ShanDeRad
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Book 2: Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2024-04-25 11:51:20 +0000 UTCMuch had changed over the last two months, Earth had been integrated into the multiverse, and with it came the system. A game like interface where people could kill monsters to level up their class and work in a profession to help them gain skills that revolved around what could be an infinite amount of different jobs. All of this revolved around a specific purpose, to get stronger, to gain power, to rise to the top. Everyone from Earth had been moved into a tutorial, while their planet was undergoing major changes, one of which was having it flooded with mana. Earth had never had any mana, meaning those that lived there never had the ability to use magic, now with the changes occurring and being in the tutorial they had all been exposed to what living truly was.
When Shaun had first entered the tutorial he found himself in a dark cave system, he had chosen a class, a Rogue, and found himself in a group of people he had worked with pre integration. The month he had spent in the first stage of the tutorial had been filled with ups and downs, he had ended up in a situation where he had needed to take another human life and also been betrayed by others that he had hoped to trust. Over the course of the first stage he had ended up growing stronger, nearly dying multiple times, but managing to survive and come out on top.
Stage 2 had been different, finding himself in a forest, having to hunt down dungeons to grow stronger, but no matter what he always strived to win, to grow and be powerful. He had unlocked a profession, being able to craft using mana, which had come in handy when making weapons and equipment. The biggest change was unlocking a heritage, one that while incredibly powerful, would also make him a target in the multiverse if anyone ever found out about it. Still he had used it at every chance he had to bond multiple elements into an affinity, leading to so many changes that he had become too over levelled for the stage of the tutorial he was in. In the end he came out as the number 1 strongest person in the entire tutorial.
Just before the stage had ended Shaun had managed to not only craft an Epic ranked weapon, but one that he tailor made to his own elemental power, using his craft to imbue it with spells and orbs that he had received along his journey, as well as a gem that would be able to store mana and fuel that gauntlet. He hadn’t yet had a chance to use his new weapon, but it was the first thing he planned on doing.
Having now finished the second stage of the tutorial, he was transported into what would be the third and final stage. If it followed the previous stages he expected that he would end up in another area that would have monsters and, hopefully, stronger dungeons. Only the 1000 strongest people in the tutorial were being moved into this stage rather than everyone that had completed very objective, taking this into account he assumed the area would be smaller than what he had been in previously, but he was unsure what to truly expect.
After the feeling of being moved through space finished he was standing at the ready, if he needed to fight or defend himself he would not hesitate to go on the attack. He had learnt how important it was to always be aware of your surroundings and expect the unexpected. However when he finally got a look at where he was, he truly had never expected what he saw.
Around him wasn’t caves or a forest, it wasn't even an island or some other weird environment that he would have expected from the tutorial, what greeted him was a structure that had been pulled straight out of history itself. He was standing in the middle of an arena, one where a fight would take place, around the centre of what could be described as a fighting pit were rows seating, stretching so far back that he couldn’t make out the full details of the furthest chairs. I am standing in a Colosseum.
He could see where the fighters would enter and exit, leading out of the colosseum to who knows where. It was taken straight out of ancient Rome, an incredible sight, but he didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy it. Appearing in flashes of light around the arena, coming in quicker as more people appeared. If he was to take a wild guess, there were soon 1000 people in the arena with him.
Surprisingly, no one was attacking each other, instead they were taking in the sight of the structure around them, soon though people saw others who they knew and started forming groups. Shaun quickly pulsed his Earthen Echo skill, one that allowed him to make out everything in a small radius around him, although he could push it out to encompass 100’s of metres, there was no need to as everyone was in the arena with him.
He quickly caught sight of someone heading towards him, turning he looked straight at the last person he wished to see. Trevor, a bully and fool of a man, was heading towards him with his sword at the ready. Shaun quickly identified him and had to hold back a laugh at what he was.
