Chapter 5

After I rejected the quest, I went back to town. I needed better weapons, some armor would be nice, special skills, and maybe even some magic. First, I found the general store that Arya had mentioned. It was in the busy downtown that I had run into when escaping the lava centipede.

The store was made with trimmed logs and wooden sign saying ‘Millards General Adventurer Store’ written in charcoal was out front. I walked into the front store, the edge of the door hitting a string tied to a bell above the door. ‘Ding ding.’ A burly man with an x-shaped scar on his right cheek was behind a wooden desk.

The shelves were stocked with the things you would expect for a general store, just with a tinge of danger. There were bags of flour, charcoal, and monster repellant. Containers of nails were located next to the rack of knives and swords.

The man smiled at me when I walked in. “Hello. Would you like me to help you find anything honored customer?”

I decided to take him up on his offer. “Well yes. I am currently looking for some armor, a longsword, and a buckler if you have it.” I definitely needed a new buckler. The last one had saved my life, even if it hadn’t lasted long.

The man nodded. “We have some armor for you. What level are you at and what kind of adventurer are you? Are you melee, ranged, or magician so I can find something that suits you.” The NPC was asking for more information to tailor his products to me. Excellent programming there.

I decided to give him the info he’d asked for. “I’m currently level 3 and I’m looking at being a melee fighter for the moment. Magic might come later.”

He nodded and then went to some of the different shelves collecting things. When he came to the desk again, he had some equipment in his hands. It was not what I had expected to get though. “A beginner warrior, sword and shield combo from your requests. I have a rusty longsword, some rotted leather chest armor, and a wooden buckler you can use.”

I sighed. “Do you have anything better?”

The man shook his head. “For beginners, this is the highest equipment you can buy. Once you reach level 10, you can buy a copper longsword, copper buckler, and some real armor. Level 10 is essentially the true start to an adventurer’s career.”

I nodded. “Thank you. So, how much for everything?”

The man paused and counted on his hands. “Three copper for the sword, five copper for the leather armor, and two for the buckler. Lucky for you, you chose a small shield. It would have been five copper for a tower shield. Though the low durability means you’ll have to go to the blacksmith to have it repaired.”

I gave him ten copper, leaving me with five. I thought about it and I realized that I really didn’t have any healing abilities. “I still have five copper. Do you have anything that can heal?”

The man nodded. “I have some health, stamina, and mana potions. The ones for your level cost 5 copper so they’re not cheap. I also have some biscuits that heal ten health for one copper a piece, though you can’t use them in combat like the potions.”

I nodded and bought five biscuits. There had been a pause between the wolf attacks. If I had been able to eat the biscuits, then I would have been able to heal myself. Maybe not by a lot, but it would have helped. I equipped the longsword and buckler, but I couldn’t put the leather armor on for some reason.

The equipment stats were [Rotten Leather Armor (Chest) (Common): 10 armor, 20/20 durability], [Rusty Longsword (Common): 6 damage, 10/10 durability], and [Wooden Buckler (Common): 60/60 durability, 3 damage].

I didn’t know what the 10 armor did so I decided I needed to ask Sergeant Guff about it when I got back, plus I needed to find out why I couldn’t equip the armor. I was going to put my armor and old weapon in my inventory when I realized I only had one slot still open since I still had the loot from the wolves. It would be better if I could empty it out before hunting again. I waved at the man behind the desk to gain his attention. “Excuse me, would you be able to buy things from customers as well?”

The man leaned on the counter. “Well yes, I do buy the loot you bring in, depending on what it is.”

I opened my inventory. 2 raw meat, 3 wolf pelts, and 1 wolf tooth. “Withdraw all inventory items.” The items appeared in front of me on the counter.

The man raised an eyebrow. “Wolves? Those are something you should be hunting at level six or level seven, not level three.”

I shrugged. “They were starving wolves so it is probably different.”

The man nodded. “Starving wolves. 100 hp, 38 basic damage and 44 critical damage. They also apply a stackable bleeding status with every attack at 10 damage per second. They do incredible damage but because of their low health, they are considered low level. Are you sure these are the kind you faced?”

