A figure marched down a dirt trail with purpose in his steps. The brilliant reds and oranges of autumn leaves swirled around him as he took step after step. Mud caked the heavy leather boots he wore and even the hems of his green camouflage fatigues. Above his fatigues, he wore a matching plate carrier, and on his back was a massive rucksack. His helmeted head bobbed with each footstep as he carried onwards.

Captain Octavius J. Asher was miserable. Even before he started this march, he was exhausted from weeks of intense training. Now, after dozens of miles with eighty pounds on his back, he was running on willpower alone. The inert rifle in his hands felt like a lead weight, and with every footfall, pain shot from the soles of his feet and his shoulders to meet somewhere in the middle. His eyes were glazed over as he marched unceasingly onward. He knew that no amount of pain could get him to quit after everything he had been through. There were miles of pain to go, but he had months of pain behind him. This was the Long Walk, the final test to get into the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta. After everything he had been through, nothing could stop him from getting into The Unit.

It was probably due to the immense exhaustion he had that he didn't even blink when a blue screen appeared in his face. Wow, these hallucinations are getting realistic. When this is over, I am going to sleep for hours.

Congratulations! Your universe has joined the System.

You will enter the tutorial in

3… 2… 1...

Then everything went black.

Octavius opened his eyes and squinted. Bright rays of sun filtered through the dense green canopy and into his eyes. He … Wait, green? It’s the middle of fall! he thought to himself, there isn’t a green-leafed tree in the state at this time of year. He immediately made to sit up and get his bearings, only to be pulled back down by the weight of his rucksack. The straps of his rucksack slipped over his shoulders as it remained on the ground as he stood.

Even with the adrenaline coursing through his system, he was still drained, so there was no way he was unconscious for any noticeable amount of time. But this clearly isn’t the northeast anymore, and I couldn’t have been moved far while unconscious if I wasn’t unconscious for long. What is going on?

He surveyed the area around him for any hints. Around him was a clearing in a dense forest. The verdant green canopy was well over a hundred feet above him, and the area outside of the clearing was filled with vegetation and even a fallen log. Before he could inspect the area further, he noticed a gently flashing light at the edge of his vision. His eyes focused on it, and a blue box appeared in front of him.

You have entered Tutorial Instance 7eG659hj

The tutorial is a space where newly inducted races learn to use the System.

The top-ranked survivors will be rewarded at the end of the tutorial.

Time Remaining : 89 Days 23 Hours 58 Minutes 13 Seconds

Survivors Remaining : 9998/10000

You have been given:

Three (3) Health Potions (Tutorial)

Three (3) Stamina Potions (Tutorial)

Three (3) Mana Potions (Tutorial)

Hint : Think Status to summon your status screen.

Octavius barely had time to read the message before he heard a loud rustling behind him. He whirled around, the blue box disappearing just in time to let him see a brown blur following a set of antlers that slammed into his chest. The breath was knocked out of him, but the steel plate on his chest prevented any real injury. Scrambling to one knee, he instinctively brought his rifle to bear at the deer thing. The beast was as tall as him with the bone-white antlers, it had short brown fur covering its muscular body, and the snout of a wolf, filled with razor-sharp teeth. What is that?!

Common Carnivorous Deer (Lvl 8)

He shook his head slightly and blinked the blue box away, and focused on the immediate threat. It lowered its head for another charge as he brought the barrel of his rifle in line with its chest. His finger moved to pull the trigger before realizing that the rifle was inert, meant to simulate a rifle's weight, but not an actual firearm. As the beast started to accelerate, he threw the rifle aside and drew the only real weapon on him, a 7 ½” steel combat knife, from his plate carrier. His legs bent as he crouched low, making sure that he was below the line of the beast’s antlers, and held the knife in both hands. As the antlers rushed over him, the coiled muscles in his legs pushed him upwards, powering the knife straight into the beast’s neck.

He didn’t have time to deal more damage as an instant later, the creature's body impacted his own and sent him flying. The trained operator crashed into the trunk of a tree and fell to the ground. A grunt escaped his lips as he felt at least one rib break even through the plate carrier spreading out the force. Quickly scrambling to his feet, he scooped up the knife from where it fell beside him. His vision settled on the beast and he saw it stumbling slightly. It was injured but not dying.

