Chapter 24


    The next two hours were spent making another of the iplete leeching totems. They worked step by step right until Tanya called everyone in for a break. By this point Riven was confident in his ability to remake the totem given the right ingredients, and there were even substitutions for the quartz crystals he could use via other types of gemstones, but he was still unsure about adding the soul shard. That was going to be the hardest part and would require him to utilize the Death subpir—which he still hadn’t bound to his soul yet. The description in the manual had a lot of theory behind it that he didn’t quite understand. But he was still very excited to see what would happen when these iplete totems eventually acquired their soul shards. It would be a venture for another day.


    Tanya passed around snacks she’d made, having cooked some more meat they’d taken out of an equivalent refrigerator left by the system for food storage that was fueled by water magic. They had the day-old bread as well, and it still tasted just as great as it had twenty-four hours prior without having gone stale at all.


    Julie was excitedly exining to her younger brother and her mother the specifics of the forge that she and Hakim had learned about through the tutorial book, along with trial and error of their own. She was sweaty, covered in soot, and her hands were starting to blister before she’d wrapped them—but she was obviously enjoying the work. “We’re trying to make knives, because we don’t have all that much time. I don’t know how long it’s supposed to take, but we just finished a knife each…”


    She held up her own finished product. It was made of solid iron and wasn’t perfect by any means—but they could tell she was proud of it. The edges weren’t entirely sharp and the leatherbound handle looked a little too big for the de, but it was definitely a knife, all right.


    <span ss="bold">[Crude Iron Knife, 5 average damage.]


    </a>Julie beamed as everyone pped, setting it down in front of her with a smile. “The hand-forging of the de, then grinding them to refine the shape…we had to make all the fittings, handles. Had to harden and temper them, then sharpen it again. It took a long time, but at least I have a weapon for the dungeon now!”


    Riven thought about the extra bronze hatchet he’d taken off the sorcerer he’d killed and picked up his bag. Going through it, he quickly found the hatchet, then slid it over across the stone floor to Hakim. “Forgot I had this. Go ahead and use it if you want.”


    <span ss="bold">[Bronze Hatchet, 10 average damage.]


    Hakim wiped sweat from his brow, still breathing heavily from exertion, and looked at the knife he’d made for himself.


    <span ss="bold">[Poor-Quality Iron Knife, 6 average damage.]


    Passing his own knife to Tanya, he picked the hatchet up with a nod of thanks Riven’s way and pointed to the totems. “What are those?”


    Riven raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried identifying them yet?”


    It was a simple thing, but they were still getting used to the idea that they could interact with most things in their environment just by identifying them. Some things had lots of descriptions, while others had none other than a name. Other things were unable to give them details, being too high-quality for them to assess…like Riven’s flowered vase or the bone amulet around his neck.


    But he could tell that Hakim got the detailed message regarding his totems when his eyebrows lifted and arge smile crossed his face.


    Showing off his creations next, boy did he get a reaction from the others. It was just unfortunate that only he could use them, because none of the others had any Unholy-rted pirs. Or any pirs at all yet, for that matter.


    <span ss="bold">[Five minutes until tutorial part two, “Battle,”mences. Upon countdown ending, the door to the tutorial dungeon will open and you will be permitted to enter. There are multiple ways out of the dungeon and into Elysium, but it is up to you to find out what they are. The only option given at face value for exiting the dungeon is killing one of the dungeon bosses or minibosses. Good luck.]


    Riven had created a third iplete blood-type totem after yet another failure since his initial two were made. He’d also tried twice to make the other type of Unholy-oriented totem that slowed enemies within their radius, the one called Minor Totem of Murk, but had been unsessful both times and no </a>longer had any more time to spare. He’d have to figure out what he was doing wrongter, because the system’s tutorial had stopped giving him hints after his third failure.


    Still,ing out with three semplete totems that drained health from his enemies was something he was not only proud of, but they would possiblye in handy if he utilized them right. He’d created leather straps for each of them and tied them around the middle to more easily carry the objects and was finally ready to go now that the dungeon was opening.


    As for the others, Tanya and Tim had sessfully stitched together some additional clothes: namely some very basic shirts, skirts, and shorts. They’d also been able to make in sandals with some guidance from the tutorial book and the materials given to them, while Hakim and Julie had provided three daggers. There was one for each of the small family, and then an additional small wooden buckler for Hakim, who also wielded the hatchet he’d been given by Riven.


