The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame

Janet Lindale was one of the most sought after secretaries in corporate America. She did her work well, she knew fifteen languages and she had basically held her company together through the last recession.

Now she was stuck in a foreign world in which almost none of those skills mattered. Why did she have to game in her free time? It had seemed like the perfect hobby; AR gaming that could be played anywhere. Half of the time, she had been slaying monsters on the abandoned stairwells of her office building, and it had been the best stress reliever she had ever found.

As Janet cast Basic Heal on the poor soul in front of her, she was starting to regret ever getting the Ember Industries chip.

She had only caught a glimpse of the girl who had shouted at them to heal Devon’s injuries, but the man probably owed her his life. His Health had been near zero when the first Healer reached him.

Never be the first to stick your neck out, Janet thought. It’s a good way to lose your head.

With Devon’s sudden appearance and the shocking state he had returned in, most people had backed away from the portals, some still clutching their weapons with uncertain expressions.

A rousing speech from the number one player in Ember Online had not been on Janet’s bingo card for the apocalypse, but it had managed to push some people into action, so she just needed to find a way to keep the ball rolling.

Step one, Janet thought. Field hospital and statistics. Step two, information and guides. The key to surviving this is to make sure that we’re going into those portals with as much information as possible.

Janet stood up and pulled a permanent marker out of her bag. She had been pleasantly surprised when the System had brought her belongings when she was transported to the tutorial. They were going to be a huge help in the days ahead.

“All right, everyone, listen up!” Janet called, gaining the crowd’s attention. She drew an ‘X’ on the ground in front of the portal that Devon had entered. “Until proven otherwise, this portal is to be considered extremely dangerous. We need to set up a hospital area in the courtyard with beds and on duty Healers and we need to gather more information about which portals are the safest to enter.”

She walked to the edge of the courtyard, numbering the portals from left to right, then she pulled out a clipboard and started scribbling some notes.

“Any time someone exits a portal, either successfully or unsuccessfully, bring me information on the monsters within—their strengths, weaknesses and anything you can tell us about the environment of the trial. We need mattresses brought down from the dorms, preferably from unoccupied rooms, if there are any. These can serve as a waiting area in case Healers aren’t available. Mana is limited so we should start a rotation for hospital duty, prioritizing Healer as their healing should improve as they level up.”

Janet was kicking herself for picking Mage. She preferred ranged combat, and the Class came with a second spell instead of a skill, but it wasn’t very useful.

Fireball — Shoot a ball of fire at your enemies. (Damage is proportional to your proficiency level and your Intelligence.)

Proficiency: 0%

Cost: 25 MP

Base Damage: 50 HP

Chance to Inflict Burning: 1%

It might do a decent amount of damage for a beginning spell, but only getting two shots in before you were tapped out would be a serious hindrance to Janet’s usual fighting style.

“Who put you in charge?” a gangly teen asked. He looked to be just starting his junior year of high school, with a wispy beard that was patchy in places, as if he hadn’t quite managed to grow it out yet. “I’m not going into any of those portals if we come out looking like that.”

“I’m not in charge,” Janet said. “But if we don’t get organized, then that’s exactly how we’ll all end up.”

Devon was starting to recover his wits, though he showed no sign that he was paying attention to the conversation.

“How do we know that the monster he fought is still behind that portal?” someone else asked, sounding more curious than argumentative.

Janet didn’t catch the speaker before they finished their question, so she just addressed the general area.

“We don’t know either way,” Janet said. “Until we can gather more data, it’s safest to avoid the portal that might hold certain failure and focus on the ones that have not yet proven themselves deadly.”

“What’s wrong with this portal?” came an annoyed voice from the left side of the courtyard. A young woman whose name tag read ‘Kara Avery’ was trying to enter portal number one but there was some sort of force field stopping her from doing so.

A prompt appeared above the portal.

Special trial in progress. Please enter one of the other nine portals.

Janet didn’t like the sound of that. She made a note next to the number one on her clipboard and turned back to the crowd. “We don’t have a Tutorial Leader to answer our questions, so our best bet is to answer them ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll just keep stumbling around in the dark and people will die before the day is done.”

