"Oi, did you see that?" Trey asked, looking over the sad scene.

"Yeah," Devon responded, knowing Trey wasn't simply mourning over the sad state of affairs, "They took the guns before they headed back into their camp of safety."

So far as Devon could reason, there were three possibilities as to why they'd do that. First, they wanted to force the initiates into the standard the system had set. Clearly, Devon wasn't the only one who'd thought that having a firearm outweighed the penalties set by the system, despite the system's insistence on discarding it. If the overseer's job was to maintain a status quo in the way the system desired, then removing those weapons from people who hadn't 'earned' them by getting penalized was reasonable.

The second possibility was that they wanted to promote the initiate's survival instincts. They'd said this place was one where the pursuit of strength and power was paramount. Devon knew that anyone who tried to use a firearm wouldn't gain any experience from the kills they got, resulting in no real progress being made. If the purpose of the overseers was to push the initiates to gain exp and levels then it wouldn't make sense to leave them weapons that didn't serve that purpose.

The first two possibilities could exist either in tandem or individually, depending on the overseer's motivations.

And the third possibility… is that guns are a threat to them.

The movements of the overseers when they'd thrown their javelins had been inhuman. It was clear as day from that one exchange that their physical abilities were leagues higher than a simple human. Even so, Devon hadn't found many targets below the toughness of steel that could shrug off a bullet.

Thinking about the piece of 21st century technology reminded him of another, and he quickly checked his pocket for his cell phone, only to find it wasn't there. Most likely it had been taken by the void.

Classic.

Devon glanced around the clearing and noticed with some small measure of surprise that there were other small groups like him and Trey, standing around and observing.

"So, did you just not decide to auto-equip your starting gear?" Trey asked, breaking Devon out of his thoughts.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, you know. The system or whatever gave us the option to put this gear on before we came here. Actually, where even is your gear?"

"Don't have any. Tell me, how long were you in that space for?" Devon asked, thinking back to how the system had called that void a 'quantum rift.'

"Like an hour at least, why?"

"Because I was only there for about five minutes before it kicked me out."

"Wait," Trey said, realization dawning on him, "You weren't standing here waiting for an hour then, were you?"

"Nope."

"Fuck me, man. Time manipulation? What the actual hell is going on?"

"More like a subspace detached from the flow of time, maybe? Anyway, what'd you spend your hour doing? Didn't feel like I needed more than five minutes to get the gist of things."

"I was asking questions and stuff. The system seemed pretty ready to assist with its little onboarding process. Though it shouldn't matter too much, honestly. Seems I can still pass it questions," He said, looking off into the ether at whatever message the system was showing him.

"What, you just think the question and it answers?"

"Yeah, like ask it how much exp you need to level up."

Okay then. system, how much experience do I need to level up?

Devon waited, staring into empty space expecting a notification to appear. When one didn't show up after several seconds, he frowned.

Well, shit.

This must be what was meant by Devon losing the privilege of the system's aid. If the system had stripped him of all its functions Devon might really be screwed.

Wait, didn't I just get another notification just a little bit ago about the overseers? So it shouldn't have completely left me. What were those basic functions again? Status.

[Status]

Name: Devon Wells

Race: [E-Grade Human]

Level: 1

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Class: [Feature locked until level 10]

Mana: 50/50

Talents: None.

Skills: None.

Titles: Initiate, Despised, Protected [30 days]

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 8

Vitality: 7

Endurance: 6

Arcane: 5

Talons: 0

So that's how it's going to be.

"It won't respond when I ask questions, but it seems like I can still access all the basic functions."

"Really? That's odd… What'd you do to piss it off?"

Devon frowned, slightly annoyed that his friend immediately assumed it was his fault, but he let it go since he wasn't technically wrong. Devon simply turned so that none of the other people around the grove could see before he flashed his shirt up and revealed his Glock. He quickly explained everything that had happened during his tethering.

"I see, so the system really doesn't like guns, huh?"

"It called it a Class D weapon, whatever that's supposed to mean."

"I think it sorts equipment based on a scale of power. Here, look," A notification popped up before Devon's eyes.

[Starting Sword]

Class F

"How'd you do that?"

"I'm not entirely sure, honestly. I just think about how I want to show the stats of my weapon to you, and it did it."

