As soon as he had finished learning all the skills, an opening appeared on the wall in front of Michael leading to the third phase of the Tutorial.

The room he found himself in was not actually a room, it was an arena. The arena consisted of a central circular platform, roughly fifteen metres wide.the platform was made from some sort of stone with a fine layer of sand covering it. around the edge was a wall ten feet high with several layers of stands above that. the ceiling was some way away, Michael estimated it to be at least thirty feet up. Looking around the arena, devoid of all signs of life, Michael couldn't help but shiver. "All it needs is a bunch of blood splashed over the walls and it's ominousness would reach the maximum level." The atmosphere goes a long way to explaining why, when the AI spoke up from directly behind Michael, there was almost a repeat of The Incident Which Shall Not Be Mentioned.

"This is the arena where the first trial will be administered. Please choose your weapons" At this point racks filled with multiple different types of weapons appeared "and some armour" several suits of armor on mannequins appeared "and prepare yourself. In ten minutes the Monster will appear and you will either fight, or die."

Michael froze for a second, and then sprang into action. Years spent in various forests had taught him that preparation could mean the difference between life and death. Looking over the weapons he found a dizzying array of choices. Everything from throwing knives to compound bows were arranged on the racks. Sticking with what he knew, Michael grabbed a compound bow as well as a quiver of arrows and slung them over his shoulder. he then picked up a hunting knife with its own sheath similar to what he was used to. Though he had never used one in a fight he knew he needed options when it came to close quarter fights. Most of the martial arts he knew were primarily focused on fighting another human and were far less useful against animals. Taking a final quick look over the weapons he grabbed a belt of throwing knives. He'd never really used anything like it but he figured, with his lvl 2 Throwing Skill, he might be able to use them.

With that done, he moved on to the armours. Dismissing the heavier plate and chainmail armours he focused on the selection of leather armours. After testing a few, he chose a mottled green armour set. The set offered much less protection than some of the other sets since it only consisted of chest armour, pauldrons, bracers and greaves but the benefits far outweighed the lack of protection. With less pieces there was less weight to slow him down and restrict his movements. Since each part could be tightened with straps there would be nothing flapping about and attracting attention with the noise. Putting the armour on required a bit of wrangling but fortunately the set was designed to be put on quickly and with ease. After tightening all the various straps and doing a few stretches to make sure nothing was loose and his movements weren't affected, he picked up his weapons. Strapping the knife to his right thigh, the belt of throwing knives around his waist and the quiver of arrows onto his back, he picked up his bow. After knocking an arrow, he was ready. "How much time is left?" he asked the AI, mind focused and ready for a fight.

"5 minutes. You have surprised me once again Michael. I had thought you would have first asked questions or at least hesitated."

"Questions are a luxury and I treat them as such. I ask when I can but if it's a choice between readying for a fight to the death and wasting time asking questions, I don't waste time. Since we do have time, what will I be fighting?"

"I'm afraid I do not know. Gaia chooses each Monster that people fight at random from the many present on Pangea. I'm sorry"

"Oh, okay" The reality of what was about to occur had finally sunk in for Michael. In a few minutes he could be dead and there was nothing more he could do to prepare.

The silence lingered. At some point the AI removed the various weapons and armors but Michael didn't notice. He was lost in thought, thinking over everything that had transpired throughout his life. He thought of the friends he had made, the people he had met. He wondered if he would ever see any of them again. Then he thought of his family, the parents whose faces he could barely even remember anymore. And he thought of the sister that was still out there, somewhere. Michael smiled wryly, Sarah had probably already finished the Tutorial and was currently bossing people around.

The AI's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "There is one minute left Michael."

Michael run a final check over his gear, busying his hands as he worked up the nerve to ask a question he wasn't sure if he wanted answered. Finally, he asked "Is Sarah alive?"

"I cannot tell you that. All I can tell you is that, out of the entirety of the human race, Sarah had one of the higher odds of survival going into this tutorial."

"Yeah, she was always a fighter."

No more words were said. When it got to ten seconds the AI, with a final "Good luck", *dinged* away.

