Hell Difficulty Tutorial

A few more days pass, and I'm slowly getting used to it all.

I wake up after four hours of sleep. I practice while most of group 4 sleep, and then I practice a bit more while they have breakfast and make plans for hunts.

Then I go downstairs just before they leave, getting some important info and eating as well, and then I spend more hours in the big mana-shielded room under the house or in my room. If Biscuit is there, I tease him a bit while training, and if he's not, I fully focus on experimenting with coordinates or new mana stones and materials I got from Obelia.

Sometimes I feel like going on a hunt for a bit, but decide against it. I keep reminding myself how terrible, in my eyes, people from Hard difficulty were in handling their stats or skills.

Even now, I'm by far the highest leveled member of our group and probably of our entire round of the tutorial, with only maybe Savant being close.

If I take into consideration the stats I got from active tempering, I'm at a high enough level to make the current Hell difficulty tutorial somewhat easy, with only Beyond or “bosses” of the Floors being the challenge. Hell, I beat up quite easily two guild masters from two out of the five big guilds, both of them over level 200.

The biggest boost for my strength I can currently get is the second epic passive skill, and I should be able to get it before the second Beyond trial.

Things are going quite well, and Sophie and I now spend a few hours every night working together. She doesn't tell me, but I can see that her skills are improving as well, and one more thing also changes.

Sophie was right, and me treating her this way also makes others feel a bit more relaxed. I see them talking with her more and without constant worry about her skill. Sophie is trying to hide it, but I can see Izzy happily smiling while reading Sophie's emotions, so that's quite telling how she feels.

It also translates into her better mood and some sort of thankfulness towards me as she works harder to help me.

Well, it's not something I will complain about.

I feel a movement of mana signature and stop my thoughts, using my [Perception] to watch it. This time it's Maya going to Sophie's room, late at night.

The first time it happened, I almost fell from my bed over such a show of late-night adultery, but I quickly realized that it was not it.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I used [Perception] to watch mana only, leaving out other senses, and after talking with Tess a bit, I pieced things together.

Being myself, I didn't notice it, as something like that doesn't trouble me at all, but some members of our group have nightmares or anxiety attacks. All the result of 20 days down in the tunnels. Constantly treated harshly by Serpent´s Eye, not knowing when they'd die, darkness, and the three-question-mark monster do that. Even to Maya, who couldn't keep [Focus] constantly running.

Tess told me that some of them have nightmares that wake them up shaking in the middle of the night or make them sleep with lights on or sometimes just straight up cry, remembering that.

I think it's not unexpected, but it surprises me; it's not something I thought of.

Sophie is someone they now trust, and after talking with Tess and seeing me treat her somewhat nicely, they sometimes go to her, asking her to dampen some memories. As Tess recommended, they never ask Sophie to delete them, and mind-blender missy doesn't even offer to do that.

Instead, she just manipulates the memories to make them feel as if they happened months or years ago, all fitting the saying that time heals all wounds.

I watch as, after a few minutes, Maya leaves Sophie's room, and there's a bit of the mind manipulator's mana on her.

A part of me wants to stop it, worried that Sophie might mess with them in a way that would make them into her puppets, but there is also a part that thinks she won't dare to do that. A part that is sure she won't do that.

However, it once again reminds me how terrifying and powerful her skill is. From some point of view, Sophie is much more powerful than Lily with her [Disintegration].

I can only dislike the decisions of others to let Sophie get into their mind, but not too much. Their situation isn't something I can fully understand and in the end, it's their decision to make.

Yawning, I close my eyes, stretch on the bed, and spend the rest of the night practicing Mana Cycling and even creating an orb made of mana that I continuously shape and move in ways that make me train my [Mana Manipulation]. Shaping exercises Lissandra used to do almost constantly even though she was at the level she was.

The orb in my hand expands and then instantly shrinks, and I continue to do that, keeping the same amount of mana while making it as big and small as possible. As I expand it, I also try to spread out mana equally to create a perfect surface.

It's annoying and fun at the same time.

A few more hours pass, morning comes, and I sense Myrra's signature outside of my house. The tall lynthari weirdo is alone, and I stand up, put on my trousers and when I reach out to put on the shirt, Myrra lands on the balcony. She touches Sophie's web, but it's as if she is not there. The lynthari woman skillfully manipulates the mana and avoids detection.

“Somewhat amateurish, but really nicely made,” she nods with satisfaction as she turns to me, “Feral one, let's talk,” she says.

I put my shirt on under her eyes that stare at me and sit on the edge of the bed, “Sure, go ahead.”

Myrra moves in from the balcony and sits on one of the bigger chairs elegantly. The scar across her face is somewhat even more piercing as the morning light lands on her and her white hair. The fluffy tail moves in a way that seems to imply her interest and curiosity.

“Against my better judgment, I have decided to trust you, feral one,” she starts with it. The look she makes signifies how important the decision is to her, “I will be the only lynthari you talk to or work with. I will help you deal with ongoing stuff and have other guild masters meet you so you guys can… talk things out,” she starts.

