Leo Raynor stood still, blinking as he took in the scene before him. He was standing in the strangest library he’d ever seen.
The walls were white and seemed to glow softly, and the shelves were filled with books, but he could see through them; they were translucent.
Every book was translucent, except for six, which sat on pedestals arranged in a semi-circle around him.
Leo blinked and shook his head.
“What the hell?” he wondered. “Is this a dream? The last thing I remember was going to bed after-”
He frowned and rubbed his eyes.
“After the party,” he sighed. “Am I still drunk, or did I do something dumb? Nah. Heh. This is too weird to be anything but a dream.”
He scratched his neck and smiled. He looked around, and while the ethereal appearance of the bookshelves was fascinating, he felt drawn to the pedestals.
“Well,” he thought as he approached one of the pedestals. “Might as well roll with it, then. If this is a dream, and I’m lucid, then I’m going to see where this goes.”
As he approached the pedestal, the books opened of their own accord. Text sprung into existence in the air above them. One word above each book and another word above pairs of two.
“Melee, Ranged and Magic?” Lei frowned. “Warrior, and Rogue for melee, Archer and Ranger for ranged, though Ranger looks like it’s connected to both ranged and melee. Hmm. Mage and Healer for magic. Hey! This looks like one of those openings to a LitRPG book! Nice! Anyway, there's no way I’m giving up on magic. I’m not going to run around healing people. So it’s got to be Mage!”
Leo walked quickly to the Mage book and picked it up. There was a flash of light, a sense of vertigo, and Leo was standing in his bedroom. He stumbled slightly and frowned as he looked around.
Everything looked the same as he remembered: Study books piled on the desk along with his latest project. His bed was a mess, and the clothes pile on his chair looked ready to be laundered. His wardrobe stood open, revealing the few remaining clean clothes he had. The door to his small bathroom stood open, and light poured through after he’d forgotten to turn the lights off in his drunken stupor.
What didn’t look familiar was the strange overlay in his vision.
“Holy shit!” Leo grinned. “It’s like a video game. One red and one blue bar, that’s health and mana, right? And the bar at the bottom is experience? Can I level up, too? Let’s see. Profile! No, nothing. Hmm. Status! Nope… Character Screen! Woah!”
Name
Leo Raynor
Race
Human
Class
Mage
Level
1
Stats
Strength
10
Dexterity
10
Constitution
10
Intelligence
10
Wisdom
10
Charisma
10
The window was blue and hovered in front of his eyes. Leo read through it and blinked. He jumped excitedly as his grin widened.
“Holy monkey! Ye’re a wizard, Leo! Gahaha! Alright, let’s check this out before I wake up. If there’s magic and mana, there’s got to be skill, right?”
Another screen appeared before his eyes.
Skills
Mana Bolt
1
Mana Barrier
1
“Pretty basic, as far as skills go, I guess. Mana bolt and barrier. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they do.”
The mana barrier created a small, circular barrier before Leo, and the Mana bolt sent a thin bolt of blue mana from his fingers. It made a small dent in his wall, and the blue bar in his vision dropped quite a bit.
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“Weak, but what did I expect? It’s level one. Hold on, what am I thinking? This is a dream! I should be overpowered as hell!”
He cast the spell again, this time trying to push everything he had into it, but it didn’t change.
“What the hell?” he mumbled. “Why am I weak in my own lucid dream?”
Leo stood, pondering for a few minutes before he shook his head and walked toward the door.
“Fuck it!” he grumbled. “Let’s see what the dream has in store for me outside.”
He walked through the door and onto the street but froze in surprise.
“What?” he asked as he looked around. “My dorm was on the third floor! What the hell? And, what’s happened to the city?!”
As he looked around, he saw the cracks in the road, the dilapidated appearance of the buildings and nature’s reclamation of the city as grass, trees and vines grew through the cracks.
“Is this like one of those System Apocalypse stories?” he wondered. “Wh-”
He was interrupted by four other people's appearance and another text window.
[System Integration Commenced!]
[Tutorial Begun!]
[Survive and Strive to Thrive!]
[Tutorial Objective: Survive for One Month. 0/30 days.]
[Secondary Objective: Reach level 25. 1/25.]
“Why do I get the sinking feeling that this isn’t an alcohol-induced dream?” Leo mumbled as he looked at the people around him.
Four people had stumbled out of doors onto the street. Three men and a woman stood, blinking and breathing heavily.
“Any of you got any clue what’s going on?” he asked with a half-smile.
“How the hell should any of us know?” one of the men growled as he spoke through gritted teeth. He was tall and wore chainmail over a padded piece of clothing. He had a sword and a shield in his hands. “I woke up in some weird-ass place and was asked to choose a path. Warrior, rogue, ranger, archer, healer or mage. I chose warrior.”
The others nodded. One of the other men held a long, white staff, while the other had two short blades hanging from his hips. The woman had a long bow in her hands and a quiver of arrows on her hip. The rogue and the archer wore leather armour, while the guy with the staff wore a long, flowing white robe.
Leo looked down and saw he wore the same clothes he wore last night: a white polo shirt and black pants. He had no staff or weapon at all.
“Why don’t I have a weapon?” he frowned, patting himself down, but found nothing.
“You didn’t find any weapons by the door when you left?” asked the woman.
