Chapter 3 - The Tutorial Pt. 1

The status board continued,

[ Welcome to the tutorial, hunter. This is an area designed to raise your level before the calamity can claim your life. As you can tell from your status board, you are quite weak now. However, you have unlimited potential for growth. First, we will spawn in a wolf. Kill it. ]

After it finishes speaking a red wolf spawns ten feet in front of Edward, and immediately starts charging him. "WAIT, FU-" Edward yelps as he is bitten in the leg. 'URRRRRGH THAT HURT!' Edward glances at his status and notices that he lost 10 HP. 'That much pain and I only lost 10 health?'

[ COMMON PASSIVE SKILL GAINED: LESSER PAIN TOLERANCE – You feel a little less pain when injured ]

'Shit, how do I get items out of my inventory!' As Edward thinks inventory, his status board turns into his inventory board. 'HOW DO I GET OUT THE SW-' "AGH," Edward screams as he's bit on the back by the wolf.

[ Hunters should learn to keep their eyes on their enemies ]

It seems that losing another 15 health did indeed teach Edward a lesson, since he now wouldn't let the wolf get behind him. 'Urgh, maybe it works just like switching to inventory, so if I think about the sword and shield, they'll appear' As he finishes thinking that the sword and shield appear in from of him as wireframes. He reaches out and grabs them as they materialize in his hand. The wolf starts charging him again, however this time he blocks it with his shield, and he hears a cracking noise. He looks at the wolf and sees that its snout is broken and pouring blood after that charge. He then decides to get more aggressive and charges the wolf with his red and gold sword, slashes down at it, and manages to hit it. However, he has never learned how to use a sword, so his edge alignment was off, and he only cut the wolf lightly on the side.

The wolf then retreated, but Edward wasn't letting it off that easily. He charged forward again, trying to hit it with the rim of the shield in a downward motion. He managed to connect with it, hitting the wolf on its spine, breaking its back, and paralyzing its lower half. While it was pinned, he takes the sword and stabs it through the chest.

[ LESSER DIREWOLF SLAIN ]

[ 100 XP GAINED ]

[ PASSIVE SKILL APPLIED ]

[ 200 XP GAINED ]

[ LEVEL UP! ]

[ LEVEL UP! ]

[ XP: 2 / 135 ]

[ HP: 275 / 300 ]

[ ACTIVE SKILLS GAINED - SLASH, STAB, SPRINT, SHIELD BASH ]

PASSIVE SKILLS GAINED - LESSER MENTAL FORTITUDE, LESSER SWORD MASTERY, LESSER SHIELD MASTERY ]

[ ALL STATS +10, UNUSED POINTS + 10 ]

Edward feels a tingling sensation like ants in his muscles, bones, and mind as the changes he experienced begin to be brought into his mind. He feels as though he has trained with a sword and shield all his life, and that his body and mind have become stronger than ever before. Before he has any time to celebrate his victory, his status board starts again,

[ Congratulations, starting tutorial 2 of 10 ]

[ Spawning Goblin Warrior ]

Edward raises his shield, anticipating the next enemy's attack. A small green creature spawns in and immediately runs at him with a small iron dagger, stabbing at him. Edwards' reaction time is now double what it used to be, so he easily moves the shield in front of him, deflecting the attack. He then counters, using the skill slash to cut the creatures arm off. Having gained the lesser sword mastery skill, he is easily able to keep his edge aligned, and slices through the creature's arm and into its leg fileting a piece of its leg meat to the bone. This attack causes the creature to go into shock, passing out after grabbing its wound. Edward takes the opportunity and stabs the goblin through its chest.

[ GOBLIN WARRIOR SLAIN ]

[ 300 XP GAINED ]

[LEVEL UP X 2 ]

[ XP : 12 / 180 ]

[ HP : 375 / 400 ]

[ ACTIVE SKILL RANK UPS –SLASH 5%, STAB 2% ]

[ PASSIVE SKILL RANK UPS - LESSER MENTAL FORTITUDE 20%, LESSER SWORD MASTERY 1%, LESSER SHIELD MASTERY 1% ]

[ ALL STATS +10, UNUSED STATS +10 ]

[ SKILL POINT +1 ]

[ SKILL STORE ACTIVATED ]

[ HP RECOVERED]

[ 10 MINUTE GRACE PERIOD STARTED ]

'I thought I'd have more trouble with killing things. Especially humanoid things. I guess mental fortitude is an important skill to have. So, what's this skill store about?'

[ Skill store: If you think of a skill and it's part of the system, you may be able to buy it using skill points ]

'Oh wow! This is probably where I can start getting magic skills.'

