Tutorial Day 2

  My eye twitched as I tried to focus in on the minuscule blue circle which identified the small blue, pearl-like fruit at the center of the Rock Lavender Flower. It was difficult to even see where the blue pearl ended and the System generated line began.

  “How much more do you think this Core Heart will sell for?” London said, turning the bloody heart of the last Borker in his hands.

  I glanced up from the Rock Lavender Flower I was holding and looked at it. Still, no plaque sprang up around it, and so I shrugged. After some consideration, I concluded I’d done a pretty good job, according to the guiding lines that Butchering had shown me. “I think it’s pretty good quality. How much do you usually get for the Core?”

  “Ten points,” Sarah answered in his place.

  “I guess we’ll see how much we get for it, and how much it differs from Borker to Borker?” I suggested.

  “Why are you calling them Borkers? Is that a joke?” Jacky asked.

  “Oh, sorry. No, that’s what my Skill is calling them,” I answered, offhandedly. I got a sniff of disdain in response, which made me also reconsider what type of information I just gave away. I felt my jaw clench as I realized. A glance at Jacky showed her regarding me a bit too closely, for an instant, before she turned back to butchering.

  Everyone else saw my look and nodded. Swallowing the nausea my own slip up caused, I turned away from the continued butchering of the second Boar Monster. First, I didn’t need to see the bloody thing while feeling sick. But more importantly, Butchering was highlighting better ways to section the meat, and if I began that task, I’d lose the time to try my hand at the Pearl.

  I looked at my Herbalist Belt Pouch and tools that came with the set. What could I use to try to extract the fruit?

  After a glance at my second failure for the Borker Mane, I decided I needed to be careful and really think this through. The second attempt at removing the Mane from the Borker Skin showed me just how little actual information the red flashes were providing.

  I’d stupidly thought that removing the Mane without a single red blip would improve the quality. And while it had improved it in the factual definition. It hadn’t been anywhere near enough.

  What the difference between Roughly and Poor or Moderate to Passable was, I didn’t know. I did know one thing, however—neither of them seemed close to Perfect or Excellent. I growled as I removed my Gardener Kit and began examining each tool.

  The only tool that seemed to be remotely useful was the shears, but surely they wouldn’t want me using these bulky heavy-duty, glorified scissors to remove a fruit that small?!

  I looked again. Then one more time. I could almost hear Smegma’s insulting words telling me something like, ‘Only a poor craftsman blames his tools.’

  Holding in my growl was hard, but I didn’t want questions from the group. Instead, I pulled out the somewhat large pen-knife that the kit came with. It was rusted shut, which was why I’d dismissed it and thought of the Shears first. Was this really the only other option?

  I worked the blade back and forth until the metal came free of the petrified wooden handle. To my horror only a little portion of the internal metal came free and I thought I’d broken it. Except what did come free wasn’t a broken blade. Well, not exactly. Instead it was a long, thin hook, with what would undoubtedly one day be a blade on its interior, but was currently just a rust-filled indent.

  I looked back to the rest of the metal still rusted into the petrified wood and realized I was holding something like a Gardening Swiss Army knife. I wished I had some oil to work into the metal and handle, but after a moment, I shrugged. It should have a self-repair Enchant on it, like all my other Gathering Equipment from Demonic Vault.

  Using the ground, my fingers and even my teeth, I pried each of the tools out. I found a small pair of scissors that kind of closed and opened, but definitely wouldn’t cut anything. There was a small saw blade, and even another knife. Actually, with its rough edge, it might be a file.

  To my surprise, when I got each tool out, I found that the Rock Lavender Flower had new suggestions to work on. For example I could cut off the Rock Lavender Petals individually. I could do the same with the leaves and the small stamen and carpels inside the flower itself. Essentially I could dissect the plant into its parts.

  I folded back in all but one tool, and followed the System guidance to use the tools held within the multitool to follow the lines as best I could. By the end, I was left with a small portion of the flower, and the Pearl. However, this time—with all the outer parts of the plant removed, the task seemed far less daunting.

  Plus, I could view the blue circle in different ways as well. I then had an internal debate. Should I use the hook-knife or the small scissors? The latter seemed far more appropriate. So, using the small, still-dull, Scissors I crushed the small stem holding the Pearl Fruit in place, to a resounding red flash. I looked at the small scissors and then the Pearl.

