With the strange wires unwrapped from their bodies and movement possible once again; the group got up from the floor of the car which was quite long and wide and went to sit on the seats on the sides of of the car.
In front of them was Eden who was calmly smiling at them, looking amused at their real life self. He had some thoughts on how similar they were in game to reality which was a rare thing these days with people modifying their appearances to improve themselves. Eden would have been greatly disappointed if this was the case with them as well.
However the most surprising thing to him was that they all knew each other out of game and all ended up in his guild at the same time. This...should not have happened but due to the 'special' circumstances behind each of them, Eden could only smile wryly on the fact that those six choose these six immediately when they started off.
“So...any questions yet?” asked Eden.
The group looked at Eden.
“Yeah...just one. Why do we have to go to school?” asked Hina in a bad mood. It seems that she finds that going to school isn't exactly the best thing to happen.
“Lots of reasons though the main reason has to do with you lot” he replied.
“Us?”
“Yep, tell me; aside from Sain...no Peter over there and Maria, have you ever interacted with other people that much? No...to other players to be precise?”
“....”
“You all lack social skills to interact with others and that worries a lot. Not that I can say much since for all I care, I can live a lone for the rest of my life in peace” Eden let out a small laugh and then proceeded to talk some more.
“Well there are other reasons you don't need to concern yourself with but the main one is that you need to talk to other people. To talk to other means that you will come to understand them and them to you. Do you fear of how others see you in the end?” he asked.
“....”
“No response eh. Did I hit the nail?”
“No....” Grace muttered, “I-it's just that....” she pointed at Eden's hand, “Your missing hand is...”
Eden looked to find that he forgot to put the hand back in place.
“Anyway, to prevent all of you becoming social outcasts as well...I'm enrolling you to a school.”
[p=center]xXx[/p]
The group followed Viv to the East Gate where they will start their journey. It would according to Eden take 6 month of travelling to get to where Eden wants them to go. This trip would serve as training and a way for the group to leave the city and from the safety of Eden's 'hands'.
Of course by then the city would be fully restored and they could return immediately but they did not mention a word of that. It was simply due to Eden being in a bad mood and extremely scary recently which caused them to not say a word about this. If they said such a selfish thing then they could be punished as well and considering his anger, they were lucky Eden was considerate enough to throw his rage at them as well.
The city they were going to was located at the central continent which was east to where they were. As such, it was natural that they went to the East Gate for starters.
“First lesson....preparations....” Sain could hear Viv mutter those words to himself as they were walking.
Getting to the East Gate, Viv stopped and turned around to the group to say:
“Now...buy some supplies for the travel. I'll make it very clear right now that I don't intend to babysit you all like Eden does” he said with a firm grip on what he wants from the group. Compared to Eden and Alexandra who did things by the flow, Viv was always serious on training and increasing his skills.
Feeling happy they had a proper trainer now that would really increase their skills, Sain nodded to this and then turned to Miriel and asked the first thing he needed to know:
“Miriel how much money do we have?”
It was the issue of money. The world revolved around money.
Thankfully Miriel was pretty sharp relating to money like a household mother of old so she understood that Sain wanted to know how much food and other essentials they could buy at once. Of course they would not buy too much since it would be a waste unless you could store them for a long amount of time.
Another thankful thing was that Miriel knew how much money they had since she was the one who managed the money in the group. With someone like Lyndis in the group who could and would seemingly waste money with 'useless' things as a girl, she had to be strict. But other than that, she immediately calculated how much they could buy minus how much they could not carry and didn't need.
“We can get around 3 months worth of food and other essentials within a reasonable amount of expiry. If we buy 6 months worth, it would be cheaper overall but the weight would slow us don't. After that, it leaves us with a little over 100 gold since Eden gave us new gear so we really didn't need to buy anything new for us right now at least” she replied to Sain.
Smiling a bit since they somehow managed to save that much due to Miriel nitpicking on what they spend money on in the past, he said “In that case buy-”
“A week's worth” interrupted Viv suddenly in a commanding voice.
“Eh?”
Sain was quite shocked to see that Viv would only want a week worth's of food and other essentials.
“Also buy some bandages and some basic herbs in that as well since we will be needing them. Especially buy some antidote herbs for later as well” added Viv in the silent.
The group looked at Viv who explained himself clearly with, “I am in charge of you guys so follow my instructions. At most, you will have a week of supplies which means a week of me explaining things to you before you put it in practise.”
The space where the group was became cold like a team being trained by a popular coach was suddenly taken over by someone else they didn't know. Basically they weren't exactly friendly to Viv at the moment.
Sain had to ask, “Put....what in practise?” with a questioning look. From experience with Eden and Alexandra, he could tell that their methods were...extreme. While Viv looked...reasonable for now, who knew what he would make them do later.
“Survival skills” said Viv who said it in simple and board terms. This left Sain not knowing what kind of survival skills they would be taught. More to the point, survival skills weren't that popular and were seen as something that you only need the basic level of to make it through. Anyway higher than that could be learnt later and Sain was sure that he and the rest of the group could survive the night quite well now to not get eaten by wolves while sleeping.
