《Reboot - Hiatus》 Chapter 1 Raif was bored, Nothing out of the ordinary as he spent a lot of his time bored, but he really couldn''t care less about the nuances of some old Supreme Court Case that boiled down to criminal suspects being read a list of rights when they were being questioned. The only thing remotely interesting was that all the TV shows had gotten things wrong. Apparently nobody gives a shit about your rights unless they plan on questioning you, and since most cases involve a plea bargain and don''t go to court it really isn''t that big of a deal. As he zoned out in class he started day dreaming about Runescape of all things, and how to get a large enough party together to get his dungeoneering level to 80 so he could get better weapons. He was past the stereotypical age to play the game now, but still enjoyed playing it when he wasn''t in class and often found himself using fan sites for the game to run calculations on how to most efficiently tackle his next goal. There was something about the game''s skill system that appealed to him on a primal level. He loved that while the game was open world and allowed the player to set their own goals, it revolved primarily around learning how to do every skill he could conceive of and then some in a medieval fantasy setting. Thinking about it reminded him of a game he had played years ago on the Xbox years ago called Lost Odyssey, and the strange cut scene he remembered from playing that game. The game play had been rather mediocre at best, however he could still remember a story in there about the protagonist Kaim. Kaim was immortal and had been reminiscing about how difficult it was to find a truly good cobbler, and feeling sad after finally finding one who could make the perfect pair of boots. He had been sad because the cobbler eventually died or something and Kaim could never find anyone as talented. As stupid as it seemed this ridiculous little cut scene stuck with Raif for years and was part of why he enjoyed games like Runescape so much, not because Kaim was sad about the death of a cobbler, but because he thought about what he would do in Kaim''s shoes. Rather than mindlessly wander for millennium losing interest in the world around him, he would have learned how to make the same quality boots as the cobbler, and why stop there? If Raif had the chance to become immortal he would want to take the opportunity to learn how to do everything, and that was what made Runescape so appealing to him. It was the only game he had found where you could take a character and master all the different crafts and skills, even if the skills themselves were limited in their realism. The day a game came out that mirrored the same processes used in the real world to use those crafts was the day he dropped Runescape like the rest of his generation, but such a game just didn''t appeal to most and probably wouldn''t be profitable. No what really appealed to most people his age was the constant search for partying, alcohol, and sex. He wasn''t really a party kind of a guy, which was odd seeing how he had a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army National Guard. The two didn''t seem compatible on the surface, he had a ¡°cool¡± job where he was in charge of planning and executing the training and operations for a platoon of thirty three other National Guardsmen one weekend a month. Most of his peers told stories about wild weekends partying, drinking, and getting laid but in his free time he would find himself playing a video game with no ending that revolved entirely around raising skills with shitty graphics. If he wasn''t playing Runescape he found himself playing some other low quality flash game on one of the many flash gaming websites like Kongregate or Armor Games. Then again he still hadn''t lost his virginity either despite what he liked to think of as multiple ¡°near misses¡±, which was a more flattering way of saying he had fucked something up to the point where whatever girl he was with lost interest. Didn''t matter that he was actually pretty good looking and in decent shape, somehow or another he always managed to fuck it up. The first time he''d been interrupted with a girl while IN BED at the hotel. They had been sharing the room with two brothers while on a weekend pass for the Army and though he doubted either of the brothers realized it, they had cock blocked the hell out of him. The girl still blamed him of course, mainly because he had somehow fallen asleep despite having a naked babe all hot and bothered next to him under the covers while waiting for them to get the fuck out.. Another time he had not one but TWO girls with him in a hotel room on the way back from some different Army Training. After going skinny dipping they went back to the room to shower and he had idiotically thought he was supposed to not get an erection so he didn''t embarrass the girls... Yeah on second thought he''d fucked both of those up REALLY badly... Hell, there had even been a time with a neighbor at his apartment complex who had invited him upstairs to ¡°hang out¡±. He''d talked her into a massage and was surprised when she took all her clothes off and hopped on the bed with a smile. After feeling her ip in his best imitation of a rather invasive ¡°massage¡± he convinced her to give him a blowjob in exchange for going down on her. Unfortunately it was apparently her first time doing so because she didn''t understand that teeth do not ¡°enhance¡± the experience and his poor pecker had gone into hiding. Regardless of the reason or situation he was still a virgin and it sucked... Or at least he wished it did. His mind continued to wander as the professor droned on and on, his thoughts turned to why he was even sitting here. Stupid Army and their stupid degree requirement. He wanted to be an officer because the pay was better, and he enjoyed being in charge and working with the guys a whole hell of a lot more than being yelled at and told to go clean the latrines or something. The downside was he had to finish this degree or he would lose his commission, despite the fact that a Criminal Justice degree had exactly nothing to do with being an Engineer Officer. Unfortunately he still had to have that little piece of paper, so since his G.P.A. Was too low to get into the Engineering Program he had decided to go with Criminal Justice since it sounded interesting. He just needed to finish this degree so he could go active duty and be done with this farce of a College Education. He really appreciated the amount of public support the military was receiving, and while he wasn''t and didn''t really appreciate the ¡°Hero¡± mantra the media was pushing he strongly preferred it to what his predecessors had dealt with during the Vietnam War era. While he enjoyed what he did with the military it wasn''t something he was deeply passionate about, that was reserved for his hobbies, and the Army was a means to an end. The reason he had pursued a commission and wanted to go active was to feel like he was making a difference, and quite frankly because the money was good and there was an enormous amount of time off. There were very few jobs that could would pay for your college, pay you in the 6 figure range only 5-10 years afterwards, provide free healthcare, most weekends off, 30 days of paid vacation a year, several extended weekends, and federal holidays off. To make it better physical fitness was part of the job and not seen as something you did on your own time, so the work day didn''t truly start until as late as 9am often and regularly ended around 4-5pm. With the time and money that provided he could buy a nice place off-base with a little bit of land and pursue his hobbies with his free time.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Sure he would have to deploy every few years, but that meant no bills and increased income so he planned on using that money to buy rental properties in Texas. After 20 years he would come out as a Major most likely with a sweet 50k/year retirement package with free healthcare, and several rental properties bought and paid for, which would allow him to buy a nice place and pursue his hobbies. His was currently playing with what he considered amateur leather work having made his own belt and other miscellaneous pieces. Once he had some space and money for an actual workshop he wanted to learn all about woodcutting, fletching, bow making, tracking, hunting, tanning, and many more hobbies. A goal of his was to find the best kind of wood for bowyers and obtain the wood himself in order to make his own bow and arrows, then use them to track and kill game and use the hides to make his own leather products which he intended to sell. Why stop there though, he could continue that train of thought and learn how to mine and smelt ore so he could smith it into other products. He might even go so far as to learn how to create his own thread and make clothing himself, the possibilities were endless. He wasn''t intending to do any of this because of some crazy survival instincts, or half baked ideas about prepping for the collapse of civilization, but because he found the prospect of being able to do all of these things was highly alluring to him. Coming out of his daydream and introspection Raif noticed everyone getting up around him and realized class had finished for the day at last. Quickly grabbing his backpack he got up to follow his classmates but the professor stopped him on the way out. ¡°Oh Mr. Raif, since you seemed to be paying such rapt attention to the lecture today could you tell me which amendment Miranda vs. Arizona most applies to and why before you go?