[ Magic skills selected. ]

[ Narrowing search results to skills purchasable now. ]

[ 2 skills detected ]

[ Mana Manipulation ]

[ Mana Sense ]

'How can I manipulate mana without mana sense? That'd be like trying to shoot a gun I don't know how to use. Maybe I can try to get mana manipulation like how I got slash.' Edward thinks for a few seconds and says, " Alright I guess I kinda have to choose mana sense."

[ Are you sure? ]

"Yes."

[ Passive Skill Mana Sense acquired! ]

Edward feels the same tingling feeling he felt in his mind before and begins to feel a new sensation. As he looks around, he feels a slightly warm feeling in the air, and realizes that feeling is also inside of his body. After a while, the warm feeling subsides, but he is still able to sense it flowing around him. He thinks about this feeling and tries to move it around his body only to find that moving this through his body leads to an intense burning sensation like stomach acid where he moves it. "AAAAAGH!" Edward can't help but groan after feeling it go through his chest and arm. He lays down putting pressure on his arm, as his eyes start to moisten up. After five minutes of this, he stops feeling pain and looks up to find a status board in front of him.

[ Mana pathways completed 1 / 20 ]

[ Pathways are located as follows:

Left Arm : 1

Right Arm : 2

Left Leg : 2

Right Leg : 2

Chest: 6

Head : 10 ]

'Yeah, let's not do that anymore.'

[ Active skill gained – Lesser Mana Manipulation ]

'… guess I'm gonna have to do that again…'

[ 10 seconds left in grace period ]

Edward stands up, grabs his sword and shield, and gets into a ready stance.

[ Spawning Lesser Orc Warrior ]

Edward tenses a little at the thought of fighting an Orc, as from what he remembered from games, movies, and novels, they were supposed to be bigger and stronger than an average adult male. He looks in the direction of the colorful particles forming the creature and sees a human sized Orc standing in front of him with a wooden club and wooden shield. 'I guess Lesser Orcs are human sized. Even though he's not as big as I thought I need to be careful. He's probably much smarter than the other monsters I fought.'

The orc stands in a fighting position like the one Edward is in, however it has the confidence of a warrior. It starts moving toward him slowly, not leaving any openings perceptible by Edward. After a good minute of sizing each other up, the orc sends a punch flying toward Edward, which he attempts to block. The orc then swings his club at Edward hitting him in the arm his sword is in, disarming him.

[ 50 HP LOST ]

Edward clenches his teeth and holds his shield with both hands before attempting to counter and stab the orc with the point of his shield. This takes the orc by surprise, as he had thought this human was weak and scared. Edward hits the orc right in its ribs, cutting it with the sharp end of his shield. The orc doubles over and retreats five steps back before glaring at Edward, only to find the human has picked up his sword and is currently charging at him with eyes full of determination. Edward attempts to stab the orc using his momentum as he thrusts forward, to be met with a shield that his sword stabs through like butter, and into the orc's chest. He then pulls the sword back out, attempting to slash sideways through the orcs neck. The orc lifts its club to desperately attempt a block, and watches in horror as the sword cuts clean through his club, into his jaw, and out the other side. The orc drops to its knees, and Edward walks up to it and kicks it, causing the top of its head to fall to the side while its jaw and neck stay in the same position.

[ LESSER ORC WARRIOR DEFEATED ]

[ 500 XP GAINED]

[ LEVEL UP x2 ]

[ XP : 107 / 270 ]

[ HP : 450 / 500 ]

[ ACTIVE SKILL UPGRADES WILL NOW BE DONE IN THE BACKGROUND ]

[ NEW ACTIVE SKILLS – LESSER SHIELD ATTACK: An attack aimed at a shield ]

[ NEW PASSIVE SKILLS – LESSER BATTLE CONCENTRATION – OPENINGS ARE EASIER TO FIND ]

[ ALL STATS +10, UNUSED STATS +10 ]

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[ STATUS]

Name: Edward Knight

Race: Lesser Human

Title: Ornaum Hunter

LVL: 7 [ 107 / 270 ]

HP: 450 / 500

MP: 4000 / 4000

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Strength: 40

Agility: 40

Dexterity: 40

Vitality: 50

Perception: 40

Wisdom: 40

Unused Stats: 30

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Active Abilities: Slash, Stab, Sprint, Lesser Shield Attack, Lesser Mana Manipulation

Passive Abilities: Ornaum Privilege, Pain Tolerance, Mana Sense, Lesser Battle Concentration, Lesser Mental Fortitude, Lesser Sword Mastery, Lesser Shield Mastery

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Items: Ornaum shortsword, Ornaum kite-shield, 50 Ornaum ingots

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Mana Pathways Open – 1 / 20