Second Genesis

Grey took a deep breath, taking his time to catch his breath. He thought that he was in pretty good shape, but this felt different from sparring or working out. There was something about live combat that really ate into your reserves.

But he still had quite the grin on his face right now. He had managed to clear the encampment without a single explosion once again.

After he felt like he had regained enough of his breath, he bent down and arranged the smoke and pipe bombs that were left. There were three total pipe bombs.

He set the smoke bombs aside, deciding that using them wasn’t going to be worthwhile.

’Perfect.’

Grey stood to his full height and grit his teeth. Then, he ran a hand through his hair and slicked it through with gel. Quickly, he slipped the sleeve of Ray’s Nexis Suit on and pressed a palm to the door.

’Hurry up.’

The spike of pain came faster than before, and the click of the doorway that quickly followed was like the holy chime of Heaven’s bell to Grey’s ears.

The instant he heard it, he ripped it off and started the timer on the pipe bombs even as the door swung open.

"One Mississippi—"

A rush of wind kicked Grey in, and the doors slammed shut behind him. The bombs went flying forward, tumbling across the ground.

–

[BOSS BATTLE]

[Grey Temolt VS. Last Goblin Swordsman]

–

[Description: The Last Goblin Swordsman carries the forgotten pride of a fallen race. Once an honored being with royal blood running through their veins and the flames of warlords rampaging in their hearts, the goblins have fallen far. No longer are they seen as Generals, but are instead savages and barbarians. Only the Last Goblin Swordsman remembers. ]

–

[Congratulations, Genesis Candidate! You have triggered a Rare Tutorial Instance! Good luck and don’t die! :) ]

—

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Grey crashed against the doors. He had curled up into a ball, protecting himself in a fetal position. The room hadn’t been large to begin with, so there was only so much he could do to hide from the chaos. However, it was a risk he felt he was comfortable with taking.

—

[VICTORY: Grey Temolt]

—

Even covered in smoke and soot, Grey couldn’t help but grin ear to ear.

Coughing, he slowly peeked out from his arms. The room began to clear, and Grey’s eyes landed on what remained of the Last Goblin.

It had lost a leg, and its chest was blasted open like a blooming flower. Its corpse was blown across the room, sinking to the ground as though a puppet that had lost its strings.

Grey had no idea if his Goblin Warlord Spirit would be enough to defeat the very BOSS creature he had gotten it from. The best-case scenario would be that they were about equal in strength, and Grey couldn’t take that risk.

So, he had settled on this plan instead. It seemed a little bit of luck was finally smiling down on him.

Shimmering lights began to form over the Last Goblin’s corpse. They took the shape of cubes of light before they solidified into hovering boxes. Three of them, to be specific.

Two of them were a dull bronze, but the third one had a silvery hue to it with just the slightest undertones of an orangey-yellow.

From Grey’s understanding, Common boxes were a dull grey, Uncommon ones were a dull bronze, and Rare boxes had that silvery hue. But the undertones of orangey-yellow suggested an Epic Loot Box.

It must be that, amongst Rare Loot Boxes, this one was particularly good. Uncommon Loot Boxes should have been the highest-level rewards available in a tutorial zone, so this must be the benefit of defeating a Rare Instance BOSS.

The ground rumbled, and an entrance opened up, but Grey didn’t move. The timer for completion should have stopped now that the BOSS was dead. Was he 100% sure that was true and he wouldn’t get screwed over again? No. But he also knew that he couldn’t rush this decision.

His left arm wasn’t very far away from becoming useless. He couldn’t just keep using the gel. Soon enough, he wouldn’t have any nerves left, and he wouldn’t even be able to move his arm at all—even if he didn’t burn to a crisp.

He had seen people open up Loot Boxes from afar before. They had the same stupid long animation sequences that they did in the video games he had played, and all the while, he had to maintain contact.

By now, his dilemma was obvious. Should he even make the attempt?

Grey grit his teeth. He really didn’t want others to benefit from his hard work, especially not that archer bastard.

Fitz was not only the reason he had been screwed over so often, he had even personally killed him during the last loop—and the one before. If it was up to Grey, he’d find the time to stick his foot up the bastard’s ass.

’I can’t.’

As much as it pissed Grey off, he knew he couldn’t take them. That was because he needed to use the Nexis Suit for something else very soon.

Why had he been in such a rush? Wasn’t it so that he could take the reward that Joaquin had? He was hoping that whatever reward Joaquin had that allowed him to manipulate the city could be useful to him—and how would he benefit from that reward if he couldn’t even accept it?

That reward should be for placement and speed in completing the Tutorial Zone, so it would be given during the announcement of his placement.

Grey took a breath.

He had to gamble. He was speculating on a lot of things right now, but unless he was right about at least most of them, he was dead anyway.

What did it matter? He had died so many times already.

Grey walked right by the Loot Boxes and down the stairs.

–

[Congratulations. You are the {113th} contestant to successfully make it beyond the Tutorial Zone.]

–

Grey was shaken when he saw the results. Had he been too slow? There was no way—how could he have been faster than that? Did the barkeep lie?

–

[You have been assigned to Zone 234]

[You are the first. You have been granted a one-time-use reward: City Edict]

–