While we were moving to the Training Ground, Lize had been chattering away at me without a single moment of rest. I couldn’t help but wonder what makes a person so lively and energetic like that.
She especially dug deep into why I was cursed by the Witch’s Curse, but I dodged all her probing by saying I couldn’t remember due to the curse.
Seemingly catching on to my intent, she eventually changed her line of questioning altogether.
I sent a pleading gaze at Iris and Erica for help, but it was no use.
Iris shook her head like she was fed up, saying that there’s no way to stop someone who’s that inquisitive and just to accept it.
Erica tried to maintain some dignity by pointing out every little thing, but eventually, she seemed to give up and even apologetically offered her sympathy as Lize wore a proud smile.
In the end, all the attention had to be handled by me alone.
I must have endured Lize’s endless chatter sticking right next to me for quite a while until Iris finally stopped in her tracks.
“Here’s the Training Ground.”
What? Why is it so big?
Before me lay a vast expanse that looked at least three to four times larger than the Training Ground in the game. Is this also a side effect of the Knight lodge changing from a regular building to a huge castle?
I slowly looked around. While the size had dramatically increased, the overall scenery hadn’t changed much. It felt more like they just expanded the game’s location horizontally.
In the distance, a warehouse appeared, and along one wall, wooden swords were lined up. The ground didn’t seem particularly tidy, as dust swirled whenever the wind blew.
Just moments ago, Lize had whispered something to Erica, and without warning, she leaned over to me.
“So, newbie. Do you like it?”
“Honestly, it just feels ordinary— wait, newbie?”
“Yeah, newbie. Why? Is there a problem?”
“Of course there is. I haven’t even taken the admission test yet!”
“Iris wouldn’t have misjudged a person. Didn’t you hear me confidently say earlier that you didn’t need to worry? If I can say that, passing must be a given, so you’re a newbie. Don’t stress too much; I’ll take it easy on you. Well, not too easy.”
With that, Lize winked. If the Enemy Enhancement Mod wasn’t active, I might have accepted it, but since it was, I could only respond by slightly raising the corners of my mouth.
“The test format is a 1v1 spar. You’ll pass if more than half of the Knight Commanders, excluding Knight Commander Iris, agree. Since Knight Commander Claudia isn’t here, either I or my sister just needs to say yes. It’s not a majority, but it can’t be helped.”
“Claudia isn’t here?”
Iris questioned as Erica explained.
I felt the same way. I had no memory of the character named Claudia. It seemed more accurate to say that all the major NPCs had switched to female.
I really needed to investigate where the game stayed true and where it diverged.
“Claudia? She went to hunt some Monsters. It wouldn’t be surprising since she got a order from the Lord shortly after you left. She should be back in two days.”
A quest from the Lord to hunt Monsters. That was enough for me to realize who the original NPC was.
Iris already knew, and so did Claudia. Now it was just Lize and Erica who needed to find out. I had a vague outline of the characters now.
While I had to keep it a secret from those three, I figured Claudia would return heavily injured after failing the subjugation. That was the premise of the game’s story.
Of course, the Player could take her out.
From there on, it would officially begin. The Tutorial Area was merely a place to showcase the direction and aims of Brightest Darkness 4, and this admission test felt like a basic combat introduction to explain the game’s systems.
The only issue was that if the Enemy Enhancement Mod was active, it wouldn’t just be basic combat but a boss fight.
“Is that so?”
Iris nodded briefly.
“The sparring opponent is—”
“ME ME ME! I’ll do it! It has to be me!”
Lize raised her hand eagerly. In that motion, her thin Sleeveless Top hugged her body as her chest bounced. Iris looked at me with a questioning glance as if to ask if that was okay.
Seeing how desperate she was to fight me, I had no choice but to nod. The moment I accepted her request, Lize broke into a wide grin, bouncing around in excitement.
Erica approached behind Lize.
“Here, sis.”
