CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

Verity hit the water sphere again and again and again and again and again until the sound of his spear clashing with the magical spell merged with the environment, as if it'd always been there.

Among those remaining, he was perhaps the only one doing so. Some still tried to pass the test, devised strategies, or plunged into their well of knowledge for an answer, but none acted as stubbornly as Verity.

To all those watching him, only one word came to mind.

Desperate.

But that was not so.

Verity counted the hits as he wailed on the water sphere. 'Hmm… I've managed to go up to fifteen, but I guess I'll need at least twenty five to even make a dent…'

Indeed, though it may have seemed as so, Verity was not doing this out of desperation, nor had he lost his mind.

He was attempting to use one of the new stances of the Nine Hells Style his master had taught him - Gluttony.

A stance that grew stronger with each hit so long as the wielder performed it properly. When Verity's strongest attack failed, instead of seeking help or seeking other, more roundabout ways to pass the trial, Verity found himself thinking the way his master would.

If the attack was not powerful enough to break the sphere, then he would need to strike harder. That was it, that was the entire plan, and the only way for him to use an attack stronger than Absolute Destruction was through Gluttony.

The only problem, however, was that Verity was not very proficient in the stance. His efficiency was little less than dirt when compared to his master, and he often failed to handle the rebound of Aura properly after the eighth hit, breaking the stance and bringing him back to his starting point.

Now, with utmost focus and endless repetition, he had managed to reach a maximum of fifteen hits, but even that was not enough to break the sphere. Once the fifteenth hit came, he would lose control of his Aura, suffer from backlash, and stumble to the ground. Every time he lost control, the recoil left his arms numb, his legs buckling. One misstep, and a well of effort unraveled in seconds.

After another failure, Verity groaned and leaned onto his spear as he stood up.

The alchemist behind him shouted. "Hey! Maybe we can even figure out something together. I've got lots of potions!!"

Verity clicked his tongue and ignored the alchemist.

It was not that Verity could not hear him, it was just that he did not want his help.

His grip tightened on his spear.

He was being stubborn

Felicia had done it on her own, which would not have bothered him usually, but the way she had looked toward Elio when he had done the same… bothered him.

'I can do it too.'

In a sense, those feelings of his were childish. He might have already passed the test by now had he sought help, but he refused to do so. He wasn't exactly sure what Felicia was to him. A friend, a companion perhaps, or maybe deep down he thought of her as something different, something more, or maybe not.

What he did know, however, was that he wanted her to look at him like that too.

He could do it too.

He could break this water sphere on his own. Not in one attack, not in a few seconds, but he could at least do it on his own.

CLANG

Verity sighed. Despite the strange feelings that tightened his chest and fueled his resolve, the alchemist was right. He wouldn't succeed just because he wanted to, and he could feel that fifteen hits was his limit. In only a few hours, he would not improve much more than that.

He sighed again. 'Maybe if I had talent like them… or if I actually had a combat class… maybe I wouldn't be stuck like this.'

He laid on his back. 'All of the others have already gone ahead, and I'm still stuck here, hitting this stupid water sphere like a damn idiot…'

He bit his lip, the image of Felicia's gaze replaying in his mind. 'Seriously, what's up with me? Who cares what she does or doesn't do. These guys… Marco and Hoshino as well, they're monsters, I shouldn't even be comparing myself to them.'

An emotion that always lurked within the depths of Verity's heart. Inadequacy, shame, self-pity. Those were feelings he knew all too well. For Verity, it had always been easy to deem others as better than him, and claim that 'nothing could be done'. It was something Verity had done his entire life.

It was something he could do here as well. In this world, he'd worked harder than ever before, and no one could deny that. He let out a hollow laugh. He had done well, hadn't he? This wasn't the hardest challenge he'd faced, nor the most demanding, but Verity felt somewhat tired.

That man, Elio, was the main character, or at least that's how Verity saw it. Would it not have been fine if Felicia and the others ended up traveling with him instead? Clearly, he wanted Verity gone, and Verity did not know if he wanted to fight for his place.

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Plus, besides his dislike for Verity, he seemed okay, and besides all else, he was strong, much stronger than one could imagine.

Verity let out a long exhale.

Wouldn't it be fine to just give up here?

The team would go one without him, perhaps replace him with Elio, and he could fade into the background, as he always had before. All the effort he'd been putting in, how tiring it was.

He suspected that his class was altering his personality, but with the way he was feeling now, he scoffed and thought that it wasn't so easy to change a person.

He gazed at the sky, two suns blazing high above. Failing on the third trial wasn't so ba–

CRACK

He clenched his fist and slammed it into the ground. With a grunt, he stood up.

"Screw that. That's enough self-pitying for today. I'm going to break this thing if it's the last damn thing I do." he considered his next words. "...And then I'll tell that guy to shove it up where the sun doesn't shine. Where does he get off saying I'm a creep anyway?! If anything, he's the creep! Following us around and all!"

Verity allowed a smirk to creep up on his lips. "That's right. I'm going to pass this trial, find him, and tell him to f*ck right off, something I should have said back at that restaurant..."

Right.

But how exactly would he pass?

Verity considered all of his options.

The only stance that could grow strong enough to break through was Gluttony, but the issue was that his poor skill limited his output.

So then the solution was easy. He needed more skill… or more power.

The spear itself would be of no help. He'd already tried [Vow of Fire], with no success whatsoever.

