I lean back on my hands, crossing my legs as I take a long look at the destruction we had caused with a little fire. It seemed… too easy. None of the monsters that I had seen had held such a glaring weakness.

The poor buildings were still smoldering where they had once stood. The metal framework is all that is left, holding the buildings tall. I turn my gaze away from the buildings and towards what was once a gigantic web. Corpses of the spiders lay in the ashes of their web. I can only see twelve corpses, before the road twists out of sight.

Nicolas is still laying on the ground, where the spider had stabbed his shoulder. The other Beta Testers are all distracted by the results of the fire that had grown way out of control. Hans is currently holding up the shield stopping the smoke or the leftovers of the fire from reaching us. My shield had given out after only a few minutes. I really need to learn a less mana intensive defence.

“What now?” I wonder out loud.

“We don’t need to do anything. No one will beat the amount of points we have.” The usually quiet asian man answers my question. I turn in surprise to see him sitting right next to me, cleaning the pieces of his sniper rifle, before placing them back in his suitcase.

I hadn’t even noticed him sitting next to me.

I smile at him, showing all my teeth. “I guess you’re right.” I rub my hand through my hair as I think out loud “Maybe that store we stopped at has some ice cream. Ice cream does sound delicious.”

Suddenly, something occurs to me that I keep forgetting to do. “[Apply Mark Of Protection on Rose Demor]”

Suddenly, I get this tugging feeling in a certain direction and I instinctively know that Rose Demor, a very beautiful woman, is somewhere over there.

Rose

I wake up to someone shaking me roughly. My eyes open to a strange woman leaning over me.

I stiffen in fear, memories coming to the forefront of my mind. Rope tied around my wrists, a gag in my mouth to prevent my screams. A man had stood over me then, the same way that this woman did now.

My hands clench and I notice with relief that my hands are unbound. This woman is looking down at me with curiosity, not menace and lust.

I sit up carefully, observing my surroundings. One other person is in the room with us, a man I think, but his face is covered with a hospital mask and a hood.

“Wh-where am I?” I ask, my gaze turning to the system message that was begging for my attention.

“A room.” The woman says, her gaze watchful of any sudden moves.

She is very helpful.

“Your amazing vocabulary astounds me.” The masked man says in a boyish voice, which makes me think he might be closer to my age than I’d originally thought. “We don’t know where we are either.” He says to me, answering my question.

A strange snapping sound happens as another person appears a few feet away from me.

I stand up and walk to the corner of the room, thankful that I had decided to sleep in pajamas, instead of my usual nothing.

I have some extra clothes in my inventory, but I won’t put them on in front of strangers.

Two more people appear, bringing our total up to six. I look at the other Beta Testers cautiously, they all look so different. Other than Elena and Mr.Monroe, I haven’t met any other Beta Testers. The five people in the room with me mostly ignore each other, excluding the two people who are whispering to each other furiously.

I sit down in my corner and look at the timer that shows how much time I have left to “prepare”. Fifteen more minutes

I bring out the box of throwing knives that Elena gifted me. Twelve knives, all with different effects and all of different sizes. I’d had one of my father’s men teach me how to properly throw them, after the incident with the Red Caps.

“[Identify Knives]”

I couldn’t get any more information than this, no matter how much I used identify, but I had done a little bit of experimenting with the blades. A lot of the blades are pretty self evident; I could make both The Living Blade and The Alive Blade, float in the air and move autonomously, which is pretty cool.

The Sharpened Blade seemed to cut through anything that I had tested it on, as if it was butter.

I had used the Blade of Life And Death on the Red Cap earlier, the creature had seemed to wilt as the blade affected it and I had felt a strange sense of energy flowing into me as the thing died.

Someone walking over to me distracts me from the studying of my weapons.

I study the man who approaches me wearily. Something about him screams danger, despite a relatively handsome and likeable face.

“Hello, my name is Henry. What is yours?” He says as he approaches me.

I ignore him as I place my weapons back into my inventory. Then I take an apple out of my inventory and take a bite, making it as clear as possible that I don’t want to talk.

“Ah. I see. I simply thought it might be a good idea to get to know each other, before we are sent into a life and death situation.” Henry, continues.

I take another bite of my apple, hoping that my fear of him isn’t obvious.

