Only fifteen minutes had passed but the test was already over. The trio stood together, watching Stanis clean up the final few frogs.

Around them were 10 of Skint's plant traps. Initially, there had been close to a hundred of them but most of them had been killed by the frogs. The ones leftover, however, looked nothing like what they had at the start. Each of the plants were around 2m tall and as wide as bodybuilders. They had thick vines wrapped into half-feet, half-tails on which they moved. They made growling sounds and had leafy maws, similar to a Venus flytrap's, with dozens of thick stone-like teeth inside.

Bear's skills had expired and his muscles were no longer bulging out, his mind no longer bloodthirsty. His bastard-sword was soaked in red blood, his eyes staring into the distance, at Stanis. Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was reverence, but either way, he watched Stanis go about his massacre with quivering eyes.

Pete was standing straight, for once. His back wasn't arched and his feet weren't stumbling across the ground. He wasn't grooming his beard and he wasn't taking a drink from his dinged canteen, instead he was just watching. His hopes of killing Stanis and stealing his equipment had initially died down, after all, who would want to go against a monster like him. But as time passed and more and more frogs fell, his greed reignited.

The way Stanis's cuirass shined and shocked, electricity arcing off it. The way he flourished his sword as he slashed, the way the bolts ran across the blade, the way the thunderclaps bashed against his ears. He wanted them, he wanted them all.

"We should go for it. Imagine," said Pete, his lips curling up at his visions.

"No. I won't imagine. It's stupid," replied Skint. He knew Pete was crazy, but this crazy? It was like he was blind and wasn't seeing the same scene Skint was seeing right now.

"Very stupid," added Bear, his voice less of a rumble and more of a whisper.

"You don't understand boys. He's only that strong because of his equipment. When he's sleeping, we can just take him out!"

"No, you and I and Bear know that's not true. When I shot my arrow, it hit his shin and slid off. His skin is stronger than my fucking shots. Lose the dream Pete, this isn't the right territory to play in,"

"No playing. Please. We all die. Life short, no need to shorten it,"

Pete scowled at his mates. Cowards, that's what they were. The power Stanis had, that could be his power tomorrow.

He shook his head and looked down at his feet. His canteen, despite being dinged and scratched, still shone in the sunlight. Pete took the canteen from his waist and brought it to his eyes, looking at the liquid inside but at the same time looking past it.

He scowled once more before taking the tip to his lips. This wasn't his style, he wasn't a follower. But…

He corked the top and refastened it around his waist.

"Fine. You two sodden fools win."

There was a silence. Well, not really as the fighting was still ongoing, but there was a silence between the trio.

"So, are we going to befriend him?" asked Pete.

"I'm cool with that," said Skint. "I am coool with that."

"I don't know," countered Bear. "This man is danger, dangerous to surrounding. Life is short, no need to make shorter or harder. I don't know," he admitted by the end.

Skint stepped on his tip-toes and cuffed Bear across the back of his head. Bear scratched his scalp, brushing off the dried blood as he looked confused at Skint.

"You old fool. Just listen to us and follow us. You'll come out just fine as long as you are with us," said Skint matter-of-factly.

"Yeah. Just follow me and we'll all be just fine," said Pete, while taking another swig of his drink.

Bear's response was slow and thought through. He smiled at the two of them, his wide smile scary on his scarred and bear-like face. Scary, but genuine.

****

Stanis stood over dozens of bodies, his sword held out straight with blood dripping off it. The scene had only caught up to him. He had moved without thinking and now found himself questioning what had happened.

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Why had they willingly thrown away their lives like this? They had dropped their spears and ran to him, eager to be killed.

He ironed the creases of his forehead and cursed. Fuck it, if they wanted to be killed, so be it. At least they hadn't wailed and screamed on their deathbeds.

He looked down the hill and saw the trio making their way to him. Following them were the plant monsters which moved by half crawling, half sliding. Stanis was about to ignore the trio and focus his attention on these unique traps when he saw the greasy, drunk expression on Pete's face.

"Bossman," he shouted, "I beg you. Take us under your wing!"

