I

“I have to wait to rest? What’s going on? Did I finally clear whatever this is?”

Eva held the arrow still inside of her stomach. She knew that if she took it out, she’d be dead in only a couple minutes. There was no way that she was going to chance that after coming so far! At the end of the countdown, an increasingly familiar light swallowed her.

Welcome to the 5th level break room

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The light deposited her in a small, rectangular room with smooth walls that Eva thought might be some kind of stone. It had three ornate wooden doors, one directly across the room from where she stood—in the middle of that wall—the other two were to her left. Furnishing the room were a square table with items on it in the left corner and a bed along the right wall.

Eva immediately emptied her stomach as soon as she entered the room. The force of the convulsions from retching combined with the arrow in her guts knocked her to the floor. She groaned and stared at the ceiling for a good ten minutes to catch her breath enough that she didn’t feel like she was about to have a panic attack.

Eva struggled up onto her feet and slowly inched over to the table to get a better look at what was there. In a line across the table were three plastic bottles filled with colored liquids. One red, one blue, and one yellow. In front of the row of bottles was a neatly folded piece of paper. She picked it up and unfolded it. It was a letter. She crumpled it out of anger and contemplated throwing it across the room before realizing that reading it might give her a clue about what was happening.

In front of you are three potions. The red one will heal you. The yellow one will refill your stamina. The blue one will refill your mana.—

“Wait, mana?” she asked herself. “I guess I need to add magic to the list of things that don’t make sense in wherever it is that I am.”

—These three potions will help you survive the challenges ahead of you. These health potions are special: they will replace missing limbs. You will come across health potions when this Training is over, but those will not have the same special property.—

Before reading farther, Eva grabbed the health potion. As much as it was going to hurt—and she knew it would—she needed to take the arrow out and hope the health potion worked as advertised. She collected her thoughts and took several deep breaths with the arrow in both hands. She pulled and screamed. The arrow began to move out but the first yank only moved it part of the way. Eva grit her teeth and pulled as hard as she could, screaming again as she did.

The pain was intense enough that she doubled over and emptied her stomach again, though its contents were mostly blood. She began to feel lightheaded. She undid the top to the health potion and gulped down a good amount of it. She thought it might taste like cough syrup, but it was instead closer to a slightly sweet glass of water with a hint of lemon.

To say that she was surprised by what happened would be an understatement. Eva was absolutely amazed! Her body knit itself back together, closing the puncture wound with a squelch of blood shooting out from where fresh flesh displaces the former hole. She ran her hand across her stomach where it had hit and felt that there wasn’t even a scar!

—Next, you need to think or say the word 'Status' to see your Status and assign the Stat Points you've accumulated so far.—

“Status,” Eva said.

Name: Eva Greene

Health: 80

Stamina: 22

Mana: 80

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 7

Agility: 7

Endurance: 7

Wisdom: 12

Acuity: 10

Intelligence: 11

Willpower: 8

Vitality: 8

Perception: 7

Available Stat Points: 5

[Skills]

[Status Effects]

—Just think about which of the ten Stats you'd like to add the point to and the Stat Point will be added there. Next are Skills and Status Effects. As with your Status, you simply need to say or think about them.—

“Skills,” she said.

Throwing▲: 3

Polearms▲: 6

Unarmed▲: 4

Swords▲: 6

Shields▲: 3

“Status Effects.”

Visually Impaired▲

Couch Potato★

Poor Diet▲

Good Education▲

—You can get more information about any of your Stats, Skills, or Status Effects by simply thinking about them.—

In digging deeper, Eva learned that the first eight Stats corresponded to power, precision, speed, and endurance for first physical and then mental applications. The final two were what kept her alive and what allowed her to sense the world around her respectively. The Skills and Status Effects were a bit more interesting, however.

Basic Throwing▲ Lv 3

Throwing damage increased by 3%

Basic Polearms▲ Lv 6

Polearm damage increased by 6%

Basic Unarmed▲ Lv 4

Unarmed damage increased by 4%

Basic Swords▲ Lv 6

Sword damage increased by 6%

Basic Shields▲ Lv 3

Shields block 3% more damage

Visually Impaired▲

-3 to Dexterity and -3 to Perception

Couch Potato★

-3 to Strength, -3 to Agility, and -3 to Endurance

Poor Diet▲

-2 to Vitality and -2 to Willpower

Good Education▲

+2 to Wisdom and +1 to Intelligence

—Finally, you can access the hidden Challenges by thinking or saying the word ‘Challenges’.—

“Challenges.”

Eva found a large list of Challenges. Some of them were crossed out, indicating that she'd already failed them or wasn't eligible to attempt them. These were things like completing the first 5 levels in under 30 minutes. There were three others that were highlighted in green, indicating that she'd already completed them. She mentally focused on each one in turn.

