Tutorial Part 2

Cap 4

The whistle of a siren marked the end of working hours.

Noah had every muscle in his body torn to shreds, but he was satisfied because he had managed to accumulate a good number of mana stones of excellent quality.

The guards had them stand in single file and Tala positioned herself behind him.

Noah glanced at her: she was dusty and out of breath. Her hands were bleeding so much she had exerted herself.

One of the guards whipped the ground near Tala's feet.

"Move!"

They exited the mine and emerged into what was in effect a prison camp: the perimeter was protected by a strong stone wall, on which guard towers filled with soldiers stood at regular intervals. The main road cut the camp perfectly in half and at the end of it was the main gate, located just below a square tower with a clock on top, the hands stopped at midnight.

Lined up on each side of the camp were rectangular buildings that served as dormitories. The left and right dormitories were surrounded by two high fences that kept them apart; on the posts that held the iron nets in place were placed mana stones, most likely to electrify the fences.

The guards opened the door of the right-hand fence and let all the boys in.

Once all the boys were inside, the guards closed the doors behind them and another siren broke the silence of the camp.

More beastmen came out of the mine, but these were adults. Many of them were probably the boys' parents, keeping them separated so they could use them as hostages and prevent the adults from trying to rebel.

The guards lined up the prisoners in front of the entrance gate and opened it wide.

Tala gripped Noah's hand tightly. He was trembling.

An obese big man escorted by two guards stood in front of them. With every step his double chin swayed like jelly.

Instinctively Noah trembled with fear and the man's identity surfaced from Wahya's memory.

It was Colonel Fels, the leader of the mine.

Fels snapped his fat fingers and two more guards came running, dragging behind them a skeletal wolf-boy with ash-grey fur.

He had a broken arm.

Fels stepped forward and addressed the crowd of slaves.

"The rules of this place are simple: those who work eat. Those who cannot work are a useless burden and therefore cannot stay."

Fels drew his sword and approached the young boy.

"Now that you are in this place you must follow our rules, otherwise you are free to leave."

With a swing of his sword Fels freed the boy from the rope.

The boy lifted his trembling gaze towards the exit.

Fels patted him on the back. "Courage, you may go."

"L- please, I'll heal-"

"You are no longer needed here so if you don't want to leave I will take care of you."

The boy swallowed hard and started walking towards the exit.

Murmurs and sobs rose from the crowd, but no one moved.

Fels sheathed his sword. "If you run fast you can make it, you must reach the forest and you will be safe."

The boy looked over his shoulder, tears in his eyes.

Perhaps his parents were in the crowd, but no one stepped forward to help him.

The boy ran and crossed the entrance proton.

The hands of the clock began to turn as if mad.

With each turn the boy grew: in a few steps he had become a splendid adult, strong and muscular. When he reached the halfway point, his body was that of an old man. He collapsed to the ground crushed by a heart attack and his body dissolved in a cloud of dust.

The hands of the clock went back to midnight.

Noah clenched his fists. With magic like that, trying to escape was futile; he would never be able to get away in time.

He had thought of escaping at night, but now he had to revise his plans.

Fels burst out laughing. 'Have you seen beasts what awaits you if you do not work? Now go back to your dormitories."

Each dormitory was marked with a number, Noah and Tala were pushed into dormitory three.

The interior was completely bare except for a large stone trough that ran from the wall opposite the entrance to almost the middle of the room and a few piles of rotten straw.

Noah took Tala with him and went to sit in a corner near the manger.

The smell inside assaulted him. A mixture of rotten meat and sweat.

He had to get used to his new sense of smell quickly, otherwise he would die of the stench.

First he had to check his character window and the rewards he had received.

[Name: Wahya

Level: 6

Race: Beastman

Class: none

Title: none

PS: 300

Strength: 10

Endurance: 30

Agility: 15

MP: 3

Skills:

Predator

The magic power was definitely low, but Noah did not expect otherwise. Few beastmen excelled in the use of magical power, and the slave status had certainly not benefited his new body.

The system's prompt rang in his head.

He did not know the skill Absorption; it must have belonged to the previous owner of his new body.