Among his moderate list of skills, only one of them had the potential to help at this very moment.

[Beyond Reason]. A skill that boosted his base stats,.

The issue was that Verity had no idea how to activate it. The system was useful, but it was also vague with many things. It rarely explained how skills worked and Verity suspected that for his particular class, it might not even have known how his skills worked.

If only the descriptions were detailed, or precise, or if he had some sort of translator for the system's cryptic words.

'Wait… a translator?'

Verity facepalmed.

If one thought about it, didn't he have a translator tattooed on his chest?

The rune of Truth. It did not show much when used on people, but what if he used it on the system?

What if he used it on skill windows, item windows, and even the status windows of others?

How could he have not thought of that?

Verity thought of his skill, [Beyond Reason], and the status window appeared before him.

As usual, it was the skill name, rank, level, type, description and effect. Verity channeled what little mana he had within him, he activated the rune of Truth, and unconsciously, he thought of what he wanted to see.

A new line appeared on the status window.

Activation condition.

Verity's eyes widened, he almost couldn't believe it worked.

The words went as such.

Activation Condition - This skill activates when the user truly faces the wall before them.

Verity tried to look under the status window, as if more information would fall out.

"That's… that can't be it, right?" He muttered.

He scratched his head, when no more information appeared, and he deactivated the rune of Truth.

"I guess… that really is it. Truly facing the wall before me…" He turned to the water sphere. "What… does that even mean?"

He placed his hands on his hip. "Maybe I really should have just picked the warrior class."

Facing the wall before him. The wall in this case must have been the water sphere, and Verity was facing it, or rather, he had been facing it for the past few hours, so what was he to do now?

He tried to recall the previous times when the skill had activated.

Against Doll.

Against Felicia.

Against the Bandits.

Against the Demon.

What did all of these situations have in common?

He was near-death, but that didn't seem like the right interpretation. If it was, Verity felt the skill would have said something like 'this skill activates when the user is close to death.'

Then what else?

What had he been facing back then?

After a long moment of contemplation, Verity's eyes widened. Right, it was so obvious now that he thought about it. The skill responded to his desires.

When Verity had fought Doll, he had wanted to destroy the animated puppet more than he had wanted to become Evangelina's disciple.

When he had Fought Felicia, he had wanted to win more than he cared for the adventurer test.

When Verity had fought the bandits, he had wanted to decimate them more than he had wanted to improve his skills.

And when Verity fought that demon…. He had wanted to live, more than anything else.

The wall was what separated him and his desire, and the skill responded in order to allow him to break through it. To face a wall is to yearn for the other side, to want to cross it.

So why was it not activating now?

Simple, it was because his desires were all over the place. Verity himself was not sure what lied on the other side of this wall. Why did he want to destroy this sphere?

To win the tournament? Verity did not especially want that.

To impress Felicia? Yes, in a sense, but that wasn't all of it.

To stick it to Elio? Somewhat, but then again, that was shallow.

In reality, breaking through this water sphere was not as important to Verity as he thought. The more he thought about it, the more that became evident, and that was why his skill refused to activate.

If he wanted it to activate, then Verity needed a fire to burn within him, and the desires that burned the brightest were always the selfish ones.

He closed his eyes, and he contemplated.

This sphere would fall to Verity's spear not because of some shallow desires, but because he wanted it to, truly, really wanted it to. Because of Verity's selfish desire to prove that he was capable of something, that he had not come to this world for nothing, and that this chance he had been given was not wasted.

He opened his eyes, and he took his stance.

'Nine Hells Spearman ship Third stance - Gluttony'

One hit.

Verity grit his teeth.

Two hits.

Verity tightened his grip.

Six hits.

The skill had still not activated, but that changed nothing. Verity only cared about one thing. Breaking through this damn water sphere.

Nine hits.

His palms trembled from the recoil. But he buckled his legs and he lunged forward again.

Thirteen hits.

[Beyond Reason] had still not answered Verity's call, and yet, that did not seem to bother him in the slightnest.

He hit again.

Fourteen hits.

And again.

Fifteen hits. His entire body seemed to be on the brink of breaking apart. His Aura began to go awry, but Verity let out a cry, tightened all of the muscles in his body, and he struck the water sphere again. This time, no matter what, even if his skill refused to activate, it would break because Verity wanted it to, because he wanted to prove himself.

Sixteen hits.

This was the limit. Blood trickled from his mouth as he suffered from the recoil, in the next instant, his Aura flow would collapse, and likely so would he. He would fail the trial, and he would be sent back ho–

"NO"

His feet slammed into the ground. He raised his spear again, and he forced his torrential Aura to flow as he willed it.

The alchemist who had circled around Verity to take a better look squinted. "What the… are his eyes shining? Was there a skill like this for Spearmen…?"

Seventeen hits.

Verity felt his body breaking, truly breaking this time. Even if he pushed ahead for another hit, his flesh would fail him whether he liked it or not.

Still, the fire in his amber eyes burned, never waning. If his body threatened to fail with the next strike, then so be it. Verity did not care…. and at last, perhaps only now realizing how serious Verity was about this, his skill finally activated.

[The skill -Beyond Reason- is being activated. Your stats have been increased accordingly.]

[Recalculating. A passive skill has been manually activated. Type is being changed.]

[Error - outside force is opposing type change.]

[Error - Authority of outside force supersedes administrative authority. Recalculating reward. This may take some time.]

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