*Click*Clock*Click*
All sounds disappeared except for the ticking clock. The tutorial guide had revealed herself in front of Zyrus.
“How did you know I was here?” Aurora asked with sparkling eyes.
“That’s a secret,” Zyrus looked at her with a smug face. He knew exactly how to deal with this troubleso guide. From the fact that she appeared right after he called her, it was apparent how utterly bored she was.
“Is that so? I’ll give you a reward if you tell ,” Aurora hovered around him while flapping her butterfly wings.
“Still no.” Zyrus refused without a second thought. Her biggest weakness was her curiosity.
“Humph! Do you think I’m weak just because I’m asking you nicely? I can kill you with a flick of my finger you know,” she threatened Zyrus while releasing a vast amount of mana. The pile of goblin corpses was compressed further with a ‘plurch’ sound, splashing both of their faces with greenish red blood.
“Bite .”
“Urgh.. Why you little-”
“You’re one to talk,” Zyrus laughed as he saw Aurora puffing her cheeks. She pestered him a lot last ti, but in the end, he had figured out that she couldn’t use her powers to harm soone.
Not to ntion she was also one of his allies, one of the many he wasn’t able to protect.
“Whatever, who wants to know about your crappy secret,” she grunted in annoyance and started to fly away.
“Wait! What about the deal?” Zyrus stopped her while wiping away the blood from his mouth. Unlike the other party, he was unable to casually evaporate the blood with mana.
“Spill it,” Aurora couldn’t flat-out reject the deal even if she wanted to.
“I want to synthesize the goblin’s corpses.”
“Stupid. Why’d you want this trash? Besides, can you even afford that? Huh?” She replied while looking at him with disdain.
‘Did I tease her too much?’ Zyrus sighed at her rude but truthful remarks. Indeed, the forr monarch was poorer than a beggar at this mont.
“I need their blood essence. I’m willing to give up on my rewards for that.”
“All seven of them? With your strength, you’ll receive pretty decent rewards. You sure you want to give those up?"
Zyrus knew that the first-ranked rewards would be more than just “decent”. However, he had better ans to achieve them.
“I need the blood more than those. Also, I’d like to make another deal. A personal one.”
“Oh, And what would that be?” Aurora raised her eyebrows at his serious face.
“I’ll want to exchange a random class change scroll for 100C.”
“What do I get from that?”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“Hehehe… you are a funny human. Yes, I’d like to see what you do with that,” She gave him a mischievous grin and waved her hand. Not any random player was qualified to make a deal. One needed to prove their qualifications and earn achievents if they wanted to get better treatnt.
All of the goblin corpses disappeared from the site, replaced by a glass bottle filled with green blood in her hand.
“Take it. I’ll be watching you, fufufu…”
Zyrus stored the bottle in his inventory without further ado. He knew that she would make the next deal; he just had to satisfy her curiosity.
‘First things first, I should distribute my SP,’
He had to beco stronger if he wanted to carry out his plan.
Status:
[Na: Zyrus Wymar]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None]
[Level: 3]
Exp: 490/3375
[Title: None]
[Achievent: First Blood in tutorial, Goblin Slayer]
[Talent: None]
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 7]
[Vitality: 7]
[Intelligence: 7]
[SP: 10]
HP: 70
Crit rate: 10%
Crit damage: 100%
[Basic Spear]
ATK: 30
[Basic Armor]
DEF: 50
Currency: 38C
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[Ration x1]
[Goblin’s Blood essence x1]
‘Let’s see… I’ll save three of them for ergencies and use the rest of them.’
Zyrus wanted to save his SP for mana stat, but he decided to use so for now. He spent two points on everything except Vitality. He didn’t need more health for the ti being.
He started thinking about where to go next when Kyle and Lauren ca back with their rewards. From their confident steps it was apparent that the things they acquired were quite good.
“You don’t want yours? We got so amazing equipnt,” Lauren asked as she wanted to know his reason for not getting the reward. She and Kyle had been on many ‘cleanup’ missions on the Arc of Noah. For them, the best way to know soone was by fighting alongside them.
