Only by the light of the brazier reflecting against the blade of the throwing knife did Ronan spot it whizzing towards him. The whip of the man at the other end of the stone room's wrist had been a giveaway, but the silver flash confirmed it.

Thankfully, it hadn't been a lethally fast throw, and a simple lean and hop to one side was enough to evade the hastily launched dagger. "Relax, mate, I'm not here to attack you. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to work together to clear this thing," Ronan said, trying to reiterate his friendly intentions.

To his relief, the guy seemed to deflate a little at that. He did notice a second throwing knife gripped between two fingers at his side, but it disintegrated into nothing as the man's shoulders relaxed. A skill? Ronan wondered.

"Sorry about that, it's just… I haven't seen another person since the start of all this. It's made me jumpy. Like, what the fuck are these little green pricks? Goblins? What the fuck is that, some sort of nerd shit?" The man took Ronan's friendliness as an invitation to start venting about the tutorial's bullshit.

"Totally, mate. What a shitshow, right? Those little shits are nasty. The last few almost got me," Ronan replied, somewhat non-committally.

It wasn't that he didn't understand the man's plight. From his perspective, this was the 'first' time all of this had happened. Ronan had connected with his group in the normal difficulty tutorial because it had all been new and confusing to him, too.

Now though? It was just another day at the office.

Still, Ronan wasn't so far gone that he couldn't connect with other humans. He was glad to have some allies in this, especially if what awaited them at the end was a boss monster even more powerful and terrifying than Magriz'al.

"Shitshow is right. Anyway, I'm glad to see another friendly face. But… there's four corridors leading into here, and only one out. I'm guessing there's supposed to be two more joining us? Unless they… Y'know." Ronan understood the unsaid implications, and didn't need the thumb dragged across the throat gesture that accompanied it.

I don't really want to wait… Could I take on the rest of stage 4 alone? I doubt it, but if I keep trying I should be able to. He considered the pros and cons. He would look crazy if he just marched ahead, and possibly greedy. However, it was possible that other people might hold him back. No, they also made it to the hard difficulty, so they shouldn't be useless. Hell, I didn't even qualify for this when I started, so I can't judge.

In the end, Ronan decided he would wait another ten minutes to see if the other two participants reached them. If not, he would consider them a lost cause and make the argument for whoever was in the room to move on.

Trying to rush ahead now would only make the other man suspicious of him, and if the boss turned out to be as fearsome as he expected, he would need some competent allies to bring it down. Despite his advantages, Ronan wasn't at the level where he could solo a boss while still level 29.

Ten minutes later, Ronan sat on the floor of the banquet-hall-sized room of stage 4, chatting with the first man who'd been there, and the two women who'd arrived during the wait. No one had failed to get past the first group of goblins, which actually left Ronan feeling rather inadequate.

"Do none of you find it strange that we all faced enemies that used different strategies? You're saying we should work together to complete the rest of this, but then why would it make it easier or harder for each of us to get here?" Alyssa said, waving her arms about as she gave voice to her doubts.

The four of them had discovered fairly soon after meeting that while they'd all needed to kill 3 elite goblins to reach this room, the way the goblins fought was vastly different. And of course, Ronan's had been the most difficult challenge by far.

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He actually wondered if the system had some sort of vendetta against him, for his heritage. However, it didn't seem to be aware that he was running through time over and over again. All the changes in his status were caused and managed by his heritage itself, and it seemed to supersede the system.

Alyssa had faced three archers. She explained how hard it had been to escape the initial volleys of arrows, and close the distance between them. However, with her high agility and her uncommon skill—which she hadn't named—eventually she'd slaughtered the elite archer trio.

As for the guy who'd beaten Ronan to the mark, whose name was Howard, he had faced off against a warrior, a rogue, and an archer. He explained that the archer and rogue were easy to pick off with his skill and trait combo—which was how he created the throwing daggers from mana—but the warrior posed a real challenge. Ronan took note of the fact he didn't explain how he killed the warrior.

When it came to the final member of their budding four-person party, Jenna, Ronan had to suppress his groan at the unfairness of the system. She had unlocked an uncommon magic class, and both her personal trait and the first skill she received were mana-based. Add to that the fact her matchup was against three archers with minimal armour and little to no magic resistance, she'd practically strolled through the first challenge.

Apparently she'd only taken so long to reach the room—she was the third to arrive, three minutes after Ronan—because she'd hesitated to begin the walk down the corridor initially. Jenna was scared of the dark.

Ronan was grateful for the reminder that everyone had weaknesses. Even him. Becoming overconfident to the point of arrogance was a bad trait, even if he could retry fights he'd failed and died in.

"I mean sure, it sucks, but everything I've seen about this system so far tells me it's a universally unfair piece of shit," Ronan replied, letting out dozens of deaths worth of frustration.

"Amen to that, brother," Howard said, raising a hand to the sky.

"Alright, so we're gonna head forwards together? Ronan in front, Alyssa and Howard in the middle, dealing the damage, and then I'll cover the rear and hit anything annoying at range," Jenna said, reiterating their makeshift plan.

"You don't think I can deal damage?" Ronan asked, with mock affront in his tone.

"I've never seen you fight, so stop pouting. If you kill everything by yourself I'll be the first one to thank you for saving me the effort. Let's go." Jenna gently slapped his arm as the four stood up and prepared to enter the single exit corridor.

Ronan was expecting a similar setup to the normal difficulty stage 4—a dungeon with increasingly more dangerous groups of goblins, ending with a boss. All he wasn't certain of was quite how powerful their enemies would get.

He took out his mace and lifted it in two hands, entering the tunnel first. The group had pooled their loot to fashion two makeshift torches out of clubs and armour scraps, and Ronan had even received a welcome surprise for suggesting the idea to the group.

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+1 [Crafting] Mastery

Howard and Alyssa were a few paces behind him, weapons at the ready. The moment any goblins ambushed them, they would pounce.

Ronan enjoyed having backup. It meant he didn't need to focus on every tiny detail in a fight. All he needed to do was swing the mace and smash whatever was in front of him to a pulp.

Any stray goblins that slipped through the cracks would find magic throwing knives, lightning fast shortsword slashes, and deadly magic waiting to greet them. And they didn't have to wait long for their first new friends to appear.

Up ahead, the corridor intersected with another, creating a crossroad of sorts. A perfect spot for an ambush.

The path ahead was clear, with a flickering torch set into a brazier on the wall just beyond the intersection. The dancing shadows revealed little, but Ronan knew there were goblins waiting around the corners.

That they would also need to search three separate paths to find the true one to the end of the stage was frustrating, but they could take each challenge as it came. "Eyes up, I'm expecting goblins around the corner," he said quietly over his shoulder.

He didn't look back, but he knew that his three party members would be ready. They weren't really party members, given that he hadn't told them about the actual party system—he wasn't sure if he trusted them yet. However, he trusted them enough to watch out for their own interests, which in this instance meant staying alive.

When Ronan was just five steps from the intersection, he tightened his grip on the mace and prepared to receive an ambush. When he took another step, and felt the stone beneath his feet subtly sink, and heard a faint pop from inside the walls, his mind spiraled in two different directions.

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