Small Encounter

{QUEST HAS BEEN GIVEN!}

Quest: Little Nepenthes' Ovule

Objective: Head to The Secret Medicine of the Forest and kill the Little Nepenthes and obtain the ovule to cure the daughter

Reward: Anneal Blade

500 XP

1 summoning ticket

100+ fame

Without hesitation, Ryu quickly accepted this quest with a grin underneath his cloak that was brimming with excitement, as he could finally get the Anneal Blade.

As night was beginning to fall, Ryu decided to head back to the inn to sleep, as he had to wake up early the next morning.

============================================

The next morning, Ryu woke up early-morning dawn and decided to finally head over to the forest. Ryu was overlooking the village as it was a whole different feel in contrast to its rowdy nightlife, with many people up working and greeting each other with a smile. Overall, it was a nice experience for Ryu, who spent mornings waking up to an empty house. Don't get him wrong, he liked his lifestyle due to him getting used to it, but thought this was more of a fresher pace.

He walked around the village inhaling the fresh air and noticed a delicious smell coming from one of the food stalls. Coming towards it, he greeted the worker and ordered a chocolate crepe that made him drool from the mouthwatering smell that was wafting to his nose.

After finishing his crepe, he decided to head towards the forest, following the dirt path that led there. On his trip, he saw many passing carriages filled with cargo and their families that occasionally waved at him.

A few hours later, he saw a rather large lake that was almost the size of a small ocean. Taking off his hood to feel the wind, he gazed at the big lake that reflected his otherworldly face and began to reminisce about that time when his father and mother took him out for a picnic. This thought made him reveal a handsome smile, with the sun beaming on him, as if God was blessing him, making it look like an angel was descending. This dazed many women in the vicinity, with men cursing at him inwardly, seeing their lover's expressions, but had some men awakened something within, looking at him with a blush.

After a while, he decided to leave, which made the women in the area pout in reluctance, with some men celebrating as they saw him leaving. Ryu, seeing this, just flashed a smile to their lover, which made the women go into a daze with other women seeing this go into envy. The man just cursed Ryu, shaking his lover to wake her up from her daze.

Ryu, seeing this, began chuckling to himself and continued his journey.

After many hours of walking from the distance, he began marveling at the tall trees in the distance that would easily tower over the tallest skyscraper. Some were even so tall that Ryu was convinced that a giant was going to come down looking for his golden goose.

After a while, he was beginning to reach the entrance of the forest. He saw many soldiers in front of the entrance from the distance. He thought it was odd but paid it no mind as he already resolved himself to enter the other day.

As he was getting closer, guards looked at him in surprise, as no one would dare to enter this forest, as well as the sketchy outfit that made him more suspicious. All the guards looked at each other and nodded to each other and began to surround him with their swords, out, preparing to fight with Ryu. Ryu seeing this could not help but feel surprised with their actions, as this was the first time, he's ever felt any type of oppression from anyone. He was used to people trying to curry favor with him instead, as not many people would dare offend the heir of a multi-billionaire company, especially knowing that his dad was a doting father.

"Lift his hood and check his arm!" One of the guards said.

The guards looked at each other and nodded slowly. One of them slowly began approaching Ryu with his sword that was still close to him, as he was prepared to attack Ryu if he made any sudden movement.

Ryu just stood still as he didn't know what to do in this situation.

The guard slowly lifted Ryu's hood, revealing his devilishly handsome face to the group, surprising them for a moment as they have never seen someone as handsome as Ryu not even remotely close to this. The group quickly recomposed themselves from their stupor but never let their guard down as they were still wary of him. The guard began lifting Ryu's cloak to reveal his arms to them but saw nothing on his arm but his compact muscles. Seeing this, the group sighed to themselves out of relief but quickly realized their mistake as one of the guards, who was noticeably more well-built than the rest that was in the group, apologized to him.

"We are sorry for suddenly attacking you like that!" The guard quickly bowed to Ryu, apologizing to Ryu. Ryu, seeing this could not help but be stupefied by this sudden action.

Ryu had a wry smile on his face with his left hand, scratching his cheek awkwardly while awkwardly laughing.

"Can you tell me why you did that?" Ryu asked, with curiosity in his voice, as he thought it was weird for NPCs to suddenly surround you like that.

"We were called here for reinforcements as there have been reported killings in this forest. They often wear black cloaks with a weird face on a coffin on, tattooed their arms. Naturally, we would be wary of you." The guard explained with an apologizing voice.

'Dang, I think I need to get rid of this cloak' Ryu thought to himself. He didn't like people judging other people's appearance, but would gladly take that than look like a criminal.

But, hearing the guards' words again, he clenched his fist into a fist 'Laughing Coffin.'

Laughing Coffin, an infamous group known for their group being full of player-killers that would kill players for their own amusement. Ryu didn't like this group, as they would go for high-ranking guilds to kill. Of course, that being 'Blood Oath' that being Ryu's guild, he didn't mind them at first, just thinking they were assholes at first, but when they constantly began attacking his guild, he joined with other guilds to eradicate them making most of the group stop from irritation as they were hunted by the top guilds when they were seen.

These people were not player-killers anymore, but murderers. Naturally, killing someone in the game would lead to their demise in the real world, as was stated by Kayaba. This idea was not 100% confirmed, but Ryu did not find it amusing to try it on himself.

The guard, noticing Ryu was starring off into nowhere, shook his shoulder, trying to wake him up from his daze. Ryu quickly woke up from his daze and looked at the guard and thanked him.

After talking with the guards for a little while, he decided to leave for the forest.