¡± asked his professor. ¡°Huh?¡± said Raif without thinking, playing the question back in his head real fast as he focused on the professor. ¡°Yes Sir, Miranda vs. Arizona most applies to the 5th amendment as it is primarily intended to prevent suspects from incriminating themselves without representation.¡± ¡°Hmm... Very well Mr. Raif, it seems you were paying attention after all. Very well, I''ll see you in class tomorrow, have a good day.¡± said the professor looking somewhat put off at having the opportunity to harass Raif for not paying attention taken away. ¡°Yes Sir.¡± Raif responded as he passed out of the classroom smiling to himself lightly and thankful he had bothered to read a quick synopsis on Wikipedia about the Miranda Rights at the beginning of the lesson. He didn''t really have any idea of the specifics, but didn''t really care either as the test tended to focus on the material the book covered more than the lectures themselves. ¡°Besides, its not like he would remember or care about any of this information as soon as the test was done¡± he thought to himself. He was only here for that stupid degree and so long as he could pass his classes for the respective credits, it didn''t matter one bit to him what his G.P.A was. Once outside Raif jumped on his bicycle and rode off campus starting the quick three mile ride to his apartment complex. He rode hard and fast, trying to get there as quickly as possible for no reason other than the adrenaline of hauling ass. It wasn''t like he did much exercise in his free time so riding the bike to classes was his way of justifying his laziness and meeting the physical standards expected of him as an Army Officer. Pulling up, he lugged his bicycle up the two flights of stairs to the third floor of his apartment building before dragging his bicycle in and parking it haphazardly in his living room. He dropped his backpack on the way and headed to his bedroom where he sat down and pulled up his internet browser. Finally it was time to play some Runescape. Raif loved this game, even if he didn''t really understand why. Something about the ability to do everything yourself and grow stronger without depending on others really appealed to him. He loved that he got to decided when to pursue game objectives on his own time and could get as strong as he wanted before pursuing any of the story driven elements of the game. Logging in he guided his character to the location to start a dungeon dive and started announcing that he was looking for a party. He was a reasonably high level at level 113 out of the current maximum of 138 so he got quick responses and added people as they sent their requests until he got the full quota of 5 before realizing that half his party couldn''t go to an advanced enough dungeon to be worth his time. Booting them he started advertising again, and after 10 minutes he finally had a full party qualified to do what he needed and started the dungeon. His character re-appeared in the starting room and he watched as two of the guys he had recruited immediately raced to grab all the free resources from the starting location before running off in separate directions. With a sigh, he looked at the other two who just stood there. One of them typed out that his Mother was calling and he''d ¡°BRB¡± the other continued to stand there with no explanation. Shaking his head in frustration Raif guided his character out of the room and began heading into a direction that hadn''t been explored yet. The whole point of the activity was to explore and clear the dungeon and kill the boss. Doing so gained experience and points that could be used to purchase some of the best gear in the game, which is why he was here in the first place. Before long he came to a puzzle room that required members of the team to mimic body movements of opposing statues. Stupid, but still something that had to be done in order to advance. He called all members of the party in and waited...and waited...and waited. Suddenly he sees a message about one of the idiots who had initially rushed off getting killed, followed by cursing by said idiot that was broadcast across the party chat before the prick logged out and left the dungeon. ¡°Well Shit...¡± Raif thought, ¡°Now we aren''t going to be able to clear this puzzle.¡± Sure enough as soon as he finished thinking that he got another message about one of the non-responsive characters from the beginning logging out and grew frustrated. Deciding to log out himself, he sat back in his chair and wished this game were single player for the millionth time. He didn''t want to deal with the hassle of relying on others to meet his goals, but damn if the experience for doing solo-dungeon runs wasn''t terrible. Sighing he decided to just suck it up and do some solo runs for the rest of the night. Hours later, he decided to call it a night. He stripped down to his boxer briefs and got in bed wishing as usual that he could live in such a world with the ability to learn skills in the same way without the limits of biological restraints to keep you from truly growing powerful. Drifting off, Raif was dreaming about how cool that would be. Chapter 2 ¡°Ughh.... What the hell??¡± Raif groaned as he woke up, a sharp pain jabbing him in the lower back. Sitting up he looked around finding himself sitting on the ground in what appeared to be a lightly forested area with a path running through it. Standing up quickly, Raif stared around in surprise trying to get his bearings before his training kicked in. An icy calm came over him and he quickly ensured there were no immediate threats before assessing his situation. The first thing he noticed other than the obvious fact that he wasn''t in his bed in the apartment anymore, was that he was mostly naked and barefoot with nothing on but the pair of boxer briefs he stripped down to the night before. Second and something he was quite thankful for was the temperature was moderate, neither particularly hot or cold so modesty aside the lack of clothing wasn''t important other than his bare feet unless he miraculously stumbled upon a group of hit chicks, which given his luck seemed inevitable. A single hot female, that he could handle and would like because the embarrassment would be mutual and he might even be able to get lucky, this had to be a dream after all and dream sex is better than no sex. But no, given his luck he expected a large group of fully dressed hot women to appear any minute now. In a group they would all feel comfortable and start giggling and it wouldn''t be long before they were suggesting he wear some of their clothing or something equally mortifying. Realizing he was distracted he focused again because there were other alternatives that could be much worse. Looking around he noticed that the path he was next to appeared to dwindle in one direction and widen in the other almost as though he was near the point of the paths origin. Putting off the obvious questions about how in the hell he had appeared in this place instead of waking up in his bed like he expected, Raif looked around for a moment more before walking over and grabbing a thick, reasonably sturdy looking branch on the ground he could use to defend himself in needed. Shrugging he began to follow the path moving slowly with his head on a swivel, ready to take cover behind some of the nearby trees or defend himself if needed. After half a kilometer or so he noticed the path was curving and could see a thin, light gray stream of smoke rising above the occasional treetop and moved off the path to circle around. The smoke wasn''t dark enough to be a large fire as live trees produce dark heavy smoke, and there wasn''t enough for a grass fire so he assumed it was man-made. Not trusting