Chapter 6: Duo Queue

After receiving that notification, I respawned and found myself in the same dark cave. Probably.

Maybe even deeper.

Looking around, I could see faint details of the cave but no signs of enemies.

So this might be a safe zone.

I get up and also found out that a death penalty has been put on me and will last for quite a while.

Well for now, I just moved towards one direction.

My eyes have already adjusted so inspected the place while moving slowly.

Shortly after, I spot a skeleton.

Quickly hiding behind one of the rocks, I quietly took a peek.

The skeleton walked around and is now finally a few meters away from me.

Close enough for me to see it's name and level.

Lesser Skeleton lvl.11

I widen my eyes at it's level.

Sigh. What have I gotten myself into?

I grit my teeth as I hardened my grip on my sword.

The skeleton was close, but not close enough for me to launch a successful sneak attack.

I kept waiting.

…

And after a while, the skeleton was now around 2 meters away from me.

Taking this chance, I dash out.

The skeleton noticed me but I tried to slash it anyway.

The skeleton tried to do something but my blade managed to get to it first.

I was not able to cut through it's bones but my sword was heavy enough to push it back.

Taking this time when it was staggered, I gave another heavy slash.

But it recovered too quickly and parried my blade.

Now, our positions have been reversed and before I knew it, the skeleton's blade cut deeply into my shoulder. I flinch at the slight pain I felt as well as the blood that spilled from the cut.

I check my HP and saw that more than two-thirds of it has been shaved off.

But the skeleton was not kind enough for it to wait for me to recover. It gave another slash and I barely dodged by jumping back. But because of that, I tripped and fell on the floor.

Fuck!

Not giving away this oppurtunity, the skeleton brought my HP down to zero, and just like last time, it did it with a stab.

You have died.

My vision darkened and the same notification from before appeared again.

Respawning, I found myself in the same place I last respawned in.

I remained seated and contemplated on what to do.

The skeleton I fought with was more than twice my level and it was most likely that the first one as well as the rest of the monsters were the same.

If so, I only had a few options.

One option was that I would try to run as fast as possible for the exit.

I didn't like that.

Another would be to call for Sarah ask for help.

I didn't like that either.

I could also re-create my account but I think it's too troublesome.

So, I was left with the last option I could think of.

To fight my way through.

But how?

Those guys are more than twice my level and all I know how to do is swing my sword.

…

Fuck it... I brought myself in this situation, might as well go with it...

Standing up, I went towards the same direction.

Finding the skeleton, I grew a bit irritated. So once again I brandished my sword.

Doing the same as I did before, I hid and ambushed it.

Jumping out of hiding, I did a quick stab and tackled it into the wall.

In response, the skeleton flailed it's blade in suprise but only managed to graze me.

Looking at my HP, even though it was a graze, it took quite a bit of HP still.

I pinned it to the wall as I tried to do as much damage as I can. If I was dealing any in the first place.

But unfortunately, the skeleton regained it's composure and did an accurate stab to my back.

…!

Still lodged in, it brought my HP down to the red zone and immediately brought it to zero.

Recieving the same notification and added penalties I got back in the same place as before.

Thud!!

“Shit...”

I punch the wall behind me as anger welled up inside.

Gritting my teeth, I slid down the wall and sat down.

Trying to keep myself calm, I collected my thoughts.

The skeletons are much stronger than me and it feels like I'm dealing no damage at all.

Plus the added penalties will make it harder for me.

Standing up while I tried to renew my 'determination'.

Meaning my 'desire to beat this guys 'til I'm satisfied' determination.

Walking towards the same direction again, and finding the skeleton again, I fought it again and obviously died again.

Repeating this a few times, I been able to do a few scratches dents here and there.

And after repeating for a few more times, I notice that it has been accumulating damage.

I grinned and tried again, but after that, the small glint of hope fell short.

…

I lost a level.

It wasn't part of the penalties before so I wasn't worried.

But seeing as I returned to level three, I despaired and thought about what to do.

Should I continue risking another loss of a level?

Or should I wait until the penalties die out?

But there is also a risk in waiting.

What if it regenerates HP?

That would mean I'd be back to square one.

I groaned cause I thought it wouldn't get any worse.

My weapon's durability is almost depleted.

Stolen story; please report.

