Tutorial's End

The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

Time keeping in the world is a subject that often goes unmentioned, yet is critical for a being's success within any organization. After all, being late is a cardinal sin in any professional environment!

Most of the world operates on one of two cycles. First, 'SLT' which is the local world time (standardized local time). SLT is somewhat arbitrary as planetary bodies move at different rates. Generally, only locals who only interact with other locals use SLT.

Then there's the most common time keeping system. 'OST' or 'Origin Standard Time'. OST, as the name suggests, is a standard built to measure time throughout the entire Origin universe.

Your UICI will automatically display OST time. OST time is measured with one hundred seconds to a minute, thirty minutes to an hour, and thirty hours to a day. The why is quite complex and not relevant to you at this point.

In case you're curious, a second is defined as the time it takes for a million sub-particles to be compressed naturally through ambient mana pressure in the vacuum of space (in which mana density is standard assuming nothing has disturbed the local balance of a given area recently). A more practical estimate would be the time it takes for a humanoid with vocal chords, lungs, and a tongue to say "Mississippi." I'm uncertain where this estimate came from, but it's accurate enough for rough time counting. Use your UCIC for precision.

Speaking of the UICI: many beings may find the time keeping off from their internal clock, which will have been calibrated based on their own tutorials. It is understandable that you'll struggle to keep up with the breakneck pace of a vastly more developed universe. So there are plenty of tools available to help you out! The most basic of which is the calendar and reminder system built into your UICI.

Willow

???

Metal spikes blurred by. Stalactites and stalagmites, teeth of natural iron and some green mineral which Phoenix thought might be copper. She landed against one such set of 'teeth' with an "OOF!" Her breath exploding from her lungs.

Shoving off of the unaffected barrier, Phoenix leapt to her left and rolled. A harsh hissing followed her motion as an eye-searingly green stream flashed past her. She didn't have time to observe what, exactly, happened. She knew anyway, she'd seen it before. The sizzling and popping allowed her to extrapolate just fine. The metal would be swiftly melting down into a pile of slag, which itself would begin to take on a similar bright green tone as it was converted wholly into a matching acid.

Instead of watching that, frankly horrifying, display, Phoenix snapped her gaze onto the originator of the phenomena. A slouching humanoid creature lurched toward her, shrieking defiantly and snapping its head toward her. Said head happened to be comprised entirely of a massive jaw filled with shark-like canines.

Sliding toward the leaping creature, Phoenix's knee rose as her joined hands fell from above her head. Her clasped fists landed atop the wide-open jaw a moment before her knee caught the bottom, snapping the creature's trap-like maw shut. Pivoting to the right, she quickly passed the creature, dodging yet another stream of acid flying from the monster's center mass. Had it been a human she'd have said the anus-like hole the thing shot liquid from was situated just above its belly. Since it absolutely was not a human, she wasn't sure what the body part was called. She just knew better than to stand directly in front of it. Doing so would hurt, at the very least. Phoenix had named the creatures based that particular feature, calling them 'assids.'

Naturally, Phoenix's moment of focus was partially active as she battled this creature. Unfortunately, these creatures, along with plenty of others on this planet were utterly unimpressed by her signature ability. Which, of course, was the primary reason Madrick had brought them here to train. Only the moment component was ineffective, as the focus part still enhanced her own ability to process and react dramatically. So she kept her focus on a low burn but didn't bother with fully activating her favorite power.

"Two more incoming from above, they're melting through the tunnel overhead." System informed calmly through the party channel he kept constantly active.

Catching one of the creature's arms as it swung toward her in a rough slashing motion, Phoenix grunted as her feet slid back on the stone floor. These things were strong, dealing with one was, ironically, much harder than multiple.

"How… long?" Phoenix sent, mental communication choppy as she cut off mid question to leap up and over another deadly stream of acidic spray.

Landing behind the monster, Phoenix horse kicked, slamming her battered and torn boot-remnant into the slouched bony back of her enemy. She heard it staggering and took the brief moment of reprieve to reposition. Dashing toward a small cluster of nearly fused pillars comprised of the cave's signature metal teeth, Phoenix put them between herself and her pursuer. "About thirty seconds."

"Prism and Quiz good?"

Shrieking, the assid began strafing left, circling around the obstruction between itself and Phoenix. Its path was calculated to bring it nearer the pillars providing Phoenix with Cover, even as it circled. The assids were cunning, if not exactly intelligent.

System answered with clear amusement, "They're fine. You're having the most trouble with these."

"What?! Prism barely knows how to fight and Quiz just got his first insight! How?!"

