Two combatants stand opposite each other.No words are said; no sounds are made.
It all starts in the blink of an eye.
One moment, you see them.
The next moment, both disappear in blurs, the clash of weapons the only sounds that echo in a town that had been abandoned in haste.
Swords are swung with such force that the dust covering the town is disturbed for each strike, echoing the ferocity of the ongoing battle.
"Pin down its wrist with the Swiftstone.
Then stab it with the Stinger!"
The sheer intensity of the fighting came from the fact that now, defense was not accounted for any longer.
Jake Smithson did not purchase any defensive skills for this fight: he went all-in with his points towards improving his offensive capabilities.
He would have put in some points for defending himself, however, the 210,000 points he had in store for installment purposes went like water through his fingers as he picked out the best weapons and skills for his plan to work.
It was extravagance, and it was madness, but to Jake, there was a method to this particular madness.
In order for him to defend himself, he had to constantly press the attack, and give the Skeleritter no chance to counterattack.
Thanks to his new skills, he was able to parry a knife hand heading to his right side with the Swiftstone on his left hand.
The improved strength and skill allowed him to wield a weapon as huge and heavy as the Swiftstone with only one hand, but it wasn"t as powerful as Jake had wanted – and he paid for it, with the parry causing his wrists to twinge painfully.
"Dual Wield!" Jake declared, turning the active component of his pa.s.sive skill on.
Since the Skeleritter was caught off-balance with the parry, Jake found an opening and thrust his Stinger forward with his right, catching the Skeleritter on its side with an ungainly squeak like nails on a chalkboard.
It would normally be unpleasant to hear, but when Jake saw a chunk of the Skeleritter worn away by the stab, he smiled.
"I didn"t score a direct hit, but I got a scratch on him! Great!
The attack worked, but it"s too early in the fight to be happy, because the Skeleritter at its current form could take me out with one stab and end the fight immediately."
Once he heard the grating of his Stinger cutting through the monster"s body, he pulled his left foot back and spun around to the monster"s right side in one fluid motion.
Jake intended to use the advantage of his weapons" reach to the fullest, and thus backed up to the best distance where his weapons would work the best.
The Skeleritter didn"t miss a beat and ignored its injury, flashing towards him with its hands shaped into blades to punch through this impertinent awakener.
It swung its left hand upward, aiming for Jake"s neck, and the Swiftstone went up, protecting him from the brunt of the blow – but it wasn"t enough. Apparently, the monster put a lot of its momentum into the blow, and one sword wouldn"t be enough to block it.
Jake obliged, using the Stinger to both aid the block and deflect the attack away from him in one movement.
Once the monster"s arm finished swinging upward, hitting nothing but air, Jake was prepared to strike its unprotected side… only for the Skeleritter to step back, its teeth rattling oddly.
"About time! All those hits are beginning to take its toll on this b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
He saw thin streamers of black powder begin to fall from the scratches he made on the Skeleritter"s arms and torso, to the point where its left arm began to droop a bit.
"I"m close to taking out its left hand. Let"s see what this thing does!" Jake thought as he tested out his on-the-spot a.s.sessment, swinging the Swiftstone in a wide, horizontal arc, aiming to make it block with its already-injured left arm.
And then the Skeleritter did what Jake never thought it would do: it retreated.
The Swiftstone, still glowing with its enchantment, loomed menacingly in front of the monster. The Skeleritter, sensing its mortality, chose to retreat and not counterattack for the first time in this battle.
But Jake wasn"t done – he moved with the slash, placing his right foot forward, and thrust forward with the Stinger Stiletto, trying to follow up his slash with another attack, a thrust that narrowed the distance between weapon and target the fastest.
The Skeleritter tried to retreat further, but the thrust was faster, and the Stinger was aiming for its center of ma.s.s…
A clattering of teeth and unpleasant creaking later, the Skeleritter sported yet another crack in its body, this one larger than before.
And before it could step back again, down went the Swiftstone, the scent of cherry blossoms the only warning the monster got before the weapon bore down towards its defenseless neck.
