'If I really am inside a trial of Ashes of Eternity, then I should be able to do this…right?' He thought as he took in a dry lump of saliva. 

'System.' 

"Welcome, Wanderer of Ash. The Veil stirs at your touch."

Suddenly a voice ringed in his mind and he looked around frantically, paranoia setting in as he feared one of the guards might've heard it. Thankfully for him, no one did as the chime of the system was only limited to the owners. Not only that but the system's interface was also only visible to those who it belonged to. 

A swirling vortex of shadow and light solidifies into legible text. The faint sound of creaking leather echoed in his ears as a woman cried out from the inside of the tent.

As he looked back forward, he saw a grimoire floating in front of him. 

In the novel Ashes of Eternity, the system was not only restricted to the conventional system of a holographic screen, but rather, it took different shapes, each carrying its own symbolism and varying from person to person. 

The page flipped and started bleeding, each streak of red coiling like snakes and weaving themselves into coherent words. 

『Grimoire Index』 

Attributes 
Skills🔒 
Titles 
Quests 🔒 
Inventory 
Lore Fragments 🔒

A parched smile graced his face as the corners of his green eyes crinkled. 

'Attributes.' He chanted in his mind as the first segment shone and then a few pages flipped, revealing his attributes. 

**************************

–ATTRIBUTES: Lucian de Luca–

Vitality: 23 (F)

Strength: 8 (F-)

Dexterity: 14 (F-)

Arcana: 21 (F)

Resolve: 19 (F-)

Corruption: 12%
**************************

Corruption? Lucian mused silently. That aside, who the fuck is Lucian de Luca? I have never heard of him!

Lucian tucked his legs beneath him as he frowned. I have heard of the 'De Luca' familia who are crucial to the main character's growth since their middle daughter grows infatuated with him and invests resources into him, but I have never read a damned thing about this! 

His thoughts were interrupted as the man who had whipped him came out of the tent, stretching his arms over his head like a cat before doing some push ups. The grunting of women had finally stopped and it seemed like the guards and the two women were having food now. 

Focusing back on himself, he tried to recollect his thoughts. 

Alright, so going by typical novel logic, I have reincarnated as an extra in a steampunk world. That means that I might be an estranged loser, someone so incompetent and irrelevant to the plot that the author never bothered to even mention him once, or someone who's a foreign entity. It's highly possible my arrival here has changed the reality. Which…can be really bad…

He looked back at the floating grimoire. 

All of his stats were in the lower stratum and when he looked at his state, it was quite obvious why. Although, being a 16-year-old and having arcana in the upper F rank was quite good, given how he had never absorbed runes.

Runes were blessings and curses inside the trial in the form of small rocks with cryptic words written on them. Some provided insights into fighting techniques, some into magical castings and some granted an increase in one's arcana—or to be specific, mana reserves. 

Since arcana governs over mana, energy and spirituality as a whole. 

Just like how vitality governs HP, natural resistance, and regeneration rate; strength governs physical attack power and carry capacity; dexterity representing attack speed, evasion, and trap disarming; arcana controlling all forms of energy along with the spell potency, and ritual success rates and resolve overlooking mental resistance, status effect duration, and determination checks.

However,

What the fuckity fuck is this corruption tho…

Corruption was something that was not mentioned in the novel. And with the story being in the initial volumes, and so much worldbuilding foreshadowed, it was highly possible that it was an existing mechanic rather than a new tailored one for Lucian due to him 'transmigrating.'

Hmmm…I guess it will reveal itself in time…that said…

He looked up at the sky and then around himself.

A Trial was something that the Ashes of Eternity revolved around. 

Around 50 years ago—from the timeline when Ashes of Eternity—started, towers started to sprout all over the world. There were a total of 3 towers, and they were called Towers of Babylon. 

The exact number of floors are still unknown on each tower, however, it is estimated that there are a total of 10 floors on each tower. Each floor is a world in itself, and each one of them has a different theme.

The cities where the towers appeared became a country in itself which are: Cogswick, Norwythe and Aldemire. Other than the floors, there are "trials" that appear in the form of "divine doorways," which the awakened can attend.

The divine doorways are less precarious than the floors of Babylon, however, there is something that makes it undesirable for a lot of awakened people to participate in. While the floors in Babylon are easy to come back from after a set amount of time, the trials, once initiated, can't be escaped from. 

Hence the mortality rate for the trials has been slightly higher than Babylon. 

And most of the trials–around 90% of them—involved a sky that was choked by dark gray clouds which reeked of cruelty, gore and death. 

This is stinky…not only have I straight up ended in a trial, my stats are downright horrendous. I mean, it'd make sense since most novels' extras start like this, but I am not in a damned novel! This shouldn't be happening! 

Lucian was in quite a predicament. And despite being someone who had wished nothing but to be reincarnated in his favourite novel since the day he started reading it, his current situation was so dire that it was making him lose his balls.

Ok, calm down…let's see what we can do…what do I know about trials? 

In an attempt to calm himself, he started to recall his knowledge about the trials and how he could capitalise on it to get out of it. 

So trials are basically what the name suggests. While the author had remained silent and annoyingly mysterious about it, a few details have been revealed since the latest volume, which involved the main character entering the Divine Doors as part of a task force that had volunteered to explore them after they appeared in the heart of Brassward College of Magic. 

Lucian looked around as the guards settled down around the fire, feasting on fresh meat being grilled on the bonfire they had lit for themselves, while the 'slaves' had started to huddle together to get what little heat they could generate by being in close proximity to each other. 

Even though it wasn't as effective since most of them were like ice to touch. 

Every trial has a quest. You will stay stuck inside the trial for an eternity unless you complete that quest—be it a physically daunting one like killing a beast, or solving a mystery or puzzle. Outside help is not possible since the divine gates shut themselves up after an initial selection of people go inside, and do not open again unless all of the participating people have died inside. 

Lucian let out a long sigh. 

I have no idea what kind of trial is this even. And these guards…they don't seem to be part of the actual people who had dived inside a trial. But more like…

He looked at his fellow slaves. 

Men. Around 90% are men. Cotton shirts, chino pants, tattered woolen robes—the kind of clothes/gear people wear usually in Ashes of Eternity. Seems like the slaves–myself included—are the ones who had dived inside the trial and were then caught by the denizens of this ruined world. Seeing how malnourished they look, how bad their clothes are and how easily the women allowed the guards to rape them, I'd say…we've been stuck here for around a month…?

Lucian hummed, finding something strange. 

I am not sure if this is an unrelated event, or just a butterfly effect due to my existence. I really can't tell…

But one thing is for certain, I ain't staying here for long!

"AHHHHHHH!" Suddenly, a roar made Lucian jerk his head back, and so did the others. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE." 

A dense layer of aura coated the man as raised his fists up. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" 

Bursting from the small circle, he trampled a boy who looked to be no older than 17. He zipped through the air like a bullet before arriving where the guards had been sitting. 

"I WILL NOT BEAR THIS TYRANNY ANYMOREEEE!"