Sunrays pierced through the forest’s canopy, creating a series of mystical light veils. Hot and humid air blanketed the environment, a product of the towering trees and lush vegetation that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“Your first mission is in a forestry area?”

Sela turned to Jun with amusement. It seemed the heat and insects buzzing around didn’t bother her in the slightest.

“Looks like it. I’m supposed to find a merchant path, right?”

How am I supposed to find the merchant path in this sea of green?

“Not quite.”

Sela scratched the side of her temple before continuing.

“It’s a little misleading, but the mission is to slay 20 monsters that are threatening the merchant path. It doesn’t say to kill monsters that are specifically attacking the merchant path.”

“Are missions that specific?”

Jun stared hard at his system display and read the mission statement once again to himself.

“Missions can be very specific. If the mission said to hunt monsters attacking the merchants, then only the monsters that are attacking merchants would count towards the mission. Anyway, let’s hunt something!”

Sela hummed a little tune and walked in a seemingly random direction. Jun could only shrug his shoulders.

His eyes lingered on her form as he trailed behind her. The pants she wore did little to conceal the strength and shape of her legs, while her shirt and jacket only seemed to accentuate her defined upper body further.

She doesn’t carry her weapon on her. I wonder what class Sela chose.

“Xin come! Walk beside me.”

Sela paused mid-step, beckoning the dazed boy closer, whom of which shuffled his feet to quickly catch up.

“I wanted to ask some more questions about the class selection formation.”

Sela continued once Jun kept pace with her.

“When you said the formation was going to reset, did anything strange happen beforehand? Anything at all?”

Jun shook his head before replying.

“I’m sorry… I was asleep mostly.”

This is such a bad excuse.

Sela’s eyes roamed the massive trees.

“Perhaps you might not know, but that singular formation powers all the class selection halls for every instance of the tutorial. You didn’t think our Tutorial City was the only Tutorial City, right?”

Jun shook his head.

“I heard there was more than one, but that’s all I know.”

“That’s right, there’s many Tutorial City’s. This is because there are so many people undergoing the tutorial at any given moment that one city wouldn’t be enough. What I’m saying is, if the formation resets in one city, then it’ll reset in every city.”

Jun mulled on the implications of the reset.

“So, every city will be affected by the reset, but why does it matter? Everyone could just wait for the reset to finish, right?”

“Hmm…”

Leaves and twigs crunched and crackled as Sela uncaringly marched as if she were hiking on a mountain trail.

“It’s not so much of the reset that is important, but what caused the reset. You have to understand the amount of energy expenditure required to force the formation to reset.”

She glanced at the boy beside her who now effortlessly kept up with her pace.

“It’s not so simple as to briefly stall a couple instances of the formation. This is a full reset. What happened in order for the class selection formation to expend that much energy? Was the event significant? The universe works in equal exchange. What was the tradeoff?”

Sela continued her lecture while Jun mused to himself.

The tradeoff was a visit from the elder world spirit Acaria.

“Anyway, I don’t wish to bore you with these details. By the way, did you grow up in the mountains or something?”

Jun’s ear twitched before looking at her strangely.

“No, not quite, but I did spend a lot of time in nature.”

In my dreams that is.

“Really? I can tell from the way you walk. It’s so delicate and graceful. Normally only those in the scout category learn to walk like that, and that’s after many years of experience.”

Jun subconsciously compared the noise of his footsteps to Sela’s. Not only were Jun’s steps incredibly quiet, but they barely left any trail. Whereas Sela continued to stomp her way through with no regard.

“I never asked, but you probably chose to be a scout, didn’t you?”

Sela gave Jun a knowing look as her eyes inspected him from top to bottom.

“Ah. Yea, I started with a scout bow and dagger.”

Jun’s eyes darted to the side as he said this while Sela did a small fist pump in the air.

“I knew it! Can you guess my class?”

Sela stopped walking and turned to him. She grinned while standing with her hands rested on her hips, forming a power stance.

He inspected her a little closer now that he had permission to do so. He could feel her body rippling with energy even from a distance, and yet she was strangely incredibly slim.

“I want to say… a fighter.”

Jun narrowed his brow as he made this assessment.

“Halfway correct! I also started as a scout, but eventually moved towards the fighter category. My class is a combat ranger variant.”

A combat ranger? I wonder which weapon she would use if she were fighting seriously. A sword? Or a bow?

“Okay, enough chit chat, our first monster is up ahead.”

