Chapter 4 - Deal (Patreon)

At first, people were unwilling to approach, but once a few of them disappeared into that same hallway and died without getting anything in return, everyone suddenly became very cooperative.

Tom and his group picked the Melee Classification, since he was quite buffed and his lackeys just wanted to follow him.

Sabrina picked the Ranged Classification, and her group split into Melee and Ranged Classifications.

Nina picked the 3rd Classification and most of her group did too. Some picked the sword and shield, because they were too scared of the arrows.

The 'Angel' nodded happily. "I will be going now, so do your best to clean the 'Tutorial Area'." she waved happily as she disappeared. 'With this, my work is almost done.' She was in an elated mood.

Everyone was confused and terrified of that thought. The thought of clearing the 'Tutorial Area'.

Her head suddenly popped back in. "Oh, you are still forbidden to fight and wounds only heal in this place, so keep that in mind!" Before disappearing again.

Everyone waited for quite a long time, most hoped that she would reappear again and tell them it was a joke, but nothing like that happened.

At this point, Nina stood up with her twin sister.

"Do you think he is alright?" Mia asked Nina. 'He looked like he was in a lot of pain.' She frowned, worried about him.

"I don't know..." Nina shook her head. 'He is definitely not alright. I will try to help him recover, since he appears to be targeted. There was no need to send him inside so many times...' She was convinced that something was going on.

"But you like him, so you should check him out." Mia pouted. She wanted to be obsessed too about someone, but she had yet to meet that special person. 'How lucky is my Sis.' She shook her head. 'If she wasn't my Sis, I would also try to date him.' She narrowed her eyes.

'Is it that obvious?' Nina rolled her eyes. "I'm not."

"Sure, sure. Now go, go." Mia shooed her away. 'Go before I go after him and you won't be able to stop me.' Mia threatened with her eyes.

"And for us, we should make a plan on how to clear it!" Mia lifted her small fist. 'That way I don't have to think about this whole situation...'

Everyone was very weary when the 'Angel' popped back in.

"Oh, I also forgot to mention that you can form teams." She chuckled before disappearing again.

At this moment a lot of them were fed up with her, but none would be able to injure her, since they were unaware of where she went each time and it was obvious she was not a simple human.

Nina walked next to Nova and sat down on the ground. 'You look awful...'

"How are you?" She asked gently. 'I wish to ease your pain at least a little bit.' That was her sincere wish.

"Can't... feel my... body..." Nova had a hard time breathing since he was lying awkwardly on the ground.

Nina moved Nova's body gently and placed his head on her lap. She didn't say anything and just sat with him as he drifted into sleep.

-----

Nova was not actually sleeping, but 'resetting' his brain. He needed to restart the nerves that were forcibly cut by his brain and since there was no hospital around; he had to do it manually, nerve by nerve.

-----

Tom and Sabrina were still bickering, since Tom wanted to have her for himself, while Sabrina was still aiming for Nova.

Nina meanwhile was nursing Nova, since she cared about him. It was not to the point that she liked him romantically, but she considered him a very good friend, possibly even one of her best friends.

-----

It took a long time for Nova to finally wake up. He once again felt his limbs, but there was still some lingering pain.

During this time, no one entered 'that' place. They were all too scared and apprehensive.

There were a few who wanted to go inside, but they were stopped by the others by calling them lunatics, among other things.

This whole place was a mess, but since they couldn't hurt each other or do anything to each other, it turned into one big stalemate.

"How are you feeling?" Nina asked gently. 'He looks much better, that's good.'

"The softness is good." Nova replied softly. 'I miss my pillows...'

"I didn't mean that, jerk!" Nina gently smacked his shoulder. 'Since he can joke, it seems like he is doing better than I expected.' She narrowed her eyes.

"I feel a bit better." Nova confessed with a sigh.

"Why the sigh, then?" Nina was still concerned. 'Is something wrong with his body?' She hoped that was not the case.

"Because I will have to go back inside..." Nova sighed again. 'I don't know how I am supposed to clear that thing, everything is a trap...'

Nina did not say anything at this time. She could not help Nova any further than she already did.

'I will have to buy some things... but first, let's see my status properly.

[

 Name: Nova (Name that you use in this place)

 Age: 21(?)/63 (125) (Age is frozen in the Tutorial)

 Race: Human (Useless Human)

 Class: [Commoner Lv.1], [Mortal Lv.1], [Trainee Lv.1]

 Traits: [Broken Brain], [Mental Calculator], [Ambidextrous]

 Stats:

     Vitality: 2/2 (Max. 100)

     Mana: 0/0

     Qi: 0/0

     Aura: 0/0

     Mind: 1 (Max. 5)

     Insight: 15

     Willpower: 1 (Max. 5)

 Equipment: [Clothes from another World(Q-500): 1,500/1,500]

 Funds: [Existence Coins: ], [Death Coins: 10]

 Skills:

]

[Race: Human]

[The most spread Race in all the galaxies. They are neither good nor bad. Their racial Characteristic is that they earn Levels quicker than other races.]

[Commoner Lv.1]

[You have not touched magic yet, so you can't be considered a Magi.]

[Mortal Lv.1]

[You have not touched Cultivation yet, so you can't be considered a Cultivator.]

[Trainee Lv.1]

[You have not developed Aura yet, so you can't be considered a Sword Novice.]

[Traits]

[A special condition of your body, mind, or being.]

[Broken Brain]

[Your brain is slowly roasting itself alive, the only reason you are still alive is thanks to the healing factor of this place.]