anything about his new environment he decided to scout the situation out before approaching. A few moments later, his feet beginning to hurt from stepping on rocks, sticks, roots, and other less than comfortable surfaces, Raif was definitely wishing he had his shoes with him, but no point in bitching about what he couldn''t change. Moving further off the path and picking his steps carefully so as to not hurt his feet any worse, Raif realized the smoke was coming from a small campsite surrounded by the occasional tree and bush in a small clearing. A man in an emerald green cloak was sitting by the fire with what appeared to be a large pile of books next to him, sitting on a log in front of the fire with his head down while he carved on a branch similar to the one Raif held. Breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn''t a gaggle of hot chicks he began moving as quietly as possible and keeping low to the ground as he slowly moved between trees, circling the campsite to get behind the man. For his part the man appeared to be carving on a small branch with what looked like a well maintained steel knife, and hadn''t appeared to notice Raif yet. Moving as close as he could without revealing himself and completely breaking from cover Raif was able to see what appeared to be a bow next to the man, along with a small sword that also appeared to be steel like the knife. The man was using his right hand to carve with the knife so Raif made a note that he was most likely right-handed. Deciding the bow was the bigger threat, and hoping he would be able to defend himself if attacked he decided to low crawl as quietly as he could towards to campsite, before moving into a range he was confident he could strike from in case the stranger decided to bring the bow to bear on him. He didn''t think for a moment his stick would hold out long against the man''s sword, but it was better than nothing, and he had nothing worth attacking for so he hoped it wouldn''t come to hostilities anyway. He didn''t really know jack shit about archery, it was on the damn list but pretty far down, so he had to think about how he would fire one. He was right hand dominant when it came to swinging a bat and things like that, and realized it felt awkward to even mime drawing a bow with his left hand so he assumed he would draw with his right hand. He figured that meant it would be better to approach from the dominant side since the man would have to fully turn around to draw on him as he approached which might give him an extra second to close the distance. Raif dropped low to the ground and began slowly crawling as quietly as he could manage, mentally cursing his lack of clothing the entire way. He hated low crawling in training, and that had been fully clothed. He did take a moment to thank god or his dream self that this wasn''t a pine tree forest because these leaves and sticks were bad enough, but he had the feeling pine needles would get in some really uncomfortable places... Once he was within 30 meters of the campsite he decided he was close enough to be able to dash in and attack if the man reached for his weapons, but far enough away to not appear hostile himself. He doubted seeing another man in boxer briefs from 30 meters away holding a stick would be much of a threat to the other man, but didn''t feel like getting himself killed being careless. Besides, nobody wants to fight a naked man, maybe he better lose the boxers too? No. No. Definitely not, that sounded like a good way to get shot. Taking a deep breath, Raif stood up and braced himself to charge if needed before he called out to the man at the campsite, ¡°Hello Sir, do you mind if I approach and trouble you with some questions?¡± Without looking up, the other man huffed out a laugh and replied, ¡°Of course, why else do you think i''m sitting here? Foolish boy, I was wondering if you were planning on introducing yourself or simply sneaking up to attack me. Truth be told I was actually hoping for the latter just to spice things up a little bit, it isn''t very often I get to end someone''s tutorial before they get to the island after all.¡± Well shit, Raif gave a small sigh of relief. That was an enormous amount of stress and effort for nothing thought Raif, better safe than sorry though he thought. At least he wasn''t going to try fitting in with the resident porcupines in the immediate future. Raif approached the campsite, once more regretting his lack of clothing, but then again who actually sleeps in their clothes given the choice? Hell half the time he truly did sleep naked, and pajamas were for losers. Thinking about it now he wondered how he would have handled this situation if he had been wearing some ridiculous cartoon pajamas, nope he would have stripped down to his boxer briefs so he felt pretty good about it. He did feel a little foolish for having been noticed, but wasn''t sure he would have approached the situation any differently if given the chance.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Done with his internal musings and coming up to the campsite he thanked the man and took a seat across the fire on an opposing log before introducing himself. ¡°I''m Raif, thanks for sharing your camp with me. You said you were here for me, did you mean me specifically or are there others you are waiting on as well, and what did you mean by tutorial?¡± ¡°OK ok, one question at a time please and of course there are others, what do you think you are special or perhaps some type of hero in a story or something?¡± The man looked up as he replied and rolled his eyes. ¡°No, I''m here to provide direction to travelers such as yourself, because Guardians tend to be too damn uppity to interact directly with their wards. You may call me John, but first please do us both a favor and put some clothes on.¡± So saying John reached into his pack and tossed a pair of brown pants and long sleeved shirt at him. ¡°Thanks!¡± Raif replied and quickly pulled the clothing on, before starting to sit back down. Yup, definitely glad I''m not naked he thought, I can handle someone loaning me clothes, but borrowing underwear sounds like a good way to get crabs... At least now the log wasn''t digging into his butt cheeks and thighs anymore. He wasn''t too happy about running around in bare feet either, but he''d take what he could get. Of course as soon as he finished that thought a thick pair of woolen socks and some leather boots landed on the ground next to him as well, so he quickly wiped off his feet and put those on as well before letting out a relieved sigh, surprised the boots fit. ¡°Thanks for the clothes, I really wasn''t digging being practically naked in the woods even if this is one hell of a dream! But what did you mean when you mentioned a Guardi-.¡± Raif started to reply before being cut off. ¡°Yes, yes, save your questions and I''ll explain. Much quicker this way, and then I can get back to work on my own skills.¡± John interrupted before pointing at the branch he had been working on. As Raif looked at the branch from up closer he noticed the man was apparently working on carving another bow, and underneath the cloak he could make out that the man had on deep green scaled leather armor which seemed to scream danger even though whatever the leather came from was clearly dead and gone. Clearly this guy was much more dangerous than he had first appeared so Raif followed his instincts and made the decision to shut the hell up and listen. Grunting John nodded at Raif''s apparent attentiveness ¡°Good! Based on your approach, and apparent awareness it seems like you may actually be helpful to your Guardian.¡± ¡°The truth of the matter is that you are currently dreaming, however this isn''t a normal dream. You have probably already wondered as much, but as I''m sure crawling towards me in your skivvies has already shown, you can absolutely feel pain. In fact you can die just as easily here as you can in real life. If you do so you will wake up and return to your world potentially missing out on the opportunity to obtain incredible personal strength, and the skills and knowledge that will allow you to hold enormous influence back in your world. You are here for a reason after all, most likely because you fit the mold of someone who wanted to learn true self sufficiency in addition to showing the capability to lead others.