<Jared’s POV>

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a white room, ready to take on the so-called ‘Challenge Room’. The only thing present in the room was a blackboard in front of me:

[Missions cleared: 0

Points: 0

Missions to choose from:

Slay (Horned wolves) - 5 points per horned wolf (0/15)

Tame (Saber-toothed Cheetah) - 50 points (can keep beast)]

I didn’t really know the ins and outs of taming so the choice was obvious. As soon as I thought this, the voice in my mind spoke up…

[“Challenge Room Game One: Slay horned wolves. Rules: Use weapon of choice from given weapons. Each round has an increment of a horned wolf. Kill all horned wolves to advance. Kill a minimum of 15 horned wolves to end the quest. Kill greater numbers to gain more rewards. Player gets healed after each round. Repeat? Yes/No.”]

As I chose ‘No’ and picked out the weapons (dual swords) from the rack, I wondered if the others got similar quests. By the time I had worn my armour I was ready to face the horned wolves. I had no hitch until the fourth round. But the fifth round gave me quite a hassle. I had killed the fifth horned wolf and was close to killing the first horned wolf. But the second and third one managed to come in between and the forth one pounced on me almost giving me a heart attack. I somehow managed to dodge it using dash. But I had gotten a nasty gnash on my wrist. Barely clinging on to my left hand’s sword, I just kept spamming slash and poke on the horned wolves. As soon as my dash skill’s countdown ended, I used it to go to the first (injured) horned wolf and ended its life.

By now I had a slightly better grip on the left hand’s sword (due to a bit of HP regeneration) so taking advantage of this, I used my ‘twin damage skill’ and with the increased attack power I managed to kill of two more horned wolves. By now my left hand gave out. So, I killed the forth (and last) horned wolf with only a single sword.

I vowed to be more careful while the countdown for the next round began. When I picked up my second sword, all my injuries had been restored. And so I prepared myself for the sixth round, which would probably be my limit. Honestly four would be my limit but these horned wolves were slightly easier to deal with as compared to the ones in the forests.

<Kennedy’s  POV>

[Missions cleared: 0

Points: 0

Missions to choose from:

Defend (Horned wolves) - 25 points per round (0/3)

Tame (Saber-toothed Cheetah) - 50 points (can keep beast)]

I chose to defend against horned wolves because I was used to them already. Moreover, it was worth more points than the taming option. As soon as I decided the annoying and creepy voice in my mind spoke up:

[“Challenge Room Game One: Defend against horned wolves. Rules: Use given sword, shield and armor set. Each round has four horned wolves. Kill/defend against all horned wolves to advance to the next round. Kill a minimum of 10 horned wolves to end the quest. Player gets healed after each round. From the fourth round, number of horned wolves increment per ten minutes. Kill more horned wolves to get greater rewards. Repeat? Yes/No.”]

Hmm. I thought about it for a second. I had to endure three rounds to complete the quest, moreover they said it was a defense quest, but I had to kill 10 horned wolves to successfully complete the quest. I forgot the rest so I quickly thought ‘Yes’.

[“Challenge Room Game One: Defend against horned wolves. Rules: Use given sword, shield and armor set. Each round has four horned wolves. Kill/defend against all horned wolves to advance to the next round. Kill a minimum of 10 horned wolves to end the quest. Player gets healed after each round. From the fourth round, number of horned wolves increment per ten minutes. Kill more horned wolves to get greater rewards. Repeat? Yes/No.”]

So I had to fight against four horned wolves in each round, and I get healed after each round. Then from the fourth round onwards the wolves spawn every ten minutes. It takes me more than ten minutes to kill one horned wolf so the forth round will be brutal. But the more wolves I kill in the forth round, the greater my reward will be, plus I have no fear of dying. So, all in all I’ll have to go all out until I die.

Putting up my resolve I put on my armor set and locked my shield in my hand and equipped myself with the low level sword. The countdown began and I took my stance. As soon as the four wolves spawned I ran up to them and used shield smash on the closest wolf, successfully knocking the wind out of it. I also used slash on the rightmost horned wolf’s front legs, thereby successfully incapacitating it. Quickly using my shield I defended against the remaining two horned wolves. By the time the first one got back up I had used shield smash on it again, and incapacitated yet another horned wolf by slashing at their front limbs.

This technique was working like a charm. Now there was only one full health horned wolf left, and the one I kept using shield smash on was already at half health. I quickly finished it off and then poured all my focus on the full heath horned wolf. ‘Easy does it Kenny, become too arrogant and you always become careless and get hurt. Focus now.’ I thought to myself. But I was worried for nothing, as I easily took care of it and then killed of the two incapacitated horned wolves. Thus, successfully clearing the first round.

Using the same technique and mindset, I managed to clear the next two rounds too. What was troubling me was the fourth round. I wasn’t sure how many wolves I’d be starting out with. ‘Well no point worrying, bring it on!’ I pepped myself as the countdown almost ended and I was faced with four wolves. ‘Not good!’ I groaned internally. ‘I have to kill at least one of them and injure another before the next one spawns’. I hurriedly activated berserk state and rushed to attack them to utilize these precious ten minutes (these ten minutes was incidentally also the length of my berserk state).