29 Plague Crows
Ambrose tapped his chin while pondering the stats.
'Strength. I haven't added anything to it since the first time I assigned stats, and I only have 10 on it, which seems low.
'Charm, I have seen a difference in how NPCs acted around me, but that could be because of the trial. I still don't know how it works, but again, I only have five stats on it.
'Intelligence—I think this is something I have to focus on. It most likely helps to learn techniques, and I now have the Skill Scroll; maybe it is the key to creating your own skill!
'Luck, I don't need it for now.
'Agility can wait.
'Vitality, leveling up gave me another 5 HP.
'Dexterity, I need it.
'Stamina, don't need it now.'
After thinking about all the stats, he concluded that there were only three he should focus on. However, since he only had 10 stat points to use, he removed one of those stats and decided to put half on Dexterity and the other half on Intelligence.
He nodded and started assigning the stats.
***
[Name: Ambrose]
[Level: 4]
[Class: Swordsman]
[Title: ]
[XP: 9/175]
[HP: 45/45]
[SP: 0]
[Silver: 5]
[STR: 10]
[CHA: 5]
[INT: 8]
[LUC: 6]
[AGI: 1]
[VIT: 20]
[DEX: 15]
[STA: 15]
***
'Now, with higher Dexterity and Intelligence, perhaps I can complete Dual Basic Slash?'
Ambrose looked around and soon found an empty park. He went there and took out both his steel shortswords.
"Basic Slash!" He then started doing Basic Slash and hoped that his completion rate would increase.
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 70%]
Ambrose let out a small laugh as it suddenly increased by 10%. He had tried using the demo Dual Basic Slash version in fights before, but it wasn't that strong.
It was because he was just trying to mimic Dual Basic Slash. He realized that when he did the Basic Slash and the version where he didn't say it aloud, the difference in strength, accuracy, and speed of the attack was vast.
Therefore, acquiring Dual Basic Slash with a 100% completion rate was incredibly crucial if he wanted to increase his strength.
"Basic Slash!"
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 80%]
"Basic Slash!"
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 90%]
"Basic Slash!]
[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 100%]
"Haah..." Ambrose lowered his swords while panting loudly. He let out a laugh. "Yes!"
He looked at the two swords and moved both over his shoulders. He then slightly leaned forward, bent his knees, and turned serious.
"Dual Basic Slash!"
With perfect synchronization, Ambrose hacked both swords down and slashed across the empty air powerfully. The blades stopped inches from the ground, but even the grass blades got cut.
'I doubt anyone else has this skill.' Ambrose thought. 'Only dual wielders can have this, and from what I heard, we are a dying breed. No one dares to try dual wielding as it is too difficult.'
Ambrose looked at the two swords in his hands. 'I can already see why no one goes for dual wielding. It needs a lot of coordination, muscle memory, and practice.
'It is not very practical, even though I can strike from two different sides at the same time. I just need to spend a lot of time honing my muscle memory and coordination. It needs a lot of practice, and since people can get stronger just by leveling up, I will be left behind.
'However, I do not plan on abandoning this path.'
...
After waking up from his dreamy state, Jesse removed the VR headset and placed it gently on his bedside table.
He again felt his stomach rumbling and the bathroom calling for him.
He groaned and sat up, but at that moment, he looked at his right wrist and gently rubbed it with a strange expression.
'Hmm, it is not very painful anymore.' Jesse tried to apply more pressure and felt sharp pain, but nothing serious. "I guess it wasn't that bad. I have gotten over a thousand fractures in my life, yet this one healed the fastest."
Jesse shrugged his shoulders, hopped on his wheelchair, and made a quick trip to the bathroom. Then he went to the dark kitchen, ate until his stomach was relatively full, and returned to his room.
The house was eerily quiet, as everyone was already asleep, even Holly.
Jesse laid back on his bed and pulled out his phone. He planned to check the forums before falling asleep.
After opening the phone, he received an old message.
"Oh, he paid." Jesse murmured. He received 500 crowns from Prince and now felt slightly quilty for exposing his location to Barbarian.
"I better keep my distance from those two." He sighed. "They are way stronger than I am, and getting on their bad side would just hurt me."
"They are also destined to be important figures in Amaterasu; I can already see it." Jesse sighed and opened the forums. "Is there anything interesting here..."
After scrolling down, there wasn't really anything that took him by surprise. There didn't seem to be any new information either.
Jesse closed the phone and looked at the ceiling until his eyelids grew heavy.
'I wonder... what I should do tomorrow... in Martial Online...'
With those thoughts, he fell asleep without knowing that tomorrow would be the day to remember.
...
Martial Online, Crow Forest, near the Crow Cave.
Prince sat on top of the boulder and looked at the figure that was sitting on the field of dead plants. Barbarian continued smiling while sharpening his axe's blade.
However, he had no intention of leaving the field of dead plants. He occasionally stood up to stretch and killed a few animals that crossed his path.
Prince narrowed his eyes and then heard footsteps coming from the cave. A tired-looking young man left the cave with a small smile. He turned to the stone tablet with a smile.
[The Leaderboard of Crow Cave]
[1. Anthon]
[2. Cauldron]
[3. Ignite]
[4. Ambrose]
[5. Prince]
[6. Worshipper]
[7. WarAnchor]
[8. MysticKnight]
[9. Temperance]
[10...]
"Temperance, how did it go?" A red-haired young man asked the player who had just left the cave. The red-haired young man was the person who was supposed to take the trial next.
Prince's friends, Worshipper, WarAnchor, and MysticKnight, sat around a comforting campfire. They were also looking in the direction of Barbarian with weapons in hand.
"It went well; good luck." Temperance patted his friend's shoulder and walked to the boulder, then glanced towards Barbarian. "He is still here?"
"Yes," Prince said. "And he has no intention of leaving."
"What does he want?" Temperance asked.
"I don't know. It is impossible to know what is running through his mind." Prince said and turned to the red-haired young man. "Go, RedDevil."
RedDevil nodded and entered the cave with a nervous expression but excited nonetheless.
The time flew by.
Prince and Barbarian continued to look at each other. Their eyes were cold and serious. The atmosphere was tense, and only the crackling of the fire sounded in this part of the forest.
However, at that moment, the silence was broken by a loud caw.
Prince and Barbarian both swung their heads in the direction of the noise and widened their eyes in shock.
The top of the mountain exploded, and thousands of black-feathered crows flew out from it. They disappeared into the night sky, but they could still hear the flapping of their wings.
"No..." Prince leaped off the boulder and rushed into the cave, immediately followed by his trusted friends. They smashed through the granite door, ran down the hallway, and found themselves in a dark room.
There, they saw a red-haired young man lying on a pond of blue blood.
"RedDevil!" Prince shouted and ran to his friend. He crouched beside him and asked. "What happened?"
"Ugh... I am sorry..." RedDevil whispered, and his body was slowly turning into transparent pixels. "I failed..."
"Leader..." Worshipper was a serious-looking man with handsome facial features and combed black hair. He now looked even more serious than ever before. "The crows..."
"We need to return now." Prince stood up, and he looked extremely serious. "The crows are going to Amaterasu."
...
Thousands of black-feathered crows flew across the sky with immense speed. They soon left the airspace of the forest and saw a vast city in the distance, protected by ten-meter tall walls. However, those walls couldn't protect them from the crows.
The crows let out loud caws and continued their flight to the Amaterasu while corrupting everything on their path.