{You have entered The Secret Medicine of the Forest!}

Ryu slowly descended into the forest, following the dirt trail that had little-to-no footmarks. As he strayed further in, he could not help but admire the flowers that surrounded him, plants that gave off a flowery ambiance that made his mind calm. He stared intently at the flowers as it was a small hobby for him, as he picked flowers for his mother to give to her when she was sick. Flowers, ranging from a variety of colors that you could not find in real life, such as the rainbow tulip that he was inspecting. But coming in closer, he began to feel wary, as an ominous feeling began to build up in him as he further strayed inside the forest.

After many minutes of walking around, he suddenly heard footsteps coming closer to him that seemed to get closer to him.

*Grrrrrr*

Hearing a growl, his suspicion was confirmed, as he knew a monster was coming. Hearing it coming from his left side, Ryu quickly ducked down, narrowly dodging the monster's claw that lightly grazed his neck. Thanking his reflexes, he sighed in relief as its attack almost killed him.

Touching the area, the wolf grazed, he saw blood on his hands, making his usual playful smile go serious, as he knew if he messed up, this would be the end for him.

Recomposing himself, he quickly got into his fighting stance, which was a kendo stance, making his back straighten with both of his hands holding the hilt, he was ready for battle.

*Grrrrrrahh* The monster roared out, sending a group of birds flocking from the area, leaving only the two of them together.

He knew this monster: A dark wolf, one of the strongest monsters in the forest.

'My luck couldn't be any worse' Ryu thought to himself as he was cursing his luck.

{Dark Wolf: Level 9} *Poisoned*

-A wolf that has been in an area with a highly concentrated dark area

'Shit, it's a dark wolf. Luckily, it's poisoned, I can win this!' Ryu said inwardly, while silently thanking lady luck.

The wolf roared out to Ryu with a crazed expression, showing its sharp teeth to Ryu as it was trying to say he was already dead. Ryu was slightly hesitant but recomposed himself, as he knew he had been in worse situations before.

Getting out of his stupor, he gripped his sword tightly. While staying diligent, he quickly ran straight towards the wolf, making the first move as he made erratic movements to throw the wolf off. The wolf seeing this quickly responded to this and quickly sprinted towards Ryu, running in an erratic way as well.

One of the reasons the dark wolf was one of the strongest monsters on the low-leveled floors was due to it using darkness to follow your shadow that uses it to mirror your moment, making it an almost carbon copy of you.

Trying to make his movements faster and more variable, the wolf was still keeping with Ryu but was gradually slowing down as the poison was coursing throughout its body.

*Classh*

*Clash*

*Clashhh*

Clashes were heard throughout the forest as Ryu's sword began to clash with the wolf's claw. Ryu was getting a little bit frustrated, but kept his cool, as it would be unwise to make any mistake.

Ryu slashed down towards the wolf but was slashed on his right shoulder, leaving blood dripping down his shoulder, staining his shirt with red. Ryu had a pained expression and slightly grunted from the attack but kept moving as he dodged another incoming attack aiming at his head.

Ryu smirked to himself as he had a plan. The dark wolf seeing this thought, Ryu finally went mad as he howled and rushed towards him.

'Okay, round 2' Ryu said with a smile on his face.

The dark wolf launched itself into the air, trying to tear Ryu apart. Ryu quickly ducked down as he punched the wolf's stomach, making it cough out blood from its mouth.

The wolf slightly lost its footing, trying to stand from the punch. Ryu, seeing this, didn't miss any moment and rushed towards it with his sword glowing, symbolizing he used a sword skill and slashed down at the wolf.

Ryu barely missed as it grazed the wolf's skin, making it bleed.

The wolf turned around, growling at Ryu, running towards him again, but the poison has spread throughout its body, making it significantly slower as well. Its internal injuries from Ryu, it was slowly but gradually deteriorating.

Ryu, noticing this, couldn't help but have a small grin and tried his best to make the best outcome for him and quickly ran towards it again. The wolf wanted to run away; his instincts were screaming at him to move. As the wolf tried to move, it was unable to as the poison was spread through the whole body, making it paralyzed.

Ryu smiled brightly as he saw the wolf's status.

{Dark Wolf: Level 9} *Poisoned* *Paralyzed*

-A wolf that has been in an area with a highly concentrated dark area

Ryu sheathed his sword and slowly walked up to the wolf's left side, making the wolf's head's left side in front of Ryu and unsheathed his sword, activating his sword skill, making his sword beam with blue. Ryu quickly slashed down and decapitated the dark wolf's head.

Ryu swiped his sword to the side to clean the blood off and sheathed his sword back in.

"Damn that was badass," Ryu said while laughing to himself, as he always wanted to try that.

A few seconds later, he fell to the ground, laying down in exhaustion as he was heavily breathing to catch his breath.

As he saw the notifications, he couldn't help but reveal a big grin,

{Congratulations! You have leveled up!}

Name: Ryu Takahashi

Titles: Beta Tester- Due to being a beta tester, NPCs will have more of a favorable impression towards you.

Level: 3 --> 7

Class: Swordsman

HP: 100 --> 200

STRG: 7 --> 16

DEX: 10 --> 15

AGI: 9 --> 15

INT: 11 --> 13

SP (Skill Points): 5

OSP (Origin Shop Points): 0

{SHOP} *LOCKED UNTIL LEVEL 15*

{INVENTORY}

{QUESTS} : Little Nepenthes' Ovule

Head to The Secret Medicine of the Forest and kill the Little Nepenthes and obtain the ovule to cure the missus's daughter.

{SUMMONING} *LOCKED UNTIL LEVEL 15*

{SKILLS}: Adrenaline

Adrenaline (Level 1): A skill that makes the brain process faster. Making it seem time has slowed down. As it levels up, the brain will process even faster.