Chapter 13

  When Danny was lucid again, he found himself in a patch of grass bordered by a sprawling pink mist that stretched to the horizon. The area was large, but not as big as the temple courtyard he had originally trained in. A small pond with blooming lily pads whose flowers were the same color as the ephemeral fog that bordered this place. The silhouette of trees could be seen, but no matter the angle Danny scrutinized them, they were never more than a shadow. The grass, water, and lily pads shifted with a breeze that was neither felt nor heard. “What do you think?” Danny jumped when the yellow-haired fairy girl suddenly appeared.

  “It’s nice, I guess, but where am I?”

  “My Hin-Alei. I’ll be your Training Spirit for the time being.” She effortlessly glided to the ground and drew her sword. “You can call me Sassa.” Sassa's blade was an exquisite mix of gleaming silver-white metal and dull gold: expensive-looking, yet not gaudy or pompous, simply the stark beauty of expert craftsmanship and quality materials. After a flourish, she pointed the sword at Danny. “Let’s begin.”

  “But I don’t have–” Just as Danny was about to object, he looked to find his hands wrapped around the familiar wooden handle, already in his opening stance. “When did—”

  “It’s a dream world, try not to think too hard.” And with that, the Training Spirit shot forward. Danny knocked the blade aside, relying on instinct. The sword jabbed at his stomach, Danny again smacked it aside and was met with a kick to the abdomen that sent him reeling. Sassa waited for Danny to straighten. She didn’t say anything. He had been expecting a taunt or a quip from the light-hearted fairy spirit, but she just patiently stared at him. Silence seemed to be even worse than a witty one-liner. Danny had grown used to the feeling of being stronger, even the Matriarch and her horde, while a challenge that had left him broken, he had overcome. Something that was the opposite of how he had felt before the Integration. Here, it almost felt like he was going backward. Danny did not want to go back to how it had been before, not after he had gotten a taste of being strong.

  Reaffirming his grip on the staff, Danny settled back into his stance. The fairy took that as a sign to continue and closed the gap like a pouncing lion. Danny dodged, Sassa slashed at his twisting figure, his staff deflected the strike, she dropped her shoulder and slammed, Danny redirected with the staff’s butt. Sassa leapt back in order to end the exchange, but now Danny sought to press his advantage. Rising Tempest. The staff built its momentum, calling on the strength of the storm. Three rapid strikes put the fairy on the backfoot. Weaving Willow. Danny nimbly avoided a hasty counter. Falling Thunder. The wind whistled as Danny delivered the fight-ending blow, forgetting that this was practice, that this was a dream world built by some far-off race of fairies, all he wanted was to win. For once. To not be the one walking away with bruises and broken pride, just one time.

  “Wow!” Sassa remarked as she caught Danny’s staff. Caught. With one hand. Like it was easy. “That was a great warm-up!”

  “Warm-up?”

  ___________________________________________________________________

  Danny came out of the trance dripping with sweat. Bruises riddled his body and his muscles ached despite all of the training taking place somewhere separate from the real world. The crackling sound from behind caused Danny to look around and realize that the guide had not been wasting any time while he was being trounced by Sassa. A fire had been built that now burned steadily. Two square tent-like structures made a makeshift campground. The guide was putting the last stake in the ground on one of them. Danny wondered how he got all this stuff.

  It seemed that Danny’s coming-to had gone unnoticed. He decided to take a second to catch his breath. Sassa had been brutal. After their “warm-up,” she was a blur. Unable to keep up, Danny had received strike after strike, certainly dying if it had been a real fight. A humbling experience. Fortunately, Danny’s Body base stat had gone up from a 5 to a 6. The ordeal was worthwhile, at least. Although that did little to ease Danny’s hurting pride. Or his body.

  “That was fast.”

  “Sure didn’t feel like it.” Danny was surprised when something approximating a smile crossed the guide’s face. It didn’t linger, but the fairy stood in silence for a moment, somewhere else.

  “In the morning we will find the other Pillars, they are barely usable like this.” The guide said, ending the pause. “Any gains?”

  “I got a point in Body.”

  The fairy nodded in response. Having finished the setup of the camp, the guide retired to one of the tents, leaving the other for Danny. Danny had so many questions, but he was trepid due to the fairy’s listlessness. The lack of human company was beginning to weigh on Danny and he could only imagine how it must feel for the guide. At least Danny was on his home planet, who knows how far the fairy was from home. Meeting another person helped, even if it was a Training Spirit that kicked his butt, but there was no substitute for the real thing. A night of video games and pizza with his friends, or going to a coffee shop and just being around other people. What I wouldn’t give to see TJ or Brett, even Z-dubs. Thinking about his friends from before was too much, so Danny heeded the guide’s words and entered his tent to cultivate. That always eased his mind.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  When the sunlight woke Danny, the guide was already out and about. Danny groggily rubbed at his eyes as he exited the tent, yawning as he went. The fairy guide hurried him along. This time, the guide made Danny carry his own supplies. Thankfully there wasn’t as much to haul after making camp. As usual, Danny followed behind the guide. He thought back on his time with Sassa.

