New System, Who Dis?

Tutorial Day 87

"What the hell is going on with that place?" Sarah asked, her hand gesture indicating the Dojo while her eyes scanned over my heavy armor and the bucket of water in my hands. I gave her a look, trying to convey my confusion.

"What do you mean? It's a training Dojo," I replied.

"I know that," Sarah retorted, a bit hotly. "However, I went in there looking for you multiple times, and the place was empty other than all the liquor bottles and the drunken idiot leaning on a Spear in the center."

"Ah, I see," I said, attempting to sound all-knowing but coming across a little pompous. "Yeah, that's Claude. He's often drunk and a bit difficult to deal with."

Sarah gave me a look that obviously questioned my sanity, before pointing to the Armor. "And you've decided to become a Spear-wielding tank?"

It was an easy distinction to make, considering the armor was probably as thick as a literal tank's Armor was from the World Wars.

I shrugged. "Well, when you can't find a good group, you know, you gotta do all the roles yourself."

Sarah flushed bright red, which was the response I was looking for. Sure, I was still a bit bitter, but seeing her embarrassed over it quelled a lot of my annoyance. I gave her a scan, noticing the state of her Armor and Weapons, and took pity on her.

"What brings you here, Sarah?" I asked.

She, still red in the face and unable to meet my eyes, took a deep breath and said, "I'm out. I'm no longer part of their group. But now I'm lost. I don't know what to do."

I sighed.

"And you believe I have the answers?" I responded, trying to somewhat make the statement comical, and again failing miserably.

She clearly did expect me to have the answers for what she should do next. Since, when her eyes finally met mine, they were filled with hope. I looked back at the Dojo, and then at Sarah. Should I tell her about Claude and the training?

My eyes flicked to the Rapiers that looked ready to break on next use, they hung from her belt. My glance caused hope to bloom in her eyes and then wither slightly due to my hesitation. I took a deep breath, put down my bucket of water, and held up a single finger.

"Hold on," I said, a hint of exasperation in my voice. I wasn't exactly thrilled about missing a day of training to help Sarah. However, I was the one who had suggested she get herself out, and implied I'd help her when she did. So, here we were.

After giving her the universal gesture to wait, I went into the Dojo, grabbed my breakfast of milk porridge, and then knocked on Claude's door to inform him that I was going out to collect some plants today.

Claude blinked, took a large sip from his bottle and asked, "Is this about that girl?"

Both my hands went up reflexively and I waved them back and forth. "No, not like that–husk, no. Shit. What I mean to say is, it isn't just about a girl, and not like that."

"Eloquent," Claude slurred out. Somehow making the word both chastisement and humor.

After a shrug he snapped his fingers, and the Training Armor vanished. Slightly embarrassed and not wanting to say more, I nodded to him and quickly retreated to my bedroom to change into my cheap set of plate armor. It was less conspicuous and would help me blend in within the town.

I jammed on the helmet and exited the Dojo again. Sarah was waiting, giving me a weird look as I emerged. As realization dawned across her face, she asked, "What the heck was that other armor for then?" as I approached her.

"I already told you that I'd been training." I said defensively, my voice going a little high-pitched as I remembered the embarrassment of Claude's question from inside.

Sarah blinked at me, shrugged, and asked, "That heavy armor was training?"

I had no good response, so I changed the subject.

"Well, today we should get you an actual Skill for only Herb Gathering and head out to Borker Forest. Do you have any armor that would help you stay incognito, or—you know, stealthy or something like that?" I responded even as I started walking.

She pointed to what she was wearing. "Nope, this is all I got. And I mean that. Literally."

I winced. "Don't even have the room with the group anymore?"

She pursed her lips, and that was answer enough. With a shrug of a single shoulder, I pointed toward the shop and sighed. "Well, let's head over there and see what options you have."

Her face soured further, telling me that she didn't have much in the way of Tutorial Points. I tried to ignore it.

Sure, I had some savings, and could likely front her some Points, but to use any of my hard earned Points on Sarah was taking a risk. Perhaps that was her goal in the first place. I realized that my distrust of someone who, while perhaps complicit in betraying me—was a little bit overblown. Sure, she'd certainly done something wrong in staying with the group and taking the first steps on the road to being just as corrupt and complicit as the rest of the people in this Town seemed to be… But she'd taken steps to distance herself from those choices, and that meant something. At least, to me it did.

However, what if? What if she was trying to catfish me? I couldn't let go of that thought for some reason. It seemed like something that someone in the Tutorial would do, which would be to try to get a sugar daddy to buy them a bunch of gear, and then run away.

I realized that I was starting to have some dark thoughts about this Tutorial and the humans inside of it. That seemed unfair, considering my experience with people outside of this Tutorial. My thoughts flashed to Morgan Hallsbrad, and Mr. Varnish. Maybe I was just jaded by humanity in general.

