What a downer ending! The main character dies in the tutorial. The End.

That’s how life is sometimes, though. People who have great promise are taken away from us before their time. The uncaring world moves on a little dimmer as all that is left of them is the memories that they made with those close to them.

Whaddya mean that I had less than one day to make memories with our chosen rag-tag bunch of misfits? And whaddya mean that dying in the tutorial to a level-up obelisk is a completely lame way to go?

Well, fortunately for me, the one who made the tutorial happened to agree...

-----

I gasped as I suddenly found myself on my feet in a cave. Where am I? Wait. Tutorial cave. Obelisk explosion. My memory was slowly coming back to me. Then I. Died? But wait. Why am I still here? Then I finally saw the system notification that explained everything.

System : Tutorial Respawn initiated. Upon death inside this tutorial, adventurers will respawn at the obelisk with their level reset to 1. Note that there are no respawn mechanics outside of this tutorial, so get used to adventuring cautiously.

“Wouldn’t that have been nice to know!” I shouted. My shout attracted the attention of the party who had all been gathered around my body. Or at least where my body used to be.

Jake bolted over. “Titus! You’re okay! I thought that I got you killed!” He shouted as he almost tackled me over with a hug.

I know I died, but this is a bit awkward. We still just met today, dude. I slowly extricated myself from his grip. Dang, he is strong. I coughed to clear my throat, and then I addressed the party. “Well, I definitely cannot recommend dying as it hurts like hail, but it seems that as long as we are in the tutorial that we have respawns back at the obelisk. The only cost seems to be it reverts you to level 1. Oh, right lemme check something.” Status.

Status

Name: Titus

Level: 1

Class: Demon Lord (Displaying Half-Demon)

Race: Demon Lord (Displaying Half-Demon)

HP: 100/100

MP: 0/50

SP: 150/150

Age: 24

“Yep, it also restored all my HP and SP, so I guess I am good to adventure some more!”

Garrett stopped my enthusiastic statement with a hand on my shoulder. “I know that physically you are ready to go again, but you literally just died. I think you should take a breather and think things out for a bit.” He turned to the rest of the party. “Since death isn’t a big deal, for now, there’s basically no rush to go find Megan. I know that Titus’ death didn’t exactly feel real, especially with no blood or other visible signs of wounds, but if anyone else wants to stay back and take a breather, that may be a good idea.”

Tim was the first to respond. “Wait. Titus died? But Sam said that he was just taking a nap after the explosion and then that he may have to leave the party for a bit!”

Sam facepalmed at that and then tried to do damage control as Tim looked on the verge of tears. “What Garrett meant by dying is that he, uhh-”

Meanwhile, Tim had burst into tears at the word dying. Andrew cut Sam off. “It’s okay, Sam. Thanks for trying. Unfortunately, Tim has dealt with death before, so trying to sugar coat it won’t help much.” Andrew enveloped Tim in a hug, patted him on the back, and started whispering to him. “It’s okay, Tim. I’m here for you.” He then turned to the rest of the party. “Go ahead and find Megan without us. We’ll need a bit here.” Andrew put up a stoic front, but his voice was close to cracking.

“Okay. Emilia, Sam, Lindsey, and Garrett, you’re with me. Grab some upgrades at the obelisk really quick, and then we leave for our lost [Rogue] in 5.” Jake paused for a second when he saw that I was just awkwardly standing there, not sure what to do. “Hey, Titus, why don’t you give those two some space and let people know about the respawn mechanics? I’m sure other parties don’t want to be freaked out the same way that we were.”

“You got it [Hero]!” I gave him a lazy salute. I spotted a group of adventurers that were huddling around and went to spread the news.

------

Titus’ death had impacted Jake a lot more than he had let on. He walked up to the obelisk, but his thoughts were not on upgrades at all. If I had just come up with better formations! Or maybe if we had tested out healing on him beforehand...

He stopped at Garrett’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault Jake. And no permanent harm was done to him. Just breathe and let’s go find our missing party member, yeah?”

“How did you know?”

“I’ve been with you for years. I know how you think.” Garrett chuckled. “Hurry it up now. Kids these days! Keeping their elders waiting!”

“You sure you didn’t just forget how to read the upgrades you old coot?” Jake half-heartedly shot back. Placing his hand on the obelisk, he said, “Upgrade.”

A list of options was displayed.

Choose which points to spend:

Skill Points (12 remaining)

Spell Points (4 remaining)

Racial Perk Points (0 remaining)

Class Perk Points (0 remaining)

Well, let’s check out the skills first.

Skills Available for Purchase (12 points remaining):

Swordsmanship - Passive - 5 Skill Points

Power Strike - Active - 5 Skill Points

Stance Change - Toggle - 10 Skill Points

Jake looked between them. Well. [Swordsmanship] and [Power Strike] seem straightforward. But what the heck is [Stance Change]? He asked his tutorial fairy for help but got nothing. Okay, no info on the skills. Guess I better take the sure bets then.

Swordsmanship skill acquired

System: Applying experience retroactively for Swordsmanship

Power Strike skill acquired

After the obelisk was finished giving him the skills, it took him back to a blank purchase page.

Skills Available for Purchase (2 points remaining):

Huh. Guess it doesn’t show you ones you can’t afford? Either that or I just lost the ability to purchase whatever the heck [Stance Change] is.

Either way, that’s done. What about spells?

Spells Available for Purchase (4 points remaining):

Nothing for spells? Well, that’s disappointing, but hey, at least I got two skills. He turned to Garrett, who had also finished upgrading, “So what skills did you get?”

“Skills? Plural? How could you afford that?” Garrett asked.

“I had 12 skill points, and 5 plus 5 is only 10?” Jake answered cheekily. Then he realized. “Oh, you got less points than I did, didn’t you. How many?”

