“Thanks for the help, Cyric,” Archie said as he got up from the sofa, with his Vital Sight

  A cool tidbit he learned from Cyric was that if he practiced hard enough he could find the perfect ratio to actively have Vital Sight

  He’d even learned that his irises tinged red when he’d activate Vital Sight.

  “Not a problem,” Cyric said while getting up from the table and walking Archie to the door. “But, before you go, would you be interested in becoming a Vampire?”

  Archie, who was walking beside Cyric, suddenly stopped and looked at Cyric blankly for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Uh, what?”

  “Would you like to become a vampire?” Cyric repeated with a playful smile. “You would still retain your ability to have both a Profession and a Class, but your Race will change to that of a vampire.”

  “Why me though?” Archie asked, confused at the sudden offer. “Is it because of Vital Sight

  “Kinda,” Cyric answered while shaking his right hand in a so-so manner. “My father asked me to offer the opportunity to become a vampire to anyone in the Tutorial who had a strong affinity for vital energy or whoever caught my eye. You seem like a pretty chill guy and have a strong affinity towards vital energy, so why not offer?”

  “Uh, I appreciate the offer, but I’d rather stay as a human,” Archie replied awkwardly. Rejecting an offer from a guy who was willing to spend hours helping you, felt really shitty to do. But becoming a vampire wasn’t very appealing to him. It might have had to do with the various films that he’d seen about vampires, and anything related to them, and finding them to be just immortal humans who drink blood and are either very narcissistic or obsessively stalking girls. Archie thought.

  “I hope this doesn’t make things between us awkward…or anything” Archie continued while rubbing the back of his neck.

  Cyric rolled his eyes and smirked while waving away Archie’s concern. “Think nothing of it. Nothing wrong with standing up for your race, rather it's very much encouraged within the multiverse. People only change their race when they believe they must, else their journey would stagnate.

  “Could you explain on that a bit more?” Archie asked, curious as to why someone’s journey would stagnate if they didn’t change their race.

  “In the multiverse, there are two types of species, those who are born with sentience and those who aren’t. Those who are born with sentience have a Race, Class, and Profession from the get-go. Some of the more well-known races born with sentience are Humans, Vampires, Elves, and many others. Those who are not born with sentience are able to receive it in full through their D-Grade evolutions. When reaching D-Grade they are also offered the opportunity to gain a Profession if they so wish. Doing so will add a Profession section to their status page. But unlike our own status page, they would only have a race and profession field. This is due to their race being so intrinsically connected with their classes, there is no distinction between them,” Cyric explained.

  “Nevertheless, there are tradeoffs for them picking a Profession; they receive 20% less XP when killing a creature but receive 10% more XP when doing their profession. Some of the more well-known races are the Beastkiin, Dragons, Elementals, and many others.” Cyric continued.

  “Oh wow,” Archie said, taking in the information given to him. “I guess if people find their Class or Profession to be dragging them down, they might consider changing races?”

  “Yes, it’s quite commonplace within the multiverse,” Cyric answered. “A warrior might find having a Profession to be a waste of time so they find ways to become a race that would fit their goals. But mind you there are drawbacks and advantages to each race, not to mention the rituals you have to set up among other things to change your race.”

  Archie nodded in understanding. Some people just prefer their craft over anything else and might change their race just because they believe that’s what they only wish to do. Who was he to judge what they wanted to do with their lives?

  “I appreciate your help,” Archie said as he stepped onto the small porch outside Cyric’s tower and turned to look at Cyric.

  “Anytime,” Cyric said with a smile before closing the door.

  Archie turned around and activated Vital Sightshadowboxing? Curious as to why Xelgar was shadowboxing, Archie made his way towards Xelgar.

  As he approached Xelgar, he found him wiping away his sweat with a rag and drinking from a glass of water while looking at his Aetherglass. “Hello!” Archie said, getting Xelgar’s attention away from his Aetherglass.

  Putting away his Aetherglass and glass of water, Xelgar wiped his head and turned towards Archie. “Hello, Archie!”

  Making his way towards Xelgar, Archie greeted Xelgar with a handshake clap. Xelgar looked at the greeting he did with their hands. “What was that?”

  “Oh,” Archie said before chuckling at Xelgar’s confusion. “It’s a greeting we do on our planet.”

