The first thing the Elder did was to show everyone to their rooms. They were on the second floor, half of which was caved in. Langa’s room looked like it used to be an office, small, with a desk and chair on one side, and a mattress on the floor. He put down his backpack and immediately checked out his new armour.

 

[Basic leather breastplate

Rank: Common

+20 Defence

Durability: 20/20]

[Basic leather trousers

Rank: Common

+10 Stamina

Durability 20/20]

[Basic leather boots

Rank: Common

+1 Agility

Durability: 15/15]

[Basic leather jacket

Rank: Common

+1 Vitality

Durability 20/20]

 

Since he was finally able to change out of his damaged clothes, Langa felt refreshed and decided to check his status screen before going downstairs to start training.

 

 

He saw that he was only a few experience points away from Level 4, and his karma had increased considerably as well. He was still unsure where to allocate his points from levelling up, so he left them be for now, as he was itching to test out his new skill downstairs.

When he was inside the entrance hall, the training room looked like a regular gym, however, once he went inside, he was blown away. What he had been seeing before was the mana training room. He could see Sigurd sitting on a mat, eyes closed next to Kindaro. Kindaro was lifting two dumbbells steadily into the air with nothing but his mind. They both seemed to be heavily absorbed in what they were doing, and Langa quickly passed them by, the strange energy in the room prickling his skin.

The training room opened up to the outside courtyard in which the town hall was located. Out here, was a long track going around the courtyard that Langa estimated to be the standard 400-metre track that he’d seen being used in high school. On the other end of the courtyard were dummies, some made of straw, others seemed to be metal, and beyond that, there seemed to be an archery range. There were various types of equipment scattered all over the courtyard that Langa did not know of, but they seemed to be training equipment. Lastly, there were boxes next to him filled with wooden swords, spears, daggers, axes and staffs.

Makoto was at the archery range, with the Elder speaking to him, and correcting his form. What caught Langa’s attention though, was Eniche. She was jogging on the track, dragging a giant rock that was strapped to her body by a bunch of ropes. If Langa had to estimate, that rock had to be at least 100kg! and she wasn’t even bench pressing, she was jogging while dragging it! Just how strong was this woman? He shook his head and picked up a wooden short spear. This one did not even have bronze tips like his own pike, it was 100% wood. He also took a few wooden javelins. They would be good for practice even with their poor piercing power. He walked over to the wide-open area with the dummies to begin his training.

There was enough space for him to move around, so he decided to activate Flash Step. He concentrated on the spot right in front of a dummy, about 3 metres in front of him, and took a step forward, and suddenly, he was right in front of the dummy. He barely managed to keep his balance, as the sudden shift disoriented him. He blinked. Okay, he knew how it worked now. His total stamina was 300, so he could use this skill a maximum of 10 times, and he would have to wait until his stamina regenerated. It regenerated at about 8 STA per minute. Since the skill had a cool-down of 25 seconds, that meant he could use it a maximum of two times a minute.

So, Langa practised. He would Flash Step forward, then run to the side with his own agility while waiting for the cool-down time to lapse. He would charge forward with the spear, fall back, and throw the javelin. He practised like that for a while, until he felt that something was off. He was getting tired, but he kept running until he suddenly fell to the ground. His whole body felt lethargic, and he could not stand up again.

“What the hell?” he wondered breathing heavily.

 

[Debuff: Stamina below 5%. Reduced movement speed. You are paralysed until stamina regenerates to 10%. Time remaining: 2 minutes 15 seconds]

 

Shit. He couldn’t move for a whole minute!

“Hey, are you okay?” Liv said hurrying over to him, hand out.

“I can’t move. My stamina’s down.”

“What? You know your stamina is literally all of the energy in your body, right? You need it to keep your basic bodily functions active. How could you let your stamina get below 5%, in training no less? Damn, sorry. I keep forgetting you’re new to this,” the frustration was evident in Liv’s voice. He pulled out a pill from his pocket. “Here eat this.”

Langa was helplessly fed a bitter pill by Liv. He felt a refreshing wind pass through his body as soon as he swallowed it.

 

[Basic Stamina pill consumed.

+50 Stamina]

 

He could move again, and he took Liv’s hand as he helped him up. “Thanks, that must have been a precious item. How much do you want for it?”

Liv waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t worry about it, it was one of the rewards from my platinum tutorial kit. The most important thing is to never let your stamina fall below 10%. Change your system settings so that your stamina bar, MP bar and HP bar are always visible to you, even in combat. It will help you manage your skills.”