“Only 8. Must be your dang [Hero] class. Anyway, I picked up [Rage]. It was that or [Greataxemanship]. Which is a mouthful. And also not named very well, but that’s beside the point. What did you get?”

“[Swordsmanship] and [Power Strike].” Jake remembered the other notice. “Hey, did it mention something about retroactive experience to you?”

“Nope, nothing like that.”

“I wonder what it could mean?”

“Hmm... Did you check what level the skill was?” Garrett asked after a second.

Jake almost facepalmed. “Duh. Of course. One sec.” He opened his status and whistled quietly when he saw. “Yup, [Swordsmanship] is already level 2 even though I just got it. Just 8 more to go!”

About that time, he noticed that Sam was finishing up getting her upgrades. “What did you get, Sam?”

Sam laughed maniacally. “I am ready to light the world on fire now!“ She turned and pointed her wand at the far off wall. “Fire strike my foes. [Fire Bolt]!” A bolt of swirling fire appeared out the end of her wand, shot out, and then made a tiny explosion against the wall of the room.

Sam looked distraught, and her cat ears drooped a bit. “Awww. That’s not nearly as much fire or explosion as I wanted.” She pouted momentarily and then brightened up. “Oh! I also got [Quick Cast] so that means I can-”

Garrett held up his hands for her to stop as she had pivoted to shoot the wall again. “You should probably save your MP if we are going off on a rescue mission, right?”

“Oh. You’re probably right. My bad.” Sam grinned sheepishly. “But hey! It only cost me like 4 mana, so I can shoot...” She trailed off as she started doing some math on her fingers and then muttered. “Why do I have 97 mana, couldn’t they have rounded that up?” After that, she came to her answer. “24 of those!”

Jake nodded approvingly. “Nice! I bet we will get a lotta use out of that.” The fact that Sam bought both a spell and a skill gave him pause. “Wait, how much did your skill and your spell cost you?”

“Oh, [Quick Cast] was 3 of my 4 skill points, and [Fire Bolt] was 5 of my 8 spell points.”

“Huh, all the skills I saw were 5 points.. But it sounds like the casters get more spell points and everyone else gets more skill points. Good to know..” Jake trailed off and noticed that Emilia was just finishing up.

“What about you, Emilia? What did you get?” Jake asked.

“I got [Bowmanship],” came Emilia’s distracted reply. “I mean, not that you need to know or anything! Baka[1]!” She turned her head away and hmmphed.

Except we do need to know cuz we are your party. Also, baka? Okay. Either she is trying to roleplay as tsundere and is the worst at it I have ever seen, or she is just plain crazy. Hmm. Maybe I should think about replacing her with a different [Ranger]?

Jake mulled it over for a second. Nah. She’s been doing fine in combat as far as I can tell and hasn’t caused any major friction with the party. I guess if it gets out of hand, I will just take her aside and ask her to knock it off.

But enough on that. I need to get us rolling. “Alright, let’s move out. Garrett and I will be our frontline. Lindsey, your main job will be to protect Sam and Emilia, who will form our backline. We’re going to just head in the direction where the party system is telling us Megan is, but try to keep track of any turns so we can find our way back.”

Garrett answered. “Actually, we have Andrew and Tim back here. We can probably just use them as our beacon home.”

“Huh. Well, I guess just pay a bit of attention to our turns just in case.”

At that, the party set off at a brisk pace down the tunnel that they had first explored. When they got back to the room where the party had their first fight, Jake peeked in the entrance before reporting back to the party. “It looks like another group of 5 ants. So I guess we get to grant Garrett’s wish and see what happens when we fight and don’t have Titus here. Let’s hash out a plan.”

And plan they did for the next couple of minutes. There wasn’t that much to coordinate with their party, but the main decision that was made was that Sam would open the fight with a [Fire Bolt] to see the impact, and then save her mana in case the party got overwhelmed when reinforcements showed up.

“Everyone clear on what to do?” Jake asked and was answered with nods. “Alright, let’s go! Move in!”

Instead of having the front line engage in melee, this time, they moved forward slowly as a group, leaving a clear line of fire for Emilia and Sam.

Sam started it off with the same chant. “Fire strike my foes. [Fire Bolt]!” The bolt of fire flew out of the end of her wand and hit the closest ant.

The ant was immediately dusted to the surprise of the party.

The 4 remaining ants turned and started sprinting towards the party as Emilia and Lindsey managed to recover and put an arrow and a [Mage Bolt] into the leading ant. That one also went down.

After, that the ants were starting to get too close, and Jake called out. “Moving in!”

Jake and Garrett ran between the ants and their backline. They were prepared for the ants to try to rush past them but were somewhat surprised when the ants simply stopped and tried to attack. “We have aggro! Backline and Lindsey move further into the room in case of reinforcements!” The backline followed the order and immediately started running further into the room.

Garrett managed to dodge backward from a bite. He then took a devastating two-handed swing with his greataxe, and the wounded ant was turned into dust immediately. Jake meanwhile had been dodging backward from bites from two of them and was looking for an opening. However, as soon as Garrett killed his opponent, one of Jake’s ants immediately broke off and went for Garrett.

It was much easier to dodge with only one opponent, and Jake soon had his opening. After a quick sidestep to the right to avoid an attack, he brought his sword down on the ant’s pincers. Jake was expecting the pincers to break off but was surprised when the ant instead just died in a puff of purple smoke. Right. Game world. Having a simple HP bar instead of blood and wounds means you probably can’t break enemy body parts unless you have a skill or something.

Garrett killed the remaining enemy with yet another devastating swing. Meanwhile, the others had made it farther into the room and were watching somewhat awkwardly as there was nothing for them to do.

Jake surveyed the scene after their incredibly easy fight. “Well. I kill them in one hit now when it used to be two. So that’s new. Either way, I think we overplanned a bit.”

“Yup,” came Garrett’s reply.

“Thoughts about the fight?”

