47 Cool Ryan

"I'm Kazumi, and I come from the future."

The whole place turned silent for a minute. Leo and DepressedRyan were surprised, while Shesmu's face turned livid.

"Kazumi, they're not part of the game. What you said could have been misunderstood."

Shesmu came closer to Kazumi and whispered.

"If you dare say another word, I'll find you anywhere and kill you. Just laugh and say my bad, it was a joke. Understood?"

Shesmu's serious voice frightened Kazumi. He didn't understand what he did wrong, but he knew that if he didn't comply, he might really die.

"Haha, it was a joke, guys. My bad, my bad."

While Kazumi was trying to save his life, Amaterasu looked at him for a second before she clicked her tongue. This didn't escape Shesmu's attention. She definitely told Kazumi something for him to blow out his cover like that. Did I kill her parents or something?!

However, Shesmu knew that it wasn't the time to confront her about this. Leo and DepressedRyan were still here watching, and the later even held his chin and started pondering. Shesmu had to act fast so as to make him forget about the encounter.

"Guys, guys. Time is of essence, we need to continue clearing the stage to stay ahead of the curve. That way, we minimize the chance of staying in the same group as the disguised monster."

"Yeah, I was about to say that. Let's get moving," Leo added.

DepressedRyan was still pondering when Shesmu's question snapped him back.

"Ryan, what are you thinking about?"

"Oh, sorry, I spaced out." He then paused for a second before continuing, "Hey, guys, how much time has passed?"

"Huh? You mean in game?" Shesmu responded.

"Yeah."

"Well, just check your character tab, there is the time shown at the very bottom. It says 6.00 am here, but I'm guessing that's game time. We met at around four in the evening, so fourteen hours have passed."

"Fourteen hours of game time. If we convert that into real life time that gives us… an hour and a half. We played for so long, but only an hour has passed. How crazy is that?"

"Tha-that's insane. Only an hour and a half. Holy, I'm a bit tired already from gaming. The times ten conversion rate is out of this world!" Leo exclaimed.

"Yeah. Well, the beta only lasts for one-day in real life, so it's not as if we're going to spend a year of game time just in the beta. This whole thing is just a publicity stunt to make people spread the word, they won't make it last for too long," explained Shesmu.

"Yeah, makes sense. Well, at the very least this gives us hard grinders the ability to compete with the rich boys with their mom and dad's credit card. Alright, it's decided, once the game goes live, we'll go for the top spots in the leaderboards. This time, we'll be the first to clear a dungeon."

DepressedRyan was beyond excited about what to come. Having Shesmu in the team, and him becoming much better and understanding more of the game mechanics by the hour, gave him confidence that they will be able to do something big.

"Sure, but forget about dungeons. Any leaderboard that exists we will engrave our name on. I won't accept anything less than that from my guild."

"Of course! If we cannot even do that with everything you taught us, we should just find a bridge to jump from!" Leo exclaimed.

While the trio was discussing, Kazumi and Amaterasu were talking between themselves too. From a glance, Shesmu noticed that Kazumi was rebuking Amaterasu for something, while the latter was on the verge of crying.

Serves you right, asshole!

With that thought as the closing parenthesis, Shesmu reminded everyone of the objective of this stage.

"Hey guys, we still need to get to the center. The other teams are still struggling with the mobs so we should take this time to jump ahead."

"Yeah, let's do that," DepressedRyan responded.

"You too, Kazumi, Amaterasu."

Shesmu looked at the annoying duo with the corner of his eyes. It wasn't as if he already accepted as part of his group. In fact, he didn't want them to stay at all. However, if he shooed them away, the results might be even more disastrous. If Amaterasu was able to make Kazumi spill the beans as a joke to annoy Shesmu, then who knows what else she was capable of doing.

"Yes! Great Master!"

"Humph!"

Taking that as a sign of acceptance, Shesmu took a look at the whole terrain once again. He was trying to find the most optimal path with the least amount of monsters to the portal. Once a plan was developed in his mind, Shesmu barked.

"All of you, follow me!"

Shesmu locked in on a red wolf and with a zig-zag movement, he went from one black tile to the other. He unsheathed his sword and with three normal slashes, he was able to kill the poor monster.

I should stop relying on skills against these mobs, else I'll never be able to get back my reflexes.

Shesmu's decision was firm. Throughout the whole stage and against all the monsters, Shesmu never used his skills once. He would use a variety of techniques against the red wolves. Sometimes he would overwhelm them with a flurry of attacks, other times he would take them on using only counterattacks. This way, Shesmu was able to familiarize his body to different paces and rhythms. This was all done so that Shesmu regain his high control over his body.

While Shesmu might have put on a show using only his basic moves, DepressedRyan put an even more extravagant of a show. Using his insane agility and strength, he was able to one shot every mob with one Empowered Thrust. He would also do many different tricks while killing his enemies. One time he would do an aerial 360 into an Empowered Slash to the neck, and other times he would throw his dagger behind the enemy and teleport to it before going for the kill.

"Ah, that was a lot of fun!" DepressedRyan exclaimed.

However, contrary to DepressedRyan's cheerful attitude, both Leo and Shesmu were depressed. Noticing their gloomy demeanor, DepressedRyan asked.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing, it's just that you're way too amazing. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get to your level," responded Leo.

"Same. The student surpassed the teacher. I have thought you so many things yet I can't even do half of the tricks you just showed."

Shesmu wasn't kidding, the current him would only fail miserably if he attempted any of the tricks DepressedRyan showed. However, he had hopes that if he trains extensively during the beta, Shesmu would be able to reach the level DepressedRyan just showed by the start of the live game.

"Hahaha! So there are things that even you, Shesmu, can't do. Well, that was unexpected!" DepressedRyan exclaimed.

"For real. For Shesmu to not be able to do something, that's rare!"

"The Great Master isn't able to do something that you can do? What does that make you, the Great Great Master?"

DepressedRyan's face turned stupid happy and smug once he heard Kazumi's question.

"Yes! Call me The Great Great Master! No, call me The Supreme Master! Hahaha!"

"Ouch!"

With one hit to the head, Shesmu was able to make DepressedRyan shut it for a second.

"Well, we've already cleared our part. Let's enter the portal."

With that, Shesmu took the lead so as to not leave any more room for discussion. However, just as he was about to touch the portal, an interface appeared in front of him.

[You Awakened The King Of The Flames! Beware His Wrath!]

From the portal, seven meters long and four meters high colossal wolf appeared. His whole body was covered in flames and the power he emanated was suffocating. The whole place turned steaming hot with his appearance, and his cold eyes sent shivers down everyone's spine.

"Awoo!"