Chapter 4 - First Impressions in your Skivvies

Riley woke up able to feel his body but detached from it completely. It was similar to the dental horror simulator he had tried once when he was young. He could feel his flesh knitting itself back together, blood filling his empty veins, the setting of bones as the pieces found their way back to where they were from. It was almost like watching an explosion in reverse, only he could feel the entire thing.

Yet despite the horrific sensations Riley couldn’t actually feel the pain associated with the healing. It was a ghost of a sensation. His brain trying to make sense of what was happening. Evolution hadn’t prepared it for this.

Riley’s earlier despair at the loss of levels was gone. There was just something eye opening about almost dying that put it in perspective. Yes, it was disappointing that his journey had ended so soon but if he framed it in his mind that he was playing on hard mode then it didn’t seem so bad. The No Ability challenge. He had gotten as far as he could on his own power and there was something to be said for that.

Riley was distracted from his musings by the appearance of yet another new system message.

Congratulations on surviving so far! You have earned 500 points. You may use these points to purchase items and abilities in the system shop. This shop is only available in the Tutorial Dungeon, so please use them wisely.

Teleporting to Tutorial Dungeon…

Enhanced Tutorial Detected. Tutorial Dungeon upgraded to Tutorial Raid.

New raid quests received.

Stop the Unending Horde (Optional)

Find the Treasure of the Hidden Village (Optional)

End of the Rein of Tommy (Optional)

Clear the Lost Mines Trafalgar (Optional)

Defeat Tragnar The Terrific (Required)

Teleporting to Tutorial Raid…

Riley opened his eyes to a lovely azure sky. He could hear the song of birds, the rustling of leaves, and the quiet murmur of voices nearby.

Riley was laying on his back on a soft bed of grass. Not the sharp hard grass that made one itchy and stained your clothes but a wild grass of many different textures that stained your clothes. A soft breeze blew through the clearing he was in and he could feel it cut right through his vert suit.

Riley sat up quickly and looked down at his body. Indeed, he was in his vert suit, outside. The horror. The body tight clothing covered him from the soles of his feet all the way up to his neck. It’s built in gloves made sure it didn’t show a single bit of skin below his head however the suit didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Riley looked towards where he heard the voices and saw four others standing in a circle chatting casually while also in their vert suits. Blood rushed to Riley’s face. While not the most erotic of clothing there was a certain implication when seeing someone in their vert suit. Riley felt exposed. It was a good thing the mask covered his blush.

One of the people noticed Riley and must have said something to the group as they all turned towards him, waving.

Riley got up, brushing off the leaves which clung to his suit as he approached the group. There were four people in total, judging by their bodies two women and two men. Riley worked hard to keep his eyes from wandering below neck level. He partially succeeded.

None of the others were wearing their masks so Riley reached up to remove his. At the thought of taking off the mask it vanished on it’s own appearing in his core. He could picture the mask perfectly in his mind’s eye and felt that he could recall it with a thought. The strange power which had been coursing through his veins vanished with the mask and Riley felt like a part of him was now missing.

Ignoring the strange sensations Riley approached the group. “Hey,” Riley started unsure of where his sentence was going, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, “did you guys also notice the goblins…” Riley paused trying to find the words.

“Puppy dog eyes?” One of the women finished for him. Her black hair was put in a low pony with two strands of hair framing her face paired with straight bangs. She had yellow green eyes and a round face which set Riley’s heart racing.

“Bob my Ross, yes!” replied the taller of the two men. He had short blonde hair and potato brown eyes with a mischievous twinkle in them. Riley would kill for his sharp jaw and bone structure.

“Of course you would think that you monster mommy lover,” said the other woman as she grabbed the tall man and put him in a headlock. She was also blonde and had a bob cut with the side of her head shaved. Her sharp facial features and cognac brown eyes matched that of the man she had in a headlock. Riley immediately wanted to impress her, as she was probably the coolest person he had ever met.

“It was one time! One time!” Screamed the man as he tried to wriggle out of the headlock. “I just wanted to see what would happen.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Bob cut said. To Riley she said “Don’t mind my brother Scott, he’s a chronic idiot. The name’s Casey by the way, nice to meet you.” She released Scott and reached out her hand for a shake.

Riley grasped it and introduced himself. He already liked these people and desperately wanted to not make a fool of himself. “Don’t worry about it, I speak fluent idiot.” Mission failed.

The others seemed to take it in stride though, the first woman spoke up again, “I’m Heather, and that’s Nermit.” She pointed towards the only person who hadn’t talked yet. He was short for a guy, around five foot six, with a sandy brown buzz cut. His piercing blue eyes cut through Riley to his core, but he gave Riley a short nod. “Don’t mind him,” Heather continued, “He doesn’t say much.”

Riley nodded back at Nermit and received a small smile in response. He decided to broach the most pressing topic at hand, “So is this all actually happening?” He received a round of nods in response.

“We were just discussing this before you arrived,” Heather said. “As far as we can tell, this is all real.”

“Incredible,” Riley said. He had been working under that assumption but getting confirmation from another source really drove the point home.

“We were also discussing forming a party before you got here,” Heather continued, “if you were interested?” She asked leadingly.

Riley quirked his head to the side and put his hand on his chin as if he was in deep thought. “I don’t know, I’ll have to check my calendar… yes, Bob my Ross, yes.”

The group laughed. “I like this one, let's keep him,” Casey said eyeing him up and down.

Inwardly pleased Riley put his hands up in a halting gesture, “Please, I have a strict, ‘not while in mortal danger’ policy.”

“Would only dream of it,” Casey said with a wink.

“Anyways,” Scott cut in, “you wouldn’t happen to want to tank for us would you? I’m hoping to go ranged,” Scott said raising the bow in his hand. “Casey over here is trying for a rogue build. Heather’s got magic covered and Nermit picked up the healing spell.”

“You mean I get to be the most important person in the party?” Riley asked.

“The healer’s the most important person in the party,” both Scott and Casey said in unison.

“Yes, but who does the healer pay the most attention to?” Riley finished. He smiled, “I would love to tank.”

“You’ll want to gear up first, let us know if you don’t have enough points, we can lend you some to get started,” Heather offered.

Riley could feel in the back of his mind how to open to the system shop. He did and was given a listing of hundreds of items and abilities. It took a moment to figure it out but when he did he was able to sort the items by category.

The shop have everything from full plate armor to a ‘battle broom,’ whatever that was. Riley browsed through the options briefly as he familiarized himself with what the store had available. The lowest level of healing potions were available for 100 points each. There were stat potions going for 10,000 points and swords at upwards of 100,000 points though those were outside of his level range.

A full suit of leather armor would have cost Riley his full 500 points, which would have left him without a weapon. Riley settled for a sword which cost 100 points and a medium metal shield which cost him 350 points. Riley felt like investing further into the shield was worth it as it would be taking the most damage. He didn’t want to replace it after every fight.

With the remainder of him points Riley bought himself knee high leather boots. They would give him better traction on the forest floor than the booties that came with his vert suit and would offer moderate protection.

All geared up Riley and his new party waited for a while to see if the rest of the raid group appeared but no one else did. Having a full party they decided to do some scouting and some leveling themselves. The group headed north into the great unknown.