Stephan moved to the next platform and promenaded his eyes on the surroundings. There was a circle with poorly drawn pictures as well. He rolled his eyes at the sight. Not only she summoned him to a weird looking world, but she was also making fun of him. He understood what critical thing as he moved ahead in this weird domain; before putting a step ahead, studying the surroundings was a must.
Well, that was what his experience in games told him to do but with all the strange things that didn't obey the rules of normal tutorials, it was hard to follow the normal rules.
The statue looked bigger than before, the size doubled and it had a wide snake around its frame also made of stones. Strangely for him, he didn't like that statue. He thought it would come to life any time and attack him. He prepared his charged attack and shot it towards the statue face but nothing happened. There was some dust on it and the charged attack cleaned the face making it look like the girl who summoned him. It turned him more annoyed and launched a series of normal attack until he got bored from it.
He walked ahead followed the stone pathway and entered the circle. He anticipated the statue to come alive but instead, something fell from above. The fall made the ground shake and dust propagate around. He rolled to the side ready to attack but there was a notice from the system.
He pulled himself from the circle and the monsters froze in its place. The system quest was weird. He had only one attack to kill a monster that looked like the boss of a dungeon while he was in the tutorial level. Previously, when he was playing Legend of the Past, the tutorial level had only a small zombie to kill and get accustomed to the game, but now, he had a boss to kill and with one attack. How could he do that?
Furthermore, there was no clear reward besides the main quest, no weapon, no additional stats, nothing… It was completely useless to finish the quest tutorial but he had to do it. He swallowed. He wanted to stay outside the ring to get the time to think about a strategy but something showed up on top of the monster's head then it started counting. He had one minute of off-circle and after it expired, the monster would move again and it was a one-time thing.
The monster looked like a spider with eight legs and additional two hands that resembled a human's ones. The hands had a long sword and a shield to block the attacks. The head was slightly bigger in size with eyes that followed all movements to perfection. It was a grotesque monster that would make a normal person vomit. Again, how could he defeat such a thing with such low attack strength?
If he was given free time and unlimited attacks, he would engage in a long hit and run duel until the monster died, but he had one attack. There wasn't any good left if he wasted the off-time outside the arena in thinking; he could think while dodging and parrying the attacks.
"Okay!" he inhaled deeply and stepped inside. "I need to hit its weakness and make it die on spot, which means I need to go for the heart."
The monster used the sword and the shield to walk towards him and as Stephan moved in circles trying to get the monster into revealing its weakest side, it jumped high and almost landed on Stephan but he pulled himself back just in time rolling to the side.
<2 minutes left for the fight to end automatically.>
Stephan ignored the warning and thought more of keeping himself alive. He had one shot to kill it and he didn't want to waste it on anything. He would be using a charged attack and land a powerful hit. The monster swung the blade letting deafening screams as it grew impatient from having the blood of its prey. When the distance widened between them, it jumped on him and when Stephan was close, it just swung the sword while keeping the shield ready to block the expected counter-attack.
"Okay! I have one chance and I don't need it to block it for me and fail this tutorial."
A minute passed and he had only seconds to do the attack. The monster finally tired from all the dodging and winging, as the fight neared its end, the attacks grew in speed. Stephan understood the attack pattern so it made his work easier to do; the Aracney was quite swift, attacking with deadly thrusts and spinning lashes while keeping the shield ready to block. At one time, it let the shield loose opening the area under his head where Stephan understood the heart would be there since the monster kept it well-protected.
He just needed one attack, one good one to kill it and get to the main quest so he could advance further. He tried to charge his attack while moving but the attack was shot instead and almost hit the monster. Stephan let down a sigh of relief but he was also annoyed. It was hard to even for a veteran like him to get a boss to let down its shield and attack the heart directly.
Stephan spent so much time dodging and the monster didn't even leave him time to charge the attack by the end, the sound of a bell marked the ending of the fight and the boss stopped attacking. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the monster in disdain then threw the sceptre on the ground.
[But it was a tutorial.]
"I know. You don't have to rub the wound."
[But you had a buff and one attack was enough.]
At the mention of the buff, Stephan's eyes jolted to the window and examined it. There was indeed a buff but it was written in small letters that he didn't notice it.
"You did it on purpose. You made me lose a tutorial on purpose and it was a tutorial… It's a dirty taint on my winning strikes. Noooo!"
Her laugh resounded all around the domain.
[That's why I like veterans. They can be easily pranked. Your confidence makes you blind. You don't even care about the minor details since you think you can engage in a long battle. That's why I made the timer and fixed it for three minutes. If you were just slightly caring for details like you did before stepping inside the circle, you would have simply attacked it. You had a buff of attack so one shot was enough to take it down.]
"Okay! The stupid drawing and the hidden object were to throw me off. Clever! Genius! But. it. was. a. tutorial." He said the last sentence ready to spit at her face if she showed herself.
[Yes, a tutorial specifically made for you. Still, you failed and the tutorial is done! You don't get a second chance! See you in the penalty quest.]