When we first arrived on Idroa, we were relieved that we could finally find our loved ones, and we collectively wiped our brow as we realised the planet wasn’t nearly as hostile as the tutorials had made it out to be. To put it simply, we were lulled into a false sense of security.

Wilfrid Pember - Historian - The Start of the Apocalypse

____

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the lion made a sudden turn and clawed at a man blinded by its rainbow aura. Roaring, it flung him down, and he crashed into the ground with a shriek. His features twisted dreadfully as his bones fractured on impact. Before the beast could have a second shot at him, his immediate companions pulled him away while others in the group continued their assault, growing reckless and frenzied.

Out of them, two individuals stuck out in particular, the first being a tall man wielding a large round shield and mace. He had a bright blue bandana tied as a headband and a striking pencil moustache. Although his attacks were imprecise, they were powerful enough to make the lion cringe back in pain, and his defence was even more impressive as he blocked several lethal strikes. The second was a bald woman about Silas’s height who fearlessly beat down the monster with her bare hands. To his estimations, she appeared to be the strongest out of the group.

Just as Silas considered joining the fight and helping out, the bandana man threw himself at the now stumbling lion and bashed it with his shield. Seizing the opportunity, the woman ducked towards it, her arms infusing with mana, and smashed the monster on its chin, executing a fearsome uppercut. Staggering back, it weakly groaned before collapsing, bleeding heavily from its wounds. Its crystalline covering slowly disappeared and revealed the soft fur underneath, just in time as it spat out a crystal cube.

The crystal cube was the size of two fists with ever-shifting runes engraved across its faces. It emitted a ray of light that pierced the shredded clouds above, and Silas supposed it could be seen for miles all around. They would have no way to hide if something else came hunting for it.

****

Lowering his head, Silas subdued his presence while scrutinising the men and women he walked with. He had joined the group on their journey back to their base, having figured it was a better idea than wandering alone in these wild new lands. Luckily, they hadn’t encountered any noteworthy beasts yet.

“But, man, you were unlucky, real unlucky. To think it would teleport you right next to that monster,” said Josh, shaking his head with an easy smile. Young and tanned with a stylish stubble and messy hair, Josh looked as if he could have been a model if his nose hadn’t been overly large and his eyes too close to each other. The others had all ignored Silas after a look-over, so he had been surprised when the good-natured blond had immediately struck up a conversation with him.

Pursing his lips for the moment, Silas shrugged - he didn’t know how well his theory that the System had purposely placed him beside the monster would go over with his new companion.

Josh didn’t seem put off by the lack of reply. “You must’ve taken the hard tutorial, right? Did you face anything like that there?”

Silas arched an eyebrow and inspected Josh more thoroughly. Attempting to glean information from his eyes, he wondered how the blond had come to that conclusion.

Chuckling, Josh replied, “Don’t give me that mystified look, man. Only the people who did the hard tutorial got that heavy armour.” His eyes lingered on the deep cuts on its outer plates.

Silas had noticed the different armour variants earlier but hadn’t figured out the reason until now. Most people had thinner types like Josh’s, and only the bandana man and bald woman had armour like his own. In truth, even theirs were slightly different, but it was hard for others to tell given his set was ripped and coated with dirt.

“Yeah, it was tough, but I didn’t face anything like that there,” Silas finally replied, deliberately keeping his answer vague. While he had no interest in hiding his power, he was in no rush to reveal it either. Better he figured out the general situation before that.

“I guess that makes sense. Dom and Sabine passed the hard tutorial like you, but even they seemed to struggle against that beast.” Josh said, then paused. “Still, if that thing had shown up in my tutorial, we would have had more than just an injury, man, way more.”

The injured person was now in a stable condition, having first-aid applied immediately after the fight and was being carried back.

“What was your tutorial like then?” Silas asked. While he had given Josh the impression he would have struggled with the crystallised lion, the truth was it would have been a breath of fresh air compared to the boars, toads, and minks. It made Silas wonder how different the other tutorials had been for them to worry so much about the lion.

“Mine? Well,” Josh said, shaking his head with a haunted expression, “I just did the normal one, and we were up against these damned monkeys. Man, I’m telling you, just the thought of them makes me want to rip my hair out. Makes me wish I had done the easy tutorial - I heard most of them didn’t even have to fight. Imagine that.”

Silas did imagine it and frowned gently at the thought - if he had chosen one of the easier tutorials, he would have likely remained the same old Silas as before: a deadbeat thief. Combat had beaten him into shape and given him a brighter path to follow. “So, did you come out of the tutorial with these guys then?” he asked, motioning at the group they were with. “I passed mine with my friends, but the System has separated us since then.”

“Don’t worry, that happens to everyone,” Josh answered softly as if consoling him. “Honestly, I still haven’t the slightest where we are now or where my home’s gone. I just woke up alone two days ago and wandered about. Then, Lazzaro - he’s basically our leader - shot a flare into the sky, and I followed it to this village with most of its facilities intact. Our best guess is it was teleported from somewhere on Earth since the houses are clearly lived in. Anyways, everyone in the area saw the flare, and we just gathered around it, I guess.”

Before Silas could ask a question, the blond spoke again, pointing. “Look, you can see it there if you really squint.”

Silas could see it clearly in the distance. There were billows of smoke coming from the chimneys and enough houses to comfortably accommodate about two hundred. The houses looked sturdy, made of brick and mortar with mossy tiled roofs. A wide river ran through the centre with a stone bridge arching over it. “How many people live here?”

“Right now, I’d say a hundred or so. But apparently the crystal will make the village a System-recognised settlement. After that, I reckon it’ll only be a matter of time before the population explodes - you know, strength in numbers and all,” Josh said.

Nodding, Silas moved his gaze back to the river, watching how the sunlight danced across the water’s surface. There were three suns in the sky: two besides each other, one tinted red and the other yellow, and the third a trailing dwarf that beamed purple.

As they entered the village, he was surprised to see tens of people waiting on the cobbled streets. Some were armed but most looked like they had been plucked straight from the streets of some central city. They watched the incoming group eagerly, eyes roving between the men and women as if searching for something.

Sensing their excitement, Dom, the bandana man, raised the crystal, and the crowd cheered at the sight. Many of the fighters dropped out of the procession to join the crowd while the rest took a winding path upwards, their feet clapping flatly as they climbed a hill that held the largest building in the area - the village hall.

Entering, Silas’s spirit mellowed slightly as he saw a large hearth in the centre radiating a comforting heat, draining the chill from his weary bones. A sizeable group surrounded the hearth, their bodies painted with firelight and their eyes a-glitter. The most catching of them was a man in the centre with a grand, greying walrus moustache on his ruddy face. He gestured vividly as he finished his story, clearly relishing the attention.

____

The System placed many hub crystals on Idroa as the tutorials came to an end. These acted as lures to nearby animals and, once consumed, buffed their attributes. In addition, the crystals emitted piercing rays of light into the sky and gave their hosts tough crystalline covering.

However, despite these perks the hosts were all simple-minded beings marked for slaughter. The crystals cultivated insatiable bloodlusts inside of them, forcing them to mindlessly kill and kill until killed themselves.

Giada Marino - Scholar - Intricacies of the System