Just like that, 11 in-game days had already passed.

It went quite fast to be honest. But that’s to be expected when all I’ve done for 11 days is fighting. In these 11 days, I’ve had 11 ‘official’ duels with Arthur.

It shames me to say that I’ve only won 3 times.

I’ve had more duels than that, but that was because of the deal we made. The moment I won, he would buy me a weapon of choice. For every loss I had, I would accompany him for a day and receive his guidance.

It sounds like a win no matter what right?

Well, guess again.

‘Receiving guidance’ was actually a bit different than even I thought it was. It was mostly helping clean up the training room, and picking up all the wooden swords people would leave lying around. To sum it up, it was doing odd chores, for free.

Nevertheless, he did actually coach me a few times when he was bored.

Damn, I never thought I’d lose so much anyway, I always figured myself to be sort of unbeatable because of my real life martial art training. The first time was kind of a lucky win, because he underestimated me, and didn’t expect that I would use an underhanded method to win. After the initial duel, he saw it coming, just like most of my moves. But the most irritable thing, is that I feel like I’m better than him at fighting, it’s just that he’s too damn fast and strong with his system assistance. The only way for me to win was to impeccably parry his blows, because if I would try to block his blows, he’d just break my block and hit me. But parrying blows that carry an enormous amount of strength is almost impossible! Every time I didn’t have perfect timing, I’d lose my opportunity to parry, and lose the duel, because a failed parry would result to a blow being dealt against me.

It does make sense though, how else can people who have never practiced any martial arts in real life reach high levels in the game? Only if they would slowly build their foundation by using the skills they gained through the system and eventually, when they would reach higher levels, the stats they invested the skills in would take over and start assisting them. This way fights can erupt at higher levels that look just like the fighting scenes in modern action movies, blows dealt so fast that you can’t even see them.

It sucks that eleven days went by so fast, I just started winning duels. After I won the first duel, I lost 7 times in a row, after that I won once, lost once, and won once again. The frequency of me winning duels was slowly increasing!

A big reason was that I stopped using 2 swords.

For now.

Because using two swords is insanely difficult. It would carry a lot of advantages though. Normally an enemy can just pay attention to where an enemy’s sword strike would end, and then he’d be able to predict the upcoming blow, just by looking at the end position of the sword. But when you’re fighting against someone who uses two swords, you have to pay attention to the ending position of the strikes by two swords. It’s twice as hard to predict where a strike will be coming from! But if it’s that useful to use two swords, why isn’t just everyone using them? That’s quite simple. Because if your enemy has to pay attention to your two swords, then you of course also have to pay attention to your own swords, not only the timing and using your non-dominant hand, but also choosing when to strike and where, is exceptionally difficult. Especially when there’s an enemy is trying to attack you at the same time.

That’s the reason I went back to using my hand to hand combat, combined with one sword after 6 losses. It immediately showed results by winning 2 out of the remaining 4 duels.

Immediately after having won a duel, Arthur would accompany me to the blacksmith and order a weapon to be made. Because I didn’t want any ordinary weapons, but exotic weapons, they had to be specially crafted. The look on his face was priceless.

When we stood in front of the shop a few days ago, and entered, we walked to the counter. Just when I asked the shopkeeper for a pair of ‘nun chucks’, he started laughing really loud. I had no idea why, as it should’ve been a known weapon, especially by smiths –seeing how they specialize in making weapons, unorthodox or not.

When he came to, he told me that he didn’t have such a fun request in a long time, and that he doesn’t keep any exotic weapons already prepared but that he has to craft them especially. However, they would cost a lot more than regular weapons of the same quality.

The moment I was about to give my approval, I was attacked.

Well, in the form of a clap at my shoulder.

When I looked to my left I could see Arthur savagely grinning, his hand was located on my shoulder, and it looked like a gesture of good will.

But I could feel him pushing me to the ground; I think he was not only trying to push me down, but my will too. The moment I was about to ask him something, I noticed that talking had suddenly become a little more difficult, it seems that the aura of a level hundred knight isn’t just a simple thing.

Just when I was wondering how long I’d be able to last before succumbing to his pressure, he spoke up:

“I have given you a lot of guidance Enza, asking for too much would not be a wise move.”

Normally, threats wouldn’t really disturb me.

But this time was different, it was the first time someone put a giant hand on my shoulder, trying to push my body, along with my soul, deep into the ground. As if he had decided that the spot I was standing on right then, would become my grave really soon.

Forcing myself to speak, I eventually managed to put some words in:

“H-Honorable Arthur, please listen to me for a bit!”

