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5.49% Martial Online. / Chapter 29: Plague Crows

Bab 29: Plague Crows

Ambrose tapped his chin while pondering the stats.

'Strength. I haven't added anything to it since the first time I assigned stats, and I only have 10 on it, which seems low.

'Charm, I have seen a difference in how NPCs acted around me, but that could be because of the trial. I still don't know how it works, but again, I only have five stats on it.

'Intelligence—I think this is something I have to focus on. It most likely helps to learn techniques, and I now have the Skill Scroll; maybe it is the key to creating your own skill!

'Luck, I don't need it for now.

'Agility can wait.

'Vitality, leveling up gave me another 5 HP.

'Dexterity, I need it.

'Stamina, don't need it now.'

After thinking about all the stats, he concluded that there were only three he should focus on. However, since he only had 10 stat points to use, he removed one of those stats and decided to put half on Dexterity and the other half on Intelligence.

He nodded and started assigning the stats.

***

[Name: Ambrose]

[Level: 4]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Title: ]

[XP: 9/175]

[HP: 45/45]

[SP: 0]

[Silver: 5]

[STR: 10]

[CHA: 5]

[INT: 8]

[LUC: 6]

[AGI: 1]

[VIT: 20]

[DEX: 15]

[STA: 15]

***

'Now, with higher Dexterity and Intelligence, perhaps I can complete Dual Basic Slash?'

Ambrose looked around and soon found an empty park. He went there and took out both his steel shortswords.

"Basic Slash!" He then started doing Basic Slash and hoped that his completion rate would increase.

[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 70%]

Ambrose let out a small laugh as it suddenly increased by 10%. He had tried using the demo Dual Basic Slash version in fights before, but it wasn't that strong.

It was because he was just trying to mimic Dual Basic Slash. He realized that when he did the Basic Slash and the version where he didn't say it aloud, the difference in strength, accuracy, and speed of the attack was vast.

Therefore, acquiring Dual Basic Slash with a 100% completion rate was incredibly crucial if he wanted to increase his strength.

"Basic Slash!"

[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 80%]

"Basic Slash!"

[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 90%]

"Basic Slash!]

[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 100%]

"Haah..." Ambrose lowered his swords while panting loudly. He let out a laugh. "Yes!"

He looked at the two swords and moved both over his shoulders. He then slightly leaned forward, bent his knees, and turned serious.

"Dual Basic Slash!"

With perfect synchronization, Ambrose hacked both swords down and slashed across the empty air powerfully. The blades stopped inches from the ground, but even the grass blades got cut.

'I doubt anyone else has this skill.' Ambrose thought. 'Only dual wielders can have this, and from what I heard, we are a dying breed. No one dares to try dual wielding as it is too difficult.'

Ambrose looked at the two swords in his hands. 'I can already see why no one goes for dual wielding. It needs a lot of coordination, muscle memory, and practice.

'It is not very practical, even though I can strike from two different sides at the same time. I just need to spend a lot of time honing my muscle memory and coordination. It needs a lot of practice, and since people can get stronger just by leveling up, I will be left behind.

'However, I do not plan on abandoning this path.'

...

After waking up from his dreamy state, Jesse removed the VR headset and placed it gently on his bedside table.

He again felt his stomach rumbling and the bathroom calling for him.

He groaned and sat up, but at that moment, he looked at his right wrist and gently rubbed it with a strange expression.

'Hmm, it is not very painful anymore.' Jesse tried to apply more pressure and felt sharp pain, but nothing serious. "I guess it wasn't that bad. I have gotten over a thousand fractures in my life, yet this one healed the fastest."

Jesse shrugged his shoulders, hopped on his wheelchair, and made a quick trip to the bathroom. Then he went to the dark kitchen, ate until his stomach was relatively full, and returned to his room.

The house was eerily quiet, as everyone was already asleep, even Holly.

Jesse laid back on his bed and pulled out his phone. He planned to check the forums before falling asleep.

After opening the phone, he received an old message.

"Oh, he paid." Jesse murmured. He received 500 crowns from Prince and now felt slightly quilty for exposing his location to Barbarian.

"I better keep my distance from those two." He sighed. "They are way stronger than I am, and getting on their bad side would just hurt me."

"They are also destined to be important figures in Amaterasu; I can already see it." Jesse sighed and opened the forums. "Is there anything interesting here..."

After scrolling down, there wasn't really anything that took him by surprise. There didn't seem to be any new information either.

Jesse closed the phone and looked at the ceiling until his eyelids grew heavy.

'I wonder... what I should do tomorrow... in Martial Online...'

With those thoughts, he fell asleep without knowing that tomorrow would be the day to remember.

...

Martial Online, Crow Forest, near the Crow Cave.

