Looking at the surprised face of the shop keeper, I just laugh awkwardly and wait for the shopkeeper to explain what was so weird about my question.

After slaying a lot of wolves, we all managed to reach level 5.

But because no one of us had weapons, it took us longer than we expected. The moment the mana of Helius or Warrific ran out, we were forced to wait until they recovered it.

That’s why right now; we’re back in the city, trying to buy weapons with the coins we looted from the wolves.

“They don’t sell those here…. I asked him the same question and he just laughed at me…”

Enza is the one who brought me back to reality with his quick explanation.

“Yep, sorry lad, I just didn’t expect that two people would ask me the same question within such a short amount of time. I’m willing to craft it for you though, but it’ll cost you a lot more!”

Warrific walked up from behind me and patted my shoulder; “Sorry Glinc, we don’t have that kind of money yet, I guess you’re doomed to fight with only your hands until you get more gold.”

Or when I get the staff from my hidden class…

I like the Monkey King class a lot, but it sucks a little right now that I’m only allowed to use staffs. Fighting unarmed isn’t really a problem, but it’s tough to fight up close without the extra range a sword can provide.

At least it shouldn’t pose a problem if I just manage to use my ‘Rock skin’ skill effectively!

I actually managed to get it up to beginner level 3 within that short period of time.

“Well, I’m sorry for wasting your time then shopkeeper, I hope you don’t mind.”

A polite man is a wise man; at least, that’s what I always tell myself.

Enza walked up from behind and then proceeded to stand in front of me.

“Alright, we won’t completely waste your time, we just need a solid mace then, it doesn’t have to be anything too fancy though.”

“Wait, Enza, you’re going to use a mace?!”

Warrific couldn’t help but to exclaim that in surprise. He has a point though, I’m wondering why Enza would buy a mace too, hasn’t he been training with swords all this time?

“No, you’re going to use the mace…”

“Wait… What?”

Enza grinned and started explaining to Warrific:

“Well, you’re the only one without a weapon actually… Well, Glinc doesn’t have one too, but he’s ‘special’. Helius has his fancy relic knife, I’m going to pick up a good sword at the training hall, whilst Glinc can’t use any weapons excluding a staff.”

Warrific started frowning and replied to Enza, he had folded his arms too, probably trying to show his slight discontent.

“Yes, I get all that of course, but why the hell would you get me a mace instead of a sword?”

“You don’t know?”

Enza raised one eyebrow and gave that familiar ‘know it all look’.

I can’t help but sigh when he follows up with an explanation; it’s kind of annoying when he just thinks that people possess the exact same knowledge as him, and then show confusion when someone doesn’t know something, when there a lot of things they know, while he doesn’t.

Here it comes…

“You should know that swords are pretty difficult to use correctly. Actually, most people always think that the sword is a superior weapon. But if you haven’t trained a lot with a sword, or aren’t really familiar with sword techniques, then it’s way more efficient to use a mace. You will be able to inflict a lot more damage with maces. The only reason they aren’t more popular than the sword, is that they are a lot more expensive than swords. A mace wielder is going to win every fight with a sword wielder, except when the skill gap is simply too big while the weight isn’t much different. It’s pretty surprising how easy it is to break a sword with a mace, they can also be swung quicker. Which most people don’t expect, even NPCs shouldn’t expect it. So, are you convinced yet?”

Warrific shrugged his shoulders, while saying, “Yeah, whatever… I’ll use it, I guess.”

“Can you pay up already? You’re blocking the other customers’ way.”

Warrific walked up to the smith and silently completed the exchange.

Alright, time to pick up Enza’s sword at the training gym and head out to kill some wolves!

Helius was the first to leave the smith’s store, with me Enza behind him. Warrific left after he received his mace.

I apologized to the customers we delayed and then followed right after the others.

After exiting the shop, we just had to cross the plaza to reach the training hall.

The capital city was constructed in a way that the most important buildings, like the big shops, the church, guilds and other buildings, were all a part of the big circle that is the plaza. There are a lot of other shops and houses or buildings too of course, but they weren’t a part of the plaza.

