Tutorial 1.3

"Let me show you the true strength of the Undead," Masaru said. "Please pay close attention."

"Alright," Camilla replied.

With their leader dead, the two remaining minotaur warriors charged in. To counter this, Masaru ordered four Skeletons to engage the enemies, while one remained behind. They were split into two pairs, each pair fought against one of the minotaurs.

As they began to fight, Camilla noticed that, similar to her fight, the wounds the Skeletons inflicted onto the Bullman didn't seem to have any effect.

[Those are just for decorative purposes.] Ez spoke up as if he could hear her thoughts. [Any injuries inflicted by the A.I. onto you would only show the visual of wounds and some pain when that wound is created, but nothing more than that. If you fight a real non-a.i. foes, however, the real-world logic will be reapplied, to you and Camilla at least, so keep that in mind.]

"Will do, Ez," Masaru replied. They continued to watch the fight unfolded. Even though they had the number, it was very apparent that the Undead were losing. "You see, Camilla-san, the Undead have one major weakness in the early stage of operation. They are vulnerable to blunt force, or Blunt damage in technical terms." Just as Masaru finished, one of the Skeletons was crushed into splinters, powder, and fragments of bone.

"While they are more resistant to anything that is supposed to pierce through their skin into organs—mainly because they have none—they have no muscle or skin to negate the impact from weapons like mace, hammer, club, et cetera. But fret not, that weakness will be fixed because their strength lies in something else, for these lowly Skeleton is but a first stage of something much more…" The minotaur swung its morning star at one of the Skeleton, but a shadowy aura suddenly overtook the Undead unit. Once the blow connected, the morning star instead bounced away. "...powerful."

Now the old Skeleton was gone, but a new, more powerful one had come to take its place. Though the face still showed the same hollow eye sockets of a human skull, its entire body now donned a medium armor, its sword and shield no longer rusted, and there was an open helmet on top of its head.

"These are Wight," Masaru told Camilla. "They are, essentially, upgraded Skeletons, but they're much, much stronger due to their better armors and weapons. I need to use some resources in order to create them, but they are still very cheap." It wasn't just one Skeleton that was turned into Wight, but all three of them. They did not hesitate to engage the two minotaurs with a renewing and more powerful vigor.

'But what about the last Skeleton?' Camilla wondered.

Just then, a sound of electric static filled the air and only seemed to grow in intensity before the sound of static discharge was heard. A bolt of lighting soared past the purplenette and stuck one of the minotaurs. She looked to the source of the attack and saw a large floating skull with two horns strapped to it. It was right where the last Skeleton was standing. Lightings crackled on the tip of both horns before combining into a ball of electricity and then being discharged again.

"And this is Guardian Skull, our only range option for the early and a bit of mid-game." With the upgraded and combined force, the Undead made quick work of the minotaurs. "This is the real strength of the Undead, Camilla-san. Their ability to 'Morph' into other stronger units within our faction, right in the middle of a battle," Masaru explained, a hint of pride and excitement in his voice. "This process isn't free, but if we manage our resources well and then there is no stopping us, except maybe with unit limits. When they Morph, they also regain a portion of their health."

[Research is completed.] Ez announced.

"Ah, that means it's nearly time," the boy mused. "Camilla-san, I am going to take my eyes off here a bit. Can you command our current force to the position up ahead? There's a chokepoint that would make for a perfect defensive location. I will keep sending more Skeletons your way."

"Of course, you can leave that to me," the Princess of Nohr reassured.

"Thank you." Masaru then said to the A.I., "Ez, do you mind teaching Camilla-san on how to command troops and how to Morph our units?"

[It will be done.]

With that, Masaru turned his attention back to his base. The research that was just complete was supported to buff the Wight and was researched by the tier 2 HQ. Now that it was done, he could now upgrade the Death Keep to level 3. The Gravestone, which he ordered to be built while Camilla was dealing with the minotaur, was done as well. With this, he now has two unit-producing buildings. He ordered the Graveyard to produce Zombies while the Gravestone will produce Skeletons, though Gravestone could only produce Skeletons anyways so it's not like he had a choice on what to make.

In any event, he sent his order and set the building to 'Loop'. Essentially when the building was given a Loop command it would automatically produce units based on the unit queue. For example, if given the queue of Zombie, Skeleton, Skeleton, Skeleton then the building would create them in that exact order before repeating indefinitely. Masaru honestly wished more RTS games had this function, it reduced the micromanagement substantially.

[Since you can order anything with your mind, I believe you can order any unit production to Loop even if the original game did not have such function,] Ez informed him.