Sarah stopped short, about a block from the Northern Shop Tower. It took me a moment to realize why, but only a moment. In front of us, near the entrance of a building, were London, Gavin, and Jacky.

The fact that they were all staring at Sarah, and then me with squinted eyes, didn't bode well. It was not comforting to have to test my new disguise in these circumstances, but I didn't have any other options. I could only hope that the three were as moronic as I sometimes thought of them.

I considered for a moment what my best course of action was and chose to take a step back, effectively putting myself behind Sarah. This was her fight. I was here, and perhaps I would step in if needed, but not only did I not want to reveal myself, but I also didn't know what had been said between them all.

"Already collecting a new group, I see," London said, and my eyebrows both went up. The jovial kid I had met before was not home. Instead, London seemed as bitter and jaded as I had felt a moment before. I looked at him a bit closer.

Maybe even drunk.

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He pointed at me, his finger wavering from side to side, and accused, "You have any idea what sort of shit she's done? You don't want to be in her group." His voice was slurring, confirming my suspicions that he was drunk.

Since it was effectively morning, I figured he'd either been out all night or gotten a very early start.

I blinked and looked at Sarah. What exactly had been said? Her face was red, but I could tell it wasn't from embarrassment this time, thanks to her clenched fists. She pointed straight back at London.

"You idiot. We all were involved in stupid shit. So don't go throwing your baggage on me, asshole," she said. Then she pointed at Gavin. "You both know you should be on this side and not standing with that witch beside you. She's the problem. She's the one who..."

Gavin stepped forward, shaking his head adamantly, telling Sarah that that was enough, that she shouldn't say any more.

"No, Gavin, I won't stay silent. She's the idiot who attacked Brodie!" Sarah twitched in my direction with her head, but managed to not look.

Jacky stepped forward. Her own face was red, her fists shaking. "You saw it too Sarah! The guy wasn't human! He was clearly a Monster in disguise–trying to trick us all into trusting him."

It was my turn to fight a reaction. In this case, an eye roll. Jacky sounded like she truly believed those words. It was somewhat haunting to hear.

"Get husked, Jacky," Sarah exclaimed, her fist and finger coming up to point at the girl. "I might have believed that if you had done anything to atone for your action. Even go talk to somebody about whether anybody else had ever seen a Monster disguised as a human before in the Tutorial. But you didn't even do that!

"Then, when I suggested leaving the group, you're the one who claimed I'd have to leave everything behind, if I wanted out. It's bullshit, Jacky. This is all bullshit. I'm done with you. And I'm done with trying to Tax small groups–another one of your brilliant ideas."

"Sarah," Gavin interjected soothingly. "That lone guy was a freak accident. Most groups just cough up a bit of their haul to avoid a fight. We'll be more careful–"

"No," Sarah cut in. "It wasn't us getting beat up, Gavin. It's her. She's a Mana Disease, always has been. If I stay with her, I'll keep compromising my morals–until I won't recognize myself…" she pleaded with Gavin with her eyes, which reminded me that they had been a bit of a thing. Or at least I had thought they were.

London scoffed so loudly that a few people passing by jumped. Clearly anyone walking in this direction could overhear the argument, but most chose to walk by hurriedly or turn around and find another path.

Sure, many others were just out of sight around corners or watching openly, but drama always attracted others. It was a truth that held firm from Kindergarten all the way to Portals.

Jacky was looking pleadingly at London even as he staggered toward Sarah. London jabbed a finger at Sarah, and she easily dodged it. London stumbled but caught himself. Seeing his 'attack' was pointless, he slurred out, "You saying that the others that have been in here for sixty years or more are somehow not good enough?"

London swayed in place for a moment as he tried to indicate the entire Tutorial with wide arms. "Everyone in here changes Sarah. Point to a single person that isn't brand new, and I bet you he's compromised his dreams–his morals–hisself." London hiccupped to punctuate his less than eloquent point. "Live long enough and you will see yourself become the villain!"

At this point London fell over, and sobs started to rack his body.

Sarah looked down at London, met eyes with Gavin, and then knelt beside the former, before she whispered, "It doesn't have to be. We don't have to be like them."

Jacky, who had rushed forward when London fell cut in. "Yeah, sure. You can always just be a sheep like the others. That's how you end up dead!"

Jacky punctuated her final words by shoving Sarah away ineffectually and helping London to his feet. Gavin looked sadly at Sarah one final time before he moved to help carry London from the path.

