William laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling of his cramped home.

  The shrill screams of his alarm clock continued to blare right next to his ear. He already put it to snooze three times just for a few scant moments of sleep and rest. Yet, he knew better. Work waited for him; dreary, deadend supermarket cashier work. William did not want to go out into the wet raining world and walk to work, he did not want to deal with the fat abusive manager who had an addiction to throwing his tiny amount of power around, nor did he want to deal with all the customers and their asinine requests and demands.

  A shiver went down his spine as he remembered the entire scene that happened the day prior.

  One short, middle aged lady ruined his entire day. Her overly tanned arms were swinging around and her blonde, short hair bobbing up and down matching a certain unnecessarily large pair–

  The strange lady had been trying to get a bag of frozen spicy chicken nuggets for free because it had creases on the bag. Nothing else.

  Holding up the line for twenty minutes.

  Worse yet, his manager, Steve, Stephan when he went into his hitting on the ladies mode, went on a ten minute tirade about customer service and how they were always right. What practices all the cashiers should adopt and how they were meant to take care of fair maidens such as the one before them. All of which came with much delight for the blonde lady. Railing on him the entire time.

  He turned left and stared at his home. Nothing but a bedroom connected to a kitchen and a single cramped bathroom. It was dark and dreary. The white paint on the walls was dirty and faded, almost turning beige. Nasty cheap wallpaper made the kitchen walls, but were already peeling off and stained fake wood tiles on the floor that did not match any other design.

  William groaned as he swiped at the alarm clock. Its loud, annoying shrill screams continued to blare right next to his ears. He smashed at the small table in the hopes of turning it off, missing a couple times until he could handle it no more.

  “Shut the hell up!”

  Exhaustion filled his limbs. William felt sore in areas that he didn't even know were capable of being sore. He swiped again to turn off the alarm only to miss it again. He hit it off the small table. It fell, only hanging on by a taut cord. Saved from smashing it and needing to go another day with takeout nastiness. It remained just out of reach of his grasping hands.

  William groaned as he pressed his face into the pillow. It felt like he only had two hours of sleep the entire night. Absolutely no R.E.M. in between either.

  He took one more minute before he got up slowly and turned to sit at the edge of the bed, rubbing his face before he finally picked up the alarm and turned the screaming sounds off. Nothing else worked. The regular beeping and vibrations of his phone were not loud enough and had no effect on him. So he bought an alarm that had some loud, shrill screaming to do the job.

  He sighed as he looked at the alarm clock in his hands. —

  “Oh shit! I'm going to be late! Where are my work clothes?”

  William froze as he remembered all of last night. From his older co-worker, Ahmed, waving and beeping his horn as they left the supermarket in the middle of the night, to him mentally replaying the blonde lady situation over and over again in his head and how he would have done things differently, to a semi truck that almost ran him over and him diving onto the floor bruising himself and rubbing skin off his knees. To cleaning the house and sink for the first time in a week and finally falling face first into bed with his uniform still on and filthy from cleaning.

  He only had the one set. William pulled the collar up to himself and took a deep sniff. The reek of sweat and grime filled his nostrils. He gagged.

  Urgency filled his limbs as he shot up off the bed and rushed to use the cramped bathroom, wash his face, brush his teeth, and finally give himself ten seconds of cheap Axe Spray to hide the horrific smells currently on him. He hoped it would be enough.

  Then he took a moment to look up and stare at his reflection on the small mirror before him. Dark stubble on his face, deep bags under his eyes. He gained weight and hadn't even noticed. Eating takeout and fast food for so long was not good for being healthy, especially if he wasn't exercising at all. Flabby arms and skinny fat. It was not a good combination to have.

  William winced as a headache made itself known. The same one that had been bothering him for weeks that came and went without rhyme or reason and returning with a vengeance. It had been about a week since their disappearance, almost as though they hid from all the doctors and specialists he had gone to. The same ones that found nothing wrong. Just giving him the same old advice; drink water, exercise more, eat better, and finally sleep.

  All of which he failed at immeasurably.

  He stepped out of the bathroom and went for his phone, exactly where he left it on the bed last night. He clicked the power button. It was only at 9% and the time was at .

  “Fuck! I'm already five minutes late. God, I hope Steve is coming in at ten today!”

  William ran out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him without checking if it was locked. He needed the job more than his concern that someone might break into his little area. Not that the flimsy doors were any protection even if fully locked. He ran as fast as he could down the hallway, taking a left until he finally reached the elevators. He started pressing the down button as fast as possible in hopes that it would speed up the process.

