Chapter 8

"I covered my ears as I then looked up to roll away again from a stomp. "They expect me to kill this thing?!!" I shouted as I got back up and waited for the next attack. The Cyclops then swung their club as I was forced to brace for impact, getting smacked around and being flung around from the strength of the Cyclop's swings. I coughed a bit to catch my breath as I stood up weakly this time, my health had dropped down to 160, I then opened a potion and drank it, healing up to 208 and running in onto the cyclops.

It roared out towards me as it slammed its club and missed me. I ran up to its knee and aimed for its heel instead of its thigh, cutting just above the heel of its foot. Making another sharp turn I activated a movement skill, speeding myself up at the cost of minus 5 STR, I then began rapidly slashing the cyclops all around while it was on a knee.

I kept swinging my sword at it, growing more and more exhausted as I kept swinging. "C'mon Stun!!!" I thought as my passive skill Adrenaline had activated, restoring a good portion of my stamina within 5 seconds each time. I kept spamming sword skill after sword skill, chipping away at the Cyclops health down to red. By that point, my passive skill was on a long cool down of 3 minutes, and I was fatigued beyond what I could have normally achieved.

The Cyclops then began to chuckle and what seemed to laugh at my attempt, This shook me to the core, a NPC acting almost sentient to what could be a pre-written interaction.

The Cyclops stood up and raised up its club and swung the club sideways and swatted me away, crashing into a large tree and dropping down to red. "I...I don't want to move... I'm too tired..." I thought to myself as I saw its health was red, so close to killing it.

"I...I have to kill it...For the quest..." I muttered underneath my breath as I had to force my virtual body to get back up, I was screaming my lungs out trying to stand up to my feet. I then raised up my arms as I had dropped my blade after being overly fatigued, "Come...Come on you ugly...one eyed...Bitch..!" I shouted as I forced myself to charge up a martial arts skill.

Hearing the footsteps getting louder I thought to myself "I have to kill him so I can move on with this goddamn quest!!" as I heard trees being pushed to the side rapidly, hearing the thumps of footsteps getting closer. "HAAAAAHH!!!!" I shouted my virtual lungs out as the Cyclops rushed through the last parts of the trees and furiously swung their club. I then threw the martial arts skill, Meteor Impact at the Cyclops's large abdomen.

A Bursting sound could be heard as my fist had punched a small impact hole and an exit hole the size of a large rock. The Cyclops then began to glow bluish cyan as it then shattered to pieces. Bunch of text then popped up saying "Congratulations!" as I didn't care about my victory. I lost my balance and fell face first into the leafy grounds, My vision began to blur up as I saw a figure walk by and began to slowly run up to me, every second felt like it had slowed down as I closed my eyes and finally began to rest.

"So... This is how we are going out huh..?"

A voice said as I woke up in a pitch black, void-like space. I looked around as the voice talked again "Over here.." As I turned around and saw myself standing there, In-Front of me. "You're...Me" I said as he nodded. "We are the same person at the core, but we act like two different people..." He said as I looked at him as he put his palm out to me.

"Look.. Even our hands are different..." he said as I put my hand out and showed my palm, seeing that mine was more roughed up than his. I then looked up from his palm and saw that he was gone. I backed up as my back hit something solid as he said "I...I really hope you can make it out of the game..." as I turned around to look at him as he turned around and I saw that his skin grew more pale, a little thinner, and his hair grew out slightly.

His smile was small but genuine, He then said "Please... For the both of us, don't die..." as a single teardrop came out of his right eye, going down his cheek and dropping off his chin. The Teardrop then hit the voidless ground as I awoke in bed at 5 in the morning. I touched my face and felt the tear from my right eye, thinking to myself "Did...Did I...give myself a pep talk..?" as I was filled with mixed emotions.

I then heard a wind chime sound as I checked my menu, seeing from the communications Icon, I saw that there was something pending, I checked it and saw a name I wasn't familiar with. "Toru?" I muttered underneath my breath as I clicked it and it was a friend request. I accepted it as I was genuinely confused at what happened within the timespan of when I blacked out and when I woke up.

I got up and out of bed, looking at my quest seeing that it was completed, I then put on my gear and walked outside of the Inn at Horunka Village. "Oh right my sword" I said to myself as I checked my inventory, seeing that it was gone from my inventory and sighed in agony a bit. But to my surprise, I saw a new item in my inventory.

I looked at the name as the name said "Darkened Mace" as I didn't really have a good proficiency in Mace. I left it in my inventory and headed off towards Tolbana.