The World Of Skill

Sayu

It took Ryu 2 hours to level up to level 6. One level an hour wasn’t so slow at all. It doesn’t make the grinding level too tedious and still reasonable. The best thing about this leveling up session is a new skill.

「Bow Mastery (F Rank) Level 1: 0.1% proficiency

Increased damage when using a bow.

5% increase in damage.

Passive. 」

While 5% doesn’t seem to be a lot but it clearly helps him hunt faster and also the reason, he can level up twice within two hours. After taking a short break, he decided to move deeper into the forest and find another monster than wild boar to kill.

Moving past the trees, there is a glade in the forest. The little space lets the sunlight fall on it unobstructed like a ray from heaven. What stunned Ryu wasn’t only the natural scenery. Sitting on top of a small rock, illuminated by lights, an angel has appeared. Long hair tied in a ponytail, while looking sideways, the beauty of this moment took his breath away.

The tranquillity of the forest accompanied by the girl solemn look was unreal.

The girl was examining her bow and doesn’t realize that someone is standing there. When she finally looked up, she finally noticed that Ryu was staring at her. Giving him a hostile look, she called out to him with a voice that is capable of mesmerizing anyone.

“What are you looking at?”

As if enthralled by her voice, Ryu replied honestly: “I was looking at you. You are so beautiful.”

Realizing that he makes a mistake Ryu tried to cover up for his slip of the tongue.

“I mean, I was looking behind you, the scenery is so beautiful.”

Somehow annoyed by his reply the girl is trying to give a mean look which for Ryu makes her look cuter instead.

“Don’t you know what you’re doing is impolite? Do you want me to gouge out your eyes?”

“I’m very sorry. Please forgive me.”

“Hmph.”

The girl was about to leave when Ryu realized that the girl is still wearing beginner clothes like him.

“Please wait!”

“What do you want now?” Her body-turning movement took Ryu’s breath once again but under that annoyed look of her, he regained his sense.

“Do you want to hunt together with me?”

The girl now took her time to examine Ryu from top to bottom. Foolish look, beginner clothes, and an idiotic smile on his face.

“I guess you seem harmless. What’s your level?”

“Level 6.”

“Alright then, I guess you’re somehow usable.”

「Sayu has invited you to join her party. Will you accept it? 」

“Yes, accept the party invitation. So, your name is Sayu eh?”

The girl's name turned out to be Sayu. She is level 6 just like him and both of them try to look for a monster to hunt. While he can’t stop stealing glances at her, she explained the strategy and ignored his question not proceeding with pointless chatter.

“Since we both using bow, I guess we should surround the enemy from opposing sides and attacking, in turn, to keep them for going around between us. Or you could be the bait and tried to dodge and tank the attack.”

“No thanks. I have bad reflexes and really bad at dodging. The first strategy suits me better since I am confident in my aim.”

Sayu didn’t take his remark to heart since he could be boasting and anyone assisted by the system can land a hit or two. The game has already entered the third expansion and seeing Ryu’s level that is still low and no one seemed to be helping him, it can only mean some things.

First, he just started to play the game which seemed to have the lowest probability. In this era, who could have only started to play a game after a long time after a game is launched. Starting when the game is out is the choice of many since they could still catch up with top players or even be one of the top players.

Secondly, he reset his character just like her but not many people choose to do this since doing a reset on a character means throwing away all the hours, they have spent in developing the character.

The third and the most possible explanation is that Ryu never played the game seriously, choosing a bow as a weapon because it looked cool and spent most of his time flirting with girls. If that is the case, the level was never his main concern. But he wouldn’t be here if that is the case since there is no point in looking for girls inside the forest. Or, Ryu could be someone sent by her brother to keep an eye on her.

Silently making an evaluation on Ryu on her head, she promised to make Ryu paid the price for lying to her.

［Did you think I am really that stupid? A player using a bow without anyone's support is already weird enough. Not to mention you show up in the forest. Just wait, I will make you confess about my brother’s plan. ］

Along the way, Ryu tried to ask about some questions about Sayu which she refused to answer. Seeing the lack of response from her, Ryu decided to just silently followed her.

“There, a 「cyquill」! Quickly move behind him and prepare to attack on my signal.” While using one hand to stop Ryu’s movement, she pointed into a direction where a red porcupine can be sighted.

