Even if they swung the same way, the fact that the goblin was shorter than Noah caused the results of their swings to be different. While the horrid little beast intended to cleave into Noah’s side, his sword sailed right through the thing’s neck. Causing blood to spurt everywhere.
Seeing what he had just done caused Noah to finally feel nausea for killing a creature. The spray of blood and the rolling head finally hit home what he needed to do. Despite being safe, Noah fled back to the bonfire room to rest. He had always been disgusted by excessive gore in movies, and seeing the lifeless head caused him to remember the horrible gore-filled fight aftermaths some films used to appear “gritty”
He sat there for a good while just trying to avoid throwing up. No matter what he did, the scenes of what he would likely need to do kept running around unbidden in his mind. “Fuck it, next stat increase in Wisdom. I just hope it’ll help me control my thoughts better.”
Finally standing up, Noah finally realized a prompt that seemed to have been delayed from his reaction to killing the goblin.
[All goblin fights completed. You can now go through the first tutorial zone without worrying about being attacked.]
Noah couldn’t help but chuckle at the statement. It might have been a reward for people who didn’t want to fight much, but for him, who needed so much to power himself up to survivable levels, he couldn’t help but feel it was subtly demeaning him… that or negativity was starting to boil over.
“Time to see what I have to do next.” Hopefully it would be a scenario he could more easily escape from. Everything seemed more peaceful. The room seemed to be darker now that the goblin was gone, but he was still drawn to a small brown fragment on the ground. Picking it up, he found it was a wooden splinter. Following the instinct that had become natural to him at this point, he placed it on his sword.
[First disarming recorded: weapon sharpmness enchant available, give energy to realise the potential.]
Noah smiled at that. Making the sword sharper would make it more effective, and since it was an enchant, it seemed it would do more than just boost the attack power. He didn’t immediately move to enhancing his weapon for the third time and instead, continued to the exit to the room. Once again the stone doors slid apart slowly to allow Noah access, but into a room that he did not expect.
Spread out in front of him seemed to be a small garden room. Grass covered the floor and he could tell just from stepping on the ground with his shoes that he was no longer stepping on stone.
[Trial 2: Using opportunity.
Information: along your journeys you will come across resources that you may use in multiple ways. In front of you is an array of spiritual plants with varying abilities. You must chose which plants are worth taking however.
Extra details: spiritual oplants will extract the energy from the air when they are uprooted to stay alive. 100 nature energy is filling this room and when each plant no longer has the energy to support themselves, they will wilt when harvested.
Success condition: none]
[Trial 2 complete]
Seeing the notifications caused confusion to overcome Noah, right before unease overcame the confusion. The idea that a tutorial made by that god would focus on how his chosen heroes made decisions meant that preparation was a large part of this new world. Meaning Noah would be at an even bigger disadvantage when he left the tutorial.
“Damnit, if I just focus on the negatives then I’ll never get out of here.” He tried to chide himself, shaking his head to try and rid himself of his thoughts before he moved to the center plant. A fiery red flower blooming where it seemed to be able to get access to every part of the room.
[Igni Heart bloom: Flower brimming with the fire element. It is commonly used as a substance to create alchemy concoctions or as a secondary substance in forging to create fire attunement.
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Maturity status: late
Energy harvest requirement: 100]
Noah could only give a forlorn smile at the flower that was in the middle. This was the big one. Did you go for the thing that had the highest price tag and potential, or would your needs be served better by something cheaper.
Moving up to another plant, he waited to see what it would be able to do.
[Cyan soul: small herb that can be used in healing concoctions. Prized for it’s lack of poisonous reactions, it is an excellent base material for many low risk potions and pills.
Maturity status: early
Energy harvest requirement: 50]
Noah smiled at the obligatory healing herb. The statement abotu the fact that herbs had a set of poisonous reactions reminded him of the pill toxicity stuff he read about before he came here. Looking around there were other plants with varying effects. Some ranging from trade-off effects like a berserking mushroom with a light necrosis effect, andsome tubers with the ability to increase one’s stats.
Steering well clear of the stat increasing tubers or anything with a base effect that ended without much improvement, he could only stand back and wonder. The fire flower was very tempting. He could likely use it to refine his sword and make it flaming, or even use another seed on it to give himself some flame attunement, which would help in many situations. But the more he thought about it, the more the healing herb sang out to him. Many of his fights ended with him nearly dying. And the only reason he survived was because he managed to reach the healing room before things became critical.
“I need to see what the next trial is before doing anything. If I rushed things now, I may come across a fight with something poisonous, and then I’d need an antidote, not a healing potion.”
Having said that, a new worry was starting to form. At this point he had used barely any of the resources given to him other than the goblin fights. Would he just be quickly defeated if he didn’t spend his time to use what he had? He couldn’t help the negative thoughts pervading his mind, and while it did firm his resolve to level wisdom, he was afraid things would go out of hand if he didn’t find something to shine a little hope.
The third door opened with as little fanfare as the second, but this time there was a set of stairs in front of him. “Glad I didn’t go with the fire flower too quickly. These stairs would have made running back to get healing far harder.”
There were 2 to 3 flights of stairs before Noah reached the entrance to the next room, letting him appreciate the changes his constitution had done to his body. He would have likely been feeling the burn in his old body, but with how it degraded, maybe he would have barely made it up here.
What he found was a set of wooden barricades set into exits to the room, each with inscriptions lettered in a language Noah couldn’t read. With one holding one large runic engraving covering most of it’s surface. Noah would have thought more on the golden engravings on the last barricade before the third trial was displayed in front of him.
[Trial 3: Knowing your world
Information: Without the ability to read the language of this new world, you will be unable to reach very far. Use the scroll on the table to the side of the room to learn the deciphering technique for the most common language of the new world and pass the gate. Each gate requires something different from you to open, and while all gates hold a reward, only the first gate is needed to be opened to pass this trial.
Success condition: fulfil the task of the first gate.]
Reading through what he would have to do on the next trial caused him to frown. Maybe his theory that the world was all about combat was off. If you needed to learn ancillary techniques to last in the world, combat skills may have been the only thing he could learn since everything else didn’t apply to this world.
Turning to the table with the open scroll caused another notification to appear.
[Due to the failure rate of previous applicants, a gift has been issued to all who take the trial. Please learn how to create a core so you are not dependant on the surrounding energy.]
Noah was confused as to what that meant, before another screen appeared.
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