For one minute, Connor’s focus became absolute as what he wanted the skill he was creating to do came into focus. As he came back to himself, a Notification filled his mind.
Congratulations, your focus and will have created the unique skill “Force Barrier.” Unlike a spell that could link with the fundamental magic of the universe and draw on that energy to create barriers of force, you have acquired a skill that allows you to draw mana from yourself to create barriers of force. The efficiency with which this is accomplished is determined by the rank of the skill.
One Skill Slot has been allocated.
You have gained the Common ranked Skill “Force Barrier.”
Force Barrier
Rank: Common
The Skill Force Barrier allows you to create tangible screens of force that may be transparent or opaque. Opaque barriers can still be seen through
The size of the Force Barriers is limited to an area no greater than a 10-foot radius sphere at Common Rank.
The Force Barriers may be created anywhere within 10 feet of yourself or locked into a position that moves with you. The Force Barrier is considered one uniform structure, no matter how it is configured. Damage to one portion of a Froce Barrier is damage to the whole Force Barrier.
Each Force Barrier has a maximum amount of mana that can be invested into it. The rank of the skill determines the efficiency with which the mana invested blocks damage.
Common Rank:
- A maximum of 10 mana may be invested into each barrier
- Each point of mana can block one point of damage.
It takes one action to create a single barrier. Multiple barriers can be created and layered. The maximum number of Barriers that can be created at one time is equal to your Wisdom divided by 10.
Barrier Breakdown: Once Created, a Force Barrier weakens each Combat Turn by one mana. When a barrier takes enough damage to reduce the mana invested to zero or the mana has depleted on its own to zero, the barrier dissipates.
Barriers can be maintained by feeding Mana to them as long as they are within 10 feet of you. Effectively, each barrier is maintained by one mana per Combat Turn once created.
If upgraded, the following changes are applied.
Uncommon Rank:
- Maximum Size: 20-foot radius sphere.
- A maximum of 100 mana may be invested into each barrier
- Each point of mana can block two points of damage.
- Barriers can be created and maintained up to 100 feet away from you
- No change to Barrier Breakdown
Rare Rank:
- Maximum Size: 30-foot diameter sphere.
- A maximum of 1,000 mana may be invested into each barrier
- Each point of mana can block three points of damage.
- Barriers can be created and maintained up to 1,000 feet away from you
- No change to Barrier Breakdown
Connor smiled. This was exactly what he’d wanted. He floated up into the middle of the room with Flight and then created a 10-point Force Barrier as a bubble locked into position around him. Once created, he realized he still had a link to the Force Barrier and that he could adjust it with a thought. One moment, it was invisible; the next, it was opaque. So, he could set one up, and no one would know about it. Or he could create a barrier that everyone could see, declaring to everyone that he was protected. That could come in handy.
Connor dedicated two more Skill Slots to the skill and then put 100 mana into the bubble surrounding him. He expanded and contracted the bubble of force. He even went so far as to make it skin-tight around his limbs so it fit like a glove. Once he was done manipulating the Force Barrier, he set it to a radius of 10 feet. Next, he lowered himself to the ground and allowed the bottom of the bubble to flatten out so that it would rest and not try to roll away. Could it roll around him? He’d mess with that later. It was now time to create his second skill, which would require one minute to meditate and another minute to make the skill. The Force Barrier would lose six mana per minute while he worked on creating another skill. Since each point of mana would block 3 points of damage, he should be fine if someone broke in.
Connor found it easier to drop into a meditative state. Once he’d cleared his mind, he focused on creating a skill that would allow him to adapt to his natural environment.
Congratulations. Your focus has created the unique Psychic Skill “Environmental Adaptation.” Unlike a spell that could link with the fundamental magic of the universe, you use your will to adjust your anatomy to adapt to any environment.
At Common Rank, you can recirculate the air within your lungs. This allows you to effectively breathe underwater or in a vacuum, though pressure and vacuum damage are still a concern. Cost 1 Psychic Energy per Combat Turn
At Uncommon Rank, you can adjust your body to survive extreme pressure and temperatures. The following costs are cumulative with all other costs.
