《Infernal Apocalypse [ LitRPG , Non-Human Lead, Lots and lots of Fire ]》


 Chapter One (BOOK FULL ONE EDIT IN PROGRESS)

    For most of my life, as far as I can remember, I''ve always been a bit¡­different. Don''t get me wrong, I wasn''t some forgotten outcast without any friends or anything, but I definitely had very specific things about me that didn''t really seem normal, or at least not normal to me.


    For instance¡­I can''t get burned.


    At least not by a regular fire, that is. I first found this out when I was around 12, and I was leaning back on a stove that I didn''t realize was on. It was an electric stove, so there wasn''t any fire or anything; well, there wasn''t any fire until the fact that the sleeve of my shirt caught on fire eventually. That was how I even found out that the stove was on. My hand was on the stovetop for a while, and I felt nothing. The stove might as well have been off to me; I found it all a little cool, actually. Though, of course, my parents did not find it all that cool, the doctors, firefighters, and everyone involved said it was a miracle I didn''t suffer any severe burns to my hand.


    Anyway, since that time, I''ve experimented a little here and there with candles and lighters and whatnot, and never once have I been burned or even felt any discomfort. I''ve been scared to really try some intense flames, but yeah, that''s one thing. Something else, and probably the most odd thing¡­ is the fact that I feel¡­wrong? Yes, that''s it, I feel wrong. Like I am not supposed to exist in the way that I currently exist. It''s all a bit muddled, but for my entire life, I''ve always just felt wrong.


    I''ve even seen doctors about it once or twice, but they all hit me with the same old political therapist talk, random stuff about finding hobbies, or it''s perfectly normal, or whatever else I don''t really remember. That was many years ago, during my middle school years. Now, I''m a sophomore at university with no real direction in life or any real passion. Just kind of existing and riding this train called life in all my wrongness. Another somewhat weird thing for me was my ability to remain calm; nothing in life ever seemed to really phase me. Even when my parents died, I stayed calm. I was definitely heartbroken, deeply torn, and struck with grief, but weirdly calm nonetheless.


    Pretty weird.


    Well, that''s what I was doing until it happened. The damn apocalypse.


    It was a normal day, with nothing out of the ordinary happening on campus, and I was chilling in my dorm room between classes. I was getting ready to go get something to eat when the next thing I knew, there were words popping up in my line of sight.


    Welcome to the Multiverse.


    This brings me to my current situation: I am a 5''9 black guy from America, standing in a weird all-white room, face to face with a man. A man who was covered in some type of metallic skin? Or was that armor? I don''t know; either way, this is all a bit weird. The weirdest thing of all, though? Is that I still feel calm? For some reason, I am strangely calm; I think almost anyone else would be freaking out at least a little in this situation, but me?


    Just¡­calm.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Normal, I guess.


    Even when the being in front of me finally started speaking, I was still calm. Maybe it was because he sounded like a regular person.


    Not sure.


    "You''re an interesting case. Roughly 98.7% of the intelligent species on this Planet are currently experiencing some level of mental breakdown, yet you are surprisingly calm. Ten minutes were allotted for the intelligent species of this Planet to cease their mental breakdown. Though I suppose you are one of the ones who do not need that time. Of course, you may still choose to make use of the remaining seven minutes as you please. What is your choice?"


    "I don''t need the seven minutes." I thought about it for a bit, but I couldn''t think of a reason not to continue with whatever was going on, so onwards it is.


    "Excellent. Now for introductions, please refrain from asking questions at this time." The strange metallic paused to make sure I understood and continued after I gave him a faint nod to show my understanding.


    "You are currently in a space where the intelligent species of a newly integrated Planet are introduced to a few basic things before being sent into their Tutorial, where they would have to overcome whatever challenges that are present within. This Tutorial is designed to get you accustomed to the Multiverse and the type of things you can expect once the Tutorial is over.


    ¡°The Planet you are from will also be going through rather sweeping changes as it grows and expands from being exposed to an infinitely purer and more powerful form of ''energy.''


    This process will be completed by the time the tutorial is over. Something that you will come to know soon enough is that in this new world, strength is everything. Laws and rules are determined by the strongest fist.


    ¡°You will need to decide for yourself if you want the power to dictate your own actions or be placed under the protection of those with power. On the other hand, while you are in this Tutorial, the initial choice has been made for you. You will be given the means to defend yourself and grow, though it will be up to you to choose what path you wish to tread down the road.


    ¡°Which brings us to one of our final topics. Elemental Affinities. I will not go into detail about what they are but know that barring a rather extremely rare few, no affinity will inherently make you stronger. It is up to you to use it to grow. Not everyone will possess one of these affinities, but remember that the path of Elemental affinities is only one path of many. However, for you, it is the only path that will be freely checked for in this newly integrated universe. Now place your hand on the Elemental Orbs."


    Before I could even ask where this so-called orb was, a small pristine sphere popped up right in front of me. I observed it for a moment before shrugging and placing my hand on top. I almost expected absolutely nothing to happen, but...this is not the first time I''ve been wrong.


    It only took a few moments for my hand to rest on the sphere before a very small black flame showed up. Yes, I believe that''s a flame. I wonder why it''s black. I looked up at the metallic man to ask for clarification, and I was surprised to see that he was sweating...? Huh¡­didn¡¯t think he could sweat. He looked more shocked than I thought someone covered in sleek metal could possibly be. He even began muttering to himself.


    ¡°Im...imposs...impossible...¡±


    Meanwhile, the flame in the sphere continued to slowly grow in size; weird¡­ what''s going on? I didn''t even get to dwell on my thoughts for too long before space seemed to crack. And another strange metallic man stepped through the hole. Though this one was very tall, and for some reason, he gave off a powerful aura. I don''t know how I can feel that, but that''s just the feeling I''m getting.


    After he fully stepped through, his eyes widened once he saw the sphere, and then he did something very weird.


    He was standing in front of me with his head bowed and his left arm firmly planted diagonally across his metallic chest. He said a few words that were even weirder than his behavior.


    "I humbly greet the Young Infernal."

 Chapter Two

    ¡°With all due respect, what is an Infernal, and why are you calling me one? Where even did you come from? Is this typical for this...tutorial thing the first guy mentioned? Also, can I take my hand off the sphere now? This¡­fire seems to be slowly getting bigger.¡±


    Despite my initial calmness, I couldn¡¯t help but start to feel slightly rattled; I mean, this whole thing has been extremely weird so far, but some dude randomly jumping through a crack in space and bowing his head in front of me feels a bit much, no? Where are his manners?


    ¡°Excuse me for my lack of manners, Young Infernal; you may remove your hand. I understand you currently have many questions, but it is not my place to answer any questions regarding your lineage.


    ¡°I apologize for this.


    ¡°Unfortunately, we also do not have time to delve into other things as the Tutorial must start at its designated time.


    ¡°I apologize for this.


    ¡°Completing your Tutorial will bring many of the answers you seek. The last thing you were supposed to accomplish before my abrupt arrival was your choice of a weapon. Please think of something and it will be presented before you.¡±


    Now, regaining my briefly lost calmness, can this guy read my mind? How did he know I thought he lacked manners¡­isn¡¯t that also a lack of manners? Reading my mind without permission. Well, he did apologize, I guess.


    So, I can¡¯t get all my questions answered until I do this Tutorial, huh? And apparently, I need to think of a weapon. Hmm, I¡¯ve never used weapons outside of games before, but¡­I¡¯ve always loved characters who used spears.


    *Voosh*


    Oh, look, a spear. As soon as I settled on thinking of a spear, one just...showed up in front of me, oh, and the sphere disappeared. The spear was roughly 6 feet tall, I think. Not sure. It had a rough wooden shaft and was tipped with a less-than-shiny metallic blade. Definitely, not the same metal covering the weird people in front of me. Speaking of weird metallic people, why did this guy just start smiling at me creepily when the spear appeared?


    ¡°It is often said that the love between an Infernal and their spear is deeper than the love between a mother and their child.¡±


    ¡°¡­Okay?¡± That was not weird at all...


    ¡°Ahem...It is now time for the Tutorial to begin. You will be sent to a location and be given a prompt by the system on how to pass the Tutorial. Beware, Young Infernal, that death is a possibility. I wish you a good hunt. Let your fires burn eternally and your spear ever swift.¡±


    Okay, that was a little cool¡­


    *Voosh*


    Ah, I was teleported again. Dammit, I forgot my spea¡­oh, there it is, laying on the...ground¡­oh, I¡¯m in a forest. And the floating words in my line of sight are back.


    Welcome to the Tutorial.


    Check your Status.


    My status? And there it is, a floating screen. I guess just thinking about it was enough.


    Reserved: Name ¨C Raizen; Keep Name? Yes/No


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


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    Cultivation ¨C N/A


    Your Task is to Survive.


    Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.


    Time Remaining ¨C 60 Days


    There¡¯s a lot to unpack here. Those strange metal people didn¡¯t really give me a lot of information to work with huh. First of all, I can change my name? I don¡¯t think I want to change it, even though my name has always been a little embarrassing¡­I love my parents, but naming me some weird ass anime-sounding name when we were just a regular black family in America for sure sent a couple of jokes in my direction throughout my childhood. Nothing too crazy, though, as most were probably just jealous, and people usually ended up calling me Raz instead.


    Speaking of my parents, I wonder what they would think about all of this if they were here to see it. Anyway, let¡¯s select Yes. And the option to change it is gone¡­I wonder if that¡¯s permanent.


    Now that I think about it, where is my last name? My full name is definitely Raizen Smith. Did last names not count in this Multiverse thing or something? Moving on.


    My race¡­I am sure I woke up this morning as a thoroughbred human being. Is this why metal man was calling me this Young Infernal thing? Has to be. Looking over my body, I still look the same, I also still feel the same. Something else to ask about when I complete the Tutorial I guess. Next on the list.


    Cultivation.


    I¡¯ve read one or two of those cultivation novel things before, so I think I understand this part¡­though it would be nice to get some type of booklet on how to cultivate or just to explain it. Anyway, let¡¯s not worry about it for now.


    Lastly¡­the big red words.


    To survive being in this forest, I¡¯m assuming? Well, I guess this forest could just be one small part of the Tutorial area since I don¡¯t actually know how big it is. The metal man did mention that death is real, and the red words mentioned fighting, so I need to be prepared for that. I¡¯m also gonna go out on a limb and assume I just need to survive until 60 days are up. Fun.


    Now that we kinda sorta got that out of the way, what should be my next steps? Food, shelter, and information seem about right. Well, no time like the present, onwards and forward! Okay, that was a little corny, but with my new trusty spear, let¡¯s go explore this forest, shall we?


    It took just a few short moments before I ran into another weird situation. There was a weird green creature standing not far from me. Something straight out of a tabletop fantasy game.


    It was a Goblin.


    Or at least I assumed it was.


    It checked all the boxes.


    Short, sharp teeth, pointy ears, a small club¡ªoh, and it was green¡ªvery, very green.


    Now, considering I¡¯ve never fought before, I¡¯m a little worried about my first encounter. Still, I had a greater reach than the Goblin, especially with my spear, so I pointed it forward and waited.


    The Goblin charged straight at me.


    You know, between the welcome to the multiverse stuff, meeting strange people covered in sleek metal, generating black fire in a weird sphere, being called an Infernal, and being teleported to this weird Tutorial world. I really believed the fighting with my life on the line thing is where this state of calm I¡¯ve kinda had my whole life would come to truly fail.


    I was wrong.


    I didn¡¯t even start breathing heavily. I just watched the little Goblin charge, with its club raised above its head, ready to bring me harm. Once it got within what I felt like was my range with the spear, I just pulled back and stabbed forward with all my might. Truth be told, there wasn¡¯t all that much strength in my stab as I wasn¡¯t some gym junkie. Unfortunate.


    Anyway.


    The Goblin failed to dodge.


    Though I made contact, my stab wasn¡¯t a one shot (stab?) kill as it pulled back as soon as it got stabbed. It backed off, looked at me warningly, and limped off as fast as it could into the woods while clutching its chest. It even started yelling in some weird Goblin language that sounded like gibberish to me.


    I might not know much about actual combat, but I¡¯ve played enough video games to realize this is bad. There are definitely more Goblins in the area. I quickly lunged after the Goblin before stabbing it into its back to silence it forever. A cowardly move I know, but I don¡¯t have many options here. Killing the Goblin didn¡¯t affect me in any way as I thought it would, it just felt like kind of¡­normal? I¡¯m definitely a weirdo.


    Anyway, after killing the Goblin, I expected the body to just remain there, but to my surprise, it was kind of absorbed into the ground, and in its place, a small orb remained. I didn¡¯t know what it was, but it had to be something like loot, right? I didn¡¯t have a bag with me, and I was still in the same T-shirt and grey sweats I had on in my dorm, but thankfully, my sweats had pockets, so I placed the orb in one of them.


    So, the ground absorbs dead bodies. Nice to know. I guess I just keep going?


    *War Cries*


    Before I could get a couple steps away from where I killed the Goblin, I began to hear some very loud screaming in the forest around me. It all sounded like the gibberish the Goblin I killed was speaking.


    I guess that Goblin was able to get his message out huh.


    ¡°Fuck."

 Chapter Three

    Going back to just after Raizen got teleported¡­


    POV Yamaal


    ¡°Sir¡­was that really¡­-¡±


    ¡°Silence.¡±


    Who would¡¯ve guessed this backwater planet in this backwater universe would manage to birth an Infernal? The Faction really struck gold by winning the bid to host this Tutorial. Though this can always come back to hurt us¡­I¡¯m sure those insane people have already realized one of theirs has been birthed on this planet¡­thus creating a new lineage. Which means one of their elders will be here before the Tutorial is over.


    Shit.


    We need to benefit from this. The Faction must befriend this Young Infernal to hopefully gain even some wayward benefits from his rise. Of course, only if he survives the Tutorial.


    Wait...would they start a war if he died in our Tutorial? Surely not¡­no¡­common sense doesn¡¯t apply to those insane bastards. They would bathe an entire universe in their ¡®eternal flames¡¯ if slighted.


    My options are limited.


    I need to prepare for the arrival of one or more of the Infernal Elders. I also need to prepare suitable means for the Young Infernal after the Tutorial is over.


    ¡°You. Pass my word. Let the leaders of the Tutorial Outposts know there is a VIP going through the Tutorial, and send them his image as well. DO NOT make them aware that he is an Infernal. If he reveals it to them on his own, then so be it, but they will not be told on our account.¡±


    ~ ~ ~


    After passing his orders along, the clearly stronger metallic being disappeared through another space crack. Of course, it was left unsaid, but the remaining individual knew if he revealed things he shouldn¡¯t, his head would roll long before he realized. He quickly summoned a terminal into the room to begin fulfilling the order that was given.


    Back to Raizen¡­


    POV Raizen


    I didn¡¯t know what else to do, so I just kept moving forward. I didn¡¯t want to start running without knowing exactly how many Goblins were coming or which direction they were coming from, so I just walked forward at a brisk pace, doing my best to be wary of my surroundings.


    However, I didn¡¯t make it very far until I could hear not only the yelling getting much closer but footsteps as well. I¡¯ve never been much of a footstep connoisseur, but I think, based on the number of steps I can hear, it doesn¡¯t sound like a whole bunch of Goblins are on my tail.


    So, I stopped walking and waited. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m good enough at fighting to be ready to react at a moment¡¯s notice while moving, but I¡¯m a bit more confident that I can respond better if I¡¯m standing still with my spear at the ready.


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    It turns out that my ability to deduce the number of people from just footsteps alone isn¡¯t so bad, after all. After I stopped moving, it didn¡¯t take long before 3 more Goblins could be seen not too far from me. I don¡¯t know if this is considered racist, but all Goblins look the same.


    They are pretty much identical to the first Goblin I met in this place.


    The Goblins eventually spotted me through the trees and began running this way, which gave me a few moments to think of a plan¡­which is not much. Three Goblins, one me. Not great. Fun.


    So, I did what I thought best and began weaving through the trees as best as I could, the Goblins aren¡¯t very fast and not very strong, one good stab with my trusty spear should be good enough to put one out of commission for some time if not outright kill it.


    Turns out Goblins aren¡¯t that smart either, instead of waiting on each other and ganging up on me, they just ran in with no thought in mind, and basically got to me one by one. While using the trees as cover occasionally, I was able to quickly deliver fatal stab wounds to the first two when the third one stopped chasing me and began running away screaming.


    Dammit, not again.


    I ran after him (I¡¯m assuming it¡¯s a him) with all my might, and despite my lack of Olympic level speed, its short legs could only move so fast. Before you know it, he, too, developed a connection with my trusty spear and met a swift end. I¡¯m getting pretty good at this stabbing thing.


    Anyway.


    The bodies of the Goblins eventually disappeared back into the ground, and as expected, there was a singular orb in place of the Goblins. After collecting the one at my feet and circling back to where I put down the previous two, I eventually made it back to where I initially spotted the Goblins. Who knew my sense of direction was so good?


    Based on the position of the sun, I assumed it was close to midday now, so I needed to find somewhere to sleep soon. Nothing to do but keep moving forward, I guess.


    And that¡¯s what I did until I heard more loud gibberish. A lot more. So, there¡¯s probably gonna be a lot more Goblins than last time, huh.


    I didn¡¯t think it would be smart to stand still this time, so I took off running, and I¡¯m pretty sure I ran for a couple minutes in the forest before I finally heard all the footsteps and, before long, the tens of Goblins that appeared behind me. I¡¯m faster than them, for sure, but I will eventually get tired. I had no choice, I think, but to try and fight them off even a little bit.


    And that¡¯s what I did, I slowed down and did my best to make use of the trees and even bushes around me to fend off the Goblins.


    I¡¯ve been doing pretty well up until this point, but fighting what appeared to be 30-ish Goblins proved to be no easy feat. I suffered multiple wounds and was definitely bleeding from all over my body, who knew those little creatures could be so persistent.


    Something else that also happened was my ability to stay extremely calm finally failed.


    Though what replaced it was not a feeling of fear or even shock like what most would expect to feel.


    Instead, I felt excited.


    The thrill of the battle, each kill I was able to get, each time the tip of my spear met the body of a Goblin, each time I was able to either barely dodge or even easily dodge a strike, even when I had to endure claw marks from their little green hands, or when a few of the small clubs they carried around made contact with my body. It all felt exciting.


    I was enjoying the battle.


    By the end of the fight, I had a wide smile on my face. Well at least it was a wide smile until the adrenaline wore off and the pain finally hit me.


    I collapsed on my back, and as I lay in pain, I watched as all the bodies of the Goblins were absorbed in the ground. Leaving many small orbs behind. Hopefully, my pockets will have enough space for that. Though I was laying here in a lot of pain, I was happy¡­that feeling of wrongness I¡¯ve felt my entire life¡­it finally started to come undone. Maybe...just maybe, this is what I was missing. The thrill of a fight with my life on the line.


    I probably should¡¯ve joined the army or something, though, for some reason, I don¡¯t think it would¡¯ve given me the same feeling as I have now.


    Ah shit I have to piss.

 Chapter Four

    After resting for a bit, I got up, took care of my bodily functions, and got to work in collecting all the little orbs, which I''m now really hoping had some sort of value cause by the time I was done collecting all the orbs which turned out to number 28, close enough to my estimations, my pockets were close to full. They even started to weigh a little bit.


    It definitely didn''t help with the fact that I still had multiple wounds on my body, and I was still in a lot of pain. Not very fun at all.


    Anyway.


    I had to keep going, daylight was still burning after all.


    And keep going I did, by the time the sun set I was a haggard mess. My T-shirt was pretty much gone, and my sweats were ripped apart in multiple places. Though my pockets, which were almost overflowing at this point, were almost untouched. I had to protect my orbs.


    Needless to say, I ran into more Goblins along the way. Some small groups I could handle, and some larger groups I had to run and hide from. Though most of the time, I wasn''t very successful.


    Not sure how much blood I''ve lost, but obviously not enough to stop moving forward, albeit at a much slower pace than when I started.


    Was there even any shelter here? Or was it all just damn trees? I really hope I won''t have to build my own shelter. I have no experience with that sort of thing. Maybe I should''ve watched more nature survival videos in my free time? Who knows.


    Ah...is that light?


    I think it''s light.


    In the distance, behind a cacophony of trees, sitting in the middle of a large clearing, I can see a faint light. I''m not sure if it''s dangerous or something good, but it''s the first new thing apart from trees and Goblins I''ve seen for the whole day I''ve been in this forest. So, with renewed vigor, I make my way towards the light.


    As I got closer, I realized this was a lot more than just some light. It was a whole damn village? Or whatever else you would call something like this.


    It just so happened that I was approaching from the front, so I got a good look at the entrance. It had tall wooden walls made out of what appeared to be extremely sturdy and thick logs. There was a wide gate in the front that was unfortunately closed, and the light I saw came in the form of two torches placed on the left and right sides of the gate. Speaking of the gate, why is there someone standing outside¡­


    No way¡­is that a Goblin..?


    On closer inspection, it doesn''t look completely like a Goblin. From where I was standing, which was still quite a distance away as I was wary of getting closer, I could tell the individual was green in color, but they had on proper clothing and were definitely much taller than the Goblins I''d killed on the way here.


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    I''m not really sure how to approach this. I''m severely weakened, and that person could be some type of super Goblin that I''m clearly not ready for, but I need shelter, and it''s clear that place is the type of shelter I need in my life. Risk it for the biscuit, or sleep on the forest floor or, most likely, up in some tree. Decisions decisions¡­


    Well, I''ve made my choice¡­ what''s life without a little risk?


    A safe one, which is why I''m gonna sleep in the forest. It''s already dark outside, and approaching a strange structure with a potential super Goblin standing guard doesn''t sound like a good idea.


    So, despite the darkness around me, I made my way back deeper into the forest and looked around until I found a big enough tree with wide enough branches. It took some significant effort and careful movements not to spill all my little orbs, but I eventually found my way up the tree and onto a thick enough branch.


    With my back against the trunk of the tree and my spear resting across my lap, I dozed off a lot quicker than I planned to, with my last conscious thought being, ''I hope I don''t fall.''


    Turns out I had better balance in my sleep than I give myself credit for. As the warmth of the morning sun bathed my body, I woke up realizing I was still safely in the tree. The night appeared to have passed peacefully with the only thing of note being the fact that some of my orbs fell out of my pockets.


    Well, actually, something else that I eventually noticed during my climb down the tree was that I''m not in that much pain anymore.


    After making it down to the ground and gathering the orbs that fell, I gave my body a quick once over and most of my wounds were closed already, they weren''t very deep wounds in the first place, but they shouldn''t have closed this fast.


    I wonder if this has something to do with being an Infernal. Or maybe the atmosphere in the Tutorial has healing capabilities or something. Who knows.


    Wait...now that I''m thinking about it, am I an idiot? I''ve been here a full day, and I haven''t eaten or drank any water, yet I''m not hungry, nor do I feel very thirsty.


    Okay, something is definitely up. There''s no way I should feel fine after not eating anything, not drinking any water, and definitely not healing this much in one day after all the fighting I did yesterday.


    Hmm¡­so the current working theories are that the Tutorial itself is taking care of this for me, or it has something to do with being an Infernal.


    Well, can''t get the answers just standing around like this, so it''s probably time to go see that village thing.


    Now I have two options, approach cautiously from the front, ready to run away at a moment''s notice, or try to scale the walls stealthily from the side.


    Well, since it''s daytime, that kind of kills most of the stealth part, so unless I wanna wait until night again, that might not be the best idea. Plus, there''s also the fact that while I think I can climb the wall, there''s just no way I can do it quietly.


    So, that really just leaves me with one option then¡­or I can just bypass this all together and live the life of a spear wielding murder hobo in the woods.


    Yeah¡­that doesn''t sound too appealing. Cautious frontal approach it is! Let''s hope the super Goblin fellow isn''t that fast.


    And so, the village was again in sight, I took a breath, had my spear at the ready and began walking towards it with my pockets filled with orbs from dead Goblins. Maybe I should''ve buried those in the forest before I came here¡­welp too late now.


    As I get closer and closer, the person at the front turns towards me, and I begin to make out more features. They are around my height, wearing clothes and leather armor. And although they were green, that''s kinda where the similarities ended with the Goblins I''ve killed. No pointy ears, no claw-like hands, and no pointy teeth.


    I could tell their teeth weren''t pointy cause the person in question actually began waving and calling out to me as I approached.


    "Oii!! You over there! Welcome to Outpost G!"


    Maybe the super Goblin isn''t so bad after all.

 Chapter Five

    Eventually I closed the distance to the person calling out to me, and while it may be a little rude, I couldn¡¯t help but ask the burning question on my mind.


    ¡°Hi there, I hope this is not offensive...but are¡­¡±


    ¡°Let me stop you right there, I know what you want to ask but me and the rest of my race are not the same as the little Goblins you¡¯ve been seeing in the surrounding forest. That¡¯s all you need to know for now. With me so far?¡±


    Even though the non-Goblin came off a little rude, I paid it no mind and nodded to show I understood. My question could definitely be seen as offensive, so I understood.


    ¡°Good, glad to get that out of the way. Now, as I said earlier welcome to Outpost G. Inside you will find many different things to help you make it through this Tutorial and you have done well to reach it alive, as it will be vital to your survival.


    ¡°For the first five days of the Tutorial entry into the Outpost will be free of charge, do keep this in mind. Again, welcome to Outpost G.¡±


    And then without even giving me a chance to ask any questions or to fully digest everything he said, the green man finally began to open the gates.


    I didn¡¯t even bother trying to ask him anything because he clearly didn¡¯t want to talk anymore, was the question really that offensive?


    Anyway.


    I accepted the hint and moved to enter into the Outpost, though as I walked in the green man told me as I passed him by that I should check out some central building or whatever. Of course he didn¡¯t bother to expand on much after that but no need to think too deeply about it, for now I¡¯ll just take in the sights of the outpost and worry about everything else as it becomes relevant.


    Looking around, I think I spot the central building thing the green buy mentioned along with two other buildings in front of it, though all of them seem to be made out of extremely high-quality wood.


    I¡¯m currently walking towards it on a paved pathway, that branches off to the left and the right, where I see pretty much identical buildings on both sides. They look like houses kind of? Maybe I can live in one of them? Wonder who I gotta talk to, to make that happen.


    Speaking of a ¡®who¡¯, I don¡¯t see anyone else anywhere. Is it just the green guy handling this place?


    I¡¯m getting closer to the central building, which is just a somewhat small one-story wooden building, that kinda looks like what I¡¯d consider a nice cabin in the woods, except there aren¡¯t any windows for some reason.


    Well, I¡¯d love to explore the whole Outpost, but the green guy mentioned this building, and I¡¯m hoping there¡¯s a good reason for that, so I¡¯ll check it out first.


    Turns out that was the right idea.


    Theres another green person. Also dressed like the green man in terms of quality. What appears to be some type of medieval-like clothing and leather armor on top. Real fantasy stuff here.


    Oh, and this green person is a woman. I could tell by the uh¡­hair. Yeah let¡¯s go with that.


    I spotted her after entering through the door of the building, it was well lit inside despite the lack of windows from various torches strategically placed for better lighting. There wasn¡¯t much in the room though.


    Right in front, was a large counter where the woman was seated, which was built into the wall. To the left was well, the wall and to the right there was a door which led to behind the counter maybe? Not sure, but that was it. So, without many options I walked up to the counter where the green lady had long since noticed me and was smiling as I took my time to look around the interior of the building.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Hey there young Tutorial attendee, welcome to Outpost G! This is the Outpost shop, where you can buy many many things to help you get through the Tutorial.¡±


    She spoke in a lot more cherry of a tone than the green guy at the gate did, maybe he really was just mad about my question huh. Anyway, I can buy things? With what money.


    ¡°Hi, thank you for the welcome, but I don¡¯t have any money. Is there a way I can earn some?¡±


    ¡°Sure you do! What do you think the things in your pockets are for! And based on the bulge of your pockets, I¡¯d say you put that spear of yours to good use before you got here.¡±


    So, these orbs are loot after all. I wonder how much they are worth.


    ¡°What can I buy with them?¡± I had about 60 of them in my pockets after my run ins with the Goblins, hopefully that¡¯s enough to at least get some new clothes or something.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯d have to trade them in to get coins. The current conversion rate is one Common Core for ten copper coins. A word of advice though, that conversion rate will change in the future.¡±


    I don¡¯t if these things have any other use so maybe I shouldn¡¯t trade them all in¡­I don¡¯t even know what a copper coin is worth.


    ¡°Can I see a list of what you have to sell first?¡±


    ¡°Smart boy.¡±


    After calling me smart with a slight smirk on her face, she snapped her fingers once and another screen appeared in my face. Neat.


    <u>Welcome to the Tutorial Shop</u>


    Please select a category:


    <ol>


    <li> Food and Water</li>


    <li> Cultivation</li>


    <li> Survival</li>


    <li> Miscellaneous</li>


    </ol>


    This is a lot more detailed than I realized. Well, I haven¡¯t gotten hungry so far so let¡¯s check Cultivation first.


    As soon as I thought it, the screen in front of me changed.


    <u>Cultivation </u>


    Please select a section:


    <ol>


    <li> Manuals </li>


    <li> Techniques </li>


    <li> General Knowledge</li>


    </ol>


    More selections, let¡¯s just go with Manuals, and yep, it changed it again as expected.


    <u>Manuals </u>


    <ol>


    <li> Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 50 Copper Coins</li>


    <li>Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 250 Copper Coins</li>


    </ol>


    That was¡­surprisingly very unhelpful. I guess seeing the prices will help me understand the importance of the coins, and it appears they are very important. Just going off what the nice green lady said. It¡¯s probably safe to assume that the rate I¡¯m getting now is the best rate I¡¯ll get for all of the Tutorial.


    I should probably look through all the categories and sections before trading in my Orbs for coins and making any purchases. Let¡¯s go shopping.


    ~ ~ ~


    While Raizen was shopping away¡­


    On a rather large ship that was covered in a sleek silvery metal, that seemed to almost move across the body of the ship constantly and was quite some distance away from Earth but well within the same Universe, the same man who gave the order to inform the Outposts that a VIP was in the Tutorial, was waiting in a somber mood.


    He had used the previous day to prepare as best as he could for the imminent arrival of a member of the Infernal Race. Which just consisted of making sure no one on board the ship did anything they weren¡¯t supposed to do and drilling that into them while also preparing a suitable quarter should the Elder wish to stay for the duration of the Tutorial.


    Of course, there was a chance he was wrong and the Infernals wouldn¡¯t send someone, but he knew better.


    One was coming.


    It was then, almost on cue that he felt a presence that almost made his knees buckle. As a Second Stage Immortal, there weren¡¯t many individuals who could make his knees buckle from just their presence, and there definitely wouldn¡¯t be one in a newly integrated Universe either.


    The Infernal Elder was here.


    Vanishing from where he stood on the bridge of the ship he appeared outside in space, with his head bowed and his left hand planted diagonally across his chest.


    ¡°I greet the Infernal.¡±


    ¡°Where is he.¡±


    Was the only response he got back, from the woman before him. She was covered in from head to toe in black robes, lined all over with purple accents, her black hair neatly tied in a bun, her skin the color of the most purest bronze imaginable, and her beautiful face where two black eyes without pupils sat, devoid of any emotion.


    ¡°He has already begun the Tutorial, Esteemed Infernal.¡±


    As if he expected this behavior, the man covered in metal didn¡¯t bat an eye, nor did he miss a beat, or look up from his bow, despite the curt answer and attitude from the being in front of him.


    ¡°When did it start.¡±


    ¡°Yesterday, Esteemed Infernal.¡±


    ¡°Good. Put this in your store. Only he may see it.¡±


    The man covered in metal froze for a brief moment, but before he could respond the woman disappeared. Though the man didn¡¯t drop his guard. He had no doubt in his mind that she was still nearby.


    ¡°As you wish Esteemed Infernal.¡±


    In front of him a small booklet simply floated. It read a few short words.


    ¡®The Way of Infernal¡¯

 Chapter Six

    The man didn¡¯t make another sound until he was in the safety of his room on the ship and multiple barriers to stop prying ears from listening in were put up.


    ¡°It is frustrating dealing with those people, but I¡¯d say that went well enough. Although I¡¯m going to go through a bit of trouble to get the item into the Tutorial, it will be worth it, but dammit is it frustrating to have to move to her whims.¡±


    The metal man was brought of his thoughts, when a calm knock sounded at his door.


    ¡°Speak.¡±


    ¡°Lord Yamaal, by your order Captain Ruyam is awaiting you in the bridge.¡±


    Responding with a curt grunt, Yamaal, formerly known as metal man, vanished from his room and showed up at the bridge. Once Ruyam saw him, he bowed in greeting.


    ¡°You called me for Sir.¡±


    ¡°How many of the Outposts received your message.¡±


    ¡°Sir, out of the 26 Outposts in the Tutorial, only 6 received and acknowledged the message. The other 20 rejected the message outright.¡±


    ¡°Fools.¡± Yamaal seemed to angrily grunt that word out before he continued speaking.


    ¡°Did the VIP make it to an Outpost yet.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, he is at Outpost G. One of the Outposts that rejected our message.¡±


    ¡°Tch¡­I will go there myself.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir.¡±


    And so Yamaal disappeared once more. Though this time he didn¡¯t quickly reappear at his intended destination, as entering the Tutorial world after it has begun was technically not possible, due to many system rules and the fact it was being held in a system-controlled dimension.


    Yet due to being a part of the faction responsible for hosting the Tutorial, he could do so only once for emergency purposes.


    He felt this time was one such purpose.


    After a few minutes of waiting, Yamaal appeared at his target location. Inside the building behind the central building that Raizen was still browsing the shop in.


    The green lady manning the shop realized and her face twitched a bit, as this was not normal. Though she didn¡¯t do anything else as she felt the Outpost Leader would handle it.


    Speaking of the Outpost Leader, he was seated behind his desk, in the process of sharpening a fine odachi, when Yamaal appeared before him.


    Even though he was a bit startled, he regained his composure and greeted him.


    ¡°I greet Lord Yamaal. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?¡± Even though his words themselves were respectful, the tone of his voice was not. Instead remaining quite neutral.


    ¡°Enough foolishness. You were sent a message, why was it rejected.¡±


    The Outpost Leader raised an eyebrow before responding.


    ¡°You used your one emergency entrance to ask why I didn¡¯t accept a message?¡±


    ¡°Answer.¡± Yamaal gave a curt response, while he let his previously restrained aura release just a tad. Just enough for The Outpost Leader to understand he had to provide an answer.


    ¡°I was busy.¡±


    That response almost drove Yamaal to anger before he calmed himself down.


    ¡°You are a fool. I will not waste my time further. Place the item I¡¯m about to give you in your Outpost¡¯s shop, do it now while the individual currently in the shop is still there. Only he may see it. Name the item ¡®Raizen¡¯. I will say it one more time. Only he may see it.¡±


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    And with that Yamaal disappeared, leaving a small black box on the desk of the Outpost Leader who simply stared at it for a moment. A million thoughts ran through his head.


    Eventually he waved his hand, and the box disappeared, and at the same time the shop menu was updated.


    ¡°Huh that was weird¡­hey you should check the cultivation manual section again; a new option was added.¡± Noticing the change, the green lady in charge of the shop, decided to let the young man know about it as she felt it had something to do with him. She could of course see what was added.


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    A new option huh...I wonder why. Well, let¡¯s go check it out.


    <u>Manuals </u>


    <ol>


    <li> Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 50 Copper Coins</li>


    <li>Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 250 Copper Coins</li>


    <li>Raizen ¨C 1 Gold Coin</li>


    </ol>


    Unless I just lost the ability to read, that clearly says my name. Why did something with my name appear in the shop at this very moment? Is it a reward or something? What else could this possibly be if it wasn¡¯t? Should I ask about it?


    Plus, it costs 1 gold¡­that has to be a lot of money, right? Considering everything else in the shop was being sold in copper coins. I don¡¯t know the conversion rate though, so I guess I have no choice but to ask.


    ¡°Excuse me, how many copper coins does it take to get one gold coin?¡±


    ¡°One Million.¡±


    Huh I¡¯m not sure I heard her correctly.


    ¡°Sorry, say again?¡± I had to ask again, surely this time I would hear her correctly.


    ¡°One Million.¡±


    It seems¡­I won¡¯t be able to buy the item named after me anytime soon. So maybe it¡¯s not a reward but a punishment? No¡­that doesn¡¯t add up. Maybe it¡¯s a challenge? But if it is I¡¯m kind of stuck.


    If it¡¯s under the cultivation manual section that means, it¡¯s a way to cultivate tailored to me, right? And considering there was already a basic and an advanced manual listed, some manuals should be more effective than others.


    Thinking about it as rationally as I can, If I want more money I need more of these orbs. Which means more looting Goblins, which of course means more fighting and killing Goblins. Which finally means I need to be stronger to get all the kills I need.


    To get stronger than I already am, which isn¡¯t much, most likely involves cultivating. Who knows how long it would take to kill a million coins worth of Goblins at my current level of strength, and who knows if there¡¯s anything stronger out there that could attack me while I¡¯m looking for Goblins. Maybe there¡¯s even stronger Goblins than what I see now.


    She mentioned the orbs from the Goblins are common cores, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s too big of a reach to think there¡¯s uncommon or even rare cores from stronger monsters.


    Okay.


    It seems my next steps are already decided for me, I guess that makes this easy. The entry to this Outpost is free until Day 6, and its currently Day 2. I need to make use of this to save money.


    The green lady here mentioned the conversion rate will change in the future so I will assume it will only get worse, meaning I need to take advantage of the rate right now.


    Though there is one thing I need to confirm before I can finalize my decision.


    ¡°I apologize for all the questions, but is it safe to switch cultivation manuals?¡±


    As if she expected my question, she didn¡¯t miss a beat and responded as soon as I asked.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s quite common for people to switch cultivation manuals when they find better ones, or they have reached the limits of the one they are currently using. Though It¡¯s not something that should be done very often, as that can cause problems with your foundation.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Unbeknownst to Raizen, the green lady manning the shop was giving him far more information than she would have given to anyone else. It didn¡¯t take her long to realize the young man in front of her was likely someone important.


    Between the fact that she felt Yamaal visit, and then a new item she couldn¡¯t see the contents of appeared under the cultivation manual section with a weird name, she even saw him react to the name of the item when she pointed it out to him. With all of this information it would take an idiot to not realize his name was Raizen, and he was worth the attention of Lord Yamaal himself.


    It would be best to build a good relationship with him.


    Though there was one thing she couldn¡¯t understand, why a full Gold coin? That was far beyond the reach of what Tutorial attendees would accomplish this early in the Tutorial. It¡¯s literally only Day 2. If they were giving him special treatment, shouldn¡¯t they make the manual more affordable?


    So, while Raizen was reforming his plans of what to purchase after seeing the manual. She sent a mental message over to the Outpost Leader.


    ¡®Jrino, I noticed Yamaal stop by. I also noticed the manual in the shop. It doesn¡¯t take a genius to put two and two together. But why is it 1 Gold?¡¯


    The Outpost Leader wasn¡¯t very surprised that the shop keeper reached out to him, as she was as strong as he was, and he couldn¡¯t really dismiss her like he could with the other members in the Outpost and she was probably well within her rights to ask since she managed the Outpost Shop. So, he sent a mental message back.


    ¡®That bastard stopped by to force me to put that item in the shop, but he didn¡¯t say what I had to make it cost.¡¯ He said this with a hint of pride and smugness. The Shop Keeper could almost see the smirk planted on his face as she heard his response.


    ¡®Jrino¡­whatever I know how stubborn and petty you can get. Don¡¯t blame me if this comes back to bite you.¡¯


    ¡®You were always too cautious Greja.¡¯


    Greja didn¡¯t even bother responding as she just watched as the young man appeared to finally be ready to purchase something.

 Chapter Seven

    Okay thanks to the nice green lady, buying a different cultivation manual right now isn¡¯t too detrimental to me. So, with that I think I know what I should be buying.


    ¡°Excuse me once more, how do I trade in my orbs and how do I make a purchase?¡±


    ¡°No problem! Hand me the number of cores you want to trade, and I¡¯ll give you back the necessary coins. For the items in the store just focus a bit on the item and it will then ask you to confirm the purchase, focus on your answer and that¡¯s it! Everything you see in the shop is stocked here, so once you order you¡¯ll get your items right away.¡±


    Oh, hey she¡¯s all cheery again. Wonder what caused her mood to shift earlier.


    Anyway, I have 61 cores as they are properly called, so I¡¯ll trade in 51 of them and keep 10 for now. I need all the coins I can get but I don¡¯t know if the cores have other uses so 10 will do for now.


    With 510 Bronze Coins now rattling around in a small leather pouch she gave me, which I was very thankful for, I was ready to buy some stuff. The coins themselves were just slightly bigger and thicker than a Quarter in America. The only thing written on them were some strange symbols I don¡¯t understand.


    Anyway.


    Spending time.


    First on the list, my biggest purchase.


    <u>Manuals</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 50 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 250 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Raizen ¨C 1 Gold Coin</li>


    </ol>


    I didn¡¯t buy any of the techniques because they all said I need to be in the Qi Refinement Realm to use them and I didn¡¯t even know what that was. The last thing I bought regarding cultivation was a book in the General Knowledge section called ¡®How to Cultivate¡¯ for 5 Copper Coins. Seemed like a good idea.


    Okay with that out of the way, next on the list was some clothes. I don¡¯t know how much longer my sweats can hold on, and I had long since lost my shirt to the woes of fighting. And my shoes¡­well they weren¡¯t really doing the job of shoes anymore.


    The Survival category had a clothing section that literally only had 3 options. Well technically 5, but only 3 applied to me.


    <u>Clothing</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Cotton Tunic (Men) ¨C 20 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Cotton Tunic (Women) ¨C 20 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Leather Pants (Men) ¨C 20 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Leather Pants (Women) ¨C 20 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Leather Boots ¨C 25 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    </ol>


    I didn¡¯t see any option to pick my size, so I really hope it fits. It¡¯d be really awkward otherwise. Now with clothes taken care of, there are three more things in the Survival Category I need. All of them are in the Tutorial section of the category.


    <u>Tutorial</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Tutorial Information ¨C 10 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> House Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (20, 40, 120) Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Room Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (10, 20, 60) Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Outpost Entry Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (5, 10, 30) Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Monster Encyclopedia ¨C 300 Copper Coins</li>


    </ol>


    I would have loved to buy the Monster Encyclopedia but that was far too steep a price for me right now. What I couldn¡¯t avoid though was somewhere to stay, So I bought the 10-day pass for the House and Gate.


    I haven¡¯t seen another human in the Outpost yet, but I never liked the idea of having roommates, so I got my own place. It probably wasn¡¯t worth it, but If I¡¯m going to be risking my life every day, I want to come back to some level of comfort. I also nabbed the Tutorial Information thing because there¡¯s a lot I don¡¯t know, and information is king. Or so they say anyway.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    My final three purchases came from the remaining two categories. Food and Water, and Miscellaneous.


    <u>Food and Water</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Common Sustenance Pills (30) ¨C 15 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Uncommon Sustenance Pills (30) ¨C 30 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Bottle of Water ¨C 5 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    </ol>


    I honestly expected way more options under this category. It didn¡¯t even have sections just these three options.


    Shame.


    I didn¡¯t know exactly how a sustenance pill worked but based on the name I kind of figured it was like a protein bar in pill form? Who knows. And although I have yet to feel any sort of hunger or thirst despite being here for over a day, which wasn¡¯t normal, since I got hungry like any other person before the Tutorial, I still wanted to be prepared.


    I got some of the pills and a Bottle of water. I wonder if it¡¯ll be plastic.


    Anyway.


    The last item of this big spending trip was in the Storage section of the Miscellaneous Category.


    <u>Storage</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Small Leather Pouch ¨C 3 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Large Leather Pouch ¨C 5 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Leather Rucksack ¨C 15 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)</li>


    <li> Wooden Crate ¨C 17 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Wooden Barrel ¨C 17 Copper Coins</li>


    </ol>


    410 Copper Coins gone just like that, well can¡¯t help it, I need to make a lot more than that anyway. After I confirmed the last item and kind of willed for the window to go away in a similar way to my status window. I saw the green lady smile and then true to what she said all the items just popped up on the counter. Cool.


    I also noticed that it was only after I closed the window that everything showed up. It was all placed in an organized manner as well. Neat.


    ¡°Phew! You bought a lot of stuff! And based on what I see here, it seems you have got a good head on your shoulders. I think you¡¯ll do just fine in this Tutorial. Matter fact! If you have any questions, feel free to stop by and I¡¯ll answer what I can.¡±


    Greja of course was just trying to build a relationship with Raizen, she didn¡¯t know why he was important, but just knowing that he was, was good enough for her.


    Raizen of course, just thought she was being nice.


    ¡°Thank you, well I¡¯ll take you up on that offer right now if you don¡¯t mind.¡± There¡¯s been a couple things on my mind since this whole apocalypse and Tutorial thing has started. So, this is a good opportunity to get some more information. I won¡¯t bring up the Infernal thing yet though, that seems kind of important.


    ¡°Sure, go ahead!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mean this in an offensive way or anything, but your clearly not human like me, and I think I¡¯m still speaking English, yet you are speaking it too, and even the shop showed up in English. Is English a really popular language in the Multiverse?¡±


    ¡°Haha! Good on you for noticing that, and yes, I am indeed speaking ¡®English¡¯ and there is a reason for that, but it is not one your qualified to know just yet.¡±


    I¡¯ve never been one to dwell on things for too long, so I nodded and asked my next question.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen anyone else since I¡¯ve been here. Am I the only one in this Tutorial?¡±


    It¡¯s not that I really want to see people or anything, it¡¯s just kind of surprising. Especially with this big Outpost, someone else should¡¯ve spotted it by now, right? Unless they are holed up in one of the buildings¡­kind of like I have been for a while now¡­I guess.


    ¡°This one I can answer. The Tutorial is very large. The people of your planet have been randomly teleported all over the Tutorial, some in groups, some alone, some near an Outpost, and some desperately far from one. The Multiverse isn¡¯t a fair place, and neither is the Tutorial. It would be good for you to remember that.¡±


    She got a little serious there. I figured it was a little unfair considering they just dropped me in a forest with my only instruction being to survive. But I guess considering an Outpost wasn¡¯t terribly far from me, I shouldn¡¯t complain too much.


    ¡°Thank you for help Miss Shop Keeper. I¡¯ll be on my way now.¡± I packed up my Rucksack while asking the questions, so I was ready to go.


    ¡°Thanks for stopping by and please do call me Greja from now on! Oh! The house pass you bought is for house number 12. Make a left once you leave here, and it¡¯ll be in that direction.¡±


    Giving her a grateful smile and taking note of her name, I left the building. I guess I don¡¯t have to refer to her as the green lady anymore.


    I didn¡¯t follow her directions, as I still had two buildings around the central building to look at. So, with my spear in hand, and a packed rucksack on my back, I made my way to my right, following the paved pathway for a short distance before I reached my destination.


    I walked around to the entrance and stepped in, a bell going off with a light chime as I opened the door. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing was the wave of heat that washed over me the second I got in.


    Oo that¡¯s a bit hot. It¡¯s not anything crazy, but how can whoever was in here find this comfortable. Though it wasn¡¯t really bothersome to me due to¡­reasons, but it should be for most people, right? And of course, as if on cue someone walked out from behind the counter to greet me. It was another green induvial. A man much taller than me, and extremely burley. Wearing a similar shirt and pants to the previous green people I met, Greja and the gate guard man.


    Though this man was also wearing a really big apron that appeared extremely thick. He also had a bald head and a very scruffy beard.


    Definitely a blacksmith. Great my spear needs some love.


    ¡°Oi. Welcome to mi shop. Don¡¯t just dawdle, tell mi what ya need.¡±


    Yep, zero doubt about it, he¡¯s a blacksmith.

 Chapter Eight

    I wonder what types of items he sells. Maybe I can get some things like armor and maybe a new spear? I already love this one, but I have room in my heart for more.


    ¡°Do you handle repairs ? And is there a way for me to browse the items you sell?¡±


    The man looked at me like I was dumb for a second before something seemed to click in his head.


    ¡°Tch, forgot yer a newbie. Listen, this here is a smithy, in da multiverse any blacksmith worth their own shit can fix up yer little spear.¡±


    The burly green man then snapped his fingers, and another shop screen popped up in front of me.


    I guess I basically asked for a reaction like that, why wouldn¡¯t a blacksmith not do repairs? But at the same time, it also can¡¯t hurt to make sure. Though I guess it¡¯s kind of on brand for a blacksmith to be rude so no hard feelings from me. Even though it is a little clich¨¦.


    Anyway.


    I focused on the shop, which had the same number of categories as Greja¡¯s shop.


    <u>Smithy Shop</u>


    Please select a category:


    <ol>


    <li> Weapons</li>


    <li> Repairs (See Blacksmith)</li>


    <li> Commissions (See Blacksmith)</li>


    <li> Knowledge</li>


    </ol>


    Four categories, only two of them are clickable and I don¡¯t see a category for armor. I was kind of hoping for a chest plate or something. Shame. Repairs and Commissions don¡¯t do anything no matter how much I focus on those options. Guess I really have to see the blacksmith for them. Though the other two had some stuff.


    <u>Weapons</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Tutorial Sword ¨C 15 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Tutorial Spear ¨C 15 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Tutorial Bow ¨C 15 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Tutorial Dagger ¨C 15 Copper Coins</li>


    </ol>


    Very underwhelming. I¡¯m pretty sure my current spear is what they¡¯re calling a Tutorial Spear. What I¡¯m curious about though, is the fact the metal people told me I could think of anything for a weapon, so why are there only four options? Shouldn¡¯t a mace or something be here as well? Weird.


    <u>Knowledge</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Basic Blacksmithing ¨C 100 Copper Coins</li>


    </ol>


    I guess this was to be expected but still also a little underwhelming. While I can see the benefit of being able to make my own weapons, I¡¯m not really drawn to it. No need to force myself down a path I don¡¯t really like. Seems bad for business. I like fighting and learning about the world and stuff but learning a trade doesn¡¯t really fit me. At least not right now.


    Well unless it¡¯s to learn how to trade blows.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡­


    Moving on.


    ¡°Mr. Blacksmith, how much would It cost to repair my spear?¡± It¡¯s not really in bad shape, but a man should care for their spear. It just feels right.


    ¡°It¡¯s mostly fine, 5 Copper and I¡¯ll sharpen her.¡± He kind of grunted that response without even looking at my spear, as if annoyed at this request. Maybe he noticed it when I came in? Either way I can afford that.


    ¡°Please do. How do commissions work? Is that how I get some armor?¡±


    I asked him about commissions as I placed my spear and the requested number of coins on the counter.


    ¡°Armor eh¡­if yer still kicking around in a week or so you¡¯ll get yer armor. For anything else, Tutorial bullshit says I can only make less shit Tutorial weapons, run ya 200 Copper fa each one. How ¡®bout it, want one?¡±


    ¡°No...I think I¡¯m fine.¡±


    ¡°Good, if yer done yappin about, come back in a bit for yer spear.¡±


    I took the man up on his offer to come back in a bit and left, I wasn¡¯t really offended by his speech, but I can see how someone else might be. Nothing to do with me though. Now for the last building, then I¡¯ll finally go check out my new home.


    Honestly, based on my limited fantasy knowledge I think I know what this next building will be about.


    Gotta be some type of healer, right? It only makes sense.


    After making my over, walking past the central building in the other direction, I entered the building, though this time instead of heat it was just a strong fragrance that hits my nose. It didn¡¯t really smell like anything, but I could still smell ¡­something. I don¡¯t really understand it and it makes my nose tickle. I don¡¯t like this store.


    I walked up to the counter and expected to meet with another green person but was instead met with a simple sign sitting on the counter.


    ¡®Busy Making Potions ¨C Go away¡¯


    I really don¡¯t like this store.


    After going through my first bad customer service experience in the Multiverse, I finally made my way over to the right side of the Outpost when looking from the gate. I couldn¡¯t really see it from the front gate but there are eight houses over here, and just past the houses, I see what appears to be a small training area? It¡¯s right next to my house so I couldn¡¯t miss it.


    A couple practice dummies, and I even see a rack with what appears to be wooden weapons. Nice, I¡¯ll probably be checking that place out soon.


    After getting my fill of the training grounds, it was time to enter my home. It didn''t take long to find a house with the number 12 imprinted in the door. It was made out of the same material as the previous buildings I¡¯ve been in so far, it also didn¡¯t have any windows. What¡¯s with these green people and windows? Didn¡¯t they appreciate a good view?


    Not dwelling on the lack of windows for too long, I took in what I saw in front of me.


    The house had only one story so everything that I was seeing was the whole house. Which was basically just a big wooden box. The door opened into a big hallway, and on the left side there were 3 doors and on the right was only 2.


    After taking a peek inside all of them, the doors on the left were all rooms, and so was one of the doors on the right. While the last door was a washroom. It had a tub, and a pipe with running water surprisingly.


    It also had a modern toilet...that did not make sense to me at all¡­but who am I to complain.


    The other 4 rooms were pretty much the same size and had the same contents, a small cot for a bed, a small desk and chair, and a box for storage I guess? The doors didn¡¯t have locks on them, and neither did the front door for that matter¡­


    After taking a minute to run outside to try and open the other houses nearby, I came to realize the House Rental Pass probably functioned as a key. Interesting.


    Anyway.


    I¡¯ve had a very productive morning and I¡¯m quite proud of myself. Did a little shopping, sent my spear off for some love and care, and learned a bit about the Tutorial. My next major steps are to look into cultivating, read the Tutorial book I bought, and then go commit a Goblin massacre. I apologize in advance.


    After settling in the middle room on the left for no particular reason, I finally got out of my sweats and was ready to try on the new clothes I bought when I realized a pretty serious problem.


    The shop didn¡¯t sell underwear.

 Chapter Nine

    I should¡¯ve noticed this in the shop, but I had enough things to worry about. Though now that I am aware of the problem, I will treasure this pair like my life depended on it. Yes, that¡¯s not an overreaction at all.


    Also, it turns out my new clothes fit me quite well, I¡¯ll miss my sweats, but this new look doesn¡¯t seem too bad. Though I really want to know if some Multiverse magic automatically sized them for me when I bought it, or if she just guessed my sizes. Who knows.


    Alright first things first. Cultivation! I¡¯m actually getting excited to read something for once, who would¡¯ve thought.


    The booklet on how to cultivate was very small, in fact it only had 3 pages, with words only taking up one side of each page. Pretty wasteful.


    Of all the 3 pages, page 1 had the most information, while the other 2 didn¡¯t have that much. Though the impact of all three was not to be compared.


    The first page was a short lesson on cultivation.


    It talked about what cultivating actually was, and to summarize it was to use the Ambient Qi in the atmosphere to nurture and grow the body. Kind of like plants doing photosynthesis. Funny.


    It said other things other than nurturing the body and what not, but to me it was all just flavor text, the key point was to use qi to nurture the body. Simple enough.


    The other important thing page 1 touched upon was the fact cultivation was divided by realms, and each realm required different means to get through it and the higher your realm, the stronger you were. Oh, and they went in an order that apparently couldn¡¯t be skipped without significant injury or something.


    <ol>


    <li>Body Tempering</li>


    <li>Qi Refinement</li>


    <li>Core Formation</li>


    <li>Nascent Soul</li>


    <li>1<sup>st</sup> Stage Immortal</li>


    <li>2<sup>nd</sup> Stage Immortal</li>


    <li>Domain Realm</li>


    <li>Dominion</li>


    <li>Universal Manifestation</li>


    <li>xxxxxx</li>


    </ol>


    Number 10 was censored for some reason but it¡¯s the strongest one, so I guess it gets to be a little special. In all honesty the names sounded pretty cool. I was getting excited thinking about climbing them. I wonder what level the metal man who basically cracked space was? Had to be pretty high right?


    Anyway.


    Apparently, each realm had a reason for its name and had various rules and descriptions of things you needed to do to advance and all of that. Though the book didn¡¯t tell me about any of that for the Core formation realm and up.


    But it did tell me for Body Tempering and Qi Refinement, which were on Page 2 and Page 3 respectively. Even though it didn¡¯t say much about either of them, it definitely said enough, I think.


    Body Tempering.


    The First Realm on the long road to the Peak of Cultivation.


    It is where one must prepare the body, the foundation of everything, for the climb.


    The mortal body cannot inherently handle Qi, and thus must be tempered.


    It requires taking a small amount of Qi into the body and allowing it to break your body apart until it is ready to handle Qi.


    It is recommended to use a manual.


    Sounds like a painful time but I¡¯ve never been one to shy away from pain. In fact, it sounds more fun than painful. I wonder how much stronger a Body Tempering realm cultivator is than a normal person? Is it like a body builder compared to a regular civilian maybe? Who knows.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Next of course came Qi Refinement.


    Qi Refinement.


    The body has been tempered, yet impurities remain.


    This realm will begin the process of storing qi into the body for prolonged periods and ridding the body of your mortal impurities.


    One must also learn to use the Ambient Qi to progress.


    It is recommended to use a manual.


    I think I won¡¯t fully understand this one until it¡¯s time for that realm. So, for now body tempering is the focus. There¡¯s also that black flame, I supposedly produced. Need to figure that one out, I wonder if it being black means it¡¯s hotter than normal fire?


    Who knows, but I¡¯ll pause all that reading and contemplation there for now, I need to go hunting before the daylight is gone.


    I still have the actual cultivation manuals to read and the Tutorial information booklet too, but I can¡¯t waste any day that the current core conversion rate is still in effect. I know I¡¯m already strong enough to probably kill around 60 Goblins in one day.


    Which of course is what I did yesterday. Now knowing what to expect I think I¡¯ll even be slightly better at it this time around, maybe I can reach 70? We¡¯ll see.


    Anyway.


    I went to collect my spear and was pleasantly surprised by the shininess of the blade. It even shined brighter than when I first got it. Nice. Even the shaft looked polished. I guess that blacksmith is worth his own shit as he put it.


    Just guessing based on where the sun is, it¡¯s already past midday, I think? So, I only have a couple hours of daylight left. If I want to reach my goal of 60, I¡¯ll need to get a little reckless. Oh, maybe I can kite them like zombies. I kind of did that accidentally at times yesterday.


    And with the thought of wondering if I can play zombies again on my mind, I walked out of the Outpost, of course the green man manning the gate had to open it for me to leave, and we exchanged short nods before I made my way back into the embrace of the forest. Maybe he wasn¡¯t mad at me anymore? It was just a tiny little question after all.


    So, with my freshly sharpened spear and my coin pouch, which had been emptied for this trip, I started jogging around trying to get the attention of a Goblin or two. I noticed when I first got here that there weren¡¯t any Goblins really close to the Outpost, is it because of the green man standing out front maybe? Who knows.


    I jogged ahead for what felt like 20 minutes. I had no clue. Either way it most likely took around 20 minutes for me to run into my first Goblin, and from what I know so far, where there¡¯s one Goblin, there¡¯s a bunch more one dying Goblin shriek away.


    Which was exactly what I let it do, of course not without a nice stab from my spear.


    After I let it scream its heart out for a bit, I put it out of its misery. I continued jogging forward for roughly another 10 minutes and I could hear the shrieks of Goblins approaching me. After a couple minutes the group was upon me.


    Though instead of trying to immediately kill them I just ran ahead a bit, using the trees, random logs, bushes and whatever else in the forest to help slow the Goblins so I didn¡¯t have to sprint very fast.


    After a couple minutes of doing this my work finally paid off, a lot more Goblins have showed up.


    All of a sudden, I¡¯m being chased by over 100 Goblins.


    Shit.


    Am I an idiot? Did I get too cocky after just one day of fighting?


    Well, can¡¯t change the past.


    Only thing to do is follow the plan, kite them, kill the ones that get close and keep moving.


    And kill I did, along with running. A lot of running. The sun is close to setting and I¡¯m currently resting behind a tree. I haven¡¯t even been able to pick up the cores from the slain Goblins, as the horde chasing hasn¡¯t diminished in the slightest.


    ¡®Shrieek!¡¯


    Shit they found me, coming out from beyond the tree I gripped my now less than shiny spear and charged at the closest Goblin, one strong stab to the chest was enough to put him down, before another one was upon me. Retracting my spear, I did my best to spin and hit it with the shaft, though not before it got a slight hit on me with its club.


    I mostly brushed it off but had to back up again as three more Goblins came up from behind me. Using reflexes that I¡¯ve been almost forced to develop today, I spun and swung my spear in a sweeping motion briefly pushing the Goblins back, as I took that time to run to my left, up and over one of the bigger logs in the forest. Big enough that the Goblins couldn¡¯t hop over it with ease and instead had to climb.


    I didn¡¯t let that moment go to waste and quickly let out as many stabs as I could from the other side of the log as they came up, not all of them connecting but more than enough did to wound all three Goblins.


    It didn¡¯t take long for me to finish them after that, granting me a bit of time to catch my breath.


    ¡®Shrieeekkk!!!¡¯


    Fuck.


    It was going to be a long night.

 Chapter Ten

    And a long night it was, I ran and fought tooth and nail as best as I could for hours into the night. Whoever said Goblins weren¡¯t very strong was an idiot. It definitely wasn¡¯t me. Either way I¡¯m finally at the end of my rope.


    With my back leaning weakly against the trunk of a large tree, a pouch filled well over 50 cores, and of course countless other cores littered the ground of the forest around me.


    Oh, and I was also surrounded by at least 40 Goblins. I¡¯m far too weak to count accurately, and I definitely haven¡¯t seen all of them, but nonetheless I was royally fucked. I truly am an idiot.


    Though in true idiotic fashion I was smiling. Grinning even. This battle where it¡¯s likely I could lose my life, was the most fun I¡¯ve had in my entire life. I don¡¯t want it to end, I don¡¯t want to stop fighting. I want to win, I want to defeat all my opponents and scream to the world that I won.


    What did that metal man say...yes¡­ ¡°I want my flames to burn eternally and my spear to be ever swift!¡±


    And with that I took off in a charge into the waiting Goblins to fight till I can¡¯t fight anymore.


    ¡­.


    Raizen didn¡¯t know it yet, but as he spoke those last words out loud, his heart began to pump and flow with a lot more power. It was as if a slumbering giant was finally waking up. It thumped and thumped until the blood running through Raizen¡¯s veins began to thump themselves.


    Raizen, oblivious to this, continued to fight with mad fervor and almost reckless abandon. A wide grin plastered on his face as he dealt blows and received them just as well. This delicate balance of fighting with everything he had while doing his best to avoid too damaging of a wound began to come undone as he seemed to relish in the fight and began to grow wilder and wilder until he even began to yell. The roaring blood in his body seemed to roar with him.


    ¡°AHHHHHHH!!!!¡±


    It was during the next exchanges that something remarkable happened.


    His heart had fully come to life now and was no longer thumping, instead it slowed so much that it no longer pumped at all, and as Raizen jumped forward to thrust his spear forward into the body of a Goblin, with at least thirty more closing in on him, he bellowed out once more stabbing forward with all his might. Though his yell was the only thing that left his body.


    His heart, as if syncing with his intention to bring forth everything he had roared to life once more and pumped so loudly that it could be heard outside of Raizen¡¯s chest.


    Flames so beautifully black and flooded with power blossomed around the spear head as it moved to the chest of a leaping Goblin.


    The spear made contact.


    And then Raizen¡¯s world went black.


    ¡­


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Going back to before Raizen¡¯s spear made contact with the Goblin. All the way back to Outpost G where a green man was watching Raizen wreaking havoc with his life on the line in the forest. In his mind, Raizen was clearly fighting above what was expected of the Earthlings on just day 2 of the Tutorial.


    This man was not the guard that Raizen was first met, instead it was Jrino. The Leader of Outpost G. Unlike what Yamaal and Greja believed, the man was not oblivious to the importance showed to the boy. He simply didn¡¯t like the idea of a brat just getting something handed to him on a platter.


    What happened to working for your meals and clawing your way to the top? He didn¡¯t understand those metal freaks. At least that was how he thought until he decided to watch Raizen battle. Something he only decided to do on a whim.


    Anyway, not only was he watching, but he was floating high above the Outpost, seeing and truly observing absolutely everything.


    He saw how Raizen¡¯s initial plan of gathering more Goblins together went to shit and instead he gathered over a 100 Goblins all at once, he thought that Raizen was a fool and would die shortly after.


    But he then watched on as Raizen ran through the forest and fought more and more like a ravage beast as the day turned into night. He hid when he had to, he ran when he had to, he fought when he had to, he screamed, he clawed, he endured, fell, rose, lost, won, bled. But most of all.


    He was always grinning.


    Jrino watched on as Raizen¡¯s fighting spirit roared to life, growing a better fighter with each engagement, running away smarter with each engagement, learning how to hide better with each engagement, learning how to not flinch better when hit, with each engagement.


    He was watching a warrior.


    One that was clearly a Genius. No normal person improved this fast in a fight, especially not one on day 2 of a damn Tutorial.


    Jrino eventually admitted to himself that he judged Raizen too soon. Though he wouldn¡¯t admit that to anyone else.


    It was during this self-reflection late into the night as Jrino watched on, that he saw something that made his eyes widen like saucers. Raizen¡¯s spear got coated in Infernal Flames.


    ¡°A bla¡­black...fla...flame¡­¡±


    ¡°No...no fucking way.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a fucking Infer...-¡±


    BOOOOOM!!


    As he was struggling to come to terms with what he had just realized, Raizen¡¯s spear eventually made contact with the chest of an unfortunate Goblin, and a massive explosion shook the surrounding area.


    Black flames exploded out from the epicenter and immediately engulfed and burnt everything in the area. The sturdy tress became ashes, the earthy forest floor became black, bodies of both the living and dead Goblins no longer existed, down to the bone. Gone. Everything.


    Everything except Raizen.


    Including his clothes, his spear, his coin pouch now filled cores, and surprisingly enough, all of the cores from the deceased Goblins laid perfectly fine. Not a single sign of being covered in flames at all.


    Jrino watched all of this happen with his fist clenched so tight his nails started cutting into his palms.


    He waited until the last of the flames dissipated, before flying towards Raizen. Even though he was far stronger than the current Raizen, and could kill him before he could blink, one does not simply touch the flames of an Infernal no matter how weak unless you had a death wish. Of course, it was likely that the flames wouldn¡¯t be able to harm Jrino, but he was still cautious.


    After gathering the now unconscious Raizen in his arms, who was of course still gripping his spear tightly, he then quickly gathered all of the cores in the surroundings laying around from the slain Goblins, he made sure not to miss a single one.


    After his task was complete, he quietly flew back to the Outpost, with nothing but the darkness of the night and an unconscious Infernal in his arms to accompany him.


    He had only one thought in his mind at that point.


    ¡®I fucked up.¡¯


    Trying to over charge and practically almost rob a young Infernal.


    Was he an idiot?


    An Infernal that caused Yamaal himself to enter the Tutorial to deliver him something. Who else could make Yamaal, a Second Stage Immortal justify using his emergency entry just to play delivery boy, if not an Infernal, or even worse one of the boy¡¯s Elders?


    He was truly a fool.


    ¡®Fuck.¡¯

 Chapter Eleven

    In the Outpost Leader¡¯s Office¡­


    ¡°Say that again?¡±


    ¡°You heard me the first time Greja. The boy is a damn Infernal.¡±


    ¡°¡­Yamaal¡­the thing in the shop¡­could it be?¡±


    ¡°Probably. Those metal bastards probably did their elemental test again, trying to find someone that had some type of metal synergy. Instead, they found an Infernal. Obviously, I don¡¯t have all the answers but I¡¯m guessing the Infernals likely have way to sense their own and then someone came by with the item that Yamaal made me place in the shop.¡±


    At this point Greja was busy massaging her temples from the stress that came with this big reveal. It was late into the night, and she was relaxing in her shop when Jrino showed up with the very young man she wanted to build a relationship with, in his arms.


    Of course, right then and there she knew something was amiss, as the Outpost¡¯s residents were not required to help anyone in the Tutorial, in fact it was actually frowned upon to do so and could incur penalties from the system if they helped too much.


    Also knowing what type of man Jrino was, he definitely would not be helping without a good reason, so she rushed out to meet him. After placing the young man on a cot in the house he rented, they both flew back to Jrino¡¯s office to discuss what was going on and Jrino told her everything he saw.


    It only made sense she would be stressed, it was a damn Infernal they were dealing with.


    ¡°¡­Wait, didn¡¯t you make the item in the shop that came for him, cost 1 Gold coin? Take it out and give it to him! What are you going to do if whatever Infernal showed up, found out about this?!¡±


    ¡°Greja calm down.¡±


    ¡°This is not the time to be calm Jrino! We are just Nascent Realm cultivators! The Clan won¡¯t hesitate to cut us off if we pissed of a damn Infernal!¡±


    ¡°Greja.¡±


    ¡°Take the item out of the damn shop!¡±


    ¡°Greja!¡± This time as Jrino spoke he slammed his fist down on the table and allowed a bit of his aura to leak out.


    ¡°Calm down. The situation is not as bad as you think. Let me finish before you speak. Alright?¡±


    ¡°¡­Alright.¡± Although she was still upset, she had would at least hear him out. She believed he was owed at least that level of respect.


    ¡°Good. Now the boy is an Infernal, but he himself doesn¡¯t know what that means yet, and it is not our place to tell him. The Infernal Elder or whoever they send will. Our place is to secure a partnership with him. The only reason The Clan bids on Tutorial Outpost rights and sends us here is to secure a footing in the new Universe.


    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ¡°This is our chance to do that and more. I fucked up with the price of the item but I¡¯m not such an idiot that I don¡¯t see how this can be a blessing for us.


    ¡°We will do our best to support him within reason and earn his trust for after the Tutorial. If we do this correctly, The Clan will not only have a presence in the new universe, but it will also have a presence in the lands of an Infernal.


    ¡°Now going back to the item in the shop. I will not take it out and hand it to him. I do not believe in handouts, and it seems the presumed Infernal Elder agrees with me, as Yamaal instructed me to put it in the shop, not to hand it to him. So instead, I will lower it to a more reasonable price, but one that he will still have to work towards.


    ¡°Greja, that¡¯s everything I had to say. Tell me your thoughts.¡±


    As Nascent Realm cultivators, the speed in which their minds could process new information and take action on it, far outstripped the ability of even the smartest human on Earth, yet despite that level of processing speed it took Greja a full hour of just staring at Jrino and thinking before she responded. Jrino of course sat there silently as he watched Greja form her own conclusions. An hour was nothing to Cultivators who have lived as long as they had.


    ¡°¡­I understand. He is an Infernal, we will help him to an extent so that we can maintain a significant presence in this Universe, more specifically on the planet this Tutorial is for. So, let¡¯s plan our next steps. We need to help him, but not too much, and based on what you said about his fighting earlier, I don¡¯t think he needs that much help.


    ¡°The Clan also sent another team to control Outpost S. Will we be looping them into this as well? I don¡¯t think we should.¡±


    Jrino responded with a smirk on his face. After hearing the calm response from Greja.


    ¡°You are usually cautious, but I know how decisive you are once you make a decision. That¡¯s how we were able to rise in The Clan. Anyway, I agree, we don¡¯t need to loop Outpost S in. The Clan is one body, but we were all apart of different factions, no need to help them. Now for the boy, like I said before, I don¡¯t like handouts, and the system won¡¯t let us help him too much anyway.


    ¡°The only thing I think we should do is train him. According to the Tutorial each of us is allowed to train a certain number of individuals. You, Kritch, and that lazy bastard Oras can train up to 5 people each in being a merchant, blacksmith or alchemist respectively. Eriog can train up to 30 people in general combat, which is the most. While I as an Outpost Leader, can only train 1 singular person. He will be that one person if he accepts.


    ¡°Other than that, we should just answer the questions he asks within reason. How does that sound?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s fine, we should probably tell the other three.  They might not be in the Nascent realm, but they are smart enough to notice something is up. Plus, there is a good chance Eriog saw you fly in and out of the Outpost tonight.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but I didn¡¯t plan on leaving them in the dark in the first place. We¡¯ll fill them in come morning. And with that I think we¡¯ve covered everything.¡±


    ¡°Fine, and are you sure we didn¡¯t need to apply some healing to him? You mentioned he had serious injuries.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure, I¡¯m not far enough up the totem pole to know how it works, but it¡¯s said that Infernals can heal from almost anything. We¡¯ll help him but we won¡¯t baby him.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I should¡¯ve expected that type of answer from you, and I know this is a very good option for us, to jump on his coattails and run with him, but are we really ready for everything that means? Anyone that¡¯s been alive long enough will have heard of at least one war started by or against Infernals. They have enough enemies to fill more than a couple universes.¡±


    ¡°And they have enough blood on their hands to paint the void red. Everyone knows where their main universe is, but it¡¯s never once been attacked, to my knowledge. If I had to put my life into the hands of a power, I''d choose those insane people over some overly cautious group."


    "I guess I should''ve expected that too. Alright I''m going back to bed. Hopefully this all works out like you hope."


    Jrino gave Greja a slight smirk before responding.


    "It will."

 Chapter Twelve

    So, a lot happened very quickly there. I tried to kite Goblins like I kited zombies in a video game before I got teleported into a Tutorial and it didn¡¯t go as I had hoped. Maybe because one of them is a video game and this is real life. Of course, I wasn¡¯t going to be able to do the same things in a video game.


    I made a dumb decision all for the sake of making more money. Greed really is the enemy of mankind. I should¡¯ve at least read all the books I bought, maybe even started cultivating, and I definitely shouldn¡¯t have tried to kite monsters that I barely knew anything about. Phew¡­can¡¯t change the past. Lesson learned.


    Moving on.


    Although I made some bad decisions, those bad decisions led to me learning a lot. First of all, just based off Day 1, I knew I kind of had a thing for fighting. It felt really good to me to battle those not so weak Goblins. But this last time was different. Very different.


    I felt emotions I had never felt before in my life. I didn¡¯t just feel alive, I felt reborn. It felt as if I was one with the world, and the world agreed with my actions. Even as I¡¯m


    thinking about it now, It still doesn¡¯t all make sense to me, but I know what I felt.


    Which of course makes me ask myself If I really am some battle junkie? Who would¡¯ve guessed that the world changing forever, seeing floating words in front of me, and fighting a whole bunch of Goblins, in a Tutorial straight of a clich¨¦ apocalypse novel would turn me into a battle junkie? Not me.


    Well, that brings me to probably the most important thing that took place before I blacked out.


    I used the flame.


    That beautiful black flame I saw when I placed my hands on the floating sphere thingy. It showed up again. Though both this time, and the first time, It didn¡¯t show up because I purposely did it. I was in the heat of the battle , fighting with my life on the line and enjoying myself like a pig being allowed in the kitchen of a 5 star restaurant. And then poof, black flames appeared.


    I barely noticed them in the middle of all the hubbub of fighting, but I definitely saw it right before everything went black and I woke up at my current position. In the home I¡¯m renting. In my room. On my cot. On day 4 of the Tutorial.


    I was unconscious for over a day. Of course, I knew this by checking my status when I woke up.


    Name ¨C Raizen


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


    Cultivation ¨C N/A


    Your Task is to Survive.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.


    Time Remaining ¨C 57 Days


    Everything was the same except for the last line signifying how much time we had left.


    It¡¯s a little shocking that I was asleep for a whole day but It seems using that black flame doesn¡¯t come without consequences. All the more reason I probably need to figure out how to control it.


    But now that I think about it, the black flame seems to have a will of it¡¯s own? Or maybe I can unconsciously control it? I¡¯m not sure, but what I do know is that it didn¡¯t burn me or destroy any of my possessions at all.


    Apart from the extreme damages my new clothes took from fighting, I couldn¡¯t find any burn marks of the sort on my body or any sort of scorch marks let alone a burn mark.


    Matter of fact, I couldn¡¯t find any scars or wounds on my body period. It seems sleeping really does a lot for me healing wise, though I never confirmed if the Tutorial caused that or not.


    Anyway.


    Something else that wasn¡¯t burned was my pouch for storing coins or in this case orbs from Goblins. I know I wasn¡¯t able to pick up every orb I earned due to the fact I had to keep moving, and I definitely don¡¯t remember killing well over 100 Goblins, yet what laid before me painted a different picture.


    On the cot laying next to me was my pouch clearly overflowing with orbs, after pouring them out I estimated it had to be over 100 orbs in there. In fact, taking a more than a few minutes to count them, I saw it was exactly 178 orbs. That was a lot of dead Goblins. And a lot of orbs that I didn¡¯t pick up but are somehow in my pouch. So how did this all happen I wonder?


    I know for a fact I didn¡¯t sleepwalk all the way here, foraging for orbs from dead Goblins along the way. Which I think leaves me with two somewhat realistic options.


    Option 1, one of the green people came and got me. Maybe the one that always guarded the gate? Or maybe the kind shop keeper lady? I believe her name was Greja. It was probably possible that one of them could¡¯ve noticed my troubles and decided to step in.


    Though for some reason I didn¡¯t think it was all that possible one of them would do that.


    I mean why would they? I¡¯m just one of the billions of humans in this Tutorial, right? And based on the fact the Tutorial task was to survive, I think it would defeat the purpose if the Outpost people were to go on around saving everyone. Oh wait I''m technically not a human anymore. I''m an Infernal...maybe that''s why? Who knows.


    Which leaves option 2. Another person found me and brought me in¡­and kindly collected every orb from every dead Goblin in the area¡­and didn¡¯t take anything from me¡­even figured out my house from my house pass that I had on me¡­Okay this one was also improbable. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t think good people exists, but they were prisons all over earth for a reason, criminals existed and I¡¯m going to assume they were all given the same opportunity to join the Tutorial.


    It wouldn¡¯t even take some type of ruthless criminal to see my unconscious state and rob me blind, just anyone who was an opportunist, or someone the Tutorial made desperate, would¡¯ve been enough to kill me, let alone rob me for a few orbs.


    Realizing that really helped to show how much of a bad decision it was to what I did. Really have to make sure I learn from this.


    Sigh.


    It seems I owe a lot to whoever or whatever brought me back safely. I¡¯ll have to properly thank them in the future.


    A few handshakes should do it.


    Anyway.


    I need to go cash all these orbs in, then it cultivation time. Plus tomorrow is day 5, which is the last day this place is free, which makes me wonder if that brings any other changes in the Tutorial?


    The blacksmith guy also mentioned something about surviving long enough to finally get some armor, so that has to mean the Tutorial can and will change in other ways right? Maybe different monsters? Stronger Goblins? Who knows.


    Guess I¡¯ll read that Tutorial book too.


    Never buying this many books again.

 Chapter Thirteen

    I washed my prized pair of underwear, washed myself, and then kind of just laid in the tub as I read the Tutorial Book. Oh, I also finally had to eat one of those food pills, as shortly after waking a massive hunger overcame me. Though I was prepared to eat more than 1 pill, as soon as I swallowed the first one, I felt extremely full.


    It kind of tasted like a plain cookie which was weird cause it was a pill, but that was fine so no worries in being able to eat them going forward and considering I was full off just one and also not being hungry until day 4, they should last me quite a while.


    Back to the Tutorial book. It wasn¡¯t that big of a book only a few more pages more than the cultivation book. It also contained a whole bunch flavor text. A bunch of stuff about how I should be taking this seriously and how it will shape my future and all that. I mean that was nice to know but they didn¡¯t need to say different versions of that on like every page.


    Anyway.


    Despite all the non-important stuff, there was a lot of good information in the book, or maybe I should call it a booklet? I don¡¯t know. Whatever it was, it had good stuff in it.


    First of all, the Tutorial did indeed have stages. We were currently in Stage 1 which was day 1-5, then came stage 2 and that was day 6-10, the next stage was a 10 day stage instead of the previous 5, going from day 11-20, after that was 21-30. Then came the longest stage in the Tutorial which lasted from day 31 all the way to day 59. That was a very long time for one whole stage. Can¡¯t say I¡¯m not a little excited to see what these stages are all about.


    Oh and of course day 60 was a stage all by itself. That could be good or very very bad. The book didn¡¯t explain to me what any of these stages were meant to be about, but just knowing at a certain point things would change should be good enough for now, I think.


    Moving on, the book also spoke about something else I¡¯ve been wondering about. The number of Outposts in the Tutorial. There were only 26 of them. For the billions of people on earth, only 26 Outposts.


    Unless all the Outposts were of different sizes, and some of them could house millions of people, there was nowhere near enough space in each of the Outposts to house that many people.


    Some people were going to die.


    A lot of people.


    This was a lot for me to take in because some of these people could be folks I knew. I never really got super close to anyone in my life besides my parents and they were dead, but I still had friends here and there, and one or two exes that I¡¯d be just a little sad about if I found out they were dead. Even a couple distant relatives that I never got particularly close to, would still make me feel some form of sadness if the worst happened.


    It was a weird feeling.


    Knowing people could die wasn¡¯t the weird feeling, but the fact no matter how much I thought about it I couldn¡¯t help but come to the conclusion that I would only feel slightly sad. I know if it was my parents, I¡¯d feel a lot more than slightly sad, but I guess I really didn¡¯t value anyone else the same way¡­What a shitty friend I am.


    Well at the very least If I found anyone of them, I¡¯d at least help them out a bit, I¡¯m not that much of a bad friend.


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    Anyway.


    While I didn¡¯t know how big the other Outposts were, what I did know was that they could be upgraded. The book didn¡¯t explain what that would entail or even how to do it, much less why it should be done, just the fact it could.


    Maybe an upgrade makes the Outposts bigger so more people could fit? Or maybe it gives us stronger walls? Though our walls are pretty strong as they are right now. Who knows what it would be, anyway they can be upgraded.


    The last thing the Tutorial spoke about was something along the lines of the same thing the first metal man said to me. It was about understanding that the only way to truly guarantee my own safety was to get stronger. Strong enough that I can dictate my own future without worrying about the thoughts of others. Otherwise, my next option would be to find someone who was that strong or join a group of people or basically just anything where someone or something else will shoulder the burden of strength for me.


    But of course, that comes with living under their rule, under their thumb, and moving to the beat of their drums. This idea repulsed me.


    I don¡¯t know what changed within me but thinking about serving under someone else caused a sharp feeling of disgust to well up inside of me. This was weird. Apart from that, this information didn¡¯t affect me too much as I already planned on getting strong. Being strong meant more fun fights after all.


    Alright that pretty much summed up the Tutorial booklet, which means its finally time for the cultivation manual. It was very expensive, so I hope it¡¯s worth it.


    Continuing my soak in the tub I opened up the Advanced Cultivation Manual I bought, it literally had two pages, one for Body Tempering, and the other for Qi Cultivation. Starting to feel like I¡¯m getting scammed. Anyway, I won¡¯t bother with the Qi Cultivation page for now.


    Quickly reading through the Body Tempering stuff, it was very simple to understand. It talked about sitting in a comfortable position and closing my mind off from the world and to try and sense the ambient Qi. Apparently, I just had to ¡®imagine¡¯ the Qi and eventually I¡¯ll see or sense the Qi? I don¡¯t really know. Then after that, I¡¯ll just kind of use my ¡®will¡¯ to forcefully absorb a wisp of the Qi I sense.


    Yep, really simple.


    ¡­


    This was not simple at all. The feeling of being scammed is starting to get stronger. Though I guess I have no choice but to actually sit down and try it as best as I can. If it doesn¡¯t a work I¡¯ll file a complaint with the shop. Surely, they do refunds. Customer satisfaction is important after all.


    Anyway.


    I got out of the tub and sat down while still being wet on the cold washroom floor. That wasn¡¯t a bad idea at all.


    Okay enough of that, close my mind off time.


    ¡­


    ¡­¡­.


    ¡­¡­¡­.


    This¡­this is not working.


    I¡¯ve been scammed haven¡¯t I.


    Well, that was only a few seconds of trying to meditate. Maybe I have to do it for longer?


    ....


    And so Raizen did his best to close off his thoughts and focus on trying to sense something that he never even knew existed. It took almost an hour of sitting there in upmost silence before something finally happened.


    ....


    Wha...what is this¡­my eyes are closed yet I can ¡®see¡¯ a beautiful sight all around me. It was as if I was suddenly among the dark void that was space and small, tiny dots of Qi surrounded me like stars in the sky. I could focus on this for hours without ever being able to fully count the number of dots I can see. Was it millions? Billions? Maybe more? I don¡¯t know. But this is amazing.


    Now I just had to will one of these tiny dots to enter my body right? The manual said I had to be prepared for a lot of pain as this tiny wisp of Qi ran rampant in my body for a few minutes. I would have to repeat this process for a minimum of 5 times and a maximum of 9 times. I would also need time to heal between each session and the manual said that it should take months to heal, with the time to heal getting longer and longer as you completed a session.


    It also said there were things to speed this process up, but one still had to endure the pain, so maybe I can buy things in the shop to help me get through Body Tempering even faster?


    Maybe something like healing potions from that rude shop? I don¡¯t know for sure but that seems likely. Well, I¡¯m definitely going to aim for the full 9 as that seems like it¡¯ll make me stronger so no time like the present, let¡¯s try and absorb Qi for the first time.


    Hmm¡­that¡¯s weird.


    This isn¡¯t painful or hard at all.

 Chapter Fourteen

    I didn¡¯t really understand what it mean to ¡®will¡¯ one of the wisps in front of me to enter my body, but all I did was think about wanting one of them to come and it literally dashed towards me.


    I also expected some type of big shock when the wisp made contact with my body but no¡­there was none of that. When it reached my body, it kind of just entered. No big fanfare or anything. I mean yeah my body suddenly tensed up all over while that one wisp of Qi ran rampant in my body tearing everything up, but it didn¡¯t hurt for some reason.


    It felt almost natural to me. It took also almost 30 minutes I think of having the wisp go all over my body tearing things up so much that wounds appeared on my skin almost everywhere.


    Yet despite all of that, it didn¡¯t hurt.


    Even the little scratch marks from the Goblins hurt more than this. I really don¡¯t understand what¡¯s going on at all.


    Theres wounds all over my body, and I literally felt my insides being ripped to shreds...but I feel fine.


    After the wisp of Qi left my body, I sat there on the washroom floor for a few minutes in silent contemplation before a sudden wave of tiredness overcame me. This was definitely not a normal thing and I¡¯m sure it had something to do with the whole absorbing Qi thing, but this was crazy. I¡¯m barely able to keep my eyes open.


    I barely got up and dragged my still naked body to my cot before plopping down and fell asleep almost instantly. Really glad that I rented the entire house to myself.


    While Raizen was off to dreamland, the rest of the Outpost wasn¡¯t so quiet. It took a few days, but more people finally made their way to the Outpost. A lot more people. Upwards of 100 people showed up in one big group. Every single one of them looked haggard and filled with wounds all over their bodies.


    They had a few discussions about whether or not they should approach the Outpost with the green man standing out in front, but they felt like their backs were up against a wall, so they made the decision to approach. As someone who appeared to be a leader like figure stepped out in front of the group with a sword he gripped tightly as his waist.


    ¡°Excuse me Sir. My name is Richard. My companions and I are kindly seeking shelter if you are able to provide it.¡± Even though he was tired, in pain, nervous and a whole host of other things, Richard did his best to be respectful to the green mad in front of him.


    Though some might say approaching this large a structure with a green alien standing in front as a Earthling in a Tutorial with monsters trying to kill you, and asking for shelter wasn¡¯t the best idea, but they really didn¡¯t know what else to do.


    Thankfully the green man standing in front of the gates was of course Eriog who responded with a smile on his face.


    ¡°Hi there Richard! Welcome to Outpost G! You and the entire group behind you are of course welcomed here! Entry into the Outpost is free for the first five days of the Tutorial, inside you will find many things that will be helpful for your survival for the rest of the Tutorial.


    I recommend heading straight for the central building. Again, welcome to Outpost G!¡±


    Richard and the group were a bit taken aback by the sudden welcome, but receiving even the faintest piece of hospitality since the Tutorial started was enough for some of the people in the group to start crying. A group that included, men, women, children and the elderly.


    Not everyone adapted to the Tutorial in the same manner Raizen did.


    Eriog wasted no time in opening the gates, and ushering the large group in. A few of them tried to ask him more about the Outpost and the Tutorial in general but he simply smiled and waved them in not bothering to answer a single thing.


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    Despite the hustle and bustle of the situation it didn¡¯t take very long for the entire group to make into the Outpost and the gates were closed once more.


    Eriog simply went back to standing in front of the gate, calmy waiting for more people to approach.


    Meanwhile inside the Outpost the group was taking in all the sights, while making their way towards the central building.


    Once they reached the central building, all of them tried to enter together before a shout was heard from inside.


    ¡°Only a few at a time! All of you can¡¯t fit in here!¡±


    Richard, who was at the front, saw the person that yelled at them, and upon noticing it was another green person he hesitated for a moment, before turning around and gave a few instructions to everyone behind him.


    ¡°It seems we can¡¯t all fit in the building, so I¡¯ll go with Brandon. The rest of you can just wait here, the place seems safe for now so if you choose to walk around please don¡¯t go by yourself.


    I¡¯ll go and try to gather some information and hopefully we can finally figure out what¡¯s going on here.¡±


    Although it¡¯s only been a few days since the Tutorial has started, the group was already used to listening to most of the things Richard asked of them. So, after a few nods and a couple verbal answers to show they all understood, Richard himself nodded back and walked into the building proper, with Brandon silently trailing right behind him. Both of them of course had swords and hadn¡¯t released the tight grip on them since they entered the Outpost.


    Once inside it was Richard who spoke up first.


    ¡°Hello there Miss, my name is Richard. I was told by the man at the gate that this building would be of great help to me and my group. Is that correct?¡± Although Richard was still a little tense as he spoke, he was able to sound respectful enough and got his words across as he intended to.


    Of course, Greja noticed how tense he was but didn¡¯t point it out as this behavior was expected for most of the people in the Tutorial.


    ¡°Welcome to the Outpost Shop! Here you can exchange orbs for coins and then use those coins to purchase the things you need! The going exchange rate is 1 uncommon orb for 10 Copper Coins.¡±


    Before Richard and Brandon could even digest everything Greja said, she snapped her fingers and the shop popped up in front of both.


    Instead of the slower approach she took with Raizen when they first met, she quickly explained everything as she realized this man represented the big group who tried to enter and would probably have a lot of questions, not that she was going to answer all of them but the sooner the better.


    As Richard stared at the screen showing what was in the shop, his shoulders visibly loosened and so did the grip on his sword. He was still a little skeptical of everything, but it seemed the place was safe enough in his eyes based on what was being offered.


    He had a number of questions, but one thing stood out the most to him.


    ¡°Excuse me miss, there is a note in the shop saying House 13 is unavailable. Does that mean a group is already renting it?¡± Thinking it was that another group of people was already in the Outpost Richard wanted confirmation, so that he may seek them out afterwards for information.


    ¡°It is unavailable to due to being rented out by an individual. All other houses and rooms are available.¡±


    Hearing the response gave Richard a pause.


    ¡°An individual? So only one person is renting the entire house?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°How many houses are in the Outpost? And how many rooms are in each one? I apologize in advance if I¡¯m asking too many questions.¡±


    ¡°No need to apologize, this is basic information. There are a total of 18 houses in the Outpost. Each house has 3 bedrooms with 1 cot each, along with 1 washroom per house.¡±


    Greja didn¡¯t want to talk to this man so much, let alone any questions with Raizen potentially involved, but this line of questioning was apart of the few she was expected to give an answer to.


    ¡°Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I¡¯ll come back once I¡¯ve discussed a plan with my group, as we have limited.¡±


    ¡°Take care!¡±


    And with that Richard turned around and walked out of the store with Brandon in tow. He had a lot on his mind regarding the Tutorial, surviving, the shop, the green people he just met, and now thinking how to get whoever was renting House 13 to share the rooms within because as it stands there wasn¡¯t enough space for his entire group.


    Of course, Raizen had no idea this was going on, as he slept like a baby in his humble abode.


    Greja, calmy watched the two men leave the shop, wondering to herself that they don¡¯t decide to cause trouble for Raizen. The young man may be good at killing Goblins, but how would he do if his fellow people attacked him?


    She was also glad that Jrino agreed to make the item hidden for anyone not named Raizen, it would raise too many questions otherwise.

 Chapter Fifteen

    Waking up feeling all of sorts was getting a bit too common for my liking, but I guess that¡¯s par far the course in this new reality. Although I was bit out of it mentally upon waking up, it didn¡¯t take long for it to go away and I immediately felt the difference in my body.


    I was strong. Very strong. While my actual body didn¡¯t change very much, I could feel it even my fingertips that I have gotten significantly stronger. I don¡¯t really have much of a comparison but if before this I could pierce through the chest of a Goblin, now I feel like I could completely split it in half with a swing of my spear.


    So, this is Body Tempering then? Neither the cultivation book nor the manual explicitly specified what the levels in the Body Tempering Realm were called, so I¡¯ll just call this Body Tempering Rank 1 until I know better.


    Something else to note was that once again I was fully healed. The manual stated it would take months to heal without resources, but I¡¯m confided I haven¡¯t consumed any of those resources. So that means I probably healed in my sleep, right? This is something I really needed to confirm with Greja. Is the Tutorial healing me or am I healing myself.


    Anyway.


    Thinking about to Body Tempering, I assumed I have to wait a while to advance through the realm, just sleeping healed me up pretty nice, I really hoped I hadn¡¯t slept the full day away again, but my status¡­oh wait yeah, my status screen. It should have changed right?


    Name ¨C Raizen;


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


    Cultivation ¨C Body Tempering (1st Cycle)


    Your Task is to Survive.


    Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.


    Time Remaining ¨C 57 Days


    Ah, well there goes my plan of calling it Rank 1. Instead, I¡¯m currently a 1st Cycle Body Tempering Cultivator. That sounded really strong for some reason, but I knew I was only bottom of the barrel. Either way, I wonder if I could advance again. I think I¡¯m fully healed, and that entire process was entirely painless despite all the wounds that showed up on my body.


    And despite the deep sleep I was in, it was still day 4 so I didn¡¯t even sleep for a full day. Does this mean I could blaze through the Body Tempering realm in a few days?


    Something about that felt wrong.


    Hmm decisions decisions¡­alright I¡¯ve decided. I¡¯ve been a non-cultivating human for 19 straight years and now all of a sudden, I¡¯m black flame spewing 1st Cycle Body Tempering Infernal. This is a big change, so I won¡¯t attempt to advance for now while I get used to my current body. I can feel how strong I am, but I don¡¯t exactly know what that meant. It would be dumb to continue when I barely even understand my current state.


    Moving on.


    So, what are my steps? I took a look at everything I needed to read, I cultivated and advanced, I learned from my dumb mistakes in trying to kite Goblins, and I even managed to use the black flames again. There¡¯s a lot of answers I need but sitting here won¡¯t help me in that regard. I need to visit Greja, cash my orbs in, buy new clothes and ask her a few questions I had on my mind. I quickly got dressed in my now dry pair of prized underwear, my tattered clothes, ripped boots, the pouch tied to my waist filled with orbs, my house pass tucked in there, and of course my trusty spear which could use some love and my way outside.


    Huh, would you look at that, its evening time. The sun is almost fully set with the last embers of light barely covering the Outpost. So, while I didn¡¯t sleep for an entire day, I most definitely slept a lot longer than I thought. Not having windows in the house had downsides after all. Anyway, to the shop! Wait I wonder if it¡¯s closed? Did it even close? Guess, I¡¯ll find out soon.


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    As carefully placed torches lit up the surroundings, I slowly made my way over to the central building. When I got to the building, I noticed something a bit odd. People. Two of them in fact. Standing...guard? At least that¡¯s what it looked like. Two men in what appeared to be business casual clothing you would expect to find in an office setting, except for the fact it was ripped and covered in dirt, were standing on either side of the door to the shop. Neither of them had weapons though, well at least none I could see?


    Very weird.


    Anyway, they noticed me as I approached, of course I wasn¡¯t hiding or anything so that was to be expected.


    One of them eventually spoke to me.


    ¡°Hey there. I don¡¯t recognize you, but you¡¯ve clearly been spending the orbs and it seems you have a lot more on you. Richard wanted us to consolidate our gains so that we could provide for the entire group, didn¡¯t you hear?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t necessarily rude, but he said that in an admonishing tone, and even the man beside him had a frown on his face.


    He said a lot there that I didn¡¯t understand, consolidate our gains? An entire group? Being recognized? But most of all, who the fuck was Richard?


    This is getting weirder. Anyway, I calmy responded to the obviously confused man.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know a Richard. Nor do I know you. If you¡¯ll excuse me, I have some shopping to do.¡±


    Yep, that should defuse the situation and clear up any confusion between us. They don¡¯t know me; I don¡¯t know them or this Richard person. No need for further interaction right? We could now go our separate ways, or at least I could since they seemed to content with standing still at the door. Weird.


    Though It seemed I was wrong after all. The man decided to continue interacting, even going out of his to hold his hand out in front of me to stop me from entering the shop. Hmm I don¡¯t like that.


    As I tightened my grip on my spear the man spoke some more. Though for some reason the more he spoke the more I continued disliking the whole thing.


    ¡°Wait what? You don¡¯t know Richard? Who are you? Everyone in the group knows Richard. Could you by any chance be the person that was already here before the group showed up? If so, please wait here, Richard is currently inside and he would like to speak to you.¡±


    Again, the man wasn¡¯t rude per se. But he spoke as if I had to listen to him. Something deep inside me is getting very annoyed at this interaction. Something else I can¡¯t explain but for some reason the way this man is speaking to me is making it a little harder to remain calm as I usually do. Either way, I¡¯m going into the shop, why should I listen to person? And again, who the fuck was Richard?


    ¡°One more time. I don¡¯t know you and you don¡¯t know me, please move.¡± Surely this time they will get the idea and move aside, right? I¡¯m really annoyed right now and would like to end this conversation here while I try to figure out why this interaction is making me feel so irritated.


    Of course, the man didn¡¯t move. In fact, his friend also stepped forward to block my path.


    Ah¡­now I¡¯m upset. Not even the Goblins managed to make me upset, but of course it was my own race that managed to do so. The man started to say something again, but I no longer wanted to hear him.


    ¡°I really think¡­-¡±


    Before the man could finish whatever, he wanted to see I simply took my off hand and slapped him. I knew I was stronger than what a regular human was so my only intension was simple to lightly slap him to the ground and have him reflect on his actions, but instead on falling on his backside like I intended he quickly went sprawling to the ground in a heap and was completely unconscious. It of course made a lot of noise.


    I stared at my hand a little wide eyed, that was supposed to be a light slap. What would have happened if I punched him for real? Okay it was a good decision not to try and advance again. I need to get used to this.


    ¡°You...!¡±


    Oh yeah there was the other man. Would I have to slap him too? I really don¡¯t want to.


    Though he didn¡¯t give me a chance to, instead he looked at me a little fearfully and bent down to tend to his friend. Well, he¡¯ll probably have a nasty headache, but he should be fine. Of course after slapping the man, the irritated feeling began to go away, and I felt calm once more. Now I can finally go shopping.


    Of course, something ruined that too.


    Before I could open the door, two more men rushed out in a flush. Ah, this is going to get more annoying before It got better didn¡¯t it.

 Chapter Sixteen

    ¡°Richard! That man did this to Jax! He¡¯s the one you wanted to speak to!¡± As soon as the pair came out of the shop, one of whom I¡¯m assuming to be Richard, the previously silent extra shouted frantically at them that I apparently knocked someone out.


    Well technically I did, but it was an accident. But what did he mean about the one he wanted to speak to? Why did this Richard fellow want to meet me so badly. Based on how he reacted to what the other shouted, I think the middle aged looking one was Richard, he appeared to be in his mid-forties I think? And he had a well-built frame for someone of his age. Either way, he was now staring at me after nodding at the previous dude.


    In fact, both him and the person he came out with were staring at me with frowns on their faces. They were also gripping swords tucked into their brand new leather pants. Am I going to have to fight these guys? I just want to shop.


    ¡°Hello. If you don¡¯t mind, could you tell me why you knocked Jax out? I would like to resolve this without any violence if possible.¡±


    Oh, he was being surprisingly civil about this, but the feeling is back again. Even though he wasn¡¯t being rude, for some reason I didn¡¯t like the fact he was asking me to explain anything at all, but I¡¯ll try to remain civil for now. I really need to figure out why I¡¯m feeling this way.


    ¡°He tried to stop me from entering the shop. In fact, I¡¯ll really like to do that now. Please excuse me.¡±


    That should do it right? I clearly don¡¯t want to talk about this anymore, hopefully he would understand.


    He didn¡¯t.


    He didn¡¯t move aside, instead staring at me for a moment before speaking up again.


    ¡°I apologize. I¡¯m the one that told him to ask anyone not to enter the shop as the kind lady inside didn¡¯t really like big groups. Though I guess I should¡¯ve specified this was only for our group. Hopefully we can put this issue in the past?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    I didn¡¯t really care too deeply about it, I just didn¡¯t like the things they were saying at times, and I really wanted to take care of my business inside the shop and move on.


    ¡°Great! If you don¡¯t mind, are you free at the moment? I had something I wanted to discuss with you.¡±


    It took some effort to stop myself from slapping him too. I clearly wanted to go in the shop. Why is he asking if I¡¯m free.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m heading into the shop.¡±


    Instead of letting the man respond, I just walked ahead, either he and the man that stepped out with him would move out of the way, or I would simply move them myself.


    Thankfully it didn¡¯t have to come to that, as they stepped out of the way, and I walked by unhindered.


    Ah yes finally in the shop at last, and my calm has returned. That whole ordeal was weird.


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    ¡°Welcome back! Glad to see you are safe and sound, though it appears you might need some new clothes. And congratulations on your cultivation!¡±


    Greja chuckled as she spoke, but I sensed warmth in her tone that wasn¡¯t there before. She was kind during our first interaction, but this time it felt¡­different?¡± Not sure. Anyway, doesn¡¯t seem like something to complain about. She could also tell that I was in the Body Tempering Realm now I think. How did she do that? Is it because she¡¯s stronger than me?


    ¡°Thank you, and yes, I do need some new clothes indeed. I also had some orbs to convert and a more than a few questions to ask if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Of course of course! Feel free to ask me anything and I¡¯ll do my best to answer! And you can just place your pouch on the counter I¡¯ll take care of it.¡±


    I placed the pouch on the counter and before long it was filled up with copper coins, and some more luxurious coins were mixed into there as well¡­what were those I wonder.


    ¡°I took the liberty of converting some of your copper coins into the bronze coins, as I don¡¯t think walking around with over 1000 Copper Coins is very fun to do. So instead, the final tally is 15 Bronze Coins and 280 Copper Coins.¡±


    Ah bronze coins. That makes sense since that one item costed a whole Gold coin, so there had to be things in between Copper and Gold and if I understand the conversion rate properly, it took 100 Copper Coins to get 1 Bronze coin. The bronze coin itself was almost the exact same size as the copper coin, and it had the same symbols on it as well. The only


    difference was a shiny one.


    ¡°Thank you for your help once again. Are there any more coins above Bronze before it gets to Gold?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there is also Silver! And there are somethings above Gold as well, but you need not worry too much about those for now.¡±


    She answered me with a smile like always, she even snapped her fingers like last time to have the shop open up in front of me.


    ¡°Please feel free to buy anything you need, and I recommend checking the Cultivation Manual section once more.¡±


    I didn¡¯t think too hard about it and after I confirmed the purchase of three sets of clothes, I navigated to the Cultivation Manual Section like she asked.


    Oh, that¡¯s odd.


    <u>Manuals</u>


    <ol>


    <li> Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 50 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 250 Copper Coins</li>


    <li> Raizen ¨C 1 Silver Coin</li>


    </ol>


    The price of the item named after me went down. I¡¯m not sure what the conversion rate of Bronze to silver was but considering the previous 1 million Copper Coins sum Greja gave me before, it¡¯s safe to assume that the item is now significantly cheaper. I wonder what caused the change. Is it because of my new cultivation? Or maybe some type of member discount from converting so many orbs at the shop? Also why did Greja tell me to check? Does she know my name?


    ¡°Hi, the item in the shop that was previously 1 Gold Coin. Why is it called that?¡± I needed to know this first, perhaps I should¡¯ve asked this when it first popped up but better late than never.


    ¡°It seems you might have some idea already as to why that was case but if you want more answers you will need to talk to the Outpost Leader. His abode and office is right behind this building. Don¡¯t worry I can assure you that it¡¯s nothing bad, but not something to be discussed here.¡±


    She said that with a smile, but it only gave more questions than answers, so let¡¯s ignore it for now, I¡¯ll go talk to this Outpost Leader soon enough.


    ¡°I understand, and just to confirm, is it 100 Bronze Coins for 1 Silver Coin?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct.¡±


    Hmm thinking about it for a moment¡­I need 10,000 Copper coins. It took me one night of fighting like a mad beast with my life in the balance to make over 1000 Copper Coins. Now that I¡¯m in the Body Tempering Realm I should be able to replicate that feat a lot safer this time. Based on my slap from earlier, as long as I take them seriously Goblins should no longer pose too much of a threat to me.


    I should really be able to start a Goblin massacre in the Forest for real this time. Let¡¯s finish up here with the rest of my questions and I¡¯ll make my final preparations to go night hunting once more.

 Chapter Seventeen

    Going back to when Raizen first entered the shop, four men were still outside, with one of them unconscious.


    ¡°Quick, help me carry Jax back to the house.¡± Richard said this to the man who was currently knelt down next to Jax.


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    They held him up, and walked as fast as they could back to one of the houses they managed to rent. Brandon followed as usual while he kept taking back towards the shop, as if he was ready to act at a moment¡¯s notice.


    It took them a few minutes, but they eventually made it to the first house on the left side of the Outpost. Due to the amount of people, they had, and the lack of both space and coins, there were a lot of people bunched together in the house. Of course they were all worried upon seeing Jax unconscious.


    ¡°What the hell happened?!¡±


    ¡°Why is Jax unconscious?!¡±


    ¡°Did the Goblins make it into the Outposts?!¡±


    Numerous shouts like this came out from the people in the house as Richard brought Jax in. It took some time, but he was able to calm everyone down and let them know that Jax was fine, and he would wake up soon enough.


    After the initial worry was over Richard said he needed to talk about what just happened but needed everyone to keep a clear head.


    As someone who was high level executive at a big company before the Tutorial, he was used to being in charge of a large group of people. So, when he showed up in the Tutorial with a large group of his own employees and others he also didn¡¯t know, it was kind of easy for him to slip into a leadership role when everyone was panicking on day 1 of the Tutorial.


    He was a good boss, so his former employees kind of helped him out when it came to leading the big group.


    It was hard in the beginning as he had to adjust to everything just like the rest of them, and they even had to deal with a few deaths on day 2 when a large Goblin horde found them, but for the most part he was able to keep them safe with fighting and good leadership skills, and that was the cause of the respect the entire group held for him.


    Which led to this current house Richard was in having roughly 20 people in it, and these are the people who helped him lead the group, with most of them being former employees and a few were other people who also showed up with them on day 1.


    Richard then motioned for the man who stood watch with Jax to explain exactly what happened.


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    ¡°Trent, please tell everyone what happened don¡¯t leave anything out, as we need to know exactly what were dealing with so we can be prepared.¡±


    ¡°We were guarding the door like you asked and then he walked up, he had a spear in his hand and a pouch clearly filled with those orb things on his waist. Jax stopped him thinking he was a part of the group, but he said he wasn¡¯t and that he didn¡¯t know who you were, which said a lot cause we all know who you are.


    Jax realized he might be the person you wanted to talk to about housing and other things, so he tried to get him to wait outside until you were done but he did not want to and asked us to move, and when we tried to block him he¡­ he simply gave Jax a slap. I barely saw his hand move even though I was staring at him and before I knew it Jax down and out. It was just a slap Richard, a simple slap. He could¡¯ve killed both of us right there if he wanted to.¡±


    By the time Trent was done speaking the entire house was silent. The implications of what Trent said were just that alarming.


    Richard was the one to break the silence. He was telling his part of the story.


    ¡°Brandon and I heard the commotion from inside the shop, we rushed out before we could even buy the rest of the things we discussed before, because we thought something big happened.


    Once we made it outside, I saw Jax laying there and the man standing with an annoyed look on his face. After hearing you told me he was the one who knocked Jax out, I was ready to attack, but something told me doing that would be very stupid, and it was these instincts that has kept us alive so far, so I listened to it and tried the peaceful route.


    The man didn¡¯t seem to want to continue talking to us and he didn¡¯t even try to press the issue regarding Jax. He just said his piece and went into the store, and something tells me if we tried to stop him from entering again it would¡¯ve ended a lot differently for us.


    Based on how you described the slap Trent, it might mean he has looked into the cultivation stuff already. We need to buy those books.


    Also going forward, if anyone runs into the man, please leave him alone for now, we don¡¯t need to make an enemy of a fellow human in this place. I¡¯ll be the one to speak with him.¡±


    ¡°Rich are we sure he won¡¯t be a problem? What are we going to do if he decided to attack us later.¡±


    ¡°Christine, I think it¡¯s fine, we were the ones in the wrong here. We had no right to try and stop him from entering the shop. This is not our home, so have to be careful, and if he tries to attack us we won¡¯t be able to do much as we are now. We need to get stronger. I¡¯ll take Brandon and head back to the shop so that we can buy those books on cultivation. Take care of Jax while we¡¯re gone.¡±


    A lot of people had more to say but decided to hold their tongue at least until Richard got back, so he left without much fanfare. Regarding Jax, there were only four cots in the house so one was freed up for him to lay down until he woke. Everyone else kind of found a spot to rest as the house was a little cramped with 20 people in it. ¡®


    Trent though sat beside the unconscious Jax with his fists clenched, this was a close friend of his, and while he did recognize they might¡¯ve been in the wrong for blocking the strange man, it didn¡¯t mean he was over it; he was silently vowing to himself to pay him back at least once.


    Of course, Raizen didn¡¯t have a clue about any of this, and frankly wouldn¡¯t care all that much. He had long since finished asking all his questions before making his way back to his house to change into his newest set of clothes.


    And although the sun had already set, he still decided to go hunting. He didn¡¯t think it was a rash decision like before, instead giving it plenty of thought while factoring his new strength into play.


    It was going to be another long night.

 Chapter Eighteen

    Greja watched on as Raizen calmly walked out of the store with a lot on her mind. She had of course ¡®seen¡¯ the entire interaction he had with the individuals standing outside the shop. From how he calmy responded to their questions while stating he just wanted to enter the shop, to his apparent confusion about the whole thing, to slapping the man down to the ground and walking past the last two and entering the shop.


