4 Tutorial Phase 2

Eric found himself in an enormous coliseum, much like the one in Roma, but bigger. Surrounding him was a huge circular structure with rows of seats where people could watch comfortably gladiators fight each others to the death.

In the arena, at the center of it all, stood hundreds of humans, armed with different weapons. Their faces had complicated expressions reflecting their anxiousness.

Two full moons shone brightly in the night sky above Eric's head. His shoes dug into the sand covering the ground as turned to look around him, only to see frightened humans.

Their faces were full of sweat, fear, anxiousness and seemed all too realistic. At that point, the doubt he nursed inside him about this game being real increased. Deep down, he already knew the answer, but wasn't inclined to believe in it just yet.

[Welcome, everyone, to the Tutorial Phase 2. *Warm smile*]

At that moment, most humans looked up, asking for an explanation. Though the operator didn't seem to care much about the loud protest taking place. Not that humans could do anything to a voice devoid of a physical form.

While the others created a chaotic cacophony, Eric calmly pondered on how and where to use his skill points. By all means, he should have been alarmed by all this, too. Should. But what was the point of panicking? None. So he focused on what he could do.

*F- rank Whip Mastery (0/2)

*F+ rank Tamer's Eye (0/6)

*F- rank Taming (0/2)

*F- rank First Aid (0/2)

Like in most games, he had the option to use his skill points to rank up a skill. Without hesitation, he put his skill points into Taming, immediately rising it to the rank F. The number of pets he could tame rose to 3 and a new pet slot was created.

Since it was his bread and butter, he might as well focus on it when possible.

While pondering, Eric noticed Tamer's Eye required three skill points to reach rank E-, plus the additional condition of reaching level 10. Meaning even if he had enough skill points, he couldn't reach rank E-.

"Ah! What is one of those monsters doing here?" A woman asked, panicked, pointing at Welf next to Eric.

Seeing as they all bore signs of fighting—claw marks, bite marks, bloody clothes—it was clear to Eric that they had all fought a blood wolf before.

'Shit…' He thought, immediately calling back Welf into the pet slot to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. Thankfully, the operator made an announcement before the woman could create problems for him.

[Please, try your best to survive. Good luck to you all! Hehe.]

Suddenly, the numerous gates of the coliseum surrounding the humans opened, unleashing red-furred wolves thirsting for blood.

[Lv 1 Blood Wolf]

Everyone froze from fear, until screams of terror broke the silence, sending most humans into a frenzy. Pure chaos ensued. People were shitting, pissing themselves as an unstoppable force of blood wolf flooded the coliseum.

The wolves enjoyed their meals. Biting, gnawing, swallowing fresh human meat. Rinse and repeat.

Eric watched the carnage unfold. Somewhat fear stroke but still calm. No, actually, he was happy. Because of all this bloody nonsense, he came to realize, accept, that this game was real.

Which meant he had a chance to resurrect his little brother.

This small possibility light a fire inside him. A fire of survival. Of determination. Erasing the fear, welcoming the thrill.

Eric Knight stepped forth, whip in hand, with the firm resolve to complete the entire dungeon.

Seeing as there were no benefits to stay with the masses, Eric quickly rushed towards the coliseum's four meters walls separating the area from the rows of seats.

He dodged a few wolf attacks. But humans were a mess, even more dangerous. Randomly swinging their weapons around resulting in allied causalities.

Eric whipped a wolf midair that was pouncing on him. It fell headfirst to the ground and seemed to understand that nothing would come out of provoking this human, then it went to an easier prey.

Before reaching his destination, Eric summoned his pet, jumped on Welf's back, used his whip to grab a decorative pillar, and hoisted himself atop the four-meter walls. Finally, standing on top, he called back Welf into his pet slot before something happened to it.

"What a mess," Eric said, gazing upon the disaster in front of him. Around one-third of the original several hundred humans had already died.

He then noticed a beautiful woman in shredded clothes holding a rapier a few meters away from him that was being assaulted by two wolves.

'Should I help her?' He thought, while thinking about his chances of rescuing the woman.

After a rapid calculation, he sent Welf to distract one of the blood wolves.

"Welf, Howl!" Eric ordered, knowing full well it was a single target taunting skill.

Welf pushed out a howl, attracting the blood wolf's attention.

To his surprise, Welf fought the wolf with little protest, despite it being one of its kin. Though it didn't seem to put much effort into it.

"Grab the whip!" Eric said to the woman, but she seemed too busy to notice. "Shit… here goes nothing."

He jumped down, rolled upon landing, and quickly chained attack the wolf that was about to pounce on the black-haired woman. Eric grabbed the blood wolf's throat with his whip, pulled and stepped on its head several times before it finally passed out. He then used Taming and stored it inside the new available pet slot.

