Nathan laid on the rock floor of the passage, unable to summon the motivation to do anything. His wristband interface was glowing, but he ignored it. Asahi had already informed him they’d finished the challenge and reached the safe area, at least according to the man’s system message log.

Fifteen minutes before, the moving wall of the cavern had slammed into the opposite fixed wall and crushed everything between. That included the tons of broken stalactites and various other rocks that the wall had pushed along in front of it. And don’t forget Kean’s mangled body. He winced. Yes, he’d never be able to forget the enthusiastic kid, even if he wanted to. They’d left him behind in the churning rocks of death.

Like his mind, Nathan’s body was also suffering. Starting at the bottom, his legs felt like jello resulting already in one major cramp in his calf muscle. Analyzing higher up, he was fairly certain he had pulled something in his back. And last but not least, he had a nasty cut on his forehead, along with the flesh on his cheek and forehead being scraped all to hell. He wouldn’t be surprised if he had a concussion based on how the ceiling was spinning. But all of that wasn’t why his body refused to move.

Kean was dead. He was only a teenager, put into a cruel experiment, or game, or whatever this whole ridiculous thing was. And Nathan had dropped him. He had the chance to save him… and failed.

The stone passageway was lit by the soft glow emanating from yellow crystals every few yards. A stone slab had slid down and sealed off the entranceway behind them right before the impact of the rubble. It was a good thing too since the avalanche of rock outside would have entered the passageway and killed them all otherwise.

There was only one way they could travel, and that was wherever this passage led.

He heard sobbing from one of the people to his side. He didn’t have the energy to look at them, but he could tell it was Asahi. The fact that the stoic soldier was crying surprised Nathan, although it probably shouldn’t have. The man must be feeling the same thing as him. Guilt.

It was probably even worse for Asahi since he had run ahead, leaving them behind. He did come back to help, but they were put in a situation they could have avoided in the first place by staying together. On top of that, the man had to make a choice between saving Nathan or Kean, which only added to the guilt. Nathan wasn’t exactly sure why the soldier had picked him over the kid. If anything, Nathan was heavier and harder to carry.

But Nathan suspected that the man’s choice had been cold logic. Kean, while no doubt brilliant, was… let’s face it… out of shape and weak, at least compared to the other three. And the challenge had been heavily biased towards favoring the physical, not mental. The pragmatic choice was no doubt eating the man up, since he specifically chose not to save a fifteen year old boy.

A grunt from his other side must have indicated the Swedish woman was moving. Nathan cracked one eye open and turned his head slightly towards her. He could now add neck pain to his list of hurts. The woman had been lying down and was now sitting up. Her wristband wasn’t glowing. He guessed she must have finally checked her messages. Had she been passed out learning the Language skill while he’d laid here not caring about anything?

“Hey Ms., can you understand me now?” Nathan asked in English. His voice was raspy and dry, sounding more like a croak than someone speaking words.

She looked startled for a moment before recovering. “Yes, I… fell asleep after reading the magic box.” Her English was crisp and proper, only a slight accent betraying her origin.

“It’s not magic, just really advanced alien tech.” Nathan coughed a few times. His irritated throat made speech difficult. “Not that it matters. I’m Nathan.”

“Johanna. Why are we here? Who did this? Do you have any food?” She had a note of desperation in her voice, increasing with each question.

“I wish I knew the answers to any of those.” Nathan wasn’t so hungry himself; only outrageously thirsty. He decided to stick to more comfortable topics to distract himself from current events. “Where are you from, Johanna?”

“Stockholm.” After a long silence, Nathan realized she wasn’t going to elaborate.

“That’s in Europe, right?”

She didn’t bother to hide her eye rolling. “Yes, in Sweden.” Then she added, “It’s the capital.”

Nathan blushed. “I see. We thought you might be Swedish. I’ve never been there, but I’ve always wanted to go. In fact, I’ve never been to Europe at all.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. You’re American I can tell. Well, Sweden is a beautiful country. Well governed. One of the best places to live.” She idly brushed the tangles in her hair with her fingers while she spoke.

