2.

Pale green flesh, sheer webbing stretched between long skeletal fingers that ended in black talons. Its wide face was dominated by a gaping mouth full of shark teeth, onyx eyes swirled around wildly as it lashed at the air. I pulled back, letting the talons cut the air right in front of my shin. I felt more than saw Agatha and Miguel retreat as we stared at the dying fishman. All around the battlefield the sounds of the wounded and dying were suddenly apparent as our shock of the monstrous castle slid away. A sneaking suspicion filled me as I stared at this stretch of ground leading toward the castle.

“It called itself a tutorial right, Migue?” I asked curiously. I wanted to say my theory out loud, to see if it was as crazy as it sounded in my head, even though something in me screamed that I was on the right track.

“Duh.” Miguel was able to pack enough attitude in his answer that I had to keep myself from sighing. Maybe having my first follower be a teenager wasn’t the best idea. I glanced at the rather thin and ancient woman who stood by us. She was shivering violently and seemed as if she could be knocked over with a strong enough push. Just had to work with what I had.

“When you start a tutorial, what is the first thing that you learn?” I led him along, wanting to see if he could keep up.

“The controls? Like how shit works, you know.” Miguel muttered, his eyes still glued to the dying creature.

“Language!” Agatha growled as she flicked the younger boy on the side of his head. Miguel shot a look of venomous rage at her, but when he met her steely gaze he hunched his shoulders and just rubbed his head as he took a step away from her. Well, at least he would respect one of us.

“That’s what I was thinking too.” I reached down into the muck of torn apart bodies and blood drenched sand and grasped the shaft of a trident I had seen buried amongst the dead. I pulled it free from the press of limbs and looked it over. Made of a driftwood shaft with three prongs of sharp stone at the end, lashed together with a fibrous plant. Really, it looked more like a pitchfork than a trident, but as I stared at the dying monster, I knew it could get the job done.

I could do this myself. A quick downward thrust and the creature's frustrated attempts at reaching us would end. Confirm my theory or disprove it. Yet, Agatha watch me with a cautious look as I held the weapon and was slowly distancing herself. She had already cowed Miguel and I had a suspicion that was going to be useful in the future. So, I offered her the trident with one hand while I gestured at the half dead fishman with the other.

“He’s all yours, Agatha.”

“I don’t want to stab any fish thing. I just want to find my granddaughters!” There was an edge of mania as she spoke, fear and anger and hopelessness and frustration.

“What were you doing before this?” I asked as gently as I could. I kept my eyes on the fishman but noticed Miguel watched her intently from a few feet away.

“I was with my granddaughters.. We were having dinner. It was Friday night, they come over every Friday night to watch movies with me and have dinner while my son and his wife go out on a date. We had just sat down, they had bought me pizza, I was turning away from the table to get a drink and ...and… then I was waking up in the caves.” Agatha calmed down as she spoke, but the edge of fear and confusion was still there.

“I was going to the corner store with my mom and sister. We had just pushed open the door and then it was waking up in the cave for me. They aren’t down there with the rest of them, though.” Miguel filled the silence immediately. Good, I needed them to bond, to get along even at the surface level, and some basic sharing of the experience that we had all suffered was a quick way to do that. She was missing her granddaughters, and I happened to have a young boy she could latch on to. Two birds, one stone.

“I was walking into the gym when everything went dark for me and then I was in the cave.” I kept it short and sweet, having no desire to tell the truth.

“So we all got scooped up in the middle of something and have no memories of it happening?” Miguel pointed out.

“Sounds like it. We’ll have to talk to more of the others when they come up and over the dune. In the meantime, Agatha, I need you to take this trident and kill the fishman.” I offered her the trident again. Her wrinkled face was filled with reluctance and hesitation as she reached out and grabbed the trident.

“Why do I need to kill it?” She complained. She still grabbed the shaft with both wrinkled and swollen hands.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I have a theory that you will be rewarded for killing it,” I saw no point in holding back. If I’m proven right they’ll listen to me more willingly, if I’m wrong, no big deal, this was some weird shit. Agatha shuffled closer to the creature and hefted the trident, pausing as she got closer.

“You got this, Agatha,” I cheered from behind her. I was frustrated being relegated to a cheerleader when I wanted nothing more than to take the trident and do it myself. A million questions burned in my mind and they needed to be answered. Waiting for the old lady to do it grated on my thin patience.

My cheer startled her and she lunged forward, the trident pushed downward and caught the fishman underneath it’s wide head and in the throat more by luck than skill. Blue blood flowed over the tines and the monster thrashed a few times before it collapsed and lay still on the sand. I kept my eyes locked on Agatha, who was frozen in place, her eyes peered off into the distance without seeing. I had a thought that she had received a new message from whatever had put us in the Tutorial.

“What happened?” Miguel cut in. I was grateful for the impatience of youth at that moment.

“Oh, um, I got a new message. It says I’m now level zero and is giving me a bunch of numbers. I don’t understand this.” The last part was said as a sigh as her shoulders slumped down. She was an older woman and it was rapidly becoming a very long day. While she was weak right now, I could use this moment to capitalize, become a shoulder for her to lean on while she gathered her strength. Someone who had immediately marched away from the group, to brave the unknown in search of her loved ones, even if she did falter at the sight of a mauled fishman- it was more than what anyone else had shown.

