That's kind of unexpected. I don't mind free gifts, but I barely get any time to be happy about my new skill, and now the system is throwing this at me?

So the last requirement was to combine skills? Is it always this requirement, or does it differ from person to person? Knowing the system, I won't get any answers anytime soon.

But there is something that interests me even more.

You can enter Beyond once every four months.

First, the difficulty higher than Hell is called Beyond. Second, I can go there only once every four months, meaning I will be staying in Hell Difficulty and only be sent there for something like missions? For how long? Days, weeks, months?

Is there any hidden requirement that would allow me to go there permanently, or is that how Beyond works? It kind of makes sense as the token was called Beyond difficulty entrance token and not Beyond difficulty change token.

Oh boy, I'm curious, I want to go there. But I can't right now. I need to get healed, and get my missing eye and left hand restored. I also need to at least test [Resonance] and make sure a few people are taken care of. I might be gone for a long time.

Now, I'm curious about the community.

Easy difficulty 1350/2000

Normal difficulty 880/1000

Hard Difficulty 275/500

Hell difficulty 50/250

Beyond 3/10

Community Tournament (unavailable)

Well, here it is, the new spot I couldn't see up until now.

Noname - Mana is the best stat.

Savant - I thought you would never get there.

Obviously, this person is already there.

Noname - 3/10 means that 10 people got into the Beyond Difficulty right from the start or does 10 mean that only 10 people can get to Beyond?

Savant - Probably the second. There are 3 of us right now, and the other guy didn't say anything up until now, no matter what I tried. He can either be someone like us that got there, or it's as you said, and 10 people started in Beyond, and he is the only one alive.

Both of these options sound assholish enough, so knowing the system, it could be either.

Noname - Combining skills as one of the requirements. Four requirements in total?

Savant - Yes.

Noname - Did you enter Beyond already?

Savant - What do you think?

Haaa, obviously Savant went there already. How the heck is he/she that fast? Am I that slow and held back by others, or is there something else?

Noname - Want to share some info?

Savant - Nope.

Noname - Understandable.

Savant - Yes.

I switch to Hell Community, and no matter what I try, everything gets censored. I can't mention a higher difficulty. It doesn't censor it; it straight up refuses to send the message.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Dang it.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Look at who it is. Noname, you are so dead. Grumpy continued to look for you.

Oh boy.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Poor girl kept spamming the community.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I was... occupied.

AnotherOneHere (Hell, TheGuild) - I'm sure she will understand, heh.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Leave the poor guy alone; he is too busy. Lately, he only lurks around and keeps reading the messages without talking in the Community at all.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - My social batteries are empty.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - The heck? This is just a chat.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - So?

What difference does it make? I count it as socializing.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - You have problems.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I bet you send voice messages to people instead of texting.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Why do I feel like I just got insulted even though it's something normal? Did you guys not use voice messages?

I then turn off the chat after trying to get in some other keywords, but the system censors everything.

The next thing I try is my new skill, [Resonance]. As I create a blade made of mana instead of [Oscillation], which no longer exists, I use the new skill and the blade starts vibrating. It's similar to the lost skill, yet there's something unfamiliar about it.

Where [Oscillation] used to vibrate my mana to increase the cutting force of my attack, the new skill feels as if space itself is vibrating, resonating along the edge of my blade. When I push the sword into the wall next to me, it slides through it with ease.

There is no sound, no audible vibrations like before. The blade continues to resonate and even without further testing, I can say it's much sharper than before.

It's something like a concept now instead of focusing on vibrating mana. I create another sword made of my mana, making it dense to the point that streaks of light blue mana start appearing, then slash against it.

The sword without [Resonance] applied gets cut apart with such ease that it surprises even me. As the cut sword starts dissipating, I reach out and send [Resonance] at it, like I would have before, and the mana falls apart. This part doesn't feel too different, but I can tell it's only because of my lack of practice or maybe my low level of the skill.

Good, I like it. I like it very much.

“Little pup, your use of that skill is terrible.”

Here we go again.

The brooch is left behind in the house. There's no way I'm touching it or bringing it with me. Even what I'm doing now, I consider a risk. Lissandra could try to affect me or do something to me “wirelessly”. I bet her chances of affecting me would be higher if I touched the brooch.

Sure, we have a deal, but I'd rather not test it.

When I finally reach the hideout, the first person I meet is Kim. He's still practicing, but the moment he sees me, the stone hovering next to him falls down with a loud thump.

I pass by him, and the next one to welcome me is Biscuit.

(Sustenance!) he shouts.

Damn, I really should teach him more sophisticated words; he seems to like them. He might even forget about “asshole”.

“Good boy,” I quickly pet him. If I do it often enough, he'll associate it with his use of polite words and everything will be good.

Before I realize it, a purple tentacle appears. It slowly reaches towards my face and touches the empty socket where my eye used to be. The tentacle gently caresses me there, and the dog tilts his head while looking at me.

“It's fine,” I boop his nose. How can such a burrito-like-looking doggo be so cute?

I stand up, and then my eyes, well, my eye, meet Lily's gaze.