    She found it interesting that not only was he respectful initially, but he was also direct when clearly annoyed too much. She couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that was a trait of Infernals? They were known to be a fiery race of people, no pun intended. And that strength he showed in the slap, He was firmly on the path of cultivation now, reaching the Body Tempering Realm. But he wasn¡¯t a cultivator just a few days ago...just how monstrous is his healing ability to be able to be perfectly fine after breaking through the first time?


    To her knowledge he didn¡¯t even have any potions or other resources to help him heal. It was literally just his body and constitution being naturally monstrous. Life was truly unfair. All those years ago it took her two weeks just to be able to walk again. Well, she wasn¡¯t a part of The Clan back then, so she didn¡¯t have any resources at all to help, not even a damn potion but still, he didn¡¯t use any either. Either way, no use in worrying about that for now. Ah those two from before are back.


    ~~


    Raizen found himself back at his house after leaving the shop with numerous thoughts going through his mind.


    Hmm so based on what Greja said my healing is a result of my own natural body. So, the Tutorial itself wasn¡¯t responsible for anything I¡¯m experiencing. The lack of hunger, the speed at which I healed, and even the way I felt during the conversation with the two people guarding the shop. It¡¯s all me. Hmm It seems I have a lot of self-searching to do. Anyway, she also mentioned more than a couple times that I need to talk to this Outpost Leader person. It was apparently he who carried me back to the Outpost when I fell unconscious in the forest. So, I guess I really do owe him a visit.


    I¡¯ll look to talk to him tomorrow, for now I¡¯ll proceed with the plan of a massacre in the forest. I think this is the best plan of action right now for a couple reasons. First my black flame, I¡¯ve been slowly coming to terms with the fact that for some reason beyond my knowledge that I¡¯m no longer a human, maybe I was never a human to begin with? I¡¯m not sure but the fact remains that right now I¡¯m something known as an Infernal.


    And whatever an Infernal is, has to be something relatively important in the grand scheme of things. I haven¡¯t been oblivious to the reaction I got from the metal people, nor the fact an Item randomly showed up in the shop with my name on it, and now the fact that the Leader of the Outpost themselves saved my life. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s normal. I don¡¯t have all the answers, but what I do know is that I still look like a typical human, the only physical difference I have apart from fast healing are my black flames.


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    I need to be able to use them at will, and so far, the only time they¡¯ve manifested was during battle when my life was on the line. I wonder if it¡¯s a safe assumption to think that action would be repeatable. The only thing I can do is try. Apart from that I need to get used to my current strength when fighting and I think Goblins are the best bet to help me do that, I was already able to easily kill one before cultivation, and I think that should have only gotten much easier. It should be a great opportunity to learn how to control my strength in a real world scenario in somewhat relative safety, I think. Even if I were to kite them or run into another large horde, I believe I should be able to handle it.


    And finally, the root of all problems. Money. My goal has gotten a lot easier to reach with it going from 1 Gold Coin to 1 Silver Coin, but it¡¯s still far away.


    By this point in time the sun had long since set, and Raizen was once more standing outside the Outpost with his spear, and pouch tied to his waist after being emptied of coins.


    He decided to experiment a bit with his body before fully delving into the forest just to get a quick grasp on everything.


    Raizen didn¡¯t actually walk too far from the Outpost to begin his light experimentation with his body, so he was still within the sights of Eriog, who was still dutifully standing guard in front of the Outpost.


    So, this young man really is an Infernal huh¡­I guess that would explain why is already up and in full health again considering how I saw him the other night. Jrino flew overhead with a body in his arms that seemed battered, bruised, and broken, yet that same body is now standing before me with not only a full slate of health, but also advanced in his cultivation. Even the large explosion I saw in the distance that night sent a shiver down my spine.


    A non-cultivator managed to naturally generate something so strong and profound that a Core Formation cultivator like myself felt a tinge of fear. He is going to dominate this Tutorial and probably his entire planet if he chooses to. Having that type of natural power is not something that the majority can compete with.


    And there he goes, running off into the forest to commit another massacre. I think we expected for a few talented individuals and groups to shine in the Tutorial but I¡¯m not sure we expected a damn Infernal to be here, I had never even met one in my life before now. Sigh¡­I don¡¯t think Jrino will be watching him tonight as there shouldn¡¯t be anything too dangerous for him in there at his current level, but the next stage is close, and it will be interesting to see how he handles that. Not to mention the stages afterwards, they will only get far more dangerous.


    There is a reason why a universe tended to experience on average a 50% death rate per planet, there have even been cases were not a single person survived their planets Tutorial.


    ¡®Shrieeeeek!¡¯


    Ah it¡¯s begun. A part of me feels a little bit sorry for the Goblins.


    Although Eriog didn¡¯t think Jrino would be watching, the man in question was once again floating unseen above the Outpost. If a Nascent Realm cultivator didn¡¯t want to be seen, no realm below them could ever hope to do so.


    He floated wordlessly, sometimes nodded his head when he saw something good from Raizen¡¯s action, but more often than not he frowned disapprovingly, seemingly not liking something Raizen did.


    ¡°It seems we have a lot to correct whenever we get his training going. So many wasted movements. What were they doing on this planet before the Tutorial?¡±

 Chapter Nineteen

    It was pretty dark as I stood in the forest kind of confused. I¡¯ve had a relatively easy time dealing with the Goblins, and I didn¡¯t have any close calls with my life, nor did I manage to generate any more black flames. Everything was going pretty decent I¡¯d say, even with the lack of black flames.


    I might¡¯ve lost count a couple times, but I should have well over 100 orbs in my pouch, a pretty haul in what must¡¯ve been a couple of hours of fighting. The plan was to keep going for a while longer, but I couldn¡¯t find any Goblins anywhere. Hence my confusion.


    I searched and looked high and low but, nothing. Didn¡¯t spot a single one. It was very weird. Did I kill all the Goblins in the forest? Surely not right? This Tutorial is supposed to be all deadly and about surviving and what not right, surely there can¡¯t be only a few hundreds of Goblins in this Forest. That doesn¡¯t feel right.


    Hmm¡­maybe they''re running from me? That might explain it a bit I guess. I did go all scorched earth on them the other night, and I just killed at least another 100 of them. I would be scared of the murder hobo going around killing my people too, so I understand it a little.


    Even though I thought all of that, I didn¡¯t believe that was the case. Oh, and speaking of scorched earth, I went to the area where I believed my black flames manifested last, but I didn¡¯t see any signs of anything being burned.


    No scorch marks on the ground, no burnt tree barks, no signed leaves. Nothing at all. It was all very weird but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll learn mor about them eventually.


    Anyway.


    I still have a missing Goblin problem. Do I just go back to the Outpost and try again tomorrow? Maybe I can ask Greja about this, she might know something about what¡¯s going on.


    Ding!


    Stage Two of the Tutorial begins Tomorrow


    Monsters in all Regions will be Improved


    Prepare


    Hm, so a couple of things here, the Tutorial book I read said Stage Two will begin on Day 6, and this little alert thing says tomorrow, so I guess that means it¡¯s currently midnight and now Day 5? Things are moving along, and I¡¯ve been out here later than I thought.


    Now considering it said all Regions, I wonder if it¡¯s safe to assume this forest is one those regions? Maybe the Tutorial world has other biomes after all, and since it didn¡¯t specify Goblins but instead said monsters, do these potential other biomes have different types of monsters?


    That sounds really fun when I think about it¡­maybe I can pack up my rucksack and go exploring till I reach one of those other biomes if there are any. Maybe they have other fantasy monsters like Orcs or something. Though I would love to do that, the last one word in the alert probably means I shouldn¡¯t. Prepare. In red. That¡¯s not ominous at all.


    I don¡¯t think it would say that for no reason. I almost lost my life once by underestimating this Tutorial. I won¡¯t do it again. So, what can I do to prepare? Cultivate. My natural healing should be a big advantage during the Tutorial, so I need to take advantage of that. As long as every stage of Body Tempering was as easy as the first one, then I should be able to blaze through it. Being able to actually control my flames should help as well. Moving on.


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    I guess this whole Stage Two thing kind of explains where all the Goblins went. I¡¯m guessing they are all going through this improvement thing? Or maybe the Tutorial is giving us the day off to genuinely prepare for what¡¯s to come¡­That¡¯s a little bit exciting.


    Weird ideas of fun aside, I should probably go back to the Outpost, and get some rest. I want to be in the best possible condition when I try to advance again.


    And with that Raizen quickly made his way back. With his new strength it didn¡¯t take him very long to run all the way back to the Outpost. Eriog was still calmly standing in front of the Outpost as always, which caused Raizen to wonder if the guy ever got any sleep but didn¡¯t pay it too much mind before making his way back to his house, where he didn¡¯t waste any time in going to sleep.


    What Raizen didn¡¯t know though, was that there were two sets of eyes watching him as he entered the Outpost.


    One of which was of course Jrino, who was still floating high in the sky as he observed the other party down on the ground hiding in the shadows. One of Richard¡¯s people stared at Raizen walk in over to his house like a hawk, before quickly scampering off back to the house Richard lived in.


    In fact, for the entire time Raizen was outside, Jrino watched on as the group of people rotated in shifts to watch the entrance to the Outpost.


    He didn¡¯t really care about the situation, as he believed it would be Raizen¡¯s job to deal with the people of his own planet. So, after observing the situation a bit he made his way back to his office.


    Meanwhile, the person who was watching Raizen walk into the Outpost, made it inside the house Richard lived in and woke him up.


    ¡°Richard¡­he came back.¡±


    After only just waking up in the middle of the night, it took Richard a few minutes to shake the grogginess off and fully wake up and digest what the person in front of him was saying.


    ¡°¡­How did he look?¡±


    ¡°He looked perfectly fine. I didn¡¯t even see a tear in his clothes.¡±


    ¡°Not even a tear huh¡­and his pouch? How was that?¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t see well enough to tell for certain, but it looked like it was fairly filled. Oh and there was an alert from the system about something called Stage Two and preparing.¡±


    That last sentence caused Richard to fully sit up with his eyes widened.


    ¡°What aler¡­-¡±


    Ding!


    (Previously Hidden due to State)


    Stage Two of the Tutorial begins Tomorrow


    Monsters in all Regions will be Improved


    Prepare


    ¡°Wake...wake everyone up¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s in the middle of the night Richa¡­-¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t sit around any longer! We barely made it to the Outpost as it is! How many more people have to die before we change. The system itself is telling us to prepare, we need to take this seriously. Wake everyone up.¡±


    ¡°I¡­I understand.¡±


    And with that the individual who spent a decent portion of his night left to head to the other houses the group rented, with each of them filled with tens of people due to the limited space. He didn¡¯t need to take up anyone in the initial house as Richard could that on his own. It took a few minutes of running around and literally shaking people awake, but he eventually did the job, and before long around almost everyone was now up, and finally seeing the alert from the system, with the only exceptions being young children and the elderly.


    The red writing caused a little bit of panic, but the situation was mostly calm despite the grunts and sounds of unhappiness at being woken up in the night, though eventually everyone gathered outside around Richard.


    ¡°Firstly, I would like to apologize for waking everyone up, but I¡¯m sure you have all seen that alert by now. Things are changing. We were barely good enough to get through the Goblins as they are now. If they got too much stronger than this, while we stayed the same, we wouldn¡¯t be able to go kill them for orbs, which means we probably wouldn¡¯t be able to afford rent and would need to leave.


    We have to get stronger. I know we knew that already, but this is an emergency. I will try to reach the Body Tempering realm as they call it tonight. Hopefully when I am successful I will the rest of you to do the same.¡±


    Richard let the words sink in to the crowd before him, before he continued.


    ¡°I bought enough manuals so that every house could get a few of them. Please read them fully and study like life depends on it, because it does.¡±

 Chapter Twenty

    What a wonderful night of rest, well at least I think it was a full night of rest, there are no windows in this house, so I have no idea if it¡¯s sunny outside or not. For all I know it could be something like 4am meaning I only slept for a couple of hours¡­eh it doesn¡¯t feel like it though. I¡¯ll find out in a bit. Moving on. The plan for today is to prepare. I will try to advance to the next stage of Body Tempering, I need to go exchange all the orbs from last night, and finally I need to meet this Output Leader guy. Oh, I should probably get my spear sharpened again. A man should take proper care of his spear. Yup that feels right.


    So, after leaving the house and seeing that it really was nice and sunny outside I made my way over to the central buildings and dropped my spear off to the gruff blacksmith fellow and entered the shop.


    Thankfully there wasn¡¯t anyone standing outside trying to block me again for whatever reason. Those guys were really annoying¡­though I still need to figure out exactly why I got so irritated. I don¡¯t think my reaction was typical of me, I¡¯m usually much calmer.


    Anyway.


    Greja greets me as she always does. With a wide smile and a cheery voice.


    ¡°Welcome back! How can I help you today?¡±


    ¡°Hi Greja, I would just like exchange these orbs please.¡±


    ¡°No problem, place them on the counter as always, oh! A word of advice, the exchange rate and the shop itself will change in many ways very soon. Please prepare accordingly.¡±


    Hmm, I can¡¯t really do anything else to prepare apart from trading in all my orbs right¡­well she also mentioned the shop itself would change. Does that mean new items? Or maybe higher prices? Could even be both. I kind of have everything I need though.


    Oh, maybe I could buy more house rental passes and Outpost entry passes. How much were they again.


    ¡°Thank you for the advice Miss Greja, is alright If I take a look at the shop.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    And with a quick snap of her fingers, the shop appeared as usual. I quickly navigated to the appropriate screen.


    <u>Tutorial</u>


    1. Tutorial Information ¨C 10 Copper Coins


    2. House Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (20, 40, 120) Copper Coins


    3. Room Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (10, 20, 60) Copper Coins


    4. Outpost Entry Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (5, 10, 30) Copper Coins


    5. Monster Encyclopedia ¨C 300 Copper Coins


    Oh yea, there was also that Monster Encyclopedia thing¡­do I need it? But it¡¯s so pricy. Hmm¡­I¡¯ll pass for now, if something changes in the future I can always come back for it. Anyway, my House Rental Pass, should have 6 full days left on it, and my Outpost Entry Pass will start being used up tomorrow. There are only 55 days left in the Tutorial, so why not pay for all of that now?


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    It''s a little expensive but, at least I won¡¯t have to worry about the where I¡¯ll be sleeping for the rest of the Tutorial.


    So, after Greja quickly counted and converted my orbs which totaled 107, I should also probably stop calling them orbs so much and call them Common Cores¡­well I¡¯ll try. So yeah after the counts and my subtracted my purchases and the cost of sharpening my spear. I now have 25 Bronze Coins, and 40 Copper.


    Think I¡¯m doing pretty well for myself. Still a long way to go to 1 Silver, but it¡¯s not impossible.


    ¡°Also, your passes have automatically been upgraded to match the new status. I recommend checking them.¡±


    Hmm¡­I grabbed the previously unremarkable pass from my pocket, and she was right it did change. It was now like a credit card, except it was all back, one side read ¡®House Owner¡¯ while the other side said ¡®12¡¯. Both of which were written in some type of white ink.


    It was very pretty. I guess since I rented it out for the rest of the Tutorial that I essentially owned the house? Makes sense. I¡¯m pretty sure the 12 means house number 12, I wonder why the houses themselves aren¡¯t labeled? Odd. I also left my entry pass at home because I didn¡¯t need it, so I¡¯ll need to check it when I get back.


    Anyway, that should be all I need here. So, let¡¯s go meet the Outpost Leader. Well of course after I pick up my spear. I could check out the potion shop again, but I don¡¯t really feel like going back inside. So, Outpost Leader it is.


    I followed the directions Greja gave me and walked around the central building to the back of the Outpost. A decent sized building, made out of the same materials as everything else sat waiting on me. I didn¡¯t waste any time gawking and simply walked up to the building.


    I was getting ready to knock, but a deep voice clearly belonging to a man greeted me before I could do so.


    ¡°Hurry up, its open.¡±


    I did what I was asked, and just walked in. The door opened right into a crossroads of a hallway. It went both left and right, and of course straight ahead. The hallways themselves weren¡¯t that long, but the building didn¡¯t seem this big from outside. Weird.


    ¡°Head straight, first door on your left. It¡¯s open.¡±


    I heard the voice again and just followed instructions. It was probably a bit weird to follow the voice of someone I don¡¯t know in a strange place, but this is apparently who saved my life, so I¡¯ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.


    Upon entering what appeared to be an office or something, another green man was sitting behind a large desk, while polishing what looked like a katana. I couldn¡¯t tell his height from him sitting down but he didn¡¯t look short. He had somewhat long black hair and was dressed the same as the other green people I¡¯ve seen. Maybe it¡¯s all standard equipment? The only thing standing out was that katana. It was pitch black from hilt to tip and seemed like it could cut the world.


    Spears are still better of course.


    Anyway.


    Let¡¯s just thank this guy, maybe get some more questions answered and get on with my day.


    ¡°Hello Sir, my name is Raizen. I was told by Miss Greja, that you were the one who saved my life the other night. I wanted to come say thank you, and while I¡¯m grateful for your help, I would also like to know why? Saving me doesn¡¯t seem like something an Outpost Leader would do.¡±


    I said my thanks and asked the main question I had. Hopefully I was polite enough. I¡¯d hate to have to leave the Outpost over something like being rude.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like to beat around the bush so just listen carefully. I already know your name. All members of my team here in Outpost G know your name. You are an Infernal, though you probably don¡¯t understand what that means yet. What you need to know for now is that being an Infernal gets you paid attention to and using those flames during night in the middle of the forest in the dark of night, gets you more than just attention, it gets people to take action.


    So, this is me taking action.


    I¡¯d like to invest in you, but for that investment to really show promise you need to grow. This Tutorial will get very unforgiving very fast, and you need to not only keep up but be ahead of it. I will help you accomplish that.


    Do you understand?¡±


    I stared at him blankly for a few moments then said the first words that came to my mind.


    ¡°What the fuck are you talking about?¡±

 Chapter Twenty One

    Jrino raised an eyebrow not only at the question, but at the fact Raizen looked pretty calm despite the words that came out of his mouth. He put that aside and asked a question of his own.


    ¡°What don¡¯t you understand?¡±


    Doesn¡¯t he realize just how wild the things he said are? Him and the entire Outpost knows my name? They know I¡¯m an Infernal, and he wants to take action towards me? That sounds a bit creepy. I think based on what he was saying that wants to help me win the Tutorial or something, but it still sounds creepy.


    ¡°You just said a whole lot of things, about knowing my name, knowing what I am. How do you know all of that? Did the metal people tell you? This sounds all very weird to me.¡±


    ¡°Fine I can see how that sounds. I¡¯ll go back a bit further. Yes, the ¡®metal¡¯ people as you call them did tip me off that you were an individual to pay attention to by making me add an item for you in the shop.


    That is not something that is easily accomplished once the Tutorial starts, so that of course showed how important you could be. That is when we found out your name. I decided to watch you fight the other night on my own, and of course that¡¯s when I saw your flames and connected the dots to realize you are an infernal. Following?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­does no one else in the Multiverse use black flames? Why does seeing me using them automatically make me an Infernal? Why do you want to help me? What do you get out of it?¡±


    ¡°You ask a lot of questions, but its fine for now since that¡¯s understandable. Black flames themselves are not uncommon, but yours are special. It¡¯s not my place to say anything more than that so don¡¯t ask. Helping you is an investment for both me and my team, I would of course like a return on my investment. You will learn more when you¡¯re ready, for now just understand that I can help you get much stronger than you are now.¡±


    Hmm¡­it still a little suspicious, but there¡¯s still a whole lot I don¡¯t understand about this new reality I live in. Getting some help from a green alien man who saved my life when I was unconscious doesn¡¯t sound too bad. He¡¯s also being pretty upfront about getting a return on his investment so there¡¯s that. This is a transaction that we both can benefit from. Well, as long as his ¡®investment¡¯ doesn¡¯t involve my life or anything¡­Hmm decisions decisions.


    ¡°How do you plan on helping me?¡±


    Yeah I should at least know how he plans to help, that should help me make a decision.


    ¡°Simple. I will train you. That¡¯s it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all. I don¡¯t believe in handouts. I said I will make you stronger, but you will have to work for it.¡±


    I don¡¯t think I can argue against that. Working for something feels better in the end anyway.


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    ¡°Alright, sounds good. You have a deal.¡±


    ¡°Heh¡­good. We will start today. Go to the Alchemy shop and buy some stamina potions then meet me at the training grounds.¡±


    That was fast. But I want to cultivate first I think.


    ¡°Sure, but can I reach the next stage of Body Tempering first?¡±


    ¡°¡­What?¡±


    Why is he confused? Does he call it something different?


    ¡°I said can I cultivate to the next stage of Body Tempering first.¡±


    Jrino stared at Raizen for a bit with a blank look on his face. He of course knew that Raizen just broke through to Body Tempering recently, and although he knew that Infernals could naturally heal faster than others, this was a bit much. By his estimates, most people won¡¯t reach the Qi Refinement realm during the Tutorial, instead using potions and other treasures later on, most would get to the end of Body Tempering by the time the Tutorial was nearing its end.


    But if Raizen, could cultivate that fast, wouldn¡¯t that be too much of a cheat? Jrino could only shake his head in resignation.


    ¡°No¡­don¡¯t cultivate to the next stage yet. You barely understand your current body. Cultivation is a long and grueling journey; it is not wise to rush it. A solid foundation is important. I will be waiting at the training grounds.¡±


    And with that Jrino calmy walked to the door, opened it and disappeared from Raizen¡¯s sight.


    Well, I guess he didn¡¯t leave much room to argue. That stuff about cultivation being a long journey also kind of makes sense. No real harm in taking my time I guess? I can at least see what this training is about and go from there.


    He did say to get some stamina potions first, so I¡¯ll head that way. Hopefully that shopkeeper is actually in this time, if not maybe the Outpost Leader can handle it. After leaving the office and exiting the way I came, I calmly made my way over to the central area and made my way inside the shop. The potion maker person was present. It was another green person.


    It was another man. I guess Greja is the only green woman in the village? I wonder if their race is dominated by men. Anyway, let¡¯s go get my stamina potion and go.


    I approached the counter, but before I could even speak the man dressed in brown robes that carried a weird smell, spoke up before I did.


    ¡°I know who you are, stamina potions right? 25 Copper for 1.¡±


    What happened to the shop screen I saw in Greja and the blacksmith¡¯s shop? And I¡¯m assuming the Outpost Leader told him about me ahead of time.


    ¡°Hi, I did come for stamina potions, but can I see everything you sell please.¡±


    The man seemed to get visibly annoyed at my question.


    ¡°Stamina Potions for 25 Copper, Healing Potions for 50 Copper. That¡¯s it.¡±


    Now I¡¯m getting annoyed again. I knew there was a reason I didn¡¯t like this store. Let¡¯s just quickly leave.


    ¡°Three stamina potions.¡± I took out a Bronze Coin and placed it on the counter. The man who still appeared annoyed, reached below the counter and placed three bottles on top and the counted out 25 Copper Coins, before placing them on the counter as well.


    I placed the coins back in my pouch before grabbing the bottles in my hands and walked out. I barely even observed the bottles, as I really just wanted to get out of that smelly place.


    After walking out with three small bottles carefully being held in one hand, I finally paid some more attention to them as I began to walk to the training grounds.


    The bottles were really small and transparent.


    They were cylindrical in shape with a wooden cork on top. The liquid inside was the faintest of blue, as if you dropped the tiniest bit of blue food coloring in a large container of water. It would still look mostly like water but with a blue hue.


    In fact, it kind of reminds me of a watered down energy drink¡­if I just paid 75 Copper for glorified energy drinks I¡¯ll be a little upset. Let¡¯s hope that¡¯s not the case.


    Moving on.


    Oh look It¡¯s that guy again¡­what was his name? Oh yeah¡­-


    ¡°Hello again, It¡¯s me Richard.¡±

 Chapter Twenty Two

    Oh yeah his name was indeed Richard, I remember now. I wonder what he wants? He was pretty annoying the last time we met.


    ¡°Hi. Do you need something? I have somewhere to be.¡±


    Richard didn¡¯t seem to mind somewhat rude questioning and just carried on. Oh, and he was alone this time too.


    ¡°I would just like to sit down and talk to you, when you have some time. You seem to be better prepared for this Tutorial than we are, and I think you could help us a lot.¡±


    Hmm...that doesn¡¯t sound too annoying. I don¡¯t mind helping out a bit. I might need some help in the future too, and it would be a little annoying I guess if someone didn¡¯t want to help me. Though him and his people did really annoy me the last time¡­well I moved from that already, so maybe they have too.


    ¡°Sure, that works. I will come to find you when I have time. Where are you located?¡±


    We don¡¯t have phones or anything, so I have to know where he lives If I want to meet up. Hopefully he doesn¡¯t think it¡¯s weird. Also, even though I said it¡¯s fine, I won¡¯t stop my progress just to have a conversation. So, he will have to be fine with working on my time.


    ¡°That¡¯s great to hear, we have managed to somehow rent out all of the houses on the left side of the Outpost, so if you don¡¯t see one of us walking around you can just knock on one of those doors and someone will be able to let me know you want to meet, unless of course I¡¯m in the forest at that time.¡±


    ¡°That works with me, see you around.¡±


    This time he didn¡¯t try to stop me from leaving, he just nodded his head and moved to his own business, which is a good sign I guess. Gotta love improvement.


    Anyway.


    I finally made my way over to the training grounds where the Outpost Leader was already waiting.


    He was just standing there with his eyes closed, and a rather large katana looking sword hanging on his waist. Is that even still considered a katana at this point? Who knows.


    He didn¡¯t open his eyes until I actually stepped foot into the training grounds.


    ¡°You''re late.¡±


    ¡°Got held up.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    He didn¡¯t say after that for what felt like a long time after that and I just kind of stood there awkwardly. What else was I supposed to do?


    ¡°What was your world like before the Tutorial?¡±


    He finally talked again and that¡¯s what he asked? What a weird question. I don¡¯t even know how to answer it.


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    ¡°What do you mean? It was normal I guess?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, describe it in detail. For example, what was your day to day life like?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a college student. So, my day to day life was pretty simple. I lived in a dorm room on campus where I had 1 other roommate. I went to class, I did things around campus, and I went back to my dorm. Occasionally I went out with friends. That¡¯s about it.¡±


    ¡°What about your meals, did you have to fight for them? Did your countries not fight for territory? Were your kings and queens good people? How much time did you dedicate to your spear?¡±


    I think I¡¯m beginning to understand his questions. Based on everything I¡¯ve learned so far since this apocalypse has started, and all my interactions with everyone, and the Tutorial, and the questions the Outpost Leader is asking me, the multiverse was not a nice place.


    I mean earth definitely had its shortcomings, but most countries were not embroiled in wars in this day and age, and most people lived half decent lives and maybe I could even call it great lives if they were being compared to someone having to live in this forest and fight monsters every day I guess.


    ¡°I think I understand your questions. Earth was in the modern age. We barely have monarchs now, and the ones that remain are mostly figure heads. There aren¡¯t many wars anymore and I didn¡¯t fight for my food. The college had a cafeteria where food was free for students. We even had various restaurants on campus, but you had to pay for those.


    Some countries and people still do experience strife unfortunately, and we do have bad or corrupt governments, but generally speaking I guess, most people around the world lived half decent lives I guess. The only people who still used these medieval style weapons were ones who did it for a hobby or competed in a competition I guess.


    This is my first time holding a spear or any type of weapon like this.¡±


    The Outpost Leader fell silent once again, maybe absorbing what I had to say I guess? It took him a minute or two before he started speaking again.


    ¡°I understand. It all makes sense now. It makes sense why your spear skills were so sloppy, and why you felt it was okay to take your sweet time to arrive to training. Because of that I will give you an opportunity to back out now, you can probably grow plenty strong just by being who you are, but the type of training I will provide and what you will mostly see once you are experience the wider multiverse is not for the faint of heart.


    Once you commit I will not allow you to quit. If your mind doesn''t understand what I¡¯m teaching, then your body will understand enough until your mind catches up. It will not be easy. Now make your decision.¡±


    That was a lot¡­but now that I think about it, in some those shounen anime I watched from time to time, the training arc was always very painful for the characters in the show. So, will I experiencing something like that If I follow through with this? He also mentioned my spear skills were sloppy, so I guess he¡¯s been watching me fight?


    Well, it doesn¡¯t matter too much in the end. I want to get stronger, and I still don¡¯t know everything so I¡¯ll take any training I can get.


    ¡°I understand, I¡¯m ready to train.¡±


    Is that a slight smirk on his face?


    ¡°Good. Put your stuff down, and grab a wooden spear then stand in the center.¡±


    I did as he asked, putting my spear, my pouch and the stamina potions down, being careful not to break them before grabbing one of the wooded spears and getting in position.


    Though before I could even signal to him that I was ready to begin, he spoke once more,


    ¡°Hold your spear out firmly. From this point onwards you are not to move, not to buckle, not to speak, and most of all, do not drop your spear.¡±


    Raizen, barely had time to digest what Jrino was saying before a pressure like never before befell him.


    It felt like the entire world just fell onto his shoulders, and he barely last a single second before knees buckled and he fell while gasping for air.


    Gasps


    ¡°Wha¡­wha¡­what was¡­what was that¡±


    Raizen was barely getting words out in between his gasps for air.


    ¡°Weak.¡±


    What does he mean weak...what the fuck did he do to me¡­what was that..


    ¡°Get up.¡±


    ¡°I need¡­a mo..-¡±


    ¡°I said get up.¡±

 Chapter Twenty Three

    The main thing I was thinking of while I struggled to my feet, was what exactly he did to me. One moment I was standing there, everything was fine, and then boom, it suddenly felt like the entire world was crashing down on my shoulders.


    No¡­not just my shoulders my entire body felt like it was being crushed.


    I barely lasted a few seconds before I was forced to my knees and then the pressure immediately disappeared. I¡¯m not even a regular person anymore, I¡¯m in the first stage of Body Tempering now and a lot stronger than before, yet I was still crushed to my knees.


    I don¡¯t know or understand what happened, but the Outpost Leader doesn¡¯t seem like he wants to tell me exactly how he did what he did. Is it some type of gravity machine maybe? But I don¡¯t see anything like that out here. Matter fact since I¡¯ve been at this Outpost, I haven¡¯t seen any sort of machinery.


    I guess it could all just be hidden somewhere and Greja snapping her fingers to show the shop screen is just some slight of hand trick to hide when she pushes a button? Or is it actually snap activated¡­this is not the time to be thinking about this, but I can¡¯t help it. Where is all this pressure coming from? Maybe it¡¯s a cultivation thing? Qi perhaps? Yeah I can somehow see that being a possibility.


    I don¡¯t know all there is to know about Qi, but this is a new reality I¡¯m in, who knows all that Qi can do? I wonder if he¡¯ll explain it to me if I ask. Maybe after. Anyway. Something that bothered me was the fact he called me weak¡­for some reason that bothers me. I don¡¯t claim to be strong, nor was I some bodybuilder obsessed with muscles before all of this, but that bothers me. Weak. I don¡¯t like being associated with that word. Something I really wouldn¡¯t have thought before the Tutorial.


    Something within is definitely changing and I¡¯m not sure how I feel about it. I think it has something to do with this whole Infernal thing, but I can¡¯t say for sure.


    Anyway.


    It took me more than I liked to, but I finally made it back to my feet. The Outpost Leader stared at me for some time, and then finally spoke.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    And then the pressure descended upon me once more.


    And again, to my knees I fell.


    ¡°Get up.¡±


    I listened and did my best to once more struggle to my feet with my spear still firmly in my hand and sweat covering every inch of my body.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    The pressure made its presence known to me once more.


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    And once more I went to my knees, gasping for every breath I take.


    I did not have time to truly cope with the pain, and the pressure or even to come to terms with my situation, for the Outpost Leader did not wait for me.


    ¡°Get up.¡±


    This time it took a lot longer for me to rise to my feet, but I did it. The Outpost Leader watched on, as my knees wobbled, as my head hung low while I grit my teeth to push myself harder, but eventually I did it.


    While the rest of my body ached and screamed and threatened to give up on me, my grip around my spear never once loosened, and if there was one thing I won¡¯t give up on, it was the grip on my spear.


    ¡°Again¡±


    The words rang once more in my head.


    Again, and again and again, did I rise up to my feet, each time slower than the last, only to be pressured to my knees each time. Yet I did not give up. Nor did my spear ever leave my grasp.


    I am not sure how many times we have done this, nor am I sure how much time has passed, but my body could no longer move. No matter how much I asked to do so, it didn¡¯t stir, it didn¡¯t twitch, I simply laid there on the training grounds, with cloudy eyes, a broken body and ever firm grip on a random wooden spear.


    ¡°Good enough for now. Drink this.¡±


    Placed in front of me, was one of the stamina potions he had me buy. I stared at it for the most part, simply because I still could not move. The Outpost Leader didn¡¯t seem to care one bit, as he just kind of stood there watching me.


    It took a couple minutes, but eventually I recovered enough to finally let go of the spear and weakly grab the stamina potion. I brought it to my lips and downed it in one go. It tasted like¡­nothing. Disappointing.


    Anyway, after drinking it, nothing really happened, and I was beginning to feel like I¡¯ve been scammed with a tasteless energy drink. Then before I knew it, I could feel something running through my body. It felt invigorating. Like a shot of electricity was coursing through my blood, traveling to every part of my body slowly forcing all parts of me to wake up.


    My muscles began to come to life once more and it wasn¡¯t long after that I was back on my feet once more.


    My body still ached all over, but I now felt strong enough to continue this strange training.


    ¡°Stamina potions do not heal your wounds. They are a means of temporarily supplying your body with more energy, thus allowing you to push yourself past your limits. They are good tools to aid in training, or in a situation where you cannot afford to run out of energy. But do know they are nothing more than a crutch and not something to rely on. Overuse can and will cause more harm to your body and potential. We will only make use of such potions for the first three days of training. After that I will expect you to train under your own power, with no artificial help. Be prepared.¡±


    I nodded to show that I understood, but what he said definitely caused me to look at the now empty bottle in my hand a little differently. For a second there I was ready to go buy a lot more of these little things due to how effective it felt, but the Outpost Leader¡¯s comments gave me pause. The only thing I need to be relying on in the first place is myself, and the only crutch I need is my spear.


    But looking back on it, I suppose the 25 copper was worth it. Although there are drawbacks, the potion was truly effective. I still don¡¯t like the shop though.


    ¡°Alright, that is enough time for rest. Let us continue your training. Get in position.¡±


    And that is how my day of repeatedly standing up, only to fall to my knees over and over again went. By the time we were done the sun was setting and the effects of the potion were beginning to wear off rapidly. Thankfully my house was next to the training grounds, so I was able to lug myself over, but I barely made it through the door before I collapsed into a heap. Letting the sweet embrace of sleep welcome me with open arms.

 Chapter Twenty Four

    I woke up with far more energy than I expected to. In fact, as I move my limbs around, they feel slightly less heavy. I¡¯m not sure how else to explain it, but I feel looser, almost as if my muscles became more flexible. Did the training cause this? Or was it my sleep? I went to sleep afflicted with the three Bs yesterday, broken bruised and battered. So, I¡¯m a bit surprised I didn¡¯t at least feel somewhat drained upon waking up.


    I really hope I didn¡¯t oversleep¡­or worse, sleep for multiple days. Surely not, right? The Outpost Leader told me to be back at the training grounds in the morning so I¡¯m sure he wouldn¡¯t be happy if I missed my training sessions. Well, let¡¯s check my status to see.


    Ding! (Previously muted due to state)


    Welcome to Stage 2 of the Tutorial


    Monsters have been Improved


    Survive


    Well, no need to check the rest of my status since that at least confirms that I didn¡¯t sleep for multiple days. Stage 2 is officially here. I really want to go fight these new and improved Goblins. Hopefully the Outpost Leader doesn¡¯t train me for the entire day again, or I¡¯ll be too tired to go hunting afterwards.


    Hmm¡­I smell. I should take a bath, but I¡¯m about to train and get sweaty again, so do I take even bother? But I feel filthy. What if a bath makes me late to training¡­Okay I¡¯ve decided, I will take a bath. If a bath will make me late, then I¡¯m already late. It doesn¡¯t even need to be a long bath because I don¡¯t even have soap, I just need to wash this sweat and grime off. Alright to the bath.


    After taking a few minutes to wash myself off, I quickly got dressed again, grabbed a stamina potion, and made my way outside the house and over to the training grounds. The Outpost Leader was standing in the same position in the center of the training grounds. Though he wasn¡¯t alone this time, the green man who usually guarded the Outpost gate was standing next to him.


    Is someone else guarding the gate I wonder? Wouldn¡¯t guarding the gate mean more now that the monsters are stronger? Maybe the people in the Outpost need to guard the gate ourselves now? I¡¯ll ask them or Greja when I get a chance.


    Anyway.


    I walked up to the pair of green people to give a simple greeting. I still had a bit of water dripping off of me as I didn¡¯t have a towel, so I hope they don¡¯t mind.


    ¡°Good morning.¡±


    ¡°You''re late. Get in position.¡±


    As expected, the Outpost Leader didn¡¯t show too many manners, but how was I supposed to get here on time without an alarm clock or windows to check outside? I wonder if I can cut a hole in the house to act as my window. The first lights of the sun should wake me up pretty early, I think. Anyway, the gate guard man simply gave me a nod, and then I proceeded to grab a wooden spear.


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    Walking over to where I was yesterday, I simply held my spear out like usual, to prepare for the pressure to force me to my knees like usual. Of course, I will do everything in my power to resist it and remain standing, but reality is often a bitch so no use in worrying too much about it.


    Well, that¡¯s what I thought until the Outpost Leader finally began with his gravity altering training.


    ¡°Starting now.¡±


    And then the pressure descended as expected. I felt it, but it was different. For one, I was still standing. The pressure wasn¡¯t as heavy as it was yesterday. It wasn¡¯t easy and it still required me to exert some effort but compared to yesterday this was remarkably easier.


    Was he taking it easy on me? Maybe yesterday was just to test my limits and he readjusted for today. I don¡¯t really understand the point of that though so maybe its another reason? I can¡¯t think of any other reason so all I can do is ask him, I guess.


    ¡°Why has the pressure gotten easier?¡±


    I didn¡¯t think this simple question would cause the Outpost Leader to frown, even the gate guard man started shaking his head slightly. Was my question that bad?


    ¡°Tch...it¡¯s not easier, your body has grown stronger.¡±


    He seemed a little annoyed as he told me that, but stronger eh? So, the way my body felt this morning wasn¡¯t because of sleeping for a while. I guess that means all the training I endured yesterday was worth it. That¡¯s some really fast improvement, I think.


    Something I wonder though is exactly what it means to get stronger since I¡¯m already in the first stage of Body Tempering. Does this now mean I¡¯m closer to the second stage of Body Tempering?


    ¡°I can see the wheels in your brain spinning, so listen properly, I will not repeat myself. With enough will power, resources and opportunity, one can technically speed through the Body Tempering realm, and while some idiots do this for one reason or the other, they are exactly what I called them, idiots.


    Everyone¡¯s body has far more untapped potential in between realms that require time and effort to bring forth. Even before cultivation your body could be trained to get both faster and stronger. Cultivating not only grants you wholesale changes, but it also allows you to push your body past your mortal limits. Do not forget this.


    With that being said the pressure will now increase. The original instructions still remain. Get ready.¡±


    During this entire conversion the pressure that I was already feeling didn¡¯t let up once, yet now he plans to increase it once more? Just how far can this pressure go. Either way, this time he gave me a few short seconds to refocus as I was paying attention to him despite the pressure I was feeling.


    He wasn¡¯t lying about the increase in pressure. Well I didn¡¯t think he was, and I did my best to mentally prepare, but it didn¡¯t help my case at all. The second he made it stronger; I was once again forced to my knees.


    They weren¡¯t too many words spoken after that, just ¡°Get up,¡± and ¡°Again¡± over and over until I finally couldn¡¯t move again and was allowed to drink a stamina potion. It worked the same as before and not too long after I was once again ready to go. A few hours later and the training once more came to and end. The gate guard man stood by silently and just watched without saying a word the entire time. Pretty weird.


    Anyway.


    I was a little annoyed I wouldn¡¯t be able to go hunting again today. Not only did I want to go see and fight these new and improved Goblins, but I was also worried the exchange rate changed with this new stage and the cores wouldn¡¯t be worth a much. Sigh, since I only have one stamina potion left hopefully that means tomorrow is the last day of this all day training to the point where I can¡¯t even go hunting in the night.


    *Loud Noises*


    I was just about at my house when I started hearing a lot of noise. Despite my tiredness and suffering the three Bs just like yesterday, my curiosity won over in the end. I made my way around the house towards the noises and saw Richard and a whole bunch of people running around yelling about something.


    Oh, it looked like a lot of people were hurt. I wonder what happened? Are the Goblins just that much stronger now that so many people can get hurt? Or maybe they were that weak? I hope they didn¡¯t underestimate them. That Richard guy seemed smart enough not to do that.


    Well, I hope they figure it out. I need sleep.

 Chapter Twenty Five

    Going back to the early morning before Raizen began day 2 of his training.


    Ding! (Previously muted due to state)


    Welcome to Stage 2 of the Tutorial


    Monsters have been Improved


    Survive


    ¡°I¡¯m sure everyone has gotten the same message as me by now. The Goblins outside have gotten stronger. I know we tried our best to cultivate once we got the warning, but


    so far only three of us have managed to make it to the Body Tempering realm as they call it. Of course, this is only because we were able to take potions to help with the process.


    For everyone else to receive the same resources, we need to go kill more Goblins, so that we can acquire cores. With all the expenses we have as a group it¡¯s getting harder and harder to stay afloat, which is why despite the danger I will lead large hunting party to not only scout how much stronger the Goblins got, but also hopefully kill a few of them. Myself and Brandon will go along with 10 others on this hunting trip while Trent will remain here to provide assistance and protection if anything goes wrong. Please continue to try and cultivate despite the lack of potions. Are there any questions?¡±


    After giving something of a speech within the house to the individuals who mostly helped him manage the large group, Richard just calmly waited for everyone to think about what was being said and process it.


    Eventually it was Trent who raised his hand first.


    ¡°Richard, I know we decided that only you will speak to the other person living in this Outpost, but we noticed the training he was doing, shouldn¡¯t we take a closer look at that man, he can¡¯t be trusted.¡±


    After hearing what Trent had to say, Richard began massaging his temples due to the stress the question brought him.


    ¡°Trent¡­we talked about this. We are not to bother him. I will be the only one to deal with him, please don¡¯t take this farther than it needs to go.¡±


    Trent, who clearly didn¡¯t seem to like that answer, raised his voice in his response.


    ¡°So, are we going to just let him walk all over us?! It¡¯s over a 100 of us and only of him, plus, we are in the Body Tempering realm too! We don¡¯t need to be scared of him. I think we should pay him back for what he did to Jax.¡±


    Jax, who was also in the house, decided he wanted to speak up as well.


    ¡°I agree Richard, I was just trying to have a conversation with him, and before I knew it I was knocked unconscious. Who knows how far he would¡¯ve went if we were out in the forest and no one could see his actions? Or even if Trent wasn¡¯t there with me? We don¡¯t need to kill him, just show him actions have consequences.¡±


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    ¡°That¡¯s enough guys! Are you both even hearing yourselves at the moment?! Did you forget that you two were the aggressors in this situation?! I only asked you to keep


    people from coming in because the shopkeeper didn¡¯t like crowds, not to try and block the path of someone who isn¡¯t even a part of our group!


    We are not random villains in a story starting stupid fights for no reason! He is a human just like we are, trying his best to survive in this blasted world! Do you remember what it took to make it to this Outpost?! How many people did we lose on the way here?! Do you not remember them? How we had to leave their bodies to rot because we were running for our lives?! Do you not remember?!!


    And now you¡¯re here trying to teach someone a lesson all because your pride got hurt?!


    Grow the fuck up! This is real life! We were in the wrong, and all he did was defend himself! Stop bringing up this stupid argument. We are going to do our best to live peacefully in this Outpost.¡±


    At this point in time, everyone in the house was dead silent. Trent and Jax included. For the ones who knew him before the Tutorial which was most of them, and the few who


    have only known him for a few days, hearing Richard raise his voice like this was unheard of. He had never once lost his calm to this extent. There were times when he let his frustrations show, or his sadness when people passed, or his excitement when something good happened, but to be angry to this extent? Never.


    It caught all of them off guard so much that everyone was stunned, unable to speak at the situation.


    The silence gave Richard the chance to calm down a bit, and he could only begin to feel a little embarrassed. He didn¡¯t know what came over him, but he just couldn''t let those two make such a foolish decision in his eyes. There was too much at stake to worry about putting some guy in his place apparently.


    Nevertheless, he still felt embarrassed at his outburst.


    Before Richard could open his mouth to apologize for his outburst, it was Trent who started talking first. Clearly affected by everything Richard said.


    ¡°I...I¡¯m sorry Richard. I don¡¯t know what I was thinking. I think being in this Tutorial for the last couple days has taken its toll on me, all the killing, all the death, it¡¯s a lot to handle, so I¡¯m sorry. I won¡¯t bring this up again don¡¯t worry.¡± After giving his piece to Richard, he turned to Jax and continued.


    ¡°I know you wanted revenge Jax, but Richard is right, we were in the wrong, we should drop it. There¡¯s no point man for real.¡±


    Instead of immediately responding, Jax looked around the room at the faces of everyone present. He slowly realized that no one else was on his side. That he would have to suck up being knocked out cold, that he would have to deal with the embarrassment of not being able to fight back. He truly felt no one could understand him anymore.


    He thought Trent would support him, but one little speech from Richard and he was singing a different tune.


    Jax couldn¡¯t understand, why didn¡¯t they want to help him? Couldn¡¯t they see what he saw? That guy was clearly dangerous, yet no one wanted to do anything about it. How long would it be before that man succumbed to his craziness and killed one of them?


    With nowhere to vent his frustrations, Jax gave Trent and everyone else one last look before grabbing his sword and angrily stormed out of the house.


    ¡°Jax! Jax wait man! Richard don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll go talk to him. Jax¡­!¡±


    Trent kept calling out to him as he left the house, he was in The Body Tempering realm while Jax wasn¡¯t, so keeping up wasn¡¯t very hard.


    Richard stared at the door that Trent and Jax left through for a few seconds before continuing to the rest of group.


    ¡°I apologize for that everyone, but I truly do feel that way about everything I said, despite everything this new world is throwing at us, we can¡¯t forget to still be good people. Sigh Lets move on from that though, shall we? The plan Is still the same. Brandon and ten of you will join me outside to try and scout out these improved Goblins and kill some of them if possible.


    And with that Richard quickly gathered a team together, and they stepped out of the Outpost. The team was a little confused that the man that usually guarded the gate was no longer there, but they figured he needed rest too and didn¡¯t think too much of it before making their way into the forest.

 Chapter Twenty Six

    Richard and 11 others were standing in what they considered a formation as they slowly trekked through the forest just in front of the Outpost, Richard, and Brandon in front the remaining group with one of them walking on the left and the other on the right.


    Neither of them let it show, but both Richard and Brandon started feeling a little invincible ever since breaking through to Body Tempering. That was the only reason Richard even felt safe enough to walk to go fight these stronger Goblins.


    Richard in particular didn¡¯t know what to expect from breaking through to Body Tempering, but he knew it would be something big based on what he saw from the young man who also lived in the Outpost. He came back with a bag full of Goblin orbs without even a single scratch on his body. To Richard, that had to mean he got far stronger after he broke through, and now having broken through himself, he would have to agree.


    ¡°Stay focused everyone.¡±


    Richard reminded his team, as they continued to venture deeper into the forest, with the Outpost quickly fading into obscurity behind the cacophony of trees that made up the forest.


    It didn¡¯t take too long after that for them to spot their first Goblin off into the distance.


    ¡°It¡¯s just one Goblin, we don¡¯t know how much stronger it got and we know where there is one Goblin, there are more not too far away. I will take care of this one as quickly as possible.¡± Richard spoke to the team softly before doing his best to sneak up on the unsuspecting Goblin. It was only about 100ish feet from the group as the rest of them crouched down low to avoid detection.


    By the time Richard got close to the Goblin, he started to feel like something was wrong.


    POV Richard


    Why it just standing there? Not moving at all¡­? Something about this doesn¡¯t feel right, but I can¡¯t figure out why. Do I turn back? No, it would be stupid to let a free kill on a Goblin like this go, let¡¯s just kill the Goblin and we can assess the situation afterwards.


    ¡°RICHARD !!!¡±


    Richard turned around so fast that a small child would¡¯ve gotten whiplash if they did the same thing, he was extremely shocked. Brandon knew better than to yell that loudly in the forest, so something had to be extremely wrong.


    Though what Richard saw wasn¡¯t Brandon in some type of life or death battle with the rest of the group, instead he saw a ball of fire the size of a basketball flying with great speed towards his face. It was so close he could already feel the heat of the encroaching ball of fire bearing down on him. This was no illusion.


    What the hell is that..! Wha..-


    ¡°Ahhhh!!!¡±


    While he was still distracted by the fireball, the Goblin he was just a few short moments away from killing did not let the moment go to waste. When Richard looked down to where he felt the pain, there was a knife lodged into his thigh, and the Goblin was already scampering away after committing the act.


    The pain seemed to wake Richard up from his stupor as he stumbled to the left, just barely dodging the fireball, as it bathed him in its heat as it whizzed by before smashing into a large tree in this distance, immediately the entire area the fireball hit was charred black.


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    Though of course Richard didn¡¯t have time to worry about that.


    ¡°Fuck! What about Brandon and the rest?!¡±


    Richard pulled the knife out as he got back to his feet, and frantically looked around his group. It only took a moment for him to find them, but he also found the bastard of a situation they now found themselves in.


    The entire group was surrounded.


    It was only about 50 Goblins which would be a terrible situation in its own right prior to stage two, but this was different.


    The Goblins had different weapons. Gone were the small clubs that they once wielded, replaced them instead were small daggers fit for the size of Goblins. No matter how weak a Goblin was, a sharp point was very dangerous. Even a small child could kill a grown man if they had a knife and managed to stab them.


    Though that¡¯s not what worried Richard the most. What worried him the most was the fact some of the Goblins looked genuinely different.


    Amongst the 50 or so Goblins who were gathered, more than a few of them wore some type of robe and carried a wooden staff in their hands. They were also a little taller than their counterparts.


    Now as a middle aged man that worked as a manager in a corporate setting before the Tutorial, Richard didn¡¯t consume much content, let alone fantasy content. But who didn¡¯t watch one or two movies were the person wielding magic did it with some type of staff? And along with the fireball he just dodged, it didn¡¯t take long for him to put two and two together.


    ¡°Dammit! Everyone group together! They have knives now! Micah be frugal with your arrows because I don¡¯t think we will be able to collect them afterwards but focus your shots on the ones holding a staff! They can shoot damn balls of fire and we don¡¯t know if that¡¯s all so stay alert everyone!¡±


    After barking the only orders he could think of he sprinted back towards the group as his thigh continued to bleed, while it didn¡¯t bleed as much as it probably would¡¯ve before breaking through, the knife went in pretty deep and that type of wound wouldn¡¯t heal overnight, let alone a couple of minutes.


    ¡°Richard, we can¡¯t stay here! We''re just sitting ducks for them to shoot god knows what at us!¡±


    ¡°Christine, I know! But we are surrounded, and they haven¡¯t even done anything yet! The''re just looking at us, we need to¡­-¡±


    ¡°Fuck Richard! The magic looking ones are doing some shit! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!¡±


    ¡°Shit! Calm the hell down Lance! Everyone follow me! Brandon protect the rear! Micah start shooting those fucking arrows! I don¡¯t even care if you miss, we just need to disrupt them!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m shooting, I¡¯m shooting!¡±


    All Brandon did was nod and then moved to rear of the group as Richard began leading the group towards the closest point in the encirclement.


    Richard of course ran ahead to try break a whole for the group to get through, but at the same time fireballs began to form at various points in the encirclement.


    ¡°Richard!!!! They are forming the fire balls!!!¡±


    ¡°I know! Just keep running!!¡±


    Richard with his sword drawn finally neared the Goblins blocking their path, they had began converging to that section when they noticed the group moving that way, so instead of a few Goblins, it was more like 10 of them.


    He wasn¡¯t an expert fighter by any means, but any fool could swing a sword and hurt someone, let alone a fool who was in the first stage of Body Tempering, and Richard was no fool.


    Using his superior strength and speed, Richard was able to quickly deliver fatal slashes to the first 5 Goblins he made contact with, before he got stabbed on his arm. Instead of screaming out in pain he just kept going with a drive to survive. Maybe if he had taken the time to properly get used to his new body or maybe if he had proper training on how to fight with a sword, he could¡¯ve eliminated these Goblins flawlessly.


    But reality tended to be different.


    Despite his overwhelming physical advantage, sometimes his swings were far too wide, or his mind didn¡¯t react quick enough to the movements of the Goblins, or he just didn¡¯t think far enough ahead in the battle, or fell for a feint, all of it led to him getting stabbed a couple times as he dealt with the Goblins, by the time the group caught up to him he was bleeding from all over his body, yet still going strong.


    Of course, the Goblins were in full chase, and by now so were the fireballs.


    The situation did not look favorable.

 Twenty Seven

    They had been running for hours already. There wasn¡¯t a single individual in the group that didn¡¯t have some type of injury. Richard and Brandon did their best to brunt the worst of the battle, whether it was fighting multiple Goblins, or learning the hard way they could survive a grazing hit from a fireball with only a few burns, they braved it all.


    They were not initially far from the Outpost, but the Goblins themselves seemed to know that and purposefully reinforced defenses on any paths that led towards the Outpost. This level of organization baffled Richard and the rest. It forced them to run away from the Outpost for a while as fighting melee battles against knife wielding Goblins while dodging the occasional fireball wasn¡¯t the easiest thing in the world, but eventually after some time Richard and Brandon just agreed to forcefully breakthrough.


    They couldn¡¯t run away forever or eventually they would get tired, and that¡¯s without mentioning how tired the rest of the group was, as they didn¡¯t have the stamina of someone in the Body Tempering realm.


    So, with the risk of death of their mind, Richard and Brandon changed their positions with both of them running in tandem at the front of the group, swords were drawn, and convictions were steely. With the rest of the group following ready to support and fill gaps were needed it was a one shot attempt at escape. If they failed here¡­there was no need to consider that option as they wouldn¡¯t be around to worry about it.


    They met the forces of the Goblins head on, swords, hammers, arrows, and even a mace met the knives and fireballs of the Goblins. A prolonged battle would probably see the group lose their lives as more Goblins would gather over time, but this was not supposed to be a long fight.


    After a path to the front was somewhat cleared, Richard and Brandon repositioned to the flanks of the group to help keep the path open.


    ¡°Don¡¯t stop running! Keep your feet moving! Get to the Outpost no matter what!¡± Richard screamed out as he dodged a knife aimed to his side, followed by him driving his sword into the clavicle of the attacker. The Goblin fell backwards once Richard pulled his sword out, which provided him a little space that he made immediate use of to move in the direction of the Outpost.


    Though the Goblins didn¡¯t leave him that freedom for too long, by his third step towards the Outpost another basketball sized fireball flying in his direction, he quickly realized that dodging it would expose his friends to danger. It was then that a Goblin tried to stab him in his thigh once more to try and root him in place for the fireball to hit, but instead of immediately killing the Goblin, Richard grabbed him and threw him at the incoming fireball.


    The force of the impact shot the body of the Goblin back towards Richard, who caught it and then immediately threw it once more towards the Goblin who fired off the fireball.


    Richard didn¡¯t even know if his throw made contact or even did any damage, but he didn¡¯t care he just needed time. He glanced over at Brandon and saw that he too was doing his best to fight off Goblins while moving towards the Outpost as fast as they could.


    This arrangement went for quite some time before the Outpost finally came into view. For some reason the Goblins stopped chasing completely as the group continued to make a beeline for the Outpost. Of course, the green man was still not standing out in front, so someone had to open the gate themselves.


    Before long 12 bloody people exhaustingly made their way through the gates as the sun set in the background, almost as if to signify the end of the whole ordeal.


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    Everyone trickled into the Outpost while Brandon kept a watchful eye on the forest, worried a fireball would come flying throw the air any minute now. Inside, Richard did his best to gather the entire group together so that the injured could get the help they needed, he of course was among the most injured, yet his selfless attitude continued to shine forth as he orchestrated to medical efforts for the rest of the group. It took Trent to show up and almost forcibly drag Richard into a house and place him on a cot for him to rest.


    Eventually someone came running in with one of the few health potions they had left, after Richard, Trent and Brandon used them to heal up after cultivating.


    ¡°Here Richard drink, don¡¯t even bother talking man you look terrible. We will deal with all this later, for now you need to rest.¡± Trent spoke in a firm tone as he along with everyone else in the group knew by now that Richard would never rest if they left him to his own devices.


    A little later, the same type of treatment was forced on Brandon as he was dragged back inside and given a cot to rest on, along with a potion. While everyone in the group all sustained various injuries, no one took on more damage than Richard and Brandon. It was only right they were given priority, and no one complained about it.


    Jax watched all of this happen with frustration painted on his face. He wanted to help, he wanted to get a small piece of revenge on the man that knocked him out, but he was weak. Too weak to help, too weak to fight back, too weak to do anything.


    He along with a lot of people all attempted to cultivate, but it was not easy to meditate long enough to sense the ambient Qi, then it was even harder to pull a wisp of it into your body, while most people failed at the sensing the ambient Qi, the next batch of people failed at pulling it, he failed once it made contact with his body.


    His stamina was drained, and he didn¡¯t have enough will power to bear with the pain of the Qi entering his body. He screamed out the second the pain hit him and fell unconscious once more. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that only 3 people in the entire group actually broke through, he would want to find a hole to hide in, though despite all of that he was finally at his breaking point. Either he would break through tonight, or he would die trying.


    As everyone was busy trying to provide medical attention to the injured, it wasn¡¯t hard for Jax to find a somewhat secluded area near one of the houses, while he would want some privacy from the group due to the fact he planned to cultivate until he broke through or his body broke down and Trent would most likely stop him, he didn¡¯t want to go too far. He knew he would need some form of help even if he was successful.


    POV Jax


    ¡®Alright come on Jax! You can do this man, if that bastard could do it, you can too. Focus¡­sense the Qi¡­focus¡­sense the Qi¡­


    Ten minutes later


    Ah, there it is¡­I can sense the Qi¡­beautiful¡­alright I got here a little quicker than I did last time, now for the hard part.


    That one seems close enough, come to me.¡¯


    Jax grit his teeth, as he willed the wisp of Qi to come towards him, bracing himself to deal with the immense pain that was sure to come.


    Sweat began to build up on his body, as forcing the wisp of Qi to bend to your whims wasn¡¯t an easy process for most people. Though eventually Jax¡¯s focus paid off and the wisp of Qi finally made contact and entered his body.


    He wanted to scream, he wanted to stop the pain, he wanted to just go sleep in his bed back home before the Tutorial began, but he pushed on, because more than any of those things he wanted to help the people whose been there for him since this Tutorial began, despite the fact Richard didn¡¯t want to help with that bastard, he would take care of that himself.


    He wasn¡¯t lying when he said he didn¡¯t want to kill him, but he truly felt he deserved a beating. One that came from his own two hands.


    With that type of motivation, he pushed and pushed until he felt something within him shift and the wisp of Qi left his body on its own.


    Jax probably would¡¯ve smiled, if his body wasn¡¯t now ravaged with wounds and sweat and blood mixed to paint quite the scene. He laid down on the ground and let out one weak and hoarse scream with the last of strength as he immediately fell unconscious once more. He thought to himself that this was happening way too often.

 Chapter Twenty Eight

    Today makes a week since this Tutorial has started, just one short week ago I was a typical college student going through the motions of life like most people. I would graduate, get a decent paying job, work for 30-40 years then retire and live out the rest of my days on an island somewhere.


    Well, things have changed a bit. Instead of pens in a class, I¡¯m now carrying a spear through a weird Tutorial which is just currently just one big forest, I¡¯ve killed plenty of little green monsters only seen in games and shows, I¡¯ve interacted with these strange human-like green people, one of them is even training me. Pretty weird stuff if you ask me.


    Anyway.


    I should probably stop dilly dallying, and head to training. I woke up this morning feeling almost as good as I did yesterday, diminishing returns maybe? Anyway, I have looser, yet firmer muscles, and seemingly more control over my movements. I¡¯m not sure really sure how the process works honestly, but it feels like I¡¯m improving so who am I to complain. I once again made my way to the training grounds where both the Outpost Leader and the man that guarded the gate were standing in the same spot as yesterday. Just like yesterday I greeted them both, only to be told I was late from the Outpost Leader, and a nod sent my way from the other guy.


    Oh, and apparently my training would be different today.


    ¡°You¡¯ve reached your limit for this stage regarding resistance training. The next step from here is actually learning how to swing your spear. I will be transparent here¡­¡± That last part caused the gate guard man to raise his eyebrow at the Outpost Leader.


    ¡°¡­I am not qualified to teach you spear arts. In fact, I believe few others in this entire Tutorial are qualified. I do not know much about Infernals, but anyone with a presence in the Multiverse knows about the love Infernals have for their spears and the arts that serve as their conduit. So, with that being said I will not be teaching you any techniques about spears. You will have to either depend on yourself, or your own people for that.


    ¡°On the other hand, I can¡¯t teach arts, but what I can do is firm up your foundations. You have a truly disgusting amount of wasted movements when you fight, I now understand that its due to this being the first time you are using a spear. Nevertheless, that needs to be corrected, your training will now alter slightly. We will spar in the morning, then you will hunt Goblins to apply what you learned. Grab a spear.¡±


    As he typically does, the Outpost Leader threw a bunch of information at me, and just expected me to absorb and accept everything he said without question. Well, this time was different, I had questions, but something told me I wouldn¡¯t get much of an answer. So, as I walked to the rack to grab the wooden spear I¡¯ve been using the past two days, I couldn¡¯t help but think about this infernal business further.


    What am I really? Something that makes the clearly prideful Outpost Leader who is absolutely way stronger than me go as far as to say he isn¡¯t qualified to teach me these spear art things. I¡¯m going to go out on a limb and say the Multiverse is bigger than the Milky Way Galaxy, so how much of an influence do we have for people to treat a random like me this way?


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    Will I get to meet other Infernals after the Tutorial maybe? I have so many questions for them.


    Moving on, I stood in front of the Outpost Leader with my spear at the ready. He said we would spar right? Probably means I¡¯m going to be getting a beating for a while, shrug hopefully I can learn a thing or two though.


    ¡°I said this would be a spar, but you are not yet qualified to spar with me in true fashion. Instead, I will only defend. Begin.¡±


    There it is, another seemingly random sentence with no apparent ill will that somehow finds a way to annoy me for some reason. This is the same feeling I had when those two guys blocked me from the shop. Why do I feel so annoyed? I don¡¯t even know who I can ask for advice about this. No time to think about it though, hopefully fighting will help get rid of the feeling.


    Looking at the Outpost Leader, he¡¯s kind of just standing there waiting for me to attack. In shows and stuff this is where the main character would probably say ¡®Oh no he has no openings!¡¯ , but I could never understand what that meant and I still don¡¯t, he looks pretty open to me so let¡¯s just attack and take it from there.


    I took off in dash and pulled my spear back with my left hand, and once I got within range, I thrust out towards his chest with the fastest speed I can. As a Body Tempering realm cultivator, I was moving faster than a regular person could ever dream, and that thrust would¡¯ve been enough to decimate any regular man.


    But alas, the Outpost Leader indeed wasn¡¯t a regular man. He didn¡¯t even move from his spot as my spear neared him. Instead, he calmly raised his hand and stopped my spear with a finger. He looked like he was taking a stroll in the park, yet for me it felt like I hit a wall with my spear at full strength. Though surprisingly my spear didn¡¯t seem to suffer any damage despite it being wooden.


    Anyway, I jumped back as far as I could but before I could attack again, he started speaking.


    ¡°You have a long way to go, and I do not expect any sort of mastery of the spear from you, but I expect you to give it your all. The night I watched you almost lost your life fighting Goblins, I watched you fight like every breath would be your last, and your meager skills actually improved as you fought. Your spear couldn¡¯t reach me no matter how hard you tried, so fight like your life depends on it.¡±


    Alright I didn¡¯t need to figure out why I felt annoyed this time. Everything he said just now didn¡¯t serve any other purpose than to annoy me, that had to be the case, how else would I explain the fact I¡¯m starting to get pissed? Something is definitely wrong with me because I know for a fact something like this wouldn¡¯t have upset me before all of this. But now? I¡¯m getting the urge to drive my spear through his chest.


    Since when did I become a murder hobo? Sigh¡­fine¡­If it¡¯s a fight he wants I will give him one. My spear will never reach him? My spear will reach wherever I aim it.


    I took off running again in a full sprint, a mad grin adorned my face as I began fighting with everything I had. The only thing on my mind at this point was making my spear reach it¡¯s target. I jumped and slashed down with everything my arms could muster and he blocked it once more, causing me to stumble when I landed.


    I didn¡¯t stop there though, repeated thrusts, slashes, kicks, everything I could possibly think of I did. Which in all honesty wasn¡¯t much.


    Either way, he blocked all of it.


    He still hadn¡¯t moved from that spot.


    Tch.


    We did a couple more rounds of this and yet my spear still did not reach its target. I wasn''t discouraged though, in fact I felt more and more motivated to make it happen the longer this went on.


    My spear will reach.

 Chapter Twenty Nine

    ¡°Are you all fucking scared?! I am the last one left yet none of you are coming! My spear yearns for the taste of your blood!¡±


    A large man with ferocious black hair down to his back, bellowed out to the thousands of people surrounding him. Of course, what kept them at bay apart from the thousands of their people lying on the ground all around him, were his flames.


    Black flames danced with reckless abandon around him for miles on end. His spear floated ominously beside him was too coated in his flames.


    ¡°HAHAHAHAHA!!! If you won¡¯t come! Then I will come to you! Hear me my Ancestors! Let my flames burn Eternally! And my SPEAR BE EVER SWIFT!!!¡±


    - A random war, on a random planet, eons ago.


    Just before I was preparing to continue my seemingly futile attempts to make my spear reach the Outpost Leader, he finally decided to speak again.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough. I allowed you to attack continuously so that you are able to clearly understand the difference in what you¡¯re about to see. Watch carefully.¡±


    Interesting. After hearing what he had to say, I took a couple steps back to give him space and just waited. I watched on as he calmly walked to the rack of wooden weapons and grabbed a random spear.


    He seemed to take his sweet time as he strolled back to center of the training grounds with a spear in hand.


    He stood there calmly for a moment before getting into a sort of combat stance. One that I¡¯ve kind of been trying to copy. One foot placed slightly in front and to the side, with a slight bend at the knee.


    Using his right hand, he held the shaft of the spear about halfway, and brought his elbow backwards as if readying the spear for a strike. His left arm calmly yet readily swaying at the side.


    It was all very slow and methodical the way he got into position. A far cry from when I do it.


    It seems I¡¯m not putting in the proper effort to get better with the spear. Well, it also has only been a week since I¡¯ve picked one up, so I¡¯ll cut myself some slack. Anyway, I didn¡¯t lose my focus as I watched him.


    He stayed perfectly still for a few moments. I barely blinked, and the world around him seemed to follow suit as everything somehow became tranquil. I didn¡¯t understand it, why did it feel like everything got quiet? It felt like the world was genuinely paying attention to the man in front of me. Truly fascinating. Oh yeah, the weird gate guard man was also there watching intently, and he still hadn¡¯t moved or said a single word this whole time. Weird.


    Anyway, a few more moments passed before I was just barely able to register what was but a simply thrust of a spear.


    The Outpost Leader brought his hand forward with blistering speed. Even though I think that¡¯s a speed I shouldn¡¯t be able to track, I was still somehow able to follow and watch as his spear didn¡¯t even so much as tremble as it came forward with a force I didn¡¯t believe a man was able to bring.


    By the time he came to a standstill once more with his arm fully extended in front of him, it took the world a second to catch up with him as wind suddenly came flying by raising dust and debris into the air.


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    I don¡¯t know how to explain it other than to say it was beautiful¡­and If I remember correctly, he called this fundamental¡­what was a spear art then if this wasn¡¯t considered an art? I gripped my spear tighter, and I almost unconsciously closed my eyes for a moment to replay what I just saw, so as not to forget anything about it.


    The methodical way in which he got into position, from the grabbing of the spear to settling into his stance, to focusing everything he had into a strike so precise and profound it felt like the world watched as he did it¡­no¡­it did watch. I don¡¯t understand how that could even be possible, but I will trust my instincts. There was something else¡­his motion¡­it felt different.


    What was it¡­what was different¡­


    ~


    Jrino watched on as Raizen was going through something he didn¡¯t quite expect to see. Enlightenment¡­it was something that some of the more reclusive people from extremely isolated places might think was rare and that it meant you will suddenly gain strength from nothing and rise above the masses, but most of the Multiverse knew better.


    While it wasn¡¯t something so all powerful, it was still a moment of heightened understanding. Your mind attuned to the world enough to not only rid yourself of unnecessary thoughts, but also to acutely focus on whatever triggered the enlightenment. It was a great boon to many who experienced it but not something that most people are able to just enter at will. It just wasn¡¯t some magical thing that causes things to click in place and suddenly make you stronger.


    No, in the simplest terms it just helps you to understand things better, but you still need to actually digest and apply whatever it is you managed to understand.


    So, both Jrino and Eriog who was still just standing calmy did nothing but watch, as Raizen experienced his first enlightenment. While it was a bit surprising it wasn¡¯t too much of a shock as enlightenment had no age or cultivation requirements, anyone could do it. The biggest of note to Jrino, was that his training plans would have to change depending on what Raizen actually gained from this.


    Meanwhile, on a rather extremely large ship in outer space, Yamaal was sitting in his quarters, when a small silver disk that worked as a long distance communication tool finally connected to a similar located millions of light years away, on the home world of the Meitalc people.


    A rough voice, clearly annoyed came through the device.


    ¡°This better be good Yamaal, I am missing a performance from Yamshen because of this.¡±


    ¡°Lord Raeyon, there is an Infernal among the locals of this Universe.¡±


    Raeyon froze in his lavish seat as he repeated what Yamaal said in his head a million times just to confirm he heard correctly.


    A few deep breaths later and he was calm as a lake in a land with no wind.


    ¡°Did they send one?¡±


    ¡°Yes, a Second Stage Immortal. She gave me an item that I placed in the Tutorial Shop for the young Infernal.¡±


    ¡°Who controls the Outpost?¡±


    ¡°A team from the Olirag Clan.¡±


    ¡°Tch, those lucky green bastards. Don¡¯t do anything stupid, I am on my way."


    Raeyon shut the device off, before sauntering off to prepare for the long journey ahead of him, all the while complaining about the fact he will now have to miss months of Yamshen¡¯s performances.


    Yamaal on the other hand sat in silence for a few moments, to collect himself. He had requested this meeting the day he discovered the Infernal, but it took a week for Raeyon to decide to accept the meeting. All within his expectations of course, but what he didn¡¯t expect was that he would come himself.


    As a First Stage Immortal, Yamaal was strong enough to rule entire universes on his own, but in front of a Domain Realm cultivator he too was just an ant. He knew of Raeyon¡¯s many quirks and qualities, none of which included biting his tongue when he was supposed to.


    The Infernal that is certain to still be waiting nearby is a Second Stage Immortal, stronger than Yamaal himself but many times weaker in terms of pure cultivation in the face of a Domain Realm expert.


    Despite that being the case, an Infernal was an Infernal. War was their reason for existence, they would never run from a fight, in fact they welcomed it like how a fish yearned for the ocean. Or at least that¡¯s how Yamaal and most others perceived them. Either way Yamaal was truly worried that Raeyon would let his tongue slip and cause a repeat of the 150th Infernal War. The one that involved his own people, only a few short millennia ago.

 Chapter Thirty

    I¡¯m not sure how much time has passed, but I¡¯ve never been more focused on something in my life¡­it was weird¡­very weird¡­but this focus has been beneficial for me. I feel like I finally understand something important about how I use my spear.


    The Outpost Leader¡­when he moved forward with the thrust¡­it was all connected. Everything was connected. His body moved as one, from the way he pressed on his feet for power, the turn of his hips the way his arm moved forward, down to even the grip he had on his spear. It was all one movement. Very different from me. Thinking about it now, when I did it, it felt like it took multiple actions to do one thing.


    Like many things I¡¯m experiencing in this Tutorial it was hard to explain, but when I thrusted the spear, it was as if all my body parts kind of did their own thing and then met up at the end for the finished product, meanwhile it felt extremely different for the Outpost Leader.


    His body was like¡­water¡­it all just flowed smooth as one continuous action. I¡¯m not sure how that even begins to work but that¡¯s what I think and feel when I analyze his movements.


    Hmm¡­do I need to move like water as well? No¡­the idea of that disgusts me for some reason¡­is it because of my flames¡­? My flames¡­I need to move like my flames, yeah saying that feels a lot better¡­I think I¡¯m on the right path now, but how do they move? I barely got to see them in action, apart from when they showed up in the little sphere during that test which doesn¡¯t count. Sigh¡­I already know but I really need to work on my flames¡­


    As that last thought made its way across my mind, I felt something in me or maybe around me, begin to fade away and shortly after I opened my eyes once more. That was a weird experience. What even was that? I watched the Outpost Leader complete his motions and then next thing I know my eyes were closed and I was in an almost forced state of meditation.


    But at the same time, it wasn¡¯t forced, it felt like it was a natural occurrence, like it was supposed to happen, and that I would deeply regret it if I fought against it¡­Very weird indeed.


    ¡°That was enlightenment.¡±


    I almost forgot the Outpost Leader was right there, even with my eyes open I was still very much distracted and confused as I thought about what just happened, anyway he must¡¯ve noticed my confusion as he decided to tell me what happened I guess.


    ¡°Enlightenment? What is that?¡±


    He seemed to think for a moment before responding.


    ¡°It¡¯s a state that gives you a better understanding of whatever caused you to reach it in the first place. So, what did you learn?¡±


    Hmm he seems a bit nicer for some reason, I could be imagining it though. Anyway, a better understanding huh¡­So I understood the fact that I need to move like my flames when I attack? Or maybe I need to integrate them better? Still not completely sure but I guess that¡¯s helpful.


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    ¡°I see¡­well I think I learned I need to change the way I move my body when I attack, using my flames as a base or something. Still trying to figure it out.¡±


    ¡°Hm..I can¡¯t help you with anything regarding your ¡®flames¡¯ but you are correct in that you need to change your movements. Come here every morning to spar with me, then you will go fight Goblins until night, oh and you can advance in Body Tempering tonight.¡±


    It seemed like that was the last thing he was going to say and leave me to go finally kill some Goblins, when both him and ever silent gate guard man both looked towards the entrance I think? Whatever direction it was, they looked at the same time and then the Outpost Leader spoke.


    ¡°It¡¯s starting¡­you should probably go to the gate.¡±


    And with that he just vanished from in front of me. I really want to know how he manages to do that. It¡¯s probably something to do with cultivation, but like what if it was an invisibility cloak, I¡¯d want one. Anyway, I didn¡¯t think too much about it, clearly, they saw something important enough for him to tell me to go, so I¡¯ll just go.


    I grabbed my things, nodded to the gate guard man, who nodded back, and I headed on over.


    By the time I got to the gate, a bunch of people were already gathered and seemed to be discussing something. Oh, there¡¯s Richard. I sent a nod his way as well, before calmly making way through the crowd and through the gate. Thankfully no one stopped me or even said anything as I walked on through.


    Good stuff.


    Anyway, once I made it through the gate and looked ahead, I finally saw what all the fuss was about.


    Past the small clearing in front of the Outpost with no trees, stood five Goblins. That was weird, the Goblins never came this close to the Outpost. What was even weirder was that two of the Goblins had these staff looking things and the other three had knives, I think? I couldn¡¯t make it out for sure but that¡¯s what it looked like.


    Hmm so these are the stronger Goblins then. I want to go fight them right now and maybe I should? If they are going to start approaching the Outpost I should get rid of them before they start right? I need to think about it more though¡­oh yeah, the gate guard man. Why isn¡¯t he here? Isn¡¯t this kind of his job? Maybe he¡¯s taking some time off to watch me train? Weird idea for a vacation in my opinion but I¡¯ll ask him tomorrow.


    For now, I need to figure out what to¡­-


    ¡°It¡¯s alarming isn¡¯t it. They are clearly scouting us and the Outpost, and I don¡¯t think it will be long before they decide to attack us in full. I¡¯d like to discuss the situation a bit more if you have a moment?¡±


    In the middle of my planning session, Richard walked up next to me, and just started speaking his mind. I don¡¯t really mind but it was still a bit weird. Anyway, he wanted to discuss what to do with these Goblins huh¡­I don¡¯t think there is much to discuss apart from just going to kill them, but I guess I do have a moment and I should probably get this conversation out of the way before I forget.


    ¡°Sure, I think I do have a moment.¡±


    Richard smiled before responding.


    ¡°Good, follow me, and don¡¯t worry about these Goblins, if something happens while we are having a talk, someone will run to get us.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    He started walking back inside the Outpost and I just followed him along. I said I had a moment, but I really hope this convo was quick as I really want to go fight the new Goblins. Oh, and I get to cultivate again tonight, so I don¡¯t want to stay out too late hunting.


    While Raizen and Richard walked off towards one of the houses, Jax who was now a full-fledged Body Tempering realm cultivator watched them leave as he clenched his fists. No one apart from himself knew exactly what he was currently thinking.

 Chapter Thirty One

    "Why did you do it?" A grizzled old man, who seemed to age by a 100 years after asking the question.


    "We are Royalty father! We can do what we want! Why must we grovel and cower like rats?!


    "Our Family rules an entire GALAXY! And here you are, a proud Domain Realm Cultivator shaking in your boots because I killed a couple idiots who disrespected me. They deserved to die!"


    The old man seemingly aged even further the more he listened to his son.


    "Those ''idiots'' were young Infernals, and your watchers have long since reported what really happened. You coveted one of their spears, and when the boy refused, you killed all three of them in cold blood. They were a mere fraction of your age.


    "Sigh...This is my fault, once I realized how I failed in raising you, a cell or a blade should''ve been your reward, but no, instead I let you continue to grow into this vile creature of a man, and now that mistake has cost me, this family, this country and maybe even this damn galaxy our lives. "


    "Thats what I''m talking about father! Even If I killed someone a little important why are you already giving up! Where is your back...-"


    BOOM!!!


    "WHO WAS IT?! WHO WAS IT THAT KILLED MY SONS?!"


    A voice bellowed so loud that the the air itself was collapsed onto itself, creating a loud boom that rocked the planet and almost everything on it.


    The people who looked up towards the voice in the sky, could only describe what they saw as a deity. A women whose entire being was coated in flames darker than the night, that danced along her skin with a rapid yet controlled manner. Her head was covered in blood red flames that functioned as her hair and it was so smooth and beautiful that it was enough to cause lesser men to shed tears.


    Behind her stood 1000 men and women, covered in head to toe in red armor, in a style akin to roman legionnaires.


    -The beginning of the end for the Prixus Family many millennia ago.


    I followed Richard inside one of the houses on the left side of the Outpost. It wasn¡¯t that long a walk but once we made it inside the house, I could see how messy it was, not that I cared, but it seemed Richard did for some reason.


    He rubbed the back of his head and gave a wry smile as he apologized while grabbing two cots for us to sit on. How nice of him.


    ¡°Sorry about the mess, over 20 of us share this house so it¡¯s not easy to keep it clean.¡±


    Twenty? I knew they had a big group but over 20 people in one house was way too much. Can¡¯t they rent the others? They weren¡¯t that expensive.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that too many people for one house? Why not rent the others?¡±


    Richard sighed before responding.


    ¡°We do rent a couple more. Our group is around 100 people, and not everyone is a fighter so it¡¯s hard to maintain and keep everything and everyone together.¡±


    Wow, they had it harder than I thought. I hope they can get stronger and kill some more Goblins, oh yeah wasn¡¯t there something about upgrading the Outpost? I hope for their sakes that the Outpost gets upgraded and it does come with some more space for them to live as well¡­


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    ¡°That¡¯s our problems though so don¡¯t worry I am not asking you to help us, but I¡¯ve been doing some thinking and I based on what I noticed today, and the things I read in the Tutorial book, I think I have some potential crucial information.¡±


    He brought me out of my thoughts with that, and yeah, it¡¯s good he won¡¯t asl for help I need to save for the item in the shop. Anyway, crucial information huh...that¡¯s a big claim.


    ¡°Crucial how?¡±


    ¡°I think we will have to defend the Outpost from attacks.¡±


    Well, I guess that makes sense considering there¡¯s Goblins kind of scoping out the Outpost right now, but I wonder what else brought him to that conclusion.


    ¡°I can kinda understand why you¡¯d think that but what else?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I should probably go into detail. So, we know there¡¯s stages, and we are in one right now, but I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ve noticed but the man that usually guarded the entrance isn¡¯t there anymore and I strongly believe he isn¡¯t coming back. On the other hand, I believe the Goblins are going to slowly get braver and until there are regular attacks on the Outpost. I don¡¯t know if the locals will help us if we get overrun or just abandon us, but I¡¯m leaning towards the latter. If you read the Tutorial book then you know there are only 26 Outposts for billions of humans, and if this one is an indication for average size, then millions of people will likely die.


    ¡°Based on that, I don¡¯t think whatever started this Tutorial and put us here, really cares if we survive or not, and I want to be prepared for that.


    ¡°So, with that being said I think we need to create our own guard for the Outpost and be ready to defend it ourselves.


    ¡°Obviously, my group would probably be the ones handling that, but it would be nice if you can play a part, since you¡¯d be benefiting from the guards as well. As of right now, I think you can just keep doing you and if you we are getting overrun, I¡¯d of course like for you to help if you are here. Apart from that, helping out with a extra house pass or just coins or orbs in general would help since the folks guarding the gate wouldn¡¯t be able to hunt.


    ¡°I know it was a mouthful but what do you think about all of that?¡±


    Well he wasn¡¯t lying when he said it was a mouthful. What he¡¯s making all of these plans from is not a fact or set in stone, but as I think about it myself, I suppose it makes sense in a way to think the Outposts might get attacked and the Greja and the rest won¡¯t help us out. I also don¡¯t want to have to go searching for another Outpost, so I¡¯d prefer to stay here. Overall, I think he means well¡­but it does feel like he¡¯s tying to scam me.


    We don¡¯t need to be in some agreement for me to help if they are getting overrun, since I live here too. I also don¡¯t like the idea of giving them money, they can work for their own shit.


    Though now that I think about it. I have a busy schedule as is, and it would be nice to not have to worry about guarding the Outpost while I¡¯m training in the mornings and fighting Goblins in the nights. So, I can think of it like paying for a tv subscription or something¡­yeah that works.


    I think I need to confirm some of this with Greja, but for now I don¡¯t mind agreeing with this even though it feels like a scam of some sort¡­kinda like a streaming subscription. Ok fine.


    Oh wait¡­I just had a great idea.


    ¡°I can see where you¡¯re coming from, and while I really don¡¯t like the idea of it all, it does make a little sense, but even still, I¡¯m not giving you any money and I would defend the Outpost anyway. So, I have a better way of helping out.¡±


    Richard seemingly didn¡¯t like that his initial idea was shot down, but he was still open to what I had to say.


    ¡°Sure, lets hear it, how can you help in a better way?¡±


    ¡°Training. I¡¯m currently being trained by the Outpost Leader himself, and I have already gotten much stronger. I will ask him to train some of your group as well, and that should make up for lost time since you all would be able to hunt better after the training.¡±


    I don¡¯t really care if he agrees or not since I¡¯m not going to give him or his group money. I need it. If the Outpost does get overrun and I have to leave, then that¡¯s that. Life goes on.


    ¡°That actually sounds like a good idea. Please do ask about the training and let me know what he says, my group and I could all definitely benefit from learning how to fight better.¡±


    Ah he agreed. I¡¯m a better negotiator than I give myself credit for. And maybe Richard¡¯s not a bad guy after all.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll find you tomorrow¡­-¡±


    Right as I was saying my last piece so I can finally go outside to go hunting, someone started banging on the door and yelling.


    Bang Bang


    ¡°Richard! Come now! The Goblins are coming towards the Outpost! Richard!!¡±


    It was the voice of a woman, but it might as well have been the voice of an angel to me. I didn¡¯t even bother saying anything else to Richard, nor did I wait for him to get the door.


    I simply opened it, stepped past the surprised woman who looked like she didn¡¯t expect me to open the door and took off in a jog to the gate.


    I¡¯m getting a little excited.

 Chapter Thirty Two

    I arrived outside the Outpost just in time to see two archers shooting arrows at 10 Goblins running from the tree line with knives in hand, behind them two more Goblins, with those staff looking things. Well maybe they are actually just staffs.


    Anyway.


    The two Goblins ran for a bit then stopped and began to chant something; they were too far for me to hear what they were saying but I could clearly tell that lips were moving.


    No way are they really about to cast magic? That¡¯s really cool. Alright, I shouldn¡¯t be giving props to Goblins but its magic, magic is always cool.


    After they appeared to finish the chant, two big fireballs or what appeared to be fireballs showed up and started coming straight towards us. Yep, that¡¯s really cool. Well I don¡¯t think I should let them charge up anymore fireballs, since the walls are made up of wood and all that.


    So I made sure to stay clear of them and charged straight at the group of 10 in front with their little knives. My body feels loose, limber and ready to move according to my whims as I seek to decimate the enemy before me.


    When I got close enough to the Goblins, I took one final step and leaped into the air, jumping over the little green fellows, I probably could¡¯ve jumped over them before Body Cultivation since they were really small, but I don¡¯t think I could have done it so easily nor would I have gotten high enough in the air to avoid a stab on the way over.


    Either way, I landed behind them and took off to the right towards one of the Goblin Mages? I don¡¯t know, anyway it was surprised by my approach and couldn¡¯t react in time as I planted on my left foot and thrust forward with my spear straight through the skull of the Goblin.


    I turned around just in time to catch the last Goblin Mage chanting again, yeah can¡¯t let that happen. I also noticed that the 10 Goblins I jumped over kind of ignored me and kept going towards the Outpost. I¡¯ll get to them in a moment.


    Before the chant could be completed, I dashed over and although he saw me coming, he didn¡¯t try to fight back and just tried to chant faster. That¡¯s some dedication, I think I would¡¯ve at least tried to hit him with my spear or something. Anyway, another well timed thrust and he too was gone.


    Now that the mages were gone, I quickly pivoted to chase after the Goblins and I noticed one of them was already down with an arrow sticking out of his head, another 4 of them were being engaged by two guys who looked vaguely familiar, and the rest of them were being occupied with a group that had Richard at the forefront.


    Eh seems they got it under control. Boring, but good overall, I guess. Hmm, now what. I think¡­I¡¯ll just keep hunting...? Yeah, sounds like a good idea.


    I grabbed the two cores from the dead Goblin Mages, and they looked like normal, so I guess these are still considered uncommon? After putting them into my pouch, I started walked towards the forest.


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    ¡°Raizen!¡±


    Hmm?


    I turned around to see Richard waving at me.


    ¡°Stay safe!¡±


    Hm, what a nice guy. I simply waved back with a nod and continued on my path into the forest. Fireball wielding Goblins eh, though for some reason I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the only thing I should be wary of in this forest now that the monsters are stronger.


    I¡¯m not sure why I¡¯m getting that feeling but it¡¯s kind of strong, so I guess I¡¯ll just try to make sure I¡¯m prepared for anything coming my way and remembering it¡¯s okay to run away. Moving on, I walked for some time and eventually I could no longer see the Outpost behind me through the tree line.


    Well, I call it hunting, but it¡¯s not like I actually know how to track Goblins, so my plan as always is kind of just to walk around until one of them spots me and I can go from there.


    And so, walk around I did.


    For a while.


    A long while.


    This is quite weird, usually I¡¯d have spotted at least one Goblin by now, the sun is even starting to set.


    Should I just give up and go again tomorrow? That would be a little annoying though I think. I really hope I find a Goblin soon.


    Ah, there we go. I see a Goblin. Hm? Why is it just standing there though? All alone, not moving. This scream trap, but since when did Goblins start making traps? Perhaps stronger Goblins also meant smarter Goblins? Let¡¯s slow it down for a bit and think about this. The Goblins are now carrying knives instead of clubs, where did they get the knives from? They also have Goblins who can use magic now, where did they come from? These are questions I probably won¡¯t get an answer to, but I should keep them in mind.


    Something I can get the answer to though is if the Goblins are smarter. When I saw them earlier there were 10 Goblins running in the front, and two mage versions in the back clearly supporting with fireballs. That sounds like a thought-out formation to me. So, I probably shouldn¡¯t expect to kite them like I did before, since that required them to be a little dumb.


    With that being said, what should I do in this situation, that clearly feels like a trap? Do I ignore the lone Goblin, and try to find a more ¡®regular¡¯ situation, maybe wait it out and see if the Goblin eventually starts moving? Or perhaps walk headfirst into the trap to kill the Goblin and then go form there, that last one might sound dumb but since I know it¡¯s a trap or at least think it is, I¡¯ll be ready to react depending on what comes my way. I don¡¯t like option one because what if I run into this same situation again? It took me forever to even find this one Goblin.


    Option two is definitely feasible but I¡¯ve waiting here, thinking about stuff and the Goblin hasn¡¯t moved once, crazy discipline. Anyway, I¡¯m not sure what waiting will accomplish at this point.


    Which leaves option three, just going to kill the Goblin and dealing with the repercussions.


    Well, let¡¯s get on with it.


    I slowly and steadily approached the Goblin, who was oh so conveniently standing with his back faced towards me. I did my best to keep my attention not only on the Goblin, but the surrounding forest as well, there could be a Goblin hiding in a bush, behind a tree, inside a hollow log, anywhere. There could even be traps laid out on the ground, I can¡¯t be too careful.


    I eventually reached the Goblin, and I wasted no time in ending its life with my spear. After doing so I immediately went on an even higher state of alertness and scanned the surrounding forest as I turned and looked in all directions for any sign of movement.


    I was met with nothing.


    Did I just completely overthink this?


    Maybe the Goblin was just sad, so it was standing there all alone?


    That would suck if I just killed a sad Go¡­-


    *Loud Blusterous War Cry*


    What the fuck was that.


    I turned around towards what sounded like some type of war cry or chant, and I saw the likely perpetrator of the noise.


    That is one big green bastard.


    Theres no way that¡¯s a Goblin, right?


    Oh, it''s coming.

 New Cover!

    I added a new cover...not finalized and mostly a work in progess lol, but I think this one is more in line with the story. I''ll keep working at it though.


    If you guys know antyone who is good with art, or anything of that nature please let me know! Also please let me know how you guys feel about the cover lol Any and all critism is welcomed!!


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    Sidenote, the image is AI created so its not necessarily perfect, but I like it more than the original as of right now. But it can 100% be improved on.

 Chapter Thirty Three

    When a gigantic green Goblin thing that also looks like it¡¯s on every steroid known to mankind starts chasing you, there aren¡¯t many options other than to run.


    But I didn¡¯t want to run.


    At least not without actually trying to fight it. That may seem a bit stupid, but I need to know what I¡¯m dealing with. Maybe its muscles are for show? What If I¡¯m overacting and this is a battle I can handle.


    Well, it¡¯s here, so I¡¯m about to find out.


    I braced myself and stood with my spear pointed forward. The large bastard came to a full stop right before he would¡¯ve crashed into me and threw a left hook.


    What the hell? Why does it know how to box dammit. I just barely managed to dodge out of the way before its right knee came flying towards my chest, quickly jumping backwards just like I did many times during my spar with the Outpost Leader I got out of the way of the knee.


    I wanted to take a moment to assess the situation, but the monster didn¡¯t give me time, he took one step and was already baring down on me once more. And before I know it a flurry of punches were flying at me from seemingly all directions.


    I don¡¯t understand how he¡¯s able to move this fast, I¡¯m constantly backing up trying to dodge everything, and even somewhat surprisingly to myself I am somehow doing just that. This went on for a few more seconds until I tripped on what I think was a piece of wood.


    I couldn¡¯t see behind me, nor did I have time to turn around and check the direction I¡¯ve essentially been back pedaling in.


    The monster didn¡¯t miss my trip.


    With a loud grunt, he clasped but his hands together and slammed them towards my chest. I didn¡¯t have the necessary footing required to dodge so I just hurriedly pointed my spear in front of me as it slammed its large fists down.


    ¡°Grahhhhhhh!!¡±


    ¡°Ahhhh!!¡¯


    Both of us cried out in pain at the same time. It cried out due to impaling his hands on my spear.


    I cried out due to the fact that the spearhead broke halfway into its hands, and he still managed to connect with my chest, essentially slamming me into the ground. I coughed up blood, and grasped at my chest as it felt like every bone in that area was crushed beyond repair.


    Thankfully the monster was also distracted from continuing to fight as he was holding his hands and screaming in in pain a short distance away.


    I need to move.


    I can¡¯t stay here.


    Staying here means death.


    I need to move.


    Slowly but surely, or almost surely, I managed to get on my hands and knees, as the pain in my chest continued to ache beyond imagination.


    Grunt


    Grunting repeatedly, as I stammered to my feet was not in my best interest, as I didn¡¯t want the monster behind me to focus on me once more. I abandoned my broken spear and began moving my feet towards the Outpost.


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    At first it was just a step or two, but I forced myself to move faster. It was my chest that was nearly caved in, not my feet.


    Eventually I began running. Half heartedly hoping I was running in the direction I came from. I¡¯m not sure how much later it was but at some point I heard another scream.


    ¡°GRAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!¡±


    The monster would want my head, I had no doubts about that. All I could do was hope he didn¡¯t know where I was, or what direction I went in, because if he found me, I didn¡¯t see a way out of that alive.


    All I could do was run.


    Do not stop running Raizen.


    Ah my chest¡­ignore it. Run.


    I ran and ran and ran, until I could see the light of the Outpost in the distance. The sun was currently in the process of setting, so with the canopy of tress all around us, it got darker faster in the forest. Thankfully that meant I could see the light of the Outpost earlier than I normally would¡¯ve.


    It was close, I was almost there. My chest feels like its caving it on itself over and over again. I¡¯m breathing hard, and I¡¯m depressed about losing my spear.


    ¡°Grahhhh!!!!!!¡±


    Oh, that was a lot closer, the clearing the Outpost sits within is just ahead of me.


    Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud


    Ah that sounds like footsteps.


    Run Raizen.


    ¡°Ahhhhhh!!! Run you weak bastard!!! Run!!!¡±


    I screamed out as I continued to put one foot in front of the other. Adrenaline clearly forcing my mind to ignore the burning, gruesome pain in my chest and directing all my spare energy towards my feet.


    Before I knew it, I could see the Outpost in front of me, and along with it I could see a few people standing around it, it seemed like 5 individuals were spread out with weapons, keeping an eye on the forest. Richard¡¯s people.


    They all turned towards me when I burst into the clearing, barreling towards them at the fastest speed I could muster. At this point I was barely focusing on how close the beast was, I just needed to get inside the Outpost.


    POV Jax


    Hmm? What was that? Turning to look towards the scream I heard, I saw something I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d get to see so soon. That hateful bastard was running towards the Outpost, looking like he was nearly dead. His chest seemed to be covered in blood as he gasped for air and coughed up blood as he ran like his life depended on it.


    What the hell caused him to appear like tha¡­-¡±


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?¡±


    ¡°CRISTINE GO GET RICHARD RIGHT NOW! EVREYONE ELSE PREPARE TO FIGHT!!!¡±


    Richard didn¡¯t mention anything to use about a supersized Goblin on steroids roaming the forest? How did he even run into something like that.


    Dammit how the hell are we supposed to fight that¡­wait why did it stop?


    ¡°Grahh!!!¡±


    The monstrosity that was clearly hell bent on catching its prey, let out one last roar before turning and speeding off back into the forest.


    When that hateful bastard finally made his way to the gate, he was barely conscious and clearly needed rest. It was no way he was going to make it all the way to his house¡­heh.


    ¡°Cristine! Tell Richard everything that just happened. I¡¯m going to help our ¡®friend¡¯ here get back to his house.¡±


    POV Raizen


    By the time I got to the gate I had heard a lot of yelling and people scrambling around to prepare for battle? I don¡¯t know anymore.


    ¡°Cristine! Tell Richard everything that just happened. I¡¯m going to help our ¡®friend¡¯ here get back to his house.¡±


    Huh? Who is this? Why is he helping me? No..I need to see his face¡­I barely opened my now foggy eyes wide enough just to barely make out the face of the man that just put my hand over his shoulder. I recognized him.


    Who was it again¡­


    Ah I remember now.


    This was the man I knocked out. I¡¯m getting a bad feeling about this.


    Dammit, wasn¡¯t I supposed to stop this type of situation from happening again? This can¡¯t continue. All I can do is hope he is genuinely trying to help me.


    It took a few moments, but we made it to my house, by now the sun was pretty much set and it was dark outside. The man hadn¡¯t said a word the whole time, and neither had I. The pain in my chest is taking a toll on me, and I can barely stand as I limped my way to the house. The adrenaline had long since worn off.


    The man fiddled around in my pouch until he found my house pass, and then brought me inside, but instead of carrying me to one of the rooms he instead threw me down right after getting in.


    I tried to get up after falling down, but he kicked me in my gut, and I slumped right back down to the floor.


    ¡°This is what you get for thinking you are untouchable you fucking piece of shit.¡±


    That was the only thing he said before punching me in my face, knocking me out cold.


    Along with the rage that began to bubble inside me despite my imminent slumber, the last thoughts I had on my mind before my eyes closed had everything to do with murder.


    I¡¯m going to kill him.

 Chapter Thirty Four

    POV Jax


    That felt really good. I finally had a chance to get a little revenge on that bastard for thinking he could just knock me out and get away with it. I respect Richard a lot, but I completely disagree with what he was saying. Life before the Tutorial was always a dog eat dog world, what about now? People are fighting monsters with medieval weapons and getting stronger by cultivating.


    What will happen after the Tutorial? Governments are all gonna be gone basically, there¡¯s no need to worry about our old way of life anymore. We have the power to control our own futures now, so if someone hurts you, why can¡¯t you hurt them back?


    Either way, if that idiot knows what¡¯s good for him, he¡¯ll stay quiet and keep his head down from now on. Why does Richard treat him like he¡¯s all important anyway? He¡¯s just one guy. So what he got to Body Tempering before us? He probably woke up next to the Outpost and had things easier than we did.


    Whatever the case, now we have more than a couple people in Body Tempering realm, and we don¡¯t need to worry about him anymore.


    Richard was definitely overthinking this. Plus, I even ensure he got home ¡®safely¡¯. Yeah, he was definitely overthinking this.


    Anyway, let¡¯s head back to the gate to make sure everything is alright. What even was that monster? Of course, that bastard somehow led it here and put us all in danger in the process. sigh Lets just see what Richard has to say and if he wants to do anything about it.


    POV Richard


    ¡°Richard! Come out! It¡¯s an emergency!¡± Cristine yelled out at the entrance of the house.


    Another one?! Are they attacking again?! I rushed out of the house to find Cristine standing there, a little sweat on her brows from obviously running here.


    ¡°What happened? Are the Goblins attacking again?!¡±


    ¡°No! Well, kinda? Anyway, just listen!¡± Ignoring Richard¡¯s confused expression Cristine continued.


    ¡°Its that guy you said we should leave alone, he showed up out of nowhere all of a sudden. We were guarding the Outpost, and next we know that guy was running like his life was on the line towards the Outpost. He was clearly very hurt, and his chest area was covered in blood.


    ¡°I¡¯m not really sure how he was even still running in that condition, but he looked to be on his last legs. Though that¡¯s not the reason for the emergency. That was because of what was chasing him. I¡¯ve never seen anything like that before Richard. It was a gigantic monstrosity of a Goblin. It looked to be well over 6 ft and had enough muscles to make body builders back home look skinny.


    ¡°It chased after the man for a while, before stopping and letting out a roar and then promptly disappeared back into the forest. It all happened so fast, that some of us even froze when that¡­thing showed up.¡±


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    I don¡¯t even know where to start¡­a true monster was out there in the forest¡­one that injured Raizen to the point of running for his life, and based on what Cristine said, he almost didn¡¯t make it. Wait¡­Raizen¡­


    ¡°Wait what about Raizen? Did he make it? Where is he?¡±


    ¡°He stumbled his way to the gate, but someone helped take him home.¡±


    What? Someone took him home? That¡¯s¡­odd.


    ¡°Who took him home?¡±


    ¡°¡­It was Jax.¡±


    Jax¡­Jax took him home¡­don¡¯t tell me¡­there¡¯s no way he would do something to him right? To an injured man at that? No¡­Jax¡¯s better than that.


    ¡°¡­Let¡¯s hurry to the gate to look at the situation.¡±


    Richard eventually found his way back to the Gate, with Cristine following right behind him. He saw that the situation was under control, and there was no sign of the monster in sight. He had his suspicions as to why the monster hadn¡¯t chased Raizen all the way to the Outpost, but without more details they would remain just suspicions for now.


    ¡°Cristine, just to make sure I understand everything that happened. Raizen come running through towards the Outpost, clearly injured and needing help, and an extremely large Goblin was chasing him and most likely the reason for his injuries right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that sounds about right.¡±


    ¡°Then shortly after the large Goblin made its presence known, it let out a loud roar and quickly took off back into the forest, and since then hasn¡¯t been seen again?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I believe so. I ran off to come let you know the situation, but everything looks calm here, so I don¡¯t think any of the other guys saw anything while I left.¡±


    Hmmm, why did he run back into the forest? If he really was the one to injure Raizen and chased him from wherever, why would he stop now? Is it because he saw more of us? Is it because he saw the large Outpost? Something about this doesn¡¯t feel right at all.


    Where did Raizen even find this bastard? The only thing we saw in the forest were regular Goblins with knives and the ones who could send fire balls at us. So where did this big guy come from, and why is he so vastly different in size from the other Goblins.


    I really need to speak with Raizen when he¡­oh there¡¯s Jax.


    ¡°Jax, I heard what happened. Glad everyone¡¯s safe. How¡¯s Raizen?¡±


    ¡°Yeah it was all kind of abrupt. One moment everything¡¯s calm, and then next you know some idiot who was clearly in over his head comes running at us, leading a damn monster of a Goblin straight towards us. Thankfully it seemed to lose interest and went back into the forest.


    ¡°Who knows what would¡¯ve happened if it ran all the way to the Outpost?¡±


    ¡°Yeah all true, but Jax. How is Raizen actually doing? You brought him home right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah I helped him out, despite all the ¡®good¡¯ he did us here today.¡±


    ¡°Jax.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s alive and in his home, that¡¯s all I got.¡±


    ¡°¡­I¡¯ll take you word for it then.¡±


    ¡°Good, now what do you want to do about the monster? It seemed a lot stronger than us.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a great question, for now¡­nothing. We don¡¯t know enough about it, where it came from, how it fights, and why it didn¡¯t chase all the way. For now, all the on guard rotation for the night just need to be made aware of the potential threat.


    ¡°The current word is not to engage and instead immediately barricade in the Outpost and get help. I don¡¯t think what you all have been describing is something a few of us can fight. It will probably take all of us, especially it shows up with more regular Goblins by its side. Or even worse, if there are multiple Goblins of that size running around in there.¡±


    ¡°Alright that sounds like a plan. I¡¯ll make sure when the next squad comes to relieve us, they know what to look out for.¡±


    ¡°Appreciate that Jax. I will make sure to try and talk to Raizen in the morning to get more information on the monster. Then we can figure out how to best deal with it.¡±


    That last sentence annoyed Jax more than he cared to show to Richard, so he just walked off after giving him a nod to acknowledge what he said.


    Richard on the other hand, just watched intensely as Jax walked away.


    Something was bugging him about this whole situation, and he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. He eventually left, hoping a nice rest in the night would put his mind at ease.

 Chapter Thirty Five

    ¡°Ughhh¡­¡±


    Groaning as I woke up, my entire body felt like it had been hit by a truck. Not that I necessarily knew what that felt like, but that was the only way I could describe the feeling.


    Checking my status, I see that I thankfully didn¡¯t sleep for multiple days.


    Name ¨C Raizen;


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


    Cultivation ¨C Body Tempering (1st Cycle)


    Your Task is to Survive.


    Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.


    Time Remaining ¨C 52 Days


    Today was a day 8 of the Tutorial and it would be an interesting one. I need to sort out my emotions before I leave my house today.


    I have never killed a man before, yet that is all I can think about at the moment. Killing someone for knocking me out unjustly. Preying on me when I was weakened. Disrespecting me, when I couldn¡¯t speak for myself. What if he misjudged his owns strength and killed me instead of knocking me unconscious?


    Am I being a hypocrite? Some might say yes, but I don¡¯t think so. He tried to block my path, I removed him and went about my life. He retaliated, by seizing the moment when I was weak, and took advantage of it. My entire being, my mind, my blood, every part of me is yearning for me to respond in kind.


    For me to reap the life of the one that wronged me. The rational side of me agrees that a response is necessary, but why do I feel the need to kill? Why do I feel so disrespected that I need to remove this stain of a man from existence? Again, these types of feelings are unlike me.


    I have never once killed a human before. Is it because I have been killing Goblins? Do these deaths affect me in any way? No. They don¡¯t.


    Will taking the life of a human being affect me in away way¡­?


    ¡­.No.


    It won¡¯t.


    But does that mean I want to kill this man for what he did to me? I¡¯m not sure. I will definitely pay him a visit, but his life¡­do I need it? I don¡¯t.


    The second I decided, it felt like my blood turned away in disagreement for a moment, then it immediately felt normal once more.


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    That¡­that was weird.


    Why can I feel the emotion of my blood?


    I don¡¯t think I was hit so hard that I¡¯m imagining things, but also seemed a little too weird, but I¡¯m probably past that point. I have to remind myself that I am not a human. Maybe I never was who knows, but as of right now I¡¯m an Infernal. So maybe that comes with emotional blood? Anyway.


    Since I decided I won¡¯t kill him, what will it be then¡­hmm.


    An arm.


    He used it to grab me, and he also used it to punch me in the face.


    He no longer needs it.


    The Outpost Leader will have to excuse my absence today. Although I¡¯ve decided not to kill him, that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not bubbling with rage. I will take his arm, and I will take it today. If everything went according to plan I would¡¯ve done this last night, but I feel good enough to do it now. Let¡¯s advance my cultivation.


    I got off my cot and sat on the floor.


    It took a little while to get into the right state of meditation due to the anger I was keeping inside of me, but eventually I managed to calm down enough to focus on sensing the Qi around me.


    To make a long story short, in roughly 30 minutes (I think) I felt something inside me shift, and I knew that meant I was successful in breaking through.


    Of course, a quick look at my status confirmed it. The second cycle of Body Tempering. It felt good, despite the fact I was littered with wounds. Similar wounds to the ones I got the first time, but none of it hurt all the same. It was all a bit weird. When I got a small cut from a Goblin, that hurt as it should, but the wounds I get from cultivating are barely felt.


    More weird things about me to deal with it, I guess.


    Anyway, I feel a lot stronger already and I¡¯m sure I will feel even stronger once I¡¯m back to full health, a nice deep sleep was able to do that for me last time, but I have no time for that. Well, I do, but I¡¯m not waiting.


    Instead, I¡¯ll pay that potion shop another visit and buy myself a healing potion and go from there, I also needed to buy another spear. That sucks. Hopefully the blacksmith will really be able to make a proper one soon enough.


    Moving on, I need potions.


    I quickly gathered my coin pouch and made my way outside the house. My clothes were still bloody, and I could probably use a wash, but I had things to do.


    The sun was still in its early stages of rising. It seems I woke up a lot earlier than I expected. I guess I have time to go let the Outpost Leader know why I won¡¯t be attending training.


    I headed over to the training grounds and the Outpost Leader was there waiting. The gate guard man wasn¡¯t here though, wonder if he comes later? Anyway Is this how early the Outpost Leader waits for me to arrive? I really need an alarm clock.


    Anyway, I approached and greeted him as usual.


    ¡°You¡¯re on time. Though I suspect you¡¯re not here to train, considering your state.¡±


    I suppose that was fairly easy to guess.


    ¡°No sir I am not here to train. I have some things to handle and was letting you know that I¡¯ll be missing training today.¡±


    He looked me up and down for a moment before nodding and speaking in a slightly serious tone.


    ¡°I see. Congratulations on breaking through.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    I started turning around to leave when he spoke again.


    ¡°Be thorough.¡±


    Before I could respond he disappeared once more. I still can¡¯t get used to that. But ¡®be thorough¡¯ huh. I wonder what he meant by that. Does he know what I plan to do? How would he even know?


    Actually, now that I think about it. Didn¡¯t my senses get better from cultivating? It wasn¡¯t super noticeable when I first broke though to Body Tempering, but now that I take a second to really pay attention to my surroundings, I feel like I can hear a lot clearer than before. Almost as if there was a small plug in my ears and it¡¯s been removed.


    It¡¯s not to the extent that I can hear from miles and miles away, but it¡¯s no doubt been improved.


    Which means the Outpost Leader could probably hear and perhaps see a lot more things than I could. Maybe he knows something happened to me, and could probably deduce that I¡¯m going to retaliate? Not sure, but no need to think about it for too long. I have a spear to buy and an arm to separate.


    I once more began making my way over to the central area when I spotted someone. That someone was heading my way. My fists clenched as he approached.


    It was Richard.


    The guy that hit me is part of his group.


    I forgot about that.


    Tch.

 Chapter Thirty Six

    "So did you hear?"


    "Hear what? Oi!! Another beer!"


    "The rumors running through the entire capital right now of course."


    "There''s always rumors running through this god forsaken capital, so which one got you all excited now."


    "No, this one is different, they say..." The man looked around and began to whisper. "They say the princess ran away with a man."


    "...That''s it? Who cares if she ran away. It ain''t the first time and she''ll get caught and whoever helped her will get their whole family line murdered because of it."


    "No of course that isn''t it...they say she ran away with a man...a man wielding a spear...a spear covered in black flames."


    The other man seemed to sober up instantly after hearing the supposed rumor.


