The squeaking of birds rang through Jack's ears. His face was warm and the ground beneath his back was not a soft mattress, but sand.
It only took a moment for him to realize that he was not asleep in his room and when he opened his eyes his fear was confirmed. He awoke on a beach with no other land as far as he could see across the ocean.
Looking around, he found rows of people neatly spaced between themselves. To his right was man that looked like he owned too many body pillows and to his left was a woman who was wearing work clothes.
What caught his attention was not the ocean that seemed to never end, nor the rows of people on either side of him, it was the giant tower that pierced the clouds. The only thing he could describe its height to was the Tower of Babel from myths. Each floor had different designs, some were dark and plain and others were bright and surrounded by overgrown plants.
"Where are we?"
Jack couldn't stop himself from thinking aloud and as if his voice was heard a loud noise rang through his head causing him to fall down.
When he composed himself he stood back up and found that a translucent screen was in vision.
[Congratulations Humans of Earth, you have all been selected to participate in the 500th Annual 'Dungeon Island' Challenge. You will have to survive the trials of the island and eventually make your way to the tower where your reward awaits! The system will guide you through your journey. Good luck to you challengers!]
Even though it was a short message it was enough to let Jack know that he isn't on Earth anymore.
He wanted to check out the system that was just mentioned but something caught his attention. A rock landed right by his foot, then another, and another. In a moment the random rocks turned into a flurry of sharp projectiles. Even after lifting his hands up to shield his face he couldn't completely stop the barrage.
After his clothes became almost completely torn off the rain of rocks ended. He looked around to see how the others were fairing, but that turned out to be a mistake. The fat man to his right was laying on the sand with a rock lodged between his eyes, his crimson blood slowly still seeping out.
The woman on his left was in an even worse situation, she was still alive but that meant her pain was a thousand times worse. Her leg was collapsed inwards with her bones poking out the back side. The sound that Jack had tuned out with adrenaline slowly returned which, unfortunately, allowed him to hear the pained wails from the woman.
Just when he thought he would be stuck hearing the screams of someone close to death, another screen appeared in front of him with instructions.
[Tutorial Quest: Defeat the Goblins!
Description: A scout party of goblins left their dungeon and attacked the humans who just arrived on the island. Enter the dungeon and eradicate the goblins that slaughtered the humans.
Reward: ???
Upon Failure: Death]
When he finished reading the quest that he just received, he glanced up towards dense tropical forest and found a new blue light faintly glowing directly in front of him. The few people that were close to him and still alive had already started moving towards the suspicious glow. Since the fastest way to reach a destination is to move straight towards it, Jack was able to make up the ground fast.
When he reached the forest his slow jogging pace, turned into a speed similar to a newborn's crawl. The branches that he attempted to push through felt stronger than a tree stump and when he originally entered the forest he had accidently clothes-lined himself further dirtying his last form of protection, being his underwear.
Luckily, or perhaps not, the source of the glow wasn't far from the shores that they had woken up on. When he finally made it through the brush, Jack couldn't help but be amazed at what was creating the light.
It was small, but the more he looked into it, the more it looked like a galaxy. The portal was without a doubt the most mystical thing any of the four people, including Jack, who reached it had seen. It made all of them realize that they were truly on an island in the middle of nowhere.
Before entering he looked around at the 3 other's at the portal. To his left were 2 men, one was short and portly, his age definitely showed through his wrinkles; the other was tall and built, he was clearly very active which showed on his slim face.
On his right was a girl that looked to be around his age, unlike him she was very attractive with smooth skin and a well taken care of figure. Although his opinion might come from the fact that she was also lacking in the clothing department; being 18 meant he still had his teenager hormones.
When he took a glance back to his left, he found the built man eyeing up the girl. Except he wasn't looking to gather any information in the case they were forced to fight together, his eyes contained nothing but lust.
The worst case scenario ended up happening when he saw the mans mouth start moving.
"Hello young lady, why don't you enter with me? You can clearly see all these muscles, there will be nothing to worry about."
His attempt at trying to pick up the girl failed when the girl looked down at his 'attached sword' and found it 'ready for action', except it was more like toothpick and the girl couldn't hold her laughter.
Jack was in the same spot, but he was able to control his laughter. It was obvious what was going to happen next and Jack readied himself to intervene.
The man pulled back his fist and started to swing it at the girl. Jack already expected it and caught his arm, using the momentum he flung him over his hip slamming him into the ground.
Before he could catch his breath and stand up, Jack grabbed the girl and entered the portal.