Chapter 786 - Nevermore: The Test of Character Begins

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<AUTHOR NOTE OVER>

It took Jake a good week of sitting in meditation before he got the feeling he could handle the world around him again. Upon reflection on his current state, Jake would liken his injuries to as if he had strained some mental or soul muscle far more than he should have. As if he had torn something metaphysical that wouldn’t simply heal in a few days. Luckily, though, it was healing. In just a week, Jake had gone from feeling either wholly overwhelmed by his surroundings or having all stimuli nearly completely suppressed. In fact, he felt confident enough to walk all the way to where one entered the Challenge Dungeons now.

However, Jake still had one thing that seriously bothered him. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t recall how he felt during the moment he unleashed his Bloodline, and he honestly didn’t quite understand what exactly he had done. He remembered everything he had done, but the methods as to how he had done things eluded him. He had tried to replicate aspects to no avail, as he realized that during his full unleashing of his Bloodline, he had somehow embodied concepts he simply had no way to touch upon now.

While this was annoying, Jake wasn’t that demotivated. Because he knew that it was something he could replicate in the future. Perhaps one day, that state of clarity would just be how he felt all the time, and he couldn’t wait for that day to arrive. A man can dream.

Oh, Jake did also discover one more thing that did genuinely suck. During these thirty years of doing Nevermore, Jake had built up quite a lot of Jake Juice – or Origin Energy, as boring people called it – but that was now pretty much all gone. It had functioned as the fuel to allow him to do what he had done, and without it, the backlash would probably have been way fucking worse. Of course, that energy would also come back in due time, but it was the one true “loss” he suffered.

Either way, during this one week of healing, he tried to keep himself distracted by focusing on things that could keep his mind occupied, which luckily included messing with some of his items. His energy also moved normally, so he used what he had to infuse into the Soulflame Cradle. Sadly, the Puzzle Box wasn’t really useable, though, as that required him to use his senses.

The Cradle had been out of his possession for more than a year and a half, yet when he checked it out, the inside looked just like it had when he entered the Challenge Dungeon. He guessed that time inside had been frozen by the system during his absence, which was probably for the best. Jake could already imagine someone like Dina, who walked around with a garden in a spatial storage, entering the dungeon only to see her garden entirely ruined the second she got out due to lack of maintenance.

Inside of the Cradle, his arcane affinity was gaining more and more ground. A few small areas now consistently birthed – and instantly killed – elemental-like creatures made of his affinity. By now, it was only a matter of time before an Arcane Soulflame would appear… Jake just hoped it would be a high-grade one. If not, well, he wasn’t in a hurry and could wait for some better to come along. Working on the Cradle was a nice distraction, for sure.

Another place Jake felt all fine was within his own Soulspace. There, all his senses worked as they should without any problems, making it a place he could seek out if he needed reprieve. Unfortunately, him immersing his consciousness in his soul seemed to slow down, if not entirely halt his recuperation, so he only checked out his Soulspace sparingly.

He still took the time to make sure his curse energy was fine. Having all his equipment back was great, too. Especially Eternal Hunger had been dearly missed. The Sin weapon luckily also hadn’t starved during his time in the Challenge Dungeon but had been frozen in time the same way as the Cradle.

Anyway, after this week of just healing, Jake believed it was time to stop stalling and get a move on. He didn’t want to be that one guy on a group project who dragged everyone else down by being late with an assignment, so he had to get his ass moving if he wanted to avoid being the last person to finish all his Challenge Dungeon.

He just hoped this Test of Character dungeon would indeed be one he could do even in his messed-up state while hopefully even finding the space to heal in there. Also, he seriously hoped it wouldn’t be as hard, but it shouldn’t be, right?

Jake wasn’t all that confident he would do super well, though… he had always sucked when taking tests. Well, besides multiple-answer tests where he could pretty much cheat by just getting a feel for the correct place to set a cross or fill in the circle. He doubted this test would just be him having to pick between a few choices on a sheet of paper, though.

