"While those alive during the integration of The System may have had to figure out a whole new reality by themselves, the tutorial is something that every generation becomes jealous of when they learn about it, as the proportion of rare and even uncommon classes is far more heavily balanced thanks to The System's gift, with almost 1 in 6 people having been offered a rare class in the integration process, whereas in the generations after the tutorial only the children of the extremely wealthy or powerful have a good chance of getting a rare class for their first class."

-Excerpt from "The Forerunners" by Michael Song

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After most of a night of blessed, dreamless sleep, I was woken up for the last watch. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as as Jason went to get some final sleep in before tomorrow, I looked up and was stunned by what I saw. The sky itself looked the same as that on earth, although it could be different stars as I was never particularly interested in astrology, due to the lack of light pollution the stars were clearer than I ever saw them before and they were beautiful both the clarity and the colors being far better than I had ever seen before, even on the occasional camping trip. As the night was cloudless, it was surprisingly bright around our camp so there was no need for a fire, which was good as without tents or earplugs I doubt any of us would have gotten anything resembling a proper rest with a bright popping fire nearby, as even with just the light from the moon and stars making it questionable if one could easily fall asleep without the exhaustion of spending the day walking and fighting to aid you.

With nothing to do but stay awake and be ready to shout on the off chance something attacked us, I quickly settled into what was becoming my favorite pastime. With my back to my sleeping friends I started manipulating my lightning, making sure to use it in small enough amounts where it was quiet and cost a negligible amount of mana. From the minor experimentation I did while our group was walking or resting, a common thing due to the average fitness level of our group, I had discovered a few things about the ability that the class gave me. Firstly, the ability to control my Lightning, and presumably other elements once I have attuned to them, relied on mental focus, with mana only being needed to create or strengthen my lightning. As such, doing things like arcing it between my fingers or other small activities that are kept close to my body, as the farther from me the lightning was the harder it was to control, were cheap mana-wise and a good way to get used to constant and consistent output. Secondly, while I could make it do things like avoid conductive materials, it was much harder to do and trying to do so for extended periods of time quickly gave me a headache. Lastly, I learned that while setting something up is taxing, maintaining it is very easy, if mana intensive, so while technically I could shoot lightning out of my hands like a certain chancellor, actually doing so drained my mana extremely quickly and was generally less effective than a single strong bolt.

While there were still things I had to figure out, such as how to attune to other elements, and if what I had figured out were rules of the ability itself or just a trait of the Lightning element, more experimentation would have to wait until I was in a safer situation, as being out of mana in a hostile wilderness was a prime way to earn the darwin award, not to mention the loud noise and bright lights that those tests would inevitably create. After around two hours of watching the surroundings while idly playing with my lightning and watching a beautiful sunrise, the others were forced awake by the invading sunlight, causing groans of pure suffering as everyone came to terms with the fact that since we lacked any kind of shelter we would be rising with the sun for the foreseeable future.

"God damn, this is the earliest I've been awake like, ever."(Jason)

"Get used to it, unless we find tents or a cave we'll be waking up with the sun for a while."(Leo)

"On that note, we should decide what we are going to do more specifically than just walking around."(Mason)

"Hmmm? I figured we were just looking for a dungeon to camp by and grind till the tutorial ended."(Jason)

"What?"(Mason)

"You know, portal's to pocket dimensions that contain respawning monsters of a set type and level and contain more loot than what surface mobs drop? A staple in every system apocalypse book and the first question that should've popped into your head?"(Jason)

"I... did not even think to ask about dungeons, even though I should've, considering everything else."(Mason)

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With the revelation from Jason, we started to talk about dungeons, or at least he and Jackson did as Leo and I hadn't asked about them, or even thought that they were a possibility even if all the other tropes of system apocalypse's were present. The intricacies of dungeons weren't too far off of my expectations, with the exact layout and entrance determined by the type of dungeon, the important things to note were: upon entering a dungeon you got a system prompt saying the name and level range of the dungeon, dungeon monsters dissipate after death and have a chance at dropping actual loot rather than just their corpse, after exiting a dungeon it could not be re-entered until its reset timer hit zero, and at the end of a dungeon is a dungeon core that can be broken for extra rewards at the cost of the dungeon disappearing forever.

