Something prodded his leg. Ronan groaned and opened his eyes slowly. He moved his arms to push his hands against the ground and cursed as a series of sharp aches cascaded through his muscles. After some gentle movements he was able to press himself up into a sitting position. Another prod on his leg made his gaze snap towards the source of the poking.

  “Are you a ghost?” A girl who couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old stared at him. She held a stick in one hand which she’d been using to prod Ronan’s leg.

  “I don’t think so.” He wasn’t actually sure. The last thing he remembered was consuming the boss’ heart with Mineral Skeleton and then an overwhelming pain knocking him out. Maybe I died and stuck around to haunt the tutorial? “Where are your parents, kid?”

  The girl frowned, then poked him with the stick again. “Sea monsters ate them.”

  What? How did she survive if those mutated things attacked… Actually, where the hell am I? He wasn’t stranded at sea anymore. It meant all his effort to preserve the boat had been a complete waste of time. Ronan looked around and saw grass and flowers everywhere he looked. A seemingly infinite meadow. “Sorry about that. Where are we?”

  “Um. Grandma’s house. It’s in the countryside. Where did you come from, old man?” The girl poked him with the stick again, then stared at his leg.

  “Stop poking me. I’m not a ghost. And I’m not old, I’m in my twenties.” She sighed and turned around, then started to walk away from him. “What? Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to get grandma. She told me not to talk to strangers and to find her if anything weird happened.”

  “Right. You do that. I’ll be right here.” Ronan watched the little girl walk away with a spring in her step, feeling odd about the encounter.

  That was not the first thing he had expected to find in stage 5 of the nightmare tutorial. If he didn’t already know that the theme was the mutated sea creatures—a pattern the girl had confirmed would continue in that stage—then he might have thought it was some kind of horror movie scenario with a little kid that turned out to be a murderer or some sort of supernatural monster.

  He squinted and saw a house in the distance. It looked like some sort of farmhouse, utterly stereotypical of the English countryside. I guess the girl wasn’t lying. We’re probably close to the sea based on the scenario.

  There were a few notifications that demanded his attention. Rather than chase after the strangely endearing child, he decided to check them out. Perhaps they would shed some light on his lost time between stage 4 and 5.

  Absorbing [Mutated Abyssal Orkrakstacean Heart] from [Karadaxos’ Heart Lv.275 (Legendary)]...

  Residual mana and spirit detected! Foreign mana infection cannot be contained! User integrity under threat…

  You have successfully eliminated the mana infection from [Mutated Abyssal Orkrakstacean Heart]!

  Your soul has successfully eradicated the foreign influence! Soul weight has increased by 0.2%!

  [Mutated Abyssal Orkrakstacean Heart] from [Karadaxos’ Heart Lv.275 (Legendary)] has been absorbed at a 93% efficiency rate!

  You have received the trait [Water Affinity (Epic)]!

  Water Affinity (Epic): You are attuned to water. Your mana can take on its properties, be they defensive, offensive, or subversive in nature. Skills deriving their power from a water attunement will be more powerful when used by one possessing this affinity. Weapons with water-related enchantments will have more of their power drawn out when used by one possessing this affinity.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  +67.89 Vitality

  +6.51 Endurance

  +24.18 Regeneration

  +14.88 Wisdom

  +20.46 Acuity

  +46.5% Pressure resistance

  +23.25% Mana efficiency

  Ronan let out a long-suffering sigh before leaning back on his hands and staring into the sky. A cloud in the shape of a cat drifted past. A rather rotund cat. It was cute. I guess it was too naive of me to think I could just keep taking parts of random stuff into my body without it eventually coming back to bite me on the arse. The foreign mana infection is… I don’t really care. If I die to one of those I’d just come back with a resistance to it or something. The soul corruption is what worries me. I still haven’t figured out if my soul is ‘reset’ when I die, or if any damage to it carries over between iterations.

  He shook his head. All’s well that ends well. I even got a stronger soul out of it. Ronan stood up and rubbed the dirt from his hands. Most of his health, stamina, and mana had been restored. He wondered how long he’d been passed out in the field. There was no telling.

  Other than the rather sad story about the girl’s parents dying to sea monsters, he didn’t have many clues to go on about how to complete stage 5. Obviously it would involve killing some mutated marine life, but where he would find them and what form they would take remained a mystery. The boss in the last stage was already at a really high level, and the administrator said he was going to test me… I’m a little nervous.

  Ronan wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge but the last boss battle had pushed him to his very limits and nearly left him dead. He had confirmation that the administrator had intervened, which meant that the ‘regular’ difficulty shouldn’t have been much trouble to him. He was frustrated that his first nightmare tutorial clear was ruined by some pesky goon of the system. However, the rewards for succeeding in the harder challenges the administrator had laid out were more than he could have dreamed of.

  At the end of the day he had come out of stage 4 with two new spells that he had created entirely through his own effort and creativity. Both needed refinement—the offensive spell likely needed a full rework—but they had been enough to carry him to victory against Karadaxos. The only way forward from there was up. The sky was the limit. Actually the sky is barely even a first step. Death isn’t even a limit. Ronan chuckled at his poor joke. Then he noticed the girl walking back towards him through the meadow, a slender, grey-haired woman in tow. Likely the grandma she’d mentioned.

  When they were about fifteen metres away from him, the little girl grabbed the old woman’s hand and pointed at Ronan. “Look, grandma, that’s the strange old man I told you about. I don’t think he’s a ghost because I poked him with my stick and he felt real. Also he told me he wasn’t one. But ghosts are liars. So I had to check.” Her adorable rant almost made Ronan burst into laughter, but he suppressed it and met the stern gaze of the elderly lady.

  He said elderly, but she had a spry figure and her skin bore a healthy glow. There was a shotgun slung over her shoulder, held in one hand while the other was being gripped by the little girl. She looked him up and down and then snorted. “Well, you’re right that he isn’t a ghost, darling. He’s far from old, though. I’d know.”

  Ronan couldn’t stop himself at that point. He barked out a laugh, before clamping a hand over his mouth. “Sorry. You look great for your… Yeah, just great. What’s your name? I didn’t get to ask your granddaughter before she ran off to get you. I’m Ronan.”

  “Moira. This little tyke is Hailey. What brings you out here? We don’t get many visitors. One of the refugees from the coast?” She had a soft look in her eyes, and glanced once at the kid before returning her gaze to Ronan.

  “Err, something like that. This might be a weird question, but are we near the beach or any coastline?”

  Moira raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on his odd line of investigation. “Well, depends on your definition of near. Not near enough that the monsters will come out to get you. Near enough that I’ve been thinking about moving somewhere further inland. For Hailey’s safety, mostly. I’d happily die in these old fields, but the fellas on the news are saying that those big ‘ol bastards are somehow raising the sea as they attack more cities and towns.”

  “I see, that’s quite scary. Which direction would the coast be?”

  Moira sighed. “You’re one of those types, eh? Think you can take on the giant monsters just because some floating words appeared with them? Well, I won’t stop you from throwing your life away, sonny, but at the very least spend a night in the farmhouse and have a hot meal and a bath before you do.”

  Ronan sighed. He would have preferred to throw himself into battle, but he had a suspicion this wouldn’t be the easy fights he’d grown used to. With the Administrator’s meddling hand on the scale, the monsters in stage 5 would likely tear him apart if he didn’t prepare properly. He would use the opportunity to relax and enjoy the little things in life while he could. And practice his sorcery, of course. “Sure, that sounds nice. Lead the way, Moira.”