Chaper 5: Encounter with PK

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There I was fighting skeletons and ghouls in the depths of an ancient tomb dungeon near Rygar. Every monster was much stronger than monsters that I had already fought. After bashing the skull of the skeleton I was fighting I saw an ice spike spell heading towards me. Too late for me to dodge, i raised my left hand and focused mana into it.

A small bolt of lightning left my hand hitting the ice spike head on. It wasn’t enough to crush it but the impact had caused the spell to miss me. Searching for the source of the spell I immediately noticed a skeleton nearly 2.5 meters tall. It had a tattered black robe with black plate gauntlets and greaves. Even though it wore a hood it’s bright red eyes could still be seen giving it a menacing appearance.

“There he is! Rahgut, the Lich Sorcerer!” someone shouts behind me

“Alright, mages and archers focus on the boss! DPS finish off the mobs first while tanks aggro the Lich!”

Following the instruction of the raid leader we started to move into formation. The ranged attackers were behind the tanks casting and shooting at the lich sorcerer while the tanks blocked its blows from swinging its staff and dodging spells. As part of the DPS group I focused on a group of undead that just risen from stone sarcophagus-like things on the wall.

Facing 3 undead I immediately charged lightning to my feet and left and dashed to the nearest one. Forming electric claws from my left hand a thrust them into its chest before using lightning blade to stab it in the opening of it’s rusty helmet.

As I turned one of them was already swinging a hammer down on me as I quickly parried the blow while grabbing the hammers long handle and kicking the undead effectively disarming it while sending it backwards. Suddenly alarms start ringing in my head as I tilted my head to the right. Looks like the last one snuck up to me and slashed at my face, fortunately because I noticed it the attack only left a shallow cut on my left cheek.

Focusing on the last one I saw that its chest wasn’t wearing any thick steel armor like the other ones. Realizing this I just moved backwards forming daggers of lightning and threw them at the undead making them stick to its unprotected chest. After 3 times, it collapsed on the floor as I slashed it’s neck to make sure it was dead.

“Yosh, the mobs are down! DPS hold the Lich for a while! Tanks fall back for healing!”

I quickly ran up the boss and relieved a warrior with iron armor and huge shield. As I got into position the boss noticed me and suddenly swung it’s bone staff at me causing me to block with sword. Seeing its legs unguarded I ducked down I did a low sweep kick which connected. I expected the Lich to fall down but it turned out it could float as it was hovering a few feet away from me.

“Damn it, don’t let it escape the formation!”

Hearing this the DPS group surrounded the boss followed shortly by the tanks. Looks like the healing’s finished... I thought of falling back but I could still go on so I stood there facing the boss.

Now we had it completely surrounded with 3 full armor warriors, 4 DPS including me, while 2 mages and 2 archers were behind the melee group. Looks like the boss is nearly defeated now.

“It’s on it’s last legs , don’t get careless!!!” the raid leader shouted

With us slowly chipping away it’s health from all sides the Lich boss was unable to block all the attacks aiming for it. Finally while it turned it’s back on me I lunged at its back stabbing my sword and channeling lightning to it. The lich let out cracking sound at it’s skull as it’s red eye glow faded away.

“Alright, great job Haru! Did you get any drops from it?”

“I didn’t”

“Well, don’t worry. Now we can check the inner tomb, there’s sure to be a lot of treasure there! As you killed it you can take an item first, kay?”

I nodded as I followed the group into the deepest part of the dungeon. There we saw various treasures that was sealed with the Lich here. As I looked around nothing really interested me as most of the items were only useful for mages such as staffs, robes, tomes. Looking around I spotted a piece of black leather armor in a pile in the corner of the room and picked it up.

Ancient Rygarian Leather Armor (Rare)

A black piece of leather armor mad by an ancient craftsman. It has been enchanted with magic by Rahgut, the Sage Lord of Rygar centuries ago

Defense: 68

Strength +5 ; Agility +10

Darkness Resistance +10%

Deciding this was the most useful for me I then equipped it replacing my old leather armor. It’s black color matched my raiju coat making my outfit mostly black in color which suited my black hair.

After picking up the items and splitting them up evenly the group started to return to Rygar.

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“You sure you don’t want to stay with us, Haruki?”

“Sorry, I’ll be leaving for Tyrne soon...”

“Ahh, it can’t be helped...Here I thought we got a good addition to the team. Well, anyway good luck out there okay?” the man left as one by one the raid party split up leaving me standing in the plaza.

Lets see, I guess I’ll sell off the loot first and return to the inn.

This is the fourth day after arriving at Rygar. One the first day I decided to increase my level and found out you could join raids to challenge harder dungeons and it was easier than going solo. For four days I already joined a lot of groups but in the end it was only temporary. I couldn’t even remember a single name from the parties I’ve joined......