  Was that the wrong tool or the dullness of the blade?

  There was absolutely no telling at the moment, and a quick glance at my party showed them cleaning up after finishing the Butchering of the Borker. I guess I’d just have to try, try again.

  * * *

  “Husk, what a haul!” London crowed as we walked back out of the sparse forest. I looked back and frowned. Four Borkers and twelve collected Plants was a haul?

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Gavin patted my shoulder with a booming laugh. “Trust me, Brodie. That was a good amount for a five-man team. Plus, by the end, you were much faster at Skinning, and even helping us more on Butchering. So, tomorrow we might be able to go for more!”

  Sarah bumped her shoulder into Gavin’s other side and he put his arm around her in such a way that told me they were dating. Jacky, of course, scoffed at that hopeful optimism. “Tomorrow, Brodie is probably going to try his hand at Crafting. Don’t all the Gatherers do that?”

  Despite her tone, I felt heat rise to my cheeks from embarrassment. That was definitely my plan for tomorrow. I had discovered that each plant I collected today, other than the Earth Root, could be Harvested into parts with the multitool. Plus I had created a fused Sapling that I wanted to attempt to coax to fuller life up in my room.

  I scratched the back of my neck and that paired with my red cheeks was enough of an answer for Jacky. “See, he’ll be gone till the next time he needs a top up on Herbs! We really need to get some Gathering Skills for ourselves…”

  “Why can’t you?” I asked, seeing an opportunity to maybe get to the bottom of the messages I’d read.

  “We’ve tried,” Sarah said, her voice the grumpiest I’d heard it. “Our current Skills should, in theory, be able to be used in such a way, but I can’t figure out how to change my mindset, like others seem to.”

  “Mindset? Aren’t there people who can train you?” I coaxed.

  London raised an eyebrow. “We’ve been taking lessons from people, Brodie, but they certainly aren’t free. Plus, it’s frustrating when someone who’s figured it out throws abstract concepts at you for an hour then takes your Tutorial Points.”

  “So, these are people that are part of the Tutorial?” I asked. London gave me a look of inquiry. I looked around and saw it reflected from three other faces. “You know like in video games when there are NPC’s?”

  “What? No! Of course not,” London said politely.

  Jacky had no such compunction. Giving me an unreadable but haughty look, she exclaimed,“What a moron! This isn’t a video game. People die in here, you know?”

  “But surely others in here get the Plaques I can see,” I said before I fully thought it out.

  “Sure, even if they didn’t we can all see the massive Tutorial Town sign above the castle!” Gavin said pointing at the town and the sign we could see in the distance. “But that doesn’t make it a video game with fake people inside. It’s the real world, and there’s real consequences, Brodie. Don’t go taking this place lightly.”

  I decided to stop asking more questions after that. I could tell that it was a touchy subject for each of them, and while I wanted to know why, I also didn’t. They’d kind of spelled it out already—people died. Taking on that baggage wouldn’t help me get out of here, right?

  Or was that just my Mental Fortitude Skill, curbing my emotional response?

  The group walked in silence after that, each person thinking their own private thoughts. Right up until we were perhaps a mile from the Town’s nearest gate.

  “Good haul today?” Someone said, startling my gaze, which was resting on my footfalls, up, and onto the well-armored man that had spoken.

  He wasn’t alone, and by the way my group formed up around Jacky, the one holding the Bag of Holding—I instantly could tell that this was serious. Were they here to rob us?

  “Our usual four Boar’s, Andron,” London said, hand pointedly held out away from his weapon.

  “Then, I’ll take two of the rags you call a skin, two cores, and two corpses worth of Boar meat,” Andron the big armored man responded. His hand was resting on his weapon.

  I glanced at my party, and found their hands held away for their body and weapons. In contrast—every member behind Andron was fingering or gripping theirs.

  This wasn’t a robbery. It was a tax. I made a quick count of the other group. When I reached forty, I stopped going. They had more than any of the group’s I’d seen leave Maelstrom. My brain whirred with theories and questions that I knew wouldn’t get answered at this moment.

  Instead, I watched as London pulled out half of everything excluding the Herbs we’d collected. When Andron saw the two pelts, his eyes landed on me. “Ahh, took a Skinner along this time, huh Landon?”

  “Yeah, he’s pretty good, right?” London answered, not bothering to correct Andron’s slip up. “This way, you get intact Skins and not rags, right?”