The moment she spoke up, her entire atmosphere changed.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The crunching footsteps were suddenly silenced while her presence seemed to have disappeared entirely. It would have been difficult to notice Sela at all if Jun weren’t staring directly at her.

Crouched low, Jun and Sela peered through the brush at a hunched over figure in the distance.

So that’s a monster?

A humanoid creature with an elongated neck and narrow slits for eyes was grazing on an animal carcass resting on the floor. Its lengthy, serrated claws were punctured into the body as if it were holding it still, while its rows of teeth bit off chunks of flesh.

Jun could see every mouthful create a small bulge down its throat as it satiated its hunger. While Jun was entranced watching the monster eat, Sela gave him a quick nudge.

Hmm?

With an excited grin, she gave him a thumbs up as if that were the sign to attack. Jun simply nodded and conjured his starter bow from the system inventory.

It was a fascinating sight to see the bow swiftly materialize in the palm of his hand. Suddenly, he felt a small weight, which signified that the bow was out of his inventory and ready for use.

Now that I have this bow… how do I shoot it? I don’t have any arrows.

Jun looked at Sela in confusion and motioned to shoot the bow.

Pfft.

Sela stifled a small laugh as she summoned a small bow of her own. It looked very similar to Jun’s, so he could only assume it was a type of starter bow.

She sat up straight with perfect posture and drew the string. The moment the string was pulled back, a translucent arrow took shape. Within a second, the arrow fully materialized, and she was ready to let it loose.

The arrows are formed with mana? It really does seem that every class uses mana in some way.

Jun immediately mimicked Sela’s actions. He could feel the power within the bow’s frame as he channeled mana into it.

I see now. The bow has a concealed formation that accepts the user’s mana and can create arrows with it.

In just a second, a mana arrow had perfectly formed in his hands as he took aim. Sela’s eyes glowed in pleasant surprise after seeing him get the hang of the action so quickly.

Jun wasted no time at all.

With a deadly thwip, the arrow sliced through the air with deadly precision as it buried itself deep within the monster’s head.

“Screee!!”

The monster flailed its arms and head about as it gave a horrid screech. It swiveled around ferociously looking for its attacker when another mana arrow pierced through its eye.

With a heavy thud, the monster dropped dead on the forest floor. Sela stood up, making her way toward the dead monster.

“You did it! Wow, it only took two shots. I would have expected a bit more, but both shots were essentially critical hits.”

Jun returned the bow to his system inventory.

“Critical hits?”

“Of course! It makes sense that you would inflict more damage on the monster if you hit a sensitive area, right? For example, you could survive an arrow in your leg, but could you survive an arrow through your head?”

Jun neglected to reply and found himself inspecting his kill. The mana arrows dissipated into nothing, leaving behind two bloody holes in the monster’s head.

“Those were some really clean shots. No wonder you were chosen to be a scout.”

Sela flipped the body over with a foot.

“Aha, thanks… I think.”

But I’m not really a scout.

Jun scratched his head as he thought to himself.

“Honestly, you would have no trouble completing the rest of this mission by yourself, but it would take a while. So how about I show you the true capabilities of a bow instead?”

Sela stared at Jun with a sparkle in her eye. In this moment, she seemed like a small child that was excited to show off a new toy. Of course, Jun didn’t have any reason to deny her request.

“Sure!”

I kind of want to see her in action anyway. If she’s not too scary, perhaps I won’t be too worried about them finding out I’m a boy.

“Okay, stand back!”

Stand back?

Jun took a couple steps away and concentrated on her actions. She grinned in his direction.

“Ready?”

A chilling wave of energy circled around the area.

Her entire demeanor changed as she extended her arm out to the side. Her hand stretched open as if she were expecting to catch something in the most dramatic way possible.

Within the center of her hand, a long glacial blue pole began to materialize. A gust of wind swirled past them, and the temperature seemed to drop a level, causing Jun to unconsciously shiver.

After just a couple of seconds, the entirety of an enormous bow took shape within her grasp. Along the frame were crystal shards that protruded to either side, giving the bow a pristine look. Its full length was barely taller than Sela herself when she held it by her side.

“Huuu…”

She let out of a soft stream of air as she corrected her posture and adjusted her stance. Jun couldn’t help but take another step back after sensing the collection of energy in the air.

Sela closed her eyes for a brief moment before snapping her head in a particular direction. Her arm swiveled along with her sight, instantly taking aim.

A heavy pressure descended upon the area the moment she drew the bow back, while a thick and icy mana arrow crystallized in the space between her hands.

