LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 5: Challenge Cards
Alain cursed himself for getting hyped up, because now, the Judge was intently staring, "I did say I would do it again, but I mean, do I really need to prove it?" Alain nervously chuckled.
"No, no proof necessary, it's already been determined. Double challenge mode." The Judge responded in a serious tone.
Glurt was drooling, "Let's start the bidding!" He looked over to the Judge and they both nodded. The Judge snapped again and this time the front bench changed into an auctioning stage. The stage had a big roll down screen and a projector was rolled into the room by a very tiny group of goblins.
"Errr boss said here!" They sounded like a cartoon mafia group, they stopped rolling the cart and started hooking up the AV cables.
"They still use projectors?" Alain thought.
Glurt responded to him with a hearty smile, "We created goblins for a reason. We find them funny! They ramble and do their best to get things done, but in the end…"
The projector fell and one goblin smacked another, "Hey assh*le! Who do you think you are? If I catches a smite from one these here beautiful beings of absolute patience and understanding, I swear I will haunt your little green ass!" The goblin looked around with a nervous smile and continued bowing as the other put the projector back in place.
"…In the end, they always lighten the mood!" Glurt finished as a third goblin drop kicked the play button on top of the projector. After the bulb turned on, the goblins quickly scurried away.
"Sees you later!" They slammed the door behind them.
The projector screen now displayed the stats that Alain had selected.
Strength: 20
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 5
Constitution: 15
Alain remembered taking points out of charisma and intelligence to focus on specializing in physical strength, but now he was a little worried.
There were other skills listed, but they didn't appear here which was very problematic for Alain since he has no idea if that meant he still had those stats or not.
Glurt took the stage. "Oh okay, I think I see what's going on here!" Glurt popped a pair of glasses into reality and put them on his face. He then summoned a big book and flipped through it.
"The rule book states that if a Hero is summoned in the unique tier, then any secondary stats will be reset to 1 and only the primary stat points are distributed."
Alain groaned.
"Also, since you've selected Challenge mode, you will receive a limiting scroll." Glurt flipped a few additional pages.
"Some limitations include, skill tree lockouts, spell bans, stat limits on summon, and many other possible limiters are listed, but in the interest of time, we will skip ahead." He flipped a couple pages once again.
"Challengers receive many benefits as well. It says that they may receive experience faster. They may have secret talents that they can discover. They also might receive more points to distribute into the skill tree. Oh it actually has a little excerpt here on locked skill trees! According to this, Challengers have to complete unique quests to unlock any locked skills."
"Wait, I thought challenge mode would mean I fought harder enemies and got more loot?" Alain interrupted.
Glurt flipped through a couple more pages, "Ah yes, I believe this line is relevant." He cleared his throat and continued projecting his voice "Whereas a normal Hero has the ability to loot and gather pretty much anything on their path, a challenger must utilize items and rewards found in their system." He closed the book and put away his glasses. "That's all you get, you'll have to figure it out, it's a part of the fun!"
The Judge rolled his eyes and spoke up, "Proceed with the auction."
"YES PLEASE PROCEED, MY ROCKS ARE FALLING ASLEEP!" Said the mountain god from earlier.
"Okay, sounds good to me." Glurt pulled out a remote for the projector and switched it to the next slide. Alain was tickled to see them using technology. He was reminded of when the teachers would roll in the TV cart when he was in elementary school.
"So, we have a couple items for sale up here today. #1…" the screen had a bullet point that appeared, "Traits and weaknesses, our hero gets 6 traits and 2 weaknesses, we can auction them individually, or a bundle if anyone wants to go big!" An applause followed before Glurt continued.
"#2…" he clicked the remote again, "challenge card."
The crowd released a simultaneous, "Ooooooo!" At the new bullet on the projector screen.
"#3 the limiter scroll, and finally…"
The Judge pulled out a remote of his own and clicked it, "#4 a second challenge card." He declared.
The crowd was silent.
"Oh, that's right." Glurt looked puzzled. "There's actually no precedent for this, so you get to set it for us, little Hero." He turned back to the crowd.
"And finally, #5 is the right to name our new Hero!" Everyone clapped again and Glurt finished, the gods were obviously looking forward to getting the rights to determine Alain's future life.
