Chapter 24) Stepping out. Or, Bone Train is a coming.

As we got outside, Matt began talking with Drew about how he wanted the fight to go.

The skeletons that had wandered away from the temple began to gather up again just short of stepping onto the temple ground.

But for the moment, no one was in danger, and I lifted my face up toward the sun.

Blue sky above, white wispy clouds, and bright sunlight from the yellow sun up above were shining down to warm my skin. A big difference from the dim cold red light from the Tutorial Zone I had been living in for what may have been weeks, or even months with the hallway and all the rooms I had taken the time to make before I created the entry portal.

Heh. And I could come here anytime I wanted now when I needed a break.

Matt called out to me. “Tex? You with us?”

I looked over at him and Drew and tightened my grip on my club. "Yeah? What am I doing?"

Matt pointed over to where one skeleton was standing on its own. "I want you to kill that one because I want to know what happens when you get a kill."

I nodded, more to myself than him. "Now I got to wonder what happens if I can get some of them 'Life' points. Do I get to retire from training people if I get to level ten?”

The answer was no.

The skeleton in the faded and torn rags that may have once been some sort of dress began to reach for over the low wall at me once I got close enough to hit it myself, something that hadn’t happened to Matt when he swung the blunt end of his spear at them while gripping the end of the five foot long weapon above the spearhead. Which is probably the main reason he sent me over here with my shorter weapon, but I didn’t mind, I had already volunteered to get killed instead of them earlier.

Even though it started reaching for me as soon as I got close, it was slow to first react, and I gave it a hit in the leg that took it down into a heap of bones clattering down onto the paver stones. Before it could do anything else I began beating it over the head with my club until it stopped moving.

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Then Matt yelled at me, “Tex, move back!”

I jumped and just got clear of another set of bony hands reaching out for me, all of the dozen or so skeletons that had gathered up in front of the temple ground must have moved up on me as soon as the first one had started to react to me getting close.

Sensational Awareness I think it’s called. I need to get me some of that.

Matt patted me on the shoulder and said pretty much the same thing. "You got to watch out for tunnel vision in a fight, take a step back every now and then instead of only focusing in on the guys in front of you. Unless you’re in a group, then you have to rely on the people with you to guard you from people coming at you from the sides.”

I nodded. “Yeah, got it. But I didn’t get anything from killing the skeleton.”

Matt sighed. “I was afraid of that, I think you’re still in tutorial mode until you finish your assigned duties there. I would suggest trying to avoid unlocking any skills so you can save them for later in case you get sent to a world like this.”

Yeah, every exploit I could find for other people may pay off for me someday. It’s nice to have a plan.

Since killing skeletons didn’t do jack squat for me, pardon my French, Matt and Drew cleared out the ones gathered up front, rather quickly, but carefully.

Which is when Drew shouted out. “I unlocked [ Club ], I got another ten Life for it.”

Shoot. I cheated everyone I talked into unlocking more than one weapon out of ten free Life points each. And unlocking anything beyond the first to clear the tutorial was a waste since using any weapon in a fight was all you needed to get a weapon unlocked.

What else had I screwed up for people?

Matt must have picked up on me looking down, “Hey, being able to use a weapon in a real fight is worth missing the chance to get a free payout. Being able to use the weapons they have may save someone’s life one day instead of getting them killed while they try to unlock something new the hard way.”

I slowly nodded. "Yeah." But still two, or three weapon unlocks at most would be my advice in the future.

Then Matt was leaning forward to look me in the eye. “I would like to pile on a few more levels before you have to go, and me and Skippy will make a run for the Border. Killing these small fry seems like the safest and quickest way of doing that.”

“Are you familiar with the term Pulling Aggro?”

About ten minutes later I had learned what Pulling Aggro meant, which was getting the attention of a bunch of skeletons by throwing rocks at them from a safe distance and then running faster than they could back to the two Fighters waiting sadly behind the temple border wall.

I also learned by way of a bracketed message that I must have unlocked [ Club ] inside the dungeon at some point but not [ Thrown Object ] since I had never thrown rocks at any of the Trainees.

So it was both a surprise as well as a disappointment when I clocked a skeleton wearing a rusty helmet in the head, with a nice metallic gong sound, and got [ You have unlocked Thrown Object ] but no Life points.

I almost said something I would have regretted. “What a crock…”

Then I was running around the corner back to the temple, “Tex’s walking dead delivery service. I lap ‘em, you smack ‘em.”

After I ran onto the temple grounds and began to catch my breath, I heard the sound of wood on bones behind me as the two of them went to town.

Watching the fight, I realized I had one more thing to try. “I’m taking a shot on the fella with the hood. Clear! [ Mage Shot ]”

The burst of blueish white shimming in the air hit the hooded skeleton in the tattered robe with a crack of impact and snapping ribs, but it wasn’t quite enough to take it down.

Or unlock anything, other than Drew's ire.

To parrotphrase. “That is bull excrement. Complete Bull excrement.”