Everyone had gathered in the center of town to get a debriefing on the events of the afternoon.
“Thank you everyone for your hard work getting organized. I know it’s a huge adjustment for you all and you’re probably ready to just relax. As you can see, construction has started on our new upgrades. Everything should be ready in… ” Calvin looked over at Andy.
“Nine hours.” Andy said.
A few shocked murmurs came from the crowd. Nine hours was damn fast. These people expected to be sharing temporary housing for weeks, maybe months.
Calvin noted their surprise, “The system came with a few benefits thankfully. We’ll work on getting you all outfitted properly, while the equipment we recovered from your camp is rather basic, I believe that we can get you in more appropriate gear and we’ll get a system together to get you all some fighting experience. Our town upgrade came with a missive board. The system and citizens of the town will be able to create quests and supply rewards. If our crafting professionals need materials or ingredients, get them up on the board and we’ll make sure the combat classes keep an eye out for them.”
“Additionally, we’ve been introduced to a credit system. The missives supplied by the system will often offer credits as a reward. I’m sure there will be other ways to acquire them as well. This is the currency used within the wider world outside of the tutorial. Yes, there’s an outside to this tutorial, and it’s honestly much bigger than you can imagine. Andy will be available to fill everyone in on that. This is a bit of an uncomfortable subject to bring up, and I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, but we will need to implement a tax.”
“Booooooo!” came a few calls from the crowd. Thankfully, they were mostly in jest. This is something everyone had expected.
“I know, we thought we could escape the tax man. We will be fair with the taxes, and they will start off relatively light as everyone gets on their feet though there will likely be an increase down the road. Andy tells me that having a decent holding in the town treasury is going to be very important for us as a community after the tutorial. On that, we will eventually establish a governing structure with elected positions on a council. While we will retain ownership and decision-making rights for the town, you all will have a voice too and the council will ensure that. We have a lot of things to take care of before we get there though, so for now, if something doesn’t feel right… speak up. We will always try to do right by you, just know that running a city wasn’t in my New Year’s resolutions.”
That got a small chuckle from everyone.
“There will be many changes in the coming days as we iron some things out. We’ll need to get a town watch put together and establish how your professions will be able to best support the town and how best the town can support you. For any work you perform or products you provide to the town, you will be compensated and we’ll work on what a fair system looks like for that. Tonight, we’re going to take some time to relax and get you all settled in. Please bring up any ideas or desires you have for the future of this town and they will be heard. There will be plenty of food tonight, so please, eat up. Lastly, I know it doesn’t really need to be said, but just to get it out in the open. We won’t tolerate any crime. While there aren’t any laws as of yet, use your best judgment. Don’t be assholes.”
“Finally, we asked everyone to come up with names for the town, and you all voted. Let’s see our new name.” Calvin pulled up a list of the top five voted names
Olympus - 11
Avalon Keep - 8
Sanctum - 4
Edgewater - 4
Fort Kickass - 3
Calvin looked over at Marshall who sported a huge smile. Calvin knew who was responsible for the last name and couldn’t believe he’d gotten two others on board with it.
Olympus was the clear winner. It seemed presumptuous. Olympus was the home of 12 mythical Gods after all and Gods they were not. Despite everything, the name had a strong presence. It implied that behind these walls was incredible might. If his town was going to become a bastion for Earth’s citizens, then they would need to become mighty. Besides, it was their damned town and they could name it whatever they wanted.
“Olympus it is. I hope each and every one of us lives up to that name.”
Calvin flipped open the base management window and named their town Olympus.
“Alright, with that let’s get--”
Calvin was interrupted by a system prompt. One that appeared for everyone.
CONGRATULATIONS. AT THIS TIME, YOU ARE EXACTLY HALFWAY THROUGH THE TUTORIAL. THIS IS NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT TO TAKE LIGHTLY. FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, THE CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF THE TUTORIAL WILL INCREASE SUBSTANTIALLY.
They barely had a moment to react before their senses were overwhelmed by a thunderous sound, reminiscent of a colossal, moon-sized creature’s roar. The ground shook violently, matching the intensity of the reverberating noise that surrounded them. Hundreds of feet in the air above them, a bright blue rune blazed into existence, shining a brilliant beacon into the sky. As it seemed like the world was on the verge of another apocalypse, panic threatened to sweep through the crowd, filling the atmosphere with tension.
Marshall and Amy calmed everyone down while Calvin consulted Andy.
“What’s going on?” Calvin asked.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“The tutorial has reached the halfway point. This is a checkpoint of sorts. You can consider the first 30 cycles to have been a tutorial within the tutorial. Now you will be faced with an increasing level of challenge all the way until the end. It should be said that survival is not your only goal. This is an immense opportunity to gain power and achievements, and you will be rewarded based on those achievements upon conclusion of the tutorial.”
“Ok, and what was that sound?”
“That, I do not know. Every tutorial is different. Nearly every tutorial will involve a maddening of the creatures that inhabit the region. Over the next weeks, you should expect the creatures to gather and assault this settlement in waves, increasing in size and difficulty as time passes. If this comes to pass, however, this will not be the primary challenge of the tutorial. I suspect the source of that sound to be the true trial.”
“Waves? Will the walls be done in time?”
“I do not know. You should be prepared to fight. The first waves will not likely be very difficult and there will be periods of rest in between them.”
