It felt like the System went out of its way to place them in a perfect position whenever they got teleported. Blair was placed in the next location on a chair the first time and she remained standing the last two times. She wasn’t off-balance and aside from her eyes, nothing picked up the fact that she was displaced.

They were in a wide corridor that looked the exact same as where Blair first arrived in.

Before them stood a mannequin identical to the one from before, but its body was light blue. It waved its hands when they came, its movement too organic to seem like that of a robot. Whatever race created these robots and teleportation devices was so far ahead of them that it wouldn’t even be a fight if they invaded.

Assuming they were aliens, of course.

“Hello,” it said with a high-pitched tone despite its lack of a mouth. There was no expression on its face and it seemed like its eyes were more for show than for sight, “I will be your guide during the Second Level.”

“That’s a synthesized voice but it sounds so natural. How’d they manage that?” remarked Anna and walked closer to the mannequin, his eyes almost undressing the robot.

“No, it still sounds wrong,” said Joshua with narrowed eyes.

“Now that I think of it, it did sound weird,” said Anna and nodded once.

“All Players are installed with an Omni-Translation Chip. It allows you to understand any and all languages, written and spoken,” explained the mannequin and turned on its heel with the grace of a soldier, which wasn’t much, but it looked well-trained, “Unlike Duels, Raids teleport you to a pocket dimension that may be completely different from your previous surroundings. They are called Dungeons. For the purpose of the tutorial, you have been teleported to a familiar location. If you die in a Dungeon, you will Respawn at the entrance of the Dungeon but will be unable to ever go into the same Raid again.”

“Wow,” said Anna and chuckled, “That’s some next-level programming.”

“I don’t even think that’s programming. It’s too next-level,” said Blair after hearing it.

“Yes, but it’s automatic so it must’ve been programmed. Maybe not in the way we’re familiar with but definitely in some way,” said Anna and gasped while covering his mouth. With a bright smile, he continued, “Is it actually Organic Computing? That… that’s so sci-fi.”

“It could be, but explaining it as Magic is simpler. The advancements these aliens must’ve done would be nothing short of what you see in comics,” said Blair with furrowed brows.

“They developed teleportation. I wouldn’t put it past them,” said Anna.

Joshua quietly distanced himself from the duo and got closer to Paula.

“Most Raids consist of three different areas,” said the mannequin loudly, halting the conversation between Blair and Anna. After they finally quieted down, the mannequin continued, “The current area is a Safe Room. No Monster can enter it and you’re safe as long as you’re within the confines of the room.”

In the distance, there was a highlighted area but it wasn’t a circle this time —it was a wall of red light.

“Beyond the wall, you can see the Main Area. There, you will spend most of your time and will have to complete a certain Objective before you get access to the last area: the Boss Room,” said the mannequin and before they had a say in anything, the floors moved like an escalator to push them past the red wall.

Before them, there stood eight mannequins, all of them with a blade extended from their right forearm like in the tutorial.

“The Objective will be shown on your Status Card and it will track your progress in real-time. Feel free to check it. For the purpose of the tutorial, the fight will only start once all of you are ready,” said the mannequin and stood aside, hands behind its back like an old man or a soldier.

Almost in unison, they said, “Status Card,” out loud to summon theirs.

Close to the bottom, under a line, a new text had been added with a big bold label that said “Objective”. It was obvious what it was for.

Objective: Defeat [8 x Training Dummies].

It was simple enough.

“Steel Spear, appear,” said Blair before anyone else. She had to be the first to be ready. That was how she became valedictorian —by being overly paranoid.

The others followed suit and summoned their weapons.

“Steel Katana, appear,” commanded Anna with a wide smile in contrast to Joshua who grumpily summoned a longsword, almost mumbling its commands.

“Steel Rapier, appear,” said Paula and summoned her weapon. She grabbed it with her right hand and rolled her wrist a few times. With practiced ease, she cut the air a few times and held the weapon before herself.

As their names implied, they were made of steel. Even the handles of the swords were metal.

“You all got swords,” said Blair after she saw them hold their weapons. It looked like Paula knew what she was doing but it didn’t take an expert to see that Joshua’s grip wasn’t the most comfortable. Anna’s sword was the shortest of them and if Blair understood correctly, was supposed to be hard to master.

“Swords are cool,” said Anna for defense and shrugged.

“Eh, I’m used to this,” said Paula and glared at her own skirt. It was a tight one that restricted the movement of the legs.

“Can’t be too hard. I watched movies,” Joshua said shamelessly and shrugged with his head.

