The field went still except for heavy breathing and blood dripping onto grass.
Finn knelt down with his axe ,using the ground as support. His chest heaved as he inhaled deeply. Blood all over him, dried and hardened on his skin and penetrated through his clothes.
James covered this wound with one hand,and the other hand held his sword.His wound was truly stinging. His legs felt weak beneath him,fatigue and loss weighing him down.
Ciara silently looked at Liam's corpse at a distance of twenty meters away. Tears began to roll down her face silently. She didn't make a sound but the tears kept coming, cutting clean tracks through the blood and dirt on her cheeks.
Aiden looked at the body and his face went white. He bent and vomited into the grass again. This time nothing came out except bile. When the heaving stopped, he started crying. A quiet sob that shook his shoulders.
The System countdown appeared across all their visions.
[INITIATING RETURN TO THE WAITING ROOM]
Nobody spoke.
They just stood there,surrounded by the corpses of the globins ...and one dead teammate. The countdown sounded loudly in silence. Fifty seconds. Forty. Thirty.
James looked at Liam's body one more time. The broken skull, the chest torn open, the spear still jutting from the torso. He was sure that forgetting this memory would surely be hard.
Twenty . Ten.
The area dissolved around them in white light.
They found themselves in the grey void of the Waiting Room.
The featureless space stretched in every direction and position with no walls or ceiling or floor that James could actually see. Everything was just endless grey. The four of them stood in a loose cluster, still covered in blood and dirt and goblin gore.
The System chimed immediately.
[TUTORIAL COMPLETE - DISTRIBUTING REWARDS]
[BASE REWARD: 300 TOWER COINS]
[PARTY EXP POOL: 750 EXP DIVIDED AMONG 4 SURVIVORS = 187 EXP EACH]
James watched his EXP bar jump from 45/200 to 232/200. The bar filled completely and kept going.
[LEVEL UP! YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3]
I was so excited to see my status window update by itself.
Here are the changes:
* [STRENGTH: 8 → 9] My strength just went up by 1.
* [AGILITY: 12 → 13] I also got a bit faster my agility is now 13.
* [INTELLIGENCE: 15 → 16] And I gained a point, in intelligence too it is now 16.
All my stats went up by 1. [ALL STATS +1]
My endurance just went up from 10 to 11.
My luck is also a bit better now it is 7 to 8.
I checked my health points. They are still 69 out of 180 but the total I can have is now 198.
My mana is still 90 out of 200. The total I can have is now 210.
I have 5 stat points that I can use from when I got to level 2.
I also have 5 stat points from when I got to level 3.
I have a total of 10 stat points from my endurance and luck and other things, like health points and mana.
He removed the window . His stomach wound had healed in the Waiting Room but the memory of the agony was still fresh.
The System chimed again.
[CLASS-SPECIFIC SKILL BOOK AWARDED]
A black book appeared in James's hands. It was small, maybe twenty centimeters tall, with a leather cover. A silvered skull was crafted in front of the book. The title reads in flowing script: "Corpse Explosion - Necromancer Skill."
James stared at it while his hands trembled slightly. Liam died and he got a book about exploding corpses.
Around him, the others received their own skill books.
Finn's book had a red cover with an axe embossed on it. He caught it without looking and let it drop to the floor beside him. His eyes were empty.
Ciara's book was black with twin daggers crossed on the cover. She held it in between her two palms. Tears still ran down her face silently.
Aiden's book was blue with arcane symbols spiraling across the cover. He stared at it like he didn't understand what it was or why he was holding it.
Nobody looked happy.
Liam had died ;and the system just treated it like some sort of video game. Kill the enemies, collect the rewards, move on to the next floor.
James wanted badly to throw off the book,but his heart wouldn't just let go. This was what he'd chosen. This was what being a Challenger meant. People died and you took their share of the rewards.
The System was announced again.
"TUTORIAL ENDED ,NEXT UP TO FIRST FLOOR"
"EXITING TOWER IN 30 SECONDS"
The countdown began immediately.
James, Finn, Ciara, and Aiden stood apart from each other in the void. None of them moved closer. None of them spoke or looked at each other. They were strangers who'd survived something terrible together and now they just wanted to leave.
The numbers ticked down in their visions.
[10... 9... 8...]
James gripped the skill book tighter.
[5... 4... 3...]
His mother would surely be awaiting his return. Three days had passed on Earth while he fought for seventy-two hours in the Tutorial.
[2... 1...]
White light filled everything and they vanished.
James appeared in his bedroom.
He stumbled forward and caught himself on his desk. The familiar peeling wallpaper surrounded him. Water stains on the ceiling. Cracked window glass covered with tape. The tiny room with barely enough space to turn around.
He looked down at his body. The leather armor was gone, replaced by the tracksuit and hoodie he'd been wearing when the transport took him. He lifted his shirt and found the stomach wound healed completely. Only a pink scar remained, thin and straight across his abdomen.
He was home.
James dropped the skill book on his bed and rushed out of the room. His feet pounded on the cheap linoleum floor as he ran through the tiny flat. The main room was empty. The kitchen is empty. The bathroom is empty.
His mother wasn't here.
A note sat on the kitchen table in her handwriting. James picked it up with shaking hands and read.
"James, if you come back and I'm not here, I'll be home soon. There's food in the fridge. I love you. Please come back. - Mum"
Three days. She'd been working and praying for three days while he fought goblins and watched Liam die.
James walked to the fridge and opened it. A shepherd's pie sat inside wrapped in cling film with a note taped to it: "Your favorite. Heat for 15 minutes." His mother had made it before he left, hoping he'd survive long enough to eat it.
He took the pie out without bothering to heat it. The ceramic dish was cold in his hands. He sat down at the small kitchen table and peeled back the cling film. The food was three days old and had been sitting in the fridge the entire time.
James picked up a fork and started eating it cold.
The first bite tasted like potatoes and meat and his mother's cooking. The second bite tasted like survival. By the third bite, tears were pouring down his face.
He cried while he chewed. His hands shook so badly he could barely hold the fork but he kept eating. Tears dripped into the food and he didn't care. Salt mixed with cold gravy and mashed potatoes.
He survived.
Liam died screaming but James made it home.
He ate the entire shepherd's pie while crying at his mother's kitchen table in their cramped flat in Dublin's worst neighborhood. When the dish was empty, he put his head down on the table and sobbed until his throat was raw.