Chapter Four: Uhhh Hello

On floor thirteen I received my first real injury. Within the Level 13 spirit beast’s posse was a Level 6 giant anteater almost exactly like the ones from South America. Given its Level and general…goofy look to it, I thought that its blow would be easy to block while I punched another beast to death… Who knew that they had ridiculously sharp claws? My left forearm was once again put out of commission due to three gashes being torn all the way to my bone. I was lucky that the anteater hadn’t been a higher Level and completely took the limb off.

“Ah, shit,” I muttered under my breath with worry as I entered the fifteenth floor, having cruised through the fourteenth because the enemies had been five boars who struggled to do anything but charge in straight lines while I had nearly 30 Agility. “Another one? This shit’s whack.”

Cradling my still-bleeding left arm, I found myself staring at what seemed to be a sleek, furry frog, a salamander the size of a German shepherd, and yet another fucking anteater. I fumed, but didn’t panic. Anteaters had high damage output, but not necessarily enough speed to make use of their power. I was going to be fine because now I knew.

Also, the three spirit beasts had auras that told me they were all Level 15, but the frog in the middle had far more Attribute Points than its teammates.

“This fucking sucks. There better not be too many more floors after this or I’ma have to bail.”

I wanted to sigh some more but held myself, remembering not to run the clock too much lest be attacked on their terms. Ignoring the pain in my left arm as much as I could, I grew the river of Chi within me until I could not hold it back any longer, and I poured its contents into my entire body. I lunged, trying to end this floor’s fight quickly.

The frog shot toward my head like an arrow, and I was convinced that my gains from the last two Titles were all that kept me alive, because the side of my head exploded with agony and became wet with blood. I barely heard a thud on the tree’s wall behind me by the time I recognized that I’d lost my right ear, but I powered through it with the help of all the adrenaline coursing through my veins from the last fourteen fights. Besides, I didn’t need both ears to kill these beasts.

As I charged I had enough time to recognize how the two opponents in front of me were reacting, and judging from the salamander’s slower reaction it had fewer points of Agility, so I ignored it, knowing it was less of a threat. Instead I jumped feet-first toward the anteater who had begun moving toward me before attempting to stand up on its hind legs. Unfortunately for the anteater, it didn’t stand up quickly enough to swipe, and my feet plowed into its upper torso uncontested. I fell to the ground with the anteater and quickly scrambled to seize its head with my right fist before clenching my fingers hard, crushing its skull. The salamander took the opportunity to get me while I was on the ground with its ally, rushing forward with its jaw wide. I hadn’t known salamanders had teeth before this moment and quickly braced myself with my left arm in its way.

I held in a scream as the poor limb was mangled yet again, but I didn’t have to deal with the pain long before my right hand came to the rescue, letting go of the anteater’s remains and poking out one of the salamander’s eyes, causing it to let go. I clambered to my feet before chasing the retreating amphibian and stomping its tough head. I didn’t feel any bones immediately crack, meaning its Attribute spread was focused on Endurance.

Finally, I noticed the frog on the other end of the room ready itself for another jump, at which point I stood very still and hoped it was dumb. Thankfully it was, and I dodged its next assault with much more room than the last. It slammed into a wall again and I forewent finishing off the hissing salamander just yet in favor of stomping its amphibian brother.

The frog had a good bit of Endurance but not nearly as much as the salamander, and it became a gooey paste before the salamander recovered enough to charge me again. I kicked it in its other eye and continued clonking its skull with my foot until it was proper dead.

[Tutorial Points earned: 45. Total: 353]

“That feels like a lot,” I mumbled as I laid down away from all the carnage and caught my breath, suddenly very tired.

[Tutorial Objective “Solo the Rolling Hills Tree Lair” complete. Tutorial Title updated.]

[Tutorial Objective “First to solo a Tutorial Objective in your Zone” complete. Tutorial Title updated.]

Despite the exhaustion I still found the energy to ogle the prompts with my jaw open wide. Eventually, I rediscovered my ability to speak. “H-holy shit…”

With a trembling lip, I popped open the Tutorial Title.

[Titles]

Tutorial: Complete Tutorial Objectives to receive better rewards. +60 Attribute Points and +20% to all Attributes.

“Sweet Lord of Yorgefan…”

Had I been a weaker person I might have begun hyperventilating at the sight of my winnings, but being myself I pretended to hyperventilate anyway just to amuse myself. I rapidly sucked in and breathed out air until my head grew fuzzy, at which point I giggled like a little kid and began cheering, pumping my good arm and legs into the air as though I hadn’t just killed dozens of magical animals with my bare hands. Where my ear used to be violently stung, but I ignored it in favor of celebrating.

“This…is what being brave, bold, and lucky can get you! Woooow, I’m still having trouble believing this. This is wiiiiiild!”

Seeing that I had a whole SIXTY available Attribute Points I distributed enough of them to bring all my base stats to 20 and Strength and Agility to 30, dropping my available points to 39. That short shopping spree also confirmed that when I added a point to an Attribute, it increased the BASE Attribute instead of the total that was already affected by the percentage increase.

‘I mean, what else did I expect? For a multiversal entity that goes by “the System” to mess up basic math?’

I giddily opened my Status Menu to see the results.

Niko Tess

Strength: (30+25%) = 37.5

Endurance: (20+25%) = 25

Chi Condensation (Level 1)

Agility: (30+25%) = 37.5

Vitality: (20+25%) = 25

Race: Human (Tier 1)

Intelligence: (20+25%) = 25

Wisdom: (20+25%) = 25

Attribute Points: 39

[Titles] Rushing Ahead

[Quests]

“Wow…just wow…”

I lovingly gazed at my stat distribution and leftover Attribute Points, completely packed full of adoration with my rewards, given for being the first to solo this Tutorial Objective.

