I opened my eyes and looked at the pit.

Several hours had passed and night had already fallen.

The centre of the pit was still occupied and basically everyone who hadn’t been in a group before joined one.

There were two large groups and a few dozen small ones. The biggest group was the one in the centre; it was about 200-300 people large. The second largest was now the group led by Mike, most people who hadn’t joined a group before seemed to have joined him; about 200 people were following him.

Mike’s group was also the only one that had managed to light a fire; they had probably used an item from either the rewards or the dropped loot.

Apart from several people who had to stand guard, almost everyone was asleep. They had all suddenly been summoned to this world and had to fight for their lives, so it was understandable that they were exhausted.

I looked around until, eventually, my eyes settled on one individual.

It was an Asian-looking man with a curved sword in his hand. He was making his way over to the centre group with short, silent steps.

After a while, he was just a few metres from the group and he stopped. He looked around quickly, checking for any guards that might have spotted him.

None of the guards had seen him, so after a few moments, he continued.

He made his way through the sleeping bodies and eventually reached the well. He stuck out his hand and touched it. He froze for a few moments and then suddenly a pile of food appeared around him.

‘He must be Yeong-Gi, that’s probably the 1st place reward.’ I identified him and continued observing him.

Yeong-Gi seemed surprised by the amount of food that appeared. He moved away from the well and rummaged around the sleeping people. After a few minutes, he returned to the well with a bundle of clothes.

He tied the clothes together into a makeshift bag and gathered the food in it.

After bagging up all the food he investigated the well. He pulled out the bucket, unlike previous times I saw people do this, it was filled with water.

He took of the small bundle from his back and took out several canteens made from direbear hide.

He filled them up, refilling the bucket several times, and put them in the bag with the food.

Whilst leaving he must have made a noise; someone woke up and looked in his direction.

He hadn’t noticed someone woke up and continued making his way out of the camp.

The man who woke up realised someone had snuck into the camp and started shouting, waking everyone up.

 In just a few minutes Yeong-Gi man was surrounded. He dropped his bag and changed his hold on his sword.

Nothing happened for a while and I focused my hearing on the conflict. One of the leaders of the centre group had come forward and was now threatening Yeong-Gi, telling him to leave the bag.

The talk quickly escalated when Yeong-Gi took something from his pocket and threw it in the air. It flew up several meters until it finally exploded into a flashing light.

As his opponents were distracted he mowed down two people with his sword, creating an opening in the encirclement.

He picked up the bag of food and started running. He only got a couple of metres when he was once again blocked by a group of people.

Without stopping, he swung his sword, cutting off one person’s arm and forcing another to dodge. Whilst they were panicking Yeong-Gi changed directions and eventually left the camp.

A party of about 20 heavily armed people started chasing him. Since the pit was a limited space, he ran to other groups and tried blending in among them.

However, because almost everyone had noticed what was happening, any group he approached quickly separated themselves from him, exposing his location.

He would probably be able to hide among Mike’s group but, maybe because that group had guards around it, he didn’t approach it.

After about 15 minutes of running, he finally stopped. He dropped the bag and raised his sword, ready for a last stand.

‘Let’s see what I can get away with.’ Whilst this was helping the people in the pit, I felt like I could probably get away with it.

“Leave him!”  Along with the ‘Voice’ trait, I used mana to strengthen my voice.

As the thunderous sound rang out, everyone froze. After a few minutes, the people who had been chasing Yeong-Gi quietly returned to their camp in the centre.

Yeong-Gi didn’t move. He looked at me with both fear and relieve in his eyes.

I felt like he wouldn’t move for a long time if I didn’t say anything to him, so I used my ‘Devine message’ skill.

“You are lucky this time; I can’t help a second time.” After I finished he bowed in my direction and quietly headed towards Mike’s group.

He entered the camp and walked towards the centre of it. There, he sat down next to Mike and took out the water and food and along with several other people they divided it among the group.

‘I hope he survives, he would be useful.’, I thought as I closed my eyes and sat back down on the ground.

 

‘Ten per cent… I suppose they did better than us.’ The second wave had just ended.

I looked at the sun hanging straight above me. The battle had started at sunrise and lasted until just now.

‘Roughly six hours, they must be exhausted.’ I looked at the hundred surviving people, especially at a few that had stood out.

