Chapter 27: 26. The True Plan

Petra's POV at the start.

POV changes back when you find the asterisk.

#

It’s been a short while since we entered the temple, and my brain was already overloaded with information. Jason told me about his plans after we finished the tutorial, and I found them interesting.

I wasn’t pleased when he told me that I would be working with no salary, but he promised me that I’d be able to buy potions at a discount and use the guild’s facilities that he planned on constructing without having to pay.

I didn’t know much about managing guilds, but he assured me that my role would be taking care of the legal stuff and engraving the guild’s name on the descriptions of the items that our crafters made using my [Graft] skill.

The only reason why I’d be able to do that kind of work was that I copied Marla’s class, I thought. I guess any [Scribe] could do that kind of stuff, so it wasn’t enough to guarantee my position in the future.

He said that my duties could expand in the future if I copied some more useful classes and that I would get paid well if I became as versatile as he hoped.

Although I agreed to his conditions, the contract between us would be terminated by the end of the tutorial. I would only extend the contract with him if the guild would turn out as successful as he claims.

The temple also turned out to have amazing secrets.

Jason said that Quetzalcoatl existed as if it was the most obvious thing! I thought. I guess with all these blue screens floating around, everything could be possible.

I kept staring at the walls on my side; their stories captivated me.

“Hey Petra, I need to confirm something,” Jason said as he broke my concentration, “You realize that you can’t refuse my orders? And that you can’t break the contract that we agreed upon, right?”

“Huh? Ah, yes!” I replied, somewhat startled, “Of course, I’ll do anything as long as it’s appropriate.”

“Cool!” Jason added with a grin on my face, “also, you used [Mimic] on Finn’s class, right?”

“That’s true…” I said as I raised an eyebrow, “Why’re you asking random questions all of a sudden?”

“Nothing, just some personal thoughts,” Jason said softly, “…some personal thoughts.”

This guy is so weird, I thought. He’s so dumb, and he’s useful to have around anyway.

I managed to reach this far by tricking him into signing that contract, and I was so glad that he fell for it.

*

My plan to clear the temple is going smoothly so far, I thought.

I decided to focus on the present. All of my plans would be meaningless if we failed here.

I took a deep breath and entered the room, motioning for Petra to follow me. The entrance of the room closed behind us as soon as we passed through. Petra started panicking; sweat coated her face as she kept scanning her surroundings inside the room.

A system screen appeared in front of me.

[Living beings detected!]

[Welcome to the Trap Room, Hosts]

[Each Host will be bombarded with projectiles after the countdown ends; 00:00:15 This is the first level of Quetzalcoatl’s Temple The divine serpent imprinted upon his followers the knowledge of weapon smithing, which allowed them to thrive and triumph against their foes. The deity taught them that skill for self-defense, but they made too many weapons and used them to hurt innocent people. In the end, they used those great weapons to slaughter each other. The people disappeared, but their weapons remained.

 

Petra calmed down after reading the system notice, and her eyes regained their focus as she unsheathed her two daggers. I asked her to stay away from me, as the projectiles would be more dangerous if we were grouped up.

After the countdown was over, the walls made an ugly sound, as if many weapons were scraping against each other.

Suddenly, many cleavers, daggers, and knives were shot from the wall toward each of us. Their speed wasn’t fast at first, so I used simple movements to evade them and Petra parried them with her daggers. The projectiles disintegrated as soon as they hit the ground, and more kept coming out of the walls at increasing speeds.

I looked at Petra to check how well she fared, only to see her dodging the weapons with a smile on her face. She had good athleticism and used flashy parkour moves to run around the place and avoid the traps. She didn’t look as anxious as she did when we entered the trap room.

So, she realized the true power of the [Discerner] skill, I thought. The reason why I told her to mimic Finn’s class was to prepare for this moment, as it was the most suitable skillset for clearing this room.

As the projectiles got even faster, I set myself on fire to increase my stats. Petra glared at me when she noticed me taking my cape off, but I pretended not to notice. I decided to set myself on fire so that my physical stats became high enough for me to dodge everything without difficulty.

I decreased the flames’ temperature as much as I could, yet she complains! I thought. I am already missing out on a lot of stats!

Petra didn’t seem to have much difficulty even with the increasing speed of the weapons that were thrown at her; she must’ve invested many points into her physical stats.

I kept avoiding the projectiles even as their speed surpassed the speed of sound. I raised the temperature of my flames further to be able to dodge them comfortably.

If I didn’t bring Petra with me, I would’ve been able to go all out against this room, I thought. However, the second room of the temple is virtually impossible to clear alone.

I took this chance to improve my [Flawed State of Being] skill as much as I could, so I closed my eyes and tried to sense my surroundings based on the input that the skill gave me. It functioned like the regular senses, but worked separately from them; one could call it a sixth sense. Whenever I focused, I could visualize an image of the surrounding area. Its range was a meter wide, but the skill was still very useful given its versatile nature.

After a couple of minutes, the projectiles stopped and another system screen appeared in front of me.

[Congratulations, Host!]

[The Host managed to dodge 2000 projectiles successfully! The Host cleared the Trap Room! Clearing percentage 100% The Host is allowed to pass into the next level of the temple]

 

[Host gained some tutorial points!] You are reading story System Dilemma at novel35.com

 

I turned my head toward Petra, and I could see that she had some superficial cuts on her forearms, her thighs, and her legs.

