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“I am.”

Randall gave Winter a wan smile upon his answer. Nodding, he instructed Winter to kneel. He hesitated to obey. It felt silly for someone his age to take a knee! An argument on how silly the action was and Randall’s insistence on the necessity ensued.

“Dammit! Kneel down you whiner! This is the way for me to pass my blessing!”

“Ouch! Okay! Fine! Just stop whacking me already!” Randall chased Winter around for a bit in his bout of frustration. Winter was not sure how it worked, but the hits, despite the stinging pain did not make him lose any health point. In the end Winter did want to be a Battlemage. He has been looking forward to progress to a more advanced profession. If he has to take a knee, so be it. But not without a lot of grumbling.

The weather was rather fitting for the solemn act, Winter thought. It was a cool day despite the sun high above. The gently swaying grasses and trees added importance to the occasion.

“Adventurer Winter.” Randall boomed.

“You are here today to take upon you the Sacred Duty. It is upon you that I, Randall, bestow upon you the blessing for your advancement to be a Battlemage. It becomes your duty to exterminate any creatures with intent to cause harm to peaceful folks without exception. Be they are God or Demon, this is an inviolable duty that you will carry until your last breath.”

He stopped to take a breath before continuing

“This is a duty only for one with strong heart. There is no shame in shirking the duty when you find it too much, only regret. Our Sacred Duty may fade, but our ideal shall live forever in others.”

Winter was halfway bored, just wanting the recital to end. Good thing it appeared to be the case. Randall murmured something softly for a bit then laid his right hand on his forehead. The wan smile was back again.

“Goodbye, Winter.”

Winter was about to say ‘What?’. His mouth was open and the word was nearly formed.

FORCED TERMINATION

Ronald was confused.

‘What the hell?’

The red blinking notice went on for a few seconds before it vanished, restarting the Capsule to its passive mode. The lights were back on and the entry screen for Royal Road appeared.

He never experienced a forced termination before. He heard of it happening when the Capsule was disturbed from the outside, but there was nobody home but him. Not wasting another second on useless thoughts, Ronald activated the menu to bring him back inside the game.

FORCED LOCKOUT ENFORCED.

PLEASE FINISH CALIBRATION SEQUENCE.

“What the…”

Forced lockout notice was no stranger to Ronald. All players received it when they died and have to remain outside the game for a full 24 hours. There was usually a timer attached to the notice, but Calibration sequence?

Ronald clicked continue.

DO YOU WISH TO BEGIN CALIBRATION SEQUENCE? YES/NO

Ronald clicked YES. He noticed a menu at the bottom left corner that said ‘SKIP’. He was very much tempted to skip whatever was happening and just get back to the game. But there must be a reason, right?

The cryptic word Randall spoke before the forced termination was all Ronald had to go on.

At first there was nothing. Then there was a blinking dot appearing in front of the projected screen. The instruction was to follow the dot with your eyes. And Winter did that. For half hour! When he finished, the progress bar for the calibration only moved for 2%. Ronald felt a sudden need to press the SKIP button and just move on. But he was not one to shirk from a challenge!

So he went on following instruction after instruction gamely. For another four hours before he disgustedly exited the Capsule for a potty break. he was done with following the dot with his eyes after the third hour. By the last follow the dot, it already went to dots. Six of them. Then it moved to slotting colors in progression of shades from lightest to darkest. Winter never knew there was so much variation of color existed. He must had arranged fifty for Yellow alone. Good thing that section of whatever quote calibration unquote was the shortest. If he saw another arranging color thing, he swear he would get a maul and smash the Capsule to bits.

Sighing tiredly, Ronald rubbed his eyes. He was definitely cranky. So he decided to brew a coffee to settle his nerves. The floating fragrance from the beans roasting brought peace to his mind. Ronald believed there must be a meaning to why he needed a calibration. So while waiting for his coffee to be ready, he took out his LitePad and began searching under “Royal Road Calibration”.

It referred him to official page. The information was not what he was looking for. Apparently Royal Road calibrated a body upon entry into the capsule and used the resulting reading to create a personalised avatar for the user. Good to know but not what he was looking for.

The search for Battlemage netted something more interesting. There was a specialised website for almost any profession that existed in Royal Road. The number ran into hundreds so far. Battlemage has zero. Ronald was frustrated when he was forced to search popular Royal Road forums and game sites for further information. A tedious activity. Something that Ronald avoid like a plague under normal condition.