The first one, who had again gotten 1st place, was Yeong-Gi. During the fight, he had used his sword to dispatch foe after foe. The second wave had been a horde of orcs and he killed at least several dozens of them.

The second one was Mike, he hadn’t defeated nearly as many orcs as Yeong-Gi, but he had saved the lives of at least half the remaining survivors. Every time he noticed that someone was in trouble and about to die, he rushed at them and assisted them in their fight. In the end, his group was the largest one left, the others had been basically wiped out.

Finally, there was a small group of five people that had caught my eye. They worked together amazingly and managed to take out any orc that came at them. They avoided fighting, but when they had to, they mostly got away without injuries.

There were some others who had stood out, like, for example, a burly man with an axe who managed to fight off several orcs at once without being overwhelmed and a bald Chinese man who had avoided fighting for several hours, but they didn’t survive.

They had just finished looting the orcs and the rankings popped up.

<1st, Yeong-Gi>

<2nd, M>

<3rd, White fox>

<4th, Daan>

<5th, Yuuto>

Some of the rankers from the first round had disappeared, they either died or did worse during this wave.

I looked around but, apart from Yeong-Gi, I couldn’t identify any of the rankers. I suspected Mike was M, but I had no way to check.

 

Since only a hundred people were left, they grouped up and moved towards the well and set up, a very simple, camp. Whilst most people sat down on the ground to relax, three people headed towards the well: Yeong-Gi, Mike and a blonde man with a massive shield and a sword.

They each collected food and water from the well and started distributing it among the others. This confirmed my idea that Mike was M. He could also be White fox, but that seemed unlikely; I assumed he wouldn’t choose such a feminine name.

The blonde boy was probably the 4th ranker, Daan; White fox, again, sounded very feminine and Yuuto sounded like a name belonging to an Asian, who rarely have blonde hair. He hadn’t made much of an impression, but apparently, he had contributed quite a lot to the fight.

 Everyone in the camp started eating and I returned to my meditation.

After about an hour, when lunch had ended, people in the camp started to get active.

Several people, who knew how to use weapons, started instructing the rest in it. Until now most people had survived by ganging up on the monsters and wildly swinging their weapons. Those who survived until now generally had good physical fitness, so if they managed to learn the basics on how to use their weapon before the next wave, they’d have a high chance of surviving.

At first, the whole group seemed like a bunch of primary-schoolers playing around with sticks, but when the sun started to go down and they finished up for the day, they all had some amount of ability with their weapon. At the very least, they wouldn’t injure themselves or the people around them with them.

As they were busy training, I had returned to experimenting with mana. I had nearly filled up my mana core, so I had quite a bit of mana to work with.

I started with, once again, circulating my mana. When I did I felt myself fill with energy, and if I focused the circulation on specific parts, like my legs or arms, they were strengthened by a lot.

Because I couldn’t test it on anything, I strengthened my legs and jumped in the air. Comparing the height I reached with when my legs weren’t strengthened, I judged that they had roughly twice as much strength.

When I started jumping around, the people in the pit stopped what they were doing and looked at me weirdly, but I ignored it. They eventually returned to their training and I continued experimenting.

After I had focused mana on most parts of my body, I tried moving the mana outside of my body.

It took me a few tries, but I eventually found out that it was possible to effectively expel mana from my palms and my mouth. At most other places in my body, I encountered some sort of resistance when I tried to move mana outside. Another place that had little to no resistance was the bottom of my feet, but that didn’t seem very practical, so I quit experimenting there after a few minutes.   

At first, when I expelled mana from my hands, all that happened was that a dim, blue light appeared around my hand. As far as I could tell, it didn’t do anything and just drained my mana reserves.

I tried compressing the mana I used, and the light grew a bit brighter; it still didn’t do anything, however.

‘I feel like I’ve almost grasped how to use magic. What am I missing?’ I tried for a couple more hours but couldn’t figure anything out.

Giving up, I returned to meditating to absorb more mana. I wouldn’t get anywhere if I continued trying anyway and it slightly increased my stats, so I felt like it was the most effective use of my time.

 

Mike’s POV

The sun had disappeared over the horizon and the moons were visible in the sky.

