As the sun rose in the early hours of the day, light reached Myeong's room through the the large, glass window wall near the stasis chamber. It was within the same moment that the lid opened by itself. Myeong woke up shortly after, rather pleased by the experience.
Myeong looked around, only to be startled by a shadow on the corner of his eye, causing him to hit his head on the wall of the stasis chamber.
*SFX: Thump*
After looking again, Myeong realised it was Kwan standing in front of him.
Kwan attempted to help Myeong to his feet but Myeong dismissed it and stood up by himself.
"You could have told me, you were coming." Myeong said, although his words were mostly murmured due to the fact he was still half-asleep.
Kwan raised his hand to the back of his neck.
"Yep, my bad anyways... are you feeling alright?" Kwan looked at the side of Myeong's head. "Seemed like a hard hit, but no signs of any injury so you should be all good."
"I'm a little confused about what happened last night, I had the weirdest dream..."
Kwan smirked and pointed at Myeong's shirt.
"Look down at your shirt."
Myeong immediately did so when...
[Menu has been opened]
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Stats
Map
Inventory
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"..."
[Inventory has been opened]
[Would you like to take out COMMON : Sturdy Sword?]
Kwan looked at Myeong in the eyes.
"Everything you felt, saw, did... was real. Any items you obtain during your time you can keep in the real world. Any stats that you gain, you gain in real life. Only differences are that in your dream world, the dead and living can inhabit that world."
Kwan paused for a few seconds, trying to remember the last detail he was meant to mention.
"Ah right- most importantly there is no fatigue: you can endlessly train as hard as you like without feeling any suffering." Kwan paused, as he stared Myeong in the eyes. "However, if you do hurt yourself..." Kwan added, looking quite uncertain, but his voice was stern.
"If I hurt myself I...???"
"Actually I'm not quite sure I don't think I've ever received any damage before,"
Myeong stared blankly at Kwan.
"Then.. how long have you had these?"
"Years, I found them in a dungeon but the creator or the true origin of it is rather unknown. Either way, I suggest you be careful,"
Kwan began to leave the room when he suddenly remembered to tell Myeong something.
"Also, you will be meeting your fighting tutor today so be ready. Don't worry I'll also be teaching you as well as there are some important concepts you need to learn." Kwan stood in the doorway, looking Myeong from head to toe. "Scrap that, meet me half an hour later so we can discuss the first few things."
***
3 hours had passed and Myeong didn't seem as confident as he would have liked. After some very tough teaching from Kwan, Myeong was told to go to a battle arena on the 46th floor.
Myeong walked down the hallway with his sword in his hand. There were a few minutes before he had to meet his tutor, he was nervous to say the least, but he was already pumping with adrenaline. He had just come out of the clan meeting room with Kwan and his words were still echoing in his mind.
***
"Your fighting tutor is known as Da Dae-Hyun, you could say... he is an old friend of mine. He has quite a reputation for being the strongest warrior class in the entire kingdom."
"Warrior class?"
"Ah-yes there are different types of classes, these define what type of fighting style you have. For example, I am a mage class. There are in total 10 different known classes. The one you belong to will become apparent as you gain stronger, as you will recognise your strengths and preferences."
***
Myeong stepped into the battle arena, there was a tree and quite a bit of greenery on the outskirts, but for the most part the arena was a large, flat rocky terrain and right in the middle of it stood a man with his back turned to Myeong. His grasp on his sword got sturdier as he saw Da Dae-Hyun standing in front of him.
"Welcome!" Although he hadn't turned around, it was as if he had sensed Myeong's presence.
"Are you Dae-Hyun?"
"That was a rather dumb question, but since you're new ill let you off this one time. For today, to make things fair I will handicap myself as you are rather unexperienced, and I wouldn't want to push you too much..."
Dae-Hyun took out some metal weights and attached them to his ankles and wrists. However, Myeong realised this was to intimidate him as he revealed his muscular arms and his athlete-like form. Dae-Hyun had also reached out in his pocket to pull out a black blindfold which he tied to the back of his head.
