With the new knowledge of the arena, I elected to stay at the edge of the platform. There was a small chance that I could use the wall as a way to recoil attacks like the boar’s charge; With its gargantuan momentum, I bet hitting the wall would cause significant damage to itself.

I know… this wasn’t an elegant solution, but what other choice did I have? Other than my shattered club, the only other tool I had was this wall.

[The next stage begins.]

[Wave 3: Goblin Nightblade.]

Nightblade? Sounds… stealthy.

Was I facing the prospect of an invisible enemy? As if spotting enemies in fog weren’t hard enough, now, I was expected to locate and react to an invisible monster. I drew in as much air as I could and attempted to calm my nerves. Half of me expected a massive creature to swipe my face off in a second, but...

There was nothing.

Nothing spawned in front of me, like how the previous two were. Was it due to the distance I made from walking way off from the center? Or-

I noticed a glimmer of its feet before I felt a cold steel ravaging my insides.

Stab.

Its blade made its way through my already injured abdomen. I couldn’t even sense it before I felt the pain surging from the hole that was made in my stomach, and by then, it was already too late.

My vision flooded scarlet. “Kgghhhaa!!”

The agony keeled me over as the assailant revealed its figure. Like a cloak being pulled away from its body, parts of the invisible enemy exposed themselves, forming the figure of a lanky, tall goblin.

[Lvl 3. Goblin Nightblade]

It grinned.

It was too sudden. I didn’t have time to react. I didn’t even sense that it was coming. There was no noise. There was no sound of footsteps audible from its approach.

As I knelt on the floor, clutching my eviscerated stomach, I noticed the glint on the goblin’s snout.

He is smiling.

It drew its arm back, pulling away the dagger that was stuck in my stomach. Its glare tilted upward, a clear indicator of where it was about to stab me next. The pain of having my insides pulled out by the crude edge was… exquisite; Every single millimeter of its blade was felt while it dragged the contents of my stomach with it.

While its invisibility was outstanding, it wasn’t much faster nor was it any stronger than the first goblin I’d met.

What it had… was just a gimmick.

I can’t die of a fucking gimmick.

With my adrenaline coursing at an all-time high, the time appeared to have slowed down. The stab wound was a massive timer of how much time I had left before I’d die of blood loss, so I had to come up with something, anything.

I almost snapped my neck as I dodged its next stab, and from the familiarity I had with the first goblin, I knew that we possessed similar strength. And also…

There is a wall behind me.

A loud clank resounded; the result of its steel colliding against the invisible wall. Its eyes widened as it lost the grip of its dagger from the recoil, to which the dagger bounced off the top of my head and then flailed on the ground, inching ever so slightly away from us. Both of our arms raced to reach the dagger, but since I was kneeling, I was already ahead in that race from the get-go.

Clutching the dagger, I barreled to the sides and then stood up. The pain in my stomach was excruciating, but the adrenaline had dulled my pain receptors enough that I wasn’t paralyzed with pain. My vision went red as I bored a hole through its head with my stare.

All of my focus right now was on the confused goblin ahead of me.

I couldn’t afford to lose vision on the goblin again, so I did what I thought was the best move; running and pinning it down as swiftly as I could. It screamed and panicked when it noticed my rushing figure, stumbling on the floor as I crashed upon it with all of my body weight.

My focus was directed at its stomach. Its scowl told me that it knew what I was going for, and used both of its arms to shield my attack. But that wasn’t what I was planning. All I had to do was switch the direction of my stab a few degrees upwards.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With its upper torso free of obstacles, the dagger made short work of its neck. Blood poured from the hole I just made and flowed from the surface of my wrists to the bottom of my feet. My face was drowned with its radiant red liquid, but that fact didn’t register in my head for a single second.

I cried as I drew the dagger off its neck and performed multiple rapid jabs on its head. I didn’t even recognize what was what anymore at this point. All I wanted was its death.

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

[20 points added to your total score.]

[Total score is 50.]

I rolled off its vanishing corpse and rested on the floor, heaving.

Yeah, I killed it, but the wounds accumulated on my body were 100% fatal. The sheer blood loss alone was enough to kill me, let alone the ravaged contents of my abdomen.

My vision faded. It started from the corners of my eyes, then dispersed and extended towards the middle. Afterward, my breathing relaxed. It was evident that my body knew what was going on and accepted its death.

At least… At least I passed the damned test. Right?

[You reached the first checkpoint. Health and Mana restored.]

[Error: Conflict detected with The Trial’s healing protocol. Prioritizing healing.]

Wh-What?

A massive surge of vigor rushed all over my body as my vision blared white. All the agony and exhaustion were eliminated in an instant, right before I found myself on the same platform again, with all of my clothes and body stitched back to perfection. The dagger from the goblin was still intact in my hand, which I was relieved to see as I got up.

[Do you wish to continue the test? Doing so will earn you more points. The top 10 highest scorers will be granted a special reward.]

