Tutorial Day 1

The sight of the Guards made me a bit tunnel-visioned and I missed all the people coming and going from the open gate. The only thing that clued me into their presence was when someone shouted, “Hey Fong, got a new one?”

This voice was entirely normal to my ears, lacking the strange robotic quality of Fong’s, causing me to look for the speaker. I found a lumberjack of a man with blonde hair covering his entire body. Sure, he had a quaffed bird’s nest of a hairstyle on top of his head, but he also wore a massive beard that obscured most of his face from view. Then there were his arms, back and chest. While he was wearing a leather vest that obscured some of the latter two from sight, I could see curls of the same blonde hair trying to escape its confines. Had the man been a wooly mammoth in a previous life?

The closer he got to me, the larger he became, making me think for just a moment that he was the spawn of one of the Giant Armored Guards.

Definitely a reincarnated wooly mammoth, I thought.

Fong put his hand on his sword, and faced the approaching man, making me step back into a ready position as well. Ready for what? I wasn’t sure, but escape was at least a part of my current thoughts.

“Yes, Bear,” Fong said, with a slight dip in his head. “This one just arrived, and I was bringing him to Maelstrom.”

Bear—apparently I had been slightly off on the man’s heritage—eyed Fong’s hand on his sword with wary eyes. The rest of his features were impossible for me to read, before he transferred his gaze to me. “What Skills you got kid?”

“That is none of our business, Bear,” Fong said, his voice still robotic. I heard a squeak of leather as his hand tightened around his hilt.

What were the chances, I wondered, that killing each other in the doorway to Tutorial Town qualified as ‘doing harm inside the walls’?

I took a further step backwards, eyeing both of the men and the massive Guards not a hundred meters away.

I guess we were outside of the Town. Still, I was sure I was missing something. Was Bear from one of the rival factions?

“Maelstrom was the one that told me to look for you, Fong,” Bear answered, his eyes on the man’s sword again, even as his own went to the pair of hatchets on his waist. I hadn’t noticed the weapons on the massive man, at least not at first. Now I couldn’t look away.

They were sinister looking things with spikes on the back and other such decorations that clearly made them worse for chopping wood and better for debilitating a man. Fong and Bear’s interaction had gathered a crowd and I could feel the press of the circle that was forming choose to include me inside it by about three feet.

I glanced back and found Hunters wearing all manner of armor, and weapons. I also found representatives of every race. The fact that Fong spoke a different language and some of the cuts of clothing, and armor in the group confirmed that these people were from every corner of the globe. Not just Canada.

“Thank you for informing this humble one, Bear. This is fortuitous timing, friend—as I was on my way to see him,” Fong responded, his voice still devoid of any emotion because of the translator. From his body language, he was still ready to fight, or perhaps defend himself from this man.

“See that you do and get that useless kid inside before one of these onlookers chooses to take his Tutorial Points!” Bear commanded, and then started laughing. Others in the circle joined his laughter, leaving me even more confused.

That hadn’t been funny. A threat? Maybe. Especially if people could kill eachother to steal Tutorial Points… Definitely not funny!. So, was Bear so powerful that people laughed to kiss his ass, or was I missing something, and people had tried and failed to steal Tutorial Points in some humorous way?

Fong bowed and then began to take a route around the massive Bear, his hands still on his sword. Over his shoulder he said, “Brodie, follow me, please.”

The crowd dispersed with grumbles of disappointment and even a few catcalls at Fong, but the man ignored them. We crossed the final hundred meters of hard packed earth and stone, each step bringing us closer to the Guards, and the Gate. Before us was a clear line of delineation; inside, and outside of a partition on the ground, and Fong was moving purposefully toward it.

Slate pavers exiting the Gate formed a semi-circle twenty feet forward, which both Guards stood upon. The edge of that paved semi-circle seemed to create a strange shimmer in the air. Fong stepped through it and a great deal of his tension left his body. Seeing that, I didn’t hesitate and stepped through as well.

The change was noticeable to almost every sense my body possessed. First was the temperature. One step earlier the air felt hot and muggy—causing me to sweat while merely walking. As for inside the stones, it felt like someone had set an air conditioner to a perfectly comfortable temperature and removed the humidity.

The light levels changed also—going from drab browns and muted, washed out green foliage to near LED quality. I looked up to the sky and still found the several suns shining there, but where there had been clouds before, now only sparkling crystal-blue graced the heavens.

