Tutorial Day 20

  My arrival at the Northern Forest was met with zero fanfare. No groups were milling about at its edges, but I could see the signs that many of those same groups were hard at work. Thanks to the multitude of Skinned and Butchered Borkers.

  Blinking, I considered something I probably should have done a few weeks ago. Everyday, there were more Borkers here to slaughter—more Herbs and Fruits to pick. Was this place acting like a Permanent Portal but resetting daily? My mind boggled at the sheer wealth that was available in the Tutorial.

  I had originally assumed that the Borkers were being drawn back to the edges of the forest by the corpses of their fellows—which I had no doubt they would eat. However, that didn’t explain the red plaques I could see in areas that I definitely had noticed none in yesterday.

  Plus, if I had been thinking—I would have realized that the areas nearest the Town would have long since been over hunted and gathered from. There was no other explanation but the System replenishing resources. Again, if I had Smegma with me—if he was still alive—I’m sure he would have pointed it out, or forced me to think about it a bit.

  There was one positive to my arrival at this time. With no groups in sight, I was now mostly certain that the red plaques I could see weren’t intentionally left to come back for. Instead, they were left because the people didn’t consider them viable Plants. It also pointed out a bit of a theme when it came to what was left behind by other groups.

  Each plaque I approached that had been left behind by the lead groups was a Plant in the F-Rank. Even the high F-Rank Witch Hazel bushes were stripped bare. It told me that these plants weren’t likely going to be worth much to the Tutorial Shop. Earth Root was approximately worth six points and it was left behind as the only High-F, multiple times.

  Did that mean these other plants were worth even less? Part of me did consider not wasting my time, but I’d already discovered numerous well kept secrets in the Tutorial, just by being curious. Plus, these were likely going to be the safest collections I could make.

  Using the trick from yesterday I made two buckets and began Harvesting the Plants.

  Not even an hour later, all of the F-Rank plaques I felt comfortable collecting were gone, the Plants they identified Harvested, and in my buckets. There were at least forty Earth Roots in my Necklace—likely frozen, but I figured that wouldn’t matter much in the long run.

  Not if I was going to use them as fuel for the Cauldron, at least.

  The only reason I’d stopped was that I could hear groups fighting in the distance. So, at this point, I didn’t think it would be worth an altercation to collect more Plants that may be useless. Instead, I moved away from the noises of combat, and soon found unmolested Borkers grazing peacefully between the tall trees.

  It was time—time to test my new equipment!

  As if I was holding a Spent Mana Crystal, I found the blackhole in my Mental Universe that I could intrinsically feel was a link to my chest piece, and made a temporary conduit to it. Then, before I sent my Mana across, I paused. Why was there only a single connection?

  Checking again, I expected to find smaller easily-missable blackholes for my gloves, boots, and helmet, or at least a larger one for my pants. What I discovered made me break out in a sweat. Not only was there only one connection point—but when I quickly removed the chest piece, it vanished.

  Suddenly, I was immensely glad that I’d purchased an entire set of gear that was ‘identical.’ It seemed like either only the chest piece carried the Concealment Enchant, or I needed to wear a full set to have access to the Enchantments. Either way, it was a bit sinister—since it didn’t say that in the Shop description.

  The Shop was made more devious by the Random gear options. What if I had gone with that, in hopes of ‘lucking’ out—only to discover that none of the Enchants worked? Still, the only thing I could say for certain was that my Pumah Check-less set seemed to only function as an entire set. Maybe there were others that operated differently.

  Maybe the Deflection Enchant worked regardless?

  Regardless, my frustration at the System only grew—with this rather large oversight. Surely, something so ‘powerful’ had to see the value in giving better instructions? Mental Fortitude shrugged off the frustrated litany before it could build momentum—and I closed my eyes again, choosing to properly test the equipment’s effect.

  Uncapping the conduit was extremely anticlimactic. Not a single star of the fifty Mana dots moved. Normally, my pool had felt like a pressurized KapiSun—now instead of the liquid escaping it just felt like it was ready to be drunk.

  I tried pushing a point of Mana at the equipment and it kind of worked, but only in the sense that the intended target moved to the mouth of the straw conduit and just stopped.

  My earlier frustration returned with a vengeance and I opened my eyes to continue raging against the ‘machine’ only to freeze. The first thing I found when I exited was my clenched fist inside the glove, not looking the way I expected.

  Instead of a solid fist, my hand, wrist and elbow all looked slightly translucent. I moved the limb back and forth and realized that it wasn’t quite see-through like I originally thought. I couldn’t, in fact, see the forest floor under my arm. No—the enchantment was creating a depiction of what the forest floor beneath itself could look like.

