After looking at the weird looking guy with the black robes, entering the shop, I start to wait for him. He told me that I shouldn’t enter before he left, and I think I’ll keep my promise. Don’t want to stick my nose in business that has nothing do with me.

Especially, if it’ll cost me my life.

Hmm, what to do now?

I don’t want to spend a few minutes, or even hours maybe, doing nothing. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the online window function, which will allow you to browse the web while playing. I sit down on the floor, with my back against the wall opposite from the shop. This way I can browse the web while keeping watch on the shop.

After doing a bit of research on the quest I’m doing at the moment, I notice the sun had almost gone down already. But it would probably still be a few hours before it’d be completely dark. I haven’t seen the robed guy leave the shop yet, but I think I can enter the shop without any problems. When I looked at the virtual clock, I could see that I had spent 2 and a half hour looking up information on the web. I learned a few things about people becoming a necromancer, but all the search results on my quest turned up negative.

I leave my spot from the floor, and start walking to the shop.

This quest shouldn’t be too hard…

I knock on the door, and open it a few seconds after. As I enter the building, I can see a lot of shelves with all kinds of items on them. They ranged from the weirdest categories; skulls, potions, mouse tails even some jars with eyes floating in some kind of liquid. There was quite some space in the room, and it was quite well maintained. It was easy to walk around in, and the floor looked quite clean. You couldn’t really see the counter, as the shop was ill lit. There was only one source of light, which was located almost immediately after entering the shop, next to the door.

“I seeth that new blood hath ent'r'd this humble shopeth, pleaseth maketh yourself comf'rtable and telleth me what 'tis, thou seeketh.”

As I’m still looking at the interior of the shop, I’m suddenly dragged back from my thoughts, as someone spoke up. I heard the sound come from the counter, but as it was too dark to be able to see something, I completely missed him. I heard some footsteps, and the next thing I saw, was something that I didn’t expect at all. An old looking skeleton holding a staff, stepped into the light.

A lich.

A powerful wizard or someone of power, who has undergone a transformation in the quest to immortality. Most of the time, they bind their own soul or intellect to a specific amulet or charm, they do this by executing powerful rituals or magical spells.

Well, that’s the first thing that comes to mind.

He looked like a very old skeleton, but couldn’t be described as a simple undead. There clearly was some sort of power present, around the skeleton. He was also holding a staff which was emitting a deep, crimson light. Only his head could be seen, as he was wearing black robes, depicting a skull and a scythe.

“Young one, 'tis malapert to stareth, prithee answer one’s sinc're question.”

The lich, paused for a little while, and continued:

“Bef're thou forceth me, to expel thou from one’s shopeth.”

Who the hell is this guy…

Is he the undead version of Shakespeare or something?

Focusing my thoughts back on who stood before me, it does seem like a good idea to speak up quickly, before he really will expel me from his shop. That will probably fail me the quest too.

“I have come across someone, who thought it might be in my best interests to enter this shop. I have come looking for someone who might grant me power. I’m willing to help you, as long as I receive something in return.”

I don’t think it will hurt me to be blunt with him. The lich talked like some old humble man, so he probably won’t try to hurt me for no reason. Well, I hope so.

He might be faking this attitude, to lure people in, but for now I doesn’t look like it.

“Thou hast come to the right place. thou may be of lay-to yet, as I hast enough tasks ready, that ne'd living flesh, to doth the fullfilling. as one is bound to this shop, one cannot leave the boundaries, these walls hast forc'd upon one. But as it keeps one in, it keeps others out. thou can serve as one's errand sir for anon, and after proving thy worth, thou will be grant'd majestical powers from one's arsenal.”

Those are a lot of gibberish words… But I think he’s trying to say that he cannot leave this shop, and seeing as I can, he probably wants me to do some errands for him, while proving him, that he can trust me.

I suddenly hear the familiar ring, and 2 windows pop up:

*Ting*

*Ting*

Quest Complete!

A Shop Selling The Abyss

You have entered the shop fearlessly, and persuaded the undead shop owner, to offer you a job. He has promised you power, if you complete the tasks at hand. Accept his offer, and win his trust!

Rewards:

The undead will offer you a job, and power in due time.

Oh, at least I completed the quest.

The reward is very meagre for now though, but as it looks like a chain quest, the rewards will probably increase a lot later on.

