Locke decided to see if there were more hidden goodies throughout the dungeon tutorial for roughly a day or so. The idea was to climb the large trees to the top and get a bird's eye view of the area. This way he could scout for more smoke clouds which hopefully would point him in the right direction. There were quite a few smoke clouds in distant locations throughout the forest which most likely indicated more optional objectives to conquer.

Sadly after visiting the first location Locke understood that it wasn't going to be that easy. There was a small outpost that contained goblins and hobgoblin's, but no optional objective to go along with it. There was absolutely zero challenge at this point when dealing with these type of goblins. With 70 strength and his new weapon the enemy could not block his swings, were slower, and less skilled than him. This meant the only advantage they had against him was that he was alone and they were not. Locke of course would never allow them to take full advantage of this though. The main reason he couldn't be complacent was due to his lack of defence, if the enemy got the jump on him it's entirely possible to lose.

There were a total of four outposts and one fort that he was able to locate and clear out. The fort had a similar optional objective containing a hobgoblin sergeant boss. With how much more powerful he was it opened up quite a few more options to be able to complete the objective available to him. There was no reason to starve the goblins or let the worgs out of their cages like before. Instead he used a series of hit and run tactics to greatly whittle down their numbers before engaging the boss.

It was interesting to note that Locke felt that both him and the boss were about equal in terms of strength. Meaning that the boss actually had roughly 70 strength which was an insanely high number for this stage of the game. He would have struggled more if not for the sergeant again relying on the fear skill when it felt any sort of pressure. Few people might say it was cheap to exploit a mob like this but Locke would never agree. Why would you not take advantage of a mobs weakness to overcome a difference in power. Needless to say the boss fell quickly when he sprung the same trap.

The main struggle he had was to make sure the goblins didn't let the worgs out to engage him. This was because Locke wasn't positive he could fight so many agile creatures at once. After the goblins were finished he went towards the cages to kill them. It felt kind of sickening to slay the creatures who were trapped in cages but he did it anyways. They were aggressive and when slain provided experience which gave him enough incentive. The beasts eventually broke out of the cage once the fourth one was severely injured and attacked him. Without struggle Locke finished them off, but when he did he noticed something off; The experience gain was skewed.

It seemed killing trapped creatures didn't provide as much experience in comparison to ones that endanger you. This feature was new to Locke, but it made sense. If a guild wanted to level it's weaker members they could trap a strong creature allowing the low level players to kill the monster with zero danger. He was curious how the system determined when to put these restrictions into effect, maybe there was a way around it?

Enough of that, lets review my gains.

He gained a rank increase on his ice mastery and acquired the pain tolerance passive. There was no world first for pain tolerance sadly which meant someone else must have acquired it already. With his increase on ice mastery he now had a 40% increase to the maximum capacity of his ice spells where as the basic version only gave 20%. Locke understood that he was going to have to take some time to learn cast his ice element spells at max capacity sooner rather than later. The issue was finding the time to do so. It really wasn't easy to learn and with his current mana regeneration it almost seemed like there was always something better to be doing with his time.

There is an interesting story on where the pain tolerance passive came from. Locke learned very quickly that having 70 strength and 5 endurance was not ideal. The moment he used all his strength to either run or attack there was a potential backlash. His body was not durable enough to deal with that kind of explosive power resulting in sharp pain and HP loss. It's wasn't a very high amount of HP loss but it was noticeable. This also made him put two and two together on something he noticed earlier. When he had 5 strength and 45 agility his running speed was not as fast as he expected. It made sense though, if you have no power in your legs running fast becomes more difficult.

He didn't want to neglect agility yet but he did add some points to endurance just to help out with this problem. This situation made him realize that the system incentivizes having somewhat balanced stats rather than just focusing on one.

Continuing to review his gains there was also a magic item quest reward from the second fort once completed which gave him a nice pair of boots. Not to mention the various equipment he decided to loot throughout the tutorial now that he had the carry weight capacity from strength to do so.

Leather boots of minor agility.

Craftsmanship - D

Material Grade - D

Material Tier - 2

Type – Light boots

Durability 75/75

Enchantment: Increases Agility attribute by 5 while worn.

His spoils of war consisted of Hobgoblin greatsword x4, Hobgoblin greataxe x4, Hobgoblin greatmaul x3, and an assortment of 46 small goblin weapons. Also a second hobgoblin masterwork greatsword which Locke could use as a backup weapon. Their durability was currently on the low side making it nice to have a spare. He hoped that there was a way to repair them once he left the tutorial.

He didn't loot any armor because most of it was not in good shape and it was too much of a pain to take off. Locke did however find some leather pants to equip that was in good enough shape. The quality of the item was pretty bad but it was better than nothing. Oddly enough they never had any helmets. Locke doubted if he would even wear one though, Most likely it would not fit properly and smell. His inventory capacity was quite full without even looting any armor pieces anyways.

There was a good reason Locke went through all the hassle of looting all these items. He wanted to make sure if there was a way to regenerate his arm that he would be able to afford it. Playing with only one arm just wasn't for him especially when he wanted to cast spells while engaged in melee combat.

It was finally time to finish the tutorial. He could be missing out on more secrets inside this place but it didn't matter. There will be plenty of opportunities that await him in the real game as well. Locke wasn't too far from the center at this point and started heading towards the dungeon objective.

There wasn't too much surprise on his face when he arrived at the main objective of this place. It was just more goblins, heck there were not even any walls to deal with. Based on his early scouting which at this point seemed unnecessary there were just a few tents around a campfire area. The trees contained a couple goblin scouts waiting to ambush any players that were not paying attention. Last but not least a single hobgoblin which appeared to be the boss.

Guess I should have expected this, it is the tutorial after all. This many goblins could be difficult for unprepared parties to deal with.....but not for me.

He stood up from his hiding spot and started walking towards the enemy campsite. A few arrows launched towards him from the frees that he easily dodged and then countered by sending ice spears back at them. The goblin scouts fell from the trees hitting the ground with a thud. This alerted the campsite almost immediately. Battle cries were sounded as the enemy prepared to face their enemy. There were only six goblins left accompanying the boss on the ground.

Locke drew his greatsword from his inventory and continued to walk towards them. The sight of a human wielding a sword that size with only one arm must scared the shit out of them. Their expressions showed nothing but fear; he couldn't blame them. Two arrows were sent at Locke which he promptly blocked with the thick side of his blade. Smiling he ran towards them at full speed, there was something about getting stronger that he couldn't get enough of in this game. It felt real, even though he knew it was a simulation. This wasn't a feeling he had experienced in any other game he played.

This feeling is dangerous....

Each swing of his sword killed one or two goblins at a time. Until all that was left was the boss who was backing away in fear. Locke decided to not take his time and engaged the boss. The hobgoblin was able to only block two swings before it's stance was broken. The third swing connected onto its body heavily wounding it and the next swing finished it off.

It amazes me how strong I feel right now, this is nothing like Odyssey. I must be at least five or six times stronger than when I started.

Locke noticed a blue portal show up which was most likely the exit. He rummaged through the camp and found nothing valuable that made sense to loot. With his inventory basically full he decided to leave everything where it was and exit the dungeon tutorial. There could have been more hidden valuables throughout this place, but he wanted to get a move on.