After that, the scenery changed again.
Now, he found himself standing on a ship. He had a rope tied around his waist, which trailed upwards of the mast of the ship.
[Second: Learn to climb with rope]
Then, just like earlier, a 3D hologram appeared beside him and began teaching him how to climb the mast.
Fortunately, this was not too difficult for Shiro. He had climbed trees with his friends from the village before, so he knew how to grip the mast properly. However, he lacked muscle strength. So he had to take his time climbing the mast, clenching his teeth every time he felt pain shooting in his arms.
After 20 minutes, Shiro finally reached the top.
A similar Tutorial Mission List appeared again, with a small change.
[ : Learn to climb using a rope [Complete] ]
Shiro smiled joyfully.
"Two down, two more to go!", he said not knowing why he was doing this exactly. But there was at least one good thing, he wasn't down anymore. At least, for now, the painful memory of his mother's death didn't bother him.
Shiro was teleported to the bottom of the mast again. This time, there was no rope tied around his waist.
[ Third: Learn to climb without a rope. ]
Shiro gulped as he watched the 3D hologram climb up the mast skillfully, without the protection of the rope.
With shaky hands, Shiro began climbing the mast. Halfway through, his arms lost strength completely, and he began falling down.
Of course, the system didn't let him die.
[ First Attempt: Failed. Please try again. ]
Shiro gulped as he began climbing up the mast again. This time, he made sure to preserve some arm strength so he does not fall again.
He didn't even need to rest as all his fatigue would vanish as soon as he would fail a task.
Thankfully, he managed to climb to the top without falling.
The Tutorial Mission List popped out again, indicating that he had completed the third mission.
The scenery changed yet again, and Shiro found himself standing in front of a man wearing a long white garment.
[Fourth: Learn Basic Self Defense.]
Without warning, the man began attacking Shiro. Since he was caught off guard, Shiro only dodged the attacks by the man.
[Host, Defend yourself from the man's attack without dodging or running away]
A system notification popped up. Shiro frowned.
He was distracted by the window which gave the man a chance to attack him.'
"Ouch!", Shiro yelped as the man knocked him down.
[First Attempt: Failed. Please try again.]
Shiro could feel his head spinning from the impact.
"This- how is this self-defense?"
Shiro shook his head, trying to get rid of the dizziness.
Instead, a pang of nauseousness hit him. Shiro threw up on the ground.
The man who had attacked him earlier looked at Shiro emotionlessly as he stood straight.
A system notification popped up in front of him.
[Would you like to restore your stamina by resting?]
Then another window option popped up with two options, Yes and No.
Without thinking, Shiro immediately clicked on the Yes option. He knew that if he did not rest, he would have another wave of puke ready to exit his body.
Although his fatigue was vanishing in an instant thanks to the system, the system asked separately. After thinking for a bit, Shiro realized that the system wanted to think a bit about the self-defense training and learn something from the man, or rather, hologram.
[Rest period of 1 day is given. Tutorial Mission will be postponed to the next day.]
Then, the scenery changed to a hospital/clinic bed. Shiro was lying on the bed with a hospital gown on.
To his right, he saw a computer monitor which showed his health status.
Shiro's eyes grew heavy, he was tired just because of the attacks that he suffered. His body was still in pain.
'I'll sleep first and figure out what to do next.', he thought.
He woke up from his sleep and tried to recall all the movements of the man that he had seen earlier. He did kind of image training, trying to figure out a way to defend against the attacks.
First of all, it took him ten minutes to understand what the system meant by defending and not dodging. He realized that the system wanted all the attacks to be physically countered and after thinking for some time, he came up with a way to deal with it. However, it was just a thought, it wouldn't suddenly be easy to clear it.
After all that, he slept again, surprisingly, he didn't feel any hunger or thirst. It was as if he was full.
The next day, a loud ding sound woke Shiro up from his slumber.
*Ding*
[Fourth: Learn Basic Self-Defense]
The scenery immediately changed and Shiro was now standing in front of the same man who sparred with him yesterday.
"Oh, it's you again…", Shiro muttered as he got ready to defend against all the attacks by this man.
The man started attacking right after which Shiro placed his arms and elbows in front of the attack, trying to dodge.
The impact was great, and for such a small child like him, the attacks felt as if they could break his bones, nevertheless, he persisted.
And just when he broke a sweat, a system notification popped up.
*Ding*
[Congratulation on defending the first wave of attacks]
And then, other different system notifications popped up.
[30% Progressed…]
[Continuing…]
[Instructions: Learn fighting techniques.]
Shiro looked at it confused, but the man, who had paused, began walking in front of him again.
Shiro was afraid that the man was about to attack him again, so he took a stance and braced for impact.
Nonetheless, there was no impact at all. Shiro saw the man standing right in front of him.
The man merely stood there, moving his arms and legs slowly.
Right after that, the man punched the air in front of him using his right fist.
Shiro did the same, but the man kept staring at him. Then his head moved slowly, shaking sideways as if rejecting what Shiro did.