For every 100 degrees Fahrenheit above or below 0 degrees, One Psychic Energy per Combat Turn.
For every 30 atmospheres of pressure, One Psychic Energy per Combat Turn.
If Atmospheric Pressure is less than.35: One Psychic Entergy per Combat Turn
At Rare Rank, you can reinforce your body with Psychic Energy to stave off the effects of Time and Gravity.
For every “G” of gravity, One Psychic Energy per Combat Turns to act normally.
To remain unaffected by Temporal Fields and spells 100 Psychic Energy Per Rank of effect per Turn.
At Epic Rank, all upkeep costs are reduced by 10 times to a minimum of 1 psychic energy.
At Master Rank, all costs are reduced by 100 times to a minimum of 1 psychic energy per combat turn.
At Epic Rank, all costs are reduced by 1,000 times to a minimum of 1 psychic energy per combat turn.
At Legendary Rank, all costs are reduced by 10,000 times to a minimum of 1 psychic energy per combat turn.
At Mythical Rank, all costs are reduced by 100,000 times to a minimum of 1 psychic energy per combat turn.
One Skill Slot has been allocated.
You have gained the Common ranked Skill “Environmental Adaptation.”
Connor read the description and immediately assigned four more Skill Slots to it. That skill would come in extremely handy.
Before he could think of doing anything else, Eyes of Eris detected that someone was landing on the platform outside the lair—six sets of someone, each with a five-man crew just like the last three skimmers. Without hesitation, Connor activated Stealth and moved with Flight toward the exit. The only thing that slowed him down was the door. He had to retract his Force Barrier and allow his hand to reach through so that he could grab the door handle. He guessed he was going to create a telekinesis skill next.
Even with that slight pause at the door, he made it out of the secret lair and down the tunnel to the edge of the tunnel before it led out onto the platform before they exited their skimmer. He hopped over the side of the platform and dropped into the vertical shaft.
The mages had started to react as he rushed down the tunnel toward them, but before they could do anything, he was already over the side. He’d been able to get out of the lair and back into the vertical shaft in 10 seconds. He realized that he was a lot faster than those hunting him.
Once below the platform, he moved out from under the waterfall into the center of the vertical shaft, which had plenty of space. He dropped one mile from the platform. When he waited, sure enough, a minute later, he could see the skimmers moving toward him. The skimmers were tilted at about a 45-degree angle and following a corkscrew flight pattern down. It must suck not to have safety harnesses or a Force Barrier. Connor was going to make sure some of them knew exactly how much it sucked in just a moment.
When they were a half mile away, Connor began heading down again. He increased his speed incrementally until they were all moving at about 70 miles per hour. He was moving just a little slower than they were, so he could give them the illusion that they were catching up to him.
When the closest skimmer was just under 1,000 feet away from him, and he could detect them within his Eye of Eris perception bubble, Connor picked one ship at random. He created a completely invisible Force Barrier thirty feet directly in front of the lead six skimmers. Because he was limited to the size of the barrier he could create, and he wanted to make sure to catch at least one of the skimmers, he centered the Force Barrier he created on the lead skimmer.
Connor created a 30-foot radius transparent Force Bubble at the edge of his range that was concave with the opening of “the cup” toward the front of the Skimmer with 1000 mana. That would allow it to take up to 3,000 points of damage, which would hopefully kill everyone on the skimmer.
At 70 miles per hour, his mind told him that it only took one-third of a second for the skimmer to reach the Force Barrier he’d created. What happened next was absolutely catastrophic to the Skimmer and everyone on it. Connor remembered watching a video on YouTube that showed a test of what happens when an F4 Phantom crashes into the ground. They’d simulated it by crashing the fighter into a concrete block. What had once been a metal fighter became small shards of metal. What happened to the skimmer looked exactly like that.
Congratulations, You have killed an Uncommon-ranked Hunter Level 25.
