Tutorial # 3
The boss — the Cannibal Dead — was one genuinely vile-looking creature.
Its basic frame was identical to a Dead of Darkness, but it stood about twenty centimeters taller, hunched even deeper at the waist, and its maw bristled with jagged fangs like something straight out of Venom, jutting out at every angle.
It was a design engineered to trigger instinctive terror: one bite from that thing, and a whole hunk of flesh was coming away with it.
And in my head, the strategy guide written by the warrior I revered began to play back, line by line.
"The boss, the Cannibal Dead. Damn scary-looking, isn't it."
"It's quick and vicious, so watch yourselves. If it bites you, go ahead and consider it over."
"But you've got a beginner's one-handed sword in your hand. As long as you're holding that, you win the reach game every single time."
"Back in ancient Rome, there was a type of gladiator that fought wild beasts, you know? The gladiator won most of those bouts. Know why? Whenever the beast came charging in jaws-first, all it took was pointing the weapon at it to keep it at bay. Supposedly it was so mind-numbingly boring that the crowds never gave a damn about it."
"Fight it the same way. Hold your weapon out and threaten. It'll come barreling in for a bite, then pull up short."
"Keep hunting for those openings and your instincts will sharpen. Once you feel like you've got the hang of it, go in and finish it."
I had simulated this moment countless times. The government had taken charge of the Tutorial response from the very beginning, so they'd released plenty of 3D footage of it, too. I knew exactly how the thing moved.
"Grrrk...!"
The probing match had begun.
The Cannibal Dead shuffled about, its head jerking wildly from side to side. Prowl around like it was searching for something, then lunge out of nowhere — that was its pattern.
Anyone with a weak constitution would freeze on the spot, get seized, and die with their throat torn out. People of every age and gender had died exactly that way, month after month.
I refused to go out like that.
—PAH!
"KRAAAAAH!"
The Cannibal Dead kicked off the ground, maw split impossibly wide.
It honestly reminded me of the first time I ever watched Jaws.
A mouth every bit that monstrous.
But it wasn't a speed I couldn't answer. Holding my stance with the sword leveled at the thing, I stepped forward instead—
"Krk!"
Mid-lunge, it swerved and fell back.
The retreating creature shuffled around, eyes locked warily on me.
"Heh heh heh. What's the matter? Is the sword keeping you away? Come any closer and you get skewered first — isn't that how it works?"
I had the upper hand.
With that thought driving me, I kept walking forward. The Cannibal Dead backed away in step, and inside the ring of that boss room, I was the one calling the shots now.
Don't be scared! Get up and fight!
"Come at me, you bastard!"
"Grrrrrk!"
Maybe the taunting had finally pissed it off — the Cannibal Dead kicked off the ground again, both arms stretching out toward me.
"HAAH!"
I let out a battle cry of my own, surged in, and swung the sword in one big arc. The thing threw its arms up to block—
—THWACK!
My blade split halfway through its left wrist.
"KEHEEEAGH!"
Black blood fountained from the wound as the Cannibal Dead shrieked.
Without missing a beat, I took one long stride in and thrust the sword at its torso.
—SQUELCH!
The tip of the blade punched clean through its sternum.
"Kehagh, kehak! Kerek!"
—Crunch, crunch!
Impaled through the chest, the thing snapped mindlessly at empty air, still trying to menace me.
Don't you dare flinch — push in! Run it straight through that sternum!
"DIIIIIE!"
—SQUELCH!
I put my weight behind it and drove the blade in even deeper.
"Urk."
The Cannibal Dead stopped moving.
Naturally, I did not stop.
"Time to flip your sundae inside out!"
Just like the old comedy webtoon taught me, I grabbed the hilt and twisted hard, over and over, gouging the wound wide open.
"Grrrk..."
I kept that up for a good while.
—Thud.
The Cannibal Dead crumpled to its knees.
—Ssssss.
Its body began to dissolve into black smoke.
