Fear of a fucking rat...

"The first part of the Tutorial begins. Select a weapon or combination of them"

The selection of weapons was not very complex, nor did it leave mind for great inventions: long sword, two-handed sword, broad sword and shield, two daggers, long spear, long spear and shield, short sword and dagger, hammer and shield, two axe hands, one-handed ax and shield, two-handed hammer, hand hammer and shield, bow and dagger...

Any gaming addict would think about the sword, whether in any of its versions, long, two-handed, or short. However, have you ever handled a sword? Not me at least, or it didn't occur to me that a sword blow at something in motion would be easy given by my poor manual skill... However, there was the combination that interested me the most: "spear and shield"... something that guaranteed my defense as well as keeping my enemies as far away as possible...

The first sensation was the weight. Although a wooden stick measuring one meter and 60 centimeters was not an exceptional weight, the metal tip and poor balance felt strange in the hand... The shield was even worse, an object round of almost 80 centimeters in diameter of wood attached to your forearm with a leather strap and a wooden clamp... it weighed like a real dead man... getting used to it would not be an easy task...

Once the weapon was selected, Data's voice said:

"Access the first test of the tutorial, the coliseum of beasts; fight without fear; your death will not count until the three tests of the tutorial are finished"

I was dressed in simple gray linen clothes, without shoes or armor, and armed only with a spear that I did not know whether to hold far behind, in the middle, or further forward. The shield weighed me down... In front of me was a corridor 2 meters wide by 3 meters high, finished in a portcullis door, all in semi-darkness that did not allow me to see further because the light dazzled me...

Sweat and nausea... fighting with my own body, would I even be able to survive? Even though, with the increase in statistics and the new sensations, I felt better than ever, I had never fought in my life. The wildest thing I had experienced was a car accident that was a rear-end... fighting for my life, with my body, are you kidding?

The door opened, and as if compelled by a mysterious force, I was compelled to stumble outwards... The Colosseum was a Roman fighting arena, no more nor less, although there was no one in the stands. It was about 30 meters high. Wide, with four statues in their pulpits, each one to the right and left of the respective portcullis door.

It smelled of sand and blood; it smelled of sweat and beast; the ground was sand and the air was dry, harsh... An animalistic squeak sounded at the portcullis door in front of me... A rat the size of a shepherd German ran in my direction...

"Damn shit... Why a fucking rat?" Have you ever seen a rat the size of a large dog? Well, don't laugh at my reaction or my fear.

I would love to tell you that I stood with my shield and my spear waiting for my enemy, that I was brave and charged, but no, I had already told you that I had no skill, no experience... I did what the most of the world would do: run.

However, no matter how much I ran with my renewed and re-energized body, that damn bug only gradually brought the distance closer to me... 15 meters, 12, 8 meters... When I could already feel its hooves against the sand, I turned around. , the shield in front and the spear held tightly in my hand...

But the fucking rat wouldn't attack from the front... She jumped, and the fucking rat jumped, climbing on top of my shield and grazing my forehead with its dirty teeth...

By pure instinct, I moved my shield, unbalancing it and making it fall, while the stinging and blood ran down my face... While I was paralyzed by the superficial wound, the rat with the nose did not stay still, attacking from under the shield as soon as I regained my balance. To avoid the bite on my leg, I fell backwards on my butt with the shield in front...

"Damn rattttt…"

I couldn't get up; I just went backwards while trying to avoid the rat's changes of direction and its jumps. I barely made it to the wall of the coliseum. I didn't let go of the spear, but it was of little use to me, two scratches on my arm, a bite on the leg... at this rate my first real fight in my life would end with defeat by a fucking rat...

Luck meant that the pulpit of one of the statues was only about 4 meters to my right. Bleeding, faced with the incessant harassment of a rabid rat the size of a large dog, I approached the pulpit. This was about 90 centimeters high by one meter and 20 centimeters wide; that is, it was a corner almost one meter by one meter...

My desperation to get rid of the rat made me poke it with the edge of the spear. It was something superficial, but it made the rat retreat for a few seconds and gave me time to regain my composure and stand up...

I'll always remember those bloodshot eyes and how that rat looked at me... like I was food... but with the corner on my back and enough space to move the spear in front of my shield, things weren't so bad anymore. Easy for that dirty animal. He couldn't get around me...

The problem was that when I was standing 1.85 centimeters tall, the shield barely covered my legs; however, if I squatted down, I could hardly use the spear...

