The wheatstone (1)

The battle against Moirai had become a lot harder then anyone had initially planned for. Expectations for this endeavour had been on the lower end, as most of them just viewed it as just another NPC that had to be persuaded by force or by solving another set of stupid criteria.

Fighting without any hesitation and paying no attention to their offers was certainly not something they had imagined to take place. Before they had realized it they found themselves in a battle against one of the many versions of Moirai.

Although every player could easily take care of monsters, they could not do the same with their enemy this time around. Unlike monsters, their enemy this time around was not that easy to predict. A knowledge, which caused some of them to get injured in one way another because they had underestimated their target.

But in comparison to those beforehand they could avoid any fatal injuries. Although this wake-up call did not cause them to be thankful, no in their eyes it was a humiliation. A simple NPC had injured them to this extent. With their honour soiled, the cheap words of provocation caused the players to lose their bearing and just blindly attack in their rage.

This newfound weakness was freely exploited and another wave of serious harm overcame the players who had let their guard down. Some even lost their lives there, a fact which further enraged these individuals.

The response to this kind of fate was the same whether it was a member from the Church or normal player, they all ran back screaming in fury vowing loudly to take revenge for this abhorrent act. Although keeping up this promise was easier said than done.

Because in order to overcome this hurdle, they had to rid themselves of their prejudices and calmly analyze the enemy in front of them. Otherwise, they would be in for a very long fight. Their enemy did not care about their inner turmoil as all of the attacks came at them with the intent to end their life.

Despite their experience, they still could not rid themselves about their feeling of superiority. This feeling was clinging to them clouding their minds and slowly eroding their decisionmaking. Every single player was not only fighting Moirai but also themselves.

In order to succeed, they had to overcome themselves first or they needed to possess a level of strength, which justified their arrogance but that was not the case for anyone present. Blinded by their arrogance they just continued to set themselves up for failure.

Spectating this foolish behaviour the Observer could not help but sigh, how long was it supposed to wait until these players had overcome their bias and finally start to treat their enemy seriously? There was nothing special about these players. Neither strength, nor tactics, nor versatility, everything was subpar at best.

Yet those people were hauled as part of the absolute elite. Fulfilling its given mission was appearing more and more impossible with each passing seconds. All it could do was wait and see how and when these players finally start to realize and break through the wall they have erected themselves.

While tactics could be taught and strength obtained through training, a change in personality could not come from the outside it had to happen on the inside. All it could do was a create a situation which should force them to reconsider. Yet the proved to be quite resistant to self-reflection as they thought on repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

This procedure had to continue until the lesson had penetrated their thick defence and here it had thought it was a task, which lied on the easier side. If everyone was just as resourceful as the copy of the human they are fighting against, all of this would not have been necessary. But it could safely say the alternative was better in every way. Moirai was a unique case and one hard to control variable was already more than enough.

But luckily this problem would have been taken care of soon. Everything would return to normal and it could stop its interference in the system for good. All of this had delayed the initial plan for way too long and catching up with the schedule is impossible.

Given the quality of the current batch it normally would not even bother trying to bring them to the level, it had planned out for them. Doing nothing and letting them be was not a suitable choice though. Judging by the current lack of results it would require a lot of time until these players would have been prepared for what is to come.

Improvements even those of the tiniest degree is something it was looking out for in these players. By refusing to rethink their nature, what kind of conclusion would they come to? What would they do to surpass that hurdle named Moirai? It watched and pondered which direction the development will go. It could predict a lot but the matter of their mind was too unpredictable.

As of now the best course of action according to them was disregarding every kind of defence and pouring everything into their attacks. A tactic which was even more foolish than the previous ones. Trading destructive capabilities for defence only works if the target is not mobile enough. Once more their blood had been spilt as their emotions were still keeping them hostage.

This time around some of them decided to let Moirai close in on them until he had no place to dodge their attacks. Sadly they forgot that plans like these always hold certain elements that are uncertain. Their enemy was using everything at his disposal to successfully kill his opponent, baiting the enemy without the necessary information is another death sentence.

Without any suspense, they once again become the victim of Moirai and started to blindly rush in again without even devising a plan after this failure. Did they grow complacent due to the safety measure in place for their lives?

Throwing their lives away over and over again hoping for a mistake from Moirai himself was quite an inefficient plan. A sacrifice is normally a noble endeavour, the ultimate devotion to the Country but they did it so nonchalantly. There was nothing noble in it, just a useless attempt to gamble their lives away.

Had none of them even began to employ different tactics to kill Moirai? All of them were just trying to resist learning as much as possible. Although they were some that had yet to die against Moirai, the vast majority of involved players should have lost their qualifications ages ago.

This kind of stubbornness rivalled the one of their opponent, a comparison, which should not have to be made in the first place. Why did they decide to follow this path, when the amount of available options is infinite? They should realize, that it is not going to work out if it has not worked the previous 50 times. Somewhere along the line, the point will have to be reached even by the most thick-headed player.

In fact, it was impossible for this event to not occur although they were trying their hardest to accomplish this feat. Luckily for them, the players sent by the developer team were really not any wiser then their counterpart as they also died over and over again as if their life depended on it.

This level of dedication would place them at the forefront of the talents but the rest about them was just as pathetic. It was just a copy and they were still incapable of succeeding.

They stood true to themselves until the bitter end. This vehement refusal to give up is something worthy of praise, the lack of drawn lessons out of it not so much. All of this was taking up too much time, it was getting more and more embarrassing.