    He even ignored the beer the waitress eventually brought to the table.


    "...We should probably leave the capital...no the country."


    -A bar in the land of Elves


    I wonder how I should handle this. Do I just tell him what happened and tell him what I plan to do? I don¡¯t know if he¡¯ll be okay with me plotting to separate the arm of one his members. What if he was the one who ordered him to hurt me? Hm, it¡¯s possible but for some reason I doubt it. Well, I don¡¯t want Richard to become an enemy, but I need that arm. I have a feeling if I have to concede getting my revenge something in me would be disgusted by it.


    It''s another one of those feelings I can¡¯t fully explain, but that¡¯s the vibe I¡¯m getting.


    Anyway.


    I don¡¯t want this situation to become more than what it needs to be, but I won¡¯t back down from what I want. If I have to fight their entire group, then so be it. Though for now I won¡¯t jump to any conclusions, lets just play it by ear and react accordingly. Well, here he is so let¡¯s see how this goes.


    ¡°Hey man you don¡¯t look too good. Are you sure you should be up and moving right now? I can help get the things you need so you can back and rest. Just let me know.¡± Said a very concerned Richard.


    If he really was okay with what his member did and is faking all of this, then he really is phenomenal actor. He genuinely seems concerned for my wellbeing. I¡¯ll believe him for now.


    ¡°I feel a lot better than I look, thanks for worrying.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­I heard Jax was the one that helped you out, was everything alright there? I know he had some misgivings about the first time you guys met.¡±


    At the mention of the of person whom I desperately want to bring harm to, it felt like my¡­blood? I think it was my blood, anyway it felt angry. I¡¯ll ignore it for now, not much I can do anyway. Moving on, he heard this ¡®Jax¡¯ took helped me out huh. I suppose that probably means he didn¡¯t order that, nor is aware of what really happened.


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    Maybe I can tell him.


    Let¡¯s see what happens.


    ¡°He told you he helped me out?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Apparently, you were so hurt after reaching the Outpost that you could barely walk, and he took it upon himself to help you get back to your house.¡±


    Now that I think about it, how did he know where I lived? I mean I guess it wouldn¡¯t be that hard to see me coming and going from my house. Hm, no use in worrying too much about it now.


    We were standing next to the shop so I looked around and listened as intently as I could to make sure no one else was around us before I started speaking to Richard.


    ¡°Yea, he did help me. He brought me to my house opened the door, threw me down to the floor, kicked me in my stomach, said some nasty words then knocked me clean out. If that¡¯s what you mean by help, then yea he did that just fine.¡±


    With every word Raizen spoke, Richard¡¯s face grimaced even more, and by the time he finished his face was wound up in a tight frown.


    ¡°What do you mean¡­-¡±


    ¡°Richard. You heard what I said.¡±


    ¡°No¡­why¡­we talked about this¡­why¡­¡±


    Hm, based on his reaction he really didn¡¯t seem to have played a part and this Jax guy attacked me on his own. Well, that should make things easier. Seems like only one person will have to lose their arm. For now.


    ¡°Richard. I don¡¯t know what you all have worked out, but due to our budding alliance I will be upfront with you. I am furious, and there WILL be a price. A price that your friend WILL pay. And he will pay it today.¡±


    I was a bit more willful in my last sentence, but I had to get my point across. Since I¡¯ve started this Tutorial, I¡¯ve been losing my calm more than I¡¯ve ever did in my life. I don¡¯t know if its stress, or just all of new things like fighting with my life on the line, or meeting aliens; whatever it is, I¡¯m starting to think it¡¯s a much deeper reason for it.


    Anyway, Richard has been staring at me intensely after I told him there will be a price to pay for his friend¡¯s actions. I won¡¯t back down on this, so I hope he won¡¯t fight me on it. It is not my fault his people didn¡¯t have manners. It is also not his fault that the fact I¡¯m an Infernal is clearly influencing me in some way, and in this moment that influence is driving me to violence. Violence that I now very much welcome.


    ¡°¡­I understand your anger, but we can handle this differently. We don¡¯t need to kill each other, not when there¡¯s other monsters out there who want to kill us. As humans we should be banding together during this rough period.¡±


    On one hand I understand him, what he¡¯s saying makes sense, but on the other hand I also have my own ideals, and none of them include forgiving unprovoked attacks on me. The fact I¡¯ve decided not to kill him is forgiving enough as it is.


    ¡°I understand, but I am not budging. Actions have consequences Richard. This is his. Don¡¯t misunderstand, I don¡¯t want to stop our cooperation, and I don¡¯t plan on going around looking for fights with anyone other than monsters, but this is different, make no mistake I am not asking for permission. Like I said earlier, He WILL pay a price.¡±


    Unbeknownst to Raizen, when he said that last line, his irises turned to black flames for a split second and then returned to normal. Even Richard who was staring at Raizen the entire time missed it. Who knows what he would¡¯ve thought if he saw it.


    ¡°I¡­I understand. I don¡¯t agree, but It¡¯s not my place to intervene any more than I¡¯ve already done. I tried to stop him from doing anything stupid, but he clearly didn¡¯t listen.


    ¡°He brought this on himself.


    ¡°I won¡¯t stand in your way, but I cannot promise that no one else will bother you. I am not a dictator, and I can¡¯t force anyone to do anything they don¡¯t want to do. What I will do is let them know what he did and what¡¯s coming. All I¡¯m asking is that you give me time to do this. After that you can do whatever you want.¡±


    Hm, Richard seemed clearly messed up about all of this, I can¡¯t blame him I guess. Either way I suppose I can let him do this, I just hope he doesn¡¯t try to run away. Oh, wait I got an idea.


    ¡°Fine, I still have things to do so use this time to do what you need. After I finish up, I¡¯ll be waiting outside the Outpost, tell your man and whoever wants to join him where I¡¯ll be. Though I want you to warn them that I only have a problem with one person, and anyone who joins should be prepared not to come back.¡±


    I told myself I wouldn¡¯t kill Jax, and only take an arm, but If anyone else wants to join him, the warning I just gave to Richard is mercy enough. I don¡¯t want to go around killing people but if they support an idiot enough to join him then they can also pay a price.


    ¡°¡­.Raizen¡­sigh¡­never mind¡­I¡¯ll take care of it.¡±


    I hope he takes care of it.


    Anyway, time for a new spear.

 Chapter Thirty Seven

    After Richard left, I made my way into the potion shop. I really wanted to get the spear thing taken care of because I felt naked without one, but the faster I got in and out of this potion shop the better. Walking in the shop, I was a little worried that the sign would be back up and I wouldn¡¯t be able to buy a potion, but the man was there once more, adding to the¡­unique smell in the shop.


    I didn¡¯t say anything, and he didn¡¯t either, I just walked up and put enough coins on the counter for 1 health potion. I didn¡¯t know if 1 was enough to heal me to full health, but if they were anything like stamina potions, then 1 should be good enough. Wait¡­I wonder if my new realm will affect the effectiveness.


    Not being able to come to a quick answer, I placed another set of coins on the counter to buy a second potion. The man looked at me in annoyance for a bit before producing two potions. I quickly grabbed them and headed towards to the blacksmith.


    The potions came in the same type of bottle as stamina potions, but this time the liquid seemed very viscous, it was mostly clear with red bits mixed in.


    I didn¡¯t waste anytime and quickly downed one as I walked. It tasted like nothing, and it took a few seconds for me to start feeling the effects. I had to stop walking as it felt like a bunch of tiny needles were moving along my body in the gentlest manner. It didn¡¯t hurt or anything it just felt¡­weird. I stood there for a minute or two just getting used to the feeling as I felt some of my wounds finally close, well actually pretty much all my surface level stuff closed up and I was no longer lightly bleeding as I walked around.


    I don¡¯t know what the extent of my internal wounds were, but I don¡¯t think the potion was strong enough to deal with those. It¡¯s a good thing this doesn¡¯t hurt, as I wouldn¡¯t want to deal with the pain. Anyway, after another few minutes passed and the needle sensation went away completely , I drank the second potion and welcomed the return of the needle feeling.


    This time I kept walking as the potion did what it could to heal me, and I was eventually conversating with the blacksmith again.


    ¡°I would like to buy a spear and find out if there¡¯s any updates in getting armor.¡±


    The large man grunted, and the shop screen formed in front of me once more.


    <u>Smithy Shop</u>


    Please select a category:


    1. Weapons


    2. Repairs (See Blacksmith)


    3. Commissions (See Blacksmith)


    4. Knowledge


    Another screen popped up after selecting Weapons.


    <u>Weapons</u>


    1. Tutorial Sword ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    2. Tutorial Spear ¨C 15 Copper Coins (Confirm Purchase? Yes/No)


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    3. Tutorial Bow ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    4. Tutorial Dagger ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    I made my purchase, and the blacksmith pulled a spear out from behind the counter. Taking it into my hands, it felt the exact same as my previous spear, just without all the knicks and scratches that it picked up over time.


    ¡°Couple days from now, and you can get yer armor.¡±


    Couple days from now huh¡­I wonder if he¡¯s talking about the next stage? In only a couple days the next stage will be here and with it new challenges to face, and based on what the blacksmith is saying then it also means new upgrades or just new things unlocking in the Outpost perhaps? Or maybe it just applies to the blacksmith, who knows.


    Anyway, I told the blacksmith thank you and made my out of the shop.


    It was time.


    I don¡¯t exactly know what Richard is telling his people, and I don¡¯t care to find out. I will simply wait outside the Outpost and whoever shows up will have trouble going back. Both potions did what they needed to do, and I felt stronger than ever. I haven¡¯t had time to properly test out how much stronger I¡¯ve gotten but I¡¯m sure the opportunity to do just that will soon present itself.


    It didn¡¯t take too long before I was walking through the gates once more, Richard¡¯s guard detail was outside doing their jobs. None of them gave me any weird looks so I guess that means they haven¡¯t heard what¡¯s happening or could happen yet.


    Anyway, I walked past them and headed towards the forest before stopping and simply sitting on the floor with my legs crossed and my spear laid gently across my lap. I had my back towards the Outpost, but I was close enough to hear if someone started walking out of the Outpost.


    Though I appeared calm on the outside like I usually did, I was still feeling every bit of anger I felt when I woke up this morning, and my intention to get my due hadn¡¯t changed in the slightest.


    I¡¯m not sure exactly how long I waited, but more than a couple minutes definitely passed before I started to hear noise coming from behind me.


    I stood up and turned around to see quite the number of people filtering out of the gate. It seemed like it was around twenty of them. Richard was among them. The man losing at least one arm was also present.


    I simply watched as the man and surprisingly only one other separated from the group took confident yet apparently angry steps towards me. I don¡¯t know what Richard told them, but it whatever it was worked as everyone else seemed to just be content with observing. Each of them had various expressions on their faces and Richard himself seemed very uncomfortable and clearly didn¡¯t like what was going on.


    I didn¡¯t necessarily want to make a show out of this, but better to send a message than to deal with this again.


    Eventually the bastard got around 5 feet away from me. Nor far at all. I¡¯m confident in my ability to take his head at this distance. In fact, it took a lot of will and discipline to not put that confidence to the test right here right now.


    When he started speaking, I almost lost control and attacked immediately. My blood seemed to come alive and the feeling I got from it was nothing but pure and unbridled rage.


    ¡°You stupid bastard. Why couldn¡¯t you just take your beating and stay down? Had to go run to Richard and cry about it huh? You did this to yourself. Just because you had a bit of head start you probably thought you ran the place. All you had to do was listen and follow the instructions I gave you, but no you decided to hit me. I could¡¯ve done much worse to you, but I¡¯m a reasonable person, so a small beating should¡¯ve been enough, but I guess it wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°You want to fight or something right? C¡¯mon then, lets fight.¡±


    I stayed silent as I allowed the rage to buildup inside of me to levels, I didn¡¯t think were possible. I no longer wanted an arm. I wanted to hoist his head on my spear and end his pitiful life. I spared a glance at the man that accompanied him, and he didn¡¯t say anything, nor did he take his sword out in preparation to fight. He just watched me. For some reason he seemed to wear a frown that was marred with deep confusion the longer he stared at me. I don¡¯t care.


    ¡°What are you waiting for. You wanted a fight. I¡¯m here. Hurry up.¡±


    Ah¡­Part of me still wanted to refrain from killing him¡­but as he spoke again, that part of me seemed to dissolve into nothingness. My blood and entire being wanted his head removed from his body.


    ¡°Fine. Come die.¡±

 Chapter Thirty Eight

    POV Trent


    When Richard gathered up almost the entire group to talk about something, I knew it would be very important. He rarely did that. What I didn¡¯t know, was that it was going to be about Jax. I knew he has been acting different for a while now, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this bad.


    He wasn¡¯t a violent person before the Tutorial, man none of us were, yet it only took a couple days in this place for it to change us. We had to change, we had to adapt to this whole thing, or it would leave us behind, but¡­what Jax did was different.


    I was there with him standing outside the shop when that guy showed up. At first, we thought he was one of us, and was hunting on his own and hording the orbs, but we quickly realized that wasn¡¯t the case. Jax has always been the one to take action, and eventually the conversation went in a weird direction and Jax did just that, He tried to physically stop him, and the man retaliated.


    Looking back at it, what the hell were we doing? Acting like no name goons working for a two bit villain in a superhero movie. Sigh


    It took a while, but Richard eventually talked some sense into me, and I realized how wrong about that situation we were, but Jax¡­he didn¡¯t like that at all. He stormed off and I eventually caught up and spoke to him, but I can tell it didn¡¯t do much. I knew he would still be upset, but I thought he would eventually get over it, and move on but no, it instead gave him more drive and will power.


    I remember hearing him scream out, and when I arrived, he was unconscious, but it didn¡¯t long for us to realize that he had successfully broken through.


    Everything should have been good from that point on, but when Richard told the group this morning what he did, I realized how wrong I was. I looked to Jax who was standing next to Richard as he explained his wrong doings, and apart from frowning, he didn¡¯t try to deny any of it.


    The Jax I knew before the Tutorial was no more.


    He took advantage of an injured man, then proceeded to injure him further.


    That wasn¡¯t acceptable.


    We thought Richard was about to talk about some type of punishment but instead he mentioned how the injured guy in question wanted Jax to pay a price for what he did to him. A price¡­the way Richard was talking about it, it sounded like something that could be either be fatal or at least serious enough to bring Jax a lot of harm.


    That thought kind of got confirmed when Richard said that anyone who goes to help Jax should be ready to put their life on the line.


    That was hard for me to wrap my head around. I understand what Jax did was very bad, and he should face some type of consequence for it, but his life? Isn¡¯t that a bit too far? I looked around the group, but it seems only a few of us didn¡¯t like how it all sounded. I understand that only a small amount of us actually knew Jax before the Tutorial, but the lack empathy was surprising.


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    Most seemed to not want to associate with Jax, thinking that he brought this upon himself. The Tutorial was changing people faster than I was prepared for. Eventually Richard ended the meeting and almost everyone dispersed somewhere. The only people that remained was our core group of people who all mostly knew each other, with the exception of 1 or 2 others. No one said anything for a few minutes, before Jax decided to talk.


    ¡°What are you all worried for? I¡¯ll handle this.¡±


    No one responded to him, and he didn¡¯t seem to care as he turned and just started walking towards the gate. We just followed along as I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. Was I really just going to let Jax go fight this man potentially to the death? That sounded barbaric¡­but we¡¯ve been running around fighting with medieval weapons and killing Goblins¡­I suppose we are already acting barbaric.


    Either way, I think I¡¯ll at least walk out with Jax and try to convince them to go about this situation differently.


    Or at least that was the plan until we actually met up Raizen, I believe his name was. He seemed a lot different than I remember. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it, but he seemed¡­stronger?


    At some point Jax started talking to him but I wasn¡¯t really paying attention to him at all. Something about this is really bothering me and I¡¯m struggling to make sense of it. Why does he feel dangerous? A couple of moments later he spoke for the first time since we got here, and I felt a shiver run down my spine.


    ¡°Fine. Come die.¡±


    Was¡­was that a flame in his eyes¡­?


    swoosh


    Before I could fully realize what I had just seen, the man took off in a speed that was faster than anything I could do¡­wasn¡¯t he in the first realm of Body Cultivation just like me...? Why is he so fast?


    I quickly took many steps backwards to get out of the way, but while I did that the man had reached Jax. He was slow to react and barely put his sword out in front of him in time to block incoming spear thrust. It was barely a block and Jax went flying back towards the Outpost.


    He got up gingerly and his face seemed flip between both fearful and angry at the same time for a few moments before he screamed out and charged with sword in hand towards Raizen.


    Instead of screaming out and charging back, Raizen simply waited till he got close and when Jax did a downward slash straight at him he sidestepped it and struck out with a fist. The connection was loud.


    Bang


    Before I knew it Jax¡¯s body seemed to bounce off the forest floor in a much more stomach churning fashion than when this happened the first time. It wasn¡¯t even a real fight. It lasted barely a minute and Jax was now squirming on the ground. Maybe it was because he no longer a weak human anymore and was a cultivator that stopped him from being knocked out completely.


    I thought this would be end of the battle and I started walking towards Jax to pick him up. I didn¡¯t understand why he was so much faster and stronger, but hopefully with this fight this is all over.


    ¡°Don¡¯t. Move.¡±


    I froze on the spot as those eyes almost seemed to stare into my soul. I felt like I kept seeing flames flicker within his eyes, but it never lasted long enough for me to confirm. I didn¡¯t know what to do, I wanted to get Jax, but my body wouldn¡¯t listen to me. It took me a second to realize that my legs were shaking. I was¡­afraid. I was afraid of this man in front of me.


    I managed to turn my head enough to look at the rest of the group including Richard, and none of them were moving. Everyone seemed to be rooted as they watched in shock and perhaps...awe? I didn¡¯t know how I even felt as I watched him slowly walk towards Jax.


    Was he going to¡­kill him? Here? In front of all of us? Will Richard really just sit and watch?


    He eventually reached Jax, and then he slowly and almost methodically bent down and grabbed his foot. A second later, Jax was being dragged on the forest floor away from the Outpost, towards the forest. Nobody did anything. Nobody said anything. We all just watched, like sheep seeing the farmer drag away a member of the herd.


    Soon enough, Raizen and a mostly unconscious Jax disappeared behind the cacophony of trees surrounding us.

 Chapter Thirty Nine

    I felt unfulfilled as I dragged the fool off into the forest. He seemed to twitch or squirm every time I dragged him over a rock or a stick or just anything laying on the floor. This was the ground of a wild forest, there many things laying on the often uneven ground. Anyway, I didn¡¯t care about how he was feeling. I cared a lot more about my current feelings. That fight didn¡¯t make me feel better at all.


    In fact, it feels like a lie to even call that a fight. Being a full stage above him seemed like far too big of a gap to have a real fight. Even though I know for sure that I was stronger than what I displayed in that fight. Although the healing potions helped a lot, I don¡¯t think they replaced what a full night of rest would do for me.


    Though I suppose that useless fight did give me some insight into what it means to fight someone in another stage than you, let alone an entire realm. I wonder if that big green monster is the equivalent to the stage of Body Tempering that I¡¯m in now? What was it called again¡­oh yeah, the 2nd Cycle. Either way, even though I¡¯m not happy about that fight, I¡¯m still going to end this idiot¡¯s life, and even though I am essentially planning to commit murder I feel nothing from it.


    This is a new world were in. I¡¯m sure there will be a lot more murder taking place after the Tutorial. I need to make sure I¡¯m strong enough to control my own fate, so I don¡¯t end up being dragged unconscious through a forest. Anyway, while I do plan on killing him. I¡¯m not a monster. I won¡¯t do it in front of Richard and his former friends.


    I¡¯m sure a lot of them will now have some resentment towards me about this, but that¡¯s life and the consequences of a decision I¡¯m making. I don¡¯t really care if any of them become my friend or anything like that, but I hope we can all at least remain cordial, and protect the Outpost as needed. Either way, life goes on and I don¡¯t regret doing this at all.


    I eventually get to a point I consider far enough from the Outpost, and I don¡¯t hear any footsteps in the immediate area. I threw him down in front of me and he groaned in pain. I thought about waiting till he was fully conscious to finish him off, and maybe give some sort of speech to let him know he did this to himself , but that¡¯s not me. It actually felt somewhat corny.


    So, I didn¡¯t waste any further time and I drove my spear through his heart without any resignation. That seemed to jolt him awake for a moment, but it was only long enough for him to look me with pleading eyes for a few seconds before they dulled, and he no longer moved.


    I had a killed a human being.


    My hands were directly responsible for the ending of human life.


    Regardless of my reasons, I decided to play both judge and jury with the life of another.


    Yet despite all of this, I¡¯m not affected in the slightest.


    I came to terms with this already and maybe part of me was still worried about the actual moment, but it seems It was unnecessary. I don¡¯t think human lives aren¡¯t worth anything, and I know I won¡¯t suddenly start killing people for no apparent reason, but my goals will come first, and I won¡¯t sit down and allow myself to be preyed upon without fighting back¡­and based on the feeling I¡¯m getting now, my blood seems to agree¡­is this going to become a common thing?


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    A couple moments later, the body was disappearing into the ground like the bodies of Goblins did. His sword and a small pouch were left behind. No orb.


    Well, that¡¯s good to know.


    I picked up the sword and took the pouch. I didn¡¯t bother looking inside as I planned to return both of these items to Richard. I looked out towards the deeper parts of the forest for a moment before turning around and heading back towards the Outpost.


    I really wanted a rematch with that monster of a Goblin, or at least what I¡¯m assuming is a Goblin, but I won¡¯t rush that fight. I¡¯ll heal up properly before looking for it again. Moving on, the trek home was a bit quicker due to not dragging dead weight around and before long I was approaching the gates once more.


    It didn¡¯t take too long for me to be spotted by the guards on duty.


    I wasn¡¯t gone for very long, so it was the same group that watched what happened earlier.


    They looked at me with some apprehension, but I didn¡¯t see any particularly hostile gazes. Good enough I guess.


    Apart from them, there was only one other person waiting close to the gate. I¡¯m not surprised to see that it was Richard, standing with a sort of solemn look on his face. I don¡¯t know their history, but they obviously spent a few days together braving the dangers in the forest to arrive here as one big group. I didn¡¯t enjoy losing my parents, and I¡¯m sure he isn¡¯t happy that he lost¡­a friend? Or whatever he was to him.


    I didn¡¯t have much to say, nor did I plan on apologizing about any of this. I¡¯ve said everything that needed to be said about this situation and I don¡¯t plan on explaining anything else.


    I walked up to Richard calmy and held out the sword of and pouch that was left behind after the body got absorbed¡­thinking about it now, why were they left behind? His clothes got absorbed with him, but his weapon and pouch stayed behind. Weird. Anyway, Richard looked at the items for a moment before sighing and taking the items from me.


    He didn¡¯t say anything for a while and didn¡¯t seem like he knew what to say, so I did. I still remembered our agreement, so I planned to follow through on that now.


    ¡°Follow me. I¡¯ll see if the Outpost Leader is available.¡±


    I didn¡¯t wait too long for him to answer and just went through the gate and headed towards the training ground.


    I heard footsteps following me, so he was following along. It wasn¡¯t a long walk, but it was a silent one, not that I was complaining, but it wasn¡¯t usual for Richard. In our few interactions he has always had something to say, but I didn¡¯t bother asking about it.


    Eventually we got to the training grounds, and there was only one person there. It wasn¡¯t the Outpost Leader. It was the guard gate man.


    "Hello sir. I was looking for the Outpost Leader, do you know if he went back to his office?"


    "Is there something you need?"


    He answered with a smile. but he kind of ignore my question. I''ll go along with it I guess.


    "Yes, I would like to ask about training for Richard here and his group. He trains me and was wondering if they could be added."


    "Unfortunately, the Leader can only train 1 person, you. But Richard can select 30 others and have them train under me. Only 30."


    Richard decided to speak up at this point.


    "Hi sir, is there a reason only 30 people can be trained? And are we allowed to switch people out as long as we keep the number at 30?"


    "Tutorial rules. Also no, I will only train the same 30 people. If one of them dies you can add someone else. Tutorial rules are the reason for this as well."


    The guy was pretty amicable as he was talking to Richard. I guess he''s not as serious as the Outpost Leader.


    "I understand, when can I come over with the group to train?"


    "Be here tomorrow at first light. Ah it''s important to say, the training will not be easy, so don''t come if you aren''t prepared."


    "Thank you for the warning. We will be ready..." He then looked towards me.


    "And thank you for your help in this. I''ll see you around."


    Even though I didn''t actually help much, he said thanks and walked off. Good for him. I nodded towards the guard gate guy and went off to my house. It''s time for some much needed sleep.

 Chapter Forty

    ¡°So, are you sure this is a good idea? Everything about this screams bad news.¡±


    ¡°Well, it will definitely be dangerous, but over 1000 people have accepted the bounty. I heard even a few Nascent Soul cultivators accepted too. It¡¯s only a single Core Formation man, what do we have to worry about?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing, why are over 1000 people and a supposedly a few Nascent Soul cultivators hunting a single man in the Core Formation realm? Doesn¡¯t that seem weird? Something is fishy man.¡±


    ¡°I think your worrying for no reason, the big number is probably just to scare him and show him that fighting is futile, only an idiot would challenge over 1000 people. Plus, the pay is good! Just come on.¡±


    ¡°¡­No¡­I¡¯m going to find something else to do, the feeling in my gut won¡¯t go away so I¡¯m going to listen to it.¡±


    That was the last time those two ever spoke to each other.


    -A conversation in a Guild, that had the picture of a man depicted with red hair and wielded two spears on their bounty wall.


    Waking up this morning, I felt extremely refreshed. That was probably some of the best sleep I¡¯ve had since the start of the Tutorial. I did a light wash, got dressed, and with my spear and an empty pouch tied to my wait I headed towards the training grounds.


    Though it wasn¡¯t a quiet walk as usual, because I could hear yelling and grunting as I approached and when I reached, I realized the training grounds were pretty packed.


    I was pretty late huh.


    Richard and his group of 30 total people where currently doing pushups as if their lives depended on it. Why do they look so strained? Oh, maybe it¡¯s because of the gravity thing the Outpost Leader was doing to me. He didn¡¯t make me do any pushups though. Weird. Anyway, speaking of the Outpost Leader, he was standing off to the side in small corner as the Richard¡¯s group took up most of the area. He was watching me approach.


    I¡¯m sure Richard and his group noticed me as well, but they were far too busy doing pushups as the guard gate man watched them. I eventually reached the corner where the Outpost Leader was waiting.


    ¡°Your late. Again. This is the last time.¡±


    I didn¡¯t really know how to deal with that, I wanted to complain about the lack of an alarm clock, but it was hard to go down that route when there was a group nearby that clearly arrived way before me.


    How did they even manage to do¡­ah the guards. I wonder if they can wake me up too. Maybe that will be harder to ask because of what I just did to someone they knew. Either way all I could do is try.


    ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    ¡°Hm. No sparring today. Your body needs to adjust. The level of pressure will be high enough so that all adjustment can be done in one sitting, and you will then follow the evening schedule of hunting Goblins. Prepare yourself.¡±


    I just nodded and placed my things down right where I was, before walking the Richard¡¯s group to where the rack with all the wooden weapons were. Thankfully there was still a spear or two left. All the swords were gone though. Eh.


    Anyway, I made my walk back and just assumed the position I did last time. I did my best to make sure I was ready mentally, as I did not want to immediately be planted to the floor, though I didn¡¯t have much hope in this.


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    Not having much hope was the right path, because the second the Outpost Leader started, I was almost instantly planted to the ground. Though this time was different from the previous times we did this. This time he didn¡¯t let me get up. Well, he wasn¡¯t necessarily stopping me from getting up but he did not turn the pressure off.


    ¡°Arghhh¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but grunt in pain as I continuously tried to get up, but to no avail. The Outpost Leader himself didn¡¯t say anything, he just stood there as I struggled and repeatedly failed to get up. A little annoying. Anyway, this went on for a bit before I eventually stopped trying to get up. I realized it was a pointless effort, or at least I thought it was. Instead, I just laid there, doing my best to calm my mind and endure the pressure bearing down on me.


    ¡°Keep fighting.¡±


    The Outpost Leader finally spoke again, and with it my plan to just try and endure the pressure went out the window. I didn¡¯t even have the time or freedom to sigh, so I just restarted to my attempts to get up, which of course resulted in nothing, but I¡¯m assuming the act of fighting against the pressure is helping the process my body is going through. Well, that¡¯s the only reason I could think of for the Outpost Leader to tell me to keep fighting. I¡¯m hoping he wouldn¡¯t just tell me to do something for no real reason.


    Moving on, I kept for an untold amount of time and the only real progress I made after what felt like forever was going from laying completely flat with a spear in my right hand to just barely pushing myself up with my left hand.


    Though I didn¡¯t have any more opportunities to improve on that progress, as the pressure was shut off shortly after that.


    It took a few minutes of panting and gathering myself before I finally managed to stand up once again. The pain and stress in my body almost immediately began wearing off. Just a couple days ago, I needed stamina potions to keep going after way less pressure but now I can actively feel my fatigue wearing off, is it due to reaching the second stage of Body Tempering? Probably.


    ¡°Rest then go fight.¡±


    I expected it, but after saying that the Outpost Leader disappeared as usual. I really want to learn how to do that.


    Looking around I noticed that everyone else was on something of a break as folks seemed to be resting. Every now and then someone will glance my way, but so far, I hadn¡¯t spotted any weird or angry looks so its all good for now I guess.


    I eventually spotted Richard and made my way over. I had very important business to discuss.


    I approached him and I could tell he was a little apprehensive about it, and of course I could understand why. Although I don¡¯t regret it at all, I did kill a friend of his and that would make anyone uncomfortable if not outright hostile.


    ¡°Richard, got a moment?¡±


    He nodded to the people around him and looked towards the guard gate man who didn¡¯t seem like he was ready to kick off training again.


    ¡°Sure, I think I have a moment before we start again.¡±


    We walked offed to the side, next to the weapon racks.


    ¡°So what¡¯s up?¡±


    ¡°I noticed your group managed to get here way before I did. I¡¯m assuming it¡¯s because of the folks guarding the gate during the night. Is it possible to wake me up as well? I understand if its too much.¡±


    He didn¡¯t even hesitate when he replied.


    ¡°That¡¯s no problem at all. I¡¯ll wake you up myself, no worries.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that a lot Richard.¡±


    He nodded and went back to the group. I could tell things were probably a bit awkward now, but Richard is indeed a nice guy and I¡¯ll keep that in mind as we go through this Tutorial. I left shortly after that and made way to my house, were I laid on my cot long enough to feel back to 100%. I didn¡¯t even need to sleep. Though I was finally feeling hungry again after what? Like four days? Either way I ate one of those food pill thingies and with my spear in hand and a pouch tied to my waist I left and before long I was once more in the forest.


    I wonder¡­will there be another ¡®trap¡¯ waiting for me? Will that big green bastard make a return? I managed to harm him at 1st Cycle Body Tempering, and I feel a lot stronger now, so I kind of hope he comes back.


    It didn¡¯t take too long of walking deeper in the forest before I found another ¡®lone¡¯ Goblin standing by itself. Though this time it was different. It was staring right at me.


    Hmm, now how should I go about doing this? I thought about it for a bit, but this is clearly another trap, which means the Goblins definitely know I¡¯m here. No use in trying to run from of it. In fact, I wanted this. For the last couple days, I haven¡¯t made any progress toward the item in the shop and it¡¯s about time I changed that. For all I know the exchange rate has gone to shit and might even get worse now that stage 3 is only a couple days away.


    Anyway.


    I charged out towards the Goblin and with my speed and power as a 2nd Cycle Body Tempering Cultivator I reached the Goblin in a flash, and it seemed to be caught off guard by that and started screaming something I couldn¡¯t understand. Shortly after that it¡¯s head was separated from its body. Then even more screaming commenced in the forest around me.


    ¡°Graaaahhh!!¡±


    Ah and there¡¯s the big one.


    I¡¯m going to truly enjoy this.

 Chapter Forty One

    I waited just long enough for the Goblin to get absorbed and I took the orb and then took off in the direction of the Goblin cries. Well, they were coming from all around me, so any direction would¡¯ve sufficed, what we really helped picked my direction was the sound of the big Goblin. I only heard one noise that fit it so I¡¯m cautiously assuming there¡¯s only one of them for now, and I think the sooner I can take it down the better.


    I would hate to have to fight it while being swarmed the smaller ones and potentially fireballs flying at me. Either way, it only took roughly a minute for me to find it. It was charging towards me just like I was sprinting towards it. There were another 15 or so normal Goblins behind it charging along as well. This would be tricky.


    A couple of steps later the big Goblin left its feet as it leaped towards me with its fists clasped together in an attempt to smash me into paste. It¡¯s moving at the same speed as last time, but I feel like I can track its movements a lot better and could properly react. I know my spear wouldn¡¯t hold up against its power, so I dodged to the side, its large frame just barely missing me.


    I didn¡¯t miss the chance to inflict a little damage, as it flashed past me, I stabbed out with my spear, and I managed to leave a small wound on its left thigh. Far from fatal but it will add up. Before it could refocus and attack me once more, I took towards the trailing Goblins and after a second, I could hear the monsters¡¯ large legs stomping behind me, but I was much faster now than I was in our last meeting.


    I reached the Goblins and managed to swiftly kill two of them with two quick thrusts before the large one was upon me once again.


    The other Goblins kind of scampered a short distance away as it got ready to throw a punch at me. They were probably close enough to attack me with their little knives if I wasn¡¯t paying attention but far enough to not get randomly stepped on by the big one.


    Before I know it, I was on the backfoot dodging a flurry of punches, as I waited for a chance to go on the offensive, and I spotted it. Timing it as perfectly as I could, I ducked under a left hook and took off the side where I quite literally impaled a nearby Goblin on my spear and ran with it towards a rather large log. I jumped over it with the Goblin still impaled on my spear, it was still alive. I quickly turned around just in time to see the monster jumping over himself, but his landing wouldn¡¯t be as peaceful as mine.


    I used a similar tactic before with great success. As it came over, I quite literally threw the impaled Goblin at it with more power than I expected, it was akin to a fastball pitch. A fastball Goblin. Moving on, the monster swatted the poor Goblin away, but that small moment of distraction is all I needed as I was upon the large bastard with my spear firmly in hand, and I jumped up towards it and planted my spear as deep into its chest as I could.


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    Turns out that was pretty deep. As I made contact with its chest, the power I met it with was enough to knock it off its feet and slam its back into the large log behind it. I landed with him without ever letting go of my spear.


    He screamed out in what I would describe as a gut wrenching cry, and I screamed in turn as I hung on to the best of my ability and tried to drive my spear even deeper. Its eyes seemed to turn red for a moment before it managed to finally swing a wayward arm towards me. I didn¡¯t want to let go of my spear, so I pulled it out and jumped backwards and, in the wound, I left a fountain of blood that seemed to sprout.


    It flew out like that for a second or two as the large monster laid down with anger in its eyes as it stared at me. I could tell if the wound wasn¡¯t clearly fatal it would have kept on fighting, but it wasn¡¯t too much later that those some eyes began to dull.


    That felt good.


    I relished the moment for a second before I looked around to finish off the remaining Goblins.


    They themselves were a bit dazed at what just happened, which was a bit weird as they usually just kept on fighting no matter how many of them died. Maybe the big one meant something? Either way it didn¡¯t take too long after that before I finished all of them up. My pouch now had 16 total orbs in it. I was kind of expecting something fancy for the big one but¡­its body was still there.


    I hope I¡¯m not expected to have to dig out the orb from its chest or something. Hm, maybe it just takes a while before it gets absorbed? I¡¯ll wait for now.


    ¡°Guhhhhhh!¡±


    Oh yeah there were other Goblins nearby.


    Coming towards me from all sides were I think¡­over a hundred Goblins. I guess most of them were concentrated in other areas since this big one only had 15 Goblins with him.


    Either way, I could see a lot of magic wielding Goblins and a bunch of normal ones.


    ¡­.


    It was late at night when I finally finished fighting and collecting every orb from all the slain Goblins. I was more than strong enough to perhaps finish the fighting sooner, but I didn¡¯t want to rush and potentially run into a situation where I wasn¡¯t prepared to handle it. Who knows if there was another monster of a Goblin joining the fray?


    Either way the forest was quiet as I circled around to where I left the body of the large Goblin, and lo and behold it had been absorbed and it in its place was an orb. The orb was the same size as the normal ones, but it seemed to be a little shinier, or was there something in it? I don¡¯t know but whatever it was, it looked like it was worth more than the regular ones.


    So, I guess that means that the big ones will take a while to be absorbed. Good to know.


    I walked around for a bit trying to remember the way to the Outpost, before eventually finding my way and a short time later I was once again walking through the gate with a pouch filled with orbs. I had 20 plus Bonze coins back in my house so I was looking forward to how much closer these orbs would get me to my goal. Maybe with the orb from the big one, I¡¯ll get all I need right now. Well, that¡¯s if the shop is open at night, I never verified that.


    Making my way to the central area, I didn¡¯t spot anyone else walking around and when I tried to open the door, it unlocked, and the smile of Greja greeted me once more.

 Chapter Forty Two

    ¡°Welcome back! It feels like it¡¯s been forever since you¡¯ve stopped by.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Greja, it does kind of feel like it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been in here. I have some orbs I¡¯d like to exchange.¡±


    ¡°I see, well you should that things have changed since you last exchanged orbs. The ¡®uncommon¡¯ orbs you brought before are now just common, and instead of 10 Copper coins for each one, you will only receive 5. Though in exchange orbs that will now be rated as uncommon will be worth 15 copper coins for each one.¡±


    That¡¯s a bit weird, I knew the orbs will eventually be worth less, but why change the tier it belonged to? Why not just have them be common from the get-go. That didn¡¯t make any sense. I relayed that thought to Greja, and she just shrugged and said it was Tutorial System stuff.


    I didn¡¯t dwell on it too much as I fiddled around in my pouch for the orb that came from the big one. I wanted to know if this was also going to be considered common.


    ¡°Ah you managed to kill a big one eh, that one is an uncommon orb so it will be worth 15 Copper as previously discussed.¡±


    So, something that big and strong is only uncommon. I wonder if that too will change in the future. Anyway, I exchanged all my orbs and walked out and in place of the orbs in my pouch 6 Bronze coins and 15 Copper coins remained.


    That new exchange rate really set me back. Either way I made my way back to my house to do something I¡¯ve been meaning to do for quite a while now. It was about time I tried to understand these flames that dwell within me.


    I didn¡¯t really know how to manifest them, nor did I know what sitting down and meditating would accomplish but all I could do was try.


    After washing up and adding my newly earned coins to the stockpile I had, which now amounted to a little over 30 Bronze coins. I squatted down and did my best to enter something like a trance as I focused within myself. I didn¡¯t really have a path forward here, but my thought process was that if I treated it like cultivating maybe something would happen.


    So, I delved within myself, trying to focus on connecting with my flames in an effort to manifest them.


    As with most things in the Tutorial, I had no idea exactly how long I meditated for, but it was to no avail. Nothing happened and I didn¡¯t feel any closer to manifesting my flames. I¡¯ll just have to keep trying. Time to sleep, hopefully Richard remembers to wake me up tomorrow.


    ¡­


    Knock Knock


    ¡°Raizen! It¡¯s Richard!¡±


    I opened the door and was greeted by Richard and the cool crisp air of a morning before the sun rose. He didn¡¯t forget me, and it seems I will be on time today.


    Though I wonder how training will go considering the system message I woke up to this morning.


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    Ding!


    (Previously Hidden due to State)


    Stage Three of the Tutorial begins Tomorrow


    Dungeons


    Prepare


    Dungeons huh, that sounds just as fun as it would be dangerous. If they are anything like I¡¯m thinking, it will have multiple floors filled with traps and monsters on every floor, maybe even a rest area or some type of safe zone to go along with it. Oh, and hopefully a lot of rewards for completing the dungeon.


    Either way, on the day before Stage Two, no more Goblins showed up in the forest, so I wonder if the same thing will happen again this time.


    Moving on, instead of the expected short silent walk to the training grounds, Richard had some input regarding this alert.


    ¡°So, the next stage is here, and this one is related to dungeons. The only thing I could think of is that it¡¯s a place where people get tortured or kept as prisoner. What do you think? Do we have to worry about being captured?¡±


    His words almost made pause my steps, but I realized not everyone read the type of novels I did, or even watched the type of content that would have these types of dungeons. Plus who knows, he could be right.


    ¡°Maybe those things are true, but I think dungeons are things for us to conquer. Think of it like a cave or tower of some sort that will have levels to ascend/descend with monsters on each level that will get stronger as you progress. Something like that.¡±


    Richard seemed surprised for a moment before responding.


    ¡°One of the younger guys mentioned something similar, but I thought he was just making it up. I suppose I should think about it more seeing that you¡¯re mentioning it too.¡±


    I didn¡¯t respond as he seemed to be thinking about something, but we finally made it to the training grounds anyway. His group was already off to side and doing some stretches, while the Outpost Leader and the gate guard man seemed to be talking about something.


    Richard stepped towards his group while I went to the training rack to grab a wooden spear.


    Eventually Richard¡¯s group formed up and began their training and I did the same with the Outpost Leader. For the better part of the morning all I did was relentlessly attack the Outpost Leader with him dodging as though it was a walk in the park. It probably was a walk in the park for him, but I didn¡¯t let that deter me. I kept attacking till he finally switched to the offensive and the next thing I know I was defending like my life depended on it.


    I didn¡¯t have much room to actually take steps back due to other group training, so I was forced to make use of the small space and both dodge and block with my spear in tight area. Thankfully he was only attacking with his fists otherwise he probably would¡¯ve already cut my spear to pieces. Though he is obviously holding back as the few times I didn¡¯t manage to dodge in time, and he hit me, it hurt like shit but not enough to stop me from fighting.


    We went on like this for hours, my stamina lasting way longer than I thought it could. I didn¡¯t suddenly become some master fighter, but I definitely felt slightly better at fighting at the end than I did at the beginning.


    I was improving and that¡¯s all that mattered.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough for today. Rest, then advance. No monsters will show up until tomorrow.¡±


    Well, there¡¯s my answer, no Goblins tonight, but I can advance again? I wonder if this could be considered a fast pace. Either way, I just made it to the 2nd Cycle, so why so soon? I figured he would ask me to wait longer.


    ¡°Why so soon?¡±


    ¡°Your body can handle it.¡±


    That was all he said, before disappearing.


    Anyway, I gathered my things and left. Richard and his group were still in the midst of their training, before I left, they all seemed to be squatting with some type of heavy pressure weighing them down. Fun stuff.


    Before long I was washed up and once again going through the process of cultivating in the Body Tempering Realm.


    A short while later I was bleeding from all over my body and had multiple, both deep and shallow cuts across my skin. Just like the previous times it didn¡¯t hurt one bit. I washed up again and immediately went off to bed. It was still sunny outside, but with no Goblins to fight, there was no need to wait till night just to sleep.


    ¡­..


    ¡°RAIZEN!!! RAIZENNN!! WAKE UP WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!¡±

 Chapter Forty Three

    I woke up to loud screaming outside my door, along with a notification that kind of helped to clear my grogginess as it just popped up right in front of my face.


    Ding! (Previously muted due to state)


    Welcome to Stage 3 of the Tutorial


    Dungeons are abound, Enter for Riches


    But at your own Peril


    Survive


    Ugh¡­I feel¡­hungry. Why am I so hungry?


    ¡°RAIZENNN!!¡±


    Oh, shit yeah, we¡¯re getting attacked or something.


    I quickly grabbed my spear and pouch and ran towards the door. Upon opening the door, I could see a frantic Richard getting ready to bang on it once again. I won¡¯t mention that I almost ran into the door due to not being used to my current body.


    ¡°No time to talk! Come quickly! It¡¯s over a hundred of them!!¡±


    Shit that¡¯s a lot, I didn¡¯t even bother putting on a shirt as I took off towards the gate. Thankfully I slept in my pants, so I didn¡¯t have to worry about that. It was still very dark outside so I¡¯m assuming it¡¯s just past midnight. Anyway, I could hear the fighting outside. It sounded brutal.


    As I opened my stride and sprinted as fast as I could, I eventually left Richard far behind me, and since the gate was already opened, I jumped through and could finally see everything I was hearing as I got closer. It was a war like environment. Tens of humans were fighting and screaming as Goblins kept pouring in from the Forest. Fireballs constantly illuminating the night sky and arrows flying through the air at rapid pace.


    I took a second to take stock of the situation before taking off towards where most of the fire magic Goblins had concentrated. I weaved through the bodies of both humans and Goblins alike before jumping with all my strength towards the backline where the fireballs were originating from. I don¡¯t know exactly how many Goblins were standing there spitting out fireballs, but I didn¡¯t waste any time as my spear danced in the darkness. Almost every movement I made resulted in the head of Goblin flying.


    I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because of how quickly I made it 3rd Cycle Body Tempering, but the increase felt exhilarating. I felt unstoppable. The Goblins could barely react before I was upon them like a reaper coming for his due.


    I¡¯m not sure when it happened but eventually a smile made its way onto my face. I truly loved fighting. I didn¡¯t lose focus though, after taking care of the fire magic Goblins, I began sweeping through the masses of people to help relieve pressure where I could. There were far more Goblins than the people here and more were still pouring out from the Forest.


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    I didn¡¯t stop for a second as I moved across the battlefield, at some point I spotted Richard and a couple others who appeared to be in Body Tempering as well doing their best to help and take on multiple Goblins by themselves.


    I need to relieve more pressure if I wanted more people to survive the night. Quickly dispatching the Goblins close to me, I moved closer towards the forest where more and more Goblins were still running out from.


    I intended to stop most of them from getting by me.


    Although I was stronger and faster than everyone here, I wasn¡¯t omnipotent. I would miss some of them. But I would do my best to stop that from happening.


    And that¡¯s exactly what I did. Every now and then a fire magic Goblin would come out from the forest and fireball would illuminate the area, and the glint of my spear would flash in the light as it moved with speed towards the neck next in line to be severed.


    The first problem I faced in doing this was footing. The Forest floor was already crowded with logs, bushes, sticks, stones, and even uneven ground but adding a lot of bodies to the equation wasn¡¯t helping. Yes, the bodies will eventually disappear and leaving small orbs in place, but with the number of Goblins dying it was starting to become a problem.


    Not like I could do anything about though other than keep fighting.


    After who knows how long, I noticed that Goblins finally stopped pouring out of the forest and after I cleaned up the large group in front of me, I turned around to the folks behind me still engaging in battle and after sweeping my eyes across the area I saw the folks who needed the most help and did just that.


    It took maybe another 10 minutes or so, but all the Goblins were dead. I don¡¯t know who did it first, but someone cried out and eventually everyone was doing the same thing. Though at some point, the noise levels died down as Richard and company began taking stock of the situation.


    Apparently two people had died.


    I didn¡¯t know them.


    I don¡¯t necessarily feel anything emotionally about them dying but I couldn¡¯t help but think that if I was stronger then I could¡¯ve prevented that. Some might say that¡¯s a bit of a selfish way of thinking, but I can¡¯t control the things that pop into my mind.


    Moving on, I turned back towards the Forest, and stayed on relatively high alert as Richard and his group cleaned up the battlefield behind me. Picking up all the orbs, helping the injured and dealing with their dead.


    Eventually I could hear steps approaching me, and I turned around to see it was Richard as expected. In his hand was a pouch that was clearly filled with a good amount of the orbs. I had no idea how many Goblins were killed but based on that it looks like a good amount.


    ¡°This is for you. Thank you for your help, I don¡¯t know if we would¡¯ve survived if you hadn¡¯t been here. I¡¯m assuming you advanced past the first stage in Body Tempering because you were like a superhero out there. Thanks again.¡±


    I stared at the pouch for a moment, but I decided against questioning it. Everything about what he said seemed extremely genuine and I didn¡¯t want to spit in the face of that. Plus, I needed the orbs so who am I to say no.


    Richard seemed to notice my look as he spoke up once more.


    ¡°Haha don¡¯t worry there were hundreds of orbs laying about. We gave you most of them, but we have more than we¡¯ve ever earned on our little hunting trips. They will help a lot.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll stay out here a bit longer to make sure everything is okay.¡±


    He simply nodded and walked away towards his group.


    But hundreds huh¡­I didn¡¯t even realize it was that much. I couldn¡¯t even imagine the type of damage that would¡¯ve ensued if even just one of the big ones made an appearance.


    Either way it¡¯s still dark outside so let¡¯s go get some sleep. I¡¯ll visit Greja in the morning to exchange these orbs.


    Ugh¡­yeah I¡¯m still hungry.


    I haven¡¯t felt this hungry since I entered the Tutorial¡­how did I even manage to fight that long and that hard on an empty stomach.


    I quickly made my way home took two of those food pill things and was in dreamland once again.


    ¡­.


    Knock Knock


    Dammit.

 Chapter Forty Four

    The knocks on my door this time were for training, makes sense. Thinking back to last night, or this morning I guess, all the little wounds I picked up and my physical exhaustion are gone after apparently just a few hours of sleep.


    Though that didn¡¯t mean my mental fatigue was nonexistent, especially since I woke up a bit hungry once again. I¡¯m guessing it has to do with cultivating. My body is stronger now, so it requires more nutrients to sustain itself? That seems mostly logical, so I¡¯ll run with it for now.


    Anyway, it was Richard once again, and once again, it wasn¡¯t a silent walk. After we greeted each other, he began talking about some interesting things. He also didn¡¯t look at me with that same apprehensive look as before. I guess fighting alongside someone can change things.


    ¡°Although last night was terrible, some good was able to come out of it, we were finally able to rent out all the available houses in the Outpost. It¡¯s still a bit cramped in all the houses, as the number is limited and its only 4 rooms each, but its much better than what it was before.


    ¡°We also bought a couple more health potions, so maybe 1 or 2 of us can attempt to reach the¡­what was it again¡­ah yes, the 2nd Cycle of Body Tempering. How about you? Did the orbs help you get anything you needed?¡±


    I think it was a little over a hundred orbs in the pouch. They¡¯ll help but not enough to get me to 1 Silver just yet.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t turned them in yet, but I think I still need a bit more. No worries though.¡±


    ¡°Really? If it¡¯s not too much maybe I can help out? How much do you need?¡±


    ¡°Ah its alright, it¡¯s quite a bit. I¡¯ll take care of it, thanks for asking though.¡±


    After some more small talk, we got to the training grounds and Richard was about to walk over to his group when I noticed there wasn¡¯t a full 30 of them present, only around 20. Only two people died in the fight so they should have more. It doesn¡¯t matter too much, but if there was another fight or something I¡¯d like to know.


    ¡°Hey Richard. I see your missing some folks, is everything okay?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Oh yeah, some of us managed to finally break through and reach Body Tempering so they are recovering from that. The health potions help but it¡¯s not perfect, so they need the rest.¡±


    ¡°Ah okay got it.¡±


    And with that he went to his group, and I grabbed a wooden spear and walked to the Outpost Leader. A couple more Body Tempering cultivators is a good thing though, we¡¯ll be able to defend the Outpost a lot better if a lot more people cultivated.


    Moving on, after greeting the Outpost Leader, another round of grueling pressure resistance training began. I know it¡¯s a good thing, and it¡¯s proven that it helps, but it still sucks to go through with it every time I advance.


    Anyway, before long it was over, and it was finally time to leave once again. But as I was leaving, the Outpost Leader said something in my mind and disappeared right after.


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    ¡®The Dungeon recommendations are just the minimum. Bring a bag.¡¯


    Well¡­I don¡¯t know exactly what that means yet, but I can take a good guess. If the Dungeon says it recommends 20 people to clear it, you may still need more than that to actually clear it.


    Interesting.


    I wonder if he¡¯ll mind if I shared this with Richard? He didn¡¯t say I couldn¡¯t so why not.


    Richard and his group were sparring with each other, while the gat...you know what I¡¯ll call him Instructor from now on¡­so they were sparring while the Instructor watched on and gave out pointers as needed.


    They looked pretty good.


    Anyway, I waited for a bit until they looked to be taking a break and called Richard over.


    ¡°Hey what¡¯s up?¡±


    He was clearly tired and spoke while panting.


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt your training but I have some information for you.¡±


    I told him what I was told, and who said it. He kind of had a similar guess as to what it meant and thanked me for the information. Richard was a pretty smart guy, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll handle it well.


    Moving on, I made my way over towards the shop to exchange the orbs for coins and Greja let me know that my House Rental Pass will expire today, so I used the opportunity to stock up on food pills and more shirts, pants and boots.


    I also decided to ask if there was anything new in the shop due to the new stage or anything and she simply replied that I¡¯ll see it eventually.


    That kind of threw me for a loop, so I looked through the shop just to make sure I didn¡¯t miss anything and yep there was nothing new. No need to think about it too deeply though, if something new pops up I¡¯ll spot it eventually like she said. Anyway, I decided to stop by the Blacksmith to see if there was anything new there.


    I wasn¡¯t disappointed.


    <u>Smithy Shop</u>


    Please select a category:


    1. Weapons


    2. Repairs (See Blacksmith)


    3. Commissions (See Blacksmith)


    4. Knowledge


    5. Armor


    There was a new category to select. One that I¡¯ve been looking forward to. I clicked into armor and the options were limited but I didn¡¯t care.


    <u>Armor</u>


    1. Leather Vest ¨C 50 Copper Coins


    2. Leather Bracers ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    70 copper coins wasn¡¯t a small amount, especially with the purchase I just made to buy the 30 day passes, one of which was 120 Copper Coins by itself. Anyway, not like I wasn¡¯t going to buy it, almost regardless of price. I tended to fight a little recklessly, but I still very much cared about my health and safety, so I quickly confirmed purchase on both of them and soon enough the Blacksmith was handing me my purchase.


    ¡°Here¡¯s yer amor. The vest connects to the sides. It¡¯s strong enough to take a blow or two from a 1st Cycle brat.¡±


    A blow or two from someone in 1st Cycle Body Tempering cultivator eh. I can work with that, it¡¯s not like I planned to be indestructible with some armor, but some added insurance is always a good thing.


    Both the vest and the bracers were the same deep brown, and they had a slight weight to them which makes sense since it was hard leather armor after all.


    I nodded to the blacksmith and instead of simply nodding back he had something to say.


    ¡°Yer about to get plenty materials, bring em back here if you want good commissions.¡±


    ¡°¡­Understood.¡±


    I was a little confused, but I¡¯ll just take it at face value for now. Moving on, which a lot of stuff in my hands, I headed to the Potion shop, maybe this dreaded place got a shop upgrade too.


    After walking in, I realized if it did get an upgrade, it definitely wasn¡¯t to the odor of the shop. It still smelled extremely funny.


    Though one conversation with the alchemist and there was no upgrade¡­at least not yet? I don¡¯t know, he was being all weird about it. Either way, I bought a couple health potions and began the trek home.


    By the time I got to my house I had passed by a lot of the members of Richard¡¯s group just walking about. I suppose it makes sense I¡¯d be seeing them more often since some of them live right next to me now.


    Anway, it¡¯s time to go into a Dungeon.

 Chapter Forty Five

    After updating the coin stack, I now had 35 Bronze Coins and some change. Still a long way to go. Anyway, looking at the leather vest armor, it was one large, connected piece that only had one hole. Well one hole until I strapped it up.


    To put it on I slid my head through that center hole and let the front and back lay against my chest and back respectively. At the sides of the armor were buckles that would tie the back and front together.


    It took a little finagling...but I eventually got it together. It was snug but not too tight. After throwing out a couple light punches to test my movement, everything felt fine.


    The bracers went one a lot easier. They just slipped on and covered my entire forearm. Just like with my clothes from the shop, they fit perfectly. I¡¯m convinced there¡¯s some Tutorial magic at play here. Moving on, neither the vest nor bracers had any interesting designs or embroidery or anything. Just very simple gear it seems.


    Anyway.


    My Rucksack that I really haven¡¯t been using since I got it, held 3 Health Potions, my food pill bottle and passes was now strapped to my back and with my spear in hand in was time to go.


    I didn¡¯t spot Richard on the way to the gate, so I¡¯ll have to pass on the information the blacksmith gave me when I got back. Anyway, I made it outside and some the folks on guard duty even gave me a nod as I left into the forest. I hope they¡¯ll be alright while I¡¯m gone. Huh¡­I guess I¡¯m starting to like them.


    Anyway, I immediately upped my awareness to the maximum as I walked in search of a dungeon. I had some basic ideas of what I might find or what to look for but in reality, it could be anything. Thinking about it now, it could even extremely far away, who knows If I¡¯ll even find one in the first place.


    So, with thoughts like that on my mind, while my eyes darted about the forest looking for movement or any strange structures, I slowly made my way deeper in. I was moving at a much slower pace than I was used to because I wanted to make sure I didn¡¯t miss anything. It would suck to later find out I walked right past a dungeon.


    With that being said, I wasn¡¯t just walking in a straight line either, I was taking my sweet time to look and wander all around me in search of a dungeon.


    This type of search went on for a while. Maybe an hour or so? I don¡¯t know, but what I do know is that I think I finally found something.


    A little in front of me there was a rather extra-large tree. Well, all the trees in the forest were extra tall and wide, but this one was even bigger. That alone wasn¡¯t enough for me to pay more attention to it though.


    What made me pay closer detail was the fact that about 5 feet in any direction around tree, there was nothing. No plants, no bushes, nothing at all. Only the bare forest ground. That was weird.


    The weirdness increased when I finally noticed there was slight smoke or maybe fog appearing on the other side of the tree.


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    Walking around the large tree, I finally saw a large gaping hole into the tree that seemed to sink deep into the ground. It was pitch black and I couldn¡¯t see even a speak of light no matter how intensely I focused on the hole. The fog I saw earlier slowly seeping at the edge of the hole where the tree and hole met the forest ground.


    If this wasn¡¯t a dungeon entrance, I don¡¯t know what was. Despite me thinking that, I was still hesitant to jump into the hole. For all I know this could be a random evil Goblin death trap.


    I took a couple seconds to calm down before I reached my hand towards the hole.


    Oh.


    Would you look at that.


    Welcome to the Green Den


    (F) Class Dungeon


    Five 1st Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Enter? Yes/No


    The Green Den huh¡­I wonder if that means it has Goblins in it? Like a den of Goblins. Maybe like a nest of some sort? Who knows. Anyway, I look at the message for a bit longer before shrugging and confirming the yes option.


    Almost instantly my vision flashed with darkness and before I knew it, I was standing in a new place.


    It appeared to be like some type of underground dimly lit cave. Although the lighting wasn¡¯t very good, I could see decent enough, and after taking a look around I was in a small cave with nothing but roots sticking out of the walls and ceiling and a few small glowing mushrooms. In front of me was a narrow path that seemed to make a sharp turn the right so I couldn¡¯t quite see what laid at the end of it.


    Hm, I¡¯m not really sure if those mushrooms were valuable or not, but I didn¡¯t want to touch them since I wasn¡¯t sure if it was even safe to do that in the first place. Moving on, I finally took a step towards the path in front of me when a new message popped up.


    The Green Den


    Objective: Kill


    Only Death or Completion allows one to Leave


    So, either I die in here, or I clear the Dungeon if I wanted to leave. Seems pretty straightforward but I wish It gave that warning before I entered the Dungeon. I¡¯ll have to add this to the list of things to tell Richard. Moving on, the message disappeared on its own, but as I slowly advanced, I couldn¡¯t help but think on the objective live. The fact it¡¯s there means there could be Dungeons that had different objectives, right? Something to think about for the future I guess.


    I eventually made it to the path and began walking down it, I made the sharp right and a couple feet from there I could see that the path opened up to a cave similar to the one I found myself in initially, only this time it was much larger. And filled with a lot more than roots and mushrooms.


    While still staying in the pathway, I could look ahead to see maybe around 50 Goblins walking around the cave. None of them approached the pathway or even looked in this direction, but for some reason I knew the second I stepped out of the pathway they would be upon me immediately. I couldn¡¯t spot any Goblins walking around with staffs or wearing any robes of any sort. They all wear carrying their little knives.


    I could¡¯ve killed 50 Goblins in the forest pretty easily, but this was different. There weren¡¯t any trees or random logs, or bushes or any obstruction at all for me to use to my advantage, there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and I¡¯m not sure where this feeling is coming from¡­perhaps my instincts? But I kind of knew that even though they are avoiding this pathway for now, once I leave that feature would be gone, and if I tried to run back here, they would just follow me.


    I wasn¡¯t nervous though; I knew I could deal with them. I would just have to be careful when retreating and attacking. I¡¯m sure I could eat a couple stab wounds and my vest could deal with it their strength, but getting stabbed too many times would still be too much for me, it wasn¡¯t like my skin suddenly became steel.


    Anyway, time to fight.

 Chapter Forty Six

    Once I stepped out of the hallway, it was almost like a switch went off in the minds of every single Goblin before me. They all turned and looked in my direction and almost instantly after they began screaming. Just to test out the feeling I had earlier, I took a couple steps back into the hallway, but they still kept focus on me, and shortly after they all started running at me.


    Before the first ones could reach me, I stepped back out into the cave to meet them headfirst so I could be in control of the situation. I swung my spear 5 times in quick succession and 5 Goblins quickly found themselves without heads.


    That was where the easiness of the fight ended.


    Although I was aware of the total amount of Goblins, and the fact it wouldn¡¯t be like fighting in a forest with obstacles to stop the Goblins and space for me to run, it seems reality can be a bit harsher.


    I almost instinctively tried running to the left when a bunch of the Goblins came rushing in from the right, only to be met with more Goblins, usually there would be a tree or something to run around but not here.


    It wasn¡¯t like I was suddenly about to get overrun or anything, but I really had to take care not to overextend and I genuinely had to focus to be completely aware of what was around me.


    Well, that was until I suddenly remembered just how much stronger I am than these Goblins.


    Well, it wasn¡¯t technically sudden, at one point three Goblins decided to all leap at me at the same time while I was engaged with another set of them with my spear. I almost instinctively took my hand off the spear and swung with almost my full strength doing my best to block them.


    I did more than block them. My clenched fist passed through their skulls almost like butter. Well butter might be a bit of a stretch. It was more like moving through very loose mud as bits of their skull and brain matter flew all over the place.


    The slight surprise I felt at the situation almost caused a Goblin to stab me, but it too, quickly had it¡¯s skull crushed.


    I was definitely already using a lot of strength in my swings, thrusts, and essentially all my movements, but it seems there might¡¯ve been some sort of mental block preventing me from using my full strength? Or maybe I just wasn¡¯t used to my body? Whatever it was, it ended right there.


    I could already easily kill Goblins before I even cultivated, but once I finally began to use everything I had, the difference from moments before was like night and day.


    Instead of trying to pierce multiple Goblins one at a time in quick succession. I was now skewering a few at a time. One wide swing was enough decapitating any Goblin caught within its path, and the ones who didn¡¯t get caught were thrown back from the force with such power that a few of them died from that alone.


    Needless to say. Only a few short moments letter and the cave were littered with Goblins. Most of which were no longer whole.


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    Though that also made me realize something. None of the bodies disappeared.


    Well at least not initially.


    I stood there for a few moments a little unsure of what to do, when all the bodies slowly began vanishing at the exact same time. They weren¡¯t sinking in the floor as usual, just vanishing in thin air.


    It was very weird.


    The weirdness didn¡¯t stop there though. After all of them vanished, the orbs I hoped to receive were not there.


    I was a little disappointed cause I needed the money, but the disappointment didn¡¯t last very long as a small chest manifested itself in the middle of the cave.


    Well, that¡¯s very game-like.


    I walked up to the chest, it was made out of brown wood, similar to that of the trees outside, and it brown-ish looking metal to serve as the hinges that allowed it to open and close. Standard stuff for a chest.


    I opened it.


    It had a few rocks..? No not a rock.


    I picked one up and it was very lumpy and crude but also very very hard. It was kind of a mix of colors in one piece, black, grey and brown maybe? It was all mushed together. Either way I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s some type of metal? Is this what the blacksmith was talking about perhaps?


    Interesting.


    I¡¯m sure this is good and all, but I really do need money so hope I can get some orbs at some point in this Dungeon.


    I know the Dungeon wasn¡¯t done yet, or at least I think it¡¯s not done yet as the second I put all 5 pieces of the¡­metal? Well, whatever it was after I put it in my backpack that now gained a little bit of weight, the chest disappeared, and a pathway opened up on the opposite side of the cave than the one I entered in.


    Moving on, I entered the pathway, and it went downwards. No steps or stairs just the ground sloping downwards. Thankfully the slope wasn¡¯t so bad that I had to worry about sliding.


    Eventually, I got to the end of the pathway.


    It was another cave.


    A cave filled with Goblins.


    Though this cave was a bit bigger, and the number of Goblins seemed to have doubled.


    Needless to say, it didn¡¯t take me very long to clear this cave of every single Goblin present.


    After the fiasco in the previous cave of me finally using all my strength, I wasn¡¯t making that mistake again. If I was still in the 1st Cycle of Body Tempering, I wouldn¡¯t be able to do what I¡¯m doing now, but unfortunately for these Goblins, I was a bit stronger than that.


    Well maybe a lot stronger. I¡¯m really starting to understand more and more the type of gap that exists between each stage of Body Tempering.


    Moving on, after the same thing happened with the Goblins disappearing and what not, another chest appeared. It was the same size as the first one, but it had a few more clumps of mystery metal.


    With a backpack a bit heavier, and a new path opened up in front of me, I made my way down into the next cave. It followed the same trend as the previous cave. A bit bigger, and almost doubled the amount of Goblins.


    Around 200 Goblins is a bit much even for me. Instead of a short bit of fighting, it took me almost 30 minutes I think to clean up the entire cave.


    The chest also followed the same trend, same size, but a bit more pieces of mystery metal. My backpack is getting a little heavy now. Not heavy to walk around with per se, but it will start to cause a problem with my fighting.


    After walking down another path, the trend continued. I now had 400 Goblins to fight.


    Hm.


    The second I got into the cave, I lowered my backpack to the ground, and maybe 45 minutes to an hour later, I was once again putting pieces of metal into my bag.


    I really hope this ends soon; I don¡¯t know how many pieces of metal my bag can handle before the bottom rips out.


    Upon walking down the pathway to the next cave, the trend finally changed. This cave was about the same size as the first one, and there was also around 50 Goblins in it. Though that¡¯s where the similarities ended. One of the big ones was standing in there.


    Ah¡­this will be easier than fighting the 400 Goblins from earlier.

 Chapter Forty Seven

    Before I entered the cave this time, I took out a food pill. All that moving around earlier must¡¯ve made me hungry. Which makes sense. What I don¡¯t understand though is how sudden the hungriness  comes. Instead of slowly getting more and more hungry, everything will be fine then all of a sudden I feel immense hunger.


    Anyway, it took 3 pills before the feeling finally went away. I wonder how much food that is the equivalent of?


    Moving on, I entered the cave and laid my bag down in time to see the big one charging at me. Just the other day the speed of this same charge felt like I was being chased by lightning and was enough to have me run for my life all the way back to the Outpost. Now it just looks so slow. Cultivating really is amazing.


    A short while later, I was the only thing alive in the cave. Though I wasn¡¯t feeling very happy.


    My spear broke.


    Like it really broke.


    It didn¡¯t even break on contact or anything. After I used it to pierce through the head of the big one, I took it out and went for a powerful swing to decapitate a bunch of the remaining Goblins at once.


    It quite literally snapped mid swing, and I was thrown off balance. That allowed one of the Goblins to stab me in my thigh, but it didn¡¯t go very deep and honestly it doesn¡¯t really hurt. It¡¯s not even bleeding anymore.


    I¡¯m a lot more sad about my spear. This is the second one I¡¯ve broken.


    Sigh


    Thankfully, my bad mood didn¡¯t last for long. As shortly after all the bodies vanishing, instead of a chest and a new opened pathway, I got a message.


    The Green Den


    Objective: Complete


    Congratulations


    Granting Rewards


    Also very game like.


    But nice, I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have to do another floor while not having my spear. As I thought that, a much larger chest manifested in front of me. I fully expected to just get a lot more of the mystery metal, but I was glad to be wrong.


    Inside the cave were 20 Bronze coins, and even if that was the only thing in it, I¡¯d be happy cause that¡¯s a lot more money than I can earn just fighting in the forest all day, especially with the new exchange rate. Of course, that wasn¡¯t the only thing in the chest. Alongside the coins were a dagger and a ring.


    The dagger had a wooden handle that had the carving of what appeared to be a Goblin¡¯s face, but was that a crown over its head? I don¡¯t know the carving was really small. Anyway, the blade of the dagger had jagged edges and was maybe 7 inches in length. Definitely not what I¡¯ve seen the Goblins running around with, they just had little knives. Is this a sign of things to come maybe?


    I carefully put the dagger in my bag.


    Moving on the ring, it was small and all black in color, it didn¡¯t look expensive or sturdy or anything. It was just a plain old ring or so I thought until I put it on my finger¡­nope, nothing happened. Just a plain old ring.


    I was never big on jewelry, so I just tossed it in my bag, and I carefully added the Bronze coins as well.


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    After everything was collected, another message popped up in front of me.


    Exit Dungeon? Yes/No


    Neat, I was a little curious just exactly how I was supposed to get out of here, but I¡¯m guessing once I confirm yes, I¡¯ll get teleported once again. After I confirmed, I was teleported just as expected. A pretty weird feeling but I guess I have to get used to it.


    Once I made it back outside, I looked towards the entrance of the Dungeon and a slightly different message from the first one popped up.


    Welcome to the Green Den


    (F) Class Dungeon


    Five 1ST Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Dungeon Dormant (1 Hour)


    Well. That¡¯s kind of interesting. So, after the Dungeon is cleared it will go dormant. I guess that makes sense. Though only 1 hour is kind of low when I think about it, I won¡¯t complain, because that means I can farm this dungeon for coins and only need a couple runs to finally get reach 1 Silver Coin.


    Anyway, my backpack or rucksack or whatever was way too heavy to carry on my back like normal so I had to hold it in front of me and essentially cradle it so the bottom didn¡¯t tear out.


    It would really suck to have to fight anything while doing this and not having my spear, so I decided to sprint all the way to the Outpost. I still had plenty of energy to spare, so it wasn¡¯t too much trouble at all.


    By the time I made it back to the Outpost I could see the sun was starting to set. It¡¯s been quite a busy day. Either way, I greeted folks standing guard, and headed straight to the blacksmith, he said to bring stuff back and I needed to find out exactly what the mystery metal even is.


    After greeting the blacksmith, I immediately took it out of the pieces and showed it to him.


    ¡°This was the only thing that could be considered materials that I got from the Dungeon. I¡¯m not sure what it is though.¡±


    ¡°Rock Iron, a piece of shit metal, filled with garbage.¡±


    Well, that sucks, I carried it all the way over here just for it to be garbage? Shame.


    ¡°So, it¡¯s not worth anything? Am I better off just throwing it out?¡±


    ¡°Eh, each one of dem clumps is about 5 Bronze coins, and if ya give me enough of em, I can make a better spear than the Tutorial trash ya started with.¡±


    I stared at his impassive face with a blank look as I try to understand his thought process. He is probably comparing the metal, and even the spear to other things he has seen and worked with outside of the Tutorial which might means almost anything I bring him might be considered trash to him, but like gold to the current me.


    5 Bronze Coins for one clump is like finding a gold mine, wait maybe a bronze mine? I don¡¯t know, either way I had 40 of those clumps in my bag. That¡¯s 200 Bronze Coins¡­in other words 2 whole Silver Coins¡­


    Hm, he also mentioned if he had enough of them he could make me a better spear, I should probably inquire about that first.


    ¡°..I see. About how many do you need to make one of those spears?¡±


    ¡°25.¡±


    That would leave me with 15 clumps to sell, so I¡¯ll get 75 Bronze¡­and when I add that to the pile I already have, that would push me past 100. 2 Silver Coins sound nice, but I can get that later another Dungeon run, and I don¡¯t want to another run, if my spear might break with one full power swing.


    I quickly took out all of the clumps on his counter and separated them into two piles. One to sell and one for the spear.


    ¡°Come back tomorrow for yer spear, it cost 5 Bronze Coins.¡±


    After handing me what amounted to exactly 70 Bronze Coins, he took all the clumps of what I now know as Rock Iron and went into the back.


    I took that as my que to leave.


    I almost sprinted to my house to grab the remaining pile of coins I had before quickly making my way to the shop.


    I barely even greeted Greja as I laid out all 100 Bronze Coins on the counter.


    I could finally buy whatever it was that was listed in the shop. I couldn¡¯t help but be excited. I figured out a while back that no one else could see it since Richard or anyone else in his group for that matter ever brought it up. So, the metal people really pulled some strings to not only get it in the shop, but to make it so that only I could see  it.


    Greja seemed to notice my excitement as I finally clicked confirm on the purchase.


    ¡°You finally reached silver I see. Well, let me not delay you any further.¡±


    She took out a small box and placed it on the counter. She continued talking as I grabbed it, though this time in an unusually serious tone.


    ¡°Raizen, listen carefully. I recommend not letting anyone else ever look at what¡¯s inside. Not me, not the Outpost Leader, not anyone you meet in the Tutorial. Letting someone else see the contents of that box could cost them their lives. Do not forget that.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡±


    That was a bit more somber than I expected, but I made to take to take heed. I didn¡¯t actually plan on showing anyone else, but now I definitely won¡¯t.


    Anyway, It was time to go home and see what all the fuss is about.

 Chapter Forty Eight

    Right before I made it inside my house, I managed to spot one of Richard¡¯s people leaving one of the houses. I didn¡¯t know this one, well I didn''t know most of them, anyway I approached her to ask if she could deliver a message to Richard for me.


    ¡°Excuse me miss, can you please deliver a message to Richard for me?¡±


    She was a bit startled by my abrupt approach, but she responded eventually.


    ¡°¡­Sure, what is it?¡±


    ¡°That if he finds any Dungeons, don¡¯t go in it with a small group. They are most likely too dangerous for just a few people at 1st Cycle Body Tempering. That¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll let him know.¡±


    And with that she walked off, I didn¡¯t linger either and finally made my way inside my house. I quickly put everything down and took a seat on my cot. It was finally time. A package specifically for me.


    I was a little excited.


    I slowly opened the small box to see what I had saved up all of these coins for, and to my slight disappointment, it looked like another book. I don¡¯t know what I was expecting, but I was hoping for more than a book.


    Moving on, I finally took the book out, and all my disappointment seems to vanish in thin air. It seems I really spoke too soon.


    The book was essentially a paperback cover, and it looked worn, it also appeared to only have a page or two, which I guess is a common theme here considering the manuals I read not too long ago.


    Anyway, what caused me to wake up from my disappointment was the name of the book.


    ¡°The Way of Infernal¡±


    I was just kind of absentmindedly reading the name out loud but that seemed to trigger something, as all of a sudden the booklet immediately spiked in heat.


    It took less than a second after I spoke for it to become far hotter than any kitchen stovetop. If a regular person was holding the book, they would¡¯ve long since suffered severe burns even if they dropped the book quickly.


    Thankfully, I wasn¡¯t a regular person. I could feel that it was hot, but it wasn¡¯t burning or hurting me at all. If anything, it was actually a slightly comfortable feeling.


    Only after around 10 seconds of a rapid rise in heat did the book finally stop heating up and instead began cooling down. As the cot was pretty low to the ground, when I sat on it, I was close to the ground as well, and with close the book was to the wooden floor, I noticed it started to deform just a bit before the book started cooling.


    I¡¯m sure if I left the book on the floor it would¡¯ve all but certainly started a fire.


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    Anyway.


    The book was at a normal temperature now. That was a pretty weird experience, but I¡¯m getting more and more used to weird things these days so let¡¯s just jump right into it.


    I opened the book, to see that there were exactly two pages. Each page had a lot of information on it.


    [ Welcome to the embrace of the Eternal Flame.]


    That was what was written on the top of the first page. It then went on from there to explain and somewhat answer some of the questions I¡¯ve been wondering about.


    [ This book is for Infernals from newly integrated Universes. Infernals, who are likely undertaking a Multiverse System curated Tutorial. Infernals, who are now the sole ancestor of their future line. There are now an untold number of responsibilities on your shoulders as the creator of a new lineage. None of which are easy, but you are an Infernal, a being who bathes their obstacles in a sea of flames should it hinder their path for too long. ]


    That¡­that was very intense, but of course it didn¡¯t end there.


    [ The aforementioned responsibilities are not required, but only a fool would ignore them. Do keep this in mind. This booklet was likely delivered to your universe and then to your very hands by Infernal Elder. This individual will guide you for a short time. Take heed of their teachings as they are far above your current station. ]


    That was the end of the first page, and although it answered some questions for me, it also left me with far more questions.


    The sole ancestor of my future line? The creator of a new lineage? What the hell are they talking about. I get I¡¯m this Infernal thing now, but how did I even become one? Why didn¡¯t they explain that, and these new responsibilities that I suddenly have, the ones that I¡¯d be a fool to ignore? Who are they to just decide that for me? I haven¡¯t even met them yet. I think that¡¯s a bit much to just throw on a person all at once.


    Why did they even assume I would have children one day? Not that I don¡¯t want them, but why would they just assume I would have them? Weird.


    Either way, no use in getting worked up about it now, as I can¡¯t change anything from where I am. Plus it¡¯s finally nice to know how I got this book, a supposed Infernal Elder brought it here themselves. But I wonder how they found out? Maybe it was the metal people who told them? That¡¯s probably the case as I doubt they have some way to just sense me for who knows where.


    ¡­


    Actually, they probably do have a way to sense me from who knows where. I have to stop thinking about how things would normally be and just kind of understand that things that might seem impossible could very well be normal. Like the fact that I¡¯m an Infernal who has black flames in their body for example.


    Anyway, although it¡¯s a little annoying to read some of that, I can¡¯t ignore the fact that I¡¯m an Infernal doesn¡¯t have benefits. The Outpost Leader himself is training me and providing me information and tips about this Tutorial. He himself explained that he is investing in me because I¡¯m an Infernal.


    Of course, that type of benefit had to come with a few potential drawbacks. I now had these mysterious responsibilities that I will more than likely not ignore, at least not initially. I also heal a lot faster than a regular human, I don¡¯t need nearly as much food, and as of right now I believe I can cultivate a lot faster than most.


    These are things I know I wouldn¡¯t want to give up.


    If I want the pros, I need to accept the cons.


    Makes sense.


    Moving on I finally flipped to the second page after I sorted out my thoughts.


    Something almost magical happened the second I did so.


    The entire page, and before long the entire book was covered in black flames.


    They slowly spread from the book to my arms, and from there they began to cover my entire being.


    I think even the most dare devil like people would freak out from this, let alone me, but I never felt in danger. In fact, I felt very safe. It was almost like the flames themselves were hugging me¡­? I don¡¯t know exactly but whatever it was, I enjoyed the feeling as I was embra¡­¡¯Welcome to the embrace of the Eternal Flame¡¯¡¯¡­is this what those words meant?


    Ah, that¡¯s probably the case.


    After a few seconds, the flames receded, and I could finally read what was on the page. Oh wait a second¡­I feel¡­stronger?

 Chapter Forty Nine

    I took a moment to stretch my arms out and wiggle my legs a bit, and without a doubt I felt a bit stronger. It seems those flames weren¡¯t just for show. That¡¯s amazing. I¡¯m not really sure how much stronger I felt, but I knew it wasn¡¯t on the same level as a breakthrough to a different stage in Body Tempering.


    Yet I felt stronger nonetheless, its almost as if my body has just been reinforced overall. This is really good.


    Moving on, now that the embrace of the flame thing was out of the way, it was time to continue reading.


    Wow¡­this last page is definitely way more important than the first one.


    [The thing that most people will likely use to identify you as an Infernal are your Flames. They are called Eternal Flames, for a very simply reason. The Flames of Infernals are truly Eternal. If enough power is imbued into them, they can and will burn till the end of time. In fact, there are countless planets that have met that exact fate for their transgressions against Infernals. ]


    Entire planets that are just being burned forever? And the fact it said countless means it can¡¯t be just a few. That¡­that is a lot to take in. Just what type of race of people did I become? Are we the antagonists of the Multiverse?


    And that¡¯s not even the problem, the problem is I don¡¯t see anything wrong with it. If an entire planet worth of people tried to kill me I¡¯d set them on fire too. Just reinforces the idea that I¡¯m definitely one of them I guess.


    Moving on, the page didn¡¯t end there.


    [ Now, your flames were always with you since the day you were born, but it would have never been revealed prior to being welcomed into the Multiverse. Your body needs the Qi in the air to have enough power to use the Flames. Without it, your flames would remain dormant forever. Though if you¡¯re reading this that is not the case, and your flames have made at least one appearance.]


    Hm, that was interesting. So, I¡¯ve always had these flames, but Earth didn¡¯t have access to Qi before, so my flames never showed itself. Does that mean if the Multiverse thing didn¡¯t happen I would¡¯ve lived a typical life and died never knowing what I really was? That¡¯s a somewhat scary thought. Glad that isn¡¯t the case.


    [ Your flames are a part of you, they feel as you feel, breathe as you breathe, fight as you fight. They are deeply entrenched into everything that makes you, you. Though properly using them is a different story. There is no step by process or an exact science in learning how to properly wield your flames. Infernals have been around since the dawn of time itself, and to this day that has always been the case. The reason for that is while Eternal Flame is the same, it is still unique in some way to just you.


    [ It is not like a spell waiting to be cast after a set of conditions have been met, it is not like an intricate array working by a set of rules. No. It is much more than that, much deeper than that. It is alive.


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    [ Not in the same that you are alive, but it truly does feel. You need to connect with it, bond with it, truly recognize it as your partner that will walk with you to the end of time in every battle, in every triumph, in every down moment, in EVERYTHING. Treat it like a family member and it will do the same to you. Never forget that, and you will soon be able to truly walk the path of an Infernal Patriarch.


    [ Let your Flames burn Eternally, and your spear be ever swift! ]


    After reading that last line, I calmly placed the booklet back in the small box it came in, and just rested on the cot for a second digesting everything I just read.


    It was a lot.


    Infernal Patriarch? First it said something about sole ancestor, then it something about a lineage, and now Patriarch? Why are they making it sound like I¡¯ll be the head of a clan or something? Sigh Let¡¯s not waste any more time thinking about it.


    My flames are alive.


    That explains a lot of weird things that¡¯s been happening to me. The reason why I feel annoyed or angry or just completely unwilling to do certain things since I¡¯ve been in the Tutorial is all probably due to these Eternal Flames of mine.


    Though it¡¯s not completely fair to say that as Its not like I¡¯ve disagreed with those feelings, I just didn¡¯t understand them fully but now I do. Well, that¡¯s not entirely accurate, I still don¡¯t understand them, but now I know that my flames were playing a part in how I felt.


    I also know why I couldn¡¯t make use of them properly. I¡¯ve been subconsciously treating it like a tool to be used, and not something akin to a partner. I¡¯ve shown much more love to the spears I wield than to my very own flames.


    That needs to change.


    I laid down on my cot and closed my eyes. Trying to focus within myself and shutting off the world completely.


    I tried to imagine my flames, showing up in the darkness that I was seeing, I tried to imagine them embracing me like the flames of the book did, I tried to imagine them roaring into life as I battled my enemies, I tried and tried and tried to feel them, yet I knew I was still missing something. What was it? What was I missing?


    I focused deeply on everything I learned from the book. Everything I felt since I¡¯ve been in this Tutorial, everything I¡¯ve done at every age of my life.


    What was it? What am I missing?


    My parents? No, that can¡¯t be it.


    I didn¡¯t have any siblings so that couldn¡¯t be it either.


    Wait¡­


    Siblings?


    The book said my flames were with me since the day I was born¡­


    They have been there, every step of the way. They were there when I took my first steps. They were there when I said my first word. They were there for my first day of school. They were there when I first learned I couldn¡¯t be burned. They were there when I got teleported to a new place. They were there for my first kill. They were there when I learned how foolish I was in thinking I could treat this place like a game. They were there as I grew stronger and learned how to fight. They were there when I took the life of a human being.


    They were there. They were always there.


    I have always had a partner.


    I have always been supported.


    I have always had someone watching my back.


    I have always¡­had a brother.


    VWOOSH


    The second I had that thought, I felt something within me shift and as I opened my eyes, beautiful black flames seemed to pour out from my body, engulfing my entire being, before eventually flooding the entire room and likewise the whole house. Nothing was burning though, I can tell these flames weren¡¯t meant to burn. All I could feel was a sense of happiness.


    It truly felt like everything was now as it should be. I felt whole. I felt refreshed.


    I felt like an Infernal.

 Chapter Fifty

    ¡°I know what I saw you dirty bastard!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, you saw some fancy smoke in the water, we heard it already.¡±


    ¡°The whole lot of you are you stupid! It could be a damn monster and all of you are laughing! This blasted town doesn¡¯t have a single cultivator, and we could all be doomed! But laugh! See if I care!¡±


    ¡°Oi come back Old Man Jenks! We didn¡¯t mean it!¡±


    The old man in question didn¡¯t turn around as he stormed out of the small village tavern.


    ¡°Hey Eggy, I just passed Old Man Jenks angrily blabbering about something as I walked in here. What happened?¡±


    ¡°Just another one of his rambles about something mystical, and of course none of us believes him.¡±


    ¡°What was he rambling about this time?¡±


    ¡°Get this¡­he said while he was out fishing, he heard a loud roar coming from deep within the ocean, and when he looked down, all he could see were so called black flames spreading everywhere beneath the water. He said he hurried back to land to warn us all, but of course no one listened. Black flames beneath the water? Did he think we were stupid?¡±


    -A conversation from a rural coastal Tavern


    Jrino was relaxing in his office, sharpening his beautiful odachi as he normally did.  Then seemingly out of nowhere he paused for a moment then looked towards a certain house. He didn¡¯t say thing, just did a slight shake of the head before he went back to sharpening his sword.


    Well, he would¡¯ve just done that if he didn¡¯t hear a voice in his head.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you felt that as well.¡±


    Of course, the only person in the Outpost who would talk to him like this was Greja.


    ¡°I did.¡±


    ¡°What do you think happened? It felt like a large amount of something containing Qi exploded out, but it was far too controlled to be some sort of accident. I know it was from Raizen¡¯s house, but he shouldn¡¯t be in the Qi Refinement realm yet.¡±


    ¡°The boy got control over his flames.¡±


    ¡°¡­I see. Won¡¯t he become something of a little monster now?¡±


    ¡°He already is.¡±


    ¡­..


    And just like that another night passed and I was once again woken up by Richard¡¯s knocks. I freshened up and met him outside. Though when I got up this morning I tried to use my flames by almost asking them to show up in the raised palm of my right hand.


    It was kind of weird since I didn¡¯t literally ask, it was more so the flames themselves sensing my intention and following suit. It was neat.


    Anyway, I met up with Richard, and apparently I missed some fun last night.


    ¡°There was another attack on the Outpost last night, and where¡¯s your spear?¡±


    ¡°It broke in the Dungeon, but really? Why didn¡¯t you come get me?¡±


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    ¡°Oh okay, and it wasn¡¯t as bad as the first one and we were strong enough to handle it. With the new influx of more people becoming Body Tempering realm cultivators and the training we¡¯ve been getting, we had more than enough manpower to handle it. Don¡¯t worry though, if it got too bad we would¡¯ve definitely come to get you.¡±


    Oh, it¡¯s nice that they¡¯re getting stronger.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good to know. I don¡¯t mind helping out though.¡±


    ¡°Ah we can¡¯t depend on you for everything, we need to get stronger ourselves. Anyway, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask. You¡¯re a lot stronger than the rest of us, are you on the next cycle of Body Tempering? I¡¯ve attempted it once, but the pain caused me to lose focus. I think I can get reach it in another try or two.¡±


    Hmm, how should I answer this question? Can I trust Richard enough to tell him exactly how strong I am? Or would that be a dumb decision. Hmm. Eh, he handled the situation well when I told him I wanted his friend to pay a price, so why not trust him again? It¡¯s not like I particularly care all that much. Plus, with the boost those flames gave me and the addition of my own flames...I¡¯m probably a bit stronger than a typical 3rd Cycle.


    ¡°I¡¯m actually on the 3rd Cycle.¡±


    We were basically at the training grounds when Richard paused after hearing what I said. He seemed to be in a bit of a shock for a moment before finally talking again.


    ¡°Are you kidding?...no¡­your probably not kidding¡­The way you were flying around the night of the first big attack and dismantling most of the Goblins yourself¡­even the fact you went into a Dungeon by yourself and made it out...Sigh sometimes life isn¡¯t fair.


    ¡°Welp...I¡¯m glad we have such a strong person on our side, it will definitely help me sleep better at night.¡±


    ¡°Glad I could help, but speaking of the Dungeon, we should probably talk about it.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes I almost forgot to ask. Would you have some time after training?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I have to go get a new a spear after training then I¡¯ll come back to the training grounds.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    And with that we went our separate ways. He went to his group, and I walked over to the Outpost Leader.


    He spoke before I even greeted him.


    ¡°Do not use them while training.¡±


    It only took me a second to realize what he was talking about. My flames. He knew about them? How? Could he sense them? Is he really watching everything that I¡¯m doing?


    He seemed to sense I didn¡¯t necessarily like what he said as I heard a voice in my head this time.


    ¡®You can¡¯t sense it too clearly at your level, but your flames contain vast amounts of Qi. Whatever you did yesterday was easily sensed by all the workers of the Outpost. Though only Greja and I know the cause.¡¯


    Well, I guess that makes sense? It¡¯s not really much I can say about that. Plus, even if he was watching everything what would I even do? I don¡¯t have the power to make him stop. All I could do was probably go live in the forest or try to find another Outpost, neither of which sounds fun.


    Moving on.


    ¡°I understand.¡±


    He simply nodded, and I took that as my que to go grab a wooden to spear to begin training. With no need for any pressure training, we went straight into sparring. I thought the boost I got from the flames would give me a bit of an unexpected edge, but the only thing I got was a raised eyebrow and a not a single hit on the Outpost Leader.


    He wasn¡¯t even moving at a speed I couldn¡¯t manage, but every single one of his moves was so perfectly timed that it felt like I was chasing ghosts.


    Needless to say, I didn¡¯t accomplish much when I was attacking, but I did more learning on defense anyway and this time wasn¡¯t any different.


    I got my ass handed to me as I did my best to dodge and block his attacks but failed numerous times. Though that was arguably the best part because I got to watch him attack and see how his body moved with each exchange.


    Got beat up but learned something out of it. Typical training session.


    Anyway, this went on for the usual time, before the Outpost Leader once again vanished and it was time to go. Richard and his group were sparring again today. Good for them.


    I quickly left and began making my way towards the Blacksmith. My steps were quick as I was pretty excited to see my new spear.


    Walking into the shop, the blacksmith was behind the counter as usual. \


    ¡°Wait.¡±


    After that one word, he disappeared to the back for a moment before coming out with what I could only describe as a beautiful piece of craftmanship. The spear was simply sublime.


    The shaft seemed to be made out of wood from the trees in the Forest, before I even touched it I could tell it wouldn¡¯t snap from just a full powered swing. Though that wasn¡¯t the star of the show.


    The blade. The blade was something else altogether. The color was a sleek, smooth black, and it appeared to be about a foot long all on it own. The blade itself started out as a small curve before both sides of the curve extended out about a foot into a very sharp point. It was kind of like a very skinny pizza where the crust was curved downwards. Weird comparison but it works.


    Either way, I loved my new spear.

 Chapter Fifty One

    After thanking the Blacksmith for the spear, I left a bit more happier than when I went in. Who wouldn¡¯t be happy about getting a new spear? Only a crazy person. Or would I be the crazy person for being happy about getting a new spear?


    Moving on.


    I eventually made my way back over to the training grounds where Richard and his group appeared to be wrapping up. They were getting lectured about their intensity or something. Maybe they didn¡¯t show enough effort? Probably tired from defending the Outpost.


    Anyway, that went on for a minute or two and then Richard spoke to a couple people before making his way over to where I was standing.


    Of course, the first thing he noticed was my spear.


    I couldn¡¯t blame him. It was beautiful.


    ¡°That¡­doesn¡¯t look like a normal spear.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t. It was made by the Blacksmith.¡±


    ¡°Made by the blacksmith¡­but we spoke to the blacksmith...he said he couldn¡¯t make anything special.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that was before. If you can obtain the materials to give him, he can make things like this. I also notice none of you have bought the armor. You should invest in it. It¡¯s good.¡±


    ¡°Where did you get whatever materials, you¡¯re talking about? Was it from the Dungeon? And yeah, we noticed the armor, we were saving up, but with the extra cores we got last night we should be able to buy some sets.¡±


    ¡°I understand and yes it was from the Dungeon. Well, lets just get right into it. The Dungeon I found isn¡¯t all that far from here, it¡¯s called The Green Den, and its entrance is literally a really big hole inside of a tree. The hole is dark, and instead of just walking in the hole, you get teleported into a small cave.


    ¡°Oh, and there¡¯s a recommendation of 5 1st Cycle Body Tempering cultivators. This is a lie. Well maybe not a lie, maybe well trained super talented group of 5 1st cycle folks could do it. Anyway, once inside it will tell you that you have to kill, and only by clearing the dungeon or actually dying allows you to leave.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you get to leave if you die, but that¡¯s what it said. Moving on, there are five floors you have to make it through. All of them have normal Goblins. The first floor, have 50, the second has 100, the third has 200, the fourth of has 400 and finally the fifth, it only has 50 normal Goblins, but it also has one of those big ones.


    ¡°Basically, if it was only 5 1st Cycle folks, they would probably face some serious, potentially fatal trouble in that Dungeon. I would recommend at least double that amount, or better yet advancing to the 2nd Cycle.


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    ¡°Well, that¡¯s the fighting part of it. Regarding the materials though, you get them after clearing a floor. In the Dungeon the Goblins don¡¯t drop cores, but after they all disappear, a small chest will pop up. Inside you will find little metal clumps. They look bad but each clump is worth 5 Bronze Coins on its own. Just one.¡±


    ¡°5 Bronze¡­that¡¯s 500 Copper Coins. And you get more than one? We can make enough money to buy armor for everyone¡­food, water, more potions. We need to clear this Dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I plan to attack it a few more times, and there¡¯s some more rewards for clearing it but you will see those for yourself when you clear it.¡±


    Richard seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he looked at me with determination. Wonder what¡¯s that about.


    ¡°I know that this might be a bit much to ask but are you able to guide us in the Dungeon? We have a more cultivators now, but some of us need to stay in the Outpost if it gets attacked while we are gone. Of course we would split all the rewards we get.¡±


    Oh, so that¡¯s what it was, that¡¯s perfectly fine with me, but I¡¯m curious about something.


    ¡°How many cultivators do you have?¡±


    Richard was caught a little off guard by my question but he answered nonetheless.


    ¡°Including me, its 12 of us, and I think I¡¯m the only one close advancing again.¡±


    ¡°I see, well how about I take you and 4 others into the Dungeon? But all of you will have to fight like your life depended on it, I¡¯ll only help a bit to make sure no one dies. Does that work for you?¡±


    Richard didn¡¯t need to think for very long before he responded.


    ¡°That¡¯s perfectly fine, in fact I would¡¯ve probably suggested something similar. We need to grow as well. Are you free today? After resting for a bit my team and I will be ready to go if you¡¯re available.¡±


    Hm...I guess I¡¯m available today¡­I wanted to take some time to practice that thrust again now that I can properly use my flames, but I guess I can do that later?


    ¡°Sure, no worries, just knock on my door when you¡¯re ready.¡±


    And with that Richard went off to do his own thing and I simply went home. I didn¡¯t have much I could be doing during the time I¡¯d be waiting for Richard, so I was just left to ponder some questions I¡¯d be thinking about.


    The Infernal book thing said something about being a Patriarch. Why Patriarch and not a Matriarch for example? Did it just assume I was a man, or did they know I was a man? I¡¯m probably just overthinking it, but if they knew I was a man instead of just guessing or something, did that mean they somehow got access to my information and then curated the book for me?


    It¡¯s an interesting thought.


    Looking past that though, whether it was patriarch, or an ancestor it implied I¡¯d be creating some type of a family or a clan and that I would have responsibilities. What I don¡¯t understand though is why mention that now? Even if I do plan on having kids, it definitely wouldn¡¯t be during or even right after the Tutorial so why mention it as part of that book?


    There has to be something I¡¯m missing but hopefully there¡¯s an Infernal waiting for me when I get out of the Tutorial that can and will answer my questions.


    And speaking of getting out of the Tutorial¡­I wonder what¡¯s life gonna truly be like when this is all over with. There¡¯s gonna be people walking around strong enough to be considered walking nukes. Countries could get wiped off the map, if we even still have them.


    Perhaps a lot of new countries will pop up? What¡¯s stopping a strong person from going around and claiming some land as theirs?


    Wait do I want to found a country or a city or something?


    Knock Knock


    Oh, there goes Richard now.


    I stopped my pondering session and headed outside. Once there I of course saw Richard, but 4 others were with him as expected. I recognized two of them. One of them in particular was there the day I removed that stain. In fact, he walked out with him. I hope this doesn¡¯t become a problem in the Dungeon, but I¡¯ll trust Richard for now.

 Chapter Fifty Two

    Meanhwile in another area in the Tutorial, a young woman finds herself in the Dark Forest near Outpost M¡­


    ¡°Why is this damn forest so flipping dark? One second, I was binge watching a new anime, then the next some random metal freak was telling me I need to pick some type of weapon. I thought I was hallucinating from staying up so late, which is weird by itself, but now here I am standing in this dark ass forest in nothing but my pajamas and house slippers.


    ¡°Dammit dammit dammit! I didn¡¯t even get to pick a good weapon! I asked for a gun and the metal freak said no and then I found myself here with nothing but a wooden staff. It doesn¡¯t even have a blade! How am I going to defend myself with a big giant stick?!¡±


    Bush Rustling


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡±


    Bush Rustling


    ¡°Oy come out! I¡¯m not scared of you bastard!¡±


    A black rabbit jumped out of the bush faced the woman who was screaming at it. Its eyes were a deep crimson and its black fur seemed to blend into the darkness around it.


    ¡°Oh...it¡¯s just a creepy looking rabbit.¡±


    The rabbit simply stared at the woman for a moment longer before baring some fangs, snarling, and then promptly darting at the woman.


    ¡°Ahh! What the hell!¡±


    The woman became a bit frantic as the rabbit charged at her. She didn¡¯t really know what to do in this situation and essentially became a deer in headlights. Well at least right up until the rabbit jumped up towards her waist with all the intention in the world to bite a chunk out of her.


    Her adrenaline seemed to switch over from flight to fight as she barely stumbled out of the way. Due to her late and sloppy reaction the rabbit still managed to swipe its front paw at her side and left a large gash.


    ¡°You piece of shit! Dammit that hurts!!¡±


    Although the wound was causing the pain to shoot through her body like lightning, it also seemed to not only wake her up out of the initial fear she was feeling, but it also made her angry.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you!¡±


    The rabbit refocused itself to its target and charge once more. Although the rabbit seemed very scary, at the end the day it was nothing but a common beast. Its intelligence was limited, and its strength even more so. All its best qualities lie in its speed, and even that had limitations when the ¡®prey¡¯ it was attacking could follow its speed.


    ¡°HAHA look at that! Can¡¯t get me now huh.¡±


    The woman managed to dodge the next attempt completely and seemed primed for the one that would come after. She griped her staff tight, and she watched with rapt attention all the movements of the rabbit.


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    And as if it was following a script, the rabbit re-aligned itself once more and immediately began the exact same charge as before.


    Though this time instead of dodging, the woman swiped down with her staff as hard as she could. Her hands shook as the staff struck true and the rabbit fell out of the air and landed with a thud.


    ¡°¡­How¡¯s¡­that..!¡±


    It seemed just that action alone took a lot out of the woman as she began panting a bit as she spoke. The wound on her side surely playing a part.


    And although the rabbit was struck down, and now weakened. It wasn¡¯t dead by any means. It wasn¡¯t very strong, but neither was the woman, especially since this was the first time she was fighting with a staff.


    She slowly walked up to the rabbit and with one last look of resignation, she brought her staff down once more on the head of the rabbit and it¡¯s read eyes lost all their luster as she succeeded in killing it.


    ¡°Dammit...I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve actually killed anything bigger than mosquito before¡­ah that¡¯s gonna live a bad taste in my mouth...ah!...man that hurts.¡± The woman winced as the wound in her side caused some more pain.


    ¡°Now what do I do¡­oh where did the rabbit go¡­is that a marble?¡±


    She noticed the missing corpse and upon looking at the area saw that a small orb was left in its place.


    ¡°Hm¡­maybe it¡¯s a reward for that fight I just had? Whatever I¡¯ll put it in my pocket for now. I can¡¯t stay here though, who knows if there¡¯s any more of those damn rabbits waiting around. Actually...I should probably stop talking out loud, so I don¡¯t attract anymore.¡±


    Alright...inner thoughts only from now on¡­where to go, where to go¡­I have no idea so lets just walk till I find something I guess.


    It took me a while but I finally found something. Well to be accurate, I heard something. I didn¡¯t know exactly what it is, but it sounded like chewing perhaps? Damn it all. I swear if I find one of those evil rabbits eating a berry or something like they weren¡¯t little monsters I¡¯m going to lose it.


    ¡­.


    That¡­that is not a berry.


    Not too far from me in this dark forest was the body of a man lying on his back. His eyes were lifeless and there was a large chunk of flesh missing from his neck. Though he wasn¡¯t alone¡­two of those¡­rabbits¡­were nibling and biting pieces off from his body and eating it.


    I could feel my breakfast from before this whole shit started trying to leave my stomach and exit, but I have to push it down...If I threw up here, I¡¯d make a lot of noise.


    After swallowing the little throw up that entered my mouth, which was very disgusting, I just kept watching the rabbits nibble at the body, I didn¡¯t really know what else to do, but it didn¡¯t take long for the situation to change.


    The body started magically sinking to the ground.


    What the heck?


    Is that what happened to the little demon of a rabbit I killed earlier? Crazy stuff.


    The rabbits seemed upset at the body disappearing and started clawing at the ground. That¡¯s what those little shits get.


    They clawed at the ground for a bit for suddenly pointing their noses in the sky and sniffing about.


    What are they looking for? It didn¡¯t take me too long to figure it out as both of their little snouts slowly turned in my direction and they were looking directly at me with those crimson eyes. Dammit! I quickly started running in some random direction as fast as my house slippers could carry me without causing me to trip.


    These little bastards really are evil.


    They just finished chewing on another person and now they want me too! Well guess what you bastards I¡¯m not that easy to eat!


    As I was running, I eventually began to hear the pitter patter of their tiny little paws hitting the ground behind me. I hadn¡¯t even run for very long!


    I took a slight look behind me and it only took me a moment to realize the truth of the situation I found myself in.


    They were going to catch up with me weren¡¯t they.


    Shit shit shit! I¡¯m gonna have to fight them! If I keep running like this, I¡¯ll just get more and more tired, and they¡¯ll still catch up to me but I¡¯ll be too tired to fight at that point..


    Ah dammit all!


    ¡°Bring it on you little demon rabbit bastards!!¡±

 Chapter Fifty Three

    Meanwhile in the Plains surrounding Outpost K¡­


    POV Sergeant Johnson


    ¡°What the..¡±


    ¡°Sarge!¡±


    ¡°Rickers?¡±


    ¡°Yeah I¡¯m here Sarge, Cambell¡¯s behind ya.¡±


    ¡°Yep I¡¯m here too.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­the apocalypse happens, and I get stuck with you too knuckle heads huh¡­well what¡¯s the situation? Where the hell are we and what happened to the rest of the company?¡±


    ¡°No clue, we¡¯re just as clueless as you. All we can see around us is green grass and a whole bunch of nothing. Feels like I¡¯m back home in Wyoming, just without the mountains.¡±


    ¡°Of course you¡¯d feel right at home here Rickers, aint jack shit out here. ¡°


    ¡°Yeah yeah whatever you say city boy.¡±


    ¡°Alright that¡¯s enough you two, we need to figure something out. Who knows what¡¯s out there and based on what I remember from that the metal alien said to us, we might to have to fight or something. What weapons do you have? I got a sword, it¡¯s all I could think of.¡±


    ¡°I got a sword too Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Same here..¡±


    ¡°..Okay¡­well take a few practice swings and prepare to move. The sun is still high in the sky, and I don¡¯t want us to be sitting ducks come night. Hopefully we find something we can use as shelter.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    And so, after a few swings me and the boys took off in a light jog in a random direction. I¡¯m a bit thrown off about this whole Tutorial thing, but I can¡¯t do much else except keep leading the boys like I¡¯ve always done. At least if I focus on that it will help me not to think about if my family is okay. Sigh


    ¡°Oy Sarge I think I see something!¡±


    Both me and Cambell looked towards where Rickers was pointing, and after a few moments of squinting my eyes in an effort to see farther, I can finally make out something in this distance.


    Well, I don¡¯t know exactly what it is, but way into the distance seems to be some sort of structure maybe.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything at all Sarge.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always wondered how the hell did you joined the military with such bad eyesight Cambell?¡±


    ¡°Leave him alone Rikers you know he doesn¡¯t have his glasses, but I can kinda see something in the distance. Let¡¯s move a bit faster, keep an eye out for anything else.¡±


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    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    We jogged a bit faster as we glided across the wide open plains in military fatigues, and medieval swords in our hands. The weirdness of the situation wasn¡¯t lost on me, but we were literally trained to handle pretty much any environment and any scenario thrown at us, so it was a bit easier for us to stay calm during this whole thing¡­even though I don¡¯t think being teleported to a new place by an alien was a part of the training.


    It took us another 20 minutes of jogging to finally begin to make out what was in front of us. It was a large wooden structure. An Outpost or village of some sort. Though that wasn¡¯t the only thing we could see.


    ¡°Is that a herd of deer?¡±


    I heard Cambell¡¯s question, but I was a little surprised to see deer here, there was a buck and a couple doe¡¯s grazing in the grass with him.


    They looked perfectly normal¡­which was the weird thing. I expecting to see some sort of alien monster or something aiming to kill us, but this just seemed like a perfectly normal heard of deer.


    ¡°Let¡¯s give them a wide berth and continue making our way to the structure ahead.¡±


    The boys gave their acknowledgments, and we kept moving. I noticed as the buck looks up and watch us run past, but that¡¯s also expected as the buck is the protector of the heard.


    One thing to note is that if this place we¡¯re nearing has hostiles or lacks food, then we can probably hunt the deer, though they would see or hear us coming from a mile away so we would need to plan properly if it came down to it.


    Eventually, we reached the wooden structure, and truly was an imposing structure in contrast to the fact there was nothing around us except for grass in every direction. We arrived at what I¡¯m assuming to be back of the place as there was no obvious entrance.


    ¡°Rickers go to left side and scout till you reach the front then return, if there are hostiles do not engage and immediately return. If you see any sign of life at all or anything dangerous before reaching the front, return here. Cambell you do the same thing on the right side.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    Both of them slowly creeped alongside the wall to the left and the right respectively, until they reached the edge. Of course, they took their time to make the turn and began walking towards the front.


    I stayed here to make sure we still had a safe point to retreat to in case of trouble. Standard procedure for us.


    I maintained my vigilance as I waited for the boys to come back, carefully listening to everything around me in case one of them screamed. Though it was roughly only ten minutes later when I could hear some very fast running. I stood firm readied my sword and prepared to engage with whatever was quickly approaching.


    The running was coming from both sides so I went back a step further to give me more time to react.


    Almost at the exact same time, both Rikers and Cambell burst out from the left and the right and spoke at the same time as they sprinted towards me and eventually just behind me and as they came to a stop with swords readied.


    ¡°Delta.¡±


    ¡°Delta.¡±


    In our division Delta meant there was at least one confirmed individual that was potentially peaceful. Charlie meant the same thing except hostile instead of peaceful, Bravo meant at least one confirmed hostile, and Alpha meant there were multiple confirmed hostiles in the area. We had no code word for confirmed peaceful.


    ¡°Retreat.¡±


    With the order given, the boys turned and ran, while I backpedaled while keeping my eyes on the structure. I did this for a minute or two before turning around and running after the boys.


    After retreating for some time, we finally stopped to catch our breath and give the boys a chance to tell me what happened.


    ¡°Rikers, you first.¡±


    ¡°Mm, everything was pretty normal at first. I slowly crept alongside the walls while trying to stay quiet and listening for anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing. I did spot more herds of deer in the distance towards the front, but nothing out of the ordinary. Though as I turned the corner at the front I spotted a person standing there, it appeared to be a human male, and he smiled at me before trying to talk but I didn¡¯t linger and immediately bolted back here.¡±


    ¡°And you Cambell?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much the same thing, though the man waved at me before I ran back here.¡±


    After hearing what they had to say, I looked towards the structure for a moment and there didn¡¯t seem to be anyone or anything coming after the boys.


    ¡°Alright, we will approach together this time, be ready to fight or run at a moment¡¯s notice. Let¡¯s move.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±

 Chapter Fifty Four

    POV Raizen


    So very unlike the last time I made my way to the Dungeon, we actually ran into the Goblins in the forest about halfway through. At first it was just a few but eventually we got swarmed by about 50 of them.


    There were two big ones included as well.


    Well, there would¡¯ve been two if I hadn¡¯t gone and taken out one of them long before they reached the group.


    I don¡¯t think they¡¯re ready to fight two of those things with just the 5 of them.


    Of course, I gave them a bit of a warning before I left to do that.


    ¡°Richard. Theres two big guys and maybe 50-ish goblins that will be here very soon.¡±


    Richard¡¯s eyes went wide as he digested what I was saying.


    ¡°I will go take out one of the big ones, it will be up to you defend yourself against the remaining big guy and the other Goblins.¡±


    ¡°I¡­I understand¡­¡± He nodded to me solemnly and started barking out orders as I left.


    ¡°Brandon! We will work together to hold off the big one as long as we can, while Trent, Christine, and Lance will clean up the rest and then help us finish off the big one! Be prepared to move and react on the fly! Remember everything we have been learning!¡±


    Huh¡­I couldn¡¯t help but think to myself that he was much better at this leading thing than I realized. Did he learn this from the instructor during their training? Maybe I should try to focus on them more to see if I could learn something too¡­no...the Outpost Leader would never give me the time for that¡­anyway all of that brought us to the current situation.