At first, she just freezes on the spot, and the smile that appeared on her face quickly disappears. She stares at me and I look back. She moves closer, this time not looking as angry as before.

When she's close enough, I notice two of her fingers are missing and she has multiple wounds all over her body. There's even a deep scar on her neck that's slowly healing.

“I can wait,” I say as she reaches out and places her hand under my cheek, her finger gently touching the skin near my missing eye.

“I know you can,” Lily's voice is weak as she says so.

“It doesn't hurt much, and I'm not in a hurry. You can heal yourself first.”

Her warm mana enters my body, and I let it. Soon it starts healing my eye. It's an interesting sensation, a mix of disgust and itchiness like there's an insect crawling inside my eye socket.

“Is it worth it? Enduring all this pain, all this bloodshed,” she asks in a hushed tone.

Wanting to give her a sincere answer, I think it over, and in the end, there's only one word I can say, “Yes.”

Our eyes meet, and through my [Perception], I see her two missing fingers, the slash on her neck, a deep wound on her belly, and a cut on her leg. Her hands are shaking, and I can see how hard this is for her. All the wounds are fresh. Maybe she ventured outside to level, maybe she wanted to fight, maybe she went looking for me. Then she partially healed her body, conserving her mana for some other reason. For someone else that might need it.

Such a silly girl.

“You are so stu…”

“Both of us are stupid now,” she interrupts, “The two most stupid people in this tutorial. You and me.”

“I guess…” I can't say much to that, not after last night and the active tempering I went through.

“But Lily, there's no easy way. It might not even become easier, or it might not be worth it at all in the end,” I begin, reaching out to pinch her small nose. Her eyes widen more than when she first saw my missing eye.

I always wanted to do that.

"But I can tell you this: if you give it your all and try your hardest, you won't regret it, regardless of the outcome." when I say that she only nods without saying anything else.

A few days pass. I train, I heal. I level up a bit more. I share as much as I can with Tess, who also plans to enter Beyond in the future as she already used her upgrade token. But I make sure to keep it a secret from the others. Some might want to go there, but I think they would most likely die. I'll know more after I get there.

So yeah. I tell them I'm going on a mission from the system and I don't know how long I'll be gone. Lily and Kim seem the most reluctant to let me go, but in the end, they don't protest much. They have food and water, and it seems we're in a safe area. If they stay put, there shouldn't be any problems.

Lissandra remains in the same spot; I still refuse to touch that thing. However, I've learned something from her in the past few days. She's an asshole, but she has a lot of knowledge and has shared some of it with me. She doesn't know anything about 'Beyond', either due to imperfections or because it's something the system deleted.

I check my stats before using the entrance token.

[Name: Nathaniel Gwyn]Difficulty: HellFloor: 3 - Saint's Eternal BastionTime left until forced return: 4y 246d 21h 31m 36sTraits (1/3): Mana Circuit (Passive) Lvl 114Strength: 43Dexterity: 41Constitution: 113Mana: 340 [Primary Class: Mana Channeler][Sub-class: Unavailable] Active skills:Focus (Dual Focus Consolidation) - Lvl 34Mana Manipulation (Advanced Mana Manipulation) - Lvl 34Perception - Lvl 29Redistribution (Symbiotic Transference) - Lvl 29Armament - Lvl 32Mana Surge - Lvl 22Mana Infusion - Lvl 24Resonance - Lvl 12 Constructs:Reinforcement (Construct)Kinetic Mana Heart (Construct)Mana Regulator (Construct) Passive skills:Mana Flow (rare)Cerebral Harmony (rare)Mana-Fortified Resilience (rare) Tokens: Beyond Difficulty entrance token

Then I give Sophie one more warning look and boop Biscuit's nose and caress Isabella's head. Who knows when I'll come back?

When I get out and a bit further from the hideout, I activate the token without any further hesitation, and the entrance appears next to me. I enter and find myself in a clearing in the middle of the forest. The clearing is surrounded by trees on all sides, and there are two suns in the sky.

It's the exact replica of the first floor.

Notifications pop up.

Welcome to the Beyond´s first trial! Congratulations on fulfilling all the requirements.

Then the cracking sounds, and from behind the trees, a monster enters the clearing. A massive gray bear with glowing orange eyes and sparks floating around him of the same color. The bear takes a step closer.

[Cinderbear - lvl 120]

That doesn't seem that bad. So is Beyond the Tutorial all over, just much harder? Or is it to filter out the people the same way the first floor did, and only then does it start?

But before I can think further, glowing orange sparks appear all around the clearing. Then they are set ablaze, and from each of them, a monster steps out.

[Cinderbear - lvl ??]

[Cinderbear - lvl ?]

[Cinderbear - lvl 134]

[Cinderbear - lvl ??]

[Cinderbear - lvl ??]

[Cinderbear - lvl ?]

[Cinderbear - lvl 101]

...

Dozens of massive bears appear around me, and then at the same time, their mana blazes up, and I feel a massive pressure reaching towards me as a new window pops up in front of me.

Beyond´s first trial. Objective: Survive for one hour.