My body quivered as the boy who was with me stared at me intently. I felt my entire existence laid out before him.

He was Hawk, leader of Azure Rain Force. He made his name when he defeated Blitz, Leader of the largest guild in Naut City.

Even so, the boy did not look like a person who could challenge Blitz, yet alone defeat him. I recognized him due to the sword on his hip, Icebrande. The sword was famous throughout Naut City due to its unparalleled beauty. While I thought the rumors exaggerated, the snow-themed sword was undoubtedly worthy of its praise.

To be honest, I was quite worried about our current situation. About two dozen Goblins surrounded us rapidly. With only two of us here, I questioned about our ability to pull through.

I glanced at Hawk and almost mistook him for another person. He smiled like a psychopath.

"You're confident, as expected from the Leader of Azure Rain Forces." I said to ease the tension.

The boy sighed and replied, "You overestimate me. I defeated Blitz, but that was the only notable thing I achieved. Until I reunited with her..."

I did not understand the meaning behind Hawk's words. I looked at him again and found him smiling as if he had ulterior motives in his words.

"Let's go!" Hawk said.

He rushed directly into the midst the Goblins. With only two Players, this move would be considered reckless. The best strategy would be to let them come to us and pick them off one by one.

Left with no choice, I chased after Hawk to help. Unfortunately, my Ability was of no use in scenarios such these. My Ability was mostly useless against most non-boss enemies. The best help I could provide was to tank attacks for Hawk.

Not like he needed it. He dodged each and every attack seemingly effortlessly. I felt like watching a scripted battle. Hawk's massacre of the Goblins was best described as that. He maneuvered through the swarm of Goblins, striking some of them when given the opportunity. He finally attacked all out when he reached the Goblin Archers. Hawk rapidly increased his chain gauge as he eliminated the Goblins without getting hit. Eventually, it reached the point where he was two-shotting the regular Goblins. My distracting the Goblins did ease his avoiding his attacks, but my instincts told me he would have dodged everything regardless.

Half an hour later, we found ourselves in a Safe Zone in front of a set of staircase. As we rested for a bit, Hawk asked, “Why haven’t you used your Ability?”

I explained to Hawk my Ability.

“Use it on me.” requested Hawk. I complied.

After a few seconds, Hawk grinned and replied, “Join my Party.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t get into personal relationships with others.”

“Because always voice your opinion even when others don’t agree with it.”

Surprised, I asked, “How did you know?”

“Something normal people call ‘intuition’.”

“And what do you call it?”

“Unconscious calculations.”

In other words, Hawk believed that what people called intuition was merely the predictions of the subconscious. It merely took into account the observable data and interpreted it. This all happened subconsciously, which is why people can’t explain why properly.

“You’re weird aren’t you?”

“Is there anything wrong with that?”

“Not really. I just expected the Leader of ARF to be more… leaderly.”

“I’m merely the strategical Leader of ARF. Emotionally, I would have already fallen apart without her.”

“ARF Vice-Leader Dove.”

“Dove was my classmate in real life. Like you, she always held strong opinions on her analyses and voiced it out frequently. Even so, she still remained popular.”

“What are you getting at?”

I didn’t understand what Hawk was doing. Sharing things about real life was only done by close to one another here in Reality.

“I was amazed. At first, I couldn’t understand why. I held strong opinions on my analyses as well, but whenever I voiced them out, people would give me weird looks. Can you tell me what the difference between us was?”

“I don’t know.”

“Innocence. Even when others disagreed with her opinions and analyses, Dove never utilized what she knew to her advantage. On the other hand, I intentionally take advantage of what I knew and believed to manipulate others. While I never manipulated with the intention of harming others, the mere fact that I am manipulating people creates a fear in them of the possibility I do harm them. Especially since I’m quite vocal of the fact that I am manipulating people. But she changed. Willingly for my sake. She now utilizes her talents to manipulate others. To be honest, I’m worried for her, but my thankfulness for what she did for me far outweighs my worry.”

“I see… so that entire story is to have me join ARF since the three of us are similar.”

“Interested?”

“If you’re manipulating someone to join you, be more subtle about it. It’s easier to control someone if you don’t tell them you’re controlling them.”

“It is how I am. I will win despite people knowing I am manipulating them. So? You’re answer?”

