A sound of smacking came from outside Levelgreen the next day, at this rate five days remained until the raid in Mournwood.

Smack, smack, smack.

XPhaxX's sword wolloped John relentlessly.

"You're way too predictable! All you ever do is manoeuvre behind the enemy!" XPhaxX exclaimed as he once more smacked JohnWillStab with a sword so hard he the wooden practice sword shattered into wooden splinters.

"But it's the best way to close the distance!" John argued as he sat up off the ground.

He was visible bruised, though the wounds healed quickly.

"So what, do I just run up to the person?" asked John sarcastically.

XPhaxX pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Add some variety to it!" he exclaimed.

"You can teleport behind someone with an ability, why not double-manoeuvre to disorientate someone?"

"Or jump backwards as soon as you manoeuvre? That way you close the distance without being in striking range!" XPhaxX suggested.

"Besides, I've never seen you use the Evasion skill!"

JohnWillStab took a deep breath.

"Alright... I'll give it a shot..." John replied before picking his daggers off the ground and getting ready to fight.

JohnWillStab charged at XPhaxX, daggers in hand, just outside of his reach John case manoeuvre and appeared behind him, like a flash of lightning, XPhaxX's (second) weapon drew near John with extreme speeds.

"Dagger parry!" John thought, as his hands automatically placed the daggers into an 'X' shape and placed them right before the blade.

Their blades met and John was shocked to find his blades no longer flying out of his grasp, but instead holding the blade back.

As John looked to XPhaxX he felt his leg performing a sweeping motion below, it was too lade form him to react so he fell to the ground with his daggers still in his hands.

With a thud he crashed into the ground below.

"Fuck..." he sighed.

"I mean, you improved a little..." XPhaxX remarked, "Though you could have manoeuvred behind me when you saw the leg-sweep," he explained.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

After a few more rounds JohnWillStab called it quits for the day.

In the back, the Thief sat under a tree practising throwing her daggers, she served as John's lift back to the base, and vice-versa if it got too dark.

"Your character may have the reflexes and technique befitting of your level and stats, but if you're too stupid to know how to use the tools at your disposal you'll be stuck as average forever..." XPhaxX sighed.

"Right..." John replied.

"By the way, you're a blacksmith by profession, right?" asked John.

XPhaxX nodded.

"That's right, well, technically I'm a white-XPhaxX but sure,"

John performed a painful fake-laugh.

He wanted to be polite but he broke after a mere five seconds.

"Yeah... never say that joke again..." he relented.

"Damn... I ran a... sort of successful trolling business back in the capital when this was a game..." XPhaxX exclaimed disappointedly.

"A trolling business? With your game-knowledge, I'd have expected you to be some hardcore raider!" John exclaimed.

"I was, but it wasn't exactly fun, the rush of killing a boss was never equal to the stress of being sever-first on any boss..." he explained dismissively.

"So it's like Bonifacius, he said he left his guild because he got bored of raiding and switched to roleplaying," remarked John.

"So is that what he told you?" asked XPhaxX with a chuckle.

"Yeah? I mean I never really pressed the issue..." John replied, his curiosity piqued.

"No, it was mostly in-fighting that got him to leave, the worst thing about big guilds is how competitive and official everything is..." XPhaxX sighed.

"Right... well, if you're a blacksmith, can you produce glass by any chance?" asked John.

"Glass? Yeah, usually you'd have to do a questline to unlock glass -making but as you see...-" he gestured towards the town where several of the homes had glass windows. "-... I can make and shape glass," he explained.

"Great, so, do you think you could make use a few batches of bottles and caps? My guild agreed to pay up five gold per bottle and cap pair," John explained.

"Potions?" asked XPhaxX.

JohnWillStab shuck his head before he explained his plan.

"How better to manipulate people than by associating a brand with a liked good?" asked John with a smug smile.

XPhaxX looked at John uncertainly.

"I have the game's finest chef working on a drink which we will label as 'provided to you by the jGuardians' on the back!" John exclaimed.

"Huh, not bad... thought what good is a hot drink..." XPhaxX remarked.

"True... that's why we're on the lookout for an engineer..." John replied.

"I guess I'll let you know if one comes through the town," XPhaxX said before turning towards the town.

"So your big evil plan is to make coke?" asked the Thief running up behind John.

"Hey, that was Bromy's plan!" John exclaimed defensively.

"I meant the drink, not the drug!" the Thief explained.

"Oh, yeah, that's my plan!" John replied.

"It's hard to start a war if everyone around you drinks your drinks, wears your clothes and loves your media!" John replied.

"Did you say Bromy? Damn, you guys are really picking up some interesting character!" XPhaxX remarked.

"I mean, right now our group consists of Bonifacius, Pedecree, Bromy, Alexander, Revenberry, Crown the famous cheater!" John explained.

"To a lesser extent, we're also allied with Olivionion,"

"The Thief here wasn't really interested in the jGuardians,"

"We're still waiting on XxFoxlyxX to return so we can add him," John replied.

"Oh you know Foxly?" asked XPhaxX.

"Yeah, he's the frogman with the seals and stuff!" John exclaimed.

"Right, that's the one!" XPhaxX said with a smile.

"The second richest person on the server for most of its runtime!" XPhaxX remarked.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"WHAT?!" John demanded.

"What, he never told you? He wasn't a raider of anything, he was a roleplayer for a while, but for the most part, he'd play everyone on the auction house..." XPhaxX replied.

"I can imagine he's out doing some business already! By the time you see him, he'll be rolling in cash!" XPhaxX exclaimed.

"He never came off as rich... he gave me a stupid looking scarf once..." John remarked.

"What did it look like?" asked XPhaxX.

"Grey with skulls," John replied.

"Yeah, that's... a really expensive item... for us non-millionaires anyway..." XPhaxX replied.

Meanwhile...

Pedecree stood in a well-lit room within the jGuardian base, around his empty booze bottles, bowls and cups.

Piles of fruit around him.

"Gross... cabbage and tomato flavour is a no..." Pedecree remarked placing the bottle aside.

"How about..." he looked around at all the different fruits he collected from the zones around here.

"Apple... and orange?" he thought grabbing an apple and a fruit that looked like a vibrant-red orange.

He placed both in his make-shift juicer, essentially a wooden box, the lid of which had wooden spikes, he's mush the fruit until the Juice could be poured into a bottle.

He tasted it...

"Hmmm... not bad..."