This time, I landed on my feet.

  Blue light the same color as the System windows flashed around me as other Challengers appeared, most looking exhausted or wounded. Many of them were far more injured than I was. In comparison, I had done pretty well. We all had a decent amount of space and seemed to be on one side of a long, white, undecorated room. There were fewer of us than I’d expected, perhaps a couple hundred.

  I hoped no one I knew or loved was here. From the looks of the people around me, my Challenge, while stressful, could have been far worse.

  I looked around for anyone I knew, before eventually landing on a familiar-looking head of blonde hair. I squinted at the person, trying to recall why he might be familiar.

  I glanced at his clothes. A large hole took up the top half of the back of his shirt, but he didn’t seem to be injured. An impressive feat, considering this guy had just been through the first Challenge. He was wearing Christmas pajamas. Last I checked, it was June.

  Hm. I didn’t know anyone competent who enjoyed wearing Christmas pajamas in the summertime. The list of people I knew was fairly short, and I could safely cross off everyone on it.

  “Yule!”

  My heart sank at the sound of his voice.

  I turned to see those familiar cinnamon eyes, sparkling with their usual light. His hair was a wreck (that wasn’t new) and his clothes were torn in multiple spots (that was new). I couldn’t exactly judge considering I didn’t have a shirt on beneath my coat.

  Something was off, though. He was smiling, but his eyes were glassier than usual.

  “Rounin,” I greeted.

  “Yule!” He repeated, stretching his arms out to hug me and then retracting them. “You’re— oh, you’re covered in— blood— is that yours? No, you’re not that wounded or you wouldn’t be—what, you don’t look very happy to see me…”

  “It’s nothing,” I promised, trying to process his words. Rounin talked ridiculously fast.

  I wanted him far away from here. If the next Challenges were anything like the first, Rounin had no place here. He liked crochet, sewing, and knitting. He wanted to be a doctor. He liked watching nature documentaries, going camping, and libraries. He cried the last time he accidentally stepped on a bug. He was the softest soul I’d ever had the blessing of meeting, and I wanted nothing more than for him to stay that way. I would rather anyone else be here.

  “Are you sure?” Rounin pressed, tentatively reaching out for a hug yet again. “Your resting grumpy face is…grumpier than usual.”

  I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer to me. He smelled like sun and petrichor, a rather strange combination that somehow suited him. “I’m okay.”

  Rounin yelped and I let go, scared I’d accidentally squeezed too tight. “You’re so cold! Why are you freezing?”

  “The Dungeon I was just in was Arctic-themed. Pine trees, wolves, stuff like that,” I summarized. “Was yours different?”

  “Uh— yes? That’s a taiga, Yule. Taigas usually have coniferous trees, wolves, and moose. I was in a jungle kind of terrain, but…almost everything was either carnivorous or otherwise dangerous. Everything there was poisonous, so I didn’t eat much…” Rounin admitted.

  I held out my hand and a piece of cooked wolf meat from the Inventory fell into it. “Eat. I’ve got more.”

  “Thanks, Yule. Oh, how’s your ankle?” Rounin asked nervously. “Let me see it.”

  “It’s healing fine,” I promised, sitting down to unlace my left boot. “There was snow, so I used that to ice it.”

  Rounin inspected the sprain with a frown, chewing on a bite of meat. Eventually, he held a hand over my ankle, and golden threads sprang from it and wrapped around my ankle.

  Exactly like my dream.

  [HP: 12/50]

  Not to mention…I did end up with ice abilities.

  “Incredible. Is that the Skill you got with your Title?” I asked.

  Rounin nodded. “Says my title is The Weaver. Which is strange, because I actually don’t weave much. I prefer crochet…”

  “Mine is ice-related,” I noted.

  “That makes sense. You are pretty good at ice skating. Were you hurt anywhere else?”

  I shrugged. “I just got…bitten. No big deal.”

  “By what?” Rounin demanded, narrowing his eyes at me.

