Feeling the sweat build up in his back was the latest indicator that Desmond was extremely nervous, the reason for his anxiety was only a few inches away from him. Even though he had purposely sat in the furthest seat possible when he entered the rogue training room, the reason for his woes had decided to go out of his way to sit down next to him. When he watched him make his way through the sea of empty chairs all the way to the spot he had picked up, he was sure that he was going to be killed. His body tensed up, the air grew heavy, and the fear sunk in his gut like boulder; his life was over in his mind already.

But the other rogue simply sat without making a sound or without any sign of malicious intention, it should have been a relieving sight, but it only sent his blood pumping to his head faster with terror. Desmond could not bring himself to look at him, ever since that night he had killed all the other rogues, he was not able to meet his gaze at all, or sleep properly for that matter. Death could be waiting in his sleep.

Across the rows of chairs in the room was a large rectangular stone field, it was likely where they would be putting things to the test or even fighting, but the instructor who was supposed to teach the rogues had yet to arrive, leaving an uncomfortable silence to plague his mind. He hadn’t told anyone what had transpired that night, he was too scared to do so, after all, he and the other rogues had been in the wrong as well, he could at least admit to that.

While he could not bring himself to look at the guy, he glanced at him from the corner of his eye and got a decent look at him. Short dark hair that fell on his forehead, pale skin that seemed to rarely see the sun, and a youthful face, he looked to be in his young twenties, but the thing that contrasted it all were his eyes. While his face could be called lively, his eyes looked old and excessively focused, his grey pupils were content to idly stare at the front of the room. Although it could be said he was a comely man, his eyes threw that motion into dispute, they simply were too overbearing to be stared with.

The seconds turned to minutes and the tension that the stillness of the room only grew to unbearable levels, on the verge of a mental collapse, he broke the silence.

“We didn’t mean to take it that far…. It was an accident, please… Believe me,” his makeshift apology and explanation pierced the quiet that governed the room. For a long excruciating moment no reply was given, Desmond felt a knot form on his throat, he had used all his courage to give birth to that line and now nothing remained.

Just as it seemed he had spoken to the void, a long sigh escaped the other rogue’s lips, “I believe you.”

Those three words were exactly what he was hoping to hear, but he had expected to have to give a lengthy explanation for what had occurred that night before he would believe him, the fact that he was so easily trusted left a bad taste in his mouth, “Wait, you actually believe me?”

“Sure, one of your friends said the same thing, I think I can believe you.”

One of my friends?

“You mean one of the other rogues?” he asked.

At this point Damien finally turned to face him, his intense eyes completely focused on him, he felt like a mouse in front of a hungry snake, “Weren’t they your friends? One of them said you guys weren’t planning on killing me.”

“So then you know that it was an accident? That we were innocent and-”

Desmond was cut off from his advance by Damien’s eyes, which had grown fierce at his words.

“Don’t misunderstand, I believe you guys decided to scare me off from competing in this test, but that night you guys definitely tried to kill me, not to mention, you were the one who struck first. You even injured my arm, did you forget?”

The words died in his mouth, what he said was true, it would be difficult to refute in any way, but rationality had already taken a backseat in the conversation for Desmond, “Look I said I was sorry, what happened back there was something we didn’t intend to do, it went out of control.”

“You aren’t sorry, you are just sorry that things didn’t go your way. If I had failed to defend myself back then, I would have ended up dead in that dark alley don’t you think?” he spoke in a harsh cold voice, “Or are you saying you would have taken my body out of the alley and admitted to your actions? No. The only reason you are trying to apologize is because I am not dead, you are sorry because you fear retribution for what you tried to do.”

The viciousness in his voice was more than what Desmond could handle and he became defensive, “Like you are any better! You killed four people back there, I didn’t kill anyone! I’m more innocent than you are!”

The conversation turned argument was now on the precipice of violence, but Damien’s calm question quelled the situation, “Then why did you do it? Why did you try to stop me from going up by going so far?”

The question dropped on Desmond as cold water, his momentum had been ceased, “Well… I suppose that if I had to come up with an answer, it’s because I wanted to go up, I knew that if we stopped you from participation our own chances would increase. That’s why we came together and came up with that plan.”

“No I get that, I’m asking why did you want to go up so badly?”

The answer to that question came much more fluidly, as though it were obvious, “I wanted a better life. If you go up to the higher levels you can get anything you want, that’s why I wanted to go up, all the beauty and riches in the world, it can all be yours if you go up.”

Isn’t that obvious?

“I see, truthfully I don’t see anything wrong with killing. It’s the way of the universe, killing is the foundation of life, only by killing and eating others do you go on existing. But you are just pathetic,” his words shot out like venom, “You were the one to make the first strike that night, and you were the only one who ran away, you incited that violence. I’m sure you’ll get what's coming to you.”

The atmosphere in the empty room became increasingly volatile, “What’s that supposed to mean? What are you going to… what? Kill me…? Gimme a break, you can’t kill me in this test area, no way I’ll ever go into your room or let you into mine. There’s no way for you to kill me here!”

Words that had turned into shouts rung into the large room and echoed.

“You are right, but I’m sure a way will present itself to me. You see I’m going up because I want to learn more about what brought me here, the System, and why. I’m sure that there is intelligence behind the System that oversees this world, so I feel confident that it gave me this quest knowing that I would have a way to complete it.”

“What quest?”

The question was interrupted by the sound of doors opening, the attention of the room focused on the new arrival, the instructor; Admin.

Admin looked at her two students, they were at each other’s throats. The conflict had arisen from before the test had started so she had decided to give them time to talk before she stepped forward, but now that the main points of the conversation had been talked about, she felt it was prudent to appear.

