For the rest of the night, Arthur went around, finishing all the possible tasks he could finish before the time to leave. He bought all the stuff he expected he might need. He wasn’t an expert in surviving in the wilderness, but he saw enough stuff on the internet to know some of the most important things.
In the end, it cost him a lot of money to actually buy all of that but since he already had a good amount of money, it didn’t turn out badly at all.
‘I can definitely earn all that money back with the monster drops I will get on the journey.’ He thought to himself. It was a well-wroth investment on his side that he will benefit from soon after.
After that, Arthur left the village and continued his exploration of the forest for the next several hours. He didn’t go too deep as he didn’t want to be late for the meeting. He kept hunting down monsters, experimenting with his new abilities.
He tried to find ways to actually integrate these abilities into one another to create a chain of combos he could use during fights. Arthur realized that simply using each ability on its own might not truly reveal their true potential.
He had to actually make them complement each other so that he could have more versatility in his fighting style. However, that naturally was way easier said than done. There were several problems with his theory.
To begin with, integrating totally different abilities into one single attack or a chain of attacks required a lot of focus and a lot of mana. He had to somehow be able to split his mind into two different entities so that each one could focus on one ability or another. Or, he had to somehow use an ability and at the same time prepare the next one so that he could activate it right after.
Both were theoretically possible but almost impossible to implement that quickly. Arthur spent several hours trying to do that, and failed miserably. However, that didn’t dishearten him as he knew that he wouldn’t be able to simply do something like this so easily.
This game was still a realistic world that required practice and hard work.
‘This is actually a good way to spend my time when I’m not hunting. I have to actually start trying to learn how to evolve my fighting style. I can’t simply rely on pure strength or stats. That won’t cut it.’
He knew that every single other player was going to take that route as it was the most obvious and the easiest one. To be the best requires one to take the hardest route that leads to the best results and Arthur decided to do that.
After exhausting himself in the forest for a long time, he finally succumbed to it and decided to stop.
“Hah… Hah…” Wiping the sweat off his face, Arthur looked around him. The forest was still dark with only the moon above shining upon him, revealing what Arthur had done the past several hours.
The area where he was practicing had turned into a complete mess. Destroyed trees, and carved craters around him. It looked as if a brutal battle had ensued there. But, it was all the result of Arthur’s experimentation.
“I think I overdid it a little.” He laughed as he picked up his sword and turned around to leave. “What time is it no-”
Opening his settings to check the time, Arthur’s breath halted when he saw the clock.
“5:45?! Oh no! I’m going to be late!!”
Realizing that he had been too focused on training that he forgot about the meeting. The dawn was in exactly 2 minutes and he was at least 10 minutes away from the village. So, Arthur could only ignore his exhaustion and started running as fast as he could.
‘Nice job, Arthur! Now, they would think I’m not punctual with my time!’
Using every point of agility he had, he stormed through the forest like a flash. He had 31 points in agility so he was three times faster than a normal human. That could easily be seen as he was crossing dozens of meters in less than a second.
His eyes took in the moving scenery around him, easily pinpointing every detail. His senses had also evolved as his stats started going up. There was no specific stat for them, but it seemed to be the result of his body growing stronger.
So, even though he was moving very fast, he wasn’t at risk of hitting a tree or stumbling as he could easily see the path ahead of him.
Some time passed before Arthur could see a glimpse of the village. ‘I’m close! Dammit! I’m going to be a minute late!’ He clenched his teeth as he tried to move even faster even though he was running as fast as he could.
By the time he reached the gate of the village, it was 5:48. The sun peeked from the horizon, illuminating the world around him.
“Out of the way, idiots!!” Ahead, he saw a group of players standing near the gate.
“Huh?! Holy shit!!”
The group innocently looked up only to see something truly terrifying. A person was moving toward them at the speed of a car. A trail of dust and dirt could be seen behind him. However, his scary face made it even more alarming.
“Stop!!!” Immediately, they jumped out of the way before he could smash into them. Luckily, they were in time to move away as Arthur flashed through.
“Hah, hah…” Upon stepping inside the village, he glided on the ground to slowly reduce his speed to a halt. “Did I make it?”
Looking around him, Arthur searched for Isla and her group. However, he couldn’t really see them.
“Huh? Was I too late?” As his body quickly recovered from the exhaustion, Arthur stood there, completely lost. ‘Uh, maybe they’re a little late. That’s fine too.’
Arthur turned around to walk to a neabry seat, however, at that moment, he heard a sound coming from a distance. Along with it, he heard gasps from other players.
“Hm?” Turning his head, Arthur saw something unexpected. A group of giant horse-like creatures were moving toward him. The creatures were at least two times the size of a normal horse with long horns and soft manes that moved against the wind.
On these horses, he saw familiar faces.
“He’s there.” The group saw Arthur and quickly stopped their horses right near him. The boy was still a little stunned by this sudden development but he still opened his mouth.
“Are these your means of transportation?” He asked as he pointed at the giant horses.
Isla was standing at the far front near him so she replied. “We have bought them for this trip. These are very fast and strong. They can definitely take on a long journey with some proper care.” She said as she tapped the head of the horse gently.
“Well… I didn’t… Ehem, I didn’t buy a horse.” He said awkwardly. ‘She didn’t mention anything about horses! I didn’t even know these things are being sold.’