“Found a new dungeon with skeletons! Looking for a level 7 priest, loot will be shared!”

“Need a good tank ASAP; we’re looking to speed level with a high DPS team!”

“Selling a lot of loot! Come to me to buy your fur, bones, or other items!”

Like always, there were a lot of people trying to sell things or to recruit people.

“Damn, it feels like we’re a little behind… There a lot of people with higher levels than us here.”

“Don’t worry Warrific; most of the really higher leveled players here are the employees and friends of the employees who have been playing since alpha. They were allowed to keep their avatars so that they could test the higher leveled quests and skills for bugs. I think there were also some low key competitions a while back, where people were able to get an avatar. The company was pretty careful preventing it from being leaked to the media though.”

Enza was quick to explain the situation, but I can see that he’s a little irritated too. They both don’t like being low leveled probably. But it looks like Helius doesn’t really care.

I’m of the same mind actually, why would you be irritated that you’re still a low level.

“Why are you guys annoyed by this? Isn’t the most fun thing about this game that we can watch out own avatars grow slowly to become gods?”

Enza snapped out of it, but he just had to look back and say:

“Well, it’s not really annoying that we’re low leveled, it’s just annoying that other people are of a higher level than me…”

“You’re too arrogant.”

Helius was pretty quick to point out Enza’s place. Although, it did come across a little bit harsh.

“Well, sure, maybe I am, but I do know that I’ll surpass them all, hèhè.”

“Don’t you mean ‘we’ll surpass them all’?”

“Yeah, of course I meant that Glinc… of course.”

Continuing our mindless chatter, we picked up Enza’s sword at the training hall.

The sword turned out to be of a slightly superior quality than the average beginner swords you could find in the shops, the lucky guy.

The four of us slowly walked back to the exit of the city.

We prepared to hunt the whole night, so we packed some extra food, water and we even all got a tent. They were pretty expensive, so we burned all our money. It’s amazing how we even got that much money from all the odd jobs of the previous weeks and the wolves we hunted.

We could’ve made the decision to simply stay at the inn too, but in the long run that would’ve cost way more than to just simply buy a tent once.

Just when we left the city’s gates, I spot a female walking over. She looked to be an elf, with pointy ears and high eyebrows.

She’s extremely pretty, with really defined features.

She had a spring in her step, and she looked pretty confident walking over to us like that.

“Hey guys, what level are the four of you?”

Her voice was like music to my ears, so I was the first of us to speak up.

“We’re all level 5, but why would that be of interest to something like you?”

I intended to compliment her, but that came across a little awkward.

But all is well; she smiled, showing slight dimples in her cheeks. Then she spoke up again:

“I was looking for a team with reliable looking guys. Look, I found a certain dungeon not far from here, but I’m not strong enough to deal with them myself…”

She blinked her eyes at us a few times, awaiting our response.

Before answering again I looked at Enza, and surprisingly, he was frowning.

But before Enza or I could speak up, Warrific already gave an answer.

Adjusting his glasses, it was almost like his eyes were shining.

“We’re in. Dungeons sound interesting!”

The female’s eyes shined for a moment, before she loudly exclaimed ‘great!’.

Helius rested one hand on his hip and just stood by idle, while Enza stopped frowning, shrugged and asked for her name.

The girl smiled. “You guys can call me Fenila.”

She turned around and simply expected us to follow. It can be considered rude, but somehow that movement held a sort of charm where you would just automatically followed.

We looked at each other and shrugged, and then we proceeded to follow her.

I pass the other three to start a conversation with Fenila. “So, how long is the walk?”

“We just have to cross a bit of the forest, it shouldn’t take very long. In only an hour or three we’ll probably reach the cave.”

I took me a few seconds to adjust my thinking. Considering that we’re in a medieval world and have to walk towards our destinations, three hours isn’t really a long time. I’ve heard of journeys consisting out of days of walking, just to cross a forest in those ancient times.