“Why?” he had to ask with that thought at mind.
“Because it is useful; more useful than learning a hundred new skills or spells that you will barely use. Anyway, send someone to buy supplies first. You're the leader of this group right? Command the rest of them” Viv tilted his head to looked at Sain. He had a confused look as if wondering on whether Sain was really leading the group or the group making him leader for appearance sake.
Hearing it this way, Sain had to comply and said, “Miriel...Raven, can you two buy a week's worth of supply along with the stuff Viv said to buy as well?”
Miriel frowned since getting a lot of supplies for a trip instead of intentionally having a shortage was a fundamental rule in travelling. It was not wise to not have enough supplies at hand since you can starve to death in this game amongst many other kinds of deaths. It would honestly be better to buy a month's worth to get it cheaper.
However Sain seemed to want to follow Viv's instructions and...she had no intentions of getting onto Viv's bad side no matter what so she followed his words. Plus during the 9 or so months in game time she spent with Sain, Miriel grew a small amount of trust in him on these matters. He was after all, better at her when it came to socialising.
“Okay” she said while going forth with Raven who had the most strength of them all to the general store to buy some long lasting stable food. The higher one's strength was, the more they could carry. The only reason Sain and Miriel wanted Raven to go was that the next highest person in terms of strength was Lyndis. And for one, Miriel didn't like Lyndis that much even knowing her more and two, she would be more useful here with Viv.
Walking away, the two didn't even turn around with Miriel almost sprinting and Raven trying to catch up with her. Seeing that they were gone, Viv went to the next issue. He had looked at the group's current gear and it was....acceptable though barely.
“Next thing is whether you all are equipped well enough or not” he said summarising it in the end to Sain.
“What...do you mean by that?” Sain had to ask again. He was unable to determine what Viv was thinking in the end.
“Whether to buy new, better gear for the trip. Your current gear are several tens of levels below what your actual level is. This will reduce combat abilities and could get you all killed in the end. Plus stronger gear have higher durability” replied Viv thinking about it for a second and making up a more longer explanation. He kinda missed Eden and Alexandra reading into what he wanted immediately and doing it.
Sain nodded and then evaluated everyone's gear. He, Lyndis and Shadow had leather gear with more or less the same defence. Miriel and Serena had robes with almost no defence and Raven had some metal gear on which gave him the highest defence of everyone.
As for weapons they more or less set though most of their level restrictions were around the level 50 point while they were averaging around level 80. They would need to buy some near weapons at a later point as the next big level restriction point was at level 100.
“We'll get new gear at around level 100 from stores else if drops happen. As for durability...It should be fine since Raven has the 'repair' skill” replied Sain. However Viv then asked, “What's the level of his 'repair' skill?”
“Umm...”, Sain had to recall it from the top of his head, “Beginner Level 3?”
“Too low. Durability decrease every time he has to repair your gear. Send somebody to buy some spare weapons. Even if you have a spare weapon already, it's a good thing to buy some expendable weapons to use just in case your other weapons break. Eden has no problem with this since he....while Al is good at managing her gear.”
“....”
Sain thought about it.
'Well...I still have the spare spear....Raven has one as well. Lyndis and Shadow also has a spare weapon as well but....Miriel would kill me if I wasted money on useless things....more than crossing Viv here....plus what he said was true after all....I should really get some spare gear...but Miriel....'
In the end, Sain shook his head and said, “We already have a few spare weapons in case. I don't believe that there will be a time where we will be forced to use them. Plus as long as we don't get hit, the durability of our gear won't be reduced right?”
“....”
Viv stared at Sain which made him very uncomfortable. It was like Viv was piercing into his soul...of course metaphorically but it still felt very uncomfortable in the end. Viv was thinking that both Eden and Alexandra said the same thing to him before...though Alexandra added in that if she asked then someone would actually take care of it.
“If that is the case, then it is fine. I will not force you to do something you don't want to do since I'm not like Eden who drags everyone in his pace. Don't blame me if you fall into a crisis because of this” he said abandoning the idea of the group buying more weapons. It was easier to learn from mistakes than learning from someone telling you to not make that mistake.
“However, you have to be extra careful since it is a 6 month trip and you don't know what will happen” Viv added in as well as a caution.
“But won't you help us?” asked Lyndis hearing this. She kept quiet until now but it seemed that Viv had no intention of actually helping them at all when they are in a crisis.
Viv shook his head and said, “I won't since if I do then you will not grow. I won't spoil you all like how Eden does. If you want something then get it yourself. All I will teach you are the fundamental basics you should know already.” His tone was almost arrogant and did not acknowledge what Eden did.
“You...”
And this picked a nerve of someone who didn't like his efforts not being recognised. Eden rewarded them with new gear and skill after his training which was actually beneficial even though it was very similar to torture. Sain looked over and saw that there was a vein about to burst from Shadow's forehead. Feeling something bad was about to happen, he was about to stop him but...