Apart from a few people, everyone in the camp was asleep. They had trained the entire afternoon and were completely exhausted.

“We shouldn’t train everyone at the same time tomorrow, if an attack were to happen now, most people wouldn’t have the strength to even pick up their weapons.” The other leaders and I were discussing the events of the day. Since my mother and sister were asleep nearby, we talked quietly.

We had first discussed a strategy for the next wave and we would test it tomorrow. Judging from the time before the previous days, we would have at least one more day to prepare.

After that, we briefly discussed the food supplies, but unless the other rankers revealed themselves, we couldn’t do anything about it. Right now, we have enough to feed the entire camp for one more day, but if we add the food that hadn’t been claimed yet, we would last for twice as long.

“I agree, there is also no guarantee that the wave will come in two days; If it happens tomorrow and everyone is exhausted, there’ll be massive casualties.” Yeong-Gi responded to Daan and continued; “Due to the training, however, I have an idea as to who the other rankers might be.”

So far, Yeong-Gi’s judgement had been spot on almost every time, so we looked at him expectantly.

“The white fox must be that lady with the quarterstaff, she definitely has experience with martial arts and would probably be able to fight two or three orcs at once. Her hair is also almost white, so the name would fit perfectly.” He gave his opinion and I remembered who he was talking about. Her hair was indeed light blonde and she seemed strong, so he could very well be right.

“Yuuto is probably someone from the Moon party. I talked a bit to them and three of them have experience with weapons. They only learned using their weapons in their respective sport clubs, so it’s not at the level of an experienced fighter, but they are all quite talented.” Before Yeong-Gi could continue, I interrupted him. “They’re just high school kids though, they can’t be stronger than some other people. What about that guy with the braided beard? He seemed quite adept with that axe.

I looked at the person in question. He was sleeping several meters away and had his battle-axe by his side. When I saw him swing it around earlier today, I felt like he would be able to take out one of those orcs with a single blow.

“He is a westerner, so Yuuto would be an unusual name for him. It is possible, but I think the moon party is more likely. Sure, each one alone wouldn’t be as strong as some other people, but they have amazing teamwork. I saw them fighting during today's wave and I can assure you that they would be able to defeat any party of 5 you can assemble now.” Yeong-Gi was defending his idea when one of the guards suddenly rushed towards us.

“Sir! There’s a fire!” The man was slightly out of breath and when I gave him my canteen he fell silent as he drank it.

“What do you mean, fire? I don’t see any.” Daan looked around him. Since there wasn’t anything to obstruct the view, the entire camp was visible. We had made a few fires earlier to warm up some food, but the item we used for it had limited charge, so they had all gone out.

“No, no, not in the camp. A few minutes ago a fire suddenly appeared by the Dragoness.” The man returned the canteen and answered. The Dragoness mostly meditated on the pit’s edge, but occasionally interacted with us, so anything unusual she did would be reported to us. We didn’t know her identity, but after the first day, almost everyone called her the Dragoness. She looked mostly human, but because of her claws, scales and blood-red eyes, someone was reminded of a comic book character and called her by that name. It caught on and eventually almost everyone was using it.

There were a few people who thought she was a god and worshipped her, refusing to call her the dragoness, but they were vastly in the minority.

Some people thought the Dragoness was the one who brought us here, but other people, me included, didn’t think so. She had spoken twice, and her words hinted that she was just following orders and that she wanted to help us but that something, or someone, was stopping her.

Me, Yeong-Gi and Daan stood up and looked at the Dragoness. Because of the darkness we could barely make out her figure, but we didn’t see any kind of light, never mind a fire.

“You sure you weren’t seeing things?” After a few minutes, Daan looked back at the guard. Nothing happened for a while longer, so we sat back down. I made sure to face the dragoness’ direction, so I could see if a fire did appear.

We send the guard away and continued our conversation. After a few more minutes I suddenly spotted a light where the Dragoness was. “Something’s happening!” I alerted the others and focused on the light.

Like the guard had said, the light came from a fire. It was quite bright and illuminated the Dragoness and her direct surroundings.

I gave some orders and after a few moments, someone handed me a pair of binoculars.

There had been a small group of people who had been camping when they got here, but since they died during the second wave, we had claimed their binoculars as our own.

