"You know, I actually find the tutorial to be a good memory, much less chance of stumbling on a sleeping dragon or the likes, and with plenty of loot."
-Maron the explorer when asked about his experience in the tutorial
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The first thing I noticed was a gentle breeze, the second thing I noticed was a panic attack as the magically enforced calm wore off and the reality hit me. Leaning against the cold metal staff that I found myself holding I tried to restrain my panic to no avail as all of the gore and chaos that I had read about in books about similar situation flashed through my mind, only to be replaced with worse images supplied by my own imagination and lack of faith in humanity as I curled in on myself with my thoughts running at a mile a minute. As if responding to my panic and rising adrenaline, I could feel the Lightning inside me start to crackle and prepare to be called upon, flowing through my body and hiding just under my skin. Surprisingly, or maybe understandably, the feeling of lightning did wonders for calming me down, with the thought that while yes, the world had changed and would be more dangerous, I wasn't exactly helpless. Getting the last of the panic out of my system I examined the gear that I found myself wearing, which was a metal quarterstaff about as tall as me, some sturdy clothes clearly made for travelling with a hardened leather chestpiece as well as a small messenger backpack and canteen. After my quick self inspection I looked around the clearing and saw the group that the AI had told me I would appear with, all of whom I recognized and were in various states of panic themselves.
I was unsurprised that I recognized them, as the AI had said that familiarity was a factor, but I was relieved nonetheless that I wouldn't end up doing this with strangers, rather than friends that I trusted. There were three other people, all of whom had more or less the same gear as me, only differing it the weapons we held. Closest to me was Leonardo Smith, or Leo, who seemed to be the least panicked of all of us as while he was frantically looking around he also seemed to be processing the environment and gave me a nod when our eyes met. Leo was shorter than average, standing at around 5'5 with short brown hair, but he was the most muscular of my friends, which while admittedly he was only slightly better than average, was still a reassurance in the current situation. As opposed to the quarterstaff that I held, he had a simple looking sword in the style of a gladius in one hand and a plain metal kite shield, both of which he was holding tightly as he searched for any danger in our surroundings.
Leaving the scouting to Leo, I looked to the next person, who I recognized to be Jason Delmanie, who did not seem to be holding any weapons and was currently hyperventilating. Making my way over to him, I gave him a pat on the back and made sure to hold eye contact with him until his breathing started to steady and his familiar mischievous grin, strained as it was, showed up on his face and he gave me a grateful nod before pulling a pack of oddly shiny playing cards from his pocket and playing with them while twitchily looking around, which is a pretty common thing for him to do when nervous, though I didn't recognize the deck that he was using. Combined with his lanky 6'2 height and shaggy blonde hair he was only one cheap suit away from being a stage magician.
Lastly and furthest from me was a mop of messy black hair otherwise known as Jackson Corday. He was by far the most panicked of all of us, fully on the ground with what seemed to be a spear discarded nearby. Jackson always had low self-esteem and high anxiety, but perhaps thanks to that I was used to calming him down, though usually it was just from things like public speaking or ordering food as opposed to the end of life as we know it. Nevertheless, I resorted to my usual tricks, beginning by snapping next to his ear and forcing him to look at me through hair that always seems to be in need of a haircut.
"Hey, hey, look at me. Shits wild I know, but now's not the time okay, I need you to stand up and we can all panic together later, preferably in a safer place."
And despite my admittedly lackluster skills in psychology, it seemed my familiar face worked at least as a distraction and he gave me a shaky nod before standing up, using his spear like a cane, seemingly to shaken to stand without it. Before I could make use of any more of my clearly amazing skills in psychology, I heard a rustling in the nearby bushes, and by the way we all froze and snapped our heads to it, I was not the only one. After a heartbeat that felt seemed to last for hours, a blur of green came rushing towards me, and without any thoughts in my head other than 'OH FUCK', I swung my staff at it like a baseball bat, calling upon my Lightning which seemed to travel along the staff eagerly, as if exited to finally be called upon and wanting to show its worth, as it collided with the blur with a meaty THUNK and a muffled sizzle.
