Tutorial (2)

The moment I grasped the emerald glow, a message bloomed before my eyes.

Grooooooowl!

As if on cue, the emerald light in my hand surged and writhed, carving out a distinct shape in the air.

This is... lightning?

Yes. No matter how many times I blinked, there was no mistaking it — this was the form of a lightning bolt.

- You've landed something truly fine!

Ellaon had apparently caught the meaning behind that lightning shape, for he cried out to me in a voice brimming with excitement. And then—

I, too, soon came to understand exactly what that bolt of lightning meant.

"Ah."

An exclamation burst from my lips.

Mythic grade? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Something you could stumble across as casually as a stray mutt wandering the neighborhood?

I stood slack-jawed at the sheer unreality of it.

- Well? Do you not think you might just manage the very highest grade after all?

Had Ellaon seen this coming all along? The incantation that had seemed so hopeless at first suddenly felt well within my reach.

This was a Mythic-grade skill, no less.

Granted, it was only 1-Star. But then, nothing above 1-Star skills could be learned below level 10 anyway — which meant that on the 1st Floor, skill grade was everything.

Out of the billions upon billions of Ascenders in the world, how many had ever laid hands on a Mythic skill?

And I'd certainly never heard of anyone learning a 1-Star Mythic. Which meant I was very likely the first for that, too.

'Heh heh ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heh.'

A self-satisfied chuckle escaped me.

'Let's check out Thunderbolt.'

I wasted no time pulling up the details of the freshly acquired Mythic-grade skill.

"Wow."

The exclamation tumbled out before I could stop it.

From the magic attack stat down to the special effects, these specs simply could not belong to a 1-Star (★) skill.

The magic attack alone was an insurmountable wall for its tier — a 1-Star Legendary skill topped out somewhere around 60 to 80.

And the special effects? Where do I even begin. Starting with the mana reduction, then shock, stun, critical rate, and a chain effect on top of it all.

This was the kind of thing that made you want to ask, 'THIS is Thunderbolt?'

'Mythic grade really is a class of its own.'

The instant I read those specs, conviction settled into my bones.

Chewing straight through the tutorial wasn't actually impossible after all.

The message arrived right on schedule. The currents of space twisted, and in the blink of an eye the scenery turned inside out.

Ku-GUGUGUGUG!

The cosmos-like void vanished, and beneath my feet, a landmass of bare rock emerged.

'Rocky terrain.'

The change in landscape could only mean one thing: the curtain had risen on the real tutorial.

"Grrrrrrr."

A savage howl rolled in from the surroundings. Goosebumps raced up my forearms. The air turned leaden all at once, and from every direction, monsters wreathed in shaggy brown fur came prowling into view.

Bared fangs, bristling snouts. Standing just over a meter tall at the shoulder, they looked uncannily like hyenas.

- Nolls, of all things.

Ellaon cried out the moment he laid eyes on them.

Nolls. And they were not level-1 monsters. These were level 3, no less.

Which was exactly why something felt off. As far as I knew, the tutorial was supposed to spawn 1-Level mobs like slimes, wasn't it?

- Obtaining a Mythic-grade skill seems to have raised the difficulty. But if anything, that works in our favor. You stand to earn an even higher score.

Ellaon framed it as a windfall, but I couldn't bring myself to agree.

"Grrrrrrr."

"Yip! Yip! Yip!"

A pack of a good dozen-odd Nolls, drooling as they began to charge at me.

I-Is this for real?

Even if this was the tutorial and I wouldn't take any actual injuries, I'd heard that the pain you felt in the moment was every bit as real. If those vicious fangs tore into me from head to toe, the agony would be beyond imagination.

- What are you doing?! Cast Sage's Aura, then use Thunderbolt immediately!

Startled by my first taste of real combat, I snapped back to my senses at Ellaon's bark.

'Sage's Aura.'

GOOOOOOOO!

A 10-Star skill — Sage's Aura. A golden radiance rippled to life around my body, and with it, an inexplicable wellspring of confidence came surging up. I thrust out my hand at once.

"Thunderbolt!"

I loosed the spell at the Noll charging in at the very front of the pack.

Crack-CRACKLE-CRACK!

Emerald lightning erupted from my hand. It streaked across the distance and slammed into the lead Noll — and in that instant—

FLASH—!

CRACKLE-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACKLE-CRACK!!!

The chain effect detonated, and the emerald Thunderbolt swept through the entire charging pack of Nolls in a single blazing wave.

At that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠very moment, on the 1st Floor of the Sky Tower, a group of suspicious figures was prowling around the freshly sprouted God Tree.

"Found him?"

"No. Not so much as a trace. I'm starting to wonder if the one He spoke of is even here at all."

"Don't doubt it. His prophecy has never once been wrong."

"I'm not doubting. I'm only asking — isn't it possible the timing is off?"

