Kit awoke the next morning well rested. The light was just starting to creep out for the day. Mars was standing next to him admiring the colour leaking between the trees.

“Mars can we go through some sword forms this morning, I was too tired last night.”

“Of course, we can start with the basics. Let’s look at your grip, I noticed yesterday you didn’t always use a two-handed hold. Your current sword is designed for two hands.” Mars walked Kit through the correct way to hold the sword.

“Next, we will work on a downward strike. When striking, stab at the sky, then bring the sword down past your eye, guiding the blade to set the force and angle of the hit.” Mars showed Kit how to strike downwards with his sword.

Kit practiced while Mars corrected. Soon a fine layer of sweat was covering his whole body.

“Ok that was enough for today go and have a shower, you stink,” said Mars.

“Hey, I cannot help it if there is no deodorant here. How was I to know it would be so life like we could smell sweat. Plus, you are only noticing because you had a shower before I woke up.” Kit grumbled.

“Haha, very true I smelt just as bad. The bar of soap is a combination of deodorant and soap so that should help with our stink problem.”

Kit went over to the camp shower. The feeling of lathering soap mixed with water running over his skin, taking the dirt away was bliss. He didn’t realise how dirty he had become until he was finally clean once again.

“How did Iris not complain about our smell?”

After the shower Kit remembered Snowball had gone missing last night. He glanced around the camp a little anxious. Snowball was curled up fast asleep in one of the camp chairs. Kit walked softly over, he noticed how dirty the cute fluff ball was.

‘I think he needs a shower too, I’ll wait until tonight, he looks like he needs the sleep.’

Mars had packed up the camp while he was in the shower. There was only the two chairs and the shower left. The tent and the kitchen were back in there boxes next to the chairs.

‘Mars is too quick, I was hoping for a cup of fluffy dragon head tea before we left.’ Kit let out a small sigh.

‘Never mind this will give us time to gather more ingredients on the way.’ Kit returned the boxes to his pouch and sat down in the chair that was not occupied to wait.

Mars soon walked over “What do you want to try to find today?”

“I’ll definitely need some more monkey brain nuts and pink crunchy loaf. That will be my main focus today, anything else we find on the way will be a bonus. The pears I should be able to buy in town. Though I don’t want to spend too much money, so finding an alternative would be good.”

“I wonder because we have found the ingredients before, can we add them as a destination on the map.” Mars pondered.

Kit thought that was a brilliant idea, he tried the monkey brain nuts first. To his surprise it worked. Golden trees started to glitter on his map, a large densely packed patch of trees was close to where they currently were.

“Mars that was genius! There is a grove of the nut trees nearby. Can you enter the pink crunchy loaf, that way we can look for both at the same time.”

“Ok, will do.”

Kit had made a sling out of a large piece of material Mars had on hand, to carry the sleeping Snowball. When Kit had asked why he had a random piece of material, Mars reply was “You can always find a use for it.” Turned out that was true.

They arrived at the edge of the grove after a leisurely walk.

Ding!

[CAL]

[Map Found: Apelop Grove.]

Rewards: 50 EXP

Kit and Mars glanced ahead into the trees, most of the trees had an Apelop amongst the branches. The grove gave off an ominous feeling. The trees were densely populated, light was sparse inside, bird and insect chatter was minimal adding to the menacing impression.

“Mars, this might be a little harder than we thought. I don’t know if we can kill that many monsters at once.” Kit was disappointed he couldn’t harvest this area.

“What are you talking about, we can just lure them out one by one. If we don’t aggro them all at once, we will be fine. Plus, this will be good practice for your grip and downward strike you learnt this morning. I will pull them to you, ok?”

“Wait, where should we leave Pint and Snowball?”

“Pint will be fine at the edge of the grove, we can hang Snowball off his neck.”

“Are you sure Pint will let us do that?” Kit gave Mars a sceptical look.

“We can only try,” said Mars.

Kit handed the sling over to Mars. To his surprise Pint did not even blink as Mars slung Snowball over his neck. ‘I really thought there would have been some beer bribery in this scenario.’

“Ok all sorted, I’ll get an Apelop for you.”

