~~'*' Means the system board~~
A white message board popped in front of their vision. The three were stunned and confused for a moment until they realized it wasn't hurting them. "What the hell is that," Haffi said "Haffi! Lauguage!" Burnir said. The white board just floated in front of them, as if waiting for something.
Then Ace tapped on the message…
*Welcome user, you and your world have been blessed by The Voiders. Your world has become a new continent and will quickly evolve to become a new unexplored continent for sport. You now have the chance to evolve as well and become a cultivator. Evolve enough and you can move onto the next world.*
*Do you wish to go through the tutorial?*
*Yes* *No*
"Well that is certainly some news," Ace said as he let the two boys catch up to how far he had read. They could see each others screens which left them all waiting on that yes or no. "Well we need to learn how to fight now, a new world has opened up for us and I don't want to be left behind," Haffi was solid in his decision.
"Haffi you can't be serious, I mean a new world? That's craz-" "He's right Burnir, we need to get stronger, all of us," Ace said while staring at the young boys. Thousands of thoughts raced through Burnir's mind. "Alright then, but what does it mean by tutorial,"
"I don't know. But be careful... lets start." The three of them pushed the yes button at the same time. Then the three disappeared from the gas station. Burnir blinked and found himself inside a dark void with another message board in front of him.
*Welcome to the tutorial, here you will be able to choose a randomly selected power that will be yours to control, master, and evolve. Do you wish to draw your power now?* The message board was still while awaiting his answer. It seemed able to read his thoughts and could sense his hesitation.
The empty void had nothing in it except him, who was floating in the void, and the message board. "What is the tutorial? What will I learn?" Burnir questioned, but there was no answer. Suddenly Burnir realized that there was a timer on top of the message board. Had it always been there? He didn't see it until now.
The timer had 30 seconds left. How long had he been staring at the message board, was there something else he had to do which is why they gave them so much time... Realizing the timer was soon going to hit 10 seconds, Burnir hit the drawing button to select the power.
Suddenly a gargantuan wheel with a bunch of words appeared in front of Burnir, scaring him half to death. The wheel was flashing with lights and playing carnival music. The timer had stopped on the message board too. A bright yellow lever was somehow sticking out of the 'ground' and had a big *PULL ME* sign over it.
"Well... Here we go..." Pulling the comically large lever Burnir stepped back and watched the big wheel spin... and spin... until eventually it started slowing down. Countless powers like necromancy, elemental control, flight, transformation abilities, and even mana manipulation spun past him. Each power had a letter grade anywhere from D- to S+ rank. A faint childish hope that he would get an S level power swelled up in his heart, which was soon crushed by reality.
The wheel eventually slowed to a snails pace. It was either going to land on Fire control (A-) or Invisibility (B-). It ticked right past Fire control and finally landed on Invisibility. "Alright then, that's pretty cool," Just as he was about to accept that he could become invisible now it ticked one more time.
*Aura reading: The ability to sense the location and intent of others around you.(C+)*
"Oh, alright then. While that is really cool I don't know what that means or what this 'tutorial' is going to give me," The wheel slowly faded into the darkness along with everything else. "Well what now?" He was left alone inside that void for what felt like hours. But finally another sound other than his voice bounded through the room.
*Welcome to the tutorial! Sorry for the wait, we needed to sort every last one of you humans and then give you power beyond your understanding. Harder than it sounds really, your all lucky we didn't make you wait days.* The message board was broadcasting the sound of someone's voice to him.
*You are here to 1, test out your new power, and 2, prove that you have the right to survive here. This isn't your world anymore, if you want it back you will need to fight for it. Not all species will try and take your land but most will.* The voice sounded condescending and slightly bored, as if they had done this billions of times.
*Good luck and remember, this isn't your home anymore. So don't expect a grace period or kindness from the rest of us.*
A cold chill spread through his spine. He stood still waiting for something to happen. Then a child soon appeared from the curtains of the void. Countless thoughts flowed through Burnir's mind... 'Why is their a child here? Where are its parents? Why does it look sick? What did they mean testing out our powers... do they want us to harm a child?' But his mind soon turned blank when the 'child' stood up and started running at him.
