A NOTICED DETERMINATION

The old man walked past me. He went deeper into the cave. I am unsure if I am supposed to follow him or if I need to wait here or leave.

- Are you coming, you one-handed weak potato?

He wanted me to follow him? How was I supposed to get that from him walking past without even saying a word? What a weird old man.

I went deeper into the cave to follow him.

The cave seemed like it would never end. I still couldn't get back up to level with the geezer.

I had walked for 2 hours straight when my feet started to hurt me. I remembered the bonus points that I just got from leveling up. I hadn't spent them yet. It could help me right now to use them.

I'm putting 2 of those points into my vitality. That will help my feet be stronger and less likely to hurt. It will also relieve the pain I feel right now.

I'll also put 4 points into my speed. I need to be faster to get back to where the old man is. It also is not a bad plan to be fast when you are an assassin.

POINTS ATTRIBUTED.

Name: Leon Raze

Level: 4 (0/1000 experience points)

Class: Mist Assassin

Secrets Talents: Not at all

Vitality: 4

Agility: 2

Speed: 6

Strength: 1

Intelligence: No record

Wisdom: 2

Bonus Points: 0

I wished that you would always gain a bonus into each category when you level up but that only happens when you hit level 2. After that each level you gain, you have 3 bonus points. Next time, I'll need to put some points in strength.

THE PLAYER HAS HIT A SPEED OF MORE THAN 5. THE PLAYER WILL NOW BE ABLE TO USE CONTINUOUS SPRINT.

CONTINUOUS SPRINT: LEVEL 1

SPRINTING WILL NOT IMPACT THE STAMINA OF THE PLAYER.

That's a great skill. Will I get a skill that is useful for every stat that hits 5 points or more? If so, I need to do it ASAP.

With the new abilities I gained, I was able to run continually for 5 hours in the cave until I finally arrived at the end.

The end of the cave was far from what I had expected. It wasn't a dead end but an opening toward a green field. A huge forest.

There was incredible vegetation. Trees the size of the Holy Dignity headquarters and not just one of those trees. A bunch of them. There were a lot of animals running around. It was an amazingly peaceful place. Birds were chirping and no humans could be seen for the entirety of it.

Except, for a tiny house in the middle of it. I had not seen the house when I first looked at the forest. Because the house blended so well with the surrounding forest. Vines were gripping the house from every direction. It was also made of wood which helped it not get noticed.

I have never heard of such a peaceful and big field close to the starting city. Maybe it had been hidden by a magic spell or something. Maybe the cave had a magical spell that teleported you in a far away forest.

I took out the map of the world from my inventory.

I don't understand it. The map says that I am still in the middle of the starting area forest. It can't be. In a weird way, the trees looked friendlier than in the starting forest. The map must be broken. It can't be.

This is when I noticed it. The map wasn't broken.

There is no sky. Only rocks. Some of the rocks were glowing to create artificial sunlight. I was in the cave. I had never left the cave.

It now made sense. I was still in the same spot on the map because I was underground. In an underground forest. In the underground of the starting area.

How could you not smile in a situation like this? Such a beautiful forest is able to exist underground. That made me happy. For once the fact that the system created magic made something beautiful. Something so peaceful and right. It didn't look like discrimination had reached this part of the world. In a way, this was the best of the system. This peaceful forest was the best.

I could have lived here forever. Away from the system. Away from my problems. Away from civilization. But I can't. I need to break the way this world works for everybody to be free. For things to go back to how they were. For my family to be free.

If my senses were to be believed, the man would be in the house in the middle of the forest. At least, I don't know where else he could be.

I stepped into the underground forest. Ready for the rest of the tutorial.

After being about halfway on my way to the house, something strange happened. Every single animal in the forest stopped doing what they were doing and looked at me. I must have been insane but it felt like they were happy I was there. That was not the case, they were only animals. I probably looked strange to them so that's why they stopped.

Before I knew it, they were back to the way they were acting before they stopped and look at me.

I continued walking towards the small home. It is the smallest home I've seen. You could even call it a little tiny shack if you wanted to.

I knocked on the door three times. The door opened instantly. In such a small home, the old man was probably sitting right next to the door, so it was expected for him to open the door quickly. But when I looked inside, no one was close to the door. It had been opened magically.

When I got inside, the door closed automatically. From the outside, it looked like the smallest of houses but from the inside it was different. It was much different from the inside.

It was a full-blown castle with medieval aesthetics and everything. Like you can see in fantasy movies. Magic could do a lot of different things but I had never taken into consideration that it could make houses bigger from the inside.

The old man didn't come to welcome me inside the castle. After a couple of minutes of just standing in the entry hall, I decided to explore the castle.

There were multiples floor in the interior of the small house. I started by only exploring the first floor.

A room was filled to the brim with books. It was bigger than the biggest library I could imagine. There must have been over 100 000 books.

