"Oh no! Are you okay Raziel?"

  Alice's call turns me back to my senses.

  "Yes. I didn't expect to have to face a pyer this early."

  As soon as she hears my words her face turns gloomy—her heart horrified. I can tell she's not much of a gamer and that if she doesn't adapt fast enough, it'll be a matter of time till she's used or even abused by some vile fellow.

  "I..." she allows the sword to stab the ground below. The dirt being pierced by the heavy weapon keeps it vertically stable. The leftover blood flows slowly from the gravitational force to the dirt, dyeing it anew. "I watched the trailer."

  "Pyer versus pyer. This will be quite common from here onwards," I add, tone a little cold so she understands what she signed up for.

  "Yes. That's right, isn't it? We're forced to fight others," she doesn't look in my direction. Her eyes still fixated at the corpse that'll remain there for a hour.

  I can tell she's still shocked from her earlier fight. The boss we defeated looked rather alright, a bit cute even. A slimy ball, roundish, funny looking. It spilled a dark liquid, unfamiliar to some people like petrol—a little darker than coffee.

  The blood from both the kobold and the pyer, red in nature, was a little too familiar for both of us. The difference that I had seen my share of it during the alpha test.

  "You'll get used to it," I bend my knee, catching another shard. Then, I did the same for the kobold.

  "What are those things?" She fails to hide her curiosity.

  "They're shards. Once we gather enough, I'll be able to provide us with better equipment. That is, if you stick around long enough."

  She replies with an amiable smile. Then, unexpectedly, I receive a friend request from Alice which I quickly accept.

  After a thought or two, I open my mouth. "We should join or create a guild at some point. It'll make our life a tad easier."

  "I could make one. I have some people that would like to join."

  "Sounds good to me, but for now, you'll need to reach level 10 for that."

  She opens her mouth, clearly surprised. It makes me wonder if it's from the level requirement or something else.

  "I'll do my best," her contagious smile almost gets the best of me.

  "Where should we go next?"

  "Hum..." cutely, she pces her index finger under her lip. "Not from where the pyer came from so maybe that way?"

  With her pointing at a path behind the dead kobold, we move further, increasing the distance between us and the portal. I bring the kobold corpse with us by pulling its light weight by its wrist.

  I smile faintly without looking her way, satisfied with her choice and learning speed.

  "Is that necessary?" She questions me, face with disdain.

  "We're out of potions," I remind her in an oblivious manner hoping to see if she understands.

  "Can we use it as a shield?"

  "More like a distraction."

  "Right..." she averts her gaze, focusing instead on the path ahead.

  We move through the strange bcked bark and the violet long leaves that extend almost to the ground. We step on it and find the area filled with stiff dirt.

  While allowing Alice to lead the way, I do a light tap in every tree, till finally one of them starts to shine.

  I notice a grey glow propagating through the oak and the decay corrupting the tree. Some of the leaves start to fall from it, drying, and turning eerily darker.

  'With this, I won't need to worry,' I keep walking, satisfied Alice didn't notice my hidden power. A cold smile filling my face.

  'Once this power stops being random, it'll become quite useful.'

  Soon, we reach the end of the forest, finding ourselves two different paths.

  "Where to?" She asks clearly unsure which is the best way.

  "Let's split to cover more terrain faster," I dare her internally, checking how she'll react from not getting baby-sitted.

  "Sure."

  To my surprise she heads on the right entrance, leaving me behind.

  "She has more backbone than I thought," I smile with satisfaction wondering how long she'll st. Something in me, starts hoping that it won't be a short time.

  I persist with my unconventional gamepy like I'm some sort of caveman, pulling the corpse with me, and having some amusement from doing so.

  The pathway returns to being made of stone, the continuation of caves.

  I grip my knife, "there's a big chance one of us will run into a pyer."

  My goal for now is to find some rare item before heading to the next floor.

  "And the pyer I killed before will respawn soon," something out of my calcutions. People died once in the alpha test and remained dead—forever so. In the tutorial they didn't even lose experience. Considering how hard the game was set out to be, that was quite the blessing for newcomers.

