“What about our families?” shouted a man.
The elf looked miffed at the interruption but sighed and answered.
“Every human has been taken to a Tutorial. There are countless instances of this Tutorial to reduce the number of people in one area. If they survive, you may see them again,” she explained. “Now! Moving on! There are four difficulties to the missions, and you can choose each for yourself. They are; Easy, Medium, Hard, and True Challenge. The first three are static difficulties, but the True Challenge difficulty is designed to be very lethal, no matter what path you take; in turn, it will grant the greatest rewards.”
Nobody spoke as they waited for the elf to continue, but Mark spotted several people with a look of greed on their faces. He recalled that those were the people who looked the best when they appeared here, seemingly having succeeded or adapted quickly.
“You can choose to enter a mission solo or as a team of up to five, but if you do, the rewards will be split among the members. Teams can only choose Easy to Hard difficulty, as the True Challenge will be individual. Finally, no matter how long you use in the mission, only three hours will pass here. The vendors will open for business once those three hours have passed, and you may purchase items from them. You will always gain some credits from the missions, which will be your currency moving forward. Go forth, and prevail!”
She disappeared again, and Mark tried to glean any insight from it, but it was too quick.
He saw most people looking around and grouping together, and many people looked at him. He quickly realized that he was among the strongest here, as his stats were ridiculous, but he remembered what the guide said. He had to choose the hardest difficulty if he wanted to improve the cultivation method, so he simply walked up to the closest crystal and placed his hand on it. Nobody had activated it yet, since they were too busy teaming up or considering the risks, but he saw the confident, greedy ones move just slower than him.
Several lists opened up to him, most of which related to various crafting missions or other non-combat endeavors, but he was only interested in the combat section.
Relatively simply, it only listed the difficulties, and he immediately chose True Challenge before he could convince himself otherwise. The world warped around him, and he was transported.
He tried to watch what happened, but it was over in the blink of an eye, and the only thing he got from it, was the sensation. It felt like a tug within his abdomen dragged him forward. There was also the way everything spun and warped just before he was transported. He thought it was space being twisted as a hole was drilled through the fabric, and he got an idea about how the insight of distance affected the void concept.
Did the void allow him to drill through the fabric of space between two distant points? He didn’t get more time to ponder that as a message appeared.
[Defeat the Beast of the Deep Forest.]
A roar sounded immediately after he read the message, and Mark looked in that direction. He saw only trees, tall, broad trees, in every order. The roar sounded like it came from a long way away, but the fact that he could hear it meant it was far closer than he was comfortable with.
He had hoped to experiment, but now he didn’t dare.
Steeling his nerves, Mark started walking. He moved slowly, trying to inspect everything around him and hoping to see the beast before he was spotted, but it was not to be.
He had kept vigil over his surroundings, but he hadn’t looked up, which is why he was slammed to the ground, as claws dug into his back, when the beast leaped on him from above.
Mark desperately struggled to twist himself around and tried to kick off the ground, but the weight of the beast kept him pinned, and he felt the creature’s breath on his neck.
Mark panicked and reached deep into his mana pool. He had just started thinking about the void and using it to pierce through the world, but he had no other recourse.
He pushed the mana out of his body, seized control of it, and infused it with void energy. He shaped it into a thin, sharp drill and forced it forward while thinking of a spot a few meters away.
He felt his mana drain rapidly and feared it wouldn’t be enough; he’d chosen a nearby location because he figured longer distances meant higher cost. He despaired as the dizziness started manifesting, but then he fell.
He only fell for a second before hitting the ground again and immediately scrambled to his feet.
He saw the creature a few meters away from him, and his eyes widened in surprise.
It looked like a tiger, except it was made from roots and bark, but what surprised him was that it was howling in pain as blood spurted from its front legs. Front legs, which were missing its paws.
He saw the paws on the ground behind him, as the void had apparently cut them off. Mark didn’t waste any time, fearing it would somehow recover, and picked up a rock.
He steeled his nerves again and dashed forward.
The tiger was fast, but the pain and lack of paws made it unable to react in time, as Mark repeatedly smashed the rock into the beast’s head.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
It took half-a-dozen hits before he felt a surge of energy enter his body, and a message appeared.
[You have passed the trial, calculating rewards.]
[Cultivation Method expanded.]
[Skill guide granted: Blink.]
[Challenge tier(4)*1000 credits awarded.(4000)]
[Returning to Tutorial Space.]
Mark didn’t have the mental fortitude to examine the teleportation, as he was incredibly dizzy, but he was relieved as he returned to the Tutorial Square.
