The altar of the Gale shamans was something to both admire and fear. For those of the Gale affinity, it was the greatest gift the sprits could give them, a way to commune with the great spirit of the gale and to learn how to harness its power. For others, beasts and, as of the trails second round, the Fang tamers, It was a place to fear.

  Those who entered rarely returned, and the shamans who accompanied them always returned stronger, with a more integrated connection to the spirit of the Gale, and just slightly more off, every time. the Fang tribe came to call their return and change as “Yamalka” or, translated from the goblin tongue, “Remover of Soul” or “Soulless” due to how the atmosphere changed around them.

  The goblins explained all of this to me as we began the stealthy approach to the beast pens, stationed right next to the altar. At the moment we only had our stealthiest members, the 3 goblins and myself moving along the ground as quietly as we could. Two of them were unfamiliar to me, Rukk only having times for a quick introduction of their names and skillsets. The small goblin accompanied by an Earth-Eater ant the same size as her was named Purdu, while her brother, the goblin named Poro, had been moving almost unheard alongside me. I had yet to talk to the two for anymore discussion than our objective, with Rukk doing most of the communicating as the 3rd goblin accompanying the stealth squad.

  As we got within viewing distance of the beast pens, the goblins gasped as quietly as they could, the shock of the scene fighting against their heads to escape into reality.

  “They gon’ pay for this.” Poro said, his voice surprising me with its deepness. Before us lay the scene of beasts pens, warrens, and all other manner of storage devices. Each one having at least one beast within, or at least, that’s how they normally looked.

  Rukk spoke up, his voice trembling, his fists clenched with barely contained fury. “They slaughtered all of them…” it came out like a whisper before a mighty storm. “My mates Oakwhispers where in there, my brothers Bunnicorn as well.” If we weren’t already crouched, I fear they would’ve dropped to their knees in Trepidation.

  Every beast was dead, their pens and cages lined with shamanistic symbols and their bodies carved with- “Are those runes on the corpses?” my voice was almost silent as to not disturb the grieving goblins.

  DING!

  QUEST GAINED! “But I thought i was the only one”

  You have found another Rune Carvers work in the world, likely originating from the Gale Shaman faction of the Galefang tribe. The runes seem to have a mysterious function, being carved into the corpses of tamed Manabeasts. As A Wielder with the Runic profession skill pathway, You are on a never ending mission to discover the use of all runes. Understand and archive the runes to learn them.

  *Bonus, if you record and share your findings with a branch of the “Spotters guild” you will receive bonus rewards*

  Reward: Variable

  Bonus: Variable

  Well that’s nifty, I should probably go and do that. Hm, I bet the reward is just gonna be the rune implemented into my skill though…. Eh, I could use more anyway.

  “See those markings on the beasts?” I gestured to the animals with my team, “They are marked like your weapons are, I’m gonna go down and take a look.”

  Seeing the nods of the others, I diverted my mana from my senses into my cloak, doubling the amount of mana allocated to its stealth functions. A faint purple and brown shimmer flowed over my cloak and made me very hard to sense to anything weaker than someone halfway through the Iron rankings.

  As I approached the bodies, my senses began to hum at me, the Dimensional sense associated with my profession pathway was activating slowly and progressively getting harder to ignore.

  [Dimensional Forces nearby, subject: Error Runes of Error. Investigate further]

  “Well aren’t you subtle” I said under my breath as i got closer to the beasts, it was strange, seeing them from a distance they seemed strewn about randomly. But as i approached and got closer to them it almost seemed like they were… Arranged in a circle?

  The mana going through my eyes rapidly spiked in intensity as I tried to parse the subtelties between the runes and formation of the circle.

  Wait a minute, that’s not a circle! It’s a Ru-!

  BOOM!

  A Gale storm of wind erupted from the bodies as they were turned from flesh into pure divine mana.

  DING!- QUEST FAILED! You have failed to learn the runes used before they were lost to a ritual! be quicker next time when you KNOW you are dealing with shamans perhaps?

  The system window appeared before me with Quest updates, blast it all I didn’t have time to read! As i was thrown back to the hill where the 3 of my cohort were hiding, I saw the mana, the life force and essence of the slain beasts fly and coalesce in the sky above as a massive shifting bird. The wind and dust forming it gave it an eerie presence, and the Dimensional mana pouring off of it was even stronger than what surrounded the Altar!

