Jax, for the second time in a maybe-day, woke up groaning in an unfamiliar environment, with others doing the same right around him. Jax sat up from lying down and looked at those around him.

Strange… Jax thought brilliantly as he observed the people around him. There were three more, aside from him, making them a group of four. Jax didn’t even consider they wouldn’t all stick together, being all thrown into this unwillingly.

Jax wasn’t the first or last up, and he noted another person around Jax’s own age who had already stood up, looking around with an odd light in his eyes. Jax ignored his odd attitude in favor of acknowledging the strange appearance of everyone, including himself. Jax was garbed in leather bands, thick and thin, wrapping all over his body to form a weave of sorts made entirely of boiled leather. It was still flexible and quite tough. The one who seemed excited wore chainmail with some plate covering broad areas, and the other two wore armor similar to what Jax wore.

There were three men, one woman, and a big ass forest around them, with faint snow falling all around. Jax nearly addressed the group before a notification of sorts popped up in front of him:

Integration event has been initialized. Welcome to the Battleground, where all those deemed combatants by nature are sent. You being here means that the System has determined you to be related in many ways to a Path of Combat, no matter how that Path looks.

Rewards will be assigned at the conclusion of this event based on performance and decisions made.

Jax read the message, unsettled at how casually it seemed to take throwing a bunch of people into something called a Battleground. The woman beside Jax looked between the three others in her group, looking disturbed, “Why am I here? I hate fighting, so why am I here?” She had said the last part nearly sobbing, and Jax felt his heart ache a little bit.

The standing man just looked at her, a weird look coming over him as he addressed her, “You don’t think this is a good thing? The way Harmony explained it to me, this System offers a way to not only gain power, but also immortality. According to her, combat is the best way to gain levels, which progresses you forward.”

The other man, who was middle-aged at best, angrily stood up, “You met that bitch too?! Fuck her, and fuck this whole “event”! And if you think this is a good thing, then fuck you too!” He turned to the woman, addressing her far more gently, “I’m sorry, young lady. I can’t help myself right now, but I shouldn’t have cursed like that.”

The young man scowled at the older one, and Jax saw him clench a fist, ready to duke it out with him, when Jax got up to intervene, “Whoa whoa whoa! Everyone calm down, we need to work together, okay? I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t know a single damn thing about what we’re about to get into. We can settle our differences calmly.”

The young man snorted and just stepped back, relaxing his hands, “Fine. But I won’t let him talk to me like that again.”

Jax twitched, but nodded. He already had a bad vibe about this guy, but he would make do until he either found someone else to partner up with or when he became too hot headed.

Jax nodded, “Alright then, let’s start with names, aye? Mine’s Jax.”

“Mark,” The young guy said curtly, still eyeing the middle aged man, who eyed him back.

The woman stood, the last to do so, “Angela.” Jax noted her looking pretty fearfully at Mark, and noted how she moved behind the yet-unnamed older man. For a moment, they all looked at him, until he finally snorted too.

He cleared his throat and held out a hand for Mark, “My name’s Bradley. Sorry for cursing you.”

Jax nodded as the two shook hands, “Ok, that’s settled. Does anyone know more about what we need to do? That message doesn’t really spell it out for you.” Jax asked this in the hope that maybe they got different messages, or maybe just knew something somehow. Jax was still pretty freshly awoken, where the last time he’d laid down to sleep, the world was normal, and next time he woke up, he was lying on Harmony’s floor.

Bradley spoke up, “Yep. That bi- I mean Harmony was pretty receptive to questions, in spite of how she’s turning our lives into hell. I know that our Integration event, or IE for short, is all about fighting. The “System” or whatever else she is blaming this on apparently decided whoever gets sent here is suited well for fighting, even though that doesn’t make much sense.”

Mark nodded, “I also asked about what we’d be fighting, and she said “everything will be your enemy, or maybe ally? It is ultimately you who decides what to fight.””

Jax frowned, “How did you guys think to ask those questions? I was-am-still reeling at all this.”

Angela looked strangely at Jax, her fear replaced, “We had three hours to ask questions…”

Jax frowned, “No, when I woke up- oh… Well that isn’t fair.” He just remembered he’d been asleep when he first met Harmony, and he didn’t think their meeting had been timed, but it apparently had been. Bradley looked enlightened as he must have realized what had happened.

“You were asleep too? That sucks. I was also, but I’ve always been a light sleeper. You must have gotten unlucky. That makes me think, who else did that happen to?”

