The hallways of the museum are pretty much the same throughout the entire place. The walls, roof, and floor are all white. Every once in a while, two pillars will separate the blank walls. In between the pillars are typically the doorways leading into other exhibits. One most days, the doorways would be empty, but today they are covered with the balck doors. After passing by so many of them, Mercy realized that they don’t look like tar as much as moving shadows. Tar would drip and ooze more, but the black doors flow like shadows.

Screams echo out from behind Mercy and Tyler, informing them of another group’s death. 'That was probably that group of three that survived in my room. I kinda feel bad, but I did warn them to protect themselves. If I stayed with them, I would probably be dead now too. It must be them that died since no other door has been opened that we've seen. And noise doesn't seem to be able to go through the blocks.'

To her surprise, almost every doorway has been covered by the shadows. Mercy figured out that this happens when the people inside the exhibits have all died. The black blocks only go away when the humans defeat the goblins. Since only the exhibits she and Tyler came from were open, she can safely assume everyone else is dead.

Mercy leads the way until they come to a large circular room. The hallway enters into it at a T section, connecting two other hallways. Both of the others are blocked off by the shadow blocks. It isn’t a surprise since most of the halls are blocked by such blocks. Mercy noticed it when they were searching for another way out of the museum.

Instead of rushing out to the entrance, she stops and carefully peaks into the room. Inside of the circular room are carcsses piled up along two of the walls. On the opposite side of the hallway, a large glass door lays. The middle of the room is taken up by a small group of goblins and one large goblin. The normal goblins all have the same wooden spears, but the bigger one has a stone sword and wooden shield. Mercy focuses on them like she did in the past and information enters her head.

[Goblin, lvl:1]*7

[Goblin Champion, lvl:3]

‘How are we going to get out of this? We have nothing that can kill large groups, our weapons are terrible. I have a wooden spear.Tyler has the same and that steel shield that might not even block one hit…’ Mercy tries to think of a tactic or strategy to overcome the nearly impossible odds in front of them. The biggest problem is the numbers. If the group were all lesser goblins, she could kill them with a few wounds since they are weak. The problem is that each goblin is about three times as strong as a lesser variant. Also, there is a goblin champion, something she hasn’t even seen before.

Something like the previous strategy won’t work again. There isn’t a ledge of a doorway since the hall opens up directly into the entrance room. They could just blitz into the room and try to kill as many as possible, but they would get surrounded and killed instantly.

Tyler whispers into her ear, “Do you have a plan this time?”

Right before she can reply, a cracked voice calls out in broken english, “Humenz, knows yous there! Wishes to speaks, come to outs.”

To Mercy’s surprise, the goblin champion is the one to speak. He is looking directly at the hallway where they are. Mercy freezes, completely off guard. Not only because she is surprised that the champion knows where she is, but also because he knows how to speak. Mercy thought that the creatures were all mindless monsters.

“If no comez, we killz. Comez to. Wishes for speaks.” The goblin shouts again.

Mercy makes a quick decision. This may be what she needs to escape. She walks out of the hallway, dragging Tyler behind her. “What is it you want to speak about?”

As she walks out, the goblins start screeching excitedly. A few of them get ready to attack, but stop when the goblin champion screeches at them. Then the champion speaks in english again, “Me wants combats one ons one. Me ams Chief Flin of Flin Tribe. Defeats mes and frees to go with circles mans. Mes defeats you, yous become willings birth giver. Deal?”

“How do I know that you will uphold your end of the bargain?” Mercy asks cautiously. ‘If what he says is true, all I need to do is defeat him. Then me and Tyler can go. The problem is that the other goblins might attack us if I defeat Chief Flin.’

“Flin nos lie! Flins speaks truths!” As the goblin champion starts screaming that he isn’t a liar, a blue box shows up in Mercy’s view.

[Accept contract from Goblin Champion, Chief Flin? Conditions: Defeat him in one on one combat. Lose against him in one on one combat. If successful, you will be able to leave without him or his tribe doing anything to stop you. If you lose, you will have to be a willing ‘birth giver’ until you are released or you die.

Yes/No]

She selects yes. It is a good deal for her. If they go against the eight of them in actual combat, she would either get captured or killed anyway. While the thought of being forced to give birth to Flin’s offspring is disgusting to say the least, if she wins, she will get out of the museum easily.

“I accept.”

Tyler pulls on her arm, grabbing her attention, “Are you sure about this? We could try to find another exit.”

“This is the only way out. We’ve checked before, remember? All the other exits are blocked by the shadowy walls.” Mercy replies, “Hand me that shield back. I’ll need it more than you.”

Tyler hands the steel shield over to her and backs up. Mercy walks forward to the goblin champion, ready for combat.

