Octavius sat cross-legged on the grass. The trunks of seemingly ancient trees stretched towards the heavens all around him. The smell of life and decay entered his nostrils as he slowly inhaled before the air escaped his lungs in a fluid movement.

He sat unmoving for hours, from his evening meal until the final vestiges of the sun’s golden light dipped below the horizon and he was only illuminated by the soft glow of the dagger that was clasped between his hands and the stars above. A small bug flew a lazy pattern in the air, attracted by the light from the dagger.

The small distraction caused by the bug didn’t even register in Octavius’s mind. He was focused inward. His consciousness followed the stream of energy that ran from the core of his very being and into the dagger. Suddenly, an ironclad will imposed itself upon the stream. The flowing energy seemed to waver before it continued, only to halt again as it was gripped by the pure intent of its owner.

Octavius breathed steadily. His breath wooshed in and out in the pattern he had learned in the army. He poured every last bit of himself into halting the flow of power. And, suddenly, it stopped. The progress he had made over the last few weeks paid off in an instant as the mana cut off and the dagger went dark.

He opened his eyes to be met with the glowing blue design of a system window.

Through talent and hard work, you have gained the forged skill Mana Manipulation (Lvl 1)

Mana Manipulation (Lvl 1) - You can control mana, the essence of magic. Amount of mana and the precision of control is determined by the Will of the user and the skill level.

You have gained the title Skill Forger.

You have created your own skill. While most gain their skills from their class, you have gone above and beyond. You are among the few with the talent and determination to step out of the bounds of what is thought to be possible. Effect : 110% leveling speed towards all skills.

Warning : You have reached the natural cap of three (3) titles in effect. If you gain a new title, you will have to replace one of your active titles with it for its effects to be active.

Octavius read through the messages with wide eyes. He had gained a new skill, something he didn’t even know he could do on his own. It had seemed obvious to him that manipulating his mana would be just something that was trained for, not a system given skill.

He willed his mana to fill the dagger, and the dagger glowed its milky white. When he willed the mana to stop, the glow faded in a moment.

He grinned. The skill made it seem so natural, and he knew it would only get more so. His eyes flicked to the darkness around him and took it in. It was late enough for what he had planned. His left hand reached into a belt pouch and removed a mana potion. He downed the tasteless liquid in a gulp before standing, dagger in hand, and making his way towards Sanctuary. He left the clearing, leaving his spear and rucksack secured to a tree branch and well out of sight.

He stalked from shadow to shadow, all but invisible as he moved inexorably towards Sanctuary. His feet made barely a sound as they touched the ground for an instant at a time. The blade in his hand appeared to be normal. It didn’t shine with an unearthly light as it normally would, and Octavius was glad for that. He much preferred the dagger over his combat knife.

After a few minutes, he came to the barrier of the Sanctuary. The flickering light of a torch held by a guard cast long and irregular shadows. Octavius slipped his illusion ring onto a finger of his right hand and stepped carefully over the wooden fence.

This late at night, the paths that snaked through the refugee camp that was the Sanctuary were empty. Besides the guards, the only people he passed as he slinked silently towards the middle of the Sanctuary were part of a single group. This group all wore animal skins, without a hint of modern clothing. The four of them sat in a circle holding hands.

Octavius ignored them. The people in Sanctuary came from all over, and he wasn’t going to pretend to know every religion out there. After he passed that group, he came to what he had begun to call the inner district.

He turned onto a side path before turning again after only a dozen feet. This was the plot of land he had followed James to early that day. His fingers snaked around the edges of the wooden branches that made up the door. It didn’t make a sound as he eased it slowly open. Once it was opened the minimum distance he needed, he slipped inside and closed it behind him.

In the middle of the clearing was a massive tent. It was grey with blue highlights, one of those tents for family camping trips. He moved silently to the zipped shut door and listened. Inside, he could hear a single set of breaths. James was inside.

He let his ears guide him to where the spot that James slept met the wall of the tent. In the silence of the night, it was clear that James’s head was only a foot or two from the tent wall.

His dagger glinted in the moonlight as it flashed forward in two quick cuts. Octavius quickly stepped through the ‘X’ shaped opening he had made and knelt. It was too dark to examine much of the tent, but he could see what he needed to.

James was lying below him, blearily blinking sleep from his eyes. Octavius’s knees were up against the pile of furs that James had slept on, and he reached forward. With Octavius’s entry coming from just behind him, James never got a chance to even think about using identify on his attacker before an iron grip pulled him backward.

Octavius wrapped his legs around the man and held his jaw in position with his left hand. His strength was high enough that James wouldn't be able to even move enough to catch a glimpse of him, just like Octavius wanted. Whether James survived the night or not would depend entirely on his answers to some important questions, and if he did, Octavius didn’t want him to have any information about him at all.

James tried to struggle but froze when Octavius pressed the razor edge of his dagger to his throat. The army operator leaned in to whisper directly into James’s ear, “Hello, James.”

