Ray found himself alone in a bright white room. It looked like it went on forever, but he knew it didn’t because he could feel the walls and had already done a lap looking for clues. The room felt square. It took him 5 minutes to walk along an entire wall. About 30 minutes after he arrived in the room, an androgynous, generic looking human appeared in front of him.

“Here you will discover the basics required for survival in The Game. There will be 5 challenges of ascending difficulty that you must complete to enter the tutorial. Challenge 1 starts in 30 seconds. You will be required to fight and kill a Giant Rat. Please choose your weapon.”

When the androgynous human said to choose a weapon, weapons formed around Ray. The one in front of him was a sword. He swiped the sword to the left and another weapon took its place. This one was a club. He once again swiped the club away and continued to swipe the weapons away until he arrived back to the sword. The six weapons he saw were a sword, a club, a bow, a dagger, a staff, and a wand.

“You have 15 seconds remaining until the challenge begins.”

Ray didn’t know how to use any of the weapons. He’d never been in a fight before. He continued to debate on which he should choose until the androgynous human said, “5 seconds remain.”

He panicked and finally decided on the club. It probably wouldn’t require a lot of technique. Just hit the enemy hard enough until they die. 3 seconds after he made his decision a Giant Rat appeared 15 feet away from him. He knew it was supposed to be giant, but it was bigger than he had imagined. The rat was the size of a golden retriever from Earth.

The rat sniffed the air and charged at Ray. It was all happened so fast. He panicked and swung his club straight down over his head like he was chopping wood. The rat dodged to the side making his swing miss. Now the rat was right up on him. The rat jumped up and Ray protected his face with his right arm which held the club. The rat’s teeth dug into his arm. His hand released its hold on the weapon, and he was pulled to the ground. He fell on top of the rat which released his arm and squeaked. Now that he was on the ground, he would be extra vulnerable to the rat’s assault. Ray planned while using his weight to hold down the rat. He managed to pull himself up to clamp his legs around the rat to continue holding it down. Once he got a good hold of it, he started punching it in the face. He punched until his fists were bloody. He didn’t know if it was his or the rat’s, but he guessed it was probably both. The rat wiggled away from him and lunged. Ray dodged to the side and grabbed his dropped club. The rat was charging at him again, so he swung the club like a bat and nailed the rat in the head making blood explode out the other side.

Ray sprawled out on the bloody floor. The androgynous person appeared again, and the dead rat disappeared along with all the blood. His bloody fists were also cleaned and healed.

“You have been completely healed and awarded 1 coin. The next challenge will be a pack of 3 Giant Rats. Prepare yourself. The challenge begins in 10 seconds.”

Ray pulled himself to his feet, his exhaustion gone after the healing. This round he would be prepared for the challenge. He lowered his center of gravity and raised his club. A few seconds later the rats appeared in front of him. The rats came at him at Ray went with another baseball swing and hit the right rat in its torso, throwing it into the middle one, leaving only the left rat as an immediate danger. It jumped up at him, so he twisted his body and leaned back so it flew by him. The other rats had recovered and were coming at him again. The middle rat jumped at him while the right one went for his legs. Ray dove to the side, rolled to his feet, and turned to face the rat. The left rat had lunged at him from behind and ran into the middle rat in the air. He didn’t want to mis this opportunity so swung at the left rat and managed to crush its skull. The right rat had started biting his leg as he was attacking. He kicked as hard as he could. He managed to get it off, but it took a chunk of leg with it. He wasn’t injured enough to be a worried yet. Now that he had space from the right rat he turned to deal with the middle rat. It still hadn’t gotten up so he swung his club at its back legs shattering them and making sure it wouldn’t be a threat. He then turned and ran a few feet away to create space for his final showdown with the right rat. It followed and jumped at him when he turned. He didn’t have much time to react and just punched out with his left hand. He managed to punch into the rat’s open mouth. He dropped his club, grasped its tongue with his left hand, and pulled with his left hand while pushing it off him with his right. He ripped it’s tongue out and threw it away. Ray stomped on the tongueless rat’s head, killing it. He picked up his club and walked over to the crippled rat and smashed its head with his club.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The androgynous human appeared again, and all the corpses and gore disappeared.

“You have been completely healed and awarded 3 coins. The next challenge will be a goblin. Prepare yourself. The challenge begins in 10 seconds.”

Ray was ready. He knew what to expect with a goblin. It was a weird little green humanoid monster. It would be more intelligent than the rats but only barely. The goblin would have a weaker body though. 10 seconds passed and the goblin appeared. It was carrying a rusty dagger that looked more like a short sword compared to its small size. It never even got the chance to use its weapon because Ray took the initiative this round and charged to goblin before it could adjust to its surroundings. He swung his club and hit it in its side. It fell to the side a few feet away, so he walked over and ended the fight with a swing to its head.

“You have been completely healed and awarded 3 coins. The next challenge will be 3 goblins.3 Prepare yourself. The challenge begins in 10 seconds.”

10 seconds later 3 goblins appeared. Two had daggers and the third had a bow. Ray knew the bow wielder would be the biggest threat because it could harass him as he dealt with the others, so he ran at the bow goblin and kicked its knee, snapping it backwards. He then clubbed its head, killing it. The last two fell quickly after that. Ray could keep them at a distance with his greater reach and if they ever got close, he could simply overpower them.

“You have been completely healed and awarded 10 coins. The next challenge will be a hobgoblin. Prepare yourself. The challenge begins in 10 seconds.”

A hobgoblin would be much more difficult than a regular goblin. They were the goblin leaders. It would be almost as large as he was while being stronger and smarter and the goblins he had just fought. The hob appeared wearing leather armor and wielding a higher quality sword than the goblins had. He charged it and swung his club. It caught the blow using its sword and punched Ray in the stomach. He folded over and the hob kicked him away. The hob walked over to his body and swung its sword, “Die.”

Ray saw the sword coming for his neck and raised his arms to protect himself. The sword cut off his left hand before being stopped by his right arm. He was shocked by his empty left arm but not shocked enough to wait for the hob to take another swing. He scrambled to his feet and ran behind the hob to jump on its back. It fell forward due to his weight. Ray wrapped his left arm around its neck and bound it with his legs before flipping over and choking it until the resistance stopped. He continued to choke it until the androgynous human appeared and the hob disappeared. His hand started to regrow. It didn’t hurt but it itched like the time he broke his arm and needed a cast.

“You have been completely healed and awarded 13 coins. Congratulations. You have completed all the challenges. You are now qualified to join the tutorial. Enter this runic circle and you will join the others who have completed their challenges.”

A circle of orange runes appeared off to the side. Ray didn’t want to move yet. He just lay where he was when the hob was taken away. He continued to lay there until the human said, “This room will be destroyed in 1 minute. I recommend leaving before then.”

Ray obviously didn’t want to be destroyed after he had just fought for his life, so he stood and walked over to the circle. When he stood in the center he was taken to the tutorial.