Free Web NovelChapter 12: Half Ascender
Slave 135 stayed there, unmoving, unbothered for a while. A very long while. Nothing changed. Nothing came to attack him. Nothing tried to kill him.
The trial didn’t end, and he didn’t move out magically as he came.
And the more he rested, the further his thoughts drifted to things he wasn’t able to slowly think about.
His brothers, the slaves. Everyone was dead.
A tear slipped past his closed eyes, but before long he muttered,
"9th bro, guess you’re gay now..."
Sigh.
"Even in death." He smiled bitterly before getting up.
He tried to brush the dust off his clothes, but only now did he realize that his clothes had nothing left of them.
He was basically running around butt naked with only leather collar and cuffs still clinging to his neck and wrists, what has remained of his old uniform, and belt hanging with little cloth on them.
He pursed his lips, not sure if his clothes were already like this when he faced the man in the bright space.
Conflicted, he dragged his muddy hand down his face, pushing his hair back, only to realize his fingers caught in tangles. It was far longer than before.
It went past his shoulders now.
On the day where he should’ve died on the battlefield, it was the third month of the operation, and his hair was nearing the shoulder length.
"I will need a haircut..." he whispered.
As a war slave, he was used to having his hair short enough not to bother his movement, and easy to clean.
But then a thought hit him.
He started realizing something.
Time.
Time did indeed pass for him.
In this place, time still passed. He wasn’t frozen entirely.
He looked around for anything that was maybe still alive.
The theme was last man standing, so unless everything was dead, he could not get out.
And he did look around for a while, exploring the edges of this cage, where a barrier existed.
He walked around the barrier, amongst corpses... still there was nothing.
Which left him with one single possibility.
"Those damn trees!" he growled.
He wished from the depths of his heart that he wouldn’t have to find a way to kill these trees.
He walked around to find an intact weapon. As muddy as it would be, anything whole would be fine.
And it wasn’t long before he found one, an axe. He ran his hand across the blade, reflecting his image on it.
He looked at his reflection. Everything felt new for a moment.
His face had gotten heavier and bitter, exhausted. Even his hair...
But one thing stood out.
His slave mark.
It was still there, but it wasn’t exactly the same.
It had the shape and engraved feel, like an old, faded scar, but the color was gone.
"How?!" Speechless, he couldn’t find words to express this.
Slave marks were something that prevented him from leaving certain regions, from having money, from even defying orders.
If he was ordered to die, he would die. If he was ordered to jump into fire, he would unquestionably follow.
But even though it was half gone, it was still halfway there.
"Can I really erase this mark... be free?" he whispered to the trial ground.
Maybe it wasn’t as crazy of a dream as he thought it would be.
Or maybe...
There was a grand price for this very freedom he was seeking.
But for now, this newfound feeling was to be celebrated.
Of course.
Once he was done with these damn trees.
He walked slowly to the smallest tree. It was a little bigger than a sapling.
He hacked at it, cutting it down in a single strike.
Thud
The tree, unlike normal trees, started bleeding a fountain of blood from the cut.
He waited for the blood to clear, unable to tell if that was the blood of the tree itself or blood gathered from everything wounded in this swamp.
But it didn’t matter.
He leaned forward, carried it on his shoulder.
And proceeded with cutting every single one within similar size. He had a plan in mind to take down every single one of these trees.
"Disgusting shit!"
The smell of blood was worse than usual. It was denser and deeply rotten.
But against all his plans, and before he was done...
Ding!
[Trial Complete]
You have successfully cleared the First Tower Trial.
[Evaluation: Exceptional]
Performance exceeds expected parameters.
[Condition: Singular Survival]
Last entity standing confirmed.
[Achievement Unlocked]
You have achieved the impossible.
[Identity Restored]
Designation "Slave 135" has been removed.
Original identity recognised.
[Ascension Confirmed]
ƒrēewebnovel.com
You are now an Ascender.
[System Integration Initiated...]
Error.
User entry record not found.
Error.
Anomaly detected: Unauthorized survival condition.
Error.
User is tainted with [Death Echo].
Error.
Error.
Error.
[System Conflict Detected]
Reconciling authority...
[Status Interface Initializing...]
A streak of messages flooded his mind, bringing with it enough agony to overwrite any sense of victory.
A status window materialized before his eyes, giving some brief relief before threatening to crush his mind again.
His mind was on the verge of turning into pulp, screaming back at everything invasively loud.
Like a needle going through his forehead back and forth.
He looked at the alerts.
Errors.
Countless...
And a lot of things he couldn’t keep up with.
"What the hell is this?" he shouted back at the screaming notifications.
