„what is this moron going on about all of the sudden"

„our joining condition was the he stops talking like that until we get the team together and then he just did do it at all so i though we where done with it"

„i could handle her roll around like a cat because you can do that only this long but if he continuous like that then i will leave right now"

„you heard the lady stop right now or i sue your mouth shut"

„mioo. miaut again"

lüziel could now finally focus on the task in front of him after clearing that up

„skills, so like how in a video game?"

„of course. those skills have to mie in such a setting. we had all these fantasy thing with magic menus appearing and alien special, then teleporting and in addition death games. i was a bit let down when there was miothing like skills and levels."

„why do you know so much. have you done this before?"

rina was looking at him searching if he secretly was an alien

„of cause not but this is common courtesy in web novels. i have read them all and now i know perfectly what to do"

„great for you but i don't follow the advice from someone insane"

„and you are much better miss let's hit 'em until they can't move"

lüziel waisted no more brain energy on their quarrel and looked at the skill shop. it took him a while to get through just reading all the names and it was mainly composed of generic things like the series of ‚master of the' followed by something but some skills stood out to him as extra special that he deemed potentially useful for him: Level 0, King of Nature, Fallen Star and Deity Guardian

Level 0

Class: local legend

Description: You cannot strengthen your body anymore and will eternally be locked to your current state. all your efforts will be transferred to a special currency [EXP]. in addition you will gain access to unique skills.

King of Nature

Class: legend

Description: You are the master of nature. you will be able to command animals feel the purpose of all thing in nature. your command stem from your strength, only animals who deem you stronger will follow your lead.

Fallen Star

Class: local legend

Description: You where one of the Stars in the night sky and they call for your return. you abilities will strengthen with the amount of stars that follow you and they will help you achieve your goals.

Deity Guardian

Class: local legend

Description: You feel safe and protected wherever you go. your life will be in safe hands as long as your faith reigns strong and your guardian will protect your life from the strongest of foes. your guardian deity will test your will over time strengthening or weakening your bond.

„they really love to be unspecific in their description"

„this is exactly what i wanted. just some cryptic description and only with your wit you can figure out it's true power"

marth was sparkling while looking through the options looking at all the amazing names. elise and bob on the other hand already finished while marth, lüziel and rina where still looking through.

„you make way too much of a big deal out of this. in the end you will just choose something that you like by name anyways as we have np idea what this means."

„well have you already chosen if it is so easy?"

„of cause, dragons treasure"

„have you even read what it does or are you just choosing it because it has dragon in the name"

„of cause i have don't take me for stupid. you are the heir to a treasure bal bla bla you have to find it bla bla bla it will gain you acknowledgment"

„i really though you would go for any of the martial arts skill or something combat related but this is quite the surprise to me"

lüziel was chiming in into elises and marth discussion

„i don't need to learn something i already know or that i can easily get taught with diligence. if this really is something special than i need to choose something i can't obtain normally"

„i agree. i chose iron blood because all the knowledge of plants, animals and medicine are thing i know or can learn so it would be a waist so i chose something that can help me in a way i would never have other way"

bob was agreeing to lüziel but the more important part was what he himself chose for the others

„iron blood doesn't sound medicine like"

„it's for protection. it doesn't matter how good you are at medicine if you can't reach the person you trying to help. having the ability to safely move in places that normally would be dangerous for a multitude of reasons is exactly what i searched. the entire reason why i build up my body this much is to rescue people out of rubble or other thing where you need the strength to get them out"

lüziel was thoughtfully putting his hand at his chin

„interesting, it is sound reasoning for someone who wants to safe other. i think i don't have that deep of an reasoning for my choice"

marth was looking eager at lüziel awaiting his answer

„so you have chosen you skill!"

