A blast of lightning flies out of my fingers. A giant rat was fried at my blast. It’s HP bar dropped to nothing as it took it’s last breath.

50 exp obtained! Level up! Skier Level 20! Lighting Bolt proficiency reached! Rank has increased to C!

Title earned! Spellsword, for raising the three basic magic skills and Sword Mastery to rank C! Bonus 10+ to STR and INT! Skill derived from Spellsword title. Blade Enhancement obtained!

I exploded in a flash of light, the sewer beneath the Perning City was washed in a light. It sadly didn’t wash away all the gunk and goo that lived down here. Yuck! The explosive sound of my level up echoed further down the tunnel...

We had come here to finish up my training. It's been a couple months now, since I originally met Chop. After getting Sword Mastery and Magic it's just been grinding my skills to match my stats. Of course we did take a few breaks just to mess around and have fun, but we finally reached our goal, The Spellsword Title!

I looked at Chop who sat nearby, my level up blast barely moving him as he sat on his fancy chair. I don’t even know what to make of that thing. It was like a giant fox that curled up around him. He was stroking it while laying into its fur. I don’t think it’s alive? I’m pretty sure that’s a chair. It looks like it’s alive though. Can you really even call it a chair at that point? This game is weird.

“Congratulations!” Chop said clapping.

“That was a good anime too!”

“What is?”

“Oh… you weren’t referencing it.” I said with a frown. Oh well. “I got the skill!”

“Awesome, try it out!”

“Alright!” I reequiped my sword. I hadn’t been using it since I had been practicing my magic.

Chop told me how to do this before hand. Just simply attempt to use one of three primary bolt skills while holding my sword. Before when I tried I just got an error message but now…

“Icebolt!” I said. The air around my blade twisted and froze. It left off a chilling aura.

“It worked! I’m the coolest now. Hehehe… Get it?”

Chop rolled his eyes. “Funny. Now test it out, here comes some rats.”

Just as he said, several rats appeared. Three more targets, the perfect amount to try my new skills on. Looks like they’re about to become slaughter for me!

“Time for you to chill out!” I said, swinging my blade in an arc. A crystalline slash of energy came from my sword. One rat was cut into two frozen pieces from it. The other got out of the way in time.

“Didn’t get them all? Time to turn up the heat! Firebolt!” I said. My sword ignited in a blaze of fire. One of the rats tried to attack me but I threw up my defense, parrying it with my sword between it’s teeth. I noticed that it actually started to take damage from this. Neat!

I knocked it off and stab into it’s body. It was lit ablaze and soon stopped moving.

“Now for the shocking conclusion!” I said.

“Can you just kill them already?” Chop said.

“Even Senpai is getting charged up for this! Lightning Bolt!” I raised my sword up and a bolt of lightning crashed into me. I swung down and an arc of lightning came out, frying the rat where it stood. It wasn’t nearly as impressive as Chop’s own blast, but man it still was cool!

I put my sword back on my back, turned to Chop and smiled.

“What did you think?” I asked.

“I think you need to stop with the puns.”

“Okay… I guess I’ll cool it. Don’t get so burnt up though. It’s only a little spark of humor to get the blood flowing!”

Chop sighed. “This is what I signed up for. Listen up, kid.”

Chop got up out of his chair. “Sit down.”

I did as told and sat in my sky-blue chair. I need a new fancy one like his!

“Pull up your stats!” Chop demanded. I did as told.

Skier. Level 20. Exp 0/16000. The One Who Thought He Could Fly, Head:Black Bandana, Chest: Scaled Chest, Legs: Scaled Leggings, Shoes: Scaled Boots. Weapon: Broadsword. Off hand: Empty.

580/580 HP, 200/200 MP

STR 90. INT 70, DEX 85 LUK 50 WILL 55.

Reversal A rank, Power Strike C rank, Finishing Leap C rank, Defense C rank, Movable Armor D rank, Fire Bolt C rank, Frost Bolt C rank, Lightning Bolt C rank, Sword Mastery B rank, Final Strike F rank, Blade Enchancement N/A Rank. Stone Toss N/A Rank.