¡± explained John. ¡°Now I don''t know or care about whatever theological drivel you believe on your world, and I''m not sitting here to hold a debate so you can believe what you want. The fact is your world, my world, and many others are created by a being or multiple beings of reportedly unfathomable power who naturally don''t give much of a shit about the life that develops on them excepting that said life doesn''t screw up their work¡± continued John. Seeing the rebuttal in Raif''s eyes, John smiled and continued ¡°I truly don''t care about your beliefs Raif and won''t argue with you, what''s important is to understand that you are here because your Guardian sent you, and there is no such thing as a free lunch. You see these Guardians are the ones who watch over the various worlds and actually do care about the life developing on their planets. As far as I know every world with life has their own Guardian and they vary from world to world. The primary purpose of the world''s Guardian is to maintain balance and prevent major damage to a planet, however they also like to protect and nurture sentient life on the planet for unknown reasons. I personally believe they do it for entertainment, but that is just my cynicism showing. As it happens, sentient life comes in a wide variety of forms and fashions with some being considerably more volatile than others.¡± ¡°Most of the travelers such as yourself hail from worlds that have embraced technology. They have through some form or fashion, managed to harness an energy source and created their civilization around that energy source, constantly advancing until they develop the capacity to truly damage their own planet and likely destroy themselves. Somewhere around this point is when the Guardian will usually step in and change how that energy works on their planet in order to prevent true catastrophe from striking. The problem with this is that history has shown the majority of civilizations will collapse when the science that powers their technology is rendered inert. Therefore the reason you are here is because nobody likes it when their toys break, especially nearly omnipotent beings like Guardians.¡± Raif continued to listen despite the numerous budding questions and growing sense of disbelief he felt as John continued. ¡°All of this brings us to this world. You see eons ago the Guardians decided they wanted a fail-safe that would allow their civilizations to continue to grow in a manner that didn''t threaten the balance while also preventing the civilization from damaging the planet. To that end a contest was held to find a solution, although I don''t really know the details I do know that this world was ultimately selected. This world was selected because it provides the means to gain extraordinary personal strength, prevents monopolies on resources and learning, allows opportunities for conflict management, and isn''t technology based, all of which allows for a healthy natural balance and an infallible civilization. You see in my world and the worlds that have since been modeled after it, personal strength is gained through individual effort and learning how to do things yourself. This has led to our civilization being built around self-sufficiency which greatly reduces power mongering and therefore conflict. While higher tiered resources may be rare, they are impossible to trade or hoard for slightly more complicated reasons. On top of that the basic ones replenish themselves overnight which greatly reduces conflict over resources as there is plenty to go around for those who are too risk adverse to attempt to get the higher tiered rare ones. Additionally our world has several towers filled with challenges, powerful monsters, and those higher tiered rare resources which allow the more fool hardy members of our civilization to go far beyond the rest of us, in exchange for inordinate personal risk. It is through our basic world that our civilization flourishes, and through the towers that our more extraordinary individuals flourish.¡± ¡°As I mentioned earlier you are here for a reason, that reason is to learn as much as possible before you either die and reawaken in your world, or one hundred days has gone by. When you do return you will re-pay your Guardian for their benevolence and help lead your people through the coming cataclysm when the natural laws of your world are adjusted. The fact that you are here actually means your world has reached the point where self-destruction is imminent and your world''s Guardian has decided to shape your world like mine, but is concerned that your species will go extinct without the advantage of having a small portion of your species population to learn how to succeed in the new environment first.¡± John continued. ¡°So with that said, now is your chance to ask questions but think carefully because you only have time for a few before I send you on your way. I try not to have more than one traveler here a time to prevent conflict.¡± John finished. Chapter 3 John definitely had a point about feeling pain, and that wasn''t supposed to be possible in a dream. Raif also couldn''t remember ever having a dream that involved thinking this much, generally when his dreams were extra crazy it never occurred to him to ask why until he woke up. It was generally more like his subconscious took him for a wild ride and left him feeling horrified or wishing he could resume it when he woke up, and this definitely didn''t feel like that. With a shrug Raif decided to assume this was real for now, and worst case he would wake up and have had one hell of an interesting dream. ¡°Well, my first question would be exactly how am I supposed to learn all these skills you spoke of? No offense but this forest doesn''t seem like the best place for that¡± Raif asked. John smiled, happy Raif had skipped past any denial and seemed to be accepting of things without wasting what little time they had. ¡°Simple, once you pass me you will find a portal that will take you to the Island of Vanos. There you will find Masters of all the different skills who will teach you the basics of their crafts. They will be able to teach you not only how to get started, but how to continue to grow until you too are able to master their crafts after you return to your world. Take this book and read it when you get a chance and it will help you understand more of the basics.¡± Taking the book Raif thanked John before mentioning ¡°You have mentioned several times that it is possible to increase my personal strength, and while I believe I understand the basic process behind increasing skills, you didn''t mention how I can do so other than what I assume is the standard process of breaking my muscles down and building them back up. People have been and are plenty strong from that alone, but what you said seems to suggest more is possible¡± Suddenly without warning John and the sword he had next to him seemed to vanish from his spot on the log across the fire from Raif, the flat of the blade now pressed against the side of Raif''s throat. The action had taken less than a second from start to finish, and Raif was flabbergasted. John had just made Olympian athletes look like toddlers he had moved so swiftly. Then just as suddenly the blade was gone from Raif''s throat and both it and John were once again in position across the fire from him as though nothing had ever happened. The display of speed and power combined with his own vulnerability made Raif jump and nearly shit his pants it was so sudden. Seeing as how John was back in his place and smiling rather smugly Raif gave a small embarrassed cough and raised his eyebrow at John, his pucker factor now off the charts. ¡°Heh, you travelers fall for it every time, although points for not screaming like an infant I suppose¡± John said before continuing. ¡°As you can see, it is very possible to obtain personal strength. Your personal strength is based on your primary attributes which gives you what we like to call a person''s level. Someone''s level is only visible when you are in the Wilderness or if they have a bounty in which case you will be able to see both their name and level so you know where you stand if things get hairy. You can read all about primary attributes and their secondary skills in the book I gave you later, suffice it to say that gaining personal strength is done by absorbing energy. You can gather energy by killing monsters or winning duels against other people, although some are known to prefer killing other people in the wilderness for energy as well. When you defeat your foe the energy you gain is divided into each relevant attribute you used during the conflict.