The Beginning of Second Round

The start of the second half was approaching.

As before, the main gathering place for the tournament is the large town hall in the starting city. But unlike before, there were lots of tables, chairs and food and drink stands both from the officials and from the players themselves. Even a giant hologram screen for watching this tournament was already floating in the sky.

The tournament participants had started to gather and treat the town hall as a kind of festival. Many people buy drinks and food to consume as accompaniments later. In WDO food can be made by players who have the Chef subclass. Some foods with high rankings provide good effects as well as providing a good taste.

The senses of taste, hearing, sight, touch and smell are recreated in the virtual space of this game using the latest technology. Some say that the taste obtained from this game is the same as the taste of food from the real world, adding to the good name of being called the most realistic game of this century.

So even if you don't have money to buy certain food in the real world, you can taste the taste of that food in this world if you have enough gold here.

"Drag, do you want more? I want to buy satay from the stand over there!" Solem exclaimed.

Yes, like this good friend of mine. As soon as he saw that this tournament was being turned into a festival by production type players, he immediately logged in to go sightseeing and look for as much food as he could. In the real world he would definitely stop after the second plate, but in this world he could stop by any stand and still have room in his stomach. After all, what is simulated is still only the taste of the dish but the feeling of fullness after eating it is not simulated.

"Hey, shouldn't you be a little worried about your opponent in the second round?" I asked.

"Hmm? Brawbrawnyum"

"Swallow it first!!!" I exclaimed as Solem tried to answer me with his mouth full.

GLEK

Solem immediately swallowed the food in his mouth in an instant.

"Of course I was worried. That's why I researched all the players who made it to the second round by looking at their battle recordings. Thanks to that, I didn't sleep at all."

"..."

"I only have to worry about three players so far. But I might only encounter two so the rest I'll rely on instinct."

"You ... Ugh..."

"By the way, your first opponent will be quite tough because he has the same type as you. If I'm not mistaken he's a player from Korea judging by his name. His class is assassin, his subclass is most likely necromancer."

"Strange combination, huh?"

Normally, like the summoner, the necromancer is a subclass that relies on the amount of MP to summon its summoned undead so its more effective if he goes with Caster than Assassin. The difference is, the summoner summons contracted monsters, while the necromancer summons monsters that died because of the user.

"Isn't it? But on the other hand, it covers each other's weaknesses."

"Um, you're right."

The biggest weakness of the summoning class is that it is difficult to fight alone and requires a summoned monster because the summoner build focuses on the amount of MP not on attack power. However, the assassin has the ability to dodge and attack alone so it will be difficult to defeat. The combination of assassin and necromancer may be a combination that evens out strengths and weaknesses, not too strong but not too weak either.

"Hmmm... Who do you think will win? Him or me?" I asked.

"It depends on who has more cards hidden. Previously he managed to summon a hundred shadows and spread them across the planet in the first round."

"Wait—a hundred!?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yeah... Shadow necromancy build does have an advantage in the number that can be summoned. Compared to other summoner classes, shadow necromancy build has a skill called shadow carnival which makes the shadows it summons not be bound by the party system."

Uwaah... Isn't that cheating? Doesn't that mean he can summon all the monsters he has defeated without any restrictions? How am I supposed to fight an enemy like that!?

"Fortunately, he has a small MP limit."

"Hm?"

"The advantage of the caster is the amount of mana which ranges from rank B to rank A. If you want to brute force, you just have to summon your two dragons and wait until the MP runs out."

"You think he'll be that easy to beat?"

Solem turned his face away, showing a very clear answer.

"Assassins have poor chemistry with casters. It will depend on the caster's preparation."

"Haaah... Looks like I'll just have to use my trump card for later huh..."

"That's the best choice, right."

"And yourself?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, my opponent? My opponent is a close range attack type, using fists full of strength and agility. His class is most likely Destroyer.

"Hooh, good luck."

"Hm."

