“If you want a one-way ticket to the second layer, at least wait until we are out of here!” Lilith hissed at me, still covering her breasts with her arms. However, I was too distracted to notice as I stared at my hand. Not because of the feeling I remembered, but what it signified.

If… if this is truly Layers of Hell… did I die? Did I slip into one of those old reincarnation tales? But… there’s usually a meeting with god or something if that happens, right? This is too real to be a dream, but can it really be real?

“Grim?” I vaguely heard Lilith’s voice again, though it had lost much of its venom. “What happened?”

It was at this point that I noticed the dampness on my cheeks. If this really wasn’t a dream… then I was all alone. My family… my friends, all gone. Sarah, what will she think? That I died playing the game that I ignored her for?

“Grim!” I felt a thin hand grabbing my ragged vest. “I need you coherent. If you want to space out, do it when we’re free. The guards are coming, so stand up unless you want to die again.”

Her words stabbed at my mind, and I hastily crawled to my feet. At first, I asked myself if she knew what had happened to me, until I remembered where this was. Layers of Hell, where death is an everyday occurrence. Then, I noticed something else. Grim… that’s not my name, is it? I’m Jeremy! But, didn’t I name my character Grim? In truth, I named all my characters for Layers of Hell the same thing. Grim Styles, I thought it sounded cool.

If this is my character, and this is really the tutorial area… My face paled at what I knew was coming. The purpose of every tutorial is to teach basic game mechanics. The same thing is true for Layers of Hell. And, what is the single most unique game mechanic it has to offer?

Death, endless death. This was one of those games where you fight the final boss in the tutorial, with absolutely no chance of success. The only way the tutorial boss had ever been beaten was when people hacked the game, cheating their character to an insane level.

Naturally, I couldn’t do anything like that, but… I had hope. The boss of the First Layer… the Gatekeeper. Maybe.. Maybe I can get back to my life? Anyone who defeats the boss of the first layer, and steps through the gate to the surface is supposedly brought back to life. Or at least, that is the lore of the game.

Maybe I don’t have to beat the Gatekeeper. Maybe, I can just slip by unnoticed. It was every soul’s dream to conquer the Gatekeeper and earn redemption. Aside from Lilith herself, he was the strongest boss in the game. You could even say that, in a single fight, Lilith might be slightly weaker. The reason that the Gatekeeper was easier to beat would simply be because losing to Lilith made you start all over.

“Grim? Snap out of it, they’re almost here.” Lilith hissed into my ear, slapping my back to make me stand up straight. I knew what was about to happen. And, if it happened the same way it did in the game, I knew where we would end up.

Soon, two dwarves with blue skin, wearing metal armor and carrying axes bigger than their bodies appeared. “Lilith, Grim. Front and center.” The two of us quickly moved near the iron door of our cell, our hands at our sides.

In the original storyline, there was indeed an NPC companion of the opposite gender that spawned with you in the tutorial. However, it obviously wasn’t supposed to be Lilith. That being said, she seemed to fill in the same role for this scenario.

“Now!” She called out as the dwarves entered our cell, lunging towards one of them while I did the same to the other. I had to forget my worries for now, or else I really would end up dying again. I only had one hope of quickly getting back to my life, however messed up that sounds.

The dwarves, having not been expecting the sudden ambush, took a moment too late to react. Lilith effortlessly disarmed one of them, tossing the axe out into the hall, while I struggled with the second. It refused to let go of its axe, and was starting to push me back, until I brought my knee up to smack against its head. With that, its grip slackened, and I was able to acquire the axe.

Dwarven Axe +1 acquired.

The message briefly flashing in the front of my mind surprised me, but at the same time, I felt a rush of information. Information related directly to this axe, as well as various skills that I could activate with it. I felt my right hand moving towards the head of the axe, as my left moved towards its base. In my mind, I knew this was the proper way to hold the axe, despite having never held one before in either of my lives.

“What are you waiting for, come on!” Lilith shouted from the doorway, holding it open for me.

“Right!” I snapped back to reality, or whatever this was, and reached down to pick the keys from the fallen dwarf before it came back to its senses. “I have an idea!”

“What is it?!” She hissed out, annoyed. “We don’t have time to improvise!”

“We don’t have time not to!” I replied, tossing her the keys. “The Gatekeeper will be here any minute. We need a distraction.” Already, there were prisoners shouting after having witnessed us attack the two guards. Following the normal scenario, we would have to sneak our way through the passageways while avoiding most of the remaining guards, and encounter the Gatekeeper immediately after making it out of the prison.