I looked at the dragoness, and with the help of the binoculars, I managed to make out a few more details. The Dragoness was sitting in her meditative pose with her palms facing upwards. The fire, or fires, were sitting on top of those palms and were moving sporadically.

Fascinated, I continued watching and observed the flames dancing on top of her palms.

After a few minutes the fire on her left palm went out and the other shrunk to the size of a pea. The fire then grew increasingly bright until it seemed hot enough to burn through steel.

When it reached that point, the Dragoness stood up and pointed her palm forwards. Her eyes, which had been closed so far, shined with a dim light and the fire started moving again.

With the binoculars, I could clearly make out what was happening. The small ball of fire, which had been nestled in her palm, hovered slightly in front of it and started spinning. After a few moments of spinning the fire suddenly disappeared.

When it did, I could suddenly hear a loud sound. I looked towards the source of the sound and spotted a giant fireball. The tiny flame the Dragoness had sent flying had struck the wall of the pit and had caused a giant explosion. Even though we were standing several hundred metres away, we could feel the heat on our skin.

Because the entire pit was made of marble the fire quickly died out and we returned our focus to the Dragoness. She looked slightly dazed, as she seemed to be inspecting her hand.

“Have I gone completely mad, or did she just shoot fire from her hands?” Daan, who had been watching her with a binocular like mine, spoke up.

“No, I saw the same thing.” I answered; “Do you… Do you think that might have been magic?”

“I think it is possible, considering what we’ve gone through so far, magic wouldn’t be so strange. It might even be possible that we can use it too.” After a few moments of silence, Yeong-Gi answered.

Basically everyone had woken up, including my family, and had focused on the magic show. 

We watched the Dragoness for a while longer, but she had returned to her meditation and after a few minutes, we calmed everyone down and eventually went to sleep.

 

“I think you might have been right. Yuuto is probably from the moon party.” We were having a short break between training when I spoke up.

Today’s training had focused on teamwork and fighting in a group. We had formed various parties of five and pitted them against each other. It quickly became apparent that the Moon party was on a completely different level compared to the others.

They knew exactly what they had to do, and it seemed like they didn’t even need to communicate. It was like they had been fighting together for years.

“Even if he’s not, they’re still strong, let’s go talk to them.” We stood up and headed towards the edge of the training area.

“Hi, do you mind if we sit with you guys?” Daan said as he sat down.

“Ah, go ahead.” One of the boys, the swordsman, answered and made some room.

“I’ll get straight to the point, which one of you is Yuuto?” Yeong-Gi asked bluntly.

The Moon party froze for a moment when he asked them such a straightforward question, but, after hesitating a bit, the swordsman spoke up again: “I… I am, why does it matter?”

“We thought it would be useful to know who the rankers are. You got 5th place, so you should be able to claim a few days of supplies from the well. We don’t know when the next wave is going to happen, and we might need the food.” Yeong-Gi’s words carried a slightly threatening undertone, like he would force them to get the food if need be, so the conversation quickly got tense.

Yuuto glared at us as he responded: “I understand you want to feed everyone, but my priority is with my friends. If it comes down to it, I’ll only share my food with them.”

Things quickly got heated and I could tell Yeong-Gi was slowly getting angry. “Yeong-Gi, calm down, we can’t fight amongst each other.” I warned him, and he relaxed a bit.

Not wanting to risk starting a fight I quickly got Daan and Yeong-Gi to leave us. They were both strong in a fight, but they had poor social skills.

I continued talking to the Moon party and learned some more about them.

They had all been friends since childhood so they understood each other perfectly, this was the reason they barely needed to communicate to cooperate during a fight.

Yuuto had been practising kendo, a swordsmanship form from Japan, since middle school and had participated in multiple large competitions, so he knew his way around a sword

One of the girls, Natsumi, practised archery, so she too knew how to use a weapon.

When fighting, the two boys besides Yuuto would keep the opponent at bay whilst Yuuto and Natsumi attacked them.

The fifth person, Hime, had been sickly before she entered the arena, so she was quite weak and didn’t do any fighting. The others protected her and because she knew a lot about it, she would treat the other’s injuries when they got any.

 I talked to them a bit more and eventually convinced them to share some of their food if it was needed.

The second round of training was about to begin, so I told them goodbye and returned to Yeong-Gi and Daan.