Chapter 10
[1st attempt, Day 1. 8:20]
[Please enter the stage. Time left: 19 hours 12 minutes]
The waiting room of the Tutorial is like the healing well of an AOS genre game. Like a homebase, it is a place that completely restores one’s health.
Moreover, you have a limited time you can stay within the area.
I shouldn’t waste this precious time.
[Enter the stage?]
“Yes”
[Welcome to Tutorial stage, h.e.l.l difficulty 1st floor]
This makes it my third time here.
A dark straight corridor.
At first, I felt an unknown excitement and nervousness. It enthralled me. The second time was not very different but now…
Now I feel a slight horror in this place.
Mmmm…
No signs of blood stains but I’m sure I lost a large amount of blood when I crawled back here. Not to mention, I was a f.u.c.king idiot for trying to pull out the arrow which made me lose even more blood.
However, the walls and floor were spotless. Not a single drop of red.
It was as if the whole stage reset when I went to the waiting room and back.
I took in everyhing and with it came a dreadful conclusion.
What if the arrow trap got reset as well?
Ahh, f.u.c.k. I’m gonna get hit again for sure.
But should I do? I coudln’t just stay here and idle at the Tutorial’s entrance.
I don’t know what penalty awaits me if I don’t clear this area in time. Let’s go. I must move.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but I vaguely remembered the general target of the arrows that were to be shot.
I didn’t know what awaited me before, yet I still managed to stay alive. I should at least try to clear this cleanly now.
Now, positive thinking. They say optimism could change the world.
Let’s go!
Aaaaaahhhhhhh……
I think it’s hereeeeee
I think roughly the trap was hereeee…..
Every step forward got heavier than the last.
Was it because I got so f.u.c.ked up from the first time?
I was scared to the bone.
However, I couldn’t stop here.
I slowly took deep controlled breaths.
I covered my eyes and quietly calmed myself down.
I could do this!
One step forward.
Remember. Two above the shield. One straight ahead.
Lastly, one to the ankle.
Ahh, But what if the pattern changed too?
Ahhh….. I was getting paranoid.
I stumbled backwards.
What if the pattern had really changed?
I pondered for a while.
Final conclusion.
So what if the pattern changed? Was there really anything I could do about that?
No.
It was just like before, I didn’t know when or where the arrow would come.
At that moment I thought, ‘Let’s just avoid instant death’. Yeah, I thought like that.
I should protect my heart and torso in general with my shield and with the sword in my right hand I should protect my neck and head.
In the end, I was back to square one.
After some deep thought, I raised my shield and slowly, very slowly moved forward.
It felt like I was sc.r.a.ping away my life every step at a time.
I’ve never played it before but, If I were to play Russian Roulette, I felt like it would feel like this.
I took a step.
Then another step.
My heart skipped a beat every time I took a step forward.
Again another step.
Tick!
An arrow!
Another!
Tick!
I shielded myself from the second arrow too!
Third one to the head!
The third one will come to the head!
I instantly crouched.
Nice, I dodged it! I did it!
But then, a silver projectile flashed before my eyes.
It was an arrow.
Pook-
I stopped the arrow that flew towards me out of the blue with my right arm.
With my unstable crouched position and the excruciating pain I felt in my right arm. In shock, I fell before I knew it.
And again,
Pook-
The last arrow pierced my ankle.
“Ooooooooofffffffff…”
The pain I felt in my arm and ankle felt like it was travelling up my nerves to burn my brain to ash.
At that moment,
[Level up]
[Dexterity increased by 2. Endurance increased by 1. Pain tolerance increased by 1.]
Huh?
As the level up message appeared, the pain subsided.
“What the…”
The arrows pierced through my arm and ankle had both disappeared. My wounds were all healed too, just as if I was in the waiting room.
Well, just my luck.
So, there was such a thing as levelling up.
It appeared that your HP is restored to full when you level up.
“Status bar.”
[Lee Ho Jae (Human)]
Lv.1
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 15
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 21
Skills: Battle concentration Lv.2, Will Lv.2, Awakening Lv.1, Pain tolerance Lv.4, Haemorrhage tolerance Lv.2, Fainting tolerance Lv.1
I found some slight changes when I viewed my status bar.
