The First Challenger to Conquer the Tutorial
The scene beyond the second tutorial door was more mundane than I had expected. Or rather, it looked identical to the previous Tower of Tutorial. A vast, empty space.
You have entered the tutorial.
Time Limit: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds
Another tutorial? On the floor lay the same equipment as before: leather armor and a sword.
Moving to the 1st Floor.
The space began to shift again. A dense forest, even the unpleasant humidity—everything was the same.
Hunt all Giant Rabbits.
It was certain. For some reason, an identical tutorial was playing out again. However, there was one difference...
Thump-thump-thump-thump!
The small, white rabbits had transformed into bipedal, hulking muscle-rabbits. They were as large as a sturdy adult man. Instinctively, every cell in my body screamed: *If you get hit this time, you die.*
I erased the fact that this was a "tutorial" from my mind and gripped the sword with both hands. *Whoosh!* The Giant Rabbits leaped high, intending to crush me. Suddenly, their movements began to slow. To be precise, everything slowed down. I could even feel the flow of the air moving sluggishly.
“What is this?”
In the midst of it, I saw a blue, human-shaped figure. Like a clone, it wore the same gear as me and swung its sword. Although its attacks didn't make contact, I felt it with my entire being—what swordsmanship truly was. Concise movements. Steady breathing. Protecting the body while simultaneously cutting off the enemy’s breath. It was textbook swordsmanship.
The clone repeated horizontal slashes over and over. Its intent was clear. The clone’s actions were a perfect answer key. It was a problem where I could just watch and copy to succeed. All I had to do was replicate the clone’s actions perfectly.
“Hup!”
I inhaled and stepped forward. Planting my feet firmly, I used the strength of my entire body to swing the sword as wide as I could. The most fundamental of basics: the slash. *Swoosh!* The sword, swung wide, cutting through the air, advanced without obstruction. Anything it touched tore like wet paper.
“Is this... talent?”
The clone didn't stop, pushing forward. Attacks naturally linked into further attacks. Extreme concentration. I even mimicked the clone’s breathing, not missing a single motion. I followed in its footsteps, copying every action.
Slash—!!!
My heart felt like it would burst, and the pain made my muscles feel like they were melting, but only one thought occupied my mind: *Don't stop.* This was an opportunity for growth. A precious time to hone my swordsmanship without any interference. Once the tutorial ended, I didn't know when such an opportunity would come again.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The Giant Rabbits lost their will to fight and fled one by one. But the clone didn't seem interested in chasing them. Instead, it held its sword high. Even without speaking, its intent was conveyed. I, too, followed the clone and raised my sword high. And at the same time, I brought it down with force.
Shing!
I cut the air. No, to be precise, I cut the space itself. Chamgyeok. Everything in my line of sight was sliced in two. Trees, rocks, and even the Giant Rabbits that had already fled far away.
Rumble—!
The scene was as devastated as if it had been bombed. With a single attack, the tutorial space had been turned into a wreck.
Tingle—
The aftermath. I felt an immense pressure, so much so that it was hard to even lift my arms. Perhaps it was a side effect. My body couldn't handle it.
Pop—
The clone, having fulfilled its role, vanished. In less than five minutes, I had internalized its swordsmanship. Is this what talent is? Simply by watching and following, I had rapidly absorbed its techniques.
You have mastered Swordsmanship (Beginner).
You have acquired Talent Points.
Was it because I mastered swordsmanship? Or because I hunted the mobs? The criteria for acquiring points were ambiguous. More importantly—beginner level. If it had this much power at the beginner level, wasn't it quite strong?
With the last technique I learned, Chamgyeok, completing the tutorial didn't seem like a big problem. Then, the talent I wanted to purchase was... magic. It wasn't so much that I wanted to buy it, but I had been curious about it from the start. Because it was a talent that could never be learned in reality, and one that no one could possess.
Magic
- ???
- ???
- ???
What was this? The talents in the magic category were written in a language I had never seen before—neither Korean nor English. Even when I pressed them with my finger, there was no reaction. It seemed there were conditions attached to purchasing talents. The condition I roughly guessed was... witnessing? In the case of combat talents, they could be sufficiently found in reality. Compared to that, magic... it probably didn't exist.
Moving to the next floor.
Let's save it. With the talent for swordsmanship and the talent for evasion, I judged that I could clear the tutorial sufficiently. The situation I needed to prepare for was the main game beyond the tutorial. Until then, I had to earn as many points as possible.
“Hiyah!”
I raised my sword high and slashed diagonally. It was the most powerful and useful technique I had learned from the clone: Chamgyeok.
Shing—
The mobs rushing at me met their deaths without knowing why. Precisely sliced in two. Easy. Unlike the first tutorial run, it took only 30 minutes to reach the 9th floor. I had used only one potion, and even that was just to wet my throat.
