Level Is Everything

Right now, Luna is on the lookout to notify Ryou if there are monsters nearing them. It was also because Luna can't stand the sight of torture that Ryou did to the assassin that they captured. In Aaru, if a player has suffered harassment or torture up to a certain degree, they are able to make a report to the game master (GM) and the game company will send help right away. It was to prevent some players from abusing the game system to do malice or even s.e.x.u.a.l harassment. However, the target of the torture right now is an NPC and there's no such protection for him from the system since no one has seen an NPC using the protection before.

Maybe it was impossible for the NPC's in the beginner's village since their AI level was somewhat inferior to the AI level of the NPC's that roam in the world map of Aaru. After all, the game company won't let players s.e.x.u.a.lly harass an NPC.

The assassin is nailed to the ground with arrows holding him in place by piercing his limbs.

"So, tell me about Barnak and Yaga's son."

When Ryou mentioned Yaga's son, the complexion of the assassin turned white.

"H-h-how did you know about that?"

"Tell me!"

Ryou is giving orders while intimidating the assassin.

"N-n-no, I won't tell you! You better kill me because you will hear nothing from me!"

Ryou then takes out the copper dagger that he looted from the first assassin and he used it to cut the assassin's finger.

"Argh!"

Seeing that the assassin isn't planning on talking, he continues to cut his finger one by one.

"Are you still not going to talk? I can do this all day."

The assassin isn't responding so Ryou takes out a red potion and pours it on the wound of the assassin's arm. It instantly takes effect and the wound started to regenerate. In the game of Aaru, any limbs that are cut or cut off can be healed or grown back if the potion's healing points are enough. Of course, for an assassin that is around level 10 with HP at around 150, a red potion with 50 points of healing are enough to bring him back from the brink of death and fill 1/3 of his health points. Of course, severed limbs are one of negative conditions that a player can suffer. From severed limbs, they will have a movement impairment status and bleeding. From being inflicted by a poison, a player may suffer headache, difficulty in breathing and even losing consciousness. It was all due to the realism that is offered by the game Aaru with almost 100%.

Ryou himself isn't a sadistic person. He treated this all as a game, so it was normal for him to do any means available for him to achieve his means. It was also influenced by his relatives that are willing to do anything to get the inheritance that his family left for him. At the age of five, Ryou has known about the existence of 'a monster in human skin'. Which is also why he is not differentiating monsters and humans when Yaga asked him.

Luna on the other hand was more like a sheltered princess. Indeed, she cursed her bad luck, but she was raised in the hospital with a family that loved her and didn't blame her for what happened to her. They are trying their best so Luna can be healthy again. It was like two opposing sides. While Ryou had a healthy body, his mentality was a bit damaged due to his experience without him realizing it. Luna's body is sickly but her mentality was still untainted by human scheme and negative thoughts.

When the fifth red potion was used, the assassin couldn't take it anymore and finally spilled the beans. Truthfully Ryou didn't get much information from him. But he got another lead. In the Rubis town, there's a bar called 'sleeping beauty tavern' and that's where the descendant of Barnak usually hangs out.

After killing the assassin, he looted him and earned some coins and experience. There is also an update for the quest that he is undertaking.

「You have completed the quest 'mysterious letter'. Quest rank: unknown. You have found the letter about the assassination plan of Nader. Even though Nader was killed in the process, you have managed to kill the assassin and earned the letter of their devious plan. Talk to the village's chief to complete the quest. Quest rewards: unknown. Time remaining: no limit. 」

After a while, the body of the assassin disappeared just like any other monster when they die and were looted. If the body isn't looted, it will stay for another five minutes before it disintegrates automatically. Finishing what he had to do, he planned to log out from the game and sleep and turn in the quest tomorrow. He asked Luna and it seemed like she also doesn't have any problems to turn in the quest in the morning.

For now, they are just going to head to the village to log out. Truthfully logging out can be done anywhere but there's a delay of 5 minute before a player can log out from the hunting fields. The player also has to be in a state of non-combat for it to be possible. After all, the game won't let the player to abuse the log out system whenever they are stuck in a pinch while hunting monster.

"Finally you're here!"

Ryou and Luna were about to enter the village, but they were stopped by a group of players. Ryou immediately knows who they are when he saw the figure in the middle who just spoke. It was Sakura.

"Don't think you can go away scot-free after what you have done to me. Boys, kill him! I want you to keep killing him every time he goes out from the village. Don't hope you can escape to the world of Aaru. You are destined to stay in the beginner's village since the moment you decided to oppose me."

