ShanDeRad
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Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:56:30 +0000 UTCShaun felt the same feeling as he had when he was torn out of the bar, like he was being pulled through space, it was unpleasant but this time he had a better idea of what to expect. When he was deposited into Stage 1 of the tutorial he had opened his eyes to a dark cave and was joined by 11 other people. This time when he opened his eyes all he felt was joy, he was surrounded by tall trees, there were leaves on the ground and he could feel the sun on his face.
For a month he had been stuck in caves, barely able to see and constantly surrounded by darkness, but now he was in a forest, with nothing but trees and the open air to greet him. He sent an echo out and he could feel monsters in the forest but no people. The information he got back from his skill was a lot more overwhelming than it was in the tunnels as now he was surrounded by living things, but he felt at home.
Before he could even fully take in his surroundings he saw a chest appear at his feet, different to the ones he had seen previously, this one was silver and much more plain than the gold one he had found the Elixir. This must be the reward for Stage 1.
Reaching down he didn’t delay in opening the chest to see what was inside and what he found did not disappoint. He saw three potions, one of each of the basic ones that he had gotten when he first arrived at the tutorial, there was also a small white orb sitting amongst the potions. He picked them all up and inspected the orb.
*Tutorial Upgrade Orb – Can be used on any item received in the tutorial to increase its grade from Basic to Advanced.*
He knew what this meant, he had inspected his gear before and everything was labelled as Basic except for his sword which was already at Advanced level. He didn’t know what he wanted to use this on yet so he just put it in his inventory. Before he could do much else a notification made itself known.
*Tutorial Stage 2*
Stage 2 of the Tutorial will work to introduce you to the most common way that citizens of the Multiverse grow stronger, Dungeons.
Dungeons perform a pivotal role in a person's journey as they are a guaranteed way of being able to hunt monsters of a certain level and also provide better rewards upon completion, depending on the grade of the dungeon. For the dungeons in this tutorial rules have been put in place which only allow teams of a maximum of 5 to be able to enter. Note: Multiple teams are able to enter these dungeons at once where they will be transported to replicas of the same dungeon so as not to interfere with each other during completion of any given dungeon run. This will not stop interactions between teams before entering the dungeons.
Each dungeon is themed and no two dungeons are alike and you are not able to complete a dungeon more than once. To complete a dungeon you will need to kill the boss inside, once you enter you will not be able to leave until the boss is slain.
At the end of this stage a leader board will be provided showing the top 1000 highest individuals which will be the only ones moving on to Stage 3 of the Tutorial. This leader board will not just be based on Race levels and TE but will also incorporate Titles, Skill levels, Class, Profession and Affinity.
As per Stage 1, killing a fellow human will award 10% of their Tutorial essence if their level is below your own, 25% if on an equal level and 50% if their level is higher.
Stage 2 objectives: 17,967 Participants
Clear 3 Dungeons: Incomplete
Obtain Profession: Incomplete
Optional Objective – Form a blank Faction Emblem
Survive
A lot of new things were introduced with the announcement, first was the idea of dungeons and the impact they would have on his existence moving forward. The fact that they only allowed 5 people to enter as a team was fine as Shaun planned to do it all alone anyway, he would have to be careful though as he didn’t know how strong the monsters would be and if he entered a dungeon he had no choice but to fight the boss, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to get out and in turn would fail Stage 2.
The second thing that was cause for concern was that only the top 1000 people would be moving on to Stage 3, this meant that those that were shown in the leaderboard would be targets for those that were lower to help boost them up into making the cut.
And lastly there was the objectives, completing dungeons was something he would have done even if it wasn’t an objective so he wasn’t too stressed about that one, although three did seem a little low considering that they had 30 days to do it. This meant the dungeons took a long time to complete or there was a decent amount of travelling one had to do to find one.
Obtaining a profession was already on his to do list but the fact that others would have already completed this objective was just annoying. He still hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do, not that he had even been offered one yet, but it now became a top priority.
Something different was the optional objective, forming a blank faction emblem, which meant absolutely nothing to Shaun. He assumed that there were many factions in the Multiverse but he had no idea what that had to do with him at the moment, let alone how to start looking for pieces to form this emblem.
There was only one thing left for him to do at this point and that was to explore and try and find a dungeon. He knew his surroundings were full of monsters and he hoped that his echo would give off a different vibration when he got close to a dungeon so he would train while he walked and try and level up as he went.
As he moved the first thing he realised was that dropping into stealth was a lot harder out in the sun than it had been in the dark tunnels. He was no longer completely blending in with his surroundings and instead was only able to completely disappear when he pressed himself against the shadow of a tree and stayed very still. He was going to have to change his entire approach in the forest, not that he minded as he had been training hard with his sword and daggers and felt pretty confident in his ability to still move quickly while on the attack.
As he approached his first monster he slowed down and made sure it was alone, through his echo he picked up that it was stronger than any of the monsters in Stage 1 outside of the Alpha and he didn’t want to run in without having some idea of what he was dealing with. When he got close enough to see what it was, he was nothing but excited.