“Uhm,” Leo blinked and shook his head. “I don’t think so. I-uhh. I just left. Sort of thought this was a dream and didn’t think.”
“A dream?” asked the rogue, sneering. “How?”
“I don’t know!” Leo groaned. “The last thing I remember, I was at a party. I was drunk, and I figured this was all a dream. I get weird dreams when I drink.”
“Hah!” the warrior guffawed. “Well, I wasn’t drunk. I went to bed like every night, so this is real unless we all share a dream.”
“Or,” Leo said, raising a finger. “You’re all figments of my imagination, spawned from the depths of my conscience to fill in the dream.”
The warrior snorted and punched Leo in the stomach after sheathing his sword. Leo stumbled back, bent forward and clutched his stomach. Bile escaped his stomach as he threw up.
“Guh!” he groaned. “What was that for, jackass?!”
“Hurt, didn’t it?” he sneered. “It’s not a dream, dumbass! And, we’re not parts of your imagination.”
“Idiots,” mumbled the woman, shaking her head. “Stop. This is no dream, and we’re here together. So, let’s all get along and find some way through this.”
“Yeah,” the rogue nodded. “I’m Ethan, by the way. I picked rogue.”
“I’m Leandra,” the woman said. “Ranger, bow and arrow rather than melee.”
“Paul,” said the staff-wielder. “Healer.”
“Rourke,” the warrior grumbled and crossed his arms.
“I’m Leo,” Leo said. “Mage. So, that’s one of each archetype, sort of. As far as video games go, it’s a pretty good party—a warrior with a shield at the front, a rogue moving quickly, striking fast, while a mage and a ranger stand at the back, attacking from range. A healer to keep us alive.”
“Yeah,” Leandra nodded. “This is no coincidence. We were put together.”
“Yeap,” Ethan said, rubbing his chin. “But, what now? What should we do?”
“Any of you ever read any Litrpgs?” Leo asked and was met with confused and derisive looks. “I guess not. It’s Literary Role-Playing Game. Or role-playing games in book form. It often utilises Status screens and a System doing shit like this.”
“Right,” Rourke said, leaning away from Leo and glancing at the others. “So, what does that mean for us?”
“I have no idea!” Leo lamented. “I’ve only read some. If this is real, then- I don’t know!”
“In any case,” Leandra said calmly, “It’s best we prepare and assume the worst. If we’re in a situation like in those books, what should we expect?”
“Uhm,” Leo scratched his neck and grimaced. “A lot of monsters and fighting. We’d need to level up fast and get stronger. Get new equipment and skills, etc.”
“Right,” Leandra frowned as she began pacing. “To sum up, we’ve chosen our skills and have been put together in a favourable grouping. We have to work together to grow stronger and survive. That matches the objectives from what I assume is this System you mentioned. What then?”
“No idea,” Leo shook his head. “Usually, things open up after the Tutorial, but it’s vastly different in most stories. Some involve aliens and invaders, while others remain central to Earth alone. I’m not even sure if this is a separate Tutorial space or if we’re back on Earth. Maybe we’ll find some border we can’t pass or something. Our first objective should be finding someplace to hunker down. A safe place where we can rest.”
“I agree,” Ethan nodded. “I’m no expert, but finding a safe place to set up a base sounds like a good idea.”
“Yeah,” Leandra said.
“Then,” Leo rubbed his hands together nervously. “We should also keep our eyes out for any other people. In some cases, during these events in the stories, some people turn on each other. We’ll probably want to join up with others, but we should ensure we can trust them first.”
“Why would people turn on each other?” Ethan frowned.
“Experience,” Leo mumbled. “We need experience to level up. We get experience points by defeating monsters and stuff. Maybe from quests, I don’t know. But, in the stories, they also get experience by killing each other. There’s also equipment and safe locations. A desire to be in charge and hold power over others.”
“Right,” Ethan shook his head, sneering.
“Anyway,” Leandra said. “We should stick together and start moving.”
“Yeah, no,” Rourke shook his head. “I’m not going with you guys. No way am I letting you drag me down. I may not be a gamer and haven’t read any of those dumb stories, but I’m a fighter. I’m not babysitting a bunch of losers.”
He began walking away and ignored any arguments.
“Should we follow?” Leo asked, worried. “I mean. He’s supposed to be our front line.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Paul said. “He hit you, Leo. I get the impression that he’s aggressive as hell. He might lash out at us if we follow him.”
“So, what do we do?” Leo threw his hands up. “We’ve barely started, and we’re already down one person!”
“We’ll manage,” Leandra sighed, rubbing her temples. “We’ve got strong ranged potential, so we can keep monsters at bay if we act properly.”
“But,” Leo argued. “That leaves Ethan here without many opportunities for levelling. He needs to get close.”
“Well,” Ethan shrugged. “I mean, I’m a rogue. I can sneak around and assassinate the monsters, right?”
“That’s risky, though,” Leo argued. “You’ll be ahead, away from us, and Paul. If you're in trouble, we might not make it to you in time.”
“That would still be true with Rourke around,” Ethan argued back. “It’s how it is, and we must deal with it. Anyway, let’s stop standing around arguing and get going. The sooner we find a secure place, the better.”
“Right,” Leandra nodded. “Let’s go.”
They began walking in the opposite direction from Rourke. They were tense, their eyes flitting from corner to corner, checking every doorway and window they passed.