When the night fell and his dinner was gone, he was no closer to the answer aside from a small scrap of information he found that said so far only Battlemage profession require a second calibration. Tens of reply post said it was okay to skip them as they appeared not to affect the gameplay at all. A lof ot the same posters however expressed their regrets as there was never another instruction to calibrate once they skipped it. They were dying to know what would happen if they completed it. The very few that posted that they finished it kept mum on whatever secret it revealed. They received a lot of flaming for their smug words.

Putting the pad down, Ronald leaned back. He wanted the easy way out. But he would regret it forever if he skipped the process. The never knowing would eat into him. If one day he ever hit a wall while playing, he knew he would look back at this moment and cursed himself for never finishing the calibration.

‘Maybe it give us a special move.’ Ronald thought jokingly. ‘Yeah. Right.’ He scoffed at his own answer.

xXx

CALIBRATION SEQUENCE COMPLETED

Ronald could not help the whoop coming out of his mouth. His hands were also raised above his head and banged to the lid of the capsule halfway. It shook a little and gave out EXTERNAL DISTURBANCE WARNING. PLEASE CHECK. that Ronald ignored.

Ten days. Ten fucking days! That was how long he spent to finish up the calibration. Headache, nausea, muscle cramps from immobility. He dealt with all of them as the tests - that was what Ronald called them - required.

Ronald was quite convinced some of the tests were not even required or even necessary. Like one where he was required to sleep inside the Capsule or stretch his body according to the posture shown as best as he could. Or it could be some joke from the company.

There were plenty that was boring to the point of torturous. But the last half of the tests were quite physically and mentally demanding. Ronald could have sworn a good number looked like some psychology tests he took while he was still schooling. Others felt like some ramped up version of what Professor Drek did in his lecture room. There were some he could not really figure out too, like a few that asked him to stare at a picture and remain immobile until the timer runs out.

Ronald did not care. He finished. Now he could log back in!

He thought back on the lecture of the Professor. It probably has a strong relation to what went on only he could not figure it out yet.

‘Only way to find out.’ Thought Ronald.

Entering the Capsule with a glee, he logged into his account. It proceeded without a hitch.

xXx

“Huh. Nothing feels different.”

Ronald wiggled his appendages one by one and flexed his muscles here and there like the time he was a newbie to check out the difference. Nothing. Shrugging he opened the message window that had popped into being the moment he logged in.

PROFESSION CHANGE!

YOU ARE NOW A BATTLEMAGE!

STATUS WINDOW ADJUSTED

SKILL WINDOW ADJUSTED

There was nothing else. As expected, there were changes. Time to find out what.

“Status Window.”

Status WindowNameWinterAlignmentNeutralLevel170ProfessionBattlemageTitleNoneFame120Health4480Mana2721Strength100Agility245 (230+15)Vitality179 (164+15)Wisdom360 (340+20)Intellect215 (195+20)Stamina192Fighting Spirit43Luck15Leadership6Charisma15Attack48-63Magic Attack71-76Defense54Magic Defense94Magic ResistanceFire10%Water10%Earth10%Wind10%Holy10%Dark10%

+20 points to INT and WIS

+25% Magic Attack

+15% All Magic Resistance

-75% Mana

Area of Effect Magic disabled

Unable to use Heavy Armor

Unable to use Heavy Weapon

Unable to use weapons with Iron contents

‘What the fuck!’ Winter thought to himself.

He was shocked when he opened the window. Immediate attention was given to his HP and MP bar with stamina was at the top left corner of his vision. He however never bothered to show how the amount in numerical value, leaving it just a simple bar. His MP quantity dropped to a quarter of what he remembered in approximation! HP value however rose to almost double, making his character more suitable for close combat capacity he always wanted when he began playing Royal Road. Winter was not sure what to think, so he continued to click each status to be sure.

In depth click to each status to be sure, he found other changes. His stamina was reverted back to normal, without the penalty from his class being a Mage. Then there was Strength to damage proportion that was adjusted to normal instead of penalised. Reduced magic damage and defense, increased physical damage and physical defense and extra natural magic resistance. The most telling changes however was to the flavor text description at the bottom of the page.

Though he was still unable to use iron weapon, he could use medium armor now! It would be a huge improvement to his survivability even if the armors were to be crappy due to his funding!

‘No!’ Winter was a little frantic when he read the part about his AoE skill being disabled.

“Skill Window.” He called out, not wasting anymore time.

He swore when he checked the skill list. <> was grayed out, inaccessible when he clicked on it. As expected. Sighing, Winter resigned himself. It was no great loss as he only has one AoE skill, yet the spell contributed quite a lot. He would not be able to use his favorite tactic of walling himself and raining death. He hoped that whatever the trade off was, it would be worth it. He clicked the skills he obtained. All appeared to be passive kind.

