Tutorial Day 2

London and the group returned to find me waiting outside the Tower and watching the Maelstrom Tribe Hunters as they came and went. Not all of them were Hunters, in the Earthly definition of Hunters, I was sure. But the fact that getting here required all Stats to be unlocked, meant that they were stronger than ‘Normies.’

That thought perked me up a bit. I wasn’t a Normie anymore. I hadn’t been for a long while but sitting on the stunning paving stones with my back to a huge magical tower on a strange Game-like world really drove that home. I had come a long way since Morgan Hallsbrad’s assault.

London, Gavin and Jacky marched into the tower, leaving Sarah to come sit near me. My eyes tracked the other three questioningly. Sarah smiled as she sat down, a sign she was about to explain.

“We all have a bit of saved up. We’ve been keeping it back in case we have issues or a dry spell—or if another war suddenly erupts. However, they’ve decided that it’s better to show you how serious they are.”

My eyes opened and closed, trying to understand what she was saying. She gave me a flat stare, like I was being particularly dense. “They’re going to upgrade, or repair their equipment. They’ve already bought second hand stuff from the Blacksmiths to fill in gaps.”

Ooh, that made sense. Oh—“Wait, I may not go out with you guys everyday!”

“That’s fine. They think they can mimic what you did with the Hearts at least—which already should improve our earnings.”

My lips pressed together as I looked into the doorway of the North Tower. I could still rush in there to stop them, but I had just been thinking about farming with them for the next week to get more materials.

Eventually I turned to regard Sarah, thinking of a question for her that might help me make one of my decisions. “Why aren’t you in there then?”

“I’m the newest member of the group after you—well not that I’m assuming you’re part of the group—” she said waving her hands in front of her like she had just committed a terrible mistake. I smiled and she slowly calmed down. After she swallowed she sheepishly said, “I barely have any Tp in saving, so I’m going to wait a few days…”

“You definitely need to stock up on Tp then,” I answered seriously, while trying to school the features on my face. “You wouldn’t want some sort of serious situation to hit and be left without any. That would be a cat-ass-trophe.”

“Do all of you men share a single brain?” Sarah asked, frowning at my pun. “You know I’m not the one who came up with the short form for Tutorial Points right?”

I couldn’t hold my laugh in anymore and exploded with guffaws loud enough to draw people’s eyes. Sarah only grew more embarrassed at people stopped to stare. Eventually she punched me in the shoulder and while the strike looked soft, the pain that came with it wasn’t.

My laughter died instantly as my arm shot to my bicep and shoulder. “Wow, what the hell? How’d you do that?”

By all accounts that had been a swat. If I was to assess her strike it was something that would kill a mosquito but only cripple a fly. She smiled at me. “Figured you wouldn’t know how to infuse Qi yet. You’ve got a lot to learn newbie.”

* * *

Seeing as by all accounts, I had started with far more Tutorial Points than others, I chose not to spend them yet. It did raise a few eyebrows of the group when I didn’t buy anything, but I simply told them that I needed to save it for now.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With their show of sincerity from buying new gear, and gracious invitation to show me the cheapest places to spend the night—I did finally admit that I had a place at the Alchemy School. There were just too many people inside of its halls for it to be that big of a deal.

“Trying your hand at Alchemy?” Sarah asked, for once sounding a bit like Jacky with her tone of distaste.

“Yeah?” I answered simply but infusing the word with the right inflection to make it a question.

“It’s just that in Maelstrom that Profession has the highest competition. Everyone wants to be one,” Gavin said, his emphasis made me more confused.

“Are you angry cause there are too many Alchemists?” I asked, having not truly seen an abundance of potions in use from the group today.

“No, no,” London said, and I once again was struck by how different the young man looked in his full kit of sturdy, repaired, unpatching armor. It wasn’t exactly a better look, since he looked more like a child who chose their own clothing for the first time—but he was certainly larger looking and less ragged. “It’s just that most Alchemist eventually stop going out with parties. It’s one of the reasons that they’re so low on Reagents all the time. In theory what we left you with in terms of Herbs and Fruits can be sold to the Alchemy School at a pretty significant mark up.”

“Really?” I asked sounding a bit greedy to my own ears.

“No, not really,” Jacky interjected haughtily. “You probably are just making the amount of Tp that you’d get if you didn’t pay taxes in the Shop.”

I’d accidentally snorted a bit when Jacky said ‘Tp’ and her tone changed from just arrogant to upset and arrogant after. What? I hadn’t been the only one. London and Gavin had cracked smiles or had a twinkle in their eyes, I swear!

“Why do they stop going out?” I asked, unsure how or why you’d stop needing Tp. I chuckled again at my own accident pun. Everyone had an asshole right?

Gavin looked at me and winked with a very wide smile on his face. Either he was still chuckling about Jacky’s slip up, or he too had thought of a funny pun. I’d ask him later.

London was the one who answered though. “Well, from what we know selling Potions to the shop is very lucrative. Even poor quality concoctions increase the price of the stuff inside them by two. Well that’s what the rumors say.”

“I thought the stuff in the Alchemist School were owned by the Tribe?”

“They are,” Sarah answered my confused question. “And in a lot of ways even the worst Alchemist in that place lives a life of luxury—at least compared to us—” she motioned to herself and the others. “They’re even given fifty percent of the profits after removing taxes and the cost of Reagents—”

“So, they’d rather just collect Tp safely while sitting on their thrones,” Gavin inserted. Sarah groaned and fully swung at Gavin, who caught her hand easily in his massive one. I stared at the scene even as I chuckled at his excellent toilet joke.

With a slow moving swat Sarah had caused pain equivalent to a haymaker Charlie horse. What would a swing like that have done? Add to that the ease in which Gavin caught the damn thing. London saw my mouth hanging open slightly even as he preferred Gavin a surreptitious thumbs up.

Jacky just sniffed and partially turned away from the group, as if to distance herself from our company.

“If you want to learn how to use Qi, Mana or Force, there are people who teach it,” London explained, but then licked a tooth sheepishly with his tongue, even as he scratched his neck. “For a fee.”

“We could teach you the basics,” Gavin suggested giving London a stern look.

London started, and looked at Gavin worriedly before back to me to hurriedly explain. “We only know the basics—part of what we’ve been saving up for is more lessons! Plus, we tried pooling our Points and having one person learn, then teach the others. It doesn’t work as well—for some reason.”

“Maybe you’re just a horrible teacher,” Jacky stated, matter-of-factly.

The others nodded along, which caused London to flush. Under his breath he whispered, “I didn’t see any of you all doing better when it was your turns.”

Everyone but Jacky blushed then, and she only sniffed. “I never got the chance to try—cause you idiots didn’t make any sense. I’ll teach the newb!”

My eyes widened in horror and I looked around the group, pleading desperately for someone to step up and take over. They all just met my hope filled eyes with malice and hate. I could see what was happening here!

London’s mouth cracked into a terrifying smirk. “I think that’s a wonderful idea. Why don’t you two meet up before we head out tomorrow? Assuming you’re still coming with us tomorrow, Brodie?”

I felt my earlier commitment to joining them for the week wither inside my soul.

Maybe it would be better to try my hand at Alchemy and just sit on my Throne collecting Tp…