"Let the bidding begin!" Glurt pressed a new button on the remote and some confetti was shot out from the ceiling and some fanfare music began playing.
—
For Alain, as soon as the bidding began, it stopped. It felt like he was teleported into the future and the bidding had already ended.
"What happened?" Alain thought.
Glurt was still by his side along with the Judge and the goddess in the green dress with red hair, Artia. Everyone on stage was smiling and the crowd looked absolutely stunned. Glurt leaned in and patted the casket.
"You may do the honors now, Artia." Glurt pressed another button on the remote and the lights turned red and dimmed a little bit while new, more dramatic, music started to play. Artia approached the casket and summoned a green cylinder, it looked like the can that Alain was stuck in for a while.
"I, Artia of the Forest, shall bestow both a challenge card that I've created and the limiters for our new Hero." She caressed the top of the casket with a finger and inserted the green can into an open slot that manifested itself as she approached. After she inserted the can, she pulled out a scroll and let it roll open over the casket from left to right. The scroll then snapped around the casket as if it were vacuum sealed. The music hit a higher pitched crescendo before a pause to allow the audience time to applaud for the occasion.
Alain could hear the feminine voice in his head again as texts popped into existence in his vision.
The voice in his head read every word until it got to the question marks, then it just stopped.
Artia bowed to the crowd before looking back at Alain's casket with a smile, "See you soon!" She walked off stage and took her seat.
"Next we have our extremely generous Judge, bidding an unprecedented amount to determine the future of our new Hero!" Glurt bowed as he gestured for the Judge to approach.
The Judge looked at the casket with a very concerning face for Alain. He couldn't make out if it was a look of vindication or resentment. The god lingered for an uncomfortable amount of time, just looking awkwardly at Alain.
"Is he going to do bad things to me?" Alain wondered. The thought snapped the Judge out of his temporary stupor. He lifted his arms up to the audience and began to speak.
"And I, ******" The white noise was heard again as he shared his name, "shall bestow both a challenge card of my own and all 6 traits for our new Hero. The weaknesses shall be left to fate."
He held up a handful of seeds and the casket opened up a spot for him to insert them. He put them in one at a time, each time he placed a seed he paused to cast a prayer over them. He then popped out a blue cylinder and tapped it against the casket as he leaned in to whisper. "You'll hate me for this."
The Judge faced the crowd and smiled, "I've used a great deal of my power to create this challenge card." He bowed, "I sincerely hope you all enjoy what's to come."
He inserted the blue can and the female voice returned.
The voice stuttered and raised his pitch at the end as if it wasn't expecting this.
"CLASS OVERRIDE??" Alain yelled in his head. Did this mean he wasn't a Barbarian?
"Like I said. You'll hate me for this." He walked off stage and waited in the crowd.
Alain was about to spiral, he had no idea what his future looked like now. His entire plan was flipped on its head before he was even able to step foot on the soil of this new planet.
Glurt took center stage again and pointed deep into the crowd, "Last, but not least, Great Mountain Reeki, please name our Hero as you're the lucky winner of our 5th item of today!"
"NO WAY!!!!" The ground shook with his roar of approval. Several mini earthquakes could be felt as he approached the stage.
Reeki has the body, legs and arms of a man, but his shoulders and head were actually a miniature mountain. He had little trees and rocks on him, the whole nine yards.
He came over to the casket and with a very giddy deep voice said, "DO I GET TO PUSH THE BUTTON?"
Glurt nodded.
"OH JOY, OH JOY!" He kicked the casket and a beep sound was heard.
Alain felt a sharp pain, but he felt oddly unaffected by it.
Alain screamed as he felt his muscles pump, but then once again the pain quickly subsided.
<…>
"Now, Great Mountain Reeki, please name our Hero." Said Glurt.
Reeki jumped for joy, bumping a few of the smaller gods in the first three rows a couple inches off their seats.
The casket rotated on its hinge and became vertical. A pressure release was heard and the casket slowly opened. A few seconds passed before a stunning Hero with tan skin and impressive muscles with a serious determined look on his face walked out onto the stage. He had medium length black hair that waved down to his neck and broad shoulders. He was also completely nude, but a white robe was quickly summoned by someone and it wrapped itself around the Hero.
"I NAME HIM, PEBBLE!" Said the Mountain god, Reeki.