Chapter 2: Tutorial - Part 1
Hey everyone again! It has been almost a year since I posted chapter 1, which I have to apologize for, however I have been overwhelmingly busy, and now my schedule is a little freer, and the way I am planning the story is a little better. So prepare yourself for the best written, and most emotionally filled tutorial!
I stared at that message for what seemed to be an eternity, but nothing changed or moved. The words that appeared in front of me were familiar but the context did not make any real sense to me, as what appeared to function the same as a signpost was telling me that I had lost some sort of game, which I was definitely not doing, unless you counted fleeing from the titans a mere game, if I wanted to continue, some sort of meaningless number, my age, the apparent fact that I had two friends, but not really good ones, and that I had no worthwhile achievement. Which, within the walls was nothing out of the ordinary.
I tried moving, but it was as if I was nothing more than just eyes fixed upon the shimmering signpost in front of me, nothing else existed. Since I could not move, there was only one option available to me, choosing yes or no. I definitely did not want to play a game, so the decision was going to be no, however just before I made my final decision, a sudden thought occurred to me, according to some crazy people I had been playing a game, the game called life. With annoyance spreading throughout my whole being at the thought that my existence was a mere game to these people or to whatever what was running this thing, I reluctantly chose yes. Suddenly the signpost disappeared, causing me to jump, and with that came the realization that I was suddenly me again, just as I had been before my death ? a few seconds ? earlier. After closely examining myself to ensure that nothing was out of order, I looked around. A dull grey landscape greeted my eyes, stretching as far as I could see, although something inside me told me that this did not stop there, or ever, if truth was to be told, just infinity stretching out in any direction. After a few seconds, another one of those weird floating signposts popped up in front of me, this time asking if I wanted to follow a tutorial. For the life of me I couldn't figure why the message was asking me if I wanted a tutor to give me a lesson, however, feeling deep inside that it was going to be useful I pressed yes. The signpost disappeared, and another one immediately took its place, saying that since I was living in the mid 800s, I had no idea what video games were and that signpost in front of me is called a message. In bottom right side of the message was a small symbol saying press X in a circle to continue underneath. The whole thing was making even less sense as time was passing, however when I thought about pressing the X symbol the message disappeared, and as before another one took its place, this time telling me about the menu, whatever that meant, which holds all the things that I could do, I just had to think menu, and to do it now.
The annoyance that I was feeling earlier was ever so slowly turning into irritation, this tutorial thing is turning out to be really informative - and at the same time extremely annoying. The function of the message was obvious and I had no real reason to know what it was called. As for this menu… As the word menu popped up in mind a weird long strip of what seemed to be paper appeared in front of my eyes, divided into equal sized boxes with a small picture and something written next to it, probably related to some extent. At this point, another message popped up in the most infuriating way in front of my face. That message said that the menu is composed of multiple items that you can press on, either physically or mentally, and by making the up and down swiping motions, I could access the hidden parts of the screen. As soon as I closed the message, I heard a pinging sound behind me, which caused me to jump around and check my surroundings in panic, my recent death all too raw in my mind, and the feeling of the teeth of the titan pressed to my neck all too fresh, however as with the rest of the place, everything was the same grey desolation stretching all the way I could see, in all the directions. After calming down a little, I noticed a small floating piece of writing in a box, and it said "Tutorial" in a darker kind of writing on top, with "Access the menu" written underneath it, although this part had a line striking through it. At the bottom of it all, it said "Access the character screen". Exactly on cue, another message popped up in front of my face, this time telling to press the character button. Which of course gave me an indication of what the floating box at the corner of my vision was. After dismissing this message, I pressed on the box that had the word "Character" written on it, right next to the drawing of the face. The menu now disappeared and another box replaced it, this one containing a rather confusing list of number, with each number having a three letter word right before it, and a + symbol after it. Under the list, but apparently part of it, there are a box with apply written on it. On the other side of the box there was a list of meaningless text and numbers that practically made no sense as it was a repeat of the other side, and at the bottom of it all, was a box labelled "Resistances" that was empty.