„it's fallen star. having something that can grow over time is in my opinion the best thing you can choose"

„i love it it's amazing but i will be the opposite. i choose a skill that prevents growth in it's entirety. ‚starting from today i play at level 0' thats the title of the light novel where i am the main character. who need strength when you can have absolute utility"

„that would leave one person left"

everyone was looking at rina who couldn't decide

„i just don't know. i have no ambition so i can't chose something for the future and i have nothing i wan't to be"

„you should take martial arts. with your agility you would be amazing."

marth was making some pseudo fighting poses while saying that

„didn't we all agree that that's stupid as you could just learn it"

elise was slightly pushing at marth causing him to fall over from his unstable pose

„i personally think it should be king of nature. rina is the perfect candidate for that. she already has abilities befitting of nature"

bob was scratching his head thinking about what he saw rina being able to do

„i think that would be halve bad. she is after all more monkey than human anyways"

rina was looking angrily at elises after that comment but didn't say anything

„i was already looking at it with rina in mind so i don't have much to oppose that choice"

lüziel was laying down the the couch that was now only seated with him after marth left it to do poses

„if lüziel says that then i will choose it."

marth was jump at her stopping her before she could do more

„wow stop it right there. even if we agree to that choice in the end it is you who has to live with it so do you really want this and do you not want this only because someone else said so?"

rina was shaking of marth before answering

„i can make my own decisions and i chose to do this"

it took them nearly the full 2 hours to chew through the skills and choose theirs so they didn't had to wait much longer. with the 2 hours expired the monitor appeared again.

„times up! i hope you have chosen the right skills to aid you. this next part will be completely different from the other two or maybe not it all depends on what grintß you get. in this part you will be given a task by one who cleared all the way up to the 4th act also know as a grintß. i have no influence what your mission, reward or punishment will be for this so be nice and you maybe have it easy. just go down the hallway and your grintß will pick you up"

a door appeared in the wall or it was more like the wall itself opened leading into a hallway made of regular bricks and lamps on the sealing for lighting

„grintß, what is that supposed to be?"

„someone who cleared all of this"

„yes i can listen thank you"

„we just have to go out to figure out. we don't have any other options anyways"

as they left left through the wall door it closed behind them tightly giving them only one way they could walk. the hallway wasn't long so they could already see someone waiting near the end who was waving them over and pointing on wrist like he was pointing on a wristwatch signaling them to hurry up. as they approached they could see just a regular human which was quite surprising compared to everything else they had to deal with up until now.

„hurry up you bunch, i didn't want to make this in the first place so i don't want to waist more time on this than necessary."

„and you are?"

„don't be so sassy missy i am your examiner after all and i can think of a multitude of bad thinks i could make you do. but names are somewhat nice if talking to someone else so my name is cliff"

cliff was flicking with his finger against elises forehead then turned around moving through a door a bit further up ahead.

„i was forced to watch everything you did up until now to give you proper tests so i already know what you are through. i was given the freedom to test you as group or individuals so i choose to do it proper and make every one of you a fitting test that will show you all your weaknesses and how easy you had it up until now. as reward i will give you a skill tailored to your achievements and the punishment will be a curse to remind you of your failure."

he was walking them outside on a flower field and then further to a forest next to it.

„you will get the objective to find an animal that doesn't obey your king of nature skill and bring it to me without hurting it or yourself. normally i would be fine with any but king of nature makes it so that i have to make it harder"

he was pointing at rina then turned around to elise who stood next to her

„you will be fighting against your most hated enemy and your goal is to beat them. you will gain only 1 chance for this so if you give up or get beaten that means you lose. next up is you, you will be fighting your own conscious. for that you will be set under a mind control skill and your objective is to break the skill"

he was now pointing at lüziel and then continuing on with bob

„your mission is to relive your past. you will be forced to endlessly repeat the mistakes of your past and have to break through them or alternatively you can give up if you don't think that you can beat this task and finally you. you will be shown the limits of your abilities and be forced to face an unwindable situation. you actions will have consequences and you will be forced to deal with them until you can break through or you give up"

in front of everyone was popping up the mission window but this time it was missing mission a real description

New Just one Request

Just One request

Objective: fulfill the request given by the grintß

Penalty: obtain a curse

Reward: obtain a skill

Achievements: 0/0 cleared

Description: the grintß will give you one request you have to fulfill.

„and where are we supposed to do these things. i get the get in the woods and get me an animal part but the rest are a bit more cryptic"

„oh don't worry that will be taken care of. as a matter of fact it will be done now."

with the exception of rina all vanished in green light

„you have to do your task here so when you are finished come out of the forest and then send me any message over the system"

„wait where am i supposed to get the animal from."

