Chapter 3

# 3

A Legendary Tutorial (1)

The tutorial video was nothing special. The light representing Lokan seemed to fall to the bottom of a tree, only to appear collapsed in the mountains. The setting was that someone found him and brought him to the village.

Thanks to his benefactor, Lokan regained his strength, but with nothing else to offer, he helped with the village's minor tasks to repay the favor.

Up to this point, he was just an observer.

'Good. It's not too complicated.'

Usually, he would have skipped through this part without much thought, but Lokan maintained his focus throughout the video. He tried to memorize the village's layout and geography.

Then, the village began to burn.

A group of goblins had attacked the village.

'It's starting.'

The burning village of settlers.

Mark, his benefactor, who had taken him in and was injured while saving him from the monsters.

And the goblins slowly closing in from all sides.

Bizarrely, this was the first moment when control of the character was handed to the player.

"Run, Lokan!"

As soon as he could move, the realistic acting of the NPCs began. This was also a test for many players.

Would he run as suggested, or fight the goblins?

Most players, trusting the word 'tutorial,' would choose to fight the goblins with about a 98% probability, only to soon regret it. A level 1 human was as weak as a child.

The goblins, too, were not particularly physically strong, but it was impossible for someone new to combat to take down multiple goblins. Moreover, at first, they had no weapons.

If they had learned martial arts in real life, they might have managed to take down one or two, but death meant the end, and they would have to restart the tutorial from the beginning.

Therefore, the correct answer was to run for dear life as suggested.

'Running is the right answer, generally speaking.'

However, even if they did run, they could still be caught and killed by goblins if they took the wrong path. Some clever players might gather evidence of the goblin attack to receive additional rewards.

The rewards from the tutorial video varied depending on how many times they restarted and how they completed it. It was not surprising that an efficient escape route became the standard strategy for clearing the tutorial.

...Until a pioneer appeared.

'Tolkien...'

This player used his remarkable combat skills, intelligence, and incredible luck to fight the goblins and achieve some success. Although he couldn't eliminate all the goblins, he managed to kill many and save his benefactor, Mark. He received significant rewards for his success.

Using this as a foundation, he grew rapidly. This was possible because he had a basic sense of combat.

He grew quickly, was recruited by a famous guild, received substantial support, and eventually became one of the representative gamers of The Lord.

Ultimately, he became the leader of a faction hostile to Lokan.

'That guy can't get the same thing.'

His fame was partly due to the public sharing of his tutorial strategy.

While not everyone could follow it, the number of players who succeeded similarly after seeing the strategy increased, earning him recognition for his skills.

'Tolkien, you bastard... thanks.'

Lokan already knew this strategy.

However, he had never experienced it firsthand. His confidence in gaming led him to skip the tutorial video without watching it, as in most games, every second of the main game was more important than the tutorial.

"What are you doing? Hurry up!"

Unaware of this, Mark shouted again to urge Lokan to act when he didn't move.

"Mark, hide here. I'll come back to save you soon."

Instead of running, Lokan hid the injured Mark.

According to the strategy, if the severely injured Mark moved to another location, he would likely be discovered and killed, significantly reducing the completion rate. However, if he hid here, he could survive for at least 30 minutes.

That was a decent amount of time. If he could escape the village within that time, he wouldn't be affected by the drop in completion rate due to Mark's death, securing at least some rewards.

Convincing Mark to hide, Lokan immediately started running.

'30 minutes from now... I need to get a weapon first.'

However, he didn't head in the direction Mark had suggested. Instead, he ran toward the 'weapon shop' he had seen in the peaceful village earlier.

Without weapons, skills, or high stats, even Lokan, known as the King of Violence, would be helpless against the goblins.

'Ownership isn't an issue.'

There was no need to pay for weapons.

In normal circumstances, this might be different, but the village was now a lawless area. Without consent, he could use anything. Most villagers were already dead, and their ownership had vanished.

Even though everything would disappear at the end of the tutorial, the fact that he could use anything immediately was important.

'Just a little more, just a little more!'

Lokan was prepared to die several times here. The tutorial's content was the same, but the village's layout and the goblins' movement paths varied each time.

Due to the high difficulty, the developers later reduced the rewards and standardized the terrain and movement paths. Lokan intended to clear the tutorial perfectly before this patch.

'As expected.'

Encountering them was dangerous, but as expected, the goblins, with their numerical advantage, were mainly using the main roads.

