Chapter 72. Training centre (2)
"Finally!!"
Ian muttered as he looked at the system messages in front of him. These were the messages he was waiting for.
Continuously attacking the magic doll can increase one's stats. That was what Xiao Ming had told him.
If a knight uses up his stamina, his vitality and stamina will develop as a consequence, and if a wizard casts a great many spells, his wisdom and intelligence will rise.
But such an increase is trivial compared to stat points accompanied by a level up.
Moreover, you have to hit the magic doll. If you attack got blocked by the magic doll, then you have to start all over again.
That's why, most players would try to increase their stat points by continuously hitting the magic doll on level 1.
Even with that, it would take at least 9-10 hours for a stat to rise.
In a way, it was similar to increasing your intelligence by reading rare books in the library.
But there was a lot of difference between the two of them at the same time.
If raising your intelligence by reading a book was like a player playing a game in easy mode, then trying to raise your stats by hitting the magic doll was hell mode.
It was a hard and painstaking method to increase one's stat and only rankers would try to increase their stats this way.
It was because the higher your level is, the more difficult is to level up.
Rankers would therefore try to find other methods of increasing their strength.
Raising your stats by hitting the magic doll was one way.
But even rankers would avoid this as it was too time consuming and painstaking.
It was better to try to find an epic grade weapon than hitting a magic doll in the Training center for hours.
At the same time, it was perfect for Ian.
He can't raise his level due to Arena and he still has a week. It's not like he can just stop playing Ark for a week.
That's why, this was the perfect method for Ian to get stronger and even increase his proficiency in spear mastery.
"Should I go up a level now?"
Ian thought whether he should continue on level 4 or increase the level.
After thinking, he decided to increase the level to 5. Level 4 was getting too boring for him and he wanted more challenge.
'There's a whole lot of people staring at me.'
At the same time, Ian also noticed that people were staring at him with interest and curiosity.
There were not many people in the Training center when he had started but now, there were more than 40 people.
It was precisely because of Ian.
"I can't do anything about it."
Although Ian was getting attention, he just ignored it, thinking that people would quickly disperse.
Just seeing a guy hitting a magic doll for hours was not enjoyable and most of the players are not patient enough.
At least, Ian thought like that.
"Level 5."
He muttered that and again started hitting the magic doll.
Ian noticed that increasing the level had made the movements of the doll more rapid and there was a new sense of fierceness in it.
Ian would even feel an impact everytime his attack would be blocked.
Still, it was more fun like this.
'I now wonder about level 10.'
Ian smiled thinking about that. It was not the smile of a normal person but a crazy lunatic.
In a way, Ian was the craziest lunatic in Ark.
No matter how normal he looks, he was someone who had lived in a fantasy world for 10 years.
No person can remain normal after that.
Swish! Smack!
The crazy lunatic Ian kept swinging his spear for hours.
* * *
"Isn't he getting tired?"
"There's a whole lot of sweat on his forehead. His back is soaked too. I'm pretty sure he's tired."
"But he is still going on."
"How many hours had passed by?"
"I don't know but it's more than 7 hours at least. He is swinging around his spear for 7 fucking hours."
"It's more than 12 hours if we added the time he was hitting the magic doll on level 4."
"Is he even sane? And who the hell is he?"
"No one knows who he is but I'm pretty sure he's not sane."
"If he can be considered sane, then I'm pretty sure I'm already insane."
"He's just a lunatic!! A crazy LUNATIC!!!"
Ian had never thought that he would attract this much attention.
Several players were discussing Ian with hushed voices and the Training center was filled with people.
Ian had thought that the people would disperse after getting bored but nothing like that had happened.
Instead of that, the people who were watching had messaged their friends and called them to the Training center to watch Ian.
The Training center was never filled with this many people and the reason was the guy who was twisting and turning his spear to hit the magic doll.
It was really rare for a single player to attract this much attention when he is not a ranker.
"Look! Even those instructors are carefully watching him."
Suddenly, one of the players pointed out and everyone looked at the instructors whose gazes were struck on Ian.
It was common knowledge among the players that the instructors are not easy NPCs and it was hard to receive attention from them.
Despite that, a single player has managed to arouse the attention of all the instructors.
All the players watching Ian felt a number of emotions when they saw that.
A single thought sprang in their minds: 'If one person can do it, then I can do it too'.
But most of them knew the difficulty. So, they just kept those thoughts to themselves.
Still, there were some people who thought otherwise.