I thought back to the fight before eventually shaking my head. “No, they only did 19 basic damage and there wasn’t a bleed status either.”

The man frowned. “I don’t understand. What level were they?”

“Level 5.”

“They should be starving wolves then. I don’t understand though.” The man furrowed his brow in concentration before suddenly smiling. “Never mind, I understand. You’re an elemental aren’t you?”

I nodded. “I thought it was obvious since I’m a walking rock.”

The man snapped his fingers. “That explains it. Your earth body skill, it allows you to be immune to attacks that affect us fleshly creatures so the bleed status didn’t affect you. Your racial trait also reduces 50% of all damage correct? If so, then that was the starving wolves you were facing. Normally one should only be hunting them when they are level four or five. You though, you’re their natural counter.”

I remembered that my racial trait reduced magic and physical damage by 50%. That was the real reason I had been able to beat level five mobs at level 1 with training equipment. Thinking up to this point, I shuddered. It had been a close call even with my elemental form. If I had been in my hellion elf form… I would probably be respawning right now.

I shook my head. No use thinking those kinds of thoughts. “Thank you for the information sir. So, would you still be willing to buy these?”

The man picked up the wolf pelts and inspected them one at a time. He then turned to the wolf tooth and then the raw meat. When he placed the last thing down he nodded. “There are two shabby and one poor quality wolf pelt. The wolf tooth is a good quality one and all the raw meat is rancid quality.”

The man saw my look of confusion. “What, do you now know about the different grades for loot?” I shook my head. He sighed. “I should have known. Beginners. Anyway, for most items, there are seven grades of quality. Shabby, awful, poor, good, fine, excellent, and supreme. For food, there is a separate list. Rotting, stale, unripe/uncooked, ripe/cooked, seasoned, excellent, and supreme. Obviously one cannot find ingredients beyond ripe or uncooked because they still need to be prepared. As for there being an unripe and uncooked for one spot, one is for meat and other for natural products like fruit or vegetables.”

I sighed. “So I brought you some pretty bad stuff this time.”

The man nodded. “I won’t deny that, but what can you expect from some malnourished wolf? Their pelts would obviously suffer from their lack of food and their meat is awful because of their diets. I’m surprised that this tooth is that good. These are all ingredients of the normal tier anyway so they wouldn’t be worth much even if you brought me a supreme quality one. I would only pay a silver for a tooth of supreme quality.”

The man scratched his head. “As for this bunch right here, I’ll give you a deal. One copper for both of the shabby wolf pelts. One copper for the poor quality wolf pelt. Two copper for the raw meat, and four copper for the wolf tooth. Altogether that is 8 copper coins.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I need to clear my inventory anyways. I only have four slots which is a pain.”

The man nodded. “You can buy a raggedy old backpack if you want, they add on twenty slots to your inventory. It costs 6 copper and you can’t equip armor while you have it.”[Raggedy Old Backpack (Common): +20 Inventory: Can’t be equipped with chest armor].

I thought about it before agreeing. I didn’t seem capable of wearing chest armor anyway. “Can I try it on first? I couldn’t equip the armor and I don’t want to buy the backpack only to not use it.”

I put it on and then checked my inventory. There was now a 6x4 table with a slot that contained my wooden training sword. I nodded. “The backpack works, thank you, sir.” I paid the six copper, leaving me with two left. I decided to save my money so I could buy some other skills.

Afterwards, I decided to head back to the training ground and ask Sergeant Guff for direction to another quest. Once there, I saw Arya was walking out of the training camp. She saw me and waved. I waved back and walked over to her. When I was in earshot she started talking. “Hey there Agni. Did you just come back from a quest?”

“Hello, Arya. Yeah, I just came back from Farmer John’s place. There were some starving wolves there that I had to fight.”

Arya shuddered. “Sergeant Guff gave me that quest too. Apparently, it’s supposed to teach you how the re-spawn system works. I lasted about ten seconds when the first one showed up. So, how long did you last?”

I shook my head. “I killed three of them and I didn’t die once, though I only had like fifteen health.”

Arya gasped. “No way. There is no way some level 1 noob took out three starving wolves.”