Mars grinned like a maniac then pulled out his throwing knives and charged at the first Apelop. He aimed the small knives at the leathery hands once again.

Mars’ motions were fast and fluid. His movements were graceful and elegant, his skill was quite shocking to witness. It always caught Kit unprepared at his level of prowess. It reminded Kit of a dance, if there was not blood, he would have thought he was watching a skilled dancer perform.

Mars had caught the aggro of two Apelops. He dispatched one with ease and brought the other to Kit. He felt nervous he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Mars expectations. Handling his sword was harder than he had thought it would be. He did well yesterday killing the Apelops but there was a large break in between fights.

Today would be different. There were a lot more Apelops in this area and there wouldn’t be as much time to recover. Kit nerves and adrenalin mixed together, there was a slight tremor in his hands. He could already feel his hands sweating. Kit glanced at Mars and looked at the glee on his face. He hoped one day he would look at fights like this too.

‘Mars is definitely an adrenalin junky he loves fighting. Lucky he is so good at it. I bet if I wasn’t here, he would have just charged into the grove without a care in the world.’

Once Kit held the aggro from the Apelop, Mars moved to the side and started giving him advise.

“Don’t just dodge, attack.”

“That’s easy for you to say, he has six freakin’ arms.”

Kit slashed down trying to cause the most damage at each strike. He was dodging more that hitting.

- 40 damage

- 42 damage

- 53 damage

“That’s it, now try to increase your hit rate. Don’t dodge so much or you will lose too much stamina.”

Kit listened to his advice, he increased his strikes. He could feel the difference with the increase to his agility. He felt more flexible than before and lighter on his feet, he didn’t feel as clunky dodging attacks. The improvement to his agility from the skills he gained from cooking, gave him a great boost to his fighting movements and control of the sword.

Kit continued to strike and dodge until he had finished the Apelop. He was starting to sweat from the effort. Mars had finished off three Apelops in the time he had killed his one.

‘There really is a huge gap in our skills. He could still stop to observe me in between killing three Apelops. I need to work hard to learn some skills or when we get to a higher level, I won’t have the ability to keep up with Mars.’

Kit was now more than ever determined to work on his skills every night. He didn’t want to become a hindrance to Mars in the future.

Kit and Mars continued to move through the grove. They found an assortment of mushrooms and small herbs the deeper into the grove they went. They collected the ingredients in-between Mars pulling an Apelop for Kit.

Once Kit had disposed of his Apelop, Mars would then shake a tree like a mad man and Kit would collect all the fallen monkey brain nuts. Kit increased his level twice with the amount of Apelops they had killed in the grove. He was now a level 8.

Kit noticed the further into the grove the harder the Apelops became.

“Mars do you think a boss will spawn in here. They are getting higher level and more intelligent the further in we go. At the start of the grove, I was fighting a level 10 Apelop, this last one was level 15.”

Mars eyes shone and he flashed Kit a smile. “I hope so, these guys are a little boring.”

“Mars I have a feeling you are going to get me into sticky situations in the future just for entertainment.” Mars didn’t deny that statement.

Kit looked at his map, they were almost in the middle of the grove.

“We should go a bit slower now we are almost in the centre of the grove.”

“I’ll scout ahead to see if any of the Apelops look any different.”

Mars moved stealthily between the trees towards the centre of the grove. He returned after a short while with a look of anticipation on his face.

‘Yep, definitely a boss in there.’ Mars confirmed his thought with his next sentence.

“There is a massive Apelop just up ahead. It is three times the size of a normal one.” Mars manic look was back on his face.

“Can we kill it?”

“Of course, it will be a cinch,” replied Mars.

Kit had a bad feeling about this. After killing the rest of the Apelops in the area it was time to head towards the boss. Mars led Kit a safe distance from the large Apelop so they could observe the area. Mars was not kidding about its size, Kit could see its leathery face from where he was. Its hands were the size of a large watermelons. The spikes on its back glittered with a sticky fluid.

“Look at that bad boy, this will be fun,” Chuckled Mars.

“Mars are you sure we can do this, I only reached level 8 today. Here look at my stats.”

