Next VR week Hetman spend on training and executing different strategies. Most of them turned out to be failures, he died at least two hundred times and soon on Plains spread information about suicide player. He didn’t join any team and even didn’t attack greenhorns witch was the easiest way to collect ten points and pass tutorial. Instead he keep attacking groups of players in strange ways. At first he tried to make himself some armor. Because on plains he couldn’t find anything, he had to use rope from scarecrows and few planks he found in camp, this allowed him only to tie planks to himself. Of course this armor turned out horribly. Not only it restricted movements but also wood shattered with first hit and didn’t block any damage. This didn’t let him down as he next time tied his unused sword to forearm. It also didn’t work . When he started blocking hits with this improvised armguard everything seemed to work, swords attacks were easily neutralized without receiving much damage, he even got two kills in one group, but third enemy attacked using hammer. Blow was so powerful that despite he blocked it, he still broke bones in his arm and the fight ended quickly with Hetman death. This made him wonder what difference was between sword and hammer attacks.
With some experiments (witch mostly resulted in his deaths) Hetman came to conclusion that there are three main types of damage: smashing, slashing and piercing. Each had its own pros and cons. Smashing damage weapons were heavy and slow like hammers or maces but could inflict big damage even to heavily armored enemies. They had high chance to inflict bone crush effect and had huge durability. Slashing damage weapons were usual lighter and faster than smashing . Their damage against heavily armored enemies was low, if they didn’t attack weak points in armor, but ignored light armor defense and had high chance to inflict bleeding effect on hit. Their durability was sufficient but with each drop in durability attack power became worse. Piercing damage weapons like arrows or spears were similar to slashing. The biggest difference was they didn’t have higher chance to inflict bleeding effect but had high critical hit chance. They were also usually faster and with lower durability than other weapons.
Most of the arms had mixed damage. Swords had biggest damage in slashing but could also do piercing and smashing damage. Axes were balanced in slashing and smashing but couldn’t make pierce damage. General rule was heavier the weapon bigger smashing damage, sharper weapon had bigger slashing damage and more pointy weapon had better piercing damage.
With this knowledge Hetman chose his enemies more carefully taking notice of their equipment to have the biggest advantage. This increased his survival chances and soon he could kill at least one player in group before he died. It was still far from perfect but with each passing day his knowledge and fighting experience rose. The next encounter witch gave him idea to test was with some swordsman. Fight with him was strange, Hetman couldn’t properly read distance and right timing to block and attack. His few moves which were well trained were all in mess and he didn’t know the reason behind it. Firstly he thought that he was simply tired and needed rest but next fights with different players went mostly like he thought it would, even slightly better. Interested by this Hetman once again fought with strange swordsman and his group and situation repeat itself. Feeling something fishy Hetman started observing swordsman fights from afar. His skills didn’t looked too be better then average players but his efficiency was much better. Most players couldn’t hit him or were easily blocked. This couldn’t be by chance as similar situation repeated itselfall the time. Then Hetman finally seen it, strange swordsman was left handed and had different hand upfront . This made players who were fighting against him confused as they mostly battle right handed enemies. It was similar to box fights were boxers using southpaw stance were usually much harder rivals then right handed. The reason behind it was simple they weren’t used to fighting against leftie.
For Hetman who were training to been able to use both hands as good this seemed as great method. If he could exploit this like this strange swordsman his survival chance would rise. Only question was if he was good enough to use this method. Swordsman seemed to be leftie from the birth while he was still getting used to using his left hand. To check it Hetman started experiment in which he counted how many enemies he could defeated while fighting with sword in left hand and sword in right hand. After attacking fifty groups using each hand, slightly better was right hand 71 to 68 kills, but left handed fighting was quickly becoming better with each encounter to the point he was able to defeat three players in his last fight using left hand.
Hetman decided to try fighting using sword in left hand. Thanks to that at the end of the week he was able to kill at least two players while fighting against group of four before he died.