PROFESSION CHANGE!

Battle Analysis (Passive)

Core Battlemage ability. With each passing second you are in combat with your opponent, you gain better insight to their psyche and abilities. Enables you to match their skill from continuous learning process the longer you are battling them.

Battlefield Blessing:

First Phase: 1% status increase each minute, maximum of 10% (continue to Second Phase)

Second Phase: 2% status increase every 5 minute, maximum of 20% (continue to Third Phase)

Third Phase: 5% status increase every 15 minutes, maximum of 50% (continue to Final Phase)

Final Phase: 10% status increase every 1 hour

Note: Switching target resets buff.

Battle Experience (Passive)

Core Battlemage ability. With each enemy you slay, you gain better understanding of your enemy’s strength and weakness. Greater chance to inflict critical and improves your critical damage.

Magic Analysis (Passive)

Core Battlemage ability. Allows you to learn magics from observation. The higher the Tier of the magic, the longer you will gain understanding to learn it.

Inspiration (Passive)

Special Battlemage ability. Since eons ago, the creation of magical skill has been the contention of all Practitioner. One have to be inspired to create a magic to call their own.

‘Okay, I think I can work with this,’ was what Winter concluded after he took in everything. In truth he was losing out on the deal, but he just changed profession. Who knows, maybe the profession have surprises down the line. Those were what Winter told himself to cheer himself up.

‘Positive! Think positive! Look at the bright spot!’

<> was probably the most useful to Winter in short run, allowing him to have improved stats the longer the battle last. The gain however was not huge. A quick calculation netted him 80% gain in temporary stat boost within 210 minutes period in battle, with a single opponent. To his recall he has never been in a battle that long.

‘No, wait!’

It dawned on him quickly what the class specialise in. Duels!

Battlemage class is designed to combat a single strong opponent at a time. The longest battles he had fought had always been with boss monsters. Winter always grumbled how difficult it was when he fought boss monsters. This particular skill would be very handy to even up the playing field. A class designed specifically to take down a boss character!

Winter’s disappointment turned into excitement. He reread the other skills. <> seemed a little vague. He would work it out when he killed some monsters later. It was related to normal mob kills. He was at least sure of that. As for <>, he could not assess how it worked right now. The most puzzling one would be <>.

‘How the heck does this skill even work? I heard of new set of skills discovered, even a few professions, but creating a skill from scratch?’ Winter mulled the description for a few more minutes but eventually gave up. There did not appear to be any other visible changes in hindsight, but his eye caught on one very important detail before he closed the window. He actually had to reopen it as he closed it already.

‘It is not there! Are you serious?’

The missing little detail, if it was not an error would be huge! It would be worth even the quartered mana pool!

He checked every single active skill he could use and it panned out. There was no cooldown at all!

‘It cannot be right?’ Every active skill in Royal Road has a cooldown. That was something as immutable as the law that gravity works on earth itself. Yet the evidence was in front of him.

‘Only one way to find out.’

Winter cast <> and then another one in succession. The second wall of earth might or might not have appeared short of the cooldown period. He was paying attention to the cooldown bar and there was none but he still cast a spell as if the cooldown period still existed. It was an ingrained habit of all players to stagger the spells to overcome cooldown period. He gave a couple more tries until he has a conclusive result that there was indeed no spell cooldown. Winter managed to raise a neat five sectioned wall of the defense spell one after another. It almost looked like a rippling wave, he thought.

Then another point hit him.

‘There is…. no maximum limit?’

From his experiment there appeared to be over twenty coffins, something that was not possible before the profession change. Winter was struck in awe at what a huge difference it was.

“Wow.” Was the only fitting word to describe what he felt when it dawned on him how incredible the possibility of the class was. No cooldown and no real limit? He was determined to test it out.

His AOE Spell <> might be locked out from use, but it was no real loss if he could cast a barrage of single target spell without any need of stopping. As an experiment, he casted <> with continuous macro. Rows after rows pointy sharp rocks rose from the ground like a reverse domino game..

Stopping when he had a square of ten by ten, Winter admired his work. It reminded him of a cornfield of sorts looking at the sharp ended spikes. He could not help but smile at the thought.

Testing what he could do, Winter shot a couple dozen <> while spinning like a top. It was amazing feeling, like he became a firework, the macro function removing any need to repeat the spell.

It was a giddy feeling. He felt like a real Mage instead of a game pretend kind. It was a funny feeling a he knew he was still inside a game. Slightly dizzy from all his spinning and yet feeling drunk in excitement, Winter wanted to test <> next.

*Bang*

“Ouch!”

