I managed to kill the first two goblins before they even noticed that I was in their camp.
Most of them were far too preoccupied in gambling their time away, or rolling around in their own refuse to really pay attention to the surrounding forest. They probably didn’t even think it a feasible idea that anyone would be attacking them in the first place. Let alone a solo human.
I doubted that these goblins were ‘real’ anyway. There was no possible way in or out of this little sandbox map, so they were probably just spawned in by the System for the tutorial.
Later, humanity would discover that was exactly how most dungeons functioned, most, but not all.
But that’s a topic for another time.
“Gaaah!” The third goblin managed to squeal out before I killed it, my blade catching it high on the chest instead of at its neck. It still died shortly after, but that mistake meant the entire area now knew they were under attack.
Dozens of eyes focused themselves my way.
I sprinted forward, burying my sword into the next goblin closest to me and tearing the blade free with a torrent of green blood. Another was jumping at me with a dagger clutched in its clawed hand. I was on the backswing with my sword so I simply shifted my weight and kicked it square in the torso instead.
My shoe sank a bit into its body before its momentum stopped entirely, dropping to the ground in a groan.
Another slash of my blade ended its life.
[You Have Reached Level 8]
I mentally began pumping my dexterity with my new free points even as four more goblins closed in on me from different sides.
“Let's go you piggly fucks!” I yelled out at them.
Then they came.
A dodge, a back step, duck, block, a thrust into an exposed side, then a quick slash. I began fighting the goblins in a horde, many bodies pressing in to try to claw and bite their way towards me. It was easy enough to keep them from surrounding me by staying on the move, my dexterity stat being simply too high for them to keep up.
I kited them through the camp, slashing and chopping. A goblin hand was lobbed off by the campfire, and then a leg severed by the tent. Arms, heads, limbs of all kinds, all were cut free as I danced my way through the fight.
Even back at level 3, I was a bit faster and stronger than these things. At level 8, the gap was simply widening. This was especially so as I began learning the proper way to use my sword. It was almost pitiful.
If one could have any sort of pity for those wrinkly, green-skinned cancer rejects.
Have I made it obvious I hate these things yet? I did? Good. Because I do, a lot.
Anyway, greenish blood now nearly covered my vest and labcoat, the slick substance dripping from my arms in a pitter patter. Only a couple of the scouts and a single warrior remained, and I closed on them just as a new cry broke out over the settlement.
“Wagooooli!” I didn’t know the damn language, so I couldn’t say for sure what the things were saying, but the tone gave an indicator of anger.
I turned as I cut down the final scout, seeing that the two bodyguard goblins, along with the chieftain, were now stalking toward me. It looked like my boss fight was finally coming.
No new level came from those last few kills, so I had to stick with the stats that I had. It wasn’t much of a bother, I was confident I could take them. At the time, I doubted the chief or his two goons would be that much stronger than the warriors.
The guards attacked me first, their own swords flashing in from the sides in fast slashes. I jumped back, avoiding both blows and then lunged forward quickly, aiming my blade at the neck of the one on my right. I expected the attack to kill it quickly, but the damn thing brought his sword up and blocked me.
The one on the left thrust his weapon at me at the same time and I had to twist my body and turn to avoid getting skewered. Just as I regained my footing, I practically fell backwards, stumbling, to dodge the axe blade that was aimed at my face from the chieftain.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, “you guys don’t play, huh?”
“Wabbibili Guutobi,” was the answer I got in return.
“Wabby Gooby your fucking mother.” I ran forward again.
A feint to the left, and a downward cut from the right was enough to catch the first guard by surprise, my sword biting into his arm all the way to bone. I wrenched my weapon free and kicked him away, sending him sprawling into the dirt.
The second guard aimed high again, and I ducked the attack, stepping forward and grabbing him by the furrs around his torso. His breath was fucking horrid, but I ignored that and pulled on his small frame, yanking him off his feet and directly into the path the cheiftain’s incoming axe.
“Aaah!” the goblin screamed as his own chieftain nearly cut him in two, his torso split open from shoulder to hip from behind.
I stabbed my sword into his gut, for good measure, then pushed him aside.
The chieftain seemed barely concerned that he had essentially killed his own guard. His beady black eyes were simply trained on me. The anger in them was obvious, but it seemed like it was just a blanket rage, without focus.