James opened his mouth to scream, probably for help, but the vise-like grip on his jaw prevented that. Octavius pressed the knife hard against his throat, and he stopped.

“You’re going to answer some questions for me, ok James?” Octavius spoke with false sweetness coloring his tone. “Give me a thumbs up if you understand. Slowly, or I’ll cut your throat.”

James feebly lifted the thumb of one hand. Octavius could practically hear the man’s racing pulse in the night’s silence. “I’m going to let you talk now. Talk above a whisper, and you won’t ever talk again.” James shuddered slightly, “Are you even a real cop, James?”

Octavius removed his left hand from the supposed cop’s jaw and positioned it on the man’s forehead instead. James opened his mouth but froze when the move caused the dagger at his throat to draw a thin line of blood. “Of course I am!” he whispered furiously.

Octavius spoke again in the same sickeningly sweet manner, “Oh, then I guess you’re a bad cop then, huh? Wanted a bit more money, some power over people?”

James went entirely still for a second before whispering back in a strained tone, “Where did you hear that? That’s a lie!”

Octavius almost gently pressed the blade of his dagger into the man’s neck, and rivulets of blood ran freely from the small wound. “Wait, wait! Don’t kill me! Yeah, I was dirty! But I haven’t done anything like that since I got to Sanctuary, Honest!”

James could feel Octavius’s breath on his ear when the operator spoke again, “And why’s that?”

His lips parted and he explained furiously, in no state of mind to come up with a convincing enough lie, “I don’t need to break the law; I’m the strongest here. People all respect me; they listen to what I say. I don’t need to do any of the things I used to do.”

Octavius nodded slightly in satisfaction when an idea came to him. He spoke it in the officer’s ear, “How about this? Tomorrow, you will resign from your position on the council. You will stop leaving with the hunting parties. You will remain level 9 until at least fifty people in Sanctuary have reached level 15. If you don’t, I’ll kill you. If I see you have reached level 10, I’ll kill you. If I so much as hear a rumor that you are being even uncouth towards someone, I will kill you. Deal?”

James began to thrash wildly, he opened his mouth wide, but Octavius clamped it shut. “Thumbs up or thumbs down,” he whispered.

When James failed to respond, Octavius dug the dagger another millimeter into his throat. The cop’s hand shot up with its thumb raised high, shaking wildly.

Octavius grinned. He leaned in closer so that his lips were nearly against James’s ear, “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t do it. You don’t know who I am, and you don’t know what I look like. I could be anyone; if you don’t follow our deal, you will never be safe from me.”

He felt James try to nod against the force of his grip. After that, he reached around the man’s throat so that his elbow was right in the crook of his neck. He applied pressure for a few moments until the man went limp. After tightening the hold for a few more seconds, he released it.

Now it was time for his insurance policy. The fact that James was a dirty cop and that he had attempted to kill Octavius without hesitation meant he’d probably committed worse crimes. Now, Octavius would remove the source of James’s power to prevent him from just going back to his ways if he survived the tutorial.

Octavius rolled him onto his side, then took one of the furs that he had slept on and tied it into James’s mouth. Then, he laid out the man’s hands, extending their pointer fingers. With his strength, it was trivial to position his dagger at the base of the finger and slice through it. The finger came clean off, and James awoke screaming into the gag. In an instant, the pointer finger on his other hand was gone as well.

He put the thrashing man to sleep again with a chokehold before grabbing the severed fingers from the ground. Slipping the illusion ring back on to his finger, he ran out of the area and towards the boundaries of Sanctuary. The whole encounter lasted less than a minute.

The chokehold would only keep the man asleep for a few dozen seconds. That would give him plenty of time to drink a health potion before the blood loss became severe. Octavius threw the severed fingers into the smoldering embers of a dying fire by the side of the dirt path as he ran.

He knew that health potions couldn’t regrow severed limbs from the few amputees he had seen in Sanctuary, but they might very well be able to reattach them. Not wanting to risk it, he made sure to separate James from his fingers. By the time that anyone found the severed fingers, they would be ruined completely. If there was a way to regrow severed fingers in the universe, it wasn’t in the tutorial.

Perhaps some would consider it cruel to remove a man’s fingers in such a callous manner, but the way Octavius saw it, it was the best option. He took no joy from the act, but it was necessary to stop the man from possibly hurting others. James wouldn’t have followed the deal, but now he had no choice. His only strength came from his guns, and now if he’d likely never shoot again.

If James had the determination to be powerful again, he could. He could wait until Octavius allowed him to level up and learn a new weapon. He’d be at a serious disadvantage, but it would be possible. Octavius viewed that as fair punishment for his actions; it wasn’t like there was a prison to send him to out here, and he had killed people before who were guilty of the same crime. That’s what war was at its most basic level, after all; killing the people who were trying to kill you.

