Alex blinked a couple of times, after several seconds he could see again.
Regaining his vision, Alex noticed that he was not in the park anymore.
Looking at his surroundings, he deduced that he was in a cave which surprisingly wasn't dark even without a light source.
Alex stood in the middle of a roundish area with a corridor leading somewhere else.
Alex was surrounded by nothing but rocks no plants or trees like in the park.
The only thing he could hear was water droplets dripping down. He couldn't hear anything else, not even the birds he heard seconds ago.
'Where am I?'
Having a confused expression, Alex rubbed his eyes and looked around again.
But nothing had changed after he rubbed his eyes. He was still in the middle of the room, no park or anything remotely similar in sight.
Trying to take his phone, Alex noticed that it wasn't there his right pocket was empty. Alerted, he looked in his left pocket if his keys and wallet were still in there, but to his dismay his left pocket was empty.
'Shit! Where is it?'
Alex frantically patted his pants up and down in hopes of finding his phone, but every item he had inside of his pockets was gone.
Turning his head around, he hoped that his belongings were just on the ground. Not seeing them, he walked around the circular space.
The scared teenager was looking under every rock with the irrational belief that at least his phone was underneath a rock. He even looked under comically small rocks.
After checking everything, the boy was beginning to panic.
His heartbeat began to fasten his breathing got heavier and he began to shiver.
Alex mumbled a single word in a shaky voice.
"S–Stat–t–tus."
Appearing in front of him was the blue screen which he had seen plenty of time over the last three days.
——————————————
Name: Alexander Michael Dawn
Level: 4
Class: Locked
Strength: 4
Constitution: 5
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 3
Skills: /
——————————————
Exhaling in relief, Alex calmed down a bit.
'If my Status is still working losing my personal belongings and ending in a, for me, foreign place must be intended. Hopefully.'
Before doing anything else, Alex began to breathe in controlled intervals.
'Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.'
After breathing for some time, he could think straighter than before.
'Don't panic, you may have no way to contact someone, but you still have access to your Status'
Calming down, the User closed his Status.
"System…" Alex called out to no avail.
"Open System, Open Challenge, Open Mission."
He tried several different combinations to get feedback, but the system didn't answer.
Sighing in defeat, Alex looked at a place he ignored before, the corridor.
Alex took several steps forward to the corridor. Looking inside, he saw that the way made a turn to the left, so he couldn't see what was on the other side.
"Hello! Is somebody there?" He asked, hoping that someone else was there.
He hoped that he wasn't the only Human inside this cave. The teen gathered all his courage and went inside the corridor.
Just as he took his first step inside, he got a message.
[Your challenge is to survive. You fail if you die. There is no penalty.]
Reading the message with a shocked expression, Alex's heartbeat fastened.
"What do you mean survive. I can die?"
Taking a few steps back to leave the corridor, Alex was again in the middle of the circular space.
Drip Drip Drip
Alex could only hear the water dripping down from the ceiling. His mind was blank, he couldn't think of anything.
Seconds later Alex noticed that he didn't breathe after he received the new message.
Taking a shaky breath, Alex didn't move. His legs started shaking, so he decided to sit down.
Considering that he was teleported to a different location, he could only assume that the message saying he could die was true.
Gathering his mind, Alex was wondering what he could do.
'Survive…Survive…Survive. Why do I need to survive? What am I up against? Is it a Monster? Do I need to live here for a couple of days?'
Having many questions, but no answers, Alex stood up.
"Okay.*Exhale*"
Alex's legs were still shaking.
"I don't want to die."
His eyes began to water and one small tear began to flow from his right eye.
Gathering all his might, Alex walked inside the corridor. This time he didn't receive any new messages, like before.
The corridor was more like a long tunnel. While walking through the tunnel, Alex saw nothing but rocks.
There were no insects, plants and unfortunately no humans.
The only thing he heard was his own steps, the water droplets falling down and his breathing.
