1 Preparations

Alex is the 4th and youngest of his siblings, graduated with passing marks and still unemployed after three years from graduation.

Today was supposed to be another regular day of his life, taking some pocket money from his older siblings like a parasite to society and go to a cafe place to spend time with his friends while occasionally sending his CV, hoping for a reply.

Except today was a special day for all of earth, as he was walking out of his parents house his vision was blinded by whiteness, he didn't panic at first for he thought he might've blacked out. After all his diet wasn't a healthy one and the pressure from being unemployed and his mother nagging to find a job as if they grow from trees was substantial, but as he cleared his thoughts he found himself standing in a white room.

"Holy shit!! All this stress have finally drove me mad. Oh for fuck's sake I don't even have enough spending money how am I gonna get medication and proper health care!!"

Helpless, he could only take off his cap and scratch his head, after few moments he started feeling excruciating pain all over his body, and fell to the ground sweating all over.

Minutes or maybe seconds later, he couldn't tell for it felt much longer than hours to him, he stood up with black substance oozing from his body, and he started coughing black substance as well.

When he looked down and saw the black substance he couldn't help but sighing and reaching for a smoke, after all he kinda knew that smoking and asthma will most certainly get him a serious illness.

Before he could reach his smokes he heard voice, the voice was strange as it was gentle yet had a hint of lifelessness to it.

[Mortals of earth, you have been brought here and are given a choice. Step forward through blood and iron to grow strong and protect your world of the dangers surrounding it.

Or live the rest of your life in the shadow of fake security and be protected by others, speak of your choice mortal.]

When Alex heard that, he didn't know what to say, his first reaction was to enjoy this illusion even if it was a beautiful dream, but he didn't want to disappoint his mother and siblings and become an even bigger burden.

Sighing, he stood up lighting a cigarette and started talking:"Screw it! Even if it is a dream i'd rather dream for a while longer, nothing worse can happen anyway. Bring it on, I want to step through fire and iron!"

Once he finished second speaking rows after rows of weapons appeared in front of him, like that scene in the matrix, weapons that were from the medieval times.

He walked toward a sword, holding it in his hand, it felt rough, heavy and very real. He frowned and then passed it gently cut his hand, he yelped as blood started flowing from his palm.

"Shit!! Holy fucking shit !! It is real, it must be. I mean I know the subconscious is powerful, but this...this..."

After panicking for a few seconds, he took a deep breath and started thinking aloud:" Either way, I need to prepare in case this is real and not a hallucination, first I am not a good fighter and my strength is not great, so no swords and spears, I need something shorter, destructive and doesn't need technique so a tomahawk or mace it is."

As he was talking the weapons rows started changing, and rows of maces, hammers and axes appeared in front of him, it looks like this space could read his thoughts, well some of his thoughts as most axes and hammers were too big and cumbersome.

He contemplated for a short while before choosing a small and light hatchet that has nail on it, the nail was coming out of the blunt side of the blade that made it look cool and menacing.

The hatchet was a shorter and lighter than a sword, next he asked for small shields and chose one that appeared to have strong wood and was light, again like magic the rows appeared in front of him and he chose a round shield that didn't cover much. except for his forearm.

As Alex was going to ask how to leave this place, he looked at his clothes, they were dirty with black dirt and decided to see whether he could get some clothes and armor.

And as expected, rows of armor and clothes appeared in front of him but all were leather with no steel armors.

He first took off his clothes and cleaned the dirt off of himself and wore a simple white shirt and brown pants, of course he didn't forget to take his smokes and lighter. For armor he chose a sturdy, light, leather armor, brown leather arm-guards and a pair of scaly gauntlets that weren't heavy but still looked menacing and had short nails in them to make punching more destructive.

After carefully choosing some equipment, he stood there quietly for a few seconds.

"Ohm! What now? How do I proceed?"

The moment he finished speaking, the area around him changed, he was in a small woods and the weapons and equipment around him disappeared and instead, in front of him is an ugly goblin holding a wooden club, he could instinctively feel that the place is small as if he wasn't supposed to leave outside of it.

Before he could assess the situation, the goblin pounced at him which forced him to hold his left arm above his head, even through he blocked the club his hand started hurting and he couldn't help but curse.

Again the goblin swung his weapon, this time Alex knew better than to stand still and keep watch, he took a step back to dodge then swung his own hatchet which took a good chunk of the goblin's left arm.

As he watched the goblin screaming in pain and glaring at him with hateful eyes, he started thinking that this might not be hard after all, the goblin is short and looks scrawny, even for a weak guy like him he could still take him on.

Calming himself down, he started defending himself better and side-stepping the obviously pained goblin repeating some words in hid mind:'Defense, defense, defense just like all those games you played, defend then counter, learn the pattern don't rush.'

After another ten minutes, Alex noticed that the goblin is getting exhausted while he himself hadn't even coughed once, and other than feeling tired there were no chest pains.

'Did that black goo heal me or something? This feels more and more like those novels I read, but I like it.'

Licking his lips, he was going for the killing blow when he stopped himself:'This is a great opportunity, just like in games! This is a tutorial to get used to the basic controls, movement, dodging, striking and parrying!! I need to get the best out of this, after all, if games taught me something is that the next location is always more difficult.'

After straightening his thoughts, he started actively 'fighting' the exhausted goblin, where he got used to the feeling of directing his blows with his shield, side-stepping when he needed to, when to counter and when to hold his place and how to measure the space between them.

What he got out of this was precious experience for the price of a painful left arm that's starting to look blueish but it was time to end it, after all he was getting too tired and the goblin might get him with a lucky blow, still he didn't forget his motto 'defense', and he waited for the goblin to swing before stepping to his left hacking at his neck with the hatchet. But it didn't end as he expected it, he had hack a few times before killing it, proving that his strength is still pathetically low.

[Congratulation for passing the first test].