  He knew better than that. The elevators were never quick enough. Especially if it was on the first floor as the numbers above it said.

  It felt like an eternity passed before he finally gave up on the elevator. He couldn’t rely on it making it all the way to the seventh floor in time.

  William turned and ran back toward his apartment. He passed his door and kept going toward the exit door to the end of the hallway. The exit sign flickered suspiciously above it. He slammed his shoulder and arms into the press to open bar on the door coming to a dead stop. He shook his head. William could not hesitate here as he entered into the dark ill lit staircase.

  It was supposed to be the fire escape or if anything happened to the elevators. William doubted it would pass any inspections or were up to regulations. It seemed like a death trap to him. No windows, poor air circulation, the rails were all old, and the concrete steps seemed like the perfect area to trip and snap your neck on.

  No one took the stairs down anymore. William flew down the stairs two steps at a time. Channeling whatever athleticism he may have had previously before he gained this condition. A thought crossed his mind about what he could have been had he not been so injury prone. Maybe he would have been somewhere else, somewhere different, not so desperate anymore. Desperate for a dead end job that barely paid him enough to survive—

  William shouted as he missed a step. His eyes widened as the world slowed to a crawl. He felt himself float, dropping slowly toward the hard rails and the concrete that made the stairs. The sharp edges of the stairs were a death sentence to any one that fell. At best he would be snapping a couple limbs considering he would be tumbling down 6 stories of hard surface. Caving his head in was the most likely result of his imminent tumble.

  He, instinctively, closed his eyes and raised his hands to brace himself against the biggest mistake of his life.

  Unbeknownst to him, a portal opened right below where he was going to land. Sucking him in and throwing him into the void.

  Welcome to the Tutorial User 1oPg72j9 -

  Become Stronger. Save Humanity…

  Error… System Malfunction…

  Error… System…

  Error…

  William felt the world shift around him. A void of weightlessness and floating he had never experienced before, but as soon as he got used to it, he was spat out with much less force and momentum than he had originally thought. He kept his eyes closed the entire time as he slammed into a rough wall, bouncing on the ground once. He groaned in pain as the wind was knocked out of him. Yet, he knew that, somehow, he survived his tumble down the stairwell in what could only be considered a miracle.

  One he was worried was more than he could chew on.

  He took a few moments to recollect his breath, struggling the entire time. Moments of no clarity or memory of what happened between missing his step on the stairs to slamming into the wall now kept his head spinning. It took some time, but it all began to fade away as everything came back to him. The exhaustion and weariness in his limbs, the ability to breathe again, and finally the clarity to remember he had been rushing to work just before something happened.

  William kept his eyes closed as new sensations arrived one at a time. First came the feeling of dampness around him as his fingers brushed past cold water. The sounds of dripping echoed in the area. Then came the lack of terrible pain he was expecting; all his limbs felt intact, his neck had a crink but otherwise wasn’t twisted in the wrong direction, and his bones all felt relatively fine.

  Yet, above everything he felt and sensed, including his missing sense of smell currently, were the floating words in his vision even with his eyes closed.

  Opening them did not make the words disappear.

  Welcome to the Tutorial User 1oPg72j9 -

  Become Stronger. Save Humanity…

  Error… System Malfunction…

  Error… System…

  Error…

  William groaned as he pushed himself up into a seated position, hands pressed into a small puddle that surrounded him of clean, cold water. He surveyed the area first before focusing on the words he was being shown. He had no clue where he could have possibly been at.

  “I'm definitely not in the hospital or still at the stairwell.”

  He found himself inside a prison cell that looked like it had been made in the 9th century with rough hewn blocks of stone, rusted bars and no gate to keep him in, dim lighting that came from further into the halls outside of his cell that flickered like a torch flame in a slight wind. A wind that he did not feel because there was no window in the area. It was then that his delayed sense of smell came back to him. He cringed. The place smelled of mildew and wetness.

  William figured there were no immediate dangers around him, allowing himself a moment to stare at the words still floating in his vision.

  “Tutorial? Where the hell am I? This has to be some sort of lucid dream…?” he said, but he remembered how the water felt in his hands. Butterflies made themselves present in his stomach, but tested it out anyway. “Or maybe I am in a hospital right now with a thousand tubes sticking out of me. Deep in a coma.”

