Cap 1 Tutorial

"Wahya!" A child's voice, crying.

The darkness behind her eyelids was a flicker of white flashes and pulses. I am glued to the ground.

He opened his eyes wide into a blanket of fog and blurred contours. Above him was a little girl: long wolf ears covered in silvery fur the same colour as her hair, yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

A wolf-girl, a beastman.

She was the one crying.

"Wahya, get up!"

Noah turned on his side and a feeling of nausea turned his stomach. The beastmen had been driven beyond the portals and why could he understand their language?

He crinkled his eyes. He was lying on the ground in a cave. His forehead burned like hell, his head throbbed.

The wolf-girl squeezed his arm with both hands. "Wahya, are you alright?"

Noah brought his hand to his head: he too had long pointed wolf ears.

[Synchronisation completed.]

A tingle spread down his legs.

Noah sat up, moved a foot and lifted a leg.

He was now in full control of his body.

"You're fine!"

The beastman smiled and wagged his tail.

There was something familiar about her scent that made Noah feel at ease. Without meaning to, he found himself wagging his tail as well.

He glanced over his shoulder. He hadn't even realised he had a tail, it was a new sensation for him.

I'll have to get used to it...

Noah stood up and looked around: beastmen were busy digging into the wall with pickaxes. Others were loading the extracted rock into carts and carrying it to the surface.

They were all boys, more or less between thirteen and sixteen years old.

A mine.

"What's going on here?"

A human of massive build, dressed in leather armour approached them. In his hand he held a whip and at his side he carried a sword. On his left breastplate he had painted an emblem: a purple phoenix with spread wings surrounded by red flames.

Noah's heart skipped a beat. It was the symbol of the guild he had founded.

The human kicked Tala and sent her to the ground.

"Filthy beast get back to work!"

Noah stood between the two to stop him from hitting her with the whip.

"Sorry, it was my fault."

A lash struck him in the side, the twinge of pain shot through him like an electric shock cutting off his breath.

[You have access to a part of the memories of the previous owner of your new body.]

An enormous amount of information penetrated Noah's mind.

The wolf-girl's name was Tala, she was his younger sister. Their father had died shortly after Tala's birth, while their mother was the Waksha of their city-state. (Beastman term, translatable as: she who commands sacred things. It indicates the spiritual and political leader of a herd. Among the beastmen, women are generally the most skilled at manipulating mana and the Waksha are chosen from among the best of them).

She and Wahya had been captured when the humans of the Drilem empire attacked their city.

They had been in that mine for six months now and had had no news of their mother. It was likely that she had died during the attack.

The mongrels with his guild crest were the Knights of the Purple Phoenix, the main armed force of the Drilem empire.

The humans had appeared from the portals during the fifth petal of water (the beastmen divided time into cycles of five hundred years each, named after a basic element of their magic: earth, air, water and fire.

Each of these cycles was in turn divided into five petals of one hundred years. They were now in the middle of the fifth petal of fire, so about five hundred years had passed since the appearance of humans).

More than five hundred years had passed since the appearance of humans, who knows how many since his death. His former companions must have managed to discover the secret of the portals and had invaded other worlds.

Something, however, must have happened; these men were part of an empire with a name that sounded like something out of a fantasy film and there was no mention of Earth in Wahya's memories. Probably the humans living here have moved in permanently.

Noah shook his head. Too many questions and too few clues.

Now he just had to think about escaping from that mine.

The promt of the system resounded in his head.

[The tutorial begins!]

[You are finally taking the first steps of your new life.]

[Quest activated: "Survive your first day."]

[Quest details: "Survive until the end of working hours."]

[Restrictions: Beginners only.]

This is a repeatable quest. Your task is to survive by collecting the minimum amount of mana crystals.

[GOALS

- Mana Crystals collected: 0/30]

[Time limit: '10 hours].[Rewards:

- Exp points.

- Welcome back package. X 1

- Unlock inventory.]

[Penalty based on failure: Death.]

Noah furrowed his brow. He hadn't expected to receive a quest so soon.

The system was nothing more than a way for humans to manipulate mana, making their bodies gradually accept its presence. Leveling up equated to the ability to channel greater amounts of mana.

Quests were the way the deities concerned could test the deserving, empower them and eventually choose them as avatars and grant them their blessing.

It was thanks to this that Noah in his previous life had managed to become one of the most powerful players on Earth.

It was unusual to receive a quest without having accomplished some feat. Perhaps some deity was aware of his reincarnated status and had decided to keep an eye on him.

But deities never grant unconditional help, they always want to achieve something. It was all a question of what his goal was.

But at the moment he couldn't afford to be picky, any help was welcome.

He had no idea what the welcome packet was, but being able to unlock the inventory was important in itself.

