// New Weapon | Part 2
No matter how strong I am, that much will not be enough to kill the slime guardian. If the regular little guys were for player with level zero, then the armored ones were for level one and this particular giant is for level two or higher. Even with this boost, the difference in both of us looks to be too much.
Still pointing the spearhead to her enemy, holding it with her left hand while the other end is being held by her right, Jae-Hwa attempts to find a solution with the little time she has. Her legs prepare enough distance with each other in order to swiftly run or attack, depending on what would be best for the situation.
Her self that was named Cho Jae-Hwa was put on hold in the back of her mind, sleeping soundily to not interrupt or disturb her body's actions during battle. As of now, winning was the only necessity, which comparatively, her survival instinct was the one controlling both her mind and body.
Her eyes widen and her pupils dilate, her sight runs around the room looking at each corner and wall that present more mobility and stability, while her body prepares to run forward.
I never imagined I would be able to do something like this. There is nothing controlling me besides different sides of myself that I never knew existed, there also aren't puppteer strings to slow me down and make hesitate. Right now there is only me, this heavy spear that rests in my hand and that ridiculously strong slime.
"There is no reason for me to hesitate. Go forth, me." Step after step, her shoes echo as they step on the cold stone that the flooring is composed of. After mere moments her speed increases until it almost becomes a mere blur. Then, her blade strucks, the point of her new weapon stabs through the enemy with ease until it taps on the core and creates a microscopical hold on it.
No matter how much she pushed inwards, something similar to a dense fabric stopped her movements until it no longer budged, no matter the strength placed.
Her gaze locks onto the creature's insides that concentrated in that unique point and constricted in a huge mass to halt her attack. Noticeably, the monster should have countered her attack with such a great opening, but it seemed to be placing all of its attention on the never-ending pressure that was caused by her sheer strength combined by the skill's effects.
Recognizing the slight shine that the spearhead refracted from time to time, it made her remember, as if it was the final piece of a puzzle, that this spear not only was able to pierce but it could also cut, no matter how it was.
"Then, if I change the trajectory." She muttered to herself as her hands rotated around the shaft to make it as comfortable as possible. As if already prepared, the slime trembled with what could only be fear, followed by the sharp upward cut from her ceremonial metal spear, which when leaving it's body was stopped by the metal parts that protected the enemy.
"Tch." Jae-Hwa clicked her tongue, annoyed and a little desperate, swiftly retreating her weapon from its reach. Sweat reached down from her forehead to the corner of her eyes, the movements she made seemingly taking a toll on her untrained body.
She couldn't find an opening, amidst all that she did until this moment, she wasn't able to find a way to get rid of the annoying shield. While thinking, she was only able to evade of blocks attacks that came to her, multiple jabs of slime that extended from its main body to her sides.
Her new skills were related to her new weapon, one that made her attacks stronger if the enemy had any weakness against polearms, which didn't seem to be the case. The other was her first decent attack, but if it hit there was no usefulness for it.
They were both virtually useless in a normal, but then she remembered— something that Marni or anyone never explained to her: elements.
At first thought it might be obvious, it could be something like fire, water and the others that usually appear in fantasy, but this is reality, no matter how different and gamified, so something would be different. In this case, what would be the sacred element?
She looked for possibilities, even making her regular self in deep slumber wake up for the moment, only to get as many answers as possible.
In games and books they can be depicted as reserved to healing, but the one I have is an attack, which means that is out of the way for now. It isn't even magic to begin with. Others could be... what was it? Light? They sometimes have actions that work around light and even flashy attacks... Flashy... That's it!
Twirling her weapon to the right side of her body, directing the bladed end to the floor and protecting herself against a punch from the slime guardian, her eyesight finally becomes fixated on her target once more, a cold nervous smile forming in her face.
"I have no idea if it works, I don't even know if they can see, but it's not like I can think of any other choices right now."
The distance between the two decreases until they are face-to-face with each other. Her spear points towards the core and as a sudden reaction, the giant slime wombles backwards until it hits the wall, protecting the core with the metal shields that rotated around it.
She holds her blade on top of her head with both hands and a downwards slash grazes the metal. Shortly after, she uses the weight along the shaft to lift it in the air to her left and perform a horizontal cut along the body, creating a cross with the grazes she left.
As Jae-Hwa retracts her spear, aiming carefully at the point both grazes connected, the blade of the spearhead shines gracefully with a golden light, almost like a flame flowing with the wind.
As she directed the tip into the center point, piercing a hole on top of the shields that covered the body of her greatest enemy to date, her lungs gather enough air to shout the name of her skill.
"Holy Cross!"
There wasn't any real reason to do this, but to her, in this moment, it only felt to be the right thing to do.
A giant cross of golden light bursts out from the place that was hit, far more overwhelming than she was expecting, reaching the point where even her eyes were not able to keep up with it and had to close.
