Warlock of War: My Ares System

I opened my eyes, only to find myself floating in the air with a somewhat ethereal body.

But, my real body was on the ground, setting my mother's head to the side and standing up.

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[Tutorial has begun]

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Huh? What the hell is happening?

I tried to move around, but it felt like I was in water, so I began swimming through the air.

My Mobility was low, but at least I was able to get down to the ground.

When I went to touched my real body, my hand slipped through.

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[First Step: Wait for the guard to come back]

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Suddenly, the door to the prison swings open, but it looks different.

It was transparent and almost ethereal like myself.

Then, the same guard as always stepped through the real wooden door, and he also had an ethereal form.

He was expressionless and slightly transparent.

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[Second Step: Restrain the guard]

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Upon placing a ghostly plate with the usual scraps into our cell, my physical body picked up a chipped piece of stone and dashed towards the guard's hand.

I was barely able to walk, but my body now was practically sprinting across the cell.

My body then grabbed the hand, and with a display of incredible strength, he interlocked his arm in between the steel bars, holding him in place.

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[Third Step: Stab]

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Ksh Ksh

Repeatedly, my body stabbed the guard's arm with a piece of chipped stone.

Transparent blood sprayed everywhere, my purple hair stained in red.

And even when blood sprayed onto my eye, I didn't blink, sending chills to run throughout my phantasmal body.

I looked down at my ethereal form and saw goosebumps littering my semi-transparent skin.

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[Fourth Step: Pull the arm farther in]

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The limp arm was pulled farther in, eventually squeezing the guard's shoulder through, revealing the side of the man's neck.

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[Fifth Step: Kill]

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And with one clean stab, my body had killed the guard without me inside of it.

[Tutorial Complete]

[Would you like to review the Tutorial once again?]

I glanced up at the panels above me and immediately answered with a,

"No,"

Comprehensible words finally came out of my mouth, but I was still in my ethereal form, so I knew that was the reason why I could actually talk.

[Tutorial has ended]

"Can I ask anymore quest-"

But before I could finish asking, I was suddenly sucked back into my body at a speed that caused me to throw up upon returning to my flesh.

"O-oh, baby, are you alright?" My mother asks, awakened from me choking on the burning stomach acid in my throat.

She sets me upright and begins to pat my back.

You're making me want to throw up even more…

…

It was the next day, and I was currently staring at my status while thinking back on what happened yesterday.

Were those instructions on how to escape? Is that what the system wanted me to do?

I glanced at my mother.

She was sleeping.

I then flipped over onto my belly and pulled my knees into my chest, allowing me to get up very slowly.

In no time, I was walking.

But I wanted to try and sprint now, so I took in a deep breath, walked to the back of the cell, and set my eyes on the prison bars ahead of me.

I started off with a slow jog, but I immediately fell over, slamming my face against the stone.

Uh… My nose.

It wasn't broken, but it definitely hurt.

I glanced up at the cell bars and got up once again.

I walked slowly, then jogged slowly but ended up hitting my face against the ground once again.

The plan provided by the system was so simple-minded that I had a hard time believing it was real.

It was as if one of those monsters had come up with the plan from my previous life.

『Status』

[Name: None]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 1/10] (0/100) XP Needed

[HP: 10/10 MP: 5/5 SP: 5/5] - Normal Human

[Strength: -1] - Sub Human

[Defense: -1] - Sub Human

[Magic: 0] - Normal Human

[Speed: -1] - Sub Human

[Skills: [None]

…

I glanced up at my status and stared coldly at the negative numbers.

Yeah… That plan won't work.

Maybe if I had incredible strength and speed, but obviously, I don't.

Plus, what happens once I kill the guard?

I take the keys, always jingling from his belt, but then what?

I unlock the cell door on the outside with the help of my mother, but then what?

Once we leave that door beyond the cell bars, what happens next?

There's no doubt guards are waiting for us. Plus, my mother won't even be able to leave due to the chain attached to her ankle.

Even if I manage to remove it, she's so weak from malnutrition and exhaustion that even if she was the greatest mage to ever live, she'd die within a second.

Everything about the plan was straight, plain stupidity.

Or maybe… That wasn't the plan.

What if it was showing me the way to go.

Maybe it was showing me that I had to leave this place.

[You have attracted the attention of a few gods]

[They all wonder how you are so intelligent at a mere age of 1]

AH!

The panels that popped up in my face scared me so bad I jumped backward, bruising my shoulder.

[A few of the gods laugh before exiting the viewing area]

What… the hell… So many things… Too many things that I'm unaware of… I can't do this anymore…

And I ended up fainting.

…

Half a year had passed since my birthday, and a new notification appeared.

[Half a year has passed with no progress]

[A tutorial will be given]

Just like last time, I was slammed out of my body into an ethereal form, but I didn't panic much as I expected this to happen.

Over the past half a year, I collected myself and all the information I could get.

This included information on the system… though there wasn't much.

Information on the guard who always gives us two meals a day.

Information on the prison cell my mother and I were in.

I had formulated a plan that had so many risks you could probably call it suicide.

I needed a lot of luck to get through this… but it was my only way now as I've gone through every possibility, and this was the only way.

Tup Tup Tup

My body walked across the room again to find another chipped shard, and thus the tutorial repeated itself again.

It went through the same steps as last time but added one more.

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[Sixth Step: Take the keys]

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And once my body had taken the ethereal keys, the tutorial ended.

[Tutorial Complete]

[Would you like to review the Tutorial once again?]

No…

[Tutorial has ended]

My ethereal body gets sucked back into my own body, and the feeling once again made me throw up all over the floor.

Due to my mother's exhaustion, she didn't wake up this time, but that was good as I needed her to stay away.

Creeeeek

The wooden door opened , and the same guard walked down the three stairs and shoved our plate through the small opening in between the bars.

Okay, let's begin.

But of course, we're not following that stupid tutorial.

[The gods watch intently]