10th floor. The final stage of the tutorial. The mobs I had faced in the first run were a pack of gray wolves. Except for the freezing environment where my feet sank deep into the snow, they weren't particularly difficult opponents.
“Ah. Ah.”
My voice echoed. A terrible darkness where I couldn't see an inch ahead, and an empty space. Relying on my senses, I stepped forward cautiously.
Click—
An unpleasant mechanical sound. I immediately stepped back.
Whoosh—
Something passed through the spot where I had been standing just seconds ago. Was it an arrow?
Click—
The path I had come from wasn't safe either.
Whoosh—
The trap activated again. Something sharp grazed my thigh.
“Ugh!”
I had been arrogant for a moment. I was high on my own success after learning just one swordsmanship technique. I couldn't block things flying out of the darkness with a sword. If so, the only thing I could trust was—the talent of evasion.
It was time to utilize the talent I had never used before. Unlike before, the clone didn't appear to demonstrate the action directly. However, after triggering a trap, there was something that caught my eye.
Whir— Whir—
In a split second, less than a second, footprints appeared on the floor and then vanished. The time the footprints remained was ridiculously short. I had to react. Advancing step by step would only lead to a slow death. I would rush into the darkness, following the footprints that had irregular strides and intervals. That was the only way I could think of.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—!
I fixed my gaze on the floor. I couldn't afford to miss the ever-changing positions of the footprints.
Whoosh—!
The pain of something piercing my skin. The identity of the trap was, as expected, arrows. It was impossible to dodge all the arrows flying from the darkness. However, if I followed the footprints marked on the floor, I could at least avoid a fatal wound.
“Aaaaaah!”
I ran. Even if I felt like I was going to die from being out of breath, I ran. Stopping meant death anyway. If it came to that, I’d rather die running.
“This was insane!”
After Choi Suhyun entered the tutorial, Ariel headed to the managers' waiting room. The atmosphere was boisterous. There was even laughter that wouldn't normally be heard.
“Hey, a real nutcase just came in.”
“Hahaha! He’s a total madman.”
“More than that, he’s actually dodging the dangerous traps. Is he just lucky?”
“Do you think he’s dodging them knowingly?”
The protagonist on the screen in the waiting room was Choi Suhyun. He was running through the darkness with several arrows stuck in his body.
“Ariel, he’s the participant you brought in, right?”
Choi Suhyun was sprinting like a madman through the final stage, which was designed to ensure no one could clear it. No one had ever conquered it, but there was definitely an end. In the 10th floor, where hundreds of traps were installed, Choi Suhyun was running toward the end while triggering only one type of trap.
“If we leave him like this, he’s really going to clear it. What are you going to do?”
Originally, the final stage of the tutorial was to die, then meet the operators and participate in the game. Choi Suhyun was on the verge of succeeding in a strategy that everyone else had failed, ignoring that procedure. Since the game began, there had been no case where the 10th floor was conquered. They either died by traps or were kicked out due to the time limit. But the participant Ariel herself brought in was on the verge of clearing the tutorial.
“......”
Most of the managers were Elves. It was because of their most unique ability among all races: foresight. For the amusement of the gods, the managers found individuals with the potential to win and made them participate in the game. Among them, Ariel was unrivaled. She could see the future, from as short as a year to as long as several years ahead. What she saw in Choi Suhyun, who had no talent whatsoever, was... nothing. To be precise, it was just faintly obscured by something.
Was he a mutation, or had her own ability deteriorated? Bringing him here, despite him failing the eligibility requirements, was purely out of Ariel’s curiosity.
“He really passed.”
“He cleared this? And a human at that?”
“What was the record again?”
“One hour. And that record was also a human.”
“Should we even count the one who crawled like a coward?”
Ariel stared intently at Choi Suhyun on the screen and turned away. He was a mutation. There was no problem with her foresight ability.
“It’s over.”
Choi Suhyun, having broken through all the traps, lay on the floor, gasping for air. Seeing that sight, everyone closed their mouths as if they had promised to do so. A deep silence. The managers looked at Ariel with stiff expressions. No one knew how to react to the appearance of an unexpected human.
“I will go report this.”
It was Ariel who broke the silence. The first person to conquer the tutorial had appeared. This news would flow not only to the game’s operators but also to the participants of the game through the managers. His future was clearly dark. It was dark to begin with, but now it was certain. The participants would surely try to find him to either recruit or kill him.
“I guess I was wrong.”
Choi Suhyun’s invisible future. She had simply thought it was because his death was not far off. But after seeing him conquer the tutorial, she had no choice but to admit it. That she had been wrong.
“It’s going to get interesting.”
At that moment, she couldn't hide her smile, thinking that perhaps Choi Suhyun might bring great chaos to this game.