"Let's move past the Q&A shall we?" Alvin said while standing abruptly from his stone seat. "I want to be able to provide you with the basic information that will help you survive once you return. We could sit here all day and talk about things that you can not even begin to fathom. Now begins the practical session of the tutorial. Let's begin with the shop. While I am setting up for the practical portion, I want you to think "shop" and begin browsing at your leisure until I am ready." Alvin said walking several feet away from Carter.

Carter felt like Alvin was changing the subject for some reason, but he did not hesitate due to the fact that he was itching to get into the shop and see what it had to offer. Thinking to himself "shop", as Alvin had instructed, Carter was once again presented with a screen in front of him.

What he saw was beyond anything he could have imagined. The shop screen had several tabs as well and a search bar. It also sported a list that left Carter's jaw hanging wide open. There were planets, spaceships, people, and pretty much anything you could think of was available for purchase in the shop. Going through the entire list would take a ridiculously unreasonable amount of time. Carter was barely able to tear himself away from the desire to just continually keep scrolling down the list; however, the one thing that helped him do so was the astronomical price on the listed items. For example, he had the ability to purchase an already built fortress that could house the population of a mid-sized town. The price for such a convenient structure, you might ask? 10 million merits. Shaking his head as he returned his attention to the tabs, he was able to see that they were used to narrow down the list to items that he was interested in. While looking at his merit balance and thinking of all the previous items with egregious prices, Carter figured "what the hell" and searched for items costing zero merits. To his surprise, there was an abundance of items available, although the best of them couldn't measure up to anything of the items worth higher merits. Carter was glad to see that there seemed to be some sort of barter system available through the shop to negotiate. The buyer could be connected with the seller through an anonymous chat where a discussion was held about what would be exchanged for the item. This seemed fair, Carter thought.

Before Carter could get any further through the store, Alvin called him over to where he had been working. Carter was surprised to see an area of grass the size of a tennis court cleared out with a couple of dummies at the other end. Alvin was dusting his hands off when Carter approached him.

"Alright young'un, I see you have figured out how to work the shop interface. In the shop you will be able to purchase spells, structures,equipment, and even hire mercenaries if the cause suits it. To go over the amount of spells and items available would take way to long, so just browse it at your leasure when you return. Time to see what you are made of, see those three dummies over there?" Alvin pointed across the clearing. "I want you to walk up to one of them and hit it like you mean it."

Carter approached the dummy on the far right of the three. As far as dummies go, it was pretty straightforward. It had a skin of some type of leather, seemed to be filled with straw, and was held upright by a wooden pole in the ground. He walked up to it and assumed a balanced stance. Carter was by no means an experienced fighter but he could hold his own in a scrap. His main go-to in a fight was mostly grappling, which came from his experience wrestling on the varsity level for three years in high school. He was even an assistant coach for his middle school during the wrestling season for the past couple of years. Boxing wasn't his thing, but he felt he knew the basics for throwing a punch. Flexing his body in preparation for his swing, Carter eyed the dummy to figure out the best place to hit it. He quickly decided to just hit it in the chest since it was the easiest point to strike with the most amount of force. Carter would be able to focus more on his power and less on control than if he aimed for the head or another body part.

The whole process took less than two seconds, from Carter winding up to delivering the punch. Personally, he felt that it was one of his better strikes. Looking up at where his fist hit the leather, he was able to see a noticable imprint. Feeling confident, Carter turned to see Alvin with his hand over his mouth, barely holding in his laughter.

Once Alvin was able to get himself under control he began to speak. "Sorry, it has been a while since I worked with a newly integrated population. Honestly, that wasn't terrible for a beginner. It truly wasn't! You can not be expected to be an expert right off the bat. That's why you are here, and I truly applaud your willingness to attend the tutorial. Now do you have a grasp on what you just did in your head?" Alvin asked with all seriousness. Still miffed, Carter indicated that he remembered.

"Good. One of the benefits of attending the tutorial is that you get a couple of freebies. The higher-ups feel that it wouldn't do to have an entire population go extinct due to lack of knowledge and ability. Hence, here we are." Alvin waved his hand towards Carter, and less than a second later Carter felt a sensation similar to a breeze. Peculiarly, though, he noticed that the grass was not moving. Moments later, the feeling faded and a screen popped up in front of Carter.

Skill Learned Unarmed Combat 1 You have entered the realm of fighting with your body. Through practice and experience you will be able to advance.

Alvin pointed to the second dummy, "Now go hit that one and see if there is a difference."

