Shit.

It raised its club and charged towards me with reckless abandon, all while screaming its lungs out and lashing its tongue on its way to slam my head away. This wasn’t the first time I’d ever been in a life-or-death fight; Yet, my stiffened limbs implied that I needed more time to acclimate myself to this tense scenario.

Well, years of sedentary life would dull my senses, regardless of where I came from.

But in the end, my instincts won, blaring danger as its club was about to smash my head in. It wasn’t fast, I knew that. Yet, my panic hampered my reflexes and actions to a noticeable degree.

With a loud cry, I delivered a punch toward its head to push it off me. A light smack was heard when my fist made contact as its head recoiled back, however, it wasn’t nearly enough to deal any significant damage.

I stepped back, preparing for its next move, all while chanting the same three words in my head.

Stay fucking calm…

The goblin shook my punch off and resumed its attacks. Again, it wasn’t fast, nor was it clever, so avoiding its predictable rampage wasn’t a difficult task. Although I couldn’t return any worthwhile damage with the way my body was, so, I resorted to the next best course of action; Wait it out until it was exhausted.

The Goblin wasn’t happy that it kept missing me, opting to double down on its rampage instead, hoping that I’d get caught in one of its frantic swings. And yet, as each of its brutal swings curled nothing but the air, its pace slowed down as it displayed signs of fatigue, and me, unscathed.

Sensing the opportunity, I charged; outputting as much force as I could and pushing it down. The shock caused it to drop its club as it bounced on the floor away from us while I drew my right arm high, delivering a blow with my right elbow straight at the goblin’s head, using my body weight to amplify the amount of force I could generate.

Crack!

I felt bones breaking beneath me. For a moment there, I thought what broke was my arm, but shrugged that thought away since it lacked the pain that usually came along with it. The goblin struggled to get me off its chest with all of its limbs, but it didn’t have enough strength or stamina to do so.

As I pinned the goblin down, my eyes searched the platform to locate its lost club. It wasn’t that far from where I was, partially hidden by the fog. I can reach it… I just need some time.

I bit the bullet and got off its chest, running in desperation as I clutched its club in my arms.

The goblin wasn’t dead yet. As I turned around, I noticed that the goblin was clutching its bloodied face all while crying out its anguish. The previous facial features it had were caved in by my elbow, turning what was already an ugly face into a grotesque horror.

It’s just a monster, right?

Gripping the club and lifting it high with both of my arms, I grimaced as I swung it down as hard as I could.

[You passed the first test. One attribute point will be rewarded upon the test’s completion.]

W.. What? Attribute point?

In between my bouts of heavy breathing; Despite how many times I inquired about the Attribute point, the screen never showed any additional information. In stories that were typical of this nature, I expected that I would be granted access to my status page; but after seconds of nothing happening, it became clear that nothing of that sort would happen inside this aptitude test.

[10 points added to your total score.]

Let’s shelf the attribute thing for now, and focus on surviving.

The corpse of the goblin vanished right after I was awarded the points, but its club remained in my hand. I suppose a little bit of victory was nice, but I was still stuck in this bloodbath of a test.

[Next stage will begin in 5 minutes.]

There was no point in mulling over things that I couldn’t do anything about. I elected to sit on the field, allowing myself to relax while waiting for the time to count down.

The goblin fight was unexpected for sure, but all in all, it was more than manageable with patience; Most adult humans would be able to kill it with little difficulty. The biggest hurdle wasn’t the goblin itself, it was one’s capacity of breaking past the wall of murdering other things. From my stint in the war, killing wasn’t an act that I was averse to, but I wasn’t proud of it either.

While I wasn’t as fit like I had once been, I still retained the muscle memory to perform the most basic type of combative actions—thanks to my basic army training. Regardless, I should work on getting this belly out of the way as soon as I could, rolling around wouldn’t be as easy when a gut was in my way.

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One could say that my biggest asset was my experience with surviving, but even that itself had its limits.

[The next stage begins.]

Shit, I lost track of time.

[Wave 2: Ivory tusk]

Another creature appeared within the fog, this time, instead of the bipedal and weak goblin, It was a silhouette of a four-legged monster of an animal instead.

[Lvl 2. Ivory Tusk]

The moment its eyes met mine — Without any warning — it bolted at me with all of its strength, piercing the fog along its path. The burst of pure unadulterated fury caught me off-guard; Both of its tusks almost scraped my thigh as I avoided its charge by the skin of my teeth.

I fell and barreled toward the side with the club intact in my hand, thankfully. From its charge alone I knew that it possessed an enormous amount of strength and endurance, compounded by its massive size and imposing white tusks. However, since its primary attack was its rather obvious charge, it was, again, predictable.