The axe came again and I stepped to the left, knocking the weapon away with my own. The impact sent a jarring reverb up my arm, but nothing painful. He began raising the axe again, but my sword was already in motion, catching him just below the armpit as I pulled upward as hard as I possibly could.
A squelch resounded through the camp as the chieftain’s arm fell, severed completely.
“Oh, terribly sorry. Let me even up the other side there for you,” I said.
There was no way the goblins understood me, the same way I couldn’t understand them. But even to this day, I argue that the Dungeon fuckery allows them to understand the basic gist of our meaning.
The chieftain puffed up in fury, his remaining arm shaking as he hefted his axe. “Bluik ek bitzu.”
“Sure, sure.”
The first guard had stumbled back to his feet by then. Cradling his injured arm, it looked to me, then its chieftain, then the dead body of the other guard at my feet. It almost let out a whimper before rushing at me, one good arm clutching its sword and swinging out as if wanting to cut me in two.
It only took a shift of my weight, a block, and then a follow up thrust before my weapon’s tip was buried into its skull the same way it had been for Perez. The guard crumbled. And I received another notification.
[You Have Reached Level 9]
I gave an easy smile and quickly dumped the stats into strength this time.
The chieftain was on me again, but without the two guards as back-up, the threat was not as pressing. The fact it only had one arm at that point, was also rather helpful. In the end, the goblin got its axe stuck in a tent during a more wild than average swing and I slipped my sword through one side of its chest, and out its back.
It barely managed a few final gurgles before it succumbed to death at last.
I pulled my sword free and wiped it clean on the furs it wore even as I used my other hand to loot it.
[Loot, Goblin Chieftain: +9 Copper, +1 Silver credits]
The other two “Goblin Elite Warriors”, gave me 30 copper each. Which meant I got 69 in total for the three of them.
Nice.
I still wasn’t sure at that time what the currency meant or what I could use it for. But, that would be remedied in due time, and it wasn’t that important right at the moment anyway.
As I finished indulging my inner gamer and collecting my loot, the camp, and the forest beyond, suddenly warped and stuttered. Within a moment, everything seemed to freeze as color suddenly washed out of my surroundings entirely. I looked down and found only myself still in color, or seemed real.
[Tutorial Quest Completed:
Calculating rewards based on performance and actions…
Additional experience gained, loot table upgraded, available class options upgraded…
Rewards:
New Titles earned; Pioneer, True Prodigy, Death Harbinger
You have reached Level 10
+ 85 Copper Credits, + 10 Silver credits, + Steel Runic Sword (Uncommon), New Skill (Inspect) unlocked]
I didn’t know what the titles I had received meant, but I sure liked seeing that level up notification. And a new skill, on top of a brand new sword, an uncommon one at that. I was certainly excited by all of this, but even then I knew the most important part was yet to come. “Class options Upgraded” was a teaser that was hitting my brain like no other.
I swiped away the other notifications, pushing away screens until I got to the one I wanted.
[Tutorial Complete; Character class choice now available.
Class options based off of titles, feats and performance inside the tutorial.
Once a choice has been made, one may not change their class by normal means.
Options Available:
Warrior (Common)
Rogue (Common)
Mage (Common)
…]
Okay, all of the common classes were available, that’s like thirty, let’s skip to the part you actually care about, and the part that I was looking for.
[Options Available:
Blood Knight (Rare)
Spellsword (Rare)
Necromancer (Rare)
True Einharjar (Epic)
Hel Paladin (Epic)
Shade Knight (Epic)
Mage of the Styx (Mythic)
Umbra Dancer (Mythic)
Voidwrath Asura (Legendary)
Death’s Disciple (???)]
Of course, I didn’t get descriptions for any of the options I was presented with. The system seemed to think it fitting to only give the class name and its rarity. Anything more was locked away behind some kind of dungeon fuckery that I still don’t quite understand.
Later research that looked into the tutorial options, and the results of millions of other Rift Hunters, revealed that performance in a tutorial dungeon was the biggest factor in one’s class options. Of course, people had natural talents that leaned one way or another, and these were factored in by the system as well.
The rarity of classes was also later figured out by the time the world settled into its new reality. Common classes were the lowest, and meant one had little talent or performed poorly overall.
Uncommon was next, then Rare, followed by Epic. Epic classes were usually the goal of even the most elite Rift Hunters entering their tutorial dungeon. They were powerful no matter what class it was, and allowed one to rise in ranks extremely fast in any guild or government backed corporation.