"...That much is fair."

Two men, both hard-featured and unsavory-looking, murmured together with their heads bent close. One of them was the very toad-faced man Kim Hajun had brushed past earlier.

Had Kim Hajun learned who these men really were, he would have frozen in shock. They were Ascenders affiliated with Tiamat — a world-renowned Black-grade villain syndicate, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠common enemy of every person on the planet.

'Tch. Every last one of them looks like worthless trash to me.'

The toad-faced man, Shin Myeong-jun, was an executive-level villain in the Korean branch. None of the people he had observed today came remotely close to the prophesied existence that He had spoken of.

'Especially that guy.'

The dim-witted fool who'd blocked his path on the Lobby Floor. His face was ordinary enough, but when Shin Myeong-jun had swept his information with the Eye of Exploration, he'd nearly cracked his own forehead with his palm.

'A Breath-Holding trait. I didn't even know such garbage traits existed.'

It was bad enough that it was a bottom-tier 1-Star trait. What in the world was anyone supposed to do with a trait like that? Try as he might, the man would never amount to a proper Ascender in the Sky Tower.

No — could he even get through the tutorial? Bet on it, and he'd pass out halfway through clubbing a few slimes and wash out of the exam entirely. That was the sort he was.

'That girl was the closest thing to useful, at least.'

One of Korea's Five Great Clans. The daughter of a prestigious clan head, heard to have just turned twenty.

She had bloomed an 8-Star trait and looked every inch the next-generation pillar who would one day lead the nation.

But she, too, was not the prophesied one. For He had declared that the one who would appear would bear not a mere 8-Star, but the greatest trait in the Tower's entire history.

'Which means nothing short of the apex among 9-Star traits.'

His eyes sharpened into something fierce. The prophecy had never failed — so the one they sought would appear here. With that certainty, Shin Myeong-jun began replenishing the mana he had drained from overusing the Eye of Exploration, and set himself moving once more, busier than ever.

Crack-CRACKLE—!

Over the charred, shapeless corpses of the Noll pack, emerald sparks crackled and popped without pause.

"Whoa—"

My jaw hung open at the sight.

'Is this even possible?'

Insane. With a single cast of a skill, more than a dozen Nolls had been annihilated.

So this was what happened when a Mythic-grade skill and Sage's Aura were combined. Come to think of it, maybe the result was only natural.

A magic attack of 100 was a figure that level-1 Ascenders could almost never produce. The Nolls were level-3 monsters, yes — but thanks to Sage's Aura, the damage had been amplified 10.5-fold.

An attack power exceeding 1,000. That was a number the ordinary monsters of the 1st Floor simply could not withstand.

There was one catch: casting Sage's Aura had inflated Thunderbolt's mana cost, making it too heavy to spam freely right now. Thank goodness for that 40% mana reduction. It stung that I couldn't pour out barrage after barrage, but I had enough for several consecutive casts. My mana pool would only grow from here.

- Now do you understand why I commanded you to break the all-time record? I gave you that command because I believed it was entirely within your grasp.

I nodded along as if entranced by his words. Master, this humble student has just realized anew why they call you the Great Sage. I humbly beg for your continued guidance and instruction.

In that moment, Ellaon truly shone.

CLENCH!

My fists shot up the instant the Sky Tower's message rang out. Wiping out an entire Noll pack in a single strike — who else could have managed a feat like this? And the monsters hadn't even been level 1s; they'd been level 3s. Beating the historic record was only to be expected.

'So what happens now?'

I'd heard that setting a Tower-ranked record in the tutorial earned a reward befitting the achievement from the Sky Tower itself.

Don't tell me — I get a Mythic skill, and then another Mythic skill on top? If anyone overheard me, they'd ask where my conscience had gone. Honestly, even I felt a twinge of guilt.

But hey — a man's free to hope, isn't he? Swallowing hard at the strange anticipation bubbling up in me, I waited for the next message.

...Huh?

What? An additional ritual?

That was a first, too.

- Ho. So there truly is an additional ritual. My prediction was correct.

Even Ellaon, it seemed, was now entering territory he'd never experienced firsthand. Something about it gave me the shivers.

Should I just turn it down? If I accepted and things went sideways, who knew what would happen to the records I'd already set. So the safe move was to forfeit and—

'Forfeit my ass. This is a free meal even if I choke on it.'

How was anyone supposed to resist this? This was a hidden stage unlocking, plain and simple. And the sacred rule of hidden stages is to shout "GO" without asking a single question.

- Kuk kuk. A splendid attitude, truly. Had you chosen to forfeit, I was prepared to give you an earful.

Ellaon let out the chuckle of a crusty old soul and tossed me his blessing. Good. I had the old man's approval. Then let's deploy.

"I challenge it."

In the same instant the message appeared, the bolt fell from a clear sky.

