So far, it had been a typical summer for most of the students. They had just finished taking their final exams, and some were planning to apply for their university. While others were moving up a grade in school. But what no one expected while out that day, was to receive a notification they hadn't seen in an entire year.

[User Pendragon is online]

The online forums and communities went wild once more.

*Ding

"Hey did you see, he's back?"

"Yeah, I guess he didn't die after all."

"Maybe he was in an accident or something?"

"We have to tell everyone this is big news."

But then something even more shocking was seen. Instead of selecting the usual two warriors, they had seen him play before. An entirely new warrior was selected.

"Is that Heros Puer, I don't know anyone that plays him."

"Yeah, the pro's said he's quite difficult to master even for newbies, especially since the warrior has no skills. Who has the time to learn a character that hard."

"Well, he can try out characters for now I guess."

Because the account Pendragon had not been active for more than a year, currently he was unranked. Every year a new season started which meant all the ranks got reset. However, based on your rank last year, when playing your first ten games to see where you would be placed, they would usually only match you with people two whole ranks below.

So right now, Pendragon was only going up against gold players. Still, everyone was excited to see the Virtual sword god back online.

"Are we sure it's him playing?"

"It has to be, the Virtual machine is linked to the person by scanning their face. Sure they can make multiple accounts, but no one else can play using the account Pendragon.

What the others didn't know was that in today's game, it was not the usual Arthur or George; instead, it was Novis.

As he entered the game, he started to look around at the scenery.

"It's been so long."

"You've had a growth spurt in this last year." George said. "I can hardly tell any difference between you and your warrior now."

Novis now was at the age of 16 and had just finished secondary school. Before students at this age had two choices, they could either go to work or start aiming for a university. The actual university course wouldn't start until you were 18. But they also had a preliminary University you could join for two years at age 16.

Usually, universities would use these two years to grow their talent and eventually place them into their own pro team. Although if you showed incredible talent at ages 16 and 17, at the preliminary university, you would still be able to join their team.

For the last year, Novis had been training hard for this day. Taking Arthur and George's advice, they told him to stop playing the game and try his best at experiencing danger in the real world.

It was different compared to fighting in the game or in the dream world, where there were no real risks. Although it felt real, there was no pain and no chance of dying. If Novis wanted to increase his sword energy, then he would need to experience pain and actual risk.

For the last year he had been doing odd jobs helping out trying to save money, while also training his body. Once he had obtained enough money, he would buy a train ticket and travel to the nearby town and cities looking for fighting experts.

One at a time, Novis would challenge these so-called experts. If he lost, he would go train harder and come back until he beat them travelling once again. Between the real-world fighting community even, Novis was starting to get his own name. Crazy boy.

Dan was actually the one who got him in contact with most of these well-known fighters, some even only fighting on the street.

They thought that perhaps the Crazy boy being so young would be able to show the world the true art of real fighting at the next Olympic games. Something that had been losing popularity ever since the introduction of the Esport Olympics.

However, one day the Crazy boy stopped appearing.

"Do you mind if I take mid?" Novis asked the other contestants on his team.

"Yeah sure, just don't make us lose." A person replied before another one pulled him off to the side.

"Hey, don't you know who that is? Can't you see his player ID?" The other person whispered.

"Huh, is he famous or something, I've only been playing a year."

"Just type in virtual sword god into PlueTube, and you will see what I'm talking about."

The man who had pulled the other to the side stepped forward.

"Sure please go ahead, and I hope you can carry this game for us."

Novis then rushed forward into his lane without saying much to the others. The reason he was playing on Pendragon's account rather than his own Pronovis was because his rank had only reached silver last season.

If he was to join a game at most, he would only be playing against bronze players the weakest of weak. Novis wanted to see if his training had paid off, so he decided to use Arthur's account.

"Now remember, no sword energy." Arthur said, "if your opponent is not using sword energy, then you are banned from using it. Relying on it will only worsen your skill."

"I remember," Novis said.

As he charged forward into the middle lane, an arrow came flying out from the side of the forest.

"An ambush already." Novis said, "Your user ID really does cause problems."

Instead of going to the enemy player stationed on the other end of the tower, Novis decided to head into the forest to deal with the ranged user first. Although he hadn't been playing the game, he had been doing research non-stop.

Watching how the pro's played, learning all of their tricks, and about decision making. Even though Novis was no longer on the team, he was still good friends with the VSW club, and from time to time he would ask Alex for help or his opinions on what he would do in certain situations.

As Novis ran towards the forest, the user readied his bow once again. From behind, Novis could hear footsteps. The man in the centre had followed him.

"What a pain."

Waiting for the perfect moment, Novis kept his eye on the bow user. He drew back his string and then just as he was about to fire, Novis quickly dashed to the side and threw out his chain blade wrapping around the bow user's hand.

He yanked on the chain, pulling the target slightly to the left. All of this was done with perfect timing, and at the same time, the arrow had left the bow.

But what Novis was aiming for was using the attack to his own advantage. He had changed the course of the attack to aim in a specific direction. His own teammate who was behind him.

The enemy had no time to react as the bow came towards him, and it hit him straight in the chest, causing him to flinch.

Before he knew it, Novis was already behind the man with the spear in his hand, he plunged it into the players back, but chose a specific spot where it wouldn't kill the man. The game was hyper-realistic to the point where it charted all the human organs in the body.

As long as he didn't hit anything too severe, the person wouldn't burst into blue particles. Using the spear and his own body, he pushed the teammate forward using him as a shield against the ranged user, then finally when they were close enough. Novis jumped on top of the man's shoulders and sliced both of their heads off at the same time with the long sword.

"A bit of a brute but fair enough." George said.

The game continued with no more players attacking Novis and eventually he had one his very first game.

Watching the display and unique use of items got the online community excited once again.

"Did he take a year off just to learn how to play this character?"

"That could be possible, maybe he went and tried to learn all these weapons to master the warrior, perhaps he's actually really OP if you learn how to use him."

"He's a genius, how can someone play three different warriors almost perfectly. He really will upset the pro scene."

The online community couldn't stop praising the virtual sword god, some users felt he was a little rusty compared to other matches in the past, but their reasoning was because he was using an entirely new warrior that he was quite unfamiliar with.

There was one person who was also watching the Virtual sword god, and that Was Josh form Tick media.

"That character he's using, it reminds me of that Boy, Novis."

Although many had long forgotten of the feats, Novis achieved two years ago. Josh did not, he thought one day that Novis would come back and upset the scene next year but was surprised when he saw he was no longer on the Montem team.

He couldn't find out the reason why and was afraid he might have dropped the game altogether. Or perhaps had serious family matters. The way the Virtual sword god fought now, remind him of the Novis back then.

'If he had trained for a year, would he be this good now?' Josh thought.

No, it was impossible. The virtual sword god and Novis skills were miles apart. Perhaps one day but there was no way they were the same person.

One more person was watching the match and smiled at the screen.

"looks like your back Novis, and stronger than ever. See you at the pro games." Hastam said.

****

Special thanks to edboy49, yogoboi, AsuraNineThoughts, and Shurikyn_13, for the gifts really help me with my goal of becoming a full time author.