“How’d I do?” I asked, as I walked towards the Recovery Crystal. This time, I wasn’t in a hurry to heal.

the A.I. responded in my head.

That definitely sounded like a computer’s perspective. How was I supposed to just not flinch?

I stood in front of the Recovery Crystal, not really looking forward to what would come next. “Do I really need to recover? My HP isn’t that low, and I’m not looking forward to having a panic attack.”

I placed my hand on the Recovery Crystal…

I could smell the stench of death still on my body. I was drenched in blood, and half of it wasn’t mine.

I threw up, and vomit joined the blood on my Magician’s Robes.

I’d almost died, multiple times. The goblins had communicated with each other—I couldn’t understand them, but they were sentient. I could still picture that moment, before I had left the hallway, glancing with disinterest at the blood and guts in the too-white hallway. There was no point talking to the A.I. I only had a few more seconds before—

The Recovery Crystal’s power concluded, and I sighed, unimpressed, at the pool of vomit at my feet and the vomit stains on my equipment.

“When does the time crunch end? I have a hundred questions,” I said.

“And what’s the third room?” I was half excited, half dreading the answer.

The A.I. said, blandly.

“Fuck,” I said. “Shouldn’t something like that be the Hell difficulty?”

There was a moment of silence as I let that sink in.

“So,” I said. “Should I use any of the loot I collected?”

The A.I. paused for a second to let me stew over these restrictions.

I froze, uncertain of how to respond.

The A.I. continued,

Why had that not occurred to me? “I’m sorry, Samantha. Where I come from, we have computers that are not intelligent. We can ask the computers all kinds of questions, and we just expect them to respond.”

“Apology accepted,” I could hear Samatha smiling at me, which was a weird feeling that didn’t quite make sense. “Now, I do believe we have an orc to kill.”

I took a quick glance at my Status Window as I headed towards the black doorway in front of me. It looked like with each level I gained, I gained +1 HP in addition to 1 “Available Point.”

Name:

Jarek

Level:

3

HP:

12/12

Physical Defense:

10

Strength:

9 (+2)

Mental Power:

10

Dexterity:

9

Agility:

9 (+2)

Mana Pool:

10 (+1)

Mana Regeneration:

4 (+3)

Available Points:

0

Coins:

220

Class:

None

Profession:

None

Titles:

Skills and Spells:

Identify (F-rank)

Mana Modulation (F-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (F-rank Low)

Equipment:

Mana-infused Knife (F-rank): +1 Mana Pool, +1 Mana regen.

Magician’s Robes (F-rank): +2 Mana Regeneration per minute.

Orlan Blade (E-rank): +2 Strength, +2 Agility

Interdimensional Pouch (E-rank):

I came out of the doorway without missing a step. I glanced briefly around the hallway. It looked identical to the previous stage, just slightly smaller.

In front of me was a level 20 orc, according to my Identify skill, fully decked out in armor, and holding a sword and a knife. The orc had dark grey skin, and looked like a seven-foot-tall wall of muscle. He was staring right at me, and he advanced towards me with lumbering steps.

I let my body relax, focusing on following Samantha’s combat shadow in front of me.

There was a lot to learn, just from this combat shadow. It wasn’t moving in a straight line. Each step was slightly angled, either left or right.

The outline led me forward, of course, but also towards the wall on my left.

I could see streams of white light coursing through the combat shadow’s gray outline, focusing mainly on my legs and arms.

I followed suit, and the Agility kicked in right before the orc swung his sword at me.

Samantha hadn’t given me the full run-down of the stats, but one thing seemed obvious: Agility increased my dodging ability and my attack speed.

I jumped backwards, barely able to avoid the orc’s strike.

It wasn’t like when I was fighting the goblin with the massive sword. This strike left no clear openings I could see. It was a strike that could kill me in a blow, but it didn’t leave the orc overextended. The second strike followed, and I jumped backwards again, avoiding the strike.

The orc seemed content to press his advantage, forcing me back towards my entrance with a third strike.

I dodged back in the same way I had before.

I cursed at myself. I’d completely forgotten my sword had a skill attached to it. Samantha had clearly made some changes to my brain, but it looked like she hadn’t improved my memory.

I dodged backwards one more time, activating Orlan’s Blade at the same time. The sword glowed a pale white color, and I felt stronger, and faster.

A quick glance behind me told me I could retreat a few more steps before my back would be against the wall that used to hold the portal that transported me here.

With mana still focused in my arms and legs thanks to Mana Modulation, and with the Orlan Blade’s effect active, I struck full force towards the orc.

The orc was forced to defend, swinging his sword to block my attack with ease.

It took all my strength to step forward and lock blades with the orc.

I stabbed my knife towards the orc’s throat.

The orc was faster than me, though.

The orc’s left hand flashed up, blocking my attack with his own knife, and the orc retreated backwards.

