41 Evie

Swoosh

A figure suddenly appeared in the air and slashed with all its might. Two green lights flashed as Shesmu used a variant of the Slash Thrust combo in the air. This time, He would slash normally then use Empowered Slash, backswing in the other direction and cancel the recoil with Empowered Thrust. This variant was much slower than the normal one, but it did compensate in overall damage.

Thud

Shesmu fell on the ground with a thud before unsheathing his sword. In this training session, he was able to experiment with many different techniques and battle positions. The Dash skill was very good in the sense that it could be used in so many different situations. For one hour, Shesmu has only been trying to improve his kinetic vision and balance by using Dash at any point of his strings and combos. This allowed his playstyle to become much more flexible than before, something that Shesmu knew was of utmost importance in combat.

"Hey, are you guys done, yet?"

Leo and Ryan stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Shesmu.

"Yeah, we're close to done. Leo can do Slash Cancel 80% of the time now. Is that good enough?"

"Yeah, that's good enough. In the first place, you don't learn that type of stuff in training, you learn it in a fight." Shesmu then looked at Leo before continuing. "Even if you do train even more and increase your success rate, it doesn't mean anything. Combat is much more different and you won't have time to prepare there. The stress and pressure are also a factor. You should continue your training on those conditions."

Leo nodded at Shesmu's words. "I understand."

"Good, well, that's it for now I think." Shesmu then thought for a second before signaling his teammates' attention. "By the way, I reached level 15 and a half from the exp we got from getting first. What about you guys?"

"I barely reached level 15, so I guess Ryan is 15 too."

"Yeah, I'm 15. I probably should have changed my weapon already, but with everything that happened, I forgot."

"Yeah, makes sense. Well, since we're all level 15 now, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't go to the tower now. Equip the Silver Fang and let's go."

"Yeah, I've been waiting for so long already. I hope this tower lives up to the hype!"

That exclamation marked the end of the trio's conversation before they went out of the dojo. There were many players going on left and right outside of the building. Their equipment was mostly the beginner one with few exceptions holding higher leveled swords; mostly iron sword.

As the trio went with the crowd, Shesmu could hear some few conversations.

"Did you hear about the monster that's roaming the forest?"

"A monster roaming the forest? What's that supposed to mean? There are so many monsters roaming the forest."

"No, I'm not talking about those. Those monsters are but mobs, the one I'm talking about is a true monster. He killed a party of a hundred level 10 and above players if the rumors are true."

"A hundred level 10 players?! What kind of Boss is this?! Is it one of clan kings everyone has been talking about?"

"I'm not sure about that. The only thing I know is that the monster was a fox, and it used both fire and frost. And, the most unbelievable part of this whole story was: the monster was level 5."

Hearing this, Shesmu stopped for a second.

"Hmm, Shesmu. Why did you stop?" asked Leo.

However, Shesmu was in a world of his own. A fox that uses fire and frost. Is it- are they talking about Isslog?

Shesmu knew of only one fox who uses both fire and frost. It was the double evolved Tier 5 monster: Isshog.

I don't remember an incident like this in my past life. Isshog isn't supposed to evolve until much later. Shaman was only able to have it evolve after reached Tier 1 and went through the trial. This is much too fast.

"Hey, Shesmu. From Earth to Shesmu, do you hear me?"

Finally snapping out of his thoughts, Shesmu looked at DepressedRyan before saying.

"Sorry, let's continue."

With that, the trio continued walking with the crowd towards the tower.

In any case, Isshog will be mine once the game goes live. Sorry Shaman, I'll help you out later, but you can't claim what you don't have. At least, not in this timeline.

The party reached the entrance of the tower when Leo asked.

"Hey guys, weren't we supposed to be escorted by someone Aldrien sent?"

"Oh, now that you say it, I do remember something like that. You think she got lost and couldn't find us?"

"Impossible… right? I mean, the whole place is only so big, how could she get-."

"-lost…"

Just as Leo said those words, someone came in running cutting him mid-sentence. Her hair was pink like cherry and she kept huffing and puffing, putting her hands on her knees.

"I apologize, huff, your grace, puff, milords. This lowly servant deserves death for not performing her duties. Please tell me your punishment and I will comply."

The girl looked at Shesmu with resolute eyes, showing her determination. However, her constant shaking quickly broke that image and turned it into one of a scaredy cat.

Looking at this sight, Shesmu didn't know what to think.

"Your name."

"Your grace, this lowly criminal's name is Evie. Please punish me but I hope that you would spare my family. I can endure any punishment."

"So your name is Evie. Good name. Don't worry, I will neither punish you nor your family. In the end, no harm has happened so there is no need for punishment."

Shesmu tried to look as sincere as possible while talking to the girl. He knew that unless you have supreme power, the societal ranking was absolute in this country. Spilling water on a noble's dress is enough for you and your family to get killed. Even people of the golden generation cannot escape the wrath of a noble, especially if the later was a high one.

"Thank you, thank you!" Evie groveled on the ground. "This lowly one's gratitude is eternal. This lowly one's gratitude is eternal!"

The sound and sight of a maiden crawling and shouting on the ground made many eyes turn Shesmu's direction. Seeing that the situation is gonna turn messy, he immediately gave a hand to Evie before consoling her.

"Hey Evie, don't worry. You don't need to thank me, no decent human being will punish you for something as petty as this."