I won.
I actually won!
"AAAAAAAHHHH!"
Letting loose a roar of victory, I read the message window that bloomed open like a grand finale.
You have defeated (BOSS) Lv. 5 Cannibal Dead.
EXP Gained: 100
Coins Gained: 100
Take down the boss, bank 100 EXP, level up — that was the deal. As for the points you earned, you just spread them around sensibly once you saw what class you ended up with.
You have cleared the Tutorial.
Beginning random class change as a reward.
"There it is! The class change is here!"
It was finally time for my class change!
"Come on, Tier 1! I'd even take Tier 2!"
At the very least, let it be a Warrior and I'd ask for nothing more in life!
If I became a Warrior, I could at least walk the same road as the man I admired!
Warriors were the dependable staple tanks, welcome in any party anywhere. Sure, if your skill build went to complete shit you'd be in dire straits, but there was always demand for a Warrior. Above all, the most common class of all was the Warrior — which meant it was also the class you were most likely to land.
The random class change rolled like a roulette wheel. The class you landed on was decided by pure luck — the community had long since concluded that no pattern existed.
All I could do was pray.
"Please, Warrior. Please, Paladin...!"
I was the type who only ever played Warrior in games, so there was no question what I wanted. Warrior would be perfect, and if I hit the Tier 1 Paladin, that was a straight-up lottery jackpot — Paladins were the fraudulent bastards who tanked, dealt, and healed all by themselves.
"Huh?"
"Not Martial Artist! Fuck off! Get lost!"
Not Martial Artist!
While I was screaming and clawing at my own hair, Martial Artist rolled over into the next slot.
"Phew. Nearly jumped out of my skin."
My relief didn't last.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I beg your pardon?!"
Dark Warrior?
What the hell kind of class was that supposed to be?
"Status window."
So these were the Dark Warrior's starting stats?
Every single stat was spread evenly at ten. And a couple of brand-new stats had been tacked on top, at that...
A skill card has been granted as a reward.
You may now enter and exit the Tower 1st Floor.
You may now use the Climber Board.
Now exiting the Tutorial Zone.
Blood Knight: Genuine trash. This thing is a melee warrior that gets stronger the more of its own blood it burns — but the moment you're spending your own blood, you can't tank, and since you're hovering at death's door you can't even commit to dealing damage. Climbing the Tower is not a game; it's real life. A melee warrior that has to keep itself half-drained at all times = Tier 4. I took one into my party billed as a tank, and the guy kept hovering next to the ranged DPS instead. Never invite one to your party.
Druid: In all my life I have never seen a class this far beyond comprehension. This demented lunatic's core skill is shapeshifting into animals, and transforming unequips all your human gear. In other words, you become a wet paper bag. Can't use items. I still have vivid nightmares where I'm a Druid, shapeshifted into a bear, getting the snot beaten out of me. I beg Grandpa Dangun for mugwort and garlic in my dreams — the whole bear-to-human package — and he still won't hand it over. Says Druids are hopeless cases, so no.
Elementalist: You folks kill monsters every day, right? See a pack of trash mobs, what do you think? Ah, right — gotta clear them all and farm, don't you? Well, Elementalists summon those trash mobs, fucking lol. There's a saying that the field mobs in the Tower only keep respawning because these Elementalists bastards keep refreshing them, yep. Nobody's inviting them to a party, but they're a public service. Word is their ceiling is high — you ever actually seen a high-level Elementalist, though? At least I haven't. Far as I can tell, they all play solo.
Martial Artist: A legendary class. Can't equip a weapon. There just straight-up is no weapon slot in the system. You fight bare-fisted. At least a Druid turns into a beast to fight — the Martial Artist bastard is just a human being. The stats are decent at least, so early on you can sort of use one as a tank. But after that, it's over. Just park yourself on a low floor and live off coin farming. That's your reason to exist. Or go open a taekwondo studio. Just think of it as a legendary class.
