Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.

  ~ Pablo Picasso

  Agony erupted through Sarah’s entire body as the life was crushed out of her and she experienced the now-familiar process of dying in a dream challenge. Welcome blackness quenched the pain, and a second later she respawned at the edge of the clearing, facing the giant crab again.

  This time she was given the option of choosing a symbol and a weapon at the same time. And miraculously, she was offered a wide variety of firearms too. Not a bazooka, unfortunately. That would be too easy, but she snatched up a pump shotgun with a shout of triumph.

  She picked an Agility-enhancing symbol again, her confidence returning. She should be able to stay away from the monster long enough to blast it to smithereens. The world unfroze and the crab skittered toward her, Its huge clawed pincers snapping loudly in the air, while its tentacles waved threateningly above its body.

  “Payback time!” Sarah shouted and advanced, opening fire.

  The feel of the shotgun’s recoil against her shoulder was comforting this time, as was the roar of flames and destruction belching out the end of the barrel. She expected to see the crab explode under the barrage, but her heart sank, Her confidence replaced by disbelief and a new flash of fear.

  The shotgun was firing a mixture of buckshot and slugs, but everything simply bounced off. The monster’s armored shell was too thick.

  Not good. Sarah changed directions, backpedaling quickly as she tried to come up with a new plan. She still could not see the monster’s empowering symbol anywhere, or she would have shot that.

  Despite having a shotgun, she could not damage the monster, and the fight devolved into a frantic game of dodge again. Unlike the cat, the crab could dodge sideways even faster than Sarah, and it's four long, nimble tentacles again proved too much.

  Although she managed to blast one of them apart before the others grabbed her, she was again tossed into the monster's maw and crunched to bloody paste. She once more respawned in the clearing to face the crab, cursing angrily to herself.

  “How do I kill you?” She growled.

  Dying sucked, even though it was only a dream tutorial. The pain still felt like pain, and it was still terrifying to get snatched by those nasty tentacles and tossed into the maw of a giant beast. She'd be lucky if she didn't end up with permanent PTSD from this so-called training nightmare.

  As the possible symbols and weapons again appeared before her, Sarah tried to force calm on herself. She had to think. This was a training tutorial. There had to be a way to beat the crab, and this was probably an important lesson the path was trying to teach her.

  She could not simply rush in and hope to overpower it, or even blindly trust that weapons that could kill a human would prove fatal to a monster.

  What was the lesson, then?

  She had no idea. Her timer was quickly running out, so out of desperation, Sarah chose Toughness. Agility had failed, and she did not want to get into a wrestling match with the monster. Maybe Toughness had benefits she did not understand yet.

  As soon as the symbol splashed against her chest, her body felt more durable and she sensed that it would take significantly more force to harm her. She allowed a smile and picked a longer knife with a forward-curving blade that flared wider near the end.

  She was pretty sure it was called a kukri. Both of her older brothers loved to watch the show Forged in Fire, where amateur blacksmiths made knives and swords and put them through grueling challenges.

  Her parents might have made it clear they considered her a waste of a life, but she still visited her brothers and their growing families at least a couple times a year. Invariably, they forced her to watch a couple episodes with them.

  The kukri, a powerful chopper, was a popular knife blacksmiths chose to forge. Maybe she could cut off the crab's legs to remove its mobility, then find a way to finish it off.

  Didn't work. All she managed to do was survive the first crunching bite of the crab with her heightened Toughness. That only meant she screamed in pain longer until it bit down a second time and finished her off.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “This is getting seriously annoying,” she shouted when she respawned again. With absolutely no idea how to win, she chose Willpower as her boosting stat and a .45 caliber pistol.

  Willpower was a weird stat. Getting the boost seemed to accelerate her thinking and ability to analyze her movements and the crab’s attacks. Great, except she was now too slow because she lacked the agility boost.

  The .45 did manage to destroy one of the crab's eyes when she made a lucky shot, but otherwise the attempt was another failure, and she quickly got gobbled up.

  This tutorial was turning into an absolute nightmare. With no other viable option, Sarah picked the Strength symbol and snatched up a short sword that looked like a Roman gladius.

  She marched toward the crab, trying to stoke her fear and annoyance into anger as her Strength boost filled her with enormous power.

