Exhausted, battered, bruised, Viviana stumbled onto her feet. She had just killed Jayce, but was still an opponent remaining. Oscar.

  She pulled herself into a stance as Oscar finally reactivated himself, recovering from his mana fatigue.

  Her arm was sore. She was bleeding from her side, her face, and her eyes were covered in blood, washing her vision in red.

  The adrenaline was good, but it still hurt badly.

  “You killed him? You will pay. Unforgivable.”

  Oscar moved forward, blade raised and ready. Viviana raised her own to meet him, but she knew it wouldn’t matter. She was in no shape to fight.

  Zero out of ten. I’m never getting ambushed again, nope. If only I could use my actual blade.

  She was pleasantly surprised when a scrawny glasses-wearing kid stabbed him from behind. Oscar wordlessly crumpled to the ground, and Thomas stood over him. Viviana breathed in and out, adrenaline still coursing through her veins, her body slowly recognizing that the threat was now gone.

  “Woah… you look like shit…Viviana,” Thomas said, muttering in that little voice of his.

  It’s over.

  At once, she collapsed to the ground, panting. She just now realized how tired she was. She leveled up, right? How should I feel right now? I achieved something, so I should be happy.

  Viviana didn’t understand it, but could feel something in her mana. Potential welling up inside of her, waiting to be refined. I can finally get stronger again. Another step towards my goal.

  “Vivi! You’re hurt?! Here, eat this!” shouted Bena, rushing towards her and shoving a piece of something into her mouth.

  It tasted awful. Earthy and bitter. But Bena nodded at her, encouraging her to eat. Viviana didn’t have the strength to question it. So she chewed it a bit and swallowed. She instantly felt warmth in her blood. “What is this?”

  Thomas pushed up his glasses. “Inverted tree bark. Promotes blood clotting. Large amounts, when taken, can be fatal, but a small amount can promote injury recovery in the soulbound, who already have abnormal regeneration. Any amount will be like poison to a non-wielder.”

  “So you can talk normally. How’d you guys deal with the other guy? Fuji, I think his name was?”

  Thomas turned away a little, not meeting her eyes. “...I can talk normally… when I care…anyways… we distracted Fuji, and then used… tree sap…”

  Bena interrupted. “We went to the inverted place! We ambushed him, like woosh, go to the red side! Then wyoomp, go to the blue side! Then stabby stabby!”

  This isn’t helpful at all. “Do we still have our flag?”

  “Yup! I’ve got theirs, too!” Bena waved the two flags.

  Perfect. Now that we killed those three, they’ve been eliminated from the event. Even though the soulbound come back to life in a couple hours of rest, the proctors said having your entire team killed is grounds for elimination.

  Viviana hauled herself to her feet. Her injuries already began to slowly recover. “Let’s go find Lucian now.”

  Bena nodded.

  Thomas had a concerned expression, taking a look at Viviana’s face. “Doesn’t that hurt?...You sure… you don’t want to rest?

  “Yes, it hurts. No, I don’t want to rest. Let’s go.”

  Viviana really liked the regenerating factor that all soulbound had. It just took a couple minutes and her bleeding stopped. Her ribs still hurt, but she imagined everything would shift back into place and repair in a couple minutes.

  Viviana really wished to wash the blood off her face. It was taking a long time to pull back into her blood stream.

  Maybe I can find a river or something. That’d have to wait. Right now they had to head to Lucian’s group.

  No… should we even? If they see we have two flags, now, they’d probably wish to take them. Even if they still allow us to group up, they’re still the stronger group. They’d probably demand a larger share of the points at the end.

  It was fine, she supposed. You didn’t win by holding the flag the longest. You won by holding the flags worth the most as soon as the activity ended.

  “Thomas, what is this place, anyways?” Viviana asked.

  Thomas pushed his glasses up, activating what she was now calling ‘scholar mode’. “Well, most people just call it terrarium four, but the actual name of this biome is ‘Inverted Planes’. Right now, we’re on the blue side. And there,” he pointed straight upwards, “is the red side. The creatures here are able to move from plane to plane.”

  Viviana glanced up, noting how the sky was an eerie shade of red. Whatever this ‘red side’ was, wasn’t obvious at an initial glance. Maybe it’s like a different dimension? Or realm of reality?

  Thomas answered the question for her. “The red side is like an inversion of this plane. It’s upside down and everything. Everything lines up linearly. Moving a meter on this side is also moving a meter on the other one, and vice versa.”

  “...I see. So we started on the blue side . You guys used the tree sap to go to the red side, and then came back, killing Fuji?”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Precisely. The red side can see the blue side, but the blue side can hardly see the red side.”

  “Why don’t we just stay on the red side, if it's that advantageous?”

  Thomas shook his head. “The oxygen is low on the red side. We can’t breathe there.”

  Viviana snorted. That’s convenient. “What about the monsters here? Anything we should look out for?”

  “Typically, there are monsters on both the blue and red side. Some of them use a special organ to jump to the other side temporarily. Some creatures, like the sky grazers, use the organ to eat the grass on the blue side, but live on the red side. Blue hounds, the natural predator of the sky grazer, lives on the blue side to hunt the sky grazers. They can also use the organ to go to the red side.”