Seeing a disturbing head just around the corner, Phoenix leapt back into action. Three sharp jabs forced the creature to withdraw a bit. Not to flee, of course, just to give itself space to reposition and try to come at its target more directly. Getting the annoying human in line with its acid spitting hole.

Being more than familiar with the things' tactics, Phoenix waited until she heard the soft hiss which informed her it had spit into the mineral barrier providing cover. Flaring her focus, Phoenix's body gained a brief jolt of speed which let her slip fully to the back of the assid before it could turn.

Putting the entirety of her body into the motion, Phoenix executed a spinning kick aimed directly center-mass. Foot and back-flesh connected, eliciting a gargling protest. The monster's arms pinwheeled comedically as it desperately tried to catch its balance and avoid taking another step forward.

Phoenix wasn't having it. As soon as she'd regained her footing, she snapped her leg out, aiming for the back of her enemy's leg. Right where the knee would be on a human. Unlike humans, this particular abomination didn't have any visible joints, everything seemed to be rubber coated. It was entirely possible her kick landed on a joint, just as possible as there being no joint for it to land on.

Either way, the result was the same. The creature's attempt to regain its balance failed and it fell head-first directly into the pool of acid it, itself, had created. The entire pillar it had struck was now melted into a pool of bright green which slowly slid toward the rest of the naturally formed metal beams.

"Because Prism's magic works perfectly on them. Your master hasn't found anything that completely ignores her main ability, so she's able to just suck out their ferocity and then shoot them in the face with her blaster." System answered easily. "Also, two seconds left."

His warning was unnecessary, given how obvious her incoming enemies were. A spot a handful of meters from her position on the ceiling began to crumble away. At first it was a few falling rocks, then quite suddenly a passage large enough for a large man to easily fit through was revealed at the final thin layer of rock and clay fell away beneath the two assids.

Both creatures landed on their feet, the limestone surface cracking slightly under the impact. Taking a deep breath, Phoenix centered herself and prepared to use her trump card. Waiting until both nasty hunched not-humans noticed her, Phoenix's arms and hands moved in a rapid series of arcane gestures.

Her right arm shot up, across her left shoulder with fingers splayed. Upon reaching beyond her own body, her fingers curled into a grasping fist. Her body spun to align her left side with the enemy. Her left arm lifted, one finger pointing at her enemies. Then, shouting the name of her ultimate, Phoenix's right arm snapped forward and her fingers splayed into a perfectly controlled upside down V, with her middle finger as the steeple.

A pink flash flashed through the air, seemingly moving even faster than Phoenix's declared power-move, which chased behind the projectile. "PIPER, I CHOOSE YOU!"

Both assids begun spraying their fluids simultaneously. They seemed to detect the danger represented by the comet-like object rocketing toward them and each turned, trying to catch it in their spray.

Phoenix grinned as her plan worked perfectly. While being perfectly capable of working together, planning a few steps ahead, and being generally canny monsters, the assids had a massive weakness. Except when actively executing a plan, they seemed utterly unable to consider their fellow's positioning. Both acid streams crossed and each creature was impacted by the other's spray at the same time.

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"Don't DO that! What the hell, Phoenix?! I thought we were friends! Friends don't throw friends!" Piper screeched from across the cavern as she managed to right herself, her wings blurring as they worked double time to arrest her forward momentum.

Waving off her guide's concerns, Phoenix excused herself, "I told you that you were my secret weapon earlier today!"

"I thought you meant because of the power of friendship! Not because YOU WERE GONNA LITERALLY THROW ME AT ACID-SPITTING MONSTERS!" Having managed to stop moving away, Piper picked up speed in the opposite direction, zooming toward her persecutor with a vengeance.

"What about you, System?" Phoenix sent curiously. "You don't have some crazy OP ability to remove their will to fight. I also didn't think you were very good with that blaster you carry around."

"First, ow. I'm fine with the blaster. Second, I don't need anything that fancy, trick works great. I can get the dumb things to attack each other. I just make sure I'm always in an area with at least two when I encounter them. It's not too hard since I can see them coming way before they notice me." Came the casual reply.

Grumbling, Phoenix reached up and caught Piper's tiny punch on her hand. The fairy's entire form crumpled under the force of her own strike, turning her into a pink splatter on Phoenix's palm. When she reformed mere seconds later, her arms and legs were positioned awkwardly as she twitched and spasmed, tongue hanging open and eyes rolled up into her head. Even her hair was on-end and looked singed, as if she'd been electrocuted.

"Pick a cause of death, Piper. You look ridiculous. We've talked about this, acting is best done subtly. No one is gonna believe your cartoonish display."