The hand on my shoulder started to press down even more heavily on my shoulder, and Arthur spoke up:

“How about you take a few steps back from that smith first, then we’ll be able to talk without any problems.”

It’s quite disturbing to see someone calmly smiling and telling you everything will be alright, while at the same time it feels like he’s trying to kill you.

I managed to take a few steps back, and eventually convinced him to buy me the weapon anyway, as they would not only help me, but also help him guide other people in the future. The final deal we cut was that I would be allowed to train with the weapons when I wanted, but I have to leave them at the training hall every time I leave, so that other people are able to try the weapons too. I was actually trying to scam Arthur in buying me free weapons of course, but being able to train with them for free and gaining the stats can be considered as a win too.

That day marked the day I started to see Arthur in a different light.

In my head I had already started to nickname him ‘Greedy Arthur’.

When I finished my story at the inn, Warrific and Glinc grinned a little bit, while Helius just looked at me with a poker face.

Damn, Glinc and Warrific must’ve just laughed out of politeness too.

I should just stop telling jokes already, but I’m never able to stop trying at least.

A few days ago we all met up again, and rented a room with the money we scraped together, because it seemed like all three of them gained a hidden class.

At level one and two.

A HIDDEN CLASS AT LEVEL ONE?!

AND REACHING LEVEL TWO WHILE IN THE INITIAL STAGE?

Well, that was my first reaction.

I’ve researched so much, but I never expected them to actually gain something like a hidden class, especially not so early in the game.

To be honest, I really expected them to just throw a look around at the scenery and do some odd jobs, I even hoped for them to get a miscellaneous job, like a cook or blacksmith job or something. Never would I have expected them to already get a class, instead of a job. Even way faster than me! I was still stuck with no class; I only gained some stat rises from the constant dueling with Arthur and the pounding of the wooden dummy.

The advantages of having no class, is that you aren’t limited to anything. The moment you get a class you will gain tremendous bonuses on the stats and skills the class specializes in. But all the other skills and stats that you want to use but aren’t part of the class, will be heavily penalized, almost halving the damage and efficiency in combat. That means that if you know what you want to play quite early in the game, would make it easier to just pick a class quite early and start enjoying the advantages. But if you pick a class without knowing what kind of a character you want to become, then it might come to stab you in the back when you realize the skills you want to gain aren’t able to be learned. This is the only reason I could still manage to smile at them and congratulate them on their new classes, while being classless myself.

Because Glinc, Warrific, and Helius thought that they’d gained everything they could possibly gain, they grouped up with me. This way we could use the remaining 12 days to figure out what kind of tactics we’d use, and how we’d go about hunting. The last 11 days, while we were discussing and practicing skills, I continued doing my regular duels with Arthur, which leads up to our current situation. The four of us gathered in one room.

And of course it’s just one room, because at night we just log off and sleep at home. Glinc and Helius went home some time ago, and Warrific had always stayed home.

The reason we rented a room, is that it would be convenient to log in at the same time, and start gathered at the same place. Namely, tomorrow is the day that we’ll finally be allowed to leave the city, and start hunting.

***

Today is the day.

I had endured a lot of duels and training the previous days, but after going to bed extra early, all the soreness had vanished.

That’s one of the miraculous things in Demesne too, if you work out hard enough, you will feel muscle soreness in-game. Even if it isn’t there when you log out, the moment you log in you will feel the muscles aching again –that is, only if you haven’t had enough rest. Another amazing subject is sleep. Because of the time conversion, which is 4 to 1, many dedicated gamers would choose to sleep inside the game. If they were to sleep in their own beds, they would lose the amount of sleep times four in-game time. But luckily for most of the gamers, sleeping inside the game works the same as sleeping outside the game; the brain can still fully come to rest. The only thing preventing hard core gamers from sleeping in their machines every day is that they would miss their trusted old beds. And also that eventually they would start to have troubles with their bodies outside the game, because they would constantly keep the same posture in their machines.

But anyway, it’s finally time to go hunting!

We had made a deal to log in extra early, because the barrier preventing us from leaving the city would disappear only at the brink of dawn.

I have had a habit where I would sleep for 12 hours non-stop every day, but the moment I started playing Demesne I broke that habit. I can still function correctly when I only have a little bit of sleep, but I wouldn’t feel optimal. That’s why yesterday was the first day I went to bed early, so that I could feel optimal.

I like to arrive early, and hate to arrive late anywhere, but most of the time it just so happens that I’m always a bit late.

Unfortunately, or well, maybe fortunately, most of my friends are chronically late. Helius and Glinc always arrive late, it just happens. I already stopped blaming them long ago. Warrific is on-time most of the times we make appointments.

