Finn relaxed on the hard ground. His legs swung lazily over the edge of the cliff as the breeze ruffled his dirty blonde hair. The empty plains stretched out before him, barren of all life until beyond the horizon. Every beast there had already been hunted down and slaughtered for experience points.

The sky was illuminated with red and orange hues as the sun peeked over the distant mountains to his right. The sound of those who had stayed up the entire night was audible behind him. Even though he had slept the night before, his rest was far from peaceful. After all, the tutorial ended in less than eight hours.

With such an important deadline approaching, his eyes constantly strayed to the edge of his vision. There, the statuses of the members of his party were lined up unobtrusively. The few had only changed superficially since their final battle with the thralls a month before, not that it could truly be called a battle.

They had charged into the massive underground complex, ready to systematically separate and eliminate the threat. From there, however, things didn’t exactly go as planned. The battle had barely started when every single thrall suddenly vanished. One moment the two opposing forces were locked in a heated battle, and the next, the thralls had turned into beams of purple light that shot off toward the end of the corridor.

That was the same exact moment that Octavius’s name had gone grey in the party status. At first, Finn thought that they had been too late, that his captain was dead. After a few seconds, however, that thought was dispelled when the name refused to disappear like Toby’s had when the man died. Beyond that, there was still a visible sliver contained within the operator’s grey-colored health bar.

The greyed-out name was the true reason that not a single member of the group had dared exit the party, beside Jabir, that is. None of them wanted to miss a development, after all. For all they knew, their leader could return at any moment.

At first, they thought that perhaps the man was out of range of the party. Even as the civilians of the Sanctuary were moved to the safety of the abandoned underground compound, hundreds of warriors began to search for the lost captain. After three days, they were forced to admit that finding that man would be up to fate and that the personnel were more valuable elsewhere.

Finn idly pulled up his own status page and smiled ruefully. I’m the same level you were when you disappeared, Captain, he thought to himself, but for some reason, I think that you could still kick my ass even if you haven’t grown stronger at all.

He may not seem it, but he was extremely proud of his status as a level 20 combatant. After all, he was only a single level behind the highest level human within the Sanctuary.

After the ordeal with the thralls, the surviving humans found themselves in an unprecedented situation. With the thralls gone, their underground complex was free for the taking. The aliens had been ridiculously inefficient when it came to their use of space. The multi-thousand strong population of the Sanctuary had been able to establish themselves inside, even if it was a little cramped.

The council had deemed the discomfort worth the safety that it provided. With the civilians safe and sound within the Landing, the warriors were largely freed from their need to stand guard duty.

Over the course of the final month of the tutorial, they systematically worked together to slay beasts in the tens of thousands. The massive hordes of animals on the plains below were easy pickings for the ranged combatants on the top of the cliff, and the melee fighters were able to coordinate on a scale they previously had been incapable of to gain experience points.

In the end, the final month of the tutorial was busy and largely uneventful, Finn reflected. A few dungeons had been found and loot acquired, but nothing on the scale of the thralls of the Emergence was encountered.

As the sun climbed inexorably toward its zenith, Finn languidly stretched and clambered to his feet. He had laid there for hours largely undisturbed, enjoying the last moments of peace that he was sure that he had. His hand swooped down to scoop up his spear, and he looked over the empty plains a final time. Even with all of the stress and danger involved, he decided that he would miss the tutorial. He had a feeling that things were able to become a lot more complicated.

Walking down the stone path that led to the landing, he saw Marcus coming toward him. “Hey Sarge!” he called out, “Excited to be getting back?”

He could tell that the man was but figured that it would be polite to ask. After all, the massive smile on the marine’s face, along with the impatient tapping of his foot, was a dead giveaway.

“Damn right I am!” Marcus announced, “I have a wife and daughter that I haven’t seen in three months! It’s like I’m on deployment again, only somehow with less communication.”

Finn returned the man’s grin while inwardly thinking of his own family. He didn’t know if Dean and his mother were safe, or even still alive, but had long ago decided to take a page from the marine sergeant’s book and remain optimistic about it.

“You think we’ll see the Captain again when we get back,” he asked.

“Dunno,” Marcus shrugged, “But I sure as hell hope so. Let’s hurry down; there’s only a half-hour left before this whole thing is over. I was just coming to get you.”

Finn nodded and allowed the older man to lead the way down the ramp and into the packed complex. People lined the corridors, trying to pack as many valuables as they could. None of them knew if they’d be able to keep what they had with them when the tutorial ended, but they had all arrived at the tutorial with what they carried. This time, none of them wanted to be unprepared for whatever the universe might throw at them.

Finn stood in a circle with the other members of his group. Their numbers had dropped to seven with the loss of Toby and Octavius and had swelled back up to eight with Ava’s joining. Now, they all stood with heavy packs and ready weapons as the final fifteen seconds counted down. Outside of the stone room they occupied, it seemed as though an unearthly silence settled upon the humans that were present.

“Everyone got each other's contact info memorized?” Caster asked nervously from Finn’s right and was greeted by a slew of chuckles and nods. It had to be the eighth time that the mage had asked the question, and the answer had yet to change.

“Don’t worry about it,” Finn said with a grin, “We’ll see each other again, and the Captain will be there too.”

They fell into silence as the final seconds passed. Finn felt a nervous thrill in his stomach as he watched intently as the timer counted down.

00:00:00:04

…

00:00:00:03

…

00:00:00:02

…

00:00:00:01

Then everything went black.