Ambush

Fletcher saw the sword shattering and William stumbling backwards.

"Are you okay?" Fletcher walked over to him.

William dropped the broken handle onto the ground.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just surprised."

William inspected the aftermath of his attempt to block the attack.

"....Can you teach me that?"

Fletcher smiled.

"Yeah, no problem."

Fletcher looked at the broken handle on the ground.

"Why did you try to block that? You could've easily dodged it."

William scratched his head sheepishly.

"I wanted to see how strong it was."

"...Just don't try that again. If you're in a fight, you shouldn't try to test the power of your opponent's attacks."

"Don't worry, I know that. It was just my first time seeing a combat technique."

Fletcher went into the carriage and came back out a moment later, holding a red book in his hands.

"Catch."

William caught the book and held it in his hands.

"This is the manual for the move I just used. Read that and I'll try to dispel any doubts you have about it. After you get a basic understanding of it, you can try using it with your other sword. If we're going to spar though..."

"Don't worry, I have a lot more wooden swords I can use."

"Okay, good."

William went into the carriage with the others, and they continued their journey. Sitting down next to Lucky, he looked at the book Fletcher gave him. On the cover, there were the words "Illusory Sword" He opened the cover to the first page. Luckily for him, the whole book only had four pages total, and the font was pretty big. He was easily able to skim through the whole thing in a minute.

Basically, he had to cover his sword in spiritual energy and point it at his opponent. Then, he could detach that spiritual energy from his sword and send it towards his opponent. The only hard parts about this technique were covering the sword and sending it out with enough force.

William read the manual a few more times before he stood up to try it.

"A new quest has been issued! Please check the quest panel for more information."

"...What?"

William frowned. From what he knew, quests were affected by what was happening to him right now. For example, the time that the quest had changed when he discovered he could get the spiritual stone. So what did he do to get another quest?

"Show me the new quest."

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[Ambush]

[Desc: A group of people are hidden in the shadows, waiting to strike. Escape from their attacks and go into hiding until they leave]

[Bonus Condition: Help Fletcher and Ryan escape with you]

[Reward: Escape Crystal (3)]

[Bonus Reward: Comprehension Boost (24 Hrs)]

[Time limit: 3 Days]

[Penalty for Failure: Death]

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"WHAT!?!"

Fletcher looked over at William.

"What is it?"

William thought of a way to reveal this without exposing his system.

"You know how some people say they have a sixth sense?"

"Yeah..."

"You see, sometimes I get this weird feeling just before something bad happens. Once, I got this feeling just before I went into a forest, and a snake bit me mere seconds later! (that's a lie) And another time, I was going home after work and I got the feeling again, just before I tripped and dropped the coins was carrying into a river! (there was no river)"

"That sounds a bit unreliable..."

"This time, the feeling was even stronger than all the last times combined! Please, just believe me and grab our stuff! We have to hide right now!"

"...Fine, I trust you."

Fletcher quickly told Ryan what William said. Then, they both gathered some supplies and their weapons, leaving the carriage on the side of the road.

"Come on, William."

The group rushed into a forest a few hundred feet away from the carriage and continued deeper.

'System, how dangerous are the opponents?' William needed to know if it was possible to fight back.

"Three spirit condensation realm opponents. Two in the third stage and one in the fifth."

'Meaning?'

"You're doomed."

'...great. Any chase of running away?'

"They're already at the carriage. Oh wait, now they're following your trail."

That fast? William tried to run faster, but since he had to constantly dodge the trees, and because of the uneven terrain, he couldn't go any faster than he already was.

'Tell me when they get here.'

"...They already are."

Crap.

"Fletcher, Ryan! They're here!"

"Already?! You sure?!" Fletcher and Ryan both stopped to turn around.

William nodded.

"I can feel it."

Suddenly, a loud whoosh was heard, and William heard a thud as an arrow hit the ground right next to Fletcher.

"Don't move or you're dead." A deep voice came from a distance away.

Ryan and William froze.

Fletcher looked surprised that William had been right. He looked at William as if he was trying to see if he had a third eye under his hair. Then, he glanced at the arrow by his feet and shook his head.

"Don't listen to them. They're clearly robbers that want to steal our belongings. They'll pretend to keep us alive and kill us as soon as they're done to hide the evidence."

"Shut up!" The voice spoke again as another arrow flew out of the forest, aimed at Fletcher's head. Fletcher quickly ducked it.

"They clearly want to keep some of us alive so we can tell them where we hid our other belongings. I think their target should be the spirit stone."

Five more arrows came, one was aimed at Fletcher, and the rest were aimed at William and Ryan.

William swiftly took out Dusk Bringer and deflected one arrow while stepping out of the way to dodge the other.

Ryan also dealt with the two arrows sent his way. Then, three people came into sight. There was one burly man with a greatsword who looked like the leader, flanked by a woman wielding a crossbow and a man with a spear.

He heard the burly man speak.

"Kill them, but leave one alive."

The two people next to him advanced, the spear-wielder swinging his spear and the woman staying slightly behind him to attack.

Fletcher and Ryan went forward to stop them, swinging their swords in tandem, defending themselves from the powerful spear thrusts from the man and the arrows fired from the woman's crossbow.