Quest: The undead are never at peace

The undead shop owner, has asked you to help him with a few errands. He told you that this is necessary to win his trust. Eventually, the undead has promised, you will gain great power in return. Complete his errands, and gain his trust!

Difficulty level: F+

Quest requirements:

-Enter the shop

-Persuade the undead to give you a job

Reward: The undead’s trust

Why not, if I decline this, all will have been for nothing, and the undead won’t give me this chance again. Also, that great power that he has promised me, will surely be of use.

“I accept your quest, I will help you with a few errands.”

*Ting*

You have accepted the quest!

“Thank thou, youngest one. ‘Tis much appreciat’d. Anon, seek out the augurers, and endue me a fill'd vial of holy water. One will hast moo ingredients, f'r thou to endue afterwards.”

Augurers… Are wizards right..? I think he means priests…

The lich turned his back on me, and began rummaging through a lot of stuff he had stacked in a chest. He took a few minutes before exclaiming something like ‘The bliss of life’, and coming over to me. He held out his hand and was waiting for me to take the old vial he was holding.

I reached out and took the item from him, he walked back to his place at the counter and it was almost like he disappeared again. But this time, if I look closely, I can see something clearly resting there. If I come in next time, I should be able to spot him, even if he’s standing outside of the light.

I turn around, and leave the eerie shop behind me.

Ha, I’m glad I kept track of my virtual map while chasing that robed guy, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have found my way back.

I wonder where he went though, I didn’t see him leave the shop before I entered, and I didn’t see a second exit. Maybe his sneak skill is pretty high or something.

Lost in my thoughts, I arrive at the church after I walked for a little while.

The church and its surroundings looked exactly the same as before, it was still swarmed by players and priests. The priests, selling their potions and using their healing skills, and the players, being healed, and buying all kinds of potions. As I walk towards a queue, before a priest with a big bucket of what I think is holy water, I catch a small glimpse of an elf with blonde hair who was given a broom.

Is that Helius?

Nah, probably not.

After waiting a few minutes of waiting in the queue, I reach the priest, and hand over the vial given to me by the lich. The priest, who looked to be a little older than the average priest, raised his eyebrows at the quality of the vial.

“Sorry, it does look a little old, but my contactor gave this to me. So here I am, giving it to you.”

The priest chuckled a bit, and received the vial:

“Yes, I can see that your contractor is a cheapskate. We’ve all had to deal with people who are like that at least once.”

When he filled the vial with the water, he handed it back over to me.

I receive he vial, and then suddenly start sprinting back towards the shop.

Shit! I forgot to bring any money with me, and I didn’t ask the shopkeeper. I hope this won’t gain me any infamy or something.

Damn, that was a close one.

No windows popped up fortunately, so that means that I haven’t gained any infamy, and I’m not seen as a criminal.

Good.

I quickly walked back to the shop, and met with the lich yet again.

“I have brought you, what you requested for. I would like to receive some money to buy the ingredients you ask for, next time though.”

I sarcastically said what was on my mind, while I stood in front of the counter and slammed the vial on the wood.

I can’t really see what kind of expression the lich was making, but it looked like something similar to surprise.

“but esteem'd young one, prithee enlighten this corky one, to wherefore one would ne'd any chinks to buy holy water. 'tis free of charge namely.”

He’s lying…

I already know he’s someone stingy, by the quality of the vial he gave me. He’s probably feigning ignorance, trying to have me pay for all the ingredients.

I didn’t think he’d be this crafty, I need to watch out more, before I’m really caught stealing something.

“One hath, though, complet'd one of the tasks thou wast grant'd. One will anon betoken thou, as to whence one might find the next ingredient one has use for.”

So he still has more errands for me huh, well I figured as much. It’s already starting to get dark outside though. Although, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve pulled a lot of all-nighters in the course of my life already, a few more won’t bother me that much.

“Alright, please tell me, where I might find these ingredients.”

***

Four days in real life (16 days in-game), after the 4 friends logged in, later:

"Quest status."

Quest: Unbury The Church

This church, has many unexplored, and deserted rooms. The rooms were full of life once, but now these rooms have lost all their function. Especially the lower, and upper floors, aren’t frequented anymore. After the two of you wiped out all the mice in the upper part, clear out and clean up the specified rooms in the lower floor, and make them usable, once again!

