Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord

Chapter 10 - Tutorial Clear

Yes, you read the chapter title correctly. And that means that after this chapter, you won't have to ever hear about the tutorial or ants again!

Okay, that's a lie, but I am serious that you won't be hearing from the tutorial again for a long time.

That all being said, let's get back to me getting my butt kicked by tutorial enemies, shall we?

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15 HP against hundreds of ants at once? Yeah, I don't even need to bother telling you how that went, do I? Well, I guess I can spare a few words. It was anticlimactic.

Dang, I wish I could claim that pun was intentional.

Anyway, I slid down the hill, and I found out that one of the new species of ants (that have a green body, but black head and thorax) spit acid. At long ranges. Yeah.

One quick death and subsequent respawn later, I found myself back in the tunnel at the top of the hill. I looked around. "New respawn location, check." I moved my now sluggish-feeling body around a bit. "Back to level one, check." I snuck a peek out of the tunnel to look at the ants. Plan to take out all these ants? Not check. I should probably fix that.

Okay, what do I know? I know the normal ones deal 1 damage and have 10 HP. I know that the fire ones also deal 1 damage since I am immune to fire and that they have 25 HP. I know that the green ones spit acid, so those should probably be my first target. The other new type of ant caught my eye. It was white with a red cross pattern on it. Nevermind that has to be a healer. Healers first, or I will be fighting an uphill battle the entire time.

I pulled my head back in and sat down further back in the tunnel. "Hmm. Even if I killed every ant with just one point of stamina, I don't think I would make it. So, what's the play? Just whittle them down one at a time?" I thought back to the fight where Gertrude and I had fought hundreds of ants in the obelisk room. Well, it would work, at least.

The only other option is to try to find a place to hide after picking off a couple ants at a time. I got back up to covertly scan the room again and look for hiding places. I didn't see anything useful. Lots of lava channels. Some rough bridges over them. Some... Rocks. It felt like I was forgetting something, but I shrugged it off.

"Okay, the goal is to take out 1 healer a life. That's it. I got this." I psyched myself up and then half charged, half slid down the hill. The ranged ants noticed me and opened fire. I dodged 2 globs of acid but took a third directly to my face.

I growled in frustration and pain but remembered. Right, damage check! I dodged another two projectiles as the melee combatants closed in. I took a quick look at my status and was stunned for a moment. Which caused me to be hit by 2 more balls of acid. "5 HP per hit!? Am I even going to be able to get a single kill down here!?" I managed to finally get onto level ground and was soon surrounded.

My goal was to just get a single kill. I went to town on the healer. I was getting hit with acid, bit from multiple angles, and my legs were also grappled. I soldiered on and kept punching the ant in front of me. Fortunately, the healers only had 5 HP. Unfortunately, with all the ranged attacks I was taking, I barely managed to get the kill before I was downed and respawned back in the tunnel.

However, my objective was accomplished, and I now had a gameplan, even if it would take me ages. I stuck with it through several more deaths and respawns.

The results were mixed. Sometimes I would get grappled, surrounded, and then acid balled to death. Sometimes I managed to kill two or three healers before being taken out. Either way, I was making slow but steady progress.