I wasn’t fond of Tuesdays. I just wanted to play some games. It was usually the day both my parents were home, so they expect me to spend some time with them. I spent that afternoon talking about school and the game I’ve been playing. They were interested in how school was going for but they were completely impartial about me playing Strife of Celestials.

I didn't mind spending time with them. I felt like I owed them for keeping a roof under my head and giving me an allowance, which I spend on video games. They’re a bit disappointed in my hobby, but they don’t mind as long as I do well in school.

I had already done some errands yesterday after school. As soon as I came home, I went straight to Strife of Celestials. I redeemed my quest at the barracks and got my reward. To no surprise, it was just experience points and money.

I spent my money at the general store at Astor Village. There wasn’t much to buy so I spent all my money on healing potions. I was going to need them for now. But in the future, I’ll end up taking so much damage that it’ll take my whole health bar. Eventually, they’ll be redundant.

Buster helped me practice yesterday. I worked on my reaction timing as I predicted NPC attacks. Buster offered to duel me for practice but I thought I wasn’t ready yet.

As soon as I was done with dinner, I ran upstairs and looked at my VR system. I walked by it and walked to my computer. It was an old dusty thing since I rarely use it. The only times I ever got on this ancient machine was when I had to type up essays for school. Even then, I could use my VR system to type it up but my parents insist I do it old school. There was a reason I wanted to use my computer instead.

On the computer, I looked up references about sword fighting. I then copied the pose the person had in a video. There was an old poster I never got the chance to hang up. I rolled it up to a long cylinder and held it like a sword. The man in the video had a two-handed longsword which was the weapon I currently used. He was slightly crouched. His arms were raised over his head as his sword pointed towards his opponent. I copied to the best of my ability.

After further research, I found out that there were multiple stances with the use of a longsword. There were a number of different guard stances. I couldn’t figure out which one to stick to as they each had their advantages. I tried out each one until I felt comfortable.

I picked my personal favorite, which was the plow guard. With my feet apart at a length as wide as my shoulders with my right foot behind my left. I held the poster by the waist while pointing it upwards in front of me. I can thrust it forward if I like or raise it above my head for a heavy strike. The sword can sway left or right to defend or attack. It felt the most natural to me.

I found another video about doing a basic strike with a longsword. It had minimal movement to have an effective strike. The woman in the video held the sword with the blade hanging on her shoulder and the handle in front of her torso. Her right foot stepped forward and swung her sword forward diagonally without increasing the distance between the sword’s handle and her torso. I could easily move the sword from the plow guard and shift the blade to rest on my shoulder. I then swung it forward with minimal movement.

I figured that there was no need to do a wide swing anymore. It felt like a waste of my energy. I practiced this basic attack over and over as I minimize my swing time.

Most of the videos I’ve watched involved two people with swords fighting. They had minimal swinging to have an effective attack. But this wouldn’t make a difference against enemy NPCs. I wonder if learning this was worth it. Maybe I’ll end up doing PVP?

After practicing in real life, I decided it was time to do it in the game. I put on the VR system and turned on the game. I was greeted by the welcome menu and loaded my character. I took a peek at my character menu. I was reminded of a certain change from yesterday.

[Exp: 3950/100]

I was disappointed after yesterday’s patch notes claimed to fix the experience bar. Thinking they fixed my leveling problem, their wording was more political. It’s only been three days since the release of the game but I waited patiently for my report ticket to be answered. Someone has to respond right?

I waved my hand to close the menu in front of me and proceed to take out my longsword.

[Longsword Equipped]

There were a few things I wanted to try out. My swift swing and unarmed combat. I walked through the forests outside Astoria Castle and wandered to find slimes.

[Lv 5 Slime]

[HP: 50/50]

I walked up to the slime with a plow guard. I watched its movements as it bounced left and right. It then stood still before jumping at me with a headbutt. I dodge to the side and then took my guard. The blade rested on my shoulder and then I prepared to shift it forward. I took a step forward and swung my sword.

A number floated above its head. I had dealt four damage. With my rapid attack, I had enough time to deal another one. I resumed my guard and then went for another attack.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

[Lv 5 Slime]

[HP: 42/50]

I brought down the slime’s hit points with two continuous attacks. The slime then prepared for another headbutt. I anticipated the attack judging from the animation wind up and then dodged as planned.

This monotonous task went on. Guard, swing, swing then dodge. The slime’s AI was very simple. The timings were the same and it was easy to read when it was ready to attack. My focus was mainly on working on my plow guard stance and my quick attacks.

[You gained 25 experience points]

I defeated the slime in a tedious battle. If only I could increase my attack power then this wouldn’t take so long. I relaxed my mind as I was concentrating on what was just a five-minute fight. It would’ve taken any other level five player a single minute to deal with this simple slime.

