When the countdown got to zero, instead of a monster to kill, Shen got a system message to read.

Tutorial - 1st Stage

You're about to face the final boss of the Guardian Tutorial's first stage!

Each final boss comes with special rules. During this stage, the rules are simple and centered on one thing that'll greatly assist you in the future:

Persistence.

We will teleport you to a much larger arena to face the final boss. No matter how many times you die to it, you'll be revived with full health a few moments later and be given the chance to try again. Your opponent will also be fully healed. That can go on for as long as you want, on the condition you never give up on the fight and, consequently, on the tutorial.

You can ask for help to kill your final boss at any time. Killing it alone will give you an extra 500 AP on top of the 10 AP a defeated enemy of their power usually gives. Getting help will deny that bonus.

Anyone who has already defeated their final boss can choose to accept your request for help with no additional reward to themselves, though the AP for killing an enemy together is shared. There are no limits to how many can accept the request either. On the other hand, you might find yourself with no one to support you.

To prevent abuses, if you die more than a hundred times, you'll be automatically put in a state of asking for help.

Fight well!

Those were things to worry about later, after he killed his opponent, though he supposed most mortals would like to know that beforehand, as they might need the help.

Fortunately, as soon as he finished reading the message, light enveloped him, and he was taken away. When he came back to himself, he was standing on solid stone, in an endless white space.

There were no walls, ceiling, or sky there, only whiteness. Only the ground existed, an equally endless stone floor. And a few dozen yards away from him, there sat the final boss on a throne of bones.

The orc was half again Shen's height, so full of huge muscles that it had tears on its leather-like skin, which was crimson. Its body was covered by tattoos too, silver rather than black tribal symbols that shone mystically. Its two lower canines were so big they didn't fit in its mouth, and its left ear was missing, while its right ear and nose were packed with gold rings, and its face was full of scars.

Its eyes shone a bright red, and it exuded power.

It was sitting on a throne made of all kinds of bones, from fingers to skulls. Nine longer and larger bones formed the back of the seat.

And resting beside the throne, getting supported by it, was a beautiful saber.

The wide curved blade seemed to be made of a black crystal with white stars that actually moved around slowly on the inside. The hilt was like white marble, beautifully crafted with details that looked like leaves. It looked out of place in the orc's hand, yet it also exhaled power, only differently from the orc. It went beyond the moving motes of light inside the blade; it gave out a feeling of weight that was hard to explain.

Shen took everything in as quickly as he could, afraid of a sneak attack, but he shouldn't have worried. The final boss was sitting lazily on the throne, resting its head on its fist, its elbow laying on the throne's arm. It looked at Shen like a king judging a peasant.

"Inspect," he whispered.

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 200 / 200

So orc warriors were so powerful that even the final boss had to be restricted! That was impressive. Its health pool wasn't larger than its weakened version, but Shen doubted it would be as easy to kill.

He was preparing himself to attack when, to his surprise, it spoke.

"I take no pleasure from killing weaklings," it said in a strange language that was guttural and aggressive-sounding. "Give up and spare yourself the pain of repeated defeat."

So it wasn't an it, but a he. To cultivators, any being capable of logical communication was an enlightened being, thus worthy of being considered more than a random animal.

To be fair, that was true only because of bestial-looking enlightened beings in the past who were very strong and got very pissed at being referred to as “it.” They showed displeasure in straightforward ways, leaving more than a few corpses behind before cultivators gave in to their demands and changed their culture to acknowledge them as equals.

But that was a tale of darker times, when cultivators were racists. They even used to "tame" enlightened beings and treat them as pets just because they were from different species!

Nowadays, all enlightened races were treated as fellow cultivators; they were only forced into indentured servitude temporarily and only in fair cases, such as debt.

Anyway, Shen replied to the orc as politely as he had been taught to do. Even in the face of an enemy's mockery, he was still a representative of the Feng Clan and had to show some politeness. His every action reflected on the clan's reputation.

He clasped his hand in front of himself—holding his spear vertically—and nodded to the being. "I am Feng Shen." A direct greeting, neither acknowledging the other part as stronger or weaker than him. Almost provocative, really.

The orc squinted his eyes, then sighed and nodded back once. “You are in the presence of an Incarnation of Uk'Gaar, the Shining Star of the Karg Tribe. Be honored, for many would pay any price to be on your feet right now.“ So he also knew basic courtesy, which didn’t necessarily mean politeness.

"I didn't know I was battling enlightened beings," Shen said.

That made him wonder who he was fighting. Were goblins and orcs Void Spawn captured to assist with training mortals? Were they promised a reward should they kill humans? Where did they come from?

That revelation of his enemies' sapience changed things a little.

It was one thing to fight irrational beasts and monsters, or invaders like the Void Spawn. To kill enlightened beings required a good reason under the Eternal Empire’s laws. If the goblins and orcs were also invaders, that would be one thing, but what if they were slaves being forced to fight against their will?

He couldn't, in good conscience, grow stronger by stepping on the corpses of the innocent. The same honor that demanded him to repay his benefactors for healing his meridians demanded him to act honorably in the face of such terrible injustice, too.

Shen would still kill any who attacked him, of course; he would never put a stranger's life over his, no matter their circumstances. But he would also demand an explanation of the Alliance later, and if it didn't suit him, there would be hell to pay.

