3.

“I die?”

“I mean, you die if you complete it too. Kind of implied by the whole ‘mortal’ thing.” Was she laughing?

Maiz took a deep, somewhat shaky, breath. “But if I don’t complete the trial, will I die soon after?”

“Hmmm, you might as well as far as I’m concerned. I hear the life of a Scholar isn’t that interesting. I don’t think I’d ever take the time to watch you from up here.”

“What? I’d have to be a Scholar?” That was hardly better as far as Maiz was concerned. He needed power, if he was going to make his dreams reality.

“That was actually the last bit of my ‘history lesson,’ as you called it. I didn’t really want to say it then, because I was going to have to ask you later anyways but… you know what? Why don’t we get started?”

“What? But--”

“Seeker, I must ask you to affirm the words of the updated contract.” The Judge’s eyes were almost blinding Maiz with their spectral green radiance. Her voice had taken on a strange, unsettling quality, as if she were speaking in perfect unison with another woman. As she said the words, she held out her hands, and an innocuous sheaf of papers appeared in her hands.

Maiz licked suddenly dry lips, trying to think of something to say. “I thought you said you didn’t like writing?”

She lost her unsettling--all right, terrifying--manner. “Well, I guess it does make this job a lot easier.” She held out the stack of papers.

Maiz accepted the papers, reading them. TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Underneath, in what seemed to Maiz to be unnecessarily small font, was... a contract. Sighing, Maiz sat down on the stone of the platform, and began to read.

*****

Approximately an hour later, Maiz dropped the last paper to the ground and stood up. He had a good handle on the rules of this trial now, if not the actual content itself. He glanced up, looking for Riala, and was surprised to find her standing right in front of him on the platform. She had a rather ridiculous look of incredulity on her face, mouth hanging open slightly, eyes wide.

“What?”

She snapped her mouth closed. “I observed over a thousand trials during my training under a senior Judge. I have never seen anyone who actually read the Terms and Conditions, let alone the updated version!”

Maiz scowled. It was rather annoying how, instead of writing a new set of rules for the new trials, the gods had apparently decided to just tack on a set of revisions at the end, invalidating most of what had come before it. But he was determined to do everything in his power to succeed in this trial. In any case, the contract had answered his question about the title he could earn. “So I get to choose an epic class title now, if I want?”

“Oh yeah, that was in there, huh? Right, I assume you know how we classify titles?”

“Right.” Maiz frowned. Something about what she’d just said... “There’s common, rare, epic, and legendary right? The contract said that the naming ritual mostly offers common and rare titles, with the occasional epic title mixed in.”

“Oh really? I wouldn’t know about that, I only care about the trials!” She laughed carelessly. There was definitely something bothering Maiz about this. “So do you want to take a look at the offers or...?”

Maiz blinked. “How?”

“Well you do have a name and a title, even if the title is temporary. Just look at your Name and Title Sheets silly! They should be there.”

Maiz’s eyes went wide. His Name Sheet? He’d been dreaming about seeing it since he’d first heard about from his father, when he was five or six. There was just one problem. “Uh, how do you open the Name Sheet exactly?”

She laughed again. “You just think your name and title, then think ‘information request,’ and it’ll pop up.”

Maiz immediately did as she advised, finding the process much easier than he might have before spending hours basically drilling holes in his mind. He finally saw his Name Sheet, overlaying his vision in spectral green lettering:

Maiz-Novice Seeker (Rank 1- 0/30)

Title Status-Hidden (Default)

Bonus Titles-None

(New Title Options Available)

Health-80/80

Mana-140/140 (+ 1.1 pts/second)

Stamina: 60/60 (+ .7 pts/seconds)

Attributes (4 Unspent Attribute Points):

Age

16

Constitution

8

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

11

Strength

6

Dexterity

7

Agility

12

Charisma

9

Luck

8

Skills: None

Spells: None

At first Maiz was confused as to how to view the ‘New Title Options,’ but when he focused in on the phrase in his vision, a new sheet filled his eyes.

Title Options:

Seeker (Current Title)- Seekers are applicants in the Gods’ Trial. They must prove their skill with no special abilities or talents.

+4 to Attributes of Choice per rank

Starting Talent- None

Spellsword- Spellswords are specialized spellcasters, focusing on channeling elemental effects through their weapons and armor. They are especially suited to small-scale combat and breaking enemy lines on the battlefield.