***
"I... I"m out of my league here…"
During the battle between Jake Smithson and the second form of the Skeleritter, Liam was in a safe distance away, watching the battle and realizing that there was no room for him to join the fight and help – he"d just get caught in the buzz saw of action and get ripped to pieces.
Despite his skills and smarts, he"d end up getting in Jake"s way.
It was a very bitter pill for him to swallow.
"I need to get stronger… faster. The gap between him and me is enormous. I have to at least bridge that gap somehow, some way…"
He grit his teeth as he watched the battle, an oath to never feel this helpless ever again carved deeply within him.
Liam barely missed it, but he saw the moment everything changed – the scent of cherry blossoms wafting to his nostrils helped.
A loud bang echoed through the abandoned town of Brino as Jake"s larger sword hit straight and true, directly towards where the Skeleritter"s neck met its shoulder.
Instead of the grating sound of friction when sword and monster met, several cracks began to ring out from the monster"s neck: soft at first, but slowly growing louder and louder…
…until the mortally-wounded Skeleritter collapsed into chunks and dust onto the town square of Brino.
The larger bits that made up the monster began to ooze black powder as the silence of night returned to the ghost town, with Jake"s fatigued breaths the only remaining noise.
[Skeleritter, second phase, down.]
[The last calamity-cla.s.s boss monster within the 11thtutorial area has been defeated.]
The notification of its final defeat reverberated throughout the 11th tutorial area, signifying the end of their troubles.
"Finally!" Jake roared as he sank to his knees and raised his arms in triumph. "My beloved bed, my couch! I"ve finally avenged you!"
And, true to form, Jake was ecstatic to have exacted revenge over the monster"s shoddy treatment of his property, and winning the wager to keep his Swiftstone Sword.
Taking back Brino and minimizing the casualties from this calamity-cla.s.s boss fight was a minor concern to him.
"And you," he added, embracing the larger weapon, "I"m so sorry I put you up to that. I"m going to be a better master for you from this point onward."
His plat.i.tudes were interrupted when another notification entered his frame of view.
[For defeating the third calamity-cla.s.s monster, you have gained 100,000 points.]
Jake could only gasp in delight; this was better news than the notification that the Skeleritter was indeed defeated.
After he was brought back to reality, all he could let out was a low whistle of amazement.
"One hundred thousand points?
I got one hundred thousand points, just for one monster alone?
This is just a bit under half of my monthly installments!"
Defeating its minions continuously and farming them for points got him 210,000 points, enough to pay for all his installments at once.
And now this? He had 100,000 more points for defeating this monster.
"Sometimes you have to slay the golden goose," Jake thought, suddenly becoming wistful.
"I wish I realized it sooner…"
To him, there was a golden opportunity in front of him that he failed to take full advantage of.
His fists were clenched in regret when another notification came in.
[You have gained an additional reward for being the first tutorial area to defeat the third calamity-cla.s.s boss monster.]
[For this achievement, you are hereby given 100,000 points.]
Wait.
WHAT?!
Jake"s emotions were in turmoil; he was wistful at his chance for additional profit gone, but this reward? He just needs 10,000 more points to be able to pay off the second installment he took out just to defeat the Skeleritter.
"Four hundred and twenty thousand points… I can"t stand up," Jake realized, the sudden developments giving him actual whiplash, making him dizzy.
"I can"t stand up! I"m either too tired or too hyped up to stand. Whoa."
However, as soon as the voice from heaven called out, all the awakeners within Brino heard the instructions.
[Congratulations on a job well done, awakeners of Brino! Your tutorial period has ended. Once the tutorial periods of all other areas have terminated, all surviving awakeners will be transported to the main hub of Nohas: the city of Kingsville.]
"Tutorial period has ended?" Jake asked.
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What this meant was that defeating the Skeleritter meant the end of the tutorial period – now that the tutorial has ended, there is no longer any purpose to stay within Brino.
A new chapter of life in Nohas is set to begin for the surviving awakeners of Brino.
***
Brino is also known as the 11th Tutorial Area.
It"s named as such, because it is made for those who have been newly transported to the world of Nohas.
It was a measure made in order for those who have been newly transported to Nohas to accustom themselves to life in that world: easier monsters, less challenging dungeons... it"s a part of the world that is made safer so awakeners can grow stronger with comparatively little risk to their lives.