So, as expected, the moment I logged in, the one already waiting for me was Warrific.

“Mornin’, Enza.”

“Good morning Warrific. So, how long do you think it’ll take the two noobs to log in?”

Warrific looked really tired, he isn’t a guy fit for mornings I guess.

Neither am I, but when something epic is waiting to happen, I just pump myself up and that helps me wake up really well.

I could see Warrific forming a smile; it was a small one, but he knew where I was going with my joke.

“Hmm, depends on how fast Glinc can finish eating his Mec Ronald breakfast. And Helius? I have no idea at a-”

He interrupted his own sentence by yawning, nice move.

We’ll probably have to wait at least another 15 minutes for them to log in, so I might as well get something clear again.

“What did you have in mind for your own class again?”

He looked at me with a confused look, probably because I worded that poorly.

“As in: what exact roll did you have in mind for yourself again? For when we go hunting in a bit?”

He raised his eyebrows a little and looked at me with that standard gaze of his. He looked a little bit bored, but it was probably just because he was still tired.

“I told you that already, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you probably did, I just forgot.”

Actually, he didn’t. He has been doing really mysterious about the exact skills he gained from his hidden class. He just told me that he’d play something of a supporting role, which gets stronger when more people are actively fighting alongside him.

He probably stayed silent about his exact skills, because either he was ashamed of them, or he just wanted to show them when we started battling.

That would make sense, because hey, I love to show off too.

It wouldn’t be very smart though, if anyone of our party started assuming that he’d have a skill which might help him out in a certain situation, and rely on that assumption, then he might get killed.

Dying should be prevented at all costs, it doesn’t really matter at the lower levels, but it gets dangerous when you are repeatedly dying. When your avatar dies, you don’t lose anything at first. But if you die repeatedly, then the game AI starts to use an algorithm that will decide how much and which items you will lose. If you really die a lot, then you might even start to lose some stat points. You are also unable to log back into the game for a certain period of time. That period of time is calculated based upon your level, and the time between your last death and your current one. The only exception is for ‘unruly’ users. When a player attacks a user who didn’t do anything wrong, the attacker turns ‘unruly’. The avatar’s name would automatically appear, and can’t be hid. Furthermore, the color of the name would be red, and there is a 100% probability of losing an item upon death. This is to discourage higher leveled players from PKing lower leveled users. Every unruly user can be killed without hesitation and without any risk of your own status turning unruly; furthermore, there is a 100% chance of an item dropping. A higher leveled player would never risk losing a random item, which might very well be his legendary sword, for the sake of killing a noob .

Warrific told me exactly the same thing as he told us before.

Damn, my plan to pry for more information didn’t really work out.

Just when I was about to force him to tell me his exact skills, under the banner of that it would increase our hunting efficiency, a bright golden beam appeared next to me. It vanished just as quick as it appeared, leaving Helius to stand in its place.

Warrific greeted Helius with a stiff smile and couldn’t resist making a comment.

“I guess Glinc is the last one to appear again.”

Luckily Helius didn’t look as tired as Warrific did, and he sat down with a smile while speaking up.

“At least I didn’t arrive last.”

That doesn’t excuse you from being late though.

I quietly sigh to myself and don’t make that comment out loud. I was late myself anyway, would be hypocritical to blame someone else for being late too.

To kill some time waiting for Glinc, I asked Helius and Warrific some boring questions like if they were prepared and hyped for the upcoming hunting days.

A bright ray of light appeared again, and just when I was about to greet Glinc, Warrific spoke up, not being able to resist replying to my last question.

“I hope monsters won’t be the only thing we hunt.”

He tried to wink while saying that, but sort of failed at it.

Helius and I started laughing, maybe more because of the wink than the remark on its own.

Glinc, having heard only that sentence, and seeing Warrific attempt a wink, immediately disconnected and disappeared from where he was just standing a second ago.

That made us laugh only harder and Warrific couldn’t resist starting to laugh too.

Glinc reconnected after a few seconds again, fully completing our group.

Time to start hunting.

Leaving the inn, the warmth of the sun was easily felt. The sun wasn’t a high point yet, but it was summer which made every time of the day have a nice and comfortable temperature.

The four of us walked to the gate of the town, Fellsmarch, and greeted the guards there.

“Looking for a cleric around level 5 with good healing skills!”

“Need a good tank for a 3 man party! Loot will be evenly shared!”

“Looking for someone who is able to repair my short sword. Will be well rewarded!”

Even at this time of the morning, there was already quite a crowd at Fellsmarch’s gate. They were all shouting through each other, trying to find what they were looking for. There were also some users who made stands at the side of the road, just outside the city to sell their products. There was even someone at the gate who was offering to draw people for a price.