I shrugged. “Well, there is an explanation. I’m an earth elemental remember? I get a 50% damage reduction for physical and magical attacks plus I’m immune to bleed. The shop owner was surprised when I brought in their loot so he explained to me how I won.”

Arya nodded slowly. “Yeah. I can see how that would help you face the wolves. So, do you want to come with me now that you have some proper equipment? Sergeant Guff told me I could find some wild boar to hunt and the local butcher will pay handsomely for the meat.”

I nodded. “Sure. While we walk, maybe you could tell me how the re-spawn system works since I didn’t get the hands-on tutorial.”

She shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

We headed down the same road I had to Farmer John. As we walked Arya informed me about the respawn. “Well, it’s pretty simple really. When I died, a white light appeared around me. When it vanished, I was standing in the middle of town. Ten of my arrows were missing so I went to Farmer John’s place. There was a tombstone there with my name on it and when I touched it, my stuff appeared. I don’t know what’ll happen if someone else touches it but I assume that whatever’s in the tombstone can be grabbed by anyone. Makes PKing look pretty nice later on. I don’t know if your level drops or anything since I was only at level one at the time.”

By the time she finished, we were nearing a grove of trees. There were several boars digging at the ground. I assume they were looking for food. Arya beckoned me over to her. “So I currently have 65 health and 15 stamina. I do 35 basic damage and 45 critical damage with my bow but I have only 48 arrows. How about you.”

I paused. “Well actually, I have 10 stat points I need to assign so wait for me to do that first.”

Arya shrugged. “Alright then, just don’t take too long otherwise I'm going to start hunting without you.”

I pulled up my character sheet.

Agni Delgado

Level 3 (30/140) Inventory Slots (4)

Strength: 15(13) Agility: 10

Dexterity: 5 Vitality: 13

Wisdom: 10 Intelligence: 23(13)

Stamina: 0(10) Luck: 10

Status Points: +10

Right now I needed to base myself around the idea of a melee fighter. I put 5 points in strength, 2 points in stamina, and 3 points in vitality. Now it looked something like this.

Agni Delgado

Level 3 (30/140) Inventory Slots (6)

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Strength: 21(18) Agility: 10

Dexterity: 5 Vitality: 16

Wisdom: 10 Intelligence: 25(13)

Stamina: 0(12) Luck: 10

Status Points: +0

Then I started to calculate my damage mentally. First, there was my 21 strength, the 6 damage my equipment did, and then the 10% increase from the longsword skill. That meant I would do 29 basic damage.My critical damage was my 29 basic damage, plus my 10 luck, and then the 5% bonus to critical attacks. That meant I would do 40 critical damage.

“Alright, I figured up my stats now. I have 80 health and 25 stamina. My basic damage is 29 and my critical damage is 40.

Arya did a double take. “Wow, your stamina and health are pretty high. What gives?”

I shrugged. “Well, elementals don’t have stamina but instead they take it from their intelligence stat instead. Because of that, I started with 20 stamina and intelligence. As for the health, I just sunk in 3 points and I gain 1 for every level.”

Arya nodded. “Makes sense. I envy you now. This game is meant for the jack-of-all-trades. With the two stats combined, you don’t have to worry about choosing a melee or magic type to specialize in. Just sink your points into intelligence and then you can use magic and warrior abilities equally.”

I blinked. “I never thought of that.”

She shrugged. “I’m a serious gamer. This is kind-of what I live for. I must admit, the earth elementals are basically made for magic casters or tanks.”

“Well it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We suffer from our dexterity and agility being cut in half so bows are not for us.”

“Ah, the scales have finally balanced.”

“Then again, I am a hybrid so only my dexterity is cut in half.”

“...I think the scales just broke.”

I turned towards the wild boars. “Now that we’re here, I also have a bleed skill that does 50 damage over 10 seconds.”

Arya nodded. “Good, that’s a great one to have at the low levels. Now, the boars shouldn’t attack us unless we provoke them. How about I shoot one with an arrow and then you intercept it when it charges at me. Then you keep it busy while I shoot at it from afar.”