Winter waved his right palm a few times, blowing on it to take off the sting. He miscasted!

Frowning, he tried again. It worked without any problem, the condensed fire the size of a tennis ball arced to where he pointed his palm. Slightly puzzled, Winter fired a couple more in succession, then a few dozens more until his mana finally drained. He fired them so fast in succession that to an observer he would be mistaken as one of those tennis ball hurling machine. Sitting down under the shade of a tree, waiting for his mana to recover, Winter mulled on what he could do with his new profession. The grave he helped dug for Randall’s son was but a few meters from where Winter sat.

The swaying leaves and grass from the gentle blowing wind made Winter a little contemplative. Soon his mulling turned into relaxing state of mind. He began enjoying the world of Royal Road. People said in excitement everything felt vibrant and alive. It felt that way to Winter right there and then.

‘It feels so real.’ He thought. Hard to believe he was in a virtual world, just dreaming. His eye tracked a drifting leaves carried by gentle wind. It made him wonder if there was somewhere in the real world this peaceful.

He was rudely awakened from his peaceful reprieve by the sound of a breaking glass. When his eyes snapped open, crouching with sword and spell ready, facing to where the anomaly came from, there was the gate he crossed when he won the stage duel shimmering in the air.

“Heh. I guess it is time I am going back.”

Dry washing his hands, Winter stepped through.

xXx

When Winter returned, there was no fanfare, nobody to pick him up or meet him. The exit point of the shimmering gate was outside still within the Magic Academy though a different section. Winter could hear some crowd roaring off to his right faintly. Following the noise he spotted the battle stage he fought on and used it as a guide to leave the compound, not seeing any need to greet anyone or rubberneck on the fight.

What he did instead was inform Reki that he was back in town though she would know if she ever opened her friend listing. Tapping the SEND button, the reply came back after a couple minute, time Winter spent walking absently, just enjoying the feel of civilisation.

Winter always thought Reki to be chattier when she talk by text than face to face. The reply was considerably longer than his, describing what she had done while he has been absent for over a month. She even filled him on gossip between Rinne and Samuel. She finished off by telling Winter that she would be back in town within a couple weeks and if he was still around to travel together again.

Winter did not know that Reki was only chatty to him. She was at most lukewarm in her attitude to others in general. She opened up to very few people.

Being old fashioned, Winter was compelled to write back to her properly. Seated inside a random cafe he passed by, Winter ordered their specialty drink (some blend of fruits that only exist in Royal Road but tasted like jungle juice) and set to writing back his experience. He got to the part where he defeated the Arachna before he remembered he still has an unidentified loot from the monster. Finishing up by telling Reki that he spent the rest of the time travelling to where Randall’s son was buried (bonafide lying as he did not wish to tell he was stuck outside the game for more than a month!), Winter sent his reply and walked to the same fat merchant that taught him Mage Sight (Active).

“Ah, Master Winter! I see you are back in this humble city.” The fat merchant bowed in exaggerated manner. Winter was a little embarrassed he never got the chance to ask his name last time. He closed up shop so quickly when Winter asked about Asric.

“What can Ahmed do for you?”

‘Okay, now I know his name.’

Winter was about to speak when Ahmed raised his hand to stop him from speaking.

“Kindly do not ask me about Asric, for I am not allowed to speak of him. I suggest a visitation to the Magic Academy. I heard their library is excellent.”

TTTRRRINNNGGG!!!

Quest Updated

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Cursed Bracer of Asric

Fat Merchant Ahmed knows something about the Bracer of Asric. He is however forbidden to speak of it and gave you a clue. Visit the Magic Academy’s library for further clues.

Difficulty level: C

Reward: Unknown

Winter has nearly forgotten about the quest on Asric’s Bracer. He never expected to be able to finish the quest and have to hold onto it. Taking a few seconds before replying, Winter finally spoke.

“Actually I was going to ask help for an appraisal.”

“Oh.” Ahmed looked a little disappointed.

If it was real life, Winter would think that the NPC practiced the sentence quite a lot for Winter’s next visit. Inside, Winter puzzled on why the quest progressed now, through a not very important character. It was a little too random.

Winter’s assessment was not even close to accurate. Royal Road quests, aside being divided into difficulty could be divided into geography; Local, Region, Continent. Higher difficulty quests increased the chances of the quest to have multiple points for possible progression and for the NPC required to progress to be located all over the continents. For Winter’s particular quest, he was stuck with Continent wide travel but luckily also very wide array of NPC that lead to several key clues such as the Library.

“My apology. That was slightly embarrassing.” Ahmed did look a touch embarrassed.