She was holding a pair of Twin Daggers in both hands. As Lize accepted them, a chill aura filled the air. One side of the Twin Dagger turned blue, frost forming on it.
Ah, that’s the original NPC for Lize.
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. Of course, since she had blue hair, she was ice-element related.
I had hoped for some twist where the blue flames would match her hair color or red ice would suit red hair or something.
“You’ll use that weapon, so there’s no need for me to give you another one, right? If you want to use something else, let me know. I’ll lend you one.”
Iris pointed at the Blood-Stained Sword strapped at my waist.
Just like how it was accepted as normal for women to wear modern clothing despite the blending of game and reality, so was the fact that the admission test needed to be conducted with real weapons.
Neither Lize nor even Iris or Erica seemed to question the validity of the spar itself; they merely advised me to control my strength.
The one mercy was the fact that we only had to reduce our health to exactly half to clear the test.
And to top it all off, my opponent is the original character!
The NPC who would be Lize’s counterpart in Brightest Darkness 4 was the boss that inflicted the most annoying and frustrating status ailment, “Frostbite.”
If the Frostbite Gauge filled up, the Player Character would freeze for four seconds, rendering them completely immobile. Even after that, for another thirty seconds, their movement speed, stamina regain, and combat fatigue regain would be severely reduced, not to mention the rolling speed and evasion distance, as well as the invincibility duration being dramatically cut.
Having even one of these violently annoying debuffs was bad enough, but with just Frostbite, you’d accumulate over five of them. Other status ailments typically only added one or two at most.
It could only be seen as the developers were determined to make it so.
The most irritating fact was that attribute attacks couldn’t be completely countered with Parrying. To perfectly deflect elemental attacks, you’d need a proper large shield or an oversized shield.
While the accumulation might be minimal, the mere reality that your gauge would fill up a bit no matter how perfectly you Parried was already stressful.
“What’s that weapon? The blade’s red.”
Lize asked, her eyes widening in wonder as I drew the Blood-Stained Sword, which had frost swirling around it.
“I got it from defeating a Monster in the Prison.”
“Huh? Monsters? There were Monsters in the Prison? And you caught one? Who did that, Iris? You?”
Lize’s eyes bulged. Thinking about it, I hadn’t explained to them what happened in the Prison.
“Explaining would take a while. I’ll tell you after the spar. I need to prepare a report for the Lord too.”
“Oh, right. I had to report to that pig too?”
“I guess I’ll swing by this evening. Though I’d rather not.”
The Lord of this city seemed to have the same personality as in the game, as Iris openly showed her dislike, and even Lize, who was usually friendly, called him a pig.
Erica even grimaced, biting her lip when she heard that.
“Alright, enough useless talk. Prepare, both of you.”
Iris, clearly uninterested in thinking about the Lord any longer, forced the spar to commence. Lize and I faced each other, while the two who weren’t participating stepped back.
The frost swirled menacingly around the Twin Daggers, gradually producing white mist. It was an mist made of ice and castle-like structures. The breeze brought in a chill.
Who would’ve thought I’d see that right in front of me?
I’d seen it plenty on-screen.
Gripping the Blood-Stained Sword with both hands, I tilted the tip slightly to the right as I lowered my stance. As I inhaled, the cold seeped deep into my lungs. Surely, this wouldn’t build up my Frostbite gauge too.
While I was tense, worrying about all sorts of things, Lize looked relaxed as she began to approach me little by little.
“What are you so nervous about, newbie? You worried I might actually kill you? That won’t ever happen, so you can ease up a bit.”
Game-wise, you had no problem killing me, though.
I swallowed those words quietly. When I thought back to the countless times I’d faced death when first playing the Darkest Light Mod, that didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
“But instead…”
The surrounding chill intensified rapidly, as if preparing to leap forward. I braced myself for an incoming attack.
“It’s gonna hurt a lot!”
Boom! As that declaration ended, the distance between us immediately closed.
