Why 100% Pain? Cause I’m an Idiot, that’s why!

Leaving the training center, Kiro decided to check on his character information. He wondered how many stats he got and if he received new proficiencies.

"Status Window."

Status Window

Name: Kiro Level: 1 – 0.00%

Class: None Alignment: Neutral

Title(s): Suicidal Joe Health: 520

Stamina: 260 Mana: 100

Strength 66 Vitality 52

Agility 55 Dexterity 58

Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10

Charisma 0 Luck 5

Leadership 0 Fame 450

Balance 21 Flexibility 14

Skills

Identification: Beginner lvl 1 – 10.22%

Intense Pace: Beginner lvl 1 - 9.55%

Consecutive Single Point Strike: Beginner lvl 2 – 55.42%

Proficiencies

Blade Mastery: Beginner lvl 2 – 51.50%

Climbing: Beginner lvl 3 – 10.33%

Dagger Mastery: Beginner lvl 2 – 78.60%

Dual Wield Mastery:

Falling: Beginner lvl 3 – 67.89%

Sword Mastery: Beginner lvl 3 – 1.02%

Master of Death: Intermediate lvl 3 – 11.56%

Running: Beginner lvl 1 – 25.70%

Obstacle Clearing: Beginner lvl 1 – 18.68%

Unarmed Combat: Beginner lvl 3 – 70.60%

He was very happy to see how much his stats had increased. He was also astonished at the quantity of proficiencies he obtained during his training. He was curious about all the new proficiencies and skills, so he checked them:

Blade Mastery

Regroups the Dagger, Dual Wield and Sword Mastery proficiencies. Increases damage by blades. Damage increases more the more proficiencies are gathered under Blade Mastery. Proficiencies regrouped under Blade Mastery level up faster with higher Blade Mastery.

Current level: Beginner lvl 2 – 51.50%

Damage by blades increases by 3%.

Proficiencies under Blade Mastery level up 1.001x faster.

Climbing

Increases the speed at which you climb. You can climb more difficult surfaces. Bonus to Strength and Dexterity.

Current level: Beginner lvl 3 – 10.33%

+ 10 Strength

+ 10 Dexterity

Dagger Mastery

The ability to fight with a dagger. You deal more damage and can attack faster with a dagger.

Current level: Beginner lvl 2 – 78.60%

Damage by daggers increases by 7%.

Attack speed while daggers are equipped increases by 5%

Dual Wield Mastery

The ability to fight with two weapons at once. Reduces the penalty applied by equipping a weapon in both hands.

Current level: Beginner lvl 2 – 12.82%

Reduces penalty to damage by 15%

Reduces penalty to attack speed by 12%

Falling

By continuously falling from high places unto the ground, you have learned how to minimize the impact of falling.

Current level: Beginner lvl 3 – 67.89%

5% reduction of blunt force damage (from maces, hammers, fists or broadswords)

5% less likely to suffer from broken bone condition.

Sword Mastery

The ability to fight with a sword. You deal more damage and can attack faster with a sword.

Current level: Beginner lvl 3 – 1.02%

Damage by sword increases by 10%.

Attack speed while swords are equipped increases by 7%

Unarmed Combat

The ability to fight with no weapons. You can fight with your bare fists and feet. Increases the damage and speed of kicks and punches.

Current level: Beginner lvl 3 – 70.60%

Damage by fists and feet increases by 10%.

Attack speed while having no weapons equipped increases by 7%

Consecutive Single Point Strike

Passive Skill

By striking at the same point over and over again, you have learned that each consecutive strike causes more damage than the last.

-Each time you hit the same target twice, the damage from your strike increases by 12%.

-Also increases by 12% for each successful consecutive strike at the target.

-Missing the target cancels the increase bonus.

-This skill cannot be activated by the user, it activates only if the conditions are fulfilled.

Current level: Beginner lvl 2 – 55.42%

Kiro was overwhelmed by the amount of proficiencies he gained from his training. Also, his new skill, Consecutive Single Point Strikes seemed particularly useful. It was probably a consequence of him always aiming for the same spots on the mannequin for the entirety of the Basic Training.

He decided it was time for him to put his training to the test. He walked in the direction of the gates that led to the field where he saw multiple players the other day.

After more than two weeks of in-game time, there were no players that were still hunting on the field directly in front of the town. The majority of them had went on to other hunting grounds with higher level monsters.

After two week, the best beta testers had levels in the low to mid-twenties.

Even so, Kiro had as high or even higher stats than most of them do to his training. So he was in no ways disadvantaged.

He stepped onto the field where many week monster roamed. As the other players had moved on, Kiro had the field to himself.

He decided to start by attacking a rabbit. It was the weakest of monsters, but it would be his first battle, so he wanted to start with easy prey to accustom himself to fighting in this virtual reality.