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  Turning as i flew through the air, I shouted as loud as i could at the goblin camp in the distance where my new ally’s were camped out. “WE NEED TO GO NOW!” Just as the words left my lips, I realized my error. These were a bunch of goblins, scared right now yes, but at their core these were the Tamers and hardy melee of the Fang tribe. If someone at the front line yelled for them to go immediately, they wouldn’t think to go away from the giant bird made of wind.

  The battle cries rang my ears even from the distance between us, the large dust cloud being kicked up by the tamers and whatever beasts we had remaining turned quickly into ammunition for some of the more ranged of the beasts. Sending spears of stone, massive chunks,closer to boulders than anything else, and anything else the small beasts of the ranged cohort could throw together with their skills. Woah! Using my Chain to wrap around one of the boulders and pull myself to it, I managed to narrowly dodge the massive crystal thrown past me. Before I could be pulled off the rock from the sheer velocity the winds were going, I carved a new combination of the rune of siphon and the rune of air. [Rune of Vacuum] Created! having my body sucked into the boulder was like being pressed Hard by a giant into the ground, my limbs completely unable to move, it felt exactly like a gravity spell…Hm“I wonder if I could make a Rune for something similiar with Earth and…Ah i can’t get distracted! There’s a battle going on right now” My muttering being cut off as i heard outraged cries from the goblins i was just above now, Something about missing?

  Turning, a rather difficult task when vaccum sealed to a flying boulder, I saw that the myriad of magical, physical, and even a mix of both from those using my Imbued weapons, seemed to go right through the bird. The only pin sized holes in it seemed to be almost microscopic from where i was. Refocusing my mana vision, I saw that the entire beast was no longer made of Gale Mana, all of it having moved to… The Altar? all that was left was the Dimensional Mana, likely the actual Spirit, that was holding in the place of the bird and all the attacks phasing right through it. Does that mean that, Yes! Focusing my mana vision on the small pin prick holes in the beast, I saw that there was small bits of the mana leaking, no wait. Being pulled! the mana was being Siphoned off to one of the goblins, probably Rukk since he was one of the few who received a Dimensional and a Siphon rune on his weapon, though I still needed to make him some specialty ammo for it. Shaking my head, trying to shake off the distraction. Why was i getting distracted so easily in this battle?

  DING!

  Waving my arms away to remove the system notification and get my head back in the game. The bird seemed to lock eyes with me, the spirit within glaring at me before I received a different tone from the system.

  PANG! YOU HAVE RECIEVED A DIVINE MESSAGE! Read Now or Later?

  Selecting the Later button, against my urge to find out what was going on right away. I plummeted to the ground, the boulder i was latched to finally hitting earth after being buffeted back by the Gale Spirit. Looking back one last time before the goblins mobbed me to help, I saw the dimensional mana fade into the alter; the last vestiges dissipating alongside the Gale bird. Man I wish i had some way to inspect that thing, I bet its description was really cool.

  Then the reality of the situation caught up with me, more spcifically, the goblins who barreled into me. Pulling and lifting me up onto two Craggwolves before they carried me away, the sounds of thorld fading away with my conciousness,the only thing keepinng me awake being the bright, blinking "1" notifiction in the top right of my vision, blinkinatop a little envelope ymbol. The divine message, no doubt about it.

  "Theo?" I was very aware of the goblin suddenly in my face, the smell of unwashed teeth and a purely carnivourous diet made it a very unwelcome sensation, though excellent for waking me back up. Sitting back up, and subtly backing my face away from his, I regarded the goblin, one of the ones brought onthe reconnasciece mission be eit went awry. "Hey Poro, could you take a stp back please?" I let out a sigh of relief when he did, able to breathe fresh air once more.

  During this time, the other goblins had gathered around us, looks of fear and worry on many of their faces, the worst ofall being the ranged cmbatants who tried, but failed, to damage the spirit. The morale ofthe backline troops was at an all time low, while the frontline warriors, the swift and the strong, were rearing to charge at the altar to takca of whatever that could've been. The part of me that wanted this ridicoulouslty long trial to end was aligned with the ontliers, while the part of me that had led troops, seen battlefields, and had just received a message the system had classieid as "Divine" was very much aligned with the ranged fighters, wnting to hold back and wait before doing anything else. Unfortunaty for that part of me, I was not in charge of these goblins, nor did i have any say in what the leader was about to say, my advice would crash into the barrier that was a fathers worry for his daughter. The next words heard by any of the fang goblins would decide the next move, and Rukk decided that he should use his new skill once more.