Stanis's forehead recreased itself. He hadn't expected them to live through whatever was in the cave in his initial plan. And even later on, after seeing what the test was, he had planned on killing the trio, just in case they came to bite him back in the future for whatever reason. But he now found himself hesitating.

The trio were strong, that he couldn't deny. And better still, they had their strengths spread out in different areas. They would be useful in the future if he kept them and admittedly not bad company to be with, most of the time at least.

"Please bawsman," said Skint while going onto his knees, diving into mud and blood.

"Please," repeated Bear, his rumbling voice back to normal.

Stanis hesitated, his hand moving to his sword and worrying the trio, before moving back.

"Fine," said Stanis, rubbing his face with his bloody palm as he said so. He told himself that it was fine, as long as he could fix up their behaviour and mindsets, they were sure to be invaluable in the future.

But this thought died seconds later as he saw the three of them take out their canteens. Pete looked at Bear, who needed a second to get the message, before running towards the bottom of the hill to get their bags. He took out an extra canteen from there and poured alcohol into it.

After bringing it back up, Pete skilfully used his mana to increase the intensity ten-fold, maybe a hundred-fold. Serb had taught Stanis how to do this but it was clear that Pete was far more skilled than either of the two of them would be at this, his control precise.

He handed it over to Stanis, who checked it with his mana. Stanis sighed as the three of them held out their canteens, he bumping his with all of theirs before taking a swig.

It was sometime later that the system announcement finally rang.

30 minutes has passed. You have killed all your enemies. You have all passed.

Stanis hurried to clear his bloodstream before the next process began but wasn't quite so successful. Four beams of light came from the sky, focusing on the four of them.

The beams were saturated with mana and Stanis struggled under it all, absorbing it at his maximum rate in order to convert it.

It was 30 seconds later that he roared as his body broke past the brink, its very nature changing under the beam. All went black after this…

****

Stanis woke up, his back wet and slimy. He growled in pain as he looked around at his surroundings. The system pelted him with a barrage of notifications, making his headache worse.

Warning. User Stanis Volkov has gone over the power boundary. You are now being transported to the Universal system.

Congratulations Stanis Volkov. You have entered the Universal system. Here is your new status:

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 30.8 (Mana capacity is actually 46.8 but 16.0 points are currently in use) (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour)

Rank: Tyro Mosyte

Class: Origin

Strength: 15.1

Dexterity: 14.6

Constitution: 14.0

Intelligence: 15.9

Wisdom: 14.5+0.5

Tenacity: 16.1

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge, Ice shot, Blueshot spitfire, Lightning seed, Darkness Manipulation

You will be transported to Planet Ofu to receive your reward from your main allegiance, Hu, in 30 minutes.

Stanis ignored the last message and instead looked at his stats. The only differences he could see was that his attributes had all been divided by 10 and that his level was gone, replaced by some alien rank.

Worried, Stanis circulated his mana. His worries were gone after one second. Despite the amount of mana going down, it was clear that it had taken a grand qualitative leap as it felt incomparable to his previous, impurity-thick mana.

In the following minutes, Stanis played around with his mana. Each and every one of his spells had changed: they kept their functions but the power behind them had increased by so much. He then got up and walked around. He went and got his bag from the bottom of the hills and returned to the top, sitting beside the trio who were still in their beams of light.

He had tried touching Pete's one but had then retreated in fear, his finger ripped off. It was clear that any external forces acting on the transforming body would be, at once, eliminated.

And so Stanis sat around, checking his status and trying to make sense of all that had happened.

In the following minutes, the trio woke up. Pete was the first to wake up, then Bear and then Skint. The three of them got their stuff and joined Stanis, the mood sombre at first but then joyful as they tested out their upgraded skills.

Eventually, thirty minutes had passed and Stanis braced himself. The world went black once more and he lost all sense of being.

****

Stanis woke up upright. He looked around, and his jaw dropped.

He was in a massive Colosseum, the arena stretching out every direction he looked. And in that space were hundreds of other humans…