“Ares yous ready? Flin takes ez ons yous. Donts want to hurts pretty wifes too bads,” Flin laughs. He rolls his shoulders back, letting out dozens of popping sounds. In his hands are a wooden shield and a stone sword. His weapon is better than her wooden spear, but she has a few tricks up her sleeves that she can use if her weapon breaks.

Mercy readys her spear and hoists the shield up onto her arm, “Come at me!”

The goblin champion gladly answers her call as he rushes at her, much like the combat style of the goblins. Mercy noticed that out of all the goblins, they seem to be aggressive instantly and not think things through. This could be used to her advantage if she was fully prepared for goblins and had tripwires or traps already set up. Since she isn’t prepared, there isn’t a lot she can do using this information.

The goblin champion swipes his sword as soon as he gets in range, horizontally sweeping it towards her. Mercy raises her shield, blocking the blow. Clank! The sword bounces off. The force of the blow makes Mercy take a step back. Her entire arm went numb with just a single hit, making her shudder at imagining what a hit would’ve done to her if it wasn’t blocked.

Taking advantage of the opportunity while Chief Flin is recovering from the first blow, she stabs her spear forward into his gut. To her surprise, the spear only goes in a couple of inches before stopping. The goblin champions skin is thick enough to stop the stab before it gets in too deep.

Those few inches are enough to make the goblin’s wound ooze with green ichor, but it doesn’t do any major damage. Mercy isn’t one hundred percent sure on how to kill the goblin since her weapon doesn’t hurt it much. ‘I guess I need to go for the eyes? Those other times were complete luck though. I’ve never trained in how to use a spear, so I’m not very confident I can hit where I want to.’

Mercy quickly pulls her spear out of his gut and takes a few steps back, getting out of range of the goblin’s sword. Once she is backed up, she thrusts forward with her spear towards the goblin’s face. Just before the spear reaches him, the entire thing shatters. Mercy’s hand aches with vibrations from the amount of force that was put into her now splintered spear. Chief Flin gives her a triumphant smirk as he pulls his sword back from his most recent blow. Just before the spear could hit, he smacked it with his sword.

Mercy starts to panic, before calming down slightly. She almost forgot that she still has a weapon, though it isn’t a good one. She quickly sticks her hand into her hoodie’s pocket and pulls out a wooden spear tip. When she broke the spear into pieces earlier, she pocketed the tip in case she needed another weapon.

The goblins see the wooden stick and roar with laughter. Tyler struggles on what to do on the side of the fight. He had tried to help her earlier by stabbing the goblin champion in the back, but his body froze right before he could. After that, a blue screen showed up in his vision warning him about interfering in a one on one fight. He couldn’t even toss her his spear without being restricted. It seems that whatever force started this horrible ‘game’ is enforcing the rules of their deal.

Mercy lowers herself into a fighting stance once again. Unlike with the spear, she actually has experience when fighting with knives. With a little bit of imagination, the spear tip is just like a knife. ‘I got this. Just block a hit and get in close.’

Chief Flin swings his sword vertically at her. Mercy takes the opportunity and raises the steel shield to block the blow. Misfortune strikes right as the blade hits her shield. The shield breaks in half, sending shards of steel everywhere. The shards dig into the skin of her arm, cutting her deeply. The steel shards also shoot off towards Chief Flin, surprising him.

Breathing through the pain, Mercy leaps towards his face, stabbing the wooden spear into his eye. After the hit goes through, she doesn’t hesitate before ripping it out and impaling his other eye. Chief Flin falls to the ground in agony as he gropes at his eyes. The spear tip isn’t long enough to go all the way to his brain, but he is blind and in extreme anguish.

Mercy rolls away from Flin, having fallen to the ground with him. Mercy glances at the chief and realizes that he dropped his sword. She walks to it and picks it up with some effort. Shockingly, the sword weighs more than her shield did. She has to use both her hands to pick it up.

The goblins are mute in shock. The goblin champion is the strongest of their tribe, so they can’t believe that he is about to lose to a human, a race they see as inferior to even the lesser goblins. Tyler is also astounded. He thought that Mercy lost when her spear broke. He even had a small heart attack when the steel shield broke in half.

Mercy hefts the sword up, raising it above her head. Grunting, she slams it down onto Chief Flin’s grotesque head. The blow instantly kills him since it split his skull in two.

[Goblin Champion killed: 20 points]

[Points: 20. Solo Modifier: x2 Level Difference Modifier: x2]

[Total Points:110(30+80)]

[As agreed upon, the goblin’s of the Flin tribe will not attack for the next twenty minutes. The deal is finished.]

‘I still don’t know what those points are for. Are they good?’ Mercy shelves the questions for later as she quickly walks to Tyler.

Ignoring the screeching goblins, she orders him, “Go pick up the sword and let's get out of here. We only have twenty minutes of safety, so let's move it.”

Tyler rushes to the newest corpse in the room and snags the sword. Mercy guides the two of them towards the door. As soon as they reach it, a blue box shows up in her vision.