"Spoil sport." The tiny creature popped back up, smoothing herself out and meeting Phoenix's gaze with her own slightly glowing, emerald green, eyes. She reached one hand up and pulled her long hair in front of her, running fingers through and smoothing it with her other hand, "If I knew you wanted me to beat those stupid things up I woulda done it by myself. I didn't need you to throw me." She harrumphed.

Shrugging, Phoenix glanced at the little HUD that System was providing. The little mini-map provided a rough direction toward each of her party members. They'd been split up when they stumbled on a massive group of assids, nearly a hundred of them according to System. They'd been running and fighting all day.

So thinking, Phoenix realized the time and asked System, "Seen Madrick anywhere?"

"He's behind you, yeah."

"WHAT?!" Phoenix blurted as she spun around. Sure enough, Madrick was leaning against the final non-acid eaten pillar. He flashed a grin, "Took you long enough to notice, oh dear apprentice of mine. Your situational awareness is still shit."

Sighing, Phoenix's shoulders slumped. Unfortunately, he was right. This wasn't the first time she'd been taken off guard while training down here. All of the monsters they'd encountered so far were so obvious and loud that she hardly needed to pay attention to notice they were around.

Activating her full moment of focus, Phoenix walked closer to Madrick. To her surprise, his eyes followed her, then his entire body. She felt her mana suddenly plummet. She staggered, canceling the ability in panic.

"Ah, so it's as that. I see." Madrick was nodding, as if he'd expected her to use her ability and equally expecting it to fail in such a spectacular manner. He was also talking weird again. His phrasing had been really strange since he'd returned and scooped Willow, her friends, and their entire ship up as if it was a given they'd come with him.

…To be fair, we did all come with him. Phoenix admitted to herself grudgingly. He'd paid someone with a shady path to break Jonah and Naomi's contracts, freeing them had been so simple that Phoenix had wondered just how useless contracts really were if it was that easy.

It'd been Prism that dispelled that line of thought, apparently having learned quite a lot about contracts and how they worked in their time apart. According to her, breaking a contract wasn't a simple matter of ripping up a paper, which is essentially the ease with which the shady lizard-man Madrick brought them to had performed his 'void contract.'

Supposedly, breaking the contract itself didn't really do anything magical. There were no direct penalties, just like there hadn't been on Earth. But, just like on Earth, the consequences would appear later. Enforcers would hunt anyone who broke a contract down and force them to return to it, or 'punish' them in whatever way they - or their 'employers' - saw fit.

The lizard guy had ensured them that his particular spell completely purged all record of them ever having had a contract from all relevant systems. Including the UICI. Foolproof piece of magical technology my butt.

Shaking her head, Phoenix realized her mind had gone entirely off track. She was distractible sometimes, of course, but she could feel that when she'd canceled her ability in a rush there had been consequences. Her focus 'breaking' like that had thrown her normal focus out the window, too.

Taking a few deep breaths, entering a semi-meditation with hardly any effort, she quickly regained control of herself and returned her mind to the previous conversation. Back to the previous thing Madrick had said.

"You see what, Madrick?" She asked in a tired tone of voice, one she found herself using when interacting with the frustrating man more and more often.

Waving for her to follow, he turned and headed back toward where Phoenix knew Prism and Quiz were waiting. System was already making his way in their direction, according to the mini map. It was still hard to believe System wasn't sharing his map with Madrick, the guy always seemed to know exactly where everything was.

He was way, way too capable. He's not even that far ahead of us in rank anymore!

Once she'd fallen in step beside him, Madrick answered, "I see how your ability works. It operates based on a concept of authority, similar to my own 'I bow to no one' insight."

He tapped his own chest, "I just re-acquired it, having waited for that one. Now that I've finally solidified my foundation enough, I can push forward a few more ranks. Recover more of my lost power."

"What does that insight give you?" Phoenix asked, curious. She knew Luzzi and Ravavka would have been horrified at the rudeness of asking such a question. Madrick just grinned.

"It's pretty much what it sounds like. I don't submit myself to anyone. At least, not to the point where I see them as my master. There are times and places where bowing is nay abasement, but a polite greeting."

"You said nay again."

Rolling his eyes, Madrick continued, "This particular insight, for me, helps resist mental and physical control others attempt to place me under. Such as your ability. At the lower ranks, you're essentially unstoppable due to it. Once you reach about rank fifteen or so, though, most beings will have an insight, spell, or ability designed to resist such effects."

"Nice! It was boring not being able to properly fight anyone with my full strength. It won't be useless, right? Just less effective?"

"You're quite right, apprentice mine. No matter how someone resists your ability, it will require effort from them. It will become a contest between your ability, mana quality, insight depth, and conceptual link reinforcement, versus your opponent's own advantages."

