Chapter 3

A Healthy Run, A Bloody Walk

Even though he slept around four in the morning, Hector still woke at exactly five. He took a quick cold shower then changed into a sweatsuit. He left his condominium unit and went for a jog.

The sun was yet to rise, and the dark dawn was lit by the last quarter of starlight. Of course, all this was just a simulation, an imitation of what was recorded in the annals of historical astrology.

With a uniform pace, Hector alternated between jogging and sprinting, while keeping a steady breath. This was his daily warm-up routine whenever he was not on a mission. It was less of a habit but more of an obsessive compulsion. There was a simple reason for this.

No matter how much he tried to stay away from thinking about the past, it would always haunt him in the form of nightmares. Although he didn’t show it, he was plagued by nightmares of memories he didn’t want to remember.

After waking up, this nightmares were imprinted in his mind and to take it off, he would resort to this morning routine.

Mindlessly running in a set pattern always worked for him. On the other hand, when he was out on a mission, the nightmares would stop, as his awareness would always be on high alert when he slept outside.

By six, he was back in the same park as yesterday. The sun had risen above horizon, yet hidden behind buildings. The few rays that managed to dodge the man-made structures lit parts of the park grounds.

Hector was performing calisthenics when he noticed a girl sleeping on one of the benches in the deeper area of the park. She looked to be in her teenage years with short black hair. She wore a loose shirt and a pair of pajamas. A pair of black-rimmed glasses was on the ground beneath the bench.

“A runaway?” Hector thought. He was not some good Samaritan nor was he an evil-minded person. He ignored the girl and continued with his exercises.

At around seven, there were other people jogging in the park. One of them had taken their dog for a walk, and it started barking at the girl on the bench, waking her up.

The person apologized to the girl then gave her a kind advice in regards to her appearance and situation. This caused the girl’s face to redden in shame. She gave her thanks and quickly dashed away.

All this was seen by Hector, but he didn’t pay it any thought. To him, it was just another uncommon incident on day-to-day life. Not like his was a common one.

After cooling down, he took a ride back to his condominium unit.

Once again, the half-orc Dawning appeared within the beginner camp. On his back was a Lv.10 Axe, the best quality axe available from the camp’s blacksmith workshop. He was still clothed in a shabby robe cloth shirt and trousers, but on his left hand was a bronze gauntlet. It was a Lv.5 Heavy Armor type equipment.

Earlier before he logged out, he luckily found a rusted iron breastplate during one of his quests. He donned it and managed to raise his Heavy Armor Proficiency to Lv.5. On a side note, his Arms Proficiency was now Lv.31 and learned a new skill: Frenzy.

“Thanks a lot for your efforts, Dawning. I think it’s about time for you to set your eyes upon a larger stage. The Alliance needs someone like you. Here’s a proof of recommendation and take it to the capital. This will let you get an audience with the Alliance Elders and they will assign you with the right tasks for someone of your caliber.” The hot-tempered half-orc had changed into a clumsy good-natured one. He tried to give the warmest smile he could to Hector, but it ended up looking like a sneer.

Dawning respectfully accepted the bronze medallion. Engraved on it was a picture of eight different heads representing the eight different races. On the top-most was the head of a human, while on the bottom was the head of a half-orc. Discrimination was what he thought as soon as he saw this distinction.

Keeping the medallion in his inventory, he left the camp and proceeded North to where the Driftcloud Alliance’s capital city lay. On his way out of the camp, many NPCs acknowledged him with a wave of their hand while some said short words of encouragement.

The few players who had just started the game and chosen the half-orc race were wide-eyed at this strange event. This had not happened to the other players who had left, while on the other games they had played, such treatment from the NPCs would only appear after a major event involving the game’s storyline.

Dawning had no idea what the other players were thinking. This sort of treatment was novel to him. He had always been treated like a madman by his colleagues, but hunting like a madman here, he ended up being treated like a hero.