12,500 XP Earned.
Reward: Two Common Tutorial Skill Crystals have been placed in your inventory.
Congratulations, You have killed an Uncommon-ranked Hunter Level 24.
12,400 XP Earned.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Reward: Two Common Tutorial Skill Crystals have been placed in your inventory.
Congratulations, You have killed an Uncommon-ranked Hunter Level 18.
11,800 XP Earned.
Reward: Two Common Tutorial Skill Crystals have been placed in your inventory.
Congratulations, You have killed an Uncommon-ranked Hunter Level 15.
11,500 XP Earned.
Reward: Two Common Tutorial Skill Crystals have been placed in your inventory.
Congratulations, you have killed Rare-ranked Mage Level 35.
235,000 XP Earned.
Reward: Three Common Tutorial Spell Book Crystals have been placed in your inventory.
Congratulations, You have Reached Level 56
The Tutorial Spell Book Crystals looked interesting but he didn’t have time to look at one of them right now. Connor disabled the notifications; he didn’t need distractions while he was fighting five other hunter parties. He also couldn’t use that kind of attack that often. The Barrier had disintegrated as it destroyed the Skimmer, meaning it had taken at least 3,000 points of damage. Unfortunately, the 1,000 mana he’d invested into that skill had been one-third of his total Mana.
With only 2,272 of 3,000 mana remaining and a mana regeneration of 137 per turn, he could recover the mana in under a minute, but he didn’t think they’d fall for it twice. As that thought crossed his mind, he watched as each mage activated something Skimmers. Along the front edge of the skimmer, his Uncanny Perception picked up a ripple of energy. If he had to guess, it was probably some Barrier bypass spell. If it wasn’t on before, that must mean that it took a lot of energy, which meant they wouldn’t keep it up all the time. Connor noted that and ignored the other skimmers for now while they pulled away from the cloud of dust that was once a skimmer and its crew continued falling down the vertical shaft behind and above the skimmers chasing him.
Connor made sure the Force Barrier around him was active and activated Environmental Adaptation, just in case traveling really fast made it hard to breathe. Or the bubble cut off his supply of fresh oxygen. Then he accelerated. This time, he wasn’t worried about wind shear as he increased his speed to 800 miles per hour. He pulled away from the other five skimmers with ease.
A minute and a half later, he had to slow down as light appeared below him. The water from above still fell all around him. He was surprised when the vertical shaft vanished as he passed through a dimensional barrier. Once below the horizontal barrier, the only thing he could see was water dropping out of an invisible area above him in the sky. The water raining down created a perfect circle that rained into a body of water not far below him, no more than a mile, he was sure.
Connor tried to go back up and flew into the sky above the point where the circle of water appeared. He did not re-enter the Vertical Shaft, which meant that it was a one-way passage. Great. No getting back to the Uncommon or Common Tiers of this Tutorial that way, then.
Connor did some quick calculations. The Vertical Shaft had been about 20 miles long. A trip that took him two minutes at 800 miles an hour was going to take the skimmers at least 20 minutes at 70 miles per hour. He had some time to get away from where they would emerge.
Connor looked around and saw some mountains off in one direction. With no other landmarks to speak of, it was off to the mountains for him. A minute later, Connor was over the coast, and a minute after that, he was over the mountains. He changed his course and moved vertically so he could take in the area from above. He was still traveling 800 miles per hour, which made his progress quick. A minute later, he was thirteen miles up. After two minutes, 26 miles. That’s when he realized he was on a huge planet or a plane, like something out of a science fiction or fantasy novel.
Connor looked down at a mountain range that went in two directions. The Sun was shining from the right side, seeming to come up and over him, so he was going to call that direction East. To the east of the mountains was a flat plain that eventually reached a huge forest. The trees had to be huge if he could see them from 26 miles up.
To the west of the mountains was the ocean he’d come from. From this height, he could see where the water was dropping out of the shaft because it was creating a weather phenomenon that spread out and affected the area. There was cloud cover reaching all the way to the leeward side of the mountains.
