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Chapter 7

"Foria is still knocked out. The damage she suffered must have been really severe. I guess I'll check out the new equipment we got from the orc before I go out hunting."

He inspected the new sword and shield he got from the orc before he left.

Iron Long SwordType:Long SwordDurability:40 / 40Quality:LowAttack: 15

Iron Round ShieldType:Round ShieldDurability:40 / 40Quality:LowDefense: 12

Hiro immediately sharpened the sword so that he could reap the reward of the bonus damage. He then tried to equip the weapons. "What in the world!? I can't even lift this thing! How strong was that orc? He was holding this thing like it was a feather." He could not hold it in his current state so he left the shield. To wield it he would have to increase his strength.

He dropped the shield on the ground an it made a large CLANGG!! He took a couple of swings with the sword. "This feels great! It is perfect for me. It feels light as a feather and it is clearly better quality than the iron short sword that had before. Since I can't use the shield yet I guess I'll try fighting by wielding both the long and short swords simultaneously."

Since they were both light he should have no problem. He thought he should use the short sword to defend and parry attacks while the long sword should be used for attacking. He began swinging the swords trying to get a feel for a good fighting style…

Ding! You have learned the skill dual wield.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Dual WieldBeginner010%With this skill you off-hand can do progressively more damage until the two hands are equal in doing damage. Upon leveling up this skill you will gain a bonus of +3 to your dexterity

He decided to imagine the orc before him in order to practice with the blades. He thought about the orc he had slayed. Slowly, the gray-skinned figure of the orc began to appear in front of him. It was armed with the long sword and the round shield. He began to size up his enemy. "I'm definitely not going to be able to pierce that shield so I will have to use my agility to create an opening." He drew closer to the orc with his blades clinched tight in his hands. The orc was so real that he could have sworn he could smell the foul odor emanating from the monster.

Hiro engaged the orc. He slashed at the shield but his attacks were deflected without the orc taking any damage. On his last attack the orc pushed toward his blade causing a strong vibration to be sent back at Hiro. The shock that went through his arm caused such a jolt that he almost dropped the long sword. The orc immediately followed up with a series of slashes. Hiro dodged the first horizontal slash by ducking. Then orc then brought the blade down at him vertically. Hiro blocked that attack by using his two swords together creating an "x" and stopping the orc's attack. The orc seized the opportunity and used its shield bash to strike Hiro in the face. The pain from the attack seemed so real.

Hiro had enough of battling the orc. He closed his eyes and stopped imagining his enemy. When he opened them the orc had disappeared. Hiro had stopped his training as this enemy was a little bit too powerful for him with his current skill level.

Hiro was not satisfied with his level of skill so he knew he would have to practice. Hiro decided to get some more real world practical application of is practice. Hiro left out and found 5 forest rats. He charged at them and cornered them against the side of a large stone. They had no place to go so the rats decided to fight back. Hiro parried the attacks of the rats with his short sword guiding them away from his body and after that they were slashed or impaled by his long sword. Using his new dual wield skill he killed them very quickly.

Ding! Dual Wield increased to level 2

After placing the carcasses of the rats in his bag he continued on. Next, he saw some of blood flowers that he used to make the healing salve. He gathered them for later. After that he continued traveling moving through the forest. He found a small encampment of goblins. There appeared to be 5 of them. Hiro decided this would be a good chance to test his new blade.

"I killed 3 goblins before but I took a lot of damage in the process. Five might be too much even with my new weapon. I'll try a little bit more stealth in approach this time. " He watched the enemies carefully observing their patterns and movements for about 2 hours.

Ding! through careful observation of several enemies you have learned the sub skill, copy

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:CopyBeginner010%This skill will allow the user to learn skills that enemies use by observing them. The stronger the enemy the more difficult it will be to copy their skills.

"What does it mean I can copy other skill. It sounds like it can be useful." He thought about the disorienting gaze of that night viper. That would be great to learn or maybe the shield bash that the orc used on Foria. Hiro decided to think about that later. Hiro moved closer to the camp. He saw another humanoid looking monster but it looked different than the others. It was considerably taller with a more yellow color to its skin and had 2 horns protruding from either side of its head. It was also carrying a staff and wearing a cloak that covered its face. As it spoke the others seemed to be following its orders.

One goblin drew a sword and pointed it at the goblin with the cloak. The goblin with the cloak pointed its staff and fire shot out setting the goblin with the sword on fire where it was burned to a crisp. This goblin was a mage.

"I wonder if I could copy magic. Right now I don't have any mana or any magical skills so maybe if I copy it I can then have access to magic." Hiro made his way to the camp. Using his hide ability the goblins were unaware of his presence. He put away his short sword and waited for the goblins to move into a place he could attack them from the shadow.

He hid behind a thick tree and as the first goblin came near he grabbed it by its mouth. Then he thrust his long sword right through its chest. It died instantly, without a sound he quickly moved the body out of sight and moved on. He hunted the goblins with the skill of a tiger. He moved in silence attacking them without mercy. Before the goblins could even react they were being pierced by through their chest by his blade. He killed 4 more goblins in the same fashion. Unfortunately, he was not able to sneak up on the mage as it would not move to a place where he could attack from the shadows.

