This S.O.B. System

Quinten woke to his alarm. His hand on his sword he noticed no one around. The kids had run off again, and hopefully hadn’t thrown one another in the pit. Stretching he felt his sore muscles loosen a little. Bending his body he did his best to not think of the quantity he had left to go. But a part of him knew that at some point he would lose to the beasts.Thats when this would have all been for nought. Quin couldn’t live with that thought. He would go as far as possible without regret, and damn anyone that challenged him. 

 

It wasn’t long before the scratch of claws on stone and screeches came from the pit. He took deep huffs of air as 5 crawled their way out of the pit in front of him. 

 

Quin became a flurry of slices as he took them out one at a time. His right hand swung the sword, his left grabbed and punched. When one needed a break he switched arms that held the blade. Not ambidextrous, he was starting to become more confident with his left. 

 

Black goo splashed in his eyes causing him to be blind for a moment. As he wiped it away one of the monsters latched onto his arm, then another bit into the other arm. Quinten flung the arms forward, throwing them off into the mass of the beasts in front of him. He couldn’t remember when so many had crawled out. 

A new one jumped onto his head covering his vision. He sliced and punched wildly. Headbutting one with all his strength he flung the one on his head away, it took his helmet. His black hair shone with sweat as his eyes showed his anger. Activating Powerstrike he sliced through 8 at once. A second of respite he took a breath and then was in the thick of them again. 

 

His vision filled with black dog-like faces. He roared his Intimidation for another second to breathe, but he had used it too much at that point. They rushed him. Pushing him away from the platform he roared until his feet found purchase. Pulling a shield out of his inventory he started bashing them with it as he sliced. He got gash after gash all over his body as he struggled. Each bled a little, and after dozens he was starting to feel woozy. 

 

When one more latched onto his face he could only fall face first into the ooze-covered dirt, squashing it against his face. 

 

—

 

Quinten woke up with his alarm. He groaned as he pushed himself up. He had done it, he had killed that last horde. The monster piles around him were a testament to his struggle. Through pure willpower he began to walk to the platform. He was too woozy to notice the people in front of him. 

They stared at the platform, 3 figures on it Quin slowly understood what was happening. “Ah Challenger,” the man said. “You have lost, the next wave is almost upon us.” 

“I’m still standing aren’t I?” He asked. Gulping in air he felt a wave of dizziness as he stopped at the platform stairs. The man stood in the center. The children were next to one another and hung from 2 hangman style structures that craned them a good 10 feet over the pit. Attached to ropes, the ropes were attached at either end of the platform. A man was at each of the ropes. An axe was overhead to strike either child down. Quinten walked up the steps unsteadily. 

 

“Let one die,” the man whispered in his ear. If Quin had all of his faculties he would have thought the attitude odd. 

 

“No,” Quin whispered.

“It is our way. No one will judge you,” he said. The kids did not struggle as they hung from the ropes. They had expressionless faces plastered on. Either one accepted their fate. 

 

“No,” he said but his voice cracked. 

 

Of course at this point he was reminded of a sermon of his father’s. It was about the Old Testament. He spoke of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham had been ready to do it, had the knife raised and everything. Then God stopped him with an angel who gave him a goat instead. It was a test of faith, but his father always questioned it. 

 

“God knows all of us. Why test Abraham? For all we know he was going to stop the blade an inch from his son, all dramatic like a movie. So was he really going to do it? The bible implies he would have. However, from everyone’s favorite movie. In the words of Vin Diesel, ‘by an inch or a mile, winning is winning’.” That led to a few chuckles of course. “But seriously, until you have passed the finish line, you don’t know the outcome. You don’t know what would have happened at the last second, would you have stuck with your convictions?”

 

“Let me put it in a better way. You all know my beautiful wife.” She waved and people nodded. “She and I met and were engaged very quickly. One thing I didn’t tell her for years was I was hit on once. Yes I know, once upon a time I was a looker too. And this very pretty stranger actually asked me out. I of course declined telling her I was engaged. Then she said something I’ll never forget. She said ‘You’re not married’. She said it seriously. Like nothing was official until you were actually married. I was struck by it, because I was deeply in love, and realized she was right. So I ran to my future wife's home and begged her to marry me that day. She declined of course, but she did help speed the process up.” More people chuckled.  

 

“Where I am going with this is you will be tested throughout your life. So don’t waste the opportunity not committing. You find the love of your life, marry her. You are in a race, give it your all because you can’t win without crossing the finish line. And well… don’t kill your children, you might regret it someday.”