“It seems that the [Discerner] skill wasn’t enough to allow you to dodge everything,” I told her, “None of the injuries seem dangerous, so don’t worry.”

“I only managed to get a clearing percentage of eighty-nine percent,” she replied with a smile, “you?”

“Oh, I dodged everything!” I said, “Let’s go down to the next level already.”

Petra pouted and furrowed her eyebrows when she found out that I dodged more attacks than her, but I shrugged my shoulders at her petty reaction. The trap door that I saw before was opened now, and both of us could go through it because we survived the challenges of the room.

We went down some stairs, only to arrive at a narrow hallway that was similar to the first one. We started walking once more as we observed the walls on our sides. I saw many drawings, but they seemed simpler than the ones we’ve seen before.

These are older drawings, I thought. They tell the stories of civilizations more ancient than the ones from the upper floor’s walls.

I kept staring at the walls, but I couldn’t stop a smirk from appearing on my face. Everything was going smoothly.

The next room was hard to clear, its theme was trust. People would face each other in a game, and they had to fulfill a certain condition to win. Only then would they be allowed to access the next level.

The second room of the temple wasn’t possible to clear alone. All the ones that attempted to clear it on their own ended up dying and respawning in the safe room. They said that they faced ‘something’ out of this world, and that thing could beat anyone without a doubt.

That game has a shitty design, I thought. That’s why I told Petra about this area, as she would make for the perfect partner.

According to the contract’s clauses, she couldn’t lie to me and she couldn’t reject my orders. She couldn’t order me around either, and she couldn’t break out of the contract before the tutorial was over.

I increased my pace, startling Petra, but she kept up with me anyway. The drawings on the wall barely caught my attention anymore, as they were similar to the ones we’ve seen before.

I could already see the light emanating from the next room, and it only took us a short while to reach it. I went inside the new room and told Petra to follow me. The entrance got closed as soon as we passed through, and a system screen appeared in front of us.

[Two Living beings detected!]

[Welcome to the Trust Room, Hosts]

[The only ones you could trust here are your partners. This is the second level of Quetzalcoatl’s Temple. The divine serpent taught the people about trust, and how powerful it was. A group of weak people that trusted each other could beat a group of strong ones that lacked trust. His followers made use of his teachings to win many battles, but they weren’t satisfied until they killed all the people that could threaten their reign. In the end, they became treacherous; they could no longer trust each other. Demise was the only destiny for those who walked alone, forgetting the source of their original strength.

You’ll play a board game, facing each other. The board has sixty-one tiles, everyone will start at the zeroth tile. The last tile has the number [60] written on it, and it’s the key to winning. Each of you could choose a number in each turn, from one to six. If everyone chooses the same number [n], they’ll advance [n] steps on the board. If everyone chooses different numbers, the one who chose the smallest number would advance that number of steps and the others would remain at their original positions. The only way to win is for everyone to reach the last tile at the same time. And remember to have fun! -Say “Let the game start” out loud for the game to begin.

 

I knew all of this information already, so I waited for another system screen to appear, and it came as expected.

[You ARE the chosen one! The spirit of the temple chose you to be a winner, so you’ll have an advantage over the others. Choose numbers that are inferior to your comrades’ and beat them in this game! If you manage to reach the last tile on your own before everyone else, you’ll get a special reward from Quetzalcoatl himself!]

 

I looked at Petra; she was grinning. Her facial expression returned to normal when she realized that I was staring at her.

“Don’t let the second system screen mislead you; you aren’t special at all,” I said, “I got it as well, it’s just the room trying to break our trust.”

“N…No! Of course, there was no way I would’ve thought of tricking you!” she hurriedly replied, “Besides, we can’t lie to each other, right?”

There were many ways to get around that clause of the contract; by telling half-truths or just changing the conversation’s subject. I knew that she planned on doing that kind of stuff, but I nodded anyway to make her believe that I fully trusted her.

I took a look at the ground of the room, there were many numbered tiles just like any board game. All of the tiles had effects, and most of them had negative ones.

Some of the tiles caused the hosts to lose tutorial points, or to lose some of their EXP and there was a tile that caused the death of the hosts that landed on it. Others increased hosts’ EXP, tutorial points, or even gave them a certain item.

The only way to land exclusively on the positive tiles was to choose a high number every single turn, thus people who listened to the second system screen ended up with many penalties in pursuit of the special reward. In the end, the people who betrayed their comrades ended up dying when they reached the last tile, and everyone else would be sent out of the temple and they would be forbidden from entering again.

According to people in my past life, loners also had a disadvantage. Whenever a solo person reached this room, he would need to face ‘something’ in this game. The opponent would constantly choose the number one in every single turn, so the host would need to choose the same number to advance as it was the smallest possible number.

However, the hosts would quickly give up when they got close to the forty-fourth tile as it had the death effect. If they kept choosing the number one, they would land on it sooner or later.

On the other hand, their opponent wasn’t affected by death, and it would keep choosing the same number until it reached the last tile.

It felt very convenient to have Petra around, as I’ve been preparing for today ever since she proposed that contract.

She really believed that she was deceiving me all along, I thought as I grinned.

You can find story with these keywords: System Dilemma, Read System Dilemma, System Dilemma novel, System Dilemma book, System Dilemma story, System Dilemma full, System Dilemma Latest Chapter