Chapter 3

The pull toward the area increased drastically as Trint walked over the crest of the hill. He could see a clearing and a fuzzy brown bush about the size of a car. No, that wasn’t right. He paused and looked closer. The ‘bush’ was deflating a bit, then inflating. No sound, just movement. Still, he had played lots of video games, and this was most likely the boss bear. It wasn’t the first time Trint had heard of a System governed world. But reading LitRPG books hadn’t prepared him for living in one. He had so many questions.

Going with his gut instinct, Trint crept up on the large, fuzzy heap and shoved his sword hilt-deep into what he assumed was the sleeping boss bear.

The fuzzy creature grunted its displeasure and stood up to its full height. This was a teddy bear bigger than any bear from Earth, standing about 9 feet tall. Trint held onto his sword and was momentarily lifted with the bear. His weight pulled the sword out of the bear’s shoulder, and he fell hard on his backside right behind the feet of this monstrous teddy bear.

Stunned a little, Trint began to scramble away from the bear. The beast took a few seconds to turn, but a big lumbering step was all it took for it to be immediately in front of Trint, blocking his path. Rolling to his right side, he almost let go of the sword as he moved over it in his right hand. Fortunately, he managed not to cut himself. The bear was big but unable to turn quickly after it stomped down where Trint had been just moments before.

He got to his feet and swung at the bear’s left leg as he circled around behind it. His swing carried deep into the leg, stopping at a large leg bone. The bear roared, more bear than teddy bear. It turned and swung at him with its massive left paw.

He instinctually blocked with his sword and ended up slicing through the back of its paw. The bear became enraged as the paw dangled from its arm. It tried to circle round; its now-damaged paw completely useless. He continued to stay behind the bear, hacking away with growing confidence, A smile formed on his face as the bear bled from the many cuts he inflicted.

This is fun! Better than a VR video game, Trint thought.

After another few minutes of slicing, the boss's health was whittled down. It began to lose balance and tipped over, falling sideways like a tree toward Trint. Fortunately, he was aware enough to keep circling and avoided getting crushed by the oversized teddy bear.

System Message: Congratulations! Level 1 Tutorial Instance Complete.

Please Access Instance Rewards by Touching Globe on the Dais.

Trint looked toward the invisible pull he felt and followed it in the direction behind where the bear had been sleeping. There was a light coming from a podium. However, instead of a sculpture or vase, there was a glowing globe hovering just above the stand. A dark green glow shined through the globe and cast its light on everything around the dais.

Entranced by the object, he walked up to the basketball-sized globe and reached out to touch it.

Instance Rewards: $1,000 Q11, [Belt Knife - Common], [Cloth Cap - Common]. For completing the Instance solo, you gain additional XP.

Trint unknowingly received the rewards with the message as they instantly transferred to his storage ring.

He looked up the hill beyond the podium and saw a large square gateway. Even more massive than the boss bear, it shimmered invitingly.

Must be the way out of here? Trint thought. Walking through, he found himself just outside the Instance entrance, facing away from a shimmering door. Utterly confused, he pondered about why Jack brought him here and what the deal was with this crazy world.

“That was so weird to fight teddy bears. Bloody teddy bears, no less. It was like my childhood was... bleeding on me,” Trint laughed aloud. “I suppose if someone wanted to ease me into killing stuff, they would start me off with something easy but psychologically jarring?” he considered. This was nothing like his old 9-5 office job.

“With all my books and gaming RPGs I would have expected goblins or kobolds,” Trint laughed to himself.

Exploring a little further around, he found several other shimmering doors. He decided if he was going to have to fight more, he needed to get some armor or magic.

“Pneuma, are you there?” Trint asked of the empty field.

Yes. That was well done but you have a long way to go, Pneuma redirected. Before you rest and return to your starting home, go in that door. These are Instances and will help you grow stronger. Also, please just think to me; don’t speak out loud.

He followed Pneuma’s instructions, only briefly considering how this was the weirdest thing to ever happened to him.

“Is this a dream?” he wondered.

He decided that even if it was a dream, he was glad to have a distraction.

While you were sleeping, I took the liberty of giving you some basic skills, Pneuma informed him. One moment, and you will have the basic knowledge downloaded. I hid the System notifications while you slept. A warning, though: this is going to hurt, so let's do this before you step inside.

Blinding light filled his vision, and a searing of what Trint thought was the center of his brain spread throughout his head then infiltrated his whole body. The pain was intense but the next moment it was gone, and he felt more than just relief; he knew things.

How do I know all this stuff? Trint thought.

Just give them a try, Pneuma encouraged.

Instance number two was more difficult. The enemy turned out to be rats the size of little dogs. Twenty-pound rats full of nasty fur, fleas, and scraggly claws. Trint was happy to dispatch them but reverted to default swings of his sword.