As soon as Langa thought about it, the three bars became visible in his peripheral vision. The green HP bar was almost full, the blue MP bar was also full while the black stamina bar was barely above 20%. “Well, it’s good that I learned this before an actual battle, or I’d be dead right now. Is there a way to improve my stamina regeneration rate?”

“The total stamina is determined by your strength and vitality, but the regeneration rate is determined only by strength. You seem to be going for an agility-type build from what I’ve seen of your training, so unless you want to dump more attribute points into strength, then you’re just going to have to learn to manage your stamina,” he paused. “How high is your MP? You can convert it at a rate of 1 stamina per 10 MP.”

Langa shook his head, Mind was his lowest stat. “I’d only get 6 stamina points. “

“That’s not good. Anyway, why aren’t you using the mana dummies? They are much better than the straw dummies for someone like you who seems to focus more on movement speed,” Liv said, and seeing the puzzled look on Langa’s face, he sighed, “Come on.”

He led him towards the metal dummies. “You can set them by infusing your mana. Concentrate on the energy in the air, or if you feel it inside your body, then direct it through your hands and touch the dummy like this.” He touched the head of the dummy with his finger, and the dummy opened its eyes, like a freaking robot.

“Cool,” Langa looked at the next dummy interestedly. He closed his eyes, thinking of the prickling sensation he’d felt when he’d been teleported from Earth to Lady Mira’s office. Sure enough, he felt a warm energy inside his body and quickly touched the dummy’s head.

 

[Mana Training Model Activated.

Player level: 3

Please choose training mode.

Strength Based: Lv 1/Lv2/Lv3/Lv4/Lv5

Agility Based: Lv 1/Lv2/Lv3/Lv4/Lv5

Mind Based: Lv 1/Lv2/Lv3/Lv4/Lv5

Vitality Based: Lv 1/Lv2/Lv3/Lv4/Lv5

Balance Based: Lv 1/Lv2/Lv3/Lv4/Lv5

Reflection Based: Lv3]

 

“Uh… how do I choose?”

“Well, it’s a mana dummy. Depending on which level you want the dummy to be, it will distribute the average number of stats of most races at that level equally, with the chosen stat being double the average. If you choose the balance one, the stats will be balanced, and if you choose the reflection one, it will be based on your stats. For the other modes, you can always customise it further, because it is not really accurate, it mostly copies people that it has reflected before. You can be specific and request it to be a fire Mage or swordsman fighter etc,” Liv explained.

That was some advanced technology… oh, right, it was magic. Langa shook his head and retracted his finger. The dummy returned to being still. Okay, now he could have a sparring partner whenever he wanted. “This will be a great help in my training.”

“By the way, I was watching you practice earlier, trying to see if I could help you. Can I be honest?” Liv asked.

Langa raised his eyebrows, usually when someone spoke like this, they had something negative to say. “Go ahead.”

“You’re fast, so your dodge speed is decent, but your spearmanship sucks, man. Sorry.”

Langa burst out laughing, “That’s no surprise. Before today, the only spear I’d ever held was a javelin in a javelin throwing competition. Any chance you can teach me?”

He was only joking, but Liv shook his head. “Unfortunately, only someone who has reached grandmaster level can teach a skill. Anyway, I don’t have spear skills, the only skills I have are unarmed combat and swordsmanship,” he said, and then his purple eye lit up. “Oh, there is something I can teach you, but it’s not a skill.”

Before Langa could even agree, Liv started to demonstrate. “This is the basic footwork, the Ade Step, that the dragonkin taught us growing up. You move like this, one step forward to attack, one step back to defend and one step to the side to evade,” Liv said, moving up, then back, then sideways. “Obviously, this is just a basic pattern to control and not waste your movements, but it helps you practice different formations. You need to be able to move seamlessly between attacking, defending and evading.”

Langa watched him closely, and then started to imitate him. He moved first in the attack, evade, defend pattern, then switched it up to defend, attack, evade. As he continued practising, he discovered that as Liv said, during a battle, he might only need to do one or two of the three steps or even use one step more than once.

“I think I get it,” Langa said after stepping back. “It’s not set in stone, is it? This is just to discipline yourself and be conscious of your movements. Because sometimes you might need to just attack, attack, attack without needing to evade or defend, in which case you wouldn’t just be stepping forward, you’d be moving all around, right?”

“Bingo. The whole point of this footwork is to control your movements so that there are no wasted movements, and no wasted stamina. The more you level up and decide your fighting style, the more you can create your very own form of footwork. Most people don’t waste a precious skill slot on footwork,” Liv said. “With your fighting style, I think you should focus more on attacking and evading over defending.”

