A warm heat engulfed Octavius, painting a sharp contrast to the cool nothingness of the void he had inhabited. Gravity took hold of him, and he plummeted. Blurs of whites, blacks, and blues flashed through his vision as he spun wildly in the air.

Instincts formed from hours upon hours of military training instantly kicked in. His limbs extended as his spinning halted. He felt dense, warm air pressing into him and slowing his fall. The ground below him resolved into a mess of light grays and blacks that his mind wasn’t able to make sense of.

Of course, what he was looking at mattered far less to him than the fact that the black objects were growing much closer. The sea of black and gray filled his vision for a single instant before he impacted it.

Instead of coming to a sudden and possibly deadly stop, he slammed into small objects that quickly gave way under his momentum. The sound of cracking wood and rustling leaves filled his ears. The air was knocked from him in a whoosh, and pain flooded his senses. His vision, which was already blurry from the wind, was filled with blacks and grays.

Suddenly, he was through the branches, and the ground was rushing up toward him. Desperately, he lifted his hands in front of his face and slammed into the ground. Once he was no longer moving, he just laid still for a long moment as he regained his breath.

His fingers bent, one hand feeling dry dirt, and the other feeling the cool metal of his spear. He opened his eyes to a sea of light gray blades of grass. With a groan, he rolled onto his back. Above him, a gentle glow shone from his right, casting the ground in the shadows of the alien trees.

Blue blinking lights at the edge of his vision vied for his attention, but he ignored them. The last time he had found himself in an unfamiliar place with messages waiting for him, he had looked at them and ended up taking the charge of a massive deer for his trouble.

The first thing he did was lift his head and look around. The pain in his chest told him that something was fractured, but he supposed that a few broken bones were better than the near-death state he had been in when he’d been sucked into the portal.

The area around him was so entirely alien that it took him a moment to process it. Strange trees with perfectly white colored bark stood like pillars around him. None of them had any branches that were close to the ground. In fact, it seemed as though all of their branches were concentrated at the very top of the canopy.

In the canopy nine or so feet above him, a sea of black leaves was only interrupted by the white branches that held the small leaves in place. To his right, he was able to see flashes of blue in between the gently swaying leaves. The blue color was bright at the distant horizon and grew more and more faded as the sky stretched to his left. Between the leaves to his left, he was able to catch the occasional star or flash of color from a distant celestial body.

The strange forest around him was nearly silent, with only the sound of swaying leaves to keep him company. The floor of the forest itself was mostly covered in light gray grass, with the sporadic fallen log and small bush to break it up. The bushes were all the same light gray as the grass, and none of them stretched above knee height.

Well, he said to himself, I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Satisfied that he wasn’t in any immediate danger, he gingerly prodded at his ribs. It didn’t take him long to discover that one of them was cracked. He decided that the injury was minor and that there wasn’t anything that he could do for it besides waiting for his superhuman regeneration to kick in.

Hauling himself to a sitting position, he finally acknowledged the blue messages that flashed at the edge of his vision. In an instant, they filled his entire field of view, nearly blocking out the forest around him.

Warning! You are exiting Tutorial Instance 7eG659hj!

You will no longer be able to make any progress toward your tutorial ranking!

You have left Tutorial Instance 7eG659hj

Your ranking is based on a scale of F-SSS

Note: Due to exiting the tutorial early, your results are being judged against the predicted Local Universal Average

Level Achieved:

Level 20

Ranking: B

Titles Gained:

Forerunner (Universal)

Titanslayer I (Rare)

Skill Forger (Epic)

Ranking: SSS

Other Characteristics:

Total Stats: 343 Points

Total Skill Levels: 33 Levels

Overall Ranking: S

Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial with a ranking of S

You have gained: 3 Levels

You may select a single reward from the following list:

Moonforged Spear (Epic) - A masterwork spear of an ancient make. It is said to have been forged by a grandmaster smith over the course of three dozen blue moons. It is razor-sharp and nigh indestructible. Much like the blue moon itself, the spear is constantly in shadow and its attacks are nearly undetectable to the unaided eye.

Nightweilder’s Armor (Epic) - A set of light armor that offers minimal protection compared to other armor of its rank. It was designed with stealth and mobility in mind. To complement that goal, the armor is enchanted to exude a field of darkness. This effect stretches up to twenty feet, and its intensity is determined by the amount of mana consumed. Cost (20+ mana/minute)

Cloak of the Great Huntsman (Epic) - This cloak is woven from the silk of a now-extinct species of magical spider. This grants the cloak a substantial passive stealth bonus. Sometime after its creation, it was enchanted by a master huntsman to aid him on long hunts. The enchantment allows the wearer to sustain themselves of mana alone, preventing the status effects of starvation and dehydration.

