Chapter 4.) Broken Illusions

When the 2nd exam began, Inorin watched everyone fade-away into nothingness, and the number showing the amount of players went from 400 to -399. Inorin had guessed that it was because they were trapped and not actually dead.

Believing that he was already in the illusion, he wandered around aimlessly in the plain white world.

At last he finally ran into something, it was a purple glowing, spiraling ball. Upon touching, he was sucked in it, and saw a flare lit man with a giant axe swinging at skeletons in pitch black darkness.

Unlike the Berserk axe-handling man, Inorin wasn't lit up by a flare since he wasn't supposed to be there. The skeletons also didn't notice him.

Inorin wanted to help but didnt know how to fight and also had no weapons. Then he thought back to his previous played VR games, where simply saying a skill activated it.

"Duplicate!" He whispered trying not to be heard. It was the only skill he knew for sure he already had.

He was staring directly into Berserkers eyes but the man still couldn't see him.

The axe that the man was using then manifested into Inorin's hands.

"Oh cool, so that's how it works." He said feeling fascinated

"So how about… Enhance."

The regular stone axe then changed into two double-sided Kratos axes with leather casings.

"Wow I guess the Strength Stat actually does work, these are surprisingly light."

Inorin had gotten sidetracked admiring the axes until the berserker got shot with a bone arrow in the back and fell.

Inorin then ran over the help.

He threw an axe at the skeleton that was shooting arrows while still holding the other one.

*Clink* The axe had hit the skeleton in the neck severing his head.

He didn't expect the arrow to hit with such precision, then fly right back to him.

By this time the other five skeletons and the berserker all noticed him, but it was still hard to see him since he was wearing a black cloak in pitch black darkness.

He quickly ran over to the skeleton that he killed, picked up the bow and enhanced it into a wood bow with engravings that said "God".

Next he reshaped the arrows into flaming stone head arrows.

He fired two arrows off of pure instinct towards the two skeletons closest to the berserker piercing them through the skull and setting them ablaze.

"Turn to dust!" He said after hitting his target.

The injured man then got up, took the arrow out of his back, and began back swinging like a lunatic at the remaining 3 skeletons.

He took out one by a double hand downward smash, splitting the skeleton's skull in two, but broke his axe's stem in the process.

The last two skeletons, one carrying a spear and the other with a sword and shield, charged at him in a pincher attack.

The spear holder aimed for his inner arm, when Inorin saw this he threw one of his axes at the bone spear breaking it in half.

The berserker saw the axe planted in the ground, grabbed it and ferociously swung it at the last two remaining skeleton's waist, splitting them in two.

After all the monsters were defeated, Inorin placed the axe between his back and fanny pack strap, the bow on his shoulder, and the quiver on his upper back.

Now with an arsenal of weapons he felt he was ready to take on whatever came across his path.

The now safe man began approaching Inorin to say thanks for the help, after all he did save his life.

"No need to thank mii, it was fun." Inorin said before the man could even thank him.

"Oh well ok then, umm… do you mind if I keep this axe?" The man pleaded.

"I don't care, I threw it to you so you could use it. I can always get another one." Inorin said in a bragging sense.

He pulled the axe from his back and duplicated it to make a second one. Then placed both in a crossed position back on his back.

"Woah! What was that, you can copy items?" The man asked feeling amazed.

"Yes, it's quite simple but I am the only one able to do it." Inorin replies

"Oh yeah, what is your name berserker boy?" He inputted while laughing.

"It's Yuri Zulu, what's yours?" He questioned

"Ha ha, just call mii Aether." Inorin ordered

He had said this because he wasn't sure if the man was trustworthy or not.

'Aether, he probably won't catch on, but Aether is the name of the 1st primordial God of Light. If I am the only Light God class in this game then that would also make mii the 1st primordial God of Light.' He plotted in his head devilishly.

"Well Aether, we should probably get out of this illusion before more monsters appear." Yuri suggested

"Good idea. Do you know how to get us out?" Inorin asked eager to leave now.

"Yes it's really quite simple. The dead skeleton with the spear is the only one still glowing. If we both grab the orb that is planted on him, it will warp us out." Yuri explains

'That is simple, why did Koeda say it was hard to explain?' Inorin wandered in his head.

'Did she simply want bragging rights for saving a God. But I don't think she could actually be that shallow.' He further elaborates to himself.

"Right then, let's get out of here."

The two walked towards the dead skeletons and placed their hands on the orb at the same time.

They were warped out of the dark place to the all white void of nothingness they started in.

The timer at the top that originally said 30 minutes when the 2nd exam started now said 13 minutes. And the player count had been brought up to -197.

203 players had escaped from illusions in only 17 minutes. 10 of which Inorin had spent walking around aimlessly.

"Wow! We still have 13 minutes to spare. Maybe we should've took our time in there." Yuri said jokingly.

Inorin nodded then walked off; he was looking for Koeda, hoping she hadn't been defeated in a illusion.

"Hey Aether, where are you going? Are you looking for someone?" Yuri asked while wondering why he was walking off.

"I'm looking for a female player by the name of 'Koeda'." Inorin replied

"What does she look like? I can help you find her." Yuri suggested wanting to pay him back for saving him.

"She was short and Japanese I'm guessing by her name. She wore a red hood with a black cat face mask that only covered the bottom half." Inorin described

"We can look for her but if the clock reaches 3 minutes and we still haven't found her then she probably died in battle and didn't make it out the illusion." Yuri said concerned.

'She better not have died. She said she would come "save" mii.' Inorin thought to himself.

"Well let's go, we only have 8 minutes to search." Said Inorin in a hurry.