Blood crusted against my ribs. Every breath was a sharp reminder that I was alive when I shouldn't be.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[Skill Acquired: Diagonal Slash Lv. 1]
[Skill Acquired: Basic Parry Lv. 1]
[XP Gained: 0]
[Level Up: — ]
[Condition Not Met.]
I stared at the notifications. They didn't go away.
They were mocking me.
"…What condition?" I muttered, my voice hoarse and small in the echoing ruins.
I was Level 1. Still.
I had just killed a Level 12 gnoll. Barely, but it was dead.
Shouldn't that have counted for something?
I stumbled backward and slumped against the cold stone wall. I could still feel the gnoll's claws raking my ribs. The spot burned where blood had dried into the torn fabric of my uniform.
I pressed my palm to my chest, trying to feel the rhythm of my own heartbeat.
Too fast. Uneven.
But alive.
"Okay," I whispered to myself. "I'm alive. That's… something."
This wasn't normal.
I wasn't in the hospital anymore.
I wasn't in my world anymore.
There was no monitor beeping beside me. No sterile white ceilings. No endless procession of pitying doctors.
Just this place. The tutorial.
At least, that's what it claimed to be.
But this wasn't a tutorial like in the novel.
I swallowed hard and tried to center my thoughts.
The world I was in — The Crowned Hero and His Seven Vows — had a strict structure. The main character, Leon, began in the "Training Field of Beginnings," where he learned basic swordsmanship, got some starter quests, and made friends with the system guide AI, Iris.
There were beginner monsters. Slimes. Maybe a goblin or two.
He leveled up by killing them. Slowly, but surely.
Each level gave stat increases, abilities, and real momentum.
This?
This was none of that.
I had spawned alone in a ruin. No tutorial NPC. No Iris. No explanations.
And my first enemy was a gnoll twice my size — ten levels above me.
The screen had even glitched.
[TUTORIAL BALANCE: ERROR_004]
What did that mean?
Was this some kind of bug?
I shook my head.
I needed to stop thinking like a reader.
This wasn't a story anymore. This was my reality now.
I had to assume the worst: that I was in a corrupted version of the tutorial. That for whatever reason, my version wasn't balanced. That I wouldn't be getting help.
No Iris. No stat boosts.
Just me, a rusted sword, and whatever monsters this twisted system threw at me.
I opened my status screen.
It floated there, dim and grainy, like an old CRT monitor.
[Name: ???]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 6/20]
[MP: 4/10]
[Skills: Diagonal Slash Lv. 1, Basic Parry Lv. 1]
[Class: None]
[Condition: SEVERELY WOUNDED | BLEEDING (MINOR)]
That "???" still bothered me.
Why didn't I have a name?
Was it because I hadn't been assigned an identity by the system? Or because I didn't belong here at all?
"Name," I whispered. "My name is…"
I paused.
It was strange. I could feel my real name in my mouth, in my head — but when I tried to speak it, the sound didn't come out. Like the world itself rejected it.
"…Huh."
I gritted my teeth.
So my name was sealed. My level was stuck. My enemies were overpowered.
And yet… I wasn't dead.
I looked at my hands. Still shaking. Still scraped raw from gripping the sword.
Why wasn't I dead?
A fluke? Luck?
No.
That last moment — when the gnoll lunged — I had felt something.
My body moved on its own. Not out of instinct, but something deeper. Like I knew what it would do before it moved. I saw the opening. Exploited it.
It hadn't been pretty. Or fast. Or clean.
But it had worked.
I'd killed something that should have stomped me into the ground.
"Is that how I get stronger?" I murmured.
Not by stats.
Not by levels.
But by adapting. By learning.
By surviving, over and over, until I could read my enemies like books.
Was this the real tutorial? Or… my punishment?
I heard footsteps.
My breath caught.
I tensed and gripped my sword, despite the burning in my shoulder.
Something was coming.
Not a gnoll this time. The steps were too light. Too quick. But measured.
I pressed myself against the wall and peeked around the corner.
A goblin.
Small. Green. Leather armor. Rusted dagger.
[Goblin Scavenger – LV. 3]
[Status: Hunting]
I didn't wait.
I lunged.
It squealed in surprise, slashing wildly. I ducked under the strike and brought my blade down diagonally.
[Diagonal Slash Activated.]
Blood sprayed.
The goblin staggered back, clutching its side.
It wasn't dead. Not yet.
I pivoted and raised my sword — just in time to catch its dagger on the flat of my blade.
[Basic Parry Activated.]
I stepped into it. The goblin shrieked as my shoulder slammed into its chest.
Then I stabbed it through the neck.
It twitched once.
Then stopped.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[Skill Proficiency +1]
[XP Gained: 0]
[Level Up: — ]
No XP. Again.
But my skills had grown.
I felt it. The slash had been smoother. The parry more natural.
It's like the system doesn't care about XP anymore.
Just survival. Just repetition.
"Fine," I whispered. "Then I'll play your game."
I dragged the goblin's body behind some rubble and searched it.
One healing herb. One rusty dagger. And a cracked mana shard — probably worthless.
Still. I pocketed the herb and tucked the dagger into my belt.
It wasn't much. But it was a start.
I stood in the middle of the ruin, eyes scanning the foggy horizon.
Monsters would come. I knew that now. Stronger ones. Faster ones.
But if this world wanted to break me?
It would have to try harder.