Chapter 73

Tutorial 13th Floor (1)

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[Don’t overdo it . If you recklessly go a step further than the limits of your abilities, you may end up seeing your own blood . ]

[Yes, I understand . Mister . How far did you go?]

* * *

Kiri Kiri threw tantrum in tears for a great long while . In the end, she fell on the floor on her stomach and cried her eyes out . I calmed her down and got her to sit in front of me .

There was a candy stick in Kiri Kiri’s mouth .

Although it is called a candy stick, I guess it could be also considered as a calming medicine .

Ah, of course, this was long after the cake had disappeared into my stomach .

To tease Kiri Kiri some more, I was planning on leaving one bite worth of it still, but I ended up eating the whole thing because it was so tasty .

Perhaps it was because I had been only eating tasteless meat jerkies and dirt-water like monster meats recently . The cake was so delicious, so I ate it all .

This fact was important, so that’s why I’m stating it twice .

“Are you going to do that again, or are you going to stop doing that?”

“I won’t do it again, Hiiiiing . ”

I thought this was enough . I decided to forgive Kiri Kiri .

Despite her appearance, Kiri Kiri was the Hell Difficulty’s Manager .

Although… in comparison to the Managers of other difficulties, she was different in many ways .

I opened the store window and purchased jawbreaker candy set .

You must work harder and more diligently from now on .

You must not omit information for your entertainment .

I made her promise on those two things and handed the candy set package to her .

Actually, Kiri Kiri had been carrying out her task diligently as well as she could .

The whole thing about fun or whatnot was probably just to tease me .

Kiri Kiri was always lighthearted in spirit . However, when it came to conversations about information, she maintained very serious attitude .

“Heeeeng . Last time, Hooouuujaee told me I should be weary of an old man who gives me candy . ”

… This rascal?

“I am not an old man, so it’s all right . ”

“Heeeeng . ”

By threatening her on possibly taking the candy away from her, I managed to make her clearly recognize the irrefutable truth of the universe regarding the fact that I was not an old man .

* * *

“Magic?”

“Yes . I felt something when I was at the 12th Floor . ”

Monsters shot fires, created walls of ice and generated bone spikes in mid-air .

The monsters each had a skill . I could call their skills as magic .

That’s true, right?

Of course, Kiri Kiri did not answer .

The monsters did not understand the fundamentals of the magic that they possessed .

Perhaps that was the reason . There were extreme few that knew how to utilize the magic properly .

Only the monsters like the orangutan monsters were able to utilize their abilities in various applications .

Other monsters just used their skills and only understood the effects that they could observe .

It was like us . It was like how we, the players inside the Tutorial, learned Skills and used them .

“I cannot tell you things like the activating mechanism behind Skills . ”

“Is that also expensive?”

“Besides the expense, the information about magic has too many things jumbled up in convoluted way . There are far too many different subjects I need to touch on just to explain one thing . I can tell you if you pay a very high price for it, but it will not be efficient . ”

I thought she would simply say that it is a precious information, but…

Um…

“Anyway, that’s why I felt the need to learn a bit more about magic . ”

“You won’t be able to learn Skills related to magic theories yet . ”

“Instead of those, if you have things like books related to magic, I was thinking about studying myself by purchasing the books . ”

Kiri Kiri thought about it hard for a moment and said,

“It will be really hard to study them . Still, you can purchase the books for now . ”

Is that so…

In the store window, I never could find any books related to magic .

I was not the only one .

No player in the Tutorial ever found anything remotely similar to an educational magic textbook in the store window .

Could it be that such could be purchased only through the Managers?

It seems magic textbooks are treated as being on the same level as combat items .

With Kiri Kiri’s help, I purchased two magic textbooks .

One book was about basic magic theory . The other one was about area effective enclosure and skill sealing .

I became interested in the enclosure and sealing because of the skill sealing that the leader of the orangutans used .

The ability to seal a skill…

There was no need to explain the critical importance of the main Skill used in the combat and how much impact it has in a fight .

At the 12th Floor’s Stage, all monsters each had a Skill, yet that monster could seal a Skill in the opponent .

Considering the size of the orangutans’ group, their intelligence, and the sealing skill demonstrated by their leader, the orangutan group was virtually the ruling class of the jungle .

Actually, fighting the orangutans were more difficult than the bogus dragons .

“These will be difficult for you . You might be able to perform enclosure magic somehow through a medium . However, sealing magic will be really difficult . ”

“How difficult?”

“To begin with, it is not something an ordinary human being can master . Also, sealing magic is not something a human being can use . ”

It cannot be used by a human…

“A human being using one’s own power to use sealing magic is virtually unheard of . No, it was never done before? When it is used, it is done by borrowing god’s power . ”

“Borrowing god’s power? That’s possible?”

“When you become a god’s apostle and obtain skills related to sealing, then you will be able to do it . ”

Um… power skills from gods…

It seems like sealing magic is a high difficulty magic, beyond what I initially thought .

Still, I decided to have the books ready for now .

I had points to spare . Also, it may not help me now, but it might help me later as I continue my study .

“Still, you have the knowledge before the time of babel, so you will be able to read the texts at least . I am not sure if you will be able to comprehend it though . ”

Is it that hard?

Kiri Kiri had been maintaining her negative stance on magic study . I was feeling a little rebellious toward her opinion .

Actually, when it comes to studying, I have confidence in myself .

“Heeeng . Magic theory is not just some study . ”

I’ll know when I try .

Let’s get to the next topic .

“I’ve heard something was going to be held soon? Can I get some information on that?”

Recently, the Order of Vigilance obtained information that an event was going to be held inside the Tutorial .

They also learned that this was not going to be another day of the great harmony .

