It was sowhat common knowledge that you couldn’t resonate with a Common class. [Warrior], [Mage], [Rogue]. They were all common classes that nobody had resonated with before. One of the theories was that people did resonate with the class but it was so weak that nobody would recognize it. The other leading theory was that Common classes were too broad. What even was a [Warrior] anyway? It was too broad.
Then again, what about a [Rogue]?
When he thought about it like that, it sohow beca easier. He knew what a [Rogue] was, or at least he knew what kind of [Rogue] he was.
He had used it partially as [The Rogue Adventurer]. It was half the definition of that class.
So was it truly the case that people can’t resonate with sothing like a [Rogue] at all? Or is it because it’s too ‘weak’ of a class?
That didn’t sound right either. He was trying to follow his instincts as a [Conceptual tamorph] and it was telling him that both were wrong.
In any case, the almost hopeless expressions of Anjalith and Mudriff tickled his mind.
“How long have you two been stuck in the fourth realm?”
Anjalith didn’t answer him, she was still staring at her replays.
Mudriff sighed. “All my skills have been maxed for six months.”
“But that’s…”
Ryan trailed off as he realized how stupid his next question was going to be. Each level took more ti the higher level your skills were, it also took more ti the rarer your skills were. Undoubtedly, Mudriff had a few Rare skills which would have taken years to max out. Mudriff had only said six months to make himself sound better.
The fourther admitted the reality a mont later.
“It’s been five years since my team had enough and went ahead. They’re in the eighth realm now.”
“Oh.”
Ryan had stopped giving thought to those with limited Trial skills and having to stay behind to learn them. It was always such an important part of his original plan as an adventurer but now he was soone with six skill slots not four.
And I still have an S reward remaining.
Anjalith was still staring at her recordings. “Don’t feel bad about it. That’s just the way the world works. Sotis it turns out others are just more talented than the others.”
Mudriff sighed and stared at the ground. Even Lattick the seventh realm didn’t look too happy with his own lacking talent.
And Ryan felt it, that sense of bubbling frustration in his chest again. A sense of the world not being how the way he imagined it to be.
Here were adventurers that were undoubtedly the top talents of Earth. If none of these three were Destined then it was likely that all three of them had been better at combat than he was. Then here they were with their Trial System upgrades boosting their physical and taphysical talent to prodigious levels.
And they dared to call themselves untalented?
Ryan’s voice wasn’t kind.
“You know, there are Realrs out there working decades to get to where you guys are.”
They all looked at him in confusion, as if wondering what that had to do with anything.
“I’ve seen Realrs that had spent decades just to get an [Extended Blows] skill where it was half as efficient as a Trial skill.”
Gudred, one of the elders of the Obsidian Sect, had been training for decades since the Settler War. Larix, the most prodigious cultivator The Realm had ever seen, had lost to soone who had been an adventurer for less than a year.
Perhaps this was what they felt when he had bemoaned his own talent to them.
How silly he had been.
“We aren’t Realrs, we’re adventurers—”
“Exactly. If you haven’t figured out how to unlock your Trial skill, it wasn’t because you guys were untalented. It’s because you guys just haven’t found the right thod that works for you.”
“We’ve been trying forever.”
You haven’t had the [Conceptual tamorph] helping you out. Ryan didn’t say.
“You haven’t had helping you all out.”
This ti both the fourthers looked up at him with daring hope in their eyes.
——
Class resonance, Trial skill unlocks, leveling skills. All of these things were stuff that adventurers had been experinting with for decades. You had a million or so odd adventurers out there experinting with their skills and then you had hundreds of millions of people doing research and statistical analysis on top of all of that.
It was absolute arrogance for him to be able to find sothing they hadn’t figured out.
His hope was that his class would be his ace in the hole.
…Only a couple minutes in Ryan had the feeling that his ace in the hole might not have been a sure thing. He was in the middle of the training room with Mudriff, with the other two watching by when they ca across the first problem he had zero idea how to solve.
“What do you an you don’t know how to get into the flow state?”
Mudriff scuffed the ground. “I’ve never been able to get into it on purpose. Most of the ti I did it was in combat.”