  “…a wolf.”

  “Yule.”

  “Don’t worry. I did everything you said to do that I could do. I made a bowl and boiled the water, and then I poured it over the wound to clean it out. And I even bandaged it.” I admitted, feeling proud of myself. I had cared for one of my injuries for once.

  Rounin’s expression relaxed. “You made a bowl? Out of what?”

  “Oh, I carved it out of some wood.”

  The relaxation on his face vanished instantly. “Pine wood?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  Rounin exhaled carefully, pressing his fingers to his temples. “Okay, good job bandaging and washing your wounds with boiled water. That’s exactly what you should have done. But, uh, Yule…you know what pine resin is, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Did you vomit often?” Rounin asked. I flinched at the mention of vomit. How had he even known that?

  “Yule.” My best friend said, patiently and lovingly. “The reason why you kept vomiting is because that water that you boiled had pine resin in it. You also put that pine resin into your wounds.”

  “Hm,” I said. That explained some things.

  “You would have been better off drinking melted snow.”

  “…ah.”

  The med student tsked softly as he inspected the bite on my arm, and then bound both my arm and hand in that same golden thread.

  [HP: 15/50]

  “Thanks, Rounin.”

  Rounin smiled at me, eyes crinkling in that way I so adored. “Always.”

  [Congratulations again on completing the 1st Challenge!

  Rewards will now be distributed properly.

  Reward: 1 Health Potion Lv.2, Sponsorship Event]

  A bottle dropped into my hands. Rounin’s plunked to the floor in front of him. Only then did he pick it up.

  [A god has sponsored you 1,000p!]

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The blue window once again appeared in front of me with no prompting.

  [A god has sponsored you 500p!]

  Two white lights began fluttering around my head.

  Good. Two was the right number. It wasn’t an excessively large number and it wasn’t none, which meant I was in the middle. I had no apparent main-character obligations so far.

  Murmurs sounded through the room, and it was clear who everyone’s attention was on.

  The blonde man with the Christmas pajamas was surrounded by so many lights it was hard to see him. Even so, he seemed familiar.

  Perhaps this was the ‘main character’.

  He was holding a conversation with a girl who looked a little younger than a teenager. As they spoke, they seemed to reach an agreement. He smiled and held the child’s outstretched hand.

  “Cute,” I said casually.

  Rounin didn’t respond right away. When I turned to look at him, his lips were pressed into a tight line, and he was turning slightly green.

  Right. There was no guarantee the child would survive the next Challenge. There wasn’t even a particularly high chance that either of us would survive.

  I slung an arm around Rounin’s shoulders, trying to be comforting.

  “You’re very affectionate today,” He laughed, relaxing somewhat. “So you are happy to see me!”

  “I’m always happy to see you.”

  Rounin beamed at me again, brushing my bangs out of my face. “You need a haircut, Yule. Your bangs are past your cheekbones.”

  “Maybe next week.”

  “You’ve been saying that for months. Are you going to dye your hair? I mean, I’m not saying grey is a bad natural hair color to have, but you’re definitely easily confused for an old person…”

  “Hm.”

  Rounin poked my cheek with his index finger. “That doesn’t count as an answer, Yule.”

  “If I think of a color I like,” I promised ambivalently.

  I eyed my health potion, wondering if I should drink it. My health was currently at 15/50. It would probably be a good idea.

  I uncorked the bottle and drank a mouthful.

  [HP: 45/50]

  The potion apparently wasn’t single-use like in most video games or isekais, which was certainly a huge advantage. The bottle had approximately seven more mouthfuls in it. That was still more than three and a half full heals. That might even balance out the high price.

  I yanked my sleeve up. The golden thread was gone, and my wounds from the first day had disappeared almost entirely, leaving behind faint white scars. Perhaps the threads were only there for as long as they needed to be. My ankle felt significantly better, but the threads weren’t gone.

