Chapter 12: Robin’s struggle after crossing the door

Rob’s point of view

What is this place!?

In front of me is what looks like an arena. A massive open area with 4 obelisks forming a square in the center, 30 meters from each other. how big is the thing I'm going to fight!?

As I spend my time visualizing and trying to make sense of my surroundings, a mechanical voice brings me out of my dreams…

“Ahem” (??)

What the hell is that!?

“What are you? a statuette? No… you’re made of metal?” (Rob)

“I am called Gemril, you must be the test taker? this way” (Gemril)

“Test taker? I just—” (Rob)

“Then, are you an intruder?” (Gemril)

!? its eyes turn a deep color of red and look threateningly my way

“Yes! I am a test taker!” (Rob)

“Good! Follow me” (Gemril)

I follow Gemril towards the center of the square arena…

“This is where you will take the test” (Gemril)

“So what is this test all about?” (Rob)

“Here you will fight Automatons to test your strength. the automatons are split into 10 different levels, representing the difficulty to beat them. But before that, allow me to scan your strength” (Gemril)

Scan my st—

Ouch!?

“Hey, what was that needle for!” (Rob)

“We have to test your strength” (Gemril)

“...” (Rob)

“and… done!” (Gemril)

“Hmm.. you’re pretty terrible, about a twenty?” (Gemril)

“A twenty?” (Rob)

“That’s your fighting ability as of now, that is to say, your body's capacity to inflict damage before taking into account your experience and training, So that’s where we will begin your test. let me calibrate the Automatons” (Gemril)

“Beep—Boop—Beep—Boop” (Gemril)

I don’t think that’s how sound effects work, though…

“All set” (Gemril)

so what does ‘about a 20’ even mean?

“Okay. you will fight in ascending order from one to ten. you will have 5 minutes of rest in between fights. to win the round you must either incapacitate your opponent or throw him out of the arena” (Gemril)

“Do I have to beat all ten of them?” (Rob)

“Are you an idiot? that’d be just suicide. this is a test” (Gemril)

...

“You have to beat 5 to pass, and every Automaton you beat above that level will grant you with better rewards from my Master” (Gemril)

“Oh yeah, can I ask you something? I came to this place thinking your master was called Sinfried, this being his castle” (Rob)

“Ha, that twerp being the master of the castle? what a joke” (Gemril)

“Sinfried was nothing but a servant to my master, one she sent outside from time to time to buy stuff and get some pets for her to play with” (Gemril)

“...who is your master, then?” (Rob)

“Ah, didn’t you see the letter of introduction she left outside this place?” (Gemril)

“...no” (Rob)

Letter of introduction!? where the hell did I get myself into...

“Ahem. Let me introduce to you, my master! Martha the Righteous! Lived and fought for 10,000 years, master of the sword and scion of the light. She knew a myriad of different spells, allowing her to bring havoc to this world with the flip of a hand!” (Gemril)

“She lived for ten thousand years? but that’s… impossible” (Rob)

“Ha-ah… I can see you’re nothing but a little and puny human. you guys just live for too short of a time” (Gemril)

“My master was the last Lightbearer in this world, before her race went extinct a thousand years ago” (Gemril)

“Wait… for how long have you been in this place?” (Rob)

“Of course, I’ve been trapped in this place for the last thousand years as well” (Gemril)

“Are you immortal? how…” (Rob)

“Are YOU an idiot? nobody can attain immortality in this world. I have a core of energy inside me, that is connected to this space and feeds me with life force” (Gemril)

“Uh… I see” (Rob)

“Anyways. I got derailed off topic, I will begin the countdown for you to begin the test” (Gemril)

“Alright, bring it on!” (Rob)

I say as I quickly equip my gear: armor, sword, helmet and everything else at my disposal.

“Prepare! 5! 4! 321-GO!” (Gemril)

BOOM! one of the obelisks explodes, its fragments floating in the air while emitting blue light, and right after, clicky reforming to form what should be an automaton. standing on two massive feet, 2-and-a-half-meter tall, bulky frame and what looks a like a T-shaped helmet in place of its head.

“Let’s go!” (Rob)

“AWOOOOOO!” (Automaton)

The big-ass guy runs straight toward me, lifts both his hand and prepares to slam me into the ground, but before he’s able to I move backward and easily avo-

BOOM!

I fly away along with the rubble formed after the Automaton’s hit against the floor.

I stand back up as quickly as I can. the Level 1 shakes his shoulders as if saying ‘what a disgrace you are’.

“What is it with this stupid strength! I’ll die in one hit!” (Rob)

leaving me no time to cry, he changes position into a ‘prepare for sprinting’ one.

He’s coming again.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Again and again, he comes straight at me, after which I will hurriedly step back to avoid being blasted away.

I have to go on the offensive if I want to get through this; if this keeps going I will get exhausted and finished, I have at the very least 4 fights to go after this!