  It was never accurate, but on a casual inspection if you focused on the limb, it was eerily close. I checked my legs, and other arm—even my chest. only to find the same phenomenon. Then took one more peek inside my Mental Universe. That single point of Mana was still there as were the other fifty.

  Hadn’t the description said it used Mana?—The star shrank, and I suddenly understood. It was using Mana—but fractionally. It would take some time, but I figured I could come up with an estimate eventually about how long I might be able to sustain my ghostly appearance.

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  Still, for now, it was time to get to Harvesting.

  * * *

  My four buckets were all overflowing with Herbs and Fruits. I’d made two more, when I discovered just how easy it was to collect the plaques out here.

  I’d also discovered a few things.

  First, at an estimate, I could likely keep Concealment going for about an hour, before my Mana would drain dry. This time was drastically increased by stopping the conduit and allowing my Mana to regenerate when I was between Herb collections.

  The second discovery was a total accident, but it was what led me to my current consideration. With Concealment active, I could allow a Borker to close to within ten meters of me if I stayed absolutely still. This discovery was a total accident. I had gotten a bit too involved, trying to Garden a Plant, and let a Borker forage right up to me.

  Once I realized my mistake—it was far too close for me to do anything but try the ‘play dead’ approach. You know—the old, ‘Tyrannosaurus rex has bad eyesight hope.’ Well, luckily the thing hadn’t noticed me, and moved about ten meters away from me in the course of its foraging.

  Thus my current dilemma. If I could surprise a Borker from that close—use my Spear Enchantment, Reptilian Body, Qi and Mana—all together. Surely I could kill it. Right?

  I’d moved to the Forest’s edge—or at least till where I could see the edge. There were no monsters between it and myself, for an easy escape. This location would likely let me escape if I only wounded the creature.

  “However, how can you run away from it if you’ve burned your Mana, Qi and Weapon Strike?” I asked myself in an antagonist whisper. I knew a tiny part of me was now looking for an excuse not to try this—

  However, I also knew that the vast majority of everything I wanted to be, and had dreamt of being since childhood, stood in the future behind this reckless plan. Even Mental Fortitude seemed to take that side of the argument. Surely, my strike would at least injure the thing—so I wouldn’t need Reptilian Body and Qi to escape.

  “What time is it though?” I asked, looking around to see no sign of any other remaining groups—which likely indicated it was approaching the evening and night. That was another factor that could make something like this extremely dangerous.

  Two groups were just barely visible through the treeline. They were outside the forest, getting ready to leave—but they weren’t in a rush.

  Each reason I came up with got quashed, again and again. Finally, that small part of me that was terrified of facing a Borker by myself was relentlessly quashed and mentally ground under-foot.

  It was time for me to become a Hunter.

  This was my moment to ascend. My origin story. The thing that would become a documentary—okay, maybe that was pushing it. Chuckling, I berated myself under my breath, “I almost started composing my own theme music there.”

  My Mana conduit, which I had long-since used my Starship Energize to make permanent, began to funnel some of my full Mana Pool to my Pumah Check-less armor. Then I began to inch myself very carefully over the forest floor.

  By no means would I consider myself to be an expert woodsman, and I could still recall Smegma’s critique of my sneaking into the Goblin Village. However, my only goal was to get myself in the vicinity of the nearest Borker—then let its natural wanderings bring it closer.

  At about twenty meters, my ‘sneaking’ proved ineffective and the Borker looked up from its grazing. I froze, and after about a minute, it returned to its meal. Two minutes later it moved on—having consumed the bush and long grass in that area.

  It moved away from me—deeper into the forest.

  That small part of myself that wanted me to call it a day, go back and collect my four buckets of Plants—and stop this foolishness, reared its head—but I started creeping closer, ignoring it.

  Because the Borker had moved away from me, its back was already turned. I removed the Spear from my Necklace and connected it to my Mana Pool—then I split my attention, and sent Mana to Reptilian Body, forcing open the connection with half of my Mana Pool.

  Right after that I changed my target for Overcharge to the Truesilver Spear, and then triggered it.

  I felt the increase to my Stats, and Overcharge trigger, so, I started to sprint. Summoning all my earlier anger and frustration with the System, I engaged my Qi as well.

  Finally, I disengaged my Concealment Enchantment and sent the remaining half of my Mana Pool to the Spear. The already glowing Truesilver glowed blue, as the head of the weapon glowed a bright, blood-red. I might have marveled at what the Piercing Enchantment did to the Spear, if the Borker wasn’t reacting to the cacophony of sound I’d just made.

  It slowly started to turn, chuffing and grunting its anger into the stillness of the forest.

  With ten agility I had been fast, but with forty—I had closed the twenty-plus meters in a seconds. The Borker’s head and eyes had just alighted on me, as I shoved the spear forward in my best impression of a thrust.