It is also where three calamity-cla.s.s boss monsters are made to attack their villages, in order for them to prepare for the harsh reality of life outside the Tutorial Area.
If Tutorial Areas did not exist, nearly every awakener that starts off within Nohas would be dead – that is how dangerous this world outside of the Tutorial Area is.
You also have to take into account others who have been transported to Nohas before this group of awakeners – they have had the time to grow stronger.
[Area 11 has completed the Tutorial. Brino has defeated the Skeleritter.]
"Oh my, what a pleasant surprise."
"We should prepare a welcome for these folks when they show up."
The monsters outside Brino are an entire order of magnitude more terrifying than what came before.
"Indeed… and show them what the real world is like."
It is a dreadful welcome for those who have just finished the tutorial and are just beginning to enter Nohas proper.
But, for the sake of everybody involved, the tutorial ends when all regions complete theirs, and there are three conditions that must be met for the tutorial period to finish.
The first condition is the defeat of the third calamity-cla.s.s boss monster.
The second condition is the death of all awakeners within the tutorial area.
The third condition is when the entire duration of the tutorial elapses.
When every tutorial area meets one of these conditions, the tutorial period is over, and every surviving awakener is transported to Kingsville, where their real adventure begins.
"Well, let"s get started. That welcome won"t prepare itself."
"Right you are. This is the part of the year that I look forward to the most."
Most tutorial regions meet these conditions at more or less the same time: no matter the difference in skill, power and/or talent between the awakeners between regions, there is simply not enough time to develop a gap in ability within the tutorial area.
The fact that the items and skills available in the tutorial are limited is another factor that deters awakeners within the tutorial areas from growing too strong.
This is the reason why the other more experienced awakeners now stalk the streets of Kingsville, awaiting the transport of awakeners into their city at any moment now.
"I hope we find some decent awakeners here."
"Well, we"ll find out soon enough. Get ready, anddon"t make us look bad."
"If you see Kingsville, you"ll understand, right?"
Many of these huge cities exist in Nohas – Kingsville, in particular, is the city where awakeners summoned from the Far East gather after the tutorial.
When compared to Kingsville, Brino looks like a mud hut. Thanks to the awakeners that went before them, the city of Kingsville was expanded, developed and beautified.
These advances went in a different direction than that of cities in the world where the newest batch of awakeners came from, but the change in atmosphere and advances in development made Brino look... quotidian, in comparison.
"So… all we have to do is wait?"
***
One day.
Two days.
The awakeners within Kingsville soon found their antic.i.p.ation being replaced by annoyance.
"A one- or two-day difference should be enough, right?"
One week later, and the annoyance turnedinto irritation.
"Are you a bunch of losers who can"t get things done? What"s causing you to drag your heels and not finish the tutorial?" one of the awakeners asked.
"Maybe the first one who finished is the exception, not the rule?" another awakener asked back, and the annoyed awakener, having his question answered, just let out an exasperated sigh and walked back to his friends.
A gap of one week and counting between the defeat of the third calamity-cla.s.s boss monster in one tutorial area and another implied a significant gap in skill.
The awakeners in Kingsville realized this, and since they knew that there was a limit to the power one gains in the tutorial area, whether solo or in a team, they surmised that the awakeners who would end up transported to where they were would be weaker than the average awakener starting out proper.
"I wonder, though… when will it finish?"
Days pa.s.sed into weeks, and it was a month that pa.s.sed until the next few notifications came in of tutorial areas being completed, and one awakener in Kingsville made the mood of everyone known.
"It"s just a matter of time now…" and when everyone turned their eyes on him, he shrunk into himself from the sudden attention.
More and more notifications of the third calamity-cla.s.s boss monster being defeated across multiple tutorial areas were being heard, and eventually, the time finally came: a full forty-five days after the first notification arrived.
[All Area Tutorials completed. All awakeners from Tutorial Areas 1 to 15 will now be summoned to Kingsville.]
[To all awakeners in Kingsville: Please clear the novice arrival area in fifteen minutes.]
The notification came, and everyone was finally ready to welcome the newest batch of awakeners.
