I decided to take a shortcut home so I could get back into the game quicker. I jogged along the road and peeked into the alleyways.
If I recall, there was a certain wall somewhere...There it is!
Building strength into my legs I agilely kicked against the wall with my right foot and leaped up, planting my uninjured hand on top of the wall to support my weight and cleared the 2-meter wall.
While jumping over, my sleeve collar shifted up and the hummingbird tattoo on my wrist was revealed.
Crap, I hope no one saw that. Tattoos were against the school dresscode, I don't want to get into unnecessary trouble.
I looked around and didn't see a soul. I think I'm good.
I caught my breath before taking a route home through back alleys with a quick jog, leaping over short walls or obstacles in the same manner as before. I managed to arrive home in less than five minutes, a new record!
Walking through the front door I noticed that no one had arrived home yet, Toku must still be at school, and Kai and dad are probably both at work.
I guess I'll just dive into the game myself today!
Opening up my capsule, I got comfy and closed my eyes, excited for what I would do in the game this time. My surroundings soon blurred and became the familiar barracks that I had logged out in.
Walking out to the training ground, I spotted my master talking with a few players who were probably looking for quests to take.
Not wanting to disturb them, I energetically ran through the rookie obstacle course a few times, warming up my stiff body before I started on the missions.
Oh! I should probably check out those gloves I got yesterday. Opening up my inventory I equipped my gloves when suddenly a notification rang through my head.
[Please design your bound gloves, they will be impossible to trade or drop once you do so.]
Man, this system is putting me on the spot. Ermmm, let's go with a sapphire, but the hummingbird and not the gem.
Designing a violet hummingbird identical to my tattoo, I placed it on the back of the left glove and hit the okay button.
[Lynx's Hummingbird Gloves have successfully been created.]
This is so cool! But I'll wear it once I'm out of town, wearing it in town might attract unnecessary attention. I put them back into my inventory and sneaked a glance at my mentor.
Still talking, ugh, I just want my next mission!
"Pfffft, hey look at that ranger over their pointlessly running the obstacle over and over again. Hah! Do they really think this game is reality?"
Hm? You know that I can hear you right? And also, my master is right in front of you, and he doesn't look real happy...
"How despicable, if you find it fun to look down on people training hard then I will find no peace in leaving you to do my tasks. Look somewhere else!" Abest scoffed at the swordsman before swiftly turning away from the party.
"H-hey wait! You're just some unimportant NPC! Don't act so cocky dammit!" The stunned player yelled, blood rushing up his face.
Realizing that I was staring at them, he stomped towards me. "It's all your fault you noob!"
Ignoring his panicking teammates who were desperately trying to calm him down, he rushed up to me with his sword drawn.
Huh? Why does he look really familiar for some reason, do I know him?
"You should just go die. I spent so long trying to get Marshall Abest to give me a special quest, but you just had to ruin it for me!"
"Fang! Stop, he's looking this way!" A mage warned, worriedly glancing at Abest who was staring at me.
Then my mentor grinned and looked the other way. Suddenly a notification window popped up.
Leaving me to fend for myself? Screw you! What sort of mentor does that?!
Skimming over the information my mouth dropped open in bewilderment.
[Disciple of a Legend: Quest updated 5/12
Goal: A player is unjustly trying to kill you in front of Marshall Abest, you must kill him to make your mentor proud!
Failure: You will have to re-do the entire quest chain for more training, no rewards will be given
Success: You will be given a higher reputation among the witnessing NPCs and the next mission of the quest chain]
Telling me to kill someone in broad daylight...?
Arghhh fine! I'll do it! You stupid program, all I wanted was to be an invisible player with no grudges...ngggh…
"Die!" Fang howled while swinging his sword down at me.
I clicked my tongue as I watched him leap at me. Why is his form full of so many holes? He seemed to act so toughly before, so why is he so weak? This is nothing compared to the training Toku gives me once a week.
I easily sidestepped and took out my knife, ending up behind him.
Stabbing him in the back would be hard with such a flimsy knife, so I flipped the knife to a reverse grip and cut at his open throat. His health instantly plummeted and he died with a shocked expression on his face, fading into white particles.
Wow, this game is seriously realistic. Aiming for vital areas in an instant-kill?
"No way...Fang was one-shot?"
"H-hey did you guys capture that on camera? That's an expert right there!"
