[Welcome User. Please choose the skills you want to learn. The list of skills has been updated.]
The system welcomed Cane back into the room before opening the list for him. Out of the list, he had a vague idea of which six skills he wanted to add to his pool.
[Hand-to-Hand (L) combat tutorial is about to start. Please be on standby.]
Cane decided to cover his major weakness first. With his current build and skills, he was decent in a ranged fight but terrible in any Hand-to-Hand combat scenario. So first, he needed to cover that weakness.
Next, he needed to focus on even longer-ranged skills.
[Magic Master (S+) combat tutorial will begin shortly.]
This was one of the skills Cane was not going to go (L) for, even if it was available to him—mainly because of the limitations it put on the user.
While L-class skills were incredibly powerful, they were not made equally. Some of them were just too powerful to be generally usable.
That's why they had restrictions, and Magic Master (L) was one such skill. But Cane still had options, as was evident by him choosing to take the S+ class.
With these two covered, he needed to start thinking of a party-wide skill. Since he would likely have to form a guild soon to keep playing, having skills for them would not be a bad idea. It would be the best way to ensure people joined his guild.
[Party Buff (L) tutorial will start soon.]
[Support (L) will be added to the pool.]
With this, two more spots were taken by his skills. The list was too long for him to choose the last two skills, so he decided to look around a little more. He clicked on the information tabs, only to see that the golden ball's description had been updated.
[Item: Golden Spirit Seed — a long-forgotten seed that has the potential to hatch into a powerful guardian. (Warning: Guardian Skill will be required in order to control the guardian.)]
The description clearly indicated which skill he needed to get next.
[Guardian Summon (L) tutorial will begin soon.]
With this, five out of six skill slots had been taken, and Cane decided to keep the last one for later once he was sure what he wanted to do. The tutorial ended, and Cane came out of the academy.
The first thing he noticed was how quiet the academy was. There had been many people around when he entered the combat room, but suddenly there was no one around.
It felt like a conspiracy—one that told him something was wrong here. He trusted his intuition and got ready to fight.
His first opponent came at him fast, but Cane was ready to counter and managed to dodge the attack.
He also used the first attack to dodge the second and the third.
And then a fourth one appeared.
'Fucking hell-! Just how many are there?'
He complained as he saw a dozen or so people surround him. It was a hassle for him to deal with these kids who seemed to not know what they were doing.
"Woah-! You actually have the kill-on-sight modifier. I wonder what you did to earn that."
Someone questioned as they attacked Cane. He used his newly learned combat skills to defend himself, but the other person disregarded their own health in order to fight Cane.
His opponents were numerous, and they were not holding back. Had Cane been the same level as them, this wouldn't even be a fight—he would have decimated them.
But because he was so much lower in level, he was being pushed back.
'I need to find a way to run out of here somehow. Where should I go now?'
Cane questioned before he had an idea. It was a stupid idea that would only work if his opponents were truly noobs and had no knowledge of game mechanics.
But he needed to try at least.
He threw a smoke bomb and quickly saved his game before logging out. He was going to make the other side think he teleported or something.
And his trick worked. As the smoke cleared, those who had been left behind looked around with an annoyed look on their faces.
"Darn it-! Where did he go? Did he teleport? We should separate and look for him."
Most of the assassins left, and the couple who stayed behind were easy for him to take out. Cane made a quick escape after that before the others could find where he was.
His stealth skill was working overtime to make sure he was able to move around as he wanted to.
'I just need one more level before I can start the second part of my chain quest. I should head toward the Additional Skill dungeon next.'
Cane ran across the map to get to the location marked on it. He also took the most deserted routes to get around so that he was not spotted.
And once he finally reached Louve, he stopped to admire the beauty of that place. Louve was inspired by Venice in real life, with water filling most paths to get around and hardly any roads.
According to legend, this city was built on top of the ancient tomb of a monster, so it was not really popular with the NPCs. But still, it was a place that those who could not travel in real life came to visit.
Cane headed toward the city and kept his guard up. He was sure he was safe here, but one could never be too sure—especially in his situation.
He headed toward the ferry that was used to travel around the city, and the NPC gave him a look.
"Where would you like to head toward?"
He asked, and Cane answered,
"The local journalist's office, please. I have an…exciting offer to make to him."
The NPC's face twisted into annoyance and pity. He looked at Cane almost as if he pitied him before placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Listen here, man, I don't know what you have managed to get, but let me tell you something. It would be better for you not to get involved with that madman."