Chapter 37

[Round 3, Day 0, 07:40]

My eyes opened instantly .

At some point, I started to immediately wake up as soon as I’ve had a specific amount of sleep .

Was it the result of my superhuman growth?

It was convenient that I no longer needed an alarm now .

After setting the quick clear of Tutorial as my goal, I reduced my sleep time to only 2 hours .

Since the Waiting Room could recover my body to perfect condition, it made sleep unnecessary . The act of sleeping was just routine at this point .

The reason I continued to keep that 2 hour sleep was for mental health and in preparation to have a functional lifestyle in an outdoor environment within the Tutorial .

With the extra 2 hours I've gained from reducing my sleeptime, I began to make a walkthrough from floor 1 to 3, remembering all the traps I had to go through .

It was for others who entered Hell Difficulty mode after me .

There may have been no one who entered this Round, but that wouldn’t be the case forever .

I've also began to research with others in the Community by sharing information .

[Lee Ho Jae, Floor 4: So I'm saying, don't just stab your arm, but dig through it while trying to search for nerves . Your resistance skills go up faster that way]

[Kim Sang Shik, Floor 5: I've heard of many retarded things recently, but your method takes the cake]

What was the problem with that?

It was not like I was telling them to heat the arrow in fire as well .

Some information wasn't accepted, but with many people actively participating, the process of gathering and analyzing have gotten much faster .

This was especially the case for those who were worried about their families .

Until now, sharing information was mostly done by the Rankers, as if to tell their stories and brag about the rewards they had gained .

With more information being released, more people became confident enough to advance through the Tutorial .

The greatest benefits went those in the lower floors – Floors 1 and 2 .

It was to be expected, as almost all the factors in those floors had already been analysed and noted .

Those who specialised or had occupations in martial arts or sports released their training tips as well .

Those really came in handy .

Especially the tips released by a personal trainer . The exercises that could be done without equipments were like rain in the desert sands .

In the Tutorial world which we were all kidnapped into, we followed its instructions out of necessity, as the system requested it, but those who truly advanced through it were only a few ranker, including me .

But, most of the people have realised the importance of clearing the Tutorial .

They may not put their lives on the line yet, but at least it gave them a reason for doing so .

There were also those who didn't jump to clearing like others, but instead supported others in their cause .

Not everyone had the same determination, but everyone was starting to ride the bandwagon .

And, these new information would help accelerate the growth of those who weren't so dedicated .

The Tutorial Walkthrough started without an issue .

[Round 3, Day 1 . 00:00]

I stood on the portal as soon as Round 3 began .

The portal's light surrounded me, as I was immediately moved to the stage .

As soon as I had confirmed that the teleportation finished, I ran .

With the Wind Spirit's Blessing's 2nd effect, acceleration, my speed sped up at an exponential rate .

Had I been too rash?

I began to wonder, as the winds began to screech in my ears .

However, I saw the Goblin Instructor before I even finished that thought .

Kuwaaa!

I had gotten used to that warcry .

I've even become quite fond of him, due to the continuous battles I've had in the last few days against him . Now, it was time to say goodbye .

First, I had to reduce this speed .

The Wind Spirit's Blessing may be effective while on the move, but I was still not used to fighting with such speed .

I closed the distance by blinking into the striking range of the Instructor .

His axe swung immediately .

A quick reaction as always .

Maybe he knew about my Blink skill already .

There was no need to wait for the axe .

In fact, I ran forward and raised my shield to the axe .

Thud!

With the strike hitting much closer than intended by the Instructor, there wasn't much impact on the shield .

And without stopping, I stabbed the sword into his right shoulder .

All in a single motion .

I couldn't take the sword out easily, but at least it would make one of his arms useless .

The Instructor screamed once more and swung with his right arm .

It seemed he would use his size if it came to it .

I use my arm to maintain distance from him while taking a quick step backwards .

And threw out a low kick as well .

Now, with my superhuman body, I would perform the impossible feat of doing a low kick whilst traveling backwards in mid air .

There was a theory about the Strength Stat in the Community – that Strength didn’t just improve strength in arms and legs, but in all the muscles in the body .

This included muscles that were usually difficult to train like the waist or joint muscles .

If it was not in the form of Stats, these muscles weren't easy to improve along with stabilizing or improving the movement of the person .

Therefore, improving the Strength Stat was of utmost importance .

In conclusion, strength was best .

That's how the theory went .

There were many who were for it and against it . Due to a lack of evidence, everyone eventually moved on from it .

I was the same, but I did think that some of those facts were in fact correct .

Because of the difference in height, my lowkick landed on the knee joint of the Instructor .

With a sound you shouldn't hear coming from a body, the kneecap poked out the skin .

The match was over at this point .

In fact, the match was over before it had even began .

As the instructor lost his right leg, which was used to support his heavy axe and injured shoulder, his stance broke immediately .

I smacked the instructor's face as he began to collapse .

Then pushed his chest while his head was stretched backwards, knocking him over .

I quickly took a mount position and threw a punch .

The instructor tried to block it by raising his arms .

As he wasn't in a normal state at this point and having still had a sword stuck in his shoulder, he was struck in the head .

