When the system revealed that killing the final boss would let the winner help others, Mark realized he had been working for naught. That was just the perfect way to let the most talented fighters stand out. Heroes would be born from helping others in a much better way than he could design with no resources.
The tutorial wasn't just about making people stronger. In hindsight, that was obvious. If it just wanted to give humankind strength, it could probably inject it on them like it had healed disabilities and made them immune to disease. Maybe even inject knowledge straight into their minds; who knows?
Instead, the tutorial was testing their resolve and craftiness. It was acclimating them to whatever would come next. It was building an army of experienced soldiers rather than individually powerful warriors. Didn't it claim they needed one hundred million Guardians in two years? Not a singular strong one, many.
He would even be willing to bet the next stage would either be a group stage or something to show them they needed to group together to fight stronger foes. The first stage's final boss had also served that purpose.
This wasn't a game-like tutorial, it was a boot camp.
Unfortunately, every boot camp had a way to push a select few to become eliters or leaders. That's what really worried Mark. If he couldn't stand out by himself, no one would follow him and his plans would fail. If he couldn't get in touch with Shen as an equal, he wouldn't become his temporary enemy, much less his companion later on.
So when the orc warrior appeared, he did his best to kill it alone, and he succeeded after only eighty attempts.
Even that was only possible because the monster acted like some sort of robot at times. Its attack patterns were very rigid and, despite its superior agility, it reacted little faster than Mark himself could after seventy attempts. He was improving quickly.
Way, way too quickly, to be honest. That explained to him what the system had said about even those who left at the earlier stages getting superhuman strength. He doubted anyone who hadn't gone through the tutorial could match him in a close-ranged battle back on Earth, and that was without using AP to improve his stats other than the little extra health he had acquired.
After killing the boss, he started helping other people to get both their goodwill and extra AP. The latter was almost as important as networking. He had seen thousands of islands still with people around him before, so he had thousands of opportunities to get extra AP!
Eventually, some assholes he had saved started competing with him for the AP. Things got ugly enough that one of them backstabed him, only to learn the hard away that dealing damage to a fellow human caused them to get double the damage back. The dick had been low on health points and died because of that.
'Serves him well,' he had thought.
He kept doing his best, but he took some time to kill the boss, and many times a lot of people helped, so the damage he could do was limited. At least a lot of helpers died too, a bunch of opportunists with no actual power.
In the end, even he ended up dying despite not being an opportunist, simply because there was no healing provided between fights, and he still took some damage here and there—not to mention the backstab. He had gotten himself a little over five thousand AP by then, and it had taken him forever to help kill so many bosses.
Unfortunately, the lack of healing, more than anything, limited how much AP someone could get.
On the next stage, he quickly improved his rank and stats and bought himself a healing crystal, which he kept on his shield hand. If needed, he could crush it easily.
He entered the second stage, hoping it would let him finally talk in private with Shen.
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The second step of the Foundation Establishment step was the Blood Flowing step. It involved circulating the qi to make the heart, lungs, veins and arteries more effective. His blood was already better than a mortal's, but that wouldn't matter if he couldn't get to where it was needed fast enough.
Shen cultivated for about two hours before he felt enough pain in his chest and throughout the body to be forced to stop.
> Health Regen | 2→ 2.1/h
> Stamina Regen | 0.6 → 0.7/min
It surprised him to see both his health and stamina regen to increase by the same numerical amount, but he liked it very much. He had just saved almost 300 AP by cultivating. It might be slower, but it clearly had some advantages to it.
When he was done, he opened his eyes and stood up in empty air. There was no change to the surroundings from the moment he had arrived.
"Next stage," he said, and that did the trick.
Tutorial - 2nd Stage
The second stage is about hunting.
The world below you is filled with enemies ranging from the G to E rank. Kill at least one hundred F-rank or ten E rank enemy to be eligible to battle the final boss.
If you don't die until you kill the final boss, you'll get an extra reward.
