Rūkasu stepped out of the smokey tent and into the daylight. After his eyes adjusted to the light he noticed they had been camped out on the oceanside beach. Nobody ever came to this beach due to the curse of a so-called “water spirit”. “Alright young man, stand ready.”

  Rūkasu braced for something dramatic to happen. A few seconds had passed with nothing happening. Impatience built in Rūkasu as he started to fidget with his fingers. “Master, what are we waiting for?” With a grin, all the old man did was point up. “Showtime!”

  With an excessive amount of fanfare, Rūkasu’s vision lit up with colors and confetti. System Message: Congratulations! Combatant Rūkasu Kazesuji can now enter their tutorial mission. Enter now? Y/N. “Tu-tor-ial? Master, what is a tutorial?” the young man asked, sounding out the unfamiliar word. “Click the “Y” and you will find out. You might even make a new friend.”

  Without reason to doubt his master, Rūkasu clicked on the “Y”. Welcome to the tutorial! All motor functions cease in 5…4…3…2… “Wait what?” were the last words Rūkasu could utter before his vision went black, his body stiffened like a board and fell on his back in the sand.

  Laughing like a kid pulling a prank, Amon grabbed Rūkasu’s feet. “Gets them everytime!”

  Rūkasu’s vision was black. He felt as if he was floating in nothingness. “Hello? Master? Anybody? Help me! Please!” System command recognized. Command “Help” activated. Introducing your very own Kijimuna! This creature can always come to your aid with knowledge and can answer most questions! Note- is not able to help in combat.

  Finished with reading the system message, a small light flashed and Rūkasu was in a gray room with a table and two chairs. From behind the chairs a small girl with an oversized head, long brown hair and sunken eyes appeared.

  She made eye contact and rushed Rūkasu jumping up and grabbing his face, staring into his eyes. “Gah! Can you please not?” he exclaimed.

  She pulled back and tilted her head. “Please not? What this mean?” “It means you are way too deep into my personal space and I am not a fan.” She tilted her head to the other side. “ What this mean? Personal space?”

  Her speech is strange. It is almost like she is a toddler. “Let’s not worry about that for now.” Rūkasu bent down to get eye level with the girl.

  “We got off on the wrong foot. Let us start again. My name is Rūkasu. What is your name?” The girl looked puzzled, tilting her head side to side. “No name. Given not you yet has not. Please?”

  She wants me to give her a name? I am terrible at giving names. “I am not so sure you want me to give you a name. I had a pet when I was a kid and the best I could come up with at the time was not good.” “Please? Function cannot I given until name a.” Her speech was getting more jumbled by the minute and it was freaky.

  “Ok fine. Uhh let’s see. Kijimuna. Moona? No, that seems wrong. How about Kiji?”

  Name registered. Kiji will now answer whenever you call out her name! “Ugh finally! I feared you wouldn’t name me. I hate having to talk like that. It is SO degrading to my kind.”

  Rūkasu turned and looked down at the now named Kiji who looked completely different from a few minutes ago. She had donned a cute kimono with a floral pattern and had fixed her hair into a stylish bun. “Sorry I am still new to all of this.” Rūkasu looked embarrassed. “No worries Rū! I am ready to get down to business though.”

  Rū?I have never had a nickname before. Rūkasu smiled at the thought.

  “Alright well what is first then Kiji? Combat training? Magick control?” A smiling Kiji waved her hand and a panel on a stand appeared in the room.

  “First thing you should know is that I can control everything in this tutorial room. We can stay up to three months at a time to learn new skills and get down to the basics. There is a cooldown afterwards of one week but we should not need this room for much after we get through your tutorial. Our first order of business is finding your Elemental Link.”

  He cut her off, “Elemental Link? What is that?” Master Amon never mentioned anything about elements to Rūkasu so he was more than curious about what the little girl had to say.

  “It is super simple Rū. Just place your hand on the panel and it will tell us what elemental link you have for your magic. There are six known elements in my database. Lightning, fire, wind, earth, space and time, and finally water.”

  Space and time sound really cool to me. I have always enjoyed looking at the stars so maybe if I am lucky- His train of thought was cut off as Kiji went on explaining.

  “According to the database not many people actually get space and time together as they are separate but still tied together.”. Well there goes that idea. “Please place your hand on the panel so we can determine what your elemental link is.” Kiji smiled as Rūkasu stepped to the panel and placed his hand on it.

  Scanning. Scanning. Scanning. Elemental link detected. Rūkasu shut his eyes tight in anticipation. New Elemental Link unlocked! Type: Null. Kiji and Rūkasu both looked at the panel at the same time “EXCUSE ME?! This terminal must be broken! Hang on and try again!” She waved her hand and the panel disappeared and reappeared. Rūkasu placed his hand on the panel again. Elemental Link established. Type: Null.

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  “Checking the database it shows that there has indeed been Null type users in the C.O.S. but I never thought I would end up with one! This is astounding.” Looking puzzled, Rūkasu looked down at Kiji.

  “So what does this mean? Do I not have an elemental link? Where does that put me?”

  Kiji gave a little grin. “It is a great thing! It means you aren’t linked to ANY of the known elemental links but you can link with all of the elements with some training. Is there one you had in mind? Statistically, Water and wind have shown to be the easiest to learn but are on the weaker side.”

