“Are you really going to fight her?”

Looking across the small table Zen stared at him with focused eyes, her meal was barely touched despite them having spent the last ten minutes sitting down. Her worry was justified, the match-up was bad to begin with and that didn’t address the underlying problems, there was much to be said regarding what had happened just a few minutes ago. Letting his mind drift back to what had transpired Damien relieved the conversation he had just had with the ill-tempered Jane.

Her words had been shot at him like a cannon, he had prepared dozens of plans, foreseen multiple outcomes to avoid and compromises to achieve in search for a suitable conclusion to his proposition. He had readied himself for her anger, distrust, and even her indifference but her words had not once popped up in his strategies, he had truly been blindsided by her. He didn’t consider himself to be all-knowing but when he had studied her personality to this extent and organized all these efforts, he expected to be somewhat prepared to face anything she might throw his way. His failure to anticipate her reaction stemmed from the massively contrasting nature he possessed in comparison to her own, while he had been diligent in his calculated endeavors he had been restricted to what he thought logical and natural for her with a tinted self-point-of-view.

Despite being able to deconstruct her character and encapsulate her true inherent attributes, he had failed to emulate them to a genuine degree. It was a moment of learning, no matter how much you think about something there will always be a way to improve on that, taking that revelation to heart he accepted his loss.

Her declaration for a fight had silenced the whole room and brought even the sound of cutlery to a halt, with bated breath the Climbers waited in stillness to peer into the intriguing conversation.

“Alright, I have no issue with that.”

If the room could have been described as silent before, the drop in temperature from his relaxed response sent the atmosphere into a state of skittish anticipation. There was little that people enjoyed more than seeing people beat each other senselessly into a bloody pulp, it was people’s nature to enjoy conflict.

The red-haired warrior snarled at his nonchalant demeanor, Damien assumed she was trying to shake him up with the sudden request for a fight. He should have been scared, he had seen her stats himself and he had no idea how her unknown class weighted her attributes, he was clearly at a disadvantage with numerical stats alone. Not to mention that she also had a Title, he also was clueless about what that would do for her, if anything.

But the idea was not without merits, so far he had only fought those that were, in a certain point of view, weaker than him, but Jane was stronger and that new experience would give him a lot of information to properly scale his abilities in regards to others. Not to mention that he would get to see her strengths and weaknesses first hand.

With this acceptance made clear, she spoke, "Tomorrow after classes are over, come to the Warrior room, I'll be waiting."

The finality in her words was all he needed to leave the table in silence. The conversation had been shorter than what he anticipated but that served in his favor, at least he would not have to completely ditch Zen in favor of his daily task.

"Are you okay?"

A warm hand gently tugged at his shoulder. Drawing him out of his thoughts, Zen was reaching over the table with a worried expression.

Realizing he had mused for too long after her question he smiled to show her that he was okay, "Yes sorry I just spaced out a little. Don't worry I'll be okay."

Her lips turned into a small frown, "Hey listen I know you are strong, you killed that Inferno Felis all by yourself, but isn't this match-up a little bad?"

It was a matter that he already had comes to terms with, but ultimately there was actually little risk involved in the matter. He had seen what happened to Desmond when he was about to be killed by that horde of goblins, the System had intervened and saved his life. Even if the fight got out of hand and a deadly blow was dealt to him, he would be spared.

Disarming her concerns he said, "Well even if the fight goes sideways, It's not like I will die, right? At worst I'll get injured and have to rest a bit," although he had meant to assure her with this, his words only gave rise to a conflicted expression.

"That's still bad, rogues are good at dealing damage in parties where they are protected and have support from mages and rangers, warriors, on the other hand, hold an advantage over you. It's their job to be able to take damage as well as dealing it, they are way more balanced," she said in an exasperated tone, "she will be fine by herself, you won't."

She spoke no lies in her analysis, he would have to receive little to no damage in order to win, his endurance compared to her own were very telling, it was absurd to even entertain the idea of putting up a decent fight. Still, despite the evidence against it, a doubt bloomed in his mind.