“It seemed like what you would expect from a tutorial this time. 5 enemies that are relatively easy to kill. The thing that clinches it for me was the two enemies that were aggroed on you. As soon as I killed my enemy, they immediately rebalanced to one on one fights.”

“It’s looking more and more like you were right about Titus being an anomaly. Honestly, it seems like this world just hates his guts for some reason. At least we let him have a break for a little bit.”

-----

Meanwhile, I would hardly call what I was on a break. I wasn’t in combat, but I still felt like my back was up against the wall.

It started out easily. I had received my mission to spread the news about respawns, so I was doing my job spreading the word to the different groups.

I started with the larger groups that had been gathered, especially the ones who had seen my run-in with the explosion and gave them the abridged version. “Just a heads up. Dying in the tutorial respawns you at the obelisk at level 1. There are no respawns outside the tutorial, though. Spread the word.” I suddenly remembered another tidbit that they may not know. “Oh. And you use points from your levels at the obelisk by touching it and saying upgrade.”

I got some thank yous, and for the most part, everyone was grateful for the info. Until I got to her. The cause of my pain and suffering.

Her main distinguishing mark was long red hair that draped down her back. Other than that, from the outside, she looked pretty much like any other female [Bersker]. I found it a bit odd that she was by herself instead of with a party, but I repeated my same script and prepared to move on.

I was stopped by a voice that sounded very at odds with the youthful [Berserker] in front of me. “Why thanks for letting me know, sonny. But what do you mean by respawn?”

Hours of playing tech support for my grandparents flashed before my eyes as I realized what I had gotten myself into. I was now in it for the long haul as I had to explain all of the basics to someone who had likely never seen a video game in her life.

---

While the party had been fighting for my life and making discoveries about levels, Megan was in the process of acquiring treasure from treasure chests.

It was not as simple as it sounds, though. The first challenge was to just get the box open. She tried lifting the lid, prying the lid with her knife and even saying “open sesame” at one point, but none of that worked. She accidentally hit the jackpot when she leaned back on the chest and muttered. “There has to be some way to loot this dang box.” At the word “loot” information popped in her view about the different items in the chest. That brought a grin to her face. I’m a genius.

After she was finished adding the gold and health potions to her inventory, the lid popped open. Huh, they even have a sign that a chest is empty. How very gamey.

She repeated the process for her second chest she found but hit the jackpot on the third. Instead of a few pieces of gold and some potions, she instead found a shield. Well, I can’t use this, but I could probably sell it or something. Humming a happy tune to herself, she selected the shield out of the interface and then was surprised.

System: You are over-encumbered and cannot move

“Huh?” She tried to pick up her feet and suddenly found she couldn’t. She flailed her arms around a bit, but she found that she couldn’t pick up her feet at all. Fine! I will leave something behind! She started by taking out a health potion, but she still couldn’t move. So she took out 4 more. And then 5 more. And then she completely emptied her inventory of everything except the shield.

Come on! How much does this weigh?! Sighing, she pulled it up in her inventory. “Huh. That’s a weird name for a shield.” Giving up, she decided to just drop it and move on.

It took a surprisingly long time to appear. Yeesh, what is wrong with this thing? It takes like a minute just to pull it out? She dropped the shield on the floor next to the chest and then gathered all of her belongings and put them away. “You win this round shield. But I will be back with my pack mules- I mean party.”

Speaking of party, I wonder where they are. Oh! Right! Party means I can feel where they are if I focus. She focused on them for a minute. We have.. Huh? Did they split up? We have a group of five that seem to be coming closer and then a group of two that are pretty far away. Why would they split up like that? Could the two back there have been injured or something? She looked over the HP of her party members. They’ve all used some stamina, but no one is hurt so that isn’t it.

She could feel the five presences getting closer. Wait. Are they looking for me? Oh no. I completely forgot that I ditched them in the middle of that huge fight! Quick! Think!

----

When Jake and the rest of the rescue group came across Megan, her hair was disheveled, and it looked like she had been crying.

“There you guys are! I was so scared!” she burst out into tears and then ran up to Jake and hugged him.

Well, I guess there goes the plan of telling her off for not helping in the fight. Jake sighed and then patted her softly on the back. “It’s okay, we’re here now. You’re safe.”

“There were just so many. And they kept coming! I ran, I’m so sorry,” she continued blubbering.

After about a minute, she calmed down enough that Jake continued. “Are you good to head back now?” At her nod, they turned and headed back the way they came.

We’ve been treating this a lot like a game, but this is our reality now, isn’t it? Maybe Titus and Megan are the only sane ones among us for actually being afraid and running from fights. However, that won’t work long term. Maybe we can find a way to build them up to it? Jake remembered the ants all swarming Titus. Or maybe just Megan. If the enemies keep swarming Titus like that, running is probably his best option.

On the trip back, they caught Megan up on the things they had learned about levels, and then also about Titus’ death and the respawn mechanics.

“That’s so horrible!” Megan said, her mouth agape. “If only I had been there!”

Jake shook his head. “I doubt that you would have made much of a difference for that outcome, don’t worry about it. Even if you had thinned out a few ants in the fight, Titus took about 50 damage from that random obelisk explosion.” Speaking of, why on earth did it explode? All I remember is that we all accessed it at about the same time with Titus being last. So either there is a 7 person limit, or he can’t access it because he doesn’t have skills. Oof. Probably the second one.

When they finally made it back to the obelisk room, they saw Titus arguing with a red-haired [Berserker], and it looked like he was close to pulling his hair out.

-----

Megan excused herself on the premise of going through her upgrade options and went over to the obelisk. I don’t know if I will be able to keep this up much longer. Pretending to be all naive and sappy? I didn’t even remember which one was Titus! If I didn’t figure him out as the [Half-Demon] by process of elimination, I wouldn’t have known who Jake was talking about! She took a deep breath. Focus, Megan, you just have to keep it up until you can get a big enough score. Just hold out for the score. Her mindset corrected, she reached out to the obelisk and said, “upgrade.”

