The purple chaos resolved into solid ground, and I immediately fell on my ass.
Graceful. Very heroic. Exactly how I'd imagined entering my first dungeon.
Around me, other people were having similar issues with the transition. Some stumbled, some collapsed, and one guy actually threw up, which seemed like a reasonable response to having your molecules rearranged and shot through interdimensional space.
**[WELCOME TO THE TUTORIAL GATE]**
**[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE]**
**[TIME LIMIT: 2 HOURS]**
**[PARTICIPANTS: 247/247]**
"Survive," I muttered, pushing myself up and brushing dirt off my jeans. "Very specific. Really helpful."
The Tutorial Gate had deposited us in what looked like a forest, if forests were designed by someone who'd never seen one and was working from a fever dream. The trees were too tall, their bark an unsettling shade of purple-grey. The sky was a murky red, sunless but somehow bright enough to see. The air tasted like copper and ozone.
And somewhere in the distance, something roared.
People screamed. Of course they did.
**[FIRST WAVE APPROACHING]**
**[PREPARE YOURSELVES]**
"First wave?" a woman near me squeaked. "How many waves are there?"
The System didn't answer. It never did when you actually had questions.
I activated Identify on the tree line where the roaring had come from, trying to see what we were dealing with. My vision shifted slightly, information overlaying my normal sight.
**[FOREST GOBLIN - LEVEL 2]**
**[THREAT LEVEL: LOW]**
**[WEAKNESS: POOR EYESIGHT, SENSITIVE HEARING]**
**[PATTERN: PACK HUNTER, ATTACKS IN GROUPS OF 3-5]**
Goblins. Level 2. We were all level 1. Great math.
But the weakness information was interesting. Poor eyesight, sensitive hearing. That was actionable intelligence. That was something I could use.
The first goblin burst from the tree line, and it was exactly as ugly as every fantasy game had promised. Three feet tall, grey-green skin, oversized head with a mouth full of crooked teeth. It wore what looked like a loincloth made from something I didn't want to examine too closely, and it carried a crude wooden club.
Behind it, four more goblins emerged.
"COMBAT POSITIONS!" the Blade Master from earlier—Park Min-soo—shouted, and to my surprise, people actually listened. Maybe the guy had leadership skills, or maybe everyone was just desperate for someone to tell them what to do.
The awakeners with combat classes moved forward. Blade Master took point, those floating swords orbiting him faster now, gleaming with some kind of enhancement. The Frost Mage—Lee Yuna—raised her hands, frost crackling between her fingers. A guy with a shield class stepped up beside them.
I stayed in the middle of the group with the other "useless" people. A teenage kid who looked terrified. An older woman clutching her purse like it might protect her. A guy in a business suit who kept checking his dead phone like it might magically work again.
The goblins charged.
Blade Master moved first, and I watched carefully. His swords shot forward like projectiles, three of them targeting three different goblins. Two hit—one took a goblin in the chest, dropping it instantly; another caught one in the leg, crippling it. The third sword missed entirely, the goblin dodging with surprising agility.
I felt something click in my head. Pattern Recognition activating automatically.
**[ANALYZING COMBAT PATTERN...]**
**[PARK MIN-SOO - BLADE MASTER]**
**[ATTACK PATTERN: RANGED SWORD PROJECTION]**
**[ACCURACY: 67% AT CURRENT LEVEL]**
**[MANA COST: MODERATE]**
**[RECOVERY TIME: 3 SECONDS BETWEEN VOLLEYS]**
The information appeared in my vision like a combat game's tutorial overlay. Three second recovery. That meant gaps in his offense. If these were stronger monsters, that gap could be fatal.
The Frost Mage fired next—a bolt of ice that caught a goblin mid-charge and froze its legs to the ground. The goblin screeched, clawing at the ice.
