ShanDeRad
patreon
Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:06:04 +0000 UTCAfter what felt like being ripped through space, Shaun opened his eyes to see where he had ended up and if he was in immediate danger. Around him were rock walls on every side, he was in what looked to be a small chamber which was illuminated by streaks of glowing blue veins running through the walls. Although he could barely see through the darkness there was just enough light to make out two exits to the small area he was in. Thankfully Shaun wasn’t afraid of the dark, in fact as a kid he had always enjoyed exploring old mining caves that used to be near a mountain where he spent some time growing up.
Looking down at himself he could see that he was no longer wearing what he had on at the bar, instead he could only describe his new outfit as something straight out of a game. He had on dark leather pants that hugged close to his legs, a dark shirt and a full-length shawl. He had a belt along his waist, attached to it were 2 daggers in sheaths as well as a small pouch.
Flashes started going off around him and Shaun covered his eyes to the blinding light, when they stopped he could see 11 other people in the chamber with him. He could see Michael standing next to him in what looked to be a metal armour plate covering his chest and a sword on his hip. He must have chosen the Warrior class Shaun thought to himself, fitting that he would want to be a knight in shining armour protecting others. Gabriel, another one of his coworkers, was on his other side dressed similarly to Shaun but with a bow and a quiver of arrows on his back, clearly an Archer. In the chamber he also saw the rest of his team that he was at the bar with, Danielle who was dressed in white loose clothes with no weapon to be seen, Richard also dressed as a warrior and Jessica dressed similarly to Danielle but instead of stark white clothes she was in green and had what looked to be a wand on her waist. So that would make Danielle a Healer and Jessica a Mage, at least it’s easy to identify everyone’s classes. Shaun observed.
Shaun had to hold back a groan as he looked at the rest of the people in the chamber that were with him, Trevor was there also dressed as a warrior and the rest of his team standing on either side of him, Of the 5 people in Trevor’s team one was an Archer, two Mages, another Rogue like Shaun and another warrior.
Just as everyone in the chamber was getting their bearings on where they were, a notification popped into view in front of Shaun.
*Title earned: New Initiate*
*New Initiate: Having successfully entered the tutorial after gaining a class you are now a citizen of the Multiverse. Race skills unlocked: Universal Tongue, Inventory, Loot the Dead, Identify*
*Skill Gained*: [Unique] Universal Tongue (Level N/A) – Allows communication with all sapient races of the Multiverse regardless of language spoken.
*Skill Gained*: [Unique] Inventory (Level N/A) – Provides a personal inventory where you can store items with capacity being determined by Race level.
*Skill Gained*: [Unique] Loot the Dead (Level N/A) – Provides the ability to pull resources from the recently killed.
*Skill Gained*: [Unique] Identify (Level N/A) – Used to gain information on an object or being including details on rarity and uses.
Didn’t think it would be that easy to gain a title, not that it is unique, everyone should be getting this. Shaun thought.
“What the hell is –“
“This is insane”
“Where are we”
“This isn’t possible, this has to be a−“
Even with everyone trying to talk over one another Shaun could hear someone starting to cry, which then started turning into uncontrolled sobbing, looking around he saw Danielle with tears running down her face looking like she may be close to completely breaking down.
“Think we should do something?” Gabriel said in a whisper next to Shaun.
Before Shaun could reply Michael walked across the chamber to Danielle and started speaking to her in a soft calm tone. “It’s going to be alright, we are all going to be fine. We are here together and we will get through this−”
“Quiet everybody!” Trevor shouted above everyone else, causing everyone to stop and stare at him “Will you shut her up!” he directed at Danielle. “Look around you, we are alone in some sort of underground cave with nothing but rock surrounding us. If you keep making so much noise, who knows what might come looking for us. Idiots. Everyone stay quite.”
That has to be the most intelligent thing I have ever heard him say, Shaun thought to himself as he watched everyone now scanning the trees like something was going to jump out and eat them at any moment.
*Tutorial sequence complete*
Welcome to your tutorial citizens of Earth. Over the course of the next 90 days you will be introduced to the most important part of the Multiverse, Power Rules. The strong will rise to the top while the weak are left behind to die, this is the way in which those that rule operate. This tutorial will be done in 3 stages with different tasks needing to be completed to move to the next stage. Failure to complete all tasks in a stage will result in not being able to move forward and benefiting from the rewards provided upon completion. Each stage will last 30 days, completing all tasks must be done by the end of the 30th day, early complementation of tasks will allow for better rewards at the end of each stage.
When working your way through the tutorial you will encounter monsters. By killing a monster you will gain experience to allow you to grow to a higher level. Within the tutorial you will also be able to earn Tutorial Essence at a set amount depending on the level of the monster slain, the higher the level the more essence awarded. At the end of each stage a leader board will be provided showing the most powerful individuals in the tutorial.