As seems to be typical for this sort of thing, another message popped up, this time telling me the list of numbers on the left were called status points, and that they were the numerical representation of my physical and mental abilities, and the ones on the left right were the same after the modifiers have applied. The final box was as it was aptly named a list of all the resistances that I had acquired, and when considering that I was still twelve it made sense that it was still empty, I was much weaker than the adults. I dismissed the most informative message so far, I started pressing on the three letter words, just in case they told me something useful, as everything with this seemed to be revolving about touching the boxes or thinking about it. My thoughts seemed to be right, as a smaller message appeared on each of the words, detailing the full word. The numbers seemed to represent my strength, vitality, constitution, dexterity, accuracy, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, and luck. Which effectively told me nothing, but it may have something to do with my intelligence. What does it mean that I have an intelligence of one. Was this thing insulting me? I am certainly not stupid, no matter what it said. Vastly more irritated than I had been previously, I turned my attention to the next list, the "automatic" numbers, whatever that meant. It seemed to be just as useless as the empty resistances box, it was just the same list with the original number written twice with the "=" symbol between them. Trying again to get a reaction out of the screen, I tapped on the strength number. While another message showed up, it only said "No modifiers". Now more than just irritated, I go to dismiss the message, but before I did, my focus went once more on the word modifiers. Wait a minute, doesn't it imply that in the future I may be able to be stronger than I actually am? As thought started circulating through my mind, the anger that I was feeling, at least towards the tutorial thing, started slowly diffusing. Suddenly, my thought flashed towards those titans, especially that one that killed me and my mother, whilst a different kind of feeling started rising within me, one particularly unknown to me and that scared me. As my feelings started crashing on me, I crawled up in a ball, and... cried, for what seemed to be like hours. Just as I stopped crying, everything went black.
In what had been either hours, or mere minutes, with no way to tell, I woke up, feeling a tad bit ashamed of the small mental breakdown that I had suffered. With a renewed vigour, I focused once more on the tutorial. There were no new messages for a change, but the box with the darker writing had "Access the character screen" stricken out, probably meaning that it was complete. Underneath it, a new line was showing, "Access the Inventory screen" showing what was most likely the next part of the progression. Heh, for someone with a supposed intelligence of one, I was doing okay, unless something was connecting the dots for me… As soon as that thought crossed my previous good mood evaporated instantly, and with a significant amount of annoyance, I press the inventory button. For my action I was rewarded with another box split into two. The first part was a model of me with boxes on the head, chest, arms, legs, feet, above each arm, and in the corner, with the clothes I am wearing in the chest, legs and feet areas. Underneath it was a small 0 with the currency symbol next to it…. figures. The second part was full of boxes, all empty. With barely enough time to absorb all of the screen, another message popped up, detailing how the model represented me and my armour, my weapons, my 3DMG, the number how much money I had, and the empty boxes what I was carrying. Closing the message and tapping on my clothes, I got rewarded with "Normal shirt", "Normal pants", and "Normal Shoes + 1 Dexterity". Frowning, I opened the Character screen again and looked at the dexterity part of the screen. There it was Dexterity 3 = 4 …. Tapping on the 4, it showed me 3 + 1, as it should have. Must have missed it. Going back to the Inventory, I tapped on an empty box, which showed "Empty x 0". Times 0. The implications of a two characters can be mind blowing. Looking again at the screen, I can see that there were around a hundred boxes, and even if the number went up to 9 (even though something told me it goes much higher), I could still carry more items than I have ever needed!
Still feeling a little excited about the possibilities the unassuming Inventory screen contained, I noticed that the box on the side had … what was the word, ah yes updated to show "Access the Quest Log", without me noticing the ping this time. Opening the menu, I found the Quest Log almost instantly and upon tapping it, a screen appeared with the same stuff as the box on the side. Wait what? Glancing quickly between both boxes, I saw that the text was indeed the same, although the one in the Quest Log had a small box with an x running through it. Pressing on the x caused the x to disappear and in turn it disappeared from the box at the side! That certainly clears up things. Turning the quest back on, I noticed that it had updated, now showing "Access the Map". Not sure what to expect, I went back to the menu, and selected the Map option, only for the screen that appeared to contain only grey with the words "Special Area" written on it. Very helpful. As if to spite me, a bright circle of light started shining around me, and all of a sudden, I was taken to the village, except… it wasn't. The place was eerily empty, devoid of all life, be it human, animal, or grr titan. Looking back at the map to close it to go explore, I noticed with shock that it got filled with a rather accurate map of the place, with an arrow where I was, pointing towards where I was looking. I looked around and tried to move to another place, only to see the map updating instantly. I kept moving around until I saw a blank spot on this map. Feeling rather puzzled, I moved towards this spot, only to see it filled. Curious. Wait… maybe… I had never visited that spot before? That certainly made sense. Sighing, I closed the screen, to be able to see better while moving around, only to find out that I couldn't. A popup had appeared to tell me that for better visibility, I could summon the mini-map by pressing on the map symbol in the corner that I hadn't even noticed. Sighing again, I turned the mini-map on, and finally was able to close the map. However, as soon as I took a step, the bright circle appeared and took me back to the grey void, doing all kinds of wonders to my slowly improving mood.
Character Information
Name: Alaric Dittmar
Title: The Gamer
Level 2
EXP 0
Age: 12
HP: 200
MP: 10
STR: 1
VIT: 2
CON: 0
DEX: 4
ACC: 2
INT: 1
WIS: 1
CHR: 1
LUK: 5
