Ivan stuck to himself as he waited, and thankfully, the others were just fine with that. Everybody was too tense to bother with some guy sitting on the ground and not saying anything at the edges of the group.
After a few more hours had passed, morning was now thoroughly behind them, and the sun was shining high overhead. A few more people had made it into the tutorial zone, and he guessed that the last person had fulfilled some hidden condition because the tutorial had begun.
//
Welcome to The Realm, Human!
You have been integrated by Heaven!
You have been Awakened!
Task 1: [Breathe out your being]
To do this, focus on your breath and visualise breathing out your quintessence, your mind, your being.
//
The misty blue words formed in front of his eyes, but he could barely focus as his spine burned, his navel froze, and his head crashed. He bent over into the fetal position, as did everyone else, judging by how he felt a few impacts as people fell on him and rolled off. There were also screams of pain and moans. One of those screams was his own, his voice tearing out of his throat in a barely recognizable but still human sound.
After a few minutes, the screams turned to groans as everybody stood back up. Ivan oddly felt no different than he did right before the pain. He supposed he should be glad there were no lasting effects.
All the others in the group were staring at the blue words in front of them. He supposed that these blue screens were a bit different from the usual ones he read about. They were visible to everybody.
Now he had to figure out how to breathe out his being. The instructions were vague. What kind of special manner was this thing talking about? Ivan took a deep breath in and a deep breath out and… Nothing happened.
“Hmm. Maybe like this?” He breathed out and stuck his tongue out simultaneously. Nothing.
A teenage boy in a red shirt stuck his arms in the air and cheered, “Ah! Ah! I got it! Everybody, you have to breathe out and imagine breathing out your soul.”
There were some mutterings among the crowd at the statement. Ivan tuned out the noise and focused on what the kid said. Of course, he could have been lying. But he may as well try.
Ivan closed his eyes. Breathed in and then breathed out, imagining a small light in his chest following the air out. He opened his eyes and saw… Nothing. He tried again. And again. On the fifth try, finally something happened.
A blue mist, similar to what the messages were made of, escaped from his lips and pooled in front of his eyes. Slowly the mist condensed and began to form legible words.
//
Name: Ivander Nettlewald
Titles: None
Cultivation: None
Path: None
Dao Marks: None
Soul Roots: 3 Basic
Extraordinary Physique: None
Bloodline: None
Blessing: None
Status:
* Constitution(Con): 6/6
* Stamina(Sta): 5/5
* Essence(Ess): 9/9
Stats:
* Vitality(Vit): 5
* Vigor(Vig): 3
* Spirit(Spi): 10
* Might(Mig): 4
* Agility(Agi): 4
* Sturdiness(Stu): 3
* Willpower(Wil): 7
* Comprehension(Com): 6
* Charm(Cha): 1
Techniques: None
//
“Woah.” That was freaky. How did it know his name? Also, he may not know what all these stats did, but that Charm stat was looking a little low. He may not be that good-looking, but, jeez, 1?
Ivan looked around at the other misty letters near him, depicting other people's stats, and was stunned! Stamina, 10. Agility, 9. Might, 8. Constitution 11! What was this!? He only had one stat at 10, and that was spirit! And who the hell knew what that did?!
//
You have completed a task!
Heavens Acknowledgement.
You have gained 10 spirit stones.
Task 2: [Choose a Path.]
* [Warrior]: You breathe, you battle, you punch, you kick, you kill! +1Stamina/st +1Might/st +1Sturdiness/st
* [Ranger]: You stalk through, prey in your eyes, branch underfoot, weapon in hand. +1Vigor/st +1Agility/st +1Perception/st
* [Sorcerer]: You conjure and chant, bedazzling enemies as much as you destroy them with spells. +1Essence/st +1Spirit/st +1Willpower/st
* [Alchemist]: You craft, for you know, they will know, all will know of your concoctions. +1Vitality/st +1Comprehension/st +1Perception/st
* [Trader]: You talk, you charm, you line your pockets with wealth, be fat and happy, for aren't you the real winner? +1Constitution/st +2Charm/st
//
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Well, those descriptions were... Yeah. He supposed they weren’t inaccurate, unless the classes, whoops sorry, paths, were something other than what they sounded like. But they looked pretty self-explanatory even without the descriptions. He supposed some people might not know what an alchemist was, but it was kind of right there in the name. Al-Chemist. And that description for trader was, yeah, he guessed they were often the real winners, weren't they?
Second of all, what did /st mean? Did it misspell level? Like, plus one might per level, like /lv, for level?
And he was now holding a brown cloth pouch that he did not remember picking up. Ivan peeked through the top of the pouch, loosening the drawstring to do so. Inside sat 10 faintly shining blue stones with small ridges, as if molten glass tried to fold into itself and form a ball.
So, what path was he going to choose? Well, he thought it was obvious. He was going to pick the path most suited for him.
//
You have picked the path [Warrior].
You have taken a step forward on your Path!
You have gained [1 Stamina]-[1 Might]-[1 Sturdiness]
You have completed a task!
Heavens Acknowledgement.
You have gained 10 Vigor Stones.
Task 3: [You have gained 1 time limited virtual access to Heavenly Pavilion. Buy something.]
//
Ah. Step. Not level. Then he supposed that /st for step, makes sense.
Now he knew what many would say. ‘Why didn't you pick sorcerer? That seems like the path most suited for you. Magic is cool.’ Did his relatively high spirit stat and willpower stat most likely have something to do with casting spells? Probably. Was he gonna bet on himself knowing how to cast spells? No. Plus, and he knew this thought may be branded heretical, he would rather punch hard than cast a spell. There, he said it!