  “So we might have to worry about an ambush.”

  “Yes. But, we just have to shift to escape, because the creatures can’t stay on the other side for long. The creature we have to worry most about, though, can shift for as long as it wants. It’s called ‘The Follower’. It’s apparently a tall, humanoid creature that changes color based on the side it’s on. Rumours say a level 14 one lives in terrarium four.”

  They went silent for a bit, the only sound being their feet on grassy plains, and gentle wind blowing across their faces. The oddly peaceful grass ocean was always a little cold, but it felt a little colder.

  “Still, it’s easy to know where it is. It marks its territory by impaling corpses on tree branches. It’s quite a deal for soulbound, because it slows regeneration.”

  More silence stretched the space between sentences.

  “In any case, we should be prepared. Viviana, hold out your hand.”

  Viviana did as she was told. Thomas showed her his own hand. The back of it held a glob of sticky looking blue sap, glowing slightly. He smeared some on the back of hers.

  “That's all I could find. Consume it all if you want to shift.”

  Viviana nodded, not forgetting her manners. “Thank you.”

  “...no…problem…”

  Thomas was back to his regular quiet self, having said his piece. Bena was normally rambunctious, but now she was quietly concentrating on her surroundings. Right. She has a scouting skill.

  My team is a lot more competent than I thought.

  In her own thoughts, Viviana decided to take a look at her stats. “[Status].”

  Thomas gave her a glance. “Did you… get some experience points?”

  “I levelled up.”

  “...impossible…”

  A personal status window appeared in front of her, floating and immaterial.

  [Welcome, Viviana Adler-Stern.]

  [Soulbound Lightning]

  [Level 2]

  [Experience: 0/200]

  [VIG=2; MIN=1; END=2; STR=2; DEX=2; WIL=1]

  [Equipped Skills]

  [Lightning Trap]

  [Available Skills]

  She pressed on available skills.

  [Dash - Common]

  [A simple burst in movespeed. Low mana consumption. DEX scaling.]

  [Strike - Common]

  [Empower your next attack based on mana consumed. Medium to high mana consumption. STR scaling.]

  [Thundering Might - affinity - Rare]

  [Punching forward with a fist creates an additional shockwave. Low mana consumption that increases to high upon consecutive uses. STR scaling.]

  [Mark of Lightning - affinity - Rare]

  [Striking an enemy with a weapon causes a lighting sigil to be placed beneath their feat. Medium mana consumption. WIL scaling.]

  Her eyes widened. Two affinity skills, already? Skills were unlocked on the next level up by performing system recognized feats, but Vivivana didn’t expect both her feats– one she got from before the academy, and the other just now– to translate into affinity skills.

  Viviana took a look at both. They were tempting, but Viviana knew what she had to do. She thought about them for another second, just imagining how strong Mark of Lightning could be, or how destructive Thundering Might was…

  She made up her mind and selected [dash]. The reasoning was simple. Mark of Lightning was already an inferior version of her soulbound skill. Thundering might would probably shoehorn her into punch-based abilities. [Dash] was more generic, but that meant it was universally usable. She could use it to attack, retreat, move over difficult terrain… and more importantly, it felt right.

  Lightning should be fast, after all. Plus, I’m betting an affinity evolution option will open up if I pick [dash].

  The system worked in mysterious ways. People barely knew the connection between feats and skills, but no one knew what skills would be granted. People knew even less about affinities. Sure, theories existed, but many would only predict half or so of the cases. Nothing was truly guaranteed, or completely understood.

  Viviana had personal experience with someone who tried to manipulate what abilities were granted to people. No, their audacity went beyond that. They had even tried to grant affinities.

  Viviana shook herself out of those thoughts. They weren’t useful to her now.

  Thomas spoke up. “S…did you pick your ability?... you get… something good?”

  She nodded. “I got [dash].”

  “...that’s a good one… if a little… ordinary…”

  Bena suddenly held out a hand, stopping them from walking. “Guys! I feel something!”

  Thomas and Viviana looked at each other, not feeling a thing. Still, their hands moved to their swords. Viviana wasn’t in perfect condition, but her ribs had already shifted into place, the bruises on her face had long faded, and the blood was already wiped out of her eyes. She was as ready as she’d ever be.

  Thomas took up a stance with a lot of openings. If Viviana was gonna use him, she’d have to patch that up.

  “What’s going on, Bena?”

  “Something’s… something’s shifting!”

  Shit.

  Then, a tall humanoid figure slowly began materializing in front of her. The Follower?! Thomas had just told us about how dangerous it was. I can’t fight a level fourteen creature, not without my soulbound weapon drawn.

  Thomas echoed her thoughts. “...The Follower…but there’s no corpse trees…how?”

  Should we shift? No, it’ll chase us there.

  Should we run? No, it’ll hunt us down.

  Should we fight? It's level fourteen. Our combined levels don’t even reach four.

  Still, she had to do something. Sword pointed forward, she got ready to fight. I’ve gotta do something. Rankings are based on team, so even if I die here, if my team makes it out, I could potentially still rank high.

  Viviana activated [dash], surging forward in a burst of speed…

  And immediately face planted.

  “Yo, guys. Why are you on the floor, Viviana?”

  “Lucian?!”