He suppressed his urge to explain how great his own country was too. Given their situation, it wouldn’t be productive. There was one thing about her that didn’t make sense though. “I thought everyone spoke English in Sweden, but not you?”

Her lips drew into a thin line. “Most do. I don’t.”

Asahi spoke up from his other side, addressing Johanna. “I heard you speaking Russian a few times earlier. Were your grandparents immigrants to Sweden after the war?”

Johanna’s expression softened as she replied to the man. “No, but close. I emigrated from Russia over twenty years ago.”

“Ah, I see,” Asahi said. “So after the fall of the Soviet Union.”

She nodded, but said nothing.

Normally, Nathan would’ve enjoyed hearing about people’s home countries, but her hot and cold attitude towards Asahi and him caused his interest to wane. They were probably all going to die soon so what did it matter? Instead, he asked her what he was actually curious about. “What are your stats?”

“Stats? As in statistics?”

“Yeah, there is a player statistics tab in your blue interface screen; you can select it with your mind.”

“Is that so?” She held up her wrist and a blue screen appeared in front of her face. Her forehead crinkled in concentration as she selected the player statistics tab. “I have 119 Physical, 122 Mental, 7 Nanite Points, and skills listed are Language I and General Fitness I.”

Nathan sat up, back pain momentarily forgotten. “General Fitness skill? How’d you get that?” Now that he was sitting, he had a better look at her. Her face was covered in an oily sheen of sweat, and her cheeks were still flushed red from their run.

“I had a terrible pain after opening the interface. It said I learned the skill thanks to extended exercise. The pain was almost as bad as going through childbirth again. I‘m glad I fell asleep for most of it. Now I’m hungry.”

Nathan looked down at his own glowing wristband. Better to check it now before they were forced to do another challenge. He laid his head back down and held his wrist up, opening his screen.

[System Message Log]

[Congratulations, you have been awarded 5 NPs for completing the first preliminary challenge by reaching the safe area.]

[You have learned the General Fitness I skill due to your extended exercise session.]

As soon as he finished reading, every muscle in Nathan’s body abruptly spasmed, causing his arms and digits to contort in pain. His back involuntarily arched and his jaw clamped down so hard he was afraid he would crack his teeth. That was the last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness.

***

Nathan groaned as he woke. His body ached all over. He sat up and looked around the passageway, stretching his arms and back. Johanna and Asahi were in the middle of a conversation further up the passage.

Johanna’s mouth was tight in annoyance. “I’m hungry and thirsty. I should go on ahead. I’ll come back if I find anything.”

Asahi held his hands up in placation. “Please be patient a few more minutes, he should be awake soon. Then we go together.”

“It’s okay, I’m awake now,” Nathan called over to them, his voice cracking as he spoke. His mouth was still parched. He carefully got to his feet, sighing at the general exhaustion in his body. Oddly enough, his head wasn’t throbbing anymore, and his strained back felt… normal. He was still tired, and his body was sore in a few weird places, but whatever the skill learning process did to him had helped.

He touched his face and his hand came away wet with blood. He blanched, panicking briefly before he realized there was no accompanying pain. His previously scraped skin was now smooth and no longer bleeding. It had been healed. He wiped the leftover blood on the back of his shirt, stomach twisting at the disgusting red sight.

Then his stomach growled loudly. So the new skill had also made him stupidly hungry.

As he walked over to the other two players, he opened his character sheet and noted he now had a total of 7 NPs like Johanna. Then he checked out his new skill description.

[General Fitness I: (Gain +1 Physical.)]

[Upgrade requirements for level II: 10 NPs, Physical 110.]

He reviewed his stats again, and sure enough, his Physical had increased by +1 to 126. This skill was apparently a lot easier to upgrade compared to the Language skill, only costing 10 NPs for level two. That made sense since it was fairly basic; it didn’t teach him five freaking languages after all. The Physical stat requirement at 110 was pretty low as well and he met that easily. He only needed 3 NPs and then he should be able to upgrade it.