  “Curious,” Xelgar said before performing the greeting once more. “I like this greeting…Do you mind if I steal it?”

  “By all means,” Archie smiled at the joyful look on Xelgar’s face before suddenly remembering. “Ah, before I forget, do you mind giving me some tips on how I fight and things I need to improve on?”

  Xelgar smiled at Archie’s request and within his right hand appeared a dark oak staff. Without missing a beat, Xelgar sent an attack to Archie’s head.

  Archie quickly kicked backwards, barely dodging the swipe at his head.

  “Come on Archie, you gotta be faster than that!” Xelgar smiled as he charged at Archie.

  “Oi, take it easy! I’m still an E-Grade,” Archie said as he dodged under another swipe, but got clipped on the bottom of his head with a sudden turn of the staff from Xelgar.

  “Don’t worry, I’m lowering my strength to that of yours.” Xelgar laughed as he swiped Archie’s feet from under him using the rag he held with his left hand and making him yelp. “Don’t use any boosting skills” Xelgar commented as he dodged a steaming punch from Archie and kicked him back.

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  Quickly falling into a roll, Archie deactivated Adrenaline RushThis is gonna hurt a shit ton, Archie thought as he barely dodged another swipe at his head and crossed his fist over the staff and towards Xelgar’s face. But Xelgar tilted his head, making Archie’s strike miss him by mere millimeters, and twisted his staff to lock up Archie’s arm and kick him back once more.

  Archie pushed himself off his stomach and onto his back, breathing heavily. Dirt caked his form, purple bruises across his body, and minor fractures across bones.

  Looming over his exhausted form was a smiling Xelgar who leaned forward on his staff. “You did pretty good.”

  “Good my ass,” Archie complained, and he pushed his back off the ground and sat on his ass. “I barely hit you.”

  “No, you did,” Xelgar smiled while pointing at a small, thin scratch on the right side of his light blue tunic. “See you did hit me.”

  “Sure, I scratched your clothes, but I didn’t even put a scratch on your body,” Archie said while burning off the dirt and grime on his face and armor with Forgesmith’s Flame

  “You aren’t meant to even scratch me, Archie,” Xelgar sighed while offering a hand for Archie to pull himself up. “My level is more than double your own. Literally no one on your planet, even now, could harm me, unless I wanted them to.”

  “I get that,” Archie said while taking Xelgar’s hand and pulling himself off the ground. After dusting himself off he said, “But that doesn’t fix my bruised ego.”

  “No, it does not.” Xelgar chuckled while slapping Archie’s back with enough force to arch forward. Xelgar then pulled out two chairs from his spatial storage and set them down opposite to each other using his mana. “Now, onto what I’ve observed from our fight.”

  Sitting in the seat opposite to Xelgar, Archie gave Xelgar his full attention. Xelgar beat his ass without sweating and with a regular stick and rag, any advice from him would be more than beneficial for Archie to learn from.

  “You fight wildly and without structure,” Xelgar commented while crossing his arms and a straight expression. “While fighting wildly isn’t a bad thing, fighting without structure is. What I mean by that is, your footwork is sloppy, and you try too hard.”

  “What do you mean try too hard?” Archie questioned, confused. Archie thought “Why is that a bad thing?”

  “Instead of always trying to stay on the offensive, you should step back and assess your next move,” Xelgar explained. “Every swipe I sent at you knocked you to the ground because you kept putting all your weight into your punches or kicks. You must focus on how you move—your attacks should draw their force from your feet. Right now, even a little pressure on the wrong part of your body makes you lose balance.”

  Xelgar was right, Archie played back the moments when he was fighting Xelgar and every attack he took sent him sprawling on the ground. Archie also remembered that many of the martial artists he watched brought up the importance of footwork when fighting. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Anything else?”

  “Not really,” Xelgar replied. “It’s obvious that you’re new to fighting, but you fight very well with how long you have been fighting. Honestly, you just need to gain more experience in fighting.”

  Archie nodded in understanding, he hadn’t really fought anyone prior to the system integration. The only fight he had been in was beating the shit out of Doug when he saw him after Daniel’s funeral, but that was more of a one-sided beatdown and less of a fight.

  All in all, he just needed to keep in mind to pay attention to his footwork and step back to strategize what he should do next when at a disadvantage. If he had previously retreated away from the serpent and baited its poisonous attacks then he wouldn’t have almost died.

