Raj’s disbelief morphed into excitement upon realizing what he had discovered. It seemed as though the deeper one went into the tutorial, the more fantastical it became. Seeing as his curiosity was peaked, he wasted no time identifying the transparent cocoon of light.
[Fairy(N/A) lvl 1]
What the hell does that mean? Raj wondered. More importantly, is it possible to take this fairy as a companion of sorts? Raj reached out to touch the cocoon, only to be met with a prompt.
Would you like to bond with [Fairy]?
WARNING!
Bonding requires 12 hours of uninterrupted physical and mental contact between both parties.
You have been advised.
Raj immediately withdrew his hand. He was eager to bond with the fairy, but he did not want to do it out in the open forest. Even if the contact was interrupted, he had no idea if he would be able to fight back against any trouble. Not wanting to take any risks, Raj reluctantly backtracked through the forest towards the areas of lesser danger. While it was slightly annoying to lose a lot of forward progress, the fairy could provide him with an advantage going forward. And besides, he could probably work his way through the forest again, provided that he avoided that house with the dragons for the time being.
Wearing a look of focus, Raj started to jog his way back through the forest, the occasional increase in speed the only hint of the excitement bubbling up within.
*****
Raj’s look of focus had long since morphed into one of visible agitation. Minutes seemed to stretch into hours, and he was acutely aware of each step he took. His body had started operating on autopilot less than 10 minutes into what could now only be considered an all-out sprint. The occasional screams of pain and despair shooting up from the surrounding foliage demanded Raj’s unwavering attention, intruding into the grounds of the mental sanctuary he had built.
Each step he took weighed him down, his previous excitement replaced by pure exhaustion. Raj only now realized that he had never truly stopped in the tutorial. He had never given himself time to process all the experiences he had been through.
To put it simply, Raj had been through more adversity in this past week than most had in their lives. The constant brushes with danger and fighting had strung his mental state taut, and despite all the changes he had been through, his mind was still one of an Earth human. A week simply wasn’t enough to morph a mentality completely, leaving him trying to keep up his improved body.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Yet, despite the fact that he was in a Hunger Games-esque situation, he wasn’t fully in the unknown. Raj had never really been a thinker, even if he liked to say he was. In the heat of the moment, Raj had always been one to follow his gut. He had learned this through soccer. Thinking was okay when you had time with the ball, but when you were under pressure, or on a counterattack, or in the last moments of the game, thinking could be fatal. He had long-since learned to let his body take over, like he was currently doing right now.
In his eyes, it had become a sort of system. Tactically, he made sure to understand the game fully. That allowed him to make plays or find passes that would otherwise not be caught out. In those situations, he also made sure never to have tunnel-vision. On the flip side, was when his instincts took over. Raj still had a modicum of control over that, however, as he always made sure to train his body so that when he was taken over, his body would never hit a wall in terms of physical capabilities.
In this situation, however, he had trained and enhanced his body to a certain degree, even empowering it with skills and the like. However, tactically, he wasn’t there yet, and he honestly didn’t have enough practice with his skills to call himself a skilled fighter, despite his level. Most of his fights were against monsters with little in the way of strategy. The only time he had encountered any sentience was against the drakes, and he had been destroyed. He had been outplayed and was weaker. His only plan during fights was to get in, slice at them with his sword, and then throw out Mana Slash(Common)s until they died. It became even worse when he got that Dash(Uncommon) skill, which, while he was extremely grateful for, basically meant he could do whatever he wanted without worrying about being trapped.
He knew this was only temporary, as he was currently fighting against monsters with little to no sentience, and lower levels. Once he advanced past the next threshold, and started fighting more sentient beings, his strategy of just throwing around skills wouldn’t fly. To start with, others would have skills to do the exact same with. Monsters might even have skills, who knew? They would also be faster and better fighters, so his escape skill could be closed down pretty quickly, and his Mana Slash(Common) skill could honestly be blocked or redirected with a defensive skill. He needed to learn how to integrate his skills properly into his attack style. This was doubly true when one considered the fact that he would no doubt continue to receive skills and abilities, along with higher stats that needed to be accounted for.
He snapped out of his inner musings upon realizing that he had reached a fairly safe clearing to bond. He scanned the surroundings first, wary of attackers. He would be incapacitated for half of a day, and he wanted to be as sure as possible that he would be safe. After walking the perimeter and not finding anything, he walked into the cave. He could never be fully safe anyways, and his bonding was a sort of gamble. The potential power boost and information in return for a chance of death and any other adverse effects.
He went all the way down the cave, and then assumed a lotus position of meditation. He had no idea if it would help, but he looked all-knowing and wise, so it couldn’t hurt. He mentally reached out with the still-glowing fairy orb, and established a connection.
Would you like to bond with [Fairy]?
WARNING!
Bonding requires 12 hours of uninterrupted physical and mental contact between both parties.
You have been advised.
He mentally thought yes, and a wave of emotions washed over him again before he slipped into the bonding process. Just before he slipped out of reality, he almost felt as though he heard some sort of observer smack themselves in the face, as though they couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of his stupidity. Ehh, it’s probably nothing.