As the first battle began for the fourth wave of climbers, James thought about the video he had set up to be broadcast outside the tower. I managed to get all of the stat points and how the system describes them, as well as how many everyone will have available right when the first battle starts. I also showed how long they have before the goblins typically reach them, and that it can vary slightly depending on the type of goblin. I couldn't include every skill people can start with, as I could only pull from the previous day's first battle for footage if I wanted to finish it in time. I never got to show them how to best take out a goblin hunter, either, but I did show that goblins hunters exist and how they try to ambush people. Hopefully this will be enough to save more lives than the last time.

One difference James noted was that the majority of climbers immediately pulled up their status and began assigning stat points. Some took more time than others, as some people had already worked out what they'd put their points into beforehand, and others were still undecided. Some people are still hesitating to pull up their status at all, but I don't know if that's from them not seeing the broadcast or from the panic of being brought into the tower and realizing this is actually happening to them.

"What are your classes? I'm a mage and I picked the spell 'Wave of Force'. It's cheap so I'm going to spam it to keep any goblins or projectiles away from us. If someone with an actual weapon could go in and hit the goblins once they're knocked around, that should finish them off." One climber said, as he divided all of his points into Magic Power and Magic Capacity.

"I picked warrior, will the spell affect me too?" Another climber asked.

"Yeah, if you can, stay near me, and whenever I cast Wave of Force move in, kill a few, and move back."

"We'll help, I'm a fool and they're a merchant. I can automatically dodge one attack, and we both have clubs." A fool added, brandishing their walking stick while continuing to help the merchant assign their stats.

"Rogue. I'm going to activate sneak, and I'll move towards the back of the goblins once they show up." A rogue said before disappearing.

James watched as goblins entered the clearing from nearby bushes, leaving only three meters between them and the party. Five goblin warriors charged as two goblin archers shot arrows from within the bushes. One goblin shaman stood at the edge of the clearing, and channeled a spell that made all of the goblin warriors faster right as the two in front were about to reach the party.

"Wave of Force!" The mage shouted, and a blue fog appeared that billowed out from the mage's staff, moving forward for a meter before disappearing. It's more of a strong breeze than a solid wall. The arrows didn't stop but the fog threw them off course enough for them to miss. James observed. I expected the warriors to be flung back by the spell, but it only sent them tumbling to the ground instead. Still, it's surprisingly effective. James noted, as the two goblin warriors serving as the spearhead of the goblin forces fell to the ground. The warrior swung her sword down at one of the goblins as they scrambled to their feet, while the merchant and fool worked to bludgeon another to death.

The remaining three warriors were a meter behind the first two, and tried to close the distance to attack the climbers killing their comrades, but another wave of force slowed them down enough for the warrior, merchant, and fool to recover and bring the fight to them. The warrior muttered "Double Strike" and James watched as their body became a blur, their body moving nearly instantly from the end of a swing towards one goblin to the middle of a swing into a second, as the merchant and fool continued to team up against a single goblin. The fool's longer walking stick was used to prod at their opponent and distract them, while the merchant's heavier club, adorned with a band of iron at the tip, would be used to land a debilitating strike, before the two would simply keep swinging at the downed goblin until receiving a notification of its death, at which point the merchant added the goblin to their inventory.

Two more arrows shot out, and another wave of force disrupted them, though the mage was forced to aim the spell upward to avoid disrupting their comrades, the spell nevertheless caused one arrow to miss and another to deliver only a grazing blow as it sliced at the edge of the fool's right arm. The fool hissed at the unexpected pain, before the four moved forward, trying to reach the shaman at the edge of the clearing, and the archers hiding within the bushes beyond.

The rogue and a goblin hunter were brought out of stealth as they brushed against each other, the spell reading it as an attack by an enemy. The goblin immediately spun towards the rogue, who hadn't recovered from the shock of suddenly becoming visible in time to avoid a swipe of the goblin's bone dagger. The wound wasn't fatal however, and the rogue quickly struck back with a swing of their own iron dagger, the rogue's height advantage allowing them to easily stab the goblin in the neck.

Seeing how the mage kept deflecting their arrows, however, the two archers turned to the new, closer target that was the distracted rogue, and two arrows sunk into his chest through the leather vest, neither deep enough to be immediately fatal from where they hit, but causing the rogue to stumble to the ground, managing to roll onto his back in time to avoid the arrows hitting the ground and being driven deeper into him.

"Shit, what do I do? Is it safe to pull these out?" The rogue shouted, as he laid on the ground unsure of what to do.

"Just hang on! We get health potions for beating them, we'll pull the arrows out and heal you once we wrap things up." The fool said, as he split from the group moving towards the shaman to help the rogue.

As the three climbers reached the shaman, the last hunter broke out of stealth as they leaped upon the mage's back. The merchant and warrior immediately turned to help their party member, the warrior stabbing the goblin in the back of the torso and using their sword embedded in its body to pull the goblin off of the mage. Unfortunately this left the two with their backs turned to the goblin shaman, who launched a magic arrow into the warrior's back.

The warrior shouted an expletive as the magic projectile bit into her skin before vanishing, leaving a hole in her armor where she suffered a shallow stab wound in the left side of her lower back. The warrior used her pain as motivation, pulling the sword out of the goblin hunter's torso and turning the movement into a spin as the tip of the sword bit into the shaman's neck.

