Well, that wasn't ominous. 'May your spirit never be extinguished'. What did that even mean? I assume it meant 'don't die' but the way it phrased it made it sound so much worse.
Before I could think further about the warning, I was once again teleported. One second in a white room, the next, standing in a forest clearing in the middle of the woods.
The first thing that caught my attention was that there were other people. So I won't be alone. That's good, I thought, usually parties were the most effective in RPG games. Everyone was just lingering around in groups of various sizes with some of the larger ones pushing thirty or forty people. The smallest being around ten or so. I started to look around to see if my family was here when-
"Christopher!" someone shouted my name from behind me.
I turned around to find Abigail waving at me with some of the rest of my family around her. Anna and Josh were standing behind her looking around at the forest they suddenly found themselves in. Some of my cousins and their significant others were standing around them as well.
Walking over gave me enough time to notice that everyone else was decked out in the same kind of gear that I had. Some were wearing robes of mostly cloth while others matched what I had with full leather. Some had a mix of both where just the chest and head were protected by leather and the rest was cloth. I figured those were the Rogues and Rangers while the Mages and Healers were in cloth.
There was an assortment of weapons to be seen strapped to everyone's side or on their back. It looked like swords were the most common with spears coming in a close second but there was the occasional oddity. Like when a young man with short dark-brown hair had a pair of tonfas in his hands.
When I reached my sister, she looked me up and down taking in the change in appearance of my new gear while I did the same to her. She was wearing an off-white cloth robe over the clothes she was wearing before. She must have picked either Mage or Healer by what seemed to be a wand looped in her belt. She was a nurse so I bet she must have picked healer.
"You look like you're about to go raid the English coast," she said.
Hmph. Seeing that she had skipped over worried, angry, and frantic, to go straight to comedic relief did not bode well. Abigail has always been a Class A control freak and loathes when things are outside of her control. Nothing about this situation was inside her control.
Now that she said it, I saw that I did look similar to what you would see depicting Vikings in shows and movies. I was covered in leather armor and wielded a shield in one hand and an axe in the other. Some of my blonde hair was sticking out of the helmet, and my beard was on full display with the open faced helmet. The only difference was my height being about 5 inches taller than the average Viking.
"You can put those away, nothing is going to attack you," she said pointing at the readied axe in my hand.
I didn't know where she had gotten this information, but I trusted her enough to listen. Looking down to my leather belt I saw that there was a loop to house my axe that I hadn't seen before. I sheathed my axe in the belt loop but didn't know what to do with my shield.
Looking around I saw that anyone else that had a shield was either holding them like I was or had them attached to their back. Not wanting to look like an idiot in front of so many people, I refrained from trying to turn my head to see if there was something on my back to hold the shield which would most likely result in me spinning around like a dog chasing its tail.
"Here let me help," Abigail must have seen my dilemma and helped me out, "Turn around."
Doing what I was told, I felt her guiding my shield into what felt like a magnetic connection on my upper back. That didn't make any sense, the shield was mostly wooden with only a few metal additions like the center embossment and a strip along the edge. There wasn't anything that it should have been able to connect to, especially on the inside of the shield as that was the side touching the armor.
"It's some kind of magic I think." Jonathan, my sister's husband, said off to the side. He must have seen my puzzled look after the shield snapped into place.
I looked over to see him in similar gear as me. He had a full set of leather armor signifying a warrior class with an identical shield on his back, probably how Abigail knew how to holster it. The only difference being the sword that hung from his hip instead of an axe.
"What's going on? How do you know we won't be attacked? Where is Dad and the rest of the family?" I blurted out, there was no way that I could hold it in anymore. There were just so many questions that I wanted to know the answer to. Everything that I had once known had changed so abruptly in the past thirty minutes and she was acting like everything was normal.
What I didn't know, was that she had spent the last thirty minutes: frantically running around trying to find Josh and Anna, trying to explain what was going on to two young children and the rest of our family that showed up after her, and frantically worrying about what the fuck was going on. She had gone completely beyond worried and straight to an unnatural calm.
"I don't know what's going on. A voice said that the tutorial hasn't started yet. I don't know where Dad and the others are but they might show up soon." She said it with a monotone like she had repeated it countless times. Looking around at the twenty or so family members already here showed that this probably wasn't the first time she had answered these questions.
Before I could demand more answers out of her she held up her hand-
"Let me explain what I know and you can ask questions after."
Closing my mouth and nodding for her to go ahead she continued-
"Everyone that I have spoken to was sent into a white room with the only thing in it being a creepy robot thing that called itself a guide. It had them pick a starting class, choose a weapon from a table, and select a starting skill." Ok, that made sense. It was exactly what had happened to me.
"After calming me down the robot said that the only way for me to leave the room was to make my selections. Not knowing where Anna and Josh were, I went through the choices as quickly as possible. After the choices were made I was sent here." she continued. That made sense, I couldn't imagine being suddenly separated from your kids and not knowing where they were.