“It’s ok. We’ll find some shelter and maybe some food and better clothes. Then I’ll help you find your granddaughters, if they’re in this tutorial with us.” I told her as I patted her shoulder gently.

“I’ll hold you to that,.” She whispered and I felt a thrill run down my spine. There was iron and a hint of violence in that whisper. Her granddaughters were a strong trigger for her. Something I could lean on later I was sure. For now she needed kid gloves until she had regained some of her composure.

I pulled the trident from her hand gently and handed it to Miguel and we started to wade amongst the field of the dying creatures. We found another one in only a few moments. Similar to the one Agatha had slain, a wide fish head with gray scales, shark teeth and black eyes. Its legs were a pulverized mess of bone, blood, and one of its arms was pinned under a heap of black stone. It hissed at us as we got closer and Miguel tensed up. I patted his back and whispered a quick encouragement. It was all he needed. He lunged forward with much more conviction and speed than Agatha had. The trident bit into the creature's chest, it thrashed back and forth, reminding me of watching fish being hauled in by fisherman. It died suddenly, going limp on the tines of the trident, but Miguel wasn’t paying attention. His eyes focused off into the distance as he took in whatever it was that he was seeing.

“What is it, Miguel?” I asked. It was hard not to shake him when he didn’t reply immediately. My desire for knowledge threatened to overwhelm my need for a facade.

“It’s a stat sheet. Just like a video game.”

“What?!” Agatha hissed behind us. I ignored her as she pulled Miguel to the side and started asking him questions about the stats. Agatha had said she was level zero and now Miguel said they were showing stats. The implication that one could boost said stats by killing enemies was apparent, but looking around the field of dying monsters I had a feeling that marching amongst them and finishing the killing wouldn’t net us much experience or levels. If this was following game logic. A big if, but one had to operate on the information on hand. I wanted to see what was in the castle. Either a boss level or a base to operate out of and I was leaning toward the latter. First ,though, I needed to get my own level.

I took the trident from Miguel as he was busy explaining the difference between constitution and vitality to Agatha. I silently wished him luck in that endeavor before I started my own hunt. We stalked though the battlefield, slowly making our way closer to the castle, while I kept my eye out for another dying fishman. It took only a few minutes to find one. Like the rest it was suffering from severe blunt force trauma, its body a mess of crushed limbs. I put it out of its misery with one swift blow, the tines dug deep into its chest.Thick rubbery skin resisted for only a moment before the trident punched into its chest cavity. The monster twisted around in its death throws, and the fragile rock tines snapped off leaving me with only a long stick.

As I stared in shock at my now broken weapon a rush of warmth went through me. It Started in my chest, then spread out, filling my extremities with enough heat that I felt comfortable for a split second. Strength surged through me afterward, like a good pump in the gym, when the blood was flowing and you felt stronger than you really were.

Mana Detected. Levels Unlocked.

Lvl. 0

Perception: 6

Intelligence: 7

Strength: 7

Constitution: 7

Vitality: 5

Endurance: 4

Dexterity: 4

Mana:0

Well that was interesting. I wondered about the values. They had no meaning without first comparing them against others. I knew I was fairly stronger than most people, I spent enough time in the gym to ensure that. How much stronger though? What was the number for the average person and how could I make my stats go up? This was going to be the new power of the world. Not money, or connections, or who your parents were, but rather how strong you were. How many stat points you had. If you gained levels from killing things; which our mercy killing suggested, those who adapted to the inherent need for violence, the quickest, would have a headstart that would be hard to catch.

The urge came. A dark whisper. To strike, to break, to kill those next to me. The stick in my hand would be more than enough. An old lady and a young boy? They’d fall before they realized what was happening. I took a deep breath, held it in my sternum, and waited until it started to burn. As I exhaled, I visualized those dark thoughts flowing away. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. After the fourth exhale, I had more of a grip of my own compulsion.

“We should push up to the castle. We’ll get hypothermia out here if we don’t move sooner rather than later,” I told them. I forced my hand to release the shattered shaft and watched it fall out of my hand and get lost in the viscera of the battle. I had a feeling my shoes were going to have to be burned between the cave water and bloody sand.

“We should farm the field! Get a few levels!” Miguel’s enthusiasm overcame his own fear for a moment.

“Farm?” Agatha asked, confused.

“We’d go around and kill all these low level enemies to reap minimum benefits. If we do that though, what will everyone else from the caves kill to unlock their levels? I don’t think killing these half dead monsters will net us much experience anyways. They’re all nearly dead, it doesn’t make sense for the tutorial to leave an easy farm field if we are told to conquer and survive. I bet this is just here for us to unlock the stat sheet,” I answered the two of them and started to march through the field and toward the castle. I was desperate to get away from the murderous impulses and the heavy scent of blood colored my thoughts. I moved amongst the random piles of broken rock and kept my gaze straight ahead. It was going to be a very long day.