He followed the path until he saw something in the distance.
Stopping in his tracks, he tried to identify what he saw. Walking several meters towards the unidentified object, he saw that it was lying on the ground.
After walking a couple more meters, Alex could see that a human child was lying on the ground.
Now Alex began to run towards the child.
"Hey, are you alright!" Alex yelled.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, the small child sat up.
Being closer to the child than before, Alex could make out a few details.
'That is not a Human'
The 'child' was green, it didn't have a single hair on its body, pointy ears, a long nose. It was small, it's limbs were thin and the arms were a bit longer for it's size, the belly was . The creature only wore a piece of cloth around the waist hiding the private part area. On the ground next to it was a dagger.
'A goblin?'
As the goblin woke up from its slumber to look around, Alex took a couple steps back.
The Goblin looked around and shortly after it went to sleep again.
Sighing in relief Alex, looked at the goblin again, not believing his own eyes.
Goblins were creatures Alex only knew from from Games. Seeing one in reality was a different experience.
Alex also knew the goblin from somewhere else, the Monster Research Club.
The Club only had descriptions and sketches about the monsters, but the goblin in front of Alex was matching the description he saw Friday, while looking through the Club documents.
Remembering the Club's documents about goblins: their ears are sensitive to touch and the skin at their throat is not as thick as at the rest of their body. The stomach area, however, is durable and hard.
Looking around the room the goblin resides in, Alex saw that it looked almost identical only that it had columns made of rocks.
Surviving was the only thing that was in his mind. Remembering the message, Alex whispered:
[Your challenge is to survive. You fail if you die. There is no penalty.]
'Is there a time limit or do I have to kill? What happens if I don't kill him?'
Alex ignored his fear and went inside the area, he tried to get close to the goblin by sneaking.
Just as his foot entered the room a new message appeared.
[Challenge updated!]
[Kill the monster, before it kills you. There is no penalty]
The new message was a wake up call for Alex. He was not a viewer watching a show or a gamer playing a video game.
He was ordered to kill a living being. He needed to kill or he would die.
As he breathed out, the goblin twitched.
'Shit'
Just as Alex thought that everything was over, the goblin stopped moving again.
The only thing Alex heard besides the water dripping down, was the goblin breathing.
Walking closer until he was next to the goblin, he picked up the dagger beside it.
He crouched down, raised the dagger to stab the goblin. Before he moved the dagger down at the goblin, he closed his eyes and the carefully laid the dagger down on the ground.
'I can't do it.'
Alex took several steps back, but without realising he stepped into a puddle which was created by the dripping water.
The goblin stood up, its back facing Alex. Noticing this, Alex quickly jumped behind a column which was close to him.
The rock column was wide enough for Alex to hide behind, but unfortunately he couldn't see what the Goblin was doing.
Alex heard the goblin take the dagger and walk, but he didn't know where the goblin would walk to.
Hearing steps that came closer, Alex stopped breathing. Several steps later, He placed his hand on his mouth and nose.
*sniff sniff*
The young boy could only hear the goblin trying to sniff something. His heart pounded, he slowly ducked down and grabbed a stone with shaky hands.
While the goblin was almost at his right, Alex turned to this left and threw the stone to the other side.
The goblin heard the stone collide with the ground near to another column. It headed toward the area the stone had landed.
With the goblin distracted, Alex tried to calm down. Seeing the goblin sniff around, Alex could do anything, but calm down.
'It's now or never, I need to kill him to survive. There is no other way, it's either him or me.'
Sneaking closer to the Goblin, who luckily was facing the other direction, Alex's plan was it to push the goblin and then stab him with its own dagger.
Just one and a half meters away from it, the goblin began to turn around.
'Now!'
Noticing the goblin turn around, Alex sprinted the rest and decided to try tackle the monster.
The goblin, now seeing Alex, screeched and raised its dagger, expecting to catch his enemy.