Its skin was a greenish yellow that looked just a slight bit off. As if it was faded from a darker green color somehow. Its ears were pointy and limbs short and stubby, it was almost a wonder how that thing was charging at him that fast. And its eyes... oh its eyes, they were a deep harrowing yellow that seemed to bring out the fear from his very soul.
Acting on instinct, Burnir attempted to dodge out of the way, but he was too late by a couple inches. The being had torn into his skin with its sharp claws and easily made deep cuts on his arm. He tried to get up to react, but the being was running back at him and tried jumping on top of him.
Those deep yellow eyes stared at him with an angry look that yelled 'Why... WHY.... JUST DIE ALREADY!' It was terrifying, he was scared out of his mind. He pushed himself to his feet and ran, but in that void you could only go so far. He tripped and hit his face on the 'ground' and his nose began to bleed.
The being grabbed his arm and pulled him into a disadvantage position. Anger and fear filled Burnir in his entirety, every emotion left as those two flooded his senses. His attackers body suddenly filled in a dull red outline that covered its body. Then it faded back into its normal color.
'Huh, so that's how my power works...' He tried kicking from on his back like he did against his brother when they were younger. Finally a luck break against that relentless enemy gave him time to breath. It didn't know how to react against this special move. It looked around, as if trying to check with someone what to do, and that was Burnir's chance.
He tackled the small, confused attacker to the ground and started throwing as many punches as he could on its head. It tried to struggle but couldn't under the weight of Burnir's body, but eventually an audible crack resounded in the endless void.
The beings neck had turned a good 90 degrees too far in one direction. Its eyes slowly filled with blood and its muscles relaxed until it ragdoll fell to the floor. Burnir stood up and looked at it with teary eyes. He was so close to dying, his arm hurt like hell and the tears started to fall from his eyes. His knuckles hurt like hell too from punching that son of a bitch for so long. He had gotten lucky once, next time he might not.
*Goblin killed (1x). That finishes the tutorial, good luck out there...*
Before he could even confront his emotions his vision brightened up and he saw the familiar scene of the gas station and the truck full of supplies. However in the spot where his brother and ace once stood were covered in that same curtain of void that surrounded him and that... goblin...
Right... he had killed something. Well it was either him or the goblin so it was good that he survived. If it was his brother in danger then he would have killed it without hesitation, so there was no reason to worry about it just because it is his life. He figured waiting would let those two finish up so they could move on together.
It took about ten minutes for the two to awaken. They woke up at around the same time, Ace had an air of sharpness around him while Haffi's whole body just seemed more wild and unrestrained. "Welcome back to reality guys," Burnir greeted them. "Heh, it seems taking that tutorial was more beneficial than we thought," Haffi said while giving a hug to his older brother,"
"Well what did you all experience," Ace said while smiling at the two boys who seemed to recover from their parents ugly passing. "I had to spin a GIANT wheel and it gave me Animal morphing. It's the ability to shift into animals that I have killed. I need to kill a lot of them though in order to understand how their body works or else I'm like a newborn in an adults body," Haffi said excitedly.
"That sounds great Haffi, what about you Burnir?" Ace asked to see how he was doing mentally. They were both still children in his eyes and he wanted to make sure that they were okay. "Right, so I got Aura reading, which allows me to sense the location and intent of others around me. For instance you guys have a green outline right now but the goblin that I killed had a blood red outline,"
"Oh that's cool, I had to fight something called an adolescent Turoth which was like a snake but it had legs and no fangs." Haffi almost interrupted but slowed down so he could breath. "Nice, I got power augmentation which lets me strengthen items, people, and their abilities to about 2x their normal strength."
"I fought a living skeleton which gave me a bit of trouble but I got him." Ace finish. "Well now what?" Haffi asked. "We should probably explore the surroundings and make sure there is nothing dangerous around. I mean we have a decent amount of supplies which will last us at least a couple months more or less." Ace said getting the keys for the truck. "Then figure out what all this new information about our 'new world' means,"
"Alright, lets start," Haffi said with an excited expression.