**[ANALYZING COMBAT PATTERN...]**
**[LEE YUNA - FROST MAGE]**
**[SPELL: ICE BOLT - RANK F]**
**[CASTING TIME: 2 SECONDS]**
**[MANA COST: LOW]**
**[EFFECT: FREEZE + MINOR DAMAGE]**
Two second cast time. I could see it now, the way she gathered mana in her hands, the brief glow before the spell manifested. If I watched her cast enough times, could I replicate it? The thought was immediately exciting and terrifying.
The battle was chaos, but organized chaos. The combat classes were winning—barely. They outnumbered the goblins and had actual skills. But people were getting hurt. A Warrior took a club to the ribs and went down gasping. Someone with a spear class managed to impale a goblin but couldn't pull the spear back out, leaving himself defenseless when another goblin tackled him.
**[SECOND WAVE APPROACHING]**
"Already?" I said, but of course the System didn't care about pacing.
Ten more goblins emerged from the forest.
"We can't handle this many!" someone shouted, and they weren't wrong. We had maybe fifteen people with combat classes, and half of them were already injured or low on mana.
I looked around desperately, trying to think. What could an Observer do? I couldn't fight. I couldn't cast spells. I could just watch and—
Wait.
I could watch. I could analyze. I could see patterns.
"HEY!" I shouted at Blade Master. "Three second recovery between your volleys! Stagger your attacks with the mage!"
He glanced back at me, annoyed. "What?"
"Your swords! You can't fire again for three seconds after each attack! The mage casts in two seconds! If you attack, then she casts while you're recovering, you'll have continuous damage output instead of gaps!"
He stared at me like I was insane, but the Frost Mage—Yuna—got it immediately.
"He's right!" she called. "You shoot, I'll follow up!"
They tried it. Blade Master's swords shot out, taking down one goblin and wounding another. The moment his swords retracted, Yuna fired an Ice Bolt, freezing a third goblin. Three seconds later, Blade Master fired again.
Continuous pressure. No gaps for the goblins to exploit.
"IT'S WORKING!" someone yelled.
Other people were listening now. I kept shouting observations:
"They attack in groups of three! Focus fire on one at a time!"
"The one on the left is favoring its right side—previous injury! Easy target!"
"Goblins have poor eyesight! You can dodge if you move unpredictably!"
Was I still useless? Absolutely. Could I fight? No. But I could see *everything*—every pattern, every weakness, every opening. And apparently, that was worth something.
**[SECOND WAVE DEFEATED]**
**[THIRD WAVE APPROACHING IN: 02:00]**
Two minutes. We had two minutes to breathe.
People collapsed where they stood. The injured were being tended to by anyone with medical knowledge, System-granted or otherwise. Someone found out they had a basic Healing skill and was going around closing minor wounds, though they looked exhausted after just three heals.
Blade Master walked over to me, and I tensed, expecting him to tell me to shut up.
"You," he said. "The Observer. Keep doing what you're doing. That coordination thing worked."
I blinked. "Uh. Yeah. Okay."
"What's your name?"
"Kim Jae-sung."
"Park Min-soo." He nodded curtly. "Stay in the middle, stay safe, and keep calling out patterns. We need that information."
He walked away before I could process that I'd just received what might have been a compliment.
The Frost Mage—Yuna—approached next, younger than I'd thought, maybe nineteen or twenty. She had that particular brand of exhaustion that came from using mana for the first time.
"That was smart," she said. "The coordination thing. How did you know about the three second recovery?"
"My class," I said, gesturing vaguely. "Observer. I can see combat patterns, analyze skills, that kind of thing."
"That's actually really useful," she said, and the genuine surprise in her voice would have been insulting if I didn't completely understand it. "I thought Observer was just like... watching?"
"Yeah, me too," I admitted. "Still figuring it out."
**[THIRD WAVE APPROACHING]**
The roar this time was different. Deeper. Louder.
**[WARNING: ELITE MONSTER DETECTED]**
"Elite?" I said. "We're still in the Tutorial!"
The goblins that emerged were bigger, better armed. But worse than that was the thing that came out behind them.