Quite a nice idea, but I think only couples would request that service. And how many couples go on dates at this time?

I shrugged and started moving through the crowd towards the exit of the town. There weren’t that many people compared to how many there were at the day. It wasn’t the capital of the Northern Human Kingdom, Rinola, for a reason!

Glinc, Helius, and Warrific don’t really look affected as well, they just moved through the crowd following me quietly, they were probably already used to people shouting everywhere trying to gain attention.

Normally we’d have more conversations, with jokes being made everywhere, but the combination of the early morning along with a little bit of tension for the upcoming battles automatically made the mood more serious. Which is logical of course, fighting or hunting inside VR is a lot different from your standard games.

If you can see a monster running at you, baring its teeth, and aiming for your throat, it would be weirder for someone not to be affected at all. That’s why the 4 weeks of in-game time without being able to leave the city were needed too. If that restriction wasn’t present, then the total beginners would’ve foolishly rushed onto the hunting grounds without getting used to VR. That way beginners would probably freeze the moment they came into contact with the real killing intent of a wolf for example. They would start losing levels rapidly, trying to overcome their fear each time, and each time failing miserably. This way, when they would finally gather their wits, they would notice that they didn’t have any stats left, because of rapidly dying too many times without enough time in between the deaths. This would of course not be profitable for the company, having them enforce a restriction of not being able to leave the town on a whim when someone just creates his account. This was one of the game rules I actively promoted, and luckily, it was well received.

The moment we set out first step outside the gate, we slowly admired the forest stretching out in front of us. It reached as far as you could see.

But what amazed us wasn’t the sheer size of the forest.

What did, were the details.

Believe me; even spending 4 weeks in this nearly identical realistic world as our own reality, couldn’t prepare me for this sight. The first sigh of giant trees, with an uncountable amount of leaves swaying slightly in the wind would set every mouth, of every person agape.

Without any communication, Helius, Glinc, and Warrific slowly gathered next to me, until we stood in one line next to each other.

With the just upcoming sun in our backs, creating a reddish glow, we stood there silently admiring the sight.

If I must be honest, it felt like we looked pretty cool standing there.

“Out of the way noobie!”

The next thing I saw weren’t the big trees anymore; it was the giant chest of a high leveled user trying to exit the town. He just had to try and move through our party, bumping into me in the process.

Damn that guy for destroying the mood!

I just felt like some sort of hero who had just departed on an adventure.

Oh well, it might be a good wake up call, we can’t really relax here.

High leveled users and dangerous monsters are as plentiful as the leaves on those trees; we can’t relax when we enter the hunting zone.

There was quite some distance from the exit of the town to the start of the forest. In between, there lay a huge green field. It was a huge field full of grass, with a lot of rabbits hopping around. Occasionally, you would be able to see some kobolds running around, trying to catch the rabbits probably.

Rabbits were the easiest mobs around. You can compare them to a kind of monster in other games called ‘slimes’. They are normally the first mobs that appear, and the first mobs to be totally wiped out.

They chose Rabbits in Demesne, probably to make it more realistic, but I doubt how many players would be able to hop right into the game and mass slaughter some cute rabbits.

There were also kobolds walking around. They were slightly more difficult to handle than the simple rabbits.

Kobolds are green looking monsters, with a height reaching up to a grown man’s hip or knee. They possess a little bit of intelligence and carry around very simple improvised weapons, most of the time in the form of simple sharpened rocks.

After throwing a look at my stats, I don’t even have to consider actually fighting these lower leveled monsters. They would probably be killed as easily as grabbing a flying mosquito out of the air. They would give me a little bit of EXP

I questioningly look at my friends around me, probing them to speak up. I think I made it clear with my body language that we shouldn’t waste our time with those low level mobs, but head to the forest to fight against some wolves.

Helius was the first one to speak up after some thinking:

“Hmm, I want to test a few of my skills first on these lower leveled monsters, after that, when I’m feeling confident, we can move towards the higher leveled monsters.”

Glinc had a reply waiting for him, almost as if he had prepared it in advance.

“Dude?! Are you seriously going to slaughter those helpless rabbits?”

We all took a moment to quietly stare at Glinc, of course Helius meant to attack the Kobolds, and everyone understood that.

The moment Glinc saw that the attention was fully focused on him; he spoke up again with a smile:

“Then of course I’ll help you bro! I’ll help you slaughter those rabbits. Hahahaha.”

When he still noticed that we were quietly staring at him, even when he started laughing on his own, he just stopped laughing and started trudging towards the nearest kobold.