Also, first Spirit Stones, and now Vigor Stones? Somebody really likes stones! The Vigor Stones looked different than the spirit stones. For one, they were not balls but looked more like normal stones you would find in a river, not perfect orbs. They also didn’t have ridges and folds, instead being smooth. They were crystal clear in colour, with a small spot of a faded yellow trapped in the middle, like an insect in amber.
Ivan stopped thinking about the stones and instead focused on a button that had appeared with the words ‘Heavenly Pavilion’ emblazoned on it. He did his tenth favourite thing in the world and pushed that button.
Instead of a blinding flash of light that teleported him, he was instead presented with another blue smoke screen, this time with items listed. Lots of items, ranging from a sack of rice to a mountain. He scrolled through the listed items, thinking about what he should buy. He could just buy the cheapest thing on here and save his new stones for later, but he thought buying a weapon was a pretty good idea given that they were surrounded on all sides by hungry animals. As if responding to his thoughts, the expansive list shortened before his eyes, this time displaying a variety of weapons, swords, knives, clubs, etc. Thinking about the prices once more shortened the list to be more in his price range.
He noted that most of the prices stated were in Spirit Stones, with maybe about a tenth being priced in Vigor Stones. He picked the most simple weapon he could think of, a spear, for the price of 2 spirit stones. With a flash of light, his one sack of Spirit Stones felt a tad lighter, and a spear appeared in front of him, balanced on its end. It began to fall over, but Ivan caught it before it could clatter against the ground.
“Hey everybody! I think we should pool our money and buy a technique scroll.”
Ivan looked over to find a chubby man with large earlobes that reminded him of Buddha, except that he was white, with blue eyes and blonde hair. Reading the man's stats that were still displayed, he could see he picked Trader, and that his name was Greg.
“What an idiot.” Ivan mumbled. Who picks trader in this situation?
To his surprise, people actually gave him their Spirit and Vigor Stones. Ivan just shook his head and focused on the next task.
//
You have bought [Simple Spear].
You have completed a task!
Heavens Acknowledgement.
You have gained 10 Spirit Stones.
Task 4: [Follow your path, and kill an enemy.]
//
An arrow appeared on the ground once more. But before Ivan could follow it, he was stopped by Greg with a jovial smile on his chubby face.
“Hello there, Ivander. Would you like to learn a technique? If so, we need a few more Spirit Stones before I can purchase one from the shop. Then we can all share it. What do you say, partner?”
Ivan narrowed his eyes. “How do you know my name?” How did he know Ivan's name?
“Well, it says it right there.” Greg pointed at Ivan's listed stats.
“Oh.” That was still there. Ivan waved his hand through the blue words, and that seemed to do the trick as the mist dissipated. “Right. Ok. But what is this technique you're talking about?”
Greg smiled. “Well, according to the shop, it's a scroll that contains instructions on how to perform an act, I guess you could call it a skill like in an RPG.”
… What? How did this guy know so much? “How do you know all this?” Ivan asked the man, his suspicious side rising again.
Greg simply nodded and then explained. Apparently, if you make a zooming motion with your fingers against the items in the shop, it gives a description of the item. Ivan wanted to try it for himself, but his shop window had already closed.
“Ok. What technique are you going to buy?” If it was something stupid, Ivan wasn’t going to give the man diddly squat.
“Well, me and a few others eventually agreed on the Cloudy Inspection technique. It’s basically an identify skill that gives information on what you look at.”
That did sound useful. Or maybe not. Why would he need to identify stuff? Couldn’t he just, you know, stab stuff. “Hmm. I don’t know. Seems kind of meh. No thanks.”
Greg's smile twitched just a little. “Wait, wait. Ok, how about this? I am also looking for some capital to complete my next task. How about you loan me what you have, and in return, I’ll pay you back 5 times the amount at a later date. Huh? Pretty good deal, am I right?”
Ivan sighed. “I guess? But what if I want to buy something later, like, in 10 minutes or something?”
Greg's smile twitched again. “I see you drive a hard bargain. Alright. How about I give you a deal on future items from my shop? Let's say a 10% discount storewide. I was a pretty accomplished business owner before this. Ever heard of Gregs mattresses? The bounce that can't be beat?”
Ivan shook his head. “Never heard of them.”
Now Greg’s smile and eye twitched. “Ha! Never heard of Gregs Mattresses. Well, I guess there's all kinds of people in the world. One of my locations is actually just over there.”
Greg pointed, and Ivan indeed saw a store named ‘Gregs Mattresses.’ With sleeping trails of Z’s decorating the building.
“Although we do most of our business online nowadays. Now, about those Spirit and Vigor Stones. How about a 15% discount, plus, you don’t have to lug around those sacks and potentially lose all your money to some freak monster attacking you. Huh? Pretty good deal. I’d take it if I were in your shoes, but that’s just me.”
Huh. Ivan hadn’t really thought about what he would do with the sacks of stones. He supposed that carrying them around wasn’t the best idea. He might lose them. Plus, this guy sounded confident. And if Greg died, he could just loot his body. Maybe somebody would buy teeth. He wondered if alchemists might have a use for them.
“Fine.” Ivan tossed the 3 bags to Greg, who smiled and nodded eagerly as he caught them in his arms, unwrapping the drawstring and pouring the stones into one bulging sack.
“You won’t regret this, Ivander. I promise you that!”
“Good.” Ivan turned and followed the arrow onto the next task.