“Ahem. I believe you need my services, Master Winter?”

“Oh, yes. I recently came into possession of this.”

Winter materialised the item. Ahmed recoiled in horror. On his table was the still beating heart of Arachna. Overcoming his horror, Ahmed scooted closer, his belly melding around the edge of his thick table. A look of fascination crossed his face.

“Master Winter, how did you come to possess this item most foul?”

“I killed it of course.”

“Of course.” Ahmed nodded. Winter wondered what answer he was expecting.

The black heart was whole. Even blacker veins still pulsed, the muscles contracting occasionally to ooze black heart ragged cuts on its aortic veins. It was yucky. No way Winter would be caught dead with the item in real life.

“I never thought I will ever see a Dark Monster’s Heart.”

Winter has no idea what a Monster Heart was. Experienced Royal Road players would be in frenzy should they discover that he possessed one. Harder than winning lottery, occasionally slain monster dropped an intact part of their essence in various forms, be it a part of their body, some item of value or occasionally their literal heart. Possession of the item, when identified, guarantee the player a summonable pet, a rare occurrence. Even rarer are pets with combat capacity. Since the pet grew with their owner, they were nearly priceless.

“She was pretty darn hard to kill. That I have to say.”

Ahmed did not hear Winter’s reply. He was staring at the still beating heart until Winter coughed loudly, snapping the fat merchant’s head.

“I need you to appraise it.” It took a few seconds before Ahmed’s mind came back it seemed. He widened his eyes in realisation that he was still in business.

“Of course! Of course. It will cost 100G however.”

“What!” Winter jumped from his seat. It was an absurd price! He knew that an intermediate level appraisal by a player could range around 15G-25G. But 100G?

“I have to heal the heart too, Master Winter. The required ingredient is not cheap and I still need your assistance as I do not have the strength to do it.”

Winter thought about going to some other appraisal, but his lazy nature prevented him to do so. He has someone who could solve his problem in front of him, why should he find someone else, yes?

Most players with Intermediate appraisal could appraise the <> easily. Just that. They would not have thought to heal it or even know how. Unhealed heart that got identified would appear to be a regular magical ingredient, albeit an excellent one. Unknown to Winter, this option was possible only because he dropped by with <> in tow. The same with the quest on Ascric’s bracer.

Grimacing in distaste, Winter reluctantly surrender 100G to Ahmed that bowed politely. He plopped on the hard chair while Ahmed was rooting under his table, finally raiding a small silk pouch that looked pretty heavy despite its size.

“Please hold the heart in your both hands, Master Winter. Like so.” Ahmed instructed.

Winter put the heart in between his two palms, like he was squeezing something. He had to apply a firm pressure to not let it slip.

“Good. Please do not move.”

Carefully opening the pouch, Ahmed took a pinch of something. From his position, Winter could not see what. Ahmed spread a glittering powder grains on the object in Winter’s hands. The grains were large and shone whenever a light hit it.

“Diamond Dust.” Ahmed answered the unasked question.

The fat fingers took out another pinch when nothing happened and frowned when the second pinch did not do it. The third pinch of Diamond Dust did the trick. Winter felt a slight pulling from inside of him and his vision flashed blue. A steady wave of mana from his arms flowed to the heart, with each passing second the beat felt stronger and stronger. Winter could see the mana bar draining slowly from the edge of his vision. It went to empty then begin draining the health bar too. He had a momentary moment of panic as the drain on the health appeared to be faster but relaxed when it stopped halfway. It would be silly to get locked out because of completing a non-combat quest!

The Black Heart beat a steady strong rhythm now instead of the previous weak ones.The ragged cuts connected to another cut on both top and bottom side, as if making a self-contained system.

“Identify.” Ahmed said, tapping on the beating flesh. There was a ping and a window popped out.

TTTRRRRIINNNGGG!!!!

Black Widow’s Heart

Durability 100/100

A summoning item made from magically treated heart of an Arachna. It beats strongly now after being infused with magic. The heart contain the life essence of the Arachna, Zorya. With this item you can summon Zorya. Earning her loyalty however requires you to be strong.

Zorya

A member of once proud Monster Civilisation, Arachna, Zorya was probably the last of her kind. An excellent shadow magician and ruthless hunter in the dark, she embodied the ideal of the Queen of her race. She has a difficult personality and very vengeful. Weakened from her defeat and her essence sealed inside her own heart, Zorya will be summoned at level 150. Loyalty will be reset at zero.

Requirement: Level 150

Restriction: Attack the owner until beaten into submission

Effect:

Summon Arachna. Enchantment: ’Call Arachna’

+40 Intellect

+40 Wisdom

Bonus 10% Dark Resistance aura when equipped.

