Lyonel and the rest of his team were enjoying a well cooked meal for the first time since being inducted into this tutorial. He was a hamster person, and the best fighter they had left. Their previous leader, a powerful jaguar person named Vesper, had been killed on the first day of tier three.

When the next area had opened up, the strongest person in their zone, Vesper, had brought along Lyonel, Samson, Gerry, and Hector. The other Corellians left in their section had suddenly disappeared just as the exit opened. Lyonel called it an exit, but really the whole rocky wall in front of them vanished, leaving more of the same fertile fields in front of them.

Hector was a ferret person and their best scout. He was sent to see what he could find. The rest of the party had cautiously made their way north, waiting to hear if he found anything. It was only a couple of hours before he returned, excitement and panic warring on his face. He had found another party of recruits, and they did not look like Corellians.

From the description, they didn't seem to have the same diversity in appearance that his own people did. They were all tall, hulking creatures, with thick hides and massive muscles. Samson, their best mage and a rabbit person, had lobbied for avoiding them until they knew more, but Vesper wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to see how strong they were.

Corellians were a normally peaceful people, with even their warriors only reluctantly taking up weapons to defend the civilians from the insane monsters of their world. After coming to the tutorial and being forced into a series of life and death conflicts, however, some of their people had begun to enjoy the act of killing. Vesper was such a person.

The jaguar man had eagerly sought out the most dangerous situations, which was risky, but had paid off for him. It meant that while most of the others in the zone were still struggling to upgrade their quartz classes to opal, his four classes were already a third of the way to diamond. It also helped that he had gotten a healer class and was able to treat the many injuries he received from his reckless behavior.

Sadly, many of the others who had gotten a healer class had not made it through their tutorial. These five person teams, that were the maximum the Network allowed to enter dungeons, had proven their undoing. At first people had grouped with their friends or neighbors, many of whom had the same class as each other since they had arrived near the same starting dungeons as well.

A party of five healers, with a few other classes added in, didn't do well when they found themselves surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters. Even after figuring out that they needed to balance their parties, healers had still died at an alarming rate. The idea of covering their more vulnerable members wasn't something many of them had learned. Warriors on their world tended to be independent types. That led to even properly arranged groups splitting up to deal with threats, rather than working as a team, and the healers would find themselves one of the first to fall.

Vesper had ended up in the healer dungeon first and had obtained a rare class stone. Unlike some of the others, he had realized that he should save the stone for later. Too many of their people had simply absorbed the first stone they got, even if it was rare or uncommon. There was even one person who used an epic version right away. This limited the number of classes they ended up getting.

Lyonel hadn't known Vesper back in tier one. It wasn't until the leader board opened up in tier two that the jaguar man had tracked him down. He was smart enough to realize he needed the best possible people around him, and he had searched out others high on the board to join with. Lyonel had not been in the top five, but he was in the top twenty. Others above him had either refused to work with Vesper, or didn't match the party dynamic he was going for.

They had only been a full party for a few days, but all of them seemed solid. Lyonel had managed to get three quartz classes, fighter, hunter, and guardian. He had also managed to upgrade them all to opal. The rest of the party had also reached opal in all their classes. This put them well above most of their fellow recruits in the zone, but looking back, Lyonel realized that had made Vesper prone to overconfidence.

Just because he was clearly the strongest person in their zone, didn't mean he was the strongest person in any zone, or even close. As the clear leader, they didn't argue much when he said he wanted to meet this other group. They had also fallen into the trap of believing in Vesper's superiority. Samson was the only one to keep protesting, but his comments soon angered Vesper, and he yelled at him to shut up.

When they had met up with the other party, Lyonel's identify labeled them as Bodarians. They were just as large and imposing as Hector had described. Vesper, with his twin sabres resting on his shoulders, had walked forward and called out to the opposing group, asking to talk.

The largest of the Bodarians had stepped forward, a large hammer dragging on the ground behind him. He told Vesper that they had no words for weaklings, and would only talk if the jaguar man could defeat him in single combat. Lyonel's leader had jumped at the opportunity.

