“You, gimme your name, and what the fuck were you doing in that cart,” Chase said with a gesture from the sword towards the rail thin black man who had just climbed out of the cart.
The man looked at Chase, the cross hanging from his neck held in front of him like a shield, and said, “My name is Ricardo Gedeon, and I am the only human that survived the Tutorial Zone with this batch of elves.”
Chase’s eyebrows rose, turning to face Sikadi he asked, “Care to elaborate?”
She shrugged, “When the Tutorial began, after the Grace Period ended there were a great many battles between the humans in our Tutorial Zone and the Othgar Clan. The leader was known as Barbecue, and was killed two weeks into the Tutorial. From there they fell apart and began infighting.”
Chase blinked upon hearing the name of the human leader, turning back to Ricardo and asked, “You’re Hatian?”
He nodded, a small amount of tension leaving him as he noticed the deference Sikadi and the other elves presented towards Chase, “Yes, based on the human population at the start of the Tutorial, I may be the last Haitian alive that was living in Haiti when the Network appeared.”
“That bad?” Chase asked in surprise, turning to look at Sikadi. “Your clan wiped out-”
“It was not entirely them,” Ricardo interrupted. “The Tutorial itself was not particularly safe in and of itself. We were presented with quests that provided a few paths of potential advancement, but the gangs forced everyone to take the quests that focused on fighting. Most died attempting to complete those quests.”
“It was the same for us, minus being forced into combat quests,” Sikadi said with a shrug. “To be honest, we’d thought the last human had died weeks ago. That this one managed to avoid discovery is quite impressive, he could prove useful to you, My Lord.”
Chase groaned, rubbing at his temples, “Continue as ordered; Ricardo, come with me and carry that big ass turtle shell.”
Ricardo glanced at the cracked and nearly broken remains of Chase’s shield, then back to the dokkalfar before hurrying to pick up the shield and follow Chase. By this point, Chase was completely done with the day, and was going to get some sleep, come hell or high water. Upon entering the cabin, Chase ignored the five blood red orbs sitting on the table that hadn't been there when he left, setting his mask, pick, and newly acquired sword on the table before gesturing Ricardo to do the same with the shield.
“Don’t touch anything, if you wake me up, I’ll kick your ass,” Chase growled before heading to the bedroom, pulling his soaked through leather and hide clothes off as he went.
Ricardo simply held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, looking around and taking in the cabin as Chase shut the bedroom door and collapsed, face first, onto the bed. He rolled onto his side immediately after, as having his nose bitten off nearly two months ago made the pillow block his breathing if he didn’t sleep with his head turned.
But soon enough, he was in a deep sleep. As he slept, a vision filled his mind.
He found himself standing at the base of an immense mountain, its peak hidden among the clouds. The mountain was daunting, a monolith of sheer cliffs and jagged rock. Yet, something within urged him forward.
With each step, the journey grew more arduous. The terrain was unforgiving, and his injuries throbbed with every movement. Yet, he continued, driven by an unseen force. The higher he climbed, the more the wind howled, attempting to batter him down. Rocks crumbled underfoot, and the air thinned, making every breath a laborious task.
He pressed on, his mind filled with memories of the recent battle. He remembered the face of the dokkalfar leader as Chase tore his throat out, the sound of fist and bone clashing, and the searing pain of his wounds. But most of all, he remembered the moment when he chose to fight on, despite the overwhelming odds and recognizing that his death was imminent.
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Hours seemed to stretch into days, and days into weeks. His vision blurred, his body weakened, yet his spirit burned with an unyielding flame. Finally, as his strength seemed on the verge of failing, he reached the mountain’s summit.
There, in the serene silence of the mountaintop, he was greeted by a figure cloaked in light. The figure’s eyes held the wisdom of countless ages, and a voice echoed in his mind, resonant and calm.
“You have shown great perseverance,” the voice intoned. “Through pain and hardship, you have continued onward, never yielding to despair. This is the essence of the Path of Tenacity. Embrace it, and let it guide you.”
~*~*~*~
When Chase awoke, he sat up and pulled up his character screen. Sure enough, under Paths, there was a new entry.