After the last battle they understood that as long as they didn’t ask questions to Zyrus when he was serious, he was rather easy going in sharing so tidbits of information.
“I made a deal with Aurora, so I can’t have any.” Zyrus shrugged while telling them the the half-truth.
“Can we do that? How did you call her?” Kyle asked while looking around at the sky. Forget about Aurora, there wasn’t even a bird or insect in that was flying around.
“Well, you can just call her. It depends on her mood whether she responds or not.”
“Really? I thought it would be a complicated process.”
“And why are YOU so curious about that?” Lauren elbowed Kyle with a sharp glare.
“H-hey I was just curious about this place, that’s all.”
“Is that so…”
“You two seem to have so history,” Zyrus observed the two who were showing more concern for each other than themselves.
“Mhm. We grew up in the sa…orphanage. I used to take care of him because he used to get carried away after seeing blood.”
“…I didn’t know such things existed on the Arc of Noah, though I’m more surprised by the fact that you’re willing to share your past.”
Indeed, Zyrus didn’t really expect to hear an explanation when he comnted on their relationship. In all honesty communication was a bigger hurdle for him than fighting against monsters. Finding the right people, establishing proper hierarchy, building trust…there were a lot of things he had to accomplish. This was especially difficult for soone who was used to having millions of people at his beck and call.
“We learned a lot about combat and survival thanks to you,” Kyle replied with a solemn tone. Teaching soone how to fight was equivalent to saving their life.
“Great, you’ll like our next destination even more then. I plan to train there until I develop the basic spear skills.”
“Can we do that? Like getting and developing a skill on our own?” Lauren’s hazel eyes sparkled as she wanted a skill for her new knives as well.
“There are two ways. Sanctuary rewards all of your efforts. Leveling up is just a part of it. A good portion of your strength will co from your achievents.”
“Achievents? How do we get them?” Kyle was excited about anything that could make him stronger.
“By completing feats that are recognized by the system, like killing a hundred goblins, jumping from a thousand feet, completing missions and dungeons in a special way, exploring new regions, and so on. There are a lot of ways,” Zyrus looked at them and continued,
“If you have a crafting class, you can create new weapons, potions, and even cook a variety of food to get an achievent. They give out different rewards with the most common one being SP.”
“I see, what’s the other thod?”
“Quests. You find the ‘Elder souls’ which are like NPCs but not quite, and get so missions. The missions vary depending on the elder soul, but they are almost always easier than the requirents for achievent. Naturally, the skills you get this way are weaker.”
The next place Zyrus wanted to visit was where an elder soul was residing. It was possible to do the quests and achievents at the sa ti as long as one was aware of the proper order. What he and his new subordinates needed right now were skills. Only with them could they ensure their survival.
‘Things will be more lively with these two around,’ Zyrus curved his lips as he moved towards the forest. Rather than the dangers of the sanctuary, the weak and stupid people were a bigger threat.
He hadn't thought that it would be so tiring to blend in with the others. He was used to act like a king, but now, he had to live again as a young man in his twenties. It wouldn't do him any good if he acted the sa way when he was at his peak. After all, one’s personality should match their power.
“Wait a minute! We need to talk.”
Zyrus frowned as he saw the blonde-haired man coming towards him with his 'followers'. What he loathed from the bottom of his heart was happening right at this mont.
“Do you want sothing?” Zyrus asked but he knew the answer already.
“Can you tell us where are you going?” the man asked politely.
“To train.”
“You seem to know a lot about this ‘Sanctuary’, but shouldn’t we move in a group?” the man asked with a fake smile. Indeed, Lauren and Kyle were an exception due to their killing aura. Zyrus didn’t even feel like saying a word to soone who didn’t understand the darkness of the world.
“I prefer moving alone. Besides, you’ll be safer if you stay here.”
“Alone? Aren’t those two coming with you?” the blonde man pointed his arm at Kyle and Lauren.
