Chapter 5. Tutorial (3)

At some point in time, after walking for a long time, Yeon-woo noticed that there was some kind of pattern to the traps.

‘There’s a difference in how attribute points are given depending on how I deal with the arrows.”

For example, if he struck a steel arrow, his Strength rose, if he dodged, his Dexterity rose, and if he was hit, his Health rose.

It seemed to work that way because the different ways he handled arrows stimulated different attributes. However, it wasn’t always accurate.

Moreover,

‘Arrowheads with different colors were sparsely mixed within the other arrows.’

As his stats were steadily rising, he became more and more sensitive. And before he knew it, he could actually ‘see’ the arrows.

At first, he thought he was wrong.

It was very small, but various colors were painted on the tip of the arrowheads.

But the light was too dim to tell the colors apart, and it was hard to check all the arrows at once when they all flew from different directions.

And the fact that most of the arrows had only normal arrowheads also made him think against it.

However, as his vision strengthened and his ability to see dynamic objects increased, his suspicion gradually turned into certainty.

The colored arrowheads were there for certain.

‘The colors I’ve seen until now… was it red, blue and yellow?’

Yeon-woo was lost in thoughts.

‘What on earth is it? Why do they have different colors?’

Then he remembered what he had seen in the diary.

Now that I think of it, nothing in the tutorial was made for no reason, even the smallest little thing.

Everything had a certain meaning to it.

And the most curious thing was that. The colors painted on the arrowheads.

‘Jeong-woo hadn’t found out the secret behind this either. Is this some kind of hidden piece?’

His brother had barely passed Section A with his teammates, but Yeon-woo had been going at it by himself. This difference seemed to have helped him find the hidden piece that no one had found before.

Yeon-woo resumed moving, thinking he should try it out.

*Swish*

Just in time, out of six arrows that were fired at him, there was one with a blue arrowhead.

‘What I can check right now are my Attributes and Skills. If so.’

Yeon-woo avoided all the other arrows and only struck the blue one.

*Tang*

[Your Strength has increased by 1 point]

[‘Sense Strengthening’ skill proficiency has increased. 4.2%]

The messages informing him about the growth of his Strength stat and skill proficiency appeared.

It wasn’t ineffective, but.

‘This isn’t it.’

Yeon-woo shook his head.

‘There must be something else. A distinct difference that separates them from the other arrows.’

After a long time, another colored arrow flew in. This time it was red.

Yeon-woo turned around and dodged all the arrows except for the red one, which he then parried.

He could feel a twinge in his wrist from parrying the arrow, realizing it was heavier than the rest.

[You have blocked a red arrow]

[Your Strength has increased by 3 points]

‘This is it!’

Yeon-woo felt himself sobering.

A drastic increase in Strength.

It was a big difference from the usual slow growth.

‘Status window.’

[Player: Yeon-woo Cha]

Trait: Cold-blooded

Strength: 19   Dexterity: 19   Health: 14   Magic Power: 21

Skills: Draconic Eyes(0.0%), Sense Strengthening(4.3%), Foresight(0.0%)

Yeon-woo faintly smiled.

As time went by, the growth speed of his attributes had been slowing down little by little.

Now, he found a way to increase his attributes once again.

‘Each color must be related to a different attribute. Red was Strength. Then, what about the other ones?’

When he blocked the blue arrow, nothing happened. This meant that different actions are required depending on the color.

As soon as Yeon-woo came to a rough understanding, he proceeded much faster.

*Swish*

The blue arrow was faster than others.

This time, he didn’t strike it but narrowly avoided it.

[You have dodged a blue arrow]

[Your Dexterity has increased by 2 points]

The yellow arrow was sharper.

Because striking and dodging actions were already assigned to different colors, he put out his left arm just to see if it worked.

*Puck*

[You have been hit by a yellow arrow]

[Your Health has increased by 2 points]

“This is crazy.”

Yeon-woo barely managed to pull out a portion of the arrow before his expression turned into a frown due to the pain. Feeling as if his arm was falling off.

He inhibited the nerves in charge of transmiting pain as much as possible, and had only exposed the parts where the bones and joints wouldn’t get damaged, but it was clearly a something a normal person wouldn’t do.

He started feeling dizzy again because of the loss of blood.

He was barely holding himself together thanks to his increased Health. But without it he would have already fallen.

And then,

*Cough*

Yeon-woo coughed a mouthful of blood. The blood dripped down from the palm that was covering his mouth.

Inhibiting his nerves didn’t make the symptoms go away.

The pain was spreading along the nerves in his left arm throughout his whole body.

He kept retching.

He was on the verge of fainting.

His body was warning him that he couldn’t endure it anymore. That it was already crazy that he had endured so far, and that if he didn’t have some rest right away, he would actually collapse.

Yeon-woo, however, gritted his teeth again.

‘This pain is nothing compared to what Jeong-woo went through.’

Even though Yeon-woo had not experienced it himself, he was well aware of the pain his brother had suffered, because he had watched the recorded images in the diary over and over.

If he couldn’t stand even this, there was nothing he could do for his brother in the future.

Yeon-woo forcefully pulled out the yellow arrow from his left arm.

His body had already reached its limit, but in the process, he had achieved what he desired.

Red is Strength, blue is Dexterity, yellow is Health.

Then, all he needed to do was to act according to each color.

There was still a long way to go before reaching the end of the passage.

Through his senses, he could feel that there were still lots of traps. Which also meant that there were lots of attribute points he could still raise.

Once again, blood gathered in the bottom of his jaw.

Yeon-woo swallowed it back and moved along. His eyes blazing like flames.