Langa nodded, “Alright. Earlier you said the Elder can teach us skills, do we just need to ask?”

“Yeah, I mean you have to pay for them, but since it’s the tutorial, the skills are dirt cheap. You won’t find anyone in any world inside a Tower to teach you a B-rank skill for only one silver,” he answered. “Okay, I’m gonna go scout out the area around the town for tomorrow. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay, and how many copper coins is one silver?” Langa called as Liv was leaving.

“A hundred!” he answered, and Langa smiled bitterly watching his back. He only had 65 coins. He would have to shelve the thought of learning a skill for after he went hunting. For now, it was time to train.

Langa hated responsibilities. His favourite thing in the world was sleeping or lazing around doing nothing. If that was how he spent his day, at least in his old life, he considered that a day well spent. Yeah, that’s right, he was very lazy, it was something that could not be helped, as he was a prodigy at athletics, so he saw no reason to work hard. However, if there was something that he never slacked on, it was training his body. He followed the training regimen that his coach and personal trainers set up for him to a tee. His body condition was always the best. He did not care about winning, but… he would not allow himself to lose either. So, really, all he ever did was train and then laze around doing nothing in peace.

So right now, in an unknown world, the only thing he could control was his body condition, thus he trained. All day, against the dummies, he practised his footwork and his Flash Step. He ran, dodged, and stabbed with the wooden spear, trying to come up with attack patterns that suited him. He would Flash Step up, attack, then evade, running back until the skill was off cool-down. He practised until his legs were sore, and his breath haggard. For a moment, he thought he could hear the pulse of his heart as it pumped blood.

It was late at night when he finally went to sleep after eating the tutorial rations.

 

*

The seven players gathered at the table inside the town hall the next morning to discuss the quest, as well as the way forward. Langa read the quest over and over again, and what fascinated him the most, was the history of the world of Zamone, and how it fell. He wanted to know more about this entire multiverse, and their deities, like what was the difference between a constellation and a god?

His father had been a History teacher at the local high school, and he was a big enthusiast of ancient gods. After he was gone, that hobby was all Langa could do to remain close to him. He shook his head, clearing that thought away. Also, he focused on the optional quest. He distinctly remembered that before she teleported him to this world for the tutorial, Lady Mira told him to find his Calling. He had no idea what that was.

“We finally got our second quest, so what’s our first order of business? Defeating the mini-boss?” Ghol asked once everyone was seated.

Eniche snorted, “Girl, you are level 3, a level 1 maestril will wipe the floor with you! You’ve never seen one, have you?”

Ghol scowled but did not retort. This made Langa feel that perhaps Eniche was right.

“I have a proposition,” Kindaro said, sending Ghol a disapproving glance. “As much as I wish to kill the maestril as soon as possible, I also think we are too weak. Going by the conjecture that the final boss is around level 10 to 12, the level cap for abandoned worlds, then the mini-boss should be level 5. Ideally, when confronting maetrils, everyone in the party should be at least the same level or one level lower, so I suggest that we all get to level 5 before confronting it.”

Liv nodded his head in agreement and Langa watched everyone in wonder. Were maestrils that strong? “While I agree with you, it might be hard for all of us to reach that level in less than 3 days,” Liv said.

”Um…what’s a maestril?” Makoto asked nervously. Exasperated looks were cast at him from around the table. Actually, Langa was curious too.

Sigurd was the one who answered, being fonder of Makoto than the rest, “It’s the most powerful type of monster, and it’s a sapient being created by one of the first gods, The Onslaught of The Dark Void. Sometimes they can be under the sponsorship of a demon god. Their job is to drain a world’s karma to get stronger, and increase the karma of the Void, so that it can consume more worlds, allowing more maestrils to be born,” he explained. “Also, if you get killed by a maestril, you lose a part of your available karma, so they are really troublesome monsters.”

So, that was what it was. It seemed like the distinction between available karma and total karma was important. As everyone started throwing out ideas of how they could level up today, Langa’s eyes were drawn to Eniche. Usually, she had a haughty, aggressive look on her face, but ever since they started talking about maestrils, the hairs on her arms had gone up and her hands were balled into fists.

“Let’s do it this way, for today, the level 4s should reach level 5, the level 3s level 4, and Makoto, you should aim for level 3,” Liv suggested.

“I’m only 10 EXP away from level 3. I’ll aim for level 4,” Makoto said.

