Sung-jin got a weird sensation through his body after he disappeared from the dungeon; he couldn't see anything either because a bright light blinded him.
Ding-!
-System: 3…2…1… Rebirth is successful.
The weird sensation he had before slowly faded away after the rebirth was done, and he could begin to feel his body materializing again.
'This is a weird feeling. And why can't I see yet?!'
Sung-jin tried to open his status window, but nothing worked, and he could only wait for the system's next move.
…
It felt like forever since Sung-jin left the dungeon, and even though he could feel and touch his body, he still couldn't see anything.
"When will I be able to touch anything but myself—"
Ding-!
-System: Now sending 'Player' to the tutorial.
"Finally! Something happened after such a long time!"
Sung-jin exclaimed with joy after the system rudely interrupted his complaining.
'But why will it send me to the tutorial? I already passed it once.'
Sung-jin wondered about the system's choice.
'I get that rebirth is supposed to send you back to the start of the game with nothing but a character boost or a new weapon. Or at least that's how it works in most of the popular games. But sending me back to do the tutorial—'
Sung-jin tried to assess what was going on, but a sudden feeling of touching something solid disrupted his thinking.
"The ground!"
Sung-jin said out loud, surprised that the feeling of forest dirt could nearly move a man to tears.
'Ah, the lush and beautiful forest they call the Tutorial Area.'
Sung-jin deeply inhaled the fresh air with closed eyes. He remembered back to the past and imagined the big trees and green bushes surrounding the area. All kinds of animals were thriving here; it's a perfect ecosystem.
Sung-jin thought of the beautiful forest but a dark memory suddenly popped into his mind.
'I just have to clear the tutorial fast, so nothing major happens—'
Sung-jin thought it was a shame that this area would soon get destroyed. So he determined that he would clear this tutorial as fast as possible.
"What's happening?!"
"Where is this place?"
"Who kidnapped us?"
Sung-jin was interrupted by a swarming sound of confusion. He didn't have to open his eyes to see what was going on; he just enjoyed the feeling of touching the ground again. But his joy quickly turned into annoyance because of the constant cry for help the other players yelled.
'I remember this scene all too well…'
Sung-jin opened his eyes slowly only to see thousands of people either running around trying to figure out what was going on or people sitting down, crying for help.
'Many deaths will ensure this place soon.'
Sung-jin depressingly remembered the first time he found himself this world and did the tutorial.
'But there is no time to be thinking about that now. What's more important at the moment is what the rebirth did to me.'
Sung-jin tossed his cruel past aside and decided to open his status window to see the rebirth's change.
-Status Window
Name: Sung-jin | Level: 1 | Age: 20 | Title: none | First Generation
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Stat Points: 0
Skills: None
Titles: None
'Uhm…'
'It's quite bare considering a rebirth is supposed to make one stronger, or have I misunderstood something?'
Sung-jin looked at his status window and thought deeply about what the rebirth was supposed to do, but as he thought, the familiar system notification resounded again.
-System: Tutorial will now commence.
The notification popped up in front of everyone, and a peaceful silence befell the once boisterous place. It was the first time the other players heard the sound of the system, and therefore they concentrated on trying to decipher all this new information. Still, it didn't take long before another wave of confusion hit.
The noisy crowd began to step closer to each other like a pack of penguins in the cold Arctic. But these people were more scared than cold.
Sung-jin ignored everyone panicking and sat down at the nearest tree he could find since he knew that there would be a few minutes before the monster wave would come.
Now he has to figure out what the rebirth was all about.
'If the rebirth didn't give me any skills or stats… What has it actually done then?'
Sung-jin thought that the Lich King had scammed him. But then again, it wouldn't make sense for the system to come up with those notifications. And as Sung-jin was thinking, he suddenly remembered another way the system gave rewards.
'The inbox, of course… How could I have forgotten that?!'
Sung-jin cursed himself for being a moron.
'When clearing a dungeon, instead of getting the reward dropped on the ground, it sometimes goes into your inbox. But only a handful of times have that happened, though.'
Sung-jin sighed in relief and opened his inbox.
-Inbox
1 Unclaimed reward [First Rebirth Reward]
'Ha! I actually got a reward!'
Sung-jin stared happily at the inbox window for a good while before he opened the mail.
'Now, let's see what I got!'
"Open First Rebirth Reward!"
Sung-jin said out loud, and a mysterious blue light surrounded his body. It caught the attention of everyone around him, but that attention was only short-lived.