So far, I really like everything and nod at her to continue.

“This isn't part of our deal, but lately, ants started leaving their territory so that will be part of the guild meeting,” she puts some papers on the table nearby, “you can check the details a bit later. I just wanted to get it out of the way.”

Hmm, I see. I bet it's something that happens once in a while, so I'm sure it's fine.

“This is something that hasn't happened ever since one of the calamity wars that happened a few hundred years ago, so make sure to give it some thought.”

Hmm, I see. Very weird indeed.

“As for the killing of the Living Tree. I will need to know how you plan to do it and an estimation of when. It's something I will keep to myself so there is no need to worry. Then we will talk about more details of our deal.” Myrra smiles at me, and I can see that she doesn't trust me fully, but she is a gambler and decided to risk it.

The possible prize is just that irresistible to her.

“I won't tell you everything, but most of it. Plus, there are some things I still need to learn and practice to make it fully work, but I gave it a lot of thought and I'm capable of that, given some time,” I tell her.

Myrra nods, and then while resting her chin on her hands, she looks at me, “Tell me, feral one, why do you hate the Living Tree that much and want to kill it? I can sense it from you, I can see it in your eyes.”

To that question, I don't answer and only return her a blank stare. But it's not that special. I think it's a calamity I have the highest chance of killing right now, and there is so much to gain from looting the old capital.

Then there is one reason. A single thing, really. The quest we received back then, after being trapped by the Calamity, was simple: Survive. There wasn't even a hint at the possibility of killing the tree or fighting with it. The system didn't mention it in the quest. It all clearly says that something like killing the tree back then wasn't even considered an option.

I don't like that and it pisses me off.

It all made me feel as if the system was looking down on me, telling me to run, hide, escape, crawl, and beg for my life after barely escaping.

That tree is going down no matter what.

I look at Myrra, who stood up and moved closer to me, her golden eyes observing every twitch of my face, and movement of my eyes.

“Oh my, you are so angry,” she says softly, reaching with her hand towards my face. Yet she doesn't touch me and pulls it back.

Her eyes seem to be glowing, “I should be laughing at you, but it somewhat makes even me feel a twitch of fear when I see you like this. Feral one, you truly are interesting.” The way she says it feels somewhat off. It's as if she still isn't taking me fully seriously and sees me as a cute angry kitten.

“Myrra, do you want to get stabbed again?” I ask her, much to her amusement, and she quickly moves back and sits down on the chair.

“Anyways, here's half of what I got for Lorven's dagger when I sold it back to him. He was also angry, but not in such a fun way,” she smiles, showing her sharp canines.

Ignoring her remarks, we then spend some more time talking about how I plan to kill the Living Tree, which earns me a few curses from Myrra. I get called a weirdo, dumbass, liar, and dumbass again, and she even shamelessly asks me to give the items I plan to use to her, instead of wasting them on what she calls silly attempts.

Myrra is the dumb one, not me. I'm the smart one here, but as always, the world is holding us smart people down and we have to deal with such weirdos talking about useless things like common sense, probability, and the like.

As always, nothing ever goes according to plan, so I will prepare multiple of them. And then, when all of them inevitably fail because this is goddamn Hell difficulty, I will just bullshit my way through.

This is something I don't tell Myrra; she wouldn't like it.

 

---

 

“You could at least dress somewhat more presentable as our guild master,” Tess pokes at me as we walk towards where the meeting with the guild masters of the big guilds is.

She herself is wearing Edwal's epic chest armor. It doesn't have any effects now that it's not connected to the Saint from the third floor, but it's extremely durable and conducts lightning.

Tess spent a lot of money, probably my money, to have it fixed to fit her body. And by a lot of money, I mean a LOT of money. Epic-rated items are extremely hard to work on.

Now that I think about it, was I robbed?

I want to say that, but Tess seems happy with it and, to be honest, the silver armor with simple ornaments and a nice design fits her really well. Why isn't she the guild master? I don't want to deal with annoying stuff.

I just sigh and continue. As always, held down by a cruel world, “If they complain about my clothing, I will beat them up,” I answer Tess.

Obviously, I'm lying. I will do it even if they don't. I will find the badest, biggest guy in the room and beat him to show dominance.

First impressions are important, aren't they?

After passing by multiple guards and even some lynthari, we finally stop in front of a giant wooden door inlaid with silver metal filled with mana circuits. When they slowly, soundlessly open, Tess and I enter the room where Myrra sits on a chair in the corner, drinking some alcohol from a glass.

Inside the room are Obelia from Storm Brigade, Lorven from Voidwalkers, as well as one more man and woman, the guild masters of Obsidian Circle and Luminous Order. All of them are nicely dressed, with each having one more attendee, similar to me having Tess. Their eyes are anything but friendly, with the exception of Obelia.

I like it.

Feeling the pressure of their mana, I release some of mine as well, with my now-filled Mana Reservoir full to the brim.