The next thing I noticed was the smell. Ever since the Mud Slimes, I hadn’t been able to get the slight but persistent odor of swamp out of my nostrils. Upon crossing the Tutorial Town threshold, the smell seemed to vanish. I raised a hand to my nose and sniffed, knowing that the swamp smell had lingered on my fingers from collecting the Cores. Nothing…

Finally, was the sound.

The catcalls and grumblings from the crowd were gone, changed to the constant hum of a mall. People conversed in groups as they moved through wide-paved streets. Others stood alone, shouting out wares and hints of strange desires I didn’t fully understand. The closest one that I could hear had his voice translated robotically into my ear.

“Looking for four others to run Tutorial’s End. Need Healing and three damage dealers,” the translation intoned.

Fong looked at me with a small smirk on his face. His mouth moved and the translation said, “Strange, isn’t it?”

Unsure which part he was talking about, I took his words to mean everything I was feeling. I nodded and his smirk grew to a smile. “Come with me. We’re going to the North District.”

With that, we walked straight up the wide street in front of us. Once clear of the Gates, I noticed that the street was lined with the walls I’d seen from the top of the ridge. Each side of the street had one, making where we walked a strange, enclosed pathway between what felt a bit like retaining walls. For just a moment I wondered why the walls were here, but Fong opened his mouth, clearly anticipating that question.

“The walls and this street allow people to cross the city to the different Districts they want without having to enter others. They were purchased by the Tribes to keep people out of their zones of influence.”

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“Why would they want to keep people out of their Districts?” I asked, not understanding what was so important about the districts.

“This is hard to explain in full. The simple answer is that each Tribe holds a building within its District. This building is where you can purchase Tutorial Items with Points. It also gives any member who gives tithe to the Altar within, a boon.”

“A boon?”

Fong stopped walking and looked at me with a strange expression. Then scratching his own neck he said, “Translation is not perfect. A boon. A limited time increase to Stats or regeneration. Sometimes, even increases to comprehension.”

“Oh, a buff?!” I exclaimed, and Fong nodded, before returning to his purposeful walk. Knowing what he meant only brought up more questions. “Why would the Tribes wish to keep people from getting this buff?”

“My apologies,” Fong answered. “It is not the ‘buff’ that is special—well it is special and unique for each building. However, it is the items inside that are what they most want to protect.”

“The items inside?” I asked and then followed up with, “Do you mean the ones you can purchase?”

“Yes. Some are limited items. Some items are only restocked once a month, others—once a year, and some only restock when the user dies. Items, also different. With descriptions. So keeping out others keeps one safe. No exposed weakness, see?”

I was starting to get the picture. These ‘buildings’ provided a unique buff that the Tribes monopolized to a lesser extent. Then the Shops had items that had limited quantities and descriptions of said items that would give information on what a given District had access to to other Tribes when read. There was one glaring issue with the whole thing.

“I thought you said you can’t kill inside the city? I assumed that meant fighting as well, so how do you keep others out?”

“Limit entry points,” Fong motioned at the walls and the translation came through a moment after. “If enemy comes, block entrance with bodies. If they push or attack standing Tribesmen, Guards come. Secrets safe, yes?”

The heads of people on top of the walls took on a bit of a different meaning. Still, to constantly have to patrol your walls and guard your entrance—that must take a lot of manpower. Then, on top of that, to block a building entrance with bodies? Were the people in these Tribes constantly on call?

I didn’t bother asking that question, since the response was likely exactly what I was thinking. I even had a suspicion as to why Maelstrom was looking for Fong…

It took about five more minutes before we arrived at the place in the center of the Town where the four walls met. The central square wasn’t ‘square’ in shape. Instead it was an octagon with four diagonal entrances parallel to each other and the four walkways entering in between.

Outside, when Bear confronted Fong, I might have seen fifty people. Here, in the central square, there were at least a hundred. Just like near the town entrance, people called out for group members, but now that I was closer, a few other shouted requests could be heard. Some translated and some not.

“Need a Ruby, will trade for two of any other gems.”

“Looking for Devilsaur Leather, willing to trade forged equipment.”

Other such requests were being made and the people making them stood out to my casual inspection. They, unlike the people outside or even Fong right in front of me, didn’t look like Hunters. They looked more similar to the employees of Abyss, or Crafting Fortune Five-hundreds.

Sure, they had weapons, and armor—many even looking physically fit and were moving at speeds as they gestured that were far quicker than I could with my Agility, but the armor I could see was too clean—the weapons, too ornamental. It was an assumption, certainly, but I believed that the people looking to trade for items were Crafters of some kind.