[Skill Absorption:

B-Level

Description: After consuming a living creature's body, the user will be able to absorb any abilities it possessed.

You can absorb abilities within a maximum of 6 hours of the consumed target's death.

Only skills possessed by the target since birth may be absorbed.

The maximum amount of skills you can absorb varies depending on your affinity for the technique.

Absorbed skills: 0/3

Affinity: 0/100]

So he could only absorb innate skills and not those derived from the System, or from studying some cultivation technique. So it is basically useless with humans, but if I for example ate Tala I could take her healing ability.

Noah shuddered. It would be better to limit himself to creatures without intellect, at least for now.

It was still an interesting skill.

[ You have 1 unread message.]

Read.

[Congratulations on passing your first quest!

You have received: welcome back package.]

Open.

[You have obtained:

✓ manual: wolf cultivation technique.

Grade: D

Description: a technique developed by the wolf tribe, transmitted wila in eika. Allows for stable, but slow mana buildup].

It wasn't much of a technique, Noah knew countless better ones. But this one had one significant peculiarity: it was specially designed for the beastman physique.

That made it a more than valid basis for modifying and improving the effect of the magic formula he would choose in the future.

Noah closed his eyes. He had no time to waste, he had to concentrate on his training.

He opened his inventory and took out two mana stones. Tala squinted her eyes. "Wahya how did you do that?"

Noah brought his index finger to his lips and motioned her to be silent.

"It'll be our little secret, alright?"

She nodded.

Noah closed his eyes and concentrated on sensing the mana flowing inside his body.

A spark flashed before his eyes, then another and another. Soon the darkness was filled with a myriad of lights.

Noah twisted his mouth.

Obviously the previous owner of this body had never undergone mana training, and due to malnutrition and the prohibitive working conditions, the mana instead of clustering in the core was scattered into many inert masses within the body.

Considering the condition of this body, it's not so bad, but the veins that carry mana are weak now and even the physique wouldn't be able to withstand too much strain.

Noah tightened his grip on the mana stones. He had to repair the veins one by one in order to fully utilise the mana inside the body and bring it back into the core.

[You have entered into resonance with 2 mana stones.]

[Purified mana is coming into resonance.]

Noah took a deep breath. The lights all swirled together and merged into a larger and larger circle, until they became the mind's eye, the gaze that goes beyond the reality of the senses. Tiny particles of mana floated all around it. The same particles went on to form the body of Tala and the other prisoners in their true form: vibrating masses of tiny mana particles of earth, air, fire, water, light, darkness and time entwined together. The two mana stones were a swirl of red mana, so bright that he had to look away from them. most of the particles had to belong to the element of fire, he had to concentrate on absorbing that element.

Noah bit his thumb, the iron taste of blood wet his mouth. With the blood he drew two inverted triangles on his wrists, with a circle around them. Particles of mana emerged from the stones, fireflies of fire, and took flight. They formed a trail, attracted by the symbols on their wrists and plunged into it. A burning sensation clawed at his flesh.

Noah gritted his teeth and concentrated on keeping the mana inside his circulatory system so that it would heal him. The fire mana would remove impurities and strengthen the damaged channels, but if he lost control he would die.

A wave of energy broke his breath. The muscles swelled under his skin, the circulation of mana becoming more and more fluid. Impurities were burnt away by the heat and some mana fragments condensed in the core.

[Successful mana circulation]

[Blood vessel level increased by 3]

The flow of mana particles from the stones faded until it was extinguished.

Noah opened his eyes wide and caught his breath. He was covered in sweat and his heart was pounding in his ears.

He had managed to absorb most of the mana from the stones, but the effort had been much more intense than he had expected.

Tala stared at him worriedly and ran the back of his hand over his forehead.

"You're burning up!"

Noah sketched a smile. In an environment like that getting sick was a death sentence, it was normal for her to be worried.

Noah hid the exhausted stones in the inventory and stroked Tala's hair. "I'm fine, don't worry."

A metallic screech scratched his ears. The hatch at the back of the shed opened and a group of guards entered carrying buckets filled with a greyish slop.