“Aren't those words too cocky? Eden was very kind to us...perhaps too kind but kind nevertheless. I will not let someone to forsake what he did!” Shadow said trembling with rage. He moved his body in a motion about to grab Viv by the collar.
Sain was quite surprised. He did not know that Shadow had held Eden up quite so high. Actually Sain knew that all of them did since he unconditionally accepted them and trained them while helping them though with questionable methods, Eden had no ill intent towards them....at least for now.
But on the other hand, here was also Viv who was also a guildmaster along with Eden and Alexandra in the guild; someone they should not mess with. This was especially the case since it seems that this Viv was about to deal with even Eden.
As such Sain stopped Shadow by grabbing his arm said to Shadow, “Shadow you should take that tone to someone. It's rude....and will probably get us all killed or worse even if he looks like a child younger than us” he added at the end now thinking about it.
“....”
Lyndis who listened in as well as Serena paled looking at Viv....and then Sain in that order. Since Sain turned his back to Viv to talk Shadow and was not looking at Viv right now, he did not see what was wrong behind him but even Shadow was paling right now as well.
“Shadow....what is happening behind me?” asked Sain not daring to turn around. He really did not want to turn around as if that would cause the problem to not exist.
“Sain...as someone I can trust...don't turn around” replied Shadow resisting the urge to run away immediately. His anger was replaced by an extreme amount of fear as well. Looking around, there was a number of people who ran away or looked from the corner, hiding quite well to see what was happening.
Much to how much Sain wanted to follow that advise, he felt that unless he turned around right now and face something terrible, something worse will appear later on...no soon; especially if he tried to run away. It doesn't help that the source of the terrible feeling said one word which he couldn't disobey.
“Turn around.”
“Yes sir.”
Sain immediately turn around and gave up with surprising speed that made his face blur as he turned. He did not know that he could turn around this fast...however Shadow, Lyndis and Serena could see certain fear on it even with the blur at that moment. Like the face of a man to his execution.
“Now....” muttered Viv while determining what to do with Sain.
“...Please have mercy....” shivered Sain towards Viv.
“No.”
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Roughly 5 minutes later, Miriel along with Raven got back to the others with the week worth of supplies along with the things that Viv wanted them to buy as well.
This consisted with rye bread that could last for months...namely 100 pieces which costed 30 silver in total, some tens pieces of dried meat otherwise known as jerky which costed gold coin and a good amount of water which was sorted in canteens that numbered by the dozen and costed only a few silver coins. Then there were bandages which costed a few silver as well and the herbs that costed the most at a few gold coins.
Since she was not that sure on the amount, she brought a reasonable amount though even that was expensive so she cut back and managed to reduce the costs of the herbs to a few gold coins instead. Remembering now, Miriel realised that the herb price around the kingdom increased due to shortages and it was a bad time to be buying them.
“Well...at least I don't need to carry any of it!” she said to herself trying to cheer herself up.
“....”
Seeing that Raven was not at least hindered by the large amount of things that he had to carry which she struggled to do the same, she was quite happy that she had a good tool that could at least carry things.
In fact Miriel considered that since Lyndis' strength was almost at the same level as Raven's that she could also use her to carry things as well. However Miriel must admit that Raven was actually quite the looker...though his emotionless face is a total turn off.
However right now she had a bigger problem other than how Raven was disappointing for the heart of a fair maiden. Sain was on the ground lifeless.
“Sain?! What happened?!” cried Miriel running up to hold Sain who was lying on the ground lifeless....no, he still had a heart beat and was alive...though his eyes was rolled back and he was foaming from his mouth....
She gently lifted his limb body and then remembered that this was a game and if he died then his body wouldn't be here to begin with. As such she also immediately dropped his body with a thud and went straight to busines.
“You three!” Miriel glared at the other three, namely Shadow, Serena and Lyndis who was here with him and demanded, “Who did this?!”
“....”
All three of them were silent but were strangely stiff and had straight backs...Miriel thought this was strange and that something bad was about to appear.
“I did” replied a voice she did not want to hear. Of course this voice belonged to Viv who was literally saying that he was the culprit. This same person that had a history of doing even more terrible things than Eden and Alexandra combined. Someone that Kingdom could not touch.
Miriel started to cold sweat and turn rigidly to see....Viv who was pleasantly smiling as if nothing was wrong at all. She thought that this smile was fake immediately and she was dead meat.
“V-Viv....for what reason did Sain end up like this?” she asked trying to be as respectful as possible. She kinda failed due to her stuttering but was still better than her usual tone to people.
“Sain was rude” Viv answered. Miriel almost let out a 'huh' and a dumbfound look on her face but managed not to. Her pride as a cool beauty would not let her.
“....”
Miriel could not understand what happened. What did Sain do who was actually the more kinder than you need to be type of person to end up like this? No....Miriel did not want to find out else she would be more likely to make the same mistake.
'Rest in peace Sain....I will make sure to not make the same mistake as you....' thought Miriel before slapping Sain awake ignoring Viv who didn't seem to care what Miriel did.
