5 The tutorial stage

Stephan still remembered how the game proceeded. The character called Maddock was lost in his inner world; he didn't understand what was happening. "Where am I?" he asked himself.

Stephan raised his hand and felt the reverberation of his heart inside his chest trying to act like the original story, feeling alive again. He thought it wasn't his name and felt sad about it. It meant he had a life but he didn't remember it, that he wasn't some newborn baby. Though he had no recollection of his past, he knew how to speak the usual tongue. At least, that was what the character Maddock felt back then. As soon as he acted as the real Maddock, the system showed a reaction.

Now, it felt like the system talked to him instead of the previous Maddock. It was quite satisfying for him. He only had to follow the storyline and the game would progress crossing the tutorial stage. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but miss his old lifestyle. He missed seeing his monitor and anticipating the events.

"I wonder what everyone would say. I bet they will find me dead in front of the monitor. No," he readjusted his tone. "I bet they will find me till I was all worms and rotten. I admit I had a sad life. Though my followers might ask about me…" the last sentence was more of a question than a statement.

He thought of his sad life and then froze in his place, thinking about how he transmigrated to an unknown world because of a devil in disguise and with a feminine voice instructing him what to do that resembled hers. It was hard to digest, hard to think about… But he had information now; he remembered everything looked like Legend of the Past. He had to ask for more since he was in a real world now not a game. He had to know to protect himself from the treats of Masmoenia. The window appeared again this time; the voice explained some primitive facts about the world and how it worked. It was the same thing as in the game.

Stephan thought for a moment and since he was an advanced gamer, it would be better to try his attacks early. He performed the normal attack he once used but nothing came out. He panicked. It wasn't the way how things were supposed to happen. His mind raced and he thought of trying several abilities to check if he was supposed to have another one.

"Infigar," he said. It was a spell that was for fire wizards.

"Layalibarak," he tried again but nothing came out. "What with all this? It's embarrassing already to so all those fighting stances. Hey! Devil in Disguise! Your game is bugged."

No one heard him. Only the sound of a crow resounded in darkness. Kraa!!!

He shut his mouth again.

Masmoenia was a vast world with seven Empires; each holding a seat with a race of different kinds. The world was large but the Ustriestan disease took many souls within its rotten wings. No one knew why it started and why it targeted them; they only knew that they had to protect themselves from the threats. Everyone thought it was a malediction that hit every race without discrimination.

The bodies corrupted and became moving rotten corpses attacking everyone with breathing abilities, every creature showing signs of living. The Empires protected themselves with priests having the blessing of clearing the mist temporarily so they had to do it often and the giant walls that kept all monsters outside no matter their strength. It wasn't an easy task to breach a wall; it was made of unique material and stood tall for thousands of years.

The areas between the kingdoms; everything around them whether they are forests, plain prairies, former towns, everything turned into deserted lands full of monsters and miasma. Some places that were full of grudges and regrets gave birth to strong plagued creatures that no one wished to meet. Meeting one was like a certain death you could not escape.

One of the kingdoms was Valtrar and it was a mighty human Empire in the past, growing in strength day by day. However, things changed after their ruler died and the next one who took the throne couldn't keep the lands and humans were pushed to the extreme, left only with a small kingdom. There was a reason why the last kingdom wasn't attacked yet, it was because of the way it was built. The previous ruler that dated now from generations built it on a mountain, giving them the advantage of high ground. The ground wasn't plain, it was tilted and going down without passing from the main road was dangerous.

Stephan thought how the world was already hard to live in; it wasn't in any way a Utopia or Wonderland. It was a nightmare. The woman pulled him into a nightmare.

"Ugh! What the hell is happening?" he sniffed. "What a weird dream!" he was again in denial of the reality he was living. "Oh, yes, please system, don't raise "this isn't a dream flag"," he looked ahead his eyes clearly saying the corpses that were pulled inside the ground. "I've thought life was a shitty game all the time I spent in it. A countless number of times, I thought it was an impossible game to win… And now, it's finally bugged out. There is a bug," his tears started falling. "It finally hit the error button."

Back then, when Stephan played Legend of the Past, he didn't ponder about the reason why Maddock didn't turn into one of the undead. The rules stated that once touched by the mist holding the Ustriestan, anyone would turn into a monster. However, Maddock didn't turn even with the lack of a blessing.

"Why was Maddock exiled from Valtrar to the plague lands? Why didn't Maddock turn into one of the monsters?"

"Great," he scuffed. "What should I do now?" he kept walking under the protection of the system. The undead wasn't around and he didn't have to fight anyone. Stephan thought the best thing to do was to reach the closest safe area and a place that wasn't Valtrar.

He kept walking and at a moment, he saw a huge dragon flying in the sky. It was big enough to hide the light that pierced the fog and made it black again.

It was clearly like the game. The first moments were to show the player how to use the weapons and how to attack and defend himself. Stephan observed the wooden wand in his hand completely doubtful it would work then performed a normal attack by directing the tip of the wand ahead. He was surprised when the attack worked and a small ball of light flashed before him hitting the tree.

"Oh, so I had to progress into the tutorial to be able to do that. Such a stupid act from me! I am a disgrace to Beta players. I should have known that," he forced a serious face but he ended up smiling from ear to ear. "Now, let's complete this tutorial."

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