I nodded. “Alright, whatever you think is best.”

“I’ll start now.” She nocked her bow and aimed it at one of the boars at the fringes of the forest. The arrow flew through the air and hit the boar in the neck. Level 4 Wild Boar 205/250 hp. Wow, that is some insane health. She would have to hit it around 6 times with a basic hit in order to kill it. The boar squealed before wheeling around to face Arya.

Suddenly it charged straight at them, covering the distance like it was nothing. Another arrow struck the boar in its face but there was no critical damage this time. 170/250 hp. No wonder she wanted me to help her. She couldn’t possibly kill it without using her special move and that would waste stamina. If she didn’t though, then the boar would be able to get close enough and gouge her. If it got close, then her bow and arrow would be next to useless.

The boar was closing in now. I got between it and Arya, charging at it as well. Right before it reached me, I side jumped while swinging my sword. It successfully struck the boar in the eye. 130/250 hp. The boar squealed but continued charging at Arya. Crap. I tried to catch up to the boar but it was too fast. Arya realized that I couldn’t keep the boar distracted and immediately invoked her special attack. “Quickshot!” Three arrows lanced out, one striking it in the eye and two more hitting it in the face. 85/250 hp, 50/250 hp, 15/250 hp. If I had only used sharp blade, the boar would be dead by now. A mistake I would have to rectify when we attacked the next one.

Arya tossed her bow to the side on the ground and drew a knife. It was obvious she didn’t have enough time to fire another arrow. She attempted to jump over the boar but wasn’t successful. Instead the boar rammed into her feet, hitting her ankles. She flipped midair from the impact and hit the ground face first. The boar turned around and started to charge her again. Because of this, I was able to catch up. I swung my sword, catching the boar in the face with my sword. A high pitched squeal echoed out before the boar slowly fell over on its side.

Congratulations! You have killed ‘Level 4 Wild Boar!’

You dealt 22% of the damage. Due to the level gap, you receive 2 times the normal amount of xp and receive 7 xp

Previous: lvl 3 (30/140) Current: lvl 3 (37/140)

Arya picked herself up slowly. “Well. That didn’t quite go as planned.”

This was my fault. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold the boar’s attention.”

Arya shook her head. “ Don’t worry, it’s not your fault but mine. I should have known that as realistic as it looks, this is still a a game. I dealt too much damage and had the aggro on me.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “What’s aggro?”

She laughed. “Man, you really don’t know anything about games.”

“I know a little bit about game mechanics but not a lot of gaming terms.” Most of my time was spent researching and developing the terrain and environment. I picked up some of the inner workings of games but not the slang terms people used since I refused to play second-rate games. Ironic really that the founder of a gaming company didn’t even know what modern gaming terms were.

“Well aggro is basically just the mob’s anger. If you attack a mob you gain aggro and if you heal someone that has the mob’s aggro you can gain it as well. Whoever has the most aggro is who the mob will attack. The more damage you’ve dealt or healed, the more aggro you gain. For me, I did the most damage so the boar wanted to attack me.”

“Oh. So that was why the boar just rushed past me.”

“Yep.”

Arya scratched her head. “So now we need to come up with a better plan for the next time. I have only 35 hp and 12 stamina left so I can’t take any chances. Anyway, we need to collect loot.”

I looked at the boar corpse. “How are we going to split the loot?”

Arya frowned. “No idea. How about we just find out what it is and decide then.”

I nodded. “Sure.”

She walked up to the boar and placed her hand on its body, causing it to dissolve into white light. What was left was two chunks of raw meat and a boar tusk. We looked at each other. I decided to be a gentleman about the loot. “You did the most damage so how about you take a chunk of meat and the boar tusk.”

Arya nodded. “Alright then, thanks.”

After we stored our loot away I handed her a biscuit. “You should buy some of these at the general store. They heal 10 hp for 1 copper.”

“Thanks.” She ate the biscuit with one bite. “A bit dry but still decent. Won’t do much good when we’re higher level.”

I shrugged. “By then we should be able to buy health potions. You can’t use the biscuits in combat either so it has a limited effect.”

