The days rolled on with Faron entering and exiting the tutorial. His speed was astronomical. His demeanor was changing slowly to someone that was determined to make a difference. His last few days have been spent training and fighting nonstop. He felt as if he was a great warrior from times long past. His long white hair now seemed to have a blueish luster to it when the moonlight hit it just right. It wasn't odd for someone in the tutorial to experience some bodily changes. But he didn't notice what was going on until Marzan and Ash brought it up to him. After some testing, it seemed that his healing ability was also related to bathing in moonlight. It could cover most serious injuries as long as they were not fatal. They also tested on a broken bone using his pinky as a test. It was expected to heal within a week. The rate of healing was amazing.
Faron felt as if He and Ash were leaving behind everyone in the local Headquarters in the dust. Her speed was shocking to everyone after she learned of being able to train in the open world she was growing at a rate similar to Faron's. However, Faron despite being her inferior was starting to hold up a good fight. His gene awakening with the flame that his master used was marvelous. He was now able to fight people above him in the ranking despite having lesser experience. in terms of hitting above your weight class, Faron was even better than Ash in this regard. Something that she was starting to train crazily to rectify. Even Trent was being left behind. However, There was nothing he could do.
Today was his twice-a-month break. Marzan made Ash and himself promise to not train today. rest was as important as training at times. Torturing your body wasn't going to help them, it would be detrimental. They needed a place to relax, lose themselves, and forget about everything. Faron found himself at an amusement park. He wasn't one for crowds but this one, in particular, was one he remembered going to when he was younger. He went on the faris wheel and rode the carrousel to relive some more happy memories. He also went to the Roller Coaster and some of the games. He was pretty adept at the game where you shot pellets at wooden ducks. Faron won a small teddy bear and gave it to the first child he saw. After receiving a small smile he went around and sampled all of the foods.
As the night wore on and the cool breeze set in Faron ended up with David heading back to the Orphanage. The two had gotten close, and Faron felt like he could comfortably call David his friend now. One thing on Faron's mind was he would be moving out tomorrow, It was a sad day but also one he was anticipating. After David left Faron entered the Orphanage. Though it was unusually dark inside. With a startle, the lights illuminated. Cheers filled the room. Mable was standing there with a cake that read "Thank you Faron. We Love you". The kids ran to him and dogpiled pulling him to the ground. Some were screaming, some were crying. Tonight was Farons last day. Also, today was the day that Mable found out that Faron was going to be the reason the Orphanage was going to get a huge influx of money for everyone. There was cake and ice cream for everyone. Mable bought the Chicken which she knew was Faron's favorite meal. The celebration lasted until around 10 at night. Faron stuck around as the kids went off to change for bed. Ms. Mable was the only one there with him. Faron was helping her clean the area. As he was cleaning the floor he felt a warm embrace. As Mable gave him a huge hug.
"I will miss you, Faron. I am so proud of you. You have gone through so much and you are making something of yourself. Helping us as well. We will miss you around here. Visit anytime. He heard Mable crying. Faron hugged her arms and let her know that he would surely come and visit as much as possible.
Mable went to her room for the night as Faron sat down on his bed and started his meditation before he would go back into the tutorial. He was going to be entering the ninth stage tonight. He had achieved an A- ranking and redoubled his efforts. Tonight was his last chance to be able to get his Tutorial to level A. Steadying his mind and taking a deep breath and exhaling Faron went to sleep in his best possible state.
Arriving at the starting area in Tutorial 9. Faron looked around the familiar bubble that he had spent the last few weeks in and called up his Status screen.
"Status"
Strength
4.5
Fortitude
5.5 (+1)
Mana
8
Speed
5 (+2)
Intelligence
5
Soul Sworn Items
Hardened Grell Armor (Fortitude +1). Silver Veined Spear (Speed+2)
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Skills
(Novice, Anima Magic 26.5%), (Warrior- Elemental Magic 12.5%),
(Dormant, Bloodline 5.88%), (Rookie, Spear proficiency 48%).
"Growth through adversity" Body Cleansing (8/10)
Skill Fusion.
Total
30: Grade D- Warrior
Steadying his resolve Faron looked into his inventory. He had 90 monster cores from the tutorial. All Novice levels. The tutorial would not grant better. He currently needed 20 to increase his abilities by .5. He consumed them for a total of 2 total points. Then proceeded to Trade them both in along with 1 point from each stat to give him a new random skill. Worthy of 6 points.
"6 POINTS HAVE BEEN DEDUCTED FROM THE USER. ENTERING INTO SKILL LOTTERY...FORMULATED RESULTS. 14,000,000 SKILLS OF THE LOWEST REALM AVAILABLE. A THIRD IS SUITABLE FOR USERS. RANDOMIZING NOW...CONGRATULATIONS. SKILL OBTAINED, SKILL FUSION. FUSE TWO SKILLS AT THE SAME RANK TOGETHER TO CREATE SOMETHING BETTER AND NEW."