It came in a big beam of blue light in the town square, dubbed the "Reception Area" by a few awakeners some time back, and later adopted by everyone else, and within the beam of light, awakeners were taken from their respective tutorial areas, and brought to Kingsville: everyone from Area 1 to Area 15.
"Ah?" an awakener asked in consternation.
"Where are you?" another awakener called back.
"I"m here!" the first one replied.
"Is the tutorial over now?" a third one called out, nearly every awakener reacting with surprise as they were transported from the Tutorial Area to a new place.
A few months after being transported from their world into a new one would be a life-changing experience to some, but to them, it was a minor novelty, as they had grown accustomed to life in their own Tutorial Areas.
It still didn"t stop most of them from being surprised at the transportation: after all, one moment you were doing your own business, the other minute a circle of light sprouts at your feet and you"re in another place.
Though there were a lot of casualties in tutorial areas 1 to 15, the total number of awakeners who made it to Kingsville was still an impressively large one.
"Did you make it?"
"I did! This place is nowhere near as that town, isn"t it?"
The new arrivals looked around, their view of the city filling them with awe, as the tutorial area"s village was nowhere near as beautiful as what they have seen.
A lot of buildings were lining the streets, and a lot of shops were also open and doing business – the large amount of people moving to and fro gave the city a living, breathing heart, something the beginner village didn"t seem to have, in hindsight.
"This place is wonderful."
"They look like they"ve been living here for quite some time!" another new arrival said, gesturing towards one of the stores, where several people were browsing the displays.
"Let"s go and meet them!"
This group of new arrivals wanted to immediately take in the sights and sounds of the new place they found themselves in, only to run into another group of awakeners.
"Hold it right there," one of them said, their presence intimidating the new arrivals into stopping. "Congratulations, the tutorial is over for you. You think you"re done? You"ve just started. And we"re here to give you the customary welcome for new arrivals in this town."
n.o.body among the new arrivals dared step forward, as the instincts they honed through battling both monsters and calamity-cla.s.s bosses said that these awakeners were a lot stronger than them.
More awakeners arrived, and were met with the same group, and they found a spot in the town square where they could talk and plan for this new development.
"We"re here to see how strong you folks are, and screen you, weed out the weak among you. Right now… what is that racket?"
The awakener leading the group who intimidated the new arrivals was interrupted by something.
The blue light was still bringing in new arrivals, and someone arrived with a smile on his face and a song on his lips.
"WELL IT"S ANOTHER ONE, OUT OF BRINO ONE, NOHAS RUNNING "EM!"
"Who"s making a lot of noise now! Can"t you see we"re talking about something important?" the man asked, but his shout couldn"t match the sheer volume of the voice that just came out of the blue light.
"TROUBLESOME, EXTRA DOUBLE DUMB, I COME TO BEAT "EM!"
A man emerged, and the crowd of awakeners parted before him.
"DEFEAT "EM AND MISTREAT "EM, AND NO, I AM NOT CHEATING!"
The way he looked drew amazed stares from everyone, even the awakener trying to intimidate the new arrivals.
"What"s he wearing?"
"He looks like he"s dressed to the nines or something, that outfit"s fancy!"
"Ten rings on each finger?"
"Two necklaces?"
"A gold wrist.w.a.tch and a gold pocket.w.a.tch?"
"What kind of armor is that?"
"Two swords? A large one and a spare?"
"NOW EVERYONE WANTS TO SOUND… GRIMY!"
The man stopped singing and fixed the awakener blocking the way of the new arrivals with barely-concealed contempt.
He spoke, gazing at the man with a solemn look full of anger, his ears pierced with annoyance.
"When I walk in the spot, this is what I see: everybody stops, they"re staring at me," the man continued, before his voice dropped from a jovial song to a deadly whisper. "So… you want to feel like starting something?"
There were forty-five days between the 11th Tutorial Area finishing off the third calamity-cla.s.s boss monster and their summoning to Kingsville.
Forty-five days to go on an absolutely bats.h.i.t insane shopping spree.
After that, it was time for the man known as Jake Smithson to take his first steps into the world beyond Brino.
***