After the deed had been done and the body had been buried, me and Hassan made our way back to the outpost he was in charge of. I knew he wasn’t exactly in the best of moods right now, but he hid it well as we walked around camp. Many people had tried giving me various things as thanks for dealing with the assassin, but I had politely declined almost everything offered. Not out of the kindness of my heart mind you, but mostly because I didn’t need a sword or any armor pieces. The leather was all made from the hide of deer found on the first and second floor, and at my level my skin was tougher to pierce than the hide of any level 1 deer.
The one thing I hadn’t declined was the food offered. You will never hear me admit this to anybody back at my camp, but the food I was getting used to was nothing compared to the tasty skewers of meat I had been given by one of the cooks present. It had even been seasoned with what I can only assume was some kind of ground up plant. I’d chatted with him briefly, and found out that he was a Michelin star chef before getting dragged into the tutorial.
After goodbyes were given and people were done showing their gratitude, I began the short journey back to my camp. It was only around half an hour of jogging, and approximately 40 kilometers of forest. I took that time to really appreciate just how fast I could run now. I was well beyond what any human could have even dreamed of achieving without the help of stats, and with how things were looking I still had plenty of room to grow.
After arriving back on camp and informing the leaders that the assassin was no longer an issue, they had let out a collective sigh of relief. They had tried to say something else, but I just turned to walk back towards the staircase. A hand on my shoulder stops me.
“Can I ask you something?” Ben asks me, looking serious.
“What is it?”
“We only have about three and a half weeks until it is time for all the d tier individuals to exit the tutorial. We aren’t exactly sure what is going to happen to them, but our current best guess is that they are going to return to Earth.”
“This doesn’t really seem like a question.” I say.
“Let me finish. We need some of the people going to be a high enough level to deal with any potential threats. We wanted to know if you would be willing to help train some of them, or at least supervise them while they train so they don’t die.”
“How many people would I be training?” I ask, not really liking the sound of this.
That part makes him a little hesitant to answer, but eventually he does. “As many as you can manage preferably.”
I sigh, taking a moment to think about that. I get an idea, and look at him.
“Here’s the deal. I won’t help anybody who hasn’t yet reached level five. If they haven’t at least done that then they would just be a burden on everyone else. How many people does that narrow it down to?”
“About 30.” Ben answers, seeming to have memorized the group of potential “students”.
“Alright, tell them all to meet me at the staircase by the time the sun rises.”
“Will do.” Ben says before rushing off to find them all. The faint red horizon made it clear the sun would be rising soon, so I went and stood next to the staircase, patiently waiting for everyone to arrive. I counted each one as they did, noting their class. Only twenty nine of the thirty had showed up by the deadline. Nine of them were mages, four of them healers, three archers, and twelve fighters.
We were about to head down to the second floor when another person came running up. They were a fighter and had clearly been running a bit late.
“You the last person?” I ask, already knowing that he was.
“Yep.” He says in a mood that was a bit too chipper for my liking. I couldn’t fault someone on being in a good mood though.
“Alright then, lets all get going.”
The group goes down to the second floor, and as the last person arrives I turn to the group. “Who here has yet to go to the third floor?”
All but 5 people raise their hands, with the late fighter notably being among those who hadn’t raised their hands.
“Of those who have been, who has completed the third floor?”
Nobody raised their hands this time.
I point to the nearest goblin city, a small dot in the distance only visible thanks to my high perception. “You are all going to down to floor three. We meet back right here in exactly 24 hours. Anybody who has yet to complete floor three will not receive any training.”
A few mutters go through the crowd. They had not been expecting such an ultimatum within 30 seconds of the session starting. After the thirty of them rained hell upon the poor unsuspecting goblin city, they had all disappeared down to the third floor.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I smile to myself. Just like that, I had the next 24 hours to do just about whatever I wanted. I didn’t want to go down to the fifth floor just yet, as I wasn’t completely sure if I could make it back to here within 24 hours, but there was plenty more productive things that I could do.
__________
Grant stared down his enemy as their swords were locked against one another, their strength exactly matching each other. Neither could get the upper hand in this battle of pure power, but given that the gladiator in front of him wore no armor over his upper body, he knew he could take a risk that the other man couldn’t.
Pushing his opponents sword away, Grant steps in close and sends his sword straight towards the stomach of the gladiator, his hit was fast enough to strike true, and when the gladiator attempted to get a hit in, his sword was stopped before it could reach the heart it had been aiming for.