+1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, and Attribute of Choice per rank.

Starting Talent- Flaming Strike (Creates a temporary aura of flame around the Spellsword’s weapon which lasts for one strike. Deals +50 fire damage and has chance to burn enemy. Cost: 30 mana).

Controller- Controllers specialize in magic designed to overpower a target’s faculties, influencing the target through suggestion and even outright mental domination

+1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Attribute of Choice per rank.

Starting Talent- Minor Suggestion (Allows caster to give a suggestion to the target in a non-combat situation which does not directly contradict the target’s morals. Suggestion has a chance of success based on caster’s rank, Charisma, Luck, relationship to target, and the target’s experience level. Cost: 10 mana).

Dreadlord- Dreadlords are warleaders who use the undead as soldiers. Dreadlords are capable of raising special subtypes of undead in limited number, but they excel in commanding already raised undead to form large armies. In battle, their abilities focus on the enhancement of their undead forces, though some can directly use their minions to empower themselves.

+2 to Intelligence, +1 to Constitution and Attribute of Choice per rank.

Starting Talent- Bind Undead (Allows caster to bind an undead of overall rank lower than the caster’s to the will of the caster. Caster may have the skill active on up to 5 undead at the starting rank, and standard minion restriction apply to this effect. (Cost: -10 total mana per minion bound).

Assign Title? All Title choices cannot be switched.

Maiz’s jaw was hanging open slightly. He had never heard of any of these titles, but it was clear that they were powerful. Any of them would probably allow him to begin pursuing his plans in a few years, or perhaps even sooner.

It was also nice to finally be able to see his attributes. For many titles, those attributes were just as important as any skills they offered, allowing superhuman feats of strength, speed, and power. A normal person Maiz’s age should have around 10 attribute points in each category, meaning that he was far above the norm in Intelligence and Wisdom, and rather low on Strength and Dexterity. Not exactly unexpected: Maiz had spent his childhood indoors, reading and helping his father sorting books, not outside playing like many other children.

Maiz was eager to take one of these amazing titles and quit while he was ahead. But… he did not really understand all of the information before him, and he could not risk making a poor choice and regretting it later. No matter how much Intelligence he had, he just did not know enough about how titles worked to do this himself.

He needed help.

“Excuse me?” The young woman had sat down in the glade, idly pulling and examining blades of grass as she waited for Maiz to read through his character sheet.

“Hmm?” She looked up. “Oh, by the way, you can call me Riala.”

“Riala.” It was technically impolite to use a person’s name before they said it themselves, though she hadn’t seemed to care. “Could I ask your help in getting a handle on these title options?”

“Oooh sure! I love looking at different titles! Will you give me permission to see your Title Sheet?”

“Sure.” Maiz was going to ask how to share his Options Sheet with her, but a notification immediately popped up in his vision. Confirm: Share Title Sheet with Riala-Journeyman Celestial Judge? Maiz thought yes, and Riala suddenly had a vacant expression, eyes moving as she read Maiz’s Title options.

“Wow, an epic noncombat title! That’s really rare!”

“Really?” Maiz had been thinking that it was odd that he had even gotten two combat titles. It seemed like there were so many things one could do outside of battle. “Why is that?”

“Well, you already know about how our title ranking system works, and I’m sure you guessed that the higher ranked the title, the less likely you’ll get it. You see, all combat titles are ranked rare or higher, so that there aren’t too many people running around who are only good at killing other people! Of course, that means that at higher rarities, there are far more combat titles than anything else.”

“That makes sense.” This sounded suspiciously like a lesson in statistics. Maiz was absolutely terrible in mathematics, despite his father’s numerous attempts to educate him in the subject.

Thinking about his father made Maiz’s stomach tighten, but he kept his face as friendly and interested as possible. Stay focused. “Does that mean Controller is any good?”

“Oh, it looks pretty strong,” she said offhandedly. “If you’re smart about it, you could probably worm your way into a noble title or make yourself a merchant empire!”

“I don’t want either of those things!” Suddenly Maiz was shouting, though he hadn’t meant to. His entire body was rigid, and suddenly he was no longer able to maintain his interested facade. Taking a deep breath, he slowly relaxed. Stupid.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“What?” Riala had not appeared fazed at all by his outburst. She seemed not to have realized that it had occurred.