Choose which points to spend:

Skill Points (8 remaining)

Spell Points (4 remaining)

Racial Perk Points (0 remaining)

Class Perk Points (1 remaining)

Skills Available for Purchase (8 points remaining):

Pack Mule - Passive - 3 Skill Points

Stealth - Toggle - 3 Skill Points

She had to do a double-take at her first available option. Huh?! Everyone else got things like [Bowmanship] or [Rage]! Why do I get this lame sounding option? Her outrage was somewhat mollified by the second option. At least [Stealth] fits me and my class to a T.

She picked up the [Stealth] skill and had enough points remaining to still pick up the [Pack Mule] skill, but she refused on principle. She then backed out and searched through the spell list, where she found no available options. She also struck out on class perks. Even though she had a class perk point, she still had no options.

Closing out of the obelisk interface, she looked back over at the argument where things did not seem to be going Titus’ way. Okay, I’m curious. What’s the deal with her?

-----

It had started with me explaining the basics to the [Berserker], whose age was not all shown by her appearance. It had gone downhill from there.

For every explanation that I gave her, I was fought tooth and nail on how things didn’t make sense. Whether it was respawning at the obelisk. “So you expect me to believe that when you die in here that you somehow get telekapowered back to this room? What a load of horse malarkey!” The idea of HP. “You just have a single number telling you how healthy you are? Do you really think I am stupid enough to think something that complex could be reduced to one number?” To the idea of a status. “Pfft. Like saying status...”

She paused for a second. I was confused for a moment along with her until I remembered that saying it out loud was one of the triggers for the status opening (yes, I had to close it myself once or twice there too). “I guess I will give you that one. And I suppose I do see those Heart Points or whatever you call them listed on here. So I guess you aren’t selling me complete snake oil.” I sighed in relief, but she wasn’t done. “But that just means you are more dangerous! Don’t think I don’t know the trick! You tell them part of the truth so that they believe you!”

Get me out of here! I screamed internally. That was when I finally noticed that the party had returned with Megan. And that they seemed to be mostly avoiding my situation. They say misery loves company. So how about some company for this? I picked the two who would be my fellow victims. “Hey, Jake and Garrett! When did you guys get back? I have someone I want you to meet!”

They made it over at about the same time, but Garrett was the unfortunate first victim to speak. “Ah, who is this lovely lady you have been talking with Titus?”

As the [Berserker] turned on him and started railing on him for being a “disrespectful young whippersnapper” and several other insults that I couldn’t quite understand, I quietly said. “Jake and Garrett, I would like you to meet Gertrude. Gertrude, meet Jake and Garrett.”

As Jake and I watched Garrett apologizing profusely to the enraged older woman, he whispered, “So why have you been arguing with her?”

“She doesn’t understand anything about games. I was trying to help.”

“Ah. Don’t worry, I got this.” Jake grinned and then stepped up to Gertrude with his most winning smile. As Jake rescued Garrett from the onslaught, I slowly slinked... slank? Oh, right. Slunk. I slowly slunk away from the conversation until I felt I was out of range. I sighed in relief.

“Pawning off your problems, eh?” I spun around in surprise to see our party’s [Rogue] right behind me.

Where? What? How? After my initial shock wore off, I decided I may as well just tell her. “Well, I was supposed to tell people about respawn mechanics, not play tech support for someone 50 years older than me,” I grumbled. “What about you? What were you gallivanting around doing while the rest of us fought off hoards of ants?” Oops. That came out a bit harsher than I meant.

She stammered. “I was just so scared, and I.. I.. I’ve gotta go!”

Great, I scared her off. Nice going, Titus. She took off in a slightly crouched run that looked a bit silly. Wait... “Why are you running like that? Are you okay?” I called out after her.

Blanching and standing back up straight, she said, “I’m fine. I mean. Actually, I think I am a bit ill. I am going to look around for a restroom.”

------

Megan had actually heard a lot more of the exchange with Gertrude than Titus knew. That was because she had actually walked up to them and listened to them talking. How was she able to do that? Well, the answer is in a few system notifications that Megan hadn’t noticed until after she closed out of the obelisk interface.

System: Applying experience retroactively for Sneak

System: Sneak skill can no longer gain experience. Raise its skill level cap to continue leveling it

Huh? What do you mean it can’t gain more experience? She checked her skills and was surprised to see that it was already sitting at level 5. Ahh. I guess I did do a lot of [Sneaking] back on earth...

She immediately put her new skill to the test and was extremely pleased with it. As Megan toggled it on mentally, she suddenly crouched down, but she was thrilled to note that she could walk right up behind someone, and they wouldn’t even notice.

When Titus slipped away from the group, she decided it was the perfect opportunity to do some more testing, so she decided to try calling out to him with the skill active to see what happened. He definitely heard me. She deactivated the skill and stood back upright before he finished turning around.

“Well, I was supposed to tell people about respawn mechanics, not play tech support for someone 50 years older than me,” Titus grumbled.

Then his voice turned accusatory. “What about you? What were you gallivanting around doing while the rest of us fought off hoards of ants?”

Wait, does he blame me for his death? If he was already suspicious, this isn’t looking good! Megan stammered. “I was just so scared, and I.. I.. I’ve gotta go!” She activated [Sneak] and took off only to feel even more embarrassed when Titus called her out for running weirdly.

“I am going to look around for a restroom.” It started out as just an excuse, but it actually made her concerned. I was lying about needing the bathroom, but now I’m curious. Are there actually bathrooms in this cave? Or where are we supposed to do our ... business? Okay. Looking for a bathroom was a lie, but it is now definitely my top priority!

-----

As Megan took off to find a bathroom, I found myself alone. What do I do now? We aren’t going back out immediately, I have nothing to go over in my status, and there isn’t exactly much to do in this cave aside from adventure... I guess I chat with my party?

