Chapter 5 - The Tutorial Part 3

[ 10 minute grace period has begun ]

'Oooookay, so I should find more achievements to level up faster huh. Any recommendations before the next fight Ellie?'

[ Yes, finish evolving lesser sword mastery as well as another mana pathway, as it will strengthen your magic even further. You should also acquire fire resistance by burning yourself, and distribute your points or use them at the store for armor ]

'How much is the armor?'

[ Store: Category: Armor: Price low to high ]

Padded Armor (Bronze class) - 10 points

Mail armor (Silver class) - 30 points

Brigandine (Gold class) - 60 points

Steel plate armor (Platinum class) - 100 points

Ornaum plate armor (Ornaum class) - 500 points

[ There are multiple colors and designs available for each set ]

'Hmm. It'll probably be better for me to cheap out a little on the armor for now so I have better stats. Plus if they get high enough I probably won't need any armor.'

[ Armor will always be of help so long as it is of high enough quality ]

'Anyway I'll buy the brigandine and distribute my points half to strength and half to vitality.'

[ Remaining points: 100

[ Updating status ]

Hp: 2400 / 2400

Strength: 230

Vitality: 240

---------

I feel that oh-to-familiar tickling sensation underneath my skin as my muscles get more dense and my bones too to support it. I also get that feeling around my heart.

[ Ornaum Exclusive Achievement gained: Grow to be the strongest of your starting race ]

[ 100 Undistributed points awarded ]

'Oh so I'm already the strongest of my race? But wait that should've appeared after all my stats were over 100…'

[ Note: There is one platinum hunter so far. They start with 200 stat points, two innate skills, and grow 75% faster than bronze ranks do. They have potential to be stronger than you if you slack off ]

'Well then let's not do that.'

Edward picks up his sword and starts his training, finishing the remaining moves required in about five minutes.

[ Lesser sword mastery evolved into Sword mastery ]

'Alright time for the worst part… phew…'

Edward sits down and focuses this time on his other arm and starts to feel that burning feeling slowly traveling down his arm as the mana rips its way through his arm towards the palm of his hand. He clenches his arm, putting so much pressure that the skin near it starts turning blue. In about three minutes he successfully clears the pathway and is shocked to see that he gained another 200 skill points added to his wisdom.

[ Short Status Report ]

Wisdom: 180 - 380

MP: 18000 - 38000

Mana Pathways: 2 / 20

[ Lesser mana manipulation evolved into Mana manipulation ]

[ Magic attacks will do more damage, approximately double what they did before ]

[ New skills have been learned, Mana repulse, Flame spout, Flame wall, Ice Spear, Earth Armor, Lesser Gravity ]

Edward starts to drink another potion when he starts feeling that itching feeling in his head. He feels like he can think more clearly and at a faster rate than before. He also notices that he is able to sense the mana around him more clearly than before.

[ 10 minute grace period has ended! ]

[ Spawning Orc ]

'Ok… Ok I got this… I took down that lizardman that easily, this should be just as easy with my new magic power…'

[ NOTICE: TUTORIAL DIFFICULTY UPGRADED FROM EASY TO HARD TO COMPENSATE FOR YOUR STATUS ]

[Spawning minotaur ]

"WAIT A WHAT?!"

Edward sees a new color of energy, red, begin to form in front of him. The form the energy is taking seems to be around 10 feet tall [ ~ 3m ]. Definitely the biggest creature he's faced.

The creature takes shape, and as the energy dissipates, a tall muscular dark brown creature with the head of a bull appears in front of him. In its hands is a large battle-axe that it wields with two hands.

The creature charges at Edward who has the spells ready again, this time not willing to get the dust in his eyes. As the creature runs towards him he unleashes his combined spells and hits it directly in the face, at least he thinks that's where he hit it as that was where he was aiming. He can no longer see the creature due to the mixture of steam and dust that is clouding where it was. Edward starts to let his guard down and turns around, but notices that he hasn't gotten the death message.

"F-FU-"

As he turns around to ready his weapons again he is hit by the minotaurs charge.

[ 800 points of damage received I recommend a potion ]

Edward coughs up some blood realizing his lungs have been punctured by the minotaurs horns. He puts his sword away in exchange for a potion and drinks it.

[ 200 points of damage healed ]

HP: 1800 / 2400

Edward readies some spells with his right hand this time, not willing to use the sword and get closer to a creature that is obviously stronger than he is. He casts an ice spear, and wraps it with a gravity spell to make it fly faster than usual. He shoots this spear toward the minotaur that is still recovering from the dust and hitting a human who seemed as hard as stone with its head. The ice spear hits its mark, puncturing the minotaurs chest enough to deal damage, but not enough to cause major bleeding. The minotaur roars as it grabs the ice spear and crushes it with its hands.

Edward notices that the axe it had is gone, and looks over where the first spell hit. The head of the axe had been broken and the wooden handle had caught fire.

'So the minotaur blocked the spell with its axe. That must mean that attack should be enough to either kill or seriously maim it.'