“Never mind.” Maiz could not forget that this woman, no matter how personable, was not human. But even as he replied, he thought of a question. “Why not just control a bunch of kings and make a real empire?” Somehow that idea was less repugnant to him than what Riala had suggested. I will not become like them.

However, she laughed. “I don’t think you understand how titles usually work. You see, Lord Massahn makes sure, as part of his pact with Lord Nonenadon, that all titles are relatively balanced, even if some are more powerful than others. With a title like this, it’s likely that any sort of outright mind-control won’t work on people of similar rank to you, let alone higher, and Kings tend to be pretty darn powerful. Besides, skills like those usually work best when the target is unsuspecting, and, well, people would start wondering if some kid suddenly became the emperor of the world!”

“Oh.” Well, he had not been enthused at her description of that title from the first. Not only was it obviously repugnant, it would force him to change the plans he had made based on getting a combat title. “How about the other two?”

“Spellsword is pretty powerful.” She sounded grudging. "It's a lot more versatile than the other elemental mage types, and at high levels I think it's almost unmatched for personal combat. Unfortunately, its restriction makes it almost useless. ”

“What? What restriction?” Maiz was very interested in this title. It seemed perfect for what he needed.

“Well, you know that titles let you learn different skills right? Beyond the novice rank most titles have unique skills, even if two are very similar, and they usually have some sort of restriction which makes it that way.”

At this point Riala was standing in the grass, hands moving animatedly as she explained the affinity system. Maiz wondered exactly how she knew so much about this subject, but he supposed everyone, even non-humans, had a hobby.

“Spellsword's restriction is that, even though you aren't restricted by the type of element used like other elemental mages, you have to channel spells through an object. And you have to be touching that object for it to work. All of which means that Novice Spellswords have to gain experience by fighting with weapons, even though they have no actual melee combat skills. And they don't get atrribute bonuses to Stength, Dexterity, or Agility, so they'll start disadvantaged there as well. That makes it basically impossible to get enough experience to become dangerous at higher levels."

That was disappointing. Still, perhaps it would be worth it anyways; if he could find some way to overcome that initial hurdle the title sounded exceedingly powerful. “That’s too bad, I guess. How about Dreadlord?”

“Yeah, that one is another strong title with a big drawback. It’s by far the most powerful necromantic title, just because it lets you control other people’s undead. That means you’ll always have a leg-up on other necromancers, and it’s not too difficult to build up an army of undead that you can empower! But a lot of churches actively hunt Dreadlords more than any other title.”

Maiz had actually been wondering about that. “So why is it offered at all then? I mean, why would Lord Nomenadon give out titles that seem so... evil?”

“Ha! Lord Nomenadon doesn’t care about good or evil! Neither do I for that matter. You see, Nomenadon only cares that everything follows his system of naming. But other gods have different opinions, and their followers tend to be very insistent on stamping out necromancy wherever possible. Which makes life very difficult for baby Dreadlords, before they can get an undead army running to protect them.”

It wouldn’t do to be hounded by the clergy from the moment he exited this world. Maiz was somewhat stumped: Riala’s explanation hadn’t really clarified much as far as what would really best suit his plans. “So what would you suggest I pick then?”

“None of them!” Riala had an eager, almost hungry look on her face. “None of these titles come close to the power of the God-Chosen! If you complete the trials, you could laugh in the face of any epic-ranked title!”

“But the contract said that if I fail, I have to take the first title the naming ritual offered to me! It doesn’t seem worth it, when I have such powerful titles available now.”

Even living in a city like Caelos, which had a full garrison because of the close proximity to the desert’s monsters, titles of such rarity and power were almost unheard of. Maiz had learned from a hundred different tales of his father that there was no sense in risking guaranteed profit to make an even bigger score. Too often you would end up losing everything.

“Yeah, but... what’s a life without risk? Besides, isn’t there anything in that contract about all of the rewards you’ll get if you win? You’ll meet a god!”

Wait a minute... “Riala, have you ever read the Terms and Conditions?”

She looked sheepish. “Well, not really. They’re more for you than for me. I mostly learned by watching my mentor anyways. Whatever. Either way, think about it! You could become God-Chosen!”

Hmmmm. Riala had seemed to severely downplay the strengths of the three titles Maiz had been offered. “Say, what exactly happens to you if I become God-Chosen?”

