Loden leaned his head back against the stone and sighed. As he did he heard a very familiar female British voice say Tutorial Beginning and then he was floating through an endless expanse of light as the voice continued on with what sounded like an explanation to what was happening to him.

Tutorial beginning: The universe began with a symmetry break. The chances that a single photon made a matter particle without a corresponding anti-matter particle at the exact moment it did are literally astronomical. This unbelievable moment pales in comparison to what humanity has stumbled into. Scientists on many worlds have experimented with particle physics however, none but those of Earth were foolish enough to quote “Smash them together and see what happens.” By forcing an order particle, a chaos particle, and all three neutrino particles together they created the System particle. This has caused mass evolution and mutations throughout every ecosystem.

Loden was shown the moment of the beginning of the universe. Explosions rocked a blank void encompassing everything he could perceive with his limited senses. He saw stars and planets form in the distance. Then gas billowed around him and began to compress forming solids. Heat emanated from the impacts of random matter grinding in on itself as the density grew larger and larger. Eventually the planet was formed and it was a beautiful pale blue with white covering most of its surface. He saw the light of a sun flash brilliantly into existence to his left and watched the beautiful planet begin to boil in moments. Seconds later the core cracked in half and the planet imploded on itself its debris dragged into the gravity of another forming planet. Everything sped up so fast he couldn’t make anything out and when it stopped he knew what he would see. Sure enough Earth in all her glory was there slowly spinning on her axis. He had seen pictures and video of this but never thought to see it for himself. The narrator continued.

“The numerical values that you will see when inspecting anything are assigned to everything and everyone by the order particle. Loot and experience are determined by chaos. Quests, titles, and most marks are given by the system. The cultures of the realms have been influenced by the two particles long enough that video games or table top strategy games have been invented. This means at least some people will be able to quickly grasp the new rules of The Bloom System. The following tutorial will determine your base stats. It is not required that you complete the tutorial to acquire your user interface or UI. This tutorial will be in two parts, physical and mental. Begin.” The narrators voice stopped and then the world faded to black.

You are now in an alternate space that has no connection to time and space. Complete the tasks or ring the bell at any time to exit.

Even without the notification appearing he knew something had changed before he opened his eyes. It wasn’t all that hard considering he went from sitting against a cave wall to standing on grey stone tiles with no walls in sight. The stone floor seemed to go on forever in every direction even if he could only see maybe 30 feet around him. There were these shiny specks of light that fell everywhere and seemed to go right through him when he held up a hand. He thought at first it might be just some kind of visual effect but noticed that they were slightly affected by his movements. When the light entered his body it seemed to dim and if he moved it moved with him for as long as it was in his body. Just as he was as about to take his first step the the tile below his feet lit up in a solid white square. Then a voice spoke into the gloom.

“Please stay on the illuminated square while the test site is configured.” Immediately following these words the floor everywhere else fell away. He saw the tiles fall into a raging torrent of water that swept the large stone tiles away before they could even sink.

“Fuck me! How is this a fucking tutorial?” Loden screamed over the rushing river. Then as he was wondering where he was supposed to be going he saw that not every stone tile had fallen away. Maybe twenty feet away he saw a group of tiles that moved across the water. As he studied the patterns he could see Loden easily saw which way would take him to the ledge on the far side. Considering that all the tiles seemed to be the same he figured it would be best if he knew the square as best as he could. When he tested if the tile would rock as he walked to the edge, it didn’t, more tiles appeared about three feet ahead of him. When he moved back towards the center the tiles disappeared. He moved forward again and just before he got to the edge the other tiles again appeared. He studied the floating stones on the far side as much as he could. At ten feet across the squares gave him just enough room to get the speed he would need to cross the gaps between them. As he looked further ahead he saw that those gaps got wider the farther out he went. The voice chose that moment to boom out “ Move forward with the trial or forfeit by jumping into the water.” The sudden loud voice almost made him fall in the water when he instinctively tried to crouch and hide at the sound. Loden noticed that while the voice was urging him forward it did not specifically say that he had a timer. He repeated in his mind the mantra that kept him centered when using particularly dangerous tools in the shop. “ Slow is steady. Steady is fast.” He repeated this over and over as he gathered his courage to make the necessary jumps to get to the tiles that moved across the water. He backed up as far as he could on the tile and before he could chicken out he ran forward. Kicking off the tiles edge in a running glide more than a leap he made it to the next tile. As he suspected before he got there the tile began to slowly sink as soon as his foot pushed down on it. Because he was expecting the movement he didn’t stumble or stop and continued forward. Careful to not over step and to keep his momentum he watched his feet and the ground ahead but nothing else.