Enza’s voice snapped me out of my thinking, “So, the dungeon is a cave at the center of the forest?”

“Yup!”

Enza started to walk next to Warrific, I could hear some vague sentences about how the center of the forest had higher leveled monsters like boars and bears.

In the meantime, Helius joined Fenila and me. We started talking and asked each other how we got into the game and what our classes were.

She was only responding with one word answers, and was mostly asking questions, having us do the talking.

She must be quite shy.

“Yo, Glinc, you should pay attention! There’s another one over there!”

I immediately hardened my arm, blocking the incoming attack of the last remaining wolf.

While the wolf was trying to tear off my arm, Enza managed to close the distance and cut off its head.

*Ting!*

A Wolf has been killed by your party.

+50 EXP

“You’re getting pretty proficient at that skill of yours, Glinc. The timing of your hardening has really improved, it’s way more efficient this way, good job. But you might get a better effect if you manage to counter their attacks with attacks of your own, instead of just blocking them.”

Enza gave some advice again, not that I really need it, but whatever.

We came across a few parties of wolves, but we managed to fight them off every time. We had been walking for slightly more than three hours, so we should reach our destination pretty soon.

Luckily we haven’t encountered any mobs we couldn’t handle yet, the bears or boars haven’t made their appearance yet.

That might be a good thing, but I’m still kind of excited by the idea of battling them.

Fenila cheered us on when we finished off the last remaining wolf, “Good job guys! You really are the party I was looking for! We’re almost there, after another 15 minutes of walking we should reach the cave.”

We asked her a few times what her class was, and if she could contribute to the fights in anyway, but she just shrugged it off and stood back every time a fight happened.

She must really have a shitty non-combat class if she’s so embarrassed that she doesn’t even talk about her class.

Wait a second, I almost forgot about that notification that popped up a few seconds ago!

“Show skill: Rock Skin.”

*Ting!*

• Rock Skin (Lv. 4 - 4.2%) (Beginner) (Active) (Channel)

Toughen your skin by changing the outer layer to rock. The Monkey King’s origins lie deep in a magic stone, using these roots you are able to change body parts in rock. Not only hardening the skin, but also increasing the weight.

Effect: Increase defense and weight of a certain body part

Mana consumption: 5/s

Heh, level 4 already.

I have 3 other skills I can use right now, but I have been using Rock Skin for almost every fight.

It may seem overpowered, especially with the low mana cost, but it’s pretty much balanced. When I change a limb to rock, it’s extremely heavy, so it’s almost impossible to lift using my current strength stat.

And trying to tank doesn’t work either, because mobs will just avoid me when I turn into stone. Luckily, I did figure out a really effective way of using the skill. Right before enemies I can use the skill defensively by turning the attacked parts into rock.

Offensively, I can turn my legs or arms right at the last moment into rock, this way the momentum of the kick or punch increases, while I don’t have to actually lift my limbs while their weight has increased.

It’s a pretty fun skill to use, because a real down side of unarmed combat in virtual reality is that your feet and hands will hurt quite a lot if you punch monsters with a high defense. If your wrist is slightly bent, then you will also hurt your wrist, etc.

But when my attacks are fully supported by my stone limbs, the attacks only hurt the opponent and not me!

Suddenly I hear Fenila gleefully exclaiming, “We’re here! We’ve made it, it’s just up ahead, let’s go!”

***

"We’re here! We’ve made it, it’s just up ahead, let’s go!”

Fenila yelled that out, while pointing at an intersection within the forest. It was like there was an ‘X’ shape without trees within the forest, where the side the furthest away from us contained a cave.

I wonder what kind of mobs this cave will have.

I still have my doubts about this, but whatever. Glinc, Warrific and Helius seemed to be fine with this situation, so I’ll just follow them for once.

You know what they say, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’

“Enza, hurry up, it already took us a long time to arrive here, let’s finally start hunting for real now!”

Glinc, with his usual enthusiasm, waved at me, encouraging me to hurry up.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming, I’m coming. Chill dude, it’s not like we’ll be able to clear it immediately or anything.”