I didn't feel a high response from Solem, not like usual. Was he nervous because he was about to start the second half?

"This is bad." he said.

"Eh? I didn't know you could be that nervous—"

"I think I'm going to poop in my pants."

"Eh?"

"I ate a bucket of ice cream this morning and ended up in the bathroom for an hour. Now I'm feeling the effects again."

"..."

OK, return my previous worries.

[ Ladies and Gentlemen. Now, the second round of the first battle event at WDO will begin. ]

While the two of us were talking, an announcement signaled the start of the event was made. The voice is different from the voice of the developer who gave the explanation yesterday, but it doesn't seem like AI.

[As has been reported, the second round of this event will include one-on-one battles between players who have passed the first round.

This second round will be the end of this short two-day tournament. Let's watch how the fighters fight to become the strongest in this game.]

After those words, a warning appeared on the giant screen showing two names: Laronia VS Laindard

"Hooh... the first battle immediately climaxed huh."

"?"

I wondered at Solem's words until he explained it to me.

"Laronia, Queen of Knights. The only person who managed to pull out the phantasm weapon, Excalibur, the only phantasm weapon shown by the game. Laindard, Sword Saint. Owner of the special skill Divine Protection of Worlds which gives him any skill he wants and needs , even to the point of being able to create new skills."

Isn't that Laindard really cheating? I thought.

"Yep, he really feels like a cheater." Solem said as if reading my mind. He continued, "That's why I say this is climax. Who will win? The person who can complete the impossible mission, or the person who is impossible to beat?"

Ah... the spear-shield paradox, his favorite theory. When he sees two things that have similar achievements, he wants to see how the two things affect one another. Which will lose and which will win? Which one gives up its achievements and improves the achievements of others?

"Well, Laronia will definitely win this."

"Eh?"

An unnatural sentence came out of his mouth. I've never heard Solem answer that question himself. He prefers to argue and see who is right in the end. But this time he definitely said Laronia would win?

"The more perfect a person is, the more weaknesses he has. A person's greatest weakness is his own strengths."

"…you…you already planned a way to fight those two too and realized that Laronia was harder to beat than Laindard?" I asked.

"Yes. Excalibur... it's a simple sword but it's cheater than all the special skills in this game."

Heeh... a weapon that makes Solem say that, huh. If so, what he said might be true, this first fight might also be the climax of this event.

The giant screen on the ceiling changed. It now shows a wide green field and two people, a man and a woman, standing looking at each other a hundred meters away. It sounded a bit far, but it was a distance that could be covered in less than five seconds or even less than one second if you were an agility type player.

Both of them took out their swords from the sheaths at their waists. A countdown in large letters appeared in the middle of them, starting at 5 and starting to decrease

"FIVE!"

"FOUR!"

The players watching the fight started shouting the countdown.

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"START!!!!"

As the shouts started, a bell signaling the battle rang. The two knights kicked off the ground and shot towards each other. They were definitely not agility players, but they were able to close the distance between them in less than two seconds.

Once they were only one meter apart, both of them swung their swords and the two one-handed longswords clashed.

Laronia's sword and Laindard's sword met and made a loud metallic sound. The attack from Laronia was considered by Laindard to be very strong and Laindard decided to take a few steps back.

"Laronia is still using the STR-AGI two-handed swordsman build huh..." Solem muttered.

"STR-AGI? Ah, that explains why Laindard immediately withdrew." I said.

As the name suggests, the STR-AGI build is a build that focuses status growth on Strength and Agility. These two statuses are the main status for players with the sword job [Saber]. Most people only raise one of them to maximize their damage output, but Laronia raises both. By utilizing strength and speed, the blow is heavier than just using one status.

"But Laindard won't just leave it like that."

As Solem said, Laindard attack again and this time his attack seemed to be heavier than before. It seemed like the Divine Protection of The World skill gave him the skills to match the power of Laronia's blows.

"Mr. LAINDARD!!!!"