 

Whether the sermon stuck out to him because of the killing of kids, or his own lack of conviction in life, Quinten didn’t know. His mind was hazy with fatigue. The face of Zora getting smacked in front of him flashed before his eyes. He hadn’t done anything then, and he felt like he made up for it. But in the moment he had been too scared to follow through with what he believed was right. 

 

“Cut it,” the man said next to him.

Quin didn’t look to see who would be cut. He willed his sword away as he lunged forward one step, then two, then he was in the air jumping toward the kids. Chepik’s surprised face dropped as his rope was cut. Quin grabbed onto the boy’s rope as he took Staza’s rope in hand. Her rope secure, he held on for dear life. He refused to look down at the blackhole below.

 

No time to waste he swung Chepik toward the pit and then backward. Throwing him to the platform, Chepik screamed as he landed with a thud. His strong arms pulling him up, Quin was soon on the wood hangman stand. Willing a small dagger to him he cut Staza’s rope and swung her to the platform.

“Why Challenger?” The man asked, no longer angry. “We will all die.” 

 

“Then we die,” Quin said. “But I’ll die as me, not as you.” 

 

Scratches were heard underneath in the pit. Screeches echoed up the stone toward Quin. The man and he stared at another for a long while, neither moving. Then without fanfare everything turned white. 

 

Stumbling as he stood on solid ground it was like the room he first came to in the dungeon. Too tired to think, he sat down and began refilling his stomach. When a tall man appeared in front of him Quin didn’t react. Quin monitored him. He wore long purple robes. His face was green like the people before, but he was twice as tall as the greenies from the Trial. No pointy ears or antennae still, Quin was a little disappointed. 

 

When the other man didn’t say anything Quin asked, “So it was a test then?”

 

“Of course, it is called a trial,” he said. 

 

“So Chepik and Staza?”

 

“A figment of my imagination,” he said. “I am the dungeon administrator, Lethelle. You did quite well Mr. Whitmore. I thought you would crack there at the end.” 

 

“Yeah well, my mom would kill me if I let kids die,” he said as he stood up. “Do I get anything from this trial then?” 

 

“More than you know,” he said cryptically. “First your rewards.”

 

QUEST COMPLETE - TRIAL OF THE CHAMPION

Accept Rewards

Y/N

 

Of course he picked Y.

 

Rewards:
Title	x1
Skill	x1
XP Points	x 10,000
Syscos	x 1,000

 

Congratulations

You have earned a Title:

Lawful Good

 

Lawful Good Title

You have completed the Trial of the Champion. Since the beginning of the System this trial has been used to know the alignment of it's Stars.

Rewards

15+ Stats

 

Holy Hell that’s nice. 

 

“Jeez, is that normal?” Quinten asked more to himself. “So if I got Lawful Good…then-”

 

“Then there was more than one way to complete the trial, yes. There was Chaotic Evil, Neutral Good, and all ways of alignment for a person,” Lethelle answered. “The system never said you had to save anyone. You could have simply walked away and passed, or you could have killed every villager. It was…a trial.”

 

“Damn,” Quinten said. He stood there for a time, just thinking. Now that it was over, there really was no reason to worry about it. So he finished his notifications. 

 

New Skill Acquired

By completing the Trial of Champions you have earned a skill based on the results

New Skill:

Justice (LVL 1)

Justice (Level 1)

Once a day you may enact the Holy skill Justice. This skill allows you to pour all of your mana into a single strike.

 

“Cool,” was all he could say. 

 

Congratulations

For reaching level 13 you have learned the skill

LIBIDO CONTROL (LVL MAX)

 

Seriously? Kill a bunch of monsters, and I still get these sex skills? Quinten thought. But he had gained a lot during all this. He still hadn’t had a chance to try out his Taste Control yet, and he already had a new skill. Looking over his status he noticed the Libido Control in the Custom Stats tab, playing with it he could move it from 1 - 100 like Pheromones. Increasing his stats from the level and title he read through his screen again. 

