章 2: Don't Give Up. Slay! (Part 1)

The realm was quiet with sounds from within commanding fear.

The students made their way into the depths of the realm. Akira followed with a neutral feeling towards their mission. His fear took the best of him, and he refrained from moving further into the realm.

"Hey, you scared?" A student asked, about to mock him for being afraid.

"No, I'm just trying to assess the situation," he replied, trying to regain control and dispose anxiety.

Grr!

A strange sound coming from within, reverberated. Even those with talents stood back upon hearing the sound.

"Is it a Goblin?" Students murmured in fear.

Akira looked back at the scared individuals, smirked, and thought,

"Now, who's the scared one."

Finally, the talented students regained composition, stood their ground, cleared their throats and walked up in confidence. It was evident that they were trying to conceal their fear.

The strange sound increased every time it reverberated. It echoed time and time again, until some students began to run back. They were all in the Shadow Realm with no source of light, walking blindly into the territory of forbidden beasts. Those who ran back found no way out, and were transported back to the position of others anytime they ran away.

"What's going on?" The students who were gripped in fear spoke.

Grr!

Grrr!!

The strange sound echoed, but the students had no choice but to proceed. They took the last breath they could, mustered up some strength, and charged fully into the Shadow Realm.

As they proceeded, they began to glow, their eyes turned crystalline and the system spoke,

[Enemy detected! Be cautious!]

At that instant, the students stopped, but some who knew the position they were in from the start, disposed any form of hesitancy and continued their quest to destroy the Goblins in the realm.

[Level 1 Enemy approaching! Red zone!]

"Wait, that means it's close, let's stop," some students suggested.

Gggggrrrrrrhhhhh!

At the last sound, the frail Goblin made it's face known to the students in the realm. It was a dwarf-like creature with relatively small wings on its back. The Goblin charged fully towards the students and used its surprisingly sharp claws to damage them.

Swiftly, the students stepped backwards in an attempt to avoid more potential damages. Akira spread his palms, and once again, he was shown his stats.

[Stats]

[HP: 87]

[Strength: 10]

[Fatigue: 28]

[Protection: None]

[Level: 1]

[Skill: Stats1 (Activated)]

[Talent: None]

"That Goblin dealt major damage and it's supposed to be level 1?" Akira thought while closing his stats.

The students looked at each other and started speaking on the exponential amount of HP that was deprived of them by the strike of the Goblin.

"Wait, so how will we defeat that thing?" The students said looking down at the dwarf-like creature.

They walked up to it and began to punch it. Surprisingly it did not retaliate. They took an immense amount of time and energy trying to kill the Goblin.

Finally, they succeeded at killing it, and were instantly granted a skill.

[New skill attained!]

[Destroy activated]

[Skill description]

[Destroy: This allows its users to destroy Goblins with an improved efficiency, reducing time when slaying the Goblin]

"Nice, a new skill to add to my arsenal," students spoke joyfully as the skill was communicated to them.

[Stage 1 complete!]

[Do you choose to leave or stay?]

[Note: If you leave, you fail the test]

"We can leave now? I'm getting out of this crappy place," students spoke running out in joy.

Akira, knowing that all his determination would go to waste if he left, sat back trying to recover his HP and reduce fatigue.

"What a bunch of low-lives. Look at the guy who called me scared, now he's running like a rat," Akira thought, putting on a slight frown on his face.

A significant amount of students, around 30 ran out seeking freedom and safety. The 289 students sat, strategized and tried recovering valuable resources they had lost through the test.

A few minutes passed, and no Goblins were in sight. Akira decided to view his stats to help improve his strategy. He made the usual gesture and was shown his stats.

[Stats]

[HP: 90]

[Strength: 10]

[Fatigue: 18]

[Protection: None]

[Level: 1]

[Skill: Stats1 (Activated), Destroy (Activated)]

[Talent: None]

After viewing them, he let off expressions of disappointment as he would take more time to fully recover from his last battle.

--Outside the portal--

The instructor who seated outside patiently, was immediately taken by surprise upon seeing the amount of students who were teleported out. She shook her head in dissatisfaction and spoke coldly,

"So you are the weaklings who were scared of a mere dwarf with sharp claws?"

"Well, you all are disqualified. Better luck next year," she spoke returning to her seat awaiting the return of others.

After her speech, the students began to regret their decision and murmured among themselves in shame.

"Man, she's right. Why were we scared of that little thing."

"Yeah, if we can't defeat a level 1 Goblin, how are we going to defeat higher ranking Goblins."

"Let's just go home, we'll try again next year."

"But by then, our friends would have already become Officials."

--In the Shadow Realm--

"Let's proceed," a student suggested.

"No, we'll rest a little bit longer and then we'll proceed. Not all of us are like you - with talents," another student interjected.

Akira nodded affirmatively as he needed more time to recover to avoid death by the next Goblin. After all it could be a Level 2 Goblin.

He checked his stats, and to his surprise, he was almost done with his recovery.

[Stats]

[HP: 97]

[Strength: 10]

[Fatigue: 6]

[Protection: None]

[Level: 1]

[Skill: Stats1 (Activated), Destroy (Activated)]

[Talent: None]

"I'm almost fully charged up," he spoke as he stood up, spontaneously dusting his cloths.

Soon, every single student recovered, and they set out to slay the next Goblin. The talented students recovered faster than others and some had already proceeded earlier on, while the remaining talented students led the untalented students to the next Goblins.