Although half of what Madrick said went over her head, Phoenix got the gist. "My mana started draining really fast when you moved."

Reaching over, Madrick tried to rustle her hair. Phoenix dodged around the attempt, which he just seemed to find amusing, lips drawing into a bright smile, "Your ability directly conflicts with my insight. As a former god, it would be utterly ridiculous for your little ability to win out."

"So you didn't use much mana to resist?" A bit of disappointment crept into Phoenix's heart. She'd always felt that she at least had the "oh shoot" button to hit if her 'master' went entirely crazy. She'd strengthened her ability to the point she could affect him, proven by the incredibly satisfying punch she'd landed on him way back on a lonely mountain peak, and now she'd lost that? Irritating. I'll have to make it even better so I can punch him again.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Madrick shrugged, "I used some."

Before she could poke at the uninformative answer, they turned a final bend and met up with the rest of the group. Quiz noticed her first, standing a bit away from the others as they chatted about something. Catching her icey blue eyes with his own deep gold, the silver man flashed her a quick smile and headed toward herself and Madrick.

"How was your hunt?" He asked in his pleasantly soft baritone.

She returned the grin, "Good! I got twenty three of them. You?"

Waving his hand in a vague gesture he shrugged, "Just five. Naomi took care of most of them. I think swords may be less effective here than they were in my tutorial." His hand fell to the broadsword strapped to his waist, finders tapping the pommel in a familiar manner.

"Certainly not." Madrick cut in with a languid wave of his hand, "Swords are superior to a gun in many situations. Guns of all kinds have a fatal flaw which will become more relevant the higher you ascend. It is impossible to imbue them with your own strength directly. You can craft your own projectiles for firearms which use such, but for something like the laser rifle the blank girl uses or the pistol her boyfriend uses? They have no such recourse. The power is front-loaded, the equipment's power matching that of its crafter rather than its wielder. On the other side of the river, melee weapons, and some other ranged options such as bows or throwing knives, allow their wielder to directly impart their strength."

Since he'd returned, Madrick had honestly been much more directly forthcoming with information. Much more helpful, overall. He was still an arrogant prick, "They have names. Naomi and Jonah. Or, since we're in the field: Prism and System."

Waving a dismissive hand, Madrick noted, "The names of your attendants mean nothing to me."

As he passed Quiz, he patted his shoulder, "You carry the sword as a man married to the blade, don't abandon your first love for flashy temptresses, Slyth."

"You can remember HIS name, though?!" Phoenix called after him, irritated. Her eyebrows drew together as she looked at her friend, "Does that mean you aren't my attendant?"

Left side of his lips tugging upward, Quiz's eyebrow raised as his nostrils flared slightly in warning of incoming mischief, "Disappointed? Perhaps you'd like me to bow before you? Call you mistress and beg your approval?"

"No!" Willow felt a slight flush creep across onto her cheeks, "No, that's fine. I was just curious. Ah… Wait…" She frowned, belatedly realizing she'd missed a chance to turn the suggestion around, "Wait, yes! Bow and beg for my favor!"

Unfortunately, her would-be servant was already turning to rejoin the rest of the group, "Sorry, m'lady, I already have a job at the moment."

"Hey! What job?!" She hopped-to, quickly catching up to walk beside the Ozkri.

Side-eyeing her, he hummed, "I'm afraid that's need-to-know."

"We NEED to know!" Piper immediately demanded, hopping up and down on Willow's shoulder.

Pointing at her guide, Willow agreed, "What she said!"

"Hmmm… I don't know, you seem more like you want to know…"

They continued their mock argument until System and Prism finished their previous conversation and turned to greet the final members of their party back to the group.

Katha

???

With a deeeeeeeeep sigh, Katha let her body go limp. Limp-er. She was already laying sprawled across a rock bonelessly, so there was little she could do to become more relaxed. She tried anyway.

This world was so boring. It'd be way more fun if she was down in the tunnels stalking Willow and her friends, but no. Mejah was doing that, with his singular focus and suitable insights. Meanwhile, Katha was stuck waiting up here. Why she had to even be on the planet, she didn't remember.

Something about needing to be nearby in case Mejah was found out. But he totally wouldn't be. Nope, couldn't be.

Oh! Katha suddenly realized something incredibly important. She didn't need to be wearing clothes! There was no one around to notice her and think she was weird! If Willow noticed her naked, she'd just assume it was normal, since Katha was the only one around!

Absolutely delighted by her revelation, Katha quickly stripped down before going for a nice frolic on the surface of the barren rock that was supposedly a planet.