Chapter 037

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

* * for actions.

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Jack and his companion were around a couple of day’s walk from Rotang City. They were walking at a leisurely pace, when his companion stopped. Bob assumed a combat ready pose and wielded his two-handed battle-axe. Seeing this, Jack also enabled Entropic Leech and Mana Claws. He then swaggered and mentioned in an annoyed tone.

Jack: “Really, another ambush? Don’t you retards ever learn?”

There was a rustle from the bushes and a man in his early twenties appeared. He was about 5 feet 9 inch (175 cm) tall and had light brown skin. His eyes had epicanthic folds (A/N: Asian Eyes) and he was bald. He was clean shaved, except for a tuft of hair near his chin.

He was dressed in what appeared to be a dark grey tunic made of silk with matching pants. He had a sheath near his hip, which looked like it contained a katana. He held up his palms and had a sheepish grin on his face as he addressed Jack.

Bald Stranger: “Please give me a chance to explain, before both of you slaughter me. And for the record, I never ambushed you before.”

Jack: “Well a group of idiots have ambushed me a couple of times already. And you were acting all sneaky, so you can’t blame me. Why exactly are you here?”

Bald Stranger: “To exchange pointers with you, of course.”

Jack: *snorts* “That’s just sugar coating that you want to kill me…”

Bald Stranger: “Well, I just want to duel you Jack.”

Jack: *mild alarm* “How do you know my name?”

Bald Stranger: “You are quite famous in the forums, you know. Someone uploaded a partial video of you, your buddy and your pet lizard slaughtering his group of fifteen until you killed him midway.”

Jack: ‘Oh great. Now random retards want to fight me…’

Jack: “Well you know my name, what is yours?”

Bald Stranger: “My avatar here is named Hiro.”

Jack: “And why exactly should I bother ‘exchanging pointers’ with you?”

Hiro: “The same reason you could dominate those fifteen idiots. We both don’t use System Assist. It would help both of us improve ourselves fighting against a real challenge.”

Jack: “It does sound intriguing, but no way am I risking a death penalty just for that. So if you excuse me, I will be on my way…”

Hiro: “There is no need to risk a death penalty. We can fight a duel.”

Jack: “A duel? Isn’t that just both of us whacking each other? How does it bypass the death penalty?”

Hiro: “No. A duel is a PvP feature. You can challenge and fight opponents with certain conditions which both parties agree to in a safe zone like a city. But a certain items can bypass the requirement to be in a city for issuing duel challenges.”

Jack: *sigh* ‘Oh boy…he is a persistent one. I guess I could fight him…will be a nice change of pace.”

Jack: “Well if you have such an item, sure lets duel.”

Hiro’s face breaks into an enthusiastic smile and he withdraws what looks like a copper coin.

Hiro: “So let us duel. The first one to reach half his HP loses. And no potions or other consumables allowed. Agreed?”

Jack: “Till half HP and no potions. Sure.”

Hiro then flipped the copper coin in his hand. A notification window popped up in Jack’s vision.

Duel RequestThe player Hiro requests you to an honorable duel.

Conditions:

The duel proceeds till one of the contenders reach 50% HP.

No consumables like potions or scrolls are allowed during the duel.

Do you Accept?Yes[/td4][td2]No[/td4]

Jack: “Yes, I accept.”

Hearing Jack’s reply, there was a glint of battle-lust in Hiro’s eyes. Surprisingly, he kept his sword sheathed and readied his unarmed fists. He grinned and addressed Jack.

Hiro: “I am ready when you are.”

Jack: *irritated* “Hey are you looking down on me? Draw your weapon.”

Hiro: *smug* “You don’t have the qualifications to make me do so!”

He looked at the bald challenger’s arrogant and smug look and fired a couple of firebolts at his face. Hiro stood at around 15 m away from him. When the firebolts approached, he didn’t make any movements. When the bolts were a couple of meters away from him, he casually sidestepped, dodging them both by a hair’s breadth.

Hiro: “Easily readable attacks like that won’t work on me…”

Jack: “Then eat this!”

Jack fired a couple of soul strikes in rapid succession in an overhead arc. The soul strikes homed in on Hiro and attacked him. Hiro still stood his ground, as he met the incoming soul strikes with the swipe of his palm. In Jack’s spirit senses, a formless cloud of mana appeared near Hiro’s hand.

As the mana cloud collided with his soul strike, he could see that his spell’s strength was cut to half as it collided with him. Each of the diminished soul strike hit him for around 5% HP each, and Hiro lost a total of 10% HP.

Losing a tenth of his HP in a couple of diminished spells clearly surprised Hiro. He had a scowl on his face as his body was enveloped in a layer of mana. Jack intently observed with his Spirit Senses and refrained from spamming more spells as he wanted to observe this challenger, and it wasn’t a life-death match anyway.

His Spirit Senses observed what looked like a mix of soul and force affinity mana enveloped Hiro. The mana did not remain a formless layer however. In a flash, Hiro’s whole body was covered in a double helixes of mana.