But I didn’t have the time to do nothing but preen myself on my achievements. If those were my rewards for completing just one Objective…I had to complete more at all costs. With bloodlust in my eyes and just a single hand I easily pushed off the ground and onto my feet and dashed toward the exit…before remembering that there were still stairs that led higher.

Holding my sleeve to the side of my head to stem the bleeding, I only hesitated for a second before climbing the stairs, wondering whether the next floor held a greater challenge that I could now easily overcome thanks to my Tutorial Title’s upgrades, and then hopefully acquire a Title for killing something 15 Levels above mine. Yet despite my expectations of a more worthy boss fight, the top room was empty of all except a tall, thin, and black crystalline obelisk that sat in the middle of the room, reaching nearly to the ceiling, which must have been over ten meters high.

[Unique Tutorial Shop]

“Well, that answers the question of what Tutorial Points are for. But what makes it unique? Maybe there’s a different one at the end of every different kind of Objective? Yeah, that makes sense.”

I quickly closed the distance and laid my hand on the black obelisk, causing a navigation menu to pop up.

Weapon Treasures

Defense Treasures

Techniques

Cycling Techniques

Tutorial Points: 353

I pumped my good arm into the air and held in a groan from the pain the sudden movement caused my left arm.

“FUCK YEAH! I LOVE BEING RIGHT!”

Despite my exhilaration I held my horses and selected the first option Weapon Treasures, opening a list of weapons designed after or made from parts of the creatures I’d battled in the tree Objective. To my surprise, the cheapest weapons were 150 points while the more expensive ones were around the 500 points range. I opened their descriptions to try gaining a better understanding.

“Ohhh, that makes sense. That’s why they’re ‘treasures’.”

The weapons were described as having “Chi circuits” built into them that granted various effects, from containing charges of certain attacks like fireballs, to being able to house extra Chi for the user to siphon when they needed it. Chi circuits seemed to be the real world’s equivalent of “scripts”, “magic circles”, and “fractals” from the novels I’d read.

The only weapon my eyes were drawn to was a claw glove that used anteater claws. It only had Chi circuits that auto-adjusted the gloves to the wearer’s size to a certain extent but it still cost a whopping 200 points. If they were anything like a real anteater’s claws they were worth buying, but despite my instincts telling me they were a great expense the weapon clashed with everything I knew about melee combat—mostly being that more reach equaled more of an advantage.

Of course I needed a weapon if I wanted to continue performing well in the Tutorial—especially with one arm being out of commission—but I didn’t buy the anteater claw gloves ONLY because there was one special option at the very bottom of the list.

[Retrieve the Quest-given weapon you accidentally left behind. 10 Tutorial Points]

I sighed, disappointed that I wouldn’t be getting a badass weapon anytime soon, and mentally selected the option. On the hard wooden floor in front of me appeared my spiked mace, still with blood stains.

Next I moved on to the Defense Treasures, finding exactly what I expected. Clothing, jewelry, and other random baubles made to hold charges of some technique that could either defend the user automatically or be released on command. Not unexpectedly, most of them started at 300 points. Clearly this store was most useful only after slaughtering hundreds of spirit beasts.

As much as I thought that having one would save my life, I held back on buying a defense treasure until I saw what techniques were available.

I selected Techniques and smiled at what I found. Just like I’d hoped, this shop contained starter techniques for people still discovering or building up their combat styles. Listed were dozens of simple elemental Chi blasts like fireball and wind blade, as well as dozens more utility and defensive techniques like Fleet-Footed—an escaping technique that increased running speed—and Earthen Dome, which brought the ground up and around the caster to defend against many small attacks.

I made a mental list of what foundational techniques I wanted before moving on to the Cycling Techniques. Salivating, I read the options down one by one, and with each description I grew more thankful I hadn’t chosen the basic Cycling Technique offered by my first Quest. What I learned from all the descriptions could be summarized into several bullet points.

Point one: Just like I’d inferred, had I chosen a fire-aspect Cycling Technique I would be a fool to use anything but neutral and fire-aspect techniques, because although I could still use many common techniques, the more powerful ones required a compatible foundation. That foundation being one’s Cycling Technique. Additionally, the technique would determine what kind of Attribute Points I received when I leveled up next, so it was super-duper important to not only confirm what kind of elements I wanted, but also what stat distribution I needed. Even if one knew they wanted wind-based stuff, there were wind-aspect Cycling Techniques that focused on either Strength, Agility, Intelligence, etcetera, and the buyer would have to decide which Attribute was best for them.

Point two: Being one’s entire foundation for cultivation, Cycling Techniques required one to draw Chi circuits into their spiritual body to form their meridians, or energy channels. Chi would then be channeled through those meridians to produce whatever techniques one had. How exactly one needed to draw their Chi circuits was dependent on the quality and type of Cycling Technique they possessed. The average Cycling Technique’s Chi circuits could be drawn by just about anyone and would work on just about anyone, but the stronger the technique, the higher its requirements for both drawing the circuits and using them. Some techniques said they required common spiritual materials to be used when drawing ones circuits while others used rarer materials, and the biggest difference in Attribute Points requirements I saw was 5 points in Strength versus 50.