“Excellent! It took a while but I think we’ve finally got your skills and stats fixed! You’re now a bonafide spellsword! One with an absurdly high Reversal rank at that. Most people don't get A rank skills till around level 40 you know.”

“Awesome!” I said. It took a couple of months but I’m finally as cool as Chop! Or at least I’m on the right track of being as cool as him!

“There’s one more thing I need to show you. Here.” Chop said.

Trade request from Chop. Accept?

I hit yes. Inside the trading window was a weird gem.

‘Portal to ???’

I accepted the trade.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Just use it.” Chop said.

I did as I was told, and used the item.

Teleporting Skier and company to ???

We vanished in a light, leaving the sewers.

Next thing I knew. Chop and I were standing in the middle of a grand hall. It was white as can be, the floors reflecting our characters as we stood on it. Several pillars lined the walls, leading up to a golden throne. It was engraved with Chop’s name. In fact, it was the same as the one Chop uses as a chair.

Behind us was what seemed to be an exit, a white doorway with seemingly nothing on the other side.

“What is this place?” I asked Chop.

“This? This is my secret lair!” Chop said. “The devs gave this place to me. It doesn’t really have a name though.”

“Whoa! Really? They made a whole area just for you?”

“Well… Not really ‘me’. So to speak. Since I was the first to reach the hard level cap of 200, They had plans of making me the so to speak final boss of the game. I got pulled into meetings about it and everything. Anyways. This was supposed to be where you fought me. But, in the end, I guess they decided it was too much work or something, so they scrapped the quest line and just made me an NPC for the main story. Since this place was already finished and they didn’t really want it going to waste they just let me use it as a guild base.” Chop explained.

“Ohhh… Neat! Is this it or are there more rooms?” I asked, noticing the little door inbetween one of the pillars.

“Oh yeah, there’s tons of rooms. I even have my own room that I decorated myself. You can have a room too if you want.” Chop said.

“Yes! I do!” I said. I haven’t been this excited for my own room since we moved out of that weird neighborhood!

Chop and I said nothing for a moment. Usually he would have told me to do something by now, but instead he just took a few steps away from me.

“So… Now what do we do?” I asked.

“Now?” Chop said, pulling out his Roaring Aqua sword and pointing at me. “We fight.”

“What?” I blurted out.

PVP Request from Chop. Opponent is offering nothing as a bet. Do you accept? Do you want to bet an item/gold?

“Hold on! I can’t fight you! You’re like a million times stronger than me!” I said.

“So what? Are you gonna give up just like that? Show me what I taught you!”

I gulped. This was a bad idea. I took out my own sword. I hit accept.

With that, a blue barrier expanded between us. This is it.

“Lightning Bolt!” I shouted. My sword gathered energy from the sky and I sent it towards Chop. He quickly moved out of the way, leaving my attack to hit one of the white pillars.

“I told you to stop saying your attacks. It’s just gonna give away what you do and also get you killed.” Chop said. As if to prove his point, I didn’t see his next attack coming. Chop swung his sword, in what look like to be the same blow as mine, instead of lightning however, it looked like a combination of fire and lightning.

I put up my Defense, but even with that half my hp bar went into the gutter.

“Like that? It’s called Elemental Fusion. You can pick that up one day. But until then…” Chop let out another blaze, not even bothering with his sword and simply letting it loose from his fingertips.

I swung my sword while using Icebolt. My cold blast held back his own attack.

“You’re gonna kill me!” I said.

“That’s the point!” Chop replied. What a monster! What can I even do? Oh! I got an idea!

I used Final strike, spiltting my blade into two. I got this skill after raising my Sword Mastery to rank B. I didn’t need to raise it that high for the spell sword title but I really wanted this skill too. It’s so cool!

Anyway, I casted Firebolt, my left blade now clad in flames, and attempted to cast Frost bolt. I didn’t think it would world, but my other sword became enchanced with Ice! Yes!

“Who needs element fusion when you have two swords?” I said.

With my Flaming and Frozen blades, I rushed towards him. My two blades also began to glow blue at the same time. I struck true with a Power Strike right into his body. But even with that his HP didn’t budge, but I’m not done yet! I unleashed my Firebolt and Icebolt point blank from my swords. It bursted, surrounding us in a swirl of frost and fire.