After having dungeons explained to us, we quickly decided to go along with what Jason had apparently thought our plan was originally. That said, it's not like deciding to find a dungeon had particularly changed our plans for the short term, namely walking around until we found something. Without further ado, aside from a bit more grumbling from the group at the early wake up and the various aches from sleeping on the ground, we once again set off, thankful for the nice weather that the tutorial had that let us sleep semi-comfortably without any blankets. After an hour or so of walking, Leo motioned for us to stop and pointed ahead where there was a praying mantis the size of a dog clinging to a tree, likely waiting for less observant prey, though its bright green carapace was rather obvious on the dark brown bark of the tree it was perched on.

Mantis - Level 2

Retreating as quietly as possible we started a hushed conversation about the mantis and how to handle it.

"Well, at leas we know that we are out of the level 1 area, or at least on the fringes."(Mason)

"It's alone and only level 2, so we shouldn't have a problem taking it out."(Leo)

"About that, how about you guys let me try to solo this one."(Jason)

"What! Are you crazy, even if it only gains as many stats as me per level that's still 8 points above us!"(Jackson)

"Yeah but listen, praying mantis' are ambush predators, so it probably has low endurance, and I have the most range out of any of us, so I figure I'll open with a salvo of cards while you all wait, and if it gets too close it won't be too late to jump in and save me. This way I can get more exp in a safe-ish environment and get some levels to catch up with everyone else."(Jason)

After a bit more discussion, we agreed to let Jason attempt to solo the creature so long as he stayed behind Leo, as we figured that we all needed to get as many levels as we could and at least try to remain similar levels in order to maximise our efficiency as a group. With our course of action decided and a plan more or less made, we once again approached the mantis, who was still waiting on the tree and took up our positions around Jason as he took some cards out of his deck, holding four cards in his left hand between each fingers for easy grabbing while preparing to throw with his right.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

With the sound of cards cutting through the air, I turned my head towards the mantis just in time to see the first card lodge in its back. With eerily silent spasms, the mantis fell, causing the other two cards to lodge themselves in the tree where the mantis was a second before. Hitting the ground with a loud THUD, that I'm pretty sure I mostly imagined, the mantis was quick to swivel its head to where Jason was standing and preparing his next throw. Lacking hesitation in the way that only animals can, the mantis charged towards him, quickly closing the 12 or so meters that separated them.

Looking to my left, I saw Leo tense his body in preparation to interpose his shield in the way of the mantis once the mantis crossed the 5 meter mark that we had agreed upon. Preparations that ended up to be in vain as Jason threw a series of cards with a surprising lack of panic, only landing every other card but throwing almost two per second by using both hands to throw instead of just one. Turning back to the mantis, who was now covered in cracks and cuts, with new ones appearing every time I blinked, it became obvious what the outcome of this fight would be. And without any surprises, the mantis collapsed after barely closing half the distance, leaving a smug and unharmed Jason as the victor.

"Hell yeah! I got 200 exp outta that thing, also I think my skill makes me ambidextrous when I throw cards."(Jason)

With his exclamation, which was responded to with a series of congratulations, he went to recover the cards that he had thrown. As he bent to recover the cards still lodged in the mantis, his expression visibly lit up as he held up one of his hands and made a pose, revealing a green orb, which he then flourished.

"Think the drop rate was better 'cause he's a lower level or was he just lucky?(Mason)

"Honestly, knowing how lucky he usually is, and how game-like this whole situation is, it could very easily be either."(Leo)

After a bit more showmanship, Jason went back to gathering his cards, though with noticeably more excitement than before. After a minute or so of scouring the surroundings until he was satisfied, even going so far as to count his cards three separate times, he returned to us while casually flaunting the uncommon orb that he had gotten. With no one disputing that the orb, and whatever it turned into, was his, he quickly crushed it in his hands. Once the lights faded, there was now a dagger grasped in his hand in place of the orb.

Name: Veteran's Steel Dagger Rarity: Uncommon Requirements: N/A Effect: +2 STR, Increased Sharpness

Examining his new dagger, which looked unremarkable with a similar design to iron daggers in most RPGs and a blade about nine inches long, he sheathed it and put it in his pocket before punching the air a few times, then taking it out and stabbing with it a few times before repeating both actions for thirty seconds or so.

"Huh, I think that the STR increase is only in effect when I'm actually using the dagger."(Jason)

"Damn, there goes my plan of carrying 20 swords and having all the stats."(Mason)

With my dreams of power crushed, we continued on with our journey for a dungeon with the general plan that anything below level 3 and alone would be soloed by whoever had the least EXP, much to the dismay of Jackson, who only agreed after being convinced by the rest of us how important it was to get levels while he can, though he was still clearly far less determined or exited than the rest of us.