Sasha

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[Endurance aptitude test initiating]

[Quest (scaling difficulty) - run: run or die]

[Rewards for completion - increase in endurance based on distance]

I blink as a light moan leaves my lips. Damn, that light is bright. My back hurts. Wait, run? Run, from what?

My eyes bolt open as I hear a high pitched screeching. Ignoring the pain in my back, I scramble to my feet and find myself staring at a green dwarf. Goblin. We stare at each other for a moment like deer in headlights before it screeches at its kin and charges toward me.

I reach for my dagger, to find nothing is there. No dagger, no pack, not even my pocket watch. The damn system stripped me of my belongings!

Without a weapon or anything to defend myself with, my only option is to, as the system wants, run. Run, or die.

In response to the goblins’ charge at me, I charge in the opposite direction. The goblins, for their part, are slow. I have height on them for one, and I have the feeling I can move my legs faster than the clumsy buffoons.

That doesn’t mean I can slack off, though, as more goblins flood in through the side passages.

I take a deep breath as I take note of my surroundings. The cave is still a cave, though it is no longer as wide as before. Now, the walls restrict movement to the sides while ensuring the goblins can’t just head around me and cut me off. But that also means, if I let any of them past me, I will have a hell of a time avoiding their attacks.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I look behind me for just a moment, noting the dozens of goblins furiously charging behind me. As I turn my head back forward, a larger goblinoid steps out of a passage. What I note as a hobgoblin starts racing toward me. I duck under its arms, and continue past it. Behind me, I hear multiple more hobgoblins bellow at me. Looking back, I see them increasing pace. Their height gives them the same advantage as mine gives me over the goblins. They run fast.

As the hobgoblins close the distance I set, I increase speed in proportion. Bile raises in the back of my throat at the exertion. My mouth, dry from the panting. I squint my eyes as my jogging turns into sprinting. How long can I hold this up? How long does the system expect me to hold this up?

As though the system is reading my mind, the quest panel from before pops up.

[Quest (scaling difficulty) - run: run or die]

[Rewards for completion - increase in endurance based on distance]

Oh, so just run. Or die. Helpful. Soooo helpful. I transition into coming up with a plan.

A cough escapes my lips. I can’t hold this pace forever.

The goblins and company are entering through the side passages. Maybe I could use one of those? That might work, but there are the goblins entering from them to consider.

It is a risk, for sure. I don’t even have a clue where they might lead. Perhaps I would only find myself in a full on goblin camp. Or maybe I would find myself at a dead end. But I’m dead anyway if I don’t try.

With the goblins closing in on me, I double my pace for a moment, rapidly gaining distance, before veering off into one of the first side passages I see. A goblin startles at my popping in out of nowhere, and I shove them into the wall, slipping past their confused state.

I hear a shriek as the goblin gets trampled by the countless other goblins behind me. One trips on it, causing something of a backwards domino effect as the goblins behind it just trip on it, and themselves in succession. Before long, I leave behind a dog pile of goblins, struggling to move in the massive tangle.

I run for a few minutes more before leaning against the wall, coughing up phlegm from the exertion. I slide down the wall, and rest for a moment.

[Quest (scaling difficulty) - run completed]

[Rewards being calculated]

[Distance covered calculating]

[…]

[Distance covered - 9325.43 meters]

[Rewards for distance covered - endurance aptitude increased to 7]

My mind barely registers the information as it begins to shut down from exhaustion. Sleep takes me soon after. A deep, dreamless sort of sleep.