As the seconds counted down, Michael drew the bow to full draw. Whilst compound bows had excellent accuracy and damage compared to their counterparts, they weren't quick. Similar to a sniper rifle, Compound Bows were meant to kill from afar, and with one shot. if Michael had any chance, he had to make the first shot count. If he couldn't kill the monster he needed to at least hamper its movement.

When the countdown hit zero, rather than a Monster just appearing, a section of the wall opposite him started to rumble slowly upwards. Before it was even halfway open he could hear a growling sound coming from the dark opening. Whatever it was, it was big. Just the way the sound reverberated through his chest told Michael that. Taking aim at the opening Michael breathed out, steadying his mind and his hands, he waited. Less then a second later a bear, looking every bit like a brown bear except double the usual size, burst from the opening and into the arena. Briefly pausing to let its eyes adjust to the light, it spotted Michael. It also saw the arrow bursting towards its face. Michael, hoping for a swift victory and taking advantage of the brief pause as its eyes adjusted, had aimed for the bears eye and the brain behind it. Unfortunately, the bear had adjusted to the light faster than Michael had anticipated and, seeing the approaching arrow ducked. The arrow, instead of hitting the bear's eye, hit it's forehead and was stopped completely by a thick skull reinforced by Mana. The minor damage had almost zero effect, other than thoroughly enraging the bear. It immediately put it's head down and charged at Michael.

If Michael had the time to use the Identify Skill he would have discovered that this particular bear was known simply as 'Strong Bear'. It was not an imaginative name but it was quite suitable. This particular Monster already had 20 Strength at lvl 1, every single attack would hit like a bus. The rest of its attributes, apart from vitality which was sitting at 10, were all either 5 or 6.

This is why, when the bear charged at Michael, it did not have the Perception necessary to notice Michael swiftly moving out of the way. It did notice when it slammed into the wall with enough force to create a small crater. This was unfortunately not enough to kill or even knock the bear out. It did make it sluggish for a few seconds. Enough for Michael to run to the other end of the arena, nocking another arrow as he ran. Reaching the other end he spun around, drawing his bow to full as he did. Aiming at the bear he chose this time to aim at the bears leg to try and cripple it. The bear was already charging towards him again but he had plenty of practice with moving targets. Several years of having to hunt for food had taught him how to hit a running target, even one running towards him.

Putting an arrow in the leg of the charging bear would likely have a minimal effect, especially to a monsterized bear, but this was definitely going to have to be a battle of attrition. The Bears thick skull, and it's ridiculous size, meant Michael couldn't one shot the beast. However, if he could hamstring the beast the fight would be all but finished. Releasing the arrow he immediately dashed to the left. The arrow impacted the leg of the charging bear, doing about as much damage as expected. Remembering his new Spell, Michael quickly fired off a Magic Missile, aiming for the same leg as before. The Missile struck soundly, and did even less damage than the arrow. Still, every little bit helped as michael settled in for a protracted fight.

It took another two arrow and missile combinations to make the bears leg useless, slowing it down immensely. It took another leg to slow it down to a crawl. At that point Michael felt sorry for the poor creature, despite being near death's door it was still mindlessly dragging itself towards Michael. In the end Michael won, but the win felt tainted. Michael found himself wishing, needing, a more powerful attack. Nevertheless, with a final arrow, he ended the bears life.

lvl 1 Strong Bear Killed!

5 experience points earned

Bonus : Bear Paws

Step Achieved!

You have killed your first Monster. You will have many battles, congratulations on surviving the first.

Bonus :

3 Attribute points

Skill Up!

Magic Missile lvl 1 -> 2

Throwing lvl 2 -> 3

Michael was surprised at the rewards for the battle. The first, the 'Bear Paws' had materialized on top of the bears corpse and looked like an ordinary pair of brown leather gloves. The only interesting thing about them was that the palms and inside of the fingers were made of some type of black material. With a quick touch of the corpses paw to compare, Michael confirmed that they were exactly like the pads on the bears paws. He threw an Identify at them ... and received nothing. Sighing, Michael started spamming Identify while he looked over the rest of it.