  It seemed that she had been much less chatty regarding information about Danny’s guide than she had been at the start. Danny wondered if that was a coincidence. In general, it seemed that Danny’s guide had a stranglehold on the information he received. Anything that the System didn’t provide Danny had to get from the fairy, and he had been less than forthcoming. That was beginning to become frustrating. Well, it had been frustrating for quite some time, but now it was becoming frustrating enough that Danny felt like he needed to say something. Surely if he knew more he could be better prepared, right? What harm could there be in answering a few questions? Danny finally built up the courage to approach the guide.

  “Uh, Guide sir, can I ask you something?”

  “No.” The guide shut him down without even turning his head.

  “Okay, I’ll just—” No, Danny, come on! “Wha–What was that name or title that the Training Spirit fairy called you?” The floodgates opened. “And why did she say that it was unusual for a human to use the Pillars? What are the Pillars anyway?” At this point, Danny wasn’t even giving the guide a chance to answer. “How do you always know where we are going? Where do you keep all the random suppli—”

  “Enough. You’ll understand everything soon enough.”

  “You keep saying that! Why won’t you tell me anything?”

  “Because you have other things that require your focus.”

  “Like what? Walking? Right now, couldn’t you answer at least one question? I have a thousand of them and instead of answers I just keep getting more and more mysteries.” Danny said.

  “And who are you to ask, native?” The fairy boomed, now turning to face Danny. “Knowledge is power. Too little and you are weak, too much and you are crushed beneath the weight. The System doesn’t hand out tomes and tomes of the Multiverse’s collective knowledge, it assigns guides. Guides that determine what you need to know and when you need to know it. Eyes on the next step native, remember that.” The guide was finished. But Danny wasn’t.

  “But I can handle a little bit more than just vague references and being led around like a child. Give me something.” Danny pleaded.

  “You are a child. You don—” The guide cut himself off when he saw the scene in front of them.

  They had finally escaped the depressing dead trees, but before them was a battlefield of corpses. They looked like monkeys. Like baboons that wore hides of snow white. Snow white that was stained red. The skin of their faces was red by default, hiding just how bloodied they were. Large rents were torn across their necks, faces, and bodies. Pools of blood turned the ground to ruddy mud. The stink of death made a miasma that hung heavy in the air. “What would this?” Danny asked while scrunching his nose.

  “Only two things kill like this and leave a mess behind. Natives. And monsters. And the natives, save you, are in the Tutorial right now.”

  “Monsters kill each other like this?”

  “Yes. Usually not this early though. Whatever did this must be much stronger than what you have faced thus far.” The fairy said.

  “Is the Pillar here?”

  “I’m not sure. You’ll have to look for it.”

  “Me?”

  The guide glared at Danny in answer.

  With a groan, Danny began to wade through the carnage. As he moved aside the severed hand of one of the monkeys, Danny wondered if he was beginning to become desensitized. It was the second gruesome spectacle in just as many days. His face felt warm as salty moisture misted his eyes. Danny vomited. Guess not.

  After voiding his stomach, Danny continued to sift through the corpses looking for… “Wait, what am I looking for?”

  The guide sighed. “It’ll be another statue, similar to the one before.”

  “Yeah, I’m not seeing anything like that.”

  “Then keep looking.”

  “How about you come over and help.” Danny fired back.

  “Native, what is your— Fine. One question.”

  “What does Alei Tacht mean?”

  “Next question.”

  “Wuh, ok…” Danny struggled to think of just one question, there were so many. In the end, he went with something simple. Arguably the first one you would ask upon meeting someone. “What’s your name?”

  “Aspen. Aspen Salica.”

  “Well, hello Aspen, my name is Danny.”

  Danny went back to digging through the mess, a smile on his face disregarding the grim circumstances. He could have asked about anything. About the factions of the Multiverse or the details of what comes after the Tutorials, but when he stood there, trying to come up with something to ask, he realized that maybe focusing on the “next step ahead” wasn’t that bad of a way to live. This way, at least things didn’t feel so stiff. So alien. Danny figured it was a good start. Now if only he didn’t have to dig through blood and guts that stunk like a mix of wet-dog and sun-baked sewage…

  What a strange native. Aspen watched as Danny scrounged through the field of corpses. He seemed to not have the greatest control over his treasure-seeking powers, or else he would have already found the enchanted ring a dozen yards away. The Pillar obviously wasn’t here. Probably it had been abducted by whatever monsters had caused this devastation. Aspen found it troubling that this Integration had already been so out of the norm. He wondered if the last one had been like this. That seemed so long ago.

  “There’s a magic ring, I think!”

  “Grab it. What we are looking for isn’t here. We should head back before the sun sets.” The ring had been clasped in the hand of a larger monkey. Its white coat was adorned with black spots and had three horns on its head. [Oni Baboon] was what it had been called. The fact that it died while holding the artifact made Danny wonder.

  “Can monsters use items?”

  “Yes, but I have never heard of it happening before Level 100.”

  The way that he found the thing made him wonder if this monster had been an exception to that rule. He shuddered at the thought. If a monster had been able to use this item and it still was slaughtered so decisively…Danny didn’t like his chances.