As the sputtering, twirling glob of fire popped into the straw dummy, Bronwyn snorted a huff of air out her nose, “Bleh, this is the longest tutorial I’ve ever had to do.” She called it a tutorial because that’s what it reminded her of. The “System” called it an orientation. The past two days had been worse; today at least, she’d gotten to mess with some simple spells, which had given her some hope. But roman candles? Come on.

Three days ago, Bronwyn and the other five thousand passengers that had been on the Pilgrim 9 had awoken in a large meadow. They had not awoken retching out cryo-gel on a cold plasteel floor but in soft beds of grass, which had been at least one pleasant surprise. The meadow was roughly six miles across; Bronwyn knew this because she had run its diameter during her first day. It was bordered to the east, west, and south by a dense forest of tall, alien trees. The northern edge was peppered with sparse trees and opened up into a much larger grassland extending as far as the horizon, where tall, purple mountains rose against the cobalt sky.

Upon waking, none of the colonists had known where they were, this planet did not match the description of any they were traveling to, and they had seen no sign of their ship or belongings. However, every single one of them had shared the same dream of being enveloped in glowing golden light. They had shared a sensation of traveling through space in the cloud of light and being deposited on a new world. Nobody had seemed panicked about the situation. In fact, many people had refused to believe that any of this was real - they had insisted that they were still in cryo-sleep, living through some sort of a lucid dream as a side effect of being in the gel for hundreds of years. Those that had seemed to accept the situation, like Bronwyn, couldn’t explain their lack of concern; perhaps the “System” had drugged them with the fruits it had supplied upon their waking.

When Bronwyn woke, she had been greeted by the “System,” a seemingly benevolent entity that would help her learn the ropes of this new world. It had given her access to many of the same commands and interface screens that she had been used to in the VR games she had been famous for back on Earth. However, the UI was far more limited; information about stats was sparse, and there were no chat options nor any sign of a logout button, and this had been the first clue that she really had woken up.

As soon as she had realized how the System worked, she knew she would have to sprint ahead of everyone else. There were five thousand people in this meadow, and there was no way she would be stuck in queues and fall behind. She’d played countless VR MMOs and knew that being ahead of the pack on launch day was the best way to get exclusive rewards and the best gear. This world might not be VR, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t compete.

The first two days of the “orientation” had been lessons on building simple shelters, crafting various wooden trinkets and stone tools, and cooking simple recipes. The meadow had no resources other than the soft, feathery blue grass and occasional clumps of purple-green shrubs; the forest was inaccessible, simply blocked by an invisible wall. Whenever something had been needed for the next lesson, the System would somehow manifest small, yellow chests that contained whatever ingredients were required. The first time Bronwyn had seen one of those chests disappear in a smoky, yellow haze after being emptied, a nearby colonist had lost his shit, screaming about cryo-madness and running off across the meadow.

As it voiced the orientation, the System often cautioned about an overdependence on technology. It explained that Energy use and cultivation were hindered by it and that, as beings new to the use of Energy, they should avoid higher forms of technology. It warned that, as they grew in this new world, exploring into new territories, they might run into other ‘cultivating species’ and could be threatened by beings whose Energy use would eclipse any perceived technological advantage. For that reason, the System had refused to provide any weapons that Energy didn’t easily enhance. In other words, no machine guns or even revolvers were offered in the weapons or combat training, and there were no coffee machines or cell phones provided in any of the supply boxes.

The third day had been all about combat training, at least for Bronwyn. As far as she could see, no one else in the meadow had training dummies spawning around them yet. The morning had been filled with hand-to-hand combat training, and Bronwyn had found it quite rudimentary, just some short punching combos. The after-noon had been weapons training. The System had provided swords, maces, axes, and bows that unfortunately disappeared when the training ended. After that had been lessons on using Energy, essentially one's ability to cast magic spells. Bronwyn had never been a fan of spellcasting classes, occasionally playing some sort of spellsword, but never a full caster. She preferred fast-paced melee combat. To her, it was more fun, and she liked putting on a good show for her fans. Who wants to watch some nerd stand a hundred yards away and spam firebolts?

The Energy training had taken the better part of five hours, and it had mainly consisted of hurling around various elements. Bronwyn had believed before, but at this point, she truly had become convinced that the colonists weren’t all hallucinating or sharing some kind of VR experience in the cryo-pods. She’d played every VR game there was. She’d owned the best immersion pod that money could buy. Nothing came close to what this felt like. She was here. Unbelievably, she was channeling magic and creating fire out of thin air.

Bowing to her inclinations to avoid spellcasting classes, she had focused the most on the spell tutorial that involved using earth magic to shield parts of her body from impact. The System had been quick to inform her that her access to these powers was “borrowed” - she’d have to gather Energy and form her own “Core” before she could wield Energy in skills or spells.

