When Bradson’s crew arrived with the newcomer in tow, I realized why Samantha had encouraged me to try to remove as much blood as I could from myself and my clothing before meeting up with other challengers.

The newcomer looked like a teenager that had been bullied to an inch of his life. His whole face was smeared in mostly dried blood, except for his nose, which was still bleeding. His bangs were matted onto his forehead through a combination of blood and sweat. He held a sword in his left hand, and his right hand dangled uselessly by his side. A bow was slung over his back, but I couldn’t see any arrows on him. He wore some kind of armor, but it was so shredded and torn I couldn’t tell if it was goblin armor, orc armor, or something else entirely. His skin and features were so hidden by blood and shredded armor that it took me a moment to realize he was Korean, or Korean-American.

Most striking of all were his eyes—crazed eyes that darted around back and forth, never glancing at any one thing for longer than a split second.

“Healer?” he croaked. The words sounded painful coming from his throat.

Darrel spoke up. “I’ll need a live monster. As undamaged as possible.”

River glanced at me. “I would deal too much damage, and Bradson already caught one earlier. Looks like you’re up.”

It was clearly an attempt to watch me in action. But I couldn’t blame them.

I took one more glance at the newcomer, using my Identify skill. We were all capable of hiding our names, but it was possible people hadn’t realized this, or hadn’t cared.

His name was Ethan. And from the aura he was giving off, his stats were even higher than mine.

Ethan clung to the nearby tree trunk, his body shivering. I could hear him muttering, "They're watching...always watching..."

"Who's watching?" River asked, sharply. Ethan's eyes glanced over to River, and then flicked away.

"Desroth, but that's not his name," Ethan mumbled, half to himself. "Not Desroth."

"He's cracked," Kris said, loud enough that everyone could hear. "It's amazing he made it this far."

"He fell, and he raised himself back up. He bled, and he cauterized his own wounds. He died, and he spat in the face of death itself," Ethan recited it like a mantra. Then, he let go of the tree trunk, and started walking unsteadily towards the nearest roc, weapons raised.

Bradson exchanged a quick glance with River, and then grabbed Ethan's upper arm. “Wait until we heal you," he said, in a calming voice. “Rest, for a while.”

Bradson locked eyes with me, then glanced at the flock of nearby rocs.

Samantha’s outline flickered into existence. The first thing I saw, was that it picked up a shield from the pile of equipment I had laid out earlier.

“Don’t touch my stuff,” I said, sheathing my knife and picking up the wooden shield. Since I already had a primary and secondary weapon slot filled, I wouldn’t receive bonuses from the shield, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hold it.

Samantha had picked one of the thicker branches leading away from my group’s tree trunk, directly towards the nearby rocs. There was no point in stealth, since so many of the rocs had their eyes on us. And they seemed more comfortable in the semi-darkness than any of us.

As I approached them, the birds cawed a warning first. Then, as I grew closer, ten of them flew towards me at the same time.

There was very little chance to dodge, since it was as though I was walking on a balance beam, and the rocs came at me from various directions. I released my own concerns, and trusted Samantha.

I put mana into Agility, dodging backwards, and placing the shield at an angle in front of me, hunkering behind it.

I caught a bird’s beak directly on the shield in front of me, allowing it to push me even further back, back towards where I came from.

The bird’s beak was buried into my shield. It flapped its wings, trying to push me off my branch.

I backed up again, slicing the wing off a nearby bird that flew to close to me, using the resistance from the bird to help me keep my own balance as I continued to back up.

The more I backed up, the less pressure there was from the rocs around me.

I made it back to my allies. The whole skirmish took less than five seconds.

It seemed the rocs’ fear of my allies outweighed their anger at me capturing one of their own. They knew better than to approach our tree.

“What did you say your class was?” River asked, giving me a thoughtful glance.

“Berserker,” I said, following my outline and giving the roc a sharp rap on the back of its skull.

It seemed it was a pressure point of some kind—the angry roc immediately fell unconscious.

“It’s all yours.” I dragged the shield and roc towards Darrel.

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“That was a lot of Agility,” River said. “It’s important that we’re honest with each other, since we will be having each other’s backs. I’m a fire mage, Darrel is a healer, Kris is a swordswoman, and Bradson is an Axe Warrior.

I nodded, as if I agreed with her. “Yes, and I’m a berserker,” I said, with a cheerful smile. Then I turned to Darrel.

It was obvious Darrel wasn’t just a healer. If the Atropos Schema were anything like the video games or stories I’d read, healers should spend their mana to help someone recover hit points.

But Darrel placed one hand on the unconscious roc, and his other hand on Ethan. I continually spammed my Identify skill as I watched them, but it didn’t give me any additional information—at its current level, all it told me was the public information-the names of my companions, and the species of the roc.