I followed the combat shadow, pressing the attack. My sword was already pressing towards the orc, and as the orc backed away and unblocked my blade, I stabbed forward at the orc’s neck.

The orc inclined his head to dodge, but the gray outline had predicted his movement. I managed to cut an inch into the orc’s neck, and then the orc pushed my sword away with his own dagger.

As he did, he swung his sword towards me.

I wasn’t able to block. I dove towards the orc and towards my right, feeling the edge of the blade slice into my left shoulder.

I was right up on the orc now, close enough that I was able to drive my dagger into one of the orc’s eyes.

The orc roared in fury, tossing me off him.

I flew backwards, colliding with the opposite walls.

I’d somehow managed to hold onto my dagger and my sword, though.

By the time I regained my senses and pulled myself into a crouch, a blade was whistling through the air towards me.

My outline raised its left arm to block, jumping forward and stabbing the Orlan Blade in a zig-zag motion.

I followed suit.

I felt a sharp pain in my arm, but I ignored it. I drove my sword in the same zig-zag motion, pausing in surprise to see that I had stabbed the orc directly through the throat with my blade. From my perspective, it seemed as though the orc had skewered himself on my blade.

The combat shadow jumped away immediately after the stab, but as I did, the orc managed to land his dagger in my stomach before I could escape.

Stabbing me with the dagger seemed to use up the orc’s last strength.

+80 coins

My full attention had been on the gray outline, and I noticed with surprise that the outline’s left hand was missing.

I glanced down at my arm in shock, and saw that the bottom half of my arm was severed from my body, lying on the ground, and there was a furious stream of blood pouring from my forearm.

Samantha said.

I shook myself from my daze and saw that the outline was bent over the dissolving body of the orc.

The orc left me his helmet, boots, and breastplate. By the time I had put everything into the pouch, everything around me was a blur.

I staggered towards the end of the corridor—I could barely walk, I realized. I was losing too much blood.

I kept my right hand along the wall to steady me, and I walked as quickly as I could towards my exit.

I tripped coming out of the doorway, and ended up crawling on my hand and knees to get to the podium ahead of me.

By this point, I couldn’t see anything around me except for the translucent gray outline that told me where to go.

More than the pain, I just felt tired. I just wanted to sleep.

Adrenalin that I didn’t know I had forced me up to my feet and I placed my remaining hand on the recovery crystal.

The horror of everything I’d done, the impossibility of everything around me, the state of my own mind, sunk in again.

“Please,” I said, in a half-choke. “Please, make it stop.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I felt my lungs and chest constricting in panic. I was moving my lips, but I couldn’t force enough air out to say anything else. My breaths came out in gasps.

Just as the crystal’s power died down, I raised my new left hand—exactly as I remembered it—and scratched my right arm, hard enough to draw blood.

I came to my senses the moment the Recover Crystal’s power faded. “I have one thing right,” I said, angrily. “That was too dangerous. You’re risking my life—your life. I did everything you told me to do, and I still almost died. I’m lucky I didn’t let you take me through the Hell Mode Tutorial.”

Samantha replied, soothingly.

In the upper left corner of my vision, I could see a light blue icon, that reminded me of the alpha symbol that I had used in some high school math classes. By mentally “clicking on” the icon, I saw a string of text appear in my vision.

Congratulations! You have the second fastest time for the first three stages of the Hard Mode Tutorial.

+50,000 coins

+1 to all stats

Whether by luck or sheer determination, you have defied death three times, clinging to life by the skin of your teeth.

You have gained the skill, Death’s Defier (A-rank): After your HP reaches 0, you automatically regain 1 additional HP. Cooldown: 24 hours.

I let out a low whistle at the rewards, and then caught myself halfway through. “So, you intentionally let me almost die… three times?”

Samantha said, smugly.

I opened my Status Window to see the changes:

Name:

Jarek

Level:

3

HP:

13/13

Physical Defense:

11

Strength:

10 (+2)

Mental Power:

11

Dexterity:

10

Agility:

10 (+2)

Mana Pool:

11 (+1)

Mana Regeneration:

5 (+3)

Available Points:

0

Coins:

50,300

Class:

None

Profession:

None

Titles:

Skills and Spells:

Identify (F-rank)

Mana Modulation (F-rank)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (F-rank Low)

Equipment:

Mana-infused Knife (F-rank): +1 Mana Pool, +1 Mana regen.

Magician’s Robes (F-rank): +2 Mana Regeneration per minute.

Orlan Blade (E-rank): +2 Strength, +2 Agility

Interdimensional Pouch (E-rank):

Looking at my HP reminded me of the injury I had caused myself. I glanced at the small trail of blood my nails had caused while I was under the Recovery Crystal’s influence. “I want to know every way that you’ve messed with my mind.”

Samantha sighed.

“That’s bullshit,” I said. “You didn’t just make me brave, you made me compliant. There’s no way I would have followed your instructions at the beginning. Are you influencing my decisions now?”

Samantha laughed unashamedly.

Samantha added.