Another room was filled with a bunch of different weapons and armor. It was a full-blown armory. It looked like it was some high-level equipment also.

Then I discovered the most puzzling room of the castle.

The room didn't have a medieval aesthetic like the other ones. It was modern looking and there were televisions all over the walls. There was a bunch of video game console including the Nintendo Wii. I couldn't understand how it was in the same castle as the other one so I didn't look into it more. In a magical castle like this, the Wii was the weirdest thing.

Then on the first floor at the end of the corridors, there were a bunch of doors. All of them had a nameplate on but they were empty except for the last 2 at the end of the corridor. Out of curiosity, I read the name on the nameplate of the room on my right.

Leon Raze.

It was my name. That felt freaky. Not as much as the Wii but still freaky. Like the castle had a mind of its own and knew I was going to be there. If this was the place for me to complete the tutorial it also made sense for me to have a room. It felt weird even taking that into consideration.

The room on the left probably was the room for the old man. When I read the nameplate, it gave chills down my spine. How could that be? It didn't make sense. Achilles?

The one from the troy war? The one from the Brad Pitt movie? I know he was an NPC created by the system but if he was based on the Greek myth that was still someone to be impressed by.

I had not found Achilles so far in the castle so I decided to knock on the door of his room. Nothing happened. The door didn't magically open like it did before. Then I heard a sound on the other side of the door. The sound was getting closer and closer to the door. He was going to open the door.

The door opened and there he was the old man from the cave.

- It took you long enough to get here. You must be slow on your feet.

I would have been insulted but now knowing who he was. I let it slide. You don't want to have a fight with Achilles. At least, I don't.

- Please come inside, young man.

I entered his room. It had a different aesthetic from every other room so far. It had the same architecture as the old Greek building I had seen in pictures. It was a big room. There even was a balcony. It looked like the balcony had a view of the Mediterranean Sea. At that point, I just accepted that it was something that could happen with magic.

- I'm so confused by everything that I am seeing. I know the system created this place and you, but why go to all this effort to create this?

- I was not made by the system.

- That makes things so much more confusing. A lot more confusing to be precise.

How could he not be created by the system? That made no sense. There never was magic in our world before the Nexus Genesis. Somebody could not have survived 3000 years without magic.

Maybe all NPCs reacted that way to being called NPCs.

- Because you are the first one to pass the test, I'll answer your questions but take a seat beforehand. Some things might be too shocking for you.

- I was the first one to attempt it?

- O, no. Not the first one at all. Just the first one to complete the test.

- What happened to the other participants?

- They died in the test. A lot of them died a gruesome death. No one survived.

That was a brutal test for sure. If it wasn't for my immense intelligence stat, I would've been dead so fast.

I had to get answers out of him while he was cooperating.

- You have 4 more questions.

- When did you say I had a restricted number of questions?

- I didn't, I just don't want to answer a lot of questions. I want to sleep. You have 3 more questions.

This is the worst.

- You say that you haven't been created by the system but how could you be sure?

- That's a great question. Because I was there alive before the event. I lived for thousands of years even before your parents were an idea.

- If what you are saying, why is the system referring to training with you has a hidden tutorial? Only NPCs are quest-givers.

- Maybe, but I am no NPC. To answer truthfully your question, I need to also talk about the creation of the Nexus Genesis. Because it's a lengthy answer it will count as 2 questions. Your 2 final questions.

Does he know the origin of the Nexus Genesis? This is such a better answer than anything I could have thought of.

- Basically, magic and gods have always existed in this world. It just was well hidden. This is why I have lived close to 3000 years so far. So the Nexus Genesis happened because Collosus found a genie lamp. That's the simple way of putting it.

Collosus is the cause of the Nexus Genesis? I only wanted to beat him to become stronger than the system but now that I know he caused so much harm to everyone I know. I want to kill him. I will kill him.

- He found the lamp and made 3 wishes. He changed the world into a video game. He made himself the strongest and wished for all genies to die.

He killed all the genies, that's so smart. So that no one could challenge him. I hate him but I have to compliment a great move when I see one. That's some great planning to stay the greatest in the world.

- The thing is. He wished for all genies to be killed. But he put too much of a timeframe on it. He asked for them to be killed today (at the moment of the wish). So the genies got together and created a hidden quest in the system to kill Collosus. They also created other hidden quests to help people get stronger to catch up to Collosus. Hence why this tutorial exists.

- Are all the hidden quests run by mythological figures like you?

- You have already exhausted your questions.

- Common, you have to answer some other questions I have.

- No I don't. I'm going to sleep.

In an instant, I was teleported out of the room. It was a weird feeling.

Then I heard Achilles' voice in my head telling me then from tomorrow onward I would be in hell. The training would be incredibly difficult.

I should be scared by such a statement but right now after everything I heard, I want to get stronger. I want to become the strongest.

I'm excited about the training that starts tomorrow. I'm excited to grow stronger.