"Expert? Master? Is this the next stage of skill evolution?" Metro looked at the requirements for the crafting of Holy Potion. At the same time, a notification for the event just now popped up.
"I've been staying in this tutorial for too long? What do you mean too long? Have you seen the power levels in the world?" Metro's face turned ugly upon seeing the remarks left at the end. These events had been forcing him to survive by the skin of his teeth. It was as if pure luck was all that he could rely on to survive.
However, Metro knew that his opinions regarding this "tutorial" didn't matter. Scratching his head, Metro started to worry. He couldn't wander into the sun just for this penalty alone, and even had these brain dead powerful hosts hunting him now just for the first penalty. He couldn't even imagine what the next penalty would be like, since he would probably be dead if he reached that point.
"This penalty could certainly be used to my advantage though..." Metro looked at the sunlight outside. This sunlight could purify the soul of carnal energy to the point that they became the slave to the Light Church's Saint. If that Lord Foraging demon was lured or forced outside, it would probably help him a lot.
While thinking about this, Metro used the blood as a paste to stick a long cloth of the dead hosts that he had removed to his arms. Then, he waved his arms outside, confirming that as long as the sunlight did not touch his exposed skin, it was fine.
Currently, he didn't see many hosts outside. It seemed like most people had wisened up and stayed out of the sun and the sight of the fetuses. Maybe they just wanted to target his Abyssal Eye.
Metro then coated his whole body with blood, before carefully sticking more clothes onto his body such that his entire skin surface was covered. The only part that wasn't covered were his eyes, but looking down and avoiding the sun was enough for Metro.
Using his Abyssal Eye, Metro looked for Lord Foraging's traces again through stretching his carnal energy throughout the city, in case he suddenly changed locations. Even though it drained a lot of carnal energy due to the Abyssal Eye's powers being suppressed by the sunlight, it was still enough to track him down.
Bending his head down, Metro brisk walked outside, and started following the traces. They were noticeably stronger than before, which made Metro worried. Did the demon power up just like me?
This tutorial was too realistic for Metro, since even the main target that he was aiming for was levelling up, not to mention that the demons were at a higher power level than him, so there was a chance that the power up could make things more difficult for Metro than if he had directly hunted the demon without any acquired powers.
Thinking about this matter, Metro unknowingly sped up his pace of walking, avoiding the hosts that had started following him. There were also more than one car crash on the street which acted as obstacles, so he had to fumble around the city before returning back onto the trail.
"Helium City... It's not a big city, but what kind of secrets is it hiding?" When Metro finally arrived at the very last trace, he could see that there were several hosts banging on the walls. This location was strangely familiar to Metro.
"This is the Light Church???" Metro could not even begin to express his disbelief. In the time he had escaped and undertaken the casino side quest, the location had fell into an advanced state of disrepair.
The picturesque location was now overcome with plants that carried thorns and poisons, with black roses and nightshade berries hanging off the stems. Even though all of these plants were no different from their counterparts, when they were entwined together, they evoked a great, primal horror inside the heart.
"A formation of plants could actually amplify the effects of carnal energy? Or is there something else at work here?" The troop of hosts behind Metro had already turned their attention to the front door of the church.
The door was actually protected by a strange sigil that ran on stored carnal energy. That was the only reason why the hosts hasn't pierced through the door yet. It only served to delay time, as the protection was for naught against the endless battering for the hosts. Metro could already begin to see signs of it faltering at some places. With a few more kicks, punches, and brute force, the hosts would break it down for him without even him saying "Open Sesame."
Metro looked towards the ground and sat in a lotus position, waiting for the door to break open. When the door was about to reach its limit, Metro stretched out his legs and walked towards the stairs leading up to the front door.
"WHOOSH!" The sounds of air being shoved aside by pure strength reached Metro in time, allowing him to dodge a straightforward, yet deadly roundhouse kick. As the assailant missed, they flew backwards by doing a cartwheel.
"Elite?" Metro's heart started to beat faster. He was put into another dangerous situation, which he didn't really know how to counter. He had turned around and saw that the assailant was dressed in a thin layer of silk, which allowed them to be more mobile.
The assailant was well built, and had imposing tattoos all over his body. Some of the tattoos were recognised by Metro, which was that sword he had seen earlier during his unsuccessful "infiltration".
The worst thing was that the assailant had their body almost entirely exposed to the sun. That meant that he were most likely immune to its effects, which put Metro in a significant disadvantage.
"Were you behind this? Did you orchestrate the destruction of the church?" The assailant had spoke with a self righteous anger, but what came out sounded like blatant falsehoods to Metro's ears.