Warrific couldn’t stand it anymore and spoke up too. “Dude, shut up and just hurry up, I also want to enter that cave. It will be our first dungeon for fucks sake!”

I sigh out loud and follow them to the entrance of the cave.

The air suddenly got colder, probably because of the eerie wind coming from inside the cave. The atmosphere was significantly changed from how it was before. This adds a lot more tension to situations in virtual reality. I love it.

*Ting!*

You have now entered the dungeon: Cave of the fallen

Figured, guess we aren’t the first to enter this dungeon, otherwise we would’ve gained an increase in EXP for the first x hours we would’ve spent here.

Fenila slightly grinned, before fully smiling towards us. “Let’s head in guys, we finally arrived!”

“Ehmm, shouldn’t we first create some battle tactics or formations? What if we get wiped inside?”

He certainly has a point.

“I agree with Warrific, it wouldn’t be wise to just enter the cave blindly. We don’t even know what kind of mobs are inside, you haven’t told us either, so I assume you don’t know too.”

“No, no, no, it’s all fine! Really, the mobs at the beginning of the dungeon are all of very low level, so they can be handled without any tactics. The strategy will form itself naturally while we fight. Come on, I have been waiting a long time before I could finally enter this dungeon. Can we just go in… pretty please…?” Fenila blinked a few times.

Her refusal is apparent with that reply.

The other three are fidgeting around a little, while I just wave my hand, implying that we should all head inside.

Those eyes form a deadly weapon.

As we enter the cave, I unsheathe my sword and ready it. You can never be too careful.

“Let Glinc and me walk up front, Helius and Warrific can easily cast spells from behind us then. Be careful not to get flanked.”

“Sure.”

“Alright.”

“Okay.”

I get three replies, while Fenila just grins and moves to our back line.

The cave was pretty ill lighted, but there were actually some torches on the walls. I wonder if they belong to the cave, or if someone bothered to place them there.

The ground was uneven and the sound of footsteps could be heard for afar.

“H-Humans, Kill.”

“Prepare to die humanssss.”

Before I knew it, two skeletons were upon our party.

They must have approached us from the side, seeing how the cave doesn’t just exist out of one simple linear path. They were walking next to each other, from our right side.

“Damn! I told you guys to watch out for flanks! Helius, try to slow one of them so we can deal with the other one. Glinc, back me up so we can finish this skeleton first.”

Warrific calmly assessed the situation and spoke up, “Alright, I’ll ready my heals for you guys. We don’t know how strong the enemies are, so I’ll conserve my mana for heals, until we know if you guys need my damage.”

Oh, that’s true isn’t it?

If you cast a heal on an undead, they receive damage instead of health.

I immediately felt the thrill of the battle again and ran towards the left skeleton.

Let’s do this!

Seeing how they’re just a pile of bones, I aim a horizontal slash at the base of the skeleton’s neck. Maybe I’ll be able to instantly dismember him, making it an instant victory.

Seeing the perfect angle of my sword, I’m already looking at the other skeleton. I should probably use the same attack for this one.

Heh, I don’t even need my party like this.

But at that moment I suddenly feel the rebound in my arm. It felt like I hit against a wall and my sword couldn’t even slash through the first skeleton’s neck.

“Damn, watch out guys, their bodies are probably reinforced with magic!”

The skeleton was still blown to the side a bit; it couldn’t fully withstand the impact at least.

Using the rebound of the previous strike, I make a downwards slash this time, going for the skeletons shoulder.

I hit its shoulder with all my strength, and slash across the surface.

I don’t want to face the same rebound again.

That’s the thing about swords, if you can’t slash or pierce something, it’ll become useless. I can’t pierce at the skeletons naturally.

And because of their strong bones, slashing doesn’t really work either; I can only use the sword as if it were a baseball bat to hit the surface of their bones without using any actual sword techniques.