"Hold on. There are exactly four Tier 4 classes, aren't there?"
Even the posts of the high-level warrior I revered had nothing on the Dark Warrior.
"Then what the hell class even is it?"
I'd planned to come home and bust out a little victory dance, but with some class I'd never seen once in my life slapped onto me, I was in no state to celebrate.
"Information that never even leaked onto the internet?"
I closed the window.
Climbers had access to the Climber Board, and that was where the real information got posted. The reason I'd searched the regular internet first was simply to dig up more on the warrior I admired.
"Climber Board, open."
The moment I summoned the community, a window bloomed in front of my eyes.
[Climber Board]
The Climber Board — the Board, for short.
And now, at long last, I could use it too.
Plenty of Climbers were chatting away on it, but this was no time to go poking around. I had a Dark Warrior to research.
Please set a nickname.
Once set, a nickname cannot be changed.
Climbers were supposed to pick unremarkable nicknames so their identities couldn't be pinned down.
Nickname: Tyson123
I settled on a nickname on the spot.
Now then — let the search begin.
"Dark Warrior... Dark Warrior..."
I ran a full-board search, and nothing came up. I spent the next few minutes just clicking over to the next page, and the next.
Then I found one post.
I really did go looking for a class more trash than the Martial Artist, so here's the info lol
Wow, so classes like this really do exist lol
At first I honestly thought, hey, maybe this is some rare job on the level of a Tier 2 Magic Swordsman?
Look at it — seems similar at a glance, right?
But nope, not even a little lol
First of all, the Magic Swordsman is a phys/magic hybrid, sure, but its caster skills are genuinely good and it can sub-tank on top of that — hence Tier 2? And stat-wise, all it needs is Agility and Magic Power in the first place.
The Dark Warrior is a phys/magic hybrid too, except it apparently also has to specialize in the dark attribute. Meanwhile its skill set is a Warrior's.
"It's a Warrior, so just build it as a tank, no?"
Nope.
The skill set is partially shared with the Warlock, so it barely has any tanking skills. The kit is built around damage skills, so you're forced into the DPS role.
"Then just play it as a melee DPS like a Rogue?"
Like I said — hybrid, plus attribute specialization. Even if you want it to be melee DPS, the shared Warlock skills throw errors all over the place. Its buffs and debuffs are jammed in there awkwardly as hell too. And it has to split investment between physical and magic attack, so how exactly is that out-damaging a Rogue that dumps everything into physical?
To sum up: it's a Warrior with Warlock skills wedged into its kit like a bad appendix. And on top of that, it has to go dark-attribute specialist.
Good for nothing, either way.
Its foundation is Warrior, so even ranged DPS is off the table.
Stats? Strength, Agility, Vitality, Magic Power. It has to pump all four of our primary stats. In cultivation-novel terms, that's being born with Four Spirit Roots, yep.
Conclusion: it has no choice but to fight on the front line, but it's not tank-specialized, so it's pure misery. And even with someone else tanking for it, it can't put out damage like a real DPS class.
The character is just one cluttered mess.
It can't commit to any one thing.
And even when it commits, it's impotent.
The Blood Knight at least has the excuse that its players are rarer than Rogues — and once it's burned through its blood, the damage does come out. The Druid's a disaster too, but bear form can still tank. Even the Elementalist can shove its spirits out as meat shields in a pinch, summon ranged spirits in the back line to deal damage, and then feed the ranged spirits in one at a time to keep tanking more or less indefinitely.
Even the goddamn Martial Artist has decent efficiency in the early floors. Raise one well and parties will take it along when there's no Warrior. The problem is that Warriors are never in short supply — and well-raised Martial Artists don't exist.
If you just class-changed into Dark Warrior, abandon all hope, yep.
There's a reason there's zero info on this class.
It's stupidly rare, but such complete garbage that it has no presence whatsoever.
It's so bad it can't even make it onto the tier list lol
"..."
"Is this for real?"