  “You should drink yours if you’re on low health. Just a mouthful’s thirty points.” I suggested, nudging Rounin.

  “Does it taste good?” Rounin asked, carefully maneuvering the cork out, scared of breaking it.

  “Tastes fine. Sweet but not too sweet. Like honey water.”

  He took a tentative sip, then drank a bit more. “Oh, I feel so much better. I think it cured some of the poison.”

  “Poison?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t eat anything.”

  “Oh, did I not mention it was in the air, too?”

  I scowled and was about to scold him for not drinking the potion sooner, if not for the Challenge announcement.

  [Welcome to the 2nd Challenge!]

  Oh, shit.

  I sighed internally, squeezing Rounin’s shoulder before letting go. His hand moved to hold onto my sleeve anyway.

  [Challenge Objective: Survive]

  What did that even mean. Survive what? Monsters? College (I wasn’t doing too well at that)? A random room in which there is nothing but other Challengers?

  Rounin appeared to be staring at his own window, but I couldn’t see it, so it looked like he was just staring off into space. It would have been comical if we weren’t potentially about to die.

  I got my answer when flashes of blue identical to when the other Challengers first appeared once again.

  Unfortunately, there were no more Challengers.

  [Dryad Lv.1]

  [Wolf Lv.3]

  [Mechanic Soldier Lv.2]

  [Goblin Lv.4]

  Countless names appeared over countless monsters. There were many animals I did not want to fight. There were a few monsters that looked right out of a video game.

  Well, fuck, I thought, eloquently.

  The screaming started.

  Rounin and I instinctively charged forward, along with the blonde guy.

  I saw my confusion mirrored in his face as our eyes locked, and it was clear we both wondered what the fuck we were doing and why we were running towards the danger instead of away.

  Rounin apparently did not have the same reservations we had.

  He stepped forward, two long golden threads appearing in his hands, wrapped around his forearms as he pushed his sleeves up.

  My delicate, sweet, underweight friend whipped one thread through the air and sliced through a monster like it was nothing.

  I stood in shock for a moment before remembering I should probably be doing the same.

  I snatched my dagger out of the air as it materialized, stabbing one wolf in the back of the neck, before driving it into a dryad. The little animated plant crumbled into mulch. I almost felt bad. They were kind of cute.

  I shouted in pain as something stabbed my side and turned to see a dryad had stabbed me with one of its branches. It wasn’t a deep stab, but it still hurt.

  [HP: 41/50]

  They were not cute. I should eliminate them all.

  I activated my skill the same way I had in my dream and watched ice cover the wood, before kicking it over. It shattered.

  [MP: 35/40]

  [Dryad Lv.1 has been hunted.

  Reward: 10p]

  A hysterical, slightly maniacal laugh tore its way out of my mouth.

  Rounin whipped around to stare at me in a mix of shock and horror as he decapitated a goblin.

  I waved in apology, before freezing a wolf.

  [MP: 30/40]

  [Wolf Lv.2 has been hunted.

  Reward: 20p]

  I quickly discovered I was far more effective when I let my body do what it wanted. My mind took a backseat as I watched myself fight.

  I almost automatically targeted weak points, using my dagger far more efficiently than I had back in the first Challenge. At one point, I had even dodged a few bullets. Perhaps the System was helping once again, like when I pushed the attack button in a video game and the character just started swinging their sword. That seemed to differ from many video game isekai novels I’d seen.

  And still, despite winning battles, I was losing the war.

  The blonde guy and Rounin were both fighting well the last time I checked on them but many of the other Challengers were cowering, and the ones fighting were doing so poorly.

  The tides changed when she appeared in midair and dropped from the ceiling.

  I did not expect this of her at first.

  Upon dropping from the ceiling, her waist-length hair blew into her face and her mouth. In addition, her top appeared to be a white piece of fabric haphazardly wrapped around her torso. I couldn’t even make out how it was being held in place. The fabric, too, flew into her face, obstructing her vision.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the blonde guy, bless his heart, lunge forward and catch her.