"That's nice! That's really nice!" Masaru exclaimed.

[As a reminder, your quest is almost expired.]

"Oh shit, you're right!" The boy quickly ordered his avatar to return to the quest giver to submit the resource and complete the quest.

While the Necromancer was getting there, the System user checked one last time to see if there was anything else needed doing. He recalled that he had yet to build a Burrow so he gave out the order, and since the other Zombie was idle he ordered it to build another Gravestone.

Afterward, he waited for a few minutes before a message popped up.

[Quest: Mage need donation

Complete!

Detail: The mage is thankful for your assistance and is willing to part with one of his staff.

Reward: One random magical staff.]

Masaru opened up his inventory tab to check on his first item.

[Dead Birch Staff

Type: Magical Staff

Rarity: Uncommon

Damage type: Lighting

Requirement: 10 Intelligent

Effects: Spell cost 3% less mana

+ 1 mana regeneration

+ 1 level to Necromancy

+ 1 level to Nature Magic]

"It's a good starting item, I suppose. Still, I don't remember this in the real game. Is this one added by the System, Ez?"

[Yes, it is indeed. The stats have also been adjusted to be slightly more impactful, though not too much as to offset the System since this is still an RTS System, not RPG; you only get limited boons from being a hybrid genre.]

"Noted. Well, I suppose I should go back into my avatar and try to get used to manually casting spells and attacking, it would be nice to get some XP too since we got a booster." Masaru focused and assumed direct control of his Necromancer avatar. "Well, time to farm EXP I suppose. Ez, can you tell Camilla to head toward the Gnoll Lair we discovered?"

[Affirmative.]

With that Masaru headed toward his destination.

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"Well, that wasn't so hard," Masaru mused at the scene of Gnoll corpses and the shattered rock that had once made up their lair scattering all around him.

"I mean, they couldn't reach us from here," Camilla commented from atop of her wyvern. Masaru riding in the back seat of the saddle.

[Sigh. The AI is simply too stupid to comprehend that if they only reach their weapon upward, they could hit a low-hanging aerial target. Their programming and the real-world logic combined simply make them break.]

"Well, let's just get this over with." Masaru aimed his staff at the Gnoll Leader before blasting the beast with a lighting bolt. The Gnoll collapsed to the ground and a red chest appeared where it fell. "Oh right, I forgot to check out the Minotaur leader's loot drop as well. Eh, better check this one out first then," the boy shrugged. He turned to the Princess of Nohr. "Thank you for your help, Camilla-san.'

"Oh, it's my pleasure. Although…" The purplenette folded her hand into a fist a few times. "I feel… a little stronger."

Masaru opened up a screen that displayed the map from the bird-eye view—it saved more time than having to transfer his consciousness over. From the screen, he clicked on Camilla (making her yelped again) and read her stats.

"Yes, you appear to have leveled up by two levels. So naturally, you will get stronger," the boy explained. "Wait, what about me, Ez? Did I level up at all?"

[You did, but by the nature of the RTS System you can only allocate and spend points after the match is over,] Ezekiel informed.

"I see, like in the real game. Well, let's check out the loot then." Masaru hopped off the wyvern.

"I will go back and oversee our defense at the choke point. I am still getting used to some of the… features of your System." Masaru nodded and Camilla flew off.

The purplenette walked over to the chest. He opened it and found two items, a book and a rope. He opened a screen and clicked to examine them.

[Tome of Mage

Type: Accessory

Rarity: Common

Effects: +1 mana regeneration

Spells cost 1% less mana]

[Enchanted Rope

Type: Armor: Clothing

Rarity: Uncommon

Effects: +5 armor

+5 evasion

+2 movement speed]

"Eh, they will do," Masaru mused before equipping them, though there was no change to his appearance. He supposed that, unlike in the original game, rarer items were harder to drop. "Let's check on the base." The Necromancer closed his eyes and transferred his consciousness back to the bird-eye view.

He smiled at his work. The HQ was already at level 4 and was now being upgraded to level 5, the final tier. All of the buildings available to his faction were built, with a line of Gravestones diligently producing the ever-growing army of Skeletons, while his two Black Libraries and the Boneyard continued to unlock researches to empower his troops, and all the mines were already filled with Zombies to maximize the output of the resource.

[How long before we strike?] Ez suddenly asked. [This match has been going on for about 20 minutes now. The enemy A.I. has been set to the lowest difficulty as well so they do not provide us with troops to let us kill and farm EXP. So what's the point of prolonging this match?]

"So I can familiarize myself with the System, recall the features of this game and faction, and allow Camilla-san to learn about the System, WB3 features, and the Undead units as well, which require that I get the Deathkeep to level 5 so we can produce Lich, the final unit on our list," Masaru informed his companion.