The orc snickered. "To call Shadows enlightened beings, how ignorant are you?" His strange language was so forceful it made his words extra aggressive. "Once any race is integrated into the Multiverse Alliance, they are analyzed and their information is stored. If needed, the Guardian System can create as many Shadows as they want with little to no energy loss, and most beings you'll find in the tutorial are such. They are little more than self-aware puppets that depend on a constant supply of energy to keep existing.

"I am nothing like them. I'm an Incarnation. Uk'Gaar provided the Alliance with a drop of his blood and I have it within me. I have insights into his Path and can live by myself. My only defects are that, like Shadows, to learn something, I must forget another, and I cannot grow more powerful. I'm bound to remain forever as I am."

To be stagnant and consume one's own memories to gain others was a strange concept. "Did you sacrifice something to remember my name?" Shen asked.

"I don't remember the names of every fool I kill," Uk'Gaar said nonchalantly. “But short and long memories are different things, Feng Shen. I’ll forget about you in the future, but not yet. That matters not. Give up already and be spared.”

Shen wasn't curious enough about the orc's existence to question it further. The red being claimed to be little more than a glorified puppet or golem, and that sufficed for Shen's sensibilities. He could kill him.

He held his spear with both hands and advanced.

Uk'Gaar shook his head, but stood up, fists closed.

They clashed.

The first thing Shen noticed about his enemy was how graceful he was. Uk'Gaar was double his size but moved with the nimbleness of a panther. His muscles worked together with such perfection, it was almost distracting.

The second thing he noticed was how fast Uk'Gaar was.

And the third thing was how strong.

The orc rushed at Shen with what looked like a single step, but there was something strange about it. It covered as much distance as three steps. He backhand-slapped Shen, his arm moving way too fast.

Shen didn’t stand still. As exotic as Uk'Gaar's footwork was, he still took a few steps to close their distance, and the boy quickly got into a defensive stance. When the slap came, he crouched and deflected it with his spear shaft. The goal was to end up standing in front of the open-armed orc, in a perfect position to strike it freely.

His plan was foiled when the orc redirected his slap downward. The spear shaft made a straining sound on contact, but held. Still, the strength behind his arm was such that it forced Shen to crouch lower, and his legs hurt. He even took some damage.

Health: 95 / 100 | -5

He had noticed before how even people in the same rank, like the common orcs and himself, could have a big difference in power. The rank was something akin to a range, not a precise estimation of strength. That showed now; twenty more slaps and he would die even if he defended himself.

Shen wanted to fight as a mortal first. If mortals were supposed to kill Uk'Gaar, he wanted to do it too. However, he quickly had to admit he was overestimating himself.

So he stepped backwards quickly and started cycling his qi through his entire body.

He had less than a minute before he exploded; time to get serious.

He advanced again, but this time, his entire body was much faster and stronger than before. The Gale Footwork took him closer to Uk'Gaar, and he thrust swiftly.

The orc's eyes widened in surprise. He tried to dodge to the side, but it seemed his special footwork was either limited in direction or had other restrictions because he didn't use it. That meant Shen's real-time correction of his attack scored a direct hit on the orc's throat.

The spearhead barely pierced an inch and the health bar on top of its head only decreased by 1%.

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 198 / 200 | -2

Shen didn't let that affect him. It only meant he would get extra practice. He thrust again.

This time, Uk'Gaar wasn't caught by surprise and reacted in time. He deflected the thrust by hitting the shaft with his forearm and counter-attacked with a punch using his other arm. Shen used the Swirling Twist, rotating both himself and his spear.

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 193 / 200 | -5

The tip of the spear, upon reaching below Uk’Gaar’s chin, once again barely penetrated an inch, but it caused much more damage than before. Uk'Gaar retracted and frowned. "You're no simple mortal," he said.

Shen didn't have the time to talk. He advanced. Uk'Gaar once again used his arm to deflect the attack, and Shen once again used the Swirling Twist. This time, however, the orc stepped back quickly and avoided the attack.

That was bad news. If Uk'Gaar kept dodging, Shen would find himself powerless soon enough. So he changed his tactics.

Time to try a new move: the Endless Rush.

He ran at the orc, and when he was close enough, he started thrusting. His opponent once again parried his attack, but instead of going for the Swirling Twist, Shen merely moved diagonally to keep pressuring. His next three very quick thrusts hit the orc straight in the face.

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 191 / 200 | -2

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 190 / 200 | -1

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 188 / 200 | -2

That wouldn't do. The attacks were dealing too little damage, one of them even dealing only one point of damage! About five seconds of his sixty were already gone! Shen needed a game changer.

He focused extra hard and targeted Uk'Gaar's eyes.

The spear penetrated much deeper than before.

Restricted Orc Warrior (F) — 168 / 200 | -20

That was it. His only hope for defeating his enemy was to hit his eyes repeatedly.

When he pulled the spear back, the orc’s crushed right eye came out with it. He thrust again, but Uk'Gaar let out a sudden roar that made Shen feel just like Mark. The shockwave hit him hard and felt painful.

Health: 93 / 100 | -2

It barely did any damage, though it was humiliating that a mere shout was as dangerous to him as his spear was to his enemy. Yet, the humiliation wasn't the worst of it. The sudden shock staggered for a few moments, and that was enough for Uk'Gaar to retreat to his throne.

The orc warrior grabbed his saber. "Let's start," he said with icy anger, blood running through his cheek like bloody tears.

He attacked.