    I was standing relatively close as I watched them battle. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t let any of them die but I am definitely going to let them get a small injury here and there. They needed this experience. How would they have gotten out of this situation if I wasn¡¯t here?


    Though this was a good experience for me as well. Getting a front row seat like this to watch other people fight is valuable. Even hearing Richard bark out orders and seeing his team members doing their best to follow them.


    ¡°Brandon step back! He¡¯s charging again!¡±


    ¡°Trent and the rest of you hurry up!!¡±


    ¡°Brandon MOVE!!¡±


    He didn¡¯t stop for even a moment, as he kept watch of his own battle while doing his best to watch the others. I don¡¯t know how he was doing all of this. Would I be able to command a battle this? Would I even need to? Hm...well what if I did? I don¡¯t plan on following anyone else so doesn¡¯t that mean either I¡¯ll be alone all the time or people will eventually follow me?


    Wait¡­aren¡¯t these guys following me right now? They are, aren¡¯t they. I¡¯m confident I can focus on multiple things at once as you kind of have to do that to fight 400 Goblins in an enclosed space, but focusing on everything is just one aspect, I need to be able to process information and then give instructions based on them¡­Yeah I need to learn how to do that since I don¡¯t necessarily want to be completely alone.


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    Oh, that Brandon guy just slipped.


    ¡°Bradon!!!¡±


    Richard cried out as the big guy saw the chance to pounce on Brandon and wasn¡¯t going to miss it.


    Though despite all my thoughts, I was paying attention to the battle and got there first.


    I ran into the fight and as Brandon¡¯s feet gave away and he was stumbling backwards. I simply grabbed him by his collar and threw him to the side.


    The big guy slammed his fists down into the area where Brandon was.


    ¡°RAHH!!¡±


    He apparently wasn¡¯t very happy about it as he roared and glared at me. Though this wasn¡¯t my battle, so I simply kicked some dirt into its face and backed up.


    ¡°Back to you Richard.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Raizen! Get back up BRANDON!!


    ¡°What¡¯s taking the rest of you so long!¡±


    Of course, the other three were moving as fast as they could, and it wasn¡¯t like the fight has been going on for a long time either. Richard was just giving them some motivation.


    Well, it wasn¡¯t until a few minutes later that the other three managed to finish off all the remaining Goblins, and finally join up with Richard and Brandon in fighting the big guy.


    It took them a little bit and I had to step in two more times, but they eventually brought it down after all the wounds caught up to it. Something I noticed was that they were barely able to inflict deep wounds on it with how strong its body was but by slowing stabbing and slashing at it multiple times, it moved slower and slower until they could go for bigger and bigger attacks to do more damage.


    This experience was definitely better than my first time fighting one of these guys. But I guess having help and being warned before it even got here was a big help to them. Oh, and having me on standby didn¡¯t hurt.


    ¡°Good job. Collect all of your cores and rest up for a bit. I¡¯ll guard us.¡±


    I decided to play watchdog and give the team a much needed rest. It wouldn¡¯t be good if they had to tackle the Dungeon while they were drained. They needed experience but not like that, at least not yet I don¡¯t think.


    As I watched them plop down from exhaustion and rest in near silence I couldn¡¯t help but realize that I might actually like this feeling. Even telling them good job like I was their supervisor or something. That felt good. Is this how Richard feels when he leads people?


    Maybe I should do this more often.


    Anyway, I watched and listened for signs of any Goblins approaching as the team took out food pills to eat on.


    ¡°Sigh¡­I wonder when we will have real food to eat again. These pills don¡¯t taste like anything!¡±


    ¡°Yeah tell me about it Trent¡­You know I think they did taste like something at first, but it¡¯s all the same now. I¡¯m dying to eat some actual chicken.¡±


    ¡°Oo what type of chicken? I would love some barbeque chicken right about now. I could taste it now.¡±


    ¡°Heh me? I¡¯d love some chicken tikka masala! I¡¯m convinced my grandma makes the best version in the world, and I¡¯d almost kill for some right now.¡±


    ¡°You say your grandma makes the best everything Lance, but that does sound good.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because she does! Anyway, what about you guys? What would y¡¯all want to eat right now?


    ¡°I went to Jamaica last month for vacation and I tried something called Jerk Chicken¡­I¡¯d definitely kill for that.¡±


    ¡°Wow Cristine, that sounds good too. Richard? Brandon?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m vegan.¡±


    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t there a vegan dish you¡¯d really want right now?¡±


    ¡°¡­Not really.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you should stop being vegan¡­well what about you Richard?¡±


    ¡°Hmm Lance, I¡¯m not really sure, but some ribs sound heavenly right about now.¡±


    ¡°Ah I didn¡¯t think of ribs, those sound good too. And uh Raizen!¡±


    Hm? I was somewhat listening to their conversation and was a little surprised when the one called Lance I believe reached out to me. What was it again? Something I wanted to eat right now huh¡­well I¡¯ve always wanted to eat my mom¡¯s spaghetti again. I didn¡¯t like it very much growing up but after she passed I wished almost every day that I could have it again.


    ¡°My mother¡¯s spaghetti. That¡¯s something I¡¯d kill to have once more.¡±


    I don¡¯t know if it was because how I calm I said that last part, or if it was my food choice, but Lance looked at me a little weird before chuckling and continuing on.


    ¡°Yeah who wouldn¡¯t kill for their mom¡¯s cooking right about now!¡±

 Chapter Fifty Five

    They chatted for a bit longer while I kept vigilance. We weren¡¯t attacked a second time though, so I didn¡¯t really end up doing much of anything. Though it was time to go, resting for roughly 15 minutes was long enough.


    ¡°Alright we should start moving again.¡±


    I somewhat expected some pushback, but they all got up, gathered their things and were waiting for me to show them the way.


    ¡°Ready when you are Raizen.¡±


    I just nodded to Richard and began walking again to the Dungeon. We still had a ways to go so I was pretty focused on our surroundings in case of another attack. Though it never came, and we got to the entrance of the Dungeon without any more hiccups.


    ¡°Did all of you get the prompt?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­this is so magical¡­ I know this entire Tutorial thing is pretty magical, but seeing this so called ¡®Dungeon¡¯, that has a name, and everything has some magic of its own.¡±


    The others seemed to share his sentiments.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll see you all inside, don¡¯t wait out here for long.¡±


    And with that the familiar feeling of being teleported once again overtook me and I found myself back in the Dungeon. By the time I dismissed the prompt, the others started popping up.


    It was my first time seeing how teleportation looked on others. One moment there was nothing, then all of a sudden they just appeared as if they were always standing there. That¡¯s kind of incredible.


    ¡°Alright everyone let¡¯s stay focused. Remember, this won¡¯t be like fighting Goblins in the forest, as there are no trees or anything to hide behind. It¡¯s an enclosed space with nowhere to run.


    ¡°All of you will run into the cave first and I¡¯ll hover around for support. I recommend staying together and watching each other¡¯s backs. Listen to Richard. Oh, and feel free take off your backpacks once we enter the cave, the Goblins should ignore them.¡±


    The atmosphere around everyone turned serious and they all just nodded and began walking down the pathway. It seems they were taking my words seriously, which is good, I¡¯m sure by now they all knew that death was very real in the Tutorial, and they couldn¡¯t afford to play around.


    Either way I think my ability to lead is getting better every time I talk. It even feels natural. And I feel through my flames that it agrees as well. Not in a ¡®yeah I agree that you leading feels natural¡¯ kind of way, but more so that it agrees with my current emotions, or something like that. Either way this was good.


    A few short moments later, the team had reached the cave entrance and could finally see all the Goblins just standing there waiting. It definitely looked creepy so I could understand the looks on their faces, but we didn¡¯t have to waste.


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    ¡°Go.¡±


    That was all it took for them to refocus and enter the cave. Richard was at the front while Trent and Lance flanked his sides. Cristine was slightly behind them and Brandon even further behind her bringing up the rear.


    They were kind of shaped like an arrow.


    I didn¡¯t know anything about formations so I kind of left them alone and just observed. Well, I tried to just observe but every now and then a Goblin would go out of their way to attack me. I simply kicked it and repositioned whenever it happened.


    Anyway, apart from that I just watched them fight in this formation and Richard bark out his orders.


    ¡°Lance cover for Cristine! Trent go help Brandon!...


    ¡°Everyone move to the left! Stay in formation!..


    ¡°Retreat to the wall! Brandon provide more support to Lance! Cristine shift to the left and help Trent!...


    This went on for quite some time and eventually all the Goblins were slain¡­I didn¡¯t need to help a single time. They were tired and had some injuries, but nothing big. I realized it before but seeing it again like this truly is mind blowing. Was Richard a former commander in a roman army in a past life or something? This is definitely not normal. Maybe he served in the military? I had to ask.


    ¡°Good job again everyone, the bodies will disappear in a moment and the chest will appear right after. Rest up for a bit and then we¡¯ll be moving along.¡±


    Everyone was too tired to say much of anything, so I just got a couple nods and waves to show they heard me.


    I stepped towards Richard and finally asked the question that¡¯s been bugging me.


    ¡°Richard. How are you so good at commanding while fighting? Did you serve in the military?¡±


    ¡°Haha not at all. I was just a project manager, but in college I took an elective that focused a lot on historical wars and the way people in different cultures around the world. I got kind of into it for a bit, so I remember some stuff and I¡¯m really just trying to apply what some of those commanders did back in the day.¡±


    I stared at him blankly for a second before telling him I understood and just calmy waiting for the chest to appear.


    I don¡¯t think that guy understood exactly what he just said. There¡¯s no way just attending a class year ago would give you the ability to do what he¡¯s doing on the fly without training. He was talented, and that¡¯s something I need to keep in mind going forward.


    Oh, the chest finally showed up. Cristine was the one who walked up and opened it.


    ¡°Are these the things you were talking about? Each one of them is really worth 5 Bronze? They certainly don¡¯t look like it.¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t, but 5 Bronze is the price. Store them away and let¡¯s keep moving.¡±


    ¡°Mm.¡±


    She quickly put all of them in her backpack and the team was moving once more. We had already agreed during our walk here that each of them will hold the Rock Iron given on a floor in their bags. So, Cristine had the first floor, Trent had the next and so on.


    After a short walk we made it to the second floor, and they didn¡¯t need to be told to go this time as all entered and threw their bags down immediately before getting into formation and getting ready to face all 100 Goblins charging at them.


    They did good on the last floor, but from this point on I was going to have to help a bit more on each floor. Though it wouldn¡¯t be right away as they needed to struggle a bit first.


    Ah on second thought they were already getting overrun. Seems I have to help out sooner than I planned, maybe I should change my approach? Cause I don¡¯t think getting overrun the whole time is all that beneficial. Hmm, how about I just help to relieve a little bit of the pressure going forward by taking the attention of a portion of the Goblins? Yeah I think that¡¯s a good idea.


    And so, I quite literally jumped into the fray and caused some of the Goblins to focus on me. I wasn¡¯t really fighting them at full strength because my plan wasn¡¯t to kill them, it was just to help relieve a bit of pressure, but my end goal is to them kill these guys themselves.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to help for a bit! Clean up the ones around you then come do the same to these guys!¡±


    I had to yell since the cave was pretty noisy right now, but they all yelled back, and they started fighting with renewed vigor. Yep It¡¯s all in my leadership skills.

 Chapter Fifty Six

    With Richard at the helm and me relieving a lot of the pressure, they were able to finally clear the floor and earn themselves a much needed rest. Trent collected the Rock Iron as previously discussed and before you knew it we were heading down towards the next floor.


    Though I had something to say before we started.


    ¡°These next two floors will be way too hard for you guys without significant help. So just like what happened on the last floor I¡¯ll be in the midst of battle with you all, but for both of these next floors I¡¯ll head in first to get most of the attention on me. That should make it easier on you all, but it will still be dangerous, don¡¯t forget that.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Raizen, we¡¯ll be ready.¡±


    And like that we entered the cave and most of the Goblins immediately rushed me as expected. I moved to the right slow enough that most of their attention would be on me, but of course since there were 200 Goblins in the cave, not all of them followed me, and the team was immediately put under pressure.


    But they were handling it.


    They weren¡¯t necessarily better fighters now than they were earlier today, but they definitely got better at working together which seemed to make a lot of difference in the battle. Even Richard¡¯s orders seemed to be getting better and better as the fight went on. It seems pressure really is a good tool to train people. Though I won¡¯t admit that to the Outpost Leader.


    It took maybe another 30 minutes or so before all the Goblins were killed, and everything was good to go.


    And for the first time since we started all of them brought a stamina potion and downed it. I didn¡¯t say anything because it made sense. At the end of the day all of them were still 1st Cycle while I was at the 3rd, our stamina levels were a bit different. Well at least that meant that we didn¡¯t have to rest for too long. It was Lance¡¯s turn to gather the Rock Iron and afterwards we advanced to the next floor.


    On this floor I worked a bit harder to make sure no one died, and I ended up having to kill a lot of the Goblins myself to ensure that was the case. 400 Goblins was truly a very big number.


    Due to this Brandon ended up suffering a pretty deep stab wound on his back. They managed to clear the floor despite that, and one health potion was good enough to bring him back to a state where he could keep fighting but I was still upset with myself.


    I drifted too far away from them, and I didn¡¯t make it back quick enough to stop that from happening. I know I can¡¯t save everyone, nor do I care to, but I told them I¡¯d keep them alive, and I almost failed at that. It was upsetting. I wasn¡¯t fuming or anything, mainly just disappointed with myself.


    I even tried to apologize but Brandon didn¡¯t let me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorr..-¡±


    ¡°No need to apologize, I need to be stronger.¡±


    I wasn¡¯t one for long winded conversations, so I took his word for it and dropped it. Didn¡¯t change how I felt though.


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    Anyway, it was Richard¡¯s turn to collect the Rock Iron and for the final time we advanced to the next floor.


    I¡¯m not sure why it was designed this way, but although this floor had one of the big guys, I felt that it was still easier than the floor with 400 goblins.


    Either way I distracted the big one for a bit and they made short work of the other 50 before transitioning to the big guy and in a much more efficient manner, this floor and now the whole Dungeon was cleared.


    Reward time.


    Huh


    That chest was a bit smaller than last time.


    Richard went to open it, and all he found were Bronze Coins. 10 of them.


    Interesting.


    ¡°So Raizen, how do you want to split everything?¡±


    ¡°Before that, something is weird here Richard.¡±


    I never told them exactly what I got as my final reward because¡­.well I just didn¡¯t. Didn¡¯t think I needed to since they would get the same exact thing, but it turns out that was wrong.


    ¡°When I cleared the Dungeon the first time, I received 20 Bronze Coins and other things. This final reward is clearly different.¡±


    Richard and everyone else¡¯s eyes seemed to widen at that number. Yeah it was a lot of money, even though I spent pretty much all of it already.


    Richard seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, but after getting over how much money I made Lance spoke up instead.


    ¡°It was probably a first clear reward. You cleared the Dungeon first, so the reward could¡¯ve been boosted as a reward for that. Now it could even be a solo clear reward as well, since the Dungeon recommend multiple people, the fact you did it by yourself could be included in the boost. Of course, it could even be a combination of both of those things, the only way to know for sure would be to find more Dungeons, and also have you clear this one again by yourself to see what the result would be.¡±


    Everyone kind of just stared at him for a bit, seemingly shocked at how logical that sounded. I¡¯m kind of surprised I didn¡¯t think of that myself, I guess sometimes it¡¯s easy to forget that some of the things in the Tutorial has a lot of game-like elements.


    ¡°Why are you all staring at me..¡±


    ¡°¡­That actually made a lot of sense Lance, I didn¡¯t know you had it in you.¡±


    ¡°That was uncalled for Trent, I¡¯m actually very smart thank you very much.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah whatever you say.¡±


    While the team joked around a bit, I realized that I would be coming back here tomorrow to verify what Lance said, and I need to eventually find some other Dungeons. I¡¯m not sure if there any more close by, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯ve searched the entire forest yet.


    Hm...now that I¡¯m thinking about it, I wonder if some of Richard¡¯s people can help with scouting¡­We would cover a lot more ground¡­they wouldn¡¯t even need to fight anything, just look around the area and come back at the first sign of trouble. I think someone at 1st Cycle can easily handle a job like this.


    Yea...oh the prompt is here.


    ¡°Someone collect the Coins and we will meet Outside, again, don¡¯t linger too long.¡±


    After selecting yes on the Exit prompt, I found myself outside the Dungeon and then the others popped up soon after. Richard was last as he took time to put all the coins in his bag.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about the split once we get back. For now, let¡¯s just focus on returning to the Outpost.¡±


    The group didn¡¯t seem to have argument with that, and we didn¡¯t run into any trouble on the way back. Well, we didn¡¯t run into trouble but apparently the Outpost was attacked while we were gone.


    No one died, but there were some injuries and what not. I didn¡¯t want to hold Richard up, so I just told him to come find after he figures out everything regarding his people.


    I got  back to my house and simple waited while practicing using my flames a bit. I needed to actually test them out in battle, and I knew it wanted that too, but this will do for now.


    The practicing was simply me creating a small ball of fire and tossing it from hand to hand. The ball was about the size of a baseball, and it only took me a few minutes to get pretty used to the feel of willing  something similar to another limb for me to move around.


    My flames were definitely more like a partner to me and not a tool, but I still had to will it to move according to how I wanted or needed, and that¡¯s something I had to get accustomed to.


    Knock Knock


    Ah there¡¯s Richard now.

 Chapter Fifty Seven

    ¡°So, how¡¯s everything?¡±


    ¡°Everyone is pretty much fine, with the money we got from the Dungeon, we were able to buy a surplus of health potions and even commission new weapons for a couple members. All in all, things are alright. But I¡¯m glad you wanted to talk, since I have something I¡¯d like to mention to you too.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good, and yeah I had a few things on my mind. I would like to find more Dungeons and I think sending 1 or 2 people out to do this would be beneficial. All they would have to do is try to find a Dungeon in the surrounding area, and come back at the sign of trouble, no need to fight anything.


    ¡°If they find one, based on the requirements I¡¯ll enter by myself and clear it, then I wouldn¡¯t mind bringing a few of you in to clear it as well, similar to what I did today. How does that sound?¡±


    ¡°Actually, that sounds pretty good to me, I will have to talk to them about it, because again, I don¡¯t force anyone to do anything. Also, I would only be comfortable sending another cultivator out to do this so that limits the options. Even though I think we will soon have a lot of 1st Cycle folks.


    ¡°Well, either way I like the idea, but I¡¯ll talk to the team and get back to you. Does that work for you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s fine, what did you want to bring up?¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, everyone kind of agreed that today went really well, and they learned a lot. We still can¡¯t really spare the type of numbers it would need to tackle that Dungeon on our own, but if you can continue to bring a small squad of us in, that would be appreciated. In fact, the plan would be to switch out the members each time so that more and more of us can gain the type of experience needed to be successful here. What do you think?¡±


    Hmm that¡¯s kind of a big commitment out of me, but I do think I learn something out of it, and I am asking them to do something for me, so I guess I¡¯m okay with that under the condition that Richard leads the team every time.


    ¡°Sure, but you have to come each time.¡±


    ¡°That works for me.¡±


    That was kind of all we had to talk about, and he left shortly after. It was roughly the evening now, and I quite literally spent the rest of the night practicing with my flames. From small balls, to larger ones. I tried complex shapes like swords and arrows and had them fly around the room. Though for some reason those actions never felt very natural to me. I could still do it, and it worked just fine¡­it just felt ¡­off.


    It wasn¡¯t until I coated both myself and my spear in the flames did everything finally feel natural. It seems like this is the state my flames prefer to be in. Yeah tomorrow I¡¯ll go test them out in the Dungeon. Oh wait...I have to take Richard¡¯s folks in the Dungeon don¡¯t I..


    It¡¯s getting late¡­but why can¡¯t I just go now.


    Yeah¡­there¡¯s no reason I can¡¯t.


    After gathering my belongings, I made my way out of the Outpost and back into the forest. I did have to fight some Goblins on the way, but nothing to worry about it.


    By the time I made it back to the Dungeon, the sun was mostly set. Not worrying about it, I accepted the prompt and once again I was back in the Dungeon, this time with the intention setting it ablaze.


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    Based on all my experiments, testing, and practicing I think simply coating my spear in my flames for now is how I should start out, and I¡¯ll go from there.


    And so, with that plan in mind, I walked into the first cave with only the head of my spear coated in beautiful black flames. It wasn¡¯t a lot per se, the flames themselves only extended about 3 inches from the blade itself in all directions, I knew I could make it far larger, but this will do for now.


    I wasn¡¯t in a rush to kill the Goblins, as this was just supposed to be a test run of using them in battle, but of course things don¡¯t always go to plan.


    After I entered the cave the Goblins started rushing at me, I performed a wide yet what was supposed to be a light swing of my spear and willed it to burn everything in front of me.


    I guess I need to be way more specific with my thoughts or the scene that¡¯s currently in front of me will play it when I definitely don¡¯t need it to.


    The cave before me could now probably called an ocean of black flames. There was nowhere in sight that wasn¡¯t being touched by flames.


    When I swung my spear earlier, the second it made contact with the first Goblin, it rushed out like a flood and immediately bathed quite literally everything in front of me in flames. Of course, the Goblins took the brunt of that, and not a single body remained in front of me. There wasn¡¯t even anything for the Dungeon to absorb. I hope that doesn¡¯t mess with the re¡­oh there it is now.


    I felt a little relief when I saw the chest appear once more, it would really suck if because all the Goblins got burned to ashes and the Dungeon couldn¡¯t absorb their bodies meant no chest. Glad that isn¡¯t the case.


    Moving on, I got to control my power better on the next floor, while that could be considered a successful test in a way since I learned something, the result wasn¡¯t my intention, so I need to be able to control exactly what I want to happen.


    Maybe next time I¡¯ll just try to burn things on contact¡­hmm...yeah that should work. I collected the Rock Iron and as I walked through the sea of flames before me they seemed to slowly die down before eventually fading out.


    Neat.


    Anyway, I got to the next floor and immediately tried out my new theory. If everything went according to plan, then the flame would only burn one Goblin at a time instead of a big flood of flames like the last floor.


    Well, the plan didn¡¯t work.


    At least not entirely.


    While it didn¡¯t flood out like last time, once it devoured a Goblin, it continued to spread like a plague amongst the swarming Goblins and in barely a minute all 100 Goblins in the cave were burned to ashes.


    Well.


    Learned something else I guess.


    After collecting the Rock Iron here as well, I made it to the next floor and immediately started fighting the Goblins with the idea I thought of on the way here. I just made my flames hot. That was all. Don¡¯t do anything else, just be hot.


    And hot they were.


    If I just did a normal swing of my spear I could cut any Goblin in half with ease, but I always felt some type of resistance. I could very much tell that I was indeed cutting something no matter how east it was.


    With my flames burning at a temperature, I have no idea of, that feeling was practically gone now. It almost felt like I was swinging at air with how easy it was to cut my way through the Goblins.


    I tested it out on like 20 of them before I decided to switch it up. This next test was risky, but I think it¡¯s needed.


    I stopped attacking and coated my entire body in black flames with the simple thought that nothing should touch me.


    And of course, my flames didn¡¯t let me down. With the flames extending about half a foot from my body in all directions every single Goblin that made contact with it burned till they no longer existed without fail. It didn¡¯t matter how many came in contact with the flames. Everything burned.


    Though of course I wouldn¡¯t let this get to my head. Goblins are weak, and but this plan probably wouldn¡¯t work against something or someone that was maybe as strong or stronger, or even someone who were maybe also immune to flames. Who knows, but it¡¯s a good last line of defense.


    Moving on, I cleaned up the rest of the Goblins and proceeded to the next floor. Well, I ate some food pills first. I got really hungry right after I stopped using my flames.


    Which makes sense in a way I guess.


    Anyway, I had more thing I wanted to test then after that it would just be time for practice.

 Chapter Fifty Eight

    A Forest that the local people treated with reverence and hadn¡¯t been touched in thousands of years was now being trashed by young fools from a place far from this land.


    They had come searching for a Golem that was said to call that very Forest home. The core that sustained his life, was a treasure of untold proportions.


    It was then the ground beneath their feet began to rumble, the young men who wrongfully entered this Forest became silent and the sound of the earth breaking apart reverberated throughout the entire Forest for miles on end.


    The Golem they had sought was waking up.


    Before long, a true monster from a time long forgotten was now standing at its full frame, as the massive trees above it were uprooted and the young men had to scatter. Standing at over 30 feet was a monster¡¯s body made of the very earth beneath its feet, and in its chest a large flowing orb pulsed with untold power.


    ¡°Have I slept so long, that whelps still sucking on their mother¡¯s milk have forgotten my name?¡±


    A rumbling voice reverberated throughout the forest as it spoke.


    ¡°It seems the world needs a reminder.¡±


    - The waking of the Core Eater


    Alright, I had 400 Goblins in front of me, and that amount would be the perfect test subjects for what I had in mind. Which was to turn my flames into things like arrows and spears and all sorts of things.


    And so, I did just that, I entered the cave and laid both my spear and bag down before running around and shooting out arrows made of flame all over the place. My aim was slightly off in the beginning, but I got better and better the more I shot. From arrows to both little and big balls, flame spears, and almost any other projectile form I could think of.


    None of them were worth mentioning though, because this is not an avenue I think I¡¯ll be going down. Yeah, I can make all the arrows I want, but no matter what I made, none of it ever felt truly right. Simply put my partner here didn¡¯t like it. I¡¯m not entirely sure why, but if it didn¡¯t like it, then why would I? Now something it didn¡¯t mind was when I used my flames to create a spear, not one I use as a projectile, but one I held in my hands and used it to fight. It was kind of weird wielding a spear made entirely of fire, as while it was solid enough for me to grab onto, at the end of the day it was all just fire. So, it was still loose at times, or it flickered and spread to nearby Goblins at other times. So, while weird, it was still fun, and something I can see myself using a lot in the future.


    After all my testing I bathed the rest of the floor in my flames, collected my Rock Iron, and proceeded to the next floor, where the process was repeated. I was curious to see if the big one could resist my flame, but it was burned to nothingness all the same.


    Eventually, the small chest returned and unsurprisingly the reward was 10 Bronze Coins. I guess that Lance guy was right. The extra rewards I got were most likely a first clear reward or something of that nature. What did I even get again? A weird-looking dagger and a pretty useless ring. Maybe I¡¯ll bring them to the shop to see if I can sell them for something.


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    Moving on, I collected the money and accepted the prompt to leave.


    This was a very satisfying and fulfilling trip. Learned a lot about my flames and how to use them in battle. It was a nice feeling knowing that I¡¯d never truly be alone in anything I do and that I always have support.


    Once outside, I quickly made my way back to the Outpost and after nodding at the folks guarding the Outpost I went inside and went straight to the blacksmith, sold half my Rock Iron, and then went home.


    After a quick wash, it was off to sleep, it was a good day.


    And then came morning and it was time for training again. Richard mentioned he wanted to chat after training, but apart from that it was a pretty quiet walk to the grounds. It was also another typical training session, I still couldn¡¯t so much as brush my spear anywhere close to the Outpost Leader¡¯s body, but I was becoming a better fighter with each sparring session, so my motivation never dwindled.


    ¡°You can advance again. I know you¡¯ve been waiting for confirmation from me to advance but soon you will need to do this for yourself. I will explain further after you complete your next advancement.¡±


    Well, he said he would explain after I advanced again so I won¡¯t dwell on it.


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    And as expected, he vanished right after that.


    Ignoring that, I gathered my things and waited off to the side for Richard. They were practicing squad fighting it seemed like? From what I saw, they were separated into 10 teams of 3, and they were carrying striking drills. Someone in the middle would step forward and strike at an imaginary enemy before stepping back while the other two stepped forward on the flanks and delivered strikes of their own.


    I watched on for a while as they constantly did this while switching whoever was in the middle. This is genuinely good stuff. It will help them in the Dungeons too.


    Anyway, after finishing up, Richard quickly made his way over for us to chat.


    ¡°How was training for ya? I took a peek, and it looked really intense as you fought back and forth.¡±


    ¡°Did it? I guess it was kind of intense, but yeah it was good. You?¡±


    ¡°Yeah it looked like an actual fight, but it was good for me too. The focus today was team fighting and I¡¯d say it went well for everyone. Also, I did talk to the rest of the team about what we just talked about and a few of them are up for it. It helps that another set of people managed to break through to 1st Cycle last night. We now have 20 people at 1st Cycle and after the Dungeon run today I¡¯m going to attempt to break through myself.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great news, so whenever they are ready just send a couple out to scout the area and be sure to remind them that they shouldn¡¯t be fighting anything. Just go look around and come back. Oh, and tell Lance he was right, I went back to the Dungeon last night and I only got 10 Bronze Coins as a reward.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s interesting, I¡¯ll be sure to let him know. I¡¯ll be by your house in a second once we¡¯re ready to go.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    Before long I was looking at Richard and another group of four people. I didn¡¯t know any of them.


    ¡°This is Vanessa, Brockers, Grant, and Harrison.¡±


    They all waved as Richard introduced them, hopefully I can remember all of these names.


    ¡°I¡¯m Raizen. Well, let''s go.¡±


    And just like that, we were off to the Dungeon once more. It went pretty similar to the first time, with Richard being the good commander that he was and me having to occasionally save them. Nothing like what happened to Brandon took place though as I made sure never to be too far from the group.


    Eventually, we cleared the Dungeon and were back to the Outpost without much trouble. Well, not much trouble for me at least, we were attacked by a large horde that had a whole host of both normal and the magic-wielding Goblins, and even 2 big ones joined the fray.


    Needless to say, that was far too many Goblins for this team, and they were tired from the Dungeon, so I had to put in a little work.


    Anyway, we made it back safe, and sound and I told Richard he could keep all the cores, I didn¡¯t need them.


    My cultivation session went similarly to all of them before it except it felt kind of different at the end, I¡¯m not sure how to explain it other than saying I could feel sort of a wall in front of me on my cultivation path now. Was this what the Outpost Leader was referring to?

 Chapter Fifty Nine

    Saving my questions for the Outpost Leader, I washed up and called it a night. The next day eventually came, and after dealing with another bout of pressure training and a light spar afterward, The Outpost Leader asked me to follow him back to his abode. I gave Richard a heads-up before I left in case, he was looking for me.


    The conversation began once we made it inside his office.


    ¡°Did you feel it?¡±


    I assume he¡¯s talking about what I felt last night after I advanced?


    ¡°If you mean with my cultivation then yes I felt like a wall of some sort was on my cultivation path now.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you can feel it and describe it as such. I¡¯m assuming you read the cultivation manual. Do you remember what it said about minimum and maximum?¡±


    ¡°Yes, if I remember correctly, the minimum stage to reach was 5 and the maximum stage to reach was 9.¡±


    ¡°Good. That is very important. What you¡¯re feeling right now is called many different things in many different cultures in the Multiverse, but it is commonly known as a barrier. It is the first of many you will face on your cultivation path. A barrier is a point of significant and qualitative change on your cultivation path. Breaking through them will require not only effort but in some cases even more talent. You will face one between every single realm, and you might face multiple during a realm itself.


    ¡°Some barriers might take you a few years to break through, others might take you decades, maybe even centuries, and in the worst case, some of them might be the end of your cultivation path. Not everyone reaches the peak. This topic is far more important than just this, so  I recommend speaking to your Elders after the Tutorial.


    ¡°Now for this current barrier you''re facing, I expect it should take you a few days due to the nature of your body. This is a point that 99% of cultivators have the ability to reach, as all it requires is time, dedication, and minimal resources. After reaching the 5th Cycle you may immediately attempt to break through to Qi Refinement, and this is a path that a lot of cultivators will take for many reasons.


    ¡°I do not recommend it for you. The path to the peak is long, but taking the time to strengthen your foundation will always result in being far stronger than others in your realm who didn¡¯t.


    ¡°Advancing past the 5th Cycle into the 6th or even 7th Cycle will make your body far stronger than any other cultivator who stopped at the 5th. It will also make breaking through to Qi Refinement easier since your body would have tempered far more than the minimum.


    ¡°Of course, doing this will involve risks. There have been more than enough people who have attempted to push past the 5th but ended up with a crippling injury, or in some cases dying instead. I cannot and will not force you to advance past the 5th, but if that is the choice you make, I recommend doing so under my supervision. Any questions?¡±


    I calmly digested everything he said, and it was pretty understandable. He also mentioned talking to my ¡®Elders¡¯ after this was all over so I¡¯m guessing I¡¯ll learn even more then. So, I really only had two questions.


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    ¡°Thank you for the explanation, how do I know when I¡¯ll be ready to break through this barrier?¡±


    ¡°Hm...How has cultivating been for you so far? Have you run into any trouble?¡±


    ¡°¡­No? I cultivate as normal. I sit down, will a piece of the Ambient Qi into my body, and go from there.¡±


    ¡°I see. Typically for a lot of other people, that is a process that will take multiple attempts. The body needs to slowly get used to having that Qi run rampant and cause damage before they can reach the point to keep that Qi inside of them long enough to break through. I assume this is the case for the other people in this Outpost.


    ¡°This is the process you will need to go through. Listen to your body and do not rush. Any more questions?¡±


    Hmm, so is this what Richard meant by being close to breaking through? If I run into any problems maybe I can ask him about his experience. Now for my last question.


    ¡°This might be a bit too early but how do I break through to Qi Refinement?¡±


    ¡°It is too early. Focus on what¡¯s in front of you.¡±


    I could tell that would be the end of the matter, so I¡¯ll leave it alone.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any other questions, thank you again for the information.¡±


    ¡°Mm.¡±


    He didn¡¯t disappear this time for once and just nodded towards the door. I took that as my cue to leave and did just that. When I got back to my house Richard and a few others were waiting outside. Lance was a part of the team again this time, but the other three were new.


    ¡°I¡¯ll meet you guys at the gate, I have something to take care of.¡±


    ¡°No worries, see you in a bit.¡±


    They left and I walked into my house to grab the dagger and the ring. Wanted to see if I could sell them since they were just collecting dust in my room.


    It didn¡¯t take long for me to make it to the shop.


    ¡°Welcome back Raizen! And congratulations once again on your cultivation!¡±


    ¡°Thank you Greja.¡±


    I appreciate how happily Greja always greets me. It¡¯s a nice change of pace whenever I visit the shop.


    ¡°How can I help you?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to check if I could sell these items.¡± I placed the dagger and the ring on the counter as I said that.


    ¡°I got them out of a Dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m assuming you were likely the first to clear the Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think I was. Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, these are phenomenal rewards. Both of them are items worth a lot more than you think.¡±


    ¡°¡­Really?¡±


    To me, they just looked like a weird dagger and a basic ring. The ring didn¡¯t even look luxurious.


    ¡°Yes, let''s start with the Dagger. It is already sharp but once imbued with Qi it will get even sharper, gaining the ability to severely cut or stab almost anything beneath a certain level of strength and toughness. I¡¯d say it should be effective throughout the Qi Refinement Realm.¡±


    Wow¡­how did she know that and how was I supposed to know that?


    ¡°Now for the Ring. This is the big prize out of the two. It is a storage ring. Through expert engineering, this Ring has a finite amount of space inside that you can quite literally store things in. The space inside isn¡¯t too large, roughly 10ft, by 10ft and 6ft in height.


    ¡°You cannot store life, but your clothes, weapons, anything that can fit into that space can be stored. You can even store food as time is static inside the ring. Though both this Ring and the Dagger need Qi to do any of what I said. Without the ability to control Qi the Ring will just be a simple trinket in your hands, and the Dagger a simple dagger.


    ¡°Needless to say, while you can¡¯t use them to their full potential now, you will be able to in the future. So¡­still want to sell them?¡±


    I¡¯m genuinely surprised. Who would¡¯ve thought this basic-looking ring was actually a mystical storage device? Well mystical to me at least. Though I wonder if there was a way for me to figure this out on my own.


    Either way, I¡¯m definitely not selling them.


    ¡°No¡­I don¡¯t think I will. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what they were. But how did you know?¡±


    ¡°No problem! And well that comes with experience and the ability to sense things past the surface level. You will understand as you get stronger.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­thank you.¡±

 Chapter Sixty

    I had a feeling she would say something like that, but there wasn¡¯t much I could do about it. Not dwelling on it too much, I brought the Dagger and the Ring back to the house and I placed them down a lot more carefully than I did the first time I brought them home.


    After that I met up with Richard and the others before proceeding to tackle another Dungeon with them. We were attacked on the way of course but this time instead of letting the others deal with it, I took care of it myself. I knew I was both far stronger, and faster now that I was 4th Cycle cultivator but actually testing it out in live battle felt different.


    The type of damage I could cause was exponentially different than before. I didn¡¯t bother testing it out, but I had a feeling I could now probably complete eviscerate the body of one of those big ones with a single punch.


    Hm¡­maybe I will test it out later.


    Anyway, after my testing we made it to the Dungeon and cleared it once again without issue.


    After making it back home, we went our separate ways as usual and before I left again to tackle the Dungeon on my own, so that I can fight and practice with my flames, I tried to cultivate just to truly experience this wall or barrier I was dealing with.


    For the first time since I¡¯ve started cultivating, I felt pain. It wasn¡¯t anything excruciating, but I knew if I tried to force it any further the pain would only worsen. Just like the Outpost Leader said, I needed to take my time with this.


    Not that I doubted him.


    I spent a few more moments mediating on the feeling before gathering my things again and leaving for the Dungeon. And not long after I was back home after another successful night of training and practice.


    And just like that, days continued to pass without much of anything else happening.


    I trained in the morning with the Outpost Leader, then I took Richard and whoever else he brought with him on a trip to and from the Dungeon. Then upon my return home, I would try to cultivate before going back to redo the Dungeon on my own.


    It was now day 18 in this Tutorial, a few days away form Stage 4 and whatever that brought. While the past couple of days were pretty monotonous, a lot still happened. For one, the pain I felt when I tried to break through to the 5th Cycle had lessened significantly and I knew it wouldn¡¯t be long before I managed it.


    And after all the fighting at night in the Dungeon by myself using my flames in battle was a pretty seamless process now and I was extremely confident in that fact.


    Of course I wasn¡¯t the only one who was making improvements.


    Almost 40 members of Richard¡¯s group were now 1st Cycle cultivators and every single one of them were outfitted with proper armor and Rock Iron Weapons. They were quite the force to be reckoned with now.


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    Actually, with how much time I¡¯ve spent with them during this time, I should probably stop calling them Richard¡¯s people. I knew a lot of them by name and had grown closer to a good portion of them. More so than I thought. They were not just Richard¡¯s people, but they were my people, Richard included. I don¡¯t know when the shift in how I saw them happened but at some point I began to see them all differently.


    Speaking of Richard, he too had a breakthrough and was now a full fledged 2nd Cycle cultivator. Once he got used to his new strength, the Dungeon runs became far easier and I now had to do far less to protect them. With his newfound strength, the team could mostly clear the Dungeon on their own. The only issue was on the second to last floor where the 400 Goblins posed a bit of an issue. Though of course I was still there to help.


    Of course, we talked about increasing the number of people who came along, but Richard mentioned with his new power and 9 other members, the pressure would lessen significantly, but so would the gains. With a small team, they were improving a lot faster through tough fights and he wanted to keep that intensity. I agreed with him.


    Well to put it simply, the last couple of days have been very productive for the entire Outpost, which now brings me to the current moment.


    ¡°It¡¯s back here.¡±


    I followed the man in front of me to a part of the Forest I hadn¡¯t been to before. He was one of the scouts that¡¯s been diligently going out every day for hours to search for another Dungeon and he had finally found not one, but two, and they were rather close to each other.


    After walking past a couple trees, we finally saw what looked to be the entrance of the Dungeon. A rather dilapidated wooden gate stood in between two trees. It looked like it had been there without maintenance for hundreds of years. Behind the gate was just more forest and we could walk around with no issue.


    ¡°To get the Dungeon prompt you have to touch it. Walking up to it won¡¯t trigger anything.¡±


    ¡°Got it. I did as instructed and gently placed my hand on the gate, afraid I¡¯d break it.¡±


    Welcome to the Goblin Outpost


    (E) Class Dungeon


    Five 2nd Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Enter? Yes/No


    Hm the only one we¡¯ve been going into so far was only a F class Dungeon, and it had a minimum of 5 1st Cycle cultivators, this one had 5 2nd Cycle cultivators required. That was a big jump, and I¡¯m expecting it to be similarly difficult. This would likely require a bigger team to tackle it based on the difficulty increase alone. The only way to know for sure would be to go in there and clear it myself.


    I know it would be harder, but I should be able to enter it by myself I think. Now for the next one.


    ¡°And where¡¯s the next one?¡±


    ¡°This way.¡±


    I followed him past the gate and a bit further we found something similar. Another gate in between two trees, except this gate was made out of stone, and while it was clearly aged it was in far better condition. There was even a stone archway above the gate. And like the one before it, there was nothing except more forest behind it, and since it behaved just like the wooden one, I had to touch it to activate it.


    Welcome to the Goblin Village


    (D) Class Dungeon


    Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Enter? Yes/No


    That was pretty significant jump in difficulty. I don¡¯t think I can tackle this one on my own, and everyone else isn¡¯t strong enough yet. The smart thing to do would be to wait, so I¡¯ll do just that.


    ¡°Alright, thanks for bringing me here. I¡¯ll be entering the first one.¡±


    ¡°Be safe, I¡¯ll let Richard know.¡±


    After he ran off, I walked back to the wooden gate, with my spear, a bag with potions and food pills and of course my flames waiting inside of me.


    I didn¡¯t waste any time and accepted the enter prompt.


    Wow..


    This¡­is a Dungeon?


    The sky is so blue.

 Chapter Sixty One

    I kind of already knew that Dungeons weren¡¯t all going to be the exact same, but I didn¡¯t imagine I¡¯d see something like this.


    I had been teleported into another forest, one very similar to the one I came from. Similar but not the same, the trees were a tad smaller for one, and due to that, I could see the sky a lot clearer. It was the type of sky you saw in animated movies. Simply beautiful.


    I would¡¯ve stared at it a lot longer if there wasn¡¯t something else in front of me to look at.


    In the distance before me was a clearing, and in that clearing was a wooden structure very similar to the Outpost I now temporarily called home.


    It was then I got another notification.


    The Goblin Outpost


    Objective: Clear the Outpost


    Only Death or Completion allows one to Leave


    So, the objective is different, but the meaning is technically the same. It says to clear the Outpost before me, which I¡¯m assuming means to kill everything in it. Something that may or may not be as easy as I thought before getting in here.


    The Outpost before me was similar to mine but again, it was only similar not the same. It was smaller, but from what I could see, its walls were massive.


    Both the walls and the gate easily stood over 12 ft and apart from them there were four guard towers in each corner of the Outpost and there was a Goblin posted in each of them. I was facing the front of the Outpost, and I could only see the backs of the Goblins in the back two Guard Towers, but the ones in front had weapons. Not a club, or a knife but they looked like little crude bows.


    That¡¯s new.


    I don¡¯t know how strong those bows are, or how accurate they are but let¡¯s assume they were both strong and fast, would I be able to dodge them? Not sure, but that¡¯s not even my biggest worry.


    What¡¯s in the Outpost? How many Goblins do I have to face? How strong are they? Those are a lot of unknowns. And considering this is a level of organization from the Goblins that we haven¡¯t seen yet plus the increased difficulty rating, there has to be more than just regular Goblins inside when I take those things into account.


    Perhaps a lot more of the big ones? Or a different type altogether? There are Goblins who can cast fireballs, why can¡¯t there be others?


    I think it¡¯s probably unlikely that I get answers to any of these questions if I just sat here and did nothing. I could probably keep using the forest as cover to scout all sides of the Outpost just to see if there is any other information I could find. Hmm¡­I should also scout the forest. Is there anything in it? How far does it stretch?


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    Could I lead the inhabitants of the Outpost in the forest and fight them there? I would need to check the forest to be sure.


    I¡¯ll do that first, then I¡¯ll scout the around the Outpost itself.


    The result of scouting around in the forest wasn¡¯t very promising. It was kind of magical, but not promising.


    I only walked forward for a few moments before everything went dark and I was back where I started and staring at the Outpost. When looking out at the forest behind me it seemed to stretch for a while, but I guess it¡¯s all just an illusion of sorts?


    Either way, luring them into the forest to fight likely wasn¡¯t an option. After figuring that out I circled the clearing from within the forest around it and saw that the front was the same as the back. I¡¯m not actually sure which side was the ¡®front¡¯ or if there was a front at all.


    So, I had a big Outpost of hostiles, 4 guard towers with one each corner, to points of direct entry/exit and I would more than likely have to fight in or around the Outpost itself.


    I thought about trying to wait for night, but for some reason, I didn¡¯t think this place had a day and night cycle. My options are somewhat limited now, I could probably just set the place on fire and go from there, but I actually wanted to see how they behaved in a normal setting. If bring a team here, they won¡¯t have access to my flames and would need to fight clear this Outpost normally, so I wanted to first do it myself so that they could be properly prepared.


    Alright, no time like the present.


    I walked to the edge of the forest and created two arrows with my flames. It wasn¡¯t something my flames liked doing, but it didn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t.


    I lined myself up with the wide gate in front of me and before I took off, I sent the two arrows flying to the Goblins within the guard posts.


    I didn¡¯t waste any time and darted straight towards the Outpost. I didn¡¯t hesitate in my steps, nor did I worry to see if they would spot me as I knew there would be a brief moment before the arrows got there that they would see the arrows and likely scream out before dying.


    What I wanted was to stop them from shooting at me as I approached with the intention of breaking through that gate with a powerful opening strike.


    As expected, both the Goblins in towers soon screamed out something in their tongue and by that point, I was halfway to the gate.


    I could hear some loud shouting coming from within the Outpost and even the sound of a horn...? Yeah, that was a horn. Real fantasy-like.


    Anyway, by the time I was nearly upon the gate, it started to rustle and slowly begin to open outward. I wouldn¡¯t let it.


    The gate was now in striking distance, and I leaped up towards it with my spear held high above my head and coated in beautiful black flames. I  then swung down with all the force my body could muster.


    BOOOM


    The noise from the collision roared in my ears as splintered wood and dust flared up all around me. Blood and guts were mixed in too. My flames which were only used to add more power to swing dissipated quickly. I didn¡¯t want to set everything on fire just yet.


    I quickly retreated a couple of feet back to get a good look at what was around me and distance myself from the noise of the screaming Goblins just beyond the dust.


    It only took a moment for the dust to clear and I could finally see the real reason why the difficulty had gone up.


    And what I saw caused me to step back even further.


    Three of the big ones stormed out of the Outpost, quickly forming up just a little in front of the gate.


    That¡¯s right. They were forming up. Not screaming and immediately chasing after me. Following after them were about 20 Goblins each forming three different squads who then lined up behind one of the big ones.


    From what I could see they were all mostly normal Goblins with a few mage types mixed in, some had knives, some had clubs, and some had a bow and even a small quiver strapped to their backs.


    That wasn¡¯t even the end of it, the big ones themselves weren¡¯t just standing there menacingly. Each of them was clearly hurriedly looking and scanning the area as if trying to find additional enemies.


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to realize it was just me.


    This was going to be fun.

 Chapter Sixty Two

    ¡°Father are you sure about this?¡±


    ¡°Leave it alone boy.¡±


    ¡°Bu-¡­¡±


    ¡°I SAID LEAVE IT!¡±


    The entire smithy rumbled due to the power released in that voice.


    The old blacksmith hung his head in his hands as he continued to speak.


    ¡°¡­We have no choice son¡­if the spear isn¡¯t perfect we will die¡­but if we don¡¯t finish it all together, we will still die¡­¡±


    It was then another voice burst into the smithy.


    ¡°What the hell are you talking about old man?¡±


    The old blacksmith¡¯s eyes widened when he saw who the voice belonged to.


    ¡°L¡­L..Lord Rai...-¡±


    ¡°Who said anything about dying? I just asked you to forge my spear and you said yes, if you don¡¯t want to forge it then say so, but I want my money back.¡±


    ¡°¡­But your guard that came by after you left¡­¡±


    ¡°My guard? I don¡¯t have a¡­ah. That uptight bastard must have said something weird to you. I will deal with it. But does this mean you don¡¯t actually want to make the spear?¡±


    ¡°¡­.We will still make it¡±


    ¡°Good. I didn¡¯t want to look for another blacksmith.¡±


    After the person left the old blacksmith gave a stern look to his son.


    ¡°Did you lock the smithy up when I told you to?¡±


    ¡°¡­..no?¡±


    Pah!


    ¡°Oww¡±


    ¡°Stop your whining and get the flames going.¡±


    - A random interaction between an Infernal and a blacksmith¡­


    Even though they didn¡¯t sense anyone else, the big guys before me waited a few more seconds before they did anything. Staring at me the whole time without pause. I definitely could¡¯ve attacked during this time, but I wanted to understand their new behavior.


    This is more than just a small difference from how they were usually. They are quite literally behaving like intelligent commanders. Is this the real version of them perhaps? Are the ones we see outside the Dungeon just crazy versions for the sake of the Tutorial? Or are the Dungeon versions just made to be smarter for the sake of the Dungeon?


    Who knows.


    Anyway, they finally started doing stuff.


    All three big ones began quickly yelling a whole bunch of Goblin gibberish I couldn¡¯t understand and then the rest of them sprang into action.


    All the archers spread out behind them and formed one big line, while both the regular and the mage Goblins followed after them and formed a line of their own just in front. Are they there to protect the archers maybe? I don¡¯t know and I didn¡¯t really have time to figure it out.


    The three big ones immediately took off after me.


    Ah¡­they were fast.


    Faster than they were on the outside, faster than I was at the 1st Cycle, and not only were they fast, but they were also well coordinated.


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    It didn¡¯t take long for me to be on the backfoot just dodging everything headed my way. As I stepped back to dodge a punch from my left, another came from my right, ducking to dodge that, left me facing a kick from the front.


    If I was still at the 2nd Cycle, maybe I would¡¯ve already been turned into meat paste, as the type of speed and force these guys were attacking with was probably enough to topple trees.


    But unfortunately for them, I wasn¡¯t at the 2nd Cycle. As the kick came flying towards my chest, I simply kicked back and the one in front of me went flying a few feet. Before the other two could react, I slammed the but of my spear into the chest of the one on the left before delivering another kick to the one on the right.


    At that moment when all three were pushed back away from me, I vividly heard the snapping of bowstrings, and a rain of arrows began falling in my direction. Of course, fireballs were on their way as well.


    Huh, so they weren¡¯t just standing around for decoration after all.


    It¡¯s a shame though, I was expecting this fight to be a bit harder due to the upped difficulty, but I guess being two whole cycles ahead of the minimum requirement tends to throw things off. And I didn¡¯t think I had anything else to learn from this fight.


    The big ones were charging at me again, timing the impact of their charge to reach me after the arrows and fireballs landed.


    I quickly did two very wide swipes with my spear with most of my strength put into it. The force of the swipes was strong enough to toss aside any arrows heading near me and dissipate the nearby fireballs. Even the big ones had to pause their steps lightly as the force hit them.


    I didn¡¯t miss that chance.


    Well, I didn¡¯t really need a chance at this point but there was no reason to dilly-dally.


    I once again coated my spear with flames and charged at the nearest one, it didn¡¯t run nor cower and instead began attacking in a flurry of punches, seemingly realizing that death was on the horizon, it screamed out as it did so.


    Of course, that did nothing to stop its head from leaving its body.


    The other two screamed something out while they charged when they saw what happened to their partner and the regular Goblins who hung back until now began charging into the fray as well, while the archers began letting out as many arrows as they could, and the mage Goblins began charging fireballs once again. It seems they were no longer concerned with hitting their allies.


    It won¡¯t change anything.


    Since I now longer had any qualms about learning anything about the Goblins, I would allow my flames to run rampant.


    I willed my flames to cover my spear yet again, and as I leaped in the air I simply willed for it to burn all who stood before me, and I roared out as I slammed my spear into the ground, similar to what I did to the gate.


    Though this time the destruction was far more devastating.


    No blood and guts were flying about this time.


    Everything was burned into the nothingness, and all was welcomed into the embrace of my flames.


    I stood to my feet as a sea of black flames roared furiously around me. There were no sounds, no movement apart from my flames, just destruction.


    A ruthless, merciless sort of destruction.


    It was moments like this where I wondered what Infernals really were. What I really was.


    The book never really explained that, but it did mention I had responsibilities. I was always aware the term Infernal had potentially demonic connotations but that line of thinking never felt quite right. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m a demon or even a type of demon, but maybe we relate to them in some way. Maybe we rule demons?


    I don¡¯t know, just something else to ask whoever or whatever is waiting for me after the Tutorial.


    Moving on, no bodies were remaining since everything was burned to ash, but no matter how long I waited, no chests appeared in front of me.


    I hope burning the bodies didn¡¯t actually affect my reward¡­


    Hmm, now that I think about it¡­the exit prompt isn¡¯t popping up either. The objective was to clear the Outpost right, so maybe there are a couple of Goblins still hiding within?


    Before walking to the Outpost, I quickly went back to the forest to grab my bag, before making my way through the destroyed gate.


    Inside the Outpost was a fairly simple place. There was one building in the center, but the left and right sides had a couple of tents, all of which were empty.


    Of course, I verified that, before making it to the building, I searched the area in detail to make sure I didn¡¯t miss anything, but there wasn¡¯t anything to find.


    On to the building, I guess.


    It was perhaps about the size of the shop in the Outpost outside. Not too big, but it looked like a few people could stand inside.


    I was half expecting to find one or two small rooms where Goblins were hiding but no, it was just one big open room, and in the center of the room was a weird-looking brown and green rug? Or maybe the hide of some animal turned into a rug? I don¡¯t really know, but it was surrounded by candles, and on top of it sat a small chest.


    Weird.


    I walked around the entire room trying to find anything amiss, but there was nothing of the sort. Which left me just looking at the small chest for a couple of seconds.


    Anything surrounded by candles on a weird rug thing would 10/10 times give me a weird feeling. So instead of using my hands, I used my spear to pry the chest open from a distance.


    Despite the chest being fully open, I still waited a couple of seconds before I walked any closer to it. Nothing wrong with being cautious. Nothing at all.


    Moving on, I finally gave in and walked close enough to make out everything in the chest.


    There are only three things present.


    A small stack of Bronze Coins.


    A necklace of some sort.


    And finally, a small shiny-looking ticket that read ¡°Outpost Upgrade Ticket¡±.


    Nice.

 Chapter Sixty Three

    After counting up, the stack turned out to be a total of 40 Bronze Coins. That was quite a lot. The necklace itself seemed to be made out of a silvery type of metal and it had a small blue jewel for a pendant.


    It looked nice I guess, and if this was before I spoke to Greja the other day, I would¡¯ve probably just thought it was regular jewelry, but I know better now. I mean I still don¡¯t know what it is, but hopefully Greja will be able to tell me some good news.


    Though the big prize was of course the Outpost Upgrade Ticket, I knew the Outpost could be upgraded but had no idea how, until now at least. I wonder how it all works though; do I perhaps give this to the Outpost Leader, or do I offer it to the system in some type of ritual maybe? Ha¡­probably not. I¡¯ll just ask Greja.


    Anyway, it wasn¡¯t until after the rewards were collected that the exit prompt finally came up and I didn¡¯t accept right away. Instead, I walked out of the building and began exploring a bit. I wanted to do some more scouting of the area for when I bring others in. The more information I had for them, the better the chances of them surviving.


    Despite that, there wasn¡¯t much else to find, well except for one thing.


    The back gate.


    It wasn¡¯t opened.


    I¡¯m going to assume it¡¯s because the commotion I made at the front was big enough to stop them from even considering checking the back, and the Goblins that were in the towers at the back didn¡¯t have anything to report.


    We can probably use that to our advantage.


    I don¡¯t think there was anything else to find out though, so I finally accepted the prompt and left the Dungeon.


    Huh, it was already getting dark, I guess I was in the Dungeon for longer than I thought.


    Should be quicker next time because I won¡¯t need to scout anything. Anyway, it didn¡¯t take me very long to jog all the way back to the Outpost.


    ¡°Hey welcome back Raizen, how was the Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°It was good Lance, got some good stuff. How¡¯s guard duty today?¡±


    ¡°Eh not too shabby, haven¡¯t been attacked all day and my shift is almost over so that¡¯s a win in my book. But how were the enemies in the Dungeon, do you think the rest of us can handle it?¡±


    ¡°Not sure, it might be a bit too tough for you all, but we¡¯ll talk about it.¡±


    ¡°Ah okay, see you later.¡±


    After talking to Lance and nodding to everyone else on guard duty, I made my way home to drop off the coins. Shortly after that, it was to the shop to find out about the necklace and the upgrade ticket.


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    ¡°Welcome in Raizen, how are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good, yourself?¡±


    ¡°Just another day in paradise. What can I do for you today?¡±


    ¡°I completed another Dungeon and got a few rewards. If it''s possible, I¡¯d like for you to take a look at them.¡±


    ¡°Of course! Let¡¯s see what you have.¡±


    I gently placed both the necklace and the ticket on the counter.


    ¡°Ah, you had a really good haul this time Raizen. We¡¯ll get to the Ticket in a bit, as it¡¯s a bit special, but this necklace is actually a really good piece of jewelry. It is essentially a shield. Once imbued with Qi, it will form a protective bubble around the wearer, blocking multiple forms of attacks. However please note, that it¡¯s not indestructible, and if it gets hit by enough attacks or one really strong one the bubble will break.


    ¡°But what makes it special is that as long as the jewel itself is fine, the bubble will eventually repair itself and be available for use again. I think at full strength, it can probably take one full powered blow from someone roughly at the peak of the Qi Refinement realm. Of course, that is only an estimation so don¡¯t gamble your life on it with that in mind. Any questions?¡±


    ¡°No, it''s just something else I get to look forward to once I finally reach the Qi Refinement realm. Thanks for the explanation.¡±


    ¡°Of course! And don¡¯t worry you¡¯ll reach Qi Refinement in no time, before blazing past it. But let¡¯s focus on this ticket. This is really important, and it comes with a lot of benefits, but before we get to those benefits, there are a couple of caveats.


    ¡°Firstly, at least half of the people who pay rent in the Outpost would need to agree to this upgrade. There will be a prompt when the upgrade is triggered that they will have to agree to.


    ¡°Secondly, the upgrade isn¡¯t free. Five Silver Coins is the cost to trigger the upgrade. And last but not least, upgrading the Outpost will bring added danger. The danger you have faced in the surrounding areas so far will go up a tick.


    ¡°Now for the benefits. If you can afford the cost and the residents of the Outpost are in agreement, these benefits will hopefully offset the new level of danger you will face.


    ¡°Let¡¯s start with this very shop, the wares available for purchase here will undergo a significant upgrade, and a variety of things will be added. This actually goes for all three shops, but this one and the alchemist shop will undergo the biggest changes.


    ¡°Next the size of the Outpost. More houses will be added, and the size and features of all houses will undergo a change as well.


    ¡°And finally, the Outpost will receive a beacon that you may or may not pay to activate. This beacon will shoot a beam of light into the sky and be noticeable for quite some distance. No monster will have the ability to see it, only other Tutorial attendees. Though along with a price, it will have an approval requirement as well. At least 30% of the people who pay rent in this Outpost need to agree to the activation of the beacon.


    ¡°Phew, that¡¯s everything! I know that was a lot, got any questions?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got a few questions actually. The beacon thing you mentioned, once it¡¯s turned on, is it possible to turn it back off?¡±


    ¡°Yes of course, but after turning it off both the payment and the 30% agreement requirement will be enforced again to turn it back on.¡±


    ¡°I see, what about the upgrade itself? What will happen to the people inside the Outpost?¡±


    ¡°Of course, all of you will have to leave for a moment. The upgrade will only take around a minute, but all Tutorial attendees will need to vacate during that time.¡±


    ¡°What about our things? Will we need to take our things with us as well?¡±


    ¡°Ah no, those will be fine. Just the attendees themselves.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­I think that¡¯s all my questions for now, thanks as always Greja.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome as always Raizen.¡±


    After leaving I headed straight over to Richard¡¯s house. He would of course need to be a part of this process.


    ¡°Ah Raizen, I heard you were back, how was the Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°It was really good we have a lot to talk about. Is everyone here already?¡±


    ¡°Ah yeah except for Lance, his shift is about to end so he¡¯ll be here soon.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±

 Chapter Sixty Four

    With how close I got with the others over the last few days, the way communication was previously between me and them changed significantly. Instead of just talking to Richard, I could have this sort of discussion with any of them, and there were a couple of times we had group discussions like what we were having now.


    Fighting with people with your life on the line had a way of bringing people together it seems.


    Anyway, Lance was finally here so it was time to talk. We all grouped up in one of the rooms and began the discussion.


    ¡°I¡¯ll start with the Dungeon. Once you accept the prompt to enter, you¡¯ll find yourself in a forest similar to the one around us now, and off in the distance there¡¯s a clearing with an Outpost very much similar to this one. We¡¯ll get to that in a moment.


    ¡°The forest around the Outpost is mostly just a weird illusion, it looks vast and deep but if you walk too far into the forest, moving away from the Outpost, you¡¯ll get teleported back to where you started. You don¡¯t feel when it¡¯s happening, one second you¡¯re walking deeper into the forest, and the other you¡¯re walking towards the Outpost.


    ¡°Despite that, the walkable path in the forest is still deep enough that you can circle the entire Outpost without getting spotted as long as you''re careful.


    ¡°Now for the Outpost. It¡¯s smaller than this one, but it won¡¯t be easy to clear it with normal means. It¡¯s a square, and there¡¯s a guard tower in all four corners, and the Goblin sitting inside has a bow.


    ¡°The Outpost itself has two entrances, so they can leave from both. Speaking of ¡®they¡¯, there are about 60-ish Goblins located inside. Three of the big ones, and about 20 something normal, magic, and ones with bows with each of them.


    ¡°Their numbers and new weapons weren¡¯t the problem though; it was their coordination. They behaved like a small army. Three big ones each a squad, and they were passing out orders. Speaking of the big ones, they didn¡¯t chase after me the second they saw me. Instead, they tried to scout for other people before passing out instructions and then attacking me together.


    ¡°That¡¯s a level of intelligence we have yet to see from the Goblins. They of course have done the whole bait thing, but this level of coordination from the big ones at least, was unlike them. This means we won¡¯t really know how they¡¯d behave if more people entered the Dungeon.


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty much it. Questions?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got one, if you weren¡¯t with us, how many of us do you think it would take to clear that Dungeon without anyone dying?¡±


    Hmm, that¡¯s actually a pretty easy question to answer.


    ¡°More than we have. One 2nd Cycle a bunch of 1stCycle cultivators simply isn¡¯t enough to ensure no losses, at least not in a straight up battle. Maybe there¡¯s some sort of plan you could cook up Richard, but straight up there¡¯s no chance.


    ¡°These Goblins are different from the norm. It won¡¯t be as simple as just throwing numbers at them if the goal is to make sure everyone survives.¡±


    ¡°So, it still boils down to just getting stronger huh.¡±


    ¡°It will only get worse from here I think, we all know Earth will likely be a lot different, and maybe it will be like living in the Tutorial all over again but on a much bigger scale and most likely without warning, or maybe it will be even worse, nobody knows, just gotta be ready.¡±


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    ¡°Stop making everyone all depressed Lance, we¡¯ll be fine. Isn¡¯t that right Raizen?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s right in a way, getting stronger is the only way to make sure you¡¯ll survive any situation that comes your way.¡±


    ¡°Fine fine I hear you; I¡¯ll work harder.¡±


    She says that, but I really don¡¯t think Cristine likes cultivating all that much. Well, she¡¯s at least a part of a good group so she¡¯ll probably be fine.


    ¡°Are there any more questions?¡±


    ¡°Yes, even with you there, are we ready to take on this Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°Yeah Brandon, I think we can do it. I have some plans I¡¯d like to discuss with all of you regarding it, but there¡¯ll be time for that later. Any more questions before I move on? This next topic is important.¡±


    I looked around the room for a moment, and it didn¡¯t seem like anyone else was going to speak up.


    ¡°Alright moving on. This is about one of the rewards I got from completing the Dungeon.¡±


    After saying that I took out the Outpost Upgrade Ticket for them to see.


    ¡°This small ticket has extremely big implications. I spoke to the shopkeeper about everything it meant and it¡¯s a lot, so hold all questions till the end please.¡±


    It took maybe thirty minutes to an hour to fully explain everything Greja told me, mainly because although everyone was holding their questions back, I took my time to make sure everything was at least clearly heard, even repeating certain parts at times like for example the fact we need at least half of the folks here to agree to the upgrade.


    That wasn¡¯t a small number, and while I wasn¡¯t worried about the people backing out, we still had to be sure that everyone was aware of what was happening and to click no on the prompt by accident or something.


    Anyway, needless to say, there were a lot of questions.


    ¡°This danger increase¡­just how much more danger are we talking about? Is that something we¡¯ll be ready for? What if something happens while you¡¯re not here?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Trent. I just know it will be more dangerous. And that¡¯s the thing, what if I wasn¡¯t here in the first place and a large attack happened? Then what? I am just one person, and what if something even I couldn¡¯t handle showed up?


    ¡°Point is, I don¡¯t plan on living in fear, and despite everything I just said, I¡¯m confident we can handle almost anything that might attack this Outpost, so you shouldn¡¯t live in fear either.¡±


    ¡°Well, when you put it like I can¡¯t really say anything else can I.¡±


    ¡°Haha no you can¡¯t Trent! You hear that everyone, Raizen said we have nothing to fear! And I believe him! Why would we fear anything if Raizen¡¯s with us!¡±


    I watched on with a slight smile as Lance was up to his usual antics and everyone, including Richard joined in with the laughter. I had no problems spending this Tutorial alone, but I didn¡¯t mind this at all, it would probably be a good thing to build firm relationships in this new reality of ours.


    The guarding of the Outpost is a prime example. People are guarding the Outpost night and day so that I can sleep soundly and explore without worry. Of course, I do my part as well such as solo clearing new Dungeons and babysitting them inside a Dungeon, but the point is having people that you can depend on for a few things goes a long way.


    However, I¡¯ll always make sure to get strong enough to only have to depend on myself. Getting help from others is nice, but personal strength and capability will always be more important.


    ¡°Alright alright, that¡¯s enough. Based on everything Raizen just explained to us, do we all agree on getting the upgrade?¡±


    After receiving various nods and confirmations from the people in the room, Richard looked towards me.


    ¡°Well, you heard them. When do you want to do it? We¡¯ll help with the cost.¡±


    ¡°Good. We should do it on the last day of this stage which is day 20. Based on what¡¯s happened previously, no monsters should bother us on that day, and with everyone having to get out of the Outpost, I think that¡¯s the time to do that. We should use the next couple of days to let everyone else in the Outpost know what¡¯s happening and that they should be ready to vacate for a moment in a couple of days.¡±


    After finalizing that, we discussed some smaller details a bit more, before I finally left. I wasn¡¯t all that tired physically, but mentally all of this was a bit draining. From the Dungeon this morning, then the talk with Greja, and finally the talk with Richard and the rest. It was taking a toll. Definitely looking forward to a much needed rest.

 Chapter Sixty Five

    ¡°Attention!¡±


    A man wearing an all-black uniform, adorned with one singular black badge in the shape of a flame resting upon his chest, spoke aloud as he stared out at the men and women standing before him.


    ¡°You are standing before Patriarch Blaach, Ancestor to the Blaach Family and Leader of the 7th Conflagration!¡±


    The man who he introduced was of course sitting calmly upon a simple black throne erected for the purpose of this event.


    ¡°Only the thousand of you who stand here today have been chosen from a long list of applicants for this final test. The Patriarch has decreed only 100 of you will be chosen, and of that only 10 will welcome the Flame.


    ¡°Let the final test commence!¡±


    After saying that, no one moved as he paused and imbued his voice power before continuing.


    ¡°Let your flames burn Eternally, and your spear be ever swift!¡±


    -The Forming of the Blaach Night Legion Eons Ago¡­


    The night passed without issue, and training went as expected. After everyone freshened up, we met up in my house this time. Well, it was just Richard and Brandon, everyone else was going around the Outpost talking to the rest of the folks about the upgrade and the things it will entail. Richard initially arrived at the Outpost with over a hundred people and by now around 60 of them have broken through to the 1st Cycle and Richard believes maybe another 10 or so will break through as well. The rest were essentially noncombatants.


    Between the elderly, small children, and a few who couldn¡¯t handle the pain. They usually spent their days lounging about the Outpost or helping out where they could. Well, that would usually be the case until Richard gave me a bit of a surprise just now.


    ¡°The Alchemist accepted an apprentice!¡±


    It was literally the first thing he blurted out when I went to open the door. He didn¡¯t even let me interject as he continued.


    ¡°It was an old woman by the name of Beverly. She was just making a potion run for us, but apparently, the Alchemist said she had some talent for making potions and offered her an apprenticeship for at least the remainder of the Tutorial!


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that amazing? He even said he¡¯ll help her with Cultivating! A few other people went to visit to see if they could be accepted as well, but he turned them all down. A little disappointing but the fact that even one of us got accepted was still amazing.¡±


    Although I think he was way too excited, that doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t understand where it''s coming from. This is huge news for everyone, especially Beverly. I hadn¡¯t met her yet, but her importance to the group just shot up significantly.


    I¡¯m still not 100% certain people will be able to travel back to Earth together after the Tutorial, but if that was the case, and the group stayed together, we would have someone who could make potions for us. That was massive. Even now we don¡¯t really know what type of Earth we will be returning to, so any added benefit like someone who could make potions was extremely valuable.


    ¡°Yeah, that really is amazing. Hopefully, she¡¯ll enjoy it and become a really good alchemist. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll become even more valuable after the Tutorial. Did anyone try the Blacksmith? I believe he had an option in his shop regarding that.¡±


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    ¡°Huh¡­now that I think about it, I don¡¯t think anyone did. I¡¯ll bring it up, it would be nice if someone could become a blacksmith too, I¡¯d give it a shot, but I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s something I¡¯m cut out for. What about you Brandon? Feel like becoming a Blacksmith?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡±


    ¡°Figures, but yeah things are looking up for Miss Beverly. Ready to talk?¡±


    ¡°Yeah so, I had some ideas. I think we have more than enough people now that we can tackle both Dungeon and still protect the Outpost at the same time. Well at least until we see what this next stage entails, but for now I think we can split our forces a bit.


    ¡°You and 5-10 others can most likely handle the Green Den without me. You¡¯re a good commander and we have done it enough times to know how it works by now.


    ¡°While at the same time, I can take around 15 others to the other Dungeon. They can¡¯t really fight the big ones, but I have an idea of how to deal with that. After completing the Dungeon, I walked around the Outpost and checked a lot of things. The back gate wasn¡¯t touched due to how much commotion I caused at the front.


    ¡°I will essentially do the same thing again but instead of joining me at the front, the rest will enter through the back gate and attack them from behind. They would still have to fight around 60 total Goblins, with different types mixed in, but I think they can do it. What do you guys think?¡±


    ¡°Honestly Raizen I don¡¯t like it, I¡¯m confident I can take care of the first Dungeon with a small team, but if someone messes up, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m strong enough to reach them in time while fighting off Goblins of my own. Though that¡¯s a small worry, the team that goes with you, I think it would be a lot better if there was a 2nd Cycle Cultivator with them too, but I¡¯m the only one we have as of right now. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to start splitting our forces after we have more than one 2nd Cycle Cultivator? Maybe not even to come with you but just to stay here while everyone is gone.¡±


    Hmm, he wasn¡¯t wrong per se, but I think some calculated risk is needed to improve. Am I taking too much risk here?


    ¡°I will break through to the 2nd Cycle after this talk, and I¡¯ll be ready to try the new Dungeon tomorrow.¡±


    Both me and Richard snapped out of our thoughts and looked towards Brandon. I didn¡¯t doubt he could break through, but they didn¡¯t heal like I did. I don¡¯t think a potion will be enough to get him back to full strength in time for a Dungeon run tomorrow.


    ¡°Even if you broke through this morning, there''s no way you¡¯d be ready to fight, let alone enter a whole new Dungeon.¡±


    It seemed Richard agreed with me.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be ready.¡±


    ¡°You say that but your bo-..¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be ready.¡±


    ¡°Brandon, I understand you are eager but isn¡¯t this too rash?¡±


    ¡°Richard. I don¡¯t want to be a burden forever. Raizen is literally holding our hands in the Dungeon and making sure we don¡¯t die, but he said it yesterday. What if he wasn¡¯t here? When that first big attack happened and hundreds of Goblins attacked when only a few of us were 1st Cycle, He killed most of them by himself and we still lost two people. What if he wasn¡¯t there then? How many more of us would die? You? Me?


    ¡°We can¡¯t keep living like this. We need to get stronger; we need to try harder; we need to put our own lives at risk more often. I¡¯ve seen the change in some of the others over the last couple of days, people went from being scared of Raizen, to tolerating him, to now depending on him. Only a couple of days passed for that to happen. What would happen after a month? A year after the Tutorial?


    ¡°Would everyone else just stop getting stronger altogether and just hope Raizen takes care of everything? I don¡¯t know how you feel about that Richard, but I don¡¯t like it. And I don¡¯t know if you consider us burdens Raizen, but I don¡¯t want to fit that description any longer. Even if it¡¯s not all of us who want to keep getting stronger, a few of us should be working even harder to help shoulder the burden.


    ¡°So..I¡¯ll be ready.


    ¡°You guys can finish without me; I¡¯ll be breaking through shortly.¡±


    After saying that last line, Brandon simply turned and calmly walked out of the house. I was really at a loss for words here. Of course, I¡¯ve only known Brandon for a short time, but he has always been a man of few words.


    Looking over at Richard, he seemed even more shocked than I did. Based on what I¡¯ve found out the last couple of days, quite a few of them knew each other before the Tutorial started so he would¡¯ve known the ¡®normal¡¯ Brandon.


    And based on his reaction I¡¯m guessing what we just witnessed is unlike the ¡®normal¡¯ Brandon.


    ¡°¡­I¡¯ll check on him after this. We can keep going.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­well with Brandon potentially in the picture. Are you okay with the plan?¡±


    ¡°Well based on what he¡¯s saying I don¡¯t think I have much of a choice, of course, the people making up the team will need to agree, but if your confident, Brandon somehow becomes ready, and everyone agrees, then we¡¯ll make it happen.¡±


    ¡°Good, we¡¯ll go over the plan in detail when the team gets made. Now let¡¯s talk about this upgrade because that¡¯s also happening tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter Sixty Six

    "Yeah, your right, we are doing the upgrade tomorrow. We¡¯re splitting the cost, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Ill handle half. Though what I wanted to focus on was the beacon. Do you think we should activate it?¡±


    ¡°You know I thought about that all night, but I think we have to. I was worried about who that beacon may attract. We have a good thing going here, and apart from that one hiccup with you and Jax, things have been going pretty smooth. I know this is time where everyone is supposed to band together, but humans have sucked at properly doing that throughout history.


    ¡°Which is why I was worried, but at the same time, we all have friends and family out there, and though most of us have done a good job of hiding it, we are all worried sick at the thought of something happening to our loved ones. Even if my motivation wasn¡¯t about family, we should still try to help people, no matter what it brings.


    ¡°There could be a group out there right now, without access to an Outpost and just living in the wild. We read the same book, there are only 26 Outpost for billions of people. That is simply not enough. So, we should play our part, and we¡¯ll handle problems if they come. What do you think?¡±


    ¡°Well, I pretty much agree with what you¡¯re saying. But at the same time, I think it should be finalized after we see the new Outpost, if the Outpost is too small and hundreds, let alone thousands show up, people may end up fighting for space.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good point, but I think we would turn it on regardless of the size of the Outpost. Unless it gets big enough to handle maybe millions of people, then it won¡¯t be big enough no matter what. Plus, this is all just speculation, who knows if anyone shows up at all? It could just be one person.¡±


    ¡°Ah that¡¯s a good point too. Let¡¯s just wait and see what this upgrade brings, and we¡¯ll go from there.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me, I¡¯ll go check on Brandon.¡±


    And with that Richard left. I promptly left afterwards to go on a late night Dungeon run. I have been constantly practicing fighting with my flames, and that thrust the Outpost Leader did. I still remembered what I experienced in that moment, and I feel like I¡¯m getting closer to the day where I can deliver a simple, yet almost poetically beautiful strike with my spear imbued with flames.


    Another thing that was close was my cultivation, the barrier felt weaker than ever now, and I planned to try again tonight after the Dungeon.


    ~ ~ ~


    POV Jrino


    ¡°Is she really the only one who has potential to be an Alchemist?¡±


    ¡°Yes, a bunch of them have come to me asking to by my apprentice but they¡¯re all trash. Even the one I chose is barely qualified, plus she¡¯s old by mortal standards so I have to help her cultivate too. This is all one big mess Jrino.


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    ¡°Are you sure all this effort is going to be worth it? What if he doesn¡¯t do what you think he will?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if he will do what we need him to, but we will do what we can. You should know by now that risks are needed to advance in life. Compared to other things we¡¯ve done, this isn¡¯t even considered a risk, just a potential path we could take. They don¡¯t yet know what will happen after the Tutorial, but we do. When he finds out, and the option we need is presented to him there is a good chance he will accept. If not, then we cut our losses and return to the Clan.¡±


    ¡°Sigh Who would¡¯ve thought I would ever have to join a Tutorial expedition and hope some young master is smart enough to accept our help. I still don¡¯t understand why the Clan even paid the price to do this, aren¡¯t we powerful enough already? We will eventually have a presence in this Universe even without the Tutorial, why did we have to come here.¡±


    ¡°You know the situation of the Branch Head. He had no choice. No one wants to spend two months managing an Outpost for some weak mortals who may all die within a few years anyway, but the ability to freely access the resources, or even the talents of a new Universe before the shroud is down will always be too good to pass up for most large factions in the Multiverse, and someone needs to be sent here. The Branch Head was under pressure, so he had to concede this. If we were strong enough it would¡¯ve been different.


    ¡°But that decision will hopefully benefit us more than they planned for. Being a part of the rise of an Infernal is not an honor anyone in our Clan has experienced. At least not in the last thousands of years. If this is successful our branch will rise in the Clan, and us with it. Be patient, teach the woman properly, and be on the lookout for others to teach.¡±


    ¡°Sigh, understood.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t until xxxx walked out of the office that Greja¡¯s voice sounded in the mind of Jrino.


    ¡®I¡¯m surprised you explained things to him that much.¡¯


    ¡®And I¡¯m not surprised you were listening.¡¯


    ¡®Either way, it seems being someone¡¯s master is softening you up a bit.¡¯


    ¡®Tch Don¡¯t push it Greja. ¡¯


    ¡®Sure sure, but it is good to explain things properly. If Raizen does what we need him to do, things will happen very fast for us, and our relationship will only grow deeper. There is also a chance one of his Elders may disagree with our presence, and they need to be aware of the risks involved.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m aware. I only know about Infernals through stories and news reports, but for the most part, while they don¡¯t seek out war, they do welcome it. So as long as we don¡¯t give whatever Elder that shows up a reason to acknowledge our presence, we will be fine.¡¯


    ¡®And what of the people with him? Is it really necessary to give them a few benefits as well?¡¯


    ¡®For him to actually be a leader one day, he will need people by his side. His own people. I do not know how Infernals handle this process. Perhaps they will provide their own set of people to be by his side, I don¡¯t know. What I do know, is that the bonds forged through battle and survival tend to last longer than ones forced upon you. The people he is growing closer to now, will likely grow in strength and power with him, giving a few small benefits to them now, won¡¯t hurt.¡¯


    ¡®I understand. I¡¯ll try and make one of them into a proper merchant.¡¯


    ¡®Mm.¡¯


    ........


    Well¡­despite everything I¡¯ve been telling them, this plan does hold risks. Every single faction in charge of an Outpost in any Tutorial is trying to do the same thing; Secure an early presence in the new Universe, but I know for a fact not all of them would choose to ally with an Infernal. Some of them might even be outright enemies of Infernals. Although they are powerful, there are also creatures of conflict, so just as likely the Branch, and then of course the Clan as a whole can gain benefits, the opposite is just as true. All it would take is Raizen starting a conflict with the wrong faction before the Clan gets a message asking for our heads.


    Truly a risk.


    But a risk I was willing to take.

 Chapter Sixty Seven

    POV Raizen


    So, I wasn¡¯t able to advance again last night, but I had a feeling that would change the next I tried. Part of me felt like I could just plow through that barrier last night but one more night wouldn¡¯t hurt.


    Anyway, the notification came as expected, and Richard was discussing it on our short walk to training.


    Ding! (Previously Muted due to state)


    Stage 4 of The Tutorial Begins Tomorrow


    Defenses will be Tested


    Prepare


    ¡°What do you think it means?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It could be our personal defenses, but I have a feeling it will be the Outposts.¡±


    Richard makes a good point; the defenses of the Outpost being tested make the most sense.


    ¡°Yeah, that makes sense, but I wonder what about people who don¡¯t live in an Outpost, are they going to have whatever defenses they have tested too? Actually, are any of them even alive? How would they have been able to cultivate without buying manuals from the store.¡±


    ¡°Maybe there are other ways to access the store. If anyone shows up when the beacon gets turned on, we¡¯ll probably find out then.¡±


    ¡°Probably.¡±


    After that, we got to the training grounds and as usual had our separate training sessions. I did however notice that Brandon was not among them¡­Richard didn¡¯t mention him this morning, but I guess he won¡¯t be ready after all.


    Anyway, training was once again just heavy sparring between the Outpost Leader and I, which usually be the end of it, but he had something to say.


    ¡°Training will now be in the evenings, and only if you are able.¡±


    Well, that felt kind of random.


    ¡°Is there a reason why?¡±


    ¡°You will soon find out.¡±


    Of course, he vanished right after that as expected. After gathering my things, I stood to the side waiting for everyone else, as I thought about what the Outpost Leader said.


    Training is only in the evenings, but only if I¡¯m able. I wonder if it has something to do with the next stage. Maybe we get attacked in the morning or something? Hmm


    ¡°Hey, Raizen.¡±


    It was Lance who broke me out of my thoughts. Everyone had gathered around me after their training was over.


    ¡°Hey. Ready to go?¡±


    ¡°Yep, but question for you. Did the Outpost Leader tell you anything weird? We got told training will be in the evenings now and to take recovery seriously.¡±


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    ¡°Yeah, he said something similar¡­what do you think Richard?¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯re going to have to take this next stage a lot more seriously. Based on what we''re hearing, it is probably safe to assume the Outpost will likely get attacked in the morning, so we need to be ready.¡±


    ¡°Then we should handle everything we planned for today a bit quicker. Are the teams ready?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much, but I don¡¯t know if Brandon is...he went into one of the rooms last night and hasn¡¯t come out since.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll come by after freshening up.¡±


    Everyone then dispersed, while I walked back home. I didn¡¯t know what Brandon could possibly be doing in the room that would make it, so he hadn¡¯t left even once, but I hope it worked out. Not even including the new Dungeon, just having another 2nd Cycle Cultivator will be a big help in the coming days.


    Anyway, it didn¡¯t take me very long to clean up and make my way over, and after a knock, Richard was opening the door. Actually¡­speaking of a knock.


    ¡°I just realized you no longer have to wake me up. Since the training is in the evening now.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah that¡¯s true¡­wait what about the potential morning attacks? We¡¯ll probably all get woken up by whoever is on shift at that time.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­never mind. How¡¯s Brandon?¡±


    ¡°He is still in the room but he says he¡¯ll be ready shortly. I have no idea what he did though.¡±


    ¡°Probably just drank a bunch of health potions.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we tried that once and had to stop after two. Just a single sip from the third one brought way more pain than what we were already feeling.¡±


    I didn¡¯t respond after that. I respected Brandon¡¯s determination and was hopeful he would make it through. While I was confident, I could protect the members of the team well enough for just 10 of them to fight 60ish coordinated Goblins and then three big ones, it would still be better if Brandon was there.


    It took around 10 more minutes before the door opened and Brandon walked outside. He looked different.


    His body, which was previously devoid of any visible scars now had plenty of them. His eyes carried a sharpness that wasn¡¯t there before. He now looked far more dependable than he did previously. I don¡¯t know what he did, nor do I care to ask, the only thing that matters is that he succeeded.


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    ¡°Ready.¡±


    ¡°Alright bring the teams together we have a lot to discuss.¡±


    After saying that, both teams gathered. Richard would be leading one group into the Green Den, and I along with Brandon would be leading the second group into the Goblin Outpost. We discussed the details of each endeavor and tried to come up with any contingencies should anything weird arise.


    This was mostly for the Goblin Outpost as everyone here was very familiar with the Green Den and how it behaved.


    Meanwhile, the Goblin Outpost could throw some different things at us. I had a good understanding of what to expect but it didn¡¯t hurt to be prepared. It was mostly Richard leading this part though as he was clearly a better commander than me, but I was making sure to pay attention to what he was saying. I had to learn somehow.


    Anyway, we got all the details figured out and we were now on the way to the Dungeon. We didn¡¯t have to worry about Goblins attacking us on the way but in the future we would, so we behaved as such.


    I was out in front while the others were running behind me in two lines of 5 while Brandon brought up the rear.


    Since we didn¡¯t have to stop once, it only took a few minutes to make it to the entrance of the Dungeon, and we would¡¯ve gone in right away but¡­


    ¡°Sorry guys it will be quick!¡±


    Lance had to pee.


    He disappeared into the forest and came back just as quickly but of course, it wasn¡¯t without consequence.


    ¡°Really Lance? Are you a child?¡±


    ¡°Yeah Lance, are you? Why didn¡¯t you use the bathroom before we left?¡±


    ¡°Alright guys I get it, I get it, can we go now?¡±


    I watched them bicker a bit, but we didn¡¯t have time to waste.


    ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s refocus.¡±


    I waited until they quieted down and I could tell the playfulness from before was gone before I continued.


    ¡°Good. Let¡¯s not wait any longer, Enter the Dungeon.¡±


    I went first and one by one they all joined me in a pre-determined order. Brandon was the last to arrive. We did this after finding out that while the teleportation felt instant to us, there was a tiny window after accepting the prompt where our bodies could still be touched.


    Obviously, this would mean the last person to teleport in wouldn¡¯t have any protection but that¡¯s why Brandon was the last to arrive.


    ¡°Good we are all here, everyone remembers the plan? I will wait a few minutes for you all to circle to the back of the Outpost, afterwards do not exit the forest until you a minute or two after you hear my distraction.


    ¡°From there, enter the Outpost from the back and immediately head to the front where you should come up behind the Goblins.


    "Brandon, you will make decisions on the fly should anything happen unexpectedly. Everyone understands?¡±

 Chapter Sixty Eight

    POV Brandon


    Pain¡­that was all I could feel throughout the entire night after finally breaking through to the 2nd Cycle. Of course, the pain was to be expected, but after taking a health potion it was supposed to subside. That probably would¡¯ve normally been the case, but I didn¡¯t take just one, I took three.


    I knew the risks, and I knew my body wasn¡¯t ready for that type of pressure, but I was serious in what I told Richard and Raizen. We have to do better. I don¡¯t fully understand how he was able to reach the 4th cycle so fast, and I have no plans of trying to match him, but I couldn¡¯t let the gap become any bigger, and testing out this Dungeon before the new stage came up would be massive for us.


    We don¡¯t know exactly what this new stage will bring but getting a chance to find out while not having to worry about it, and not being chased by Goblins on the way there or back was huge.


    Richard not wanting us to go without a 2nd Cycle cultivator was understandable, but I felt I could do something about it. I knew I was ready to break through, but I wanted more than that. I wanted to be ready to actually fight in this Dungeon.


    And so, I bared the pain and did my best to hold on. By the end of it, I had new scars all over my body that didn¡¯t heal properly. Even as I heard Raizen enter the house I was still in extreme pain.


    I took a few moments to practice some swings and movements, but everything brought me pain. It won¡¯t stop me though.


    After getting out of the room, and making our way towards the Dungeon, we now found ourselves staring at the back of the Outpost. It truly was a sight to see. Massive wooden walls, actual guard posts with Goblin archers, all sitting under the bluest sky I have ever seen.


    Raizen said we would see his distraction but while I believed him, I didn¡¯t really understand just how we would see it from here.


    We all continued to wait for whatever was supposed to happen in silence. Even now, the Goblins in the guard towers continued to intently watch the forest and we didn¡¯t want to alert them to anything. Thankfully maintaining this type of silence is something we have been practicing.


    It was only a few moments later when we finally felt and heard something.


    BOOOM!!!


    We heard an extremely loud explosion go off, and the ground beneath us shook for a brief moment.


    What¡­what could that have been¡­I knew Raizen was strong, but this is something else¡­


    I wasn¡¯t the only one who was shocked, as Trent couldn¡¯t help but say something.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡±


    Him saying that, broke me out of my thoughts. We had things to do. Raizen did his part, and it was time to do ours.


    ¡°Lance, Trent get that gate open! Micah and Irene bows at the ready! Let¡¯s move!¡±


    Lance and Trent immediately took off towards the massive gate in front of us. It would probably take all of us running at the gate at full speed to bash right through it, and we still might walk away with injuries. That¡¯s why we completely decided against that.


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    Lance got to the gate first and squatted slightly while leaning his back against the gate for added support. He then clasped his hands together to create a foothold, which Trent quickly made use of.


    And with a timely jump and an extra push from Lance, Trent was up and over the gate.


    This was a risky maneuver, as if a lot of Goblins were still waiting on the other side then Trent would be in trouble, but we planned for that as well.


    If Raizen had noticed a large number of Goblins missing when they rushed out, he was supposed to immediately rush inside the Outpost. Thankfully everything was going according to plan and Trent confirmed that.


    ¡°Clear!¡±


    The rest of us finally got to the gate and a few moments later we heard a loud thud, and the gate started opening.


    ¡°That beam was heavier than I thought!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about it later! Micah and Irene head to the towers immediately, everyone else form up and move!¡±


    Irene and Micah went to the left and right tower respectively, while the rest of us began dashing towards the destruction in front of us.


    Nobody said anything but I¡¯m sure they felt the same way I did. That massive gate was reduced to splintering pieces of wood, and there were one or two Goblins, or at least what remained of them lying around the area.


    Even the ground had caved in slightly.


    This was the type of destruction you would expect to see if a grenade went off. Not something from the strike of another man. And for some reason, a weird feeling sprouted in my heart that told me this wasn¡¯t something I would be able to do at the 4th Cycle.


    Raizen was a monster.


    But I¡¯m glad that monster is on our side.


    By the time we exited the Outpost, we could finally see Raizen and what he was up against.


    Three of the massive monsters were constantly attacking him, not letting him rest or run away for even a moment, but I knew he was allowing this to happen. To keep pressure off of us.


    I grit my teeth in slight frustration as I realize once again how weak I am. If Raizen wasn¡¯t here we would¡¯ve all died in this Dungeon.


    Even if our entire Outpost attacked, most of them if not all of them would die. Tch.


    I looked towards each guard tower and both Michah and Irene were in position. It was time.


    ¡°Begin shooting!¡±


    We didn¡¯t want to fight them too far away from the Outpost as that would put us out of range of the towers, so we were hoping once they noticed us they would come this way.


    And noticed us they did.


    Irene managed to hit one of the arches in the back, while Micah¡¯s arrow came close to another. Most of them turned around and began screaming, something I couldn¡¯t understand. I thought they would immediately charge straight at us as planned for, but instead of that happening, one of the big ones promptly disengaged from Raizen and began a mad dash toward us.


    No plan was perfect.


    ¡°Retreat into the Outpost! Irene and Micah target their archers!!¡±


    Though before anyone could even begin to carry out their orders, I saw Raizen toss aside the two he was fighting before getting in a full sprint and quickly catching up to the one heading our way. He got in front of it and kicked it backward, and it flew a couple of yards before falling on its back.


    ¡°Hurry up and get rid of the rest!¡±


    That is all he shouted at us before running after the one he just kicked and proceeding to somehow keep any of them from approaching us.


    He was really holding our hands. Dammit.


    ¡°You heard him! Let¡¯s not let him do all the work! Lure them into the Outpost and eliminate them!¡±


    The normal Goblins followed us into the Outpost while mages and archers focused on taking down Irene and Micah. Of course, I couldn¡¯t allow that.


    ¡°Trent you have command!¡±


    After saying that I took off towards the archers and mage Goblins, the mages would never be fast enough to target me, but I was going to have to dodge a few arrows. Even with my body screaming at me in pain with every motion I made, I didn¡¯t slow down.


    I pushed myself until I was in their midst, and my sword didn¡¯t rest for a second until they no longer moved.


    I turned around to see that Irene and Micah were both providing timely support to everyone else fighting, and before long they finished up as well, not needing my help.


    It was then I heard another shout.


    ¡°Good! Now come fight these guys!¡±


    It was Raizen, and I turned around in time to see him literally kick one of them in our direction. It stood up and looked back and forth between Raizen and us, before letting out what I think was a roar of frustration and then dashing towards us.

 Chapter Sixty Nine

    POV Raizen


    We were currently walking home from the Dungeon. I¡¯d say all in all in went well. They cleaned up all the little Goblins before I let them fight one of the big ones one at a time. They were extremely drained with aching muscles I¡¯m sure, but they held on.


    Brandon did a good job in command, talking way more than he usually does, but he appeared comfortable. I could tell he was in pain, but he powered through it, well he did until we collected the reward and exited the Dungeon, where he was now being flanked by Trent and Lance as they helped carry him.


    Speaking of the reward, it was a bit of a surprise. We got 20 Bronze Coins, which I expected, but along with that came another necklace. It was pretty much the same as the first one, but I think the gem was a bit smaller. Does that mean its effects were less? I¡¯ll have to ask Greja. Either way, if the effects were less or not meant practically nothing if we could get this necklace every time we cleared the Dungeon. That meant we could give everyone one.


    Though that¡¯s something to think about when more and more folks were in Qi Refinement. Anyway, this was a good trip, and once we made it back, I¡¯d give them some time to rest before we proceeded with the upgrade. Richard should¡¯ve been back before us so hopefully he and that team didn¡¯t need any more rest.


    Due to the fact we were walking, it took quite a while to get back and it was already dark when we got back to the Outpost. After greeting the guards on shift we learned through them that the others made it back a bit before us without anyone missing. That was good.


    Brandon and the rest went off to wash up and what not while I headed straight for the shop. It didn¡¯t take long for Greja to confirm that the necklace performed a similar functionality, it was still indeed different.


    She mentioned that while the first one could tank at least one full powered blow from someone at the peak of Qi refinement, this one could likely only stall such a blow for moment. She mentioned it would still be able to tank a blow from someone in the middle of Qi Refinement though. The other difference was the fact it didn¡¯t have a self-repair function, so once it broke it was just a regular necklace.  Definitely not as good as the first one but if we truly get one every time we beat the Dungeon then quantity will easily make up for lack of quality.


    Anyway, I thanked Greja for her assistance once again before heading over to Richard¡¯s. As there was only one washroom here, some of the team members went to other houses to clean up, and after a couple extra minutes of waiting everyone was gathered.


    Both teams took some time to go over both Dungeon runs. Richard talked about the fact that they took it a lot slower due to the fact I wasn¡¯t there, and he had to fight a lot more compared to the past, but thankfully the members were very experienced in fighting Goblins by now and they made it through just fine. I didn¡¯t really have much to explain, and Brandon did all the talking.


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    Well, I didn¡¯t have much to explain until they asked me about some explosion they heard. I¡¯m guessing they were referring to the attack I used to destroy the gate. I knew I probably could¡¯ve achieved a similar result without using my flames, but I wasn¡¯t 100% certain and didn¡¯t want to risk it in that situation so I just used my flames like I did for the first time.


    Didn¡¯t think they¡¯d ask about it though. Which made me think about showing them or not. My flames weren¡¯t exactly a secret, but at the same time it probably won¡¯t hurt to have one or two things that I kept hidden.


    I didn¡¯t they anyone in this room would betray me or anything, at least not in the Tutorial¡­but life doesn¡¯t end with the Tutorial and who knows what type of situations arise on Earth after all of this is over. It won¡¯t hurt to be cautious.


    So, I simply told them that I was strong. That went over well enough, and we moved on to other topics. Well, the only other topic for the night, the upgrade. After making sure everyone was ready we all left the house and began going from house to house to gather everyone. Thankfully no one was sleeping or confused as they had all been made aware of what¡¯s happening.


    Eventually, everyone was gathered near the gate and then I took the Outpost Upgrade Ticket and headed to the shop for the second time tonight.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we would like to upgrade the Outpost.¡±


    ¡°Very well, please hand over the required amount.¡±


    I gave her the money and watched as she tore the ticket in half.


    Immediately after, a prompt was displayed before me.


    An Outpost (G) you are a resident of is attempting to Upgrade.


    Do you consent? Yes/No


    I didn¡¯t waste any time and confirmed.


    Nothing happened for a few moments but before I could ask Greja about it, another prompt appeared.


    Necessary acceptance levels have been met


    Proceeding with Upgrade


    All Tutorial Attendees please exit the Outpost and clear the immediate area


    Oh, so it was just waiting on enough people to click yes I guess. Anyway, I gave Greja a small smile before making my way to the exit. Richard was standing there calmly ushering people out and after another minute or two we both exited.


    Taking the warning literally we all kept walking until we were all a couple feet within the forest.


    Almost immediately after that, the entire Outpost was shrouded in a large black dome. It painted quite an eerie picture as it blended with the night sky. People couldn¡¯t help but talk about the situation, some were nervous, others excited and a few somewhere in between. All I could think about though was the fact I was glad we did this on the day before the next stage because protecting this many people in the forest for even just a few minutes would¡¯ve brought headaches of our own.


    Anyway.


    It only took a minute or two for the shroud to come down, and well I didn¡¯t know what to expect for an upgrade, but this is quite surprising.


    There were a lot of changes.


    In essence, the walls and the material the Outpost was made out of all seemed to be the same from the outside, but actual Outpost itself practically doubled in size. It took up most of the clearing now.


    Not just that, but there were actual guard towers towering over the Outpost in all four corners. Along with that, came these wooden spike fence wall things. I¡¯m not really sure what they were called, but they sat outside the Outpost pointing at the forest. There was a small opening in which we could walk to the gate, but everywhere else had one of the spike wall things sitting there. Waiting for an unfortunate Goblin to run into it.


    Those were all the visible changes I could spot for now, so it was time to head inside and see what else the upgrade had in store for us.

 Chapter Seventy

    The first thing I noticed upon walking inside the Outpost was the number of houses. I believe before there were 18 houses in the Outpost, but now I could see at least double that number as I looked around. They were still located on the left and right side of the Outpost but while before I could only see a couple on each side now I see a lot more than that, I could be wrong on the number of houses but there were at least 20 I think on each side. I would have to walk around and check but I''m sure the others would do that as everyone made their way into the Outpost.


    Looking straight ahead though from the entrance was the central building or central area I should say along with the building for the blacksmith and the alchemists those that era didn''t really change much with neither building growing in size or quality of material for example but um I''m sure I would see a lot of changes in the shops of those buildings will check eventually for now I kind of wanted to figure out where it was my house was, as all of these houses still looked exactly the same with no windows.


    I veered off onto the right side of the outpost in search of my house. I took out my house card which I kept on me and walked around it still read house 12 but I didn''t want to have to walk around to every single house to try and figure out which one was mine.


    Though as I got closer to the houses, I felt my house pass heating up.


    Huh, that¡¯s new.


    It wasn¡¯t getting hot enough to cause any real harm, just slight easily noticeable heat. It was more warm than hot.


    I tried walking away from the houses and it cooled down until it was neither cool nor hot, just a regular house pass


    Hmm


    I made my way back over to the houses and going by the heat of the pass, I eventually found my home. Well, that¡¯s pretty neat. I didn¡¯t go in right away, as I could see the training grounds in the distance.


    I walked over to get a closer look, saying hi to people also using the house pass to find their homes.


    The training grounds were a lot larger. Before I was reserved to only training in a corner while Richard and the others took up most of the space, but I¡¯d say well over a hundred people could comfortably train here now.


    I didn¡¯t linger too long and made my way back to the house.  It was mostly the same with the exception of the cot. It was gone. Replacing it was a proper bed.


    I didn¡¯t waste any time laying down.


    Wow this was truly bliss.


    I think even my college dorm mattress was better than this, but compared to the cot from before? This was heavenly.


    As much as I didn¡¯t want to, I got back up and headed outside, any longer and I might¡¯ve drifted to dream land.


    A lot of people were still walking around looking for their houses or just admiring the new Outpost, but it didn¡¯t take me long to spot Richard. He was already by the shop. Earlier we talked about checking out the store together.


    We quickly greeted each other and made our way in.


    ¡°Welcome to shop you two! Please free to browse the shop, there are quite the changes.¡±


    We didn¡¯t waste any time and did as told.


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    <u>Welcome to the Tutorial Shop</u>


    Please select a category:


    1.      Food and Water


    2.      Cultivation


    3.      Survival


    4.      Furniture


    5.      Defenses


    6.      Quality of Life


    7.      Miscellaneous


    There were three new additions to the category list. I think I was most looking forward to the Quality of Life one, but I¡¯d go through them all.


    First up was Food and Water but it remained the same. Not a single change at all. I moved on to the Cultivation category after. There were some interesting changes here.


    <u>Cultivation</u>


    Please select a section:


    1.      Manuals


    2.      Techniques


    3.      General Knowledge


    More selections, let¡¯s just go with Manuals, and yep, it changed it again as expected.


    <u>Manuals</u>


    1.      Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 50 Copper Coins


    2.      Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) ¨C 250 Copper Coins


    3.      Olirag Breathing Manual (Uncommon) Qi Refinement ¨C 10 Bronze Coins


    4.      Meitalc Breathing Manual (Uncommon)) Qi Refinement - 10 Bronze Coins


    You know this is very bad on my part, but I¡¯m just now remembering I never actually read the Qi Refinement section of the Advanced Cultivation Manual. I wonder if Richard did.


    ¡°Richard.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    It looked like I surprised him, makes sense there was a lot to look at in the shop.


    ¡°Did you read the Qi Refinement Section in the Advanced Cultivation Manual?¡±


    ¡°Ah yeah I did. Why?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t. Do you remember what it talked about?¡±


    ¡°Not word for word, but it mentioned something about opening your cultivation channels by absorbing Qi. Though I remember it didn¡¯t really explain what those were.¡±


    ¡°I see..¡±


    ¡°Yeah I assumed we would understand better when it was time to reach Qi Refinement. Anyway what do you think an Olirag or uhh a Me..mey..meytalk? I¡¯m not really sure how to pronounce that one, but what do you think they are?¡±


    I was planning on responding that I had no idea, but Greja spoke up before I could.


    ¡°Ah, allow me to chime in here. Olirag is the name of a Clan. Mine to be exact. The others in this Outpost who look like me are also from this Clan. That second one is pronounced Meh-Tal-Ck, and it is the name of the race of the beings who welcomed you to the Multiverse.


    ¡°Unfortunately, I can¡¯t say much more than that, but hopefully that provides you with some additional context.¡±


    Interesting¡­Well she said she can¡¯t say anything else, so I¡¯ll leave it at that, but that was some good information. I guess that explains the jump in price for the manuals.


    ¡°Thank you for the information Miss Shop Keeper. I have a question if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    Hmm, I wonder what Richard wanted to know.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s regarding the Advanced Cultivation Manual. It says ¡®Advanced¡¯ but is that just for the Tutorial or is it actually ¡®Advanced¡¯ across the Multiverse?¡±


    That was actually a great question. I gave Richard a mental thumbs up in my head because I didn¡¯t even think to ask that. I guess that type of thought process comes with age, even though I sometimes forget he¡¯s actually a man most likely in his late 30s. Not really old at all, but definitely older and more experienced than a college kid like me.


    Moving on, Greja didn¡¯t immediately answer his question. She even looked towards me for a moment before smiling and turning back to Richard.


    Huh that was weird.


    ¡°That is a great question. I will keep my answer simple. Take all system descriptions, costs, and ratings with a grain of salt. The Tutorial is just that, a Tutorial. Meant to give you a taste of the Mutliverse. That¡¯s all.¡±


    Both Richard and I looked at her with a touch of seriousness, as we digested the words she said. A grain of salt huh. Does that mean the things we¡¯ve been buying aren¡¯t really worth what we¡¯ve been paying? There¡¯s a chance we could be overpaying or even underpaying for some of the things in the shop.


    I don¡¯t know if that was an overreaction from me or not, but the line of thinking made sense I think. I¡¯ll talk to Richard about it later.


    ¡°Thank you for the explanation Miss Shop Keeper.¡±


    ¡°It was no problem.¡±


    After that we continued to browse through the shop. There was a lot more to see.

 Chapter Seventy One

    Continuing to look through the store.


    <u>Techniques</u>


    1. Qi Strike (Common) Qi Refinement ¨C 3 Bonze Coins


    2. Qi Burst (Common) Qi Refinement ¨C 3 Bronze Coins


    3. Piercing Strike (Uncommon) Qi Refinement ¨C 10 Bronze Coins


    4. Light Step (Uncommon)) Qi Refinement - 10 Bronze Coins


    <u>General Knowledge</u>


    1. How to Cultivate ¨C 5 Copper Coins


    2. Cultivation Channels ¨C 10 Bronze Coins


    The first two techniques were there before, but there were two new additions, Piercing Strike, and Light step. Both of them sounded cool, but of course I couldn¡¯t use either one of them at the moment. Meanwhile I think buying Cultivation Channels is likely a good idea since it probably has something to do with breaking through to Qi Refinement.


    Taking a mental note of that, I moved on to other sections. I peeked over at Richard, and he was clearly engrossed in the shop, so I left him alone.


    Moving on, I clicked through the rest of the shop. There were some nice surprises.


    <u>Clothing</u>


    1. Cotton Tunic (Men) ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    2. Cotton Tunic (Women) ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    3. Leather Pants (Men) ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    4. Leather Pants (Women) ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    5. Leather Boots ¨C 25 Copper Coins


    6. Undergarments (Men) ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    7. Undergarments (Women) ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    <u> </u>


    <u>Tutorial</u>


    1. Tutorial Information ¨C 10 Copper Coins


    2. House Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (20, 40, 120) Copper Coins


    3. Room Rental Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (10, 20, 60) Copper Coins


    4. Outpost Entry Pass (5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days) ¨C (5, 10, 30) Copper Coins


    5. Monster Encyclopedia ¨C 300 Copper Coins


    Ah¡­Undergarments, I really hope those are what I think they are. I have been carefully protecting my sole pair of underwear for about three weeks now. I don¡¯t know how much longer they can hold on. I didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately bought a pair.


    I quickly gave Greja a Bronze coin since I didn¡¯t have any Copper on me and before long something priceless appeared before me. A pair of underwear. This is wonderful.


    Richard noticed my purchases and I almost saw a spark in his eyes as they widened. Before long we were both back to browsing the shop, only this time each of us have over 5 pairs of underwear bundled in our arms. They weren¡¯t anything special, in fact I would never have bought them before the Tutorial. They were really just big plain white briefs, and the material didn¡¯t feel comfortable, but for now¡­they were very special to me.


    Anyway.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The Tutorial section didn¡¯t change much but I noticed the Monster Encyclopedia again. I didn¡¯t buy it when I first discovered the shop because I couldn''t afford it, but I can now. Is it still worth it though I wonder? Based on the names of the Dungeons and what not, I think that just about confirms that the monsters are Goblins, I don¡¯t really know if the big ones have a specific name, but does it matter?


    What about if new monsters show up, and they had no obvious weaknesses. I suppose the book could help with that. Well, that¡¯s if they¡¯re covered in the book, I have no idea how many monsters are in here.


    Let¡¯s see what Richard thinks.


    ¡°Richard, what do you think about the Monster Encyclopedia? Think it¡¯s worth buying?¡±


    ¡°Yeah its actually on my mental list of things to buy. I think it can potentially help us even after the Tutorial.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­yeah that¡¯s a good point, I forgot to think about that. Alright cool I¡¯ll buy one too.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    Richard made a good point there. I was a little too focused on the short term and forgot to consider long term implications. I mean he could be wrong, and the book just talks about Goblins, but we can afford to find out with how much coins we¡¯ve been getting from the coin reward from completing the Green Den multiple times and plus selling excess Rock Iron.


    Moving on.


    <u>Furniture</u>


    1. Cot ¨C 50 Copper Coins


    2. Bed ¨C 200 Copper Coins


    3. Wooden Chair ¨C 40 Copper Coins


    4. Pillow ¨C 40 Copper Coins


    <u>Defenses</u>


    1. Spiked Wooden Barrier ¨C 10 Bronze Coins


    <u>Quality of Life</u>


    1. Toothbrush ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    2. Toothpaste ¨C 20 Copper Coins


    3. Soap ¨C 5 Bronze Coins


    <u>Miscellaneous</u>


    1. Storage (Section)


    2. Paper (5) ¨C 25 Copper Coins


    3. Pencil ¨C 10 Copper Coins


    The furniture section was a welcome sight, especially the chair and pillow. Having a place to sit, whether it was for group discussions like we¡¯ve been having or I just wanted to relax in my room would be nice to have.


    I¡¯m guessing that Spiked Wooden Barrier is what we saw outside the Outpost. Which is good cause if they break we had no way to really replace them. It kinda reaffirms the decision to the upgrade the Outpost. We might face increased danger, but something like this would probably be massive in this upcoming stage since the defenses of the Outpost will likely be tested.


    Moving on¡­I thought the real prize of this upgraded shop was going to be the underwear, but soap and toothpaste? That¡¯s a game changer. It¡¯s kinda odd that one clump of Rock Iron is worth the same as some soap but I don¡¯t care, I needed it.


    You really don¡¯t know how much you need something until you don¡¯t have it anymore. This Tutorial has definitely showed me that. I missed my phone, good food, underwear, and a lot of other things, but who would¡¯ve thought I¡¯d ever cherish the ability to buy soap and toothpaste.


    Anyway, I didn¡¯t feel like carrying everything I wanted to buy so I bid both Greja and Richard goodbye before heading home. On the way back I noticed that the guard towers had people in them. I guess Brandon likely set that up.


    Not dwelling on it for too long, I made my way home with my underwear in hand and set them aside.


    There was one more thing I wanted to accomplish tonight.


    Tonight was the night I broke through to the 5th Cycle.


    I took a seat on the floor and calmed myself before delving into meditation once more. I attempted to absorb a bit of Qi like normal and I could feel my body resisting it and that ¡®barrier¡¯ showing itself, but it felt weak. It felt vulnerable. I can do this. I will do this.


