"On average, the main stats of the creatures will be increased by 40 on average, and the rest will be increased by 20. Even the weaknesses of a creature will be increased by at least 10."
"And what do these numbers mean exactly?"
"To learn about attributes, please take the course 'Attributes Explained'."
As the disembodied voice told him the name of the course, one of the doors in the walls started glowing slightly. It was a warm, muted glow that seemed to emanate from the entirety of the door, without a visible source. At any other time, Aiden would've stopped to closely inspect such an interesting effect, but with his nerves strung tight, he simply pushed the door open. Or, at least he tried to - the door didn't budge, despite Aiden trying to force it open using his shoulder.
Faced with the obstacle, Aiden turned to the AI for help. Despite trying to sound calm, hints of his anger leaked into his speech.
"Why... is the door closed then?"
"To access an advanced course, complete a stage of the trial. With each stage of the trial completed, the challenger will gain a single opportunity to access an advanced course."
Despite the calm, collected tone of the AI's voice, Aiden couldn't stop the anger from rising within him.
"Why did you tell me to take this course if I can't enter it then?!"
"Challenger hasn't specified that the course has to be available."
The calm voice only riled him up, but Aiden knew, logically, that he couldn't do anything. What was he supposed to do? Get angry at the robot? Punch the wall? Stomp on the stone ground? Nothing would change if he did so - he might even hurt himself.
After a minute of deep breathing, Aiden regained some semblance of control over his emotions. He wasn't usually this volatile emotionally, but this situation and his complete lack of control upset him. He was, in short, scared. However, before the emotions could get the better of him, Aiden shoved them deep into the recesses of his mind. This was not the time to break down.
The question was, what could he do? To know the answer to that, he first needed more information. So, more talking to the infuriating AI. Aiden sighed, then spoke once again.
"How strong is someone with twenty strength compared to someone with ten?"
Hopefully, the AI would answer a simpler question.
"A person with twenty strength is two times stronger than one with ten."
"Alright then, how strong is someone with thirty strength compared to someone with ten?"
"A person with thirty strength is four times stronger than one with ten."
At the AI's answer, Aiden couldn't help but freeze. 20 strength being effectively two times stronger than 10 was understandable, but 30 being four times stronger was bad.
That implied that the increase in strength wasn't linear, but rather exponential.
"So, every increase of ten means the effective strength is doubled?!"
Despite himself, Aiden felt a bit of despair creep into his question.
"Yes."
Even before he felt the oncoming panic, Aiden already started breathing deeply. This was bad - much worse than what he had thought. To be fair, even if the growth wasn't exponential, an animal with 50 in a certain attribute would still be five times stronger than normal. However, with exponential growth, it would be sixteen times stronger.
Lost in thoughts and his emotions, Aiden didn't even notice that he started to pace around the tutorial hub. He couldn't help but blame himself. For what? He wasn't sure. He couldn't do anything to change his current situation.
However, he knew one thing. His parents, the people closest to him in this world, would be in danger once the tutorial ended, and he would do his best to protect them.
'If they manage to survive the tutorial...'
Shaking his head vigorously, Aiden banished the thought from his mind. It would do him no good to think about things he couldn't change.
To protect his parents, he needed to become stronger. And here, in the tutorial, he could do just that. After thinking the situation through, he had calmed down a bit. Just at that moment, a sudden spike of pain in his spine reminded him of something. The system had offered healing for anyone within the tutorial - could it heal the injuries he sustained in the fall?
"What should I do to get healed?"
The AI spoke once again.
"Upon completing a combat course or trial, the challenger will be automatically healed. Every four hours, the challenger's physical needs of food and water will be automatically resolved. The challenger has a total of ten opportunities for a full healing on call for the entirety of the tutorial. Upon exiting the tutorial, all remaining opportunities will be removed."
So, he had ten opportunities to fully heal himself during the tutorial. Those opportunities could be lifesavers in one of the combat trials the AI mentioned, and shouldn't be easily squandered. Despite that, Aiden decided to use one of them now to heal his back.
"Heal me."
It seemed that using the healing opportunity was simple - Aiden had only said two words, and the instant he finished them, he felt a strange energy appear within his body. This energy didn't just heal the bruises on his back, it also healed all of the various ailments he had accumulated over the years. All of a sudden, Aiden felt extremely light. His back straightened unconsciously, and he performed various stretching exercises to test the extent of the healing.