Arya wiped some crumbs from her mouth. “Yeah, but it was still useful now. I guess you aren’t some helpless noob after all.” She became serious now. “Alright, so I think I have a better way for this to work.” She told me her plan.

I nodded. “That should work, if everything goes according to plan.”

She shrugged. “It should, but life doesn’t play well with plans. I’m assuming virtual reality is the same. Anyways, just go over and whack it.”

I sighed and went over towards one of the boars. Raising my longsword, I prepared to slice its head open. I turned around and saw Arya pick up her bow. Notching it, she nodded at me. The boar had continued pawing at the ground, seemingly oblivious to my threatening pose. With her ready, it was time to execute the plan.

I swung the sword downward, striking its neck. 210/250 hp It squealed and spun around, its tusks almost hitting me. I jumped backwards to avoid the tusks and an arrow hit the boar in the side where the heart should be. 165/250 hp It squealed angrily and turned towards Arya. Before it could take more than two steps, I hit it on its shoulder. 136/250 hp. The boar angrily turned towards me and rammed me in the gut. Its tusks hit me, causing me to stagger backwards. 60/80 hp. What? I thought Arya said she took only 30 damage. With my racial traits, that should have only been 15 damage, not 20!

Another arrow hit the boar. 101/250 hp. It was time. “Sharp blade.” I thrust my sword point first, striking the boar in its side as it started to turn towards Arya. 61/250 hp. I must have hit something critical. As its health bar changed to show the bleed status, the boar squealed and bashed me with the side of its head. It was only a grazing blow but it threw me backwards. 40/80 hp. I guess the boars have a staggering skill of some sort to do that whenever they attacked. I started running away from the boar, its skill giving me a small headstart.

My bleed skill would be able to take it down enough so that Arya could kill it with one shot. 56/250 hp. Its health started to tick down as it chased after me. I hadn’t gotten far and the boar was going to catch up, it was only a step behind me and it hadn’t even been 2 seconds yet. An arrow lodged itself in the boar, causing it to turn towards Arya. 21/250 hp. Its side pulsed bright red. 16/250 hp. It squealed and then wheeled around to continue charging towards me. I had turned around to chase it when it started to go after Arya so its change in course caught me off-guard. Regaining my wits, I thrust forward, catching the boar with the tip of my sword.With a final squeal, the boar died. 0/250 hp

Congratulations! You have killed ‘Level 4 Wild Boar!’

You dealt 54% of the damage. Due to the level gap, you receive 2 times the normal amount of xp and receive 16 xp

Previous: lvl 3 (37/140) Current: lvl 3 (53/140)

While Arya jogged over, I collected the loot. One piece of meat, one strip of hide, and one tusk. We divided up the loot with me receiving the meat and Arya took everything else. Arya looked at me and grinned. “So, how did you like it this time?”

I grimaced. “I’m at 40 health right now so next time I need to be a lot quicker.”

Arya winced. “Yeah, that's the rub. How about you hit it a couple times next time till it reaches around half health and then let me lure it away with my arrows.”

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know how this is going to work though. We only get a little amount of xp for killing these things and I’m getting pretty banged up here.”

Arya shrugged. “How about we try it a couple more times and then we go sell the loot. It would be a lot easier if we had some way of controlling the mob though.”

When she said that, I remembered a certain skill I had looked over last time. “If I have enough money, I should be able to get shield bash. It stuns the mob for 10 seconds but with my current level it’ll only stun the boar for 9 seconds.”

Arya blinked before nodding. “Yeah, that’ll be a lot of help if you can get it. It’ll make hunting a lot easier.”

“How about we kill two more before I go back to town. By then my health should be too low to continue and then I can buy the bash skill.”

Agreeing, we both started to hunt.

Congratulations! You have killed ‘Level 4 Wild Boar’ x2!

You dealt 43% of the damage. Due to the level gap, you receive 2 times the normal amount of xp and receive 27 xp

Previous: lvl 3 (53/140) Current: lvl 3 (80/140)

By that time, I was down to 30 health. I had eaten a biscuit to recover some health. As for loot, Arya picked up 2 pieces of meat, and a strip of hide. I received two tusks and a piece of meat. Our total loot count was currently 2 tusks and 3 pieces of meat for me while Arya had 2 pieces of hide, 2 tusks, and 3 pieces of meat.

