Chapter 43

***Preparation***

“Phew. Finally, my internal energy has fully recovered.”

Death wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Actually, it was pretty dull and mundane. However, the penalty for dying wasn’t light.

/Your character has died. You cannot log in for 24 hours, and your highest stat’s maximum value will be permanently lowered./

Twenty-four hours in DIO was four hours in real life. Players couldn’t log in during this restricted time frame, and the notification above was what Merlin had seen after logging on. Before this, he had been deeply concerned. He knew he’d have to face a penalty, but he didn’t know how severe it was.

/You are a beginner (below Level 3)! Due to the beginner safety system in place, your penalty shall be reduced! Your highest stat area (spiritual power) will be permanently reduced by five points!/

In DIO, the penalty of death was a permanent ceiling reduction of one’s highest stat area. The calculation was done by multiplying one’s level by five.

In other words, if a user were Level 5, their highest stat would be permanently reduced by 25 points, and it would be 50 points for a Level 10 player. While this may not seem like a significant reduction at first, once someone rose through the levels and reached the upper echelons of DIO, the reductions would be relatively greater and impact one’s highest ability stat.

If a Level 10 user, or a Master, died with 350 points of internal energy, the internal energy points would be reduced from 350 to 300 points. To increase a user’s stat by one point in the 300 to 400 range, it would take triple the number of points to form a three to one ratio. As such, that user would instantly lose 150 points, which was 75 years, or one cycle and a fourth. A little more than a cycle of internal energy would be lost from one death!

In Merlin’s case, since he was Level 2, he should have lost ten points in spiritual power, which was five years of internal energy. Yet, since the system protected beginners, he had only lost five points.

“Once a player becomes a high-level user and dies often, it would probably be better to do an ability reset than to continue with that character.”

Merlin nodded as if pledging to avoid dying as much as possible. Without much delay, a magic circle soon appeared in front of him. At the moment, Merlin was in a one-on-one testing area. He was facing an opponent that was one level above him.

“Roar!”

A giant tiger roared and bounded towards Merlin. Though the tiger was only three meters long, its ferocity and killing intent would have made it seem as large as a small house for an average person. In addition, it would have been terribly frightening for anyone to face off against such a ferocious creature with their bare hands, as Merlin was planning to do. However, Merlin wasn’t concerned with any of this as he made slapping motions with his hands.

Boom!

The charging tiger dropped to the ground. It had taken a full Penetration Power strike to its head, and it wouldn’t stand up again.

/Clear!/

“The drop item is the tiger’s fur? It looks quite expensive. Not bad.”

After happily putting away the tiger’s fur, Merlin saw a text message appear in front of him.

/You have fulfilled the minimum requirements by passing the one-on-one test! You may finish your level-up test after completing the [Joint Warfare] test!/

“I need to clear the [Joint Warfare] test? This is different from what I read.”

Thinking that the game had been updated and changed, Merlin nonchalantly took out a book from his inventory. The book was entitled ‘Formless Blade.’ At first glance, one might think that the book was a general martial arts book, but it was actually related to a specific hand skill. By focusing and expending inner qi into a user’s hand, that person could create a sharp edge. Through practice and perfection, users would be able to create an invisible knife’s edge using this hand skill.

“Hmm. I’ve been working hard, but it doesn’t seem like I’m improving. I’ve already been training for an hour, but I’ve only reached the third level.”

If martial arts trainees heard what Merlin said just now, they’d jump up and down furiously. Yet, since he didn’t know how absurd his words were, Merlin opened the book and continued reading. Despite reading the book multiple times, he found that he would gain new understandings in various areas after rereading it.

“Hmm, but I’m not improving. I guess I have to purchase the next volume, huh?”

After visiting the library, Merlin learned that virtually all the martial arts-related books came in volumes of two, three, or four books. In Starting’s library, only the first volumes were available. Of course, the reason for this was apparent. Since Starting was a beginner village, users wouldn’t be able to obtain items higher than 5th tier anyway, and their training would only improve by a finite amount. In order to train at a higher level and develop more, users had to visit one of the seven Holy Lands. Merlin was unaware of this, but all users on Dynamic Island resided in one of eight areas:

The beginner village: Starting.

The Holy Land for Magic users: Babel the Magic Tower.

The Holy Land for Internal Energy users: Valiant Heavenly City.

The Holy Land for Chakra users: Haindel’s Temple.

The Holy Land for Divine Power users: Sandalphon, the Divine Power City.

The Holy Land for Life Force users: Youthful Flower Pavilion.

The Holy Land for Pure Spiritual Power users: Asgard.

The Holy Land for Aura users: The Land of a Thousand Scents.

All users began at Starting, but once they developed to around Level 5, they would go off to their specialty’s Holy Land to train and grow further. In order to obtain the second volume of the ‘Formless Blade’ text, Merlin would have to go to Valiant Heavenly City.