“I welcome you to the rogue class, the main point of this course will be to evolve your Starter Rogue class into the Rogue class. Although the names are very similar, the Rogue class offers much better weighted stats and better skills. It is fairly easy to obtain too,” she explained with her usual smile.

Knowing the question in Damien’s mind, she added, “If you have a question, feel free to ask Mister Damien.”

The youth in question no longer acted surprised at her reading his mind, “If you are here teaching us this, then I assume you will also be teaching the other classes?”

“Astute as always, yes, just as I am present in all test areas, I will be the instructor for each class.”

Admin gestured for both rogues to approach her on the rectangular field, she would not be teaching anything in theory, instead, it would be something of practical use, a skill.

Once the two students had reached the front of the room and both stood before her, she pulled out a simple in make sword, it could even be called a simple piece of iron, “Earning enough stat points will increase your rank from F to F+, ranking up will usually come with an extra skill and maybe even with a class evolution, but for starter rogues, it will award the Assassinate skill.”

Looking at Damien’s status showed the reason for his half-interest, he already had ranked up and obtained the Assassinate skill, he had put it to good use against the Inferno Felis and had brought him the first place after all.

“Now the exact point of this class will be three things; to level you up until you obtain the Assassinate skill, to evolve your class through EXP earning, and finally to ensure you know when to use your skills in a fight.”

Since the System facilitated the use of skills, that’s how people with no knowledge of smithing, or archery could be good with forges and bows, it was a great boon from the System. However, it also served as a detriment, Climbers grew accustomed to not having to know anything about a skill and letting the System carry their movements. It was one thing to know a skill because the System allowed you to use it, and it was a whole different matter if you had a skill and knew how to best put it to use. That’s why Admin’s job was to make sure that Climbers would be taught that in the first test arena.

Admin turned away from the Climbers and faced the stone field, “Now listen, the thing about assassin type skills is that they aren’t meant to be used at every opportunity, they are strong, but usually take a lot of MP or SP. This means you will only be able to use them sparsely, so only use them when the time is right, that means you are sure the attack will land.”

In front of Admin, a white light began to appear and gave birth to a monster, it was as tall as a human with light leather armor and a rusty jagged sword in his hand. It might even look human if not for the red skin and disfigured face, it grunted at the force that kept it in place.

“This is a Hobgoblin of the F rank variety, it is a fairly strong monster, you should be able to beat it if you use your skills and fight smart,” the force that was keeping the monster immobile suddenly stopped and the rabid beast screamed in rage as it rushed to Admin.

A twirl of her hand and her sword had beheaded the red-skinned Hobgoblin. The two pieces of the monster returned to the light which brought it here and disappeared into nothing, “You can go first, Mister Desmond.”

With her declaration, a new Hobgoblin spawned at the center of the field, “Mister Damien, please step back.”

Damien followed her directions quickly and took several steps back, now only Desmond remained in front of the angry Hobgoblin, it was agitated that it stuck.

“Mister Desmond, at the count of three: One, two,-”

“Wait a moment! I AM NOT READY!”

“Three.”

The Hobgoblin roared with its yellow teeth and sprinted towards Desmond as it flailed its sword wildly.

Admin watched as her student let his instinct to run away take over his common sense, he immediately turned away and began to run from the Hobgoblin. She didn’t judge him, a Hobgoblin is a decently strong monster, it was easy to get killed by it if you weren’t experienced in a fight.

Desmond continued to run, his AGI as a rogue was more than sufficient to keep him out of reach from the blade that followed him. After a minute of running, it was starting to settle into him that running away would not be enough to win, he needed to fight.

Desmond stopped his running and skidded in the ground, the Hobgoblin’s blade was already coming at him. Still, his superior agility was enough for him to deflect the old rusty sword, the resulting clash of metal chipped the rust and left a dent in the Hobgoblin’s sword. Due to Desmond’s weighted STR stat, he was also able to overpower the monster.

After a few more sword swings, the tide was quickly turned, Desmond was now in the offensive and the Hobgoblin was being pushed back. Desmond’s attacks lacked timing and finesse, but what he lacked in skill he made up in speed and power. It was only a matter of time now.

Then it happened, the moment where the Hobgoblin’s guard was lowered, and he struck. Desmond’s sword dug into the monster’s flesh and bisected the beast. The monster fell to the floor and his sword clanged in the ground, the fight was over.

“...” Desmond stared at the downed figure of the Hobgoblin, “I did it… I DID IT!” he cheered at his achievement. Admin smiled at his success, he was a little rough, but he got the job done.

“Excellent work Mister Desmond,” she spoke in praise, “We will go over what you did right and what you did wrong once Mister Damien has his turn, so for now please step off the field.”

Desmond cheered as he got off the stone platform, as Damien walked past him and toward the center, he couldn’t help but smirk at Damien. Admin chucked it up to a growing ego, she waited until Damien was in position before she started the count.”

“One, two, three.”

This time without interruptions, the Hobgoblin was unleashed.

Much like the two previous times, the Hobgoblin ran toward its target with blind rage, Admin watched at Damien pulled out his sword and took a deep breath. He was mimicking her movements, she had shown them what to do, and he had listened.

Just as she had done, when the Hobgoblin’s neck came into his range, he activated his Assassinate skill and with an identical twirl of his wrist, the monster was beheaded.

Damien released the breath he had taken in, and cleaned the blood off his sword with a swing.

Admin looked on with an approximation of awe, of course she had seen his fight with the Inferno Felis, but faced with the actions of the rogue in this situation, he had copied her attack with flawless precision. He was a true prodigy.