There are many middle bosses throughout the world. Killing them will net you extra rewards that are different according to each boss. You don't need to kill them to kill the final boss, but it's highly recommended.
You can choose any place in the world to start. Whether or not it's a safe place will depend on your luck. The Multiverse Alliance has learned that luck plays a large role in our continuous survival.
Don't worry, if you get killed once, you'll be reborn in the closest safe area. However, if you get killed twice, you'll be expelled from the tutorial.
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Guardian trainees from multiple tutorials will be placed in this same world. There's a small chance you'll meet some of them in here.
You have thirty Earth days to succeed in your hunt. You can check the remaining time at any point by saying, "Remaining time."
Choose your starting position by focusing on it.
Fight well!
That was a simple enough stage. Shen looked at the world below and saw many places from jungles to deserts. His F-rank vision let him detect what he thought was the optimal place, and he focused on it.
An invisible force moved his body forward at a high speed. He kept focusing and getting closer to the place he was looking at until he was assured that it was just what he wanted: a vast grassland beside an endless forest. The forest started there because of a running river not too deep into it, which was the main reason Shen had chosen that place. He had learned that despite not needing water to survive, getting thirsty was still uncomfortable.
There were other places with water, but he felt the grassland was safer than the middle of a jungle. He had no survival skills to speak of, no hunting ability either. He would learn, of course, but he knew better than to thrust himself into a situation beyond his control.
When he was getting closer enough, he seemed to go through some sort of veil, because instead of the empty grassland, he saw what looked like a makeshift fortress made of stone and metal close to where he wanted to land.
The system wouldn't let him stop or go back to reconsider his placement though.
Like a shooting star, he fell a few hundred yards away from the fortress. When he was about to smash on the ground, he suddenly halted, then was gently placed on his feet.
He should be right beside the forest, but a second veil seemed to disappear and changed the scenery once more. Instead of fully grown trees, he saw a lot of stumps going halfway to the river, which was about a five minutes walk away. The air was thick with the smoke coming from the dozens of charcoal burners not too far from him. And both manning them and felling the trees, he saw new creatures that looked like a mix of human and beast.
They had brown hide and were humanoid, but had the hoofs for feet, pig-like nose, and curved horns.
"Inspect."
> Minotaur Worker (F) — 150 / 150
It seemed he had gotten lucky. G-rank enemies would likely not be a challenge anymore, while E-rank might be beyond him. He might even meet his killing quota in the fortress, no true hunting required!
He clenched his spear and ran at the closest minotaur.
The seven minotaur workers by the burners, wearing dirty grey robe, were so focused on their work that they took a while to notice his approach. When the first one noticed Shen, he was only a dozen yards away from it. It froze for an instant, but managed to raise its head and let out a loud roar just before his spear pierced its throat and shut it up.
The spear did only a hundred points of damage, so it didn't die in a single thrust. Shen just kept running, this time diagonally to the minotaur, using the spearhead blade, still imbued into its throat, to cut it off.
It died the moment it was beheaded.
> Minotaur Worker (F) | 5,811 -> 5,821 AP
The six remaining minotaurs ran away while roaring to the top of their lungs. That attracted the attention of the about twenty fellers not too far away from him, which were wielding axes and wearing leather clothes.
Instead of running away, those minotaurs ran straight at Shen.
He didn't wait for them to surround him, but ran at the one closest to him instead. Killing it fast would mean one less enemy to worry about. He got close to it and used his Gale Footwork for extra speed at the end, thrusting his spear through his neck and beheading it much like he had done to the previous minotaur. It hadn't expected the speed increase and didn't even raise his ax on time.
> Minotaur Feller (F) | 5,821 -> 5,831 AP
That minotaur had been close to another one, which managed to swing his axe at Shen. The movement was way too wide and slow though. He easily sidestepped it and thrust his spear twice against its neck in quick succession. That was enough to kill it.