Ryan wasn’t sure what to say to that. The zone, or the flow state was a heightened ntal state where your mind and body was in complete harmony and working towards a singular goal. It was considered one of the best ways to trigger a skill activation on your own.
So people could get there through sitting still and just focusing. Ryan found it easiest to get there by practicing the sword routines he’d drilled for tens of thousands of tis as a child.
Anjalith stepped forward. “I’m good at getting into the flow state. Maybe you can help out first.”
“No, everyone gets up to speed first. Then we work our way up together. One step at a ti.”
Ryan thought about it for a second, he turned to Mudriff and stared at his slightly oversized greatsword.
“You qualified through swordsmanship right? Don’t you have routines you follow?”
Mudriff shook his head. “My family believes that pure direct combat is the best way to prepare for the Trial System. I never learned sword routines other than the basics.”
Ryan blinked. He’d heard that one before. A group of crazy ass adventurers that made their children constantly take mock battles. They were pretty famous actually, he’d t one of them too as an adventurer.
“I’ve only heard of one crazy ass family that does that. Are you from the Kingstrike clan?
Mudriff bristled. “Our clan is not crazy. Our thodology has continued to prove its superiority. We produce far more competent adventurers with an exceedingly lower rate of deaths per realm. Constant real combat training with adventurers standing by is the best training regi anyone could have.”
“Yeah but how many people have constant access to healing potions and [Healers]—”
Ryan actually stopped himself and raised his hands, this was a massive topic for the realmnet and not for arguing in front of everyone.
“You know what? Let’s stay on topic. Can we spar to get you into a flow state?”
Mudriff shook his head. “Sparring does not lead into a flow state. Even life and death combat does not get into a flow state. Believe I’ve tried many tis.”
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“Hold on. Isn’t it dangerous to get into the flow state when you’re in the field?”
Being in the flow state wasn’t all benefits. For one thing, being hyperfocused on a singular task made you vulnerable to outside interference. It was perfectly fine when you were an athlete with completely defined rules, less so when you were out in the wild and a thousand things could go wrong.
Mudriff probably understood that but still nodded.
“I have heard that so people find their epiphanies while in life and death combat. I went to see if it would work for .”
aning Mudriff had heard so far-fetched story and tried to see if it would work for him. Honestly, that was pretty admirable in Ryan’s books.
“Well, you said you’ve been having less of them which ant you used to have more of them. When was the last ti you had it consistently?”
Mudriff shifted slightly. “I believe that was when I was fighting with my team. I was the co-captain. Whenever things went wrong and I had to help take control… I felt like that was when my mind was the clearest. The levels… they were always the greatest after then too.”
Ryan was watching the adventurer closely, there was such a longing there that he was starting to understand Mudriff’s frustration. The dude didn’t want to evolve to get stronger, he wanted to evolve just so he could return to his team.
“I think we’ve found our starting point.”
——
Two hours later…
Lattick and Anjalith were observing from the control room. They had not complained for being waylaid by Mudriff. Not only had neither of them complained but both of them canceled their appointnts and delayed whatever they needed to to stay and observe.
It was the sa with assistant Grevich. He had booked the training room for an unlimited duration and stayed completely silent throughout, only lending his assistance when asked of him.
They all felt it.
Sothing was wrong about Ryan Robinson.
No known history, uncertain realm grade, a titled style class and regarded highly by well-known figures.
That wasn’t too rare—believe it or not. There were agreents between the Manager and the Tyrants so that Destineds were allowed to stay anonymous.
Weird Destined like Ryan Robinson popped up now and then.
That wasn’t too weird.
The wrongness was just how confident he seed that he would find an answer that everyone else was certain had no real answer. The weird thing was that the last two hours hadn’t been smooth sailing either, quite the opposite in fact.
Two hours in and they had experinted with multiple different guided ditation and combat scenarios. Two hours of what seed like Ryan throwing random stuff at the wall and seeing if it stuck.
Nothing had.
It should have had the two veteran adventurers shaking their heads in disappointnt.
But for so reason they couldn’t help but keep watching.
Lattick rembered how the last two hours had gone.
