Chapter 5 - 5. Skill Practice

Before he charged out, he saw several green color spheres enveloping some objects through his monocle. He approached the objects and saw they were some bread. He picked them up.

Bread (Normal consumable)

Recover HP by 5 every second for 6 seconds.

Relieve hunger

"There was a bunch of bread in this bakery shop, why do I only see four glowing ones?" He picked up the non-glowing bread and inspected it.

Bread (junk consumable)

Relieve hunger

After pondering for a bit, he summarized that the glowing ones were items that could provide assistance to him, while the non-color ones were just junk with normal purpose. He felt very lucky now that he got this God-eye monocle, or else he would have trouble separating the junk items from the useful ones.

He picked up all four bread and stored three inside his storage bag, then munched on the fourth. His HP was 185/230 the last he checked. That meant he had lost 45 points. That was from the fight in the Trigitech building. It stayed that way until now meaning that this was the kind of game system where there was no natural healing mechanics. He would need to find consumables or items in order to heal.

This kind of game was more troublesome, he would need to prepare supplies. Couldn't just go have combat and then retreat for healing. If he ran out of supplies, it would be trouble. Knowing this, he made a mental note to go look for more shops like this that could provide food or medicine.

After eating the normal consumable bread, he saw his HP increasing slowly. After 6 seconds, it stopped at 215/230. Not full HP yet but it should be enough. If he ate another bread, he would waste 15 points, as one bread could heal a total of 30 points of HP.

He walked out of the shop and scanned his radar again. There were two red dots now. The first one was getting closer while the other one was at the edge of the radar, and was in the opposite direction.

"Let's take care of you first," he said while gripping onto both his weapons tightly.

Ok, just take it as any other VR games you have played. Jack thought to himself, trying to maintain his calm.

When he saw the monster, it was still a zombie, like the ones he had encountered before. He checked his God-eye monocle, the monster was level 1.

"Ok, let's do this," he said as he advanced towards it. When he was ten meters from the zombie, it finally registered his presence and started to move towards him. This zombie monster was not like the slow zombies from those classic pre-hologram movies, but it was sloppy. Its movements were dull, which made it easy for him to predict its movements and plan his counter. As what he did with his previous fight, he let the zombie lunged past him before he made his move.

"Power strike!" He shouted. The short sword in his hand trembled before picking up speed. It struck the zombie on his side.

36 damage.

That was high, it was almost as high as when he landed a critical hit. Maybe his increased strength also helped. The zombie staggered a bit from the blow, he took the chance to land another normal hit.

23 damage.

The zombie clawed at him angrily. He stepped back to move away. He waited for Power Strike 3 seconds cooldown before he made another attacking attempt. This time he didn't shout out the skill's name. Instead, he mentally willed its activation. He felt the trembling sensation again as he guided his sword to strike the monster. Another 36 damage appeared. Now he knew the skill activation was not necessarily voice-activated.

He took some distance again from the zombie. This time let's try the magician's skill. He brandished the staff on his left hand and mentally commanded Mana Bullet skill. The staff glowed alight before a blue ball shot forward. It brushed past the zombie and hit the street fence nearby.

Crap. I need to practice my aim! Jack cursed in his mind. He was not experienced with range class. In addition to that, his left hand was not his dominant hand, so his control was a bit off. He put some distance again with the zombie. He kited it as he waited for the Mana Bullet cooldown, and then resumed blasting it with the spell. His aim got better and after a few more bullets, the Zombie fell to dust.

He didn't use the staff's energy for range attack, he just used his spells, so the staff energy was still full. He looked at his stamina and mana, they were gradually recovering. So the rules for stamina and mana were different compared to HP which was not self-recovering. He sat down for a few minutes waiting for his Stamina and Mana bar to return to full, before proceeding to the next red dot.

Being a range class had his advantage, he could kite his enemy without risking retaliation, thus he didn't lose any HP. Saving him from the need to consume another bread. Using the same method, he grinded away the second monster which was also a zombie, and at the same time practicing his aim using his left hand.

In this manner, he kept on grinding, finding the next zombie after another with the help from his radar. If he met zombies that were grouped together, he would go the other way. Before long, his experience bar had reached 98% from level 2, while his magician experience was at 32%. If he only had one class, he would have breezed past level 2 by now.

His God-eye monocle made a beep sound when he was nearing his next target. He was at a public park surrounded by brick walls, the next red dot was at the opposite side of the wall. He looked at the direction in which the red dot was on, a silhouette composed of red lines was seen. Level 2? He finally met a higher leveled monster. Apart from this discovery, he was also thrilled to know that his monocle also possessed the ability to partially see through obstacles and could warn him when a nearby monster was higher level.

He paid attention to the silhouette. It didn't look like a zombie. Its movement was also different, and it looks like it was holding a stick? He was both nervous and excited to encounter a new kind of monster. He made his way towards the wall that was separating them. He expected the monster to discover his presence once he was closed to the wall, but the monster's movement seemed oblivious to his presence.

It couldn't be its perception range was lower than the level 1 zombie, right? He pondered. Or could it be because it didn't see him due to the wall? So apart from the need to be inside their perception range, monsters also needed to see him before they turned hostile? If this was true, then this opened up a new way of fighting. He could steal the first strike by stealth, this would highly increase his winning chance.

Eager to test this theory, He followed the silhouette along the brick wall by relying on the see-through ability of his monocle. He also walked silently, he was not sure if monsters relied on hearing as well, but he would just assume so. After following for a while, the monster finally approached an opening in the wall. At this place, he would at last saw the monster directly.