Hal frantically pulled up the information on panicked scream. “Someone’s fucking with me, right?”

Panicked Scream

Shout from the top of your lungs and maybe you can confuse or disorient someone long enough to run away. Maybe they’ll even take pity on you and just leave you alone. Probably not, though.

Effect: Scream like a coward for a 5% to disorient targets around you for up to 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 30 mins

“I think the arena dungeon really wants you dead. That ability is… not great.” Jesse put on an obviously false smile.

“I’m not that much of a coward, am I? I mean, seriously. Stupid arena. You’ve never been pulled out of bed in your pajamas and forced to fight for your life.” Hal protested.

“Well. You still have a few arena points and a rewards box to open. Why don’t you open the box first?”

Jesse instructed Hal on opening rewards box. It was as simple as mentally clicking on the blinking chest icon in his vision. Once he clicked the icon, a wooden chest with a golden embossed roman numeral for two appeared floating in the air infront of him. The chest was roughly the size of a large, overstuffed duffel bag.

The latch keeping it closed popped open by itself with a metallic click. Golden light spilled out of the opening, surrounding an item. The chest fell and faded away before ever hitting the ground, leaving an item floating in the air. A perfect glass cube with crackling electricity inside was hovering in the air, waiting for Hal to grab it.

“Oh. That’s a power cube. Maybe I was wrong.” Jesse said.

“What do I do with it?”

“Grab it. You can either add it to your inventory to sell later or you can use it. Seeing that your only power is to scream like a coward, I would highly recommend you use it.”

Hal grabbed the cube and read the information.

Power Cube: Electric Shock

Activating this power causes your hands to crackle with energy, empowering your strikes. You can extend the energy to any melee weapon you are holding as well.

Effect: Causes minor electrical damage and has a 5% change to stun the target for up to 5 seconds.

Cost: 3 mana.

Cooldown: 10 seconds

“This seems useful, but it doesn’t tell me how much damage it does. It just says minor.” Hal questioned.

“The system simplifies things a bit to make it easier to comprehend.” Jesse explained. “If you want to see all the calculations that go into something, you can focus on the word minor, but I really don’t recommend it. There are hundreds of thousands of calculations behind the scenes. Calculations for the different species you could use the ability on, the environment, the weather, the armor they're wearing, and so on. I looked at the calculation once and the data overload to my brain caused me to pass out. I woke up a few hours later with a massive migraine and I was bleeding from my ears. Trust me. It’s not worth it.”

“Ok. I’ll take your word on that. But what about the mana cost? How much mana do I actually have?”

“You should see your mana and health bar toward the left of your vision. These calculations are a lot simpler. You get one mana or health per point in mind or body, respectively.”

Hal frowned. “So I can only use this power once and I only have three hit points?”

Jesse shrugged. “I did say that Humans were squishy. Now, do you see why we hardly ever win?”

“What about spirit?” Hal ignored Jesse’s comment and continued his questioning.

“Spirit’s used for a different style of powers and abilities. Things like curses, soul attacks, holy damage and the like. Not a lot of species specialize in spirit, but there are a few.”

“So I should use this cube thing?”

“That depends. Do you want to have a fighting chance to survive the next round?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Hal nodded his understanding. A moment passed before he asked, “Umm, how do I actually use it?”

“I’m gonna lose my credits.” Jesse sighed. “Just press the cube against your chest and push it inside yourself.”

With the cube in hand, Hal followed Jesse’s instructions. He pushed the cube against the center of his chest. The cube tingled against his skin, but he didn’t stop pushing. He felt a slight resistance, but the cube swiftly entered his body. Once it was fully inside of him, he felt the power become available.

“Woah.” Hal took a seat. “That’s a bizarre experience.”

“You’ll get used to it. You should spend your last few points on a potion box or a basic weapon box. Before you ask, you can buy a specific weapon or potion, but it will cost you more points, so you should go for the boxes. It’s a bit more random, but you’ll save in the long run. They’re under the boxes tab or you can just search for them.”

Pulling up the shop again, Hal performed a search for boxes. There were hundreds available. He reapplied his filters for purchasable, and the list shrank drastically. Reviewing his choices, he discovered an issue.

“Each box is five arena points, so I can only choose one. I should probably go with the weapon, I presume?” Hal asked.

“Hmm… Go for the potion box and I’ll send you a weapon.” Jesse’s eyes went distant. When they refocused, a system message flew into Hal’s vision.

Congratulations! You received a gift from your sponsor. They must like you because it appears they sent you something nice. Make sure you send your sponsor some love for this.

