"If only your soul has arrived here, you will have learned that in the end, no matter how hard you run, death awaits us all. If you have managed to arrive alive, you will now know that you cannot stop the advance and, at most, avoid its consequences. Put the weight of your shoulders on the scale and see the rewards that your time has brought you."
This time, the energy sphere only grew to the size of a large coconut or a small melon...
The process was repeated, although this time the ball hit the right side of my neck. I got a little dizzy, although the sensation of static energy soon went away when I began to meditate.
"Affinity with the mana of created time. 1/6100"
"Congratulations on being the first player to complete the main time mana core during the tutorial."
"Congratulations on being the first to complete the hidden quest in the time room by arriving alive."
"Congratulations on being the first player with two cores of level 3 or higher in the tutorial"
Mana Core Time, Level 3. 1/12000
Well, it wasn't bad at all...
After resting a little, I began to test with that strange mana... I concentrated on trying to make time pass more slowly. As a reference, I had the fire of a torch, fast, clear, and changing... I was able to enter a state that we could call "bullet time" for a maximum of 2 minutes before exhausting my time mana...
I went up the stairs to find myself back in the previous hallway. The markings of the chasing wall were not visible, but it was the same diffuse gray marble... I walked for just over 10 minutes until I reached the statue room.
Since I didn't have time nor was I in the mood to flirt with the motionless goddess, I stopped to think about what my next course would be...
The choice now I believed would be space; however, my instinct led me to rule it out. I walked through the circular room; perhaps it was time to try something more conventional. I was encouraged by the stone...
The hallway was a dirty, dark brown; there was no door or wall that closed, nor anything notable, until I reached the first torch. From that moment on, the hallway took an almost imperceptible slope downward, although the ceiling remained the same at the same height. When reaching the next torch, the wall tilted slightly to the right...
I went back to the previous torch and turned it off. Nothing happened; there was no change... I went back and picked up the next torch, and using it, I relit the previous one... I looked at the cauldron and tried to turn it clockwise. Clockwise, when I turned it a quarter, the small incline grew, and by the time I turned it to the maximum it would allow me, six o'clock, the slope was now very steep; it was not a ramp or a slide, but it would bother the legs of more than one.
The problem came that in the 25 steps to the next torch, which were normally 1 meter 50 away, it became more than two meters away, with difficulties but I managed to pull the cauldron into the tunnel, as the curve moved it. It was more pronounced... By the time I reached the next torch it was out of my reach...
Also the walls had changed from that material point from marble to something similar to quartz, I returned to the first torch, and the I turned until it was in the 1:30 position. In this way I reached the third torch, which, although it was two meters away, could be manipulated with a small jump.
It turned again like clockwise, although this time in the opposite direction, the level of the grotto rose again a little, we could say that they compensated each other, one part went down and the other went up...
The next test was put the maximum slope upwards... beyond a change in the type of stone in the final section, it was now slate, the most important thing is that the height exceeded the cauldron, and this time there was no torch at 25 steps.
I left the tunnel with all the torches in position at 12, and decided to explore how long the hallway was... after a total of 50 torches I came to a wall... along the way from the 6th torch I saw granite walls, of sandstone, limestone, volcanic stone, a whole monument to geological cuts one after the other... The cuts did not change with each torch but without a doubt there could have been more than 16 stones of different types...
Buff, if my intuition was correct, if I kept the marble tunnel until the end I would reach the scale room... however, how would the secondary objectives be unlocked? If they had existed in the other tests, why not here? I first tried to go up the ramp to the maximum while still being able to manipulate torches, that is, without them disappearing into the ground... in the end I reached the roof and found myself in a dead end.
I returned the tunnel to its original state, to try my luck I turned all the way to the left, keeping the tunnel straight without any slope. I came to a wall again... although there was something different, this last cut of stone, limestone, did not occupy the entire wall. At the bottom you could see a strip of another reddish stone, one that I had not seen before in any cut.
I modified the height through trial and error to get as low as possible, allowing me, of course, to manipulate the torches. Luckily, the last one was about three meters away. I jumped with all my momentum and managed to get down the slope as much as possible for the last one. Section...
I didn't have time to prepare, the unpleasant clack-clack noise sounded in front of me... I had never seen these monsters, they were a kind of bipedal crab 1 and a half meters high, with two large pincers instead of arms, four legs, and covered by a chitinous shell, they had no head, only a mouth at the end of the torso, two eyes on two protruding peduncles...
In a brave new world the monsters would not have had hostile intentions, I could count more than 20 of them...
I occupied the center of the tunnel to avoid being surrounded, shield and spear... they advanced quickly, as soon as the first one was within range I launched the blow... although I knew that it was beyond the range in which the impact would be strongest it served to check the hardness of the shell, too hard to pierce with a spear...
Trying to reach the eyes while the monsters moved and I defended myself was ruled out... now the option was the ax or the sword, I had no doubt that with the ax I could only hit one eye, if I had enough force to cross the carapace, but to do so I would be exposed to the reach of its pincers...
The best option was the sword... I was glad that I chose the longsword passive combat skill, since it did not feel strange, nor difficult to handle in my hand.