A light punch on the arm when Mudriff was too disheartened.
‘You know? I thought the entirety of my childhood was a failure. Nearly seventeen years of sword practice just to end up working at a Manaburger! You’ve still got eleven more years and you’ll still be less of a failure than I was.’
When Mudriff doubted what he was planning.
‘Yes, for most people, [Warrior] is too broad to resonate with. But think about it. Dragonslayers have problems on the other side. They often end up with classes that’s so specific they can’t resonate without specific circumstances. I’ve resonated with lesser versions of my class so why can’t you?’
When they all questioned him on that.
‘What? Oh yeah that wasn’t the first ti I’ve resonated with my class. I was just doing it to scam you guys out of money.’
…
‘What? I’m [The Rogue Adventurer], what did you expect? Charity?!”
Perhaps Lattick watched it because it was like watching a train crashing in slow motion, or perhaps… it was because Ryan Robinson was getting more excited. Like he was enjoying the process, getting closer to sothing only he could see.
When Mudriff questioned his thodology…
“Yeah. I don’t know what I’m doing but neither does the Manager. So it’s okay to not know! It’s true! The next ti you guys et it, just ask how many tis the Trial System has been completed. The Manager loves that question.”
So, wrapped up by Ryan’s confidence and energy, they watched.
Because, for so reason, it felt like it would co true.
——
Ryan cricked his neck and rolled his shoulders. He grinned at Mudriff. No longer was the fourther wielding an oversized sword, he was using a sword and a large shield and it looked awkward on the elf.
Mudriff had spent his entire life practicing with longswords. It was what he was the most talented at. It was how he earned a slot. It was the Trial skills that he had built around.
It was also wrong.
There were three dummies in the middle and Mudriff was now acting like a tank. An elven willowy fra holding a big shield and a sword. All wrong, but right at the sa ti.
Ryan stood with a bag of knives, further away, stalking the three golems in a huge circle. Mudriff had the shield up, tracking him, making sure there was no opening between him and the golems.
Ryan threw a knife, Mudriff blocked it before it could reach the golems.
The clanging of tal signalled the beginning.
And Grevich’s soothing voice ca through the intercom.
‘Combat scenario: A quick assassin is hounding your teammates after they were dosed by noxweed powder. They’re sluggish and it’s your job to protect them.’
The high conceptual stuff wasn’t for everyone. In their practices, Mudriff didn’t understand any of it so Ryan scrapped that idea. Most people didn’t think of skills and classes like that anyway.
He decided to focus on sothing else instead. Naly, Mudriff being unable to get into the flow state at all. It had taken so ti but he finally figured it out.
Sotis soone might have been talented in one thing but it turned out—
That deep down they wanted to be doing sothing else.
Ryan stepped out from the side and threw another knife into the center. Weaving in and out thodically, throwing knives in a consistent predictable pattern.
Grevich’s voice rang out again.
‘Do you rember the drinks you shared with Christie that day? Right after saving her from that bullipede?’
Mudriff froze at that. Ryan had gone off and done research on his own while Mudriff had been down here experinting with other lines of guided ditation. He hadn’t been expecting it to get personal.
Before he could say sothing Ryan threw another knife and Mudriff blocked. Just in ti too.
Ryan grinned as Grevich’s voice continued.
‘What about the fire that went out of control and you all got hunted down by the Leafstalkers? It was Lee Han’s fault and you all gave him shit for it for ages.’
It was amazing how much everyone’s history was on the Realmnet. Mudriff looked furious at him, at least until Ryan sped up to a standard realm four speed. The [Warrior] barely blocked the knife in ti and was clearly wanting to say sothing.
That was when Grevich’s voice broke through.
‘Co-captain, it’s up to you now! Those three behind you are your teammates. Christie, Lee Han and Rayan are relying on you. [Warrior]! Protect them from the assassin!’
An earnest request, things had gone wrong and Mudriff needed to be at his best. Ryan started to push to the limits of realm four. Throwing at the sa thodical locations but simply faster. The clanging of knife against shield ringing out in the room.
Grevich’s voice rung out as Mudriff redoubled his focus.