The best I could do right now was grind. I can work on reacting to different NPCs while I wait for Buster to come online. I looked around and fought slimes for thirty minutes. That was a total of six level five slimes and a total of a hundred and fifty experience points. Not that it mattered to me.

I then moved on to Astor Manor where skeletons roamed about. Their AI was more complicated than the simple slime. So this was better practice at reading attacks and reacting accordingly.

[Lv 5 Skeleton]

[HP: 50/50]

There were plenty of skeletons and players outside the manor. I grinded for another thirty minutes outside. The skeletons had a simple pattern but it varied. They typically clawed at me with their bare-boned hands then paused. They use their whole body into that attack so it was easy to see when it happens. But other times they jumped at me. That attack was harder to read as they crouch very slightly. It was a much quicker move that didn’t seem to deal much damage. But it was a big deal with the difference of our levels. I then glanced at my health bar. For a weak strike, it had hit me for a third of my hit points.

I opened my inventory and took out a healing potion that I bought yesterday. It was a round bottle with a cork on top. I popped it off and drank the red glowing liquid inside. It was a bland taste with a hint of sugar. I guess it was to make it appealing to take in. My health bar went back to full and I continued my practice.

I wandered inside the manor and ignored the regular skeletons. I skipped my way into the basement and walked to the long hallway. There, I fought the first skeleton knight encounter. I held my sword tightly and waited for an attack. The knight telegraphed its attack and I blocked it with my own sword. I then thrust it forward as the swords grinded together and connected the tip of my blade into the skeleton knight’s skull. The knight flinched backward to a certain distance.

[Critical Hit!]

The window popped up on my screen. The knight stopped any actions after a certain amount of time. It appeared to be stunned for a set duration after getting hit by a critical attack. Was it my counterattack that made it stunned? Or maybe it was because I attacked a vital area of the monster. It could be a combination of both too. I worked on my quick swing and counterattacks on the knight in front of me. My sword clashed with the knight’s with minimal effort until I brought its hit points down to zero.

I finally wandered into the laboratory. I looked around a bit and waited for the other skeleton knights to spawn. I repeated the same strategy I had last time I was here. The tables were arranged in the center of the room and I looped around as I pulled the Skeleton Knights in a circle. I took turns with each knight as I fought one by one. The repetition took a toll on me mentally as a headache formed by the time I defeated the last knight.

This took about an hour wandering around Astor Manor as the fights were tedious. I gained a total of four hundred and twenty-five experience points fighting five regular skeletons and six skeleton knights. It would easily take twenty minutes for any other player to do this routine.

I took a break and sat down on the chair. My hand rested on my forehead as I tried to recover. I noticed that the furniture reset their positions since I was last here. I looked around and noticed something was off. Why did the place reset? Was it the server’s reset that fixed everything back? Or was this place supposed to be a fixed instance for each player? I then looked around more carefully.

This place was a dead end with the long hallway as the only exit. I looked around the bookshelves to see if there was any sign of any new information. The books were in an unknown language. There was no obvious secret that I could find so far. But there was a draft in the air. Maybe it was behind the bookshelf. I tried pulling each bookshelf. None worked so far until I reached the one on the farthest corner from the door. It was then I was given a message.

[You discovered the mini-dungeon: Astor Dungeon]

[Minimum players recommended: 2]

It was much colder in the new doorway that I discovered. A long stairway followed downwards. The walls were worse than the basement I was in. This time there was no light source. I took a torch hanging in the laboratory in one hand and equipped the long sword in the other. I walked down slowly to make sure I didn’t step on anything or recklessly encounter an enemy.

The stairs were about ten stories below the basement level of the manor. I kept wondering how long it would take to reach the bottom. Each step I took echoed through the stairway. There was the sound of dripping water and crawling insects.

I could barely see far by the time I reached the bottom. It was a large room so my torch didn’t see too far. I followed along the wall and noticed there were chains attached alongside it. Every foot along the chain were handcuffs hanging on. I kept going until I looped around. There was no other door on this floor. What was the point in this room?

I tread lightly towards the center of the room. There was this gut twisting feeling in my stomach. And my hunch was right.

There was this invisible force holding the skeleton together. It wore the Astoria Knight’s armor and held a great sword. There was then a spark. The skeleton knight lit up and burnt up. Then the fire dimmed down. The whole room was visible to me now. I dropped the torch in awe.

[Lv 13 Skeleton Knight Captain]

[HP: 400/400]

It had four hundred hit points. With my long sword, it would take a total of a hundred hits to defeat it. But if I made any mistakes, it would be the end of me. I hastily attempted to open my inventory window.

[Boss battle in progress]

Oh great. I couldn’t take out my health potions right now. I should’ve had them in hand if I knew this was going to happen.