"Having gone through the options so fast, I was one of the first ones here. I found Anna and Josh standing around with a bunch of other children their age in this forest clearing" she said waving a hand at both of the aforementioned children behind her. "As more and more people showed up, a voice from the sky said that the tutorial would start when all of the participants had arrived."
A voice from the sky. Is the System waiting for everyone to arrive? Is there someone else that is running this thing? After some more back and forth between us, I learned that children below the age of fourteen got sent directly into the forest clearing and were not given the option of selecting a class. They weren't even able to get a status screen. Other than that, she didn't have any other information. She didn't know when, or if, our father would show up or anything else about this 'tutorial'.
After it was clear that she didn't know anything more, I looked at the rest of my family that had arrived. More than half of the ones that were at my grandparent's house were already there with me. Two of my father's brothers were standing with their respective families, and my Aunt's husband was here standing next to their children. Lily was over by her parents, who were holding her younger brother.
The variety of different class choices was nice to see. I didn't think that a group of solely Warriors would do very well. Most of the older men in the family picked the warrior class and had full leather on, there were a few rangers that were demarked by the bow and arrows. It was hard to tell the Mages and Healers apart as they were both in cloth and had wands or staves. Rogues and Rangers were by far the least numerous with only a couple of my teenage cousins choosing Rogue.
They probably thought that it would be cool to sneak around and stab things in the back, not thinking of the vulnerability of lighter armor and weapons that required near physical contact.
Waiting for the rest of my family to arrive gave me time to survey the other groups around us. I found that everyone knew each other in some way but didn't know anyone else outside of their group. I could tell by the way that there was clear demarcation where one group ended and another began and the lack of anyone talking outside of their circle.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
There would be a group of fifteen people all talking to each other quietly in a circle while a few yards away there would be a similar group doing the same thing. Some of the groups had similar facial features and hair color and I assumed that they were all the same family- like my family- that had all been brought along together.
Taking the time to count all the different mingling groups resulted in exactly fifty different groups. There would be the occasional arrival in the middle of the clearing before someone who knew them would wave them over to wherever their group was standing.
Watching people suddenly appear was a new experience for me. Never would I have thought that I would watch people beam in like on Star Trek.
While waiting I asked Abigail what she picked in the white room and she confirmed that she chose healer. She also said that she chose a wand and the skill [Healer's Hands]. The skill required physical contact and converts mana into healing energies applied through the hands used to heal wounds.
After telling them the choices that I had made, Jonathan and I laughed at how similar we were. The only difference being weapon choice. He even took [Power Strike] for his first skill as well.
Eventually, my Dad arrived in the middle of the clearing and he just stood there and looked around with a bewildered look on his face. He looked like a fish out of water. He was never much into video games so the System and Classes were probably completely new to him and he had no idea what was going on. Abigail called out to him and he started walking over to us while I gave him a once over.
He and I must have had the same idea based on the amount of leather armor on his body and the shield and axe in his hands. He looked like a version of me, only thirty years older and with black hair that was fighting back the gray instead of the sandy blonde that I had. He also didn't have the magnificent beard that I always kept. I got him to grow it out one time, and it was this dark black mane that a lion would be proud of. It was thicker than mine. Suffice it to say I was a little jealous. My Mother hated it and constantly asked him to shave it. It didn't last very long.
It seemed he didn't know what to do with the axe and shield that he was given either and looked ready for a monster to jump out at him. When he reached us he asked much of the same questions that I had. Filling him in on what little information we knew didn't seem to help things. After holstering the weapon he went off to talk with his siblings to see if they knew something we didn't.
Soon, the new arrivals began to wind down with new people arriving slower and slower and the clearing began to feel crowded. There were about a thousand people standing around by this point. The only person that was still missing from our family was my grandfather. He soon showed up in the clearing with an oddly determined look in his eye. Spotting us, he made his way over. Watching him walk made me notice something odd. He had a certain gait he walked with that showed a confidence I had never seen in him before. He gripped his spear like he was familiar with the weapon. It was odd.
Before he could say anything after he got to us a voice in the sky sounded out over the whole clearing.
"Welcome. Now that all participants have arrived we may begin so I only have to do this once."
After the voice spoke everyone quieted down to find out what all of this was about.
"No doubt all of you are curious about what is in store for you, so let's get started."
"While your planet is getting terraformed after the introduction of mana, all previous inhabitants were relocated into various different tutorials to introduce to them the ways of the multiverse."
"After the planet stabilizes, in three months' time, the tutorial will end and all surviving participants will be returned." As he said that, a timer counting down from three months started on everyone's status screens with the amount of days/hours/minutes/seconds left until the tutorial ended.
Tutorial End: 89:23:12:30
After the timer popped up, another screen came into existence,
Tutorial Description
Category: Area Defense(Modified)
Objectives: Stake your claim and make your stand. After solidifying faction affiliation, go forth and claim a fortress pylon and defend it for the duration of the tutorial. Waves of enemies will assault your encampment seeking to destroy the pylon with increasing ferocity for the duration of the tutorial.
