June 27, XX17

Dove POV

I pulled myself up. I looked around a found a few other Players still lying on the ground. They began regaining consciousness as well.

We were at the Ruins of Goble. As one would expect, it looked like the ruins of an underground city. Many broken pillars and structures filled the ruins. Some of those were no longer discernible and appeared like rabble. No wood or metal could be found in the ruins, only rock and stone. The area gave a gloomy vibe due the eerie wind blowing in the cold silence and the dim surroundings only lighted by faint torches. Unlike the Goblin Camps that were directly below the surface, no sunlight entered from the ceiling cracks, implying that we were deep underground.

After entering the Ruins of Goble, the floor collapsed on us. It appeared we fell into different locations.

The first person to wake up after me was from Crimson Swords. While his head was bald, grey beard and mustache covered the lower half of his face. His skin was filled with lines; his body was slouched; his black eyes were lightless. All this made him look like an old man.

The next person was a boy from a Party called Gemini Mage. A boy around fourteen years of age, he jumped around excitedly as soon as he woke up. Compared to others of his age, he could be considered small. Contrasting to his white skin, his ruby-colored eyes peeked out of his blonde bangs.

Following him was Kotel, who I knew quite a bit about from Hawk’s description since Kotel was joining the tournament.

Kotel was a Light Spell Blade. He fought in a standard orthodox pattern and nothing stood out in his movements; however, his skill with a sword was high. Hawk speculated that Kotel received swordsmanship training in real life but had not participated in actual fights. Kotel’s experience increased quite a bit during his time in Reality. Before Zoe formed Cerulean Seas, Kotel dueled Hawk frequently. Even now, Kotel frequently contacted Hawk for advice seeing as their both Spell Blades. Kotel currently used the Uncommon Sword Long Sword. As its name implied, it was longer than the Basic Sword. Hawk also gave a profile of Kotel’s ability, Illuminate Blade.

The last person to wake up was a woman from Lime Breeze. The first thing anyone would notice from her was her unbelievably voluptuous breasts, which were G-cup at the very least. While her face wasn’t anything of note, it wasn’t ugly in any way. She had long black hair tied in ponytail that reached her back. Her brown eyes covered a large area of her face. She was also taller than most of male Players I knew.

We were somewhere in the dungeon. The area was quite dark, but the various destroyed statues, buildings, and pillars were visible.

“Hey! Let’s introduce ourselves already!” said the boy from Gemini Mage in a bratty tone.

The first Player to react was the voluptuous girl, who said, “I am Zip, an Electric Dancer from Lime Breeze.”

Hearing this, the boy himself introduced, “I am Rise, a Water Wizard. Despite being officially the Leader of Gemini Mage, I share the position with my twin brother Rize.”

The Player who looked like an old man then followed with a creaky voice, “My name… is Born… I am… a Water Summoner from Crimson Swords.”

Kotel introduced himself after.

“I am Dove, Vice-Leader of ARF.”

“It looks like we have no time to rest.” said Rise as he brought out his (non-Basic) Rod, which had a blue gem on the tip.

Dozens of Goblins and Black Goblins emerged from the various holes in the ruins and surrounded us.

“What’s our strategy?” I asked.

“Strategy? Who needs strategy when we can beat them all down.” said Rise.

Rise raised his staff. A large amount of highly-compressed water formed in front of him and fired towards the Goblins. The water struck a Goblin and almost depleted it all is Health. After five seconds, Rise fired off another blast of water and hit another Goblin.

Zip danced. To be honest, her breasts bouncing as she danced distracted me quite a bit. I wish mine was as big as hers… Back to the point, as she danced, a lightning field covered the floor. The field slowed down the movements of all the Goblins that entered its vicinity. If I recalled correctly, Dancers needed to continue dancing or the effect of their skills will disappear.

Out of all the people here, I held most interest on Born. Summoner was a relatively rare Job Class in Naut City. I had never seen the Job in action myself. Born brought out a book. A ray of energy was released from the book. The energy gathered on one spot on the ground and slowly disappeared. When the energy fully disappeared, a gigantic shark floating in the air emerged. From my limited knowledge on biology, it was an adult great white shark. The shark had its own Health bar but no Mana bar. It swam through the air as if through water and bit the Goblins it faced. During this time, Born remained immobile and concentrated on controlling the shark.

Since Zip, Born, and Rise all attacked from ranged, I judged it better to fight in front with Kotel. After the initial attacks from those three, Kotel and I rushed into the damaged formation of the Goblins and attacked relentlessly.

Kotel showed great skill with a blade. In terms of skill alone, his swordplay outclassed Hawk’s. After we eliminated half the Goblins, I realized what made Hawk stronger that Kotel: adaptability. Hawk’s entire fighting style changed depending on what enemies he faced and continued changing even during the battle to maximize the odds of winning. While Kotel showed different strategies at different points of the battle, the sequence of his movements remained the same.

Since the Goblins, while high in number, were weak individually, we defeated them without much problems. Even with the easy fight, I could find slight hint in weakness of this group.

After the battle, I brought up my Party Menu. Hawk taught Canary and I to use this menu to check whether our Party Members were alive should we get separated. Thankfully, both Hawk and Canary were alive.