Slap Slap Slap!
“Wake up! We have things to do!” said Miriel in a cold voice demanding him to to follow her words. When Sain didn't immediately respond, he was slapped another couple of times and so on like a combo machine.
After a couple of slaps in which Sain's HP was slowly being reduced by 10% with weak slaps alone....
Sain opened his eyes with swollen cheeks and asked,“Miriel...what happened? I only remember that there was something cold and frightening and....” Sain who was still looking pale got up not remembering what Viv did to him.
Meanwhile three certain people thought:
'He was actually traumatised to the point he blocked out the memories....actually I hoped that happened to me as well since even seeing it....'
'Please....let nothing bad happen to Sain anymore....'
'O-oh god....Viv is scary...scary....scary....scary....'
However no one besides four people knew what happened and they will never speak of it for the sake of the three that could only watch. Looking around wandering what was going on, Sain saw that Raven had the supplies and they were good to go now.
“Ah, Viv we have the supplies now” he said to Viv without knowing what was this chill he was feeling when he was looking at him. Seeing this Viv smiled even more and looked satisfied much to the confusion of Sain.
Viv nodded his head and said, “Let's go, I rather not stay here to explain the commotion.”
“Commotion?” wondered Sain. He did not know what Viv was talking about but felt that a number of people...including some of his comrades were thinking that it was best for him to not know.
[p=center]xXx[/p]
After half a day of walking, the group plus Viv were out of the inner forest area where there were really not many enemies to deal with. They had to only face wolves once in a while and were easily dealt with with a combination of powerful ranged attacks and powerful physical attacks from everyone that the battle lasted no more than 10 seconds each which was a fast rate of battle for players their level.
The time right now was a few hours before dusk and Viv had them stop for now. He had them line up in a row next to the edge of the road. There was a feeling that they were soldiers under a commander.
“Okay, right now we travelled enough and I have seen what you guys can do for the most part” said Viv in an almost monotone voice.
“To put it extremely blunt and to the point; you guys suck.”
“....”
There was a cold breeze coming in.
“First of all, why couldn't you guys obliterate those weak enemies instantly? A combination of Raven charging in with everyone firing attacks and Shadow finishing off any survivors would be enough to take care of simple wolves.”
Viv pointed at Sain.
“Why are you giving orders? Everyone should know what to do already without you speaking.”
Viv then pointed at Shadow.
“Why aren't you immediately attacking when you have the chance. Do you need to wait for the others to attack first?”
Next was Lyndis.
“Frankly the only real firepower you have is with fire attacks and yet you use a sword to mainly attack. Moreover you even stop moving while using your fire attacks, are you trying to get killed?”
Then it was Raven's turn.
“Staying back and enjoying the breeze is not your job. You belong at the very front being beaten up. That is your role so don't let other people take it from you.”
Serena was the next 'victim'.
“You are a druid. A druid has many spells to use and yet you have so few...so your healing abilities are useless in short and dangerous battles. Regenerative spells are fine but lack pure power when you need it! Train some more else your friends will die before you know it!”
Then it was finally Miriel's turn.
“As for you...” Miriel shuttered, “You lack too much for a magician. Also you are making the mistake of learning multiple magicks at once though it is good if you can train them at a fast pace. Decide whether to be someone supporting or someone attacking since you cannot do both. Also why use a whip when you are a mage!”
“....”
The group could only stare at Viv who held nothing back.
“During these 6 months I will fix you all up” sighed Viv, “Eden really did a number of your progress....he made you gain stats and skill proficiency along with unique fighting styles but never taught you how other people normally fight. You do know that it is not the unique fighting styles that are the most powerful from the beginning but the most simple ones that are pushed to it's limits and turn into your own unique fighting style over time right?”
The group looked at each other. There were some thoughts on fixing those things that Viv pointed out but most of the thoughts were that their fighting style were fine enough so why improve it. It was not like some monster will come in and suddenly destroy them in battle, their formation was actually quite stable to go against monsters over level 100 as well.
“Anyway I want to see your skill proficiency. According to Eden who actually has a skill to spy on your skill list and their proficiency; most of your skills are in the high beginner level and are nearing the intermediate level which is actually not bad considering that many players would get that far 50 levels ahead of you.”
The group almost reluctantly allowed Viv to see their skill and their levels. He browsed through them not caring that he was essentially invading their privacy in the game.
“Hmm...you are missing a number of skills....this will take longer than I thought” muttered Viv under his breath sighing.
Viv took out a few books that the group recognised as skill books.
“I made Eden make these and are all basic skills but it's more likely that you all will be in trouble if you try to learn it the slow way. For this trip you will be assigned into three roles. Those who hunt animals for food, those who gather herbs and other types of food and those who cook. Thankfully two of you have the cooking skill so those two can alternate on roles.”
Viv took the skill books and placed them back in his inventory.
“Naturally I don't want to waste these books so I will only give them out if I have to. If you manage to learn these skills before this trip ends, I'll give any spare books to you for free...which can fetch around 50 gold per book in total.”
