We leveled up quite a bit... I opened my status and a large amount was added to my level and stats. I was to immersed in collecting spoils from monsters that I ignored the [Level Up] screen before my eyes.
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Level: 9
Job : None
Title: Explorer
Affiliations: None
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[Equipment]
Weapon: Short Iron Sword/Beetle Shell
Headgear: None
Upper Armor: Civilian Shirt
Lower Armor: Civilian Pants
Cloak/Mantle: Black Hooded Cloak (Burned)
Shoes: Poor Man's Slippers
Accessory 1: Ylka Rosary
Accessory 2: Wooden Ring
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[Status]
HP [Heath Point] 96 > 178
MP [Mana Point] 70
STR: 18>46
AGI: 13>42
VIT: 7>23
CON: 8>34
INT: 9
LUK: 13
DEX: 9>26
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[Skills]
Mining [Lvl 1]
Sword Mastery
I. One-Handed Sword Mastery [Lvl 8] [70%/100%]
II. Short Sword Mastery [Lvl 7] [30%/100%]
Sword Arts
I. Short Sword Arts [Lvl 5] [40%/100%]
• Shell Breaker [Lvl 1] [0/500 more uses to level up]
• Wave Blade [Lvl 1] [0/500 more uses to level up]
• Coil [Lvl 1] [0/300 more uses to level up]
• Double Slash [Lvl 1] [0/200 more uses to level up]
Analysis [Lvl 8]
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I didn't know I had arts... I'm guessing the percentage points is a way for the skills to level up for the arts its a set amount of uses... I wonder if the quantity change by level.
"I'll try this skills... It might help me killed the Beetles faster..."
"Hmm? What?"
Aira trotted closer to me and asked curiously, it seems I was talking to myself again as I was looking at my status screen.
"I just knew I had arts... I didn't get to use them though... Rather, I don't know how."
"It's easy... Just focus your mind and imagine how your body moves..."
Easy for you to say every move you have in those two arts. You are already accustomed to it since you've been training IRL as well... Unlike me who particularly had no knowledge of swords and whatsoever... I wish there is a way so I can see how the move activates. Like when putting points in a skill in the skill window... There is an option where you can see the move before you put the skill points in. Aira went back to the group in front of me and entered their conversation.
We are currently on the first floor. Seeing as everyone's happily chatting as we moved, I felt left out... It's fine because since the start of college everything became like that. Everyone in class grouped up during lunch, and even during class. I felt that they didn't even want me there. That was the root of my anger to my sister. I know it's petty but she pestered me if I made any friends the first day school started and it pissed me off... The reason of our crude yet pacifistic relationship was because of a petty fight, was because of someone as petty as me... She even said to see Mira as another elder sister, maybe she doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore.
In this world I can mostly do anything, a world where no one can criticize me. If I'm only a burden in this life I wish to be reborn as another in a different world but... Who am I kidding such fantasies only exist in books and games... There is no such thing as magic it was only made from pure imagination gathered from fictions.
"What am I doing with my life?"
I muttered lightly as to not bother anyone. The hood that was taken off was once again held up in the crown of my head... I am a shadow... nothing but a shadow... A person without presence... treated as nothing but air.
>[Stealth Skill Acquired]
What!!? My self ridicule turned into a skill?
"Ha..."
Seriously? This game needs some kind of restriction on meddling with our brains... It's as if it's reading our thoughts ever single second...
"Huh? Where is Ryo? He was just here a moment ago."
Aira looks back and scans the whole area at the back region.. I'm over here though... Ah! The stealth skill is on it was also consuming my mana.. The heck? I turned the stealth skill off and my body once again appeared at the back!
"Hey you saw him his no-- oh there he is! Where'd you go?"
"I was here the whole time... My presence is just that small so you didn't notice me..."
"There is no way it's like that! You have some kind of skill don't ya?!"
"Well, yeah... I just got it recently..."
Too recent... I was just ridiculing myself how I was a shadow and then magically got it.
"What's the requirement?"
"Self-ridicule"
"Eh?"
It wasn't just Aira... Even the ones at the front looked back with curious yet questioning look...
"I know it sounds crazy and all but it just appeared there... Maybe it's not self-ridiculing but other kind of requirement."
"..."
They all fell silent at my explanation. Aira opens here mouth and says 'it's okay if you don't want to tell us' and pats my head twice...
"I'm telling the truth here!"
"Yes, yes!"
"You're so cute when you're lying, Ryo-chan!"
He also pats my head twice... This guy treating me like I'm a kid!
"Ryo-chan my ass wanna get kicked out of the game, Ford!?"
"Scary! Waah"
He runs back to the front while smiling happily and resumes walking... Aira invites me to come as well... Maybe the requirement was... To be all alone...
