Bale watched as I churned out potion after potion for the rest of the day. My notifications were coming in so thick and fast for a moment I thought I could see the HUD icon tapping its foot in annoyance.

  -  Alchemy notification - you have produced failed potion (x 20)

  -  Skill unlock - simple alchemy proficiency - Level 1 - you are 1% less likely to fail a simple potion while using an alchemy table. You take 1% less damage when a potion has a catastrophic failure resulting in an explosion.

  That skill unlock had come in handy since about 1 in 4 of my potions blew up causing minor burns and occasionally singeing off of my eyebrows. But with the increased healing rate I was usually able to continue after a few minutes.

  A small but ever-increasing pile of blackened and burnt potion bottles containing a black liquid surrounded me. These were my current failures. On the table in front of me sat 1 singular light blue potion. Focusing on it allowed me to see the text label above it . It was only poor quality, but had still taken me over 20 attempts before I succeeded.

  I was proud of it, but I didn’t feel great about my progress. Although, it had unlocked the recipe in a similar vein as the mana blast spell before. I could now create the mana potion without an alchemy table using double the ingredients with half the likelihood of success.

  “Kid, this is boring to watch,” Bale sighed. “Can you go back to trying other skills or asking me questions - watching you do this is making me wish I could fall asleep in this form.”

  “Edward.” I responded not looking away from my alchemy table as I prepped another potion for brewing.

  “What?”

  “My name is Edward - you can call me Ed if you want.”

  “Nah I prefer calling you Kid.”

  A notification pinged on my HUD above the helper which I opened.

   The Kid.

   You have been given a nickname, and it’s stuck whether you like it or not.

  My general information now showed my name as Edward - The Kid. I sighed. It wasn’t the worst nickname I’d ever had but I didn’t exactly want to end up being seen as some sort of Billy the Kid wannabe. Especially since my name was Edward and I’d grown up being called Eddy - which I hated.

  “Bale, how do I remove the title?”

  “Can't,” Bale responded.

  “What do you mean I can’t.”

  “Quirk of the system - nicknames are automatically attached to your name. They’re only replaced if another nickname becomes more widely known. Sorry Kid.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “You’re a terrible tutorial guide.” I said. Bale recoiled in mock shock.

  “Be still my beating straw - I can’t believe you would wound me after everything we’ve been through.”

  “I’ve known you for maybe 6 hours.”

  “And for 3 of those hours you’ve been making potions in silence. It felt like millennia. I half expected another Shiftee to turn up since I feel like I’m due one after this incredibly boring experience.”

  I zoned him out leaning into my hyperfocus trait. It allowed me to completely focus on my task and there appeared to be more to it than the description described mechanically. The world around my task blurred, providing added focus and clarity to what I did. The ranting scarecrow behind me’s voice began to fade into a light drone behind me, muffled by my intense concentration.

  In the past 2 hours since my hyper focus had activated, I’d pushed my simple alchemy proficiency up to 3. I was lucky the materials for potions were being supplied for me because I’d created a huge number of failed potions and destroyed hundreds more. I’d wasted, bordering on, thousands of materials in my alchemy session.

  I was generally a calm man. Very little rattled me, but 3 hours of potion making and only one poor quality potion to show for it, I was about to lose my mind.

  -   Alchemy notification you have produced 1 x failed potion.

  I held my breath. My mind went blank and then all of a sudden, I growled angrily shouting to the void as I hurled the broken potion at the target in the neighbouring magic tome training booth. There was a small explosion similar to when I had a .

  -   Trait unlocked - Fury of the failed Alchemist.

  Description: You are not a very good alchemist. Luckily volatile chemicals are a dangerous weapon even if that wasn’t their intended purpose.

  Effect: You can weaponize your failed potions by throwing them as if they were a projectile weapon. You gain the Skill ‘potion lobber’ level 1 when you acquire this trait. You unlock the recipe for a failed potion - this allows you to automatically fail any potion you are attempting to create using the reagents necessary. The higher grade the potion and more powerful the reagents the more powerful the failed potion’s damage will be. Failed potions now have a quality grading.

  -  Skill Unlocked - Potion Lobber level 1 - your potions can be thrown 5% further with a 1% bonus to their effect.

  “Oh, that’ll work,” Bale said to himself. Watching the now burning target begin to repair itself.

  “Did you know that was something I could unlock?” I replied.

  “I remember hearing about that trait a while back but it’s not one people talk about a lot. Given you’re pretty bad at alchemy at the moment, being able to use them for something is handy.”

  I started to load the failed potions into my inventory. I picked them up while focusing. They began to pixelate before they dematerialised, appearing as a small representation in my HUD and then going into the backpack on the HUD helper.

  -  Tutorial notification:You have added a weapon or defensive item to your inventory. Congratulations you have found equipment and an accompanying skill and or trait that allows for you to defend yourself sufficiently. Further weaponry and armour abilities will no longer appear in the tutorial.

  “SHIT!” I shouted as the booth with the tome I had previously been using began to dematerialise. I just about managed to grab the training tome and add it to my inventory as the lectern dematerialised, replaced by a large wooden cabinet with glass doors containing numerous potions filled with black liquid.

  “Oooh that’s not great. You didn’t even get an armour skill or starting equipment other than that tome. Since the tome didn’t trigger that System update, you’ll probably not get mage robes either which would really have helped with your mana issues after the tutorial ends.” Bale said more to himself than to me.

  “You really are no help” I said as I slumped to the ground lying on my back covering my face with my arms. “I’m going to die here.”

  “Well not here. You can’t die in the tutorial zone.” Bale said. I threw a potion at him.

  -  Tutorial Notification Friendly fire is turned off in the dimensional space. You cannot harm your guide nor can attacking them provide you skill experience.

  The potion froze just before it hit and exploded in a small cloud of smoke appearing around his head. Bale coughed at the smoke. “While that didn’t hit me or injure me - that was still quite hurtful.” Bale said.

  “Oh, bite me,” I replied.