The group left the forest without further trouble. As it seemed the culprit vanished in thin air. The small and almost invisible path led them out of the labyrinth of trees and shadows. The treetops gave away for strays of the sun and the silent walking switched over to noisy chatter. Mouths stayed shut inside the forest but now everyone seemed delighted.

“Why do you guys follow one group all over the continent? You see, you haven’t found any clues until now.” You could see the interest. The question was not a casual one. She wanted to find out more about the group she was following.

Markus took the initiative.

“We think, the people, who are behind this group, attacked our home town. They murdered everyone in the same gruesome - Well, you saw it yourself, no need to explain it. It was not just our hometown at that time. It was our guild’s headquarters as well. And as destiny took its course, it burned down as well. The entire town burned down to crisps. We couldn’t do anything about it. We were on a mission and the few people who were at the guild got slaughtered. None of us expected something like this to happen, so we didn’t had any insurance - although it is a game, you could sign insurances to be on the safe side with a guild. We lost all our things that day. Our guild, our home, our friendships with the NPCs and many members. Who would want to be in a guild that consists of rubble and trash? Additionally we couldn’t raise any taxes because all people died.”

“That’s really sad to hear.” After a short break to honor the dead, she continued.

“But who on earth would attack an entire town by themselves, if they don’t want to occupy it? I never heard of town raids.”

“We neither, which is why we didn’t fill out a contract.” One of the elves spoke. Failariél couldn’t keep them apart.

“They wouldn’t have had a chance if we would have been there. We were top-notch at that time. One of the highest-ranking guilds, with strong members and good equipment. Our guild was well-developed - chiik.” It was the first time the Bull spoke up. He had a deep voice, it sounded intimidating.

Wrinkles on her head, and a weird expression was beginning to form on her face.

Tap

A hand clapped on Failariél`s shoulder, it was Markus. He had a grin on his face.

His polished armor reflected the light into her face. She was barely able to see anything except the outer appearance of him.

“First time hearing his voice, eh? He will speak more often from now on, so try to adjust yourself to the sound.”

“What does that mean - chiik? Do you want to say my voice sounds terrible - chiik?”

“Take it easy. We don’t want to drive her out by using nasty methods.”

Everyone laughed except Karthos. Perplexed, he didn’t get the joke and looked like an idiot.

-----------

“Honorable Instructor, you normally speak truth but … well... you see, there is no challenge here.

We are walking down this corridor for... I don’t know how long. We haven’t encountered any enemy yet.”

That’s exactly what happened after we went through the gate. We had been walking down this long, dusty corridor. Words were rare. Somehow, the instructor stopped his talking for once. I tried different ways to approach him but he only “hmphed” all the time.

“Be patient. It’s one of the golden rules you have yet to learn.”

Another weird answer. Finally, the chance was there to fight but what have I been doing for the last 30 minutes?

My hand was itchy from waiting to kill my first monster and my anticipation of the coming robbed me of every calm thought.

As the game showed me that I had to eat and afte rI finally fumbled out a barley bread out of my inventory he surprised me.

He turned around. And as he turned my bread fell out of my hand because of my clumsiness. I was at the end of my nerves.

“We are here. Time for you to get ready.”

All at once, I forgot about the bread, which was laying on the floor - even if 3 seconds hadn’t passed since the bread fell to the floor -, I was full of concentration. I could feel the end of my fingertips overflowing with excitement.

I didn’t think that something was wrong. We were still standing on the corridor. There were no side exits.

“So, what am I going to do?”

For a split second, his expression changed to something cruel, something I have never seen before, but it changed so quickly that I was not sure if it really happened. He looked just the same as always. As always. Not exactly as always. There was something else in his eyes. Hope? Pain? I couldn’t identify it.

“Like I said before, we will look if you are ready to face enemies head on. You said you never were in a real fight before and this will be your evaluation. Real fighting is different from textbook learning. We will see if you are fit to be a warrior.”

“Okay. That’s what I knew already.”

Anticipation forced me to look around. I still had no real idea of the last stage. He said there would be enemies to face. And fights to overcome. But the only thing I saw at that moment was the long, endless stretching corridor.

“So -”

Somehow I knew that something was amiss. I stopped talking. The heavy breathing sound of the instructor was not there anymore. And just as I realized that he vanished in thin air, everything went black. What the hell? A trapdoor opened up under me and I fell down.

Suddenly the peaceful situation changed to a life and death situation.

Noises, mainly footsteps filled the air. Enemies!

I knew it were enemies because there weren’t just footsteps, I could hear that swords were drawn out of their sheets. In addition, there was the sound of armor rattling and cracking. It must be rusty.

I may be inexperienced but to know that you have to change your position when you are caught in a trap is natural. But, my problem was that I still couldn’t see anything. My time grew shorter by every passing second and I had to do something.

I unsheathed my katana silently. Well, I didn’t drew it fully, I just pulled it a bit out of the sheet to be able to perform a quick-draw if necessary. Ting. I knew what I had to do. It must have been my intuition.

Adrenaline Rush!

Mana points were still low because I hadn’t done any real training to increase it.

As the skill stated, my five senses were enhanced, and I were able to see in the dark. There were skeletons all around me. Some had clubs in their bony hands, other swords. Most of them had small pieces of armor, which covered their old bones occasionally. One of them wore a big iron armor. The helmet throned with big ivory horns, and ornated with old verved letters. I couldn’t determine what they said at this distance. His eyes flashed red underneath the helmet and his entity radiated in a dark gloomy mist. He must have been a great warrior in life.