No matter what, he didn’t really have any other choice as he made his way to the entrance of the Challenge Dungeons and began his second Challenge Dungeon out of five: Test of Character.

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And boy, was the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon an odd one. Jake immediately recognized that.

From the name alone, it gave plenty of clues, but Jake honestly hadn’t expected it to just test the character of the person who did it, despite the name. How would that even work? What were the criteria for judging a person? What type of character was “best” and deserving of a better evaluation?

Also, how would the Wyrmgod and system even test someone’s character? By having them take some silly personality test? Maybe it would use his horoscope and star sign or throw some tarot cards in the mix? In either case, Jake found the notion of a dungeon judging someone’s character kind of dumb, so he couldn’t really see it being that simple.

Turns out it wasn’t simple indeed.

Upon entering the dungeon, after a brief moment of nothingness, Jake found himself lying in a large, comfy bed. He was momentarily confused as he couldn’t quite move his body, but with a little push, he raised an arm.

His senses were still off, but he felt like his stats were all normal. As he was thinking this, he lost concentration, and his arm dropped down again, as he lost control of his own body. Jake was perplexed and taken aback as a system message appeared before him.

Nevermore Challenge Dungeon Entered!

You have entered the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon. This dungeon is composed of an anthology of events and scenarios for you to experience and live through as you influence the stories while embodying characters within these stories.

As a character, you are both the controller of the outcome of this story and a silent passenger. You are free to choose between controlling the current character you inhabit or letting the original story play out as a simple bystander. Taking control allows you to change the course of the story to create an outcome you find ideal based entirely on your own judgment.

During this Challenge Dungeon, you are fully capable of using your full stats, though some skills may be limited. All current items and equipment have been confiscated and shall be returned upon exiting the Challenge Dungeon. Each story has a final choice you will be presented with that will also mark the beginning of the end of the current story and allow you to move on to the next. Stories can be ended before the final choice is presented should certain actions be taken. Be warned that should the character you are inhabiting die, the story will immediately end, and you will move on to the next. The death of the character you are inhabiting will have no negative effects on you but may influence your evaluation during the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon.

Objective: See the anthology through to its end.

Current objective: Experience the first story.

Reading the entire message, Jake was more certain than ever. This dungeon was weird as hell. So weird that Jake, in all honesty, had no idea what he was actually supposed to do.

An anthology? Stories? Taking the place of characters? This all seemed incredibly weird, especially considering he was clearly in his own body right now… wait, was he in his own body? He felt like he was, but upon focusing really hard on his sphere, he saw that something was different. He was a human, yes, but this wasn’t him.

Forcing himself to take control of the body, Jake moved to touch his own face, only to feel his body instantly morph. The second he had taken control, the character he was currently inhabiting had morphed into Jake’s body fully.

Letting go of his control, it instantly morphed back. Jake let it be as he tried to understand the dungeon a bit more as a minute or so passed. Then, without warning, his body began moving on its own as the character he was currently inhabiting appeared to wake up.

Sitting up, he stretched and yawned before getting out of the bed. Jake watched everything out of his own eyes, truly feeling like a passenger going along for the ride. His character soon walked in front of a mirror as Jake saw who he was supposed to be. In the mirror, a man who looked in his mid-thirties stared back as he stroked his beard a bit, seemingly considering if it had gotten a bit too long.

From there on, the guy just began his day. During this period, Jake realized that even if he saw everything the body did, he didn’t know the character’s actual thoughts or motives, forcing him to interpret any actions by himself. Perhaps this was part of the test of character? Again, what the hell was he supposed to do right now?

Time moved on as the man soon finished up at home and left his house. Jake still had his murky shitty sphere, but at least his eyesight and other “normal” senses were good enough for now. He couldn’t see even close to as far as before, but he could manage. Moreover, from the looks of it, this entire scenario he found himself in was filled with only weak people. His ability to sense presences was also still intact, and so far, not a single being above E-grade had appeared, with most even in F-grade. The body he was currently in seemed to be in late E-grade, if barely.