Octavius took off at a run, coming at the beast from the side and raising the knife, bracing his other hand behind it, and drove it into the corded muscles of the beast's neck with all of his momentum and weight, cutting through the beast's throat. The beast turned its wide black eye to him and pranced a step away before collapsing.

Octavius inhaled in quick, shallow breaths to avoid hurting his ribs as he watched the creature bleed out.

You have killed Common Carnivorous Deer (Lvl 8) and gained 400 EXP (1/4)(8)(1)(2)(100)

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 2, 150/500 EXP to Lvl 3

+5 Free Stat Points

You have gained the unique title Forerunner

You are the first member of your universe to gain a level. Effect : All EXP Gain * 1.25

He blinked hurriedly, trying to understand his situation. Levels? Like a video game? The other screen said that I was transported to a tutorial. Is this like one of those novels I used to read? Wait, the welcome screen said something about a status screen.

Status

Name

Octavius J. Asher

Race

Human (F)

Level

2 - 150/500

Class

None

Titles

Forerunner

Health

327/360

Stamina

31/560

Mana

280/280

Strength

23

Dexterity

27

Agility

25

Constitution

28

Vitality

18

Perception

21

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

19

Will

31

Free Points

5

Status Effects

Injured - You have been injured. You will feel pain from certain movements. Certain movements will make your injury worse.

Fatigued - You have dangerously low stamina. You will feel pain from movement. All physical attributes -50% effectiveness

Skills

Identify (Lvl 1) - Discover information about a being or object. The amount of information is dependent on skill level and the object the skill is used on.

Speech (MAX) - You can speak all common humanoid languages.

Octavius studied the panel, working to make sense of it all. He realized that his health was twenty times his vitality, same with stamina and constitution, and mana with intelligence. The status told him that he was injured and tired, but he didn’t need a system to tell him that. It listed two skills, but he guessed everyone got them since he didn’t do anything to get them. His eyes flicked down to his knife and thought about identifying it.

Combat Knife (Uncommon) - An expertly crafted knife, made of the best steel and sharpened to a razor edge.

He read the message before dismissing it and bending down to wipe the blood off his blade with the grass. His muscles screamed in protest, but he completed the action and resheathed the knife. The pain from his low stamina reminded him of the earlier message. Didn’t it say I got potions?

He looked around before finding a brown bag attached to his belt. Reaching in, he found nine vials, colored green, blue, and red. Someone who had never even played a game before could guess which was which but he identified them anyway.

Health Potion (Tutorial) - A potion that restores all of the user’s health over 3 seconds. It can only be used in the tutorial. Only one can be used per day.

Stamina Potion (Tutorial) - A potion that restores all of the user’s stamina over 3 seconds. It can only be used in the tutorial. Only one can be used per day.

Mana Potion (Tutorial) - A potion that restores all of the user’s mana over 3 seconds. It can only be used in the tutorial. Only one can be used per day.

After reading the descriptions, he didn’t hesitate to drink one health potion and one stamina potion. The decision to drink the health potion was easy for him to make. He was in unfamiliar territory and was only armed with a knife, having to worry about a broken rib could prove fatal. After all, there was a chance that the rib could puncture a lung or even his heart if he were to be unlucky.

Energy coursed through his body, revitalizing the tired cells. A grunt escaped as his ribs snapped back together, and the ache in his shoulders disappeared. He shook out his hands and hopped in place for a second, luxuriating in the lack of pain.

He walked back over to his rucksack and looked down on it. What should I do now? He thought the message said there were 10,000 people in this tutorial, and some have already died. Judging from the fact that this is a tutorial, and that whatever the system seems to be rewarding the strong, I should try to become strong. Not much of a change, I guess.

Octavius decided to try to kill more beasts to level up. While he could try to find people to help, that wasn’t the type of person he was. When he joined the army, it was because he wanted to do something real, something with immediate consequences, where he would have to push himself constantly just to remain alive. His position as an officer only cemented his tendency to be a loner. Yes, he was close friends with the soldiers that were under his command back in the 75th Ranger Regiment, but he had to be separate from them. As an officer, he couldn’t be just one of the guys. While he might not be a selfless soldier, ready to lay down his life for strangers, he resolved to do his best to help out any civilians he came across while getting stronger.