> Minotaur Feller (F) | 5,831 -> 5,841 AP
That was also enough for him to realize the fellers were even weaker than the middle boss, only slightly stronger than the green-skinned orcs. Shen had confidence in killing even the final boss with some ease, so the incoming...—he took the time to count—...nineteen minotaur workers wouldn't be a challenge even if they surrounded him.
He waited, killing them as they came. He was like a whirlwind, dancing in the middle of them, his spear swinging and thrusting, killing them in three to five attacks depending on where he hit.
Soon enough, the last of them was turning into motes of light.
> Minotaur Feller (F) | 6,021 -> 6,031 AP
By now, the coal workers had already reached the fortress, and a loud horn sounded.
The fortress was a mess of stone and metal plates placed to build something like a three-story box surrounded by walls about five times Shen's height. He turned just in time to see the wall's double doors open, and ten minotaurs wearing leather armor with some metal plates, wielding spear and shield, rush at him.
"Inspect."
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) — 200 / 200
Now, that was a challenge.
Shen gripped his spear and advanced.
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Suktuk-amorak wasn't a Shadow like all his subordinates. He was a true pure-blooded minotaur chief, respected and feared by many. He was also a criminal that had been found and captured by his fellow Guardians.
He had never liked the Multiverse Alliance. They forced their peaceful rules over all members despite their local culture, only allowing conflict between willing combatants, and hunting any who used the "forbidden arts" to grow strong.
Their laws were just unnatural. The world was struggle, nature was the survival of the strongest, and suffering was part of life. It was Suktuk-amorak's right to use the death of his inferiors to step above them all, even if they were unwilling.
He had even found a way to hide from the Guardian System while his ritual sacrifices were happening, but someone had betrayed him, and now he was but a stupid boss of a tutorial, restricted to the F rank, with a pittance of health points. Even his stats were only at the F+ tier. He hadn't felt so weak for hundreds of years.
That was the only way to avoid capital punishment, and it was considered a very safe kind of prison, so he had chosen it. The tutorial's second stage was always the same, and the chosen host world was always enormous. What were the odds that one of the million or so Guardian trainees would arrive at his fortress? Even if they did, could they really kill him?
His stats might be limited, but he was still superior to both Shadows and Incarnations. He had the experience of a true living mage and didn't need to sacrifice parts of his memories to fight a little better.
So he was surprised when a Shadow rose the fortress's alarm, soon followed by others. He could hear it even in the middle of his fortress, in his prison cell that looked like a shitty throne room.
He cast a spell at once.
Mana was an energy handicraft to be easy to absorb and work with. He merely willed it, and together with his understanding of the Laws of the universe, reality was bent to his will. The air in front of him turned into a window that let him watch his fortress from above. It didn't take him long to find and focus on the source of the alarm.
As all bosses, he had been briefed on the new race the Alliance had integrated, humans. The one he was seeing was young, if he wasn't mistaken—it was hard to tell with new races—but wielded his spear like a veteran.
Suktuk-amorak snickered. New races were given too many advantages in their first tutorial, including paying only one tenth the cost of anything. To buy an F-rank Learning Ability Upgrade for 50,000 AP was a dream for many! If he had had those advantages in the past, he would never have had to resort to sacrificing his inferiors to grow stronger.
He had failed in the second stage of the combat tutorial, but it had been only a fluke! It was the Alliance's fault that he was here, from beginning to end! The Alliance's argument that new races didn't have the time to train or the privilege of forewarning was but a lie to suppress him!
A lie!
The scrying spell with only an F+ magic stat to fuel it dissipated after less than a minute, and he was back to looking only at his empty throne room. He was only the figurehead of the fortress; a set of tutorial rules controlled it. Instead of crushing the invader with overwhelming numbers, the Shadows would attack with increasingly large numbers or stronger beings until the trainee felt confident in approaching.
Still, he hoped the human would be strong enough to arrive here.
Suktuk-amorak wanted nothing more than to kill the lucky bastard.