Chapter 13 - Friend

“Wait a second! Don’t tell me that you are suggesting to hunt Savage Bears?” Golden Boss said with a bewildered expression.

“Yes. So what?” Metehan answered with a poker face.

“I know you are strong and you level is quite high but Savage Bears are probably level 15 or higher monsters. Even though I suggested to hunt Dire Wolves, it was a joke. There is no way we can hunt Dire Wolves let alone Savage Bears. You need at least 3 more players with your level to able to hunt Savage Bears. We are all low level players unlike you. I am a level 4 Warrior and Gizem is a level 5 Ranger. Even our Cleric is level 5. The most powerful monsters we could hunt realistically would be Dark Wolves.” Golden Boss answered with an anxious expression.

“You don’t need to worry about it. While I attract their hatreds, Gizem will attack with her ranged attacks and you will attack when you have the chance. Amatus will concentrate on healing me. Well, If Golden Boss somehow were hit and injured heavily, you can heal him too. That way we should be fine.” Metehan answered as if he ignored Golden Boss. Golden Boss was speechless. Did he even listen to him?

“Look, I know you killed the top players just now. However even the top players you slayed didn’t dare to hunt them alone. The Savage Bears spawn as flocks of four. You can’t go against 4 possible level 15 monsters alone even though you are playing in Realistic Mode. No matter how high your level is, it isn’t higher than The Princes. So even he can’t dare to go against them alone, you must be stupid to do it. The Mage, Deadly Beauty, in their party was an Ice Mage. She was freezing them so the Ranger, Kesin, and the Warrior, The Prince could slay them easily. That was why they could still continue to hunt them even without The Prince. Since they were frozen so their movement speeds had decreased quite much, Keskin could kill them before they reached them. Do you understand now? We are not strong enough to hunt them.” Golden Boss protested strongly again.

‘This started to be annoying.’ Metehan frowned and answered him with a slightly annoyed tone.

“I have a quest to do so this party will hunt Savage Bears. If there is anyone who thinks that they can’t keep up with the party, they are free to leave.”

Golden Boss was quite pissed off and his white skin had turned to red.

“Fine. We will leave. However don’t blame me when you died and lost your avatar. I warned you.” Golden Boss answered with an angry tone then turned to the Cleric and continued with a softer voice.

“By the way, you are welcomed to join our party if you want. Because he is clearly gonna die soon. He won’t be able to help you much.“

“Thanks for your kind offer. However I want to try my luck with him. He saved me back then and even accepted to help me on grinding level. I can’t just ditch him just because I found another party.” Amatus refused the offer kindly.

“I don’t mind. You can go with them if you like.” Metehan interrupted with a nonchalant expression.

“No, I want to stay.” Amatus protested with a firm tone. Metehan sighed with a disappointing face. He had tried to get rid of Amatus and hunt alone as he originally planned. However it didn’t work.

“I see. Then we will be watching Metehan’s pitiful death here. After he was dead, we can form a new party and go hunt in a suitable spot.” Golden Boss answered while giving a cold glare to Metehan and they left the party along with Gizem. They stepped back to a safe distance not to attract the hatred of the Savage Bears.

Metehan just smiled mockingly and didn’t say anything. He figured out that it would be faster to show than to tell him. Then he turned to Amatus.

“I didn’t form a party before so I don’t know what kind of skills a Cleric has.” Metehan asked with a calm tone.

“Right now I have only one skill, Heal. It is at level 2. It can recover 150 HP of an ally within 50 meters radius. It has a 5 seconds cool down time. So I can recover 150 HP of yours every 5 seconds.” Amatus answered with a hesitant voice.

“I see. That is useful. Then I am counting on you. I can slay them quite easily with your Heal Skill.” Metehan said with a comforting tone. Amatus nodded, looking at the ground.

Metehan had turned to towards the Savage Bears to start to hunt them until he remembered something very important. He had levelled up twice and he hadn’t distribute the level up points yet. He excitedly opened his stat windows. However he saw something unexpected.

He had 20 unallocated points! He would normally take 9 points for each level. And now he had 20 points which meant 10 points for each level. He couldn’t make sense of it and stared at the window for a while until Amatus snapped him out with a worried voice.

“What is wrong?”

“Ah, nothing.” Metehan answered with a weak tone. Then continued with a question.

“Tell me, how many points do you get when you leveled up?”

Amatus was a little surprised to hear such an obvious question especially from some so high-levelled. However she answered it anyway.

“I get 8 points.”

“What? You get 8 points for each level up?” Metehan asked with a puzzled expression. He had 9 points for each level up until now. How come was she getting only 8 points? And moreover why had he started to get 10 points for each level up? While Metehan was in these thoughts with a puzzled expression, Amatus asked with even more puzzled expression.