  "Brothers, sisters, and all beasts of the fang tribe! They have just slain all of our families beasts! Every soul who is in the walls of that shrine mst now be feeling an incredible loss within them, the death of their bonded beasts," At the sound of that, I could see many goblins wince, a few even shedding a tear. "Your mates, your friends, your very children, every one of our tribe members who have been put into that shrine cry out! their souls cry out fo us to come getthm, to free them from whatever those shamans are doing that would require the sacriice of their bonded beasts, whatever would require the very Spirit of the Gale to make itself present for. Some of you may be hesitant, but that hesitance will cost our members their lives if we do not shed it! Fang Tribe, This momemnt wilwill go down in memory 9 generations, then forever in legend!"

  Mentally, I couldnt help but call bull on this goblin. Why does he get to learn so fast without dying. And why did he get a effect title in such a short time, his name appearing in my vision under the party tab, now finally close enough of allies for the system to allow me to see his capabilities.

  [Rukk, Revolutionary leader of the Fang tribe]

  Race: Fang Goblin

  Formation skill: Rabbit Charmer

  Equipment: [Dimensional siphoning bone blowpipe, Trash Ranked-Runed]

  Skills: 2

  [Rabbit Channeler]: Allows the user of this skill to channel mana perfectly into a tamed beast, so long as that beast is of the [Rabbit] Classification.

  [Revolutionary leader's warcry, Bronze 2]: Send out a warcry, cheer, or other form of motivational speech to enhance the resistancof all nearby allies by up to 76% depending on their closeness to allies, raise this skills level to increase the upper limit of enhancement.

  While not insane, and with seemingly no chance to grow beyond his current rank, the skills he had were very useful. A commander skill and a standard support ability for his style of combat. he would be very useful for the upcoming battle.

  As I was pondering my interface and looking over Rukks status sheet and my own, I decided to stop procrastinating and finally read the message the spirit sent me, deciding now would be better than after the siege.

  DIVINE MESSAGING SYSTEM E#R0R, YOU SHOULD NOT HVE ACCSS TO THIS! I AM NOT SURE WHY YOU CAN RECEIVE THIS THROUGH THE DMS INSTEAD OF THE STANDARD "REVELATION” FORMAT. ELEVATING ISSUE!

  I am not loving all of these error messages from the system, but there’s nothing to be done about it until i can get out of the tutorial i suppose? Shrugging the thought away, the humor of the tutorial being darn near useless not lost on me, I continued to read.

  ———————————————————————

  FROM: The Spirit of The Gale(True name: Unknown)

  Hello, Theo, Trial taker, The one sent back, Invader, one of the errors in the divine system. We, the spirit communities of the divine realm of the moderators, do not know why you are in this world, your mana changed the day you began the tutorial, as did your behavior. The System, the caretaker of the world and those of us who tend it, has begun having errors related to you and your compatriots. In order to stop you from corrupting the main system any further, we have decided to send 2 Spirits to each of your tutorials, 14 in total, to ensure that none of you escape the tutorial world. Our plea is this, invader, Either leave the boys body and return to the other time, or stay in this world forever, never to progress or grow until you end yourself.

  ———————————————————————

  Well that’s nice and scary ain’t it? Despite my flippant mental remark, the content of the message hit me like a flame fist to the skull. I wasn’t supposed to be here, or at least the divine spirits of the world didn’t know about it, but if Fate picked me then wouldn’t the divine spirits know? And what did it mean by “Each of your tutorials” did that mean there were others like me from other timelines or did the harbingers invade this world using a different method? what’s going on!

  Before i knew it, a wet, warm trickle came from between my fingers, I was clutching my fist so hard i drew blood, my knuckles white with the pressure. Shaking my hand loose and wiping away the blood on my cloak, I decided that the spirits could do one thing before I got to my brother and family and got out of this abyssal trial world.

  They could die, and give me those sweet sweet quest rewards.