"I guess I have no choice but to fight him head on. I'm gonna have to keep moving because I definitely can't take a hit from that fire spell." He stepped out in front of the mage. It made a sound as if it was calling for backup but no one came as Hiro had already dispatched with its friends. The battle quickly began between the mage and Hiro. His prediction ability helped him to avoid the fireballs the erupted from the mage's staff. He still took some damage as he had to dive through some of the flames. After watching the mage use fireball several times "What is this?"

A warmth was welling up inside of him. It was like a fire was being set off in his belly. "Was this the mage's doing? Is one of his spells causing this? There was no pain though so it couldn't be the mage." The fire got hotter and the warmth began to spread outward to his chest, legs, arms, and finally to his head.

Ding! You have developed an affinity with nature so you now possess the life spirit of mana/ki. Mana/ki is the essence of all magical techniques.

Ding! Through your copy ability you can cast the spell, fireball.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:FireballBeginner010%Mana cost: 10.

"He's breathing hard. Is he running out of mana? Hiro began to move closer. The mage cast another fireball spell. It came out but Hiro had gotten the hang of dodging them so he avoided it. The mage fell to the ground in exhaustion.

"He must be exhausted and out of mana. This is as good a time as any to try that fireball spell." Hiro held his hand out and power from his abdomen began to dart up through his hand. His hand began to feel hot like it was on fire but it wasn't being burned. He concentrated and the hot energy came out in the form of a fireball. It was not as large as the mage’s but it flew towards its target with great speed. When it hit its mark, the mage screamed writhed in pain as flames engulfed his torso.

Hiro quickly rushed in and plunged his blade into the mage and killed it."That spell was pretty good. I will have to practice using it as it took a long time to cast. In order to use it effectively I will definitely need to improve that." Hiro retraced his steps in the camp and collected all the weapons and supplies he could loot from the goblins in his bag. Among the dead goblins he also found 2 more magic bags that he took. Hiro also took the mage’s staff and cloak. After this he returned to the cave.

When Hiro arrived back at the cave Foria was awake. She was in a lot of pain and groaned a little a she sat up on the panther fur.

"Sorry for not being much help against that orc."

“It’s ok. I have something for you.” He handed Foria the bow, arrows, and quiver he had made.

She smiled and said, “thank you."

”Now let’s eat.” Hiro made a fire using his new ability. After using it he suddenly felt his body get weak.

“ You fight like a warrior but I have never seen a warrior using magic. How did you do that?” asked Foria.

“I learned it today from watching a goblin” replied Hiro.

“You learned it just from watching? That is incredible”

“Thanks. Is it really that strange that I learned by watching?"

"Are you kidding? People study for years to be able to use magic properly. You must be some kind of prodigy"

"Years! I never thought I was that special but may be i'm different here."

Hiro sat down and skinned and cooked the forest rats then

Ding! You gained 6 pieces of light leather.

Then he made salve from the flowers then mixed it with water in some of the empty potion bottles he found in the bags he took from the goblins.

Ding! You made 4 light healing potions

Ding! Alchemy skill increases to level 3

He stored the potions in his bag. Hiro thought about how to raise his mana so that he would not be weak after using his magic as that would be incredibly bothersome in a battle. "In games, magic was always linked to wisdom or intelligence so I've got to think of way to increase those stats." After a few moments of contemplation the only thing he could come up with was meditation.

Hiro talked with Foria for a few minutes

"If you feel up to it, tomorrow we will head out towards the place we found those orcs and see if we can pick up any information on your brother's whereabouts."

"That sounds like a good plan."

"How is you leg?"

"It seems a lot better now that I took those healing potions you made. After another day of rest I should be back to full strength."

"I guess then we should have that rematch" , laughed Hiro.

"I don't think you will be laughing after the match."

"Ohh.. pretty arrogant for someone who just got there but kicked aren't you", smiled Hiro.

"We'll see who gets there butt kicked"

They laughed together and at the rat kabobs that Hiro could. Shortly after they finished eating, Foria told Hiro good night and lay down. Hiro took the opportunity to try out his plan for increasing his mana pool. He went to the entrance of the cave and sat down in lotus position and closed his eyes. He thought in order to increase his mana he had to feel the natural energy around him. So he closed his eyes and visualized the teachings that he learned from his martial arts classes. It didn't really make any sense to him before but now that he could actually feel his own energy may be he could actually begin to feel that everything had ki, or energy. All of it flowed all around him. As he meditated he could feel energy that floated around him. After some time passed he could begin to feel the energy of the things around him like the moss on the wall of the cave and Foria.

Ding! Detect presence learned.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Sense PresenceBeginner0100%You have developed the ability to detect things that possess ki around you

Through your meditation your wisdom has increased 1 point.

"I wonder how much I have improved over the last few days." He opened his status window.

Status WindowName:HiroAlignment:NeutralLevel:10Class:??Race:HumanGender:MaleTitles??-Health:310 / 310Health Regen:5 / SecMana:140 / 140Mana Regen:1.4 / SecStamina:500 / 500Stamina Regen:7.5 / Sec-Strenght:31Agility:32Vitality:42Intelligence:20Wisdom:18Leadership:??Luck:??-Attack:??Defense:??Physical ResistancesSlashing:??Piercing:??Crushing:??Elemental ResistancesFire:??Water:??Wind:??Earth:??Light:??Darkness:??

Stats Equipment

Leather tunic

Leather pants

Long Sword

Iron Shield

Leather gloves

“I am definitely getting stronger but I still have a ways to go.” Hiro began to feel sleepy so he went back inside the cave a slept.

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