Jake felt like he was watching a weird and very boring POV movie as the character went through his very mundane day. After leaving home, he went and got some breakfast at a local café before heading to work as a guardsman for the city. He guarded the walls, checked the documents of traders and travelers who wanted to enter the city, and shot the shit with his fellow guards. Only once did any action happen that day as a single late E-grade beast got too close to the city, and a few mage guardsmen quickly killed it.

After getting home, the guard went into a small woodworking shop at the back of the house, where he worked on a full dining set. Once he was done for the day, the sun had long gone down, and the guard went and relaxed a bit in his small living room, reading a book for an hour or so before he headed to bed and went asleep.

Jake sadly didn’t have the ability to sleep as he just lay there in darkness. At any moment, he could take charge of the body, but he didn’t. He hadn’t done anything throughout the entire day either but had just followed along.

During this time, Jake contemplated the Challenge Dungeon introduction and noticed that one option he did have was to skip any current story by simply killing himself. Or, well, killing the character he was currently inhabiting. It said that would end the story prematurely, along with there being no negative consequences for death. Not that he planned on doing that… but it was an option.

Six hours later, the guard woke up, and another boring day went by. It was far from stimulating, but Jake didn’t feel rushed to do anything. Sure, it did feel like he was wasting time, but hey, he was slowly healing up and improving. Plus, he had plenty of time to work on his Bloodline-related senses while he was on cruise control.

On the fourth day of this “story,” something finally happened. A group of traders had come, and one of them said that they passed an area nearby that was usually peaceful, but it seemed like there had recently been a lot of activity from beasts. It wasn’t much, but it was something. That something being incredibly obvious foreshadowing.

The next day, there was more action than any other as a lot of scaled horse-like creatures got close to the city and had to be put down. On the sixth day, it got even worse, and there were even reports of travelers being killed on the road. Rumors began to be whispered around the city that a Beast King had emerged and united the nearby monsters, causing much concern. The bar that the guard Jake was riding along with sometimes visited was buzzing with activity that night, and Jake’s character actively tried to calm everyone down.

Yet Jake knew he himself wasn’t confident things were fine, not based on how he couldn’t focus while at work and his constant nervous ticks. He obviously hoped it was just a false alarm.

Well, on the seventh day, it became clear this was no time to be calm. A scout had arrived and confirmed that a Beast King had indeed emerged, and based on context clues, Jake was pretty sure this so-called “calamitous monster” was just some D-grade. However, to these people, such a beast would be dangerous, even if it had just evolved. From the sounds of it, Jake also doubted it was even a strong variant.

On the eighth day, it became clear the city was in trouble. The Beast King was on the move and headed toward the city, likely to grow the power of its army by killing all the inhabitants of the city off for experience points. Human cities were the best kind of farming ground for beasts if they could get away from it, and clearly, this Beast King knew it.

A large meeting was called with the governor, officials, and many of the guards, including the guard captain, who was close to a peak E-grade. The meeting proceeded as several ideas were thrown out, including evacuation, fighting back while making use of the city walls, laying traps, having only a select few leave, or maybe trying to somehow make the Beast King not attack, with some even proposing that perhaps they could negotiate. Offer tribute to the Beast King to leave them be.

As everyone came up with ideas, Jake’s character didn’t say anything, but suddenly, as there was a moment of silence, the guard captain suddenly addressed him.

“You have worked as a guard here as long as me… do you have any suggestions?” the guard captain asked as he looked straight at Jake. Well, Jake’s character.

As he did this, time slowed down significantly as a message appeared before him, but at the same time, he knew he had to make a decision relatively quickly.

Make your final choice. With the Beast King coming, choose how you will influence the city’s response to the crisis.

Jake felt like he was put on the spot and doing a damn quick-time event… except he didn’t just have to press a button really fast.

What’s worse… Jake still had no idea what in the bloody hell the purpose of this place even was… so he just stopped trying to figure it out as he took control for the first time and spoke:

“Let’s just hunt it down before it attacks?”