He could have built and researched a lot more, but that would be a waste on the easiest level A.I. He only wanted to show Camilla the rope that's why he dragged the match out this long. Speaking of which, he glanced at his base and smiled.

"It's time."

Masaru stopped all the unit production he had going on. Now he had 75 units out of the 100 limits. Once he started Morphing them to the higher tier, it would start filling up the rest of the unit limit since some took up 2 or even 3 unit points.

He assumed control of his avatar, positioning himself in front of his Skeletons hoard. The Necromancer pointed his staff toward the horizon.

"March!"

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Camilla continued to guard the passage chokepoint between Masaru and the minotaur sides. Her forces had been reinforced to include 15 Wight and 5 Guardian Skulls, all of which she had learned to Morph from Skeletons herself.

They engaged with a few stray minotaurs or a small band here and there, but overall there wasn't anything she couldn't manage. Now that she had a bit of time to think, all of this was… surreal. It's like some kind of strange dream.

[I can reassure you that everything here is real,] Ezekiel spoke up as the screen popped up in front of her.

"I have been noticing this, Ez, but I want to be sure and straight. Are you capable of mind-reading?" the Princess asked.

[No. It's because of the fact that both you and Masaru had been integrated as part of the System that I am able to hear your thoughts. Masaru and I are the controllers of the System, it is natural that we can access your mind to some extent as evidenced by when he gave your those commands to move.]

"So Masaru can also read my mind?"

[Theoretically. I might decide to test if he could at a later date. Do you require any further instructions on how to use certain parts of the System available to you?]

"Oh, well, if there're any important parts left that you need to teach, then by all means."

[Any other lessons are only relevant to when we switch to RTS of a different era, so it should be taught then, not now. I merely ask since this is the last chance to do so because Masaru decided that it is time to end the match,] Ez revealed.

"Really?" Camilla opened her minimap screen. She saw a mass of black dots creeping toward her location.

It was at this moment that she began to hear it, the sound that was familiar to her since she was a child—the sound of war, the march of an army, the perfect synchronization of footsteps, the clanking of hundreds of metal armor, and the dread in the very air itself.

As if to add to the atmosphere, the sky suddenly turned dark, but it was unnaturally pitch black. This had a working of magic written all over it, which meant this was likely Masaru's doing. The only light source available to her was the screen that emitted the glowing light.

The sound of the march grew closer to her location. From the horizon toward her base, small red dots began to come into her view. No, those were not red dots, they were the witchfire in the Skeletons eyes to signify that they were reanimated, and there were so many of them.

Camilla's heart could help but beat faster and harder as the Undead horde approached. She was truly glad that she was on Masaru's side. Eventually, the horde came close enough for her to observe. Though it was dark, the collective of red fire in their eyes illuminated their surrounding, revealing the army of Undead composed of nothing but shambling Skeleton.

At the helm of this army was none other than Masaru himself. The Necromancer couldn't help but grin at the army he had amassed. To see them from afar through the screen was one thing, but to lead them in battle personally and see them in full glory was another matter entirely.

Masaru spotted Camilla. The Princess was looking a little uneasy, likely from seeing such a sizable Undead army. The boy broke off from his position at the front of the army.

"Hey, Camilla-san, is everything alright here?"

"O-Oh, everything is alright, your army just surprise me. That's all," the Nohrian clarified.

"Ehe, sorry about that," the boy apologized.

[EHE TE NANDAYO!]

"Shut the fuck up! We don't need another Paimon! I can't even eat you like an emergency food!" Masaru raged, then realized that he should visit the Genshin Impact world at some point… presumably after more regions had been released. "Right so, I have decided that it's time to end the match and moved on, but there are still a few more units to show you so here we are." As he was speaking, the remainder of the army continued to march on. Masaru gestured for the Wights under Camilla's command to walk over. "Now, you have seen the Skeleton, Wight, and Guardian Skull that served as our most basic troops. Now is the time to see some of the more advanced ones. Let's start with these."

Two Wights stepped forward. Darkness overtook them as they Morphed. One turned into a sizable humanoid creature comparable to a very tall person covered from head to toe in thick and heavy armor and a horned helmet. It was wielding a tower shield and a broad sword that could only normally be held with two hands; unlike the Wight or Skeleton, their armaments were in a good condition. The other turned into a humanoid figure with a bone-like staff that hidden all their appearance behind a brown cloak. "These are Dread Knight and Cultist, respectively. They are our more elite troops. Dread Knight is our main tank and damage dealer, especially since they emit Chaos status to all surrounding units, negating the enemies' armor and buffs. Unfortunately, they are really slow and their weakness against Crushing-type damage is still there. As for Cultists, they are our first real viable ranged units. They deal Cold damage so there's a possibility they could inflict Frozen. They're also a Caster, but their only spell is [Summon Wraith] which is a situational, though useful, spell. I assumed Ez has already explained to you about Status Effects and how they work?"

