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, Hell 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 fucking 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, fuck . 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 fucked 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 scraping 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 God of Adventure shows interest in you . ]

[Endurance increased by 1 . ]