Somewhere in Tutorial Block #1

Lucas frowns as he watches the leaderboards without so much as blinking.

How? Just how is she…

[#1 Alexia Knight – 1941 points]

[#2 Lucas Nightshade – 1737 points]

[#3 Leif Eriksson – 1625 points]

[#4 Aurora Frost – 1621 points]

[#5 Isabella d'Aragon – 1598 points]

[#6 Leonidas Silver – 1575 points]

[#7 Alexander Frost – 1484 points]

[#8 Noah Kowalski – 1469 points]

[#9 Nathan Briar – 1393 points]

[#10 Damien Black – 1265 points]

The gap in points between us has been skyrocketing… does that mean she’s gotten stronger? Maybe a lucky item? Or a good area in a dungeon to farm, assuming she’s in one?

Lucas shakes his head at that thought.

Of course she’s in a dungeon. She wouldn’t have been able to catch up to us much less be at the top of the leaderboards if she wasn’t.

The Hound frowns before closing the leaderboards and opening the timer on the Tutorial.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Time Left Until the Tutorial’s End

9 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes, 11 seconds

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Two more days until the last week of the Tutorial. At this rate the girl is going to win first place in the Tutorial, and I won’t be able to do anything about it…

His frown grows as he raises his head to look at his surroundings. At the large castle standing at the peak of a mountain, and at the hundreds of goblins patrolling around the castle, many of whom are hobgoblins and shamans.

Lucas even notices several ogres amongst the goblins – a Class C species that is almost on the level of a Class B species evolved from goblins.

The man raises his hand and summons black flames radiating an eerie black light above his hand before looking at the castle again.

If that’s the case, I can’t hold back.

Then he throws the ball of flames towards the closest group of goblins.

Even if I have to take a risk, I will pass that girl.

----------------------------------------

Alexia

I stare at the pool of poison for several minutes as I consider what exactly I should do about it. Because I have already cleared out all of the monsters in this area, with the exception of the boss area and whatever is down this pool of poison. Even if that took me five days to do.

A rather exhausting act, but worth it.

I open my status as I continue staring at the hole.

Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1) Level: 82 Class: Quantum Reaper Soul: 6891/7,112.5 VIT: 244 DEX: 244 STR: 244 MAG: 325 MEN: 325 Racial Skills Active Skills Passive Skills General Skills

Although I’m not going to be reaching the peak of Tier 1 before entering the boss area. Not unless this secret, whatever it is, has monsters in it.

Stolen story; please report.

Which it might, to be fair.

I’m not really sure what’s down there though. Just that I get the strong feeling that there’s something there. Most likely from my Exploration General Skill. A skill that leveled up while I was down here killing scorpions, alongside Poison Resistance.

But… is that Poison Resistance level enough to jump down into a pool of poison?

Probably not, and even if it is, I’d rather not test it. Even if my armor is resistant to poison as well.

So I raise a hand to send a Quantum Bolt straight at the pool of poison, setting the target of the skill in my mind to be the poison itself. And after doing that, the bolt strikes the liquid poison and makes the outer edges of it glitch out a little. Something I realized I could do while killing scorpions on this floor.

After all, all the skill says is that I could shoot the bolt at a target. It never said the target had to be a living creature or even a solid thing. And quantum energy isn’t solid energy at all.

Quantum energy is quantum energy.

I fire several more Quantum Bolts at the pool of poison until the entire pool is empty enough for me to see the hole beneath it. A hole that is suspiciously lacking in any sort of poison, with some sort of faint blue barrier with a few droplets of poison sitting on top of it covering the hole.

Now to see if this hidden area is a hidden boss or not.

I’m honestly a little surprised that this dungeon had more than one hidden area though. Normally that doesn’t happen. Ever.

Probably another change to the System.

I jump down into the pool of poison, being careful not to land in a spot with a lot of poison remaining. Although even while being careful some of it gets on my skin and has me hissing through my teeth as it quite literally burns through my skin, somehow turning my flesh into a gaseous state that climbs away from my body. But it isn’t much of it, so it doesn’t do much damage. And the damage it does manage to do is very limited and doesn’t last long.

So I just let my soul heal the few wounds caused by the poison before I kneel down next to the barrier and stick my hand inside. But nothing happens, unlike what happened with the boss room. So I summon my polearm and swipe it at the barrier, cutting through it and leaving glitchy purple spots on the edge of the otherwise blue barrier around the opening I created. Then I stick my hand in that opening to find a System Message sounding in my head.

[You have entered the Tier 1 Hidden Area, the Cavern of Poison.]

Sounds like a hidden boss. Which also means more EXP for me, and more levels to get before I take on the boss of the dungeon.

I jump down into the hidden area, confident that I’ll be able to leave again with my newfound ability to cut through those pesky rifts. And then I fall. And fall. And fall some more. All the way till I grip the wall to slow myself down and then continue falling straight down into a large cavern, splashing in a large puddle of poison that has me shouting in pain.

Then I realize my mistake as I look up at the hole above me while trying to grit my teeth to stop the shouting.

How am I going to get back out of this cavern now? It’s not like I’ll be able to climb all the way up to the ceiling of the cavern while fighting…

My attention is drawn to a large creature moving through the little lake of poison around the island I now realize I’m standing on. An island in the middle of the cavern that has small puddles of poison all over it.

Okay. Yeah. This may have been a bad idea.

Whatever the creature is, it looks rather large as it moves underneath the poison lake, just barely not surfacing. But even with it staying under the poison, I can see two glowing red eyes in the lake at the creature’s front.

{Poisonous Mana Eater – Level 92}

I blink at its name before muttering, “Well, shit.”