Akiol looked at the time, it was 6:00pm. Akiol sighed and shutdown his laptop. He was researching on the combat mechanics of 'A World's Legacy'. Akiol looked at his notes so far.
A World's Legacy was created with a certain level of realism. They couldn't make it 100% real, for various legal and technical issues. However they wanted their creatures to be injured realistically. Compared to just lowering their health. If you knew their heart or a vital organ, piercing through could do major damage, if not kill them. The humanoid races had similar vitals, but some not in obvious places. This was why Akiol could kill the bandits easily, for he cut at their vitals. The developers knew that this could lead to a lot of insta-killing. So this method would almost be exclusive to early levels.
The promised that combat would not be so easy in the future. For higher level humanoid races would have better armor, and all creatures would have tougher bodies. At even higher levels, you would no longer be able to insta-kill unless your damage is greater than the creatures total HP.
This made Akiol become less confident. He never worried about fighting in groups, due to him using pain to slightly alter movements or quickly dispatching his opponents.
So Akiol went over his battles thinking. The pugilist he first fought didn't die instantly, nor was he critically injured when Akiol carved into him.
The fight was in Akiol's mind. He soon learned this ability during his fights in his previous world. After pure strength couldn't win he had to learn from his mistakes. Find out how he could end the battle quicker, through this he had a large amount of battle experience. In fact he was sure the only people who could compare to his battle experience was those who were in the army for most of their lives.
The fight with the pugilist soon became clear. When he carved into his opponent the sword barely missed his vitals. Looking closer at it he could also spot the wound was no longer there when he retreated. Akiol assumed it was a health potion but he couldn't be sure.
After reviewing his fights he soon went back to his headset. Having yet to reach his goal, he would be on this game until he found his party members.
After going through the login sequence he found himself where he logged out. While Akiol was planning on what do, he practiced his skills. From actual in game skills to getting used to his weaker body. While still uncomfortable for him, he was definitely more confident in his ability. After using [Form] several times in his practice swings he was interrupted by a notification:
[Body Manipulation: Your body can be freely controlled]
'The descriptions aren't doing their job very well.'
Akiol soon realized the difference, compared to using [Form], where he had to picture how he wanted to look, [Body Manipulation] felt more natural. He found that he could do anything with his body, to get used to this he had a little fun.
From changing his shapes from square to a Möbius strip. He soon took form of various famous people. After spending more than enough time he went back to his avatar shape.
Since he didn't want to do quests for levels his only option was too explore. He headed towards Red Bush Village.
Entering the town hall he soon asked the receptionist, "Do I buy teleport scrolls here?"
With a smile the receptionist replied, "Yes, depending on what kind you are looking for."
A shop menu popped up, he bought one scroll for Red Bush Village and was scrolling through the terribly named villages when an option caught his eye.
It was a random teleport scroll, he looked at its information.
[Random Teleport Scroll: (Village)
Sends the user to one random village]
It cost the same as any other scroll, so Akiol bought it. The randomness had a chance of leading him close to another party member.
His small shopping costed 20 gold, a small price for an adventure really. He then pulled out the random teleport scroll and activated it by throwing it above him. It didn't fly away like you would assume a scroll would, but instead it made itself flat, with glowing runes flowing out of it, surrounding Akiol. This process only took three seconds and Akiol vanished.
He soon found himself at another village, immediately he asked what village he was in. After an odd look a player told him it was Yellow Stalk Village. Another terrible name, Akiol only hoped the names would be better for the higher tier towns and villages.
Thanking the player Akiol went to the town hall and bought another scroll for Yellow Stalk Village.
Leaving the village behind he wandered around. With no real purpose, Akiol walked towards anything interesting. He found a spider get crushed by a plant. The spider was quite large, although still smaller than the creatures of his world. After witnessing the death of this spider, Akiol abandoned any thought of going near any plants. Lest he be crushed as well.
Exploring more, while avoiding suspicious plants, he was attacked by something that looked like a mossy rhino, but it's head was something closer to a turtle. Akiol had a faint sense of inevitable death coming from this mossy turtle rhino so without hesitating he leaped over it and fled.
This feeling of a death came from his [Power Sense]. Akiol had tested during his quest montage. He could sense around three things. The first being weakness, the creatures who were weaker had a sense of frailness. The second being equal, or around in strength. The third being the inevitable death feeling. This one he had encountered twice before, this sense of inevitable death was really inaccurate. The first time he felt it, it was against a creature that had fifteen more levels, a fight he won easily. The second time he felt it, was when he came across a boss wolf thirty levels higher. The wolf was incredibly fast and nearly killed Akiol! So Akiol came to the conclusion that he should not fight anything that he felt death from.
After successfully fleeing the turtle rhino Akiol continued exploring. He saw a interesting mushroom that looked very similar to a delicacy of his world. Heading towards it something in the corner of his eye drew his attention. It was another player. A pugilist fighting against a horde of boars.
Now seeing this situation Akiol would have normally offered some help, but the way the pugilist moved was very familiar to Akiol. So he watched, observing the pugilist as they weaved through the enemies, flowing as smoothly as water would. The pugilist punched and kicked like it was second nature. Not looking at where they strike yet it still landed every time. Soon the boars were all dead. The pugilist took a deep breath, then moved about collecting the loot.
While this pugilist looked familiar and moved familiar, Akiol wanted to confirm if the pugilist was who he thought. Akiol manipulated his body to look like James and quickly moved to attack the pugilist. Swinging his sword downwards towards the pugilists shoulder. If Akiol was wrong he had full confidence that he could stop the attack. The pugilist did not stand there and instead turned sharply aiming to grab Akiol.
Akiol adjusted his swing aiming towards one of the outstretched hands. The pugilist quickly retracted his arms and dodged the swing. Akiol went for a charge stab, he had already confirmed it so he wanted to distance himself.
The pugilist grabbed his shoulders, but that's what Akiol wanted. Quickly rotating he kicked the chest of the pugilist and used [Leap] sending the the pugilist sliding back. Akiol flipped to recover and grinned.
"Looks like your skills have dulled, Wrock."