Chapter 5 - Dual Sword Mastery

+Fatigue recovered fully.

+Satiety dropped under %50. All stats decreased by %50.

Metehan saw these system notifications when he opened his eyes. It was morning in Royal Blood Online. He had slept connected to the game. And strangely he felt better. His fatigue was recovered, not only in the game, in the real life as well.

He got up from the bed and sat on it for a while. The room was quite bright now. It looked like it was around noon. He had slept for a quite while. He stood up and walked towards the door. He could hear some noises coming from the other side of it. He slowly opened the door and saw Mario and a man sitting around a round table.

“Big Brother, you are finally awake!” Mario said with an excited tone while standing up and running towards Metehan. The other man smiled and greeted him with a slight bow.

“Come Big Brother, meet my dad.” Mario held his hand and pulled him towards the man. The man stood up. He was a tall man with a well-built body.

“Nice to meet you, The Great Benefactor of our City. My name is Stefan. I am Mario’s father. I heard you helped Mario and while helping him you also helped the City as well. As his father and a citizen of the City, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

“Ah, you’re welcome. However I didn’t understand the “The Great Benefactor” part. I don’t remember doing anything for being called that.” Metehan asked with a puzzled expression.

“HA HA HA!” Stefan laughed. “I see. You are also very humble. After rehabilitating Lorenzo and his men that caused great trouble for the city and on the top of that even convincing them to join the the City Guard for their redemptions, you can still see it something trivial. It is truly admirable! HA HA HA HA.”

In the early morning, Lorenzo and his man had gone to the City Guards Garrison and begged the current Captain Richard for forgiveness and to let them join the City Guards and make amends for all of their sins. Richard was quite surprised to see such a scene. The group that caused quite trouble for the City were begging him to let them join. The City Guards were currently weak so security level in the City was quite low. That’s why they couldn’t handle with Lorenzo and his gang. The fact that Lorenzo and his gang will stop their evil acts was already a big event but on the top of that they were also begging to join the City Guards for the redemption. Power of the City Guards would boost enormously if they’ve joined. The City Guard could definitely use their strength to increase the security level in the City.

Richard snapped out of his confused state after a little while, “Okay, I will test you for a while. I am not entirely certain about that you really repented. If you cause any trouble or I see any ulterior motive, I will arrest you all immediately and leave you in the jail until you are all rotten. Are we clear?” Richard said with a cold voice. He was still unsure about whether they really repented or not. Nobody would blame him. People don’t change overnight after all.

However the rumour about them repenting their sins and joining the City Guards for redemption had spread like a wildfire in the City. Even Stefan who just recently turned back to the City heard about it. And when he heard Mario’s story about his mother’s necklace were stolen and it was taken back by someone, he connected the dots. That person must have caused them repent for their sins. There were not any other explanation. He must have somehow made them realized what they’ve been doing was wrong and made them repented. That had made Stefan so surprised that he even forgot to scold Mario. Mario was happy about it. He was expecting a scold but he didn’t get any. Anyway, Metehan didn’t know about it so he was puzzled.

“Gurrr~~”

Stefan stopped laughing when he heard the sound. Metehan was hungry and his stomach had grumbled.

“Oh, so you are hungry. We were about eat something. Join us.” Lorenzo invited him with a warm smile on his face.

“Ah thank you for your kind offer. However I have food with me.” Metehan refused their offer kindly. And took out a wheat bread from his bag.

“Is that all of your food? Just a wheat bread?” Stefan asked with a puzzled expression.

“Yes, it is enough for me.“ Metehan answered with a blushing face.

“I see. You are acting humble again. However you are my guest now. So you have to eat with us. I just got back from hunting with plenty of preys. So don’t worry about causing us trouble and eat with us. It is rude to reject someone's kind offer.” Stefan protested it with a serious expression. Metehan couldn’t reject their offer anymore and joined them on the meal. Stefan had cooked a deer stew with potato in it. It was very delicious.

After thanking for the meal, Metehan left the house. Mario’s house was in a back alley so he had to walk a while before he reached the main street. There were many people in the street. It was very hard to distinguish players from NPCs. Since the images were transferred directly to your brain, the NPCs and other players’ avatars were exactly like real people.

Metehan passed the street and started to walk towards the south gate of the City until an old man with white hairs and white bread stopped him.