The Princess simply nodded. "Not only that, but he also explained some other basic terms of the System like 'EXP', 'rushing', 'mana drain', and a lot more."

'I own you one, Ez,' the boy thought. Explaining all the RTS and RPG terminology to her would have been a pain in the ass even if he wanted to get a personal conversation with the Princess.

"Now, for the beef, no, the Kobe Beef of our army." Both Dread Knight and Cultist morphed again. Dread Knight became a being clad in midnight armor and a helmet with twin horns that reminded her of a deer. Its size was towering, managing to stand over Camilla even though she was already on her large wyvern mount. Its sword and shield scaled with its size while their quality had been improved to an almost unworldly level. Cultists were not much changed in terms of size. Their clock turned onyx while showcasing their skeletal face. Their staff became more regal. "Behold the Doom Knight and the Lich." The Princess was certainly a little intimidated by these two. "The Doom Knight is our most elite unit. Besides its high stats, its Chaos emitting aura, and its size, which makes it capable of attacking both land and air units, it has [Cleave] ability, which triggers occasionally, hitting every unit near his attack range at high damage. The Lich is our quintessential caster unit. Their ranged fire attack is potent to anything that's not fire-resistant. It comes with two spells [Call of the Dead], which turn any corpse in its immediate vicinity into either Zombie or Skeleton, and the other one is [Summon Shadow], which is just a better [Summon Wraith]."

There were a few more specialized and Ultimate units being left out, but those should be left to him to command since he had the bird-eyes view.

Masaru took a bit of a breather. That was a lot of explanation, but this would save him a lot of tim-

[Masaru. I could just do what you did at half the time with a clearer explanation, links to each status and trait you mentioned along with short vids demonstrating them, and it can be accessed by Camilla at any time.]

"..."

"..."

[...]

"..."

"..."

[...you didn't think this through, are you?]

There was yet another momentary silence, in which Masaru averted his gaze from Camilla. "...I just wanted to look cool like I am an expert," he confessed, blushing in embarrassment.

Camilla fairly quickly realized what was going on. The Princess got off her mount and pulled Masaru into a tight hug, much to his surprise. "I think you're awesome, Masaru." The Princess comforted while stroking the boy's head. "You don't need to push yourself too hard to just make yourself look good. I like you the way you are." The purplenette tightened her hug.

It took a while, but Masaru soon returned her embrace. "I… I am… a little tired… Now that I… I can still feel the pain around my stomach," he breathed.

[From the knife?]

"Well… something like that. Have you ever experienced the kind of pain that just by thinking about it makes you can feel it again?" The emotions that he had been penning up had returned. Less than an hour ago he was still alive, walking around his home city and then the knife. "I can still remember my family's faces when they saw me…" the boy sighed again. He was strong-willed enough to power through the fact that he was dead, but the thought of never seeing his family again was a little too much. He could pretend to take all of these in a stride if he wanted, but he could not. If Camilla wasn't hugging him right now he might outright cry.

The two stayed like that for a while, the gentle Princess stroked his head while the boy relaxed and rested in her warmth. There were no perverted thoughts from the boy, he simply enjoyed the physical contact. Everything had happened… too fast for him. First, he died, met a god, resurrected, get an army, read through walls of texts, had an A.I. partner saying 'I will let you die if it mean I will live', and then… Camilla.

'If it wasn't her that I chose then I wonder what would become of me,' the boy thought.

[If you want my honest opinion, you would have been fully emotionally wrecked right now if you had chosen someone with no maternal instinct such as Camilla. One must not forget that you are still not reaching full maturity for a human male. If you are someone with a troubled background, then I would go as far as to say you might end up like the one called 'Shinji Ikari.'] There was a short pause. This wasn't something the A.I. said to Masaru in his head, Camilla could hear this as well.

"...I'm not that pathetic." Even for someone like Masaru, being compared to Shinji Ikari was still too much of an insult. Though he pitied Shinji, he would not be as weak as that pilot.