I glanced over at the retreating Megan. I already scared off one party member. So who else could I talk with? I looked over at Andrew, who was still consoling Tim. Nope. I looked next at Jake and Garrett, who had yet to extricate themselves from the wrath of Gertrude. Ha. Nope. I glanced over at Emilia, who shot me a frosty glare and then turned her head away from me. Mega nope. Finally, I looked at Sam and Lindsey, who were chatting by themselves. Or at least, Sam was chatting, and Lindsey would occasionally nod her head or whisper to her. Maybe I can hang out with them a bit?

“Hey, mind if I join you for a bit?”

“Sure, did you need something?” came Sam’s slightly curious reply.

“No, not really, just figured I would try to get to know my teammates a bit better, you know.” We both chuckled a bit. And then stood there. Awkwardly. Come on! Aren’t you the chatty one? Why are you leaving it to the socially awkward programmer to lead this conversation!? Uhh, maybe just get her on her last topic? “So, uh, what were you chatting about before I came over?”

If I wasn’t so socially oblivious, I would have caught her turning just the slightest bit red. “Nothing much.”

And just like that, we were back to silence. Got it. Bad topic. Think! What else do we have to talk about? Uhh, right! I didn’t get to hear about the rescue mission or about their skills. “So what skills did you pick up before going on the rescue mission? And how are they?”

“I picked up [Quick Cast], and Lindsey picked up [Shield]. We, uh, didn’t even get a chance to use them this time around.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“Well… It turns out that when we went with just the five of us that the enemies actually behaved normally. We think they might have been acting weird because you were with us the first time.”

“Of course.” I sighed. “And I have to get the last hit to gain experience too. How am I going to do that with just my fists when the enemies swarm me like that?”

Lindsey leaned down and whispered to Sam and then pulled out her sword. I flinched away on reflex, but between her eye roll and then her soft sigh, even I could piece together that she thought I was an idiot. She flipped the sword around and held it by the blade to present me the sword’s handle as Sam spoke for her. “Lindsey said you could go ahead and borrow her sword to get some kills. She won’t be helpless because she will still have her shield.”

I was touched. “Thank you. This means a lot.” I grabbed ahold of the handle and held the sword up. Right as I did so, it phased through my hand and clattered loudly on the floor. That attracted quite a few looks from all around us. “Sorry,” I whispered out meekly as Lindsey retrieved her sword. Turning back to my party members, I said, “I guess I can’t use a weapon at all. I thought maybe I just didn’t start with one, but I guess it is worse than that.”

“Really? Are you sure? Maybe it is just swords?” Sam said while thrusting her wand into my hands.

“Yeah, I’m pretty-” the wand fell to the floor. “Sure.”

While Sam picked up her wand, Lindsey put her sword back in her storage and started handing over her shield. Sam caught on quickly, “Oh! Good thinking! If it is just weapons, maybe it will let you equip a shield?”

I grabbed the shield from her and half-heartedly put it on my left arm. When it didn’t immediately phase through, I panicked. No! I have seen this anime! I don’t want to be stuck using only shields! Rising of the Shield [Demon Lord]! Please no! The shield phased through my arm and clattered on the ground even louder than the sword. The sound masked my sigh of relief. I once again called a sorry out to everyone who was back to staring in our direction.

“Well, if you absolutely have to use your fists, maybe Lindsey could help you out with a pointer or-”

“We have an important announcement to make!” Sam was interrupted by a party of 4 guys that had gotten up on the obelisk platform. Judging just from appearance, I guessed (accurately) that they were a human [Warrior], an elf [Wizard], a dwarf [Cleric], and a cat beastborn [Rogue]. “As the first party to make it to level 3, we Doom Fury, the greatest party ever, want to leave you all with a warning about leveling up!” At the mention of their party name, each of them struck a pose.

I facepalmed. Wow. Why couldn’t you have left the cringe behind in the real world?

Their [Warrior] leader stopped posing and continued. “We aren’t sure of any exact benefit to leveling yet, but just know that when you level that you will likely end up tripping over yourself due to suddenly finding yourself faster! It can be super dangerous if you are in combat when that happens!”

Jake finally found an opportunity to get away from Gertrude, so he excused himself and hopped up on the platform next to the [Warrior]. “Hi, guys. Thanks for spreading the word, but just wanted to correct ya a bit.” He turned to address the room. “I’m Jake, [Hero] and leader of the first party to reach level four. This dude was totally right about leveling up. Make sure to cover for your melee party members when it happens. However, Doom Fury, I guess you weren’t around when we spread the word, but you can spend the points that you get from leveling at the obelisk by touching it and saying upgrade. It seems like there are different skills and spells available for different classes, so make sure to check it out after you get a level or two. Oh! You also respawn at the obelisk if you die, but you will be put back at level 1. That’s all everybody. Thanks for your time!” Jake either ignored or did not notice the daggers that Doom Fury was staring at his back for stealing their thunder. After huddling up, Doom Fury activated the obelisk, and then immediately headed back out into the tunnels.

Jake, however, had something else on his mind, “Hey, party, if everyone can gather up for a bit, I want to discuss something.” We all gathered around. Megan was the last to show up, and she appeared as if from nowhere.

Curious, I leaned over toward Megan and whispered. “Were you able to find one?”

“Uh... No, unfortunately.”

Jake noticed our huddled conversation. “Whatcha whispering about?”

“Oh, Megan needed a restroom fairly urgently, and I was just wondering if she found one.” As the words were coming out of my mouth, I realized that might not have been the best thing to divulge in that manner. The glare that Megan shot at me confirmed that pretty quickly. Sorry, Megan! I apologized mentally.

Jake coughed once to get our attention back, “Well. That’s actually part of the reason I called a meeting. Or at least it is related to it.” He looked at Megan, slightly concerned. “Are you going to be okay, or do we need to go look right now?”

