I dodged to the left, bolts whizzing past my head as I made it to the next corridor. Taking advantage of the brief moment where I was no longer in sight of the archers, I turned around and cast Acid Spit on the goblin that followed me.

The first goblin fell down easily, however, more were coming so I threw another Poison Spores before legging it. Hearing the now-familiar cocking sound as the crossbow goblins came behind me.

I quickly jumped forward, tumbling under cover, almost face-planting on the ground as a crossbow bolt whizzed past me.

Everything was going well at first, sure I was hopelessly outnumbered but they were goblins and they were stupid with no real concept of strategy and tactics. If I spent an hour or two I could probably slowly grind down the horde to more manageable levels.

With a free hand, I pulled out my last Mana potion and chugged the thing in one gulp. Immediately after finishing, I jumped up and threw a Poison Sporage at the goblin behind me. Activating it mid-air and seeing the goblin scramble out of the falling spores.

I aimed slightly forward to where it was running and cast Acid Spit. Clipping it on the foot, but that was enough to slow it down. I moved in and delivered the finishing blow, before dodging back down to avoid another incoming bolt.

That was until I realised that they had freaking crossbows. Sure low fire rate and all that crap but the goblins had more than enough numbers to make up for it. I was once again hopelessly outranged with little option but to run as they shot bolts at me.

Rolling on my side, I found myself behind another table. A crossbow bolt hitting the spot where I was just at. I started stocking up on more Poison Sporages, it cost a little more mana but the extra range I got from throwing was well worth it. Without it, the melee goblins would’ve closed in a long time ago.

I heard some soft footsteps from my side, barely looking, I threw a mushroom in the sky around it, activating it in mid-air as it sprayed a cloud of spores onto the ground.

Area denial, that was the name of the game right now. Every patch of land the goblins can’t pass through made them more hesitant and predictable. However, I had already stayed here for far too long.

Throwing a Poison Shroom in the air, I activated it, creating a slight dusty effect with the spores, before bolting out of cover and further away from the goblins.

Hearing the twang of crossbows, I mentally braced myself. Two got me, one was safely embedded in my pack whereas the other clipped my cap.

I reached another intersection quickly, all thanks to the grid design of the mall. There was a brief moment where I was out of sight of the ranged goblins, which gave me a chance to further thin the crowd. Reaching the intersection, I began turning to the right-

Goblins.

Fuck, they were blocking the right and front paths. As quickly as I could, I did a 180 turn and started running to the left corridor. Another bolt whizzed past me as I made it into cover.

Turning around again, I cast Poison Spores. The puff of green spores floated harmlessly in front of me as no goblin broke through it. Shit, they were waiting outside of my range, if I went into range I’ll be in sight of the damn crossbows again.

I turned around and started running. Make it to the next intersection and turn right-

“Firebolt,” I heard and instinctively jumped out of the way.

The ground where I was just at exploded behind me. My leg felt like it was heating up. Hurriedly standing up I stomped my leg onto a wet patch of moss. Barely noticing the sizzling smoke and steam I turned around.

Coming face to face with the goblin mage… along with several dozen other goblins skulking on every side of me.

The old goblin had a palm opened. On top of it, floated a leaf and a mushroom, one of the sneezing shrooms I threw as a distraction. The leaf’s tip pointed directly at me.

Oh.

That must've been a tracking spell. I see, I only thought he was capable of throwing firebolts and party buffing, never even considering this possibility.

The old goblin gave me a vicious smile.

I turned to the path I just came from, goblins, I looked behind me, goblins.

I returned the old goblin's smile. To think I was getting herded this entire time. Just knowing where I was wasn't enough, this guy had to also coordinate a proper ambush, pass down information of where I was constantly. He had played this very well.

In the end, both of my projected win scenarios wouldn’t have worked, I was defeated by a tracking spell.

“GG I guess.”

The older goblin pointed a crooked finger at me as it snarled out something. I began throwing my remaining mushrooms at the approaching horde, but there wasn't really a point.