[You can process a lot more information than most people, but at the cost of your Vitality.]

[Mental Calculator]

[Anything maths-related is under your thumb.]

[Ambidextrous]

[You can use both hands as your main hands.]

[Existence Coin]

[Currency that allows you to upgrade your Skills, traits or certain equipment.]

[Unique Synergies(New)]

[There are certain combinations of Skills, Traits, Equipment, etc, that allow for unique effects to manifest.]

[Unique Synergies:

 [Multitasking] = [Broken Brain] + [Mental Calculator] + [Ambidextrous]]

Nova nodded lightly. 'Now I will go and buy things, since I have 10 Death Coins.' He narrowed his eyes.

"How about you make a deal with me?" Nina said gently, but carefully. 'I want to make him a bit happier, so let's mask it as a deal. He always helped me during my studies, so I should at least repay him a bit.' Nina nodded to this idea inside her head.

"What kind of deal?" Nova felt quite strange looking at her. 'Does she want to scam me?' He didn't believe that was the case.

"Information about the hallway in exchange for nursing." Nina gazed carefully at Nova, but there was a hint of fear in her eyes. 'I'm not really looking for information, but I don't know how to make deals.' Nina blushed slightly at her incompetence in certain aspects.

"I will consider it." Nova didn't answer right away, since he would be at a disadvantage if he readily accepted it. 'This is quite strange, does she like me or does she want to just scam me...?'

Those thighs might be soft, but information is a lot more important...

Nova walked towards the items, which attracted a lot of attention.

'Things are sorted quite well, but there is something so troubling about this...' He sighed as he looked at the name of the first beginner skill.

[HHHooowww tttooo grnaeutsrhotenurar teMe a A nwuairtah ihnesaivdeen yaonudr Ebaordtyh and draw Qi inside your body] (AN: This is the last time I'm doing this! Never again!)

The simple translation was:

[How to gather Mana]

[How to resonate with heaven and Earth and draw Qi inside your body]

[How to nurture Aura inside your body]

All of them were useful in his current situation, but those names hurt his brain. He understood that he was a glitchy character, but that didn't mean everything had to be glitched!

[How to gather Mana]

[Chapter 1: Locate a good place with a lot of Mana and just stay there for a prolonged period.]

'That's not useful at all!' Nova glared at it. It either assumed that he could find someone to guide him to that place or had skills that could guide him.

'I will have to buy more things...' Nova clicked his tongue.

Those 3 cost him 10 Death coins, but in return, he was able to get 3 things.

He then walked back next to Nina, since he had a few questions to ask of her.

"Before I agree to your suggestion. I would like to gain more from you." Nova started with this. Nursing was not bad, but the information was worth a lot more.

"I'm listening." Nina didn't immediately dismiss it, since she knew Nova and how he could act. 'Although I'm still a bit worried that he will turn touchy...'

"I need beneficial Traits from your group. Something that would allow me to locate Mana or anything of value." Nova whispered to Nina. 'That way I can get stronger.

Nina nodded. "I can ask around my group." This was the easiest and most painless option. 'His voice can be so nice and soft~' Her inner girl was squealing in happiness.

"Please do." Nova smiled gently. 'Great, I thought there would be more resistance.' He nodded approvingly.

He opened the second book, but the description made him roll his eyes.

'My insight is not good enough to understand these flowery words...' He clicked his tongue.

Nova opened the last book and to his surprise, that was the easiest one!

[Chapter 1: Your being is you, your heartbeat is you, but your heartbeat is also your blade. Feel that heartbeat. Nurture it, praise it, care for it. Over time, you will be able to develop a gentle Aura.]

That was oddly easy. He didn't need to find anything and he just had to focus on his heartbeat and praise it, or something like that.

Nova spent so much time thinking about it that Nina returned with her friends.

One had [Appraisal Eyes], while the other had [Mana Sense]. Neither of which currently helped Nova.

But that was fine, it was better to have more cards in his hand than not.

"There is no Mana around, right?" Nova asked the girl with brown hair. 'Please say there is Mana.' He praised sincerely.

"No..." She shook her head sheepishly. She liked how soft Nova was, previously she thought that he was a violent drug addict, but that was a blatant lie.

Nova nodded gently. It seemed like he would need to enter the hallway again and earn some resources.

...

The hallway was stone-cold as always.

Nova was cautious of everything that moved or felt out of place.

If there were no torch stands, it either meant that the floor was fake or there would be spears coming out of the walls.

There was a slight issue with this. There was no way to trigger those traps.

The only way those traps triggered was when Nova was in the middle of them. No throwing rocks or torches would help. It also didn't feel like it was activated by pressure.

Nova could not understand how to get past them. Sometimes it activated, and sometimes it did not.

'Could it have a cooldown...?' Nova tilted his head. If it had a cooldown, then...

Nova rushed forward, it was a good idea to try since he would not die permanently. If the traps had some sort of cooldown, it might be possible to bypass all the traps by dying once to each of them!

Nova was running through the hallway, none of the traps were activating, which was strange. The more he ran, the stranger the situation became.

'Were those traps in hyper mode all thanks to that 'Angel'?' Nova narrowed his eyes.

It was a fair assumption from Nova. If the 'Angel' wanted to demonstrate the uselessness of the third Classification, there was no better way to do it.

He kept running until a new trap had activated. The whole wall cracked, showing rows and rows of teeth.

"Oh go-"

Crunch

[author]

One more before I go prepare things for Aiko and the half chapter~ ^-^

[/author]