Glinc must have figured this out too, because he made a front kick right at the rib cage of the skeleton. He probably didn’t harden his leg this time, because it would’ve dropped immediately from the weight.

Wait a second.

Drop.

Hmm, I might not be as useless as I thought this fight.

I close the gap between the skeleton again and use all my strength to slash at both his knees.

The skeleton doesn’t receive too much damage, but my strength stat must’ve been enough to forcibly knock the skeleton to the ground.

While the skeleton is falling down, I make eye contact with Glinc.

He nods back at me, so I sprint towards the second skeleton.

Helius was waving his dagger at the skeleton, trying to damage him and keep him away from Warrific and Fenila.

Making a side kick at the skeleton, I manage to increase its distance to Helius. While I slash at the skeleton’s side, I hear a crushing sound to my left.

Glinc must’ve understood what I was hinting at, activating his rock skill to use the weight and crush the skeleton’s rib cage.

As they say; what works once, works twice.

I created some distance with that slash at its shoulder. I heard Glinc walk up to us again, so we used the same tactic and destroyed the second skeleton with ease.

How much XP did that give me? I disabled the notifications a while back, but it’s quite easy to have them show up again.

*Ting*

*Ting*

A Skeleton has been killed by your party.

+400 EXP

A Skeleton has been killed by your party.

+400 EXP

Damn, 400 XP?!

I forgot to check the skeleton’s level, but that’s some pretty good XP.

That rock skill is really OP, to be able to just use the gravity and crush monsters. Isn’t it possible to kill these skeletons at level one that way?!

“I wonder how they were able to talk… They’re just bones right?”

Good point Helius… But it should be the magic that reinforced them, providing them with life force.

“Good job guys, that was quite easy, wasn’t it?”

I look at the faces around me and we were all smiling, except for Fenila.

She looks… confused?

Hmm, I wonder what’s so confusing; she told us that we were able to hunt here, so why is she so confused?

I thought it was fishy at the beginning that she was just sharing the dungeon’s location. Maybe she expected us to die to those skeletons so that she could pick up our dropped items and leave?

Nah, never mind, that wouldn’t have worked out, because the skeletons would’ve just killed her too.

I voice out my concern, without actually saying anything concrete. “Should we continue heading deeper?”

“Yeah, this went quite easy, you just have to knock them down, and then I’ll just crush their rib cages. Free XP!” Glinc raised his fist enthusiastically, his eyes shining.

“I agree. I already reached level 7 because of those skeletons!”

“I still think it’s unfair that only you gained a level in the beginning stage of the game. Now you’ll stay the highest leveled guy of our party…” Helius retorted on Warrific’s exclamation.

Alright, let’s head in.

I rest my sword on my shoulder and take the lead, walking deeper into the cave.

Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter any skeletons, or any other mobs, for another 15 minutes of walking.

The last few minutes, the path we were following got a lot narrower, until we couldn’t even stand next to each other anymore. But quite soon, we saw some bright light at the end of the tunnel. The path suddenly expanded, and exiting the narrow part, I stepped out into a big section within the cave.

There was a lot of space and the surroundings expanded. It looked like a ring with multiple entrances in the walls. The part we had just entered had a shape like an ‘O’ and there was quite some room.

We entered this section and stood in the middle of the area.

Just when I was about to ask if anyone had any suggestions on which of the newly found entrances we should enter, Fenila spoke up. “I’m really sorry guys; I’m in a position where I don’t have any choice but to do this.”

She took out a simple whistle.

And she blew on it.

A shrill sound came out, resounding through the whole cave.

The next thing we heard were multiple pairs of footsteps sounding throughout the cave.

“Guys... we should group up.”

Warrific sounded out his concern, which we all followed.

I wanted to grab Fenila to question her on what the hell she just did, but she was moving towards one of the entrances whilst blowing on the whistle.

Damn, I thought that something was fishy!

What the hell is going to happen?!

While we finished our new formation, the footsteps that could be heard reached the intersection, right where we were located.

At that moment, Fenila reached the entrance and behind her five guys game out.

