**Chapter 5: The Preemptive Strike**
Silence returned to the ravine.
It was a heavy, wet silence, broken only by the dripping of blood. Zayne stood atop a mound of carcasses that reached his waist. His breath was steady. His heart rate was a calm 60 beats per minute.
The *Ring of the Glutton* was humming on his finger, warm and vibrant. It had feasted well.
[Wave 2 Complete.]
[Calculating Experience...]
*Ding!*
*Ding!*
*Ding!*
*Ding!*
A cascade of golden light erupted around Zayne, stacking four times in rapid succession.
[You have reached Level 9.]
[You are the first Candidate to reach Level 9.]
[Reputation +100.]
Zayne swiped the air, pulling up his new status window.
[Name: Zayne]
[Rank: F+]
[Level: 9]
[Strength: 24 (4 + 20)]
[Agility: 30 (5 + 25)]
[Stamina: 14]
[Mana: 40]
[Unassigned Points: 0]
He had dumped everything into Strength and Agility. In the early game, defense was irrelevant if you didn't get hit. With 30 Agility, he was six times faster than an average human. He was effectively blurring the line between physics and magic.
He looked down at the corpse of the Dire Wolf Alpha. A faint blue glow emanated from its chest.
"Loot," Zayne whispered.
He reached in and pulled out a weapon. It wasn't a rusty piece of scrap this time. It was a short sword, curved like a fang, shimmering with a cold light.
[Weapon: Fang of the Alpha (Rare)]
[Attack Power: 15-20]
[Effect: Bleed. Attacks have a 10% chance to inflict a bleeding status that deals 5 damage per second for 10 seconds.]
[Durability: 50/50]
Zayne tossed the rusted dagger aside. It clattered against the stone, forgotten. He gave the short sword a test swing. The air whistled. It was light, balanced, and sharp enough to shave with.
"Acceptable."
*BOOOOOOM.*
A thunderous sound shook the entire forest. The violet sky darkened to a bruised black.
[Attention, Maggots!]
Ticket's voice boomed from the clouds, amplified by the system.
[The Appetizer is over! You survived the Rats. You survived the Wolves. Now...]
[The Final Boss of the Tutorial has awakened!]
[Objective: Defeat the "Steel-Skin Minotaur" within 30 minutes.]
[Failure Penalty: Death.]
A beam of red light shot down from the sky, striking the center of the Safe Zone—right where the survivors were huddled.
Zayne narrowed his eyes. "Cruel."
The System had baited everyone to the center with the shop and the barrier, only to spawn the Boss right on top of them. It was a culling.
Zayne kicked off the pile of corpses.
*Shadow Step.*
He flickered forward five meters. He hit the ground running, moving at a speed that would have earned him an Olympic gold medal without breaking a sweat.
He wasn't running to save them. He was running to steal the kill.
***
**[Location: The Safe Zone]**
Panic was absolute.
The survivors were screaming, scrambling over each other to get away from the center of the clearing.
In the middle of the chaos stood a monster out of a nightmare. It stood three meters tall, its body a mountain of rippling muscle covered in grey, metallic skin. It held a battle axe the size of a motorcycle.
"Run! Just run!"
"Shoot it! Use the fireballs!"
A few brave souls who had bought magic scrolls fired them. Small balls of fire struck the Minotaur's chest.
*Piff.*
They fizzled out harmlessly against the steel skin.
The Minotaur snorted, steam blasting from its nostrils. It raised the massive axe.
"No... please!" Kang, the bald man from earlier, was on the ground, scrambling backward. His leg was injured. He stared up at the axe descending toward him.
He closed his eyes.
*Clang.*
The sound of metal on metal rang out like a church bell.
Kang flinched, but the crushing weight never came. He opened his eyes.
A figure was standing on the blade of the axe.
Zayne.
He had intercepted the swing mid-air, not by blocking it—his strength wasn't enough for that—but by stepping onto the flat side of the blade as it came down, using the Minotaur's own force to launch himself upward.
"Focus," Zayne said, looking down at Kang. "You're in the way."
The Minotaur roared, confused by the flea standing on its weapon. It shook the axe violently.
Zayne backflipped off the weapon, landing gracefully ten meters away. He held the *Fang of the Alpha* in a reverse grip.
[Target: Steel-Skin Minotaur (Boss)]
[Level: 10]
[HP: 2000/2000]
[Passive: Heavy Armor. Physical damage reduced by 50%.]
"50% damage reduction," Zayne muttered. "Annoying."
The crowd had frozen. They were staring at the small man who had just defied a giant.
"Is that... the guy from the cave?"
"He stopped the axe?"
The Minotaur ignored the ants. It locked onto Zayne. Its eyes burned red. It charged.
The ground shook with every step. The speed was terrifying for something so large. It swung the axe horizontally, a strike meant to cleave Zayne in half.
Zayne didn't retreat. He stepped *in*.
[Void Sovereign: Analysis.]
[Gap in armor detected: Left Armpit. Right Knee Joint. Eyes.]
Zayne ducked under the axe swing. The wind pressure ruffled his hair. As the blade passed over him, he slashed upward with surgical precision.
*Shing.*
Sparks flew. The *Fang of the Alpha* drew a thin line of red across the Minotaur's unarmored armpit.
[-15 HP]
The damage was negligible. The Boss had 2000 HP. At this rate, it would take hours.
"Too tough," Zayne noted.
The Minotaur roared and stomped. A shockwave of earth erupted outward.
Zayne used *Shadow Step* to blink through the shockwave, reappearing behind the beast. He stabbed at the back of its knee.
*Clink.*
The blade bounced off. The skin was too hard.
The Minotaur spun around with a backhand fist. Zayne crossed his arms to block, but the force was like getting hit by a truck.
*Bang!*
Zayne skidded back twenty meters, his boots carving deep furrows in the dirt. His arms were numb.
[-40 HP]
"He can't win!" someone shouted from the crowd. "We need to help him!"
"Are you crazy? We'll die!"
Zayne shook his arms out. He watched the Minotaur preparing for another charge.
He needed more force. He needed to bypass the defense.
He looked at his stats.
*Mana: 40/40.*
He looked at the skill book he hadn't used yet—the one he bought from the shop with his leftover coins while walking to the forest. A skill everyone ignored because it was useless for combat.
[Skill: Object Imbue (Common)]
[Effect: Pour mana into an object to temporarily increase its weight or durability.]
Usually, this was used by craftsmen to hammer nails. It was trash.
Zayne grinned.
He grabbed a handful of loose gravel from the ground.
"Hey, Ugly," Zayne called out.
The Minotaur paused, snorting.
Zayne tossed the gravel into the air.
"Physics lesson number one," Zayne whispered.
He activated *Object Imbue*, dumping all 40 points of Mana into the tiny rocks floating in the air, but he twisted the mana with *Void Sovereign*. He didn't just increase durability. He increased *mass*.
For one second, those pebbles weighed as much as a wrecking ball.
"Mana Manipulation: Gravity Press."
He slapped the air, launching the super-heavy gravel forward like a shotgun blast.
The Minotaur didn't dodge. It was just rocks. Why would it dodge rocks?
*BOOM!*
The sound was sickening. The gravel struck the Minotaur's chest with the kinetic force of a cannonball volley. The steel skin crumpled. Ribs shattered. The massive beast was lifted off its feet and thrown onto its back.
[Critical Hit!]
[-450 HP]
The crowd went silent.
Zayne panted, his mana empty. But the Ring was already pulsing.
"Now," Zayne said, walking toward the fallen titan. "We finish this."