I frowned in bewilderment at the information in front of my eyes.

“Not one, but two skills? Do they come as a set or something?”

[Answer: correct!]

“… care to elaborate on that please? Why is there one passive and one active? Also, why there’s one at G-rank and one at B-rank?”

[Answer: Aura can be explained as a combination of one’s life essence and mana, shaped and embodied by his/her personality. In simpler terms, a person with a calm and gentle nature will have a soothing aura around them, making interactions with them pleasant and comfortable. A warrior that always fights on the frontlines with his life on the line on the other hand, will have a much sharper and threating aura, giving off an oppressing feeling.]

“Mhm! I get that much. However, what’s this life essence you mentioned?”

[Answer: Life essence is represented by the body’s general level of mental and physical health. The better the condition your body is in, the higher quality your life essence will b. The mental health is simply put, your happiness, stress levels, etc. The physical health is your body’s fitness level as well as your actual health.]

“Oh… But why the difference in ranks then between the skills?”

[Answer: As a passive skill, Aura is obviously, a passive bodily enhancement. Therefore, the stronger the components it is made of, the higher rank it can become. For Aura Emission, it is the same thing, however making it more difficult to increase its rank as it will become a force that enacts upon the world, outside the influence of your body. For example, coating a weapon in order to make it sharper or a shield to make it sturdier. However, it is still closely related to your passive Aura, based on the quality of it you can muster. Therefore, the moment your passive skill overtakes the active one, the later will soon follow.]

“How very… realistic. So that means I must train my body, while maintain a proper mental and bodily health as well, on top of which I also need to train my mana to a more refined level, even better if I can get a core. Only then, will the rank of the passive skill increase and once it’s A-ranked, the active one will become A-ranked as well. Correct?”

[Answer: It is slightly more complicated than that, but in general, sure…]

I was ‘slightly’ pissed off by the condescending tone of the AI that was basically calling me stupid, but I decided to address it at a later time. Now that I had the skill… hmm!? Looking at the exact same base stats with no change, even if the skill should passively grant me an extra 5%, I instinctively turned my head behind me and asked.

“Why is the passive skill not granting me anything?”

[Answer: Because your proficiency with Aura is at 0%. In order to receive the boost, you must first create your Aura and begin building it up around your body. To do so, your body must first meet the minimum physical and mental requirement. Fortunately, your mind is strong enough, however your body isn’t just yet. You can easily reach the required fitness level by training.]

“Mhm… What about the active skill? Can I use that one in the meantime?”

[Answer: Impossible!]

“…”

So that means that, if I were to fight something or someone that might have a magic affinity right now, I’d be toasted before I could even beg for mercy. Except my (probably) high stats, I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell to actually win. What’s with this trash game!? Isn’t this unplayable?

[Initializing Phase 4 – Combat experience! Loading…]

“Fuck! Must you be so ruthless!?”

At the same time as I was complaining, lights fell down upon all eight ‘game characters’ in the crash site where they arrived at, slowly turning them less visible. What specifically caught my eye was the human-like sneer on their faces when they looked between the spear-wielding barbarian and myself. There was contempt and pity in their eyes, making me doubt that they weren’t actual live beings.

“Could it be that they are ‘players’ from other worlds?”

Then, as if to answer my question, the muscles on the barbarian’s right hand visibly inflated, while he took an aiming pose. He swung the spear lightly, calculated the distance with his eyes, said some words I couldn’t understand and released the weapon in his hands…

“…towards me!? OI! System, what the hell!? Why are your props attacking me?”

The light covering the eight ‘props’ intensified and barely touched the spear as well, altering its trajectory slightly. And when I say ‘slightly’, I mean that it missed my head by not even an inch, burning the skin on my right cheek due to its high velocity in the process. Looking behind my right shoulder there was this Chinese spear with a red ribbon tied to it, deeply embed in the ground.

I gulped audibly as I heard the barbarian clicking his tongue, obviously annoyed. This fucker! What the hell was that for!? He nearly made another hole in my head!

“Can you translate what he said before he threw his weapon at me?”

[Answer: Yes! The closest translation to your language is: ‘Let’s see if we can decrease the numbers by one, shall we?”]

“Fuck! You mean to tell me that was indeed one of the players of other races!?”

[Answer: Correct!]

“And you are using them as props!? Are you insane!?”

