After a few minutes of walking, Q found herself back in the entrance room… except there was something blatantly different about the place. When Q had first walked into this room, there wasn’t anything significant about it except for the skeleton. This time, the skeleton had disappeared and was replaced by a single floating green crystal. Though it didn’t turn towards Q, she somehow felt that it was aware of her presence. Seeing that nothing was happening, Q took a few tentative steps forward when the room started to rumble!
All around her it seemed that the ruins were collapsing, as the walls began to crack and the earth groaned beneath her feet. The floor violently shook and she lost her balance and fell onto her butt. Desperately scrambling to grab hold of something but not finding anything to grab on, Q was helplessly tossed around like a rag doll. “What's going on?!” She exclaimed as she curled herself up into a small ball in an effort to protect herself. Soon, she began to slide across the floor. “Whoa, hold on a second!” She had no idea when, but the floor had become tilted and she was quickly moving towards the entrance doorway of the ruins.
On the way there, she tried to grab onto the crystal but failed to do so, only scratching it with her claws. As she scratched it, she heard a deep rumbling sound which seemed more like a deep tremor in the air. She couldn’t make much sense of it though as the room had now been tilted by a full 90°, and she entered free fall! “WHAT THE HECK!?” Q screamed as she desperately tried to look for a place to soften her landing. Fortunately there was a tree underneath her so she was saved by the leaves and branches which softened her fall. Unfortunately the branches broke upon impact, causing Q to land hard on the ground.
“Oww… If this wasn’t a game I’d be dead right about now.” She looked at her health and saw that she was in critical condition, so she opened up her inventory and grabbed one of the red vials. “I wonder how much it heals...” She wondered out loud as she uncorked the vial and drank its contents down in one gulp. “Ew. Tastes like Buckley’s. But at least it’s doing its job properly”. Q noted as she watched her health bar fill up again. Once she confirmed she wasn’t in immediate danger, she got up and looked towards the direction of the ruins, the sight of which now shocked her completely.
The ruins themselves had broken up and begun to form together to create a huge torso with hulking arms. As it continued to form itself Q saw that in the center of the torso there was a green glow, and when she squinted her eyes she noticed that it was the floating crystal from earlier. Finally the head was formed with two large empty sockets where eyes would be. Suddenly the crystal flashed and the entire body was permeated with a green glow. A name appeared above the giant structure, and reading it filled Q with dread.
[The Guardian] - Level 20
Once Q saw what its level was, she felt a little hopeless. “This is the tutorial level right? Why the heck am I facing this!? And what the heck, the guardian of the ruins IS the ruins? Patch please…” Suddenly a large health bar appeared underneath the name, and Q noticed that it was slightly off from being full. Now why is it already damaged? Q thought to herself. It could only be from me scratching the crystal earlier, so that means… the crystal is it’s weak point! Q was quickly snapped out of her thoughts though as she noticed the guardian raised up one of its arms. Driven by instinct she dived into the ground and she felt a strong wind on her back and heard the sound of countless trees snapping.
When she looked up she saw that the guardian had cleared the ground to make a large flat plane. “Hehe… Seems the boss has readied the playing field… Well I can’t disappoint it now, can I? Alright then Guardian, GAME ON!” Q yelled as she got up and readied herself for battle. The guardian let out a yell of its own as the air vibrated with the force of its cry, marking the beginning of the battle.
The first to move was Q, running to cover as much distance as she could to get to the guardian. In response the guardian made a fist with its right arm, then brought it down with great force. Leaping forward, Q managed to get out of the way, but the wind pressure and the shock the fist caused from hitting the ground still unbalanced her and she was blown away. Luckily she was blown towards the guardian so she quickly recovered and made her way to the guardian. Once she reached the base, she looked around for a place to climb on and saw that there were some rocks shaped like platforms sticking out its side, so she jumped on them and began to make her way up the guardian.
Her journey wouldn’t be easy though, as a flash of green went through the guardian’s body which made Q hesitate and stop climbing. The large gaps in-between the stone suddenly let out a blast of green energy which Q had no doubt would kill her if she was hit by it. Once the green energy died out Q began to move again, stopping when the green flash appeared, and she slowly continued jumping onto random platforms.