They used the pincers in three ways: they tried to catch my limbs, my weapon, or my shield with them, they hit as if they were clubs or they hit straight to puncture with their ends... there was only room for 2 monsters in the tunnel at a time, so I "only" had to worry about 4 clamps.
My skill with the shield had improved and the monster on my left kept it at bay, the one on my right was more difficult, if I risked wide blows it could catch my sword with its pincer... an oblique cut sent one of the eyes to fly... a jet of blackish blood shot towards the wall...
I didn't lose momentum and hit the other on his leg. At the junction between the different parts, it wasn't cut, but I noticed how the cut reached the leg. Meat...
Without wanting to let the first one recover, I also cut horizontally against the joint of his right pincer. The blow sounded like a "clong" and I couldn't break that part of his armor that seemed hardest.
The one on the left was the first to regain momentum, striking with both pincers like batons against the shield...
I took a couple of steps back. I recovered my posture, and raised my shield again to stop the two new blows from the baton.
I took advantage of the gap to get under its defenses and landed two blows in succession on the injured leg, one on the right and one on the other. The leg fell to the ground, making the monster lose a little balance, although with the help of its other three legs held. I left him in a lower posture due to the imbalance of his weight.
The first crab seemed to have already recovered after the loss of its eye, so I wasted no time in flourishes and launched a wide horizontal slash that sliced off both eyes of the already injured creature... It writhed, to be soon overtaken by another crab monster... The situation did not improve.
I took a deep breath and launched my "bullet time." The crabs' claws seemed to move at half speed, and although my speed was the same, I could clearly distinguish their attacks. With just two movements, I managed to cut the eyes of both the one-eyed man and his new companion. It is true that they did not die and they attacked each other, throwing the pincers left and right. I did not waste time launching myself after the next monsters...
Data's voice sounded:
"Congratulations to the player for creating the bullet Time magic skill."
Skill Bullet Time*Magic*Level 2: 1/5000* slows time perception by half, time mana expenditure 15 per 10 seconds, will mana expenditure 2 per 10 seconds.
Unlike when I tried it spontaneously, the ability when created was more efficient, and with the mana reserve I had, I think it could last about five minutes...
I left the calculations for another time and continued attacking, incapacitating as many as I could in advance... I managed to escape quite a few pincers by very little, in part because when I saw the time in slow motion, I discovered that I was much faster than them moving...
Blood splashed on the walls; the 23 monsters were incapacitated, attacking each other, or entangled with the bodies of their fellow humans... I sheathed the sword and took out the axe. I thought it was more advantageous since I didn't have to worry so much about their attacks as with this one. Weapon would be more efficient...
After 20 minutes and when I still had 5 monsters left, Data's voice rang...
"Congratulations to the player for being the first to reach level 4 during the tutorial"
CHARACTER: Lion
Strength: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Dexterity: 15 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Constitution: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Intelligence: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Wisdom: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Charisma: 12 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Perception: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Luck: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Life: 60/60
Mana: Will Level 5. 3/70000 reserve 24940/25000
Time Level 3. 21/12000 reserve 500/5000
Metal Level 1. 4/1000 reserve 60/100
Spirit Level 1 1/100 reserve 100/100
Spirit: locked
Ki: blocked
Skills: Precise Throw*Expert Rank 35/5000*Combat
Multiple throws* 246/1000*Combat
Combat Awareness* 36/1000*Combat
Spear Expert*6/1000*Combat
Sword Expert*99/1000*Combat
Expert Weapon and Shield*15/1000*Combat
Tracking 425/1000*Common
Dim Vision*Expert Range 850/5000
Detect Magic*15/1000*Common
Lucky Strike*220/1000*Common
Beginner's Luck*10/1000*Common
Lightning Reflections*27/1000*Common
Sixth sense*40/1000*Common
Detect secret doors*12/1000*Common
Meditation* Expert Rank* 230/5000*Common*
Mimic* 0/1000*Special
Mana Body* 123/1000*Special
Parallel mind* 4/1000*Special
Bullet Time*Level 2*20/5000*
Character Experience Level: 4: 1/30000
Job: locked up to level 10
"Title: The persistent * effect: when the character is fighting for more than 1 hour, he ignores fatigue and enters a state of special lucidity, giving a critical chance of + 25%"
"Title: pest exterminator *effect: When the character kills more than 100 monsters of the same species he will get 50% additional damage against the beings, when he kills more than 1000 monsters he will get 100% damage, when he kills more than 10,000 monsters will get 200% damage against the species. Currently: 100% damage against giant rats
"Title: The One Who Grows Fast *effect: The character will receive double experience up to level 10.
"Title: King of the Colosseum *effect: You can equip the gladiator armor. The item will be retained after the completion of the tutorial.
"Title:He who walks the Hero's Path. *The experience of all the monsters you kill is multiplied by 1.5."
I finished off all the missing ones and began to meditate in the middle of all that scattered monster blood. I had the weapon at hand, but I couldn't miss the opportunity as long as it was fresh...
Unfortunately 25 monsters was not enough to complete my affinity and create a blood mana core.
The room where the monsters came from was a natural cavern, with stalactites from floor to ceiling, a small lake was in the background, and in the center of it a blue stone shone, unfortunately it was not a gem. After searching the cave and finding nothing, I picked up the stone and put it in my backpack.