When the message faded, a plain-looking dagger appeared in a flash of light. It was falling to the ground, but Hal caught it and reviewed its properties.

Crude Dagger

Not the sharpest, best looking, or well-crafted dagger out there, but it still makes shit bleed if you try hard.

Hal turned the dagger over in his hand, inspecting it. Noticing the rather dull edge and spots of rust, he turned to say something to Jesse, but his sponsor beat him to it. “Now, before you say anything. COG limits the level of item sponsors can send each round, so there wasn’t anything too much better than that. Not to mention it’s ridiculously expensive to send sponsorship items. Don’t expect me to send you sponsor items each round. Not unless you win me some serious credits.”

“I just wanted to say thank you.” Hal commented. “This has all been,” he gestured about the room, “an interesting experience. I appreciate your help.”

“Yeah. Sure, that’s all you wanted to say.” Hal did his best to hide his grin. A red flashing light shone on Jesse’s body. “Well. Looks like we finished just in time. The connection is about to end. You can still reach out to me through the chat system. Don’t forget to purchase that potion box and always keep an eye on that round timer.” Jesse pointed upward. “Its near the top of your vision and the arena doesn’t give two shits if you're sleeping or shitting. You’ll get transported, regardless.” His image flickered. “Got to go.” Jesse's image vanished completely.

Well… that was actually pretty informative. Hal reopened the arena store and purchased a tier one potion box. The box appeared and opened like his rewards box, but instead of a power cube, there were several vials full of blue and red substances. He snatched the vials out of the air before they ever had the chance to shatter on the ground.

Tier 1 Healing Potion x2

Taste like week old cream soda that was left out and opened on the kitchen counter, but hey, its better than being dead.

Effect: Heals 5 hit points over 5 seconds.

Tier 1 Mana Potion x2

Is it Coke or is it Pepsi? It’s neither! They make this fancy drink out of crushed bugs and mana worm feces. Don’t worry, it tastes the way it sounds. Bottoms up!

Effect: Heals 5 mana points over 5 seconds.

Crushed bugs? Why would they even make that? Once he had his hands around all the items, a prompt came up asking if he wanted to add the items to his inventory. He clicked yes and both the potions and his dagger vanished. Mentally pulling up his inventory by hitting the bag icon, he reviewed the new screen. It was a large grid with what seemed to be endless rows of squares. The first three squares were full with his potions and dagger. When he focused on the dagger, it reappeared in his hand.

“That’s neat, but what do I do now?”

JESSE: Hey, Hal. I just placed a bet on you winning the next round, so don’t fuck up.

A chat window appeared in the bottom left of Hal’s view. It was semi-transparent and was labeled ‘Chat’. When Hal focused on it, it transcribed his thoughts into a response. He deleted the non-sense being automatically typed in and planned a proper response.

HAL: Thanks. I’ll do my best.

JESSE: The next round starts in ten hours. You should get some rest and be ready to fight.

HAL: Any advice? Other than, don’t die.

JESSE: Yeah. Kill as many monsters as you can. They’re good for experience and arena points. You can even get some loot if you find some rare creatures.

HAL: Monsters? There’s going to be monsters?

JESSE: A lot of them. The next several rounds are going to be fought in a much larger arena, with more participants. Think of a city, forest, or cave system. Your focus should be leveling up and hunting other players, but only engage them if you think you can win. Participants drop all their gear when they die and you’re awarded arena points for each kill. They should be your primary focus but, again, make sure you can handle them. One last thing. Chat is heavily delayed and often disabled when you’re in the arena. So I won’t be able to aid you or give you advice while you’re down there, especially in combat. Time to grow a pair and put on a good show.

Great. I’m on my own.

HAL: Ok. Thanks for the heads up. I’m gonna hit the sac and try to sleep. I don’t think I’ll be able to, all things considered, but we’ll see.

Settling onto his cot, Hal laid down and closed his eyes. To his amazement, he was fast asleep. He awoke to a loud alarm going off. Shooting up in bed, his eyes darted about. There was a message in the center of his view, but his sleepy eyes couldn’t focus. He did his best to rub away the crust in his eyes and blink away his dreariness in order to read the message.

Welcome participant, Henry Walker, to Round 2. This round will take place on a recreation of the planet Sonracury Alpha. Home of those delightful avians, the Sonracariens. There can only be one winner of this round. Good luck and remember, COG are the gears of the galaxy!

Before he could even swipe the message away, his body was engulfed in the teleportation light that was now growing ever so familiar.