He thought about what the skill actually represented. While learning it, the pain he’d experienced had been mainly muscular in his body, which was consistent with the skill’s only benefit in increasing his Physical stat. But when he’d learned the Language skill, the pain had been centered more in his head, like a crazy migraine. He figured that was likely because it was a Mental related skill instead of Physical.

He inspected his body to see if he looked or felt any stronger. He touched his bicep. It seemed… maybe firmer? He honestly couldn’t tell for sure. He figured between his exhaustion, hunger, and thirst, he didn’t feel well enough to be able to accurately assess his current fitness. But he was certain that the Physical stat improvement had helped heal his head wound and back injury. Probably helped remove countless other scrapes and bruises too, judging by the fact that he didn’t have any now.

“Alright, let’s go and see what else is going to kill us,” Nathan said, leading the way down the passage. Judging from Johanna’s frown, he realized his dark humor was coming across as obnoxious. He tried to lighten it up by adding, “And who knows, there might even be some food and water.”

The other two players followed behind him as they walked in silence. Nathan dwelled on the death of Kean and his guilt at failing. He knew he should probably try to talk with the others for distraction, or at least to get to know the two players better, but he just couldn’t start. His throat was dry which he used as his main excuse for being anti-social.

The passageway was straight and uniform, without any deviation. Every glow crystal was exactly the same distance apart. They walked about ten minutes before reaching the end of the long hallway. A closed wooden door waited for them. A symbol was engraved into the wood and Nathan studied it for a few moments. There were five spheres set equidistance apart from each other in a circle. Each sphere had an arrow pointing from it to the next sphere in the formation so that they made a circular pattern. There was also a different set of straight arrows pointing from each sphere to the sphere two to its right making a crisscross pattern in the center.

“I know this symbol,” Asahi said.

“Is it important?” Johanna asked somewhat impatiently.

“Wu Xing,” Asahi stated. “This symbol is a chart of the five phases of generation and destruction cycles. Each sphere represents one of the Five Elements.”

“The what? How could you possibly know that?” she said.

“You may have heard of Feng Shui?”

“Sure, the home decoration style? What does that have to do with anything?” she replied.

“Yes, home decoration is but one aspect of Feng Shui. I mentioned it since you might be more familiar with that terminology. It takes the principles of Wu Xing and applies them for practical use. Feng Shui is a Chinese astrology derived from the Five Elements cycle to promote balance in life and bring good fortune. In Japan, we have a slightly different version but I was taught the Chinese philosophy. My great-grandparents were Chinese immigrants to Japan and their teachings have been kept in the family ever since...”

“That’s truly fascinating,” Johanna interrupted, sarcasm evident in her tone. “But how about we open the door? We need food and water to live. And we’ve no idea if that symbol even relates to Feng Shui or whatever.”

Asahi bowed his head to her respectfully. “I apologize, Johanna-san. You are correct. Let us continue moving.”

Nathan was annoyed with her tone, but he had to admit she made a valid point. Since Nathan had led them down the passageway, he figured he should be the one to open the door. There was no visible door handle so he pushed. It swung open smoothly, revealing a spartan circular stone room. The only object it contained was a central pedestal about waist height.

His eyes were drawn to a reflection of light as a water droplet fell from an opening in the ceiling. The water was collecting into a clearly man-made, or rather alien-made, two foot wide stone bowl set on top of the pedestal. Streaks of light from around the hole in the ceiling above were shining atmospherically down, creating a rather dramatic mood of mystery. The floor was stone tiled and the walls were smooth unlike the rough rock of the passageway and the previous death cavern. The round room had no other visible exits.

“Water!” Johanna gasped. She shoved past Nathan and rushed to the pedestal.

“Wait!” Nathan called after her, paranoid the room was trapped or the water poisoned. They had yet to encounter the second challenge and no telling if this was part of it.

“You should be more cautious, Johanna-san,” Asahi said, echoing Nathan’s paranoia.

