Chapter 3 – Hard Tutorial And A Close Feat.

When Lantis opened his eyes, he found himself in a strange place.

He was well and standing, that was at least pretty obvious. He could move and flex his muscles, his senses all working along with his limbs but his environment told a completely different story.

When he looked around, he found the place very similar to scenes that you see in sci-fi movies.

Everything seemed holographic giving off bluish hue lights. There was no sun but when one will look forward at the distant horizon, they will find lights lighting up the sky as if it was dawn already.

He looked down on the floor, on the sky, in every direction only to find various holograms, bokeh graphical designs and triangular fragments flying through the floor and sky that transitioned from blue to white and vice-versa.

It felt eerie, lonely, sad…and quite cool at the same time.

He thought about the situation and found out there was indeed a section written in the manual about this so-called “endless void”.

Where he is now, should be the very famous “memory corridor”. It was an empty virtual space within the Helix. One can say it is the “loading screen” and “tutorial mode” of the game. The user could roam around for a while the memory partition is being made.

Probably because he tempered the settings a bit too much, it seemed all the way more realistic now. Not that it was a bad thing, but it will take a while for him to dive in.

While he was enjoying the unusual view, a white silhouette passed through his eyes and stood before him.

“Quite a sight for the eyes, isn’t it?”

Lantis slowly moved his gaze towards the source of that unusual voice. There he saw a girl, gazing at the exact direction towards the horizon he was looking at right now.

The girl looked really mesmerising to the eyes. She was wearing the clothes of a Greek goddess, it reminded him of the pictures he saw about the goddess Athena on a magazine. As a modern otaku and a history nerd, he knew the body-length garment was called “peplos” and the mantle was called “Himation” used in the Hellenistic times, the developers really had a nice taste for clothes. Her eyes blue, black hair straight to her knees with streaks of white shading it from the side gave her a godly aura.

Lantis didn’t stare at her for too long, he lightly smiled looking into her eyes and said,

“You don’t look too bad yourself; I can stare at you for an entire day and will still not get bored. But, who might you be?”

The girl smiled, returned her gaze to Lantis and replied.

“I am Luna, short for Lunafreya of the project 67. As you might have already guessed, I am your in-game AI, assistant, helper and supporter. I have been made, programmed and created to assist you in your endeavours and needs. Should something happen to you, I will be the one directly responsible for your issues. Thus, you can rest be assured of my reliability and I will prove my best to help you in return.”

Wow!

She is well-made, really well-made. That was the first thought which came to Lantis mind after judging and knowing her. But then again, the thought of objectifying her sounded pretty...rude to him. She should be a true-type versatile AI judging from her tone and the files he saw about her in the settings. It’s a pity though her usability scope is just limited to in-game and helix.

“Nice to meet you too, Luna. Let’s help and rely on each other from now on. Friends?”

Lantis extended his hand, expecting for Luna’s hand.

Luna hesitated for a moment but nonetheless complied. Her hand felt awfully cold, it was to be expected from an AI though.

“Yeah, friends. User Lantis, it feels nice to have someone call you that once in a while.”

“So, what are we gonna do now? Just standing here waiting for shit to happen is not in our plan, right?”

“Of course not, let’s finalise your profile and begin the tutorial. I need you to do some stuff and be attentive as possible. This is gonna heavily impact your in-game experience and I don’t want you slacking off.”

“Well, I am all ears with you in this one. Let's get this thing rolling.”

Ting!

//Initiating Tutorial Sequence//

You have received a new quest!!

Quest Title: A One Step Closer. (Tutorial Quest)

Primary Objective(s): Complete your profile.

Optional Objective(s): Attain 100% synchronisation.

Rewards: ???

(Y/N)

“Now I believe you have received your very first quest. I congratulate for that, but this won’t certainly be your last. Throughout your playthrough here, you will receive tons of quests each with their own agenda, criteria, rewards and objectives which will affect various things in the game including you, your world and the various people you interact with. But, mainly in Total War Online quests are broadly divided into two types- RPG Quests/ Adventure quests which will be more about you helping and killing others and gaining rewards in turn that will directly aid you and Kingdom Quests that is more about your fief- how you will manage your kingdom, who to conquer, ally, vassalize etc. Completing them will grant powerful boons to your nation, failing to do so might incur harsh penalties or you may lose valuable opportunities. Some quests can be voluntarily accepted or rejected at will, while others once accepted can’t be rejected at all. So, be always on your guard when you receive a quest.”

