I was by nature a bit skeptical and pessimistic, so on a very basic level I was unnerved at the run of luck that he was having following my arrival in the safe zone. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop or at least someone to probe into something that I thought was better left a secret. I mean I found some great stuff and no one asked any hard questions or even really cared what I was up to. Everyone had gravitated, while consciously or unconsciously, toward both desiring and providing a measure of privacy around stats, quests, skills and the like, which was also an enormous stroke of luck for me, since I had pretty well taken a pass on even knowing where those things stood for me.

I did have a great conversation with Jim about his parents and his feelings. When we both broke out of the situation for a moment, our old friendship was there and it felt great to have that same connection. Knowing where things stood with him and having them stand in the same place as before all of this started was a good feeling. Jim was a good friend, but he was also my strongest connection to the team. I could see that I was likely going to want to go in my own direction and I knew that Jim would buy me as much latitude with the team as he could. That gave me some peace of mind, as social dynamics could go sideways quickly for me when things are going well, let alone when everyone was stressed and started playing fantasy survivor.

I also finally had a deeper WTF conversation with Lyle about why he ignored our plans and our calls and set off that device in the woods. Turns out there wasn’t much of an explanation there. He apparently felt like he just had a moment of clarity and that activating the obelisk as quickly as possible was the best thing that he could do. It wasn’t very satisfying and I suspected there was more there, but it seemed like he was being earnest, and for the sake of our friendship I felt like I had to leave it at that.

I spent some time that evening reconnecting with both Queakers and Sarah. Queakers had really most certainly experienced the most change and, I think, benefit from awakening. She was always a smart dog, but this was a far more fundamental change. She was eloquent with her communication board and thoughtful in her approach to searching the safezone. She had apparently been leveraging her superior sense of smell to track down useful items and food. For example, Queakers had tracked down a stash of sealed tins of coffees and teas in a building that was planned to be a restaurant in the safezone and enlisted Sarah’s help to collect them. The two were the heroes of every breakfast since. I was actually a little disappointed that Queakers wasn’t spending more time with me, but I was proud of her for exploring her new independence with such zeal and I understood that this time was likely more meaningful to her than I could imagine.

For her own part, Sarah didn’t seem to be taking the scavenger quest all that seriously. Even I was making at least one meaningful contribution a day, before retiring to the Treefort to explore the books and equipment therein in solitude. After the first day, Sarah began to get up late each morning and stay up late in her room alone each night. She was typically a social person, but was more withdrawn than I had ever known her. Even after Erin found some board games in the stockroom of a shop in town and I located a few decks of cards, it was rare to see Sarah really engaged or happy.

We generally worked on dinner together and then played games and cards into the early evening. Sarah joined, but she wasn’t her usual jovial self and certainly looked like she wasn’t getting enough sleep. The week of exploration and looting was actually pretty enjoyable for most of us. In some ways we got the vacation together that we were looking for when we went camping, but just a very weird fantasy themed vacation with quests and a bit of magic in an abandoned frontier town.

***

Finally the day of the tutorial’s start had arrived. I was curious and skeptical as the wagons started rolling up the track to the top of the mesa. We could see them snaking through the grassland miles out. It wasn’t as large as a parade back home, but it was close and it was a real spectacle. Some of the wagons were pulled by oxen and there were a few horse drawn carriages, but there were also vehicles pulled by teams of large lizards, something that looked like a big armadillo, a team of dogs that ran on clouds that appeared by their feed and, my personal favorite, actual giant sloths.

The sloths were armored and pulled large round structures reminiscent of WWII pillboxes on metal tank like treads. These sloth drawn vehicles were, understandably, bringing up the rear of the convoy. I mostly loved them because with all the options demonstrated by the convoy someone had said, “Yeah. Armored sloth-mobile fortification combo. That sounds right,” and then proceeded to make it happen. I needed to meet these people. I also needed to know if an armored sloth could actually fight or if they were just there to look good. Most importantly, I needed to know how to get my own armored giant sloth transportation.