Bonus 5% damage when casting Darkness element magics

‘A pet! Super rare item!’

Winter was delighted at his find. Pets were not something everyone could have in Royal Road. Maybe every 1 player out of tens of thousands have one. Pet system was not new. All old style MMORPG had one or some variation of it. They were typically useful creatures that assist players and thus very desirable. Winter never encountered a player with one yet so far. Even Daniel’s whole allied guild has none. That spoke how rare a pet was in Royal Road. The bonus stats were not bad either!

‘Well, that is a surprise. I sure won’t mind a tough to kill pet like her.’

Thanking Ahmed and promising to look him up if he ever needed his services again, Winter exited the tent.

A lot of players’ eyes would pop out if they knew what Winter just obtained. Pets were unique in Royal Road. Ownership of one just propered Winter’s status from nobody to respectable in an eye blink. Wars between parties and guild happened more than once from dissatisfaction of one player in a group obtaining the pet. Everyone thought they deserved it than the other!

“Summon Zorya.”

The equipped heart appeared as small black leather pouch strapped to his waist. Winter was in a secluded clearing outside Arcanum. Since the area was meant for players under level 20, the monsters were very weak compared to Winter. They ran away when Winter came to sight both from his comparatively high level and Fighting Spirit stat that intimidated them.

Ronald and Daniel talked quite often in Royal Road through personal chats and mail though they have not done so for quite a while now due to their own quests and activities. That was how they used to pass their time when they were not too occupied with killing monsters or chatting with party mates (for Daniel mainly). Daniel, being more experienced always gave Ronald advices and tips on how to play at the beginning. Their most active period was after their first meeting in Cosare up till the castle raid. Among the numerous advices and topics they talked about was pets, if they ever has one.

While Daniel so far never lucked out with one yet, he was knowledgeable about it since he eventually planned to obtain one. Winter that was happy to receive free and accurate information easily always let Daniel lecture and advise him.

A puff of ever expanding smoke came out from the empty space a few meters in front of Winter. When the smoke cleared, the very Arachna Winter killed, Zorya stood in front of him on her eight legs. She was taller and more forbidding than he recalled. The effect was lessened while he was trying to survive the combat, but in broad daylight Winter could see that the chitinous legs of the spider was sharp enough to be a weapon with barbs sticking out at the first joints. Her black pool of eyes took in Winter when she appeared. She screeched when she spotted him.

Winter was nearly caught off guard even though Daniel did tell him.

Zorya’s left front leg shot out to impale Winter while incandescent energies formed in her hands, the beginning of a shadow magic.

Activating <>, Winter narrowly dodged the leg cleanly and very narrowly the spear of dark energy. He raised a solid block of earth in front of him, hiding behind it.

“Mage! I am going to kill you!”

As if she learned from her previous defeat, she crouched her legs and jumped to a great height. From that height’s Winter’s single cover was inadequate when Zorya rained numerous knife like spells decently knowledgeable players would recognise as <>, the equivalent of basic <> for Darkness type spells.

Winter had to make himself as small target as possible, hugging the lower portion of his defensive wall, waiting for the cooldown to finish. He could not avoid his body getting pierced when Zorya finally reached near the apex of her jump, gaining a good angle for her shots.

When the first thorn pierced his foot, Winter yelped more in surprise than pain.

“OOWWW!! WHAT THE FUCK!”

He danced around from the pain. Damage from spells and physical attacks were felt by players at very much reduced rate. Thus it was not unreasonable for Winter to react as such. He was expecting a warm drink, not scalding hot one! Compared to previous stings and mild bumps, this felt like getting stuck by a needle, a good sized one too.

Winter felt a flash of fear when he saw a <> flying through the air to impale him. While he was still processing the extra stimulus, Zorya had landed gracefully and without any mercy or delay struck with her spells. She was already casting another spell.

There was something primal about pain that reduced rationale to dust. Winter could have summoned another wall to defend himself. Dismiss Zorya the Arachna. Or maybe dodged and countered. Even run the other way round. Instead he reacted like another human in real life situation encountering an object hurtling at him at fast speed. He dove gracelessly to safety.

Winter was confused that the bad landing hurt quite a lot, causing a numbing prickling pain on the body parts impacting the earth. Another spear was already in flight. Zorya’s spell cooldown was a lot less than players as she was an NPC, enabling her to attack quickly. Some basic spell like <> even has no cooldown, only hampered by recast speed.