  He stood up and felt rough clothing on his skin. William hadn’t even noticed that he was no longer wearing his work uniform, instead the only thing on him were rags that looked and definitely felt like potato sacks. Short ones too. The long sleeved shirt only came to his forearms and his pants reached down to his calves.

  Almost as if it was meant for someone much shorter than he was.

  William shook his head.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Lucid dreams were not meant to have a semblance of normalcy and structure. They were supposed to be chaotic and easily changed based on his desires and if he could imagine something hard enough. William closed his eyes and tried to jump a hundred feet high or fly among the clouds… only to fall back to the ground after getting up his max vertical of two inches. Nothing strange happened.

  He then tried to turn the ground into cotton candy, but again, it did not follow his demands.

  William knelt down and touched the water again. It was definitely cold and wet. The potato sack, the sad excuse for clothing, rubbed harshly against his skin and nipples.

  “Definitely not a dream.” he said to himself as he pinched his cheek just to make sure. He felt the pain.

  This meant the notification was real too. That did not bode well.

  Save humanity. From what? Why him? He was sure there were thousands, if not millions of people that were better candidates. People in better health and condition, soldiers, special OPS, any other profession at all. Even an MMA fighter would have been a tier above him. What about the monks? Kung Fu practitioners? He could think of at least a hundred different jobs and skills that others had, off the top of his head, that were more applicable for whatever this was. Saving humanity was not something to be put on the shoulders of a supermarket cashier.

  One that clearly lost all of his semblance of athleticism after many years of injuries.

  “Yet, here I am,” he laughed to himself.

  William couldn’t help but feel some sort of morbid relief, even though he had been transported somewhere against all laws of logic and probably into serious danger considering the system message looked like an rpg game notification. This was an opportunity. Something he had never thought he would receive. Even if he was paranoid and skeptical of the entire thing.

  It meant a chance at change and becoming something he failed to achieve back on earth.

  Maybe whoever chose the system made a serious mistake choosing him, but he would do his best anyway. All in the hopes of never returning to his job again.

  William looked around the room for a better measure of what was around him. He began to notice things he had missed. Deep, weblike, cracks on the walls showing foundational issues. No spiderwebs anywhere. No dust on the floors. Then he noticed a small pile hidden in the shadows of one of the corners. He approached them, noticing a rusty sword and a broken shield. He picked them up only to expose a small glowing crystal shard.

  He put the broken shield to the side as he picked up the shard, it gave off a cool feeling that entered into his palm. It was not an uncomfortable experience, he noticed.

  The system dinged as another notification replaced the first one.

  System Self Prompt Analysis

  [Skill Shard] - Pathetic Strength Boost (F-)

  Tips and Hints -

  Use [Skill Shard]s that you find, during the tutorial, to unlock your class.

  You can use multiple of the same kind, but remember, it may not be the wisest decision.

  William turned the [Skill Shard] around back and forth. Hoping it would reveal more truths. The system did not activate again to give him any new tips and hints he could use to understand what he had been given. That felt like the most important part of having a tutorial. Though he assumed the system malfunctioning was causing delays at best.

  He could only hope it did not get worse than that.

  First Quest!

  Use [Analyze] on 1 item.

  Reward -

  Access to ‘Sector’s Grand Bazaar / Shop’!

  2 lesser [Rune Shard]s (5)!

  William did exactly that. He picked up the sword and stared at it as hard as he could. That did not prompt the system to [Analyze]. He then attempted to think the word out. That got a response. He wasn’t sure what the shop was or what it contained, but he was confident it was something vital if he hoped to keep up with others and get stronger. Even if he had no clue what the currency was. He had played enough games to know that it would include selling back to the system or other players in auctions if it had that function.

  Or maybe it just carried essential items that he could buy. Healing potions were the main thing he was thinking about rather than anything else currently.

  This was real life and not a game. Wounds could get infected, cuts in the right areas were deadly if they caught the wrong blood vessel, and disease. Healing potions were game changers, or better yet, a healing skill that he could use infinitely with energy being a renewable resource that kept topping itself up.

  The system dinged as soon as it locked onto the sword.

  [Analysis] beginning…

  Static energy interrupted the process and his headache returned with a vengeance. It bloomed back stronger than ever before as soon as the system notification appeared. It was the same exact tortuous migraine he had been fighting for the past few weeks. This time there was no question what caused it.

  William fell to his knees and held his head.

  His teeth chattered and a groan left his mouth as pain lanced through his mind.