  The tip of my spear hit the snout, even though I was arming at the neck, because of the Borkers erratic jerk. I groaned, that was probably the point furthest from a vital—

  Piercing activated, and it was like I was watching a water balloon get hit by a baseball bat in slow motion. The snout undulated out from the point of my Spear that had just barely grazed it. Then the point was moving forward, my lunging momentum carrying it, and me—directly at the snout.

  My plan to stop kind of required resistance, but the speartip simply didn’t find any. Instead, it just slid from the air into the Borker without even a vibration or a snick of resistance. My hand at the back of the Spear soon punched the boar in the snout—like I had taken the Martial Artist Class, and wanted to pummel the thing.

  My front leading hand had been forced to let go, or be crushed between my body and the beast, as my weight forced me right into the range of the creature's teeth.

  Not a single part of this had gone to plan. My Spear, was now stuck up to the haft in my target—so I was weaponless, while standing directly in front of the creatures most dangerous—

  From one thought to the next, I was forced to blink as I suddenly was covered in a warm viscous liquid. For the briefest of moments I thought I was already inside the Borker’s mouth. However, the distinct lack of teeth chewing me up, and noise made that unlikely.

  I opened my eyes to find a scene of absolute carnage.

  Instead of my body touching the snout of the Boar, I was looking at the shaft of my spear, held in one hand, as the point of the weapon was sunk into red flesh I didn’t recognize.

  The weapon was promptly pulled from my grip on the end of the Spear as the mass of red in front of me teetered and then fell sideways. Turning my head I found the head of the Borker—or the pieces that were left of it.

  My hands shot to my face, and pulled away my mask, as my lunch made a reappearance. In that moment, I realized I had just popped the creature’s head like a balloon, and I was standing, covered in bits of its flesh, blood, bone and brains.

  It was several minutes before I was able to reign in control of my stomach. Looking at the remains of the Borker made me absolutely sure that I wasn’t going to be able to Skin and Butcher it without being violently ill again. Even collecting my Spear, made me nearly dry heave.

  So, I walked away—back toward the tree I’d started this from. Back to my four buckets of Herbs and Fruit. Back to a spot where the world made a bit of sense. Before I could explode massive Boar Monsters in a single strike.

  Obviously, I realized where I went wrong. The description of the Truesilver Inlaid Spear of Piercing claimed I could create a D or even C-Rank blow. Borkers were likely High-F to maybe Mid-E rank. I’d basically just used a sledgehammer to kill an Ant.

  I didn’t want to think about it more, but Mental Fortitude told me I should. I began by examining London’s group. I dry heaved at the memory of my kill versus the groups. They had been much cleaner.

  Had they been trying to preserve the corpse?

  Jacky had by all appearances been able to ‘one-shot’ this Monster–however, it took her some time to push Mana into her Skill.

  Fallacy, Dave’s voice screamed into my head. Her Skill could be low rank and thus have a long ‘cast-time.’ Either way, her Skill was powerful. I’d found that out first hand. Plus, she’d practically carved out a hole in the ground on the attack against me. So, she may have been holding back.

  How come the rest of the group hadn’t simply decapitated it with their weapons? Were they also holding back? Well I guessed only Gavin’s might have beheaded it. Still, Jacky’s blows hadn’t acted too much different then stings to the thing.

  It took looking at how the group moved to figure out the other couple of differences. First, they were ‘slower’ than I had been with Reptilian Body. Which likely meant that they had stats lower than me. How much lower would be tough to estimate, but I’d guess that they might still be in the F-Ranks, which I also was, but not with Reptilian Body.

  That fits, I thought. I’d seen the Breakthrough Liquid and the price.

  Add to that Overcharge, which doubled the weapons effects, and my empty fifty points of Mana–and I’d likely attacked the thing with a surprise thrust that contained near on Peak-E-Rank or higher destructive power even without the Peircing Enchantment.

  Add that back and I’d definitely gone overboard.

  Thankfully Mental Fortitude let the point rest there, which let me take my buckets and leave. The groups were still getting prepped to head back to town when I exited the forest with my four pails, held split between both hands. They all started when I crossed the tree line, many elbowing neighbors to gesture in my direction.

  My need for a Magical Shower intensified and I ignored them all. I further ignored Bearand his lackeys—then did it one more time with the milling crowd at the front gate. The sensation of the magical wave passing over me was so welcome, that I actually sighed in contentment.

  I hadn’t realized that blood had such a strong odor until it was gone. A few deep breaths later I shuddered, and then made my way back to the Alchemy Academy.

  I was absolutely positive that I was being followed by a great deal of curious onlookers and I couldn’t bring myself to care in the slightest.