He double-checked his status. Environmental Adaptation was using one Psychic Energy per turn, Flight was using 100 Psychic Energy per turn, and Stealth was using 10 Stamina and Mana per turn. His regeneration rates were more than enough to keep up with the combined upkeep costs at this point.
Sure that he was okay for a moment, Connor summoned one of the Common Tutorial Spell Book Crystals into his hand.
Congratulations! You have found a Common Tutorial Spell Book Crystal.
Tutorial Spell Books may be utilized to teach you one of the following Common Spells, provided you have an unused Spell Slot.
Shield – Spend 10 mana to create an opaque shield in front of yourself that can take 10 points of damage. This shield can be placed anywhere within 10 feet of yourself, so it can be used to stop other attacks as well. The Shield does not move. A shield may be cast multiple times and will persist for one minute after casting. This skill will allow you to identify monsters and their levels.
Force Dagger – Spend 10 mana and create a dagger of force that will last for one full minute. Base damage: 3. Durability is 100. The Force Dagger will persist until durability reaches 0 or one minute has passed. The Dagger can be thrown, but must be retrieved.
Magical Bolt – Spend 10 mana and create an Arcane bolt of energy that inflicts 6 points of damage on any target within 10 feet. The spell “Shield” will not block this attack. The spell “Armor” does reduce the damage of this attack. This spell does not miss its intended target.
Light – Spend 10 mana and create an orb of light within 10 feet. The Orb of light will generate illumination equivalent to a 100-watt light bulb. This orb of light will persist for one hour.
Armor – Spend 10 mana and create magical armor on yourself or someone else within 10 feet. This armor reduces all physical damage directed at you by 10 for 1 minute. The armor moves with the caster. Additionally, this spell may only be cast once on any target. Recasting before the spell expires resets the duration to 1 minute.
To utilize the Tutorial Spell Crystal, you must have a Spell Slot available.
Note, Tutorial Crystals may NOT be utilized to increase the Rank of Common Skills.
Would you like to use the Common Ranked Tutorial Spell Book Crystal, Yes or No?
It looked like spells were a lot more restricted. He didn’t have any spells, and he had 261 free Spell Slots. If Spell Slots acted like Skill Slots, that meant that he could have up to 52 Master ranked spells. First, though, he needed to get spells.
Connor chose “Yes” and picked up the spell “Magical Bolt.” Then he pulled out the other two Tutorial Spell Book crystals and chose “Force Dagger” and “Light.
He was beginning to see a pattern to what the ranks did for skills and spells. It looked like all the common skills and spells had a range of 10 feet. When they were upgraded to uncommon rank, the range was increased to 100 feet. If the Rare Mages could actually get a bead on him, he might have some issues, but as long as he stayed outside of the 100-foot range, the hunters probably couldn’t hit him with anything except weapons, which he seemed to be able to dodge quickly enough.
Since he couldn’t do anything about the spells, he assigned two more Slots to Flight and Identify, which upgraded both skills to Rare Rank.
Identify (Rare):
You may learn general information about any creatures within your range up to Rare Rank by focusing on them. Only one creature may be targeted at a time.
Information Provided increases with Skill Rank:
Common: Race, Rarity, and Level
Uncommon: Hit Points
Rare: Mana, Stamina, and Psychic Energy.
Range:
1 - 10 feet – 10 Mana.
11 – 100 feet – 100 Mana
101 – 1,000 feet – 1,000
Regardless of distance, information gained is based on the Rank of the Skill.
Flight (Rare):
At a cost of 1 Psychic Energy per second or 10 per Combat Turn, you may move through the air as you move on the ground. This is a mental skill, though it doesn’t require concentration.
