Greenery and... more greenery

Congratations on completing stage 2 of the tutorial early

As a bonus you receive one unnasigned stat point for every 10 hours ended early.

19 unnasigned stat points earned

Commencing stage 3 of tutorial

"Hey, wait!" Kai panicked as the familiar white light blinded his eyes. He swung his arms wildly, trying to grab at anything. His right hand connected with a water bottle, only he accidently sent it flying away.

A few moments pass and the light started to dim. It's onnly after the brightness dissapeared did Kai dare to open his eyes. Once he did open them though, he saw... A forest?

Standing somewhere in a dense forest, Kai swallowed and looks around.

The trees were gargantuan. Each was much taller than any tree on Earth, bar maybe the tallest tree in the world.

What was eerie though, was that the forest had no light. The tops of the trees blocked the sun and moon, leaving Kai in the dark.

He spotted Noelle a few metres away, looking around cautiously, but... Wait...

What happened to her robe?

Wrapped around Noelle's tanned body is a gray bodysuit with purple stripes decorating it, she also had a normal pair of boots on her feet. The iconic gray robe and bare feet look seems to be out of fashion now.

Being a polite human being and not looking at where the bodysuit hugged some... other places... Kai looked down to her waist and frowned. A scabbard is attached to her hip, a hilt poking out of it. Kai looked curiously at it and asked:

"What's in the scabbard?"

Noelle turned away from wherever she was looking and looked at Kai blankly, as if he's an idiot.

"A blade, obviously"

I know it's a damn blade, but I want to know what blade... She's intolerable, honestly.

Sighing, Kai looked down at himself and saw a similar bodysuit hugging his body, only his bodysuit is gray with an even darker shade of gray making up the stripes, while Noelle's stripes were a dark purple.

He also spotted a scabbard around his waist, only his is smaller... Pulling out the blade, he saw that it was a dagger. He lifted it up and swung it a few times, testing it.

He'd never held a dagger before, so it was a strange experience.

Noelle flinched slightly as he does this, as the dagger he has now looked like what the ghostly dagger Kai was using in Goblin mode would have looked like if it was fully formed.

Shaking her head slightly, Noelle snickered and said in a teasing tone.

"I'm sure the blade matches the person"

Taking a few seconds longer than it should've, Kai realised what she meant and scowled to hide the slight tint of red on his face.

"Have I ever teased you? No, I haven't, we are teammates after all, so why don't you be nicer?"

Kai casually forgot to mention he was terrified of her just beating him up. Even the fabric of the bodysuit around her arms struggled to hold in her muscles.

Noelle snorted and said:

"Yeah, whatever... let's go this way"

Without hesitation, Noelle left Kai behind and started walking into the dense canopy. It's as if she expects Kai to follow her like an obedient puppy!

...

He does.

Kai quickly scattered up to Noelle, catching up to her just as she stepped over a rock. Looking around at his surroundings, Kai felt nervous for some reason, as if something was watching him...

After walking to literally no where for what Kai assumed to be a few hours, Noelle decided to set up camp. They gather some firewood and Kai finally gets to see the blade hidden in Noelle's scabbard.

Noelle pulled a scimitar out of her scabbard, a goddamn scimitar. Using the back of the blade against a rock, she manages to create a spark, igniting the kindle wood and making a nice and cozy campfire, if only they had some marshmallows....

But what had Kai thinking more than wishing he had marshmallows was how Noelle can be so calm even when she has a scimitar in her hand. She's treating the blade as if it's an everyday item, like a toothbrush.

Even though they are finally out of the white room, the dense trees above them still block out the sky. The only difference between here and the white room is that in the forest it is always dark, while it the white room it was always bright... And that there is still no day and night cycle.

Sighing as he lied down on the grass, he looked over to Noelle, who was sitting on a rock while tending to her blade.

"What did you do before the Flashing?" Kai asked as he yawns softly.

Noelle paused, looking away from the blade and frowning slightly.

"The what?"

"The Flashing is what I call the bright lights that happened in the sky before this whole mess" Kai explained as he closes his eyes, talking while he tries to fall asleep.

Maybe it's just that he's tired, or maybe he's finally going slightly crazy, but for some reason this feels like an extremely nice place to rest.

Noelle's frown deepensled, after a moments she responded.

"I was... visiting a friend"

Feeling that there is a story behind those words, Kai decides not to push any further as the sweet sensation known as sleep embraces him.

Noelle continued to tend to her blade, only stopping for a moment to mumble to herself "A good friend..."

*******

And our weather forecast for today, we have dark with a chance of dark...

Kai sighed as he lifted himself up from his grass bed. Noelle set out to find some more firewood and had yet to come back, so he was all alone for now.

It had been at least a few days since they ended up in the forest, not like they can tell though...

The worst part is that for some reason, both Noelle and Kai are unable to gain XP anymore. Opening the level part of his status menu, Kai read.

Level: 10 (100 XP needed)

It doubled, the amount of XP needed to get to level ten was fifty, and now its one hundred to get to level eleven, and they can't even get the damn thing.

Kai had still been doing his exercises diligently though, at this point there is no flab left on his stomach and you can begin to see a faint... extremely faint outline of abs, nothing remotely close to Noelle's though.

Another while passed as he waited for Noelle to come back. He spent the whole time gazing up at the tree tops that were so far above him, imagining that the leaves were stars. But Kai got bored and decided to practice with his dagger again.

Taking it out of his holder, Kai tried to copy the stance Noelle taught him a few days ago. Moving slowly as he attempted to copy her movements, Kai tripped a few times but ultimately done alright. He was beginning to feel more comfortable with his blade... even if he did nick himself a few times by accident.

It's only after Kai stopped training that he panicked a little... Because the voice in his head was back.

Commencing stage 3

Setting for stage 3 is the Forest of Ethania

Stage 3 consists of 250 pairings

Points awarded for various activities, pairings will share the Points they earn

Points can be redeemed at the end of stage 3

Time remaining in stage 3 - 719: 59: 59

Sadly, just as Kai thought that was the end of the announcements, one more was whispered into his head. And it's...

Spawning in otherworldly creatures

Kai's face dropped. If they get spawned in randomly, shouldn't he and Noelle stay together? But Noelle is still not back.

Hesitating, Kai took out his dagger again and began his heroic... and probably extremely stupid quest to find Noelle so he can protect her!

...definitely not the other way around

After a few minutes of wandering in the general direction that Noelle left in, he spotted her carrying firewood while walking towards him. Smiling, Kai picked up the pace as he made his way towards her so he wouldn't be ambushed by any terrifying creatures. But for some reason, once Noelle spotted him, her eyes widened. She drops the wood and made a mad dash towards him.

Whats wrong with her? Kai wondered as he continues to walk forward... until he felt a gaze on him from behind, he didn't even need the potential powers from the Seer class he could've picked to know that he's in trouble.

Quickly turning and pulling out his dagger, he spotted what had been preying on him. A pitch black wolf with fangs the same size as his dagger was staring him down. The terryfying beast even had some drool dripping out of its mouth, as if Kai was the tastiest thing it had ever seen.

The worst part isn't that though, it's that the wolf has a third eye.

Straight on the middle of the terrifying wolf's forehead was an eye that instead of a pupil, had a crescent moon.

The moon had a slight silver glow to it. Sadly, the first time Kai got to see the moon in forever was in a situation where he was about do die.

And just as Kai managed to turn himself fully, the wolf snarled and charged... straight at him.