"Wow, how brainwashed are you?" Metro used a sharp tone to criticise the assailant, who clenched their fist in anger. A formless white energy formed around them, slowly spreading out towards Metro.
Metro's Abyssal Eye could feel the presence of the formless energy, which put pressure on Metro's mind. Metro leapt backwards up the stairs in response. During their short conversation, the door had already been brought down, and the hosts were nowhere to be found near the entrance.
"The carnal energy in the air is plenty!" Metro spoke out in his heart as he realised that this place had turned into a treasure trove for carnal energy. It was a weird sudden boost of carnal energy that wasn't there before, but Metro would take any help at this point.
The formless energy that was gathering around the assailant suddenly formed a shape of a spear, and was hurled forward by his vengeful mind. It accelerated as incredible speeds, but Metro drew the carnal energy, slowing it down fast enough for him to detect where it was.
"Right!" Shifting to the right, Metro looked as he saw a spin in the carnal energy, neutralising it. It poked through the wall of carnal energy, and directly hit one of the walls of the church.
An overwhelming dread filled Metro's body the moment the spear made contact. His tear ducts started flowing, as he felt that life was not worth living for. Inhumanly happiness counteracted that sadness, but he also felt an unbearable anger, as well as a desire to fulfil even the smallest evil in his heart.
These emotions broke up Metro's mind into fragments, with him struggling to keep control of his sanity. He was too far from the sun, so with the little control he still had, he tossed his backpack on the floor. With all his might, Metro gritted his teeth and touched the top of the backpack.
"Lord of the First Abyss, Master of Distortion and Emotions, the Skeleton that once eradicated the Life Saint, Tortorous, be released from the chains that the Immortals have placed upon you!" A language that Metro could not understand was chanted in his mind, but he understood the nefarious intent that the voice carried.
Somehow, the being known as Tortorous was latching onto his body, intending to possess him and consume his soul! This being looked like an inescapable void, polluting Metro's emotions and driving him further into madness.
In the real world, Metro's body was undergoing mutations and abnormalities. His bones cracked out of his flesh, forming an exoskeleton that covered the entire body. Not only that, the exoskeleton cracked open slightly, revealing a foul, rainbow coloured pus that dropped on the floor.
The monster that Metro had turned into directly reached into the backpack, but it felt its exoskeleton corrode just from touching something inside, which led to it throwing the backpack far away. However, this gave back Metro some lucidity.
His eyes, which had been forcefully converted to a green colour, returned to normal. Then, he hobbled towards the assailant, which had entered through the front door, and used all his strength to throw himself at the assailant!
"Boom!" It almost looked like an unstoppable force had been met with an immovable object, but the assailant slowly staggered backwards, revealing some injuries. However, the assailant showed that what was underneath his skin wasn't flesh and blood, but some sort of silvery metal.
With a grin on his face, the assailant then produced a sword from nowhere. With masterful control of the sword, it took the assailant less than one second for the sword to be plunged deep within the exoskeleton, producing various cracks and the rainbow pus to be splashed onto the assailant. It only managed to burn past the layer of skin before fizzling out at the metal.
This pain only brought Metro more lucidity, but Tortorous had infiltrated far enough into his mind to be able to control him even if he was lucid. Using Metro's mouth, it demanded, "Go away or I will crush you like an insect when this prey stops resisting!"
Following that, it delivered an astonishingly powerful punch, which even managed to shatter some of the silver metal. The assailant's face turned grim, but then his face lit up again.
The cracks on the metal started glowing and fusing together, as a holy light bathed the assailant. The sword became a whip, and the assailant's face was remoulded into a faceless being.
"I should have known that you were meddling in my business. You even equipped this puppet of yours with the Witch's metal to try and take my vessel out, Apocalypse." Tortorous did not even care about Metro's soul anymore and simply tossed it to the corner, taking direct control of the body.
After the body was fully possessed by Tortorous, it went through a fundamental change. The flesh that was on Metro completely shedded off, with only a skeleton that was covered in bone armor. The skeleton had claws that was tipped with black crystals.
Without a word, the two started moving, and exchanged millions of blows of varying degrees in a few seconds, blowing sway everything around them. The whole church was levelled from the shockwaves that were caused by their impact.
[Main Mission: Kill the Demon (Complete)
-Encountered Apocalypse
-Encountered Tortorous
-Completed Sidequest: 1
-Managed to recruit a Player
- Survived Penalty
Ranking: B-]
Tutorial Complete!
Returning to Hub World...