Carla shifted her satchel higher up on her shoulder. Her expression softened as she listened, but as he finished, her brow creased with worry.
"You think it's really that bad Olek?" she asked quietly. "Why would the System want us at each others throats?"
Olek gave a sharp, humorless laugh, "Wants? No, Carla, it knows." He let out an exasperated sigh, "The only thing I have to go off is that it's trying to prepare us. The Envoy in the black space told me this world is changing from the ground up, even social hierarchies are changing with the tides of power."
"My best guess, is that it's preparing us for the changes to come. But what I do know, is that put a thousand people in a frying pan with at best two days of food and water. You don't really get cooperation." He swept his staff toward the mob, "I give it... until our satchels run dry before someone slits a throat over a mouthful of water."
Olek looked at her for a moment, she shifts on the spot, he can tell she doesn't really believe him.
He clicked his tongue before he spoke, his voice low and flat. "Look - Carla, I'm not saying I know better. However, the cruel trick here isn't the relentless heat or the desert snakes. It's the people who you thought would help, who end up stabbing you in the back instead. Together, humanity can weather storms and endure hardships, it's rarely a rough sea that breaks a sailor. It's when you get used to someone being on your side, and then one day, poof, they're not. That's the type of shit that rewires you from the ground up. Makes you eye everyone from risk and not kindness."
He shrugged, shaking his head, "I don't think this Tutorial is about the beasts. I think it's trying to raise us to fit into the new universe, sort us into categories: who hustles, who hoards, who leads, who follows blindly. It's easier to build a new society from people who earned their positions, rather than those born into it. If we survive this, we go back changed - and the people you once knew? They'll have changed too, and that's the scary part."
Carla looked up at him, hugging her arms. "So... we stick together then, yeah? No heroics, no splitting off." She asks more out of fear of being alone than pragmatism.
"Aye," Olek sighed, his sarcasm nowhere to be seen. "We stick together. Keep our heads low and pace ourselves, and look for an opportunity to thrive."
Her eyes flickered to the scattered groups emerging in the sands. People were bickering over rations, comparing portions, and drinking water with little preservation.
She shook her head at them, "So, what do we do now?"
Olek held his chin in though for a moment. "Well, sooner or later something has to happen, a leader or group emerges. But until that happens, we need to know what we have."
"I chose magician as my class since my highest attribute was intelligence," Carla snickers, earning a sharp look and a knowing smirk from Olek, "My skills are quite basic and I'm not sure how to really use them. I have a pretty good affinity with the space element."
Carla looks at him with wide eyes, "Dude, space element? That sounds so awesome."
"Hehe, it is pretty awesome." Olek grins, before wiping it off his face, "But... I don't know anything about it, I think we have a lot of experimenting and training to do before I understand how to properly use it."
"I do, however, understand how to manipulate mana instinctively, partly thanks to my skill and other part to this staff which helps me a great deal. I have a few other skills, I can sense mana in a 15 meter radius, fire a bolt of raw mana, and here's the kicker... I can store items in my personal spatial storage as an inherent ability with my element."
"The storage thing could be incredibly useful. I can hide whatever we get our hands on. Food, coins, even equipment as long as its not too large. We can start building a warehouse straight away." He smiled.
Carla snorted, "What, your first idea is to open a business in a hell-desert?"
He smirked, "Laugh now, but right now even the most mundane items are a luxury. Trade is going to be indisputable, and we have one hell of an advantage. If the tutorial wants to give us a crash course in the new world's economy. You bet I'm going for the top score."
Olek looked Carla up and down, he noticed before she had a bow, quiver, and dagger attached to her thigh. He was guessing she chose the ranger class.
Carla shook her head, "I suppose your right. As you can probably," She gestured to her weapons, "I chose ranger, I wanted something that wasn't up close, but still physical, my highest stat was dexterity, probably because of all the gymnastics I do, and that was followed closely by perception."
"My skills are quite simple, I have basic dagger technique, basic archery, a skill called eagle eye that let's me pinpoint weak spots and see clearer. My aptitude test was B-rank, if we're going off anime knowledge, that's pretty good."
He nodded, "Yeah that's good, if we look at the E in our race we can gather that there's a range from at least E to A. Beyond that, like you said anime logic, most likely S. We have no real way of telling how high the power goes in this universe yet."
Olek doubted it would be anything within our human reason. I mean, the fact he could use mana was already out of the ordinary and scope of human knowledge of strength.
The conversation drifted off, replace by the buzz of heat and distant arguments. Around them, the crowd was already splitting off into different ideas for how they should move. Some were yelling about heading straight to the beacon, others wanted to find a solution to their thirst and hunger problems that were bound to arise.
Olek crouched in the sand, his staff poking the sand idly, his gaze drifting to a distant dune, "We can't move blind," He muttered, "If we follow any of their leads, we'll die the same way they do."
Carla followed his gaze, "So what then? We sit here and do nothing?"
He tilted his head, "Yes, but not quite. When night comes, the desert drops cool, actually, I reckon it'll be frigid. But everyone here is from the far north. We don't have issues with cold, we have issues with heat. It'll be easier travel and less water will be lost."
He pointed his staff over at the dune he was looking at. A handful of students and what seemed a lecturer, had already started to dig shallow pits under the slope of a dune. They draped their headcloths and satchels between makeshift poles from magician staves to create an area of shade. It was crude, but intelligent. Shade was worth more than gold right now.
"Those people are thinking the same thing. The smart ones are already adapting. Soon, there will be a split between thinkers and followers."
Olek exhaled through his nose, flicking his head to a nearby dune. "Come one, we'll do the same thing just a little bit out. I don't want to join the crowd just yet."
Carla raised a brow, "You mean we're not going to join the people you labeled as smart?"
"We are the smart ones, Carla." He said simply, grabbing his satchel.
She clicked her tongue, "Tch, narcissist."
They moved toward a dune on the outskirts, where far fewer people dawdled. Olek jabbed his staff into the sand, marking the shallowest curve, Carla crouched to dig with her knife whilst he held it. The sand gives easily but caves unto itself just as quick. They were forced to carve a small hollow just big enough for two people to huddle into.
"Not my worst work." He said, brushing his sweat from his forehead.
Carla chuckled, "Make shitty tents for a hobby do you?"
He grinned, "Just one of my innumerable talents. Now, give me your headcloth and hold this staff."
"Why?"
He pointed between the staff and the dune. "Shade. We stretch both our headcloths as far as they can go, pin them down with the weight of the satchels. It'll stop the brutality of the heat a little."
She dug into her satchel and threw him the cloth. When set up, it sagged overhead, the light dimmed to a deep amber color. It was far from perfect, but the air felt just a little less oppressive.
Carla collapsed into the pit beside Olek, half-laughing but out of breath. "I think we'd make decent cavemen."
Olek sniggered, "You do make for quite a good cave-man Carla, you're right."
She pouted, and punched him in the shoulder.
He held his shoulder, "See? Primitive." he laughed.