¡± ¡°So if you stayed hidden and managed a kill shot without actually engaging your foe in combat you would gain experience in dexterity and perception, but nothing in strength, vitality, or agility. That would be because you used your perception to find you opponent and find a place from which to catch them off guard, and because it requires a lot of dexterity to aim that well. If on the other hand you wanted to develop your strength, vitality, and agility you would more likely need to engage your foe directly. Even then the only way it would increase your vitality would be if you were actually injured in the encounter, whereas your strength would benefit from swinging your weapon in combat, and agility would increase from any dodging or quick movement if you were fighting on rough terrain. That said it is entirely possible to hit all of your primary attributes in a single engagement so long as they are used. However, the amount of energy you gain from any single engagement is finite, therefore if you manage to isolate your fights to favor one specific attribute it will climb much faster than the others, whereas constantly trying to raise them all simultaneously will lead to a much slower but equal growth Don''t worry the book I gave you will provide some more details and the trainers on the island will be able to help even more¡± finished John. ¡°Well that sounds pretty fucking awesome, almost like a video game!¡± Raif said happily, now actually hoping this wasn''t a dream. ¡°So you mentioned basic resources regrow overnight and allow the population to sustain itself, and that higher tiered resources could no be monopolized. How does that work?¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. John sighed at this one before replying, ¡°The fact that question comes to mind so quickly for you makes me question your species, but I suppose the fact that you are here makes a bit of greed and avarice a common factor. Then again it is inveitable for even the most peaceful species to have individuals get greedy and attempt to gain power over others rather than personal strength. Lower tiered basic resources are generally all a civilization needs in order to survive and they tend to sprout up in zones with non-aggressive wildlife which become excellent places to establish towns and cities. The further one travels from these ¡°safe zones¡± the more dangerous and aggressive the wildlife becomes, however if a group attempts to monopolize a resource, sooner or later a more powerful variant of the wildlife normally only found in the towers will spawn and attack usually killing any who are monopolizing that resource before returning back to the tower. Additionally if the one who attempted to organize the monopoly isn''t killed because he isn''t present they will usually earn themselves a bounty which assures their eventual demise. The towers themselves are in the most dangerous parts of the world in terms of how strong and aggressive the local wildlife is, and if your species was the apex predator before, they won''t be after the cataclysm.¡± Moving his cloak to the side, John pointed at his armor, ¡°This leather was obtained from a Green Dragon which is a monster normally only found in and around the towers. It is a ferocious apex predator that requires an immense amount of personal strength or a party of reasonably powerful people in order to defeat. Trust me when I say you will not be able to defeat one for some time if ever. That said, the real value is in the level 50 and higher tiered resources which can be sold for astronomical amounts of money. A tier 50 resource for example can only be obtained in areas designated as the ¡°wilderness¡± where there are no penalties for murder. Murdering others in the wilderness or hunting bounties elsewhere is the only way to do so, and bounties are only spawned when someone attempts to kill or otherwise greatly harm another sentient life form outside of the wilderness. I have heard there is a lot of that going around when a world first converts, but it quickly settles down once the consequences become well known. That more than anything else is why most Guardians pick a small number of people to come to this world before their own world converts as they make great bounty hunters and help a civilization come to terms with their new mostly peaceful reality quicker.¡± ¡°Finally, the final part of your question and what I see you are most curious about is the true higher tiered resources¡± John continued. ¡°Any of the level 60 and above resources can only be found in the towers themselves, and cannot be taken out except as a finished product. The towers limit group size to 5, and for some reason nobody has ever seen another person they did not enter with inside a tower, so carrying capacity greatly limits what someone can exit the tower with. Naturally these higher tiered resources are also considerably more dense and heavy than those of the lower tier, so even specializing in strength won''t really help much. Additionally every person who enters the tower must be able to pass an entrance requirement, which varies by the tower and requires a high level in several of the skills and primary attributes. The Tower of Earth which is known to have high tiered ores for example will require someone to be at least level 50 in mining, smithing, strength, dexterity, and perception. Of course there is little point in venturing into a tower you can''t access anywise as you will be unable to craft your reward inside and would leave empty-handed. There are other towers including the Forest Tower which is known for having high leveled trees growing within, and the Tower of Blood which has higher leveled creatures to refine personal strength. All of these towers have the level 60 through 90 resources which is more than most will ever be able to obtain. For the truly powerful and equally fool hardy there is the Tower of Life which requires all skills and primary attributes to be at level 90 as a minimum. The maximum group size to enter there is two, but it is the only place level 100 resources for the true skill masters can be obtained. Rumor has it that the Guardian lives on the top floor and if a duo is able to surpass all the obstacles and meet with it, they will be granted immortality. Of course I don''t know if that''s true or just a rumor. But enough about that, it is many years away and requires far greater strength than even I have so I would focus on getting the most out of the opportunities currently available to you¡± John finished. As John finished answering the question he suddenly glanced down the path Raif had come from before nodding at Raif, ¡°It seems out time has come to an end as another traveler is approaching. Best of luck to you in your time on my world, make the most of it, for relatively few from any race are given this opportunity before their cataclysm.¡± Deciding it would be best to take some time and read the book anyway, Raif got to his feet and thanked John before walking back to the path. As he walked down the path towards this supposed portal he resisted the temptation to start reading through the book and did his best to remain vigilant. After witnessing John''s demonstration he had come to grips with the fact that he was powerless to stop any hostile acts by someone oh that caliber, but it was no reason to get complacent. They say complacency kills for a reason apparently, and damn he really hoped this wasn''t just an elaborate dream. Chapter 4 Despite his best efforts to remain vigilant, Raif found himself thinking about what it would entail if this dream was real. Even if he gained an inordinate amount of strength and skill along with the knowledge to help people through the supposedly coming cataclysm. The only way he could see a mass panic and riot being avoided was through martial law, and he wasn''t in any position to use his knowledge to make the decisions that would need to be made in order to save the maximum number of people. He would need to find a way to gain influence despite his relatively low rank and lack of experience. Second Lieutenants were the butt of most Army jokes because they rarely had any experience, but technically had a lot of authority. This combination generally led to a lot of mistakes that were hilarious in peacetime and deadly in wartime. Although Raif hadn''t gotten the opportunity to deploy yet, he wouldn''t until he completed his degree and was fully trained as an Engineer Officer. For obvious reasons the Army wasn''t too keen on sending untrained personnel overseas to lead troops. With a deployment out of the question and a large scale impact unlikely at best, Raif decided he needed to set his sights on convincing his Company Commander to pull in the unit with their families and any they could convince to try to make things work from there. The Captain was a pretty reasonable guy, and if Raif could provide a strong demonstration and explain everything he might listen. Past that he had little hope as he probably wouldn''t even be able to get a meeting with the Battalion or Brigade