"I’m certain I ntioned it earlier when I told you about the journey I’ve taken."
As these words left Aeramis’ mouth, the man gave Ataraxia a calm smile. "Though, just in case ti has caused you to forget about it, my goal at first was to explore everything the world beneath my feet had to offer."
"Whether it was the view from the peaks of the tallest mountains, or the deepest depths only the powerful few can traverse, I wanted to see all of it with my very own eyes."
The man’s smile turned bitter after that. "However, as a young boy at the ti, I did not have the strength nor the abilities to achieve such a goal that easily."
"And so, I had to plan my steps in order to make sure I’d achieve that goal in the end."
"Of course, I’m certain the running tracks have made it obvious that the first step I’ve taken towards my first goal was improving my speed," said the man after that, finishing his explanation.
"After all, how would I arrive at the tallest mountains or the deepest depths of the oceans if I did not have the speed to get there in the first place?"
Whoosh!
Just as those words left Aeramis’ mouth, the man briefly released a bit of his energy into the surroundings, which he then manipulated to coalesce near the start of one of the running tracks.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Taking shape under the commands of the man’s thoughts, the energy gradually took on a humanoid entity, its height and build more or less similar to Ataraxia’s current appearance.
"As I’ve ntioned just now, the first trial you shall be facing on the path of Breaking Barriers involves speed." After Aeramis was done shaping the entity to his whims, he glanced at the young man once more as he gave him a breakdown of the first trial.
"Considering the venue of the first trial, you might assu that the first trial involves having to reach the end of the running track faster than the entity I’ve summoned."
Ataraxia faintly nodded at his words, especially since first thought after seeing those tracks indeed fell under that train of thought.
"Unfortunately, the chanics of the first trial couldn’t be any farther away from that," the man continued, giving the young man a slightly wry smile.
"If anything, what I shall test from you during this trial..."
"...Is your wit and acun."
As these words left Aeramis’ mouth, the young man could not help but look at him with confusion in response. After all, what did wit and acun have anything to do with soone called the Fleet-footed Monarch.
Though, as he listened to the man discuss the chanics of the first trial in detail, the man’s previous words eventually began to make sense to him.
Although the dirt running tracks was the venue where the first trial would be held, Aeramis told the young man from the get-go that the running tracks were rely a backdrop.
With that out of the way, he then proceeded to discuss the chanic of the trial itself, which the young man eventually felt was similar to so of the rogue-like gas he’d played in his past life.
According to Aeramis, he would have to pay attention to two stats throughout the entire trial, which were his maximum speed and his acceleration.
These stats were crucial if he wanted to clear and proceed onto the second, considering that the goal of the first trial was to raise both of these stats as high as possible.
Starting off the trial, Ataraxia would have a base maximum speed and acceleration value of 1, which he would have to increase as much as possible before being forced to compete against the silhouette beside him in speed.
At first, the young man thought that the man was planning to have undergo through rigorous training in order to raise both of these stats.
However, when he thought about how Aeramis told him that his wit and acun would be tested in this first trial, Ataraxia quickly scratched that thought.
Fortunately, the thod to raise both his speed and acceleration was far simpler than he thought.
For each turn, the man would give him the option to choose a card out of a set of five, with each one giving an effect that changed the values of his speed and acceleration in various ways.
From what Aeramis told the young man, there were only three types of cards he could possibly obtain whenever choosing from a set.
The first type was pretty straightforward, which gave him a flat boost to either his maximum speed or acceleration. Though, if he was lucky, there was also the possibility of obtaining a small boost to both stats.
On the other hand, the second type focused on sacrificing a certain stat in order to obtain more of the other stat.
Seeing how the effectiveness of the card depended on how much one of his stats would decrease in exchange for the other’s increase, the young man slowly began to understand the wit and acun part of the man’s explanation.
As for the third type, the card did not actually give a direct boost to either of the two stats the mont it was chosen.
Instead, it acted as a buff of sorts, wherein Ataraxia would be forced to wait for a certain amount of card sets as a penalty. However, in exchange, the amount of stats he gained from the card set that would appear after that was multiplied by a certain value.
After going over the three card types, Aeramis inford the young man that each set of cards constituted a turn. In total, he had 10 turns before he had to face off against the entity the man conjured in a race.
"Once you defeat the first entity, the second entity gains stats that are substantially higher than the first one you fought," said the man, capping off his explanation of the first trial to the young man.
"As long as you defeat ten of these entities, you’ll obtain the minimum score necessary to move on to the next trial."
"Of course, if you defeat far more entities than ten, then it should co as no surprise that the final reward you obtain from clearing the path shall be greatly improved."
Aeramis faintly smiled at the young man after that. "Now, if you don’t have any other questions about the chanics, we could go ahead and proceed with the first trial."
"I have no further questions." Ataraxia shook his head in response, his expression containing a mix of determination and anticipation.
"Understood." The man nodded in response, releasing a bit of his energy into the surroundings once more.
"Since that’s the case, let us begin."
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