„i told you in this forest but fo all i care it could be from a different planet as long as you get here unharmed for the both of you. yo just have to search"

he walked away leaving rina stranded alone. it was an uncomfortable feeling to know that you are completely alone knowing that no one would come if you call but rina was no anymore and she decide bravely to walk into the forest.

when bob woke up he was near a cove by the sea. he could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs further up ahead and smell the salt in the air. but what he also smelled was grilled fish. he was on a family vacation they made to the sea and it was the evening they decided to grill outside. a voice behind him called his name and as he turned around he could see his family waiting for him.

„bob come over here i'm starving but mom says that she only starts with all of us together"

it was his brother calling

„but i found a cave over here i want to check it out"

„you can do that later i want to eat now"

bob decide to leaf the cave be for now and came back to their camp side. there was his family waiting with fish and vegetables on the grill

„isn't it nice the sound of the sea while eating fish and relaxing. i wish i could do this more often but we always have to do so much work that we know we are not enough people for"

his father the first to take something taking the biggest fish on the grill

„hey i wanted that"

bobs brother was trying to take the fish from their father but wasn't big enough to reach it

„i work so hard i think i deserve this more than you or have you something you want to tell me"

his brother was looking down quietly returning to his place

„you shouldn't be like that or otherwise they learn from you"

„and thats for the better of it. let me tell you life is taking or being taken from and right now i choose to take"

they had a good time eating and talking and when they where finished it was staring to get dark. bob who still didn't visit the cave took a long time trying to convince his parents until they finally gave in and let him go in until it started to get darker. the cave was filled with stalagmites and stalactites making it look way smaller than it actually was. from outside you could hear the waved echo through the cave but it was not long until his parents pulled him back

„this is deep enough. we won't get back in time when we get any deeper"

despite his curiosity did bob follow his mothers words and they started to return when suddenly a big wave crushed against the walls of the cave making some of the smaller thinner stalactites fall from the ceiling. this frightened both bob and his brother but their parents calmed them down again.

„don't worry it's only small ones the big ones will not fall that easily"

another wave crashed into the cave but this time a bigger one and before anyone knew what was happening one of the big stalactites broke of. his father pushed both of them away before getting stuck under the stalactites that rolled over him

„my legs. mmhhh"

„dad!"

„are you alright darling"

„i can't feel my legs."

the kids where in panic and the mother was agitated but their father just send them away saying that he is fine otherwise and that they should get help. bobs mother tried to call the fire brigade but there was no reception in this cave. bob now remembered agin what this was. it was the reason why he decided to go into the field of medicine and why he trained so hard. his father was about to loose his legs. from being continuously crushed until help came they took to big of a damage to heal back to normal. bob of cause as a child didn't understood how medicine worked so he though that he just needed to find the right one to fix his father but he also thought that if he where strong enough to move the stalactites he could have pulled his father out.

„you have failed agin in protecting one of the most important person to you but is that enough to give up"

a voice was coming directly from inside bobs head

„no if i just try harder i can save him"

„then try again and fail agin learning that there are inevitable things life"

bob again stood looking at the cave at brought daylight.

when elise could see again she was standing in an arena. on the other side was waiting her worst nightmare. it was the one person she could never touch regardless of how hard she tried. max was for all accounts weaker than her, he was physically weaker than her and slower in both reaction time and running speed but it was the one person she never could come close to.

„what are you doing here!"

„i'm here to fight you. like always you need to learn that you are pathetic"

„despite his looks and voice his behavior was nothing like the max she knew so for er this was just an imposter she needed to defeat. it took just a few seconds of them fighting for her to realize that this ‚imposter' was in combat exactly like max and exactly like him she was incapable do do as much as lay a finger on him. every time she did something he answered the perfect way letting her feel his punches. that's right she never actually got hit by him as that is an absolute no go in training to actually hit someone at full force and this constraint was what kept her from ever seeing how good they would fair in a real fight. she always though that if not for this she would win because he was superior in strength and she could just whittle him down but it was now painfully obvious to her that in a real fight she was even more outclassed.