    It was better than nothing, that was for sure, but everyone felt rather disappointed at theck of sess concerning the prophecies. Not a single one of them had touched the crystal ball with a reaction, and they’d all given up on day one after trying.


    Except Riven, of course, who was still very wary about what’d happened with his own experience concerning the crystal ball. That was some information he’d be keeping to himself, at least for now.


    Everyone except Riven and Ath was nervous and shared wary nces with one another while they waited. Even Hakim, who was trying to put on a brave face for the others and was a hulking monster of a man, was obviously a little on edge while tightly gripping his shield and axe.


    <span ss="bold">[Two minutes until the tutorial dungeon opens.]


    Meanwhile, Riven was cram-studying what he could from the totem-making tutorial book at ast second run-through. He’d already stuffed the two papers he’d scratched down instructions on for the two totems he’d be able to use, along with the theory notes on soul-shard acquisition and utilization, but he hadn’t found anything usable in the pages of the book beyond this. The rest of the totems were based in Fae magic and the subpirs like Water, Air, and Forest, because the author of the book had been a fae specialist himself.


    <span ss="italic">“Totems will provide experience points toward leveling up if they are used in taking down an enemy, even at a distance. However, this XP is at a significantly decreased value from what would normally be gained by participating inbat yourself.”


    Riven nodded, with the final tidbit of knowledge tucked away in his brain, snapped the book shut, and he was about to ce it on a nearby table when it simply evaporated from his fingers in a cloud of warm, glowing white smoke.


    </a><span ss="bold">[Tutorial dungeon is now opening.]


    Therge double doors in front of them creaked, the hinges on the heavy, rusted iron breaking and snapping open while dust and dirt fell to the floor. Swinging open anding to a stop, the doorwayy wide-open before them.


    It was the entrance into an abyss, a shadow of ck that had no end. There was just a whole lot of nothingness on the other side of the door, and a deep chilling sensation ran through Riven’s bones when the cold air hit him.


    “What the fuck?”


    *WHOOSH*


    In the next second, a howl of wind ripped him and everyone else off their feet, sucking them into the open entrance without warning. They went screaming into the yawning oblivion, the doors snapping shut behind them—blotting out the light while they fell.


    Falling through the endless void of nothingness had Riven’s heart doing somersaults in his chest as his limbs iled about him. He was internally cursing his luck, and that enraged cursing grew to even greater heights when a new and very unexpected message appeared in front of him.


    <span ss="bold">[As one of the few who made it through Chalgathi’s Lineage Starter Quest to gain early ess to the warlock ss, you have once again acquired the attention of this entity through your various actions in the brief time afterward. Chalgathi has intervened in the tutorial process and has drawn you along with yourrades into his abyssal realm. You have one of two choices, and you have sixty seconds after reading this message to choose before immediate death sets in.


    <span ss="bold">A Choice of Selfishness: Your four recently made allies (Tim, Julie, Tanya, and Hakim) will remain banished here forever, lost souls unable to escape the shadow they are secluded to and unable to sense anything but the darkness around them. Your selfish choice will benefit you, however, in that sacrificing their souls to Chalgathi’s realm will gain you four legendary-tier pieces of soul-woven warlock armor—the Soul-Woven Warlock Hood, Soul-Woven Warlock Pauldrons, Soul-Woven Warlock Robe, and Soul-Woven Warlock Boots—toplete one of the best early-stage outfit sets currently avable across your world. You will then be ced back in the normal tutorial dungeon toplete it as the Elysium administrator deems fit.


    <span ss="bold">Or, the next option…


    </a><span ss="bold">A Choice of Selflessness: You choose to save your newly found friends and take the hard road yourself. Choosing this option notifies them of what you have done, the choice you had to make, and pushes them into a safe room within the dungeon: each given an earlybat-type starter kit geared toward their chosen style ofbat. They will each also receive an additional one ability tome to learn from, simr to the way that your first spells were taught, an event that will be given to them immediately. The catch is that choosing this option will separate you from the group and insert you into a minor hellscape dungeon of Chalgathi’s choosing instead of a normal tutorial dungeon. This hellscape dungeon will be much harder than the basic tutorial dungeon but will also have more opportunities for you to progress faster. Just like the tutorial dungeon, this hellscape dungeon will also have exits into Elysium that you must find in order to leave. That, or you must kill a dungeon boss or miniboss to leave.


    <span ss="bold">The countdown to choose begins now. 60… 59… 58… 57…]