After slowly blinking away from the burning light, her eyes open again and to her surprise the slime remains steady, almost petrified even as the particles of light vanished into thin air. Something clicked in her mind, the puzzle finally reaching the end. Although there weren't any visible eyes for it to see, the unexpected blindness did affect it, meaning that while slimes are able to see, they can't deliberately stop it.
The metal that protected its body had crumbled layer by layer, burning like ashes upon making contact with the tiles spread along the ground, until it was almost fully destroyed. Taking up the opportunity and the weakness of the material, Jae-Hwa pierces countless times on the point of impact until is finally is broken and split in half. Moments after, it starts to desintegrate and only the body of the Slime Guardian remains.
"First problem solved! Alright!"
Jae-Hwa jumped and shriveled in excitement and delight, being able to do such a feat by herself. So much so that for a moment, even she forgot that there was a battle ongoing.
"Ugh!" She grunts in pain as most of the Slime Guardian's body compressed and launched itself at her, making her hit and even destroy a small portion of the wall because of the speed she was thrown with.
"You bastard... Let me be happy for a little, will you?"
As if in response to her words, the gelatinous monster stretches its body, creating multiple synthetic limbs that lunged at her from all sides. Without paying attention, the effects of
She gave one final look at her health, confirming whether it was safe to continue or not, not that it seemed possible to retreat from the battle.
HEALTH: 67/110
"Alright." She said in a cold whisper to encourage herself, knowning that there was no returning back from her reckless decisions.
One more step after the previous, keeping that in mind, she continued until their distances have become close again and her blade polearm struck the enemy. Starting with upwards attacks that cut most of the enemy's body, followed by diagonal movements that slowly but surely disorientated and reduced the giant slime's size, all while moving her waist in various directions to evade the attacks it made, although some still hit her with great strength.
She was still not used to this type of weapon, it was too long to be able to use it properly on her first time, but that much was enough. Even if she could not perform any type of athletic or beautiful movements, that was not needed for the moment... all because— "In the end, a slime is a slime!"
With every thrust and every slash, the dimensions of the slime were reduced, much like her own health, until they were both finally at eye level.
"You're not so big anymore, are you?"
With a wide grin, Jae-Hwa grabs the shaft of her spear and pierces through the body of the slime straight into the core, being stopped once again by the amalgamation of slime, this time far weaker due to the less mucus the creature contained.
Her decisions quick and precise, following with an upward cut that perforated the entire body of the Slime Guardian. The enemy has taken a lot of damage, she is sure of that, but even then it doesn't seem to want to give up.
For a mere second, it had become divided with a cut in its center and wobbled left and right dazed from her strike until it united itself into what could only be compared to a naked Armored Slime. The restrained movement caused by her weapon did bother Jae-Hwa as it made her movements more predictable, but the weight it imposed on her seemed to be real, so her instinct took over one last time and used the penalties to her favor.
Cho Jae-Hwa planted her right foot on the ground, trying her hardest to obtain as much stability as possible while the large creature shaked in what she was certain to be rage.
The very weakened, very small Slime Guardian jumps high in the air in a straight direction to her head.
The room was silent. The sound was her foot dragging along the dusty floor, crumbled from the battle. The same was reflected in her mind, in her hands, in her weapon.
She lowered her waist and fixed her gaze to the ceiling of the room, her wide smile ominously creeping from the shadows of her bangs that covered her obssessed crazed eyes. Her lips trembled right before caressing their roughness with her tongue, a whisper making it known only to her while her spear raised in the air with every strength she had.
"Second problem... complete."
Her spearhead thrusted the entirety of the slime, including the core that was now shattered into dust along with its body. At the same time, the level-up panel finally showed itself to her along with a fanfare that seemed to resonate with her surroundings.
—CONGRATULATIONS————————
+ 20 EXP
CREDITS: + 5
—LEVEL UP—————————————
"It seems so surreal." She mutters to herself, feeling the cold steel of her new weapon now that there is finally some time to rest. "I no longer feel disgust... No, battling became something normal for me... I didn't even have a problem putting on the line what little health I had left. Is it really okay to continue like this?"
Jae-Hwa sat on the ground for a few minutes, contemplating the exit door that had opened when her eyes had closed twice to blink. Some time later, after wiping all the sweat and tiredness in her body clean, she returned to the settlement.
On the path to her soon-to-be blissful rest, there weren't any monsters present, not even lurking to create a surprise attack. To cure her boredom, she slowly ate some of the energy regenerative pills as she wandered carelessly.
Nowadays I find less monsters when coming back— it must mean that more people are trying to advance. Knowing, or at least hoping, that more people attempted to free themselves from this place was able to calm the nerves of her walk being so peaceful in a place filled of possible death.
From the distance, however, an Armored Slime approaches her shadows, alone and already wounded, although covered in blood in several parts of its shell — most likely the remains of another player.
Slight disgust filled the back of her throat as she gulped two more pills and readied her weapon and lowered her hips, creating a stance to favor stability. Even then, that disgust was merely abnormal but not a something that seemed to create a conflict with her.
