“For fuck’s sake, where is that damn tortoise? I’ve spent days running through the damn forest and up hills.” Archie huffed while staring into the campfire from atop a hill.
Poking the goat meat that was being cooked on the fire, Archie gained an idea. Taking out the Voodoo Doll of Harm filled with the keratin of the tortoise, Archie looked at it for a bit before tossing it into the campfire.
Suddenly, the fire within the campfire turned black and soared high into the sky. The voodoo doll released a shrill sound as it burned, but as quickly as it came, it vanished. The same happened with the black flames from the campfire.
Just as the roaring flames died out, a squeal resounded throughout the Hoarfrost Highlands, Archie quickly got up and looked at where the squeal started from.
Archie leaped from the hill and onto the trees below and dashed towards the source of the noise.
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Archie looked at the tortoise and took it all in. It stood five meters tall on all fours, with a smooth, frosted, snow-colored shell. However, its legs were dark grey, contrasting the color of its shell.
A sheen of sweat covered its face, clearly exhausted from whatever the voodoo doll did to it.
Identifying the tortoise Archie was a bit shocked at what he saw.
[Giant Frostiron Tortoise Lv 73]
Its level was higher than what he thought, but he wasn’t worried about it.
The tortoise looked visibly exhausted, worn down by whatever curse the voodoo doll had inflicted upon it. Who would have thought that the sensation of being burned alive could be so utterly draining?
Archie activated both Adrenaline Rush and Thorns. A dark red hue emanated around his body, while transparent green vines coiled around both of his arms, starting from his elbow and ending around his knuckles. Channeling mana through the vines, sharp thorns appeared all around the vines.
Archie then activated Savage Charge, appearing directly above the tortoise’s head and slamming both his fists onto the top of its skull, making it fall to the ground.
However, landing on the snowy grass below, he did not let up. He activated Relentless Flurry and as per the name, released a flurry of blows to the right side of its face.
But the tortoise quickly gained its bearings and understood that it was being attacked. A large spike of ice appeared from mid-air and launched itself towards Archie.
Completely focused on dealing as much damage as possible to the tortoise’s head, he didn't notice the large spike of ice hurtling toward him until it slammed into him.
The ice spike launched Archie several feet to his left, sinking a few inches into his abdomen before being held in place by his muscles.
Gritting his teeth, Archie slammed both fists down onto the ice spike lodged in his body, shattering it into pieces, with a small shard still embedded in his stomach.
Archie activated Savage Charge once more, not letting the ice spike deter him from his goal of killing the tortoise.
Just as he was about to punch the tortoise, he activated Retaliation and Relentless Flurry causing a cracking sound to be heard as the sheer force and power of Archie’s onslaught. Blood and fluid erupted from the tortoise as Archie landed a punch into its right eye.
The creature let out a piercing squeal, flailing its head back in distress. The sheer volume of the squeal forced Archie to cover his ears with both of his hands, his face contorting in pain as he endured the agonizing squeal at point-blank.
Slightly disoriented, Archie’s vision was a bit hazy, but he could make out the tortoise’s head sinking into its shell.
Shaking his head in an attempt to regain focus, Archie noticed a thick slab of ice forming, blocking the hole where the tortoise’s head had vanished into.
Just as Archie was about to charge and punch the ice slab, he saw multiple ice spikes start to form all around him.
Archie’s mind went a mile a minute trying to figure out what to do; he couldn’t dodge them all, there were simply too many. Thus, leaving Archie alone with one course of action, face them head-on.
Archie channeled more mana through Adrenaline Rush, the dark red hue grew in size around him, and the adrenaline he felt coating his body started to flow faster around him. His eyes darted around as he tried to predict the angles from which the ice spikes would launch.
Two spikes were launched at him, one aimed at his chest and another at his right leg, causing him to dodge to his left. But as he did so, he noticed two ice spikes were launched, both aimed at his shoulders. The one aimed at his left shoulder was closer to him than the one aimed at his right. Archie quickly pivoted, punching one spike to the side, but he was unable to come out unscathed from the other.
He managed to angle his shoulder in a way where the spike sliced through his Plated chain-mail Sleeves and scraped his skin.
Everything became a blur to Archie, he kept dodging and punching the ice spikes aimed at him. All useless thoughts vanished as his brain only focused on telling him to either dodge or punch.
Eventually, the barrage of ice spikes came to an end, and the tortoise finally ran out of mana to use.
