After learning how to use aura, Apollo was smoothly capable to slaughter any foe in his path. Although it didn't offer a notification on how much more powerful it made you, they at least gauged it to be a 20-point stat boost, which was roughly 50% of his stats.
With Apollo's combat prowess vastly improving, they safely made it deeper into the forest where newer types of beasts were making their appearances.
From enormous snakes, humanoid bats, centaurs, groups of goblins, and the new type of enraged orcs, the overall difficulty also took a sudden spike. However, when the four most powerful players in the tutorial banded together, there was no way they would lose. Unfortunately, consuming blood was not an adequate way to increase his stat's because the blood belonging to these beasts was absolutely disgusting; revolting almost, excluding the blood of a Centaur. However, he was able to gain two levels since his meeting with Chrysanthe, dumping all four stat points into strength, making it 38 while using his two other stat points from the fight versus the goblins to upgrade magic and mana, bringing it to 16 and 15.
Kim sat against a tree amidst the night, examining the scroll intently as he hurried to get a grasp on it. It's been five days since he attained it and he's made little progress. He was able to draw the painted image on the scroll onto himself, successfully unlocking the element, but afterward, it was absolute silence. He could feel himself moving the energy, but not being able to conjure it. He was dissatisfied. Each time he failed his frustration multiplied. However, he was nearing level 15, so he prayed for something good.
A few hours passed and Apollo awoke, signaling that it was his shift to watch over them. Kim yawned, heading over to steal his comfy sleeping bag.
Kim quickly fell asleep, and Apollo began practicing his Aura.
**
Powerful pushes woke Kim up in a hurry, incomprehensible shouting was directed at him. It took him a few seconds to get his brain functioning to understand the words being said.
"KIM!! I DID IT!!! I LEARNED HOW TO USE MY AURA! I EVEN GOT A SKILL FOR IT!"
Kim sat in silence, his brain still processing his waking up and what Apollo told him. "Nice." He casually responded, laying back down. "Don't you understand? We don't have to gain levels to get skills, we can get them if we learn them, we don't have to wait for skill selections!"
Kim's head comically turned, blankly staring at Apollo's head. "Oh really?"
**
Kim dashed forward, slicing his hand before quickly dashing outwards, creating distance from his imaginary opponent.
"Damnit! I keep stumbling or fucking it up somehow." Kim wasn't sure if this was even a skill, but he was hellbent on learning it. A common thing he did, although in a lousy manner, was to use a slicing dash to attack, then utilize it right afterward to create space between himself and his opponent. It worked on bigger and slower enemies he faced, which would greatly help if he could get it into a skill.
"I just need one good one... C'mon." Kim swiftly lowered his foot which only seemed to touch the ground for a millisecond before it blinked away, appearing in front of a tree instantly. He swiped inwards, cutting the tree in half before dashing to his left, in near success. "I slightly staggered on my second dash." Kim sighed, his impatience showing as his blood thirst, 1st stage nearly activated.
"Hey, Apollo, how'd you do it," Kim asked, his hands on his hips as he sweated. "Finally coming for my help, Eh?" Apollo mockingly said. "Well, I didn't have to use it fastly or efficiently. As soon as I was able to get it out of my skin I got the skill and it made it easier to do overall. Maybe take it slower? Focus on your footwork more than attack?"
Kim nodded and replied with a thumbs-up, preparing to go again.
Ana was able to earn the throwing skill by hitting five goblins in a row in the head from a far distance. After earning the skill, like Apollo, made it far easier to do than without it. Angelina earned a skill called Quick Draw which let her draw arrows and shoot them in quick succession, at the cost of a small portion of power. "Ah, Hoo." He release a deep breath and looked at the tree full of intent, unclear of what it exactly was.
