The scene that filled Alex’s eyes when he stepped through the door was frankly terrifying. Alex looked from his vantage point atop a large hill overlooking a valley. As far as he could see, just ruins. It was a futuristic cityscape but it was in shambles. There were buildings larger than he had ever seen, so tall that they were what the word skyscraper should actually have been invented for. He could tell that it had been a strong civilization.
Now though, it was pocked with massive craters in what were once grand thoroughfares. Many of the large buildings were toppled or leaning precariously on one another. Some apparently had stood strong against the onslaught that had caused this destruction but had lost the battle to the foliage that was beginning to overtake the city.
Alex could hear sounds in the city though so it wasn’t totally deserted. Whether those sounds were friendly or not was still to be decided. Though the whooping and howling didn’t instill much confidence in him.
It still wasn’t clear what he was supposed to do. The Forge sure had an interesting way of developing talent.
“I guess it wants me to be proactive. Or maybe it will prompt me when the need arises,” Alex mused aloud to break up the eerie silence.
The lack of everything was setting him on edge. Lack of sounds, lack of direction, and lack of information. Without any better ideas, Alex decided that he would investigate the ruined city. Maybe then he would have a better idea of what to do.
The moment Alex stepped out of the teleportation room, it popped out of existence, literally making an audible noise. Alex jumped at the sudden sound. As he took in the sudden change of scenery, he began to hear more ‘pops’ off in the distance. They were faint but there was no way they were just echoes, the timing of them being too sporadic for that.
“I guess I’m not the only one here. I think I was the first pop though. That’s gotta count for something. Right? I should definitely get some kind of reward for that. Most adaptable? Most intelligent? Definitely the most handsome.”
Just as Alex was debating the most appropriate reward he felt he deserved, a system prompt interrupted.
Lost research
Morathis was once a thriving hub in the conquest of betterment. Focusing on its pursuits of the sciences lead to its rapid growth and expansion. This singular focus lead to many advancements but did not prepare them for the invasion by one of their closest allies, the brutish Fyrion. The Fyrion did not share in the Morathian ideals and began to covet their wealth leading them to attack. The Morathians focused all their efforts to create something to stop the invasion and save their wonderful city. While they explored many avenues to rapidly increase their strength, in the end they were unable to push the traitorous Fyrion back. Recover their research to aid in the Threxari plight.
Advanced Morathian weapon blueprints recovered- 0/5
Advanced Morathian armor blueprints recovered- 0/5
Advanced Morathian weapons recovered- 0/3
Advanced Morathian armor recovered- 0/3
Rewards determined based on performance at end of tutorial. Tutorial ends in- 59 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds.
“Finally! I thought that this stupid AI was never going to help me out at all. It won’t give me any help on my class choice but gives me the entire summary of the downfall of a civilization,” Alex scoffed at the audacity. “When I need it nothing, but for the precious Threxari plight everything. Unreal.”
Also sixty days? That seems like a lot of time to accomplish the tasks. Or a lot of time for something to go wrong. What was making those sounds earlier? Were the Fyrion still here? Or did something just move in once there was a vacancy? Would he have to compete with the other ‘pops’? He assumed they were awakened but what if the Forge had thought the ruinous city didn’t pose enough difficulty for him and brought in extra challenges? Maybe taking his time wasn’t in his best interest. 60 days was a lot but what if he was struggling both to find the various items and to survive? Alex decided he needed to be cautious but quick.
Alex began to move forward toward the city to begin searching for the various items. Hopefully it would become clear to him what advanced weaponry and armor was. He imagined a civilization as advanced as this would make nearly all of Earth’s technology seem useless. Everything would seem advanced to him but what did the Forge consider advanced?
No, Alex needed to just move forward. He had to believe that things would make sense as he moved forward.
—Twenty minutes later—
“What the heck is going on?” Alex screamed as he ran through the streets of Morathis.
He had barely stepped into the city and was already being chased by what he would describe as a two-headed panther on steroids with blue skin and barbs on its tail. What was he supposed to do about that? Run. That’s what he was supposed to do. How could he even fight something like that?
Luckily he was actually incredibly fast now. Awakening definitely had its perks. The panther thing was still faster though but, hey, take a win when you can get one right? Before he would’ve been meals on wheels.
