Chapter 5 - The Tutorial (Intermission).

You have bled out and died from your wounds.

Would you like to revive? Y/N

Søren mentally sighed and imagined himself lying flat on his back, staring up into the nighttime sky over his childhood home in Rakkeby, Denmark, a small village of a few hundred people. He'd spent most of his childhood in the small village with his mother, Kiera, and his father, Thomas, with considerable travel back and forth to København. He and his family emigrated to Ireland after his mother had completed her summer work at the archaeology excavation of Tybrind Vig and finished her studies at Københavns Universitet. His father loved to tell the story of how they had met when she'd taken a weekend off on holiday to explore the Jutland peninsula.

Passing through the town of Vrå, Kiera had visited a small roadside stand selling fresh vegetables and fruit. Next to that stand was a young kid with bright blue eyes who had set up their own kind of roadside stand named `Kennets Skatte`. He stood behind a rickety old card table that was covered with old cigar boxes filled with rocks of various shapes and sizes and other bits of dirt covered knick knacks that most kids would probably find interesting. She had stopped to purchase something for dinner, but a few ceramic shards of pottery on the table also caught her eye. Turned out they were part of a clay vessel from the Ertebølle culture near the end of the Mesolithic period, dating back to circa 6000 bp (before present). Kennet's grandfather, Malthe, had uncovered them when clearing land for farming and gave bits and pieces to each of his grandchildren. Kiera excitedly asked where the pieces had come from and was soon heading towards Rakkeby after she bought all the pieces from Kennet in exchange for the info.

Søren's father, Thomas, worked at Malthe's farm and on that day, he was out in the field digging a trench to divert storm waters towards the creek. He was lost deep in thought, minding his own business when a young woman with sun-reddened skin and fiery red hair jumped down into the trench and tried to yank the shovel out of his hands. Thomas had always been considered quiet and reserved and not even the curse laden tirade form this beautiful sun-kissed angel perturbed him. In fact, the more she spoke, the wider his smile became.

He was entranced by the Irish lilt in Kiera's voice as she spoke animatedly and angrily thrust the shovel this way and that, pointing at bits and pieces of broken pottery he had tossed by the wayside. Unfortunately for Kiera, Thomas' grasp on the English language and the Irish accent that colored her words made it even more difficult for him to understand what few words he could recognize.

"You want to dig, you can dig," he said to her in Danish. "I will go take a break."

"Båtnakke!" Kiera muttered at him, using one of the few Danish insults she had learned. Thomas just laughed and left the fiery redhead standing in the half-finished trench as he went to go find Malthe. She stared after him, unsure whether to follow or not, but her curiosity got the better of her and she started picking through the pile of dirt and ceramic pottery pieces. After a long and troublesome conversation with Malthe, Kiera eventually convinced him to allow her to organize an excavation of the area with the assistance of her professor from the university and the National Museum of Denmark.

Malthe made Thomas the point of contact for the duration of the excavation, giving Thomas and Kiera plenty of time to get to know each other. Their friendship blossomed despite the language barrier. Unfortunately for Thomas, Kiera returned to København to continue her studies at the Københavns Universitet after spending the late summer months at Malthe's farm. Over next few years, Thomas couldn't let go of the feeling that he should have said something before Kiera left. There had been a quiet moment during their parting where neither spoke, each looking into the eyes of the other, neither willing to take a chance.

So Thomas traveled south into Aalborg and bought a Sony Walkman and a series of audiotapes to improve his meager English language skills. He wore the Walkman each day working on Malthe's farm, practicing his English with the cantankerous old farmer and his family at night over dinner. When he felt he was ready, he sought out Kiera at the Københavns Universitet, making an arrangement to meet her under the guise of finding additional pieces of pottery at the Malthe farm. Despite the false pretenses, she listened to him and was touched by the lengths he had gone to to learn English. Their first date was at a small café on the campus.

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Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and years later, the two were married. Kiera continued to work towards her Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology degree at the university while Thomas gave up his job at Malthe's farm to go to the university as well. Thomas had always been a person of simple interests with a good work ethic, but had also had a keen wit and sharp mind. He had only lacked the opportunity to grow. Colored by his interactions with Kiera, he chose to dig deep into the academic side of history, rather than the physical side that Kiera loved.

The passion for archaeology and history that both his parents shared had greatly affected his choices later in life, Søren mused. He had gone to the Københavns Universitet as well and followed in the footsteps of his mother, but also spent a considerable amount of time studying history and mythology, blending them together into a well rounded education. His focus had been... his focus...

What was my focus? Søren questioned of himself. A familiar headache throbbed behind his metaphysical eyes. Why can't I remember what happened to me? Why can't I remember what I studied? Why was I going to Iceland? The frustration and pain grew stronger the longer he bent his will towards recovering his memories until he finally screamed out in anguish.

AUGH! FINE! I'll stop, Søren thought angrily at whatever entity or process had stolen his memories and punished him from trying to remember. He slammed a mental wall between him and his thoughts of the past.

Focus on the present. Focus on this damn Tutorial. There's a way to beat this. It's not the Kobayashi Maru. There has to be a path to success. Wait... path. The Guide said something about Paths. Søren quickly scanned through the chat log, bringing up the specific mention of Paths. Your performance will be assessed in order to determine suitable Paths from which you can choose upon completion of the Tutorial. That has to mean that completing the Tutorial isn't the only metric I'll be judged on. How I complete it will be taken into account. Does it matter that I've failed thrice now or will that count as perseverance, determination?

Søren brought up the status window in the top left corner, noting the two empty bars and the sliver of bright silver on the edge of the dark steel color of the third bar and compared it to the TEK he had gained from each kill.

I guess dying won't be penalized heavily unless I fail a significant number of times. Otherwise, I doubt that whatever is controlling this would let me keep any TEK accrued prior to failing. I've acquired a total of sixty TEK from six kills. Given how much of the bar remains empty, it's probably not worth it to try and farm enough to fill the bar at this point. I presume there will be additional parts to the Tutorial after defeating and surviving the first three hordelings.

So what else do I know now about the Tutorial? Well, the doorway is a hologram. I can exit as soon as I'm free of the metal restraints on the platform. Perhaps there's a way to open them earlier, buying me a few more seconds. I wonder if there's a different way to defeat the one sleeping in the crack of the stone wall and save the cable for the third. Can't hurt to try I suppose. If I can break free of the restraints and wrench the table leg free in time, I can get a few attacks off on the sleeping hordeling. If they're sleeping or stunned, their melee defense drops significantly and makes it easier to deal critical hits to them.

Fortified with a plan in mind, Søren mentally swiped the user interface away with a downward slash and then tried the gesture to force the emergency log out sequence, just in case. Nothing happened as expected. He sighed inwardly and called the revival dialog back into existence.

Let's see what happens. Søren focused on the dialog and selected `Y`.

"Welcome to Gateway traveler!" said a cheery voice that echoed all around Søren. "In just a few moments, an encounter with a Hordeling will begin. Your performance will be assessed in order to determine suitable Paths from which you can choose upon completion of the Tutorial."