Now, as the night grew dark, she stood watching her last dummy smolder, a thin line of smoke wafting up from the burn mark she’d made. She hoped to be done with this drawn-out “orientation” and move on to whatever was next. “I guess the magic is cool, but fighting straw dummies is kinda garbage, Mr. System. What nonsense are you going to make me do next?”

The soft voice of The System entered Bronwyn's head.

***Congratulations! Orientation sequence complete.***

***Rewards: Level 2 base human, Title: First Colonist, First Colonist Reward Box, Ardent Vale borders: unlocked. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.***

A swirl of yellow-blue, crackling smoke appeared on the ground near her feet and coalesced into the shape of a large, yellow box with blue runic symbols all over it. “FUCK YEAH!” Bronwyn shouted. “It always pays to be in the lead; let’s see what these rewards are all about. Character sheet.”

Status

Name:

Bronwyn Tallow

Race:

Human - Base 1

Class:

—

Level:

2

Energy Affinity:

6.1

Energy:

30/0

Strength:

13

Vitality:

11

Dexterity:

9

Agility:

11

Intelligence:

9

Will:

11

Points Available:

5

Titles & Feats:

First Colonist

Skills:

System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable

“What are the benefits of the First Colonist title?”

***First Colonist: +1 to all Attributes and +10% Energy gain from vanquishing other Energy users***

Bronwyn pondered for a moment. Having +1 to all stats didn’t sound like a lot, but 10% Energy gain would undoubtedly help her keep her momentum, especially since none of the other colonists, as far as she knew, were even working on combat training yet. The unspent stat points were a more significant concern for her; her natural strength was reasonably high, but she didn't have a clear choice for secondaries.

Her stat choices made her think about what kind of skills she wanted to learn. Unarmed combat seemed somewhat overpowered - her strikes were doing as much damage as the orientation weapons, but when she practiced on multiple dummies, it seemed to lack any kind of cleave. Magic was an option, but her energy affinity, while good, wasn’t exceptional compared to some of the other colonists she’d spoken to. Her intelligence was a bit low; she wished she would’ve paid more attention to math. Maybe she’d just focus on some low-level spells to amplify her strengths a bit.

Not wanting to remain indecisive for too long, she settled on focusing on mastering unarmed combat. After all, her first international championship had been in VR mixed martial arts; she was no stranger to punching in a few teeth. Might as well focus on her strengths, she laughed inwardly, as she spent three of her five points. Her other two points she put into agility. “Can’t get hurt if they can’t hit you,” she muttered, still smiling as she punched one fist into her open palm.

“Now, let’s see about those rewards!” Bronwyn knelt and lifted the lid of the yellow, footlocker-shaped box. Inside was a leather pouch about the size of her two fists, a leather-bound book, a folded set of leather armor, two heavy-looking gauntlets, a backpack that looked to be full of equipment, and an obelisk-shaped stone, about the size of her forearm.

She picked up the leather pouch and looked inside. Three smooth, amber-colored gems rested inside the pouch, one of them about twice the size of the others. She held the largest one in her hand and allowed some Energy to trickle into it, the way the System had taught her during the orientation, and was rewarded with an information screen:

***Energy Core rank 2, type: tri-node.***

These stones appeared to be related to the Energy Core that the System had mentioned earlier. Judging from the description, the Core would be a slightly advanced one at that. She wondered how long it would take any of the other colonists to acquire any rank 2 item, let alone something so seemingly important. She was pleased to see that it came with a manual, as the orientation had been pretty brief concerning forming and building a Core. She picked up the small leather book and repeated the process. Nothing happened, so she assumed it wasn’t magical or bondable. Was that a word? Instead, she opened the book and saw a title page: Amber Class Energy Core Manual. That would make things easier!

Next, she picked up the folded leather armor and tried to bond with it in the same fashion. Nothing happened. “Must just be normal, leather armor, I guess.” She set it aside and looked at the gauntlets. They weren’t just armor for her hands, she could tell. They were weighted gauntlets. On the one hand, Bronwyn was ecstatic - if she could pick weapons to start with, these would be them. She was familiar with a fighting style that worked perfectly with them, and she’d enjoyed using Energy to compliment that kind of fighting during the combat lessons. On the other hand, it was creepy as fuck that the System seemed to know what she wanted. There was no way this was a coincidence.

She picked up the backpack and rifled through it. It seemed to contain simply everything one needed to start a life in the woods, a bedroll, hatchet, shovel, flint and steel, a simple mess kit, 50 feet of rope, four torches, and a boot knife. Finally, she picked up the obelisk and examined it. It was about a foot tall and had four flat sides angled to a sharp point at the top. All along its sides, seeming to move around in the dark stone, were gold-colored runes. She took a minute to bond with the item and was rewarded with a prompt:

***Settlement Stone, activate at the present location? Y/N***

Bronwyn quickly said, “No!” and the prompt went away. She carefully packed the stone in the backpack for now; there’d be time to deal with that later.