4 Hope

Stanis looked through the arsenal of weapons, taking out what he thought could be useful. Beside him were a pile of weapons and armour that he had already picked out. Within that pile lay a few leather pieces: a cuirass, a pair of tough gloves and a pair of shin-pads.

In all honesty, only the cuirass, which was a chest-piece and back-piece fastened together would really provide any protection, and even that was limited due to how worn and tattered the cuirass was. As for weapons, he had already found a few swords, knives, hammers and axes fit for use.

After a short while, Stanis ended his rummage through the arsenal after he found a fairly decent spear. Now all he had to do was decide what to actually equip himself with. After a bit of thought and with slight regret, Stanis decided to not use the spear nor swords.

Both of them, despite looking simple, took some measure of skill to wield effectively: something he couldn't learn in the short time he had. Neither could he use the hammer- it was a simple weapon to wield but far too heavy for prolonged use.

The carnage that currently lay around him gave him a pretty good idea of how the entity played, and that sure wasn't fair or easy. Thus this left him with the choice between the knives or the axes, both easy and light to use.

In the end, Stanis chose the axe; the knives might be easy to utilise but their length was far too short, he would be better off with a sword than a knife due to the extra length it had. Furthermore, he had never practised knife throwing and knew it would only cause him more harm than good if he tried to throw knives in the fight.

So Stanis finally had to choose between the axes. There were three good ones out of the whole selection, two of them were short while the last had the length of an arm. After having a few swings, he knew that the long axe was out of the question as it too needed practise skill to use effectively.

With just a few seconds to spare, Stanis fully equipped himself with both axes and the leather armours. He tried to calm himself down in the last few seconds but ultimately failed due to thoughts of what he had done in the past hour continuously popping up.

In the end he felt his own fuse blow: who would see what he had done, and even then, who would care? If what the entity said was true, the world was facing an apocalypse. Casting morals aside and hardening up would be the norm in such a situation!

In fact, it was those who couldn't do such a thing and stayed true to their morals who had died so far, not him. With a fresh mind-set, Stanis tensed himself as he awaited the entity's proclamation.

[ The five minutes are up. Prepare yourself to fight!]

Stanis felt a sting across his whole body as he reopened his eyes. The dead corpses were no longer in front of him, instead, he had been transported somewhere else. He could no longer see the blank space with the invisible floor and ceiling, rather, he was on solid, dry ground encompassed under a light-blue sky.

[In front of you is a Monster. Kill it, and earn a reward. Fail this, and you will be killed!]

Stanis refocused himself as he now looked at his adversary. It was a Chimpanzee… Well, it was the same as always, it was a chimpanzee but it was also different from a normal one.

For one, this Chimpanzee had longer arms than the usual already long-armed Chimpanzee. Secondly, it seemed to be significantly taller, reaching Stanis's eyes at full height.

However, the biggest difference was the Chimpanzee's face. It was eerily human-like: an aged, wrinkled face with a large-smile across its lips, giving the whole animal a magnanimous feeling.

And then the Chimpanzee began frantically looking for something; Stanis was certain the entity was currently talking to the confused Chimpanzee.

Within ten seconds, the kind looking face contorted into one of the devil's. You could see froth drip out of its clenched teeth while the squinted eyes maliciously glared at Stanis. There was no doubt that the entity had said something to the Chimpanzee, and there was also no doubt that it wasn't something very nice…

Giving him no time to act, the Chimpanzee began charging at Stanis. There was only a ten-metre gap between them to begin with, and so the Chimpanzee was in his face before he even had the chance to properly react.

In shock, Stanis had no time to think, but his body certainly didn't want the Chimpanzee near. And so without any thought, he had already lobbed one of the axes into the ape's face.

Knowing that it would have to take one in order to deal one, the Chimpanzee used its arm to protect its face as it ran onwards.

*thump*

The blade bit hard, but the Chimpanzee shadowed the pain with anger as it leapt onto Stanis, causing both of them to crash into the ground.

It then proceeded to bang out several punches and jabs into Stanis's face. It was his luck that he had subconsciously placed his forearms over his head in defence as he had fallen since he quickly felt numerous shots of pain across them.

