Langa sat outside the town hall, eating the rations that he'd got from the tutorial kit when Makoto came down to sit next to him.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.

"Sure, what's up?"

"I learned a skill from the Elder, and I want to improve it as soon as I possibly can so that I can contribute to the group," Makoto started.

Langa frowned, "How? Liv said that the old man charged one silver to learn a skill, I doubt that you had that much."

Makoto looked down, hands balled into fists, "I paid in karma. I paid 200 karma for a C-rank beginner bow and arrow skill."

"Are you crazy?" Langa looked at him incredulously, concern etched on his face. "We need 1000 karma to enter the 1st Floor! Killing these corrupted creatures only yields like 2 or 3 karma, and it seems like quests grant the most karma, but how are you going to make up a 200 karma deficit?"

"I have a plan. The Elder will return my karma that he's holding as long as I pay back 3 silvers. Before you say it, I know I'm only level 2 and the creatures that I can kill can only give a few coppers. But, I have gotten better with my bow, and I'm thinking of going back to the centre where we started and grinding the level 1 to 3 corrupted foxes until I make the money. The experience won't be enough for you guys, and I gotta do this alone. I just need to perch up on top of a centre and shoot the foxes down from above. I will probably be able to reach level 4 at least," Makoto told him.

"And how do you plan to cross the red zone by yourself?" Langa asked. This was a terrible idea that could only work in theory.

"I just spoke to brother Liv. He and the others will get me through the red zone, and they will be nearby if I need help," Makoto said absentmindedly touching the ring on his finger.

Langa sighed. If the others were close then it seemed like a reasonable plan, and if Liv was there, then at least he knew he would protect him. "I'm still worried."

"Why? I wanted to ask you yesterday, but why do you care so much about me? Yesterday, you risked your life to save me. We both know you could have run through the red zone without fighting if you'd left me behind. Is it because we're both humans?" Makoto asked, curiously.

Why indeed? "I have a niece, her name is Khaya. She's nineteen years old, and she loves to play video games at the expense of studying. I was only eight when she was born, and I watched her grow up. I never did anything for her, except give her money sometimes, but she adored me and followed me around.... an innocent child," Langa told him. "She could be out there in some tutorial, and I hope and pray that someone helps her to survive through it, even if it's a stranger. I'm helping you because you remind me of her, and I hope someone else does the same for her."

Makoto looked up at him, his eyes watering, in Langa's opinion, he looked way too touched for someone who had just been told that he was being used as a substitute. "Thank you, brother. You're a good uncle."

Langa disagreed, but he said nothing. He had only done the bare minimum for his family. His sister and her husband raised him like he was their own, his nephew, Neo used to protect him from bullies at school and had always been an anchor for him to lean on, Khaya, the sweet girl, would always come to his place to cook for him, teach him how to play games, and get him out of the house. All he'd ever done for them was to send the family half of his income every month to make sure they were doing well.

"Be careful out there, kid," Langa said, standing up, as he saw Eniche coming out of the hall.

"Ready to go?" she asked him, and he nodded. She was in her chainmail armour again today, with bracers, leather trousers and leg guards. She also carried a sturdy metal shield and a mace in her other hand.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he said, as he saw Sigurd also coming down.

The three of them left shortly after, heading for the southern gate.

 

*

It took a while for the three of them to run towards the southern gate before they went out into the forest that was the yellow zone.

Eniche spoke first, “Okay, I’m going to invite the two of you to my party. I’ll be designated the party leader, but if either of you want to take that position I am fine with it,” she said.

 

[Eniche V Tigris Vale has invited you to join a party. Accept: Y/N?]

 

Langa said yes, he could not care less about the leadership position. He just wanted to see if his training had paid off or not. That was his mission today.

Sigurd also shrugged and said, “Well, it’s only level three and four corrupted foxes here anyway, anything below level 10 doesn’t drop much loot. Usually, a little karma, and a few coins so, really it's senseless to fight over being the party leader.”

“Alright,” Eniche said, adding the two of them to her party.

Once that was done, they began to walk towards the forest cautiously. There was not much to see on the party menu, it just listed the names of the members of the party, their levels as well as how much HP they had left. It was not like in games where they could have a party group chat. Langa did wonder if there was a way to make group chats on the comcers, though. However, now was not the time to be wondering about irrelevant things.