[Would you like to end the tutorial?

Yes/No]

Mercy selects on yes, and then she blacks out. In what feels like half a second, her vision comes back and she stands on the opposite side of the door. She is now outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The streets look terrible. Cars are strewn everywhere, like what she saw from the windows inside the museum. There aren’t as many corpses as she thought there would be considering how many people were outside of the museum when she first arrived. Either way, she is sure that the same thing happened throughout Manhattan at the least. She can tell this because ‘the city that never sleeps’ is eerily quiet. Occasionally a scream or a roar will echo throughout the city, bouncing off of the silent buildings.

Tyler appears right next to her, almost making Mercy jump out of her skin. It seems like the two of them teleported outside of the museum instead of leaving it by opening the door.

[Tutorial complete. Total Points: 110]

[Difficulty: DEATH. Survivor count of tutorial location: 2]

[Points: 110. Difficulty rating: x5. Survivor rating: x2]

[New Total Points: 1100]

[Equipment Score: LEGENDARY(1000 point minimum)]

‘What is all of this? The difficulty was DEATH? Does that mean that the tutorial wasn’t as hard in other spots? Also, it seems the points go to the equipment score. What does that mean?’

Her question is soon answered as two objects appear in her hands. One of them is like a large egg, and the other is a beautiful white sword. The blade is long and thin. After holding it for just a second, she can already tell it is a better sword than the sword she used in the greek exhibit.

[Item Acquired: Ice Dragon Egg(Time before hatching- 7 days)]

[Item Description: This ancient egg is the egg of the Ice Dragon. Whoever hatches the egg will find a loyal companion. The Ice Dragon will be eternally loyal to whoever holds the required item at the time of hatching. Required Item: Frost Tear]

[Item Acquired: Frost Tear]

[Item Description: A sword created by the god of dragons. This sword was given to the king of the dragon riders. Holding this item at the time of an Ice Dragon’s hatching will make the dragonling eternally loyal to you.

Stat Boost: +100% strength, agility, and spirit.

Effect: Each strike of Frost Tear will slowly freeze the victim. The victim is slowed down and drained of their energy.]

‘What is this? Status boosts? Is that why I feel better while holding the sword? Isn’t this something from those games?’

As Mercy thinks about status, another blue box shows up in her vision.

[Name: Mercy

Race: Human

Class: Dragon Rider

Level: 1

Strength: 30(15 + 15)

Agility: 26(13 + 13)

Endurace: 34(17+17)

Spirit: 20(10+10)

Mana: 0

Abilities: Eyes of the Dragon 1, Instincts of the Dragon 1]

‘This is really like a video game. If its like some of the ones I’ve heard about in the past, then the base stats of a human should be ten or so, so why are mine higher? Is it because I worked out prior to all of this? I imagine that the first number is my actual stat while the second number is something like equipment bonus…’

“Hey Mercy,” Tyler says from beside her. In his hands is a red bottle and a dagger. She didn’t notice it before, but it seems that the sword disappeared when he tried to take it out of the ‘tutorial’.

“Yeah? Do you see all this stuff about a tutorial?”

Tyler nods, “Yeah. My class is a medic, what about yours?”

“Oh. I’m a dragon rider. Is that a healing potion or something?” Mercy asks as she points at the red vial in his hand, “If it is, can I have it? My arm and my side are killing me.”

“Yeah,” Tyler hands her the vial. Mercy pops it open and downs it in one go. Usually she wouldn’t drink strange things, but when in Rome, do as the romans do. The same could be said for this situation. When in a game, do as the gamers do.

“Thanks. I can already feel its effects. My side and arm aren’t hurting anymore.” The entirety of Mercy’s body is starting to go numb.

“Of course. Are you feeling tired?” Tyler asks. If her vision wasn’t starting to blur, she would’ve seen the malicious smile on his mouth.

“Yeah, a little bit.” Mercy answers, starting to fall down to the ground. She instinctively hold the dragon egg in front of her, not letting it touch the ground.

Just before Mercy’s eyes close, she hears Tyler speaking to her, though he sound like he is underwater, “Oh, I guess I should tell you. I’m not actually a medic. I am a poisoner. That potion you just drank is a sleeping drought. Now then, as much as I want to kill you, I won’t since you got me out of the museum.” Tyler grabs the sword and the egg from her. Holding both up like prizes, he continues monologuing, “In case you haven’t noticed, the world is most likely ended. Its a dog eat dog world in the most literal sense now.” Mercy blinks, the darkness seemingly swallowing her before her eyes open,”-ake these little beauties in exchange for saving your life. You’re welcome.”

Before she passes out, Mercy can see Tyler’s back as he walks away whistling. ‘Why did I trust him? I literaly just met him. How stupid of me...’ Mercy’s vision blacks out completely as she falls into unconsciousness.