After I joined their party, I could see their names.
Storm [Lightning Mage] Lvl. 12
HP: [950/950]
Tyrant [Shield Warrior] Lvl. 13
HP: [1200/1200]
Cecilia [Priest] Lvl. 11
HP: [950/950]
Blade Dance [Thief] Lvl. 11
HP: [Dead]
Silent Night [Thief] Lvl. 12
HP: [Dead]
After seeing the the two dead teammates, I told them. "We should revive our teammates for now. Then we can go back to town and stock up on anything we need then meetup at the east gate afterwards.
After we revived Blade Dance and Silent Night, the 2 were really excited to meet me.
"You are who I aspire to become like ingame. Me and my brother studied your livestream lastnight. The feint you did against that boss was awesome. How did you pull it off?" Blade Dance is a 15 year old girl. She was very interested in the techniques I used against the boss I faced yesterday. Silent Night is her brother. As his name states, he doesn't talk much. Blade Dance spent a very long time convincing her brother to play the thief class.
Silent Night is slightly better at being a thief than Blade Dance. While we were killing monsters on the way back to town, I gave them pointers on how to hold their daggers, how react when a player attacks them, and skill completion.
Before we got back to town I managed to reach level 16 and everyone else managed to get to level 14. Tyrant was only a little ways off from reaching Level 15.
Before splitting up in town and restocking on potions and bandages, I stopped Blade Dance and Silent Night. "I have 2 skill books for you guys." I took out my [Assassination] skill books and handed it to the both of them.
When Silent Night saw the skill book, he opened his eyes wide. This was the first time I had seen his expression change then entire time we were partied up together. Blade Dance's reaction was way more exaggerated. She was dumbfounded when she saw this.
"Where did you find this skill book? This skill is amazing. It's the perfect thief skill." Her hands were shaking from excitement.
"I actually... made this skill book..."
"Really?"
I nod.
"Thank you." Silent Night finally says something after not talking the entire time. He immediately learned the skill book. And left while dragging his sister away to get supplies.
While they were gone, I decided to checkout the Shadow Dancer Manual that I got when I was playing last night. What I was surprised to see was that it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be. It was actually a set of advanced combat and movement techniques. I was very interested in these because earlier, the CEO of Dogma came into the stream and said that these were more rare than legendary items.
The first techniques was a combat technique called Illusory Blade. It is a 4 hit rapid hit combo that utilizes feints from my eyes in between.
The second Technique was a movement technique called the Dance of Death. Your footwork changes and becomes unpredictable while your blade reaps souls like wheat. This technique was the one I was most excited for. I can almost imagine moving through the battlefield like a phantom, killing an enemy with every slash. I makes my blood boil with excitement just thinking about it.
The 3rd technique was called shadestep. You transform into shadow and traverse the night in a illusory state.
The 4th technique is called Shadowblade. I creates a 2 blade after your 1st one hits and deals 20% more damage than the 1st blade.
The 5th technique is called Illusion Steps. You change you footwork to become slower but more unpredictable. Can create the illusion of you running into your target but you have already circle around and delivered the fatal blow.
There are more techniques but they are blurred out and say that I can't learned them until I am tier 2.
After I finished checking the manual out, my group had just come back.
"What were you reading just now?" Storm was the one who asked the question. All of the others were curious so I showed them.
"Movement techniques for thieves. Do we have everything?" I ask back.
"That should be everything. Let's get going." Tyrant says and we start heading out of the city.
After leaving the city, headed for the forset one again but this time we went to the inner region of the forest. All of the enemies we saw were elite rank or higher and at least lvl. 17. There was a wider variety of enemies as well. There were Hobgoblins, goblins, kobolds, giant boars, bears, giant snakes and more.
When we ran into a giant snake, Storm would scream and run away and Blade Dance would hide behind her brother while shaking. Me and Tyrant got a good laugh out of it and proceeded to kill and skin it. Snake meat can be sold to restaurants for gold. Since it's so valuable, why keep it?
After after about 4 hours, it was almost midnight and we all decided to jump into a tree before logging off. We don't want to find a giant snakes in our faces as soon as we get online.
After getting off, I got one of my S-ranked nutrient fluids out of my fridge and drank it, then I called my dad. After ringing for a while, he finally picked up.
"Hello."
"Hey dad. How is everything?"
"Everything is good for now. When I get back, I will be retired and can finally go home. Its be two years since I've seen you. You aren't staying up too late playing that game right?" He asked worriedly.
"I'll try to get off before midnight. Oh by the way, do you know a Grace Heatherfield?" I finally ask him.
"Heatherfield? Yea... She was my junior in my squad 7 years ago. Actually she is the reason why you could get a gaming cabin so early. I called in a favor." He admitted.
"Well you see about that..." I told him that the gaming company sent me a VR Cabin right before Uncle came with his present for me. I also told him that she dropped by my stream and we chatted for a while.