Identify gave him more information and allowed him to decide what range he wanted to use it at. Since he would hardly ever throw 1,000 mana into using the skill, he didn’t see a point in upgrading its rank to Advanced or Master until he saw something at that rank he needed to Identify. Connor felt that Identify simply represented him asking the SYSTEM for Mana, and the SYSTEM would charge more if he was further away. Flight, on the other hand, reduced its energy cost. At Uncommon rank, it had been reduced from 100 PE per Combat Turn to 50 PE per Turn. At Rare rank, it took that cost down to 10, which Connor felt was going to be as low as that cost went. So, if he put another Skill Slot into Flight, it might increase in speed. Connor did so.
Flight (Advanced):
At a cost of 1 Psychic Energy per second or 10 per Combat Turn, you may move through the air at double the rate you move on the ground. This is a mental skill, though it doesn’t require concentration.
Connor put one more Skill Slot into Flight.
Flight (Master):
At a cost of 1 Psychic Energy per second or 10 per Combat Turn, you may move through the air at triple the rate you move on the ground. This is a mental skill, though it doesn’t require concentration.
Conner tested as he flew toward the forest. At 26 miles above the ground, he broke the sound barrier three times outside of a vehicle. While he flew along, he wondered if he could summon force daggers and throw them in the same combat round. He altered course and headed to the shoreline to the west of the mountains as he flew back toward the surface. When he was 1,000 feet above the ground, he came to a stop and hovered as he cast Force Dagger and threw it at the beach with his full strength.
There was a THUMP as the Force Dagger hit the sand and created a small crater. So, the Force Dagger could travel further than the 10 feet a Magical Bolt could. He then tried moving and throwing Force Daggers without running out of Stamina or Mana. He quickly learned that his limiting factor was his Stamina. He could take four actions in a single Combat Turn without going over his Stamina Regeneration rate, which meant that he could summon a Force Dagger and then throw it two times for each Combat Turn.
Next, he tried moving and attacking. He picked a stone on the ground, moved, and threw a Force Dagger. He moved again and threw another Force Dragger. While the first Force Dagger was on the way, the Second Force Dagger was released, which was pointless. The First Dagger hit the large rock with a loud CRACK, which destroyed it. The second Dagger buried itself in the ground beneath where the rock had been.
As he was flying around and attacking the ground, he noticed something. There was a flock of very large creatures heading his way from the mountains at high speed. Had the sonic booms he’d created brought unwanted attention? Then he looked at the clock on his HUD. It had been fifteen minutes since he started practicing with his spell and skills. The Skimmers would be here soon, and he had some aerial adversaries heading his way. Would those adversaries follow him? There was only one way to find out. Conner launched himself toward the flying creatures; he closed to within 100 feet and activated Identity for 100 mana.
Race: Mountain Drake
Rank: Rare
Level: 45
Hit Points: 444
Stamina: 474
Mana: 433
Psychic Energy: 433
Connor quickly identified the other Mountain Drakes. The lowest level was 31, while the highest was level 45. All were Rare Monsters. Connor backed off to about 2,000 feet away from the Mountain Drakes and dropped Stealth. When they saw him, one of them beat its wings and almost teleported in for a strike, only to miss, as Connor lazily dodged the attack. His agility and the fact that he could move in three directions as if running and jumping made it almost impossible for the flyer to get him.
Connor utilized Eyes of Eris to keep track of the seven Mountain Drakes as he dodged each attack and slowly made his way back out over the ocean. Connor made sure to keep an eye out for the skimmers while he continued to dodge the Mountain Drakes. Whenever the drakes got bored and looked to be turning away, he increased his speed to just over the speed of sound and flew by them. While it didn’t seem to hurt them in the least, it pissed them off and forced them to direct their focus back onto him.
Four minutes later, the five Skimmers came into view. As soon as he saw the hunters, he activated Stealth and accelerated at full speed toward the Skimmers. He could move over 3,000 feet a second at full speed, so he did. He’d traveled 2,000 feet forward, stopped, and reversed course 1,000 feet as he brought his Force Barrier up to 1,000 mana. If he was correct, the mages using the locating crystals only received his general direction and distance.
