After Zane had left the alleyway, he first went straight to get a good meal and then booked a hotel he would be staying at for a year.
He also made sure to get fitting clothes, mostly expensive ones, and all were black because he loved the dark, and black blended in with the abyss.
After having the hot, clean bath he wanted, he toweled his brown hair. Now that he looked in the mirror, this body had a striking resemblance to his younger self.
"Well, it shouldn't be surprising. I was reborn and lived a whole fourteen years under five minutes. Damn," said Zane.
He left the bathroom, and as he came out—
"Woah, so big!" a pink-haired girl exclaimed, seeing what was in front of her.
"Uh? What's that?"
As Zane asked, the girl was stunned to see him out of the bathroom. She quickly apologized, saying the manager asked her to hand Zane a briefcase he had requested.
Then she left the room with red cheeks.
"Woah, it really is big," said Zane. The pizza in front of him was huge. The hotel manager must be into rich customers and didn't want Zane to feel the slightest discomfort.
"How can I finish such a big pizza by myself?" Zane sighed. He dressed up in his all-black outfit with sleeves and a hoodie.
He placed the briefcase on top of the table, then took a big slice of the pizza and ate it before opening the briefcase.
There were two items inside: a black glove and a dagger. Zane wore the gloves and glared at the dagger.
He must have been wondering where such daggers were made. The steel was black, and the handle resembled a red dragon scale. Even the edges had the black claws of a dragon.
"Nice. Hope it's as sharp as it looks," said Zane.
Then he saw a letter with readable handwriting inside the briefcase. It was from the hotel manager, Alfred.
"Master Zane, you asked for an ordinary dagger, but I decided to buy a specially made one from a dragon's body. An ordinary dagger would be of no use to you in the trials. This dagger has a compatible speed boost and drains HP by five every two minutes. It also drains mana by ten every two minutes. Good luck on your trials."
Zane sighed. After admiring the dagger, he couldn't wait to test it out on a living thing that had HP and mana. Until then, it was kept beside his leg.
"Humans in this world have special powers gained from the trials. Seems the trials in this world determine social status. Wonder what type of—"
Ding!
An oddly familiar notification sounded in the room. In front of Zane, as he sat on the couch, an odd blue holographic interface appeared.
-[Your Trials will soon begin; you'll be summoned to the otherworld in five minutes]
-[Time Left: 4 minutes 58 seconds]
-[Do you wish to check talent status before the trial?]
-[Yes]-----------------------------[No]
After carefully reading through, Zane felt his fingers were slow as he was about to click the Yes option. Then his status opened up.
-[Player: Zane]
-[Level: 01]
-[Job: Pending]
-[Trials Faced: 01]
-[Quit Points Left: 1]
-[Exp: 1/99]
Zane chuckled at the sight of the experience points. In his first trial, he had only gained one experience point. How funny.
-[Store]
-[Items Stored: 2 healing potions]
-[Talent Status]
-[Skills Unlocked: 2]
-[Passive Skill: Assassin Simulation Lv Max: This allows the player to predict 99% of what the enemy might do, gained from your previous life's training.]
-[Active Skill: Dagger Stealth LV 10: At this level, you can conceal your dagger's presence for 10 seconds.]
Zane pondered if he could really use the active skill. As for the passive skill, that wasn't anything new to him.
Assassins were trained to counter enemies' movements based on their simulations.
But for the active skill, it required doing something supernatural. He didn't know if he could.
"Let me try it out."
Zane brought out one of the daggers and held it tight. He didn't know if he had to say something before it activated.
"Conceal? Activate active skill? Shit, this isn't working," Zane said, frustrated. Then his mind shifted—he simply thought of hiding his dagger from everything else.
"Holy shit, it works!" Zane uttered. He was surprised that he could feel his grip on the dagger but couldn't see it. But after ten seconds, he swiftly rotated it and placed it at the corner of his leg.
"Welp, I think I'm ready. Wonder how many others are facing this trial anyway."
-[You'll be summoned to the otherworld soon.]
-[Countdown: 5... 4... 3...]
Then Zane slowly felt his body fading away in the form of black ash. It wasn't painful. It was somehow satisfying and cold, as if he were dying.
-[Countdown: 2... 1... 0...]
-[Player Zane has been summoned to the otherworld for his Second Trial.]