Difficulty level: F+

Quest requirements:

-Complete the first quest given by Torvus

Number of rooms left:

13/15 cleared

After Glinc and I lifted some huge rocks from the lower part of the church, to the outside, I looked at him and said:

“We only, have to clear two more.”

I could see he was sweating profoundly, but he smiled and looked at me:

“I know right! It took us 16 days in-game time, to clear out those 13 rooms, but look how far we’ve come Helius! We only have to do 2 more, and this time, I can just feel it, this time we’ll be granted an awesome reward!”

I didn’t really share his optimism, but I did agree though. We have done some heavy lifting over the previous 16 days, which has, nicely enough, increased our strength and vitality by quite a few points.

Glinc and I, had adjusted our sleeping rhythms to each other, so we could clean the rooms more effectively. After a few days we also drove the machines to our respective homes. It was fun to stay at Mathijs’ house for a while, but because he had an altogether different sleeping rhythm than we had, we didn’t see him much outside of the game, nor in the game. So Glinc and I, both figured that it might be a good idea to just play from our own homes. After we transported the machines, which took us a few hours, we immediately dove back into the game, and started cleaning up the church again. That’s how we arrived at this moment.

“I’m not sure how we were able to continue this crazy work though, the only thing that kept me going were all those pop ups, telling me that I had gained strength and vitality stats.”

Glinc smiled at my remark, and affirmed what I said:

“Yeah, you’re totally right! If our stats wouldn’t have gone up with all this hard work, it would’ve felt like it was all for nothing. I’m glad we’re doing this together, though. That makes all this work quite a lot easier!”

I started walking back to the inside of the church, so that we could get started with the last two rooms. I acquired the habit of looking at the fountain, with the beautiful lighting for some reason. It was a beautiful scene to behold though. The boy and his guard, Torvus, left the church after two days in-game. The boy probably had enough of the surroundings, and took his guard with him. I didn’t like them either way, so you could say I was glad that they left the church. Luckily enough, they told us just before they left, that we could report to the bishop of this church, to claim our reward. That is fine, because I would have expected Torvus to just give us another good for nothing reward.

As we maneuver ourselves through the labyrinth of different pathways, leading to different locations, we arrive at the stairs heading to the lower part of the church. We have walked up and down this stairs so many times these previous days, that I have started to develop some kind of hate toward it. One day, when I’m influential or strong enough, I will certainly blow it up!

As I let Glinc take the lead, I follow closely behind. We walked through another series of hallways, and rooms we just recently cleaned. There were a lot of different rooms in the lower part of the church, there was something akin to a big eating hall, and there were even the remains of a spa. Shame all the water disappeared, or we could’ve enjoyed ourselves with a nice bath, to wash off the all the sweat from working. Because, even if you don’t get dirty in real life by doing the heavy work, your avatar in game will still get sweaty, and start smelling too. Every time you log in, you start playing while smelling all the sweat from your previous endeavors.

We were lucky with the church though, because we didn’t have to sleep outside, but we could use the barracks the church maintained, on the main floor.

As we arrive at the unexplored part, we could see one path going to the left, and one going to the right, the path we just took was blocked by a wall. So we only have 2 options, to go right, or to go left.

There are still 2 rooms to be cleared, and seeing as there are 2 paths, each one is probably going to a room.

I look to my right, where I can see Glinc furrowing his brows.

“So, Glinc, what do you want to do? Should we split up, or should we pick a direction, and clean both rooms together?”

“Let’s split up! That will make it more exciting, won’t it?! We can even make a bet, to see who can clear his room faster.”

I’m fine with splitting up, but I’m not really one to participate in a bet like that. It’s also quite strange for Glinc to propose one.

“We don’t have to make a competition from this, you can pick one room, and then I’ll take the other. Let’s just finish this damn quest already, as I’ve spent enough time clearing rooms underground.”

“Alright, I’ll take the right.”

I can see Glinc taking the right path, and I start walking into the left one. When I tried looking at what was at the end of the paths, I could see nothing, because they both made a sharp turn to the same direction.

One thing, I had noticed when I was busy cleaning the rooms, is that the deeper we went, the older the walls looked. As I’m busy walking to the point where the path would turn, I touch the walls.

They do feel older than the walls in the other rooms. These have way more cracks in them, and they’re in a worse state.

