It was the smell of roasting meat that tore Octavia from her sleep. Her eyes opened to the bright sapphire sky that sat so far out of her reach. The rogue could feel the remnants of tears on her cheeks as the cool spring breeze kissed her skin. Octavia couldn’t remember the last time that she dreamed of her father. Why did it feel so real?

The rogue reached out and grabbed her chakram, pulling it close to her chest. He was right, though. Her gut had never led her astray. This wasn’t the old world, and though the change was mostly bloodless, it didn’t change the fact that everything was trying to kill her. Frustrated, she ran her fingers across the blade of her chakram, marvelling at the sleek metal that didn’t seem to chip or crack.

This new life was simple. All she had to do was kill and grow stronger. It wasn’t like college, when she threw herself into textbooks on how to run a business, or how to manage a staff. Instead, she just needed to learn how to swing her metal ring and fight her way to the top.

She grasped the twine handle of her weapon and held it up into the air. The weight of it felt comforting. Almost as comforting as when the dream version of her father hugged her. After fighting with it, though, a new respect bloomed in Octavia’s heart. This really was a special weapon, and the way it demanded to be used attested to that. Her movements flowed seamlessly together, and each step was a graceful dance.

She held the weapon aloft for a few more seconds before she brought it back down, gazing into the azure depths of the blue sky. The sky here boasted a far deeper blue than Earth’s. In fact, it was so blue; it didn’t seem real, even taking into consideration that this was a tutorial for a multiverse that no one even knew existed until this point. How were the worlds up there different from this one? Was Earth the only place humanity existed? What were aliens like? There were so many questions that burdened Octavia, but she knew that there wouldn’t be any simple answers.

This was her life now, living on the literal edge of life and death, pushing herself to new extremes. It was definitely far more enjoyable than sitting behind an office desk all day, crunching numbers for inept upper management that had zero clue how to run the lower rungs of the company. There wouldn’t be anymore arguing over more efficient answers. Better yet, there was a certain level of freedom that the system brought, and Octavia couldn’t deny the allure that having a stat screen brought. Watching progress in real time was such a dopamine drip.

Above all that, she was a rogue! A rogue! Now that she could really process everything that happened up to this point, she was happy with her choices. A warrior would have been nicer or even a tank. But as a rogue, it felt like there was a different expectation. That didn’t even consider the wording of the advisor. Everything was a starting point. That meant she could turn her rogue class into whatever she wanted.

Which felt right. Already, the rogue class gave her something that a warrior couldn’t. But she couldn’t seem to find the right answer for what it was. Where a warrior and a tank sat on the front lines, a rogue was someone who lurked in the background, manipulating the flow of battle and striking from the shadows. While close to what she was looking for, it wasn’t quite it, but even she wasn’t sure about what she desired in the end.

But those questions could wait. The rumbling of her stomach was only growing stronger, along with the headache that came with dehydration. It didn’t help that the tantalizing smell of food was making her mouth water. It’s been too long since she had a warm home cooked meal. Up to that point, she was buying pre-made stuff from the convenience store just to save time. It wasn’t the healthiest option, but her life was nothing but work, so it definitely helped.

Octavia stood up and stretched her taut muscles. Her arms hurt, and there was still that strange sense of emptiness in her chest from using that skill earlier. A glance at the hud showed that the mana bar had only ticked up a few percentage points, which was awful. Perhaps the next free point should be used on willpower, considering [Wrathful Disc]’s steep mana cost. At least her stamina seemed to recover at a much faster rate.

She grabbed her chakram lovingly, throwing it across her shoulder as she glanced around. A small plume of grey smoke rose from a fire pit close by, with Derrick tending to it with a long stick. Julia was next to him, giggling about something that he said, something she noticed happening a lot between the two of them lately. Not that she cared. He was her best friend, but nothing more. Octavia jumped off the rock, landing on the ground softly, and walked over to her friends. All the while, her stomach was rumbling.

“Hey guys.” She waltzed over to the small campfire and saw that some logs were rolled over to make some seating arrangements.

“Oh, hey. We were just about to come wake you up.” Julia passed over one of the haphazardly made wooden bowls filled with a warm, bubbling stew. The aroma coming from it had faint chocolate undertones, combined with a sweet scent that Octavia didn’t have a word for.

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“Try it.That velociraptor meat had a unique taste, so I combined it with that Jovial Nightshade and a few berries I found around the area.” Derrick spoke up as he passed over a bowl to Julia.

