Chapter 5: Tutorial 1st Floor, Waiting Room (Part 2)

Countless weapons spanned across my surroundings.

They looked like the typical beginner cla.s.s weapons.

Most of them didn’t even have accessories and just looked unadorned.

It was no doubt that they were made just for practicality.

Which one should I pick?

First, let’s think about my stats.

Height: 177cm. Weight: 71kg.

I used to have quite a skinny physique, but I gained quite a bit of weight while staying home doing absolutely nothing.

Due to the lack of my muscle strength, swinging heavy weapons would be hard.

I was pretty confident when it came to fitness.

I was skilled at sports in general, this was probably attributed to the fact that I had good hand-to-eye coordination.

However still, I was most confident when it came to playing video games.

I never really practiced martial arts for a long.

When I was young, I only went to a Wushu dojo, though it only lasted for a short period of time.

And during my time in secondary school I tried a bit of Kendo.

It would be best if I didn’t rely on either Wushu,Kendo or martial arts in general.

Out of all the available weapons, the staff caught my eye.

It wasn’t a paddle-like staff that was used like a club, it was more of a magical staff that even Gandalf would probably carry around himself.

Well, I didn’t know if it was a real magical staff but it sure looked like one.

If I chose that, would I become a mage or a priest?

I might have to learn skills completely independent of the staff too.

Just as I imagined, melee weapons would be better.

Having a ranged weapon definitely had the advantage of safety in terms of staying at a safe distance in battle. However, that would only apply if I had someone protecting me.

Moreover, if I think about the people I had met in this area, the decision to choose a melee weapon is even more appealing.

Sticking a blade into someone’s face definitely has a different type of pressure compared to sticking a staff in someone’s face.

It would also probably be wise if I stayed on good terms with the people back in the stone chamber, but I als had to take into account when things could go bad between us.

With the exception of the bow and staff, every other ranged weapon should be disregarded.

With the same reason, I should stay clear from blunt weapons like clubs.

They weren’t sharp and intimidating like a sword was.

Overall, they were too heavy.

After I took everything into consideration, the only weapons that would be viable for me were the likes of spear, sword and axe, and so on.

There were many variants of the same weapons, except for the axe.

Although there were a few axes that weren’t too heavy, I just didn’t like them.

The only ones left were the sword and spear.

Normally, people would think that the spear had the advantage of reach and would be easier to use effectively, but in reality this was not the case.

The spear was an advanced weapon that no beginner would be able to use it that easily.

Basically, the spear would only be stronger than the sword if the person wielding the spear kept their distance.

In other words, the spear would be hard to use effectively if this distance was to be closed by the enemy.

Perhaps if I had other spear wielding allies by my side, to form a nice scrum it might make it effective.

I don’t know what type of enemies I might encounter… no, actually I don’t even know if I’ll encounter any enemies, but if they were stronger, faster and more precise, using a spear would be problematic.

I’m only a beginner and an ordinary person too.

Although using a sword is honestly challenging for a beginner, if I continue to doubt my own thoughts I’ll end up hypothesising forever.

I trusted my own decision and began looking for a sword that would fit me.

I lifted a longsword and it was much heavier than I expected.

I swung it with all my might and it felt like my body was actually being pushed away by its weight.

From this experience, I decided to disregard all two-handed swords.

Once I found a decent sized one-handed sword, I found multiple with a shield, like a set.

Ah, the sword and shield combo.

There were more than twenty sets, however they all had one thing in common.

They came with a catch, a penalty.

The swords and shields were in poor condition compared to the swords and shields that were available by themselves. The shields in the sets were much thinner and some were even rusted. The swords were also either shorter or thinner.

Moreover, some were rusted and even chipped.

Should I give up the sword and choose a shield instead?

Just becoming a tanker from the start could be an option too.

I pondered for a moment but soon disregarded that thought.

No matter what, even in doubt, it was essential for me to have a weapon.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able stay with the people back at the stone chamber.

Even if could, I couldn’t trust them just yet.

After scavenging for hours, I finally decided on my weapons.

A round shield that could be strapped around my arm and a st.u.r.dy one-handed sword roughly 40cm in length.

The sword looked pretty similar to a gladius used in ancient roman times.

The shield was made of wood and the surface was lined with leather. I liked that there was a handle and also a leather belt that allowed it to be strapped around my arm.

Like other swords found in sets, the sword I chose had multiple chips on the blade. Out of anxiety, I chose a sword that was short and st.u.r.dy so it wouldn’t break easily.

[Dirty Shield]

Defence: 4

Description: Separate from the handle, a leather belt is attached. The belt is more valuable than the shield. Second-hand.

[Thrown away training sword]

Attack: 3

Description: A training sword once used by a kid. Second-hand.

These descriptions were absolutely worthless. Why did they have to explain to me that the items are second-hand anyway? Although all the basic weapons here had these types of descriptions, maybe it was the penalty for choosing a set. The condition of these items were really poor.

[Will you choose this?]

A message popped up.

“Yes.”

The next moment I was back in the stone chamber.

“Welcome back. Did you choose your weapon?”

A man that resembled a bear questioned instantly upon my return.

“Yes.”

“I see you’ve chosen a sword and shield set. Nice choice”

“What?!”

The gangster shouted from afar

“How come you brought two things? What are you?!”

“This sword and shield came in a set. Even though they come together, they lack in quality compared to the swords and shields that were available by themselves.”

The gangster couldn’t accept my explanation and complained for hours.

The bear man confronted him and told the gangster that he himself saw the set weapons, which allowed us to barely calm him down.

The bear man taught me about the inventory and status bars and also how to use the Community feature.

“Inventory.”

As I quietly muttered this, my inventory appeared right in front of my eyes.

Inside my inventory were dried foods and water. I should check how much I have of those later.

At the thought about disarming my sword and shield and storing them in the inventory, the weapons I held in my hands slowly disappeared and appeared in my inventory.

Now I thought of re-arming myself, the weapons appeared in my hands again.

Now this really felt like a game.

“Status.”

Lee Ho Jae (Human)

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 21

The status bar was so neat and tidy that it was so insignificant.

Surely there would be something more.

Like the main character in a story, I expected some special powers or something of the sort but it seemed like I was the very definition of the word human.

My intelligence could be quite high compared to others though. No wonder the staff was so tempting.

“The inventory and status bars are pretty simple to understand, but what’s this Community feature?”

“Mmm, it’s like a social media network. You can use this to chat to different people in different chat rooms. Other than that I don’t think it has any other feature.”

“Other chat rooms?”

I was so curious about this community feature that I had to open it.

[Difficulty: Easy, Noticeboard (33/61)]

[Difficulty: Normal, Noticeboard (7/24)]

[Difficulty: Hard, Noticeboard (11/16)]

[Difficulty: h.e.l.l, Noticeboard (1/4)]

“It’s separated by difficulty.”

“Yeah, and it’s only the four of us that chose the h.e.l.l difficulty. Since it’s like this, shouldn’t we combine forces and work together?”

“Right.”

“Lastly, the clock. If you think about wanting to see the time, it will automatically appear in your vision.”

Just like he said, I thought about wanting to see the time.

[Attempt 1, Day 0. 1:13pm]

[Time left until Tutorial: 70 Hours 43 minutes]

“Come here, we should introduce ourselves to each other and have a talk.”