Tutorial Day 1

Fong looked down the sheer face of the step, and I joined him. It was probably a forty-foot drop to the rocky floor below. My eyes scanned for a path down but didn’t find one. I soon found out why, when Fong simply leaped off the edge and landed with a non-robotic grunt. My mind argued with my eyes, seeming to question if I was seeing what I really thought I was.

Was the drop less than forty feet? Maybe, but it was certainly higher than I wanted to free fall. Fong looked back up then and found me staring down at him. I saw the confusion cross his face before he seemed to understand something. “What is your Strength Stat?”

“Uhh,” I stuttered, unsure if I should tell someone else my Stats. Especially someone who was clearly stronger than me. Would he take advantage of my weakness? Still, it was obvious that I had a low Strength Stat from the very fact that I didn’t jump. So, I said, “...Ten?”

“Gazi! I should have asked,” Fong responded. The voice sounded slightly less robotic. He looked back up the rise. “Mine’s nearing a hundred, but I still can’t jump back up there. Follow me. There’s a place to climb down about a kilometer this way.”

I nodded and Fong started walking to my right. I stayed close to the shelf cliff, keeping a wary eye on the forest edge now on my right side, for Monsters. Still, if we were going to walk, it also gave me the chance to study the changes to my ‘Status sheet’, as Fong had called it. I was glad my knowledge of gaming jargon would come in useful. So, with half an eye, I began looking at my Screen while keeping both the forest and Fong in my peripheral vision.

Status

Tutorial Name: [Enter Name]

Tutorial Points: 25,000

Skills: Demonic Vault, Dragon Heart, Reptilian Body, Heal, Cleanse

Role: Gatherer / Healer

Mana Pool: 50 / 50

Qi: 33 / 33

Force: 11 / 11

Stats:

Strength: 10

Agility: 3

Stamina: 10

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 2

Dexterity: 10

Perception: 2

Obviously, the first thing I noticed was the Tutorial Points, and my ability to enter a name. I figured I could ask Fong about the name, but I’d likely have to wait till we got to town to discover if twenty-five thousand points was a good or bad amount. Or I could of course risk asking the man—but that seemed dangerous. What if I was the Tutorial Town equivalent of a millionaire?

I wished Smegma was here, so I could bounce ideas off him. That, of course, made my stomach knot in worry. I didn’t have any true idea of why he was absent this time. I returned to studying the Status page, so I didn’t have to think about that.

The next oddity was staring me in the face. Skills. The first strange part was that they were listed at all, but also, I was missing about four that I’d seen Cards for, but likely eight since I’d gained four new Profession Skills in the Portal. Still, the underlines below Dragon Heart, and Demonic Vault made me smile. I had a feeling I knew what was going on. I mentally clicked on Demonic Vault first.

Demonic Vault Sub-Skills

Butchering

Classes

Cooking

Fishing

Gardening

Harvesting

Mining

Overdraft

Skinning

My smile grew larger.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

This may be the answer I was looking for. I studied the title again. ‘Demonic Vault sub-Skills’ and a wave of relief washed over me. It still wasn’t certain, but it would appear that I only had Five ‘official’ Skills at the moment, but a great many sub-Skills under the umbrella of two of my more powerful Skills. I clicked Dragon Heart next.

Dragon Heart Consumed-Skills

Heat Sense

Mental Fortitude

Recovery

Dragon Heart Sub-Skills

Mana Pool (Growth) – 50 / 50

Skill Copy & Cannibalism

The title of this one did make me a little less sure, but also brought up another rather large question. I had received Demonic Vault right alongside Mental Fortitude and Recovery. So, why was it considered a Skill, while they were ‘sub-Skills?’

I didn’t have an answer to that question. Nor did I truly think I’d be able to ask Smegma for confirmation. The Demon hadn’t even mentioned a Tutorial before, which either meant his people hadn’t had one, or perhaps it was just as difficult to enter and he and no one he knew had been able to do so? Or worse yet, been able to leave in the five thousand years?

Then I had another thought. Was unlocking Stats that difficult?