“Oh, Great Benefactor please help me.” The old man said with a worrisome voice.

“How can I help you?” Metehan responded with a gentle voice.

“My name is Sithred. I am a merchant of this humble City. I have an order to deliver until tomorrow however I don’t have all of the necessary goods in the order. I am short 1000 rabbit meats. Can you please provide me 1000 rabbit meats? You can get it by killing Wild Rabbits in the forest near the south gate of the City. Of course I will give you a reasonable reward for it.” Sithred continued. And a window popped up in front of Metehan.

[Quest : Urgent Request of the Merchant Sithred]

Sithred is a merchant who lives in Semerkant City. He has an order to deliver but he is short 1000 rabbit meats required in the order. Sithred asks you to get them by killing Wild Rabbits in the forest near the south gate.

Restrictions : You have to provide 1000 rabbit meats until tomorrow. If you can’t, you will fail the quest and you won’t take it again.

Difficulty : F

Reward : Some money

Do you accept the quest?

‘Hmm, I was planning to grind level anyway. I can complete the quest meanwhile.’

“Sure. I will bring you 1000 rabbit meats until tomorrow. Please rest assured. “ Metehan answered gently.

“Thank you, Great Benefactor. I will be waiting your good news.”

+You accepted the quest.

Metehan left the City via south gate and head to the forest. There were many players grinding in the forest. Each of them had formed parties with 4-5 people and they were hunting Wild Rabbits. Metehan stood and watched them for a while.

Wild Rabbits were spawning in flocks in certain spots with about 4 minutes intervals. Each flock had 5 rabbits in it. Parties with 4-5 people were having hard times with dealing them. When one of them got attacked, all of the Wild Rabbits in the flock were attacking the attackers. And they were amazingly agile. Their attack power wasn’t high but their movements and attack speeds were extremely high. Instead of one strong attack, they were dealing multiply weak attacks. However the speed of the attacks were so high that it was more effective than a single strong attack. That’s why they were grinding with parties, not solo.

“Damn it! I don’t want to get involved with anyone.” Metehan cursed silently. He didn’t want to join any party. However it didn’t seem like he could hunt them easily by himself. The quest he took seemed more difficult than it stated. If he had simply joined a party, he could easily grind and collect the required rabbit meats. However that was out of question for Metehan. So he kept going into the dept of forest. After walked about half an hour, he reached a spot with no players grinding.

‘What should I do now? I watched the movement patterns of the Wild Rabbits. It would be impossible for normal players to hunt them alone but I am not a normal player. I am a martial artist. I should be able to handle them by using my personal experience. Okay, let’s give it a try.’ Metehan decided to try to take them on alone.

Wild Rabbits were normally passive monsters. Unless you attack them, they won’t attack you. Metehan slowly approached the flock. One of them felt his presence and started to snarl at him like a dog. When they heard it, the rest of the flock turned to Metehan and they started to snarl at him as well. They weren’t attacking. It was as if they were warning him to get away. However Metehan drew his sword and attacked the one of the Wild Rabbits.

+Battle Phase is active.

Metehan could see the Wild Rabbits’ basic informations now since Battle Phase was activated. Their levels were 3. And the one Metehan attacked had 40% HP now. He had dropped its HP by 60% with a single attack. However the flock also started to attack Metehan. They were inflicting 5 damage to him with each paw and they were conducting 3 paws at each of their attacks. Metehan could dodge the attacks of the 3 Wild Rabbits by moving to right and left however they were too fast so he couldn’t dodge more than 3 of them. That’s why 2 of them could attack him successfully and he had lost 30 HP. Metehan continued to attack them while dodging their attacks. He killed the Wild Rabbit with %40 HP and attacked another one.

Attack pattern of the Wild Rabbits was simple. They were attacking by pawing 3 times and retreating for a few seconds and attacking again. Now there were 4 Wild Rabbits and one of them had %40 HP. He attacked the injured Wild Rabbit and dodged other 3 Wild Rabbits’ attacks. Now Metehan could hunt the rest of them without losing any HP. He continued with the same pattern and he could kill the flock in less than a minute and his HP dropped by 20%.

‘Hmm, hunting them wasn’t as hard as it seemed. New flock will spawn in 3 minutes. With my HP recovery rate, I will be at the full HP by then. I can grind here by myself.’ Metehan could hunt them so easily is not just because he was a martial artist, he had also stats points equal to a level 4 player. The parties he passed by in forest were consist of players with level 1 or 2 at most. That’s why there was no way they could hunt the Wild Rabbits alone.

