"Mmm..."
At the heart of an immeasurably deep cave, a single fist-sized orb floated atop a stone altar—its glow barely illuminating the dark cave room.
In one of the distant corners of such a room, Kai lay motionless on the ground.
Even though he was unconscious, his body trembled continuously as if he was desperately trying to free himself from someone or something.
While his body seemed to be in a state of deep sleep, his mind was in turmoil—a kind that could make anyone lose his sanity.
Because what he was seeing wasn't some kind of bad dream but fragments of blurred images—or rather, memories.
It was the same images that flowed into his mind when he first saw the old man named Lukas. Yet, even at that time, he never acted in such a way.
Unbeknownst to Kai, his body had already started to imitate the dying man as if it could feel the intensity of his pain.
His hand reached out to his chest as if trying to soothe the wound inflicted on his body with the half-impaled sword. His breathing grew rugged and uneven under the unknown pressure as he gasped for even the slightest bit of air.
And if that wasn't enough, he began to mumble the last words of the dying man as if it were his own.
That last bright smile... The text of the glitched system window... It all came crashing down on him at once.
His eyes snapped open.
With a sharp gasp, he sat up—clutching onto his chest as though the pain was still there.
His eyes darted here and there, as a question arose in his mind.
'What... Was all that?'
Unable to distinguish between a dream and a reality, he began to panic.
---
[An abnormality in the teleportation has been detected.]
[You have received 'Full recovery' as compensation.]
---
Just as he was about to fall into the state of 'Madness', A system window abruptly popped up in front of his eyes.
Kai slowly started to calm down as his body glowed in a bright golden light. Finally able to look at the world as it was, his eyes softened.
A deep sigh escaped his lips as he realized it was nothing but a mere illusion created by his mind. Yet, a seed of doubt that had been planted into his mind not too long ago seemed to have germinated.
Kai raised his eyes, looking at the small orb floating in the middle of god knows where—he couldn't help but raise questions.
"So... What's this about?" His voice—calm.
System reacted to his question instantly, and a new window materialized in front of him.
---
[Welcome to the 'Tutorial Area'.]
[The Tutorial comprises of 7 different parts, each consisting of 7 Unique mission and completion requirements.]
[You have successfully entered the 'First' Tutorial - Protect and Survive.]
[Mission objective - For the next 30 days, you are to survive while protecting the altar.]
[In case the Altar is destroyed, the mission will be considered failed.]
[Rewards - ???]
[Failure - Death.]
---
Without uttering even a single word, Kai read the whole thing and smiled as his eyes drifted toward the same orb.
"If this is what I think it is..."
He stood up and slowly walked towards the altar, each of his steps softly echoing throughout the cave.
As he finally stood in front of the altar, Kai raised his hand and extended it towards the orb.
With a soft touch of his hand, the orb shimmered in a white light—while his soft smile turned bright.
The whole cavern was illuminated in an instant.
The walls, the roof, the ground—Everything pulsated with waves of sweet white glow as if they were alive and breathing.
"So it really was that..." He muttered to himself in a barely audible voice as his eyes widened under the awe of what he was witnessing.
The Orb of Freedom.
It was the most wanted and the most mysterious unique item of the 5th Calamity.
As simple as it looked, it contained powers far beyond what anyone could've imagined.
Just as its name suggested, it gave its owner the power to wield multiple different energies at once.
While possessing more than one kind of energy normally resulted in death, this item was more or less of a cheat item throughout the game.
However, everything has a certain price for its benefits.
The requirements to achieve such results were drastically high and thus, not a single player could ever achieve the results they were looking for.
But to think such an item had appeared right in front of Kai—and that too, at the very beginning of the tutorial...
It looked too good to be true.
Kai kept smiling brightly at the sight of such an item. However, his eyes sang a completely different story.
As blank as they could be, his eyes remained fixated on the orb.
---
[You have successfully found the hidden piece of the first tutorial.]
[A new side quest is being generated for you...]
[Side quest - Liberate the souls of the demonic ones.]
[Goal - 7,000,000]
[Reward - The Orb of Freedom.]
---
Another one of the system's windows materialized in front of him.
Kai stared at the screen without batting an eye, looking at it with a blank expression as if he was ready to shatter the orb in his hand.
"7 million demons? What the fuck? You suspect me to go, 'Oh how interesting, I shall devour 'em all!' or something?" He snarled at the system with the same blank expressions, his tone—sarcastic.
He quickly let go of the orb and stepped back, his eyes drifting away from the orb.
"Even 10 demons were enough to bring the players to the brink of extinction, and you expect me—who was nowhere close to being strongest—to kill 7 millions of those red fucks. Hell nah."
Kai muttered under his breath, as he turned his back to the altar and began to walk towards the small opening in the walls—connecting the room to an inescapable net of tunnels.