Looking at the coming his way, Enok couldn’t help but let out a sad chuckle.

“Still so confident, still so prideful,” he murmured to himself.

His pride had once again made him act without any caution and made him underestimate his opponents. He wasn’t a god anymore. Just another mortal. Another mortal about to fail a test set up by other mortals.

He gritted his teeth, shaking his head.

“No. None of that matters. What matters is what I will do from now on.”

And this test, this tutorial, was the first hurdle on his path.

The basic healing of his arm was completed, so he stood up. He was still filling pain from the stump, but at least there would be no more blood loss. For reasons he could not figure out, he wasn’t able to absorb ki, which meant healing injuries would have to be done with his reserves.

Where in the world had that blade come from?

The had reached the passage’s entrance, filling it with its massive body, breathing heavily. Steam -or some other vapor- came out of its snout and it roared again in Enok’s direction, its eyes bloodshot. Its skin looked infected and its color went through multiple shades from red to purple, depending on where Enok looked.

“I’m guessing you’re the boss uh...” Enok said, “If I beat you, I win.”

He glanced at the the monster’s arms. If one ignored the tubes that went in and out, the pointy metal spikes and the veins the size of a young boy’s arm, they looked exactly like tree trunks. One good hit from those and he would be out, no doubts about that.

A yellow liquid coursed through the tubes and the suddenly jumped, fists raised over his head. They broke the stone floor Enok stood on a second earlier as they simultaneously landed on it.

The beast roared and jumped after him, but he circled around it and landed a kick on its supporting foot , pushing it backward. The landed on one knee and threw a backhand which Enok managed to avoid, while almost being sliced by the metal spikes that covered it.

The two opponents put distance between them and slowly circled around each other, the beast studying his prey and Enok evaluating his options.

He was faster but far physically weaker. Getting close enough to inflict damage meant getting inside the reach of those spikes, and he wasn’t even sure he could deal any real damage. He had almost no ki left so he was focusing as little aura as possible on improving his speed, but without enough power behind them, his punches would be nothing more than tickles to the monster. Hell, he even doubted one of his punches at full strength could really damage it. The metal spikes seemed to be extensions of his skeletal structure.

He would run around until he could not manifest any more aura, then he would be at the mercy, without anything to defend himself.

“Wait a second...”

His eyes darted around and sure enough he found it: the sword that had incomprehensibly appeared in the android’s hands was on the ground, not too far from its owner’s remains.

The damned weapon could be his ticket to victory. “Now that would only be fair,” he muttered.

He kept slowly moving, hopping to pick it up when he would get close enough, but the beast stopped on its track and started growling.

Enok cursed. The apparently did not want to get too far from the hallway entrance, which meant he would have to fight his way to the only weapon available.

Unless he was fast enough to not make it a fight all.

“Status window,” he called, and the blue window appeared in a corner of his field of view. He had gained six ability points by defeating the androids and this was a good opportunity to use them.

The growling intensified, but he was still, slowly getting closer.

He needed more speed and the ability to predict and dodge the attacks.

He added three points to Speed, two points to Computational Power and the final one to Physical Control.

Status Window

Class Rank C Aurosei Drifter Level 6

Strength 2 Speed 4 Durability 3 Perception 1 Physical Control 2 Energy Control 1 Energy Conversion 3 Computational Power 3 Materialization 1 Title None Trait Favored by Ultimecia Unused ability points 0

He felt his body getting slightly hotter, and this time the change Speed caused to his muscles was visible to the naked eye. It was like ripples across his skin, as fast-twitch fibers were modified or added. Physical Control seemed to focus on nerves - which could explain the heat sensation- and bone joints.

And as the launched itself toward him, hand extended and black goo dripping from its jaws, Enok was able to think more accurately than he would have and moved in time.

Getting out of reach wasn’t an issue anymore, but the plan was to lure the monster away from the sword. It threw a barrage of punches and Enok dodged each one by an hair breath, making sure to stay close enough to the monster’s reach to provoke another attack.

When he was about to have his back against the wall, he ducked under a swiping fist, rolled out of reach and sprinted to grab the weapon. Not accustomed to his new speed, he almost missed it, and had to jerk his whole body backward to close his fingers around the handle.

As soon as he touched it, a window popped up, the roared behind him, probably thinking he was trying to flee.

Mediocre machine blade

(Materialized, 00:05:36 remaining)

+3 Strength; +2 Durability

He didn’t even register what it meant until he felt the change to his body. His focus was on the furious mass of flesh that was pouncing in his direction.

He aimed for the most obvious weak points, the tubes. He slashed the closest one while dodging a slap that would have sent his body crashing into the wall, and the yellow liquid that was coursing through them splashed on the stone with a hissing sound.