“What?!” She yelled in wide eyes. “The Gatekeeper is coming?! Why didn’t you mention that sooner!” In a panic, she grabbed the keys, and began running to each cell, unlocking them one by one and letting their occupants leave. Meanwhile, I turned towards the two dwarves.

First… sweeping strike! I thought in my mind, as an axe skill appeared in my hand. Turning the head of the axe sideways, I brought it down like a broom, heavily smacking the dwarf Lilith had knocked out of the cell back into it. After that, I hastily closed the cell door to prevent them from getting out.

Keeping the axe for now, I went to join up with Lilith, who was unlocking her fifth cell. There were over a hundred in this block, but we didn’t have time for them all. “This’ll have to do, let’s move!” I urged her along after she opened the fifth cell, and she reluctantly followed.

As we moved to the hall, we heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. Damn, the first wave’s already here. Well, this should be enough to deal with it. I thought, looking at my new axe. “We’ll have to break through this group, then head to the armory. We won’t make it anywhere without weapons.”

Lilith nodded, understanding my logic. The original tutorial had us stopping at the armory anyways, so it was on the path for us. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out into the hall, greeting the five dwarves that were charging towards us. Like the two guards we previously encountered, all five were carrying large axes.

Dragon Cleaver! I shouted in my mind, activating a higher level axe skill. I felt my grip tighten on the axe, my right foot moving back and to the side. With a loud shout, I spun my body in a full circle, bringing my right hand to the base of the axe while my left hand released it entirely. Borrowing the centrifugal force of the spin, the outstretched axe slammed heavily into the first of the charging guards.

There was a sickening crunch, and my arm stung as the impact sent shockwaves through the weapon. My arm almost felt like it was being torn apart as the dwarf cried out, blood spilling from its mouth. Its body was smashed back into the second and third dwarves, while the last two continued their charge.

Okay… that skill seems a bit much. Back to basics. Axe Strike! I brought the axe above my head, using my sore arm as a guide for the head, while my left arm grabbed the hilt and slammed it down. Thanks to having a longer reach than the dwarves, I was easily able to attack them before they got to me.

The problem was the fifth dwarf, who had plenty of time to approach while the head of the fourth was being split open. He let out an angry roar, brandishing his weapon and swinging it at my waist from the side. “Watch out!” I heard, before a red leg kicked the blunt side of the axe head to knock it off balance, turning the lethal strike into merely a painful slap.

Still, I was sent back a few paces, clutching my side. Damn, only two down so far. The two dwarves that I had sent the first one back into were already pushing their dead friend off of themselves, climbing to their feet. Lilith, standing near where I had just been, looked to me with slight concern.

“We don’t have time for this, break through!” She shouted, jumping back to support me. I began wracking my brain for a skill to use. Normally, we would choose our fights, and only battle after getting equipped. Even then, it would be two or three enemies at most.

Got it! Lunge! I brought the axe to my side, and lowered my body to run forward. The dwarves, seeing that, raised their weapons defensively, the long shafts covering their bodies diagonally to absorb the force of an attack. However, what I was doing here was a bit different.

Halfway to the dwarves, I started swinging the axe from the side preemptively, my right hand slowly sliding down it to join my left just as it was at the base, and the weapon itself was directly in front of me. Then, I jumped forward, borrowing the force of the swing to move slightly faster. The blunt top of the axe slammed against one of the dwarves’ weapons, knocking them several paces back and onto the floor while I pushed through, Lilith right behind me

We didn’t have much of a chance against the three dwarves on our own. Especially since I was the only one with a weapon, and had already suffered an injury. Instead, I dropped the axe so that we could sprint down the hallway at our top speed, outpacing the armored dwarven guards. After a few sharp turns, we had lost them.

Lilith breathed out a sigh of relief once we seemed to be in the clear. “Good… that’s the first obstacle. Where did you learn to fight like that?” She looked to me, one eyebrow slightly raised.

“Uhm… I’ve been doing some training?” I hurriedly explained. I couldn’t say that I had learned the skill of one of the floor masters, because that would take too long to fully explain. “Let’s just get to the armory while we can.”

Lilith furrowed her brows, but dropped the matter. In the end, we began moving through the halls, our bodies practically glued to the wall. We heard more dwarves running around, but kept ourselves hidden until we reached the armory.

Inside the armory was a large rack of weapons, with several shelves for the blue dwarven armor. While the armor would never fit either of us, the dwarves tended to wield weapons far larger than normal for their size. However, I needed to pick something light, as my arm was still hanging at my side, feeling like I tore a muscle.