When I arrive at the point where the path makes a sharp turn, I can finally see a door at the end of the corridor. Somehow, I start to get a bad feeling while I’m approaching that door.

I wonder what’s wrong with me.

As I reach the door, I rest my hand on it, and push the door open.

The interior of the room was emitting a black aura, I’m not sure if it’s just me, or if it’s really there. Creepy…

Looking around me, I can see that there are a lot of paintings on the wall, all depicting angels and priests who are fighting with someone wearing a black robe. The black robed figure was holding a scythe and was walking, among a lot of skeletons and fallen warriors in battle. Looks like the warriors of this church once fought against a powerful wizard or something.

Next to the paintings in the room, the only object that was present, was a big rock in the middle of the room, that had a scythe stuck in it. You could only see a small part of the scythe, as most of the rock was covering the handle. Next to the scythe and the rock, the only other thing in this room were the paintings.

Oh, a weapon!

Nice, that will probably be really useful.

Is what I did not think of course. I’m not stupid enough, to just walk over to that evil looking scythe and start wielding it. I can’t probably even wear it with my current level. As I start walking to the rock that contained the scythe, I speak up:

“Object stat window.”

Powerful seal:

Durabilty: 132/99999

A rare seal containing something of great power. The seal has been made by one of the most powerful wizards in its time. This seal has been in place for hundreds of years upon which it has lost a lot of durability. What is sealed, cannot be identified. Be careful with breaking the seal. As the results might turn out to be unwanted.

Effect: ???

What the hell…

They must have built this church around this seal, to keep something locked in.

As I reach out my hand toward the scythe….

***

I started walking, before Helius had the chance to say anything else. I made a bet just for fun, but he turned it down. Not like it matters a lot to me.

I want to get this over quickly, I’ve had enough of all this cleaning and clearing. I’ve raised my strength and vitality stats a bit though, so that makes it worth my while. But still, 16 days is quite a long time to spent dusting off old rooms, walking up and down stairs, and carrying heavy rocks. I’ve had enough!

When I was walking towards the door that should’ve been the last room, I come across a few paintings that depicted monkeys.

Strange…

Monkeys in a church huh, well it’s true that the bald priest and these paintings show some familiarities…

I keep walking while looking at the paintings, and as I reach the door at the end of the path, I reach out and try to open it.

It won’t budge.

I try again a few times, but there door just doesn’t budge.

Arghh, this is annoying!

Because I want to know what’s at the other side of the door, I try to peek through the keyhole. The only thing I could see were some eastern style looking doors. I think they were called shōji.

Damn, I can’t really see anything else.

I’m not going to give up this quest, just because of one door!

I will enter that room and clear it. I didn’t just spent these 16 days for nothing. I want that reward, so I’ll figure something out.

After some thinking, I didn’t figure anything out… Out of frustration I just start hitting the door, but I quickly stopped, because I was hurting my foot more than I was hurting the door.

Wait a second.

Hurt the door.

“Open object window.”

started walking, before Helius had the chance to say anything else. I made a bet just for fun, but he turned it down. Not like it matters a lot to me.

I want to get this over quickly, I’ve had enough of all this cleaning and clearing. I’ve raised my strength and vitality stats a bit though, so that makes it worth my while. But still, 16 days is quite a long time to spent dusting off old rooms, walking up and down stairs, and carrying heavy rocks. I’ve had enough!

When I was walking towards the door that should’ve been the last room, I come across a few paintings that depicted monkeys.

Strange…

Monkeys in a church huh, well it’s true that the bald priest and these paintings show some familiarities…

I keep walking while looking at the paintings, and as I reach the door at the end of the path, I reach out and try to open it.

It won’t budge.

I try again a few times, but there door just doesn’t budge.

Arghh, this is annoying!

Because I want to know what’s at the other side of the door, I try to peek through the keyhole. The only thing I could see were some eastern style looking doors. I think they were called shōji.

Damn, I can’t really see anything else.

I’m not going to give up this quest, just because of one door!

I will enter that room and clear it. I didn’t just spent these 16 days for nothing. I want that reward, so I’ll figure something out.

After some thinking, I didn’t figure anything out… Out of frustration I just start hitting the door, but I quickly stopped, because I was hurting my foot more than I was hurting the door.

Wait a second.

Hurt the door.

“Open object window.”