What if I can win?

Something was clearly happening to him, or had been done to him. With each passing day, he sensed the noose snaking around his neck tighter and with it his chance to escape whatever machinations dwindled into nothing.

Calamities huh…

"It will be a learning experience for me, despite your presumptions I don't have a great deal of experience with fights," he picked at his food as he spoke, "so if I just come to understand a thing or two about fighting or my opponent, then it will be well worth it."

Damien's soft-spoken words and calm disposition for the upcoming fight left Zen feeling confused and conflicted, she was unsure if he was simply crazy or if he was actually a genius.

It was hard to come to terms with, but Zen had slowly realized that more and more she was starting to become unable to find flaws in his logic and his words.

"When you say it like that I really can't say much," she sighed more than said, "but still be careful. I really don't think that this match-up is even at all."

The rest of the meal was spent in comfortable silence.

"And that's the basis for defensive tactics, remember you should always take the damage over any other member of a party to fulfill your role. You are dismissed."

Came Admin's gentle parting words, however, no one moved from their chairs. She didn't mind much, she had spent her day yesterday and all of today looking forward to this moment, they weren't to blame for being curious. Staying in the room would give them prime seats to the upcoming event, the tension was palpable in the room. Static filled the hungering boredom that gnawed at their need to have fun, in the tense test you could fail and return to the previous Level as a loser, this was going to be a much-needed break from that anxiety.

"She is going to destroy him…"

"I'm looking forward to it, that should put him in his place."

"You don't have to tell me that, who does he think he is? A rogue beating us warriors? I bet that number one spot is getting to his head judging by the fact he accepted this fight."

"Yeah this girl is a monster, she'll tear him apart."

"Shhh! She will hear you, idiot!"

Her eyes grew cold at their comments, being used as a tool to conform to their expectations of their own abilities was not her intention. The fact that they would be drawing satisfaction from this in this sense left a bad taste in her mouth, she wasn't doing this for them. She was doing this to prove she didn't need his help and that she was perfectly fine handling this test by herself.

People like her fellow warriors were scum in her eyes, if they really had a problem with Damien then they should have told him something themselves yesterday but instead, they cowered in silence. Truth was that their insecurities prevented them from acting, but her victory would reaffirm their conviction that their class was superior.

Even the lower Levels suffer from this issue, people are the same no matter where you go.

The excitement peaked when the sound of the sliding doors hissed open and revealed the form of Damien.

Jane observed him as he walked in with that expression that said he was unfazed by everything, it irked her but she didn't let it show on her. She couldn't wait to wipe that arrogance out of his face.

As their eyes met she spoke, "I'll give you dues, I'm impressed you showed up. I would have understood if you changed your mind," her words held no lies or empty platitudes, she was really impressed he decided to show.

Before he was able to answer, the soft click of heels tapping on the floor drew everyone's attention to the one person who appeared to be amused by the situation, Admin approached the two fighters with a smile, “I see you two are starting to get along, it’s great for each party leader to feel that sense of rivalry that drives you into better results.”

What the? All this time she has been emotionless for our classes, so why is she showing us that expression? What is going on here?

Admin was known across each Level of Anathum to be devoid of all emotions except the ones that came as pleasantries, even the church officials tried to emulate her controlled personality as a sign of respect for their God, the System, showing emotion was just not something she did.

Before the idea could fester in her mind, Admin continued, “In fact to commemorate this gesture of animosity, I wish to offer a Quest from the System, I'm sure that will incentivize you to perform admirably.”

What!?

Confused clamorings ruptured all across the room in the warriors that were present and the outsiders that were pouring in from the doors, stragglers from the other classes that had come to see the show.

“Wait are you serious!?” came the voice from one of the mages, his wide eyes reflected his state of mind, “You are giving a System Quest?”

Admin’s sharp eyes honed in on the intrusion to her words, her usual comportment, her cold voice replied, “I never joke, please be seated, the fight will commence in a bit.”

“No wait, I want to participate!”

“Yes! Me too, please!”