I Raise my sword and run straight towards the Level-1, and when I see him raising his arms to strike at me again I decide to sidestep this time. I circle around his body and land a hit against the neck.

Hard!

Crap, that didn’t do much damage.

WHOOSH! I Dodge backward as the Level-1 begins spinning around, becoming a cyclone… shit.

After moving around the Metal Boy's body for about 10 seconds, he stops spinning around and drops his arms. He overheated?

I use the time that was given to me and run towards him, starting a barrage of attacks, this time focusing on the joints. after I hit him behind the place where the knee is located, he kneels before me, after which, I hit him again on the head except this time, I attack with the hilt of my sword. CLANG!

Crack!

After having his head crack, his other leg gives up and so the Automaton is now in a sitting position.

I walk away from the Automaton before facing Gemril and asking him

“Is it done?” (Rob)

“Grrr” (Automaton)

It seems he’s still not done for.

I Cautiously approach him with my sword in hand, but when I’m 5 meters away, he looks up towards me and raises his right hand…

“Why is he pointing the palm of his hand at me!?” (Rob)

Light begins to gather on the palm of his hand, and before I have the chance to discover what’s wrong with him, I turn around and walk towards the obelisk closest to me.

Once I am an arm's length away from the obelisk I hear whatever he is charging being done, so with no other choice at hand, I decide to jump and run up the obelisk.

BANG!

the obelisk receives the brunt of the attack, while I’m thankful that wasn’t me. I kick off the obelisk and do a flip on the air. once the Automaton is on my line of sight I can see him pointing at me once more, this time with his left hand.

Fuck me!

I use the skill I learned by watching the weird Oni (Human-Demon-Goat thing), and double jump in the air, right before the second beam of light is fired!

BAM! the hit hits the roof of the Arena and dust begins to fall everywhere.

I land behind the Automaton and begin another barrage of attacks before he has the chance to recover once again.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The Automaton finally falls to the ground—

BAM!

The whole arena shakes after he drops into the ground.

It seems like he is finally finished.

“Hah…” (Rob)

I follow him soon after, falling to the ground completely exhausted mentally.

“Congratulations on beating the first level. the 5 minutes begin now!” (Gemril)

The fallen Automaton splits into countless pieces, which float up to form the missing obelisk once again...

“God… Damn it” (Rob)

I say as I fight to stand back up. This will be a long day...

Doraig’s POV.

“She’s gone off to do her thing, thanks for not interrupting, Rize” (Doraig)

“Sure, no problem. I guess ‘Kelsi’ will be our healer now? It should be alright, we have around a month and a half to get her to level 17 or so from her current Level 1” (Rize)

“Yup. and I like her, she seems to be trustworthy!” (Doraig)

“You sure are straightforward, aren’t you?” (Rize)

“Yeah… by the way, how are we going to deal with Rob’s side of things?” (Doraig)

“Hmm… I’ll go fetch him at the city. Hopefully, he’ll be back before the three days are up, at which point I’ll bring him here with me, and you can stay here with Kelsi and the Slimes. We’ll leave once we’re all together” (Rize)

“Sounds good, but I meant about the things happening in Parlor town” (Doraig)

“Ah” (Rize)

...

“Honestly, I don’t think that’s on the level of things we can deal with yet, there were many sketchy things happening when we met him” (Rize)

“Like for example?” (Doraig)

“Just think about it, even if the Prince wanted to have the Princess covertly enter the town, he would have sent a single expert, instead of a level 9 fighter with no actual experience outside of duels inside his academy against a single enemy” (Rize)

“...you’re right” (Doraig)

“So, what I think happened is that the Prince wanted the princess to die, maybe to start a ‘revenge’ crusade, or who knows, there could be something bigger going on” (Rize)

“I.. see. In any case, Robin is now a teammate for the two of us, so that means we have to help him get stronger. that’s in favor of what we want to do, anyways” (Doraig)

“Of course. if anything, that guy was the only one who didn’t have anything to do with what’s happening inside of that city. Hell, I was somewhat apprehensive of getting a healer in that place too, in case we were swept up in some weird drama” (Rize)

“Well, you can thank Kelsi and Me for that, then!” (Doraig)

“Oh screw you man, you just got really lucky Kelsi wasn’t a warmonger” (Rize)

“...” (Doraig)

After talking for a bit longer, I can hear ‘Blub Blub’. Kelsi is back.

“Hey Kelsi, how were the Blobbies?” (Doraig)

I say, to which in response she jumps and lands on my back, before quickly reforming into a Blob once again and moving from my back, to my neck, to standing atop my head.

“I’m back! they were doing well, they should be ready to fight against the environment in a few days at the most. is this your friend? I could hear your voice from outside the cave, it gave me a fright at first!” (Kelsi)

“Yes, I am his friend and teammate, nice to meet you. My name is Rize” (Rize)

“Oh! it’s my pleasure to meet you, I am Kelsi!” (Kelsi)

Hmm? my head is getting warmer.