Instantly, he turned into a blur, appearing in front of the poor tree which was cut in half merely a moment later, followed by a white blur outwards. Although slower than his previous attempts, he was able to do it with the same attack power and no mistakes in his footwork. "I was so clouded by greed to earn the skill I didn't try to practice and gauge how fast I can go without fucking up..." Kim sighed but grinned shortly after as the long-awaited notification popped up on his screen.
[Poke]
[Variant of: Slicing Dash]
[Dash in, attack your enemy, and dash back out, simple!]
[Other variations: Counter]
[Cost: 15 Mana]
Kim was already aware of what Counter was. It was basically the opposite of poke. Instead of attacking first, he would dodge, then attack.
Akin to the poke variation, he was easily able to unlock Counter following Apollo's advice.
"I'll learn that blood combust skill I missed out on later... But for now... I think it's hunting time." Kim said to himself.
Kim walked over to the group of three eating beast meat. "Let's go hunt, I'm bored and we need to test our skills out." He said. As the leader of the group, they didn't decline if he wanted to do something, hell, after all this time of fighting they've also grown an itch to fight constantly.
Luckily, wounds recovered awfully quick in the tutorial, as long as they weren't fatal. Apollo's shoulder which got pierced by the Imp's tail healed in just two days, allowing him to fight quickly. Because of that, they didn't have to wait days or weeks to fight slashes or broken bones like back on Earth.
The group traveled through a new part of the forest, completely new to them. Unlike the recent forest which was bunched and compact with multiple trees, this new space was more open, the trees being a dozen feet spaced most of the time. "Look at that," Angelina said from behind the group. On the floor was a large footprint that almost completely faded away, barely visible. "Big footprint for a big monster." Kim truthfully said, peering around his surroundings. The footprint was at minimum the size of Kim's arm from the elbow down. Kim was nowhere near short, he was a 6'3 basketball player in college, and his arms were long and skinny. Yet, this beast's footprints were so large it was terrifying to even think of its size.
"Follow it, let's find out what it is." Angelina snapped her head up, a look of disagreement on her face. "Follow this absolute monster? Hell no."
Kim tilted his head in shock. "Excuse me? This is an easy chance for XP, who knows, it could be a mini-boss like that imp. Now that we're stronger, we'll surely beat it." Kim said. Of course, some mini-bosses were deemed to be stronger than others, but Apollo's, Kim's, and Ana's stat's nearly doubled since that fight with the Imp, and not to forget the addition of Angelina. "You guys are crazy." She said with a sigh.
She stepped in front of Kim, "I'll lead the way."
It only took a few minutes to find more blatant footsteps and signs of habitat as they came across an abandoned shelter consisting of only wood logs and vines to cover the roof. "Yeah... Definitely tall." Kim said. The roof of it was nearly three dozen feet tall, the walls being at least 20 feet wide. Kim walked in alone, the other three being too scared to step in. Looking at it, it was quite the normal room. An obvious bed could be seen made, a hole dug in the corner of the room for obvious reason. Peering over to the makeshift bed, he caught the eye of a silver sheen for a split second, causing him to kneel by it and lift it up. Under it was a small silver ring which Kim picked up instantly, inspecting it.
[Ogre's ring]
[10% Strength]
[Allows you to speak the language of Ogre's]
"Guys! This ring!" Kim shouted, dashing out of the room.
To his shock, four massive green beasts lined up outside, large metal clubs in hand with empty faces. Kim froze, and so did the rest of his squad. Would Kim and his teammates win if they battled? To be honest, he wasn't sure. The absolute size was insane, not to forget they all were equipped with the ring Kim had, so their strength would be far beyond all of theirs.
Kim slipped the ring on, in hopes of saving themselves from a potentially deadly battle. "You know, I never knew the difference between Ogres and Orcs, but seeing the size of you guys, I think there's a noticeable difference now," Kim said with a light chuckle.
The Ogre farthest to Kim's right replied in a deep, hoarse voice, "We aren't here to fight you, humans, unless you are here to fight us. We actually want to talk."