Chapter 13B: Tutorial’s End
Inside of a small sterile white room surrounded by countless machinery laid a single workstation for apprentices. Alex sat at the table looking down at an incredibly small microchip through a powerful magnifying glass. With remote control, she carefully maneuvered the small robot arm to place and weld pieces onto the chip. Sweat dripped from her brows as the tension and heat slowly accumulated. Finally, it was done. Alex took off her work hat and wiped her forehead. The hat was to ensure none of her hair falls onto anything during the process.
Finally, her project is complete. It had taken her slightly more than a week. Normally she wasn’t one to procrastinate, but most of her free time had been consumed by the ARK system. Alex and her friends are nearly complete with their quest. So far they had killed five sheep and cows. They are on their last two pigs. With their deadline coming up, they needed to finish the tutorial and move onto the vast world. Soon they will be kicked out of their rooms and sent out into the world.
The welcome center couldn’t be their permanent home. More and more new recruits come every month. In just two months, they are already considered veterans there.
In the end, it all comes down to money. Credits, credits, credits, the need for credits was ever present. With their money pooled together, they currently sit at a thousand credits. The cheapest place they found for four people, was around 1800. They are only slightly halfway with only weeks to go. The panic really set in whenever they thought about it.
Alex sighed and looked at her creation. Its original design was something the old man had thought up but never brought to light. Thankfully, with the equipment in the Tinkerer’s society, she could create the piece. A few unforeseen problems occurred, but with the training she received from the old man, they were quickly resolved.
Alex pushed the final button as the chip was placed inside a hard ceramic mold.
The item was a pair of earrings. They looked inconspicuous, but looks can be deceiving. Soon she will unveil her creation to her peers and Dr. Ptah. Hopefully, she receives a good score.
Alex leaned back in the swivel chair and stretched. She borrowed the workstation for half the day. Now that she completed an hour ahead of schedule, she began to let her mind wander.
The amazing experiences she had with her friends in the ARK system so far flashed through her mind like a collage of movies. Slowly but surely, their levels began to even out. Originally, they started out very low. Alex and Ruri were level three while Kurt was level six. Poor Nell was a measly level one. But as the experience they got from all those animals balanced out between them, they all leveled up. Kurt was kind enough to share his experience with Nell. Thankfully, as the party leader, Alex could control the experience distribution. Now Nell sat comfortably at level five while Alex and Ruri were level six. Kurt was level seven.
Al was smiling every time they leveled up. He said levels were a good indicator that you are improving. Although leveling up doesn’t provide you with stats like one of the old games, they do allow you to be more effective against strong creatures. After all, most of your skill’s effectiveness is affected by level differences. Thankfully, now that Nell wasn’t so low leveled, her mushroom could do some serious damage now instead of just being a tank.
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Friendly chef Al also taught them about mastery levels. With each cast of their skill, a level one ability has around a 15% chance to go up in mastery by 0.01 points. By the time it hit 100, it would raise up in level. The amount of points it gained varies depending on how reusable the skill was. By now, Alex’s phantom boa had hit level two. With its increase in mastery, came a significant improvement. Now she can summon two boas at the same time. Compounded with her twin fang strike, she can summon at most four shadowy snakes to bind her enemies, one for each limb. Her twin fang strike was close to leveling up as well. Sadly her venom creation fell behind as it could only be used once a day.
Suddenly, a soft, gentle voice called to her over the intercom.
“Your time is nearly up, apprentice. Please finish up whatever you are doing and prepare to switch.”
It would seem the hour is up. Alex carefully stored the pair of earrings in a protective case and took it with her out the workstation. Through the doors was a long hallway. Numerous apprentice workstations lined the hall. But with the sheer number of apprentices, they still had to rotate out twice a day. Alex returned to the receptionist and handed back the room key. Then she left to go see her friends.
Right beneath the countless stairs of the Tinkerer’s society building, was a bus station. Public transport was often used as very few can actually afford a private vehicle. Thus the ones above in the flying cars are all the wealthy. Alex waited only ten minutes before the hover bus arrived. The oval-shaped public vehicle floated above the ground via electromagnetism. A faint humming sound buzzed from the vehicle. The bus was pure black and matched the dark ground below it. Faint glowing blue lines flashed across it like pulsating electric veins. Alex walked in and put her visor on. Various advertisement suddenly appeared on the side of the bus. After walking in, she saw a hologram of the bus driver tilt his hat and greet her. The bus was auto piloted, but a hologram bus driver was there to monitor the fee payment.
Alex flashed her pass, and it deducted one credit. The bus slowly took off as it hovered a few centimeters above the ground. As it came close to the center of town, it had to stop more and more frequently to let pedestrians walk around it. Thankfully, with its collision detection and its advanced autopilot, there has yet to be a case of the bus hitting anyone. On accident that is. There are also some idiots who decided to get into a hit and run with a stationary bus, but in this case, they are the ones running.
Alex adjusted her visor and was browsing the beginner forums. It was a place for newcomers to learn about the ARK system from people who are more experienced. She and her friends gained access to the beginner forums just a few days ago. Al gave it to them since he was an administrator on the forums. In the ARK system, you are considered a beginner until you hit double digits. So until level ten, you are a newbie.
Several new posts were talking about the difficulty of the tutorial quests. It would seem that Alex and her friends were one of the faster groups. Many were still panicking as they struggle to the upgraded animals. Few were already in way over their heads as deadlines approached. Some even began to pray and bargain with weird and strange deities. One such deity that appeared was something called ‘Rngesus.’ Apparently, it was the god of random chance. It was an old deity, dating back a few hundred years. No one can prove its existence, but it didn’t stop people from praying and bargaining with it.
Alex silently laughed at the desperation of her peers. It was hilarious, but she couldn’t help but feel sadistic over laughing at their demise.
All the newbies grouped up ranged from three to six people. Alex and her friends were in one of the smaller groups apparently. Having a bigger group wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Conflict in decisions and arguments over leadership slowed the six-party teams down.
The bus soon came to a stop at her station. Alex walked out and realized the sun had started to set. When she walked out of the Tinkerer’s society, it was still bright, but now a hazy purple glow covered the horizon and the skies above.
Alex waited in the front lobby as her friends returned one by one. Finally, they all gathered.
“Let’s finish this!” She said to her friends with a brilliant smile.
“Yea!” They replied in unison as they raised their fists into the air.