Solstice hit the ground hard, landing and rolling several meters away.
He gasped deeply, his lungs burning as cold air rushed into his chest. His hands dug into dirt, real, solid dirt, and the smell of damp earth and moss filled his nose.
He pushed himself up, blinking against the sudden brightness that shone into his retina. He used his palm to shield his vision from the light, then glanced around, trying to recognise his surrounding
He was in a forest.
Tall trees stretched overhead, their branches tangled and thick enough to block out most of the sky. The underbrush was dense, and the air was heavy with the sound of rustling leaves and distant animal calls.
Solstice turned in a slow circle, taking it all in.
From the looks of it, he was the only individual within the terrain, and somewhere in this city sized dimension, six orbs were waiting to be collected.
He exhaled slowly, steadying his nerves.
'Alright,' he thought. 'Lets see what you've got.'
The forest was quiet as he moved, eerily quiet to be precise, one part of it that kept him uneasy.
Solstice crouched low behind a gnarled tree trunk, his breath shallow and controlled. His eyes swept across the clearing ahead, scanning for movement, for shapes that didn't belong, for anything that might tell him he wasn't as alone as he felt.
But there was nothing…
Just trees, moss covered rocks, and the faint rustle of leaves in a breeze that didn't quite touch his skin.
He exhaled slowly and leaned back against the bark, letting his racing heart settle. His hands were shaking, not from fear, exactly, but from the adrenaline that had been flooding his system since the moment he'd landed.
'Focus,' he told himself. 'Get your bearings, think'
The transfer had gone wrong. He didn't know how or why, but the moment the system had pulled him from the pod, something had felt off. Like being yanked sideways through a tunnel that wasn't quite wide enough for him to fit through, and when he opened his eyes, he'd been alone.
Just him, dumped in the middle of a forest with nothing but the clothes on him and a metallic bracelet on his wrist that was supposed to be his lifeline.
Solstice glanced down at the bracelet. It gleamed faintly in the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy of trees, and a soft pulse of blue light throbbed along its edges, steady like a heartbeat.
He tapped it experimentally, but nothing happened.
He tapped it again, harder this time for a response, and a translucent screen flickered to life in front of him, hovering in midair.
[Player: Solstice]
[Player Number: 206]
[Objective: Retrieve the Six Orbs of Immortality]
[Time remaining: 71:42:18]
[Group status: Separated]
[Warning: You must return to a portal in a group of two or more to exit the trial]
Solstice stared at the last line for a while, then sighed.
'Two or more huh'
He'd heard Instructor Veyra mention the groups, but he hadn't caught the part about the exit requirement or maybe he had, and his brain had just skipped over it because it hadn't seemed important at the time.
Now it was everything.
He couldn't leave alone even if he wanted to because it was a requirement, not an option.
Even if he found all six orbs, even if he survived the full seventy-two hours, he'd be stuck here unless he found at least one other person to return with.
'Great..' he thought bitterly. 'Just great'
He dismissed the screen with a wave of his hand, and it dissolved into sparks of light.
'Alright. Priorities first.'
He needed water. He needed food. He needed to figure out where the hell he was and whether there were any other candidates nearby.
And he needed to do all of that without getting killed by whatever 'beast and monsters' Veyra had mentioned during their orientation.
Solstice pushed himself to his feet and started moving after seeing no hope in waiting.
★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆★★
The original Solstice had been trained for this. Years of academy drills, survival exercises, and combat fundamentals, all of it was supposed to be buried somewhere in the muscle memory of this body.
But muscle memory didn't mean knowledge.
Solstice could move through the forest quietly. His footsteps were light, instinctive, like his body knew how to distribute weight and avoid snapping twigs. But he didn't know why he was doing it.
He didn't know which plants were edible, which tracks belonged to dangerous predators, or how to navigate without a compass.
He was operating on autopilot, and autopilot only got you so far.
After twenty minutes of walking, he found a stream.
It was narrow, barely wider than his arm span, and the water was clear enough that she could see smooth stones lining the bottom. He knelt beside it, cupped his hands, and brought the water to his lips.
It was fresh, cold, and clean.
He drank deeply, letting the chill settle in his chest, and then splashed some on his face. The shock of it helped clear his head a bit.
'Okay,' he thought. 'Water: check, now what?"
He glanced around. The stream cut through the forest in a winding line, disappearing into the trees on either side. Upstream, the terrain looked rockier, more elevated than the rest. Downstream, it flattened out into what might have been a marsh or wetland.
Neither options seemed particularly inviting to him.
Solstice filled his hands with water one more time, drank again, and then stood.
A sound reached his ears as he did. Voices.
He froze, every muscle locking into place almost immediately.
They were faint, distant, but unmistakable. Two, maybe three people, talking in low tones. He couldn't make out the words, but the cadence was human, not beast, not a monster.
But other candidates.
Solstice's first instinct was to call out, to run toward the voices and find safety in numbers, but something stopped him.
Maybe it wss the way the voices sounded, tense, hurried, like they were arguing. Or maybe it was the memory of Veyra's words: 'You may choose to work together, work alone, or take advantage of your fellow candidates.'
Take advantage….
Solstice crouched low and moved toward the voices, keeping to the cover of the trees and bushes.
He found them in a small clearing about fifty meters downstream.
Three candidates, all roughly his age at least. Two boys and a girl. They stood in a loose triangle, and from the way they were gesturing, it was clear they were having some kind of disagreement.
Solstice crept closer, staying hidden behind a thick bush, and strained to hear.
"....told you we should've gone north," one of the boys was saying.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, with short blue blonde hair and a scowl that looked permanent.
"The hint said,'where stone meets sky'. That's obviously a cliff or a mountain."
"Or a ruin!" The girl shot back. She was smaller than he was, wiry, with dark skin and sharp eyes.
"The map showed ruins to the east, stone structures. Could be there."
"We're wasting time arguing, guys." The second boy said. He was quieter, nervous, and fidgeting with his bracelet.
"We should just pick a direction and go."
"And if we pick wrong?" The blond boy snapped. "Then we've wasted half a day walking in circles!"
The girl crossed her arms. "Fine, you go north, and I'll go east. We'll cover more ground that way."
"And split the group?" The blond boy laughed bitterly. "You heard the rules. We need at least two people to get out. If we split up, we're screwed!"
"Then stop arguing and pick something" the nervous boy said, his voice cracking slightly.
Solstice watched them in silence.
They were a mess. Disorganized, frustrated, and clearly underprepared for the reality of the trial, and yet, they had something he didn't.
Each other.
For a moment, Solstice considered stepping out of hiding. Introducing himself and offering to join them, but then the blonde boy spoke again.
"You know what? Screw this! I'm going north. If you two want to follow, then fine. If not, good luck finding someone else to exit with."
He turned and started walking away without another glance.
The girl hesitated, glanced at the nervous boy, and then cursed under her breath. "Wait"
They followed him, chasing after him as he moved further away.
Solstice stayed where he was, watching them disappear into the trees.
There was something about the blonde boy's tone. The way he'd dismissed the others made Solstice uneasy. That group was already breaking. And if they fell apart completely, they'd be desperate.
Desperate people did stupid things.
Solstice rose to his feet slowly, brushing the dirt from his knees, and turned back toward the stream.
He'd find his own way, one way or the other.