Hell Difficulty Tutorial 5 characters

Also known as Nat, No Name

Appears from the start

The book's first-person narrator: a detached, exacting young man who has survived the lethal 'tutorial' on its hardest 'Hell' setting across its earlier floors. Book five opens with him handed into what proves an ambush by his own former teacher, beginning a punishing regimen meant to force him past the crude, power-hungry habits he has leaned on. Fiercely protective of the few people he claims as his own, he keeps everyone else at arm's length behind rigid self-control and hides his rarest abilities from strangers.

Appears from the start

An ancient, near-omnipotent warrior who trained Nathaniel in an earlier book and reappears here in a younger, physically flawless form, distinct from the aged version he faced before. Rather than killing him as an old bargain intended, she binds him to a two-week trial under five strict survival rules, each enforced by the threat of death, meaning to rebuild his fundamentals from the ground up. She describes herself as a flawed copy of a greater original, and is by turns brutal, exacting, and unexpectedly candid about her own long decline.

First appears in chapter 6

A historical champion of the fifth floor's ruined world, referenced in the previous book and met in person here for the first time. She rules an enormous underground workshop-city powered largely by her own mana, and once helped bring down those responsible for the catastrophe that wrecked her world. A foreign object lodged in her shattered mana heart is slowly killing her; Lissandra offers a containment method that could buy her years, in exchange for information and a 'lesson' for Nathaniel. Blunt, profane, and unexpectedly warm for a champion.

Also known as Volcanic Hydra

First appears in chapter 19

The name Nathaniel gives a wary creature lurking in the molten core of a pyramid-shaped ignition station called Cinder. It proves to be a mutated hydra, the surviving remnant of a giant serpent that once attacked the structure and was killed by its defenses, left circling the buried body of the station's dead founding champion for a century while failing to fully claim his residual power. Nathaniel kills it in a hard-fought, oddly respectful duel and lets its remains sink back into the lava.

Also known as The Disciple

First appears in chapter 21

The young half-demon girl whom Nathaniel raised and named as his disciple on the fifth floor, now returned to her own home world. She appears only briefly here: safe but far away, formally recognized as his first disciple, and newly watched over by a mysterious, powerful projected figure who claims to be guarding her. Her wellbeing remains one of the few things Nathaniel is unconditionally protective of.

First appears in chapter 29

A friendly local of Beyond - one of the descendants of earlier tutorial generations who settled there permanently - whom Nathaniel pays for guidance on the realm's guilds, rankings, and predatory recruitment contracts. Practical and good-natured, he becomes Nathaniel's first real source on how Beyond actually works.

First appears in chapter 32

The senior mage of the five-person expedition unit Nathaniel joins on Beyond's first floor, specializing in barriers and wide-area attacks. Quiet and experienced, she directs the newcomers in the field and, unnoticed by most, tags each of them with a hidden marker carrying a location ping and one-use disruption and attention pulses - a covert precaution Nathaniel discovers but quietly leaves unmentioned.

First appears in chapter 32

A small-winged nonhuman on Nathaniel's expedition unit, whose hair and eye color shift with her emotions, though she can fake the effect at will. She fights with a mental stun ability and speaks of having lost squadmates on an earlier floor to a powerful mind-controlling foe. Guarded and quick-witted, she becomes Nathaniel's uneasy partner once their unit is thrown into danger.

First appears in chapter 32

An unarmored close-range fighter on Nathaniel's expedition unit, relying on unusual natural durability and fast regeneration alongside a dagger and mace. Blunt and faintly cruel, he is quick to object to a raw deal but easily talked round, and reads as the muscle of the group.

First appears in chapter 32

An older nonhuman scout on Nathaniel's expedition unit, with elongated arms and grey skin. Nearly silent, he summons quick scouting creatures from a black substance and keeps to the edges of the group, watchful and hard to read.

Also known as Lioren

First appears in chapter 39

One of the most feared 'named' lurkers haunting the first floor of Beyond - the reanimated dead who respawn there. A demon of towering height, a pair of short black horns rising from a mane of long white hair, he wields an almost total command of kinetic energy, able to freeze an opponent's own momentum and blood in place. He becomes the relentless presence hunting Nathaniel through the ruined floor.

First appears in chapter 40

Nathaniel's group's primary healer, who also fights with a devastating disintegration touch. She finds him critically wounded on his return from Beyond and heals him, having waited nearby specifically expecting him to come back in a bad state. Warm and steady, she is deep into research on bone-strengthening and blood-triggered healing marks, much of it aimed at eventually reinforcing Nathaniel's body, and holds a patient, openly stated fondness for him.

Also known as Set

First appears in chapter 41

The de facto leader of Nathaniel's group, a calm, persuasive fighter who wields lightning and javelins. By the time he rejoins them she has taken over the remnants of a rival faction and become its head, steering a long-term project to secure everyone's families for after the tutorial. She is one of the people Nathaniel has known and trusted longest, and the driver of the group's push toward the distant Central Region.

First appears in chapter 41

The group's telepathic corgi, by now a seasoned veteran of the tutorial in his own right. He speaks mind-to-mind in short, food-fixated phrases and shares a long-standing, openly affectionate rapport with Nathaniel - he is the first to greet him when Nathaniel finally rejoins the group, proudly showing off how much faster his floating has become.

First appears in chapter 55

One of two four-armed Thylarin brothers exposed as the passengers behind the sabotage of the desert crossing, captured alongside his sibling after trying to flee. Sons of a deceased champion candidate, the pair are experienced, tightly coordinated fighters who follow the same Pride-driven path Nathaniel does, and it is Dravos who finally explains what the desert really is - a purpose-built prison - and where the crippled vehicle is now heading.

First appears in chapter 76

A composed, black-haired Earth attendee and first-round tournament winner who joins the seven-person alliance Nathaniel assembles for a first-floor Beyond expedition. She travels with a golden retriever, Luna, and acts as the group's peacemaker, defusing friction between its prickliest members.

First appears in chapter 76

A red-haired Earth attendee from a later tutorial round who joins Nathaniel's Beyond expedition alongside the archer Noelle. Unarmored and outwardly unarmed, he fights at close range and openly disdains the whole champion-and-ruler political layer, preferring a straight fight. He and Noelle are plainly close.

First appears in chapter 76

An Earth attendee from a later tutorial round who joins Nathaniel's Beyond expedition, fighting as an archer with an unusual stringless metal bow. Reserved and evidently well-informed about the first floor's 'named' lurkers, she profiles them for the group. She and the red-haired fighter Derick are clearly a couple.

First appears in chapter 80

Leticia's golden retriever, and far more than an ordinary animal. Once Leticia's guide dog before the tutorial, she can grow to horse size in a fight, and startles the whole party by speaking aloud in a soft human voice. She is the only member of the group able to reliably track incoming lurkers.

First appears in chapter 78

One of the more dangerous 'named' lurkers of Beyond's first floor: a grey-skinned, long-limbed humanoid who moves by flickering in and out of view at extreme speed. He fights with a near-transparent, poison-coated mana dagger that resists Nathaniel's usual defenses, ambushing the expedition and wounding several of its members before escaping, badly hurt and missing an arm.