I’m not sure about the others, but I actually thought the comment was quite funny. I just thought it was more fun making Glinc feel bad than to laugh at his joke. The day started well with Glinc trying to make Helius feel awkward, but it backfiring, and in return, making Glinc feel awkward himself.

“Alright, let’s go guys.”

Warrific couldn’t stand us simply standing around anymore, and started following Glinc.

Glinc stepped in front of a kobold, just when the kobold was about to smash the head of rabbit in. Glinc tried glaring at the kobold, and for some reason, instead of attacking Glinc; the kobold took a few steps back.

Hmm that’s strange.

Kobolds should be around level 2 and 3, how is it possible for one to retreat when there’s only a level one in front of him?

The only thing I can think of is the special class Glinc has. There should be some ability or skill that forces opponents back, maybe something like the fighting spirit stat I acquired. I simply don’t believe that Glinc can make a mob retreat out of sheer pressure at level 1.

Helius immediately took those few seconds of time the kobold was retreating, to rush behind him.

The moment the kobold hit Helius’s knee when he was still stumbling backwards, Helius started to savagely smile.

“Hello, little guy.”

Truly fitting for his evil alignment!

I really wonder if Helius is just roleplaying, or if the evil alignment is more fitting for his character than I initially thought.

Helius was the one who wanted to test his skills in the first place, so he immediately activated his Life drain skill.

Life drain is a pretty interesting skill, because it scales on the percentages of total health. I selected Helius’s avatar in the party window, and clicked on the window showing active skills. This is a feature for the party leader, and party members if they allow others to look at their skills, so that you can efficiently manage who should what skill when.

*Ting!*

• Life drain (Lv. 1 - 0%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel)

Drain the health force of your opponents while empowering yourself

Effect: Drain 2% of enemy’s total health per second

Mana consumption: 10/s

2% of the enemy’s total health.

That means he won’t be able to fully kill someone relying solely on this skill yet. But it might be a very good skill against stronger monsters later, especially because it doesn’t do any flat damage, but scales on the opponent. The stronger the opponent, the more damage, just not relatively.

Red blood like particles were torn out of the skin of the kobold, right into the body of Helius, it looked pretty bad ass.

The kobold must’ve been shocked awake by all the pain it was feeling, it clenched the stone in his hand even tighter and rushed at Helius.

Was there a need for me to interfere and help Helius out?

Of course not.

Helius took care of the kobold by simply kicking the kobold, keeping him at distance while his Life drain was slowly doing the work for him.

The last few days leading up to this point, we had already discussed how we should train our various skills, and what the most efficient way would be.

Helius had no trouble keeping the kobold at bay, probably because the kobold didn’t show any real killing intent because of the pain and shock he received before and also partly due to the martial art training Helius had received the previous years.

After around 20 seconds, the particles that looked like drops of blood suddenly stopped appearing, Helius appeared flustered for a bit, but when Warrific casually said the word ‘Mana’, Helius seemed to understand.

He had channeled the skill for 20 seconds, which was his limit with his current mana value of 200. Most kobolds would have an HP value of around 50 points. When you think about the 2% of damage for 20 seconds, that should leave the kobold with 30 health points left. Adding in the powerful front kicks Helius used at the kobold, he should have less than 10 points remaining.

Should I steal his kill just for the heck of it?

I couldn’t help the corner my mouth raising a little bit, but I thought it wouldn’t be worth the argument that would definitely occur. Looking around me I could see Warrific faintly smiling too, it would be funny if we were thinking the same thing.

What about Glinc?

Never mind, he was simply looking at the kobold dying, admiring the view.

Helius kicked once more at the kobold, fully depleting his health.

Which makes sense, seeing as Helius’s combined strength value is 24. That is almost the same value as someone at level 3, who would have invested all his stat points into strength every level. The kobold was only level 2, so of course one kick would be able to damage him for 10 health points.

*Ting!*

A Kobold has been killed by your party.

+5 EXP

I dismiss the message, and put the EXP notifications to mute. I would be able to see the progress in my progress bar anyway. The notifications of killed mobs may come in handy later when big battles are occurring. That way you wouldn’t be able to see every monster that was killed, so you might miss important information without the pop up. But with our 4 man party there is no need for them at all.

I raise my thumb at Helius and smile:

“Good job, nice front kick!”

5 Exp huh?

That would mean we’d have to hunt 20 kobolds before we’d level up to 2.

Or level 3…

I throw a look at Warrific while inwardly cursing:

Why don’t I have that kind of luck?!

