Vol. 1, Chapter 11: Awakening

In Elysium Online, there is a special dual class system in which a player character may have a main class, and a subclass. From the main class, the player character would be able to use the class weapons and have full access to all of the class' skills once skill points have been used to learn them. From the subclass, the player will have limited access to the class' skills, being able to use only the low to mid tier skills, and will not be able to use the class weapons of the subclass. By being able to combine classes and mix their various skills together is one of the biggest selling points of Elysium Online.

Each class, main or sub, Levels up individually, and each class has their own distribution of skill points. The classes may also be switch out at any time, though the player would not be able to carry over their Levels from the previous class. For example, when a Level 100 Knight wishes to switch out to the Warrior class he had never Leveled up before, then he has to start at Level 1. If he trains the class up to Level 20 and then returned back to playing a Knight, then he'd return to being Level 100. And then, if he goes back to being a Warrior again, he'd be at Level 20. Like so, all classes Levels up individually. With the various classes at their individual Levels, the total Level of a character is calculated by the sum of their main class and subclass' Level. For example, my character, Aurelius, is a Summoner at Level 100, with a subclass of Enchanter at Level 85, making him a Level 185 character.

For skill points, while each class gains skill points individually, they are not transferrable between classes, meaning that a 100 Level class could only have 100 skill points to work with, no more, no less, and nothing could change that number, unless the player is cheating. As for the point distribution, it was made so that it would be difficult if not impossible to obtain all essential skill from a single skill tree, let alone two.

Which is why, it's odd, odd that the Champion of the [Demons] would think that he could win by switching to dual wielding which, considering how effectively he wielded his greatsword, should definitely be far more inferior. Sure, he could be more effective against multiple foes like this, but it'll only be in a half-assed fashion. Against me, a Level 185 Summoner/Enchanter with an offensive summoned creature and Merida for backup no less. What makes him think that he can survive, much less win, by such a half measure?

Of course, that was only if I'm thinking about it as if I'm still in a game. However, this world is no game, there's no such thing as a limited around of skill points, in fact, it'd be weirder if skill points exists at all. In this world, in reality, you gain a skill by learning it, and you "Level it up" by practicing it. There's nothing to say that one cannot master both the greatsword and dual wielding. I need to keep on my toes, while this world has a few things I found to be similar to Elysium Online, I can't mistake it for the game.

While I'm still caught up in my thoughts, the enemy Champion starts charging towards me with his two blades primed for a kill. Seeing my enemy suddenly coming at me, I reflexively cast [Bind Circle], but the moment I begin casting, the Champion quickly leaps backwards, causing my spell to miss.

My eyes widen, surprised that he avoided it, even though if I think about it, it's obvious that he would see it coming. I've been using it repeatedly against him after all. It's not so hard to predict an opponent that uses the same move over and over again.

With a kick off the ground, the Champion comes for me once more. Timothy moves up to intercept, rushing at the Champion with his razor sharp claws, barely missing as the Champion leaps into the air. From above Timothy, the Champion's dual blades clamps down upon the Liger like a pair of scissors, drawing blood from Timothy's back. This is the skill, [Deathly Swallow], in which the users leaps into the air and performs an overhead blow with the dual blades. If performed at the right time it can even allow the user to avoid certain attacks.

Taking a blow on his back, I note the disappearance of great chunk of Timothy's Hp bar and for a moment I fear that his spine may also be severed. Fortunately, that seems to not be the case as he quickly make use of his hind legs to kick against the ground and turn himself around to face the Champion once more.

Meanwhile, as the Champion lands from his jump, Merida approaches from his blind spot, her blade held high and ready to swing. In game, though [Deathly Swallow] deals a high amount of damage, it also has a significant recovery time. Seeing that the skill requires the user to perform a strong leap, then surely, after landing, there should realistically be a short moment where the user wouldn't be able to immediately regain his balance. Merida made the right call to aim for the moment he lands, and with luck, she should able to strike the enemy Champion down. Unfortunately, it appears that luck simply isn't on our side.