I pointed to them and asked Fong about it, and he responded as expected, “Yes. They are all Crafters. They stay inside the city mostly, unless brought out by the Tribes for specific tasks under heavy guard.”

“Do they get treated differently?” I asked, looking at Fong’s serviceable armor, and the Crafter’s pristine garments.

“All Skills get treated differently. Fighters—damage dealers, as they are often called, are the most common. Then Tanks—Hunters specialized in defense, and finally—Healers. Crafters are rarer than Fighters but more common than Tanks as a group, but specific Professions may be rarer than others. Understand?” Fong answered.

The translations for those particular roles were spot on. The terms ‘DD’, ‘glass cannon’, or more simply—DPS or ‘deeps’, was well understood in online gaming. As were ‘Tanks’ and ‘Healz’.

Fong had actually stopped to tell me this, and for the first time I had the suspicion that Fong was answering my questions intentionally. At first, I believed the man was just talkative, but I was beginning to believe it was something else. The way he aggressively responded to Bear had been a major hint. Was Fong protecting and preparing me?

I still wasn’t willing to tell him my Skills, but I pulled them up to check the changes myself.

Heal (11)

Low-E-Rank

Heal can only be used on others the Skill User is touching, and heals the individual's Health Pool at a rate of one health per half point of Mana expended. Additionally it will stabilize injuries once Healing has begun, preventing nearly all Health Deteriorating Effects.

--

Cleanse (11)

Low-E-Rank

Cleanse can only be used on others and removes contaminants, poisons, venoms and diseases from the individual. Limited to Rare, Common or Uncommon maladies.

Costs 5 Mana per use.

Looking at them I considered what I might be willing to reveal to this Maelstrom character. Disappointingly, Heal didn’t allow me to cast it on people I wasn’t touching. Still, if a Healer was the rarest Class here in the Tutorial, then I was certainly in an advantageous position, thanks to my Battlefield Healer Class. Healing was likely to be a very powerful negotiating chip. On the flip side, though, there was another worrisome possibility.

“Just how rare are Healers?” I asked, recalling the man at the front looking for one to join his group.

Fong nodded to the guards at the entrance to the gate across the square to our left on entrance, as we passed through. He waited for about forty steps before he answered, “Rare enough that they are guarded resources with limited freedom in the Maelstrom Tribe.”

I swallowed hard. My question had clearly or at least potentially—tipped my hand to the swordsman. Fong was definitely trying to help me out and now that we were inside the District, I had limited time to figure out what I should be telling Maelstrom about my Skills. One thing was already certain—I’d be keeping my Healer Skills to myself.

“What about Gatherers?” I asked, recalling what the Status Page had called my other ‘Role.’

“Gatherers are very important, and protected on Raids, Excursions and Dungeon runs. They often also become Crafters in this place,” Fong answered as he moved down the street between buildings. The buildings inside this portion of the District were of shoddy construction, looking worse than the Goblin huts from the caverns. In some I could hear the sounds of people at work, letting me know that the ones nearest the entrance were likely in use by Crafters. Many others were nearly falling over, with doors wide open and in serious disrepair.

“Why are these buildings so poorly made?” I asked, pointing them out to Fong.

“These are man-made, and not purchased yet with Tutorial Points. You will see… difference as we approach… center,” Fong answered.

“So… the Crafters are just… bad?”

Fong snorted a laugh, which sounded incredibly odd from the mechanical translator, not to mention letting me know that I’d accidentally said my thoughts out loud.

Sure enough, the further into the District we went, the more the buildings changed. It was almost like there was a line drawn. Suddenly they were brick constructions that began as one-story and grew with each block we passed. The fact that the brick perfectly accentuated the gray tiles with the onyx and tan patterning made me realize what Fong meant by ‘purchased’. It also became clear which building we were heading toward.

A tall tower-esque building, reminding me of a clock tower could just be seen over the taller buildings near the center. At first I hadn’t noticed it due to the many other sights to take in. Now I wondered how I could have missed it from atop the ridge or as we walked up using my peripherals. It was clearly of different quality than even the ‘purchased’ buildings we now walked between.

Instead of bricks, it was made from one seemingly solid piece of stone that somewhat resembled marble but shone like it was a polished piece in Go. The other thing I noticed was just how many more people occupied the central section of the Districts. Another thing that stood out was how the buildings were a combination of shops, crafting halls and residences. I wondered if residency was based on seniority or contribution or perhaps even through the simple expedience of wealth.

I opened my mouth to ask, but Fong held up a hand. “The escorts are here,” he said.

I looked around confused, until I saw the cloaked figures on the rooftops.

I guess question time is over.