“Uh, so how are we gonna do this? Let's talk about our roles in this team. I have a speed-based skill that also helps increase my damage a bit, and I can throw my daggers to distract the monsters as well,” Langa proposed, quietly.

“Hmm, I put most of my stats into vitality and a little into strength, so I’m thinking I’m gonna tank for you guys. I’m decent with my shield, plus I have a skill to make the monsters focus on me, but it only works on a maximum of five at a time as long as they aren’t boss monsters,” Eniche said.

"That’s great because my health is pitiful. I am still trying to form and stabilise my mana core. My mana control is terrible, and I only have two skills currently that I think would be useful to you guys. I have the one called mist rope that uses magic mist to tie up the monsters, so I can tie up the legs slowing them down, and if I concentrate hard, I can use the rope to choke them, but that drains my MP very, very quickly,” Sigurd said. He was walking ahead of Langa, so he had to turn slightly to address him. “But yesterday, I asked the Elder to teach me a skill, I had to sacrifice all of my copper coins. I even borrowed some from Liv as well. Anyway, he taught me a useful healing skill, it helps restore 15 HP per second for five seconds before it goes on cool-down. I’m working on levelling it up. I think it’s gonna be useful for you guys.”

This was the first time that Langa had heard of healing skills. Yes, he’d seen health potions, but he had not known that there were skills that could directly heal someone. Well, he supposed anything was possible if people could be brought back from the dead.

"Are there skills that can bring the dead back to life?" he asked.

"Not if you want them to be a sapient, independent soul, no. Death magic can reanimate a dead body, and some classes can even have the bodies retain their consciousness, but they can only exist as slaves to the death Mages," Eniche answered with a bitter tone in her voice. "Daevas can give their bodies to a deity and the vessel can be inhabited by the soul of a dead person. However, that soul will be under the deity's control."

Sigurd also nodded. "The only thing that can bring a person truly whole back to life, is a resurrection stone. You can only get one of those from your deity, but all players are favoured by The Unrivalled, so we all get one respawn per floor," he sighed. "She's amazing, because apparently, it costs deities an absurd amount of karma for a deity to issue a resurrection stone, so most players bound to a deity usually only get a maximum of three respawns per floor. However, if you want a resurrection stone with that many respawns, you have to be at least a Disciple of the deity or higher. No healing magic can bring you back if you have no respawns left."

Langa nodded. It made sense that magic had a limit to what it could do as well.

Eniche regarded Sigurd pensively, “Hey, Mr Sigurd, I don’t usually like to agree with the dark elves, but can I ask you something? You’re a Viking, right? You guys are the most physically heavy humans I’ve ever heard of, and in my world, during Constellation Studies, we were taught to stay away from you guys if we used magic. They told us that you believe anyone who uses magic is an abomination. So why the hell did you choose a Mage class?” she asked.

As they walked towards the forest, Langa listened attentively, wanting to know the relationships between different worlds, species and classes. He was unaware of how the Vikings worked seeing as they did not exist on Earth, not in the current times anyway.

“It’s true,” Sigurd scratched his head. “All we Vikings ever do is fight, you know, we invade other people’s land and we hunt witches… this is something that was ingrained into us as we were growing up. As soon as I came of age, I was able to join the others on raids against the witches…we were taught that they were the agents of the demon gods, who oppose the saint god that our constellation serves.

“Anyway, on all those raids, the witches I saw practised their magic so freely that it was beautiful, and I wanted to know if I would also...” Sigurd sighed. “No matter, the point is, the moment that we were sent to this world, and I opened my eyes in that cage, in the centre, and it asked me to choose a class… I was ready to choose a fighter. But a part of me wanted to know what it’s like to use magic, they always looked so free. I guess I just wanted to try it, I don’t have any motivation other than that. I just wanted to know if I would be able to break free from what I’ve been told my whole life if I chose to be a Mage.”

 

 

Langa smiled, he had almost forgotten about this quest.

“Well, good for you, but not all Mages and witches are agents of the demon gods, trust me, I would know,” Eniche muttered. Seeing the quizzical looks on the two of their faces, she added. “My world was overrun by a demon god’s Avatar, they call him Anarchist. His god's full moniker is The True Deathbringer of the Demon Reaper, so if either of you ever get sponsorship from him, just know that I’d kill you myself.”