The mana wasn’t static and was constantly rotating like a corkscrew. The mana around Hiro rotated from head to toe and across his limbs in a spiral manner. One of the ‘arms’ of the spiral was of force mana, while the other was soul mana. It also vibrated at a constant rhythm as it rotated around him.

Immediately after that, Hiro rushed at him, at an obscenely fast speed. He had covered more than 10m in around half a second! Jack’s Danger Sense started tingling into overdrive, and he immediately unleashed the prepared fire breath.

Jack’s field of vision was blocked with scarlet flames from his fire breath. He couldn’t see it, but Hiro had barely managed to move in time outside the AoE, and the fire breath was a glancing blow damaging Hiro for around 15%.

Hiro appeared to his right and before Jack could react, his jaw was smashed with a punch from his left. This caused him to stumble a couple of meters (~5 feet) backwards and he lost around 7% HP! His jaw was throbbing painfully as he turned and faced his opponent.

Even though Hiro was in the AoE of Entropic Leech, Jack could barely follow his movements. Before he could retaliate with a Mana Claw enhanced swipe, he was punched again in the gut. This attack caused him to almost lose his balance and he lost another 10% of his HP.

Jack: ‘Fuck. This guy is a monster. He is pummeling me in unarmed close combat as if I were a practice dummy. Need some distance, ASAP.’

Utilizing Mana Fists on both his legs, he jumped backwards with the aid of force blasts, in order to create distance. When he began his backward jump, he saw a slight smirk on Hiro’s face as he too leaped forward. Jack was in mid leap, and before he could alter his trajectory with Force blasts, Hiro’s right knee smashed into his ribs and both landed in a tangle on the ground and Jack lost another 12% of his HP.

Hiro immediately grappled with Jack on the ground and locked all his limbs. Hiro however, had one arm free and he punched Jack repeatedly in his ribs. Each punch was causing jack to lose around 5% of his HP. Jack prepared a soulfire breath, but before he could release it, Hiro had pummeled his HP to below half and retreated with a backward leap. A notification window popped up in Jack’s vision.

[td2]Duel Winner:HiroTerm Violations:NoneGains & Penalties:Hiro gains +1 Fame

Jack was wheezing a bit when he got up. While he was somewhat grumpy at his defeat, he admired the prowess of Hiro. There was no question that his opponent, like him, was not taking the aid of System Assist. Furthermore, his movements and actions were far more fluid and skillful than his.

Jack: “It is my loss. You won fair and square. Your movements were too fast for me to follow in close range.”

Hiro: “You praise me too much. I already lost a fourth of my HP before you were in melee range. Furthermore, you didn’t summon your fire lizard.”

Jack: ‘He is humble, even though he curb stomped me. Seems like an honorable good guy, though I am sure his honor will come back to bite his ass.’

Jack: *genuine smile* “And you didn’t use your sword!”

Hiro: *sheepish grin* “It was a good fight nevertheless. How about I add you to my friend list, and we can have a rematch after we polish our skills a bit?”

Jack: “Sure! I look forward to an all-out match with you.”

You have received a friend request from the player Hiro. Do you wish to accept?

Jack: “Accept Friend request from Hiro. Next time we meet, I will be the one winning.”

Hiro: “I hope for a good fight. With your talent, don’t bother playing around with system assisted noobs for too long. If you had the practice fighting real players like I did, I would have probably lost today.”

Jack: “Wait, you mean there are many players without System Assist. Where do I duel with them”

Hiro: *smirk* “I might tell you if you beat me in our next duel. Later, Jack.”

He ran off into the woods while whistling a merry tune. After a few seconds when he was sure Hiro had departed, Jack used Regenerating infusion and a mild green glow surrounded his body. He rapidly regenerated some of his HP.

Bob: “This traveler could fight decently; unlike the ones form the previous ambush. If you had used this healing spell after receiving the first blow, you could have probably lasted long enough to unleash your breath spell while both of you were grappling.”

Jack: “Probably, yeah. But it was just a friendly match, not a life-death scenario. He didn’t expose all his cards, and neither did I.”

Bob: “It’s strange though. He shouldn’t have been so fast or strong. His movements during the battle contained more explosive power than afterwards, when he went away.”

Jack: “Oh yeah. He was using his mana to enhance his physical capacity during battle. We will delay our journey to Rotang City for a while. I might as well try to copy him.”

Bob: “You only saw him use it once, that too not for long. You sure you can emulate his skill?”

Jack: *shrugging* “Maybe not exactly, but it should be similar enough.to be worthwhile.”

Jack and Bob then went off the path into the woods. After almost an hour of walking deeper into the woods, Jack used a fire breath to burn some bushes to ashes and made a small clearing. He turned to his companion and addressed him.

Jack: “Your detection range is larger than mine. Is anyone else nearby?”

Bob: “Except a few small animals running away, nope.”