Mythic Classes were the mark of an outstanding powerhouse, someone who had immense talent or had shown great feats during their tutorial.
Legendary was the top of the top. The High Ten, as they were eventually known. Because only the top ten ranked Rift Hunters had Legendary classes, at least the only known ones with such classes.
They all became national or global icons, leading guilds of their own, or being the defacto leader of any faction they allied with.
Overall, it was complicated, and a mess to be figured out by many other people that were not me. I just had to make my choice between the options listed.
I honestly didn’t spend a lot of time going over the list.
A few did sound rather good when I first read them. Necromancer sounded rather fun, Shade Knight appeared interesting, and I really liked the sound of the Voidwrath Asura. But let’s be real here, there was only one true choice to be made on that list.
Even if the class didn’t show a rarity, listing only question marks, I knew it was the one I’d pick the moment I saw it.
[Class Confirmed, ‘Death’s Disciple’
New Title: Heir to Death
Stats Per Level: +2 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Intelligence, +2 Willpower
New skill unlocked: Shade Stealth - Lvl 1- Beginner, Marked to Die - Lvl 1 Beginner
New ability unlocked: Soul Usher (F)
“Nothing is outside the domain of death, even a god.”
]
I barely had time to read what my new class had given me before the world suddenly shuttered once again. The black and white scenery fizzled out of existence, and I found myself swallowed by pure white light.
“Adam!? Adam, what the fuck happened to you?” Richard was suddenly at my side, his arm tucked under my armpit, pulling me upright off the ground.
It took a moment for my eyes to refocus, but I eventually found myself back at the camp in the woods. Behind me, the white portal had changed, its surface now collapsed in on itself, leaving only a long cylinder of brilliant white as if it were an axis of energy rotating on itself.
As I looked at the rift, a screen popped up into my vision.
[Tutorial Dungeon: Cooldown; 23 hours, 59 minutes, 53 seconds.]
“What is this green stuff? Dude you reek. Where is Gwen, Frank, and Victoria? Michael? Those soldiers you went in with?”
Richard continued to throw questions at me, but I didn’t answer. My head was still swimming from the sudden transition from fighting for my survival, picking a class, and then being thrust right back into the “real world”.
“Adam Pierce, come with us.” I looked up to see the person who had spoken. They were a woman wearing a crisp military uniform, a stylized falcon insignia on her left breast, the well-known symbol of the Armed Services Internal Investigation Division.
The name was a bit misleading though, the ASIID had powers to investigate any crime within the country’s lands, military, civilian, or otherwise. It answered only to the Prime Minister and his administration. The woman in front of me was practically a bureaucratic middle finger to the military placed smack dab in the middle of their operation.
And what a gloriously beautiful middle finger she was. Agent Lucilla Sinclair, as I would later learn is her name, was a striking brunette with glittering hazel eyes. Slim, athletic, roughly five foot nine in her boots. She held herself as someone who knew exactly what she was capable of, and not at all afraid to do what she felt was needed.
Standing on either side of the woman were soldiers carrying rifles, both aimed at Richard and me.
“He needs to get to medical, look at him, are you crazy?” Richard said.
“It’s alright,” I placed a hand on his shoulder, pushing slightly to gain distance from him and stand on my own feet. “I’m okay for now. I’ll comply with whatever you need, Ma’am.”
“Follow,” was the only word of reply I was given.
I grinned, but did as I was asked.
Within a minute, I was marched into one of the tents of the camp and brought into an isolated room where a table and two chairs waited for me.
It was obvious what was about to happen. They were going to interrogate me, to find out what happened in the rift; what it was, how it worked, everything they could manage.
Most of that information I was happy to share. Even if I tried hiding things, like classes, stats, loot systems and things like that, it wasn’t like others would keep their mouths shut as they completed their own tutorials in due time.
Some details, I obviously wanted to keep hidden. But that was easy enough to do, who was going to know otherwise if I told a little white lie?
Lucilla entered the room a few minutes after I had settled into one of the chairs. Her steps took her directly across from me at the table, her eyes boring down into my own with an intensity that made me wonder if I was about to be asked to senior prom.
“Adam Pierce,” she began, “I’m going to need you to walk me through your entire day, starting from… well I’m sure you know where.”
I gave her a knowing smile and folded my hands in front of me. “Absolutely Ma’am.”
1.03 New Disciple Who Dis?