With the sickening feeling that I could only assume was bones breaking travelling along my staff, the blur came to a sudden halt and started convulsing on the ground, twitching wildly like those youtubers who tased themselves for content. On closer, and slightly less panicked, inspection the green thing was undoubtedly a goblin, about as tall as a child with arms that are slightly too long, a head that is too large for its body, with thick pointed ears, and a nose half the size of its face. It also seemed starved as you could make out its bones all along its body, with its stomach being particularly apparent, its lack of muscle and fat clearly showed that my strike had indeed broken its arm and some ribs as they were visibly displaced, there was also the smell of burnt meat, but I was trying to not think about that. While I was still examining it in somewhat of a a daze from the sudden conflict and still imagining how the feeling of bones breaking travelled along my staff, I made out Leo walking towards the goblin with a slightly sick, but also determined, look on his face as he plunged his sword into the goblins throat, which led to more intense twitching for a few seconds before I felt the system ping at my mind that there was a message.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 1 Goblin and gained 50 EXP
And with that message snapping me out of my daze and solidifying my actions into fact, I promptly bent over and started to vomit. I was not the only one as Leo also started to retch, though he managed to avoid actually throwing up, though the other two were almost as green as the goblin was. After what felt like hours, but was likely a few minutes at most, I had finished clearing my stomach of everything I had eaten in the last lifetime and was okay enough to stand up and look towards my friends, who were all maintaining a safe distance from the splash zone while keeping an eye on the surroundings, wary of any more sudden arrivals.
"Well, that was terrible."(Mason)
"Agreed."(Leo)
Saying as such, Leo went over to the corpse and examined it closer than I would've been able to without spending a few more minutes behind the bushes. After a minute or so of looking a smile appeared on his still pale face as he held out a slightly glowing blue orb the size of a grapefruit for the rest of us to examine.
Loot Orb Rarity: Common
Recognizing this from what the AI told me, breaking this orb would turn it into a random item of the same rarity. They were apparently something of a bonus from the system, only appearing in the tutorial hidden in the world and occasionally appearing on the corpses of slain monsters. Coming in different colors depending on their rarity: blue for common, green for uncommon, red for rare, black for epic, gold for legendary, and prismatic for mythic, though the AI also said that the chances for anything above rare were, well, rare, and less than 1% of groups even saw an epic orb.
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"Rock paper scissors?"(Mason)
"Sounds fair."(Leo)
After a successful round of rock paper scissors, which Jackson and Jason did not participate in, I ended up with the orb which I elected to open immediately. After a cracking sound and a brief flash of light I found myself holding a simple iron bracelet about an inch wide with no discernable decorations which gave me this screen when I focused on it.
Name: Lesser band of Wisdom Rarity: Common Requirements: N/A Effect +2 WIS
Putting the band around my wrist I took the chance to give a proper inspection of my gear, and while the clothes did not have a screen, the staff and the leathers did which were-
Name: Simple Leather Armor Rarity: Common Requirements: N/A Effect: N/A
Name: Conductive Iron Quarterstaff Rarity: Common Requirements: N/A Effect: Far more conductive than regular iron
With my gear analysed I went to my group of friends who were organized around Leo, as he always tended to assume the role of leader in our group of friends and seemed to be the least panicked of our group.
"Alright, so the first thing we need to do is make a plan, we should be relatively safe since we are in the starting zone so let's take this opportunity to share our status screens and tell each other our classes so that we can better plan for the future."(Leo)
Shortly after he finished talking, we all saw a screen appear from Leo as he showed us his status screen and skill description.
Name: Leonardo Smith Race: Human(+6 free points per level) Level: 1 SP: 1 Classes: Legionary(Uncommon) Titles: N/A EXP: 0 EXP to next level: 50 Mana: 90/90 Stamina: 120/120 STR: 11 INT: 9 DEX: 9 WIL: 10 END: 12 WIS: 9 Skills: [Shield Wall 1/10] Traits: N/A
Skill: [Shield Wall 1/10] When blocking with a shield, use stamina to negate momentum(stamina cost varies on skill level and amount of momentum negated)
And with the precedent set, we all shared our screens with each other, and to my surprise I was not the only one with a rare class.
Name: Jackson Corday Race: Human(+6 free points per level) Level: 1 SP: 1 Classes: Spearman(Common) Titles: N/A EXP: 0 EXP to next level: 100 Mana: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 STR: 10 INT: 11 DEX: 9 WIL: 8 END: 10 WIS: 10 Skills: [Spear Proficiency 1/10] Traits: N/A
Skill: [Spear Proficiency 1/10] Increase speed and penetration of spears(+2% per level)
Name: Jason Delmanie Race: Human(+6 free points per level) Level: 1 SP: 1 Classes: Card User(Rare) Titles: N/A EXP: 0 EXP to next level: 100 Mana: 100/100 Stamina: 80/80 STR: 8 INT: 11 DEX: 12 WIL: 11 END: 8 WIS: 10 Skills: [Card Throwing 1/10] Traits: N/A
Skill: [Card Throwing 1/10] Improves accuracy and velocity of thrown cards(+2% velocity per level)
MC Stats:
Name: Mason King Race: Human(+6 free points per level) Level: 1 SP: 1 Classes: Elementalist(Rare) Titles: N/A Attunements [Lightning I] EXP: 0 EXP to next level: 50 Mana: 110/110 Stamina: 70/70 STR: 8 INT: 12 DEX: 10 WIL: 11 END: 7 WIS: 9(+2) Skills: N/A Traits: [Elementalist]