While walking to the shop to sell my stuff I decided to check my progress and opened the status menu.

Status[quart=Name,level]Haruki,36[/quart]TitleGoblin Crusher[quart=Health,Mana]3090,3170[/quart][quart=Strength,Dexterity]103,92[/quart][quart=Vitality,Agility]89,127[/quart][quart=Endurance,Intelligence]77,56[/quart][quart=Luck,Wisdom]15,81[/quart]

Sword Mastery (Intermediate) lv.6

Skill that increases the effectiveness of swords

12%+ attack damage, attack speed

Lightning Affinity (Intermediate) lv.5

Increase effectiveness of lightning based attacks, also grants resistance

50% lightning damage, 55% lightning resistance

Athletics (Intermediate) lv.4

Increases player movements. Includes running, jumping, parkour, acrobatics and other body movements

7% increase in agility, better body movement coordination

Lightning blade (Intermediate) lv. 1

Imbues swords with lightning made from your mana

Lightning damage(medium), chance to stun enemy(medium)

Cost: 60 mana/sec

Lightning discharge (intermediate) lv. 2

Able to produce lightning from various body parts according to players will. Direct contact will also affect user.

Mana cost depending on shape and size

Lightning Bolt (Beginner) lv. 4

A spell all mages focusing on the element of lightning use. It is releases a bolt of lightning that targets what the user aims for with high speed and precision

Lightning damage (medium), knock back (very small)

Cost: 150 mana

Lightning Movement (Passive)

Applying lightning elements to your body you can now move faster and have faster reaction to attacks.

+10% movement speed; +100% movement speed when used with lightning discharge

Bond of Love (Passive)

Skill that is most useful when together with your most beloved

Your desire to protect your lover has given you increases in stat gain rate and skill leveling

20% increase in stats and skill power while fighting beside your lover

10% stat increase rate, faster skill leveling

Looks like my growth is rather fast compared to the average player. I guess it’s because I keep training my body and grinding in high level dungeons. All my skills have improved too, I even got a spell to use that was really handy to have. The problem is my skills mana consumption keep rising forcing me to keep investing in wisdom. I also put some stats into intelligence to boost the lightning damage...

Arriving at the shop I was greeted by the same short lady i met on my first day here.

“Back again, eh? You have more items to sell?”

“Yes, I want to sell these....” I show her some rusty weapons and armor dropped by the tomb dungeon monsters, some shiny stones, and a few tomes and accessories from the inner tomb

“Quite the catch today... Let me take a closer look” she took each item and checked each one. “12 gold for everything.” She offered while looking at me

I nodded and received the gold. With the money I made these past few days I was rather rich by now. Deciding it was time to buy a ‘heal’ spell tome I went to the book shop on the main street.

“Welcome, what are you looking for, young man?” an elderly man greeted me.

“Do you have any ‘heal’ tomes?”

“We have a few, the most basic one is 1 gold and 50 silver but it can’t grow to be as effective compared to ones used by holy mages.... We also have one that’s as effective as that but it’s 50 gold.”

EXPENSIVE!!!

“I’ll take the basic one” I said while handing over the money

It won’t be as useful, but at least it could be used as first aid...

After receiving the tome and leaving I opened my inventory and used it.

Basic Heal (Beginner) lv. 1

A basic spell for healing. Can be easily used by anyone without specializing in holy magic

Heals 5 HP/sec ; slowly heals various injuries

Cost: 10 mana/sec

He wasn’t kidding when he said most ‘basic’...

Well it’s better than nothing. Closing the window I started walking back to the inn.

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The sun was setting as the sky was dyed blood red. On the road to the north of Rygar a group of players were close to their destination as they spotted the city walls in the distance. The group had 4 people that had been together for nearly 2 weeks now completing a quest at mountain north of Rygar. They had explored a hidden mountain temple and was now heading back.

In the group there was the leader, a young man with brown hair and handsome looks with steel armor and a greatsword, a blonde haired boy that looked 17 years old carrying a crossbow, and a red haired woman with leather armor and 2 daggers. The 3 of them were walking side by side while chatting about pointless things . It was clear that the 3 knew each other in real life. Behind them was a woman wearing red black robes with the hood covering her face.

“Hey ,Sylva! why don’t you talk with us?” the leader slowed down and walked beside the the hooded girl.

He tried putting his arm around her shoulder only for it to be brushed off. If one would look carefully her face was filled with disgust as the man started getting closer to her. The girl named Sylva could see that the man enjoyed toying with women using false praise and affection.

