It was autumn. A boring autumn, really. In the real world, there are the four seasons, but in the virtual one, there are some places with no changes during the year whatsoever.

Such place was one of the starting locations for newbies, called The Centipede Forest. With numerous low-level quests and weak monsters, this location doesn’t differ much from the similar ones. Regardless of the day you play, it is full of ordinary monsters. This day is no exception. But today, one player is extraordinary.

---

Two youngsters are standing amidst the trees, one with a fishing rod, obviously lost in thought, while the other one with a staff, trying to scare the first one.

,,Man, this is called ks! I know that! When i was playing earlier and i stole someone’s kill, he shouted ks on me and then again, repeatedly.

Now, you are doing me the same!“

,,What does it mean, anyway?“ The young fisherman seemed to be rather concerned about the meaning.

,,Heh… i knew you are a complete noob, from the first time i saw you! Don’t try to trick me! The question is not, what does this mean,

but that you stole me one centipede! And it was the one i painstakingly searched for the last two hours! Say me, you did it just to troll me.

You even hooked it with your fishing line and then threw into the river. What did you feed it with?“ From the curiosity, his voice softened a little.

,,It’s not, that i am trying to obtain some pet, or feed the fish, but unless i fight with monsters in the water, i cannot use my skills on them.“

,,I see. So you’re of the fisherman class. It seems you can at low levels only hunt efficiently the fish and so on, i didn’t know that. Such disadvantage early on, hm…“

,,…“

,,I’ve heard, that fishermen have a lot of stamina. You’re lucky, we are short on numbers in our party, since today we’ll try to kill the undine boss here.

If you give me your part of the drop, you can consider it worth that one centipede. What about that?“ There was a glint of monetary calculation in his eyes.

,,Sounds good. With a boss, it sure must be an epic battle! Since this way i will no longer owe you anything, it’s settled.“

---

Amidst few trees, another pair of players was standing, silently. Glaring on each other and clenching their teeth, seemingly both of them are angry.

This place doesn’t only differ in time, but it is far away, too. Instead of falling trees, the cedars here are covered in snow.

Experienced eyes could tell, that there is another difference. One player is totally confident.

Suddenly, both raised their hands and, while being in trance, said a couple of ancient words, at rather fast pace.

Under the flight of the magical arrows, several unique snowdrops vanished into the air to never return again. One could really regret their disappearance, if he didn’t know,

that original snowdrops is one of those things, which Royal Road has yet to manage.

While each mage shielded himself with the magic shield, based upon reading the type of his opponent‘s magic, one of them failed and the magic missile penetrated his left shoulder.

Trying to suppress his surprise, he decided to cast two lesser fireballs at once. The trick was, one of them was fake and each of them was flying at his enemy from opposite direction.

To buy time, there was not a better tactic. He could tell. This way, he had enough time to recast the magic shield, this time adjusted properly.

In the third round, our two magicians still insisted on giving each other pointers in a violent way. Now, one had both of his shoulders penetrated, his hitpoints decreasing rapidly.

Furious, he gave his all into the last attack and unexpected, strong winds created a snowstorm. It’s existence ceased along with one player.

The other was shaken, but still standing with a smile upon his pale face.

---

Finally, my training started to pay off. In this game, it is common for all the mages to spend most of their training routine reading new books,

while practicing their spells. While the academic intelligence they have is outstanding, the originality displayed by them is much worse.

Well, as a scholar i am no match for any of them, but i didn’t forget, that magic is an art.

While they do study, i am casting spells. While they are casting spells, i am still casting, too. Here, in Royal Road, the use of the abillity to focus can be easily

misunderstood to just do one thing more profficiently, or, from what i’ve heard, assasins use it to constantly check their surroundigs, while they kill.

At the very start, i just managed to cast one spell under slightly disadvantageous circumstances. Later on, i was able to cast two beginner spells at once.

Now, i can pull off one intermediate and one beginner, or two beginner and a third one with 40% chance to success.

Versus other damage-oriented mages, all i need is to use one beginner spell to alter the appearance and qualities on the surface of my water bolt.

