Man I miss home, hope my parents are ok. I wonder if Kev, Jonas, and the others are doing all right.

I was sitting on the ground with the four others.

The five of us had found out some things in the past twenty hours.

First, we’re trapped. There’s some invisible force field that denies our exit, violently. John was electrocuted a bit when he touched it.

Second, we suck at survival. We have no food and have mainly been getting water from the river. We’re just hoping we can leave soon since nobody knows how to do anything in the wild. We tried cooking the animae, but the meat looked so rotten nobody wanted to risk trying it. It also emitted one of the worst smells I’ve ever come across.

Third, identify and inventory are pretty useful. Identify shows us the species and level of something. If it’s inanimate, it gives us a nice description that doesn't do jack shit for us. I guess it might be more useful later. Inventory is pretty useful. We can store a lot of stuff in it, and it weighs nothing. We don’t know where the stuff goes, but we do know we can take it out after we put it in.

Finally, we’re losing our minds. Arjun has broken down a couple of times already, and so has Richie. Honestly, I’m not doing too well either, I haven’t slept or eaten any and I’m scared to death about what happens when the time reaches zero.

Congratulations: Humans! You have completed Stage 1.

Stage 2 will commence in 24 Earth Hours.

Time Remaining: 3 hours : 41 minutes : 32 seconds

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Guess we’ll find out soon. Maybe Stage 2 won’t be fighting animae like Stage 1. Probably not, but a man can dream.

Man, I wish someone could explain all this stuff to me.

I closed my eyes and laid down, slowly drifting into a nervous nap.

***

“Kai!” I heard my mother yell. “Get up!”

“I’ll get up later mom… School can wait…” I mumbled.

“Kai!” My mom yelled much more forcefully, even shaking me. My eyelids burst open.

“I told yo-oh. Sorry.”

“No worries,” It was Richie, “Never had anyone call me mom before.” She smiled teasingly.

I flustered a bit and stood up. “What’s going on?”

“Stage 2 is starting” John stated.

“Oh, gotcha.” I pulled out my shield from my inventory. “Let’s do this.”

I watched the counter slowly reach zero, and a new screen appeared.

Stage 2 has now begun.

Stage 2 || Act 1

Domes have been uplifted. Loot has been placed. Animae will spawn.

Survive for three hours.

Reward: Increased access to Systema, First Class Choice.

Penalty: Death

A white light appeared all around us. It stopped almost instantaneously. When we opened our eyes, there were more creatures in front of us. Two large beasts that had slytherine-shaped bodies with massive fangs and five more dog-bats came charging towards us.

“We’ve beat them once, we can beat them again,” John yelled. “Get ready!”

I was in the front again.

What did I do to deserve this?