Ellie Vault
It was a young lady who looked to be around my age from her height. She had wavy blonde hair and iridescent amethyst eyes. Her skin was clear and looked tender and conditioned. Her moves were graceful and fluid.
She was just…... devastatingly stunning. I had seen all sorts of girls but none as beautiful as her. I was almost drooling over her beauty though I quickly snapped out of it and started to assess the situation she was in.
She was wielding what looked like a long katana-like blade and was fighting a huge bear. Her leather armor was torn in multiple places and she looked like she was barely holding her own in the fight.
I quickly inspected them both in order to get an idea of the level of fight I was observing.
[Ellie Vault | Lvl.6 | Warrior]
[HP: 320/500 (64%)]
[Ferocious Direclaw Bear | Lvl.9]
[HP: 2148/5000 (43%)]
I was extremely surprised. Her name tag didn't have a circle beside it which meant that she was an NPC. If I didn't inspect her name tag, I would've mistaken her for a real person.
Her fighting didn't look automated. Not only that, but she was fighting a monster 3 levels higher than hers.
'She probably has very good battle intuition to still be alive.' I thought, as I watched her dodge a lethal strike from the bear.
As I marveled at the realism of the game, I pondered on whether to help and eventually decided on intervening. F*ck it, it was free exp anyways.
I unsheathed my trusty steel sword and charged into the fray, startling both Ellie and the bear. As I neared them both, I jumped and immediately unleashed a cyclone slash on the bear's torso.
Because I came out of nowhere, the bear could not block my attack.
*Slit!*
-300! -375! -450!
[HP: 1093/5000 (22%)]
The bear lost a large chunk of HP and its HP bar entered the red. I landed on the floor and backed off the bear, standing beside Ellie. We both looked at each other.
As our eyes met, my heart couldn't help but skip a beat; she was really beautiful. I nodded at her and we both adopted sword stances and waited for the bear to charge.
The enraged bear roared and blindly charged towards us, swinging its large claws wildly. I charged forward first and used my steel sword to redirect the bear's claws, parrying it upwards and away from my direction.
As the bear stumbled upon the parry, Ellie charged past me with immense speed and slashed upwards towards the bear's face. The slash was simple but devastatingly quick. Blood gushed out of the bear's face as it roared in pain.
*Slit!*
[Critical hit!]
-450!
[HP: 187/5000 (3.74%)]
Without hesitation, we both charged towards the injured bear and thrust our swords into its torso, ending its miserable life.
[You have gained150 Experience]
[Your «Slash» mastery has increased]
[Your «Cyclone Slash» mastery has increased]
As the bear disintegrated, Ellie turned to face me and stretched out her hand while smiling faintly.
"Hello, I'm Ellie Vault. It's nice to meet you. Thanks for the help."
"Hey, I'm Perseus, but you can call me Tristan. It's nice to meet you too." I replied respectfully as we shook hands
"So, what brings you out here?" I asked rather curiously. After all, it's really weird for an NPC to take the initiative to level up and get stronger. I wasn't sure if all NPC's were like this.
"Oh, well I wanted to travel the world and fight monsters. I was curious as to what's out there you know? I figured that I'd probably die if I ventured outside with my measly strength. So I started learning how to fight and came here to level up." She replied enthusiastically.
"I see, you can fight pretty well. Your moves were crisp and fluid." I complimented.
"Thanks, I was confused about how I moved so seamlessly too. I eventually came to the conclusion that its because of a stat called synchro rate. It's a really weird stat and I don't really understand it but it describes the stat in my status bar. It says my synchro rate is 95%, which I assume is high." She said, looking somewhat perplexed.
My eyes widened for a split second after hearing her. Seriously, what are the odds of meeting someo- I mean an NPC with such a high synchro rate.
I also realized that she was incredibly naive, which is understandable considering the fact that she was a young NPC . I mean, I would never tell something as important as my synchro rate to a complete stranger. So, I shrugged it off and told her,
"Yeah your synchro rate is what's responsible for that. Word of advice, don't go around telling people your synchro rate. It's important personal information. Some people may have ill intent because of your high synchro rate."
"Ah! I didn't know, I'm sorry….. Are you going to hurt me?" She asked as she stepped back wearily.
I couldn't help but laugh. What a cute lady.
"No, I'm not going to hurt you Ellie. If I wanted to, I wouldn't have advised you to keep the information private." I reassured her.
Ellie calmed down and took a deep breath. She then sheathed her katana and pulled up her system.
[Ellie Vault wants to be your friend. Accept? Y/N]
I accepted her request. She was enjoyable to be around so far, plus I didn't mind fighting with her. I may as well teach her a few things out of goodwill.
I also didn't need to grind too hard considering I'm already level 7. I'm pretty sure most players would be around level 3, with the better players around level 5.
"Hey Ellie, you wanna keep fighting monsters together?" I proposed in a friendly manner.
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Ellie replied enthusiastically.
We then spent the next 2 hours fighting monsters around the forest. I showed Ellie how to cancel skills, switch skills mid-skill and fight efficiently.
She was a pretty quick learner and absorbed everything I taught her like a sponge. It was satisfying to see her gameplay improve drastically because of my teachings.
We both leveled up twice before calling it a day. After all, it was getting dark, and Altered Reality were yet to deploy time dilation in [Transcendent].
"Tristan, do you want to go to a pub before you leave?" Ellie asked as she sheathed her katana.
I thought for a bit before answering "Yeah that's cool with me, let's go for it."