 

Name:	Asher Whitmore		Skills:
Alias:	Quinten Hardly		Acting	LVL MAX
System:	PORN STAR		STD Immunity	LVL MAX
Level:	13		Roleplaying	LVL MAX
Experience	6,908/20,000		Genitalia Control	LVL MAX
Title:	Lawful Good		Prop Manifestation	LVL MAX
Guild:	N/A		Relationship Screen	LVL 6
Syscos:	2,090		Gardening	LVL 4
			Ahegao	LVL 5
HP:	90	/90	Slovene Language	LVL 2
MP:	75	/75	Survival	LVL 10
			Tracking	LVL 8
Stats:	0		Brawling	LVL 7
Strength:	30		Policing	LVL 8
Dexterity:	20		Economics	LVL 10
Endurance:	30		Pheromones	LVL MAX
Agility:	20		Battleshout	LVL 7
Wisdom:	25		Intimidation	LVL 6
Intelligence:	25		Powerstrike	LVL 5
Luck:	19		Taste Control	LVL MAX
Charm:	19		Justice	Level 1
			Libido Control	Lvl Max
Custom Stats:
Dick Length	8.85 Inches
Dick Diameter	1.85 Inches
Fertility	Off
Pheromones	20
Libido	10

 

Strength and Endurance had been his favorite stats in the past, and after his trial he wanted to make those his focus. Everything so close to 20 he wished he could have rounded them all, but Luck and Charm were close enough till the next level. Some skills had leveled up, but all in all Quin was happy with his screen. 

 

Once he was done with the screen he noticed Lethelle still there. “Can I help you with something?” He asked. 

 

“I was simply curious why you didn’t let one of the children drop?” 

 

Quin thought for a time on it. He was starting to feel better. Apparently when he teleported his HP was brought back to full, but he still had the physical exhaustion. Now that his endurance had risen, he was catching a second wind. Thinking hard he wasn’t exactly sure. Of course there was the sermon, and all the other reasons he thought before, but it was brought to another reason. “On Earth we have this question. If your mother and girlfriend were drowning, and you could only save one, who would it be?” 

 

“I don’t know,” Lethelle said after some thought. 

 

“Exactly. There is no right answer. If I was going to pick one of the 2 to let die, I would have picked the boy. But I was brought back to that riddle. There was no right answer. For all I knew either one of them could have grown up to be bastards or saints. So the right answer was to not pick.” 

 

The administrator smiled at that. With a wave of his hand Quin’s helmet he had lost appeared. “I like you Mr. Whitmore.”

 

“I don’t like you,” Quin said. 

 

Lethelle was quiet for a moment and said, “I don’t blame you. How about you go back to your other trial. Your friends are struggling, and are closer than they think to the Red Quest target.”

 

“What? You can’t just zap me to them?” He asked angrily. 

 

“I could, but then you wouldn’t be eligible for all the rewards. And I feel like you’re going to need all the rewards you can get.” 

With that statement a section of the white wall opened up. Quin looked to it, then back, but the administrator was gone. “Slippery fuck,” he whispered. Then with a groan he began jogging to the open wall. 

 

—

 

Quin was huffing as he ran through the gray brick hall. The place was literally a maze. The walls were so high up he knew he couldn’t climb them. He had dodged, dipped, dived, and dodged his way through the obstacles. From hanging by his fingertips over pits, to ducking under wall blades like Indiana Jones. He had killed a few monsters here and there, but most had already been dealt with. His other party had left a trail of trash and bloodshed for him. 

 

“Halt,” someone said as he turned a corner. It was of course Batman. 

 

“Halt? Who says halt?” Quin said. With a thought he let his Roleplay go. 

 

Roleplay Skill Deactivating

 

“Ash! Thank God, we thought you were dead,” Carl said with a laugh. 

 

“Good to see you missed me,” he said. “You don’t need me to have sex with anything right? Feels like all I’m good for lately,” he added.

Carl laughed, “I don’t think so. Unless you can make these monsters fuck themselves.” Asher didn’t let him know the truth. “We’ve been here for about 11 hours now. People started making mistakes so we took a break.” 

 

“Makes sense,” soon they were in a wide clearing. Large walls on either side, Ash noticed tents set up and some people congregating. 

“Ash!” Tiffany yelled. Running to him there were a few tears in her eyes as she clamped onto him. 

 

“Hey babe, miss me?” He asked. She didn’t answer as she nuzzled into his neck. His breastplate was too hard to cuddle. 

 

“Jeez, you stink,” she said after some time. 

 

“Hey, kid,” Amanda said. She gave him an awkward wave as she approached. He sent her a wink which made her blush. 

 

“Good to see my search party didn’t rest,” he said. Tiffany slapped his bare arm. “Sorry, just joking. So where's Wayne, I don’t want to explain this twice.”

 

—

 

Soon they were huddled around a fire. Asher had a sponge in hand as he wiped his skin and armor off of sweat and black goo. The grime was caked on pretty good. “They wanted you to choose which kid to let die?” Wayne asked to help clarify. Asher had been pretty short with the explanation. 