Point three: The techniques in the shop were largely separated into one of two groups: Heritage Cycling Techniques and single-use. Most of the techniques in the shop were prohibitively expensive because they were designed as Heritages with entire sets of related abilities—the foundations for entire organizations to be raised upon—while the cheaper ones were single-use and would just be drawn onto the buyer by the System for no extra charge with few or no extra techniques. The buyer would also fully understand how to use the single-use one, but not how to reproduce it. The System had effectively closed the loophole of buying the strongest single-use Cycling Technique and just teaching it to others by memory and observation of their spiritual body because it seemed that knowing all the details without the Heritage manual was impossible. And it didn’t even matter if someone who bought the single-use version figured out the entire thing, like what spiritual materials were needed and how to process them, because anyone capable of doing that was knowledgeable enough to skip the middleman and create their own similar technique.

It seemed I would have to search far and wide for a suitable, higher-end Cycling Technique for myself and save up a shit ton of Tutorial Points for a decent Heritage technique to raise my people with. Thankfully, I was pretty sure this specific Tutorial Shop had a good Cycling Technique to raise my little slice of Humanity on: the Elder Ironwood Heritage Cycling Technique. From its name and vague description I could understand that it was Endurance-based and good for creating a well-defended organization that made use of an Elder Ironwood tree as its foundation. It didn’t go into too much detail, but I figured it was a spirit plant of some kind that would grow into a huge tree like the one I was currently within, and the Cycling Technique would be most effective when around and spiritually connected to the tree, which made it good for defending and little else. Assuming that it came with a method to grow such a tree, I figured that it’d be a good pick since I was turning out to be a powerhouse capable of shouldering lots of burden and making up for any lack of firepower from my followers. Other pockets of civilization who lacked powerhouses like myself would have to buy Heritages that made the masses combat oriented, probably.

After all that browsing and reading I was itching to buy something, and though purchasing a defense treasure was probably the safest choice, the best long-term decision was to test out the feel of different elemental techniques to test my aptitudes, since apparently that was also a thing. Not everyone was equally talented at everything.

[You have purchased the single-use Fireball technique. Remaining Tutorial Points: 263]

I squealed as I felt myself suddenly become familiar with the technique as though I’d studied it every night for the past week in preparation for a test. Sitting down, I immediately began forming precise pseudo-meridians out of willpower alone in my spiritual body, taking just a few seconds in total before pushing my Chi through the temporary energy channels instead of the brute force river I was used to using, opening my eyes, and holding out my hand. A beautiful, flickering, orange flame was born atop my palm. I felt a spiritual link to it since it was so close to my body, and I found it simple and easy to manipulate it through the air with my mind. It slowly floated around my body once before winking out, having expended the sliver of Chi I’d supplied it. Though, even if I’d wanted to, without a proper fire-aspect Cycling Technique and its proper Chi circuit meridians I could not invest that much Chi into it. At most, I could put in about as much Chi as I did into my limbs when I powered up. It was a similar deal there, too, since I lacked a proper foundation for melee combat and mobility.

In effect, I was a martial arts student with big muscles but only a bamboo sword. Put a real steel blade in my hands and I’d be doing a lot more damage.

Also, the shop’s descriptions of the techniques had said that the System would add the Chi circuits of any compatible techniques I’d bought onto my main meridian network, so I wasn’t worried about buying too-powerful of a Cycling Technique and being unable to afford adding more techniques to it without damaging my foundation.

I played around with another few Fireballs before spending the rest of my points on three more techniques; the water, earth, and air variants of the basic fire-aspect technique.

[You have purchased the single-use Gust technique. Remaining Tutorial Points: 23]

Armed with my new techniques I felt like the Avatar, master of all four elements as I spent several minutes sitting down with my legs crossed, trying all the techniques and not finding any one of them more difficult to use than any other. They must have been so basic that anyone could use them.

After playing around with my new magical skills to my satisfaction I spent some time meditating and refilling my energy stores before dashing down the many, many stairs, empowered by Chi. The air rushing by my raw wounds agitated them, but my increased stats and awareness of my body from being a cultivator allowed me to power through the pain. It only took me a few minutes to descend the entire tree and exit through the front door, which closed on its own behind me and melded into the bark. It seemed nobody was allowed to enter, anymore, which was a shame because the obelisk at the top would have been useful to revisit later.

“Uhhh, hello?”

I spun on my heel so quickly that I drew a furrow into the dirt, but I kept enough sense to not start swinging my mace.

“Hi,” I awkwardly said to the dark-skinned Pacific Islander woman who’d been sitting against the giant tree’s exposed roots. “Uhh, what brings you… Ok, I see it too, now.”

I’d thought it prudent to ask why the woman would be waiting at the base of the Objective I was running when I noticed for myself that the tree was now a different color than before. It’s trunk had mostly been a reddish brown before but when I turned around it was entirely orange, and now turning red in a wave going up starting at the door.

“Umm, I think that means I’ve completed the Objective,” I told her as she stood up and brushed dirt off her dress, eyeing my injuries.

She nodded with a forced smile, her nose twitching in irritation as the wind wafted the acrid stench of blood onto her. “Then…”—she cleared her throat—“…do you think the other normal-looking trees are ripe for the taking?”

I nodded back. “Yes, but you can’t clear one on your own. I’m Niko, by the way. And are you speaking English, or…?” I didn’t hear an accent in her voice and wanted to confirm a vital piece of information.

“No, I do not know English. Are you not speaking Fijian? I am called Peni. And what do you mean I cannot complete it by myself?” She looked at me curiously before nodding toward my mace. “Do I need a weapon?”

