The Alchemists had devices similar to the Sorcerers, like training wheels. A couple of them had cauldrons riddled with etched symbols that glowed whenever they sucked essence from their gripping hands, heating up and causing the drained blood within to boil. But unlike what a person would expect to happen, the blood did not just dry out but condensed into a dark red pill. Pill in this case being a round orb instead of the oblong shape he would have expected, but some of the people swore it was a pill and not just a blood ball. Some people had learned the Cloudy Inspection Technique, and they confidently stated that the ball was called a Blood Spring Pill, and it had a very minor blood regeneration effect. Emphasis on minor.
Ivan did not volunteer to try the bloodball out, but some others did, the ones who were injured were especially eager. And looking at the results, it didn't look like the pill did much. He supposed the people were looking a little less pale.
The enemy counter was at 18/50. Which was disappointing. He had hoped to finish it right away, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case.
After a little bit, the group was ready to head out again. Amy, the leader of this little expedition, had another small book tucked in her pocket that an alchemist had given her. It apparently held a small compendium of useful plant sketches that the alchemists asked us to keep an eye out for. He supposed he should acquiesce to their request since he had accepted one of the blood pills just in case. He supposed eating it was better than dying if it came to that. It was currently housed in his pants pocket, rolling around with every step.
As they left the safety of the tutorial zone, the surroundings were much quieter than the first time. They moved as a group, which seemed a tad inefficient to Ivan, but whatever. He didn’t want to bother arguing with the others. It would have just been a pain in the ass.
They managed to spot a few of the odd creatures, but they always ran away before they could kill one. This continued until he had enough, but just as he was about to speak, Amy spoke up again.
“I think we should split into groups.”
Was she reading his mind!?
There were a few grumblings, but lack of any action managed to convince people to split. Amy decided on the groups, and then they were off. Ivan had somehow ended up in the same group as the leader, which seemed odd. So far as he could tell, the 2 people who had killed the most were himself and Amy. It seemed like she would have wanted to split the group up more evenly.
But Ivan just shrugged his shoulders and went along with it. It didn’t really matter.
The group of four walked down the centre of the road, loosely spread out, weapons in hand, eyes darting every which way. Dead cars interspersed the road. Thankfully most people had the peace of mind to pull over when their cars went dead, so there weren't too many cars in the centre of the road. But there were bound to be a few stupid people, and a couple of cars looked mangled and crushed against one another. None of them were on fire though, which Ivan found odd. When cars crash, weren't they supposed to explode? Or at least light on fire? Well, he did smell gas at least, so Amy might need to be a bit careful when flinging her fire around.
Soon enough, they spotted another critter, this one a deer. Except it looked more off than just a few mutations. Its eyes were cloudy, its tongue hung out of its mouth, and there was puss leaking out of a large gash in its belly where a few guts were just slightly poking out.
Ivan hummed to himself and pointed at the deer. “The fuck is that?”
The deer turned towards the group of 4. And instead of running away as everything else had, it instead charged at them. Ivan quickly brought his spear in front of him, ready to stab the thing, when it ran into a bench and one of its legs twisted and loosened with a sickening *PoP* sound. The leg was now floppy, with the skin near the shoulder on its floppy leg looking sunken. But the deer still trudged forward, thankfully much slower now.
“Uhh, I guess we should kill it?” Amy asked.
“Well duh.” Another person in the group answered, this one holding a sword in one hand and a crystal ball in the other. Dave.
Did Dave steal the dead guys sword?.. Yeah. Ivan was pretty sure the guy was just throwing ice spells around before, just wasting those huge muscles he had. Why would he pick Sorcerer and not Warrior? What a waste!
The well-muscled man stepped to the left and Ivan stepped to the right. Ivan struck first, stabbing his spear into the deer's chest as it hobbled forward. Instead of recoiling, the stupid beast continued walking along the length of the spear, sliding it deeper into itself until he had to let go as it got too close. He had heard of deer biting people, and this deer certainly looked the type with its fucked-up look.
The muscled man chopped with his sword, the blade biting deep into the deer's neck. That managed to drop the deer, but its head still seemed alive, its teeth gnashing, biting at nothing but air. Ivan carefully reached for his spear and tugged it out, careful of its mouth. It caught on a bone or something, and he had to wiggle it to get it loose and slide it out of the deer. The wooden shaft was covered in gross, foul-smelling liquid, which made Ivan frown.
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“Hey, give me your coat.” Ivan asked the final member of the group, another woman who was a ranger and carried a bow and arrow. Her name was Addison, if he was remembering correctly.
“Uh, okay.” She dropped her bow and bundle of arrows to shrug off her coat and handed it to Ivan.
