Tutorial 1 (2)
Swish!
'It's coming!'
It was the sound of the Dokdo Lizard, the master of Stage 1, approaching while pushing through the thickly piled leaves.
'It's a weak bastard that dies to a single punch, but if it bites me properly, the game is over.'
The Dokdo Lizard, with a body length of about 40 centimeters, was a creature with fast movements, powerful biting force, and even neurotoxin.
It was nothing to be afraid of if detected and prepared for in advance, but because it moved quickly and stealthily through such thickly piled leaves, an inexperienced beginner would most likely get their ankle bitten.
In fact, before Another Mundus was released and the communities posting related information became active, quite a lot of players had been game-overed by Dokdo Lizards in the tutorial.
Gaon shifted the dagger to his left hand, looked around, and picked up the thickest branch lying nearby. Since the Dokdo Lizard moved along the ground and was small, dealing with it using the dagger wasn't easy.
So in the prophetic dream, there had been quite a few strategy tips for the tutorial. One of them was to use objects nearby as weapons.
'Just the right thing was here. Hoo! If I trim this a bit, it's undoubtedly a club.'
The branch, which had a burl attached to one end, was about 1.5 meters long and just thick enough to fit in his hand. The shape of the burl was exactly like a rugby ball, and it looked extremely hard, so overall it was similar to a golf club, with the head part being quite large.
With his senses honed sharp, Gaon gripped the handle of the club, raised it up, and slowly advanced.
'It was an aggressive one.'
Because it moved through the thickly piled leaves, if one observed carefully, one could see the ground shifting or hear the sound of dry leaves rustling due to the creature's movement.
'It's coming!'
Gaon stopped walking and waited for the creature to leap out.
Rustle!
The moment the Dokdo Lizard, having quickly approached beneath the piled leaves, leaped out aiming for his ankle, Gaon's raised arm rotated into a full swing.
Whack!
The hard burl slammed into the Dokdo Lizard's head.
From that single blow, the Dokdo Lizard flew quite far. He tried to rush over and slit its throat with the dagger, but one side of its head was visibly caved in, and it soon showed post-mortem rigidity.
-1 Kill!
Gaon smirked at the kill-announcement and began walking slowly toward the direction of the White Tree.
Since the Dokdo Lizards had territories and didn't attack all at once, there was no easier hunt than this as long as he noticed their approach.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The horrifying sound of crushing bones continued.
The Dokdo Lizards, who claimed 10-meter sections in every direction as their territory, could be taken down in a single blow as long as he properly caught the moment they leaped out from the leaves they were nestled in.
Even though Gaon could have passed through the Dokdo Lizard territory faster, he deliberately walked slowly and hunted.
'Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!'
While counting the kill numbers in his head, the long-awaited announcement finally rang out when he reached fifty.
-50 Kills! Congratulations! You have recorded 50 kills targeting the same creature! You have acquired the qualification to pass through the Dokdo Lizard territory!
He could have stopped hunting after hearing the announcement, but only about 20 minutes had passed.
'This much isn't enough!'
This time, Gaon changed direction and began hunting more Dokdo Lizards. Even excluding the straight path leading to the target White Tree, Dokdo Lizards inhabited a wide area.
Without a watch he couldn't know for sure, but by feel, when about 50 minutes had passed, Gaon's hunting finally came to an end.
The kill count recorded by then was a whopping 193.
'It should have been 200.'
But even though he wanted to hunt more, he couldn't find any.
The reward contents hadn't appeared, but he was certain he had cleared an unknown hidden quest.
"Alright! Next is the Long-Arm Monkey!"
Since Gaon no longer needed to stay in the Dokdo Lizard territory, he quickened his pace.
The stage of the second tutorial was a similar yet different forest. The trees were a bit taller, and most were fruit trees bearing unknown fruits.
Gaon entered that forest and first took off his shirt, then tied it here and there to make it into a messy but usable bag that could hold things.
The second hunting target, the Long-Arm Monkey, was the hardest to hunt at the tutorial stage.
'More than 90% of players who challenged the tutorial failed at Stage 2.'
They mainly moved on tree branches nearly 5 meters or higher above the ground, throwing tree fruits with hard shells and flesh, and the power was tremendous.
Though their stature was small, they couldn't be ignored because even fist-sized fruits were dangerous. Getting hit by a fruit was powerful enough to shatter one's skull and break shoulder bones.
When players momentarily lost their offensive power after being hit by such fruits, the Long-Arm Monkeys would leap down and tear out their throats with sharp fangs—almost no players could avoid this.
But that didn't mean there was no way to hunt them. Countless hard fruits of various sizes had fallen beneath the trees. Since their shells and flesh were so hard, they didn't rot easily.
'Throwing upward from directly below is a bit difficult, but I don't necessarily need a direct hit.'
The reason he had practiced slinging stones while going up and down Wolchulsan was solely to clear this tutorial process.
Fortunately, Wolchulsan was a mountain with so many rocks that he could easily obtain stones of various sizes, so he had been able to prepare easily and comfortably.
Unless it was a very high position, if the target was about 5 meters away, even a non-baseball player could increase their accuracy with time and effort spent practicing.