Happy that the System was going to sidestep the issue of most people being unable to understand each other across the multiverse, I told her, “Well, a weapon will help, but what you need most is more Attribute Points because they make you stronger. Did you stay in the Tutorial’s first phase long enough to learn about them?”

“Oh, yes, I learned everything the Lord of Yorgefan told us. He is a very kind lizard-man…err, Dragon. So you say I am not strong enough to complete the Tutorial Objective?” She looked my injuries up and down again but said nothing about them, maintaining a resolute expression. “I need to get stronger for my people. Our town is threatened by monsters.”

I hesitated for a moment before telling her to bring up her Status Menu, and she obliged. Sure enough, no Title, all 10s, and Chi Condensation Level 0, meaning she’d just become a cultivator thanks to the Lord’s instruction. And since she hadn’t already gotten lucky with Titles, unless she worked very hard she would never be more than average.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I showed her my page, causing her to gasp.

“H-how?” she stuttered, seeing my injuries in a new light.

“Yeah, these Objectives are designed to be completed as a team, though I was powerful enough to complete it on my own,” I told her, mentally preparing myself to leave her to her own devices. “So I wouldn’t recommended going any higher than the third or fourth floor unless you’re confident in your fighting skills. Maybe just keep killing whatever random spirit beasts are around to gain practice, first.”

I looked off into the distance, trying to decide whether to immediately head west toward the evergreens or run more Rolling Hills Tree Lairs for the 350 points and whatever benefits the obelisks might present. Though, I doubted I would get anymore Attribute Points.

Peni dropped her smile in favor of her real emotions, putting her anxiety, fear, and self-doubt on display that was probably now very common in this apocalypse. Looking down at the knee-high grass she bowed at the waste, pleading, “I will do anything! Please tell me how to get stronger like you!”

I pursed my lips nervously at the sincere display, knowing that I’d feel bad for leaving her alone, but also sure that I would have to ignore a lot of people’s pleas in the future. After all, while my mission was to carry Humanity on my shoulders, I had to be able to get strong enough to do that, and time spent helping individuals improve their own cultivation would not benefit me.

“I can trade information and be of service in other ways!” Peni desperately added. “You probably already know because of your weapon but there is a General Tutorial Store on either side of this hilly region! They are large and black crystals that show you where to spend your points! I browsed the store and found many things including healing items! I will spend my points to buy you what I can!”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I’d already planned to tell her for free that her best bet for power was to practice fighting until she could beat a Level 5 spirit beast, but now I was glad for hesitating in my awkwardness.

Since she had information I wanted this could be counted as her getting lucky and having something to trade for my assistance.

“Umm, can you show me? Please lead the way, and I will help you. Though, I don’t want you to buy me anything.”

Peni straightened her back, nodded with grateful eyes, and wasted no time thanking me before turning east, channeling Chi into her entire body, and running. I easily kept up.

The Rolling Hills region seemed to be a rough triangle shape, and I realized that had I gone straight for the next zone through the middle of this one I would have missed the presence of the General Tutorial Stores because the one Peni led me to was at the bottom of a hill close to the landmass’s edge and didn’t reach high enough to see from afar. I guessed there was another one like this too, hidden away, requiring people to search for it.

I approached the much thicker obelisk and placed my hand on it, finding a much wider range of more mundane purchases. For example I found many basic armaments much like my own, and some shields, going for only 25 Tutorial Points up to 100. The option to retrieve my mace was no longer present, either because I already had the weapon or this General Store didn’t contain it. I moved on to the new page for Adventuring Supplies, where I found what Peni said to be true. Here were cheap and expensive healing items, along with many other kinds of supplies like ropes, fire starters, tents, water bottles, and rations. Most important was an option at the bottom to completely heal yourself for just 100 points, which seemed odd when there were supposed potent healing items going for several hundreds of points each until I realized that those poultices, pills, and potions could be taken or applied anywhere, whereas you could only heal at a store.

Unfortunately I only had 20 points, but I was about to gain more points while simultaneously fulfilling my side of the deal with Peni.

“C’mon, let’s go.”

Killing whatever weakling spirit beasts got in our way, I led Peni closer to the middle of the Rolling Hills region before stopping at the top of a hill and channeling Chi into my upper body.

“IF ANYONE HAS JUST ARRIVED AND NEEDS HELP, GET OVER HERE IN THE MIDDLE!”

My voice came out louder than I expected but not as loud as I’d hoped, and I worried that the winds would prevent my voice from reaching anyone else who needed help. Peni and I waited for a few minutes before getting up to move on when I noticed a shape cresting the top of a hill to the west and moving down the slope on its way toward us. I figured the shape was either a spirit beast worth killing or a person in need and waited for a bit longer. Soon enough, a lanky Southeastern Asian kid in a blood-stained school uniform could be seen dashing toward us, waving his hand in the air with a big ‘ol smile.

“THANK YOU!” he hollered before he’d even crossed the last two hills, and when he arrived he dropped to one knee, panting out the words, “I thought…I was…alone…I’m glad…I’m not…”

“Yeah yeah, it’s okay, no need to waste time giving me your thanks. I’m just letting whoever is around know what I know before I move on to the next zone.

“Next…zone?” the boy asked as he finally looked up at me, then jumped backwards in surprise. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m going to be fine in a bit. Don’t ask questions, just follow. I’m going to help you get stronger because you were lucky enough to be around when I was going to help Peni here.”

The kid eagerly bobbed his head up and down before straightening his back to mimic Peni, and I led the way toward the closest Lair that wasn’t the one I completed, walking for the kid’s sake. When we arrived at the giant tree’s base I quickly entered the door without pause, leading them inside and pointing to the two rodents that stared back at us.