"I think we were all too shocked to get it on film, ugh."
Um, aren't you his party members? Are you really supposed to be acting like this?
[Goal achieved:
20 reputation among NPCs
Marshall Abest looks towards you more favorably]
My master walked up to me with proud steps, patting me on the back.
"That was better than I expected Lynx! You did me mighty proud right there. Good work."
"It's all thanks to your guidance sir," I responded with a cheerful smile.
In the distance Fang's party members were shocked, the strict Marshall was actually patting a player on the back! They hurriedly kicked Fang out of the party and left the training grounds, scared that their reputation would drop if they stayed any longer.
"You are growing very fast, I have good eyes! Killing wimps like that guy is easy, but you still need more experience. There is a monster currently inhabiting the nearby forest. I want you to go slay it and keep the town safe!"
I've been doubting your eyesight since I met you.
[Quest Updated: The halfway point - 6/12
Abest is very proud of your performance, but you need to do more to show him that you are ready!
Go out into the 'Beginner's Forest' and kill the King of the Forest.
Failure: N/A
Success: You will be given a higher reputation among the town's NPCs and the next mission of the quest chain.]
"Yessir. I won't fail your expectations!"
I leaped up to the nearest roof and headed towards the forest.
Eh, for some reason running on the roofs is so much faster than walking down in the crowds. Makes me feel safer too, weird. I wonder if it's a ranger thing?
Also, that previous player I killed is making me feel uneasy. For some reason, I keep having a nagging feeling that I've met him somewhere before...maybe in real life? I can't tell since they probably altered their appearance.
But whatever, I had my hood on so I should be fine. I also equipped my gloves, because why not. Vanity items are meant to be worn.
In less than a minute, I had arrived at the gate while running at top speed. Scaling the wall, I sneakily leaped over while bypassing multiple guards, lining up to pay the gate fee was too boring. The guards were pretty weak too, although they averaged level 60 they couldn't sense me at all.
Jumping over the wall, I dashed into the forest, eager on completing this mission and getting another reward.
Oh, I just realized that I don't even know where to find this boss. Crap, my bad.
Quietly climbing up a tall tree I jumped from branch to branch, trying to find a comfy tree to hide in.
Spotting a good place to settle down in a tall tree, I checked my surroundings and then opened up the forum pages to look for information.
...
Why is the headliner a picture of...me? No, wait what?
Catching myself from falling off the tree in shock, I steadied myself and opened up the post.
[Mysterious cloaked player one shot seventh-highest ranker and is patted on the back by Abest!]
Hm? For some reason, this sounds really familiar...don't tell me Fang's party members posted about him getting killed?
Must hurt his ego.
Reading the comments I found a few that caught my eye.
-{Oh my god, I personally know how scary that NPC is. How in the world did that ranger get such a high favorability!? Brother ranger, if you see this, take me as your humble disciple!!!}
-{Being able to one-shot Fang isn't a big deal, everyone knows that he's just a spoiled pay-to-win player.}
-{I bet anyone ten copper that the mysterious ranger is actually the top ranker Lynx. No, I'll even bet 20.}
Huh. So someone called Lynx is the top ranker. Wait, isn't that my username?
…Wow. But honestly, I've been extremely lucky recently. I would be surprised if I wasn't on the leaderboard yet with all the free exp I'm getting.
...
Now that I think about it, why is the seventh ranker so weak? Someone in the comments said that he was just a pay-to-win player. Do those actually exist in this game?
…I'll just ignore this entire episode and look for information on that boss. Yeah, that's what I'll do, I never saw this post.
Searching up information on the King of the Forest that I was told to subjugate, I found a particular post that stood out.
[My entire party was wiped out by a giant mob in the beginner's forest?! Developers fix this bug!]
There was also a photo attached to the post and the coordinates of where they died. I guess I'll head over and see if that monster is still nearby then.
Hopping down from my seat in the tree, I grabbed onto a nearby branch and flung myself farther, repeating the action again and again.
If someone saw me they would probably think someone was a Tarzan wannabe. Once again I'm reminded of how grateful I am to my precious cloak!
Quickly arriving where the boss was last seen, I heard shouting and battle sounds resounding nearby.
Did someone get here before me? Hmm, it would take too long to wait for the monster to respawn. I'll check the situation out first.
Hiding high up in a tree I peeked over at the fight.
