Old man Tullus rose to his feet with effort. The aide beside him instinctively moved forward to offer assistance, but the elder waved him off. He stood alone, slowly but resolutely, summoning strength from within as his walking stick remained abandoned on the floor.
"I understand the gravity of what I'm asking," he began, voice thick with emotion. His head remained bowed, spine curved not just with age, but with everything he had, the tranquillity of resignation submerged in hopeful gracing. "Not only is it dangerous, possibly fatal, it also means you, travellers from another world, may never return to the loved ones you left behind."
His words fell like stones into a still pond, the silence that followed more deafening than the declaration itself.
"I know what I'm asking," he repeated, almost to himself, voice quivering. "To sacrifice your lives for strangers, strangers you've never known... I understand that all too well."
Nathan watched him closely.
'Sympathy. A dangerous weapon,' Nathan mused. 'A powerful instrument reserved only for those who knew how to wield it.' And old man Tullus? He wielded it with expert precision.
"Please, heroes. Save my people. Save my village," Tullus pleaded, collapsing to his knees, tears rolling freely down his cheeks. "Please... do not let us perish."
There it was, sympathy, expertly applied.
The image was perfect. A bent old man on the ground, shoulders shaking, face wet with emotion. Who wouldn't be moved by such a sight? Even a heart forged from unyielding granite would fracture in the face of such raw desperation. In an instant, any onlooker would become the obedient pup, wagging its tail, ready to leap into the fray to rescue the day.
But Nathan?
He saw something else.
'How selfish,' he thought, staring at the crying elder. Beneath the man's broken exterior and trembling voice lay a cruel expectation. He wasn't asking for help, he was demanding it, cloaked beneath the veil of desperation and well-crafted sorrow.
Essentially, what Tullus was asking was simple: Die for us.
Why? Because prophecy said so? Because fate allegedly deemed it their duty? Nathan's stomach churned at the implication.
The villagers, they were all so very selfish. Desperately, unapologetically selfish.
He wanted to scorn them. To turn his back and walk away.
But he was only human. And being human came with all sorts of inconvenient flaws.
Even knowing full well that he wasn't obligated to do anything, the sight of a weeping man on his knees, begging with cracked lips and a hoarse voice... it gnawed at something inside him. An emotion buried too deep to ignore.
'Damn these human emotions,' he cursed internally, swallowing the turmoil that rose within.
"You didn't need to go this far, Old Man Tullus," Nathan said aloud, stepping forward. "We'll help."
"What?!" Rory barked, practically leaping to his feet. "Speak for yourself, fatass!"
"I am," Nathan replied calmly, not even glancing his way. "You can stay behind and warm the floor. Me? I'll do something."
"You want to die, kid?!"
Rory's fists clenched, veins bulging along his arms, ready to swing. Rage spilt off him in waves.
"Thank you! Thank you, brave hero!" Tullus stammered, overwhelmed. Tears and snot blurred his speech.
"Don't thank me just yet," Nathan cut him off, voice firm. "I'll give what I can. But my life? That's not part of the deal."
It wasn't a bluff.
Some had already abandoned the tutorial quest, refusing the risk, choosing to linger in the Origin Expanse tutorial location without growth, frozen in place.
While staying behind was an option, it wasn't one Nathan was willing to entertain. Completing the tutorial was the only way to gain passage between Gaia and the Origin Expanse. Giving up now meant sacrificing his identity back on Earth, on Gaia, and remaining trapped in this foreign world forever.
And the price? A stagnant, locked existence:
[Name]: Nathaniel Lockwood
[Age]: 15
[Race]: Human
[Rank]:Dormant
[Level]: –
[Stats]: Locked
[Available Stat Points]: –
[Talent]: Locked
No growth. No awakening. No future.
A cruel system, Nathan admitted. One that is motivated through fear. Without awakening, no matter how much effort one poured in, no progress could be made.
And yet... he wanted to awaken. More than anything, he craved to see his true stats unlocked, to feel himself begin to grow and evolve.
Why?
He didn't know. It was just a feeling, a deep, human instinct impossible to explain.
Nathan turned to face his fellow companions, now addressing them with calm resolve. "Before anything else," he said, "I need to know who's with me and who's not."
The truth was simple. They didn't have to help. If he completed the quest alone, they'd still gain the rewards. It was the nature of shared sessions.
So no, he didn't expect anything. Expectations only led to disappointment, after all.
Still, it couldn't hurt to ask.
"I'll help!" Anna declared without hesitation.
She was the first to step forward. Nathan wasn't surprised. Her spirit longed for more than just half-measures. That much he could presume from looking at her.
"Same here," Marvelous added with a tired chuckle. "I'm too old to sit back and preserve what little time I've got left."
She had a point. A valid one. Nathan might've joked about her age if the situation hadn't been so tense. But now wasn't the time.
"Anyone else...?"
Nathan's eyes settled on Subaru.
Nothing.
No reaction. No movement.
The so-called bold man who championed the weak chose now, of all times, to be silent. Nathan wasn't surprised. He hadn't expected much from him anyway.
"Thank you, heroes," Tullus said again, standing shakily. "We will prepare places for you to stay, and whatever resources you need, we'll do our utmost to provide."
Naturally. Nathan expected no less. Risking their lives for this village, came with a price. If Tullus and his people refused them the best treatment their meagre land could offer, then what was the point?
But Nathan's thoughts moved past gratitude and indignation.
If he was going to survive and succeed, he needed a plan.
The sympathy card had been well played, somehow managing to draw him into this mess.
Hence the mission had begun.
Now came the real challenge: staying alive.