He was confused that he hadn’t gained any levels but couldn’t focus on that either, as he just sat down and rested.
He was quickly interrupted by murmurings, though, and he realized many people were still around.
Sitting on the ground, he looked around and saw a large crowd of people looking at him wide-eyed.
He was bloody and tired, so he didn’t care about them.
He sat there for half an hour, ignoring the people asking him questions, but he eventually rose.
He did learn that he had been gone for only 20 minutes and was the first to return. He explained that he had to fight a beast, and it was close, which is why he returned so soon.
Rather than answer a ton of questions he didn’t know the answer to, he excused himself and said he had to return to his house to heal.
He sat on his couch and rested until he got the message that the vendors had opened.
He returned to the square to see a scene of chaos. People were screaming as they reappeared with gushing wounds, one returned with both legs missing, and many looked utterly shell-shocked. He noticed that only one of the confident ones had made it, but he didn’t look so confident anymore. He was covered in wounds, though nothing life-threatening, but the look in his eyes told Mark he wouldn’t try the hardest difficulty again.
The vendors had opened up in the buildings surrounding the square, and they all had clear signs above the doors.
Mark saw one that said it was an alchemy shop, and he rushed in.
“Do you sell healing potions?” Mark asked the person behind the desk.
“I do,” said the elf. “Though I have a limited supply.”
Mark didn’t wait to ask how many he had but returned to the square and lifted the most injured one. He saw the one who had lost his legs had died from the blood loss, so he grabbed a woman who had lost a hand. He carried her into the shop while shouting to the rest.
“Healing potions are sold here!”
That caused a rush of activity as people charged into the store, but Mark had gotten to the vendor before the first ones reached the door.
“Do you have anything that can heal her?”
“Of course, but a potion of regeneration is far beyond what you can afford. A normal healing potion of good quality costs 300 credits.”
“I’ll take five.”
The elf turned and took five bottles from the shelf behind him, and a window appeared in front of Mark. It asked for 1500 credits, and he immediately accepted.
He grabbed the bottles, opened one, and poured it into the woman’s mouth. She had managed to wrap her hand with a strip from her shirt, which had slowed the bleeding, and now Mark watched as color returned to her face.
He put her down, and she was about to speak to him, but he rushed back outside.
He healed another three people but saved the last potion for himself. Many people lay dead on the square, but many more congregated around the shop. Far too many still lay bleeding, but they were on their own without anyone getting potions for them.
Their chances fell when shouts and roars sounded from the potion shop, and Mark heard them shouting about it having run out.
It looked like a fight was about to break out, but a wave of energy blasted from the stage as the elf appeared.
“No fighting in the town!” she shouted. “Any violence will be severely punished.”
People were shouting and screaming, but the elf only looked at them with a passive look, like she didn’t care.
“The shops will restock every midnight and noon. Return then to purchase your potions.”
Mark looked at her aghast, wondering how she could be so callous, but soon realized it was the System.
“Why is the System doing things this way?” he asked the elf.
“Because it wants you to struggle and strive. Those who fall were not worthy of power, while those who live might be hardened, tempered by the experience.”
She disappeared again, as it was clear that nobody would risk fighting after her warning.
The excitement he’d felt when he learned magic, and even after the success against the Beast of the Deep Forest, faded immediately when he considered her words. They implied that he would be fighting for survival and that only those who excelled would find a place in the world. The weak would always be at risk due to being incapable of fighting, while the strong would always be pushed harder and harder to reach new heights.
He stood silently on the square, barely hearing the cries and sobs from the wounded and desperate as he pondered this new reality but eventually concluded that it changed nothing. He would still strive to improve, to learn as much about magic and space as possible.
With newfound resolve, he started looking over the other shops, but only two interested him.
One sold armor and defensive equipment, and the other sold books. There were a few historical and informational books about the Multiverse and the System, but there were also countless books on theoretical magic and other topics. A few Cultivation Methods lined the shelves, but they didn’t interest him.
The books were all expensive, with the cheapest at 500 credits, which happened to be a general information package about the Multiverse.
He ended up buying the info book and one about mana manipulation.
The mana manipulation book should increase his understanding of mana while explaining certain things about concept infusions.
He couldn’t afford any of the armors, as the cheapest was 3000 credits, so he left that shop behind for now.
He walked around for a while, examining every shop again, but nothing else drew his eye, so he returned to his house after checking the mission crystal. He could only do one mission per day, so he had nothing else to do but return to cultivation. He’d save the 1000 credits he had left for the next day. Maybe he could buy a couple more potions before his next mission.