Johanna put her head straight down into the bowl of water and began drinking. When nothing immediately bad happened to her while she drank, Nathan took a careful step into the room as well. Asahi followed behind.

He needed water so badly it was difficult to think clearly now that it was right in front of him. But he had no idea if the water was safe or not. It could be poisoned to eliminate incautious players from the trials. But if he didn’t drink, he would probably die anyway. His run from earlier had dehydrated him and he was light headed. He required water if he was going to face another serious challenge and expect to win. After weighing which choice was least likely to end in death, he decided to drink. His decision had the benefit of being the more satisfying choice as well.

He reached the water bowl as Johanna finished drinking. The crystal clear water was inviting. The water falling from above was hitting the middle of the water causing ripples to reach the edges. His dry mouth and throat demanded he drink soon; he couldn’t resist much longer. He took one last look around to make sure nothing seemed amiss and then he put his finger in the water. It felt cool to the touch which made his parched throat even needier.

He cupped his hands and scooped up a handful of water and took a sniff. It had no smell, which he supposed was a good sign. He tentatively touched his tongue to the liquid. It tasted wet. It tasted wonderful. He slurped up the rest of his handful and felt greedy for more. He put his mouth directly to the pooled water and began to drink in deep gulps. He’d never drunk anything so refreshing. He honestly didn’t know if the water was special. Most likely the simple explanation for it tasting so good was his unprecedented thirst. He noticed Asahi had joined him on the other side of the bowl.

“Is it wise to lower your guard while you drink?” a strange feminine voice asked from behind him.

Nathan whipped his head back up out of the water so fast he nearly lost his balance. He saw Johanna standing to his side, staring at something behind him. If Johanna was over there, then who had spoken?

“Did I startle you?” the voice asked with mirth as Nathan turned to face it. He was stunned to see what looked like a blue computer projection in front of him; a three dimensional holographic image of a middle aged woman. The woman was wearing small lens glasses and had black hair pulled into a tight bun on the back of her head. She wore a white lab coat with black slacks and had a rather kind looking expression.

“Yes… yes, you did,” Nathan stammered in reply.

“Exactly. A rather fortuitous happenstance that it was me, your Tutorial Guide, who happened upon you three and not a monster or an enemy player.”

“Monster?” Johanna asked, appearing bewildered at the news.

“Yes, monsters are artificially created enemies who provide challenges for players and opportunities to earn nanite points. Or NPs if you rather. The monsters are controlled by nanites who moderate their function as appropriate for the monster’s tier level. The monsters are generated periodically and while many are free roaming, most are concentrated in designated challenge areas called dungeons ruled by a dungeon boss.”

He had to fight monsters? His mind couldn’t quite get past this bit of news. He had suspected it, but that had been one of the worst case scenario of ideas about what they would face. Nathan had so many questions now he had no idea where to begin. She mentioned a dungeon boss… so that means dungeons with monsters. It dawned on him then… she was describing a game. Specifically a role playing game like the one he was playing last night.

As he processed these similarities in his mind, he decided he should just ask her for confirmation. “Is this a game?”

“From a certain perspective, yes. All life is a game. Since I know that wasn’t the intent of your open ended question, I will clarify this one time. The trials are modeled after role playing games in their structure and the player’s advancement. But make no mistake, this is all real and not a simulation. At least as real as your life on Earth was real anyway.”

“Who are you?” Johanna asked.

“As I said before, I am the Tutorial Guide. Next question?”

Johanna clenched her jaw at the curt response. Her face turned a deep shade of red. Even redder than it had been earlier after running for their lives.

“Why?” Nathan asked instead. When the Guide cocked an eyebrow at his generic question, he elaborated. “Why …this? Why are we here? Why is it like a game?”

“The arena trials were devised specifically to mimic a RPG like they have on modern day Earth. Tygerion the Maker created the system himself.”

“Tygerion the Maker? Who’s that?” It sounded like a generic fantasy name and title if ever he’d heard one. Probably the leader of these psychos.

