Chapter 11

Tutorial 1st Floor (Part 4)

[1st attempt, Day 28 . 4:05]

I was lucky for not sleeping in today .

I looked at my surroundings after quickly washing my face using the water bottle I took out from my inventory .

I’m inside the waiting room .

Finally, the 28th day .

Day 28, I had decided it as the D-day, my Maginot Line . I will clear this floor .

For the last 28 days, there was nothing but focus for growing and getting stronger .

I had lost count on how many times I was on the verge of death .

There was only determination to clear the 1st floor of the Tutorial today .

Excitement and uneasiness loomed on the horizon, maybe it was because it was the day of the test .

Before departing I opened my inventory to fill my stomach a bit .

I took out the jerky I saved up for today .

Usually I had a salty beef jerky, but today I had a special sweet pork jerky .

Of the jerky bundle I had in my inventory, it was the last portion of pork .

The spicy kick that helped to alleviate the feeling of the greasiness, on top of not being hard and chewy, made it easy to have .

After having a mouthful of the jerky, I cleaned my greasy fingers on my clothes .

I had one last swig of water and put my water bottle back in my inventory .

“Community . ”

It was the Community noticeboard where I could converse with other survivors in the Tutorial .

Although I was the only one alive in the hell difficulty, there weren’t that many survivors in the other difficulties .

Like how the difficulties differ, the Tutorials were also different . However, there were still shared similarities across all difficulties .

It was already made known that a few people had cleared the 1st floor of the Tutorial .

These individuals had shared the information they had gathered on how they cleared the 1st floor .

After checking for new information in the Community noticeboard, I turned it off .

It was time to leave .

[Enter the stage?]

“Yes . ”

[Tutorial stage, Welcome to the 1st floor of Hell difficulty . ]

After a bright light was shone, I was in the 1st floor of the tutorial in a blink of an eye .

It was the same as every other time, a dark straight corridor .

After today, I will never have to see this corridor .

I jogged at ease through the dark corridor .

If it were like some time ago I would proceed with utmost caution, but this time it was different .

My eyes shone in the dark .

[Night Vision Lv . 2]

[Eye Lights Lv . 1]

The skill Night Vision was just like it said, it allowed me to see a little clearer in the dark .

The light and shades weren’t all so clear, but thanks to this skill I was able to move easily in the dark without much hindrance .

On top of that, after learning Eye Lights, I had a clearer field of vision .

Eye Lights was the only active skill I had learned .

When I use it, the light that hit my retina was reflected outwards . Just like the shiny eyes of cats in the middle of the night .

It seemed like the Eye Lights skill barely used any of my magical energy .

Since there was nothing about MP, I couldn’t really tell .

One thing was for sure, I could use it all day without any trouble .

It might even just be a toggled skill that doesn’t require any MP .

Without pause, I carried on running .

The distance I still had to cover was long, but there was no need to conserve my energy .

Thank you, boosted endurance stat .

Moreover,

[Sprint Lv . 1]

I learned a skill that aided me when I was running .

My body got lighter and used less energy when running .

Thanks to this skill, running was a breeze . It made me faster too .

You could feel how refreshing it was, just by running .

I didn’t know before but, running was something that made me feel good .

Before I even realized, I was at the first arrow trap .

There weren’t signs around but with all that I’ve been through, it was familiar enough for me to grasp the location of the trap by sheer instinct alone .

It was like a slight signal or even just a sudden eerie atmosphere that indicated a trap nearby .

Pew- Pew

I could hear two arrows being fired from far away .

[Heightened Senses Lv . 3]

Not only did this skill boost my hearing, but it also amplified all five of my senses like sight, touch and weirdly enough my sense of taste and smell .

Before, I couldn’t even tell that an arrow was flying toward me . I only knew when the arrow had already struck my shield .

Pook-

Pook-

The first and second arrows were caught in my shield .

The third arrow was inflight towards me .

I tilted my head slightly to dodge the arrow .

Next,

Jump!

The arrow glided beneath my feet .

With my increased dexterity stat, dodging these arrows were a piece of cake .

It was needless to say my experience, fitness and focus had improved greatly too .

Clearing the first arrow trap was a walk in the park .

Without stopping, I carried on .

There was much to go .

Tat . Tat . Tat .

I ran a little faster .

Towards the left side of my face, an arrow was fired from the ceiling .

While looking at the arrow, I calmly blocked it with my shield .