*Horned Wild Boar – Lvl 12*
I am going to get me some bacon! No more lizard and Mole Rat meat, I am finally going to get some normal food from this thing! He was over eating the same thing again and again, it was just unseasoned tough meat from monsters that one really shouldn’t be eating, but a Boar was just what he needed.
Aside from the fact it was level 12, quite a few levels higher than his usual monster, he felt like it should be easy to take down. It was big, and looking at the way it moved it wasn’t able to change directions very easily. The horns were long and pointed but that seemed to be its primary way of attacking so if he could avoid those and stay some distance away he should be fine.
He had yet to attack using his Affinity guiding a dagger and he figured that now was the perfect time to give it a try. He stood hiding behind a tree and let go of the dagger in his hand, instead of falling to the ground it stayed floating in the air, using his Earthen Echo skill he kept it on keeping track of the Boar and where it moved. Without delay he guided the dagger out from beside him until it had nothing in the way of it and the Boar, he then sent the dagger flying until it was buried in the Boars neck.
The dagger didn’t kill it, but it had hit exactly where Shaun was aiming. He could only control the dagger when it was within five metres of his body, the further it went from him the less control he could exert over the metal. The dagger hadn’t killed the Boar but it had done some damage, it seemed that the monster had a layer of Muscle and fat coating its body that meant that he would have to hit it perfectly in the head to kill it or do damage deep enough that it weakened it enough that Shaun could move in to then attack with his sword.
He moved a second dagger from his waist and followed up with a second attack just like the first and then repeated it a third time until all three of his daggers were stuck in the Boar, causing it no small amount of pain every time it moved its head around. Like he had assumed it didn’t kill it but the longer he waited the slower it became and the weaker it got. When he felt like there was little risk of the Boar being able to hurt him Shaun moved out from behind the tree and approached with his sword. The Boar immediately turned to him and charged straight his way, but it was slow, weakened and Shaun easily dodged.
Having taken the time to infuse enough mana into his sword for an Empowered Strike, just as the Boar moved past him he brought the sword down into its head. If he hadn’t empowered his attack he didn’t think that he would have been able to kill it with one swing, but after having put nearly a quarter of his mana into the skill his sword sliced straight through its head, ending the fight with his first forest monster.
*You have defeated a (Horned Wild Boar – Lvl 12). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 120 TE awarded*
He hadn’t gotten bonus experience in a while and seeing the notification pop up showing he killed a stronger opponent was great news. With the battle over, rather than use his Affinity to retrieve the daggers out of the monster’s body he got them by hand, wanting to save his mana for the next fight, he also looted the Boar as soon as he had all of his weapons back.
*Horn from (Horned Wild Boar – Lvl 12) added to inventory*
*Meat from (Horned Wild Boar – Lvl 12) added to inventory*
He had received what he had expected, a horn and meat, but Shaun was happy with what he had got, knowing that he would have fought it just for the meat. Happy with his fight and the way he was able to use the daggers he didn’t bother to stick around where he was and instead decided to go out and find his next monster.
He repeated the same process five times, each time his efficiency in bringing down the Boar’s increased until he was sending all three daggers out in a matter of seconds before joining in the fight himself and finishing up with his sword. He had also found a stream where he filled up all of his makeshift water sacks before stripping down and cleaning himself. It had been a while since he got to bathe, the last time was when he was in Ruin nearly 2 weeks prior, and he relished the feeling of being clean. He even washed all of his clothes, and laid them out to dry before he himself laid down in the sun and soaked up the much needed sunlight. He made sure to use his echo to make sure that there was nothing around him and waited for his mana to recover, even when it was back to full he decided to lay there a little longer to let his clothes dry and just bask in how good it felt to be out of those caves.
After an hour Shaun got up, knowing that he had wasted precious time but he figured he deserved the break, for an entire month he had been in darkness and to get to feel the sun again was a luxury he would never take for granted for as long as he lived. He felt bad for everyone still stuck in Stage 1, but really it was their own fault for not trying hard enough to get out and hit the objectives. After getting dressed he put back on his weapons and set out hoping that he would be able to find a dungeon shortly.
This time while he walked he identified all of the plants around him, most of it was nothing special but he did manage to locate 3 different herbs that when identified said they could either be used in alchemy or in cooking, he grabbed these and put them in his inventory to use to season his Boar meat later. After travelling for a full day he hadn’t come across any dungeons but he had felt other people through his echo, he decided to avoid them for now as if they had found a dungeon they would have been in it rather than in the forest so there was no point in asking. There was nothing else to gain by interacting with others, he didn’t need anything from them and there was always a chance that it would turn into a fight.
He decided that if he wasn’t able to find any signs of a dungeon in the next two days he would ask someone if they knew where any were located, but not before following them for a bit first and making sure they weren’t the murdering type who would try and kill him. Now with a deadline in place to find a dungeon he decided that he could use a nap before figuring out which direction he should head in.
