A rusted copper sword sat within the arena. It was bent and twisted. The blade had seen better days, but at least it had survived the encounter. The same could not be said for the man who sat next to it unmoving. Most would think him dead. The swordman's body was covered in a cacophony of wounds. Most were surface wounds and bruises, but the wide variety of blood, including his own, from the ten bodies around him, made Flynn look like a part of an active murder scene.

Flynn panted desperately, trying to catch his breath as the starless night above looked down at him with curiosity. He had bested all monsters within the first phase of the tutorial, not an impossible feat, but those who had done so were extremely scarce. The heavens and system would surely take notice of him now.

Of course, it hadn't been easy. The last boss, in particular, had been challenging. The beast had been a sandworm who dove into the sand anytime Flynn had tried to retaliate. The corrosive ant had posed a problem as well. It slung poison projectiles like a master marksman, and Flynn had sacrificed his sword to block most for them, which is how it gained its current twisted state.

No, the truly brutal monster was by far the worm. Flynn had used the glorified scrap metal that was his sword to bait the monster by throwing it as hard as he could against the ground some distance away. When the worm came up, thinking it had found its prey Flynn had attacked with the ant projectiles by ripping them out of his own body and stabbing them deep into the wedges between the beast's scales. After doing this until he could barely stand, the worm stopped squirming. It took him almost ten minutes to kill the thing, and he had hung on due to sheer willpower sacrificing health when his stamina bottomed out.

The fight had left him in his current state, sprawled out with no stamina and three-fourths of his health gone. But in the end, Flynn had won and killed all nine monsters of the first phase. He'd be worried about his wounds if he didn't know that he'd be immediately healed upon entering the next section of the tutorial. After resting his taxed mind and body for more than a few minutes, he allowed his backed-up status screens to appear with a mental nudge.

| Level up! You are now Level 1; you have gained access to your status window! |

| You have defeated six monsters! 800 Fate Awarded! |

| Level up! You are now level 2. You have three unused stat points to allocate. |

Flynn sighed at his lackluster gains. In reality, he was already ahead of at least 90% of humanity, but he couldn't help but groan. His body craved a power far beyond three measly stat points. He had often found himself trying to move in a way that just wasn't possible with his current body. Most if not all of his injuries were avoidable. It was just that his body couldn't keep up with his mind. It really didn't matter. He couldn't do much about that now; there was a limit to how powerful one could grow in the tutorial. He could only take the fate given to him.

Fate was a system equivalent to leveling in popular video games before the trials, and the similarities between the two were uncanny at times. Of course, Flynn knew the trials to be no game, and gaining levels would only get you so far in this particular circle of hell.

| Skill Swordsmanship has been unlocked and leveled up three times! Note: The player's proficiency with this skill far outclasses their rank. Experience gained in this skill will be increased until its level matches its proficiency. |

Flynn groaned in annoyance at the repeating message as he realized he would have to tweak his settings again. The system was capable of extreme flexibility, but he was forced to tweak his settings manually without an AI or something similar. Flynn sighed with acceptance. He disabled the skill notifications. In its place, he set up a requirement that if a skill had no prior proficiency or if one of his already proficient skills reached his current cap, then he would receive a notification. Being content with the change, Flynn moved on. He could do far more with the system, but he had neither the energy nor time.

| Congratulations, you have completed the quest: Combat Assessment! Calculating rewards. |

| Quest Completion Grade: A |

| Monsters Slain: 9 |

| Total Time: 27:37 |

| Rewards: |

| |- 6 common shop tokens ||

| |- 1000 System Credits ||

| |- 3 Common Shards [F] ||

| |- + 3 to strength, constitution, and dexterity. ||

This, on the other hand, made Flynn whistle. Compared to his original start, he had a treasure trove of goodies. Some of it he couldn't use in the tutorial, such as the credits and shards, but all of it would give him a considerable boost in power at some point in his journey. Eventually, he let the windows cascade away, absorbing the information they contained.

Flynn opened his newly acquired status screen with a mental flourish.

| Name: Flynn Blackwater

| Age: 21 | Rank: Common [Level: 2]

| Fate: 800/1000

| Health: 20/110

| Stamina: 0/100

| Mana: 110/110

| Class: :Error:

| Stats (3 points to allocate)

| |- Strength 12

| |- Dexterity 10

| |- Constitution 11

| |- Intelligence 7

| |- Wisdom 11

| |- Charisma 6

| |- Luck 13

| Race: Human

| Credits: 1000

| Status Effects: Shattered Mind

Flynn smiled not out of happiness or joy but rather shock. He was, without a doubt, average. Flynn sat at the bottom of humanity's totem pole and even suffered from a status effect. His only stat that broke past the average thereshold for humans was his luck stat, which made sense since, in his first life, he had only survived the tutorial due to lucky breaks.

Flynn allocated three points to dexterity, bringing it up to 13. Instantly he felt lighter, as if he was floating. It was a euphoric sensation that rivaled any drug, system created or not. It was one of the reasons humanity even bothered climbing this god's forsaken trial. Skill point gains and levels were akin to an addict getting his fix, and if Flynn was being honest, he was no different. He'd ride that high as long as it lasted. Flynn pushed the feeling of bliss to the back of his mind as he opened the debuff next.

| Status effect: Shattered Mind | Desc: You are affected by a Shattered Mind; your true wisdom and intellect far exceed your stats, resulting in a shattered mind. This effect will be mitigated entirely once your stats match your accumulated knowledge. This status effect cannot affect memories etched into the very fabric of one's soul. However, this does not come without benefits and allows your mental capabilities to outclass average stats by a significant degree.

| Effects: Memory loss and Perfect recall.

The information was no real shock to Flynn; it was more of an affirmation of what he already believed to be accurate. His mind past the first floor was a mess. More precisely, it was shattered, each piece being a glimpse of memory that flashed by like a broken slideshow.

Flynn cleared his mind letting the windows fade away, leaving nothing but a timer counting down from an hour. He stretched his sore muscles before yawning. The lazy swordsman had an hour to rest before the following tutorial. Of course, he could peruse the shop, and he was given a chance to do so after each tutorial phase. Instead, he closed his eyes, drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

After all, if I had to save humanity, the least I could do was show up well-rested.