She said it matter of factly, not a trace of doubt in her voice. It gave Langa chills. “Wait a second,” he said remembering something he’d heard about deities. “I thought gods couldn’t directly interfere in natural worlds? How could a god's Avatar do that to your world without severe punishments?”

Eniche blinked, “Oh right, I never told you. My world is in the Deiwos Tower already. It’s the 6th Floor.” She led them down a short slope that would take them deeper into the forest.

Langa frowned at this, “I’m even more confused now, isn’t this tutorial for players from Floors 31 to 40?”

It was Sigurd who answered him, “Yes, but every time there’s a new tutorial batch, the NPCs from lower Floors whose players have died are given the option to become players and take part in the tutorial.” He glanced at Eniche, “I’m guessing that there was a vacant player spot?”

The lionkin walked in front of them, her back tense. “Yeah, lots of them. That player that I was talking about, the one sponsored by the Demon Reaper, rallied up the undead and overran our entire world. He did it because he wanted to earn massive amounts of karma from Overturning our world, and he did. The clear condition for the 6th Floor changed after what Anarchist did. Out of 500 million lionkin in our whole world, there are only less than a hundred left in the one remaining safe zone. Our world belongs to the undead now.” She did not turn back to look at them, and Langa could guess that revenge was the primary reason she chose to be a player. He imagined that she wanted to bring down The Demon Reaper’s forces herself.

His quest updated again, and he shook his head. This Tower business was beyond complicated. He wondered about all the deities. Were any of them similar to the ones he read about in his father’s ancient theology books? Would he meet any old gods that the ancient people of Earth used to worship?

As they walked deeper into the forest, it started to get darker, and darker, and once they reached the inside of the forest, a horde of about ten corrupted foxes appeared in front of them. There were seven level 3 foxes and 3 level 4 foxes. They did not have a ranged damage dealer, so Eniche quickly ran to the front, and let out a loud roar.

One of the freakiest things about these corrupted creatures was how unnatural they appeared to be. Bright blue eyes aside, the foxes and wolves had long claws on their paws, and they seemed ready to use them, worse than cats, and Langa did not like that. It made them nasty to fight against.

"Come, face me!" she roared, and five of the foxes ran towards her. Sigurd chanted a spell and released a black rope made of magic, which tied up the legs of three of the foxes. Seeing this, Langa ran towards the two free level 3 foxes, chucking one of the wooden javelins that he'd taken from the training room into the eye of a fox, and quickly turning around to stab the other fox on its side. The half-blinded fox howled, and then tried to scratch him with its sharp claws, but thankfully, his leather trousers held, and he was able to quickly finish off the injured fox before turning back to the blinded one.

Once he was done, he ran over to relieve Eniche who was struggling to hold back five foxes at once. She managed to hit one of them on the head with her mace and bashed another with her shield, however, the other two level 4 foxes latched onto her ankles with their teeth, biting deep. Langa was surprised, as she did not seem to be bothered by the pain at all, and through the party interface, he saw that her HP barely even moved. This must be the result of her high vitality.

The problem was that at this moment, the fifth fox had leapt off the ground, and was charging towards her, teeth out as it aimed to bite her neck. Langa used Flash Step, stabbing straight into the creature's neck using the skill's increased damage, killing it instantly. Once again, Eniche bashed a fox with her shield, while one of the level four foxes that had been biting her ankles turned to Langa as its target. He tried to use his movement skill to dodge, then block its claws, and while he was able to dodge, he discovered a big issue, trying to block with his basic pike while not having decent spear skill was not feasible. He barely managed to kill it.

Flash Step was back on cool-down, but there was no time to rest, as Eniche was struggling to keep the aggro of three corrupted foxes on her. Langa threw a dagger into a level 4 corrupted fox’s eye, and it turned its attention from her to him. Seeing it charge his way, Langa chose not to retreat. He also charged towards it, intercepting its path, and using his momentum to leap and stab it in the side. It howled, but before its claws could reach him, he pulled out the spear and struck its neck, instantly killing it.

