4 The First Trial

[You have arrived at your first trial.]

[Description: You are in an abandoned city in an unknown world. Protect the city from the monsters that are invading it. Survive the waves of monsters.]

[Rewards: They will depend on your performance.]

The four of them appeared in the middle of an abandoned city. It wasn't completely deserted, though. The city seemed to house a few inhabitants, but something was painfully evident.

All those inhabitants were all skinny and malnourished, as if they had been forced to live in this place...or rather, been abandoned.

There were pieces of half-destroyed buildings on the roads that restricted the ways in which they could go.

The high number of holes in the roads everywhere didn't make it easy for Aiden and the rest of the team to move.

The city was in complete ruins. However, strangely there were two huge gates on both sides of the city...and they seemed to be in good condition.

These gates seemed to serve as protection for the inhabitants.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Ava said as she smiled at Aiden. James and Gus also followed right behind her, leaving Aiden to die.

Seeing them leaving, Aiden didn't mind as he had spent his whole life wandering the world alone, and it was not like he needed their help.

Without saying anything to them, he turned around and left in the direction of the other gate.

***

Aiden had decided to go toward one of the abandoned buildings. It was the tallest one. He wanted to have a bird's-eye view of the city to analyze what type of monsters would be arriving.

As he was doing so, a message appeared in front of him.

[The first wave of monsters is coming.]

Reading this, he started to move faster. He knew he didn't have much time before monsters would come his way.

He even heard monsters making noises not far away from him.

As he arrived at the top of the building, he could see the type of monsters that were coming his way.

They were zombies.

They didn't look strong, but there were so many of them that it would probably be hard to face them all at the same time.

He could also see his teammates on the other side of the city attacking the zombies, not observing the situation beforehand.

It seemed they hadn't made the same choice as Aiden, maybe because they lacked experience or they felt too confident.

After seeing the situation, he decided to wait for the zombies to come into the city and for the perfect occasion to kill them in one strike.

However, the problem was that he didn't have a weapon.

He didn't have the time to get one before being summoned to the Otherworld since he knew nothing about it and didn't know he would be facing such a trial.

Realizing this, Aiden started to look around him to see if he could find some type of sharp object. It didn't matter what it was as long as it was sharp enough to kill zombies.

[Ava has killed a zombie.]

[+1 point]

[James has killed a zombie.]

[+1 point]

[The rankings have been updated.]

[1st: Ava and James (1 point)]

[2nd: Aiden and Gus (0 points)]

Notifications started to appear in front of him, indicating that his teammates were already engaged in combat with the zombies attacking the city.

It seemed like there was a ranking to see how much each of them impacted during the trial, a fair approach because the rewards would be distributed accordingly.

Seeing those notifications, he decided to hurry up because he didn't want to fall behind and have bad rewards.

Then, out of nowhere, he saw something shine under some dirt. He decided to pick it up to see what it was.

And to his surprise, it was a small knife but it looked dull, he probably wouldn't be able to make good use of it, still, it was better than nothing.

Now with a dull knife in his hands, Aiden decided it was time for him to slay those monsters. He even had a smile on his face just thinking about killing those zombies.

He went ahead with the plan that he had in his mind and hid in a building that was nearby.

***

A couple of seconds later, Aiden could see zombies walking through the gate, slowly arriving in front of him.

He looked around until he spotted a zombie alone, and one minute later, he saw it.

He acted as silently as he could not wanting to attract the other zombies who were close, not a noise could be heard as it seemed his passive skill was working wonders.

He jumped out of the building and aimed for the neck of the zombie, trying to kill him in one strike. However, it didn't work out since the knife was too dull to completely slash the head of the zombie.

With the experience he had with assassination, he knew that it didn't always work out and that sometimes you need to improvise, which is why he continued hitting the zombie.

He had such precision that every hit he made was at the exact same spot on the zombie. He never missed his strike.

The zombie tried defending but he wasn't able to do anything, as Aiden was dodging every attack coming his way.

After the fifth strike to the neck, the zombie was completely decapitated. As the head dropped from his body, it started to dematerialize. It was becoming particles like it had never existed.

Soon, a message appeared in front of Aiden.

[You have killed a zombie.]

[+1 point]

[You have gained 2 Experience Points. (XP)]

Seeing he could gain experience killing monsters, he wanted to see how much he needed to level up. So, he opened his interface.

[Aiden Nightshade]

[Level 1 (2/40)]

[Health: 100]

[Mana: 5]

[Race: Human]

[Class: None]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Dexterity: 1]

[Defense: 1]

[Stamina: 1]

[Charm: 2]

It seemed like he would need to kill 19 other zombies to be able to level up again.

It wasn't necessarily hard, but it would take a long time since he was alone. However, that didn't deter him. He didn't waste any more time and went to find another zombie.

The same scene repeated once again, and Aiden didn't even get close to getting hurt.

He even killed a zombie with four strikes, this time instead of five.

[You have killed a zombie.]

[You have gained experience.]

[+1 point]

***

On the other side of the city, the rest of the participants were fighting zombies as a team, but they were still having a lot of problems.

Gus and James tried their absolute best to impress Ava, but their efforts led to some avoidable mistakes.

Though thanks to Gus's class as a tank, Gus was at the forefront, taking in all the hits, and it seemed to work. He was pretty good at defending his teammates, especially Ava.

"Good job, boys!" said Ava, casting her spells from far away, not taking risks.

On the other side, James was slashing the necks of monsters with a lot of difficulty, even with the dagger he had brought over from the real world.

He wasn't able to aim as accurately as Aiden, making it challenging to kill the zombies with ease.

It appeared he lacked experience with the dagger. Well...compared to Aiden, who was an expert.

But it was normal considering Aiden's past.

Suddenly, a message appeared in front of them.

[Aiden has killed a zombie.]

[+1 point]

Shock could be seen in the eyes of all of them, trying to understand how he was not dead yet.