Chapter 3 - Tutorial

I am the type of person who finds tutorials tedious. I'm sure many people are like me, who would want the thing to hurry up so we could get to the actual game. And the fact that most games share the same 3 set of controls doesn't help the case.

Though, this is only the case when a game does share similar controls to other games. When you play a genre for the first time or when a game is unique or is a completely new concept, then I can say that these tutorials can be enjoyable

And since there were no true dungeon building games in my previous world I was rather excited for this.

I glance around the white space, slowly a pedestal emerged from the ground with a black dungeon core on top. Next to it appeared a humanoid figure, its form was completely white before details started appearing in its shape. Now it looked like a Roman statue except it was clothed in leather armor with metal chest plate and shoulder plates. Colour appeared and it looked like a normal person except for the fact it had no face.

--~=~--

Tutorial Mission

Defend the core with the given amount of DP

DP: 120

Difficulty: 1>

--~=~--

Whats DP? DP as in dungeon points? But more importantly.

"Why would a tutorial also have an adjustable difficulty setting? How strange."

Does this mean that in addition to a tutorial, this is also a test? If all dungeon cores had similar amounts to intelligence to me, then they must've been expected to choose a difficulty setting and complete the tutorial to the best of their ability. Which means there must be an incentive for it.

However, is it really smart to reveal my capabilities? I don't know if other dungeons are like me but I don't think having a soul from another world is normal. If I do this well I could potentially reap some huge rewards, but those rewards are not guaranteed to exist. If I do my best, the Creation God who made this tutorial may know of my existence and I don't know how he would react.

"Well, firstly I should at least see if I can complete this."

I try to increase the difficulty as a test, and surprisingly another blue box appeared.

--~=~--

Warrior: Iron Low

Difficulty: 1>

Mage: --

Difficulty:

Cleric: --

Difficulty:

Total Difficulty: 1

--~=~--

I raise the difficulty of each person at 2 and 3, the warrior's gear was upgraded, more armor appeared at 2, he got iron gauntlets and boots along with leather knee and elbow pads, at 3 his sword got swapped for a newer sharper looking one. A mage appeared using a similar way as the warrior and increasing his number also upgraded the mage's gear like it did the warrior, he got a glowing red rune on his staff at 2 and a thick book hangs from his belt for 3. The cleric was similar, at 2, golden runes appeared on the cleric's robes and a wooden cross appeared in his hands at 3. When each one was spawned, they were ranked Iron-Low, but when the difficulty was raised to 2 they were changed to Iron-Mid and at 3 they were Iron-High. When every person was maxed out the total difficulty also got the option of increasing and when increased to 10, every person became Iron-Pinnacle.

"Control Panel"

--~=~--

Dungeon Control Panel

Summon

Create

Perception

--~=~--

Under summon, I checked the monsters I had available.

Goblins, kobolds, slime, skeletons, and golems. Along with a short description on their stats, which is really nice since I couldn't learn the stats of different races through Dungeon's Wisdom.

Goblins had average physical stats and mental stats around 7-8. Ranked Iron-Mid.

Kobolds had better physical stats, with 8-9 but had mental stats around 5-6. Also ranked Iron-Mid.

These two were undoubtedly the most basic races to start with, nothing really special about them really, with well-rounded stats. Both had DP costs of 5

Slimes had a flat 3 for all their stats but had some rather nice racial skills, Physical and Magical Resistance along with Infinite Evolution Potential. But they were listed as Iron-Low creatures. DP cost 2.

They were undoubtedly a late game creature. However, with stats like these, they were little more than meat shields at this stage. If they were dropped on a person's head they could choke someone to death. But their stats were too low to actually fight beyond sneak attacks. Infinite Evolution sounds nice but it's useless right now.

Skeletons had a lot better stats, 11 in strength and 7 agility. Like me, they had an empty stamina stat. Their mental stats were measly 2s and 3s. Despite this, they had a racial skill of being Immune to Weak Mental Status Effects. And being a skeleton was useful in its own way. They would not suffer things like bleeding or die in unsuitable environments. DP cost of 7.

Golems were 13 in strength, 6 in agility, 3 intelligence and the rest were simply blank. Like me and the skeleton, it wasn't a living thing so it had no stamina, and I guess that since it is something like a machine, it had no need for will or wisdom. Similar to slimes it also had both magic and physical resistance and are the strongest on the list along with the highest DP cost of 9.

Both Skeletons and Golems were listed as Iron-High Rank.

On paper, I should be able to just swarm the adventurers with monsters and kill them like that. However, what irks me is that there isn't a Total Combat Evaluation in these descriptions. Even though I am an Iron-Low rank, my actual combat power does not surpass Unranked. And, while Kobolds and Goblins had rather similar stats, if you compare Golems and Skeletons, then its clear that Golems would be stronger, despite both being Iron-High. Sure Skeletons have 1 point of agility over the Golems, but with the Golems resistance skills and 2 more points of strength, having only 1 point higher in agility seems underwhelming.

You can say that Skeletons have a Will stat of 2-3s compared to a Golems 0, but what does Will even do? Will to fight? A will to Survive? Golems give me the impression of mindless machines, if they're given an order they will complete it without regard for their lives. But would a Skeleton run if it sees a dangerous enemy? Would it have a Will to survive causing it to retreat or not follow my commands properly?

The more I thought the more the disparity in strength and usefulness became greater. Now I seriously asked myself, can these monsters fight those adventurers one on one, even IF they are the same or higher rank?

"The monster option is actually a trap huh? Is it supposed to teach me that races are not born equal? This IS called a tutorial after all..."

Its the same logic as comparing a tiger to a human, sure the tiger is stronger and faster, but it's also endangered and hunted for their pelts and as for ingredients for dubious traditional medicines. Human history has long taught us the importance of intelligence and wisdom, my own Intelligence is 16 and Wisdom are 18. Those adventurers were probably not as smart as me but they were undoubtedly leagues above these monsters.

I can already imagine, a dungeon core confidently raising the difficulty to 10 and dumping all the points into monsters, only to be almost beaten. The point of being able to adjust difficulty is to say that one shouldn't be arrogant, in the end, this really is just a tutorial.

"I guess this really is just a tutorial huh. Maybe I did overthink things... Well since it's like this I have no reason to hold back then!"