    I grit my teeth and forced the Qi into my body, I could feel the pain this time. It was non-existent for me before, but this was different. Every tear of my skin, every internal injury, every bone that splintered, I could feel it all.


    I wanted to scream but I kept it in, was this what the others dealt with every single time? They were cultivating through this type of pain? I had it easy. Too easy.


    I can¡¯t let the first time I face some real pain on my cultivation journey stop me. So, I held on.


    As the small wisp of Qi ravaged my entire body from head to toe. I was bleeding from everywhere. Maybe if I felt this level of pain back when I first started I probably would¡¯ve passed out, but it wasn¡¯t going to stop me now.


    I held on for who knows long until I felt something shatter within me.


    This¡­this was different. Usually I didn¡¯t really feel the changes until after I rested and healed up, but I could feel it clearly now. I was stronger. A lot stronger. The gap from the 4th to the 5th might be bigger than the one from the 1st to the 4th. Wow¡­ If I didn¡¯t feel so weak I¡¯d get up start fighting, but I really felt weary.


    It took everything I had to climb into the tub to wash all of this blood off. Ah I will need to clean the floor tomorrow.


    It took a while due to how slow I was moving, but I cleaned myself up and crawled into the new bed. Wincing every step of the way.


    Though before I could rest my eyes, something flashed in front of me.


    Ding!


    Welcome to Stage 4 of the Tutorial


    Raids will now commence


    Once per day your Defenses will be Tested


    Defend or Die


    Survive


    Well shit.

 Chapter Seventy Two

    Ah, even if I wanted to sit up and think about the notification in front of me, I simply couldn¡¯t any longer. The exhaustion from cultivating was weighing on me heavily and only a moment or two later, my eyes closed and to dreamland I went.


    ¡­


    Knock Knock


    Knock Knock KNOCK


    ¡°RAIZEN!¡±


    ¡°¡­Hm..?¡±


    ¡°Raizen!!¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­That¡¯s Richard¡¯s voice¡­I¡¯m coming!¡±


    ¡°Hurry up!¡±


    Hearing the urgency in his voice I quickly got dressed. Hm? Did my shirt shrink? Even my pants? I also tried putting my boots on and it didn¡¯t fit right either¡­What the hell is going on? Not having time to waste, I quickly cut my pants at the knee, ditched everything else, including my shirt, boots, and armor. I¡¯m a little confused why nothing fits but I clearly didn¡¯t have time to think about it.


    I rushed outside looking very weird, leather pants that were cut at the knee and now a lot tighter than I remember, and a spear in hand.


    ¡°What the¡­whatever no time, come with me.¡±


    He was obviously very confused at my appearance, and I couldn¡¯t blame him, but no matter I¡¯ll deal with it later. I followed him to the gate where it looked pretty empty right up until I stepped outside. All of our cultivators were formed up and waiting outside. They looked like a small army. 10s of people with Rock Iron weaponry, and the armor from the blacksmith. It was quite a sight to see, and maybe something that would be cause to smile if not for the reason they were lined up in the first place. I didn¡¯t like that I was the last one to show up¡­


    Anyway¡­the area around the Outpost looked a lot different.


    Just last night, the clearing the Outpost sat in had little space left after the upgrade and the expansion of the Outpost, but now¡­that seemed to change in the blink of an eye. The clearing was widened even further, as if overnight an entire team of magical lumberjacks went crazy in getting rid of the trees, as the entire tree line was pushed back over 50 yards, it seems like.


    I ignored the weird looks I was getting from everyone as I walked to the front of the group with Richard.


    The clearing wasn¡¯t the only thing raising eyebrows.


    At the end of the new clearing, 10 of the big ones stood watching patiently. That alone would be cause for concern, but that wasn¡¯t all. They were armored. Strong looking leather armor covered them from head to toe.


    They stood there ominously, just watching us. This was very different from their usual behavior. So, I guess the behavior we experienced in the Dungeon wasn¡¯t limited to it. Either way this was a bit of a problem, and I doubt anyone else here could tell how much of a problem it was. I couldn¡¯t see them, but I could hear them.


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    Hundreds, maybe thousands of other Goblins were hiding deep within the forest. I could hear their murmuring, their steps on the ground, their random movements. I could hear it all.


    Is this the added danger Greja mentioned?


    This is far too much for the people here.


    Hm. It seems I will need to cause a massacre.


    It was then I heard Richard¡¯s voice while I was busy planning murder.


    ¡°The guards on duty last night had no idea how this much of the forest went away. They said one second everything was fine, then before they knew it the trees just vanished. Then at some point this morning, the Hobgoblins in front of you walked out of the forest and have been there for about 30 minutes so far. I think there are a lot more Goblins in the forest, but we have no way to tell for sure.


    ¡°Also¡­you grew. A lot.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    I looked¡­down at him. Down? I wasn¡¯t a very a tall person, and Richard wasn¡¯t a giant, but I think he still had an inch or two on me just yesterday, but now I¡¯m looking down at him? This is the first time I really took a second to look at Richard. Wow, I really am taller than him. Is this due to breaking through to the 5th Cycle? I didn¡¯t know how tall I was exactly, but it had to be over 6ft at this point.


    I¡¯ll figure out my height later but for now we had things to do¡­Also Hobgoblins huh? Interesting.


    ¡°I see¡­anyway you''re correct in saying there are a lot of Goblins in the forest. There could be thousands of them in there.¡±


    I saw Richard¡¯s face visibly lose color and I didn¡¯t blame him. Now I would normally listen to what they all had to say and go from there, but I¡¯d be making a decision here.


    ¡°Richard listen. I¡¯m gonna go in the forest alone. Form up here with Brandon and be ready to fight anything that comes out after I go in.


    ¡°Oh and no matter what you see, don¡¯t lose focus and be ready to fight. Focus on defense, fight together, and never enter the forest. Sounds good?¡±


    Richard looked at me with seriousness for a moment before responding.


    ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll get them ready. We rushed out here when the guards on shift first spotted the Hobgoblins, so we didn¡¯t really have time to prepare as much as we needed. I¡¯ll do that now.¡±


    I nodded back to him as he walked off and he immediately started barking out orders. We really looked like an army at times like this.


    Anyway, I stood at the front and just watched the¡­Hobgoblins as they calmy stood and likewise watched me. Even though I plan to dive headfirst into the forest, I wouldn¡¯t do it until Richard and the rest were ready or at least until the Goblins started marching out.


    Though only a few moments later and the Hobgoblins all calmly walked back into the forest. I don¡¯t know why they were just standing there, or why they decided now was the time to walk back into the forest, but something was about to happen.


    I could hear them now¡­it sounded like marching¡­they were coming. I didn¡¯t know how many exactly but the sounds of all of them marching almost made me take off running into the forest right then and there.


    They would soon be upon us and I had no idea the types of Goblins that would be arriving, and if the Hobgoblins were armored, were the others too? Richard needs to move faster.


    ¡°Richard! Whatever it is your doing, HURRY IT UP!!¡±


    ¡°GOT IT!¡±


    I gripped my spear tightly, and I could feel my flames rousing as my readiness for slaughter rose with it.


    I have no plans in becoming a mindless killing machine, but sometimes that mentality was necessary. We had long since realized that killing in some way shape or form would be the new norm. At least until things settled and proper communities formed.


    But for now, I will allow myself to embrace this side of me that seemed to welcome this type of slaughter.


    These Goblins¡­.these monsters¡­they will soon know the wrath of an Infernal.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready Raizen!¡±


    That was all I needed to hear before taking off at full speed. I planned on keeping my flames hidden for as long as possible, but it seemed the time has come.


    I¡¯m confident I could kill every last Goblin in the forest if I was fighting all by myself, but this was different. I had people I wanted to protect. People I chose to protect.


    This wasn¡¯t a time for controlled training, this was a time to prove the faith placed in me wasn¡¯t misplaced.


    I coated my spear with flames and ran straight into the forest.

 Chapter Seventy Three

    I entered the forest, heading straight towards the sounds I could hear in the distance. I was half expecting to immediately run into the Hobgoblins the second I entered the forest, but they were faster than I thought it seems.


    Though they could only evade me for so long. After a moment or two of sprinting through the forest in the direction of the horde, and numerous trees flashed past me as I ran, I finally found them. The 10 Hobgoblins were at the forefront of the largest gathering of Goblins I had seen since entering this Tutorial.


    They completely dwarfed the 400 Goblin floor of the Green Den. There were thousands of them. I¡¯m not entirely sure of the exact number but they had to be at least a few thousand strong. Even just a thousand of them would most likely wipe the floor with the Outpost. I won¡¯t allow it.


    After I showed up, it didn¡¯t take long for them to spot me, and they reacted immediately.


    One of the Hobgoblins immediately began yelling something I still couldn¡¯t understand, and then without pause the others dispersed to the left and right respectively. Quickly spreading it out as fast as they could. Though It wasn¡¯t all of them that dispersed. 5 Hobgoblins and around a thousand of the other Goblins remained. They were a mix of normal, archers, and mage Goblins.


    Ah were they trying to delay me while attacking the Outpost?  Even though a thousand Goblins remained in front of me, there were still thousands heading towards the Outpost. That was not a battle they could fight.


    Instead of fighting, they needed to buy me time. Time to kill every single one of them.


    I took a deep breath, probably the largest I¡¯ve taken since I¡¯ve been alive and yelled as loud as I could.


    ¡°RICHARD!!! RETREAT INTO THE OUTPOST!!!¡±


    The trees shook ever so slightly at the sound of my voice, and I was a bit surprised at how loud I could get. They should¡¯ve heard that. Hopefully they did. Anyway, I didn¡¯t wait any longer and took off running towards the enemies before me.


    While they appeared a bit shocked at my earlier yell, that only slowed them down for a moment. It wouldn¡¯t matter if they were ready or not. This will be a massacre.


    A moment after my charge they sprang into action. The five Hobgoblins spread into a semi-circle and a couple hundred Goblins started rushing after me with reckless abandon. Though that wasn¡¯t all, hundreds of arrows and tens of fireballs immediately began raining down in my general direction.


    Burn.


    I swung my spear down with all my strength as the first of the Goblins reached within my range. My flames burst forth like the rising tide of a stormy ocean. Consuming everything that laid before me. The world was painted black, and the Goblins were consumed. I heard them yelling but it was all meaningless, as they continuously entered the flames, they were consumed without fail.


    Though it was a good thing I didn¡¯t let my guard down as a I heard  something behind me, and I turned around in time to see a fist just mere inches from my face. I sidestepped the Hobgoblin and delivered a punch to his chest which he somehow reacted to in time and blocked with his arms. He was still sent flying back but the damage he took was minimal.


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    That caught me by slight surprise. How did he approach me? And how was he able to react properly to my attack? I was far stronger than I was in the Goblin Outpost Dungeon, and those Hobgoblins couldn¡¯t keep up with me.


    I didn¡¯t have any longer to think about it as the other 4 Hobgoblins suddenly appeared around me and attacked as well. I dodged every punch and kick sent out attacks of my own, but they managed to dodge or block with some extent.


    These Hobgoblins¡­they were stronger than normal.


    We had long since known that Hobgoblins were roughly the equivalent of a 2nd Cycle Cultivator, but these guys were above that. 3rd Cycle¡­they were around the 3rd Cycle in strength. That was not good.


    While my flames continued to burn behind, I dashed after the first Hobgoblin I punched away who had only just gotten to its feet. I slashed out with my spear, fully intending to decapitate it in one motion, but it somehow managed to leap backwards in time, though not without sacrificing his right arm, which I still managed to cut.


    The others didn¡¯t waste any time and quickly jumped back in the fray, doing their best to harm me, while their partner came to terms with its missing limb.


    Unfortunately for them I didn¡¯t have time to waste.


    The flames that were still burning strong behind me lost some of their energy as another wave burst out in all directions from my body. The Hobgoblins did well to respond to this and tried to retreat but I wouldn¡¯t let them. They jumped in different directions, but it was futile.


    My flames would swallow all.


    Burn.


    I could feel the power build up within my body before it exploded outwards once more, moving faster than the Hobgoblins could run. Before long they too were engulfed.


    Proving their improved strength, they weren¡¯t immediately burnt to ash as I could hear their screams.


    An outside party wouldn¡¯t find it too hard to label me a villain if they saw this scene, but I didn¡¯t care.


    The lives of the people at the Outpost were at stake.


    My people.


    I didn¡¯t waste any more time cleaning up the rabble and immediately dashed towards the Outpost. That entire battle took roughly a couple minutes, but that was more than enough time for the fastest of the horde to reach the Outpost. 5 Hobgoblins at 3rd Cycle Strength. Tch, I just hope I¡¯m not too late.


    ~ ~ ~


    Going back a few minutes before Raizen engaged with the Hobgoblins¡­


    ¡°Everyone listen up! Raizen just went ahead to reduce the burden we¡¯re about to face! I hate to say this, but we are too weak to fight what¡¯s coming this way by ourselves. Our entire focus is on surviving! We need to hold on long enough until Raizen can make it back here!


    ¡°That is it! We will fight together, and cover for each other! Do not move anywhere near the forest under any circumstance! We must remain here and survive until Raizen comes back!¡±


    After hearing what Richard had to say, Brandon and a number of others could be seen clenching their fists tightly. No one liked being called weak, but they weren¡¯t stupid. If Richard was going as far to say all they could do was hold on till Raizen got back, then the situation had to be catastrophic. Yet despite the dire circumstance they found themselves in, Raizen was going out on his lonesome to fight for them. To protect them.


    All because they were weak.


    More than a few of the people present vowed to themselves that should they survive this they would double- no, triple their efforts in cultivating. Obviously only Richard and Raizen were there to witness Brandon¡¯s speech about being a burden, but a lot of them were now feeling the same way.


    It was then the voice of the person they were all thinking about roared from the forest.


    ¡°RICHARD!!! RETREAT INTO THE OUTPOST!!!¡±


    It only took a moment of shock to pass before Richard started barking out orders.


    ¡°Everyone get back in the Outpost!! Hurry up! Do not tally! Move! Move! Move!¡±

 Chapter Seventy Four

    POV Micah


    I held my bow at the ready as my hands trembled around the grip. We could all hear the extreme seriousness in Raizen¡¯s voice¡­It sent a chill up my spine that I couldn¡¯t explain. Well, that wasn¡¯t entirely true. I knew why that was the case. I was still slightly scared of him. He always had the same calm expression on his face.


    It wasn¡¯t a cold or a distant or even an evil expression by any means, it was just normal. Too normal. No matter what happened or what we faced he always looked like that. Even when he smiled or joked with us, his expression never deviated too much. It was only when he fought that a true smile would make its way on his face, which was weird in and of itself...but that wasn¡¯t the scary part. It was that day Jax confronted him outside the Outpost.


    Everyone knew Jax was wrong. He was acting like a child, but the expression Raizen had on his face that day was one of the scariest things I had ever seen in my life¡­that was when the fear started. That cold, deadpan, look of utter disregard. Like the entire world was beneath his purview. Like he was simply murdering a rat for daring to enter his presence. Even as he dragged Jax away the look didn¡¯t go way. I won¡¯t forget it because that was when my fear began. I started to see him as someone invincible. It took some time for me to get used to being around him but watching him protect us in the Dungeon on the trips I joined, changed how I saw him. The fear was still there, but now it was mixed with awe, and dependence. I didn¡¯t even seem to realize when that happened but it did


    Yet now that same man, was yelling a warning so serious that I felt a chill run up my spine? What were we about to face? Is it something we could really survive until Raizen got here?


    It was a question I didn¡¯t dare to think about for too long. I hated the fact we even had to resort to just waiting like lambs for the slaughter until Raizen made it back, yet that was all we could do.


    I watched on from the guard tower as everyone hurried inside the Outpost. Thankfully no one here was a reckless idiot, so people weren¡¯t getting pushed or shoved to make it inside. It was rushed but still orderly enough.


    Only after a minute or two after everyone finally made it inside the Outpost did I finally spot something in the forest.


    ¡°Richard come up here!¡±


    Although everyone made it inside the Outpost, no one left the vicinity of the gate, so Richard was still in earshot, and he quickly climbed up into the guard tower.


    ¡°Look, something is coming.¡±


    Both Richard and I focused on the forest as best as we could. We could see movement in the distance, but it took another second until we finally saw what it was. Goblins. A lot of them.


    ¡°Oh fuck¡­Ri-Richard¡­you¡¯re seeing this too right¡­¡±


    ¡°I am¡­we have to hold¡­¡±


    I wasn¡¯t surprised that even the usually cool headed Richard was aghast with worry, as he stared at the thousands of monsters that were soon to be bearing down on us.


    In fact, he was staring at them for far too long¡­


    ¡°Richard! Snap out of it! What are we going go to if you space out like that! What should we do man?¡±


    ¡°Ah...I...i¡¯m sorry Micah¡­right. What should we do¡­¡±


    He closed his eyes for a moment and seemed to use every bit of his brain power to think of something. He eventually started muttering¡­


    ¡°The gate¡­we need to barricade the gate¡­ BRANDON! Go to the shop and buy all the defensive fences you can buy! Lance take a few people and gather all the nonfighters to the houses in the back of the Outpost!


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    ¡°Trent go buy all the damn bow and arrows you can and equip as much people as possible!! Irene and Micah! The second they get in range start shooting!¡±


    ¡°Richard¡­there are thousands of them¡­me and Irene won¡¯t be able to do much of anything¡­¡±


    ¡°I know Micah..I know, but we have to do something. Killing just a few of them is better than doing nothing.  We just need to hold on. Raizen warned us to retreat because he knew this was coming. He is coming, I¡¯m sure of it. We just need to hold on.¡±


    ¡°Alright..I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Micah.¡±


    After saying that Richard descended the guard tower and went to help people out with different tasks. I took a look across for me into the tower that was on the other side of the gate. Irene looked nervous, but resolute at the same time. She was just staring at the forest with her bow griped tightly.


    I was in a similar position as I refocused my gaze on the monsters before me. I think in just another minute or so they would break the tree line, enter the clearing and begin rushing towards us.


    I was scared.


    As the passing seconds seemed to slow to a crawl in my eyes, it dawned on me that I could die today. I thought of my mom, my dad, my big sister, my nieces, and nephews¡­I thought of everyone dear to me as I watched the Goblins approached.


    I didn¡¯t even know if they were still alive in this Tutorial, but if I died today, I¡¯d never find out¡­Eventually my thoughts to me back to one person. Raizen. Whether I lived or died depended on one man.


    Part of me hated the fact I was being a burden, the fact there was simply nothing I could do to save myself, let alone anyone here. At least not in a way that I¡¯d be happy about doing. Though that was only one part of me¡­another part was happy. Happy that I had someone to depend on. I watched as the Goblins broke through the tree line as my simmered in my thoughts.


    I was still scared but for some reason I felt strangely calm. It was most likely due to believing that Raizen will come save the day. That is not a healthy thought process to keep, but for now I¡¯ll allow myself to drown in that faith.


    Raizen will make it in time.


    I raised my bow as the frontline of the hoard entered my range and let an arrow loose. I wasn¡¯t aiming at anyone in particular as there as so much of them that if I aimed in the general area, I¡¯d hit something. Not bothering to check the result of my first shot, I grabbed another arrow and prepared to let that one loose as I heard the whistle of an arrow to the left of me. Irene has begun firing.


    I continued to release arrow after arrow, until the Goblins got close enough to shoot back and one of them flied past my head.


    That seemed to wake me out of my trance as my hands started trembling and before I knew it my back was drenched in sweat¡­I almost died.


    I think Richard saw it as he yelled out at me from below.


    ¡°Irene and Micah come down!! It¡¯s too dangerous to stay up there!¡±


    Despite my trembling hands, I didn¡¯t waste any time and quickly climbed down from the guard tower as more and more arrows whistled above my head.


    Once I got down, I saw that a small group of people were now wielding bows and were getting ready to just shoot arrows over the wall.


    I didn¡¯t need to be told to join them, and before I knew it a proper volley of arrows were flying over the wall.


    We managed to get only two more volleys off before we heard a loud crash, and the Outpost walls shook.


    They were at the damn walls.


    Richard called out once more.


    ¡°Retreat further! Hurry up and move the fences to the front!¡±


    People did their best to move the fences in front of the gate as the rest of us backed up further.


    Crash


    They bashed against the wall one more time, though this time I think it was focused on the gate.


    Crash


    Richard called out again.


    ¡°Stop firing! Point all bows at the gate and hold! Prepare to fight hand to hand if they break through! Keep holding on! Raizen is coming!¡±


    Crash


    My Anxiety kept increasing with each bash against the gate and I knew the moment they broke it was coming. The crashing stopped for a moment then a loud roar sounded.


    RAAAH!!


    BOOM


    The gate absolutely shattered into pieces as one of the massive ones sauntered in with the regular Goblins rushing in behind him. Richard called out once more.


    ¡°Fire!!! Brandon come with me! We have to hold them back!¡±


    BOOOOOM!!!!!


    Right as we loosed our arrows, we heard another explosion, only this one was truly booming, and it literally rocked the entire Outpost.


    Everyone from the Goblins to myself and all of us gathered paused as we dealt with the aftershock of the explosion.


    It was then a feeling of absolute dread washed over my body. It reminded of me of that day I watched Raizen drag Jax away¡­wait...Raizen?


    Ah he¡¯s here.


    The second I had thought, a massive wall of pitch black flames rose up outside of the Outpost walls. It towered over everything. Was that¡­screaming?

 Chapter Seventy Five

    POV Raizen


    I ran through the forest at full speed, as the bushes and trees all looked like a blur due to how fast I was moving. Maybe if it was a regular day, I¡¯d be in the mood to laugh at my own appearance. A now surprisingly large half naked man, in practically skintight leather pants that were cut off at the knee, and a large spear for good measure. I¡¯m sure it was a funny sight.


    Though¡­today wasn¡¯t a regular day.


    I was angry.


    And I was getting angrier the closer I got to the Outpost. My flames could feel it and I can tell it was feeding off of the anger. It was growing stronger, hotter, and deadlier inside of me. I could instinctually feel that the next time I allowed them to burst forth, the devastation would be vastly different than anything I¡¯ve done before.


    And I would welcome it.


    With my newfound speed and the determination to match, it wasn¡¯t long before the Outpost was once again in view, and what I saw caused my anger to surge to new heights.


    The entire Outpost was surrounded by thousands of Goblins.


    That wasn¡¯t the worst of it.


    As I got closer, I was just in time to hear a loud crash and when I focused on the gate I saw they had burst through.


    It only took a quick scan after that to notice that 4 of the 5 Hobgoblins that should be here were spread out in the mass of Goblins and giving orders. One was missing.


    It was at that moment I stopped holding both anger and flames back and let it all out.


    ¡°Burn them all.¡±


    There was no need to use my spear or any other medium at this moment. All I needed was me.


    A torrent of flames burst out from my body. A loud and raucous explosion sounded the second they came into contact with the ground.


    It rapidly surged far and wide and reached the walls of the Outpost then it rose about 20 feet in the air as it created a wall of flames around the Outpost.


    I didn¡¯t sit still either.


    While anything and everything outside of the Outpost was absolutely covered in my flames, I gripped my spear tightly as I dashed through the now broken gate. It only took a moment to take in everything in front of me.


    Around 20ish Goblins, and 1 Hobgoblin were inside the Outpost. While Richard and the others were behind a number of the spiked fences. Though one thing was odd. Nobody was moving. Every single person and Goblin stood frozen, staring towards me with looks of both awe and fear with the latter coming from the Goblins.


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    I didn¡¯t dwell on it for too long and a few steps coupled with a few swings of my spear left the ground littered with the bodies of Goblins.


    I stood amongst the bodies for a few moments.


    The anger that fueled me, quietly dissipating as the flames the burned high around the Outpost followed suit and began to subside.


    There was nothing left to burn.


    Thousands of Goblins burned to ashes.


    Their screams meant nothing to me.


    Eventually, all the flames fully subsided and I looked up towards Richard who was looking at me with his mouth open. In fact, all of them were.


    Though as I was about to say something, a notification flashed in front of me.


    (Outpost G Residents Only)


    Defense Successful


    The Outpost Shall be Repaired


    That was the end of the message, and shortly after it disappeared, the bodies around my feet were then absorbed by the ground. I then heard rustling behind me, and I turned around in time to see the gate and the walls it was attached to being restored in real time.


    It was actually quite amazing to see.


    It felt as if time was literally being rewound before my eyes. Then all the pieces of the broken gate, from the splintered pieces, to the large ones picked themselves up and returned to the place they were before, and eventually the process was over, and the gate was fixed, as if it was never broken in the first place.


    After staring at the gate for a bit I turned back around to the group behind me.


    ¡°Is everyone alright?¡±


    They all looked at me again after getting stuck on the magic of the gate repair for a bit. Then it was Micah who spoke up first.


    ¡°We¡¯re fine¡­just fine¡­¡±


    ¡°Yea what he said...¡±


    Lance followed up right after Micah and I could see everyone finally lower their weapons and relax. Some of them even sat down right where they stood, glad to be alive. I can only imagine the type of stress they faced.


    ¡°And you Raizen? Are you fine?¡±


    It was Irene who asked me that, the concern evident in her tone.


    ¡°I am. Though we all have a lot to talk about.¡±


    She nodded and took a seat herself, eventually leaning her head back as she stared into the sky with a thoughtful look on her face.


    I looked over towards Richard and he was just standing there. Staring at the gate. I walked over and stood next to him for a few moments before speaking.


    ¡°How are you Richard?¡±


    ¡°¡­We could¡¯ve died¡­¡±


    ¡°You could¡¯ve.¡±


    ¡°We could''ve died¡­if you were any slower¡­we could''ve all died¡­all because we were weak. What if you weren¡¯t as strong as you were? What if you weren¡¯t here at all? What if you didn¡¯t feel like helping us? What if¡­-¡±


    ¡°Richard. No one died today.¡±


    ¡°I know¡­it¡¯s just..¡±


    ¡°No one died Richard. No one died.¡±


    He didn¡¯t say anything for a while after that. Just staring at the gate. Of course we weren¡¯t far, so the others heard everything we said, yet they all chose to remain silent.


    Eventually, minutes passed, and Richard finally started speaking again.


    ¡°We have to get stronger. Brandon was right. We are nothing but a burden. What if they send a bigger and stronger force tomorrow? Are we just going to turtle up and hope you arrive just in the nick of time again? That can¡¯t happen Raizen. This can¡¯t continue¡­¡±


    I let his words linger in the air for a bit. I could tell the others were taking his words to heart. Still, no one else was speaking.


    ¡°I have never called you all a burden Richard. You know...what I¡¯m about to say next feels corny, but I need to say it. I¡¯ve only known you all for a short time, not even a month, but we have joked, ate, fought, and bled together during this time. This feeling I have is new to me, but it feels natural. You all are my people. I am going to protect my people. The burden I carry was placed there by myself. Honestly it really does feel weird to say that, considering just a few weeks ago I was a college student, but things sometimes change both very quickly and drastically.


    ¡°Of course, no one could¡¯ve predicted the apocalypse happening and being thrusted into a Tutorial to fend for our lives, but here we are.


    ¡°I''m kind of rambling now, but focus on getting stronger Richard. I will handle the rest.¡±


    I patted Richard on his shoulder and walked off towards the shop.


    I needed new pants.

 Chapter Seventy Six

    While that conversation was a bit corny, and I¡¯m cringing a little bit as I think about everything I said, I don¡¯t regret my words.


    When I first got here, I was pretty content with just hunting and getting stronger by myself but over the last week or two things have changed quite a bit with how I saw the others and how I saw myself. From a college student to a spear wielding, black fire spewing, shirtless killer.


    Well, it¡¯s obviously a bit more than that. I just told someone who is at least 10 years older me that I¡¯ll handle everything, and I consider everyone here my people.


    Yep, definitely weird. Looking at it from a different viewpoint, I essentially just told all of them I¡¯m their leader and there all under me now. A bit arrogant¡­well I didn¡¯t really mean it that way, instead I just meant I¡¯ll protect them while they gathered the strength to defend themselves. Maybe I should go back and clarify? Eh I¡¯m sure they understood my intentions, if not someone would probably bring it up.


    Anyway.


    New pants, and some questions for Greja.


    I walked into the shop and just like always Greja welcomed me with a smile.


    ¡°Welcome in Raizen! And congratulations on your breakthrough!¡±


    ¡°Thank you as always Greja. Is it alright If I asked a couple questions?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°Thank you...it¡¯s about this attack we faced. Is that the added danger you mentioned or is that what every Outpost is facing?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­it¡¯s a bit more complicated than that but yes, the attack you faced today was a bit stronger than what you would¡¯ve faced without the upgrade, though not by much. This stage in the Tutorial can be thought of as a turning point. Things are meant to be hard, and they will get harder. Keep that in mind.¡±


    I¡¯ll definitely keep her words in mind. Now for my next question.


    ¡°Thanks again, now regarding the raids, I think I have an idea of the answer, but if we got overrun and the Goblins made it in the Outpost and began killing everyone, would you all help us?¡±


    The smile dropped from her face as she looked at me extremely solemnly.


    ¡°We are forbidden from saving your lives.¡±


    ¡°I see...then the situation where the Outpost Leader helped me?"


    "The fight was over and no new threat had entered the area. Though the rules can be bent a bit by the Outpost Leader, they can''t be bent enough to protect this Outpost should you all fail to defend yourselves."


    "I understand. Now I would like to buy..."


    It was at that moment I realized all my money was back at home...


    "Sorry, never mind, I''ll be back."


    Her smile came back as she waved me goodbye.


    I walked out of the shop and began making my way to the house. I got there after a couple minutes and noticed Richard waiting outside.


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    "Everything alright Richard?"


    "Weren''t you going to get new pants? And yeah, everything is fine, sorry about earlier. I came over to say thank you and let you know we should have another talk."


    "Ah yeah I forgot to bring money. Came back to get it. Regarding a talk, I figured one was needed. I both did and said a lot back there."


    "Well...you did...but that''s fine, the biggest thing though are the Goblins. There weren''t any cores left behind. We guessed, for majority of them your...fire...most likely burned the cores, but the ones you cut down in the Outpost didn''t leave any cores behind either. Isn''t that weird?"


    "Yeah, it¡¯s a little weird. The only ¡®reward¡¯ we got from that was the repair of the walls and gate. Hmm¡­I¡¯m going to go buy some pants and I¡¯ll meet you back here. Actually¡­I¡¯ll buy some other things as well.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    With that, I finally went inside, grabbed a pouch filled with Bronze Coins, and departed towards the shop. Though instead of the short quiet walk I expected, a voice sounded in my head.


    ¡®Do not forget about training. We will be waiting at the training grounds.¡¯


    I paused my steps for a moment before nodding at no one in particular. I¡¯m sure he saw it though. I did kind of forget training was no longer in the morning, as that time was now reserved for fighting against Goblin hordes.


    So, defend against the Goblins in the morning, train in the evening, and then hit the Dungeons after that.


    We are in for some busy days.


    Anyway, I made it back to the shop and bought everything I needed before making my way back home.


    My purchases were actually quite a bit of things. A pencil, a couple stacks of paper, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, the Monster Encyclopedia, 5 sets of clothes, and the book called Cultivation Channels that I planned to read when it was time to break through. Of course I¡¯d still talk to the Outpost Leader about that.


    Anyway, it was quite the haul, thankfully I was considerably wealthy due to how many Dungeon runs we did as a group and how many I did solo before this new stage.


    Moving on, Richard was waiting by the door though he wasn¡¯t alone.


    ¡°Ah hope you got everything you needed Raizen. Beverly here was just delivering some good news! Go ahead and tell him yourself Bev!¡±


    The old woman, who looked a bit more lively than I expected, started smiling as she began talking.


    ¡°With the help of my Teacher, I was able to break through to the 1st Cycle! I feel like I¡¯m in my 30s again!¡±


    Oh, that was good news.


    ¡°Congratulations Beverly. That really is good news.¡±


    I returned her smile with one of my own, and her smile seemed to widen even further before nodding and saying thank you, then promptly said her goodbyes and went off somewhere.


    What a sweet old woman.


    Anyway, I entered the house with Richard tailing behind me and took a couple moments to put my things away, before finally sitting down to talk with Richard.


    ¡°Wow you didn¡¯t hold back at all.¡±


    ¡°Needed a lot of things...actually, give me a moment.¡±


    I stepped into the bathroom, before quickly coming out dressed in a new set of clothes that actually fit.


    ¡°Alright, a lot to discuss. Where to start?¡±


    From that point on we talked for quite some time about a lot of different things. We decided to start with the defense of the Outpost as that was something that was coming sooner than we thought.


    I simply told him not to worry about it. I had no more qualms about hiding my flames since they were out in the open already and I quite literally planned to turn anything that approached into ash. I would form a wall of flames around the Outpost then bathe everything in the area in an ocean of Eternal Flames.


    They would not have to worry.


    I would shoulder the burden.


    I told him that he and the others simply needed to focus on getting stronger. Strong enough that they didn¡¯t feel like burdens anymore.


    Though until they reached that point, I will be here.


    Of course¡­that conversation led to the inevitable question of where I got those flames. I had a couple options here¡­I could tell him it was some sort of technique I got from the Dungeon that I didn¡¯t tell anyone about, or perhaps I could make some other lie, or¡­I could tell him what I really was.


    ¡°I am not sure how you will react to this, but there is something fundamentally different about me Richard.


    ¡°I grew up my whole life believing I was human just like everyone else, but I¡¯ve since been proven wrong¡±


    The confusion painting his face only grew the more I spoke.


    ¡°It was when we were all in that white space. One of those metal people called me something else, and that thing he called me has only been confirmed during this Tutorial.¡±


    I paused as I gave him a moment to digest what I was saying, before continuing.


    ¡°¡­Richard. I am not a human.¡±


    ¡°..What..?¡±


    ¡°I am an Infernal.¡±

 Chapter Seventy Seven

    Richard stared at me with his mouth opening and closing a few times without any words coming out, and he just hung his head after a while before looking back up at me.


    ¡°Please¡­please explain further.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s pretty much it. I am not a human, but instead an Infernal. An entirely different race of people altogether. Not based on the color of my skin or anything but like a true alien race. Well, alien to Earth that is.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯ve known since you joined the Tutorial?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much. I grew up a human like the everyone else here. It was only recently that I found out I was apparently different.¡±


    ¡°Sigh¡­And that¡¯s why you can use these¡­flames?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°And your strength?¡±


    ¡°Ah I guess so. I heal a lot faster than the rest of you, so cultivating through the Body Tempering Realm was a bit easier for me.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­well that¡¯s good.¡±


    ¡°Good?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it all makes sense now. I always wondered how you were so much stronger than us, but knowing you¡¯re an alien brings it all together. Wait is calling you an alien offensive?¡±


    ¡°No, but I¡¯d prefer Raizen. Actually, I think you guys can start calling me Raz now.¡±


    ¡°Ah yeah sorry about that, I¡¯ll stick to Raz¡­but I do have a question if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Go for it.¡±


    ¡°That word¡­Infernal. If I remember correctly, it has demonic ties¡­,are you from a race of demons¡­?¡±


    A race of demons eh¡­I really have no idea¡­I mean black flames would make sense from that perspective but¡­are we demons? I have no clue.


    ¡°Honestly, I have no idea. I still feel like a human being for the most part, and I¡¯m sure I still act like one, so while I don¡¯t actually know what a demon looks like, I really don¡¯t think I suddenly became one.¡±


    ¡°Ok¡­honestly Raiz- wait no Raz, this is a lot to take in, but at the same time I know this is the type of secret you only tell someone when you trust them, and I don¡¯t plan on betraying that trust. Though what about everyone else? Do you plan on telling them?¡±


    ¡°Well, everyone saw those flames, so it is not really a secret anymore. I¡¯ll tell them all later.¡±


    ¡°Okay good you¡¯ll tell them all later¡­I wonder how Irene is going to react¡­¡±


    ¡°Irene? Why her specifically?¡±


    ¡°Oh! Did I say that out loud?! Hey, forget you heard that okay?!¡±


    Why does he look so frightened? Guess I¡¯ll play along though.


    ¡°Sure, I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡±


    ¡°Good¡­good¡­¡±


    That was weird. Irene huh. Guess I¡¯ll have to ask her on my own.


    Anyway.


    ¡°There¡¯s a couple other things I¡¯d like to discuss but they can wait until after training.¡±


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    ¡°Ah yeah, I almost forgot about that. Do you think they are ready for us now?¡±


    ¡°I know they are.¡±


    ¡°Well, alright then. I¡¯ll go gather the others. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be fired up based on what happened this morning.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good. See you over there.¡±


    And with that Richard left. I lingered for a few moments as I thought about that conversation. I expected a bigger reaction from Richard about being an Infernal, but after the initial shock he seemed to take it in stride. Of course, he could just be doing a good job of faking it and is slowly planning to run away in the dark of night. Or perhaps he plans on maintaining appearances until the Tutorial is over, before finding moving on at the first chance he gets.


    Or, he is shocked, but isn¡¯t throwing away the rapport we¡¯ve built during this Tutorial. I already decided to trust him until he gives me a reason not to, so there¡¯s no real benefit in assuming the worst or thinking about it too deeply.


    I told him and I¡¯ll tell the others, then we¡¯ll go from there.


    Though he did mention some interesting things.


    Demons huh. I have a lot of questions for whoever this Elder is.


    And Irene.


    The tall female archer.


    Yep, I¡¯ll try to talk to her at some point.


    Alright, enough dilly dallying lets go train.


    The walk to the training grounds was a bit longer due to the size increase of the Outpost, but it was still relatively short.


    After a couple minutes of walking leisurely, I made it to the training ground, where the others were also gathered at one side. There already getting ready to start, as I made way over to the Outpost Leader.


    ¡°Hello.¡±


    He simply nodded and then I heard a voice in my head.


    ¡®You have revealed a lot. Are you aware of the implications?¡¯


    ¡®Implications? What kind of implications?¡¯


    He stared at me with out responding for a few awkward moments before finally speaking again.


    ¡®The Multiverse is a place without mercy. The amount of people that die due to simply knowing things someone else deemed they shouldn¡¯t are too many to count. Being associated with you could bring them harm. Harm they are likely too week to defend against. So, are you aware of the implications?¡¯


    ¡®Well, I am now, but can¡¯t cry over spilled milk. Things have already been revealed and I¡¯ll do my best to adapt to the situation as it arises. If knowing who I am brings them harm, then it¡¯s up to me to be strong enough to make sure those who would do so, pay for it dearly.¡¯


    It was for a fleeting moment, but I could have sworn I saw a smile just now.


    ¡®Good. As long as you understand. Your training will be different now. Our sparring sessions have been far too light. Your time here will dwindle fast, and you are far stronger than most of what you will soon face. It will hurt you in the long run if you get used to being stronger than your opponents. Ready your spear.¡¯


    I didn¡¯t waste anytime and raised my spear.


    One singular moment after my spear was raised, and I was now flat on my back with the sky taking up my entire line of sight.


    I didn¡¯t see anything. He was standing there one second, then in the other I felt a punch on my chest and before I knew it, I was on my back.


    It hurts.


    ¡°Why are you still on the floor? Get up.¡±


    He spoke aloud this time.


    I rose to my feet and shook off the pain. This time I wouldn¡¯t wait for him to come to me. Once I steadied myself, I quickly closed the distance between us and lunged out with my spear. He sidestepped my lunge with such grace it felt like a dance, and I was once again on the ground.


    ¡°Hm, I see. That is enough for a warmup.¡±


    Right after he said that an immense pressure descended upon me.


    ¡°Get up. Fight as if your life depended on it.¡±


    I didn¡¯t second guess his words and pushed my body up once more. This is far from enough to sway me.


    Though what happened after that, would¡¯ve made me quit if I was still just a normal college student.


    It was nothing short of a beating. A sever and brutal beating.


    While I have injured through training before, it was never to this extent.


    He slowed his speed down to one I could match, and as expected I never even came close to hitting him, but he didn¡¯t suffer from that challenge. Using just his hands, I somehow ended up with large gashes all over my body. There was a wound running from my neck to my hip and even now at the end of the battle it was bleeding profusely.


    I had numerous other cutting wounds, broken bones, and I¡¯m sure plenty of things on the inside that I simply had no time to figure out. But I was still standing.


    ¡°Rest for a minute.¡±


    I didn¡¯t have time to think about anything else as I plopped down to the floor. Even doing that hurt. I saw that for a few moments with labored breathes, wincing as the air stung my open wounds, and then something amazing happened.


    My wounds¡­they began to visibly heal.


    POV Jrino


    I knew their healing factor was the real deal, and I had a feeling it take a jump once he reached the 5th Cycle. It is the first step of cultivation where one¡¯s body will typically go through their biggest change. Though this was something else. It took me years of bitter cultivation to reach the point where my body could heal at that rate.


    Life truly isn¡¯t fair.


    Though this also means I can push him further.


    This is good.

 Chapter Seventy Eight

    While Raizen was busy getting beat into the dirt. A meeting was taking place in the darkness of outer space.


    POV Yamaal


    ¡°I greet Lord Raeyon¡±


    ¡°What stage is the Tutorial in?¡±


    ¡°It is currently in stage 4.¡±


    ¡°So, I made it in time. Good.¡±


    I watched as Lord Raeyon, surveyed the expanse that was outer space before eyes settled in a particular location where nothing seemed to be.


    Of course, I knew what or better yet, who he was looking for, and I knew what would be coming next. Shit. I pray to the Meic Lands that a war doesn¡¯t start due to this meeting.


    ¡°Infernal. A moment please.¡±


    Ah its started. A Domain Realm Cultivator had no reason to be respectful to a Second Stage Immortal, but dammit, this is a special case, Lord Raeyon.


    There wasn¡¯t any noise or any movement at all for a few minutes before the area Lord Raeyon was staring at began rippling slightly, then the Infernal Elder appeared before us.


    ¡°What do you want.¡±


    It was more of a statement than a question, and she didn¡¯t do anything to hide the flames dancing around in her eyes. If someone else at her strength were to speak to Lord Raeyon like that back home, they would have long since been ripped to shreds by the finest Meitals.


    ¡°I will keep it succinct. My kind would like to sponsor the young Infernal participating in the Tutorial.¡±


    I watched as the flames in her eyes grew in intensity after Lord Raeyon spoke.


    ¡°You mean, you want to use him.¡±


    ¡°No. I said sponsor.¡±


    Is it getting hotter¡­?


    ¡°Describe your sponsorship.¡±


    ¡°A spear and labor.¡±


    ¡°He will decide for himself.¡±


    After she said that, she immediately vanished, as if she was never there.


    ¡°Tch, I can¡¯t find her anymore...


    ¡°Let¡¯s go we have work to do.¡±


    I simply nodded and allowed Lord Raeyon¡¯s power to envelop me, and we quickly teleported.


    ~ ~ ~


    Though while Raeyon and Yamaal teleported to who knows where, a particular Infernal had just arrived on a small ship. Though small in this case meant the size of a large yacht. Of course, the second she got on the ship she activated numerous formations meant to hide the vessel from prying eyes.


    POV Zal


    ¡°¡°We greet Elder Zal.¡±¡±


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    ¡°Mhm. The Tutorial has a few weeks left. Make sure you¡¯re prepared. It is imperative you both make a good first impression.¡±


    ¡°Elder Zal¡­may I ask a question?¡±


    ¡°Speak.¡±


    ¡°¡­What if he rejects us?¡±


    ¡°Then that is the will of the Eternal Flame. It is not to be questioned. Control what you can, be diligent in your servitude, and maybe one day his favor will smile upon you.¡±


    ¡°I understand Elder Zal, thank you.¡±


    ¡°Good, both of you return to your quarters. Do not forget to read up on the Meitalc people. There is a chance you all will be rubbing shoulders soon enough.¡±


    I watched as the boys entrusted to my care gave me a swift salute before retiring to their chambers.


    They were good seedlings.


    If this new Patriarch had a decent head on his shoulders he wouldn¡¯t waste time accepting them in his retinue. Though at that point it would be up to them to earn his favor. He of course is unlikely to know what it means to be the head of a new Infernal Lineage but once I impart the necessary knowledge, he like all the others before him will need to grow his power and his future clan.


    Hopefully, Frian and Lirian will take this opportunity with vigor and discipline, as their immediate futures depended on it. Their parents paid a price to give them this opportunity that many other young Infernals their age was dying to have, so it would be a shame if it failed.


    Sigh Even though I said it would be the will of the Eternal Flame if he were to reject them, It¡¯s the duty of Seniors to educate their Juniors, and I will be sure to do so if says something foolish.


    Hmph.


    Pov Frian


    ¡°Ahh Liri I¡¯m nervous!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re both nervous dammit.¡±


    ¡°What would father say if we returned with the news of failure?¡±


    ¡°Ahh stop thinking about it Fri!¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t help it! We came all this way for this chance! We would have to compete with thousands of others in the Clan¡¯s Trials for a similar opportunity back home, but here its just the two of us!¡±


    ¡°It means we can¡¯t slack off in the slightest Fri! Ah let¡¯s go to the training room! We need to be able to fight alongside him properly and bring death his enemies without fail!¡±


    ¡°Elder Zal said we needed to study you dimwit! We can train later.¡±


    ~ ~ ~


    While Frian and Lirian were stressing about their future, Raizen had just finished his training with the Outpost Leader¡­


    POV Raizen


    As I laid on my back staring up at the sky above me, my body was still bleeding from places I can¡¯t even feel at the moment.


    The Outpost Leader didn¡¯t let up for even a moment. This was likely worse than how I looked after cultivating which was saying a lot.


    Though despite all of that, I felt this was likely the most fruitful training session we¡¯ve had. Despite my victories against these Goblins, I wasn¡¯t so na?ve to think I was some gifted spear master now or anything, so I knew I was lacking in many ways. This type of training will be wonders for me to help fix that.


    The last thing the Outpost Leader said to me before vanishing was that I should visit his office, once I¡¯ve rested. So, I¡¯ll heal up, head over there, then have another big talk with the others, and go from there.


    Sigh no rest for the weary.


    Anyway. It didn¡¯t take long to heal enough to the point I was able to walk without wincing too much and made my way over to my house to wash up, before heading to the Outpost Leader¡¯s office.


    Though what he said confused me a bit.


    ¡°I want you to try cultivating to the 6th Cycle.¡±


    ¡°What? Didn¡¯t you say doing that could be fatal? Shouldn¡¯t I wait for some time before even attempting it?¡±


    ¡°I cannot force you, but your healing has improved to a rate that I didn¡¯t expect. There is a chance it is possible for you to push through to at least the 7th or even the 8th Cycle in one go. Though I do not recommend going that far this soon. At the moment I would just like for you to attempt to cultivate to the 6th Cycle and describe what you feel.¡±


    Well no harm in trying I guess.


    "Alright give me a moment."


    I sat down, and began the cultivating process as usual. Closing my eyes, meditating on the ambient Qi in the air before attempting to pull a single wisp inside my body. It was then I felt another barrier. It was weak though...Shouldn''t it be stronger than the barrier to the 5th Cycle?


    Why was it so weak...?


    "Well, there''s a barrier but it''s not as strong as the previous one for some reason. It feels as if I can break through it, but I''m not sure If I want to."


    "I see...I''m not 100% certain as to the reason why the barrier is weaker than the previous one, but I''m sure it has to do with the fact your an Infernal. I do not know how your body behaves, nor do I want to find out at the moment, but it appears you can advance a bit quicker than expected for now. Though I do agree patience should be exercised here."


    Just more things to ask the Elder I guess. I told the Outpost Leader I had to go and when I decided to advance I''ll let him know.


    For now, I want to go finish this talk everyone.

 Chapter Seventy Nine

    ¡®Life after the war was rough, but not as bad as people thought it would be. Sure, there was a lot of death and people mourned their loved ones, and plenty of buildings and cities got turned to a fiery rubble, but the winners of the war want nothing to do with our people. Most assumed they would assume the ruling of the country, others assumed they would turn us into slaves, but there was nothing of the sort. The war seemed to be a means to an end for them. It begs the questions of Why? Why did our empire start this war? Could it not have been avoided seeing as how after everything was over, the victors simply left.¡¯


    -Excerpt from the ¡®Lonesome War¡¯ by Sir Graackel


    The usual suspects were gathered in the usual house. All eyes and ears were entirely focused on Raizen, who had just finished his explanation of what he was. He thought about telling the entire group of combatants who were gathered this morning, and even the non-combatants, but after talking with the Outpost Leader, he changed his mind and decided to only tell a select few.


    Richard who of course already knew, and Lance, Micah, Brandon, Irene, Cristine, Trent, Vanessa, Brockers, Grant, Harrison, Johnny, Hubert, Micheal, Sarah, Li, Trinity, and Nora.


    POV Raizen


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty much it. Are there any questions?¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯re an alien?¡±


    ¡°Well technically I am I guess? But I think with the fact that we are apart of the Multiverse now, we might end up seeing a lot more other races. We have already seen two others since this all started.¡±


    ¡°And that was a dumb question Lance.¡±


    ¡°Of course, you would say that Irene.¡±


    ¡°Say that again.¡±


    ¡°This is why I tell you to stop teasing her Lance, and can you please stop hiding behind me.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s holding her bow! And you¡¯re the only one that would let me hide behind them Hubey.¡±


    ¡°My name is Hubert.¡±


    ¡°Ah I know you love the nickname.¡±


    ¡°Ahem¡­any other questions?¡±


    ¡°I have one Raizen¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure Vanessa.¡±


    ¡°Does this mean your going to be using your fire a lot more now?¡±


    ¡°If I need to.¡±


    ¡°What about what you said earlier regarding the fact that Infernals have enemies all over the place. Are we going to be in danger?¡±


    ¡°That may or may not be the case, I don¡¯t actually have all the answers, but I¡¯ll do my best to make sure you all aren¡¯t affected just for knowing me. Though I would understand if something like that drives you away. I¡¯m not sure how the process works after the Tutorial, but I won¡¯t force anyone to stay with me or anything like that.¡±


    ¡­


    I ended up answering questions for over an hour and by now the sky was dark. It was another Richard situation where no one really seemed to care too deeply to the point of what to immediately cut ties with me. There were still some doubts which are to be expected but people were generally calm. Again, that could just be because they value my protection at the moment and could change if they got strong enough to be confident in the Tutorial without my help.


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    Not really sure, but for now everything was alright. And after that we moved on to our next point of discussion. How to handle defense going forward. It was quite simple really.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    ¡°Is that it? Just don¡¯t worry about it?¡±


    ¡°Just trust me Harrison. I will handle it.¡±


    There were some other questions after that, but nothing really changed. I will defend the Outpost. They simply needed to focus on training and getting stronger.


    It was finally time for the last topic of the night. And Richard kicked things off.


    ¡°Everyone agrees we should turn the beacon on?¡±


    ¡°I want to turn it on, but man I¡¯m worried. Who knows if some evil wannabe tyrant shows up trying to claim the Outpost or something.¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon Johhny why you gotta get all depressing. I doubt anything like that will happen, and shoot if it does Razien will burn them. Right Raizen?¡±


    I looked at both Trinity and Johnny for a moment before simply nodding. I had already claimed one human life and I didn¡¯t like the suggestion of having to do it again. Not that I minded, but I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s the type of reputation I wanted. I¡¯ll leave it alone for now, but definitely something to watch.


    Anyway¡­seems like the beacon is being turned on.


    It will likely happen tomorrow night, as we need time to let the rest of the Outpost know. And if I remember correctly, I think about half of the residents need to agree or something. I don¡¯t remember, but I¡¯m sure Greja will be kind enough to remind me.


    Moving on, the meeting ended and everyone kind of went to do their own thing. I would usually just go to my house, but I spotted Irene walking towards the training grounds with a couple others.


    ¡°Hey Irene!¡±


    She seemed surprised that I actually called out to her, but she quickly regained her bearings and waved at me, though for some reason the people with her, Micah, Lance, Vanessa and Li all sped off without looking back as I walked over.


    Huh¡­is what I was think is happening, really happening?


    Let¡¯s not jump to any conclusions.


    ¡°Hey Raizen. Are you heading to the training grounds as well?¡±


    ¡°No, I planned to head home for my spear before heading to the Dungeon. I had a quick question for you though if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    I hope I¡¯m not coming off too strong. It¡¯s been a while since I did something like this.


    ¡°A Dungeon huh¡­which one?¡±


    ¡°The Goblin Outpost.¡±


    ¡°Mind if I come with?¡±


    ¡°Uh sure...?¡±


    ¡°Great I¡¯ll meet you at the gate!¡±


    ¡­.


    What the hell just happened?


    I kind of absentmindedly walked to the house to grab my things as I reflected on our interaction just now.


    I said hello, Micah and the others ran off somewhere, I told her I was going on a Dungeon run, but I had a question for her. Then she asked if she could come, and I said yes.


    Hm.


    That is¡­


    Well, what¡¯s done is done. I¡¯ll just play it by ear and see what happens. I¡¯m not oblivious to all the signs but no need to jump headfirst into this. I don¡¯t even know if I¡¯m interested.


    Eventually I made it back to my house, I gathered my belongings and made my way to the gate. She was already there, standing with a sword strapped to her waist, a bow in her hands, and a quiver of arrows attached to the other side of her waist. Of course, she also carried a rucksack as well.


    Looking at her now¡­she was a tall, well-toned woman with a lightly tanned skin tone and rich brown hair that fell just past her shoulders. Kind of like Angelina Jolie, I think.


    Hm.


    Yep, let¡¯s play it by ear.


    ¡°Are you ready Raz?¡±


    I almost forgot I told everyone they could call me Raz now, though I wonder why she said my full first name earlier but only Raz now.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m ready. I know you¡¯ve done this Dungeon before, but it will be only us two, so please do your best to stay behind me.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will do my best not to be a burden to you.¡±


    She looked very serious as she said that.


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear, but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re safe. Let¡¯s go and be sure to let me know if the pace is too much.¡±


    This time I didn¡¯t wait for a response that time and just took off in the direction of the Goblin Village. Though I knew I didn¡¯t need to look back as I heard her steps behind me, keeping up for now.


    This was shaping up to be an interesting night.


    Eventually, after running the entire time we made it to the Dungeon.


    ¡°Take a second to catch your breath.¡±


    ¡°I will just need a moment.¡±


    She drank some water, ate a food pill, and then spent a few minutes catching her breath.


    ¡°Ready.¡±


    ¡°Good. Let¡¯s go.¡±

 Chapter Eighty

    After teleporting, we ended up in the familiar location of the forest surrounding the Goblin outpost.


    ¡°Wow¡­it¡¯s pitch black outside but in here it¡¯s still bright and sunny.¡±


    She was right, and due to that it took a second for our eyes to get adjusted to the sudden exposure of the sun.


    Eventually I focused my eyes on the Outpost as I thought about my plan from this point on. I didn¡¯t plan to slow down my training too much for the sake of someone else and I had a tight schedule to keep, but at the same time helping her grow a bit is helpful to me as well. Even though she¡¯s still at the 1st Cycle, she could still be of some assistance. Assistance I didn¡¯t really need, but it will serve as good practice for her.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to destroy the gate. Once the fighting starts, I¡¯d like for you to hit or kill as many targets as possible. I¡¯ll be moving around the battlefield, so please do not hit me.¡±


    She looked slightly worried for a second before she nodded with conviction.


    Good enough I guess.


    And with that I took off towards the gate of the Outpost.


    I wasn¡¯t worried about the guard towers as I was far too fast for their arrows at this point, so I barely paid them any attention. Until I hear the pop of a bowstring snapping, and the sound of an arrow meeting flesh.


    I peeked towards the left tower and an arrow was lodged into the neck of the Goblin present within. A few moments later than the sound of flesh being punctured could be heard again and the Goblin in the right tower met the same fate.


    She is taking this seriously it seems.


    Good.


    A moment after that and the gate was destroyed thoroughly. My original plan was just to run in and burn everything to ashes, but I took a few steps back to allow them to rush out. She needed a few targets after all.


    Though this is also a good opportunity to practice my proficiency with the spear.


    I was faster and stronger than them by leaps and bounds, but like the Outpost Leader, I could lower my speed a bit with the intention to use the skill of my spear to win the fight.


    The Hobgoblins rushed out, and so too did their squads of Goblins behind them. I didn¡¯t wait for them to form up and immediately took off running to the Hobgoblins before me. They didn¡¯t have time to bark out orders of any sort, as I placed them under a great deal of pressure from the get-go and the fighting was in full swing.


    Despite focusing on the battle at hand, I didn¡¯t stop paying a little attention to Irene to my rear to ensure the other Goblins didn¡¯t rush at her. Even if they didn¡¯t see her initially it wouldn¡¯t have taken long to find her presence as she was out in the open but more than that she was sitting idle.


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    Every now and then I would hear the sound of her bow and an arrow would soon be zipping through the commotion and meeting the body of an unsuspecting Goblin.


    For my battle with the three Hobgoblins, my aim was to try and improve my raw skill with the spear, but it wasn¡¯t really beneficial at the moment. I tried to slow myself down and move to their speed, but it wasn¡¯t very successful. They were simply just that much slower than me. They weren¡¯t able to provide the type of intensity I needed to improve in the way I was looking for. A few more arrows whistled out as I thought about this, and none of them came close to me.


    Hm, this is pointless.


    ¡°No more arrows!¡±


    After yelling that out so Irene could stop shooting, I let my flames claim the lives of the Hobgoblins and all the Goblins that weren¡¯t yet targeted by Irene.


    Things got quiet pretty quickly after that. Well until Irene walked up alongside of me while staring at the last embers of my flames.


    ¡°They are beautiful.¡±


    That was surprising. I mean, I knew they looked beautiful, but it felt slightly odd to hear someone else say that.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    We both stared at the ground around us in silence for a few moments before I went to collect our rewards and left the Dungeon. I handed her the necklace, and a small portion of the coins for efforts.


    Eventually we began our journey back home and we didn¡¯t talk much after that. It didn¡¯t feel awkward though, just somewhat of a tacit understanding to travel in relative silence.


    Once we made it back home, I essentially dropped her off at the gate as I wanted to run by the Green Den as well.


    ¡°Are you heading back out?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡±


    She showed some reluctance but eventually she seemed to reach a decision internally.


    ¡°I understand, I¡¯ll see you in the morning.¡±


    And with that I nodded and made my way to the Green Den, where I ran through it faster than the time it took to get there. I simply did it for money. There wasn¡¯t anything really needed in terms of training from the Dungeon, but the Bronze Coins and the Rock Iron was worth it.


    Anyway, before long I was home once again and after a quick bath and putting on a fresh pair of underwear. I sat down on my bed and reflected on today.


    There was a lot.


    I am tall.


    I had plenty of time to compare myself to others and I¡¯m pretty sure I sit somewhere between 6¡¯3 and 6¡¯6. It was kind of hard to verify because people tend to get defensive about their heights. I get it. Anyway, I¡¯ll have to ask the Blacksmith for a longer spear. My current one is fine, but I think one that fits my new frame will be better.


    It was kind of hard to get used to seeing the world from a higher viewpoint, but it wasn¡¯t a problem worth complaining about. Though honestly, I don¡¯t think I want to grow any taller. Irene is about 5¡¯10. Not that it matters.


    Anyway, the attack on the Outpost was a big surprise. The Hobgoblins wore armor and were the equivalent to 3rd Cycle Cultivators. While thousands of other Goblins came in full force. It was another reason for me to continue to get stronger. I never want to have to depend on others to protect me. I¡¯m not dumb enough to think I¡¯ll be to fight everything on my own right away, but I¡¯ll do my best to reach that point.


    Going forward, the defense of the Outpost will rest on my shoulders until they can provide some real help. I have a couple ideas to make sure that goes cleanly. I don¡¯t plan on letting them even get close to touching the gate, let alone breaking through it.


    My only question would be if the group is stronger than the one, we faced this morning. Though I won¡¯t let that thought worry me too much. I¡¯ll be ready.


    Probably the hardest part of the day was talk with Richard and the others. It went a lot smoother than I expected but I guess seeing both metal and green people, and even killing Goblins of their own, probably helped cushion that information.


    We decided that anyone outside of the core group who asked would be told its some ability I learned in the Dungeon.


    I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine.


    Moving on, I still need to consider breaking into the 6th Cycle sooner rather than later. I know the Outpost Leader will likely be there to help me, but I¡¯d still be risking my life.


    I have no problem with that type of risk, but is it worth it at this point? That¡¯s something I need to decide on.


    Ah this is tiring.

 Chapter Eighty One

    Before long, the night passed, and I woke up. There was no loud knocking at my door as everyone knew what to expect. I¡¯m actually quite proud of myself for waking up on time. It¡¯s been a while, so before I leave my bed, I took a look at my status.


    Name ¨C Raizen


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


    Cultivation ¨C Body Tempering (5th Cycle)


    Your Task is to Survive.


    Run, Hide, Fight. Survive.


    Time Remaining ¨C 38 Days


    38 days until this is all over eh. Time flies when your killing Goblins I guess. Anyway. I made way outside and, in the distance, I could hear the loud grunts as everyone was busy at the training grounds trying to improve in some way. By the time I got to the gate only Richard was waiting for me.


    ¡°Ready?¡± He asks, but I could tell it wasn¡¯t a question of worry. He trusted me. They all did.


    ¡°Ready.¡±


    ¡°Good, everyone on guard duty has retreated inside the Outpost, and all the non-combatants are grouped together at the training grounds watching the fighters train. We¡¯ll also tell them about the beacon later and handle if anyone asks about your fire.¡±


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s doing their part. I¡¯ll do mine.¡±


    ¡°I know you will, hopefully we can join you soon. A few of them are hoping to break into the 2nd Cycle soon, while 3rd Cycle is close for me, I can feel it.¡±


    I thought to tell him not to rush, but they¡¯re all pretty determined. So, a simple nod is all I do in return before making my way through the gate.


    A similar sight to yesterday morning greets me.


    10 Hobgoblins staring at the Outpost.


    It took them a second to realize no one else was coming out. They seemed surprised.


    ¡°GRAHHH!!!¡±


    One of them leaned forward and roared out in my direction.


    It seems upset.


    I don¡¯t do anything and just watch them.


    A few moments later and they stormed off into the woods and it didn¡¯t take long after that for me to hear the loud march of thousands of Goblins running in my direction.


    Good.


    I was partly worried they wouldn¡¯t all come at once.


    I took a deep breath, called upon the flames dwelling within me and slammed the but of my spear onto the ground.


    Voosh


    My flames rushed out from that point and continued to soar into the sky. It easily towered over the Outpost. Though it didn¡¯t stop there. Without pause it stretched and stretched and until the black flames towered around the entire Outpost.


    I could¡¯ve bathed the Forest in flames and killed them all a lot easier.


    But this was also training for me.


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    If I was weaker, maybe I¡¯d be forced to fight with everything I had, but I was strong. Strong enough to face the entire hoard on my own.


    I stepped through the wall of flames as the first line of Goblins were finally about to break through the tree line.


    My spear, that I still needed to replace, was at the ready and before I knew it, hundreds of Goblins were upon me.


    The Hobgoblins seemed to hang back as the horde roared towards me.


    My spear seemed to sing as I swung with a force that threw tens of Goblins back from the created wind alone.


    They were bisected, beheaded, pierced, crushed all by myself and my spear. More than a few hundred of them ignored me completely and ran towards the Outpost, perhaps thinking they could survive the flames. Obviously, that did not work. They promptly became ash, and that ash burned away shortly after.


    Eventually a rain of arrows and fireballs descended in my direction, but I didn¡¯t halt my movements. I cut the arrows down or nimbly dodged when my spear had to be used in the killing of a Goblin or two.


    My only mistake thus far was letting a few of the fireballs hit me. There was no pain, and it actually just felt like a summer breeze, but my clothes weren¡¯t fireproof, so my tunic mostly burned away.


    Exposing my beautifully toned and chiseled chest that I hardly worked to achieve.


    ¡­Moving on.


    Part of the reason I decided to fight like this was to put my stamina to the test when it came to my flames. So far, I haven¡¯t run into a situation where I felt any massive exhaustion from using my flames or feel like my flames were ¡®running out¡¯. I knew it was impossible for me to ¡®run out¡¯ of flames but I could instinctively tell I couldn¡¯t keep them up indefinitely. Like all things in life, it required energy of some sort, and with my newfound hunger these days, that probably played a part in the energy required. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know the exact details behind it, I just knew this wall of flames was something I couldn¡¯t keep up forever.


    I don¡¯t know how many Goblins I¡¯ve cut down at this point, but the Hobgoblins were still hanging back. All 10 of them. Just waiting. Of course, it didn¡¯t take long for me to realize that they were likely waiting for me to tire myself out fighting these Goblins, but I think I¡¯ve let them wait long enough.


    I shrunk back, before doing a powerful swing outwards, instantly pushing some of the Goblins backwards. With the ones at the front, simply being crushed from the swing alone.


    With the quickly depleting space in front of me, I quickly took a half step backwards before planting my backfoot and driving off of it and leaping into the air towards the lurking Hobgoblins.


    It happened too fast for them to react properly.


    One moment I was facing off against the horde, and in another, I was seemingly flying straight at them with my spear hoisted high above my head.


    They were grouped together, but upon seeing my soaring form to they tried to stumble out of the way. One of them wasn¡¯t so lucky.


    Boom!!!


    I came crashing down on his head with my spear. He was bisected from his head to his shoulders before the rest of the force seemingly caught up and slammed his body to the ground. Of course this happened in an instant.


    I didn¡¯t get much time to admire my work was a series of roars were released, and the remaining 9 Hobgoblins were upon me in a flash.


    I was both faster and stronger than all of them, and while the gap between the 3rd Cycle and the 5th Cycle was truly large. It wasn¡¯t large enough so that I could fight without a care in the world.


    Especially not with this level of coordination.


    It was 9 of them. 9 3rd Cycle equivalent Hobgoblins. Yet they never seemed to get in each other¡¯s way as they punched, kicked, lunged, and continuously attacked with ferocity, coordination, and communication as a group of lionesses would hunt prey.


    It was likely better since there was no actual audible communication going on.


    Honestly that level of coordination should be applauded if anything. I¡¯m sure the effectives of the others would soar a lot higher than what it was if they could fight to this level.


    Of course I was no mere prey.


    Despite the level of attention, I needed to pay to this battle, I wasn¡¯t in dark waters just yet.


    It was as if we were doing some intricate battle choreography for a fight scene. I had yet to attack, just focusing only on dodging and moving out of the way of all manner of attacks while doing my best to pay attention to the movements of all 9 Hobgoblins.


    This too was training.


    I didn¡¯t have eyes in the back of my head, nor did I have multiple brains to process every little piece of information I received.


    It was hard.


    If I was a little bit weaker this fight would¡¯ve looked a lot different.


    Thankfully I was not.


    And with a wide grin that somehow found its way onto my face, I finally began attacking.


    The fight didn¡¯t last long from that point on.


    One swing of mine was all it took to eliminate each one. They could follow my swings with their eyes, but their bodies simply couldn''t keep up.


    Before long, the battle with the Hobgoblins was over, but the horde of Goblins were still running headfirst into the flames. From the start of the battle till now, it had been roughly over 30ish minutes, maybe closer to 45 mins? It was always hard to keep track of time with no clock.


    Anyway, the majority of that time was spent fighting the regular Goblins, while the Hobgoblin battle was short and sweet.


    Though with my flames continuously burning high into the sky this entire time, I could finally feel somewhat of a strain somewhere deep inside of me.


    They would die down soon.


    So before that happened I willed the flames to come crashing down like might of a tsunami once it swelled to imaginable heights.


    The nearby area of the Outpost and a little bit into the forest was all covered in flames.


    I stood calmly as the flames danced all around me, burning all the Goblins to ash.

 Wounded (Chapter 82)

    (Outpost G Residents Only)


    Defense Successful


    Unlike yesterday, there wasn¡¯t anything said about repairing the Outpost. Maybe I should let them damage the gate a little so I can see the repairs again. It was really cool to look at after all.


    While standing there reminiscing about the gate repairs from yesterday, I heard the gate open, and Richard walked out.


    ¡°We got the notification. How was it?¡±


    ¡°It was fine, good training. Though I need a new shirt as you can see.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s good that you¡¯re alright. We got word to everyone in the Outpost regarding the beacon, some people were a little against it out of fear of the unknown, but most people seem to be on board. Even the doubters weren¡¯t inherently against it, just a little nervous or scared.¡±


    ¡°Good, I¡¯m going to grab a new shirt, and commission a new spear as well, I¡¯ll meet you at the Shop in a bit.¡±


    ¡°Are you also planning on getting new armor? I noticed you haven¡¯t been wearing it recently. I know your strong, but extra protection doesn¡¯t hurt.¡±


    Actually¡­I really just forgot about it. He makes a good point though; I shouldn¡¯t let all these ¡®easy¡¯ victories get to my head.


    ¡°Ah you¡¯re right, I¡¯ll get some new armor too. My old set is still mostly fine, perhaps someone can fit it? I¡¯ll give it to you later.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    And with that, I headed home while he headed someplace else. I quickly grabbed my pouch of coins and a new shirt as well, before making my way towards the Blacksmith. Though I was stopped on my way there.


    ¡°Hi Raz.¡±


    Irene just happened to see me as she exited the shop and said hi with a small smile.


    ¡°Hi Irene, how was training this morning?¡±


    ¡°It was good! And I think I¡¯ll reach the 2nd Cycle really soon.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that does good. I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡±


    ¡°Will you be entering the Dungeons again tonight?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the plan is to go after training, but the beacon may change things.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­well either way I¡¯ll be ready, please come find me whenever you¡¯re ready to go. Later Raz!¡±


    She didn¡¯t wait for a response and just smiled as she walked away.


    I really do feel like prey.


    Eh, I don¡¯t mind it for right now though, all¡¯s well that ends well.


    Eventually I continued on my way to the Blacksmith and placed the necessary orders for both my armor and the spear. I¡¯d have to come back tomorrow morning for the spear, but he assured me it would be ready before I needed to defend the Outpost.


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    A few moments later, I was walking into the shop with a new set of armor on. It was empty inside, with the exception of Greja.


    ¡°Welcome in Raizen! Great job this morning.¡±


    Of course, Greja greeted me with a smile as always, and she seemed to know about this morning. Which kind of got me thinking. I wonder if this is the first time she is seeing an Infernal fight. Probably not, right? She is from the wider Multiverse after all.


    ¡°Thank you for the welcome Greja. I have a quick question. Have you seen other Infernals fight before?¡±


    The smile slowly left her face before she responded.


    ¡°No, you are the first.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a bit surprising. Are Infernals not very common?¡±


    ¡°Most people would do their best to avoid fighting or seeing an Infernal fight.¡±


    Hm, the mood kind of shifted so I¡¯ll drop it here. I guess that¡¯s not a topic she wants to talk about though. My only worry is that it sounds like we¡¯re villains for real. I hope one of my new responsibilities isn¡¯t to be a villainous bastard, because I don¡¯t really plan on doing so.


    Anyway, I thanked her for answering, and before the atmosphere could get too awkward, Richard walked in.


    ¡°Hey Raiz...uh Raz, it¡¯s going to take some time to get used to that.¡±


    ¡°Raizen is fine too, you don¡¯t actually have to say Raz.¡±


    ¡°Ahh¡­I¡¯ll stick to Raizen then. Ready to start the beacon?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s do it. We would like to turn the beacon on.¡±


    ¡°Great! The cost will be 2 Silver Coins, and just as a reminder, at least 30% of all Outpost G residents must agree to the notification to turn the beacon on. If you are okay with that requirement, please place the required coins on the counter.¡±


    I placed 100 Bronze Coins, and Richard placed another 100 Bronze Coins. Now that I think about it, I wonder how they¡¯re doing on money. The Goblins from the morning don¡¯t drop cores. I¡¯ll need to talk to him about that.


    ¡°Thank you, please step outside as the beacon will activate above the shop.¡±


    Both of us walked out of the shop, and even took a few steps away from it for a better view.


    We didn¡¯t have to wait much longer before we heard a sound like something massive was starting up. Not quite like an engine, but maybe the sound you would expect to hear from a ¡®particle accelerator¡¯ starting up in a movie.


    It really sounded crazy. But crazy in a way that you really enjoyed the sound.


    It continued to rev up in speed, for around a minute before there was a small flash of light, kind of like a spark and then a massively large beam of light rose up from just slightly above the shop.


    It truly was massive.


    It stretched far into the sky and even now I couldn¡¯t see its top. It was also about as thick as a light post. It would certainly be seen from extremely far distances.


    ¡°Wow¡­if there really is anyone out there then they will definitely see this. Though seeing it, and actually coming are two different things.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d actually choose to approach a random beam of light that sprang up out of nowhere.¡±


    ¡°Desperation may change that though.¡±


    Richard had a point, when people became desperate, I¡¯m sure they¡¯d grab onto any small piece of hope they could find.


    ¡°By the way Richard, you all should probably start hitting Dungeons soon. That¡¯s currently the best way to make money. We don¡¯t know if the coins we earn here can be taken out of the Tutorial or if it will even be relevant, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to be prepared.¡±


    ¡°Your right, we actually talked about it this morning. As of right now our current schedule will be training in the morning by ourselves, a short rest then straight into cultivating. Then we will do the official group training later followed by another short rest and then a Dungeon run.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    And so, time continued to pass.


    We followed a pretty routine schedule for days.


    I would defend the Outpost in the morning while the others trained, they would cultivate while I practiced with my flames in my room. Then came a grueling training session with the Outpost Leader, those were always fun.


    Afterwards we would make Dungeon runs. Which also became kind of routine in a way since Richard finally reached 3rd Cycle. He led the team into the Goblin Outpost Dungeon by himself and I was just there to watch which kind of almost became a moot point since a few others reached 2nd Cycle as well. Though me watching wasn¡¯t completely useless as I was still learning the art of commanding from Richard.


    It wasn¡¯t until day 6 of this new stage that something finally happened.


    ¡°Raizen come! Sean found someone in the forest! The person is heavily wounded!¡±


    Sean was one of our scouts, and he really enjoyed it from what I understood. So, despite the added dangers of the forests these days, he still keep going out every day in search of anything at all. It seems today he finally found something.

 Chen and Chao (Chapter 83)

    I eventually made my way to the front of the Outpost where Sean was approaching the gate with someone on his back. Though as he got to the gate, we all got to see something very interesting.


    There was a barrier of sorts preventing them from walking any further. They were about 5 feet from the gate but couldn¡¯t much a single inch further. Of course, before anyone could freak out Richard realized the problem and handed Sean 5 Copper Coins that he just happened to have on him. How convenient.


    What was curious to me though, was that Richard didn¡¯t walk into the barrier that was stopping Sean from progressing. Even though he was standing right next to him, it was as if there was nothing at all there, yet for Sean there was clearly something stopping him.


    The barrier didn¡¯t go away after Richard gave him the money, and we realized it was likely that the person his back had to pay for themselves, but the person was unconscious.


    So, Richard placed the coins in their hands and held the hand shut for them, a second or two later, and Sean almost fell forward after the barrier disappeared, and after Richard let go of the person¡¯s hand, we could see the coins had vanished as well. Wow, that was something.


    I honestly forgot about the cost of entry a long time ago, especially since Mr. Gate Guard man retired from this position.


    Moving on, we brought the person to one of the houses and laid him down in an empty room.


    Looking at him now, he appeared to be an Asian dude, not really sure which country though. He looked to be maybe around 30, it was kind of hard to tell, and his clothes¡­he was wearing the same clothes we were wearing. Where would he have been able to buy that? Is this the second Outpost he was arriving at by any chance?


    While we waited for him to wake up, Sean went to explain the circumstances in which he found him.


    ¡°I was way out past the Green Den, probably an hour or so past it. Moving farther than I probably should be going, but I just kind of did. Eventually I heard what sounded like grunts of pain and my first thought was to run away, as I figured it would be a Goblin or something, but then I heard a word. He was calling for help.


    ¡°I moved closer to the sound, and that¡¯s when I noticed the man leaning up against a tree. He had stab wounds all over his body and a few Goblin corpses lay next to him. I watched from a distance for a few moments to see if anyone else would approach him because he was calling for help. I assumed he must¡¯ve had a partner of some kind.


    "Though, after a few minutes no one came, and the guy was bleeding out fast. So, I did the next best thing, and I dressed his wounds as best as I could before putting him on my back and walked all the way were.


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty much it.¡±


    Wow, that honestly sounded like something out of a movie.


    Someone else might¡¯ve been upset at him for not helping the guy right away but I knew it was the right thing to do. He was out there all alone, with no backup, and no way to actually call for help. So, him being extremely cautious was the right thing to do. I simply told him good job, before refocusing on the unconscious guy.


    A guy in Tutorial clothing, out deep in the middle of the forest, apparently by himself who nearly died to some Goblins. It has weirdness written all over it. I eventually left asking them to come get me when they guy woke up.


    I didn¡¯t feel like just standing there watching some dude sleep.


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    So, I began making way to the training grounds to at least get some training in. I had already done my training with the Outpost Leader for the day which of course was a bloody mess, and it was around time to hit the Dungeons but this guy showing up kind of ruined that. Speaking of the Dungeons, I still think about the Goblin Village from time to time. There wasn¡¯t much time left in the Tutorial, and I wanted to give myself enough time to not only try it at least once, but also be able to do it multiple times for whatever rewards it provided.


    It said a minimum of 5 4th Cycle Cultivators are required, and it was a D class Dungeon. The Green Den is F, the Goblin Outpost is E, and this is D. I don¡¯t know the type of gap that separated E from D, but it felt stupid to risk it when the there was a possibility that the Dungeon¡¯s objective required me to complete the Dungeon or die trying.


    Which means It¡¯s probably to push to the 6th Cycle and maybe even beyond. I¡¯ve waited long enough. I want to get out of the Tutorial as strong as possible and although I can push for the Qi Refinement realm right now, it didn¡¯t make sense to just give up on this extra strength. Alright, I¡¯ll tell the Outpost Leader after training tomorrow.


    Anyway, I barely got to practice with my spear for around 15 minutes before Micah came over to let me know the mystery man had woken up. \


    We made our way back over and there he was, still laying on the bed but he was crying¡­why was he crying...?


    ¡°Micah¡­why is he crying?¡±


    Of course I did my best to whisper.


    ¡°Oh, when he woke up, he kept asking for someone else, another man named Chen, but Sean said he didn¡¯t see another person out there. Of course, he tried telling him that whoever else could¡¯ve just escaped somewhere else, and Sean reminded him, that he didn¡¯t search the entire area, but he kept saying this Chen person would¡¯ve been right next to him.¡±


    Ah¡­I see. Then it was probably a situation similar to Jax. If he died, then he was likely absorbed into the ground.


    Hm.


    We all stood there, kind of just watching him cry for a few minutes.


    It was kind of awkward, but no one left¡­I wanted to leave again, but I think it would make it more awkward if I left at this point.


    When he finally stopped crying, the first thing he did was thank Sean profusely for saving his life, then he apologized to the rest of us for crying so much. Of course, no one blamed him, and a few people reassured him that everything was okay.


    Though I noticed something weird. He was speaking perfect English. No problems there.


    But his lips¡­it didn¡¯t really match the words he was saying. Something about it just seemed off.


    This is when I decided to step in.


    ¡°Hi, my name is Raizen. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Ah sorry sorry, my name is Chao.¡±


    Chen and Chao, I think those are Chinese names, but I¡¯m not exactly sure. What I do know though, is that the only time the movement of his lips matched what he was saying was when he said his name.


    ¡°No worries, Chao. I know a lot has happened to you, but are you able to answer some questions for us? Sean here found you rather far away from where we are currently.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes¡­my bother and I¡­we were sent to investigate a beam of light rising up in the forest. We were very careful, but the closer we got to the beam, the more dangerous the forest around us became. We eventually ran into a horde that we could not handle and did our best to escape. Chen was the only one who managed to reach 1st Cycle, so he tried to buy me time¡­we got separated and a few Goblins came after me¡­I managed to kill them, but as you all can see, they would¡¯ve likely killed me too if Mr. Sean hadn¡¯t reached me in time¡­¡±


    He spoke softly and I could see he was on the verge of crying once again but he said something that threw me off. He was sent here.


    ¡°You were sent...By whom?¡±


    ¡°¡­Our Leader. Or well group of leaders. Our group was controlled by 3 men, all three of them were brothers, they weren¡¯t bad or anything like that, but eventually the entire group agreed that the light needed to be investigated, and my brother and I were chosen for the role. Both of us did a lot of the scouting for the group so it was kind of a given that we would be chosen.¡±


    I see¡­he came from a group¡­another Outpost?


    ¡°Did you come from another Outpost?¡±


    He looked confused.


    ¡°What¡¯s an Outpost?¡±


    ¡­.


    ¡°¡­.Where is your group living?¡±


    ¡°¡­We live in the forest. We were able to buy tents and provisions from a passing merchant, but it is still the forest¡­we don¡¯t have any houses like this though¡­how were you able to cut down the trees? We tried and nothing we did could do anything to the trees.¡±


    ¡­.


    One quick glance around the room and it was easy to notice the shocked expressions of everyone present.


    Living in the forest? A passing merchant? Tents?


    Just how lucky were we to find this Outpost?


    ¡°¡­Did I say something wrong? Why do you all look so shocked?¡±

 Wanna Move? (Chapter 84)

    After getting over the shock what Chao said, I explained to him, that this was an Outpost. I talked about the Shop, the Blacksmith, and the Alchemy Shop, and his eyes widened with each word. Of course I didn¡¯t leave out the training grounds, or the walls that surrounded every building. It was his turn to be shocked at the news. We had been talking for a while, so I finally offered to let him rest but he said it was fine, as this was very important for him and his group.


    Hm, we¡¯ll get back to that.


    ¡°Chao, I apologize id this comes across as offensive, but what language are you speaking?¡±


    I couldn¡¯t hold back my curiosity any longer. His mouth was moving one way, but words sounded like perfectly clear English. It kind of reminded me of watching those terrible cam recorded bootleg movies, where the sound didn¡¯t sync up with the video.


    ¡°I¡¯m speaking Mandarin. I¡¯m assuming you all are speaking English, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we are¡­but Mandarin? How are you speaking Mandarin?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m Chinese. I was at home in China with my brother when all of this happened. And¡­based on your reaction, everyone in this Outpost pretty much speaks English right?


    ¡°Yes, we do.¡±


    I knew everyone from the planet was transported to the Tutorial. It wasn¡¯t like those shows or movies that had world ending crises, but the entire story was set in one city in America. No, the entire planet was affected by this. And even though I knew that, it still felt a little surreal to see someone was living on the complete other side of the world sitting here.


    ¡°That makes sense, we dealt with something similar during the first week or so. There are a lot of people from all over the world in my group. A lot of different languages were being spoken at the same time, but everyone only hears the language they are most familiar with. Even now as I communicate with you all. I am hearing Mandarin. It looks weird because your lips definitely aren¡¯t moving according to what your saying due to the fact your speaking English, but I am hearing Mandarin.¡±


    Now it was back to us being shocked again¡­


    Again, I knew there was definitely some type of way, to speak the same language as someone else, because Greja is a whole different race from humans altogether, yet she appeared to speak perfect English. Well, her lips matched her words so maybe she was actually speaking English? I don¡¯t know. Either way, this is amazing. With everyone being forcefully teleported to who knows where, to fight off monsters, it would probably really suck if you couldn¡¯t understand the people you were teleported with.


    Hopefully this isn¡¯t something restricted to the Tutorial and this ability persists afterwards as well.


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    Anyway.


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s actually amazing, I¡¯m sure that was really helpful for your group, but speaking of your group. How many of you are there?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact number but by now there are probably a little under 100 of us. We weren¡¯t always that big, but over the weeks, new people would pop up from time to time, and we would then have to wait until the merchant came back so that they can get tents. Until then new folks would have no choice but to sleep outside, or maybe be lucky enough that someone else wanted to share.¡±


    Close to a 100 people¡­that¡¯s a lot of people to just introduce to the Outpost all at once. A small part of me would rather not do that, but this was the whole point of turning on the Beacon.


    ¡°What about attacks? Was your group facing attacks every morning?¡±


    ¡°We have been attacked at least once a day for the last couple weeks. They¡¯ve ramped up a bit recently but it¡¯s kind of the norm for us. Thankfully we have a lot of good fighters now, and the brothers were strong. Two of them were 2nd Cycle, and the Eldest was 3rd Cycle. So, they are a big help in defending the group, and it was part of the reason everyone kind of accepted them as the leaders of the group.¡±


    3rd Cycle huh¡­I see. Also, he said everyone accepted them. That kind of implies they weren¡¯t being forced, which is a good thing. And once a day for the last couple of weeks. That doesn¡¯t really sound like what we¡¯ve been going through. Well, he said it ramped up a bit recently, so maybe that¡¯s their version of the new stage.


    ¡°Now this merchant, what do they look like and how does it all work?¡±


    ¡°He kind of just shows up. He wears a mask and a cloak, but we can see his hands, and he is definitely green. We all initially thought he was a Goblin when we first showed up and attacked, but one casual swipe was of his was enough to knock as all down, but thankfully instead of pressing the issue, he just explained that he was a merchant here to provide goods to us.


    ¡°The only things he sold us were food pills, water, clothes, tutorial weapons, tents, and a basic cultivation manual. Reading that was quite the shock. I grew up hearing about Qi and other similar concepts, so it was a big surprise to read about it. Haha¡­my brother felt like all of China was destined for greatness and he worked to get stronger¡­sorry about that¡­I¡¯ll continue. Ahem, the Merchant didn¡¯t carry any goods with him, he just listed out the things we could buy, the cost, and the quantities we were allowed to purchase. Oh, and he exchanged the cores of Goblins for coins.


    ¡°Once we told him what we wanted, and provided the necessary payment, the items would simply appear and then he would vanish. That was it.¡±


    So this merchant was likely of the same race as Greja and the others. Interesting. He also didn¡¯t sell any potions, or most of the things from the shop, so these folks were cultivating without much help. I guess folks either adapt and survive or stay the same and die.


    Though this was good overall. 26 Outpost were definitely not enough for the billions of people on earth, so its good that for others who weren¡¯t able to make it to an Outpost to still get some support in the form of a merchant.


    Now...what should we do next. I guess I should ask him how feels first. It¡¯s probably not wise to assume they even want to move here.


    ¡°So, Chao, what do you plan to do from here?¡±


    ¡°¡­Well, I was hoping that you all would allow my group to move to this Outpost. Even if we aren¡¯t given houses, we would be thankful even have the opportunity to move our tents inside the walls!¡±


    Okay I guess it was dumb to assume they wouldn¡¯t want to move here. Of course, Chao doesn¡¯t speak for all of them, but I¡¯m sure most of them probably feel the same way. My only worry would be the three brothers. I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s hard to give up leadership once you have it. Would they be alright with taking a backseat to Richard and myself?


    I hope so.


    For their sake.

 Ominous Words (Chapter Eighty Five)

    We talked a bit more about how far Chao¡¯s group was located, which is actually quite far. At least by walking and running metrics which is all we can do¡­anyway, the from the Outpost to where Sean found Chao, is already a couple hours away, like three-ish or so. Obviously if I ran full speed the whole time that time would be cut down by quite a lot, but it¡¯s not really good to judge time like that. At least not when other people are involved.


    So, the time is just kind of based on a cautious walk through the forest. Moving on, Chao said he had been traveling for about half a day before they ran into trouble, and he almost died to the wounds he got before Sean found him.


    Basically, it would be quite a journey to have their entire group make it all the way here safely. Especially with the added danger around here apparently. But I think there is more danger around Outposts period, not just with the upgrade. The battles and problems they faced didn¡¯t seem so bad in comparison to the things we dealt with before the upgrade. Even just one of the random raids we experienced was way worse than anything they¡¯ve dealt with.


    He mentioned they have only seen one Hobgoblin this entire time. Just one. Of course he didn¡¯t know what it was called, but upon describing what it was he said one showed by itself, and it took all of their fighters to bring it down.


    I guess being in an Outpost is a blessing and a curse huh. Though the curse part is negligible if you can handle the danger.


    Eventually we all exited the room to let Chao rest, but I told him we¡¯d be travelling back to his group after our defense was completed tomorrow. After that we all just went about the rest of our day. Which for me, was just going to be talking to the Outpost Leader. I decided not to tag along as the group went out for Dungeon runs, not that I was needed anymore. Of course, the Goblin Outpost would be a lot easier if I was there to dodge arrows and break the gate from the run while they ran in, but they can manage by themselves.


    Richard was still the only one at 3rd Cycle, but a lot of people were 2nd Cycle by this point, so they could manage just fine. Especially with all of the training everyone has been doing recently. Even Irene reached 2nd Cycle, and although we haven¡¯t a chance to do anymore Dungeon runs with just us two, we have been training together when we got the chance.


    Today wouldn¡¯t be one of those chances though. Eventually I was in the office of the Outpost Leader.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready to try advancing to the 6th Cycle.¡±


    He looked at me calmly for a moment before responding.


    ¡°Not in here.¡±


    Was all he said before getting up and walking out of his office. I just followed. It wasn¡¯t a long walk though, we stayed in his house and just moved to another room. Though one was empty.


    At least until he waved his hand, and then an all-black rug appeared on the ground. A pretty large one at that. I stared at it for a second, but didn¡¯t bother to say anything. He didn¡¯t either. Though I guess he didn¡¯t want me getting blood in his office and the rug likely came from some type of storage treasure like the ring I still haven¡¯t been able to use¡­or the dagger¡­or the necklace¡­it almost makes me want to skip these extra Body Tempering Cycles and go for the Qi Refinement realm immediately, but I can wait.


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    At some point I walked to the rug and sat down. I didn¡¯t need any more instructions at this point. The Outpost Leader was mostly there to watch in case something went wrong.


    I closed my eyes and began the process of cultivating. After some time, I felt something like a barrier stopping me from progressing, but it wasn¡¯t like the barrier to reach the 5th Cycle. This was weak. Far too weak. This was supposed to be harder than the 5th, but that breakthrough likely changed my body far too much for something like this to be dangerous for me like it was for others.


    Of course that didn¡¯t mean I was going to rush the process.


    I took my time gathering the Qi and slowly willing it into my body. What surprised me was that it actually took some effort to keep the process slow. Manipulating the Qi seemed far too easy, and it almost appeared desperate to enter my body for some reason. Weird.


    Anyway, the process went pretty normally for the most part and at some point, a resounding pop sounded and just like that I was now a 6th Cycle Body Tempering Realm Cultivator.


    That felt far too easy.


    Eventually I opened my eyes, and the Outpost Leader was looking at me with widened eyes. Though only for a second or two. Then it was followed by silence for a few minutes.


    ¡°I came very close to dying when I broke through to the 6th Cycle. Very close. So close that I did not attempt the 7th.


    ¡°But you¡­you truly might be able to go all the way to the 9th Cycle. I will not tell you what to do, but I will give you some advice. At the moment the challenges you face are not so hard that they will cause you specifically trouble. But they soon will be, and that is just within the Tutorial. Whether you decide to continue climbing through the Body Tempering Realm or attempt breaking through to Qi Refinement, it would be best not to tally. That is all.¡±


    After saying such ominous words, he left like he typically does. Vanishing. Though I have a feeling he only vanished to his office¡­across the hall. Not that I would check.


    I looked down at myself, and my wounds were already healing themselves. Heh.


    Anyway, I got up and looked towards the bloodied rug for a moment before leaving. I¡¯m sure if he wanted me to wash it, he would¡¯ve said something. Right? Right.


    As I made my way home, a few people passed me by, but no one paid me much attention even with all the blood on my clothes.


    After all the training I did with the Outpost Leader, me walking around with bloody clothes was kind of normal at this point. Eventually I made my way home and washed up before heading to the shop. I needed to restock on food pills and clothes.


    After making it to the shop and making the purchases I came for. Greja surprised me with a request.


    ¡°Is it possible to ask around to see if anyone would like to be a merchant after the Tutorial is over? I¡¯ve been waiting to find one by checking the people who enter the shop, but only the same few people ever come here. You, Richard, and a couple of others who always make large purchases for your group.¡±


    ¡°Ah sure I can ask around but a merchant? What would be the benefit of that?¡±


    ¡°Hmm I think I know why you¡¯re asking but please elaborate.¡±


    ¡°Well, if someone wants to open a shop, they can do that, but why do they need to be trained in being a merchant? I understand it¡¯s a skill in of itself to be good at negotiating and things like that, but¡­I don¡¯t think I¡¯m doing good job at explaining it sorry.¡±


    She smiled warmly as she responded.


    ¡°No worries, I understand. Though all I¡¯ll say is this. The System will be playing a much bigger part in your lives after the Tutorial. I can¡¯t say anymore than that at the moment, but you¡¯ll see eventually.¡±


    I thanked her for the advice and left. I¡¯ll see if anyone¡¯s interested. Hmm, I wonder about the blacksmith, no one has taken up the opportunity to try and learn.


    ¡­Maybe I should try after all?


    Hmmm...


    Nah.

 What do I want? (Chapter Eighty Six)

    After leaving the shop I went home to briefly write a note, that I then left with one of the folks currently on guard duty. I told them to hand it to Richard when he gets back. It wasn¡¯t a big secret or anything, so I didn¡¯t care if they read it. The was just  telling Richard to ask around if anyone is interested in being a merchant, and that person will likely play a big role even after the Tutorial.


    Well that second part was mostly just an assumption on my part based on what Greja said to me, but it felt right.


    Eventually I made it back home, but instead of any sort of training, I washed myself up and kind of just laid on my bed. There was a lot on my mind.


    I¡¯ve been kind of thinking about it for a while now, but the words from the Outpost Leader today kind of brought it to the forefront again. I think he was referring to the Tutorial getting more dangerous, for me. Likely in the next stage, but that¡¯s not where my thoughts drifted towards.


    It was life after the Tutorial¡­


    I became something akin to a leading figure here in the Tutorial. I have people that I am willingly choosing to protect, I¡¯m not even sure when it happened but it did. I chose this, and the group will likely get bigger once we integrate Chao¡¯s group. Obviously, Richard and the others will be there as well, but I see the difference in all of them. They would listen to me, they trust me, they see me as a leader. Is this what I want to do after the Tutorial?


    There will be no more governments, at least not in the way we¡¯re used to having them. People will cling to strength. And that strength will want to lead. I mean of course they would, why would you take orders from someone you easily defeat should a disagreement arise? Before all of this, one of the biggest deterrents to crime was prison. No one wanted to go to prison, of course people still committed crimes every day, but it was a small % in the grand scheme of things, but now? How are you going to take me to prison if I could destroy your entire city? If your strongest fighters can¡¯t hold me down? No¡­I can put you in prison for defying me instead. Who would stop me? Who would dare complain?


    Words will no longer have the affect on people in power like they did before. Not unless there was a even playing field. It would all depend on who had the biggest fist. If a tyrant was running a city into the ground, just get stronger than the tyrant and you can take over, and likewise if you were a good leader with happy people, but someone stronger than you, and your combined military force showed up, then it wouldn¡¯t matter if you were good or not, your life would be in their hands.


    That is the type of place this new world would be, even if everything was good for a while, greed will eventually come into the picture. Human beings are inherently greedy. Most know how to keep that greed in check, or perhaps that greed is limited to food, or clothes, just things that wouldn¡¯t harm other people if you acquired a lot of it through legal means, but what if its your sword? That paid a pretty sum to have made. Or a maybe necklace that can save your life. Or maybe it¡¯s the city you live in¡­perhaps you have access to resources that the other city/country doesn¡¯t.


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    There were entire wars fought over resources in life before people could decimate entire buildings with a fist. I could only imagine what a war between cultivators would look like.


    So Raz¡­what is it you want to do eh¡­


    Do I want to live away from civilization? Like a powerful hidden hermit in the stories? Or maybe I want to live in someone else¡¯s lands but keep my head down as much as possible. Or is it leading? Do I want to start my own country? Have citizens depend on me for help? For support? Protection? Guidance? Stability? Is this the type of responsibility I want on my shoulders?


    I don¡¯t know¡­


    I¡¯m getting a taste of it now¡­but I¡¯m close with many of the residents here, and even the ones I¡¯m not close to, I at least have spoken to once or twice. What would a country look like? Wouldn¡¯t it be potentially thousands of people eventually? Maybe millions? I won¡¯t know majority of them. Is this what I want for myself¡­


    Honestly¡­the answer is no.


    I do not want to be tied to due to responsibility of a leader of a country.


    But I do not want to be under the rule of another person. I simply can¡¯t do it. Even the thought of it causes my flames to feel disgusted. As if they¡¯re telling me that no one is allowed to stand above me. That doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t live in someone else¡¯s country and be fine, but it means I will likely not do well if they try to enforce a rule, I don¡¯t like on me. Taxes for example. All places will eventually have them¡­I can even imagine places where they will control the entrances to dungeons, and tax people for using it. Maybe even take a % of their rewards.


    I would find that unacceptable.


    So the best way to avoid a scenario like that If I want to live amongst others, would be to make sure I¡¯m the one who makes the rules. Why would I tax myself I didn¡¯t want to?


    But I don¡¯t want to be bogged down by the pains or ruling¡­though at the same time if I decide to start a country, I will not do so willy nilly. It would need to be done properly. I don¡¯t like the idea of appointing someone to do everything for me while I¡¯m nowhere to be found.


    Though¡­there is a balance there that I like¡­I could have someone kind of like a mayor or a governor or something handle to day to day, while I am training or in a dungeon, or exploring or whatever it is I want to do¡­but I just need to make sure I am kept up to date, and there are contingences in place for certain decisions when I¡¯m not there to make them. And when I am there, make sure to be hands on as much as possible. If I do this, it will be done right.


    Which begs the question¡­who would I make this mayor person? Well, who else but Richard? Of course I can¡¯t make him, and who knows if we¡¯ll even get sent back together¡­


    Hmm¡­alright I have my plan. If Richard is available and is willing to do this, then I¡¯ll go ahead and start my own country. If Richard is not available, then I¡¯ll just live my life accordingly. Although I would like to avoid causing problems everywhere I go, it won¡¯t be too much of a problem to put someone in their place if they get too rowdy.


    Now with that being said¡­whether I want to start a country, or I just want to be free, I will need strength. Strength to make sure I can protect this potentially country, or the strength to make sure I can walk freely anywhere I want without fear. I¡¯ll be speeding up my development. I will reach Qi Refinement before the Tutorial is over, but the 9th Cycle is first. No more waiting. As long as my body can handle it, I will push until I reach it. All someone has to do is reach the 5th Cycle then they can attempt to reach the next realm. Which means in the time I¡¯m spending to make it to the 9th Cycle, Qi Refinement realm cultivators could be popping up. Plus, there¡¯s the added danger¡¯s the Outpost Leader mentioned. He wouldn¡¯t say that for no reason.


    Alright¡­I know what I need to do¡­

 Piggy-Back (Chapter Eighty Seven)

    Eventually morning was here again, and it was time for another defense of the Outpost. The only training they could help me with kind of went out the window after I reached the 6th Cycle, so I didn¡¯t bother putting up a wall of flames to encircle the Outpost.


    Instead of waiting for them to reach me, I simply let my flames flow freely and ferociously through the forest. Like a surging river, anything that I deemed an enemy was quickly engulfed and seemingly drowned in black flames. Despite their sheer number and willingness to run through the flames in an effort to reach me, it would never be enough.


    I¡¯m sure someone else in my position could most likely easily fall into a dangerous line of thinking. That they were ¡®extremely strong¡¯ or ¡®OP¡¯ as people like to say. It might even be hard to convince them they weren¡¯t. Here I am casually standing in front of an Outpost with around a 100 people depending on me to keep them alive. Every single one of them putting their trust in my abilities.


    And thousands of Goblins putting that trust to the test, a number that would easily kill every single human in this Outpost multiple times over. Yet, it was fairly easy for me. This was no test, or even a proper challenge.


    Yet I knew better.


    This was just a Tutorial.


    This was just a taste of what could easily happen once we were home. What if it was thousands of Qi Refinement Goblins instead? What if their leaders were in the Core Formation Realm? Would I still be able to stand here casually? No, I¡¯d likely die.


    There would be no dover, no second chances, no wait let me try again, nothing. I would simply just die.


    So, with that being said I refused to let these small victories get to my head and just appreciated it for what it was. I am stronger, and I have certain advantages due to being an Infernal. That is all.


    Eventually the last of the Goblins were dead, and the notification signifying a successful defense of the Outpost appeared. Ignoring it I went back inside to find Chao, who was in the room that was being lent to him. He seemed scared.


    ¡°Is everything alright Chao?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­sorry. I felt¡­something, but one of the others assured me everything was okay and that it was just you defending the Outpost. I¡¯m alright¡­ready to go when you are.¡±


    Hm¡­weird, but if he says he¡¯s ready then whatever, I guess.


    ¡°Alright let¡¯s go.¡±


    He didn¡¯t come here with anything other than the clothes on his back, but he was leaving with a pouch that contained food pills, a bottle of water, and a basic Tutorial sword. Outpost G knew how to handle guests. Anyway, we were seen off by just Richard and Irene. I asked Richard to let the Outpost Leader know I would be missing training. Though I¡¯m sure he knew I was leaving, but just in case.


    Chao didn¡¯t know how strong I was per se, so he did question why I was the only following him, but Irene assured him that I¡¯d be enough. Of course, even she didn¡¯t know I reached the 6th Cycle, but it didn¡¯t matter.


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    Moving on, Chao didn¡¯t really have a say in the matter and decided to just go with it. Not that he had a choice as he both needed and wanted to return to his group.


    Eventually we left and we were slowly jogging our way through the forest.


    It was a silent, and slow jog for about 15 minutes when Chao asked for a break.


    ¡°I need a moment...¡±


    He wasn¡¯t panting heavily or anything, but I guess this makes sense since he hadn¡¯t even reached the 1st Cycle yet. I think I forgot. This would take forever. How did I forget about this¡­


    ¡°Get on.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°I need to take you home and return before the defense tomorrow. No time to waste. Get on.¡±


    ¡°But¡­¡±


    ¡°Chao. Get. On.¡±


    I don¡¯t think I ever planned on bullying someone into accepting a piggyback ride from me, but the Tutorial changes people¡­


    Ahem, I lowered myself to allow Chao to climb up and once he finally did, I stood back and adjusted myself accordingly. Huh, he was light. Like really light. I barely felt anything. He might as well not have been there. That¡¯s the 6th Cycle for you.


    I didn¡¯t bother saying anything else, and just began running. I knew the way to the Green Den, so I didn¡¯t need directions up until that point, which meant the journey went by rather fast.


    Chao was silent the whole time, but he seemed to be doing fine.


    Not long after, I was near the entrance to the Green Den. I stopped to let him get off and drink some water.


    ¡°Recognize the area?¡±


    ¡°¡­No¡­not yet. I was likely unconscious when passing through this part of the forest with the fellow who saved me.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll jogging a bit slower from this point, stop me once you recognize the area.¡±


    I was once again giving a piggyback ride as I began jogging past the Dungeon. Sean described the path he took, and I was doing my best to follow it. It was basically just keep going past the Dungeon but slightly to the right, and if I went in this direction for some time I¡¯d eventually reach the general area where he found Chao.


    And that¡¯s exactly what happened. 45 minutes later.


    ¡°Ah I know this spot! I remember stumbling my way around this area after getting separated from my brother. Run in that direction for a couple of hours and we¡¯ll eventually reach the group.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    I didn¡¯t waste any more time, and just moved according to the directions. Making sure not to move too fast so that he wouldn¡¯t miss any details and lose our location.


    I traveled like this for around three hours.


    We only took two breaks during that time for Chao to take a food pill, use the restroom, and drink some water.


    I will hand it to him, he didn¡¯t complain once after we began moving like this. It was a little boring just running through the forest like this, but we were both content to move in silence. The only thing that surprised me was the lack of Goblins. We weren¡¯t attacked once. And I don¡¯t think I was moving fast enough to make them give up and not chase me without at least trying. Kind of weird.


    Anyway, a little over three hours later we arrived. In the distance, I could already see the makings of a small camp, and I had long since been hearing the hustle and bustle of said camp.


    Of course it took Chao a while longer to see that far, much less hear them but he saw them soon enough.


    ¡°Ah we¡¯re here. Can you let me down?¡±


    I kind of forgot about that¡­ahem I quickly let him down and we slowly walked up to the camp. The core of the camp was located in a very tiny clearing in the forest. From what I could see, the area was mainly taken up by the large campfire in the middle. Then around it and spreading into the forest was a number of tents. And that was pretty much it. Yep, I was thankful for the Outpost.  I expected it, but we weren¡¯t just allowed to waltz right on up.


    Eventually a few people noticed our approach and walked out to meet us, it only took a moment for them to recognize Chao.


    ¡°Chao!!! Your back!! Everyone!!! Chao made it back!!¡± It was a party of 2 that approached us, and one of them made that big announcement. Eventually what looked like the entire camp was surrounding us and being happy that Chao returned.


    I was almost an afterthought.


    Almost.


    ¡°Who is this Chao? Did you find him in the forest? And where is Chen? Is he coming later?¡±

 Meeting Nate (Chapter Eighty Eight)

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t find him in the forest. This is the leader of the group who saved me. Chen¡­Chen is likely dead¡­¡±


    The joy of Chao¡¯s return was quite literally sucked out of the group as the weight of his words sunk in. I watched on as shoulder¡¯s dropped, and a few pairs of eyes appeared on the brink of tears. Chao himself seemed like he was ready to break down again, but he managed to hold on. I¡¯m sure he would much rather retreat to somewhere quiet and private to mourn properly.


    Though this Tutorial is not making this like that easy.


    The sadness in the air was left to permeate for a few moments before someone new finally spoke up. It was a man. He was around 5¡¯10, dark skin, and typical brush cut. He appeared to be in his 30s but who¡¯s to say. A sword hung at his hip as he made himself known at the front of the crowd.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your loss Chao, Chen was a good guy. Are you able to tell us what happened ? And give a proper introduction to your friend here?¡±


    He seemed genuine enough, and apart from a few wary glances in my direction neither him nor anyone else has approached or said anything to me directly. I wonder why.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine Nate, I¡¯m fine. Let¡¯s find somewhere else to talk.¡±


    And with that the crown slowly began dispersing and Chao gestured me to follow as they moved towards the clearing where the lone campfire in the camp was built. It was a short walk, but instead of sitting by the campfire like I assumed, I was led inside one of the nearby tents.


    It was surprisingly spacious on the inside. It was enough for 3 grown men to be seated fairly comfortably. Not that we could get up and move around freely, but just enough room to set down on the ground and not push our elbows into whoever was next to us.


    The man I didn¡¯t know started talking first.


    ¡°So, I didn¡¯t catch your name.¡±


    ¡°Raizen.¡±


    ¡°Rai what?¡±


    ¡°Raizen.¡±


    ¡°Raizen¡­got it. I¡¯m Nate, nice to meet you Raizen.¡±


    He stuck out his hand for a handshake and I simply returned it. He tried to exert a little force in the handshake. It wasn¡¯t enough to hurt someone weaker than him, but it would¡¯ve been to display a small bit of superiority in the meeting. This was fairly normal. A man¡¯s handshake should be firm. Or at least that¡¯s what my dad used to say.


    Anyway, I was bit firmer. Again, not enough to hurt him or cause any discomfort, but enough to show I was likely stronger.


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    He didn¡¯t show any reaction to it.


    We pulled back and he continued, only this time he was looking at Chao.


    ¡°So, what exactly happened out there?¡±


    Chao then explained the everything that I¡¯d already heard up until the point where he was rescued by Sean. He then looked to me after that, it took me an awkward second to realize he was asking if it was alright to talk about what came next. Or maybe he was just asking me to take over in explaining? I don¡¯t know, but I decided to just take over anyway before the awkwardness continued.


    ¡°From there, one of our people found him unconscious and heavily wounded. He patched him as best as he could with what he had, and then dragged him back to our Outpost.¡±


    ¡°Outpost? You mean your camp?¡±


    ¡°Let me finish first, there¡¯s a lot to say.¡±


    He nodded to show he understood.


    From there I went on to explain everything that transpired after that. From paying the entry fee, to taking care of Chao, to the defense of the Outpost. I also went on and just talked about a few features of the Outpost for good measure. Like the shop, the alchemist, and the blacksmith.


    He asked many questions.


    From our defenses, to the beacon, to sleeping arrangements, to aliens, to space, to who was in the charge and a few other things. I answered all of them to the best of my ability. The question about being in charge was a bit weird for me. I kind of considered myself a leading figure in the Outpost but it has never ever actually been stated or agreed upon that I was in charge of anything. So, I simply told him I was the strongest in the Outpost.


    Eventually all of those questions boiled down to one all important question.


    ¡°I apologize for doing this when we literally just met, but would it be possible for my group to move there as well? Based on what you¡¯ve described, these houses don¡¯t have enough space for all of us, but we will be fine just being able to move our tents inside the Outpost. My brothers and I will defer to you, so you won¡¯t have to worry about that, we aren¡¯t leaders by trade. We just adapted faster and then people started depending on us and things just worked out that way.


    ¡°So please, even if its just women and children, please allow some of them to go back with you.¡±


    I was a little moved by his speech. I didn¡¯t have the heart to interrupt him as he spoke since I was going to offer to have them move into the Outpost anyway. The only reason I wouldn¡¯t have invited them is if they seemed like bad people, but everything seemed mostly fine for now, and this Nate fellow had a good head on his shoulders.


    And I kind of figured it out earlier, but this was one of the brothers that Chao said was in charge of the Outpost. I just hope the other brothers are as reasonable. No that I doubted that, but hey being brothers didn¡¯t mean being exactly one another.


    Anyway¡­


    ¡°Of course you all could move to the Outpost. We can work out sleeping arrangements and all of that later, but the key is to get to the Outpost. Though I won¡¯t be able to take anyone back with me today. I have to get back before the morning. The current stage ends in a couple of days, and on that last day the forest should be safe. I will come back for you all at that time. Be prepared.¡±


    Nate was a little disappointed that no one would be able to travel with me to the Outpost but didn¡¯t dwell on it too much. He accepted and digested everything I said and assured me that they¡¯d be ready at the appointed time.


    We didn¡¯t have much to discuss after that.


    I shook his hands again, and did the same with Chao, and then they walked with me to the edge of the camp. I wasn¡¯t one for long goodbyes, so I simply left after that.


    I didn¡¯t have to mind my speed, and I remembered the way back to the Outpost, so I could run a lot faster on my way back.