Other elements are too hard to cover – frost will freeze my target, fire will burn and wind will push, with earth being the only exception.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

In all my previous games, i simply loved pvp. For me, ranked duels in Royal Road would be the only thing to be concerned about these days, if not for my younger brother.

I hope he will not be too tiresome. Just now he did PM me to help him. I wonder if all the younger siblings think the first characteristic of their family member

are the relationship bonds their share and only after that they are humans?

---

I hope he will come soon. It could be said, that every hero has a dark and troubled past, but i have no idea how to redeem my sins!

It seems my relieve from meeting him will be suspended, as he immediately switched to his insane mode.

,,What a…!“ He even didn’t finish, staring at my name. Wait… Name? Maybe they had to come up with a temporary solution?

,,I was too tired to notice back there, but now i see. Hm. What a fitting name you have! Hahahah!“ Nonsense!

During his heartily laughter, i thought it over:. ,,Hey, it’s no fun, when i remind you of you and you just laugh it off.“

After few of his futile tries to balance the score between us, we came to the forest.

,,You didn’t ask me to grind with you, did you? I told you repeatedly, that this way you won’t receive any experience.“

,,No, no! I just need you to help me apologize.“

,,Maybe if you apologize to me first. But what have you done?“

,,You see. There was this mage, called Lee. He invited me to a party against the undine boss here.“

,,I remember this one. But other, than the burst of damage every four minutes, there is nothing to worry about. Of course, it is said they made it more fierce after the last update.“

,,All of them were very concerned about me. They did let me to attack the undine first and left me outside the party, so that i will receive more levels!

To make me even more calm, they told me, that the less hitpoints i have, the easier it is to heal me. But, then…“

With voice colored in his slight anger, he asked me further.

,,As i used my skill on the monster, it bounced on our archer and instantly killed him. Then, it came back to me. I knew, that i have only this skill

and nothing else, so i could’nt help but to use it again. This time, it slayed our three mages, swiftly one after one. Being really scared, i did again and again.

In the end, it wiped our party completely. I tried to shout things like 'You shall not pass! ' and so on, you know, like Gandalf, but it didn’t help.

My mana was completely depleted and i was killed, too.“

,,I promise i will take care of this. Just explain me your skills and class. Could it be, that you‘re like me?“ I don’t play this game to make my nightmares real!

,,Then, take care of yourself. I have some ideas, but i need to try them first. Oh, and it would be better to don’t say your class.“

Because i was still afraid of my recently-obtained dark past, i hunted in different places. Each centipede had more vivid colors, than the ones back there.

But suddenly, i felt a killing intent from behind and chills ran down my spine. Someone stomped on the leaves and killed them in the most horrible way.

With the sound of their (I suppose everything has them, right?) bones being completely shattered, i turned around.

What a horrible way to die! He must be enjoying a good fame in the pvp realm. Otherwise, he would not try this against me.

But wait. There is this cliché called 'Defeat Means Friendship'. I know, because i watched the anime Rurouni Kenshin. There is this defeat of Sagara Sanosuke

and he becomes an important party member! I guess it’s time to obtain some too.

But this is completely out of the place, now. Every enemy converted this way must appear in the second episode of the anime, or manga,

but i have no idea, how to defeat him yet. As i tightened my grip on the katana, with the appearance of a fishing rod, i decided to be unrivalled story teller

and use my almost ultimate move on him in the next chapter.

_____________________

References:

ks - Means to steal a kill. Usually used by the pro guys, when they lose their abillity to remain good players and become frustrated,

trying to get back at least the feeling. But if done repeatedly, anyone will be mad at you.

See dark and troubled past: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... oubledPast

Gandalf is a mighty, old freak from The Lord of the Rings.

Defeat Means Friendship: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... Friendship

Rurouni Kenshin is a manga, made into an anime and now being made into live-action: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurouni_kenshin

I suppose after the new chapter of Dark Side, nobody will ever believe, that i had the idea about focus and spells in my mind before.

It really discouraged me. But take it as it is, or believe i am just a copycat.