Zyrus was getting annoyed by this point as the man kept wasting his ti. He didn't want to behave arrogantly, but how dare a re nobody question him?
“Again, what do you want?” he glared at the man with cold eyes. This was the final warning.
“Nothing much. It looks like you’re monopolizing information from us. It would be better for humanity’s survival if we moved together, no?” the man spoke as he looked at the crowd behind him.
A lot of people agreed with him. They weren’t scheming like him, but they knew they had a higher chance of survival if they stayed with Zyrus.
“I suppose you’re right for the first part,” Zyrus addressed the crowd in an emotionless tone. Kyle felt a bad premonition so he held Lauren’s hand and moved away from the people.
*Clap* Clap*Clap*
“Listen up folks! I’ll tell you how to survive in this hell.”
Zyrus waited till everyone’s eyes were on him, and then he continued with his advice.
“You see that fla over there, right? All you have to do is to keep it burning. Monsters like goblins and kobolds will co to attack that, and you’ll have to fight them.”
People listened, and he spoke again,
“You must kill them to beco stronger. The more you kill the more rewards you get, and the rewards will make you even stronger. The cycle will repeat, pretty simple right? You don’t need to tell you what’ll happen if you don’t keep up.”
Zyrus walked towards the blonde man who was staring daggers at him.
“Is that all?”
“Of course not, I’ll give them so practical training as well.” Zyrus smiled at the man and took out his spear.
“What do yo- ugh,” his words were cut short as a spear penetrated his heart.
-4
-20
“Eeekkk”
“Wh-what are you doing!”
“Stop him!”
“It's impolite to interrupt soone who’s teaching, y'know that right?” Zyrus looked at everyone with the sa smile.
Every human present felt a shiver down their spine. To kill soone with that expression was just… creepy. No one dared to move a muscle and looking at that, Zyrus continued.
“So of you might have figured out how weakness and critical hits work. Did you look at the numbers here?”
-20
Zyrus pointed at the red number, and everyone gulped. The blonde man had already beco a fainted lump held up by the spear tip.
“You see, at first it only dealt 4 damage. The rest was being negated by his basic armor. However, once you strike a weak point, you can deal continuous damage as well.”
-20
Zyrus took out his spear and cleaned it with the man’s clothes.
“I’ve even removed this trash from your group. He would’ve led you to your death with his greed, greed without strength to back it up.”
He placed the spear on his back and stood up,
“Aren’t I a benevolent one? No need to thank though.” Zyrus waved his hand and left the people behind.
…
The trio walked a few hundred ters when Lauren finally spoke, unable to keep quiet about the incident.
“Was that necessary?”
“Yes. Both for and for them,” Zyrus replied as he reminisced about his past. Bittersweet mories kept flashing by his eyes that were surveying the tracks in the forest.
‘I'd spent half of my life helping the weak and saved millions of lives. However, what did it give ? Nothing but wounds on my back,’
He hadn’t forgotten the traitors who had betrayed him. The very people he saved had turned their backs on him. They told him to give up on his dreams, his love, and finally, his life. All for the so-called “Greater Good”.
He changed after that. He beca the Void Monarch from that point onwards, the man who had fought against everyone and everything in the seven rings of the sanctuary.
His starting point was different compared to the last ti. He wouldn’t be the nice guy who helps others on the tutorial. From the mont he accepted the cube’s mission he was destined to beco a predator that would hunt everything that walked on the sanctuary.
“Where are we going by the way?” Kyle asked, trying to change the tense atmosphere. He wasn't bothered by the killing at all. The strong preyed on the weak; it was the sa in human society as well.
Zyrus turned around and looked at them. It wasn't hard to guess that they had their own struggles and hardships. Despite that though, they still had innocence in their eyes. He wished that they could keep it, but this shithole wouldn’t allow that.
“We’re going to Celestia’s cradle. It’s a beautiful place.”
“What types of monsters are there?” Lauren asked while she followed behind them. Both she and Kyle were curious about the things Zyrus had spoken thus far.
“We’re going to fight the ‘professional punching bags’ of the tutorial.”
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