“I can’t say I’m not interested; however, in the end, even you will come to dislike me.”

I stood and exited the Safe Zone, indicating that we should continue on.

Drawing closer to the staircase, we could hear footsteps steadily approaching. Hawk and I prepared ourselves for battle as the silhouette of the creature approaching clarified in our views.

What appeared before us was a Goblin fully clad in armor. On top of its head were the words Goblin Knight.

“Be careful. That is an intelligent Goblin. I should’ve lost a one-on-one to that.”

The Goblin Knight pointed its sword at us. It chanted incomprehensible words. When I realized it, the Goblin Knight’s sword was inches away from my throat.

Hawk kicked away the Goblin before the blade could reach me dealing very minor damage. Without giving me ample time to react, the Goblin Knight circled behind me and swung its sword downwards towards me. This time, Hawk blocked the strike with his Basic Sword and let the Goblin Knight’s attack slide diagonally downwards. At the same time, he attacked with his ice-like sword. The Goblin caught the sword with its hand. Blood spilled out of the Goblin’s hands, but it managed to minimize the damage dealt as it made its distance from us.

Hawk placed one of his hands on his head, seemingly feeling dizzy.

“Why am I feeling dizzy at a time like this?” complained Hawk. “Why aren’t you helping?”

“What do you mean? I just couldn’t react in time to that speed.”

“It’s not like it’s that fast—” Hawk grinned as if he realized something and continued, “I see… so that’s what it was…”

Before I could even comprehend the situation, the Goblin Knight was already thrusting its sword towards Hawk’s torso. Before the sword pierced him, he swung both his blades downwards on the Goblin Knight simultaneously using Skadi’s Caress on the Goblin Knight. The mini-stuns caused by Skadi’s Caress bought ample time to dodge away from the thrust.

The Goblin Knight was down to 67% of its health after the attacks.

“Kiwi… once you get in range, use Mirrored World on the Goblin Knight.”

“What!? But I can’t defeat it one-on-one!”

Hawk smiled psychopathically and said, “Trust me.”

For some reason, I believed in his words. Hawk was neither charismatic in looks nor in speech. I followed behind him as he charged towards the Goblin Knight.

“End Mirrored World once the Goblin goes for a large strike.”

Mirrored World activated.

The world I walked in changed into a world of crystal. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the monsters, the Players—everything except myself and the Goblin Knight appeared like crystal in my eyes. The Goblin Knight and I could not tangle with the crystallized world. The crystallized world could not tangle with us.

In this world cut from the rest of Reality, the Goblin Knight once again moved at amazing speeds to attack me. This time, however, I effortlessly reacted to the attack blocked it with my shield. The Goblin Knight relentlessly tried to break through my defenses but it only dealt slight damage to itself as my shield sometimes collided with Goblin Knight’s body.

The Goblin Knight, seemingly irritated by its inability, attempted one large strike towards me.

At this moment, I released Mirrored World and blocked the attack. The recoil from the attack staggered the Goblin Knight, allowing Hawk, with Skadi’s Caress used, to beat it down and reduce its health to critical.

“Wasn’t as fast as you thought it was, right?” said Hawk.

The Goblin Knight once again charged at us. This time, I could not see its movements. By the time I noticed, the Goblin Knight fell into ground with its upper body severed, transforming into pixels.

“What was that all about? Why was it slower in Mirrored World?”

“It wasn’t. What it did was forced misdirection.”

“I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me…”

“Simply, it forcibly moved our gazes away from it through magic.”

“Then why were you having no problems? And why did Mirrored World counter it?”

“I’ll answer the second question first. Mirrored World not only isolated the user and target in a secluded dimension. It also made the user and the target not notice anything except each other. Because of that, there was nowhere else you could focus your eyes on.”

“You realized this even though I only used Mirrored World on you once.”

I was amazed that Hawk pointed it out with only experiencing Mirrored World once. Hawk noticed himself not noticing anything outside me in the Mirrored World.

“For the other question…” Hawk stopped a bit before saying, “Let’s just say I have a weird form of imagery.”

“Weird form?”

