The two wooden swords moved across the air. They weren't synchronized perfectly, but the attack was stronger than an ordinary attack. It also made defending the attack harder as the swords were moving in different directions.
Anthon frowned and took a powerful step forward. He switched the grip on the steel broadsword and swung it around to block the two wooden swords. He managed to deflect the first wooden sword, but the second wooden sword struck him in the shoulder.
A small blue holographic notification bar appeared in Anthon's vision. He saw that he had lost a little bit of health.
Cauldron raised his leg and slammed it into Ambrose's gut, sending him flying across a small distance.
Ambrose tumbled to the ground but quickly rose back to his feet with his messy, long hair covering his face.
[You lost 8 HP!]
[HP: 3/30]
"Hahaha, Anthon, you got hit!" Ignite laughed loudly while casually swinging the steel sword around him.
"Yeah, my Dexterity isn't high enough to have been able to block both swords." Anthon quickly analyzed his own mistake and what he should have done.
"Here." Cauldron tossed Anthon a small piece of bread.
Anthon caught it and ate it. His health bar immediately became full once again.
Tip, tip... a small blue-eyed squirrel appeared on one of the tree branches. It was curiously looking at the battle happening before its eyes.
Ambrose glanced sideways and then returned his gaze to the front. He tightened his grip on both swords, took a deep breath, and raised them above his head once again.
"Basic Slash!"
Ignite stepped forward and put his steel broadsword in front of him. His playful gaze disappeared, and he now looked like a veteran warrior who had visited thousands of battlegrounds.
Ambrose moved across the ground, and once he was at attacking range, he bent his knees and swung both swords down.
Ignite grabbed the sword with both hands and swung it up into the air. The steel blade appeared in the path of both swords.
The three swords clashed mid-air, causing resounding clangs that echoed across a small distance.
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 21%]
Ignite's muscles bulged, and he took another powerful step forward, then swung the steel broadsword powerfully, pushing the two wooden swords away from him.
Ambrose's feet slid across the ground as he couldn't stop Ignite's powerful slash. Beads of sweat dropped to the ground as he was being pushed back constantly.
"Hah!" Ignite shouted and sent Ambrose flying backwards with the powerful slash.
Ambrose flew past trees and barely managed to contact the ground with his feet before he fell down or crashed into something that would have made his HP nonexistent.
Anthon, Cauldron, and Ignite walked past the tree and appeared in front of Ambrose. Their presence was suffocating and despair inducing.
"Basic Slash." Anthon raised the sword above his head. He slowly bent his knees and took another glance at Ambrose's dull blue eyes before swinging his sword down.
Ambrose looked at the approaching sword. He imagined his body being split in two by that strike. He wanted to move out of the way but knew it would just prolong his inevitable death.
'Please land...' He lifted the right sword above his head. However, he didn't slash it down, but hurled it across the sky.
Ignite and Cauldron followed the flying sword with their eyes. It missed them by a great margin, it wasn't even close.
Anthon frowned and slashed through Ambrose's face. The sword went through the face as if it were a hot knife cutting through butter. Light blue pixels appeared in the air before disappearing like a faint echo.
Ambrose saw the world spinning around as his head flew across the air. He saw the whole world flip upside down and then saw the brilliant crimson moon.
At last, everything turned dark, but before that, he heard a small dinging echo in his ear before he disappeared from the forest.
"Hmm, he dropped a wooden spear. I thought he was a swordsman." Ignite crouched on the ground and took the wooden spear.
"It must've been inside his inventory, stolen from another player." Anthon said and saw a pouch appear on the ground. He opened it and raised his eyebrow. "13 silvers."
Cauldron saw the thrown wooden sword on the ground and went to pick it up. However, he then noticed something strange. There was animal blood on the blade.
"Hmm?" He turned to the side and saw light blue pixels seeping into the ground. At the place of the pixels, perfectly intact squirrel skin appeared out of nowhere.
'A squirrel? He happened to kill a squirrel accidentally with that throw?' Cauldron picked it up and tossed it and the sword into his inventory.
...
[You are dead!]
[Do you want to revive?]
[Yes/No]
Ambrose hovered in the empty black space and saw the two options. He slowly pressed the "Yes" option and once again disappeared from the place.
When he opened his eyes the next time, he saw the night city of Amaterasu. The streets weren't as bustling anymore; mostly players were walking in the streets. The NPCs had closed their stores and returned home.
