It was just a normal day for Henry. He got up early, careful not to wake the woman beside him, dressed, grabbed a snack, and went to the gym. After finishing his daily workout for the day, he went back home to take a quick shower before getting ready for work, but before he left, he kissed his fiancée.

Henry agreed that his life was great, he had a perfectly functional family, a good job in a field he was proficient in, good credit, a fiancée, and a child on the way. What more could he ask for? Another bit of blackmail he could use against his brother? Well, he wouldn’t say no to that.

A few hours into working with his team on a new project that was dropped on them; a building on Main Street was going to be taken down, and replaced with a castle…a medieval one. While I don't understand why...It was a cool feeling to be designing a medieval castle, one smack dab in the middle of Main Street.

Glancing at his phone, he noticed a message from both his fiancée and mother in the family group chat informing him that dinner was going to be at his family house.

“I guess it's Italian today,” Henry muttered with a smile; it was always Italian food when family dinner happened. It started when Maria, his fiancée, managed to convince his mother to try more of her culture’s cuisine.

A miracle, he chuckled. His Mother was the most stubborn person alive, something that his Father loved. I guess DNA doesn’t lie. The only time he’d ever seen his mother out-stubborned was when Archie managed to convince her to give him her blessing to strike out on his own and leave the nest early. He wanted to help Daniel, who had abandoned his family after he was abandoned by them.

Just the thought of how Daniel was treated hit him hard, especially with how he was soon to be a father. The thought of abandoning his child and letting them suffer in the way Daniel did was...

Shaking his head from the dark thoughts that were creeping into his mind, he focused back on the project he and his team were discussing.

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Just as the clock hit noon, a message went off not just on his phone, but his coworkers’ as well. Reading the message he smiled, Half day?... Well, I won’t say no to leaving early.

Henry glanced up from his phone to see similar smiles on his team’s faces. Chuckling, he quickly gathered his things and waved them off as he headed toward his car.

Tossing his laptop case and outerwear onto the seat beside him, Henry strapped himself in and drove off towards his family house. If he was finishing work early, he might as well help out at home.

After making a turn, he parked his car on the driveway of his family’s house. Getting out of the car, he walked atop the stone walkway carefully so he didn’t touch the grass, lest he face his mother’s wrath.

Looking at the beautiful Tulips and Violas covering the lawn beds as well as the crisp green real grass, rare for Arizona. Upon knocking on the door, not a second later it was opened by his fiancée giving him a bright smile.

Just as he was about to go in for a hug, a loud ding reverberated through his mind, and everything went white.

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Henry found himself in a forest surrounded by four other individuals; two were covered in robes, one was covered by leather armor with a bow and quiver across their back and the last one looked to be wearing plated-chain-mail armor.

Upon observation, one of the robed individuals was a male and the other was a female, both carried wands attached to their sides, one of which had a blue tip and the other was tipped white. ‘Mage and Healer.’ Henry assumed.

The one wearing a bow and arrow across their back was obviously an archer. Upon their turning around, Henry took notice that it was a male.

The warrior, he assumed, was the second female within the group. She wore plated-chain-mail armor, carrying a small shield and a sword.

He, himself wore heavy iron armor that covered his entire body except his head. In his left hand, he carried a large wooden studded shield, easily four feet in length. On his left, he carried an iron broadsword.

Looking at the only female mage, his heart stopped for a moment, “Maria!” Henry shouted, breaking her from her stupor.

“Henry!” She exclaimed, charging at him and wrapping her arms around him.

Henry wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight, as though if he let go, she would disappear yet again.

“Sorry to break the mood but we're here too,” A female warrior snarked looking at the couple with annoyance written across her face. Another one he did not recognize.

Looking around, Henry took in the three individuals. They all looked to be around his age and equally confused about what to do.

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Pulling himself from the hug, Henry approached the three individuals and introduced both himself and Maria.

From afar, a crow observed them from atop a tree. Staring at them intensely, lingering on Henry and Maria for moments longer before flying away.

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It had been a couple of days since their group had first formed, and since then they made camp around a river. It provided them with fresh water and a source of food if they couldn't find anything to hunt. But considering that at least three different beasts tried to jump on them in the past hour, their previous worry about running out of food vanished.

The camp itself was nowhere near what he considered to be a modern one. The beds consisted of many thin leaves and the only pillows were their arms. Each of the beds surrounded the campfire in the middle, which currently roasted a large boar.

It was currently midday, and the group looked to be worse for wear. The warrior’s armor was dented, and her face sported a few freshly healed cuts. The mage, healer, and archer were in similar shape, their ‘light armor’ had rips and tears due to trekking through the forest.