  Archie chided himself while getting up from the chair.

  “Thank you for your help Xelgar,” Archie said and offered Xelgar a goodbye handshake.

  “A word of advice, I recommend you start looking for some dungeons,” Xelgar smiled while getting up and returned the handshake. “All Group Tutorials have special ones hidden around.”

  But before Archie could respond, Xelgar disappeared from in front of him. Activating Vital Sight

  Archie thought before grimacing…

  Archie entered Michael’s camp just at what looked like an hour or two before sunset. Walking through the camp, he went to find Michael. On his way he found an E-Grade cook selling some strips of jerky.

  After buying enough to fill a crate, Archie paid the cook 200 Tutorial Points before continuing his search for Michael.

  Archie found Michael sitting in front of a campfire lost in thought. His eyes were slightly glazed over as he stared at the tattoo on his ungloved right hand. The tattoo was the date; 09-03-2010.

  Sitting on the same log Michael sat on, Archie placed his arm on Michael’s shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts. Michael turned to face Archie. “When did you get here?”

  “A few moments ago,” Archie said while looking at the campfire. Taking out a couple pieces of jerky, he passed half to Michael. “You okay man?”

  Michael turned back to face the campfire then dipped his head down and stared at the jerky in his hands. After a minute of silence, Michael responded. “I don’t know.”

  “I know we haven’t known each other for long,” Archie nodded in understanding before turning away from the campfire and looking at Michael. “But I like to believe that I know you well enough to say you’re a good guy…So, if you need anyone to talk to, I’m your guy.”

  “I appreciate it,” Michael replied before sharply sniffing over the sound of wood kindling cracking and people talking around them. “So, what brought you over?”

  “I just wanted to tell you what I saw when scouting Oliver’s camp,” Archie said, not wanting to push for an answer from a man who was clearly going through something. “It’s not good.”

  Michael's eyes narrowed at the mention of Oliver. “What did you see?”

  “He has people in cages,” Archie said, his face contorted in disgust. “Some missing limbs, some dead. At least 60 people were locked in cages, their levels were in the high 40s to low 50s. But that’s not the worst of it.”

  “What do you mean?” Michael questioned, his tone dark and eyes staring into the campfire.

  “He’s experimenting on them,” Archie answered, finishing the rest of his jerky and dusting off his hands. “He made them: The Human Thralls and Demonic Humans. I don’t know how he did it, but it probably has to do with his alchemy or something. He ain’t human anymore either; changed his race to something called a Cambion.”

  Michael didn’t reply back, seemingly digesting Archie’s words. Michael rubbed his left hand over his right for a minute before responding. “I can get 50 more people to reach level 60, to raid their base in five days…Would you be willing to join the raid?”

  “Of course,” Archie chuckled. “That fucker sent the Verdant Serpent after me.”

  Michael’s eyes went wide, “That was you? I thought Oliver killed it since none of us saw it, but we got a completed quest notification.” Michael then stopped realizing what Archie said; “He sent it after you? Are you sure?”

  “Dead sure,” Archie replied, getting up from the log. “He spoke into some type of magic circle while staring at me and not a moment later, the serpent almost swallowed me whole.”

  “This changes things,” Michael muttered, turning to look at the empty healer’s tent. “We’re gonna need more healers with us. If he could do that to a mid-boss then he could probably do the same to any of us.”

  Leaving Michael to his strategizing, Archie headed towards one of the E-Grade alchemists to look at the types of potions she was selling.

  , Archie thought while looking at her potions. The health, mana, and stamina potions on her stand restored 2000 of their respective pools. Much more than Archie’s F-Grade Effigies of Health.

  The alchemist just finished brewing a batch of health potions and was restocking her stand when she saw Archie staring at her freshly made potions.

  “Ah hello,” the alchemist said, slightly startled at Archie’s sudden appearance. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’d like to buy twenty of each of these potions,” Archie said while pointing at the health, mana, and stamina potions covering her stand.

  “Each potion costs 200 Tutorial Points,” the alchemist replied, recognizing Archie as the one who gave the camp a scare when he first arrived.

  Archie quickly paid the alchemist before throwing the potions into his spatial storage.

  Turning towards the entrance of the camp, he saw Michael nibbling on the pieces of jerky while deeply staring into the campfire. , Archie thought while exiting the camp.

  Archie thought while racing across the island.

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