"WIN!!"

The screams of the female players were heard calling out the name of their idol, Laindard, making me a little unfocused.

"[Protection from Knockback Damage] and [Protection from Stronger Hit] huh… That's a little unpleasant." Said Solem who was still focused on observing the match. "Oh, are they going to compete in phantasm skills?"

When I went back to watching, I saw both Laindard and Laronia place their swords in front of their bodies and a large amount of aura gathered on their sword blades to form a larger sword.

"Ex..."

"Dragon Sword..."

I don't know why but that moment was so amazing that I forgot to breathe for a few moments.

"...calibur!!!!!"

"..., Ledia!!!!!"

When the two of them shouted the name of their skill to activate it, a blast of aura shot out from both of their swords and collided with each other. The collision of the two blast created an impact that felt by the environment around them. The ground began to shake and the wind began to blow quickly away from that place.

The attack battle lasted for ten seconds and when it was over, both of them remained standing firmly in their respective places while raising their swords. The environment around them was almost destroyed because of their clash of skills.

"Heeeh... He could withstood excalibur with all seals attached huh..." Solem muttered.

"Hey Solem... Do you think that Laronia will really win?"

"Of course. Just now it was less than one percent of Excalibur's original power. I wonder if Laindard can force Laronia to open Seal Thirteen."

"Seal Thirteen?"

"Excalibur has thirteen stages of attacks called Seal Thirteen. The one just now was during the first stage, when the thirteen seals were still in place."

"It's a lie, right? There are still thirteen stages left for such an attack?"

"That's Phantasm Weapon for you, the developers really made them ridiculous."

I went back to watching the match. From the screen, the two players who are fighting are seen talking to each other. We couldn't hear their voices because they didn't speak loudly but in low voices. This recording does not record sounds that are smaller in volume than big sounds because apparently the developers expected there to be a lot of explosions, so to avoid sounds that are too loud here they lowered the sensitivity of the sound recorder.

"Hooh... They talk about guilds now of all time, huh." Solem said.

"Eh? You can hear them?!"

"No. I just read their lips. Worldungeon Online can replicate mouth movements perfectly, making it possible to read lips."

I don't understand.

I fail to understand how this game-loving trash can have such high specs! What is 'reading lips'!? No kidding! Ordinary people wouldn't be able to do that!!

Ctrang!

The sound of clashing swords began to be heard again, restarting the fight between the two of them. They started clashing swords but it didn't look like Laronia was getting a good move as Laindard was able to land attacks on her until Laronia's HP dropped to 40%. Meanwhile, Laronia didn't manage to land even a single attack on Laindard, which meant that Laindard's HP remained at 100% from the start.

"H-hey, he's not cheating, right? No damage? Really?"

"Well, [Protection from First Encounter] makes it impossible to be hit by surprise attacks while [Protection from Sword Slash] makes it impossible to be hit by sword cuts. Combine these two skills and you won't be hit by attacks that can be avoided. And even if he got hit, [Protection of Lifesteal] will recover his HP when he hits Laronia."

"What's that?! Isn't that really cheating?!"

"Official admitted it so it wasn't a cheat... maybe."

"But if it's like this, won't it be Laindard who wins..."

"No. Ah, it's time."

When Solem said that, both Laronia and Laindard moved away from each other. The distance they made was the same as the distance they had when using their phantasm skills previously. Do they want to do it again?

"It's been two minutes since they had their phantasm clash. Their phantasm gauges and MP have reached enough to activate the phantasm."

Phantasm gauge. It's an additional gauge below Mana(MP) and Stamina(SP) when we equip phantasm weapons. Its there to decide when to use phantasm skill of the phantasm weapon, and it will fill when we perform actions but will decrease when we are idle. It seems to be designed to balance the phantasm skills, so that the opponent can pull [defeat him before he activates the phantasm skill], something like that.

Whatever it is, this will be the second phantasm skill battle in this match!