The rest of the Bodarians stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to witness the combat. Lyonel's own group was more of a huddled cluster, unsure of the intelligence of engaging the imposing warrior. Vesper of course would ignore them if they tried to talk him out of it, so none of them voiced their concerns.

In addition to being a healer, Vesper also had strength, dexterity, and perception classes. Having watched him fight, Lyonel knew that the jaguar man was incredibly fast and his weapons could strike completely independent of each other. He didn't know the exact level of his two weapon fighting skill, but it had to be high, maybe even above fifty.

As the two combatants closed with one another, Lyonel studied the massive Bodarian. The hammer he was dragging was as big as Vesper, with the heavy head making the long, thick handle look like a flimsy toothpick. Perhaps he was dragging it because it was too heavy for him, but a second glance at the bulging muscles made him doubt that.

He could almost feel the ground shake with each step the man took. It was obviously just a symptom of Lyonel being intimidated, but there was a sureness and heaviness in his steady strides that spoke of both strength and constitution, as well as a confidence in his abilities. His own champion, on the other hand, was almost bounding forward with each step.

As they neared one another, Vesper started rapidly altering his trajectory. One moment he was approaching the right of the warrior, the next his left. With Lyonel's perception class he was able to follow his movements, but Samson most likely only saw a blur. The jaguar man was fast, there was no doubt about it.

His strength wasn't anything to complain about either, but it seemed his opponent's skin was even tougher than it looked. Repeated slashes struck his arms and legs, but they either bounced off or left only shallow red lines. At least the thing bled red.

So far the large man was simply protecting his vitals, using his off hand to deflect what he could, or occasionally trying to put the handle of his hammer in the way of Vesper's blades. Vesper managed to work his way behind the Bodarian and used one of his new class abilities to do real damage. Both sabres emitted a faint glow and his next strikes cut much deeper than before.

The first sword cut across the back of his opponent's left leg, leaving a deep gash, and most likely cutting into its hamstrings This should limit his movements, giving Vesper even more of an advantage. The second strike was to his broad back, leaving another wound dripping blood, but not having any other notable effect.

This attack seemed to wake a beast inside of the Bodarian. The head of the hammer swung up off the ground, and he held the long shaft in both hands. The large man tried to turn, but Vesper's first cut had definitely done something to his leg. It buckled slightly, causing the giant to stumble. Vesper saw it as an opportunity and jumped forward. His previous ability was still on cooldown, but he had another from his upgraded dexterity class, and he stabbed forward with one of his sabres. This attack was supposed to allow him to penetrate heavy armor, which the bodarian's skin seemed to be.

The blade punched through the skin of his foe's chest and penetrated several inches. The curve of his blade made it difficult to get it deeper, and also made it harder to pull it out. It only cost him an extra second, but that was enough to spell his doom.

The massive bodarian, with a sword currently stuck in his gut, dropped his hammer and wrapped Vesper in a mighty bear hug. He squeezed harder and harder, muscles bulging. Vesper let off a pained howl before a snap indicated his spine had been broken. Opening his arms, he let his furry opponent drop to the ground and retrieved his hammer. Stepping back on his good leg, he brought the massive weapon down on Vesper's head, smashing it into paste.

Lyonel was horrified, and his baser instincts took over, causing him to run. Away from his fallen leader. Soon the rest of the group had joined him. The Bodarians simply watched as they fled. It had not been Lyonel's proudest moment, but if Vesper was so easily killed, what hope did the rest of them have?

Returning to the present, the memory had been enough to sour the taste of the delicious stew in his mouth. Swallowing it down, he sat back and scanned his surroundings again. This was not safe territory. They had spent a few days hiding after losing Vesper, but eventually Lyonel had taken charge and decided to at least look for the village that was supposed to be their objective. They couldn't cower in fear forever, they might as well attempt to move forwards.

What they found was Elstree, a good sized village lacking any walls, something you would never find on Corell. A village without at least some type of defensive structure would soon be raided by the fearsome creatures that inhabited his world's wildernesses. On the edge of the settlement, there were signs telling them they couldn't enter while wearing their gear. He saw other beast people walking around the town, mixed in with the other inhabitants, so they had temporarily withdrawn to switch out all of their armor and weapons for more regular looking clothing and headed in. Spatial storage devices made this so much easier.