“I’m fine! Perfectly fine! I’m not a child.” She glanced over at Tim. “No offense.” Turning back to Jake. “Please just start the dang meeting already.” Exasperated, she put her face into her hands.

“‘Kay. Well, I had initially assumed that, like most tutorials, this would be over quickly, and we would then be dumped into some type of starter town. Under that assumption, I tried to throw our party together as quickly as possible and get us out there fighting so that we could be the first to hit level five and leave.”

Garrett nodded. “Ah, I got it. You are going after first bonuses. And here I thought you were just an impatient twit.”

“I do actually plan things out some times, okay old man?” Jake shot back.

Looking perplexed, Andrew simply asked. “First bonuses?”

Both Jake and Garrett tried to speak at once. Then Jake motioned ‘after you’ to him, so Garrett continued. “First bonuses are a common trope in gamelike isekai, err, I mean novels where people get transported to another world that behaves like a video game. That is especially true if you get a group of people brought over.

How it works is that the first person to do something will get an achievement for it that will make them stronger. Common ones are things like ‘first to kill a monster’ or ‘first to hit a certain level’ or ‘first to finish a dungeon.’ Since being the first to do something often means you are one of the more powerful people anyway, they tend to snowball, and a small group of people end up being the ones to claim the majority of them. At least, in most stories that have them. Likewise, if you don’t get some of the early first bonuses and someone else does that can make it very difficult to catch up to them.”

“Huh, I don’t remember playing any games with bonuses like that. They don’t sound very fun unless you make it up to the top immediately.” Andrew murmured.

Sam, however, picked it up immediately. “Oh! They are kinda like killstreaks!”

Garrett nodded. “Exactly. For those of you who like shooters, that is a good starting point to think about. Killstreaks are awarded to a player in a shooter who has killed multiple enemy players in a single life. The rewards for doing that give you a temporary edge to help you kill even more enemies. Usually, air support or a weapon of some kind, but the end result is the same. You got several kills in a row, and you now get a reward that makes it even easier to get more.”

Sam fist-pumped, “Haha. Nailed it.”

Garrett frowned and shook his head. ”However, first bonuses are even worse. Imagine if whenever you got a killstreak that you took that weapon or air support permanently, and that it was no longer available for anyone else. You would already be in the lead when you got the bonus, so the bonus would just make it even easier to keep it up. And now imagine someone joining the game late and trying to catch up.”

Sam shuddered. “Eww. Like an AC130 on Rust.”

“Exactly.” Garrett paused. “I think? Either way, that is why Jake was trying to get us out quickly so that we can hopefully snag rewards for being the first party to leave the tutorial.” Turning toward Jake, Garrett asked, “So why the sudden change of heart? Shouldn’t we be out there right now if we want to be the first? The Doom flurries or whatever were already at level 3.”

Jake responded, “Yeah, but that is why I called this meeting. I think that leveling up is taking people a lot longer than expected. We’ve been here a few hours now, and they are just now hitting level three? If you noticed back during our fight, it took multiple times the number of ants to level us from three to four as it did from two to three. That means leveling from four to five will be even worse. And that made me think. What is a tutorial without a place to rest up and heal? What if a party doesn’t have a [Cleric]? Also, what about food? If some people are slower at getting through the tutorial, is there a chance they starve to death? I didn’t see any food in my inventory when I started. And finally,” he glanced at Megan. “Restrooms. I’m assuming whoever made this tutorial doesn’t want us doing our business all over the cave. So, any ideas about any of this? I was planning on sending everyone off in pairs to go scouting around, and at worst, we could at least claim a spot of our own to sleep.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you ask your fairy for help [Hero]?”

Jake looked sheepish. “That uhh... Completely slipped my mind. Dang, I’d been doing so good at remembering to ask it stuff too. Thanks, Titus. Gimme a minute.” The ball of light was summoned once more, and Jake seemed to be holding a mental conversation with it. After a minute, he finished but looked a bit confused.

“Uh. Titus? Come with me up to the obelisk for a minute.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

We walked over and hopped up onto the platform. The rest of the party was curious and followed along behind.

“Now touch the obelisk and say ‘activate hospitality protocol.’”

I gave him a look, “And why do I have to do this?”

Jake looked only a little less confused than I was. “The fairy specifically said that you are the only one in the party capable of activating it. And that was all the information it was willing to give me about the topics of food, shelter, or restrooms.”

I took a deep breath. “Well. Here goes.” I looked at Jake and the party behind me. “You guys may want to step back a bit based on what happened last time.” The party scattered slightly. I placed my palm on the obelisk. “Activate hospitality protocol.”

The obelisk suddenly began arcing with blue electricity. As I stood there dumbfounded, the buildup continued on the top of the obelisk, and the energy grew fiercer. Panicking, I tried to pull away but found my hand stuck fast.

The electricity suddenly started converging on the side of the obelisk near me. It continued building up until suddenly, a large bolt of blue electricity jumped out towards me. I grimaced and turned away, prepared for the worst.

I felt a small zap on my shoulder. “Ouch!” I opened my eyes, and the electricity was gone. Wait, was that it? I checked my status and noticed I was missing only 1 HP. Okay, that wasn’t that bad.

System : Mana fingerprint verified. Welcome, Titus Demon Lord!

I spoke too soon! Only bad things happen when it mentions my [Demon Lord] status!

As I was thinking that, the ground began shaking. Here it comes! I braced. Then three new larger openings appeared on the wall opposite me. These each had a sign above them, one listed restroom, the next cafeteria, and the last one dormitory. After the shaking finished, a door appeared in front of each of the tunnels and then slammed shut.

Meanwhile, a message went out to all the players.

System : Hospitality Protocol has been activated. You can find the cafeteria, bedrooms, and restrooms adjacent to the room with the obelisk. Note that each of the rooms is instanced, so you don’t have to worry about someone walking in on you when you are in the restroom or intruding on your party’s bedrooms.