"Now this may seem unfair, but even in this state I'm enough of a match for you-"
Dae-Hyun instantly teleported behind Myeong and swung his fist with enough impact to shred Myeong.
"Tch," Myeong evaded at the last second, however he was caught off-guard by a brutal kick to the face from Dae-Hyun.
*SFX: Crack*
Myeong instantly flew back to the corner of the room. Dust clouded the space, and the sword Myeong had been previously holding dropped to the ground. Dae-Hyun returned to the entrance and faced Myeong.
Myeong kept his composure. He thought back to the things Kwan taught him.
***
"The speciality of a warrior class is their physical capabilities, often they are well-known martial artists and generally do not rely on mana but rather their own supernatural strength and agility, it is very difficult to view their movements with the eye and therefore..."
"?"
"I'll get to the point, obviously you should feel the air intensity, when a person does a powerful blow, you can feel a breeze of sorts." Kwan threw a punch right next to Myeong. "Like so, Therefore time your movements, if you ever feel a breeze, move back in accordance of the breeze."
Myeong nodded and thanked Kwan for the piece of advice.
***
Although, right now he still couldn't feel the 'breeze' as Dae-Hyun's movements were way too quick for him to detect. As the cloud of smoke and dust dissipated, Myeong was no longer standing in the corner like Dae-Hyun was expecting him to but was rather behind Dae-Hyun.
Myeong was close to sweeping Dae-Hyun off of his feet by kicking him with brute force, when he was suddenly elbowed and punched in the chest.
Myeong looked down to see some blood dripping on the ground, but he wasn't done. Myeong extended his arm and at last landed a blow at the back of Dae-Hyun's head. A wave of air brushed past the entire room and Myeong's fist was in the centre of all of it.
"Not bad..."
Myeong leaped back as his eyes widened to see that not a single hair on Dae-Hyun's head was damaged and he had not even been slightly inflicted after that blow.
"How.. are you-"
"As I told you, even with this handicap you are unable to defeat me. However, I'm surprised you landed a hit?"
"Oh, it's something the old man taught me.."
***
"If you are ever in a situation in which you have an opportunity to strike a blow, you can conceal the presence of the blow by this technique, as the breeze is felt after the attack rather than before."
Kwan extended his arm facing Myeong from a large distance, suddenly a wave of wind rushed through to Myeong. "You see, although I didn't punch you like normal, the wind pressure, had the same effect."
"This is known as a basic magical attack... It's typically a mage skill but it can be learnt by any class due to it's simplicity. You just need to hone your strength to your attacking arm and focus. Now, if you turn your arm into a fist and strike with the wind attack, it is much more potent."
***
"I see, what a conniving geezer..."
Dae-Hyun began taking his metal weights off, it made Myeong wonder how strong Dae-Hyun must be without them
They both chuckled and Myeong stared into Dae-Hyun's deep blue eyes and noticed that he was not much older than him.
"Do I have something on my face?"
Myeong shook his head.
"Nonono, it was just that I realised your not much older than me, yet your so strong.."
"I could do with the compliments though, yes I'm not as old as Kwan but I'm still not at my peak, I'm gonna make sure I get stronger, only then I might finally be able to land a hit on him, after all Warrior classes are meant to be the strongest class against Mage classes."
"Meant to?"
"The old man is so strong that I haven't been able to land a single hit on him so far, Mages are more confident in their long-ranged attacks and therefore short-distance blows are meant to be their weakness. However, whenever I try, he just evades every single one of my attacks like it's nothing."
"..."
"Hm?"
"I'll be doing the exact same thing when I'm stronger than you both."
"Pftt good luck.. I mean sure... I'll train you and maybe one day you will."
Da Dae-Hyun smiled at him and walked back to the hallway to his room. Myeong also walked back to Kwan's floor.