‘The loot from Wild Rabbits isn’t quite good. They only dropped 5 rabbit meats and 2 Copper Coins.’ Metehan collected the 5 rabbit meats and 2 Copper Coins they dropped immediately.

Metehan sat down in order to recover his HP and checked the experience bar. His experience bar had only reached to 0.5%.

‘What? It only increased by 0.5%? So basically I need to kill 995 Wild Rabbits more to reach Level 3? This game is quite hard. Anyway I will complete the quest when I reached to Level 3. And I will get some experience reward for completing the quest as well. Probably it won’t be enough to gain a level like when I completed Mario’s quest but it is still better than nothing. The quests are sure handy.’

His HP had recovered fully and the new flock had spawned. He took his sword and continued to hunt them. When he had killed the 250th Wild Rabbit, they had finally dropped a sword. This was the first item they dropped. And at the same a system notification also popped up.

+Sword Mastery reached Beginner Level 2. You gained 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point.

+There are 3 new available Sword Skills. You can unlock them by using required Sword Mastery Skill Points.

‘Hmmm, I read that Royal Blood Online was going to have a unique skill system. However there wasn’t any detailed information. So it was how it is. Interesting’ Metehan was quite amused. Metehan took the sword and other loots and checked the new available skills.

One-Handed Sword Mastery (Passive, Locked, Available) : It provides some bonuses while using one-handed swords, daggers or knives depending on the skill level. This is an branch skill under the Sword Mastery. So skill level can only be increased by using Sword Mastery Skill Point(s). Skill level can not be increased by constant usage like Root or Random Skills. The skill rank can’t be higher than its root skill, Sword Mastery.

Next Level : Beginner Level 1

Requirements : Sword Mastery Beginner Level 2, 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point

Two-Handed Sword Mastery (Passive, Locked, Available) : It provides some bonuses while using two-handed swords depending on the skill level. This is an branch skill under the Sword Mastery. So skill level can only be increased by using Sword Mastery Skill Point(s). Skill level can not be increased by constant usage like Root or Random Skills. The skill rank can’t be higher than its root skill, Sword Mastery.

Next Level : Beginner Level 1

Requirements : Sword Mastery Beginner Level 2, 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point

Dual Sword Mastery (Passive, Locked, Available) : It provides some bonuses while using two swords at the same time depending on the skill level. This is an branch skill under the Sword Mastery. So skill level can only be increased by using Sword Mastery Skill Point(s). Skill level can not be increased by constant usage like Root or Random Skills. The skill rank can’t be higher than its root skill, Sword Mastery.

Next Level : Beginner Level 1

Requirements : Sword Mastery Beginner Level 2, 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point

‘Hmmm, it is hard to decide. I don’t have any two-handed sword but I have 2 one-handed sword now. Let’s check the sword first before deciding.’ Metehan checked the sword with Inspect Skill.

[Short Sword]

Type : One-Handed Sword

Attack : 4 ~6

Attack Speed : 5

Durability : [25/25]

Weight : 2

Requirements

Level : 1

Strength : 22

Agility : 16

Class : None

A light sword with low attack power. There is nothing special about this sword. All you can do with this sword is to swing it blatantly to kill some rabbits.

‘What is with this weird description? Is this a joke? Anyway, it is slightly better than my sword. I can use Dual Sword Mastery with it. However it will be difficult to find two good swords instead of one in the future. What should I do?’ Metehan was planning to choose either One-Handed Sword Mastery or Dual Sword Mastery. However he was a little hesitant. Metehan thought for a few minutes and finally decided.

‘What the hell?! I will choose the Dual Sword Mastery for now and try it for a while. I can switch to One-Handed Sword Mastery if I am not satisfied with it.’ Metehan used his Sword Mastery Skill Point on Dual Sword Mastery and unlocked it.

+New skill was unlocked; Dual Sword Mastery.

Metehan quickly checked his new skill excitedly.

Dual Sword Mastery (Passive, Beginner Level 1) : While using two swords at the same time, your attack power will be increased by 10%. However swords should be identical in order to use this skill with maximum efficiency. If swords aren’t identical but have the same attack power, you will use it with 80% efficiency and if swords aren’t identical and they don’t have the same attack power, you will use it with 50% efficiency.