Alex dove into an alleyway. The momentum causing him to crash hard into a wall. He barely felt any pain at all even though he left a small indent where he hit.
“Seriously love these stats!”
Alex was elated and at the same time terrified. He felt so alive but at the same time, if he didn’t figure something out he would soon feel very dead. Can someone feel dead? The panther couldn’t get itself to stop in time and slid past the alleyway. Alex looked around and found a type of lid with a handle. That could work as a shield. He grabbed it and continued to run. At least there could be some kind of buffer against the panther now. The alleyway turned a corner and as he went to exit, his way was blocked.
The panther decided that chasing him was getting boring and cut him off at the end of the alleyway. Alex braced himself as the panther began to run at him. Time to test the resilience of his shield. He channeled his inner Vanguard and hoped that would be enough.
The panther slashed across the shield and Alex realized something.
“This shield sucks!”
He was launched back the remnants of his shield were either strewn on the ground or inside his arm. Not ideal that’s for sure. But luckily something happened. He felt different. Good different though. He felt powerful. He opened his status screen to confirm what he thought was the cause of this. It floated in his vision as he rounded another corner.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Alex Sullivan
Race- Human
Class- Shift
Level- 1
Strength- 8
Agility- 6
Intelligence- 6
Durability- 15
Endurance- 7
Health- 143/150
Stamina- 70/70
P.E.- 40/150
Alex noticed the difference immediately. His health dropped a little. No doubt due to his terrible shield. Also his P.E. actually had a value now. Still he wasn’t sure what to do with that. He could feel the power coursing through him just waiting to be used. It was electrifying. But at the same time he felt electrified. As in he felt tiny zaps all throughout his body almost as if the energy were trying to escape.
As Alex turned another corner he found himself in a clearing that looked like it had once been a city plaza. Once, there could have been festivals here. He imagined kids running around with candy, people laughing, and music playing loudly into the night. Instead all he saw was cracked cobblestones, a broken fountain, and…
“Great! Now there’s two of them.”
The pair of panthers began to circle around him in a sort of deadly dance. Alex got the impression that these two didn’t have any desire to share the boons of this hunt. Each had one head trained on him while the other head glared at the other panther.
“At least they aren’t going to team up against me. I couldn’t even handle one. I think two would definitely do me in.”
In concert, both panthers charged toward the middle of the clearing where Alex was. Backed up to the broken fountain Alex had nowhere to go. He looked for anything that could help. There were some loose stones on the ground. He picked some up quickly and decided to hurl them at one of the panthers to hopefully stun it and then dodge the other charging panther. As he threw them he felt the effect of his increased strength. A handful of rocks were launched toward the panther on his right at speeds surpassing a major league pitcher’s fastball.
The makeshift frag grenade made contact with the panther a split second later and then distinguishing flesh and stone became impossible. The jagged stones embedded themselves deeply into the panther’s face. Two made contact with an eye and passed through easily. Howling in pain, the panther was knocked off course right as it had pounced. The other panther however was unwavering in its assault and was closer than Alex had anticipated. With no time to dodge, Alex instead went on the offensive.
Just as the panther lunged, Alex squared his legs and prepared to get under it. His intention was to use the panther’s momentum to launch it into the other one or at least past him so that he could prepare better for the next attack. The panther jumped and Alex got under it thanks to his increased agility. So far so good. When Alex pushed against the panther, something strange happened. He knew that he had increased strength and he felt the difference in his throw earlier but this was different. He pushed and then there was more. Alex felt the prickles of energy vibrating through him, up through his arms and out through his hands. The panther felt it as well when it was not only launched with Alex’s increased strength but also with the force that it had used to ram into Alex earlier.
The panther soared through the air and slammed hard into a wall twenty feet away. It honestly felt like a cartoon to Alex. The panther stuck into the wall and slowly peeled away falling headfirst onto the broken cobblestones. It didn’t move for a while then slowly got up, legs trembling as it tried to support its own weight.
Apparently the panther decided that Alex wasn’t tasty anymore and began to limp away literally licking its wounds as it did. Too bad the other panther seemed to have more resolve. The injured eye only made the remaining panther more ferocious. One of its heads was dripping with blood, the remains of the missing eye dangling from its socket.