Grabbing ahold of his gear, Faron saw that he had nothing he could fuse at the moment so set off.
"TUTORIAL STAGE 9 BEGINNING. HUNT THE SHADOW BEAR KING THAT RESIDES IN THE MISTY FOOT FOREST."
As he continued outwards through the protective bubble he saw that he was in a forest that was surrounded by trees that were blocking out the sun. A continuous cloud of mist was hovering around ankle height and there were strange noises from creatures that sounded so alien he didn't even have anything to compare them to. They smelled spicy, But there were no signs of peppers or anything else he could associate with spice.
The hairs on Faron's neck stuck up, as he heard a somewhat familiar growl. Turning around he saw a baby, Grell. Slightly bigger than the one that almost killed him in the first part of the tutorial. As the creature lept up claws shimmering in the darkness, Faron pushed out his hand as 4 icicles speared into the Grell's body. It slumped to the ground in mid-air. If anyone saw this on Earth they would be shocked. Not just by the piercing ability but also the stopping power that the icicles had. He continued onwards with his journey leaning low looking for any kind of footprints that would seem like they belong to a bear. Though with the fog and lack of sunlight despite it still being day. The forest was pitch black.
Grabbing a lantern from his bag, Faron lit it and closes the glass around it, giving him a small amount of vision. There was also a hood on it in case he needed to remove the source of light. Wandering around seemed to be the only thing Faron could do.
So he did, Faron wandered around for the better part of two days, killing the occasional creature that was more akin to a pest than any kind of threat. yet even after all this time there was no indication of the Shadow Bear King. When he woke up on the third morning Faron walked out and much to his surprise saw that there was a marking on the tree in front of him. A small X that he had drawn on the trees to make sure that he wouldn't be going in circles. A simple trick he learned from Ash during one of their conversations about the tutorial. But he specifically remembered that he was not anywhere near a tree that he marked last night. He walked for close to two hours before he found a small part-made shelter from a downed tree. He quickly realized something was wrong. His blood pressure started to rise involuntarily. It seemed that the forest could sense this as well. A howling wind started to make the trees sway back and forth in an almost hypnotic pattern.
Without hesitation Faron flared up his magic, Fire was spilling out of him in a 360-degree dome. This was an extremely taxing technique that he learned. As he felt the pressure start to be too much, The fire exploded outwards. The trees all around him were lit ablaze. Smoke was filling the sky. In the fog, he could see a large hulking figure close to 8ft tall on all fours. Its fur was pitch black and had a strange billowing effect on it. It was a bear-like creature. Though its eyes seemed to hint at some intelligence and Large horns protruded from its head. Each step the creature took shook small amounts of the ground as it started to bound forward at a speed that was almost a blur.
Pulling his arms to his chest Faron defended himself as the bear impacted him with his head. The horns coming from the side of its head were similar to a bull, So far managed to take the skull to the chest rather than the horns. tumbling backward he saw that his trajectory was going towards a nearby cliff. He pulled from himself the magic that connected him with the earth and made a small wall. With a thud, he slammed into the wall. Much better than any drop or roll down a hill would do him. Winded he stood up quickly as the bear was charging again, its feet were moving left and right quickly as it started to bleed out a strange black shadow.
The shadows started to congeal into a solid substance around the bear's claws as it swiped outwards. the shadows shot off of it like a bullet as Faron dove to the side narrowly avoiding the slash. The thick stone wall had 8 clean gash marks that went fully through it. With a push of his magical energy wind pushed down and brought him to a standing position. conjuring three icicles that slew the Grell with ease they slammed into the hide of the bear and left shallow wounds that barely trickled any blood. Faron swore and jumped to the side again. This beast's hide was too tough for his magic and judging by the way it was running through the wooded area it wouldn't be much different from his spear either.
Thinking quickly Faron started to compress as much air as he could into his hand. A small bubble that was warbling around his fist started to take shape. The bear rushed in again. Faron dodged the Claws that were sent flying again and rushed at the creature himself. With its mouth open the bear went to rip out Faron's throat. But he felt a gust of wind as Faron let leak some of the air around his hand to have it land in the bear's mouth. With a crunch, Faron could hear the bones in his forearm breaking. But at the same time, he unleashed all of his magic into the bear. He wasn't sure how it would deal with fire or ice. But he knew most things had a limit on how much they could breathe. With a yell, Faron pushed harder and harder. His entire magical reserves tempted inside of the bear's mouth. its chest swelled up and with a pop, its lungs exploded.
"CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR... MISJUDGED LIFE ON THE PLANET KNOWN AS EARTH... RESETTING STANDARDS...TUTORIAL GRADE ELEVATED...PREVIOUS MAXIMUM A GRADE HAS BEEN ELEVATED TO S... CONGRATULATIONS MR. ALVERONE ON BEING THE FIRST HUMAN TO ACHIEVE S RANKING... ALL STATS MAXED FOR TUTORIAL AT 8... LUCK +2... SPECIAL LOTTERY COMMENCING..."