“Seth!” Calvin called out.
Seth appeared a moment later, “I’m here, whatcha got?”
“Sounds like we’re in for some shit. Andy says that the challenge is ramping up and from this point forward, we should expect waves of monsters to attack. Get your scouts up and patrolling. Have them return their data every 30 minutes.”
“On it.”
“Everyone! Everyone, calm!” Calvin shouted over the panic. The noise died down as everyone focused their attention on him.
“I have just spoken with Andy...” he relayed the details regarding the new challenges they would face, “I know we’re all worried about what comes next, but let’s take this as the opportunity it’s meant to be. We will have experience and rewards fed directly to us and we won’t even have to go looking for it. Seth is launching scouts to give us an updated picture of the area. For now, please try to get some food, get your families settled and we will come up with a plan for meeting this challenge as we get more information. Our group will maintain a watch while the walls are being constructed. Andy, if you can, divert resources from infrastructure to completing the walls.”
“This will reduce the construction time to four hours.” Andy said.
“Great. Four hours people, once the walls are up, we’ll be that much safer in here.”
Calvin and his group convened to strategize the defense of the town. They would divide into pairs and each cover one-third of the town. Andy had provided them with the assurance that if they were to face waves of creatures, dealing with the initial waves would not be too difficult.
Liam and Sasha, too, were geared up and ready to help.
“Cal.” Liam greeted with a nod. “We’re with you.”
“Thanks Liam. Could you poke around real quick and identify any combatants who want to fight now. They’re not required to at this moment unless the situation becomes real dire, but this might be an excellent opportunity to get some of them leveled up.”
“Will do. I don’t think we’re going to have any shortage of volunteers. They’re hungry for this and they’ll do anything to protect their families.”
“Good. We’ll be posted up on the edge of town in every direction, have them split up and fill each of our squads.”
Liam pounded a fist into his chest in a salute-type gesture and ran off to the town’s center.
“Alright, let’s get positioned. We’re in for an interesting few hours.” Calvin said.
Nearly an hour had passed before the first attack broke the silence. As expected, it was relatively mild. In addition to Calvin and Amy, five other soldiers accompanied them on the western side of town. Meanwhile, Freya roamed around the border, moving between each group and employing her super sniffer to give early warning. Their side was the first to be struck.
A pack of 12 raptors, all ranging from level 7 to 10, charged together. Amy and Calvin quickly dispatched the most powerful of the raptors. They strategically navigated through the remaining pack of creatures, purposefully inflicting wounds and reducing their strength, enabling the soldiers to eliminate them. The engagement was over in mere minutes.
Each of the soldiers had suffered minor wounds, mostly just some scratches. One of them took a relatively nasty bite to the arm, but Calvin quickly slapped a bandage on it and sent him to check in with Marshall.
“Go meet up with Marshall and get that checked out, have send someone over to replace you.”
The soldier charged off, seemingly undeterred by the wound. Hell, he seemed more motivated. He was likely full of adrenaline and bloodlust from the battle.
Similar attacks continued to hit the outskirts of the town, one after another, over the next few hours. Small packs of raptors, beetles, and aggressive wild cats had all launched minor attacks, but none caused significant harm.
Every minor triumph greatly boosted the soldiers’ morale. At first, when the announcement came, they were all filled with fear and uncertainty. With their previous triumphs serving as fuel, they were now prepared to tackle new challenges head-on.
As the sun finished its daily course and started descending below the horizon, the walls were finally finished. They quickly got to work building fires outside the walls, their crackling flames casting a warm glow in the darkness for the soldiers on watch.
Calvin and Amy were finishing their patrol on their designated part of the walls and gazed out at the lake. They were met with an unexpected sight that caught their attention. Far across the lake, toward the horizon, a blue beacon blazed into the sky. Calvin dialed up Andy and confirmed his suspicions, that was another town. Calvin quickly turned to scan the entire sky. Sadly, there were no more blue beacons in sight for him. However, he did manage to spot three red ones.
“Andy, can you tell me what those are?”
“While I can’t say what specifically those are, since the trials are different for every tutorial, I can say with some confidence that the true trials likely await you there.”
As if on cue, another mighty roar shook Olympus.
The walls were hit by two more waves that night, and the defenders of Olympus found themselves in a steady pattern. With ranged damage dealers stationed at every section of the wall, and melee fighters lurking just behind the gates, the defenders were ready for any type of attack. As the waves approached, the ranged combatants would soften them up with arrows and spells. The fighters would then emerge from the gates led by one of Calvin’s group members to finish them off. The experience was coming in droves, and many of the defenders had gained numerous levels. Even Marshall and Seth had completed a level. All in all, this was going fairly well.
The attacks seemed to stop as the night pressed on. It had been a few hours since the last attack and the scouts had not reported any additional activity closing in. Calvin held a brief meeting with the group. They would take rotating shifts. They would have one of each of them guard a section of the wall with two soldiers. Trading off every six hours until morning. If trouble came knocking, they would sound the alarm.
No further attacks came in the night and morning was soon upon them. Seth had used his time on watch wisely, crafting more drones and establishing sentry runes on the walls. He’d also come up with an idea for an early warning system he was keen to play around with today. If they could eliminate the surprise nature of these waves, it would go a long way toward easing the tension in town. Currently, everyone was on edge just waiting for the next call to arms.