He throws his hands into the air, giving up.

My eyes flicker to the timer which is slowly counting down,

Ten,

Nine,

Eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

The only door in our room swings open, a bright light on the other side preventing us from seeing where it leads.

I frown as I put the half eaten apple into my inventory.

Henry smiles at me, pulling a long sword out of his inventory as calmly walks through the door.

The helpful woman and the masked boy soon follow him. A moment later, the two final group members leave the room. I study the door for a moment, pulling just the two living blades out of my inventory in a little trick I learned on accident, I hold them in my hands and step through the door.

I step onto a paved roadway, a few feet behind the last members of our group. Instantly my gaze catches on a moose crossing sign, one of the few signs on the road. Forest lines the each side of the road.

“Canada?” I say out loud.

A car honks at us as it slows to a stop behind us.

“What infestation is there in Canada?” I ask to no one in particular.

The passenger of the car rolls down their window, “What are you guys doing in the middle of the road?” The woman asks.

“Don’t-” I stop as one of my daggers rips out of my hand and knocks something to the side before it hits me.

An arrow?

The female Beta Tester I had first met cries out as an arrow hits her in the thigh. The dagger deflects another arrow away from me as both my daggers start floating around me.

“They’re in the forest!” Henry yells at us as someone moves to help the person that got shot.

I turn to the person in the car. “Roll up your window! And don’t move out of the car!”

The woman nods at me and hurriedly rolls up her window.

I watch the trees, waiting for whatever is in there to make its move.

One of the Beta Testers finish’s casting some kind of spell and points of light move out from him and into the forest, showing vague outlines of hulking figures, surrounded by smaller scraggly creatures.

“Those are Orcs and Goblins!” One of the Beta Tester’s I hadn’t met shouts out, excited more than anything else.

But I know better, these are thinking creatures that can use weapons, and maybe even magic.

And there are a lot more of them than there are of us.

More arrows are launched our way, but this time, the masked boy puts up some kind of barrier that blocks them, while my knives block the ones coming for me.

“Don’t get distracted! Get your weapons ready and be prepared to kill. These things aren’t going to go easy on us.” Henry takes charge of the group quickly and effectively. He obviously knows what he is doing.

But I still don’t trust him and I’ve learned to trust my gut when it comes to strangers.

The creatures walk out of the forest, at least twenty orcs with twice that number in goblins.

“We should gather around the car.” I yell at Henry.

He nods and we create a ring around the car as the creatures surround us, the masked boy dragging the woman with an arrow in her. Her pale and unconscious face make me worry.

One of the Orcs steps forward, markings on his face and arms showing that he is something different from the rest of his kind. It opens its mouth to speak. “Give us your woomen, hooman. And we will let the rest of you live.” It says with a strange accent.

Carefully, I pull out The Sharpened Blade from my inventory.

To my horror, I notice that Henry actually considers it for a millisecond, before he shakes his head and smiles broadly at the creature, “We won’t give you anyone, monster. You don’t even stand a chance against us anyway.” He levels his sword out at the creature, saying one word. “Die.”

Two slashes of wind fly towards the Orc leader, cutting into him. Orcs on either side of him cry out in pain as they are deeply cut, falling to the ground.

The Orc leader touches his chest, where an angry red X cuts across him. He laughs, a deep guttural sound.

I throw my Dagger at him with all of my might, even placing a little bit of mana into it.

He stops laughing as large hole appears in his stomach. My dagger having gone through him and stopping in a tree on the other side.

The Orc touches the spot where flesh used to be, before falling over.

I’ll have to remember to grab that dagger when this fight is over. I think to myself as a blue screen appears in front of me.

Was that a lot of points? I can’t tell.

Everyone freezes as they stare at the dead Orc.

Noticing the Beta Tester’s inaction I yell at them, “What the hell are you doing! Attack before they can charge us!”

The rest becomes a blood bath as my living blades flash fly forward to attack the shocked creatures.

I pull two blades at random out of my inventory, but hold them close to me in case one of the creatures gets it in their heads to attack me. Plus, I don’t want to lose my weapons in the chaos.

The other Beta Testers show impressive abilities as they join in the fight, killing the creatures by the dozen.

A blue screen appears in front of me a moment later.

Huh, looks useful.