After the grand spectacle orchestrated by his aunt and the unfamiliar crowd, Archie found solace in the eerie quiet of his castle.
The peculiar tranquility of the castle was a balm to his senses as he surveyed his surroundings, his gaze landing on the dummy—his usual adversary in training.
To his surprise, the solitary dummy had been joined by four others, each distinguished by a different hue: orange, red, blue, white, and yellow. They stood in the heart of the castle, an unexpected addition to his training ground.
Before embarking on his next level-up mission, Archie retrieved the machete from his inventory. He settled down against the castle wall, the cold stone a stark contrast to the weapon in his hands. His eyes scanned the details of the machete:
[Slaughterer’s Weapon]
[Inscription:]
Varina, known as The Slaughterer, wielded a formidable weapon called the Slaughterer's Weapon. This weapon was a gift from her father, Awor, whom she tragically killed while trying to protect her people.
The blood of her father soaked into this weapon, and her father’s wrath cursed it, causing Varina to fall under these curses and slaughter her own people using the weapon.
Varina gave her life to seal these curses and secure the weapon.
[Class: Uncommon Class (Cursed) (Upgradeable)]
[Abilities:
Release from its curse to wield it]
[Activation: ?]
Archie noted the change in the machete's class from Common to Uncommon.
In this realm and others, there are seven classes that correspond to three elements: Monsters, Gears, and Missions.
- Common Class
- Uncommon Class
- Rare Class
- Epic Class
- Legendary Class
- Special Class
- God Class
These classes serve as a guide for both Rift Riders and Rift Runners, helping them gauge the difficulty of missions, the class of Monsters they might encounter in the rifts, and the class of gear required to hunt those Monsters.
Archie had learned about upgradable gears in school, but this was his first encounter with one.
He scrutinized the machete for any alterations, but apart from the upgrade to Uncommon Class, it remained unchanged. Nothing new caught his eye.
After a meticulous inspection, Archie decided to put the upgraded machete to the test. He approached the line of dummies, each painted a different color: orange, red, blue, white, and yellow.
As Archie drew closer, a golden prompt materialized before him:
[Red]
Instantly, Archie understood that he was being directed to strike the red dummy. He positioned himself in front of the red dummy.
[Strike: 1/100]
With a swift motion, Archie struck the red dummy. Like in the previous mission, it vanished upon impact, but this time, a change occurred. Where the dummy had once stood, a new prompt appeared:
[Orange]
Without missing a beat, Archie pivoted to his left and struck the orange dummy.
[Yellow]
As the orange dummy disappeared, another prompt materialized. Archie quickly leapt to his right and hit the yellow dummy.
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[White][Blue]
This time, two prompts appeared in quick succession. Archie responded with equal speed, striking both the white and blue dummies in a matter of seconds.
[Strike: 5/100]
"SWOOSH!” Before Archie could ponder the nature of the mission or consider its potential complexities, five more dummies materialized behind him. Arranged in a circle, each dummy was a different color: violet, black, brown, green, and pink.
Archie sprinted towards the dummies, and a new prompt appeared:
[Black]
Without hesitation, Archie struck the black dummy.
[Brown] [Green] [Violet] [ Green] [Pink]
The prompts vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
Archie caught a glimpse of a sequence of colors to strike next. Even though the prompts disappeared before he could fully read them, he had seen enough to identify his next target.
He struck the brown dummy, but this time, it remained intact. Undeterred, Archie pivoted to his right and struck the green dummy, then the violet, and finally sprinted towards the pink dummy, believing it to be the last one he hadn't struck.
As Archie struck the pink dummy, the remaining four dummies vanished abruptly. A new prompt materialized before him, catching him off guard:
[Failed consecutive strike]
[Restart again]
[Yes] [No]
“Did I miss something?”
Archie quickly accessed his daily mission menu, scanning through it in case he had overlooked something:
[Rookie Mission: Level 3]
[Strike 100 times consecutively using Machete]
[Reward: Upgrading Slaughterer’s Weapon]
[Penalty for failure: 1000 credits deduction.
Failure to Upgrade Slaughterer’s Weapon]
A realization dawned on Archie.
‘Damn it, I misread it as another 100 strikes. How could I make such a stupid mistake?’
Exhausted from the previous night's mission, Archie had spent the entire day striking the dummy without taking any breaks.
In his haste, he had misread the mission tab, assuming he had to strike the next set of colored dummies 100 times before they disappeared. He had moved as quickly as possible to accomplish this.
However, the mission required him to strike the colored dummies in a consecutive sequence, akin to a button combo in video games. If he failed to execute the combo, the consecutive strike would fail, and he would have to start over.
“This is challenging,”
Archie murmured, slowly grasping the nature of the mission and strategizing a way to complete it.
[Restart again]
[Yes] [No]
With renewed determination, Archie selected [Yes] to restart the mission.
“WOOSH!” Five dummies of different colors—yellow, red, black, brown, and orange—materialized before him, arranged in a box formation with one in the center.
'Again, there is no discernible pattern in these missions.'
Archie had hoped for some kind of pattern, but the arrangement and colors of the dummies varied each time.
Left with no other option, Archie charged towards the dummies.
[Brown]
Spotting the brown dummy in the center, Archie struck it, causing it to disappear.
[Red]
Archie darted to his right and struck the red dummy, but it remained intact. A new prompt appeared on the dummy’s chest:
[Black] [Red] [Brown]
Archie paused, testing a theory.
After a few moments, all the dummies remained as they were; they didn’t disappear as he had hoped.
Archie decided to test another hypothesis. He approached the black dummy and struck it, causing it to disappear. However, no new prompt for a color emerged. Archie stood still, and within a few seconds, all the dummies vanished, and a new prompt appeared:
[Failed consecutive strike]
[Restart again]
[Yes] [No]
'This is really like a button combo game. Whoever created this must be a game nerd.'
Archie realized that a series of successive strikes needed to be executed without interruption within a certain timeframe for the consecutive strikes to count. However, normal single strikes on the dummy could be performed with more time in between.
'Last time, it tested my agility and stamina, but now it's testing my intelligence and perception.'
A smirk played on Archie's lips at the thought.
'It’s as if the creator is trying to train my attributes so I can enhance them.'
Archie jumped up and down, loosening his muscles and honing his senses, before selecting [Yes] to restart the mission.
“WOOSH!” Five different colored dummies materialized in a circle. The number of dummies per round remained constant.
Archie approached the dummies, his gaze sharp as he observed their positions.
[Cyan] [Bronze] [Indigo]
With precise timing and a swift sequence, Archie struck the dummies.