"This is insane..."
Had he lost his intangibility?
As the goblin gave chase, Ash fled and dipped his hand into the ground to confirm if the glitch still existed.
Seeing that it had...
’Even when in this state, my body can interact with items I have equipped?’
Once again, Ash held out his left arm, baiting the goblin in.
’Good to know!’
The goblin still hadn’t seemed to grasp that attacking his bare skin was impossible.
As its sword phased through Ash’s arm, Ash brought down his own upon its neck... only for his blade to stop.
’Wait... I’m confident the sword made contact.’
The strike had neither cut nor bounced off. Its momentum had been silenced.
’I see!’
While Ash was still uncertain of what this world truly was, the laws it followed at least behaved game-like; the natural laws of physics didn’t apply exactly.
No decisive conclusion could be reached with the limited knowledge presented to him, but it made sense, in an odd way, that a weapon wielded by him while in his glitched state wouldn’t do anything. After all, if the world didn’t recognize his actions, then it didn’t recognize any force being applied to the sword...
’It seems I’ll have to wait for [Focus].’
Thankfully, the next time the cooldown ended, Ash didn’t miss.
After baiting the goblin in once again, he activated his ability and neatly slid his blade through its neck. The little creature gurgled up green blood before slumping over and bursting into iridescent particles that scattered into the air. Even its weapon exploded, too...
[You have slain Tutorial Goblin]
[First Kill Bonus]
[+11 EXP]
[Prepare for the next round in 3 minutes!]
Where the goblin had been slain, a single leather cuff sat on the ground.
’A drop?’
Curiously, Ash bent down and picked it up.
[You have acquired N-Rank: Goblin’s Bracers]
’It wasn’t even wearing bracers...’
Despite the nonsensical name, Ash equipped the item.
[You have equipped...]
Maybe it wasn’t the most useful — perhaps even detrimental in his current state — but Ash felt he wanted to keep his constitution under wraps. That may have been a vain excuse, with the actual motive being more protection from falling into the abyss, but there was some truth to the idea that he wished to keep his glitch hidden from other players.
After figuring out the inventory system, Ash began to circle the arena and collect his other three weapons.
He stored the bow and arrows, sword, and pike and wielded the mace for now. However, depending on what came out of the next gate, he would swap his weapon — something that he’d have to decide instantly, as swapping items took much longer when in combat.
Eventually, the three minutes elapsed, and the next trial began.
Only for...
"Really...? Another goblin?"
***
It seemed all four battles were the exact same in nature. Facing a single goblin. The sole goal seemed to be acclimating someone to fighting rather than challenging them.
’I guess that’s what I should have expected from a tutorial...’
After the first two, Ash didn’t even treat his opponent seriously. Instead, he used this time to experiment more.
He learned that [Dragon Fear] could be activated while in his glitched state, consuming mana, but it did nothing. However, when activated in his [Focus] state, it debuffed as it said it would.
Next, he also tested his passive, [Scale Armor].
He let one of the goblins attack him during [Focus] and watched as weird black scales semi-morphed into existence to partially absorb the blow. The strike still did damage and even drew blood, but it was clear his passive had dulled it somewhat.
’Now it also makes sense why my arm didn’t get entirely sliced open the first time.’
He wasn’t exactly moving slowly in that incident...
As for the injury from that first time using [Focus], it seemed to have healed without even leaving a scar. Like with most games, there seemed to be passive healing that happened. Though Ash discerned that the healing speed was significantly reduced when in combat.
Finally, the subsequent goblins he killed gave less EXP. And the only goblin to drop an item was the first. The hypothesis Ash grew from that fact was that experience was doubled on first kill and there was a higher drop chance.
As he waited to be summoned to the world of Rite of Ruin for real after slaughtering the last goblin — which would happen in three minutes — Ash checked his status again.
♱♱♱
Name: [Ashley Grave]
TITLE: [Dragonkin Champion]
LEVEL: [1] (EXP: 26/50)
STR: [12] (+2)
AGI: [10]
DEX: [10]
INT: [10]
CON: [11] (+1)
ITEM LEVEL: [20]
ACTIVES: [Dragon Fear] [Focus]
PASSIVES: [Scale Armor]
♱♱♱
The "(+1)" and "(+2)" referred to the stats he earned from equipped items. The sandals and tunic didn’t provide him any stats, but the +1 constitution was from the bracers, and the +2 strength was from the pike he currently had equipped.
Another feature that was good to know.
There were a few more things he discovered while in the tutorial... about his appearance.
Using the reflection of a blade, he’d noted his hair color and type had changed. Where before he had straight black hair, his hair was now wavy and olive. He also had two black horns curling out from his forehead. His features were overall sharper, especially his eyes and his jaw. The only thing that remained of his original appearance was the amber color of his eyes, though he did now possess slit pupils like those of a cat.
As for his tail made of black scales... he hadn’t gotten entirely used to it yet, but he was starting to learn how to control it.
[You are being summoned to Arcadia!]
’Arcadia? Is that the name of the world?’
[Good luck!]
"I guess it’s time..."
Ash felt the feeling wash over him again as the world distorted. The sand below morphed into obsidian rocks while the roof of the coliseum became an ash-covered sky. The walls were replaced by an open slope of a mountain. There was a gigantic red scale stuck in the ground next to him, and...
"I just want to go home!"
"Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay. Just calm down and breathe."
Standing around him were four others. The same four he’d seen lifelessly floating in the Fold of Existence.
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