[Answer: Incorrect! Mental sanity levels do not affect me. Also, while they do have some degree of freedom, it is only up to a certain point.]

I wanted to argue that the ‘certain point’ just referred to, almost killed me, but I had more important things to address.

“Is it reasonable to assume that the 4th Phase has something to do with fighting monsters or other players? And since they are gone but the weapon remained, I can use it?”

[Answer: Correct! Monsters to be more precise.]

I immediately sat down and began circulating more mana, to the point where I wished I could be drowning in it. Since I had no combat experience and no skills I could use in a fight, the only advantage I was able to muster would be the base stats.

If I could get my mana to level 3, maybe I will get some extra attributes as result. The only way I could think of doing that, is by further ‘introducing’ mana to every cell in my body I could possibly think of.

…

[Phase 4 initiated! Please select from the following difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Advanced, Hard, Impossible.]

I sighed while looking at my skill progression. To be so close yet so far…

Mana

A primordial energy that exists everywhere and nowhere.

Its purpose is to enhance all forms of life.

To use mana you must feel it by meditating, followed by condensing it into a core.

Different mana colors represent different attributes and different core colors represent different ranks of mana purity.

Skill proficiency: LVL 2 (86%) - Basic Mana Body (3%)

Standing up slowly, I reached behind me and with great effort pulled out the weapon I chose to have my skill based on. I wonder if I had chosen something like a sword, would’ve I been rushed at by the chick sporting the sword?

Shaking my head as if to get rid of useless thoughts, I waited for the system’s reply patiently.

[Answer: Yes! Based on your race’s traits, a random monster pattern will be generated. The monster is usually 10-25% less powerful than the player undertaking the tutorial is.]

“Mhm… What about the different difficulties levels? What’s the difference?”

[Answer: For Easy difficulty there will be only one monster you will face. For Normal there will be 3. For Advanced there will be 10. For Hard there will be 25. Finally for Impossible there will be 100.]

“Holy…”

Leaving aside the Impossible and Hard difficulties that would be outright suicidal, even facing 10 seems impossible, given that the only advantage I’ll have will be the 10-25% difference in attributes. However, even that is subjective. What if the monsters I face have 50% less defense than I do, but 40% more attack than I do…

“Is that even right? It feels that I’m overthinking things… Anything else I should know?”

[Answer: Yes! Based on the difficulty you pick, a scenario will be generated. I am required to mention that every difficulty for each player’s instance has a chance of being completed, irrelevant of how abysmal.]

“Is that supposed to be enticing? Because it is not… Can you elaborate? What changes based on the scenario?”

[Answer: The terrain, the environment, the type of clearing condition, as well as the reward based on the time-completion rate. While in some scenarios you require to outright kill your opponent, in some you are required to survive a certain amount of time.]

“Can you exemplify some types of rewards?”

[Answer: Yes! Rewards can be anything from stats, to skills, items, titles, knowledge, etc.]

“I see…”

Well, it is not as if I was hesitating because of the reward, but because of that certain ‘chance’ of completing the scenario. Which means that even if you have to defend a castle against 100 attackers all on your own, there is a way in which you could successfully do so and kill the invaders by making use of your environment. This was… difficult…

“Do I have any way of exiting if I find myself in a precarious position? Like a forceful ending of the scenario?”

[Answer: Yes! However, you may not attempt the tutorial again once that happens and you forfeit the right to any reward as well.]

I nodded at the reassuring explanation and began pondering. Based on the outright enmity the eight ‘props’ showed towards me, the chance of diplomacy working when dealing with them in the future is absolute zero. In this new world, might makes right!

So if I want to maintain my human rights, I had to be strong enough…

“The only problem is that in order to be strong enough, I have to do stupid shit like this… What if I do chose Impossible difficulty? My chances of beating that are also slim to none. Is it worth risking not getting a tutorial completion reward for something you ‘might’ get once finishing the more difficult one? What if it’s a shitty reward after all that? This is driving me insane…”

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. High risks, high rewards! This was a simple to understand concept even before this total shit-storm. Nevertheless, looking at it logically, I stood no chance in actually beating a higher difficulty than Normal, even if I don’t have to outright fight the mobs…

[Please make your difficulty selection!]

“Ugh… screw it. I chose Impossible difficulty!”

[Accepted! Initializing scenario… Mission has been generated: Assassin in the night!

Mission content: kill 100 enemies before dawn, without being caught.]

“…well fuck!”