„and again you have failed to realize what you are lacking. you will never beat me not in a hundred years"

„i will never give up. no matter how long it takes, at some point i will beat you"

it was exactly this why she was losing all this time, she never knew why he was stronger than her despite everything. they both learned the same sport starting at the same time so how could he be this much better.

„next round. i want another round"

„it seems that you have still not lost so make yourself ready to face me for real"

elise got back up and made herself ready just to meet the next attack.

marth was in a black void. he could hear nothing and see nothing with the only knowledge that he was standing somewhere being the feeling in his feet pressing against stone.

„what test is this supposed to be i can't do anything if there is nothing to be done"

„don't you want to help them?"

„who is talking there?"

„don't you hear their screams for help"

marth could start to hear some screams for help all around him

„how can i help people when i can't even see anything"

„but what stops you doing so"

„it's impossible to help if i don't know what is happening"

„do they not deserve your help?"

„i never said that, just give me light and will help them"

marth heard the breaking of wood followed by some screams, then the scene changed. he now was standing in front of a broken house. he saw multiple people scurrying around searching the rubble.

„i need help someone is over her still alive"

it seemed like the others could not hear him as they just continued the search. this time marth knew what to do and came running over

„thank good finally. she isn't going to make it for long. i will attempt to push this up and you try pulling her out"

at first it worked fine, the man was carefully pushing at the rubble to not make it fall down and when it was high enough marth was starting to pull on the girl. suddenly the man slipped dropping the rubble down. marth was quick trying to stem it but it was to heavy for him to hold long. from above he saw how the rubble started to fall over right where the man wallen so he decided to let the part he was holding down trying to stop it but then saw the the child was now lying in an even worse position under the rubble. right before the rubble that fell down hit him everything stopped

„why did you let both die?"

„what was i supposed to do, i can't stop something like that!"

„but you could have saved one"

„how can i be the one to decide who will die"

„so you chose to let them both die?"

the scene changed again.

the first thing lüziel could see was a deep cliff. to one ide there was a group of strangers to the other shockingly rina.

„What are you doing here!"

suddenly it started to shake and then the cliff broke of into 2 parts, the one he and rina was standing and one with the strangers. rina started to speak

„you can choose will you let them die to safe us knowing that multiple countries will fall into chaos after losing their leaders or will you choose to die with me protecting them"

„what are you saying, you are not rina are you?"

„i am the representation of rina and anything happening to me could happen to her"

„so my mission is to face a moral dilemma?"

„chose now who will you safe or refuse to choose and both will die"

„in that case i choose us. i don't care for other countries and i'm not altruistic. i would choose me and rinas well being over that of others."

with his sentence done the cliff with the others broke of and the scene changed. they now stood on a mountain. an earthquake started that let boulders roll down the mountain right at them and right before they hit them they froze in place

„choose what will you do. you can chose to sacrifice yourself to safe me or safe your life but both of use with lose their legs"

„what insane game is this. you can do nothing in death and even if you lose your legs you can still move on. i choose to loose our legs over loosing my life"

without doing anything he started to move throwing himself at rina with them both getting barely out of range to not get completely crushed and the boulders rolling over their legs phasing through them and then the scene changed. they agin stood on a cliff and with another shaking the part where rina was standing broke of. this time time didn't stop and lüziel saw her falling down to her death

„why didn't you safe me by scarfing your own life. i know you could have done it. you where close enough. you realized what happened. why do you not care for me"

„i can't. if you sacrifice yourself for other you don't think about what happens to those who lost you. they will grieve and suffer under your death to an extend you cannot say normally but i know rina better than anything else and i know that my death to her is as if she herself died. if killing me means to kill her i only have the choice to kill only her, safe her from the pain and take it all on myself."

„but the suffering will end. i could have lived a long live after that you took from me by selfishly protecting your own life."

„YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY THAT!. what do you know. all you are is a projection created by someone who doesn't know her. i know all the pain she went through i have seen her suffer before. i have seen her world get broken once and i will not let that happen another time. all you are doing is attempting to break me and i will not bend that easily. i know what my believes are and i will stand for them firmly."

