Kaizer tried to get up but his thigh protested, his broken arm throbbed, uselessly. Slowly but surely, breathing through clenched teeth, he rose. Remembering the fight, Kaizer moved over the Wendigo’s body to make completely sure the thing was dead. Kaizers body remembered every scratch, every nick and every pain associated with that monster.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been unconscious. The sun sat low in the sky, washing everything in pale morning light. It could have been hours, it may have even been an entire day. As he was thinking this, a sound barked in his ears.
[Tutorial Day 4/30. Participants Remaining: 5,726/10,000]
Four days had passed in total since coming to this blasted tutorial. Only four days and nearly half of everyone was dead. “Can’t believe I’m not among that number,” he whispered, sounding like true disbelief. He gripped a tree root and forced himself to move as his vision spun. He waited for the dizziness to fade before glancing down at himself.
Kaizers jacket was nothing but shredded cloth. His shirt hung in ribbons. His pants were torn wide at the thigh where the Wendigo had pierced straight through. Blood had dried in long trails down his leg. In fact, Kaizer was caked in dried blood, dirt and grime, almost from head to toe. The only part of his body that seemed to be in perfect condition was his right arm, wolf-touched, furred and warm. It was as if it had some sort of magical self-cleaning properties.
Hunger struck Kaizer in pangs. A deep wrenching ache filled his stomach, sharp enough to double him over. He hadn’t eaten for almost three days now. Hunger and thirst were so overwhelming that it pushed Kaizer forward. Moving caused pain, but sitting around would do nothing for him. Kaizer took stock of his surroundings. Bodies lay scattered in various states of mutilation. Human bodies. Some torn apart. Some still holding weapons and some half-buried in leaves from the Wendigo dragging them around, ripping or tearing at their flesh.
Kaizer wretched and threw up whatever was left in his stomach. The smell had finally hit him. It came in waves and covering his nose wouldn’t be enough to stop it. “Shit…” He swallowed, throat thick and dry. “This is all real, I’m really here. These people are all dead.”
The weight of that truth pressed against his chest until his breathing shook. He had never seen a dead person before. Hell. He had never even seen a dead animal before. Now he was absolutely surrounded by the stench of death. By people just like him a few days ago dragged off from whatever they were doing to this shitty tutorial. These people were clearly just trying to survive. Now though, he was standing over their remains.
Kaizers stomach tightened with hunger yet again. Violent, savage pain twisted his gut. He looked down at himself again, then back at the bodies. Realising what he must do, but dreading to do it, Kaizer made his way over to the closest corpse.
His priorities were food, water, clothing and bandages. He bent down to inspect the first corpse, a young male, slightly shorter than he was stared lifelessly back up at him. His face pale, lips blue, eyes open in a silent scream. Kaizer’s hand hovered over him, jaw clenched. Something inside him resisted.
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“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “But I need to live.”
With his good arm, Kaizer pried a small satchel from the man’s belt. Inside were a few plant fragments. Roots, leaves and crushed herbs were stored loosely in cloth. He didn’t recognise any of them but one of the small pouches in the satchel contained a set of greenish sprigs wrapped carefully. This man clearly knew exactly what he was collecting.
With a sniff, Kaizer could smell the faint aromas of food and medicine coming off the herbs, indistinct but powerful at the same time. He stuffed one of them in his mouth. Edible but not satisfying, it’ll have to do for now. Before long, Kaizer had eaten almost the entire satchels worth. Just enough for him to regain a small amount of strength. Without warning, Kaizers vision flickered.
[Herbal materials digested]
[Unknown efficacy]
[Analysis impossible, insufficient skill]
Kaizer blinked as the words faded. “What the hell?” he muttered. His instincts flared as he looked closer at the herbs in hand. A small window popped up.
[Burdock]
[Efficacy Unknown]
“Well fuck me,” Kaizer said. This was the first time he had identified something other then an animal. Why now though. Another faint flicker and a ding sound appeared in his mind.
[Please choose your profession]
A list similar to his class list options appeared before him. This time, only much smaller.
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Select Your Profession
====================================
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Inferior Professions
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Scavenger
Herbal Collector
Harvester
Kaizer stared, dumbfounded. “Well… This is shit, I was hoping at this point I was some sort of overpowered anime protagonist.” He had seen this in some of the games he played. After doing some basic levelling, professions were often a thing, and could often be as big as the class system. Kaizers list was total crap, but then again… he hadn’t done anything in this tutorial except fight and survive like an animal. Even before the system, it’s not like he was a doctor or anything, why would the system give him some super cool profession like alchemy or blacksmithing?
Kaizer looked deeper into each profession. He had realised that when selecting his class, he had potentially missed some extremely important detail before picking.
====================================
Scavenger (Inferior)
====================================
Your basic instincts have moved you towards finding and looting objects of interest.
- 1% Increased loot quantity from defeated foes
A Scavenger is adept at finding basic items looted from corpses.
Stat growth per level:
1 total (1 automatic)
====================================
Well… That increase in look quantity could certainly be beneficial but 1%.. He’d have to loot over 100 items just to receive an extra one. Could be good in the long run and what is this bullshit of only 1 stat point gained? Kaizer couldn’t even pick where it went. Without disregarding it, as his options were limited, he moved onto the next one.
====================================
Herbal Collector (Inferior)
====================================
You have noticed, smelled and tasted natural plants and fungi.
- Enables basic herb identification
A Herbal Collector reduces wastage when finding and harvesting from the natural environment.
Stat growth per level:
1 total (1 automatic)
====================================
Once again, absolutely useless. Kaizer honestly didn’t even regard this. He’d rather have increased loot over identifying herbs.
====================================
Harvester (Inferior)
====================================
You are adept at killing monsters and have a basic understanding of the natural environment
- Instinctive efficiency for extracting useful materials from beasts
- Slight affinity for identifying herbs
A Harvester reduces waste by extracting low-grade materials from monsters and plants.
Stat growth per level:
1 total (1 automatic)
====================================
This also didn’t seem that great. At least it seemed to be a sort of combination of both of the other professions. That 1% though. Kaizer was extremely tempted just on that front. He wrote of Herbal Collector immediately. It just wasn’t as good as the others.
In the end, Harvester seemed to be the best fit for him. Kaizer eyed the Wendigo corpse, then the herbs he had been munching on. “Hmm, a bit of everything. I guess this’ll have to do” he muttered. With a thought, he chose Harvester.
The moment he chose it, his senses sharpened. Nothing like a stat increase, something in between instinct and awareness. He could feel a faint tingling if the life around him. Certain plants felt…. present. The Wendigo’s corpse gave off a faint glow, like something valuable was inside.
A message flashed.
[Profession Acquired: Harvester (Inferior)]
[Skill Gained: Basic Extraction (Inferior)]
Kaizer waited for more details.. but nothing came. “That’s it? Seriously?” he groaned. “This system clearly likes to fuck with us.” Still, skill or not, Kaizer needed to survive.
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