This challenge will be one to test your speed, endurance, and intellect. You must proceed through the various stages of the challenge and defeat the obstacle at the end to claim victory. The challengers that clear the final stage will be awarded with extra prizes based on their completion order. Please note that you are in a summoned environment and any deaths while participating in the challenge are not permanent. Should you fall, you will be returned to your personal space, or if you prefer, you may remain to watch the end of the competition.

The first stage of your challenge will begin shortly. You must escape confinement and travel on the marked pathway to complete this challenge. A short countdown will be given once the challenge is ready to start.

I looked out of the bars of the cage, noting that the fire below me wasn’t giving off any heat. A quick count told me there were a dozen goblins gathered around the fire. Another pair of the diminutive green monsters stood guard over a pathway that was marked by glowing stones. It was dark, and the jungle we were in surrounded everything but the small village clearing and the marked path.

When the countdown started, I would need to move quickly. The bone cage I was imprisoned in was a rather shoddy bit of construction. It was just larger bones from various creatures tied together with vines from the jungle. I was pretty sure that I could smash my way out easily enough with my hammer and might even be able to rip it apart with my bare hands if given enough time.

The problem wasn’t getting out, the problem was going to be dealing with the goblin horde surrounding me. They were small, the tallest only coming up to my chest. While scrawny looking, the goblins didn’t need much power to punch holes in me with their primitive weapons. Spears made from branches sharpened into a point and hardened in the fire seemed to be the weapon of choice, though a few of them held stone axes or flint daggers.

I’d need a distraction to draw their attention, and my class was perfect for that. I could use my summoning figurines up to fifteen feet away, which would put them right behind the cackling goblins. I’d start with my most powerful figurine, Marvin Glum, then follow up with Rupert and the hound. With my class skill, the magic headband, and the buffs from the arena, my minions would be four ranks higher than they were normally. It should give them even more of an edge over the simple goblins.

For now, I’d hold back on using any of my consumables. There had to be more serious opponents further into the challenge where I would probably need the extra kick from my consumable figurines. The instructions had also mentioned testing not only our strength, but also our intellect. I really hope that didn’t mean any kind of puzzle rooms, I always hated those things, both in video games, and in real life. My old manager loved them, and she always took us to one of those escape rooms when corporate allowed funding for a “team building exercise”.

The arena challenge will begin in 10 seconds, 9, 8…

Ok, it was showtime. I held Glum’s figurine and picked my target. He’d appear right behind a goblin with a headdress that seemed to be the leader of this mob. As the countdown hit zero, two things happened. The first was me pushing a single mana point into the figurine to activate it, the second was my surprise that the fire was now giving off heat, a lot of it. To make matters worse, a few of the goblins began cranking on a wheel to lower the cage into the flames.

Grabbing my hammer in one hand and Rupert’s figurine in the other, I began to slam my weapon into the side of the cage. Pausing between swings, I summoned Rupert right next to the goblins cranking me into the fire. I quickly grabbed the hound figurine and took another swipe at the cage as the pain from the heat began to overpower my concentration.

With a loud snap, several of the vines holding the cage together burst apart. Between my hammering and the heat of the flames, they were too weak to hold my weight. I fell into the middle of the bonfire, covering my face and trying roll to the side before I became cooked to medium-well.

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Coals burned into my left arm as I pushed against the ground to lever myself out of the bonfire. Rolling to my feet, I was faced with a goblin spear heading right toward my gut. Reacting quickly, I tried out my new ability for this arena run, Back at You. I watched in amusement as the goblin’s spear thrust forward, but instead of skewering me, the tip of the crude weapon burst from the goblin’s own belly. The little green guy screamed and rolled on the ground, forgetting about me entirely as he bled out.

More goblins were moving to engage, so I summoned the hound to help defend me, and readied my hammer. I was a bit shocked that the Mangy Hound was no longer a Mangy Hound. He had bumped up four tiers, and that was enough to turn him into a rather formidable looking dog that resembled a Rottweiler. Growling and snapping at the goblins, the hound picked a target out of the mob and charged forward. The hound latched onto the goblin by the throat, and started shaking the small creature like it was his favorite chew toy.

Another goblin stepped forward to stab at me, but his attacks were clumsy and even my limited melee skills were more than enough to avoid the strike. After dodging the spear, I stepped forward and brought my hammer down on his head. A sickening crunch was heard and then the goblin dissipated into mana vapor. As I suspected, all these creatures were summoned by the system specifically for this fight and weren’t real.

I found myself without anything else to fight. All the other goblins were dead or engaged with my minions. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I looked for an openings to fire off Psionic Jolts at the foes threatening my summoned creatures. Marvin Glum was going to town on a final goblin near him. He was now Tier 1, Rank 6 and it showed. He deftly avoided goblin stabs and slashes, his dual blades taking apart anything that came into range.

Rupert was having a bit of a rougher time. He had spawned four tiers higher, but still didn’t spawn with a weapon. He’d overpowered one of the goblins, snatching up his spear, but only one foe was down, and Rupert was facing off against the two other goblins at the cage wheel. My first Psionic Jolt was fired at one of the pair threatening Rupert. The goblin shrieked in pain, dropping his weapon before stumbling blindly around.

These foes must have been relatively low ranked to have a simple ability do so much damage to them, but I wasn’t going to complain. Psionic Jolt had proven less effective as I faced more challenging opponents, but against goblins, it was almost overpowered. Rupert used my attack to focus on the final opponent facing him, the goblin was looking back toward me, then toward Rupert, and he missed the spear strike coming in from my dwarven minion.

A short squeal of pain later, that goblin, and the one still trying to shake off my spell were destroyed. Quickly checking the battlefield, the dozen foes surrounding the fire were almost all down, the hound was harrying the last one, and with Rupert moving to assist, he wasn’t going to last long. Marvin Glum charged the pair of goblins who were guarding the pathway, but both turned and ran away.

“Glum, get back here, don’t chase off on your own,” I ordered. Marvin obeyed and jogged back to join me and the other summoned creatures.

“Rupert, find the best weapons you can from the fallen,” I told the battered dwarf. He had a few shallow stab wounds but seemed to still be moving around well enough. He ditched the short spear for a stone axe in one hand, and a flint knife in the other, both taken from where the goblin with the headdress had fallen.

Thankfully, the system chose to leave equipment behind when the goblins were destroyed and turned into mana vapor. A quick check of the camp revealed that there was nothing else to loot here, so I made my way to the path. The hound would lead the way, hopefully sniffing out the last pair of goblins if they happened to be lying in wait for us somewhere in the jungle.

The dirt path was clear of any threats, and after moving about a hundred yards, A system prompt appeared.

You have cleared the first stage of the challenge. All mana and health will now be replenished. After clearing this stage, you are ranked 481/1000.

Nice, my mana pool was full again and the burns from the bonfire were healed. Rupert and the others had also been healed, leaving everyone ready to go for whatever else faced us. I had stopped when the system prompt appeared, but now that it was gone, it was time to pick up the pace. My ranking after the first stage had left me around the middle of the pack compared to my competitors, I needed to push harder if I wanted to win a decent prize.

Just after we started jogging forward, a pair of pain-filled screams sounded out from behind a bend in the path. Something else was out there, something that had just turned the two fleeing goblins into snacks. The jungle blocked our view of what was ahead, but the hound’s low growl told me it was something dangerous.