“D-Damn brat…  I can’t tell if you’re stupid or just plain reckless… I’m surprised the shock alone didn’t kill ya…”

“W-Well, I’m certainly not planning on dying any time soon.”

*SIGH* “I wish my little bro was like that… If you’re planning on adding even more trials, as the guy who designed them, good luck… You’re gonna need it.”

And with those final words of encouragement, he walked away. I guess he was a bit more talkative that I originally thought. Or maybe he just doesn’t like being bothered when he’s working on his gadgets?

After conquering my biggest challenge yet: the stairs, I finally managed to crawl my way into bed. Sadly enough, when I heard murmuring coming from the two beds beside me, I realized that this won’t be a peaceful night. If my fellow slaves can’t even fall asleep under the pain of one trial, I definitely can’t have a good night’s rest after tripling my initial trials… *SIGH*

…

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Groaning could be heard from all three beds in the slave sleeping quarters. Not a wink of sleep was had in that room last night.

Ares was clearly annoyed by the alarm trying to wake us up:

“Urrghh, shut up…”

For once I agree with Ares…

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

With a ‘thud’, Chelou rolls out of bed and starts yelling at us:

“Get out of bed you inferior creatures! The alarm won’t stop unless all three beds are empty!”

Urggh… That does sound like something H’Mara would install.

After the alarm beeps a couple more times, me and Ares follow Chelou’s example by rolling out of bed and falling onto the floor.

With great difficulty, the slave girl stumbles to the door of our room before realizing me and Ares are still laying on the ground, she yells again:

“Oi! If you’re late for breakfast, you won’t get anything!”

Urgh, this girl’s shouting is really getting annoying, I almost prefer the alarm… Still, I can’t miss breakfast, my body is screaming for nutrients… Even the spiders in the corner of our room were starting to look tasty…

With a lot of groaning, me and Ares finally managed to get to our feet and stumble over to the cafeteria.

We were last to arrive, only Chelou and H’Mara were still eating at the table.

H’Mara chuckles:

“Well don’t you two look refreshed this morning? I’m guessing that nap must have been heavenly.”

This woman… Forget it, I’m too exhausted to deal with her…

I plop myself down on the chair next to Chelou and wait for my breakfast…

After a couple of minutes, Peli comes out of the kitchen carrying two plates with a delicious looking English breakfast. Already salivating, I try to thank Peli for the meal:

“Tschankyou… “

Peli looks pleased with my gratitude and disappears back into the kitchen. Meanwhile Chelou scoffs:

“Yeah right, enjoy it while you still can.”

What did she mean by that? It can’t be… No, it’s not possible for something that looks this good to taste bad…

I nervously take my first bite…

DELICIOUS! This might be the hunger talking, but it’s even better than my dad’s cooking!

After asking for seconds and even thirds I gently rub my satisfied belly…

Not allowing me to even enjoy a moment of peace, H’Mara calls Peli and tells him to prepare ‘that’…

I nervously turn to Chelou:

“W-What does she mean with ‘that’?”

She sighs:

*SIGH* “Oh poor inferior, Chelou advises you to deactivate that training equipment right now. Chelou can promise a weak race such as yourself won’t survive the upcoming trial…”

Speaking of training equipment, overnight, my body somewhat adjusted to the pain. It still sucks, but I can deal with it… Now it only hurts whenever I breath or touch something… But at least I stopped fainting every 30 minutes...

This Chelou girl though, why is she so unfriendly? And wait… Did she just refer to herself in the third person?! Whatever… I’m too tired to correct her. I am a bit curious about my senior slave here though:

“What’s with the ‘inferior’, aren’t you almost half my height? What trial are you even undergoing?”

“Tch, It’s a well-known fact that the Thaenur race are the ancestors of the Sapiens and Lunarians. And if you must know, this proud Thaenur, of course, chose the most difficult trial: ‘bone-breaking’. But Chelou guesses that a weak Sapien wouldn’t understand why she chose such a hard trial from the start.”

The Thaenur race eh? We did learn about them in biology class, it’s the alien race that shares the most DNA with us Humans. It is believed they evolved from a common ancestor bacteria that travelled to another inhabitable planet via an asteroid-impact on earth … In class, we treated them with the same respect as Neanderthals though…

Still, ancestor or not, this girl is starting to sound even more arrogant than Ares! Let’s humble her for a bit:

“Bone breaking eh? Yup, that’s a pretty though one, especially when you’re simultaneously undergoing muscle-tearing and nerve oiling like me. Undergoing one trial is still kind of difficult I suppose, but I guess the Sapien race just evolved to have more mental fortitude than their ancestors.”

Instead of disbelief, anger or doubt, Chelou’s face just lit up with excitement:

“Really?! WOW! Chelou could barely keep it togheter with only one trial, and you have three of them?!”

… This is awkward… I wanted to put her in her place, but… This just seems like I’m bragging doesn’t it? I guess she’s pretty innocent…

“Y-Yeah, I really am undergoing three trials, but only because I have no talent. Right H’Mara?”

Instead of answering, H’Mara kicks me in the shin, sending me to the ground writhing in pain.

The sudden movements and fall only added more pain, which in turn caused more writhing around, resulting in even more anguish… Did she just stun-lock me?

Chelou just innocently stared at me, wondering what I was doing:

“Are you okay Ryder? Is that the effect of one of your trials?”

I guess you could call H’Mara a trial… Well, at least Chelou doesn’t call me inferior anymore…

After a herculean effort, I finally managed to pull myself back up onto my chair without fainting. Just in time for Peli to have returned from the kitchen with… Raw sewage in a beer mug?