Grants hand screamed at him with pain, having been pierced through in order to protect his more vital areas. With a quick motion he yanked the sword out and up, taking a good few steps back. The attackers sword was dislodged from his hand as Grants own weapon cut more and more flesh, bringing the gladiator to his knees.
With one more motion, Grants sword pierced through the chest of the gladiator, finally bringing down the tough opponent.
You have slain Human (level 9)
You are now level 10
Everything suddenly went black as Grant reached what he knew was the level required to reach evolution.
__________
Basic Mana Manipulation (Common) has been upgraded to Mana Manipulation (Uncommon)
Basic Mana Manipulation (Uncommon) has been upgraded to Advanced Mana Manipulation (Rare)
Practicing my mana control for 24 entire hours had proven to be quite good for improving the skill related to it. This was the first time I’d truly dedicated time to improving my control over it since evolving, which had made it relatively easy to improve enough for a skill upgrade. Nothing had fundamentally changed about the skill, but the stat bonus I got when manipulating mana had increased a noticeable amount. I had also seen other benefits thanks to my work.
You are now level 20
You are now level 21
Each upgrade had been accompanied by a level up, and each level had made controlling my mana just a little bit easier. Overall it felt like time well spent, and I felt even more prepared for floor 5 than I had been before. I had even gotten another skill selection at level 20. The choices had all been the same as last time, except for the fact that I could upgrade my mana shield. Some of them were a higher rarity than the last time they had been offered, showing that they would be more powerful as well. I ended up picking mana barrier, as I felt like my defense against magical attacks was sorely lacking when compared to my physical defenses.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. My students returned to me exactly when they had been instructed to. Out of the thirty I’d sent off, 15 of them had returned. Only three of the mages, eight fighters, and 3 of the healers had made it back. It was interesting to see that only a third of the mages had made it back while three quarters of both the healers and fighters completed the floor. All three of the archers had made it back, and that distribution of the classes had worked out perfectly for what I had been planning.
“Glad to see you all finished.” I lie. “Now, group up into three groups of five. One healer, one archer, one mage, and 2 fighters on each team.”
I wait a moment while they shuffle around, eventually forming the groups I had desired.
“Perfect.” I say, pointing at one of the groups. “You five, we are going down to the fourth floor.” I point to another group. “You five, meet me here in three hours.” I point to the last group. “You all meet me here in 6.”
Me and the group I had chosen all go down to the fourth floor. I follow them around for three hours, having made a very basic pocket watch with mana-festation to keep track of time. It didn’t actually tell me the time of day, but just let me know how long it had been since I’d made it. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t have been able to make it if I hadn’t upgraded my mana manipulation skill, but all that mattered was that I was able to do it.
For the entire three hours, I don’t need to interfere at all. The team has it handled. They do take a few nasty looking hits, but at no point was I worried that they might get overwhelmed. In that time, they had all managed to reach level eight, with the archer of the group having reached level 9.
After they had taken down the first two level 10 kobolds, I stop them from continuing. “I am going to head back to the second floor now. If you think you can continue, you are free to do so but I won’t be there to bail you out.”
I begin running back of the cave system the way we came. Since the group had been walking the entire time, occasionally stopping to fight something, I didn’t actually have to run very long to get back to the entrance.
My time with the next group plays out much the same, except for the fact that I had needed to deflect an arrow headed straight for the healers head. Other than that, another incident free session.
The third group is far more interesting than the other two. It seemed like the strongest out of the 15 had decided to all get into one group, because not a single one of them was lower than level eight. One of the two fighters had even evolved to level 10 during his time on floor 3.
Thanks to this, the group absolutely tears through the floor, having made it halfway down the floor by the time was up. Every single member of the group had evolved by the three hour mark, a true testament to how much experience you gained when fighting enemies that were a full evolution above you. The only person to reach level 12 was the fighter who had started at level 10. That was a testament to how much less experience you get when fighting as a group.
I tell them the same thing I told the other two groups, keep going if you want, but I am not helping any further. To my surprise, they unanimously agreed to keep going further pretty much immediately. I had expected them to keep going, but they seemed way more enthusiastic about it than I had anticipated.
Once I was finally freed of all obligation for the time being, I ran back up through the caves to go and do what I had been waiting to do for a while now but kept getting distracted from.
It was time to go to floor 5.