“Good grief!” said a tall guy, with spiky black hair “These creatures aren’t giving us a break, are they?”

He was of exceptional height, with a muscular build. He wore a casual white shirt and pair of Jeans. Using his left arm, he held a gigantic great sword.

“At least you’re enjoying it.” replied another person, this person was of average height, yet he appeared much shorter than the other person. His head was clean shaven, and he had the face of an adolescent. “Imagine my agony just standing there, holding my shield, only for their attacks to be so feeble. This is a hideous experience for a tank!”.

He acted like a kid, yet he wore a set of heavy armor. He moved around with ease, always holding his large shield in front of him. It was very large, nearly reaching his chin from the ground up.

Another figure could be seen roaming around the battlefield. She had a slender figure, silver hair and gray eyes. She moved around on top of a sheet of ice, which kept the woman well above the ground, due to her impressive control of the element.

She easily dealt the most damage to the undead creatures, as implied by the great numbers of ice spikes on the ground.

“I believe this one is the last” she said, right as a large spike of ice erupted from under a skeleton that was approaching her.

A chest appeared on the ground, they took the lesser mana stones from it and departed.

After leaving the dungeon, many system notices appeared in front of them.

The two guys looked pleased with their fast progress in the first phase of the tutorial, but the woman had a puzzled facial expression.

“Is it just me, or did the both of you not get the ‘first clear in the whole tutorial’ reward?” She spoke. They concentrated on the screen in front of them this time, finally noticing the crucial detail.

“It seems like the gap between us and our fellow humans isn’t as large as our sponsors led us to believe.” He said, then a disturbing smile appeared on his face. “I can’t wait to meet these new rivals”.

*

I entered the safe room alongside the others, dissatisfied with my gains after the power-levelling sessions.

So much time wasted, I thought.

It took me about three hours to finish all the nine dungeon runs. I was effectively holding their hands all day long, and I didn’t get many tutorial points.

[Host clears a (Common) dungeon! x9 4500 points awarded

The positive part was that two slimes dropped their essences, which was a proof of their abysmal drop chance. Each of them was in a small vial, as thick as one finger.

[Corrupted Essence]

(Common)

Slimes are usual creatures, but their essences are extraordinary!

Corruption mana is abundant in this essence, rendering it the perfect material for many insidious products!

-Raw consumption of this essence gives their consumer the [Corruption] status ailment.

[Radioactive Essence]

(Common)

Slimes are usual creatures, but their essences are extraordinary!

Radioactive mana is abundant in this essence, rendering it the perfect material for mass destruction purposes!

-Raw consumption of this essence gives their consumer the [Contaminated] status ailment.

Both of them would be rather useful to Archers and other similar classes, as they could be used to make great projectiles. I knew that they would be quite valuable in the outside world, so I decided to hold onto them for now.

Everyone in my group seemed pleased after I respected the contract. They were happy after finally gaining some tutorial points, and they levelled up quite a bit.

The one with the most growth was Petra, followed by Xi Jiang and Zhou Ming, then the others were rather close to each other.

I was rather surprised when she said that she reached level twelve, but that was within reason, thanks to her [Speed-runner] skill. She noticed that the EXP she earned from a certain creature diminished the more she killed creatures of the same kind. I told her to invest some points into physical stats after she asked for my opinion on it.

“You should use as little stat points as possible for now” I said “Until you find a skillset that you like”.

Of course, my advice was due to the peculiarity of her class. She could try all the Class Skills of the people in our group, and still have the chance to find something that suits her more.

Leon used this chance to practice using his offensive magic, but he only had one spell for now, [Fireball].

His two friends seemed impressed at his newfound power, but the disappointment was evident when he revealed its high mana cost, and lengthy cooldown.

Rodrigo used the pair of daggers that I bought for him efficiently, as if he had prior experience. He asked me to let the slimes attack him for a while, only killing them after he felt satisfied with his skills.

The two Mafia members used ranged weapons, a revolver and a bow. They had good aim, and needed minimal assistance to get the kill.

The ammo’s cost will put a hole through their pockets, I thought. I decided to leave the safe room, to get some fresh air and think about my next moves.

I looked at the sky, the sun was still high. The day-night cycle in the tutorial was rather simple, the sun would be present for twelve hours in the day, after which it disappears suddenly and the moon takes its place.

Some people found it uncomfortable, others thought that it was proof of the artificial nature of the tutorial.

Humans in my past life still didn’t know much about the tutorial, I thought. Only people with high status had access to that kind of information.

After the tutorials ends, the world will see a shift in power. The strong people will divide the society, ostracizing weaklings and monopolizing most resources for themselves and people close to them.

I sighed as I remembered Graham McMiller, he was among the top fifty humans in the tutorial rankings. He became the self-proclaimed leader of Neo Sicily.

The weird message that I’d received earlier still weighed on my mind, as I still wanted to find more stuff about the system admin. I tried to buy information on the system admin from the shop, but all I got was an [Access Denied] notice, so I gave up quickly.

It doesn’t change my current plans anyway, I thought. I’ll focus on being one of the top rankers of the tutorial.

I still had one common dungeon to clear, before the tutorial moves to the second phase.

There is no way that those three haven’t cleared it yet, I thought. The first-clear-in-the-tutorial bonus may not be possible to get, but the bonuses that I’m gaining from first-solo-clears should bridge that gap.

I went back inside the room, ready to reveal my second scheme.