A half-way up the guardian, the platforms suddenly began to move around, and Q now had to time her jumps as well as look out for the green flash. Fortunately they were moving relatively slowly so Q was able to navigate The Guardian with ease, but as she continued upwards the platforms began to move more quickly and she had to stop and count how many seconds it would take for one to appear. “Seems like it’s become a platformer now huh?” Q muttered as she took a running start to reach a particularly far platform.
Eventually she was able to make it to the chest and reach the exposed crystal. Q began stabbing and scratching it with her dagger while casting Spark with her other hand, and the guardian’s large health bar was slowly being chipped away. Once she had dealt about 1/5th of its health though, the guardian seemed to get fed up as the crystal glowed brightly and let out a strong flash of green light. Suddenly the platform Q was standing on was launched out of the guardians body and was sent crashing towards the ground. Q barely managed to jump off at the last second and avoided most of the damage, but still got hurt.
The guardian wasn’t finished yet though, as it raised both arms and slammed them down on either side of Q. It’s hands began to fold in on each other, which trapped Q in a makeshift corridor. Then some of the rocks which made up the guardian’s arms flew out and aimed straight at Q! She frantically dodged the rocks, occasionally taking hits in the process as there were simply too many rocks for her to handle. Taking in a deep breath, Q narrowed her eyes and tensed her body, as the world seemed to slow down a bit. Q concentrated and began to use her knife to deflect some of the attacks which resulted in her barely getting hit at all. With the best of her abilities she avoided as much damage as she could until finally the rocks stopped flying.
When the attacks finally stopped Q had lost quite a bit of health and was quite battered and bruised. Well it’s a good thing my body is pretty small. Otherwise I would've been hit by a lot more rocks! Q thought as she ran towards the guardian again. Upon reaching the base of the guardian though, she saw that there weren’t any platforms for her to jump on, and she was wondering what to do when some of the rocks suddenly flew out and tried to hit her. She backed away, looking for a way to get back onto the guardian when suddenly one of its fists came crashing down.
Q rolled away, taking some damage as the arm hit the ground in an upright position. She noticed that the arm had some rocks jutting out of it, so she ran towards it and grabbed on just as the guardian lifted its arm up again. It shook its arm around, trying to shake Q off but she held strong as her nails dug into the stone as best they could. Just as Q was starting to lose her grip, the guardian finally stopped moving its arm and Q used this opportunity to land onto its shoulders and made her way back to the crystal. From here she continued to wail on the crystal until the boss shot out the platform she was standing on again.
Q was able to jump off the platform before it hit the ground again, and then braced herself to dodge the arms which once again trapped her in that corridor. This time though, the rocks that flew out slowly began to form up. A name above their heads identified them as:
[Ruin Guardians] - Level 7
“Oh boy.” Q muttered as she engaged the ruin guardians. There were 4 of them that spawned, and they moved into the previous cross formation that Q had dealt with earlier. All of them repeated their attack of firing their arms at the same time, so Q simply ducked and began to attack the one closest to her. Since she already had experience in fighting these ruin guardians from before, she was able to take down this one relatively quickly before the others recovered their lost arms.
Before the other guardians could even move into their next formation, Q was already on another one, ducking and weaving around it as she slowly damaged it with her dagger and the occasional punch or kick, while also constantly using Spark. As she attacked it, the guardian tried to hit her (to no avail), while the others simply aimed their arms and shot them anyway, hitting the guardian in the process. This dealt enough damage to it for Q to pick up the kill, and she moved onto another one.
Once she had finished off all the ruin guardians, the guardian (boss) moved its arms out of the way again. This time, its arm formed into a long and thin shape which vaguely resembled a blade, and it swiped it low to the ground. Q jumped with all her might and was able to avoid the blade, but then its other arm which had also turned into a blade swooped by and she dived into the ground. Then the guardian had both blades constantly slash at the ground in random patterns, causing Q to frantically dodge them.
Left, right, left, jump, dive, jump… All of its random attacks were seriously starting to tire out Q, and she was just barely dodging them. Despite her best efforts, the blades were still able to graze her every so often, dealing damage and bringing Q down to half of her health. Luckily, the guardian became tired as the blades slowly lost their speed and power, and finally rested on the ground. When she saw this Q ran up the blades, and once she ran halfway up the guardian began moving again. The guardian flashed green and Q had to start running in irregular patterns to dodge the green blasts which sprouted out of the gaps. She was able to make it to the shoulder though, but was forced to jump down hard onto the platform since the place she was standing on flashed green.