Carter was in a daze. He was currently experiencing a sensation that he had never felt before. He analyzed the punch he had thrown on the first dummy and deduced where he had been inefficient. Turning back to face the dummies, he lined up to the second one. Getting into a much different stance than before, Carter felt this would give him more balance and power for the follow through on his punch. Taking a quicker swing, Carter instantly knew that it was solid because it would've allowed him to follow up with multiple punches of the same caliber. His punch on the first dummy had left him feeling off-balance and wide open to a potential counterattack. He determined that it was all about where he aimed his punches and how his body flowed with them.

This was beyond freaky but also kind of awesome, Carter mused to himself in front of the dummies. He felt like he could contend with a decent boxer now. He was by no means a heavyweight champion, but felt like he could give some of the amateurs a solid fight. Alvin noted Carter's internal reflection with approval and allowed him the time to assess what was going on. Alvin knew that it was always prudent to be aware of your own capabilities, and allow yourself time to enter or leave situations you were or were not comfortable with.

After a few minutes passed and a few more punches, Carter turned back to Alvin with one question on his mind. He looked Alvin in the eye and asked, "What is the third dummy for?"

Alvin smiled and responded, "Come stand by me and find out."

As Carter was approaching Alvin's position, he waved his hand and felt the same, familiar sensation as before.

Skill Learned Mana Manipulation 1 You have opened your senses to the powers around you, giving you the ability to harness said power. Through further study and implementation, you will be able to advance.

Carter stumbled to a stop. It was as if the entire world had changed. Carter sensed that there was something in the surrounding environment that he could grasp, as though he was standing in a fog. He could tell that it was around him but was barely able to register the feeling.

"This is one of your final tasks in this tutorial: to be able to control mana. The skill I have just taught you gives you the basics. From the look on your face, I can assume that you are now aware of the mana surrounding you. I want you to extend your hand in front of you, palm up, and focus on gathering mana above it." Alvin stated as he watched Carter closely.

Carter felt like he vaguely understood Alvin's request. When he stuck his hand out, he started to focus on gathering mana on top of it. The strangest feeling bubbled up. It was oddly similar to the breeze he had felt when Alvin gave him his abilities. The cooling sensation traveled through his body and down his arm, then slowly coalesced into a blue orb the size of a baseball in his palm.

"Well done. Slightly quicker than average but that is your Wisdom stat kicking in. Higher Intelligence will depict a larger sphere. Now I want you to hit the last dummy with the orb. Simply will it to fly towards the dummy. That should be enough." Alvin said as he took a couple unreasurring steps back from Carter, as if expecting a detrimental outcome.

Now slightly nervous, Carter turned towards the last dummy in line. He directed his hand towards it with the orb floating in his palm. Going with his gut, Carter absorbed more of the surrounding mana and sent it out of his hand in the form of a stream that propelled the ball forward. The ball rocketed forward like someone had struck it with a bat. It clipped the shoulder of the dummy, causing the figure to collapse.

Before Carter could run up to the dummy to inspect the damage, he was confronted with another prompt.

Ablility Learned Mana Bolt 1 The basic ability to harness and condense mana in the form of offensive bolt.

Quickly dismissing the prompt due to its obviousness, Carter ran up to inspect the dummy. Its shoulder had a sizable dent. The impression left in the shoulder was more noticeable than Carter's first punch, but not quite as deep as his second punch. If he was being honest with himself, he didn't like the feeling of being at a distance and hitting someing. Carter prefered the feeling of contact when he was able to hit something. Looking at all the dummies together and going with his gut again, Carter moved to stand in front of the middle dummy.

Alvin was about to interrupt Carter's train of thought when he stopped himself abruptly. "What have we here?", he thought to himself.

Carter assumed his fighting stance, but this time he focused on gathering mana from his surroundings through manipulation. Slowly but surely, he felt the mana fill his body. When he felt like he had absorbed as much as his body could take, he locked it in place, flexed, and shot it out of his fist. The result was more than he expected. The dummy's pole actually rocked backwards, leaving it leaning at a sixty degree angle.

Ability Learned Mana Reinforcement 1 The ability to collect mana inside your body for a temporary boost in stats. The boost in stats it directly linked to the amount of mana absorbed.

Mana Manipulaiton +1

Carter had to take a second to bend over and catch his breath. "Looks like channeling mana has some kind of effect on your body somehow...", he thought to himself. Straightening up, he turned to see Alvin approaching with a big shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

"Well done m'boy, well done. Where did you get the idea for that move?" Alvin prompted as he slapped Carter heartily on the back. It wasn't anything new for Alvin, in fact the ability was a pretty cheap to purchase in the store. However, the ability to produce it several minutes after learning how to manipulate mana was bordering on gifted.