  “Right,” Andron said, holding out his hands for the two Cores, and Skins.

  I noticed that the second Core wasn’t one with the heart attached, and realized that either London knew this was coming and destroyed one of the three I’d collected, or passed off an old one in its place.

  My group stood frozen, even as Andron’s twitched with pent up inactivity. After a pause that felt like it would cause my heart to explode from the stress, Andron said, “I’ll expect this quality of Skins from now on—if he’s coming along. Don’t fall short.”

  That seemed to be a signal because Gavin, Sarah and Jacky nearly leaped forward to continue walking toward the gate.

  London was only a step behind, as he placatingly blurted, “Thank you Andron.”

  As soon as we were about five hundred meters further down the road I turned and hissed. “What the hell was that?”

  London surreptitiously looked behind him and then, seeing what he must have deemed was sufficient space, he whispered back. “That’s Andron. He’s from the Hero Tribe and takes a levy on goods coming into the city.”

  “But why wouldn’t the Maelstrom Guild stop him?” I asked, matching his volume, which was close to normal.

  “It isn’t worth it, too much politics involved,” Gavin said. “Fong actually was the one who talked to Andron. Now Andron takes a levy based on your group's size and gear.”

  “I’m confused, how is fifty percent of what you collect ‘not worth it’?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “It wasn’t fifty percent of everything, was it?” Jacky said conspiratorially, seeming happy in the knowledge that they’d hidden the herbs from Andron. I frowned, because I had been counting on the Meat, Skins and Cores to offset the cost of the herbs so I could keep them all.

  “Okay, I get that you don’t have to give him what his actual due is, but even the concept of fifty percent is high.”

  “It’s only fifty percent for us,” London explained. “We’re too small of a group and under-geared. Andron sets the price that he deems reasonable. If one of the larger groups came back his way, he’d likely ask for ten percent.”

  “And they’d just hand it over?” I asked, aghast.

  “Again, not all of it, but yeah. Otherwise we need to mobilize forty Maelstrom members to constantly be ready to fend him and his lackeys off. Then the taxes on goods sold in the Tribal Tower go up to pay our own members. Maelstrom deduced it was cheaper to pay these groups, and avoid fighting, than it was to constantly have skirmishes where we sometimes lose Tribe members. In the end, our small group might save some Tutorial Points but most of the big groups paying ten percent, wouldn’t.”

  “Plus, it isn’t like our Maelstrom Guild doesn’t have a group doing the same thing. We just got unlucky that it was Andron, and not our guys this time,” Jacky stated.

  “So, why don’t you go in the direction our Tribe is Levying? Also you said Andron is part of the Hero Tribe?” I asked, and saw everyone look at each other.

  “No clue, not really. We guess Hero for him, because of how he looks. As for the direction our Tribe went? Well, there’s kind of an agreement from the Tribes. Our Levying Crew can’t post where they’ll be, and neither can any other. Otherwise, groups fight over what Farming Grounds to monopolize,” Sarah said after a short delay where no one spoke.

  We went silent as we passed through the milling crowd in front of this Gate into Tutorial Town. I felt the cleansing wave of Magic wash over me. My breathing became slightly easier. We didn’t talk again, even as we moved through the Towns internal pathway to the central square and into our District.

  The first thing spoken was only after we were past the non-System purchased buildings. Gavin clapped his hands together with a grin.“Good switch-out on the Core, London.”

  “Well, it might not be that great depending on if the Core Heart isn’t valued higher,” London explained sheepishly.

  I wanted an explanation but my question was answered before I could ask it.

  “Based on the scale of the one you kept?” Gavin said.

  London nodded. “Yeah, I checked that other Core previously and it was in the upper mid-range at twenty-two Tutorial Points.”

  I put two and two together. Each Core didn’t sell for the same amount—meaning that each Boar out there could be worth more or less points. Even after my scolding about the video game relationship with this place, I couldn’t help but return to the analogy.

  Surely, that meant these Boars had levels, or different ranks.

  That was when we arrived in front of the Tower, and I forgot all about the group's conversation. The black stone of the Tribe’s Tower was as shiny as ever, and from this close, it practically became a funhouse mirror—reflecting a strange version of me and the group.

  The two Guards and numerous visible Shadows that stood nearby didn’t even glance in our direction as the group walked through the darkened door of the Tribal Tower.

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