She continued to hit the guardian as fast and as hard as she could, until its health dropped down to 10%. Suddenly it let out a powerful yell and began to rapidly pulse with green light. Q was shaken off the platform as the guardian began to move erratically, and Q fell straight to the ground. Without anything to break her fall, Q had to come up with something or else she’d end up as a splat on the ground. “Let’s try this out then! HAAAA!” Q yelled as she stabbed into one of the gaps with as much force as possible.
This kept her in place, but also caused immense pain for Q as her arm felt like it was getting ripped out of its socket. Suddenly a green glow appeared in the gap she was hanging onto and she yanked her arm out in a panic, continuing her free fall. When she hit the ground her health was greatly reduced and she had about a quarter remaining. She quickly pulled out both a health potion and a mana potion and chugged them as she backed away from the boss which was now enraged.
The boss was haphazardly flailing about now, with blasts of green occuring all over its body, causing colorful explosions. Suddenly, the two eyes of the boss focused on Q and it aimed its arms at her. Q instantly recognized this as the ruin guardian's "rocket punch" attack, and she scrambled to get away in time. The guardian launched its arms with immense power, shaking the ground and creating cracks in it, while the arms themselves exploded and caused a large wave of green energy to surge through the air. Q was able to get away from the initial explosion, but the wave of energy still hit her, reducing her health to half.
Just when she thought she was able to move towards the guardian and attack its crystal again, it began to shake its body wildly, sending out large chunks of rocks flying everywhere. At the same time, some of the rocks were covered in the green light which made them explode upon impact. This is… Armageddon. Q thought as she dashed around the battlefield, desperately trying to avoid the falling debris. The guardian continued to be in this frenzied state, and Q had no choice but to run up to the guardian to find an opportunity for herself.
The guardian kept firing its rocks as Q dashed through the rain of stone. Some of the rocks landed dangerously close to her, and one of the green ones even exploded right beside her! Getting knocked back and taking a ton of damage, she was forced to use her remaining health potion as she scrambled forward. Eventually, she was able to make it near the boss, but being near the guardian wasn’t much better as its entire body was flashing green at an incredibly fast pace. Q did notice that there were platforms she could run on though, so she took a deep breath and tensed her body, as the world seemed to slow down again. She made her way to the first platform, knowing that she couldn’t stop once she started, as the flashes were too erratic and random to stop and analyze.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She began jumping from one platform to another, hastily evading the green blasts. As soon as she stepped on one platform, it would almost immediately flash with green, and a blast would follow soon after. At one point during her mad dash upwards, the platforms abruptly stopped appearing, and the one Q was standing on began to flash green. With a split second decision Q decided to jump up just as the green blast occurred, using its force to propel herself upwards.
This nearly drained all of her health, but she was launched up into the air and managed to grab onto the platform with the crystal. “GRR!” Q began struggling to pull herself up onto the platform, though one of her arms was still in incredible pain after getting it stuck in The Guardian before. Eventually she finally got onto the platform, and began attacking the crystal as fast as possible. She rained down a series of fast attacks, all at the same location. Slowly, but surely, the Boss’s health was dropping down to zero. In order to deal as much damage as she could, she also called upon her racial skill.
"[Beast Within]!"
Q's body was covered in a faint red light, and she felt herself get slightly stronger and faster. With wild scratches, stabs, and sparks, Q kept attacking the same spot, creating a crack in the crystal. Suddenly the entire crystal emitted a bright green glow which alarmed Q. Her eyes widened, but that only lasted a moment as her gaze sharpened and she pulled back her right fist, simultaneously casting Spark with it and punching with all her force. “BREAK!!!” Q screamed as her punch hit the crystal, and the guardian’s health went down to zero.
The crack widened, and then slowly began to spread out, resembling a web. *Crack. Crack.* Once the entire crystal was fractured, it shattered into a bunch of small pieces, dissipating into fine dust. The ruins which made up the guardian’s body lost all power and slowly began to collapse, with the structures that made up its body hitting the ground hard, creating small craters. The platform Q was standing on also began falling down, and Q looked for a way to get down safely. She noticed a small foothold to her right, so she leapt over and landed on it, then jumped down onto another platform she spotted nearby. She continued to do this as quickly as possible, since the ruins were falling dangerously close to her.
