New System, Who Dis?

Tutorial Day 2

I stared at a new plaque which surprised me in its simplicity and sense but confused me because I hadn't seen it before.

My Skinning Skill was yet to be identified with the use of a Spent Crystal—so I wasn't sure where it sat, but thought that it must be at the peak of High-F, and waiting to upgrade. I'd noticed that there was a noticeable stoppage when Skills reached the top level of a rank. For example Mining had been at ten, then raised Strength to ten, but remained stuck and un-Evolved until I Mined that Unique Meteorite. After that, it broke through, and was likely now at or nearing Peak E-Grade. So, for that reason I assumed Skinning was likely sitting at ten.

Still, to see a Skinning Rank in orange at the bottom of the blue plaque made me wonder why I hadn't seen that anywhere else. I would have said it was the Tutorial's influence, but I had just Harvested Witch Hazel and Earth Root—and they hadn't shown me anything like this.

It also was interesting because of the name of the creature. I'd been calling it a Boar but the plaque identified it as a Borker Skin. I couldn't pause long, because London and the others who were forming a defensive circle around the corpse began giving me odd looks. I pulled out my Skinning Knife, trying to be subtle and make it look like it came from under my armor and not from my Necklace of Holding.

As soon as the Knife was in my hands, an orange line appeared down the Borker's stomach and around its head. Moving closer, I also found the same circles around the limbs of the beast. It would appear that I got a guide for this task as well. It soon became apparent why the line was orange and not green, however.

My Knife struggled to cut through the hide of the beast, forcing me to use the slightly repaired serrated edge to saw back and forth at the thick hide with its sparse, coarse fur. While it was a bit slow going at first, it began to speed up after having a starting point. Once I had the line cut around the Borker's head, I started on the line down its stomach and was surprised as something slowly changed.

First, as I cut and peeled back the skin, a new line appeared between the Boar's fascia and skin. Showing me where to run the Knife to promote further peeling. This line was a yellow verging toward green. The more I worked at that line to free up my guiding line down the thing's stomach, the more that large line also morphed—going from orange to yellow.

Only once did something else occur that made me twitch, startled. I missed a cut between the skin and fascia and the line flashed red. I thought for a brief moment I'd cut myself or something important which had spurted blood, but as the red line calmed and faded back to yellow-green, there wasn't any blood. After that, I redoubled my concentration, ensuring I hit the line and only the line.

It was probably forty minutes of work to hit all the yellow-orange guidelines around the stomach, limbs and head. After that, peeling the skin became simple, and took about ten to twenty minutes.

Just as I peeled off the last area I could reach without the Borker being flipped, London spoke. "First time working with a Boar?"

"That obvious?" I said, with a wince. Were they about to scold me for taking so long?

"Well," London nodded. "When you speed up that much toward the end, it usually means that you're getting used to a creature. Seeing that this area holds only Boars, by the end of today you'll probably have the time down to a half hour, is my guess."

"I'll take that bet," Gavin said good-naturedly, and my tense muscles instantly relaxed.

I guess they weren't upset with the time, because it was my first creature. After that, Gavin and London helped me flip the thing over so I could clear the hind portion. Then the entire skin was free of the Boar and covered in bloody dirt.

To my surprise, the lines weren't done, though. A blue line appeared on the skin, highlighting a triangular-like pattern around the Boar's mane.

I stared at the plaque. The words at the end didn't change, and they weren't red, like I thought they might be due to Demonic Vault's influence. London, Sarah, Gavin and Jacky descended on the skinned corpse as I stood stunned. Their quick movement made me glance at the plaque that hung on the meat of the boar's body. After a quick read, I dismissed it as there was nothing new.

There was a hint of something blue deeper into the corpse of the Borker, and I vowed to myself to keep checking in as the group worked—but my eyes instantly returned to the blue outline on the Borker Skin.

I had a problem.

Clearly, that piece of the Skin was a Borker Mane, which could be cut out of the overall skin. I was somewhat certain that the value of the Skin would be decreased with that piece removed. Just for the simple fact that the system was indicating it.

Was it the only piece of value to the whole thing?

On top of that, what the words said about the Skinning Trainer…

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Was there something or someone inside of the Tutorial that was classified as a Skinning Trainer? If it was just another human in here, how did this notice get sent to me, and offer his training in trade of these Mane's without his input? If it was not a person, and instead an object or artificial being, where in the hell would I find him?

The obvious conclusion was that the person—whether they were human or somehow System-created would be in Tutorial Town. As would the object, if something like that existed. Furthermore, the interactions with Fong and the Monster Cores told me that he could sell them to the Tribe Building and get Tutorial Points.

Was that what this was offering? I just needed to take ten Manes to that building and get trained up in a Skill? That surely seemed far too good to be true. But it also certainly didn't hurt me to try. I moved toward the Skin and looked back at the group who were gouging out pieces of meat behind me, with no care to their quality.

Shrugging, I decided to ask them after I extracted the indicated piece.

As soon as I started I jerked the Skinning Knife back as the line flashed red. I had made an assumption that the line was guiding me. It wasn't. In fact, I soon discovered that other than flashing red as I attempted to work out the Borker Mane the 'System' assistance did nothing else. It didn't for example flash green when I was doing something right. Or a different shade of yellow, or orange when I was mildly wrong. Just red and nothing. Using that input, I was able to somewhat deduce that the angle of my knife, which had started at a ninety-degree vertical, was wrong. It seemed it needed to be just off ninety, angled to remove more of the skin on the bottom than on the top where the 'mane' of fur sat.

However, that angle changed at some point, making me adjust it again and and again toward the bottom of the triangular point. I was sweating profusely and covered in dirt and blood by that point. What in the hell was this?