Avoiding contact with the liquid, while staying alive and cutting the tubes proved to be a complex task, but his new blade made it possible. In a silvery flash, all the cables on the arms and legs were sliced, and the beast was now but a shadow of the fearsome creature it once was, oozing liquid and shriveled on itself in a yellow puddle that was scorching its skin even more. But it was still alive, and Enok could not leave until either the boss was dead or he was.

The only tubes still intact were two big ones coming out the beast’s neck and into the metal casing part of its back.

He only had scraps of ki left, but it didn’t matter. The timer on the sword was coming to an end, it was do or die.

He lunged forward and the reacted with a roaring attempt to smash both its hands on Enok’s body. But the whole attack fell inside his predictions and, right after stepping out of its range, Enok grabbed the nearest protruding metal spike and used it to prop himself on one of the monster’s arm. He then jumped toward its neck.

In one swift motion he slashed both cords who started vomiting their yellow bile, and landed behind the monster.

Right in front of the wall.

“Oh shi-”

But before he could escape the closing trap, the propelled itself to crush him against the stone wall, his metal spike covered back facing him.

Determined to at least not die alone, Enok plunged his aura imbued sword deep into the metal casing with a groan, as his left leg was pierced.

The beast roared once again, but this time it wasn’t a roar of intimidation, but one of sheer suffering. The pain made it suddenly turn around, in a motion that actually saved its killer.

Enok, whose leg was twice pierced by the spikes, was violently jerked around, like a puppet by its wires, and thrown across the room before landing on his back in a loud.

Face on the cold stone, unable to stand or even move, he watched the monster roar and flail its legs around, trying to remove the thorn that was killing it. But the own spikes only caused more damages in the process.

It soon also fell, except in a hissing yellow puddle of its own corrosive bile, its body twitching.

“You didn’t die because of weakness,” Enok murmured, "you died because you were out of luck."

Level up! Level up! Level up! Level up! Level 10 reached, 01 tuning token awarded.

Enok just laid there, reading the words, expecting something else. Then they disappeared and he kept waiting, feeling his anger rising. After a few a minutes, the silence of the castle was broken by his shout:

“Are you kidding me?!”

He was still in this hellish place, the tutorial wasn’t concluded. Did that mean that the wasn’t the boss?

Not even mentioning the burns and other injuries, he had lost an arm, his left leg was bleeding from two holes in it and he didn’t have a drop of ki left.

Did they really expect him to fight something even stronger in this state?

The remaining aura in his body extinguished itself, and the pain increased so suddenly he barely contained a scream.

Power source depleted Attributes only 25% effective.

His breathing became irregular as he wrestled with the pain. At least, his drifter attributes were still active when he wasn’t able to manifest his aura, even if to a much lesser degree.

That thought made him realize how convenient and overpowered they were. It was common for people to grow stronger during or after fights, but certainly not in such a way. Not by literally modifying muscles and creating brain power from what could seem like nothing.

He turned himself around and managed to sit, then, using his arm and working leg, dragged himself to the wall. After using it to steady himself, he lifted himself up with a groan. He took a second to gather himself, even with the wall as a support, and then proceeded to slowly limp along the hallway the and the were guarding. The one in which all the wires in the castles were going.

It got darker the further he went from the circular hall. Unlike what he had seen of the strange castle until now, the ceiling was low and made of the same stone blocks the walls and floor was made of. At one point the smell reached his nose and it progressively grew as thick as the darkness.

He was saving the ability points he had just earned until he could study the boss, in hope that they could salvage the situation if added to the right attribute. With no aura, eight points would be the equivalent of two, which could do a whole lot of help.

The passage turned left, and Enok faced a small room that was obviously the origin of the stench that was assaulting his nose. He could not even cover his nose, and his face was distorted in a grimace that would have, without a doubt, caused one of Kaja’s laughing fit if she had been present.

The floor was covered with a disgusting combination of black goo, fecal matters and something that was once rotten meat. There was nothing else, except a small window that made the scene visible. He had apparently found the chamber.

“How is this even necessary, considering it’s all a simulation?” he thought to himself, looking around, “why take the effort to- Oh.”

Noting its absence, his eyes had searched and found the amalgam of wires he had been following until now. Not in the room, but behind him.

It didn’t turn left with the hallway, but disappeared in the wall on the right instead, through a hole made in the stone.

Enok went back on his steps, his disgusted grimace replaced by an annoyed expression.

A trap. The left Hallway and the room it led to was all but a clever, cunning trap. It had been laid in case anyone would have tried to flee from the androids or the , wrongly thinking that the wires would guide them directly to the boss.

In the first scenario he would have been caught between a monstrous and three very smart , in the second he would have reached a small room with no exits and with the just behind him, filling the hallway.

Instant death would have been the outcome in both scenarios. He cursed.

It may have not happened, but it still annoyed him that someone, or something, had set up a trap for him.

He reached the bright circular room in which he had almost died twice, and went through the hallway he had ignored until now.

