William almost lost immediately, as he narrowly avoided a terrifying thrust, followed by a hook kick that he unfortunately failed to dodge. William hit the ground with a thud, and rolled out of the way of a downward slash. William managed to throw a dagger from the ground at the swordsman’s face, but the blade merely passed through as if the foe wasn’t even there.

“Well, fuck you too,” William said, with more than a tinge of frustration.

He took the opportunity to get to his feet, and pulled out his Mana potion, but was pressed into the center of the arena from a series of thrusts and slashes. He knew that his dexterity was what had allowed him to evade; barely. It was while being pushed back towards the far edge of the arena that William tried something else. He didn’t expect to win in a straight sword fight. He pulled one of his thigh daggers out and this time, swung his sword into the swordsman’s blade to stop its momentum as he used[Mana Investment] with [Swift Thrust], managing to damage the spectral being and that seemed to slightly slow its momentum.

The change in momentum was marginal however, and an oversight on William’s part caused a shallow gash to score up his chest as he had his sword knocked back by a type of parrying technique of some sort, throwing William off balance. William retreated a few steps back and barely blocked an upward blow, getting more and more frustrated with each narrow miss, inwardly cursing his lack of swordsman skills. As far as he knew, there wasn’t a time limit so he decided to take a gamble and see what he could visualize from his foe. He hoped to gain some insight or clarity and hopefully adopt some of it to win the fight.

William solely focused on dodging and dashing instead of using any dexterity to fight for several minutes. As the cat and mouse behavior continued, William started to glean some insight into the motions of the swordsman. Nothing of a biblical proportion, but more like ways the blade was swung, and shifts in legwork in tandem with it. It was after a couple more minutes that William decided to try something that was high risk, but high reward. As the swordsman conducted a precise downward slash, William used [Indomitable Parry] for the first time. He had occasionally reflected on his fights since coming to GAEA and had mentally slapped himself for not trying the skill out sooner, but he chalked it down to forgetting he had it and discarding it immediately after receiving it from the fear of not doing the skill correctly.

It was an outstanding move as the skill did its job, making the strike glance away to the space a few inches left of William. Additionally, the upward parry he had done, allowed his sword to be in position for his own downward slash. He used [Mana Investment] again and activated the runes on his blade, causing a fierce arc of pure sharpness to cut deep into the body of his foe, forming a severe gash. Something was off however, the blow didn’t activate Syphon on his sword. Fortunately, the blow seemed to have some effect as the opacity of the swordsman faded somewhat. William had a feeling that victory would come from dealing a specific total amount of damage and so felt some hope that he wasn’t fighting something that couldn’t die.

William’s confidence grew then and as he managed to clear a three foot gap between the two of them with a quick dart backward, he held his sword with more conviction, waiting for his next opportunity. The opportunity came almost immediately as the swordsman closed the gap with a diagonal slash from on high, and William used [Indomitable Parry], William grinned as he anticipated success, however, he had counted his chickens too early and was dismayed when the swordsman managed to flick his blade quickly to parry William’s own. This was made worse as the swordsman followed with a fast riposte and William had barely enough time to use the dagger in his hand to knock the riposte thrust from a lethal blow, to one that scored a deep gash in William’s side.

William however, managed to use the opportunity to bring the dagger up in a reverse grip, once again using [Mana Investment] to carve another deep gash through the figure’s neck and head, causing the swordsman to be nearly transparent. William knew that he had only managed to react quickly due to his growing tolerance to pain, having been injured so many times already on his journey. The swordsman changed their demeanor completely and quickly zipped backwards, trying to regain their stance.

“Oh no you fucking don’t!” William shouted stepping in quickly.

As he kept pace, William tried for a thrust with his sword towards the swordsman’s chest, causing the swordsman to step to the side; right into the path of William's dagger slash. The attack landed true, and William anticipated his victory, however, the slash faded through the figure, pitifully.

“Why? Mother-fucking bastard!” William cursed in his mind, and as he readjusted his positioning, the swordsman had completed their retreat, forming a now defensive stance, and stood in place unmoving. It was then a stare off and William couldn’t figure out why only a couple of his attacks had worked. It took a couple of minutes for William to realize why. Each attack that had landed, was using [Mana Investment]. This meant that only magical attacks would work, at least in theory. It confused him then why his enchanted weapons didn’t have any general impact as surely they were now magical. His Mana was already almost at the halfway point, meaning he had to land any attempts successfully as he would just lose if he ran out, as he doubted the figure would allow him to take the time to chug his Mana potion.

William rolled his shoulders slightly and inched closer, slightly unnerved by the lifelessly still swordsman that both seemed inanimate and alert. William got within two feet of his foe, and quickly blocked a swipe across his mid section, and fortunately for William, it had only caused a tiny cut on his torso. William had a feeling that the defensive stance was more worrisome than the offensive one. He decided to try and force an opening then. He dropped his dagger, and quickly drew a Mythril one. He then used [Mana Investment] with [Dagger Toss] and aimed at the swordsman’s head. The swordsman predictably lifted his sword to swat the blade, just as William wanted.

William launched forward, sword already in an arcing horizontal slash, and as he used [Mana Investment] once more, he landed his strike, severing the spectral swordsman cleanly in two. The swordsman soundlessly fell in two, then faded into nothingness. William received the prompt and felt some vindication in defeating the foe with a similar attack to the last one it had made.

“GG motherfucker!” William yelled, hefting his sword in a victory pose.