Riala’s expression became even more embarrassed. “I’ll be automatically assigned as your Celestial Liaison. I won’t have to sit here waiting another thousand years for someone to beat the naming ritual and be randomly put into my iteration of the trial.”

Oh really? The beginnings of a plan was forming in Maiz’s thoughts. Perhaps, if he played this right, he could minimize the risk enough to justify his taking the trial.

After all, there was no greater prize than the power of a God-Chosen.

Riala was still talking about the many benefits of becoming God-Chosen, and Maiz did his best to look attentive as he opened his character sheet. Focusing on the prompt for Unspent Attribute Points, he surreptitiously dumped one into Charisma and two into Luck. Then, dismissing his Character Sheet, he said, “You know what? You’ve convinced me. I want to take the trial.”

She was overjoyed. “Fantastic! You’ll make one amazing God-Chosen, I just know it!”

Got to keep the pressure on. “Why don’t we start now?”

Moving quickly, Maiz hopped off the dais and started walking towards the three paths into the woods. Maiz had almost reached them when Riala cried “Wait!”

Maiz looked over his shoulder, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. “What’s wrong?”

“Aren’t you going to… think about this some more? You know, what path you’re taking, some strategies, anything?”

“Oh! That’s a great idea, why don’t we talk about it?”

She looked frustrated. “I can’t! I’ve told you, I can’t help you at all with the trial, it’s part of the rules!”

Maiz, heart pounding, did his best to look puzzled. “What? I read that section in the Terms and Conditions, and it didn’t say anything like that...”

“Huh? I know that I’m not allowed to help you.”

“I mean, there was that subsection about only the Seeker completing the trial, but there wasn’t anything about verbal help in there.”

“Wait, really? So you’re saying that I can just… tell you about the trial? As long as I don’t help you complete the tests?” She sounded extremely hopeful.

Maiz debated trying to push for more but… best not. It would be a small miracle if this worked at all.

“Uh-huh. I mean, the contract was very specific that it defines the rules and boundaries of the trial. And since Lord Nomenadon is known to be so exacting…”

“You’re right, he is! He’s always so precise, if he didn’t want me to help you, he would have said so, right? Huh, it’s just so odd that my mentor always said he couldn’t help at all.”

Oh hells. “Well, that’s because that subsection was added in the updated part of the contract. Yeah, the original language gave much broader and less defined restrictions, which probably led to a more cautious use of executive power on the part of the Judges.” Maiz tried his best to sound well-versed in legal matters, using words he’d read often in treatises on government.

“Oh… yeah!” She sounded almost as uncertain as Maiz felt, but also excited. “Ok then, let’s do this!”

Maiz felt a surge of relief, along with a--very small--twinge of guilt. “Let’s.”

Riala had Maiz sit down at the edge of the stone dais as she paced in front of him. “Now listen up, the trial is set up to get tougher as you go along, but each level prepares you for the next.” She pointed at each pathway into the forest in turn.

“Each of these pathways will require you to use a basic attribute, and gives you a reward in line with that attribute. At the end of each path is a portal to the next level. But,” She tapped the side of her nose smugly, “here’s something most people don’t think of. There’s no rule saying you have to complete only one pathway!”

“That’s great, but why would I want to make the trial even harder?”

Riala sighed. “Ugh, you’ve got to think ahead Maiz! There’s no way that you’re going to cut it in the later parts of the trial as you are. Like I said before, each pathway offers you different rewards. One tests Intelligence, and that one will give you magic skills and items, but another one tests Strength, and you might get a weapon or even armor from there! Not to mention, we need to take advantage of the one thing the Seeker title is good for.”

“What’s that?” Maiz’s current title, Seeker, offered no starting talent and no special bonuses as far as he was aware.

“You can assign your new attribute points however you want! You do know how valuable that is right? It means that you can literally change your body to make it better suited to the later tests! So, we need to rank you up as much as possible early.”

“Oh.” Maiz hadn’t considered ranking up his Seeker title, but he supposed that what Riala was saying made sense.

“Ok, so we’ve got three options. Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity. No offense, but I wouldn’t recommend starting with Strength.” She looked at his skinny arms pointedly.

Maiz flushed. He was, though not small for his age, by no means a strong young man. He was also rather clumsy. “Um, I think I should probably start with Intelligence.”

Riala nodded decisively. “I agree. Let’s go!” She grabbed Maiz’s hand and, despite his protests, pulled him through the arch and into the middle pathway.