Devon takes out his pocket knife and tries to get the system to display information on it. After several tries he finally lands on the keyword 'Identify' and the overlay pops up.

[Pocket Knife]

Class F

Devon cursed, "It's like I'm stuck using an old analog device while you've got some spiffy program that does it for you."

Trey shrugged, "Yeah well at least you've got a gun. Can you examine my sword by yourself?"

Devon tried to Identify Trey's sword after clearing his vision, but nothing came up. "No, it doesn't give me the popup. Is it because it's yours?"

"Dunno, I can still examine your knife, so maybe not? Oh, I see. You have to equip it within the system so it gains something called Identify Protection."

Equipment.

[Equipment]

Clothing: None

Accessories: None

Weapons: None

Carrying: [Standard Earth Clothes], [Handgun], [Knife]

You piece of shit.

Devon cursed under his breath at seeing the system use such a cheap trick as to 'unequip' everything he'd come into the tutorial with. Luckily equipping his three items was as easy as telling the system he did in fact have them equipped.

Once Trey confirmed that he was no longer able to examine Devon's knife he asked, "Anyway, what do you think we should do now? I'm thinking we should probably get started on food and shelter as fast as we can. Those overseers don't seem too inclined to help."

"Yeah… I guess we should, but something tells me there's something not quite right about them."

"I get what you mean, but what do you want to do about it? I don't think we'll be able to do anything if we get on their bad side and they decide to get rid of us," Trey says with a glance at the impaled humans.

Devon frowns, but then thinks of something. He opens his status back up and takes a look at his titles. After a minute of trying different commands, he opens the details on his three titles.

[Initiate]

The mark of one who has been tethered from beyond the warp.

Exp gain +10% while below level 100.

[Despised]

You have obtained a mark of Karmic Disdain. Find a way to remove it or be culled.

??????

[Protected] [30 days]

Overseers and beings from beyond tutorial block #247 will be penalized heavily for harming those with the [Protected] status. [Protected] status will be removed and penalties applied if initiate attacks or harms an Overseer.

Devon had mainly been curious about the [Protected] title, but his attention was quickly called away from it by his second title.

What the fuck? The hell does it mean, find a way to remove it or be culled? Is the system going to fry my brain or something if I can't figure out how to remove its mark of Karmic Disdain?

The system didn't bother answering, of course. Devon quickly asked Trey if his system would answer what the mark was supposed to be, but it wouldn't answer him any more than it had answered Devon in the void.

On a hunch, Devon thought, Quests.

[Quests]

1. [Survive] (Variant): Survive to the end of tutorial block #247. Reward: Unique title based on performance.

2. [Absolution]: Absolve yourself of the Mark of Karmic Disdain. This quest chain has no time requirement and will only be resolved upon absolution or death.

How wonderful.

"Anyway, if the penalties applied by the system are as bad as it makes it sound, then I doubt the overseers will be so willing to off us at the drop of a hat," Devon said, "Remember how those guys shot first? I'll bet that triggered the system into removing their [Protected] status."

"Yeah, makes sense. But still, I'm not too sure interacting with them is such a good idea."

"And going forward without potentially vital information is just as bad of an idea."

"What exactly are you expecting to get out of them? They didn't seem very willing to divulge more than they already said, and I highly doubt they're great conversationalists."

Devon thought for a moment while looking over at the overseers before saying, "Ask your system if it knows how they were able to communicate with us. I think they're using a completely different language when they talk to each other, yet that one was able to speak english just fine when addressing us."

"Hmm," Trey said after a moment, "Okay, seems as though they're using a universal language function. It says it should be a basic add-on purchasable through a terminal… Whatever that's supposed to be."

"A terminal? Didn't the overseers mention something like that too?"

"Yeah, I think they did. They said they should be scattered around the land, right? You think we should look for one of those, then?"

"Worth a shot, I suppose," Devon said, casting another glance around the clearing. Most of the other pockets of humans had cleared off by now, nobody daring to approach the camp of overseers.

"Which way first?" Trey asked.

Devon thought for a moment, "First we need to secure a source of water. I don't feel like getting lost in a forest immediately, and I definitely don't feel like climbing a mountain and falling down a ravine."

"The plains it is then."