It would be nice if she had some healing magic. In Layers of Hell, there was no such thing as a health potion. The only way to magically heal was, you guessed it, healing magic. And, while it is possible to learn magic on several layers, it’s obviously out of the question for the tutorial.

In the end, I chose two short swords as my weapons, opting to dual wield for now. I also grabbed a single longsword, which I planned to switch to once my arm was better. In the back of my mind, I still knew that this was all wrong, that I should be sitting in a corner and panicking. If it wasn’t for the slim chance that I could slip past the Gatekeeper, I might be doing just that. But, I was a man with a goal. I was either going to come back to life, or die trying.

Once we were equipped with our weapons, the two of us made our way back out. This time, Lilith was leading the charge, as she had noticed the state of my arm. I walked in the back, grimacing to myself as I thought. I really do still have Equipment Mastery, and can use item skills. But… it figures, if I try to use one without the proper stats, there will be a backlash.

Thinking that far, I focused on my character information, trying to pull it up. Thankfully, a blue window did appear in front of me.

Name: Grim Styles

Level: 1

Race: Human

Class: None

Strength: 11

Vitality: 9

Dexterity: 9

Health: 70%

Wisdom: 8

Intelligence: 9

Luck: 3

Magic: 100%

Titles

Conqueror of Hell

+10 all stats

Skills

Equipment Mastery

100% proficiency will all equipment, and the ability to use all nonmagical equipment-related skills. Ability to identify equipment.

I nodded slightly as I reviewed the information. My Luck was terrible, but everything else was as I had set it when making this character. Sadly, luck was generated at random for every character. What I did enjoy was the title. Titles in Layers of Hell were a rarity, but each one had the potential to vastly increase power.

Although abilities and equipment are maintained every time you die, you will lose all levels. The only way to permanently increase your attributes were to either train them manually, or learn abilities that would raise them. Titles are another option, but it is incredibly hard to earn a title.

Without a moment of hesitation, I activated my one title. Titles could have hidden effects on game content, so each one had to be manually activated before its effects became apparent. What I saw in my sheet when I had done that made me very happy.

Name: Grim Styles

Level: 1

Race: Human

Class: None

Strength: 21

Vitality: 19

Dexterity: 19

Health: 83%

Wisdom: 18

Intelligence: 19

Luck: 13

Magic: 100%

Titles

Conqueror of Hell

+10 all stats

Skills

Equipment Mastery

100% proficiency will all equipment, and the ability to use all nonmagical equipment-related skills. Ability to identify equipment.

I nodded, looking ahead as I confirmed my new stats. The pain in my arm lessened considerably, but I was still not comfortable enough to bring out the longsword. Lilith quickly raised one hand, in which she held a dagger, to signal for me to stop. I was wondering why, when a moment later I heard the loud footsteps of heavy dwarven feet charging down a nearby hallway.

I held my twin swords at the ready, but we saw the dwarves charge past at a nearby intersection, avoiding us entirely. We still gave several long seconds before moving, as we were getting closer and closer to the entrance. At this point, we should have had to fight at least two groups of dwarves. Did the distraction pull them away enough to give us a clean escape?

My thoughts were dismissed the moment we exited the prison. Lilith immediately let out an ecstatic laugh, while my face grew as pale as death itself. The first layer was one of ice and snow, and the small mountain in front of me was one I knew all too well.

A creature standing twenty meters tall, made of rocks and snow shaped vaguely into the form of a human figure with spikes all along its skin. At its feet laid nearly a half dozen corpses, the very same prisoners that we had spent our time to free as a distraction. Seeing them there, not a single body fully intact, I knew my hope of getting to the gate was nothing but a dream. I was going to die here, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Come on, you giant snowball!” Lilith called out with a grin. “Get it over with already!” She tilted her head back and let out a roar of laughter as the Gatekeeper slowly advanced, one heavy step bringing it right in front of us. Lilith knew no fear at this point, because we were outside of the prison.

Every layer of Hell had one landmark in the same location, and that was the prison. When you died, you moved to the same position you were at, but one layer down. So, as long as we do not move back inside the prison walls, we will not appear within the prison on the second layer. To Lilith, at this point death was not only inevitable, but welcome.

As for me? I felt my whole body shaking, my mind reeling at the realization that I would not be able to get past this behemoth. Only one thing awaited me at this point, as the Gatekeeper raised its arm to point at us. Why me… why… My thought was interrupted as pain shattered my consciousness, a spear of ice slamming through my chest.

Tutorial complete! Welcome to the Layers of Hell.