Archie’s body and eyes kept darting around looking for the next spike of ice about to be launched towards him, but none came.
The barrage of ice spikes stopped, and Archie came out of it only sporting minor cuts and only one spike lodged into his left calf. His breaths came out in small bursts, his mind and body exhausted from dodging and punching.
Ripping out the spike in his left calf and throwing it to the ground, Archie took out an Effigy of Health before breaking it, feeling his wounds start to knit together. Archie then quickly took out an Effigy of Endurance and activated it before he placed it in his back pouch.
Archie then activated Savage Charge and started to release a flurry of strikes at the ice slab. With every punch he channeled more mana through the thorns of the vines as well, activating Relentless Flurry and Retaliation with every punch he threw.
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With each punch Archie delivered, Spiderweb cracks began to form across the ice slab, the loud cracking sounds echoing throughout the forest.
Finally, with a powerful shout, he shattered the ice, revealing the wide eyes of the tortoise within. Shoving his right hand through the shell, he yanked the tortoise's head out.
Caught completely off guard by the relentless barrage of attacks and the destruction of its ice shield, the tortoise’s muscles went limp.
Wrapping his left arm around its thick neck, holding it in place as he unleashed a flurry of punches with his right fist. Every time the tortoise tried to pull its head back, Archie kept it in place, continuing his relentless assault.
But after what felt like an eternity of punching, he was met with both the tortoise going limp and a ding going off in his mind.
Huffing, Archie let go of the turtle’s neck and slowly slid against the tortoise’s back, eyes closed, deactivating all of his active skills.
After minutes of doing nothing, Archie looked at the notifications that showed at the end of the fight.
*[Giant Frostiron Tortoise Lv 73] has been slain – XP has been given. 876 Tutorial Points given*
*Your Class has reached Lv 51 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
***
*Your Class has reached Lv 55 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 52 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 53 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
Quest: Solo Tutorial Boss
You have survived the Hoarfrost Highlands for 25 days now and you have dominated most of the races that exist within it. However, the ruler of the Hoarfrost Highlands has now awoken and found their domain molested. The ruler of the Hoarfrost Highlands will now be actively roaming their domain in search of you. Reward scales with your performance.
Requirements: Survive or Kill the Giant Frostiron Tortoise ✔
Reward: Upgrade Medallion (Epic) & 100,000 Tutorial Points
“Holy shit…I’m exhausted,” Archie huffed after reading the messages.
Opening his status page, he smiled at his huge collection of tutorial points.
Archie Gracefield
Race: Human E-Grade Lv 53
Class: Nature-Attuned Pugilist Lv 55
Profession: Novice Forgesmith Lv 50
Health: 1931/2530
Mana: 462/860
Stamina: 985/1743
Stats:
Vitality: 241(253)
Strength: 246(282)
Endurance: 166(174)
Agility: 206
Intelligence: 210
Wisdom: 86
Willpower: 86(94)
Perception: 183
Free Points: 68
General Skills: Identify (Initiate), Nature's Meditation (Epic)
Class Skills: Basic Martial Combat Mastery (Uncommon), Savage Charge (Uncommon), Adrenaline Rush (Rare), Pugilist’s Grit (Uncommon), Retaliation (Uncommon), Relentless Flurry (Uncommon), Taunt (Uncommon), Thorns (Common)
Profession Skills: Forgesmith’s Flame (Initiate), Basic Smithing Mastery (Initiate), Basic Rune Scribing (Initiate), Material Insight (Common)
Bloodline: Adrenaline Junkie (Unique) [+10% to Strength and +10% to Willpower]
Affinity: Greater Nature Affinity (Epic)
Blessing: Blessing of the Forgefather (Moderate) [+5% to Strength and +5% to Endurance]
Titles Collected: Bloodline Progenitor [+10 Vitality and +5% Vitality], Flawless E-Grade Evolution [+10 all Stats]
Tutorial Points: 111,982
How long till the tutorial ends? Archie wondered before opening the tutorial page.
Solo Tutorial
The 72nd cycle has begun; thus, a tutorial is needed to increase the survivability of the newly integrated myriad races. The Hoarfrost Highlands is filled with various creatures from across the universe, each providing Tutorial Points upon their death to their killer. After the Solo Tutorial is completed, all Solo Tutorial Participants will be teleported into random Group Tutorials. Tutorial Points will be used to gain rewards after the full tutorial is completed.