Prince sat on top of the boulder and looked at the figure that was sitting on the field of dead plants. Barbarian continued smiling while sharpening his axe's blade.

However, he had no intention of leaving the field of dead plants. He occasionally stood up to stretch and killed a few animals that crossed his path.

Prince narrowed his eyes and then heard footsteps coming from the cave. A tired-looking young man left the cave with a small smile. He turned to the stone tablet with a smile.

[The Leaderboard of Crow Cave]

[1. Anthon]

[2. Cauldron]

[3. Ignite]

[4. Ambrose]

[5. Prince]

[6. Worshipper]

[7. WarAnchor]

[8. MysticKnight]

[9. Temperance]

[10...]

"Temperance, how did it go?" A red-haired young man asked the player who had just left the cave. The red-haired young man was the person who was supposed to take the trial next.

Prince's friends, Worshipper, WarAnchor, and MysticKnight, sat around a comforting campfire. They were also looking in the direction of Barbarian with weapons in hand.

"It went well; good luck." Temperance patted his friend's shoulder and walked to the boulder, then glanced towards Barbarian. "He is still here?"

"Yes," Prince said. "And he has no intention of leaving."

"What does he want?" Temperance asked.

"I don't know. It is impossible to know what is running through his mind." Prince said and turned to the red-haired young man. "Go, RedDevil."

RedDevil nodded and entered the cave with a nervous expression but excited nonetheless.

The time flew by.

Prince and Barbarian continued to look at each other. Their eyes were cold and serious. The atmosphere was tense, and only the crackling of the fire sounded in this part of the forest.

However, at that moment, the silence was broken by a loud caw.

Prince and Barbarian both swung their heads in the direction of the noise and widened their eyes in shock.

The top of the mountain exploded, and thousands of black-feathered crows flew out from it. They disappeared into the night sky, but they could still hear the flapping of their wings.

"No..." Prince leaped off the boulder and rushed into the cave, immediately followed by his trusted friends. They smashed through the granite door, ran down the hallway, and found themselves in a dark room.

There, they saw a red-haired young man lying on a pond of blue blood.

"RedDevil!" Prince shouted and ran to his friend. He crouched beside him and asked. "What happened?"

"Ugh... I am sorry..." RedDevil whispered, and his body was slowly turning into transparent pixels. "I failed..."

"Leader..." Worshipper was a serious-looking man with handsome facial features and combed black hair. He now looked even more serious than ever before. "The crows..."

"We need to return now." Prince stood up, and he looked extremely serious. "The crows are going to Amaterasu."

...

Thousands of black-feathered crows flew across the sky with immense speed. They soon left the airspace of the forest and saw a vast city in the distance, protected by ten-meter tall walls. However, those walls couldn't protect them from the crows.

The crows let out loud caws and continued their flight to the Amaterasu while corrupting everything on their path.


next chapter

Bab 30: World Quest

Jesse woke up after the sunlight fell on his face.

He immediately did his mourning routine in the bathroom, then went to the kitchen with his wheelchair. The house was empty as his parents went to work and his little sister to school.

As he munched on the bread, he thought about checking the news while eating. He didn't have anything else to do other than eat and stare at the emptiness.

'I am curious whether Martial Online has made any comments about upcoming updates.' Jesse thought while rolling towards the living room. He grabbed the TV remote and returned to the kitchen table.

After he got seated, he pressed the TV remote start button.

The TV immediately showed a channel with running TV shows. His father often watched his favorite shows on this channel. However, during the morning, there wasn't anything interesting to watch.

Therefore, he changed channels until he found something interesting. Soon, he found a channel where news was about to start.

Jesse put the TV remote down and continued eating while watching the news.

The news started with beautiful and handsome news anchors stating their names.

"My name is Sara, and this is Nocklund's Morning News." A beautiful woman with long blonde hair was sitting behind a crescent-shaped desk. She held a stack of papers, and there were glasses on her nosebridge, making her look intellectual.

"And my name is Aaron." A handsome middle-aged man spoke with a deep voice. His voice was very pleasant to listen to. His face had a brownish hue, meaning that he was from Southern Nocklund. He also wore a black suit with a blue tie and black trousers.

Sara arranged the papers in her hands and started talking. "Last night, a few minutes after midnight, a strange phenomenon occurred in Martial Online."

'Martial Online?' Jesse almost spat out the bread. "I didn't expect the game to be this big; even the news is talking about it. But strange phenomena? I wonder what happened."

Aaron continued, "Murder of Crows appeared from the nearby Crow Forest and entered a city called Amaterasu. It is one of the starting areas for players. It seemed harmless at first, but then the Murder of Crows started attacking everything that moved.