It only occurred to me to open my legs a little, lower my center of gravity as much as I could, put my shield on my left arm in front, and the spear held a little less than halfway but tilted downwards with the sharp blade close to the shield to slide the lance on the side without leaving spaces...

When the rat moved forward, I threw a spear; most, if not all, missed. Hitting a moving target was very difficult; if it moved sideways, I followed it with the shield and changed my focus... This is how the time passed. It was a few eternal minutes, until the rat decided to jump, like in its first attack. I wasn't skilled; it was just that the spear got in the way. It stuck cleanly into the rat's belly, penetrating almost a foot into its body, impaled like a skewer, but still alive...

"You fucking rat, die AAAAA!!!!"

Holding her up had no point or benefit, so I took her to the ground and put all my weight on the spear, sinking it even further into her body. She was not dead, although she was very injured. But I didn't trust it; I rested my shield on it. The head of it was to immobilize her, and I stabbed it again and again until its disgusting body stopped moving. Then she was dead...

"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 the cheater, repeat until you get tired"

While Data's voice sounded, the rat's body disappeared in a beam of light. Part of the lights fell on my body; it was like when a ray of sunlight hits your back in the middle of winter, warm, pleasant.... I opened my stats window to check if there were any changes...

Life:10/12

Mana: locked

Spirit: locked

Ki: blocked

Skills: No skills recorded

Level: 1; Exp: 2/1000

Shit only 2 percent experience, this wouldn't be easy.

"Data, let's continue"

I remained in my place in the space between the pulpit and the wall... Another rat came out of the next door... the game began again, cover myself with the shield, stab, wait... This time, one of my stabs at the front injured the rat in one front leg... It didn't stop her, but it made her angry... She stuck its other paw and teeth into my shield and she stayed hanging from it.

I didn't think about it; I didn't plan it. I turned around with the rat hanging and crushed the rat against the wall with all my weight and strength, I kept hitting the wall with my shield and the rat until she was loose and fell to the ground... She was stunned and I didn't miss my chance and stabbed her with my spear, nailing her to the ground...

"GO DEAD!!!!" I screamed like a man possessed...

Another beam of light came out and headed towards my body. Compared to the five minutes of fighting 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 I got used to it until I became an expert... but it wasn't like that; each one was a war; my spear hand hurt, my shield arm hurt, my back hurt of the posture, some managed to bite me on the leg, others, when dodging the spear, launched themselves forward, hitting the shield and making me fall... But I survived...

Life: 9/12

Mana: locked

Spirit: locked

Ki: blocked

Skills: No skills recorded

Level: 1; Exp: 2/1000

"let's continue..."

This time, two rats came out...

If taking care of a rat with the shield and hitting it with the spear were difficult, imagine two. They attacked at the same time; one jumped, and the other attacked from below. In the end, and by a fluke, I managed to stab one of them in the face. The blade of the spear entered the eyeball, leaving it fried and dead in a few seconds... I think that saved me... I finished with the other one as best I could, but this couldn't continue like this. It was too much: tiredness, pain, stress... how many rounds could I last at this pace?

I took my bet and my decision and got on the pulpit. Between the statue and the edge, there were no more than 30 centimeters; however, between the statue and the wall, there were almost 50. Considering that the rats rarely jumped beyond one and a half meters, I could be calmer... I fit my body between the statue and the column with the shield in front and my right arm above it, holding the spear in reverse like a fisherman with a trident...

I won't say that the next 20 rats were easy or that I wasn't exhausted, but from the height and with the peace of mind of being hardly hurt, I overcame them...

"Continue..."

I could hardly feel my arms. I was tired, but I kept going. The rounds followed one 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 when the bastards were beginning to climb over the corpses of their companions when a point-blank spear went through cleanly from one side to the other. Another to the jumping rat. He died instantly. It was round 71...

Although there were 7 of the 16 left, Data's voice resounded: "Precise throw skill has been created. Quality 01/1000".

Although it may seem like a small thing, aiming the spear was no longer so difficult. I hit the legs, torso, and head following my will and not by luck... I checked my condition...

Life: 7/12

Mana: locked

Spirit: locked

Ki: blocked

Skills: Accurate 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 did not know how long it would last. The only thing that consoled me were Data's first instructions; death in the tutorial would not count...

I was panting and wheezing, but I continued... I wanted to check something out. What the hell happened when you leveled up? How many damn rats could come out at once? Something special would happen in 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 obtained: the persistent"