“Kill them. Now.”

Without hesitation Peni walked forward, and when the rats angrily squealed and charged, she unceremoniously kicked one, sending its body flying, before squishing the other.

“I am used to dealing with pests,” Peni said with a smile, shaking the blood off her shoe.

The kid stared in disgust for a moment before clearing his throat and saying he’d try to do better. I handed Peni my mace as we walked up the stairs, where we were faced with more rodents.

This time both Peni and the kid walked forward, and Peni wisely didn’t do anything with the mace except hold it, still using her feet to deal with the rats who targeted her. The kid managed to kill one on his own.

“Nice. Good work so far, but you’ll have to be more careful on the next floor.” We walked up the long flight of stairs and my two newest students looked fearfully at the ten plus rats. “Peni, at the start of this fight throw the weapon at the rats. It might kill one, and holding it will only slow you down. You guys will have to constantly move or they will swarm you. GO!”

At my command Peni admirably did exactly as I’d ordered, squishing a rat with a good underhand throw and proceeding to kick another one before retreating, allowing the rats to form as much of a line as possible that she whittled down with ease.

The kid tried to copy her but fumbled on his feet, nearly tripping as he gave up on running backwards and just fully turned his back to the rats. Surprisingly, the Level 3 rat came for me, so I enforced my body, snatched it out of the air when it jumped, and punted it into the afterlife. Revenge was sweet.

Peni didn’t take long to kill her share of rats before assisting the kid’s with his and looking toward me for my reaction. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up, remembering that some people were diamonds in the rough, unlike me who was already a beautiful and priceless cut gem. People like Peni who were talented and just not lucky enough to start in the lead needed to be fostered by the more fortunate so that they could reach heights no one thought was possible for them. I wondered if there was a way to bring her back to the grocery store compound with me but didn’t hold much hope. The System had likely scattered us into many different pockets, and though we could meet and exchange information in the Tutorial, we would probably just get placed right back where we started without our input.

Having just a few medium-dog-sized spirit beasts and a couple rats, my student duo cleared it with ease. By now, the Asian kid’s face held only deadly seriousness, having realized that he needed to bring only his A-game or die.

When we entered the fifth floor I was happy to find nothing special like large spirit beasts or birds, and told them to have at it. The two had figured out a system where the kid drew most the attention and kited the spirit beasts while Peni dealt the damage. It wasn’t long before the two stood in a bloodied room full of corpses while Peni read a prompt only she could see, and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. I realized from watching this fight that low-Level spirit beasts weren’t that strong when you had a weapon and fought them in a fair environment. I’d only nearly died in the birch forest because the bearcat had gotten the drop on me.

“Thank you, thank you!” she cheered with joy, bouncing on her feet before dropping into another low bow. “Thank you very much!”

“Why? What’s going on?” the kid asked, to which Peni shared her [Punching Up] Title, and he gaped, before turning to me expectantly.

“Peni will let you kill the next Level 5 spirit beast, right?” They nodded, and we continued to the next floor.

……

To my surprise, the two noob cultivators barely needed any assistance by the time we reached the eleventh floor. Both Peni and Aroon—the kid I’d learned was from Thailand—had suffered injuries and forced me to step in to keep them alive, but that had only happened once and three times respectively. I was proud of them—especially Peni, who had gained [A Rookie no More] on the previous floor after I’d killed every other strong beast.

Now it was Aroon’s turn, and because of the difficulty involved and Aroon’s relative lack of capability we decided that I and Peni would kill the other spirit beasts while leaving a Level 10 for Aroon.

I had my students stay still while I formed the temporary channels for a Fireball, which I launched at max power toward the Level 11 beast before rushing forward like the wind. Unfortunately my spell’s target dodged and the attack splashed harmlessly against the ground, but the other beasts could barely react in time as I began slamming my fist into their ranks, carefully avoiding a single Level 10 flightless bird that looked like a raptor. With Peni following up and Aroon fighting the bird with my mace, the floor was almost completely emptied of threats in seconds, and we turned to watch Aroon carefully avoid clawed toes as he positioned himself just right to land a single swing of the mace on his opponent’s torso, crushing hollow bones and splattering blood.

When all the chaos was over we spent a few minutes celebrating and refueling on Chi before we stepped onto the next floor. But this time my students stood silently and patiently behind me as I took back my mace and slaughtered the twelfth floor’s residents.

[Tutorial Points earned: 37. Total: 108]

Now it was my turn to farm points, and I had only just gained enough to completely heal myself, so I had a long way to go until I would be satisfied.

I proceeded to dance through my enemies, easily tearing through my targets, dodging bites, and deflecting blows, spilling spirit beast blood behind me with every step I took. My students could only remain silent until the thirteenth floor, when they began expressing their fears at the auras of the monsters and then began oohing and aahing at how I overcame the challenges.

Soon enough we arrived at the fifteenth floor, where I considered killing the two strongest spirit beasts and leaving the last one for Peni to fight, but I ultimately could not go through with that plan, feeling that the chances of her winning were too low. Even if she did win, she might come out severely injured, and because she didn’t even have 100 points yet, she would have to either spend time grinding for the full heal or buy cheaper alternatives that might not get the whole job done. It simply wasn’t worth trying, yet.