Commander, much less convince them to mobilize. After all the Army was known for a lot of things, and adaptability just wasn''t one of them with major equipment or philosophy changes often taking decades to push through due to the size of the organization. The only changes that ever seemed to happen quickly were something collectively referred to as ¡°good idea faerie''s¡±, which were often ideas that seemed good in theory and were implemented at higher levels, however by the time they got to the Company level were ridiculous and stupid. A great example for him was the idea of having a ground guide walk along a vehicle as it was moving forward in a staging area, sure it made sense in theory as having your co-driver on the ground kept the speed down and someone was able to see better from the ground than the often limited visibility conditions of an armored vehicle. The execution of course ended up being taken way too far and things had gotten to the point where he had seen Soldiers get in trouble for not having a ground guide for a gas powered cart... Or the requirement to wear a reflective belt at all times during low light conditions, which made sense in garrison near public roads when a driver might not see a Soldier crossing the road on foot. Of course the execution ended up with the reflective belt being worn in ALL low light conditions, even when deployed in a hazardous combat zone like Afghanistan if you were on a base and not actually outside the wire. This of course made the millions and millions of dollars spent on developing better camouflage for the uniforms more and more ironic and about politics rather than tactical need. Even if it cost a lot to develop the pattern, what possible use could there be in changing the uniform of the entire army when they were going to spend most of their time wrapped in or carrying a reflective belt?... Realizing he was letting himself daydream about the stupidity of the Army and hoping there would be time later to plan how to save as many as possible, Raif focused again after sparing one more thought about the irony of daydreaming inside what was supposed to be a dream before focusing his attention back on his surroundings. Ahead he could see the a large stone gateway at what appeared to be the end of the path. Realizing it must be the portal to Vanos John had mentioned, he decided to scout around a bit and find a good place to read through the book he had been given first. Looking around with a less wary perspective after his meeting with John, Raif took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the forest. The trees were enormous, seemingly made from the same material as the branch John had been carving, though they definitely weren''t like any trees John had ever seen before. To be fair he had grown up surrounded by Pine and Cedar trees, so he wasn''t exactly an arborist even though he did plan on learning much more about different wood types later on. The gateway that appeared to be a portal of some kind hadn''t changed and other than John back in the clearing nobody else seemed to be around so Raif decided to sit down on a nearby fallen tree and check out the book he had gotten from John. There was no telling what was waiting on the other side of the portal after all. While John had mentioned there would be tutors, he hadn''t said anything about what it would take to earn some time getting instructed by them. Having received the book before getting a chance to find out he decided he would be better off taking the time to read and understand the book before going any further. He was also hoping that someone else from Earth wouldn''t be too far behind him after John''s comment from earlier and wanted to have the opportunity to compare notes and maybe form a team before heading any further. Raif settled down a few meters behind the portal and off to the side. He wanted anyone coming towards the portal to be able to see him, but was concerned that someone may be able to get the drop on him coming from the other side of it. After getting settled he pulled out the book, which had an unremarkable leather cover and no title. Opening it up he found a table of contents listed out with the names of several of what he could only assume were skills and attributes. The first entry in the book was titled simply ¡°Strength¡± and John quickly read into it as this was the area which concerned him the most. Strength was divided into 100 levels, with 0 apparently being an actual value. According to the book someone who could lift and carry approximately 50kg pr kilograms had 0 strength which left Raif a little miffed because he couldn''t lift too much more than that and actually carry if for any real distance. Although he had been trained to use metric distances with the Army, he was still used to thinking of weights with the Imperial system and preferred pounds. Apparently that wasn''t the case here and he was going to have to get used to thinking in the metric system completely so although he had already done the mental math and converted 50kg to 110lbs or pounds, he decided to stop before doing any more conversions and just start thinking in metric. He supposed it did make sense, after all the Imperial system didn''t have any logic to it, but anyone who had grown up with it didn''t want to change. Sighing at yet another thing he would have to adapt to he continued reading. The interesting thing about how strength seemed to work was every 10 levels the individuals strength seemed to double, so if someone with 0 strength could lift approximately 50kg then someone with 9 strength could effectively lift as much as 100kg. Anyone back home who could lift and carry 100kg was either or collegiate athlete or in extremely good shape, not quite crossing into what he thought of as muscle head territory but still extremely strong. What seemed unbelievable to Raif was how it continued after that. At 19 strength instead of increasing to 150kg it went straight up to 200kg, and at 29 strength it was a whopping 400kg. As far as he knew the strongest man in the world might be able to dead lift, squat, or bench press 400kg but they definitely couldn''t carry it for far and that was only at 29 strength. The book indicated that this trend continued until 99 where an individual would supposedly be capable of lifting and carrying 51,200kg which was an astronomical amount of weight. Trying to put it into perspective he know that an M1 Abrams Tank was supposed to weigh somewhere around 60MT or metric tons which were 1,000kg each. That meant someone with 99 strength could damn near pick up and carry one of the heaviest Tanks in the world... To make it even crazier while reaching 99 in a skill or attribute made you a master, true mastery was manageable after what the book mysteriously referred to as a ¡°trial¡± and would grant you level 100 in that skill or attribute if you passed.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Allowing himself to daydream for a moment he thought about what it must be like to be that strong. He would be able to grab a tree and rip it from the ground, roots and all with just his bare hands, to hold his car up without a jack if he needed to change the tire, or many other feats of strength existing only in legends like the stories of Hercules and Samson. On the other hand he had to wonder about the negative repercussions of such overwhelming strength. Would your muscles be so large they impeded movement, would you be able to control your strength enough to carry out daily tasks without accidentally breaking everything around you, or worse would you accidentally hurt people around you with just a careless movement? He shuddered to think of gaining an enormous amount of personal strength here before returning home only to return as one of the world''s most eligible bachelors and still not managing to lose his virginity because he was TOO strong and couldn''t have sex for fear of hurting the girl... Typical, he was doomed to be a virgin forever at the rate he was going. Hell the most action he''d gotten in the past two months was having John throw some clothes at him and tell him to get dressed... Then again, thinking of John in a NON-sexual light he certainly hadn''t appeared scrawny, but he didn''t look like a muscle head either and he had moved so incredibly fast Raif was certain he must have a high strength as well as agility. Perhaps the attributes worked together after a certain point, with dexterity and agility helping to balance strength, dexterity and perception balancing agility, etc. It didn''t say anything about the issue that he could see in the book, but that wasn''t particularly surprising since it seemed to be a general