First exploit
As the rat moved forward, Ikky attacked with the spear repeatedly, though most of the attacks missed. Hitting a moving target was very difficult; if it moved sideways, he followed it with his shield and changed his focus... That's how time passed. It was a few eternal minutes, until the rat decided to jump, like in its first attack. Ikky wasn't skilled; it was just that the spear got in the rat's way. The blade stabbed cleanly into the rat's belly, penetrating almost a foot into its body, impaled like a spike, but still alive...
"Damn rat, die AAAAA!!!!"
Holding it had no point or benefit, so he took it to the ground and put all his weight on the spear, sinking it further into its body. It wasn't dead, though it was badly injured. But Ikky didn't trust it; I placed my shield on the beast's head to immobilize it, and stabbed it again and again until its disgusting body stopped moving.
It was finally dead, it had been an absurd, agonizing fight, but it was finally over.
"Do you want to continue in the arena, or do you want to move on to the next phase of the tutorial?"
"First rule of cheating, repeat until you get tired"
As Data's voice sounded, the rat's body disappeared in a beam of light. Part of the lights fell on Ikky's body; it was like when a ray of sunlight hits your back in the middle of winter, warm, pleasant...
Ikky opened the statistics window to check if there were any changes...
Life: 10/12
Mana: blocked
Spirit: blocked
Ki: blocked
Skills: No skills registered
Level: 1; Exp: 2/1000
Shit, only 2 per thousand experience, this wasn't going to be easy.
"Data, let's continue."
Ikky didn't move, staying in place in the space between the pulpit and the wall... Another rat came out of the door in front... The game started again, cover himself with the shield, stab, wait... This time, one of his stabs to the front hurt the rat in a front leg... It didn't stop it, but it made it angry... It stuck its other paw and teeth into my shield and hung on it.
He didn't think about it; he didn't plan it. He turned around with the rat hanging and smashed the rat against the wall with all his weight and strength, he continued hitting the wall with his shield and until the animal broke free and fell to the ground... The rat was stunned and he did not miss the opportunity and stabbed it with his spear, nailing it to the ground once again...
"DIE!" He screamed like a madman... It was not rage, it was fear, it was the survival instinct screaming from every pore.
Another beam of light came out and headed towards his body. Compared to the five minutes of fight with the first rat, this one had lasted barely 50 seconds...
Data's voice boomed again...
"Do you want to continue in the arena, or do you want to move on to the next phase of the tutorial?"
"Let's continue..."
I could tell you that the next 8 rats were easy, that Ikky got used to it until he became an expert... but it wasn't like that; each one was a war; Lee's spear hand hurt from the friction, his shield arm hurt from the weight, his back hurt from his crouching posture, some managed to bite the boy's leg, others, when dodging the spear, launched themselves forward, hitting the shield and making him fall and hurt himself... But he survived, somehow, with the ugliest and saddest fight he managed to survive...
Life: 9/12
Mana: blocked
Spirit: blocked
Ki: blocked
Skills: No skills registered
Level: 1; Exp: 2/1000
"Let's continue..."
That time, two rats came out...
If taking care of a rat with the shield and hitting it with the spear was difficult, imagine two at once. They attacked at the same time, one jumped and the other attacked from below. In the end, and by pure chance, he managed to stab one of them in the face. The blade of the spear entered the eyeball, leaving the animal cold and dead in a few seconds... I think that's what saved Ikky, if he hadn't had that stroke of luck the fight would have ended in a very different way...
I finished off the other one as best I could, but this couldn't go on like this. It was too much: tiredness, pain, stress... how many rounds could the boy last at this rate?
At that moment is when the cheater's analytical ability came into play, he couldn't continue facing them on the ground, that was certain death, the safest place was the statue, above the pulpit. Between the statue and the edge there was no more than 30 centimeters; However, there were almost 50 between the statue and the wall. Considering that rats rarely jumped more than a meter and a half, he could be more relaxed... He wedged his body between the statue and the column with the shield in front and his right arm on the shield, holding the spear upside down like a fisherman with a trident...
We won't say that the next 20 rats were easy or that he wasn't exhausted, but from the height and with the peace of mind of not having been hurt, he was getting used to the work, to the routine, he was already able to breathe normally, despite the pain of bites and scratches he could continue in the sand.
"Continue..."
He could barely feel his arms. He was tired, but he continued on. The rounds followed one after another, and every 10 rounds, the number of rats increased... 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16 rats at a time... Only a few rats managed to climb up to the pulpit, so most of them were stabbed from above. It was at this moment that the bastards began to climb over the corpses of their comrades.
At this critical moment, Ikky's spear shot forward at point-blank range and cleanly pierced through one of the beasts that tried to jump to reach him. The rat died instantly. It was round 71...
Although there were still 7 of the 16 rats harassing him, Data's voice echoed: "The precision attack skill has been created. Quality 01/1000."
Although it may seem like a small thing, aiming the spear was no longer so difficult, Ikky had no time to meditate on the change, it was the skill that made it easier for him to hit, or it was getting used to it that had created the skill, he had to stop and think about it when he had time.
From that moment on Ikky began to hit the legs, torso and head of his enemies following my will and not by luck... He didn't always hit, but the improvement was considerable
Life: 7/12
Mana: blocked
Spirit: blocked
Ki: blocked
Skills: Precise Throw 1/1000*Combat
Level: 1 Exp: 852/1000
The effectiveness in killing the rats increased, although with the fatigue and the accumulation of wounds, I didn't know how much longer I could hold out fighting. The only thing that consoled me were Data's first instructions; death in the tutorial wouldn't count... I just had to keep going and going until I fainted.
He was breathing hard and huffing, but he continued... He wanted to check something. What the hell was going on when you leveled up? How many damn rats could come out at once? Would something special happen on the 100th round?...
Four rounds later, Data said the expected message
"Congratulations on being the first player to reach level 2 during the first phase of the tutorial"
"Title earned: The Persistent"