Henry’s armor was in worse condition, his armor was dented heavily, due to tanking most of the beasts’ blows. Due to him taking charge of the first few fights that happened upon them, the group considered Henry to be their leader, quickly disregarding the female warrior, Sandra’s disagreement.

Getting up from the ‘bed’ he lay on, he approached the roasting boar, intent on ripping off a leg for both him and his fiancée to share. However, just as he was about to crouch beside the campfire, he heard rustling from the bushes in front of him.

Henry quickly stood up and held his shield in front of him in the direction of the rustling noise. He activated a skill he’d gained the night before called Reinforced Barrier and slowly made his way toward the rustling bush.

“Hey! Don’t attack!” Henry’s group heard, also focusing their weapons on where they heard the noise. This could be some type of beast that mimicked voices as they hadn’t seen any humans ever since the Group Tutorial began other than themselves.

Coming into view was a group of ten other humans, the group consisted of three vanguards, three warriors, two archers, a healer, and a mage. They looked significantly better than themselves, equipment clean of blood, and stronger than themselves if his Identify skill was working right.

Regardless, they all kept their weapons focused on the large group in front of them, unsure of what to do. They couldn’t be sure if they were here to raid their group or not.

“I’m Henry. What brings you here?” Henry spoke to the large group in front of him. He actively shifted himself to cover Maria from the view of the large group in front of him.

A man standing in the front of the group raised both his arms, in a placating manner, before saying, “Hello! My name is Gabriel. The people behind me are part of my group. We are currently looking for the other humans in the tutorial.”

“Why?” Henry questioned, keeping his shield raised and sword pointed at Gabriel and his large group.

Henry’s group slowly shifted themselves, their eyes darting to Gabriel and his party and gripping their weapons tightly, seemingly just remembering to Identify them and not liking what they saw.

“Why not? Humans should stick together. The main group consists of a couple hundred people,” Gabriel answered.

Everyone in Henry’s group, including himself, grew shocked expressions at Gabriel’s announcement. Henry’s shock quickly vanished as he darkly thought, Could be some sort of trap.

“We want to invite you to join the group, humans together, survive together,” Gabriel said with a small smile growing across his face.

Still feeling anxious, Henry asked, “This feels a bit too good to be true. A couple of days have passed since the start of the tutorial and a couple hundred people have already started to band together?”

Chuckling a bit, Gabriel then said, “You still don’t recognize me, Henry? I kicked you out of class plenty of times when you were younger.”

Furrowing his brows, Henry stared at Gabriel, trying to remember where he possibly could have seen him before.

Henry’s eyes suddenly widened as memories suddenly surged, “Mr. Gabe? What are you doing here?” A smile grew across Henry’s face as he slightly lowered his shield and sword, garnering confused looks from his team. This was the man who taught him History in elementary school. He was the one who inspired him to become an architect.

“Everyone in the neighborhood got sent into the tutorial. The only reason as to why the main group got together so fast was because of the HOA team,” Gabriel answered.

Turning back to face both Maria and the rest of his group, he said, “I’ve known Mr. Gabe since the 6th grade. He has mean eraser-throwing skills, but he’s trustworthy.”

Henry’s team lowered their weapons slightly, still wary of the large group, but following Henry’s command. They trusted him, even Sandra who constantly butted heads with him.

“Have you seen my parents anywhere? I didn’t teleport here with them,” Henry asked Gabriel. According to the system aspect, they should have been close by when they spawned within the Group Tutorial, but he hadn’t seen so much as a hair from another group.

“No, I haven’t seen Robert or Eve since last May, I’ve been too busy this year to catch up,” Gabriel replied softly, he had known Henry’s parents for years now. He had been friends with Robert for decades now, fishing brothers and all. “Maybe another search group found them before ours or they’re in another group tutorial, I don’t know to be honest.”

Gabriel’s response brought a complicated expression to Henry’s face, casting a somber mood over the group. His other teammates had also been searching for their friends and families but hadn’t encountered another human group until now. Hearing that a group of over a hundred people hadn’t found their leader’s family only deepened their growing anxieties about not being able to find their friends and family.

“Come, we’ll take you to the main camp,” Gabriel said, trying to pick up the somber mood that fell on Henry and his team. He stared at Henry with the same hopeful expression he always gave him when he…

Snapping himself from his memories, he turned back towards his team. Henry nudged his head towards the now-leaving group and urged them to follow, hopeful for the chance of finding their friends and family.

Not four days later after Henry and his team joined the larger group and properly situated themselves, people started to die quicker than before. Most notably being Gabriel. He had died on a hunt in the forest with his team and had come across a much higher-level beast that burnt them to a crisp.

Henry himself led the raid team that killed the Level 32 Ignis Shade who killed Gabriel and his team.