One of the guards beat a couple of the nearest kids on the legs to push them away.

"Get back!"

The guards tipped the contents of the buckets into the trough.

The guard armed with a stick waited until the other guards had left and followed them.

"Have a good dinner beasts." He said and closed the door behind him.

A grumble rose from Noah's stomach. He had not touched food since his rebirth and after training he was ravenous.

Noah stepped forward, but Tala held him back by the arm.

"What are you doing?"

Noah arched an eyebrow. "Eating, what else?"

Three burly beastmen stepped forward and began to gorge themselves. All three were wearing leather tunics.

I see, so they are the ones in charge here. Even among slaves, there is a hierarchy.

"Why are they wearing those tunics?"

"They are the strongest and the guards use them as helpers."

Of course, that's why they allow themselves to lord it over everyone. Noah did not blame them, they had found their way to survive in that hell.

After they had eaten their fill, the three of them stepped aside and all the beastmen hurled themselves towards the manger.

Noah shook Tala's hand and made his way towards the manger, elbowed the boy beside him and made room for Tala.

He sank his paws into the slop and stuffed his mouth. The slop tasted like rotten meat and sauerkraut.

It was still better than nothing.

One of the beastmen in tunic, with black cat ears and tail grabbed Tala by the shoulder and yanked her away. "Enough for you!"

Noah turned around and clenched his fists. He had had a shitty day and he wasn't going to put up with any more bullshit.

The boy pointed his hands to his hips. "Do you have anything to say?"

The other two ringleaders moved to his sides. It was clear they wanted to attack each other in order to assert their power.

With the accumulated mana Noah could have settled the three boys without any trouble, but that would have drawn the attention of the guards.

It was not worth it.

Noah gave Tala a slap on the wrist. "Excuse the impertinence my sister."

The boy in front of Noah scratched his chin and twisted his mouth, thoughtful.

"You must understand that there are rules in here."

The two dog-boys at his sides stood in front of Tala.

"Wahya!"

Noah twisted his mouth. "Two of us to beat up a little girl. But how brave we are."

The cat-boy grabbed Noah by the collar of his shirt. "I must teach you a lesson."

He grabbed his wrist and grinned. "Who would you like to teach a lesson to?"

Noah concentrated a small amount of mana on his fingertips and paralysed his wrist joint.

The boy gritted his teeth in pain. "You bastard let go of me!"

The other two boys let go of Tala who took the opportunity to go into hiding.

Noah let go and the cat-boy stepped back holding his injured arm to his chest. "What are you waiting for? Get him!"

The bigger dog-boy landed a punch in Noah's face who collapsed to the ground.

Noah massaged his cheek. It was sore, but thanks to the mana he had managed to block most of the blow.

The dog-boy massaged his fist. "You are resilient for being so puny."

The three beastmen pounced on him without giving him time to react and kicked him.

Noah cowered, protecting his face and stomach with his arms and legs.

Even with the protection of mana, the blows hurt like hell.

The cat-boy gave his arms one last kick. He was out of breath.

"That'll teach you to disrespect your superiors."

He looked up at the crowd of kids staring dumbfounded at the scene.

"That goes for you too!"

He spat on his head and walked away with his comrades.

Noah crawled to the wall in front of him and took a deep breath.

He had to give the impression that he was tanned badly, so that the three idiots would be satisfied and not take it out on his sister.

"Wahya!"

Tala walked over to him, tears in his eyes.

Noah grimaced in pain. "I-I'm fine."

Tala choked back a sob. "You're not. They hurt you because of me."

"I'm fine, I just need to rest."

Tala hugged him and sank her face onto his stomach. "I'm sorry..."

Noah ran his hand through his hair to calm her down.

That unpleasant little scene had served a purpose anyway, now the other prisoners had all turned away from them for fear of getting in the three ringleaders' sights.

Noah shrugged. Then he would have less trouble hiding the stones.

He opened his inventory and pulled out two more stones.

He could not afford to waste time; the longer he stayed in that place, the less chance he had of getting out alive.

He closed his eyes and opened his mind's eye.

He had a lot of mana stones to absorb and he had to finish them all before daylight.