Chapter 2: Tutorial (pt2)

Because the second stage of the tutorial would not end until the knife was finished I went ahead with preparing all the parts but the cordage, not only sharpening the straight and jagged sides of the scooped and sheer-sided triangular blade but also breaking the teeth from a mandible and smoothing the hollow holes for an ergonomic handle.

The mandible was honestly pretty gross because it still had large bits of meat in it like a crab's claw but it did not look or smell appetizing in the least. Once I emptied it out, though, it basically dried in an instant. Because it is a video game.

While those parts just sat by the side, I more carefully traced out a large scooped triangle shaped spearhead from a third wing case. The tracing was done by scraping and cutting with my first tool along the door and bottom sides of the chitin wing casing until there were deep furrows outlining a spearhead. Then I slowly pressed it to the ground to break the spearhead out.

Instead of fading away, the curved excess pieces and the straight edge side of the wing case left over did not particulate and float away. Instead, they became more material pieces.

[Acquired Insect Chitin(small) x2]

Aside from these spare parts I did not receive any experience from making the spearhead or from affixing it to the carved end of my walking stick. To do this, I simple sawed and hammered the chisel-edged tool into the end of the stick, ground some notches into the bottom sides of the spearhead, and then wrapped three halves of bush bark around the spearhead sitting in the slit wood.

Tying the loose ends of the 'binding material' around a small stick, I place my foot on the walking stick on the ground and start twisting the stick. In this way, the three strips of bush bark folded in half would tighten a base loop around the spearhead and walking stick while twisting into a six-strand cordage. When the cordage was tightened around the spearhead as much as I felt comfortable with for fear of breaking it, I started wrapping the twisted cordage tightly about the spearhead until the notches on the sides were full.

Repeatedly knotting and hitching the remaining cordage around the walking stick under the spear, I simply cut the excess when I was done and watch it drift away as dust. Surprisingly, though, I received several notifications.

[Crafted: Walking Spear]

[+5XP]

[Learned: Primitive Crafting]

[+5XP]

[Level Up]

[All stats raised by 1]

Surprised that I had gotten experience for making a spear-type weapon when I was in a tutorial stage for making a knife, I curiously set about performing the same binding process on the knife blade and mandible grip.

[Crafted: Chitin Trench Knife]

[+5XP]

That was all I got for it before a message window followed by more notifications appeared.

[Congratulations on crafting such a fine knife and handy spear, we AI do not often get to see such levels of ingenuity and for its high attack rating design we feel you deserve a reward. Please enjoy your reward for completing the second step of the tutorial as much as we enjoyed the second step!]

[Tutorial Stage Two: Cleared]

[Tutorial Stage Two Clear Rating: S+]

[Tutorial Stage Two Clear Reward: +10XP]

[Tutorial Stage Two Rating BonusES: Crafty perk>Perk Upgrade: Craftier]

[Moving onward to your destination, the path of life will hold many chance encounters. Keep your head up and your wits about you as you continue on your journey. As long as you continue to make use of your natural talents and intelligence, we are sure you will do well]

Opening my menus once again to go to my character page, I soon find the Craftier perk listed under skills as a passive buff that increases the efficiency of self-made equipment by seven percent. Checking my equipment, I find that my walking stick turned spear had gone up to ten attack. The trench knife that was made with a cruel back edge, two long teeth pointing forward above and below the grip space, and a jaggedly sharp broken bottom had an attack rating of thirteen.

Combined with my Strength stat at level three, my trench knife could put out a base damage of nineteen to a proper strike, half of that in a partial blow, and a whopping thirty-eight damage in a defenseless critical hit.

Because I currently had thirty-five out of fifty experience points for my next level-up, I decided to run a quick test by making some new cordage by itself for which the game gives me three experience. Then I carved a hole in the front and back bottom of the mandible above the broken bottom point and fit the cordage through to make a wristband with because I did not have a sheathe.

The game did not give me anything for modifying my knife and the knife's stats did not change any so I decided that it was high time to move on with the tutorial. Just as I expected, fifteen yards out from the intersection I received a visual combat alert that was a full and dark red around the edges of my vision. Hopefully, there would be no interruptions.

More bushes rustled like when the beetles appeared but instead a large canine that was half as tall as I was and almost as long as I was tall leaped out onto the road. At first I thought it was a wolf because of the shape of its head and its thick shaggy coat. However, the color and patterning of the fur seemed oddly yellowish with blue-gray speckling and an ashy colored face.

Plus the fur itself was so wavy it almost looked curly, which meant this animal was probably a mutt or half-wolf breed of some sort. Regardless of what it was or where it came from, it was big and not in a happy state as it paced back and forth across the road while growling lowly.

Despite its side and its thick fur, I could tell the wolf had not eaten in a while because of how shallow the stomach between the ribs and hips were as well as how visible the prominent shape of its entire rib cage was. This big canine was hungry and obviously had no intention of letting me pass. Considering the reach and strength of my walking spear, beating the wolf mutt would not be impossible.

Beating it without taking any hits, though, would be pretty difficult.

Everywhere I looked online said that the dog, when it was a dog, was decent starting experience worth ten points, possible loots were its hide and or some meat or fangs. However, nowhere in the forums of any game sites I had checked said anything else about the dog. As if nobody had ever done anything else with the third stage 'chance encounter'.