I stomped the three Level 15 beasts before guiding my students to the Unique Tutorial Store at the top, where I confirmed that all the Rolling Hills Tree Lairs had the same store. Then when I noticed that Peni and Aroon were giggling with glee I remembered that we’d completed an Objective yet I hadn’t received any new prompts. It seemed I could only gain rewards for completing each Objective once, which wasn’t outside my expectations or I would have gone through each tree for 60 more Attribute Points and 350 Tutorial Points each.

“How many Attribute Points do your Titles give now?” I asked with interest.

““Thirty!”” they both happily replied at the same time.

I nodded, thinking about how I’d gained 60, which was probably a reward meant to be split between three or four people, judging by the fact that Peni and Aroon couldn’t clear this entire Objective on their own, until now probably. To do so they’d have needed to grind Tutorial Points and invest in treasures, like basic weapons and one defense treasure each. I told them as much, and we agreed that when I left for the next zone that was their best bet to catch up with me in power.

We browsed the shop for a bit before leaving with sighs, setting our next destination as the General Tutorial Shop. Although I still wanted the anteater claws, I already had my mace and was only lacking a defense treasure, but with only 233 points I was unable to buy even the cheapest one. Meanwhile my students still needed their own gear, and though Peni could afford a basic technique, if she bought it she wouldn’t be able to buy a weapon.

So we spent the next ten minutes making our way toward the General Tutorial Shop for the cheap stuff.

“HEEEEEYY! CAAAAN YOOOOUU HEEEEAARR MEEEE!” someone shouted into the wind by amplifying their voice with Chi. We’d just crested a hill close to the shop when the voice reached us. We spun around and found someone waving at us from far to the north, around where I had entered the second phase of the Tutorial from. We waved back and they began moving toward us. I thought it only polite if we met them halfway.

“Th-thank you for stopping,” the pale, chubby man fell to his knees and said, breathing heavily, before doing exactly as Aroon had done and recoiling at my injuries. “Whoa! What happened?!”

By now I was itching to heal myself up and buy a new technique, so I waved away his question and just gave him the run down I’d given my new students. Flashing my Status menu, I said “Normal injuries. Now listen, I am Niko Tess, probably the strongest Human from Earth, for now. I am not going to help you because I have to move on to maintain my advantages, but these two might. It’s their choice. If we meet in the future or you survive and gain some influence, you better remember how strong I was on day two of the apocalypse and surmise from there that I am unstoppable and should be listened to. Okay? Now, I have to get going.”

I left without waiting for a response, simply waving my students goodbye as I ran like the wind to the General Tutorial Store, spent 100 points on the full heal option, felt a simultaneously cool and burning energy pass through me causing my ear to fully regenerate, and moved on toward the evergreens. I’d wanted to buy another basic elemental technique but thought better of it at the last second. The sooner I bought a defensive treasure the less likely I was to end up injured and be forced to buy another healing from the System.

I practiced my four techniques as I ran, going through the effort of forming pseudo-meridians with my willpower in order to cast a technique a few times before moving on to the next one, gradually becoming acquainted with them. I considered dropping some points into either Intelligence or Wisdom in order to figure out exactly what they changed about spellslinging, but didn’t, in the end. I still didn’t know how useful these basic techniques were, and it would be a huge bummer if I couldn’t complete the next Objective on my own because my basic spells were not up to snuff and I didn’t have any more points with which to become physically stronger.

Then when I was about several dozen meters away from the snowy evergreen biome I stopped, having noticed movement in the direction I was traveling.

“Did that snow just twitch?”

I crouched down and waited for several minutes in silence, not even channeling or refueling my Chi, simply watching the snow ahead. Sure enough, an eyelid eventually lifted and fur rippled as a beast the size of the small bear from floor seven, but longer, revealed itself, looking like a furry three-hundred pound lizard. It stared at me but didn’t cross the invisible boundary separating the rolling hills from the evergreen forest, which probably existed to prevent strong spirit beasts from entering lower-Level zones.

“Well, isn’t this perfect?”

Chuckling, I closed the distance until we were just ten meters apart, at which point I began the process of forming a Fireball. Since I had the time I considered trying to form multiple fiery attacks to launch at the beast at once, but soon realized my mistake. Handling techniques felt kind of like juggling, in how the most basic version was performed with three juggling balls, and in this case I could mostly juggle just fine. However, despite having the physical and mental prowess required to juggle a fourth ball, I still needed to practice a bunch before I could do it successfully without fumbling. In short, I decided not to try casting multiple techniques before a fight at the same time until I refined my control.

I packed my Fireball with the max amount of Chi my pseudo-meridians could handle and launched it with a flex of willpower, watching carefully as the furry spirit beast was too big and slow to move out of the way, allowing the attack to splash against its flank.

“Holy shit,” I muttered as the flames immediately burned a sizeable, if shallow hole into the lizard-like creature, which shrieked before turning toward me with hate-filled eyes. I began powering up another Fireball when the spirit beast charged over the biome boundary toward me, and I had only a second to react before it was on me. As quickly as I could I dispelled the technique, lifted my mace, and brought it down directly onto my opponent’s head, closing its tooth-filled maw and probably scattering its brains, but not canceling its momentum. The beast knocked me flat on my ass but I remained unharmed and alert thanks to empowering my entire body, allowing me to quickly push the spasming thing off me, roll to the side, rise, and end its misery with another blow to the head that sank noticeably deep and squelched uncomfortably.

[Tutorial Points earned: 10. Total: 143]

Though I won the battle I did not lower my guard, returning to a ready combat position and even powering up another Fireball. Nothing came rushing after the furry lizard thing.

