AuthorPalt
patreon
Tutorial Rewrite 94
🕑 Added 2023-01-31 08:00:38 +0000 UTCThe world wobbles and shifts and somehow it feels wrong, even worse than the other times this has happened, because my stomach does a flip and I feel like I’m upside down but only my body is upside down and my brain is upright, but then it switches again, and my body, weak and wobbly, falls to the ground in a mess of limbs and confusion.
The first thing I notice, before I’ve even had time to pull myself to my feet, is the overwhelming smell of smoke and fire. But it isn’t just smoke. It isn’t just that. It’s something else, too.
Slowly, I pull myself to my feet. Before me stands a wall at a height of around eight metres or so. In the middle of the wall is a closed gate. I recognise this wall. I recognise this smell of smoke and fire. I recognise this gate.
The sight of it brings a tremble to my hands.
<Tutorial stage,
Hell Difficulty Tenth Floor:
The Burning City>
<[Clear Condition]
Enter what used to be
the Shore City of Acheron.>
Gulp.
T—this place again, huh? Well, uh, the clear condition is easy enough, I guess.
But first, it might be a good idea to check out what else is around, right? I look over my shoulder. There are houses further down the road, but I can’t smell anything coming from them. No goblins, no food, no animals… nothing. And as I try to make out what lies further away, all the way towards the horizon, I get a sudden and powerful sense that I shouldn’t go there. It doesn’t feel like my own emotion, or something that I should be feeling at all, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. So even though I want to try my hand at leaving this floor behind fully, I have no choice but to turn back to the wall and the gate and the smoke.
…I really can’t do anything for myself, can I?
I walk up to the gate and push it open. A gust of scalding hot air and blinding smoke hits my face and I want to leave, but I still push myself inside, closing the gate behind me.
<You have entered a Holy Area.>
Holy area? What is that supposed to—
<Tutorial stage,
Hell Difficulty Tenth Floor
Boss Stage>
<[Clear Condition]
Free the unhappy citizens of the burning city
and kill the herald of the God of Kings.>
…Two in one, huh? Now who’s this God of Kings supposed to be?
<[Right your wrong.
Undo the damage you have done.
Quench the fire.]>
Hm. That’s, uh, pretty interesting, if you ask me. See, pardon me for saying as such, but didn’t the boss stage clear requirements basically beg me to kill the entire city? Sure, only the king needed to be defeated, but I got a bonus for defeating all enemies. Trying to say that this is my fault when I’ve done nothing but follow your orders is a little, well, I don’t know… cruel?
But whatever, I guess. Gang up on poor Ho-Jae. Who’s gonna stop you? The police? No way.
Let’s see now, what is this place?
<You have learned:
Heat Resistance Lv.3>
<You have learned:
Heat Resistance Lv.4>
Yeah, it’s scorching hot, that’s one.
It is absolutely the city from floor three. Every single house is on fire, the roads are paved with soot, and the skies are darkened by black clouds. Oh, and it’s hot enough to melt my flesh off. Neat. I’ve been in need of a tan.
Slightly more worrying, I’d say, is the fact that I’m not exactly alone. I didn’t notice it at first because it was sitting perfectly still, but on the side of the road is a blackened, crispy-looking little creature that seems to be fully made of soot. I’d assume it was a dead goblin if it wasn’t looking at me. Unlike its blackened, charred body, its eyes are still visible, and they are weirdly purple. And it’s a very vivid shade, too. I think it’s mauve, but it might be periwinkle. These things are hard to tell, and I kind of don’t want to step any closer to it on account of the whole not-exactly-being-alive-or-dead part.
<Possessed Cinders>
…No level? Does that mean I don’t need to kill it? On the other hand, the clear requirement did say that I had to free the citizens, and I can’t really smell anything other than soot, so… Yeah.
I walk up to it. Its gaze follows me. Um, hi. You don’t happen to be suicidal, right?
It stares up at me. Experimentally, I stab my entire hand into its head. It doesn’t even blink at me. Oh, uh, um… Okay, let me just…
You know that scene in dumb romance movies where the guy is taking off the girl’s glasses and all of a sudden she’s a supermodel? That’s kind of what I’m doing here, except I’m removing its eyeballs, and instead of making it turn into a supermodel, it just collapses into a pile of dead ash.
<Free the unhappy citizens:
1/8 792 Freed.>
Okay. That’s one. Out of eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.
I stare down at the bright purple eyeballs in my hands. They’re weirdly squishy. I wonder how they taste? Sure, they look pretty radioactive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, right? Without hesitating any further, I pop one of them into my mouth, chew, and swallow.
<You have learned:
Alpha Particle Tolerance Lv.1>
<You have learned:
Beta Particle Tolerance Lv.1>
<You have learned:
Gamma Ray Tolerance Lv.1>
<You have learned:
Divinity Tolerance Lv.7>
It tastes like grape gummies, but without being sweet at all, and it’s almost making my tongue kinda tingly. Looking at the tolerances I just got, I’ve got a feeling I might know why. I glance back down at the other eyeball in my head. So it really is as radioactive as it looks, huh? On the one hand, radiation poisoning. On the other hand, grape gummy eyeball.
…Bottom’s up!
I pop the second eyeball in as well. Chewchewchewchew swallow. Yummy. I can’t say the lack of sweetness is especially appealing, but I’ve eaten too many eyeballs at this point to really care.
<You have learned:
Alpha Particle Tolerance Lv.2>
<You have learned:
Alpha Particle Tolerance Lv.3>
<You have learned:
Beta Particle Tolerance Lv.2>
Mmm. Yummy radiation.
