A screen appeared in front of the panting Aren.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Level 1 > Level 2
All your Stats increased by 1 point.
New skill acquired: Bloodlust (Passive) = Your hands have been stained with the blood of others. People with weak wills will subconsciously fear you.
The moment Aren read the message, he felt an indescribable heat in his body.
With the level up, it was as if he had broken one of the chains binding his body.
He felt different.
He clenched his hands.
'I've killed someone of my own kind for the first time.' he thought, looking at the massive corpse lying on the ground.
'And as expected, I feel nothing. Not an ounce of regret. For someone like me, this new world is much more suitable than the old one.'
'It says my stats have been upgraded. How am I supposed to check them?' he thought, and at that moment, another screen appeared in front of him.
Title: None
Level: 2
Name: Aren Khan
Race: Human
Bloodline: None
Age: 26
Height: 172CM
Weight: 71KG
Vitality: 4 -> 5
Strength: 4 -> 5
Agility: 5 -> 6
Endurance: 3 -> 4
Intelligence: 10 -> 11
Wisdom: 10 -> 11
Soul: 5 -> 6
Mana: 1 -> 2
Skills: Bloodlust (Passive)
The massive timer in the sky was mercilessly counting down.
05:30 05:29
The arena had turned into a complete slaughterhouse. The sand was no longer yellow, but crimson.
The screams had lessened because most of the people who would scream were no longer breathing.
Those who still hadn't managed to kill someone were attacking their surroundings with crazed eyes, targeting people they perceived as weak.
Aren was not a fool. Even though he had managed to kill someone, he was nothing amidst this crowd.
He immediately crouched behind the corpse of the giant man he had killed.
He made the man's broad torso a shield for himself.
He tightly gripped his bloody Gladius and began to wait.
While Aren minimized his presence on one hand, he was carefully observing his surroundings on the other.
He saw a man whose arm had been severed. He was running away desperately.
Further ahead, there was another man running while holding his intestines. The same man tripped over another corpse on the ground and fell.
He couldn't get up again.
The sounds of clashing weapons echoed in his ears.
While some people pulled aside and went on the defensive after killing a person, others were attacking the rest like madmen.
A small minority had demonic smiles on their faces, indicating they were enjoying this massacre.
He was currently in the most dangerous phase.
Anyone who could survive this long was either very lucky or excessively strong.
01:30 01:29
Seeing the time rapidly decreasing, people panicked.
That small minority who had hesitated and focused solely on protecting themselves until now could not withstand the pressure and began to attack those closest to them.
Squinting his eyes, Aren focused on a scene unfolding just ten meters ahead of him.
A man in a suit with a torn tie was attacking a young girl with a small bloody dagger he had picked up from the ground.
When Aren saw the young girl's face, he recognized her. This was the girl he had risked his life to save at the subway station earlier.
The young girl was begging, but there was no mercy in the man's eyes.
He only had the rush of 'completing his quest' before the time ran out.
The young girl's foot tripped over a corpse on the ground, and she fell down.
Seeing the young girl fall to the ground, the man grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up.
With tearful eyes and a crying voice, the man said, "I'm sorry! I have to do this! I want to see my children again. I'm so sorry! I promise it won't hurt!"
The young girl was struggling to break free from the man's hands. But it didn't seem very possible for her to break free from the grip of a healthy, adult man.
"Please let me go! I beg you! I don't want to die!"
Drool and snot had spread across the young girl's face. She must have been unable to hold her urine out of fear, as the jeans she wore were completely soaked.
The man, with a crazed expression on his face, raised his dagger into the air, aiming to slit the young girl's throat and finish this job quickly.
Just as he was about to thrust the dagger, a Gladius coming stealthily slit the man's throat.
The blood spurting from the man's throat splattered onto the young girl's face.
The young girl screamed in disgust.
The man dropped the dagger in his hand and fell to his knees.
While he let out wheezing sounds trying to breathe on one hand, he was holding his throat with both hands on the other.
With bewilderment in his eyes, he looked at the person who killed him. Slowly, the light in his eyes was fading.
Experience gained.
'It wasn't a coincidence. I gain experience when I kill someone.' he thought.
The young girl looked at Aren with pleading eyes.
Aren leaned in slightly and reached his hand out to the young girl.
"You constantly get yourself into trouble, don't you?" he said.
The young girl relaxed when she saw that Aren wasn't making a move to kill her.
She held Aren's hand with her trembling, delicate hands.
"Thank you for saving me." she said, and immediately afterward, she saw Aren's familiar face and remembered him.
"Ah! It's you!" she said.
Aren said, "Come on, get up."
'I guess I should kill her too to gain extra Experience. That's what's logical. But I suppose I won't kill her. I saved her life once, and this is the second time. She might be useful to me in the future. But did she complete her quest? If she hasn't, she'll die anyway.'
Just as the young girl was about to stand up, her eyes caught the countdown timer hanging above.
00:30 00:29
Suddenly, she felt a chill down her spine. She hadn't killed anyone yet. If she didn't kill someone within 30 seconds, she would die, according to what the 'thing' had said.
The young girl knew what she had to do to survive. Her most primal instinct took over her body.
With a stealthy move, she snatched the dagger that was about to slit her throat seconds ago from the ground.
With madness in her eyes, in a sudden movement, she sprang to her feet using Aren's hand for support and swung the dagger at him.
However, Aren hadn't taken his eyes off the girl since he made the move to save her. His ice-cold, rational mind had already calculated what she would do the second she looked at the timer.