Their first trip through the town had been simple reconnaissance. There was only the one main street, but they also saw a few smaller ones branching off of it. There were also several fields of crops surrounding the village with people weeding, harvesting, and tending to the plants they contained. They marked a few buildings to check out on their next visit before leaving once again.

They spent another night in the dark, chewing on raw meat that they had harvested from previous kills. The next day they were back to more thoroughly check out the village. They had eventually found the tavern and eagerly entered to get some hot food. Not only was it cooked, a large step up from their usual meals, but the person doing so clearly knew their business. The press of others and the fear of assault cast a pall over their meal, but it was worth it.

As he looked around, his eyes caught an oddity. There was a table of four men and a woman who were wearing armor and openly carrying weapons. They hadn't been here when they entered. The group must have come in while he was reliving Vesper's demise. Lyonel surreptitiously identified them and saw that they all had opal classes. He quickly leaned in and warned his fellows about the danger. The sign outside the village clearly didn't apply to these people, so they must be of some importance, or be too powerful for anyone to impose the rules on them.

They tried to watch the table without making it obvious, but their eyes kept coming back to the danger that group represented. A short man with shaggy hair walked up and started removing dishes and food from their table. The warriors around the table started to harass him. It was a shocking display of disrespect for Lyonel's party. No one would act this way on Corell, politeness and respect were cornerstones of their culture. Sensing that this behavior could only lead to trouble, he gestured for everyone to finish up quickly.

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They guzzled whatever was in their bowls and stood from the table. They had paid for everything when the food was first brought, so they were good to go. Samson had been keeping his eyes on the lovely waitress, who was a fellow rabbit person, the whole time, so he was the first to notice the new trouble.

They all watched as the leader of that crew grabbed her and pulled her into his lap. From the expression on her face this was not a situation she was okay with. Lyonel knew they should do something, but his brain was telling him to run. That first cowardly act back with the Bodarians had made giving in to his fear even easier ever since.

Even Samson, who seemed to fancy the girl, was also still edging for the door. Gerry, their shortest member, despite being a giraffe person, was already pushing the door open. Lyonel wanted to act, but he just couldn't get himself to do it. His brain tried to reason that if no one else was going to intervene, why should he stick their necks out.

Then it happened. With a loud clang, the busboy smacked the other human with a spoon and knocked him out. Then one of the unconscious person's friends tried to grab him and the busboy clunked him on the head as well. Seeing a human so readily defend a beast person made Lyonel's soul shrivel. Here he was justifying running away and leaving the waitress to whatever happened, meanwhile a human stepped up to defend her with nothing but a large serving utensil.

Well, if the shaggy man could do it, so could they, and they had more than just cutlery. His entire group retrieved their weapons from spatial storage. Sadly, they couldn't magically equip their armor, but with two of the adventurers down, they should be able to at least delay the others enough to let the busboy escape.

Lyonel shouted to get his attention, "This way, we'll protect you!"

It seemed like the busboy wasn't all there, however, as he still stood in place. Lyonel remembered other patrons talking about the 'simple man' and realized he must be slow. It wasn't until the waitress pushed the busboy that he got moving. With impressive agility, the man hopped up on a nearby table, and then ran from one to the next until he reached the door. What would normally have taken a minute or two to navigate in the crowded space, he was able to accomplish in seconds.

Gerry was already holding the door open and Hector pushed the man through before they all followed him into the street. While Lyonel thought they could hold out against the remaining members of that other group, he would prefer not to have to fight until they were able to get properly dressed in armor. With that in mind, he led his party, plus the busboy, out of town.

The sun had already set, so once they left the lights of the village behind, they were just shadows on the horizon. Hector took the lead, he could see almost perfectly in the darkness. Lyonel himself had pretty decent night vision, but their scout had skills and talents to bolster his own already impressive sight.

They went several kilometers out of town before taking shelter at the edge of a forest. He was pretty impressed with how well the human had moved in the dark. Lyonel had expected the man to need a lot of assistance, but he was easily able to keep up. Maybe being a local helped him navigate the terrain, plus all he really had to do was follow the person in front of him.

