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Tutorial Rewrite 86
🕑 Added 2023-01-25 10:08:10 +0000 UTC…Ughh, my head…
Actually, that was a lie, my head feels pretty alright. My tolerances must be undoing the effects of the hangover I would otherwise be having. Neat!
And since I didn’t have any money to use myself, I didn’t spend a single point during the entire conference. Ah, the perks of being poor.
I glance around at the RED lobby all around. Turning my attention to my inventory, I remove the tome that Moleman got me. I’d better keep reading. If I haven’t finished this by the next attempt, I’m done for.
<Top—Status—Community>
<05:50:21
Day 181>
<The eighth attempt will begin in
29:18:09:39>
<The ninth floor will open in
18:09:39>
Right. Plenty of time.
Holding the tome gently, I hunker down with my back against one of the pillars. With the book in my lap, I try my best to actually make sense of the whole thing. I don’t know what language this thing was originally written in, but it might as well still be written in it because I have no idea what it means. Sure, I didn’t exactly finish High School or anything, but I should still be able to understand at least a chapter or two, right? This is just unnecessarily complicated.
Like—like chapter three, which is described as a simple guide to sensing internal divinity. Easy, right? It’s described as simple, and it does seem to be step-by-step, but that’s all it is. I follow the steps and nothing happens. All it does is activate my meditation skills as I try to sense some sort of feeling deep inside. Maybe if the book actually described what the divinity is supposed to feel like I might have been able to properly tell if I had any at all. But, as is, it’s no better than a shot in the dark.
For hours on end, I try fruitlessly to sense the supposed magic inside of me. This closed-eyes period is punctuated only by brief periods of frustration where I take out my irritation by either reading and rereading the same passages over and over again, or by just pacing around and breaking my own bones.
And after some time…
<Floor 9 has opened.
Do you want to enter?>
<Yes/No>
But I haven’t even finished reading chapter four! I’m barely halfway through, and I can’t even fathom how I’m supposed to feel anything, so—
<If no answer is chosen,
[No] will be chosen for you
and the floor may be accessed
next attempt.>
…No, I can’t… I can’t stay here for a month. I can’t. I absolutely can’t stay here.
I clutch the tome tighter to me. Unwillingly, I stand up and put it into my inventory. Then, I press Yes.
As the world whirls beneath my feet I instinctually drop into a crouch, but unlike the last few floors, I’m not in any dark place, nor am I in nature or mud. This place is…?
From what I can see, I’m standing inside a large, circular room. The furthermost walls are all covered with flowing satin and admittedly beautiful tapestries depicting what seems to mainly be snakes. The floor is completely covered by a number of different carpets and rugs, all of different weave and kind, some being Persian, others simpler, but all having a feel of absolute luxury to them. The room itself is lit in part by candles placed along the walls in candlesticks and holders of crystal and silver and ivory. But the true centrepiece of the room, and what alights most of it, is a massive chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling. I can’t tell entirely what materials make up it, but it seems to be silver and pearlescent, with thousands of hanging pieces of finely sharpened crystals that diffuse the light of the candles inside in such a way that the whole room is illuminated.
I have never seen a more luxurious room.
The only problem is that almost everything is WHITE.
The soft carpets below my feet: WHITE.
The ceiling itself: WHITE.
The tapestries on the walls: WHITE.
The walls not covered: WHITE.
Everything, everything, everything: WHITE.
I can feel my left eye begin to twitch.
WHITE. WHITE. WHITE. WHITE. WHITE. WHITE. WHITE. WHITE.
Bad. Bad. Need to… need to remove the WHITE, have to…
<Tutorial stage,
Hell Difficulty Ninth Floor:
The Flaming Tower.>
<[Clear Condition]
Endure until help arrives in
[23:23:58:22].>
Help? For who—me? N—now you’re just being ridiculous! If anything, it’s this room that needs help from me!
This room full of tapestries and carpets and rugs and paintings, all depicting…
…Snakes?
As I stare at a certain piece of tapestry depicting a relatively large, thick snake, it seems to me that the WHITE creature is actually staring back at me, through its WHITE slitted eyes. Its WHITE forked tongue quickly slips out between its scaly WHITE lips and I pause. Hang on. Paintings don’t have tongues. The WHITE serpent blinks at me.
And snakes don’t have eyelids! What is this?!
With its bamboozling revealed, the snake hides no longer. Slipping out of the frames of the fabric, it drops down onto the WHITE floor, now thick and scaly. Like a proper snake. It slithers towards me on its belly.
…Is this it? No, seriously, is this it?
I resist the urge to point and laugh at the pathetic little creature. Really, just a single snake? Hah, stuff that help down your throat, system! I can handle this just fine on my own. Casually, I stroll up to the snake, It raises its head from the ground, revealing that it isn’t a mere snake, but actually a cobra. The flaps on either side of its body beat threateningly.
“Hey, little buddy!” I say, hunching down towards it. “Aren’t you a cute one, huh? Wouldn’t you like to—”
“Hiss!”
And that’s about all I have time to say before it sprays a concentrated stream of acid at my face, right into my eyes.
Argh! Heck, damn it, what the heck—!?
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.2>
<You have learned:
Corrosion Tolerance Lv.6>
Shoot, yeah, um, I can feel that, you didn’t need to tell me. My vision has now successfully melted into black darkness which is typically preferable to WHITE, but right now, it means I can’t really see that damn snake anymore. I can, however, feel it. As I lie squirming on the floor, trying best to wipe the acid from my face while also using moving meditation, I can feel pretty clearly how it snakes its way up my leg, coiling around it as it does. And then I can also feel it do the same thing to my arm. And then a thick, slick belly slips over my chest and I’m starting to think that maybe it isn’t just one snake.
<You have learned:
Corrosion Tolerance Lv.7>
<You have learned:
Moving Meditation Lv.4>
My right eye finally heals enough for me to open it and I stare right into the dead, emotionless glare of a serpent big as a horse.
<Snake (Lv.40)>
Uh, um. Moving my arms doesn’t really do anything, but by using my intuitive problem-solving abilities, I’m able to figure out the reason behind this. I look down. The massive snake, five times my length and twice as thick at least, is wrapped around me twice over. Hmm. That’s a bit worryi—
I don’t even have time to finish my thought before the massive snake gives an equally massive squee—ze that pushes the air out of my lungs. My ribs and pelvis both go crack-crack and my brain fizzles with black and WHITE static. Then that massive WHITE maw opens before me to reveal an endless expanse of RED and everything turns black.