“What is wrong? Why are so surprised?”

“Ah, nothing. Okay let’s go after I distribute my unallocated stat points.” Metehan gave a fake smile to Amatus. She just nodded without saying anything.

‘Well, I can think about this later. It is not something so urgent. Now I need to hunt these Savage Bears, help her to reach level 10 and complete my quest. Then I can look into this matter.’ Metehan had decided to let it go for now and started to think how to distribute them.

‘Hmmm, I didn’t add any points to Vitality until now. However I might need some more HP capacity from now on. That old man made a quite fucus over Savage Bears. They might be really strong. And I don’t know their damage output either. Moreover I will go against 4 of them. I have enough Strength for now. I need more speed and HP. Since I learnt that I would lose my avatar if I were to die, I can’t afford to die anymore. As long as I stay alive, I can somehow kill my enemies. I guess I will add 9 points to my Agility and 11 points to my Vitality.’ Metehan distributed his unallocated stat points accordingly and started to look at his stats with a satisfied expression.

Status WindowNameMetehanRaceHumanGenderMaleClassWarriorSubClassNoneProfessionNoneSubProfessionNoneTitles[/td4]The Therapist[td2]Level7Experience0.1%Fame1100AlignmentWhite---Satiety95%Fatigue2%Attack38-42Attack Speed19Critical Hit Rate0.65%Maximum Weight36Defence78Evasion Rate3.25%CP0GP0HP470/470MP140/140Stamina480/480---Strength72Agility60(5)Vitality40Luck13Wisdom20Intelligence20Leadership13Charisma8Therapy17Endurance25

After he had stared at his stats for a few seconds, Metehan drew his swords and started to walk towards the Savage Bears with slow steps. He was quite calm and had an extremely confident expression. He had never felt this confident in his whole life. He was strong now. Probably stronger than anyone else in this virtual world. He was probably the only one who had undergone a special training at the City Training Camp which is exclusively for Guards.

He had tested his skills on many poor monsters on the way to here and he had one-handedly slaughtered them. And he still had a skill he hadn’t tested yet. It was an AOE skill drying up his current mana pool with only one usage. So he didn’t want to use it until he found a spot with more than 4 monsters. And now it was the high time to test it. Metehan checked his new skill once more time while walking towards the Savage Bears.

Blade Hurricane (Active, Beginner Level 10) : This is a Dual Sword exclusive skill that slices the enemies within a certain area by allowing the caster to spin like a hurricane with two swords stretched to the right and the left side horizontally. This skill can only be used while equipped dual swords. Inflicts 90% of the maximum attack damage per second for 2 seconds to all enemies within 3 meters radius. Also works as a shield for all kind of non-magical attacks during the skill.

Mana Consumption : 120

Casting Time : 0.5 seconds.

Cool Down Time : 10 seconds.

Next Level : Intermediate Level 1

Requirements : Sword Mastery Intermediate Level 1, 1 Sword Mastery Skill Point

Savage Bears had big crimson eyes. Their huge yellow tooth were as big as Metehan’s arms and their claws was as big as Metehan’s head. Their height was around 6 meters when they stood up on their hind legs. Basically they were huge bears.

While Metehan checking his skill, Savage Bears had felt his presence and roared at him with a threatening tone. Metehan had paced up his tempo and started to run towards them. He had bent his upper body to the front and his swords were behind his head with a 45 degrees angle to his body like an arrow decreasing the air resistance. Savage Bears had also started to run towards him.

After a few seconds, he was in front of a Savage Bear. There were 3 of them 2 meters behind it. Metehan used his Slash Rain Skill and landed 4 quick slashes on it. Savage Bear was blown back a few meters crying in pain and it had lost 15% of its HP. They were indeed though and its level was 15 just like Golden Boss predicted. Two of the other three Savage Bears had collided with the Savage Bear that were blown back by Metehan and they had fallen on the ground. However the Savage Bear right behind the one who was blown back had managed to dodge it and landed his claws on Metehan’s right shoulder. Metehan had seen the attack however couldn’t dodge it because of his skill binding his movements temporarily. Metehan retreated back a few steps quickly crying in the pain. It had inflicted 188 damage! His maximum HP was 470 now after he added some points to Vitality. So he had lost %40 of his maximum HP!

‘Oh my God! They were really strong. Maybe I was really overestimating my power.’ Metehan had a shocked expression. He hadn’t imagined that their attack and defence would be so high. They were only 3 levels higher than Dire Wolves however their power was on a whole new level!

Amatus had immediately cast a Heal on him and recovered his HP to almost maximum again. He didn’t want to form a party with her however now he was glad to do it.