  Please be patient…

  The world spun as vertigo hit him hard. William fell forward and face first into the puddle of water. He could hear a distant, dull scream that he knew came from him. Yet, it sounded muffled.

  William frantically swiped at the blurry words that floated in front of him in an attempt to erase it.

  System Malfunction…

  eErrorr…

  First Quest Failed.

  Access to ‘Sector’s Grand Bazaar / Shop’ denied.

  He took long haggard breaths as the pain slowly faded away as the notification disappeared from his vision. The world kept spinning for a little bit longer as the proverbial knives sunk into his brain were slowly being pulled out one by one. Much to his relief. It took a few minutes longer of trembling and a lack of control of his body before the pain vanished. It left him laying on his back in the puddle of water, watching as his chest rose up and down with every breath.

  “Yeah, let's not do that again.”

  William took another moment to recollect himself before he stood back up. He rubbed his head and considered whether he should attempt to pull out his status page. There was no way he wanted to go through that hell again. It felt like his soul was being torn apart.

  He figured that if this was a game world by design, then he would only be shooting himself in the foot to not get access to his status page. Especially if the hint about classes being directly correlated with the [Skill Shards] used was accurate. William would take a large guess and say that the slots were on there.

  “Status,” he said as he braced himself for more suffering.

  Status User 1oPg72j9 (Unnamed) -

  Class - Locked

  Level - Locked

  Runes Held - 3

  Strength - 6

  Dexterity - 4

  Endurance - 7

  Vitality - 8

  Intelligence - 6

  Wisdom - 7

  Arcane - 0

  Skill Shard Slots 0/4 -

  ?

  ?

  ?

  ?

  Tips and Hints -

  Pinnacle of human stats range between 10 - 12 per attribute. Abysmal attributes for a species.

  The first thing William did was input his name into his status page. Seeing ‘User 1oPg72j9’ felt oddly disconcerting and wouldn’t settle right for some odd reason. That feeling did not go away until he saw William there. He began to study the rest of his status afterwards. He expected his [Class] to be locked, but came to discover that he could level said classes up. Which was a good sign. He doubted he would be capable of finding any good [Skill Shard]s to give himself a unique, ultra powerful one while in the tutorial.

  A broken tutorial at that.

  William was sure that his denied access to the Shop was far more detrimental than he first thought.

  Then he tried to get the system to self prompt an [Analysis] for the rest of the status page. It did not work. He clearly recalled getting a notification identifying the [Skill Shard] when he had done nothing to activate it. No headache. No pain and suffering.

  “Wonder what [Runes] are for.” he said to himself, then moved on to his stats.

  Everything was below ten with some even below five. It was accurate considering he had multiple knee surgeries and had been sapped of all of his athleticism early in his life. It just didn’t feel good to see his weaknesses so objectively.

  Finally, he reached the empty [Skill Shard] slots.

  The system prompted him with another quest and reward.

  Quest -

  Place your first [Skill Shard]!

  Reward -

  Completion of Tutorial!

  Rookie Gift Package!

  Inventory Unlock!

  William took a long, deep breath as he stared at the quest. The last one he had gotten nearly killed him from the agonizing pain in his head. He did not want to go through the same thing again, but what choice did he really have? If he never unlocked his [Class] then he’d always be the same old William. And worse, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of this, albeit strange, once in a lifetime opportunity. William knew, without a doubt, that he would regret this for the rest of his miserable life as a supermarket cashier.

  The system prompted him again with the quest, almost insisting he hurry up and finish it.

  “Alright. In three. You got this, William! You can do it!” he said in hopes to hype himself up.

  William closed his eyes and put the [Skill Shard] into the first open slot. He closed his eyes. Anything that did not involve horrific torment was a win for him, even if it was a [Pathetic Strength Boost] shard. He doubted anything great would come from it, barely more than the minimum.

  He heard it click and release air like some high-tech spaceship. It whined for a second.

  William braced himself to the expected pain.

  Only for nothing to happen.

  The system dinged. He slowly cracked one eye open and looked at the status page. William let out a breath as he saw the skill locked into place and the followup message from the system available. It included a notification to accept his rewards and unlock his [Inventory] by saying the word out loud.

  Skill Shard Slots 1/4 -

  ?

  Quest Complete!

  Rewards in Inventory!

  Congratulations Tutorial Finished!

