The night was quiet, much quieter than I would expect from a forest full of almost irrational beasts eager to chew on human flesh. There were no roars, no wolf howls, not even the hoot of owls. In fact, no sound beyond the breeze rustling through the trees and bushes and the crackling of the campfire.
My responsibility while on guard was pretty simple: keep my eyes open for anything trying to kill us and make sure the campfire stayed lit. I checked my stamina, watching it climb to 135/140. Almost full again after about three hours of sleep. When I went to bed, it was only halfway, regenerating much faster than I had expected.
The possibility that the need for sleep decreased with levels certainly made sense, or perhaps the system had altered sothing fundantal within , making sleep less important. For example, I couldn't help but wonder: what would happen if soone just chugged stamina potions whenever it got low? Could they stay awake indefinitely?
I shook my head to push those thoughts aside and stood up, taking a short walk around the camp to inspect the periter of the small clearing. In hindsight, the location of our camp was poorly chosen, to say the least. Dense trees and bushes surrounded us, providing perfect hiding spots for any predator. No direction offered any solid cover against potential attacks.
I considered whether we should look for a cave or sothing like that in the morning. But then again, caves also have their downsides, since chances are there's only one entrance... and I can imagine a beast like the giant boar charging through the narrow tunnels, trampling everything in its path. Yeah, not a pleasant image at all.
Looking at the trees, I thought it might be possible to camp in one of the larger ones. While that would make it impossible to build a fire, I wasn't entirely confident in everyone's ability to climb such trees.
Thinking about how little activity there was in the forest at that ti of night made reflect that the system, or whoever designed this tutorial, wasn't completely ruthless. The absence of nocturnal beasts made survival much easier, giving us ti to sleep and recover. Even animals like badgers, which are normally active at night, seed to hunt only during the day.
Still, I had to remain vigilant, as I had no solid evidence that there weren't beasts out there, still hunting. I also couldn't forget about the other humans in the tutorial. I had seen them at the giant pillar in the beginning, scattered all over. Thinking about it, they were only to the left and right, with none ahead or behind . And that giant wall behind us... it was sothing I couldn't get out of my head.
The space between the pillars was easily asured in kiloters, so it wasn't surprising that we hadn't encountered other survivors yet. It had only been half a day or so, and while we had been moving for so ti, we hadn't gone far—maybe just a few kiloters at most. The pace had been slow, with everyone tense and overly cautious, even making a few detours to avoid potentially dangerous areas. The direction we followed was also directly away from the wall.
I didn't even know if the other participants in the tutorial were actually human. I had seen silhouettes, indicating bipedal creatures, but there was no way to know if they had roughly the sa shape as us or if they were truly human. And honestly, I'm not sure if I'd prefer them to be human or alien, since the chances of us clashing at so point were high either way.
As the minutes dragged by, the monotony started to get to . While sitting and just keeping watch might sound easy, anyone who's ever worked a night shift knows exactly how mind-numbing it can be. Unfortunately, reading a book or playing on my phone wasn't an option.
Bruno and Gabriela were probably keeping themselves entertained by talking and keeping each other awake and alert. But the boredom, mixed with the lack of even the smallest environntal stimuli, led to beco increasingly less vigilant.
I was promptly jolted out of my stupor once again when I heard the rustling of one of the bushes at the farthest edge of the clearing, the farthest from the campfire. I fixed my eyes on it as the bush continued to move. I didn't feel any sense of danger coming from the bush as I focused, but my instincts still told sothing was wrong. That I should be careful.
I grabbed my bow and stood up from the log, checking again to make sure everyone was still deeply asleep. They had been dead tired yesterday, mainly from the ntal exhaustion of this whole ordeal, so I wasn't at all inclined to wake them for a possible false alarm.
I walked toward the bush, which was still rustling faintly every two seconds as I got closer. I examined the bush, seeing nothing, but still hesitant to get any closer. I began to draw my bow and aid at the bush, moving slowly, taking small steps, ready for anything that might leap out.
Without warning, sothing sprang from the bush, and I imdiately released my arrow, hitting it with precision. At the sa ti, before I could register what it was, a silhouette erged from the bushes. I couldn't make out exactly what it was in the darkness, but the humanoid shape was clear. And that beca even more apparent when I saw the moonlight reflecting off the blade of a sword.
I staggered back and yelled to wake the others, but the sound had barely left my mouth when I awkwardly raised my bow to try to block the sword.
I managed to block it, but I was pushed back again, almost falling to the ground, barely holding the bow with both hands. Finally, I was able to get a proper look at the attacker and saw that it was a bearded man, appearing to be in his thirties, wearing an outfit identical to the one worn by Lucas and Evan. In other words, a typical warrior.
The warrior tried once more to swing his blade, but it cut through the wood of my bow and got stuck, turning our struggle into a standoff. I tried to pull my bow back and retreat, while the warrior attempted to completely cut the bow and advance toward . However, the standoff didn't last long, as another person ca charging out of a nearby bush, wielding a massive two-handed axe.
I saw the figure, and it didn't take a genius to know the situation was bad. Very bad. The typical warrior was as strong as I was, if not a bit stronger, and I had already been forced into close combat, which ant I couldn't use my bow. The others at the camp had already woken up, but they were confused and disoriented, with no idea what was happening. We were a good 25 ters away from the campfire, hidden in the darkness.
I was at a loss for what to do as the warrior with the axe approached. There was no ti to think, so instead, I just reacted. Less than a second before the axe would have crushed my head, I released my bow the mont the warrior pulled, causing him to lose his balance and fall backward due to his own montum. I seized the opportunity to retreat while the axe slamd into the ground where I had been. The weapon was now stuck, turning the heavy warrior into my next target.
I moved forward and tried to stab him with my knife, but the strike was blocked by his armored arm. Without hesitation, I pulled an arrow from my quiver and, using the length of the arrow, attacked from above, landing a quick strike to the warrior's eye as the blow passed over his guard. The arrow barely penetrated, but it was enough to buy so ti.
Before I could breathe, the dium-sized warrior was back on . I managed to block the first strike with my knife, but he stepped back and swung his sword again. This ti, a faint red glow radiated around the blade, which moved faster and with much more force. My attempt to block it resulted in a searing pain in my wrist as the knife was torn from my hand and thrown far away.
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