It was the same as before. A fit of intense nausea followed the short blackout. It was much more manageable this time, considering the symptoms weren't mixed in with Tal poisoning, but it most definitely still wasn't something I would seek out.
Consciousness returned quickly, and when it did I was met by the same room in which we stopped to celebrate beforehand. This time, however, there wasn't a sign of life.
I looked around the area, my heart sank further.
There was also no sign of death.
Not a trace of Bern or Hallia remained, it seemed that their bodies would be forever entrapped in that accursed chamber.
The urge to push open the door and retrieve the bodies hit me for just a second. Thankfully, it was overpowered by my own common sense. I had already declined the quest, who's to say the boss wasn't already reset, ready to attack the next poor soul who touched the door.
So I did the only thing I could think to do.
I waited in silence.
-
I spent a good hour or so just sitting there in silence, reflecting on the events that had just taken place.
These were not good thoughts.
Rather quickly, I had to idle my hands to keep the regrets from slipping in.
I chose to train with my new twin blade.
-
The weapon was honestly incredible. Even at my low level of use, spinning and thrusting the blade around felt like following a complex dance.
It was a challenge to not injure myself in the process. The double-ended blade was an unruly beast, and an uncontrolled swing or shallow cut could end up giving me a not so shallow gash.
The injuries of my first 15 minutes instilled a caution inside me for the following.
This battle between caution and fitness left me feeling conflicted. The more reservedly I swung the twin-blade, the clunkier my movements became. It felt as though I would have to let go of these reservations if I actually wanted to be able to wield in a real fight.
[ Internal Tal Contract ]
Title - Path of the Twin-Blade ( 1 / 8 )
Difficulty - E+
- Objective
To walk the path of the twin-blade is to walk alongside danger and grace. The masters of this weapon are true demons of the battlefield, however, their incredible difficulty to master has given them a negative stigma.
Begin the path of the twin-blade by reaching Twin-Blade Mastery (Beginner) ( 0 / 1 )
- Rewards
[ Skill - Blade Dance ]
[ Accept Quest ]
[ Yes ] [ No ]
The pop up surprised me. I was under the impression that I could only get these contracts externally.
I read over the contents of the message. To be honest, a small part of me wanted to decline. I knew myself well enough to understand that dexterity hadn't been a strong suit of mine in the past.
In fact, it was one of my lowest current stats. The idea of taking on the path of one of the highest skill dexterity weapons out there seemed a little bit out of my depth.
Ill-fitted, at the very least.
There was one thing erking at me, the correlation between my weapon and my condition. Just in reading over their descriptions, I knew that there was no true link between the two, and the weapon would likely be used as a glorified reverse IV for me, however, I just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something there.
And if there was something to be discovered, it would most definitely be worth pursuing. At least, I hoped.
I sighed and read over the contract one last time, only then did a detail catch my eye.
I decided to ask the system itself about it, "Hey, system-thing, I thought that you were all hands-off, what is this about providing me with a skill?"
Conveniently enough, another pop-up followed suit.
[ Note ]
Tal contract rewards are not provided by the system, there are things that you are guaranteed to learn, find or do during your completion of the contract. In this case, internal Tal contracts function as tools to facilitate learning and progress.
[ Note End ]
The note made sense. If I remembered correctly, there was nothing other than items listed for the completion of the dungeon contract.
In any sort of game-like situation, there would often be titles, skills, or exp waiting for completion, but in this case, those were likely the items you would find in chests such as the one containing the twin-blade I was holding.
I smiled, so there was no downside in taking this quest on then!
I quickly accepted the notification.
[ Quest Accepted ]
Begin the path of the twin-blade by reaching Twin-Blade Mastery (Beginner) ( 0 / 1 )
- Complete 1000 downward swings ( 0 / 1000 )
- Complete the previous objective to unlock the next.
Note: Other weapon mastery quests cannot be taken on until this quest is completed.
My face froze, "oh."
I was locked in, at least for the moment.
I sighed loudly and collapsed onto my butt, causing sand to fly everywhere.
Of course, there was a catch, there's always a catch.
One final time, I looked down at the blade in my hands. What was I doing? Cold feet, just because I chose a difficult weapon. No, I tightened my grip around the thorny handle. A path had been laid in front of me, it was the least I could do to follow it.
-
I dropped to my knees, arms limp at my sides. My breaths felt like I was breathing magma after each troubled breath. I overestimated both my stamina and my strength.
Begin the path of the twin-blade by reaching Twin-Blade Mastery (Beginner) ( 0 / 1 )
- Complete 1000 downward swings ( 103 / 1000 )
- Complete the previous objective to unlock the next.
It had been nearly three hours. At first, I was throwing out swings like they were nothing, trying to maximize my swings per second.
At this pace, I felt as though this was going to be much easier than I thought. That was, until I checked the quest progression. Where I expected to find somewhere near 400 swings, I found myself with 0.
I swung my twin-blade down as I had been doing prior.
The number didn't increment.
My eyebrow twitched in frustration.
I tried again, slowly and carefully swinging my blade in what I assumed to be the correct form.
From this moment, I spent nearly an hour attempting different swings, different stances, and different grips.
Down from above my head, two-handed down from the side, swinging down from the left. verticle stab down.
- Complete 1000 downward swings ( 1 / 1000 )
My heart jumped when I finally saw that number.
The steps were a sort of spinning downward swing, utilizing both of my hands on the handle. The movement was hard to isolate, primarily because it felt like a single step of many, causing the action to feel clunky when standing alone.
At the moment, that didn't matter, I was over the moon. My training had finally begun.
That feeling of excitement soon wore away the fatigue as well, but I was satisfied. I had learned and made progress, and I had a clear objective standing in front of me.
With this, my day's training came to an end, and with it came back all of the worries and regrets I had been staving off.
Primarily, why had no one come out to meet him yet.