Meanwhile other 3 Savage Bears had also stood up and they were preparing to attack him. If all of them attacked him, he might not have survived this. Metehan immediately activated his Terror Skill and paralyzed them. He thanked God that he had this skill. Otherwise he might have died.

Metehan immediately ran towards them and reached the center of them. And he activated his AOE skill, Blade Hurricane. He had started to spin like a vane and started to slay them. His Sharp Blade had been activated twice on two Savage Bears during his spin which killed two of them. When his skill ended, there were two Savage Bears with 70% HP. He immediately used his Slash Rain Skill on one of them with the last drop of his MP and dropped its HP to 55%. Unfortunately his Sharp Blade hadn’t been activated this time. Anyway, he continued the slash it and he could kill it in 4 seconds thanks to his Sharp Blade skill being activated during one of his slashes. The remaining time until the paralysis effect was dissolved was only two seconds. He immediately started to slash the last Savage Bear with his swords and dropped its HP to 50% in the remaining two seconds. And retreated just before the effect was dissolved. Their defences was really high.

The Savage Bear roared in pain since he wasn't even allowed to make a sound while he was paralyzed. It was indeed a cruelsome skill. It was quite angry as well. Just after its roar, it immediately started to attack Metehan with its huge claws. Even though their attack and defence were high, they were quite slow for Metehan. He could easily dodge its slow claw attacks. Its attack pattern was similar to Wild Rabbits as well. It was doing three consecutive claw attacks and pausing for a second and attacking in the same pattern again. Monsters were quite simple here. Maybe it was because they were animal type monsters with low intelligence. Maybe there were more intelligent monsters out there. Metehan didn’t know that yet.

Metehan was attacking it during its pauses and retreating back quickly. Metehan had killed the last Savage Bear with this tactic in about 30 seconds. His Sharp Blade wasn’t activated during his attacks. Well, it had only 17% probability after all. He was lucky that it was activated twice during his Blade Hurricane and killed two Savage Bears.

Anyway, when Metehan had killed the last Savage Bear, a golden light bathed Amatus. She had leveled up. The experience they got from Savage Bears was huge. The experience bar of :Metehan also reached to 28% by killing only 4 Savage Bears. It was at 0.1% after he had reached level 7. So he could also level up after killing 11 more or so Savage Bears at this rate.

“Woah! I gained 1 level in only one minute. I could reach level 5 in 7 days in real time. The experience is amazing here! At this rate I might reach level 10 today!!” Amatus was quite excited.

However the drop rate was still quite low. He had only got 4 Bear Skins and a few Copper Coins. It was the same for when he had hunted Dire Wolves and Dark Wolves.

‘I guess the drop rate in this game is really low.’ Metehan picked up the Bear Skins and the Copper Coins and walked towards to the woods where Amatus was standing.

“Yes, the experience is good here. I wish the drop were the same.” He said with a wry smile while giving a mocking glare to Golden Boss and Gizem standing about 30 meters away from them with their jaws dropped. He sat under a tree to recover his MP and wait for Savage Bears to respawn.

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“Was it really a good idea to leave the party? We could find it after searching for a quite while.” Gizem asked with a worried tone.

“What? You would prefer to stay and drop dead? You know how hard to gain a level here. We would have lost a level in a vain.” Golden Boss answered with an irritated tone. He was still pissed off. How could he be so stupid even though he was so strong? That was quite pissing him off.

“Don’t worry. After that idiot had dropped dead, we will take the Cleric and go hunt Wild Dogs.” Golden Boss continued with a comforting tone.

“Yeah…” Gizem nodded with a hesitant tone.

“Look, this idiot started to attack them. Let’s watch him die pitifully.” Golden Boss pointed at Metehan with a mocking smile on his face.

However it didn’t go the way he thought it would have. Metehan had skilfully slayed the four Savage Bears. Golden Boss and Gizem had watched it with their jaws dropped. He had slayed 4 Savage Bears less than a minute after all.

After they had overcome their bewilderments, Gizem had started to stare at Golden Boss with questioning eyes.

“W-What?! He was just lucky! Didn’t you see it?! He will definitely die in the next battle.” Golden Boss still refused to accept it. That would mean eating his own words. His pride didn’t allow it. However Gizem was still staring it.

“I promise. He will die in the next battle.” Golden Boss continued in order to convince her. Gizem had nodded helplessly.

“I hope you are right.” She said with a sigh.

“O-Of course I am”

‘Damn it! I guess he wasn’t overestimate him. How could I know that?! He is really not normal. Damn it! Damn it!’ Golden Boss cursed himself.

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The Savage Bears had started to respawn about 4 minutes later. Metehan’s Terror Skill was at Intermediate Level 8 and its cool down time was 4 minutes now. So he could use the same tactics again.