“My MP is running out!” Sigurd warned, so Langa charged towards one of the tied-up foxes, a level 3 fox, and stabbed it repeatedly since it could not fight back, and since its HP was low, it did not take much longer to kill it. Another fox leapt at him before he could get into his proper evade stance, and it managed to claw deep into his arm, such that when he tried to stab it, the spear barely went into it. Thankfully, Sigurd used the last of his MP to tie up its legs, and Langa killed it.

Soon after that, Eniche managed to kill the two foxes that were still on her, and then Langa and Sigurd together finished off the remaining two that had been held by Sigurd's ropes. The three of them sat down to recover the stamina that they'd lost, and Sigurd healed both of them. They were not that injured, but he wanted to level up his skill as soon as possible. While Eniche recovered from her wounds, Langa thought back on the battle. He had managed to level up to level 4 since he had been so close already, but he was not happy with how the fight had gone. He was not very good at using the spear, and that was a problem because he was the only damage dealer in this party. For a moment, he wondered if he should put his free points into strength, but decided against it. His speed was his greatest weapon, and he got 2 strength on every level up too. Yeah, for now, he would dump everything into agility.

They walked further along the forest, but after a while, they took a moment to sit down and rest as Sigurd needed to recover his mana. Sigurd closed his eyes and sat in a lotus position as he meditated to speed up his mana regeneration.

Langa scanned their surroundings and noticed a long, blackened carcass under the grass. The forest seemed to be getting darker and foggier, and they saw less corrupted creatures.

“This wasn’t done by a fox or a wolf,” Langa said, looking at the remains. It wasn’t mauled to death, and it’s bones didn’t show any marks from claws.

“It’s the body of a dark elf," Eniche said as she peered closer. “Weird, it’s fresh,” she said, sniffing the air.

“What?” Langa asked. “These bones look like they’ve been decaying for months.”

“It’s probably the corruption,” Eniche said, looking around uneasily. “I smell fresh blood. I should be able to smell more, but it messes with my senses. Besides, I'm not a good hunter, but those bloodstains don't look more than a day old."

Was this the body of someone who should have been taking the tutorial with them? Langa wanted to vomit. Were they in danger? None of them were scouts, and they were not particularly stealthy either. He was no good at tracking, as evidenced by the time he and Neo had lost his brother-in-law’s goats and spent the whole day and almost the whole night trying to track and search for them.

“I’ll scout ahead to see if there are any predators around here,” Langa said.

“Don’t go far, we still need to get back to town before dark,” Eniche told him. “If it’s a higher level monster, we’d rather go back and bring the others.”

Langa nodded, and followed the trail of blood for a few metres in the dark forest. It was eerily quiet and no matter how far he looked, he couldn’t see any corrupted creature. He did, however, see a glow coming from a hollow tree up on the path ahead. Inching closer, he found himself looking at the strangest thing at the foot of the tree.

A large, colourful chameleon the size of a squirrel was looking right at him. Langa took a step back. He was very superstitious and in his culture, chameleons were symbols of bad luck.

A very big one like this could only be a symbol of very bad luck. It lunged at him, and Langa Flash Stepped back, only to realise that there was no flat land at his back. Instead, there was a slope and when he landed, he lost his balance and rolled down the slope until he collided hard with a tree.

“Ouch,” he cursed, thankful for his leather armour. He hadn’t fallen too far, and he could see the chameleon looking down at him before it turned away and went back to its tree.

Dammit, Langa cursed again at the darkness, noticing black strands in the air, coming from somewhere nearby. A pained whimper caught his ear, and he looked around to see where the black strands were coming from.

There was a weird structure that looked to be a miniature tekhenu covered in moss and ivy. Symbols were carved along its length, and there was an energy filling this place even as it looked worn down and broken. A small carved doll of a female foxkin wearing a crown sat on top of the tekhenu, and it was from this that the pained whimpers came.

This was a broken altar, Langa realised as he drew closer—something beckoning him to get closer. The doll talisman was calling out to him as if begging for salvation. He held his spear in hand and looked around. If this was a video game, he would undoubtedly take the talisman as it was sure to lead to a quest, but this was real life, a fallen constellation’s altar.

Still, maybe this was his Calling, like Lady Mira said. His decision was made when the whimper from the talisman turned into a strangled wail, clearly in pain, as more black strands were sucked away from it into the air and then into darkness.

Carefully, Langa reached out and picked up the crying statue. Immediately as he did, he felt the energy inside him, his mana, drain away rapidly, as if someone were sucking his blood dry. His head ached painfully, and fire surged up around the altar, consuming everything.