Once she reached the last platform, she jumped as far as she could, distancing herself from the collapsing body as much as possible. She landed with a roll onto the ground and laid there for a moment, fully exhausted and barely able to move. Q heard loud thuds near her, and also felt the earth shaking, but she didn’t care anymore as she stared into the blue sky, waiting for The Guardian’s body to finish collapsing. Eventually she mustered up enough strength to stand up and look at what became of the boss. The imposing figure of the guardian was now nothing but a large pile of rubble, and as Q sat down again she was bombarded with windows.
[Stats Gained]
[Level Up!] x3
[New Skill] - Magic Fist (Active, MP usage depends on spell, 1 minute cool-down) Coats your fist in the magic used on it. Provides extra melee damage to the attack, and does not affect the original magic’s cool-down.
[Skill Proficiency Gained]
[Items Received]
[Great Feat Accomplished!] - You are the first player to defeat a monster whose level is 15 or more than yours. Would you like to let people know of your accomplishments? Selecting Yes will give you +500 Fame and extra experience. (YES/NO)
[Congratulations on Completing the Tutorial Level!] - Once you are ready, press the button below and you will be teleported to a beginner town of your choice. (Confirm)
“Haha… hahaha…. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! I DID IT! I actually beat the boss! Hahahahaha!” Q burst into laughter upon seeing the messages and then flopped onto the ground. She lay there for a few minutes, resting herself up and calming her heart which was still beating from the adrenaline. Once she had finally calmed down, she began to deal with the messages.
In her inventory she obtained 4 new items:
[Guardian’s Boots (Legs, Uncommon)] - Durability (30/30) - These boots are infused with the guardian’s power, providing solid defense. Defense + 4, Agility + 1
[Ruined Sword (Weapon, Common)] Durability (2/10) - This blade is fractured and flawed. Perhaps if it is brought to a smith it can be recovered to its former glory.
[Guardian’s Heart (Necklace, Rare)] Durability (15/15) - Infused with the power of the guardian’s crystal, it radiates power. Strength + 2, Defense + 3, Intelligence + 3
[Guardian’s Core (Consumable, Legendary)] Using this item will grant a permanent +5 bonus to all stats and provide the Spell - Arcane Overload
“These items are… amazing! Though then again, what did I expect would happen if I soloed a boss 15 levels above mine…” Q said absentmindedly as she looked over the items. She immediately equipped the boots and necklace and left the sword in her inventory since it’d probably break if she used it. Then she took the Guardian’s Core and looked at it. It looked remarkably similar to the Crystal that powered the guardian, and just when she was wondering about how to use it a notice popped up, asking her whether she wanted to use it or not. Without hesitation she pressed yes, and more messages appeared.
[+5 to all Stats!]
[New Spell] - Arcane Overload (Active, Consumes all MP, 3 day cool-down) Consume all of your energy to release a blast of pure power. Damage varies on mana consumed.
If this skill is anything like the Guardian’s berserk rage, it’s going to be awesome! Q thought as she looked at the flashing message which indicated she had accomplished a great feat. She was about to press yes when suddenly a message appeared in front of her.
[System Notice] Player “Fostie” is the first player to defeat an enemy 10 levels over them.
“Heh. Not bad Fostie, but how about this?” Q said as she pressed the yes button, and more windows appeared.
[Level Up!]
[Gained Fame!]
[System Notice] Player “Q” is the first player to defeat an enemy 15 levels over them.
The entire community of people currently playing T.W.O were absolutely shocked to see these two system notices appear in quick succession. At first it seemed that Fostie had surpassed Q, but then Q came out with an even greater achievement, as if she was saying that she was the better player. Of course, none of this was Q’s intention as she only did it to get experience and fame, but that was besides the point.
With her new levels and status points, Q began distributing them and looked at her character screen with pride.