Kit

Level: 8

Health: 270/270

Attack + 19 (30)

Class: Swordsman

Stamina: 20/20

Speed + 55 (5)

Sub class:

Magica: 60/60

Intelligence + 56

Money: 43 silver 404 bronze crowns

Experience: 1605/7500

Agility + 112 (5)

Restaurant capital: 45 silver 209 bronze crowns

Weapon: Beginner Sword

Defence + 13 (5)

Culinary Points: 42

Clothing: White apron

Free Points: 16

“No problem he is only level 30. Your agility is fairly good now, so your dodge skill should be able to handle it, just keep focused. I will handle dealing most of the damage, just attack when you find an opening.”

“How do you know what level he is?”

“I used identify.” Mars gave Kit a strange look.

“Wait haven’t you been using it on the monsters?” Mars gave Kit an incredulous look.

“Ahh, how could I be so silly, I didn’t even think to do that,” Kits ears went red.

“Have you not played any games before?”

“No, I was never allowed. My mother thought they were a waste of time. I wasn’t even allowed to have a mobile phone because it would distract me from studies. After I moved out of home, I couldn’t afford any games and the mobile I have is too old to support most apps. I didn’t bother to play any, I just waited for CAL.”

“That explains so much. It also probably helps a lot because you won’t have any expectations or perceived limits about game play. You will assimilate better to the game than most people that have played other games. The difference between CAL and its predecessors is huge.”

Mars was giving Kit a once over and nodding to himself. “I reckon we can get you to level 10 with this bad boy, are you ready?.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. No wait. What happens if one of us dies? Where will we meet?”

“We won’t die and even if we do, it’s ok. We should respawn back in Sweet Meadow. I’m sure we are still in the respawn field for there.”

“What?”

“Each area has a certain field for you to respawn at. You will respawn at the closest stone arch to the area you are in.”

“Got it.”

“Are you ready now?”

“Yes?”

Kits heart started to race. His palms were starting to sweat, this was becoming a familiar feeling. He locked his focus on the massive Apelop and activated his Identify skill. Immediately information entered his vision.

[King of the Apelops]

Swift Feet, Level 30.

HP 5,000

“What the hell! How are we supposed to KILL it? My HP is literally 270. I am going to die.”

“Think positive,” was all Mars said.

With that Mars pulled out his throwing knives. This time was a little different from normal. The knives in Mars hands started to produce flames. As Mars threw them toward Swift Feet they became fully engulfed in intense red flames.

The knives exploded fire on impact, causing Swift Feet to howl in pain.

- 500 damage

“Holy spinach leaves! That was so cool.” Mars didn’t stop there, he pulled his sword and delivered a succession of attacks with his sword faster than Kit had imagined was possible.

- 105 damage

- 150 damage

- 300 damage

- 500 damage

“What kind of swordsman are you, how the hell is that even possible?” Kit hadn’t even taken a step towards Swift Feet, and he had already lost 1,555 HP. Mars was a killing machine.

“Hurry up Kit or I’ll have had all the fun.”

Kit jolted into action. As he approached, Swift Feet was coming out of his initial shock. He let out a roar and slapped four of his hands on the ground. A shock wave spread rippling the dirt. Kit reacted in time and jumped the ripples, landing with surprising agility on his feet. His heart leapt in his throat, he continued to rush forward to join the fight.

Kit was glad he had raised his agility. Without gaining the extra boost from his cooking skills he didn’t think he would have been able to react in time.

Once he reached the giant Apelop, he raised his sword to the sky, then guided his sword down towards one of Swift Feet’s hands that were placed on the ground. This time felt different from before. He felt like he had complete control over the sword, he sliced through flesh on his downward strike and removed the hand from the arm.

- 85 damage

Ding!

[Skill learnt: Advanced beginner Swift Strike]

Player delivers a swift decisive strike to inflict damage on his target.

+ 40 Attack

+ 5 Defence

Warm blood spurted from the detached hand covering Kit’s face. He was momentarily blind. Kit quickly wiped the blood from his face. A bout of nausea washed over Kit from being covered in body fluids.

“Well done, Kit. Don’t get distracted now though, keep going,” Mars encouraged.