Sparkle~
Hearing the words of 'gold' and the amount, Miriel's eyes glittered at Viv instead of shying away. Sain could only let out a small cough to snap her out of it.
'Does Miriel love money that much? She didn't seem like the kind to....'
“Ah, more wolves. Make sure you take in account of what I said” said Viv interrupting Sain's thoughts and also seemingly disappearing from sight again. Sain now got used to Viv disappearing and letting them deal with things since earlier and was happy that he did since they would grow stronger that way.
“Also Sain...you're not allowed to talk unless it involves spells.”
“....”
'That....would be slightly difficult to do....' thought Sain smiling a bit to the change. He was actually glad of this since he needed to talk so much that his throat hurt. He feared that if he had to talk some more, he would tape his mouth shut to stop talking.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A few seconds later, the group automatically moved into position from where the wolves would charge in at. Another 10 seconds passed in tension until the wolves burst out.
“Garrr!” the wolves let out a small roar showing off their fighting spirit observing the group before...
“Ram!”
Immediately, Raven did not let a second pass before he ran into the wolves that numbered 5 to what Sain saw.
Bang!
Killed Wolves with Critical surprise hit!
You have gained Experience
Raven smashed through one...no two wolves at once causing them to fly away due to the large impact. The level difference and strength difference between the Raven and the wolves were clear which led to this result.
“Magic Arrows!”
You have gained Experience
Sain fired his spell into one of the other wolves which killed it easily while at the same time Shadow seemed to appear and stab his short sword into another wolf while Lyndis followed up with a second charge taking down the last remaining two wolves.
You have gained Experience
Group of wolves have been killed in an extremely short amount of time! Experience gain increase
The battle ended so quickly that Miriel and Serena had nothing to do. To be precise Sain counted that the battle only took 3 seconds this time which was a great improvement compared to before. He could hear some clapping near to the side to which Viv appeared there.
“Looks like you know what to do now. Try to fiddle around with how you all fight to figure the best way to fight during this trip” Viv looked at the sun which was still a few hours before dusk and said, “Let's go, I want to cover some more ground before setting up camp.”
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Another few hours passed...
Eventually it was the middle of night now and it was also the first night the group actually spent time making camp. Before they would either go back into the city, continue hunting at night or would be in a dungeon.
As such the group was a bit nervous since they have heard stories about the nights in Royal Road.
However Viv reassured them.
“Your strength is something that normal monsters in this area cannot compete with. Even with the 50% bonus from night time, they should be still in your range of things that you can deal with” he said taking into account of their abilities and strengths. Plus after what Eden did to them, wolves were something easy to deal with.
With those words from a veteran in which had immeasurable strength, the group was actually relieved to a great extent. They secretly hoped that Viv would save them if things went back. But...fate was the kind of things that wanted to screw with people.
“More wolves” muttered Viv while the group was gathering some wood for a camp fire and were setting up their make shift beds.
When the group heard those words, they immediately sprung to action. They all took their weapons out and waited for the enemy to come.
“Can't see...” muttered Lyndis annoyed.
“I can, I'll draw them in front of you then” said Shadow who had night vision or something that was similar to it while disappearing into the darkness. A few seconds passed and the group heard some strange noise that was from battle and 4 large wolves leaped out in front of them a bit injured.
“Mana Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!” “Flame Strike!”
Seeing enemies, the three otherwise known as Sain, Miriel and Lyndis casted their ranged attacks at once hitting all of the wolves at once and instantly killing them.
“That battle...was also quick” muttered Sain.
“Yeah...didn't think battles were this dull before” added Lyndis.
“This only proves that we are stronger than when we started off” said Miriel as well.
They found that it was too easy especially since they were higher levelled than the wolves. They due to Eden often faced monsters stronger than them so this was strange to the group in fighting weaker foes instead.
“Don't get used to it since there are countless creatures in this world that can easily kill you all. It's only when you reach the very top that you can complain that there aren't any strong foes around” said Viv also adding into the conversation from his experiences.
“I see.”
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Picking around the place, Raven gathered pieces of wood and was either placing it in a circle fashion at the camp sight or placing them in his inventory to use later on. He knew from experience that there were times when you can't find good fire wood all the time.
Obtained item: Firewood Stick x 1
'I have....almost a hundred pieces now. This should last for a week or so....' he thought going back to camp.
Looking around there was Viv who was giving an explanation on some things that didn't relate to him to Serena with Sain and Miriel also listening in and generally not doing anything. Lyndis was moving rocks around the place and was testing them out to sleep on.
Raven however could not find Shadow at all even though he looked for him. Eventually he gave up looking from him and took out a flint and started rubbing two of them together to generate sparks.
Tap Tap...
Eventually the small sparks along with Raven adding in dried grass lit on fire and the camp fire was complete.
(Sound of soft burning)
With the camp fire lit up, the group and Viv gathered around to wait out the night. Raven took out some of the food supply that Miriel had him carry and gave it to the others to eat. However Viv refused kindly and ate his own food that was several times more higher in quality than theirs.