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 21, 89328/135000 EXP to Lvl 22

+5 Free Stat Points

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 22, 89328/140000 EXP to Lvl 23

+5 Free Stat Points

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 23, 89328/145000 EXP to Lvl 24

+5 Free Stat Points

You have entered the Universe Grystonioc!

Welcome!

You have entered the Wymdrys Galaxy!

Welcome!

You have entered the planet Cadila!

Welcome!

When he got to the final handful of messages, he blinked owlishly before reading them again. After a moment, the content of the messages truly sunk in.

Holy fucking shit! He shouted within the safety of his mind, Definitely NOT Kansas. Jesus Christ, I’m in another universe. How the fuck am I going to get back?

He quickly pulled himself from that line of thought. After all, he had almost no information at all of where he was beyond the name of the universe, galaxy, and planet. Hell, he didn’t even know the name of the universe that Earth was from. After a moment of thought, however, he realized why the name Cadila sounded familiar. It was where the Suppressor was created, at least according to its identify message.

Alright, I’m with all likelihood on the thrall’s home planet, he realized, this is going to be a pain, isn’t it?

Leaning against his spear, he reread the messages for the rewards he received. As he did so, he couldn’t help but think that leaving the tutorial a month early had tanked his ranking. With a sigh, he closed the window. There was nothing telling him that he needed to pick an item right away, and he didn’t know his current situation well enough to know what would be useful.

As a long breath left him, he twitched from the pain in his side. He quickly pulled a red-colored potion from his belt and used identify on it.

Health Potion (Tutorial) - A potion that restores all of the user’s health over 3 seconds. Can only be used in the tutorial. Only one can be used per day.

It said that it could only be used within the tutorial, but it didn’t say that there were any negative effects if used somewhere else. With a mental shrug, he opened the vial and downed the viscous liquid in a gulp.

He waited with quickly diminishing hope for the familiar tingling warmth to fill him and heal his cracked rib. After ten long seconds of absolutely nothing, he decided to call it a bust.

Damn. Without mana potions, my ability to actually use my magic is severely limited, he noted, I’ve been relying on them to help me use spells without running out of mana after only one or two.

With that thought in mind, he pulled up his status screen. Eyeing the fifteen undistributed stat points that he’d gained, he quickly assigned them.

Intelligence +9 : 26 > 35

Will +5 : 40 > 45

Vitality +1 : 34 > 35

Looking at his status page again, he nodded in satisfaction.

Name

Octavius J. Asher

Race

Human (F)

Level

23 - 89328/145000

Class

Spearman

Titles

Forerunner, Titanslayer I, Skill Forger

Health

673/700

Stamina

759/760

Mana

700/700

Strength

48

Dexterity

50

Agility

45

Constitution

38

Vitality

35

Perception

32

Intelligence

35

Wisdom

30

Will

45

Free Points

0 {System Rewards Available}

Status Effects

Injured - You have been injured. You will feel pain from certain movements. Certain movements will make your injury worse

Skills

Identify (Lvl 15)

Speech (MAX)

Instant Thrust (Lvl 5)

Whirlwind (Lvl 3)

Spear Fighting Affinity (Lvl 6)

Mana Manipulation (Lvl 2)

- Shadow Manipulation (Lvl 1)

- Harden Shadow (Lvl 2)

With a sigh, he spun slowly, trying to get a more detailed look at his surroundings. After a moment, he blinked in mild confusion. It had obviously gotten darker, but what confused him was the lack of color around him. Whereas before the landscape of black, grays, and white was offset by the blue sky, now there was only the slightest hint of blue along the distant horizon.

I'm on an alien planet, He reminded himself, Maybe there are blue sunsets here?

Shaking his head, his free hand came up and wiped his brow, only to come back slick with sweat. He tilted his head as the heat around him registered. It was a dry heat that reminded him of Arizona back on Earth, only now he was in the middle of an alien forest.

After that thought, it only took him a second to realize that the actual temperature must have been significantly higher than that. His superhuman stats would allow him to easily maintain his body temperature within most normal ranges of temperature. The fact that he was already sweating after only a few minutes made him think that the forest around him was incredibly hot.

Shit, if it’s this hot at night, what will the days be like? He wondered, If they’re anything like I think they might be, I need to find shelter and hopefully water as soon as I can.

With an immediate goal in mind, he crouched down and ran his hand across a patch of dirt that was not covered by the gray-colored grass. It was the dry type of soil that he wouldn’t expect anything sort of forest to be able to spring up in, but he supposed that magic and an alien world made anything possible.

Closing his eyes, he listened for the faintest hint of flowing water. He doubted that there was anything like that in the area, but it was worth a try. Instead of finding water, his ears began to pick up the sounds of a forest. He heard strange tones that reminded him of bird calls as well as the general buzz of life that only grew with every passing second.

I guess that most things here are nocturnal, he realized, I don’t suppose that I blame them. If the days here turn out to be anything like I’m guessing they will, I’m probably going to only be moving around at night as well.