Edward readies the same spells in the shielded hand blocking the minotaurs view of it, while simultaneously casting another ice spear with his right hand in full view of it. The minotaur charges him again, this time with its arms in front of its head. Edward looses the ice spear toward it, scraping its arm and lodging it into its shoulder. As it gets a little closer, he unleashes the ball of magics toward it. It hits the creature's left arm which it had put in front. The arm is sent flying off and the other arm that was underneath has a hole driven into it the size of a car tire. It falls down onto its back, struggling to get back up with its remaining arm and is struck by another ice spear in the chest. This one manages to pierce its chest and stick in. The creature scrambles back up and charged Edward again, enraged. He raises his shield as he doesn't have enough space to dodge it, and is flung backwards taking 100 more damage. He stands back up and is met by the fist of the Minotaur striking him in the stomach.

[ 500 points of damage taken seek safety immediately and drink a potion ]

Edward uses the spell flame wall to put some space between him and the creature and drinks another potion healing another 200 points.

HP: 1500 / 2400

'Shit, this thing is so much tougher than everything else!'

[ This monster is a low-gold rank while everything else you've fought has been low to high-bronze rank ]

Edward looks toward the wall of flame and sees the shape of the Minotaur charging through it. Edward readies another set of the spells and another ice spear with two gravity spells on it. As the creature bursts through the flames, its hairs catch on fire and its skin turns a burned shade. Edward looses the ice spear which cuts straight through the right arm of it and unleashes the other spells right after, striking the creature center mass, causing an explosion of steam, dust, and blood.

[ Minotaur defeated ]

[ Level up x4 ]

[ Achievement gained: First hunter to fight a gold-class monster alone ]

[ Level up x5 ]

--------------

[ Status Update ]

Level: 30

HP: 3300

MP: 47000

Strength: 320

Agility: 270

Dexterity: 270

Vitality: 330

Perception: 270

Wisdom: 470

Unused Stats: 190

-------------

"Uuuuuugh finally."

[ 10 minute grace period has started ]

'Ellie, what the hell just happened?'

[ The hunt notes your achievements and level and adjusted the difficulty accordingly. I could not do anything to stop this. ]

Edward takes of his newly-ruined brigandine and sees a hole the size of his arm punched through it.

[ Skill gained: Analyze ]

[ Item: Ruined brigandine: bronze class - a brigandine used by the Ornaun hunter during the tutorial. It was punctured by a minotaurs horn ]

[ Note: Item has a chance to become legend class if the ornaum hunter gathers enough fame ]

"Well that's just great. REALLY helpful piece of equipment, Ellie"

[ It was. Without it, the Minotaurs horn would've gone through you, delivering 2000 points of damage. Which is more than your health cap at the time ]

"... I stand corrected…"

[ Hunter, I have both good and bad news ]

"Shoot."

[ The good news is that the next monster you fight should be the last of the tutorial. The bad news is that it has been 2 years since you entered ]

"WHAT?!"

----------------

Ruby's POV:

It's been two years since the dungeons started appearing. Since then a platinum hunter appeared in Germany, and the governments of the world started regulating them. The United States Hunters Association (which is called USHA by us) developed a new method of communication using the crystals we got from dungeons. For simplicity sake we just call them magic radios.

They used this base technology and developed sonar systems that could detect monsters underwater, and shipped pieces of this equipment to other nations. It took around a year and a half but the world finally stabilized again. Using earth magic, cities were rebuilt very quickly and even the potholes were fixed for once. People settled back into life in our new normal. Some countries simply disappeared because dungeons the size of the country itself had appeared. The red island that appeared in the middle of the pacific was colonized by multiple countries, and it was quickly discovered that the entire island was made of a new metal. So far, nobody has been able to crack off any pieces of this metal, so everyone assumes it's the new metal that is supposed to appear with the calamity. One country tried bombing it only for the color to slightly shift to a darker red, then return back to normal.

Businesses started to appear that were collections of hunters that would take on dungeons together. The largest of them so far is a guild in China that has over 50 million members, with an American guild following close behind with 40 million. The Chinese guild is called the Great Wall, and the American guild is called the Kings. The largest grouping of gold-ranks, however, is USHA. They have over 50000 gold-ranks in their employ. The USHA regulates hunters and their guilds, requiring every hunter to be licensed and for guilds to have a guild license. Many countries don't have the same privilege that the US has, and their guild gained too much political power.

Edward still isn't back. My family wants me to go ahead with a funeral even though we can't find a body. There's no way he could've just disappeared like that. There just isn't. Peppy hasn't made many friends now that she's in school. I've sent her into counseling but it's not doing much. She blames herself for what happened to Edward, because she was the one that said we should go on a picnic. I told her it's the monsters fault for appearing that way and she started wanting to become a hunter. She's started looking through the woods near our house for a pod. Edward, if you're still alive, please come back soon.

[ WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: ]

Recently these have been popping up alot. One popped up a year ago stating the Ornaum hunter had evolved, though they've never been found.

[ The Ornaum hunter has nearly completed the tutorial and will be appearing soon ]