Chapter 7 – Tutorial Village Part 3

Waving her cane, the cheery faerie summoned several weapon racks into the middle of the town square. There were iron weapons of all shapes and sizes, although most of them were swords since that was the default weapon type.

“Instead of explaining combat mechanics, it’s better to just let you try things out for yourselves. Please take a weapon from the weapon rack here and go into the field outside of this town. You will find level 1 pigs there, which drop life essence orbs. Collect five life essence orbs and bring them back here. And...”

With another swish of her cane, the faerie conjured a large goblet bonfire in the middle of the town square, scaring a few of the players since it just sprouted out of nowhere right next to them. “... once you’re done collecting five life essence orbs, put them in the flames here. Then you will be free to explore the tutorial level as much as you want, and venture on to the main world through the portal here.”

A portal near the flaming goblet appeared, but it was sealed.

Before she even finished her explanation, two of the guys that Daniel overheard talking about speedrunning the tutorial from before ran towards the weapon rack and grabbed iron swords.

“Fuck wasting time in the tutorial, let’s get this over with as soon as possible!” One of them said, beginning to head over to the pig fields.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Daniel sighed. Those were your typical min-maxers, who wanted to optimize their efficiency by minimizing the amount of time they spent in the tutorial so they could get a head start on other players in the main world. From what Daniel knew so far about the tutorial, that didn’t sound like such a bad strategy…

“I’m going first!” Felix shouted, grabbing a mace and sprinting to the fields. What a mage was doing with a mace, not even god knew.

Donovan grunted and followed suit, grabbing a hammer. Eric was not far behind, with a sword in hand.

Daniel’s friends weren’t really min-maxers, they were just hot headed and impatient. They did this every time they started a new MMO, and Daniel knew that it was futile to try to reign them in. It was better to just let them do what they did best, charge at problems head first and hope that they resolve themselves in a favorable manner.

All the other players were grabbing weapons and heading out, and before long Daniel found himself alone at the weapon rack near two gossiping highschool girls who were leaning on the rack, clearly more interested in chatting about some new trendy hairstyle than proceeding with the tutorial.

The platinum haired beautiful faerie looked at the three of them and gestured for them to hurry it up. “There’s no need to dilly dally here, boys and girls,” she said with a fake smile on her otherwise aesthetically perfect face. And then, just as she smiled, there was a flash of something.

Daniel frowned. For a moment, he felt like the tutorial guide faerie’s face changed, almost like a glimmer. It was so fast that his eyes couldn’t catch it fully, but her face looked grotesque and strange. Was he imagining things?

The pair of highschool girls didn’t catch it, because they were still busy chatting and looking at each other. Feeling a bit strange, Daniel decided to press forward and fish for some information from the tutorial faerie through a different angle. He didn’t want to directly bring up what he just saw with the tutorial guide faerie, fearing the worst.

“Miss guide, can I ask you a question?”

The faerie looked somewhat impatient, tapping her finger on her arm. “Yes. What is it?”

“Um, what are life essence orbs?”

The faerie looked stupefied for a moment, caught off guard by the strange question that Daniel asked. “What?” she snapped, incredulous.

“You instructed us to get five life essence orbs from the pigs and to put them in the fire there. I’m just a bit curious, what exactly are life essence orbs?”

The faerie crossed her arms across her chest and frowned, pausing for a moment before answering. “They’re objects that you need to complete the tutorial, that’s all. Don’t worry about what they are. Each pig that you kill should drop one orb. Once you collect five of them, bring them here to me and put them in the fire.”

Daniel noticed that the faerie looked a bit uncomfortable when he brought this question up, and that she avoided answering with a straight answer. That, in addition to that strange glimpse he had of her grotesque face earlier, gave him the feeling that all was not what it seemed in this tutorial.

However, that was all that he could get from the faerie information wise. If what he saw was real, he knew that asking her directly about why her face changed into a demonic monstrosity could be a suicidal venture. Daniel walked forward to the weapons rack and took an iron sword, pretending to advance normally with the tutorial.

A min-maxer would be worried about which weapon type could kill pigs the most efficiently, to be able to complete the tutorial as fast as possible. However, Daniel barely even registered what kind of weapon he picked up. His mind was preoccupied with pondering what the faerie said. Each pig that you kill should drop one orb. Should? Why did that word should stick out like a sore thumb when she said it?

Daniel began walking towards the pig fields with a frowning, contemplative look on his face.