"Then, an event called "World Quest" commenced, and every player was able to take part in it. The goal is simple: kill all the crows and rescue as many Non-Player Characters as possible.

"At the end of the event, the players would be rewarded. However, since the event started late at night, players were greatly at a disadvantage, and a lot of casualties happened on both the players' and NPCs' sides.

"If you wish to take part in the event, hop on Martial Online. Unfortunately, the event is closed for players from Yatagarasu and Tsukuyomi."

Jesse dropped the bread, and it fell to the floor.

"What the hell!" He quickly climbed on his wheelchair and rolled towards upstairs as quickly as he could. He waited for the one-seater machine to take him to the second floor.

'Murder of Crows... from Crow Forest... Could it be from Crow Cave?' Jesse exclaimed and quickly hopped on the one-seater machine, folded the wheelchair, and put it on his lap.

'So, if even one player failed the trial, World Quest would happen?' Jesse looked upstairs impatiently. He wanted to hop off the seat and run to his room, but he felt sharp pain in his leg bones and didn't dare take the risk.

'One of Prince's friends must have failed... So, in a sense, I am responsible for the start of this World Quest?'

Jesse gritted his teeth, and soon the one-seater reached the top floor. He unfolded the wheelchair, hopped on it, and went straight to his room.

In there, he hopped on his bed, grabbed the VR headset, and put it around his head.

'A single decision can have such crazy consequences.' Jesse thought and closed his eyes.

...

Ambrose opened his eyes, and immediately ear-splitting screams entered his ears. He looked around the street, and there were black feathers everywhere, falling from the ground and corrupting the streets.

The NPCs panicked in the streets, rushing to their homes and indoors.

Black-feathered crows flew across the sky, looking for their target, and when they found one, they dove down and sunk their claws into the skin of their target.

[Welcome to World Quest: Attack of Disease Crows!]

[Your current rank is 37,495!]

[Kill crows and protect NPCs to receive rewards at the end of the World Quest!]

[Good luck, Ambrose!]

"Simple enough." Ambrose thought out loud and pulled out both his shortswords from his inventory. He then looked around for crows to kill.

"Ah!" A middle-aged man ran from a dark alleyway and tripped on the sidewalk. Without even a second's delay, three crows chased after him and began clawing at his scalp.

The middle-aged NPC screamed in horror as he tried to shake off the crows.

"Dual Basic Slash!" Ambrose lunged forward, brought the swords above his head, and hacked them down. The two swords slashed through two of the crows, separating them in half.

The last remaining crow was frightened and returned airborne, but before it could escape, Ambrose caught it in mid-air with a powerful sword strike to its neck.

The crow fell to the ground and died instantly.

[You killed 3x Disease Crows!]

[3 XP Earned!]

[XP: 12/175]

"Ah." The middle-aged man shakily raised his head and saw the three dead crows. Then he turned to look at his savior and whispered. "T-Thank you."

"Go inside." Ambrose said and pointed to a nearby store, where many NPCs were already hiding and peeking from the windows.

The middle-aged man nodded his head and ran to the store while almost tripping several times.

Ambrose looked to the end of the street and saw some wooden and steel arrows flying across the sky, trying to hit any of the flying crows.

With two swords in hand, he began rushing towards the source of the fighting.

...

"Argh!" Barbarian stomped down feather-filled streets while smashing his axe into a crow's head. His arms and face were filled with bloody scratches.

His health bar was also blinking red, and he didn't have any more food to eat to regain his HP. There also weren't any street vendors selling them, as they would get attacked by the crows.

He was in a very bad situation, but he had no choice but to keep going forward.

At that moment, a messy, blond-haired young man jumped from a rooftop with seven crows munching on his skin. He crashed into the building's side and fell to the ground.

He rolled on the sidewalk, trying to get rid of the crows. However, their claws were like sticky glue, impossible to get rid of.

Barbarian grabbed his axe with both hands and lunged towards the crows with a mighty scream. With one slash, he got rid of four of the seven crows.

That gave the blond-haired young man enough time to pick up his sword and swing it at the remaining three crows.

After the three crows got their bodies split in half, the blond-haired young man rose to his feet with an exhausted expression.

"Haha, you are not looking too well... Prince." Barbarian smirked, but his arms were shaking. He also wasn't looking too well.

Prince combed his messy hair with his hand and sat on the ground next to the dead crows.

"Neither are you." Prince said in exhaustion.

Barbarian scoffed and leaned on the wall while trying to catch his breath.

However, both of them heard sounds of screaming and flapping wings. They both rolled their eyes.

Prince climbed to his feet and slowly walked towards the sound of the screams.

"He sure wants the top spot in the rankings..." Barbarian chuckled and breathed rapidly before slamming his fist on the wall and continuing to slaughter the crows.


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