Eventually I tossed the Fireball randomly into the evergreens and watched it melt into the side of a tree trunk, where it burned an even deeper hole than it had in the beast and caused a loud crack from the rest of the trunk snapping before the tree collapsed with a thud.

Mage techniques were not to be underestimated, it seemed. I had fewer points in Wisdom and Intelligence than Strength and Agility, yet one Fireball was much more effective than one swing of my mace. I saw the potential to focus on a mage’s combat style with my newly learned techniques, or use a hybrid style that involved launching long-ranged attacks before switching to melee if my opponents closed the distance, like what happened with the lizard.

Yet, if I knew anything about stat distributions in System apocalypse stories, it was that adopting a hybrid combat style was almost never the correct choice for someone who wanted to punch up as much as possible, like me. The math was simple: if I split my points evenly between Strength, Agility, and Intelligence, or even just one melee Attribute and one mage Attribute, then I would never be as strong as the people with my same advantages who chose to specialize, or just people who’d been alive longer and reached a much higher Level. I would launch long-ranged attacks that would be easily defended against, then they’d close the distance and cut me down because my physical stats weren’t as high as theirs. Or if they were a specialized mage they’d just bomb me from afar to the same result.

I doubted that I could just keep on racking achievements and Titles forever until I was perfect at everything, so I would have to give something up in order to maintain my position at the top. Still, I really enjoyed melee combat and I didn’t want to lose the advantages that came with a mage’s style or lose out on the fun that external magic might provide.

I tabled the subject for now, deciding that I’d distribute my Attribute Points according to what I needed in the coming fights. After the Tutorial I might find an amazing Cycling Technique with a specialization in either field that I could only take if I spent my points one way or the other, so saving them felt most prudent.

Still, I held out hope that a hybrid style was possible with the xianxia aspects of this System apocalypse. It wasn’t pure number-crunching RPG or else I wouldn’t be a cultivator. I’d be a Player or something, aiming to unlock a good Class.

Without further ado I crossed into the evergreen forest, unsurprised to be met with a wall of extremely cold air that immediately made me uncomfortable. In response to the change in temperature I enforced my entire body with the minimum amount of Chi possible, which reduced the strain the environment produced on me. Out of curiosity I took a moment to reform the pseudo-meridians for Fireball and charge up a spell.

“Ahah! I was right!”

Exactly as I predicted, the spell took several times longer to fully form, meaning many possible things. I chose to interpret the results of my little experiment to mean that activating techniques required some kind of as-yet-unknown special energy taken from the environment. In the case of my Fireball technique, probably something like fire-aspect Chi. The fact that it was harder to create a Fireball in this new snowy zone likely meant that there was much more of a different elemental Chi aspect. Probably something like “cold”, or “ice”.

Furthering my experimentation, I allowed the Fireball pseudo-meridians to dissolve and began constructing the simple Chi circuits for my water-aspect technique called Water Whip. As I expected it took longer to form than it had back amongst the rolling hills, but not nearly as long as Fireball. That data gave me more inferences about magic, to include that the Chi aspect filling the evergreen forest was probably closer to cold than ice in concept, but to know for sure I also cast the Gust and Stone Skin techniques, finding that they took the same time to form as Water Whip.

Just like that I knew that the Chi aspect around me was, indeed, cold rather than ice, because “ice” would be conceptually closer to water and make forming Water Whip easier than the other two. At the same time, cold was conceptually opposite to fire, thus pushing out most of the fire-aspect Chi from the atmosphere.

None of what I’d learned presented a downside to becoming a mage, however, because now that I thought of it, judging by the descriptions I’d read it seemed a proper Cycling Technique would allow me to store up on the energies I needed to create my ranged techniques, thus allowing me to fight unimpeded by my environment unless I ran out of Chi. And it wasn’t as though only ranged techniques used the elements. I’d seen plenty of such melee techniques that I passed up because I was satisfied with my physical capabilities.

Of course, I couldn’t be 100% sure of what I’d learned without having my inferences confirmed by a more accomplished being, such as the Dragon Lord of Yorgefan, but I thought my reasoning was solid and chose to move on with the assumption that I was correct.

Only a little chilly now that I was expending my normal Chi to keep out the cold Chi I resolutely marched forward, keeping an eye out for both threats and opportunities. For the most part I only found threats. White furred, scaled, skinned, and feathered creatures popped out from almost everywhere with every twenty steps I took. Thankfully most of them were only around Level 4 and powered up before assaulting me, allowing me to sense their sneak attacks. They dropped from branches overhead, dove down from the sky, shot out of burrows in the ground, and jumped out from behind trees. Every single time, my assailants were met with the end of a mace.

[Tutorial Points earned: 5. Total: 216]

Finally, after about fifteen minutes of just walking aimlessly through the evergreens I noticed a tall structure nearby through the trees and made a beeline for it. On the way I realized that I was now physically strong enough to just climb any tree to gain a greater vantage point but hadn’t thought of it soon enough for the knowledge to have been useful.

There were fewer trees as I neared the strange structure, and replacing them were icicles sticking out of the ground that gradually increased in size. The first icicles I noticed were tiny, about the size of my fingers and looking like knives of ice rising from the ground, but with every ten meters they grew noticeably, until the icicles were as tall as me, and weirdly…tinted pink. It was obvious enough that whatever Objective I was making a beeline for represented the Chi aspects of cold and maybe…blade, guessing by how sharp the icicles looked, but there was potentially a third. One that made the icicles pink, for some reason. With so little to judge from I had no idea. What was conceptually pink?

