Chapter 38 - Corrupted Forest (2/2)

”Still it doesn't explain the high damage and speed together. Are you hacking?” asked Quiet Fire. Him cheating was the only possible explanation she could glean for the abnormal stats of the character. All of them were afraid of a hacker. If found out, action might be taken on them by other players for teaming up with him.

”I am not a hacker. It is not that easy to find a hack to such a new ground-breaking technology. Moreover, the tech runs on my brainwaves. I respect myself and my brain far too much to use any hacks on the first day of the games launch. I am not someones guinea pig,” replied Balthazar. But he could see that they were not convinced, and he didn't address their question either.

”I have a friend in beta-testing. I used his knowledge to complete a hidden quest of berserkers which provides more strength and agility,” lied Balthazar to explain his attack and speed.

”He was the one who told me that we could equip and use weapons and equipment even if we don't have the skill for them. Blinding you would have also experience during the fight. You tried to do a shield bash on some of the rabbits, right?” asked Balthazar looking at Blinding White.

”Actually, I did equip the shield and I tried to do as you suggested. But wasn't able to see any effects of shield bash like the rabbits getting stunned. It was very useful in blocking their attacks though,” replied Blinding shyly. She was glad that he gave her a shield for free, but she couldn't lie to the rest of the team that had taken her in.

”Ah! That isn't right. You done the movements properly right. You swing your shield towards rabbit putting the weight of your entire body behind the shield. You would see completion rate when you do that. If the complete rate is less than 80% you might not activate the effect,” said Balthazar trying explain his experience.

”Completion rate?” interrupted Quite Fire. ”Are you using manual mode?”

”Oh! Yes. I forgot to inform about that. Free usage of weapons is only allowed in manual or semi-automatic mode. I used manual from the start. So, I kind of took it for granted,” said Balthazar embarrassed. ”How could I forget something that important!?” he thought reprimanding himself.

”Try it out with the shield. You will see,” he added to Blinding White.

She changed her mode to semi-automatic and tried swinging her shield in the motion of shield bash. After a few trials, she suddenly yelled jumping in excitement.

”It works. It works. I got a notification saying that shield bash was used,” she told them.

”But the completion rate was just 60%. How do I improve it? You seem to be very good at your skills for someone who is using manual mode.” she asked looking at Balthazar for hints.

”You have seen it in other V.R. games, right? Just practice your technique. You will soon get it,” answered Balthazar with a lie. He couldn't say that he had previous played the game for a very long time.

”That is fine. Shield bash is one of the paladin skills. It is reasonable to assume that you can do it in manual or semi-automatic mode. But you are using a sword. That is totally not a skill of your profession,” said Quiet Fire. For some reason, she was still not convinced that he isn't using a cheat. But the cheat Balthazar was using was something inconceivable. So, she decided that he was hacking.

”Change to manual or semi-automatic mode. You will be able to equip dagger or sword too. You can use it for basic attacks, but it won't give any skill completion or usage notifications when you use. Try it out if you don't believe me,” said Balthazar holding out his dagger for her to take.

She immediately took it and equipped it in her secondary weapon slot. Being a mage, her primary weapon was a wand given by default. She tried to move he weapon around and even attacked Tang with it. Only then she was convinced and returned the dagger back to Balthazar.

”But still your technique in evading the rabbits was very good. I doubt the quest helped you with that,” said Quiet Fire still unconvinced. The way he bent or swerved just before a rabbit managed to land an attack was a bit hard to believe.

”Wow! She is very observant. Well, it should be expected of a person who would establish such a strong adventure group whom even first-rate guilds used to be wary of,” thought Balthazar.

”I already told you about that. I have been hunting since a kid and even continued it as a profession in searching through unknown territories and planets. So, that is all my skill and awareness. That is all,” replied Balthazar.

”Wow, a real-life expert!” exclaimed Tang and Spicy as she slowly walked towards him. ”Please, teach me how to fight expert. Do you know martial arts? Teach me whatever you know. Accept me as your disciple,” she said holding his hands and started to beg to be his disciple.

Balthazar was freaked out by the sudden outburst from this thin and lanky girl. Based on her appearance, he thought that she might have been a model in real life. But she apparently was really into fighting and they were all really perplexed when she started asking to be his disciple and tightly held onto his hands. Quiet Fire was the only one who wasn't surprised.

The girls Tang and Quiet Fire were all childhood friends. They were quite close from the time they were kids. Tang had been a big fan of martial arts and fighters for a long time. Her brother had shown her first action movie which involved martial arts and people competing against each other in a dojo.

From that time, she had been a big fan of such things. Though her father never allowed her to learn those and told her that a girl shouldn't be hot-headed, she always had an interest and managed to learn little stuff from here and there. Most of it was thought by her own brother who worked as a policeman.

Balthazar looked at Quiet Fire for help not knowing what to do with the lady grovelling to be his disciple. She was in the same generation as him and he didn't want to take any disciples. But Quiet Fire just began to laugh after she saw the baffled expression on Balthazar's face.

”I am not really qualified to be teaching you. It is one thing to hunt with a knife, but fighting is another thing entirely,” he began to explain her.

”Just teach me whatever you know.”

”It might not even be suitable for you. Why don't you practice in the manual mode in the game? It would definitely improve your skills. You can even go to the arena to fight once it opens.”

”Hmph, why can't you teach me?” she asked angrily.

”Because I am still learning and if my teacher comes to know that I am giving lesson to someone, I will be beaten up,” said Balthazar. He could only lie to stop the girl from pestering him.

”Well. Leave him be. You can definitely improve in the arena,” said Quiet Fire before Tang could continue. ”Let us finish the dungeon first.”

”Yeah. If you are really that into fighting, wait for a few days. I heard that a few training centres are already looking into employing somnium technology for teaching purposes. Some guilds are already talking about having contracts with them.,” said Blinding White.

”Let us talk about that later. We need to focus on the dungeon. Fleet could you please continue to gather mobs,” said Little White Feet. Seeing him in action, even Little White feet who didn't like him from the beginning slowly came to respect him a bit though unconsciously.

Balthazar was beyond glad to put an end to the conversation. He led them a bit into the thin path on the forest. Then, he asked them to stay put and went further inside. ”It would be another group of rabbits of similar size. All of you change to semi-automatic mode and be ready,” he messaged as he went in to gather the monsters.

Notes:

*Aggro (also commonly spelled 'Agro') is a term used to describe the act of getting the attention of an NPC

**Tank is a character whose primary role is to absorb damage and prevent others from being attacked. Tanks are ”meatshields”, so to speak, putting themselves between the mobs and the more vulnerable party members.