“Fuck!!” I shouted as I grew irritated at my situation.

Standing up, I stomped off towards the same direction.

One last time.

I'll keep going until I deem it to be really hopeless.

Anymore than this, and I'll resort to making another character.

Finding the skeleton, I charge at it and prepared my sword.

The skeleton saw me and it positioned itself into a fighting stance.

I swung my sword in an upward motion and the skeleton parried with a downward swing.

The two blades collided but I felt that the skeleton's movement was groggy.

Can skeletons get tired? Nah, I don't think so.

Thinking that I poised myself and launched another attack aiming for it's head.

Blocking my blade, the skeleton pushed me back and it swung it's sword again.

Seeing it's attack, I sidestepped to dodge.

Swish!

The sword flies by me and I took this oppurtunity to attack.

I tackled it and it fell backwards. Going with the momentum, I jumped and brought my sword up.

Bringing it down on it's head, the sword smashed it's skull and I stumbled forward.

Tripping and falling a bit, I turned to look at the skeleton while breathing heavily.

What lay there was a lifeless skeleton with a smashed skull.

And somewhere along the side is my sword. Also in the same state as the skull.

With this, I slump down and with my back against the floor.

Haa...haa... Looking at the ceiling and resting for a while, I noticed that I was tired.

Checking my stats, I received a notification saying that I leveled up twice.

Closing them, I checked to see if there was a stamina gauge, but there wasn't.

Then why was I feeling tired?

Well whatever...

Sitting up, I looked at the skeleton. Seeing as it wasn't there anymore, it must have turned into light particles.

What's left is the broken skull and the sword the skeleton used.

Thankfully, it was a greatsword.

Picking it up, I checked it's stats.

Iron Great-Sword (common)

A sword made of iron that was

was dropped by a skeleton.

Clumsy

Attack+12

Looking at it made me happier as it has more than twice the attack of my previous sword.

Quickly equipping it, I went back to the 'safe zone'.

Having fought for so long, I checked the time.

It's been around 12 hours in-game, so it must have been over 3 hours in real life.

Remembering that I still had some work to do for college, I logged out.

…

Opening my eyes and seeing the oh-so familiar room, I took the helmet off and got off the bed.

Walking towards my bag, I brought out a notebook and some folders.

I went to my desk and opened my laptop.

I opened a few applications, and started from there.

Taking several hours of typing away at the keyboard and operating some stuff, I finished and put everything away.

After this, I turned to my closet and changed into some outdoor clothes.

Moving around the room and picking up what I needed like my wallet, keys, and my phone, I then went outside and locked my room.

It was around midnight already so I had a jacket on.

I walked through the streets, passing by a series street lamps as I made my way to another part of town.

There, I entered a building with a sign saying 'BarTENDER'.

(Author's note – I know... I have a bad naming sense...)

Inside, I found various customers seated around various tables.

Walking towards the counter, the bartender nodded towards me and in turn I, him.

After that we both walked and entered an 'authorized personnel only' room.

There, I went to a locker and changed into a uniform.

A white long-sleeved polo and a black vest. A standard bartender uniform.

I put on a bow tie and moved to replace the previous bartender.

This is my job.

A shift 'til it's around 5:00 to 6:00 in the morning.

After that I'll go home then to school.

I have a peculiar schedule for school, so the time I go home varies.

And when school's done, I work on whatever they've given me and I repeat the process.

As for my sleeping time... It's before, during and after my class sessions.

…

But I guess I'll mix my schedule up a bit now that I've got the game.

Yeah, that sounds good... givng the game some time.

Time for me to vent my stress.

-----------------------------------

Sooo here you go!

Another chapter!

A chapter that I've had a hard time writing!

well anyways.

I hope you enjoyed and i also hope that the last part did not sound too forced.

and also, i never worked before ( ehehe~ :P ) so that part about his job is just how i speculate how it works.

and i guess, that's... all i have to say now? haha

oh! and chapter releases WILL become slower and slower. most prabably.

as i don't have any drafts and i write as i go. and i don't have a solid idea of where i'm going.

and about the previous chapters... now that i think about it, chapters 1 through 4 is, technically, four chapter ones.

...

i hope you understood that.

well, that's that sooo i hope you enjoyed reading. i'll try writing again tomorrow.