  The crab came scuttling in like normal, but this time Sarah did not try to dodge. It wouldn't help, And sure enough, the first tentacle snapped out toward her.

  Sarah caught it.

  She'd never tried to do that before, but with her Strength boosted, she figured why not? The tentacle writhed in her grip and tried to retract, but Sarah held on tight and hauled on it with all her boosted Strength.

  That actually caught the crab by surprise, and it stumbled toward her. No way she could make a crab trip just by pulling on it. It had way too many legs, but she got an idea. As the other tentacles whipped out toward her, she slashed through the one that she was holding, cutting it in half in a single swipe.

  In quick succession, she cut through two more tentacles, and then dodged a thunderous attack from a giant claw that slammed down toward her as the crab closed the distance. Stepping in close, she slashed her sword against the joint right behind the claw with all her strength, and was amazed when her blade cleaved cleanly through it.

  The crab made a weird, screeching hiss and shuddered, its tentacles shaking in pain, momentarily freezing. So Sarah charged forward, ducked under the front edge of the crab’s carapace, and then heaved upward with all of her enhanced Strength.

  The crab toppled over backwards, landing on its hard shell, legs thrashing wildly, tentacles pinned underneath. It rocked back and forth, trying to right itself, but Sarah was not about to lose her first real opportunity.

  Lunging, she slashed back and forth with her sword, quickly cleaving off all of the crab’s legs along one side of its body. Returning the other way, she finished removing all the legs, turning the crab into a giant, angry paperweight.

  Only then did a brightly-glowing white symbol appear in the center of the crab's underbelly. It still looked indistinct, so Sarah could not see exactly what the symbol was, but she didn’t need to.

  Leaping onto the crab's body, she slashed her sword through the symbol, slicing it in half. The crab basically imploded, turning into a disgusting pool of slime and green goo.

  “Ew,” Sarah exclaimed, totally disgusted as she jumped out of the mess. The crab body disappeared, and a welcome message box popped into view in front of her.

  Success. Using creativity and bravery, one can sometimes defeat seemingly overwhelming odds.

  New ability: Basic Bladed Weapons 1. Sometimes a blade is the best choice. You can now wield a bladed weapon without cutting yourself. Plus 5% speed and accuracy with bladed weapons per level.

  Nice. As annoying as that crab had been, getting a new ability was always welcome. As a rush of warmth flowed through her, Sarah felt the difference. The sword felt more natural in her hand, and her grip on it shifted subtly to give her greater control. That was awesome.

  In quick succession, Sarah blasted through the remaining nasty monsters. None of them possessed such overwhelming power, and she didn’t die again.

  The shotgun basically disintegrated the skeletal dog, but she chose to use the gladius and Agility boost to take out the lion with the horns. That was a challenging fight, and she was a little surprised to realize she was enjoying the thrill and danger of it.

  By the time she finished that beast, she was starting to feel comfortable with applying those various symbols to boost each of her physical stats. Except for Willpower, of course.

  That squirrelly stat still didn't make any sense. Still, the concept of using symbols to unlock power was fascinating. She was looking forward to learning more about how to combine them into actual runes.

  After defeating the lion, another message box appeared.

  Tutorial second course complete. Rewards calculated.

  You have unlocked more of your bloodline potential. Level up times 3. Spirit increased from E3 to E6. Talent increased from E3 to E6. Spirit and health restored. Plus 12 free points.

  Bonus performance-based rewards:

  Talent increases from E6 to E9.

  Plus 1 to Basic Small Arms Mastery.

  Plus 1 to Basic Tumbling.

  Plus 1 to Basic Rune Sensitivity.

  New items unlocked in the System Store.

  Sarah gasped as another enormous wave of warm strength rolled through her, setting every muscle quivering with power and making her want to dance with joy. Her health pool filled, and honestly felt like it filled to overflowing. She felt better than new, like she could run all day without getting tired.

  Three entire levels from that training? That was beyond awesome, and she leveled up three of her basic abilities. That seemed super fast, although in video games, early levels came quickly. She had just never expected her life to so closely resemble a video game.

  The additional extra points in Talent seem like a great thing. No doubt it would definitely be a great thing once she understood what that meant. For now, she focused on the fact that she got twelve more free points, Pushing her total to fifteen. Spending the points to buy the tutorial was looking like a better idea than she’d hoped.