Acquaintance of the Wind

Yel didn't know how to describe it. If the market was chaotic and noisy, then the guild section was quiet and eerie; there were no NPCs out on the streets. Multi-storied buildings towered on the sides of the roads.

Yel read the signs:

Mage Guild

Knight Guild

Summoner Guild

Warlock Guild

Blade Guild

…

Yel walked over to the Blade Guild with Jill. The guild building was located next to the Assassin Guild.

"I'll go talk to Tina now, let's keep connection over messages," Jill told Yel, who nodded.

Yel walked inside the Blade Guild. Meh, ordinary building. Yel thought.

There were barely any NPCs in the guild. 

Yel spotted Timon seated at the furthest end of the room. Timon waved to Yel.

"Hello, come take a seat," He called.

Yel went and sat down. "Why is it so empty?" He asked.

Timon smiled, "How many people in the region of Sura have reached your level?"

Yel comprehended. It made sense. Only 4 people so far have passed Level 10, and only 2 have reached Sura.

"Wait, but are we the only 4 in the world?" Yel asked.

"Of course not," Timon smiled again. "Suresa is only one region of the world, and the world has many regions. These regions are not yet connected, but they will be in the future."

Now Yel fully grasped it. Suresa is the region at which the real-life region of Xin Hunaland sits. That was why Yel never saw any foreign players and names on the leaderboard. Suresa is like the server, and every region of Earth has a different server, and according to Timon, these servers will join in the future.

"Now, Yel, shall we begin with your Paths of the Wind?" A sparkle flashed in Timon's eyes.

[Paths of the Wind (Class Advancement) Completed]

[Questline opened]

[Acquaintance of the Wind, Stage I] (Class Advancement)

Pass Blade Trainer, Timon's test.

Completion Reward: Access to the next stage.

Failure: None.

"Let's go to the training grounds, I'll explain the test when we get there." Timon stood up.

[New Message]

-Heng: My quest changed, It says I need to pass Tina's test.

-Fan: Me too

Yel followed Timon to the large grounds behind the guild building.

He saw Timon raise his hand in greeting, "Hey sis."

Then his eyes widened, He saw Jill following the woman Timon waved to.

Timon and Tina, that's why their names are so similar. Yel thought.

"Well, since we have another person doing the test, we can just merge it, the more the merrier!" Timon suggested to Tina.

-Heng: Did he say what the test is?

-Fan: No, he said he'll explain after we get here.

-Heng: That's what Tina said too.

"The test is straightforward, just survive for 5 minutes," Tina said coldly, her personality was the polar of Timon's.

"Don't worry, we will keep our level at the same as yours, and we won't use any skills," Timon added.

Without notice, Timon charged at Yel and sliced at him.

Yel raised his sword to parry the blow.

Kuang.

Yel's entire arm shook and went numb. He stumbled back a few steps, almost losing balance.

Even though Timon was at the same level as Yel, with the same number of stat points allocated, their stat difference still had a large gap.

Stat points weren't the only way to raise base stats; Yel already had experience with this. Through training, base stats can rise — Yel already had some STA and AGI increase due to the long-distance sprint earlier.

Timon has had years of experience; his STR value has probably exceeded 15 already even without stat points. 

This test wasn't as fair as it sounded.

The next strike from Timon came. This time, Yel didn't try to parry it; he dodged out of the way. At the current level, Yel can easily survive for 5 minutes just by dodging.

However, the problem was with Jill. Even if she went full AGI, she still couldn't dodge all of Tina's attacks.

But as Yel looked at Jill, he was astonished. She was standing a few metres away from Tina and firing her energy strikes everywhere.

She stood there jabbing at the air in front of her extremely fast, and the energy strikes covered the entirety of her front. Whenever Tina tried to approach her from another angle, Jill would instantly turn and keep firing energy jabs.

Yel shrugged, this test wasn't a problem. But he was wrong.

Timon suddenly stopped attacking him and dashed towards Jill.

This surprised Yel. If Timon reached Jill and created a double attack on her, she would be forced to jab at two different angles, which would decrease the density of the "DMZ" protecting her.

Yel had to stop Timon. He charged at Timon and sliced at his leg.

Timon ignored it and kept dashing to Jill. This was a mistake. All the past minutes, Yel had only been dodging, creating an illusion for Timon that Yel's attacks weren't strong enough. This was also supported by the fact that he had failed to parry his attack.

Yel's slice hit.

-290

Although the damage was minimal, the force of the strike pushed Timon off balance, launching him into a trip.

This gave Jill enough time to notice and retreat from the Yel and Timon area, forcing the fight back to 2 separate 1v1s.

Timon turned and thrust his sword at Yel's throat.

Miss.

It felt to Timon as if Yel had teleported — he was suddenly behind him, striking into his waist.

-60

The number was low because Yel struck with the flat of the blade.

This strike served as a propeller, sending Timon tumbling forward, getting even further away from Jill.

The fight continued like this for the remainder of the time limit. Timon had lost all motivation soon after the first attempt to attack Jill. At the current stat level, there was no way to get past Yel.

He felt like Yel was the trainer instead of him. Yel was completely demolishing him. Timon knew that Yel didn't use full power; he never utilised any killing strikes.

Five minutes soon passed.

[Acquaintance of the Wind, Stage I (Class Advancement) Completed]

[Stage II begins]