Nothing bad seems to have happened? In fact, this seems to have worked out well? Nope. I refuse to jinx it. I won’t say anything, and I will keep my guard up. Knowing this world, the bathroom is actually composed of a sink mimic, a shower mimic, and a toilet mimic that will only activate to eat me. I was getting a bit paranoid at this point, but do you blame me?

“Well, which should we check out first?” Jake asked the party. The question had barely left his mouth when Tim’s stomach growled. “That answers that!” The party laughed. “To the cafeteria!”

“I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute,” Megan said as she headed off towards the restroom door.

I thought about saying “see you later” or something but decided against it. Knowing my track record, I would just end up sticking my foot in my mouth again.

As Megan headed off to the restroom, we headed to the cafeteria. Since I was last in line, I got to watch each of my party members vanish after entering the tunnel behind the door. That is a bit trippy. I wonder if I will ever get used to that kind of thing. Or, hopefully, we can just find our way home before I get used to this kind of stuff. I closed the door behind me as I entered the tunnel and felt space shift.

-----

Megan meanwhile was livid. So that Titus guy catches me when I try to sneak away, calls me out on it, which makes me come up with an embarrassing excuse, and then he also broadcasts my embarrassing excuse to the entire party? Is his angle just that he is a sadist? Her inner fury didn’t show on her face at all as she walked towards the restroom and then bugged one of the girls near it. “Excuse me, I was wondering if you would help me test something?”

“Uh, sure. What is it?”

“I was just going to see if it was possible to hear what goes on in one of the instanced bathrooms outside of it. You know, in case I was wanting to sing in the shower or something embarrassing like that.” Megan giggled.

“Oh, sure! Happy to help!”

“Really? Thanks! I’ll go into one of the rooms and then count upwards to 10 getting louder as I go. When I come out, let me know what number you hear, okay?”

“Got it!”

Megan walked past, opened the door, and walked into the space. “It’s like I was teleported into a ritzy hotel or something,” she muttered. Inside was a single white toilet that seemed to be made of marble, a bathtub/shower combo that was gold plated, and then a sink that was placed into a marble countertop that had faucets that were also made of gold. She eyed the gold greedily, but then remembered where she was at. “I probably shouldn’t deface the property of whoever, or whatever, is running this place. And even if I found a way to get the gold, I don’t have anything I could do with it yet.” She sighed. “Oh, right. I remember why I came in here.”

Megan walked up next to the door and began counting. She started at a normal speaking voice at one and ended shouting at the top of her voice at ten. She then opened the door, went out, and found her partner in the experiment.

“So, what did you hear?”

“Not a thing!”

“Really? Thanks for all your help! I appreciate it so much!”

“Not a problem! We girls gotta stick together!”

Megan waved bye and walked back into the bathroom. I hate putting on the bubbly, excited girl act. I’m exhausted from just a few interactions like that. How do other people keep it up all the time? Megan rolled her eyes.

She walked into the middle of the bathroom and looked over it once again. Then she took a deep breath. And then she began yelling, screaming, and hitting various surfaces in the bathroom. She screamed about what kind of weird world she had ended up in. She complained about the fact that she was expected to kill things to level. And most of all, she whined about the “idiotic party” that she found herself stuck with when she would rather be alone. Finally, she got onto the topic of Titus, who she called several names, among which sadist was probably the most polite.

After a few minutes, she ran out of steam. Then she looked in the mirror, fixed her hair, and walked back outside the restroom.

At least I should get my own cafeteria instance since I didn’t go in with the party. She smiled as she walked through the door.

“Oh, there you are, Megan! We were starting to get worried that you ran off again!” Jake joked.

So that’s what the system meant by instanced by party. Megan sighed.

-----

When the system said cafeteria, I didn’t think it meant it. I was a bit shocked when I walked into the cafeteria and saw... Well... A cafeteria. There were tables spread out in the middle, a long counter with a bunch of different food inside recessed metal bins, and even lunch trays.

What shocked me, even more, were the food choices. They had hamburgers (with buns off to one side), hot dogs, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza sliced into rectangles, spaghetti, fries, three different types of salad, apple and orange slices, and several other dishes that would take too long to name. And unlike most cafeterias, this food actually looked good. “Wow.”

“You haven’t seen the best part yet. Watch!” Garrett grinned as he served himself one of the slices of pizza. As soon as it touched his tray, another slice appeared back in the bin. “Unlimited supply!”

“Pretty nice of the tutorial if you think about it. Based on what the world out there is like, this is probably the last time we are going to see things like burgers and fries.” I thought aloud and unintentionally put a damper on the mood.

Jake came to the rescue, though. “But hey! This just means we get to enjoy as much of our old favorite junk food before trying out any of the delicacies of our new world!”

The mood slightly restored, we stacked up on food and sat down to eat. I went with a good old fashioned burger and fries, and I took a large bite out of my burger.

I immediately spewed it out. “It tastes like a mouthful of ash!” I then noticed that Jake was in the line of fire. And that he was now covered in partially chewed giblets. “Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly.

Jake looked like he barely managed to keep from exploding. “It’s okay,” he said through gritted teeth. He took a couple deep breaths and then paused for a minute. Finally, he laughed. “Who would have thought I could spend an entire day adventuring and not need a shower until after we were finished.”

We did some quick tests with the food just to make sure it was indeed my sense of taste that was messed up and not some weird thing with my class that automatically ruined any food I touched. Garrett tested it by eating one of the fries that I had grabbed, and he shot us a thumbs up, so I was partially relieved that it seemed to be the better of the two options. “Well, I am not feeling that hungry yet, so I guess I will just tough it out when it finally comes to it. Who knows? Maybe I have a special diet or have reduced food needs or something.”

