Luriel sat and moved her body into the position from which it would be easy to stand up. Tension was rising in her, making it harder to move. It should be easy. She had her plan and there was really no way anything could go wrong.
She stretched her hand holding the wand, pointing at the place a few meters from her. Then she started casting. The system provided her with detailed knowledge on how to properly do it. Basically, it was just about getting some mana into the spell in wand following the System knowledge. It actually felt more like experiences. Like she cast that spell a thousand times before. Well, a thousand times several years ago. And now she tried it again.
Tho there was one tiny problem. She couldn’t feel mana and her knowledge assumed she could. Shame she didn’t think about those details when she was writing. Hopefully, it won’t be a big problem. She started the mental gymnastic. She preceded as knowledge dictated. Step by step. It didn’t take long for doubts to flood her mind. The fact that she couldn’t feel anything moving or any sort of change meant that she couldn’t know whether she was doing it right.
The entire process could be compared to moving inside your own house. You know the place well. You walked through all rooms a thousand times and knew the placement of furniture and everything. But then suddenly you became blind. And lost sense of touch. That was exactly how she felt. She had to navigate just by memory. And even if she bumped into anything, she wouldn’t know. Couldn’t feel a thing. If she could, that would mean she did serious damage to her body.
All of a sudden, a few centimeters from the tip of her wand appeared a small blue dot.. Excitement shook her and almost made Luriel lose focus. She was on the right track, after all.
Dot grew two than four, then eight times bigger. System granted knowledge alerted her that now was time. Luriel finally stood up and instantly a blue message appeared before her.
New quest received
First blood
Description: A little hungry rat sneaked into your cage. Defeat it before it eats you.
Goal: Kill rat 0/1
Reward: Simple key
Penalty: none
Location: Tutorial- Small Test zone number 0 (cage)
Time limit: none
In a blink of an eye, a gray rodent appeared several meters from her. It was in no way small. Hight of its back reached one meter and its length was at least double of that. At the sides, under short fur, she could easily spot the outline of its ribs. The pair of hungry dark eyes focused on Luriel.
The rat didn’t wait and immediately run towards her. Cold sweat poured down her back. Her spell wasn’t ready yet, and she realized why. Normal casting time for level 1 Manashot by level 1 Mystic Fighter was ten seconds. Her wand might help lower that to nine, but her disability definitely pushed it up above the standard. The worst thing was that her granted knowledge didn’t count on either wand or not feeling mana. No wonder her timing was off.
She cursed and frantically thought of what she should do. She couldn’t move much or she might lose her concentration and the whole spell would go down the drain.
The rat jumped. Luriel’s body almost automatically moved back. Her left foot easily turned on the smooth iron floor. Her right leg with the rest of her body followed that movement and dodged to the side. Just as the rodent was flying beside her, Luriel moved the hand holding the wand out of its way. She finished her half spin a moment before the rat landed.
Now the spell was ready. However, without the ability to control her mana, she couldn’t postpone it. She barely aimed before the blue ball shoot from her wand.
The rat landed and turned toward her when Manashot hit its back leg. It went straight through, severing it completely, only stopping after reaching the ground. Spine chilling shriek echoed through the cage. Luriel’s mind momentarily froze as it filled with regrets. She didn’t want to torture the poor creature.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
If it was a normal rat it would definitely flee, but because System spawned it, it didn’t have a choice. Once the initial shock passed, it charged at Luriel again. However, with a missing leg, it was a lot slower. She backed away, but the rat was relentless in its pursuit. It didn’t have much time. Its stub was heavily bleeding, giving it a few minutes at most. Tho it was still enough time to return Luriel the favor.
She continued her retreat until her back suddenly hit the bars. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest, even when she expected it. She pretended to kick the rat, what made it instinctively dodge. Or at least tried, but if Luriel wanted to hit it, she easily could. It bought Luriel enough time to turn around and immediately started climbing. She backed right to the door of the cage, the only place with horizontal bars.
The rat jumped at her, but it was a poor attempt. It didn’t even hit one of her legs, and soon she was out of its reach. Once Luriel climbed to the top, she looked back down. The life of the rat was nearing its end. It breathed heavily and shivered, as if the temperature fell below the freezing point. Yet it still tried to climb after her. But without one leg and with rapidly decreasing strength, it posed no threat to Luriel. Now she could just wait until it died on its own. Actually, that would be the best choice. She should conserve as much mana as she could because there won’t be much time and safe places for Meditation. But that would mean letting the poor creature suffer. She couldn’t bring herself to just watch it die in pain.