They stood in one by one in a distance of at least fifteen feet. That was where the first skeleton stood.

Only then did I look around, still aware of the danger but I had to know where I was, and save the surroundings inside my head to make use of them. My mana went low pretty fast. The entire calculation took less than four seconds, so I had 60 mana points remaining, which should last for another twelve seconds. I stood in a huge hall, columns lining the side, which hold the weight of the entire edifice above with ease like Atlas would.

Exits were at both ends of the hall.

The army of skeletons, which consisted of at least ten, walked slowly but steadily, which is why they came nearer as more seconds passed.

I took the initiative, and rushed forward. The first skeleton came into my range. The quick-draw faster than normal through the skill was not visible for the normal eye. Katanas being extraordinarily sharp, did it slice through the right arm, which would have crashed down on my head with the club in its hand.

Critical Hit!

My steps amplified through the adrenaline, brought me past the first skeletons. My aim was to kill the leader of the pack to lower the morale of the other skeletons.

Fast cuts missed just as well as swings and my target came nearer every step.

The aura-hulled leader wore a big claymore in both hands and got ready to strike. Through his movements, I could see that he got ready to bring up the sword from the side and do a slash. I jumped over the tip of the sword, and brought the sword down on him as I came to the ground again. The cut was barely visible, but it penetrated the armor nonetheless. Beneath it was a still intact looking leather armor.

His HP bar barely dropped. The claymore hit me with the dull edge and threw me over. As I lay on the floor, I could see that he struck from above, so I rolled to the side and could hear the impact on the stone.

Gravel hit me. While I stood up, I sliced across his chest once again. It had the same effect as before and I realized that this would not help me win the fight. Frankly said, it did nothing.

My manapoints were below 20 already. I made another two fast cuts, dodged the sword, and cut off one of his arms. To my disappointment, the arm reattached itself with the help of the aura. It picked the arm up and manifested itself around the cut. Being astonished, I didn’t see the other skeletons advancing. One of them, an old looking skeleton with worn boots and gloves, drove it’s sword into my back. And I could feel the pain flashing up. I turned around and kicked him into his rib cage, hauling him off the ground. He bowled over the other skeletons and I had some seconds to concentrate on my fight with the leader again. I still had plenty of HP left.

The skeleton knight still had plenty of HP but I could see that he took some damage from my attacks.

The claymore came down on me once again, and barely after I escaped it, my manapoints hit zero. My skill deactivated itself and I was left alone with my own powers.

In a panic I rushed forward, driving my shoulder into his stomach area, well truthfully against his armor, and with that throwing him to the ground. Dust whirled up. I picked up the claymore he lost during the fall and slammed it through the small gap, my attacks had made, and pinning him to the ground with the claymore. It fit perfectly through the gap, as if it was made for it.

The HP dropped rapidly. The skeleton, pinned to the floor, could not change his fate anymore. He was doomed. Mankind calls it ‘Final Rest’. Maybe undeads have another opinion of dead or better said their own definition for it. As the skeleton lay there, dying, something switched in me. I couldn’t - I still can’t determine what it was. Was it the knowledge that I, could decide about life and death? Or was it the knowing of similarity? That everything ends at some point, even earth itself - and me? My thoughts switched around.

My first kill. First kill. Am I a murderer now? Nah, what a stupid thought. It’s a game! Even if it feels real.

I didn’t bother with the loot at that moment and spinned around. The pack of skeletons didn’t seem to be less motivated to feast on my entrails - or whatever they want to do with me. They were even more eager than before. The first rushed at me, arm raised - club clutched between the fingers - and ready to strike. I tried to do a step to the side but slipped over something. The club hit he me straight on the head. My nerve ends were ringing loudly and I fell to the ground, numb from the damage done to me, but I encouraged myself, that this was not the day for me to die. Rolling, I came away from the entity of bones and jumped up. This fight was not over yet. I kicked the skeleton another time, like I did before, but this time it was prepared and blocked it. It held both it’s arms in front of it’s rib cage. The arms made a weird noise but they withstood the strong kick despite the circumstances. The skeleton was pushed away two feet and looked at me with fierce eyes.

With my katana still lying on the ground, I didn’t have an any weapon. My wooden sword was either inside the training hall above or my room. Actually was that, not something I should think about right now. I dodged an attack from another skeleton, it came from my left side. It had a rusty sword and crackled as he striked. While jumping over to the katana, I saw, that even more skeletons came into the room. This will be a long day. My HP bar had hit it’s half through the attack on my head. My Mp weren’t recovering very fast and I only had my katana left to defend myself.

The situation looked grim.

But nonetheless was forfeiting not an option. I would fight till my last breath would leave my body.

Or I won’t. I sprinted away from the evil crowd to the horned skeleton, which was still lying on the ground and looted it. Somehow I knew how to do it. I didn’t look at the items and only clicked on ‘Take everything’. I would have enough time later on to examine what exactly I obtained.

The only exit that wasn’t filling the room with skeletons was the one right next to me. Only one enemy stood in my way. A moss covered skeleton who had clearly seen better days. It didn’t even had a weapon.

I tucked my katana away and picked up a stone on the way. As I approached I jumped high and let the stone drop stonehard on it’s head. There was a loud crack. The skeleton’s knees gave away, it hit the ground brutally and was dead once again. The last steps to another shady room, weren’t very difficult and I reached it in no time. What I thought at that moment was, how I could see in this darkness without my adrenaline rush?