There were no flying mounts with the convoy. The books that I had been reading on military tactics and regional history didn’t feature flying mounts, so I took this as another data point that these were not common where we had ended up. This made some sense to me because the idea of even a magical creature flying while encumbered was a real stretch. Unfortunately, I just didn’t know enough about magic at this point to have an actually informed position. It just seemed like if it was possible, it certainly seemed like something entities that could pull it off were bound to be rare.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

When the caravan had finally completed the ascent and reached the top of the mesa, they passed through the barrier, giving us our first look at the people with whom we would be sharing our town for the next year. It was a basic seelie wight value pack. With the limited context I had, it just looked like an assortment of beautiful and mythical beings in the mold of elves and fairies. I did immediately notice that they had disturbingly sharp teeth. I mean some of them were basically sporting a full set of canines. What were they eating with those? Definitely not vegetables. At the time, I wasn’t acquainted with the true fae, so I just had mythology and video games to guide me. Even in my relative ignorance, I could tell that this was a tough draw and that this was going to be an absolutely shit year.

***

Back at the hotel a group of ten had broken away from their fellows and they were introducing themselves to my friends and dog as our instructors for the tutorial. I am going to call them elves at this point because they had pointy ears, beautiful visages, youthful appearances and were dripping with arrogance. They were short on details about our situation, but their introductions still painted a clear picture of how little we really knew about our situation and the way this world of the awakened worked.

Phraan - A tall, pale and thin warrior, Phraan carried herself with poise, but was approachable and open. I had no training at the time and when she moved I could still tell that she could beat the stuffing out of me in the blink of an eye. Phraan introduced herself as an instructor in the path of the warrior who focused on strength based defense and melee tactics.

Ruven - Also tall and thin, Ruven had ice blue eyes and a sharp expression and seemed extremely serious. He shared that he was over 200 years old and would be our guide in the arcane arts of intelligence based casting.

Elen - All of the elves were tall and thin and very beautiful. The men were beautiful. The women were beautiful. Elen was definitely beautiful, like maybe perfect beautiful. Humans generally respond with a strong bias to beauty and I am no exception. I definitely found Elen off putting before she even opened her mouth.

Her immaculate dress and huge emerald eyes gave off an impression of haughty self-satisfaction, but in her melodious voice I heard earnest compassion for our current ordeal. She commended us for awakening and arriving here successfully despite the challenges of our ignorance and woeful lack of preparation. Yeah. There it was. Elen and I definitely weren’t going to prom together, but she was an expert in agility based combat, particularly ranged attacks and I was interested to see what I could learn from her.

Amrynn - A shadowy elf with darker skin, Amrynn seemed to be a rogue build who said they would help us with dexterity based melee, ranged combat and stealth.

Eldrin - They carried a gnarled staff and were exactly what you think about when you think of an elven druid, but again with very sharp teeth, like fangs really. Eldrin said that they would instruct us in wisdom and intelligence focused nature magic.

Ayre - A charisma focused bard, Ayre seemed to earnestly want to spend time with each of us to learn our stories. She shared that she would be training us in harmonic casting.

Naesala - There was a quiet dignity to Naesala and a settled sense of self. He was terse and his voice was deep and resonant when he introduced himself. He was a Wisdom focused caster who would share with us the gift of divine magic and also tutor us in the art of self defense.

Elyon - A martial artist and monk, Elyon was also completely bald. He would show those that wished the path of discipline and unarmed combat.

Wynather Umetoris - I only learned her family name later through Sarah. She was the least severe of the elves in the way that she carried herself, but apparently she was an extremely powerful summoner who would teach us how to use charisma and intelligence to enlist beings of might and magic in our service.

Caeda - Not specifically combat focused, Caeda was quiet and unassuming, at least by elven standards as far as I could discern them. He was there to instruct us in the art of ingenuity as artificers and crafters.

I know I just went to the trouble of introducing each of these elves, but it is really more of an historical artifact and convenience. I wasn’t positively inclined to the whole tutorial scenario before their arrival and this all too perfect troop of expert instructors did nothing to put my mind at ease. My reading sessions in the Treefort in the week preceding their arrival suggested that there was something off with this whole scenario and I had already decided to use a favorite gaming tactic of mine and skip the tutorial in favor of rapidly specializing in my chosen path.

It also didn’t escape my notice that this group lacked a tactician class trainer, which largely made sense since I’d essentially made it up a week ago. Of the trainers that were available, I was most interested in what Elen, Caeda and Amrynn could provide to aid me in my forthcoming self-study activities. Once I had absorbed what I could, I would be dropping out of elf combat college in favor of getting a haircut and a real job.