When the 5 minutes elapsed, everyone found themselves in the central square of a sword-and-sorcery style city. The screen appeared before me again:

[Choose your Mission]

Kill a

Save 500

Kill 500

Kill 1,000 or more Wolves, then evacuate at least 10KM from

Ensure the successful evacuation of at least 20% of residents

Prevent the from damaging the city on at least one night

What the hell kind of tutorial objectives were these?! I was beginning to think that I had badly misjudged the situation. Clearly this was no ordinary video-game style scenario.

At the very least, the Tower’s game had no interest in playing fair. But that was okay.

Because if the wanted me to fail, it had made one mistake.

It took my Mewi away from me.

And it had put this Tutorial in the way of getting him back.

“You wanna play rough, huh?” I murmured, “All righty then. Game on, bitch.”

And I stamped my finger on the 4th mission. If I could make use of my special ability in a certain way I thought might be possible, I already had a decent idea about how I was going to pull this off.

If not…I’d think of something else.

There wasn’t a game on Earth that couldn’t be broken. Usually I disliked the idea of breaking a game, but I had no such reservations about this Tower place.

No matter what, I’d win through this.

The first order of business was to head out of the city. For one thing, it wasn’t as though the apparent wolf army was overrunning the streets. For another, the presence of a mission choice that involved killing other challengers seemed ominous. If it had showed up on High, similar missions could show up on lower difficulties. For all I knew there were several in this crowd who were just getting it in their heads to shank a few folks without being found out.

Finally, the last mission mentioned a natural disaster devastating the city each night. I wasn’t sure how that could only damage the city, but it was late afternoon in this place on arrival, so I figured heading out of the city was probably still a better idea than staying in it.

I hadn't gone far when my train of thought was once again forced to a screeching halt. This time, by the sudden presence of a strange orb hovering just above and to the right of me.

Its outer “body" was transparent, with what seemed to be a strange luminous mass inside. The whole effect reminded me of an alien from Star Trek—the original series, when special effects had yet to advance to having a realistic look.

Especially when the light flashed when it spoke. “Greetings, Lheticus. I am your .”

In a prim, male British accent, no less. Something this weird could only be an agent of the Tower, all right.

“Well, it’s about time. I was seriously wondering if there would actually be a tutorial in this tutorial level.”

“Indeed. I am empowered to answer certain questions you may have, providing general help and to an extent, hints to how to best clear your mission.”

“So, am I going about things the right way, heading out of the city immediately?”

“Oh yes. However, I would also recommend you find an opportunity to acquire clothes from this town. Particularly if you intend to acquire native assistance in your mission.”

“What do you mean, native assistance?”

“On High difficulty in the Tutorial, you can team up with others to complete your mission. With enough allies, killing a thousand members of the wolf army would be quite possible. However, depending on how much others help you, it will affect your Mission Rating.”

“Mission Rating?”

“Mission Ratings affect the quality of the rewards given to challengers who complete their missions. If a mission is completed with the bare minimum required, this results in a Mission Rating of 1.0—the lowest score. A Mission Rating can score anywhere from 1.0 to 5.0.”

“So to get better rewards from High difficulty, it’s not enough to just complete the mission—I have to go above and beyond.”

“Exactly.”

I still headed generally toward the west gate of the city, but I went more slowly now. Soon enough, I caught sight of a city native in an outfit that shouldn’t attract attention.

I made sure to get a look at the clothes from behind too, then when I had enough of an idea of them, I closed my eyes and concentrated, imagining my own clothes changing to look like them.

After a few seconds, I gasped in exertion and shock, ceasing my use of My clothes hadn’t changed, but a quick check of my status screen made it clear that I had just poured out 15 points of stamina.

On a failed attempt. If I’d kept trying, I probably would have passed clean out for who knows how long. As it was, I had to keep to an almost nonchalant walk so that I could keep heading out of the city while recovering my stamina.

“Okay, that super did not work,” I said, “got any suggestions, Guide?”

“Why not just steal some? The impending monster army attack is occupying most of the attention of the town soldiers.”

“Steal? I mean, I took a good guy mission so I dunno…”

“The Tower does not weigh morality, only efficiency. And anyway, the state of this place is returned to the beginning for each new group of challengers, so there’s no need to be concerned about long-term consequences. In fact, that also applies to every Floor in the Tower.”

“So it really is like a video game then. It’s not like I’d be stealing from a real person, more like an NPC.”

“Exactly! That is an excellent way to put it.”

“Well, all right.”

I changed direction, looking for a shop that sold clothing. I found one without too much trouble.

Actually, stealing a native outfit was shockingly easy. By the time the shopkeeper realized I wasn’t going to pay, I was already halfway down the street, turning into an alley before they reached their own front door.

In fact, I was surprised at my own speed. I had never been good at running—it always felt like my lungs and legs were on fire after even jogging for more than a couple minutes. Sure I’d managed a good short sprint or two in my life, but running from the shop I could have kept up with Usain Bolt almost. This is the effect of a Speed stat of just two?

I got changed, emerged onto another street, and continued toward the west gate. The city was sprawling, with a complicated layout. Fortunately, I had a good sense of direction, at least generally speaking, so I was able to navigate by the sun until I reached the east gate. “Okay, now what?”

Though I said it to myself, my Guide responded. “I suggest you take the opportunity to practice combat. Would you like instruction on how to cast your spells as an Elemental Caster?”

“You kidding? Yes please!”

So for about a couple hours, I practiced the process of casting Mana Bolt with the Guide walking me through it. At first it was difficult to find opportunities to completely finish a casting, but as more of the taken arrived west of the city, the focus of the nearby enemies became divided enough that I could bob and weave enough to maintain concentration on the casting for the full 6 seconds required.

“Good,” said the Guide, “now, as you keep casting, I want you to focus on the feel of the mana inside your body—how it flows, how it moves inside you, and how it feels when it is ready to release and when it is released.

Right now, the Tower is casting your spells for you more or less automatically, but this method is inefficient. Once you have fully grasped the flow of mana through your body, you will be ready to direct that flow manually.”

Just then, the sun finished setting.

And a moment later, perhaps not all, but a very substantial amount of hell broke loose.

A Taken nearby was pointing to the sky over the city. I looked. Is that…is that a @#$%ing METEOR?!

Then suddenly, it split into fragments, and every single one of them directly impacted the city.

“Are you KIDDING me? Natural disaster, my ass!”