D.I.O

vel 10 that difficult? No matter how hard it is, hunting for a long time would level me up anyway, wouldn’t it?”

“The system of D.I.O is based on the user's demonstration of abilities, and therefore, playing this game for a long time doesn't lead to an automatic level up.
It does give you some advantages though.”

Mari then took out a clear glass marble from her pocket. 

“What is that?” asked Yongno.

“Nothing special.
It's a process of accepting you as our official user.
Give me your left hand.”

Mari stretched out her hand to him, and Yongno stuck out his left hand to grab hers.
Mari then placed the marble on the back of his palm.

“Ouch!” Yongno shouted.

“Such a crybaby.
Anyway, this is it.”

After her remark, Yongno looked at the back of his left palm.
A blue mark came into his view.
It had some strange letters in a circle with a few empty boxes.
 

“Okay, so are you ready to take the test?” asked Mari.

“What? A test? At the start of the game?”

“It's like a mock exam to prepare for the tests that you'll be continuously taking afterward.
Well then, Test Site!”

As she screamed jokingly, twenty doors appeared in the empty room.
They consisted of red, blue, green, and yellow doors.
Each of them had different words written on it.
The five doors on the 'Manufacturing' row were labeled: 'Weapon Production,' 'Clothes Making,' 'Magic Items,' 'Art,' and 'Potions Concoction'.
On the 'Daily Life' row, the doors were labeled: 'Cooking,' 'Information Gathering,' 'Search,' 'Farming,' and 'Medicine.' For the 'Adventure' section, the doors were titled: 'Collection,' 'General Knowledge,' 'Transportation,' 'Theft' and 'Training.' Lastly, the 'Battle' row had 'One to One Battle,' 'Escort Battle,' 'Rescue,' 'Group Battle,' and 'Assassination.' 

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“Are these all tests?”

“Yup, right now, you are Level 1.
If you pass all these tests, you become Level 2.
After then, you'll be, eventually, entering the world of D.I.O.”

“If I don't pass them, I'll be staying here forever?”

“These are super easy, so that won't happen.
Let's see…
Shall we start with 'produce weapons?' Are you ready?”

When Mari pulled Yongno's arm, he was dragged into the door.
As soon as he went inside, the door was gone, and words appeared.

/Welcome to the 'Weapons Production' test./ 

/Stage 1 Collect Materials––Mining/

“Mining…
Are you serious…?”

Yongno found himself holding a pickaxe in his hand.
The tool was too obvious to question what he was supposed to do.

Mari replied, “Yes, start working.”

“Gosh! How can you start working already? This is such a brutal game!”

Yongno grumbled but began to follow the rule.
He felt bewildered, but just as she said, it wasn’t a difficult task. 

Clang! Clang!

Digging the minerals with the pickaxe wasn't so challenging.
All he had to do was hold the ax up high and pound it on the ground.
The minerals weren't too firm to dig; it even felt quite easy for Yongno.

/You gained a new skill – Mining!/

“Eh? Mining?”

“It's a trivial skill.
Digging the ground to that level seems enough, so take the minerals.
Here's your sack and shovel.”

Geez, they are treating people so harshly. 

Moaning, he used the shovel to move the minerals into the sack.
He dug the ground for a short time, but he found quite a lot of minerals, so the sack was soon filled with the solid materials that he just extracted.
When Yongno did the last shoveling, a word appeared in the air.

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/Clear!/

“Eh?”

“You passed.”

“For what? Did I really do something?”

“I told you it's super easy.”

Mari shrugged, and at the same time, a new window popped up in front of them.

“Oh, those are iron ores…
No, that's not the point here.
Anyway, are the shovel and pickaxe also a reward? 

“It's the beginning of the game, so we're being generous.”

“But these are too heavy to carry.”

“Stop being fussy.
You're now a user with an inventory.”

“Inventory?”

“So to speak, it's something like this.”

Holding up the sack of iron ores from the ground, Mari pushed it into Yongno's arms.
A square space then opened.

“This is…?”

Mari replied, “How's that? Now you get it?”

Although it wasn't visible like the stat window or the quest window as Mari described, Yongno was now able to illustrate a compact little space in his head.
Inside of it, there were iron ores that Mari just gave him. 

She explained, “It's called inventory, a sort of an individual space provided to all users.
The size is 2x2x2; the weight limit for it is up to 100 kilograms.
Basically, you can open it inside a dark pocket or bag, but once you get used to it, you can open it anywhere.
However, the inventory is quite fragile, so you better not open it up during a battle.
Using the inventory to snag a flying attack is worse; also, make sure it doesn't get attacked by something with high heat or a bombardment loaded with energy.”

She also murmured, “I don’t recommend exposing it to light energy either.
That's why the inventory must be opened in the dark.
I don't even want to talk about avoiding magic attacks.”

“Then what happens if the inventory gets directly attacked?” asked Yongno.

“It’ll be badly affected, so you won't be able to open it up for a while.
However, it opens and closes in an instant according to the user's thoughts.
As long as you don't foolishly allow it to be under attack, no problems will occur.”