Suddenly everyone in the room began to circle around Admin as they vied for a chance at the quest, Admin being a being of a calmness was out of place in the torrent of shouts and exclamations. But despite the mob forming around her, she remained poised and dignified, in the hysteria of voices and pleas she flatly raised her hand and without missing a beat she swung it down as if she was trying to push down on air.

The effect was immediate.

Every person who had surrounded Admin was violently pushed into the ground in an instant, the white stone floor cracked under the invisible pressure that threatened to crush the helpless Climbers. The pain that came in shouts and wails filled Jane’s ears and she jumped out of the way to avoid being hit by whatever was acting on the rest of the room’s inhabitants. Her action was useless however, even if the attack was targeting her, she reacted much too late to successfully get out of the way.

The form of Admin stood over the pile of Climbers, her hand kept in the same position as if she was manually pushing the people down with her hand, it was very faint but Jane saw it, her smile had returned.

“I am aware you are all new Climbers and you don’t know how things work exactly, but I implore you to show me the same respect I show you. Please don’t crowd me like that again,” she spoke as her hand was released and brought back to its usual position. simultaneously, the power holding the slightly beaten Climbers ceased to exist and they were once again free to move as they please.

She had expected Admin to do something about their behavior, and she was not able to blame the Climbers that had stood up, she imagined that most were like her, people that Descended to climb the Levels and earn status or power. Quests were a feature of the System, it allowed Climbers and Natives to give tasks to others while the System acted as the middleman to ensure that rewards were given out by the person who requested the task, it also gave EXP upon successful completion of the Quest, in accordance to the difficulty of the objective. System Quests, on the other hand, were rare, they only ever were given in uncommon situations or during events to certain people, they were akin to winning a jackpot. They were known to give out special Titles with unique effects and often allowed one to jump pass class evolutions, saving them a lot of time and effort, not to mention that it also gave Skill Points which would bring you closer to ranking up.

She was frankly surprised that Admin was willing to give this out for something she had personally set up, there was little reason to do so, it was essentially like handing her a System Quest for free.

All I gotta do is win…

“With that out of the way, please start the fight, and remember that the System will prevent death,” Admin spoke, “so please don’t be afraid to go all out on your opponent.”

With that thought, she turned to her right where Damien had been standing.

“Huh?”

The empty space gave no clue as to his location, he had disappeared in the frenzy. Did he leave? Her question was led to its answer as she spotted Admin looking down further into the room, her eyes were focused and filled with an emotion she was not able to quite decipher, at the end of her sight was the form of Damien stretching in the fighting arena.

She gritted her teeth, again he was acting without worry or concern, she wondered in ire if his confidence had bordered into hubris. She quickly made her way into the opposite side of where he stood, even if he didn’t take the fight seriously, she would still try her best. A System Quest was too good to let go, any thoughts of going easy on the rogue were squashed away.

“You really don’t have a care in the world, do you? You said you respected my strength earlier, was that a lie?”

She didn’t know why she was speaking to him now, conceivably, she might have found a small repose in his verbal gesture and was now seeking to find its validity. Either way, a rage was slowly starting to build up, she was smart enough to know that she should not fight with her emotions and have a chance to leave an opening to her opponent, but she couldn't stop the anger from building up.

His eyes finally looked from the ground and landed on her, the dull gray was like a silent steel, “You’re wrong…,” he said in a near whisper, “Don’t think I am expecting an easy fight or even winning here, I know you are strong.”

She wasn’t able to tell if his words held any truth in them, nor did she want to think of them, at this moment she only wanted one thing, she wanted to see him lose his composure just once. For once she wanted to see a look of surprise on his face, his disposition made it seem as though he had seen through her and everything she did was within his expectation. She hated it.

“You’re the one that’s wrong… You think you know I am strong, but! I will drive it into your skull how big the gap between you and me is.”

Her clenched fist lit in a torrent of blue inferno, the menacing flames danced and jumped in all sorts of directions around her hands.

I’ll show you that you can’t quantify me so easily!