overview book for beginners. Another fascinating topic was agility which at level 0 meant someone was capable of moving steadily at about 10 kilometers an hour. Again he had to do the conversion so he could wrap his head around it a little better, even though the Army used meters and kilometers for tactical purposes he still used miles when determining speed. He know there were 400 meters on a standard football track, and four laps was approximately one mile. So that meant one mile was 1.6km and therefore 10kmph was approximately 6.25mph. It seemed to scale similarly to strength which was nice, meaning at 9 agility he would be able to move at 20kmph with relative ease and it would go all the way up to over 8,000kmph at level 99 and over 15,000kmph at level 100... With the perimeter of the Earth''s equator being approximately 40,000 kilometers that meant he would be able to run around the world in less than threehours assuming he could somehow run across water... Damn that was some Dragon Ball Z level shit right there! There was a small note about constitution being required to have enough stamina to maintain bursts of speed for any considerable amount of time, but who cares he wanted to have all those primary attributes as high as possible anyway. Reminding him of what John had said the book continued on that while an individual could build their strength through training as Raif had known people to do traditionally, it was impossible to level in this fashion. In this world, true strength was only obtainable by absorbing the energy of the world. Apparently all living beings possessed this energy and a small portion of it could be absorbed by an individual upon the death of their opponent. This energy would be absorbed into the skills that had been used during the fight, so for example if someone were to snipe their opponent from behind cover they would only gain a small amount of energy for strength, instead most of the energy would go to their dexterity. There was also a small foot note that any attempts to attack another sentient being outside of designated areas would result in severe penalties. Raif wasn''t sure if he was willing to gamble his safety on possible penalties incurred by others, however he definitely intended to follow up on it. Continuing on he quickly cataloged all the key points from the book as he went through it. Apparently there were a total of 16 different stats that an individual could pursue, with many ancillary activities enhanced by them. From what he could tell the skill Constitution was a measure of how tough you were, how quickly you recovered from injury, and how resistant you were to sickness and disease. Agility was another, that apparently affected how quickly you could move although there was a note cautioning against attempting to level this stat too much without also leveling your perception as well or you could eventually create an imbalance where you were moving faster than you could process causing a lack of control among other issues. Perception on the other hand had the same problem if approached from a different angle in that it could make your movements seem slower if you did not keep your agility roughly even. The good news was apparently having a high agility and perception would allow someone to move at mind boggling speeds when needed. Finally Dexterity seemed to affect accuracy and coordination. While he had been hoping for a little more detail about possible pitfalls so he could plan out his growth he was glad the book had that much. Raif got lost for a moment again thinking about what all the possibilities could be if he were to get all of these stats to a high enough level, possibly making him like Neo in the Matrix, or Superman in the comics albeit without the ability to fly. Next were the skill based stats including everything he could think of such as mining, smithing, woodcutting, cooking, crafting, stealth, survival, farming, herblore, alchemy, and construction. Each of these seemed to be more than they seemed on the outside and heavily reliant on the personal stats for advancement. Smithing for example began to require a high dexterity, strength, vitality, and perception as it advanced in order to be able to withstand the high temperatures some of the higher tier metals required for working the metal, utilize the power it would require to forge the metal, the perception to tell where and when to strike, the dexterity to be able to do so. The odd thing about these skill based stats is they generated world energy that allowed advancement in their stats as well, but it would not affect primary attributes even though they were required to complete the more advanced projects. Instead the energy was generated from completing a project based on the quality of the workmanship and only affected the primary skill of the project. Each of these skills seemed to have their own set of requirements and he knew he would need to take the time to create a solid plan for how to grow efficiently rather than just blindly going after each stat as he wanted. The problem was that with all the potential planning variables he already knew about it would take him hours to figure it all out, and he also needed to make sure he was able to learn as much as possible about each of these skills before he ran out of time. 100 days sounded like a lot of time, but with everything he knew he would need to learn it didn''t feel like nearly enough. Just as he decided he would see these tutors before trying to do any more planning he heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see what looked like a young Asian Man approaching dressed in what he thought was a somewhat wrinkled Uniform of the People''s Republic of China. Chapter 5 Raif hastily got to his feet to greet the other young man, hoping he spoke English ¡°Hello Sir! I''m Raif its a pleasure to meet you, do you speak English?¡± The young man sneered at him slightly before replying in perfect English ¡°No, why would I learn the language of the West, besides you speak Chinese perfectly well.¡± ¡°Ummm.... you just replied in English, and I struggle with Spanish much less Chinese¡± Raif replied, looking confused. ¡°..........¡± ¡°..........¡± ¡°Strange¡± they both said at the same time. ¡°I wonder if this dream/world is translating everything we say into a different language and helping us understand each other as well¡± Raif wondered out loud. ¡°I guess it makes sense, after all the odds John spoke English are pretty unrealistic...¡± Shrugging, Raif held his hand out to the other young man and introduced himself again, hoping for a name this time around. Ignoring the offered hand, the young man gave a slight bow of his head and introduced himself, ¡°I am Second Lieutenant Wang Wei.¡± Shrugging again and deciding he probably wouldn''t get along with the somewhat arrogant Wang, Raif decided not to mention his equivalent rank in the Army National Guard as it wouldn''t be productive and he wanted to see what Wang''s take had been on John and why he thought he was here. ¡°So do you know why you are here?¡± Raif asked hopefully. Wang shook his head before replying, ¡°After what John told me I believe I am here as a representative of my family and the Communist Party. I believe my duty is to grow strong so that I may lead the party through what may be trying and difficult times in the future. What I don''t understand is why you are here, what use would the guardian have in sending an American or Englishman here when you are doomed to fail regardless.¡± He had already been a little irritated at Wang''s arrogance upon meeting him, but this guy really was an asshole Raif decided. Shaking his head Raif replied ¡°Who knows, last time I checked China was the one having trouble with keeping everyone fed. So while I''m sure your rural population will do ok, unless you and whatever other people from your country that are selected really have their shit together I''d be more worried about your own problems rather than mine. Then again even with people starving maybe the sudden lack of pollution when electricity stops working will save more lives than the starvation and rioting will take.¡± Face going red in anger and fist clenching, Wang sputtered ¡°You know nothing you imperialist dog! Who cares if we lose a few, it is the duty of the few too sacrifice for the many! I don''t know if you are from the United States or England, but it doesn''t matter. When technology fails our numbers will mean everything and we WILL once again lead the world into a new era of prosperity even if we have to do it on the ashes of the West!