We gathered to discuss the formation we would move in. Since Born’s shark only disappeared if it lost all its Health, we included it to our formation as well. Shark stayed a meter from the rest of the group. Kotel positioned directly behind the shark. Half a meter behind Kotel was Zip, Born, and Rise. I stood behind those three to defend from backstabs.

We explored the Ruins of Goble. Initially, we followed single pathway. Goblins attacked us on our way but they were nothing of note. After a while, we finally caught glimpse of a staircase leading upwards. As we drew closer to the staircase, a fallen pillar blocked our path to the staircase. Since the fallen pillar was a no-jump area, it forced us to backtrack and search for another path.

At this point, we realized we could not simply follow the pathway we saw. We had to pass through the many holes and cracks on the walls and structures of the Naut City.

We entered one of the structures and were promptly surrounded by Goblins from where we entered as well as from the top of the structures. Due to this, the Goblins broke our formation and threatened to attack Zip, Born, and Rise. Kotel and I immediately returned to address this threat. Kotel and I easily dispatched the Goblins that sneaked into our formation but the shark took quite a beating from the Goblins due to Kotel’s absence.

In hindsight, both of us weren’t needed to defeat the Goblins that broke our formation since I alone was enough to defeat the Goblins behind. While we were all still at over eighty percent Health, the damage the shark took was a result in the inefficiency of our strategy. The shark’s Health already reached critical. This event was even worsened due to Born’s revelation that he couldn’t summon another shark with his current Mana.

I felt we went around in circles as we continued exploring. My sense of direction wasn’t bad since I could easily remember roads in both real life and Naut City, but the lack of detail and the monochromy of the ruins led to our inability to remember whether we had taken the path or not.

Our loss continued for two hours. While most people began losing their temper by now, the encounters against the Goblins made the time feel shorter than it actually was; however, it was only a matter of time before we got annoyed.

Thankfully, we stumbled upon the path leading to the staircase before anyone got fed up. We rested at the Safe Zone located fifty meters before the staircase to regenerate our Mana, especially Born’s.

Born looked like he was meditating as he sat on a rock with his eyes close, so we didn’t disturb him. Rise did his own thing and went walked circles inside the Safe Zone. As I sat and leaned on the wall with my feet stretched out, Kotel ran and sat beside me.

“Dove! You’re swordplay is beautiful!” praised Kotel.

“I think you’re swordplay is better than mine.” I honestly replied.

Kotel shook his head and answered, “Probably so, but the timing on your movements are borderline inhuman. Even Swan can’t consistently time her movements to such perfection consistently. No wonder you’re Hawk’s Vice-Leader.”

“People always tell me that. I don’t know why though. Neither does Hawk though, so I’m still figuring out why my timings are perfect.”

“You’re one of the Player Zoe told me to be most aware of for the tournament, so I’m watching you closely.”

“Do you think you can beat me?”

I personally thought that a duel between us would be 55-45 in his favor. I lack Hawk’s godlike analytical skills though, so I might me wrong.

“If we fought suddenly and out of nowhere, it would probably be an even match, but this isn’t the case. I’m sure Hawk prepared a strategy and training for you against most of the notable tournament contenders.”

“That is actually the case.”

“If so, then the odds would be 80-20 in your favor.”

“That’s a gigantic increase. While I know Hawk’s plans are amazing, I didn’t expect it to be that game changing.”

“No. That’s actually a low increase. Hawk shines the most in battles against Players he knew well. Unlike monsters that anyone could predict, Hawk can predict humans far greater than anyone in Naut City can. Hawk without strategy against Blitz would be 99-1 in favor of Blitz. With it, Hawk skyrockets the odds to 95-5 in his favor. No matter how low the chance is, as long as the chance exists, Hawk would bring the odds to 95-5 even though the battle itself would be mostly even.”

Unexpectedly, Kotel, despite being young, was great at estimating odds and analyzing fights.

Kotel continued, “I believe Hawk’s strategies against people are perfect and bring his odds of victory to a hundred. This doesn’t happen because Hawk himself cannot perfectly execute his strategies, which creates the five percent flaw. Since he himself cannot do this, you using his strategies would be even worse.”

I patted Kotel’s head and said, “You look really cute when you’re talking so smartly.”

Kotel smiled and thanked me.

After fifteen minutes, we finally continued. We exited the Safe Zone and approached the stairs.

In the cold silence of the ruins, the heavy footsteps coming down from stairs reached us quickly. From the darkness appeared a fully armored Goblin. It was taller and buffer than the other Goblins we fought. I knew what it was. It was a Goblin Knight. The same as the Goblin who made Hawk fear for his life.

“Be careful, a similar Goblin fought Hawk to a stalemate.” I warned.

Usually, it would be difficult to convince Players from different Parties to your opinions. Fortunately, all the Players here respected of Hawk. Rise probably knew him the least, but Hawk’s victory over Blitz in a Duel was known to all of Naut City due to the popularity of Crimson Swords.

The Goblin spoke in an unfamiliar language as it drew closer to the end of the stairs. When the Goblin Knight first foot stepped on the flat ground, it rushed towards us at inhuman speeds.