Finally catching a break between mini swarms of rats, he pulled up his mental list of skills:

Movement Skill (Passive): [Increased Movement Speed], [Dodge]

Defensive Skill (Passive): [Increased Health Regeneration]

Magic Projection Skills: [Mana Bolt]

Sword Skills: [Strike], [Block]

“Wow! So, I have been using passive skills? Interesting,” he mused.

After a few minutes of practicing his [Mana Bolt], sword skills [Strike] and [Block], and trying but failing to activate his movement passive [Dodge], he proceeded deeper through the cave system toward the pull of the Instance exit.

Trint found that the use of Mana was effortless. Like walking, once he figured out the first step, his body realized the rest. Or, if his mind realized he could do it, he didn’t have to struggle to continue actively concentrating on it. The cost was minimal, but after ten [Mana Bolt]s in a row, Trint ran out of Mana. It felt like his hands went numb, and he had a brain freeze from eating ice cream too fast. But honestly, he was expecting worse.

He continued through the cave system and used his sword skills.

Before the System, Trint was a decent baseball player. Swinging his sword an hour ago against the teddy bears was fun. But while fighting with his active sword skills, Trint felt like he was in a martial arts movie. He was like an ancient samurai or a fledgling warrior from one of his favorite books.

Yes, you look quite dashing, Pneuma teased. But you also look quite absent minded when you run your resources too low. I can’t decide if you are just a child pretending to be an adult or... ahem. Either way, please use the System displays and be mindful of your resources. Running out at the wrong time will prove fatal. Here, look at this...

Trint’s vision changed to display little bars at the top left of his peripheral view. Then his view was blocked by a larger window showing the System’s measure of what Trint currently represented:

Trinten Atlas Henderson

Class: None

Profession: None

Stats

Level: 0

XP: 25%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0.0 (Body) 0.0 (Mind)

Body Stats

Strength

Agility

Vitality

1.0

1.0

1.0

Mind Stats

Memory

Wisdom

Adaptability

1.0

1.0

1.0

Status

Health - HP

48/50

Regen

5 / min

Stamina - SP

30/50

Regen

15 / min

Mana - MP

5/50

Regen

5 / min

Trint ran a hand down his face. That explained a lot; he couldn’t believe he’d been so careless to neglect the possibility that he had his own set of stats. This was basic RPG knowledge!

It was unreal to feel the Stamina drain and turn his movements into smooth executing strikes as his blade tracked exactly where he intended. He felt like he could kill a rat with a single clean slice now. And as opposed to his baseball stance from before, his feet moved smoothly across the ground and set him up for each consecutive slice.

But after using the skills for the sword and trying to use them continuously, his resources ran out. It’s not that he couldn’t fight once they ran out. He could still swing his sword; it just wasn’t as powerful or controlled. It also wasn’t as fun, and he was much more efficient with his skills up and running.

Trint tried to limit the number of resources that went toward each skill. After a while, he realized that his Agility and Memory could throttle up or down the use of his Stamina or Mana for the corresponding skills.

Based on his experimenting, he could add additional Stamina to his passive movement skills. Doing this at a low level drained his Stamina more quickly, but in battle it seemed necessary. This boosted his speed to a little faster than expected and occasionally activated the sword to increase effectiveness. As his Stamina drained, the rest of the rats got his unskilled slices. It took more than one swing when not empowered. The giant rats’ thick fur provided some resistance to his blade.

He was approaching the boss fight. Trint rested and restored his resource pools. Walking into the cave, he saw a refrigerator-sized rat. Alternating his skills helped with his already diminished reserves of Stamina and Mana. [Mana Bolt] proved helpful in keeping the rat at a distance. He decided to keep as far away as possible and continued shooting the boss rat while running around it.

The rat boss tried to catch him, but Trint was able to keep his distance in the large room. Each shot from his [Mana Bolt] magically burnt the fur and flesh indiscriminately. It also managed to distract or stun it for a few seconds after a hit. His occasional cuts created deep slices into its muscle, and a couple of hits to its ribs sank even deeper. Eventually, he saw his Mana run low enough that he stopped shooting it and decided he needed to finish it before his Stamina use forced him to resort to unskilled fighting.

He stopped and waited for the rat to lunge. Using [Dodge], he drove his sword deep into the rat’s neck as he jumped to its side, hoping to hit an artery and end the fight. The rat’s cry of pain revealed it had weakened, but not killed. As Trint pulled his sword free, blood sprayed over his face and chest. He rushed away after the attack and kept his distance.

He ran blindly, trying to get his vision clear of rat blood. Expecting an attack, he opened his eyes to the sight of a bloody rat lying on the floor. It was still breathing, but Trint thought it was almost dead. He took a risk and jumped onto the rat’s back, stabbing the sword into the neck. There was some resistance before the spine severed, and the rat died. He jumped down from the dead rat.

System Message: Congratulations! Level 1 Tutorial Instance Complete. Please Access Instance Rewards by Touching Globe on the Dais.

Quickly the body began to dissolve into mist. Only Trint remained, who blended in well with the blood-covered room.

He grabbed the rewards and exited the Instance.