 

“Yeah, it was called Trial of the Champion.” 

 

“Why did it pick you and no one else?” Amanda asked. 

“No idea, but you’re lucky. It was brutal. Every hour the monsters doubled in number. I had to give up after 128 came at once. But I got some good levels out of the whole thing,” he said. Quin had gone through most of the hardship, and now it was like a bad dream. “Also a title,” he said. 

 

“A title?” Wayne said. 

 

“Yeah I assume you have the tab in your stat screen?” 

“We do, but no one ever earned one before. What is it?”

 

“Lawful Good,” he said. 

 

“Awful good?” Batman asked. His helmet must muffle sounds. 

 

“Lawful, with an L,” he said. “Pretty much a test to show my personality alignment. The administrator said I could have killed everyone if I wanted, or let them die.”

“Jeez, that’s brutal,” Batman said as he sipped coffee. 

 

“Anyway, once I passed their little test I met the Dungeon Administrator. At least that’s what he called himself. He said our red quest target was close to finishing, and you guys were close to catching him. That was like 3 or 4 hours ago though.” 

 

“Shit,” Wayne said. “Amanda, start waking people up. Tell them we have confirmation we are close.” 

 

“Anything else?” Tiffany asked. 

 

“No, I mean the guy had green skin. But I think that's it,” Asher said. After a short rest he was ready to go at it again. 

 

“Right now we need to head out,” Wayne said standing up. 

 

He walked away as Asher’s eyes were drawn to his new girlfriend. “You know, I got some new… sexy skills with my levels,” he whispered when the man was out of ear shot. 

 

Asher looked to Tiffany. They locked eyes on one another. “No,” she said. He took off his helmet and gave her his best smolder. “Nohoho,” she said standing up. As she walked past him she whispered, “Get clean and we can talk.” 

 

—

 

Penny had spent what felt like 2 days in that hell. Raul had dragged her everywhere he went since kidnapping her. She had cried at first. Lloyd had been her first real good date in months. So good in fact she made the mistake of sleeping with him. But how was she to know the psycho was so obsessed with her? She still didn’t know what his obsession was. After crying she had moved to trying to run, with his speed it was useless. They had spent a long while holed up at Raul’s place, but it was secluded enough for no one to hear her scream. The only silver lining of the whole ordeal was he hadn’t tried to rape her…yet.

 

Penny was an average height woman. In her early 20s, she had awoken her ability a couple of years ago. Wayne Tyler had found her and given her a job. With her System she had a few skills related to investigation. Oftentimes she would get a scoop, or hear something she wasn’t supposed to. Writing online, Wayne had even given her a scoop now and then. Most of her experience came from managing their website anyway.

 

Now she was stuck as this man’s pet. It had taken a long while to pass the maze trial. Raul did all the fighting. She was surprised by his strength, a strength which told her he could break her like a twig. With no armor on he killed monsters, destroyed traps, flew them over all of their problems. At first they had tried flying over the maze, but an invisible barrier had stopped that. 

 

Once through the maze they were given 2 paths to choose. She was starting to wish they had chosen the other path. Though she had gained plenty of levels despite no work, she still did not want to be there. As they came through yet another hallway they were met with a large pool of water. 

 

The water was an eerie purplish-blue color, and it bubbled. “There is no way I am going through that,” she said. 

 

Raul turned to her angrily. When he looked at her like that she flinched back. She had seen his laser eyes many times, and they were not pretty. With her reaction Raul’s eyes softened. “We get through this, and this place can be ours. We don’t have to go out to the real world again,” he promised. 

 

“I don’t give a shit about that. You really think I’ll stay here with you?” She had seen the reward screen when they entered, and it was the last ‘gift’ she wanted. 

 

Raul ignored her again, he stepped toward her. Penny involuntarily stepped back, but he was faster. Soon she was held in one of his arms. Floating over the water it spit bubbles at them, the fumes stank making her light headed. Their advancement was stopped by a wall. The wall extended a few inches under the water. “Hold your breath,” Raul said. 

“No you-” She tried to say, but they were already under the acid. Her skin burned. She wanted to scream, but was too afraid to. Then they were out in the open air again. Penny coughed and sputtered. Her skin crawled and felt hot. When Raul dropped her to the ground he gave her another potion. She took it quietly. 

 

When she felt well enough to look up she noticed that they were in a large room. An oversize 20 foot by 20 foot door was at an end. She could have sworn she heard boss music when the prompt appeared in her vision.