“He is the one who opened your planet’s welcome package and chose to implement it in this way. Every species is different so the Immortal Collective leaves it to the discretion of the primitive mortal species how they choose to implement the trials when it is their turn. Some choose a peaceful contest while others choose violence. These trials have taken the form of a role playing game from your culture as designed by Tygerion the Maker.”

Nathan felt his own face heat up in anger. “You mean we could’ve been in a debate contest or a spelling bee? Instead we have to run to keep from being crushed to death… all because this Tygerion dude thought it’d be cool?”

“Yes, the trials can take any form. The Immortal Collective does not make value judgements on mortal cultures. They allow the trials to take whichever form the package opener wishes.”

Nathan couldn’t believe it, they were so irresponsible. “Do they not care if a psychopath opens their package and makes it a death game?”

“They give a choice; it is up to the mortals to decide what they do with it.”

“But I didn’t choose to be here!”

“Your representative chose for you.”

“But Kean was a damn kid! Why put him here?” Nathan realized he was shouting, his emotions boiling over to the point that he could barely think straight.

“Any human with the required cumulative stats between the Earth ages of fifteen and fifty are eligible. This is in line with the requirements that other sentient species have abided by for countless millennia.”

He was furious and needed to chill. He didn’t want to ruin his chance to gain vital information. Instead of yelling the next thing that entered his mind, he began pacing back and forth. He took deep measured breaths, trying to leash the animal inside. He studied the projected woman while he moved about behind the other two players. He was surprised that he couldn’t see where the projection originated. She talked and moved independently of any projector source.

“Are you part of the Immortal Collection?” Johanna asked. Apparently she was still trying to figure out who the holographic woman was and thought of a better way to ask.

“You mean Immortal Collective. And no dear, I am an artificial intelligence who was designed specifically to help guide species group D, the humans from the planet Earth. These trials are especially interesting since it is the first with a new species in quite some time. When your Earth person Yuri Gagarin orbited your planet successfully you finally became eligible to join. So when the trials were next ready to begin as they do approximately every ninety-seven Earth years, the welcome package was sent to your planet instead of the one previously scheduled.”

Lucky us. Nathan stopped pacing and faced the Guide. “So this Tygerion jerk, he’s the one who made that rock trap that killed Kean?”

“Yes, he designed the challenges, the arena world, and the nature of the trials. He is one of the most enthusiastic Trial Makers in quite some time.”

What a swell guy. “Is he human? Can I punch him in the face?”

“He is a human from the planet Earth. As to whether you can punch him in the face... that depends on if you can survive long enough to meet him.”

Nathan clenched his jaw, now knowing his new goal in life. “Count on it.”

She smiled and nodded her head in acknowledgement. Asahi then stepped forward, speaking for the first time since the Guide’s appearance. “Can you give us information on the second challenge?”

Nathan had to admit that was actually a good question. Way more of a practical question than the emotional ones he’d been asking.

“The first challenges for players were all mostly physical in nature. Whereas the second challenges contain a type of puzzle, thus testing your mental aptitude. Only those able to pass the challenges are worth spending the resources necessary to further test you in the main arena.”

“What kind of puzzle?” Nathan asked, now turning his mind to the task at hand.

“And ruin the surprise?”

Yeah, that would be awful.

The Guide never lost her infuriating smile. “I will say that the second challenges are taken individually so you will have to split up. You may choose afterwards to start together in the main arena should you desire to see each other again. Of course, this is assuming you each survive your next challenge.”

“Can you tell us anything else that might help?” Nathan asked.

“No.”

Figures.

The Guide’s smile became even bigger. “Now onto the important part which is the reason I am here today. The Five Elements. You must each choose your element.”

Nathan chuckled slightly despite his foul mood. So Asahi actually had the right idea about the symbol on the door. Nathan glanced over to see the soldier suppressing a self-satisfied smile as he eyed Johanna.