**[GOBLIN WARRIOR - LEVEL 5]**
**[THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE]**
**[ELITE MONSTER]**
**[WARNING: POSSESSES COMBAT SKILLS]**
It was six feet tall, muscular for a goblin, and carried an actual sword instead of a club. Crude, but metal. Dangerous.
"Oh, we're going to die," someone whispered.
I activated Identify, trying to get more information. The skill strained, like I was trying to lift something too heavy, but data trickled in.
**[GOBLIN WARRIOR - LEVEL 5]**
**[SKILLS: POWER STRIKE, BATTLE ROAR]**
**[WEAKNESS: OVERCOMMITS TO ATTACKS, POOR RECOVERY]**
**[PATTERN: AGGRESSIVE, FOCUSES ON STRONGEST OPPONENT]**
"It targets the strongest fighter!" I shouted. "Blade Master, it's going to focus on you! It overcommits to attacks—when it swings, it'll leave itself open!"
Min-soo raised his swords. "How open?"
"Maybe a second, maybe two. I don't know, I've never seen it fight!"
"Good enough. Frost Mage, hit it when I create an opening!"
The Goblin Warrior charged, and it moved *fast*. Faster than the smaller goblins, more coordinated. It went straight for Min-soo like I'd predicted, ignoring everyone else.
Min-soo sent all his swords at once—his ultimate attack, maybe? They all struck the Warrior's chest, but its skin was tougher. The swords embedded but didn't drop it.
The Goblin Warrior roared—Battle Roar, I realized—and the sound was physically painful. Several people clutched their ears. Some kind of debuff?
**[ANALYZING SKILL...]**
**[BATTLE ROAR - RANK F]**
**[EFFECT: FEAR + MINOR STAT REDUCTION]**
**[DURATION: 10 SECONDS]**
Then it swung its sword at Min-soo in a massive overhead strike.
Power Strike. I could see the skill activate, the way its muscles coiled, the sword glowing faintly. All its power committed to one attack.
Min-soo dodged—barely. The sword crashed into the ground where he'd been standing, embedding itself in the dirt.
"NOW!" I screamed. "It's stuck!"
Yuna didn't hesitate. She'd been charging a spell, something bigger than Ice Bolt, her hands glowing bright blue. She released it.
The ice spear—because that's what it was, a massive spear of ice—caught the Goblin Warrior in the side just as it was trying to pull its sword free. The impact was devastating. Ice spread from the wound, freezing its torso, cracking its skin.
The Warrior roared again, but this time in pain.
Other combat classes piled on. A Spear user stabbed it from behind. An Archer landed an arrow in its eye. Min-soo recalled his swords and sent them in a coordinated strike at its throat.
The Goblin Warrior fell.
**[ELITE MONSTER DEFEATED]**
**[BONUS EXPERIENCE AWARDED]**
**[LEVEL UP!]**
The notification blazed in my vision, and I felt it—a rush of energy, my body strengthening slightly. Level 2. I'd leveled up from watching a fight.
Around me, others were leveling too. The combat classes who'd actually fought were probably getting even more experience.
**[WAVES COMPLETE]**
**[FINAL CHALLENGE APPROACHING]**
"Final?" I said, hopeful.
**[BOSS MONSTER SPAWNING IN: 05:00]**
Of course there was a boss.
I sat down hard, my mind racing. We'd barely survived the Elite. A boss monster would be worse. Level 10? Level 15? Could we even handle that?
But I'd leveled up. I had notifications waiting.
I pulled up my status, and my eyes widened.
**[NEW SKILL AVAILABLE]**
**[OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING UNLOCKED]**
**[DESCRIPTION: AFTER OBSERVING A SKILL MULTIPLE TIMES, GAIN BASIC UNDERSTANDING. SUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING ALLOWS REPLICATION AT REDUCED EFFECTIVENESS.]**
I stared at the notification.
I could copy skills.
Not well, not at full power, but I could actually copy them.
Observer wasn't useless.
It was going to be broken.