John didn’t bother chasing the elf. Instead, he turned his attention to the arrow lodged in his shoulder, tilting his head and running his fingers over the shaft. It hadn’t gone all the way through, and the tip didn’t seem to be barbed.

“H-Hey, man! A-Are you gonna kill me?” a hesitant voice called out.

John glanced over to see the teenage boy struggling to sit up, the chains around his limbs making it difficult on the uneven ground.

Seeing that John remained silent, the boy spoke up again. “Please tell me you speak English.”

“Wait,” John replied curtly.

“Oh, thank God. Can you give me a hand?”

John ignored him. Instead, he crouched beside the corpse of his fallen opponent, rifling through the elf’s belongings. Most of the items were unfamiliar, but he recognized food, a water flask, and a sturdy leather bag—useful enough for him to take.

Next, he moved to the younger elf, the one they had called Young Master. Searching his body, John found a badge forged from a fluorescent steel, etched with crossed arrows beneath a wreath of leaves. He pocketed it before tearing long strips from the elf’s cloak.

Taking a steadying breath, he reached back, gripping the arrow’s shaft. Then, with a sharp yank, he pulled it free. Pain shot through his body, his vision blurring for a moment as he clenched his jaw against a grunt. Eyes watering, he immediately channeled mana into the wound, cleansing it and accelerating the healing process.

“Holy shit. That must’ve hurt,” the boy said. “Want help wrapping it up? I took a First Aid class once.”

John turned to stare at him. Without a word, he stepped forward, grabbed the chains around the boy’s wrists, and yanked him upright.

“Keep your hands and feet apart. Don’t move,” he ordered, gripping the hilt of his sword.

The boy swallowed, hesitantly holding his arms out. He must have understood John’s intent, but his nervous expression betrayed his doubt.

“I-I don’t think you can break them,” he stammered. “I heard the dark elves talking… It’s some kind of special metal.” His voice wavered before sinking into something closer to despair. “T-they said these chains are special. They keep us here. In this… Tutorial stage. On their world.”

“Close your eyes,” John said simply.

To his credit, the boy obeyed, clenching his eyes shut.

John bent his knees, controlling his breathing. He focused, condensing his mana, power coiling within his stance. Then, with a sharp exhale, he drew his sword—blindingly fast. Light erupted from the blade, so intense that the boy instinctively squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.

When the light faded, he peeked through his lashes—only to find his chains severed. No, more than severed. They had disintegrated, leaving only a faint shimmer in the air. The magical manacles around his wrists clattered to the ground.

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“A-awesome… Thanks!” the boy exclaimed, rubbing his sore wrists in amazement.

Then, his expression turned frantic. “Helena! Th-the girl I was with. We have to find her and break her chains too, or she’ll be stuck here! Who knows what they’ll do to her?”

A somber expression appeared on John’s face as he heard that. He didn’t like the sound of someone being stuck here. A human just like him, so far from home - trapped here forever at the mercy of those dark elves. The thought of it pissed him off.

Instead of answering, he met the boy’s gaze and handed him the strips of cloth he had salvaged. Then, with a nod, he motioned toward the still bleeding wound on his shoulder. “Go ahead.”

“Oh, r-right…” The boy hesitated before taking the cloth. Stepping around John, he carefully began binding his injury.

“What’s your name?” John asked as the boy worked.

“Justin,” he answered.

“You look young. How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen.”

John shook his head. So the System didn’t care about age. Maybe it considered Justin an adult, or maybe it just didn’t give a damn. He wondered how many other kids had been thrown into this nightmare.

“Do you know anything about this place? Or how we got here?” John asked. He had his own theories, but he wanted to hear what the kid had figured out.

“I… I don’t know much. I just heard a voice, got a splitting headache, and then I was here. But I picked up a few things from listening to the elves talk.”

John’s ears perked up, and he motioned for Justin to continue.

“This Tutorial is supposed to prepare us for something back on Earth… which means there’s a chance we can go home. But only if we survive.”

Justin swallowed before continuing. “This is the first stage of the Tutorial, and it selected a world for us to spend the first twenty-four hours in. I don’t know exactly how the System chose this world, but it seems like it has something to do with the difficulty it announced earlier - ‘Nightmare’.”

He hesitated, his voice dropping to a mutter. “Maybe that’s why we got thrown into a forest full of psychotic dark elves.”

John listened silently. Most of it wasn’t really new information - but one thing did stick out to him.

There’s a chance we can go home. But only if we survive.

Home. The word lingered in his mind. If he did make it back, would the System return him to the island? The thought sent a shudder through him. Four years of isolation had nearly broken him once. He couldn’t do it again. He’d rather take his chances here, fighting dark elves and whatever else this world threw at him.

As he brooded, he absentmindedly practiced circulating his mana, feeling it flow through his body. These new abilities… Perhaps he could develop something that would allow him to escape the island—if it ever came to that.

Then, his thoughts shifted. His fiancée.

It had been over four years since he’d last seen her. Was she trapped in this Tutorial too? Was she fighting to survive, just like him? His chest tightened at the thought, a dull ache spreading through him. A feeling he despised—helplessness.

No. He would not accept it.

Suddenly, John’s mana surged along with his emotions.

“All done! Keep it clean, and you should be good!”

John barely registered the words. His blood was hot with rage, his mind consumed by the thought of her—lost, alone, in danger. He forced a deep breath, steadying himself. Slowly, he circulated his mana, dispersing the volatile energy coursing through him.

Focused Energy Circulation has leveled up. The player has gained a new level of mastery over this ability.

Whether she was in this Tutorial or somewhere else, he would find her. No matter what.

A spark of hope flickered to life within him. He could go home. And more than that—he could escape that damned island. He could find Eliza.

For the first time in a long time, John began to look forward to the future.