“With all due respect, what is an Infernal, and why are you calling me one? Where even did you come from? Is this typical for this...tutorial thing the first guy mentioned? Also, can I take my hand off the sphere now? This…fire seems to be slowly getting bigger.”

Despite my initial calmness, I couldn’t help but start to feel slightly rattled; I mean, this whole thing has been extremely weird so far, but some dude randomly jumping through a crack in space and bowing his head in front of me feels a bit much, no? Where are his manners?

“Excuse me for my lack of manners, Young Infernal; you may remove your hand. I understand you currently have many questions, but it is not my place to answer any questions regarding your lineage.

“I apologize for this.

“Unfortunately, we also do not have time to delve into other things as the Tutorial must start at its designated time.

“I apologize for this.

“Completing your Tutorial will bring many of the answers you seek. The last thing you were supposed to accomplish before my abrupt arrival was your choice of a weapon. Please think of something and it will be presented before you.”

Now, regaining my briefly lost calmness, can this guy read my mind? How did he know I thought he lacked manners…isn’t that also a lack of manners? Reading my mind without permission. Well, he did apologize, I guess.

So, I can’t get all my questions answered until I do this Tutorial, huh? And apparently, I need to think of a weapon. Hmm, I’ve never used weapons outside of games before, but…I’ve always loved characters who used spears.

*Voosh*

Oh, look, a spear. As soon as I settled on thinking of a spear, one just...showed up in front of me, oh, and the sphere disappeared. The spear was roughly 6 feet tall, I think. Not sure. It had a rough wooden shaft and was tipped with a less-than-shiny metallic blade. Definitely, not the same metal covering the weird people in front of me. Speaking of weird metallic people, why did this guy just start smiling at me creepily when the spear appeared?

“It is often said that the love between an Infernal and their spear is deeper than the love between a mother and their child.”

“…Okay?” That was not weird at all...

“Ahem...It is now time for the Tutorial to begin. You will be sent to a location and be given a prompt by the system on how to pass the Tutorial. Beware, Young Infernal, that death is a possibility. I wish you a good hunt. Let your fires burn eternally and your spear ever swift.”

Okay, that was a little cool…

*Voosh*

Ah, I was teleported again. Dammit, I forgot my spea…oh, there it is, laying on the...ground…oh, I’m in a forest. And the floating words in my line of sight are back.

Welcome to the Tutorial.

Check your Status.

My status? And there it is, a floating screen. I guess just thinking about it was enough.

Reserved: Name – Raizen; Keep Name? Yes/No

Age – 19

Race – Infernal

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Cultivation – N/A

Your Task is to Survive.

Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.

Time Remaining – 60 Days

There’s a lot to unpack here. Those strange metal people didn’t really give me a lot of information to work with huh. First of all, I can change my name? I don’t think I want to change it, even though my name has always been a little embarrassing…I love my parents, but naming me some weird ass anime-sounding name when we were just a regular black family in America for sure sent a couple of jokes in my direction throughout my childhood. Nothing too crazy, though, as most were probably just jealous, and people usually ended up calling me Raz instead.

Speaking of my parents, I wonder what they would think about all of this if they were here to see it. Anyway, let’s select Yes. And the option to change it is gone…I wonder if that’s permanent.

Now that I think about it, where is my last name? My full name is definitely Raizen Smith. Did last names not count in this Multiverse thing or something? Moving on.

My race…I am sure I woke up this morning as a thoroughbred human being. Is this why metal man was calling me this Young Infernal thing? Has to be. Looking over my body, I still look the same, I also still feel the same. Something else to ask about when I complete the Tutorial I guess. Next on the list.

Cultivation.

I’ve read one or two of those cultivation novel things before, so I think I understand this part…though it would be nice to get some type of booklet on how to cultivate or just to explain it. Anyway, let’s not worry about it for now.

Lastly…the big red words.

To survive being in this forest, I’m assuming? Well, I guess this forest could just be one small part of the Tutorial area since I don’t actually know how big it is. The metal man did mention that death is real, and the red words mentioned fighting, so I need to be prepared for that. I’m also gonna go out on a limb and assume I just need to survive until 60 days are up. Fun.

Now that we kinda sorta got that out of the way, what should be my next steps? Food, shelter, and information seem about right. Well, no time like the present, onwards and forward! Okay, that was a little corny, but with my new trusty spear, let’s go explore this forest, shall we?

It took just a few short moments before I ran into another weird situation. There was a weird green creature standing not far from me. Something straight out of a tabletop fantasy game.

It was a Goblin.

Or at least I assumed it was.

It checked all the boxes.

Short, sharp teeth, pointy ears, a small club—oh, and it was green—very, very green.

Now, considering I’ve never fought before, I’m a little worried about my first encounter. Still, I had a greater reach than the Goblin, especially with my spear, so I pointed it forward and waited.

The Goblin charged straight at me.

You know, between the welcome to the multiverse stuff, meeting strange people covered in sleek metal, generating black fire in a weird sphere, being called an Infernal, and being teleported to this weird Tutorial world. I really believed the fighting with my life on the line thing is where this state of calm I’ve kinda had my whole life would come to truly fail.

I was wrong.

I didn’t even start breathing heavily. I just watched the little Goblin charge, with its club raised above its head, ready to bring me harm. Once it got within what I felt like was my range with the spear, I just pulled back and stabbed forward with all my might. Truth be told, there wasn’t all that much strength in my stab as I wasn’t some gym junkie. Unfortunate.

Anyway.

The Goblin failed to dodge.

Though I made contact, my stab wasn’t a one shot (stab?) kill as it pulled back as soon as it got stabbed. It backed off, looked at me warningly, and limped off as fast as it could into the woods while clutching its chest. It even started yelling in some weird Goblin language that sounded like gibberish to me.

I might not know much about actual combat, but I’ve played enough video games to realize this is bad. There are definitely more Goblins in the area. I quickly lunged after the Goblin before stabbing it into its back to silence it forever. A cowardly move I know, but I don’t have many options here. Killing the Goblin didn’t affect me in any way as I thought it would, it just felt like kind of…normal? I’m definitely a weirdo.

Anyway, after killing the Goblin, I expected the body to just remain there, but to my surprise, it was kind of absorbed into the ground, and in its place, a small orb remained. I didn’t know what it was, but it had to be something like loot, right? I didn’t have a bag with me, and I was still in the same T-shirt and grey sweats I had on in my dorm, but thankfully, my sweats had pockets, so I placed the orb in one of them.

So, the ground absorbs dead bodies. Nice to know. I guess I just keep going?

*War Cries*

Before I could get a couple steps away from where I killed the Goblin, I began to hear some very loud screaming in the forest around me. It all sounded like the gibberish the Goblin I killed was speaking.

I guess that Goblin was able to get his message out huh.

“Fuck."