One had a bow on his shoulder, wearing leather armor. He was pretty small with long hair covering his eyes. Right next to him was someone with short red hair, who was wearing a cloak.

He’s probably their magician.

In front of them there were two swords men. They were both wearing reinforced leather armor, with protection on their front, but leaving their back open.

They looked to be well equipped, but they shouldn’t be higher than level 25.

Their names were hidden, and so was their level.

That means they aren’t unruly yet, so that might be a good sign.

“You dumb fucks! Grayan, you told me you would clear out the cave when I would PM you! But we actually encountered two level 20 skeletons on the way here, we’re lucky they were able to deal with them, but we could’ve been easily wiped! That would’ve cost me my life! But that also means that you have to be careful, they’re pretty good.” Fenila started cursing exuberantly the moment she reached her potential allies.

What the hell?!

Her whole speech pattern suddenly changed!

And those skeletons were level 20? So that’s why I had trouble one shotting them.

“Don’t curse so much Fenila, you all made it here now. We can kill them without any trouble and pick up their items.” One of the swords man walked to the front of their party while speaking up. He looked to be their leader, with a height nearing 2 meters. He was casually resting his broadsword on his shoulder, appraising our armor and weapons.

Damn, so it was a trap…

We were baited into this quite easily, got to be more careful next time.

The archer started to smile evilly, and brushed the hair from his eyes while making a remark: “Yeah, look at the distance they have to cross; we’ll be able to easily destroy them with our magic and my arrows. I wonder if they’ll drop something good!”

“Hmph.” Warrific snorted while whispering to us, “Alright guys, I’ll start with empowerment, buffing you all. Then I’ll provide heals from the back line. Glinc should be able to tank some arrows and spells while hardening himself.”

Yeah, we should be able to manage… We just have to watch out not to be the first to attack them. The unruly status works with a party system too. So if someone in your party attacks someone innocent, the whole party will become unruly if they don’t leave the party or kick that member within a short period of time.

I heard that they sometimes use this to their advantage, by just leaving the party and having one guy become unruly on his own.

But I bet that that isn’t the case this time, because if they aren’t in the same party, friendly fire will become very dangerous for them. Seeing how they have an archer and a magician, they should probably all be in the same party.

Okay, let’s do this.

“Just have someone of them make the first attack, which should make their whole party unruly. Even if we attack them when they still don’t have red names, but after they attacked us, then we should still be fine. The system will probably assess that they were the aggressors. When we get close the archer and magician shouldn’t really pose a problem anymore, it’s just hard to get close to them.”

Their swords man walked in front of the mage and archer. They readied their swords in front of them in a defensive posture, waiting for us to enter their attack range.

Damn, the archer was preparing his arrows and was going to start shooting any moment now. The mage managed to finish his preparation for his fireball and started the fight by throwing it.

The ideal situation for them was that we would become unruly, attacking them. But if they waited for us to attack them first, we could’ve just escaped.

They would’ve lost a big advantage too, seeing how we first have to close the distance, and they have two long ranged damage classes.

“No problem!” Glinc stepped in front of me and slammed with his arm at the fireball, deflecting it with his hardened arm. Because of the weight his arm dropped immediately after deflecting the fireball, which rendered him incapable for a split second to dodge the incoming arrow the archer had already shot at us.

This will be a close call; I reached out with my sword and managed to hit the arrow while it was still in midair, almost reaching Glinc.

But at that moment a hidden arrow entered my left shoulder.

Damn, it the second arrow must have been hidden or something, I couldn’t see it coming at all!

That must be a special PvP archer skill or something.

*Ting!*

You have been hit by a Poisoned Arrow, slowing you down

Damn it, this will give them more time to hit us from their location.

“I call upon the sun’s power to empower those who need empowerment, channel it through your faithful servant! Bestow the true might, upon the ones with the most just cause, assisting them in the slaying of evil!”

*Ting!*

Empowerment was successfully casted!