“Who should launch the first attack?”

“You can do it if you’re confident but be careful that the cyquill could launch a ranged counterattack.”

“Alright then. Just send me a signal when you’re ready.”

There is a reason why Sayu chooses the cyquill as their target. The ability to launch its quill will be hard to dodge by a new player. If Ryu is a high-level player that has reset his character, his movement will leak the clue and she will be glad to team up with the cyquill to send him back to town.

Player killing on Green World doesn’t have too much restriction. As long as they are out of town a player can be killed. By killing a player your notoriety point will go up by 1. It doesn’t matter much but there are some NPC that won’t talk to a player with a notoriety point. Some towns also will put you inside jail until your notoriety point which will be lowered by 1 every time you spent an hour inside the jail is gone. For every 1 point of notoriety, it will also increase a 1% chance of dropping equipment upon death.

“Okay, let’s start.”

Sayu examined Ryu’s movement. It was without any hesitation and the first arrow is already launched. Ryu’s form is perfect as archery athletes and his aim won’t miss the target with a successful ambush.

［As I thought, he is a veteran player that is sent by my brother. But, wait! What is he doing? How is this happening? ］

Sayu didn’t follow up with an attack as discussed before and it gives the cyquill the opportunity to launch its needle at Ryu. He was surprised because it wasn’t what was discussed before so he tried to dodge the attack in hurry, falling down in the process and making a clown of himself.

“Sayu, why aren’t you attacking? Are you charmed by my cool shooting pose? Although I am not handsome, I know that I still have some good qualities but please help me out.”

While trying his best to dodge the attack, he couldn’t find an opportunity to fight the cyquill back and can only hope for Sayu to break the situation.

［Why is he dodging like an i***t? He should be able to dodge by using minimal movement and launch another attack to stop the cyquill from attacking again. Am I mistaken? Is he really not someone my brother sends? But his form of shooting is clearly unlike a new player.  For now, let’s help him out. There will be another opportunity to check his background. ］

 “Sorry, I haven’t equipped my bow before. Wait for a bit.”

The cyquill didn’t move from its spot at all and only launched a ranged counterattack with its needle which makes it an easy target if someone is helping you out. Sayu didn’t miss her chance and disturbed the cyquill rhythm. Not wasting the opportunity, Ryu attacked again and the strategy they once discussed earlier is now perfectly executed.

［Your party has defeated the cyquill. You have earned 150 experience. ］

Even when divided by both of them, the cyquill still gives a decent amount of experience. If not for Sayu’s earlier mistake, the hunt is clearly much easier when done with a party.

“Hah, finally we killed that animal. Should we find another monster to kill?”

“Sure.”

“Just make sure you are prepared next time.”

Both of them managed to hunt more monsters and finally, Sayu leveled up faster than Ryu.

“Please wait, I will allocate my status point first.”

As this is the first time Ryu met another bow user, he asked her some questions.

“How do you allocate your status point?”

“I mainly distributed them among dexterity and agility. Giving me a faster attack rate and accuracy while a little bit of it goes into strength for attack power.”

“I see. Hmm… maybe I should allocate my status point too. But I am still not sure of what to increase.”

Sayu tried to focus on her things but listening to Ryu’s mutter she is now confused.

［Is he really not someone that my brother sends? ］

Along with the hunt, Ryu finally leveled up also and with some questions Sayu could tell now that Ryu is really only a new player and cooperate fully with him.

“Hey, it’s time for dinner. Let’s gather back here after 30 minutes.”

Sayu logged out after saying that. A player can log out anywhere as long as they are not attacked for 1 minute before the process. Ryu was a bit surprised because Sayu log out so fast and he still looked at where Sayu last located.

“She really is pretty. A bit cold at first but after hunting together she wasn’t that bad. Her accuracy when shooting also isn’t that bad; still I am better than her. If only she could open up a bit to me, we might get closer. Then holding hands wouldn’t be impossible. Is the spring of my youth finally here? Ah, I better come back in 30 minutes. I don’t want her evaluation of me dropped because of being late.”

Ryu logs out of the game, eat his dinner and log back into the game as fast as he can. Waiting for Sayu to come back while thinking on how to get closer with her.