Earn points by killing monsters roaming the area and on the successful defense of the pylon.
Additional points may be earned by conquering additional pylons. Participants will reward a portion of their total points upon death.
Rewards are distributed at the completion of the tutorial and are dependent on: performance, points earned, fortress level, number of faction survivors, and any additional feats accomplished.
Beware for monsters are not the only enemy lurking in this forest.
Before I could finish reading the new screen that appeared the voice began speaking.
"Due to modification of the original tutorial I am required to give you time before the tutorial starts to prepare, so listen up for I will not repeat myself."
"The first thing to do is to form the factions that you will be a part of. There can be as few as 1 and as many as 50. After factions are created, pylon locations will be chosen by the faction heads You have 30 minutes to form factions."
To say that after the message ended there was pandemonium would be an understatement. Around a thousand voices began discussing what to do with the information we were given. I heard a few of the louder ones trying to speak loud enough to get everyone's attention, but they quickly got drowned out by all of the different conversations. Some even shouted at the voice to explain more but fell on deaf ears.
My Grandfather took everything in stride and quickly gathered all of our family together and had us move to the edge of the clearing closest to the forest.
"I don't know what's going on, but being in the center of that mess is a bad idea," Granddad said while ushering us further away.
It surprised me how fast that Granddad took charge of the situation and got the whole family huddled together. Usually, it was my Grandmother or Sister who were the organizers of family events.
Now that we were sufficiently distanced from the crowd, Granddad turned to discuss his plan. "It's clear that this game is going to pit us against all the other groups so creating distance is best. With that said, I think that we should stick to ourselves and form this so-called 'faction' of just the family. I do not trust anyone else, and when the infighting begins that could be deadly." He looked around at everyone individually before adding in a serious tone, "And mark my words, there will be infighting."
It was mind boggling how fast he adapted to the situation. I still hadn't gotten over the fact that my world was now a video game, while he not only discerned the potential for bloodshed but acted to give his family the best shot at survival.
Looking back now I saw what he was talking about. The objective looked innocuous saying points were earned through killing monsters and defending your pylon, but you were also rewarded for killing others and conquering other pylons.
I wouldn't say that I didn't have faith in humanity, but the reward for murder wouldn't go unclaimed. I wasn't saying that this clearing was going to devolve into a bloodbath as soon as the tutorial started, but a couple of months of fighting to survive would change that. My thoughts about it kept coming back to the last sentence of the description, 'Beware for monsters are not the only enemy lurking in this forest.' Did it mean to be wary of other people?
A few people in the family voiced disagreement but they were quickly outvoted when most agreed that keeping the faction in the family was best. There were only a few holdouts that required convincing but I tuned that out to watch what everyone else was doing. Most stayed in the groups they came with and looked to be content with that being their faction. Some of the smaller groups looked around at the larger groups with pensive expressions and migrated toward other small factions as if to merge.
There were a handful of people that were going from group to group trying to get everyone to band together into one huge faction. Judging by the reception they were getting, public opinion was similar to ours.
"Ok, so we are all in agreement. Just our family in the faction." My grandfather said to a chorus of nods from us. I guess from our agreed consent, the System sent a notification to confirm the creation of the faction.
After the faction was formed we had to dictate a faction leader and decide on a name. Everyone agreed that the leader should be Granddad. After becoming the leader he went with the completely original name of the Zalenski Family.
With our faction confirmed we waited for the rest of the 30 minutes to elapse. People were still scrambling around trying to finalize factions. Everyone must have been scared of the voice because with over a minute before the timer ended, everyone was in a faction and ready to go, not wanting to find out what would happen otherwise.
I spotted a few changes in the group structure with some of them merging together, but most stayed the same. Our faction looked to be on the higher end in terms of number of members with thirty, but we were by no means the largest. Five or six of the smallest groups banded together to become the largest faction with over fifty people it looked like.
"Now that factions have been formed, the only thing left to do is to claim your pylon."
After the voice said that everyone was notified with a screen that appeared before them that had a map on it. There appeared to be around fifty different markers distributed throughout the map. In the northern section there looked to be mountains and snow while the south looked to be a desert with sand covering a majority of it.
Looking the map over, I assumed that it represented the area we were in, but that didn't make any sense. The biomes were too close together to be natural and forests and mountains were abruptly cut off and not naturally ending. I figured that there was some magic fuckery about.
Just as I finished looking over the map, one of the markers on it disappeared with an average size group disappearing along with it from the clearing. That sparked a fury of activity in the groups where shouting started between different members about which spot looked the best. One of the markers in the middle of the map in what looked like a lush forest disappeared next.
Markers quickly started leaving the map after that. Granddad took his time to look over the map as we were getting more and more nervous watching the markers in the middle of the map leave. Finally, he selected a marker that was mostly in a mountainous region with some green forest to the south and a river to the east. Everything went black for the third time today and I was hoping this wouldn't be a reoccurring trend.