14 Confrontation

Shesmu unsheathed his sword and readied his stance. His eyes scanned Ryan as he did the same with his dagger. Ryan's aura completely changed. No longer was he the cute kid that made everyone's smile. His expression was cold. His blue eyes shone with a dangerous glint.

"Hooo, this kid has the aura of a killer," Leonard commented while looking at Shin. The latter just smiled and nodded.

Ryan walked slowly towards Shesmu, his hand held low, loosely holding on the dagger. Suddenly, he disappeared.

Dash!

Shesmu immediately teleported in the air. Looking down, he saw Ryan slashing at the spot where he just stood. As Shesmu was looking at him, Ryan's eyes immediately locked onto Shesmu.

After making a backflip in the air, Shesmu finally returned to the ground. Ryan accelerated towards Shesmu with tremendous speeds. His dagger cloaked in a dark shadow as he did.

Shesmu rolled in the ground to dodge Ryan's attack. He then immediately pounced at his opponent with undaunted ferocity. He then slashed at him with an upward motion, putting considerable weight behind his strike.

Ryan held his dagger with one hand and supported it with the other so as to parry Shesmu's incoming attack. However, the power behind the slash still managed to break past his barrier and injure him.

Shesmu used inspect to monitor the damage he had done to Ryan—Twenty. Shesmu readied his stance once again and slowly approached his enemy. However, Ryan wasn't as patient as him. He immediately dashed towards him to get into close quarters with Shesmu.

Seeing how open Ryan was, Shesmu diagonally slashed. Ryan immediately dodged it. With a quick movement of his feet, he sidestepped to the right without losing any momentum. A dark aura covered his dagger as he thrust at Shesmu's chest. That's when it stopped.

"Huh?"

Ryan looked below to see why his hand stopped only to see Shesmu's left hand catching his arm from the elbow. Shesmu didn't give Ryan any chance to think, he immediately slashed horizontally at his neck with his right hand.

However, instead of the gush of blood and paint of red, Shesmu saw… nothing. Ryan disappeared from within his hand. He then felt a hand grab him by the collar and a leg hitting the back of his knee.

As Shesmu was losing balance, he saw Ryan's face smiling as he thrust his dagger towards Shesmu's neck. Shesmu smiled in return.

"Huh?"

Shesmu disappeared from Ryan's eyesight. The only thing he felt was the touch of cold steel on his neck.

"Stop!" Leonard's shout signaled the end of the battle.

Ryan turned around to see Shesmu's blade clad in a green aura grazing his neck.

Shesmu put his sword back in its sheath before reaching his hand out to shake.

"Good fight Ryan. Your movements gave me chills."

Ryan chuckled and scratched his hair awkwardly in response. "You too, dude. Your movements were so clean, it felt as if I was playing against a pro."

Well, technically, you're not wrong, Shesmu thought while smiling.

"Good fight both of you! Watching you made my blood boil in excitement!"

Leonard's pat to the back shook both Shesmu and Ryan to the core. They looked at each other for a second before letting out a chuckle.

He then took a more serious tone as he said, "Shesmu, your fighting style is methodical, I really can't find any fault in it. The only thing I would nitpick is your lack of proactiveness. Even though you won, it was always by a counterattack."

Shesmu raised his eyebrows in surprise before just nodding silently. While he didn't agree with Leonard's school of thought, he wasn't going to face him about it.

"As for you, Ryan. You're a beast. And I mean that in both the good and the bad way. Your reactions are insane, the way you move is feral, and your strikes are deadly. But you also leave yourself open! If it was a real battle, your head would be on the floor." Leonard announced with fervor. He then clicked his tongue and continued with a much lower voice, "Though, I'm sure it's no matter for you players…"

"Amazing performance," Shin cut in. "You have shown a level that is much higher than any of your brethren. All of the golden generations can't hold a candle to you. Now that you're both on the same team, winning the race should be a certainty"

"Race?" Ryan asked, his face filled with confusion.

However, before Shin could even answer, a new person came in.

"Oy! Ryan! You little shit, you made me wait for so long!"

This voice, Shesmu had heard it before. It was all too familiar. Ryan's previous words about Leo replayed in his mind as he turned around. And there he was. His black spiky hair. His tall, big frame. Shesmu wouldn't mistake him even in a horde of thousand. It was Leo, his friend.