He reviewed the prompt:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Dungeon Trial}

{Goal}

Ring out, Incapacitate, or kill Spectral Swordsman – Level 12 [[Completed]]

{Rewards}

A single pick of Dungeon Treasure Selection

{Bonus Rewards}

A single pick of Dungeon Treasure Selection

[Notice – Rewards are replacements for EXP]

{End}

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

William had somewhat mixed emotions from it. He was disappointed at no EXP gains, but also excited as it seems his single pick would become a double pick, whatever the hell that was.

As if to answer his question, four pedestals appeared out of thin air in the center of the arena. Atop each was one item, and William had a feeling that each were an individual treasure. He quickly approached, and decided to look at the left most one first: a tome.

William was pleased that he got a display prompt as he touched it, saving a use of [Identify]:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Dungeon Reward}

Technique Tome – Arcane Sword-forms I-III

{Description}

A Magical Tome, invested with the sword-forms used by an ancient sect of the Arcane Sword arts. Channeling Mana into the Tome will allow the user to view displays of the Katas associated with the sword-forms it contains.

Acquire?

{Y/N}

{End}

It was interesting to say the least. The tome appeared to be a training book that would allow him to learn the techniques that the swordsman had used. It didn’t seem to give him tangible buffs, but he definitely would put this option to the top of the choice pile as he felt somewhat embarrassed with his performance using swords so far. He disregarded the prompt and it faded form his mind as he moved over to the second treasure.

The treasure appeared to be another book, but this one was rather thick, and it appeared to have a colorless aura of magic around it:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Dungeon Reward}

Skill Grimoire – Vortex Slash – Type: Fighter

{Description}

A Skill Grimoire that has been used to seal an Arcane Sword art of ancient origin. Any blade used with this skill will emit a projection of spatial energy in a ranged attack, allowing for a ranged option useable by those of limited combat range.

[Notice – Skill is a combination variant using MP and SP for a cost.]

Acquire?

{Y/N}

{End}

This one was mouth watering. A final skill to round out William’s Fighter class, seemed almost scripted for him. One thing did concern him however, as the display didn’t identify the actual skill, but rather hinted at its function. Could he risk it? He was also concerned about the cost and how it used both resources. He had no idea at the cost either making the option even more awkward. He would need to come back to it once he had considered the other options.

Moving on to number three, he eyed it slightly skeptically at first. It was just a plain sword sheath visually. As he looked at it closer, he was pleasantly surprised:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Dungeon Reward}

Equipment – Sheath of Mana Flow

{Description}

A sheath made for the upper echelons of Arcane Sword users. The sheath can hold any sword due to spatial enchantments within. The sheath will absorb latent Mana from Ley-lines to provide an independent Mana resource pool for the sword sheathed. Absorbs 10MP per hour. Total MP capacity: 500MP

Acquire?

{Y/N}

{End}

William’s eyes widened at the description. If he could gain an independent Mana pool for his sword, then he could potentially increase his uses of [Identify] and [Mana Investment] on his other weapons. Five hundred MP wasn’t to be sniffed at either as it eclipsed his own significantly, it was limited to his sword though, but that was a minor issue. He was getting a bit concerned with how many good things there were as he could only pick two. As he went over to the final one, he partly hoped for trash so the end decision would be easier. He had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case as he looked upon a necklace of what appeared to be Mythril like his daggers:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Dungeon Reward}

Equipment – Necklace of Honed Vortex

{Description}

A Magical Necklace that has been forged with pure Vortex magic added in the process. Necklace has three activations before needing to be fully recharged. [Cost of full recharge: 1000MP]

{Activation}

Create a flowing bubble of Vortex magic that will instantly destroy anything it touches for 1 second.

Acquire?

{Y/N}

{End}

The last item seemed quite OP. He could potentially shore up his shortcomings with this item, turning mistakes he made into advantages. After a few more moments of pondering it however, the more his brows knitted in thoughtfulness. The recharge cost was absurd for him at present. If it kept whatever was put into it, then a few depletions of his Mana pool would fill it back up. If it required the full thousand MP at once however, then he would potentially have a useless item until he got to a hundred intelligence. Something else in his mind also made him dislike the option more. It felt like he would be admitting to being a scrub or something if he had to rely on an item to compensate for his failings. He could just fix his failings through training after all.

It took him several minutes more to decide, but he eventually picked the sheath and the Vortex Grimoire. Both seemed to have potential together. He could compensate for the skill’s MP cost potentially with the sheath’s ability. That would be a significant advantage. He was very tempted at the sword-forms but he had a feeling that the dungeon was a training facility back in the day and almost expected more such books in the other rooms.

William didn’t hesitate to use the Grimoire and as he opened it, he felt a flood of knowledge wash over him, and then flood into him. He saw a vision of a silhouette of a swordsman in his mind that slashed towards a group of enemy silhouettes and release a blade of pure Mana. He then saw the silhouettes get cut in tow by the attack. He then knew that he made the correct decision. After the vision, he checked his new skill:

{Ascension_Protocol}

Vortex Slash – Using the reservoirs of Stamina and Mana within you, swing with unrelenting power, causing that energy to fly at your foes. May you carve away all in your path. [Cool-down – 30 Seconds][Cost – 100MP + 50SP]

[Notice – Immune to SP reduction effects]

{End}

William was overall, very pleased with the skill. The costs did make him wince, and the cool-down was a little slow, but beggars couldn’t be choosers after all. He did frown at seeing that any SP reductions wouldn’t come regarding the skill. It wasn’t a major concern though. William would test out his new skill in the next trial, he decided. He collected his weapons and sheathed them, before heading out of the exit, turning with a farewell and some longing for the items he couldn’t have.