“Huh.” she muttered as she brought the stew up to her nose, giving it a small whiff. Her stomach growled as hunger exploded.

Lacking a spoon, Octavia brought the bowl to her lips and sipped at the hot liquid. “Holy shit Derrick, this is good.”

“Yeah, I had little to work with, but I did my best.” The mage brought the bowl up to his lips, sipping at it gently. The food seemed to bring back a bit of life to his features.

The redhead nodded as she kept as she slowly drank the stew, doing everything in her power to not throw back the scalding hot liquid in one go. “It’s much appreciated.”

“Good. Good.” Silence fell amongst the friend group as they drank the stew and chewed on the occasional hearty chunk of danger meat.

Congratulations! You have consumed a dish made by a chef!

You have been revitalized! +4 Vitality regeneration. +4 stamina regeneration.

“Apparently because I cooked for you all, I just unlocked the Chef skill line.” The mage set the bowl of meat down. “It’s kind of infuriating. I left restaurants to avoid being a chef, so don’t expect this often.” Even though he said that, his eyes twinkled.

Octavia knew he was proud of his work. He was a very prideful man, after all. Still, she was thankful for him cooking. She brought the bowl back to her lips savouring the tastes and textures it brought. “Anyway, while we are here, let’s discuss our future. Jules, since you know more about the system's cause of your reading, what do you think?”

The black-haired woman’s eyes lit up as she put her bowl to the side. “Well, I don’t know if there is an exact-to-one ratio. But usually when this happened in novels, there were a few things to note. The first is that gods exist, but not like you would imagine. They are often just extremely powerful beings that might as well just be gods.”

“Eh. I don’t need a god. I never have.” Derrick’s face darkened as he leaned forward, grabbing a giant stick and starting poking at the small campfire. Embers erupted as some of the smoldering logs shifted and fell.

The two women shared a quick glance with each other. Whatever back story there was there, they both knew that now wasn’t the time to broach that topic.

“Anyway, I’m not sure if that holds true now or not. But regardless, they will often bless people who follow them. So if they exist, it is something to look into. As for the rest of the tutorial, well, I’m not sure. If we push hard and fast, and go as deep as we can go, the rewards may be really good. Oh! In the novels I read like this, the tutorial zones have chests we can find!” With each word the black-haired woman spoke, her face grew more animated.

But Octavia was caught in the confines of her own mind. At the end of the day, she was an agnostic, so even if gods existed it didn’t really matter. Up to that point, Octavia had earned everything in her life through her own blood, sweat, and tears. If deities existed, then they needed to be worthy to follow. If not, then they didn’t matter. “Alright, so we should on getting deeper and finding chests. If we stumble across the evidence of gods, then we go from there. Any guesses what would happen after the tutorial?”

“I mean, there could be many options. Earth could be invaded, or we could deal with trials or calamities. Really, who knows? It’s a multiversal system. So the possibilities are endless. But that’s not even the biggest part. Usually in every system book I’ve read, if you do really well, or fight a secret boss, you unlock a stone or something to create a city.” Once again, a deluge of information poured out of Julia’s mouth.

“Create a city?” The words left Octavia’s lips, and an idea formed. While she had absolutely zero idea how to run a city, it was definitely something that she could learn. Though again, only if that was true. At least that way she could keep a tab on her friends and make sure that they were safe. That was the underlying reason, at any rate. The other thing was the ambitious side of her wanted—no, needed more. She didn’t spend all that time only to be relegated to another middle management spot. “Well, if we stumble across one, we take it. What do you guys think?”

”I’m game. Though I want to find my family first.” Derrick glanced up from poking the fire. There was still something dark in his eyes, along with a touch of anger. “So once we are out of this tutorial, I may break away for some time.”

Octavia solemnly nodded. She understood the sentiment, even if the idea of him leaving sent a spark of panic through her heart. “That’s fine. Let’s just wait to see what happens when we get out of here. Julia, what about you?”

“Well, I’m worried about my family, too. But there is no way I can get to Tampa by myself. That walk would be insane. But if we get that city stone or whatever, we could figure something out.” A dark shadow fell across the tank’s face as she sat there.

It pained her because these two were her family, so knowing Derrick was more than likely going to go out on his own made her paralyzed with fear. What if he died? Octavia bit her lip as the thoughts swirled around before shoving them away. Overthinking wouldn’t serve any purpose at the moment other than that of a hindrance. “Well, let’s cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime, I need to use the restroom, and then we need to move out and try to get to the next floor.”