“Oh, you don’t have to be shy.” The man grinned shamelessly

“”Come on, Mark! Don’t pay any attention to her! She’s too stuck up to even talk to us!” The Woman in leather shot a glare at Sylva

“Now, now Rachel... we’re all friends here right?” Mark says while putting his hand on her back

“As if! We’re just a temporary party! She shouldn’t even be with the three of us!”

“Don’t be like that, Rachel.” The young blond boy said

“You’re on her side too, Sam!?” Rachel yelled “She didn’t even try talking to us for 2 weeks!”

“Well you really weren’t helping by glaring at her every time Mark talked to her. You too, Mark. Would you please stop hitting anyone you meet....” Sam said

“It’s not my fault she thinks she’s too good to talk to us!” Rachel replied loudly “Hey you, we’re talking about you here and you still don’t say anything! Fine! I can’t wait to ditch you after we get to the city!!”

Sylva just kept her silence as she looked straight ahead. She joined the party because she couldn’t possibly finish the quest alone. Having no choice but to look for teammates she ended up with these three. At first she thought they were normal nice people as they were friendly towards each other. Turns out Mark was a womanizer while Rachel had a short temper and lashed out at anyone besides the other two. Sam was most decent from the 3 of them but he would usually just ignore Sylva.

Starting to talk themselves again. Sylva was following them behind alone again. She’d been trapped for nearly 5 months now without any news or information about the hacking. She and everyone else don’t even know if they could return the real world again. She thought about her family out there and started to feel depressed. She worried about her mother and little brother...... Because of this death game their family were torn apart with her unable to meet them.

While she was deep in thought she notice the other three had stopped. Looks like there were 3 men in red steel armor with helmets cover their face blocking their way.

“Who are you guys?” Sam questioned them

Without answering they just silently unsheathed their weapons and walked toward the group of 4.

“Shit, they’re PKs” Mark said readying his weapon

Sam, Rachel, and Sylva all took their battle stances.

Sam moved back as Rachel and Mark took the front lines. The 3 red warriors still silent just started attack slashing and bashing their weapons while the two of them took the attacks while being pushed back.

Sam had started shooting at the red warriors but the bolts didn’t do much damage to them. Sylva also cast fire and ice spells but the one of them blocked the spells with a shield somehow absorbing them.

Realizing they were at a disadvantage the 4 of them were starting to be pushed back. Even though their attacks hit them they didn’t look hurt at all and their HP hardly dropped. Not giving up Sylva kept showering them with spells. Though most were absorbed by the shield one of them had some had hit the targets and did some damage. Because of this the red warrior in the middle used his huge battleaxe to break through the front lines.

He swung his axe from the side aiming at Sam! Sam was just behind Mark and Rachel pelting them with bolts when the warrior broke through. Surprised by the sudden attack and having no means to defend himself Sam couldn’t even react and was cut in half...

“SAM!!” Mark yelled out

“Mark! We can’t stay here! We have to run away, now!!” Rachel screamed

“Bu- but Sam....”

“LETS GO!!!” Rachel grabbed Mark’s hand and ran to the woods

Moments later they couldn’t be spotted anymore. It seems Rachel used her ‘hide ‘ skill on both of them

“Tsk....” the red axe warrior clicked his tongue

The 3 red warriors then turned to Sylva who was standing alone shocked by Sam’s death and abandoned by her party members.

“HAHAHA, look at this girl!! She’s frozen stiff after being ditched by her friends!!” one of them mocked her

Sylva couldn’t move an inch. She was scared..... she just saw someone die in front of her eyes, killed by people who were laughing at her. She panicked and started casting spells wildly at them but they were all blocked as she ran out of mana.

“Heh, you finished already? Why don’t you just stay still and accept your luck woman!” The red axe warrior sneered

Is this it? Sylva thought to herself.... Was this how she was going to die? As prey for people that could even kill for fun? Filled with despair Sylva just lowered her head while thinking about the family she couldn’t meet.

“Oooh, finally give up huh? Now let’s get this over with!”

The man lifted his axe high above his head, as Sylva braced herself for her death...

*ZAAAAAP*

Sylva looked up when she heard the sudden noise. What she saw was a blue bolt of lightning that crashed into the man’s helmet pushing him back a few meters. The three of the focused on the source of the attack and readied their weapons again.

Sylva not knowing what happened also turned around and spotted a person standing 10 meters behind her. The person was a bit taller than Sylva and from the shape of the body was most likely a man. He was wearing black leather armor and a black coat with some dark blue lightning shaped patterns. He had his left arm stretched at the 3 red warriors while his right hand was holding a sword similar to a katana. When she looked at his face she found that he was also wearing a hood covering his face.

“THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!!!!” the man that was hit bellowed

Without a word, the black coated man walked toward them until he stood in front of Sylva and pointed his sword at them...............

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