Next Level : Beginner Level 2

Requirements : Sword Mastery Beginner Level 3, 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point

‘Damn it! If I knew that swords would have to be identical, I wouldn’t choose it. The descriptions of the skills were too vague.’ Metehan cursed when he saw the skill description. However there was nothing he could do anymore, so he equipped the Short Sword helplessly. Even though he couldn’t get the full boost, his attack power had increased anyway. So he decided to let it go and continued to hunt. When he killed the 600th Wild Rabbit, his Satiety had dropped under 50% so he ate two wheat breads. He had 6 wheat breads left now.

‘I should buy wheat breads when I got back to the City. If I forgot and run out of them while grinding, it would be troublesome.’

Metehan continued to hunt, drop rate was quite bad. He had only rabbit meats and 1-3 Copper Coins from each flock. However when he killed the 900th Wild Rabbit, another Short Sword dropped. Metehan took it excitedly and equipped it.

‘Good. Now I will be able to use my Dual Sword Skill with maximum efficiency.’ Metehan resumed his hunt after he equipped two identical Short Swords. He could now kill them by only one hit. When he killed his 1000th Wild Rabbit totally 14 hours after he started to hunt them, 2 system notifications popped up.

+Your level has risen.

+Due to your dedicated training, your Agility increased by 1.

‘So you can gain extra stats like this too. However I doubt everybody could hunt for 14 hours without a break. ‘

Metehan distributed 5 points to Strength and 4 points to Agility. And then he went back to the City in order to complete the quest. Sithred had a small shop at the entrance of the south gate. When Sithred saw Metehan, he was very delighted.

“Oh, Great Benefactor. I assume you completed my request. Is that correct?” Sithred asked with expectant eyes.

“Yes, I collected 1000 rabbit meats. Here they are.” Metehan kindly hand them over to Sithred.

“Thank you very much, Great Benefactor. I would be in quite trouble if it weren’t for you.” Sithred said with a joyful voice.

+You completed the quest.

“It’s nothing. And please call me Metehan. I am not feeling alright when you call me Great Benefactor.”

“You should. I guess you aren’t still aware of what kind of trouble you saved us from. However I will respect your request and call you Metehan. By the way, here is the reward I promised you.” Sithred gave 5 Silver Coins to Metehan. Metehan was quite satisfied with the reward. His experience bar had also increased to 60%.

“Can I ask you a favor, Uncle Sithred?” Metehan asked with a gentle voice.

“Sure. If it is something I can help.”

Metehan took out 500 Copper Coins and gave Sithred. “Can you exchange these with 5 Silver Coins? It is troublesome to carry that much coins with me.”

Sithred was a little surprised. He wasn’t expecting such a request however he kindly accepted Metehan’s offer.

“Sure. Here it is your 5 Silver Coins.”

“Thank you very much. If there is anything you need, you can always ask me.” Metehan said with a smile on his face.

“Of course. You are the only reliable Adventurer I know.” Sithred responded with a smile.

“Thank you very much.” Metehan left the shop after he slightly bowed to Sithred.

+Warning: Fatigue level exceed 75%. All stats decreased by 75%. Sleeping is adviced.

Metehan saw this system notification just after he left Shred's shop.

‘What the hell? Again?! This is quite annoying. I think I will test my other theory and just logg off for a while.’ Metehan logged off and got out the game unit. It was 01:10 AM. He was online for about 11 hours. However he strangely felt like he was online for 2 days.

‘I guess I felt like I’ve been playing it for 2 days because of the extreme realism of the game.’

“Gurrr~~”

While Metehan thinking that his stomach grumbled. He didn’t eat anything for a quite long time. He had eaten 3 times in the game, however in the real life he was hungry for about 12 hours.

‘I guess I will eat something and take a quick nap. And then connect the game again.’ Metehan went to the kitchen and fixed himself some quick meal and then went to the bed for a quick nap. He was very excited. He wanted to connect the game again. However due to this annoying Fatigue feature, he had to wait.

‘Maybe creators added this feature to protect people’s health. I read on the net that some people had health issues due to the constant playing.’ Metehan thought himself while closing his eyes. However he was going to learn about the truth behind it sooner or later.

Royal Blood Online