[Welcome to the system]

When Ben came to his senses, he couldn't move a muscle. He couldn't even aim his eyes at the chairs that were probably falling from his hands right now. The only thing he could focus on was this weird panel in front of his face that welcomed him to the system.

Loud rumblings could be heard in the background. 'What is going on?!' Ben thought.

Ben's line of thought was interrupted by a lightheaded feeling in his head. Almost like his brain tried to go somewhere else. It didn't hurt, but it was strangely uncomfortable. The feeling became stronger and stronger by the minute when a bright flash blinded his sight.

Once Ben got back to his senses again, the bright flash was replaced by an 'empty plane’. There was no other way to describe it. At a glance, the space looked completely white as far as he could see. It felt abnormal, though. It was almost like the ‘whiteness’ was glowing.

It was as if he was sensing something he had never sensed before. Like he had been exposed to a sixth sense he had never been aware of. If Ben actually believed in the supernatural, he'd think he was an Esper.

After a while, Ben noticed he could move again and put his hands in his hair. 'Where am I? What is happening right now? Where are Nathan and Kara?'.

All kinds of questions were lined up in Ben’s mind, but there were none that he could answer. And no one that would answer them for him.

Ben's rumination was interrupted by clacking sounds of metal clashing and the distinct rhythmic sound of gears turning. Ben looked at the source of the sound and saw rows upon rows of weapons magically appearing and flying over to him.

The flying armory was lined up with uncountable types of weapons. If there was a regular sword, there were thousands of specific variations he had never seen or heard about. If there was a whip, there were thousands of alternatives.

The rows of weapons kept charging him at a speed any sports-car manufacturer would be jealous of. Ben started getting worried it might hit him. 'Could he dodge it?' Ben thought as he dove at the last second to dodge the plow of the flying armory.

However, the armory stopped about 30 feet in front of him. Ben looked at the armory from the ground and started blushing. 'Luckily no one saw that.' Ben thought as he got up from the ground and scratched the back of his head.

[Pick a weapon and survive]

''Wait... what?'' Ben said.

No one answered him, though. The only answer was this weird notification in front of him. Ben reached his finger closer and closer to the notification and noticed he could swipe it all over his point of view. He could even minimize it.

'Did I transport inside of my phone or something?' Ben mumbled to himself.

Ben raised his arm and stomped the notification as hard as he could. And then he kicked it. He brutalized the notification with everything he could. 'First I get paired up with Nathan and now this shit happens.' He unleashed all his pent-up frustrations from the last six months on this inanimate notification.

Ben raised his chin and pointed his nose at the white ceiling, if it even was a ceiling, and took a deep breath. 'Pick a weapon and survive, huh.'

Ben made up his mind there and then. He didn't know if what was happening was real. But if it was, he'd better make the most of it.

If this was fake and some criminal had drugged his tea, he would probably wake up somewhere. Maybe as a hostage or as a sex slave, or maybe in his bed if it was just a bad dream. For a moment he wished he wasn’t paired up with Nathan.

However, if in the slight chance this place was real he'd better step up to the plate. This notification seemed eerie enough, and it seemed to imply his life was at stake.

It felt like someone was listening in on Ben's thoughts because at that exact moment a notification popped up.

[4:59]

Ben laughed, almost out of spite. It was a timer. It looked like the one doing this to him, wasn't giving him much time to think.

'Just 5 minutes, huh' Ben thought.

Ben locked his gaze back on the armory. Ben didn't have any experience in fighting whatsoever, not to mention fighting with weapons. He would look for a gun, but it seemed like the only weapons available were medieval ones.

'Swords are good right?' Ben thought as he tried to recall all the movies about ancient Rome he had seen. He shook his head as the thought of a spear piercing his stomach crossed his mind.

'That's what I need' Ben thought.

If he was to fight anything, or anyone for that matter, using a spear would be best. It didn't require as much skill as a sword as he just had to focus on stabbing as hard as he could. And it had the range advantage over most weapons not called a bow and arrow.

Ben walked along the rows of weapons and stopped at the spears. He picked up a regular spear and tried it out. The spear almost fell out of his hand as he tried to take a stance. It was heavy. 'This is harder than I thought.' Ben thought.

Ben put the spear back and grabbed a different spear with a weirdly long tip. It almost couldn't be called a tip anymore. This was like someone attached a scimitar to a wooden stick. 'A halberd.' Ben thought.

