At the current moment, Rain was sitting on the sofa. His mind was consumed by the recent duel with Ken, replaying it over and over in his head.
He reflected on his mistakes, pondering where he could improve his techniques and strategy. Despite Ken's superior stats, proficiency in skills, and higher rank, Rain believed he should have approached the situation with more composure.
"I think I should start using more weapons."
Although Rain wasn't a fan of becoming a jack of all trades, he thought at least it would be helpful if he had some more fighting skills.
'System Store'.
As soon as Rain said this, two tabs appeared before him.
[Valuables]
[Skills]
Rain chose 'skills' as he thought of getting a new skill.
'System display fighting and weapon mastery skills.'
Rain said.
Soon a bunch of skills appeared before him.
Hand-to-hand combat 500 pts
Kickboxing 400 pts
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 500 pts
Krav Maga 400 pts
Boxing 300 pts
Taekwondo 350 pts
Judo 400 pts
Karate 350 pts
Muay Thai 500 pts
Bow Mastery 1000 pts
Spear Mastery 1000 pts
Bo staff techniques 1000 pts
Axe throwing 1000 pts
Whip mastery 1000 pts
Nunchaku techniques 1000 pts
Dagger Mastery 1000 pts
Rain pondered to which one to use. After thinking for some time he bought two skills.
-Hand to Hand combat
-Dagger Mastery
[Thanks for the purchase host.]
15000 Gold coins were burned like that...
Rain smiled wryly. He thought that he was spending too much money these days, however, in a few moments, he dismissed that idea.
'Who cares. I will earn money soon again.'
Rain was earning a ton of money these days, and Charles was also sending money every month.
About the skills he bought, Rain ultimately decided to focus on improving his hand-to-hand combat skills, as well as incorporating the use of daggers into his fighting style.
After replying to the fight with Ken he noticed that he was sometimes vulnerable at close distances. While his sword attacks were also parried or deflected by Ken. That's why he chose daggers, he can use them as a surprise attack.
He knew that daggers were versatile weapons that could be used for both offense and defense, and he was excited to start training with them.
Rain decided to head back to the combat area once again, but this time he chose to train against a dummy. After inputting the necessary data, he began his training by practicing basic strikes, blocks, footwork, and positioning. He then progressed to more advanced techniques such as disarming and incapacitating his opponent using daggers.
Aside from his dagger training, Rain also devoted a significant amount of time to honing his hand-to-hand combat skills. He worked on developing his strength, speed, and agility while learning various grappling and submission techniques.
To further improve his skills, he downloaded guidance books from the e-library of Twilight City, which required him to obtain a library membership.
With the help of the guidebooks, Rain's skills began to improve rapidly. Days passed by as he immersed himself in the virtual world, practicing swordsmanship and marksmanship in the morning, dagger and hand-to-hand combat in the afternoon, and battling against main characters whose data he possessed in the evening.
Initially, he fought against freshman students at the academy but he defeated everyone except for Ken and Martha. Rain realized that it would take some time to defeat them, so he moved on to fighting second-year students to continue his training regimen.
As the days passed, Rain persisted with his training, he was now adapted to fight with daggers and hand-to-hand combat after three days. He was also able to defeat half of the second-year students.
After seven days, Rain achieved an elementary level of mastery in daggers and hand-to-hand combat, and he defeated almost every C ranker at the academy. So he began to challenge C+ rankers.
Fifteen days later, Rain was still at an elementary level of mastery, but he had finished reading every guidance book that he had downloaded from the e-library. He purchased new ones and also managed to defeat a few C+ rankers, though he also lost many times.
Thirty days passed, and Rain continued his grueling training regimen in the virtual world, determined to improve his combat skills. By this point, he had attained an intermediate level of mastery in both dagger and hand-to-hand combat, and he was able to defeat most C+ rankers with ease.
Sometimes, he also fought against high-level rankers like Charles and Veronica. However, he was crushed as soon as the fight started. In these 30 days, he died more than 500 times.
Underwater breathing
Parallel thinking
Life Skills:
Cooking- Advanced
Butcher- Intermediate
Gathering - Intermediate
Writing (L)- Intermediate
Singing- Intermediate
Calligraphy- Elementary
Appraisal- Intermediate
Fishing - Elementary
Drawing- Intermediate
Painting- Intermediate
Programming- Advanced
Language- Advanced
[Press here to expand the list...]
Rain was satisfied with his progress.
His Swordsmanship Mastery became Advanced. Even his shadow walk became Advanced. Now he can learn Shadow Sword style.
In his stats only mana rose as he practiced Mana Breathing Technique sometimes.
Somehow, he even got a new trait.
'#Loner.'
Rain didn't know what to think about it. When he asked system. It explained that as he was living on the island for more than two months alone and even 1 month in the virtual world. The criteria for the trait were met.
However, when Rain asked benefits of that trait. He found out that there was no benefit to that trait.
'Such a useless trait.'
He also got intermediate mastery in his both new skills. When he reached Intermediate proficiency in Dagger mastery he bought 'Twilight Mist Sword Art' from the system. It cost 1500 Pts though.
Still, it was useful.
As this sword art contained stealth, faint, and surprise attacks, it was very compatible with Shadow Walk.
Rain stood up and went to the specific area.
'Enter the Arena.'
Arena.
Till now Rain was fighting with bots after filling up the data.
However, Arena was different. In the Arena, you can fight with opponents in real-time.
[It's detected that it's your first time in the Arena. Do you want to start from the bottom or have a random match with the corresponding rank?]
Rain wasn't fond of beating a bunch of weaklings. He didn't want to waste his time by starting from the bottom.
'Random match.'
[Please Enter your rank.]
As soon Rain entered his rank, his surroundings changed.
Although it was still a Roman Colosseum. However, it looked more realistic and there was a viewer count too.
'Ah, people can watch my fighting. Maybe I should use a different fighting style.'
[Appropriate Match Found.]
Soon before Rain a lady wearing priest's clothes appeared.
Rain didn't even bother to read her name. He threw Dagger on her head and she died.
[You won.]
['Pink princess' wants to send you a message. Do you accept or decline?]
"Decline." From reading the name, Rain guessed that it was the name of that priest he just defeated. However, Rain wasn't interested to argue with her.
"System. Find the next match." Rain wanted to increase his rank faster. As he defeated that girl just now he stole her rank.
Still, his rank was in the millions. At least better than being at the bottom.
[Pink princess' wants to send you a message. Do you accept or decline?]
"Decline." Rain said without hesitation. He clicked on her profile and blocked her.
"Now she will get some peace." Rain thought.
[Appropriate Match Found.]
"Let me climb higher in ranks." Rain started fighting with the opponent that appeared.
Just like that, he started increasing his ranks.