"Th.. thank you," the woman said, panting.

"Thank me later, let's first get to safety."

Once on top of the walls, Eric summoned his two pets. As if it recognized one of its kin, Welf licked the wounds of the other still unconscious blood wolf.

Eric then healed some of its injuries with First Aid, using what little mana he had left. The woman eyed the blood wolf with fear.

"Don't worry, these are my pet," Eric said, feeling lightheaded because his mana reached rock bottom. "I'm Eric."

"Helena," she said, "Thank you again for earlier."

Eric simply nodded, unsummoned his unconscious pet, then turned towards the arena as Welf growled while staring at the foot of the wall where a few wolves were gathering.

As if they were beasts from a circus, Eric chased them away with the sound of his whip. Though, they mostly ran away because they couldn't reach him.

A few humans saw him on top of the wall and decided to copy him. But most weren't able to make the climb. Others simply used other humans as ladders.

"So unsightly…" Helena said.

"It's just their survival instinct," Eric replied. "I'll help some of them."

"But why?" Helena asked, "It's not like you'll gain anything."

"First, because I can." Eric said, "Second, I might indeed gain nothing, but I might lose something if I don't help."

Helena sent him a quizzal gaze, "What?"

"My humanity."

Helena shook her head, though didn't object. He had saved her for that very reason, anyway. It would be calling the cattle a pot if she were to object.

Eric helped as many as he could with his whip serving as rope. The luckiest ones could ascend. The unluckiest ones were bitten and dragged to their doom by blood wolves.

A few minutes of struggle later, the blood wolves halted their attacks and retreated into the gates they had come from.

[Congratulation all for passing the Tutorial! You have now been granted access to floor 1! Please proceed through the portal]

At that moment, a portal opened at the center of the arena as notifications popped up in front of everyone's faces.

_____

[Rewards:]

*+500 experience points

*+1 skill point

*New Title: Explorer (grants access to the Dungeon)

*Access to the DN (Dungeon Network)

*+10 DP (Dungeon Points)

_____

"There is still one monster here!" A man whom Eric had rescued said, while pointing at Welf.

"Kill it!" Others said.

"Calm down, he is my pet. As long as you don't attack it, Welf won't bite back." Eric said, sighing, thinking he should get used to it since that kind of reaction might happen quite often. Just to be certain they won't do anything stupid, he called back Welf into his pet slot. "See? Nothing to be afraid of."

They all pushed a heavy sigh of relief and headed for the portal at the center of the arena.

"You… you were probably the one who summoned them all, right? They were all your beasts!" said an overweight, bold man.

"What? This is ridiculous!" Helena objected.

Fear made people believe unreasonable things. Eric understood that too well. Still, the fat guy was being an annoyance. Since everybody else was frightened, this could only go one way. Knowing he wouldn't be able to persuade the idiot otherwise, Eric simply ignored him, jumped down to the arena and walked towards the portal.

"Why are you fleeing? Is it perhaps because you're guilty? I knew it!"

Helena sent the idiot a severe glare as she said, "You ungrateful bastard. If he hadn't dragged your fat ass here, you would be wolf food as of now."

The man clicked his tongue. Before he could retort, Helena jumped down and followed Eric.

"Wait up!" She said.

"Not afraid of me?" Eric asked, surprised.

"Nah, why would I? You saved my life." Helena said, smiling sweetly. "So... I wanted to ask you. Wanna team up?"

Eric focused on Helena, automatically activating the Tamer's Eye.

[Helena Bolts]

Tameability: -85%

It appeared that since she was friendlier to him, her Tameability dropped by a whole 5%. He found that interesting since it proved that brute strength wasn't the only way to tame living beings.

"Sorry, but I intend to do it solo for now," he said. "Maybe later."

"In that case, add me as a friend," Helena said as she seemed to touch an invisible tablet.

Suddenly, a notification window appeared in front of Eric.

[Helena Bolts sent you a friend request. Accept or Decline?]

Seeing Eric's questioning face, she promptly explained they had all gained access to the DN, allowing them to communicate with each other through a social network established by the Dungeon. Something she had discovered by exploring the additional feature while he was "talking" with the others.

"Sure," Eric said, smiling. "If you ever need help, don't hesitate to message me."

Instead of replying orally, she did so by sending a message.

#KillerRabbit: You too, if you need my help, just message me.

KillerRabbit was apparently the nickname she used in online games. Eric chuckled quietly as he registered a nickname of his own.

#HandsomeTamer: Will do.

With that, he entered the portal leading to the 1st Floor, or so he thought.