Spears were great in their simplicity, but less versatile. He didn't know what he would face after leaving this place, so the halberd might be the better choice. He would keep his range advantage and have more attacking options than a regular spear.

He picked the 8 feet monstrosity up and noticed it was even heavier than the previous spear.

'I'll get used to it.' Ben thought.

The timer still had over 30 seconds left, but it seemed the being controlling this place had decided that he had picked his weapon. The being was right, though.

This really made Ben wonder what this being could see, and what it could do. There was no more time for Ben to think as the same flash as before spread in front of him and revealed a place where he had just been, room 3.

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Ben turned around and found Nathan and Kara beyond the three chairs that had just fallen on the floor. Kara was as pale a sheet, while Nathan's face was beaming somehow. Looks like they had also decided on their weapons. Kara had a bow and arrow, whereas Nathan had a mace and shield.

Ben looked back at his halberd. He noticed the halberd was obnoxiously big for the room they were in. It could almost touch the ceiling when placed on the floor. He thought he'd better be careful when fighting in this cramped room. At least, for the halberd, it looked cramped. Anyway, he'd better make the most of it.

''Guys, did that just happen?'' Ben asked.

He didn't even have to explain what 'that' meant as Kara just replied by nodding. It didn't look like Kara knew what this was all supposed to mean. How could they?

''Judgment day has come!'' Nathan shouted as he brandished his mace up in a stance. 'It looks like he has found his answer to what this all means' Ben inwardly groaned.

''Okay, Nathan, very cool,'' Ben said.

Nathan looked back at him and clicked at him.

''How would someone like you understand. There's nothing else that this could mean. This is judgment day, and heretics like you will feel it! I'm actually quite surprised you were even given a weapon. Not that it matters, I bet your status is shit.'' Nathan said with the utmost sincerity.

''Status?'' Ben said, clearly puzzled.

''He didn't even tell you about your status? I don't think there's any more proof needed your judgment day has come'' Nathan scowled.

'A status... as in… a Facebook status?'. Ben intuitively commanded 'Status' to himself and a screen popped up.

Name: Benjamin Neilson

Level: 1

Class: None

Titles: None

Constitution: Normal

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 12

Vitality: 9

Endurance: 9

Perception: 11

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Will: 14

SP (+): 5

Wealth: 0

'What is all this? Levels? Strength? Dexterity? Intelligence? Like a game?'. If it really was like a game, the stats should be self-explanatory.

Strength should make him stronger, while Dexterity should make him more skillful and agile in his movements. Then Vitality should be related to how strong his life force is and Endurance how well he could take a hit. Whereas Perception was self-evident.

Intelligence and Wisdom were what worried him though. 'Does this mean... we can use magic?' Ben thought.

If what Ben was thinking was right, this status screen suggested that magic existed in this world. Thinking back to that strange white room and the endless rows on rows of weaponry, this status screen suddenly was a lot easier to accept.

The last stat puzzled Ben. The Will stat somehow felt off to him. Intuitively, Will was connected to one's willpower. However, if that were to be true, how come Will was his highest stat. He wasn't proud of it, but he wasn't particularly known for persevering where others quit. Hell, he came to this god-forsaken camp exactly because he was about to quit looking for another job. So it had to be something else.

Will also sounded very arbitrary. And what would high willpower even be good for anyway, past a certain point? There had to be something more about this stat.

'And then you have the SP sta-' Ben thought as he was interrupted.

''AWOOOOOOOOOO''

Group 3 froze. Ben's line of thought was interrupted by a thunderous howl echoing through the halls of the monastery. It left them unable to move, standing frozen on their spot.

''What in the f-...'' Kara corrected herself. ''What was that?!''

''My body just froze,'' Ben said in horror. ''How could a howl just make us freeze like that?!''

''I have a bad feeling about this,'' Kara said. She could hear frantic sounds of screaming, far in the background.

''I don't know what's going on right now, but we have to get to dad. ASAP! He knows this place best.'' Kara said as she put her hand on Ben's shoulder.

''It'll be okay, Ben,'' Kara said.

Ben nodded. It looked like he was more rattled than he thought he was.

''It won't. Not for him at least.'' Nathan said.

Kara walked up to Nathan and hit him on his shoulder

''Ouch, Kara! What was that for?!'' Nathan said.

''Cut the bullshit Nate, we need to stick together and find dad right now. I don't know what's going on, but it's not good.'' Kara said, still hearing those screams in the background.

