♦ Captain! She is starting to wake up, what are your orders?

♦ Put the scanners to maximum, we have no Idea what could be out there. Be prepared for anything.

♦ Captain, feelers all over the body are reporting that it is cold and that the ground is hard rock.

♦ Have the eyes opened yet?

♦ No sir. She appears to be getting up and holding her head. The feelers up there are reporting a headache.

♦ Very well. Make her open her eyes.

♦ Aye-aye Captain.

Uuuuuughh… My head huuuuurts. Have you guys ever felt like there are little people in your head? Well, for me, it feels like those guys decided to jump around and bang giant drums.

♦ How did she figure it out Captain?

♦ No idea Cadet.

I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that.

I open my eyes before looking around.

I am in a small cave that is lit by a torch high on the wall. The entrance to the cave is near impossible to see through, blocked by the snowstorm raging outside.. I stand up slowly and look around at the bare walls of the cave seeing nothing other than the torch.

I shiver as the cold hits me, at least my fingers feel warm, thanks to the gloves I’m wearing.

Standing up, I walk over to the only torch in the cave. I lift it out of its socket, feeling a little better with the warmth of the torch so close.

I stand there for a second considering my options before holding the torch out in front of me and heading out into the snowstorm.

I know, I know, not the smartest thing to do when dressed in a flimsy nightdress. But this is a test, right? I can’t imagine that I’ll be passing this test by staying in a small cave with only one torch.

The wind almost blows my torch out immediately, but I manage to get in front of it, creating a windbreak. This does cause my body to slowly freeze from the hard snow pounding into me, but I do my best to ignore it.

The torch lets me see roughly a meter in each direction, but I can hear sounds all around me that are really starting to freak me out.

Crunch.

I swirl around, the torch thankfully staying lit. Nothing but falling snowflakes are behind me. See, sounds like that aren’t good.

Creeeeeak

I turn around again, this time seeing a silhouette in front of me before it disappears. I let out a sigh of relief, realizing that I am not going crazy.

Yeah. Right.

I chuckle at my thoughts.

Another breath of wind catches me by surprise, blowing my torch out.

The next thing I know, I am sent flying through the air, an empty feeling in the middle of my chest.

I try to get up, before falling down again.

I feel blood dribble down onto my stomach as I sit up again. I look down to see a large hole right below my heart.

That’s not good.

Somehow, with sheer adrenaline coursing through me, I stand back up. The hole in my chest starts to bleed heavily and I can feel my life draining away.

I see glowing at the corner of my eyes, so I slowly turn my head to see my gloves and wound glowing at the same time. My wound starts closing, but before it can finish, a hand punches through my back.

I stare down at the fist now sticking out of my chest. It was a large white fist with a line of gray fur traveling down each finger.

The creature then pulls its hand out of my back, only for me to fall forward into the snow.

Then, with little fanfare, I bleed out into the snow and die.

Congratulations! You have suffered your first death!

Luckily for you, you are still in The Tutorial, so you get extra lives and get to keep your equipment!

You have 1 life left before you can no longer win a special prize, so tread carefully!

I wake up in the cave still wearing my gloves, which I promptly thank god for.

I look around to find the torch on the wall where I took it from.

I sigh. What is the first rule of war? Know your enemy and know yourself.

Thank you Sun Tzu.

I went out there without any information like an idiot. Hell, I barely know what I am supposed to do right now.

Take a deep breath. Follow the first rule. What do I know about my enemy?

They have human shaped hands. Can they use tools? Most likely.

Let’s see… What else?

Wait, they didn’t attack me until the torch went out and they haven’t attacked me in this cave. Possible fear of fire? Most likely.

Also, the creature punched me in the chest, which means that it is at least human height, possibly bigger, considering it had enough strength to punch me through the chest.

Anything else?

I am afraid that that is it.

What do I know about myself?

Rather, what do I not know about myself?

I guess I should start there.

“Status.”

∙

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

General Info: Elena S. Trudeau Age:16 ∙ Lvl: 1

Class: N/A Mana: 80 Health: 200

Sponsor: N/A

Titles: Beta Tester, Crazy In A Good Way(Is that even possible?), Watched By The Gods

Special conditions: Most Definitely Not-Normal

Physical Condition: Healthy

Physicality: Athletic 84%

Brilliance: Graduate 95%

Equipment: Gloves(unique)

I look over my status, quickly deciding on what information I want first.

Titles are as good a place to start as any. “Describe Title Beta Tester.”

≡ Title: Beta Tester (Special)

Description: You are one of the two-million people who have been given access to system and world events including exclusive events like The Tutorial. This title gives a bonus to all skill and stat growth.

“Describe ‘Title Crazy In A Good Way.’”

Error 404 Title Not Found

“Are.... are you serious? Fine, ‘Describe Title Crazy In A Good Way is that even possible?’”

≡ Title: Crazy In A Good Way (Is that even possible?) (Unique)

Description: Pretty self explanatory. You gain a 90% resistance to all mental or psychic abilities, affects and spells. You also gain a 100% increase to learning and progression of all mental/psychic abilities and spells.

Pretty self explanatory my ass. I read through the title a second time, sighing in exasperation. “Wow. Ok. A little more math than I was expecting. Now I just need to figure out how to learn psychic abilities….” I mumble to myself.