Langa also spoke up, “I’m also pretty close to level 4, so I’ll aim for level 5 by the end of today.”

“Great,” Liv beamed. “We should split up into two groups, I scouted around a bit yesterday, and marked some locations on my map.”

Liv shared his map with everyone at the table, and some areas were marked. “I did a quick survey of the area to see if there was a place for us to get used to our skills and get some training before we do the final tutorial quest and I’ve been able to mark some places on the map that are around us.” As he spoke, he referred to the map. “So to the west is where the centres are located, where we all spawned, there’s a red zone with level five corrupted foxes and level six corrupted wolves between us and the centres. In the centres, the yellow zone, there are level 1 to 3 corrupted foxes. To the south of here, the safe zone, there is a yellow zone in a forest area and in there, there are level three and four corrupted foxes. Beyond part is a red zone, I’m not sure what’s in there. I was unable to cross the yellow zone. To the north of here is another red zone. This one is a lake, I’m not sure what could be in there either. Finally, to the east of here is another yellow zone. This one is filled with level 1 to 3 corrupted wolves, but there are a lot of them. The area beyond that is a forest, but I couldn’t see anything as it is not colour-coded, which probably means that there is nothing.”

“I want to take on the red zone to the west, although the monsters there are level 5, the spawn rate of monsters is slow, so I think a small group can handle it. I’ll take Ghol with me, and anyone else who wants to come,” Kindaro said pointing at the red zone separating the safe zone from the centres.

“I’ll be in the other team,” Eniche said promptly, making it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the two dark elves. “My team will go to the yellow zone south from here with the level 3 and 4 monsters.”

Langa was not confident about confronting the level 5 monsters yet, so he said, “Makoto and I will go with you, Eniche.”

“Okay, in that case, Sigurd, you join Eniche’s team as well, so it would be one level 4, two level 3s and a level 2. I’ll go with Kindaro and Ghol, so we’ll be two level 4s and one level 3. Let’s add each other on our comcers, and if you feel you’re in danger, please contact us,” Liv said. “Let’s all try to see if we can find where the maestrils are as well.”

The comcers were the bracelet device that everyone had been given in their tutorial kit. It worked as a communication device once you infused your mana into it. For some reason, Langa knew how to do this mana infusion. He had to sit down, and feel some particles of energy moving inside of him like his blood, but fluid in nature. Then he released those particles, and that was mana leaving his body. It was freaky, and weird, but also fun. This was magic. He didn't have a skill that used magic but, it was still fascinating for him.

Once you infused mana an interface would appear, and if your comcer came into contact with another one, a prompt would appear, asking if you wanted to add that person as a friend. Only then could you contact them. You could contact friends in various ways, sending a voice note instantly, speaking to them directly or sending a text note, just by thinking it. You could also create a group chat with friends, and only voice note communications were possible.

Once everyone added each other as friends, Kindaro stood up, “Alright, I will go get my equipment, and we’ll go.”

“By the way, what’s a Calling?” Langa asked curiously.

“The first step in your road to destiny,” Sigurd said wearily. “It’s a gift only given to people from lost or forgotten worlds. People from blessed and natural worlds are allowed to bring either one skill or one weapon/item into the tutorial. Since you guys don’t get that, you are given a Calling.”

“What does that mean?” Makoto asked, with interest.

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s something that solidifies your future whether you find it or not, and it can only be found in the tutorial,” the one who answered was, surprisingly, Kindaro. “Your Calling is unique to you, only you can detect it. It can be a skill, an item, a weapon or even an encounter. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what makes or breaks you.”

Langa frowned in confusion, “So, is it something that you have to find or not?”

“Think of it this way, Langa, in the Tower, in life really, there are a billion paths you can take, and right now, before you step into the Tower, there are only two paths in front of you. Either you find your Calling or you don’t. Those two paths are drastically different,” Liv simplified.

Langa was still unsure if he totally understood it, but he likened it to the time when, as a child living in rural Eshowe KZN, he had won a school 100-metre race, and it just so happened that, in the crowd, a former national champion had been watching, visiting his grandmother in the village. That encounter changed his life, and because he met that person, he was transferred to a school in the city, given a scholarship, and his whole family also moved to the city. If he had never met that person, his life would have been drastically different. Langa wondered if a Calling was something like that.

Once they were done with the conversation, everyone prepared to leave.

“Wait for me outside,” Eniche told Langa. “I’m going to go put on my armour.”

Makoto went to speak to Liv about something, and Langa went outside to wait for his teammates while he ate his tutorial rations. Today, he would see if his training produced any results.