“Oh, wait. Let’s do that thing you do in movies. You know, where you call which guys you’ll fight,” said Anna and pointed to the two to the right, as he was standing to the right side. With his best gruff voice, he spoke, “I’ll take the two on the right.”

If this was a real fight, Blair wouldn’t like her chances.

Slightly faster than before, but still slowly, the mannequins charged them. That made it easy for Blair to stab them with the tip of her spear to down one of them. It scattered before it hit the ground and she swung her spear to gut another one, fulfilling her quota.

Joshua hacked into the shoulder of a mannequin and scattered it into light. The second one was taken care of with a stab to the chest. He didn’t put much power into his blows, aware of how soft the material of the Training Dummies was. Overextending could lead to potentially falling down.

Paula cut the throat of the first one and pulled back her weapon, and in the same motion, she stepped forward and poked the face of the mannequin right where one of its eyes was. The tip of her blade ended up making a small circle as it returned.

Anna waited for one of the mannequins to come close and swung his katana down to cut off one of the limbs. It scattered into light while falling down but the dummy was still alive, though a beheading slash from Anna forced it to shatter into light as well. The last one was taken care of by a thrust to the chest, imitating Joshua. Each of his movements was exaggerated and it was clear that he was enjoying this while he could.

In any fight after the tutorial, they’d be actually fighting.

Just looking at the others swinging their weapons around made the hairs on her back rise. If she had a choice, she’d rather not fight them. It was one thing to fight a slowed-down mindless drone but against a human, Blair doubted she’d be half as competent.

“Monsters killed outside have a chance of dropping a Card depending on their level. However, in a Dungeon, monsters do not drop anything. Instead, that adds up to the final reward that you get by defeating the Raid Boss. It allows you to gain access to one of the rewards for the specific Raid. In this case, you will be rewarded with a Blue Card,” said the mannequin as the floor slid and brought them before a massive door.

It opened and revealed inside it a massive white room. At its center, there was a mannequin with four arms that stood over five meters in height. All of its arms had blades as long as Blair’s spear protruding from their forearms and around it. Much like the mannequin that guided them, this one had a different-colored material, but it was red.

“Raid Bosses have a forcefield that absorbs a certain amount of damage before they can be damaged. You inflict damage equal to your Strength, Mana Effectiveness, Stamina Effectiveness, or Capacity Effectiveness regardless of how soft your attack may be for the purpose of calculating how much damage you have done to the Raid Boss’s forcefield,” explained the mannequin as a red health bar appeared over the boss’s head.

Blair audibly gulped as she stared at the creature.

If that thing wasn’t moving slowly, they’d be murdered. There was no question about that. Its mere reach and strength would be gigantic.

“Awesome,” said Anna and walked up to it without a second’s thought. Perhaps the fact that you couldn’t die in a Raid emboldened him, or perhaps it was the subpar performance of all the mannequins from before.

“For the purpose of the tutorial, the forcefield of the Raid Boss has been set to 100. Good luck,” said the mannequin and stepped back, then placed its hands behind its back.

Following the trend, the boss moved slowly and even before they’d gotten there, most of the forcefield had been whittled down. Only around a quarter of it remained before Anna had to step back. It was swinging its arms wildly with no regard for what it hit, meaning it wasn’t aiming for them specifically.

The rest of the forcefield was whittled down by a few quick taps from Paula and the red color of its body disappeared, leaving only white material behind.

Blair took her chances and dashed forward and managed to stab her spear into one of its arms. It didn’t move but it didn’t fall off either, meaning it didn’t disappear. Taking the hint, Anna jumped forward and slashed off one of its other arms before moving onto one of its legs, forcing it to tumble on the ground.

As if he’d been waiting for it for his entire life, Joshua jumped forward and stabbed his sword into its head. That killed it and forced it to shatter into a mass of light.

Neither of them had any qualms about killing the mannequins.

“Well, that was… underwhelming,” said Anna, already panting.

“That’s the Super Easy difficulty for you. That’s what the Tutorials are like. They warm you up for the real deal,” said Paula and stored her rapier. Everyone else followed suit to put their weapons back in their inventory.

“Yeah, but since we don’t die, it could’ve been a bit challenging,” said Anna and turned to the guide, who’d already disappeared.

You have completed the Dungeon: [System Tutorial]. You have been granted a [Blue Card].

The ground opened up a meter in front of them and four cards rose from the abyss down below. It flew into their hands and comfortably placed themselves on their palms.