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Meanwhile, the goblin archers continued to fire upon the rogue and the fool, but the latter's Fool's Luck skill activated as the arrows suddenly veered to the sides. The fool had helped the rogue to their feet, and the two made their way into the forested area the archers were hiding in. "The sooner we kill them, the sooner we can get you healed." The fool had said to the rogue, the latter gripping their dagger with both hands before activating their sneak skill again, while the fool rushed ahead with their walking stick in one hand and the goblin hunter's dagger in the other.

The mage had three stab wounds on their back not unlike the warrior's one, though caused by the hunter's dagger instead of a spell. The merchant touched the dead hunter and shaman, adding them both to their inventory before selling the three goblin corpses they had gathered for six gold coins, enough to buy a single low quality health potion, which they gave to the mage.

"Drink this, then get up if you can, our warrior's already charging ahead at the archers, but we need your spell to deflect the arrows." The merchant explained as the mage drank the vial while lying on their stomach.

The goblin archers were divided now that each had a different climber charging after them, one shooting an arrow at the fool that bit into the fool's stomach, as the other fired at the warrior. The warrior swung her weapon into a bush, cutting into a branch as she shouted "Double Strike" once more, her body blurring until she was positioned so that her sword cut the arrow down right before it could hit her.

Woah. James thought, his own shock reflected on the warrior's face as she muttered to herself.

"I can't believe that worked." she said, before continuing her charge towards the goblin archer. With the distance quickly shrinking, the goblin abandoned trying to fire another arrow to attempt to get some distance between them, but the bushes they had been hiding within worked against them here, as their taller opponent could pass through them more easily than they could themselves. The archer was still trying to run by the time the warrior plunged her sword into the goblin's back.

There was only one goblin archer left, trying to hit the fool who had since dived into the bushes around them after being hit by a second arrow. The archer fired where it believed the fool to be, but surrounded by the branches of bushes taller than the fool now laying on the ground, the arrows were unable to land a proper hit. Eventually the rogue was brought out of stealth after successfully making its way to the goblin archer from the side, the archer too distracted to notice the foliage reacting to the rogue's movements until it was too late, and the rogue plunged their blade into the goblin's torso.

{Quest “First Battle” completed!

Quest Reward(s): 50 Experience Points, 1 Low Quality Health Potion, 1 Low Quality Mana Potion, 2 Gold, 60 Berries.}

With the quest completed, the fool, rogue, and warrior all drank their low quality health potion, the former two first pulling the arrows out of their body. The mage drank theirs as well, their wounds not fully healed from the first one. The rogue added the goblin archer's body into their inventory, and the party briefly tried to do the same for the few remaining goblin corpses further away, but were brought out of the tutorial instance before they had the chance.

A close fight. The party didn't have a strong ranged attack, and the archers took advantage of that. Even if they didn't manage to kill anyone outright, due to the goblins' low quality equipment and the archers failing to hit the neck or the heart. That could have gone much worse than it did. I'm glad my video seemed to help them quickly form a strategy and assign their stat points, at least.

James turned his thoughts to the other screens, surprised to find that only one screen had disappeared thus far. Only one party has been wiped out? That's amazing! James felt his cheer drop as a second screen then disappeared, but as he switched his focus from one screen to the next, took solace in that it looked like no other groups would be wiped out completely.

James's viewing of the first battle was briefly interrupted by 61-3 informing him that the “Complete the Tutorial (Tier 1)” quest had been sent out to the previous wave of climbers now that the next day had started, before the screens all vanished as the last of the new wave completed the tutorial.

[First battle complete. Moving remaining climbers to floor 1. Tallying rewards.]

{First Battle Results:

Climbers Survived: 77/100

Groups Wiped Out: 2/20}

77!? Over three quarters of the new group survived! James felt elated. Such an increase has to be proof my efforts have had an effect.

{You have earned 83 Tower Points through Viewer acquisition and retention!}

Right, the first battle counts as an event, so I get rewards at the end of it. James dismissed the notification. It's better than nothing, but between how low the amount is and how many people still died going through the first battle, I really don't care about getting a few more tower points.

James spent the rest of the evening reviewing the footage of the first battle, adding the moment the rogue and goblin hunter each broke the other out of stealth to what James dubbed “the tutorial broadcast”. He also added the mage's wave of force, as he didn't have footage of that spell before. The warrior's double strike had already made it into the broadcast, but he added the warrior's creative application of it to show off its potential. James also added a few other new skills used by other climbers, such as a mage's wind based spell, or a warrior's defense skill that hardened their skin against non magical attacks. It prevented anything from drawing blood, but still caused bruises to form from where the attacks had hit. The warrior also didn't say anything to activate the spell. Between that and their abilities not being as flashy as the others, I'm thankful observers can show any notifications the person they’re assigned to sees. I didn't know warriors had so many skills until I started using recorded viewing. Not all of their skills have a visible indication beyond the person receiving a notification that they've used the skill. I should add some clips of mages casting without shouting the spell as well, to make sure everyone realizes they don't need to do that.

Eventually, he noticed the sunrise through the screen of an observer on the first floor, and mentally pushed all of the recording and editing screens to the side. Finally, time to try out the repeating quest skill, and add another shop to the village.