Oliver watched the manta ray approach while the ring shouted in his ear, “Kill it! Throw the spear! Gah! You thick-skulled meathead!” He firmly ignored the ring while also noticing a difference in his eyesight that he guessed came from the Perception stat. Oliver hadn’t needed glasses before the tutorial, but it was close. Now, he made out a girl standing on the back on the manta when it was still a couple hundred meters away.

The manta slowly lowered towards the ground as it approached, but never touched down; it just continued to hover a couple of meters off the ground. The girl on top hopped down when the manta quit descending. She wore a cautious smile that brightened a little when she noticed Trinket and Barton.

“Hey, everybody!” she greeted in a chipper voice. “My name is Rose Flores and this big guy is Scooter. I’m sure glad to find a group of friendly faces, people are going nuts out there. I even had to knock a couple of creepy guys around for getting stabby and handsy.”

“Nice ta meet you, Rose,” Cora greeted the girl. “Yer buddy Scooter, there. Can he carry a handful of people?”

Rose looked at the crowd of people following behind Cora and shook her head. “I don’t think he can carry everyone, that’s a big crowd.”

Cora smiled. “Not what I had in mind, dear. Let’s sit a minute and get acquainted.

Oliver, Cora, Rose, and Nada sat in a loose semi-circle, while the boy, Silas, sat behind Cora and Oliver. Barton and Trinket were very interested in the boy who sat with one arm clutching his tome and the other stroking the fur on Barton’s neck.

“Alright, let’s start with introductions, since its only polite. Mah name is Cora Emerson an Ah’m from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ah’m seventy years old, and lost mah husband and son to cancer, so I donate a lot of mah time to the American Cancer Society.”

Rose put a hand over her mouth and said, “Oh, wow. Okay, well, like I said, my name is Rose Flores. I’m from Manilla in the Philippines, I’m twenty-five, and I’m a... semi-professional boxer. Oh, my only family is my dad. I hope he’s doing okay. He’s the one who got me into boxing, so he’s probably fine.”

The others looked back and forth between each other since the more outgoing members of the group had already spoken. Finally, Nada shrugged her shoulders. “Fine, I’ll go. My name is Nada Ibrahim. I’m from Cairo, Egypt. Twenty-five years old. I’m a medical student at Cairo University.”

Oliver realized that he was up, so he spoke next. “My name is Oliver Grant. That’s Trinket and that’s Barton. I’m twenty-seven. My wife and I were on a weekend camping trip when all this happened. We got hit by a truck after the first message and she didn’t make it.”

Rose let out an audible, “Oh, no!” at the realization and Cora muttered, “Damn.”

“It’s... okay. I’m fighting to grow as much as I can in the Tutorial so that I can try to bring her back when we’re out.”

Nada spoke up, suddenly very excited. “You think that’s possible? Full resurrection?”

Oliver shrugged, “I don’t see why not. You healed me, Silas there threw a lightning bolt, and science would definitely have a hard time with Scooter and Trinket. If the impossible is happening all around us, I’m going to hold out hope.”

Everyone sat in silence for a few moments, before Cora nodded towards the youngest of their little group. “How, ‘bout you, Silas? What’s your story, honey?”

Silas looked up from where he sat and wrapped his arm further around Barton’s neck. Before he spoke, he turned his gaze back down to the ground. “I am Silas Henry. I am ten years old. I live in an orphanage in Ethiopia.”

Rose reached out her hand, but Silas flinched away, so she redirected it to join in petting Barton. “What about your book? Do you like to read, Silas?”

Oliver gave the boy’s book a good look. It looked more like a wizard’s ancient spell book than anything a ten-year-old boy would have.

Silas looked down at the book. “When the words came, I wished for my book to stay with me, and it did, but it has changed. It is not the same, but it still has my story inside. Other pages as well, but my story is not changed.”

Oliver quirked his head at the boy. “What’s the story, man?”

The boy hugged his book to his chest tightly before he gingerly opened the cover of the ancient-looking tome and turned to a page near the center. Silas slowly turned the page so that Oliver could see and Oliver bit back a laugh.

“Oliver Twist? That’s awesome. Are you a fan of Dickens?”

The boy nodded, his eyes still on the ground. “Some Americans came to the orphanage two years ago. They brought boxes of books from America and most of us got to choose one book. Nobody wanted this one because the cover had no pictures on it. I have read it many times. It is my favorite possession.”

“They taught you English in the orphanage?” Nada asked.

“Yes, but it is strange. I hear Mr. Oliver and Ms. Cora in English, but Ms. Rose and Ms. Nada in Amharic, my first language.”

“Fascinating,” Nada breathed out.

“Alright, then,” Cora announced, slapping her hands on her knees and standing up. “Here’s what Ah’m thinkin’. Rose, Scooter can move a few of us, yeah?”

Rose nodded, “For sure! He could probably handle at least five or six without trouble.”

Cora clapped her hands. “Great! So, Oliver came up with a plan of sorts. See, according to the message at the start of this Stage, we don’t get to move on until half the people who started this stage are gone. That means it’s in our best interest to clear some folks out.”

