7 Chapter 7 - The Dagger-Wielding Mage (2/2)

Standing behind Gu Fei, Fireball was lost in his thoughts. He carefully inspected every part of the pond and estimated its depth; he tried to find a corner where he could help himself out if he was ever thrown in. He felt that Gu Fei had no hope of winning the fight. Just who exactly was Gu Fei up against? It was that Sword Demon, a top gamer in the online gaming world. There was never an online game that he had set foot on where he had not emerged victorious. Magic Domain? That was just one of the highlights in his gaming career.

”Let's begin!” Gu Fei said as he lifted his mage robe. He pulled a dagger out.

A dagger? Sword Demon was dumbfounded. This person was clearly a Mage!

A few skills in-game were unrestricted and available for all. They could be learned after reaching the appropriate level and paying up regardless of the job class. Appraisal was one of those skills. This skill was not only for appraising equipment – the job classes and levels of monsters and players could be appraised as well.

Rich in gaming experience, Sword Demon learned the skill as soon as possible. He had already appraised Gu Fei and Fireball as soon as he came across them. The two were definitely Mages, one at level 10 and the other at level 1. Sword Demon's proficiency level over the skill was still not high enough, so he could not appraise their equipment. Therefore, he was quite taken aback when Gu Fei pulled a dagger out.

Just a noob, I see, Sword Demon shook his head, feeling rather disappointed. His first ever battle would actually be against a dagger-wielding Mage. There was nothing monumental about this fight at all.

Sword Demon casually pulled out a weapon from his waist as well – it was also a dagger! Sword Demon's job class was a Thief, an actual dagger-wielding expert.

”After you!” Sword Demon felt that it would be dishonorable of him if he attempted a first strike against a low-level opponent.

”Please!” Gu Fei held onto his dagger with a reverse-grip and clasped his fist. He bowed toward Sword Demon. Sword Demon was momentarily stunned by Gu Fei's gesture. By the time he recovered from his hesitation, Gu Fei had already shot forward and stabbed out.

So fast! Sword Demon was in shock. With his decent understanding of the game, Sword Demon could tell that Gu Fei had allocated all his stat points to Agility. Mage and Agility – recalling back to his previous online gaming experiences, there had been many instances where Mages focused solely on Agility. However, these players with high dodge rates or even absolute dodge rates required the support of extremely high level and extraordinary equipment. It could be said that the results would only be apparent in the later stages of the game.

Also, players would only attempt stat point distributions like that only after the gaming algorithms had been fully understood. Parallel World was a new game, so everything was still being explored. Players were restricted to one account in the game as well, so deleting and starting all over again was impossible if the character was ruined from incorrect stat point distributions or from other reasons. As a result, Sword Demon had only allocated ten levels' worth of stat points even though he was already level 25. He could not risk distributing his other stat points before he identified a correct path of stat point allocation.

The agile Mage before him was an extremely reckless existence in Sword Demon's eyes.

Before his thrust was fully executed, Gu Fei saw Sword Demon move so he turned his hand and pursued. Gu Fei's reaction speed was unexpectedly fast.

However, Sword Demon's reflexes were not just for show either, considering how he had honed his fingers to a godly speed. He ducked down deftly and dodged the sweeping hand as well. However, he had never thought that Gu Fei's assault was still incomplete. Gu Fei followed through with the missed swing and twisted around, facing Sword Demon with his back. Gu Fei unleashed another jab by thrusting from under his armpit.

Sword Demon was still in a half-crouching position after dodging the dagger earlier. The dagger headed directly for Sword Demon's head as Gu Fei stabbed out. Without any more time to dodge, Sword Demon was reduced to any other person, instinctively holding his hands up to cover his face as if he was taking a beating. In the end, his dagger just happened to clash with Gu Fei's thrust. With a clank, Sword Demon borrowed the force to retreat by a few steps, pulling away from Gu Fei.

Both their hearts churned.

Gu Fei did not anticipate that his opponent would be capable of dodging all three attacks from him. These three attacks were not just any old moves from him.

Taisui – Liaowei – Yecha.

These were a set of dagger moves honed and refined by Gu Fei through his painstaking practice. Each of them was equally lethal. Of course, this was only made possible due to the game. Gu Fei would not execute these three moves so easily in reality. A little carelessness on his part could cost a life.

Gu Fei thought his assaults were flawless at first so he did not expect them to actually fail. The person in front of him had never learned martial arts before, but it was evident that he had rather fast reactions. Aside from that, he was also someone who focused on allocating his stat points to Agility. This was a very important aspect. Furthermore, due to the special traits of his job class, he was undoubtedly superior when it came to speed. Gu Fei realized another problem because of him – only a kung fu practitioner like him was capable of such great speed in real life, but everyone could possess the same speed, if not faster, in this game as long as the stat points were allocated accordingly.

Never would he have thought that he would be able to come across something impossible in real life within this game. Gu Fei was utterly delighted by this.