The Wish Game

Prelude to the Competition

One month has passed since my mentorship and the intra-class competition was that day. That morning, I was feeling really let-down as I didn’t even have a single combat or magic lesson. All she focused on for the month was my strategic and physical abilities.

The field of examination was a giant multi-field stadium a bit north of Choire. We reached there at dawn and were allowed to rest for a bit. I sat alone on a chair away from the other competitors. “There’s no way I am even exempted from being last.”

A little later, the warden came in and said, “Today’s your first test. It’ll be based on what you’ve learned in your three-month-long classes…” He gave a long glance towards me, causing everyone to stare at me.

“…Or your mentorship. The format of the competition will be as follows. You’ll choose one of the spawning rooms. There’ll be only one competitor in one spawning room. It’ll then spawn you at a random place in the stadium.” He brought up a map of the stadium and showed it to us.

“This is the field map. It has deserts in the west, floodplains in the north, mountains in the east, and rocky cliffs in the south. The central part of the map is a forest. Your objective is to navigate through the map and incapacitate your opponents whom you encounter. The battle will be watched through transmission crystals and marked as you go through the mission.”

The warden left and I stood up and followed him. Going to a corner of the corridor, I asked, “I want permission to meet my mentor.” He instead said calmly, “Why now? You know we can’t allow you to meet her at this eleventh hour.” “Yes, I know, that’s why I came for permission in the first place.”

He gritted his teeth at my response and said, “Fine, do whatever you want. It’s not like you’re going to make any difference.” I smiled and left him. Though through sheer intuition, I could feel what he was thinking, ‘She’s on the radar of everyone there. So let’s let her plan.’

I went to Mineva’s room and asked, “What do they mean when they said that we’re supposed to incapacitate our enemy?” She was surprised at first and later replied, “Simply put, it means putting your enemy out of action. Don’t worry, it’ll be easy.”

I looked down and said, “I have a gut feeling that they’re going to g**g up on me. I’ll be the first on their hit list.” Mineva, however, smiled “So be it. We’ll see that later, but give it your best.”

I was disappointed and turned around to exit when another question popped into my mind, “How am I supposed to incapacitate my enemy?” “What? Didn’t I tell you-” She shrieked astonished but calmed down as I responded in negative.

“Okay, you’re allowed to take any weapon that’s inside your spawn room. There are all sorts of weapons – swords, bows, spears, mage staffs, battle staffs, etc. Though all of them are jinxed that they won’t kill the other person.” She explained.

“The question still remains. If I can’t do any considerable damage to…” I wondered, but she stopped me in my tracks, “Who said you can’t damage your opponents. You can damage them to any extent as long as it’s not life-threatening.”

“But I don’t know how to use any weapons.” I was really worried but she threw me out of the room, saying “Nor do they.” I returned to the waiting room and began thinking over her words. I looked at the entire group and knew from their looks that I was the weakest part.

‘More than a hundred will go in and one will come out victorious…Should I go for points they’ll assess? No, given my record, I am already at the bottom of the list. So…The only thing I can do is…’ I got up and went to the map thinking.

“I must win…” I muttered to myself and looked at the map. ‘There are five regions – floodplain, cliffs, mountains, desert, and forest.’ The map was a simple paper diagram, it had no sort of details on how the terrain was or anything specific.

‘It’s like she said on that day, I’ll have to use whatever limited time I have to strategize.’ I thought and began strategizing based on some common assumptions on the terrain.

‘Let’s see, I’ll be dropped in any of these areas randomly. So, I cannot hope to get any advantage. Let’s start with the forest. It’s not given which kind of forest it’ll be, so my best bet would be to assume a forest with mediocre height trees.’ I began jotting down points in my brain.

‘ The desert will have almost no vegetation, so I must avoid getting there but…’ I looked at the desert portion and imagined the scene there, ‘Sand dunes and dusty wind are perfect for stealth and ambushes.’

My finger moved to the mountains and I thought, ‘Not a great idea to freeze there, but they’ll probably have rivers as well and great for moving around in the snow. The cliffs have plenty of cover areas and ambushes’

Finally, I took a look at the floodplains and sighed silently, ‘They’re the worst. No mobility, no cover, and all prone to long-range attack. Hope it doesn’t come to that.’ I began to think about something I could use to leverage my advantage, but the thought of fact that we could be randomly spawned into any area just canceled my plan completely.

“All participants proceed to their spawning room. Each spawning room will drop you at a random preset location on the map. Everyone will be at least 500 meters away from another person to ensure a basic level of survivability.” An announcement came through a crystal placed on a desk.

We got up and began moving towards the spawning rooms. A teacher was waiting there for us. Behind him was a corridor with rooms numbered 1, 2, 3, 4… on our right and 128, 127, 126… on our left. We stood there for some time, wondering for some time.

Out of nowhere, a thought struck me and I raised my hand. The teacher gave a nod, indicating me to continue, “I’ll like to volunteer to be the first one.” He gave a satisfying nod and stepped aside. I walked past him and opened room number 1 and shut the door.

Inside the room was a crystal that showed what was happening outside. Perhaps it was a receiving crystal and somewhere outside was a transmission crystal. I saw as the other participants asked the teacher, “What was that about?”

The teacher, however, smiled, “As she said, you can choose any room if you volunteer, but now I have your list and your assigned rooms are as follows. You can switch out your room with any of your friends though.”

“Good thing, I don’t have friends anyway.” I sighed and looked around the room. Mineva said that I should find my weapons here, but wait, “I don’t know how to use weapons…” I shrieked and almost felt the others laughing at me.

“So much for a problem kid.” I cursed myself as another announcement came. “All participants must choose their equipment and exit through the door within ten minutes.” I turned around to find the previous door disappearing and two trunks appeared on my left and right.

I went to the left trunk and opened it to find magic-related weapons – magic staffs, spell books of different elements among other items. “I don’t think they are any good to me. I do not have any proficiency in magic.”

I sighed and closed the trunk. I opened the other trunk and looked inside, expecting battle weapons as Mineva said. “Whoa, this is good stuff. But…” I exclaimed as I saw numerous battle-oriented weapons. Battle-staffs, bows, swords, daggers, spears, etc.

Again, I had no proficiency in any sorts of weapons either. But going out on the field without any weapons is practically asking for the last position, knowing that I was already a marked target. “Now let’s see.” I picked up the weapons one by one and tested them like a child.

A Sword – Bladed on both sides. It’s easy to use but too heavy and counter-effective.

A Spear – Bladed long-range melee weapon, I can keep a safe distance, but is counter-effective if someone gets close.

Bow – Long-range projectile, too hard to use.

Battle-staff – Blunt weapon. It can be used as a support item as well, but I won’t have any close-quarters defense.

Daggers – Best for close quarters and sneak attacks, but I don’t think they’ll be effective in a frontal attack.

I tried the weapons for more than five minutes and before I realized it, the one-minute warning announcement came. “All participants are hereby informed that they must hasten their selection of equipment and prepare to come out.”

I hurried and took some daggers as my weapon along with some utility items and went out of the door. Outside, it was pitch black and as I gained some distance from the door, it closed and the room lost the remaining light.

Within a few minutes, I suddenly felt a jerk as the room seemed to move upwards. A few flashes of light came and went from the front. Finally, after a minute of climbing, it stopped, and the wall – actually a door in front of me burst open, spraying bright light on my face and blinding me completely.