She was starting to gain some traction with the crowd. She could see heads nodding and a few people actually went back toward the stairs, hopefully to grab the mattresses she had asked for earlier.

“I’m okay with putting Miss Lindale in charge.” Devon stood, his eyes still haunted, but alert. He nodded at Janet. “She obviously has some good ideas on how to keep us breathing and it’s more than anyone else has come up with so far.”

There was some murmured agreement from the crowd and even the ones who had looked skeptical before were starting to come around.

A prompt appeared in front of Janet, distracting her from the situation.

In the absence of a System Representative, you have been designated Tutorial Leader. Players who disobey any reasonable order from you will be punished with short term penalty titles and you will have the power to access the Tutorial Information Archive.

A special reward will be issued at the end of the tutorial, but you may not participate in any of the trials. Rewards will be calculated based on your performance as the Tutorial Leader and the percentage of trial participants within your group that survive to the end of the tutorial.

Do you accept this role?

Janet accepted without a second thought. Just the promise of the Tutorial Information Archive was enough to make the loss of trial participation a negligible sacrifice. While the other players received notifications of Janet’s new role, she pulled up the Archive and started to browse the information.

Everything was in there, from monster species to stat sheets, even a description of each tutorial stage and the general rewards one might receive from the trial.

She also had a roster of both her group and the other tutorial groups that included who had completed the trial…

…and how many had died.

Her group had lost two people already and they weren’t the worst off. She stopped anyone else from going into the portals until she could take a moment to look through the monster sheets and help players strategize.

The description of the special trial caught Janet’s eye, and she skimmed it, her eyebrows climbing to the top of her forehead. She glanced at portal number one, which was currently occupied by a player named Rayna.

She was either the luckiest player in the world or the unluckiest; Janet couldn’t decide.

She closed her screen and started giving orders, there was a lot to do before she sent more players into those portals, and they had less than a week to get it all done.

* * *

Emma stepped through the portal, holding her glaive ready in case the monster tried to jump her as she emerged. She probably should have gone with a more general use weapon like a spear, but she liked that she could both stab and slice with the lethal looking weapon.

The portal spit Emma out in a small empty room. The walls and ceiling were made of stone and the floor was dirt, as if the stone house had been plopped on top of unrefined soil. The room had no windows or doors, leaving the magical floating orb in the center of the room as the only source of light in the dimly lit space. Dark red patches decorated the floor and the cramped space stunk of dried blood and other bodily fluids.

Emma gagged, covering her nose to block out the stench.

The monster in this room has been killed by another player. Please wait while the System retrieves another one.

“I'm really not impressed with your management skills,” Emma said aloud.

She pulled out a scarf that had been among the clothes provided by the System and tied it around her face to free up her hands. Some of the smell made it through the face covering, but it was better than nothing.

While Emma waited, she practiced holding the glaive. It was harder to handle than she had been expecting, but she thought she could use it well enough for a low level monster. If she found herself facing a Level 3 or Level 4, she was going to have to abandon finesse and try to stab the thing as quickly as possible. The stat difference between a Level 1 and a Level 3 was just too high for comfort.

Emma didn't have to wait long; five minutes later a wolf-like creature was teleported into the room. The wolf's coat was long and white with red stripes along its back and tail. It growled, revealing viciously sharp teeth that jutted out from its jaw at odd angles.

[Cruennix Wolf — Level 3]

Level 3? Emma thought with dismay. This is going to be pushing it.

She moved the glaive into what she hoped was a ready stance. Ember Online had used similar weapons, but it didn't actually teach you how to wield them. Some players had gone so far as to take classes to learn proper form and technique, but Emma had found that stabbing the monster with the pointy end was usually enough.

Of course, that had been the case when she was a Level 47 Battle Healer.

It was too late to regret her choice of Class now. She just needed to kill this thing quickly and get back through the portal in one piece.

The wolf lunged, aiming for Emma’s throat with its teeth.

She screamed, thrusting her weapon out in front of her. She missed the monster, but it was enough to push it away and buy her a few precious seconds.

