Fighting two powerful foes at the same time proved almost impossible for Sam. Whenever he would gain an advantage against one, the other would suppress him and force him to retreat. Not only were the skeletons outnumbering him, they were each individually stronger than the last one he had fought.

“This is bullshit!” Sam screamed aloud as he died again.

Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial! Welcome to the Tutorial!

...

Sam laid still in the starting room, his mind a turbulent storm cloud of thoughts and complaints. He had fought the twin skeleton-knights nearly 50 times, and each time he was overcome and defeated. Their resistances to his offensive magic were too powerful and their own skills were top notch as well.

It was as if this test was designed to be failed.

Still, despite his frustrations, Sam continued to challenge the skeletons. He had little else to do. The options were to either starve to death repeatedly, train, or challenge. Sam had already trained for centuries and he certainly wasn’t going to put up with starvation or dehydration. So he fought.

-

Sam’s left arm hung loose, dangling by frayed skin. His blood covered the floor of the room. One of the skeleton-knights had its armor opened like a tin can; its bones were burned black by fire, and it sat unmoving on the floor.

The other skeleton knight stood strong. It walked towards Sam with its blade raised high.

‘Another wasted run,’ Sam lamented under his breath, his shoulders dropping in resignation.

“Why do you even try?”

His father’s voice echoed in his head again. It was painful. Sam’s heart hurt worse than his shattered body. Sam grit his teeth as his thoughts plagued him. How often had he surrendered in the past? Hadn’t he vowed long ago to no longer give up on the things he desired? Had this ‘Tutorial’ made him weak?

A spark was born in Sam’s heart. The spark flashed and grew, igniting into a flame. Sam’s shoulders perked up. He gnashed his teeth and leaned forward. His will wouldn’t let him fall here. He knew, deep in his heart he was stronger than this! The fire in Sam’s heart exploded into a raging inferno, forging his resolve!

Sam roared aloud as he cast Restoration magics on his arm to staunch the bleeding. Their effect was threefold the norm, and his arm regenerated in full. At the same time, a blinding light was unleashed, forcing the skeleton-knight away. The monster howled as its bones steamed.

It was only then that Sam understood what Roland’s book had meant when it described Restoration magic as a magic of Faith. Faith didn’t imply a deity. Faith didn’t require a religion. It mattered not what one believed in, only the strength of their belief. So long as one believed in themselves, that would be enough!

When Sam regained faith in his own convictions, he unleashed a power that had previously been hidden. The reason many countries dubbed Restoration as ‘Holy Magic’ was then made apparent: it could not only heal the living, but it could also heal undeath.

Wielding a surging new power, Sam brought down a torrent of light upon the last skeleton, banishing it from the realm of the living.

“Dust to dust,” he spoke, finally understanding many things about magic that he hadn’t before. For the first time in over a century, Sam realized that he had only begun to scratch the surface of the arcane.

Sam collapsed. He fell backwards onto the floor, his body weak and his mind unsettled. Stone rumbled and the room shook. Across the room, a blocked doorway parted like the Red Sea, revealing the path onwards.

-

Sam took several hours to recover from the battle against the skeletons. A part of him wanted to rush onwards and see what the next stage of this dungeon would hold, but another part of him oddly wanted to stay back and wait until he was fully prepared to go on.

A third part of him was terrified. Each threat he faced so far had been stronger than the last. What kind of unreasonable foe would this ‘Tutorial’ make him face next?

Pushing those thoughts behind him, Sam approached the revealed doorway and entered. He found himself in a circular room with a small desk in the center. On the desk sat a new book; its leather-bindings dusty and unmarked.

Sam sighed in relief at not having to face another enemy. He walked to the book and lifted its cover, revealing the title page: ‘Braxia Bestiary and Survival Guide’.

At first Sam was confused, then he recounted how much the book on magic had helped him in passing the last two rooms. Clearly he would need to study this Bestiary in order to overcome whatever hurdles laid ahead.

Deciding to memorize the booklet in its entirety before moving on, Sam sat down and began reading.

Sam killed himself to reset six times in order to complete his reading and memorization of the Bestiary. Now that he could wield Holy magic, the skeleton knights proved pure fodder to him. Albeit he still enjoyed dueling with the first one to keep an edge to his combat skills. Fighting two on one was just a ridiculous notion, though.

The Bestiary covered the entire ‘Braxia Continent’ location by location. It went over environments, plant life, and animals/monsters that inhabited each location. Sam wasn’t certain where this ‘Braxia’ was. For all he knew he could be trapped in a dungeon on said continent. Thus he studied dutifully. The information could only be helpful.

The book covered shelter making, edible plants, and the proper ways to clean and gut prey. It was explicit and extremely detailed. Sam never was weak to gore, so he handled it fine. He had even enjoyed fishing and hunting on occasion before he was trapped in the ‘tutorial’. Oddly, though, when he tried to think back on the times he fished or hunted, he couldn’t quite remember them in detail. He couldn’t even remember who he went with...

The Bestiary covered individual species of monsters, where they lived, and how to defeat them.

The goblin from the first room was known as a Goblin Warleader, and apparently such beasts only show their true strength when leading armies of their brethren into battle. Sam was embarrassed at struggling over such a weak foe for so long.

The skeleton-knights were correctly known as ‘Death Knights’ or ‘Skulkers’. They were higher tiered undead renowned for their magic resistant armors but, again, showed only limited magic capabilities and were not close to the level of full on Liches.

Sam broke into a cold sweat as he read about stronger and stronger monsters. The beings he struggled so hard against had only just been the tips of the proverbial icebergs…

Two things became clear. Sam had no chance at fighting the higher tiered monsters yet, and he desperately needed to learn magic beyond the basics. His moment of breakthrough in Holy magic had been a fluke. He couldn’t keep relying on flukes.

And so Sam studied his Bestiary.