“That’s weird. How was I able to get to Level 7 in the Golden Pill Immortal Technique and Level 8 in Great Strength Vajra Hand already?”

Obviously, Merlin was the weird one. He had ‘created’ something without having formally learned it.

Click.

Once Merlin entered the [Stealth] testing area, he was thrown into a dark environment. He started using his Night Vision Eyes to continue reading his book, but as soon as he did this, he remembered that his eyes would glow golden. And so, he promptly closed his eyes and began to operate his Scanning Eyes.

‘Hmm, I’ve reached Level 3 in Formless Blade and Level 4 in the Great Tantra Hand. The Great Tantra Hand is similar in many ways to the Great Strength Vajra Hand, so it’s been easier to progress and develop than the other skill.’

If anyone else were just starting to learn martial arts, their progress would have been much slower, but since Merlin was already Level 8 in Great Strength Vajra Hand, he was able to quickly recognize similarities and the essence of a skill just from reading a book. Every skill originated with the same fundamental principles and tenets. The only difference was that they strived to achieve different goals.

Merlin had purchased four books from the library: the first volume of [Formless Blade], the first volume of [Great Tantra Hand], [Seven Jewels – Additional Spells] edition, and the [25 Most Common Level 2 Spells]. Each book was priced at five copper, with ten copper being worth one silver and ten silver making up one gold. So, the books were fairly cheap.

“Well, I have to test it out.”

After putting the book away in his inventory, Merlin made a circle with his left thumb and index finger and brought it up to his eye. That motion summoned the system’s [Mission Information] window, which stated the following information.

A map accompanied the mission description, and it displayed the area around his objective and the location of his target, an orc mage. The map was so detailed and user-friendly that only an idiot wouldn’t be able to read it.

“It doesn’t seem like I even need to enter the village.”

Merlin raised his bow. He was about 150 meters away from his target. It was a bit too far for his low-grade bow, but if Merlin imbued it with his internal energy, he’d be able to extend the bow’s range. With this assistance, it seemed Merlin was just at the limit of reaching his target.

Ping!

He released the bowstring. Merlin had been using Aura Vision, and although he had a map, he needed sharper ‘sight’ for his attack.

“… Right on target.”

Merlin smiled without even verifying the result. The assassination had been carried out so stealthily and noiselessly that the other orcs in the village didn’t even wake up.

“A target that’s asleep outdoors… This is too easy. Is it because this is a low-level test?”

While pondering this question, a text message popped up.

/Clear!/

“Thanks.”

After nodding his head, Merlin was returned to the main testing room. He didn’t have to take all the tests. As long as he cleared one test, he’d fulfilled the first half of the level-up requirement, so all that was left was the [Joint Warfare] test.

“Hmm. I should try each test until I face something I can’t pass. The rewards aren’t bad either.”

As he muttered to himself, Merlin took out a 1.5-meter-long wand. The handle of the wand was chiseled in the shape of a skull, and the wand itself gave off a somewhat eerie, evil qi quality. Merlin appraised the wand.

“Oh, that guy I just killed was a necromancer.”

Merlin imbued his wand with magic power once he entered the [Group Fight] test, choosing to use 15 tetra of magic power. For Merlin, who only possessed 20 tetra of magic power, 15 tetra was almost the entirety of his magic power reserve.

“Nothing’s happening. I guess the wand requires a medium.”

Merlin continued walking as he muttered to himself. Usually, the scenery in the testing area was from the Middle Ages. Yet, this time around, it was much different.

“Huh? It’s an Eastern setting?”

Momentarily confused at the stark contrast, Merlin soon heard someone cry out.

“Everyone, flee! Argh!”

“It’s the Blood Zombies! The Blood Zombies have appeared!”

The people around him wore clothing that fit the eastern setting style, with garments made of silk and long robing. There were screams all around him, and people were chaotically running to who knows where. Despite his chaotic surroundings, Merlin was calm. Since he was in [Group Fight], he was sure that things would progress along the same vein as what happened in his Level 2 test.

“Hmm… the enemy is… ah, right there.”

Using Aura Vision, Merlin scanned the local area and found the enemies, and he began to head in that direction.

“Damn it! My sword isn’t piercing them!”

“The zombies have poison on their nails and in their blood, so don’t get near them!”

In the middle of the village’s town square, Merlin saw a single zombie surrounded by ten or so armed guards. Around five corpses could be seen strewn about in the general area. The bodies had golden particles dripping from their wounds, so Merlin wasn’t able to make out their exact injuries.

“Let’s see. There are corpses here… should I test out the necromancer skills?”

Merlin lifted the wand that he’d previously imbued with magic power.

“Rise.”

Creak.