Kit didn’t have time to recover. He swallowed the rising bile just as Swift Feet struck out with one of his hands. Kit saw the descending limb and was able to dodge in time to avoid the strike. He moved in to strike him again. Kit felt his sword slice through the massive Apelops flesh. Each time he struck an arch of blood erupted from the monster’s body.

- 85 damage

- 85 damage

- 85 damage

- 508 damage

Mars was taking the bulk of the attacks from Swift Feet. Kit was able to inflict some damage due to only having to dodge the occasional flying hand. This was taking considerable focus due to the speed of the hand’s movement. Kit tried to keep up with the intense fighting.

- 85 damage

- 503 damage

- 85 damage

- 408 damage

Kit found it easy to decipher which damage was being caused by him. He was only able to inflict 85 damage at a time. His heart was racing. He was worried he would die from one hit from the giant Apelop. Sweat was running down his face from the effort he was putting into each strike.

He glanced at Mars to see how he was doing. Mars had a huge grin on his face and was laughing. He looked a little crazy right now. A drop of sweat mixed with the blood on Kits face and entered Kit’s eye. His eye started to water.

Kit vision in one eye turned into a red haze from the blood entering his eye. Kit tried to blink the tears and blood from his eye. The slip in concentration allowed Swift Feet to land an attack with his flying hand. Kit was too slow to block the arm, he flew backwards from the force of the hit.

- 200 damage

Kit grunted on impact with the ground. He felt a sharp pain explode in his arm on impact. He rolled several times. When he stopped, he stat up. He was relived he wasn’t thrown as far as the trees lining the clearing. If he had collided with a tree, he would have taken extra damage and most likely died.

Kit could feel something wasn’t right with his body. He had tremendous pain radiating from his left arm. He glanced down to see his shoulder was hanging at an awkward angle.

Kit sat on the ground grunting. It took him a moment to pull out a bottle of water. He chugged the water down with deep pulls from the bottle, his adams apple bobbing with each mouth full.

Once Kit had finished the bottle he immediately started on the next. He could feel his shoulder pulling itself back into place, it was an uncomfortable feeling. Kit was glad he had topped up his water from the barrel before they left this morning.

The pain was beginning to dull due to the healing effects of the water. His HP was soon returned to full. Kit stood up again to re-join the fight. He was determined to keep going. He didn’t want to be a burden to Mars. Kit lifted his eyes to assess Mars situation. He was worried Mars wouldn’t be able to handle the Apelop on his own.

Kit gazed at the chaos in front of him. Mars was like a small tornado swirling around Swift Feet constantly striking with his sword. Mars was slowly turning red from all the blood. He nimbly dodged attacks from the flying hands. It was like Swift feet was attacking in slow motion, it was unable to even land a single strike.

Right at that moment Swift feet let out a bone chilling scream and fell to the ground.

Ding!

[King of the Apelops. Swift Feet Killed]

15,000 experience, 1 silver crown

4 x King Apelop Hides

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 9]

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 10]

“That was fun. Right Kit?” Mars was standing next to the giant dead Apelop with a crazy grin on his face. Kit could only shake his head. Mars had been having the time of his life fighting the Apelop. Kit had been too worried about staying alive to enjoy the encounter.

“Fun? Mars I was too concerned with staying alive. I thought I was going to die when I got hit by that hand.” Kit still felt the adrenalin soaring through his veins from the fight.

“You were fine. See, I told you it would be easy.”

Kit didn’t think that was easy. If Mars hadn’t been there the fight would have ended before it had even started. Kit felt a heavy burden fall in his heart. If he didn’t improve his fighting skills, he would become an added responsibility to his friend.

Kit was determined not to fall behind, he would just have to work hard to keep up. Mars had no clue what was going on inside of Kit’s mind. He was still bouncing with energy.

Mars had a large grin on his face. “The second-best bit is still to come.”

“Second?”

“The loot.” Mars pointed to the ground where Swift Feet was lying. A large wooden chest was lying at the feet of the large Apelop.

Kit felt a jolt of excitement at the sight of the chest. He couldn’t wait to see what they would receive. Kit walked over to Mars, both of their eyes held anticipation in their depths.