It had begun, sooner than I had expected.
Two days, it had only been two days since the last tutorial. Which while unusual was not unheard of.
This one though was not because a new species had been entered into this grand game but a trial for the willing dwellers. Those descended of the noble races that had already been entered into this grand trial of a game.
They were the sons and daughters of those that had dutifully climbed the tower.
As it was just for a moment, I stood there, taking in the air of the surroundings. I waited and waited until it happened.
A glow, one that consumed not only me but every one else that stood around me. It was happening now. The system was taking us.
The glow was slow, it seemed to be sorting us which gave me enough time to observe the people around me.
And what I found was lacking. I could tell that most of them had been given training but they seemed almost arrogant. As if they were better than the rest.
And that couldn't be further from the truth. I had seen some of the previous climbers, the ones from the previous tutorial and found them twice as powerful as the ones here.
And seeing as they were an uplifted race they were not given any training, no secrets to success or even mana as I had figured out.
They were mundane yet greater than the people here.
I held my breath and gently closed my eyes as the tutorial begun. The beginning, where I would truly come into my own. Just as my mother and her mother before her had. I would conquer this and come out stronger than I had entered. Stronger than my ancestors before me.
Even if I did not know their records as they were not made public I still held confidence in myself.
The moment that I had begun my training to be a knight I knew that I was a genius. It was not even because of the praises around me, how they told of my prowess.
It was because of the ease in which I absorbed subjects. Not once had something left the academics lips that I had not remembered and assimilated.
I felt a buzz at my hips, it was reprimanding. And I mentally sighed at that. It was a reminder of my arrogance, and I found myself embarrassed. I was just like them. Overconfident because of my training.
A moment later I took one last look at the surroundings before the light fully consumed me.
It was time to determine the difficulty of my tutorial and how far I would climb.
It was a bit of an open secret among the higher rankers that the harder the difficulty you chose indicated how far you would climb.
It wasn't something physical such as stats or items but it was the mentality. The strength of mind to take on the hardest challenges and prevail. And even then you need tremendous luck to make it through.
Most of the monsters in the nightmare category were dozens of times above your capabilities. Meaning that if you weren't lucky enough to escape and plan you would never be able to make it out.
As I stood there, looking at the five difficulties I hesitated for a moment. The fear of death taking hold of my very soul.
Yet I felt it, again, like a mother's touch it carrassed me. I looked down and touched my hand to the hilt of [Dignity] and couldn't help but smile sardonically.
What was I thinking, to hesitate at something like this. I was a knight, I would not fall to the folly of fear.
I raised my hands and reached to choose Nightmare, the highest difficulty.
From what I had heard the tutorial was proportional to the power of the species.
It meant that for a weak species their difficulty would be proportional to their power. Which meant that they would face comparably easier monsters.
But for tower dwellers such as I, the difficulty was ramped up even higher than what we could handle. As we had experience and elders to guide us there was no need for the tower to go easy on us.
Our trials would not be proportional but even harder.
Yet even then, when I knew that it was highly likely that I would never return from my choice I still went ahead and pressed the button.
My pride would not allow anything lesser.
A moment passed after I had chosen and I was consumed by a white light.
The surroundings changed rapidly before it settled on a misty forest.
From what I knew the tutorial was set into three stages.
The first an assault style where you would need to annihilate your enemies.
This one in particular gave me a chilling feeling.
Right now I barely had any visibility and felt as if I was being watched.
I felt a slight gust of wind behind me and found myself turning around to see what it was.
A clawed hand found its way to my throat.
I stepped back and slashed lightly. The hand fell to the ground and a roar of pain echoed through the fog.
I frowned and found myself looking all around.
Yet no matter what I did I found nothing. Not even a trail of blood.
It was as if they wanted to starve me out.
Metaphorically at least. They knew I could not maintain this level of concentration for long and would wear me out.
And when I could no longer focus as much they would strike.
I felt mana rush into my system. Looking down [Dignity] slightly glowed in the fog.
Partially lighting the way.
I smiled as I cut down the surprised panther.
A thank you on my tongue. Even if Mihr could not hear me now.
…
[Ellaine]
Vitality: 1.2
Strength: 1.3
Dexterity: 1.7
Mana: 1.9
[Skills]
[Mana Manipulation rank 1(51.44)] [Swordsmanship rank 1 (58.26%)]
[current pts:0]
…