Then suddenly Leona warns us!
"Enemies... 5 of them [Shard Beetles] and some kind of Insect."
"I'll go ahead and scout using stealth wait here..."
After I activated stealth I disappeared from their sights...
"Hey, where area you?"
"Over here!"
As I answered back my stealth was no longer activated it seems stealth can't be used while communicating... Once you let out your voice in a loud manner the skill will turn off automatically.
"Ahh!"
"I can't use stealth if my voice is too loud... I need to keep my volume low..."
"Test if you can use it while attacking..."
"I'll try..."
I activated the stealth once again and moved right next to the shield beetle.
"let's try using shell breaker here... I wonder how to do it..."
[Shell Break]
My body moved automatically as I activated the skill... I could feel mana being siphoned out of me and my body strengthens as mana is siphoned out. With a swing that seemed to use every bit of my strength the shell that I could cut through was slashed inflicting heavy damage on the enemy beetle. As my strike hits my stealth skill was automatically turned off... It seems it can only be used as a surprise attack and can't be used in the actual battle.
The [Shard Beetle] staggers forward and produces a peculiar noise.
Karararara... Like two woods clasped together repeatedly the noise kept on going... By the time it stopped I could hear buzzing noises getting closer at an alarming rate...
3 Beetles came and the first monster that I fought was following next to the flying beetles..
"FORD!!! EVERYONE HELP!!!!"
I ran towards the direction I came from while shouting with a loud voice. As I ran past them they also started running!
"Ryo? What did you do! You said you'll just scout!"
"I did! But you also said to see if my stealth skill could be used in battle!"
"I didn't mean while you're scouting!"
"Be more clear about it!"
The buzzing noises could be heard moving closer...
"Ah!"
"Shiva!"
Shiva trips and falls to the ground, Leona who saw this went back and helped Shiva... The beetles are coming near... We never fought too many enemies without strategy before... Damn it! I was too stupid! I stopped running and turned heel to the direction of Leona and Shiva.
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"Ford! Guard my back we'll help those two..."
"Right behind you, buddy!"
I ran towards their direction after relying on Ford for protection.
[Stealth]
As i activated [Stealth] my body vanishes and I jumped toward the flying beetles.
[Shell Breaker]
Shifting my weight, I rotated my body clockwise to add force to my slash and my mana was again been siphoned to strengthen my body.
"Take this!"
The unknowing beetle was mowed down with my sword cutting from it's hard horn to his sturdy shell, several cracks appeared on it's sturdy body. My hit was good... One more...
"One more time!"
[Shell Breaker]
I shifted my weight one again and vertically rotated my body to the enemy's position. However this time... I couldn't feel my mana being siphoned, my body wasn't strengthened. My sword clashed with the beetle's body and it made a metallic sound hitting a sturdy metal. My slash didn't go through... Why? I activated the skill right?
I checked my HP and MP and what I saw was I had 21 MP... I didn't know how much mana [Shell Breaker] takes. Damn it... I've only used it three times... Does that mean...
"It takes 25 MP to use one skill... So the last one failed to activate and turned in this kind of situation..."
With my sword still guarded by the beetle's body. It swung it's arms and flung my sword, I lost my balance due to my sword being flung. The beetle flew and freefall to my direction.
"Geho!"
The beetle's body was so heavy that I thought I broke some ribs... I wasn't damaged by this guys before so I didn't know how they counter attack but damn it hurts so much unlike the scratches I felt with those persistent hounds earlier...
"Get away you, Mushiking!"
[Wild Smash]
Ford cleaves the beetle in half as if it was paper. 'The difference in our strength is far off!" I thought as I saw the [Shard Beetle] cut in half in mere seconds.
"You okay, man?"
"Yeah... Yeah... Just lost some good HP..."
My HP is now at 75... God that thing's body hurts so bad... It practically just shave off more than 50% of my life in one go. Well, I pretty much don't have any armor so it must be that unlike these guys whose more well equipped than me.
"Damn, you got your life shaves off almost immediately!"
"Yeah, I seriously don't want to feel that again..."
Grezal and Aira then came in to support us while Shiva activates her healing magic unto me.
"Ahh! Much better... Thanks Shiva.."
"No... It was out fault in the first place..."
"Don't say that we're a party! We have to survive till we get to the surface and bring the stupid artifact to the stupid NPC."
"For a small kid, you talk big!"
"I'm already 18, it's the system's fault it got like this..."
"You're back on your feet right?"
"Yeah! Let's end this... The giant insect in the back can spew saliva that you can't break through... Don't let it hit you!"
"Got it!"
"Let's go!"
Ford and I kicked the ground both at the same time... I took out the Beetle Shell (Green) and bashed it on the one Aira was attacking...
