Each scenario was unique to each individual, well, at least to the individuals existing in that scenario, depending on how the Song decided to structure the trial.
In a scenario, you might find yourself as one of the warriors made to protect a village from the advance of Echoforms, or you might even find yourself acting as the commander of an army made to conquer a particular, harrowing swarm of those creatures... but that only happened when you were lucky.
Scenarios were hardly that straightforward.
Most times, the swarms were hidden, and you had to uncover a lot of mysteries while using a series of clues along the way to find the concealed nest.
So having strength was simply the minimum requirement before you challenged that kind of Mirrorth. Having the necessary wit to apply that strength was non-negotiable.
That was one of the reasons Elias wasn't particularly optimistic about tackling that Mirrorth just yet, not until he was ready and adequately prepared.
At the very least, he had to first reach the Beginner Apprentice Stage.
The teacher clapped his hands.
"Quiet! Quiet, all of you! Dammit, I am too old to be having the kind of migraines your little shenanigans have inflicted on my brain! Hush! Hush!"
Slowly, the noise settled into silence, or at least something close to it, since little whispers still flew across the place.
"Why can't you lot just be like the new boy," the professor said, gesturing in his direction.
"Since he arrived, he hasn't said a word, only paying great attention to the lesson. He didn't even ask any questions! Gracious! Who needs a role model when you have such a great classmate!"
Elias raised an eyebrow, suddenly feeling a little lost.
Hey! This wasn't going according to script! Why was this man suddenly dragging him to the surface! Was staying quiet now a crime these days? Should he stop suppressing his crazy side since he was too magnificent to remain hidden?
Urghh! Whatever!
A dozen eyes had already brushed over him again, the brunette girl behind him flinging her hair in his direction before turning her face away with a humph, her lips pursed into a pout.
She almost reminded him of Lizzy when she was throwing a tantrum.
"But your question is interesting..."
Elias turned his face back to the professor, who was rubbing his chin in thought, a glint now shining in his eyes.
He walked back to the dais, leaning his elbow on the lectern.
"Yes, fulfilling quests like protecting whatever is conjured up by the Song is important because your performance determines the probability of obtaining drops like Laments and Sonic Skills from slain Echoforms."
His eyes narrowed, his voice serious.
"If you abandon the objective of the scenario and head straight for the Echoforms, you might obtain fragments... but the possibility of obtaining drops lessens significantly."
A litany of voices rose up after he was done.
"Oh, come on!"
"I knew it! The Song is one stingy asshole!"
"B-but... shouldn't we still try to p-protect people from the monsters? I m-mean... think of the children... the... t-the—"
The girl who had spoken wore a pink bow tie, with her hair tied into a bun, her frame petite and lithe. And although the angle hid most of her features from view, Elias imagined her as someone who had invested in Save the Bears charity and probably hated spiders.
Elias rubbed his chin in thought.
"Would have been great if Elyndra was just like this but... sigh."
Voices rose up after her, most of them irritated.
"Not today, Alicia. I am not falling for this ragebait. Not today."
"Don't enter one and lose your life trying to save some old grandpa who doesn't even exist for real."
"Gosh... I have a feeling she will end up falling in love with some playboy twerp instead. She's completely hopeless."
The girl shrank back under the weight of the remarks around her until the professor clapped once, silencing the litany of whispers.
His lips curled into a grin.
"Yeah, about that. You see... the people you meet in each scenario might not exactly be phantoms."
The room seemed to freeze for a moment, a wave of voices about to erupt again before he raised his forefinger, shaking his head.
The room remained silent.
He began to walk forward, both his hands behind his back.
"You see, humanity once shared the same belief, that those within each scenario are just that... phantoms. After all, the age of the Forgotten Civilization was a bygone era existing in a dimension alien to us. But the Forgotten Civilization is presumably gone, so by logic no one in that era is meant to exist."
He clicked his tongue.
"That was until we began to see certain patterns that made us think otherwise. Certain scenarios were affected by other scenarios that people had faced in the past... or will face in the future."
He turned back, walking towards the dais.
"Chordbearers that had ventured into a Violet Graded Mirrorth a few years ago told stories of how they had passed by a certain town where statues of Arthur Rashford were erected in diverse places, the people within worshipping him reverently, titling him with the name Vakinaza, God of Relationships."
"A few years later, after that incident, the eighty-first-ranked hero, Arthur Rashford, together with his team, took an expedition to an Orange Graded Mirrorth where he had to defend a town from the Twisting Whisper and the rest of its vile kind."
He continued.
"The Twisting Whisper is a horrid Echoform that twists bonds, its whispers turning the love of a father into scathing hatred, and the repulsion of a wife into burning affection. To put it into perspective, it makes you hate your friends and adore your enemies. Pretty nasty, I guess. But they ultimately defeated the Echoform, conquering the scenario."
His lips curled into a smile.
"Do you by any chance... understand the pattern?"
For some reason, everyone in the classroom kept silent, their expressions thoughtful.
Elias narrowed his eyes slightly.
So that was to say that the Chordbearers that found statues of Arthur Rashford did so before he actually conquered that scenario and got revered as a savior?
He winced, suddenly finding his head burning.
'What in the unholy, time paradox.'
The professor grinned, leaning against the lectern.
"There are many, many more cases like this, but I won't go into the specifics... after all, it's way more interesting when you find out yourselves. But as a result of these incidences, Dr. Gridor proposed a theory, one that, although it raises a series of questions, is the closest to explaining this very curious phenomenon."
A gentle voice swept across the room, gentle as a breeze and rushed at the same time, like wind wheezing through the door.
"The Theory of Multiple Inversions."
It was Sophia who had spoken, the stoic expression on her face turning complicated for a moment before it settled back into its placid mask, like it had never been there.
The professor nodded, his face pleased.
"Good job, Sophia."
He turned to the rest, his face serious.
"This theory assumes that, by chance, the scenarios are merely us venturing back to a time in the past during the era of the Forgotten Civilization. Think of it like time travel of sorts."
He shook his head.
"Although this theory is arguable, it's simply the best explanation we have right now. So that means that the people within are real... well, as real as they can be, certainly not masterfully crafted illusions. Also..."
His voice turned hard.
"This also means that at some point in the past, you existed, changing the course and history of an era depending on the extent of the impact you made when conquering a scenario."
He laughed.
"It's one hell of a very flimsy paradox."