*Trevor Rule – Level 25*
He was level 25, which meant that he had upgraded his race to E grade but Shaun was still 7 levels higher than him, a gap that one person would not be able to close on their own, especially not with all of the additional power that he held. Before Trevor could make it any closer to him he felt 3 people join him, standing behind where he was standing, weapons drawn.
He knew who they were without having to turn around, Gabe, Eric and another of their team had come up to show support against Trevor. He couldn’t help but smile, it was a nice thought, them coming over to have his back, but it really wasn’t needed.
Seeing that Shaun wasn’t alone made Trevor stop for a moment, hesitating slightly, before continuing to move closer. Shaun didn’t make any move though, he lowered his sword as well as the hand wearing the gauntlet, he wasn’t scared of having to fight, but with having 1000 people around him he also didn’t expect this to escalate much.
Once Trevor closed the distance he stopped a few metres in front of him, he looked angry, like he was about to completely lose any control he had and lash out, but he held back.
“You think you are so much better than the rest of us because you were number 1 on the leader board? Don’t fool yourself, I know you, you are worthless, pitiful and the only thing you are worth is going to be the experience and TE I get from killing you.”
He hadn’t seen this guy since they went sperate ways all the way back in stage 1 of the tutorial, He had screwed around with Trevor’s men in stage 2, but really it was their own fault for trying to impede people from going into a dungeon. This crazy aggression really wasn’t warranted, and if he was to guess, Shaun figured it had more to do with him beating him in ranking than it did anything else.
Still, the idiots outburst did have one consequence that he could have lived without, nearly every single other person around them had turned and watched the interaction. They all now had eyes on him, assessing him, trying to figure out how he had become the strongest person there, at least according to the leader board anyway.
He didn’t pay them any attention, focusing instead on Trevor and if he was going to say anymore. He wasn’t going to reply to the outburst either, he didn’t find the need to justify himself in any way and really all he had done was spurt nonsense around killing him, which really, he was more than happy for Trevor to try. But it seemed that it wouldn’t be the case, the longer they stood there, Shaun saying nothing, just looking at him, the silence had turned awkward. Trevor had come over in the hopes of getting him to enter into some battle of words and he just wasn’t going to take the bait. Instead, Trevor turned around with a huff and walked away, everyone else though was still looking towards him, some now talking to each other in whispers.
Ignoring everyone around him he turned to Gabe and Eric, seeing the two with huge smiles on their face he couldn’t help but smile back. He was happy to see the two of them, when he found them on the leader board he was overjoyed that they had made it into stage 3.
“I am glad you guys made it, its only been a few weeks but It feels like forever since I last saw you.” He was going for a casual conversation, he was aware of many people still looking on and figured that the less they knew about them the better. Checking them over he also saw that both were sitting at level 24, so close to upgrading their race that one more fight would probably put them over the edge.
“Couldn’t let you have all of the fun, could we?” Gabe joked before moving and giving him a quick hug. “Besides, who would have helped with the dick head over there?”
“Right, as if he would need any of our help!” Eric laughed, quickly followed by Gabe and Shaun joining in.
“So, what do you think we are supposed to do?” Gabe asked them.
This prompted them all to really look around, usually when they appeared in the next stage they would get a message from the system, informing them of the objectives they would need to meet to move on, but as this was the last stage they would be heading back to Earth after this.
“Don’t know. But if I was to guess, being in an arena and all, there is going to be fighting.” Shaun replied.
Before they had any more time to ponder on what to do next, they got the message that they had been waiting for.
*Tutorial Stage 3*
Stage 3 of the Tutorial will work to introduce you to an important lesson of the multiverse, fight to grow strong but never overestimate your abilities.
This final stage of the tutorial will separate the strongest that this tutorial has to offer into tiers, over the next 4 weeks each contestant will be matched with another and have to fight to prove they have what it takes to move into the next round. These fights will be held in a one on one gladiator style match where to win your opponent must either forfeit the match beforehand, concede during the fight, be rendered unconscious or die.