My punch went in between his arms and struck cleanly into his face .

His head had hit the floor hard, before bouncing back into the air .

He was completely dazed .

Forget moving, he probably wasn't even conscious at this point .

No need to tire myself out at this point .

I grabbed onto his head and chin and twisted them .

The end .

The difference in speed had created this outcome .

It had not just increased my chances of dodging and accuracy like in games, I could also perform multiple actions during my attack .

Another way to explain was that there was no way I could lose, as long as there wasn’t too much of a difference in other factors . However, those situations were extremely rare .

The instructor's body twitched for a moment, then began to fade away completely .

Sadly, his axe disappeared with him

I wish that was a drop that I could get from killing him .

The birthstone did not drop this time either .

I wiped the oil from the instructor's hair onto my armour and took my sword back .

And I marched on forward .

I knew what the next challenge was .

I didn't complete it, but I had scouted it out of curiosity .

The next challenge was also goblin, but this time, not 1 but 5 of them .

1 to 5 goblins .

That sounded about right .

Seemed to be a good increase in difficulty as well .

However, advancing in such a linear way was not how Hell Difficulty did it .

These 5 goblins had made a trench to wait for their enemy .

There was even a wooden roof on top of the trench .

The lineup was 2 spearmen, 2 archers, 1 goblin with a weird staff .

I guess the goblin with a staff was like a wizard or a shaman .

Considering that a trench was used to reduce the amount of exposure from bombardment, I could imagine that staff goblin would fire something in a straight line, similar to a gun .

I could easily pierce through arrows and spears from a trench .

The problem was that the users of the bow and spear were Hell Difficulty special muscle goblins .

I would have to get into the trench as quickly as possible and fight in close quarter combat, surrounded by 5 muscle heads, in an arena called the trench .

I guess there was no need to fight with a disadvantage this time .

They even had the mystery weapon called the staff .

[Blink]

I used the Blink skill 3 times in a row straight up .

Wow, that was quite high .

If I didn't have the memories from the 3rd Boss room, I would have gotten cold feet for a second .

[Talaria's Wings]

The crystal wings spread behind me .

And the gliding effect took place .

I began to glide through the air, as if paragliding .

The winds hitting my face felt refreshing .

Instead of this dark Tutorial Corridor, I would have liked to fly above a field or on the beach in sunlight .

I should try that out in Kirikiri's hills after finishing Floor 4 .

[God of Adventures feels satisfied]

. . . Hm, it had been a while .

He hadn’t made much of an appearance after giving me the the wings .

To be honest, I thought that was because he was embarrassed by the description for Talaria's Wings .

Just as before when I tested it, there was no noise from flying .

Maybe it was because I was gliding using a skill and not actually flying using wings .

I raised my altitude, sticking close to the ceiling .

The corridor of Tutorial was dark .

Even with night vision, it was still dark .

I wouldn't be detected easily, unless I was closeby, especially since I was not even in their sights .

I could begin to see the trench .

Usually, being on standby in this situation would have meant that the goblins would slack off or play around with each other .

But these goblins were constantly on guard, looking for intruders .

Thankfully these goblins weren't looking to the sky as well .

As long as they didn't look up, I wouldn't be in their field of vision .

Plus the wooden roof on top of the trenches made flying above them even easier .

First, I remained in the air and looked at the position of the goblins .

It wasn't easy because of the roof, but with continued effort, I eventually found out .

[You have received Sneak Lv . 1]

Oh . An unexpected reward .

I should try to grind my Sneak skill later .

I managed to bypass the trench in secret .

I began to wonder what would happen if I went on, ignoring the trench .

I let that thought slide for now .

It'd be annoying if I got detected later and got pincered from the front and the back .

I lowered my attitude towards the back of the trench .

The Glide skill allowed me to take flight in which ever direction I wanted .

Such a convenient skill .

There was an exit at the back of the trench just like the one at the front .

The formation of the goblins was:

2 spear goblins,

2 archers,

and a staff goblin .

The staff goblin was at the very back .

As soon as my feet touched the ground, I immediately folded my wings and jumped into the trench .

The staff goblin quickly turned around, but it had been too late .

"Puek!'

The sword found its mark – his throat .

I think I had talent to be an assassin as well .

I had already managed to take down who I imagined to be the most annoying opponent .

A good start .

The 4 at the front quickly turned around to face me .

The archer goblins ditched their bows and took out their daggers from their pockets .

The spear goblins fell backwards, as their long spears were getting in the way .

While the goblins were busy trying to make a formation, I blinked towards them, only a small distance away .

To be precise, in front of the 2 spear goblins, and in between the 2 archer ones .

[Talaria's Wings]

I summoned my wings again .

The blue, beautiful crystal wings spread wide in both directions .

Stab!

The two archers next to me were stabbed by the ends of the wings and pushed into the walls of the trench .

Since the wings had the density of a metal and their edges were sharp, I could use them in offence like this .

It seemed that both archers didn't die immediately and instead struggled .

I think I've suppressed those 2 for now .

I undid the Talaria's Wings as it restricted my movement in the small trench and threw a throwing knife at one of the spear goblins as I ran towards him .