'Now, what did I lose?' He first checked his inventory and noticed that he was missing one wooden spear. 'A wooden spear, not bad. And since I threw the wooden sword, I only have two remaining.'
After closing the inventory, he wanted to check something else. His heart was beating nervously.
"Interface..."
***
[Name: Ambrose]
[Level: 2]
[Class: Swordsman]
[Title: ]
[XP: 0/125]
[HP: 35/35]
[SP: 10]
[Silver: 0]
[STR: 10]
[CHA: 0]
[INT: 3]
[LUC: 1]
[AGI: 1]
[VIT: 20]
[DEX: 5]
[STA: 10]
***
'Yes, I reached level 2!' Ambrose felt like a huge boulder had been lifted off his shoulder. He found a bench to sit on and then caught his breath. He felt that his stamina was quite low, as he only managed to fight this far because of adrenaline.
'As expected, you can't lose your level. Thank god.'
'I lost all my silver...' Ambrose sighed, as this caused pain in his chest. However, he considered himself lucky that he didn't lose much more.
'10 stat points, which stat do I need?' He remembered the fights he'd been in, but his thoughts always went in the direction of the previous fight. He began thinking of ways that would have helped him fight.
'Strength? No, it isn't wise to try a battle of strength against three opponents; it would leave too many openings.
'Charm? Hah, nope.
'Intelligence? Maybe with higher intelligence, I could have learned Dual Basic Slash quicker. If I had it 100% completed, maybe I could have killed one of them. That is a big maybe. Intelligence is definitely useful, but I do not have a big need for it yet.
'Luck? From what I heard from RedBand, luck doesn't affect other players. It only affects my luck if I get better drops from animals and treasure chests. I will increase this occasionally, but not now.
'Vitality? It is one of the most important stats, but I already received 5 HP from leveling up. I can keep my HP relatively high with food, so I don't need to increase it much.
'Dexterity? Hmm... That guy spoke about dexterity. If he had more dexterity, he could have blocked my Dual Basic Slash. Dexterity helps players ability to perform skills using their hands, which is the most important stat for dual wielding...
'However, should I really go for dual wielding? It was very difficult, and I would need to practice it a lot. I might not even be necessarily stronger with it than with just one sword. Should I really spend time on this? It will put me behind other players.
'However. Those three guys blocked my one sword attacks pathetically easily, but when I used two swords, they were having a difficult time. From what I understand, no one goes for dual wielding since it is unnecessarily difficult.
'That could mean no one has learned to fight against dual-wielding swordsman... It could be my trump card.
'Yeah, that sounds good enough.
'Now, stamina. I need it. I will split the stat points between Dexterity and Stamina.'
Ambrose turned his gaze to the hovering interface and started assigning the stats.
***
[Name: Ambrose]
[Level: 2]
[Class: Swordsman]
[Title: ]
[XP: 0/125]
[HP: 35/35]
[SP: 0]
[Silver: 0]
[STR: 10]
[CHA: 0]
[INT: 3]
[LUC: 1]
[AGI: 1]
[VIT: 20]
[DEX: 10]
[STA: 15]
After Ambrose finished assigning the stats, he took out both of his wooden swords and tested his new Dexterity by swinging them around.
He still looked clumsy, but he felt a little bit more comfortable. only a little bit.
'Doubling the Dexterity barely made a dent.' Ambrose thought. 'Well, that was expected. It would be strange if I suddenly could perfectly use dual wielding. It is a long road before I can confidently say that I am a great swordsman.'
Ambrose then moved both swords above his head. 'It's time to test my new stamina as well. I can try increasing the completion rate of Dual Basic Slash at the same time.'
"Basic Slash!"
Walking down the street, a short-haired player yawned. "Yaaaawn. Damn, I feel tired even inside the game? I suppose I should log out soon."
"Heh, I plan on visiting the bathroom before continuing again. I plan on playing the whole night and getting ahead of other players!" His friend said excitedly.
"Well, I have school tomorrow, damn it." The short-haired player clicked his tongue. "I wish I could act sick, but my parents definitely wouldn't let me play either!"
"Unlucky." His friend laughed and patted his shoulder.
The short-haired player rolled his eyes and then noticed a lonely silhouette in the nearby park. He was dual wielding swords while swinging them down. The park was otherwise empty.
"Dual wielding, hah." The short-haired player shook his head. "I tried dual wielding in Viking Online, and it's damn difficult. That guy is wasting his time."