“Alright everyone! It’s about time you stopped your discussions” I said “I know that you’re grateful to me, so I’m here to propose another deal to you”.

Everyone froze, including Petra as she didn’t know about the undead dungeon just yet.

“The truth is, I stumbled on another dungeon completely by chance!” I said “It’s a test of endurance, you’ll face a thousand monsters over the course of four hours!”.

Of course, I didn’t tell them that most creatures were level one. Hiding critical information from your enemies was the key to success.

“I know of a secret method to clear the dungeon, within ten minutes at most!” I said, “I’m sure you’ll realize how valuable clearing this dungeon is when you see its system description”.

“What are your conditions?” said Finn “I assume this one will be more expensive than the first, knowing your twisted ways.”

I laughed, and said “I am only offering you a single run, and I’ll take two people at most. Excluding me and Petra”.

She asked me about the specifications of the contract, and started working on it straight away. I told her that everything should be the same as the last time, except the price and the number of available contracts.

There was no easy way around this dungeon, unlike the slimes’ one. The latter would have been doable if they took a loan from Vulpinus, and bought a good number of explosives.

As for this dungeon, only a team that included Taylor, Chris and Rodrigo had what it took to win. Physical classes were naturally suited for longer battles.

The others’ only chance would’ve been to team up with those three, but I’m not allowing easy money to escape from me.

I led the way to the dungeon, and we reached it much quicker this time due to their increased levels.

Everyone started reading what the dungeon’s notice said. They seemed apprehensive at the recommendation of six-people parties. They realized that I’ve already cleared it, when the notice said that only nine clears are left before the dungeon collapses.

A bidding war started. They argued and insulted each other repeatedly, and the price of the dungeon run reached unreal numbers.

Zhou Ming wanted to clear the dungeon together with his compatriot, so he didn’t hesitate to escalate the bidding from lesser mana stones to regular ones. Xi Jiang, on the other hand, was much more conservative with spending money he didn’t own yet, he gave up on the run when the bidding became too heated, saying that he didn’t even know the true value of mana stones to decide at this point.

Finn insisted on clearing this dungeon, he offered three regular mana stones, which was the equivalent of three hundred lesser ones.

He might have realized the true value of this dungeon, I thought. Yet, he underestimates the difficulty of gaining mana stones later on.

Zhou Ming took the other position, offering two regular mana stones for it.

Thus, I entered the dungeon, alongside Petra and the two guys. I gave them five minutes to examine the undead creatures, and gather information which they deemed important.

After some time, I just ignited my body and jumped towards the upper platform. I didn’t waste any time and set the lich’s phylactery on fire.

The [Boss] disintegrated after dropping on the ground, but his staff disappeared this time.

Some system screens appeared, but I opted to ignore them for now.

It seems like hidden items are a one-time thing, I thought. I wanted to get nine more Staffs, and sell them on the worldwide market after the tutorial ends.

My mood plummeted at the revelation. I also thought about monetizing more dungeon runs, but cheating people out of their money unnecessarily wasn’t something I enjoyed.

This much is enough as revenge, I thought. I need to focus on levelling up for now.

I asked Petra, Finn and Zhou Ming to go back to the safe room on their own.

“Call me Joe” said Zhou Ming before leaving, “I like the way you work, and I hope that we remain friends from now on.”

Petra seemed amused by this interaction.

Finn looked at him with mixed feelings, but I understood the meaning behind his look.

It’s true that I am helping them clear hard dungeons, I thought. But I am gaining easy money in the process.

As soon as they left, I cleared the dungeon eight more times. I gained a total of eighteen lesser mana stones, a lot of experience and ended up levelling up a lot.

[Lich] (Common) (Level: 22) defeated x9! Host earned 499454 EXP.

-Host levelled up x6!

-Host reached Level 17! 24 MAG, 24 END and 48 free stat points acquired.

[Light Steps] levelled up x3! It reached level 6.

[It’s Fine] levelled up x3! It reached level 6.

[Flame-N-Go] levelled up x3! It reached level 6.

[Burn That Invader!] levelled up x3! It reached level 4.

[Kill them before they spread!] levelled up x2! It reached level 3.

The system’s voice told me about the number of tutorial points that I gained.

[Host clears a (Common) dungeon! x9 4500 points awarded

Host clears a (Common) dungeon alone! X8 8000 points awarded.

“Status screen” I said, I found it easier to interact with my bugged system when no one was around.

Host: Jason Stubbs

HP 200/200 (1 HP/580 seconds)

Class: The Burned Man!

Mana 1100/1100 (1.7 mana/1 second)

Level 17: 100533/137000

Stat Points: 59

STR: 15

VIT: 30

DEX: 15

AGI: 19 (+2)

MAG: 112 (+10)

END:104 (+10)

Class Skills:

General Skills:

[Flame-n-Go]: Level 6

[Zoom]: Level 1

[It’s fine!]: Level 6

[Shut-Down]: Level 1

[Burn That Invader!]: Level 4

[Light Steps]: Level 6

[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: Level 3

[Shadow Assimilation]: Level 2

Awesome! I thought. With my current END, I should be able to handle the flames burning my body for much longer.

I wanted to raise it high enough so that I am able to keep using [It’s fine!] constantly.

I decided to take a nap in the wilderness. It wouldn’t take too long with my enhanced body, and I was too lazy to go back to the safe room.

I activated [Shadow Assimilation], and settled next to a large tree.

Surely, nothing bad could happen with my current strength. I thought.