    Needless to say, it only took a couple hours for me to cover the entire journey back to the Outpost.


    I made my way to bed thinking it was going to be an interesting couple of days.

 Vamps (Chapter Eighty Nine)

    POV Chao


    Shortly after Raizen left the camp¡­


    ¡°Nate¡­did you feel it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think I did. He felt a little scary to be around. I only noticed it after we moved into the tent, and even then, it was still kind of barely there. I really thought my mind was playing tricks on me, but you just proved it didn¡¯t¡­¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m glad you felt it too. I thought I was losing it. None of the other people at the Outpost reacted to the feeling¡­and then when it was time for them to do the defense thing, he went out by himself¡­by himself Nate. They told me it was thousands of Goblins, and he went out by himself¡­That¡¯s not the scary part Nate¡­it¡¯s the fact he didn¡¯t even take an hour to come back. I felt something dreadful from beyond the walls of the Outpost, and I basically ran to the room they gave me. I couldn¡¯t help it¡­my entire body shivered¡­even my knees felt weak¡­ and before I knew it, he was in room telling me he¡¯s ready to go.


    ¡°I had to be near him the entire time on the way here¡­that feeling that something dangerous is near me¡­I could barely talk the entire time¡­Even though I think it¡¯s a good decision to move there, I can¡¯t help but think if it¡¯s the right thing to do.¡±


    ¡°¡­We¡¯ll talk about it more when my brothers get back.¡±


    ~ ~ ~


    Pov Sergeant Johnson


    ¡°So, what do you two think? Should we upgrade the Outpost? And don¡¯t say it¡¯s my call.¡±


    ¡°But it really is your call Sarge¡­all the folks that live here now will listen to anything you say.¡±


    ¡°Rickers is right Sarge, everyone listens to you. Well, we do too, but your Sarge so it makes sense.¡±


    ¡®These guys¡­¡¯


    ¡°Flattery isn¡¯t going to get you out of answering the questions. I promise I won¡¯t judge.¡±


    ¡°Ah fine fine¡­might as well upgrade it Sarge. We¡¯re running out of space anyway, and that sneaky merchant said the Upgrade will make the Outpost bigger. We got no problem bunking, but some of those city folk like Cambell over here, are probably sick of it by now. Plus, a lil danger never scared us before, especially not since we became these cultivator things.¡±


    ¡°Ah can it Rikers¡­but anyway Sarge I¡¯m all for it too. We been defending the Outpost just fine through all of these waves anyway, and all three of us are 3rd Cycle. And we got quite a few at the 1st and 2nd Cycle out there so why not.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, decent enough points from both of you. Though I don¡¯t think we should upgrade. At least not yet. We¡¯re at the 3rd Cycle sure, but all three of us need to fight at full strength to defend against the waves, and that¡¯s only 1000 Goblins and 2 Hobgoblins. If those numbers get doubled, I don¡¯t think we¡¯d be able to handle it without injury.


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    ¡°If folks want more room, then they¡¯d have to get strong enough to warrant the danger that might come with an upgrade.¡±


    ¡°See Sarge you didn¡¯t need to ask us anyway.¡±


    ~ ~ ~


    POV Kimberly


    ¡®Damn Vampires¡­of all the Outposts in the Tutorial, I get stuck with the one controlled by Vampires. And that damn Rico, why the hell would he agree to turning into one. Now he¡¯s going around trying to convince the whole damn Outpost to agree to the transformation because he believes every single thing those bastards are telling him. Damn Idiot.¡¯


    Knock Knock


    ¡°Kim! Are you coming or not? The Dungeon isn¡¯t going to clear itself you know.¡±


    ¡°Argh...I¡¯m coming, I¡¯m coming.¡±


    After Kim left her room¡­


    ¡°You know Kim¡­you can¡¯t keep brooding in your room forever. You change things that way.¡±


    ¡°Who said I wanted to change anything hm?¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Hey don¡¯t look at me like that!¡±


    ¡°Whatever you say Kim¡­anyway, are you excited for the Dungeon? They found it underneath a bush!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it just a bit¡­I¡¯m just surprised it took us so long to find it, it¡¯s literally right behind the Outpost.¡±


    ¡°Yeah no one thought to check underneath a bush. Apparently, someone fell on top of it, while running from a Dark Rabbit.¡±


    ¡°Damn rabbits.¡±


    ¡°Damn Rabbits indeed¡­but Kim¡­are you really not going to do anything? The people listen to you, you know¡­you shouldn¡¯t let that man convince everyone to go all blood sucker on us.¡±


    ¡°You know they can hear you right¡­but your right¡­let¡¯s talk later.¡±


    ¡®Tessa¡¯s right though. I can¡¯t just sit here and let that idiot convince people that becoming a Vampire is the way to go. I don¡¯t care that they call themselves Vhampryls, or that they don¡¯t need to drink human blood to survive, or that they try their best to be nice to us. A Vampire is a Vampire! And they still need blood! Dammit let¡¯s just focus on the Dungeon.¡¯


    ~ ~ ~


    POV Raizen


    Shortly after another successful defense of the Outpost¡­


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it went down. They seem like good enough people, and the one brother I met, said we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about leadership arguments. I do think it was weird of him to mention it, but I¡¯ll take it at face value for now. Oh, and I didn¡¯t see anyone I knew, but hopefully someone will be able to reunite with a loved one.¡±


    ¡°I just hope nothing happens to them between now and the end of the stage. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something else. What do you want to do after the Tutorial Raizen? Of course, we don¡¯t know exactly what to expect or even if we¡¯d be able to stay together, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to try and plan.¡±


    ¡°Well Richard, I want to have a home. Some place I can call home, do what I want, live how I want, and not worry about someone or something telling me what I can and cannot do. It sounds childish I know, but I have a feeling there¡¯s going to be a lot of people calling themselves kings and queens once we get back, and I¡¯d rather not have to deal with that.¡±


    ¡°Raizen. It sounds like you want your own country. Is that something you think you¡¯re ready to handle?¡±


    ¡°Not sure Richard, and I don¡¯t really know if that¡¯s what I want, but I definitely know what I don¡¯t want and it¡¯s to have to listen to someone else when I don¡¯t really want to. Again, childish I know, but that¡¯s just how it is.¡±


    ¡®I kind of had these thoughts already, but it sounds really childish when I vocalize them like this¡­but I¡¯m not ashamed of it. I know how I feel, I know how my flames feel. Being a subordinate to someone else is not apart of who I am, I can literally feel the rejection at thought through my flames.¡¯


    ¡°¡­Well Raizen, I can tell you this. If we do end up being sent back together, I hope I can be there to help you start this country. I have no doubt in my mind that everyone here will support you. In fact¡­well¡­actually never mind that, just trust that we will all be there to support you if its possible.¡±


    ¡®He didn¡¯t even give me a chance to say anything before he just left in a hurry. Sounds like he was hiding something. Hmm¡­I¡¯ll ask Irene later.¡¯

 Moving Day! (Chapter Ninety)

    Ding! (Previously Muted due to state)


    Stage 5 of The Tutorial Begins Tomorrow


    This is the final hurdle you will face


    The Weak will be Killed and the Strong Tested


    If you are weak, cling to the strong


    If you are strong, don¡¯t die for burdens


    Survive or Die


    It is now now the last day of stage 4, and this is the notification we were met with this morning. I¡¯ve been thinking about it all morning actually. I wasn¡¯t sure if there would be a defense this morning but there was and it was dealt with as usual, yet even then I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the notification.


    The stage notifications have never really been worded in this sort of way. This one seems to be inferring something even deeper than just for the Tutorial. Or at least thats what Richard thought when we talked about it on the way to the small camp this morning.


    He mentioned that he thinks the Tutorial most likely is trying to get rid of the weak links or something like that, and the strong shouldn¡¯t kill themselves trying to protect the weaker people. Oh, he also mentioned that this exact type of notification is going to be the driving force behind multiple communities being formed once the Tutorial is over.


    In times of danger or stress, people will cling to safety, no matter what the safety is, as long it protects them from a greater danger, people will feel like they have to stay with that safety. Basically he said a lot of things like that, and it all sounded very smart. He said it was part of a study or something he did in college.


    I didn¡¯t do any classes like that though.


    Anyway, i¡¯m still thinking about the message. Mainly, the strong will be tested part. What is the system, or the Tutorial¡¯s definition of strong? I reached the 7th Cycle just yesterday. Am I strong? Maybe in comparison to the others yes, but with Greja? Or the Outpost Leader? I am weak.


    Well, perhaps it¡¯s just a comparison against the others yes Tutorial attendees, but even all strengths should still be varied. Apart from me, Richard and Nate are the strongest people here and both of them are only at the 3rd Cycle, is that considered strong? Are there others stronger than that? Will it adjust the difficulty based on the strongest person in the area? These are the type of thoughts I carried.


    The Tutorial has already shown it could adjust at any point in time. Greja never gave us a limit on when we could use the upgrade ticket, which meant the ¡®added danger¡¯ could¡¯ve been applied at any given point.


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    Of course that seems like an obvious point, but when you realize that means things could be adjusted on the fly like that, it causes one to think. Now with the words from the Output Leader the other day, plus this notification, I think it¡¯s realistic to expect the Tutorial to account for my strength in this new stage.


    So with that thought in mind¡­would it account for my flames? Would it really send something that is capable of withstanding my flames. What would I even do at that point. Something that is as strong, or perhaps stronger and can resist my flames. How do I fight something like that?


    The answer is I don¡¯t know. I fight the Outpost Leader regularly and I still can¡¯t even begin to get close to damaging him, and thats with him holding back. Maybe I¡¯m overthinking this, but i can¡¯t help but think about it anyway.


    Sigh.


    Moving on, today was moving day if you will, and Richard and I traveled to the camp this morning to pick everyone up. They were packed and ready to go which was nice so we didn¡¯t have to wait.


    Though the journey back took the entire rest of the day and most of the night. They didn¡¯t have any elderly, but a good amount of them weren¡¯t cultivators and even the ones that were, mostly sat in the 1st Cycle, so they all needed plenty of rest for bathroom breaks, eating, just a few minutes to sit down here and there.


    Thankfully the theme of the quiet before the storm stayed true today and we weren¡¯t attacked once throughout the entire journey so the only hindrance was time.


    I didn¡¯t really talk to them much apart from the initial greetings, and a couple words to Chao, but for the most part I stayed at the front of the group as we advanced. I don¡¯t know, I kind of got the feeling they were scared, or perhaps wary of me? Not sure. Especially since I haven¡¯t done anything to cause them to be scared.


    It didn¡¯t really matter much to me though.


    Plus Richard mixed in with them just fine. He went around the group introducing himself and spent a lot of time talking to Nate his brothers. Both of whom were younger than him. The middle one, Nico, was only a couple years younger than him, while the youngest, Norman, was around my age.


    All of them seemed like decent of people which was good, and no one complained too much about the journey which was even better.


    After we made it to the Outpost, there was a big reception as pretty much everyone had gathered to welcome the big group.


    Despite how late it was, and the exhaustion of a long journey, the former campers still somehow found it in themselves to be excited. There was a lot of mixing and mingling as people checked with hopeful gazes to see if their friends or families were apart of the group, but it didn¡¯t appear so.


    A shame. The beacon was still going strong so perhaps more people will show up before this is all said and done.


    Of course, we don¡¯t have any more space in the houses for that, but living in the Outpost in a tent was better than in the middle of the woods.


    Speaking of space. Once the rest of the Outpost learned a large group was coming, folks took it upon themselves to vacate two of the houses in the back left of the Outpost for the former campers.


    They wouldn¡¯t all be able to fit in the houses, but 8 rooms, two bathrooms and as much cots as they could fit inside was better than nothing. They still had to set up a few tents outside of the houses, but none of them were complaining.


    All in all, it was a long day, and I needed to get some rest so after they were settled and I took a moment to talk with Irene for a bit, I retired to bed. I wasn¡¯t necessarily tired, but I wanted to be in top shape for what may come in the morning. I needed to be ready. Richard was also of the same mind and encouraged everyone to get some rest as well. I would take care of the defense myself if I could, but if the situation becomes one where I can no longer do that, then everyone else needs to be ready.

 An Infernal Thing (Chapter Ninety One)

    Ding! (Previously Muted due to state)


    Welcome to Stage 5 of the Tutorial


    The Wilderness is no longer safe for the weak


    It is now the Domain of the Strong


    Run, Cower, Fight


    29 Days Remaining


    I stared at the notification for quite some time. Which seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence these days¡­Anyway, why does it seem like the Tutorial is becoming all poetic all of a sudden? The Wilderness is no longer safe for the weak, and it is now a Domain of the strong?


    That definitely feels like a poem of sorts, or like a great line from a movie or something¡­but this is real life.


    And it also included the number of days remaining, which I think is the first time it did that. Don¡¯t remember for certain though. Anyway, does this mean we should just coop up in the Outpost and we¡¯ll be fine? What about the people like Chao and the others who didn¡¯t live in an Outpost? Would they be given time to find one?


    Would that mysterious merchant eventually have pointed them in the direction of the Outpost? Or would everyone be left to die.


    I already know the answer to these questions, and it didn¡¯t particularly bother me on a deeper level, I just can¡¯t help but think about certain things. Like just how many humans are going to be alive when this is all said and done.


    I know I said all those things about a bunch of people starting communities, but who¡¯s to say this isn¡¯t humankind¡¯s extinction event? Or perhaps I should say Earthlings at this point? Which includes me. While I am an Infernal, Earth is still the planet I was born and raised on, and it would feel a little weird to just kind of abandon it.


    Anyway, Earthlings could be extinct as we know it, and Tutorial became poetic. Great.


    Knock Knock!


    ¡°Raizen!¡±


    And there it is. I guess we can¡¯t just hide in our Outposts after all. Not that I was planning to. Let¡¯s go see what the fuss is about.


    After walking through the door, fully armed of course. The first I noticed was Richard, which was expected since he was the one who called my name. What wasn¡¯t expected was that Nate would be there too.


    Though after a quick thought, it made sense. He and his people had only moved in last night. While the rest of Outpost G has basically been living together for the entire Tutorial at this point. He was here to represent his people. Understandable, I guess.


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    ¡°Raizen, the defense of the Outpost is still going on. Only this time it¡¯s different. There¡¯s only one Hobgoblin this time¡­.and it spoke.¡±


    Wait what?


    ¡°You said it spoke¡­?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­though all it said was ¡®Your Strongest¡¯ and it¡¯s just been standing there. What do you want to do?¡±


    Maybe some people would be nervous in this situation, but i¡¯m actually getting excited¡­I don¡¯t know why or how, but I can feel it. My flames are getting riled up. This Hobgoblin. It¡¯s strong.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go talk to it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re planning on talking to it? Isn¡¯t that a bad idea? I know you¡¯re strong, but shouldn¡¯t we try to fight it as a group to be safe?¡±


    It was Nate who spoke up. And something must¡¯ve been on my face cause when i turned to face him he took a step backwards as if he was scared of something. Did I look that mean? I didn¡¯t think so. Weird.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, just be ready to fight if needed. Same thing Richard. Get everyone ready.¡±


    Neither man responded or if he did, I didn¡¯t hear it. My mind was focused on the thought of a strong opponent. The thrill of battle that I felt a a few weeks ago when I first left the Outpost with not a single bit of cultivation to speak of. It¡¯s been a long time since that.


    I have grown significantly faster than whatever the Outpost had thrown at me, and the only thing that could likely still test me before this point was the ¡®Goblin Village¡¯ Dungeon, but I wasn¡¯t so battle hungry that I¡¯d go potentially risk my life in a place I wouldn¡¯t be able to escape if need be.


    But this was different.


    This was likely a fight I couldn¡¯t run away from, and something was telling me that I would regret it really badly if I even attempted to run away.


    Of course, I had no intention to do that in the first place.


    Eventually we made it to the gate where people were already gathering. In full armor and whatever weapons, they chose. Nate hurried off to gather his own people. They were a step behind in all of this. I didn¡¯t blame them though. We were used to this. Although I did the brunt of the fighting in Stage 4, the rest of the group wasn¡¯t just sitting around doing nothing. They genuinely trained with everything they had in them. And then proceeded to turn that training into real practical exercises with the Dungeon runs.


    We were a force.


    Though, I don¡¯t plan to have them play a part in fighting the talking Hobgoblin if i can avoid it.


    Anyway, I made my way to the gate and stepped outside.


    There it was. The biggest Hobgoblin I¡¯ve seen to date.


    It stood maybe around 7¡¯5 and muscles the size of bricks. It was covered from head to toe in sturdy looking black leather armor, and what looked to be an iron mace hung at its waist.


    At some point a smile made its way onto my face as I walked in front of the Outpost and stopped just behind where those wooden fence things were. Richard did not follow me out.


    ¡°Good. You have come. Defeat me and your people shall live a bit longer. If not, they will die today.¡±


    His words do not match the movement of his lips. Which means he¡¯s not speaking English. Must be some Goblin language.


    I could¡¯ve maybe responded with something snarky but I¡¯ve never been one to talk for the sake of talking, so I didn¡¯t waste any time, and I charged at him.


    My flames may have ended this battle before I wanted so I didn¡¯t use them yet. Maybe that was dumb of me, but I needed this, I wanted this, this was the real reason for getting stronger. It wasn¡¯t to start a country, it wasn¡¯t to be an Infernal Patriarch, whatever responsibilities they wanted to give me, no¡­I was much simpler than all of that.


    I simply wanted to fight.


    I enjoyed it.


    The thrill of fighting and defeating a stronger opponent.


    This was the feeling.


    I struck out in a powerful thrust the second I reached the large Hobgoblin.


    He dodged.


    Ahh¡­I was worried he wouldn¡¯t be able to. That thrust was the full strength of someone who sat firmly in the 7th Cycle, yet he managed to doge.


    The grin that sat on my face was wide as can be at this point.


    My mom probably begged me to smile like this for picture days a million times.


    But how could a picture day compare to a fight to the death where your life and the lives of people you protected were on the line?


    It seems I really am crazy. Must be an Infernal thing.


    Yep must be.

 Screams (Chapter Ninety Two)

    From my initial thrust, it only took a few exchanges to realize I was still stronger and faster than him. At some point, he began wielding his mace and attempted to bash my skull multiple times while just barely dodging my spear by a few inches time and time again.


    I was stronger.


    I was faster.


    Though I could not harm him.


    While part of me was still enjoying the fight, another part of me was upset at myself.


    With the exception of my flames, I was fighting with everything I got, everything I¡¯ve learned from the Outpost Leader, everything I¡¯ve learned from fighting thousands of Goblins over the course of the last few weeks, everything I¡¯ve learned from practicing and training by myself, yet despite all of that, I could not harm this Hobgoblin.


    I took a step forward just in time to see him wielding his mace with one hand as it moved with speed towards my head from the left. I ducked and took a step in the direction he swung from before thrusting out with my spear from a crouched position towards his abdomen. He somehow managed to abruptly twist his back to the right and out of the path of spear. It was almost laughable.


    His appearance would easily lead you to believe that he was all muscle, and would only fight with large powerful movements, but no, that would be far from the truth. He was agile as he was strong and followed up powerful blows with deft movements.


    I continued to press and press and press, trying to catch him just once, but I only ever met air.


    I didn¡¯t like the situation, but I didn¡¯t like ignoring reality either. He is a better fighter than me, perhaps far better than me.


    From our exchanges thus far, I can somewhat estimate that he is likely around the 5th Cycle in terms of strength, and if that estimation was correct, it would mean that I was 2 cycles ahead of him.


    Yet, I couldn¡¯t touch him. If he was on the 7th Cycle just like I was, I doubt I would have survived as long as he is currently surviving at the moment.


    I didn¡¯t need any more wake up calls, because I was fully aware of the fact that I didn¡¯t exist alone in this world, and just because I was strong here at Outpost G, didn¡¯t mean I was the strongest in the Tutorial, let alone the entire Multiverse. And of course, that was only speaking of other beings in the Body Tempering Realm.


    So, while this wasn¡¯t a wake-up call, it was still a slight eye opener. It was one thing to assume something, it was another thing to experience it in reality. And experience it I did.


    We continued to exchange strikes at what felt like blistering speed for a few minutes, before I began to hear something.


    It was footsteps, and loud grunting.


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    The gap in strength and speed wasn¡¯t so wide that I could completely ignore the Hobgoblin in front of me, but it wasn¡¯t too challenging to take a step back and disengage for a few moments, to listen to my surroundings.


    The footsteps were heavy.


    They sounded like the steps of other Hobgoblins.


    Are there more of them?


    ¡­.


    That would be a problem.


    I don¡¯t know how many there are, but if they are all as strong as him, then that would be a big problem.


    Hm, what to do.


    Well, as much as I would want to continue this fight, as I¡¯m learning things through despite the fact I didn¡¯t like my lack of fighting ability, I wasn¡¯t fighting for just myself.


    Other people¡¯s lives depended on this fight.


    The flames within me sparked to life, and immediately coated the head of my spear. When the Hobgoblin saw it, his eyes widened for a split second before his face contorted in anger and then he spoke again for the first time since this battle started. Though it looked and sounded more like a guttural roar, I still somehow heard English.


    ¡°ATTACKKK!!!¡±


    Those were his final words, before the flames expanded from spear and caught his chest.


    ¡°GRAHHHHHHH!!!!¡±


    The scream of pain he let out was almost deafening, but that moment of pain caused him to stumble as he dodged to the right, and I didn¡¯t let that moment go to waste. I planted my left foot, and with the spear in my left hand, I pivoted into a direct lunge towards his chest and extended my spear with everything I had into his heart. I didn¡¯t let his screams stop me from continuing as I then latched my right hand onto the spear as well.


    He tried to hold on to the spear, a nod to the amount of vitality he possessed to still be able to move despite a spear piercing his chest and flames burning away at his body.


    Though grabbing the spear didn¡¯t help him as I let out a scream of my own and drove the spear upwards while it was still in his body.


    ¡°Arghh!!!¡±


    Bisecting him from his chest and all the way up and out of his skull.


    The shock and anger in his eyes were still present as his blood landed on me while his body fell to the ground with a loud thud.


    Before the dust even settled the footsteps, I heard earlier picked up significantly and was combined with the roars of tens of Hobgoblins, or at least that¡¯s what I was assuming them to be. It took only a few moments later to put faces and numbers to the footsteps and roars I was hearing.


    Tens of them? No¡­there were over 100 of them. Over 100 Hobgoblins heading this way.


    They weren¡¯t talking, only roars and grunts, so I¡¯m not sure if that meant they were weaker than the one I just fought or not. It¡¯s probably safe to assume they were since they were all also slightly smaller, but they were all armed and covered in armor.


    Just that other day I was easily dealing with 10 Hobgoblins, and thousands of normal ones, but this felt different.


    These Hobgoblins felt different. I will take no chances.


    The wall of flames that I was so used to using quickly sprang up behind me.


    Only a few seconds remained until they arrived, but something was bothering me. I couldn¡¯t tell what, but something was really different here.


    ¡°RICHARDD!!!! BE READY TO FIGHTT!!¡±


    I didn¡¯t know what it was, but I couldn¡¯t be everywhere at once, and while I would do my best to ensure not a single one of these Hobgoblins made it past me, that feeling was bothering me, what was it?


    Why were my instincts screaming at me that something was wrong?


    What was it? What was I missing?


    I racked my brain and thought about every single thing that happened today, and even yesterday, but nothing. Nothing came to mind.


    Even as the Hobgoblins crashed down on me, I still couldn¡¯t figure it out. To my back, the flames covered the entire Outpost all the way around, and to my front I fought the oncoming Hobgoblins, who were weaker than the one from earlier but stronger than the previous ones from the last stage, likely 4th Cycle.


    Then it hit me.


    To my front?


    Why would the only attack from the front?


    ¡°Ahhhhh!! They¡¯re inside!!!¡±


    Just as I had that thought, I began to hear screams coming from the Outpost.

 Over the Walls (Chapter Ninety Three)

    I didn¡¯t waste any more time and quickly slammed my spear against the ground and a small wave of flames burst in a wide line towards the incoming Hobgoblins.


    The flames didn¡¯t kill them instantly and they continued to chase after me while their bodies were being eaten at by the flames. I had no time to pay them attention as I turned around in a flash and dashed towards the Outpost. Richard¡¯s screams sounding out amongst the chaos.


    I could hear him trying to fight back, as others screamed around him, Hobgoblins roaring at them, and death likely breathing on their necks.


    An anger that I¡¯ve recently tried to somewhat control began to seethe and bubble inside of me like never before.


    I let it surge, and my flames roared to life within me and burst forth as I leapt up and over the walls of the Outpost. A few burning Hobgoblins trailing behind me.


    Once I made it over the walls, the surging anger within me finally reached levels it had never reached before.


    There were bodies on the ground.


    POV Nate


    In the morning before the attack began¡­


    I had reservations about joining this Outpost. About bringing my brothers and all the folks I¡¯ve somehow found myself in charge of. I didn¡¯t really ask to be a leader or anything like that, it just kind of worked out that way, and as someone who was working as a fitness instructor to a large group of people before all this went down, I was in good shape and had some experience in talking to a large group at once, so it was a bit easier for me to get stronger and learn how to fight back.


    Plus, my brothers were with me¡­If it weren''t for them, I likely wouldn¡¯t have made it very far¡­we try not to think of our parents were up there in age, nor do I think of my daughter that much, or at least I try not to, but she is at the forefront of my mind every day. Where is she in this tutorial? Is she alive?


    I usually stop myself from thinking any further than that, as it only leads to dark depressing thoughts, but it¡¯s hard. We are all trying to survive and make it back home to find our families. That is the main reason I took the Risk to come here, despite the wariness I felt when I interacted with Raizen. He truly felt weird to be around, maybe even scary. Even though I¡¯m a little too old to be calling another man scary, that¡¯s the feeling he gave off. And his calm face. No matter what it was that we were talking about he rarely showed any strong reaction to anything.


    He was just always calm. Calm to that point it felt eerie.


    Thankfully on the journey here we met Richard, who was a lot more sociable and gave me hope for the rest of the Outpost, which wasn¡¯t met with disappointment as everyone else seemed very welcoming to us. The only odd thing was that not a single one of them ever reacted weirdly to the oddness of Raizen. To the eerie calmness he has, or the scary feeling you get from being near him. And when I tried asking about him to one or two people, it was always nothing but the ultimate respect they felt for him.


    It was weird.


    What was weirder was the news Richard broke to us this morning about a large talking Hobgoblin. I almost didn¡¯t believe what I was hearing, my body tensed up and thought of having to fight a Hobgoblin who could talk. The very few we fought before were already strong, but we¡¯ve already been told that they can get stronger and the attacks they faced last stage contained Hobgoblins that were 3rd Cycle like me, but they didn¡¯t talk.


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    Didn¡¯t that mean that this one was at least 4th Cycle?


    I would¡¯ve reacted stronger if not for the fact that Richard wasn¡¯t reacting like I expected. He was frightened sure, but not to the extent I figured he would be, and after I followed him to Raizen¡¯s house and then watched go out by himself, I learned why.


    He simply trusted Raizen.


    I only began to understand a little bit of that trust sometime later¡­when I began to hear the clashes of the battle outside the Outpost. It sounded like two monsters were fighting. Not one vs a human, but two monsters. Even the swings of their weapons were heard clearly. Sounding like a powerful gust of wind flew by in a flash.


    It went on for a few moments, and then came the screams. Part of me wanted to climb the guard towers to see what was going on, but Richard didn¡¯t let anyone do so. So, we only listened as the monster screamed out in pain and then yelled out an order to attack. Shortly after that we heard a bellow from Raizen. One that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.


    Richard then began organizing the others, which wasn¡¯t much. As everyone was already armed, armored and ready to fight.


    We waited for a bit, and I felt something truly sinister from outside of the Outpost and then flames¡­.black flames¡­rose up all around me. One of my brothers fell down as his knees buckled, and I wanted to do the same, but Richard¡¯s voice sounded out before anyone else in my group got too scared to fight.


    ¡°That¡¯s Raizen! It¡¯s there to protect us! Focus on the walls and be ready to fight!¡±


    I quickly helped my bother up as I continued to stare at the flames around us, is Raizen a monster after all? How is it possible for a human being to do this? It shouldn¡¯t be possible¡­this isn¡¯t normal.


    Though unfortunately, I didn¡¯t get to focus on those thoughts any longer. A loud scream brought me back to focus.


    ¡°Ahhhhh!! they¡¯re inside!!!¡±


    I turned around to look at the back wall, only to see a few tens of Hobgoblins jumping through the wall of flames and rushing towards us. The flames clung to their bodies like water in the rain, and I saw as it burned them while they ran, but they still ran.


    It looked like over twenty of them made it over the walls, a lot of them seemed to perish during the jump, while others seemed to burn to ash as they ran in our direction but a few of them were still rushing here with haste.


    ¡°Archers!!!! Loose!!!!¡¯


    Richard screamed out orders as I gripped my sword and stepped out in front of the group. Richard and someone else whose name I don¡¯t remember stepped out along with me. The Hobgoblins eventually reached us, and I slashed at the closest one with everything I had, and it simply dodged and punched me with its remaining arm as one had burned off, in my chest. I went flying backwards, coughing up blood as it felt like someone just hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer.


    The last thing I saw before the unconsciousness took hold of me was a large man with a large spear flying over my head.

 Like Family (Chapter Ninety Four)

    Beneath my feet as I leapt over the wall was the body of Nate. His chest was bloody, and blood dripped out of his mouth as he laid their seemingly unconscious, or at least that¡¯s what I hoped.


    My hearing wasn¡¯t good enough to hear his heartbeat from this distance and his was not the only body lying on the ground.


    In the distance there were a couple of other bodies lying around.


    Most of them were Nates people. Which wasn¡¯t a surprise. They weren¡¯t as prepared as we were, weren¡¯t as experienced in fighting large groups of enemies as we were, weren¡¯t armored as best as we were.


    So, I understood why they were struggling, even against the weakened Hobgoblins.


    Yes, I understood.


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t just them, Richard was doing his best to hold out against one of the Hobgoblins, and Brandon was doing the same.


    They were both struggling, and if the Hobgoblins they were fighting weren¡¯t already weakened from my flames and continuously getting weaker by the second, then maybe they would already be dead.


    This too wasn¡¯t surprising, and I understood their struggles because of the gap between someone at the 4th Cycle and someone still in the 3rd. Plus there were likely racial advantages at play as well.


    Yes, I understood.


    The Hobgoblins I left behind would likely catch up soon and there were more coming over the wall in the distance each moment. This was not surprising either, the Tutorial has never been a safe place in the first place. It was not meant to guide and teach us, nor was it meant to protect us. It was only meant to give us a glimpse into the world we would soon be living in.


    Yes, I understood that.


    I understood it all.


    So why was I so angry?


    Why was I seething?


    Why did I want to rid the world of all Goblin-kind?


    Why did I want it all to burn?


    Why?


    Why?


    Why?


    I don¡¯t know.


    I feel calm¡­calmer than I¡¯ve felt before. Far calmer than I would be naturally. What is this feeling?


    I don¡¯t know.


    I landed with a thud and took off running towards the approaching Goblins, and to my back I could hear the Hobgoblins I left begin to climb over the wall.


    Though my mind was someplace else. In the midst of my simmering anger and likewise eerie calmness, I felt a call.


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    Something was calling to me.


    As if whispering into my soul itself.


    It didn¡¯t feel harmful, so I listened.


    I only heard one thing.


    Something I didn¡¯t know the meaning of, but I instinctively felt like saying it.


    ¡°Vorrash.¡±


    And then the world went black.


    POV Jrino


    Shortly before Raizen said Vorrash¡­


    ¡°How do you think he will handle this?¡±


    ¡°The same way he¡¯s been handling everything else, he will burn anything and everything. If didn¡¯t know just how much time he puts into training with his spear, I would tell him his flames were a crutch.¡±


    ¡°A crutch? Really Jrino? You would tell an Infernal their flames were a crutch? That seems like something that would get you killed.¡±


    ¡°The boy is not one of those naive young scions scattered all over the Clan Greja. He and the rest of attendees will have to work for their survival unlike being those spoiled brats being spoon fed every resource imaginable.¡±


    ¡°He is indeed different, but it¡¯s not a bad thing to be cautious. Now thank you for your input, but my question was centered around something else. How will he handle the death of a comrade?¡±


    ¡°The death of a comrade¡­I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something we need to worry about. He will be fine. This is something all cultivators need to be able to deal with throughout their lives and from what I understand about Infernals, they especially need to be able to deal with this.


    ¡°¡­Wait¡­what is this feeling? Do you feel this too?¡±


    ¡°Hm...? Yeah, I do feel it¡­it feels like there is something else¡­something more¡­it¡¯s coming from Raizen¡­


    Both Greja and Jrino, who were nascent soul cultivators felt a bit perplexed at the situation. They knew that they were not all powerful in the grand scheme of things, but in the Tutorial surrounded by a bunch of Body Tempering Realm Cultivators? They were akin to gods.


    Yet one of these very Body Tempering Realm cultivators was doing something they couldn¡¯t seem to understand.


    Their Qi sense was wrapped around him, yet they couldn¡¯t sense anything else apart from the fact the weird feeling they sensed was coming from him.


    Though before either of them could explore further, Raizen¡¯s lips parted.


    He didn¡¯t talk very loudly, and for some reason it appeared he didn¡¯t need to.


    ¡°Vorrash¡±


    Everything for a few miles immediately became covered in the color black. There was no light, none could see, none could truly feel, none could hear.


    Just darkness for miles.


    Even Jrino and Greja were subject to this experience, though on a much lesser scale.


    Their senses were still intact, only subdued, though both of them instinctively knew they could break out of whatever this was quite easily, but neither did so.


    That was because to them, they could feel something else.


    That feeling from earlier was stronger than before and now it felt like something was watching them, something they shouldn¡¯t offend.


    They stood still and didn¡¯t move even to breathe and after a second the presence was gone as fast as it came, and with the absolute darkness that descended.


    Though once sight was returned to all that was still standing was different, the chaotic scene before was gone. All Hobgoblins were gone, not a single trace left behind, all of Raizen¡¯s flames were seemingly extinguished, again not a trace left behind, though something that most people only noticed a few moments after were the houses and¡­they had numerous cracks and even seemed burned in some places.


    Of course, only a few people understood the significance of this.


    ¡°The system protected buildings¡­they were damaged by his flames¡­that¡­¡±


    ¡°Greja¡­It is probably best we do not speak about this.¡±


    ¡­


    Of course, the man that caused this was just standing there¡­in a daze¡­


    POV Raizen


    What¡­what just happened to me...?


    I heard something weird call out to me and then¡­I simply said what I heard and then everything went dark¡­but it wasn¡¯t just dark¡­it felt as if I was all powerful¡­anything I wanted to be removed, and it would¡¯ve vanished¡­and then¡­that feeling of being watched. Something was watching me¡­but it didn¡¯t feel harmful¡­it felt like¡­family¡­


    Just what¡­


    ¡°Raizen!!!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Raizen!! Are you alright?! Raizen!!!¡±


    I finally looked up and realized the situation I was in. I completely forgot what was going on for a second there. Richard was shaking me and screaming my name. He was bleeding. A lot.


    ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m okay just out of it. What about you? You¡¯re bleeding. Where are the potions? We need to get everyone a po...¡±


    I didn¡¯t get to finish my sentence as I immediately felt extremely woozy and before I knew it, I was falling over with my eyes closing. Richard¡¯s screams were the last thing I heard.

 Indomitable (Chapter Ninety Five)

    I woke up.


    This was not my room.


    Is this the Outpost Leader¡¯s office? Why am I here?


    Though the second I asked myself that question, all the memories from before I fell unconscious began pouring in. Did people die? How long was I asleep? And that word Vo¡­I didn¡¯t finish that word. My flames¡­they were warning me. I shouldn¡¯t say that word again. I was about to get up and rush outside, but I decided to stay seated for a moment. I needed to sort my thoughts out.


    I fought a 5th Cycle Hobgoblin, then tens, or maybe even hundreds of 4th Cycle Hobgoblins attacked the Outpost. I had a really bad feeling about something, while I readied myself to defend from the front, then I heard screams, because they attacked from the rear.


    I felt immensely angry and everything that was going, angrier than I¡¯ve ever been before, and that feeling of absolute rage continued to grow once I leapt over the walls of the Outpost and witnessed the bodies of others on the floor.


    Hobgoblins were attacking. Most of them had some sort of burn wounds on their bodies, some were dying after a few seconds and becoming ash, others were losing body parts as they attacked, but none of them gave up attacking despite the black fire eating them alive.


    Richard and the others were wounded, Nate even appeared dead, and something about seeing all of this happened really drove me to the edge, and I don¡¯t understand why. It makes sense to be angry at enemies attacking your allies, but my anger felt like it was more than that, deeper than that. Something else was at play here and I couldn¡¯t understand it.


    Then there was that voice¡­someone¡­or something¡­was calling out to me. And to add to the list of things I don¡¯t understand, I listened to it. Why would I do that? Who listens to random mysterious voices calling out to them? Am I losing it? I don¡¯t know. For some reason in that moment all I couldn¡¯t help but thinking to myself that it felt okay to listen to the voice, that it wouldn¡¯t harm me. Was I being mind controlled or something? Then it got worse from there because, not only did I listen to what the voice had to say, I actually repeated it. The V word my flames are warning me not to say at the moment.


    Some random voice came into my head whispering things and I repeated what it had to say out loud, which of course had implications beyond just saying it out loud. My entire world went black, and everything became a sort of hazy daze. I don¡¯t understand what that was and I don¡¯t understand exactly what it did. Of course, that was all. The feeling of being watched. I don¡¯t know how to explain it, but I felt it. With every bone in my body, I felt it. Something was watching me.


    I don¡¯t know what was watching me, but I know it for certain. And that thing¡­whatever it was, felt like family. What the hell does that even mean? How does something I can¡¯t see, hear, touch, taste, or anything else for that matter feel like family? What the hell does it mean to feel like family? I don¡¯t know but that¡¯s the feeling I got. Which makes no sense whatsoever. There are only two people in this world who could likely ever give me that feeling and it¡¯s my parents, yet I attended their funeral. I saw their lifeless bodies.


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    They are no more.


    So, it wasn¡¯t one of them who was watching me. I am certain of that. If this was something I could control, maybe I would be more upset than confused that some alien presence gave me that feeling, but I cannot change that. This is not a battle I can fight at the moment, even if I wanted to. Something that¡¯s more relevant to me at the moment, is the fact the Hobgoblins were able to survive my flames long enough to cause damage.


    Of course this was something I¡¯ve noticed for a while now.


    The normal Goblins burned to ash almost instantly whenever they had the unfortunate chance to come in contact with my flames, but as I¡¯ve done the same strategy with stronger Hobgoblins, they each could resist it slightly, and the stronger the Hobgoblin, the stronger resistance. And even though I¡¯ve grown significantly in strength since I started this Tutorial, the strength of my flames has not grown with me.


    Another thing I don¡¯t fully understand.


    What I do understand is that I¡¯m not strong enough. People were hurt, some of them might¡¯ve even died, who even knows if any of them are alive.


    Sigh.


    It all boils down to the same thing.


    I need to get stronger.


    I knew this already though so no need to dwell on it. Nothing has changed. Get strong enough to control my own life. That¡¯s it.


    Let¡¯s move on.


    ¡°Are you done now?¡±


    Hmm? When did he get in here.


    ¡°I am. Are they-¡±


    ¡°Stop, you will need to go check on that for yourself. Though here¡¯s what I will tell you. You have been asleep for over a day. I¡¯ve used measures to ensure the Outpost wasn¡¯t attacked during this time, but that has repercussions of its own. The System does not want us to provide direct help, so once those measures are removed, the danger you face will increase once more.


    ¡°These are the consequences of your actions. These are the consequences of being weak, these are the consequences of not having the power to control the lives of others alongside your own. Remember young Infernal. If you are weak, then you have no rights in the face of the strong. The strong makes the rules, the strong breaks the rules, the strong backs the rules, the strong rule.


    ¡°There is no such thing as fairness, only who has the strongest fist. I don¡¯t know what type of world you lived in before was like, but understand, the Multiverse is truly a ruthless place. There are people who destroy entire planets as a casual pastime, yet they remain untouched because they are strong. That is reality.¡±


    I took in everything he said calmly. I know he did not have to explain these things to me, and part of me already knew the concept behind his statement. It¡¯s been reinforced through the Tutorial. Be strong or you will live at the hands of the strong.


    And life wasn¡¯t fair? We all knew that. Sure, we didn¡¯t have to worry about a random man waving a hand and wiping our planet away, but would life care if your car was hit by a drunk driver? Would life care if you failed your exams? Would life care if you spilled coffee on your clothes? No, it wouldn¡¯t. Earthlings knew life wasn¡¯t fair. Yet we persevered. And we will continue to do so. Before an Infernal I¡¯m a man of Earth, and we never been the type to run when the going gets tough.


    We are people who fought in more ways than one for generations of generations. Whether it was in the classroom, or perhaps the emergency room, and of course the battlefield. Regardless of the time and place, Earthlings have fought.


    The indomitable human will or something.


    I might¡¯ve seen that on social media somewhere.


    Anyway.


    I took a deep breath, stood up and then looked towards the Outpost Leader.


    ¡°I will be cultivating to the 9th Cycle right now.¡±


    The Outpost Leader looked towards me for a moment and simply nodded before speaking.


    ¡°You know the room.¡±


    For some reason, he reminded of a proud dad at the moment. Weird.


    Moving on, I headed to the room and prepared myself to break through. The dangers were already a lot currently, and he mentioned they will be increased. There was no use in going out there still in the 7th Cycle, just to have the same result repeat itself.


    Right here right now, I will go from the 7th to the 9th Cycle.

 Burdens (Chapter Ninety Six)

    It was the morning of Day 3 of this new stage. I was sitting in my room, but I wasn¡¯t alone. Richard and Nate were with me as well. The mood was a bit somber.


    A lot had happened while I was unconscious, but before we got to that, something else had to be addressed first.


    People had died.


    All from Nate¡¯s group.


    ¡°We were not ready¡­I thought we knew the type of danger to expect based on what we experienced around our camp. Or even based on the descriptions Richard and others gave us on what to expect. But this was¡­different. 4th Cycle Hobgoblins. If even one of them had approached our camp, we would have all died. No questions about it, I and everyone else would be dead. Because of that thought, it helped stop me and others from blaming the move to this Outpost for the reason of people dying.


    ¡°Some of them even wanted to blame you. Though once our heads cleared up a bit, we remembered the notification we got when the stage started. The wilderness is no longer safe for the weak right¡­we are the weak¡­and our camp was the wilderness. There would be walls to protect us, no houses to hide in, no¡­you to protect us. I won¡¯t ask about the black fire¡­or the¡­thing¡­you did at the end. All I will say is thank you. I¡¯m sure if we weren¡¯t allowed to move to this outpost or if you weren¡¯t willing to help, then more if not all of us would¡¯ve died. So, thank you.¡±


    He didn¡¯t let me respond and just left. I didn¡¯t stop him. Though people giving speeches in my room and leaving without me saying anything is happening one too many times.


    Anyway, after he left Richard began his spiel.


    ¡°A lot of people were wounded, but apart from the three people a part of Nate¡¯s group, no one else died. We had a lot of potions on stand-by so after everything was over, people were able to get the help they needed.


    ¡°Something else that happened was the Outpost Leader. He came and took you and told us that the Outpost and only the Outpost would be safe until you woke up. That was also a bit of a wakeup call for us. It¡¯s not hard to figure out that we likely have earned some benefits through you. From training all the way to this moment. Training was likely the reason we didn¡¯t die during the attack. Of course, that¡¯s only because they were already weakened, and your timely help, but still, it helped us to buy time.


    ¡°Honestly, it¡¯s a little embarrassing to say this when I know you¡¯re younger than me, but we have no choice but to continue to depend on you. We are still too weak. Way too weak. I am sorry, and we will work even harder to be able to help more than we can do at the moment. We can¡¯t integrate Nate and his group into the official evening training but we will work with them afterwards. I recognize we likely can¡¯t leave the Outpost until the Tutorial is over or we get strong enough to defend ourselves, so that will give us more time¡­more time to hopefully not remain burdens.¡±


    Richard didn¡¯t appear like he was going to follow the path of leaving without giving me a chance to respond but just as I was going to say something back, I heard loud steps approaching the door.


    ¡°They¡¯re here!! The Hobgoblins are here!!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to pick this up later Richard. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    We quickly hurried outside to find Micah waiting there, he got a single nod before I took off running towards the gate and jumped over.


    Before me 3 Hobgoblins that were similar in size and appearance to the 5th Cycle one from day 1 of this stage, stood waiting. Though that was all the waiting they did.


    The second I landed after leaping over the gate. The one in the middle opened its mouth to speak while the other two reached for the maces hanging at their hips.


    Though unlike day 1 of this new stage. I had no time to waste.


    Unless I had the ability to prevent the Hobgoblins from jumping through my wall of flames, it would be far too hard for me to completely stop any Hobgoblins from approaching the walls from the rear at all.


    The only feasible plan we could think of was for me to finish the fighting at the front quick enough so that I¡¯m able to head back into the Outpost and provide help there before anyone dies.


    They would need to fend for themselves long enough to give me a chance to help.


    Of course, there were two major differences between today and the first time I faced these 5th Cycle Hobgoblins. I was two full Cycles higher than where they were, and the guys inside the Outpost were aware of what¡¯s to come.


    Spiked wooden fences were set up inside the Outpost, and Nate¡¯s group were armored just as we were at this point. They couldn¡¯t afford the cost of everything, but Richard took care of that problem.


    They didn¡¯t suddenly become better fighters, but having better gear would definitely help keep even one of them alive a second longer, and on a battlefield a second could prove fatal. Or something like that.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Anyway.


    As I was landing on the ground, flames were already spreading from the butt of my spear. And as I landed the wall of flames formed once again. It¡¯s not strong enough to completely stop every single Goblin from making it through, but it was more than enough to slow them down and severely injure any who made it over, which was better than nothing.


    I then coated my spear in flames and took off towards the Hobgoblins. The middle one finally spoke, and I assumed it would be directed at me, but it was different.


    ¡°ATTACK!!¡±


    We miscalculated. Why would they wait for me to start defeating them before giving the order to attack? Them waiting outside the Outpost until I stepped out was already enough of a blessing.


    Even though it was a slight miscalculation. Nothing has changed. I was going to kill them as fast as I could anyway. A 5th Cycle Hobgoblin could just barely dodge my strikes with nothing but sheer fighting experience back when I was in the 7th Cycle, but things were different now.


    The Hobgoblin who gave the order to attack was a bit slower than the others in taking its mace out and couldn¡¯t move fast enough out of the way of my rapidly approaching thrust.


    My flame coated spear pierced right it¡¯s abdomen, which caused its blood to fly everywhere, but the other two Hobgoblins didn¡¯t let a fatal injury to their comrade stop them from coordinating to attack me. I didn¡¯t bother dodging.


    All three of them were far too close.


    ¡°RAH!¡±


    With a burst, my flames rushed out of my body and enveloped all three Hobgoblins from head to toe. Of course, this wasn¡¯t enough to stop their maces from crashing down towards my body, but it was enough to cause the strength of their swings to wane just a bit.


    Leaving more than enough time for me to pull my spear out of the first Hobgoblin, who was essentially being eaten alive from the inside of my flames.


    One strike was coming from above and the other from the side aiming at my back. I raised my spear to block the mace from above while delivering a rear kick the mace approaching from the rear.


    It stung my foot a bit, but that was not a problem.


    The problem was that my spear broke whist blocked the mace. It held up enough to kill the momentum of the spear all the way, so it wasn¡¯t coming for me any longer but my spear broke.


    Not good at all.


    Well, no time to dwell on it.


    I didn¡¯t give them time to back up and counterattack, before I drove the top half of the spear with the blade attached into the neck of one Hobgoblin and quickly spun and drove the lower half into the gut of the other Hobgoblin.


    Of course, both halves were coated in black flames.


    I took a step back as the three 5th Cycle Hobgoblins fell to their feet one by one.


    There was no time to admire my work, as the sounds of who knows how many other Hobgoblins were closing in towards us.


    I waited for a few seconds as the first of them burst through the tree line, before turning on my heels and darting back to the Outpost and leaping over the wall.


    This was the new plan. Instead of fighting everything approaching from just the front, I would just join the defense in the Outpost. The area to defend was much smaller, and I could move much quicker to provide help. Especially considering that the Hobgoblins would be injured after jumping through the wall of flames.


    Everyone saw me but none spared me more than a glance as they all were focused on the coming threat.


    It only took a few moments after I made it in the Outpost to finally see the Hobgoblins climbing through the flames. Of course they were being burned, and all the ones who climbed over first, barely made it a step before they crumbled and burned to death. But the Hobgoblins coming up behind them never slowed or rested, and the ones dying first because of how burned they were, helped to shield the ones behind them from being burned as much and while they were likely to die from just the flames in a few moments, those moments were more than enough for 4th Cycle beings to cover the distance that separated us from them.


    But while they would¡¯ve posed a challenge to everyone else here. At the of the day, before me, they were just fodder. Waste to be disposed of.


    Hmm my thoughts got a little dark there, but moving on, the Hobgoblins eventually ceased climbing over the walls, and after waiting a few minutes to ensure that was truly the case I let my flames die down, and at this point I was beginning to feel a strain on my body from keep them up so long, so this worked out.


    There are no major injuries to care for, let alone deaths this time around so this was a win. What was curious about this though was that a notification never came up. Nothing to signify that we won the battle. Nothing.


    It was only a few hours later that we learned why.


    ¡°Raizen! More of them were spotted! And they are rushing straight here!¡±


    So, they wouldn¡¯t attack only in the mornings huh.


    This could prove troublesome.


    I quickly grabbed the spear I was training with, one that someone had loaned me, and moved to the outside of the Outpost.


    I got there in time to see a squad of Hobgoblins heading straight to the gate. It was only 5 of them.


    It only took me a few minutes to dispose of them. I managed to keep my loaned spear intact this time.


    But something is off here. I don¡¯t see any more Hobgoblins approaching the Outpost. Why only 5?


    That did not signify the added danger I expected.


    Hm, I got a bad feeling about this.


    I quickly ran around the walls of the Outpost, keeping a keen eye on the tree line the entire time and I sensed nothing.


    I went back inside the Outpost to talk with Richard about it but I barely took 2 steps into the Outpost when I heard steps rapidly approaching from the forest.


    I turned around to see what appeared to be another 5 Hobgoblins.


    2 of them hung to the back. They had bows. While the other 3 continued to rush towards the gate, arrows whistled through the air towards my head. I was just barely able to keep up with their speed and dodged to the side in time.


    A few minutes later all 5 of them were dead.


    I finally figured out what the problem was.


    These attacks. They were being planned.


    Someone or something was instructing the Hobgoblins from deep within the forest.


    I wanted to leave to investigate, and potentially nip the problem in the bud, but I couldn¡¯t leave the Outpost unprotected at that time.


    Hm.


    Is this what system meant by dying for burdens? Not that I plan on dying but I understand the premise.


    My stamina is extremely high, and my ability to heal and recover is unmatched by anyone here, but I¡¯m not invincible. If I had to fight around the clock continuously, I will eventually get tired, and people would die.


    Something needed to change now.

 Fatigued (Chapter Ninety Seven)

    I said something needed to be changed but honestly¡­what would change? There was nothing I could do to handle the influx of Goblins attacking the Outpost other than defending until it all ends, or the others get stronger.


    My stamina is definitely a factor but it¡¯s not like I can¡¯t fight for a few days without break. I just wouldn¡¯t be able to use my flames the entire time which will be a problem in and of itself but not insurmountable.


    At some point the constant attacks on the Outpost stopped, and I was able to sit Richard and everyone else down to discuss my findings and the results of that conversation was pretty much as I expected.


    No one else had any other solutions as to what we should do. It wasn¡¯t like anyone else was strong enough to survive on their own out there. Not even forming a small squad would do us any good. I¡¯m the only one strong enough to venture out into the forest to see if something or someone really is leading the Goblins in attacking us, but at the same time¡­I¡¯m also the only one capable of defending the Outpost. We did consider that there is a chance I could be fast enough to reach whatever was controlling the Goblins and take it out before the Outpost is attacked again, but Richard had a great counter for that line of thinking.


    He said something along the lines of, would that just end the stage? And the answer was no¡­even if there was something in the forest controlling the Goblins, and I managed to kill it. Would that solve our problem? No. It is highly unlikely to think that the Goblins would stop attacking us at that point. Would I just have to keep repeating the process then? Keep chasing down the potential Goblin leaders in the forest while hoping the Outpost wasn¡¯t attacked during that time I was gone? Not the best idea.


    The only solution is the same solution that has always been there from the very beginning.


    Get stronger.


    Of course, there¡¯s a few darker options at play as well. I could quite literally abandon them. Go explore and fight to my heart¡¯s content. A lot of things would open up and be a lot easier for me if I didn¡¯t have to worry about anyone else¡¯s life. Though¡­I would be absolutely disgusted with myself If I actually walked down a path like that. I definitely wouldn¡¯t be the man my parents raised, and that was unacceptable to me.


    It would be one thing if they just kind of expected to do everything for them just because they knew I was strong. Especially if we had no relation to speak of and they just assumed I would help, but that wasn¡¯t the case at all.


    I¡¯m the one who told them that I¡¯d be defending the Outpost, and that they should rely on me. They are only doing what I told them to do, which means I just need to continue doing what I said I would do, and that¡¯s protecting the Outpost and all its inhabitants...well not all its inhabitants, I¡¯m sure Greja and the others don¡¯t need any protection from me.


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    Anyway, the defense continued for a few days without much difference. The brunt of their forces would come in the morning, and they no longer stood outside to wait for me to arrive. Something we learned almost too late. A 5th Cycle Hobgoblin quite literally ran straight through the gate, but I made it just in time decapitate him and begin the process of cleaning up all the others. It was a good thing I was already up and prepared for their appearance.


    Apart from that, everyone including Nate and his group trained like crazy while I worked to defend the Outpost. I did my best to take breaks as much as I could, but I was most like fighting for 15 total hours each day. It was more challenging mentally than physically, but it¡¯s been worth it. Both Greja and the Blacksmith finally had a disciple. Both of whom from Nates¡¯ group. One of them was Nate¡¯s brother, while the other was a woman by the name of Jeanne. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know the details of it all and was too busy focusing on defending the Outpost, but it was good people were learning these professions. Hopefully if it¡¯s possible, everyone agrees to stay together once the Tutorial ends.


    After a while, I eventually got word that Miss Beverly finally concocted her first potion without assistance. She managed to make a health potion of the same quality in the Alchemist Shop. So that was cause for celebration, but not just because she was successful. Apparently because of her achievement, higher tier potions became available for purchase. It was only advanced versions of the health and stamina potions, and they were triple the price, but still it was a big deal.


    It made me wonder if that was a Tutorial thing, or was it perhaps the Alchemist doing us a favor because of Beverly¡¯s accomplishment? Who knows.


    Anyway¡­time continued to past for all of us. But it felt like it was moving slower for me. My days were filled with the same monotonous activities. Over and over again, I defended the Outpost. Over and over again, I fought against hundreds of Hobgoblins. The mental fatigue of it all was adding up. I rarely had time for anything else since I had to be ready. The fights were not hard, but to continuously do it for days on end with little respite? It was draining.


    Was this what war felt like? Maybe a siege type war and we were the defenders¡­yeah that makes sense. Either way, this is taking a toll on my psyche, I can feel it¡­the previous stage wasn¡¯t this bad either. After a defense in the morning, i had time to train, spend time with Irene, go on Dungeon runs. Now all of that is gone. But I would hold on till the end. This was something I pledged to do, and I will stick to my word.


    This was what I repeated to myself until there were only 5 days left until this stage ended. I didn¡¯t give up at that point, but something major finally happened. Nate, Brandon and Richard. All three of them managed to break through to the 4th Cycle on the exact same day.


    A few other people like Irene reached the 3rd Cycle during this time but that really didn¡¯t have any impact on our situation. This though¡­three new 4th Cycle individuals was massive. I can finally take a much-needed rest.


    Or better yet a partial rest. Even though they reached the 4th Cycle, they would still meet a nasty end if they tried to fight the 5th Cycle Hobgoblins. Not even all 3 of them together would be able to handle one. The gap in fighting ability and strength was just that wide. I would still handle those. But all the other ones? They¡¯d be able to handle at least some of them¡­I hope.

 Werent They Burdens? (Chapter Ninety Eight)

    The next day came around and I proceeded to defend the Outpost from five 5th Cycle Hobgoblins without much difficulty, except for the fact I broke another spear.


    The army of 4th Cycle Hobgoblins closed in during the fight as expected and I retreated back into the Outpost leaving a wall of black flames surrounding the entire Outpost per usual.


    Though this was where things would take a turn.


    ¡°Get as much rest as you can Raizen, we¡¯ll do our best from here.¡±


    A determined Richard placed his on my shoulder, which he had to reach a bit to do and said those words before walking back towards the group and making sure everyone was ready to defend against the incoming enemy.


    Now although he said to rest, for the next hour or so, I won¡¯t be getting much of that. I would maintain the wall of flames around the Outpost, until this first rush was over and I would still need to pay attention to the situation as a whole. Richard, Brandon and Nate reaching the 4th Cycle didn¡¯t suddenly mean they were now superior to the enemy. All it meant was that they could now fight on an even playing field. And that was only in one on one situation. Of course in this situation that was that would be required of them.


    The wall of flames would still be weakening or outright killing the Hobgoblins coming over the walls so only a few of them ever truly made it over the walls, and only a few of those ever actually made it all the way to the group at a time. I would need to pay attention to ensure that if they begin to get overwhelmed I am able to step in and provide the necessary support, where it¡¯s needed.


    Thankfully, today I had no reason to step in and they handled it well enough. Of course there were injuries to go along with plenty of aches and bruises but nothing they couldn¡¯t brush off. All in all they did good enough. It was at this point where I would hopefully get some true rest.


    ¡°Alright Raizen¡­go sleep. If we can¡¯t handle something we will send someone to wake you. Hopefully we won¡¯t have to.¡±


    ¡°I hope you won¡¯t need to either, but don¡¯t try to be heroes. If it gets too hard come get me.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    And with that I made my way to my house as the wall of flames slowly went down until it was no more. From this point on they would have to fight the Hobgoblins at full strength. The numbers they show up in after the morning rush tend to be in small amounts. Amounts that they will hopefully be able to handle for a few hours at least. I desperately need rest. More so mental than physical.


    I entered my house, washed off¡­put on a fresh pair of underwear¡­the little things¡­and immediately laid down. I could stay up all night if I needed to, but recovery was very important, so the second I laid down I was out cold¡­


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    POV Richard


    ¡°Alright! It¡¯s time to do our part! Raizen has been protecting us by himself this entire time! It¡¯s about time we give him a rest!


    ¡°Now, I want archers in all 4 towers, runners stationed at each tower to pass information, A rotating squad of 20 people with 15 of them being archers and 5 warriors, at the ready the second the enemy is sighted! Nate and Brandon you will be with me and will be fighting like our lives depended on it! We will rest when we can but expect very little opportunity to do so! Lance! Make sure we have more than enough Health and Stamina potions! Thats it everyone, move move move!!¡±


    Richard¡¯s voice boomed around the Outpost as people scampered about to move according to the orders given. Even though everything Richard said was apart of a previously discussed plan, having someone bark instructions at you was good reminder and of what it is you¡¯re supposed to be doing.


    A few moments later¡­


    ¡°Richard! Movement from the front!¡±


    ¡°Understood! Start shooting when they enter your range, Nate, Brandon and the support squad with me!¡±


    The entire group moved as stated and eventually made their way out of the Outpost where Richard,Nate, and Brandon stood at the front and the support squad was set up in the rear.


    ¡®Okay¡­how many are we facing¡­two¡­it¡¯s just two¡­!¡¯


    ¡°Two Hobgoblins! Brandon we will fight first! Nate you¡¯re on standby! Support squad act when you have an opening!¡±


    The two Hobgoblins arrived swiftly to the duo awaiting them, but before Richard and Brandon could greet them, a host of arrows descended upon them.


    Of course a few 10s of Tier 2 and 3 Archers with bows to match wasn¡¯t going to kill somebody at the 4th Cycle if they were prepared, and the Hobgoblins were prepared. They both dodged and swung their maces around to block or avoid the arrows in one or another. Now, Richard and the others didn¡¯t expect to end the battle with just that. It was just to provide an opportunity, a small window for them to act, that was it. And that was what they got. The Hobgoblins had to slow themselves slightly and focus on the arrows a bit to properly defend themselves and neither Richard or Brandon missed that chance.


    Both of them launched themselves at their respective opponents and began a desperate brawl. Fighting as if their lives were on the line. And it was.


    Both Richard and Brandon were decent fighters when you considered how much time they¡¯ve had to train, but that experience was nothing in front of the truly experienced Hobgoblins. That is where the support squad came in and archers in the towers.


    It took immense trust to fire at the enemy while your allies were fighting, but whether they trusted them or not, they had no choice. So a few timely arrows help to tip the battle in the favor of Richard and Brandon.


    Of course¡­this was only one of many battles the group would have to fight, and fight they did.


    Whether it was one of them, two of them or all three of them fighting the opponents before them. They did it. Many times they came close to calling for Raizen. Many times did one or all of them almost lose their lives, many times did they get hurt. Many times. But they pressed on. They fought, they clawed, they pushed as hard as they could because they knew what Raizen was doing for them. He was fighting monsters that would kill them before they realized day in and day out without complaint. Can¡¯t they handle just this on their own? Can¡¯t they relieve just a small amount of burden placed on Raizen¡¯s shoulders?


    They all saw the notification. It said not to did for burdens. Aren¡¯t they the burdens? They had to do at least this much to fight against that moniker. They wouldn¡¯t leave Raizen to fight all on his own.

 A Leader (Chapter Ninety Nine)

    POV Raizen


    It¡¯s really a wonder what having adequate rest did for a person. It¡¯s one of those things that you didn¡¯t really know how much you needed it until you actually got a chance to rest fully. With that being said, I still haven¡¯t had that chance.


    Since this Tutorial has started, I have been essentially on the move doing many different things day in and day out. And as each day passed, the busier my days became, and it didn¡¯t stop at my ¡®days¡¯, my nights eventually became just as busy.


    From solo hunting in the forests, to late night Dungeon runs with Irene. To defending the Outpost almost 24/7 from 5th and 4th Cycle Hobgoblins. That last part was the most grueling out of anything else I did. The lack of rest, the monotony of it all, the mental strain was more than I thought it would be. I almost want to say it¡¯s okay because ¡®I¡¯m only human¡¯ but¡­I¡¯m not human at all am I? I¡¯m an Infernal. It¡¯s that thought that makes me wonder just what the Infernal Elder I should be meeting soon would think about my performance thus far.


    For some reason that thought sticks a bit longer than I¡¯d like. Moving on, Brandon, Nate and Richard were all a big help these last days of the Tutorial. I still had to fight the 5th Cycle Hobgoblins in the morning by myself of course, but after that, I was able to sleep and rest for most of the remainder of the day. And every second of time to rest I got was needed and not wasted. There were definitely things I wanted to pursue, like aiming for Qi Refinement, or reading up more on the Monster Encyclopedia, or practicing the perfect thrust that the Outpost Leader showed me all those days ago, but I simply needed the rest. Some might say I¡¯m not pushing myself hard enough perhaps, but perhaps they should taste my spe¡­ahem.


    Anyway, speaking of my spear. I¡¯m actually quite desperate for another one. I keep breaking the ones I have used now, and I suppose it makes sense since I don¡¯t believe the armor and the weapons the blacksmith is currently able to make for us were supposed to be strong enough to contend with 4th and 5th Cycle opponents, much less to be wielded by someone in the 9th Cycle. The 9th Cycle. It still hasn¡¯t resonated with me that I accomplished something as important as that, or even just how important of a feat it is. The Outpost Leader stressed that it was, but having only one point of reference still doesn¡¯t paint a very clear picture.


    Though something that did paint a very clear picture is the rate of improvement in comparison to others. It is likely not fair to compare myself to Richard and the others due to what I am, but Richard, Nate, and Brandon compared to Lance, Micah, Hubert, Vanessa etc¡­were clearly a step ahead. Those three were the only ones who managed to reach the 4th Cycle in these two months. While all the others in the core group all managed to reach the 3rd Cycle, which wasn¡¯t to be looked down upon because there were plenty of others still in the 2nd and 1st Cycles, there were even still a few that haven¡¯t cultivated at all.


    All in all, out of the 200-ish people that now lived in this Outpost, we only had three 4th Cycle cultivators in Richard, Brandon and Nate. And now we have twenty 3rd Cycle Cultivators, with 16 of them from our core group, and 4 others from Nate¡¯s, two of which were his brothers. From there we roughly had around 40-ish 2nd Cycle Cultivators between both groups, and roughly 30ish 1st Cycle Cultivators. The majority of those numbers belonged to the original group though. That was the state of the Outpost this morning when I woke up. On the second to last day of the Tutorial. Something a notification popped up this morning to signify. A very important notification at that.


    Today Marks the End of Earth¡¯s Tutorial


    There will be no more monsters to fight, save for those in Dungeons


    For Outposts who still stand, Select a Leader or One shall be Chosen for You


    1 Day Remaining


    It was a weird notification for many different reasons. All the monsters were gone? Just like that? Odd. It was practically a scam, because at some point they stopped dropping cores for us to sell at the shop. It was a good thing we did both Dungeons as much as we did and managed to make quite a bit of money. Well, quite a bit of money relative to the Tutorial. Who knows what those coins will be worth, if they have any worth at all. Though despite me saying that¡­the Dungeons are still up. So, we can hit the Green Den, and the Goblin Outpost. Of course¡­I plan on doing the Goblin Village. It required a minimum team of 4th Cycle Cultivators and seeing how I was at the 9th Cycle, I believe I should be more than ready for it. I will talk with the others about it later. Though that was not the only thing I would need to talk to them about. Selecting a Leader.


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    That raised more one question for me¡­why would we need to officially do so? Would the Leader be serving a purpose past the Tutorial? That seems unlikely to me¡­Then would the Leader have to make some type of decision regarding the Tutorial? Perhaps it would be tomorrow.


    The notification said that the Tutorial was over, yet we have 1 day remaining. I hope this isn¡¯t shaping up to be one of those cliche moments in stories where it forces a random tournament out of nowhere. Anyway, as always, it¡¯s best not to stress myself over things I don¡¯t know. We will all find out what happens when a Leader is selected. What I can think about now, is who the Leader should be. Though that question was already answered the second the notification flashed across my face this morning.


    There was always only one answer.


    Sometime later I was with Richard, Nate and others in my room. The conversation was mainly about our next steps and our plans for the remainder of the day. When the conversation reached the point of a leader being selected, I barely got to say a word out before Richard and the others essentially just said ¡°Raizen¡¯s the Leader¡± and moved on to Dungeon prep¡­If felt kinda weird. What happened to democracy? Not that I was planning on having a ¡®fair¡¯ vote in the fair place but¡­wasn¡¯t that a bit too easy of a decision for them?


    Anyway.


    Even though the decision to choose me as the Leader was essentially made, nothing happened. I wonder if it was similar to the upgrade in the sense that the current Outpost residents would have to vote yes or no. Not sure but I will confirm with Greja after this meeting. Then came Dungeon Prep time. With only 1 more attempt at each Dungeon remaining, due to it being the last day, and the cooldown times of the Dungeons, this wouldn¡¯t be a training run. The plan was to get in, clear the dungeon and get home safely. Irene, Lance, Trent and Vanessa would head to the Green Den, while Micah, Hubert, Brockers, Grant, Johnny, Sarah, Li and Trinity would head to the Goblin Outpost.


    The only ones remaining from the core group would be Harrison, Nora and Micheal. They would be the only ones because Brandon, Richard and Nate will all be accompanying me into the Dungeon.


    At first my plan was to enter alone as always. The first two Dungeons required them to be cleared or killed, and If the danger in the Dungeon exceeded my strength then I wouldn¡¯t be able to protect myself let alone others, but they seem to all want this opportunity, so I wasn¡¯t going to fight them on it. Which brought us to the end of the meeting. A Leader was chosen, Dungeon runs were planned, and things to do after the Dungeon runs, things like gathering weapons, potions and various other supplies in the event that we are able to return with our items. We didn¡¯t know what we would return to, so it didn¡¯t hurt to be prepared. After that¡­we would simply wait for the Tutorial to end.


    With that out of the way, I made my way to the shop.


    ¡°Welcome in Raizen!¡±


    ¡°Hi Greja. I have a quick question for you.¡±


    ¡°Sure, go right ahead.¡±


    ¡°The system said to select a Leader. Is this something that the entire Outpost needs to vote on?¡±


    ¡°No, this is different. All you or anyone would have to do is to be a resident of an Outpost, then declare your claim to Leadership to the Outpost Leader. Though once declared, the claim will be announced for all to see, and anyone could challenge you within the allotted time for the position. Of course, seeing how the other residents treat you, I doubt you would have to worry about a challenge. Oh, one last thing, once you have become the Leader, the Tutorial wide message will be sent out, displaying that feat.¡±


    ¡°Hm, I see. Thank you as always Greja.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Raizen. Anytime!¡±


    And with that I left and headed straight to the Outpost Leader¡¯s office, and a short time later I was standing before his desk.


    ¡°I¡¯m here to declare myself Leader of Outpost G.¡±


    ¡°I have received your declaration.¡±


    (Outpost G Residents Only)


    Raizen, has Declared himself Leader of Outpost G


    You have 1 Hour to Oppose


    The Outpost Leader didn¡¯t have much to say after that, so I just left and waited at the gate just in case someone really did want to oppose. During the wait the other teams had already left for their respective Dungeons, meanwhile Richard, Brandon and Nate were simply waiting on me.


    Eventually the time passed, and another Notification rang out.


    Ding!


    Raizen is now the Leader of Outpost G


    Hm, I wonder how other people in the Tutorial will react to that. Anyway, let¡¯s go to the Dungeon.

 Congratulations (Chapter One Hundred)

    On the way to the to the Dungeon, two more notifications rang out.


    Ding!


    Ronnie is now the Leader of Outpost L


    Ding!


    Tenzen is now the Leader of Outpost Z


    Ronnie and Tenzen huh. I wonder how strong they are. Or perhaps how they convinced their Outposts to let them become the Leader. Could it be because of their strength or was it through good old fashioned diplomacy. I¡¯m sure the system has a reason for making us select a Leader, even going as far as to say it will select one for us if we don¡¯t choose, so perhaps I¡¯ll get to meet them.


    I still really hope it¡¯s not some clich¨¦ tournament though.


    I also know I¡¯m extremely positive that I¡¯m going to forget their names at some point, but this is why people like Richard exist, and why I¡¯m thankful for having someone like that as an ally.


    The second both notifications rang out, he made us stop so that he could scribble down their names, along with their Outposts on a piece of paper. I didn¡¯t even think to do that, but that¡¯s Richard for you.


    We passed by the Goblin Outpost on the way, but the team sent to that one was already in so we just missed them. But we eventually reached the Goblin Village. Richard then began his spiel, on what to expect in the Dungeon. We have discussed it all before, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to have a final prep talk.


    ¡°Now, we don¡¯t know exactly what to expect, but we have some ideas as previously discussed. It is likely that we¡¯ll find some type of village as stated in the name. Think of the Outpost for example. It will likely be something along those lines, but since there is already a Goblin Outpost Dungeon, it¡¯s expected that it will be bigger, and likely more suited for living.


    ¡°With that being said, we¡¯re expecting a lot of danger. Both the Green Den, and the Goblin Outpost were still E Class Dungeons, meanwhile this one is D Class. This would be our first Dungeon of this Class, and the minimum cultivation required reflects that. Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators. That is a significant leap in requirement. So, expect to fight 5th Cycle equivalent Hobgoblins.


    ¡°If anything stronger than that shows up the plan is to run, hide and do our best to stay out of Raizen¡¯s way. Raizen will enter first, and we will wait a few seconds before following him in. Hopefully we show up together like the previous two Dungeons, but if for some reason we don¡¯t disengage from any hostiles if possible and regroup away from danger. If that isn¡¯t possible then act freely until it is. The key is to survive.


    ¡°Any questions?¡±


    No one had any questions for him, not even Nate, who had never gone into any of the Dungeons before this one. Of course, it was explained to him in detail just what they were and how they worked before this, but it would definitely be a bit different to experience it firsthand¡­


    Welcome to the Goblin Village


    (D) Class Dungeon


    Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Enter? Yes/No


    I accepted the prompt and quickly found myself in another forest, but it didn¡¯t take me very long to realize I didn¡¯t see a single village. It was just a typical forest. The trees weren¡¯t so thick that I couldn¡¯t see the blue sky above me, and the sun was shining all around. I heard the sounds of birds in the distance, saw small animals dash about the place, and in the distance, I could even hear what I think to be a small stream. This is different.


    The Goblin Village


    Objective: Kill the Chief


    Or


    Objective: Survive for 1 Day


    Cannot Leave Before Either Objective Is Complete


    Interesting¡­


    A moment later, Richard, Nate and Brandon all arrived together. It¡¯s good we didn¡¯t all get separated. Especially since the expected village is nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°So, this is Dungeon¡­not what I was expecting. It feels like we haven¡¯t left the Tutorial at all. It¡¯s as if I was back at my camp before moving to the Outpost.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, where is the Villa¡­oh I just got the Objective notification. Two different objects¡­that¡¯s a first. Raizen. What do you want to do?¡±


    ¡®Richard has been directing more and more questions like this to me recently, as if forcing me to do more leadership like things. I won¡¯t ask him about it though. Anyway, what do I want to do huh...¡¯


    ¡°We will try to kill the Chief, if it isn¡¯t possible we¡¯ll focus on surviving. First things first let¡¯s find this village.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good, we should focus on stealth as much as possible so let¡¯s move quietly and keep talking to a minimum. Any questions?¡±


    ¡°Would it be faster to scout on our own? To cover more ground.¡±


    It was a question from Nate, since Brandon didn¡¯t have much to say as always. I¡¯ll answer this one.


    ¡°There could be 5th Cycle Hobgoblins lurking all over the place. It¡¯s best to stay together for now. I hear water in the distance come with me.¡±


    Everyone nodded and we moved together as silently as possible towards the sounds of water I was hearing.


    We weren¡¯t ninjas by any means but compared to the other sounds of the forest around us, we were pretty quiet, and we traveled like this for roughly 40-ish minutes before we could finally see what was actually a small river and not just a stream. It wasn¡¯t flowing very fast, and it was only about 6 feet across. Though none of that was what caught our attention.


    There were Goblins.


    A small squad of 5. One Hobgoblin, and 4 normal Goblins. They were walking parallel with the river and had weapons in their hands. The normal Goblins had small knives while the Hobgoblin carried a large mace.


    Was this just a patrol perhaps?


    Not sure, but they weren¡¯t really far enough for us to start talking out loud. We were currently crouched down behind some shrubs as we watched them patrol the riverbank. The fact that they are patrolling here should mean that their village can¡¯t be too far away, so what should I do. Wait for them to potentially leave? Or perhaps I should kill them right here and now.


    Hmm. I took a look at the other three and they aren¡¯t even watching the Goblins. There¡¯re just looking at me, waiting for a decision. It¡¯s all on me huh. Fine fine.


    Above our heads, five small black arrows quickly formed out of my black flames and before the Goblins realized what was going on, they were all struck in the head and burned to ash shortly after. The big one wasn¡¯t able to resist like the 4th and 5th Cycle ones did, so it was like 2nd or 3rd Cycle equivalent. Interesting.


    Now for the hard part.


    ¡°Richard, what do you think? Should we keep going in this direction? Or follow the river up or downstream?¡±


    Yeah, now you got to make a decision.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s kind of hard to pick a direction based on what we know so far, so I don¡¯t think anyone would fault you for whichever way you decide to do.¡±


    No way he managed to flip it back to me. Whatever.


    ¡°Hm, fine let¡¯s just keep going.¡±


    I didn¡¯t really have a reason to pick that direction, I just did. Around 10 minutes later and it proved to be the right decision. We ran into another patrol just like the first one, and I took it out the same way as the first. We pressed on for another 40ish minutes and in that time, we ran into 2 more patrols, but Richad and the others took those two out instead of me. I would protect them, but I wasn¡¯t here to babysit them. But the reason we stopped walking now was because we finally saw it. In front of us was a massive clearing, where a stone wall about 6 feet in height, and behind it stood various buildings. I couldn¡¯t see the whole village but I¡¯m assuming they were houses. Goblins were everywhere. Both Hobgoblins and normal Goblins were coming in and out of the Village. They looked like other patrol groups.


    ¡°So¡­what do all think?¡±


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°Honestly. It would be very hard to sneak in there. We¡¯re better off just going all out in the beginning or just hiding in the forest.¡±


    ¡°Hm. We could also just go around getting rid of all the patrol groups leaving the Village. Bring their numbers down as much as possible, before raiding the village itself.¡±


    ¡°We should just send Raizen to set it on fire and then kill whoever comes running it out.¡±


    Nate, Richard and Brandon all gave their opinions, and I thought over them for a moment. All of them made good points, but Brandon¡¯s idea resonated with me the most. I really didn¡¯t want to waste time going around killing patrols when I can just burn them all.


    ¡°We¡¯ll go with Brandon¡¯s idea. Get ready.¡±


    I took a deep breath and gripped my spear, then charged out towards the village walls. It didn¡¯t take long for them to spot me and before I knew it various shouting and eventually bells? Yeah, bells were sounding out in the village. Arrows soon came flying my way from somewhere, but I dodged them without issue and quickly made my way to the wall, before slamming the butt of my spear into the ground, causing an ocean of flames to rise up along this side of the village.


    And with a roar, they came crashing down like a small tsunami crashing down on the coast of some unfortunate fishing village. Various screams could immediately be heard, but I didn¡¯t stay there to listen, I quickly made my way back towards the group as they had stepped out behind me to fight the few Goblins that were already outside of the village. They didn¡¯t need my help, and they were done in a few moments.


    We grouped up after to watch as my flames continued to burn within the village for a few moments with no one running out, until a roar was heard.


    ¡°RAHHHHH!!¡±


    That didn¡¯t sound good.


    ¡°Boys. Stay together but run and don¡¯t look back.¡±


    ¡°Raiz-¡±


    ¡°Richard, I said to fucking run.¡±


    Something about that Roar gave me a bad feeling, the same type of feeling I had when I failed to completely protect the Outpost on the first day of the last stage. Something was very wrong. I didn¡¯t know exactly what it was, but the Goblin that unleashed that raw is probably not something to mess with. At least not while having to protect them.


    It¡¯s a good thing they didn¡¯t need to be told a third time, and they began sprinting as if their life depended on it.


    And it¡¯s a good thing they did.


    A moment later, a Hobgoblin that looked very different than what we¡¯ve seen to date came charging out of the village, with two other Hobgoblins in its arms. A few other Hobgoblins came charging out as well, each carrying Goblins of their own, but they were all on fire. It wouldn¡¯t take much longer for them to burn to death.


    All of them except for one.


    The main Hobgoblin.


    It looked shorter than its counterparts by a foot, and it was also slightly leaner, yet its muscles looked stronger than anything I¡¯ve ever seen. The differences didn¡¯t stop their either, its armor was all black and definitely looked stronger than anything I was wearing, and that was without mentioning the steel mace that it now wielded in its hands after dropping its brethren and turning towards me with hate filled eyes.


    I suppose that¡¯s deserved.


    None of that worried me though. It wasn¡¯t on fire. Nothing. Even when it held its fellow Goblins who were all burning, the fire seemed like it was unable to latch onto him. This would be troublesome.


    Especially since the second he appeared my instincts have screaming danger to me over and over again. Just standing here before him I started to feel afraid. Of course that was until my flames roared to life within me. This wasn¡¯t going to be a battle I could avoid no matter how far I ran; I knew this monster would catch me. Better to stand my ground. Plus¡­I didn¡¯t want to run in the first place.


    Isn¡¯t this what you¡¯ve wanted Raizen?!


    A battle you couldn¡¯t run from against a superior opponent?!


    Instead of a smile making its way onto my face, it was a mad grin that bloomed in its place.


    ¡°Come!¡±


    I screamed at the Hobgoblin and instead of responding with audible words it roared once more and darted in my direction.


    Fast!


    Before I knew it, the Hobgoblin was upon me with a mace crashing down towards my head.


    Shit.


    I jumped back as far as I could, and the mace crashed into the ground where I was just standing.


    Boom!


    A small crater remained as a cloud of dust rose up in the area and the Hobgoblin charged through it with a speed I could barely keep up with and the mace was now coming straight for my left side. There was no time to dodge so I moved my spear to block and covered my entire left side in flames.


    ARRHHHH!!!


    Neither the flames nor my spear did anything as the mace crashed into the left side of my body and sent me flying about 5 feet before crashing into a tree that broke on impact but still stopped my flight.


    My left arm¡­it was both punctured from the spikes and crushed from my shoulder to my elbow¡­


    Fuck¡­


    Ah that shit hurts.


    I barely got time to tend to my wounds before I heard a familiar roar and the Hobgoblin was upon me once more.


    Fuck.


    I didn¡¯t even wait to see the attack it would deliver and instead just jumped backwards as my left arm dangled to the side.


    The broken tree I was leaning on, was reduced to splinters in one swing, and the Hobgoblin took another step towards me.


    This can¡¯t continue.


    I let out a shout of my own.


    ¡°C¡¯MON BROTHER BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!!¡±


    I cried out to my flames and promptly an inferno of flames erupted from my chest and everything within 40 feet in all directions was covered in deep, rich, black flames.


    I stood weakly among the flames as my left arm hung weakly and I panted for air. My body was definitely healing faster than ever before, but my left arm was truly damaged beyond reason so it would take a while to fully heal.


    I took a couple seconds to catch my breath as I waited to see how the Hobgoblin fared in all this fire.


    It only took a moment before the result showed itself before me.


    My heart almost dropped.


    The Hobgoblin was practically unharmed as it walked slowly towards me.


    The mad glint in its eyes was gone by now.


    Instead, it was replaced with what looked to be a hint of wariness.


    Ah you¡¯re afraid now huh.


    Here, watch this.


    ¡°Vorrash.¡±


    The world went black.


    The area was already covered in black flames, but this was a step above that. Everything went black.


    Then that thing that I felt last time was back, and I got that same familial feeling when I felt it watching me. I didn¡¯t have time to worry about that though¡­I focused on the Hobgoblin in front of me and willed for it to die¡­I don¡¯t know exactly how it worked last time as I was a bit out of it, but I didn¡¯t know what else to do other than willing with every fiber of my being for that Hobgoblin to die.


    It was then I heard a voice in my head.


    ¡°You¡¯re not strong enough to properly use this power little one. I¡¯ll help you.¡±


    That was all it said, before the darkness faded away as if it was never there. The Hobgoblin was still standing though. Only something was different.


    It was screaming.


    My flames were still blazing strong around it, and it was finally being burned.


    I stood there and watched as it slowly and methodically scorched from the flames. It¡¯s very flesh and bones being eaten away as if a plague had taken hold of it¡¯s body.


    From that point, only a couple of minutes later and the monster of a Hobgoblin was on it¡¯s last legs as it fell to floor and squirmed around until even it¡¯s very life was burned away. Then it too became ashes.


    Heh.


    I should feel some type of happiness about this, but all it was, was another reminder of my weakness. If that V-word power that I don¡¯t even understand didn¡¯t work, I likely would¡¯ve died here.


    Tch.


    No use in crying about it.


    The Goblin Village


    Objective (Kill Goblin Chief): Complete


    Congratulations


    Granting Rewards


    Right after that notification appeared in front of me, the feeling of being teleported took hold of me and I was suddenly back in front of the Dungeon entrance. Huh.


    ¡°What the¡­¡±


    ¡°How¡­¡±


    ¡°What¡­??¡±


    Richard, Brandon, and Nate all showed up with me. They weren¡¯t the only other things to show up, as a small chest was at my feet.


    I didn¡¯t get a chance to reach down and open it though¡­


    ¡°Raizen! Your arm! I¡¯m grabbing a potion give me a sec!¡±


    I didn¡¯t bother saying anything as I just took the potion from Richard and drank it. My arm still hurt like hell, but it was in a much better shape compared to a couple minutes ago. Still couldn¡¯t really move it much though.


    ¡°Thank you, Richard. My arm will be okay soon. I¡¯m assuming you all were fine?¡±


    ¡°...We ran into another patrol but apart from that we made it over the river and ran past the area we arrived in for a few moments and just waited there. We could see the flames you created from way over there but trusted you and waited. At some point that same darkness from before descended and we essentially couldn¡¯t move, only for it to go away just as quickly and next thing you know we were being teleported.


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming that thing at your feet is our reward?¡±


    ¡°Seems like.¡±


    I squatted down and opened the lid to see what all that effort amounted to.


    It was 5 silver coins. Hm, that was a lot, of course that wasn¡¯t all it was. Next to it, was what appeared to be 3 ingots? Hm. They were pitch black in color, but apart from that they looked like typical ingots you might see in a certain crafting game.


    Hm.


    I suppose I won¡¯t know the value of that and if it was worth it until we figure out what these ingots were worth. I reached to pick one up, and it was surprisingly light. That¡¯s a good thing right?


    Who knows.


    Anyway, we packed up and made our way back to the Outpost, and quickly learned that all the other teams had arrived ahead of us, and it was right then that a string of notifications sounded off in front of me.


    Exactly 13 of them.


    13 notifications about who became leaders of whatever Outpost. That brought our total up to 16 Outpost now with a Leader. That now left 10 more who hadn¡¯t found one yet. Interesting.


    Of course, Richard wrote all the names down like he previously did.


    After making sure everyone was alright, and ensuring Irene that my arm would be fine before the day was over, seeing as how I could actually move my shoulder now. It really was crushed beyond reason for it to take this long to heal huh.


    Anyway, Brandon took the Ingots to the Blacksmith while I made my way to the Outpost Leader¡¯s office. I needed to ask about the Hobgoblin.


    A few moments later.


    ¡°It was likely a Hobgoblin that reached Qi Refinement. Your flames burn extremely hot, but they lack Qi. They would never be able to burn someone or something that is being protected by Qi.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    I wonder if I should try to reach Qi Refinement tonight.


    ¡°If you¡¯re thinking about breaking through to Qi Refinement now, then I suggest you wait. You will be transported out of the Tutorial tomorrow. I believe one of your people will be waiting. It would be best to consult with them regarding your cultivation.¡±


    ¡°¡­I suppose that makes sense.¡±


    I left and made it back to my house, but not before Richard found and let me know the ingots were apparently something called Tempered Black Iron. A Qi level ingredient and something the Blacksmith can¡¯t do anything with during the Tutorial. It¡¯s about to be over anyway so I guess that doesn¡¯t matter.


    I took a few hours to myself to freshen up, eat a couple food pills and allow my arm to heal a bit more before making my way back outside with the others.


    It was late into the evening now the entire Outpost was gathered together at the training grounds.


    We divided up all the supplies between the entire group just in case we would all be sent to different places back on Earth.  For some reason I ended up with all the ingots though.


    Moving on, time continued to pass as everyone chatted with each other about their experiences in the Tutorial, what Earth is going to be like, and many other things, but eventually the moment we were all waiting for came.


    Though as the moment came, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what happened to the other Outposts. By the end of the night no other Leader notifications were announced. Hm.


    Anyway, a blinding flash came up over the entire group and I instinctively shielded my eyes.


    When I opened them, I was expecting to see some broken building, maybe even an overgrown  forest, or perhaps a monster dog or cat even¡­but instead I opened my eyes to see that I was still in the training grounds¡­Except there was a large white dome over us now and some type hologram projection of the metal man who tore through space and gave that weird salute greeting two months ago was floating above us.


    He opened his mouth to speak, and a voice laced with power and authority sounded out.


    ¡°Congratulations on surviving the Tutorial.¡±


    ~ End of Book 1 ~

 Annoucement!

    If you haven¡¯t already read Chapter 100, of Infernal Apocalypse then please do so!


    This is a small announcement to talk about what¡¯s next for Infernal Apocalypse and a few other things. So, for Infernal Apocalypse, I¡¯m currently planning 5 more books in this series for a Total of 6! I don¡¯t plan to drag the book on forever. I want it to be a great journey that we go on together that ends at just the right time.


    Of course, Infernal Apocalypse is not the only book I have planned. ¡°Why a Goblin?!¡± Is currently ongoing, and I plan to re-release ¡°Rise of the Umbra¡± as well, a few unedited chapters of that one can currently be found on Royal Road. There is also a book titled ¡°What is a King?¡± that I¡¯m writing as well, but I won¡¯t talk about that one too much for now but there are a few others I have early ideas for that I¡¯d like to deliver to you guys as well¡­Anyway, finally I would love to have Infernal Apocalypse be professionally edited then officially published someday, with actual official artwork ! Not sure how or when that happens but I¡¯ll do my best. You never know¡­maybe it even gets a graphic novel adaptation¡­lol fingers crossed.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Thanks again for reading and I look forward to writing for you all!


    P.S If any of you are artists/editors please reach out, I would love to discuss a potential partnership.

 101. A Scam (Book Two)

    POV Yamaal


    ¡°Finally, this damn Tutorial is over. Yamaal is everything ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Raeyon, everything has been prepared accordingly.¡±


    ¡°Good, now we just need that brat to make the right choice. That woman better not interfere and allow him to choose for himself. Are the contingencies ready as well?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Raeyon.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    ¡­..


    POV Elder Zal


    ¡°Are you two ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Good, it is imperative that you both do not make a poor showing out of yourselves. A new Patriarch has risen, and with it a new Conflagration must rise alongside him. Both of you have the opportunity to be the first members of the First Conflagration of this new Patriarch. Do not waste the opportunity given to you.


    ¡°Now, there will be many other people who will likely try to curry favor with the new Patriarch, there will be many enemies, there will be many battles, many schemes, many situations in which there will be danger abound. Remember your teachings. Infernals do not cower, nor do we ever beg for mercy. We simply wet our spears with the blood of our enemies and lay their bodies down at the feet of the Eternal Flame. Prepare for departure, it is time to meet the Patriarch.


    ¡­.


    POV Raizen


    ¡°Congratulations on surviving the Tutorial.¡±


    Surviving the Tutorial huh¡­I suppose the very first thing it told us was to survive.


    ¡°Using the measurements of your planet. Roughly 8.2 billion members of your race entered this Tutorial, and as of right now that number is down to just under a billion survivors. That is excellent. It is not uncommon for an entire planet to not survive and its inhabitants to be extinct.


    ¡°Now, what¡¯s next for you? You all will soon be returned to your planet, but it will be the same as the one you left behind.


    ¡°Firstly, only your race, humans were to a Tutorial. Everything else remained on the planet, and everything went through an evolution of sorts to match the new environment around them. Whether it was an entire species that went through the same evolution, or something evolved independently from its counterparts, the fact remains there are now potentially dangerous beats roaming your planet. The planet itself is now approximately 3x larger than it is was previously. It will be up to you all to navigate through that.


    ¡°Secondly, Qi is now abundant throughout the entire planet and anything that couldn¡¯t handle the influx of Qi was destroyed. Nature adjusted and evolved on its own, but anything that was manmade could not handle the surge in Qi that an evolving planet would be met with.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ¡°This means you all would need to rebuild from the ground up. Which brings me to third point. Outpost Leaders were chosen for a reason. Those of you who were chosen will now have a decision to make. Making a deal with the Managers of your respective Outposts. The number one benefit of this deal is that those managers will essentially build you a sprawling city where you will be the sole Lord of the City initially.


    ¡°But nothing is truly free in this world. As mentioned previously, this is a deal. One of the guaranteed stipulations if this deal, is that should you choose to adhere to this deal, the Managers of that Outpost will be allowed to return from the Tutorial world with you, take residence on your planet alongside you. It is up to you all to decide whether or not this tradeoff is worth it. I suggest having a discussion with the Mangers of your Outposts before making a decision.


    ¡°Fourthly, everyone else in the Tutorial will now have the option to choose a few things. You can return by yourself significantly away from anyone else, or and this is only for people who lived in an Outpost, you can return with members of the Outpost.


    ¡°Now there is a small twist to that. If an Outpost Leader made the choice to have a city constructed, then along with the residents of the Outpost, anyone in the Tutorial can choose to be returned to the nearest city location, or a specific city. All Outposts and Leaders of their Outpost will be displayed for you to see if they decide to make the deal to build the city.


    ¡°Lastly, everything you earned in the Tutorial and is on your person, will return with you. And of course, although it wasn¡¯t earned, that includes The System. A System that will play a bigger part of your lives from this point forward.


    ¡°You all may now initiate the return to your planet at any time, for those who need time to get your affairs in order, you have three hours. Everyone will be returned to the planet once those three hours have expired. That is all.¡±


    And with that the holographic projection and big white dome disappeared as if they were never there.


    Hm, the metal man dropped a whole of information on us, so let¡¯s focus on the things I need to think about right now. Making a deal with the Outpost Leader so they can build us a city, the entire group can return together, if I do indeed make that deal, then thousands of people could potentially be teleported to the city with us. If I don¡¯t make the deal, we can all still return together but will have to make our shelter, which will 100% not be a city of any kind. Meaning it will take a while before something like that is made¡­and we would be very exposed to the new dangers of the planet. Okay we¡¯re making a city. So, let¡¯s go talk to the Outpost Leader.


    Hm...?


    Why is everyone looking at me?


    ¡°Richard?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re waiting on you.¡±


    Okay, I knew I was already seen in some type of leadership position beforehand but isn¡¯t this a step above that? The entire Outpost is just silently waiting on me? Sigh Whatever I guess I did do this to myself. Fine.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to have a talk with the Outpost Leader. Everyone else uses this time to make sure we have everything we need from the Tutorial. Will all return together.¡±


    After a series of ¡®got its¡¯ and a few ¡®understoods¡¯ I walked off in the direction of the direction of the Outpost Leader¡¯s office, and quickly found myself in front of his desk once more.


    Usually he would remain seated, but he was standing as if waiting for me to arrive.


    ¡°I greet the Infernal.¡±


    He said that as he bowed his head slightly.


    Now what the hell¡­


    ¡°What¡¯s with the change in attitude?¡±


    ¡°The status of Infernals is higher than you understand. You will understand in time that this type of greeting is something to be expected as you begin traversing and interacting with the wider Multiverse.


    ¡°Do not take it for granted.


    ¡°Now the deal that was mentioned. I will first explain some things then I will tell you what our conditions are to accept that deal.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°Good, now first and foremost. The deals Yamaal mentioned are many things and can take on different forms and mean many different possibilities. There are two things to remember, one, this deal is binding, and you should consider it a contract. A contract that is signed with The System bearing witness, meaning breaking the contract could have severe consequences.


    ¡°Now the most important thing to remember. These Tutorial deals are largely a scam.¡±


    Wait what? Did he just say all of that just to call the deals a scam?

 102. A Deal (Book 2)

    ¡°A scam? why are the deals a scam?¡±


    ¡°To explain, I need to give you some background information. Are you familiar with any natural resources on your planet prior to the Tutorial?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Of course I was. We had ores, and many other fossil fuels.


    ¡°Good, then you likely understand that they were limited in some sense, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    I think I understand where this is going¡­


    ¡°When a new universe is inducted into the Multiverse it usually comes with it a random number of planets. From just one planet to thousands. Every single one of those planets will be reformed, and a plethora of new natural resources will be formed. Resources that are either common or extremely scarce in the wider Multiverse. Resources that the native residents of said planet will likely take generations to truly understand and uncover them all, but for a faction that has existed for centuries? They would know exactly what to look for, and how to look for it.


    ¡°Of course, this does not account for natural resources that will be completely native to the planet as the value of such things will be unlimited until uses are discovered, but you should understand the gist of it now. Now you might question why a faction millions of years old might need resources from a planet such as yours, but these factions have cultivators at many different levels of strength, and those resources could be invaluable for someone at Qi Refinement but useless to someone at Nascent Soul.


    ¡°Of course, most of these factions are not interested in sucking your planet dry of its resources, but more would like to control it or at least parts of it, and this is where deals come into play.


    ¡°In essence, a faction will stress the need for the type of city they are capable of building, highlighting unforeseen dangers you might run into, and once the person agrees they would bring up a cost of that endeavor. It could be anything from allowing a certain number of their members to move to the planet, or perhaps a percentage of profits that the new city will eventually generate, to even partial ownership of a city. All of which would be carefully explained to avoid raising suspicion and lay the groundwork for them to set up a base of operations in this new city before carefully or even boldly asserting their dominance and influence.


    ¡°Of course, these are just a few of the many examples a faction could use in negotiations. Do you understand?¡±


    Honestly that was a lot of information he threw at me, and I almost feel a bit bad that I didn¡¯t consider these types of scenarios, but I¡¯ll give myself some grace. Everything that¡¯s happening is happening for the first time and as always, I just need to focus on the things I can control. First of all, why did the Outpost Leader tell me all of this? Of course, it is likely to build a base level of trust between us. Be honest, then provide me with a deal that could still be laced with traps that I might not fully understand. Or, he could simply not have ulterior motives. He told me from the get-go that he will be assisting me in the Tutorial to receive benefits from me in the future, and these are likely the benefits he had in mind. Well, no harm in hearing him out. I¡¯ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.


    ¡°I understand, but why tell me this?¡±


    ¡°Very simple. You are an Infernal. I am not telling you this out of the kindness of my heart. You will learn very quickly that cultivators will do anything for the sake of power, and I mean anything. But there are times when one has to decide if what they are planning to do is worth it, and offending Infernals is likely at the top of the not worth it list.


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    ¡°If for some reason I convinced you to agree to a deal that makes you take a significant loss and the Elders of your race were you find out, the chance my head will roll is higher than you might assume. Your people have destroyed entire planets for far less. So instead of potentially causing my own death and the downfall of my Clan, I would rather be upfront with you.¡±


    Hmm, I really need to ask that Infernal Elder if we¡¯re evil or not, well it doesn¡¯t bother me that much but either way, it sounds like it¡¯s a good enough reason for the Outpost Leaders actions. I can work with that.


    ¡°I see¡­and what is it you want from this deal?¡±


    ¡°Although I don¡¯t plan to take advantage of you, to accept this deal and make our efforts in helping you beneficial, there are certain things I will request. Such as allowing a number of other low-level members of my branch to transport to this planet. The numbers and maximum cultivation allowed can be discussed further, but the value of this would be immeasurable and of course we will respond in kind. Next, I would like for Greja who you know, the blacksmith, and the alchemist, to be allowed to open shops in your city.


    ¡°Of course, each of them will be paying you the corresponding taxes. Now for what will be doing for you on top of the taxes, the individual who has been acting as an instructor, will be more than willing to retain his role as instructor of your troops and with the Tutorial limits no longer in place, the number he could train at once will be far more. The previous shops will also defer to you in terms of orders and preferential treatment in all aspects.


    ¡°Now although it is said we will build you a city, that will of course include walls for a sort of basic physical defense, but the actual guarding of the city would be left to the natives unless negotiated. The members of my branch in the Clan that I requested will handle that for you free of charge for up to a year. Lodging will be taken care of by building guard barracks, and we will hunt for own food, now regarding any resources obtained, 50% of the materials or their agreed upon value in money will be given to you as tax and the legal ownership of any large deposits of resources such as a mine for example will be yours and yours alone. Is this agreeable?¡±


    ...I am in way over my head here. I was just a regular college student a few months ago. I¡¯m not going to sit here and pretend I fully understand the scope of everything he just said but¡­it all sounds fine to me, if anything it sounds like a bit too much in my favor.


    He wants some of his people to be allowed to live here, they will also help out with guarding the city and they don¡¯t require payment, or even food. Next a couple of shops that will undoubtedly benefit me and everyone else even more than they already have, and most of all they will be building us a city. A proper city. I will take the risk. Perhaps there are things that I miss and may come back to bite me, but hopefully by then a swing of my spear will be strong enough to do all the talking and negotiating I need. Though, I can still take some precautions¡­


    ¡°It sounds agreeable. Please draft a document containing everything discussed. As for how many people you want to bring over. No more than 50, and none higher than Body Tempering. As for the tax on the shops, 10% is all I require. Is this agreeable?¡±


    ¡°Done. The contract in this case is handled by the system. You will soon see a notification containing information discussed¡­but before that, there is one final thing you should be aware of. When this City is built, you will be asked if the City will be officially recognized with the system or not. Regardless of which option you choose, the position of City Lord will be recognized by the System, but outside of that there are a lot of possibilities. Any city can choose to be recognized by the system there are no requirements, but there are pros and cons. Becoming an official recognized city will bring many benefits such as integration with other system recognized cities, which could mean things like teleportation between such cities and access to stores outside of this planet, along with an official standing in your local universe, but of course you would have to adhere to any and all rules placed by the system. They should be fairly simple and will be explained in detail.


    ¡°Though the two biggest cons that keep some away from choosing that option, is the target it places on yours and the city¡¯s back. Being officially recognized means being seen by others on a global, universal and even Multiversal scale at times. That could bring unwanted attention when you least need it. Next is yourself. The position of City Lord will be official no matter what you choose, but being recognized by the System opens the door for potential challenges to your seat of power. Challenges that would be sanctioned by the System and thus unavoidable to an extent.


    ¡°Just something for you to consider and remember any city at any point can choose to be recognized by the System.¡±

 103. Serve Him Well (Book 2)

    ¡°Alright, I accepted the contract.¡±


    ¡°Good I have accepted it on my end as well. Now our time is limited so let us talk about the city. The location of the city and where you all will returning to should you all decide to return together, is somewhat predetermined. The general area is where we will build your city. In this general area you have two options. There is an open plain where your city will essentially be in the middle of those plains, and then there is a deep cove next to the ocean where a harbor district will be included in the city plans. Pick one.¡±


    Now Raizen, you have played enough games and watched enough shows to know that building next to the water is probably better. It counts as a natural defense, should hopefully provide food, and therefore money. Well as long as people actually go out to fish. But it could also pose a problem. Who knows if there won¡¯t be giant sea monsters that would attack the harbor? Or perhaps really small ones that carry poisons and what not¡­but there could be things like that living in the plains too.


    Not something I can control too much, plus the Outpost Leader will be handling the defense for a while so hopefully they¡¯d be prepared for things like that. Alright sounds good enough to me. Coastal City it is.


    ¡°I choose the deep cove.¡±


    ¡°Good choice, then that wraps up our discussion. I will see you soon.¡±


    ¡°Wait, how long will it take to build the City?¡±


    The Outpost Leader just gave a slight smile to that question and simply vanished. Huh. Moving on I guess. After that, I left the Outpost Leader¡¯s office and stopped by the shop, but Greja was nowhere to be found. Out of curiosity, I stopped by the Blacksmith and the Alchemist shops, but they were both empty as well. I guess they¡¯re gone for now.


    I didn¡¯t dwell on it for too long and headed over to the training ground, where the others were waiting. I need to show them the contract which was thankfully still an option to select in my status, because I didn¡¯t write any of that down and It would have been very easy for me to forget some things.


    ¡­


    In a dark room, where a small projection of a somewhat aged man was being displayed. He had a thick white beard, powerful and sharp eyes, and a bald head that appeared shiny even through the projection.


    POV Jrino


    ¡°I greet the Branch Head.¡±


    ¡°No need for formalities Jrino, I¡¯m stressed enough as it is. Since you¡¯re calling, I assume the Tutorial is now over. How was it? Did you manage to sign a favorable contract with the natives? I apologize for having to send you all to do something like that, but my hands were tied. Hopefully this planet has some resources that would make this venture worthwhile.¡±


    ¡°I did manage to make a favorable contract yes. Displaying it now.¡±


    After taking a few minutes to read over the contract, which I¡¯m sure was more than enough time for the Brand Head to read the contract probably a million times for someone of his level, he closed his eyes and grabbed the bridge of his nose for a few seconds before sighing, and finally speaking.


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    ¡°I know you¡¯re not stupid Jrino. So, who was it? Who was it that forced you to do this? Was it those metal bastards? I will personally take a trip to-¡­¡±


    ¡°Branch Head. Please ensure your quarters are secure.¡±


    ¡°Hm? Give me a moment.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Alright, it is secure.¡±


    ¡°The City Lord that I signed that contract with is an Infernal. There is also a significant chance an Elder of his is waiting for him once he leaves the Tutorial.¡±


    Watching the Branch Head¡¯s face go from shocked to extremely serious is always a sight to see. Though this time I don¡¯t blame. An Infernal is just too big of a presence to plan for. Especially in this scenario. We have heard stories of them popping up in Tutorials, but not a single one has ever been confirmed by us, well at least to my knowledge. The Branch Heads might know something I don¡¯t. The point is, this is not a situation we had accounted for when our plans for the Tutorial were made.


    ¡°Jrino. This is not something to be taken lightly. There are things at stake here that are beyond our scope of control. The contract has been signed so I will not harp on it. Focus on serving him well.¡±


    ¡°Serving? I understand the significance of aligning with an Infernal, but isn¡¯t a serving a bit much Branch Head?¡±


    ¡°You understand nothing Jrino. Nothing. If you did then you would have never suggested a contract with him. There are things I cannot say, but you need to understand the gravity of signing a contract with an Infernal, whom you met in a Tutorial is bigger than whatever it is you were thinking. Serve him well Jrino. 50 Body Tempering brats, right? I will send over our best. Contact me again once everything has settled, there is much to discuss.¡±


    ¡°Understood, Branch Head.¡±


    ¡­Just what have I done?


    ¡­


    POV Raizen


    ¡°¡­And that¡¯s pretty much everything. Any questions?¡±


    ¡°When will the City be built?¡±


    ¡°Good question Richard, I¡¯m not sure. The Outpost Leader didn¡¯t give me any information regarding that, but I hope it¡¯s not longer than a year. Though I guess we should be prepared for it to take that long. Nate and the others can help us set up tents and a camp of our own until we can get something more like a house going.¡±


    ¡°You mentioned taxes and what not, so will we have to pay tax to live in the city?¡±


    ¡°Good question, Vanessa, but I really don¡¯t know. Maybe in the future but for now to be determined, and even if it does happen it probably won¡¯t happen initially. I¡¯ve been thinking about it, but you all need to think about your futures a bit. I know this is happening very fast but the Tutorial is over. This is it; this is our new lives. We probably won¡¯t be facing things like daily Hobgoblin attacks anymore or things like that, we will live in an actual city now.


    ¡°Except it¡¯s going to be a bit different from the cities we were used to. There is no other government except ours, there are no policemen, there is no army, there are no doctors, there are no waste management programs are anything for that matter. Think about what you want to be in this new world. Whether it¡¯s finding a job in the City like a fisherman, or a tailor, or opening up a restaurant. I don¡¯t know. What I do know is that you all will have first dibs on anything. There are still a billion people alive on our planet, and we already know that the City will be open to them joining so a whole bunch of people could be here initially and over time.


    ¡°So again, think about your futures and what you want to do in this new life of yours.¡±


    I said that to them¡­but I need to do the same for myself. I¡¯ve long since thought about the idea of my own country, or in this case city, but all these discussions were kind of an eye opener for me. Wanting a country due to my own selfish desire of not wanting to live under another is somewhat childish. These are people¡¯s lives at stake here. I have a lot to learn, and I need to learn fast, because I do not want the people in this city living bad lives because of me. As always, if I¡¯m going to do this, I need to do it right.

 104. Overstepping (Book 2)

    After a couple minutes of waiting, with people clearly taking what I said seriously as they all stopped talking to each other to think, something changed. A notification flashed across my face.


    All Future City Lords have been chosen. If you wish, choose one of the following Cities to be returned nearby. All Cities will have the capacity to house hundreds of thousands of people.


    Outpost A


    Outpost C


    Outpost D


    Outpost E


    Outpost G


    Outpost H


    Outpost I


    Outpost J


    Outpost L


    Outpost M


    Outpost W


    Outpost Z


    Exactly 12 other Outpost Leaders had chosen the option to have a city be created for them. Meaning along with me there would be 13 brand new cities on Earth. Now according to the metal man from earlier, a lot of people had died, but there would still be a billion people that would be returning to Earth. 13 Cities that will apparently be able to house ¡®Hundreds of thousands of people¡¯ not millions of people, but hundreds of thousands¡­a lot of people will be homeless. How will I even handle who gets to live in a home if a million people show up in the city? Sigh I¡¯ll think about it¡­Anyway, no use in wasting time here any longer. Let¡¯s go home.


    ¡°Everyone, I think it¡¯s time to go. Remember to be ready to fight the second we arrive. They didn¡¯t promise us any type of safety when we get and who knows what¡¯s waiting for us on the other side.¡±


    The second I finally truly thought about returning back to Earth, a strange feeling took hold of me. It felt a bit different from all the teleportation¡¯s I¡¯ve been doing recently, like entering and exiting the Dungeons. I don¡¯t know, it was a bit hard to describe but it just felt¡­more.


    As the hold I felt grew stronger, I began to see the people around me vanish very rapidly and, in a few seconds, I was the only one left. Why the hell was the taking so long for me? I hope everyone is okay.


    A few more seconds silently passed and before I knew I too was finally teleporting, but before what I opened my eyes to did not look like any sort of Earth I remember. Which wasn¡¯t unexpected considering all of the changes that were explained to us, but no¡­this was far different.


    It appeared as if I was in space.


    All around me was what appeared to be countless stars and in the distance some type of small blue planet perhaps? Is that Pluto? No right?


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    Anyway, what confirmed the fact that this might be space, was an absolutely gargantuan spaceship that was floating not too far from me. At least I think it¡¯s a spaceship. It could very well be alive. It didn¡¯t really look like it was moving in any one direction, but the skin? Outer layer? Metal plates? I don¡¯t know what to call it, but it was moving¡­like continuously moving like the waves in the ocean. It was somewhat beautiful to look at.


    Of course, even the spaceship wasn¡¯t the only thing to look at here in space. There were three other beings in front of me


    They hadn¡¯t said a single word this entire time I¡¯ve been here. To one side was a beautiful woman with dark skin that seemed to shine in the dark space that surrounded us. She had pristine black hair that was tied in the neatest bun I¡¯ve ever seen, and she was dressed in beautiful black robes that seemingly glistening purple lining. Simple wear but it appeared very luxurious. Though her most glaring feature were her eyes. They were just black. No light entered them.