  She nodded at him, unsheathed the most beautiful sword I’d ever seen, and set to work.

  This was the protagonist of the story.

  Her blade became nothing more than a silver blur as it sliced through every creature unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. This time, her hair streamed gracefully behind her as she cut an arc through the monsters. She painted a beautiful picture as her top became more and more stained by the blood and gore surrounding her.

  Something strange happened.

  All the wolves and other animals among the fray stiffened suddenly and turned towards her.

  I could see her eyes widen, see the shock on her face, right before she vanished under a mass of grey fur.

  I weighed my chances of survival, then tossed those aside, mumbled “fuck” and ran to go save her.

  “Yule!” Rounin shouted, trying to wade his way over to me. “Yule, no, what are you— don’t run towards the— Yule!”

  “Be back soon,” I promised, sending a blast of ice to clear a path. I could probably regenerate MP with a potion or something, or perhaps over time.

  [MP: 15/40]

  I couldn’t use ice on the wolves, in case I hit her on accident too. The wolves paid no attention to me as if I didn’t exist, while I yanked them off of her and stabbed them first when I couldn’t. The other animals weren’t even attacking her, just standing there, as if waiting for her to get out.

  She almost stabbed me as I pulled the final wolf off of her. I had to dodge the blade stabbing up at my face.

  “You’re safe,” I promised briskly, inspecting her injuries. She’d been bitten in multiple places, and there were chunks of flesh missing from her forearms. Her chest was bleeding where wolves’ claws had dug into it, and her breathing was labored.

  As soon as they began attacking, the wolves froze in place.

  I took the opportunity and knelt next to her head, grabbing my health potion and uncorking it.

  I don’t know who came up with the idea that boys carefully tending to a girl’s injuries in the middle of battle was tender, sweet, and sexy. It was impractical and stressful and if I didn’t hurry, we were both going to die. In my panic, I somehow poured a bit of it up her nose and it dribbled down her chin.

  “Yeah, just gimme it,” She requested, once she had stopped coughing.

  I handed the bottle over, and she took a few gulps before handing the bottle back to me.

  “Good shit,” She sighed, still moving a bit jerkily, but much improved. “I’ve got another one in my inventory. You can have it as thanks if you survive this. Come on. Better finish them off while they’re frozen.”

  The woman charged back into battle, leaving me to finish off the frozen wolves. Rounin joined me after a while, looking utterly exhausted. He sported a few scratches and a few cuts that looked a little too deep for my comfort but otherwise appeared fine.

  “You okay?” I asked, checking him one more time to make sure he didn’t seem to be in pain.

  He glared at me. “Yes, I’m fine. Don’t do that. You scared me.”

  “Sorry, Rounin.”

  [Congratulations on completing the 2nd Challenge!

  Reward: Scythe Lv.4]

  The weapon dropped into my hands, and I inspected it carefully. Perhaps there were item details I could look at later, like in the Shop. That would have been a useful feature to cover during the System Tutorial.

  This Challenge somehow ended up being easier than the first one. It had been over far faster than I had expected, and I wasn’t even badly injured.

  As I looked around, one subtler thing jumped out at me.

  This Challenge had already established something of a hierarchy.

  Those who had fought were on top. Those who had cowered for the most part seemed grateful to or in awe of the Challengers who had fought, and especially those who fought well, like the blonde man from earlier, the woman I’d rescued just now, and even Rounin.

  That’s right. Hadn’t the Tutorial mentioned a leaderboard?

  [Transporting Challenger to the assigned Dungeon…]

  Rounin grabbed my hand, squeezing tightly, turning wide brown eyes on me.

  That wasn’t good. Health potions didn’t recover stamina, and my friend was exhausted.

  “Rounin,” I said hurriedly. “Put some points into—”

  I was pulled away from him before I had the chance to finish.