''It'll be fine Kara,'' Nathan said as he walked to the door and reached for the handle. ''The long-awaited judgment day has come and we're foll-''

The hinges of the door suddenly gave in revealing a gigantic wolf. It pounced on Nathan and planted its fangs in Nathan's shoulder as blood started seeping through from underneath Nathan's sweater.

''AAAAAHH!!!'' Nathan screamed.

He started flailing his arms around him in the hopes of freeing himself of the wolf, but the wolf wouldn't let go.

SWISH

An arrow hit the wolf right under its shoulder blade.

Ben looked at the arrow's target and was shocked. The arrow seemed to have quite a bit of power in it, but it only pierced the skin before it fell to the floor. It stopped in its tracks before it was able to go deep into the muscles.

The arrow nonetheless surprised the wolf as it released Nathan. Nathan was hysteric as he tried to stumble away. But the wolf, more confident since the arrows didn't harm him, jumped him again.

Ben leaped at Nathan and pushed him out of the wolf's reach as they rolled on the floor. He heard whimpers in the background as Kara must have hit it with an arrow again. Ben and Nathan took this chance to grab their weapons and regroup at Kara's.

Ben took a good look at this wolf. The wolf was far bigger than any wolf he had seen in his life. Ben had seen wolves before, but never had they been even close to this size. This particular wolf was at least 5 feet in height and was about 12 feet long. He bet most tigers wouldn't even be that humongous. Luckily, an arrow was sticking out from its hind leg.

Ben looked at Kara standing in a shooting stance. Fortunately, Kara chose the bow and arrow. They were quite far away, and it looked like the damage Nathan took was limited.

Not to mention the quick reaction of Kara. Ben was rooted at his place, he had still been processing what was happening when Kara already armed herself with her bow. Ready to shoot. This gave him the chance to save Nathan.

Looking at Nathan, it was very clear what was at stake right now. It almost looked like he was in shock.

If they didn't fight they'd die. If they fought, they had a chance to make it out alive. Ben grabbed his halberd and took a stance.

He carefully walked closer and closer to the wolf, as the wolf peered back at him. The first to run out of patience was the wolf. It jumped at Ben, as he thrust his halberd forward. When the halberd touched the wolf, he noticed he couldn't pierce its skin. With the wolf still in flight, Ben dropped down and stepped to the side.

The wolf slid down the other side of the room when Kara released another arrow.

SWISH

Ben looked at the wolf as it cried in agony. The arrow had pierced its eye.

The wolf tried to touch the arrow stuck in its eye, but it only hurt itself. Now blinded, the wolf suddenly didn't look as big anymore. They had a chance.

The wolf seemed to realize it wasn't in the best position, as it started slowly backing away. Once it was close to the door, it tried to pounce out of the door.

SWISH

The wolf had to dodge backward as an arrow blocked his escape.

''Ben!'' Kara shouted.

Ben used this moment to charge the wolf and stab it in the side. Ben inwardly groaned, 'Not good enough'. He hadn't been able to pierce its skin, again! Ben was a little wonky on his feet, but the wolf didn't take advantage of this opportunity, because it was too wary of Kara's arrows.

Steadying his stance, Ben took a step forward and put his full weight into his next stab.

The wolf, expecting this, pounced on Ben out of self-defense and took a swipe at him.

Luckily, the wolf misjudged the distance and landed two feet short of Ben. The wolf, still recovering from its leap, looked at Ben like a child with his hand stuck in a cooky jar. Before it could do anything else, a halberd was already flying at him.

Ben pivoted his body and put all his weight into this stab, aiming at the wolf's face. The wolf dodged Ben's stab when another arrow flew into its hind leg. This time, it did puncture his muscle! Ben took this chance to take another stab at the wolf.

Ben hit its other eye leaving the wolf blind. It started swiping around itself in a frenzy, but they just took their distance. With the wolf blind and its leg crippled, it felt like a done deal.

Looking at the wolf, Ben was harshly reminded of the cruelty of this world. For a moment, he actually felt sorry for the wolf. He didn't know how the wolf had come here, or even why it had come here. But he knew it had to die.

Knowing this was a done deal, Ben walked up to his victim and stabbed the wolf until it died.

[Congratulation! You have slain a Lv.3 Mimic Wolf!]

[Congratulations! You leveled up!]

[You gained 3 bronze coins]