“I create an image of the current state of the battlefield. Most real-time strategists are capable of doing so. As such, I know where the Goblin Knight is even though my eyes are not focused on it. What makes my imagery weird is that I can’t actually see the image in my mind. My mind doesn’t let me see the image part and jumps straight into the analysis part and creates the plan of action.”

“’Doesn’t let me see’?”

“The image is actually there since I get dizzy when there is a disconnect between the image and reality, which is how I realized the Goblin Knight was removing focus away from itself. To give an analogy, there is an image file in a computer I can’t open; however, I have a program that analyzes the image file without opening it.”

To be honest, I still couldn’t fully comprehend Hawk’s point, but I let it slide.

We ascended the stairs and found ourselves back to the top floor of Goble. Around thirty or so Players assembled there. On this floor, there were ten set of stairs leading to different parts of Goble.

Hawk approached found his teammates. The first, who I’m pretty sure was Dove, was a cute girl with a similar aura to Hawk. She was embracing a handsome blonde kid who was crying.

Noticing me, Dove said, “Another girl attracted your interest?”

“Yeah.”

Dove looked at me and said, “Kiwi, I presume?”

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

Dove turned back to Hawk and said, “Was it the breasts?”

Hawk laughed and replied, “Yeah. ARF is lacking a bit in that department.”

Dove seemed a little ticked off but let it slide. Her breasts weren’t that small if you took into account her petite frame, but I refrained from commenting to Hawk’s joke.

The boy stopped crying and approached Hawk. Dove signaled me as we moved away from the two, but we could still hear their conversation.

“Canary is a girl by the way…” said Dove, as if reading my thoughts.

My surprise was broken as Canary began telling Hawk what happened. In summary, Canary almost died after a Goblin reflected her Ability back at her. She only survived because the Goblin’s movements slowed down.

“I’m sorry… I almost died…”

“Why did you almost die?” asked Hawk in a scolding tone.

“I…” Canary stopped herself and changed her words, “I fought as if my teammates were Hawk and Dove who would never let the enemy target me…”

Hawk placed his hand on Canary’s head and said, “Never trust your life into other people. Most people would abandon others to save themselves. Even I would abandon you to save myself or Dove if necessary.”

“Yes…”

A smile appeared in Hawk’s face as he embraced Canary tightly and said, “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Hawk is amazing…” I couldn’t help but express.

“So will you be joining?” asked Dove who noticed what I said.

“You seem to be adamant to my joining.” I said. “Won’t you be the evil stepmother who doesn’t want me to join?”

“I’ll leave that for later.” replied Dove with a grin.

Hawk and Canary approached us. Canary was now in a cheerful mood. Hawk explained to her who I was. Canary appeared really excited and barraged me with various questions.

After a while, I made up my mind and said, “Hawk. I would like to join ARF given the condition that I can leave anytime should I become disappointed by it.”

Smiling along with rest of ARF, Hawk replied, “Don’t worry. The condition will never be relevant.”

With my short interactions with ARF, I decided I would give it a try. It could be the greatest decision of my life or it could be the greatest regret I will hold. Nothing can be achieved without risk. This was a risk I was willing to take. Whether it proves my beliefs wrong or confirms them, it’s better to try and regret than regret not trying.

As it was just about lunch time as we Players continued to arrive from various floors of the dungeon. Hawk and the other Party Leaders were discussing plans in front of the gigantic sealed door that obviously led to the boss room. Most of the people were preparing to take their lunch.

“Alright then, time for you entrance exam to ARF.” said Dove as she stood up after resting for a bit.

“Why did I need to take an exam? Your leader recommended me, right?”

“You need my approval as well.”

“Do you not trust Hawk’s judgment?”

“I trust him; however, I want to experience your actual skill it combat.”

At the very least, this confirmed ARF wasn’t Hawk’s dictatorship. I sighed and replied, “So what do I do?”

“I’ve heard from Hawk that you can only defend. I’ll Duel you. You win if you last one minute.”

I thought to myself, “One minute? How highly did Dove think of herself to set such a short timer?”

Mirrored World

The user and target become unaffected by anything except themselves and each other. The user and target cannot affect anything except each other. The user can end Mirrored World anytime. Mirrored World ends when either the user or the target is deemed incapable of fighting.

Range: Single-target; Line of Sight

Cooldown: 1 Minute (starts after Mirror World is ended)