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Luriel better grabbed the bars with a free hand and pointed the wand at the rat. Casting Manashot the second time was a little easier, but only because she knew what to expect. After roughly thirteen seconds, the ball of mana hit the rat in the head. She made extra sure to aim properly, the short distance helping her. It continued straight through its body as if it wasn’t even there, again stopping only after hitting the ground. For a moment, she could see the iron floor through the tunnel created by her spell, before its lifeless body collapsed. She won.
You have killed Rat level 1
Your contribution is 100%
You have earned Minor experience points
Quest First blood completed
Just like before, the wand, a small silver key, appeared before her. She picked it up after climbing down. There was a lot more blood surrounding the rat than before. Luriel had to be extra careful where she put her feet. She won’t be getting any new clothes from System. Tho with her title she might have a chance.
New quest received
Escape
Description: You found a way out of the cage, but your problem doesn’t end there. You are located inside a home of a young cyclops. Fortunately, the giant is sleeping, but for how long? And when it wakes up, it surely will be hungry. Your best option is to find the exit before that happens.
Goal: Escape the cyclops home
Reward: Mystic Fighter Token
Penalty: none
Location: Tutorial- Small Test zone number 0
Time limit: 3 hours 44 minutes
Luriel closed the message. It took her sixteen minutes. No wonder everyone else has already left. She spent most of that time coming up with a name for herself. She will be using it for the rest of her life, so maybe she should be glad it took her only sixteen minutes and not hours.
After opening the door, Luriel faced her next challenge in the form of 2.5 meters big jump. It was high even after she sat down at the edge of the cage. But there was no other way. So she sighed and reluctantly jumped. The fall was so short she barely registered it, but the impact proved the reason she didn’t want to jump in the first place. Instantly, after her weight hit her legs, her knees screamed in pain and buckled. At the same time, she couldn’t keep her balance and fell back on her butt. Now she didn’t know what she should massage first.
Stupid bullshit. I should have made it lower. Or better get rid of it completely.
The room was truly empty. No one decided to wait for her. Maybe her previous laughing was at fault. People thought she was crazy and didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Whatever, she sighed.
Once the pain subsided, she moved to the exit. Instead of the door, the passage out was covered by almost perfectly fitting animal skin. This time it was from a single creature even bigger than cyclops. The skin was old and stiff. Luriel needed to push with her shoulder to get to the other side.
There she was welcomed by comforting bright light coming from crystals. They grew at the far faraway ceiling as a natural light-source. The color, resembling a sun ray, repelled any drowsiness built from the blue light and improved her mood. She smiled as she stretched her body.
Luriel was glad she didn’t follow her initial idea of making all the light blue. When she wrote from Ziri’s point of view, she was annoyed by imagining everything in that unnatural tint. She was just starting her writing journey and had little patience. Now Luriel was glad for her prior laziness. Blue light would make the whole stage feel like from horror movie. She stretched again before walking into the hall.
The cyclops’s home comprised several cave rooms, all connected by long, empty halls. Well, empty of decorations but full of rats. All the rodents were level 1, so by themselves they didn’t pose much threat. Unfortunately, no rat stayed alone. The buggers roamed halls in packs of different sizes. If she remembered correctly, they should range from 5 to 50 members. And another fun detail was that every five minutes, that maximum number of them was spawned. Not in one place, of course, but randomly spread in the tunnels. So if some group took too long, they might be overrun by them.
As Luriel looked around, she noticed groups on each side of the hall fighting. Neither had Ziri what she expected. His group was one of the strongest and at this time they probably were closing in on the first room. The problem was that Luriel didn’t remember which way they went. Right or left, she had a 50% chance to get it wrong and miss the scene. The risk was too high, but what should she do? She wasn’t even sure she had written this minor detail. Now she was regretting she didn’t have her notebook.
Well, even if it somehow traveled with her which she doubted she would have access to it in Tutorial. One couldn’t bring anything from the outside. She created the rule to prevent rich guys from using their money to breeze the test. That’s why everyone got clothes, choice of weapon or tool and three potions, all based on starting class.
Suddenly she noticed a rat running out of the tunnel in the opposite wall. It joined the pack of six waiting nearby. At that moment, Luriel remembered a certain scene where her protagonist was running away from cyclops. Unable to outrun the giant, he took refuge in the tunnel. Out of curiosity and because the cyclops was blocking the exit, she crawled through a small maze until he got to the other side. Surprisingly, it was the first room their group visited.
Now, the tunnel was her 100% assured way. Exactly what she wanted. What she needed. But there were seven rats in her way. Could she defeat that large pack alone? And with limited number of Manashots?