"I can do it too."
"Yeah, you just have to hit a silly doll."
"How hard can it be?"
Those players were mostly newbies who were overestimating themselves.
The more experienced players just shook their heads seeing that.
If it was really that easy, then everyone would be swinging their swords against the magic dolls.
"They would learn the truth after trying once."
"Yeah, I was once like that."
"They would soon realise the difference of skills and why VR games are not like any other games."
Those newbies ignored those words and took the training weapon and started hitting the magic doll.
They didn't think that it would be hard seeing Ian continuously hitting the magic doll.
They even dared to set the level as 5 but they soon realised the difference between them and Ian.
"Why can't I even get one hit?"
"I am feeling a blow even when my attack is just being blocked."
"The magic doll is too fast."
They gave up after knowing how difficult it was. At the same time, they stared at the movements of Ian and realised how inferior they were.
They soon went back to watching Ian.
The other experienced players just smiled seeing them returning. They had already imagined this.
"You all really overestimated yourselves."
A swordsman could not help but comment.
"We just got excited."
"At least you learned it quickly. That lunatic hitting the doll is not a normal player. There's a high chance that he is associated with a guild."
Lunatic - After some time, all the players had started calling him that.
"Huh? How can you say that?"
One of the female players asked. The other players also looked at the swordsman.
The swordsman smiled awkwardly, seeing the attention on him.
"Just think about it a little. That lunatic's skill is not normal and only rankers have those sort of skills."
"But he is not a ranker. I don't recognize his face."
The swordsman nodded at that.
"Yeah, it can be that he is a ranker but he is using some sort of artifact that can change his face but that sort of artifact would surely be of legendary grade."
"There's no way someone would have that sort of artifact."
All the other players nodded and one of the elf players raised his hand and asked.
"Can't he just be a highly skilled newbie? He's wearing beginner clothes."
"I don't think so. The way he is moving his spear is like an experienced player who has gone through countless number of fights."
"You are right."
"It can be that he is an assassin or a mercenary in real life. That would explain his skill."
Mercenary? Assassin?
The players became scared thinking of that and glanced at Ian with looks of bewilderment.
The swordsman laughed seeing that.
"But that is also highly unlikely. Anyway, my reasoning is that he is a part of a big guild like Dragon hearts or Red dragons."
"Why do you think that?"
"Those top guilds would often groom those super rookies and that lunatic looks like one."
"But if he is from a top guild, why is he here hitting the magic dolls?"
"There can be many reasons behind this but the most likely reason is Arena!!"
The eyes of every player widened when they heard that.
The swordsman player was right.
It can be that the player hitting the magic dolls had already reached level 50 and was raising his stats before Arena.
The swordsman player was mostly right but he was wrong about one thing: Ian was not a part of a top guild.
Still, his reasoning was mostly on point.
"Wait! Why is that instructor going towards that lunatic?"
As the other players were discussing, a female player shouted.
The other players looked where the female player was pointing and even they got stunned.
One of the instructors was approaching Ian.
Noticing the instructor, Ian stopped hitting the magic doll and glanced at him.
"I would like to have a duel with you."
The instructor said in a loud voice and everyone in the Training center heard it clearly.
They all had one thought in their mind.
'Something big is going to happen.'
* * *
News about Ark was never enough. There were all sorts of news on many websites and communities.
Most of these news are mostly fake but there were some news that managed to attract attention from some renowned players.
One such news was displayed on the laptop screen of a blonde haired man.
That was the title of the news and a video was attached to it.
The blonde haired man was playing that video over and over again. It was the only thing that had managed to attract him.
The video was of a player continuously hitting the magic doll in the Training center.
Not many people would find it interesting, especially because the video was only 30 seconds long.
But the blonde haired man was highly interested in it.
Rather than the video, he was interested in the player hitting the magic doll.
"His techniques and reaction time. Moreover, his hand movements and the way he held his spear. He's definitely not a normal person."
The blonde man can deduce all that because he himself used a spear as his weapon.
'What's his identity? Should I send some people to recruit him?'
The blonde haired man wondered but he shook his head soon.
All the guild personnels were already busy and he himself was busy in many things.
He doesn't have time and…
'With his level of skill, he would surely stand out.'
The man thought that and closed his screen.
He then got up and walked towards the expensive looking Arkane capsule in the corner of the room.
The blonde haired man logged on to Ark with a smile on his face.
He was the guild leader of Red dragons guild, the man known as the Red dragon Simon.