It also got progressively darker, but he could see a faint light in the distance, coming from the right and hitting the opposing wall.

There was no sound except the one made by his own breathing, and in the dark passage it was almost deafening, amplified by the echo.

He felt his heartbeat getting faster at the thought of something waiting for him, hidden in the dark. Another monster, but this time silent. Crouched, claws bared and with milky eyes watching him stupidly move toward them while he couldn’t see them.

He shook his head, reining in his imagination. Fear of the unknown was an attribute of the mortals he didn’t need. He couldn’t let his mind be corrupted by his body. What he needed was strength.

Soon, Enok came close enough to the light to notice the wires coming out of the left wall, not as a cord but separated, tightly strapped to the ceiling they were covering.

His remaining hand solidly set on the wall, he peeked around the corner, and confusion filled him in a way fear had just failed to.

Facing him, was a limp body dangling two meters in the air.

The wires went in the room and all diverged to white boxes attached to the ceiling like strange stalactites. At least a hundred of boxes, only a few dozen glowing enough to illuminate the room, and all of them arranged in circles withing circles around a thick orange stripped white cable.

The very cable to which the body was attached to, body that looked like a young male elf’s. Thought his hair was cut short, it had the frail build, the soft facial features indistinguishable from females’ and the pointy ears. At first, he wondered if he had been hung, then the swinging motion revealed that the cable, wasn’t tied around his neck but connected to his upper back. Plugged into it.

The room was otherwise empty. There was nothing at ground level.

But the air was full of electricity and Enok could hear a low humming sound as he slowly entered. His hand left the wall and he started to clumsily hop forward, with only one hand to balance himself.

Unlike the prior times he had been confronted with the strange technology, his mind could not even begin to comprehend the room’s purpose or the nature of what it contained. Was the boy the “boss”? Was he even alive?

As he got closer, he got the answer to both questions. The young elf slowly half opened his almond shaped blue eyes, and the symbol appeared above his head, with the word right under.

“Are you the one they sent to kill me?” he said, almost in a murmur, with a soft voice.

Enok studied him. His eyes were the only part of him that seemed alive, and even then, not really. There were thin lines at each articulation and characters too small for him to read were written on his outer legs.

“I am,” he replied, “I am, but I won’t do it.”

The tired blue eyes met his.

“You won’t?” they asked.

“No.”

“Why?”

He racked his brain for an answer.

By doing it he would gain more of the strength he so deeply needed to save himself and his sister. To go back home. And maybe save even more people in the process.

He knew it wasn’t a real child facing him. Hell, it was a simulation of a fake child, twice removed from reality.

He was reminded of words Kaja had said not too long ago.

“I do not want to lose myself just chasing after better odds. I... I have already betrayed myself once... I won’t do it again,” he realized he was more talking to himself, than answering the question, but it was surprisingly calming, “killing you, like this, in this situation, would go against who I’m trying to become.”

The young elf, stared at him, his body weakly swaying from side to side. Silent.

“Is there anything I can do to help you? Maybe detach you?” Enok asked.

“No. The cord is keeping me alive. But it does not matter, I am going to die soon anyway,” the voice now sounded as sad as the eyes, “this tutorial was programmed with me not having enough energy to leave, even if I killed you.”

“So you could kill me?”

“Easily.”

Enok paused, then asked, “why aren’t you doing it then?”

The boy sighed. In that moment, he truly seemed alive.

“What’s the point? I would die exactly as planned soon after.”

“Oh. I see.”

Enok tried to find a way to sit without bending his hurting leg, and finally just let himself fall backward when he didn’t find any. He fell into a small puddle of a viscous liquid and splashed it around, which was weird since he recalled the stone floor being clean. He raised his hand to his face and saw it was blood.

His blood, he realized. He had been bleeding to death without even noticing.

“Seems like you will still die before me,” said the young voice.

Enok closed his eyes.

“Yeah, seems like it.”

Silence. After a moment that could have been hours or minutes, Enok heard “Can I ask you a question?”

The voice seemed muffed, as if coming for far away.

“Sure,” he managed to reply.

“What are the stars like?” and then as if to justify himself, “I know what they are supposed to be like, but... What is it to see them with your own eyes?”

“They are beautiful,” Enok answered. He could feel himself drifting away, but there was nothing he could do about it, “they are countless loving eyes watching you from a distance, reassuring you with the fact that you will never be truly alone. I know it because I am the one who put them there, for... Someone important.”

There was silence again.

“That must be nice. Never being alone.”

“Well, I could name one after you. She wouldn’t mind.”

“Really?”

“Really. I would need to know your name though.”

The young elf who wasn’t an elf at all spoke again, but this time, Enok felt something different in his voice. Happiness. Excitement.

“My name is...”

You have completed the tutorial

You have died before the boss and won’t be awarded a blueprint.

Tuning and Party options unlocked.