He looked at his rucksack and grunted. There was no way that he would be carrying around eighty pounds everywhere. Unzipping the biggest compartment, he withdrew bag of sand after bag of sand. After he was done, he looked at the sandbags in a pile and started emptying them on the ground, using one of the bags to store the other empty bags and place that back into the rucksack. He then proceeded to use a stick to help dig a shallow hole before placing the inert rifle and the weighted magazines from his plate carrier into it. After filling in the hole, he emptied his ruck and took stock.

He was lucky that they carried a full combat load on top of the sandbags for the march. His rucksack contained extra pairs of fatigues, multiple extra socks, a water bladder, a few MREs, a few first aid kits, a sleeping roll, and a few other things. Everything was packed back in tight and the rucksack was lifted onto his back. After removing the sandbags and the magazines on his vest, he was barely carrying thirty pounds. With his full stamina, he felt ready to march fifty miles.

Octavius looked around the clearing, shoveling the sand over the disturbed dirt from the hole with his hands, and looked around to see if he needed to do anything else.

As he noticed a long branch of a tree that laid along the edge of the clearing, he got an idea. His common sense told him that the concept of fighting dangerous creatures with a knife was a poor decision. The one time he did do it a few minutes prior, he came out of the encounter with multiple broken bones, and he was lucky. His hand fetched his multitool and he sawed off the stick's end, leaving a 5’ section about an inch and a half in diameter, without branches. His combat knife made it easy to cut some notches into the end and used paracord to lash his combat knife to the end tightly.

Improvised Spear (Common) - A spear with a steel blade, held together by rope.

He smirked slightly and moved to explore the forest around the clearing. He took out his compass to get a sense of direction and was relieved to see that it worked. It seemed that all that land navigation training had a chance to pay off.

Octavius crouched low as he crept across the forest floor. He'd been hunting for the previous few hours and was it was beginning to get late. In front of him was a hog of some sort, with nasty tusks.

Common Warthog (Lvl 11)

He smiled to himself. This was the highest level beast he had found so far. His level had increased again after killing another deer that was level 7, along with a few lower-level beasts. Most creatures he found were only level 2 or 3, and he had discovered that they gave very little EXP. He had learned that if a beast was five or more levels above him it doubled the EXP, so he was excited. The EXP counter said that he was at 494/1000 EXP to get to level 4 and hoped that this warthog would let him level up.

He carefully grabbed a rock and threw it, hitting the warthog on the back. It turned toward him as he stepped away from cover, and it charged. He carefully braced the spear’s shaft against the ground and watched the warthog impale itself. His legs threw him out of the way as the spear failed to stop the beast’s momentum, and it slammed into the tree that was behind him.

You have killed Common Warthog (Lvl 11) and gained 688 EXP (1/4)(11)(1)(2)(1.25)(100)

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 4, 182/2000 EXP to Lvl 5

+5 Free Stat Points

Octavius smiled before looking at the sky. He determined that he didn’t have much sunlight left and made his way back to the clearing.

Octavius sat on the ground in front of a fire. The risk of fire was obvious, it was worth it to save an MRE and still eat. The moment he was done eating, he would leave the area to find a place to sleep, minimizing the risk of the fire attracting anything or anyone. He took large bites out of the meat of the carnivorous deer that he had butchered and roasted. Trying to conserve water, he only drank small sips. He had enough in the water bladder for another day if he rationed, but not much longer than that. It was the clear choice to put a focus on finding clear water the next day.

Status

Name

Octavius J. Asher

Race

Human (F)

Level

4 - 182/2000

Class

None

Titles

Forerunner

Health

360/360

Stamina

560/560

Mana

280/280

Strength

23

Dexterity

27

Agility

25

Constitution

28

Vitality

18

Perception

21

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

19

Will

31

Free Points

15

Status Effects

None

Skills

Identify (Lvl 2) - Discover information about a being or object. The amount of information is dependent on skill level and the object the skill is used on.

Speech (MAX) - You can speak all common humanoid languages.

He looked over the status and saw that his Identify skill leveled up; he resolved to continue using it on anything he could. He quickly turned his attention to his free stat points, however. My best weapon right now is a spear, I have had bo staff training among my martial arts, and the spear handles similarly. I could use more strength and dexterity. I don’t know how my stats match up with others, but I assume they are quite high. I haven’t had problems with taking too much damage, and I don’t need to change intelligence, wisdom, will, or perception. Yeah, strength and dexterity to help me kill things, and agility to run away if my opponent is too strong.

