B1

The straw dummy burst into flame from Bronwyn’s spell. “Bleh, this is the shittiest tutorial I’ve ever had to do,” she grumbled to no one but herself. If it weren’t for the fact that this was real, that she was really wielding magic, she would have run out of patience long ago. No self-respecting VR developer would have allowed this unimaginative tutorial to go through publishing.

Three days ago, Bronwyn and the other five thousand passengers that had been on the Pilgrim 9 had awoken in a large meadow. The meadow was roughly six miles across; Bronwyn had run its diameter during her first day. It was bordered to the east, west, and south by a dense forest of tall, alien trees. The northern edge of the meadow was peppered with sparse trees and opened up into a much larger grassland that extended as far as the horizon where tall, purple mountains rose against the cobalt sky. They did not awaken retching out cryo-gel on a cold plasteel floor, but in soft beds of grass, which was at least one pleasant surprise; she hated interplanetary travel.

Upon waking, none of the colonists knew where they were, this planet did not match the description of any they were traveling to, and they saw no sign of their ship or belongings. However, every single one of them shared the same dream of being enveloped in glowing golden light. In the dream, a light, airy voice explained to them that they were being transported to a new world, one that hosted all manner of beings from a multitude of planets. Nobody seemed panicked about the situation. In fact, many people refused to believe that any of this was real - they insisted that they were still in cryo-sleep, living through some sort of a lucid dream as a side effect of being in the gel for hundreds of years. Those that seemed to accept the situation, like Bronwyn, couldn’t explain their good mood. Perhaps the “System” was drugging them with the fruits it had supplied upon their waking.

Bronwyn was among the first to discover the “System,” a seemingly benevolent entity that would help them learn the ropes of this new world. She had quickly come to understand that this was essentially just like the VR games she was famous for back on Earth. There were all the same commands and interface screens, well, except there was no log-out button. As soon as she realized this, she knew she would have to sprint to be ahead of everyone else. There were five thousand people in this meadow, and there was no way she was going to be stuck in queues and fall behind. She’d played countless VR MMOs and knew that being ahead of the pack on launch day was the best way to get exclusive rewards and the best gear.

The first two days were tutorials on how to build simple shelters, craft various wooden trinkets and stone tools, as well as a small cooking lesson. There were no resources in the meadow other than the soft, feathery blue grass, and the forest was inaccessible, simply blocked by an invisible wall. Whenever something was needed for the next lesson, the System would somehow manifest small, yellow chests that contained whatever ingredients you’d need. Every time Bronwyn saw one of those chests disappear in a smoky, yellow haze after being emptied, she’d have to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t in a VR tank. What if the people who thought they were all dreaming away in their cryo-pods were right?

The third day was combat training, at least for Bronwyn. As far as she could see, no one else in the meadow had training dummies spawning around them yet. The morning had been all hand-to-hand combat training and was fairly rudimentary, just some short punching combos. The after-noon was weapons training. The System provided swords, maces, axes, and bows that unfortunately disappeared when the training was over. The evening was dedicated to learning how to use Energy, essentially one's ability to cast magic spells. Bronwyn had never been a fan of spellcasting classes, occasionally playing some sort of spellsword, but never a full caster. She preferred fast-paced melee combat. To her, it was more fun, and she liked putting on a good show for her fans. I mean, who wants to watch some nerd stand a hundred yards away and spam fireballs.

The Energy training took the better part of five hours, and it mainly consisted of hurling around various elements. At this point, when Bronwyn began to believe that they weren’t all hallucinating or sharing some kind of VR experience in the cryo-pods. She’d played every VR game there was. She owned the best immersion pod that money could buy. Nothing came close to what this felt like. She was really here. Unbelievably, she was channeling magic and creating fire out of thin air. The spell tutorial that most grabbed her interest, though, was the earth and stone magic that could shield parts of her body from impact. The System was sure to inform her that her access to these powers was “borrowed” - she’d have to gather Energy and form her own “Core” before she could wield Energy in skills or spells.

“I guess the magic is cool, but fighting straw dummies is kinda garbage. Wonder what nonsense they’re going to make me do next.”

The soft voice of The System entered Bronwyn's head.

