Tutorial Clear
Class:Class 1 Normal
Name:Cha Dohyeon
Nickname:Goldie Hyung
That was the information printed on the license in Dohyeon's hand — a card so new it practically still felt warm. The Climber License, it turned out, doubled as a national ID card and a driver's license.
Dohyeon tucked the still-warm license into his wallet and busily set about preparing to enter the Tower. He stripped off everything he was wearing and dressed himself in the beginner gear he'd borrowed through Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo.
"Whew. Thank goodness I never had implants or steel pins put in..."
The Tower is a finicky space that permits nothing of Earthly origin except a person's own body. The rule applies with perfect impartiality even to implants fused with the flesh, orthodontic devices, steel pins set into bone, silicone inserts, and the like. Anyone carrying such things would have to spend serious money to climb the Tower, even after awakening as a Climber — because it all had to be replaced with products made from Tower material.
The mere thought of one's implants vanishing and leaving gaps in one's smile, or the implant in one's nose bridge disappearing and leaving it deflated, was horrifying enough as a thought experiment. That's why the wealthy sometimes used Tower material from the very start, just in case. But such products demanded close cooperation between production-class Climbers and experts in each field, so they cost a fortune and weren't covered by insurance besides.
There were cases where this trait of the Tower worked in a person's favor, though — tattoos, namely. To anyone longing to erase ink from a reckless youth, awakening as a Climber must feel like a gift from Santa Claus. Tattoo ink, entangled as it was with skin tissue, counted as an Earth object too, so a single entry into the Tower left you with a perfectly clean, unmarked body. And if you couldn't bear to lose your tattoo and used ink made from Tower material instead... well, then it truly became a tattoo for life.
"Let's just focus on finishing this tutorial fast."
Sixteen days had passed since his awakening. He'd blacked out on the very first day after dumping his entire mana pool, writing off a full day, but every day since had been spent thriftily. Assuming he could clear one floor per day, then three days from now he would be able to raise Goldie again.
"...Assuming I can put down a goblin warrior with this club, that is."
Before he'd tried it, he had charged in on the assumption that things would somehow work out — but actually killing a single goblin was no easy feat.
"They say Floor 2 spawns two of them, and Floor 4 spawns four. Can I really win this alone?"
Dohyeon, standing at the threshold of Floor 2, set the club down and picked up his smartphone.
"No way around it. Time to check the community."
Tap-tap, tatatatatak.
Dohyeon searched his way into the community that only verified Climbers could join.
"Hit 'Create ID,' and..."
Click!
Account creation was knocked out in seconds by the simple procedure of verifying his Climber License.
"Oh, the nickname's automatic. So this is basically a real-name system, huh?"
Dohyeon opened the information tab and scanned the post titles.
"Ah, right, right. Bluntly put, even Chuck Norris couldn't beat four of them. Four goblins are scarier than one goblin warrior. One scratch from those claws and you'd be off to the emergency room."
Imagining four goblins drunk on madness swarming over him was enough to make his knees buckle.
But there's no need to overcomplicate it. Most people know this already, but when you enter the Tower, you drop at a random location, and an escape portal spawns at a random location. The four goblins spawn just as randomly. In other words: kill each goblin you encounter quickly, and you can fight a string of one-on-ones instead of a single group brawl. What follows is how to kill a goblin fast.
"Oh... that's brutally frank..."
Dohyeon set his shield down as well and took a seat in his chair. On the dining table, the soul flame wavered inside Goldie's skull.
As everyone knows, the orthodox tutorial armament is a small shield and a club. The ones with wind to spare in their lungs will ask why not a longsword or a bow, but the overwhelming majority of people who awaken as Climbers are ordinary folks in the truest sense of the word. Never mind shooting a bow — even throwing a punch is unfamiliar. A longsword demands technique on a completely different plane from handling a long kitchen knife. For average joes like us, the club is just right.
"True enough. The swing arc alone is hard, you don't have the muscles for it, and you have to keep the edge aligned with the trajectory... Get one thing wrong and it turns dangerous on you..."
Above all, the shield's power is beyond compare. A shield is not armor — it is equipment bound as one with the club. Think plated combat boots, or Hermes' Steps. Nominally defensive gear, but by securing your safety it lets you act that much more aggressively. Even a plain swing produces an effect roughly like a knuckle duster. You could classify it as a weapon and nobody would blink.
"So the shield is the key, huh?"
When you enter the Tower and face a goblin, first shove the shield into its face. Don't try to hit hard — light taps are plenty. The shield is bulky and its attacks won't get through, so the goblin will probably love it to death. Just be careful it doesn't get snatched away. To prevent that, keep it moving at all times.
Dohyeon read the contents calmly from top to bottom.
Once the goblin's vision is blocked, swing the club however you please. Recommended targets: the crown of the head, the back of the skull, or the knee if you're in a hurry. Shoulders and arms are worse than not hitting at all. Goblins are raving, mad berserkers. Even so, there's no need to finish one in a single blow. Our goal is to knock each goblin we meet out of the fight quickly, so that we face them one at a time. The finishing blows can wait, nice and methodical, until all four are out of commission. What follows covers the case of encountering two or more goblins at the same time.
"Phew... there's no way I'd run into several at once, right?"
When he checked the comments, the consensus was that unless you were spectacularly unlucky, it simply didn't happen.
"Still, this isn't the kind of game with infinite continues... Even a stone bridge gets a tap before you cross it."
Dohyeon slowly read the "Tutorial Guide for Newbies Whose License Ink Hasn't Even Dried_ver.2035" post from beginning to end, every last line.