"Hey! Who are you calling a little shit? Just because you're tall you think you can go around talking crap?"

"You made me wait all this time and you're still talking smack? Damnit, Ryan, you never change. What were you even doing that took you so long?"

"Ehh, Instructor Shin showed me a new technique, so that took up a lot of time."

"Oh, you got to learn some special techniques? So lucky!"

"Yeah, and then I sparred with Shesmu," Ryan added while looking at the latter. Leo followed Ryan's line of sight. When the two's eyes crossed, Shesmu couldn't help but feel the urge to jump and hug right at that moment. It took all of his effort to just close his eyes, take a deep breath, and smile.

"Hey, I'm Shesmu. Leo, right?"

Hearing Shesmu's introduction, Leo walked towards him with a smile before offering his hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Shesmu. And yes, my name is Leo." He then turned towards Ryan before continuing, "And this guy's name is—"

"Ryan!" Ryan cut in with a loud voice. His eyes stared daggers at Leo.

"Ehh, aren't you forgetting an adjective before that?"

Ryan pounced at Leo and started scratching his hair with his hand, "When I say my name is Ryan, it means that my name is Ryan!"

"Ai! Ouch! Hey, that hurts! Stop! Okay, I understand, just stop!"

Confused by what the two were talking about, Shesmu used Inspect once more on Ryan. Last time, he was totally focused on the battle so he focused only on the HP.

"D-Ryan," Shesmu muttered slowly.

Hearing him say those words, Ryan opened his mouth surprised for a second before he just sighed in defeat.

"Pfft," Leo chuckled in response to Ryan's reaction. He then looked at him and said, "If you're this embarrassed of the name, why did you choose it in the first place."

"Ahh. I don't know, it was just a spur of the moment kinda thing. I always used it so it kinda just stuck. Damnit!"

While the trio of players talked with each other, Leonard coughed a few times to bring attention to him.

"Ehm, so I know that you guys really want to get to know each other. I get that. But the race already started half an hour ago and you princesses still haven't even learned about how to use the party system yet!"

"Oh yeah, about the race. What's that about?" Ryan asked.

"You guys still don't know about that?" Leo asked, confused. "Every other team already packed up and is making their way to the Tower of Might."

"Ehm, yes. But before that, you all need to make a party before that. I'm not sure exactly how you players do it, but it has something to do with sharing your true name, and system interface. I don't know, I don't really remember."

Sighing at Leonard's half-assed explanation, Shin sighed and said, "To make a party, first call the word Status, in your mind. Same as you do with your skills. An interface should appear in front of you, right?"

Shesmu followed Shin's commands and a blue interface appeared right in front of him. It showed his character stats, race, class, and level. However, right at the top, there were many tabs. The one he was looking at right was the character one. There was also the skill tab, the item tab, and the community tab.

"You should see multiple tabs right on top of your screen. You can think the title for each of them if you want to enter it, but for now, focus on the community one."

Community, Shesmu thought and the screen changed. This time, it showed friends list, party members, guild, and organizations.

"Focus on the party window, and a message should appear."

Do you want to create a party?

Yes | No

"Okay, so now that we reached this stage, who of you wants to be party leader?"

At Shin's question, Ryan immediately jumped in. "I want!"

"Stop it, Ryan," Leo rebuked. "Don't be so childish."

"It's okay," Shesmu said. "You can be party leader."

"Ehh?" While Leo was confused, Ryan jumped up and down with excitement. "Yay!"

"Okay, so Ryan is the party leader. Just say think "yes", then. After that, just think of the true names of the people you want to invite."

"Okay!" Ryan responded.

A few seconds later, Shesmu received a notification. It was a party invitation from Ryan. After accepting it, images of Leo and Ryan appeared at the bottom-right corner of his vision. They were accompanied by a green and yellow bar at the bottom of each image. Understanding that it might impact his fighting capabilities, Shesmu issued a command in the depths of his mind.

Deactivate Party Mode.

The images then disappeared from Shesmu's vision, alleviating the visual noise he was experiencing before.

"Ohh! So, I can see everyone's HP and energy levels at all times? Neat!"

"Yes, this one of the benefits you players get," Shin stated. "Either way, time is passing and you need to get going. The race is already in full swing. The first to reach the tower of might is to be handsomely rewarded."