“....”
Some tens of minutes passed with the group not being able to talk each other with Viv here. But Viv didn't seem to mind it at all and continued to look at the group one by one individually...and then sighed.
“Why the hell did you sigh just then?!” shouted Shadow not being able to take it anymore.
Raven thought that out of everyone, Shadow had the worst temper and only hid it since his role involved being silent. After a while and opening up, he was actually quite rude to others.
He actually got up to try and attack Viv. Raven silent praised him in his heart as he was that courageous compared to everyone else.
“Hey Shadow stop!” shouted Sain grabbing onto Shadow and trying to restrain him.
“Damnit Shadow, are you trying to get us all killed?!” cried Miriel as she did the same in a panic which was unlike her.
Raven observed the rest of the group on his own as Sain and Miriel tried to calm Shadow down. From what he saw, Sain was the type to generally care for others without know, wanting to butt into other people's business while Miriel was the cautious type whom doesn't like conflict that much and would restrain others who do.
“Ahahaha, let him fight! You shouldn't store things up until it bursts like that!” said Lyndis encouraging Shadow to fight Viv.
“Ah...umm....please....don't....” muttered Serena looking around panicky not knowing what to do like a lost child.
On the other hand, Lyndis was the polar opposite who liked conflict and battles seeing she was the only one who wanted to fight for just fighting and nothing else though has good enough sense to not do so at a bad time. Then Raven took a glance at Serena. To him, she seemed like the type of person that needed to be protected but could actually hold her own when pushed into it.
Seeing this....Raven thought of himself. What was he? What role did he play in this group who seemed so bright to him?
However that thought had to stop since Sain was calling for help to stop Shadow who was not acting straight.
“....”
Raven walked over and with the help with Sain and Miriel restrained him on the ground.
“Raven what the hell?!” cried Shadow.
“....”
Raven could only stare back at him.
Seeing this, Shadow sighed and then gave up.
“If you want me to not fight or anything, just say it Raven! Speak for once Raven! I know you can so do so!” said Shadow mouthing out at him now. Raven thought it was confusing on how he was going against Viv a second ago and now was going against him now for no reason.
“....”
“....”
“Don't fight” said Raven seeing that Shadow would stop if he did say something. Shadow and the others stared at him and then Shadow said, “Good, you can speak” before asking, “Now can you get off me.”
Raven let Shadow go along with Sain who was also on him with Raven as well. Patting himself, Shadow walked for a second and then froze.
“More wolves...” he said looking into the distance.
Hearing that, Raven prepared his spear and shield to use immediately. It seems that it will be a long night.
[p=center]xXx[/p]
The next day...
You have gained Experience
You have killed a hundred wolves throughout the night without sleep. Due to this action, stamina will decrease by 30% for the next 24 hours.
You have gained 3 Endurance
You have gained 5 Fighting Spirit
Due to lack of sleep, all stats will decrease by 50% until you have a good rest. You will feel sluggish until then
“That's....a hundred wolves now? Are there any more....?” asked Sain extremely tired and leaning on his spear for support. He looked like a ragged man that had everything robbed from him recently.
“I....don't think so....” replied Miriel looking around using Sain as the support instead making him use up extra strength to keep her up as well. She too looked similarly with extremely dark bags under her eyes.
Shadow looked extremely annoyed by the sight and said, “Damn....Miriel, stop flirting with Sain and help pack up....Viv said we're leaving soon” after returning from the camp. Because of this he missed out on the latest attack of wolves that were attracted to the bright camp fire which was somehow never put out and lasted throughout the night. It was morning now.
“Who the hell is flirting?! There is a good pole here and I can't lean on it?!” retorted Miriel.
Sain looked depressed and said, “Miriel...I am not a pole....”
After those words, a refreshed Lyndis came through the bushes and with a bright smile said, “We finished packing~! Now we can go on.”
Still with a smile, she looked at the three and with eyes that said that this was highly amusing said, “What's wrong? Didn't have enough sleep?” in a seemingly innocent voice with a poisonous tongue.
“Ice...Bolt!”
Waving her staff at Lyndis she fired off an 'Ice Bolt' at her due to the annoyance she felt at that moment combined with the fact that she was extremely tired and was unable to think properly. Even Sain and Shadow didn't move an inch to stop her attack.
Bang!
“Wow!”
However fortunately for Lyndis, she had seemingly almost animal instincts against attacks which allowed her to dodge it last moment before it shot through her head! Seeing the tree next to her with a giant hole in it and glaring at Miriel, she shouted, “What the hell was that for?!” in anger.
On the other end, Miriel could not care less about Lyndis wanting to only sleep. She losing all focus after using that spell slid off Sain's body and onto the ground where she fell asleep. Losing the pressure on his body, Sain went off balance and also fell to the ground and due to the shock, fell asleep immediately as well.
The only one of the three still awake, Shadow said, “You and Raven need to carry these two while walking....I can probably still manage so you can wake one of them up when I fall asleep later” looking at Lyndis who was in disbelief to what Shadow was suggesting.