"Hmm." His friend looked towards the park and at the messy, black-haired young man. "I don't know, dual wielding is kind of cool. It is something I can only dream of doing. Unfortunately, it's not very practical when most of the skills are designed for a single sword.
"I went to check other dojos and fighting schools; none of them were teaching dual wielding. It is hard to learn it alone."
"Well, I chose Spearman for a reason. I know most of the players chose the swordsman class, so I think with a spear, I can have an advantage over them." The short-haired player said and turned away from the park.
"I think my real-life body has to empty the bladder. See you tomorrow?" His friend said. He still planned to return after finishing eating and visiting the bathroom, but the short-haired player couldn't.
"Yeah, see ya." The short-haired player opened his interface and logged out. The two players vanished, leaving only floating pixels behind.
In the park, Ambrose lowered both swords with a deep frown.
He looked at the notification bar in front of him.
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 60%]
'I can't improve it further. It has been stuck at 60% for the past five minutes. I don't think I can swing these swords even one more time; my stamina is at rock bottom...
'Well, what I learned is that my stamina is greater than before, but still not great. Way better than my real life stamina, though. Also, I don't think I can improve the completion rate because my Dexterity isn't high enough...
'Learning skills really isn't as simple.'
Ambrose stored his swords inside the inventory and sat down with a sweaty forehead.
"It's too late to visit the merchant store. They are closed for tonight, but tomorrow I should go sell the wild hog tusks, the spear, wooden bow, and the five arrows.
"However, for now, there is nothing else to do." Ambrose opened his interface and looked at the logout button. He sighed and pressed on it.
His body parts slowly turned into pixels, spreading around him like a blue fire.
Ambrose turned his gaze towards the crimson moon while his face was turning into pixels.
'See you tomorrow...'
...
After a few seconds of struggling to open his eyes, Jesse managed to see the golden visor of his VR headset. He was inside an uninviting room with a small light coming from the lamp.
The slightly open curtains showed a cityscape with a dark starry sky and a grayish moon. The city of Nocklund had entered that time of night when no one roamed the streets.
Jesse groaned and took out the VR headset, which he then placed gently on top of the bedside table.
After sitting up, he tried to stand up from his bed's edge. However, a sharp pain appeared in the soles of his feet.
Jesse panicked and stopped thinking about standing up. He looked at his legs and painfully scratched the bedsheets with anger and frustration.
After close to ten hours of playing Martial Online, he got the illusion that he was a normal person. Unfortunately, after leaving the magical world, he was struck by the harsh reality.
"Wait..." Jesse spoke with a hoarse tone, as if he hadn't used his voice for quite some time. He looked at his right wrist, which he used to scratch the bedsheet.
He gently rubbed the right wrist, which was supposed to be broken, and only felt a small amount of pain.
"Weird, it's not as bad as before." Jesse let out a sigh. "That's the only good thing, it seems. I guess the fracture wasn't as bad as I thought..."
He then hopped onto the wheelchair and wheeled out of his room. The hallway and downstairs were dark, as his parents had already gone to bed.
However, there was a small light coming from below his little sister's door. She often stayed up late.
Jesse entered the bathroom and finished his business there before moving on to the downstairs. His stomach was rumbling with hunger.
After using the one-seater machine to reach downstairs, he rolled to the kitchen, flicked the lightswitch, and opened the refrigerator's door.
The refrigerator didn't have any leftover food, and there was only one milk bottle left.
Jesse grabbed the milk bottle and placed it on his lap. Then he looked at what he should eat since there wasn't much in there. He soon decided on a piece of bread with butter and jam, then also took out cereal and a bowl from the cupboard.
He carried them on his lap to the table and placed them there. Then he hopped off his wheelchair and onto the wooden chair.
After spreading butter and jam across the piece of bread, he filled the bowl with cereal and poured milk into it.
He started eating the cereal with a spoon while occasionally taking a bite off the tough bread.
Since the downstairs was dark except for the kitchen, the whole place seemed very lonely.
Jesse silently ate while staring at the empty living room and the black TV screen.
After he finished eating, he went to the sink, washed off the bowl and spoon, and then returned them to their rightful place. He then cleaned off the mess he left on the table before returning to the one-seater machine.
He then returned to his room and closed the door right behind him.
The first thing he ensured was that the VR headset was still there. After seeing it intact, he relaxed significantly and hopped back on the bed.
"Is there anything new on the forums..." Jesse yawned and felt tired, but he didn't feel like sleeping before reading some stuff from the forums.
Therefore, he pulled out his phone and opened the forums.