Jack: “Good. I will attempt to simulate Hiro’s skill. Don’t disturb me in the meanwhile.”

His companion nodded, and he sat down cross-legged in the clearing and closed his eyes. He raised his right arm ahead of him. It took him a few minutes to manifest two strands of mana around his arm. One was of soul affinity and one was of force affinity.

He then attempted to gently vibrate the mana in the rhythm he had observed when Hiro had used the skill. After numerous failed attempts he could sustain the vibrations on the two straight strands of mana. He then attempted to rotate the mana in the helical form he had observed.

Unsurprisingly, the mana sizzled away. He manifested two strands of mana very close to his arm, and slowly rotated them around his arm in a helical manner. After he did that, he tried to vibrate the mana while it was rotating and it fizzled yet again. A couple of hours of trial and error still didn’t leave him with any successful results. He stopped his attempts and started contemplating.

Jack: ‘I can either rotate it, or vibrate it; not both. Once I start vibrating mana, trying to rotate it disperses it and vice versa. Doing one is easy enough, but starting the other on it, causes it to fail without exception.’

Jack: *frown* ‘Maybe I should start to rotate and vibrate it simultaneously?’

By now, he had got the rhythm of vibration and the speed of the helical rotation of the mana. He then started manifesting two strands of mana. As it manifested, he vibrated and rotated it in the rhythm he had observed.

Unlike his previous attempts, the mana didn’t disperse immediately, but it lasted a few seconds before dissipating. Excited at his progress, Jack continued practicing it diligently. In around 15 minutes he could maintain the vibrating double helix of soul and force mana around his arm.

After another couple of hours of trial and error, he could main a series of helixes all over his body. In his mind’s eye this was pretty similar to what Hiro had used against him. He opened his eyes and noticed that his companion was skinning a freshly killed boar.

His body felt light as a feather and he tried jumping at full strength. He leaped faster and higher than he expected and hit his head on an over-head branch. He recovered quickly and landed on all fours on the ground. He then dashed from tree to tree and was elated at the ease of movement.

He punched a nearby tree trunk at full strength and noticed the impression of his fist almost an inch deep. He let go of the shaped mana rotating around his body and punched the same tree trunk again. The impression left on the trunk was barely a cm deep. He smiled enabled Mana Gloves and smashed his fist again into the tree trunk. This third impression was a little deeper than an inch. He noticed that a visible chunk of PP from his PP bar was consumed.

Jack: *grinning* ‘So this helical vibrating mana thingy adds almost as much raw physical strength as Mana gloves does to my punches! Using this helical mana thingy with Mana Claws or Force Blade will make me quite decent at melee.’

Jack: ‘But the PP cost is something which will be difficult to sustain in long drawn fights.Next time I meet this Samurai wannabe, I will use his own skill against him.’ *gives a crazed sounding laugh*

His companion snorted. Bob had finished skinning the boar and was making a small fire to roast the meat for their meal. Jack sat down near his companion. While Bob was cooking a boar haunch over the fire, he checked his notifications. He hadn’t gained any stat boosts, but his Mana Control skill had increased to Intermediate Tier and he had learned a new spell Body Augmentation. He quickly summoned the spell information on Body Augmentation.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Body AugmentationBeginner100.00%

You have successfully deduced how to reinforce and augment your physical capabilities with mana. Using Force and Soul mana in a specific manner, you become physically stronger, faster and have enhanced reflexes. However, sustaining shaped mana in this manner taxes your concentration and reduces your maximum magical attack by 5%.

Current level effects:

+51% of Intelligence to Strength.

+25.5% of Willpower to Agility.

+25.5% of Willpower to Dexterity.

-5% to maximum magical attack.

Costs 450 PP to initiate and 11 PP/s to sustain.

Jack: *grinning* ‘My most expensive spell till date, but the boosts are awesome. It boosts three physical stats! So I need only the minimum stats to equip leather armor, rest of it for melee damage can come from this spell!’

Jack: ‘The PP/s drain can be partially countered by Entropic Leech… though having both spells on will reduce 10% of my magical attack. Still this gives me a powerful tool for inflicting Physical Damage. Not to mention added Agility for running away.’

Bob: “You seem to be pleased. Lunch is not ready yet, by the way.”

Jack: “I can wait for lunch. And yeah I am pleased because I managed to copy his physical enhancement spell.”

Bob: *sarcastic tone* “Great. That just means more of your monkey-like antics during battle.”

Jack: “Says the brute wielding a weapon almost as large as himself. Like a Gorilla wielding a tree trunk!”

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A/N: Mecani, I hope you re alright wherever you are.

Also special thanks to rosidbeken2 for his great ideas! I mean he seriously gave me a ton of new ideas.

Sorry for missing chapter last week. A friend of mine had returned from abroad after a year so my weekend was busy (and fun!).

So this chapter, our MC learns that there is a tier of players, which is way above the noobs he had fun bashing. He also plagiarizes a sweet skill even if he lost the duel!

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