One step at a time.

Yeon-woo rushed with tottering steps.

*  *  *

“Ohyohyohyo. He is truly an amazing participant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a character.”

Thousands of screens were floating in several rows in front of the guardian Yvlke, Showing all players currently participating in the tutorial. They all had different looks.

However, Yvlke’s eyes were fixed only on one screen located in a corner.

In there was Yeon-woo, who was trudging down a passage as if he was about to fall any moment soon.

‘Originally, he shouldn’t be such an eye-catching individual.’

In fact, this tutorial round had a lot to see.

Not only the siblings from the Cheong-lam family, the most anticipated ones among the One-horned tribes, but also the dumbass duo who are aiming to become rankers, and a swordsman of Marcusian descent.”

Each one of them was strong enough that even if they started climbing The Tower straight away, they wouldn’t fall behind.

They had already entered Section E early on and had been carrying out missions. Some of them were already in Section F.

It was unknown who would be the one to achieve the highest score in this tutorial.

However, Yvlke’s eyes were strangely fixed on Yeonwoo, who had been stranded in Section A for days, rather than those in Section E.

He thought Yeon-woo was going to die after a few steps when he first showed up.

And that this little fucker without any ability would get above himself and get fucked.

But Yeon-woo completely exceeded his expectations.

Others would struggle to pass through or even be annihilated in Section A, even if they formed parties, but Yeon-woo gradually made progress by himself and even found the hidden piece hidden in the arrowheads.

And with an iron will, he was steadily raising his stats by taking advantage of the hidden piece.

Even though Yeon-woo’s body was clearly in a state where it wouldn’t be strange for him to fall down at any minute.

‘This guy, he’s the real deal.’

After being a guardian for such a long time, he could feel it intuitively.

Other frontrunners were also great, but this was the guy who was going to turn the whole tutorial on its head.

“There will still be a lot of dangers waiting ahead even if he manages to break through this section, but if he can pass the other sections as wisely as he is right now….”

Yvlke adjusted his monocle.

Yeon-woo was already reaching the last part of Section A.

“I think this round of the tutorial will be a lot of fun. Ohyohyohyo.”

*  *  *

[Player: Yeon-woo Cha]

Trait: Cold-blooded

Strength: 29   Dexterity: 33   Health: 30   Magic Power: 21

Skills: Draconic Eyes(0.0%), Sense Strengthening(8.3%), Foresight(0.0%)

While he was walking down the passage, Yeon-woo check his status window and clenched his fists.

‘All the attributes except for Magic Power have risen sharply.’

Compared to when he first arrived, he had earned a total sum of 55 attribute points..

‘In order to raise their attribute points, one has to train regularly or push themselves over the limit. Even though I’ve been tackling it as a solo player, the amount of achievements I’ve made so far in one day should count as decent.’

No, actually it was not just decent.

It was a great accomplishment.

None of the other players were able to improve their attribute points by this much in such a short term.

‘It’s not just this. My muscle strength, mobility, endurance, explosive power, and power in general has increased.’

It might have been physically difficult, but the result made him satisfied.

he was a little disappointed that he couldn’t raise his Magic Power, but he erased the idea from his head because he didn’t feel the need for it right now.

*Grin*

Yeon-woo pushed the iron gate in front of him with a slight smile on his mouth.

*Creak*

[You have arrived at the arrival point.]

[Your wounds will be healed.]

It was the moment when he reached the iron gate that what seemed like an endless passage ended.

Yeon-woo was already as exhausted as he could be.

His body was riddled with traces of blood, and there were a couple of arrows that hadn’t been pulled out yet.

His head was burning from continuously focusing too much on his senses.

He didn’t know what other traps were waiting beyond the iron gate. Still, Yeon-woo opened it and stepped past.

Then, what appeared in front of him was a room of around 10 pyeong[1] of space.

At the same time,

*Whoosh*

A swarm of white lights rose along the wounds where bloody pus was forming.

The wounds started to slowly heal and the pus subsided. His worn out body was also being filled up with energy.

The base was designed to allow players who were hurt and tired from passing through Section A to recuperate.

Yeon-woo felt both relieved that he could catch his breath, and satisfied that he had grown to this point.

*Sreuk*

And he fell asleep without realizing it.

*  *  *

‘Did I fall asleep?’

Yeon-woo’s body felt stiff.

As he saw in the diary, it was possible to recover one’s physical condition at the arrival point.

When he noticed his wounds were being treated, he felt a sense of relief and only wanted to take a nap for a while.

But he slept more than intended.

And when he opened his eyes to check the time.

“Peekaboo?”

Suddenly, a man whose face was covered under a robe waved his hand towards Yeon-woo.

Yeon-woo was so surprised that he quickly stood up and jumped backwards. He quickly brought his hand to his waist.

Cold sweat ran down his back.

‘This man, what is he?’

How come he never noticed a person being right next to him?

His Sense Strengthening skill was clearly active.

The skill was scanning the entire room, but this guy was the only one to avoid it.

As if he was isolated from the world.

In that moment, a description from the diary rushed upon his mind.

Occasionally, merchants would pop up at the arrival point, and they sold items that players needed for a price. Ranging from ordinary food to potions, skill books, and all kinds of different artifacts, the merchants sold everything there was.

“The mysterious merchant?”

“Hoho!”

The man in the robe let out a chuckle and clapped his two hands.

*Clap*

Then, the space behind the man distorted, revealing shelves stocked with miscellaneous items.

“I’m glad you know who I am. Salutations, my gullible, I mean, lovable customer! I am A, a passing merchant.”

[1] 10 Pyeong(평) = 33m2