“Whoa! What do you mean, ‘clear out’?” Rose nearly shouted.

Oliver raised his hands. “Remember, people who take enough damage get kicked out of the tutorial, not killed. What we do is travel around, looking for people who are starting trouble, and step in. Anybody who’s just trying to get by, we send them back to the group here.”

Nada nodded. “I like it. So, people who would use violence against the innocent to gain in power are kicked out instead. Who goes and who stays?”

Oliver gestured to himself. “I will go. I wouldn’t mind Cora and Nada join in. Cora’s shield and Nada’s healing go a long way to keeping us here. Rose, I’m assuming you’ll need to go if we’re riding Scooter.”

Rose nodded. “Yessir, I go where Scooter goes. I’m no slouch myself, and I won’t mind putting some jerks in their places.”

Cora squatted down in front of Silas. “Silas, honey, would you stay back with the group and keep an eye on everyone?”

Silas looked torn. It was obvious that he felt somewhat safe with Cora, but didn’t want to go looking for fights. Oliver saw his indecision and threw the kid a lifeline. “Hey, Silas. What if Trinket and Barton stayed put to help you keep an eye on things?”

The boy made eye contact with Oliver for the first time. “Truly?” he asked.

His earnestness made Oliver half smile. “Absolutely.” He turned to his two Bond companions and asked them, “Can you guys stay with Silas and keep him and everybody else safe?”

Barton barked what Oliver took as a ‘Yes! Absolutely!’ and Trinket saluted with its little stone arm.

“Great,” Oliver said, standing and facing the other three. “Then it’s all settled.”

Oliver decided that riding on giant flying manta ray was definitely the way to get around. Being up in the air about twenty meters really didn’t help with the soul-rending sameness of the stage, endless dirt and people as far as the eye could see. The group would drop down over any groups of peaceful-looking survivors and point them back in the direction of their little group.

Any hunting parties were given a chance to drop their weapons and disperse before they were dispatched. If it was only two or three in a group out hunting other people, Oliver would take them out from Scooter’s back with his spear, much to the delight of his ring. For larger groups, they would all jump down from Scooter’s back and engage as a group. Cora took the role of tank, using her large shield to attempt to block incoming attacks. Nada was there to patch them up if something got through. Oliver took an enemy out every time his spear flew, even earning a chorus of ‘Ooh’s when he took out two with one throw once. Rose darted around their group, tying up anyone not held back by Cora’s shield. Even the ring was impressed with Rose’s fighting skills, especially since she wasn’t using a weapon.

“You know, this could help in the long run,” his ring chimed in after the fifth group.

“How so?” Oliver whispered back.

“Well, you’re going to be around other tutorial-takers after this Stage, for the most part. There are a few solo Stages left that I know of, but the System is going to dump all of you together most of the time. If you take out some violence-seekers now, it will only help later. Even if it’s only a drop in the bucket...”

The group had just finished a fight with a group a dozen or so strong when the message came through.

Congratulations! You have survived the first free-for-all battle! At the start of the next Stage, you will be allowed to choose one piece of basic Bind-able equipment. Teleport to the next stage begins in 5:00.

Like the friends you found? Add them to a party! This will ensure that you begin each Stage in the same safe zone.

Go forward and grow in strength!

“No! No, no, no, no, no!” the ring angrily muttered in Oliver’s head.

Oliver just smiled as he turned to the rest of his crew.

“Hey, you guys want to form a party?”

Cora, Nada, and Rose all paused as their eyes unfocused for a moment before the messages rolled in.

Rose Flores has agreed to join your party!

Cora Emerson has agreed to join your party!

Nada Ibrahim has agreed to join your party!

“Well, that was easy enough,” Cora commented. “Rose, you think we got enough time for Scooter to get us back to the group? We should pick up Ollie’s buddies and see if Silas wants to join up. Feel like that kid’s got the makings of something special.”

Rose jumped up onto Scooter’s back in a leap that would make an NBA player jealous.

Strength points at work, Oliver thought.

She gave Scooter a proud pat on his head and announced, “With time to spare. My Scooter’s the fastest thing in these skies!”

“Only thing in the sky,” Nada added under her breath.

The rest of the party hopped on Scooter’s back and the great ray sliced through the air back in the direction they had come from. Oliver idly noticed that even though Scooter was moving purely by force of magic, he still ‘flapped’ his fins like he was gliding through the water.

The timer still had a minute and a half when the party saw the large group of people they were hunting for on the horizon. As they disembarked from Scooter’s back, Barton barked happily and ran back and forth between Silas and Oliver.

Cora hurried over to the boy and crouched down in front of him. “Silas, we would like for you to join our party. Would that be alright, hun?”

The boy raised his dark eyes from the ground to look, first Cora, then the rest of the group in the eyes. “Truly?” he asked. “You... want me?”

“Of course!” Rose cheered.

Oliver gave him a half smile and said, “Sure, kid.”

Nada just shrugged and added, “Why not. The magic will be interesting to study, at least.”

In the last seconds of the timer, Oliver was treated to a smile from Silas and another pair of messages.

Silas Henry has agreed to join your party!

Stage 5 Complete!