“Alright, these guys are way too easy. You should have gotten the hang of how to use your skills, right Helius?” I wait for Helius’s response, who nodded, before continuing; “It would be more effective if we were to head inside the forest, and then just stick to the edge of the forest. We might be able to hunt a few wolves, they are quite dangerous, but I always live by the saying, ‘high risks yield high rewards!’.”

I start walking towards the forest full of confidence, while the others seemingly follow behind me.

I underestimated the distance quite a bit.

The trees were so big, that when you looked at them from a distance they looked pretty close by. It almost took us 15 minutes to reach the edge of the forest. While walking towards the edge of the forest, we took care of 5 more Kobolds, filling our progress bars around 30%.

When we got to the edge of the forest, we started to get a little tenser. We could hear the howling of wolves, strong mobs, ranging from a level of 15 to around 20.

This time we really had to take care and work together. They were not only highly intelligent, but also extremely ferocious.

Our party’s formation would be as follows: Helius and I would play the main attackers as tanks and DpS . Glinc would take up a rogue like role, rushing in and out of the fight, dealing as much damage as he can, taking over the tank role if either of us got too low. Warrific would keep us from dying, by dishing out heals and buffing us however he can.

I would be the one to call the final shots, I may be slightly inferior to Warrific tactic-wise, but I can trust on myself to make rational decisions at all times, I also have slightly more experience in fighting, so that might work out to our advantage in these small scale battles.

We assumed a simple formation where Helius and I walked up front, with Glinc slightly behind us and Warrific even further behind us.

The sun hasn’t reached its highest point yet, it was still quite early in the morning actually. That means that there would be a lot of shadows covering the grounds of the forest. Most of the monsters were empowered at night, or in dark places, which makes them more dangerous. But they would also give out more EXP when they died. This made it worth our whiles to try it out.

When we reached the edge of the forest, we started to roam. The forest was thick, but it was still manageable to stick around the edge of the forest. The sun almost couldn’t be seen, and the wind was causing the rustling of leaves and branches to happen everywhere.

“Let’s go slightly deeper, I haven’t seen any wolves around here.”

Warrific’s casual remark might as well have almost been our first downfall.

I complied with his suggestion, starting to slowly head inside the forest, Helius closely beside me.

I never thought that the moment the size of a forest is increased, the whole atmosphere of a forest would change. It had a sort of mystical mood because of the enormous trees, but because the sun’s light can’t breach through the thick pack of branches and leaves, it leaves us with a sort of twilight scene. It’s hard to see ahead, which makes us pay way more attention on our close surroundings than normal. An enemy could appear any moment.

I’m not sure if this is a good idea.

I’m pretty confident in my own skills to survive, even if we were to be attacked, but I’m not sure if I can keep the whole party alive in that scenario, especially not with this lack of light. I feel pretty responsible for this party; I eventually created the party, which made me the party leader by some unspoken rule. Not like I would make all the decisions on my own or something, it’s just that after consulting everyone I’d be the one to decide. It sort of turned out that way, because they listened to me.

I abruptly held out my hand towards my left, where Helius was walking, to stop him and the other 2 behind me. I heard some rustling and snarling coming from my left, I immediately stepped in front of Helius and turned my whole body towards the left side, assuming a fighting stance. There was one wolf standing in the open in front of us, snarling at us and showing a defensive posture.

It looked like it could jump at any moment.

Then suddenly, without giving me any time to react, I feel an explosion of pain coming from my back.

*Ting!*

Attacked from behind!

Critical damage!

-250 health points

Shit!

Wolves hunt in packs, distracting the prey while sneaking up behind them are standard tactics!

***

The moment I heard Enza crying out, I immediately created some distance between me and, apparently two, of the wolves.

Shit, they have already sneaked up behind us!

How worthless can the frontline be?!

They should be glad they have me, without my upcoming heals this party would be wiped within the blink of an eye.

I chant 2 sentences of complete gibberish to complete the healing spell I had been ready to cast all morning already.

I had practiced those lines so many times, until I could say the lines flawlessly with my eyes closed and my hands on my back.

Finishing the chant, I waved my hand towards Enza and recover his health points.

*Ting!*

Healed Enza for 100 health points.

The scene exploded the moment the wolf attacked. While I jumped back preparing myself to heal Enza, Enza’s first reaction was to push Helius back while he himself took a few steps back.

The moment the wolf, that attacked from behind, ended his attack and was about to make his second attack, Glinc’s leg turned into stone and he kicked towards the wolf with impeccable timing. The wolf’s second attack was interrupted and he was knocked back towards the wolf that had served as a distraction.

Hmph, we’re lucky that only one wolf attacked at that time.

