Solo Clear – Chapter 11: Day Three (??) First Stage Clear

“I survived somehow.”

It was all thanks to the reward for finding the secret room. It increased my skills as well as my stamina.
I couldn’t confirm whether the secret room had the ability to cure the person that entered the room.
Anyways, I survived.

Grr.

It seemed like I had passed out.

It felt like I woke up after sleeping for a long time because I felt light-headed.
I was probably out for couple of hours, no, an entire day.
Instinctively, I looked at my watch.
10 hours already passed.
The morning portal will be opening soon.

Power: 26, Stamina: 28, Agility: 32, Mana: 22, Luck: 19

The stats screen showed that they all increased rapidly.
My agility was increased by two as a reward for killing a group of Cobalts.
After overworking my body by exercising, my power and stamina increased by one point.

Increasing your stats was the greatest reward since it was hard to increase it here.
Thanks to this, there was a bit of gap between mine and the other survivors’ stats.
On top of that, I got them by overcoming death.

[Intuition. Berserk. Pain Resistance]

They were skills that can only be learned through a book, like Grimoire, or an item.
However, there are skills that you can learn if you met the requirements.

Intuition – E Rank
Your visual range will widen during battle and you’ll react faster to your opponent’s movement.

Berserk – F Rank
It’ll activate when you aren’t able to control your emotions.
All stats will increase by three points and your resistance level towards any skills involving your mentality will increase.

Pain Resistance – F Rank
The pain that you feel when you get injured will be decreased.
If your luck is high, you’ll be able to endure a couple of seconds longer if your vital points are attacked.

The ranks can be seen as your proficiency level for that particular skill.
Other than my skills, there was something else I needed to check.
It was the items that I received as a reward.
It was located in the top left portion of the inventory and it was an axe.

Audison’s Barbed Axe (+3) (Class 9) (Manufactured Item)
The owner of the mine, Audison, wielded this axe and depending on the user’s power, it can even split open a rock.

What kind of situation would I have to be in to destroy a rock?
After reading how powerful the axe was, I started nodding my head without knowing.
Since this was a Class 9 weapon, it was one class higher than the weapons that were sold at the shop.
I didn’t think it would be enhanced, but it was definitely a satisfying reward.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Maybe it was because my power increased greatly, but despite it weighing more than the pickaxe, it didn’t feel heavy at all.
It was made so that it could be held with one hand like the Vikings did a long time ago.
The blade of the axe was stretched out and if it was customized according to its size, then it’ll definitely contain a considerable amount of power.

Time to go out.

I checked my body to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong and finished my preparation.
I wasn’t sure where I would end up once I left the room.
If I were to end up in the plaza that I was just in, then I would end up fighting a group of Cobalts again.

“Will you leave the room?”

As soon as I touched the pole that was in the center of the room, I answered the question.

“Yes.”

Being enveloped in a light, I felt my body being taken somewhere.
When I opened my eyes, I surprised that I was back at the training ground.

“What’s…up with that guy?”
“Was he inside the stage all this time?”
Since I didn’t exit through the portal normally, they seemed to think I was a ghost.
Ignoring their looks, I headed towards the store.
Using the remaining Geny, I purchased a couple of items from the store.

[Eight small bombs, a Return Amulet, five Healing Potion, Priority Stage Entrance Pass, a match.]

If I used the Priority Stage Entrance Pass, I’ll be able to reenter the stage one hour earlier.
It costed 1,000 Geny and it wasn’t an item that was used often since there was no use in entering the stage early.
I was the first one at this training ground to use this pass.
It hasn’t even been five minutes and I reentered the stage.

After reentering the stage, I used the match and lit a bomb that I purchased from the store.
I dropped it and ran ahead.
Boom!!!!
Due to the blast of the bomb, it completely sealed the entrance.
Looking at the map, this was the first entrance.
Maybe it was because my luck increased, but I ended up at the outer entrance, like I had wanted.

I’ll seal off all of them.

“The second entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The third entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The fourth entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The fifth entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The sixth entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The seventh entrance has been sealed off!!”
“The eighth entrance has been sealed off!!”

There wasn’t a quest that needed to be completed in the first stage.
The only thing they told us to do was to survive for 10 days.
Through the battles in the mines, they wanted to us to become familiar with the training ground’s system and the basics.
That was probably the manager’s goal.

But, I completely destroyed device that the manager created.
There was no need to call my idea a plan.
It was just my way of saying that I wanted everything to myself.

The mine is influenced by the survivors’ actions.
Ending up a dead end was an example of that.
After seeing the stage remain as it was, I knew this crazy idea was possible.