Metehan stood up and started to run towards them like an arrow again. He slaughtered them using the pretty much same tactics. This time it took shorter since his Sharp Blade was activated 4 times during the battle.

They routine continued for hours. About 2,5 hours later, Amatus had reached level 10. However she didn’t leave Metehan right after she reached her goal. She wanted to help him on finishing his quest to repay his kindness. Metehan was also glad that she didn’t leave. Even though he was also level 10 now and could slay them easier, it was still good to have someone on your back in case of emergency. He wasn’t afford to die now after all. The death means the end for him. He couldn’t even imagine that he would lose his avatar after he worked so hard. He had high intimacy with City people and had special skills that no one else had. He would probably stop playing if he were to die. So he felt relieved to have her. Moreover Amatus had unlocked a new skill, Protective Boost. It was a skill that increases Metehan’s defence and speed by 20% which was quite helpful on the hunt.

Thanks to his special skill, Body of the Soldier, he learnt at the City Training Camp, his Fatigue increase rate and Satiety decrease rate was 30% slower now. Which meant he could continue hunting for about 21 hours without resting. Also his Fatigue recovery rate was %60 faster which meant it would be replenished by sleeping for only 3 hours. In other words, it would be replenished by logging out for about 40 minutes. It was a life saver skill for Metehan. His biggest problem was Fatigue after all. It was preventing him to play as much as he wanted big time. Now he could play the game for totally 21 hours a day in the real time as well.

Their hunting continued for about 20 hours until Metehan killed the 1000th Savage Bears and got the 1000th Bear Skins. They were both at level 13 now. And as the level gap between them and Savage bears closed, the amazing amount of experience they got from them had also decreased. They were only getting 0.1% experience for each Savage Bears now. So it was time to move on stronger monsters. However durability of items on Metehan had dropped quite much, especially his swords had gotten quite dull. Also Fatigue level of Metehan was at 75% which meant he could get stat penalty anytime soon. So they decided to go back to the city for repairings, completing the quest and getting their professions. Golden Boss and Gizem had left long ago so they were not standing and watching them anymore.

“Thank you very much for your help. Thanks to you I am now level 13 which is a quite high level among the players now. I am really appreciated.“ Amatus said with a soft and grateful voice on their way to the city. Metehan was quite used to her appearance, by the way. She didn’t seem so monstrous now. Sure she was still ugly. However she wasn’t freaking him out anymore.

“It is nothing. I got some benefit for it as well. Having a Cleric on your back is really reassuring.” Metehan answered with a sincere smile. Amatus’ pale cheeks had gotten a little reddish. However Metehan didn’t realize that. After a little walk they had reached the city.

“Well then. See you around.” Metehan waved goodbyes to Amatus and was about head to the Sithred’s shop to complete his quest until he was stopped by Amatus.

“Well... “ Amatus said with a hesitant and low voice. Metehan turned to her and waited for her to finish her sentence.

“I am glad to meet you even though you are a man…” Amatus continued with the same low voice. Metehan had titled his head to the right with a question mark over it.

“Even though I am a man?” He asked.

“No, well. Anyway I want to add you as a friend if you don’t mind.” Amatus changed the subject skillfully.

“Ah, sure. I don’t mind adding you as a friend. I might need a Cleric in the future after all.” Metehan answered with a nonchalant expression. His opinion for forming party had changed after his hunt with her. It was indeed beneficial to have a support character. And he wasn’t feeling so nervous with her around for a strange reason as well. So he easily accepted her offer.

[Friend Request] : Player Amatus sent you a friendship request. Do you accept it?

“Yes.” Metehan accepted her offer. And he checked his friend list right after that. Amatus was there with her ugly little avatar picture.

“Well, then see you later.” Metehan waved his farewell again. Amatus had just nodded silently. He headed to the Sithred’s shop then. It was early morning in the Royal Blood Online now. They had hunted all night under the moonlight. The shops were still closed though. He had thought that they would be open by now however they were not.

+Warning : Fatigue level exceeded %75. All stats decreased by 75%.

“Then I will recover my Fatigue at an inn until they opened their shops.” Metehan headed the inn and rented a room to rest. He lied down on his bed and logged out. He was hungry when he got out of the game unit so he went to the kitchen and took out the meal from refrigerator and heat it up. He was bad at cooking so his mother would always leave a meal in the refrigerator for him to eat. He would just heat it up and it was ready to eat. He put it on the table and started to eat.

‘Today was a good day. I gained quite amount level.’ That was his thoughts while he was enjoying his meal.

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Author Note: I hope you enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, you can support me by rating, following or commenting. I am open the criticisms. I know I am lacking on many fields however I want to improve myself. So feel free to comment. Have fun.

Royal Blood Online