At his seventh day of the tutorial he logged in like usually. Plains had always sunny weather so the first thing he saw was beautiful sunrise. Grass on the plains where covered with morning dew and every drop shone like gem. In such scenery Hetman saw this massacre. In the place where usually groups of players were waiting to ambush greenhorns, lone player was dancing with blades in his hands annihilating everything which stood in the way of his swords. He was tall at least 185 cm and had short black hair with and expressionless look in his eyes. Each move looked like part of complicated choreography. His fighting style was what Hetman dreamed about when he choose two swords at the beginning of his tutorial. He wanted to fight just like that guy and it seemed luck has at least smiled to him. He quickly run toward at the battle place. It looked seemed that encounter has quickly drawing to the end. The lone player in less than two minutes killed group of five players and was already running toward next one 1 kilometer further.
“Please wait, can you teach me?” Hetman afraid to lose him out of sight shouted
Player turned around and seeing only one person decided to ignore him and resumed his run. Because on the Plains you couldn’t get any skills or stat points Hetman and unknown player chase keep fixed distance.
As soon as dual wielding swordsman was spotted by group of players fight has started. It looked similar to the first encounter of Hetman except the result. Toward black haired guy was shot arrow and icebolt but he swiftly avoided both attacks and with great accuracy slashed running in his direction two melee fighters. They died without even knowing what happened before they started turn grey. Seeing this archer shot only one more arrow and tried to escape but his reaction was too slow and he shared the fate of his two companions. Mage during that time was chanting some huge spell but as his group couldn’t protect him anymore he also was killed.
Hetman was mesmerized by this fight. One player run straight at the group of four and without losing speed defeated them all. It was something which he tried achieve since he came here and there was someone who did it like it was nothing. Chance to learn from someone with such skills could not appear anymore in game.
“Please stop”
Black haired guy looked back once again but this time he turned around and started running in Hetman direction. At the beginning Hetman thought that he at least will be able to learn something about sword fighting but outstretched blade and determined look in the eyes of the player quickly brought back him to reality. It was most likely that to sword master he was only the next point to complete tutorial. Before Hetman was able to do anything, one of the swords started motion. Slash wasn’t fast due to lack of in game skills and stats points but one could see that it wasn’t clumsy swing of most players. It was move which was repeated countless times till it was step from perfection. Without slightest doubt, hand shake or unnecessary movements.
Hetman was sure the attack would kill him like others but it didn’t happened. Thanks to switched stance he in the last moment evade sword. It didn’t made his situation much better, he still didn’t had bigger chance to win this fight. His only hope was to talk himself out of this situation.
“Hey, take it easy I don’t want to fight. Let’s talk it out.”
“I don’t have time to waste here so let me kill you quickly.”
Answer was cold and soon after next slashes came. This time it wasn’t simple swing but combination of few. Both blades rose vertically starting their move from bottom right and quickly rose to the chest of Hetman. Despite that first sword was blocked and it seemed the same would happened with the second one but it only grazed Hetman defense slipped through guard and left red mark on his chest leaving him with only half Hp left and bleeding status. Enemy fluidly went from one stance to another and started next phase of attack. This time swords were aimed at head and body. Hetman on instinct tried to protect his head and didn’t notice the second slash witch struck in the stomach. Hit didn’t have the force to split him in two but still easily took away rest of his Hp.
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Hetman appeared in the camp his encounter with unknown blade master didn’t took more than 2 minutes. Around him previously killed players promised to avenge theirs today loss against black haired guy. Hetman on the other hand right away went to training ground and started repeating moves made by his adversary. He was clumsy like always but at least he had at least clear goal. He wanted to be at least as good as his today foe.
“HAHAHA You are full of vigor today lad, something good happened?”
Bear man like always appeared out of nowhere while he was training. For Hetman he became regular part of training. At first He was only annoyed by biting comments Bear man was making but soon he got used to them and even started pay greater notice in them. It was Bear man who helped him to understand how different weapons inflicted different kinds of damage.
“I was defeated today again but this time by skilled dual wielding sword master, I want to repeat his moves before I forget them”
“HAHAHA It’s true that today your chicken dance look slightly better, maybe soon will get ambidextrous trait.”
“I can’t get any skills or stats points while I’m on plains Bear man”
“So what, I wasn’t talking about skill but about trait, even on plains you can still gain traits and knowledge”
Hetman knew about stats and skills, he already checked theme but knowledge and traits where new to him.