You have died.

I drifted across an endless sea of black. I was on an island covered in mushrooms, two tiny lights accompanied me. ‘Wisps’ The thought came to me, but I didn’t know where it came from.

Something slapped me awake.

I blearily opened my eyes, to see the beady eyes of Hendrix staring back at me.

“Fifty-eight out of hundred, that’s pretty good.” He said.

I winced as I sat up. “There were a hundred?” I asked incredulously and only slightly pissed.

“How the hell is that balanced? One level one against a hundred goblins and a mage?” I asked.

Hendrix only shrugged, “If it makes you feel better, you weren’t supposed to be able to win that encounter. It was designed to get more difficult as the numbers were whittled down.”

“But not in a way that directly affected their strength,” I noted.

“Indeed,” Hendrix agreed, “their AI got smarter the more you took down, this was supposed to be a high score scenario, where you could earn more the better you did.”

“That’s the two wisps you have, and you’ve levelled up, significantly putting you ahead of the competition. Now you have three stat points to distribute.”

I opened my character sheet.

Hmm. My greatest weakness right now was speed. Levelling up agility would be best but only three stat points? It costs five just to raise agility by one point for me. Looks like I’m not going to be raising my speed anytime soon. I ended up putting two points into constitution and one into intelligence. With the free point I got put into constitution along with the two automatic risings for wisdom and intelligence.

I had effectively raised my stats by a total of six. However, that was only every second level. Every odd level would just be four points, with one of those having to go into Wisdom.

It was a reasonable tradeoff for not being able to easily raise Agility, Dexterity or Charisma. I didn’t really need dexterity or charisma yet though my agility was sorely lacking. With how my free stats went, it was trying to push me into some sort of tanky mage archetype. One that could take a hit or two while casting spells. Which I was fine with. I needed the extra constitution so that I can actually stay in the sun, and I have that physical debuff with my mana. Stamina was also a reasonable thing to raise as well, though it didn’t feel like I was suffering from having too little stamina until I was under the sun.

“Anything else?” I asked Hendrix.

“Nothing really,” he replied, “Just need you to get caught up on some in-game lore so that you can roleplay if you’re into that.”

I raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue.

“Alright, so the in lore explanation for why some people can die and come back with little consequence is that they are something called a ‘Traveler’. An extra-dimensional being that doesn’t really inhabit the body they’re in. As such whenever a Traveler ‘dies’ their consciousness goes somewhere else and reconstructs their body. Which for you would be known as just respawning.” he shrugged, “It’ll cost you experience every time you die which can range from just a few EXP points or losing an entire level, I don’t know what the formula behind it is nor can I tell you it if I did. Point is, just avoid death if you can.”

I nodded, “It makes sense I suppose, why the name Traveller though?”

“Oh, that? Since players can freely go from Gaia and Indiri it was just a good name. Speaking of which…” Hendrix reached into a bag, pulling out a glowing crystal, “This is a Wayshard. It’s what Travellers use to teleport across worlds. There are large ones scattered across Gaia in safe zones which you can use to go to a shard in Indiri or to a shard you’ve already visited in Gaia or anywhere else. Activating this Wayshard will teleport you outside of this tutorial instance and into Gaia proper, where you can meet other players and stuff. You’ll start out next to one of the large shards so you could go into Indiri immediately but I suggest grinding to level four or five first.”

I nodded.

“Oh, one more thing!” he said like he just remembered something, “Actually two more things. Firstly, you get a referral letter for completing the tutorial, which you can use to invite anyone. Eve still wants to keep this world under wraps for a while so think carefully about a person who can keep their mouths shut.”

I raised an eyebrow, Matt should be trustworthy, probably.

“Normally you gotta buy referral letters for Impact Points but everyone gets a freebie for completing the tutorial.” Hendrix continued “Also, you can only log out from a large Wayshard, so make sure to keep one nearby."

I raised an eyebrow, “So my options for logging out safely in Indiri are to find a Wayshard or suicide…”

“Trust me, it’ll be less of a problem than you think.”