There were around twenty players all attacking a giant orc at once.
Hey, isn't that a little overkill?
However, after inspecting the boss I noticed how little damage each player was doing to the King of the Forest.
Overall the boss had 100,000 health, and each hit from an average player only did 10 damage. That would mean that each player in the party will have to hit the boss...500 times to kill it?
Math has never been my strong point.
I patiently watched them bring the health of the boss down slowly. If I was going to finish this mission I would have to play dirty, no way around it.
I sat down and got comfy while waiting for the players to slowly chip away at the boss's health. One by one, the players started to die.
Once the boss was down to 3% only a few players were still alive.
Alright, time to make my move.
Dropping down from my perch I sneaked behind a male mage who was busy firing off spells and was blind to his surroundings.
I hooked my left hand around his mouth and quickly pulled him into a bush. Holding my rookie knife in my other hand I cleanly swiped it across his defenseless neck, instantly killing him with a critical hit.
A clear sound rang out in my head and notifications popped up, but I didn't have time to check.
One down, five to go!
The rest of the players were too preoccupied with trying not to get hit that they didn't notice their mage's unnatural death.
Choosing a female priest as my next target I crept up with the Shadow Walker skill, which lets me become invisible to everyone under my level for a minute.
Too bad it had a cool-down of two hours.
Standing right in front of the unknowing girl, I covered her mouth with my hand pushed her down.
Once again taking my knife I cut her throat in the same manner. The priest's low health instantly vanished, white particles covering her corpse. She didn't even have time to figure out how she died.
That's two down.
Jumping back up onto a tree, I scanned the four people left. It won't be long before they find out someone is trying to steal their kill.
Oh, there they go.
Their attacks became more rushed, trying to kill the boss as quickly as they could, as they paranoidly looked around trying to find the mysterious killer. As a result, they began to show more openings for the boss to exploit.
There! A ranger was smashed to death, good job boss.
Three players left.
Taking my ranger crossbow, I shot at the orc's left hand.
The knockback of the arrow pushed the orc slightly back, conveniently helping the boss to narrowly avoid the tank's charge skill.
The orc recovered quickly and immediately finished the tank who had his back open to it.
Tank down, rest in peace.
With the aggro now focused on the defenseless thief and swordsman, the orc easily cut them both down, switching his attention to me, who was still perched in a tree.
His health was already below 1% so I charged forward with my knife, determined to finish my mission. My 22 points of agility aren't just for show!
Sliding underneath his legs to dodge an overhead smash I turned and stabbed at his open back, leaping backward to avoid another sweep of his club.
Ah, I forgot how useless my rookie knife was…
The knife that I had tried to stab into his heart had only penetrated his skin, barely damaging him.
Instinctively jumping into a tall tree to avoid another swing of his large club, I took out my crossbow and shot at his eye.
The giant orc roared at me in frustration, clawing at his busted eye while recklessly swinging his weapon at the tree.
Barely jumping out of the tree I quickly perched in another, aiming once again for his vital areas.
I shot another arrow, jumped to another tree.
And I did it again. Behold my grand kiting technique!
Don't make fun of me, if you want strategies, go to Toku.
Oh, while I'm doing this, were you wondering why a beginner like me could use a crossbow so well?
That's cause Kai is a master at archery, and he teaches me during his free time.
You don't need to point it out, I know my family is pretty special.
Oh no, I ran out of arrows.
…
Hm. Should I try to punch this guy to death?
While busying myself with becoming Tarzan and thinking of how I would kill this orc, I suddenly spotted the knife that was still miserably stuck on its back.
Bingo.
Instead of retreating to another tree as I did before, I waited until the boss was close enough to touch before I made my move.
Pushing off the tree I somersaulted over the giant and landed on its shoulders, yanking out the knife and mercilessly stabbing it into its other eye.
I feel like an acrobat.
The orc's angry roar shook the forest, in his rage it dropped his club and attempted to grab hold of me.
Deftly avoiding his grasp, I quickly jumped off his shoulder.
Picking up the club that it had thrown aside, I struggled to pick it up and swung hard at the knife that was still buried in its face. The knife was forced through its skull, piercing its brain and finally finishing off the rest of the boss' health.
A sound once again rang through my mind, I ignored it and took a deep breath.
Whew. Killing a boss sure is taxing, I need to work out more.