  Pondering on the elemental link a bit more. Rūkasu decided that wind sounded pretty interesting. If I get good enough maybe I can fly or suck the air from my enemies!

  “Well alright! Wind it is then Rū. I still can’t believe I got a Null type!” Her ghost white skin was visibly blushing and excited. “Ok well now that we have that out of the way would you like to do combat training or would you like to learn about Magick Manipulation?” She waved both hands. On the left the table was filled with a variety of weapons. On the right, a new table appeared with a chair.

  “I really want to do combat but learning about Magick stuff would not be so bad. Let’s do that first.” Rūkasu sat down and as he did kiji appeared in front of him wearing a scholar's hat.

  “Class is in session students!” Kiji clearly had a flair for theatrics. She went on for about four hours straight explaining how to control his mana along with his stamina to use them most effectively. “You can also freeform your magic to make your own skills. They won’t show up in your skill tree unless you are proficient enough so if you do that make sure you use the skill you created a lot! This concludes my presentation on Magick Manipulation! Are you ready for some magick training Rū?”

  Rūkasu stood up and stretched. “Man that felt like forever Kiji. Let's do this. I want to try some of this freeform magick.”

  Remembering a story of a spiky haired warrior dressed in orange, Rūkasu took a stance squatting a bit and cupped his hands together at the wrist. He started to build magick into a ball between his palms. “Kaaaaaa… Meeeeee…” the magick started swirling and growing in his hands. “ Haaaaa…. Meeeee….” The magick was swirling even more slipping between his fingers. This is it! Rūkasu pushed his hands forward “HA-” the magick erupted in his face and caused a blowback sending Rūkasu flying across the room.

  System message. Cannot execute attempted freeform magick due to Copyright. How did I even know what that move was? What the hell is copyright?

  “Maybe I will skip the freeform stuff for now.” Walking over to the other table he looked at all the weapons on the table.

  Skill activate- Distinguish: 1H Training sword, 2H Training sword, 2H Training Hammer, Training Spear, Training Katana, Training Daggers, Training Meteor Hammer, Training Short blades.- These weapons are all starter weapons with low damage and durability. No distinguishable qualities.

  “There are a lot of weapons to choose from Kiji. I am not even sure where to start.” “Just grab one and equip it. We will find out what you like after a bit of practice.” Grabbing the 1Handed sword he equipped the sword and held onto the handle.

  The sword was a plain double edged short sword with no adornment and a simple guard. Admiring the sword Rūkasu noticed pieces were starting to crumble on the sword. “What is going on with this thing?” Rūkasu placed the sword back on the table. As soon as the blade touched the table it disintegrated into a pile of ash leaving only the hilt behind. “Whoa. Did I do that? Is this because of the Null type elemental link Kiji?”

  Kiji looked over Rūkasu and started scanning him. “No, I don't think so. If I had to guess, it is one of those broken skills of yours. The ERROR Armaments skill.”

  Rūkasu had forgotten he already had a few skills so he had to go back and read it. “ERROR Armaments-(newcomer skill of the ERROR combat tree)-Grants the new Combatant Rūkasu Kazesuji the basic skill to control the -ERROR- “:>?<{P)+_(@#% @$#3n 3y3 manifest weapons and finishers. Unlocked through unknown means.” So does that mean I cannot use normal weapons then? Rūkasu looked puzzled but decided to try something. Grabbing the handle of the sword he channeled a bit of his magick and stamina into the handle.

  “Skill activate! Ashen Armaments- Manifest 1H Short Sword!” The ashes of the disintegrated blade swirled up and around the handle and slowly reformed the blade. Kiji looked shocked.

  “I am surprised you picked up on that so fast!” “Honestly it felt almost natural to do Kiji. Lets see here. Does distinguish say anything different now?”

  Distinguish- Ashen 1H Short Sword: A sword that has been reforged in your ashes. All weapon stats are increased by +2. This was good. In theory Rūkasu could pick up any weapon and reforge it from the ashes and make the weapon stronger.

  Ba-Da-Dum! Level up: You have 10 free points with each level up! Allocate now?

  Looking at his stats, Rūkasu could not decide where to put them so he split them between strength and agility. Going back over his stats they read:

  Name- Rūkasu Kazesuji

  Level-0-1

  Class- Newcomer

  Heart Points (HP)- 100/100- 110/110

  Magick Points (MP)- 100/100 to 110/110

  Stamina Points (SP)- 100/100 to 110/110

  Strength(STR)-10 to 15

  Agility(AGI)- 10 to 15

  Hidden Traits (HT)- 37

  Battle power(BP)- 57 to 67

  “Just like that my Battle power rose by ten. Kiji, Is it always a flat 10 points each level?”

  “Scanning. Scanning. No it is not. Eventually you can get more but it mostly depends on your feats. Alright, let's get on with the combat portion shall we? I have set the AI up for the lowest difficulty monster in the world.”

  In the middle of the room a small orange goblin appeared holding a rusty sword. Rūkasu cracked his neck. “Alright! Time to crush this little guy.”

  His sword rested on his shoulder as he strolled up to the goblin he couldn’t help but to catch himself thinking This will be easy as can be. Oh how wrong he was.