My investigative thoughts were put on hold as another spirit beast made an attempt at my life, this one a fat flying squirrel of some kind. I plucked it out of the air and squeezed just enough that it wouldn’t be crushed but would also struggle to move. It nibbled and clawed at my hand but its aura indicated it was only Level 3, so my 25 Endurance was more than enough to stop it from doing more than breaking skin.

With the squirrel in my clutches I carefully took aim at the sharp edge of an icicle larger than me, and chucked the spirit beast with all my might. It did not have the time to unfurl its skin flaps and guide its descent, and as I’d thought would happen, the squirrel split in two on the ice spike’s edge, showering the area in blood. Yeah. This Objective would involve sharpness in some way.

But as I turned to continue walking, I noticed from the corner of my eye that the deep crimson of blood was fading away. I turned back and watched with surprise as every surface that had been splashed by the squirrel’s blood absorbed the liquid. I expected from there that the blood would transfer into the icicles to tint them more pink, but the blood flashed through the snow in the same direction I was headed.

Not ominous at all.

I gulped and had second thoughts after watching the strange display, but quickly squashed my doubts. I was probably amongst the five strongest Humans of old Earth with super inflated stats thanks to all my Titles, while this Tutorial was meant to be experienced by everyone. Caution was always advised, but cowardice at this stage would only hamper my progress.

I increased my speed and flashed through the field of ice spikes until the Objective finally came into view, and I was impressed by the scene. It was like standing in front of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, or a realistic version of the Ice King’s palace from Adventure Time. Lots of pointy ice forming a stronghold.

“Hey! Hi! Finally, there’s someone else!”

Startled, I turned on my heel to see whom I assumed was a fellow North American judging by their cartoon T-shirt. He came out from behind an ice spike waving his plain spear high in the air in a greeting. On his spear’s business end was fresh blood.

“Yo! Wanna run this Objective together?”

Still feeling quite secure about my safety I internally shrugged and jogged toward him. Soon we were within comfortable speaking range, and surprisingly, he sat down as though he were tired. Now that I was closer I could see he’d just fought and killed a deer-like spirit beast, but I was still surprised he’d lower his guard to someone else after coming this far in the Tutorial. Either he was very talented or exposed to progression fantasy before the System apocalypse like me, though the latter was more likely, but he still had some ways to go.

“Pro tip,” I began as I also sat down in the snow in front him, “don’t lower your guard from now on. You’re lucky that I’m such an awesome person or else I might’ve been tempted to kill you to see how many Tutorial Points that gives.”

The fellow Level 1 man’s eyebrows lifted in surprise for a moment before he nodded. “I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, dude. I don’t wanna believe there are that many assholes out there.”

I shrugged. “Well, so long as you’re aware.” I glanced at the fortress of ice in the center of the field of ice spikes. “So, you want to run this Objective together? Have you gone inside, yet?”

“Nah, I haven’t. Me and two strangers from the plains zone off to the west somewhere cleared a rabbit-themed warren Objective, granting us 20 Attribute Points each. We took some injuries in the process,”—he gestured toward his midsection, which was bandaged—“but it wasn’t too hard so I suggested we head deeper and enter this snowy zone. Unfortunately they were too…scared to give it a try and stayed behind to farm Tutorial Points. So, here I was, waiting at the next Objective I found for a stranger to help me clear it. I’m stronger with my weapon and more experienced than I was before, and we don’t have to clear it in one try, so I think we got this even if we’re just two people.”

The older man of around 27 years looked at me expectantly, and even bounced up and down a little in excitement. He was clearly fit to survive in this new world of ours and seemed to have a good personality.

However…

“I’m going to have to reject your offer,” I said directly, watching as his expression fell. “But not for the reason you think. Here, take a look.” I flashed him my Tutorial Title, and his eyes bugged out. “I’m going to be honest with you, okay? I need to clear this Objective on my own as quickly as possible in order to gain the soloing perks. Not only will all the Attribute Points rewarded go to me, but there are also extra benefits for soloing it and being the first to solo that kind of Objective.”

I could tell how the man now saw me with different eyes, and he even spoke more softly. “Umm, okay. You’re clearly much stronger, so it makes sense that you want to stay ahead of the curve.”

It seemed to me like the man thought I would leave it at that and enter the Objective, but I continued.

“I won’t leave you hanging without some kind of repayment, though. You’re clearly capable enough to survive in this higher-Level zone, so I think keeping you around can be useful, if you’re up for it.”

The man donned a serious expression, straightened his back, and nodded. “What do you need? Want me to make sure nobody else enters?”

I nodded back. “Yes. Hang around the entrance, farm as many Tutorial Points as you can from spirit beasts around here, and warn anyone who approaches that a crazy strong guy who threatened to kill you said he’d clear it alone, or something like that. Don’t let it be known we’re working together, and don’t put yourself at risk at any point. Trust that I’ll handle whatever comes my way. Just wait for me to come out and then we’ll find another Objective in this zone that I’ll help you clear, because I do not forget my debts, even if all you did was allow me to do all the work here. Does that sound good?”

“Absolutely, sir. I know that I’m not likely to be a top dog in the Tutorial or on Yorgefan, but I can recognize one when I see one and I’ll gladly help you on your path.”

I chuckled. “You don’t have to call me sir—I turned 18 not too long ago. Niko is fine. And your name is?”

“Jonathon,” he said as we stood and shook hands.

“Well, Jonathon, I hope you’re right about me being a top dog. My goal is to lead and carry Humanity on my shoulders so that we may survive this tribulation.”

With that said I made my way toward the stronghold of ice, mace and Chi circuits for Water Whip at the ready.