Also, leave it to Glinc to follow up to save Enza immediately. He should’ve paid more attention to the surroundings and kicked the wolf while he was still attacking Enza, instead of waiting for the wolf to finish his attack first.

We all slowly retreated while I cast another heal on Enza. It’s possible to see the health of all the party members, and I could see that his health was almost back to full again.

The thing I don’t get though; is how Enza survived that blow with so much health left. Aren’t wolves mobs around level 15? Enza still had more than half of his health.

Oh well, he probably managed to dodge a big part of the damage with some silly martial arts or something, if he can keep doing that, then that would make my job easier too.

We managed to regroup to our initial formation while slowly backing away, the wolves were slowly walking in our footsteps. Almost as if they are stalking their prey.

Wait.

They are.

Damn it.

“So, do you think we can kill those two wolves?”

Glinc was the first one to break the silence while we were slowly retreating.

The moment we show our backs, is the moment we’re all wiped out.

“Damn it, 2 wolves are pretty tough, we should’ve stuck to the edges of the forest, lone wolves hunt there, the deeper you go, the more wolves in a pack.” Enza said, but he couldn’t help adding; “Shit, we really shouldn’t have listened to Warrific!”

Well, screw you too Enza.

Those two wolves are the only worthy opponents, at least this is super fun!

“Don’t worry, you guys have me, I can just heal you guys the moment you run out of health. I don’t get why we’re slowly retreating though, shouldn’t you guys be attacking?”

Encouraging them won’t hurt anyone.

I wasn’t even lying, my healing skill is pretty overpowered, healing 100 health flat is insanely high for a level one skill. Most level one characters only have 100 health, so being able to heal them from 0 to hero is insane. The only downside is that it draws a lot of mana. But we bought a few mana potions earlier as preparations, so it should be fine.

Enza was the first to step up, he’s probably pissed that he got attacked without seeing it coming. He didn’t have any special active skills yet, which was pretty logical, but he stepped diagonally to the left, after he had feinted to the right. Then he made 2 punches into the air.

Pretty clever, by stepping to the left, both the wolves immediately reacted by turning slightly to follow his figure.

Glinc immediately followed up on the opening Enza had created by making a front kick towards the right wolf, and turning his leg into stone at the last moment to greaten the impact.

Pretty cool looking skill he got there, I hope it won’t handicap his performance later.

While Glinc kicked at the wolf, Helius had not been sitting still; he had already casted Life drain at the right wolf that Glinc had attacked, while simultaneously activating his slowing skill ‘decay’, at the left wolf, to prevent him from suddenly attacking Enza.

Nice, that slow will give Enza some extra breathing space, that way he should be able to react on time.

Glinc’s kick had pushed the right wolf quite some distance back, which would leave us a few seconds to deal with the left wolf.

The hidden classes are hidden classes for a reason. The slowing skill Helius casted wasn’t great because it would just slow, leaving room for a counter attack.

No, the great thing about that skill was that it would only be noticed by the one affected, the moment they would start to move.

That should create a big opening!

Most of the time the big movements made in a fight are extremely important, but if that movement were to be suddenly slowed down, the mind of the person moving would be also be affected!

And, just as expected, the moment the wolf lashed out, baring its fangs and killing intent at Enza’s throat, Enza’s hand was already moving towards the beast’s own throat.

The moment the wolf was starting to prepare itself to jump, I already started chanting the chant for the heal skill again, you can better be safe than sorry.

Enza might dodge the wolf, but I sure as hell won’t count on it.

The wolf’s teeth neared Enza’s throat, but Enza’s fist reached the wolf first, creating a loud ‘thud’-like sound of impact. The wolf was actually blown back, but it managed to claw viciously at Enza’s arm, which had stretched out.

Seeing a chunk of Enza’s health disappear, I immediately filled his health bar up again, by letting loose my heal.

Now that the wolf had been blown back, the immediate death threat had lessened a little. The wolves should be more cautious now too. Helius tried to strike at the moment Enza had already struck the wolf, but unfortunately Enza blew the wolf back too fast, resulting in Helius barely missing the wolf.

But now that it is a little safer, it’s time to start using this class’s full potential!

“I call upon the sun’s power to empower those who need empowerment, channel it through your faithful servant!” Slightly pausing at this point, I adjust my glasses and continue chanting to finalize the spell; “Bestow the true might, upon the ones with the most just cause, assisting them in the slaying of evil!”

Spreading and lowering my arms, I open my hands like some kind of messiah and start to emit a bright light for a split second. In the split second that light was emitted, a warm feeling –just liked sunrays, was left behind.