Unsure how to react, he left the camp while keeping his usual composed expression, giving the vibe of a cool hero departing on a grand mission. Unfortunately, his half-orc appearance ruined the mood. In fact, he looked more like an evil warrior out to hunt the hero down.

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Oblivious to the image he was setting off, Dawning left the camp and followed the dirt path through the forest. The distance between this camp and the capital was not something to look down on. He expected it to be at least a three hour walk.

Walking won’t tire him out even if he walked for one week straight. That was because walking did not consume any of his Stamina Points. This convenient fact was something he learned in the game.

About fifteen minutes away from the camp, shadows appeared from the woods on both sides of the road. There were six men dressed in shabby leather armor. They held an assortment of weapons: daggers, shortswords, and hatchets, small bladed weapons that could be held in one hand.

The markers on their heads were neither green nor white. They were red, just like the marker color on top of the monsters after attacking them and drawing their hostility. It was the color of enmity.

It was easy to guess the identities of these men. They were bandits, preying on lone travellers going through this desolate road.

“Thinking back, all I’ve killed were animals…” A small smile subconsciously appeared on his face.

Without waiting for the bandits to take action, he dashed toward the nearest bandit while drawing his axe. Catching the bandit off-guard, the axe fell vertically and split the bandit into two, killing him in one stroke. The other five roared in anger and lunged toward Dawning.

He pulled his axe off the split corpse and stepped back, dodging the bandits’ wild attacks and parrying the others with his gauntlet. Left open after their attacks, Dawning took this chance and swung his axe horizontally, hitting the bandit on the rightmost of the group. The blade chopped off his arm and buried through the side of his chest. He was then lifted off the ground and smashed toward the bandit on his left causing that bandit to stumble.

Blocking the attack of the other bandits with his gauntlet, he stepped back once more. The axe’s edge left behind a trail of blood and gore.

Normally, Hector’s combat style involved dodging and counterattacking, dealing massive damage while receiving none. As, Dawning, he was blocking and parrying attacks with his gauntlet even though he could dodge those attack. The reason for this change in combat style was the Rage Point resource and the abilities he got from Arms Proficiency. He wanted to try those skills out.

After filling enough Rage Points, an ability appeared in his head: Power Swing. He jumped back after blocking an attack, then placed the axe over his shoulder. Gripping the handle with both hands, he felt power surge through him and into the axe. A chunk of red disappeared from his Rage Point bar and his Stamina points decreased as well.

One of the bandits took this chance to attack only to be the first subject of Dawning’s test. A dull red glow surrounded the axe as it reached the peak of stored power. Dawning took one step forward and let the unstoppable force unleash itself.

The axe swung forward at an incredible speed. To Dawning, it felt like the axe was launched and flew by itself, and he was just dragged along. The bandit tried to block with his shortsword, which easily snapped into two. In just a fraction of a second, the swing was complete, leaving only a trail of red light behind.

The bandit stood there with a surprised expression. Then, blood spilled from his mouth as his upper body from the chest up slid to the side. He was cleanly sliced through the chest.

The sight left the other four bandits aghast. One of them turned tail and ran, but he became Dawning’s next target. Chopped from behind, he fell down and spilt his blood on the dark soil.

The other three tried to fight back. The conclusion was easy to predict: It was a massacre.

Six corpses lay around the dirt road. The ground was stained dark red with their blood. Two of them were half-orcs, the one who ran was a half-elf, while the remaining three were humans.

Dawning tried to salvage their leather equipments, but those were beyond use and repair. He managed to take some of their weapons; low quality ones at most Lv.3. Their pouches were half-filled with silver and copper coins which he gladly took.

He then gathered the corpses and dumped them a distance from the roadside. If he had something to light a fire with, he would burn their corpses. For now, this would suffice.

After cleaning up, he continued on his walk to the capital like nothing happened, except for the additional stains on his clothes and the scratches on his gauntlet.