„then what will you do now"

the scene changed again now it was a woman and a child standing before him. below both the ground started to break away then froze

„you can choose will you save the child letting it live in a world without it's mother or will you safe the mother letting her see her own child fall to death"

lüziel went to the child and pulled it away

„i do not have any knowledge about them so all i can do is safe the future."

„but isn't that the same. the child to will grieve of the death of her mother. why is it allowed to live i am not"

„rina is not the same as this child. on this cliff stood a person who achieved some of heir goals in life and someone who didn't got the chance to do anything. but compared to this kid i know how rina would react i know what she will go through and my choice is to protect her from that"

„you have completed this mission. you have shown that your mind possesses the strength to follow your believes. may it stay this way forever."

lüziel now stood on a field exactly like the one he started the mission.

rina went deep into the wood and at first she only heard different animals hushing through it but she could never see any. after a few minutes it got unnaturally silent until she could hear large stomps and hear the bushes moving a lot. in front of her a bear like being appeared . the ‚bear' had 3 long claws coming out of the back of his front paws and a long green tinted mane. the bear was looking at her with mostly curiosity assessing if she was food or not. rina had seen bears in the zoo but non where ever this bug or close to her. she was scared but compared to other times she wasn't stunned by her fear. her body instinctively as if she where born with it activated the skill king of nature.

[Skill activation King of Nature

failed to recognize the target

no data can be received

targets fortitude level to high

king has been refused

start conversation]

rina started to recognize the behavior of the bear understanding that it had as of now no ill intend towards her and was relaxed. she saw the ears twitch while being directed at her knowing that it was curiously observing her. before she realized the bear was gotten close enough to her to to kill her in one strike if it wished so. despite that was rina getting calmer. the bear reacted in kind and started to lower it's body from the imposing pose it was holding before. rina knew that if she was now starting to move that it would be the end of her. she also started to realize that she knew so many thing she never learned and she realized things she never knew where there as if her body was acting out of it's own accord

[targets fortitude level sinking

activation King of Nature

targets fortitude level to high

king has been refused

start conversation]

the bear was pushing at rina wis his pas and pocked into her flesh with it's sharp claws. rina knew that this was not intended as an attack but she still winced and took a step back. the bear reacted to that by raising its guard but rina saw that it still was playfully twitching with it's ears showing that it still did not intend to attack her. as her first act during this encounter she started to approach the bear head rised as high as she could while also dropping her shoulders and hands as low as she could. the bear realized her intend and started to lower it's guard again then pushed her again with it's paws. the claws where again pocking slightly inside rina but this time did she not react to this pain by biting on her tong to distract her from the pain.

[targets fortitude level sinking

activation King of Nature

king has been accepted

targets fortitude level to high

orders have been refused]

rina was now pocking back at the bear with all her force and the bear started to lower its head. rina to lowered her head and then they pressed their heads against each other.

[orders have been refused]

„i should not order him. he has his own pride he has the right to decide for himself if he wants to follow me"

rina was walking back with now the bear only watching her. as she was going backwards into the bushes was it following her with it's head then when she was no longer visible started moving in her direction. rina could not see the bear but was hear that it was somewhere behind her. as she was leaving the forest she saw marth and elise waiting there.

„what happened to you?"

was was looking at the blood on her close then rushed towards her but stopped when he heard a roaring close to him.

„look out you two"

elise saw a hostile looking bear like creature appearing behind rina.

„STOP! You all are m friends!"

rina was holding her hands one towards the bear and one towards marth. to marths and elises surprise did the bear stop where it was but still roared at marth.

„he only was shocked from you running at me"

„why is a bear following her... or at least something that closest looks like one"

marth was realizing the weird claws and the lion mane while speaking then looking at rina

„he is the friend i made in there"

„sad that you can't even make friends with other humans while she can with dangerous animals"

elise was looking amazed at the bear and then at rina and then back at the bear. when lüziel appeared right in front of them did the bear make a shocked step backwards which thankfully made it so that it was the first thing lüziel saw before the wounded rina so that he did not just freak out like marth did.