“Are giant Wayshards that lead back to Gaia common in Indiri?” I asked.

“Well no, but it won’t be a problem for you,” he responded vaguely.

“Explain.”

“Well how should I put this…” he gestured idly, “You’re a clone.”

My brain froze for a moment, “What!?”

“Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds, for one there's still the you that’s in the real world and you two can link up and become the same person albeit with two sets of memories whenever you want… The process will be smooth I promise, you’ll barely even notice it.” Hendrix replied almost apologetically.

“That’s not the problem. Why would you clone people!?”

“Yeah… Eve really wanted to maximise the time players can be around in the world since Giles wanted to make this a world you can literally live in and with a Somatic Implant, duplicating a person's mind was just really easy.”

I rubbed my temples, “I didn’t need my worldview completely destroyed three times in the same night.” I muttered.

“I can assure you, there is an option to not be cloned upon login, but for the sake of the tutorial, I just want you to know this is the default.”

But, why? I almost wanted to ask, before I realised. He said Wayshards were present in Gaia, “Not how far away…”

He seemed to have caught onto my reasoning and nodded, “Indeed, there may be significant travel distances between each respawn point. You won’t have simple opportunities to log out, and if you die you will have to completely restart your journey.”

Reasonable risks for a larger scale MMO, but… I was a clone huh. That was a philosophical dilemma I wasn’t qualified enough to touch.

“I understand, now, give me the Wayshard,” I said as I reached my hand out.

“Oh! One last thing!”

“What?” I asked.

“Ahem,” Hendrix cleared his throat, “What is your name young Traveller?”

I breathed out a sigh of relief, “Oh, great something normal.”

“Oh, great something normal? That doesn’t sound like a normal name if that’s what you’re going for.”

I gave Hendrix a withering glare. He shrugged, “Can’t take a joke can you?”

“It was just poorly timed,” I coldly replied.

I thought about it for a moment.

“Dustin,” I replied, “my name is Dustin.”

Hendrix smiled, “Welcome Dustin. Welcome to Gaia-”

“Wait,” I interrupted, “I have a question.”

“What is it?” Hendrix asked, looking slightly miffed.

“What happens to that goblin, the mage one you threw at me?” I asked.

“Oh him? We retire him to a farmhouse upstate-”

“Answer seriously,” I simply said.

Hendrix paused, then looked at me. As he closely peered at me, I noticed that his eyes were insect-like, beady and black, “Do you really want to know?” he asked.

“Knowing is better than not knowing,” I said.

“That particular preset may be used again in tutorials with similar builds like yours, but otherwise its memory will be wiped, to ensure a similar experience across Travellers,” he answered in a calm voice.

“I see,” I replied, shrugging, “ok, send me through.”

Hendrix appeared slightly surprised, before asking, “That's it?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Did you expect me to do something?”

Hendrix shrugged, “Very well, welcome to Gaia Dustin.”

And with that, the Wayshard activated.

Character Sheet for those of you that care.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Dustin

Classes: Fungalmancer Level 2

Body

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 18

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 12

Mind

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 17

Charisma: 6

Soul

Will: 10

Aura: 10

Perception: 10

Racials:

Superior Darkvision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Innate Magic

Class Skills:

Fungalmancer: Grow Sporage

Spells:

T0: Balm Spores, Spore Lights, Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit

T1: Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores

Available Spell Slots:

T2: 1

Equipment:

Leather Armour (Damaged, got stabbed multiple times remember?) - One HP Potion - Basic Wooden Staff - Two Basic Daggers - Herbalism Kit

Backpack - Tinder Box - Mess Kit - 50 days worth of rations (Overkill, you literally have a spell which makes food.)

10 Gold Coins

Impact Points: 4

IP Summary:

- 1 point for level up

- 1 point for significant damage to goblin population of Tutorial Instance (GS would like to know your location.)

- 2 points from user Hendrix (Won the bet thanks to you! And 58 out of 100 is a passing mark I guess...)