Chapter 2: The Tutorial

After a few moments in the darkness, Alice's avatar is rebuilt in a new setting, a forest of blue trees. "I will never get used to these loading screens-" the sight of the forest completely takes her attention—mainly the blue leaves on the trees—easily recognizing the Arcadia tutorial area.

Alice says with a tone of disappointment "So the tutorial is going to take place in the Lazuli Forest again?" she leans on a tree. "No offense, but I expected something more creative."

Conveniently, a cyan-colored apple falls on the player's head. "Ouch!"

A quest screen appears before Alice.

"This must be to practice the game's combat. Wait, speaking of it..." she extends her hand "Sword?"

Her sword is projected into her hand the moment she called its name. "How cool!" says Alice in an excited tone.

[HP: 49/50]

"Huh?" she looks down and sees that her foot was being attacked by a small blue slime.

['Slime' LvL. 1]

[Description: Gelatinous and viscous creatures. They inhabit damp and dark places, feeding on organic matter. Since they don't possess high intelligence, they can attack any being without provocation.]

"Hey! That's my foot!" she takes a step back, dodging another powerful blow from the Slime—which, feeling such audacity, advances at full speed towards the player.

Alice just observes the small creature slowly crawling towards her—finding the Slime adorable—she walks over to a tree and picks up a cyan-colored mace. "Here. This tastes better than my foot."

She drops the mace on top of the Slime—which slowly dissolves the fruit in its body—thanks to her generous action, the Slime decided to spare the player's life for a while.

"He's so cute. I hope they put the 'Pets' system in the Beta Test." she remembers her 5,272 pet monsters in Arcadia—that protected her guild's base from other players.

['Gray Wolf' LvL. 2]

[Description: Majestic predators with silver-gray fur. Agile and intelligent, they inhabit forests and plains. Normally, they hunt in packs.]

The message draws the player's attention, who shows a confused expression—after all, the Encyclopedia was only updated when she saw the Slime—then she notices that in her presence, hidden among the bushes, there are two red eyes, which disappear into the forest darkness as soon as she finds them.

Alice wields her sword with both hands, searching for the creature in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the Slime peacefully eats the mace. "Oh, so cute!"

In this second of distraction, a gray wolf jumps from a bush on Alice's right side—who, upon hearing the sound of the leaves rustling, turns to try to counter-attack the creature but is surprised by the wolf biting her right arm.

[HP: 46/50]

She is knocked down by the Wolf, who shakes his head—while continuing to bite her arm—however, what shocks Alice the most, is the absurdly realistic pain she feels.

"Ah! Stop! I actually felt that!"

The player wields her sword in her left hand and tries to stab the Wolf's head. However, the creature backs off in time—releasing her arm—and returns to the forest.

She gets up observing shocked the bite marks on her arm, which continues to transmit an extremely realistic pain.

"I know you guys like realism, but don't you think this is too much?"

Alice takes a deep breath while trying to control the throbbing pain in her arm. She looks around, aware that she is not alone in the forest. Her eyes scan the forest, looking for any sign of the predator that attacked her. With her left hand, she tightly grips her sword, ready to retaliate with everything she had.

Suddenly, a quick movement to her right alerts her. The gray wolf emerges again from the shadows, advancing with another leap to finish what it started. The player assumes a more defensive posture.

Nervousness passes through Alice's heart, worried whether what she plans will actually work. However, a thought that defies her pride motivates her: "I won't die in the tutorial!"

The Wolf jumps towards Alice's neck—activating its [Silver Fang] ability, making its fangs as lethal as blades.

When the creature is a few centimeters away from hitting her, the player wields her sword in front of the Wolf's fangs. A resplendent glow emanates from the sword as she blocks the attack. The impact is felt through her body, but her perfect technique mitigates part of the damage, reflecting it back to the predator.

[Perfect Block (1 Star)]

[Description: By perfectly blocking attacks, the player will reflect 50% of the damage back to the source.]

[Stamina 35/50]

The creature is thrown into a tree, some of its teeth were broken, it howls in pain. Without wasting time, the player advances to the disoriented Wolf, piercing its head with the sword.

[Experience: 04/50]

Alice breathes a sigh of relief after defeating the gray wolf. She observes the inert body of the creature on the ground, feeling a mixture of triumph and adrenaline rushing through her veins. The pain in her arm still throbbed.

"As it is a starting area, the Lazuli Forest has several ingredients to make a small healing potion." She checks her status once more, confirming that her health is reasonably stable and that she still has energy to face more challenges. She smiles determined "But I can do this later."

Alice focuses on her next goal: finding and defeating the other wolves. She moves forward in the forest, eager for another battle in this amazing game—and this time, she promises to win them all without taking any damage.

But as she walked, even though she was alert for a surprise attack, she was unable to notice large blue eyes watching her from dozens of meters away. Just waiting for the right time.

The Slime—which finally finished eating the apple—crawls to the Wolf's body and slowly starts to dissolve its paws.