“What are these traits and knowledge”
“You know that blacksmithing is skill but there is also knowledge on blacksmithing. If you have vast knowledge about blacksmithing you can see stats of metal weapons and armours even without identification. Of course identification will give you little bit different information then blacksmith knowledge, with skill you would also know about magic effects weapon or armour has but knowledge would give you more information about how the item was made and how it can be upgraded. Knowledge about blacksmithing also make gaining proficiency in skill easier, you don’t have to repeat made by somebody and know right method to make good steal or how to handle mithril. Of course knowledge alone won’t be enough to become master in subject but will make it easier. Obviously if you learn how to make good steal in forge not by reading books or learning from other smiths your knowledge will also raise with skill proficiency”
“What about traits?”
“Each race have theirs racial traits for example dwarfs have Hand to metal trait which gives them better results while forging, also being right handed or left handed is trait. Usually some traits you have from birth, some you can achieve with hard work and some appear due to some big life event.”
Hetman recalled his account creation when game asked him if he want to get albinism trait. Maybe he got some other.
Show status, skills, knowledge and trait windows
[quart=Name,Alignment]Hetman,Neutral[/quart]
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart]
[quart=Level,Class]1,N/A[/quart]
[quart=Race,Gender]Human,Male[/quart][quart=Health, Health Regeneration]100,1/min[/quart]
[quart=Mana Pool, Mana Absorption]100,1/min[/quart]
[quart=Stamina, Stamina Regeneration]100,1/minute[/quart]
[quart=Strenght,Agility]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Vitality,Physical Fitness]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Inteligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Leadership,Luck]0,10[/quart]
[quart=Atack,Defense]10,0[/quart]
Status Window
Title
N/A
Magical Resistance
Fire: 0%
Water: 0%
Wind: 0%
Earth: 0%
Holly: 0%
Darkness: 0%
[quart=Skill Name,Skill Level]Skill Rank,Skill Expirience[/quart]
[quart=N/A,N/A]N/A,N/A[/quart]
Skill Window
N/A
[quart=Knowledge Name,Knowledge Level]Knowledge Rank,Knowledge Progress[/quart]
[quart=Human Language,C1]1,12%[/quart]
Knowledge Window
Ability to speak and read in human language.
You are able to understand 99% words in human language
Trait Window
Trait Name
Trait Description
Humans Versatility
You are able to learn any skill
and don’t have pros and cons in any
Right Handed
Your right side of body is stronger and faster than left
Offhand weapon -30% in attack, -15% in speed
Hetman quickly came to conclusion there must be other languages like elf’s or dwarf’s language. His status looked normal and didn’t have anything special so all he could do was to simply, steadily work to make himself stronger.
*few days later*
On Plains during night could be seen countless fires. Even if players didn’t have any wood to keep fire there where people with fire spells. Toward one of such camps was slowly approaching small hill. It was strange not only because it was moving but also because plains where completely flat. Players at the camp seemed to didn’t notice hill and soon it came to the boundaries of light their small flame made. Hill stopped there and suddenly from it jumped out player with outstretched sword. Group of four wasn’t prepared for sudden ambush but still tried to fight off aggressor. Melee fighters wanted to take theirs weapon out but before they were able to storm of slashes came on them. They were given no chance and soon they were killed. Sacrifice of his companions let archer to take his weapon out but distance was too small to effectively use bow and with three blows he also turned grey and disappeared. Mage wanted to use fireball but he couldn’t use two spells at the same time so with active fireball he didn’t seen his enemy but while making camp fire couldn’t use fireball. Before he made decision aggressor was already near him and with wide swing took all Hp player had.
This was the third camp visited by Hetman this night and also the last as with mage death He collected ten point needed to pass tutorial. To Hetman Plains were not bad place, He spend 10 RR days there and learn few things which will hopefully let him have advantage against other players. Hewas able to get some fighting experience,and try out some of his ideas. He also learned a few things about game mechanics. Probably if he stayed there a longer he could discover more but plains had also negative side. Spending 30 VR days in game and being level one without any skill or bonus points was rather miserable achievement so he decided this was last moment if he wanted catch up to other players, get to the top and try his skills against this dual wielding sword master.
Tring
Quest "Baptism of Fire" Completed