“You will start alone in this game, without any landed fief or a tribe to support you or your cause. Thus, for the purposes of this tutorial, I am giving you a unique RPG-type quest. Complete this and you may pass your tutorial, am I clear?”

Lantis quickly digested the newfound information in his brain. Thinking about it, it actually made sense.

“Yep, very clear.”

Lantis looked up at his HUD (Head-ups display) and sure enough, there were new toys for him to play with. In the upper-left corner of his vision, he found an icon of a tribal warrior, with a long life bar. There was a horizontal transparent bar in the top of the screen, with a pointer showing directions and a diamond mini-map in the bottom-right corner displaying his position too.

Yep, now it feels more like a game. Seems to me, the partition has been completed.

Luna nodded and continued, “The thing you are looking at right now is not a life bar, it’s a sync bar showing your progress in this tutorial. As you can see, it’s currently empty. Let’s try to fill it up, follow my lead now.”

They both continued to move on quite a few distances before Luna suddenly halted and looked back at Lantis.

Ting!

You have received a new sub-quest to the existing Quest “A One Step Closer”!!

Quest Title: For The War Chief!! (Tutorial Sub-Quests)

Quest Objective(s): Follow the directed path and complete all the optional activities.

Optional Objective(s): 1) Master of Agility: Complete all the sprinting and free running activities within the time limit. (7:45)

2) Master of Stealth: Remain hidden and assassinate everyone swiftly within the time limit. (18:15)

3) Master of Sword and Strategy: Make your enemies cower in fear with your might; lead your army to victory within the time limit. (60:00)

4) Defender of the Faith: Complete all the above objectives within the time limit.

Difficulty – Easy/Moderate

Reward(s):-

1) 75% Tutorial Sync.

2) A Beginner Achievement.

3) 50% chance of earning a Feat.

4) +10 extra allocation points to all your base stats (Including Nation Stats).

Lantis looked at the objectives, looked at it again, looked back at it once again; many thoughts were racing through his mind. The most prominent one being-

It’s fucking dark souls all over again!!

He painfully looked at Luna, hoping for some reason about this pain in the ass quest.

Luna, on the other hand, was smiling at him eye-to-eye.

“Well, from here on- It’s up to you. The system will judge you based on your activities and will allocate base points to all your stats. Keep in mind, that the points that you will allocate are the points that you will earn while the system is adding “base points”. Something like a foundation over your natural abilities for the sake of keeping it real and dynamic. I will be keeping tabs on you, so do well. Go now, impress a girl. Don’t forget to check your weapon wheel and inventory for arms; you don’t wanna fight barehanded, don’t you? ”

Lantis saw a new thingie in the upper-right corner of his vision distracting his thoughts. It was a fucking-timer.

Tick-tock

Tick-tock

Tick-tock

--7:41--

--7:40--

“Wait, what the hell...”

Before he could even say anything, Luna had already disappeared.

He groaned and looked around everywhere. There was a unique green light coming from the distance, should be the aforementioned directed path.

He didn’t waste his time anymore; time itself waits for no one. Why should he feel the need to wait for someone then?

He ran, ran as fast as he ever could.

Breathing, panting but running nonetheless.

His legs continued to throttle in this blue world.

The scenery didn’t seem to change but the green light did seem to appear a bit closer.

or, was it even that close?

“It’s still fucking far. This is no good, at this rate my stamina will get drained before I even know it. I am not Usain Bolt; I don’t have that much stamina. I need to balance it for other secondary objectives after this. I need to run in such a way that I can take gentle but large strides at once while keeping my stamina at the bottom. I can feel it I am not that much tired as I should be, that means there is a stamina modifier running in the background. Works for me, I guess. This game is giving me a psychological headache now.”