Completion Criteria: Survive for 30 days
Time remaining: 0 days & 05:20:08
“Great, now I gotta figure out what to do for the next five hours until I get sent to the group tutorial,” Archie complained.
“Hey, Bralmir? Got any idea what I should do?” Archie said, looking at the night sky above him.
“You should take parts of the turtle shell and place them in your spatial storage,” Bralmir answered as a familiar pressure rested atop his shoulders.
Furrowing his brows, “How? My spatial ring is full, I can’t even store a rock.” Archie questioned.
“I can tell, what I’m referring to is using that upgrade medallion you got in your ring, it should give it a couple USUs more of storage.” Bralmir answered, “USU stands for Universal Standard Unit, I know it sounds stupid because it should be MSU, but I did not make it.”
Taking out the upgrade medallion out of his spatial storage and placed it atop his ring, before funneling mana toward them both, causing his ring to shine a bit.
Taking a look at his new ring, he Identified it.
Spatial Ring (Epic):
A silver band ring made by a Spatial Mage. The spatial effect of the ring creates a 5x5x5 USU cube that can store any non-living being or item within. Effects: Soul-Bound, Self-Repair & Spatial Storage. Provides: +10 Wis & +5 Int. Status: Perfect. Requirement: Lv 23+ & Humanoid Race.
The stat bonuses stayed the same, however, the size of the ring more than doubled.
“Huh…What do you know…Are there any books or something where I can learn about general multiversal information? Cause I feel like there’s going to be a lot more that I don’t know.” Archie chuckled, “And don’t get me started when I start smithing things.”
“You can probably get general information from the Assistants at the Group Tutorials, however, I do recommend getting a couple of books about materials that you can use from the Tutorial Shop.” Bralmir answered but then quickly interjected, “When you are at the Tutorial Shop don’t purchase any crafting manuals, because if you only craft using those manuals as references it can negatively affect your evolutions. Focus on experimenting.”
“Okay, I get it; don’t buy manuals explaining how to make things like armor or other tools, I need to figure out how to make that on my own. I understand…it’s like looking at the instructions for making models,” Archie responded.
“Alright, just call out my name if you're confused about anything else.” Bralmir said, but added, “Don’t forget to get pieces of the shell, it will be of big help for your crafting skill.”
“Got it,” Archie answered, groaning as he got up from the ground and started to punch the shell of the now-dead tortoise.
After a couple of minutes, Archie stuffed what felt like a hundred pounds of solid Frostiron from the tortoise’s shell into his spatial ring.
Looking at the tutorial page, he saw that he had a couple of hours left until he would enter a Group Tutorial. So, he decided to use Nature’s Meditation to both recover and pass the time.
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Bralmir stared at his forge room, now completely devoid of any trash, completely unrecognizable from the room that it was previously.
Bralmir approached the empty forge in the middle of the room and upon placing his right hand atop the metal forge, a roaring fire emerged from its heart.
For the first time in eras, the First Forge blazed to life, its radiant light a beacon felt by all within the multiverse, signaling the return of the Forgefather.
Bralmir looked at the now-lit forge with a somber look, with a smile slowly starting to spread.
However, Bralmir looked to his side to see a root come out from a plant situated in the corner of the room. When the root was three meters away from Bralmir, it released a warm aura washing over Bralmir’s form.
“Thank you, Mother,” Bralmir said, with a soft smile.
“Are you feeling a bit better now, my son?” The root questioned, while it extended to caress Bralmir’s cheek.
“Slowly… I don’t think I can ever get over Thalindra’s passing, however, I’m not as depressed as I used to be.” Bralmir responded.
“That’s great to hear, my little builder.” The root softly spoke, “May I ask, what helped you?”
Bralmir chuckled a bit before saying, “A friend.”
The root made a sound before saying, “Do I know such a friend?”
Bralmir’s smile covered his face before saying, "Probably not.”
“Don’t keep me waiting then, tell me.” The root playfully slapped his shoulder
“He’s an E-Grade human,” Bralmir answered
The root stilled before saying, “A 72nd cycle human?...A mortal,” getting a nod from Bralmir.
“I’d like to meet the boy who helped my son.” The root informed Bralmir, but the root suddenly stilled before saying, “This plant is too weak for me to control, visit me so we can speak more face to face.”
Bralmir nodded as he started at the root that slowly retreated back into the corner of the room.
As he faced the forge once more, a thought flew through his mind. An E-Grade human will get the chance to meet with Yggdrasil, while other gods spend cycles without ever seeing a glimpse of her.