Novice – Path of Tenacity (+5% Resilience)
…he’d figure out what else it did later, for the moment Chase put on a pair of pants and made his way into the main part of the cabin. The storm had finally broken, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that his guest had dumped the buckets and pans he’d had out to catch the drops from where the roof leaked.
“Good morning,” Ricardo said from where he was leaning over one of the corners of the table while jotting something down on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” Chase asked as he approached.
“Takin’ notes. You didn’t go through the Tutorial, did you? You’ve been here the entire time,” Ricardo asked as he stuck his pen behind his ear and closed his notebook.
Chase raised an eyebrow, and when he tried to deny it, his throat closed up. Remembering his Honesty of the Sidhe curse, he instead asked, “Why do you say that?”
Ricardo grinned, energy filling his form as he pointed out to Chase’s worktable, “Ya didn’t build this place, even ignoring the fact that it’s too much for one person to have done, even with the benefits of this new reality the Lord’s made, some of the nails used here were hand forged, and I had a look around and didn’t find any sign of a forge.”
Chase opened his mouth to say something, but Ricardo continued, his arms gesticulating in the air as his speech got faster, “So the initial conclusion is that ya got out of the mess of the Post Tutorial faster than the elves did and happened to have time to set up before they arrived in. But I’ve found way too much dried meat, and the dozens of hides and animal skulls that are much too fresh to have already been here. And it’s way more than someone can carry on their own.
“Now, you might have carried them with ya in a Bag of Holding ya got in the Tutorial, from ya clothes and the choice of armaments ya have ya clearly have a number of abilities focused on using hide and bone from animals, so it makes sense that ya’d make sure to skin any animal ya fought soya’dhaveplentyof-”
“Ricardo!” Chase snapped, making the Hatian man jump. “Breathe.”
“Oh, right,” Ricardo said, taking a moment to forcibly calm himself down. “Sorry, I get excited when I get to learn something.”
Chase sighed and shook his head, moving over to the kitchen area to rummage for something to eat as he answered Ricardo’s earlier question, “You're right, I didn't go through the Tutorial. I've been here since Day 1 when the Network appeared.”
Ricardo's eyes widened, a grin practically splitting his face in two as he said, “I knew it! So ya really have been surviving out here on ya own this whole time? That's incredible! Ya must have gained so many skills and abilities.”
“Not as many as you’d think,” Chase grumbled. “You get the option for a Gamble Roll when it happened?”
Ricardo nodded, his notebook open once again. Chase had a feeling that Ricardo would be going through a lot of paper, he’d need to see if the dokkalfar could make more. Regardless, Chase pulled out some meat and said, “I got some really shitty rolls. One of which prevented me from taking the Tutorial, another of which makes it so that the only sort of magic I can do is passive.”
It might not have been the best idea to be so open with a man he’d just met, but Chase was starved for social interaction, and unlike the dokkalfar, Ricardo hadn’t attacked him. Shaking his head, he decided to ask Ricardo a question instead, “What Class did you get?”
Ricardo’s head snapped up, his eyes wide, “Ya got ya Class already?”
Chase blinked, surprised, “You…haven’t? How long does it normally take?”
“According to the Tutorial, the average time it takes for someone to reach Level 20 and unlock their class is three months. I’m currently Level 14, but I managed to unlock a Path last week. Path of Curiosity, it raises my Intellect and lets me notice things around me easier, a bit likeSherlockHolmesbutIstillhaveto-”
“Breathe,” Chase interrupted, his lips twisting in amusement. “Besides your Path, what else can you do?”
“I learned a buncha spells in the Tutorial, ‘bout the only thing I avoided were what the Network labeled as Dark Magic. I’m not ordained, but I want to live my life as the Lord Christ commands, and from what I read of Dark Magic I don’t think it’s compatible with the Lord’s teachings,” Ricardo said, briefly crossing himself, making Chase look at him in surprise.
“I have to admit, when you told me you were Haitin, given the fact that you survived and it seems no one else did, I kinda thought…” Chase trailed off.
“That I was part of one of the gangs?” Ricardo asked with an amused snort.
“Well, yeah. Last I’d heard coming out of Haiti was one big clusterfuck with them.”
Ricardo grinned, and there was an edge to it that hadn’t been there before, “When’d I say I wasn’t?”