The corpse and the horse that it had been mounted on slowly rose. Soon, a message popped up in front of Merlin.

/Warning! You are using a corpse without prior authorization! You have lost 10 Karma points!/

/Warning! You have touched another’s ‘items’ without prior consent or authorization! You have lost 6 Karma points!/

/Warning! If you do not resolve the above two warnings within a minute, you will permanently lose 16 Karma points!/

“… Hot damn.”

Merlin let out a sigh after seeing the flurry of warning notifications pop up. It seemed that he wasn’t supposed to take any items from another individual, even if that person was a corpse. Apparently, he needed prior authorization from the owner, no matter if they were dead or not.

“Fine, I won’t use it.”

After grumbling curses under his breath, Merlin released the corpse, which then lifelessly crumbled to the ground.

/Good./

“Damn it. I just wasted all my magic power for nothing.”

As he complained, Merlin took out his bow and arrow. While he also had hand skills that he could utilize, the Blood Zombies were covered in blood. Merlin would have to touch that blood if he used his hand skills, so he decided on the bow and arrow. Also, Merlin found it weird that the Blood Zombies were covered in red blood while the fallen corpse was bleeding out golden particles… In any case, his most important concern was to clear the mission.

Ping!

The Blood Zombie was ferociously attacking the ten guards that surrounded it, but soon, an arrow flew through the air and struck it directly between its eyes. Merlin muttered ‘Clear’ under his breath. Yet, at that moment, the teetering Blood Zombie stomped on the ground, jumped over the guards, and headed towards Merlin.

“Huh?!”

Merlin thought that the arrow finished off the Blood Zombie, so he was taken aback when the mob suddenly jumped on him. Instinctively, Merlin lifted the item in his hand to defend himself. That item was his bow. Obviously, the bow’s low grade was no match for the Blood Zombie’s attack, and it shattered.

Bam!

Merlin hadn’t entirely let his guard down, so he was quickly able to jump back five meters after defending against the zombie’s attack. Merlin’s movement ability had reached rank 6, and this had been assisted by his general development in all areas. Seeing Merlin’s quick reflexes, a middle-aged man spoke up in admiration.

“Excellent movement ability. Which martial arts school of study do you practice?”

“Martial arts school of study? I don’t really have one… anyway, what kind of monster is that?”

“They’re the underlings and property of the Blood-Mind Demon. They’ve lost their reasoning ability and ego, so they can only be stopped if their heads are chopped off or if their dantians are completely destroyed.”

Merlin felt as though the man’s description of the Blood Zombie was something straight out of a fantasy novel, but he soon snapped back to what was important at hand. Since his bow was broken, he was forced to fight the zombies with his bare hands. If he had some leftover magic power, he could have had some other options to choose from, but he had expended almost everything after foolhardily raising the corpse.

“Ugh, I guess I’ll put into practice what I’ve been studying up to now.”

“Practice your study? What are you talking about?”

Though the middle-aged man was perplexed by what Merlin was murmuring, Merlin didn’t reply and just closed his eyes. The village guards were at a stalemate with the Blood Zombie and were keeping it within a fixed area. It seemed that his previous arrow had some effect, as the zombie wasn’t moving as well as it had been earlier.

‘Great Tantra Hand…’

There were two things that Merlin felt that the Great Strength Vajra Hand lacked. While the Great Strength Vajra Hand was a powerful hand skill, it was focused on close combat and could only either pulverize or push a target. In other words, the hand skill had a limited range of use.

This was why Merlin chose to study the cutting skill [Formless Blade] and the mid to long-ranged hand skill [Great Tantra Hand].

‘At first, I must recognize that I can peer into all things….’

Although the initial effect of the Great Strength Vajra Hand and the Great Tantra Hand were similar, the Great Strength Vajra Hand gave the user ‘greater strength’ and ‘stronger hands’ as it developed. This was why its mantra read, ‘Breaking through with strong hands and pushing away all things.’

As a user developed the Great Strength Vajra Hand, they would be able to crush, push away, or push down on their opponent. However, the Great Tantra Hand had a completely different effect as it was developed.

‘It’s similar to Penetration Power. Anyway, let’s not put much thought into it. I’m mainly just trying to convey power.’

Of course, the principle of the skill was much more complex and challenging to understand than what Merlin made it out to be. Countless martial artists spent their whole lives trying to master these skills. Any other person would have chosen to study a long-ranged martial arts skill, like Bounding Hundred Steps Technique, rather than trying to forcefully learn a range-based skill within a specific route, like what Merlin was doing with hand skills. Merlin was stubbornly trying to find solutions under the thought that, ‘I started with hand skills, so I’ll just continue with hand skills.’ Training in this way seemed inefficient, idiotic, and abnormal. However…

Boom!

As always, Merlin was an expert in achieving the abnormal.