There came a point when a hunter faces the beast and he has to make a choice between fight or flight. Ronald Hanover might be one privileged child while growing up. But the mistakes he made in life had forced him to make such choices a few times more than he was comfortable with. Flight was only for the cowardly. And Ronald Hanover was not a coward.

In anger and desperation he wished very hard for another <>. The cooldown for the spell however was very long, a mechanism to counter its very advantageous properties. But what do you know? His vision was suddenly tinged in blue. Zorya’s body was shown in black and white monochrome. Winter dodged the incoming missile with a spring of his hands, the thudding dark energy that was less than half meter from him grazed his right cheek. The damage was negligible -38, but the pain felt like a slap to a poke he was used to.

Winter was confused, but had no time to ponder, his body dodging more missiles in the blue tinged universe. He slid to his right, avoiding a quick bolt of dark flaming fire spell he never saw the Arachna cast, exiting the sped up state.

“Swordmage!” Zorya hissed, her hands extended to cast more spells.

Their distance to each other gave Winter a few seconds to think. It was enough for him to remember a few important facts. Like he could run! A quick association of his options finally let him arrive at the most important conclusion. He used <> twice in succession! There was barely two seconds in between the two spells.

In his panic, Winter forgot he was not constrained by cooldown period anymore. The quantity of his mana was his major problem now. He felt like burying his head in a hole. He tested all attack spells; Mana Bolt, Fireball, Earthspike, Firestrike, Gust and even tried Earth Coffin at a point. He spent his time making patterns and and imagining the uses of his attack spells, laying waste to his enemy with a quick wave of his palm. He forgot to test Reflex! It was the spell he relied the most in the past too!

Flicking his eyes to the mana bar, Winter saw that the three spell he cast already reduced his mana to under 90%. The reduction in his pool was felt keenly. He should pick when to use his spells carefully, something he could not believe he forgot in his excitement. He was a Battlemage, emphasis in Battle. But even before he was one, he was proficient in physical combat.

The three seconds Winter spent calming himself down and processing his situation, Zorya used it to cast her ultimate spell. It was something that she failed to cast in her last encounter with Winter. <> was a spell Elben would be quite envious off. Its damage was not overly strong, but like its namesake, it was a barrage of spells. The strength of each individual projectile was but a third of shadow Spear and formed like a Shadow Thorn, only thinner and shorter, like a long bullet! The most important part, it was a channeling spell!

Winter was lucky he stopped the spell by rushing forward and stabbing Zorya right in her heart (deadly blow! 500% damage), causing a miscast, killing her instantly during their first encounter.

“Holy crap on a stick!” Winter swore randomly. The spinning circular rune was made of six smaller circles and a large symbol as a centerpoint. Each of the small circle spat the small shadow knives while rotating. A freaking gatling gun spell!

Winter that got his shit together used Reflex to zoom out of its path quickly. Zorya that refused to be outdone rotated the spell center, hosing Winter with magic projectiles. Now that Winter remembered, his mind formed a quick and dirty solution to his problem. In his sped up state he has time to think. He only needed to be faster than the spell aimed at him. And he was indeed faster. Winter’s investment in agility has always been for the time he would eventually convert to pure spellcasting type. Agility stat, other than reducing casting length for a mage, also improved their defensive dodging capability, something plenty neglected in exchange for enormous damage they could inflict. Why should they care? They always stood at the back dumping spells right?

Winter’s agility was nowhere close to an agility based ones. But it was twice normal spellcaster’s points. At his level he was about a third less in points for agility compared to a thief and equal to warriors. Those two class however has passive skills and sometimes active ones that created a noticeable difference between caster types up to three in average. That was limited to attack speed. Thieves excelled in this regard as their attack speed was even faster than warriors by a considerable margin. Agility affects bodily movement, allowing a player to dodge attacks nimbly and attacking swiftly. It has almost unnoticeable effect to movement speed. Thieves and archer class were dead heat in this particular issue.

Reflex negated this weakness in caster type. Running as swift as the fastest thief, he was still short in his speed to avoid the rotating magic gatling gun and he knew it. He was forced to leap backward with the assistance of another of his favorite defense spell, running to the opposite direction.

He winced when he saw the fate of the rock wall he erected. The wall was chipped away with every hit and with the rate of fire, it was completely obliterated before Winter landed on the far side.

‘If I got hit by that, I am dead! Dead!’ He still could not figure out what caused his increased sensitivity to pain, but he shivered inside when he imagined his body savaged by that! Unbearable agony! He could just imagine that.