As the blooded slime jumped to her, her arms created a gentle but swift vertical swing, then becoming horizontal until the head of her spear thrusted forward and a cross of bursting light formed and blinded her momentarily.
The enemy was converted into pieces of goo after instantly exploding like a ballon. Soon after, the remains became colored light dust and the rewards appeared in the system panels.
—CONGRATULATIONS————————
+ 10 EXP
CREDITS: + 2
I didn't notice this before, but the experience that I obtain resets after I level up... Damn it.
"That aside— Now that I have no restrictions, the spear feels lighter and
Her sense of humanity hinders her movement as she resumes the walk. It's not like she lost it completely but she became too comfortable with the situation for her own liking.
The only answer she can give at the moment, even if she doesn't like it, is to keep moving forward and perhaps find an answer.
Upon reaching the entrance, her eyes gazed around, the mood of the place looking different from the usual noisy and overfilled resting room.
Somehow it had become tense and covered with some despair in several different groups of people.
Her legs immediately moved to Marni, for some reason unknown even to her, although reporting to her seemed to be the right thing to do.
The little girl was alone, as always, observing the surroundings that were overfilled with light depression.
"Did you do it, noona?"
"Well, yes... Although my shoulders became sore after all that."
"It's only natural, your body was still a little lacking to go against it comfortably. Still, no matter the difficulties you always seem to survive— You did good."
Jae-Hwa giggled with satisfaction as the quest became complete and Marni took out a coat from the shadows of her robe.
"This is your reward." She said as she presented the coat and some other new clothes. It was rusty-brown and could easily reach her knees, padded on the arms and hips, accompanied by a shoulder belt to hold her new spear. Some shirts, skirts and undergarments were also included.
"It's called a Hunter's garb. It's not much, but I'm sure it will protect you more than just your regular clothes."
Jae-Hwa quickly wore it and materialized her spear, performing a couple of spins until it reached her back. The shoulder belt immediately revealed a mechanism that grabbed hold of it in mid-air and made her weapon stay in place with her.
"This is amazing! You're doing so much and yet I... I'm not even sure if I can defeat the Ruler."
"Don't worry. That's why I'm here."
The little wolf girl's eyes shone blue again. Someone was controlling her again, they were waiting for this moment, but so was Cho Jae-Hwa.
"The ruler is named Terazus, a slime that has eletric moves—"
"Stop that."
"Sorry?"
Jae-Hwa cut the conversation with an assertive shout, not loud enough for others to hear.
"I said stop it. How long do you want to keep pretending?"
"Now, what might you be talking about?"
Her hands move to her shoulder belt, quickly unsheathing her spear and pointing the sharp end to the nose of whatever was controlling Marni.
"You wouldn't."
With a grin, the creature responds, possibly because of how secure she was, if their bodies weren't connected.
"More sincere, aren't we? So tell me,WHAT are you?"
It closes its eyes in deep thought until, moments after, the being starts laughing before whispering in her ear.
"You know me well, don't lie now."
"What?" In confusion, Cho Jae-Hwa moves the blade closer to the little girl's nape, letting a string of blood flow outwards.
"Still don't know? I am what you lunatics call
Her body freezes as the evil thing laughs away in hysteria.
The system? It's a thing that can talk? But then...
"Now this is starting to hurt... Hey!"
The system shouts, as it scratches the back of her neck, catching everyone's attention towards them.
"You're going to kill the Ruler all by yourself!? Amazing!"
In mere seconds, Jae-Hwa's mind snapped back to reality, Marni was slowly returning to her senses and a crowd of a hundred, if not more, players surrounded her path.
"That's for blowing my cover." The being snickers just letting go of the command in Marni's body.
People shouted and cried, grabbed and pushed, hurting her body without even expending a single point of health.
"ENOUGH!"
The crowd went silent, observing her and the exquisite equipment she had on her body. One of the more elderly-looking steps forward, sniffling with real pain in his tears as everyone supported him in his walk.
"Will you really go defeat it?"
"I— I will try to, but even I am not sure if I can do it."
"You must do it and take us with you. You see, we lost my grandson today, along with three men and two women... They didn't come back, despite saying they would since this is just a game... We can't take any more losses."
"Even if that's the case, I can't do it with so many people—."
Just before she could end her phrase, the swarm resumes their violence. Fully covering her field of view with hands and insults that stretch beyond her mind could take.
"You are way stronger than us!"
"Why don't you help us!?"
"You selfish prick!"
Such words echoed as the raging people took their anger and frustration on her.
—CURRENT STATS——————————
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 2 <10/60 EXP>
BLESSING: none
TITLE: none
HEALTH: 58/120
DAMAGE: 16 (+7) // DEFENSE: 20 (+6) // ENERGY: 3/30
WEAPON: Ceremonial Metal Spear
ARMOR: Hunter's Garb
SKILLS:
CREDITS: 13