William saw the powerful combat techniques used like they were basic attacks, spammed without end at their opponents.

In the corner of his eyes, he saw the burly man slowly walking towards him.

"I'll capture you and threaten your foolish friends with your life."

William backed up. Without a doubt, he knew he was the most dangerous one. A spirit condensation realm cultivator in the fifth stage.

"Come here!"

The man suddenly sped up and swung his sword at William's arm. Unable to dodge in time, William could only raise his sword and brace it with both of his hands. When the swords collided, he was instantly sent tumbling, nearly losing his balance.

"You're strong for a cultivator in the spirit foundation realm. Not that it matters," said the man.

He continued to chase after William, slashing with his sword over and over at William. William could only retreat continuously, unable to fight back. He felt his arms getting tired and knew this couldn't go on. At this rate, he could soon be too tired to hold his sword and would be easily captured.

"Wait!"

The burly man slowed down his attacks.

"What, ready to surrender?"

"...let me think about it."

The man continued to attack him, but a little slower now, waiting to see if William would give up.

William turned to find someone that could help him, but he only saw Fletcher and Ryan being suppressed by the two people they were fighting.

"System? A little help here?"

"... listen to my instructions quickly if you want to get out of this."

"Just hurry."

"Collect the spirit stone and sell it."

William immediately got a spirit stone from the inventory and sold it. He didn't dare take one out before since Fletcher and Ryan were there, but there was no time to worry about that now.

'Sell!'

"Spirit stone sold! You have received 1,000 SP!"

William knew the situation was serious, but he couldn't help asking, "Why is it worth so little?"

"You get ten percent of its value, but objects that cannot be cloned are worth only ten percent of their original price. A spirit stone is normally 100,000 SP, so ten percent of that is 10,000, and then percent of that is 1,000."

"Why can't it be cloned?"

"Anything that is cloned cannot be cloned. For example, you can't get a silver coin from the inventory and clone it in another slot. In addition, items from the shop cannot be cloned."

"Oh, okay."

William blocked another blow from the burly man.

"Right, what now?"

"I'll open some panels that will buy what you need. Just keep confirming."

______________________________

[Spirit Boosting Pill]

[Price: 150 SP]

[Tier 2 Pill]

[Restores the spiritual energy in your body]

______________________________

"Would you like to purchase [Spirit Boosting Pill] for 200 SP?"

"Yes."

______________________________

[Falling Leaf]

[Price: 50 SP]

[Mortal Mid-Tier Weapon]

[Created by a tier one blacksmith]

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"Would you like to purchase [Falling Leaf (9)] for 450 SP?"

"Yes."

William noticed the number of swords he had purchased, and he already knew what the system was doing. He dodged another attack from the burly man and continued confirming the notifications that were coming.

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[Sword Control Scripture]

[Price: 100 SP]

[Spirit Mid Tier Combat Technique]

[Created by the thousand sword demon when he was 5 years old. He later went on to improve this, but this is the most basic version of his technique. This technique allows you to control up to ten swords using your spiritual energy and mental force]

______________________________

"...this was made by a five year old?"

"Would you like to purchase [Sword Control Scripture] for 150 SP?"

"...Yes."

______________________________

[Ultra Comprehension Boost(30 Sec)]

[Price: 300 SP]

[Make it incredibly easy to gain new understandings about a subject]

______________________________

"Would you like to purchase [Ultra Comprehension Boost] for 200 SP?"

"Yes."

"Summoning items."

Willian noticed a bunch of things appear in the air.

"Can't you just put them in my spacial ring!?"

Quickly, he grabbed each of them and placed them into the storage ring.

"Okay, what do I do now?" William blocked the greatsword again and felt Dusk Bringer nearly fly out of his grasp.

"Quickly use the comprehension boost and flip through the manual for the Sword Control Scripture."

"How!?"

"Just hold it in your hand and say use."

William looked at the burly man to buy a few moments of time.

"Can you please stop? I want a moment to think. Honestly, I just want to consider my options. Wouldn't it be much easier to just let me surrender instead of wasting your time?"

The burly man paused, knowing he wouldn't be able to capture William without wasting a lot of time and effort.

"...fine, but don't do anything stupid."

Taking the opportunity, William took the comprehension boost, which looked like a stone tablet with some purple writings on it, out of his spacial ring.

"Use!"

William felt the world around him suddenly slow down, and he suddenly realized many things that he didn't realize before.

"I better hurry."

William brought out the sword control scripture and quickly read through it. As he looked through the pages, many things that would've seemed complicated suddenly seemed simple now, as if trigonometry had become as easy as 1+1.

Within just ten seconds, William had already gained enough knowledge of the technique to be able to use it. With the remaining time, he continuously refined his understanding of the technique, gaining a lot of knowledge about it.

Seeing that William wasn't going to surrender and instead was fooling around, the burly man frowned.

"Are you going to surrender or not?!" he asked angrily.

William turned around.

"Surrender my ass!"

William sprang into action, taking all the swords out of the spacial ring and quickly consuming the pill.

"Swords, go!"

All ten swords William owned flew into the air under his control.

"Attack!"