The transition was… messy.

  One moment, they were standing on the stone floors of the tower lobby, packed shoulder to shoulder with the other teams, the tension thick enough to choke on.

  The next, the ground vanished from under them. Lloyd barely had time to curse before they were dumped into chaos. He hit the dirt hard, a mouthful of dry grass and dust greeting him like an old buddy. His ears rang. His head spun. But when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was green. Endless green. They were in a forest. But not the kind Lloyd knew from the sleepy woods outside Tirnog. This place felt… wrong. The trees were too big. The air too still. The ground littered with paw prints the size of his head.

  A huge, semi-transparent blue screen flickered into view in front of them, towering high into the sky like a god’s cruel joke.

  ASCENSION TRIALS – LEVEL 1

  Realm: Lagonia

  Objective: Survive for 10 days.

  Contestants Remaining: 400 (100 Teams of 4)

  Wild Creatures Present:

  ? Wild Bears – 300 XP

  ? Mountain Lions – 200 XP

  ? Wild Hogs – 100 XP

  ? Humans – 1000 XP

  Special Note: PvP Permitted. Kill other contestants for additional XP and loot.

  Reminder: All prior levels, titles, stats, and items have been wiped. Progress starts at Level 1.

  GOOD LUCK.

  Lloyd stared at the screen, then at the dense forest around them, then at his team. Celeste was already cursing under her breath.

  “This is so messed up,” she groaned. “Do you know how long it took me to hit twenty the first time?”

  “Months,” Noella murmured, brushing dirt from her skirt, her calm cracking at the edges. “And now it’s all… gone.” Yuto said nothing, but the way he flexed his gloved hands at his sides told Lloyd everything. The silent assassin wasn’t thrilled about this reset either.

  Lloyd smirked despite himself. “Guess you’re all like me now, huh?”

  “Not helping, meadow boy.” Celeste shot him a look that could melt steel.

  He just shrugged nonchalantly. “Hey, I told you.”

  The system beeped again. A small window popped into view.

  Lloyd Atlas – Warrior Class (Lv. 1)

  HP: 100

  MP: 125/125

  XP:0/40000

  Stamina: 150/150

  Strength: 10

  Agility: 6

  Endurance: 8

  Dexterity: 4

  Intelligence: 3

  Perception: 5

  Skills: Weakness Tracker/Quick Slash

  Weapons: Dual Blades

  Lloyd sighed. It was the same as always. He didn’t have to compare to know he was basically made of wet paper. Noella and Celeste were scrolling through their own windows, faces tense. Yuto didn’t even look—maybe because he already knew what he’d find.

  “Ten days,” Celeste muttered, scanning the forest line. “And it’s not a last-team-standing thing. It’s just… survive.”

  “While the other teams try to kill us, and the local wildlife treats us like chew toys,” Noella added quietly.

  A distant roar echoed through the trees.

  Lloyd swallowed hard. “Guess the bears already know we’re here.”

  They moved quickly, finding cover in the shadows of the massive trees. The foliage was thick, but the air felt tight, like something was watching them from every angle.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Mountain lions, wild hogs, bears…” Celeste listed, knocking an arrow and scanning the underbrush. “And any other team desperate enough to thin the herd early.”

  Noella nodded. “They want us to be paranoid. Exhausted.”

  “It’s working,” Lloyd muttered. They kept moving, staying low, avoiding any open spaces. The underbrush crackled beneath their boots. Occasionally, the screams of other contestants echoed from somewhere deeper in the forest.

  Lloyd didn’t look back.

  He noticed, though. Celeste’s normally cocky energy was subdued. Yuto kept scanning their flanks like a cornered animal. Noella’s hands gripped her staff tight enough to turn her knuckles white. Even for veterans like them, this was a nightmare.

  They found a stream by nightfall, tucked between two ridges, giving them some shelter on three sides. They set up a crude camp—nothing with a fire, no light, no noise. Just enough to get off their feet and catch their breath. Lloyd leaned against a rock, watching the others.

  Celeste paced like a caged wolf, complaining under her breath. “You know how many arrows I had before this? Custom enchanted, precision-forged, cost me a fortune. Now I get to start with this garbage.” She waved the standard issue bow and plain arrows the system had spat out at them.

  Noella sighed softly. “At least we still have each other.”

  Celeste snorted. “Yeah, that’s the only thing they let us keep.”

  Yuto sat silently on a branch above them, katana resting across his knees.

  Lloyd stayed quiet, letting them vent.

  They talked about old quests, ruined temples, cursed dungeons, bounty hunts that almost got them killed. Stories from their guild days. The Silver Hounds, they called themselves. Sounded more like a drinking club than a real team. But Lloyd listened, soaking in every word.

  He didn’t belong here. Not really. These people lived and breathed this life. They had history. Memories. Scars. Lloyd had… a farm. And dual blades he had never used. Never needed to use. He rubbed at his temple, frustration building up in him. Curse his grandpa. Curse him to all the gods.

  “Hey,” Celeste said suddenly, kicking a small rock at him. “You still alive over there, country boy?”

  “Barely.”

  She grinned. “Get used to it. You’ll be sleeping with one eye open for the next ten days.”

  He didn’t doubt it. Night fell fast in Lagonia. The stars barely pierced the dense canopy, and the sounds of predators filled the dark. Growls. Snarls. Footsteps that echoed.

  The others settled in their makeshift watch rotation. Lloyd took the first shift.

  And as he sat there, staring into the dark, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the real monsters weren’t the bears or the lions.

  They were the hundred other teams out there. And they’d kill for the chance to make it to Day 2. Lloyd let out a heavy sigh, lolling his head back against the rock for what felt like the hundredth time that night. The forest noises buzzed around him—distant growls, the rustle of leaves, but nothing close enough to worry about. At least, not until he heard it.

  A snap.

  Not the heavy crunch of a bear or the padded steps of a mountain lion. This was deliberate. Human. Then came the cackle. High-pitched. Sharp. It sliced through the night like a knife. Lloyd opened one eye just as a woman with long blonde hair stepped out from the treeline, followed by three others—two more women and a man. They moved with the cocky swagger of people who thought they had already won.

  “Well, well,” the blonde grinned, teeth bared like a predator. “Looks like we found our second team tonight.”

  Celeste didn’t waste time. She knocked an arrow and aimed, her expression hardening. Yuto slid in front of Noella, his katana glinting faintly in the moonlight.

  Lloyd, though, barely moved. He stretched, rolled his neck, then glanced lazily over his shoulder at Celeste, a small, almost amused smile tugging at his lips.

  “So… we just kill them, huh?”

  Celeste blinked, momentarily thrown by his sudden cockiness, but nodded.

  “You know the rules.”

  “If we take out ten teams, we’ll hit the forty-thousand XP quota easy,” Noella added quietly, gripping the hem of Yuto’s cloak like a shield.

  Celeste smirked. “We can farm the animals too, sure. Lower XP, but… they make better meals.” Her voice drifted into a chuckle, practically drooling at the thought of roast hog or bear steak.

  That was all the provocation the enemy team needed.

  Furious at being so casually ignored, they charged in without warning, blades flashing, spells already glowing in the dark.

  The Battle Royale had officially begun.