Afterwards we went back to town just like before. “So Arya, you said you took 30 damage from one of the boars. With my racial skill, it should have only been 15 since I halve all damage. But when I was hit, it took 20 damage. What gives? Do you have some sort of damage reduction?”

Arya laughed. “Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t laugh since you didn’t get to talk to Sergeant Guff. Anyways, when you show Sergeant Guff any armor, he will tell you about the armor mechanics. I currently have Rotten Leather Armor that gives 10 armor. The armor dissipates 10 damage but can be bypassed by certain skills. The boar does 40 damage but I only took 30 damage due to the armor.”

I nodded. “I see. So because it was 40 damage, I only took 20. Though I couldn’t put my armor on for some reason.”

Arya frowned. “That’s not right. Pull up your racial traits, sometimes certain races can’t wear armor.”

I did as she asked and immediately facepalmed.

Racial Traits: Flame constitution: (-40% to all physical stats in the cold. +10% to all stats in the heat. Includes cold and heat inducing skills. Only applies to Hellion Elf form) Elemental Form: (-50% Physical attacks and magical attacks. +200% damage from attacks to the core. Cannot equip armor. Only applies to elemental forms) +20% damage from wind attacks in Earth Elemental form. +20% damage from water and ice magic in Fire Elemental form.

I guess my problem was simpler then I thought. “I guess elementals can’t wear armor.”

Arya smiled. “Good. That means you aren’t as overpowered as I thought.”

I frowned. “Hey. I thought you would want an overpowered teammate?”

She waved her hand. “Oh no, of course not. That would mean you would outlevel me quickly. Plus, I don’t like those overpowered players. They always seem awful and forced, you know what I mean?”

“Nope, but I’ll take your word for it.”

By that time we had reached the downtown area. Looking around we quickly found the butcher. There, we sold the meat for five copper each. Me and Arya both had three pieces of meat so we got 15 copper. The butcher wouldn’t buy any of the other loot so we went over to the general store.

There the man agreed to buy the hide for 3 copper so Arya got 6 copper from that. Then he bought the tusks for 5 copper so me and Arya received 10 copper. In total, Arya earned 31 copper and I earned 25. More than enough to buy the shield bash skill.

“I’m going back to learn the shield bash skill. How about you? You going to learn anything?”

Arya nodded. “I’ll go with you and choose one of the other skills. I should get some variety after all.”

Upon reaching the training grounds, we decided to use the instance training to finish quicker. I entered the training grounds and the same window asking for instance or communal training popped up. Selecting instance training, I walked inside.

Sitting on his chair was Sergeant Guff, his pipe held in his left hand as always. “Hey Sergeant Guff, can I take a look at the Basic Shield Work Special Skills?”

Sarge let out a stream of smoke before looking at him. He nodded. “Go ahead sonny.” He waved his hand and the special skills list appeared in front of me.

Basic Shield Work Special Skills

Shield Bash: At the cost of 2 Stamina, the next attack done with a shield will stun the opponent. Cooldown: 45 seconds.

Tough Shield: At the cost of 2 Stamina, the next attack blocked by the shield will not damage the shield’s durability.

Spiky Shield: At the cost of 5 stamina, return 30% of the damage the shield received for the next 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes

Well, I had only come here for one thing. “Sarge, I’ll take the shield bash skill.”

Sarge nodded. “That’ll be eight copper.” I fished out the copper and paid up. He counted it before nodding and sticking it in his pocket.

You have paid ‘Sergeant Guff’ eight copper coins to learn the skill ‘Shield Bash’

[Shield Bash lvl 1 (0/100)]

Since I was already here, maybe it was good to learn some other skills. “Hey Sarge, could I see the basic swordplay special skills?” Sarge nodded and waved his hand.