    Then there were two metal people on the other side. They essentially looked the same with the exception of a few differences in terms of size and facial structure. One of them that I recognized as the one who bowed on day one, and also delivered that speech this morning was standing just behind the other. The other, another metal man, but he had a much bigger frame, and he towered over his counterpart.


    All three of them were just silently observing me as I observed them one by one.


    This was a pretty weird situation.


    So weird, that I¡¯m only now realizing that I can breathe in space. Interesting. Well. Now what? I really don¡¯t want to stay here forever so do I talk first? Yeah, let¡¯s do it¡­oh he beat me to it.


    ¡°I apologize for the late greeting Young Infernal. Although we are protecting your body from the atmosphere, it usually takes time for the mortal mind to comprehend the feeling of ¡®standing¡¯ like this when one hasn¡¯t done so before.


    ¡°Though based on your calm appearance, and the way you carefully yet boldly observed everything around you, it appears that period of acclimation was not necessary.


    ¡°My name is Raeyon, and you can think of me as one of the many Elders among the Meitalc people. Behind me is Yamaal, someone whom you should have already met. That¡¯s enough for pleasantries. I have an offer for you, but there are more introductions to be had.¡±


    The bigger metal man stopped talking and the woman began instead.


    ¡°I greet the Eternal Flame.¡±


    That was all she said as he gave the slightest of nods of her head.


    Or at least that was all she said aloud. Right after she finished speaking, I heard a voice in my head.


    ¡®We will speak more later. You do not need to accept the offer presented to you, but you do not need to fear accepting it either. That is all.¡¯


    I didn¡¯t bother responding with the exception of a nod in return because it felt like she didn¡¯t want me to. Though I didn¡¯t necessarily have time to respond as the bigger metal man began talking once more.


    ¡°Now. My offer. We will be proving you with a spear made of metal native to my homeland. Meicaz. It will last you a while. Next, a small force will be assigned to you. Use them how you see fit. That is the extent of the offer. Do you accept?¡±


    I built something of a relationship with the Outpost Leader. One where I trust in the many discussions we¡¯ve had, saving my life, training me, and being upfront about the nature of our relationship. It has earned him a base level of trust from me. Now this metal man. I don¡¯t know him, I don¡¯t trust him, and most of all I don¡¯t think I want any force of his to be ¡®assigned¡¯ to me. Though¡­the spear sounds nice enough.


    ¡°I appreciate the offer, but I will only accept the spear.¡±


    ¡°Child you-¡­¡±


    As he started speaking again, the woman had been quiet apart from her greeting cut him off as black flames flickered dangerously in her eyes. Even though the flames were only flickering in her eyes, I could feel them. I could feel the power emanating from them. It was a surreal feeling.


    Being able to feel the flames of another Infe¡­ah. Am I stupid? This is the Infernal Elder isn¡¯t it.


    ¡°Do not overstep.¡±


    That was all she said, and the metal man looked towards her slowly. The metal around his face even began to slightly take a different shade almost. Was it getting darker¡­but before I could really analyze it, the area went back to normal fast enough that I question if I saw what I saw in the first place.


    ¡°Understood. Just a spear then. It will be delivered to your City.¡±


    That was the last thing I heard before I was abruptly teleported. Faster than any of the other teleportation before it.


    Though I wonder what he meant by delivered to my ci¡­ty¡­what the fuck? One second, I was in space, and now all of a sudden, I¡¯m standing outside of a massive city?

 105. Lord Raizen (Book 2)

    Right after Raizen had teleported away¡­


    POV Raeyon


    Raeyon stared at Elder Zal for a few seconds before abruptly teleporting with Yamaal in tow.


    ¡°That woman is lucky I do not want to be the cause of another war with Infernals. Yamaal.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Raeyon.¡±


    ¡°Send Idar with the spear to the City. He didn¡¯t want any of our people there, but Idar will be sent under the guise of delivery and spear maintenance. The Meicallurgy wants good relations to be built with this new Patriarch, ensure that Idar understands that. We do not fear those good for nothing furnaces, but among their kind, Patriarchs and Matriarchs hold a special weight. They¡¯d burn down this entire universe if someone were to push too far. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Raeyon.¡±


    ¡°Have a small squad maintain a presence off planet so that Idar isn¡¯t left completely isolated¡±


    ¡°It will be done Lord Raeyon.¡±


    ¡°Good, I¡¯ve spent too much time here. Hopefully Yamshen hasn¡¯t taken her decade long break yet¡­¡±


    ¡­.


    And with that Raeyon left and headed home while Yamaal moved according to his orders. With the only thought on his mind being he was glad a war hadn¡¯t started and that he¡¯d essentially been allowed to return home as well. For a second there he was worried about having to remain here.


    Of course, he wouldn¡¯t slack in his duties, and he quickly put together a small 100 person squad of a mix between Nascent Soul and Core Formation Realm Cultivators that would remain here in space in a smaller ship. Both them and Idar were instructed to maintain constant communication between each other and of course with the mothership so that he may keep Raeyon informed as well.


    ¡­


    POV Raizen


    What the hell¡­is this the City? How long was I gone for? It felt like a few minutes¡­is there some time accelerating thing going on in space that I don¡¯t know about?


    Before me stand towering grey walls, that seem strong enough to withstand anything that could possibly be thrown at them. Wow¡­this is amazing.


    ¡°Lord Raizen!¡±


    Lord what?


    ¡°Lord Raizen up here!¡±


    I looked up on the wall to see a green person waving at me. One of the 50 people that the Outpost Leader brought over? Have I really been gone so long that all of them made it here already? And why the hell is he calling me lord? Is that perhaps a translation issue? Maybe he¡¯s actually calling me Mr., and their translation thing isn¡¯t working correctly.


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    Yep, must be.


    ¡°The entrance is to your left! Someone will meet you down there!¡±


    The entrance? Ah¡­it¡¯s only now that I truly take in my entire surroundings. The wall was truly just that distracting. Speaking of the wall, I¡¯m looking at a corner as it goes horizontally to my left but curves and then goes in the direction away from me. Around me is all flatland with a few shrubs here and there and I think I can faintly smell the ocean air¡­ah yes, I chose the cove option to build the city. The ocean is likely not far away.


    Now to my left¡­in the distance there was a massive line with hundreds, no thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people lining up to get in the city. That¡¯s a lot of people. A lot of them were looking in my direction as I gawked at the city walls like a tourist in Manhattan for the first time. A little embarrassing. I began walking towards the line, but¡­there¡¯s no way I¡¯m waiting in this line, right? No matter how much time has passed I should still be the Leader of the City right? Surely, I¡¯m allowed some line skipping benefits.


    Anyway, I continued to approach the long line and eventually another green induvial came running out and waving in my direction, so I aimed my steps in their direction and made my way over. It was then that I noticed that the line itself wasn¡¯t moving. Like at all. Huh. How long have these people been waiting out here?


    Hopefully not long.


    I eventually reached the front of the line where the green individual who I realized was a woman was waiting for me. I could hear murmurs from the line wondering how and why I was able to skip the line, but I paid them no mind. Instead, I had a question for the lady.


    ¡°Why is the line not moving?¡±


    There two other green people with spears in hand block the wide entrance to the city and there was no one out here processing the folks in the line. What the hell was Richard and the others doing?


    ¡°Lord Raizen, the line isn¡¯t moving because everyone is waiting for you. There has been no decision made on how to handle to influx of people and it has been decided by Sir Jrino that we will not move until you have returned and given out directions.¡±


    Sir Jrino? Who is that? And waiting for me...How long have they been waiting?


    ¡°Who is Sir Jrino? Where is Richard? And how long have you all been waiting for me?¡±


    ¡°Sir Jrino is the former leader of your Tutorial Outpost Lord Raizen, and Mr. Richard should be in the city working on the plan to handle the influx of people. We only arrived at this City roughly 10 minutes ago.¡±


    Wait a second. 10 minutes. Alright. Focus on what you can.


    ¡°Please take me to where Sir Jrino and Richard are.¡±


    ¡°Right away Lord Raizen.¡±


    There was a small side entrance next to the large one and we promptly walked through it. The inner parts of the city finally came into full view. The road we were on carried into the city and to my left and right I saw what looked to be various residential houses that seemed to extend all the way to the walls both left and right.


    We kept walking forward for quite some time until we reached something like a City Square, I guess? There was a fountain in the middle and the area beneath my feet was no longer the road but brown bricks. I few trees and flowers were scattered about. It was also a large area. Perhaps a few thousand people could stand here without issue.  To the left and right of the square another path opened up in each direction and seemed to be filled with more buildings, but I couldn¡¯t tell what for just yet. We quickly continued past that City Square, heading straight before making a diagonal left turn down another road, where we passed by some very large houses before eventually entering a small area where other building was present, and the woman led me right into one of them. In fact, it was the largest building in the area, and it was bigger than some of those houses we passed.


    As soon as I stepped foot inside the building, I could immediately hear discussions. Ah that was Richard¡¯s voice.


    This building had two stories, but we stayed on the first one and after walking down a hall to the right, my quiet escort opened the door to a large conference room where I saw quite a few people seated and having discussions.


    ¡°RAIZENN!!!¡±

 106. Ignore it (Book 2)

    POV Raizen


    ¡°Glad to see everyone too.¡±


    ¡°Man am I glad to see you too. We all freaked out a little bit when you didn¡¯t show up with the rest of us. Thankfully the Outpost Leader was here to tell us you were busy handling something else. We were still worried of course, especially-...OWW!! Dammit why¡¯d you hit me Irene?¡±


    ¡°No reason.¡±


    ¡°You asked for it Lance.¡±


    ¡°Leave me alone Micah.¡±


    ¡°Alright guys enough we need to handle the situation outside.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we do Richard. But before any of that, where is the Outpost Leader? I thought he¡¯d be here.¡±


    ¡°Ah he was just here but he stepped away a little before you got here.¡±


    ¡®I¡¯m not far, I will meet with you properly after you handle this situation.¡¯


    Hm, odd but okay.


    ¡°Alright then first thing on the Agenda. There are quite a few of you in here. Who wants to work for me as government officials of this City?¡±


    ¡°Raizen is this the right time to discuss this? We have thousands of people standing in line.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Vanessa this is important. I won¡¯t force any of you to work for me, and join this government and I won¡¯t feel bad if you say no. But if you say yes, please understand that this would be a commitment at least until the City is up and running. I need to know. Who wants to work for me be a part of the City? If you do, please raise your hand.¡±


    A few moments passed, as I watched them think deeply about their answers. This might¡¯ve been rushed and thrown at them, but I need to know. I can¡¯t have people that aren¡¯t committed to this be aware of the inner workings of the City, and figuring out a way to handle all the people waiting is one of those things. Though I wonder where everyone else who teleported with us went? Like Nate and his brothers for example. Anyway, everyone was thinking with the exception of one person, Richard. He was busy looking around at the group with me. I guess he already made up his mind. Figured he¡¯d want to be a part of this.


    After another minute or so a few hands went up in the air. I gave them another minute after that, but no other hands were raised. In total there were 3 hands. Vanessa, Brockers, and Hubert. Lower than I expected but that¡¯s okay.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sorry Raizen, I want to help out but doing government work isn¡¯t my thing, I¡¯ll leave that to you and Richard. Just let me know what you want me to do, and I¡¯ll do it!¡±


    A bunch of the others agreed with him, except for Grant. Grant had a different reason.


    ¡°I think I wanna start a fishing business man. That¡¯s what my family did before all this, and I loved it. So, since we¡¯re next to the ocean I don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t start it back up.¡±


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    Well, I think that¡¯s actually better than him working in the government. It will be nice to have a thriving fishing industry in the City. But glad we got that out the way.


    ¡°Alright I appreciate those of you who want to stay, and I understand those of you don¡¯t want to be in the government. For those that don¡¯t, please exit the room and wait downstairs, I¡¯m sure we¡¯re going to need all the help we can get.¡±


    I waited a few minutes for them to leave. They looked very apologetic about it, but it was fine, not everyone was cut out for government work. Not even me.


    ¡°Alright, now that that¡¯s out of the way, the rest of you are choosing to be Government Officials of this little City. Proper contracts with salaries and benefits will be drafted up in the future but for now just your promises are enough. Last chance, anyone want to leave?¡±


    No one spoke up. Okay good.


    ¡°Now, how are we going to handle the housing situation? On the way here I saw that we basically have 3 different types of houses. ¡®Normal¡¯ ones, ¡®Nice¡¯ ones, and what looked to be a street of mansions. We won¡¯t be giving a single one away for free. Nor will we be selling any of them. At least not yet. I¡¯m thinking of renting them out¡­I just don¡¯t the cost.¡±


    ¡°That was my thought process as well, with the exception that I think a tax should be paid to enter the City.¡±


    ¡°A tax Hubert? They just got here what if they don¡¯t have any money?¡±


    ¡°A City this size needs money to run Vanessa. Raizen just mentioned salaries for us. Do you think that money will come from thin air?¡±


    ¡°Both of you make good points so let¡¯s meet in the middle. How about no rent for two days, and only 1 Copper per person to enter? Everyone should have been able to earn at least a copper if they survived the Tutorial. If they don¡¯t have any coins perhaps, we can accept materials as well.¡±


    ¡°Good point Richard, but we don¡¯t know the costs of anything yet.¡±


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll just write everything down¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of writing¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, everyone that just left said they¡¯d help right? Then let¡¯s put them to work.¡±


    And that¡¯s what we did. We quickly drafted a plan on how to get everyone organized and into the city. It would take hours likely but there was no easy way to do this. The plan was as follows.


    1. 1 Copper Coin per person for entry into the city.


    2. If you don¡¯t have a Copper Coin, then materials will be accepted, and written down. Once a market value has been determined, money will be returned to the person.


    3. No buying of houses and all mansions are off limits.


    4. A Small portion of the regular and nice houses have been made off limits for members of the Original Outpost G and their immediate families.


    5. Rent on houses will be free for 2 days, but on the third day rent will be charged. The two days are to give us time to figure what everything should cost, and to allow people to settle, and take a moment to consider their next steps, which also means securing rent money.


    That¡¯s the gist of everything. Of course, there¡¯s plenty of other things we need to figure out, but this works for now. And I found out that everyone else was busy putting things, some of the things that were considered ¡°mine¡± down in the basement. That was also how I found out this building had a basement.


    Anyway, after getting our initial plan together it was time to put it into action. Only when we exited the building there was a bit of surprise waiting for us.


    A group of green individuals were standing neatly in a squad, and after a moment one of them stepped forward and slightly bowed. Ah I see where this is going.


    ¡°Lord Raizen, my name is Jral. We are here to assist, please order us as you see fit.¡±


    The surroundings were silent. I could almost feel Richard staring into the side of my head. I will ignore it. This isn¡¯t the time to worry over this.


    ¡°Good, then listen to Richard here. He¡¯ll tell you what to do.¡±


    And just like that, the responsibility is on Richard.


    I could definitely still feel him staring at me, but I will continue to ignore it.


    He eventually looked away and took a step towards Jral.


    ¡°Well then Jral, come with me. We have a lot of work to do. That goes for the rest of you too! We need to get these people into homes.¡±


    Yep, ignoring things work.

 107. Work To Be Done (Book 2)

    Once everyone dispersed and began moving according to the plans discussed, I was about to join then when I heard ¡®Sir Jrino¡¯s¡¯ voice in my head.


    ¡®Come back in the building and enter the second floor. The last door on your left is your office we are waiting inside.¡¯


    Huh, well alright then. I told Richard I had to take care of something and made my way back into the building. After arriving on the second floor, I followed instructions and opened the door to what was supposed to be my office and stepped right in.


    What awaited me was Jrino standing to the side and a somewhat large office room. There was a large desk in the center of the office that looked to be made of some type of red-ish wood. Whatever it was it looked nice, and the large comfy chair that was made out of the same color wood, and adorned with beautiful black leather upholstery, that waited behind it was the picture of elegance. In front of the desk were two smaller yet still somewhat elegant black leather chairs. It was a really nice set up but that was where it all stopped. There was nothing else in the room apart from Jrino standing in one corner and the massive desk and chairs next to it. That was when Jrino started talking.


    ¡°That desk is made from the finest wood we could find within the scope of this project. It is made out of a tree that can withstand the attacks of someone in the Core Formation realm. It is a very expensive desk, as we were able to maintain that level of defense while building it. There is nothing else in the room as it was decided that you would decorate it as you see fit. This is your office. This is your City Lord Mansion. This is your City. In this City you are law, whatever you say goes, and whatever it is you want to do you can do. Whether it¡¯s to rule with an iron fist, or to completely give up on ruling, you can do whatever it is you want. I am no longer the Outpost Leader. I am Jrino, a member of the Olirag Clan, and placed in charge of the other members from my Branch in the Clan that have taken up residence in your City.¡±


    He bowed his head deeply as he said that last part. Honestly this is a bit weird, but what can I do? This seems to be a part of his culture, or perhaps the culture of the Multiverse? The bowling and the Lord Raizen stuff is odd but at the end of the day it doesn¡¯t really matter all that much. So, no use in trying to fight it.


    ¡°I understand, thank you for that. Where are the others?¡±


    ¡°Greja is setting up her shop, I believe it¡¯s best you give it a visit soon. Eriog, the one who taught your friends, is getting things in order at the training facility. Kritch is setting up his smithy and Oras should also be setting up his shop.¡±


    ¡°I see, I will visit them all when I get a chance¡­is there anything else you need to tell me?¡±


    ¡°A few more things. Once you sit in that chair, a notification will pop up in front of you. You can decide what to do from there¡­.¡±


    He then pulled out what looked to be a map from who knows where and laid it on the desk.


    ¡°This is your City. The West Entrance is the main entry point, to the North is another entrance, closer to where a few warehouses and large facilities are located, and finally here towards the South is another entrance, one that is much smaller and is expected to be used primarily by you and other people of relevance.


    ¡°With that being said the City has a total of 13 Districts. Upon entering from the West Entrance, on the left and right are Residential Districts 1 and 2. Both of which can hold roughly 100,000 people. Continuing on along the main road is the City Square where should have passed on the way here. Connected to it on the left and right sides are the Commercial Districts 1 and 2. All markets and shops will be expected to be located here. From there, are Residential Districts 3 and 4, both of which can hold roughly 50,000 people each. Past that, on your right will be Residential District 5, and only a few houses are located there. They are the largest.


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    ¡°On the right side next to the North Entrance, is Facility District 1. Larger buildings are located there, like the training facility, and the barracks building. There is space for one or two more buildings of that size in the area. Straight ahead from F1 is W1 or Warehouse District 1. A few large buildings are there and meant for storage. Along the coast are H1, H2, and H3. The Harbor Districts. H1 is the largest and in the center of the harbor, H2 is on the North side and is slightly smaller. H3 is on the South side and meant for your use or other people you deem important.


    ¡°Continuing on the South side is G1 or the Government District. It is where a building meant for the meeting and daily lives of Government Officials is located. Right next to it is the building we¡¯re in now. The City Lord Mansion. That is everything I had to say, if you need me, you can always find me in the Barracks Building.¡±


    And with that the City Lord left calmly. Not even bothering to disappear like he typically did. He seemed a bit meek now compared to how he was previously. I¡¯m not sure why that is but I won¡¯t question it.


    Anyway, my own City huh. There¡¯s a lot of work to do. I think my first stop needs to be Greja¡¯s shop. I need to see the costs of everything. Which will help me determine what the rent of each home should be.


    Then I guess we need to figure out how we¡¯re going to collect that rent¡­it¡¯s not like we have a rent portal.


    Hmm¡­


    Okay, each house should be numbered or named or something, and the family or person that lives in it will be registered. Kind of like leasing agreement¡­no that¡¯s exactly like a leasing agreement. And then once everything is settled, we can discuss the cost of actually buying a house. Yeah, I like that.


    At some point I found myself seated at the desk in the large chair, and it truly was comfortable. The notification that he mentioned popped up in front of me.


    Accept City Lord Position?


    Yes/No


    I selected yes, and the notification changed.


    Name Your City.


    Already starting with the big problems, I see. Hm. Alright let¡¯s think about it. I could name it something like Infernal City, but I don¡¯t think I like that very much. The City is brand new, so it isn¡¯t really known for anything, apart from the fact that is it built on a cove. Ah, maybe I could have Cove in the name? Cove City¡­They might riot if I did that.


    Hm.


    Ah I got it, Eternal Cove City oh wait no¡­Black Cove City. Yeah, I like that, oh and the logo for the City could be a grey wall with a black flame on it.


    It¡¯s probably better if someone else worked on the logo.


    Anyway, Black Cove City it is.


    Another notification popped up.


    You are now the City Lord of Black Cove City


    Would you like to register your City to the System?


    Yes/No?


    I believe this is the thing Jrino mentioned. Then my answer is no. I¡¯m not ready for a target to be placed on my back just yet. I¡¯m sure there are benefits and other things that would make it worth it but no rush.


    After I selected no, nothing else popped up so I¡¯m guessing that was it.


    Welcome to Black Cove City


    City Lord ¨C Raizen


    Okay I guess it wasn¡¯t it. I¡¯m going to assume everyone saw that, I just wonder if it was a planet, region or just a City-wide notification. I¡¯ll find out with time, I guess.


    Hm, alright what else do I need to figure out? Oh, food and water and such. We don¡¯t have any grocery stores, but I suppose we can start a government owned one. Hopefully there are animals outside that we can catch and rear, plus Grant is going to fish¡­wait where¡¯s he going to get a boat?


    Sigh


    I rubbed my temples a bit and looked up absentmindedly and almost screamed.


    There was a woman standing in my office.


    The woma...er no. The Infernal Elder who I met in space was just standing in the middle of my office looking at me. How long had she been standing there?


    ¡°9th Cycle. Good, but not good enough. You are weak. Where is your spear? Why is it not on your person? That is unbecoming of a Patriarch. You are a beacon of strength and unparalleled power. You should always behave as such. There is much work to be done.¡±

 108. I Accept (Book 2)

    Honestly, I¡¯m caught off guard a bit. I mean who wouldn¡¯t be? Here I am stressing about the future of the Black Cove City, and all of a sudden someone shows up in my office and then scolds me.


    I haven¡¯t been scolded like that since my mother.


    What do I even say now? Hi?


    ¡°Hello, my name is Raizen. It is nice to meet you. I¡¯m glad you brough up being a Patriarch, I have no idea what that means.¡±


    ¡°Hm, decent. You will call me Elder Zal. You will be taught; in fact, your lessons have already begun. Your spear. It should never leave your presence. Never. You were promised a spear. Here.¡±


    Right after she said that a beautiful silvery spear simply appeared on my desk. From the shaft to the blade, it seemed to be made out of a pristine almost blue-like silver material. It was stunning. I reached out to grab it and it was cold to the touch. The shaft itself was about 8 feet in length, and the blade was likely another foot by itself. It was perfect.


    I stood up and gave it a light swing.


    Of course, nothing happened since it was just a light swing, but I didn¡¯t need to do anything else to tell.


    This spear can withstand my power.


    A wry grin somehow made it to my face.


    ¡°Hm, better. Now come with me.¡±


    I didn¡¯t get a chance to say yes or no before I found myself standing in what looked to be a big room. Is this a training room? Both the floor and the walls were made out of this tan like material. It felt a little bouncy beneath my feet.


    ¡°You are onboard my ship. Some of the things we discuss cannot be heard by others, and there are few people you need to meet. Firstly, to understand what a Patriarch is, you first need to understand who you are, and how you came to be.


    ¡°Infernals can be born in one of two ways. A male and a female get together and make a child. As long as one of them or both of them are Infernals, the child always be 100% Infernal. There a very few other races that can compete with our genes, and even in those cases it is highly unlikely that their genes would overpower ours. In that situation it is more likely a child simply would not be conceived.


    ¡°That is the normal and most common occurrence. The other way is how you came into being. You were born of the Eternal Flame. To understand what that means in its entirety you need to travel back to our home and seek answers yourselves. All you need to know is that even if you had a mother and father on this planet, you were born of the Eternal Flame. You are bound to it, and have the ability to speak to it, to seek aid from it, and most importantly, you can pass it on to others.


    ¡°Infernals born through the ¡®normal¡¯ method, are not born with the ability to use the Eternal Flame. We all share the same traits, with the natural strength of our bodies, or heightened recovery and other things you will learn later, the Eternal Flame is not one of them.


    ¡°Only Infernals born of the Eternal Flame are born with it. Despite that, all Infernals can come to wield it, if a Patriarch/Matriarch accepts them into their Clans. You are able to give another Infernal the power of the Eternal Flame, at the cost that the Infernal will bound to you for life. They would serve you as your arms and legs and never be able to betray you, of course, you never be able to betray them as well, nor would you ever be able to take the power of the flame away from them.


    ¡°It is truly a lifelong relationship, and not one to be taken lightly. It is the wish of every Infernal to be accepted into a clan and be blessed with the Eternal Flame. You are a new Patriarch; you have no members in your clan. Your first Conflagration has yet to be formed. And that makes you a hot commodity. But only among the junior members of our race. You are far too weak for some of the older, stronger Infernals. And it is far too soon for you journey to our home Planet, not until you have fully established your Seat of Power here.


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    ¡°For now, there are two of those juniors I mentioned that have traveled here with me, in an effort to build a relationship with you. As a Patriarch you need a force. These two would like to be the start of that force. You can reject them entirely, but I recommend giving them a chance to serve you for a time and you can decide their futures later.


    ¡°Frian and Lirian come.¡±


    The only exit I saw in this room slid open as two young boys calmly walked in. They look like twins. Both of them had reddish brown hair, and caramel-like skin. They had solid builds and looked to be about 5¡¯5 in height.


    They walked up past Elder Zal and stopped a few feet in front of me and bowed.


    ¡°We greet the Eternal Flame.¡±


    I see this is going to be a common thing. I really have no idea what I¡¯m supposed to say to that and just gave a light grunt with a nod in return. Though their greeting is not what I focused on. Instead, it was the feeling they gave off. They kind of feel like the Qi Refinement Hobgoblin I fought. Are they in the Qi Refinement realm?


    That would be a little embarrassing.


    ¡°So, you can feel it a bit. They are both at the Peak of Qi Refinement. At 13 years old. You have some catching up to do. There will be time for that. For now, meet Frian and Lirian, Their parents arranged for them to have this opportunity to be the first pillars of your future Clan. Will you accept them?¡±


    There¡¯s been a lot thrown at me here and I don¡¯t understand some of it, but a pressing question I have right now is a Clan. Why does she think I¡¯m going to start a Clan? I get that I have the ability to give the flames to other Infernals, but why should I? I just don¡¯t understand it.


    ¡°Before I answer that. Why should I be starting a Clan? Why is it assumed that I would do so?¡±


    ¡°That is a fair question. Listen carefully. This is something you would learn more about once you make a trip home, but Infernals serve a purpose. Where there is chaos, there must be order, where there is death, there must be life, to everything there is there must be balance. There are two things that you will encounter no matter what you do in life simply because you are an Infernal.


    ¡°One of them can be summarized as conflict. People for one reason or another will seek conflict with you on both small and large scales. Not just petty things like an idiot upset your better at something, but true conflict. For one reason or another it will seek you out. It will be natural, and seemingly unavoidable, but it is because you are an Infernal. We are the harbingers of war and change. Our fires burn Eternally, and our Spears remain Swift. We do not necessarily seek out wars, but once it finds us, we welcome it, thrive in it, enjoy it and decimate our enemies until not even their ash remains.


    ¡°We go where we please, we fight where we please, we do as we please. We are Infernals, and nothing can ever quench our flames. And we will NEVER bow our heads to anyone! Do you understand.¡±


    I was getting a bit fired up listening to her and I barely managed to suppress a grin from making its way onto my face and simply giving her a nod.


    ¡°Good. Now, the next thing. Demons. Demons exist, and they outnumber every other race in the world. They are vile things, and there are very few things in the world that can kill a demon, and even if one managed to kill one, they would simply come back after some time has passed. Which is why most aim to seal them rather than to kill. Except for us. Eternal Flames are the only thing that grant a demon true death.


    ¡°I am not telling you to go be a demon hunter, nor am I telling you that your life¡¯s purpose is to protect others from demons. You are an Infernal, do what you want. But what I will say is that demons will eventually come find you. They come find you to negotiate your bottom line so that they move freely within your domain, or they might come to kill you. At the end of the day, it all returns to the first point. Conflict. It will find you.


    ¡°Now to clarify, this does not mean you will have to fight wars everyday for the rest of your life, unless you choose to do that, what it means is that things will happen naturally at certain points of your life. Maybe you will enjoy facing such troubles on your own, or perhaps it would be nice to have forces that can handle certain things before it reaches your doorstep while you go do whatever it is you want to do.


    ¡°Again, the decision is yours. Infernals do what they want. Of course, that mainly applies to Patriarchs and Matriarchs such as yourself. If Frian and Lirian join your Clan, they will of course be subject to your orders.


    ¡°Do you understand now?¡±


    ¡°I believe I do.¡±


    ¡°Good, then do you accept?¡±


    I understood her points now, and again, a lot to digest, but based on everything she¡¯s said, there¡¯s no harm in having them around for a bit. This doesn¡¯t mean I have to give them my flame or whatever it is she said, this will just be like a long interview. Yep, let¡¯s go with that.


    ¡°I accept.¡±

 109. Coiling Flames (Book 2)

    Right after I said that I saw the slightest of smiles appear on the boy¡¯s faces before it disappeared. Interesting.


    ¡°Go on then, introduce yourselves.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, my name is Frian, and I look forward to proving my worth.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, name is Lirian, and I look forward to proving my worth.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    I don¡¯t know how that counts as introducing themselves, since they were really stiff and said the exact same thing as if it was practiced 1000 times, but I¡¯ll take it, I guess. Though if they¡¯re going to attempt to build good relations then that would need to change.


    ¡°Good. Boys, are you ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll be sending you on ahead now, release that brat in the basement once you arrive.¡±


    The boys then nodded at Elder Zal, and she snapped her fingers once and they were gone. One day I¡¯ll find out how that works. Now, she mentioned there was someone in the basement¡­did she imprison someone? And why did she keep me here and send them away?


    ¡°Was there a prisoner in the basement?¡±


    ¡°No, just a brat. Now sit down. What do you know about breaking into the Qi Refinement Realm?¡±


    ¡°I need to use Qi to open up my channels or something along those lines.¡±


    ¡°You need to open up your meridians. For most humanoids that¡¯s a vein-like structure that runs through the entire body, likely being used to carry blood. We are no different. It would never look out of place, yet it would also never carry out its true purpose without access to Qi, and then it would never survive prolonged access to Qi without the strengthening of the Body Tempering Realm.


    ¡°Close your eyes and focus. Your body has been strengthened to it¡¯s maximum, and the bodies of Infernals are naturally attuned to Qi, you should have experienced very painless cultivations up until the 5th Cycle. This will be no different. Absorb the ambient Qi in the air. No just a wisp, but as much as you can. You need to force the Qi inside your body, and it will naturally either try to leave or find a place for it to stay. That is your meridians. Once you¡¯ve absorbed as much Qi as you can in one go, you must hold it in until your meridians have been fully opened.


    ¡°It is the only place in your body that is currently able to store Qi for more than a fleeting moment. But without being strengthened, it would¡¯ve crumbled and crippled you under the pressure while the opening process was underway. You will know when it¡¯s over.¡±


    I listened to the words of Elder Zal and closed my eyes. After she finished talking, it didn¡¯t take too long to focus on the ambient Qi in the air. This was also the moment when it hit me that earth now had Qi. So weird. Anyway, instead of trying to absorb just a whisp, I did my best to pull everything in my surroundings near me. Before I knew it, a large rush of Qi was flooding my body and like it did previously it would bounce around for a bit and then try to leave. This was easy to handle before, but now that it was essentially a flood it took a bit more effort to hold everything down, and I finally stopped absorbing more, it was like a bomb went off in my body as all the Qi moved rapidly around my body forcefully trying to escape. Desperate to return from where it came from.


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    But I held on.


    And after a few moments of this, I could feel the Qi settle down, and seemingly latch on to something within my body. This must be my Meridians. Slowly but surely, all of the Qi running rampant, continued to calm down before latching on to my Meridians, and then it began to enter my Meridians itself, and although the previous step had some level of pain to it, I could mostly ignore it.


    This, on the other hand, took the pain to another level.


    But I gritted my teeth and continued to persevere.


    I¡¯m not even sure how much time had passed, but I suddenly felt a slight budding sensation willing up from within me, and it continued to build up like there was a volcano ready to explode in my chest.


    A second or two later and the feeling seemed to reach a plateau, and another explosion seemed to go off in my body, only this time the pressure of it made its way out of my body, and I could feel Qi rushing out of my body in spades, yet some of it remained.


    Some of it remained in what I assume to be the vein network that ran all over my body but are actually meridians. It wasn¡¯t flooded with Qi, but some of it lingered, and with it a whole new world opened up to me.


    Well maybe that was a bit of a drastic way to explain it, but I could see far more clearly now than I did before. The little specks of dirt on the floor. I could see them. If this was sight, then my sight before could only be called partial blindness. It¡¯s as if I was given glasses.


    And my strength.


    It has taken another leap.


    The excitement about that was building for a moment before it came to a grinding halt. Only now do I realize the gap between myself and that Hobgoblin.  It was massive. Even now I doubt I could beat him with nothing but the strength and skills of my body.


    And those boys¡­They could likely wipe the floor with me. Heh.


    They¡¯re calling me Patriarch, yet they could kill me if tried hard enough. Whose to know if that V word would even work against fellow Infernals.


    ¡°Can you feel it now? Just how weak you are in the grand scheme of things? It is one thing to know someone, or something is stronger than you. It is another thing to be able truly feel it. To experience the difference in strength without the other party even lifting a finger. Life is not fair, and there is nothing stopping a truly powerful cultivator from coming to this planet and killing everything breathing.


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget this feeling, don¡¯t let it consume you, instead it let it fuel you. Remember a Patriarch is a beacon of strength and unparalleled power. Grab your spear and take this.¡±


    She tossed me a small ring, that had a black band with the symbol of flames coiled around it.


    ¡°Open it when you return. I will find you once you and your city have settled.¡±


    And just like that I was once again in my office. Only this time I was far stronger than when I left.


    I didn¡¯t even get to say thank you.


    I looked down towards the ring that I was supposed to open now.


    She didn¡¯t say how to open it¡­


    Let¡¯s not think too hard about this Raizen. You spoke with Greja about things like this before. So, you know it probably requires using Qi.


    I closed my eyes and willed a wisp of the lingering Qi within me towards the rings and¡­nothing.


    Hm.


    Maybe I do have to think hard after all.


    Should I go ask Greja? Or maybe the boys know.


    Hm¡­a rings with flames coil- wait flames?


    I manifested a small flame on my hand, and wow¡­it felt different. So, it too went through a qualitive change when I advanced huh.


    I¡¯ll explore that later.


    The second my flames came in contact with the rings, it glowed slightly, and I could feel my brain? My consciousness? My mind? I don¡¯t exactly, all I know is something up there felt tickly and all of a sudden, a host of information entered my mind.


    Ah¡­so this is what¡¯s inside the ring.


    ¡­I¡¯m rich.

 110. Being Rude (Book Two)

    The space in the ring amounted to what was basically a walk-in closet. If this was attached to the master bedroom of a 2 bedroom apartment, I¡¯d think the owners would be satisfied. So being able to walk around with something like this is simply amazing. Earth with all over technology never reached something like this. Though¡­I still miss having a phone. Maybe someone can come up with another one that relies on Qi or something?


    Who knows.


    Anyway, inside the ring are four distinct items. A stack of Gold Coins. Hehe. Ahem. Yeah, a stack of Gold Coins. Although It would take me a bit to count them out individually, for some reason I instinctively know it¡¯s exactly 100 Gold Coins. Hehehe. Erm. Is this what it feels like to be rich? Perhaps.


    Anyway, there are 3 other ¡®items¡¯ in the ring, a stack of books, an armor set, and what looked to be 3 sets of clothes.


    Just like with the stack of Gold Coins, I knew what the books were. One was a cultivation manual for the Qi Refinement Realm, while the other three were techniques to be used within the realm. Those will be fun. Anyway, the armor set. It was a beautiful piece of art in my opinion. The chest plate was not too different from the ones we currently use, only this one seemed far stronger, and it came with shoulder guards. It also seemed to be built out of scales of some sort. Pristine black scales. Okay maybe it¡¯s very different from the ones we currently use. Along with the chest plate, came bracers, which were too bade out of the same pristine black scales. And finally, was what I assumed to be leg armor. Based on the shape and length, I think they would cover from slightly above my ankle to my knee cap. Really fancy shin guards if you will.


    Wow Elder Zal really took care of me here.


    Of course, the fancy things didn¡¯t stop there. I was given three sets of clothes. Everything was black. I¡¯m noticing a theme here. Now that I¡¯m looking at it, It¡¯s better to say I was given three different types of sets because I had about five sets of each type.


    The first type was the simplest and seemed to be the counterpart to my current outfit. It was a simple yet beautiful black tunic, and black leather pants of some sort. It actually looks nothing like leather, but I don¡¯t know what else to call it. Black pants! Anyway, they seemed pretty easy to move around in. I guess I¡¯ll wear that under the armor. Or just to walk around in maybe.


    Next was something a bit more fancy. It was a black dress shirt with silver lining all throughout, and it was paired with black dress pants. Neither the shirt nor the pants had any buttons. Where would I even get shoes for this?


    Anyway, the final set definitely screamed ancient eastern royalty. They were actually robes. Not like fluffy bathroom robes, but robes that belonged in a museum. Of course they were black, but they were red-ish flames embroidered throughout them and the robes themselves seemed to shine in my mind.


    They were beautiful.


    Maybe I can wear that for important meetings or something? Anyway¡­I would still need shoes for them. Though I don¡¯t mind walking barefoot.


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    Alright that¡¯s enough of that. There will be time to explore all of this later. For now, I need to go see who was in the basement, and how Richard and the others have been doing.


    I slipped the ring on my finger and placed the rucksack I¡¯ve been walking around with this entire time down next to my desk. I¡¯m surprised no one asked me about it.


    Anyway, I exited my office only to see three people waiting on me. The two boys Frian and Lirian I believe their names were. They were standing on either side of the door like stone statues. Well, that was until I walked out then they both bowed and quite literally just fell in step behind me. I¡¯ll address this later. Because there¡¯s another individual here. Another metal person. Hm. I thought I told them I didn¡¯t want any labor?


    ¡°Who are you and why are you here?¡±


    ¡°Lord Raizen, my name is Idar, and I was sent to deliver your spear, and I am to remain here to help with maintenance of said spear. I was awaiting you in the basement.¡±


    So, this is the ¡°brat¡± that was trapped in the basement, and he¡¯s here as a blacksmith huh. I can¡¯t tell how strong he is. So, does that mean he¡¯s above Qi Refinement?


    ¡°Frian.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°Is it rude to ask someone their Cultivation Realm?¡±


    ¡°Not for someone of your position Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­Idar, what is your Cultivation Realm?¡±


    ¡°I am in the Core Formation Realm Lord Raizen.¡±


    A Core Formation cultivator to deliver a spear. Interesting. Though I guess that doesn¡¯t fully count as being a whole force. Is this like a loophole they¡¯re trying to exploit so that they still have presence here? I wonder if they abandoned him, or maybe they left him with a way to contact them.


    ¡°Did they leave you here by yourself?¡±


    ¡°I have means to contact my people in case I need them, Lord Raizen.¡±


    ¡°I see. Then are you to follow my orders as well?¡±


    ¡°I have been ordered to provide assistance as needed Lord Raizen.¡±


    ¡°I see. Then from this point on never enter this building unless told to do so by me. For now, I think the spear doesn¡¯t need any work, so I don¡¯t need you at the moment. For now, just stay within the city, I will come find you eventually to give you a place to stay.¡±


    ¡°Understood Lord Raizen.¡±


    After saying that he calmly walked down the staircase, and I assumed he eventually left the building. I may have been a bit rude there, but something about them rubs me the wrong way. Based on how the meeting with the super shiny metal man and Elder Zal went, relations don¡¯t seem to be perfect. So, there¡¯s no reason to be too buddy buddy with them. Plus, I¡¯m not that na?ve that I don¡¯t realize they might simply be trying to build a relationship with me for some type of benefit.


    Human beings did that before the Tutorial under the guise of ¡®networking¡¯. So, it¡¯s not a foreign concept. Anyway¡­these boys. I know they are stronger than anyone of us including me, but they really just look like middle school kids. How do I handle them?


    ¡°Now you two. You¡¯re here to prove your worth as you called it to hopefully join my Clan, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you both are being so respectful?¡±


    Only one of them spoke up this time. I think his name is Frian.


    ¡°Patriarch, there isn¡¯t a single regular Infernal that would ever disrespect a Patriarch. Only other Patriarchs and Matriarchs, can engage in such acts.¡±


    ¡°So, neither of you will ever call me by name?¡±


    They tensed up a bit.


    ¡°Never Patriarch!¡±


    ¡°Never Patriarch!¡±


    ¡°I see¡­and following me around?¡±


    ¡°We are to be your hands and feet Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Hm my hands and feet huh¡­fine then let¡¯s go see how things are going.¡±


    So, with my new spear in hand and two middle school boys strong enough to murder everyone from Outpost G following me obediently, I left the comfort of my new City Lord Mansion and headed outside.


    Hm. Although Body Tempering changed a lot about me, at the end of the day it was really just an insane physical improvement.


    Qi Refinement is far beyond that.


    The world truly felt different now.

 111. Rights ? (Book Two)

    It was almost a sensory overload when I stepped outside. I could sense the Qi in the air, I could sense how it interacted with other things. I can feel it, constantly everywhere all at once. It was a hard feeling to describe but it was an amazing one. I couldn¡¯t actually see the Qi in the air like I did when I was meditating but feeling like this was just as good. And it wasn¡¯t like I was feeling individual wisps either, it was more like the wind, except it was fleeting almost as if it was barely there, but I could feel it all the same.


    Anyway, I stopped basking in this new sensation and slowly began to make my way towards the gate. Carefully taking in the City around me. Jrino explained all the districts to me and it¡¯s to be able to match the map to what I was seeing. Maps are pretty useful. Hm¡­we should map the area around us as soon as possible. Adding it to the list.


    Anyway, as depicted on the map, in the distance across from the City Lord Mansion was R5, the district with the mansions. From what I could see from here there were only about 10 of them. I have to make sure to price them properly. Moving on I left that area and headed towards the main road that ran from the harbor all the way to the West Entrance. To my right I could see the harbor district and the ocean off in the distance, while straight across from me was the facilities district, I think and the North Entrance. I made a left and walked down till I reached the City Square, which was connected to the Commercial Districts and from there I walked past our two biggest Residential Districts.


    By now I was seeing other people and hearing a bunch of noise at the gate. Things were moving along. Though it was something else that caught my eye.


    Why were there people sitting on the ground tied up?


    As I approached the gate I watched as the people Jrino brought over were handling the influx of people. It was a really loud and busy affair, but everything seemed to be going well. A Copper Coin was handed over and then their names were taken down, and immediately directed to the residential district where they were then pointed to a house that fit their needs. Apparently, the biggest houses in Residential Districts 1 and 2 were 3 bedroom houses, but there were plenty of 1 and 2 bedroom houses as well.


    And to my surprise there were apartment buildings as well. Though the biggest apartments in those buildings only had 2 bedrooms.


    So, everyone was doing their best to allocate people to the correct size house.


    I learned all of this just by listening to the yells and shouts from everyone as the situation progressed.


    Due to how busy everyone was it took a while for them to notice me. I figured it would be Richard who saw me first, but it was that Jral guy.


    ¡°Lord Raizen. Congratulations on your breakthrough.¡±


    It¡¯s interesting that he could tell, but I¡¯m not sure that I liked the idea of him announcing it.


    ¡°Thank you but never do that again. Understood?¡±


    ¡°My Apologies Lord Raizen, it won¡¯t happen again.¡±


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    That brought the attention of the others to me.


    ¡°Raizen you finally made it!¡±


    That was Richard while everyone else like Micah and Lance who was being forced to do paperwork just looked over and waved before diving back into it. They all took a few extra glances at the boys behind me, and I could see they were confused but no one said anything.


    Anyway.


    There were still thousands of people in line. I watched them for a moment. These were real people. Not just numbers on a paper. There were men, women, fathers, mothers, elderly, children. Real people, all shapes, and sizes, from various Countries that used to exist on Earth.


    This will likely be where most of them will live for the rest of their lives¡­hm¡­I just got a brilliant idea¡­but first¡­


    ¡°Richard why are there people tied up on the ground?¡±


    ¡°Ah. Yeah, they tried to cause a few problems. A few of them didn¡¯t want to pay the Copper Coin entrance fee, while a few others didn¡¯t like the house they were given to stay in, and a couple others were just causing problems in the line for one reason or another. We were waiting on you to decide what to do with them.¡±


    What to do huh.


    There were 7 total people sitting here tied up just looking at me, as I decided their fate. I¡¯m surprised no one spoke up to plead their case or anything. I guess they were really put in their place.


    Well, I won¡¯t be killing them, nor do I think we need to ¡®arrest¡¯ them and put them in prison or anything like that. I don¡¯t even think we have a prison, and the basement can¡¯t really be one. So, do I just kick them out of the City, or can I use them for something? Or should there even be a punishment in the first place, it¡¯s not like these are serious crimes.


    Hm.


    I walked over to them and looked at the group.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to stay here in this City then raise your hand.¡±


    Three people raised their hands.


    That was surprising. They rather tough it out on their own huh.


    Fine then.


    ¡°You can leave but don¡¯t come back. Boys, can you take them a good distance away from the City? I don¡¯t care where you drop them, as long as it¡¯s far from here. Ah not in the ocean though.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    The three people in question immediately got nervous and started screaming.


    ¡°Wait!!¡±


    ¡°How can you do this?!¡±


    ¡°This is against our rights!!¡±


    I¡¯m pretty sure at least one of them was speaking a different language cause his mouth moved all funny, but I just stood there and watched. The boys approached them quickly and since they couldn¡¯t fight back because they were tied up, they were quickly scooped up by the boys and then they practically vanished from our sights.


    Well not mine.


    I could see them faintly as they darted across the grasslands that surrounded the immediate area of the City.


    They were much faster than me.


    Though I found it funny that one of them asked about rights. What rights? This is Black Cove City. My word is law.


    ¡­.


    That sounded a bit dictator like¡­


    Maybe I shouldn¡¯t say that out loud.


    Moving on to the rest of the group.


    ¡°No one else wants to leave?¡±


    A few hurried head shakes to signify ¡®no¡¯ ensued from the rest of them.


    ¡°Good, then since nothing was too serious, all of you work for me for now. Grab your things, pencil and paper form Richard and come with me.¡±


    ¡°Can you untie us first?¡±


    Pretending that I didn¡¯t forget they were tied up, I quickly walked over and untied them all.


    While they got their things in order, I walked back to the green guy who announced I had a breakthrough to everyone.


    ¡°Do you know where Greja, and other¡¯s shops are?¡±


    ¡°They should be in Commercial District 1. Would you like a guide?¡±


    ¡°No, we¡¯ll be fine. Richard are you good here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we should be fine. This will likely take all day though.¡±


    ¡°I understand, if those boys come back, leave them alone, they should be able to find me. And Richard, they are just like me.¡±


    I saw his widen for a moment before he nodded in understanding.


    I had a feeling the boys would always listen to me, but before I truly understand their mindsets it would be best for the others to keep interaction with them to a minimum.

 112. Buy a boat (Book Two)

    With 4 people tailing behind me, I walked over towards Commercial District 1 and continued walking down the street until we reached the shop, I assumed to be Greja¡¯s. It wasn¡¯t that bad of an assumption since there was a large sign outside on top of the shop that literally read ¡®Greja¡¯s Emporium¡¯. Can never be too sure though.


    The shop was a lot different from the one in the Tutorial. It was still made out of wood, but the building was of decent size and had a second floor. From the outside there was no way to see inside, so I guess they still didn¡¯t like windows. Anyway, I pushed open the double doors that led inside and was met with a wide-open floor plan.


    On both the walls to me left and right were shelves where I expected goods to be placed but they were empty for now, and right in front of me was a counter. The counter was attached to a staircase on its left that led up to the second floor, but it was barred off right now for some reason.


    So far, the only surprise in the shop was that there was another person here and it wasn¡¯t Greja.


    ¡°Hey Raizen. Didn¡¯t expect to see you here today, and not with a squad of people following you around. Who are they?¡±


    ¡°Troublemakers, what about you Grant?¡±


    ¡°Ah I well I realized if I wanted to start a fishing business I would need a boat. So, I found my way here to see if I could get supplies to make one. Even though I don¡¯t actually know anything about building a boat, I can¡¯t give up without trying right?¡±


    Yeah, I was wondering how he was going to get a boat. Or even a fishing rod. I wonder if there¡¯s anyone in the line who knows how to build boats that can help him? Hm¡­I¡¯ll find out when I announce my brilliant idea tomorrow.


    ¡°Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe we can get you some help, we¡¯ll see. Have you seen the shopkeeper?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯ve only been here for a few minutes though. By the way, you said these people are troublemakers, what did they do?¡±


    I took a look at the group behind me, and none of them looked like they wanted to speak up. That¡¯s fine, I guess.


    ¡°They caused some problems in the line to get in.¡±


    ¡°Hm, well alright then¡­¡±


    I could tell he thought the situation was a bit weird but hey can¡¯t do anything about it. I didn¡¯t know what else to do with them so¡­


    Anyway, we stood there in silence for a minute until Greja suddenly appeared behind the counter.


    ¡°Welcome in welcome in! It¡¯s nice to see you Lord Raizen, I apologize for my tardiness, there were things to take care of.


    ¡°So, how can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Sorry for coming before you¡¯re fully set up, but I would like to be able to see your shop. Is it the same as the Tutorial? Grant here has some wishes of his own.¡±


    ¡°No worries, my wares are all available for purchase right now, and no, this shop is nothing like the one you saw in the Tutorial. This is my actual shop. I am a genuine merchant, there are no more restrictions on the things I can or cannot sell. Though despite me saying that. You will not be seeing the most valuable of my wares as those are being sold in shops on other planets. Of course that is not to say, that the things you will see are not valuable but something than can benefit a cultivator in the Nascent Soul realm is far more expensive and valuable than you can imagine at this stage.¡±


    ¡°Hm, how much Gold Coins would something like that cost?¡±


    As someone who¡¯s just been given 100 Gold Coins, it only made sense that I¡¯m a bit curious since that¡¯s an insane amount of money based on the standards of the Tutorial shop.


    Though my mouth almost twitched when I saw Greja laugh.


    ¡°Haha, no amount of Gold Coins can pay for something like that. For that sort of treasure we are dealing with Spirt Stones. Something you will learn about in time. For now, here¡¯s a look at my shop.¡±


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    <u>Welcome to Greja¡¯s Emporium</u>


    Select a Category.


    1. Spiritual Frutis


    2. Techniques


    3. Weapons


    4. Manuals


    5. Materials


    6. Treasures


    7. Miscellaneous


    8. Requests (See Counter)


    Oh, this is in fact far different from the Tutorial. Let¡¯s take a look¡­


    ¡°Alright, you. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Bran Sir.¡±


    ¡°Alright Bran, right down everything you see in the Miscellaneous category. And you, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°My name is Grady Sir.¡±


    ¡°Alright Grady, you write down everything you see in the Materials category.¡±


    Immediately they both started writing. I didn¡¯t need the other two to do anything for now, as after taking a look through all of the categories, those two are the most relevant for us at the moment. All of them will be useful but those two matter more right now.


    While they did that, I went back to focus on the display in front of me. All the categories only had 1-5 items each. Which was a bit different from the Tutorial where some categories had subcategories and multiple options. This shop didn¡¯t even offer clothes.


    In the Spiritual Fruits category, there were only two items.


    1. Silver Grape ¨C 50 Copper


    - Slightly toughens the Skin.


    2. Azure Pear ¨C 5 Gold Coins


    - Enhances the flow of Qi


    The descriptions were short and to the point, but they told enough a picture, though I¡¯m sure Greja would explain if need be.


    Next was the Techniques category and that had a couple different items.


    1. Qi Strike Qi Refinement ¨C 10 Silver Coins


    2. Qi Burst Qi Refinement ¨C 10 Silver Coins


    3. Piercing Strike Qi Refinement ¨C 25 Silver Coins


    If I remember correctly, these were the exact same techniques as the Tutorial, but the primes were vastly different¡­they were being sold for Bronze Coins, while now they¡¯re suddenly worth Silver? Is Greja robbing us?


    ¡°Greja, aren¡¯t these the same techniques from the Tutorial? Why are they so much more expensive?¡±


    ¡°Things were easier in the Tutorial, all prices were controlled by the System to make things fair for you all, but the Multiverse isn¡¯t so kind. Though although looks expensive, these Techniques are mainly for Qi Refinement Cultivators, it should be quite easy for one of them to earn a few Silvers.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡±


    Well, that¡¯s nice information. A Qi Refinement Cultivator should be able to easily earn a few Silvers. I¡¯ll keep that in mind.


    Next were the Weapons. A bit surprising she¡¯s selling weapons, but I guess why not? There were only two of them anyway.


    1. Ironroot Sword ¨C 1 Silver


    2. Ironflame Dagger ¨C 50 Silver


    Interesting names, but no descriptions. They aren¡¯t spears so I¡¯m not interested anyway. Next came the Manuals and again there was only one thing.


    1. Olirag Breathing Manual Qi Refinement ¨C 1 Silver Coin


    This was also in the Tutorial, but It¡¯s a bit more expensive now.


    Materials, which had the most items.


    1. Dark Wood ¨C 5 Bronze Coins per Pound


    2. Ironroot (Ore) ¨C 20 Bronze Coins per Pound


    3. Tempered Bronze (Ingot) ¨C 20 Bronze Coins per Pound


    4. Grack Hide ¨C 1 Silver Coins per Pound


    5. Rock Iron ¨C 50 Copper Coins Per Pound


    After that came Treasures and there was only 1 item here.


    1. Meditation Mat ¨C 10 Silver Coins


    Then of course Miscellaneous, which had a few items.


    1. Sustenance Pills (30) ¨C 15 Copper Coins


    2. Paper (100) ¨C 25 Copper Coins


    3. Pencil ¨C 2 Copper Coins


    So, I guess it works both ways, since both the paper and the pencil were a bit more expensive in the Tutorial.


    Anyway, that was everything with the exception of the Requests, something that Grant was trying to make use of right now as he approached Greja.


    ¡°Hi, I would like to make a request.¡±


    ¡°Go for it.¡±


    ¡°I would like to build a boat so that I can fish, but I don¡¯t see any tools in your shop to do it. Is that a part of the things I can request?¡±


    ¡°Hm, if you would like to buy individual tools, I would suggest visiting the blacksmith and having them commissioned. Though if you just want the boat, that can be arranged as well.¡±


    Both Grant and I were a bit surprised at that. More so Grant than me as he spoke up in excitement.


    ¡°Wait are you saying I can purchase an entire boat?!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m saying.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but speak up at this point.


    ¡°How is that possible? Are you shipping boats here from another planet?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, it would be way too costly to do that at the moment. Though it is possible. Instead, I am able to connect to other shops in Cities on this planet through a specialized network for Merchants, and it just so happens that one of them is selling boats. Three different kinds in fact. I suppose a faction that specializes in water operations of some sort was able to secure a deal with one of your fellow humans. So, want to buy a boat?¡±

 Quick Update

    Just wanted to give you guys a quick update. All of Book 1 is now offiicially being edited! From Chapter 1 to Chapter 100!


    As soon as it''s finished, I will replace the old chapters with the new ones! Very excited about this process, and a big thanks to my subs on Patreon for help making this happen. Thanks to them I was able to find and pay for a line editor. I will always do my best to put the funds earned through Patreon back into the book, so that you guys are always benefitting and kept at the forefront.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    I love writing and It''s my goal to do my best to ensure you guys see a finished product. I have a million ideas for stories and other books but I fall short when it comes to editing, no matter how much I re-read a chapter I seem to miss things, so i will stick to what I know (Writing) and let the professionals handle the rest!


    Thanks again for reading and I can''t wait to deliver more Infernal content, and more books in general!

 113. Child Abuse (Book Two)

    I still have yet to genuinely truly digest every single piece of news I¡¯ve heard since the Tutorial ended, yet here was Greja with another one. It was already a shock to hear we could buy a boat if needed, but the method in which we bought it was even bigger than being able to buy it. An entire network of shops that were established in Cities around the Planet? I suppose as someone who lived in modern society that isn¡¯t too far fetched since we had plenty of ways of buying things online and having it show up next day from who knows where.


    But what¡¯s shocking is that this of course isn¡¯t modern society, we don¡¯t have internet or computers or access to anything of the sort yet somehow this is still possible.


    To be able to buy a boat from who knows how many miles away. Wait, thinking about it now, we had items delivered by hand before all of this, will someone have to bring the boat here?


    I¡¯m sure Grant would ask if he could but he seemed to be thinking deeply about something, or maybe he¡¯s just excited about buying the boat? I don¡¯t know.


    ¡°Greja, how would the boat get here?¡±


    ¡°It will be shipped, which will cost money. Of course there is the option of simply going to get it yourselves if you¡¯d like, but that would pose troubles of its own.¡±


    ¡°Wait if going to pick it up will cause troubles, how would they be able to deliver it?¡±


    ¡°Ah, it would arrive directly at this ship within a few moments of purchase. Like I said it is not free. The system is who handles the transportation and the transaction itself but it would require significant cost. Likely worth more than the item itself in some cases. I can provide some more detail if you¡¯d like.¡±


    You know I think I actually would like a more detailed explanation, so I won¡¯t say no to the chance to get one. This process just sounds a bit crazy.


    ¡°Yes, if possible I would like some more information.¡±


    I saw Grant nodding at me, I guess he wanted one too.


    Greja then did her typical cheery smile before speaking again.


    ¡°Of course, then I¡¯ll break it down for you. Earlier today you had to accept the position of City Lord, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Have you checked your status since then?¡±


    ¡°Now that you mention it¡­no.¡±


    ¡°Please do so then we¡¯ll continue.¡±


    I indulged her and willed for my status to come up.


    Name ¨C Raizen


    Age ¨C 19


    Race ¨C Infernal


    Cultivation ¨C Qi Refinement (Early)


    Profession - City Lord


    Ah, I almost forgot I advanced, I really should¡¯ve checked this earlier. Early Qi Refinement huh? I¡¯ll have to check that out later. But I see what Greja is referring to. I have an actual profession now. Interesting.


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯ve seen it by now, correct? Well for me it says Merchant. We won¡¯t be getting into how a profession works or what exactly it means right now, but the key is to ti know that there are potential perks that go with it. One of which is the ability for system recognized Merchants to access the same local network of shops. As long as two shops are owned and operated by system recognized Merchants, they would be able to access this network, trade between each other.


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    This process works strictly through the system, in which the merchant of the shop is used as a spatial anchor to send and receive items. Though this also means, the scope of the Merchant¡¯s available network is limited to their own strength, but there are some ways around this.


    Next the cost. I¡¯m sure you remember completing Dungeons in the Tutorial and being rewarded with money, yes?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Well, that money wasn¡¯t placed there by anyone. It is collected from an uncountable number of transactions such as this one. There are some things that the System genuinely creates from nothing, but for the most part, a lot of the wondrous stuff you see can be traced to something else. Of course, this isn¡¯t a process to be abused. As even though the system is handling it, it requires energy


    ¡°That is the general gist of it. Any questions?¡±


    I have plenty, but I don¡¯t want to hold her or Grant up any longer.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m good for now Greja, thank you. How about you Grant? Got questions or are we ready to buy this boat.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I have questions, but it¡¯s about the boat, how big is it? Will it come with oars? Do they sell anything else related to fishing?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s see here¡­so actual size of the boat is not listed, only that it seats 2-3 people. There are two more sizes above this. One for 5-6 people, and the last one for 8-10 people. Whether they come with oars or not isn¡¯t listed. Regarding other fishing equipment, they have casting nets, fishing rods and bait available. Though only one option of each.¡±


    I continued listening as Grant and Greja discussed costs and put an order together, which was eventually finalized.


    ¡°One small fishing boat, a fishing rod, a casting net, and finally two containers of bait. Your total is 15 Silver Coins and 54 Copper Coins. The transaction fee is waived.¡±


    I guess the transaction fee is waived due to what Jrino offered. Hm, why does Grant look so troubled? Ah, he probably can¡¯t afford any of this. Especially not after we spent a good amount of funds on other supplies before the Tutorial ended.


    ¡°15 Silver Coins and 54 Copper Coins, I¡¯ll pay for it.¡±


    Using the ring I got from Elder Zal. I willed a Gold Coin to enter my hand, and it did.


    Greja raised an eyebrow upon seeing that, but she didn¡¯t comment any further. Grant also looked like he wanted to say something, but I should shut that down.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Grant. This is an investment.¡±


    ¡°¡­I understand, I¡¯ll make sure you get a good return on it.¡±


    Now with that out of the way, I finally handed the coin over to Greja.


    ¡°Thank you, give me a moment.¡±


    The lone coin disappeared and, in its place, appeared a small stack of Silver, Bronze, and Copper Coins.


    ¡°84 Silver, 99 Bronze, and 46 Copper Coin is your change. I just placed the order; it shall be here in a few moments.¡±


    Before I even collected the coins, a small unassuming ring showed up on the counter, then barely a second later a fishing rod, what looked to be a small container filled with¡­something moving¡­and a fishing net all showed up on the counter.


    ¡°The boat is in the ring. This is a onetime use storage device that can be used by anyone! There is a small button on top that once pressed, will release its contents after a small delay. So only press it where you want the boat to show up.¡±


    Grant then thanked both me and Greja, before asking even more questions. He asked about a stove, a cooler or a fridge like device to store goods, rope, and many other things.


    Things I didn¡¯t even begin to consider.


    Not everything he asked about was available, but he still ended up spending a Silver Coin on his own and left excitedly. I stayed behind to ask more questions about what¡¯s available on the market. Anything I thought would be important I made someone from the group write it down.


    I eventually left and headed back towards the gate. There were of course still a lot of people entering the gate and being sent to a home, but I needed my government officials. Ah that feels weird to say but eh.


    ¡°Jral. Can I trust you to handle things here for a bit?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Raizen. I will ensure nothing goes amiss.¡±


    ¡°Good, Richard, Vanessa, Brockers and Hubert. Follow me back to the City Lord Mansion. We have a few urgent things to discuss. And you four come too.¡±


    Before any of them could even respond I felt something approaching rapidly and when I looked towards the direction, I felt it, I could see the boys approaching the Outpost rapidly in the distance. And only a few moments later they were standing in front of me in a salute. The salute the metal man did. The bow of the head and an arm placed diagonally across the chest. This time it was Lirian who spoke up.


    ¡°We completed the mission as requested Patriarch.¡±


    Hm¡­they are pretty young, but they are taking this whole thing seriously huh. Maybe I¡¯ll just give them a few more missions then¡­


    This isn¡¯t child abuse, right?


    Yeah, it can¡¯t be.

 114. City Planning (Book Two)

    I once again found myself in the conference room of the City Lord Mansion. Only the individuals in it were far different from the group that was there earlier today. Of course, Richard, Brock, Hubert, and Vanessa were all present, but so were Frian and Lirian who flanked me on the left and right respectively.


    I was seated at the head of the table, and I told them they could sit down, but they politely refused so I didn¡¯t bother any further. It didn¡¯t help that Vanessa was giving me a weird look though. This is not child abuse; they could murder all of you! Plus, I asked them.


    Anyway, the four people that have silently following me around are here too, and I know exactly what to do with that now.


    ¡°Alright, I have been thinking long and hard about how to get through the first couple days of the start of this City successfully, and after a visit to the shop where I learned a couple of things. I think I have a rough idea of what it is I want to do. This is going to be a somewhat long explanation so wait till the end for any questions.


    ¡°First of all. We don¡¯t have any ¡®workers¡¯ in the City. So that needs to change immediately, there need to be ways for the people of this City to earn money, and there also need to be ways for the people of the City to spend money. So, first things first we need to offer a few Government positions that will come with pay. You all are included in this. We can figure out your exact titles later, but for now you¡¯re all just Government Officials. By the end of this we will discuss your pay.


    ¡°Back to the Government positions. So, the City needs its own City Guard. Jrino brought over 50 Body Tempering cultivators from his Clan to help handle things, and as you can see, they have been doing so. Though at the end of the day, they are Jrino¡¯s people. We need our own Guard. The City Guard will be responsible for protecting the City from outside threats, and genuinely being a police force for the City, so they need to be fairly strong and good at fighting.


    ¡°Next, the City needs to be kept clean. I have no idea what the sanitation systems are like just yet since I haven¡¯t explored everything, but there needs to be an official department responsible for keeping the City clean.


    ¡°Next, I don¡¯t know if you guys have read many Lit RPG stories or watched any type of Isekai anime but every single one of them had an Adventurer¡¯s Guild of some kind. If you don¡¯t know what it is, basically it is place where freelance fighters can earn a living by going out and completing missions for the Guild in the wild.


    ¡°I¡¯m not just doing this because it sounds cool. I¡¯m not sure if you all remember, but there were monsters in the Tutorial, and if any of you read the Monster Encyclopedia, then you know there are more than just Goblins to be wary of. And of course, none of us truly know what to expect out there. If there¡¯s something like a Goblin horde forming in a random forest, then it would be nice to be able to officially send people to go investigate or get rid of the problem altogether.


    ¡°That¡¯s where the Adventures Guild will come in, and it will also be where anyone can come in and sell monster materials, or anything else they find. This will be Government controlled, but we won¡¯t stop anyone from opening up their own shops and doing the same thing, but we will be the only Adventures Guild in the City. Now I touched on it a bit just now, but shops. There are two entire streets available for shops; some of the shops are big, some of them are small. People will be allowed to rent them, and do whatever, as long as they are providing a service. They would also need to pay a tax to the City on their earnings.


    ¡°This goes for every business. And the Tax will be small, we¡¯re not here to rob people of all their wealth, but the City needs to run so we need a tax. Which means the Copper Coin entrance fee will remain, now I would like to be able to waive the fee for Adventurers, or maybe even people who pay rent, but then we would need a really good way to document everyone who lives here accurately, and unfortunately, we don¡¯t have computers, so there will be a lot of writing. That¡¯s where you four come in. The punishment for causing a problem in the line is that you¡¯re now scribes for the Government. You will still get paid, but you have no choice in this, and I expect you all to do a good job.


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    ¡°Ah actually you do have a choice. You can leave. Does anyone want to leave?¡±


    I stared at them for a few moments and all I got were strong shakes of the head.


    ¡°Good, glad to have you. Now, money. The shop system in the City is really interesting and we can go over it in depth another time, all you need to know for now is that we can essentially have things delivered from other Cities. This might be something only available in Greja¡¯s shop, which was the shopkeeper from the Tutorial, but it¡¯s all we need for now. A lot of things can be purchased, Grant literally bought a boat. Basically, what I¡¯m trying to say is I have a much better understand of the value of our Coins now. Food and simple basic necessities should always only cost Copper Coins depending on the item. From there Bronze Coins are if you want to buy something in bulk, or it¡¯s a really nice item. Silver is for truly valuable things. A plate of food should never cost a silver coin unless it was made with Qi Refinement ingredients. Gold Coins are for the truly wealthy, and most regular people would have to save up for a very long time to be able to see one.


    ¡°Remember, a Gold Coin is a million Copper Coins.


    ¡°So, let¡¯s talk pay, even the lowest of low paying jobs should still be able to earn someone a few hundred Copper Coins a month. People working in more skilled positions should be able to earn around 15-30 Bronze Coins a month. I think the City Guard should fall in this range for example. Maybe even more for a position like the Captain of the City Guard.


    ¡°You Richard, Brock, Hubert and Vanessa. You all will be responsible for running the City and will be paid roughly 5 Silver Coins a month. That¡¯s 50,000 Copper Coins a month. This is how valuable your position is. Now the scribes, you work for the four I just mentioned and will be mainly following directions from them. Because this is still a punishment your pay will be a bit lower. 6 Bronze Coins, or 600 Copper Coins.


    ¡°So here is my next task for you guys. Draft up contracts listing your role and your pay and make two copies of each. I¡¯ll keep one and you all will keep the others or store them in the Government building next door. I don¡¯t know. Next, based on everything I just told you, figure out what the rent should be for the all the homes in the residential districts that we¡¯re filling up right now. Now I had the scribes write down a lot of information I learned in Greja¡¯s shop, which is the only place we can readily get food and supplies at the moment.


    ¡°Review it, plan accordingly and then come find me in the office once you guys got a plan.¡±


    Right after I said all of that, I took out the 20 Silver Coins from the ring, and along with 24 Bronze Coins.


    ¡°As promised, here is your pay.¡±


    I placed it on the table and before they could respond, I took out another 20 Gold Coins. This is a lot of money, but this is essentially my first real test for my new Government Officials. Can I actually trust them? We will find out.


    ¡°20 Gold Coins, or twenty million Copper Coins. This is the Cities money. I will trust you all with it. Do not waste or squander it. Use it to run the City, which means paying people according to how I just explained. All of the Copper Coins we are collecting at the Gate will be a part of this fund as well. I know I said I¡¯ll take questions, but I changed my mind, think about everything I said for a bit then let me know.


    ¡°As I said earlier, I¡¯ll be in my office which is on the second floor. You guys can stay here, but I recommend going to the Government building next door. That¡¯s where all your offices are or will be, I think.¡±


    After saying that I got up to walk away. I¡¯d say that was very successful if I do say so myself. Now they can do all of the work after I came up with all of the ideas. Yep, delegation is a wonderful thing.


    ¡°Raizen. I think you should be a part of the discussion the entire time. You¡¯re the City ¡®Lord¡¯ of Black Cove City, you should always be aware of what¡¯s happening in your own City.¡±


    Dammit.


    So close.

 115. Government Funding (Book Two)

    It was now deep into the night, and I was sitting in my office thinking about how the day ended. A lot has happened. It was probably around midday when I met with my new Government Officials in the conference room and was forced by Richard to stay and discuss everything. There was so much to discuss. I really would rather go fight a horde of monsters with my life on the line that do that again.


    Even still, it was worth it in the end. We genuinely got a lot done. I now understand why they all wanted to be a part of the Government; they were very zealous about it all. Thinking up things I didn¡¯t even consider, like permits for example. If you wanted to fish in the City, you needed a fishing license or something. I didn¡¯t really agree with it at first because I don¡¯t want to become a bother to people just trying to earn a living, but apparently, it¡¯s a form of credibility for the fishermen. People would likely buy from the fisherman associated with the City than the one who wasn¡¯t.


    There was even the problem of documentation. We eventually found the Blacksmith¡¯s shop, and he said he can build thousands of small metal plates with a few lines of writing on them. That was of course a blessing. After finding that out, we decided that every person who lives here should get one, it should have your name, the district you live in, and the date.  The metal plates will expire after one year. Which then also brought up the problem of what the actual date is. We could¡¯ve figured out the month easily and we still knew the year but the day itself was a lost cause.


    The point was also made that what if the length of the days, and the changing of the season were different now, wouldn¡¯t throw things off? I had no idea, nor did I really feel like figuring it out, so I just asked Frian and Lirian what type of calendar they used. They kind of surprised me with their answer.


    It was simple. According to one of their books used for their studies every planet had their own calendar. There wasn¡¯t a universal standard or anything like that. At least not to their knowledge. So, we decided right then and there to make our own calendar. It was a bit weird to be making a calendar, but we thought it was best. It wasn¡¯t like we were changing too much from the previous one. Still going to call 12 months a year, and have 7 days a week, but each month will 35 days and 5 weeks. So, 1 Year is 12 months, 60 weeks, and 420 days.


    We did that to try and factor in the fact that Earth might take even longer to go around the Sun now, but we had no way to actually verify it¡­perhaps Elder Zal can help us with it, but I have no way to contact her so this will work for now. The calendar will be called The New Earth Calendar. It¡¯s actually a very corny name, but that was all we could come up with in the moment, so the plan now was for the scribes to make a whole bunch of copies to be passed around to the rest of the City and then be placed in Greja¡¯s shop.


    The goal there is for people in other Cities to buy it so that the majority of Earth is working with the same calendar. Speaking of majority. By the end of the day, the entire line was dealt with and now roughly 150,000 people were now living in this City. Jral and the others did an amazing job to be honest with you. To be able to get through that many people in less than a day was amazing. Of course, that also meant we earned that same amount in Copper Coins which wasn¡¯t a small sum. I also took 10 Gold Coins back from the budget, 20 was likely too much for now.


    After everyone was inside, all the members from Outpost G met up one more time to go over things. They were all given first dibs on things they wanted to do. Micah and a few others immediately signed up for the City Guard positions while a couple others pledged to be our first couple adventurers. Still, a good portion of them were undecided but there was nothing I could do about that. The positions were offered, but this wasn¡¯t the Tutorial anymore. They needed to make their own decisions. The last thing I did for them was to pass out a few funds to each of them, and hand out all those Rings and Necklaces we stacked up from the Dungeons in the Tutorial. I didn¡¯t need the ring anymore, but I kept that very first necklace for myself, and I gave the dagger to Irene.


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    While Micah planned to move away from his life as an archer in the Tutorial to one with swords now, Irene didn¡¯t want to give up her bow. So, although she was still far from Qi Refinement, she would eventually make it, and the dagger would be a big help to her at that time. She was also one of the ones who wanted to be an adventurer, which was honestly kind of surprising. Anyway, after all that was taken care of, there was one final thing we did as the Government, spend a lot of money.


    We commissioned a few hundred thousand plates from the Blacksmith, who assured us that it wouldn¡¯t take long and was a simple task. He apparently had a machine which would make it fairly simple. Despite that, it still costs 1 Gold Coin to do. Not only was he making hundreds of thousands of metal plates with writing on them, but he would also be inlaying all the plates with a thin special lining that would make it hard for the plates to be reforged. Each plate was only going to be about the size of a debit card. Just metal. No names will be on them, people will have to go that themselves individually, so that was paid for in advance as well.


    Next was the other bulk purchases. The homes had furniture, and a functioning toilet and pipe system, it even had a stove. But there was no fridge of any kind, and the stove worked on coal or wood. We didn¡¯t have either, but coal could be acquired from the shop. Meanwhile, for the ¡®fridge¡¯, there was a cooler thing available in one of the shops.


    They were called frost boxes and used something called an Icerock to keep its contents cool. The rocks came in sizes of small, medium and large, with small lasting around 3 days, medium around a week, and the large one around 3 weeks.


    I don¡¯t know where it comes from, but they will keep our stuff cool. The box itself cost 1, 5, or 10 Bronze depending on the size, while the large Icerock was 30 Copper.


    That shop is going to make a lot of money.


    For now, we bought 5 Large Boxes, one for the City Lord Mansion, one for the Adventures Guild, one for Grant and his fishing business, and this one was surprising, but one for Li and Trinity. We only found this out later but when they learned that we could buy food items (from the shop that also sells the Frost Box), they decided to open up a restaurant together. Good for them, though I wonder how they¡¯re going to cook beast meat? Since that shop only sold meat of things I¡¯d never heard of, like Weegul Steak for example. Where are they even getting it?


    Tomorrow there will also be an announcement about jobs and hiring people for the various things we have planned. Or if anyone wanted to start something, we would support them to an extent. Needless to say, the Government will be doing a lot of spending to get this City up and running.


    So yeah, I gave Richard and the others the 10 Gold back¡­


    Though one of the main reasons I did it, was although I plan to be involved with the management of the City, there will be many times when I¡¯m gone or focused on something else.


    I want to explore this new Earth, get stronger, and continue to fight stronger opponents. Which is why after making sure things are in order tomorrow, I¡¯ll be leaving to go explore or scout as Richard wanted me to call it.


    Sean was our scout in the Tutorial, and apparently, he still wanted to do things of that nature, so he joined the City Guard, but he won¡¯t be allowed to go scout until some proper training from Eriog. Which is who trained Richard¡¯s group in the Tutorial, and who will be training the City Guard.


    While the Tutorial was deadly, the number of things that could happen to us after a while were somewhat limited. This won¡¯t be the case here. Who knows what could be lurking outside of these walls? I won¡¯t stop anyone from leaving the City, but the City Guard is different. They need to be of a certain standard. Obviously, they won¡¯t all suddenly get stronger in cultivation out of nowhere, but they need to be the best version of themselves, since they are basically the military/police of the City.


    So, in place of Sean. I¡¯ll be going instead. Along with Frian.


    When I told them I¡¯ll only be taking one of them since I¡¯d like the other one to guard the City while I was gone, they immediately asked to be excused for a moment and when they came back, Lirian looked like he lost a loved one, while Frian looked as if he won a prestigious award.


    Heh.


    So tomorrow, Frian and I will be going outside to see what¡¯s around us. Although the primary reason is that I want to explore, as the City Lord, I need to know if there is anything dangerous nearby so we can plan for it.


    So, killing two birds with one stone.

 116. Infernal Customs (Book Two)

    ¡°We need you to come back.¡±


    ¡°¡­Why are you here Falo?¡±


    ¡°Did you not hear me? We need you to come back.¡±


    ¡°100 years Falo¡­100 years. That¡¯s how long I¡¯ve had to live without my wife by my side. I will not return. Leave.¡±


    ¡°We understand you needed to grieve, and we have given you more than enough time to do so, but you owe us. You owe us a lot.¡±


    ¡°¡­Choose your words carefully Falo. I owe you, nor that guild a single thing. All my debts were repaid before you were even born. Do not test my patience. Leave. Now.¡±


    ¡°We are not scared of you. We are definitely not scared of your Lineage either. The Infernals have never come looking for you, so we know they don¡¯t care about you, and even if they did, we do not fear them. Also, just to let you know, you don¡¯t get to decide when your debts are paid. We do. Now you will be returning with me today whether you like it or not. Do not make this hard on us for your own sake Graylan.¡±


    ¡°You do not fear my Lineage huh¡­.HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!¡±


    Graylan then took out what looked to be a small communication device, and a few button clicks a call was put through and a voice was heard from the small device.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to hear from you Graylan, it¡¯s been quite some time. Ready to come home? We will come get you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good to hear from you too. Tell the Patriarch I will come home as long as the guild known as Black Scoro Syndicate no longer exists in any universe.¡±


    Before the voice that answered could respond, a much deeper and powerful voice could be heard from the device.


    ¡°It will be done. A ship is on the way to your location.¡±


    That was all that was said before the communication device was disconnected.


    Falo looked on in disdain.


    ¡°Was that suppose to scare me Graylan? Maybe you have forgotten my words from earlier. We do not fear your Lineage. Now will it be the easy way or the har-..¡±


    Multiple alarms started sounding from the devices that Falo was carrying on his person. Graylon didn¡¯t say a word and just watched with a deadpan look on his face.


    -          The Eradication of the Black Scoro Syndicate


    It was now morning. After finalizing my plans to leave today, I spent the night briefly looking through the books in the ring.


    The Qi Refinement cultivation book was titled ¡®Infernal Qi¡¯. Calling it a ¡®book¡¯ was doing it a bit of a favor since it was only a few pages long. Something I¡¯m realizing was a common theme among books related to cultivation. Though I guess it makes sense to an extent since the books I¡¯ve been reading either contained the bare bones basics like the ones in the Tutorial, or like this one was acutely specialized.


    Anyway.


    The book talked about two main things. How to absorb and rotate Qi within one¡¯s body and convert Qi into Infernal Qi. Of course, this was my first time hearing about converting Qi into a different type of Qi and of course, I had a lot of questions about it, but I¡¯ll learn eventually. Moving on, the book explained both of those techniques in depth, while also talking about things one should look out for during the process to avoid mistakes.


    This was something I needed to dedicate proper time and care to reading, not something I needed to rush my understanding of. Next came the three techniques.


    They were as follows. Infernal Empowerment (Early), Flame Step (Mid), and finally Black Lance (Peak).


    Three different techniques that all do different things for different stages of the Qi Refinement Realm. It¡¯s nice that I got three different techniques, but it¡¯s a little bittersweet I won¡¯t be able to use all three of them immediately. Though it¡¯s not that bitter since I¡¯m sure it would take me time to master all of them, one per stage will ensure that I only focus on the relevant technique.


    Though that wouldn¡¯t stop me from taking a look at all three of them, and that¡¯s what I did last night. The first one was fairly simple. It was about redirecting Qi towards my shoulders, arms, and wrists, for greater control and more powerful attacks with my spear. Next was the Flame Step, which was an interesting one. In fact, both this and the Black Lance technique were interesting.


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    Both of them had the same words at the top once you opened the book.


    ¡®For Wielders of the Eternal Flame¡¯. Which I guess means that if you can¡¯t use Eternal Flames then you likely can¡¯t use these techniques.


    Anyway, Flame Step sounded cool. The gist of it was that I would send rapid bursts of flame imbued Qi out through the soles of my feet which will in turn propel me forward at rapid speeds every time my feet touch any solid ground. It genuinely sounded cool. Looking forward to that one.


    Next came Black Lance, which was exciting as well. It was a ranged attack. Essentially, I would be forming a lance of sorts, out of my Qi infused flames while almost simultaneously creating a small explosion behind it that would shoot it out towards my target.


    It was interesting, and I wondered just how much it deferred from the ranged attacks I can already create. Obviously, it used Qi, but couldn¡¯t I just create a lance myself made out of Qi and accomplished the same thing? Why would it need a technique?


    That was my main question when it came to techniques, but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll find out in due time.


    All in all, I was looking forward to delving into all of these books, with the cultivation one, and the Infernal Empowerment technique up first. Though they will wait until after I come back.


    The City Lord mansion was a rather large building. One the second floor alone were six total rooms. My office, my bedroom, 3 other bedrooms, and one room that is empty for now. I guess I could use it for something. Anyway, my bedroom was the biggest, and inside was a large bed, another desk and chair, an attached closet and even an attached bathroom.


    It was nice.


    Though the other three bedrooms had similar layouts, only much smaller. Both Lirian and Frian stayed in two of these rooms while the third one remained unoccupied for now. \


    When I exited the room, both of them almost instantly exited their rooms and gave their typical greeting, the whole ¡®I greet the Patriarch thing¡¯.


    ¡°Lirian. As discussed, before you will remain behind to help protect the City while I¡¯m gone. You don¡¯t really have to follow anyone¡¯s orders per se but take what Richard says into account before making any brash decisions. You should¡¯ve seen him yesterday, do you remember?¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Good, then I¡¯ll trust you to take care of things.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch!¡±


    He seemed to have gotten excited after that.


    Interesting.


    Anyway, I left the building, only instead of my outfit from yesterday, I was in the tunic and pants combo that Elder Zal left for me in the ring. Of course, just like the Tutorial clothes, it fit perfectly.


    I walked out of the building and with my spear in hand, and the boys and only Frian following me, I quietly left the City.


    It was still very early in the morning, and apart from a few people wondering around, and the guards at the gate and atop the walls, no one really saw me.


    Though I¡¯m sure the stronger residents at the City noticed I left. There was nothing I could do about that. It was also that reason why I left Lirian in the City. Jrino, Greja and the others were of course stronger than Lirian, but that didn¡¯t mean I should leave everything up to them to solve. My people needed to be able to stand on our own two feet eventually.


    With that being said.


    I was now out of the City.


    I really only walked a few feet away before taking in the scene before me. Surrounding the City was really just nice green grass for a while, but I could definitely see things in the distance. To north I could just barely make out the faint shape of what appeared to be some massive mountains, and I could see something similar straight in front of me which was the west.


    A lot closer than that I could see what looked to be a forest in the north, and another in the south which was much closer.  Even straight ahead there were a few small ones not too far as well. So, the in distance we have mountains, and immediately close to us there were forests.


    First thing¡¯s first.


    ¡°Frian, where¡¯d you drop those people?¡±


    ¡°We left them far north of the City in a forest Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    Although I could see the forest from here, it would likely takes weeks of walking for a regular individual to walk without rest from the forest to the City, and that was without taking into account potential dangers, rest, food, and other things.


    Even someone at the 5th Cycle of Body Tempering would still likely take around a week to make it all the way here on foot, and the people who were kicked out were definitely not at the 5th Cycle. All in all, they really were deposited quite far.


    And it didn¡¯t take the boys very long to go there and back.


    Such was the gap between Body Tempering and Qi Refinement.


    Anyway, I could head that way to see what the forest held, and potentially check up on those individuals, but I decided against it. Instead let¡¯s just head in a strait line towards the west.


    There were a few smaller forests that I could see from here that needed exploring as well.


    With my spear in hand, I took off running straight ahead, and of course Frian wasn¡¯t too far behind.


    Though he wasn¡¯t carrying his spear. I wonder why. Does he not have one?


    ¡°Frian, do you have a spear?¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you carrying it?¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, it is not permitted to wield our spears in the presence of a Patriarch of another family. Not without strict permission, and even then, it is considered rude to do so unless a situation like war demands it, as the members of the Patriarch¡¯s Clan might take offense.¡±


    How weird¡­


    ¡°So, aren¡¯t you trying to become a part of my clan at the moment?¡±


    ¡°¡­Y...Yes Patriarch.¡±


    Hm, he stuttered for a moment there. Is he nervous?


    ¡°Then you can bring your spear out. I don¡¯t have any other clan members that would be getting upset in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Patriarch.¡±


    I watched as a spear appeared in his right hand. It was a bit shorter than mine, but it was still beautiful to look at. It was pretty much pitch black, from the shaft all the way to the tip of the blade.


    Huh.


    What a nice spear.


    Anyway, there seems to be a lot of customs I don¡¯t know.


    ¡°Frian, what are some other customs to keep in mind when dealing with a Patriarch of a clan?¡±


    ¡°There are quite a few Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°List a couple. We have time.¡±

 Annoucement - Discord is Live!

    The Discord is finally live!


    Some of you have requested a discord server and it is finally here! I''m very new to this whole managing a discord thing so please bare with me, if things don''t work as you expect, but hopefully it''s smooth enough.


    Feel free to join and talk about the books or (almost) whatever else actually.


    Patreon members are automatically assigned a role and don''t need to worry about choosing one. Permissions are the same between Tiers and all Text Channels are accesible.


    Short Story Ideas is currently the only ''Patreon Only'' channel, feel free to use that channel to suggest any type of ideas regarding a potential short story/excerpt you would want me to expand on in the story and be recognized as canon. This channel is still viewable/reactable by non patreon members.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    If you guys have any other suggestions about anything, then please let me know!!! I can''t give you what you want if I don''t know :)


    I''ll always keep an eye open on the server, since I usually have it open as I write, so feel free to say anything, I''ll respond pretty quickly lol.


    Currently a friend of mine is the only ''MOD'' in the server. If anyone else is interested maybe I could made that a special Tier in Patreon? I don''t know if that makes sense though...just thinking out loud. Anyway, have fun and be sure to be respectful. Looking forward to interacting with you all more and more!!


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    P.S Only Paid Patreon members have roles assigned, and special permissions.

 117. Electric Horn Wolves (Book Two)

    Both Frian and I continued to travel forward towards the forest in the distance as we engaged in small talk.


    He told me quite a few different customs surrounding the leaders of all of these families or clans. Elder Zal did give me some information but talking with Frian was kind of enlightening in a way.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Elder Zal did this on purpose? She gave a lot of information while giving me nothing at all at the same time. Like she just threw demons out there as if that was a simple thing. I have a million questions surrounding just that. So, did she withhold things on purpose so that Frian and Lirian could provide information to me?


    Who knows, maybe I¡¯m overthinking it.


    Anyway, a few of the customs Frian brought up were really interesting. Like, the Clan vs the Family dynamic. The Clan was essentially the entire organization/Country, while the family was obviously the blood relatives of the Patriarch/Matriarch and anyone that was bestowed the Eternal Flame. Of course, there were exceptions and other small details but that was the gist of it.


    Which means if I did give Frian and Liran the flame like they were hoping for, they would be then considered part of my family. I asked how his parents would feel about that, and he said they would be proud beyond measure.


    Which then led me to asking what family or Clan his parents belonged to, and he mentioned they weren¡¯t a part of any. He noticed my confusion and quickly explained that you don¡¯t have to be a part of a family or a Clan to live in that territory since Clans are essentially massive Countries that are ruled by one family on Planet Infernal.


    After that I went silent for a bit because I didn¡¯t understand how that would work for me. Infernals are all the same right? It¡¯s like how Earth used to be, where there are a bunch of different ¡®races¡¯ who all speak different languages and lived in different countries and fought against each other.


    Instead, Planet Infernal is a collection of one race who all speak the same language and from what I gather, there aren¡¯t many internal conflicts among Infernals. Well, there aren¡¯t many according to Frian¡¯s knowledge. Elder Zal might be of a different opinion.


    Anyway.


    I think I really do prefer the earth as it is now in terms of the abundance of nature.


    The air feels refreshing, the grass looks beautiful, and the sky was a perfect shade of blue. It was nice.


    An hour or two later, we were at the ¡®small¡¯ forest. Although I¡¯ve been calling it small, that was only comparing to the one I saw in the distance to the north. This was still a pretty big forest. One that I¡¯m sure a number of different things called home.


    I¡¯m sure because it didn¡¯t take very long for me to see one of them.


    It was a wolf? Or perhaps a fox? Maybe some type of dog? I have no idea. It had four legs, a tail, and was covered in fur. Only the fur itself was black with yellow streaks mixed in, and its eyes were bright yellow, but what made it weird was the horn coming out of its head. It was pale white, like the color of bone and came out about 5 inches or so.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    A wolflike creature with a horn.


    I stared at it in interest for a few moments. The entire time it¡¯s been looking back at me growling particularly loudly.


    I could tell immediately it was weaker than me, but I didn¡¯t let my guard down as I observed it.


    Eventually it let out a howl and began backing away from me.


    Hm, wolves hunted in packs didn¡¯t they.


    Is it trying to do the same thing?


    It only took a few minutes to find out as 4 other wolves showed up in the area and before I knew it both Frian and I were surrounded by a group of 5 Wolves. Maybe I should call them Horned Wolves? Horned Black Wolves maybe?


    All of them looked exactly the same, and all of them felt like they were roughly the same strength. Somewhere in the early part of the Body Tempering realm would be their equivalent, I think.


    ¡°Frian stay back.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    After saying that I planted my spear in the ground and darted at the wolf that was closest to me and before it could even react to my sudden approach, I grabbed it by its horn and immediately lifted it off the ground and slammed it back down on its side.


    It let out an agonizing yelp as its body made contact with the ground.


    The other wolves immediately rushed at me with vigor and clear anger within their eyes.


    It was then they did something that made me rethink what I think their name should be.


    All 4 wolves rushed at me, but their horns seemed to have another purpose apart from just being a puncture tool. Electricity was gathering at the tips of their horns.


    Actual electricity.


    That is insane.


    Now.


    Perhaps this is a foolish decision.


    But I¡¯m going to let some of that electricity hit me.


    Part of it is curiosity, while the other part is for¡­science. Yeah, let¡¯s go with science.


    I need to know exactly how damaging this could be for people who are entering this forest on my or the City¡¯s behalf in the future.


    Obviously, I can¡¯t know everything, and I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll fight every single thing in the forest, but any information is good.


    So, I quickly darted at the group and grabbed one of the now electric horns of the wolves and immediately the gathered electricity darted up my arm and made its way around my body for like a second before almost fizzing out.


    Hm that was barely a tickle¡­but I knew immediately, it was barely a tickle due to Qi. The electricity had no Qi and thus couldn¡¯t really do anything to someone like who was in the Qi Refinement Realm. But someone below that realm would¡¯ve been in some trouble.


    Interesting.


    After my little experiment, I quickly dealt with Electric Horn Wolves. Yeah, I like that name. Is this how scientists feel when they discover new things and get to name them? It feels quite nice.


    I stored the body of the wolves in my ring and continued on exploring the forest with Frian.


    We quite literally spent the entire day roaming the forest, running into different beasts. Fighting some of them or letting some of them run away. I did most of the fighting, but the few times Frian engaged in a battle was a little embarrassing.


    For me that is.


    In my eyes he was an expert fighter. Compared to me, who was making mistakes I wasn¡¯t even aware of, Frian looked extremely polished, and every battle was an efficient display of fighting skill.


    Here I was being called a Patriarch at 20 years old, and a teenager is showing me up.


    I have a lot of work to do as always.


    Anway, I decided to name all the beasts we came across right then and there. Electric Horn Wolves, Steel Boars, Great Rabbits, Vine Snakes, and Sunspot Deer. I don¡¯t know if my names need work or not and are up for consideration from the folks in the City, but for now they¡¯ll work.


    There were a few birds and bugs and such that were around the forest as well, but I didn¡¯t really get a chance to interact with any of them.


    Anyway, today was good. It was night now and both me and Frian were sitting next to a tree with a small fire going next to us.


    We were quietly roasting one of the Great Rabbits.


    I was somewhat excited about it.


    It¡¯s been quite a while since I ate meat.

 118. A Report (Book Two)

    ¡°Why are you doing this¡­I have done nothing to you or your people.¡±


    ¡°No¡­but someone did¡­and blood will be met with blood.¡±


    ¡°You know¡­you know my Clan will not allow you to live¡­it¡¯s¡­it¡¯s not too late to stop.¡±


    ¡°An Infernal begging for their life? Never thought I¡¯d see the day.¡±


    ¡°Begging? No¡­this is a warning¡­millions will die. Is that what you really want?¡±


    ¡°Millions of Infernals will die. You are correct there. You have talked enough, your feet have finally grown back, which means it¡¯s feeding time.¡±


    ¡°AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!¡±


    - The death that sparked a Multiversal War between The Igalarian Swarm and the Infernals.


    I honestly didn¡¯t know what else to call this thing. It was honestly just an oversize rabbit. We saw a few of them running around the forest. These large rabbits are about the size of a dog. They were really weird to look at.


    They didn¡¯t have any abilities like the Electric Horn Wolf or the Sunspot Deer whose antlers got really hot at the tips. No, they were just really big rabbits. Well apart from the fact they were about as strong as someone in the 3rd Cycle of Body Tempering then yeah, they were just big rabbits.


    Now I have no genuine experience with gutting, skinning, and draining an animal but Frian did. So, after he gave essentially gave me a live lesson on how to do all of that, we quickly made a fire which was simple enough and cut the rabbit up in pieces to cook.


    ¡°So, tell me again how school worked for you, and how you were able to reach the peak of Qi Refinement at your age.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch. In the territory we lived in, school was mandatory from 5 until the age of 15 and everyone took the same classes. We were taught how to read, write, fight, survive, and various other things like math or history. They don¡¯t teach cultivation in school, but instead we were taught by our parents and Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Hm, so are all kids your age around your level? And if you have to stay till 15, how were you and your brother allowed to leave.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about either Patriarch. I only know of the kids in school or those who lived close by, and there was a large variety among their cultivations, and I believe my parents or maybe Elder Zal did something.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­and does that mean not everyone works super hard to get higher in their cultivation?¡±


    ¡°¡­I¡¯m not sure Patriarch. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°Ah don¡¯t apologize it¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t know. That kind of answers my question anyway.¡±


    We sat in silence for a while after that.


    Just eating the rabbit.


    Ah. It¡¯s good.


    It could definitely use some seasoning, but it¡¯s good.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Though¡­if it¡¯s this good without seasoning, then I can already see a few commissions for the rabbit popping up in the Adventures Guild. Just gotta make sure they aren¡¯t overhunted.


    Anway, we¡¯ve rested here enough.


    ¡°Do you need to sleep?¡±


    ¡°No Patriarch.¡±


    We cleaned up the area then continued to walk through the forest but there wasn¡¯t much else to see. And although I didn¡¯t tell Richard when exactly I¡¯d be back, I didn¡¯t plan on being gone for a significant time either. There will be time for that later.


    Nothing else really bothered us as we traversed the forest in the darkness of night. Well, a few purple owl-looking birds kept following us, but they weren¡¯t bothering us, so we paid them no mind.


    Eventually the end of the forest was in sight and once we made it out, I paused my steps.


    We were back to just seeing grass and open land for the most part, and there were a few groups of trees that were too small to be called a forest, but the real star of the show was the lake and the river it was connected to. There was a massive lake more than just a few miles away I think and in the distance behind it I could see mountains that seemed to be covered in lush greenery. It was dark but I could see a lot clearer in the dark than I could a few months ago. The lake was connected to a river the ran from the north and all the way down to the south.


    Anyway, all of that was nice, but there was something else I saw.


    Smoke.


    Coming from the other side of the lake towards the right, or I guess the north? I could see smoke.


    Hm.


    I couldn¡¯t quite see the camp or fire, or whatever was emitting the smoke as it was obscured by trees, but there was definitely smoke.


    What to do, what to do.


    If they are humans, then that could go a few different ways, but if it was hostile race of monsters intelligent enough to start fires like Goblins for example that could be an issue in and of itself.


    Alright.


    I have already been away for a day; this is good enough.


    No need to press the issue and risk running into something I¡¯m not ready for. I won¡¯t forget having the to fight that Goblin in the Tutorial. The one who likely would¡¯ve killed me and everyone with me if I wasn¡¯t an Infernal.


    I scouted the forest closest to us, discovered the rich taste of Great Rabbits, and found a source of fresh water, along with signs of an intelligent species. I¡¯d say that¡¯s good enough for an initial scouting trip.


    I¡¯ll pass this information on to Richard and let him handle it from there.


    Maybe I should make him a Prime Minister or something.


    Though that doesn¡¯t sound quite right.


    We¡¯ll figure it out.


    ¡°Frian, lets go back.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    We immediately turned around and headed back towards the City. It was still dark outside, and the purple owl-like birds still kept following us as we traversed the forest. Should I just name it a Purple Owl? Or maybe that¡¯s too lazy¡­Well I don¡¯t have to name everything. Great Rabbit was bad enough. Someone else can take care of the purple owls.


    Anyway, we weren¡¯t really in a rush, so it took us a couple hours to exit the forest and to be able to see the City Walls.


    I can get used to coming home to this view.


    Moving on, both Frian and I made it into the City mostly without interference, as the guards at the gate did greet us. Not that we were trying to hide in the first place.


    As we walked in, heading in the direction of the City Lord Mansion, I noticed the quietness of the City. There was hardly anyone moving about for the most part. This continued until we reached the streets that signified, we reached the market and shop area of the city.


    There were quite a few people moving about, and apart from a few hushed conversations and the sounds of people moving and carrying items from one place to another it was still generally quiet.


    I looked on for a bit, then continued on my way.


    I wondered why they were up so late but I¡¯m sure Richard will inform me in the morning.


    Anyway, we eventually made it back to the City Lord Mansion only to find Lirian waiting just outside the door.


    ¡°Welcome back Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, but did you not sleep?¡±


    ¡°I was cultivating Patriarch.¡±


    I see¡­well Frian was still ready to go so I guess it¡¯s expected that Lirian would be too.


    ¡°I see¡­did anything happen while I was gone?¡±


    ¡°A few things Patriarch. Though Richard asked me to leave a report he wrote on your desk; it should contain the major things that happened today.¡±


    A whole report?


    I didn¡¯t even think of asking for something like that.


    ¡°Alright thank you for taking care of things while I was gone. Frian make sure to tell your brother about everything we saw and did.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    Both of them went off to one of their rooms, and I went to the office.


    On my desk was a three-page report¡­


    Ah man.

 119. Kick Him Out (Book Two)

    It honestly wasn¡¯t long of read, and it was extremely detailed. By the end of it, I was extremely appreciative of the effort Richard and everyone else was putting in. The documents covered a variety of things. Some of them required my approval, while others were just updates on things that happened or will happen.


    First of all, there was a large announcement regarding jobs that were being given by the government, the City Guards, the Adventures Guild, actual government positions, sanitation positions, builders and a few other things. Though none of them really required my approval except for the City Lord Mansion workers.


    People that would be working here to keep it clean, prepare food, and assist me in various ways.


    That sounded a lot like having servants.


    In fact, it is exactly that.


    I¡¯m honestly not sure how I feel about something like this, and I would be genuinely surprised if this was something that Richard suggested. But it wasn¡¯t.


    It was noted that this suggestion came from Greja.


    She noted that this was a very normal thing, and it would look bad on me if I didn¡¯t have servants in the City Lord Mansion.


    Honestly, I don¡¯t know how I feel about it but thinking about it logically. Doesn¡¯t the White House have people in these positions that do the same thing? The president doesn¡¯t cook their own meals, and they definitely didn¡¯t clean the place. If the president ever needed something all they had to do was ask and it would be brough to them. Of course, I don¡¯t know what those positions were called or how it all worked exactly, but what Greja was asking for was along the same lines I think.


    Hm.


    The thing is, the people in these positions couldn¡¯t be forced into them, and of course they would be paid, but while I thought no one would accept this type of role, Richard noted they were quite a few applicants for every single job mentioned including this one.


    Even though that was the case, and this was something recommended by Greja, a strong cultivator. That didn¡¯t mean it was something I had to do. I¡¯ll talk with Greja and perhaps Elder Zal about it.


    Moving on, the only real hires that were made today were a few more government officials. Some of them were going to be aids, while others were given temporary roles in different positions. They were temporary for two reasons, my approval and their overall performance.


    The only other thing he noted about the government was that there was apparently a former American senator clamoring about joining the government and that they should have some say in the direction the City is going.


    I will tell Richard to kick him out of the City if he doesn¡¯t stop.


    Anyway, there were a lot of interviews conducted, a lot of applicants for starting their own businesses. A lot of them were not really necessary to have at the moment and not something we would help with, but a few had promise. Someone wanted to open a butcher shop, someone else wanted funding and support on something like a research and development business. They said they knew how to make a typewriter and would need materials and tools to do it.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    I¡¯m sure the government aids would love that.


    The last one was a farmer.


    They wanted to farm the land just outside the City and along the coastline.


    Richard noted that there were a few seeds available through the shop network, and the farmer in question wanted to try their hand at it.


    I will let Richard know to make sure they get as much support as possible. Having a steady supply of City produced food is very important so I¡¯m glad someone wants to do it.


    Anyway, that was pretty much everything that was in the report.


    All in all, it sounds like things are progressing nicely.


    I¡¯ll discuss it with Richard in the morning.


    For now¡­


    I think it¡¯s time I started cultivating.


    I took out the cultivation book.


    Alright, I read through the book in detail this time and I think I¡¯m ready to start. First of all, Infernal Qi. It is Qi that will gain similar properties to that of the Eternal Flame. It will be able to generate heat and carry destructive properties.


    This is important when using techniques related to Qi or creating items that can make use of Infernal Qi. The way to convert my regular Qi into Infernal Qi is not a simple process.


    Well, the core of it is simple, it would be more accurate to say it wasn¡¯t quick. Since the process itself was fairly natural.


    I¡¯m an Infernal, this is Qi meant for our use. It makes sense that it would come somewhat naturally. I say somewhat because it would still require some work on my part. Essentially, I would need to spend a lot of time circulating Qi around my meridian pathways every single day, and my body would handle the rest. There isn¡¯t an exact timeframe to make it happen, but the understanding is that I would need to do this for all of Qi Refinement and by time I hit Core Formation I will be able to convert my Qi into Infernal Qi.


    Well guess I¡¯ll make that part of my routine.


    Now for actually cultivating.


    As the name implies, part of the process to improve in this realm is refinement. I need to continue to refine my body and meridians to be able to handle large amounts of Qi. This is a gradual process and again, another one that just takes time. The booklet will teach me the optimal pathways I should be absorbing the Qi along and circulating them. The process is a bit different from circulating the Qi around my meridians as it would need to be circulated to every inch of my body.


    So, I followed the manual exactly as discussed and spent the rest of the night cultivating.


    ¡­.


    Knock Knock


    ¡°Patriarch, sorry to interrupt but Richard is downstairs.¡±


    ¡­Did that mean it was morning already?


    I really spent the entire night cultivating.


    It barely felt like it. Which I guess is a good thing since this is a process that I need to get used to doing.


    Hm.


    I smell.


    ¡°Thank you Lirian. Tell Richard I¡¯ll be down there shortly.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    I quickly went to my room to freshen up and change into new clothes. Hm, I probably need to start doing laundry.


    Anyway, after making sure I was clean, I went downstairs to find Richard standing by door.


    ¡°Good morning, I¡¯m assuming the scouting trip went well? And I hope you got a chance to look at the report I left you?¡±


    ¡°I did read it, and I approve of everything stated, I really appreciate that report so thank you, and if possible, please keep doing it. The scouting trip went well enough, lets walk and talk.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you liked it; It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve had to write out a report by hand.¡±


    After saying that he fell in next to me as we left the City Lord Mansion, and the boys weren¡¯t too far behind.


    I then spent the entirety of our walk explaining everything I saw in the forest and the surrounding landscape. Which of course included the smoke and what it could mean. Richard of course took notes along the way, and had many comments, though he was especially interested in the meat of the Great Rabbit. I couldn¡¯t blame him. It really was delicious.


    Oh, I didn''t forget to let Richard know he could kick that Senator out of the City. In fact it might be wise to do so just in case...

 120. A Lecture (Book Two)

    Our walk to us straight to Greja¡¯s shop which had people continuously walking in and out of it despite it being early in the morning. I wonder what her hours are.


    Anyway, we entered the building and Greja immediately paused who she was talking to and greeted us.


    ¡°Welcome in City Lord! How can I help you?¡±


    Any immediate grievances that people might¡¯ve had from being ignored by Greja for someone else was immediately squashed after she said referred to me as the City Lord. I guess that title comes with a certain level of understanding when it comes to things like this.


    ¡°Thank you Greja. I wanted to have a quick conversation with you, should I come back later?¡±


    ¡°Right now is fine, let¡¯s head upstairs. Jeanne, handle things until I come back.¡±


    ¡°Understood Master.¡±


    Jeanne was the apprentice she took in during the last bit of the Tutorial. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s back continuing the process and learning how to be a Merchant.


    After giving her a small nod, I followed Greja upstairs. My first time up here. It was pretty similar to the first floor with the exception that I could no longer hear the noise from below. It happened the second I completely left the staircase. Interesting¡­how is that possible?


    ¡°Are you wondering about the noise cancellation?¡±


    ¡°¡­I am.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something called a formation. A rather old way of doing things, but the one I prefer instead of using some type of device.¡±


    ¡°A formation¡­and a device that would do the same thing?¡±


    ¡°Yes, a formation, and yes there are a plethora of various devices that can do the same thing.¡±


    ¡°What about a phone? Do you guys have phones?¡±


    I think this was the first time I¡¯ve seen a genuine look of confusion on Greja¡¯s face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that word has a direct translation in my mother tongue. What is this¡­ ¡®f-own¡¯ you speak of? What does it do?¡±


    Huh. Would you look at that. So, it directly translates my English to whatever native tongue she is speaking, but thought she was speaking English too? Hm, that really is interesting.


    ¡°A phone is something you use to talk to someone that is not close to you. For example, you can be in a forest outside the City and give me a call on my phone using your own phone and we would be able to talk as needed.¡±


    ¡°Ahh so it¡¯s a type of communication device. That¡¯s interesting. To my knowledge, a lot of civilizations are not that advanced by the time the System integrates them into the wider Multiverse. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?¡±


    ¡°Servants. You mentioned it is recommended I have them. Why is that?¡±


    ¡°Ah I see. Before I answer that, is the concept not something that this planet practiced?¡±


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Hm, it is something the planet practiced, yes.¡±


    ¡°So, people on your planet have practiced this in enough capacity that you are aware of it, yet it¡¯s something you still have a question about. Hm, I¡¯ll explain it from the view of the rest of the Multiverse then. So¡­-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡±


    Before Greja could get into her spiel, a voice resounded in the second floor of the building.


    Elder Zal¡¯s voice.


    Greja seemed startled for a moment but instead of responding all she did was close her eyes and bow a respectable amount.


    Not that I knew what was respectable or not.


    Anyway, I guess this means Elder Zal was listening to our conversation. I wonder why she stopped her.  I also wonder when I can get something or to warn off prying ears, or how strong I need to be block off someone from listening to my conversations.


    ¡°I will meet you in your office.¡±


    Elder Zal¡¯s voice resounded once more, only it was less forceful than the first time. I guess that¡¯s my queue to leave.


    I said goodbye and left the shop, immediately making my way back to my office.


    Upon reaching it I found Elder Zal inside standing calmy in front of my desk.


    ¡°Have a seat.¡±


    I didn¡¯t respond and just did as she asked. What was interesting though was the fact the boys didn¡¯t follow me in and just waited outside. In fact, as I sat down Frian took it upon himself to close the door. Interesting.


    ¡°I see you are walking proudly with your spear, good. Taking Frian on a solo excursion was a good choice. It is imperative that you build a bond with any individual you impart with the Eternal Flame. Next, delegation is one of the most important acts of leadership. A good leader needs to have the wherewithal to discern a competent and trustworthy team of advisors that can handle tasks on your behalf.


    ¡°I will not speak on if the people you have chosen to fit these qualities. That is for you to learn and figure it out. Though it is good that you already delegated appropriately. Keep in mind that delegation does not mean ignorance. Be aware of the happenings of your City at all times.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the extent of life on this planet before integration, but it will be wise to keep in mind that this planet is no longer the one you remember. There are far more than a few individuals on this planet that can kill you before you realize. A few of them are living here, though I assume you are aware of that.


    ¡°Your personal strength will always be your greatest strength. Never forget that.


    ¡°Now. Having servants. The child from before had the right idea. It would be wise for you to employ personal servants and guards. The quicker you understand what it means to be in your current station the easier things like this will be to handle.


    ¡°Not only are you the City Lord of a City with a population of over 100 Thousand individuals, but you are also an Infernal Patriarch. The image you portray is no longer just about you. It is about representing your City and your Clan.


    ¡°When other individuals think of Black Cove City, they will think of you and depending on the image that is perceived when you cross their minds, various thoughts will then take place, which could lead to various decisions being made. For example, if you are seen as an Unforgiving Tyrant who tramples the weak and enslaves the strong, it is highly likely that you will be seen as a person to be feared rather than respected by some, or a target to destroy in an effort to liberate the residents of this City by others.


    ¡°Conversely, if you are seen as benevolent, fair and just. This City could be seen as a place that people will want to migrate to, or maybe your fairness gets you taken for granted and someone instead thinks they should use the opportunity to overpower you. The options vary immensely, but the premise remains the same. Your image matters, and things like servants and immediate followers play a factor.


