The portal snapped shut behind Drake, sealing him within the vast, metallic chamber of the Unbeatable Guardian Construct. The air was still, charged with latent power. The massive automaton stood motionless in the center, its single cyclopean eye fixed upon him, radiating an unnerving, cold intelligence. Drake, Level 10, gripped his [Well-Used Longsword] and adjusted the new [Rare Guardian's Buckler] on his arm.
"Alright, 'Unbeatable'. Let's see about that. 90% SCR on Slash and Defend should be more than enough to handle whatever gimmick this thing has."
Confidence still buoyed him. He'd overcome every challenge the tutorial had thrown at him so far through sheer persistence and the advantage of his locked execution. This, he assumed, would be no different – just a tougher version, maybe requiring a few extra minutes. He charged forward, closing the distance to the silent construct.
"Let's get this started!" he muttered, activating [Basic Slash] as he entered melee range. His arm moved with the practiced, perfect arc of 90% SCR.
<< Skill Success! SCR 90%! Damage Dealt: 4! >>
Drake froze mid-swing for his next attack. Four damage? Against a boss? His potent, high-SCR hit had barely scratched its metallic hide. The boss's health bar, displayed prominently in his UI, remained visually unchanged, a colossal bar of solid health points.
"Four?! That's... nothing! Is its armor rating astronomical? Or does it just have millions of HP?"
Before he could process the implications, the Guardian Construct moved. And it moved fast. Not the slow, ponderous movements of the Treant Sentinels or even the deliberate strikes of the Hobgoblins. This was instantaneous, a blur of motion that defied its massive size. Its heavy, articulated fist lashed out with blinding speed.
Drake instinctively tried to activate [Defend]. He saw the phantom shield guide flash for an infinitesimal moment, but the attack connected before his locked 90% SCR execution could even fully complete its defensive motion.
CRUNCH!
<< Damage Taken: 450! >>
Drake's vision whited out as his health bar vanished instantly. HP: 0/210. The force of the blow felt impossibly real through the VR interface, sending his virtual avatar tumbling backwards like a rag doll before dissolving into particles.
<< You have died! >> << Respawning at nearest safe point... >>
He rematerialized outside the instance gate on the stone platform, the Alvari archway now sealed solid again. He stared at it, stunned, his earlier confidence completely shattered. Annoyance quickly surfaced.
"What the hell was that?! One shot? Critical hit for nearly 300 damage? And that speed! That's not just 'Unbeatable', that's broken! Stupid tuning." Still operating under his previous assumption, he immediately tried to bring up the instance interface again, intending to select a lower difficulty like 'Hardcore'.
He focused his intent on the archway. Nothing happened. He tried the specific mental command or gesture that usually brought up instance menus. Still nothing. A flicker of unease started in his gut. He checked his main system menu – no option related to the trial difficulty was available. Then, a stark, simple system message appeared in his log.
<< Difficulty selection is locked for this instance. >>
Drake read it once. Twice. The words hit him like a physical blow, colder and harder than the Guardian's fist. Locked. The ignored warning text flashed in his mind's eye: "Difficulty selection is permanent...""This choice is permanent."
"No... Nononono! Permanent? It can't be! It's the TUTORIAL! You have to be able to finish it! How can they lock it on Unbeatable?! I didn't... I didn't read it properly..."
The annoyance vanished, replaced by a surge of pure, ice-cold panic. His confidence, his arrogance, had led him to make a catastrophic, irreversible mistake. He wasn't just facing a hard boss; he was potentially locked out of progressing his character at all. If he couldn't beat the tutorial boss, he couldn't leave the tutorial zone. He was trapped.
Desperation clawed at him. He forced a logout, ripping off his headset, heart pounding in his chest. The transition to his dimly lit room did nothing to calm him. He scrambled to his laptop, fingers fumbling on the keyboard, searching the Legacy of Alvari forums, Discord servers, wikis – anything he could find about the tutorial boss, difficulty settings, "Unbeatable," getting stuck.
The results were immediate and crushing. Thread after thread echoed the same grim reality. Players who had accidentally, or arrogantly, chosen "Unbeatable" difficulty shared their experiences: the boss was statistically impossible for a Level 10 character, its speed, damage, and defenses tuned for levels far beyond the tutorial cap. The consensus was unanimous and brutal: "If you picked Unbeatable, you bricked your character." "Just delete and reroll, save yourself the time." "There's no known way to change it or beat it at Lvl 10." "RIP Stubborn Ones."
Drake felt sick. Delete? Delete this character? The one who had earned [Eidetic Execution] through literal years of unparalleled grinding in another life? That talent was account-bound maybe, but was it guaranteed to trigger again on a new character? Or was it a one-time legacy reward tied to this specific character's creation syncing with his old KoG account? Losing that skill, the very core of his potential advantage in this skill-based game, felt infinitely worse than losing a few hours of tutorial progress. It felt like losing everything that made this new game potentially worthwhile.
He stared blankly at the forum posts, the advice to just give up, delete, reroll. Most players would. It was the logical, efficient thing to do. Cut losses, start fresh, don't waste time on a guaranteed dead end.
But Drake wasn't most players. His entire gaming existence was built on persistence, on grinding against impossible odds, on hitting a wall and bashing against it until something gave. Deleting felt like admitting defeat, something his core identity rejected. Losing [Eidetic Execution] was unacceptable.
"No. Absolutely not. I didn't grind 50 million mobs just to delete this character because of one stupid, arrogant mistake. Impossible? Maybe for them. They don't have Perfect Recall. They don't have Peak Performance Replication." Panic subsided, replaced by a familiar, colder, almost despairing resolve. The grim determination of the grinder facing an insurmountable task. "They say it's mathematically impossible at Level 10 with normal execution. They haven't accounted for perfect execution, maybe pushed even higher. Or maybe there's a flaw, a pattern, an exploit hidden in its speed that only perfect recall can decipher over thousands of attempts."
He knew it was a long shot, bordering on insane. But it was the only shot he had if he wanted to keep his talent.
He put the headset back on, the world of Legacy of Alvari resolving around him again. He stood before the sealed stone archway leading to his self-imposed prison. He took a deep, calming breath.
"Okay. New plan. Engage. Die. Recall failure point. Analyze boss movement, attack timing, vulnerability windows – nanosecond by nanosecond. Repeat. Push SCR on Defend higher, even if it's just 91%, 92%. Find an opening. There has to be a way. Even if it takes ten thousand deaths."
The true grind, the real weight of persistence, was about to begin. Not for levels, not for loot, but for sheer survival against impossible odds. Drake steeled himself and stepped towards the archway, focusing his intent to enter the Unbeatable instance once more.