The Enlightened Blade

Raj woke up next to the dead gorlax, grimacing at the lingering pain in his abdomen. His shoulder stung a bit as well, but it was rapidly closing up. The extra VIT that he had added seemed to have allowed his body to heal most of his injuries. He did still have them however, and he estimated that he would have to take it easy for at least the next few hours, preferably the entire day. He sat up against the corpse of the gorlax, and addressed the slew of prompts that awaited him.

You have slain [Gorlax - lvl 8]. Bonus EXP for killing an enemy at a higher level than you.

Congratulations!

You have leveled up x3!

Stats have been distributed.

You have been awarded the [Giant Slayer] title.

Giant Slayer - Slay a foe that was double your level. +5% to all stats.

You have been awarded the [Vitality I] title.

Vitality I - Reach 25 base vitality. +3 VIT.

Raj sat in stunned silence, amazed at the insane gains he had received. Not only had he leveled up 3 times, but he had also received 2 titles. The [Vitality I] title seemed pretty standard, and everyone should be able to get it in only a few levels. The [Giant Slayer] title on the other hand, seemed to be incredibly rare. A percentage boost to my stats is insane, Raj thought giddily. To be fair, killing an enemy double your level is probably close to impossible at higher levels, and even now I was seconds away from death. That thought put a damper on his happiness. While fighting higher level enemies was super beneficial, it was deadly, and even one slip-up would spell death. It would only get harder and harder to fight higher levels as he got stronger as well. He turned his attention to his Status, curious and excited to see the changes.

Status

Name: Rajeev Narayanan

Race: Human(H)

Class: Warrior[(Common-H) lvl 7]

Profession: None

Titles: Giant Slayer, Vitality I

HP: 330/330

MP: 90/90

SP: 150/150

Stats

Strength: 21(20)

Agility: 18(18)

Vitality: 33(32)

Endurance: 15(15)

Intelligence: 9(9)

Wisdom: 8(8)

Free Points: 0

Class Skills: Mana Slash(Common)

Profession Skills: None

General Skills: Identify(Common)

Raj was happy that his stats were going up, as any sane person would be. The only thing somewhat souring his mood was his insanely high VIT stat. Raj knew that it had been necessary for his survival, but at the same time, he did not want his VIT stat to be his main stat. He wanted to be relatively balanced, with his AGI being his dump stat, with the occasional Free Point into INT or WIS. That way he could keep his MP and mana regen high. STR and VIT already got 2 points per level, so if he wanted a high AGI, he would need to spend most of his Free Points there. At this point, the only way to fix it is to dump all but a couple free points into AGI, and then pray that the next class upgrade, or maybe my profession, focuses more on AGI. Speaking of, I wonder when I will unlock my profession?

Raj closed his Status and brought the tutorial panel up.

Welcome to the Tutorial

Information: The Tutorial will proceed for 30 days. The only required criteria for completion is survival. Anything else is extra and will thus be rewarded for.

Countdown: 28 days, 23 hours and 21 minutes

Tutorial Contribution(TC) will be given to all participants for any actions that impact the tutorial or the beings inside it. This includes slaying monsters or other humans, as well as completing or contributing to the completion of objectives. The leaders in terms of TC will be given rewards at the end of the tutorial in accordance to the amount of TC they have. TC is not visible as points by the participants.

Objectives: A power lurks in the grassy plains to the East of the forest. Defeat the monstrosity and its 3 most powerful subordinates to complete the objective.

Raj’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he realized how long he had been asleep. He had left the cave at around 13 hours left on the first day, and it had been around 14 hours!

Raj was suddenly reminded that he was in the middle of the forest, which was full of dangerous creatures. How was I not attacked during my twelvish hours of sleep? He wondered. Then he realized that the credit lay with the enemy he had slain. The gorlax had probably scared most of the nearby creatures away, and that had allowed Raj to have an undisturbed sleep. Raj had never been one to push his luck however, so he immediately got up and left, pausing only to store the gorlax corpse. Who knows if it might come in handy? He thought.

