The World Of Skill

Swamp Dungeon III

The party finally encounter the swamp dungeon last variety of monster. The spiked willow. Its appearance is like any normal tree out there in the swamp area but it was full of thorn and colored purple due to its venomous trait.

It attacked by waving its vine limbs around which is a little bit slow but the area it covered and the strength of the attack is enormous. Geoffrey even took 100 damage from the attack he blocked with his shield. It shows how fatal it is for the party. Ryu could die in one attack and two attacks for Marina and Azalea.

However, its own body was big and couldn’t move from the area where it's rooted in.

“Big sis, how about using a fire spell?”

Marina nodded then used a basic 《fireball》 spell. It was a good choice as the spiked willow are burned and take fire damage over time (DoT). The main strategy in defeating the spiked willow is best by attacking from afar since the spiked willow couldn’t move from its place.

After they defeated the first spiked willow in difficulties, with the experience gained they could defeat it one after another by attacking from a distance while Geoffrey and Azalea just need to make sure to be out of the spiked willow attack range.

It is basically a sitting duck. Free experience for ranged attackers. However, it was only a dream if they want to keep earning experience like that. The fourth spiked willow is accompanied by two venom crab and one blood-sucking leech.

Diving in the dungeon indeed gives a lot of experience but the difficulty is increased the deeper they go. There is no option to leave the dungeon except by dying or clearing it. So, one should be prepared if they decide to enter the dungeon.

That being said, the fight against four opponents at the same time isn’t impossible but challenging. Both the melee fighters take on the venom crab while the ranged ones tried to kill the blood-sucking leech. They tried to fight outside of the spiked willow range so they could ignore it.

As smooth as their journey can be, it will eventually end. The last area of the swamp dungeon was cleared. There is a small chest at the end which Azalea opened instantly. For this beginner dungeon, the rewards are only one small chest. At a higher level, a small chest might be found abundantly inside with a big golden chest as the final reward. But not to be mistaken, those kinds of chest might contain traps that need to be disarmed before opened.

“Alright, our harvest isn’t that bad.”

After clearing the swamp dungeon, they also earned extra experience which brought Geoffrey and Azalea to level 18 as they already leveled up once when fighting the monster. Marina's level rose to 17 with Ryu as the biggest winner to have his level increased by 5 to level 16.

By clearing the dungeon once, the experience earned is equal to hunting in the field for two to three days’ worth.

The total time they needed to clear it is 4 hours. It wasn’t that short because they are being extra careful not to get attacked and poisoned. Surely, they could do it faster next time with the familiarity with it.

“Big sis, are you tired?”

Azalea asked Marina which the latter replied by shaking her head.

“Alright, let’s run the swamp dungeon again. I want to reach level 20 before the day end. I think two more runs is enough. i***t slave, let’s go again.”

With the experience needed to level up multiply exponentially, it seems that for Azalea and Geoffrey which is level 18, they need to clear it once to level up by one. Ryu couldn’t refuse Azalea’s suggestion to clear it twice since he also benefited from it.

The hunt went well as they managed to clear it faster than the first time. They only need six and a half hours to clear it twice. Their increase in stats from level up helps them to get this kind of result.

“Alright, I think we should call it a day.”

“Yes princess, at this time the master should be looking for you. If we didn’t show up you are definitely won’t be allowed to play the game tomorrow.”

“Curse that old man! Why would he need to read me a fairytale book every day? Is he retarded? I am already a grown-up lady; I don’t want to hear the red-riding hood. I definitely going to ask him to read the sleeping beauty today. Alright then big sis, I’ll take my leave now. We’ll meet again tomorrow at 9 in the morning. i***t slave, don’t you dare not to show up!”

“Young miss, young lad, please excuse us.”

After that Azalea and Geoffrey are covered in lights as they log out from the game. Marina also followed them not long after.

Ryu looked at the time and he also realized that the time is already quite late and he actually missed his evening shooting practice. His dad will be angry if he knows that he missed it because of playing the game. He decided to log out and do his evening shooting practice before sleeping.