Out of nowhere, weapons began to spawn on the ground in front of all the players. And this was the system's way to say, 'fight for your lives.'
'It finally gave us the weapons.'
Sung-jin got distracted from his rebirth reward to pick up a rusty sword that spawned beside him. He examined the sword, but it wasn't really worth more than the scrap price.
'I see… The system is still as merciless as it always been.'
Sung-jin sighed at the fact that the system everyone obeyed in this world was such a cruel entity. And he knew that out of the thousand people who just got summoned to this world, probably only 30 percent of them would survive the tutorial.
'It is truly a shame that all these potential workers will eventually die a gruesome death…'
Sung-jin examined his surroundings before standing up.
'Ten seconds before a complete chaos will engulf this place.'
Sung-jin was surprisingly motivated to do the tutorial after he had seen what the rebirth reward was. And now he couldn't wait for it to start.
"Open Status Window"
Sung-jin opened his status window just before the monster wave would come.
-Status Window
Name: Sung-jin | Level: 1 | Age: 20 | Title: none | First Generation
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Stat Points: 0
Skills: None
Titles:
Dark Apostle: Lvl 1 [Exp: 0%]
[Effect: 5% exp gain]
[Effect: 10% damage gain. Dark Type skills only]
'This title is overpowered!'
Sung-jin smiled ominously. The title was the only thing that the rebirth reward gave him, and Sung-jin looked happy about it. The only problem with this title was—
'The first effect will help me a lot when leveling, and I think the EXP gain will rise when the title level rises. But the second effect…'
Sung-jin glanced at the second effect, not knowing if he should be happy about it or not.
'10 percent damage gain is overpowered, especially because it will rise. But Dark-type skills are not something you just get. The only Dark-type skill I had previously was Shadow Step, and it wasn't even dealing damage…'
Sung-jin got a little disappointed, but he couldn't really worry about it now since the system wouldn't stop pestering him.
Ding-!
-System: Monster Wave Cleared (0:5)
'I can decide my path at a later time. Now it's time to kill some monsters!'
Sung-jin tightly grasped the handle of his rusty sword and looked at the direction the monsters would come from.
…
"PLEASE HELP ME, SOMEONE!"
The tutorial had just begun, and screams could already be heard all over the tutorial area. Some people chose to run away, and some were too scared of the monsters even to pick up their weapons. But Sung-jin knew that those two types of people were the ones to get killed first. The only proper way was—
'To fight back!'
Sung-jin took a deep breath and began to run in the direction where the screams came from.
'Shadow Step!'
Sung-jin activated his Shadow Step skill…
But nothing happened.
'Ah, this is awkward…'
Sung-jin got very embarrassed. He had forgotten all about his rebirth, which took away everything, including his Shadow Step skill.
'It will take a bit longer to reach the monster wave than what I had calculated before… But while I'm running, I should probably equip my title, or it won't have any effects.'
Sung-jin turned the embarrassment into something useful and equipped his title, Dark Apostle, just before reaching the front line where the monster wave was mowing through the helpless players.
Piiing-!
Sung-jin hadn't even reached the frontline yet, and an arrow already flew toward him at high speed, but Sung-jin's reflexes were fast enough to avoid it.
"That was dangerous!"
Sung-jin exclaimed after just barely managing to avoid an arrow flying toward his face. The arrow was only a millisecond too slow, or it would have hit a bull's eye.
'My reflexes aren't as they once were. I need to stop thinking I have the same abilities as before my rebirth!'
Sung-jin looked in the direction the arrow came from.
'There you are, you little bastard!'
Sung-jin thought, staring ominously in the eyes of the green goblin who took cover behind a tree. The gaze Sung-jin gave the goblin was so murderous that the goblin's instinct told it to run, or it would definitely die.
It didn't take long for the goblin to decide it should retreat back to their main force since a lone goblin was pretty much useless. The goblin took the risk of dying so that it could kill a player or two by surprising them with an arrow to the face.
'Your plan didn't go so well. I dare you to try running!'
Sung-jin mentally challenged the goblin, and it seemed it understood Sung-jin's intentions very well. So, the goblin ran—
Thunk-!
The goblin slowly collapsed onto the ground with blood flowing out of the forehead where Sung-jin's rusty sword was embedded. Sung-jin had thrown his sword at the goblin from a fifteen-meter distance and hit right in its forehead.
The goblin didn't stand a chance against Sung-jin's abilities that he had earned after nearly five years of hunting all kinds of monsters. Sung-jin's stats might not be higher than anyone else, but his battle experience was clearly picking up that slack.