The Guide continued, “The elements are the five forces that make up the universe. Of course there is your partially completed periodic table of elements you studied in what you consider an education, but this is referring to something else. The Five Elements are the closest thing the Immortal Collective has to a religion. I believe they even gave hints to various civilizations on your Earth throughout your history. Unfortunately, the vast majority of you humans have remained ignorant.”

Asahi appeared even more smug if that was possible. Johanna pointedly didn’t meet the man’s eye.

“The Five Elements are Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. And do note that Earth translated into your English language, Nathan, is referring to the elemental embodiment of the material plane as opposed to the name of your backwater planet. Why you would name your planet after one of the elements is beyond me.”

Nathan was fairly sure he’d just been insulted. As to the elements she’d listed, he was surprised Wind or Air wasn’t mentioned. In the RPGs he had played, Air was almost always included as a magical element. “What about Air, isn’t that an element?”

“Air is part of all the elements, but not one of the main energies. By your confused expression, I see I need to elaborate. Your Mental stat is the lowest in the room after all.”

Nathan frowned at the holographic woman. Yep, he was definitely being insulted.

The Guide smiled again and began lecturing. “The Elements can act as forces of energy just as easily as they might correlate to material components. For example, Wood is the energy that feeds Fire, which could simply manifest as a physical object like firewood. The Wood element could also take the form of oxygen in the air that the fire needs to continue its chemical reaction to grow. Air is but a generic term for matter in a gaseous state and all matter can become a gas if you make it hot enough. So the air is a part of the elements, but by itself not one of the Five.”

Johanna was scowling at the Guide’s explanation. “So you’re saying the Wood element is air? That makes no sense.”

Asahi turned and answered instead. “If I understand correctly, it can be at times when it takes that form. The elements are energies in a constant state of interaction and flux with one another.”

"Precisely," the Guide said. She gave Asahi a wink. The man looked a bit embarrassed.

Nathan sort of got the gist of it. But he was unfortunately finding it difficult to concentrate on the philosophical discussion since he was hungry and tired. Where was the food? They just ran for their lives across a freaking cavern, at least the aliens could feed them. Perhaps that was the second challenge... having a quiz afterwards about elements and trying to answer on an empty stomach. He knew it wouldn't be that easy but he could dream. He sighed. These explanations were important and could impact his survival so he forced himself to focus as best he could.

“Now enough of that.” The Guide assumed a serious expression. “You must each choose an element to be your Prime. You may choose any of the Five Elements that you wish, but do note the choice is permanent. Each element has advantages and disadvantages that will affect your Physical and Mental development as well as change your available skill options and preferred weapons. Your choice of element will also affect your other starting elemental affinities. I will allow only one more question so that we can wrap this up and get started.”

The three players glanced at each other, each seeing who would ask their question first. Nathan basically already knew his question but didn’t want to be rude and blurt it out. When neither of the other two players spoke, Nathan went ahead. “What are the pros and cons of each element in regards to our development and skills?”

Asahi unfortunately chose that same moment to ask his question. "How closely do the traditional Chinese elements..." he trailed off when he realized he and Nathan were talking over each other.

“Nathan was first by 0.12 seconds. My, my, there is a lot crammed into that question. I couldn’t possibly answer that properly in an entire day. Instead, I will give you an extremely brief overview about how each Elemental Prime operates. Fire Primes prefer offense and speed, Earth Primes favor defense and protection, Metal Primes prize strength and power, Water Primes excel at energy generation and healing, and Wood Primes maintain balance and flexibility.”

Nathan absorbed the information and wished there was more. She hadn’t been kidding when she called it a brief overview.

"Which weapons..." Nathan began, but the Guide cut him off.

“Sorry, no more questions. Now, there are five doors behind you. Pick your element by going through the appropriate door. You may each choose the same element or pick different ones, but you still have to face the second challenge alone so that shouldn’t be a factor in your decision. You have ten minutes to make your selection before this room collapses with everything in it. When the room starts shaking, you have one minute left. Good luck.”

The holographic woman disappeared, leaving the three players contemplating the choice before them.