After thirty seconds of sprinting, he heard a wordless scream come from behind him. I guess he got that gag out. Octavius thought to himself as he ran. The sounds of people stirring awake and exiting their lodgings started from all around him. He knew that within a minute, the entire grounds of Sanctuary would be teeming with people searching for him.

Two minutes later, he had passed the barrier and was free into the woods. He was careful not to leave a trail as he returned to his rucksack and spear. After he had them, he set off to find a place to sleep farther away from Sanctuary.

Octavius sat in a small clearing. The sun hung high overhead, and rays of golden light filtered through the lush green canopy. The stick held in his hands prodded at the embers of his fire. Ava had yet to show up, and he wanted to eat the deer meat from the previous day before it went bad.

He’d eaten some of it the night before, and it was a cool night. This would probably be the last chance he had to eat it before the time and lack of refrigeration ruined it. The spit had just been placed into the fire when the sounds of footsteps alerted him to Ava’s approach.

His eyes flicked upwards to meet her own as she stepped into the clearing. She looked exhausted. Bags hung from her clear blue eyes, and her shoulders were slumped forward. Octavius looked at her inquisitively.

She groaned before answering the unspoken question. “I was up almost all night last night. Someone attacked James. Sick bastard too, he cut off James’s fingers.” she said.

Octavius spoke with false surprise, “Really? Why?”

She collapsed into a sitting position across from him and leaned her head back against the solid trunk of a tree before responding. “The way James tells it, some crazy guy who’s jealous of his level attacked him. He’s really shaken up. The council had every hunter above level 6 searching all night, and we found nothing.” she explained as if she hardly believed that story.

Octavius’s eyebrows rose up along his forehead. “The way he tells it?” he inquired.

Ava nodded tiredly, “Yeah. We all think that James just pissed someone off. He was always a selfish bastard; maybe someone took too much offense. Still an overreaction. No matter how selfish he was, he didn’t deserve that.”

His head nodded along like he agreed with her. He had grown fond of Ava for her wit and dedication to learning, but he didn’t trust her implicitly. He didn’t trust anyone implicity, or at least no one who was still alive. “So what’s going to happen to James now?” he asked.

Ava sighed, “James is terrified. He refuses to leave the camp, not that he could do much good without trigger fingers. Resigned from the council, too, for some reason. I guess he just doesn’t want to be in a position where people would be mad at him. I’d be shaken up too if that happened to me.”

“Well, at least he’s still alive, so it could have been worse,” Octavius said conversationally.

“Yeah,” she responded before gesturing at the roasting meat, “What’s that? I’m starving.”

At that, Octavius smirked, “Oh, that? That’s some meat from the level 35 deer I killed yesterday. Want some?”

Ava physically recoiled, “WHAT? I forgot you went after the deer yesterday! Are you saying you were the one that killed it?!”

He nodded casually, “Of course, it takes a lot of EXP to level up at the higher levels.”

She was still caught up on the idea of him killing it, not that he blamed her. “You killed it, alone, with a spear?!” she practically shouted.

Octavius smiled at her, “Well, it really ended up killing itself.”

Ava shook her head as if he were insane. “Christ, I am glad you’re not some evil psycho. I don’t think we could stop you,” she was smiling now, “Now, when will lunch be ready. We were going to eat it at Sanctuary to celebrate the tutorial being half over, but I forgot in the confusion.”

Octavius blinked owlishly, “The tutorial’s half over today? I hadn’t realized.”

He summoned the tutorial status screen to his vision. The past few weeks had been busy enough that he hadn’t gotten around to looking at it.

Tutorial Status

Survivors : 5726/10000

Time Remaining : 45:00:39:17

Wow, He thought to himself, It’s already been three weeks since I gained my class, and I haven’t even leveled up once. I need to get a move on. When he thought about it, it made sense. It was about a two week trip to Sanctuary from the dungeon, and it had been a few days since then. Still, it surprised him. Tomorrow I’ll leave Sanctuary and go hunting. I think I’ll head in the direction the deer was. Maybe I’ll find some more high-level beasts there.

The two of them made conversation and trained for the next half hour until the deer loins were cooked. They sat and ate in silence as the final few minutes counted down. Both had the tutorial status screen up and watched as it counted down the time until the tutorial was half over.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Octavius smiled, half way there.

Congratulations! You have survived the first half of the Tutorial.

The Emergence will begin in 48 Hours. Prepare yourselves.

The overall average level of all Tutorial Instances is 3.32

The average level of Tutorial Instance 7eG659hj is 4.23

The average level of Tutorial Instance 7eG659hj is in the 99.9th Percentile!

Emergence difficulty set to Nightmare

Remaining preparation time : 1:23:59:14

Remain duration of the Emergence : 5:00:00:00

Good Luck!

Hint : Kill the most beasts to gain special rewards at the end of the Emergence.

“What the hell?”