BOOOOOM!

My vision flashed white and flooded with azure light, and then—

KUUUUNG!!

The ground-shaking impact of something colossal slamming into the earth.

Wh-What the hell.

I tore my eyes open at the ominous feeling, and there it was — a massive silhouette before me. A frame that had to be over three meters tall. A shaggy brown mane running from spine to skull. It walked upright on two legs like a man, and its face was unmistakably that of a Noll.

"KRAAAAAAAR—!"

The creature bared raw, murderous intent straight at me.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me!'

My face drained white at its roar, and deep inside, I couldn't help but scream.

Because the thing standing before me was—

'Why is a level-10 Noll Chief popping up HERE??'

This was a monster that had reached level 10 — the level cap of the Sky Tower's 1st Floor. Not quite a boss, but an Elite. Stronger than any ordinary level-10 monster.

The moment its Intimidation washed over me, my whole body locked solid.

"GRAAAAAR!"

Seeing me frozen, the beast hoisted the long spear gripped in its clawed hand high overhead.

THUD, BAM, THUD, BAM!

Quaking the very earth, the Noll Chief came charging like a thing possessed. Screw this. If this keeps up, I'm dead!

'Ellaon! Do something, fast!'

- Tch. What did I give you the Sage's Tome for, if not moments like this?!

The instant Ellaon's voice reached me, salvation arrived.

FAAAAAAASH!!

A golden radiance wrapped around my body. The paralysis broke, and my limbs were mine again — freer than ever.

'Guh!'

I hurled myself sideways without a thought to spare.

BAM!!

Riding the surge of enhanced speed, I dodged the Noll Chief's thrusting spear by a hair's breadth.

Tumble, tumble!

I rolled a full revolution across the ground before forcing my ragged breathing back under control.

"Grrrrrrr—!"

Then I saw it. The Noll Chief curled the corners of its mouth upward into a long, slow sneer. From any angle, an unmistakably mocking grin.

...Huh? This son of a—?

- To think my very successor would be sneered at by a mere Noll of all creatures! A lamentable day, truly lamentable!

Ellaon's anguished cry burst out, and the sincerity in his voice rang painfully clear.

'Damn mutt of a monster.'

Gritting my teeth, I thrust my hand straight toward the Noll Chief. The mana I'd drained using Sage's Sight had recovered substantially thanks to the Sage's Tome's mana regeneration — I still had enough left for another two, maybe three casts of Thunderbolt.

'If all of them land, I can take it down.'

Sure, the idea of a level-1 Ascender (well, level-3 thanks to the Tome, but still) taking down a level-10 Elite was laughable on paper. But I believed. In the combination of a 10-Star trait skill and a Mythic-grade skill!

"Thunderbolt—!"

Die, you mangy mutt!

The Thunderbolt, charged with every ounce of my fighting spirit, tore straight toward the beast.

"Kruk, kruk!"

The Noll Chief didn't so much as consider dodging, as if the very idea were beneath it. The attitude of a monster who knew the magic of a bottom-feeder like me couldn't hurt him.

'Why isn't it scared? Don't tell me it's not going to work?'

My heart lurched at the beast's contemptuous snort — but then—

CRACKLE-CRACK-CRACK-CRACKLE-CRACK-CRACK-ZZZZAP!!

"KEKEKEKEKEKEKAAANG!"

Emerald lightning coiled around its body, and a scream so wretched it was almost sorrowful tore across the battlefield.

Then, just a moment later—

Crreeeak... KUUNG!

Charred black from head to toe, it toppled over backward and lay still.

"Uh...?"

Wh-What the. This one's a one-shot too...?

I stood frozen mid-cast, half-raised for a second Thunderbolt, blinking dumbly. Good grief. Sage's Aura — it was this strong?

If word got out that a level-1 had one-shot a level-10 Elite monster, who on earth would believe it? I could picture, vividly, the pandemonium that would erupt the moment it became public knowledge.

Gulp.

I found myself dry-swallowing again and again in the face of the sheer unreality of it. At this rate, wouldn't I eventually be one-shotting even the floor-boss-class beings further up the Tower?

Should I be dumping everything into Spirit from now on? Sage's Aura's amplification would scale right along with it, after all. Pump my Spirit high enough, and I might genuinely become the One-Punch Man.

The Sky Tower's message rang out at that moment, and my mind snapped wide awake.

Ah. Ah.

I'd done it. Beating the number-one record of the tutorial — the thing I'd only half believed possible. I had actually, truly pulled it off!

- Hoh. Remember well that it is entirely thanks to my own greatness.

Yes, Master. And here, I formally apologize for ever doubting you, even for a moment!

Just as my cheers rang out, a cascade of messages bloomed before my eyes.

Uh... Treasure of the Heavenly Dragons? And that is what, exactly?