The silent faceoff didn't last long. Both Ronan and Gurz'krax the goblin warrior had tasted blood, and despite their patience, neither would hold out forever.

Gurz'krax had a slight tremor in his left hand, where Ronan had smashed a couple of the warrior's knuckles with his staff. Every few seconds, his greatsword would tremble and dip to the left. Ronan did his best not to glance at it too long, and give the game away.

Step by step, the two warriors drew closer to one another. Gurz'krax kept glancing towards Ronan's right leg. It was almost too obvious; Ronan felt it was a feint. However, it made little difference when both warriors were playing the other.

Gurz'krax took a step closer as he circled round, and his left hand began to shake. The moment Ronan spotted the movement, he gripped his staff and struck.

The goblin's eyes darted to the staff the moment Ronan moved. Unfortunately, its body betrayed the swiftness of its mind, and the warrior's parrying strike was off-kilter.

For the first time since obtaining his class, Ronan activated guard break. The edge of his staff-cap struck the flat of the blade, and the greatsword was knocked aside with a thunderous clang.

The size of the sword meant it had a substantial weight. Gurz'krax was pulled to the ground with his sword, and Ronan spotted a deadlier opening than the one he'd aimed for initially.

Instead of its ribcage, his staff smashed into the goblin's chin. The tough bone gave way to the mana-empowered blow. The lower half of its jaw exploded in a red mist. For the first time since the duel began, Ronan heard the elite goblin warrior roar in pain.

To its credit, the roar seemed to snap Gurz'krax back to focus. Its eyes burned with a searing determination and it grunted as it hefted the greatsword back up in front of its torso.

The image was gruesome. Blood dripped from its upper jaw, bloodstained teeth and gums exposed to the air. The goblin's tongue flapped, and the garbled words had gone from an unintelligible grunting to a sound that was genuinely offensive to Ronan's ears.

Ronan had a modicum of respect for the goblin, but that didn't mean he would show it mercy. This was a tutorial, and he was here to complete it.

With about four paces between the two fighters, space created by Ronan's heavy strike, he couldn't quite reach the goblin in a single lunge. So, eyeing his two-thirds-full momentum bar, Ronan used his other class skill for the first time.

Breaking charge had been a rolling charge, starting at a jog and rapidly bursting into a sprint before impact. Charge of the Juggernaut was a different beast.

Ronan watched as his momentum bar dropped to zero. He felt it physically, the same way one's stomach lurched on theme park rides that dropped you from a great height in a single breath. One moment he was holding his staff outwards, one end aimed towards the goblin's neck. Then, he was staggering forwards, clinging to the staff for dear life as his arms trembled from the aftershock.

Once he recovered his footing, he glanced at the tip of the staff. The metal cap was coated in sticky red blood, and a lump of unidentifiable pink matter fell from the end as Ronan observed it.

Where did Gurz'krax go? Ronan thought to himself, suddenly whipping around just in case the goblin was about to counter-attack. However, he found himself greeted by empty air on all sides. It was as though the elite goblin warrior had vanished into thin air.

Then he looked down at the grass. It was no longer green. From where the elite warrior had stood before Ronan used charge of the juggernaut, to where he stood now, there was a red trail. Every few inches a lump of guts or a shard of broken bone was strewn, like a macabre work of modern art.

There was a blinking notification in the corner of his vision that he'd missed in his stunned observation. His momentum had surged back up to two-thirds, and then more, all the way until the bar was nearly full. In a single blow, Ronan had obliterated Gurz'krax, the elite goblin warrior.

You have killed [Elite Goblin Warrior Lv.20]!

+168 Copper Credits

+8 [Staff II] Mastery

+4 [Stamina II] Mastery

+2 [Perception] Mastery

+1 [Pain I] Mastery

+1 [Mana I] Mastery

+11 [Momentum] Mastery

+Goblin Toes (Common)

+Elite Shard Lv.20 (Body)

You have leveled up to Lv.20!

+1 Vitality

+5 Endurance

+2 Resistance

+4 Strength

+4 Tenacity

+2 Free Stat Points

Congratulations, you have cleared Stage 3 of the tutorial!

+1 Bronze Credit

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

+627 Copper Credits

You will be awarded your personal trait based on all your accomplished merit thus far!

ERROR! Personal trait analysis interrupted, person—!$#?^£

Chronological divergence in personal trait detected!

Excess trait manifestation energy has been consumed!

Would you like to make an offering to the Temporal Obelisk?

Ronan winced as the eldritch screech cut through the droning of the system. He was somewhat used to it, but that inhuman noise was something he might never be able to stomach.

From what he could tell, the reward for completing stage 3 of the hard difficulty tutorial was similar to that of the normal difficulty, but an improved version. However, since he already possessed a personal trait, thanks to his heritage maintaining it through iterations, the system hadn't known what to do.

After a brief moment of satisfaction at the system's failure—not so omnipotent, now are you?—he finished reading the message from his heritage. Or perhaps it was from the obelisk directly…

In any case, he was disgruntled. Stage 3 had never been one that he could 'farm' the rewards of while he was in the normal difficulty, but for that to remain the case even when he increased his difficulty was annoying.

