Two things happened at once. Ronan's spear flew from his hand, directly towards the frost giant's heart. He had wanted to test his new skill to mark it, but he wasn't sure if it would alert the titanic monster to his presence.

Unfortunately his caution was unwarranted. When the two giants began to swing their spiked clubs, they did not do so at one another. Instead, both turned in sync and slammed their colossal weapons directly onto Ronan's head.

He might be strong for a level 0 human, but he was not strong enough. The twin blows turned him into paste, ending his hopes of even getting past stage 1 this time around.

Unprecedented modifications detected…

Analysing…

Unable to determine harm-benefit of modifications. Deferring to inheritor

Physical body has mutated, resulting in the following:

Physical damage resistance +36%

Ice Resistance +12%

Keep mutations?

Ronan suspected the lack of ice resistance was due to the fact he died before whatever magic infused the giant's weapons could affect him. The low physical percentage was due to him already having a sizable resistance in that regard. It was actually the biggest gain he'd made in physical damage resistance for quite some time—a testament to the giant's strength, or perhaps just the suddenness and brutality of his death.

The analysis for that iteration was a poor one. Ronan didn't even want to read it. He had gained nothing. Not even a single level.

Beginning a new iteration, please stand by…

Ronan wondered what this third nightmare scenario would be while he stared at his status. After getting absolutely pasted before making it past the first stage, he realised that his base stats were far from high enough. All that progress, so far from where he'd originally started, yet still so far from where he needed to be.

Right now he had two methods of increasing his base stats. The first had no drawback, but required a bit of luck and consumable item drops. Stat fruits. There was still a lot of space in all the stat fruits and he needed to push them up.

The second method was a lot simpler, but had potential drawbacks like removing base stats and even affecting his body in ways he didn't yet understand. More than that, they affected his potential racial evolutions. That was less worrying, because he could simply not take those evolutions. In fact, it was exciting, because options he had never encountered before might begin to crop up.

The world shifted around Ronan as the system prepared to dump him into the tutorial. When he awoke, he looked around and saw a very, very large room. As though it were made for someone twice his size. The things in it seemed… normal, he supposed, but—Oh, I'm small. That's fucking weird. Then the shouting started.

Ronan turned to look behind him. He saw a woman shouting at a man, who had a dead gaze plastered on his face, uncaring for the abuse he was taking. The woman turned to look at Ronan. Nope! Fuck this. Fuck you, system. I'm not doing this right now.

He conjured a spear and shoved it through his head.

Ronan emerged in the ancestral grounds, his mind reeling. He stayed still for a while, digesting what he'd just been put into by the system. It had ripped some of his deepest childhood traumas from his mind and turned them into a fresh hell to challenge him. And he hated it.

Ronan was good at fighting. Hell, he was amazing at fighting. Punching shit felt good, and he was constantly getting better at it; finding new ways to punch. However, he had no stomach for the emotional trials it seemed to want to put him through.

He could handle the shapeshifter using his sister's face. Somewhat. Being put back into his childhood, before the death of his parents? Fuck that.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ronan knew it was cowardice, in a way, to kill himself rather than face it head on. He knew that at some point he would have to deal with that kind of bullshit. He just hated being forced into it by some invisible, omnipotent hand.

The whole point of people being dead is that they aren't supposed to be able to fuck with your mind anymore. Just… give me shit to punch, system. He steeled himself and began the next iteration.

Ronan let the conjured shortsword in his hand dissipate, watching as the bits of the gorzerk he'd just sliced apart fell to the ground. I needed that.

You have killed [Lesser Gorzerk Lv.5]!

+53 Copper Credits

+Lesser Gorzerk Hide (Uncommon)

+4 [Sword V] Mastery

+2 [Stamina VI] Mastery

+1 [Mana VI] Mastery

+14 [Perception II] Mastery

You have leveled up to Lv.1!

You have leveled up to Lv.2!

You have leveled up to Lv.3!

You have leveled up to Lv.4!

+60 Vitality

+60 Endurance

+8 Wisdom

+8 Intelligence

+12 Acuity

+80 Charisma

+220 Luck

+1324 Free Stat Points

Congratulations, you have cleared Stage 1 of the tutorial!

[Inventory] access has been granted at minimum functionality. Improve inventory metrics by spending system credits or through other approved means. Open inventory through mental, verbal, or spiritual command.

+1 Bronze Credit

+32 Copper Credits

+Myriad Skills Tome (Epic)

Stage 2 will begin in 5 minutes!

4:59…

Already his multipliers were proving their worth. He'd gained one more level than the first gorzerk he'd killed and a few more credits.

The most recent iteration of stage 1 had involved him appearing in a shelter of sorts. It reminded him of the settlement in the sewers he'd found after completing the hard difficulty tutorial. Except the shapeshifters weren't hidden below, but inside the survivors. Just one, but one annoying monster that had killed two humans before Ronan carved it to pieces.

Oddly, the survivors hadn't faded when he 'completed' the stage. They still huddled in groups around fires, shaken by the traumatic experience they'd just been through. Even though Ronan had saved them, they all gave him a wide berth. They were terrified.

Rightly so. He was a nightmare to behold in battle, just as violent as the monsters. More so, in some cases.

Maybe I'm supposed to talk to them? I have five minutes, after all. Information about the next stage, possibly? What could they know? Ronan was puzzled, but before considering that route of action he wanted to see what his new skill was.

Additionally, knowing that this was another shapeshifter tutorial, he was confident in his current physical stats. He put all thirteen hundred of his free stat points into luck, hoping this tome would be just as great as the last one he'd consumed.

He paused before he used it. Blessed dao child, unlikely the former mythic evolution, allowed him to turn its effect on or off. Each time he used a consumable it wouldn't force a cultivation-related reward, but he could choose to influence the outcome if he so wished. The question was, did he wish to obtain more cultivation-related skills?

Frankly, he did. All the ones he had at that moment were great. They either let him cultivate faster, in new ways, or more efficiently. And he was curious to see what else was out there.

[Myriad Skills Tome (Epic)] has been consumed!

You have received the skill [Force Requires Philosophy (Epic)]!

Force Requires Philosophy (Epic): Once per day, you may infuse one of your physical strikes or magical skills with the following effect: For each realm of cultivation you have achieved, this physical strike or magical skill will deal an additional 50% base damage. This effect does not stack with other damage multipliers and is always calculated from the base damage of the skill or strike it is applied to. (Cost for physical: 35% Max Stamina + 5% Max Health Points) (Cost for magical: 35% Max Mana + 5% Max Health Points)

Ronan read through the lengthy description of the skill. That was another thing he'd noticed. Most, but not all, skills, seemed to get more wordy the higher their rarity grew. He supposed that came with the territory. More effects meant more words to describe said effects.

In this instance, he wasn't bothered by it. Force requires philosophy was an incredibly potent skill. That he could only use it once per day was annoying, but ultimately not a problem. He suspected that the cooldown would reset when he died. Unless it was tied to his soul or some other bullshit.

Satisfied with his experiment and his new skill, Ronan stood up. He turned his attention to the one group of survivors that seemed to hold the least fear towards him. In particular, the unofficial leader of the encampment, one Freddie Dunst, was the man Ronan wanted to talk to. Freddie had been the only one brave enough to talk to Ronan when he appeared and cut the shapeshifter apart, so Ronan hoped that Freddie would be able to give him some more information about the tutorial scenario.

When Freddie saw Ronan walking over, a nervous expression flashed over his face. The man suppressed it and greeted Ronan with a warm smile. "Our savior. How can I help you?"

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