Jax looked at Bradley and shrugged, “I hope y’all don’t mind sharing what you learned with me? I guess this means I’m the worst-informed member of our group.” Jax tried to look unbothered, but he felt angry inside. He’d been ripped from normalcy and Harmony couldn’t even bother to properly wake him up to give him some answers? It wasn’t like he was a rock, unable to be awoken. A light shake, or even a particularly loud noise always did the trick, so she must not have felt like wasting the effort. It gave Jax one of those angers that lasted even after he was done thinking about it.

Mark grinned and nodded, “Yeah, we’ll all share with the group. But before that, who has the highest stats?” Jax looked strangely at Mark as Bradley shook his head, annoyed.

Jax voiced his question after he noticed their lack of confusion, “What are you talking about?” They all looked at him, surprised.

Mark looked flummoxed, “Wait, what? That was part of the stuff she said in the first ten minutes! No way, you weren’t even there for that long?”

Jax shook his head, “No. To summarize, all I know is that the system has come, times are now dangerous, and with the help of this system, we can gain power. Oh! We’re also part of some multiverse, and this universe is called the 109th Link or something similar.”

Bradley cursed under his breath, while Angela spoke up, “Just say or will your status to appear.”

Willing to give anything a go in what Jax could confidently call the craziest part of his life, he spoke under his breath, “Status.” Like magic, a similar screen to the one earlier appeared:

[Status]:

Name: Jackson Emmory

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Alias 1: Jax

Alias 2: Undecided

Class: Warrior

Profession: N/A

Race: Human(seedling)

Strength: 7

Toughness: 7

Agility: 5

Perception: 4

Cognition: 5

Integrity: 10

Willpower: 5

Class skills: [Warrior’s Strength]

Profession skills:N/A

Race skills: [Infinite Paths], [Cultural Mimic], [System Assistance], [Identify]

Titles: None

Integration Variables: [ERROR]

Initiation Event Points: 0

Jax looked it all over, then to Mark, “I’ll tell you my stats if you tell me yours first.”

Mark shrugged, “I’ve got 4 strength, 4 toughness, 7 agility, 6 perception, 5 cognition, 5 integrity, and 5 willpower. No use comparing those last three though.” He said the last part with a shrug, and Angela nodded.

Jax was about to tell them his when a rustle caught all of their attention. Bradley picked up a hatchet from the ground where he had woken up, making Jax realize he had a spear sitting next to him. He picked it up and pointed it to the bushes at the edge of the forest, where they currently seemed to be at the edge of.

Call him what you’d like, but Mark picked up a sword and shield from the ground and got in front of Angela. Tensely, they all waited, hoping that the rustling was just a rabbit, or maybe even a deer or something.

After a pregnant pause, something jumped out of the bushes, headed straight for Bradley, the closest to the tree line. It hardly took three seconds for it to jump on Bradley, taking him to his back as he wildly swung at it in a panic. Jax, thinking fast as he could, swung the bottom half of his spear, clubbing the dog-like creature off of it. It whimpered and tried to scurry off, realizing they weren't easy prey.

Mark wasn’t prey at all. He was like a wolf, and the others were his pack. The animal jumped off Bradley right into the man’s shield, concussing itself and falling to the ground. Swiftly, Mark brought down the tip of his shortsword into the belly of the animal, then again into its head, ending its life with minimum pain.

[Coyote(lv.3)] slain. Exp gained.

Jax just looked at it for a minute. Angela was the first to speak, looking at Mark deeply, “Thanks, Mark. You really jumped in front of me without hesitation.”

Mark nodded, “I was closest. I’m sure they would have done the same if they were closer.”

Jax cringed at that. No, he wouldn’t have. And not for lack of wanting to, rather he’d not even considered it for a moment when the thing showed up. He kind of just ceased to think. Angela shook her head, “I’ll thank them when they do it. Thank you.”

Bradley was over the body of the creature, a critical look on his face. Mark frowned, “We don’t really have a choice, man. We have to kill.

Bradley shook his head, “That’s just the problem. I know that, but you don’t. At least you didn’t when you finished it.”

Mark looked confused, “What do you mean?”

Bradley pointed to the gut wound, “We’re gonna need food, and this thing isn’t an option anymore. You cut open nearly every gut and organ you could have. It’s nearly entirely inedible.”

Mark twitched, “Oh, yeah. You’re right, Bradley. While you were on your ass and we were all in panic mode, I should have had the presence of mind to carefully kill the coyote with all of my hunting experience, which is none. That’s bullshit.”

Jax put up a hand, “Relax, Mark. He was just pointing out something we need to consider. Plus, the nature of both your weapons aren’t great for hunting. Mine is.” He placed his arm horizontally, the spear sticking straight up in the dirt. It had a steel spearhead, not very wide, like a stretched heart. The shaft was wooden, and the bottom of it had a steel ball that served as a counter-weight and striking weapon when necessary.