Time that she squandered as she nearly fell over, having overreached with her thrust. She managed to catch herself, but the blunder took her closer to the wolf.

She swung her glaive wildly to keep the monster at bay as she retreated, putting her back against a wall. The last thing Emma wanted was for this monster to snake around her to attack her unprotected back.

“A little armor would be nice right about now!” she yelled at the ceiling, but the System didn’t seem inclined to respond. All she managed to do was further anger the wolf, who stalked toward her with its ears pressed flat against its head.

“It may not seem like it, but I actually like dogs,” Emma said breathlessly, lowering her weapon to match her opponents height. “You can blame Eldar for this.”

She thrust at the wolf with her glaive, which turned out to be a mistake as the agile creature leapt into the air, aiming to rake its claws across her face.

Emma barely managed to scramble under the attack. Pain erupted across her back, and she cried out.

She swung around, stabbing repeatedly at the monster. It tried to dodge, but the room wasn’t very large and in attacking her, it had managed to get itself wedged between Emma’s weapon and the unforgiving stone wall.

It wasn’t going to go down without a fight, however. The wolf growled and lashed out, catching Emma’s arm in its powerful jaws.

Blood splattered the ground, adding to the patchwork of other players’ misery. Emma’s vision blurred from the pain, but she stubbornly kept her grip on her weapon. If she dropped the glaive, it would all be over.

A System notification popped up in front of Emma.

You have sustained a serious injury. Would you like to forfeit the first trial?

“Like hell!” she yelled defiantly at the screen. It had the gall to wait until now to ask if she was going to forfeit? After she was badly wounded by this blasted wolf?

If she gave up now, then this would all have been for nothing. No, it would be worse than nothing, because quitting now would result in a penalty title.

Emma lifted her leg and kicked with all her strength, hitting the wolf in one of its stab wounds. It yelped, releasing her arm and she didn’t give it any time to recover. Lifting her glaive, she swung it downward with all the strength that she could muster, slicing open the monster’s neck.

It didn’t die instantly as she had been hoping and Emma retreated, casting Basic Heal quickly just to make her injuries scab over.

The wolf tried to get up, but it was too weak, falling back to the ground as blood poured from its open neck. Emma watched in horror as the animal tried to drag itself toward her, intent on ripping her throat out with its final ounce of strength.

It was only halfway across the room when it finally went still. A notification popped up in front of Emma.

You have killed a Level 3 Cruennix Wolf.

Exp +150

Coins +50

You have leveled up! You are now a level 2 Healer.

+3 End

+2 Vit

+2 Wis

+2 Int

+1 Free Point

You have leveled up! You are now a level 3 Healer.

+3 End

+2 Vit

+2 Wis

+2 Int

+1 Free Point

You have completed the first trial. Time: 7 minutes. Please return through the portal so the next player may make their attempt.

Two levels for one monster wasn’t bad. Emma had forgotten how easy it was to level up in the beginning.

She watched as the wolf’s body was teleported away, leaving the room empty for the next opponent.

“Give the next person something easier,” she told the System, not bothering to veil her anger. “We’re no use to you if we’re dead.”

The glowing orb dimmed slightly, and Emma almost thought that the System heard her.

But the moment passed and there was no response. She shook her head and walked back through the portal, leaving the small room behind.

Emma did a double take as she returned to the courtyard. There were far less people in it now than there had been when she went in. Had they all charged in after her?

Off to the side, a few dozen mattresses were set up in neat rows, many of them occupied by groaning players.

There was a group of players next to the makeshift hospital, all staring off into the distance like they had checked out of reality. Emma didn’t blame them. From the looks of their torn and bloody clothes, the first trial had been a far worse experience for them than it had been for Emma.

Several smaller groups of players were standing around, talking about their own trials or discussing weapon choices.

How had all this happened in seven minutes?

A notification popped up in front of Emma and she had her answer.

Congratulations on completing the first trial! Time elapsed: 01h 27m (including wait time). Rewards will be distributed in one week or when all players have completed the trial.

Another notification replaced the first.

While you were in the trial, Player Janet Lindale was designated Tutorial Leader. You must obey any reasonable instruction given to you by the Tutorial Leader and you may go to her with any questions you have regarding the trials.