Congratulations! You’ve used a [Blue Card]. Choose one of the following Skills.

Fire Ball (C) | 5 Mana: Creates a simple ball of fire that travels in a straight trajectory in front of your palm. Max Range is [ME x 1 Meters] and Max Radius is [ME x 0.01 Meters]. Deals [Burning Damage].

Wind Blade (C) | 5 Mana: Creates a slash of condensed air that travels in a straight trajectory in front of your palm. Max Range is [ME x 1 Meters] and Max Length is [ME x 0.01 Meters]. Deals [Slashing Damage].

Ice Shield (C) | 5 Mana: Creates a circular shield of ice at your target location. Max Durability is [ME x 1], Max Radius is [ME x 0.1 Meters], and Max Duration is [ME x 10 Seconds].

Two of them were offensive Skills and while Blair was lacking in the means of offense with only a spear, she had nothing for defense aside from her clothes and she had an inkling it wouldn’t be of much use against bladed weapons. As such, it was a necessity to get an ability to get a defensive Skill.

“Ice Shield,” she said and the contents embedded themselves on it. This time, it had a blue circle on the front, which was as simplified as you could make a barrier made of ice. Like the other card, it had a gray border near the edges. It dispersed into light and stored itself in her Skill Deck, which she didn’t bother to check this time.

You may use a Magical Skill by saying their name out loud, followed by [Activate]. It will use up your Mana and if it hits 0, you will lose consciousness.

Before anyone could say something, Anna shouted out after raising his hand, “Fire Ball, activate!”

Instantly, a fire the size of a candlelight lit up in front of his hands and it grew in mass until it resembled a bowling ball. The moment it finished growing, it shot directly forward and was snuffed out after traveling a few meters.

“I might start believing in gods from now on,” said Anna as a large grin spread on his face.

“God. There’s only one,” corrected Paula.

“We’ll see about that,” retorted Anna with a wide smile.

“Wind Blade, activate,” whispered Paula and the air started to gather in front of her outstretched arm. It formed a transparent but visible line, which started to glow a dim green as it condensed. Much like the Fire Ball, it shot forward the moment it stopped growing, letting out a mighty hiss as it did so.

It sputtered out after traveling a significantly shorter distance than Anna’s Fire Ball did, making it obvious that the older man had more Mana.

“Ice Shield, activate,” whispered Blair, following Paula’s example. If whispering could activate it as well, it meant that she’d have a massive advantage against anyone that thought she could only use Magic by yelling it out loud.

She forgot to raise her hand in the process and only did so after ice started to form an inch away from her right hand. It didn’t stop growing even after she moved away, making her take another step back. It was a good choice, as it ended up making a circle roughly the width and length of a car.

Her Mana was 34, and 30% of that was around 10. That times 0.1 meters ended up at 1 meters for radius, which meant that the diameter was 2 meters. It roughly added up.

“That looks cool,” said Anna and poked it with a finger. He let his finger hover there for a few seconds but inevitably pulled it away. He turned to Blair and asked, “Can I shoot a Fire Ball at it?”

She nodded.

Anna aimed his hand at the wall and shot a Fire Ball at it. It made contact and for a few seconds, the wall of ice managed to hold but it inevitably shattered. Its fragments fell to the ground rather than turning into fragments of light.

“How long does that last?” asked Anna.

“Umm, let me do the math,” said Blair and after a second, she answered, “A hundred seconds.”

“So that was all me,” said Anna and nodded a few times.

Please proceed to the highlighted area at your leisure. You will be transported to your planet. Beware, Monsters and Heralds are present, and the geography of your planet has undergone sizable [Reconstruction] for proper integration into the System.

“Monsters? Fuck this shit. I’m out. I’m out,” said Paula and raised her hands in surrender.

“Oh, shit,” said Anna and covered his mouth with a hand. His eyes widened and his expression turned grim. He lazily waved at them and bolted for the highlighted area, but managed to shout out a quick, “Gotta go!”

“Yeah, I’ll have to go real quick as well,” said Joshua and with a hasty gait, walked over to the highlighted area.

“So, ugh, you live alone?” asked Paula with a raised eyebrow, “Since like, those two had a family back home and I’m assuming they were dying to contact them.”

“Yeah. I moved out a week ago but they’re still, like, in the city,” said Blair and scratched the back of her head.

“Mmm,” hummed Paula and after standing there awkwardly for a few seconds, she made her way to the highlighted area. On the way, she spoke, “Well, let’s just hope that God didn’t pull a Noah’s Ark on us.”