Laughing loudly to startle the animal into standing still for a moment, I reach into a sweater pocket and retrieve the other two beetle mandibles from my character inventory. Part of the reason why could have been that the tutorial scenarios did not line up entirely and loot was never the same.

One person could have first fought a dog based on their racial and character stats, others might not have fought before the chance encounter, and who knew if there was enough of this or that left over from the fight encounter because some people had to hit their beetles or opponents more than once.

I did not know if the meat in these large mandibles was edible or not, but I still tossed them off to one side of the road across from the canine. Watching the two mandibles arc through the air before hitting the ground, the mutt quickly looks to me for a brief moment before softly growling and hurrying over to the mandibles. While it was busy cracking open keratin I made myself busy walking down the opposite side of the road.

However, after a few moments, there was the sound of soft footfalls behind me and I hurriedly whipped around with my spear aimed ahead and at the ready. All that was there was the weird wavy haired stray who was currently sitting in the middle of the road about ten yards behind me. They even tilted their head at me as if asking, "What?"

Since the dog was sitting there without attacking and actually looked a lot more harmless than before, I started walking back down then road. Once again, there was the sound of something following me and I swiftly glanced over my shoulder. The dog was still there, almost exactly ten yards away and sitting there. Its head was even still tilted as if it never moved.

"I bet you think I'm and idiot, don't you?" I ask the wolf dryly, waving my spear lightly back and forth as if I was wagging a finger as it straights its head and twitches its tail. "No, I can already tell how this is going to play out. Either you're some kind of spirit beast or shape shifting monster and you're gonna stab me in the back because I broke the tutorial or you're my new best friend. Here, boy."

As soon as the last two words left my mouth the big dog was on its feet and loping forward to take a seat once again at my feet. Instead of its original defensive and aggressive demeanor or the following neutral and curious behavior, the big dog just sat in front of me wagging its tail and panting with its tongue hanging out. I had no choice but to pat its head.

[Congratulations, Life Hack, for befriending this stray wolf hound and completing the third step of the tutorial. If you continue to feed and bond with the wolf hound, it will serve you loyally. As the first person to tame a pet in the tutorial, you will be well rewarded. Carry on, prodigal bygone]

[Tutorial Stage Three: Cleared]

[Tutorial Stage Three Clear Rating: S+]

[Tutorial Stage Three Clear Reward: +10XP]

[Tutorial Stage Three Rating Bonus: Passive Title; Nature Neutral]

Unlike last time, the game's AI did not send me a second window to continue with the territory but I was pretty sure they already knew that I knew what I was getting into. Why else would they have said the last part about being a prodigal bygone? It was entirely possible they suspected or even knew I came with outside information, but they like it nonetheless.

Opening my menu to the Character window once again, I find that my title was still Perfect Combo Start (pt1). This title alone was currently a small beginner buff but a large endgame trump that was highly favored. At part one, every consecutive successful attack increases the next attack's damage by one percent and stacked up to five times. Five percent added to every combo hit after five was pretty good in its own right, but it also extends the cool down for combos between hits from two seconds to three.

Part two not only raised the percentage by one so it becomes ten percent after five consecutive hits but also allowed another second between hits before the combo ended. If I could maintain a perfect combat streak without getting hit or interrupted, I would get part two. Now, though, I also had the upgraded version of everyone's Crafty perk and even a second title.

Nature Neutral, like Perfect Combo, was a passive title that did not have to be equipped but its description was vague. Where Perfect Combo told you the exact measures and triggers, Nature Neutral just said, 'Animals and beast type monsters will view you somewhat neutrally'.

While it probably minimized my confrontation rate with animals and beast monsters or something of the sort, I would have liked to know how much. Animals and beast types gave hides, hides made leather and leather makes armor!

Hoping the title would not end up biting me in the ass later on because I wanted to be a smartass in the tutorial, I carry on walking with the wolf hound down the dirt road. Now that the tutorial seemed to have loosened up a bit I started to get info tags whenever I stopped to look at trees or other plants. As well, animals like birds and normal bugs began appearing.

At first the tutorial was dead silent except for me but it was suddenly as if my title had spawned basic creatures into the game. Up ahead there was even a rabbit chewing on some wildflowers growing by the road. When the dog and I started getting near the rabbit started positioning itself again and again around and in the flowers to keep us in view.

Despite this caution, though, the rabbit never ran away but continued nibbling away, especially after we switched to the far side of the rode and its posture relaxed. It was honestly kind of strange but it helped me to understand my second title pretty easily. Where a rabbit would normally see a person as a threat, it instead saw me as a kind of competition for its flowers.

Instead of running away at the sight of me, it kept greedily taking all the flowers it could until it absolutely had to leave. Then, when it never left, it just went back to nibbling like normally like nothing happened. While the caution made it clear that animals were still wary of me, pretending to ignore a rabbit while holding a crossbow would give me a free surprise shot.

Knowing there would be another confrontation or two on the way to the 'dungeon' or event location, I left the rabbit alone for fear of missing a spear throw with the crooked shaft and ruining my perfect combat streak.