Moreover, he didn't necessarily need to throw straight up. As long as he hit it properly, it would lose balance and fall, and the impact would temporarily incapacitate it.
Above all, Gaon, who had experience training as a pitcher for a few months as a child, was confident in throwing.
'The strategy tip for this stage is to spot them first and use blind spots.'
Gaon minimized his presence as much as possible and carefully moved between the trees. At the same time, he picked up fruits sized to fit in his hand and placed them in the pouch made from his removed shirt.
Chitter! Screech!
Sharp, monotonous monkey cries were heard from the tree directly across.
The thick branch where two adult monkeys sat was about 6 meters above the ground, and the fellows were looking around with red eyes, communicating about something.
'Aren't there supposed to be only one per tree?'
In the tutorial he had experienced in the prophetic dream, the Long-Arm Monkeys had been distributed one per 10 square meters.
Of course, even so, if even one cried out, they would swarm from all directions and bombard with fruits, so if he couldn't kill them at once, he had no choice but to flee.
'First things first!'
Taking his stance, Gaon threw powerfully.
Swoosh!
Perhaps because the weight and size were similar to a baseball, it felt good to throw.
Thud!
Crack!
The monkey, which had been looking toward its companion, took the fruit squarely to the back of the head and fell to the ground; luckily, as it thrashed and flailed its arms, the other one fell along with it.
Tap!
Immediately after throwing the fruit, Gaon hurled the club forward and launched his body like he was flying; his left hand held the dagger, which embedded itself deep in one creature's throat in an instant.
The creature, unable to come to its senses due to the shock of being struck in the head by the hard fruit and the impact of falling to the ground, could not resist much and tried to let out a scream that wouldn't come, clutching its own throat.
Without thinking of pulling out the embedded dagger, Gaon first grabbed the handle of the club that had fallen nearby.
The creature that had fallen with it raised its body, bared its sharp teeth, and opened its mouth. Thanks to the thick leaves piled on the ground, it hadn't received a great shock, so it was coming to its senses immediately and trying to let out a sharp cry to signal its companions.
At that moment, something flew toward the creature. It was the club.
Whoosh!
Whack!
The burl of the fully swung club struck the creature's head.
There was no need to hit it twice. The head of the fellow struck by the large, hard burl of the club was smashed, blood flowed from its mouth and nose, and its body was convulsing.
'Lucky!'
That the thrashing body of the struck monkey had caused its companion to fall as well, that the shock of the fall had prevented both from screaming immediately, and that the other monkeys couldn't notice the incident with their eyes due to the leafy branches and the 10-meter distance—all of it was a stroke of luck for Gaon.
Still, the stone-throwing practice he had done until now had been worthwhile.
Swoosh!
Crack!
Whack!
The monotonous hunting method of throwing fruits, causing them to fall in a dazed state, and smashing the Long-Arm Monkeys' heads with the club was repeated.
But Gaon maintained tremendous focus.
'If even one accidentally lets out a loud scream, this easy hunt is over!'
According to stories from the prophetic dream, there were almost no players who had properly hunted Long-Arm Monkeys in this second stage. Well, among high-rankers, there were occasional rumors of them hunting a few, but they were unconfirmed.
Fortunately, whether it was programmed that way or not, unless the noise was above a certain standard, the Long-Arm Monkeys nearby couldn't detect it.
But because he didn't know what that standard was, he had no choice but to hunt with maximum concentration.
Gaon successfully hunted the Long-Arm Monkeys while going back and forth along both sides of the large path leading toward the White Tree.
As he threw, occasionally a critical hit would trigger. Since it was a fruit hard enough to shatter a human skull, among the Long-Arm Monkeys, there were those whose heads shattered and died the moment they were hit.
Each time, a smile curved across Gaon's lips. It was thanks to the unexpected announcement.
-One Shot One Kill! A critical has triggered! Bonus points will be awarded during achievement settlement!
He had heard rumors that bonus points were sometimes given during the achievement settlement after the tutorial ended, but he hadn't known it was true. Even on the information board he occasionally visited, there had been no posts about having cleared the tutorial excellently enough to receive bonus points.
As a result of not letting his focus slip and doing his best, he was finally able to hear the long-awaited announcement.
-50 Kills! You have achieved an unbelievable feat!
It was when he reached the end of the Long-Arm Monkey territory.
Except for the One Shot One Kill announcements, the content of the announcements that had only informed him of kill numbers now mentioned the word "achievement." It was different from when he had hunted the Dokdo Lizards in the first stage.
'Let's see! It seems about 30 minutes have passed, so let's fill up an hour.'
No one knew the extent of the Long-Arm Monkey territory or how many individuals there were, but he had hunted all of them on both sides of the large path leading to the White Tree. Perhaps that was why the 50 kills held significance, though he couldn't be sure.
Gaon wandered the forest hunting Long-Arm Monkeys until it felt like an hour had passed. Perhaps because he had grown accustomed to hunting in the same manner for the past 30 minutes, the hunting time gradually decreased.
As a result, when he finished hunting, he achieved the astounding result of 166 kills.
'So the number of targets I need to hunt decreases as the stages go on.'
Their combat power would increase proportionally.
This meant he would have to concentrate even more as he went further.