Aristotle once said, "Man is by nature a social animal," and I completely agree. While anyone can choose to live alone—after all, hermits exist—there's a significant difference between merely surviving and truly living.
It has been a week since I entered the first floor of the Tutorial, and I am finally realizing the foolishness of my decision. I am beginning to regret entering, but there's nothing I can do now. This dungeon is unique, and the only way to exit is by completing the quest.
I have always considered myself a social person. While I was never a true extrovert, I enjoyed chatting with new people and engaging with my friends and family. Now, however, I am starting to feel the mental strain of being alone.
It's ironic; I always believed that if the need arose, I could live by myself without any issues. In certain contexts, that was true. After all, I spent five years living alone in Kyoto.
But "by myself" and "alone" are not synonymous. In Kyoto, I made friends and was free to explore the city. If I wanted to take a break from studying for a day, I could do so without a second thought. I always had company—my roommates, my friends, Hana, and even the "totally not a youkai" fox near the Yasaka Shrine. I was not just surviving; I was living and thriving there.
Here, though? I am completely alone, with no one nearby. I can't even step into the hallway to change my surroundings, and I am starting to feel claustrophobic. The constant vigilance I must maintain is mentally exhausting. It has gotten to the point where I have to force myself to calm down and sleep, as my sanity has started to decline.
I can't wait for this quest to end.
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To pass the time and take some moments for myself, I started writing down descriptions of the monsters I encountered.
The first entry in this encyclopedia of encounters features the very first monster I faced: the Wolf. These creatures have gray fur and are larger than average, standing between two to three meters tall in adulthood. The first wolf I encountered was part of a scripted encounter, as wolves typically hunt in groups of at least five. Their favored tactic is to surround their enemies and attack with bites or scratches from their powerful paws. While they can be a challenge, the quickest way to make them retreat is to kill their leader. However, this can be easier said than done, as their alpha is often stronger than any of the other wolves in the pack. Fortunately, I find them relatively easy to defeat, thanks to the various spells in my repertoire, and their bites are no threat to me due to my [Touki].
Next are the Goblins, small green menaces that are more intelligent than wolves but less organized. Their strength lies in their numbers, and they generally lack a strategic approach aside from charging directly at their foes. They use any weapons they might have, but overall, they pose less of a threat compared to wolves. I know there are variations of goblins that I have yet to encounter, such as the Goblin Phantom (the assassin), Goblin Shaman (the mage), and Goblin Warrior (the tank or frontline fighter).
Then there are the Trolls, the strangest of the bunch. They do not move in groups or associate with others, but they possess a remarkable healing factor. Despite their greater physical abilities, I still find them to be the easiest monsters for me to defeat.
Interestingly, each of these three types of monsters has its own territory in this forest, including the Trolls, who tend to be solitary. From what I remember about the Hell Difficulty Tutorial, there are also three 'boss' monsters: a wolf, a spider, and the Cinderbear.
Even after searching in my [Memory Palace], I found no information on them, except that the wolf was the reason Nat gained insight into thermal and kinetic energy. At one point, I thought this skill would lead me to something like [Perfect Memory] or [Eidetic Memory], but I realized long ago how different this skill is from true panmnesia.
Since I had that information, I started to formulate a plan. The only creature I know of is the Cinderbear, the strongest in the forest. I encountered it once, just after some goblins attacked my campsite at the edge of a clearing. It emerged from the forest while I was chasing the remaining goblins, picked up two of the ones I had already killed, threw me a look, and then retreated back into the woods.
I used Observe on it, but all I learned was its level and its strengths. I sensed that I had more mana than it, but it was five levels higher than me, and its physical stats could easily crush me if I were reckless enough to attack blindly. Instinctively, I knew that while I could potentially take it down by exploiting my spells and attacking from a distance, it stood a much better chance of killing me if I wasn't careful, regardless of my Touki defense.
Though I've poured all my free stat points into Intelligence and Wisdom, I'm not someone who can limit myself like an RPG character. If I were, I would have chosen a different Pathway, like the White Tower, the Hermit, or even a fan-made Pathway. Yes, those exist in my [Shop].
Regardless, I decided to leave the Cinderbear for last and focus on investigating the other two creatures. However, there's a problem. For the second time, I can't recall everything about the Hell Difficulty Tutorial's web novel—only the characters I was interested in, the general situation, and some other facts. One of those facts is that floors start easy and progress to a difficulty level that can lead to death.
I'm not entirely sure if this logic applies even to the first floor, but I trust that the original system is designed to mess with the average Tutorial participant.
So, a territory war? Perhaps with the trolls, as they are easy targets for the others in the group. Maybe it's time for me to become a player in this ecosystem and observe how the other creatures respond.