Beast Taming: My Beasts Grind, Die, and Respawn

Chapter 2: Tutorial Island Has Consequences

Chapter 2: Tutorial Island Has Consequences

Tap.

[Slime takes 1 damage!]

The slime bounced indignantly and flung itself at the Baby Lizard’s face.

Jin swiped left.

The lizard dodged nimbly, kicking its stubby legs in the air, and came around to attack from the slime’s flank.

Jin hadn’t programmed it to do that. The dodge had inertia. The camera had followed.

Oh, thought Jin. Physics engine. Real physics.

He tapped again. The lizard headbutted. The slime exploded in a shower of pixel rain.

[Slime defeated!] [EXP +3] [Coin +1]

Jin narrowed his eyes at the screen with the intensity of an heir studying a will.

One slime down. He immediately ceased caring about the slime and began caring about the mechanics.

He slowly circled with his thumbs, and the camera smoothly orbited the Baby Lizard without input delay.

He pinched the screen. It zoomed.

He pinched and dragged. The view tilted up to the cave roof, covered in glowing blue moss and hanging mushrooms.

Free camera. Smooth controls. No ads, no energy meter, no "watch this video to continue."

For three weeks, Terra-Nova had been the worst game he’d ever been forced to play – permadeath, no respawning, tutorial killing your father’s leg and not refunding.

Now he was at home.

He flicked the lizard at the cluster of mushrooms. A menu appeared at the bottom of the screen.

[Gather?]

Jin tapped it. The Baby Lizard bit a mushroom stem.

[Item Acquired: Beginner Herb x1]

"Gathering nodes," Jin murmured. "I expected that."

The way he swept the cave was familiar – gathering nodes was like clearing a thousand starting zones. Bite a mushroom, kill a slime, headbutt a slime, bite another mushroom.

[Beginner Herb x3] [Coin +4]

Two more slimes went to vapor. Now the Baby Lizard moved more easily – or maybe Jin was getting the hang of things. He had already figured out how to dodge right after the slime hopped, so the lizard could counterattack instead of just dodging.

Jin stopped paying attention to the tutorial instructions long ago.

This is the part most people skip, thought Jin, threading his avatar between two slimes to headbutt them in order. Learn the mechanics before mechanics learn you.

[Slime defeated!] [Slime defeated!]

Four kills. Five kills. The Baby Lizard gained rhythm – a little obsidian-eyed monster cleaning the easiest dungeon he’s ever seen.

The old feeling stirred in Jin’s chest. The feeling that had made him get run over.

I’m good at this.

The bigger slime in the rear of the cave didn’t surprise Jin, the way it would a wiser man.

It was lying in the moss pool, nearly twice the size of regular slimes and with a duller color. There was a faint orange ring pulsating around it.

There were no level names above the creature. Only a larger size.

All of the instincts Jin had accumulated during a thousand games screamed: elite mob, pull carefully, analyze its moveset, maybe come back later.

All of the instincts he had accumulated in the last five minutes screamed: I have won five battles in a row.

Jin charged at the Big Slime.

The Baby Lizard jumped at it and headbutted.

[Big Slime takes 1 damage!] [Big Slime HP: 39/40]

"... Ah," Jin said.

The Big Slime turned to face him. It didn’t hop, it launched itself forward with incredible speed and threw the Baby Lizard against the wall of the cave.

[Baby Lizard takes 8 damage!] [HP: 4/12]

Jin’s thumbs started tapping quickly. He swiped to dodge. Too slow – the slime recovered faster than the little slimes and was launching itself again.

He tried rolling, got hit once more and rolled again.

[HP: 2/12]

Okay. Okay. Kite it. Whittle it down. Jin dashed inside, tapped, dashed outside–

The slime split.

It just split mid-battle into two smaller-but-still-enormous slimes, and two orange rings closed in on a lizard with two hit points left.

"That’s not fair," Jin addressed the screen with professional respect.

Jin attempted threading the gap.

He failed.

Splat.

The screen turned red.

[Avatar Destroyed]

[Respawning...] [Estimated Recovery Time: 01:58:43] [01:58:42] [01:58:41]

Jin stared at the counting numbers.

He waited for panic. It didn’t come. In its stead, some other emotion, cold, clear and slightly pleasant.

There are consequences.

For three weeks of fighting his way into this avatar’s life – laughter at the ceremony, the dead boy’s memories, the leg of his father – everything felt like losing, nothing felt like playing the game with a set of rules.

But this. Two-hour respawn time. A boss punishing overconfidence at turn one. A penalty for sloppiness.

This Jin understood. This he could beat. All he needed to do was stop being stupid.

He glanced sideways at the dark room.

Gray egg sat in its beaten incubator, unaltered. No tremor. No crack.

Thus, this part was really true – the avatar could respawn a hundred times and the real creature wouldn’t even twitch. The lizard sleeping in reality didn’t know its digital ghost had just been split in half by a slime.

Good, thought Jin. Free resurrections. As many as I need.

[01:57:09]

Two hours to kill. He had a System to take apart.

He started opening menus.

A row of icons was lining the bottom of the screen. Jin ignored them until now. Now he tapped each one carefully, studying.

[Inventory]

Beginner Herb x3 Coin x9

Pretty much empty. That was fine. Expected.

[Beast Status]

Little Lizard

Quality: Iron ··· [LOCKED] ··· (???)

Level: 1 HP: 12 ATK: 3 DEF: 5

Bloodline: [DATA SEALED]

He studied the line with Data Seal for a minute. The scan back in the living room had screamed Sub-Dragon Mutant, S potential. But here the status screen just put a black stripe over it, like the game didn’t want to spoil the ending.

Pressing the next tab made a soft tone of lock.

[Encyclopedia — LOCKED]

[Requirement: Catalogue your first 10 species.]

And the next one as well.

[Auto-Battle — LOCKED]

[Avatar level too low.]

Jin continued to press them. Each one chimed and closed.

[Evolution — LOCKED]

[Rifts — LOCKED]

[Boss — LOCKED]

[Shop — ??? ]

That last one didn’t even say locked. It just stood gray with three question marks, like the System was undecided about its existence.

Jin’s thumb hovered over it.

He saw lots of mobile games with shops. He knew what shops did. They took your money.

But this game had no ads, no energy bar, no paywall urging to spend cash, and even recognized a fifty-thousand-credits rock as sealed dragon.

He absolutely didn’t know what the shop could sell. And not knowing was pulling at him more strongly than any of the locked doors.

The Quest Log at least, opened.

[Active Quest: First Steps]

[Clear The Mossy Hollow.]

[Reward: ??? ]

Only one quest, only one reward, hidden. Eight menus, each of them humming with unlocked features, were behind.

Jin sat in the dark and understood the scope of the thing for the first time. Not the lizard. Not the dungeon. Engine underlying it, huge and eternal, doling out its secrets one by one.

This, thought Jin, will be the best grinding session of my life.

[01:42:55]