Ryu arrived at his family shooting range and preparing his equipment. He takes the shooting stance and releases his arrow.

*swish*

As usual, without any error, the arrow landed on the bull’s eye.

One after another, twenty arrows are cramped inside the middle circle of the target.

“Honestly, the feelings of the strings being pulled by my hand and vibrated after being released is the best. The projected ones can’t match it at all. Inside the game, they managed to replicate the sensation of the strings when pulled but the vibration after it is released is not there.”

Ryu looked at the target again and think of something.

“I wonder if I can do it here?”

Ryu is having a weird idea as he pulls the strings again with a stronger power than usual. Holding the stance for a couple of seconds before releasing it.

“《Power shot》!”

Of course, the skill from the game won’t be replicated in reality. There’s no extra gust of wind or penetrating power on the arrow. He can only embarrassedly scratch his head and smile like an i***t. It is a good thing that nobody in the area to see the scene. After all, Ryu is still only 16 years old and he suffers eight-grade syndrome just like any boy out there with minds full of imagination.

“If I couldn’t do that, I wonder if I could do this one.”

This time, Ryu tried to move as he keeps his shooting stance. The shooting range isn’t that big so he can only move to the left and right as he maintains his aim.

He tried to release the arrow as he moved but the trajectory was off target.

“As I thought, this is hard.”

Because of his movement, the aim was unstable. He tried to do it several times but it always missed the target. Either it was too high or too low. While moving, his stance is disturbed and can’t be maintained. He fell into silence and thought of another idea.

“What if I could move stably?”

If it is still too hard to aim as he moved, what if he is not the one who does the movement as he moved?

He thinks of the scene where he is pulled by a skateboard as he maintains his stance.

“It seemed to be possible.”

As he doesn’t have a skateboard, he needs a make-shift one. He looks around his house and found a small drink cart in the kitchen. He took the four wheels off the cart and attached it to his shoes.

“Dad will go crazy if he saw me. Oh well, I better not get caught and return the wheels later to the cart or mom will get even crazier than dad. I better finish this fast and test my idea before they both found me out.”

Ryu returns to the shooting range once again with his hand-made roller skate. He tried moving first without aiming and after there doesn’t seem to be any problem, he tried to shoot.

He first makes a run for it then as his momentum brought him sliding, he takes out his bow and aimed.

*swish*

The arrow he launched didn’t hit the target but it is definitely better than when he is moving left and right as he shoots.

The roller makes it more stable for Ryu to aim as he slides.

“Alright, I can do this!”

Feeling excited because he discovered the possibility, Ryu repeated this a couple more times. As more arrows are shoot, his aim is getting better. Finally, he can hit the target 6 times out of 10 while moving on his roller skate.

“Yes! Let’s try to aim for a perfect score.”

As a gold medalist, his aiming is one of the best in the world. He just needs to predict how his movement affected the trajectory and it didn’t take a long time for him to get the hang of it.

His total score is 9 out of 10 which makes him pretty satisfied. The idea is feasible and he couldn’t wait to try it out in-game.

After he finishes his shooting practice, he quickly dissembled his hand-made roller skate then return the wheels to the cart. Seeing that he did the job properly and his mom won’t realize anything, he took a shower and planned to play the game again.

As he logged inside the game, the swamp area is deadly silent. There’s not much illumination and it seemed that there is no monster in the area as there are not many nocturnal monsters.

In some areas, there might be a lot of nocturnal monsters which makes the field look desolate at day but as crowded as a market at night. A lucky player can also find a monster nest at night where the monster is sleeping and they could use the opportunity to launch a critical attack or kill the monster with ease.

Anyway, his real purpose is not to level up by killing a monster or something like that. He just wanted to test out his idea which he already practiced to meet his own standard. He calls it the ‘super cool rolling skate shoot’. When he wanted to try his newly ultimate ability, he realizes his mistake.

Firstly, the terrain inside the game isn’t always smooth and level, unlike his family shooting range. Secondly, if he is shooting at a monster, it won’t stay still like the target practice. The last and the most important reason, he doesn’t have his roller skate.