It took a long time until someone finally managed to kill Moirai, although the tactic they used was somewhat obscene. These 2 ladies had fought Moirai to a standstill but had not managed to deal with any significant damage to him. After using their natural given charm, the entire situation had been reversed and Moirai was wounded heavily after being dazed by the sight.

It had been outside of its expectations, that these 2 noble ladies were willing to expose themselves to achieve victory also it did not expect that this tactic was this effective against this version of Moirai. Apparently, the decision to fight without the top layer of clothes was only specific to Moirai and not part of the strange world where he came from. Otherwise, it could not explain why the reaction would be that strong.

Although it could not agree with the way this result had been achieved, they still had managed to best their opponent. To prevent this occurrence from happening again, it decided to send a different version of Moirai to them, which was not that easily affected by the womanly charm.

At least this was a first and it would hopefully mark the beginning of the success of the players. After being exposed to the antics of the visitor from another world, it had already been accustomed to deviations from the plan and made ample preparations in case something might happen.

A simple matter like this was easily solved. Although it truly wondered whether its constant interference had set off a chain reaction causing the players to develop in a strange direction. Looking at the behaviour of the players who were still acting the same after amassing failures it seemed doubtful.

Yet, not a long time after the first Moirai had been disposed of another successful kill was done by a member of the Church. This one was quite interesting, using lightning of such strength was quite rare. He waited till the clone had approached him but unlike the mindless horde, he closed in on Moirai and used his lightning in close proximity to Moirai.

He managed to end his life that way, despite receiving quite a nasty wound in return. Although his arrogant bearing still did not lessen in any way it was commendable that he had managed to win the fight.

The Observer chose to send another Moirai, one that was a lot warier and careful of his opponent to continue the test. Given his current bodily constitution, he was bound to lose his life but this was of no concern to it. Everyone involved will have to give up their life one way or another.

Although the majority of players had done that before the training had begun. But once their rage subsides, they will manage to pass the simple challenge. The main purpose of this training lies in training them how to adapt to enemies.

Experience is greatly needed when fighting against enemies of unknown strength. How else would a weakling like Moirai manage to kill any magician, he took advantage out of their lack of experience to kill them.

Fighting Moirai it had noticed how frightening the Original could be if it was underestimated, but the clones only had a fraction of the trait which made him deadly. They would stand no chance on their own if they already struggled against the weakened versions. It was easy to surround a single enemy and kill by bombarding the target with mana from all directions but that luxury was not a common occurrence.

In the meantime, the next person had managed to surpass the first obstacle. This time around it was due to negligence on the side of Moirai, as it had thought that the player had been killed instantly by the attack. Afterwards, the copy of Moirai was struck in the back after turning around, which led to its demise.

While this person succeeded only thanks to his luck, he should be able to come to the right conclusion after seeing how he had managed to accomplish this. Without any further ado, the next Moirai was sent into his direction.

It had finally begun and it was only a matter of time until everything could return to normal again. Although only a measly of 3 copies had died so far, some improvements could be seen as the players were finally forced to try different methods.

Some chose to think for the first time and sought out openings others decided to lead Moirai into an unfavourable situation to kill him little by little. Although they were still not willing to rethink their position, at least they had finally started to use different means to achieve the result.

This lead to more and more Moirai being killed by the respective players. Their new opponents were already on their way, but those were specially selected for each player and the corresponding method they had used.

As of now the number of clones was still increasing and it would continue to do so until a suitable amount of players had learned their lesson. The players sent by the technician were no problem, as they made contact with some of the stronger Moirai.

This procedure was not something which these players would be able to pass in a matter of minutes. It was a long gruelling process that demanded a lot of perseverance. Everyone that managed to kill their opponent had only taken the first step.

As of now the number of players entangled in fights with Moirai was not high, but more players were arriving. This lead to some Moirai stopping their push-up routine as they calmly left the city to meet their challengers.

The rest just continued to do their exercise as if nothing had happened. The general atmosphere in the town was left unaffected by the turmoil which took place far outside of the city. The only thing to look out for was the troublemaker, but as of now he did not show any motivation to move out of the city nor should he have one.

It would be better for anyone involved if the situation remains disclosed from him. It is hard to predict, what he would do. While the Observer had no problems changing the situation by a subtle interference it could not change the behaviour of these NPCs too much. The NPCs were not supposed to do pushups and yet they did so anyway.

The person in question was still busy honing his skills training with the entity deep in his consciousness. He had absolutely no intention of interrupting this session any time soon. In the eyes of the original Moirai, it mattered little what happened on the Outside.

As long as his life was not in direct danger, he would not care. He was contended with his current role, as he was preparing for the upcoming future looming over his head, with the tournament coming closer and closer.

This training was a catalysator to free his mind from all the trouble surrounding him and to let his subconscious reflect on it. As long as Moirai distracted his mind, he would not wander off and get overwhelmed by his plans.

Moirai did not set his sights on the future and all of the potential threats. One risk was tackled a time. This had not changed regardless of what he had lived through. From past till the present, Moirai had always chosen this method to keep his mind clear if the stress had accumulated.

This was by no means a healthy way to deal with the emotional burden weighing on his conscious, as he was only fighting the symptoms and coping with them by suppressing them but it was the only way he knew.

Keeping a clear mind and not letting his emotions run wild was of highest importance to him, he knew all too well, that being too involved had never ended well for him. The innocence of the past was only a relict of the past.

A past which he never could go back to.