Chapter XXXIX - Second Advancement Exam

Marcus smiled at the beastman "What's your name?" he asked.

"Roger" He replied "level 23 Squire."

Artox nodded and said "Level 26 Squire, let's go."

Marcus lead the group to the sparring grounds in the Training Hall and threw both their training weapons. "Since you're the challenger, initiate the duel" Marcus said to Roger who sent the duel request to Artox.

Duels are a simple method of PvP in which death is an impossibility. The duel is over once anyone's HP reaches 1 and afterwards all effects are immediately worn off and both users are refilled to max HP. While engaging in non-duel PvP will have negative repercussions and result in a rise in infamy, dueling will generate a negative generation in infamy. Later on once this is discovered, a lot of PK (Playing Killing) Guilds will take advantage of this system allowing them to get away with PKing scott free, which resulted in the Devs taking the servers down and immediately hotfixing it by removing the rewards of the dueling feature.

Artox received the duel invitation and accepted as a timer appeared above the sparring grounds counting down from 10 seconds. Both players took their combative stances as Artox lifted his wooden shield and crouched down below it activating [Deflecting Stance] and pointing his wooden sword towards Roger.

Roger also crouched down and held the axe in both hands with the giant axe's head behind his body resting the weight against his arm closest to Artox. As the timer hit zero, Roger charged towards Artox slamming his shoulder against his shield as he used [Charge] and before Artox could mount a counter-attack, he swung his axe down with both arms hitting the shield and landing a Critical Strike knocking Artox back a few feet.

Roger forcefully charged once more winding up his axe for another strike as Artox slammed his shield against the long pole handle of the broad axe displacing the attack and slashing his wooden sword against the muscular fuzzy bicep of the bearman.

Roger back-handed Artox slamming against his shield as he attempted to swing his axe once more but was met with the same result of Artox displacing his attack and counter-attacking his arms. Their HP had been equalized now as Artox refused to allow Roger any gap in space. If Roger was more used to PvP he wouldn't have let Artox get as close as he did, he had the reach advantage but he had foolishly let him into the area in which his axe really couldn't do anything.

It didn't take Roger much longer to realize his mistake and used the pole of his broad axe to bash against Artox's shield and sending him back a couple steps and combined this move with [Charge] once more causing Artox to go even further away and began using the wooden axe-head to crush Artox's shield.

The durability of the training equipment was not the greatest and this was intentional by design, what would you do if your equipment broke in the middle of a dungeon? You couldn't exit and you either had to wait for the dungeon to expire or die to escape. This meant that most rankers would carry a few different copies of weapons in their inventories or the party would bring someone who could maintain the durability of their equipment.

Artox noticed his shield was getting close to breaking and if that happened Deflecting Stance would essentially be useless so he began to work on avoiding the axe swings or parrying with his sword. This began to infuriate Roger and he yelled in anger unleashing his second ability [War Cry] to increase his damage and attack speed of all party members.

Artox noticed this skill was similar to his so he decided that taunting his opponent was the best course of action... "Lemme show you how it's done!" He goaded as he used his [Battle Cry] while everyone around the arena was laughing as his yell was nowhere near as fierce as Roger's loud beastly roar, Roger was annoyed as he noticed that his War Cry was negated.

Roger's attacks began missing despite the increased damage output as Artox began to chip away at his heath. He couldn't land a hit and both yells had the same duration so it didn't matter that he could deal more damage to him. As the fight dragged on, Roger's health continued to drop and despite getting a few strong hit's against Artox, it was hardly making up for their health disparities.

In the end, Artox took the victory and both members gained -1 Infamy, both fighters stood towards each other and held out their hands and shook as they had acknowledged each other's strength. The fight caused the other two fighters to back down as they were even lower than Roger and if he couldn't take Artox down, they knew that neither could they.

Marcus smiled at everyone and promoted Artox to the Vice-Guild Master. "I want everyone to know that we are all equals here. We all love games as evident by each and everyone one of your levels. Most people are barely 15 right now, but all of you are level 20 or higher. Which leads to the next point... No disrespect will be tolerated in The Phantoms... We will all show each other respect, similar to how Roger and Artox both taunted each other but showed each other good conduct and shook hands at the end. Not only that but we will not be disrespectful towards other players in the game. We are the leaders in the game, no one shall stand above us, but we will not look down on the others as if they are ants. If anyone is found to be disrespecting anyone in the guild or out of it, you will be removed, this is not up for discussion." Marcus declared and everyone looked around and nodded.

"Now that all the unpleasantries are out of the way, thanks to the dedicated work of Lisa and Mawu, they will both be awarded Elder positions and be granted a position on the Phantom Council as if they had not been alongside Artox and I, we never would have created the guild in the first place." Lisa and Mawu both stepped forward and took their places next to Artox who was standing slightly behind and to the side of Marcus following the end of the duel.

"Does anyone wish to challenge their position for Elder?" Marcus asked, however the remaining members had immediately decided that if they were as strong as Artox, they stood no chance against the Rogue and Wizard and no one stepped forward. Marcus smiled and nodded and promoted the two of them to Elder.

"There is one final rule of The Phantoms... And that is to have fun everyone! As with the first rule, we are a family, not a business, you are all welcome to speak to me, Artox, or any of the Elders at anytime and bring anything up. But we all are playing this game to have fun and enjoy our time away from the real world, so..." Marcus turned towards the tower behind them and pointed to the top. "We have every class trainer in the game available in that tower, you are all level twenty which means you are all eligible to raise from a Tier 0 class to a Tier 1 class. Please review Volume 2 of the Ultimate Guide to The World that I recently sent to everyone and choose the best class that represents your playstyle. There is no right or wrong answers, all classes are equal in one way or another and you will not be penalized in The Phantoms for playing a class you find interesting."

Marcus turned around and began stepping towards the tower as everyone ran ahead of him causing him to smile. He couldn't wait to see everyone become exponentially stronger with him at the helm of this growing powerhouse. Another 70 players were still on their way, which would result in him having to have another speech but their guild would be just over 150 strong and as there were no Gold tier guilds at this time, they could easily rival any silver guild who tried to oppose them.

The Tier 1 promotion was not as difficult as the Tier 0, it was mostly a test of one's abilities and their aptitude, followed by a trial from the expert of the class they wanted to promote into. Each of the three Tier 0 classes could go into one of three new paths resulting in 9 new classes opening up. They were

Knight - Tier 1 class for Squire. Beginner Tank known for heavy armor and a sword and shield.

Swordsman - Tier 1 class for Squire. Beginner Melee DPS, known for it's use of skilled use of swords.

Warrior - Tier 1 class for Squire. Beginner Melee DPS, known for it's use of two handed axes.

Priest - Tier 1 class for Wizard. Beginner healer, known for it's holy attribute spells.

Elemental Mage - Tier 1 class for Wizard. Beginner magic DPS, known for it's AoE capabilities.

Warlock - Tier 1 class for Wizard. Beginner hybrid magic class, known for it's darkness attribute spells.

Thief - Tier 1 class for Rogue. Beginner melee DPS, known for it's high burst damage capabilities.

Archer - Tier 1 class for Rogue. Beginner ranged DPS, known for it's AoE capabilities.

Hunter - Tier 1 class for Rogue. Beginner ranged DPS, known for it's ability to tame wild monsters.