…It has been about two hours since then.
After losing 4 more 'spare lives,' Sol finally defeated Artoria Pendragon Alter, who has now lost her right arm and received a nasty sword-piercing wound to her stomach.
The blood flowed and dyed the green grass until it turned rosy red. Sol looked at the scene before him for a moment before noticing the satisfied smile on the soulless body in front of him. It might seem like a calm and peaceful death to others, but for Sol, it seemed strangely eerie, and instantly made his spine tingle.
'After that girl asked my name, it was like she turned into a 'Super Saiyan' mode, releasing energy to explode our body, taking away my three lives in a single attack. Plus, after that, there was a bit of a creepy laugh, as if she was having fun destroying me... It's terrifying...'
Sol still felt a pain in his throat at the thought of his fifth death. where he was strangled for several minutes by Artoria until he suffocated to death... Even now, every time he looks at her, he could feel the pain in his neck.
< You have successfully defeated 'Artoria Pendragon Alter.'
You have acquired 1,000 g.
You have leveled up. [Lv.1 - Lv.3]
Your strength stat has increased during the battle. [1.8 - 2.2]
Your agility stat has increased during the battle. [2.6 - 2.8]
Your endurance stat has increased during the battle. [2.4 - 2.6]
You currently have 4 Stat Boost Points >
< Congratulations! You have completed the 'Tutorial.'
You have unlocked a new function, [Shop System].
You have unlocked a new function, [World Drift System].
You have received [Starter Pack]. >
When Sol saw the results in front of him, he suddenly raised both his hands to the sky and shouted "Hurray!" with joy. Not because he had received the reward from the Tutorial. or level up as some people might think, but because he didn't have to fight anymore like he was doing for the past two agonizing hours ago.
While celebrating with the remaining spare lives he has, two new message boxes popped up in front of Sol.
< Congratulations! You have completed a hidden quest. 'Back For Revenge.'
Hidden Quest: 'Back For Revenge'
Difficulty: Medium
Clear Conditions: Defeat 'Artoria Pendragon Alter Form (Saber)' with the Full Set 'Heracles (Berserker)'.
Rewards: Artoria Pendragon Alter (Saber)'s Memory Fragment, Heracles (Berserker)'s Memory Fragment, 5,000 g. >
< Congratulations! You have completed a hidden quest. 'Tyrant's Laughter.'
Hidden Quest: 'Tyrant Laughter'
Difficulty: Hard
Clear Conditions: Make 'Artoria Pendragon Alter (Saber)' laugh while fighting, acknowledge your abilities while fighting, and feel satisfied in battle.
Reward: Artoria Pendragon Alter (Saber)'s Memory Fragment, 1 Random Servant Skill (Guaranteed: SR+), Title 'King of Knights' Favorite', 5,000 g. >
"…What the hell is this?"
Sol, who had read the message in front of him and found that he had just completed the conditions of two hidden quests, was stunned for a moment. Before he takes a deep breath and releases it rhythmically while reciting Buddhist prayers to calm his mind
But less than ten seconds after calming down, he choked on his saliva as soon as he saw the new title he had acquired. Then immediately rubbed his eyes to make sure he hadn't hallucinated himself.
'This 'King of Knights' Favorite' title... I feel like I'm having a stomachache again.'
Suddenly, he felt a bruising pain all over his body once again, to the point that he felt like he was about to throw up again after having thrown up before when the King of Knights kick his stomach. Luckily, before he could do so, his body began to glow and his clothes suddenly returned to normal. The giant axe-sword that had been by his side had disappeared. And most importantly, Sol felt that his body had lost something.
'The system must have taken back Heracles' power.'
Sol thought so before inspecting his attire to make sure Heracles' attire had completely disappeared from him and that nothing unusual happened to his body. When he saw that everything is fine and that he simply overreacted, Sol let out a sigh of relief and continued to look at the message box in front of him.
"Well, What now?... Speaking of which, it feels like several hours have already passed. Yet, this 'dream' is still going?"
Even though Sol's been in pain for the whole time, even now. He still thought that this whole thing was a dream anyway. If one has to choose whether to say he's innocent or stupid, it would be the latter.
The young man, who did not know what to do next, decided to open his status.
< Sol (Lv.3)
Title: World Drifter, King of Knights' Favorite [Increases all stats by 20% when near 'Knight' and 20% more when near 'Knight of the Round Table,' Every servant named Artoria Pendragon will see you as an ally.]
Strength: 2.2 (-)
Endurance: 2.6 (-)
Agility: 2.8 (-)
Mana: 1.6 (-)
Luck: 33 (C)
Original World Power: 0 (-)
Personal Skill: Driving B+, Martial Arts (Fake) C
Servant Skill: N/A
Noble Phantasm: N/A
Stat Boost Points: 4 pt.
Money: 11,000 g. >
It seemed the stats that were obtained from Heracles' Full Set had been taken. Besides that, all the rewards that had been alerted earlier seemed to have already entered him. Sol also glanced at the stat boost points and money that came up for the first time.
'Maybe it just came about because we just got it recently... The question is more about how do we use it.'
Sol tried to randomly poke his finger at the stat boost points before a new message box popped up. Revealing that this was exactly what Sol secretly jokingly thought of in his head because this 'stat boost point' was indeed for increasing strength, agility, etc.
Seeing this, the young man carefully thought for a while. When the decision has been made, he immediately uses all 4 points to increase his... -Mana stat
Because after thinking about it, He didn't have this level of strength, endurance, and agility from birth. He had it from exercising and working as a 'stuntman' at a young age.
Plus, after fighting with Saber Alter a while ago. Those three stats also increased passively as well. He naturally believed that he could find a way to increase those stats without having to rely on the system. Even if it's a very small progression.