Gerry had the hardest time. Without a perception class and with naturally poor night vision, he struggled in low light. This was something they had already learned to cope with, though, and Samson knew how to assist him. Now that they were safe, Lyonel directed everyone to sit. The flight from town had been a rushed affair, but even the busboy was able to handle the pace and relatively short distance while barely even breathing heavily.

Samson cast a dim light spell on a rock and set it in the middle of the group. It shouldn't be visible from too far away, but it would make it easier for everyone to see each other as they talked. With an appreciative nod to their resident mage, Lyonel turned toward the human.

"I want to thank you for saving that waitress. It was a brave thing you did."

The busboy just stared back at lyonel.

He tried a different track, "I'm Lyonel, what's your name?"

Still the busboy didn't answer. He was starting to think that this man was incredibly rude when Hector whispered to him.

"I overheard someone saying he was a mute."

Right. Lyonel had also heard people remark that he wasn't all there mentally as he had moved throughout the room cleaning tables. Come to think of it, he had also heard them mention he couldn't talk, but Lyonel had forgotten that fact.

He decided to start over. "Umm, can you understand what I'm saying?"

This time the busboy nodded.

"Do you have a name the villagers called you?"

He shook his head.

"Is there something we could call you? I don't really want to just say human, that feels wrong."

The busboy thought for a bit before picking up a nearby rock. It was small, not bigger than the end of his pinky.

"Rock?", was met with a grimace. The human lifted his other hand up, and with two fingers, mimed shrinking the space between his fingers down to the size of the rock. Lyonel thought a bit. "Pebble?"

The human smiled at this, "Pebble it is. So, again, thank you for saving that waitress. We would like to repay what you did. It is probably not safe for you to go back to the village you realize."

Pebble frowned, but nodded his head. It seemed he understood the reality of the situation. As far as they knew, there wasn't another village in the area, and the man didn't seem to have much on him other than his clothes and a few pouches. He wouldn't be able to last out here on his own.

The previous tier had been almost devoid of monsters, unless you counted the dungeon, but they had already run into several creatures while exploring this newest area. Without armor or weapons, Pebble would meet a violent end whether he went back to town or not. On the other hand, even if they had equipment to spare, which they did, if they gave it to him, he wouldn't really be able to use it. It was quite a conundrum.

His thoughts were interrupted as Pebble raised his hands. He gestured to each of the beast people and then pointed to himself. Moving his left hand in a large circling motion, he mimed walking with the fingers of his right.

It was Samson who got it first, all those points in intelligence must help. "You want to go with us?"

Pebble nodded.

Hector spoke up, "It won't be safe with us. We will be fighting monsters and other people."

To his credit, the mute man didn't even blink at the stated danger. Instead, he walked over to a nearby tree and casually tore off a branch. It wasn't more than a few centimeters thick, but it was still an impressive display of strength. The branch was over a meter in length and would make for an awkward club, but he looked determined.

"Do you know how to use that?" Lyonel asked.

Pebble shrugged and then took a few swings with it. They weren't bad, but then again the branch was not a real weapon. Making a decision, Lyonel took one of his older clubs out of his storage. He had found it rather early on in the last tier, the reward for a relatively easy dungeon.

It was just under eighty centimeters in length and a little over six centimeters in diameter at its thickest point. It could be wielded with either one or two hands, and had served him well. Lyonel had since found much better, but it was a huge improvement over Pebble's improvised weapon. He held it out towards the former busboy.

"Here, you'll need a proper weapon if you're going to come with us."

Pebble's eyebrows rose, which Lyonel took to be a sign of surprise. It was weird to see the expression on someone without more than a trace of hair on their face, but his time in the village had started to inoculate Lyonel to the differences between races. He reached out with the club toward Pebble again and the man slowly reached out and took it.

Pebble's face broke out in a big grin as he dropped the already forgotten branch on the ground and took a few practice swings. He was using it one handed and Lyonel could already tell he would be able to use it much better than that stick. The man still had a pleased look on his face as he sat back down by the glowing stone.