Old wooden door:

Durabilty: 177/500

This door has stood here for ages. Because of the time that has passed, the door has become stuck. It has also lost a lot of durability. Behind this door, lies an unexplored room, which hasn’t been visited for hundreds of years.

That description tells me nothing. What does tell me something though, is that durability.

I think it went down after I kicked it a few times. Or well, I hope so. My strength has also risen quite a bit, so I should be able to destroy it, if I take my time. It’s made from wood, and looks old anyway. I don’t want to hurt my hands, so kicking the door would be by far the best option.

I take a few steps back, and enter my familiar fighting stance. It was a position where my feet were a shoulder length apart sideways and lengthwise it was as far as I could stretch my back leg. I then raised the heel of the foot behind me, and lowered my front knee a little.

The only martial art, I’ve ever practiced is karate. I’ve trained for 3 years now and the only stances I know for fighting, are from my karate style. Funnily enough, the fighting stance is literally called: ‘Fighting Stance.’

After I closed my eyes for a few seconds, I open them and make a few steps towards the door, I then raise my right knee and stretch my leg forward, making the most basic forward kick; ‘mae geri’. I used the momentum of my hip, to stretch the leg I was standing on a bit more so that my kick would have more impact. Receiving the impact from the kick, I stagger a little bit back.

That hurt a little bit, but it isn’t something that I can’t handle.

I open the status window again, and can see that the durability dropped with 1.

Damn.

That means I have to kick another 176 kicks. This will take a while.

I take a few steps back again, and enter my fighting stance again. Time to start kicking.

Having almost given up, the only thing that kept me going for a while, was the constantly dropping durability of the door. There was only one durability remaining, and I could feel that my legs would give up soon. Normally, 100 kicks or less, wouldn’t take a lot of effort. Just a little, but not the point where I would almost drop down.

This time, I had to do way more.

Because every time, I didn’t put my full weight in my kick, the door wouldn’t lose any durability. Readying myself for the last hit, I make a full blown run towards the door, and try to charge it with the last of my energy. I hit the door with my shoulder, but the door held firmly.

THAT HURT.

I lie on the ground for a few seconds, to regain my breath. Damn, I just need one more hit. Come on Ollie, you can do it!

I guess that didn’t do enough damage. I stand up while enduring the pain, and ready myself for a kick, once more. I make a few steps towards the door, and this time, successfully kick it open. And as the door was splintering and collapsing, I tumbled along with it. I was so tired, that I was about to lose my conscious.

While trying to get up, I could see a giant painting portraying a giant white cloud. There was also an old man sitting on a chair while looking bored. He was holding a staff, and looked at me with a bland expression.

I was clinging to my conscious, but that last kick took more out of me than I expected. Just when the oppressive, blackness of unconsciousness was surrounding me, I threw a last look at the man sitting there.

Is that fur?

***

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

I was happily pounding away at the dummy when I suddenly heard a ring.

*Ting*

You have learned a new skill: Dual Wielding

Nice, I have been waiting for that skill a long time. After a day or two in-game when I got the martial arts skill, I started pounding away at the dummy with a training sword. When I got the sword skill, I immediately picked up a second sword, and started doing my favourite dual wielding techniques. In real life I had been training with all kinds of weapons too. Sais, nunchakus, Staffs, spears, short sticks, and swords. I especially love wielding the staff, or using two swords. Because I didn’t have a lot of real weapons available to me in the real world, I always trained using a bokken in my right hand, and a shorter sword, in my left. I used a bayonet as offhand weapon, because it’s easy to use for blocking, and making small attacks. It was a bayonet used in the second world war, which I received from a family member once. Its length was longer than most bayonets and could be compared with a wakizashi.

Now that I have the dual wielding skill, I can finally move on to the other weapons.

It’s been 16 days of non-stop in-game training.

I have always wanted to try them out on targets, as I wasn’t going to break anything at home of course. I just need to figure out where I can get the other weapons though.

Oh before I forget, I should open my skill window, and see all the things I have acquired. Because, when I was mindlessly hitting the dummy, a lot of pop ups appeared over time, I ignored most of them, because I was in a state of mind where I only cared about hitting something. As a child, I used to have these moments where I’d just blank out, and would start to hit something. I’ve hidden this most of the my life, and eventually it disappeared. But as I got older, I’ve always been able to set my mind on blank, and just focus on a specific task, like hitting something or jogging.