Keep the Pointy End Forward▲

Kill 10 enemies using polearms

Reward: 1 Stat Point

Knock Knock▲

Prevent 10 fatal injuries using shields

Reward: 1 Stat Point

Hack 'n Slash▲

Kill 10 enemies using swords

Reward: 1 Stat Point

With not too much time to rest, Eva put off reading more about the challenges. Her hour was already down to 41 minutes.

—There are some weapons and armor in the closet if you need something that isn't broken or something tailored more to your size.

This break room counts as a checkpoint, and there are break rooms after every 5 levels. There is no going back. Think or say 'Training' to see how much time remains.

Alexandra

“Training.”

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Eva went to the wall with two doors and experimentally opened the first one. It was a bathroom complete with toilet, sink, and shower. There was a change of clothes hanging on the inside of the door next to a large towel. The other door had the closet with equipment that the letter had mentioned. She closed the closet door and went back to the bathroom. It smelled distinctly of cleaning products.

Eva sighed in relief when she sat on the loo. She’d needed to go before she ended up in whatever this ‘Training’ thing was, and now she had the opportunity to take care of business. The commode was as good a place as any to sit and collect her thoughts.

She wondered if her plants would live for the month she was going to be stuck in the Training. They had lived through college, through a failed marriage, and through the severe depression that followed. All she could do was hope.

After flushing the toilet, she looked at herself in the mirror above the sink. Her dyed blonde hair was matted with blood, which also coated most of her body. Her oval face and green eyes looked haggard—she hadn’t slept well in weeks, only compounding the problems she was facing. Her comfortable clothing was ripped in places and damp with sweat and even more blood. She needed a shower in the worst way. Eva disliked getting dirty, and she was far past dirty at that point. She was absolutely filthy!

Sighing, Eva turned the shower on. The water was the perfect temperature immediately, which made her go back to the first thing she’d inferred about the Training: magic. She stripped her disgusting clothes off and washed the grime from her skin and hair with soap that was provided in the shower. Even when it looked like she was completely clean, she continued to scrub, hoping that she could get the horrid experience out somehow. Failing that, she dried herself off and put on the new clothes. They fit perfectly. More magic.

Eva just wanted to sit down and relax. She wanted to eat chocolate ice cream, watch some TV, and do as little as possible for a long time. She wanted out of the continuous fighting as soon as possible. 30 days was going to suck—and that was putting it mildly. As much as she wanted to put it off, she needed gear if she was going to get to the next break room.

Inside the equipment closet was a selection of armors and weapons. Eva considered the three kinds of armor: cloth, chain, and half-plate. It seemed to be a choice between light, medium, and heavy armor. Based on what she'd faced previously combined with her lack of stamina, she chose the chain shirt. The cloth armor looked too restrictive and the plate looked far too heavy.

Eva pulled the chain over her head. Around her waist she tied a leather belt. Attached to the belt were six places she could stash a potion or attach a scabbard. On top of her head went a steel helmet.

Of the weapons she had to choose from, she had a few options. The first was to go with a kind of spear—of which there were several—since that was a weapon she’d fought with already. However, Eva already knew she didn’t like the feel of spears. She liked using a shield. The second good option was to stick with a sword like she’d been using. The other options were bows or more exotic options that she had no interest in. Ranged weapons seemed like a great way for her to die more—something she was not a fan of.

Eva pulled a shortsword with a scabbard and a new round shield from the options she had available to her. She attached the scabbard to her belt and slipped the three potions into slots on her belt for future use. She then strode over to the bed and laid down.

Tears flowed from her eyes as the adrenaline and shock finally started to wear off. Eva cursed the training. She cursed Alexandra. Most of all, she cursed the goblins. She hated that she was so weak, that she was forced to fight and die; and for what? Some sicko’s pleasure? Was that the point of all this torture?

II

After twenty minutes of emotional bloodletting, Eva turned her attention to her Stat Points. According to the accursed letter, she should be able to compensate for her weakness somehow. With the challenges she'd already completed, she had eight Stat Points to spend. Based on her Stats currently, she would probably excel at magic more so than anything else, but she had no idea how to go about flinging spells. She'd need to build up her physical Stats instead. There was a reason Couch Potato▲ was listed as a Status Effect: Eva abhorred exercise. She sighed before deciding to put two into each of the four physical Stats. She checked her Status after she was done.

Name: Eva Greene

Health: 80

Stamina: 90

Mana: 80

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 9

Agility: 9

Endurance: 9

Wisdom: 12

Acuity: 10

Intelligence: 11

Willpower: 8

Vitality: 8

Perception: 7

Available Stat Points: 0

III

Eva watched the countdown clock as it slowly made its way to zero. Each passing minute ramped up the fear and unease she felt. With only a minute to go, she felt nauseous and ran to the bathroom. Nothing came up, but that didn’t stop her from dry heaving twice more anyway. She stood up just as the box disappeared.

White light covered her, and the world changed in an instant. Eva found herself in a larger clearing than last time with the same oppressive foliage penning her in. She was greeted by the familiar box that heralded blood and pain.

Prepare to defend yourself

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