“Aaaang . To tell you information about that…”

“I don’t have enough allowances left?”

Kiri Kiri nodded . She then said to wait for a bit .

She crunched down on the ground and thought hard about something as she fiddled with her fingers .

“Actually, I am not supposed to tell you this, but I’ll tell you because you bought me delicious cakes so far . You need to work harder from now . ”

Having heard what she said about working harder, I realized what Kiri Kiri was saying .

Before, as I bought her a cake, I had told her that she needed to work harder .

It seemed Kiri Kiri was mimicking what I did back then .

“All right . I’ll buy you cake more diligently . ”

Kiri Kiri quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands and acted casually . However, I could hear loud noise of her breathing through the nose, which reflected just how excited she was .

“Heeehing . Listen carefully because this is short . Foreigner, second . ”

Foreigner, second .

What could they mean?

I was thinking it was going to be something similar to the day of the great harmony, but foreigner?

For now, let’s just inform Kim Min-hyuk later .

Once we gather up all information that were obtained so far, we will be able to get the big picture .

Finally, I purchased a suitable spear, several emergency foods and a huge quantity of toilet papers .

Toilet papers were, just like potions, treated as combat items, so they could not be purchased from the waiting room .

“Hee hang . I can even sell toilet papers . Hoooouuuwjae, you are toilet paper rich . ”

Watching me purchasing a huge amount of toilet papers, Kiri Kiri made fun of me .

More the better, you rascal .

Do you have any idea how desperate one gets without toilet papers?

Having finished purchasing items, I got on the portal that lead to the 13th Floor’s waiting room .

“Have a safe trip! Buy me a cake next time!”

As always, she mentioned cake as she saw me off . I waved hand toward Kiri Kiri and activated the portal .

* * *

[Round 15, Day 18, 23:50]

Kim Min-huk is… probably sleeping right now .

Looks like I’ll have to tell him about the clues I got from Kiri Kiri tomorrow .

I opened the inventory and checked the magic textbooks .

Let’s read these first .

I brought out the book that she said was about the basic magic theories .

The cover doesn’t have anything written on the cover .

Let’s read it anyway for now .

Like that, I opened its first page . I could not help but to panic .

The book only had one sentence written on it .

‘To bring change to infinite time after death and finite time during life, what is the most important material that must be prepared? Find the answer . ’

There was just that one sentence on the first page .

The rest was all blanks .

It appeared the book had over 200 pages, but there is just one sentence written on it…

What the hell .

On top of that, the sentence was a subjective question .

The most important material to bring change to time?

How would I know that?

For now, I decided to think hard about the answer to the question .

It said I should try to find the answer, so let’s try finding it .

It could be that the empty space on the book will fill when I find the answer .

It is a magic textbook after all .

It was going to be boring to just think about it, so I decided to also test the newly acquired Fire Element Resistance Skill while at it .

I got out of the 13th Floor’s waiting room and moved to the bonfire room .

I placed by hands on top of the bonfire and started thinking hard about the question . It was at that moment . A message came .

[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Big bro! I cleared the Third Stage!]

It was from Lee Hyung-jin .

He was hung up at the Third Floor, unable to try entering the boss room .

Honestly, regarding the Third Floor’s boss room, the traps underneath the cloud bridge to be precise, even I didn’t know much about them, so the situation was that I could not help him .

It seemed he somehow overcame them on his own .

[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: The traps were like having all traps from first, second and third floors combined . There were no patterns . The arrows had poisons applied to them . The temperature got hot and cold repeatedly . Also, there were quite a few tricks mixed in too . ]

[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: You got through them still . Well done . Congratulations . You have accomplished something really amazing, kid . ]

I was always worried about him because of the Third Floor’s boss room .

Unlike other people, I obtained the Blink Skill, which was a power skill from the gods, earlier in the floors . Because of Blink, I was able to go through the Third Floor’s boss room with relative ease .

Because of how I got through the room, I didn’t know exactly what kind of dangers were there underneath the cloud bridge .

I was worried that, other than myself, all challengers of the Hell Difficulty will not be able to go past the Third Floor .

However, Lee Hyung-jin cleared the Third Floor’s boss room and obtained information about underneath the cloud bridge . This was a monumental accomplishment .

It was also great that Lee Hyung-jin successfully got past the Third Floor alive .

[Lee Ho-jae, 13th Floor: Organize the information about the Third Floor’s boss room later and put it up on the community . As for conquest walkthrough, let’s try making one together later . ]

[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Yes, Big Bro . I’ll get it organized around tomorrow noon and post it . ]

[Lee Hyung-jin, Fourth Floor: Big Bro, how is it like at the Fourth Floor?]

You will have a bit of trouble through the Fourth Floor too .

Lee Hyung-jin’s combat style was closer to assassin or thief .

In boss rooms, he could apply his style to his advantage using his ability to make decisions . However, inside Stages, he will have to kill goblins in combat somehow .

Especially the goblin instructors are… Um .

I think they will be pretty tough .

I explained things about the Fourth Floor to Lee Hyung-jin and got up .

I put the magic textbook back in the inventory .

Let’s study about the magic during the three-day waiting period when the round ends .

Perhaps it was because I just got the news from Lee Hyung-jin . I was a little excited .

I want to move .

I also want to challenge the 13th Floor soon and clear it .

Although I just cleared the 12th Floor, I cannot be satisfied with this .

I brought out weapons and armors from the inventory and wore them . I went straight to the 13th Floor’s stage .

I was already burned at the 12th Floor once .

I wore the weapons and armors and carried the dimensional space bag on my back, which contained essential items . Like that, I entered the Stage .

Going past the bonfire room, I arrived at the 13th Floor Stage . It was a dark stone walled room .

[The 13th Floor’s trial will start . ]