Sakura brought around ten players with her. Their level is at around 8 on average which is the same as Ryou. It was the average level of players in the world of Aaru right now, while experts were as far as reaching level 11 or 12 and are already roaming the world map. It is also known that the higher your level is, the harder it is to level up. In terms of levels, the expert players aren't leading by much for now, but at a higher level, it will become more apparent.

Ryou looked at Luna and seemed to be a bit sorry for getting her involved in something like this. Luna on the other hand didn't worry too much except thinking of how to get free from their current predicament.

"Sorry for involving you in this kind of situation."

Ryou said while looking at Luna. It takes her a bit of time to respond but she smiled at him.

"No worries. After all, it was you who helped me level up. Worst case, we'll just lose some level."

The ten players are coming to get them and were approaching fast. Ryou only had one goal in his mind. He had to take Sakura down with him. Even if you killed me, I have killed you too.

At level 8, Ryou has 26 points of strength which means 26 points of attack. Adding the power of his bow and arrow, his damage is at 46 per arrow. Adding the bow mastery skill, his damage is exceeding 60. Calculating his odds, Ryou decided to do it.

(26 STR = 26 atk, arrow + bow = 20 atk. Bow mastery level 3 + 15 atk.)

He waited for the players to get close to him and when they have surrounded him, he unleashed his newly acquired skill "Yaga's War cry".

Ryou suddenly let out a wild roar which is unexpected. There's no class that is able to let out a crowd control (CC) skill below level 10 yet Ryou is able to do so. That immediately sends most of the attackers to stop in their tracks either because of shock or the stun effect from the skill.

The skill itself brings Ryou strength attribute to be increased by 2 times and gain an additional 52 attack. With his attack points exceeding 110, it only takes two arrows for him to kill Sakura.

Sakura also realized that Ryou is acting crazy, forsaking anything to bring her down with him.

"Stop him, stop him!"

With Ryou archery skill, it was easy for him to aim at Sakura which is now scared. This time, he planned to end it with one shot because he isn't sure how long it will take for the players that Sakura brought to recover from the stun and hinder him. Because of that, he unleashed his second skill, "double strafe" which immediately depletes his MP.

-98

-98

The attack damage was cut for quite a bit by Sakura's defense but that is still enough to send her back to respawn point. Once again, she was struck by an unimaginable piercing pain on her head as she saw her number one enemy. However, she is still relieved because he will die not too long after her.

The players that Sakura hired soon recovered and resumed their action. They are going to attack Ryou and Luna but a strange occurrence happened. A shadow comes out from the trees and in one attack, it instantly sends one of the attacking players to shreds. While it was night time inside the game, the visibility was reduced. Until the clouds that covered the moon moved a bit, they could now see the figure that just instantly killed a player. It was the tempest wolf.

The players that Sakura hired were now in chaos. Should they continue their attack in risk of dying to the tempest wolf or should they run towards the village and save their lives? It didn't take them long to decide. Although Sakura offered them some money, losing a level for it isn't comparable to the time they need to spend to level up. They immediately turned tails and ran back to the village.

Ryou looked at Luna and he felt elated. Never did he think that her skill was indeed appropriate as the name says, "fortune in misfortune". Although it said that the fortune badge lowered her chance to be attacked by mini-boss monsters, due to the time she was spending on the field today, it was bound to happen at one point that her luck runs out and the tempest wolf came to attack her. However, the tempest wolf came at just the right time for her to bring bad luck.

Ryou signaled Luna to get back first to the village while he sent an arrow at the tempest wolf. Ryou was still under the effect of "Yaga's War cry" so his damage is still boosted.

One arrow from him, immediately hit the tempest wolf body that dodges Ryou's arrow that was aiming for its head.

-80

「Damn! The damage is only that much? 」

Since Ryou attacked the tempest wolf and successfully damaged it, the tempest wolfs HP bar was immediately shown. It only took out 1/10 of its total health. Ryou gives up on attacking further since his goal was only to lure the tempest wolf to get some time for Luna to escape. As he met with the tempest wolf now for several times, he can dodge some of its attacks. While in desperation, he managed to reach the village and enter the safe zone.

Seeing Ryou has escaped, the tempest wolf turned its body and disappeared while showing disdain in its eyes towards Ryou. Ryou felt provoked by the tempest wolf and swore in his heart.

「Damn you! I will kill you before I go out to the world map of Aaru. 」

After confirming that Luna is safe, they logged out of the game so they won't have to deal with Sakura and her underlings again today. They were also tired from doing the mysterious letter quest. Only after a while, Sakura reached the beginner's village entrance with no Ryou in sight.

"RRRRRYYYOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!!!! Just wait for my revenge!"