Chop spun in place, using a Reversal. I was knocked back. That didn’t do anything either? Dang it!

“Nice! You figured out you can save your bolt charges, I didn’t even need to tell you that!” Chop said, laughing.

“I’m smarter than I seem you know!” I casted a lightning bolt from my hand, hoping to catch him off guard. He just took the attack, not even dealing damage to him.

“Ready to give up?” Chop said.

“Never!”

Chop smiled and put away his sword. “Determined even against hopeless odds. I like it. Tell you what. If you can survive this, It’s your win.”

“Survive what?” I asked. Chop only smiled. His hands began to spark. This isn’t good. I ran back right near the edge of the PVP barrier. I put up my Defense and held my sword up, ready for anything.

“You know… You really remind me of myself. It’s why I took such a liking to you. Back when I first started playing MMOs I was just like you. Young. Unknowing… everything was so cool and awesome.”

Dark energy pulsed on Chop. His armed arcing in black energy. Scary!

“But after awhile? Things started to lose their charm. I stopped liking it as much.”

Somehow, the almost eye straining brightness of the room grew darker. No, it really grew pitch black. I could only see myself and Chop, who was pulsing with dark lightning.

“These last couple of months with you though really has taken me back. Thanks, my little protégé. Get ready! Giga Slave!”

A dark ball erupted from Chop’s hands. It quickly consumed the area around him, and me. I tried to hold on but the blast simply was too much. I was knocked out of the arena in an instant.

Pvp battle lost!

Ouch.

“Looks like it was my win.” Chop said. He walked over to me and cast a healing spell to bring me up to full.

“Of course it was your win. I had no chance of winning!” I said.

“But you still tried. For me, that means a lot. It shows me that I have nothing left to teach you.”

“You don’t? I’m done with my training?” I asked.

Chop nodded. “Yep. And that means I can finally quit this game.”

“Huh? What do you mean quit? You’re not gonna play anymore?”

“Nah. I had my fill. It’s 2011 and I just turned eightteen. I gotta prepare for college, I wanna one day make games, not just play them. Actually, I planned on quitting months ago, but then I met a helpless kid killing slimes…”

“I wasn’t that helpless…” I said. Chop laughed.

“You totally were kid.”

“W-well even if I was, that just means you can’t go and leave me! What am I gonna do without you?”

“Fight, make friends, live out your own story in this game man. I put you on a good track, but you can’t follow me around forever. Be your own man. Live your life!”

I looked away, both in the game and in real life. I was sad. I don’t want him to go.

“Am I ever gonna see you again?”

“Of course! I’ll be back one day, just to see how much you’ve grown. So you better have surpassed me to the point where you can beat me in a battle, you hear me?”

I nodded. “Yes Sensei!”

“Good! And as a parting gift...”

Trade request from Chop. Accept?

Another trade? I hit accept.

Inside the trade window was… His Roaring Aqua?

“Wait! The bandana was one thing but your sword? I can’t take that!”

“I noticed how much you talk about it. You totally have been eyeing it don’t lie!” Chop said. He wasn’t wrong.. It was a cool weapon.

“It’s a decently strong weapon, should last you until level fifty. You can find something better eventually though, I only really used it because it looks cool honestly.”

I shook my head. “No way! If you give this to me I’ll never stop using it! Just like you!”

“Heh. Hit accept already then!”

I did what I was asked.

Roaring Aqua obtained.

I equipped my new sword. ...Awesome. I swung it around, watching as the blue blade cut through the air, it’s red tassel following each of my swipes.

“Oh, and by the way you can keep the portal to this place. I obviously won’t be using it anymore. Bring your future friends here as your own secret base. I bet you’ll make an awesome guild one day.” Chop said.

Wow… Even this whole place is mine now. Chop…

“Thank you… Sensei. Can I ask you something?” I asked,

“Hmm?”

“Can you show me how to do a Dragon Slave? I wanna be like Lina Inverse too!”

“Oh god, dude that anime is so old, I didn’t think you’d even catch that!”

“Show me!”

“Ugh!”

And with that, it was the last day I spent with Chop.