"Well, I think that's enough for tonight. I'll take first watch, everyone else get some sleep." Lyonel directed.

The rest of his party placed down bedrolls from their storage devices and he grimaced, realizing the human would have to sleep on the bare ground. He considered offering up his own bedding, but then he noticed Pebble reaching for one of his pouches. The next thing Lyonel knew, the human had a bedroll in his hand. He must have a storage device.

It made sense, it was one of the first rewards people got in tier one, and they made life so much easier. Most people had purchased more storage devices from the dungeon store, and Lyonel himself had a nice bracelet that he had looted off of someone in a dungeon. It was probably something that almost everyone living in the Network had. Maybe having Pebble in the group wouldn't be such a burden.

The other four settled in and Samson ended the casting of his light spell. Darkness replaced the dim lighting, but that was ok for him. Lyonel was at home in the dark, and he had plenty to think about. In his old life, he hadn't considered himself a coward. He had been a guard for a small town, not even a thousand people, and was responsible for keeping monsters away from the civilians.

That had given him a serious advantage when the Network arrived. Most of those on the leaderboards had been guards of one town or another. They had experience in fighting and were more willing to put themselves out there, to take a risk. Not all of his fellow recruits had been willing to enter the tier two dungeons. Too many casualties had led to them deciding that the rewards weren't worth the danger. They would count on others stepping up to keep them safe, just like back home.

Lyonel wasn't one of those. He had entered plenty of dungeons and fought deadly foes. However, watching Vesper, a warrior far more talented than himself, get crushed in the arms of that giant muscle man, and then having his head obliterated, had broken something inside of him. He suspected the same had happened to his party members.

At least he had identified that there was a problem. Next up would be trying to fix it. They would have to throw themselves into dangerous situations until that fearful voice inside of them went away. They would have to be calculated risks, though. There was no point in recovering his nerves if he simultaneously got himself killed.

Running some dungeons would be perfect, the problem was that the tier two dungeons were no longer open to them. After Vesper was killed, and the party ran away, the first thing they tried to do was return to the previous zone. When they reached the pass they had used to enter, they found it blocked. The opening that had been made for them had been removed, separating tier two and three again with a barrier of stone.

He had no idea how to open it back up again, or if it was even possible. That meant they needed to find new dungeons. Luckily, while they were in town he had made a few discoveries. There was a strange board set near the village hall. It contained many pieces of paper that were somehow permanently attached. He had tried to pull a couple off to bring with him, but they wouldn't budge.

The papers contained a list of quests. Unlike Network bestowed quests, these didn't give a notification. Instead you could just read about them on the large board. Each quest also listed the reward, in addition to giving a brief description of the task. Some even had time constraints. For example, the most prominent paper was one describing a quest to clear the Town Dungeon, whatever that was. It gave a location, to the east of town, and an approximate distance, as well as a note that it needed to be completed in the next six days. The reward was a sizable amount of gold, one hundred pieces for each party member.

There were some other quests that had interested him as well. A request to clear a second dungeon was also listed. This one didn't have a timer, and the location was much farther away. It also didn't give a name like the other one, just calling it a dungeon. The last one that he had studied was a quest to clear out a nest of cavern dogs. Lyonel didn't know what those were, but the reward was 'a personalized weapon'.

He had made a note of the location for each of those tasks, while only glancing over the other papers. Some had been other requests to clear out monsters nests or dens, but the rewards weren't as interesting or the monster had sounded too challenging. Baby steps were the way to go.

Some of the other papers had asked for them to collect different materials. Requests to bring back ten wings from spore butterflies, or thirty jasper mushroom caps. These usually paid in coin, but were nowhere near as lucrative as the reward for clearing the dungeon. They might be worth checking out later, but first he wanted to see how everything worked. Would they have to return to the board or the village hall to receive their reward, or would it simply appear after completing the task?

Staring out into the darkness, that wasn't so dark for him, Lyonel planned out his team's next steps. He also had to think about what to do with Pebble. Should he go into the dungeon with them, wait outside and potentially be killed by wandering monsters, or did they need to find him a secure campsite to watch over until they returned? Life had been easier for Lyonel when Vesper was the one making the decisions.

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