Flinching a little bit from the smack, Carter responded, "It was just an hunch I had, honestly. After I shot the mana bolt, I realized that it didn't feel right to me and I didn't like the fact that it was so easy to miss with. I figured I would try the same concept but with a punch. When I was absorbing the mana, I couldn't get control of it so I just ended up sending it to my whole body instead of just my fist. Worked out pretty well I guess." Carter was rubbing the back of his head and looking at the dummy while explaining his thought process. He had never been big on details. He tended to go with what felt right and let everything else sort itself out.

This entire exercise had left Carter with so much information to ponder. Most importantly, he felt, it solidified the fact that this whole scenario was real. Immediately, Carter's gamer instincts kicked in and he began planning what he was going to do and how he was going to build his stats. His thought process brought up a couple more questions that he wanted to ask Alvin before he was ready to leave the tutorial and get to his wife. Carter had to admit that being on a different time scale had allowed him to thoroughly take advantage of the tutorial without worrying too much about what was happening with his family. Quickly steeling himself for what lay ahead, Carter gathered his thoughts for one last conversation before he was ready to return to the real world.

"By the look in your eyes, it seems that you are ready to head back. Are you sure you are ready to leave? Isn't there anything else you would like to know?" Alvin asked. Carter was ready to accept the change that the Conglomerate had planned and looked determined to survive it.

"Yeah I have some people I need to make sure are ok out there. There are a couple of things that I would like to clarify, then I will be ready to leave. In regards to monsters, is there any way to see health or damage?" Carter asked. This thought had come to him when he hit the dummies. The entire demonstration was so similar to games he had played, that he half-expected to see numbers appear over the dummies heads to represent their own stats.

"No, nothing like that. There are life forms that have modified their bodies to be able to be tougher or with upgrades to increase information gained from observation. The general rules for staying alive still apply: don't loose too much blood, your head, or your heart. Lethal wounds are lethal wounds, but there are spells and other abilities that can help with recovery." Alvin stated. There were always those rare exceptions to the rules but Carter was far from experiencing those at this stage.

"Alright, so pretty much the same. Thanks for the information. How would one go about increasing their stats?" Carter asked, ticking one of his last questions off the list.

"There are several ways. The easiest way for you would be to level up by killing monsters. There is also training and items that can increses your stats to a certain extent." Alvin said in a monotone voice. Alvin thought that the answers he was providing were so boring. If only the Conglomerate allowed him to tell the new recruits everything...

"What are the difference between skills and abilities? How does one get more of them?" Carter asked.

"For a general rule, skills are passive boosts that will increase in level through study and experiences. Abilities can be activated and will level-up through use and adaptation." Alvin stated giving Carter another meaningful stare. "Further, skills are learned through repetitive actions while abilities are usually taught. Both can also be bought from the store with enough merits. Occasionally, you will stumble upon a new ability or skill through the combination of skills, abilites, or both. It just takes a bit of experimentation. Fair warning though, it can be extremely volatile in some cases." Alvin had already decided to keep an eye on Carter after they parted ways. He had impressed him with his ability to adapt to the situation at hand.

"Well, alright then. Nothing to it but to do it I guess... any last minute advice you can give a fella?" Carter asked looking Alvin in the eyes. He could feel his adrenaline starting to rise again.

"Be smart and agressive, always continue to grow, look for ways to gain merit, and survive." Alvin could feel the pressure of beings watching him. He looked at Carter and could see his determination. Alvin thought, 'Fuck it. What are they going to do, demote me to tutorial duty again?' Looking Carter directly in the eyes, Alvin said one word before the tutorial was forcefully closed with a flash.

On a starship floating just outside the Milkyway Galaxy, there was a flash as a figure appeared standing on the deck of his starship. Moments later, another flash occurred and another figure walked up to first's side.

"What were you thinking? You know the reprecussions for influencing new inhabitants in the tutorial." the second figure asked the other beside him, as they overlooked the newly introduced solar system from the starship's deck.

"I was bored and figured I might spice things up a little. You of all people know that I care little for rules, Kreuzung." the figure responded with little to no emotion.

"We will see if your influence bears any fruit. If it does, you should be ready to accept the consequences. What the hell was with that name as well, Prometheus? Alvin? You couldn't come up with anything more?" Kreuzung patronized Orttonath, and with a flash he was gone.

"Let the games begin." Orttonath chuckled to himself as he thought back on last couple of hours he had just spent with Carter.