Born couldn’t react in time to control his shark. Kotel and I readied ourselves to the Goblin Knight’s swing. With both our blades, we managed to stop the Goblin Knight’s swords; however, the sheer power of the strike pushed both of us back a few centimeters. Due to my lack of physical strength, my right hand ached for a few seconds after the blow.

Zip and Rise landed their Abilities on the Goblin Knight. While this was good, the consequences placed us in worse situation. The Goblin Knight released an aura towards Zip and Rise after being hit and disabled. The aura felt similar to Sylvie’s Ancient Elven Spells and inflicted the Status Effect: Silence on Zip and Rise.

Being Silenced prevented the victim to use any Abilities. Ironically, it didn’t prevent the victim from talking probably because it would have made Silence borderline imbalance in Battles by preventing communication.

Zip and Rise, who were made useless since they were completely reliant on their abilities, kited the Goblin Knight. While successful at first, the hints of weakness of this group finally showed itself fully. Combined with their slow natural speed, they blocked each other’s paths, leading to Rise being hit directly for 40% of his health. The problem continued further as all three of Zip, Rise, and Born used a Potion on Rise at the same time. In other words, one of the Potions was wasted.

Actually, using only one Potion was the standard play for most Parties. Hawk explained it’s more efficient not to use a Potion when at eighty percent Health because every moment you spent at full Health after the Potion is every moment you are not regenerating Health. If you spent enough time at full Health to regenerate 3% Health, then you’d effectively only used the Potion for 17% Health. However, Hawk warned that efficiently meant nothing if you die. If an enemy that could deal over 40% or so with a single hit or combo, Potions should be used even when above eighty.

The lack of communication showed. Players did whatever they were used to. Along with the shark, Kotel and I attacked the Goblin Knight whenever we could. After using Fade Walk and Illuminated Blade for additional damage, we were Silenced as well.

Simply put, the Goblin Knight could take on both Kotel and I in a swordfight simultaneously. While we landed hits every now and then, the Goblin knight retaliated back as well. Born tried his hardest to block the attacks with the shark but the shark was an offensively inclined summon. Three hits from the Goblin Knight brought it to critical Health already. The lack of tank in our group was showing.

Eventually, the Goblin Knight proved too fast and landed a hit on me. I immediately tried to use a Potion but failed. We reached the limit on the number of items usable in this battle. Again, the lack of healer proved troublesome.

Even so, we persisted on. Since we were the one dealing damage to it, the Goblin Knight targeted us the most. Both of us were hit once for thirty percent Health each.

The other Players could probably take the hit in our stead, but I knew they wouldn’t. Unlike ARF who frequently took attacks for one another to reduce the chances of death, the Players I was fighting with prioritized their own lives greater than ours. Some of them were probably willing to take hits for their Party Members, but there’s no way they would for Players from other Parties.

When the Goblin Knight reached half Health, the shark died. The fight went from 5v1 to 3v1 to now 2v1.

We whittled down the Goblin Knight to a third Health before the Goblin Knight landed yet another hit on Kotel. Since this hit was more direct than the previous ones, Kotel lost 37% of his Health and was left with 33%.

Even then, Kotel did not falter and continued to attack aggressively. When the Goblin Knight only had 3% Health left, I went for the killing blow on the head. I timed the strike as perfectly as I could. If the enemy had been human, there was no way to stop the attack. I was mistaken for my enemy was no human. The Goblin Knight bit my sword with its teeth and retaliated. As I prepared myself for the direct hit, Kotel attacked from behind. The Goblin Knight stopped his attack on me to defend from Kotel’s attack. The Goblin Knight counterattacked and hit Kotel after blocking him. Kotel lost 30% of his Health from the strike.

At this moment, the other Players with us attacked the Goblin Knight with their low power weapons and finished off the battle.

We returned to the Safe Zone and healed ourselves.

“That Goblin was super strong!” exclaimed Rise.

“Sorry for not helping much.” apologized Zip.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind.” said Kotel.

Despite living only by 5% Health, Kotel showed no signs of fear. He appeared exactly as he was before. In contrary, the others showed signs of worry after the difficult fight.

“Hawk fought a Goblin Knight one on one to a stalemate. I still have a lot to learn.” said Kotel.

[Illuminated Blade]

The target’s weapon is empowered by light. Whenever the empowered weapon connects an attack at the opponent, the attack damage converts into a Light magic attack and the damage is increased. The target loses Mana every time damage is converted.

Range: Self-target

Cooldown: 0

[Dancer]

A job specializing on skills that target a wide area.

Stats: Health: *** Mana: **** Attack: * Defense: ***

Magic: * Resistance: **** Speed: **** Dexterity: *****

Usable Weapons: None

Usable Armor: Light Equipment, Medium Equipment

[Summoner]

A job specializing on summoning monsters to fight in your stead.

Stats: Health: ** Mana: ***** Attack: * Defense: **

Magic: ***** Resistance: ***** Speed: ** Dexterity: **

Usable Weapons: None

Usable Armor: Light Equipment, Medium Equipment