Somewhere within the tutorial jungle.

A woman with pointed ears and a graceful posture sat on an elongated boulder under the shade of a giant leaf. It would be too easy to label her as a goddess amongst the death infested jungle. Her long, flowing golden hair spiralled down her slender back in a neat braid. Not a speck of dirt marred her face.

She had awakened into this strange land after a horrible floating eye made her vanish from sight. At first she was scared. An unknown being had taken her hostage, but thankfully, her young knights trained especially to be her guards, had been brought with her. Along with two purple radiances that blessed her mind.

One being a so-called Pathway, and the other a Skill Essence.

It is the will of the Goddess. She smiled in serenity. With the grace of the Goddess, it is my duty to create a bastion for when the others join us.

“Princess Maera,” A man approached and knelt down on one knee. “We have repelled the repugnant beasts from the surroundings. We will continue to secure our stronghold until no threat is capable of entering. We have also lost one of our brothers.”

“His whereabouts, knight Faelar?” Maera asked.

“Currently, we are unaware,” He said. “But we have the knight's order searching, it’s only a matter of time before we find him.”

“Knight Faelar.” Maera looked at him with a sweet smile. “It’s a blessing to have the knights of High Yrulna with me. Others aren’t so fortunate. We must scout further and gain contact with the survivors. It’s too dangerous to have them out on their own. We have already lost one knight from the beast’s traps… and now perhaps another.” Princess’ Maera closed her hands together, then placed them against her forehead.

“Your order is my command, Princess.” Faelar bowed his head.

“Take my blessing Faelar.” Maera sighed and rested her hand on top of his head. A holy light swept around her and then, the holy mana surged into Faelar. A sheen glowed atop his eyes, before it disappeared.

The Epic Skill… or rather, the Grace of the goddess had bestowed her with her family's heirloom magic.

She gazed at the Grace once more. It had become a habit. It was a sign of her home's powerful history.

2nd Pathstone: [ Holy Blessing ]

Skill: Goddess’ Blessing

Skill: Healing Hands

Skill:

Skill:

Skill:

His fatigue from the day was lessened, he gazed up in awe, before tearing his vision away from her eyes. Faelar stood up and was about to walk away to complete his grace-given mission when an enormous pillar of light shot up into the sky high above.

The hub area has been created.

First person to reach the hub will be awarded a World First Title.

Time left for reward gain: 48:00:00s

“Your majesty… What do we do?” Faelar mumbled, his eyes were glued to the pillar of light.

“It must be the Goddess’ guidance,” Maera smiled. “We shall forge a path to salvation, may the Goddess guide us to the fated warrior.”

“May the Goddess guide us.” Faelar placed his hands together in prayer.

***

“A World First Title!” The people exclaimed.

The tank along with Jake swallowed a precious health potion. They sent a glare Noah’s way.

“Hub area?” The tank said through gritted teeth, his injured arm from the impact popped back into place. “What the hell is that?”

Krall, noticing the ceasefire, wandered over to the armoured kobold and began sniffing it.

“It’s a safe zone.” Noah tilted his head as he watched his tamed monster.

“A safe zone?” Chloe said in surprise, she clutched the young woman’s hands by her side. “You hear that Karina?”

“That’s a relief.” Karina smiled.

The smile seemed forced to Noah, as if she was trying to be a different person completely. It felt–off. But Noah didn’t care.

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“How do you know?” Declan sheathed his sword with hesitance. “I’ve never heard of that occurring before.”

“It was a System unlock at level ten.”

His words caused an audible gasp within the group. Although Declan hid his surprise well with a poker face.

Noah smirked. He could guess the reason why they would be surprised. Declan and the others had to share experience with a large group, and were most likely hesitant in leaving their camp after suffering a few casualties. Whereas Noah only shared his with Krall and Thraz.

If he had to take a wild guess, then he would be around three to four levels above them–maybe more.

Noah wasn’t much of a talker, he was about to walk toward the giant beam of light when he felt something in the back of his mind. Excitement.

Turning around to Krall, his tamed monster was busy grabbing a knife, then pierced it into the armoured kobolds chest. With the monster already being dead for a good few minutes, the blood had thickened into a viscous, clotted red. It seeped down like sludge from a sewer as the smell of copper swept forward.

