Chapter 3: Task

3 03 - Task

Some teenagers were very confident, some controlling small snowflakes, others controlling a little water, yet a few others were already in the completely opposite situation. Apparently, they knew they didn't possess any blessing, but even so, they came to test their luck. Just by looking at them, you could see the nervousness.

Noah was always interested in the study of body language. So, when looking at these teenagers with a rigid body, looking several times from one side to the other and with his fingers hitting his leg in a compulsive and repetitive way, he was sure of the level of nervousness and anxiety these people were going through. Unfortunately, even if he cared enough to do something, he couldn't, since for those people, the only thing left would be the disappointment of being rejected.

The first test was fast, as if it only consisted of analyzing the blessing of the person. The time spent was at most one minute, and in a few minutes Noah's turn arrived.

Standing in front of the testing machine, Noah took a deep breath and stuck his left arm in the hole where the machine would analyze if some kind of aura of divinity was leaking from him. This was the method humans found to assess whether or not a person had been blessed at all, since humans have difficulty controlling the aura of the blessing they receive within themselves. Of course, this can be trained over time, but a newly Blessed person cannot control anything with just the blessing itself. So, given the amount of aura that was leaking from him, it was possible to determine which deity had blessed him and what the possible ranking of that Blessing was.

To Noah's relief, the test was a success, at least in part since, according to the machine, he had really been Blessed. The problem is that the machine had no record of any person having been blessed by that god before, which aroused the doubt of some of the workers there, and of course, only made Noah more nervous. The aura that leaked from him was so minimal that if the machine hadn't been so precise, maybe it wouldn't have even felt a little aura leaking. Thankfully at least, the machine said that Noah's possible ranking would be F.

Hearing this, obviously Noah was somewhat disappointed. But when he remembered that he was still on trial and that perhaps the real blessing just hadn't woken up yet, Noah reassured himself.

Now having passed the first test, what Noah needed to do was just complete the second test and he would already acquire the right to enter the fortresses.

When he went to make the second part of the test where they would examine his battle prowess either in terms of destructive power or in terms of power of utility, some of the workers went to watch curiously while they talked.

"I have no idea. Apparently he was blessed by a new deity. Maybe we can see some kind of different Blessing, a new power for humanity?" a thin man replied with a look of hope.

The fat man, hearing what the other man said, looked at him suspiciously until he realized a fact. "You weren't there when he was evaluated by BLS3000, right?"

Hearing this, the skinny one became a little anxious and intrigued, answering him, "No, I just heard Kenny saying that a teenager blessed by a new divinity showed up and ran here to see his test. I heard that at the West Side headquarters, a girl was blessed by a new deity and she could control magnetism! Everyone at the headquarters said it was an incredible scene to see, so I thought this boy here could possibly provide a show as attractive as hers."

Listening to what the thin man said, the fat man couldn't help but sigh. "I know; I also heard about that story. The problem is that that girl had a Rank A Blessing, don't you remember? This boy, according to BLS3000, has a Rank F Blessing, Rank F! Even if it is a new deity, with a different and unique blessing, it will be almost impossible that this boy can do something that will surprise us."

While walking towards the second evaluation area, Noah heard several people having similar conversations about him, and he couldn't help feeling powerless mainly because he knew he couldn't demonstrate any physical feat with the blessing he had, since he hadn't even passed the test of the blessing he received. How could he explain it? Everybody always said that when you are blessed it becomes instinctive how to use the power you have acquired, but Noah felt nothing.

The employees were even excited while they waited for the boy's test to start, but as time went by only the disappointment was left on their faces, making some even say some mean comments even though it wasn't the boy's fault. After all, Noah's strength didn't surpass even a little of the strength of a normal adult. They considered it as the first blessing of a small god who just appeared and soon threw this memory into the back of their minds along with the disappointment that nothing interesting happened there. Something like this was rare to happen but not so rare that employees remembered each person who received the blessing from a new god.

As time went by, people who knew Noah even thought he was secretly praying to a god of beauty since within a few weeks, his face, which before was only considered as slightly above average, started to get more and more beautiful. This in turn attracted some envy from people who were not blessed by any god and the disdain of people who were blessed by the more powerful gods.

But having passed the blessing test, Noah was rated Blessed Rank F, the lowest ranking anyone could receive. With this, the Fortresses he could invade were limited only to Rank F or E fortresses until he proved that he had enough strength to invade more powerful fortresses, and, as he knew, his strength was no different from that of a normal adult. He knew that even if the rewards of a dungeon of Rank E were several times more valuable, he couldn't run the risk of dying there, since just like rewards, monsters were also several times stronger.

So Noah lived his first years as Blessed, always trying to learn the best things to do inside a fortress in order to have a bigger chance of success, not to mention a bigger chance of survival.

What many Blessed called weakness or cowardice, Noah called intelligence and strategy. Since he didn't have strength at his side, Noah had to use intelligence in order to survive all those years.

The death rate of the Blessed in the first three years was more than 50%, including all Rankings. If one analyzed only the death rate of the F Rankings, the rate reached an absurd figure of more than 70% fatality.

While being blessed could be an easy path to fame and fortune, this path could just as easily turn into a Highway To Hell... and for Noah, who had no strength or power, it was frightening to calculate what the chance of him dying in those first years was.

So while people laughed at Noah many times without even disguising the displeasure they had for him, Noah didn't care, because he knew that probably in the next fortress invasion the chance of these people not appearing anymore was very high.

Now 4 years later, Noah was already used to the procedure of going to a Fortress. So in a corner alone on the bus, his ears automatically ignored the noisy teenagers who always appeared, as he left the more experienced adults aside too, only enjoying the view from the outside with the singular boredom that traveling along these roads tens or hundreds of times could provide to someone.

However, something different had happened this time. According to Noah's estimates, at some point that month he would receive confirmation that he had completed the task of the Blessing he received from Lucifer, but even though it was 3 days since he completed 4 years as Blessed, no new window appeared... until that moment.