Strength +7 : 23 > 30

Dexterity +5 : 27 > 32

Agility +3 : 25 > 28

Suddenly, he heard footsteps from the underbrush in front of him. His ears could make out multiple pairs, but he couldn’t be sure how many. The ground fell away as he stood and looked at the spear. He had disassembled it so that he could use his knife to butcher the deer, and the knife was in its sheath. Adrenaline flooded his system, and he focused on the spot where whoever was making the sound would enter the clearing.

Three people stepped out of the shadows. The man in front, clearly, the group leader, was in his late thirties. The man was tall, with blue eyes and short brown hair. He was smiling broadly at Octavius as Octavius looked over the other two. Both were men, shorter than the leader, and young. They both had brown hair and brown eyes but were clearly not related, judging by their facial structures. Octavius couldn’t identify so much as a pocket knife on them, but with the only light being the flickering orange glow of the fire, he couldn’t be sure. They all wore jeans, so they could have things in their back pockets as well.

As Octavius looked over the three of them, the leader came closer and spoke, “Hello! Are you a soldier? Please help us, we don’t have weapons or food, and Tommy is hurt from one of those crazy animals!” He gestured at the young man to his left, apparently called Tommy, who held his left arm close to his body. Octavius didn’t respond but did use Identify on all of them.

James - Human (F) (Lvl 3)

Leo - Human (F) (Lvl 2)

Thomas - Human (F) (Lvl 2)

He frowned. Octavius knew how difficult it was to get to level three. Even though he was an SOF soldier with combat experience and was armed, it took him hours to do. These guys were starting to look suspicious. The leader was still talking, but now he focused on the area behind him, listening for any sign of an ambush. Sure enough, he heard a branch cracking. It sounded identical to the crackling of the fire, but when he focused, he knew it came from behind him.

He whirled to the right, away from a whistling sound that was quickly getting closer. Just as he drew his knife, a stick cracked across his head, and he stumbled. The soldier was lucky that he moved mostly out of the way, but it still hurt. He quickly recovered and dove onto the man, slicing out his throat in a fluid motion. Running footsteps drew his attention and he looked up to see five more people charging at him from the woods. They all had sticks for weapons and brandished them at him. He saw that they were all level 2, with one being level 1 still. With his increased stats and him being armed, he felt he could take them all. None were well trained, judging by the way they were waving their sticks.

He quickly moved towards the closest man. When the man swung, Octavius grabbed his hand, stopping the stick. His knife entered the man at an angle, under the ribcage and towards the heart three times before turning to face the next man. However, before he could move to attack, a gunshot rang out. Octavius felt the bullet pass within a foot of his ear and bolted for the trees. He made sure that he was carrying everything he needed, the only thing he was missing was the shaft he fashioned for the spear, but that was replaceable. He assessed the situation and then ran into the woods. There were too many unknowns concerning his enemy’s capabilities, and he had nothing to lose by fleeing.

As he ran, he looked over his notifications.

You have slain Dylan - Human (F) (Lvl 2) and gained 125 EXP (1/2)(2)(1)(1)(1.25)(100)

You have slain José - Human (F) (Lvl 2) and gained 125 EXP (1/2)(2)(1)(1)(1.25)(100)

After ten minutes, he found a large tree with a well-concealed hollow in it large enough for him. After making sure that he wasn't followed, he crawled inside and fell asleep.

James was livid. He lowered his handgun and stomped over to the corpse whose throat had been cut. He kicked it and started screaming, “Dylan, you stupid fuck! You better be glad you got off with a quick death, because if you didn’t, I’d make you pay for forcing me to use my last bullet!” suddenly, he spun around, “Thomas look around, he didn’t have a gun on him when he ran away, see if you can find his. Leo, take those two and go chase him down!”

As Thomas began to search, and the three men ran after the soldier, James started to look around as well. The soldier was wearing combat gear and a massive backpack, so James would bet his life that he also had a rifle. Even if he had run with most of the gun's ammo, he definitely didn't have the gun with him. James knew that a rifle with even a single magazine could help him level up at an incredible rate, so he needed to find it.