"...So now there is 2 cabins in the house."
He sighs and says. "So that was her plan..."
"What is it?" I asked a little confused.
"Nothing, she just really wants me to play her game." He says bitterly.
"Its not that bad. I didn't think I would like it so much either but now I can say that I really enjoy it. You should play with me. It would be more fun that way. We barely spent time together so this would be perfect. Maybe your military buddies can play with us." I say excitedly. For a father and daughter, we never spent alot of time having fun. I was mostly just training and studying.
"Okay then. I'll see if some of my old friends want to join us on the game." He says guilty. He realized that in the past 6 years since he's adopted me, he hasn't spent much quality time with his daughter and now that he is going to retire soon, he has a chance to make up for it so he decides to take it.
"Great..." After that we talked about some other stuff before hanging up the phone. I decide to fix a light meal before taking a shower and nodding off for the night.
Early in the morning...
I put on some ankle and wrist weights and head out of the door and start to jog. While I was jogging I could see the sun rising over the horizon. It was very calm. On my way to the park, I could see people getting into their cars and going to work.
After getting to the park, I decided to tryout those Shadow dancer techniques outside the game. I attempted the easier one out of all of the movement techniques, Illusion Steps. Instead of making an effort to be as fast as possible, I tried to slow down a bit and focus on my footwork. Luckily no one was around at this time. All they would be able to see is a blur moving along some after images.
After about 20 seconds of trying to correct and adjust myself to my movements. I stopped, fell to my knees and laid down on my back. I was so exhausted. I never though that I would get this tired trying this out but I was very happy. In the last few seconds, I got it right and and was able to make a long lasting after image. It stayed in place for 4 seconds before fading. Its not perfect but, I am making progress.
I rested under the shade for a while before getting up to leave. But what I didn't know was that someone was watching this and they were shocked.
"Shadow dancer techniques? I didn't think she would learn it this fast. Looks like Captain Belvins has a good eye for talent." A woman in business attire and wearing glasses rolled up her window and told the driver. "Let's go."
The driver started driving to the company and the secretary sitting beside was curious and asked. "Mrs. Heatherfield, do you know who that girl was?" The secretary was also stunned by what she saw.
"Have you heard of the player BloodMoon in our game?" Mrs. Heatherfield says to her secretary.
"You don't mean that... that's BloodMoon? Why come you didn't go out to greet her? We could have established a connection with her. She could could promote the game's thief class! Just imagine the influx of player we will receive if we could have in a commercial for the game." The secretary's eyes glowed in excitement and anticipation.
"You don't need to worry about it. I already have it settled on my end. I know the girls father and as of right now, he owes me a couple favors. Surely he wouldn't mind. Hehe."
That chuckle sent shivers down the secretary's spine. She didn't even want to know what was going through her boss's mind at that moment...
After I got home, I drank some S-ranked nutrient fluid and immediately felt my muscles and joints repairing themselves. It felt kind of wierd but I just ignored it. As i stepped into the shower, I started to feel wierdly energized. This had never happened before even when I drank The nutrient fluid. I didn't know what was going on but it wasn't anything bad so I just ignored it once again.
After taking my shower, I started to make some omelets for breakfast. While I was cutting my vegetables, I accidentally cut through my cutting board and the halfway through the stainless steel countertop. I was stupefied and thought, 'What is happening to me?' I looked at my hands and arms to make sure everything thing was still the same and a thought appeared in my mind. 'Maybe my dad might know...'
I immediately dropped what I was doing and called my father...
"Hello?" He was confused as I would never call him so soon and after she had already called him last night. He figure something might be wrong. "Sweetie, what happened?"
"I just finished exercising and drank an S-ranked nutrient fluid supplement and while I was taking a shower, I started to feel like I was brimming with energy. I didn't think it was anything bad so I ignored it but when I was cutting vegetables to make breakfast, I sliced through the cutting board and the countertop like it was butter. Can you explain what is happening to me." When I said this, I was flustered and panicking so I accidentally spoke a little too fast.
"Wait... are you sure that's what you felt?" My father sounded wierdly excited when he said this.
"What do you mean 'are you sure that's how you felt' This is a problem. I can't even slice vegetables without going through the countertop." I was speechless hearing what my father said.
"No, no, no. This is great. Hahahaha..." He started laughing to himself like he went insane.
"What do you mean? Why are you laughing like a madman?" I became confused. Great?
"Do you know that the brain has a limiter for how strong your body can be?" He started off with a question.
"Yeah, everyone learns this is biology class." I replied with this.
"Well, your brain's limiter has loosened. You are now stronger and faster than most of the people around you. Your body might also begin to grow taller as well. You will have a period of having to get used to your body but I'm sure you won't have a problem."
My brain was trying to comprehend what he just said. "Is this supposed to be the equivalent of a cultivator from a novel breaking through to the next realm? Did I just begin my road to immortality?"
"Uhh... No."
"..."