Shesmu and Leo were both sitting under the shade of a tree.
“Hey, Shesmu. It’s been five minutes now, do you think something happened to him?”
“Well, let’s just wait for now.”
“If you say so. But I’m really get-”
“Shh.”
Finger on his lips, Shesmu signaled Leo to quiet down. From the distance, a faint noise could be heard.
“What’s that?” Leo asked.
“Well, I think that the one we’ve been waiting for has finally come back.”
“Huh?”
Shesmu stood up and Leo followed him whilst being confused. In the distance, Shesmu could hear howling sounds. Between the noise, Shesmu could make out a cry for help.
“Ahh! Save me!”
DepressedRyan appeared from behind the trees and fled with all of his might towards the duo from a danger preying on him. From behind DepressedRyan, one wolf after the other came in running towards him.
“Help!”
Looking at the scene in front of him, Leo was in a state between fear and confusion.
“What the heck is that? How did he pull so many mobs?!”
Shesmu stood next to Leo, but contrary to the latter, he wasn’t scared. In fact, he was excited. Good thing that Cross-Slash is off cooldown, I can finally test it on a live target.
“Hey, Ryan! Don’t get hit!”
Shesmu warned DepressedRyan and unsheathed his sword. He didn’t care whether his friend understood his warning or not. Cross-Slash!
Energy surged out of Shesmu’s abdomen and flowed into his sword. Black and green light engulfed Shesmu’s weapon before he swang his it horizontally. Shesmu’s sword drew a crescent of energy before he changed his stance to a vertical one. With his sword at the level of his head, Shesmu slashed once again, producing another energy slash.
Two crescents, one horizontal the other vertical, raced towards the howling horde of wolves. DepressedRyan saw the upcoming waves of doom and his face became pale. However, he didn’t panic and immediately Dashed out, leaving the sword slashes’ trajectory.
Crash!
The sword slashes crashed into the packs of wolves blasting two consecutive times. From behind the debris and smoke, Shesmu could see damage numbers in the 6000s everywhere. So, it can be used this way. Also, those numbers don’t make sense. I get this kind of skills have been nerfed at one point or another in past timeline, Shesmu thought.
Both Leo and DepressedRyan were stupefied by the firepower of Shesmu’s skill. But, when the smoke died out, their stupefaction turned into a mix of horror and excitement. The horde of more than 30 wolves was wiped out, and Shesmu heard the familiar ding that precedes a notification.
Congratulation, you leveled up!
Shesmu quickly distributed his new stat points before turning towards Leo and DepressedRyan.
“First of all, what the heck was that horde. Second of all, don’t worry, that 6000 damage was legit.” He shrugged and continued, “Ashes of Gods AOE is damn broken.”
“Shesmu, jus-just what kind of broken game is this?! Six thousand damage! Six thousand damage AOE, what in the hell!”
Leo could no longer care about how did DepressedRyan aggro more than thirty monsters, Shesmu’s display was much more shocking.
“Well, what can I do about that? Guess I just report afterward. Plus, it’s not as if I’m exploiting the game per se, I’m just using a skill that the game gave me.”
Listening to Shesmu’s excuses, Leo just sighed.
“Well, you do you. Plus this is just the beta so it’s expected for the game to have unbalanced stuff left and right.”
“Anyway, let’s get going. Also, Ryan, I still haven’t forgotten about you. You’ll explain to me clearly how the heck did you pull all of those wolves.”
Listening to his name being mentioned, DepressedRyan was as if struck by lightning. He tried turning around and changing the subject but in the end, Shesmu caught him by the ears and made him apologize.
The tower was but a couple hundred meters away at this point, so Shesmu and his friends quickly made their way there.
The ivory tower was surrounded by many buildings and secured by walls on all sides. When the party reached the gates, they found a guard.
“Milords, congratulation on reaching the tower of might. Your party is the first to finish exploring the Forest of Beginning.”
Hearing this, both Leo and DepressedRyan were dumbstruck.
Congratulation on being the first party to reach the tower of might.
Rewards are as follow:
250000 Exp
7 gold
Boots of Mobility
Congratulation, you leveled up!
With the system confirming the guard’s words, the duo jumped in joy.
“We did it! We actually got first!”
“Holy, I can’t believe this. We started so late but we still got here before everyone? This is insane!”
Looking at his teammates being so jumpy and happy, Shesmu couldn’t help but smile. Well, I already told you guys that you shouldn’t worry. Last time, I had to grind for twenty hours to reach a high enough level so as to not get one-shot by the mobs of the inner section, and even then I was considered one of the faster ones.
“I welcome you, people of the golden generation, and your grace holder of the golden eyes.”
The gates opened and a man in his thirties came out. His hair was golden, eyes blue, and smile radiant. He looked at the team of three for a second before continuing.
“My name is Aldrien and I will be your guide and instructor for this phase of the trial. Here I’ll be showing you some of the secrets of this world that you need to master as a holder of the warrior class before challenging the world.”
“You have used the skills given to us warriors, I presume. You must have felt that energy flowing from your belly and nourishing your sword whenever you use Empowered Slash or Thrust. Now, I’ll show you the secrets of that energy, the secrets of Ki.”
