The trio went through the door and they appeared in a small underground settlement, there was one or two shops and what seemed to be a tavern. there were only three other players around, so maybe they were one of the first few teams to exit the first part? although the others weren't really teams.
Blacksmith had made a makeshift backpack to carry the leftover parts of the blue battle ant out of the leftover cloth they had, which was quite a mess and the armor was uncomfortable to wear without proper clothes on.
"We should probably try to sell these, since there seems to be places where we can get clothes, but we need money."
"i will just get gloves since i like no shirt, i get to show off my muscles"
The trio went into one of the makeshift merchant huts where they would in fact find clothes. they were relieved to be able to have this, it was probably part of the tutorial, though they didn't know much, since most of the things they were told were quite vague.
The old man at the hut looked up at the trio, seeing what they had on them.
"I see you three passed with flying colors… I assume… a mage, monk, and craftsman? Usually people don't take roles yet until once you folks get out of here! quite good! quite good!"
Blacksmith Set down the sack of parts on the small desk the old man sat at quite assertively, though she didn't mean to be intimidating.
"can you buy these from us? or trade for some decent clothes?"
The old man would rub his thin, long beard thinking about what he should do. 'This group is the best I've ever seen within the new waves through the tutorial tower. If they keep at this pace, they might set a record… they are quite the misfits though.'
"Since you few have impressed me and exceeded all expectations, i will give you a discount, you can grab a pair of any basic clothes in here, for the mage some special magic clothing, and the craftsman a new hammer, deal?"
"I will take it since it seems great. to be honest clothes are all we need."
Gunter would bring a decent sized backpack to the old man and a new pair of pants and some gloves, Blue found an alright cloak that was comfortable, and Blacksmith grabbed a green shirt, some ropes, and a basic smithing hammer.
"fine selection, though you aimed more for utility eh? wise choice, even though it's a tutorial tower, it's extremely difficult, usually takes some five tries for some to complete it."
"thank you mister!"
Blue was extremely happy with his new cloak, which also looked very comfortable, almost made Blacksmith jealous, though she was comfortable with what she had. The three would then depart from the merchant hut with a few spare coins as well, and the old man would happily wave them off.
At that moment, Gunter's stomach rumbled, which made the group realize that the game had hunger.
"I think some food would be good for now, then we continue up."
The group quickly went to the tavern-like tent where they had been able to smell food. not the best food, but it was food nonetheless. There were two other groups who were talking with each other, though they looked much more weak than our trio, still only having basic clothes, while the trio had genuine gear. They looked like high levels that would go to stomp on newbie grounds. Blacksmith would sit up at the bar desk and would yawn as she took off her armor to rest, even though they haven't had it yet. Gunter would sit down next to her and blue as well, though gunter would stop Blue jokingly.
"can't let a kiddo like you drinkin' beer now can we?"
"I'm not a kid! I'm nineteen!"
'femboy…?'
Blacksmith definitely saw Blue as a femboy now, it was hilarious. they quickly got served some ale and soup, which Blacksmith would quickly take a swig of. She had a smile on her face, pleased. "now that's the stuff"
Gunter would chug down his ale and quickly at the soup as manly as he could, though it looked fairly silly. The other seven players in the tavern looked at them, most of them in awe of how they already had armor and weapons. There was one player in the corner of the tent that was eyeing the trio down, he was the first person in the tutorial server they were in to clear the first trial.
He wore a hood so no one could see his face. 'what a creepy guy, better watch out for him'
After eating and healing with the surprisingly good soup, the trio set out to complete the tutorial tower, since they wanted into the game asap, and they felt they had the gear required to beat it.
The exit of the safe zone was pretty large and easy to find, so they had no troubles with that, but once they got through the passage, the world of the caves completely changed, there was fluorescent vegetation everywhere ranging from purples to blues, yellows, greens and reds. It was almost like a fever dream, the world was unlike anything they've ever seen before. Blue took a picture of the area since it was so beautiful… but something felt off. Of course! This place is as deadly as can be!
They had no instructions other than that they had to go up, and it was still fairly dark despite all the glowing vegetation. They chose to avoid as many monsters that they could see for the time being, wanting to conserve health for the four floors above. It had been about thirty minutes after they entered when they realized they made a full circle. They also noticed that they needed to hurry, more and more players were beginning to enter, and those players could steal their prey.
They turned the opposite direction, maybe actually hunting was they key to going up, midway though getting lost, they heard rusting in the purple grass behind them, along with a magenta object moving through the tall grass. The group would quickly turn around to see a massive magenta snake towering above them.
Blue let out a small squeal as he saw it, "that thing is large enough to swallow all three of us whole!"
"you got that right, big mighty bastard!" Blacksmith smiled, loving the ability to see this massive behemoth as if it were real.
Before the trio could exchange any more words, the snake lunged forward at blue, which none of them expected. Blue narrowly dodged the attack, but got his arm cut by one of the snake's rigid scales, and he shouted in pain.
Blacksmith was surprised, they hadn't felt pain before when fighting the ant back in the entrance, but now pain had some effect? 'the devs really wanted to make it hard on players, didn't they.'
Gunter, after the snake narrowly got dodged by blue, stood in front of the beast holding his arms out 'end of the line' style to attempt to stop it from advancing and to buy time for the others to prepare attacks. The Head of the snake caught into his arms and pushed on into him, despite this and the pain in his ribs, he threw the snake into the ground, digging his elbow into its neck in an attempt to impede it.
The gained time allowed Blacksmith to regain herself and prepare to attack, with the stone chisel and basic hammer that she had, she ran to the neck where Gunter was holding it down. Just before she struck the chisel on the snake's neck, the tail of the snake whipped around to strike both of them, with the distraction of the tail, it also began to flail to escape. Before the tail hit the, though, Blacksmith redirected her chisel to the tail and as soon as the tail whipped around at them, though the tail being incredibly hard to hit, slashed her in the face leaving a large bloody gash on her cheek.
Blacksmith would shout in pain as she would fall to the ground, Blue began to frantically lift up rocks with mana, though the snake was able to shove Gunter to the side. Unable to prepare an attack, Blue recoiled from the snake and closed his eyes with fear.
Just at that moment the ground began to shake, and as Blacksmith was getting up, she saw a massive boulder dislodging itself from the cavern ceiling, crushing the snake. She laughed for a brief moment but then realized the situation of a possible cave in. She muttered under her breath "The fuck is this game."
They were all covered with some blood now since the snake when crushed, and splattered all over, which was gross. Blue, now less fearful for his life, had the idea to begin collecting the scales off the snake. It's body was still writhing, as dead snakes do. Gunter would take off the backpack and begin to rip them off, stuffing them in a backpack. It would be better to save them than instantly use them since there's more materials that are easier to get outside of the tower.
"Hey! check this out! I found a sword!" Blacksmith held up a sword that she found after chiseling open it's stomach, which the stone chisel she had she cast away since this thing was far more useful.
"OOOH! That's really gross but also amazing!" The sword was covered in gunk from the stomach, though it appeared to be in pretty good condition. Because Blue pointed out how disgusting it was, Blacksmith began to attempt to clean and rub off all the nasty stuff in the glowing pink grass, which worked okayish, but it was still a little gross.
"It is nice, but it would have been nicer if we found out how to go up, since we have no real hints." Gunter was disappointed since he thought killing something might send them up.
"Maybe we do have hints but we are just too dumb to realize, such as this boulder falling from the ceiling." After Blacksmith's note on how the boulder fell, all three looked up, seeing that there's a hole that can be reached if they climbed up the ladder and jumped up.
Blue was too short to jump up the hole, so Blacksmith had to help him up.