Basic Swordplay Special Skills

Strong Slash: At the cost of 2 stamina, the next attack belonging to the ‘Basic Swordplay’ skill will do twice as much damage as normal. Cooldown: 30 seconds

Fighting Spirit: At the cost of 5 stamina, do 30% more melee damage for the next 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes

Sharp blade was missing, probably because I had bought it already. “Sarge, I’ve decided to learn Fighting Spirit.”

Now that I had been in several fights with mobs I had discovered something. The mobs so far were mostly situated between 2 categories. Massive damage and low health, or large health and smaller damage. I needed more to deal more damage to either kill the threat if it was the first kind of mob or to make a sizable dent in the health of the other mob type. Either way, fighting spirit was definitely worth it.

“That’ll be eight copper.”

You have paid ‘Sergeant Guff’ eight copper coins to learn the skill ‘Fighting Spirit’

[Fighting Spirit lvl 1 (0/100)]

“Let me see the basic boxing special skills.”

Basic Boxing Special Skills

Strong Punch: At the cost of 2 stamina, the next punch belonging to the ‘Basic Boxing’ skill will do twice as much damage as normal. Cooldown: 30 seconds

Stiff Guard: At the cost of 1 stamina, the user takes 0 damage from the next physical attack blocked with guard. Cooldown: 10 seconds

Huh? Why was fighting spirit gone. “Hey Sarge, how come the fighting spirit is gone from the basic boxing skills even though I didn’t buy it?”

Sarge scratched his head. “Well that is a tricky question there sonny. Simply put, the fighting spirit skill is available on most other melee special skills. If you buy it once, you buy it for all of them. Remember that fighting spirit applies to all melee skills and is therefore compatible with all other melee skills.”

I nodded. “Thanks Sarge. In that case, I think I’ll take the Stiff Guard skill.” My shield was pretty useful but what if it broke? Wouldn’t I be left with nothing to block with? Stiff guard was the answer. It only cost 1 stamina and blocked all physical damage which was what I was currently worried about. The only downside was I needed to use boxing skills to block which meant I would have to abandon my sword. Oh well, everything came at a cost. With Arya to back me up with her arrows, I wouldn’t have to worry about killing whatever was attacking me but would simply have to focus on staying alive.

“Stiff Guard costs eight copper.” I paid up, with only 1 copper coin to my name now. Sheesh. Becoming stronger was expensive and if I didn’t play right, I would die from a couple hits from the mobs. Even the boars had weak attacks and they took a quarter of my health pool with a single attack.

“Thanks Sarge, I’ll stop by if I need anything else.” I waved as I left.

Sergeant smiled and waved back. “See ya later sonny, make sure you don’t die soon!”

When I walked out of the training camp, Arya was standing next to the gate. “What took you so long?”

I shrugged. “I decided to buy a couple more skills since I was already here. I got an unarmed block, the shield bash, and a 30% damage increase for 30 seconds on all physical skills. How about you?”

Aya grinned. “Well, I may have gone a bit crazy. I bought the a skill that guarantees critical shots for he next 30 seconds and a crippling shot skill that slows down the opponent.” She frowned. “Though they eat up my stamina fast though so I can’t abuse them like I want.”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I think I need to use my skills since I’ll have to stop due to low health anyways.”

She nodded. “Melee fighters, such a shame that you’re always beat up.”

“Heh. If I wasn’t here, you would be the one taking a beating.”

“Humph.”

We went back out to the forest to hunt the boars. By now, my mana was back up and my health had recovered. Now it was finally time to kill some boars. According to our plan, I walked up behind one of the boars. Arya signaled it was time. “Shield Bash.” I hit the boar in the head with a punch using the shield. 231/250 hp. The boar staggered backwards and a spiral appeared above its head. The number nine appeared beside the. The boar was level 4 while I was level 3, so there was a 1 second reduction.

“Sharp Blade.” I stabbed the boar in the neck. 191/250 hp. Nice. An arrow hit the boar in its side. 156/250 hp. I quickly swung my sword striking the boar three times while two arrows struck as well. All the while the boar bled out. 151/250, 122/250, 117/250, 82/250, 77/250, 48/250, 13/250, 0/250 hp. The boar squealed before falling over.

Huh. I guess getting the shield bash really was the best move.