Ashley

  This skill is probably one of the few Order specific skills I have now that I think about it. Which makes sense seeing as I’m the Successor of Chaos.

  Or at least, it should make sense.

  My Assimilate skill kind of shatters that sense after all.

  Anyway, I go ahead and navigate through my enormous Skill Tree list – which I really should ask Chaos to make the System modify to add easier navigation – before finding the Skill Tree and skill I’m looking for.

  And the skill itself is…

  {Resolution of Order – Grants the user one Resolution of Order. This Resolution will create a set condition that must be met for the user to be capable of dying. Should the condition be met, the user is capable of dying should they be killed. However, should the condition not be met, the user may die, but they will return to life immediately after as if nothing had happened.}

  …incredibly powerful.

  A wide grin splits across my face at the sight of the skill.

  That explains what’s going on with these chess piece monsters.

  And it says I can set my own condition?

  Nice!

  With that in mind, I immediately use the skill, making a notification appear in my vision.

  Right, so what condition should I set…

  That could work.

  Make it so that I can’t die unless knowledge of my entire existence is erased from the universe. So unless everyone forgets about me completely across the entire universe, I can’t die.

  I stare blankly at it.

  So that’s a no then…

  Looks like there are requirements.

  Then what about making it so I can’t die unless every last part of my body is erased, all the way down to the last drop of blood?

  That’s a no too then…

  My hopes for this skill are starting to drop.

  After that, I try one thing after another. Over and over again.

  And eventually I think the skill gets sick of me and adds more to the response message.

  Wait, that’s all?

  Hmm…

  I go ahead and try to set a condition that can never be fulfilled, but that just results in a notification saying that the Resolution is impossible to meet. Following which it just repeats the whole “Please choose your Resolution” thing.

  So I end up choosing something far simpler than I was originally hoping for. But it should at least still be quite helpful.

  Well then.

  This does sound like an incredibly useful skill.

  Just not as useful as I first hoped.

  The main problem with it being related to energy is that there is no way to make sure you never run out of energy no matter what.

  I learned this a while back from Chaos, but when you shed blood, you lose a tiny bit of energy in the process. And if your body is in bad enough shape, you won’t even regenerate energy

  Meaning that if I end up being wounded so badly that I – for example – am just a head, I will probably have run out of energy at that point. And there’s no way I’d be regenerating energy either.

  To make matters worse, it would take ages to regenerate myself.

  And that would be a rather bad situation to end up in.

  I let out a sigh before shrugging.

  Well, regardless, this skill will be very helpful in the future.

  With that in mind, I go ahead and begin making my way through this floor. Completing one game of chess after another.

  Over and over again.

  Seemingly endlessly.

  Just like I assumed though, the games get harder and harder the more I play. With the last few dozen games taking ages.

  And more importantly, when I lose a game, I end up being hit by an amount of True Damage dependent on how difficult the game was.

  The harder the game and later it is in the Domain, the more damage I take.

  Oh, and at some point while playing the games, I kind of just go flying off into the distance to see if I can find that Jewel anywhere here. But I can’t find it no matter how much I look.

  So most likely the thing isn’t in this little dimension of the Domain.

  It must be after all these chess games.

  On another note, I glance at the current mission requirements.

  Court of Order

  Complete objective 1 or all of the objectives to conquer the third Domain.

  Complete 1 or more objective to leave the third Domain.

  All objectives will give an unspecified number of points towards your final System Tower score.

  Floors of the System Tower will vary depending on your total point score when arriving at them.

  Objective 1: Kill the Judge.

  Objective 2: Kill all monsters within the Court.

  Objective 3: Kill all Jury Enforcers within the Court.

  Objective 4: Find the Jewel of Order.

  Objective 5: Survive for 12 hours within the Court of Order.

  I did at least pass the twelve hour mark at some point.

  When that happened, I’m not actually sure. Since I actually don’t know how long I’ve been in here.

  But it happened, so there’s that.

  And with that in mind, I continue playing chess. Losing quite a few times but always ending up winning eventually.

  Even the last rounds I play before finding a portal that’s turned off right past the last chessboard I only lose a couple dozen times before winning.

  But the last game?

  That game ends up taking me over a hundred tries to win.

  And even that’s only because I grow so used to the playing style of the monsters from that particular board that I manage to perfectly predict their movements in the end.

  Since they don’t seem to keep their memories of the game between matches.

  That or the monsters just aren’t sapient enough to do that.

  Anyway, when I finally win on the last board, I find the portal turning itself on in front of me. With the thing glowing with a grayish silver glow.

  I let out a yawn before deciding to take a bit of a break here.

  A mental break, to be specific.

  Seeing as I literally didn’t use any energy during those chess games. With me not actually fighting and all.

  And while I rest, I, out of curiosity, begin looking at the other skills I can unlock along the Skill Tree I got from these monsters.

  A Skill Tree that is identical in every way across every single one of them.

  Without even the slightest bit of variance.

  Which is unusual, but not something I’ve never seen before.

  What I haven’t seen before, however, are skills later on in a Skill Tree that are completely useless to me.

  Like this one.

  The skill the monster has that allows it to deal out True Damage to those who fail to meet its conditional test form Resolution? That one is apparently useless to me.

  It even says so in the skill’s description, oddly enough.

  That it is useless unless the user’s Resolution is a test format one and not a conditional one.

  As for the other skills the thing has?

  They’re alright. Not really anything interesting.

  Just skills to make the monster stronger and the like.

  Which is weird since those things don’t even move in the first place unless you’re playing chess with them.

  With that thought in mind, I lie down and stare up at the non-existent sky.

  Just taking a moment to pause.

  And after a little while like that, along with a bit longer spent resting, I get up again and finally head through the portal.

  Moving on to the next part of the Domain.

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