¡± Deciding this might be a good opportunity to see what these consequences were really like for someone attacking another person, Raif decided to antagonize this prick until he lost it and attacked. He didn''t see any weapons on him but the wrinkled uniform made it somewhat difficult to tell for certain, still he was certain he would have noticed a fire-arm if he had one assuming they even worked on this world. Shaking his head and grinning ruefully, Raif replied ¡°Umm OK but without electricity I think it might be a while before you guys make it to either the United States or England, but you do realize you basically have the same population as India right? So I''m not really sure that''s the most important factor. Finally there is the whole matter of what happens when you attack someone outside the wilderness, the world is WAY too big to only have one but something tells me nations as they are won''t exist for very long anyway so I''d get over your nationalism if I were you. I''m really not sure why you''re getting so self righteously angry anyway, you got here by falling asleep in your uniform apparently so I''m pretty sure you''re drooling on a desk somewhere in China right now anyway.¡± Wang''s face went from bright red to a dark purple before he spat out, ¡°Perhaps for one so disloyal as yourself you think that is an acceptable outcome, but the People''s Republic of China believe in the Party and will stay true regardless of the obstacle! And what would a miserable westerner even know of duty, you are too busy pursuing your own selfish needs and desires to ever understand a cause larger than yourself!¡± Sighing, Raif replied, ¡°Well I was hoping to compare notes and work together, but it seems to me like you''re to busy being a nationalist asshole so if you''ll excuse me I have better things to do than waste time listening to you spout bullshit.¡± Raif fully expected what happened next, and had even hoped it would happen so he could see these so called consequences of one person attacking another outside of this ¡°wilderness¡± John had mentioned. What he didn''t expect was for Wang to pull a collapsible metal baton out from somewhere before swinging it like a bat at Raif''s head. Not sure how the hell he hadn''t noticed Wang was carrying a baton, he ducked his head and raised his shoulder trying to block the blow as best as he could while simultaneously turning and creating some distance. The blow took him on his collar bone with a loud crack and dull throbbing pain that was immediately replaced by the incredibly sharp pain of what he could only assume was a broken collar bone. Raif was stunned by the pain and dropped the stick he had been holding from his now non-responsive hand, losing his balance in the process and nearly falling over.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Wang raised the baton again, apparently to strike at his head again and finish the fight saying ¡°The new world will belong to the People''s Republic of China and there is no place for the West!¡± Unable to recover in time Raif knew he wasn''t going to be able to dodge the blow, and felt a strong sense of regret at antagonizing Wang just to see what would happen when suddenly a metal sword was two inches above his head blocking the baton with a dull clang. The blade didn''t wave a millimeter from the blow and suddenly John was there without warning an iron grip on Wang''s arm keeping him from trying to strike again. ¡°Well Mr. Wang, it seems you didn''t quite understand me when I warned you about conflict with other people in places other than the wilderness. Had you attacked Mr. Raif in there, it would have been his own fault for being there unprepared and to the winner goes the spoils or so they say. However, since this is not the wilderness you get to deal with the penalty I warned you about instead. Take note Mr. Raif, do you see Mr. Wang''s name and level above his head when you look at him now, see how they are both red? Normally you can only see someone''s name and level in the wilderness, however if you attack someone outside of the wilderness you become marked and a target of bounty hunters everywhere as you can see with Mr. Wang here. The significance is that anyone may attack them with no penalty to themselves, and will receive a random tier 50 resource for killing them along with a large amount of experience depending on their level, which makes it extremely lucrative. So without further ado, I believe your time in the tutorial is over Mr. Wang.¡± finished John as he thrust his sword through Wang''s Chest with a twist before withdrawing it and wiping the blood on Wang''s uniform. Wang fell to the ground, eye''s wide and staring in surprise at the suddenness of the attack. It looked like he tried to breath or say something but all that came out was an inarticulate rasp before his jerking slowed and stopped, his eyes going blank. After a moment Wang''s corpse began to fade before disappearing completely leaving behind a reddish black branch in it''s place. Letting out a low whistle John bent down and picked up the branch with a smile, ¡°God Damn, I''ve been wanting a deathgrove branch for a while now that I finally got my fletching up to level 50. With bounties so rare I volunteered for this job to save the money for this and some dark steel ore, now I nearly have enough money for the dark steel alone and I''m going to have a brand new bow once I can get this beauty crafted.¡± Raif was barely paying any attention thanks to the pain in his shoulder, but as soon as Wang''s body completely disappeared he could see two glowing wisps, one moving towards John and another towards him. As the wisp reached him a message flashed in front of his eyes: CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached Agility Level 3 You have reached Perception Level 2 You have reached Constitution Level 2 As the message faded John heard a pop and felt a tingling sensation as his collarbone seemed to shift back into place and the bruise faded. Startled he looked at John who laughed. ¡°Now you see why despite the risks and moral quandaries, some people prefer to hunt each other in the wilderness rather than challenge monsters in the countryside or the towers. The experience you gain is ridiculous, what primary attributes leveled up?¡± Debating whether he was happy about it or not Raif replied, ¡°I reached level 3 in agility, 2 in perception, and 2 in constitution. I understand constitution, but why agility and perception?¡± ¡°Well from what I could see it looked like you noticed the blow coming, which is why you gained experience in perception. You also managed to keep your feet even through it threw you off balance which explains the experience towards agility. Of course constitution is self explanatory, just be careful that you don''t make too much of a habit of getting hit without hitting back. Constitution among other functions also makes you tougher by making your bones denser and skin tougher, so you''ll notice you have a bit more weight to carry around now which is why it''s important to keep you strength within a few points of it." John said "But why am I already level 3 in agility and only level 2 in constitution and agility?" Raif asked. John smiled before answering, "Well that''s a bit trickier and something I''m less certain of. Before now you were likely past the threshold for level 0 in some of your primary attributes just from training your body. That is most likely caused by whatever system your Guardian was using prior to the cataclysm they are about to enact on your world. Energy gained from defeating or taking part in the defeat of a foe will be the only way to advance your primary attributes going forward, but babies don''t come out of the womb at 0 strength able to carry 50 kg. Instead they start with a negative value and cannot advance even through gaining energy in combat until they grow up and train their bodies to reach level 0. When you go back to your world and the cataclysm happens I believe you will find a large number of people, even adults, with negative stats. For those cases it will be up to the individual to improve themselves before they can take advantage of the changes." "Now I noticed you were reading the book so I left you be, and I''m glad I did because now I have this deathgrove branch for a new bow, however its time for you to go and get through that portal to the Island of Vanos and continue your tutorial. Conflict here should be kept to a minimum and if I let this turn into a traveler meeting zone, we could have a lot more ¡°accidents¡± especially since it seems like your species isn''t quite as peaceful as others.¡± John said as he pointed at the portal before beckoning Raif to go ahead. With a sigh and a nod Raif thanked John once more before stepping through the portal.