Capítulo 7: Like a tutorial
As for challenging the second floor. Although Ivan was a bit tempted, he resolutely decided against it. He already had problems finishing the first floor, so challenging the second one didn't seem like a great idea. Especially without any information.
He also felt tired and unwilling to do anything strenuous today. It was still early, so it wasn't suitable to go to sleep just yet. So he instead got up and went over to his PC. He still had some jobs to do, so he might as well get some work done.
While he worked on his PC he had to use his willpower to resist the temptation of checking the internet for information and reactions to what had happened. He had already decided to not think about it for today.
The next morning he got up just like every day and after finishing his simple breakfast he went to university.
In the classroom, he, as usual, sat down at one of the seats in the back. He was early, so not many other students had arrived yet. So the usual two groups hadn't formed as well. Instead, the students, that had already arrived were distributed over the room.
Not greeting anyone, or even looking at anyone, he sat down and pulled out his phone.
He then took a look at some of his favorite news sites. As expected, everything was about the Experiment and the dungeons.
It was astonishing, how much information humanity could generate in just one day. There were already wiki pages and guides. The only thing still missing was an official reaction from the government. But nobody had expected that anyway. Which government wasn't slow to react?
He took a look at one of the guides and was astonished to find out, that the author had presented information on the first five levels of the Tower of Challenges.
He barely had finished the first level and there were already people having finished the first five, if not more.
Curious he started to read the guide. The author started with some information about himself, which also made it clear why he had been able to finish the first five floors. He was a martial arts fanatic and had also been a part-time trainer for special troops.
There was no way, a normal person like Ivan could compare to his skill and experience.
According to him, the first five floors seemed to be like a tutorial, which slowly introduced mechanics and fighting to the one entering.
The first one was just like the floor Ivan ha experienced. And its goal was to give the first impression on fighting. The enemies were easy and if one used stealth tactics, two of the groups could easily be assassinated.
The second floor was an introduction to how to fight groups of weak enemies. There the caves weren't filled with only one or two goblins but instead more than five.
On the third floor, the goblins would use different weapons but be once again moving around solo. All weapons, that he had observed were weapons, that could be found during the middle age. There were no guns or anything more advanced.
The fourth floor was a combination of the second and third floor, sporting armed groups of goblins.
Finally, the fifth floor introduced a more complicated topography. Instead of simple caves, there were hallways and rooms, filled with rubble. This allowed the player to employ strategies in fighting the larger goblin groups.
"It truly seems like a tutorial for an RPG.", Ivan muttered to himself. He was just planning to go to another site, to read through some more information, when a harsh voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey, poor guy. Make space."
He looked up and saw one of the guys in his class staring down on him while gesturing for him to move. Ivan didn't know his name, in fact, he knew none of his classmate's names, but he recognized him as one of the lackeys who always followed behind the class belle.
Unwilling to argue with him, he took his bag and moved to another seat in the corner.
Behind him, the guy laughed and made fun of him but he just ignored him.
This was just how the school was. People like him, who attended based on a stipend were looked down upon by the rich students. They saw themselves as something better, just because their parents had more money.
But as long as you didn't annoy them, they wouldn't do anything to you either. The worst that would happen would be that they made fun of you, something that Ivan was able to easily ignore. He didn't care for these classmates anyway. The only reason for him to attend this university was that his chances for a job were much better after graduating from it, then from one of the many public universities.
If in exchange, he had to endure some arrogant people laughing at him, then it was well worth it in his mind.
He continued to read through the articles concerning the dungeon, especially the first and second floors. The more information he could acquire, the better.
He was also able to compare his way of clearing the first floor to the experience of others and to his surprise he found out that he hadn't done badly. Many even seemed to have failed to clear the first floor, thus locking themselves out of the dungeon for a year.
So it seemed like his performance was somewhere in the middle of all these recorded on the internet. There were many people who had performed better but all of them had some kind of background in combat. And there were many who had performed just like him, most of which were normal citizens. But many had performed much worse. Not to mention those who hadn't even tried.
He also found a page dedicated to collecting data on what kind of drops would be available on each level of the tower. Not only did they aim to have the drops themselves, but also the drop rates.
Reading through the drops listed for the first two floors, there didn't seem to be anything special. The best drop seemed to be the Energy Pill, which he had gotten as well.
He continued reading through other people's experiences in the dungeon until the lecture started.
As usual, the lectures were dry and boring. Although he wasn't a top student, this was mostly because of his unwillingness to do much for university, and not because of his intellect. Or he wouldn't have gotten a stipend for a high-class university like this one. So understanding the lecture didn't pose any challenge.
After arriving back at his room, having eaten a healthy lunch, he prepared to check out the hub. This was what he had planned for today. Checking out the hub and then going for another run of the first floor of the Tower of Challenge.
Although he didn't think he would be able to get anything from the hub at the moment, he wanted to at least check out the prices.
After selecting to teleport to the hub, a blue portal appeared in front of him. It was just like the one at the end of the dungeon and he knew that by stepping into it, his body would appear inside the hub.
Without the slightest hesitation, he stepped into the portal. Unlike with the portal of the dungeon, he felt something change. It wasn't a strong feeling, more like a subtle shift of the air around him.
He wasn't sure if this was because of the portal itself or because of the change in his surroundings.
It was as if he stepped through a door and on the other side, a completely new environment awaited him. From his non temperated room to a well temperated great hall, that was of the perfect temperature and air condition.
He pushed the feeling aside to take a look at where he had appeared.
He stood in front of a large portal, which was the entrance and exit of the hub. By stepping into it again, he would leave the hub and find himself back in his room. He wasn't sure how it was done, but it seemed like every person who appeared in front of the portal wouldn't collide with the others exiting the portal, and there were lots of them.
The planet Terra had a population of more than eight billion humans, and even if only a small part had participated in the dungeon and was currently entering the hub, it still made for a steady stream of people, of all colors and ethnicities.
Not that these things made a difference to the system running everything.
A thought flew through his mind. Wouldn't the start of the experiment also indicate the end of racial discrimination? After all the system would in the end superseded everything else and it was completely indifferent to such differences.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder