Race to the Village of the Elves

You have taken the class: Elemental Swordsman

-Each level above 1 now gives you an additional 50 health, 20 stamina and 20 mana, Vitality now gives you 20 health and 10 stamina and Wisdom gives you 20 mana.

-You gain a 10% resistance to magic.

-You gain 5% resistance to air, water, earth and fire based attacks.

You have acquired 3 skills and 2 proficiencies: Elemental Attunement, Sensing Nature, Sensing Magic, Magic Mastery and Spellcasting Mastery.

Elemental Attunement

Sustained Skill. You can attune your weapons to an element, causing you weapon to do additional elemental damage. At higher levels, attacks can cause additional side effects depending on the element selected.

-Elements Available: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire

- Adds 3 damage.

-Costs 100 mana to cast and 10 mana/sec to upkeep

Current level: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%

Sensing Nature

Passive skill. You are able to feel the presence of Nature around you. At higher levels, you will be able sense the presence of natural spirits and places of Natural power.

- Sensing range: 3 meters

-You can feel plant life

Current level: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%

Sensing Magic

Passive skill. You are able to feel the presence of magic around you. At higher levels, you will be able to distinguish between individual spells, sense mana and ley-lines as well as wells of magical power.

- Sensing range: 5 meters

-You can feel when a spell is cast

Current level: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%

Magic Mastery

This proficiency describes your ability at using magic. Increases the effectiveness of magic and diminishes the mana cost.

-Effect increases by 3%

-Mana consumption decreases by 3%

Current level: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%

Spellcasting Mastery

This proficiency describes your ability at casting spells. Decreases casting time, decreases the chances of being interrupted and increases the number of spells that can be cast at the same time.

-Casting time decreases by 2%

-Very weak hits won't interrupt you

-Can cast 1 spell at the time

Current level: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%

Curious to see the effect of his class on his status, Kiro called his status table:

"Status."

Status Window

Name: Kiro Level: 19 – 53.29% Unused stat points: 90

Class: Elemental Swordsman Alignment: Neutral

Title(s): Survivor Health: 8780

Stamina: 4300 (+240) Mana: 5620 (+2320)

Strength 396 Vitality 394

Agility 391 Dexterity 400

Intelligence 267 (+ 116) Wisdom 263 (+ 116)

Charisma 0 Luck 25

Leadership 0 Fame 450

Balance 381 Flexibility 295

Endurance 320 Concentration 232

Fighting Spirit 154

Skills

Assassin's Rush: Beginner lvl 7

Elemental Attunement: Beginner lvl 1

Identification: Beginner lvl 7

Intense Pace: Intermediate lvl 5

Iai Strike: Beginner lvl 9

Consecutive Single Point Strike: Intermediate lvl 6

Critical Strike: Intermediate lvl 5

Sneak: Intermediate lvl 1

Bleed: Beginner lvl 9

Sensing Presence: Intermediate lvl 2

Sensing Nature: Beginner lvl 1

Sensing Magic: Beginner lvl 1

Proficiencies

Battle Regeneration: Beginner lvl 7

Berserker's Soul: Beginner lvl 6

Blade Mastery: Intermediate lvl 5

Blocking: Intermediate lvl 4

Climbing: Intermediate lvl 3

Dagger Mastery: Intermediate lvl 3

Dodging: Intermediate lvl 4

Dual Wield Mastery: Intermediate lvl 3

Falling: Intermediate lvl 2

Footwork: Intermediate lvl 3

Holding your Breath: Intermediate lvl 2

Magic Mastery: Beginner lvl 1

Master of Death: Intermediate lvl 4

Moving in a Difficult Environment: Intermediate lvl 7

Obstacle Clearing: Intermediate lvl 7

Parkour: Intermediate lvl 6

Parrying: Intermediate lvl 4

Reading: Beginner lvl 9

Running: Intermediate lvl 5

Spellcasting Mastery: Beginner lvl 1

Survival Cooking: Beginner lvl 8

Survival Harvesting: Beginner lvl 9

Survival Leatherworking: Beginner lvl 8

Survivor: Intermediate lvl 1

Sword Mastery: Intermediate lvl 5

The Art of Taking a Blow: Intermediate lvl 4

Tough Body: Intermediate lvl 4

Unarmed Combat: Intermediate lvl 4

Class

Elemental Swordsman: Beginner lvl 1

(*Note: I removed the percentages from the skills and proficiencies because they were kind of useless.)

Kiro was pretty happy with his progress thus far. With his proficiencies levelled up as they were, he felt confident about his chance to clear the next Training Center.

Switching on the system assist, he tried the new skills provided by his class. Sensing Magic and Sensing Nature were pretty similar to Sensing Presence, so he quickly got the hang of them and could use them without the assistance. Then, after casting Elemental Attunement several times, he felt confident enough to try it on his own.

Using mana was like trying to breathe out without using your lungs. It took him several hours before he was able to do it without assistance. Aften he had gathered his mana, he simply had to concentrate on the element then "push" the mana unto the sword he wished to attune. After that, the hardest part was simply to keep supplying mana to his weapon to keep the spell going.

Kiro continued moving through the forest. The only change was that he keep his weapon attuned at all times, as his mana regeneration was greater than the cost of maintaining the spell. After about two weeks he was even able to attune two weapons at the same time, although that did cause his mana to decrease over time, but he did it as frequently as possible to increase the speed at which he improved his proficiencies.

*****

A month passed after he obtained his class. For four months now Kiro had been travelling through the forest, in the general direction of an intermediate training center. After those four months, Kiro had travelled about 300 kilometers. It wasn't that much but he had done a lot of stops.

He estimated that he should now be in the general area the Intermediate Training Center was located.

Unfortunately, life wasn't kind enough to just let him stubble upon it right away, so he decided to look for villages in the area and ask for directions.

But, in every village he went to, the only thing he got was some fame for being the first player to find it.

Finally, in a small village with about a dozen houses, he found a clue:

"Intermediate Training Center? Never heard of it. But if you're looking for someplace mysterious, we have one of those here."

"What do you mean?"

"They say that there is an elven village around these parts. Real strange one, too. They don't tolerate strangers there, either. If anyone comes to close, even us locals, there are guards there that start shooting them full of arrows as a warning. I really recommend you don't wander too close."

"Where is it?"

"You planning to go anyways? You got a death wish? Well, it's not like it's my problem, either way. The village is about half a day's walk south of here. But again, it's pointless for you to go. They'll simply drive you away as soon as you get to close."

"Thank you."

Kiro left the village. An Elven village wasn't what he was looking for, but it's the only possible clue he had. At the very least, the elves there might have better information that could lead him to the training center. Thus, he should at least visit it.

As he saw Kiro leave, the old villager could only shake his head.

"Aahh, these Strangers. Not quite right in the head, they are."

****

As Kiro walked south, he quickly formulated a plan as to how to reach the village. Sneaking is was not an option, as if the Intermediate Training Center wasn't there, then it would be impossible for him to ask for directions without reveling himself, but doing so would make everyone suspicious of him, since he snuck in. At the same time, he couldn't just walk up to the guards and ask for permission to enter: if they turned even the locals away, a stranger like him would have no chance of gaining entry. Then if he tried to force his way in anyways, he would be treated with even more hostility. So he needed to be seen entering the village, without giving the guards the opportunity to deny him access.

The plan he came up with to do so would be considered by anyone else to be purely moronic. Yet to Kiro, it made sense.

It was a very simple plan: he would simply run in the direction of the village. He'd wear ear muffs so that he wouldn't be able to hear the guards telling him to stop, and but a blindfold over his eyes to avoid seeing them gesture at him. Then he'd simply rely on his Sensing Presence to guide him to the village, and on his Sensing Nature to steer him clear of trees and other obstacles.

It's understandable that Kiro would come up with such a plan. It was nothing else than a repetition of what he had already been doing: for months he had been running around the forest, dodging monsters. This time he'd do the exact same thing, just with arrows instead.

Kiro pulled some animal pelts from his inventory. He quickly made himself makeshift earplugs and a blindfold and put them on. Making sure he was facing south, he started running. His Sensing Nature had levelled up several times during the month, so he could sense the forest around him in a 10 meter radius. More than enough to give warning.

Accelerating, he settled on a pace he could maintain for several hours.

****

Noatou-Anos was a hunter of Welaitin village, often referred to as the elven village by the surrounding villagers. Every day he would hunt monsters and trespassers that came to close to the village in order to keep it safe. He already had the body of one of these monsters strapped to his back when he saw something far away coming in their direction.

Focusing his eyes, he realized it was a human running towards them. With quick hand gestures he signalled to the others hunters around him and they quickly took positions in the trees, ready to turn the human into a porcupine.

****

Kiro was running. Nimbly altering his course to avoid a tree, he kept heading in a general southern direction. His Sensing Presence skill picked up several hostile presences ahead but he didn't let it concern him. He came closer and closer. His skill was so high levelled that he could sense all seven of the elves waiting in ambush. He could fell as they pulled up their bows. He could almost see the arrows at they shot forward from them and could predict each trajectory they'd make better than even the elves could.

Compared to fighting a bunch of monsters surrounding you, with every attack coming with only an instant's warning, dodging arrows shoot from 80 meters away was so easy Kiro could have done it in his sleep. He let the arrows come in close before lightly stepping to the side. Pressing his foot to the ground, he pushed himself forward at a speed incomparable to the one he had before, crossing over fifteen meters in a second. Behind him, the arrows harmlessly bounced off the ground.

Startled by the way Kiro dodged their arrows, the rangers nonetheless quickly fired another volley at him, then a third one. He dodged these as effortlessly as the first one, without slowing down. The distance between him and the elves shrunk in the blink of an eye. He could sense them panicking, two dropping to the ground in front of him while the rest retreated, four of them to new spots from which to shoot at him and the last one running in the direction Kiro assumed the village was in.

****

What a terrifying human. Noatou-Anos and his men shot arrow after arrow at him only to see him evade them as if they were nothing. At this rate the intruder would reach the village! He dropped to the ground, determined to stop him. If arrows didn't work, he'd simply use the steel of his sword. In front of him, the human was closing the distance terrifyingly fast. For some strange reason he had a piece of cloth over his eyes. Noatou-Anos yelled at the man to stop but he showed no reaction. So Noatou-Anos pulled out his sword, determined to strike him down.

****

Kiro ran directly towards the elves blocking his path. They were framed by the two trees they had been shooting arrows from earlier. When they pulled out their swords he didn't hesitate, rushing forward directly towards them. Just before he got into the range of their weapons he jumped up and to the side, receiving himself against the trunk of one of the trees before pushing himself forward and landing behind the incredulous elves. Without missing a beat he resumed his sprint. The four other would-be ambushers belatedly shot their arrows at him, but a few quick zig-zagging steps put him past them. He quickly overtook the one elf that was rushing towards the elven village and kept going forward. Now he could actually sense it. It was still several hundred meters away.

The elves that he had left behind fired their arrows at his back. They had actually tried being smart this time, purposively shooting them in a scattered pattern to make it difficult for him to dodge to the side. So Kiro waited until they were just about to reach him before diving to the ground. When the rush of air on his back told him the arrows had overtaken him, with a roll he broke his fall and was on his feet, running again.

With his goal "in sight" he accelerated yet again, taking away any hope his pursuers had at catching up to him. He felt several other presences between him and the village but they were too far, too slow and too spread out to pose an effective threat to his charge.

He stopped running only when he was in the middle of the cluster of presences he assumed formed the village, and took of his blindfold. He was surrounded by several charming wooden houses, built in what he assumed was an elven style. In front of them stood several elves, women, men, children and older folk that were all starring in astonishment at the intruder in their midst. Standing directly before Kiro was another old elf, dressed in slightly better garb then the rest. Kiro assumed he was the mayor. The mayor was speaking to him, but with his ear-muffs Kiro couldn't hear a word he was saying. He took them off, only to be treated to a sever scolding:

"… and intruders aren't supposed to be here, leave before we slaughter you for disturbing the peace of our tranquil village."

"My apologies, I didn't know this was restricted area." Cough, cough. "As you can see, I was wearing a blindfold, so I had no idea as to where I was, and earmuffs, so even if someone was kind enough to inform me of this, I wouldn't have heard them…" Kiro flashed his very best innocent smile, to little effect. It seemed the old elf didn't buy it.

Darn, oh well, best to push forward then.

"As I was saying, I clearly had no way of knowing where I was, so please over look my trespassing" Another innocent smile, as ineffective as the last one. He'd have to work on it.

The old man kept to his stony silence, so Kiro had no choice but to try again.

"Anyways, I wasn't planning on disturbing the peace of your village, I was just looking for an Intermediate Training Center in the area, and so if you would be so kind as to point me in the right direction, I'd be more than happy to leave your charming village in peace…"

At the words "Intermediate Training Center" the elf narrowed his eyes and was unable to prevent an instinctual look behind his shoulders. Following his gaze, Kiro realized that there was a huge stone tower far off in the distance, choked with ivy and half-hidden by huge trees. It was very distinct from the rest of the WOODEN buildings in the village.

The old elf realized that Kiro had seen the tower. His eyes already filled with suspicion, darkened with hatred.

"KILL HIM! DEATH TO THE INTRUDER!"

At his words, everyone, from the hunters that returned to the village chasing after Kiro to the rest of the villagers, and even the young children and old folk, picked up any weapon they could find and rushed at Kiro while yelling at the top of their lungs. For some reason, the hazardous nature of these weapons (there was everything from swords, knives and maces to scissors, rocks, pans and even a woman carrying a washing board) made it far more terrifying then if they had all been carrying plated armor and broadswords.

??? What was going on? If anything, the old man's actions were enough to confirm that the tower was Kiro's objective. But why were they determined to kill him for knowing it was there?

Disinclined to dying, Kiro dashed forwards once more, dodging the awkward swing of the mayor

.

It seemed as most of the villagers were holding onto melee weapons, so as long as he kept his distance, he should be fine.

That hope was dashed, however, when one of the women decided to chug her washing board at Kiro, forcing him to bend backwards to avoid it. He sprinted, making for the tower in the faint hope he could take shelter inside it.

Three elves were barring his way to the tower, stopping him from leaving the village proper. One of them swung the chair he was holding at Kiro, but Kiro did a quick back step, kicked the man in the leg to put him off balance and pushed him into the other two, giving him the opportunity to slip past them.

After that, Kiro simply relied on his athletic capabilities to pull away. But even as he got farther and farther ahead, the villagers showed no signs of giving up, thus Kiro approached the tower chased by a mob of angry elves. He reached the base of the tower and quickly located a door. Knocking on it and shouting proven ineffective, so he pulled out the daggers he had gotten in the Beginner Training Center and started waiving them around in an attempt to gain entry.

The angry mob was only about a dozen meters away and Kiro was losing hope when the door slowly swung open.

Kiro dove in.

******************************************************************************

(*Note: This part is not part of the main story per-say, but it provides some useful information for later on in the story.)

Let us talk a little bit about classes and partying.

To start, there are thousands of classes, most of them undiscovered. But the majority fall into one of these categories: Mage Classes, Warrior Classes, Rogue Classes, Priest Classes or Support Classes.

Mage Classes are all classes related to the use of magic. They use spells or other magic means to deal damage to their enemies at a distance. The primary difference between mage classes is the type of spells they use. (An elemental mage would use spells conjuring the elements while a Dark mage would primarily use curses, for example)

Warrior Classes regroup all the users of melee weapons that tend to confront the enemy head on. It's usually them that aggro the enemy and take on the most damage. The main difference between them is the weapon and equipment they use. (Think Swordsman vs Maceman)

Rogue Classes regroup those classes wish are, frankly speaking, good at sneaking around. They include thieves, assassins, adventurers, trappers, scouts, hunters, etc… People with this class tend to only use sneak attacks in a fight to secure victory to their team. Having a Rogue Class automatically gives the user the cunning stat, which has several effects such as increasing the likelihood of spotting traps and secrets as well as giving a bonus to backstabing.

Priest Classes are just like Mage Classes, except that they tend to use only mostly defensive or healing spells (of course there are exceptions such as worshippers of dark gods or offense oriented priests). They tend to stick to one attribute (most priest only use light-attribute magic, but again there are exceptions, like druids that use nature-attribute magic).

The other difference is that they have the Faith stat that gives power to their spells, but forces them to obey several directives from their church.

Supporter type Classes are classes that don't directly take part in fighting, but support other players in other ways, such as merchants, blacksmiths, tailors, cooks, etc… Most players dislike taking these types of classes, but not all of them.

There are also other classes, such as the Gambler Class, which don't fit in any category, and classes that fit into more than one category, such as paladins (warrior-priests), archers (warrior-rogues, enchanters (mage-support) and magical warriors (mage-warrior). These are popular classes because of their diversity of options but usually hard to play with because of the same reason.

Sub-classes are usually specializations of a class. For example, a mage could be specialized in only fire spells, and become a pyro-mage, which would give him a bonus to fire spells and a penalty to water spells. Players usually take sub-classes after having had their class for enough time to know what type of gameplay they prefer.

Now to further discuss about classes, let's talk a bit about parties and the role of different classes in parties.

Parties can come in different sizes. There are half-parties, which typically have three players, full parties, which have six, half raids which are composed of 3 parties, raids which have 6 parties of six in it, expeditions which can have several hundred players in it and armies that can have several thousand, or even tens of thousands of players in them.

Half-parties and parties usually spend their time doing quests or hunting monsters to level up. Half-parties are typically composed of Priests, Mages, Warriors or Rogues in any combination, but here are some of the most basic ones:

Warrior (Tank), and Mage (with a rogue or extra warrior). With the Tank there to aggro the enemies, the mage can kill them with impunity while the extra person is there mostly to guard the mage against unexpected ambushes, scout for more enemies, and relieve the tank if his health drops suddenly.

Priest, and Warriors or Rogues (damage-dealers). With a priest in a half party, it is unwise to bring in a mage because the party would be extremely vulnerable to melee assailants which is most of them. Instead, rogues or warriors are to be the main damage dealers. Damage dealers tend to sacrifice vitality to put most stat points in strength and dexterity, or dexterity and agility to maximize the damage they deal. This can be problematic for a healer, but with only two people to heal, there is no problem.

Damage-dealers, by the way, are also sometimes called glass cannons, because their low health means they die pretty fast unless they are well taken care of.

Full parties tend to have at least one of each type of class, except for supporter type, and at least one tank, one healer and one or more damage dealers.

Half raids and raids are usually dungeon-clearers. They fight in dungeons or against boss monsters for items and experience. These groups will typically include one or more supporters (for full raids) such as a merchant to transport and sell the loot, a blacksmith to repair weapons and armor, and possibly a cook.

Expeditions and Armies will have a lot of supporters, to provide for the needs of such huge groups. Expeditions are groups that travel hundreds of kilometers in the wilderness to find new lands, or go to fight against immense hordes of monsters to assure the safety of a kingdom.

Armies, on the other hand, only form when countries, cities or even guilds declare war with each other.

A final point I wish to discuss, is how Magical Swordsmen, or Magical Warriors in general, are considered.

Despite a lot of people aspiring to take that class, it is not well regarded by others.

Magical Swordsman is a class that is both mage and warrior. Thus, all six of the basic stats come into play. But, spreading stat points across all six basic stats would result in an overall character that is far weaker in all areas than other characters of his level. A solution would be to concentrate only on the warrior or the mage aspect of the class, but as the effects of the stats and of levelling up are so widespread, they are also weaker, wish would mean an inferior warrior or mage compared to a pure mage class or warrior class.

Therefore, the solution most Magical Swordsmen come up with is such: they concentrate all their stat points, a little in dexterity, but most in strength or agility and intelligence. By casting away that what is their greatest weakness (or greatest strength; their health and stamina which is inferior to warriors, and mana which is inferior to mages) they concentrate on what is perhaps the greatest attribute of their class: massive damage.

This have given them a nickname: Fireworks.

Massive damage that cannot be sustained for any length of time, they eclipse other players for the briefest of moments before fading into obscurity.