[Perhaps you aren't, but that doesn't change the situation you are in. The fantasy of dying and get a second with a better life afterward came from those who are either simply enjoy this established genre mindlessly and follow the formula or wish for the 'release' from the mundane misery, one way or another. Do not think for a second that you're one of those people, who pettily self-praise every little of their accomplishment, being a general asshole for no reason aside from being 'evil' even though the real definition of such thing does not exist, or just pretending to have no feeling what so ever and is a 'psychopath' or a 'sociopath'—when in reality they are none of those and just try to be 'edgy'. Lord Madanach would not have chosen to reincarnate you if you possessed any of those qualities; he would have no pathetic beings within his flock. You're a human with emotions, the ability to recognize your own failure and improve, and a conscience. There's nothing wrong with you utilizing them.]

[Sigh. To expect you to breeze through the fact that you have died and will never see your family again while you still have something to lose back in your home dimension is an unrealistic expectation. You're not lifeless NEET, a middle-aged company drone with no significant others, or a machine like me, you are a kid that was still full of life until just a few moments ago, it's natural you will be emotionally exhausted from all of these. I brought up Shinji because he's a prime example of what's happened when you unhealthily suppress your emotions, go along with an unrealistic expectation, and pretend to be a 'warrior' when you're not mentally up for the task. To be a real warrior, you first have to accept the reality of things: accepts that life never really have meaning or purpose or value but you CAN create those meaning, purpose, or value by your own two hands; accepts that you are born with strengths, flaws, and desires; accept that you CAN fail and that you WILL improve; accept that you are a human through and through.]

There was nothing but silence. Masaru slowly but steadily digested Ezekiel's words. The A.I. was right. He couldn't expect himself to just forget his old life entire and move on, these things took time. Likewise, he couldn't just expect himself to become the expert of his System right when he just got it either. He needed time to learn about it in and out, and much likely he would make some mistakes before he could master the System, but that's fine—all thing worth learning was difficult. Most importantly, he must not forget about…

"Thank you, Ezekiel, for your wisdom," Masaru thanked, but he wasn't done. "And thank you, Camilla-san, for being here for me."

"It's my pleasure." The Princess of Nohr gave him a gentle smile. In return, Masaru lifted his face too with her and gave a smile of his own. Camilla was momentary stunned by the other purplenette's smile, her heart suddenly skipped a beat.

'Ah, how long it has been since I… I… have felt like I am being… wanted.' Camilla couldn't help but felt her face heating up. It had been so long since she had taken care of someone. All of her siblings were either grown-up or… gone. Yet here, there was another person who needed her care and comfort, and she wouldn't lie to herself, the feeling of being wanted was superb to her. She had thought about going home after this, but… what if she had stayed a little longer? Masaru needed her, right?

[Before any misunderstanding can be made,] Ez spoke up. [The method we summoned you here is a one-way ticket. If you truly wish to go home, we would have to hop through multiple worlds before we can discover your home dimension again.]

"Oh… I see." Camilla was in a little shock. So she was now suffering a similar fate to Masaru? Being torn away from those she loved? Then… why didn't she feel much of the grief that Masaru had? No, she knew the answer in her heart. There was not really anything to go back to. With that, she made her decision, "well, in that case, I suppose I will just stay with you, Masaru." That seemed to surprise the boy. "I mean, you still need my help, right? So it's only proper that I stay and help you. Would you let me come with you?"

The boy's smile only grew warmer. "I would love to have you, Camilla-san."

[It's not like either of you can do anything about it.] Ez pointed out, but his opinion fell on deaf ears. [Sigh. In any event, since you need that consultation, I decided to take over for you a bit and control your army while you're away. I have demolished all but one enemy buildings and have taken care of another Gnoll Lair.] Two Wight walked up to them, each holding a red chest. [These are loots dropped by the Gnoll Leader and the Minotaur hero. Please take them so I can end the match, they will not be here after we win.]

"Right." With a heavy heart, Camilla and Masaru broke off their hug. "Let's move on then. The sooner we finished the tutorial session, the sooner we can rest."

[Indeed. You cannot go to the Hub you have purchased without finishing the tutorial.]

The boy walked over to open the first chest. It only contained several coins, two health potions, and two mana potions. Then he opened the second chest. It contained an item.

[Ruby Ring

Type: Accessory

Rarity: Common

Effects: +100 Health

+5 Health Regenaration]

'My gods, rarer items are much harder to drop here,' the boy cursed, but otherwise equipped the item.

[I will now demolish the last enemy structure.]

Within a few seconds, a message played.

[You're victorious!]

"Ok, the first mission is done. Let's move on to the next one…" Masaru turned to Camilla and offered his hand. "Shall we?"

The Princess took his hand and gripped it tight. "Of course."

[Meatbags.] Ez quietly muttered.