As for the Mountain Drakes behind him, he was sure they’d seen the Skimmers by now, and in a moment, the shockwave he had just created was going to spread from a point 1,000 feet in front of him. While it might not be overly damaging, it should piss them off as it shook things up.
BOOM!
Connor’s Force Barrier held, only taking 10 points of damage, but it was loud. The skimmers were unaffected as whatever enchantment they had on the leading edge of the ship shimmered, and the shockwave visibly washed around each skimmer. The Mountain Drakes paused for a minute and then sped up. As they came close, Connor dropped below them and then came up on their tail. Connor followed the Mountain Drakes and watched as the Drakes; all riled up because of his Sonic Booms, moved in to attack the Skimmers.
***
Zavrous, bringer of fire, was the last man standing out of the six hunter parties that had been sent after the last member of this cursed Tutorial. Why the hell had they followed this maniac down into the Rare layer and then engaged a flock of Mountain Drakes? There had been five rare-ranked mages left when they’d started, but all of the hunters had been of uncommon rank with nonmagical weapons.
The mages had cast their most potent spells while the hunters tried to help. The mages had seemed somewhat effective until each tracking crystal was systematically destroyed by an attack they couldn’t see from an adversary that was weaving in and out between the Mountain Drakes and the Skimmers. The hunters had been useless and died each time a Mountain Drake attacked. Since there were seven Mountain drakes, at least seven people died every turn. With only 20 hunters and five mages to begin with, it didn’t take long for the Mountain Drakes to kill everyone else. Worse yet, their actual target’s attacks didn’t break his Stealth, and he was staying outside the range of any of their perception skills.
That isn’t to say they didn’t detect where he’d been. Zavrous had felt the objects he was flowing enter his perception range just before they struck whatever they were thrown at; Tracking Crystal, hunter, mage, and even the Mountain Drakes. The tracking crystals weren’t weak, but neither were they as strong as a diamond. The tracking crystals were all shattered within the first 30 seconds. Each time one exploded, it released a small explosion that did very minor damage to the mage holding it. After every tracking crystal was destroyed, the attacks started to be more opportunistic instead of focused. Within three minutes, the fight was over.
Their target had helped both sides until it was just Zavrous, his target, and the last mountain drake. That three-way standoff only lasted for a moment because the Mountain Drake’s head caved when it was struck twice by the same things that had killed his fellow hunters and the other drakes. Their target had killed 24 hunters, five mages, and seven Mountain Drakes. Mistress Morena needed to know about this monster because there was no way he was less than Advanced, probably Master Rank.
With no way to track their target, Zavrous activated the recall ruin on his skimmer and waited for it to activate. Energy started to swirl around the Skimmer, which was growing denser by the moment. As the energy built up, the world outside of the skimmer began to change. Just before the world vanished, Zavrous was surprised when five force daggers appeared from the other side of the “empty” skimmer. The one that hit him between the eyes ended any further thoughts he might have had.
You Have Died
***
Before Connor could check his gains or review his notifications, everything except him froze. A moment later, a screen appeared in the air in front of him.
Quest, Thwart the Slavers,
Upgrades to
Destroy Mistress Morena
Task: Mistress Morena has violated the SYSTEM, Destroy her.
Accepting this Quest automatically extends the Tutorial area to include anywhere you tread and allows tutorial-based awards appropriate for the threat faced until 30 days have passed. If you do not complete this Quest before the allotted 30 days for the Tutorial, this Quest will fail and be lost permanently. You will NOT be returned to your Planet of Origin.
Additionally, if successful, you will receive the following rewards:
Automatic Transportation to your Planet of Origin at the End of the Tutorial, regardless of location or dimension.
Two New Titles
One Perk
One Bonus Ability Slot – Ability NOT included.
New Master Rank Skill Crystal. The Skill will be Beneficial to your class
New Master Rank Spell Book Crystal. The Spell will be beneficial to your class.
Would you like to accept the Question Destroy Mistress Morena, Yes or No?
Connor chose “Yes.”
Time resumed as Connor was teleported across dimensional boundaries for the second time in his life with the Skimmer.