As the message said, My dexterity and endurance had increased a little and my pain tolerance level had increased by one.
And lastly.
Lv.1
Was I Lv.0 before? Did I even have a level?
Since there was nothing about levels in the status bar before, I thought there wasn’t a levelling system.
I was so, so lucky that I had levelled up in that exact moment in time.
Otherwise, I would have had to crawl back to the waiting room again with an arrow stuck in my ankle AND my arm.
Or maybe, I could’ve died too.
Phew..
Now. Let’s clear up this information.
I had to think about how could use this new information to my advantage.
Firstly, there’s the traps.
The pattern of the trap was exactly the same as it was in my first encounter.
One arrow to my left arm.
One to my heart.
One towards my forehead.
One towards my ankle.
Before my second encounter, I had thought of something.
How could a trap aim directly for those critical areas?
A person’s physique could vary, or a person could just stick themselves to a wall and follow it.
But not this trap, the trap knew exactly where my critical areas were and shot arrows precisely towards them.
The trap wasn’t set so it would follow a set path. It was set to aim for areas on my body and then fired.
That’s why even though I crouched after I had blocked the first two arrows, the third arrow was fired directly towards my forehead instead of missing and flying above me.
If I hadn’t quickly blocked the arrow with my right arm, I could’ve really just died there.
I couldn’t simply memorize the pattern and dodge pre-emptively.
I had to dodge the arrow after it had been fired or alternatively, raise my shield to block it.
But still, if I knew the pattern, I would still be able to react much faster thanks to this precious information.
What I learned next was the level up.
After levelling up, my body was completely healed. Not only did it heal my wounds, it also cleared the fatigue that I was starting to feel.
I came to a realization, there were 2 ways to heal myself.
The waiting room and levelling up.
The waiting room provided me with the option to heal whenever I want, with the downfall that I must backtrack my steps to get there.
Levelling up allowed me to be healed instantly at that time, but I couldn’t tell when I would level up.
In light of this information, my chances of survival had definitely increased.
The third thing I learned was the conditions to level up.
I guess it’s like exp?
I definitely levelled up after being hit by the last arrow.
I could think of two conditions to level up in this situation.
Firstly, I had cleared the trap.
I cleared the trap twice.
And let’s think about the times I got hit by an arrow or had blocked an arrow.
I had blocked 5 arrows and got hit by 3.
If I were to gain exp by blocking arrows or to get shot by one, to keep levelling up and progress, I had to attempt as many traps as I could.
Although I had already experienced two instances of near death, it could be even harder from here.
The messages kept reminding me that this was the 1st floor of the Tutorial.
There will be a 2nd floor, and there will be a 3rd floor. I think if difficulties can rise, they will rise. But I don’t think things will ever get easier.
The last piece of information I gathered form this experience was that, I levelled up during my second attempt and not my first.
I gained experience points from a trap that had been reset due to my actions of going in and coming back from the waiting room.
With all this information summed up, my final conclusion was simple.
I had to venture on.
I must attempt and challenge more and more to gain exp and grow.
Whether I dodge arrows or not, I still gain exp.
So, it was just like from the beginning, I just had to avoid instant death.
I could still rely on levelling up and heading back to the waiting room to heal any non-fatal wounds.
No matter how painful and unberable it was.I must grow and level up as much as it possible to in the 1st floor.
This wasn’t the time to be scared of injury. This was the time for me to move forward.
I couldn’t let fear rule me and inhibit my growth.
[1st attempt, Day 1. 9:05]
I don’t know how long I am allowed to stay in the first floor.
Who knows, there could be a time limit.
I couldn’t waste any more time.
I had to change my playstyle.
With full determination I walked forward.
Instead of walking at a pace where I’d be yawning of boredom, I walked with faster strides. However, I took these steps cauciously and didn’t keep my guard down.
[You have learned Will Lv.2]
[The G.o.d of Adventure shows interest in you.]
[Endurance increased by 1.