By holding his blade against his back at the right angle, the Champion defended against Merida's strike, and from where I'm looking, I suspect that he had expected this to happen. Just as he had predicted my [Bind Circle], this Champion here has anticipated Merida's moves as well. He had learned from our last encounter. Yet, defending against Merida's attack was not the end of it. Immediately after deflecting her blow, the Champion shifts his weight forward, and from what I can tell, he's going for a swing, one aiming right for me. However, I am too far away from him, his blade will never reach me, so why?

It didn't dawn on me till I saw the aura crackling off his blade, the aura that look very similar to a particular visual effect from the game, the one for the Knight class skill, [Counter Blast], a skill that follows up from [Guarding Stance]. As the Champion swung down his blade, and a wave of energy came flying at me, threatening to cut me in half. Never would I have imagined that [Counter Blast] could be directed to someone that did not attack you. But then again, isn't that natural, if you can turn opponent damage into energy and fire it off as a blade beam, there's no reason to direct it towards only the one that attack you. The only reason one would do that is if a game system is restricting you from doing so. In this world, the gloves are off and the rules have been completely changed.

Time slows down for me as the energy blade approaches. As much as I would love to move away, I simply can't, my body is so heavy even though this it's suppose to be young. I suppose a Summoner doesn't have in the way of dexterity stats. I'm going to die, aren't I? If I say that I could go without regrets, I would be lying. I wish I had more time to study up on this world's rules, to understand how the game system brought over to this world would interact with this new reality outside of the game. Well, no point crying over spilled milk now I suppose.

I expect a painless death, but then, I suddenly feel a blunt force crashing into my sides. A lock of golden hair wavers over my vision. Immediately, I have a sense of déjà vu. No... Not this again. I'm not worth so many lives. I'm just a good for nothing old man.

I feel my body hit the soft yet cold layers of snow as something presses down on me. Immediately, I spring from the snowy ground and check on the one lying on top of me.

"Aurelia!"

"Sir Aurelius... are you fine?"

Even after I told her to stay back, why is she here? Why did she jump right into danger like that?

Quickly, my eyes glance over to her Hp bar, fearful of what I might see. I can't bear it if someone else is to throw their life away for mine. Great is my relief when I see not a single pixel were gone from the bar and that the girl in my arms is fine and merely in shock from doing something so dangerous, that the energy blade passed us by without landing.

I see her looking up at me, smiling, so earnestly glad that I appear to be unharmed, her tail swaying happily left and right, brushing away at the snow on the ground. In the distance, I hear sword clashing and occasional growling. Merida and Timothy must be engaging with the Champion right at this moment.

What was I doing? Didn't have time to study up on this world's rules? Wished that I have more time? What excuses! I could have studied up whenever I wanted to. I could cram it all into my head in one night if I feel like it. What's that about, "I was given a job, so I'm just going to focus on that," what's that freaking nonsense? In the end I was only half-assing it. I have been half-assing it my whole life. Focusing only on my work and stop thinking about everything else? I was only running away from my problems, I wasn't think about how to achieve my dream at all, all I did was try to forget about it and hope I'd just get there somehow one day. In fact, the only reason I am completely alone is because I'm bad at socializing and just never bothered with it, I completely avoided it because I was afraid I'd fuck up, and I just use work as an excuse to not have to talk to anybody outside of working, playing it off as if I'm some kind of guy dedicated to his job.

I caress the princess' head, feeling her soft hair and fluffy ears, and at my touch, her tail sways even more rapidly. Damn it, I can believe I wasn't motivated with such a cute fluffy girl around. The hell is wrong with me!? Are you so afraid to aim for something, an actual concrete "something" in your life? Well, my life may have been reaching its end in the old world, but here, here is a new start.

I pull myself from the ground, and taking the princess' small hand into mine, I help her up as well. The snow storm, though lighter now, is still going, still so very cold. Yet, I feel so very hot, there's something burning inside. How should I put it? I haven't even achieved or done anything yet, but I feel so excited all of a sudden. Glancing at the princess standing so close beside me, seeing her gaze turning upwards to meet mine, I feel an increase in heartbeats all of a sudden.