The village was almost entirely occupied, so their vigilance was low.

From alley to alley... Running as fast as he could, he saw the weapon shop, its door broken and flames just starting to spread inside.

'2 minutes so far.'

Lokan had been counting the time since he hid Mark.

The time was on track.

But a variable appeared.

'Damn, just my luck...'

He spotted two goblins loitering near the weapon shop.

This made it difficult to enter the shop.

No matter how experienced and combat-savvy Lokan was, he couldn't take on two armed goblins at level 1.

Time passed as he hesitated.

10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute.

He waited patiently, but the goblins showed no signs of moving. They seemed to be chatting and laughing.

Should he give up and try another route? No, that would make it hard to stay on schedule.

Several thoughts raced through his mind.

Lokan stared into the distance.

His eyes were fixed on the inside of the weapon shop. The broken door allowed the newly spreading flames to serve as lighting.

'I'm going to do it.'

Determined, Lokan moved stealthily.

Slowly, but not too slowly.

Checking the goblins' field of vision, Lokan launched himself forward.

Whish! Thud!

"Keeek!"

He hit the back of a goblin's head with a rock he had picked up. The goblin staggered, bent over, and almost fell due to the force of the blow.

"Keeek!"

A rock, often overlooked, was an excellent weapon in the early stages, comparable to beginner weapons in terms of durability.

'Short of a critical hit.'

It was a critical hit, but not enough to finish the goblin. Blood splattered from the goblin's head, but it didn't die.

But that was fine. It was just to buy time.

"Keeo!"

Instead of attacking the goblin again, Lokan lunged at the other goblin nearby.

The goblin flinched.

Lokan's right hand moved, and the goblin flinched again, looking up. The attack seemed to be taking longer than expected.

Swish!

Then, a handful of sand was thrown from Lokan's left hand. A delayed, off-beat attack!

There was no damage, but the goblin rubbed its eyes and stepped back as its vision was blocked.

Lokan didn't miss the opportunity. He dashed past them and into the weapon shop.

"Got you!"

He grabbed the weapon he had targeted.

"Tch."

There were restrictions due to his low strength stat, but it didn't matter. He wasn't going to use it immediately.

Lokan roughly threw the weapon into his inventory and ran to the next one.

"Keeek! Keeek!"

At that moment, the angry goblins burst into the weapon shop. They charged at Lokan, wielding short knives and wearing poorly fitting leather armor.

Whish! Thud!

But what greeted them was a small hand axe. The sharp blade pierced the goblin's forehead precisely.

For thrown weapons, a lack of skill could result in the handle hitting and causing only a minor impact, but Lokan could throw with his eyes closed. The hand axe was his favorite secondary weapon.

"Now it's just the two of us."

He grinned wickedly at the surviving goblin.

"Keeek!"

But the goblin didn't back down. It knew the human was dangerous, but it had already killed most of the villagers. Roaring, it bravely charged at Lokan.

A short while later, the goblin lay dead with a split forehead.

"Ugh, a weakling causing trouble."

Lokan stepped on the goblin's corpse to retrieve the hand axe and left the weapon shop.

But he didn't level up. Normally, he would have gained at least one level, but in the tutorial, it was impossible to gain experience.

You have defeated an opponent three levels stronger than yourself. You may take pride in your combat skills.

-Strength +1

Instead, he earned an achievement and a title.

He felt a slight increase in strength. This was the 'title effect,' a unique feature of The Lord.

The 'achievement system' that made Lokan the King of Violence and created many superhumans.

The more extraordinary actions or near-impossible achievements one accomplished, the more the system would boost their stats or grant special effects.

As a result, simply grinding similar-level monsters to grow was not enough to reach the top tier, and one could even be killed by a lower-level opponent.

Conversely, if one could continuously achieve incredible feats, even a latecomer or a solo player could walk the path of the absolute.

The ten strongest players who walked this path were called Royal Lords.

They were the closest to The Lord and were on the path to becoming one.

In his previous life (though he didn't know if he had died and come back, he decided to call his past life his 'previous life' for distinction), Lokan was one of these Royal Lords.

He had ruled as a king, feared by all. Naturally, the other Royal Lords had achieved several 'unbelievable' feats.

Ultimately, he realized how weak he truly was and that his title was just a hollow name.

But this time was different. He knew how to obtain a strength far beyond what he had before, how to become the true King of Violence.

This was just the beginning.

Oh.