  Err.ror…

  System Malfunction…

  Tutorial Portal Malfunction…

  Re-Entry to Planet Z099iu7eT71 currently unavailable…

  William stared at the system as it had a stroke. Tutorial finished, just like that? Wasn’t he supposed to go through hurdles and struggles that pushed the limits of what was humanly possible. Slowly level up until he was strong enough to save humanity as it had stated? Or was this another malfunction. He couldn’t figure out what was part of the system and wasn’t at this point.

  He shook his head. “No point stressing it. I’m stuck here anyway, might as well take advantage of it and figure a way back eventually–”

  Ultimate Quest!

  Kill the Final Boss!

  Escape the Ruined City of Balfiemeth!

  Re-Enter Planet Z099iu7eT71!

  Reward -

  33 Levels

  1 [Skill Shard (S+)]

  7 mythical [Rune Shard]s (12,500)!

  William wasn’t sure whether he should feel good or bad about a clear second option being available to him now. More so when he saw the type of rewards he would receive. That all seemed like endgame level loot. Mythical and seven of them too? A [Skill Shard (S+)]? He had no clue what S+ entailed, but it had to be something special. Game mechanics always had S+ as one of the final and highest ranks attainable. And they were casually giving him one for finishing an Ultimate Quest.

  He began stretching and flexing his muscles trying to spot a difference in his overall physical body from applying the (F-) [Skill Shard]. He found nothing other than a feeling of freshness and lack of his usual exhaustion. As though he had taken a week vacation where he slept in and recovered from the daily tolls of life. No tight neck muscles and stretched further than he expected.

  There had not been expectations for much, but this was abysmal.

  William took a step forward and nearly crashed face first into the walls in an uncoordinated mess. He’d been tumbling a lot lately, he noticed.

  He held himself on the wall as he readjusted himself. His gait had changed completely. There had always been a slight limp in his step, but it was just missing entirely. It was strange to wake completely normal. A tiny boost that was far larger than predicted. Something so internal, he had not noticed it until he committed to his first active motion. Not a boost perse’ like the [Skill Shard] had on itself, but rather it shored up his greatest weaknesses and made him average again.

  Three acl/mcl tears did a lot of damage. More so when only a year and a half split the different surgeries.

  William laughed as he slowly regained his balance by walking around the cell. He jumped, did jumping jacks, lunged forward, and jogged quickly. He felt no pain, knees not swollen from inflammation anymore, and he heard no popping like bubble wrap every time he bent over. He felt more athletic and faster than he could remember. Though that was compared to his lowest point.

  It was amazing to finally be an average, healthy adult rather than one that was always tired, hurting, and was plagued with migraines. Though the migraines did not disappear. Just hidden for now.

  His eyes drifted to the Ultimate Quest. William stared at the (S+) [Skill Shard] like it was made of gold. Which it might be worth more than if he had access to the Shop, not that he would sell it. No, it would be the single most powerful thing he would own. William had to figure out a way to get it without locking himself to a single weak class. He was sure upgrades and mutated classes were a thing once you broke their level cap, right? That seemed like a common theme in novels like this.

  Rewards in Inventory!

  Please open your inventory to gain access to rewards!

  Rewards in Inventory!

  Please open your inventory to gain access to rewards!

  Rewards–

  William winced as the system bombarded him with a dozen notifications to open his inventory. “Inventory.” he said to alleviate the insistence shown by his system.

  Inventory Unlocked!

  System Malfunctions Detected…

  Inventory Procedural Process beginning…

  Inventory Capacity…

  27% Unlocked - 73% Shattered and Ruined.

  He blinked as the notifications kept going. Rebooting the same exact process only to resolve in the same manner. He only had access to 27% of his [Inventory]. Not that he really cared, the function itself was something miraculous, even if it was limited. He didn’t need a massive warehouse that could hold a full sized Commercial Tanker. Just enough to hold all his most valuable items and eventually food and water when he did find some.

  Inventory Contents -

  Rookie Gift Package!

  William selected the [Rookie Gift Package] and opened it up. It opened with much fanfare and party poppers that faded into nothingness as they touched the floor. It gave him a list of items he gained; [Pathetic Endurance Boost], [Pathetic Dexterity Boost],[Pathetic Hardiness Boost], five days worth of meat pie, five days worth of water, and another set of the potato sack clothing.

  That solved his immediate need considering he was likely in a dungeon without access to food or water. William doubted that this was a safe area to be in.

  Quest -

  Unlock your [Class]!

  Reward -

   1 Earthly Realm Rune Shard [1] (75)!