"Need a hand?"
"You're too slow, Ryo!"
[Swallowtail]
The staggering beetle change its aggressiveness to me and started to attack me as I his in the shield. Aira used a skill called [Swallowtail] an [Kick Art] that's composed of several Kick Arts. She kicked in a Horizontal-Downward, turned then kicked vertically, then docked and closed in then kicked upward, then used [Zero Gravity] and [3D Maneuver] to move freely in the air and then enforcing the fall of her kick with [Nature Magic: Wind] crushing the beetle's shell and leaving only it's body unarmored and it's face flat to the ground. Taking this opportunity I made my attack I used [Dual Slash] and sliced through the thick body of the [Shard Beetle] while aiming at the body's softest spots to make it seem effortless... The end was the Beetle was cut into many piece while its head was stuck to the ground... Since Aira destroyed the beetles shell I couldn't get the shell but I still gathered the broken pieces, it might come in handy is what I said when she asked me why I was gathering the broken pieces.
"Ryo! Stop gathering shells for now... We got company!"
Two more [Shard Beetles] were coming our way. Ford and Grezal are fighting the Giant Insect now... They won't be coming here for a while Leona and Shiva are also helping those two so we can't request support.
"I'll help! Ryo!"
Tara came in with a bow in her hand... Her small frame made her look like a child wielding a bow.
[Hunt]
Her eyes glowed red and she pulled the bow's strings... She had no arrow whatsoever no were there a quiver. Sparks of blue light appeared from withing the stretched bow string.
[Mana Shot: Flat]
She releases her grip from the string and let's loose the blue light and shoots off the enemy. As the blue light hits the [Shard Beetle] gets blown away as if a giant hammer hit its body.
"Nice! Tara! Let's go Ryo!"
"Tara give us range support!"
"Okay!"
[Hunt]
Her eyes again glowed red... She seemed exhausted... She grips the strings and stretches it once again... Sparks of blue light the same as before have appeared inside the bow once again.
[Mana Shot: Flat]
She releases the mana arrow but hits nothing... She knelt in exhaustion while heaving deep breathes...
"Aira,Tara is..."
"She'll be fine... Let's just finish the enemy and go to her aid afterwards... Her skills really take a toll since her mana can't even take 2 shots yet."
"... Let's go!"
We attacked the unscathed beetle who was closing in on us. I used [Dual Slash] to irritate it a bit for me to aggro it for a while. Aira jumps ahead and spins to add force to her kick.
[Wind Dance]
A combination of [Nature Magic : Wind] and [Kick Arts : Feral Dance]. Kicks of high speed and power came in a flurry. Crushing every part of the beetle's body.
[Lion's Heel]
A high-powered thrust kick appeared after [Wind Dance] blowing open a hole inside the [Shard Beetle] isn't she a bit OP or am I just too weak? She's too scary now! Even the [Shard Beetle's] sturdy shells are no match for her high-powered kicks.
The blown away Beetle from Tara's preemptive strike earlier was still in a daze so I took the opportunity to kill it with [Shell Breaker]. We then went back to Tara who's pretty exhausted.
"Tara!"
"Hey, you okay?"
Tapping her shoulder, she looks up to me and raises her clenched with a raised thumb and radiantly smiled. By reflex I hugged her.
"Eh? R, Ryo?"
"Hey! Ryo!"
Aira bashes my head with her fist and snapped back to my senses...
"W, what happened?"
"Can you even have amnesia here? You suddenly hugged Tara so I bashed you!"
"Sorry... It's just too cute... I'm weak against cute things, it makes me want to protect them and shelter them..."
"You're unexpectedly girly, for someone who's saying that "I'm a guy""
"Uuu..."
I couldn't retort to her cheeky remark. Tara, on the other hand had her face covered with her hand...
"I, I'm sorry, Tara."
"N, no... I, it's okay..."
I stood up and looked to the direction where Ford and the others were.
It see end they were just about to finish up... Ford and Grezal's continuous attacks roughed up the Giant Insect and it's body covered in cuts and bruises... Leona and Shiva are supporting whenever they can. With Ford and Grezal's last attack the Giant Insect falls down lifelessly and the group waved at us after that.
It seems we are close to the unmoving players... It was only one more room before we reach the area where the stairs are and not knowing what their circumstances was makes me nervous.
"There are others in the next room... Be careful it might be PK's..."
"PK in just the start... It isn't even beta test yet..."
"Yeah..."
"Well no use hanging up about it... Let's go and find out what their doing..."
"Before that here's the formation we'll be taking upon..."
I advised them into using a new formation just as a precaution if the players waiting in their are really PK's... After approving of it we moved slowly into the Dome where that Giant Insect should have been.