Using his newly acquired advantage, Winter put up a spell right in front of the Arachna to block her sight, improving his chance to find another solution. He could not get a direct lock on the half spider. Winter originally thought he could use a coffin or his trusty earth spike to disturb her footing. It was to no avail. Winter had never seen the spell before or understood its effect. One of the effect of the channeling was it ignore spell directed underneath her. It make no sense to allow someone to have a gatling gun only to have it bumped all over the place with a spell or two!

Winter was disappointed that immediate recasting of Reflex only reset the time count, not stacking the bonus, but it was more than good when he could continuously outrun the spell barrage by confusing the spider with well placed wall to obstruct her sight for a second or two.

It was a little infuriating that the Arachna appeared to be stronger than the first time Winter killed her though he was also glad that she was not this strong! He would be dead within the first minute if she was this strong.

His weak magic spells annoyed her quite a lot. He lobed fireballs after fireballs (that did almost nothing but make her angrier!) in between recasts of reflex. The misty dark barrier around her blocked most of the damage. 8 damage every hit? He would run out of mana before he could kill her this way!

‘Time to go for close quarter, I guess.’ Winter said to himself. He was not looking forward to getting closer to the gatling spell. The closer he was, the less area he has to run! But it was rather urgent he finished it quickly. His continuous casting was fun, but his mana was running dry as fast as he was casting. It was now less than half the bar.

Winter had been casting Stone Coffins to disturb her targeting to excellent effect. He used three of them now to block her forward vision. While the wall would crumble in a second, it was more than enough for Winter.

‘There!’

With a shout, Winter catapulted to the air with the help of a solid block of stone he summoned. His judgement was perfect. Performing under Reflex, he has time to think his move through. Overshooting her position and finally taking her back, Winter dropped down painfully. It felt like his leg was getting kicked on his shin!

That nearly cost him his head as Zorya, who spotted Winter flying over her, spun on her axis and got pretty darn close to his comfort despite her body being not very ideal for fast turning due to the bulk. Now that he was that close, in the blue tinged world he got to her side and landed two quick slash that set Zorya screeching in pain, automatically cancelling the spell. She retaliated with quick spells that Winter dodged easily since he could continuously perform in accelerated condition at the cost of draining his mana. He did not bother with defense or disturbance tactic as he could dodge every move she performed.

When Zorya wanted to leap, Winter bashed her on her head, staggering her. He was swift enough in his condition to run up on her back and perform an upward slash right on her spine.

‘Gotcha!’

That was a critical hit that netted over 500 damage!

Not letting the chance go now that he got her back, Winter performed slashes after slashes on her vulnerably human body, most of them scoring criticals. The footing was unstable due to her bucking that he has to compensate with a little effort. It slowed his attacks, but Winter could feel he was nearing the end quickly. Zorya was firing small spells from her hands backward randomly that Winter failed to dodge very few times. It was quite painful but in his combat rapture, Winter ignored it.

“Ha!”

With a shout Winter stabbed Zorya right between her eyebrows, finally getting the perfect killshot. It was a fatal blow that caused ten times normal damage. The climax of the battle, a human and beast face to face, standing still in their pose at the end of a dance. Body graying, Zorya was unsummoned.

“Phew! What a rush!”

Delighted at the battle that just happened, Winter just plopped on the ground where he slain Zorya again, his sword still in his grip.

With 18% mana left to spare, he was victorious. Luxuriating in the aftermath of the battle, Winter’s thoughts began to wander on an issue he noticed.

“Is it just me being a chicken after not logging in for so long?”

He was contemplating on the more acute pain he felt from damages. Pain tolerance differ from person to person. And Royal Road limited the sense of pain damages experienced to 1% of total (Stated in the booklet). Absence of pain reduced the realism, but too much pain was bad for health!

Getting stabbed, bludgeoned and shot by projectiles without pain reduction would turn even the strongest man into a gibbering neanderthal. A direct stab from a sword in Royal Road gave the player bit a mild feeling of getting pinched. Winter that felt more pain from a bad fall compared to a stab to normal players felt cautious now. Thinking of possibilities, he decided to give the corporation a call. The machine being damaged could account for it.

There was a progress bar for summoning Zorya again. It counted down from 4 hours.

Determined to find the cause, Winter logged out to call Unicorn Corporation Helpline.

Winter did not give <> that ticked off within five seconds he was out of combat. It was but a negligible 6% stat increase when he was done with Zorya. Little did he know he would rely very much in this buff later.

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Author's Note:

I unexpectedly able to finish this chapter in a go. This is a direct finish, no draft at all. I am not sure how it will be received, but I like it quite a lot. Let me know what you think, people! Comment on it!

It is finally time for Winter to be awesome!

I am not working with any editor, so let me know if you spot mistakes. I will correct them.