„why are you wounded?"

„he accidentally hurt me but i'm fine. it doesn't even hurt anymore"

with bob together did cliff appear. he was furst looking at the bear and then at rina seeing her bleeding, then going to her pulling out some bandages

„you where asked to not get hurt but i'll guess this does not count as the intend was not to hurt you"

while saying that was he looking at the claws seeing only a bit of blood on the tips

„it just happened to be that you don't have thick skin like bälkaure so i will overlook this, i really just didn't wan't to pick your dead body up because you tried to fight something stronger like an idiot."

he was pulling out a sharp looking knife that was dripping some fluid of it's blade

„but your mission is not done yet. you have brought what i asked for and now i want you to kill it. this knife is sharp enough to easily pierce bälkaure skin and it has a poison strong enough to kill it fast without pain"

lüziel was instantly getting angry at him

„how could you ask something like that of her, you said you looked at what we did than you should know she can't do that"

„you should watch out. you still didn't get your reward and even i can't let you fail i can still give you something bad. now take this and kill it. it trust you so it should be no problem for you to go to it and stab it"

„NO"

„this is part of your mission if you refuse that means you give up"

„i won't hurt my bear friend just because you say so"

cliff was sighing

„if you don't do that that means you failed and i have to do it. we have to clean this up anyways"

rina was stepping in front of him as he approached the bear. it was not like cliff would struggle to get past her but more that he got hold back by her determination. the bear in the background started to move now seeing cliff as a threat. around it appeared chains tying it down helpless to the ground

„i wont let you hurt mister bear"

„you seem to have some fire in you that i have not seen until now but how far can it get you. wish dreams alone help nobody if you don't have the strength to back them up. you where meant to kill him because you need to learn that there are things you need to do even if they are painful. your problem is that you are to set on the idea that everything can be solved."

he pushed rina effortlessly away then move to the tight down bälkaure. he pulled up the knife and in a big swing stuck it deep into it's neck. rina was trying to stop him but couldn't even inconvenience cliff

„i wonder how far you can go while pretending that you can just protect everything. some things cannot be changed no matter how hard you try like how all foreign lives o this planet going to get wiped out"

cliff turned around at the others who looked at the event that happened before them not daring to step in

„two of you have failed their mission. i decided for these missions to strengthen you for the things you could face in the future. most just give a random task for the group and are done with it but i think that this part of act 2 is there for grintß to reflect on the past and prepare the next generation. each of you got a mission tailored to your weaknesses and even if you got through them that doesn't mean your done. all of you should reflect on them and learn from what you saw. well now that it is over what should come first is the rewards and punishments. i couldn't bother to explain most of these so read it yourself. for you in specific i will go out oof my way."

he was turning back at rina who was hugging the bälkaure while tears flowed down her face.

„i really wan't to see how long you can keep up with this. your curse may only last 1 year but those who know of it would call it the worst thing you can do to another person. whenever any other living being in you vicinity take damage you will feel it as if it where your own wound. you can just wait out the year and continuo with your journey afterwards but if you chose to climb the tower with it you will either die from the pain or if you can survive that you can be sure that you have the willpower and determination to achieve even impossible tasks"

everybody got their black information window popping up but no one payed attention to it, being more concerned about rina. she stood now up and walked to cliff punching him as hard as she could but it show no effect.

„i will proof to you that you are wrong and beat this curse"

„let's see about that. one tip before you go to the third act: take your time"

he tipped on the orange screen in front of him and all 5 vanished in green light

„i heard that you betted 10k on them. i can see why, it's an interesting group and i also see why you went out of your way to pick me for this"

yhvlton appeared standing on the field

„their results are outside the ordinary compared to their actions so it was just a logical decision to make easy money"

„i never knew that mips care that much about money. you don't even need any if you really wanted to"

„we choose to stay near our position. just because we control the system doesn't mean we are above it"

„whatever you say i guess your intention was not only to get me doing this but also help clean up. i know how conniving you guys are"

the earth around them was starting to shake and break open. lava was spuing out of the ground and the forest caught on fire. you could hear different animal cries coming out of it. earth was starting to change for the second time within a week.