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He was six tiles in when he looked to see he wasn’t nearly as close to the moving tiles as he thought. Then everything changed abruptly. He suddenly went from having a single path to multiple. And he could see that at least one of them was a trap that led to a wide open space of water all around with nowhere to go. Glancing up as often as he could he did everything he could to find the best path. By looking at the movement of the closest tile that drifted left and right then working back towards him. He knew he had only three more tiles before he had to choose a path when the two tiles directly in front of him dissolved into nothing he was forced to make a choice. Left or right. Breathing hard already and knowing he would be lucky to make it to the moving tiles he chose left. Thanking the gods that a good friend of his from years ago had beat into his head the usefulness of a belt he leaped to the tile. This time though he didn’t make the now five foot jump cleanly and his right foot fell into the water. Hitting his knee and shin on the hard edge of stone he cried out in pain but pitched his body over in rolling sort of flip across the tile. Forcing his way to his feet he rushed forward as fast as he could and jumped before he reached the edge of the tile. Because of how far the stone had sunk he again barely made it to the next tile ahead but this time his footing was solid and he was able to keep moving forward. As he ran towards the edge he glanced up and saw the path he needed to take was ahead three squares left and four forward. Unfortunately when he put his foot on the edge of the tile to push off his wet shoe slipped and he fell into the water. As soon as he breached the icy water the current pulled him forward and slammed him into the stone. He felt his body break against the stone and he was forced against it with the pressure of untold gallons of water. Feeling the cold like knives stabbing every part of him his chest grew too tight to breathe and darkness consumed his vision.

Movement test completed. Measuring results...... Results estimated to be below optimal parameters in all categories of this test. Strength 9, agility 5, dexterity 5, and endurance 5. Considering the poor results of this first test do you wish to continue with the tutorial?

Yes. No.

Lodens body appeared in the center of a large grey tile in a room that was perfectly square five tiles wide and five tiles long. Each wall was two squares tall and every tile was exactly the same down to every detail. There were no exits of any kind. The only thing in the room other than Loden was a large pedestal with a big book sitting on a raised stand so that the title on its face was presented squarely. The moment his body appeared he was awake. The notification immediately took all of his attention. As soon as he selected yes it disappeared. He took a large deep breath feeling the stone beneath his body and noticed that somehow he was not wet. Amazingly his body was no longer broken from the stone platform. If he hadn’t remembered the events of the last few minutes he would swear that they had not happened. Other than the fact that he now lay on the floor looking up at the stone ceiling. He saw the words “ Stage Two “ in the bold blue-ish words followed by. Choose your class. At this point he figured the only reason he wasn’t just curled up in a ball crying, waiting for the end. Was because of the things he had already gone through in his life to this point. If the trauma and general craziness of his life had taught him anything it was to go with the flow. Just as he was about to get lost thinking about his past he paused all thoughts. With a mental squeal of tires he focused again on the large blue words that had been etched across his sight. Choose. Your. Class. Three seemingly innocent words. But he knew what they really meant. Adventure. Magic. Treasure.

Standing up Loden only had eyes for the book. A deep green covering of some kind of leather with silver lettering neatly spelled the title Class Menu in printed block letters. The tome was roughly two feet tall and a foot and a half wide while also being at least 5 inches thick. It floated in the air at chest height, slightly angled as if resting on a large stand. He tried to pull it closer to him.