Sarah and I stood there in silence. I couldn't speak for Sarah, but I could speak for myself. I knew I was thinking about London, Gavin, and to a very small extent, Jacky. I could tell London had been drinking the most because of what Sarah had said, which she probably had just reiterated. London was lost. Gavin and Jacky were perhaps a little less so, but also lost. Still, it was depressing to see someone who had been so bubbly and joyful questioning who they had to become to survive this place.

Eventually, I broke the silence.

"How long have you guys all been in here?" I asked.

Sarah turned away to better watch the stumbling exit of London, Gavin and Jacky. She glanced over her shoulder at me, and then whispered under her breath, "I'm technically the one who's been here the least of the group. I've been here for about five years. Jacky's been here the longest at around twenty-five. That's why we all listen to her. She's the one who started the group, took us all in."

I scratched my chin, the only part of my face that was accessible with the helm. "So you all feel you owe her?" I asked.

Sarah met my eyes. "She wasn't always like this. When I first met her, she wanted to find a way out of here. We all did. We also had one other member when I first joined the group. His name was Matt and I think Jacky liked him. They'd been in a group together before they left to create their own.

"We also weren't always this poor. We each had full sets of high E-rank gear. One of the times we got over confident, went deeper outside those starting zones and camped overnight. On the third night, we got surrounded. The Monsters would have killed all of us, if Matt hadn't stayed behind so we could all escape."

"I don't particularly want to feel bad for Jacky," I said, changing the topic. Sure, I only said that because I did feel a little bad for Jacky, but I didn't think that losing someone justified her essentially killing me. Actually killing me, if Sarah was right that she'd checked my pulse… I could see why it might have changed her, but if she was this far gone, then she was gone, plain and simple.

Sarah stopped watching the group leave and turned to face me. She gave a small smile and nodded.

"I understand," she said. "So, what's the plan? As you just heard, I have next to no Tutorial Points, and I don't see how you're going to get me a specific Gathering Skill without a shit ton of those." She raised an eyebrow.

"Come on now, surely you guys have purchased the random-Gathering Skills."

Sarah shook her head vehemently. "No, we have not! We probably never would! Not only do they cost a hundred thousand Tp, but there's also a limit, which sells out insanely fast. Worse, it's husking random. You could get goddamn Farming or Rock Collector."

I blinked, then frowned–I'd kind of forgotten the price of those Random Skills and the limits. Still, they were clearly worth it. Even Rock Collector, if that truly existed should in theory be valuable "Okay. But even if you got Rock Collector, you could try using it to increase your Tutorial Points. Then you could just buy another one later…"

Sarah's face went white. "First off, I made up the Rock Collector, but there are stories of people getting useless Random Gathering Skills. Plus, you're clearly forgetting the limits again! Please tell me I didn't leave my group for a complete noob." My face must have given away my lack of understanding. Sarah very slowly explained more, "Even if you got lucky every month, and got one of the limited Skills each time. If you were to just keep getting random Skills, eventually you'd reach your limit. And we don't know of any way to remove Skills without very rare objects or Challenges in the Tutorial."

Right, Skill Limits in both senses of the word. I'd completely forgotten about both, because I could theoretically continue to use Overflow to get new Gathering Skills, and as far as I could tell, my Gathering Skills and even some of my others... were all considered sub-Skills. I'd never been forced to figure out what my Skill Limit was. Yet.

I nodded and then asked, "Okay, so why didn't you all just buy the Harvesting Skill, or the Gardener Skill, or any of the Skills that pertain to Gardening?"

Sarah stared at me, eyes slowly narrowing. "Are you offering to front me five hundred thousand Tp?"

I barely shook my head when she continued, "That's not how the shop works. Have you not searched for the Skills you're talking about?" She asked. Again, my face must have given me away because she spun and beckoned for me to follow. "Come, I'll show you."

Since I already had a way to get Gathering Skills, I'd never even considered checking the Tutorial Shop for specific ones… I'd looked up some of my Skills in Demonic Vault before, but that was about it.

Together, we moved to the Shop in silence. The topic of her group was too heavy to broach. The subject of my idiocy politely being ignored. At least, I felt far less exasperated than when I'd foregone my morning training. It seemed like I was going to learn some information today. That was pretty important in the Tutorial, right?

Since I couldn't interact with her screens, or even see them for that matter. I pulled up Harvesting and found my mouth hanging open. Five Hundred Thousand…

Maybe I should have searched for this sooner. Could I save up enough to upgrade using this? Forcefully, I shook that thought away, and closed my mouth. No, not only was there not a guarantee that this purchased Skill would then become something other than a subSkill, I also had a lead on where I could upgrade the Harvesting Skill—I just needed to find the Herbalism Trainer.

And the Skinning Trainer… I reminded myself. Okay, so I'll keep this option in reserve.

"I see your point," I whispered to Sarah.

"Any other genius ideas?" Sarah asked, clearly joking.

"Actually… I do have one."