It was an uneventful, yet tense walk to the cave. He got there in just 2 minutes, but it may as well have been hours. He was especially on edge due to the fact that he was not in fighting shape just yet. When he finally broke into the clearing, he heaved an enormous sigh of relief. Suddenly, a wave of weakness washed over him. That’s when he realized that he still had not had any food since before the tutorial!

He walked to the front of the cave, and fished the boaralo corpse out. Wait, he thought. How do I get a fire going? He frantically searched the cave, furious with himself for not thinking about this issue sooner. If he could not even start a fire, then all of what he had went through to get the boaralo would have been for nothing. Well, not for nothing. I did get stronger.

He searched for a few more minutes before finally finding what he was looking for. At least, it looked like what he was looking for. I really hope this is flint, or at least something that could work. He placed the flint in his spatial ring, and walked back out to the forest edge, scrounging up some sticks and kindling that he thought would be good for a fire. Jokes on you, you stupid cosmic deity, he thought. I watched Survivor.

He threw the base of a campfire together, which took him about 10 minutes, and many tries, before he finally had something that he thought was acceptable. Just before lighting the fire, he sent up a prayer, begging for forgiveness. To any sword gods out there, please forgive me. He struck the flint-like rock against his sword, once, twice, thrice, four times, before finally seeing the sparks set the kindling and wood ablaze. He hurriedly dropped to all fours, blowing the fire and trying to spread it. After a few minutes of his frantic antics, he finally had a working fire. He whooped for joy, but his stomach reminded him to stay on track with a little grumble. He grabbed his sword and did his best to skin a section of the boaralo, before cutting it out. He fashioned a spit, and started roasting his poorly cut boaralo piece on it.

Raj felt like he had been waiting for years when the boaralo finally looked somewhat ready to eat. Raj did not see any pink, so he hoped that’s what it meant. Last thing I need is food poisoning. He took a tentative bite out of the meat, and moaned in happiness. He could feel his hunger satiating, and he tore into the remainder of the meat. He polished it off in only a minute or two, and then drank it down with the water from the lake. He just sprawled in the grass afterwards, basking in sheer happiness from just being alive.

Sadly, he knew the moment could not last forever, and with a wince reminding him of his injuries, he got up. I can still be productive today despite my injuries, he thought firmly.

Raj began by putting his current fire out, and gathering more kindling and firewood. He knew that while a fire would be nice, it was essentially a beacon, and the less attention it attracted, the better. “That includes people,” he muttered darkly. The only person he could completely trust was Arjun, and he knew that some would kill him just to have this spot.

He stored the firewood and kindling he had collected in his cave, and then started trying to re-sharpen his blade and fix some of the damage he had caused while making the fire. He used the same flint stone he had found, seeing as he did not have anything better, and tried the technique he had learnt from HEMA. After an entire 30 minutes of trying, he stopped. This is not at all effective, he mused. I am going to need to find a better stone or metal to use. At least I got the worst of the damage out.

Afterwards, he got up and decided that even if he could not risk fighting yet, he could still train. So far, he had been very reliant on his Mana Slash(Common) spell, but he knew that it would lose effectiveness against stronger opponents. His slashes struggled against the scales of the gorlax, and as the monsters got stronger, they would be able to resist his spell more and more. Therefore, he started training with his sword.

He ran through the basic katas, maintaining a steady breathing pattern throughout. Inhale. Move. Exhale. Slice. He kept going until his clothes were drenched in sweat, Then, he shifted to practicing quick slashes, sweeps and thrusts. These would be vital as he would need to adapt to any opponent he saw. He practiced different combinations of attacks at different speeds, wincing in pain each time he twisted his body. He knew pain tolerance would be very important in the future, which is why he was training through it. Better to do it in a controlled environment than against a monster.

He finally stopped as the sun started to drop below the trees. He walked back to his cave, got another fire going, and skinned the rest of the boaralo the best he could. Once he had finished with that, he cut it up into pieces and roasted each of them, eating one of the pieces and storing the rest into his spatial ring. It seemed to keep food fresh, for at least a little while. He washed down his meal with water, and then walked back to the cave. He put out his fire and then leaned against the cave wall. Not a bad day, he thought. Then, exhaustion overtook him, and he drifted off to sleep.