"That's what you call a bull's eye!"
Sung-jin victoriously said as he pulled out his sword from the goblin's head.
Ding-!
-System: Congrats Player. You leveled up!
'Nice, I got a level by killing just one mere goblin!'
Sung-jin pretended to be surprised.
'The first time I cleared the tutorial, I had to kill two goblins before getting my first level. But since I have the Dark Apostle title now, leveling will be a piece of cake!'
Sung-jin smiled, satisfied that he made the right choice to rebirth.
'But now that I leveled up, I should allocate the stat points I got.'
Sung-jin opened his status window and began to wonder what he should spend his points on. But something caught his eye when he looked at the stat points.
"Five stat points!"
Sung-jin exclaimed, this time actually surprised.
'It gave me five stat points by leveling up once? Normally a level-up would only give three points. Is the rebirth the cause of this?'
Sung-jin questioned, even though he knew what the answer was.
'But five is better than three, so I can't complain! But what should I spend them on?'
Sung-jin thought carefully about where he would spend his points since it couldn't be reverted when a point is spent.
'Ah! I got it!'
-Status Window
Name: Sung-jin | Level: 2 | Age: 20 | Title: Dark Apostle | First Generation
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 15
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Stat Points: 0
Skills: None
Titles:
Dark Apostle: Lvl 1 [Exp: 0%]
[Effect: 5% exp gain]
[Effect: 10% damage gain. Dark Type skills only]
Sung-jin spent all his points in raising the stat Agility from ten to fifteen.
'I'm not planning on balancing this character!'
Sung-jin smiled and briefly looked at the other stats he could have chosen. Right now, Sung-jin was raising his stats the same way as they were before his rebirth. But even though he thought carefully about it before raising his stats, he didn't know if playing the same way as before was the best solution.
'Maybe I shouldn't go the assassin path. I already did that before, and even though I was the strongest, I couldn't beat the Lich King at the end. Maybe I should raise my stats as a warrior or mage?'
Sung-jin thought for a few seconds before tossing aside his decision for a later time.
'That problem is for my future self to solve. Thanks in advance!'
Sung-jin thanked himself for procrastinating. He then took a quick peek at how many goblins there remained in the first wave.
-System: 14:20 Goblins remain.
'The other players have actually done something!'
Sung-jin was ecstatic at what was in front of him; it made him happy to see that some players were adapting fast. But killing only five goblins in this amount of time despite there being a thousand players—
'It looks like I have to pick up their slack.'
Sung-jin began to run towards the goblin's main force again, and this time he could feel what the five stat points in Agility did.
Woosh-!
"This feels a lot better!"
Sung-jin said out loud running faster than before.
…
It didn't take long before Sung-jin reached the frontline and he stopped right behind some people fighting a few goblins. There were six goblins that had a mix between knives and short swords in their hands. And even though goblins were small and weak, the players they fought against were slowly losing their ground.
'There are only six goblins and around ten players fighting them. Right now, it just looks like a dog fight since none of the players know how to fight.'
Sung-jin observed the fight between the humans and goblins from a few meters behind.
"Come on! Attack the left one!"
A big, muscular man screamed, commanding a flimsy-looking person to attack the goblin, who had chosen to close in on them despite not having its pack with it. The flimsy-looking person had torn and dirty clothes. Presumable after having a close-combat encounter with one of the goblins.
"Okay!"
The man yelled as he ran closer to the goblin. The player dashed forward and swung his sword at the neck of the goblin.
Swash-!
The goblin's short sword and the player's sword clashed against each other.
"What?!"
It was a surprise for the flimsy man that the goblin had a fast enough reaction time to block his swing. And since the player didn't have enough experience with sword fights, he completely froze, not knowing what to do next.
'At least do something? Or you will die.'
Sung-jin looked at the man who gotten too scared to even defend himself.
'Are you even worth saving?'
Sung-jin thought as the goblin grinned wickedly at the human while drooling. The goblin could already taste the meat of the prey in front of it.
The muscular man that people had put their trust in quickly realized that the flimsy man would die if he didn't move away quickly.
"Run! Fast!"
He screamed, but it was already too late.
"No…"
The others could only watch in horror since they couldn't reach him in time and help.
The goblin didn't waste any time, and it raised its arm with the short sword, and with a fast swing at the throat—
Thunk-!
"!"
Surprisingly, the players watched the goblin's head flying towards the pack of five goblins and land right in front of them.
"That's how you take care of a goblin."