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 1 objectives: 100,000 participants
Collect a total of 10,000 Tutorial Essence (TE)
Reach level 10
Survive
As Shaun reread the message a few things became clear, the first being why each of the classes he had to choose from had detailed both their ability to do damage and also what defences they had. This system had made it clear that if he was going to make it through this alive he was going to need to not only fight but kill monsters to gain both levels and TE. It did raise some questions, if each monster had a set amount of TE, and he assumed experience, would this impact the amount each person got if they were fighting as a group or fighting alone? If this got split between a group, that meant each person would get less depending on how many people were fighting vs getting it all if they were fighting alone. The message saying that the strong rise and the weak are left behind solidified this idea as if you were strong you could fight with less people in your group, or even alone, meaning you would gain levels quicker and then fight stronger monsters, where as if you had to fight with a much larger party because you were weaker it meant that it would be that much harder to gain the experience needed to level up.
10,000 TE was needed to reach the objective along with hitting level 10 in 30 days, if you didn’t hit both of these objectives you would be left behind, with the weak, where as those that did manage to complete these goals and even do better than what was set out in the task would move on and be rewarded. The worst thing in the message wasn’t that he would need to fight monsters, Shaun had expected something like this, it was the clear implication on what would happen when someone killed another person. If you killed another person you would get part of their TE, and although that didn’t make sense to do now, some people would not hesitate to take another life to help raise them up the leaderboard and get better rewards. Shaun made a promise to himself that he would not turn into one of those people who went around killing others for their TE, and he knew that there would be people out there who would turn to killing people rather than monsters, as eventually they would give a lot more TE. He would defend himself if someone came for him, but he wouldn’t lose his humanity just because the world had gone to hell and they now had to fight to survive.
“Shaun, you alright there. You look completely out of it” Michael said with a worried look on his face, like he thought he was going to break down at any second.
Looking around everyone was staring at him, looking like they were expecting an answer to a question he hadn’t heard. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about what this means. Why?” Clearly he had missed something while he was breaking down the notification, berating himself, he knew he had to pay more attention. If he got distracted at the wrong moment and wasn’t paying attention to what was happening around him he could easily end up dead.
“We were just talking about what we will be doing next, we can't keep standing here and wait for something to find us. We need to find food, water and somewhere safe to stay otherwise we won't survive, even if no monsters get us.” It made sense, standing in a chamber in the middle of a cave system like this was like inviting a monster to come have a snack. “We were all just checking over what we had on us that might help, check the pouch on your belt you should have potions in there, one for Health, Stamina and Mana.”
Shaun looked in the small pouch and found the three small vials, one red, one yellow and one blue, not having any idea which one was for health and which for mana he decided that now would be a great time to see how his Identify skill worked.
*[Basic] Health Potion – Restores 100 Health Points*
*[Basic] Stamina Potion – Restores 100 Stamina*
*[Basic] Mana Potion – Restores 100 Mana*
The Identify skill seemed pretty easy to use, focus on something with the purpose of wanting to identify what it is and then the notification will come up. Returning the potions to his pouch he looked at Michael wanting to see if it would work on a person rather than an item.
*Michael Rife – Warrior – Level 0*
It didn’t show much, just his name, class and level, nothing on his skills or stats. Looking around he identified everyone in the chamber and when his eyes landed on Trevor, he was looking back at him with a sneer on his face and then looked away to talk to one of his team.
“We need to decide if we are going to stick together, all of us here, all 12 of us, until we get to safety or whether we are going to split the group.” Michael said in the voice he usually used in the office when he needed everyone to pay attention to him and take him seriously.
“I’m sticking with the group, no way am I going out there alone. We need as many people as we can to stick together to make sure we stay safe”
Shaun looked at Gabriel who had just spoken and when looking at everyone else from his old team they were all nodding alone with him. Seeing that everyone had agreed to stick together Shaun nodded in agreement, staying together meant a better chance of staying alive.
“Trevor, are you sticking with us?” Michael looked over at the other group gathered on the other side of the chamber.
“And why should we stick with you, you have never been useful for anything before, why would that change now?”
Shaun hoped that would be the end of it, Trevor would take his team and walk away through one of the cave openings, then we could go in the opposite cave and we wouldn’t have to see them again. He didn’t know why Michael invited them, they had never gotten along and he figured in a life and death situation if Trevor was meant to have his back it would mean he would end up dead.
“Because we have the only healer” Michael said looking at Danielle, who still didn’t look like she was coping well with everything that was happening.
Trevor turned around and spoke to his team, none looking very happy with the situation before finally turning back to Michael “I guess we will all be one happy team then, for now anyway”
“Anyone have any ideas on which way to head first?” looking around at everyone who was shaking their head “Okay let’s head this way.” Michael said, pointing to one of the two tunnel openings, because really each way looked exactly the same. Everyone followed behind Michael who started venturing into one of the tunnels with Trevor walking up to stand at the lead right next to him, the rest of us fell in line after them.
Shaun took one final look around, he was unsure why but he felt good, excited for what was to come. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath he felt like his life was just beginning, being surrounded by the earth rather than the busy streets and tall buildings of his old life, he felt ready to fight, and as he opened his eyes he smiled. He had decided he wasn’t going to be one of the weak, he was going to do all he could to grow and be one of the strong.