On the other hand, when talking about mana, He dared to say that he was truly clueless about how to train to increase his power. Ever since he was born, went to school, study history textbooks, he couldn't see at all what magic would look like. Until today, after getting smashed to pieces by the power of Excalibur itself.
Therefore, as long as he didn't know how to increase his mana, He will use points to increase this stat. making his current mana stat… 5.6.
The young man looked at his almost meaningless achievement before laughing softly when he thought that if everyone in the world could increase their body efficiency by simply pressing the button like in video games would be very funny. Hell, the more he looks at it, the more it feels like a game. Or maybe he's playing some demos right now. But before his mind goes any further, a new message box appeared again.
< To proceed to the next world, You must activate the 'World Drift System' by saying aloud the word 'World Drift' to activate. >
Reading the message box, Sol understood that if he does nothing at all, he may be stuck on this endless grassland until the very end. so he did not hesitate at all and uttered it out loud.
"World Drift."
As soon as he says it, everything around him began to slow down and his surroundings began to darken little by little. until it becomes completely black The young man, who hadn't expected what would happen in advance, was shocked for a while. before he shook his head and thought to himself, 'How many more times will this system shock me?'
< Due to your current level, The conditions have not been met to activate 'Locking World Target,' so the system will randomly choose the world coordinates for him to go on this occasion.
Normally, there will always be expenses in order to world drift. Which can be paid in two ways. The first method is to spend 100,000 g. and the second method is a World Drift Ticket to travel across the world, This will be awarded after completing a World Quest.
Because it's the first activating World Drift of the World Drifter. The system, therefore, grants the privilege of using the World Drift System free of charge for this one time.
Do you want to activate World Drift?
Yes | No >
Sol, who slowly read the text box in front of him to understand, nodded at every line before raising his head to look at the emptiness ahead and let out a faint chuckle.
"This is complicated"
But even though his mouth complained, he took it seriously. He understood it all. It was just that he wasn't too sure if after a while he would still be able to remember all of this.
'To be fair though, the last question doesn't really matter. No one wants to live in this empty meadow for the rest of their life. There wasn't even a single tree to climb. Just one day and he's already bored of it.'
When he made up his mind, Sol did not hesitate to press 'yes' immediately.
And at that moment, the empty black space surrounding the Soul began to vibrate as if it were moving and carried the Soul within it. He felt the red liquid pouring down his nose from a strange phenomenon that was happening right now.
< Activating 'World Drift'
Calculating suitable environment for World Drifter …optimal coordinates have been found.
Transporting to the world XXXXXXXXXXX >
________________________________
At another place far away from the 'World Drifter.'
There, something was looking at the young man who was using World Drift for the first time and had just fainted helplessly. with the body not being able to adjust to the weather in that area in time.
At first, the entity didn't pay much attention to him. It only looked at him as a 'human' that it regarded as 'Having potential,' so it chose to send him to be tested in the system that it has built.
But he wasn't anything special in its eyes. Everything he had was the same as the others that had been chosen to test before. There exist others who have far more potential than him. Because while he's just an ordinary stuntman who may have done dangerous gigs from time to time, Some of the others were soldiers, hired guns, famous boxers, and even serial murderers.
Yet, all the past '129 humans' had all been defeated in the Tutorial. Not even one person met the criteria for being the 'World Drifter.' Even the creator of the system such as themselves were suspicious. Was the tutorial too difficult?
As for the 'Saber Alter' that it had chosen as the 'Tutorial Boss', was also starting to get fed up by the current predicament. Even though she had begun to go easy in the past thirty battles, no one had even managed to knock her down.
So when the '130th human' entered the 'Tutorial,' it did not hold any expectations. Right then, the only thing it could think of was 'How many minutes can he survive in this fight?'
Even when he chose to use the hero 'Heracles (Berserker)' to fight Saber Alter. It did not hold any hopes, in fact, 18 humans before had chosen this Hero to fight Saber Alter as well. However, all of them were careless in their power and were hit by 'Excalibur Morgan' that, if hit fully, will blow away all 12 spare lives in an instant, killing them instantly.
But as soon as the battle began and when the entity saw the way Sol planned out his moves in battle tactfully while facing the enemy, it was pleasantly surprised. Although the human still seems slow and weak. Some recklessness in movement could be detected, but it couldn't blame him. Because he was just an ordinary citizen who never really have an actual war experience. In addition, he also came from an era when the sword was no longer considered a universal weapon.
By the time he narrowly dodged the Excalibur Morgan, he managed to not only lose only half of his spare lives instead of all 12 lives but also wounded Saber Alter's right arm, making it impossible for her to use her trump card again.
It was then that it realized 'He could do it,' even Saber Alter also realized this and started to fight seriously. The smile on Saber's face was proof of this man's talent. From that moment on, It looked at the young man intently and didn't care about anything else.
In the end, the '130th human' that it was watching attentively became the first human in the world to pass the Tutorial.
The entity that had not initially expected anything from the young man was shocked and cheered with the utmost joy. because in addition to passing through the Tutorial quest. He also went on to complete two hidden quests that it had secretly set up all at once.
The name of the human was Sol. It read the man's profiles that it had explored in human form before with joy, and buried the name deep in its brain. From now on, every moving step, every action he takes, and every breath Soul takes in his lungs will be under its watch.
"I definitely won't lose you…"
It spoke up with a voice that was difficult to determine its gender. There was also a hint of loneliness in its voice. But in the blink of an eye, A smile ripped across its face. as its eyes shifted to the side. before starting to move the first pawn on the chessboard.
"Because you are my most important pawn."