“So, based on the very little I know, things like magic should exist. So, how do I use it? Well, according the every psychic i’ve met, meditation is always the route to magical power.” I talk to myself, the voices in my head staying quiet for once. I pause for a second before putting my legs into a lotus position. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”

Before I begin, I mentally thank my mother for being such a hippy and teaching me how to meditate. Taking a deep breath in, then out, I start a fairly easy mantra.

My mind and breath are one.

I empty my thoughts to the void.

My nose itches causing me to lose concentration. I rearrange my position slightly before continuing my mantra.

My mind and breath are one.

I empty my thoughts to the void

My mind and breath are one.

I empty my thoughts to the void

...

My mind and breath are one.

I empty my thoughts to the void

…

Then I felt it, this energy flowing all around me, in every part of the room. Then I lost it.

I am brought out of my meditation and curse at myself for losing concentration.

I start chanting my mantra yet again

….

I sense it again, a boundless energy all around me. What now?

I try to grab the energy. A cry escapes my lips as the energy zaps me. “Ouch!”

Thanks to the zap, I lost concentration, which means I get to start over again. Yay.

Time to repeat the mantra.

And so I do, over, and over, and over, and over, again.

After an unknown amount of time, I sigh in frustration. What I’m doing right now isn’t working. I keep trying to grab this energy to control it. Maybe I should try something else?

I meditate until I’m at that point again, then instead of trying to grab the energy, I submit to it.

This time I don’t feel pain. Pleasure fills me as the energy flows through me, the pleasure slowly turns into this warmth pulsing through my body, when I pass out.

***

I pick myself off the floor of the cave slowly.

I seem to be blacking out a lot lately. I don’t think that is good for my health. My attention turns to the plethora of blue windows right in front of me.

Nice job! You have successfully gained the approval of mana. You are free to use your mana now. Good luck!

Due to your sudden gaining of mana, you have been temporarily knocked out. This was for your own safety.

Thanks to one of your titles you now have access to the force known as Psi.

You have one hour left until the torch goes out.

When did I get that last message? Hopefully not an hour ago.

“Identify item: Gloves” I say, hoping I will learn something valuable from the blue window that pops up.

~ Item: Gloves Of The Ancients Owner: Elena S Trudeau

~ Abilities: Volatile Looks, Indestructible, Heal, ???

Heal must have become unlocked when that creature tried to kill me.

Knowing that I have less than an hour left before the torch dies, I close my eyes, trying to come up with a plan.

I can’t go out into that storm again. Whatever was out there will kill me just as it did last time.

No, I will have to fight it on my own terms, on my own ground.

So, I decide to do something crazy. First, I close my eyes and wait a few seconds, so that they can get used to the dark. Then I pull the gloves tight and pray that they don’t conduct heat and are truly indestructible. Finally, I place my hand over the torch and put it out. The room goes dark and I open my eyes.

Then I wait at the entrance to the cave.

I watch as a creature shuffles into the cave.

It is a bipedal creature that slouches at six feet tall. The creature has long muscular arms that almost reach it’s ankles and a rather muscular upper body. It is fairly obviously a male, as it wasn’t wearing any clothes. It slowly enters the cave, seemingly sniffing the air.

Sniffing?

I get right behind it, quickly steadying my breath; “Boo!” As soon as the shout leaves my lips I crouch. The creature swings its body around, those incredibly strong arms swinging right over my head and missing me by a hair. As soon as his arms pass I jump up and strongly punch the creature in the throat, the spot where its trachea would be if it were human.

I feel the bones and cartilage in its neck fracture under my fist. As it starts to asphyxiate, it pulls its arm back, giving me just enough time to prepare before its fist shoots towards my chest.

I grab the fist as it punches, using the force, nearly too much for me to handle, to spin around its arm and pull it to the ground.

I take a step back, as it throws its arms around wildly in pain and panic. I watch it slowly die in the cold half-darkness.

Some tears come to my eyes as it looks at me in its last moments.

In the stories and books that you read, they scroll over the act of taking a life as if it is nothing, normal even.

But as I saw the life leave the creature, I couldn’t help but apologize to it.

So I did something I’ve never done before. I got on my knees, put my hands together and asked that whatever higher-being is out there take this soul and gives it some peace

I hear a dinging sound which I choose to ignore.

The sound of shuffling makes me stand up and prepare for the next creature that has decided to come in to my small cave.

This time I get a good look at the creature’s face. Covered in fur except for a bit around its face, where white skin covers up what would normally be eyes. .

The creature turns its head towards me.

Can that thing see me without its eyes?

I save my thoughts for later as the creature draws its arm back. So I prepare to block, but instinct has me duck, I listen to it.

The arm I wasn’t paying attention to, flies over my head.

Shit! Did that creature just use a feint?

I jump out of the way as it punches the spot where I was just standing with its other arm.

We each take a second to study each other before it sends another punch towards me. This time I am prepared and use the same move I used on the other creature. As its punch comes hurtling towards me I grab it and use its momentum to spin around the outside of the creature’s arm. Then, with all the power I can muster, I punch its neck and jump out of the way.

The creature stumbles for a second before falling to the ground like its predecessor. It clutches its neck and struggles as it dies a slow death.

I do the same thing that I did with the first one I killed.

I get on my knees and pray for it as it passes away.