What is this??

Jun took another step back as his eyes narrowed with a serious expression. By now, fierce winds were whipping across the area, causing his hair to chaotically fly about.

Once Sela fully drew the bow back, an indented circle had formed in the earth around her due to the massive amounts of energy radiating outward. Dust and leaves were pushed away, and the trees moaned and swayed.

Jun grasped his chest as he felt his heart palpitate in fear for the first time in his life.

What is this feeling? Am I truly afraid? That attack looks terrifying. There’s no way I could defend against that! Right?!

Not a second later, Sela released the arrow.

THWOOM!!

A blinding beam of blue light instantly evaporated everything in its path, almost as if someone had shot off some sort of heavenly cannon. The moment the arrow took flight, Jun was immediately knocked to the dirt while he watched in alarm.

Trees swayed and collapsed on either side of the arrow’s path, while everything that was initially in the way had somehow disappeared without a trace.

After a few seconds, the wind pressure relented, and the forest remained deathly quiet. Meanwhile, Jun picked himself off the ground without ever tearing his gaze away from the canyon of destruction.

“So… what do you think?”

Sela fixed her hair and hesitantly called out to him. At this time, the apocalyptic bow was nowhere to be seen.

“I think that was incredible.”

The boy managed to form words into a response, causing a smile of excitement to reappear on Sela’s face.

“But Sela that blast was so big, how do you know for sure that you didn’t hit anyone with that?”

Jun looked at the ascendant with worry. Sela merely dismissed his question with a wave of her hand.

“No, no, I used my mana sense to determine if anyone was in that pathway. The only thing in that direction was a monster den. Probably the rest of this guy’s family.”

She gestured towards the body on the ground.

“You can detect things with mana?”

Jun looked at her with an odd expression. Although he was able to detect other people’s presence using soul fluctuations, he didn’t expect someone to be able to do the same with mana.

“Using mana as a sixth sense is the hallmark of an advanced class. Once someone reaches the level of Ascendant, doing something like this is child’s play.”

Sela made her way toward the bewildered boy and continued speaking.

“You should check the progress of your mission. Because it’s a guided mission, both of our kills will count towards the completion.”

Jun broke out of his daze once she mentioned the mission progress.

“Oh, right!”

He quickly navigated the system display towards the mission section.

“It says mission complete. Monsters killed 24/20. Should I press return?”

Jun looked at Sela who simply nodded back.

“That’s right. You can return at any time as long as you’re not in combat. You can also choose to return even if you don’t complete the mission, but to do that you would first need to abandon the mission. It happens, but sometimes people accept missions that they can’t complete. Be warned though, missions above A rank can’t be abandoned the same way.”

Sela rolled her eyes upward in thought before adding on.

“Just remember something. It’s better to abandon a mission than to die in Psi World. Your soul can only repair itself a few times before… permanent damage. This is why achieving A rank is so important in the tutorial.”

Jun tilted his head to the side inquisitively.

“What does A rank have to do with your soul?”

Sela placed a hand on her chest before replying.

“Little is known about the soul and how it functions, but we do know some basic information that we’ve learned from the world spirits. First off, if your soul integrity goes below a certain threshold, it becomes exceedingly difficult to repair itself. At the same time, there’s different qualities of soul strength among people.”

She pointed towards Jun with her other hand.

“Some people have strong soul strength, which is something they are simply born with. Others… not so much. There are certain items that can be purchased with merit points to repair and protect the soul. These items are exceptionally expensive and always will be, except for one of them.”

She held up a single finger as a small smile hung on her lips. Jun’s eyes lit up in understanding as he nodded his head.

“Let me guess, that one item is only available if you’ve achieved A rank in the tutorial?”

“That’s right. There are two types of soul healing items. One focuses on soul repair, while the other focuses on soul protection. Between the two, soul protection is more rare. Think of soul repair as regaining a life you already lost, while soul protection is essentially gaining an extra life.”

“So what type of soul item is available at A rank?”

Jun asked while glancing at the system display. His current tutorial rank had just been promoted to E rank for completing the mission.

“It’s a soul protection item, the rare one! Perhaps now you understand why it’s so crucial to achieve A rank before the tutorial is over. At any rate, let’s get back to Tutorial City. I think we’ve done enough today.”

Jun nodded his head, selecting the option to return.

Just a few seconds later, the forest returned to normalcy as the ambient sounds of nature matured. The only difference was the scar of devastation that had been left behind by a single arrow.