It stared at Alex growling. It obviously was calculating the best way to catch its dinner. At the same time Alex was calculating his next move. He had already checked and his status screen and seen that he had completely drained his P.E.. He still had his new strength and other stats to rely on but he didn’t know how to best use them.
“Why didn’t I beg my mom to let me take that karate class when I was eight? It would have made this so much easier. I could have crouched my tiger and hidden my dragon on this panther. Wait that sounds wrong.”
He only knew that when he had taken a hit he had then been able to transfer some of that energy back. But he didn’t want to take too many hits either. He still had some metal shards in his forearm from the last one and he could see how these encounters could start to accumulate. He didn’t know when he would be able to take a break and didn’t want to be nursing some major wounds and run into another enemy. He knew that it was powerful but he needed some other way to attack as well. He wanted to maximize his encounters. Try not to get hit but when he inevitably did, he could hit back with even more force.
Again Alex searched his surroundings. This time he didn’t want a stupid shield. What the heck was Vanguard thinking? A shield is pointless. Sure the symbolism is nice. ‘I will protect you, citizen. Have no fear.’ But it’s a purely defensive tool. It hardly has any offensive capabilities and the ones it does have could easily be replaced by almost anything else to be more effective. No Alex swore right then that shields were no longer allowed.
As he slowly walked backwards, keeping an eye on the panther, his foot hit something. A metal pipe, no two pipes, that had likely been a piece in a market stall. They were both about the length of his forearm and decently heavy, solid too. He picked them up and brandished them towards the advancing predator. The panther seemed to have decided on a course of action as it shot forward. As it approached Alex it bounced from side to side trying to juke him out? That’s what Alex guessed anyway. Instead of taking the bait Alex stood his ground. The panther lunged, front claws extended and Alex prepared to bash his pipes into its head in a downward slash.
He was a little too slow but his enhanced reflexes allowed him to spin his body to the side and avoid the brunt of the attack. He still received a shallow cut on his upper arm. The panther didn’t so much as bat an eye as it turned to lunge as soon as it landed behind Alex. The sting in Alex’s arm sharpened him a little and he was already prepared for the counter offensive the panther was launching. With one pipe he swung to block the incoming daggers that were the panthers claw, and with the other he hit the panther in the head directly above where the eye had been crushed.
The panther growled in pain but did not relent. Again it launched an almost immediate counter attack this time not lunging but opting to ram straight into Alex. He was not prepared and was hit square in the gut. He was thrown back, the wind knocked out of him as he crashed to the ground. His vision was swimming but he quickly regained his footing. Which was good as it was already charging him again. Luckily this time Alex felt the familiar power.
The panther decided that it would go low to take out Alex’s legs. It wanted this fight over. It had suffered wounds and wanted its meal now. Alex also wanted this fight to be over. He had taken more damage than he had wanted to and was already exhausted. When the panther dove at Alex’s feet, he had an idea form in his head.
The panther got closer and closer and alex prepared his attack. Once the panther was within reach, he swung his fist down. It connected with the top of the panther’s skull and continued down. The strength alone would be enough to at least have stunned the panther. Its head hit the ground and then the extra force was released from Alex’s body.
What was left was one head of the panther slumped on the ground whimpering. Where the other head had been was now just a bloody stump. Alex’s hand was covered in red and there were chunks of alien cat head everywhere. The lower part of Alex’s pants were drenched with gore. He slumped to the ground exhausted.
The panther saw its chance and ran away. It’s limp neck flopping with each step. Apparently these things only needed one head to survive. Alex would have chased after it to finish the job but he couldn’t muster the strength to get up. He checked his status screen to see what was going on.
Alex Sullivan
Race- Human
Class- Shift
Level- 1
Strength- 8
Agility- 6
Intelligence- 6
Durability- 15
Endurance- 7
Health- 115/150
Stamina- 20/70
P.E.- 0/150
No wonder he was exhausted, his stamina was nearly depleted. He wasn’t entirely sure what had drained it but it didn’t really matter. He was tired. He would need to recover. He checked the timer on the tutorial. He only wanted to rest for a little bit and that was the only clock he had.
Tutorial ends in- 59 days 22 hours 45 minutes 16 seconds.
This was going to be a long tutorial.