“No way am I going to carry someone! It's hard enough to walk on my own two legs with the amount of travelling we're doing!” she said pointing at her thin and slender legs that made many boys fall for her while also similarly making many girls hate her figure.
Shadow raised his eyebrow to such a comment and yet left it as it is. He was too tired to even retort or complain now. Plus he, Sain and Miriel were all on shift defending the camp while the others slept. This was the main reason these three were lacking sleep since they were not asleep at all!
Leaving Lyndis to deal with the sleeping Sain and Miriel, he called over Raven to help out, “Raven! Go over to where Lyndis is and carry Sain....” with a yawn. While tired, he had no intention of dragging other down while he slept though the real reason is that he did the least amount of word against the night wolves besides attacking them from behind.
Soon after he went to see what Serena was doing since there was nothing else to do but to check on her now.
“Serena, you must remember that your true skills lie not in simply healing or even attacking but a large number of support spells that are as flexible as you. Your 'Root Bind' spell is useful on it's own but if you combine it with another spell, say a spell that makes flowers that blown to give certain powerful effects to those around it but has a low chance of success, what do you think will happen?”
“Then...the effects would be certain to stick?”
“Correct. By combining spells together in a string or chain, new effects can easily be made. Even a spell made for wide area healing can be altered this way to spread poison massively to enemies.”
'Actually...I might as well go back to wait with the others...' thought Shadow not wanting to listen to a lecture involving magic at all turning around to walk back to the others no matter how annoying them were to him.
[p=center]xXx[/p]
An hour later, they packed everything and was ready to leave...though two people were still asleep.
Seeing this, Viv said, “You can either wake them up or carry them with you” giving them a choice on the matter. As such, Serena, Lyndis, Raven and Shadow needed to make a vote on things.
“I personally don't want to carry Miriel. I'm fine with Sain though....not that I want to carry them in the first place!” said Lyndis first expressing her opinion on the matter.
“Ah....we shouldn't wake them....yet...” said Serena as well wanting to let them sleep at least a little bit longer.
With a slight yawn Shadow agreed, “Yeah...I feel like I'm about to fall asleep right now...” He was sluggishly moving about without the usual sharpness of his movements like someone drunk. Kinda pitying the three, Lyndis had to give up and said, “Fine fine, we just have to carry them for a while right? I shouldn't be that hard compared to the training Eden had us do.”
Curious, Viv asked the four that were awake, “What kind of training did Eden have you do?”
“Ah...the running course thing” replied Lyndis since Raven didn't talk much either way, Shadow was sleepy and Serena wasn't that great at talking as well.
“You mean the one with the giant killer machine chasing you and infinite path for a month?” wondered Viv aloud. He had bad memories thanks to that but due to that training, along with Eden; Alexandra and Viv were able to endure extremely mentally exhausting tasks for a long time...even go without sleep for a month or longer if they wished.
“No...just running while...actually there was a robot but it was human sized and we were running around this path Eden made for us for a few hours a day” replied Lyndis not knowing what the hell Viv was talking about. Surely there wasn't such a stupidly dangerous training in this game.
“Hmm...that's kinda tame considering....well running away from 'that' for a whole month without end might be too much for new players...” muttered Viv reminiscing of the past.
“Wait wait wait, what the hell are you talking about? I'm not getting what you're trying to say here” said Lyndis still not understanding what Viv meant and yet wanted to know for her own sanity sake even if it was bad for her mind to know.
“Oh, you want to know?” asked Viv seeing that Lyndis seemed to be at least curious. Well they weren't going to make much progress with Sain and Miriel still asleep dragging them down. A few minutes of talking won't hinder them much at this point.
“Yep yep!” Lyndis nodded her head excited. Serena moved in closer to hear while Shadow said, “In that case....wake up when you're done. Need some sleep....” moving away from the others and leaning on a tree and closing his eyes.
“....”
Raven stood there silent carrying both Sain and Miriel and putting them down near Shadow and walked over to listen to Viv as well. Following what Viv said, the three sat down to listen to what seemed to be a story from the past.
“Long long time ago...Eden joined a guild which was different from the one that we founded. Basically he somehow got dragged into this one way or another and me and Al went along with the flow. The guild was basically a hidden one that was in decline but still were kinda powerful in their own way since they were basically assassins of the highest class.”
“Huh? Eden was an assassin?” exclaimed Eden not seeing that flashy person as someone sneaky.
“Not at all....well kinda since he ace all the things you needed to be an assassin. You know...being stealthy....when he wants to, killing silently....when he wants to and being patient...when he wants to” said Viv with a slight sigh considering that Eden losing all patient would give up killing silently and being stealthy to blow things up....with magic.
“Soooo....what does Eden not ace in?” asked Lyndis.
Serena and Raven stared at Lyndis who was being rude, interrupting people's stories. But it looked like Viv didn't mind as he was seriously considering it.
“Let's see.....anything involving helping others and luck. Yes...those are the two things that Eden will definitely fail in.”