Unlocking Stats had been relatively simple for me, but that didn’t mean it was for everyone. For example, how had Fong unlocked his Stats to enter the Tutorial? How had the others in the Tutorial done so? What about the boss? Fong said his Strength was nearly one-hundred. How had he grown it to such a degree? Questions for later certainly—right alongside the question of could my Overflow give other people Gathering Skills and therefore Stats like it had me?

Either way, Smegma hadn’t seemed to have been aware of the Tutorials existence, and the System certainly changed things between planet integrations, as evidenced by Nagina, and other races that Smegma described.

“Hey, you’re passing the path down!” Fong shouted in his robotic voice.

I started and looked down, realizing I had failed in my original idea of keeping an eye out for Monsters or for Fong. I was about ten feet past a clear path down. It wasn’t a walkway per se, but it was a pathway that I could use, without needing to leap from the ledge and fall forty feet.

It was somewhat slow going, but not as slow as I might have feared before I made it to the bottom and rejoined Fong.

“Alright, let’s head into the Town,” Fong instructed, and we began walking together again. I still had the Status Page opened, but decided to focus on pumping the man for information.

“Fong, how did you get here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Not an issue,” the robotic translator said in my ear. “Everyone has their story. For me, I found a Fruit in the Dungeon. It was Purple with moving hues of every other color I could picture. I knew it was special. When I picked it, the scent made it irresistible, so I ate it. Then, here I am.”

Again, Fong’s movements were off compared to the timing of his voice. His gesture of the area around us was slightly early when compared to his final statement. I asked, “Is that how most people end up here?”

“Some. Others find new ways to use Skills, unlock a new Stat and keep exploring. They teach lessons now. Others are what we call Body-Awakened and have a Skill that ties them to Stats right away. Too many to list now, but everyone here can now grow.”

I wanted to know more but his final sentence stopped me from the proverbial, ‘I’ve got time,’ response. Instead, I said, “Now everyone can grow?”

“Yes, with Tutorial Points. You can buy items to train or raise Stats, Evolve Skills and even learn new ones.”

“There’s no limit to that?” I asked, my voice likely sounding as surprised as I felt. Not that Fong would hear it.

“Limit? Yes, you can only raise Skills from F to E to D Rank in the E-rank Tutorial. Or do you mean Skill limit? Then, also yes. Ten to Fifteen—depends on the person.”

I blinked at his answer but Id id realize that the second part was in line with what Smegma had always claimed. “Can you do more in other Tutorials?”

“I do not know if other Tutorials exist. But assume they must, because of the message we receive before coming here. Everyone that is here gets the same one.”

I recalled the specific mention of ‘E-ranked Tutorial’ and let that line of questioning drop. Should I return to the questions about other ways people got here? No, there were other more important things to ask before we arrived at the growing walls. “How many people are here?”

“There were about eight thousand, but now it’s only about five and a half thousand.”

“I thought you said people can’t leave.”

“They cannot. Well, that is not true. Some disappear, from time to time—so maybe they found the way. No, the majority of our loss of people is from war.”

Fong didn’t even look back as the mechanically robotic voice translated his words to me. He just kept walking toward the walls with his hand on his sword.

There had been a war, and two thousand five hundred or more people died? That didn’t seem like a lot until you realized that it was more than thirty percent of the previous population.

My voice froze in my throat even as any further questions died on my tongue. This place was even more dangerous than I originally thought. I was even less sure now that I wouldn’t get press-ganged into some kind of future war.

The next five minutes passed in silence as I followed Fong. Then we moved close enough to the gate and walls of Tutorial Town, and I was quiet for a whole different reason. The walls were lined with turrets, and the gate manned by guards that were definitely not humans. Giants maybe, but not humans.

Worse, I could see more of them up on the walls patrolling behind or in front of those turrets.

Fong took pity on me and said, “They are the Guards of Tutorial Town. As far as any know, they have almost always been here. Even the boss says that there was never a time before the Guard. Do not cause harm to anyone inside of the walls, or they will descend. We do not know how powerful they are, but even a man with an A-rank Skill was forced to flee. Flee, or die.”

“So, don’t break any rules?” I asked to clarify, still staring at the ever-growing giants in suits of full plate armor.

“That’s the only rule…” Fong whispered.