So the System had given them a leader after all. That explained the sudden organization. Emma was concerned about the hour and twenty minutes that she didn’t remember. Did the System have some sort of stasis for players while they waited for their turn?

She decided not to think about it. It wasn’t like she had any control over the System.

“Please move to the side so the next player can enter portal number three,” a woman said, gesturing off to the left with her hand. Emma glanced in the direction she was pointing and realized she was being rerouted to the Healers.

She sat on the bed and waved the Healer away when they came to tend to her. “I’m a Healer. Go help someone else.”

The woman nodded in thanks and left without arguing.

As a Healer, Emma had one spell and one skill.

(Spell) Basic Heal — Heal small injuries such as scrapes and bruises with one cast, or larger injuries such as stab wounds with multiple casts. The Number of casts required to fully heal a wound depends on the severity of the injury.

Proficiency: 1%

Cost: 35 MP

HP Regeneration: 25/Cast

(Skill) Nature’s Embrace — Boost your natural regeneration rate for a short time and remove status effects Bleeding and Poison.

Proficiency: 0%

Regeneration Boost: 100%

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Emma cast Basic Heal on herself. Leveling up had brought her MP pool up to ninety, but she could still only use the spell twice before she was out of Mana. She used her skill to speed up the rest of her healing and waited for her Mana to refill so she could help the others.

Emma missed her overpowered spells from Ember Online. She could have cast an Area of Effect spell—a spell that covered anyone within a certain area—to keep everyone in the little hospital healthy with minimal effort.

The woman who had rerouted her to the hospital seemed to be waiting patiently for Emma to finish healing herself. She was scribbling something on her clipboard—where she had found such a thing was anyone’s guess.

“Can I help you?” Emma asked.

“You are… Emma, yes?”

Emma checked the woman’s name tag and was surprised to find two lines instead of one.

[Janet Lindale — Level 1]

[Tutorial Leader]

“You’re the Tutorial Leader?” Emma asked. She had been expecting the leader to be someone stronger who could assert dominance over the other players or something, but in retrospect, the tall studious woman with glasses and a clipboard made much more sense.

“It seems to have turned out that way, yes,” Janet said. “I see from my information that you were up against a Level 3 Cruennix Wolf. Can you describe to me the capabilities and strengths of the monster? I am finding that the stat sheets in the archive are rather insufficient for use in a real battle.”

Emma described the battle to Janet, glossing over some of her blunders while still accurately describing the Cruennix Wolf’s capabilities. It made sense to get an actual description. If Emma hadn’t been able to see the wolf’s name tag, she would have assumed it was a Level 5 or higher.

It turned out that being Tutorial Leader gave Janet some nice perks—like a detailed guide on the tutorial and all of the monsters that they would face.

Janet also had a list of players and which trials they were currently attempting.

“Did Rayna come out already?” Emma asked quickly.

“The player with the strange race name?” Janet asked, scrolling through her list. “There she is. Oh.” Janet frowned and Emma’s heart dropped into her stomach.

“She didn’t make it?” she asked quietly, knowing that it was the most likely outcome.

“Oh! No, nothing like that!” Janet said quickly.

Relief spread through Emma, undermined a moment later by Janet’s next statement.

“She’s in the special trial. It’s… complicated. I’m not allowed to share details for that one. All I can tell you is that she is still alive.”

“Special trial?” Emma asked. “Is it more dangerous?”

Janet opened her mouth and closed it again. “As I said, the System doesn’t allow me to share that information until after the trial is completed.” Her face softened and she put a gentle hand on Emma’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. As far as trials go, that was probably the best one she could have chosen.”

With that cryptic statement, Janet walked away to meet another player who emerged from the portals.

Emma pulled up her character sheet to assure herself Rayna was alive. The Plus One quest was still active, and Emma nodded to herself.

Rayna would be fine. It had been over an hour, and she hadn’t gotten herself killed yet. All Emma had to do now was pass the time until she returned.

Emma put herself into the rotation of Healers and set to work keeping herself busy until Rayna got back.