The second notification was an unexpected bonus. The last time he had achieved a 'Step' he had only been given one attribute point and yet this time he had gotten three. Michael wasn't quite sure why there was an increase but he wasn't going to argue.

The Skill up notification made him happy, he'd exhausted his supply of knives and cast ten Missiles in the hopes of levelling the skills, so he was happy to see his efforts come to fruition. He was a little sad that none of his other skills had-

Item Identified!

Bear Paws

Tier 1, Normal Quality, 50/50 Durability, Strength +1

A Pair of gloves containing a fraction of the strength of the infamous Strong Bear.

Oh good, the Identify had worked, and after the second try no less. When he had tried to identify the bear it had taken 6 tries before it worked.

"Congratulations, you have passed the trial of combat. You have successfully completed the Tutorial." At some point the AI had appeared, Michael being to busy looking over his rewards to notice. "And a further congratulations on the item. An item reward from a monster kill is a relatively uncommon occurrence, usually happening only 15% of the time."

"Where does the item come from? The gloves were called 'Bear Paws', but the bear still has it's paws."

"Usually, when a Monster dies, the Mana within its body dissipates into the atmosphere. In the case of an item reward, some of the Mana continued to reside within the body. The system then takes this Mana and converts it, along with a core concept of the Monster, into an item reward. For instance, those 'Bear Paws' likely have the Strength Increase effect, since the Bears only Concept revolved around Strength."

Michael looked at the gloves, and his inner Loot Hamster was born. He was immediately filled with a desire to go out, find the biggest, baddest Monsters and turn them into loot. Staring at the gloves, he had a sudden irrational urge to stroke them and call them his precious. That thought finally managed to snap him out of it. Michael wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but he had a feeling it would come to haunt him.

As Michael was shuddering at the potential hamster-driven misadventures lying in wait for him, the AI spoke. "Now that you have officially completed the Tutorial, you have a choice to make. You can either leave the Tutorial and return to the planet, or you can stay and take one of three trials in order to attain reward. I must warn you however, even the least of the trials will be more dangerous than what you have just experienced. The possibility of your death is far greater than if you simply leave."

Michael ... wasn't sure. All this time he'd sort of been treating all this as a dream. The Tutorial, along with everything he had learned, just seemed to fantastical to be true. The possibility of leaving made everything suddenly very real. What would be waiting for him when he got back? He had been in a forest, miles away from the nearest people and over 2,000 miles away from his home in Michigan. He would likely have to travel a long way, on his own, just to find the nearest town. Actually, since Gaia had apparently wiped out all the buildings, there wouldn't even be any towns. Just a bunch of people against Monsters like that bear. Michael looked at the AI, more serious than he had been since this all started.

"Just tell one thing, will these rewards let me help others survive?"

"Yes and no. Most of the rewards are designed to assist you, rather than others. However, the stronger you are, the more you will be able to help others. It won't be easy to attain them though."

"I'll take a trial." Michaels ind was made up. He had a long journey ahead of him and he was going to need all the help he was going to get. "What are my options?"

"There are three options for the trials. Fighting, Crafting and Survival. In the Fighting Trial you will face an opponent in a manner similar to what you have just experienced. There are three levels of difficulty, each with different rewards. The Crafting Trial is simple, you are given materials as well as a workspace and an amount of time in which to create an item. The rewards you gain will be based on the quality of item you make. Be warned however, if you fail to make an item or you waste resources, you will be executed once the time runs out. Gaia does not appreciate her goodwill being squandered unnecessarily. The final option, Survival, is the most difficult option but also the most rewarding. In this Trial you will be forced to survive in an increasingly dangerous environment. The longer you survive, the better your rewards if you leave. You will only be given the option to leave once a week though."

Michael weighed up the options, though he already knew what he was going to choose. For someone who had spent years surviving in the wild to choose anything other than the Survival Trial would be a travesty. Still, if he took this option it would be at least a week before he was back. The world out there was completely different to the one he knew, and he was excited to see what it held in store. Still, with a better start he would be able to see much more of the world. His mind firmly set, he made his decision. "I'll take the Survival Trial."

"Good luck" With that, Michael was teleported to the Survival Trial.