Cha Dohyeon, clad in his shabby armament, appeared on Floor 2 of the Tower.
Whoosh— whoosh.
Shield raised over neck and chest, Dohyeon swept his gaze in every direction.
Keruruk!
'One goblin!'
Like Goldie catching sight of a chew toy, Dohyeon's eyes lit up and he hurled himself at the goblin.
Keruk!
The goblin, for its part, wasn't about to stand on ceremony either, and came charging to meet him.
Wham!
Dohyeon angled his shield toward the dagger-wielding side and crashed into the goblin.
Krehk!
The goblin sprawled across the ground like a compact car clipped by a truck.
"Hah!"
It was a very different battle from the guide he'd studied so earnestly, but there was no time to think.
Without stopping to deliberate, Dohyeon swung his club down on the goblin's skull.
Wham! Crack!
Two blows were all it took to burst the head open; blood and brains spilled out.
Evening out his breath, Dohyeon took a step back from the goblin's corpse.
Whoosh— whoosh.
'There's definitely one more goblin nearby.'
Keruruk!
And right on cue, another goblin burst from the grass to Dohyeon's right.
Leaping like a grasshopper, the goblin pounced at him — but its masterstroke of an ambush came to nothing. Dohyeon had thrust his club out like a spear and swatted the incoming goblin clean out of the air.
'The weight's manageable!'
Just how much did a small-framed goblin weigh? Its belly stuck out a bit, but judging by those slender limbs — twenty pounds? Forty?
It was enough to stop something flying at him at a less-than-blinding speed in midair.
Just as the guide's author had recommended, Dohyeon pushed his shield forward.
The goblin landed with half its balance gone, and when the shield — the size of its own head — bumped and prodded at its face, it couldn't collect itself and flailed its limbs in confusion.
In its panic it tried to grab the shield's rim and haul it away, but with Dohyeon constantly shifting and shaking the shield, even that proved difficult.
Wham!
The club cracked down squarely on the crown of its head, rattling the goblin's brain.
That brain took its punishment one blow after another — once from the club, once absorbing the rebound, once against the ground as it fell, and once more absorbing the rebound — four impacts in all, and consciousness went out entirely.
Had anyone carried the sprawled goblin into an emergency room, the doctor would have diagnosed a severe concussion.
Dohyeon's shadow fell across the unconscious goblin's face.
Wham! Wham! CRUNCH!
"Die! Die, damn it!"
Goblin blood ran into the brush.
Three days after that.
Dohyeon picked up his club to enter the Tower. The club, having fed on goblin blood, had darkened a shade from the day he'd first received it.
"Goldie. Just trust your hyung. One goblin warrior is a piece of cake. It's less scary than two regular goblins."
It had already been five days since he began fighting for Goldie's complete resurrection(?). Cha Dohyeon's small liver had grown a little on a diet of goblin blood — and his nerve along with it.
"All right. I'll be right back."
Dohyeon entered the Tower.
The top floor of the tutorial.
Entering Floor 5 of the Tower, Dohyeon covered his neck and chest with practiced ease, then scanned his surroundings.
Kerururuk!
A goblin armed with a shield and a one-handed sword had spotted him at a comfortable distance and was already charging in.
'Just watch out for the sword!'
For a modern human with proper equipment, one goblin warrior was an easier opponent than four regular goblins. A goblin warrior was simply a goblin that knew how to use a weapon. Two arms, two legs, the same body weight. And being elite in its own way, it didn't use the claws that could land you a serious illness from a single scratch — one less variable to worry about, at least.
Dohyeon waited for the goblin warrior to commit to a sword swing, then took one big step to the right and evaded — away from the blade of the right-handed goblin warrior.
Everything after that was very simple. Extend the shield to erase the space it needed to swing, and swing the club.
Wham! Crack— Wham!
Aim for the head, then feint high and crack low! The moment that shield drops, straight back up top!
Bludgeoned at random by the club and the club's grip end alike, the goblin warrior's hands and feet grew more tangled by the moment. It threw everything it had into blocking with its shield, but what won't work won't work.
Keruk! Keruruk!
The more it flailed, the calmer Dohyeon became. He stacked fake after fake until the club's trajectory was impossible to read, mixed in short strikes off the grip end to multiply the possibilities and jam up the goblin's thinking, and then, the instant its eyes locked wholly onto the club, he knocked its soul clean out with an oblique kick (a kick aimed at the knee).
The goblin warrior ended up flat in the brush.
A sword-wielding monster being beaten one-sided by a man with a stick might look strange at first glance, but look closer and it's the only natural outcome. Between a goblin and Cha Dohyeon lay an enormous gap in weight class, and the goblin warrior's swordsmanship was nowhere near enough to overcome it. All it knew was how to square its blade toward wherever it swung; it had nothing resembling a true union of attack and defense.
"Whew— whew..."
As Dohyeon crushed the goblin warrior's skull like all the others', a notification window rose before his eyes.
Ding!
Tower Floor 5 Cleared!
Q2 2035 Cumulative Points Earned: 65
Level Up! Distribute your stat points.
Level 5 Reached! Choose a new skill.
Beneath the familiar clear message he'd watched scroll by through Floor 4, a line about skill selection appeared, and then three cards floated up before Dohyeon.
The skill selection granted to Climbers every five levels. Through these three choices, a Climber could glimpse the shape of the build to come.
"Advanced Jade Bone Processing, and Soul Shaping...? So compared to your standard necromancer, I'm tilted toward crafting...?"
The skill Dohyeon would choose was already decided. The card reading Raise Jade Bone sank into him, and the remaining two scattered into motes of light and vanished.