Unfortunately, he still needed glasses - he could notice and extremely minor improvement to his eyesight, but it was nowhere near close to the clarity he got when wearing glasses. But oh well, it was a bit too much to expect from an opportunity everyone on earth received.
Now that he was fully healed, he felt read to take on the tutorial. Previously, he had subconsciously held his back still as he walked. He did so to avoid irritating the injury. In such a state, he definitely wouldn't be able to give his 100% to passing the various trials in the tutorial.
He had avoided thinking about it, but he was practically certain there was going to be danger in the tutorial. Since challengers were offered free healing at the end of a combat course and the trial, it was safe to assume that they usually needed it - thus, there was danger present in the trials, and even the courses. Although the prospect of danger scared him a bit, his resolve didn't waver.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Finishing some stretches, Aiden spoke to the AI.
"What courses need to be completed in order to leave?"
He received no verbal response, but a single door started glowing. Not yet ready to jump into possible danger head first, Aiden first read the course name, located on a small plaque on the door. The course was titled 'Basic Combat Course'.
'So, the combat course is a requirement to leave... Still, is there nothing else I can do before trying it? Better ask.'
Not certain he was ready, Aiden asked the AI.
"What courses can I take?"
A few doors lit up, while the one before him stayed lit. A bit tired of walking to read the course names, Aiden asked the AI
once again.
"Is there a list of all available courses?"
Once again, the AI didn't respond, but a blue screen appeared in front of Aiden. On it, he could see the list of all courses, organised by categories.
<<<>>>
- Combat courses - Basic, Intermediate, Advanced
- Magic courses - Basic, Intermediate, Advanced
- Lectures:
- Attributes Explained
- Levels Explained
- Skills Explained
- Weapons Explained
...
- Survival course
- Crafting: ...
<<<>>>
Aiden first skimmed over all of the courses, then focused on the ones he wanted. Which, admittedly, were all of them. Of course, he knew which were more important - the most important were the various lectures, but the most important were the three explaining attributes, levels and skills.
After these three, the combat and magic courses. To make the journey across the American continent, Aiden needed to be strong. This strength could come from two sources - physical combat or magic combat. He dismissed social power - it wouldn't help him against rabid beasts. Well, it could, but he wouldn't be able to convince people to make the journey to the West Coast with him. So, he needed to go alone.
Magic seemed promising, but even if he did learn magic, Aiden would still learn to wield a melee weapon, at least. After all, if an enemy got close to him, or he ran out of mana, he would need a way to defend himself.
Last of all, but still important, the survival course. Going by its' name, it would most likely teach Aiden how to survive in the wild - start a fire, avoid making too much noise, maybe how to skin an animal if he was lucky.
The crafting classes were interesting - Aiden opened the tab to take a look, and many of the topics within interested him - enchanting, alchemy, blacksmithing, etc. - but his priorities lay elsewhere.
Playing a bit with the window listing the courses, Aiden found how to look at a course's requirements, and learned some rather discouraging facts.
Firstly, practically all of the courses required him to have 'an opportunity from clearing the stage of the trial'. Aiden didn't know why this opportunity wasn't named better, but as far as he understood it, every stage of the trial he cleared would give him the opportunity to enter one course. If he entered it, that opportunity would be used, and he would have to clear another stage of the trial if he wanted to enter another trial requiring the opportunity.
To enter all of the explanatory trials, he would need to clear at least three stages of the trial, plus the fourth for the survival course. Only the basic combat course and basic magic course were free of the courses he deemed important - the rest of the lit up courses were basic crafting ones, and as much as Aiden wanted to try them, he didn't have the time.
'I think it's time to take on the combat trial.'
Aiden winced as he started walking towards one of the glowing doors. It would be the first time in his life he was faced with a genuine threat to his life - previously, he had led a very normal life as an university student.
The most dangerous situation he had ever faced was when he barely spotted a car just before crossing a street. He was nowhere in its' path, having noticed it in the nick of time, and yet at the time, his heart nearly popped out of his chest, given how fast it had been beating.
All of this led up to a simple fact - he was scared. Scared of what a combat course might entail, let alone the trial. He didn't trust that the magic course would be safe either - if anything, the unknown scared him more than simple fighting, even though he felt immense curiosity towards it.
"Sigh..."
'... I really don't want to do this.'
While walking, Aiden thought.
'But I don't have a choice in the matter, do I?'
Now standing before the door to the combat trial, he swallowed nervously.
'No, I don't.'
Aiden opened the door to the combat trial, and after a second, entered.