You will not get to chose who you fight, the matches will be allocated randomly and you will have no choice but to either fight or forfeit. Over the first five days, starting two days from now, each person will only fight in one match, with the 500 winner’s moving forward into the second round. You will then receive a two day break to increase your power and prepare for the next fight. Over the 3 days after this, you will fight again, with the 250 winner’s moving forward. Over the following two days the winners will fight again, leaving only 125 winners.
Over the following week, on day one 124 of the 125 winners will fight, with the person with the highest win streak and ranking will be exempt, leaving 63 left in the next round. On day two 60 of the winners shall fight one on one while a fight of three shall be randomly chosen with only one winner being able to move forward. This shall repeat on day three with 28 fighting one on one and three in a group. The fourth and fifth days shall be rest days, and with only 15 winner’s remaining.
On the sixth and seventh day of the third week of stage 3 all those who are left alive from the loser brackets will have the opportunity to fight any of the 15 winners, and if you successfully win, will take their place in the top 15 champions. At the beginning of the last week of the tutorial each day will see each of the remaining 15 champions fight, with one being randomly selected on day 1 to automatically move forward. Once there is only 2 champions left they will fight and a winner will be crowned.
Each successful win will provide the TE equivalent of 50% of the losers holdings.
As per Stage’s 1 and 2, 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 2 objectives: 1,000 Participants
Be crowned winner of tutorial
Survive
Once he had read through the objectives, not just once but three times to make sense of it, everyone gathered seemed to start looking at everyone else present like they were enemy number 1, and he could feel many of the people staring directly at him, because at this point in time he was sitting at the top.
It didn’t take long for some of the people present to voice objectives about fighting other people, Shaun agreed with this to a certain extent, but the purpose wasn’t to kill, although he was sure that some of the people here would happily do so, the purpose was instead to crown a winner of the tutorial.
Out of nowhere the air shifted and a presence was felt, pressing down on all of the people present, with a flash of light, including some sparkles that drifted through the air, a being appeared. They were rather short, maybe half as tall as Shaun, had slightly blue skin and big eyes. As soon as it appeared he lifted his sword and gauntlet, ready to defend himself if needed.
*Dijaun Tellermotrius – Level ???*
Upon identifying the being he knew immediately that there was no hope in winning any kind of fight with this thing. It had 3 question marks on its level, meaning that it had to be over level 100, if not much higher.
“Hello citizens of the planet Earth, my name is Dijaun, but you may refer to me as Di if you would like, and I am your appointed Overseer for this portion of your tutorial. Please lower your weapons, I mean no harm.”
All the humans present were silent, many still had their weapons at the ready, willing to attack and defend themselves at any moment. He couldn’t blame them, over the last two months they had had the fight or flight reaction ingrained so deeply into them that it shouldn’t have been a shock to this Dijaun that they were hesitant to lower their guard.
“Haha, you are all a feisty lot aren’t you. I shall move on, lower your weapons in your own time.” He felt the pressure he had been experiencing that came from the being rise higher, growing more uncomfortable by the second, until it completely disappeared. “Now, you would have all received the message as to this stage of the tutorial, but there was much that it didn’t say, so please listen closely as I will not be repeating myself.”
Comments
Dylan Suomela
||…it was even an island or some other weird environment that he would have expected from… || it wasn’t* even || It was taken straight out of ancient Rome, and incredible sight…|| an* incredible || “You think you are so much better than the rest of us because you were number 1 one the leader board?|| number 1 on* || Trevor had come over in the hopes of getting him to enter not some battle of words and he just wasn’t going to take the bait.|| enter into* some || One the sixth and seventh day of the third week of stage…|| On* the sixth ||…growing ore uncomfortable by the second…|| growing more*
ShanDeRad
Hey Dylan, edit suggestions are always great. Happy for you to message them to me or post as comment.
Dylan Suomela
Thanks for the chapter! Quick question: Would you welcome edit suggestions, and if so, where would you like them posted?