His arms were aching from his previous wounds, but the young girl was exceedingly weak. It was easy to block her attack.
Aren crouched down.
He rested the tip of his sword on the sand and looked down at the girl. He wasn't angry. He didn't feel betrayed. He was merely analyzing the situation.
"Interesting. Humans really are creatures capable of doing anything to survive." Aren said in a cold voice.
"I saved you twice. And your thanks to me was trying to slit my throat."
The moment the young girl saw death approaching, words tied into a knot in her throat.
Aren ended her life by slitting her throat using his sword.
Experience Gained.
Suddenly, a voice like thunder echoed in the arena.
"TIME IS UP!"
Everyone who had failed to kill anyone died with their heads exploding.
The 'thing' opened its arms wide and looked down at the arena. A crimson landscape welcomed it.
"HAHAHAHA WELL DONE! YOU EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS. A TOTAL OF 113 OF YOU REMAIN!"
Aren did not mind the blood splattered on him.
The mixed smell of vomit and metallic blood burned his throat.
His eyes drifted to the lifeless body of the young girl who had just tried to kill him. The dagger in her hand was still between her loosened fingers.
The seconds he spent to help that girl almost cost him his own life.
The price of doing a good deed was a knife about to be thrust into his throat. This was the first and most important lesson the 'tutorial' had given him.
Aren took a deep breath and straightened up.
The entity in the sky smiled with satisfaction, looking at the 113 people remaining below.
"ENJOY IT!" said the 'Thing', its voice echoing like thunder.
"FEEL THAT UNIQUE PLEASURE OF SURVIVING. BUT DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE. THE REAL 'TUTORIAL' HASN'T EVEN BEGUN YET. WE MERELY CLEANED UP SOME PARASITES."
The surviving people were listening carefully without uttering a single word.
"WELL THEN, I SUPPOSE IT WOULD BE GOOD TO GIVE YOU SOME PRIVACY. THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST AND LAST DAY TO SLEEP COMFORTABLY IN THIS TUTORIAL. REST WELL!"
With a helpful smile on its face, it said, "Oh, by the way, my name is Xeras. I am your instructor."
Aren closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was in a different place.
'Instructor? You? Wait... Did I just... get teleported?'
He looked around.
He was in a rather large room. It was like an emperor's palace chamber.
The soft, blue-colored carpet beneath his feet formed a sickening contrast with the bloody sand from moments ago.
The crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room with a brightness close to daylight.
The walls were built of white ceramics with gold embroidery.
In the corner of the room stood a table with steaming food on it, and in the other corner, a massive bed fit for kings.
Aren continued to hold the bloody Gladius in his hand tightly. His muscles tensed.
'Could this be a trap?'
The room had only a single door.
He approached the door with heavy steps.
Holding the Gladius in his hand tightly, he suddenly opened the door. The moment the door opened, hot steam hit his face. Behind the door, a bathroom fit for Emperors welcomed him.
With his torn gray suit, onto which blood and brain fragments were stuck, he stood like a beggar in this magnificent place. Still, he didn't lower his guard.
Suddenly, two different screens appeared in front of him.
REST AREA (SAFE ZONE)
Description: You are in a personal room specially prepared for the survivors. Health and energy regeneration is 2 times faster. Time Remaining to the Next Stage: 12 Hours. Note: The clothes in the wardrobe and the food on the table are complimentary.
Enjoy.
After reading all these words, Aren lowered his guard somewhat.
QUEST: KILL AT LEAST 1 PERSON. (COMPLETED)
Total of 3 people killed.
REWARD: LEVEL 1 TUTORIAL SHOP COUPON (20 PIECES) PENALTY: DEATH.
'Tutorial Shop Coupon? What is this?' he thought, after which another screen appeared in front of him.
Weapons. Skills. Potions.
'It looks like a market system.' he thought.
Aren first looked at 'Weapons'.
Dozens of different types of swords, types of spears, bows, and arrows.
He looked at his Gladius.
'This weapon is sufficient for me.' he thought, and decided to skip the skills and look at the potions first.
He saw healing potions, Stamina regeneration potions, and potions that could increase his Stats by small margins.
Aren realized something in the arena.
He knew nothing about fighting, hiding, or defending.
What allowed him to survive in the arena wasn't his fighting ability, but his luck, cold-bloodedness, and the carelessness of others.
The burly man fought much better than him, but he was unarmed. As for the man he killed to save the young girl, he had stealthily attacked him from behind.
'For now, I need things that will strengthen me in the short term. First, let's see if there are useful things among the skills. If not, I'll buy potions to increase my stats. That's probably the worst option. Still, it's better than nothing.'
The moment he opened the skills, a notification appeared in front of him.
You will learn the skill the moment you select it.
'Interesting. I wonder how it works.' he couldn't help but think.
A long list appeared in front of him. Each skill was worth '10 coupons'.
After examining them carefully, Aren categorized the skills into three.
Weapon mastery skills, Movement skills, and Survival Skills.
The mastery skills served to acquire the most basic mastery in any chosen weapon.
The movement skills, on the other hand, improved mobility.
Survival skills taught knowledge such as making a fire, cooking, and finding water.
'I'll pass on the survival skills for now.'
After a logical elimination process, he chose two skills:
Basic Sword Mastery (Passive) = The most basic mastery regarding sword usage.
Ghost Step (Passive) = Your steps are silent and fast.
The moment he selected the skills, a massive influx of information rushed into his mind. Following a slight headache, his new skills had manifested in his mind.