Bradley rubbed the back of his head and nodded, accepting the peace offered by Jax. They all sat there for a moment. Jax really didn’t know what to do. Should they move? Where to? Stay? Who knew how to properly set up a camp?

“We should probably decide what to do next. I don’t know anything about camping; do any of y’all?” Jax asked the group.

Bradley nodded, “Yeah, me and my dad go camping all the time. Well, it used to be all the time. Though we never camped in snowy weather like this… I should be able to get us started though. First things first: water. Let’s go find a source for it.”

Mark pointed toward the middle of the forest, “The middle of the Battleground is that way. I’ll bet that’s where most people will gather. We should work our way towards it.”

Jax furrowed his brow, then noticed it: they were in a dome, and at the edge of it too. Behind them was a wall, though it seemed more like a cliff face at a glance, and it extended all the way up to the middle of the “dome”, where Jax assumed they would be going.

Bradley nodded, “Let’s move then. I don’t want to spend the night with just the four of us.” they all nodded, and Angela seemed especially motivated. Jax took the lead with Bradley, as he guided and Jax kept his spear ready to gut anything looking for dinner.

After a short amount of time, Bradley held up his hand, and Jax held his breath anxiously. Carefully, Bradley pointed ahead and to the left a little, where a tiny clearing, if it could even be called that, was situated. Inside, what looked like a small deer was eating a small patch of grass growing up against a huge tree, looking entirely unaware.

Curious, Jax looked at Bradley. He didn’t think he’d be able to sneak up on a deer, but he’d give it a shot. As he took a step, Bradley held him back, looking confused. He mimed a throw, and Jax understood. He was supposed to throw it. No way that turned out good. Jax shook his head, then mouthed, “I can’t.” Turning back to the deer, Jax focused.

There was no way he could sneak up on it all the way, and he couldn’t throw, so the only simple solution left was to charge and hope for the best. That probably wouldn’t work though. For a minute, Jax looked around his feet, hoping for an idea, when he noticed a half-fist sized rock.

Jax picked it up and considered where he wanted to throw it, then moved. He threw the rock over the deer to land in front of it, startling it. In its fright, and covered by the sound of the rock still sliding over dry leaves and sleet, it turned to escape only to meet the cold tip of a spear plunging into its chest, where Jax hoped to death its heart was.

It whined loudly, falling down as Jax tore his spear free of its ribs. Jax felt a little bit sick watching it die, as he must have only nicked its heart or maybe deer were surprisingly hard to kill. Either way, he didn’t want to ruin the meat, so he just grimaced as he watched the thing die. It took about a minute, and Jax didn’t notice Mark and Bradley standing beside him, also looking down at the beast.

This was what sealed the deal in Jax’s mind, that he was really in a new world. One of death and battle. While Jax had yet to get into a real fight, he knew he would… or die trying. He knew he would need to kill to live. The notification, and more importantly, this feeling couldn’t be clearer.

[Evergreen Doe(lv.5)] slain. Exp gained.

Class [Warrior] has reached level 2. Stats allocated.

Jax felt hollow in his spirit, but he’d never felt better physically. Jax knew he was far stronger now than moments before, and quicker and tougher too. The change was stark, and honestly frightening. It felt like any training one did before these stats was utterly wasted time.

Bradley set a hand on Jax’s shoulder, “First time killing anything?”

Jax nodded, silent in his thoughts. It troubled him a little bit, but his morrose attitude wasn’t for this creature’s life, but the many that would come afterward. Jax wasn’t going to take any chances here. Safety wouldn’t be found in numbers. It wouldn’t be found through hiding.

Safety comes from the same place as power: Within.

Jax turned to Bradley, “Can you get some food off this? It’s why it died, after all.”

Bradley nodded, “Yep. Don’t let it bother you too much. This is the way life worked, before technology.”

Mark just looked at Bradley, “Can you teach me?”

“Sure! I’ll teach the both of you. Every man should know how to dress a kill. Women too, in times like these. Angela, care to learn?” Bradley asked, his joviality strange.

The woman hadn’t moved from where they had first spotted the deer. She looked more frightened than the deer had, eyes big and watery. She shook her head, a short, jerky motion.

Bradley nodded, “Ok, so we first need to drain it of blood. Jax did a pretty good job of that already, but there’s still plenty left. Let’s address the arteries…”

With that, Jax felt initiated, in a weird way. He hadn’t slain some proud creature, or overcome a great trial. Hell, he hadn’t even had to face some grand horror. But this marked a turning point. Jax realized where he was, and what it would take to survive. So, he paid attention, learning as much as he could from the man.

None of them noticed Angela, who had a feral look in her eyes, staring sharply at the necks of her “group.”