“Open skill window.”

Skill Window:

Combat related skills:

• Weapon Mastery Beginner (Lv. 3 - 42%) (Passive)

Increases Attack Power with a weapon (+30% ATK)

Increases Attack Speed with a weapon (+9% ATK SPD)

• Dual Wielding Beginner (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Passive)

Increases Attack Power with two weapons (+10% ATK)

Increases Attack Speed with two weapons (+3% ATK SPD)

• Taijutsu Beginner (Lv. 4 - 21%) (Passive)

Increases bare-handed striking power (14% ATK)

Increases accuracy while fighting bare-handed (7% DEX)

Increases evasive manoeuvres while fighting bare-handed (7% AGI)

The taijutsu had another name before, but I renamed it to something I’m a bit more familiar with. The English translation would be something like ‘hand-to-hand techniques’.

I also gained a new stat, something called fighting spirit.

“Fighting Spirit stat, information.”

Fighting Spirit

You can call on superhuman strength temporarily, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with a force in your eyes alone. You are prohibited from distributing stat bonus points to this stat, and it rises spontaneously, depending on the avatar’s action, especially if you fight monsters for a long time, or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.

Oh, this is actually something that we practise in our karate style. No wonder I got a stat like this.

“Rename stat, ‘Fighting Spirit’, to ‘Tokon’.” That’s what we call it in our dojo’s, so this should make it a little more familiar for me.

Fighting Spirit was renamed to Tokon

Good.

All this combined doesn’t amount to much, but it’s certainly something I can work with. Now that I’ve acquired most of the skills I started out for.

Alright, time to ask the instructor for some other weapons, I also want to ask him something in particular.

I walk towards the guard who still had a stern look on his face. I can hear the familiar training sounds all around me, people grunting, making shouts, or just shouting skill names. As I reach the guard, before I can speak up he starts talking to me:

“Ah, Enza, is there something wrong? Or do you finally need my guidance?”

Because I had been visiting the training grounds for almost 16 days straight, he had memorized my face, and was pretty kind to me. Probably because most users just come and go, and don’t visit so often.

“Well, maybe. I was wondering if there are more weapons available for me to use, next to the standard wooden training swords.”

“More weapons huh? I always thought you fancied the sword. Figured you’d be one of those swordsmen, like myself.”

I can clearly see that the guard prefers the sword himself, and maybe even disdains other weapons. Hmm, I must admit, I too like the sword. But I love training with all kinds of different weapons even more. You shouldn’t just focus on one weapon, you should try out everything, and master them all.

“I do fancy the sword sir, I just thought it might be a good idea to practise with some other weapons too. If you practise with other weapons, and can understand them, then you can beat opponents who wield them too.”

“Hoh, that’s some solid logic lad, but unfortunately, the training hall only provides swords to novices, like yourself. If you would like to buy other weapons, you should head to the blacksmith, and order something from him. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Thanks, and yes, I was wondering if maybe you’d be willing to spar with me? Under special rules that is, of course. There’s no way that a beginner like myself could win from someone as honourable as you, but maybe, if we had a spar, where the one who would land a clean hit first would be declared winner, it might turn out to be really good experience.”

The guard starts laughing loudly

“HA, it’s been a while since someone challenged me that boldly lad, alright, it takes guts to challenge someone like me, it does! Okay, I accept your conditions, let’s go to the training room, and start duelling!”

Hmm, that NPC is probably around level 100 or something, and I’m still level one. I would never be able to beat him if I had to bring his health down to 0, because all it’d take is one hit, to instantly kill me probably.

But if it’s just landing one hit..

I should be able to do that, especially after all the fighting experiences I’ve had in real life.

All my experience with weapons and fighting in real life, should be the biggest advantage I have in here.

As we walk towards the area meant for duels, I can hear quite a ruckus around me. They’re murmuring things like how I’m crazy for challenging a guard who’s probably over 75 levels, while I’m probably under 5.

Hah, I’ll prove them otherwise, I might not win a real fight for now, but I’ll surely teach them that something like fighting isn’t only determined by stats and levels.

Skill.

That’s what it comes down to.

As we stand in the centre of the arena, we’ve drawn quite the crowd. I ready my two training swords, and the guard got a big two-handed training sword from somewhere.

I then receive a message:

Arthur has invited you to a duel.AcceptDecline