My guessing was interrupted by the door to the cafeteria opening and Megan walking in. “Oh, there you are, Megan! We were starting to get worried that you ran off again!” Jake joked.

“Nope! No enemies in the bathroom to run from!” she chuckled.

“By the way, do the bathrooms have a tub or shower or anything?”

“Uh, yeah. A pretty nice one.”

“Got it. I think I am going to go make use of that.”

As Jake quickly finished eating, Tim started yawning. “I’m tired, dad. Is it bedtime?”

“Soon, Tim, soon,” Andrew responded to the child who was leaning on him and about to fall asleep where he was at. “I’m going to go and put Tim to bed. I will meet up with everyone later in the dorm area.”

The yawns were soon contagious and spread to everyone. Everyone except me, that is.

An amused Jake said, “It sounds like the yawns have it. Let’s call it a night. I’ll meet up with you guys after I take a quick shower.”

We dropped our trays off on the tray return, which magically removed all the remaining food on it and teleported it back to the stack, and then we headed out of the cafeteria and to the dorms. Upon entering, we received a notification.

System : Allocating a bedroom per party member

Unlike the other rooms, this time, it took a bit before the shift in space finished. Instead of instantly ending up in the new area, we got a few seconds to look around at the blurred lines of light that were surrounding us. It’s a bit like hyperspace, I thought. Then just as suddenly, we were greeted with a central area that had doors leading off into separate bedrooms.

That was when I noticed something off. “One, two... Eight. It looks like we’re a bedroom short.”

Andrew spoke up, “Don’t worry about it. I was planning on having Tim in my room anyway. You can have the spare.”

“Thanks.”

“Goodnight, everyone.” We all said our goodnights and then went to each of our separate rooms.

I stopped at my doorway and watched as each party member entered their room. Huh, the rooms even have nice beds. This tutorial really went all out to make us feel at home.

I then noticed a small red light appeared above everyone’s door as they entered. Huh. Even has occupied indicators. Nice. I took another look around. I still don’t feel tired, but I guess I better try to get some sleep anyway. Sleep well, everyone. I thought as I entered my bedroom.

-----

Jake had barely managed to defuse his anger. “That was close,” he sighed. I’m glad that I can be alone for a bit now. He was initially planning on taking a shower, but a bath just sounded more appropriate at the moment. As he relaxed in the warm water, he also focused on his breathing.

After a minute or two, he thought aloud. “Okay. So what was the cause this time? I think it was because it was Titus. But why would he upset me more than the others? Was it because he didn’t listen to my orders in the fight? But that was for the best. My orders were based on the enemies acting normally, which they definitely did not.”

Jake paused for a second to scrub himself a bit with the supplied soap and then continued. “It wasn’t him disobeying orders, so was it anxiety from him literally getting killed? I don’t blame him at all for that. So, the only thing that I can truly blame him for is his accident at dinner, and that one is also hardly fair since the poor guy apparently can’t even eat. So why did I almost blow up on him?”

Jake sunk down lower into the bath and blew some bubbles. I don’t know that I like this answer, but I think a lot of it may be how he looks. His [Half-Demon] appearance just really rubs me the wrong way for some reason. I know that isn’t fair either since that is the thing he has the least control over, but I can’t help it.

He resurfaced and took a deep breath. I guess all that I can do is just be aware of it and be careful around him.

After taking a bit longer to just relax, Jake finally got out of the tub. How do I dry off, though?

System : Activate dry procedure?

Startled, Jake answered aloud. “Yes, please.”

From seemingly nowhere, warm air started circulating the room, and Jake found himself nice and dry. “Even more convenient than our old world. Magic sure is nice.” Jake grinned and dressed.

After that, he exited the bathroom and headed to the bedrooms. He yawned again. Geez. I’m a lot more tired than I expected. Definitely bedtime. Are the bedrooms instanced too? I guess I just pick one?

Practically stumbling, he made his way into the nearest door. He was surprised when he heard a girlish scream come from inside. Followed by a stilted, “Shouldn’t you knock before coming into a girl's room?”

Jake immediately turned around, exited, and started closing the door. “My bad. I thought the rooms were instanced too.”

“Well, I guess I don’t mind if it is you..”

At that, Jake turned around and saw Emilia shyly twirling her hair. He was sure that it was an attempt to be cute. It was not. Jake paused only for a second before saying, “Goodnight,” and closing the door.

Is she alright in the head? Anime is not a good playbook for how to act around people. Jake sighed. Looking around, he noticed that each of the rooms except 2 had lights above them. Oohhhh. Red light equals occupied. Glad I won’t repeat the same mistake. Then he did a double-take. Huh. Why 2 unoccupied? Maybe someone had to run out to the bathroom or something.

Moving on to the closest one, he opened the door.

At the sudden noise, Titus jerked upright on his bed. Seeing that it was just Jake, Titus pulled the covers up to cover his chest and then said in a falsetto, “Shouldn’t you knock before coming in a girl’s room?” His hair wasn’t really long enough to work with, but he started twirling it anyway. “Well, I guess it’s okay if it’s you..”

Jake facepalmed and then started laughing uproariously.

Titus dropped the falsetto. “What? I get that my anime girl impression was pretty good and all, but I don’t think it was that good.”

“No, you don’t understand. I literally just had the exact same thing happen with Emilia. Same wording and everything.”

Titus chuckled a bit. “Really?”

“The best part of it all? You play a shy anime girl better than she does!”

Titus scowled, “Well, I’m straight, [Hero], so don’t expect to add me to your harem.”

Jake’s laughter finally died down. “No worries, I’m straight too and no plans of a harem here. Anyway, goodnight Titus. Sleep well.”

“You too.”

Jake yawned again and made his way over to his real room. Then he undressed, flopped into his bed, and was out like a light.

[1] Baka - A Japanese word meaning idiot. It is one of the most common Japanese insults, and is especially prevalent in anime