This arrow pierced through the shield and got stuck . It was fired with a stronger force than the previous arrows .

When I previously blocked this arrow, it had pierced the shield and my left arm .

The right side next .

Tick-

With my sword held up flat, I parried the arrow .

It fell to the floor with a ‘tick’ sound .

You wouldn't wanna know what I had to go through for trying to block that arrow with my sword .

I failed a few times and was actually hit a few times too .

[Beginner Swordsmanship Lv . 1]

[Cut Lv . 1]

However as a result, I learned some skills .

The next was an arrow directly from the front .

Although my senses had been enhanced, I couldn’t tell the trajectory of the arrow and I also couldn’t hear it .

I could only predict where the arrow would come from by memory and try to dodge it .

After ducking to dodge the arrow coming head on, I took a big jump forward .

A few arrows flew beneath me as I jumped .

I landed with a forwards roll .

After checking that it was the last arrow that was shot, I stood up and started running again .

Occasionally, hard to detect arrows like these were fired .

If I think about it though, it reminded me about my first attempt of the trap .

Let’s not talk about the first two arrows, I couldn’t even see them .

The third arrow, I barely dodged .

As for the last arrow, I heard it .

Of course, I didn’t dodge it though .

Each and every arrow was fired at different speeds and correspondingly, they all sounded different as well .

As I memorized each and every unique arrow, a sudden thought came to me .

This was real training . A tutorial .

I could tell it was all designed to train the challenger .

If it was an arrow that was hard to dodge, it was easy to detect, and if it was an arrow that was easy to dodge, it flew quieter .

Now, dodge this .

For this one, you got to use your eyes . But I’ll make it easy and fire it straight ahead of you .

The last one was hard to dodge right? I’ll make it louder, easier for you to hear . ’

I thought that’s how the Tutorial worked, how its thought process was like .

If these traps were placed to try and kill me, I’m pretty sure it would have done so already .

For ordinary people, the difficulty that they were in may seemed like it was designed that way .

Where death was inevitable .

Ahead of me was the most dangerous trap of the 1st floor .

The bottomless pit .

The width was roughly 20 metres . The only way to get across was by dragging yourself along the rope tied across the pit .

When I first attempted this trap, I hadn’t learned Night Vision and nearly fell into the abyss .

I almost slipped to death, but luckily I held on to the rope firmly, clinging to life .

Continuing on, I slowly dragged myself across the pit via the rope .

Thanks to growth of my muscles and stats, it wasn’t that hard to cross .

The problem however, was the arrow that was fired at that moment .

Since I was literally holding on to life, I couldn’t dodge the arrow and had no choice but to be hit by it .

The danger of the arrow plus the danger of falling . The number of times I nearly died while attempting this trap was too much to count .

But this time…

Tat . Tat . Tat .

There was no reason to stop . I charged forward .

When I reached the rope, instead of hanging onto it, I ran forward .

I could hear the whizzing sounds of the arrows flying towards me but none of them actually hit .

I was able to run across without falling like a trapeze artist thanks to my balancing skills .

It was only possible due to the combination of my heightened senses .

At this moment, I learned that similar skills could be combined .

Alright, there goes the cliff trap .

Now it was time for the most tedious trap .

Now, from here it was a running section . You have to run without stopping for 30 minutes .

After 30 minutes of running, there was a trap .

And after that, you had to run again for another 30 minutes and yet another trap would await your presence .

It goes on and on like this, multiple times .

If you were able to go on a long distance without hindrance, an arrow would fly towards you out of the blue .

That was a critical trap .

It was mentally exhausting to go through such a thing . Just picture, travelling with nervousness and tension, but just as you start to get comfortable, an arrow silently flies towards you .

I couldn’t really tell the specific distance that triggers it either, even after running for thirty minutes .

It felt like the distances in which the traps were spread out weren’t equal .

So, without dropping your guard you had to keep running and dodge the arrow when you noticed it .

It wasn’t a battle against the Tutorial, it was a battle to keep a focused mind for long periods of time .

A battle against myself .

[Battle Concentration Lv . 5]

If this wasn’t one of the few skills that I had learned initially, my entire experience here might have been more perilous .

With that, I was able to keep myself focused enough for such dangers to not become a matter when running long distances .

Honing this skill made it gradually easier for me to detect and dodge arrows that came from nowhere .

I was quite proud of myself for improving and growing like this for the last 28 days .

I kept running forward with the refreshing air hitting my face .