“Langa!” he heard Eniche shout, and he saw her and Sigurd running down the slope towards him. A good thing too because from the burned altar, a cloud of black smoke filled the air and two level 5 corrupted foxes emerged.

He pocketed the talisman, and the battle began again. They fought against the two foxes for a while, it was easier facing the two compared to the horde. Sigurd's mana was back to full, so Langa and Eniche were able to concentrate on battle without worrying about injuries.

When that was done, they rested again, with Langa noticing that the black strands in the air were gone. During the breaks, Langa asked about certain things that he was curious about. He learned that the term deity was used to refer to both constellations and gods, and that all deities could sponsor players or NPCs that they liked with skills, items and blessings in exchange for a percentage of the player’s karma. It seemed that karma was a precious commodity for deities, especially constellations, who needed a lot of karma to Ascend to godhood.

Thankfully, they did not run into a horde of foxes again, and they only encountered level 4 corrupted foxes. Just as the three of them were preparing to go back, and see if the other foxes that they fought before had respawned as it was getting too dark to go deeper inside the forest, a tiny white animal scurried ahead of them. A rabbit.

"Oh, man, what would I give to eat that meat," Eniche said, watching the rabbit disappear behind a thicket of bushes.

"Why don't you just catch it? It's not corrupted, so I'm pretty sure that we can eat it," Sigurd said to her.

Sure enough, when Langa looked at the rabbit, he saw that, unlike everything else in this forest, it did not have corrupted under its description.

 

Rabbit Level 0

HP:10/10

 

"I mean, none of us has a cooking skill. I'd love to make rabbit stew, but I can't cook for shit," she said, drooling, still watching that small thicket.

Sigurd thought for a moment, "Well, that Elder is a remnant, isn't he? He has all kinds of skills, maybe he has a cooking one."

"Really?" Eniche said hopefully. Langa could not help but laugh. Who knew this tough-looking serious lionkin woman would look so vulnerable and eager because of food?

So, Langa threw his wooden javelin into the thicket, and the rabbit yelped, but nothing more happened after that. He walked towards that place, intending to pick it up to take with them. However, the moment that Langa stepped past the small thicket, he suddenly found himself in front of a grove of tall, black trees. There was a dark mist, permeating the air, and he could see very little ahead of him. It was extremely dark, and an unpleasant gust of wind circulated around him as the muscles in his arms tensed more than before, and he gripped his spear.

 

[WARNING! YOU HAVE ENTERED THE RED ZONE: CALPU'S CORRUPTED GROVE!]

 

Before Langa could even register the meaning of the announcement, he heard Eniche scream his name, "Langa, look out!"

There were goosebumps on the left side of his neck, and he reflexively Flash Stepped to the right. A silver broadsword landed right on the spot where he'd been standing a second ago.

"A mortal? In my domain?" A soft, surprised voice said, and Langa turned to look.

A tall creature stood in front of him, it walked on two legs like a human, but its head was a hideous combination of a fox and a wolf. It had black eyes that stared unblinkingly at Langa as the wind blew its dark grey fur around. It was also holding another broadsword in its hands, hands that had long sharp claws.

 

Calpu (Shadow Maestril Miniboss)

Level 7

HP: 3000/3000

Karma: 1500

 

There was a wave of fear settled somewhere inside his mind as the disgusting maestril's eyes glowed red and it walked towards him. He felt suddenly lethargic, his hands trembled as he held his dagger and threw it at the monster. It barely flinched. The monster let out a screeching roar, and the world turned grey.

A splitting headache hit him so hard that he staggered, feeling like something was crawling inside his mind. Langa knew that he was well and truly fucked when, just from Calpu looking at him, a weight settled in his mind, and he could not move. He tried to use Flash Step again since it was off cool-down now, but he could not even hear himself think. Panic captured him instantly. He could not move. He trusted his legs more than anything his entire life, he'd always been able to run as far and as fast away as possible from the things that scared him. But now, there was nothing but that paralysing stillness.

The maestril raised its sword, and all Langa could manage was to weakly raise his spear in an attempted block, and then he felt pain in his abdomen and fell to the ground. He saw only a prompt and then total darkness.

 

[YOU ARE DEAD]