Practice

I came to the training grounds to get used to the Assassin’s skills.

“Huuu… Haaa…”

I closed my eyes, stretched my hands wide, and took a deep breath.

Clear and cool air that I could never feel in the hospital. Of course, it’s a fake sensation created through electrical signals, but I don’t really care since this virtual world is my second reality.

Poljjak. Poljjak. Poljjak.

I slowly jumped in place to check my body condition after not moving for a week.

My body rising lightly. I stretched my arms and legs out, awakening the senses in my limbs that I hadn’t used for a week.

“Kkeueueueueueut…! Puhak! This body is revived!”

Although I hadn’t moved my body for a week, it moved well according to my will, better than I expected.

I took out the dagger from my waist and stared at the scarecrow.

I wasn’t in a cold and calm state of mind like during my period, but I tried to recall that feeling as much as possible.

Skills used as naturally as flowing water without me being conscious, with a speed that made it feel like I was performing normal attacks. That feeling like I had two brains.

I recognized in my head that I was using skills with the two daggers and activated the skills. Then, I charged towards the scarecrow.

A much faster attack speed than when I was a Soma. Perhaps it’s because my body is already used to Soma, but I’m not used to controlling the daggers.

All the skills are new, and the wind-up, wind-down, and abilities are all different, so I keep pausing in between.

“Kkeueung… I can’t reproduce that feeling from my period at all.”

If there were only about 10 skills, I’d understand, but Soma, and most jobs for that matter, usually have about 20 skills.

I have to choose and use the right skill for each situation out of those 20 skills, but with the Assassin, it’s tricky because I have to use skills for each dagger separately.

“I need practical training to get used to this.”

I hit the scarecrow for almost 3 hours.

I tried various things, such as moving my body in between dealing damage and forcibly breaking the cooldown alignment by moving away.

I needed practical experience. To deal damage in any situation, I need to experience various situations.

Soma can avoid danger with parrying in sudden situations, but the Assassin’s daggers are much weaker than Soma’s parrying.

It’s more beneficial for the Assassin to go behind the boss with a movement skill and attack the boss than to parry.

‘Should I try PVP?’

I also used the PVP survival mode to select guild members.

Until now, I haven’t touched PVP because I had a lot to do, such as leveling up Leore to max level, doing last season’s raids, doing this season’s raids, and so on.

But now, there’s nothing to do until the next season. I think now is the perfect time to get into PVP.

Leore PVP is quite famous and even has tournaments, so it’s well-activated.

A tense situation, an environment where you can’t let your guard down for even a second, a PVP arena where you can think about various responses.

I’ve decided on this.

I warped to a place with PVP content, holding only my daggers and knowing nothing.

In Leore, PVP doesn’t have equipment like other RPG games. You just have to play with the specs set by the game company.

Therefore, you can fight equally without having to do raids. Of course, the balance between jobs is another issue.

In a huge colosseum-like space, many people are talking.

They were all there to enjoy PVP.

Since I’m quite a famous person, I slipped into a corner before people noticed and opened the PVP-only window to press the PVP 1v1 normal match button.

I wanted to start ranked games right away, but I had to play 10 normal games before I could play ranked games.

Ttiring.

I got matched in less than 5 seconds.

My body moved quickly, and I was facing another user in the center of the colosseum.

A 30-second timer visible in front of me.

That time is probably given to analyze the opponent I have to fight for 180 seconds and think about tactics.

A male user holding a huge greatsword.

He’s wearing huge armor that matches the huge greatsword. If I attacked with my original specs, the attack would go through the armor, but in a situation where I’m receiving spec adjustments, it seemed difficult to deal damage with normal attacks.

“Oh, an assassin! This round is an easy win. Huh?”

The greatsword user looked at me with joy after seeing [Assassin] written in the notification window and pointed at me with his finger.

“WFK Iarang…! Wow, awesome. Are you doing PVP now too?”

“Yes. I’m going to try PVP with the Assassin from today.”

“Wow… It’s an honor. But you’re going to get your nose broken trying to do PVP with that job?”

“You have to try to know.”

10 seconds left. The beep. beep. sound effects started to indicate that there wasn’t much time left.

With 5 seconds left, I took out two daggers and took a stance.

The greatsword user raised the greatsword above his head, creating an upper stance. A faint white light enveloped the greatsword.

I know that stance and effect because I went to a dungeon with Kang Han-gil Ajussi’s greatsword user before.

It’s the greatsword user’s only movement skill, [Charge].

With the Assassin’s bug-like HP, each of the greatsword user’s attacks is fatal. To win, I have to think about not getting hit even once.