[Accept] [Return]

[You need more than 50 points to be eligible for the reward.]

[You have 5 minutes before we return you to the Trial nexus.]

There is more? I mean, isn’t this more than enough already?

I had no delusion of achieving a higher-than-average score, so to be honest, I didn’t see any reason why I would want to continue. After all, I’d be risking my own life for minuscule gains. When all was said and done, I passed the damned test.

And yet… To say that I didn’t want that spotlight of excellence would be a complete lie too.

I’d guarantee my safety if I returned, but from the way this whole trial was set up, I needed to secure a strong start for whatever it was that would come next. The Observer hinted that there would be a Trial that we needed to clear after this test was over, and it would be silly to assume that the Trial would be anything easier than these tests.

In any case, if this test was any indicator of what was coming ahead, I needed to be strong — no, a lot stronger — And to do so, I had to take risks. Risks that might cost me my life if I failed, risks that only a few extraordinary people faced daily.

Risks that I never bothered to take before.

And yeah, obviously, I’d be lying if I said I was excited with continuing this test. The pain from the charge and the stab in my abdomen lingered even after my wounds were healed. It was as if the damages I’d taken were still there, throbbing every once in a while or so.

[You have 30 seconds before we return you to the Trial nexus.]

My indecision froze me while I watched the timer ticked down. Surviving for this long was already a difficult ordeal, but otherwise excelling in an uncertain, unknown future was even more so. I could give up now, and forever live cowering behind the comfortable lies I uttered during my sleep. I really could. But if I chose to give up now, I’d never be able to leave this hole that I dug for myself. I’d always be the nobody I’d always been.

[You have 10 seconds before we return you to the Trial nexus.]

My eyes rested on the return button. All I had to do was select that option. And yet, during the last possible second, right after I shut my eyes, the other decision was made.

[You have chosen to continue. You will be granted the option of selecting one weapon to use for the upcoming test.]

A set of holographic objects appeared in my vision. They are… weapons?

[Select one of these weapons to aid you. They will be returned once the test ended.]

The selection was... limited. The assortment of armaments displayed ranged from the classic sword, an Axe, a club, a bow, a dagger, a shield, and a spear; Fantasy and medieval weapons. The only weapons I was familiar with were guns and knives, which made the dagger to be the closest option to something I could wield with a degree of competence.

As I perused the selection, my eyes laid on a weapon that caused me to do a double take.

Is that… a magic staff?

There was no further explanation given by the screen, so I couldn’t confirm what it was, precisely. But if anyone was familiar with fantasy games or books, or anything else that was fantasy related, they’d say the same thing. I’d love to pick it, and it was so hard for me not to, but it wasn’t a good option, nor was it a sensible one.

Well, the obvious answer to not picking a magic staff was my lack of expertise in the realm of magic. There was the huge risk that I’d be holding a lame staff without getting any use out of it.

Right now, I’d have no choice cross that off my list. Swords, as far as I knew, required a certain degree of skill to get good use out of them; While there was no denying its strengths, as years of history suggested, without a proper skill wielding it, I’d have to cross that one off the list too. Spears would be nice to have too, but I didn’t have any familiarity with it.

There were no guns, unfortunately, so my choices would be either the axe, the club, or the dagger; if I wanted to pick solely from my familiarity with them.

In the end, I picked the weapons I was familiar with the most. Naturally, I had no plans to stick with a dagger forever, so this decision would only last until the test ended.

[You have chosen a dagger.]

The dagger fit snuggly when I held it, the cold leather on its handle was nice and easy on the touch, and its grip was just… magnificent. The length and the size of the handle were perfect; allowing me to exert as much force as my hands could manage while remaining fluid and balanced per each stab that I tried.

As for the blade itself, I couldn’t tell what metal it was made from, but it was sharp. There was a green hue from the light that it reflected, and despite its look, it was light enough to wield with ease, while also being not so light to not be able to output much damage at the same time.

It is perfect.

[The next stage will begin in 10 minutes.]

I walked back to the edge of the platform, the invisible wall saved my ass during the last fight, so I’d be stupid to not use it again.

Crouching on the floor, I sighed a harrowing moan, letting out all of the tension that had built up since the fight with the goblin. Staring at the empty sky, I thought about how peaceful my life back on Earth was — Well, save for the lack of purpose and direction — and wondered about what kind of life I would have here.

A part of me regretted my decision to continue this torture. After all, all the visions of becoming a better, different person were just silly dreams that I had; A delusion of grandeur.

Why did I do that?

I knew the answer, but I was afraid of the commitment I had to put in to realize that ambition. The combined commitment of extreme effort and risking death. But a small part of me won out in the end. I knew that if I backed out of the challenge, I would forever be the same guy who was trapped inside his box of listless life.

Baby steps, Gray, Baby steps.

[Next stage will begin in 3 minutes.]