He grabbed the coat and used it to wipe the foul liquid off his spear.
Addison’s eyes widened. “Hey! What the fuck dude!”
Ivan waved her off. “Just take another coat out of some store we come across.”
“That’s not—damn it! I liked that coat!”
"Well, I don’t want to touch mysterious, foul liquid. And mysterious foul liquid trumps nice coats.” Ivan didn’t see the big deal. If he wanted to use the spear, he needed it to be clean. What if he contracted some kind of disease from this weird ass deer? Not a chance!
“But!”
“Enough.” Amy cut in. “Let’s just move on. We can’t afford to be arguing right now. Something might sneak up on us or something.”
That quieted the other girl down. Dave finished off the deer by poking the tip of his newly gained sword in its eye, piercing its brain, which finally killed the deer and added another number to the count.
Dave looked up from the kill. “The kill notification called this a lesser zombie instead of an earthly beast.”
Well. That's not good. Was there a zombie apocalypse happening at the same time as the rest of this shit? Also, why didn’t he get a message about the kill? And is it called a message or a notification? The misty messages had said nothing about themselves.
“Well, let’s just keep an eye out. Nothing much else we can do.” Amy shrugged her shoulders.
Ivan supposed she was right. Nothing much they could do, indeed. The counter needed to be completed or… Something would happen. He wasn’t actually sure what would happen, but he guessed it was probably best to do what the freaky messages say. Lest this ‘Heaven’ decide to smite them or something like a god on high.
The group continued walking, and they came across a few more creatures that fled and also a few more undead creatures who charged as soon as they saw us. Thankfully, we weren’t being swarmed like earlier. And soon enough, the counter was complete, and he had even taken another step on his path.
//
You have taken a step forward on your Path!
You have gained [1 Endurance]-[1 Might]-[1 Sturdiness]
//
Addison even got a coat from a high-end clothing store and stopped bitching to him about it. Huray! Joy!
They were back in the tutorial area, taking a head count. It seemed a couple people had died, which just blew his mind. How? It wasn’t that hard. In fact, compared to how he thought a system apocalypse would usually go, this was like a walk in the park.
//
You have completed a task!
Heavens Acknowledgement.
You have completed the tutorial!
Completion Prize: Perfect Soul Root Pill
//
A pure white pill riddled with veins of gold appeared in his hand, giving off a faint golden glow. Ivan squinted his eyes at the odd thing. It looked more like something you would find in a decorative glass bowl in a hotel lobby than something a person would eat. He decided to stash it in his pocket for now, next to the blood pill.
The people around him stared at their own pills in confusion, while others just straight up swallowed them. Ivan kept an eye on the people who swallowed the pills, just in case any side effects sprung up.
“Alright everyone! Group meeting!” Amy walked around the parking lot, gathering everyone together. “All right,” she said once everyone was gathered, Ivan included. “What do we want to do now?”
Thus began a discussion, which Ivan only half listened to. Thankfully the others weren't complete morons and had thoughts similar to his. Raid the surroundings for supplies. Ivan especially wanted to find a hunting store, where they would find weapons and camping supplies. If he remembered right, there was an Antlerier around here. Too bad his phone was smoked. He would have just mapped it. Although he should be able to find it just following the road and looking out for landmarks, like that taco place with the big red sign. If he remembered right, it was south of here.
“Okay! Let’s split into groups and search the surroundings for useful stuff. My group passed a convenience store when we were hunting, so I’ll lead the way there. Dave. Ivander. Addison. You guys come with me. We’ll all meet back here.” Amy got up from her crouched position and made to leave but was stopped by a new voice.
“Why are you taking all the good people?”
Amy turned around. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
The crowd turned to stare at the new speaker. “Well. It’s just odd. The four of you guys killed the most monsters, beasts, whatever you want to call them. Shouldn’t you guys spread out to the other groups? You know, to increase survival odds or something?”
“Hey. He’s right.”
“Yeah! Why are all the strong people in the same group?”
Amy bit her lip for a second, then smiled. “You’re right. Let’s split the groups evenly.”
After that, the groups were divided up into 4 or 5 people each.
“I think we alchemists should stay here.”
“Oh, shut up Edgar!”
This time it was a group effort. Everyone would be leaving the tutorial zone. Although Ivan wasn’t sure if the tutorial zone still existed, as there were no longer any beasts nearby scratching to get in. As far as he could tell, the invisible wall may be still there. That is, until another dead-looking animal stumbled into the parking lot on twitching limbs and was quickly dropped by a fireball from Amy.
She snapped her book shut and lowered her hand, the undead rat smouldering on the ground, giving off a wretched smell. “Let’s also keep a lookout for a more defensible location everyone!”
There were sounds of agreement from the crowd.