***Congratulations! Tutorial sequence complete.***

***Rewards: Level 2 base human, Title: First Colonist, First Colonist Reward Box, Ardent Vale borders: unlocked. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.***

A swirl of yellow-blue, crackling smoke appeared on the ground near her feet and coalesced into the shape of a large, yellow box with blue runic symbols all over it. “FUCK YEAH!!” Bronwyn shouted. “It always pays to be in the lead; let’s see what these rewards are all about. Character sheet.”

Status

Name: Bronwyn Tallow

Race: Human - Base 1

Class: —

Level: 2

Energy Affinity: 6.1

Energy: 30/0

Strength: 13

Vitality: 11

Dexterity: 9

Agility: 11

Intelligence: 9

Will: 11

Points Available: 5

Titles & Feats: First Colonist

Skills: System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable

“What are the benefits of the First Colonist title?”

***First Colonist: +1 to all Attributes and +10% Energy gain from vanquishing other Energy users***

Bronwyn pondered for a moment. Having +1 to all stats didn’t sound like a lot, but 10% Energy gain would undoubtedly help her keep her momentum, especially since none of the other colonists, as far as she knew, were even working on combat training yet. The unspent stat points were a greater concern for her; her natural strength was reasonably high, but she didn't have a clear choice for secondaries. Unarmed combat seemed somewhat overpowered - her strikes were doing as much damage as the tutorial great axe, but when she practiced on multiple dummies, it seemed to lack any kind of cleave. Magic was an option, but her energy affinity, while good, wasn’t exceptional compared to some of the other colonists she’d spoken to. Her intelligence was a bit low; she kind of wished she would’ve paid more attention in math. Maybe she’d just focus on some low-level spells to amplify her strengths a bit.

Not wanting to remain indecisive for too long, she settled on focusing on mastering unarmed combat. After all, her first international championship had been in VR mixed martial arts; she was no stranger to punching in a few teeth. Might as well focus on her strengths, literally, she mused, as she spent three of her five points. Her other two points she put into agility. “Can’t get hurt if they can’t hit you,” she laughed, punching one fist into her open palm.

“Now, let’s see about those rewards!” Bronwyn knelt and lifted the lid of the yellow, footlocker-shaped box. Inside was a leather pouch about the size of her two fists put together, a leather-bound book, a folded set of leather armor, two heavy-looking gauntlets, a backpack that looked to be full of equipment, and an obelisk-shaped stone, about the size of her forearm.

She picked up the leather pouch and looked inside. Three smooth, amber-colored gems rested inside the pouch, one of them about twice the size of the others. She held the largest one in her hand and allowed some Energy to trickle into it, the way the System had taught her during the tutorial and was rewarded with an information screen:

***Energy Core rank 2, type: tri-node.***

This appeared to be the Energy Core that the System had mentioned earlier and a slightly advanced one at that. She wondered how long it would take any of the other colonists to acquire any rank 2 item, let alone something so seemingly important. She was pleased to see that it came with a manual, as the tutorial had been pretty brief concerning forming and building a Core. She picked up the small leather book and repeated the process. Nothing happened, so she assumed it wasn’t magical or bondable. Was that word? Instead, she opened the book and saw a title page: Amber Class Energy Core Manual. That would make things easier!

Next, she picked up the folded leather armor and tried to bond with it in the same fashion. Nothing happened. “Must just be normal, leather armor, I guess.” She set it aside and looked at the gauntlets. They also wouldn’t bond with her, but they seemed pretty great, anyway. They weren’t just armor for her hands, she could tell. They were weighted gauntlets. On the one hand, Bronwyn was ecstatic - if she could pick weapons to start with, these would be them. She was familiar with a fighting style that worked perfectly with them, and she’d enjoyed using Energy to compliment that kind of fighting during the tutorial. On the other hand, it was creepy as fuck that the System seemed to know what she wanted. There was no way this was a coincidence.

She picked up the backpack and rifled through it. It seemed to contain simply everything one needed to start a life in the woods, a bedroll, hatchet, shovel, flint and steel, a simple mess kit, 50 feet of rope, four torches, and a boot knife. Finally, she picked up the obelisk and examined it. It was about a foot tall, had four flat sides that angled to a sharp point at the top. All along its sides, seeming to move around in the dark stone, were silver and gold-colored runes. She took a minute to bond with the item and was rewarded with a prompt:

***Settlement Stone, activate at the present location? Y/N***

Bronwyn quickly said, “No!” and the prompt went away. She’d have to think about this one.