“....” All three of them thought about it and then decided to not believe it since that Eden seemed to be perfect in what he did...even if it went to the extremes most of the time.
“Anyway back to the story...well long story short, the magic monster Eden was almost defeated at magic against an Archmage which led to llyfr forcefully training him for a month. Basically after bringing his skills up, he was then dropped into a pit which transported him to a special area where it was an infinite tunnel with no end until a month where it ends.”
“That...sound....interesting?” wondered Serena hearing it's description and thought of an endless corridor that she saw in an image once. It made her mind hurt a bit.
“Well he quickly found that a giant killer robot was chasing after him and as he progressed, the place placed things in a way to try and make him slip up and get crushed or otherwise by the killer robot. Plus he had to do this constantly for a month or so with little to no sleep in the end. It makes the training you did from Eden to seem extremely simple to do though 90% of players wouldn't be able to do what you did either way. But the thing we did...there would be no more than a few, less than the number of fingers on your hand to be able to complete it even if you were to increase everyone's stats to max. Staying up for a month straight is quite difficult you know” said Viv in one go with an innocent expression on his face.
“....”
The three could only stare blankly at Viv and his words. This was not simply difficult. If it was considered simply difficult without several 'super' in front of it, everything else in life could be considered easy mode with infinite cheats!
“What? Is there any problems? This game only rewards those who do hard work to their limits even if it is utterly ridiculous to begin with. As long as you work harder than anyone else you will reach a point where people will differentiate you from others in abilities and as their own” said Viv following up to the silent. Why did he feel that he was talking to a wall right now?
“Anyway, get those three, we're starting our walk for today.”
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Several hours....to be precise from dawn to dusk, the group plus Viv actually did not stop to rest this time. At the moment, he was lecturing the group some several times about wolves and other monsters through this forest that was a week's distance long in terms of walking.
“Wolves and generally most monsters have better senses than humans. This means that they will often detect you before you detect them unless you have skills that are better than theirs. Basically things like food or light will attract them easily like some of you experienced last night” said Viv looked at Sain, Miriel and Shadow.
All three of them were still tired but had enough strength to silently retort in their hearts with:
'Then why the hell did you make us stay up last night?!'
However Viv ignored them and continued.
“Even without those two things, they will still attack you either way. It's just that the frequency that they will attack will increase with those factors in. However the biggest factor is simply because they believe they can take you guys down. In the open or generally easily accessible areas of the continent aside from dungeons, the level 200 point is where small fries won't attack you willingly. That is why it is said the level 200 point is needed to travel with safety.”
Miriel then asked a question following this statement, “Why is it the level 200 point? I heard that monsters don't like attacking others when you are around 10 levels over you.”
“Ah, that's because the main reason doesn't lie with levels but fighting spirit. At the lowest point of the fighting spirit stat, even if you don't have the actual stat, monsters won't attack you at that point. The amount of fighting spirit you need to deter monsters from attacking you would be...around equal to your level though that may rise or fall depending on the monster that you face especially later on where you need a much higher fighting spirit to deter monsters. It's really complicated but in the end, when you attack the monster, they will fight back at the end of the day.”
“Because of this, you need to fight stronger monsters all the time to prevent the small fry from interfering later on” Viv confidently said with to the group that was utterly silent. This meant that in order to not get attacked by weaker monsters all the time, they would need to fearlessly face stronger monsters all the time which would put them at more risk than fighting those weaker monsters. It was a contradiction...that the group realised did not apply on Viv at all.
“Anyway, we're going to walk throughout the night and rest every odd day since this forest isn't exactly the friendliness place you could be in” he said walking ahead forcing the group to follow him.
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Another 5 days passed....
There were many things that happened. Wolves and other animals attacked when they got near and at some point, some parasite creature was controlling plant life to attack them as well. They somehow managed to get through without dying.
During this time....they managed to level up 1 or two times each. It was really not much compared to the experience you could gain in a dungeon but it was good progress considering that they were travelling at the same time.
But right now, there was another thing they had to worry about.
“No more food....” muttered Sain in distress. Viv had prevented them from buying more supplies when they passed by a village on the way.
The reason was only made due now.
“Right, now for the second lesson. Survival Skills” he said happily eating while the group seemed to starve in front of him.
Meanwhile...Shadow muttered, “Damn...why does this seems as bad as Eden?”
Hearing this, Viv rebutted with, “How rude! If it was Eden, a legendary monster would come out to fight him on the first day!”
“....”
The group could only stay silent as they waited on what Viv wanted to do. Their lives were in his hands right now...
Onwards?PreviousExitNext
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Notes:
- Word Count: 9000~
- First chapter finally done! Had to get a cold which I spent most of the day combating to delay me finishing this chapter by several hours!
- Well if you haven't figured it out, this volume will focus on the 6 month trip the group is taking. This will be kinda slow but adds a lot more than random power up X at a certain moment...though that may happen either way. I will make my characters crawl from the bottom up in this series! And I WILL enjoy it!