‘You are a [Warrior]. You have trained in the art of combat since you were a child. Day in, day out. You know the steps, you know the moves. If you cannot do this, your team will suffer.’
As if to reiterate that point, Ryan sped up, not giving Mudriff ti to think. One of the fourther's biggest problems was that he thought too much. Likely the problem of being in constant nearly-lethal combat as a kid.
Be too fast to let him think, give him an objective.
Ryan was reaching the peak of fourth realm speeds. At least too fast for Mudriff to follow. The only reason Mudriff could even keep up was that Ryan kept the throwing in a consistent pattern. There were more buckets of knives in the periter that he could pick up from anyway. Raidco’s Mastery was quite well-equipped.
Grevich’s voice continued.
‘A [Warrior] with courage unparalleled, you will not falter, you will not break, if you have limits, you will overco them.’
Ryan was too fast now, Mudriff would not make the next knife throw with his shield that had just blocked another knife. Mudriff extended his other hand, his sword flying out—and deflecting the knife right at the tip.
Look at that, new sword and he’s using it flawlessly.
Mudriff glared at him then. Anger, still thinking, but less, most of his focus was on the objective.
He had no ti to think—just react.
anwhile Grevich’s voice continued.
‘[Power Strike] is an additional force multiplier on a singular attack, but that isn’t all you can do with it. With increased attacking power cos increased speed, with increased speed you can block faster. You can use anything for a [Power Strike].’
The flow state, heightened emotions, the aligning of skills to a purpose that truly fit you and what you wanted.
No shit nobody had figured out the secret sauce. It needs to be custom-made every ti.
Ryan issued a command.
“[WARRIOR] DEFEND YOUR TEAM!”
Ryan sped up just a little faster. Beyond the scope of realm four. The first throw was barely blocked with the tip of Mudriff’s sword, the next throw would be impossible to block now.
That mont of assured failure. Mudriff knew it was coming but he’d be too slow, not unless he could activate his skill.
There was no more thoughts.
And the Conceptual tamorph saw it. The blending of courage, combat and aggression. All to protect—
That was all Ryan could read from the concepts. It was light. The concept of a [Warrior] wasn’t necessarily weak, it was that adventurers in the lower realms simply didn’t have the conceptual weight to be considered a resonance.
But he as the [Conceptual tamorph] could see it. Mudriff right now was resonating with his class. Clear as day.
Ryan threw.
Mudriff moved, desperate, he would not make it—at the last mont, the only thing Mudriff could think of was to activate his skill. A singular focus on the only thing that would save his friends.
And his arm pushed ahead, throwing his entire body with the multiplied force. It wasn’t what the skill was ant for, because of it, it was the worst first skill activation any of them had ever witnessed.
But it was still a skill activation.
…It still missed the knife by a few inches. The blade flying through the guard and into one of the golems.
Everyone stared at the [Warrior]. The [Warrior] looked back at the golem that had its head blown off and drooped. Defeated and failed his team once again.
It took a mont for Ryan to realize what was happening.
“FOCUS ON THE SKILL AND NOT THE GOLEM YOU IDIOT!”
You could still lose the skill activation. That was the thing, you could activate a Trial skill on your own but then lose the ‘feeling’ of being able to activate it yourself again.
Mudriff’s eyes widened, realizing that he had gotten a little too into the scenario and had forgotten the main objective. He was looking through his system screens in desperation, then tried to activate the skill again. He tried to punch out with his shield, trying to rember the feeling.
It didn’t work.
This ti Mudriff kneeled to the ground and put his head in his hands.
“NOOOOOOOO.”
Ryan facepald.
…Well, at least it wasn’t a total loss. In most cases, one activation ant the full skill wasn’t too far away. Besides, with his new skill Ryan had a feeling things would only get a easier from here on out.
Precursor Skill [A Glimpse of Perspective] (Rare) Learned!
Ryan turned to the enchanted windows, he grinned at the three people that were now staring at him. Like he was so sort of hidden secre sauce that held the key to all of their futures. He made sure his voice was audible to everyone in the room.
“I’m going to be so filthy rich.”
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