“What are you, by the way? I don’t have much knowledge of this world, hehe” (Kelsi)

“I am an Elf, I’m not sure if you know, but Doraig is a dragon” (Rize)

“Dra-goon? Doragoon? Doraig!” (Kelsi)

“We also have another friend, whose name is Robin Caster. you will meet him later. at that time, just call him Rob” (Doraig)

“Is he also a Dra-gon? or is he an Elf?” (Kelsi)

“He’s a human. He looks kind of like Rize, but his skin is a lot more white, and his ears aren’t pointy” (Doraig)

We just have a small Q & A session with Kelsi, where Rize explain to her a bit of this world, which races there are (the most common ones), and some other common knowledge. It seems like Kelsi knows a few things, like colors, shapes and basic things of that style. I think Mr. System gave her a ‘Language pack vol.1’ or something, but the more technical knowledge needs to be learned by her, on her own.

“Thank you a lot, Rize!” (Kelsi)

“You are welcome. Anyways, as I was telling Doraig a while ago, I will be leaving for the Lizardman-Naga capital ahead of time, so I can fetch Robin once he gets back from the Hidden caste. once he gets back we’ll rush here so we can all leave together” (Rize)

“That… Ba-is-trass— thingy? Okay!” (Kelsi)

“Then, I’ll see you in a few days, Doraig” (Rize)

“See you later man, have fun in Weierstrass, don’t get murdered!” (Doraig)

“...I hope you didn’t just jinx me” (Rize)

“Jinx?” (Kelsi)

“Ah, nothing. don’t teach her weird stuff, Rize!” (Doraig)

“You’re one to talk…” (Rize)

And so, we split up for a few days.

Oh yeah, neither Rize nor I remembered to ask her...

"Hey, Kelsi?" (Doraig)

"Hmm?" (Kelsi)

Yes, she's still sitting on my head

"What racial skill did you get, in the end?" (Doraig)

"The slimes? we received 'Shapeshifting'. here, let me show you" (Kelsi)

Kelsi begins to glow, and when she stops glowing she becomes a pool of liquid, before quickly reforming, first into a more 'human' shape, then she goes back to liquid, before becoming a dragon shape. of course, they're all made of slime, but this is so cool!

"Kelsi, you are amazing my love!" (Doraig)

"T—thank you, I'm glad you like it!" (Kelsi)

Robin’s POV

“Second Round, Begin!” (Gemril)

Fuck me...

As multiple ways to disassemble and murder Gemril run through my head, the second Obelisk breaks up, and just like the first one, emits light and floats in mid-air before reforming itself into another Automaton...

This time it’s a… what is that!? It has a wheel in place of legs, and… swords in place of arms? I can see this one is geared towards speed, I at least understand that much, but it’s... wobbling?

“Yihaaaw!” (Automaton)

The Automaton cries as it leans forward before rushing towards me, to which I walk backward to no use, it will soon catch me.

Right before it’s about to get me, I sidestep and turn around to kick him in the back, sending him flying off of the fighting platform.

The Automaton Falls off the platform, and stops moving— it turned off.

“Ah” (Rob)

“Ah” (Gemril)

“This… I— guess you won the second round, Con.gra.tu.la.tions” (Gemril)

Gulp… I hope he isn’t mad at me and throws me something impossible to deal with, right!?

“5 minutes of rest, right! and… progressive difficulty, right!?” (Rob)

“Yes… 5 minutes of rest” (Gemril)

Hello? don’t ignore that second part— please!

“Hah… it was my fault for modifying him and replacing his legs for a wheel… yeah, don’t worry, I will have the difficulty-level climb in a progressive manner” (Gemril)

Did he modify them? hold on…

“Did you make these guys?” (Rob)

“Me? of course not. they were made by Master’s right hand, as I was. I just enjoyed looking at my maker doing his job, so I learned a trick or two. just now I wanted to try an Automaton I modified, but as you could see…” (Gemril)

I just zoned out as he spent the next few minutes explaining the intricacies of dissecting an automaton to implant him with a massive wheel...

“...And that’s all I did— or should have done, but it seems like I missed a bolt. Anyways, You have 15 seconds left of your resting time” (Gemril)

“Great!” (Rob)

His eyes open up slightly, expressing his surprise, and after that, he nods his head approvingly towards me

“That’s the spirit boy!” (Gemril)

BOOM!

BOOM!

Wait… why did two Obelisks blow up this time!? Oh no… Why is it so big!?

WHAT.THE.FUCK, THIS IS A FUCKING RAID BOSS!

“PROGRESSIVE MY ASS!” (Rob)

"Hey, I said progressive, not incremental" (Gemril)