The less experienced survivors looked away. When Noah glanced at them, Karina was looking back at him, before quickly turning her eyes and acting like the other girls.

Shaking his head, he walked up to Krall. “Anything good?”

Noah regretted asking the question as Krall ripped out the heart from its body and showed it to him with a happy grin on his face. Then he put the entire thing in his mouth, chomped it, then swallowed all of it.

He wasn’t sure why, but Noah could tell it was something to do with Krall’s evolution. Maybe he wanted that specific evolution?

“Declan, I can’t watch this any longer,” Chloe looked at them in disgust. “We should head toward the hub, if it's a safe zone the others must be heading there?”

Declan remained silent, then said. “No, we can’t. At least not for now.”

“Are you crazy?” Chloe was taken aback, then she took a breath to collect herself. “Why?”

Despite being a Trained, Chloe was on edge. She had never acted like this before. The stress was getting to her. It seemed like she held some amount of trust within Declan. Ah, school crushes. Noah thought.

“The beacon of light is telling all of us where to go, but that might be the same for the monsters,” Declan wiped the sweat beading from his forehead. “If we go now, they could be waiting in ambush.”

“And what if they’re not?” Chloe asked.

“Then we’ve erred on the side of caution,” Declan said. “Besides, a high time limit is a sign that it is not as easy as it sounds.”

Noah agreed with everything he had said. It seemed he had a head on his shoulders. They had managed to survive until now, after all.

“Where did you camp?” Noah asked. “There’s no way you’ve been using my water source, so it must be in that direction?” Noah pointed to the north.

If this valley was to the east, and his cave was to the west, the beach was to the south, then that left the north. Of course he hadn’t a clue, it was merely just a point of reference.

Declan shook his head. “We camped that way, along the beach we found a tall, climbable tree to use as shelter.” He pointed to the east.

“Well, it was nice to see some friendly faces.” Noah clapped his hands together and walked forward, toward the direction of his cave shelter that was a good walk away. The last remains of his potions were waiting for him..

“I thought you were coming with us?” Declan asked.

“Whatever gave you that crazy idea?” Noah chuckled. “But don’t worry, I’ll visit your camp when I get the chance. If you haven’t left for the hub, that is.”

“You think you can survive out there just the three of you?” Declan clenched his fists.

“We’ve managed well enough,” Noah said. “C’mon Thraz.”

“You gave your word to them, Noah.” Thraz stayed still.

“My word?” Noah repeated, as he let out a puff of air with a smile.

Declan glanced at Thraz and added while the knife was hot. “Thraz, you are free to come with us. We could use a noble warrior like you. With your help, I would feel more at ease protecting everyone. We could even get to the hub first and win glory for your family!” Declan took a step forward with a smile.

“Noble…My family…” Thraz looked at Noah, then to Krall as he seemed to remember something. His eyes held a faint disgust that was hard to wash away as he glanced at the so-called corrupted kobold, then to Declan. He hesitated.

Seeing that, Noah sighed in disappointment. He wasn’t sure if he was annoyed by having him show undisguised contempt for his companion, or if it was for the betrayal. It was typical. Not that he expected much from a dragonborn youngling anyway.

With that, Noah made a decision. Besides, with his new offensive Skill, he should be able to reap the rewards of some solo levelling for a while.

“Don’t bother following me, Thraz,” Noah said. “Krall, let’s go.” He walked toward the cave’s entrance with Krall by his side. He planted his hand on Krall’s hard, scaly head.

Well, it wasn’t completely a lost cause. Now he had access to their camp through Thraz–if he managed to find time that was. It also meant the chance of them trying to hurt him was considerably less so. Thraz simply wouldn’t allow such actions to take place. Noah’s lips curled upward.

“I…” Thraz hung his head.

It’s just me and you pal. Noah thought. Krall looked at him and displayed a toothy grin. The cave was still to be looted. Krall had to evolve. And he wanted to reach the hub first. Noah couldn’t slow down. He knew he would have to take more risks. But without Thraz, he had to be more careful.

On the flip side, it was one less person to share experience with.