Within, he found a room very similar in appearance to the others, except in size. In the middle of the room stood a straw dummy, while on the walls was a veritable arsenal of weapons. Every weapon one could imagine was here - from bladed weapons such as knives, daggers and swords, through blunt weapons - clubs, sticks, nunchucks and knuckledusters, spears, halberds, various types of ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, and thrown weapons, all the way to the truly unconventional ones - a weight on a long rope, a glove with claws on it, and others that Aiden didn't understand the purpose of.
"Welcome to the basic combat course. To begin, please choose a weapon."
He had to choose a weapon. Aiden had to admit to himself that the sight of all the weapons on the walls excited him quite a bit, diminishing his fear slightly. Still, as this was an extremely important decision, he calmed down and began to ponder.
'What weapon should I choose? That depends on what I want. So, what do I want from a weapon?'
As he pondered, Aiden started to slowly walk around the room, examining the various weapons in detail.
'There is the option to fight barehanded, but I don't want to go down that route. I'm not the biggest fan of close range combat as a whole... But then again, I won't be able to learn to shoot a bow so quickly.'
He thought as he passed a section of the wall covered in various types of bows.
'On top of that, I don't know if I would be able to get back arrows I shot if I did pick a bow... Wait, that reminds me.'
"Will I be able to take the weapon I pick back to earth?"
"Weapons present in the room can be used throughout the tutorial, but cannot be taken out. Only weapons offered as rewards can be taken out of the tutorial."
'So that means that the more unconventional weapons are out of the question - I can't rely on the possibility of a reward, and I wouldn't be able to easily acquire such strange weapons on earth.'
Instantly, over half of the weapons were eliminated.
'I should also pick a weapon that magnifies my strengths... So I should probably focus on my dexterity and agility. Weapons that rely too much on strength are simply not for me, so big weapons and blunt weapons are out of the question...'
A third of the remaining weapons was thus eliminated.
'But on the other hand, if I focus on agility and dexterity, such a fighting style has a rather high requirement on the user's abilities. Using brute strength would require much less finesse, and would be rather easy to learn. Also, the difference in stats shouldn't be that hard to overcome - after all, there exist levels in the status. In practically all of the games that I've played, it was possible to increase your attributes with levels, and more importantly, the system wouldn't just train the challengers only to have them die at the hands of mutated beasts... Right?'
He once again turned to regard the blunt weapons, but ultimately turned back.
'No, even if such a way would be easier, I just don't feel like it matches me very well. A sharp weapon is preferable. Also, smaller weapons would be easier to carry.'
As Aiden turned to regard the section where sharp weapons were placed, he found his gaze drifting towards a specific weapon - a sword.
It wasn't pretty or flashy - in fact, none of the weapons in the room were. Its' design focused on a single thing - utility. There wasn't even a sign of any superfluous decoration on the sword, be it on the blade or the hilt.
Aiden wasn't certain why he was attracted to the blade. Having no experience with forging or weapons, he couldn't discern the quality of the blade, though he could guess that all weapons in this room were comparable in quality.
The sword was straight, the same width at the base as it was at the top, with a short, but nonetheless sharp tip. The blade looked to be around three times the length of the hilt, and as the entire sword itself was roughly a metre long, he could guess the blade was around 75 to 80 centimetres.
'Should I pick this one? I don't know why I like it so much... Should I reconsider the choice? Still, none of the other weapons I narrowed my choice to appeal to me... Ah, screw it, I'm going to take it.'
With that thought in mind, he reached out, took the hilt of the sword and picked it up.
Instantly, he was surprised by the weight - this was most likely a one handed weapon based on its' weight, so why was it so heavy? He was barely able to pick it up, let alone wield it proficiently.
Before long, however, he remembered where he was - this was the tutorial. Outside of the tutorial, animals mutated to become 16 times stronger than previously - it was understandable that humans would experience the same level of growth in their abilities. The weapons in here were most likely made with stronger humans in mind, and with some training he should be able to wield it. Unfortunately, until then, he was going to have quite a hard time.
After a few seconds, Aiden realised something - the AI, which had so far been extremely attentive towards everything he had been doing, hadn't reacted to him picking out his weapon. After a few seconds, he realised why - he hadn't picked up the scabbard. As expected, once he picked the scabbard up, the AI spoke once again.
"Attack the dummy with your chosen weapon as hard as you can for as long as you can."
Aiden took a deep breath. The course was only now beginning.