However, he remembered the last time he made a somewhat forced offering to the obelisk, the message about its awakening had appeared. While he was frustrated at once again being pushed to sacrifice his gains to the ominous megalith, he couldn't find it in himself to be too mad. It was down to the Chronos Clan, who had most likely built the obelisk, that he had this power to cheat time and death in the first place.

So, with a little reticence, Ronan accepted. He felt some ephemeral energy in the air around him shift, and for a half-second, the sky turned pure white, and an inverted obelisk broke through into the tutorial world.

The display of such absurd power, utterly disregarding the system, made the minor loss wholly worthwhile to Ronan. He enjoyed seeing its control subverted, especially by a power that was so close to his very soul.

The Temporal Obelisk is grateful for your offering!

The Temporal Obelisk is gathering energy, continue to make offerings, and it may bestow a boon upon you!

He was left with the purplish-gold boxes of the obelisk's messages floating in his vision, as the megalithic obsidian structure retreated back into the white void, and normalcy returned to the tutorial's sky.

Stage 4 will begin in 2 minutes!

1:59…

To be honest, Ronan felt great about the entire thing. He'd been miffed, but not only had he been able to witness the system getting treated like a submissive puppy, but the obelisk hadn't outright stolen his energy—it offered a potential reward down the line if he kept performing well and offering a portion of his gains to his clan's ancient monument.

What that boon might be, and how long it would take to earn, were both mysteries he had yet to solve. He wasn't worried about that, however, as Ronan had nothing but time.

With the two minutes he was granted, Ronan simply wanted to lie down and catch his breath. Reaching level 20 hadn't restored him, and he was covered in a slew of minor wounds from his duel with Gurz'krax.

More than that, the mental toll of fighting eight waves of goblins in a row was nothing to scoff at, and a brief nap would do him good. First things first, he needed to spend the two free stat points he'd earned.

The decision wasn't difficult to make. He simply did as he'd done with the last ones, and split them equally between agility and dexterity. Once that was set in stone, he did a once-over of his status, and briefly regretted that he'd already used the skillbound conduit ring—charge of the juggernaut was a skill he'd love to keep forever.

Name: Ronan Steele

Race: Human (G)

Heritage: Reverberating Chronosphere (Current Iteration: 18) +

Level: 20

Class: Juggernaut (Rare)

Fortune: 3 Bronze Credits, 703 Copper Credits

[Stats]

Health: 207/296

Stamina: 538/799

Mana: 54/60

Momentum: 63/100

Vitality: 26

Endurance: 70

Wisdom: 5

Regeneration: 5

Resistance: 27

Strength: 52

Agility: 16

Intelligence: 8

Dexterity: 15

Acuity: 7

Tenacity: 52

Luck: 4

Charisma: 4

Available Points: 0

[Traits]

[Epic]

Inevitable (Personal)

[Rare]

Mineral Skeleton (Mutative)

Berserk Cultivation Body (Mutative)

Animal Prescience (Evolutionary)

Manasynthetic (Evolutionary)

[Skills]

[Universal]

Unified Language Adaptation

[Epic]

Reverberating Path (Blessing)

[Rare]

Learn Through Suffering (Cla5?)

Charge of the Juggernaut (Class)

[Uncommon]

Critical Tempo

Guard Break

[Common]

Relentless Training

Magic Strike

Vital Surge

Mighty Strength

Critical Experience

Double Strike

Magic Money

Excessive Endurance

Impact Leech

Weapons Expert - Melee

Stone Grip

Eagle Eye

Quick Forage

Overcharge

Negotiation

Calculation

Enhanced Acuity

Freeloader

Limitless Luck

[Mastery]

Pugilist II 51/100

Mana I 46/100

Sword I 1/100

Shield I 1/100

Staff II 11/100

Spear I 27/100

Stamina II 43/100

Pain I 22/100

Anti-Magic 24/100

Perception 35/100

Leadership 4/100

Stealth 1/100

Grappling 26/100

Momentum 51/100

[Cultivation]

Mind: Quartz ★★★ (0.6%)

Body: Stone ★★ (3.9%)

Energy: Sparkling ★★ (1.2%)

Soul: None (0.2%)

[Blessings]

Blessing of Chronos (Boundless)

Minor Blessing of the Temporal Obelisk (Unique)

Tellen Mark of the Guardian Initiate (Epic)

[Mutations]

+129% Mental resistance

+43% Magical damage resistance

Honestly, his status read like a book at this point. Ronan wondered if there were ways to combine skills, as that would not only reduce the reading time, but hopefully increase the power of the skills he created. Still, a larger status, with bigger numbers, was something that put a big smile on his face.

He idly wondered if he would get a partner, or partners, in stage 4 of the hard difficulty tutorial. Facing something like the normal difficulty's stage 4 alone, especially if it was even harder, would be utterly criminal. In any case, he was prepared to lay down his life as many times as needed to complete the hard difficulty, and then perhaps, whatever lay beyond.

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