And predictable is good.

I gripped the club tight as I swerved away from its attacks. No amount of swinging and bludgeoning would do meaningful damage to it, so I needed to come up with a better strategy.

My first idea was to tire it out, like what I did with the goblin. Other than that…

Well, that is my only idea, really. What else can I do here?

The dance of charges and dodges continued for some time before I noticed changes in the boar’s relentless behavior; The ferocity of its charges went down a few notches as I watched it struggle to breathe and its legs shivered every time it ended its charge.

If I wanted to strike, now would be the best time. However, I doubted that my club would do any significant damage to this wall of a creature, considering its build and size.

Perhaps its eyes?

I couldn’t afford to spend ten years planning what to do, or what steps to take. I needed to take action now.

As it turned around, I ran towards its position while raising my club high. Its eyes widened in surprise as it struggled to react in time.

Avoid its tusks…

Since both of its tusks were protruding to the side, the trajectory of my swing must be vertical. I had no confidence in breaking past its sturdy tusks with what little strength I possessed.

Thunk!

My swing connected and I felt solid feedback on my wrists. The boar shuddered from the impact, but it didn’t budge and remained locked on its feet. Not good enough. Using the other end of my club, I hammered it straight on its right eye. I felt warm blood splattering all over my arm as my jab landed, with the beast recoiled in pain, stumbling backward while staring at me with its hate-filled eyes. That one stung, for sure. But-

It happened instantly.

The next thing I knew, I was sent flying away from the floor along with its entire torso, tumbling down on the ground as its momentum ended. I didn’t have the distance that I used to, and its assault took me completely by surprise. You’d think that it would cower from my successful attack, but that wasn’t what happened.

The boar lifted its body high in an attempt to stomp me down with its body weight; A terrifying sight to see, but I was still conscious, thankfully, and I rolled away right as the ground quaked from the impact.

*Cough* Fuck… That hurt.

Red blood was splattered all over the floor below me. At first, I thought the blood came from the beast’s wounded eye, but no, it came from my stomach through my mouth. I couldn’t help but grimace at the sight of my condition.

At least we’re both wounded. Do I have a chance?

The insides of my abdomen were throbbing in pain when I forced myself up. The boar didn’t resume its attack from the combination of its wounds and lack of stamina, and I knew that it was struggling to even stand up straight at this moment.

But its eyes - or should I say its only eye - remained alive. And as long as it remained that way, the fight wasn’t over.

Another similar blow to its other eye should seal the deal. The question is, now that it is aware of my intentions, can I do it again?

On top of that, I couldn’t move as well as I did before. This wound on my stomach was not something I could shrug off.

No use overthinking it.

I ran toward it again with the same motion as the last, and the boar seemed to have seen this coming. It readied its tusks to parry my blow, but I was aware of its intentions.

Switching my grip, I aimed diagonally to avoid its bent tusks. The trajectory of my swing avoided those obstacles and led to my club slamming against its other eye, resulting in another splat of blood; The confirmation I needed to ensure that I’d smashed the right target.

The boar recoiled far backward, almost somersaulting in the air, and dropped on the floor on its back. Its lower, weaker jaw was open for business, and with its blindness, I was able to relocate myself to where its head lay and bludgeoned its lower jaw with all of what was left inside of me.

A few minutes of unrelenting bludgeoning later, what was left of the scene was a bloody, exhausted man with a boar with an eviscerated lower jaw.

[You passed the second test. One attribute point will be rewarded upon the test’s completion.]

Another attribute point?

[20 points added to your total score.]

[Total score is 30.]

[The next stage will begin in 10 minutes.]

I collapsed from the exertion, heaving on the floor as the corpse of the boar dissipated. The second fight was a major step up in difficulty, and any sane person would assume that the next one would be the same too.

The blood that I coughed out was a clear sign that I was underestimating the threat of the boar in that fight. There was a possibility that a combination of my stomach, lungs, or throat was eviscerated internally by the charge. It wasn’t fatal, at least, not yet.

In any case, if a tougher enemy shows up, that will be the end of me.

The club was shattered into pieces from the rapid smashes I gave to the boar, leaving the handle intact. To be frank, the fact that the club lasted as long as it did was already a delightful surprise.

But that didn’t change the fact that I lost my only weapon.

As I waited, I watched the surface of the floor as it extended far out into the fog.

How far exactly does this piece of land reach? Is there a hole at the end? So many questions, and so little time.

To test my theory, I picked a direction and walked as far as I could. It took me a few minutes for me to reach some sort of an invisible wall at the edge of the platform; meaning that my idea to bait the boar to fall wouldn’t work, but I could use this invisible wall for something else.

[The next stage will begin in 1 minute.]