I see now, it must be kicking in, the teenage hormones of this young body.

"Stay behind me, you hear?"

"Yes, I understand."

In the distance, just barely visible due to the snow, I see the enemy Champion locking blades with Merida, and though he should be strong enough to overpower her, the attacks from Timothy quickly redirects his focus, only for Merida to strike the moment turns his attention away. It's amazing how well they play off each other, makes this Summoner feel rather lonely here.

Upon realizing that I am on my feet however, the Champion immediately turns his attention towards me. I can feel a sense of urgency rising within him. He's cornered, if Merida and Timothy keeps this up, then he'll lose and he knows it all too well. And without a means to deal a decisive blow to either one of them, he decided that I would be the easier one to take out here, and once I'm out of the picture, so would Timothy, allowing him to deal with Merida with ease.

Immediately, Merida moves in front of us, trying to keep the Champion away from both the princess and myself as Timothy goes in for a potentially lethal blow while the Champion is distracted. The Champion leaps into the air to avoid his attack, and though at first glance, it looks like he's performing a [Deathly Swallow], he does not strike with his blade. Instead, he kicks off the Liger, using him as a platform to leap once more in midair, rising over Merida and landing behind her before using the momentum from his fall to charge towards me.

Instinctively, I wanted to use [Bind Circle], and seeing the momentum carrying him, I doubted that he could change his direction in time to avoid my spell. However, just as I thought that, the bastard went ahead and flung one of his dual blades at me. That's supposed to be an Assassin skill [Blade Toss] isn't it? Then again, in this world, you wouldn't need special skills to toss something. However, it came so unexpectedly, there was nothing I could do against it, or so I thought, but with the grimoire in hand, I successfully deflected it. Yes, deflected it, the blade bounced off the hard leather cover of the book, leaving but a small dent. This unassuming grimoire is after all, a high grade legendary weapon I had to craft myself, and one of the ingredients came from a high Leveled dragon, which according to flavor text, the cover is made out of the dragon's hide. A flimsy knife toss like that isn't going to do much good against it.

The Champion seemed shocked that I managed to defend against his surprise attack, and in fact, even I'm shocked. If it were a moment ago, I could never have such reflexes. However, it shouldn't be strange, not at all, after all, right now my heart is beating like crazy and my blood is boiling. Now, I truly feel young, both in heart and in body. A clam heart is a heart than endures all hardships? I still believe that, but right now, this doesn't feel so hard.

The Champion continues to charge at me, even though the weapon toss didn't work, it doesn't mean that he can't take me out. If he drives the other sword he has into me, I'll be sure to die, and at this distance, I won't be able to make it with my [Bind Circle] before he's in range.

"[Bind Circle]!"

However, even though my casting was interrupted by that toss, the one hiding behind me is more than ready.

Not being able to see it coming, the Champion was helplessly caught in the circle and had his momentum stolen. And though he would be able to move in just about a second, it's more than enough for me to take action. That's right, I'm not just going to wait for someone to deal the finishing blow for me.

With the grimoire in my hand, I swing it right into the Champion's face, and though a grimoire is not a weapon that would output a high amount of damage with physical attacks, it still counts as weapon, and thus, would have [Holy Weapon] applied to it when Michaela casts the spell.

As expected, sacred blue fire sparks to life the moment the book smashes into the Champion's face, and as he goes flying backwards, I can hear a pained cry as his face burns with the heat of the holy flames. Even if the book's damage is low, it seems like the magic boosted [Holy Weapon] is more than enough to do the trick. I can't believe I haven't thought of it before. I mean, even if you can, nobody uses the grimoire to directly attack in game, that's just silly. That old brain of mind just can't turn fast enough to break out of habit. But now, right now, my mind is turning so fast, I feel like I can see through time. You gotta love being young again!

***

End of Chapter 11