I tried to mirror my actions on the second side of the triangle and it did go better, but the plaque that hung over the Mane afterward was lackluster to say the least.

My eyes practically popped out of my skull. Poorly-Skinned? The Mane had dropped a minor rank and the quality had gone from Excellent to Moderate, which was certainly a downgrade, but as to how much, I couldn't say.

"Wow, you can even separate out the Boar's Mane?" London said enthusiastically, making my already queasy stomach rumble in discomfort at the clear sound of praise in his voice.

Shaking my head, I pointed at the mane. "I screwed up, and it dropped in Quality…"

To my surprise Sarah gave me a shot in the arm playfully. "Pshh, you only get Tutorial Points for what you have. So, if we sold it as a Boar Skin—it wouldn't matter if it still had the Mane or not. Essentially you just doubled our Points with a bit of extra work. Trust me, no one is going to complain—shut-up Jacky."

Her final words made me turn to Jacky who was giving the Skin and Mane a sour look—like she was, in fact, about to complain about my work. Thankfully, she appeared to be in the minority, as Gavin and London nodded along with Sarah's words.

Looking at the earnestness of the 'majority' of the group, I decided to ask a question—but carefully. "Have you guys ever heard of how people Evolve Skinning Skills here?"

My gesture around at the world in general was probably unneeded. Instantly, the group began looking at each other and shrugging—clearly having an unspoken conversation. It was London who finally spoke up, after everyone seemed to indicate that they didn't know or that there was only one answer.

"You can buy upgrade tokens in the Tribe Tower, but I wouldn't suggest using it for Gathering Skills. It's too expensive by far for what worth upgrading it will do, at least here," London answered, while also motioning around himself at the Tutorial World.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Jacky scoffed before saying, "If you can already Skin and Butcher a Borker, then you can likely handle all the Monsters in here, other than Dungeon Monsters and Bosses. Unless you're using a Combat Skill to Skin these things, then just buy a Skill from the Tower and upgrade that. Get stronger so you can Hunt on your own, get more points and maybe get the hell out of here."

From the beginning of Jacky's spiel I was confused, but my head tilted at her final statement. Was there a way out of here that was based on Tutorial Points?

"Jacky, you know that people have been here for sixty years, right?" Sarah said. "What makes you think that they wouldn't have enough Tutorial Points to buy their way out by now?"

Gavin chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry, Jacks, I'm with Sarah—more Tutorial Points is still nice, but only so I can get stronger. Strength is safety if another war happens, right?"

Jacky scowled at all of them. "So what, you think it's impossible to get out of here—like all the others?"

To my surprise, the dynamic of the group shifted quickly after that. Sarah went to Jacky's side and put an arm around her. Gavin moved closer but then stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do. London glanced at me with a wince and a gesture at the frost-spear throwing badass of a woman.

He began to explain. "It's pretty tough being here, since no one has found a way out. I guess the only good news is that no one has really aged either?"

He clearly meant the last part to lighten the mood but a growl from Jacky or Sarah made him instantly regret it. If him looking down at the ground told me anything—I could tell that this was a touchy subject but I also desperately needed to know more.

"Fong, the guy who found me, when I first arrived, seemed to hint at people maybe getting out," I said, hoping to better the mood and get answers at the same time. "Plus if more people are coming in, doesn't that mean that people can get out too?"

"He isn't wrong, Jacky!" Gavin said encouragingly. At my change of focus to the large man with the longsword, he explained a bit more in a whisper. "She has a younger brother. We think he's still outside, and needs her."

My teeth clenched in commiseration even as I desperately tried to think of something else to say. There really wasn't anything I could say or do, though. Suddenly, I understood not only the group's awkwardness on this subject, but also Jacky's 'mood.' Still, was she glaring at me? She certainly was staring at me with her red crying eyes…

Ignoring her look, since I felt the same way. To a less extent, of course. Sure, my parents didn't exactly need me around but—they'd certainly be worried. What about my own trial? Thankfully, Mental Fortitude reminded me of my earlier vow to find my way out of here.

But the not-aging part… might be kind of nice?

Thankfully, everyone returned to butchering after that and I discovered what the small blue indicator was showing me deeper inside of the Boar. It was the Monster Core, or well, it was the equivalent of one here in the Tutorial World.

To my surprise, it carried with it Butchering lines that somehow included the creature's heart, which it was adjoined to. Before I could stop London, he already stabbed his belt knife in and began working the Core free. I accidentally made a noise somewhere between a scream of horror and a grunt of pain.

The group looked at me, as the guiding lines for the 'dissection' went red and vanished. I hadn't realized but my hand was outstretched toward the now destroyed heart. Swallowing nausea at what I just witnessed I 'vomited' out my next words. "Let's… let me collect the Cores from now on. Okay?"

"Why what's up?" London asked, looking confused.

"I think I just saw a way to make them either more valuable or perhaps, even function differently?" I answered, making sure they understood I had no idea what I had just seen. I wish there had been a plaque, but I guessed some simple experimentation would be fine.

The group looked at each other and for just a moment, I could see something in their eyes. I worried that whatever I saw might be nefarious, but soon recognized it as simple greed, or perhaps just excitement at the prospect of discovering something new.

I doubted that this particular piece of information wasn't already known here. Not if they had a single individual with the Skinning-like Skill, but if I was being honest, their excited looks had even made me consider if it was knowledge that I might want to keep to myself.

Being new here meant that I was behind all these others. Even my current group, which I guessed was likely the dregs of the Maelstrom tribe, like had more Tutorial Points than me.

And I didn't even know what my own points could get me, let alone how much twenty-five thousand was worth.