He looked at his mini-map panting and then on the timer.

--7:11—

--6:45—

Lantis walked taking huge strides now, never looking back once. The scenes around him began to change fast.

The holographs, bokehs and myriads of memory fragments in the air began to join up and started forming various structures. It looked beautiful and gorgeous.

The green light was closer now, but the narrow road which he seemed to be treading on was as if reached a dead end.

Looking at his mini-map, it seemed the quest item was here and no-where at once. This was really annoying as it often happens in few games.

He looked above and wondered. Could it be?

He climbed on one of the cube structures that have fallen on the bottom and then it rose up into the air once again.

Conquer your fears and take right steps at the right time.

Think out-of-the-box.

Years of playing various video games have given him enough experience to know where this is going and what the system now actually wants from him.

Background vocals music could be heard now, It's like when you see an epic scene in video games to increase the suspense and tempo.

“I can see now why people love this game now. It makes you feel special. Not me though, I am fucking distracted as hell right now. “

--6:31—

He jumped from one block to another in the open sky, not once fearing that he might fall and break his bones at this height.

“There is a stamina modifier increasing my stamina plus this shit is a tutorial. If the system is making me do this kind of work, then there should be a fall damage modifier too. Although it will still hurt badly, I, fortunately, will have my life safe. After all, how hard can this game possibly be?”

Well, the part about being the game "not hard" was something, he will regret saying about it in his later years.

Lantis was pretty good in his physical activities back in his high school. Not the best, but still somewhere fell in the middle between the best and the average.

He continued to leap from one block to another and continued the process until he could no longer find any.

There was a large rectangular structure on the sidelines, with a rope hanging on both sides between him and the source of the green light now.

“There is no free-run without any obstacles and acrobatic stunts. Alright Prince of Persia time, here I come.”

He gripped the rope very tightly with his left hand, his right hand gripping it from above. He took a deep breath, moved a few steps backwards.

Then ran through the wall with all his might holding the rope in one hand to balance himself; He quickly reached the other side, then he found a ledge where he could hold it with his hands when the rope he was holding seemed to pull back. He quickly untied his grip and held the other nearby rope.

Balancing himself, he looked above and pushed himself up the ledge.

“Phew…”

Ting! Ting! Ting!

You managed to perform a wall run!

You managed to perform a cat leap!

You managed to perform a long jump!

You managed to perform a high jump!

You managed to perform a run without a pause!

You did not manage to perform a scale!

You did not manage to perform a crawl!

As one of the few players to perform all of these in easy/moderate difficulty,

The system has rewarded you with a feat: Iron Lungs.

Iron Lungs (Silver Feat.)

While this feat is activated...

For a short length of time in a day, you can sprint much faster without losing any of your stamina. (Personal Skill)

Under your wise leadership, you can train your army to march 20% faster in friendly and neutral terrains. (Tactical Skill)

Your scouts can move 25% faster than normal in uncharted areas with this feat.

You have a chance to research a military technology faster than others: Military Drill at -10% Cost (This boon can only be used once)

Time-4:41—

“Well…I am speechless. But if I had managed to do the other two moves as well, could I have gained a better feat? God, this system likes to play dirty. But many people could have already done better than me...looks like I will have to be cautious in the future. ”

This is gonna be one of the weirdest tutorials I have played in a while.

This feat itself is not bad though, in the right hands it could prove definitely useful. The main feature is still that minus tech cost. That shit is no less than gold.

No time to slack off. The mission is still on-going.

So, where was that green light coming from? He looked forward only to find a green orb giving off light floating in the air at the centre of another square block. He leapt and tried to feel it, only for it to disintegrate into dust the moment he touched it.

"huh?"

Ting!

You have completed optional objective 1): Master of Agility.

You have managed to cover 1.5km within a very short period of time (3:10).

The system has allocated points in one of your stats.

Synchronisation has increased by 25%, allowing you to use your weapons and skills.

You won’t be earning feats in this quest anymore.

You are requested to prepare for your next trial: 2) Master of Stealth.

Quest Difficulty has been increased to: Only Moderate

Lantis took a deep breath.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be a long day.”