But my eyes told a more detailed story. As Darrel held on to the roc, I could see the roc withering at a rapid rate, and the wide gashes on Ethan’s body sealed themselves at a similar pace. In other words, as the roc lost HP, Ethan gained it.

It was certainly a useful skill to have available, but it raised the question of how Darrel got this far in the first place.

I wouldn’t have been able to predict when Darrel finished. Ethan didn’t look that much better. He was still dripping in blood, and his armor was still ragged, but Darrel gave him a cautious pat on the shoulder, attempting to avoid the worst of the blood stains. “All done.”

“My name is River,” the self-proclaimed leader of our group said, once Ethan’s eyes had refocused somewhat. “Darrel is the one who healed you, and Kris is the girl with the swords.”

As River spoke, Ethan stripped off his shredded breastplate and walked over to the armor that was still lying on the nearby branches.

I quickly stepped between him and my stockpile.

“You’re welcome to buy whatever you like. 1000 coins each,” I said.

“Fuck off,” Ethan said. Before I had completely processed what happened, I saw Samantha’s outline moving.

I dove out of the way—leaping from my branch towards a branch about two yards away. Behind me, I could hear the whistling power of a blade slice where my chest had been. My feet didn’t make the landing, but my arms wrapped around the branch and I lifted myself up quickly.

Kris was just a few feet away, but she didn’t bend down to help me.

I watched, with rising resentment, as Ethan donned a goblin breastplate.

“Are you guys really just going to stand there and let him take my stuff? He almost killed me!”

Bradson shrugged. “You’re lucky we didn’t appropriate your equipment ourselves.” He said the word appropriate as if it would justify stealing.

“Blood waits for no man!” Ethan shouted—far too loudly, really—once he was fully decked out in my equipment. Then, he ran directly towards the Yanir tree.

“That makes zero fucking sense,” Kris muttered under her breath. I was probably the only one who heard her, since I was standing next to her.

Ethan moved nimbly on the branches, heading directly towards the densest group of rocs.

He seemed to only know how to attack. Every strike was a deadly blow, and rocs all around him were falling to their deaths.

The rest of us were watching Ethan in silence. More specifically, we were watching the nearby rocs to make sure they wouldn’t attack us.

Kris mimed eating popcorn, and one of the boys in Bradson’s crew snickered.

“Looks like he’ll be fighting the griffins with us,” River said, watching Ethan’s progress.

To be fair to Ethan, he was certainly holding his own against the rocs.

“Only if he can last that long,” Bradson said, doubt filling his voice. “He’s a classic case of all brawn, no brain.”

“As if saying the word ‘brawn’ means that saying doesn’t apply to you,” Kris shot back, but with a smile.

Their banter made me wonder how much I had missed out on, earlier. What had it taken, for them to claim this tree so close to the Yanir tree? What had they done to scare off the nearby rocs?

It also seemed they had come up with a plan, but I hadn’t been briefed, yet.

“What is the plan? What are we waiting for?” I asked.

River spoke first. “It’s going to be a bloodbath the moment the tree blooms. Resting will let us recover mana and stamina, and then the real battle begins. Do what you need to do. My gut tells me the tree will bloom any moment.”

Ethan wasn’t in sight any more, but from the sounds of battle, it was clear he was still alive, at least.

I took a minute to review my Status Window. Nothing had really changed, except for the number of coins I had.

Name:

Jarek

Level:

9

HP:

19/19

Physical Defense:

13 (+4)

Strength:

14 (+2)

Mental Power:

11

Dexterity:

10

Agility:

10 (+4)

Mana Pool:

23 (+1)

Mana Regeneration:

11 (+1)

Available Points:

0

Coins:

55,880

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

None

Titles:

Skills and Spells:

Identify (F-rank)

Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low)

Equipment:

Mana-infused Knife (F-rank): +1 Mana Pool, +1 Mana regen.

Orc Helmet (F-rank): +2 Physical Defense

Orc Breastplate (F-rank): +2 Physical Defense

Orc Boots (F-rank): +2 Agility

Orlan Blade (E-rank): +2 Strength, +2 Agility

Interdimensional Pouch (E-rank):

Next to my Status Window, I clicked on the alpha icon for notifications and re-read the fourth stage’s mission, searching for any clues I’d been missing.

Welcome to the Yanir Rainforest! Once a year, the Yanir tree blooms with flowers at the heart of the rainforest. As the Yanir tree blooms, it grants nearby beings an increased awareness of their surroundings. Many creatures in the rainforest will fight for a place near the flowers.

After the blooms fade, participants will be teleported to the next stage.