*Ting!*

Empowerment was successfully casted!

All allies have temporarily gained:

+10 STR

+10 AGI

+5 Def

Ha, successfully casted!

This spell is definitely OP !

This spell adds 10 skill points to two stats and 5 to another. That means that one stat has been raised by the full stat points of 2 levels!

That means that in total they would have temporarily gained 5 levels!

But that’s not all, the more people this skill is cast on at the same time, the stronger the effect!

It will excel in larger battles later on in the game.

Heh, I can’t wait!

I can’t help but grin and go with the flow, shouting: “Go! Attack them; they should be fair game now!”

Enza and Glinc grinned while rushing towards the left wolf. They probably had the same idea; to finish off the weakened wolf first. After the blow it had received it was barely standing, with only a third of its health left.

Helius took a step back to watch; he has probably used up all his mana already. The skills he has can be implemented to be extremely useful, but the downside is the mana drain. Especially using 2 skills at the same time, he would be draining his mana with 10 points per second, while casting the slow would be 20 points. He only had a maximum of 200 mana points too. Casting a slow once, he would only be able to maintain the drain for 18 seconds!

But, the wolves should have around 1500 to 2000 health points, using the drain for 18 seconds on one of them would result in 720 damage!

Considering Helius is still level one, that’s an awful lot of damage.

I wonder how strong he’ll be at the later levels.

Glinc used a low side kick upon the left wolf, totally ignoring the other wolf that was just about to attack him.

Damn! He probably expects me to immediately heal him.

I can’t help but click my tongue; does he even know how annoying it is to chant these bullshit lines?!

While I was busy chanting, they managed to kill the weakened wolf, Enza finished the wolf off with a chop after Glinc critically injured it with his kick.

After Glinc made his low kick, he covered his face with his hands, turning his arms into stone. While the wolf was still in an arc towards Glinc’s throat, their favorite attacking spot, it changed his direction midway. It chose to claw towards Glinc’s chest instead of attacking his throat.

Nice move Glinc, that way you won’t receive a critical hit at least.

While I manage to cast my third heal and recover Glinc’s nearly depleted health bar, I immediately reach for a mana potion in my pocket. I can’t maintain these spells without more mana for a very long time. My max right now is 3 heals and 1 empowerment –which cost a lot more mana. I don’t get how Glinc and Enza can have that much health though! These wolfs are almost level 20, they should be able to one shot a level one character.

Must be luck.

While I was drinking my mana potion and Glinc was knocked back after the attack, Enza immediately reacted by kicking towards the wolf’s throat. He calculated the angle of where the wolf would land on the ground after attacking Glinc and managed to kill the wolf with a clean kick.

*Ting!*

*Ting!*

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Now that’s more like it!

“Whoa, I got 3 levels at once!”

Glinc couldn’t help but make a weird little jump and shout in excitement.

“Yeah, I’m proud of you guys. That was a tough fight, but we managed to handle that really cleanly.”

Sure Enza, but you still got ambushed by that wolf, good job.

There’s one thing that has been bothering me though.

“That’s all nice and well, but there’s one thing that I don’t understand. Why is no one of you using weapons?!”

Enza shrugged and spoke up first, “Well, I had to leave all the weapons I was using in the training hall for other people to use… And I’m confident in my hand to hand combat anyway!”

Well, I guess he did do okay without a weapon.

Glinc looked embarrassed and was simply watching the ground, “Well, the main weapon of my class is the Bo Staff, but I still have to acquire that from a quest. In the meantime I forgot all about using other weapons.”

Helius was the only one raised his head high and spoke up, “Ha, you guys don’t even have a weapon with you, I have an over powered dagger, it’s even a relic item!”

Then why aren’t you using it…

Enza voiced the question I was also contemplating, “Shouldn’t you have used the dagger then and helped us out when your mana ran out…?”

Helius awkwardly laughed and responded, “Well, it’s restricted, I forgot I can only use it when I hit level 5. I took it with me thinking I’d be able to equip it instantly…”

Enza started laughing and waved his hand, “No worries, no worries, with this pace we’ll hit level 5 really soon. I can’t help but laugh when I think about all the EXP we’re gaining by slaying these wolves. Just remember the thrill of fighting against them, hehehehe.”

Having experienced the thrill of battle, while reaping the rewards of that plentiful EXP at the end, the whole party erupted into a mad laughter, filled with greed for more EXP.

“Kekekekeke.”

“Kukukuku.”

“Hahahahaha.”

A few wild wolves that were just about to target the party instantly halted and couldn’t help but to shiver. They slowly retreated the exact way they had drawn closer.