His eyes fell on the statuses of his party members at the edge of his vision, and his heart skipped a beat. Every single one of them was greyed out. For a few long seconds, he wondered if they’d all died. However, that theory was quickly proven to be incorrect by the fact that the names failed to disappear.

I guess that I’m just out of the party’s range, he realized with an audible sigh of relief. Rolling his shoulders, he ignored the twinge of pain from his cracked rib and walked over to the nearest tree. Reaching out, he laid his free hand against it.

The reflective white bark of the tree was strangely smooth and warm. In fact, it was downright hot in a way that he didn’t expect from something of its color. He thought that something that’s both reflective and white wouldn’t absorb much heat, but it seemed as though even that had its limits.

After a few seconds, he drew his hand back from the tree’s trunk. It was just hot enough that he might receive a minor burn if he held it for too long. It wouldn’t be anything serious and would probably heal within an hour at most, but it was easily avoided.

Separating his spear into its two halves, he secured them to his back. Looking at the smooth surface of the tree, he grimaced. Quickly, he pulled the sleeves of his shirt over his hands and leapt into the air. The branches of the tree swayed gently only a few feet over his head, and he easily grabbed one. Pulling himself up, he found himself surprised by the lack of give that the branch had.

Once he was standing on the branch, he peered over the thin canopy of the forest that stretched out in front of him. The trees were so densely packed that there didn’t seem to be a single patch of exposed forest floor within his line of sight.

Looking up, he saw a night sky that reminded him of his time in the most remote places on Earth. No matter how horrible the war was, the night sky undisturbed by the lights of nearby cities was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. The night sky on Cadila was just as beautiful, if slightly different.

There was no moon to be seen in the now pitch blackness. Instead, the forest was illuminated by the glow of a million billion stars of a hundred different colors that filled the night sky. Streams of cosmic gases covered it in a way that was similar to how the Milky Way appeared from Earth.

After taking a moment to admire the view, he began to rotate on the tree branch. His eyes swept back and forth across the horizon, finding nothing of note. When he faced almost directly opposite the direction that he had started, however, something caught his interest.

In the distance, there was the shadow of a massive mountain range. Without knowing the size of the planet that he was on, he couldn’t accurately judge the distance to it, but it was quite a ways away from his position. What drew his attention, however, was not the mountains themselves; what drew his attention were the three floating spires above them.

Octavius blinked and rubbed his eyes before double-checking. There, hovering above the peaks of three of the distant mountains, were massive monoliths. Pinpricks of light that he had initially mistaken for stars covered them, and he gulped. They were most definitely the most blatantly magical thing that he had seen since he had gained access to the system.

Well, I guess I know where I’m going, he decided, It’s not like there’s anything else around here that I can see.

With a sigh, he hopped down from the canopy. Facing the direction of the mountains, he broke into a sprint.

————————

The night passed quickly. Octavius guessed that it only lasted eleven or so Earth hours, but that gave him little insight into the planet itself. He hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of the local wildlife during his travels. As he climbed another tree to double-check that he was still on course, he wondered why that was.

It could be any number of things, he decided, I guess that I should just be glad that I haven’t encountered anything stronger than me, even if I haven’t found any food.

Even without taking any breaks over the course of his dozen hour run, his stamina was still slightly above half full. He ate and drank sparingly from his rations, careful to avoid running out. Even so, he knew that he’d run out of water within twenty-four hours.

As he looked over the black canopy and toward the looming mountains, he decided that they were only another six or seven-hour trip away. I’ll have to take a break some time, he realized, If I don’t, I’ll begin to run low on stamina.

As he peered at the mountain, the first hint of daybreak caught his eye. Turning to his left, he saw a blue glow begin to blot out the stars. Hoping down from the tree, he began to sprint at his top speed. Although he was still heading in the general direction of the mountains, he was far more focused on finding some form of immediate shelter from the heat that he knew was likely coming.

After half an hour, he had yet to find anything useful. The forest was entirely too uniform. Although the flat ground of the previous hours had transformed into rolling hills, he had yet to find a second species of tree. There were dozens of identifiable bushes and shrubs across the forest floor, but that was all that made up the floral diversity of the forest.

He grimaced as the last of the blue sunrise faded away to reveal a light red-colored sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight to cover the alien red color. It was light, nearly enough so for it to be called pink, but not quite. The sun itself was massive, taking up a far larger section of the sky than on Earth or even within the tutorial. Its color was a distracting pure white as it began to crest over the horizon.

As it did so, the trees began to gently shake and shudder. Octavius froze where he stood as he quickly readied his spear. A wave seemed to flow through the forest as the pitch-black leaves seemed to disappear. He watched the leaves in a tree above him retract into the white branches that held them up and had to squint in the suddenly bright morning.

Damnit! He cursed as he began to quickly scan the now illuminated forest floor, There goes my shade. I really need to find somewhere to wait out the day before it starts to really get hot.