The featureless human pulled out a sword and a shield out of thin air, and he wondered where his equipment was. This tutorial was anything but fair.

[Skill learned: Shield]

[Mana system activated]

[Upgrading UI]

On the top left a blue bar appeared, barely transparent so he could see behind it well enough. It was bright blue, with the words ‘100/100 MP’ next to it. He figured that was his mana bar that the system announced. He figured calling it a system was a good enough approximation of the anomalous thing.

The centre of his vision was taken by a large sign with an icon of a shield on it. He poked it just like the previous messages, and it opened into a much larger text box.

Shield 1

Creates a transparent barrier that stops projectiles and provides physical cover.

Cost 15 MP Duration 2 seconds

2 seconds? That was a lifetime. He had no idea how to actually use the spell, but that was unimportant in the grand scheme of irony that he was in.

Well, he would have to learn as he went.

Was that why this humanoid thing was next to him? To train his spells? Sweet.

The human took what looked like a fighting stance as three Goblins appeared in front of them, each one with a similar dagger as before.

The human ran into the group, sword at the ready and shield on his side.

The Goblins leapt into action, swiping at the human as he tried to deflect their attacks and stab at the enemies.

He tried to focus on the human’s movements. The figure seemed to have some grasp of how actual combat was supposed to go, so he would try and learn from it, from the distance of course.

It didn’t look like it had feelings, so who cared if it got hurt, right?

One of the Goblins received a sword to the gut, coughed blood, staggered, and promptly died. It all happened unnaturally quickly.

The other two Goblins swiped at the human, completely ignoring him. A part of him wanted to be jealous that he wasn’t getting attention. That part was promptly shut off and ejected out of the consciousness.

One of the Goblins made it past the human’s defences and stabbed him in the arm. The human figure staggered, appeared to glitch, and then slowed down.

The third Goblin showed the dagger into the human’s back and the human shattered into small black crystal-like pieces.

A large red notification leapt into his eyes.

[Tutorial stage 2 failed]

[Please try again]

By the time he read it, the Goblins were gone without a trace, even the dead one.

A bright light brought another one of the human things. This time, it walked towards him, stopped at an arm’s reach, then smacked him across his head.

He didn’t think it would hurt, yet it did. He rubbed the side of his head, hoping the pain would go away faster that way.

The same chittering could be heard again, and the human took up a fighting stance as he faced the three Goblins again.