  After some more steps, I notice a wider area made of stone, a bit dim, but with a kobold passing from the right side to the left.

  'Looks like its alone,' I let go of the corpse, readying myself to go around it.

  Careful stepping towards its back hoping to get a free blow if I go unnoticed. I notice a dagger in his waist. Unlike his naked kin, this one has dark pants and a belt.

  Suddenly, it stops as if sensing something. I grip my weapon and thrust the air right into the back of its head. It lets no sound but the body squirms for a few seconds till a message arrives.

  Notification: You've received 20 experience for defeating the level one kobold.

  I open the status and take a quick gnce, noticing I'm 15 away from meeting the leveling up quota. My title proficiency has increased to 0.1%. With how long the cooldown is, it'll take a while to make it into an asset. Nevertheless, for me, grinding is one of the things that makes games fun.

  I take the shard and check for a loot box, but to my unfortunate self, none appears. I was hoping to receive one of the items he is wearing but the chance isn't high. Even for shards it's not 100% but still far higher than any kind of box.

  "Too bad," I resume my march, heading further ahead, avoiding going right where Alice likely is. She needs to get a gist of combat and improve on her own. It will also allow both of us to earn more experience like this.

  This time around, with some effort, I pull both of the kobolds. The hallway gets a little narrower as I proceed but still remains manageable.

  I take a quick gnce on my left side, noticing Alice's health bar dropping. Above it, I can see her name and next to it the number 0, her current level.

  'You can do it,' I cherish for her on my quiet corner, hoping she'll be smart enough to run away if she can't beat her opponent.

  I head my own way, finding a different room, this time with a lot more light. In the far center a treasure chest, on top of a column of stone and stairs to reach it.

  "This wasn't what I had in mind," I summon the inventory and let go of my weapon causing it to disappear.

  Then, I throw one of the kobolds to the squared spaces between me and the stairs.

  Unnoticeable spikes from below pierce the body causing guts and tissue, to remain atop the steel and sharp edges. He remains there on the first square of the second row.

  "Dreadful," I look away from the gore by lowering my head. "The creators weren't kidding about realism."

  I throw in another kobold, its body slides through the floor getting stabbed on the third square of the first row.

  "A shame I lost both corpses. This better be worth it."

  Quickly, I make my way to the chest, going up then right then up, easily finding my feet touch the steps, and after, my hands open the treasure chest.

  "Let's see what these one-hit kill traps were protecting."

  Back in the tutorial, some alpha test pyers met their end in these traps, losing their chance to progress further. I vividly remember reading about their compints on the forums. They legally disclosured it as overpowered defense mechanisms without spoiling what in fact they were. Nonetheless, for any tester, it was painfully obvious to what they referred.

  A small glow follows and a small screen unfolds before me.

  10-slot treasure chest contents:

  5x health potions.

  1x apple-pie.

  1x banana.

  1x unidentified rune.

  Without thinking twice, I hog all the contents, chest included. My inventory becomes almost full, simir to the chest it is a 10-slot private space. I remove my weapon returning it back to my right hand.

  Carefully, I move between the traps, heading to the passage on the left, potentially leading me in my party member direction.

  It doesn't take me long to arrive at a wide room, where two dark slimes roam and a chest behind them with two lockers ys.

  "Raziel!"

  The familiar voice causes me to look at the right side, finding a tattered Alice, her cloths a tad ragged, showing bits of her clean light skin and what appears to be minimal wounds.

  "Alice," we walk towards each other. "You managed to survive."

  "Yes! Barely!" Her high pitched voice has some tiredness to it, yet, as usual, an amiable smile follows.

  Strangely, I start to find some comfort in it.

  "How far are you from leveling up?"

  Her rubies move left and right as she sees her pyer status.

  "95 out of 100."

  "Closer than me to level up."

  "Hehe," her cute grin catches me off-guard.

  I look upward, slightly embarrassed. Then I focus on my inventory, retrieving two health potions, and handing them over to her.

  "Use them on the right slime, I'll take care of the other one."

  "Thank you."