And the Cobalts that worked inside the mine.
Their corpse remained.
Meaning, it wasn’t a game-like system where they can continuously be revived using a regen.
What would happen if the mine didn’t have any Cobalts left?
It’s just an assumption, but it’s possible that the stage might end right then.
Even if they entered, there was no way for the survivors to increase their skills.
There was no point in progressing further.

Now, the question was whether I had the strength to kill all the monsters within the mine.

“Ah!! That bastard is back.”
“Our guys that worked overtime last night got in trouble because of that guy, right?”

Rumors about me must’ve spread amongst the Cobalt since I was pretty popular here.

“Bring that soldier we talked about before.”

With their signal, a large, barbaric monster appeared that was holding a club and was about 3m tall.
My mouth dropped and I was able to smell a foul odor despite the monster being so far away from me.
Its fingernails and toenails were black due to the dirt.
It seemed like they took every dirty thing and mashed it all up to create this monster.

“Troll!! You have work to do. Kill him.”
That was the troll that appeared often in games.
Its appearance was really horrible.
The trolls and the orks that I’ve seen were often courageous and believed that honor was the most important thing. (PR: What the heck were you playing??)
I’ll stop looking at it now.

“Gah!!”

Not being able to hold its weight, the troll started waddling.
There were a lot of openings, but there was a need to be careful.

“Troll!! Troll!! Troll!”

The Cobalts started chanting with all their might.

It meant that the troll had that much power.

It was coming.

Using its long arm, it started swinging the club.
I didn’t have the chance to counterattack.
I could only dodge or block.

Bam!!
“The shield’s durability has decreased by 60%.”

It was a bit clumsy, but I believed that it would be enough to block its attack.
The troll’s power was so strong that I felt it through the shield and felt my body becoming stiff.
I let it attack once, but it would only be a matter of seconds before the shield broke.
The second attack will break the shield and it won’t be able to protect my body.

Pft!

As I rolled on the stone floor, I spit out the pebbles that were in my mouth.

“Ha ha ha ha.”

Its laugh was making me feel uncomfortable.
They were acting as if they already won.

“Good job, troll!! Keep attacking.”

The Cobalts that were around the troll continued cheering and it made me feel uneasy.
I made the decision to bring this big guy down and to wipe out all the Cobalts.

Fwoosh!!

Perhaps it was thanks to the Intuition skill, but I was able to react to the enemy’s movement.

Swish!

“Ahhh!!”

Instead of laughter, the sound of pain left the troll’s mouth.
I managed to cut open its thigh.
The axe was so strong that it cut open the troll’s thick skin like tofu.
I can do it with this.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Every time the troll’s stance became unstable, I kept on attacking the same spot with the axe.
As the monster’s expression darkened, I knew I was close to winning.

Fwoosh!!

After the troll’s leg became a mess, I didn’t bother dodging when it attacked with its club.
Bam!!

“Gahh!!”

Like the animals that walked on two legs, an immense amount of the troll’s strength was focused on its lower half of the body.
If its legs lost its strength, then the troll wouldn’t be able to walk properly.
Despite using both of its arms to attack, it wasn’t as strong as the first time it attacked.

“If you were a bit smarter, this could’ve been a fun battle.”

Maybe it was intimated by me, but its face was filled with fear.
Bam!!
In order to prevent it from experiencing a painful death, I split open its head.
As soon as it was split open, green blood started spouting out like a fountain.

I briefly celebrated my victory.
The Cobalts didn’t have much to say.

Oh…was this what it felt like?

Was this what an intimidating predator felt?

The Cobalts started running for their lives and I pondered how I should get rid of them.

Beep!!!

The supervisor of the Cobalts started blowing its whistle.
I knew it. They weren’t blowing the whistle to call for back-up.
It was to warn the others within the mine to run away while they still had the chance.
As I started the hunt, I killed every monster that remained within the mine.
After walking in the mine, I ended up back at the entrance and knew I was done with the hunt.

“103 Cobalts. 7 Cobalt Supervisors. 3 Trolls.”
“The first stage has been cleared.”

The first stage was supposed to last 10 days, but on this day, a survivor that cleared the stage in three days appeared.
To think that a survivor would block off the hunting ground that the manager designated!!
Even in the other training grounds where they explored a mine, there wasn’t anyone that attempted something as absurd as this.

Without anyone’s help, a solo player cleared it.
It was definitely a phenomenal record.
However, the manager that witnessed all of this wasn’t sure if they should be angry, happy or sad.
It was such a complicated feeling that they couldn’t express it with words.