All allies have temporarily gained:

+12 STR

+12 AGI

+7 DEF

Finishing his empowerment spell, Warrific yelled at us; “Be careful guys, they are trying to slow you down so that they can keep harassing you from afar. Then when you guys are finally close, you’ll be low health and their melee roles will be easily able to finish you off.”

Yeah, he’s right, we have to move quickly if we want to get out of this alive.

I keep on moving towards the two swords men, who are blocking the way to the archer and the magician.

Their names finally turned red, showing their names.

I was hit a few times by the arrows and fireballs, leaving me with only a third of my health, 325 hp.

Narrowly dodging the last arrow, it scratched my cheek, leaving a small trace of blood. I finally managed to reach the two swords men, but I’m almost sure that I won’t be able to deal with the both of them at once.

Probably.

The magician and archer casually moved further away from us, and their front line; they had fulfilled their job.

I circled to the left, trying to set both the swords men up in one line, so that only one would be able to attack me.

I should be able to deal with this guy at least, and then my friends can deal with the other guy. The swords man in front of me grinned arrogantly, expecting me to become an easy kill. His whole body started to emit light and he readied his sword above him. I’m waiting for him to start to attack me, because when you can counter him while dodging his attack, the chance on a critical strike increases.

Suddenly my opponent’s body exploded into a motion, striking insanely fast at my shoulder, leaving me no room to counter at all. After his first slash he made another strike to my hip, chunking away a good portion of my health.

Damn, I only have 25 HP left!

He used the momentum of his second strike to turn around and aim a piercing attack at my heart. Because of the time it cost him to turn around; I was able to narrowly dodge his third attack. The light around his body started to fade the moment he completed his last attack. Must be some sort of combo skill.

I have to be more careful, that almost cost me my life.

Well, it’s my turn now!

Right when I was going to use the opening the opponent showed after his last attack, I saw a black shadow flying at my shoulder.

The shadow hit my shoulder, destroying the form of my attack. Luckily, I lighted up at the same time the arrow hit me, barely having my life saved by Warrific.

I owe you one!

I got back into my fighting position, while the swords man in front of me did the same.

I have to be careful, I thought that the archer and mage would just wait for their companions to finish us off, but it looks like they aren’t underestimating us too much.

My enemy snorted “Hmph”, while readying his sword again, “I didn’t expect you to live through my combo, but you won’t be that lucky the second time!”

I couldn’t help but grin and rush at my opponent. Looks like he doesn’t have a lot of experience in fighting, if he just expects me to have him prepare the beginning stance he needs to start his skill, then he’s completely wrong!

I lunge at my opponent’s throat, trying to pierce through it.

He hastily adjusted his stance, awkwardly breaking the position he wanted to take to set up his skill. He managed to deflect my sword though.

At that moment I hear a grunt next to me, which should belong to the other swords man. Looks like Glinc and Helius managed to kill him.

My opponent wasn’t able to recover his stance after parrying my sword, leaving me open to use the momentum of my stabbing motion to swing the sword above my head, creating a strong downwards slash. It fully connected, forcing him to step back a few steps.

I neatly advanced on him, striking him multiple times while he was only able to deflect a few of my blows. If he had more experience I would’ve died long ago. But it looks like he can only rely on his combo skills. So the moment I don’t give him any chance to activate them, I should be able to beat him.

He finally had enough of me advancing on him, so he forcibly stopped his defensive sword position, trying to awkwardly turn it into a slash.

My eyes shined at this opportunity, I turned to his right side, dodging his attack while striking at his throat at the same time.

*Ting!*

Critical Hit!

He turned grey, leaving some pieces of common bread in his place.

Damn, the 100% chance to drop something only caused him to drop some fucking bread!

Picking up the bread, I turned to my right side.

The scene to my right thoroughly surprised me.

Glinc was nowhere to be seen, while it looked like the Helius’s skin had turned fully red. He was emitting some sort of dark aura, while he was frantically stabbing his dagger towards the wizard.