Knowing that he would always be on the bottom if he let the Chimpanzee be, Stanis shot his knee up from the floor to whack the ape across its butt. It threw the Chimpanzee well off balance as it stumbled over Stanis and onto the rough ground, it was then that it felt a pull on its leg as Stanis strained himself to half-throw the Chimpanzee into the air.

Stanis barely had enough time to pick up his second axe, which he had dropped, from the floor before the Chimpanzee stood back up. This time it didn't rush Stanis and instead just stared him off, its muscles fully tense as it waited.

This time Stanis took the initiative as he ran at the ape, who ran back at him in response. Both of them clashed in the middles, although the Chimpanzee had the advantage as it had lowered its body in order to dodge Stanis's grasp, which also meant that it got to tackle him.

But with all good also comes bad, and in this case it came with Stanis's face as he smashed his axe into the Chimpanzee's head, all despite being breathless. Perhaps you can ignore the pain in a fight due to the adrenaline coursing through your veins, but you certainly couldn't do the same when something sliced into your brain.

Instead, the Chimpanzee instantly lost all its energy as it dropped onto the ground, violently convulsing in agony.

Despite the Chimpanzee being almost dead, Stanis couldn't withdraw his fury whatsoever. He began brutally chopping the ape's neck until it snapped. Only then was he certain of his safety, only then was his anger fully sated…

Unlike the previous few fights, this time Stanis didn't feel any regrets nor moral issues. Instead, he felt the blood racing through his veins, his heart pumping like crazy, his chest expanding and contracting frantically. He hurt so badly, and yet it felt so good.

He felt powerful!

He felt so powerful…

[Congratulations! You have passed your fourth trial!

You have levelled up!

Here is your Status: [Average for your species is …]

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Level 4 (Progress to the next level is 3%)

Unallocated Stat points: 2

Strength: 12 [11 ->12]

Dexterity: 13 [11 -> 12]

Constitution: 14[12]

Intelligence: 12[11]

Wisdom: 12[9]

Tenacity: 14[13]

Please allocate your skill points.]

After taking a while to stabilise himself after the loss of his battle-high, Stanis began thinking about what he wanted to upgrade this time. During previous times, Stanis had upgraded the attribute he felt weak on, and yet he hadn't felt any effect. It was only now as he got the time to think that he realised that he had forgotten about the problems after upgrading the attributes.

It seemed his previous judgement that the increase in points was just too low to have an instant effect was wrong: they did have an instant effect, just that it wasn't very noticeable due to the increase being so low.

Now, which one did he want to upgrade this time? The first thought that came to mind was the fact how he had been completely taken off guard when the Chimpanzee had first charged him.

He could have killed the ape with greater ease if he had just maintained his composure and dodged the ape's charge. He needed to be more agile, after all, maintaining composure would only come with experience.

"Add both my points to Dexterity."

[Dexterity increased from 13 to 15. You are above your species' average of 12.]

Stanis could now feel that his body was finally completely out of fight or flight mode. The countless punches the Chimpanzee had landed were now created burning pains all across his forearms and chest.

[You have passed all your solo trials. As a reward, you are assigned 3 unallocated stat points. Use them wisely, even the smallest change can have a large effect.]

"Put two points into Dexterity and one into Strength."

Those were the two attributes he felt like he had to work on right now.

[Dexterity is increased from 15 to 17. You are now well above your species' average of 12.

Strength is increased from 12 to 13. You are around your species' average of 12.

"Status".

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Level 4 (Progress to the next level is 3%)

Strength: 13 [12 -> 13]

Dexterity: 17 [12]

Constitution: 14[12 ->13]

Intelligence: 12[11]

Wisdom: 12[9]

Tenacity: 14[13]]

It looked like the other humans had also received such an award as the average for two attributes had increased within moments.

[A message from the host:" Well done humans, it is clear that you are quickly adapting to the reality of life. There are 3 billion of you remaining, all much stronger than you were when you had started without a doubt.

You have completed all the solo trials in this tutorial. You have only two more trials to pass through before you can return to your planet. Do your best not to die!"

You have one hour to prepare for your next trial.]

He could return? Wasn't he cursed into endless duels for the amusement of this sadistic entity? It sounded too good to be true, and yet Stanis felt himself believing it anyway. There had to be a deeper meaning behind all of this…