Player Name: QRace: Fox-KinDisplay Title: N/ANon-Display Title: N/AClass: N/AProfession: N/ALevel: 9Fame: 0Health: 240/240Mana: 195/195Strength: 17 (+2)Vitality: 15Defense: 14 (+10)Agility: 25 (+1)Intelligence: 22 (+3)Dexterity: 20Wisdom: 16Luck: 6Fame: 650
SkillsPassive Skills:Description:Pain Resistance Lv.3Reduces amount of pain felt.Unarmed Mastery Lv.3Increases damage and proficiency dealt when not using a weapon.Claw Mastery Lv.2Increases damage and proficiency dealt with claw-type weapons.Riding Lv.1Increases speed and handling when riding a creature.Dodge Lv.4Increases your chances of dodging an attack.Deflect Lv.1Increases chance to deflect enemy attacks. Deflecting an attack reduces damage dealt.Throwing Mastery Lv.2Increases damage and proficiency dealt with throwing-type weapons.Active Skills:Beast Within Lv.1(No Cost, 8 Hour Cooldown) Increases strength and agility by 15% for 1 minute.Relentless Assault Lv.1(Consumes 50 MP, 30 Minute cooldown) Allows you to continuously attack a target
uninterrupted for 5 seconds, but you receive double damage while in this state.Magic Fist Lv.1(MP usage depends on spell, 1 minute cooldown) Coats your fist in the magic used on it.
Provides extra melee damage to the attack, and does not affect the original magic’s cooldown.SpellsSpark (Unique) Lv.3(Consumes 1 MP, 5 second cooldown) Deal weak lightning damage to targetArcane Overload (Advanced)(Consumes all MP, 3 day cooldown) Consume all of your energy to release a blast of pure power.
Damage varies on mana consumed.
EquipmentHead:N/AChest:Simple Linen ShirtArms:Magic Amplifying Glove (Uncommon) Durability (19/30) +3% damage to basic spellsWaist:N/ALegs:Guardian’s Boots (Uncommon) Durability (30/30) Defense +4, Agility +1Main-Hand Weapon:Worn Knife (Dagger, Common) Durability (11/20)Off-Hand Weapon:N/AAccessoriesRing 1:N/ARing 2:N/ARing 3:N/ARing 4:N/ANecklace:Guardian’s Heart (Rare) Durability (15/15) Strength + 2, Defense + 3, Intelligence + 3Bracelet:Guardian Bracelet (Uncommon) Durability (9/15) Defense + 3
“I have to say, I’m pretty damn strong right now if I do say so myself.” Q said as she closed the character screen and looked at the final message. “Okay then… let’s get out of the tutorial level!” she shouted excitedly as she pressed the confirm button. A large window then popped up in front of her which seemed to be a map of some sort. A lot of it was blurred out which made sense since the entire game world had yet to be discovered. Q noticed that there was a lot of dots that appeared on the map, and when she focused on one the map zoomed in and she saw a bird's eye view of a town with a quick description.
[The Town of Clorg. Located in the north, the town is surrounded by mountainous ranges and snowy weather.]
“Cool. But I don’t like the cold so… let’s look for somewhere else.” Q continued to scan the map for a suitable starting town, and she finally found one that suited her.
[The Town of Foria. Located in the east, this town is known for its local inhabitants and pleasant winds.]
“Sounds good to me. I choose the town of Foria!” Q said, and a message popped up asking her to confirm if this is her final choice. She picked yes, and suddenly the world around her seemed to slowly disintegrate. Q was surrounded by a bright light which impeded her view. Once the light faded she found herself in the town of Foria.
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A/N: And so we reach the end of the tutorial arc, as well as chapters I have stockpiled. Now, a few things to note here, I don't have any set schedule, so the chapters just come out as I write them (so don't ask me when the next chapter is coming out or anything). But... to give you a general idea, it takes me like half a day to write a decent chapter, but that's only if I have free time (being a university student, I don't have a lot of free time). I also won't accept any donations because it's just a fiction that I want everyone to enjoy. Oh, and... leave any comments you have about the story in the comments. Criticism and encouragement alike are welcome!
Fun-fact: The tutorial was NOT supposed to be this long originally. I thought it'd only take like 2 chapters to establish Q's path as a player, but she turned out to be far more complicated than I thought. (Also, this battle was based off of Shadow of the Colossus, a great game. Watch some game-play if you want to get a visual idea of what Q was fighting.)