The wizard was desperately trying to get out of his attacking range, but no matter what he did, Helius just wouldn’t die from the wizard’s and the archer’s attacks. The archer must’ve joined the wizard in trying to kill Helius the moment that both the swords men died.

Helius reached the wizard, probably because of his slow, and managed to stab him a few times. But shortly after that, he randomly turned grey, disappearing from the battlefield.

Damn, that must’ve been his passive at work, allowing him 20 seconds of invulnerability after he dies.

Oh well, I shall finish up.

I received another heal from Warrific and used that opportunity to sprint towards the mage.

They were both still in shock from how Helius survived all those attacks, but then suddenly disappeared. They must’ve thought that he teleported or something, because they weren’t paying attention to me.

I easily hit the wizard, who must’ve been on low HP already, seeing how he instantly died to my attack.

I could see an item being dropped by him, but I don’t have enough time to casually pick it up. The archer was already retreating, trying to increase the distance between us.

“I won’t let you get away after all this!” I couldn’t help but yell at him in irritation. No way I’m going to have him shoot some more arrows at me from a safe distance again.

My agility stat must have been higher than his, because I managed to catch up to him. He wasn’t able to switch from his bow to a dagger or sword yet, leaving me an easy kill. I slashed at him a few times, finishing him off. After a few strikes I suddenly felt some heat coming from my left, but I ignored it, trying to finish the archer as fast as possible. After my last attack, I pointed my sword at the direction I had last seen Fenila in. She was the cause of all of this, and I would make her pay.

But the next thing I could see wasn’t only Fenila.

It was a fire elemental blocking most of my vision.

My health had already dwindled to a under the 100 HP after the last few confrontations. My sword was aimed at the elemental, but it had already readied itself to throw a huge fireball at me. There was no way to retaliate or dodge in anyway, so I could only resign to my fate.

But it simply isn’t in my personality to easily give up at fighting; I readied a stance at the last possible moment to slash at the fireball.

You never know, I might be able to cut through it!

Right before the fireball hit me, I received another heal from Warrific while he shouted that he had no more mana left. He must’ve casted quite some heals at Helius and Glinc too then.

Receiving the fireball with my sword, I passed through the fireball cleanly without changing anything at all.

For a split second the only thing I could feel was a scorching heat, fully depleting my HP. I couldn’t sit still and die, but it still happened. Right before my avatar would disappear I silently cursed Fenila, “You won’t get away with this, mark my words…”, and I also cursed myself for falling in their trap. We didn’t go down without a fight, but it wasn’t enough to win. Warrific had a class fully capable of supporting us, but he didn’t have any damage spells against non-undead mobs or players yet.

My avatar turned grey and disappeared.

But right before I was forcibly respawned at the capital city, there was some time to keep watching the current situation.

My senses were slowly dulling; the sounds were getting quieter while the surroundings were fading.

I could hear Fenila laugh madly, even while my sound perception was slowly leaving me. She slowly walked to Warrific with her elemental in front of her. She probably wanted to finish off Warrific from up close, the crazy bitch.

I managed to throw a look at Warrific, but surprisingly he was grinning instead of frowning.

The next thing I saw was someone sprinting up from behind Fenila. I couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore, but Warrific must have heard them. Fenila didn’t hear anything because of her mad laughter, but when she stopped, she noticed Warrific looking at someone behind her. She turned around, and faced the sharp edge of a sword. “This is what you get for finishing off my party a while ago. I waited for quite some time… but to finally exact my revenge feels great! Sleep tight bitch!”

It pierced right through her body, making her, and her elemental, slowly disappear. It must’ve been a critical hit and combined with the weak armor elemental summoner are wearing, she must’ve been instantly finished off.

Warrific smiled and thanked the mysterious savior.

“Thanks for saving me man, who are you?”

The warrior laughed and answered him, “Haha, no problem I wanted to kill those bastards anyways. They did the same thing to my party as they did to yours it seems. Nice to meet you by the way, I’m Khalmog.”

Those were the last things I heard before my screen faded to black, forcibly respawning me in the capital again.

***