    ¡°Some of these things matter slightly less, as an Infernal Patriarch. The biggest thing you will be known for is your strength, and there are no Patriarchs or Matriarch who are weak. Do you understand?¡±


    You know, despite the long lecture I just received, I actually didn¡¯t need any time to digest her words. I genuinely understood her. Reputation has been a factor in many different places long before all of this. If your business is known as a good one, then it will be easier to attract customers. If my City is known as a strong peaceful one, it will be easy to attract Citizens, favorable trade agreements, whilst still being a good deterrence for violent thoughts.


    I got it.


    ¡°I understand. Thank you, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Good, then let¡¯s continue your training. Come.¡±


    After she said that, I was immediately teleported.

 121. Zhakir (Book Two)

    Beware the Black Spear


    It breathes your blood as it cleaves in a flood


    Beware the Black Spear


    It longs for death, yours it won¡¯t regret


    Beware the Black Spear


    A face it yearns, many fires it burns


    Beware the Black Spear¡­


    -          A Poem that stemmed from a warning told as a story to scare children¡­a warning that once carried meaning¡­


    We reappeared in the room with the tan bouncy floors.


    ¡°We will be training here every day for quite some time. Your foundation needs work. A lot of work. I will not stop you from working on the techniques I passed to you, but after witnessing you fight for a bit, I believe it is best you refrain from doing so until your foundations have been rebuilt.


    ¡°Martial Arts built on weak foundations will never see the true peak. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Good then let¡¯s begin. To some a weapon is a tool, while to others it¡¯s far more than that. Infernals fall in the latter. In our hands a spear comes to life, and it lives through us. It is through us that the will of the spear is able to live and express itself in the world. And it is likewise through the spear that we are able to express our wills on the world around us.


    ¡°It is a part of us, and we are a part of it. This connection is sacred and never to be treated as anything less. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now I believe you understand the core principles of using a spear, but your movements do not fully match that. It¡¯s almost as if you¡¯ve only been using a spear for a couple months.¡±


    ¡°I have. I only began using it in the Tutorial.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­what did you use before?¡±


    ¡°Nothing? I was a student before all of this. And no one fought with melee weapons anymore.¡±


    ¡°I see. Then that makes things a bit different. You don¡¯t need correction, you need to learn from the very beginning. No need to waste any more time. Thrust.¡±


    I didn¡¯t linger on her words and immediately thrusted out as best as I could.


    ¡°Hold your form.¡±


    I did as told and remained in a thrusting position.


    ¡°The thrust can be considered the core ability of using a spear. A simple thrust. In the hands of the strong such a thing could destroy mountains, while in the hands of the weak it is a simple attack to be easily dodged.


    ¡°The core of a proper thrust is not just about the strength of your arm, it is about connecting every part of your body to deliver one fluid movement that results in an unwavering strike.


    ¡°Your current thrust is far from that. You are simply using as much strength as you can and striking forward. Every thrust you make should always be the same. Swift, powerful, straight, and unwavering. The power of your strike doesn¡¯t just come from your upper body, it comes from your core and lower body as well. All of them need to be in alignment every single time you perform a thrust.


    ¡°Firstly, the grip on the spear is too strong. That is wasted energy. Loosen the grip on your spear, without losing control, secondly, correct your stance and posture. No matter the position you find yourself in, never lose control of your posture, it is imperative to remain in perfect tandem with your spear.


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    ¡°Thirdly, the point at which you strike. Your aim should always be true. Don¡¯t just aim to hit a target for the sake of hitting a target. You aim for a point. A singular point. Aim for a point, maintain proper posture while working towards delivering consistently swift, powerful, straight, and unwavering thrusts.


    ¡°You will remain in this position until I give the signal ¡®Zhakir¡¯, which means to thrust in the Olden Tongue. After each thrust, remain in that position.¡±


    Honestly, part of me was already dreading this training. It didn¡¯t sound particularly hard, but it would definitely be rather boring. I was already starting to miss the daily fights with Jrino. At least that was exciting.


    Though despite me saying that¡­Jrino said from the very beginning he would not teach me spear arts, and I¡¯ve witnessed firsthand the difference between his thrusts and mine. Not to mention the ability I saw Frian display in the forest. I had problems to fix and holes to fill, and I believe this type of training will help significantly with that.


    So, I did exactly as told.


    For roughly two hours I did nothing but hold my form and thrust when told to. It was more mentally draining than it was physically and while I knew I likely made progress today, but according to Elder Zal who continuously corrected every single movement I did, I was still a long way off.


    That¡¯s alright.


    As always, I will persist.


    ¡°I will come for you tomorrow morning. I know you likely have many questions, but we will be spending a lot of time together, and thus many opportunities to learn and grow as a Patriarch. For now, is there anything you are more eager to learn.¡±


    I didn¡¯t hesitate for one second to ask my question. It¡¯s something that¡¯s been on my mind since it first happened.


    ¡°I somehow learned a word I had never heard or seen before, and when I said it, I felt stronger than ever while also feeling the presence something or someone. What is that?¡±


    ¡°I see. You can already speak to and hear from the Eternal Flame. It is not something to be fearful of, as it is your right as a Patriarch to be able to converse with the Eternal Flame. This is one thing you will have learn without much input from me or anyone else for that matter. I am not a Matriarch. The Eternal Flame will only ever communicate to Infernals of your station. My only advice is to be wary of speaking certain words without sufficient power or understanding. Don¡¯t worry, you will learn and understand with time.  It¡¯s time to go back, you have others waiting for you.¡±


    She didn¡¯t give me time to respond and before I knew it, I was back in my office as if I never left. Well, that¡¯s if you ignored the sweat that clung to my body. I will need another shower.


    I left my office and of course both Frian and Lirian were standing stoically in position.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡±


    I took another couple minutes to freshen up before making my way downstairs, before leaving in search of Richard.


    There were a lot more people walking around now and a few questions to random strangers I was eventually able to locate Richard who happened to be in the market area. He was with a few people.


    ¡°Everything alright Raizen?¡±


    ¡°Yep, just training.¡±


    ¡°Training¡­I see. Well, this is Victor and the people who will be working for him. We were just picking his shop location and finalizing the agreement with us. Victor, this is Raizen, the City Lord. Everything goes through him.¡±


    Victor was a burly man. He was bald but had a thick ginger beard. He had the whole butcher look, down pat. Of course, his voice was gruff as well to round it all off.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you Raizen, I appreciate you helping me out with setting up my own butcher shop.¡±


    His words didn¡¯t match the movement of his mouth, so I guess he isn¡¯t speaking English. Anyway, he seemed decent enough, and the three other people he had with him who were to be his workers also introduced themselves and they seemed fine too.


    After the introductions were over, and the building was inspected, Richard handed over two sheets for him to sign and once that was completed, I had them spread out.


    ¡°Here¡¯s your first order Victor.¡±


    The bodies of all the beasts both myself and Frian killed in the forest appeared on the floor of the shop. They were still in the same condition as when they were first put into the ring. Apparently, this state freeze functionality was only present in good quality portable storage devices. Frian explained this to me.


    ¡°What the¡­what are these monsters?¡±


    ¡°They are some of the new things that roam our planet but more specifically, they roam the forest nearest to us. I expect you will be working with them more often in the future. Especially the Great Rabbit. ¡°


    ¡°The Great Rabbit?¡±


    I then proceeded to explain all the names of the creatures I brought back. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll catch on.


    ¡°That¡¯s everything. Do your best, then send someone to the City Lord Mansion whenever you¡¯re done. We¡¯ll discuss payment at that time.¡±


    After sorting things out there I went on another walk with Richard as we walked towards the training ground and went over the details of the butcher¡¯s deal again.


    To sum it all up, we put 45 Silver Coins as an initial investment. It would cover cold storage, tools, salary for his employees, and a few early commissions for people to hunt for him. Since the adventures guild is being worked on, and a shell version will be launched in the coming weeks, he soon be placing commissions in which is good.


    Money needs to flow from customer to business to business to customer for a City like this to thrive.


    All in all, I think we were on the right path.

 122. Mist (Book Two)

    It was eventually decided that Richard would handle the initial screening for any and all City Lord Mansion related hires, then I would take it from there. It¡¯s not really something I was looking forward to, but I don¡¯t want any more lectures.


    Apart from that, the City has transformed greatly in the past week. It seems a lot of people were still recovering from the whole mental aspect of the Tutorial and everything they knew being upturned completely, but if it¡¯s one thing Humans were good at, it was adapting.


    People have adapted to various circumstances in their lives or across generations for thousands of years. The apocalypse would be no different.


    Of course, it took some help from the government to speed things up but it was all necessary. Over the past week, Richard and the others have funded restaurants, farming, more fishermen, a carpentry business, a separate building company, the typewriter guy, sanitation efforts, the City Guard which had accepted 1000 members all at once, and every single one of them were now being trained by Eriog.


    There were a couple other things too, and not all of the shops were being used at the moment since we wouldn¡¯t fund every single business idea proposed. All of this spending was extremely necessary because funds needed to be circulated, and people needed to feel like they had lives again.


    It probably would¡¯ve been hard on the government to accomplish all of this without my handing over more money, but we began charging rent a couple days ago, and there were a couple hiccups of course, but it was either pay rent or leave the City¡­no one chose the latter. Of course, we did not overcharge at all. I made sure to let Richard know that no home would be unreasonably priced. People should be able to afford something decent for whatever they were earning.


    Thinking about it now, the whole rent thing was probably the biggest driving force for people joining up and applying to all the jobs the government was creating.


    Though the biggest success was the Adventures Guild. Someone came up with the idea of using grades for adventures. I¡¯m pretty sure they got that from a book, but it worked and after picking one of the large empty buildings in the facilities district and hiring a large, dedicated workforce, things were up and running and it took off immediately.


    Thousands of people immediately came and registered to be adventures and commissions were not enough to for all of them, but once various businesses got up and running, and then people like Greja and the blacksmith began putting up commissions of their own and even us. We put up a lot of scouting missions.


    Of course, we made it a requirement to sign a form that stated that as an adventurer, you understood you were risking your life.


    We needed this because the City couldn¡¯t receive blame for every death out there, we weren¡¯t sending our City Guards, who will be signing a contract to work for the City and follow all orders given. Which means we would be responsible for them. Adventures would be different. They were not being forced and all decisions are they¡¯re own.


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    Then once our few initial adventures went out and came back with injuries, medical professionals began popping up and the government was in the process of setting up a hospital.


    Which led to the current situation.


    A few adventures who took a commission together to explore the forest to the south of the City hadn¡¯t return.


    They took a commission to explore the periphery of the southern forest and were to return yesterday. It was three of them and they were all in the 3rd Cycle of Body Tempering, which was the equivalent of a E Grade Adventurer according to our grading system, which was still in progress, but the point is, as a group they weren¡¯t terribly weak.


    So, it was odd they haven¡¯t all returned.


    The highest grade the City had was D, and that was the equivalent of someone in the 5th Cycle, and that was only one person, Nate. He was the first one out of Brandon and Richard to make it to the next stage. He was also to lead a force to go investigate the southern forest to see what happened, but I decided to step in.


    5th Cycle was definitely a far stronger realm than the 3rd but if it was something in the Qi Refinement realm that caused the problem, then they would die all the same.


    No need to be like the movies and send progressively stronger people to their deaths, let¡¯s just go all in from the beginning.


    ¡°Are you sure bringing him is alright Razz?¡±


    I can understand why Irene would be worried since Lirian is still a teenager, but those types of earthly ideals don¡¯t apply here.


    ¡°He¡¯s stronger than all of us.¡±


    I think she knew he was strong, but hearing he was stronger than all of us surprised her a bit.


    ¡°I see¡­well this is everyone then?¡±


    It was me, Lirian, Irene and Micah. Irene was joining as a rep for the Adventurers Guild, which is something I recommended, and Micah was to represent the City Guard. We didn¡¯t need necessarily need reps from both, but I would like to be able to deploy the City Guard for things like this in the future that are relatively near the City and I think that means being able to work with the Guild so it¡¯s good to start now.


    ¡°Yep, this is it.¡±


    ¡°Well alright then, how¡¯s life in the City Guard been Micah?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­uh¡­we¡¯ve been getting killed, pretty much every day. Our instructor is way different from how he was in the Tutorial. He¡¯s like a drill instructor from hell¡­so life is great!...Haha¡­¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound like it¡¯s been great.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been rough, but we¡¯re all pretty committed, and I¡¯m definitely a better fighter than I was in the Tutorial. So, I¡¯ll stick with it, plus someone has to protect Raizen¡¯s City. Actually if Mr. Eriog heard me calling you Raizen he¡¯d pop a vein.


    ¡°It¡¯s being drilled into us to refer to you as Lord Raizen and nothing else.¡±


    That¡¯s a little embarrassing.


    ¡°Sorry about that. I didn¡¯t tell anyone to do that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright no one¡¯s complaining about it, and I think it¡¯s necessary. Could you imagine just calling the president their name? It would sound bad.¡±


    ¡°I agree, so maybe I shouldn¡¯t call you Razz anymore¡­would you prefer Lord Raizen.¡±


    Before I could answer, Micah sighed and responded.


    ¡°Could you please not flirt right now.¡±


    ¡­


    We eventually did our final checks and departed from the City. Unfortunately, both Irene and Micah were still only in the in the 3rd Cycle and were mainly here for coverage between the two forces in the City, but it meant we had to travel to their level, and it took us a day to get to the forest. By the time we got there, the sun had long since gone down and the night had approached.


    It didn¡¯t take us very long to understand that this forest had a different vibe to it. There was a heavy mist that reached around shin height that clung to the forest floor.


    It seems there was more to the disappearance of the adventurers than meets the eye.


    Hm, maybe I should send Irene and Micah back home.

 123. Branch Monster (Book Two)

    I stared at the mist covering the forest floor in the dark of night for quite some time, I was going into the forest without a doubt, but the question was if Irene and Micah would come.


    Hm¡­maybe I should¡¯ve just brought Nate here like he was intending to do in the first place.


    Well, can¡¯t change the past. I¡¯ll just ask them what they want to do.


    ¡°Lirian, Micah and Irene. Do any of you want to leave? This forest seems a bit dangerous.¡±


    Lirian was the first to respond.


    ¡°I will follow the Patriarch.¡±


    As expected, he wouldn¡¯t back out, plus he¡¯s stronger than me anyway. Though Irene and Micah were a bit different. They weren¡¯t necessarily weak, but I hadn¡¯t been told anything about the beasts in these forests being only a certain level.


    It wouldn¡¯t be truly unexpected to run into something that was at the peak of Qi Refinement for example, maybe even more than that and pay the price for it. But that didn¡¯t mean we would just turtle up behind the walls of the City. Risks had to be taken to grow in this world, risks that Irene and Micah seemed primed to take.


    Micah rested his hand on his sword before finally answering.


    ¡°I¡¯m coming. This is what I signed up to do and I¡¯m committed. I would never make it, if I always ran away at the first sigh of danger, plus Lance would never let me hear the end of it.¡±


    Irene followed him up, only her bow was drawn and an arrow knocked.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be coming as well. I wanted adventure, this is it. Let¡¯s do it.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Then just to be safe Irene and Micah travel behind me, and Lirian you will travel behind them. Stay close and be careful where you step.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    Everyone quickly responded, but the ¡®Yes Sir¡¯ from Micah was interesting. I guess he¡¯s trying to fully commit to his role as a member of the City Guard huh. Well, I won¡¯t be stopping him.


    Moving on, we entered the forest slowly. Carefully placing each step we took and doing our best to make sure we didn¡¯t accidentally step somewhere we shouldn¡¯t.


    I did my best to both see and hear the forest around me, as we continued to move forward. I heard nothing.


    Just the slight the wind that passed through the forest, the rustling of the few leaves scattered on the trees, the ¡­wait. A few leaves scattered on the trees. Why didn¡¯t I notice this initially? The trees¡­they were dying.


    It was then Lirian¡¯s voice sounded from the rear. We all paused as he spoke.


    ¡°Patriarch¡­something is coming.¡±


    ¡°Can you tell what?¡±


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    ¡°No, but I feel the approaching Qi. It is coming from the left side.¡±


    ¡°Understood, Micha, Irene, you heard him. Prepare to engage but don¡¯t attack first.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir!¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    Irene raised her bow, and Micah drew his sword.


    I too readied my spear and strained my senses as much as possible to try feel the Qi as Lirian did. It makes sense he can noticed things far earlier than me but to actually experience the gap in skills is different as always. Maybe I should start sparring with them.


    Ah.


    I finally feel something.


    ¡°It¡¯s close.¡±


    I warned them. Of course, the warning was only for Irene and Micah as Lirian had better senses than I did.


    A moment later and the approaching threat was in sight.


    It looked like¡­a tree branch.


    Like a massive yet withered tree branch. It had two feet, and two arms that branched off the main tree branch body, and it had a face. Only its eyes were hollow. Actually, maybe hollow isn¡¯t the right word. They were empty sockets that led to a void of darkness.


    It was the same for its mouth. Which appeared to be a thin line at first glance, but it opened up to be a mess of sharp splintered edges that I guess worked as its teeth, but the darkness was present there as well.


    It released a loud cackle as it ran towards us. A ravenous look placed on its face.


    ¡°What the hell is that¡­Should we run?¡±


    It was Irene who asked that question, Micah didn¡¯t leave her waiting for a reply though.


    ¡°It¡¯s a monster, a damn tree monster!¡±


    I understand why they would be a little spooked by it, but what happened to their vigor from before? Anyway, we won¡¯t run¡­but those two can¡¯t fight it. There¡¯s a reason Lirian said he could sense it¡¯s Qi as it approached. There¡¯s a good chance Qi is infused all throughout its body, which meant they likely couldn¡¯t do any meaningful damage to it.


    ¡°We won¡¯t be running. Be on alert there might be more of them. Leave this one to me, but don¡¯t hesitate to shoot anything else approaching. Micah protect Irene, Lirian protect them both.¡±


    After I received acknowledgment from all three of them, I gripped my spear tightly and very quickly it was covered in ethereal black flames. Black flames that still seemed to shine brightly in the dark of night while still melding in the surroundings. They were truly beautiful. And the combination of them coating the breathtaking spear was seemingly a match made in heaven.


    I didn¡¯t miss the look in Lirian¡¯s eyes as he took in the sight of my flames. This should be the first time he is seeing them I believe.


    His eyes were practically sparkling.


    Heh.


    Anyway, I focused my gaze on the approaching branch monster and took off towards it.


    It cackled even louder as I began running towards it and the noise seemed to echo eerily in the night.


    As it neared me, I planted my feet straightened my back and prepared to do the one thing I have been doing for the last week.


    A simple thrust.


    The flames that were coating the spear rushed to the tip as I pulled my arm back, and as the branch monster lunged at me, I brought my arm forward in one controlled yet powerful motion as I aimed at a single point on the body of the monster.


    Woosh


    My arm ripped through the air and before the monster realized the tip of spear had reached its chest, and with it an explosion of flames at the point of contact.


    The body of the monster resisted for the most fleeting of seconds before it bent in a U shape was thrown back towards the direction it came running from, it¡¯s black slamming into the trunk of a tree.


    A second or two of silence passed before it stood back up.


    Its body is truly flooding with Qi.


    Of course, unlike the situation with the Hobgoblin in the Tutorial, I too had Qi, and so did my flames.


    An entire chunk of the monster¡¯s body was missing, yet as it shakily stood, there were no signs of pain, stress or any discomfort at all for that matter.


    It began to limp its now severely unbalanced body towards me once more, cackling all the same.


    I see.


    Not only is it that only Qi Refinement and up can fight this creature, but they would also need to be ready for the fact it doesn¡¯t react to pain and would continue fighting all the same. That would be especially bad if it was a group.


    The monster only limped for a few moments longer before falling down being reduced to ashes.


    It didn¡¯t have the power to extinguish or brush aside my flames, and they slowly burned the rest of the creature away.


    I stared at the ashes of the creature for a moment, as they were swallowed by the mist before turning back to my companions.


    Though before anyone got to speak, we all heard the same thing.


    Loud eerie cackling sounded throughout the forest.


    There were multiple voices coming from every direction.


    Hm.


    Probably not good.

 124. Death Qi (Book Two)

    "Do you remember your first war?"


    "Pah! That''s probably the only one I can remember after all these years."


    "How was it?"


    "And why in the 7th hell are you asking me that?"


    "Your thousands of years older than me, I think it would be helpful to get advice from you before we have to go out there."


    "Advice? You don''t need advice from an old tool like me. Just swing your spear! Heads will role and bodies will burn for as long as you keep swinging your spear!"


    -???


    ¡°We need to leave, the monsters are two strong for what you too can handle. Lirian, clear a path to the exit of the forest. Irene and Micah follow him and don¡¯t fall behind.¡±


    It was a good thing we hadn¡¯t entered all that deep into the forest just yet, which was a troubling thought by itself. We barely entered and were already being surrounded by Qi Refinement opponents? Unless these are the only things in the forest, then there would be a chance to find something stronger the further we went in.


    Which brings the question, once we make it out, should I return with Micah and Irene? Or should I continue exploring¡­we¡¯ll see.


    Anyway, Lirian¡¯s spear was the exact same one as Frian¡¯s and he wielded it just as expertly as his brother.


    Two of the branch monsters came from running from the front and Lirian didn¡¯t look the least bit surprised as he brandished his spear in his right hand, and very quickly the two branch monsters were bisected at the waist.


    Wow¡­


    It was almost as if he was wielding a sword instead of a spear.


    I really have a lot of work to do.


    Anyway, we kept moving and we were attacked a few more times but between my flames and the swiftness of Lirian¡¯s spear, Irene and Micah remained unharmed.


    Though what was interesting was the behavior of the branch monsters. They didn¡¯t follow us out of the forest.


    ¡°They¡­.they¡­aren¡¯t coming out¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­it¡¯s weird¡­right...¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s odd. Hm? Why are you both panting so hard? We didn¡¯t run very far.¡±


    ¡°I¡­don¡¯t¡­know.¡±


    ¡°Same¡­here.¡±


    Both Micah and Irene were slouched over as they desperately tried to catch their breaths. I watched them silently for a couple of seconds.


    This was weird. Very weird. Neither of them should be this tired from what we just did, not at their level of strength. Yet here they were, panting like they ran a marathon.


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    It took a few more moments for them to feel better, and even as they sat there mostly recovered, they were still physically tired, just no longer panting.


    So, they definitely can¡¯t continue.


    ¡°Lirian, pick Micah up were running back.¡±


    Before Micah could protest, Lirian quickly picked him up and slung him over his back, and I did the same with Irene, who apart from a surprised yelp, didn¡¯t do anything to resist.


    It had taken us a full day pretty much to make it here, but both Lirian and I were able to run a little faster and took about half the time to make it back to the City, the sky was still dark by the time we arrived.


    Once we got there, it was a short jog to Greja¡¯s shop, and thankfully she was in. I know the higher the cultivation the less you needed to sleep, but It feels like she quite literally never sleeps.


    Anyway, I wanted to ask her about the condition of these two. We had local medical facilities at this point, but they were learning everything the same as the rest of us, they were mainly good at helping out with cuts, bruises and other injuries we had before all of this, but the more fantasy like things made no sense to anybody.


    I could be overreacting, but I wanted to do be sure. If Greja said they just needed more cardio, then fine.


    We sat them down in the shop and quickly explained to Greja what happened.


    She thought for a moment before she frowned.


    ¡°I see¡­that forest would likely be a death sentence for anyone beneath Qi Refinement. It is good you got them out when you did, Death Qi is likely the cause of their issue, and it¡¯s fatal for most individuals that can¡¯t protect themselves with Qi. They will be fine, if it was higher concentration of Death Qi then even you would¡¯ve faced issues and they would¡¯ve likely died.¡±


    Both Irene and Micah looked as if they had just seen ghosts. No pun intended.


    ¡°We could¡¯ve died¡­?¡±


    Irene seemed the most shocked about it.


    ¡°Yes, you really could¡¯ve of. This is the reality of exploring a planet after a Tutorial. You are the first ones to find both riches and danger. The people after you might not have the same opportunities, but they would also know to avoid a forest like the one you just ran into.¡±


    We took in the words she said for a moment, and after both Micah and Irene collected themselves, I was ready to help them go home until¡­


    ¡°City Lord, please wait a moment.¡±


    The tone of Greja¡¯s voice was a bit serious.


    ¡°Lirian, help them out, then grab your brother and wait for me at the gate.¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch.¡±


    After they left, I looked towards Greja.


    ¡°This could be bigger than you realize. From what I know, Death Qi covering a forest like that, isn¡¯t something that is normally common. Not without the presence of something to release it. Something like a Dungeon for example. Which could pose a problem for you and this City. If not cleared regularly the Death Qi would only continue to increase, which could then spread beyond the borders of the forest.¡±


    ¡°Wait how would clearing it regularly help with something like that?¡±


    ¡°Your familiar with the fact Dungeons have cooldowns, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°It is essentially a full reset of the Dungeon, which in this case would pause the release of the Death Qi and reset the built up levels of it inside the Dungeon.¡±


    ¡°¡­I see. How often would we need to clear it?¡±


    ¡°Give me a moment.¡±


    I watched as she turned her head towards the direction of the south and then barely a few seconds later she looked back towards me and responded.


    ¡°Alright, there is in fact a Dungeon deep in that forest, and it roughly needs to be cleared once every 7 or so days, but twice in that span to be safe.¡±


    I looked at her blankly for a moment, before nodding and saying thank you. That was a lot of information that would be a great help for the City. I¡¯m sure in the future the clearing of this Dungeon will be popular request for adventures since the request itself will be sponsored by the government¡­actually, now that I¡¯m thinking about it, perhaps it would be good to ban entry into it for anyone not approved by the government.


    But we don¡¯t own it so how can I ban it?


    Well, can¡¯t I just say I do? I can just claim the land for the City¡­but then we¡¯d need to put guards there and we are nowhere near ready for that. Ah, I¡¯m getting ahead of myself. For now, the responsibility of clearing the Dungeon will fall to myself and the boys. Good thing I was already planning on going back.


    I had already thanked Greja but as I turned to leave, she stopped me once more.


    ¡°There was something else.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°Even though a Dungeon has been confirmed to be present, one that is attuned to Death Qi could mean other things at play.¡±


    She was confusing me now.


    ¡°Like what?¡±


    ¡°The Undead.¡±

 125. Heavy Fog (Book Two)

    I eventually finished my talk with Greja and met up with the boys who were patiently waiting for me. I told them about the situation and what to expect once we got there and as expected they weren¡¯t afraid.


    Of course, I wasn¡¯t either, but they were 13.


    Might be an Infernal Thing.


    Anyway, we began making our way back to the forest as I thought about everything Greja revealed to me.


    First of all, the concept of Death Qi. First it was Infernal Qi, and now Death Qi. The world of cultivation is far more vast than I think we all realize.


    And to think it that wasn¡¯t even the biggest thing she revealed to me.


    The Undead.


    I¡¯m sure most of us have heard of zombies or watched a movie or show with skeletons in it, or maybe one about mummies instead, but the Undead were so much more than that. Where there is life, there is death, and where there is death there will be those that are ¡®born¡¯ from it.


    That will thrive in it.


    There are a vast variety of races who fall under the umbrella term that is The Undead, and all of them have different agendas. According to Greja, it wasn¡¯t a situation where all Undead are just out to kill everything living. They had communities, countries, empires and lived day to day ¡®life¡¯ just like the living did.


    But of course, that didn¡¯t include all of them. Some of them truly believed in purging the universe of all living entities and other things along that line of thinking. That will obviously pose a problem if that type of Undead are on Earth. Which could very well be a possibility considering that the branch monsters as I¡¯ve been calling them, are a type of Undead. Not the kind we¡¯re talking about though, they aren¡¯t sentient, and instead just mindlessly attacks anything living.


    Ah¡­so many different things to consider, what¡¯s next Vampires?


    Hm. Is that considered raising a flag?


    Moving on.


    We finally made it to the forest.


    The mist was as thick as ever but never reached higher than knee height. It was still dark, and the branch monsters that were waiting at the edge of the forest seemed to have wondered off.


    Alright. The number 1 priority here is to find the Dungeon, clear it and return safely. Because we are in Qi Refinement, we shouldn¡¯t be affected by the Death Qi present in the forest or potentially even the Dungeon, but I don¡¯t think it would be wise to linger here needlessly.


    ¡°Boys. We will do this mission as fast possible. That doesn¡¯t mean to be reckless, it just means we won¡¯t be lingering. Get in, kill whatever gets in our way, get to the Dungeon, clear it then return.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    After getting the expected answers from both, I took off into the forest, and the boys took up positions on my left and right respectively.


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    We sped through the forest for quite a while before the branch monsters finally caught wind of us, and before we knew it their loud cackling began continuously resounding in the area, then very quickly the branch monsters could be seen rapidly moving towards us.


    Nothing was said between us.


    Our spears did all the talking that was necessary.


    As always, the both of them were showing a level of efficiency that I was still chasing, but where I lacked in proper technique I made up for with immense power.


    Five branch monsters jumped at me from the front, and of course I wasn¡¯t surprised since I had sensed them long ago, and thus my attack was likewise already prepared.


    I let out a loud grunt as I swung my spear from the right to left, catching all of them in one wide swing that was coupled with an explosion of flames right on impact that roared forth from my spear which resulted in all five of them being flung far into the distance, destroying multiple trees as the mass of their bodies crashed into the surroundings.


    The boys were undoubtedly stronger and better fighters than I am at the moment, but surprisingly to myself, it was confirmed by Elder Zal herself that neither of them could compare to the amount of power I could unleash with my flames alone.


    Essentially, I could fight far above my level when my flames were taken into account. Which was good to know.


    That of course made me wonder about the difference between the realms in the Qi Refinement and the fact it basically came down to 3 different things which was interesting. At the Early Stage, one could move Qi around their bodies to augment different parts of themselves, or in some cases the entire body at once, while at the Middle Stage, that Qi could now be extended from the body to cover or imbue something that the user is in contact with.


    Finally, the third stage was where things got a bit more fantasy like than it already was. The Qi could now be willed to leave the body in a controlled manner to do various things. Of course, all of this made sense when I thought back to the techniques I was given by Eldar Zal.


    Of course, neither of the boys had done any attack that fit that billet as of yet, but I was looking forward to seeing it.


    Anyway, we continued forward for quite some time, with the many branch monsters in the area doing nothing to stop our advance, until Frian said his first words since entering the forest. Well, they were the first words from any of us.


    ¡°I sense something.¡±


    Before I could respond, Lirian chimed in as well.


    ¡°I do as well, in that direction.¡±


    I obviously didn¡¯t sense what they did, but I took their advice and began heading in the direction Lirian was pointing to.


    Some time and a few dead branch monsters later, I finally felt what the boys were feeling. It was a massive collection of Qi in the direction we were heading in. It wasn¡¯t moving, and we were only getting closer and closer to it. I would assume it¡¯s the Dungeon, but we never know.


    Okay.


    It was the Dungeon.


    It is quite literally a massive dead tree that stood without any other trees around it, and although there weren¡¯t any visible openings on the tree, yet there was a very thick mist continuously coming from it and spreading into the surrounding forest.


    I didn¡¯t waste any more time admiring it and walked up and touched it.


    Welcome to the Dead Land


    (D) Class Dungeon


    Five 5th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended


    Enter? Yes/No


    So, this was still a D class Dungeon huh, and if I remember correctly, that last Dungeon in the Tutorial required five people in the 4th Cycle, while this one required five 5th. I highly doubt we are going to run into things that someone in the 5th Cycle could handle.


    Alright, let¡¯s do it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    All three of us accepted the prompt to enter and before I knew it I was teleported to some place new.


    I gripped my spear tightly as I looked around the area.


    There was mist everywhere.


    Unlike the forest outside where it was only around knee height, this was far much worse. No matter which direction I looked in, there was only mist, or would it be more accurate to call it a heavy fog than a mist at this point.


    I couldn¡¯t even see the boys around me.


    ¡°Li..-¡°


    Voosh!


    The second I opened my mouth to call for one of them, a massive branch swung down from up above and I sensed it just in time to jump backwards and a loud boom could be heard in the area the branch slammed down into.


    Well then.

 126. I Will Show You (Book Two)

    I landed calmly on my feet as I observed the surroundings, ready to act again. I know without a doubt that I am not a trained assassin, or someone who has been practicing how to land without sound all my life. So, I know for a fact my landing made sound, no matter how much I tried for it not to, yet there was no follow up attack.


    That could mean many different things.


    Like¡­-


    Welcome to the Dead Land Dungeon


    Objective: Cull the Root


    Cull the Root or Become its nutrients


    Huh, the objective took its sweet time in coming, but it¡¯s quite simple, yet complicated. Cull the root? What root? Was the branch that slammed down the root? Or part of it? I have no idea.


    And that last line.


    I guess that means we can¡¯t leave until we do the culling. But it¡¯s interesting that it didn¡¯t say we could leave through death like it did in the Tutorial¡­actually¡­now that I know about the existence of the Undead¡­I suppose things make a bit more sense now¡­


    Anyway, I need to cull the Root to clear the Dungeon.


    First things first, the branch that attacked me when I spoke. I wasn¡¯t attacked when I entered the Dungeon, and I wasn¡¯t attacked when I dodged.


    Maybe it¡¯s a sound threshold. Hm. It could also be that the branch had a certain range, and I left it when I dodged.


    Well, let¡¯s just see and test things.


    I began walking forward slowly and carefully, with my spear at the ready to move at a moment¡¯s notice.


    Yet there was nothing. No matter how much I walked forward. Not only was there no attack, but I also couldn¡¯t sense anything at all through all the fog. I couldn¡¯t even see the ground that I was standing on. Yet I had no choice but to move forward. Hm.


    Let¡¯s try talking again.


    ¡°Te-¡­¡±


    Voosh!


    Another branch quickly came smashing down, only this time I didn¡¯t dodge. I was ready and prepared, so I didn¡¯t waste any time and brought my spear up to meet it.


    The force of the branch slammed into me and the force behind it shook my body as it forced my knees to bend more than they already were, and my arms trembled more than I expected them to, but I held on.


    Before the branch could pull back and potentially attack again, I unleashed a torrent of flames on it as I pushed back with my spear.


    The second the flames got on the branch, they burned and tore into faster than anything I¡¯ve ever seen before.


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    ¡°GRAAAAAHHHH!!¡±


    A guttural scream sounded out from somewhere deep into the fog and I watched as the branch shivered in real time and as it shook about, as if trying to shake the flames off it, but of course since when were my flames ever so simple?


    It continued to writhe and shrivel in pain, before I heard a snap, high above me and then the massive branch came crashing down next to me.


    I watched as it continued to burn like wood in a campfire that was likely too large. It burned and burned until not even the ashes remained.


    Hm.


    I don¡¯t think this ¡®root¡¯ will be very hard to cull.


    It was right then and there that I heard a loud roar that felt like it came from everywhere around me.


    ¡°RAHHHHHHH¡±


    It felt like it reverberated throughout the fog, and before I knew it multiple branches immediately began converging on this area and they dwarfed the one that previously attacked me in size.


    These branches were big enough to be trees on their own, yet instead they were just limbs to what I now assume to be one massive tree somewhere in the distance.


    All of them came crashing down with immense force towards me and no matter how much I dodged the attacks never stopped coming.


    It seemed the tree did not like being burned by Eternal Flames.


    Fair enough.


    So, I will give it more.


    Instead of just covering my spear in flames, I promptly covered my entire body in flames before willing them to expand to a massive height and forming a cylinder of flames around my body.


    The branches, or better yet the tree in the distance didn¡¯t notice in time and the multitude of massive branches still kept coming but this time instead of dodging immediately and allowing them to slam into the ground, or whiff in the air, I held my ground for a few moments longer just to ensure the branches would get caught in the flames and that they did.


    The scream of sounding out once more, only this time it sounded even more painful than before. Maybe these bigger branches were more important to it than the smaller one before? It could also be because more branches are being burned so it¡¯s feeling the pain from more places. I don¡¯t know.


    Anyway, as expected it wasn¡¯t happy.


    So much so that the fog around me began to clear as the branches kept burning and writing in pain as they slammed about the place without much aim.


    So, is the tree controlling the fog then?


    Must be, since it¡¯s only now starting to clear after it had screamed in pain the second time.


    I allowed my flames to recede back into my body, of course, not including the flames on the burning branches.


    The fog continued to clear and eventually I could finally see what was standing in the distance.


    A truly massive behemoth of a tree.


    One that had a face on it, that was similar to the faces I saw on the branch monsters in the forest around this dungeon.


    Wow I can¡¯t get over how massive it is.


    There¡¯s no way there are trees that big that simply exist outside of this dungeon right?


    That would not be fun to deal with it.


    ¡°Patriarch!!!¡±


    ¡°Patriarch!!¡±


    I heard two separate shouts from two different places


    I looked in both directions to see the boys running in my direction with determination. I¡¯m glad they were fi¡­no. Why do they look so haggard? Is that blood on both on them? What the hell happened?


    They¡¯re suppose to be stronger than me, so if I could handle blocking a branch then they should be able to do the same thing.


    Maybe the tree focused on them a bit more than I did because they were stronger?


    My question would remain unanswered for now, since the tree didn¡¯t plan on sitting still to watch our touching reunion.


    ¡°RAHHHHHH!!!¡±


    Another roar was let out as a flurry of massive branches shot out in my direction. It seemed to be ignoring the boys and focusing everything on getting rid of me.


    It really didn¡¯t like that fire huh.


    Whatever, I preferred it this way. What type of ¡®Patriarch¡¯ would I be if I didn¡¯t lead from the front?


    Not that I knew all that a Patriarch should be¡­but didn¡¯t Elder Zal say I should be a pillar of power and strength or something along these lines?


    Then watch me Lirian and Frian.


    I will show you power.


    ¡°COME!!¡±


    I roared back at the tree, and it was rapidly approaching branches and took off in a sprint towards it.

 127. Words (Book Two)

    ¡°Run child! Run and don¡¯t look back! They are coming!¡±


    ¡°Mother no! I won¡¯t leave without you! We can escape together!¡±


    ¡°I said to leave boy! You are not to die here! I will not allow it! Run, live and grow strong! Do not forget what happened today! Don¡¯t ever forget the fall of our family! And most of all don¡¯t ever forget who did it! The Infernals! Those disgusting filth of a race were willing to destroy our entire planet all because of one meaningless life. Don¡¯t forget it!


    ¡°Now RUN!!!¡±


    ¡°I PROMISE I WILL BURN PLANET INFERNAL TO THE GROUND IF IT¡¯S THE LAST THING I DO!!¡±


    After giving a promise filled with conviction to this mother the small boy, a half elf, and young scion of a prominent noble family escaped into the family catacombs.


    The catacombs not only served as a resting place but also doubled as an elaborate system of escape tunnels that led in many different directions around the planet, through a series of hidden teleporters. Of course, there was one which led off planet, and that is where the boy reached. Just in time to see the face of an Infernal bending a corner in an effort to capture him.


    -          The birth of Death to the Flame


    Using my flames wasn¡¯t a skill like those in video games. It was a part of me, and it would also move towards my will.


    But something that Elder Zal taught me in our many discussions since we started training, words have power. Of course, the premise of it wasn¡¯t that weird since it was something my mother liked to say to me. I believe it was a verse in the bible, life and death are in the power of the tongue? I think it was along those lines.


    There was also bullying, or giving someone a compliment, or motivating someone, or even going to see a therapist.


    There were plenty of real-world examples of words having some form of ¡®power¡¯, but what Elder Zal was referring to, was a bit different. Depending on the use, words could have real genuine tangible power. Apparently, I wasn¡¯t ready to learn about the finer details behind as of yet, but that was all I needed to know for now.


    A great example is the V word.


    Apparently, the effects of saying that word aren¡¯t something I could just conjure up no matter what I did.


    I would 100% have to say the V word if I wanted to call upon the being that spoke to me when I last used the V word.


    Now while words have power, there¡¯s only so much I can do at my level of cultivation, and the only reason the V word is possible is because of what I am. An Infernal Patriarch. But otherwise, I¡¯m not strong enough to do anything to crazy.


    What I can do though, is speak to my flames.


    They aren¡¯t a skill.


    But calling upon them out loud like those characters who shout out their moves could almost be treated like buff to them. Especially now with Qi involved.


    ¡°Gather.¡±


    I said it calmy,  and I could feel a small bit of Qi leaving my body and then I felt my flames spring to life with invigorating glee, as a small ball began forming at the tip of spear.


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    ¡°Compress.¡±


    The ball at the tip of spear slowly began to shrink in size as the flames continued to gather in droves.


    All the while the massive branches of the tree had long since reached me and they were lashing out with seemingly reckless abandon, and though it might appear that I was dodging them easily to someone watching, it still definitely took focus on my part to do so.


    From sprinting faster, to slowing down at key points, to jumping up, to the left, to the right, and a few other awkward movements of my body, I was managing to remain untouched as the flames at the tip of spear continued to both gather and compress to new levels.


    And I think the tree finally noticed.


    ¡°RAHHHHHH!!¡±


    Another roar sounded out if it¡¯s odd-looking mouth, and then it did something that I suppose I should¡¯ve expected.


    It literally uprooted itself.


    The tree begin leaning in my direction and then it¡¯s massive roots began to rise and peel out of the ground and after a few moments the massive tree could be seen jumping in my direction at a speed that was neither slow nor seemingly when you looked at the size of it¡¯s body, but when you considered just how big of a jump it was and the fact it was taking it right in front of me from so far away, I don¡¯t know if it was fair to call it a slow jump.


    Though, it now seemed hellbent on killing me.


    But since it decided to save me the trouble of running all the way there, I will show you hell instead. Infernal Hell.


    I kept running for a bit more, then as the tree firmly settled in front of me with it¡¯s massive branches following suit, no packing much more force  in each of it¡¯s swings and at this point I had to be careful that each slam from a miss into the ground didn¡¯t cause me to lose my footing with just how much force was in the attack.


    But it didn¡¯t matter anymore.


    Once I was close enough, I leapt up towards the towering tree in front of me, I could feel the branches quickly converging on my position aiming to swat me into the group like the moment you finally caught that annoying fly.


    Yet this tree would never get the same satisfaction.


    I lifted my spear towards the tree and uttered one word.


    ¡°Go.¡±


    Once more, a bit of Qi left my body, and then the small pitch-black ball of flames that had been compressing this entire time, shot out faster than a bullet, reached the tree right before the branches reached me, and the world seemed to go blank for a split second then a massive explosion sounded out.


    BOOOOOOM!!!!!!


    The explosion seemed to shake the very Dungeon itself, and the force of the explosion pushed me backwards a bit and I quickly found myself on the ground as the ball of flames suddenly became a seemingly never ending torrent of flames that wanted nothing more than to devour the tree in its entirety.


    Of course, I could very well still exert my will over the flames and control what was happening, but it was far better to watch them burn freely.


    The tree continued to scream and roar in pain and anguish as it was quickly consumed. Every single part of it was fuel to the flames that now ravaged it, and the burning was intense. At that point I really didn¡¯t have to do much other than making sure the wayward swings of its branches didn¡¯t hit me.


    A few moments later the boys finally reached me, and it felt like I could feel their gaze glued to the sight before them.


    They were standing behind me, so I turned to look at them, and it was almost like they didn¡¯t see me turning. The flames not only consumed the tree it was consuming their attention as well.


    I left them alone and continued to watch the tree in its final moments, and eventually from the mighty tree that once stood high in this dungeon, a pile of ashes remained.


    The Dead Land


    Objective (Cull the Root): Complete


    Congratulations


    Granting Rewards


    Two things suddenly appeared at my feet. A small chest, and a large pile of logs.


    The logs were stripped of their bark, but the wood itself was dark in color. Not necessarily black, but not quite brown either. Somewhere of a mix between the tough. Yet despite the dark coloration. The wood was quite appealing to look at.


    Well, this is good.


    The City will be able to have a nice supply of wood for whatever without going out and chopping down all the trees in the area.


    Inside the chest there were two different things. A stack of Silver Coins, and a bracelet? It was a small bracelet that seemed to be made from wooden beads and string. Picking it up in my hand I could sense the Qi in it, but I really had no idea what it did.


    Hopefully Greja will be able to tell me.

 128. Mavelia (Book Two)

    Eventually, we left the Dungeon and returned to the forest. What was interesting though, was the quietness of the forest. By now, the sun was making its way into the sky and light could be seen peeking through the trees. Yet despite that, there wasn¡¯t a single branch monster in sight.


    In fact, there wasn¡¯t anything at all as far I could tell. I couldn¡¯t see any birds or sense any small critters running about the place at all. It was a little eerie. Especially since the mist that clung to the forest floor hadn¡¯t dissipated in the slightest.


    Something else that was weird was the fact that we hadn¡¯t found even the smallest clue about the whereabouts of the group of adventurers that initially came here. I didn¡¯t forget that they were the goal of the original mission, and we made sure to keep an eye out for anything that could¡¯ve provided us with information about them.


    But there was nothing. I wasn¡¯t holding out hope that they were alive, as the branch monsters were far too much for anything in the Body Tempering Realm to handle, but there should still be something left behind, a splash of blood perhaps. Now we didn¡¯t explore the entire forest, but they should¡¯ve entered around the same area we did, but still, nothing.


    It¡¯s unfortunate but that¡¯s a part of what you sign up for to be an adventurer.


    Moving on, we quickly made our way back home, and the City was in the middle of waking up as a few people could be seen walking here and there.


    We made our way to Greja¡¯s shop and as always it was open, and she was just bright as ever. If I didn¡¯t think it¡¯d be rude, I¡¯d ask her if she ever slept but it¡¯ll stay just a inner thought for now.


    ¡°Good morning Greja. Are you able to take a look at some items for me?¡±


    ¡°Good morning and of course! What do you have?¡±


    I placed the bracelet on the counter and took out one of the logs from my ring and placed it on the floor.


    ¡°Ah, rewards from the Dungeon I presume. The log is simple since I recognize the wood. It is from a tree that is commonly known as a Death Oak. Since they grow in areas rich with Death Qi, but don¡¯t let that scare you. These types of trees are actually seen as somewhat of poisonous leech by cultivators of Death Qi, since the tree quite literally feeds on it to grow and releases small amounts of pure untainted Qi into the atmosphere as waste. The wood is fairly sturdy and can be used as you wish.


    ¡°Now this bracelet is a bit different. If you give it a bit of Qi, it actually does the opposite of the tree I just mentioned. It will convert a small amount regular Qi into Death Qi. That¡¯s pretty much it.¡±


    I was a bit worried about the lumber when she mentioned the whole Death Qi thing, but its good that isn¡¯t the case. The bracelet though¡­unfortunately it¡¯s a bit useless but that¡¯s just now, maybe it will be useful for something in the future. Actually¡­now that I¡¯m thinking about it, if the Dungeon keeps the handing out bracelets, I might need to have that regulated¡­it probably wouldn¡¯t be wise to have a bunch of people running around the City with bracelets that could gather Death Qi.


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    I thanked Greja for her help and left with the goods. I¡¯ll pass the info to Richard regarding the Dungeon, and he¡¯ll update the adventurer¡¯s guild about the boys and all relevant information regarding the forest. We should probably name it too. Maybe after the Dungeon? Dead Land Forest. Yeah, that¡¯ll work.


    ¡­


    ¡­.


    Knock Knock


    ¡°Patriarch, you have a visitor.¡±


    ¡°Come in Frian. Who¡¯s the visitor? Is it Richard? I told him yesterday I¡¯d get all the reports signed by the end of today.¡±


    ¡°No Patriarch, the visitor is someone from a different City. They identified themselves as an envoy of the Mavelia Merchant Union.¡±


    ¡°Mavelia Merchant Union¡­where are they now?¡±


    ¡°In the government building. Richard is keeping them company.¡±


    ¡°Alright give me a moment, we¡¯ll head there in a bit.¡±


    It¡¯s been a month since the Dead Land Dungeon, and this is the first time that someone has approached the City. I knew people would eventually show up, but I didn¡¯t think it would be someone from another City. Even though I don¡¯t recognize that name¡­It wasn¡¯t one of the 13 City names that were displayed at the end of the Tutorial.


    A lot has changed in the past month, and there are plenty of people constantly leaving the City for one reason or another, but some of them include scouts. Because of that, we know there¡¯s another City somewhere Northwest of us. We haven¡¯t initiated contact with them, nor have we been very close to it, and the only reason it was spotted was because that individual was slowing making their way up a mountain on the other side of the lake and spotted it.


    So, I would assume the envoy is from that City, but would that mean that City was made separately from the Tutorial? Hm. Weird.


    I eventually made it downstairs as I was thinking about the envoy, only to be met with Mr. White looking at me sternly.


    ¡°Good morning, City Lord. Are you skipping breakfast again this morning?¡±


    ¡°Ah I¡¯ll get some on the way back Mr. White, something urgent came up.¡±


    He shook his head and gave me a doubtful look before waving the towel he had in his hand and walked back towards the kitchen.


    Mr. White was one of four people hired to work in the City Lord Mansion, and he was hired to be the cook. He was a older gentleman who apparently loved cooking and didn¡¯t want to bother with cultivation at all, but thankfully for him, he entered the Tutorial with his grandson who took care of him.


    And when he heard about the chance to be a cook or perhaps it might be better to call him a private chef, anyway when he heard about it, he was one of the first people to put their name in the hat for the position.


    He loved it a lot and always complained when I skipped breakfast.


    I never skipped dinner though. Never. Especially not when he makes Great Rabbit steak¡­


    Anyway, let¡¯s go meet this envoy.


    I made my way into the building and very quickly found myself standing in a small office with Richard, and another man. The man looked¡­human, but different. He had tan skin, and typical human features, except for his eyes and his hair color. Both of which were light green. It was definitely different. And his cultivation¡­it felt higher than mine, though I¡¯m not sure by how much. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d think he was just a genius cultivator that was wearing contacts and had his hair dyed, but I knew that wasn¡¯t the case.


    This man before me.


    He wasn¡¯t from Earth.


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to finally meet you City Lord. My name is Heclan. I am a part of the Mavelia Merchant Union, a faction who has part ownership of the City to your Northwest.¡±

 129. Bow (Book Two)

    Part ownership¡­so this what Jrino was talking about regarding the truth of the deals we are able to make with the factions of the Tutorial. And the fact he introduced himself as a part owner and not like as a partner or something of that nature but specifically part owner.


    I don¡¯t think I like that.


    ¡°Nice to meet you Heclan. My name is Raizen, and I am the City Lord of Black Cove City.¡±


    ¡°It is nice to meet you as well City Lord Raizen. Can we talk somewhere more private? I have important things to discuss.¡±


    Hm, I thought about it for a second then nodded. It was probably best to meet in my office. Not that I was proficient in these types of meetings, it just sounded right. Meeting with the envoy of another City in the City Lord¡¯s office.


    Actually¡­maybe not. We¡¯ll use the conference room. There are important documents in my office and a stranger doesn¡¯t need to see them.


    ¡°Frian, go get your brother and meet us at the conference room. Be quick.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    Frian quickly left to go get his brother who was helping Eriog train the small squad of people who were supposed to be my bodyguards. It was ten individuals who had gone through an extensive interview process and were now essentially beaten black and blue every single day pretty much. They were supposed to be elite or something, so their training would reflect that.


    They were also free to quit before training was over, but they were being paid very well, so no one had dropped out yet.


    Anyway, I looked towards Heclan, and he was looking at me with a puzzled look on his face.


    ¡°Why did he call you Patriarch, and not City Lord?¡±


    Hm, I almost forgot he wouldn¡¯t know that I¡¯m an Infernal. I guess I won¡¯t reveal that just yet.


    ¡°It¡¯s not important. Follow me, I¡¯ll take you somewhere to talk.¡±


    ¡°I see, and is there a reason you have your weapon out? I don¡¯t expect to be in any fights today, City Lord.¡±


    ¡°Yes, there is a reason.¡±


    That was all I said, and I could tell it annoyed him just a little to only get that as an answer to a question that clearly required more. But I didn¡¯t care all that much. I promptly started walking out of the building and although slightly annoyed, Heclan followed silently.


    By the time we got to the conference room both boys were calmly flanking the doors, and I nodded at them as both myself and Heclan entered, one of the boys closing it behind us. Though before we even sat down, the door opened again, and Mr. White could be seen walking into the room with a small tray that had two steaming cups.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Ah it was mint tea. Somone found a large bush growing near the river that runs from the lake, and it quickly grew very popular in the City.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. White.¡±


    ¡°No problem, City Lord.¡±


    He placed the tray down and left. I grabbed a cup and took my seat at the head of the table, and I motioned Heclan to the same and he did.


    This of course made me think back to Greja¡¯s and Elder Zal¡¯s advice about having people that work in the City Lord mansion. I probably would¡¯ve never got up to make this man tea. I actually wouldn¡¯t have got up to make it for myself either, at least not right now.


    Anyway, we both took a sip before placing the cups down and then I looked at Heclan and spoke.


    ¡°So, you had important things to discuss?¡±


    I watched as he looked around for a second with a slight look of confusion before looking back at me.


    ¡°When are they coming?¡±


    Now it was my turn to be confused. What is he talking about.


    ¡°When is who coming?¡±


    ¡°The faction that really rules this City. That is who I want to talk to. When are they coming?¡±


    Ah I see now. I pursed my lips as I took a second to reign in my bubbling anger. Of course, that did not do anything to stop the annoyance that built alongside it. But I would do my best not to let it show. I was speaking for the entire City now. Not just myself.


    ¡°I rule this City. No one else. What do you want.¡±


    ¡°What? I have no time for games boy. I saw the members of the Olirag Clan manning the gates, and I can feel a few among them that are stronger than you. Why aren¡¯t they here? Do they not respect me or the Mavelia Merchant Union enough to deem me worthy of a visit?¡±


    He was really starting to piss me off now.


    I don¡¯t think I want him here any longer.


    ¡°Leave.¡±


    ¡°What did you just say to me?¡±


    ¡°I said to leave. I won¡¯t ask you again.¡±


    His expression which had shifted from confusion at the start of the meeting, to one of annoyance had now shifted to one of anger. The flames of my body had shifted with it.


    I was angry.


    But I wasn¡¯t completely a fool.


    This man was stronger than me, no doubt about it, but I knew of the power the V word held, and I was ready to say it at a moment¡¯s notice.


    ¡°Listen boy, you are in no place to order me around. If someone important doesn¡¯t come here right now, I might kill you myself because of the disrespect both you and them have shown towards the Mavelia Merchant Union.¡±


    Just as my anger had reaching a breaking point, Jrino, whom I haven¡¯t seen in some time suddenly appeared in the room.


    ¡°Fina...-¡±


    The man didn¡¯t even get to finish his sentence before Jrino ruthlessly griped him by his throat and squeezed hard enough that I thought his eyes would pop out.


    ¡°He asked you to leave. Why are you still here.¡±


    ¡°You¡­da..re¡­!!¡±


    ¡°Fool. Expand your senses upward.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t feel anything upward at all but clearly the man in front of me did.


    I watched on as his already bulging eyes widened significantly and his pupils began to tremble as if he¡¯d seen something so fearful that he would never leave his home again.


    ¡°In¡­fer¡­nal!!!¡±


    Does that mean Elder Zal was somewhere outside in the sky looking down at him? I¡¯ll have to ask her later.


    Anyway, after muttering that, Jrino released the hold he had on him and dropped him.


    He fell to his knees and immediately gripped at his throat as he coughed for a few moments.


    Well, it was more than a few moments. It seemed Jrino had him in an iron grip.


    After collecting himself, he stood to his feet and looked towards Jrino.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Jrino didn¡¯t respond and simply vanished where he stood. Tch, I still can¡¯t do that.


    The man then looked towards me and in one smooth movement. He placed a hand over his chest diagonally and then did full 90 Degree bend at the waist.


    ¡°I deeply apologize for my actions. Please excuse me, a suitable apology will be prepared and sent as soon as possible.¡±


    And with that he stood up slowly, then bowed towards me once more, never meeting my gaze the entire time and calmly left.


    I stood there dazed for a second as I thought about what just transpired.


    ...and I''m drawing a blank...what the actual fuck just happened...

 130. Lady Seiha (Book Two)

    Before I could even begin to process what just took place, I suddenly found myself being teleported and I was once again in a familiar training room with Elder Zal standing before me.


    ¡°You handled that well. But to be clear. If you did not have backing, you would¡¯ve lost your life today. It is because you are an Infernal and the fact a member of your race that is far above the cultivation level of the members of that pathetic merchant union currently on the Planet is present.


    ¡°Infernals are known by every major force in the Multiverse. Mainly because we have fought wars with almost every single one of them. That is why that brat was so quick to apologize and leave. It wasn¡¯t because he suddenly became a nice person or suddenly decided to correct his moral compass.


    ¡°Might makes right and the strongest fist is the only thing that makes the rules. And in the vast Multiverse there isn¡¯t a stronger first than ours. So, be wary in all of your interactions going forward. I guarantee every single faction on this Planet and eventually this Galaxy and Universe will soon come to know that there is an Infernal on this Planet.


    ¡°You will receive gifts, upfront respect, deferential treatment, and many more things. Do not let them cloud your judgement. Do you understand what I am trying to portray to you?¡±


    I¡¯m pretty sure I get what she¡¯s saying. Those merchants will soon spread the word there is an Infernal here, and very soon a lot of people will be showing up to kiss ass basically. I need to make sure I am not letting them trick me with pretty words and that I take everything with a grain of salt¡­but there is something I don¡¯t understand¡­


    ¡°I understand Elder Zal, thank you, but I have a question.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°Why not stop them from spreading the information?¡±


    ¡°Good question. People will find out eventually. No use in delaying the inevitable, and it is important you learn and get used to dealing with various factions of the Multiverse. As a Patriarch of Infernals, you have the right to speak for not only this City, or your Clan, but Infernals as a whole. This is also a part of your training.¡±


    A part of my training huh.


    So far, my training has consisted of thrusting and lectures. Nothing else. And apart from my weekly trips to the Dungeon in the south, that¡¯s all I¡¯ve really done. Received lectures and thrust for hours on end, and now it will include political training apparently.


    Part of me wants to complain to Elder Zal about it, but I haven¡¯t been able to because of how effective training nothing but thrusting has been for me.


    I haven¡¯t gotten stronger in terms of cultivation, but my actual fighting ability has risen considerably. All from learning to thrust better.


    The two main things it¡¯s impacted have been my control over my spear and my overall balance. If I thought I knew how to control my spear before this, then I was surely mistaken. The difference between myself today and the Raizen who was fresh out of the Tutorial might as well be night and day.


    It even helped with what I¡¯ve been trying to do since the Tutorial. The whole move with my spear like my flames thing. From when I went through enlightenment during Jrino¡¯s training. I still hadn¡¯t quite figured that out, and Elder Zal said it¡¯s something I¡¯ll figure out eventually, not providing any other advice.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    But the thrusting training has helped. It made me realize I would never move the way I needed to without proper control of the spear.


    ¡°Not sure what you¡¯re thinking about, but it¡¯s time to return.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t be training?¡±


    ¡°This is training. Someone will soon visit you. Go prepare for it.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that too quick? He just left.¡±


    ¡°He was in the Core Formation Realm. He is faster than you think. Don¡¯t forget what I just taught you.¡±


    Right after she said that I once again appeared in the conference room. The doors were closed, and I could sense that the boys were still waiting there patiently.


    ¡°Boys, come in.¡±


    I watched as they walked in respectfully.


    ¡°Lirian, you can go continue helping with training. Frian, please inform Richard and the others that more envoys from the other City will be coming at some point. When they do just lead them here.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    I watched them leave as I took a seat at the desk and then took a sip of the now lukewarm tea.


    ¡°So, I would¡¯ve died today if I didn¡¯t have the backing of an Infernal huh¡­¡±


    ???


    Meanwhile a few moments ago, Heclan had just arrived in front of two doors, that led to a large office¡­


    POV Saiha


    ¡°Lady Saiha, there¡¯s a problem.¡±


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    Hm? Why does he look so roughed up?


    ¡°What happened to you?¡±


    ¡°I will explain from the beginning Lady Saiha¡­¡±


    ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°I...I made way to the City to grow our influence and to potentially engage in the trade with the faction that should have entered into a contract with the natives of this Planet.


    ¡°I was expecting to be greeted by the leaders of the Olirag Clan, but apart from the few that guarded the gate, none of them approached me. I was instead led to the office of one of the natives who instructed me to wait for their City Lord.


    ¡°As previously instructed, I went along with it in an effort to maintain peaceful relations with not only the faction, but with the natives as well. Eventually the City Lord showed up, spear in hand and introduced himself.


    ¡°This is when I first noticed the oddity of this City Lord. He walked in a truly beautiful spear. One that reminded of the craftsmanship of the Meitalc people. While I thought it was interesting, I didn¡¯t think it was anything of note.


    ¡°The next oddity was one of his followers. It was a child, barely past their first decade of life yet this child was at the Peak of the Qi Refinement Realm. That child also referred to the City Lord as Patriarch.


    ¡°Again, due to my own ineptitude, I only thought it was interesting and not something of importance.


    ¡°We eventually made our way to a conference room of sorts, where I expected to be met with the leaders of the Olirag Clan, but they did not come.


    ¡°I¡­I¡­I assumed it was the Olirag Clan attempting to assert some sort of dominion over me in an effort to make the Mavelia Merchant Union look weaker or less than them. I did not respond to this thought in a good way¡­¡±


    ¡°What did you do Heclan?¡±


    ¡°I turned my anger towards the City Lord, but when he asked me to leave¡­I¡­threatened to kill him.¡±


    ¡°sigh¡­That is indeed unbecoming of a member of our Union. So, you left after that?¡±


    ¡°No¡­the real problem happened after that.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you actually killed the City Lord?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dare!¡±


    ¡°¡­Heclan?¡±


    ¡°I apologize Lady Saiha¡­allow me to finish my story.¡±


    ¡°Mm.¡±


    ¡°¡­After I threatened the City Lord, a Nascent Realm cultivator of the Olirag Clan appeared into the room and gripped my throat. Barely allowing me to breathe, as his Qi penetrated my body and squeezed my lungs.


    ¡°I wanted to protest, but the cultivator instructed me to direct my gaze and my senses upwards¡­.and¡­that is when I saw true death for the first time in my life.


    ¡°In the sky far above the City was a mass of flames so black that the night sky would seem bright in comparison. And¡­in the middle of the flames¡­were two eyes¡­they seemed to stare into the depths of my very soul.


    ¡°I knew immediately what I was looking at¡­¡±


    ¡°An Infernal.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lady Saiha. It was undoubtedly an Infernal. After that I thanked the member of the Olirag Clan before offering the City Lord a deep bow of apology and promised him compensation before making my way here. That is the full story.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­.go prepare a suitable compensation out of whatever we can muster on short notice. Money, treasures, resources, whatever we have. Prepare something then wait form me at the gate, I will be there shortly.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lady Seiha.¡±


    ¡­


    From a ring, I materialized a small device pressed a few buttons.


    ¡°Little Saiha, you¡¯re calling a bit early. Did you just miss your Granpa?¡±


    ¡°Grandfather, there is a problem.¡±

 131. People of Earth (Book Two)

    POV Saiha


    ¡°You said there is an Infernal on that Planet? And that this Heclan threatened to kill him before a much stronger Infernal showed up right?¡±


    ¡°That is the assumption we are working with Grandfather. It is not confirmed if the City Lord is also an Infernal.¡±


    ¡°No¡­he definitely is. You said someone called him a Patriarch, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°This is big. The Union will undoubtedly take a hit for this since they will never forgive such a slight. Not one that was directed at a growing Patriarch. This is above your head for now Little Saiha, so do not worry about it.


    ¡°I will leave it to you to determine suitable compensation.


    ¡°Don¡¯t go groveling but do your best to maintain good relations with him. We will be selling the information that there is an Infernal here, so other nearby factions will likely be showing up. Don¡¯t let them get ahead of you.¡±


    ¡°Understood Grandfather.¡±


    ¡°Remember Saiha. We want to maintain relations, but we do not fear an altercation with them. Don¡¯t lower yourself. Oh, and before I forget. Heclan. Punish him.¡±


    After saying that, Grandfather disconnected the call¡­He wants me to punish Heclan huh. I have something in mind.


    Heh¡­this Planet won¡¯t be boring after all.


    ???


    POV Elder Zal


    ¡°The Mavelia Merchant Union? What did those greedy fools do to earn your ire?¡±


    ¡°They threatened to kill our Young Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­Unacceptable. A price will be paid.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    Click


    ???


    POV Raizen


    ¡°Patriarch, people are here to see you.¡±


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    I watched on as Frian opened the door, and two people walked in. One of them a woman, and the other one caused a frown to appear on my face.


    ¡°Not him. Leave. Now.¡±


    Perhaps I was being a bit childish, but why would I want to sit here and pretend this person didn¡¯t threaten to kill me? If that was a part of the training, then I would fail for today.


    My statement caused the woman to pause for a moment, before looking at back him and nodding. The man nodded towards and did the same to me before calmly walking out of the conference room.


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    I thought for a second to add on that he should leave the City, but this is fine for now.


    Once more before Frian could close the door, Mr. White came and left some tea for us. Does he just constantly keep a pot of hot water on the stove? He¡¯s really good at this.


    ¡°Thank you, sir.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. White.¡±


    Both the woman and I gave Mr. White his thanks and he departed with a smile. At least she said thanks.


    Honestly, I wasn¡¯t sure what to say at this point, so I decided to take a sip of tea. When I placed the cup back on the table the woman decided to speak.


    ¡°It is nice to meet you, City Lord. My name is Saiha, and I am sent here as a representative of the Mavelia Merchant Union.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you as well. I¡¯m assuming your friend told you that no one else would be coming to this meeting?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he explained everything that took place on his previous visit to your City. The Mavelia Merchant Union extends their fullest apologies. This is just a token of an apology that we could prepare on such short notice.


    ¡°A more impactful apology will be presented at a later date.¡±


    I watched as she calmly placed a ring on the table, then gave it a gentle push that caused it to slide towards me, coming to a stop just in front of my teacup.


    I wanted to take a look inside of it, but I¡¯ll hold back for now. There will always be time to look later.


    Back to what she said¡­I didn¡¯t miss the fact that she called it my City. I wonder if it would be safe to assume that she said it on purpose.


    ¡­She probably did. I¡¯ve seen enough movies to know that discussions like this are battles themselves. Not that I¡¯m particularly good at such things.


    ¡°Thank you. I will take a look later. Is there anything else I could help you with Saiha?¡±


    If she felt bothered by my speech she didn¡¯t show it on her face. Which was extremely human-like. But just like Heclan, something was¡­off. Only that I quite put my hands on it this time. At first glance she appeared to be a typical ginger. Maybe like someone from Ireland perhaps. Not sure.


    Though that was only at first glance¡­a second or a third glance would show that she¡¯s definitely not Irish. She seemed like what she would be if Human beings evolved into higher versions of themselves. Like Human+ or Human 2.0.


    Not sure how else to put it.


    ¡°Apart from the Union¡¯s apology. I would also like to extend one of my own. It was on my order that Heclan came here. Of course, the things that transpired were not a part of his orders.


    ¡°Instead, he was instructed to engage in friendly relations and potentially begin discussions of trade. I would like to continue this discussion in his stead.¡±


    Hm, yeah that would have been a favorable discussion, I think. Trade is a necessity between any two communities. Especially in this new life we¡¯re in.


    But¡­something is bothering me.


    ¡°Sure, we can do that, but where is the City Lord of your City? In fact, what is the name of your City?¡±


    For this entire discussion she has yet to mention anything about the humans who should be living in her City. I¡¯m not a human, but I am very much from Earth, and It bothers to think that this Mavelia Merchant Union, is already treating it as if they own a piece of Earth.


    Yeah, the more I think about it. The more I don¡¯t like it.


    Earth should be in the hands of the people of Earth.


    I can see how that is very idealistic of me, but it just feels right.


    ¡°I see. I apologize. The name of the City is the ¡®New Earth Union¡¯, and its City Lord is Ronnie Johnson. Is it same to assume you would be more comfortable to have a Native join all future discussions?¡±


    ¡°A native huh¡­your friend mentioned you have part ownership of the City. What does that mean?¡±


    ¡°It means we own a part of the City. As stated in the contract we agreed upon to build the City.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­then please leave. I think I would like to meet with the City Lord before I decide on anything else.¡±


    The woman paused as she looked at me.


    There were no expressions on her face that might indicate how she was feeling.


    She just stared for a few moments, in awkward silence before finally responding.


    ¡°I understand, I will make sure to incorporate the City Lord of our City in future discussions. If you¡¯ll excuse me.¡±


    And with that she stood up and left.


    I didn¡¯t bother walking her out.


    Hm¡­


    It seems things are going to get pretty interesting soon enough.


    Before I could settle into my thoughts about how it all went down, I once again found myself in the tan training room.


    ¡°Get in position.¡±


    I listened.


    ¡°Zhakir.¡±


    And the thrusting began once more.


    Sigh

 132. Grivs (Book Two)

    A few hours after my training began¡­


    ¡°Your training is coming along well.¡±


    As much as it pains me, I had no choice but to agree. Focusing on nothing but proper thrusting form has helped a lot.


    ¡°Thank you, Elder Zal.¡±


    ¡°Mm. The next steps in your training will be far more dynamic. You need to be able to deliver that same controlled thrust from any position and any situation.


    ¡°You should aspire to never lose control of your spear. Never.¡±


    ¡°I understand Elder Zal.¡±


    After my response she then looked towards my feet and four items appeared.


    They reminded me of wrist weights.


    ¡°Put them on. One for each wrist and ankle.¡±


    So, they were wrist weights, and I guess ankle weights as well.


    I wonder how many pounds I could handle at this point. Probably a few thousand, right? It had to be, since there was a very small number of people on Earth who could do that before all this cultivation business, and no normal human could compare to someone in Body Tempering, let alone Qi Refinement.


    As I knelt to grab the weights, I couldn¡¯t help but think to myself, that even with all the mystique and fantasy surrounding the cultivation world, there was still apparently a need for weightlifting.


    I picked up all four weights, and was a bit caught off guard with their weight.


    They felt like nothing.


    I didn¡¯t say anything and simply followed instructions.


    Once they were on, it made me wonder just how powerful I had become because I felt no change.


    Of course, I was only assuming that Elder Zal wouldn¡¯t ask me to put on weights that weren¡¯t each a few thousand pounds by themselves but maybe she misjudged my strength.


    Hm.


    That didn¡¯t sound quite right.


    ¡°Grivash.¡±


    That was all I heard her say before my hands and knees slammed into the ground due to the weight that was now pulling at my body.


    If it was only that, then I don¡¯t think I would be feeling the strain on my body as I¡¯m doing now.


    It felt like something had gripped the core of my being and then spread out throughout my body, taking a hold of my meridians, muscles, organs, and whatever else was in my body.


    I felt weak.


    I was in pain.


    The feeling of constraint was severe.


    Even being here on the floor offered me no relief and it was taking almost everything I had in me to remain on all fours and not just be flattened to the ground.


    This made the gravity thing Jrino did seem like a walk in the park. It wasn¡¯t just the physical force of the weights pulling my body down.


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    It was feeling of sever constriction that I felt from inside of my body.


    It was like my Qi and even my flames themselves were being suppressed.


    ¡°They are known as Grivs. A tool we use for training.¡±


    I guess I should¡¯ve known they wouldn¡¯t be simple weights¡­


    ¡°You will be wearing these for the duration of any training going forward. Will focus on your balance and ability to remain in control. For now, return and focus and getting used to them.¡±


    I was promptly sent back to the conference room.


    I suppose I should be thankful she sent placed me in a chair, and that Jrino¡¯s people built a chair could manage whatever weight that my body was now carrying.


    ¡°Frian.¡±


    The door to the conference room opened and he walked in. His eyes moved to the ¡®weights¡¯ wrapped around on my wrist.


    ¡°Do you know what this is?¡±


    ¡°Yes Patriarch. They are Grivs. We should use them to train.¡±


    No way these boys have been using these to train, when I can barely remain seated without wincing in pain.


    ¡°How long have you been using them?¡±


    ¡°Ah no Patriarch the one¡¯s you¡¯re using are reserved for those at the Core Formation Realm. I use this one.¡±


    A grey version of the black ¡®weights¡¯ around my wrists and ankles appeared in his palm.


    So¡­two boys at the peak of the Qi Refinement realm are using those, while I¡¯m using ones meant for the Core Formation Realm while still being at the Early stage of Qi Refinement?


    I see.


    Dammit.


    Moving on.


    ¡°Please go in the office and bring me the papers on the desk, then when you get a chance go grab Richard and the others, please.¡±


    ¡°Understood Patriarch.¡±


    I didn¡¯t want to use them as errand boys, but they apparently liked it and even encouraged it.


    Even though I was supposed to be hiring people for that role as well, but interviews have been slower there due to apparent importance of the handling errands for the City Lord¡­Or so Richard said.


    Anyway, I thanked Frian for the documents and I continued the work I was supposed to be finishing this morning before everything happened.


    Basically, it was a plethora of updates from the Government that I had to sign off on. From approvals for hires, to projects to invest in, or to potentially stop investing in, suggestions for the Adventures Guild, the collected tax, the total collected rent, and so on and so on.


    A lot of my day to day responsibilities have been successfully delegated to Richar and the rest of the Government, but spending time to review the updates given is the least I can do.


    Anyway, I had been busy with the documents, while dealing with the strain on my body for roughly 30 minutes before Richard, Vanessa, Brockers and Hubert all showed up in the conference room.


    Frian of course, stood patiently outside.


    Once everyone was seated, Mr. Wright could been seen coming through the door with tea for all of us.


    I don¡¯t know how he did it.


    I¡¯m starting to think he¡¯s secretly a strong cultivator sent by Elder Za¡­erm let¡¯s refocus.


    ¡°You look terrible¡­¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Richard.¡±


    ¡°Sorry I didn¡¯t mean to be rude, but what happened man?¡±


    It was easy to tell that Vanessa, Brock, and Hubert shared his concern.


    ¡°Well, here¡¯s what happened¡­¡±


    I probably spent around 45 minutes explaining everything that happened from my first meeting with Heclan, and the meeting with that Seiha woman.


    I even let them know it was likely that we should be expecting other envoys at some point in the future based on the information Elder Zal provided me.


    Of course, it was a lot for them to digest all at once, but it was important that they were fully aware of the happenings of the City. If I wanted them to handle everything, I¡¯ve delegated to them properly, then they couldn¡¯t be dealing with too many random surprises popping up.


    Powerful envoys from who knows where showing up to greet me would definitely be under the umbrella of random surprises.


    ¡°So, that esteemed Elder of yours, basically saved your life and maybe the rest of ours too huh?¡±


    It was Brock who asked the question.


    ¡°It seems so. Though it won¡¯t be wise to bank on her doing that for us forever. We should only ever depend on the strength of the members of the City. My personal strength, and the collective strength of the City Guard.


    ¡°Today it was my Elder who stepped in. If she wasn¡¯t here tomorrow, then things could¡¯ve ended differently.


    ¡°This is not to scare you all, just a reminder of the reality of the new world we live in. Might makes right.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about the Mavelia Merchant Union or any other alien faction that shows up. They will be my responsibility. Just treat them like the envoys they are.


    ¡°If/when they show up, point them to me, and If I¡¯m not here tell them to leave or wait.


    ¡°Now let¡¯s discuss the type of trade we want to engage in with this neighboring City of ours. I know we have an excess of lumber from the Dungeon I clear every week, and the mint tea bush has been very popular within the City.


    ¡°Is there anything else we would be willing to trade?¡±


    From there, a long discussion took place as we ironed out potential trade plans so that we weren¡¯t caught red handed when they returned.


    After the discussion was over and everyone left, I finally decided to take a peek inside the rink left by Seiha.


    ¡­


    Maybe I can officially say I¡¯m rich now¡­

 133. Aliens (Book Two)

    ¡°Is it ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­it¡¯s finally complete.¡±


    ¡°Are we positive it will work?¡±


    ¡°It has to work¡­¡±


    ¡°It had better work¡­if not we¡¯re all going to die.¡±


    ¡°We could all die either way¡­this serum is to kill Infernals¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t say any more than that. Let¡¯s call him¡­he would want to know immediately.¡±


    -          The creation of the Nonfernal Serum, many millennia ago.


    Time continued to pass in Black Cove City and since the visit from the representatives of the Mavelia Merchant Union, a week had passed.


    During that time, I was barely able to walk around with Grivs on, much less hold my spear.


    Thankfully Elder Zal had the presence of mind to allow me to remove them so that I could go clear the Dungeon.


    Now although I was able to somewhat walk while the Grivs were on, by no means did it mean that I was on the same level as Core Formation Realm cultivators, in fact I was very far from it.


    Although Frian was correct in the fact that these were typically used by Core Formation Realm cultivators, he didn¡¯t know the exact details and simply assumed it was used in the same way he used his Grivs.


    While the black pair that I used was definitely used for training, Core Formation Realm cultivators used it slightly different than how I¡¯ve been using them.


    For those in the Core Formation Realm, the Grivs were a limiter of sorts. It was used to limit the output of power from their core. A literal core and not like a figurative core of someone, but there was quite literally an orb known as the core that would be created in that realm.


    The Grivs were designed to restrict that. It would do nothing to the actual power and strength of the body of someone in the Core Formation Realm.


    But since I don¡¯t have one of those cores¡­it instead restricted my entire body. From the way my Qi flowed, to the way my muscles moved.


    Everything was restricted.


    Though it was probably a good thing that I spent this past week in pain, considering the fact that the contents of the ring almost made me see the Mavelia Merchant Union in a good light.


    I probably needed that pain to keep me grounded.


    It almost made me wonder if Elder Zal saw this coming and prepared the Grivs for that very reason. I never bothered to ask her though.


    Anyway, even though I won¡¯t look at the Mavelia Merchant Union too favorably, I think I can safely admit that they knew how to apologize. Or at least that was how it seemed based on the treasures I was given.


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    Inside the ring, there were a lot of things.


    The least flashy thing in the ring was a neat stack of around 500 Gold Coins.


    That was enough to bring a slight smile to my face, since Elder Zal had only given me 100 Gold Coins, which wasn¡¯t a small amount by any means, but this was five times that.


    But again, that was the least flashy of everything in the Ring.


    After that came a few different pieces of armor or apparel. A couple of different chest plates ranging from leather to metals I didn¡¯t understand, a pitch black cloak, a few different sets of what appeared to be luxury clothes.


    And shoes! I finally had new shoes.


    One was a pair of black boots that didn¡¯t have laces and was simply a slip on, but even Greja didn¡¯t know the material it was made out of which surprised me. It seems like there were things even she didn¡¯t know when it came to things like that.


    The other pair wasn¡¯t something I expected to see for some reason.


    They were essentially all black slip on loafers. They looked extremely luxurious despite being without any intricate designs.


    I guess I found my formal footwear, but it was still odd to me that they had something like this on hand.


    Who would be worrying about buying formal shoes at this point?


    Anyway, the ring also had three weapons.


    A set of daggers. The blades were about 7 inches long and curved, while the hilts seemed to be covered in some sort of green scales.


    Apparently, the daggers were a good conductor of heat or something.


    Next came a massive hammer that took both my hands to hold steady, It had brown vein-like features running all over it, which apparently allowed it to cause small tremors that would spread out from the point of impact to a target that was hit.


    Just the weight of it alone would be enough to crush someone¡¯s chest, but the added tremors added a different level of destruction to the already powerful weapon.


    Finally, there was a sword.


    It reminded me of the longswords used by the English during the medieval era. It had no intricate carvings, or any easily spotted extra features. Just a pristine longsword with a simple hilt and pommel.


    That was until you picked it up.


    It was quite literally weightless.


    It felt like there was nothing at all in my hands, and if it wasn¡¯t for the feeling of the hilt in my palms, I could easily forget that there was ever a sword in my grasp.


    It was like I was holding air in the shape of a sword. It was truly and utterly weightless. I even gave it a few practice swings, and my arm flashed through the atmosphere with no resistance whatsoever. It was like the sword flew towards whatever destination I intended for it to go.


    Truly a dangerous sword.


    After that there were a number of potions. Most of them were health potions but there were a few that were general antidotes, and just a couple that had more obscure uses, like temporarily making one¡¯s body immune to lightning beneath a certain level or something.


    That was the full contents of the ring.


    Most of it went into the storage area in the basement, while another portion was kept in my room or ring.


    Moving on,


    I was dressed in one of the nicer outfits that Elder Zal brought me and was seated in my conference room.


    A small procession from the New Earth Union City had been spotted this morning and would be here shortly.


    I planned on just speaking to the City Lord today, and depending on how that went, then further discussions could be had regarding trade.


    ???


    POV Sergeant Johnson


    ¡°Sarge¡­are you sure those aliens on the wall won¡¯t attack us.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡±


    ¡°¡­But¡­fine. If I die, I¡¯m gonna haunt you forever Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Sure sure¡­¡±


    Rikers isn¡¯t completely without worry though. I was aware there were other factions in the Tutorial apart from the Mavelia Merchant Union, but to think one of them was so vastly different from us.


    They were quite literally green.


    At least the folks from the Union looked like human beings, which is what I initially thought to be the case for everyone else. To think there were so many other races in the Multiverse¡­


    And there¡¯s the City Lord we were coming here to meet¡­according to Miss Seiha, he was likely born and raised here, but he is not human. Not by a long shot. He was something else entirely, he was something called an Infernal.


    I had no idea what it was, but Mr. Heclan seemed to flinch every time that word was mentioned.


    Neither Mr. Heclan or Miss Seiha went into a lot of detail regarding their previous visits here, only telling me that negotiations were stalled and that the local City Lord had asked to meet with me.


    But I don¡¯t think Mr. Heclan would react like that for no reason at all. Something had to have happened.


    Though I suppose I will be finding out shortly.

 134. In The Know (Book Two)

    POV Raizen


    The entire group that came was small, and it contained three humans, one of whom being the City Lord of Earth Union City, while two others, likely a part of the Mavelia Merchant Union, accompanied them as guards and maybe even handlers? I don¡¯t know.


    I wouldn¡¯t be speaking to them though, so they pretty much roamed the City while Jral followed them.


    In the meantime, The City Lord and the two men he came with were led to the conference room, and after initial greetings were taken care of, the two men left with Richard, while Frian and Lirian stood guard outside of the door.


    Tea was served as always, and both of us took our seats.


    City Lord Johnson looked to be somewhere between his late 30s and his early 40s. He seemed wary of me for some reason, but not necessarily afraid. I wonder if they told him I was an Infernal, that would explain the wariness, I guess.


    I could tell he was in the 5th Cycle and the two guys that came with him were both in the 4th. So, I guess it¡¯s safe to assume that that¡¯s probably the rough standard of the stronger people on Earth by this point.


    I guess those stories where people just blaze through all the cultivation levels aren¡¯t necessarily accurate huh¡­well not for Earthlings at least.


    ¡°Mr. Raizen. I think we have a lot to talk about, but I don¡¯t want to beat around the bush too much. I was told you weren¡¯t human.


    ¡°Instead, your something called an Infernal. Are you able to elaborate on that please? I wasn¡¯t given much information apart from that. If my question comes across as rude, I apologize, but I think it¡¯s important to know who exactly I¡¯m talking to.¡±


    So, I guess he¡¯s jumping straight into the big stuff right away. That¡¯s good. I really don¡¯t like to sugar coat things all that much either.


    ¡°I¡¯m indeed an Infernal. I was born and raised here and only found out recently that I was different. I am not half human or anything like that. Purely an Infernal. Though I do consider myself someone of Earth.¡±


    ¡°So, what exactly is an Infernal?¡±


    ¡°We are a different race, and that¡¯s all I have to share regarding that.


    ¡°Instead, I have a question for you.  Why did you sign a contract that gave them 50% ownership of your City?¡±


    His eyebrows raised slightly as he took in what I said. I really hoped he didn¡¯t bother asking more questions about Infernals. I get the intrigue, but he knows what he needs to know.


    ¡°I was under the impression that the contract we were offered was the best choice at the time. 50% ownership of the City is indeed a steep price to pay, but the people living there have a roof over their heads and food to eat.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°That¡¯s much more than what most people could ever ask for. Did you not make the same decision?¡±


    His response made me take a step back and reevaluate my question. He was human, a regular human being on Earth. He did not have the backing of a power that is feared and respected across the Multiverse.


    Without that, I¡¯d likely be in the same position that he¡¯s in.


    ¡°My situation is a bit different. This City is mine, and mine alone. Though, I have advantages that you didn¡¯t, so I understand why you made that decision.


    ¡°But despite that, it¡¯s important your aware of the impact your decision could have.¡±


    I was willingly sharing information from what I¡¯ve learned from both Jrino and Elder Zal, and some might say I shouldn¡¯t be doing that, but just like always, I¡¯ll give this City Lord Johnson a certain level of trust.


    If he breaks that trust then so be it, I¡¯ll act accordingly then.


    For now, I want to make sure he knew exactly what he did.


    I proceeded to explain all the details about what signing a contract like that could mean for him and his City.


    By the end of it all he was frowning slightly.


    ¡°I see¡­that explains quite a few things then.¡±


    He paused after that and didn¡¯t appear as if he wanted to explain any further as he found himself lost in thought for a few moments.


    ¡°Thank you for the information. I now have favor to ask of you.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t stop you from trading with the City as a whole. Which will of course, include the Union, but I would like to request a separate agreement just between us.¡±


    A part of me wanted to forsake trading with the Mavelia Merchant Union at all but based on what was in the ring they gave me; it probably wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to deprive the people of the City of things like that.


    At least not yet.


    But this is good enough for now.


    Now, despite how I carried myself in the meeting thus far. I wasn¡¯t an expert negotiator by any means. So, I had Richard, and the others come into the conference room, but I didn¡¯t leave. It was important that I understood these things as well.


    It was roughly another hour or two before the meeting finally ended.


    We didn¡¯t finalize any form of trade agreement yet, but it wasn¡¯t due to any sort of negative reason. We simply had far too much to talk about, and by now people needed a break.


    Eventually, everyone cleared out, and I was alone once more.


    There was a lot to think about¡­


    ???


    While Raizen was busy discussing trade agreements. The news of an Infernal being present on a Planet in the newly integrated Universe didn¡¯t take very long to make its rounds in the Multiverse.


    The reactions to the news were somewhat varied across all the different factions who were privy to it.


    There were some who simply wondered what would the Infernals want with a newly integrated Planet. It was widely known that they practically never big for positions in any Tutorial.


    Of course, this was the main reaction of someone newer factions who only came to true Multiversal Power sometime in the past tens of thousands of years.


    Compared to them, there were various factions who have been for millions of years and then they were considered young in the face of few others.


    To those factions¡­ones that knew the only reason an Infernal would be present on a newly integrated Planet, were now suddenly wary.


    Even the Olirag Clan did not know the true reason.


    Jrino¡¯s Branch Head, and the other upper echelon members of the Clan only knew that if Infernals were ever spotted in a Tutorial or on a Planet that was newly Integrated. Then immediately wash their hands of it if possible, and if it was too late to do so, then tread carefully and aim for peaceful engagements.


    Even then, they would always be prepared to wash their hands of the situation.


    Of course, unlike the Olirag Clan, the Meitalc people had much deeper history with the Infernals and knew exactly what it meant for Raizen to appear. It was the reason Yamaal treated him with such respect immediately and without hesitation.


    All of these factions in the know¡­knew things would suddenly get far more intense and chaotic in this Integrated Universe.

 135. Varied Reactions (Book Two)

    Apart from the Mavelia Merchant Union, and the Olirag Clan, there were a total of ten other factions present on Earth.


    All of them were vastly different from each other, but every single one of them had some level of interest in the planet.


    Whether those interests were good for the planet or not, didn¡¯t really have anything to do with the native Earthlings.


    No matter how nice these factions seemed to the people living in their respective Outposts during the Tutorial, at the end of the day they had their own goals and plans for Earth.


    And it was very likely that they could mostly care less about the feelings of the other factions present.


    At least until the news reached them.


    The news of an Infernal being on the same planet as them.


    If the source of the news wasn¡¯t the Mavelia Merchant Union who boasted more than just a few millennia of history and credibility, then almost every faction present would¡¯ve tossed the information out as garbage.


    It was just that big of a shock to hear that there was real Infernal presence on the same planet as them.


    For most, the reactions were to taper some of their immediate goals, playing it by ear, and making an effort to go great the local Infernal.


    For others¡­particularly the factions that also happened to have millions if not billions of years of storied history, their reactions were a lot more interesting¡­since they knew exactly what it meant to have an Infernal here.


    ???


    More than just a few hundred Universes away¡­in a massive mountain that simply floated in space. A mountain so big it could easily dwarf entire planets in size¡­


    Ding!


    A loud ding resounded as a seemingly regular hammer landed on the blade of a seemingly normal sword.  Or at least what would become a normal sword.


    Of course, if that same hammer had landed on Earth with the exact same swing, then Earth would simply shatter into countless pieces with almost no resistance.


    Yet that hammer didn¡¯t stop landing on the sword in rhythmic fashion.


    Until a few moments later¡­the hand holding the hammer paused.


    The hand of the current acting leader of the Dwargon Federation.


    A rough voice resounded.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°Infernals are present on a planet we had interest in.¡±


    ¡°¡­And?¡±


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    ¡°This planet in particular is located in the newly integrated Universe. Recently exited their Tutorial.¡±


    The hand that held the hammer slowly lowered and rested the tool on the anvil in front of it, and the face of an aged yet at the same time, was rich with life and vigor Dwarf turned to face the voice.


    A voice that was speaking from thousands of miles away. Since almost anything near the mountain while this particular Dwarf was working would simply die from the residual effects alone.


    ¡°Is it a male or female.¡±


    ¡°A male Sir.


    ¡°A young Patriarch has been born eh¡­when was the last time one was born?¡±


    ¡°Since before you started work on this particular project sir.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­quite some time has passed then¡­so a few brats of ours are on this planet then?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­I don¡¯t feel like fighting a war¡­build relations if possible, if not then go pick up our people¡­.ah still prepare for a war though.¡±


    ¡°Understood Sir.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­one more thing.¡± The gruff voice of the Dwarf resounded once more as he reached to pick up his hammer.


    ¡°Sir?¡±


    ¡°Monitor the demons.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir.¡±


    ???


    On a planet that seemed to always be in a constant of rotting and healing and rotting once more¡­


    ¡°Why have you woken us up little death?¡± A cacophony of voices seemed to resound altogether from a singular figure shrouded in darkness.


    ¡°Your sires¡­Infernals have been spotted on a newly integrated planet. We initially had plans to turn it into a land of Death.¡±


    ¡°We see¡­.nothing can stop the spread of Death little death.¡±


    That was the last thing the voices said before falling into slumber once more.


    ¡°I understand Your Sires.¡±


    The one known as little death bowed once before it vanished from the planet.


    ???


    On a planet shrouded in perpetual darkness¡­


    ¡°Your Lordship, there¡¯s a problem.¡±


    ¡°Speak.¡±


    ¡°Infernals Your Lordship. They are on the planet.¡±


    ¡°¡­Which planet do you of speak of Sqalven?¡±


    ¡°THE planet Your Lordship. The one we intend to use for the-¡±


    ¡°Speak no more¡­summon the Blood Council.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Your Lordship.¡±


    A few minutes later, 7 figures could be seen seated at a blood red circular table.


    Of course, only one of them was actually there in person, and the other 6 had simply sent projections.


    ¡°There is a Young Infernal Patriarch on the Chosen Planet.¡±


    The silence in the room echoed for a few moments before another voice could be heard.


    ¡°¡­That cannot stop us. The Blood Scryers have spoken. This is the planet.¡±


    ¡°Then would you have us wage war with them?¡±


    ¡°Do not speak as if we are to fear them, Lord Edalven.¡±


    ¡°Lord Edalven isn¡¯t wrong. A war now would do more harm than good¡­but it might be unavoidable all the same. This is the Chosen Planet, and we cannot afford to wait entire Eras before we get another opportunity to do this.¡±


    ¡°Lord Falder is right. But we should attempt to find a peaceful resolution before we immediately move to war. We were always going to offend a number of factions with this decision. Only the Infernals would wage a Multiversal War for a few mortals.¡±


    ¡°What would you have us do then Lord Palvenia? Those arrogant fools do not know reason.¡±


    ¡°¡­Why don¡¯t we ask them to leave? We have more than enough Universes, let alone planets in our control. We can give them a few as compensation.¡±


    ¡°That might be a wise choice. We shall do that then. Though¡­we should still be prepared for a war.¡±


    The Seven Blood Lords then departed from the meeting and began putting various things into motion. From decided exactly which planets, galaxies, or universes they would be willing to part with, to dumping resources into warfare preparation.


    Of course, though they made sure to keep as much of this as secret as possible.


    It wouldn¡¯t do well for them for other forces to learn that the Seven Vhampryls Progenitors were now preparing for war.


    ???


    The news of an Infernal being on Earth caused various different reactions across the Multiverse. Reactions that even the Infernals themselves didn¡¯t predict happening.


    In fact, no one could predict that one of the true powerhouse factions of the Multiverse would be so willing and ready to threaten war.


    For a war with Infernals would be no ordinary war.


    There would be no hope for true victory, no joy to be had, no celebrations to look forward to, no hope.


    There would be no hope.


    Yet one of them who knew these facts, was still willing to choose war?


    One could only wonder just what was so important to them, that they were willing to risk war of such a magnitude.

 136. MTS (Book Two)

    Back in Black Cove City¡­


    After leaving the meeting City Lord Johnson immediately went and found the two men who accompanied him to the City and joined them in a room that was prepared for them.


    ¡°So how was it, Sarge? Are the aliens gonna attack us after all?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough Rikers. Remember where we are¡­but to answer your question, I don¡¯t think securing good relations with this neighbor of ours will be an issue. In fact, it should benefit us greatly.


    ¡°They have things that we need. And it will be you two who are responsible for delivering the supplies so be prepared.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ¡°Aye Sarge.¡±


    ???


    POV Raizen


    It took some time but eventually the meeting resumed, and it was time to finally iron out the details of the deal.


    It was an interesting deal to say the least.


    Since City Lord Johnson here only owned 50% of the City, he didn¡¯t necessarily have full control of all the resources of the City, which based on the items in the apology ring, was quite a lot.


    And likely all from the Mavelia Merchant Union.


    There were only two things he could trade with apart from actual physical labor.


    A type of cow and wild wheat.


    Next to their City wild wheat and other grains could be found in abundance and to go with it there are plenty of this other type of cow constantly grazing.


    They named the cows themselves, calling them Iron Hide Cows.


    It was quite a simple name, but it painted enough of a picture of what to expect from the cows. They were massive and all of them had a hide that would quite literally hurt to punch if you were too weak.


    All of the males had horns of different shapes and sizes that were equally intimidating. Especially that of the horns of the bull of the herd.


    Anyway, through a lot of hardship, City Lord Johnson and his people were able to capture a few from the herd and begin getting milk. They weren¡¯t killing the one¡¯s they captured as of yet, but the herd was massive and there quite literally hundreds of them near there City.


    So, every now and then, they would go kill big one for its meat. He did make sure to emphasize that they had implemented strict rules regarding how many of them they could kill at a time.


    I suppose that¡¯s a good thing, I¡¯d hope they wouldn¡¯t overhunt their own prized resource.


    Moving on, they would give us meat, the hide from the cows, milk, and wheat for their part of the deal.


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    Our part of the deal was a bit different.


    What City Lord Johnson wanted more than anything was resources. Cultivation resources and even the tools and weapons to match


    He briefly touched on the fact that it was hard to acquire resources from the Mavelia Merchant Union and thus it hard was hard for him to build up any significant forces in the City.


    Despite the fact his City had just over 500,000 people living there.


    Which was a little surprising for me.


    We didn¡¯t get nowhere near that many people showing up to my City. It was weird but I didn¡¯t dwell on it.


    Anyway, it seemed they needed to have more things that they could offer to people, and these resources would do that.


    With the favorable prices I could get from Greja, the blacksmith, and the alchemist shop, we were able to provide what he needed.


    We had an agreement on what was being traded, what still took some time to figure out was the actual amount.


    It was during this meeting I learned that I should never try and negotiate with Vanessa about anything¡­she was¡­fierce.


    It took a few more hours, but eventually the deal was finalized, and it was time for the visiting City Lord to leave.


    We stood at the entrance to the City. The boys were directly behind me as always, with Richard and co standing not too far off.


    Meanwhile City Lord Johnson was standing just outside the gate with the two human men flanking him.


    It looked kind of weird.


    I was at minimum 10-15 years younger than him, and the boys behind me were only thirteen, yet we were standing here as the group with far more power.


    It was a good reminder not to judge anyone simply because of how they looked.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad we were able to come to an understanding City Lord Raizen, and I look forward to meeting you once again.¡±


    ¡°Same to you City Lord Johnson.¡±


    Instead of immediately turning to leave like I expected him to, I saw him reach into one of his pockets and pulled out a small round and grey device.


    ¡°I was told to give this to you.¡±


    He tossed the device over to me and simply turned around and left.


    I watched him walk away for a few moments before heading back to my office.


    Once in my office, I stared at the little thing for a few minutes before pressing the only button that was located in the center of it.


    A click could be heard, then shortly after a voice that I heard not too long ago came out of the device.


    ¡°It is nice to speak to you again City Lord Raizen.¡±


    ¡°Miss Seiha. I didn¡¯t think I would be hearing from you today.¡±


    So, is this considered a phone in the Multiverse¡­?


    I think Earth has them beat here¡­


    ¡°Well, we never finished our talk. I hope your discussion with City Lord Johnson was more fruitful?¡±


    Hm¡­


    I need to be careful with what I say.


    Maybe I should send for Vanessa¡­


    Well, it should be fine as long as I don¡¯t agree to anything I think.


    ¡°It was fine. Regarding our talk, what were you referring to?¡±


    ¡°A discussion regarding trade City Lord Raizen. I will be frank here. The Mavelia Merchant Union has apologized to you personally and decided to accept the destruction of an outpost of ours at the hands of your people as another form of compensation.


    ¡°I believe that should suffice as an apology for our mistakes, and our desire to build good relations with you.¡±


    Did she just say my people destroyed one of their outposts? When the hell did that happen¡­I took a look upwards wondering if Elder Zal would show up and either confirm or deny it, but nothing happened.


    I¡¯ll play it by ear then¡­she doesn¡¯t seem upset about it, and I don¡¯t know anything at all about it, so I¡¯ll ignore it. Instead, I should probably ask what she wanted to trade.


    ¡°I understand, then let¡¯s talk about trade. What did you have in mind Miss Seiha?¡±


    ¡°My offer is simple. To allow us to set up a shop in your City. We will pay a 20% tax and provide significant discounts to you.


    ¡°To facilitate this, we are willing to build four pairs of Mavelia Transport Stations for you.¡±


    I understand setting up a shop¡­but what the hell is a Mavelia Transport Station? I would she assume that I knew what that was?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what a Mavelia Transport Station is.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡±


    I feel like I lost a battle of some sorts there.


    ¡°A Mavelia Transport Station is quite simply a teleportation pad. Using nothing but the ambient Qi in the atmosphere, it is able to almost instantaneously teleport something from one programmed station to another.¡±


    ¡­.


    It seems I will need Vanessa after all¡­


    Greja too¡­

 137. Relish

    ¡°Strike!¡±


    ¡°Hah!¡±


    ¡°Strike!¡±


    ¡°Hah!!¡±


    I stood off to the side as I calmly watched the training of the City Guard.


    They were standing in formation as they repeatedly struck forward with a standard sword on the orders of Eriog. This had followed a long morning of running and all manner of physical punishment in the name of muscle training.


    The members of the City Guard would officially be graduating tomorrow, and I was here to witness their last training of this kind.


    From this point on they would work in tandem with Jral and the other members of the guard team that came from the Olirag Clan.


    They would now guard the City in shifts, and contrary to their name they would also undertake missions outside of the City as well.


    Escort missions, retrieval missions, scouting missions, and whatever else the City would need.


    All of them were informed of this and were told all about the potential dangers many times. They could even drop out right this second if they wanted to. Up until tomorrow at least¡­because tomorrow is where they would sign new contracts that bonded them to the City for 3-5 years.


    By now all of them were a minimum, 3rd Cycle Body Refinement with a few 4th Cycles among them as well, with Micah who had long since recovered from the forest, being one of them.


    Along with their cultivations, Eriog had firmly turned every last one of them into proper fighters. They had learned how to fight on their own, and they had learned how to fight as a group.


    They had been taught to fight against other people, and even beasts as well.


    A proper fighting force had been established. I made sure Richard knew that no effort should be spared to make sure they were taken care of.


    He already knew that though.


    Anyway, after these members graduate tomorrow, they would still have to train in shifts but not as rigorous, and they would also have mandatory cultivating sessions. They would also be giving custom made armor form the blacksmith.


    It would be standard issue for every member. It was in the same build as the things we had in the Tutorial, but far better quality and of course it would all be black.


    I guess it was only right that the City Guard of Black Cove City, worse black armor.


    What would be special about the armor though, was the symbol that would be in the center of their chest plate.


    The Symbol of the City.


    We deliberated it for quite some time, but it ended up being really simple.


    There were three horizontal squiggly lines to signify water, and a black flame that set on top of it.


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    I liked the simplicity of it.


    The symbol would eventually make its way onto a flag and be placed atop the City walls and on the City Lord mansion.


    The City was shaping together nicely.


    Especially with the addition of the MTS, or Mavelia Transport System as it was dubbed.


    Vanessa, with the assistance of Greja, managed to work out a nice deal that was apparently intense.


    The core of the deal was the same, but on top of the 20% tax there were a few other one time fees and rent for the shop space. that had to be paid for them to set up a branch here.


    Our one concession was that we would only receive three ¡®free¡¯ builds of the MTS. One of the four would be built between our two Cities.


    They would be coming at some point to build our side of the MTS here. I was very curious to see how it all worked.


    Actual teleportation.


    The use of it would be open to the entire City, but it would require a small fee of some sort since we would have to pay the Mavelia folks for maintenance.


    Anyway, this would make trade between our Cities very easy but it also posed a security risk so it would be heavily guarded at all times. In fact, it would have its building.


    Regarding the other three we would be getting, we wouldn¡¯t actually physically get them, but the Mavelia Merchant Union would simply keep it on record that we had three asks of them to build one for us.


    Anywhere we wanted.


    Of course, only anywhere on the planet but still, that was very important.


    I know for a fact there were other Cities on the planet, and it would be great if some sort of network could be set up between all the Cities.


    Unlikely for now.


    Instead, I wanted to make sure the MTS systems were used for truly far but important points of interest.


    Whether that was another City, or an absolutely distant dungeon, or just somewhere far for the sake of being far was to be decided, but either way I had to be intentional with where I asked for them to be built.


    Which meant another adventure was on the horizon.


    Well, there were quite a few adventures on the horizon, but one that would likely take me a way from the City for months was also definitely in the works, but I wouldn¡¯t do that until I was a bit stronger, and the City had other Qi Refinement Realm Cultivators to handle the situation in the Dead Land Dungeon.


    Speaking of being stronger.


    Even now I had the Grivs on and was constantly enduring pain just to stand and watch the training that was taking place.


    The boys weren¡¯t with me today though.


    Both of them were outside the walls.


    Conducting training of their own. The group that would be a part of my personal guard were currently being put through a crucible of sorts. Having to live in and fight the beasts of the nearby forest for 2 days.


    After that they would be tossed in the harbor for some time.


    A body of water that held dangers of its own.


    Something Grant and all the other prospective fishermen learned very quickly.


    It didn¡¯t take them long to band together into one big group so that they could help each other.


    Honestly, I really don¡¯t understand why the men that signed up for this position were trying so hard.


    None of them knew me, none of them were in Outpost G, none of them owed me or this City anything.


    Yet they continued to persist.


    All for the sake of guarding a young man they didn¡¯t know.


    I don¡¯t get it.


    So of course I asked them.


    And the answers I got were not what I expected but I guess I should¡¯ve.


    All ten of them served in some type of military capacity in various countries. This I already knew.


    But what I didn¡¯t know was what it did to them.


    For years it was all they knew.


    All they had.


    It was a life of war, blood, and death.


    Some of them had done things that wouldn¡¯t be recorded in any history books.


    Things I wouldn¡¯t repeat to children.


    It felt like a crazy coincidence that somehow ten former members of the darker sides of various militaries would all end up in my City and agree to something like this, but no one was immune to being transported to the Tutorial.


    We were all brought there.


    It made me wonder how world leaders felt when all the power they carried was stripped from their very hands, and then placed into the waiting maws of


    So, when they heard of the position, they practically jumped at it. Quickly passing Richard¡¯s interviews, and then being tossed at Eriog for potential training until Lirian joined in.


    They called him a little demon.


    I wonder how that felt, to be trained and bullied by a 13 year old child.


    Anyway, since they were to be some sort of elite force, the training had to match.


    And they all relished it.

 138. Time Passing (Book Two)

    Time continued to pass without too much other crazy happenings.


    The elite force kept training, and the City Guards graduated and took on their respective roles with great determination. I was genuinely a bit surprised by how dedicated they were being with this new duty of theirs.


    Because unlike the 10 guys who had significant prior military experience. Most of these men and women were just ¡®regular¡¯ people prior to the Tutorial, yet here they were essentially joining a military.


    Life is weird sometimes.


    Apart from that, the City was fully functioning now, and a lot of new developments were constantly taking place. Though something that it lacked was night life, and there was already a team trying to turn the wheat we got into beer...


    I personally don¡¯t drink beer, and I had no idea how beer was created before this, but people loved the idea, so the Government was funding it. Hopefully a few bars will open up after they successfully make the beer¡­wait will we have to make a minimum drinking age¡­sounds like a problem for Richard.


    Anyway, people were going about their lives in the best way they could, and things were moving along.


    Something interesting that happened was that a few others ended up moving here from City Lord Johnson¡¯s City.


    By now, a few weeks later, we had done 1 exchange between our Cities, and it evolved the creation of the MTS.


    A small team eventually made their over here to create the thing, and it garnered a lot of attention and interest. Of course, we didn¡¯t allow too big a crowd to gather, but people were excited. I couldn¡¯t blame them, since this was literal teleportation.


    Anyway, a small building was built in the facilities district to house the device. It didn¡¯t end up being that big, and it looked a lot simpler than I thought it would be.


    Not that I had perfect image in my head, but I was definitely expecting some type of large, complicated device.


    Instead, it was literally just a raised black and grey circular platform. It even came with a handling tablet of sorts that would tell you when someone is trying to teleport from the other side and give you the ability to accept or reject.


    It was surprisingly very simple and modernized by Earth¡¯s standards.


    Roughly two to three people could fit on it at a time, and it had no weight limits of any kind. You just had to be able to fit within the confines of the platform.


    Since we expect it to be used regularly, it will cost 5 Copper per person. A sum that should be easily attainable for the members of the City at this point.


    A few workers and guards would be assigned to operate and document all uses of the MTS every single day so this will create even more jobs for the City.


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    Anyway, once it was up and running, people didn¡¯t waste any time coming to the City to either visit or even to move permanently.


    Part of this was curiosity of course, but another part is something Hubert came up with.


    It was literally to give a directory of all the members of the City to help anyone looking for friends and family find them if they were living in the other City.


    We kind of had a directory already from when everyone got processed into the City, but the other City didn¡¯t, and it would likely take quite a bit for them to do something like that.


    Either way, it turns out a few people did end up having friends and family over there and a few of them decided to move here, while some decided to move there.


    It was nice to see.


    Of course, for most it was likely a bit sad to see.


    It made me think about the man I killed in the Tutorial. Is his family alive? Are they looking for him?


    I didn¡¯t dwell on these thoughts for long¡­


    Especially not with all the training I¡¯ve been going through as of late.


    Elder Zal ramped up the entire process significantly, for some reason, and although she didn¡¯t forsake teaching me the basics, she had forgone a slow and methodical approach for a much more¡­.physical one.


    Boom!


    My back slammed against the wall of the training room as I failed to dodge a strike from the wooden rod floating around Elder Zal.


    ¡°Your movements are sluggish. Low center of gravity and stay on the balls of your feet. Keep your back straight, slightly put your chest forward and be ready to react at moment¡¯s notice.


    ¡°Remain in control, maintain your balance and do not move needlessly. Control Raizen. Do not lose control. On your feet.¡±


    I took in what she said and stood up with a groan. I was wearing the Grivs as I calmly walked towards her. Eventually stopping a short distance away.


    It actually didn¡¯t even matter where I stood since that rod could reach me from anywhere¡­as it just floated there ominously¡­tch.


    I got in position, standing as Elder Zal instructed and prepared myself for what was to come.


    I was focused. Staring at it intently, just waiting for it to move.


    Woosh!


    I barely had time to react before it appeared on the left flashing towards my head.


    I ducked and immediately repositioned spreading my awareness far and wide as I knew the rod wouldn¡¯t allow me to rest or linger.


    I almost missed it as it was moving with conviction towards my stomach and I just barely managed to block it with my spear. The force of the blow causing both the spear and my arms to vibrate. Pushing me back a few feet, then it pulled back and made a sweeping motion towards my feet, knocking me off balance and delivering a blow to my chest, slamming me into the wall once more.


    That one hurt a bit.


    Okay a bit more than a bit¡­


    My chest and back ached with pain.


    It was unfortunate I wouldn¡¯t be receiving a break.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    This would go on for months.


    Being fed and berated by Mr. White, who seemingly became the impromptu leader of the workers in the City Lord mansion. Signing documents and attending a few meetings here and there for the Government. Clearing the Dead Land Dungeon with the boys.


    Watching those same boys and sometimes Eriog put my personal guard through some random exercises as the time flew by was always interesting though¡­like forcing them to go without food and water for days at a time and having to fight whatever beasts Lirian could capture didn¡¯t seem like a fun time.


    But they still didn¡¯t quit.


    And when it came to cultivation, by now every single one of them was at the peak of Body Tempering, but if they weren¡¯t preparing to each make a breakthrough to the 6th Cycle, then one of them likely would¡¯ve been the first other Qi Refinement Realm cultivator to appear apart from me.


    Instead that accomplishment was left to Brandon, who did it a little faster than Nate, but he didn¡¯t take too long to follow suit.


    Richard was still at the 5th, and his speed was mainly limited by his duties, so I kind of forced him to take a break. Not to cultivate per se, but just to have some free time, he could do whatever he wanted.


    Anyway, soon there will be enough people in Qi Refinement to allow me to leave the City for longer than a week.