A mysterious man with a rusty sword said, trying to sound like a cool person. The man then swung his sword to the side, shaking off the goblin's blood.
The flimsy man who thought that his life was over a few seconds ago got soft knees and collapsed on the ground. And the other players could only watch in disbelief as the person who just easily cut off the head of a goblin approached them.
"You're strong! What's your name?"
The big muscular leader didn't waste any time and quickly wanted the mysterious man to join him.
"Sung-jin…"
He said a bit surprised that the leader immediately after a near death encounter changed so quickly.
"Sung-jin. My name is Daeshim, and I need to thank you for saving my comrade."
Daeshim smiled and offered him a handshake. Sung-jin gladly accepted it, though being cautious around Daeshim.
"You know that I can tell a lot about a person just by shaking their hand?"
Daeshim said, looking Sung-jin straight in the eyes.
"Oh, really?"
Sung-jin pretended to care about what Daeshim said. In reality, Sung-jin wasn't looking to form bonds with anyone. The only reason he saved that guy from dying was so he could work in society after the tutorial.
Daeshim began to press firmly into Sung-jin's hand.
"Firm yet soft, scars and scratches… From just this handshake, I can tell that you're a hardworking individual. Am I wrong?"
Daeshim asked Sung-jin. He had correctly guessed at least something right about Sung-jin as a person.
"Sure…"
Sung-jin looked disturbed at Daeshim, and an awkward silence followed.
…
"Uhm… There are still some goblins left…"
A girl in the back timidly interrupted the awkward atmosphere. She had long blonde hair, a slender body, and a beautiful face befitting only a love interest in a fantasy novel.
"You're right!"
Daeshim moved his hand away from Sung-jin and looked in the direction where the five remaining goblins in the pack were. He grasped tightly around his sword and was ready to lead his team into battle.
"Save your courage for a later time; instead of fighting, go and help that person over there."
Sung-jin pointed at the man he saved from the goblin.
"What do you mean by that? If we don't attack first, they will get the first move on us!"
Daeshim argued against Sung-jin's order.
"Don't you worry about the goblins, mister. Those are my precious EXP!"
Sung-jin leaped toward the five goblins with the same wicked smile as the goblin he just killed, without wasting any unnecessary time. It surprised Daeshim and everyone else that Sung-jin jumped in all alone against five goblins. But their worries were quickly laid to bed.
Thunk-!
"!"
The players watched in disbelief again when it only took Sung-jin one single swing to send all five of the goblins' heads flying.
'This sword isn't half bad!'
Sung-jin looked at his rusted sword and praised it.
Ding-!
-System: Congrats Player. You leveled up!
-System: Congrats Player. You leveled up!
'Nice! I got two levels!'
Sung-jin shined brightly. Sung-jin had only been at level five after all the monster waves were cleared last time he did the tutorial. So already being at level four made him very happy.
'I now have ten stat points I can allocate… But what should I do?'
Sung-jin thought for a while, still not having any clue about what he should spend them on. He completely ignored all the admiring gazes from the others and continued to be in his own world.
'There is a saying about doubt. When in doubt, spend all points in Agility. That's not much of a saying, but either way!'
Sung-jin once again spent all his points on Agility, taking the total from fifteen to twenty-five—
"I'm very impressed!"
Daeshim interrupted, right after Sung-jin was done allocating his points. Daeshim laughed quite loud and clapped Sung-jin on his shoulders. The tutorial had barely begun, but it seemed like some people were better at adapting than others.
'Party up and be friendly with others. These ten people might actually be able to survive in this harsh world.'
Sung-jin looked around with a smile; he felt a little nostalgic being around these people, making him a bit warm.
'But when's the new wave coming?'
Sung-jin pushed Daeshim's hand aside, and he resumed his usual expression.
-System: 6:20 Goblins remain.
'Only six out of twenty goblins left! Some other players must have killed goblins too.'
Sung-jin readied his rusty sword again and hurried to get to the last goblins. He couldn't let all that exp get wasted on any other than himself.
"Adios!"
Sung-jin rushed the opposite way than the players he just met. He was making everyone confused about why he had to hurry so much.
"Don't die, okay?"
He said goodbye to the new players. Sung-jin was gone as soon as they had recuperated after the fight, and he was already out of sight.
"Uhm… Shouldn't we follow him?"
The blonde-haired girl asked Daeshim, still unsure what had happened, but Daeshim didn't hear her. The only thing in Daeshim's mind was the appearance of their savior.
Atchoo-!
"Who's thinking about me?!"
…