The guard grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look him in the eye. "You dare to disrespect your foreman?"

His teeth were rotten and his breath smelled rancid.

Noah grabbed the guard by the arm, but his grip was as weak as a child's. His new body was a mess, weak and malnourished.

'Only for this, beast. You'll be the one holding the marker."

She gave him a shove and sent him crashing backwards against the rock.

The team leader cracked his whip against the ground. "You other beasts, move!"

All the man-beasts sprang to attention at his command and headed for the bowels of the mine.

Tala glanced over her shoulder at him. She was worried about his condition and she was right. The head wound must have killed the real Wahya.

Noah smiled and nodded to her.

The marker was a large iron nail with a red-painted head, similar in shape and size to the nails used in railways.

Each team leader used it to determine how far the beastmen under his control should dig.

If they went too slow or found fewer mana crystals than their daily quota, the foremen would punish them with lashes.

If they were lucky.

The foreman clapped his hand on the rock. "Here is good."

Noah planted his knees on the ground and pointed the marker at the wall, leaning out as far as he could.

The guard stared at him, not at the marker.

He ran his tongue over his chapped lips and slung the hammer over his shoulder.

"You know the job." The foreman smiled. "Stay still."

The words made the blood run cold in his veins. The bastard wanted to smash his skull like it was a melon. Cold sweat began to run down his forehead.

Yet Noah was calm, perhaps it was a conditioned reflex of his new body.

He must have seen his fair share of hell to react like that.

The foreman knew how to do his job: he placed the hammer on the flat side of the marker, aligning himself to deliver the blow.

He swung the hammer back and forth to mimic the blow, as if he could not find the correct angle.

Perhaps he expected some reaction from Noah. Maybe that he would close his eyes, or shake. He wanted the satisfaction of seeing him tremble with fear.

Noah planted his gaze on the foreman. He was calm, he would not give him any satisfaction.

The foreman grunted and swung his hammer.

The impact rippled along the bones of his arms, twinges of pain radiated up to his head.

Noah let out a howl of pain. The pig had used all its strength, almost breaking his bones.

The foreman laughed and charged again.

The bastard did not aim at the marker this time.

He twisted the blow at the last moment and the hammer crashed into Noah's face.

Had it not been for his trained reflexes, it would have smashed his skull.

Noah let go of the marker and ducked down. The hammer shattered the rock above him and a shower of fragments fell on him.

The foreman twisted his mouth, disappointed. "Pick up the marker again, otherwise your team will be punished."

Noah got back up and grabbed the marker.

The team leader struck the marker again and again. With each blow Noah had the feeling that the bones in his arms were crumbling, but he kept his gaze fixed on the team leader.

Sweat ran, copiously, over his eyes.

He would not let his guard down.

After five shots, the marker had been driven deep into the side wall of the tunnel.

"Now to work, you beasts!"

It did not take long for the bruises to show. His hands were filled with yellow and brown bruises and his teeth ached from having them too much.

But at least he had survived.

***

Noah gave a firm blow with his pickaxe, a large chunk of rock broke off, revealing a large vein of crystals illuminated by a faint blue light.

Crystals of mana, of the highest quality.

With those he would be able to become strong enough to escape.

Noah peeled off some crystals and placed them in the trolley behind him.

[Collected mana crystals:30/30]

[You completed the quest: 'Survive until the end of working hours.']

[Obtained: ✓ 100 exp points.

✓ Welcome back package

✓ You unlocked the inventory.]

[You have leveled up.]

Noah smiled.

Finally.

With a mental command he opened the inventory window and slipped one of the crystals inside.

If he continued like this, he could fill his pockets with good mana crystals without worrying about being discovered.

The system didn't allow anyone to open anyone else's inventory window and besides, humans were the only ones who possessed it so it wouldn't have occurred to any of them that a man-beast could rob them with such a simple trick.

The guard behind me whipped the back of a boy with a long brown tail who had stopped to catch his breath. He must have been fourteen.

"Get back to work."

The boy lifted the pickaxe with trembling arms and resumed work. He was exhausted, he would soon collapse. as hardy as the beastmen were, they could not withstand such a workload.

The guard whipped the air a breath away from the boy's head.

"Damn slaves, keep digging."

The guard grinned and motioned to the fellows guarding the tunnel exit to come closer.

He grabbed a little girl by her long auburn hair and dragged her away.

The girl kicked to free herself and clawed at the guard's face.

The man kicked her and sent her to the ground.

"Be quiet or I'll kill you."

He huffed and grabbed the girl by the reddish fox tail.

"I'm going to take a break, you cover me."

The other two guards giggled and one elbowed the other.

"We'll take a break afterwards, though."

Noah's blood boiled in his veins. He would have killed

all those bastards.

And it would not be a quick death.