The moment there was 1 second left, the greatsword user kicked off the ground and charged at me.

“!?”

Only then did I see the small line visible in the center of the colosseum.

It wasn’t that the battle started when the timer hit 0 seconds, but that you just couldn’t cross that line and attack until 0 seconds.

Before that, it didn’t matter if you were casting, using a channeling skill, moving, or charging.

You just couldn’t cross the line before 0 seconds, and the attack just couldn’t land.

In other words, it meant that you could finish preparing the attack before 0 seconds, and it didn’t matter if the attack came in as soon as it hit 0 seconds.

This is my mistake.

0 seconds.

The word START! appeared in front of me, but I couldn’t pay attention to it.

The greatsword was already right above my head.

I was going to watch how the greatsword user does PVP and see what the PVP flow is like when 1v1 starts, but that was too naive of a thought.

I raised my dagger to parry the greatswordㅡ!

‘Ah, shit!’

Having played Soma for a long time, I naturally raised my dagger to parry out of habit.

The moment the dagger and greatsword collided, I took the strength out of my arm and let the greatsword user’s charge attack flow.

‘Eueuk…!’

I didn’t take much damage from the greatsword user’s powerful charge attack, but I got caught in a small stun.

As soon as the stun wore off, I cast a movement skill to move away from the greatsword user. The greatsword user was also caught in a small stun, and since the greatsword user’s attacks are all heavy, there would be enough timeㅡ

Thwack!

“Haaht!?”

The casting of the movement skill was interrupted by the impact I felt in my abdomen, and I widened my eyes.

The greatsword user let go of the right hand that was holding the greatsword and punched my stomach.

‘He’s a user who’s used to PVP…!’

He predicted that I would use a movement skill and canceled the skill by hitting my abdomen with a fist that was faster than the greatsword as soon as the charge skill ended.

With a buzzing vibration in my stomach, I bit my lip tightly with my teeth and moved my body backward instead of using a movement skill.

The greatsword user obviously had no reason to let me go and ran towards me as is.

I tried to check the greatsword user’s approach with my daggers, but the greatsword user intentionally pulled the greatsword back and pushed his right shoulder forward.

With the large armor, large build, and the state of twisting his body and pushing his shoulder forward, the greatsword user’s greatsword disappeared from my sight.

‘He’s trying to hide the effects…!? No, how much of a fossil is he!?’

I was going to prepare for the next attack, but I couldn’t predict what skill he was going to use because I couldn’t see the greatsword user’s greatsword.

First, I grabbed both daggers in reverse grip to receive an attack power buff. I have to respond to the next attack with a parry or a block.

“You’re not used to PVP!”

The greatsword user smiled at me and pushed his right shoulder, which was sticking out, as is, hitting my stomach.

Bang!

‘My stomach again…!’

“Haaht…!”

A loud vibration ringing in my abdomen once again.

After allowing two attacks, I was caught in a medium stun instead of just a vibration and small stun.

“One shot!”

The greatsword wrapped in the greatsword user’s red effect is visible.

Single attack [Spear]. It’s the greatsword user’s powerful thrust attack. I obviously couldn’t avoid it, and the greatsword pierced my stomach as is, and an explosion occurred.

Kwaaaaang!

My body was blown all the way to the colosseum wall by the explosion that came out of the greatsword.

==

The greatsword user is currently ranked 80th.

Considering that there are tens of thousands of Leore PVP users, he’s quite skilled. He always plays one or two normal games before playing ladder games to warm up.

Today, like any other day, he played a normal game to warm up and smiled after confirming that he had met an assassin-type job, which is weak against greatswords in PVP.

After checking the job, he looked to see which user was playing PVP with the assassin job, and it was quite a familiar user.

A small height that doesn’t even look like a middle schooler and a mischievous face.

On top of that, the [Iarang] nickname that no one in Leore can’t know now and the [Abyss The WFK] title that says that nickname is real.

It was the real Iarang.

The greatsword user was looking forward to PVP with Arang, who is currently evaluated as the top physical player among Leore users, and was also curious about what her PVP skills were like.

Raids and PVP are strictly different.

Watching Arang, who had been hit by the greatsword’s attack and blown backward, the greatsword user felt a little disappointed in Arang, who couldn’t do anything as he had expected.

Arang’s HP was already only 5% left with two fistfights and one greatsword attack.

It’s a situation where it would end with just a tap of the fist now.

The greatsword user put the greatsword on his shoulder and slowly walked towards where Arang had flown.

Hoodudeuk.

The greatsword user took a stance to finish Arang at the sight of Arang walking out of the debris.

‘Hmm? The atmosphere is… completely different?’