Tutorial.13

Comparing those three to my own group was sad. They probably would have lost several people, if not been completely decimated, facing that large boar if I hadn't been there. They might have even suffered injuries from the first group of badgers. They were weak, not just in combat strength but also in determination.

I realized that this line of thought was a spiral black hole of negativity, but I needed to acknowledge it. If my instinct, my natural disposition, is to enjoy hunting and overcoming challenges, then I could only see myself completely mad if I suppressed those desires.

Finally, I lifted my eyes from the grass, having found a semblance of determination. I would hunt, and I would grow stronger.

The others were still talking near the bodies of the two warriors, and I could hear their discussions, which seemed to mainly revolve around who the attackers were, where they came from, and if there were more of them. I looked at them. They were my friends, my colleagues, and I was looking at Beatrice, my passion. I wanted them to live, from the bottom of my heart.

To make that happen, I needed power. I had won today, but would I win tomorrow? What if there were more attackers? What if they were higher level, or if I had made a mistake? My bloodline ability was far from perfect. It didn't grant me omniscience, but only quicker and more appropriate reactions during combat.

Look at the attack from the average warrior, where his blade was covered in a red glow. My instincts didn't have a warning for that, and I ended up disarmed and nearly dead. The strike wasn't a direct threat to me, as it wasn't aimed at my body, only my knife. It was an attack to disarm me, and my natural instincts failed to recognize such a complex attack. I also needed to think more while fighting and blend instinct with logic.

With my determination strengthened, I walked toward the rest of the group, except for Gabriela, who was still beside Abigail.

"Alexander… can you tell us what happened?" Lucas asked when he saw me approaching. Everyone seemed to avoid looking at the corpses, which was perfectly understandable. It was equally understandable that they would avoid looking at the killer as well.

"Yes… I was on watch when I heard—"

I explained exactly what had happened, and I saw the concern on Lucas's face as I described the ambush. The concern seemed to grow into confusion as I described how I had turned the situation around.

"But… why would they attack us for no reason?" Beatrice asked.

"Experience, equipment, and tutorial points," I replied promptly. Then, I began explaining the points I had gained along with the levels. On purpose, I left out the whole bloodline matter, however. The fact that one of the attackers was level 7 was a big shock to them, as the strongest member of our group, Xavier, was still only level 2 in his class after the boar slaughter.

"But simply murdering someone…" Beatrice murmured while immediately casting a confused glance at me.

"It was self-defense, Beatrice, he… we had no choice but to defend ourselves," Lucas said, coming to my defense. "He may have saved all of us. Please, don't blame him for it. We may need to reconsider our strategy for—"

As the others continued speaking, mostly filled with concern about the future, I walked over and picked up the knife I had dropped when the average warrior attacked me with the glowing weapon skill. As I grabbed it, I also finally solved the mystery of what had been thrown at me when they first jumped me.

I saw a dead badger, with the arrow I had shot stuck in it. It was already dead before I even hit it, with what looked like a long sword cut to its stomach, something I assumed to be the cause of its death in the first place. I doubted I'd be fooled like this again with my new Perception Sphere, which was the name I had given to my new spherical vision.

Returning to the ongoing conversation of my colleagues, I wasn't exactly satisfied. The group's discussion seemed to be oriented toward finding a safe place to hide and wait for the tutorial to end, only fighting when absolutely necessary or to get food. As I listened, I started getting more and more irritated. Was I really the only one who had any sense of the situation we were in? I finally snapped when I started speaking in a much louder voice than any of them were used to. I used enough curse words that HR would need to be called.

"Wake up, guys! This whole tutorial is focused on killing, oh, and it's called a TUTORIAL! As in TRAINING! What do you think a tutorial is for? A good corporate job? Or, I don't know, maybe a place even worse than this? What do you think is more likely? The world has changed, and you all need to move and adapt if you want to survive."

I was out of breath by the end, everyone just staring at me with wide eyes. I was perfectly aware that the outburst was completely out of character. I had simply gotten fed up. I had resolved for myself that I wanted them to live, that I wanted them to make it through this tutorial in one piece, and they wanted to hide in a hole in the ground for over two months?

A single person who had fought even a little during the tutorial would be able to wipe them out easily in just a few days if they didn't gain any strength. A random beast could come to them and kill them too. I didn't like having this thought, but I was confident that the current me could take them all down alone in an ambush, just eliminating them one by one with arrows from a distance.

"What do you suggest we do?" Xavier came up and asked. Xavier had been by far the bravest and most competent of the group, aside from me. He stepped forward and even selected a class during the introduction that allowed him to defend others. His tone wasn't one of anger or confrontation, but genuine.

"I suggest you do whatever it takes to level up and survive this shit. Even if you don't want to fight other people, you at least need strength to defend yourself when they want to fight you. In other words, hunt beasts. Gain experience, gain power, do what the system wants you to do," I finished.

"I agree with Alexander," Wyatt said as he also joined the conversation. "We need to learn to defend ourselves. And what if Alexander hadn't been on watch, but someone else? What if they had arrived a few hours earlier? Would you be confident in fighting three people at the same time, all above you in level, Bruno?"

Bruno shook his head, certain that he would probably be a corpse on the ground now if the watch plan had been different.

I hoped my outburst would be a wake-up call for all of them. I didn't want to just leave them behind and be alone. I was afraid of the consequences of that. They wouldn't be able to survive alone as they were now.

I gave them space to think about it while I apologized to the group and went to check the corpses, starting with the two dead warriors. I knelt on the ground and began rummaging through their backpacks. If my colleagues and I had gotten six potions at the start of the tutorial, these people had them too. I quickly took the backpacks from the corpses and looked inside. Both had a good number of potions, a mix of resistance, health, and mana.

Seeing mana potions, I confirmed that these three had been part of a team with casters or healers who had died, or they had killed casters or priests. Personally, I leaned toward the latter. There were a total of fourteen health potions, eight stamina potions, and five mana potions, including the contents of the bag of the dead Fatal Shot.

I turned to the group once again, who simply stared at me while I looted. It was still dark, but the fire from the improvised torches they had brought lit up the scene quite well. The problem was that the forest was still too dark to leave. They would have to wait until morning before they could do anything.

"For now, try to rest a bit more. It's still my turn to keep watch, so I'll stay. Get some energy. Tomorrow, we'll hunt," I said, sitting back down on my log. I doubted any of them would manage to sleep a bit.

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