers it was set in an arena. The man was looking much less shocked and bewildered than she had however, so this was clearly a familiar experience to him. The figure who was humanoid, but not quite human enough that Bethany couldn't tell the difference. She watched as he pulled up his screens and seemed to adjust them. Bethany was surprised to find that when she focused on him, she could pull up his basic info, not much more than she could get if she met him in person

Name

Andrew Mirth’dok

Level

6

Relevant Skills:

Shortbow (common)

0 (3 Trials Credits)

Andrew's stat screen obviously contained more hidden info based on his overall level. She idly wondered what mana type he might have and what rarity it was. She still didn’t understand the point of mana but was confident it would come up eventually. She'd picked up that skill rarity wasn't always linked to strength but often was. Further than that she had managed to learn very little about mana types both Stilwart and Harri stating there were unofficial rules about that sort of thing and sharing wasn’t advised.

She watched fairly uninterestedly as another humonoid like man explained the basics to Andrew, which he didn’t interrupt despite assumedly already knowing it all. She felt comfortable with the explanation Stilwart had provided and further she noticed how the explanation Andrew was being given seemed much more bareboned. She smirked at the end when Andrew had confidently negotiated for a reasonable amount of Trial Credits. Based on the Snarl from the man who sponsored him, he was clearly hoping for a naïve Trial Taker to take advantage of.

She skipped forward a little, the gist she picked up was that Andrew had been summoned for a day of archery challenges by the arena staff, a seemingly common practise as they had access to near unlimited performers without having to care too much about their safety. There were always more Trial Takers after all. Andrew had managed to negotiate to a Trial Credit for just two days work, which by Bethany's understanding was extremely generous given his skill level. She assumed this was due to the possible risk to life and limb. Bethany watched more closely as the man began competing in the event, he seemed good enough at the bow. This was a surprise given his current skill level, but Bethany assumed that unlike her Andrew had thrown himself into practise between Trials rather than crying and being imprisoned like she had.

Unfortunately, he was seemingly up against people with much more experience with a bow, if not skill level, and managed to come last. His form had been good though and although the person who had summoned him was clearly annoyed Bethany thought he'd done a reasonable job; Andrew didn’t seem too annoyed either. She watched through the rest of his first day of challenges at the two-day event. He'd managed to hold his own better in the next couple of events and was noticeably improving every time he picked up the bow. She briefly watched his other activities while not competing but set them to fast forward when it was clear he wasn't doing anything outstanding with his time. As such she decided it was unlikely, she was going to award any bonus awards from the Trial. That first day of challenges seemed mostly harmless to the contestants being more tests of skill than bravery or survival.

Obviously, Bethany wasn't knowledgeable about archery but when searching on the computer she found there were several videos showing people of a variety of skill levels demonstrating their skills as well as seeing videos of the Trials he would have come up against if he wasn't committed to a sponsored trial. Having spent a couple of hours or so watching and rewatching the various trials and comparing them to Andrew's performance, Bethany felt fairly confident he was working at an equivalent level to somebody who had earnt 7 Credits in archery. In spite of that, Bethany didn't commit to her answer though and continued to watch for another hour before decided she wasn't about to change her decision no matter how long she took. As such she closed all her video tabs and pulled up the screen where she was required to put in her answer. Feeling as confident as she could and holding her necklace tightly, she entered her answer and let out a short should of delight when the screen flashed green displaying the phrase "Answer within acceptable error boundaries given by qualified administrators".

Bethany was relieved and wasn't going to quit there. Her near death experiences weren’t going to end any time soon and she wanted to know what the Trial Taking skill could offer her. After all she wasn't all that clear on how she had triggered it and didn't think she would be able to replicate such a feat, so she may as well get something out of it. As such she stepped through the rift to continue her Trial.

The rift took her to exactly where she had started, something she had expected given past experience.

Trial: Trial Taking (ultra-rare) 2

Watch the Trial Taker and evaluate his ability.

Time Limit: n/a

She swiped away the box. It was more or less identical to the previous one meaning Bethany knew what she was doing. Despite that she had also noticed the time and saw it was early evening already. As such she elected to take the evening to herself to wake up fresh tomorrow. She grabbed herself some food and briefly watched through the trial she was meant to be judging, treating it more like a movie than work, before retiring to bed. The next morning, she awoke and watching the video more critically. She spent the next two days rating trials fairly eventfully until she came to fresh faced to judge her fourth Trial. She started the video and was surprised to see a very familiar face.