First he equipped the sword he got from Master Roderick:

Name: Good Iron Sword

Durability: 20/20

Damage: 12 – 18

Description: A good Iron Sword, it has good damage and durability for a low level sword. Given as a reward for completing the Basic Training Program.

Requirements: Nan.

(Note: I added the Requirements Field to the item descriptions. I might also add other information fields if I think about them.)

He selected a lone rabbit on the field, and ran towards it. He swung his sword down and it easily cleaved it in two. A piece of meat fell to the ground. A quick look at his experience bar told him that it was now 1/20 filled.

As Kiro was about to pick it up, he felt a searing pain in his leg. It felt as if someone had torn a hole in it.

Looking down, he saw a fox that was biting his ankle. It hurt, it hurt so much. Awkwardly, he swung his sword again, beheading the fox.

Deciding to take a break, he limped towards the gate, sitting with his back against the stone wall of the city.

Why did such a small injury like this hurt so much, he wanted to ask, but of course, he knew the answer.

His wound still stung, but the pain lessened as his health bar slowly replenished himself.

Of course, he still remembered when that guy, Andrew Durnal, came to offer him a VR pod. Kiro had asked him to increase the pain sensor to max, thinking that New World would be more realistic that way.

Kiro had never experienced a Virtual Reality before. Furthermore, at that time he was filled with despair as he felt his senses slowly weakening. He had been desperately afraid that New World wouldn't be able to entice his dying senses. He had been terrified that there to he wouldn't be able to feel anything. That's why he had asked Mr. Durnal to put the pain sensor at 100%. Because more than pain, it was the numbness of unfeeling that he feared the most.

But after experiencing New World, after feeling the touch of wind on his skin, the roughness a sword in his hands and the cold of cobblestones underneath his feet. Everything that was so bright and vivid, every smell, every sight and every sound alleviated his fears.

New World had freed him from the dark prison his body had become in the real world.

But Kiro was just like anyone else. He didn't enjoy pain. Even when he had been grinding the Master of Death proficiency, he had tried to die in as painless a way as he could imagine. Therefore, he readily acknowledged that he had made a mistake. It was a stupid idea to ask for 100% pain, he thought. Next time I see Mr. Durnal I'll ask him to change it back.

It was unlikely, however, that he'd get the chance to do so anytime soon. Mr. Durnal was a director of Future V. so it was probable that he had a busy schedule. At the very least, it was certain that Kiro wouldn't meet him again before the end of the beta test.

And there was no way that Kiro would voluntarily leave New World just because of a little problem like this. It was also out of the question for him to just hole-up in town until the beta test ended.

Fighting was a huge part of the game and there was no way he'd just miss out on it like that.

In the real world, fighting with others in the dojo was always extremely fun. Kiro also looked forward to experiencing combat in this world.

He just had to solve the little problem of experiencing the pain. In his mind, a memory of a time in the dojo came back to him.

Him, and several other practitioners where standing in two rows, facing each other. On the signal of the instructor, they started kicking each other, starting of lightly but then hitting harder and harder for several minutes.

The purpose of that particular training had been two fold. First, to accustom themselves to being hit, so that they wouldn't freeze in actual combat. Second, so that they could toughen themselves up against the pain of getting hit.

After doing this training for a few times, even a strong kick didn't hurt that much.

It was this type of training that Kiro would do in this world to be able to deal with the pain.

For that purpose he would find a type of monster with an extremely weak attack and let it hit him until he got used to it. Then he would do the same thing with a stronger monster. Then an even stronger one. And etc…, and etc…

But only training to receive attacks wasn't good enough. If that was the only thing he trained, then if he was surrounded by enemies he would eventually be overwhelmed by their attacks.

Therefore, he should also train himself to be able to dodge and block attacks.

Then, in any fight, he could simple follow a basic procedure:

- If the attack doesn't hit, don't react.

- If it will, dodge.

- If you can't dodge, block it.

- And then, only if you couldn't block it, endure it.

By following these basic steps, Kiro could fight effectively and for a longer time, simply by doing the action that was the least costly effort wise.

And Kiro could even do more than that. To be even stronger, it was important for him to train all his proficiencies and raise his stats.

From his Basic Training, he learned that it was more effective to do different types of training. Moreover, he learned that the harder he trained, the faster they would rise.

With this, he thought of an idea that was perfect for this world. A type of training suitable for a game.

As a child, Kiro was a fan of the Dragon Ball manga. The part he especially liked was how the characters got insanely stronger by training with turtle shells on their backs or with weighted clothing. It was impractical in real life but in a game world, Kiro thought it made perfect sense.

Therefore he would train in this manner, for the sake of getting stronger.

Like that, Kiro made his way back to the Basic Training Center. He need some things for his training and he hoped Master Roderick could lend them to him.