Cyberserk

Chapter 11 - Difficulties Before the Dungeon

Partners were learning how to fight skeleton warriors. The battles had already lasted for three hours. After a hundred fights Dan got more information about the enemy.

[Skeleton Warrior (Undead).

Level 2.

Vitality 25.

Damage 4-20.

Defense 4-12.

Brutal dead creatures only seek to kill their victims. Skeleton Warriors, move faster than zombies and have intelligence.  These bony troops are found with swords, clubs, bows, and even armor and shields. Dangerous are the skeletons that have the same weapons with which they died. Even more terrifying are the Remnants of Wizards. They can prove that even the dead can wield the powers of magic!]

Dan realized the terrible discrepancy in the difference in the skeletons. A normal skeleton had a life of 7-12 points. It dealt 1-4 points of damage. For destroying an ordinary level 1 skeleton, the player received 33 experience points. A dangerous and more survivable warrior skeleton brought only 44 experience points! It was an unfair reward for the risk. Dan realized that a normal man could mow down zombies like grass and get a huge amount of experience. Why risk your life?

People were in huge trouble. Only a small fraction of adventurers and courageous people would start fighting level 2 monsters to get real combat experience with ancient weapons. Billions of people will have a quiet and comfortable way of life in the new conditions of existence.

The meaning of the daily quest took on a new meaning. Dan Raven knew how dangerous humanity was. Over the centuries of civilization, humans had accumulated many experiences and methods of violence. The primary danger was not monsters. Man is wolf to man! The old motto became relevant again in the face of the brutal Game.

Dan was constantly taking breaks. He was getting tired after a few minutes of combat.

On his first day of playing, Dan realized how useful the phantom was in gaining experience points. Eleven percent no longer seemed like a tiny part of the phantom experience. Dan could not fight like a robot! He was tired and took breaks very often. Fatigue and pain were gathering in his arms. It became difficult to breathe.

The young man would run to the riverbank and regain his strength. He watched the tireless clone who was fighting without fear or fatigue. Dan understood that the phantom kills a lot of enemies. Much more than the average newbie player. Dan Raven was willing to work hard and gain experience with his sword.

Each skeleton warrior required a different treatment. The course of the fight was dictated by the remnants of the skeletons' armor. The shield-bearers showed themselves to be fearsome opponents. Warrior skeletons had no differences, but Dan realized that this was a terrible feature of the game. Some skeletons showed great swordsmanship! Damage of 20 points pierced any element of human armor. The young man experienced terrible pain and even screamed from the sudden accurate blows of the skeletons. He experienced terrible pain when a skeleton with a spear struck a swift and precise blow to his face. The whole world seemed to explode with scarlet light. Dan didn't faint from the pain. But he dropped his sword and fell to his knees from the terrible pain and force of the blow.

Tom noticed the danger in time and distracted the skeleton with the spear. Dan could not get to his feet. He crawled on his knees to the river bank and washed the blood from his face. The young man looked fearfully at his palms, which were covered in blood. He was terrified!

"That bastard took away twenty points of health in one blow! I could die that way," Dan whispered, tears streaming from his eyes.

"You're not going to die. You're not going to die like a miserable snot-nosed crybaby anyway!" Tom kicked his partner in the a*s. The phantom laughed. "You shouldn't have leaned so close to the water. Your blood could attract dangerous water monsters. Evil fish will bite your nose off!"

Raven jumped away from the river in one leap.

"Bastard! You have no sympathy," the player cursed.

"You don't need my sympathy. You need my help. You need to be careful of your opponents. The spear is dangerous. This weapon is capable of inflicting damage at long range. Don't relax, you lazy weakling, practice your techniques," the phantom pulled a thick book from his inventory and opened it. "Never stray from the true Way of martial arts. This is the precept of the great Miyamoto Musashi."

"I understand and agree with your moussasi," Dan agreed. He muttered another annoyance at the game's system. "Why aren't there any vials of health and mana recovery potions in the store?"

"Because lazy cowards don't have to worry about their health and mana. They destroy dumb, slow Level 1 zombies. Real warriors endure pain in the way of martial art," laughed Tom.

Dan smiled, too, at this wild, unnatural scene. Before he stood a strange creature with a katana in his hand and wearing strange samurai armor. The fellow began to instruct with his stupid book with sets of techniques of wielding a Japanese sword.

Tom was well aware that a European sword is not a katana. Most kendo techniques should be different from sword fencing. But the phantom convinced the human that the book of Japanese mastery is based on the physics and movement of the human body. The human body of any race is essentially the same. One head and two arms and two legs. The ancient Japanese were not stupid, no more stupid than the ancient Europeans. The kendo technique can be useful in learning how to use a sword.

Dan kept looking around. He was worried that people would come to them and make them answer for killing a player.

"If I were you, I'd worry about the difficulty of getting into the dungeon," Tom shook his head. "The cowardly scum won't dare bother the scary NPC. I've told them several times that I'm not a Player. They're not completely brain-dead, are they? Now they know there are dangerous NPCs in the game that can kill without punishment."

Raven was in complete agreement with his partner. But the feeling of nervousness wouldn't leave him.

The situation with the entrance to the dungeon proved difficult. The rocks looked impregnable. The stone climbs were steep and did not allow climbing up. It was impossible to walk up the mountain paths past squads of skeletal warriors. The skeletons stood in a chain along the rock wall. The level 1 undead was practically right up against the armed skeletons.

"I insist on trying to break through with a quick fight to the dungeon entrance," Tom insisted. "We won't get through a hundred skeleton warriors. They revive and we'll be met by a crowd of dangerous monsters at the entrance. We have to fully renew our armor. And run through a crowd of level 1 zombies and skeletons. These wimps won't give us any trouble. I think we should be able to just swing into the dungeon entrance."

"What entrance? Have you seen it? You don't know how the dungeon entrance works. Maybe it's guarded by scarier monsters? There might be level 3 monsters in there!" Dan didn't agree to risk his life.

"Dan let me try. You're not risking anything. I'll run alone through a crowd of zombies. I'm made for dangerous tasks. We gain nothing in this place except experience," the phantom quickly bounced to a group of weak dead and began to deliver lightning-fast katana blows.

Dan watched this sickening spectacle. For a moment he even felt pity for these slow and weak creatures. They were created to meet the needs of simple level 1 players.

Tom returned to his partner and stood silently beside the man.

"All right. You talked me into it. Now I'll buy you some new armor and you can try your suicidal exploration," Dan agreed with the clone's plan. "You're starting to act like a Japanese warrior. They had suicide pilots."

"Kamikazes," Tom clarified calmly. "Some things I remember better than you. Dan doesn't need to spend on new armor. If I die, all the armor will fall to the ground."

"Now that sounded like real a***e," Dan straightened his back and frowned. "Do I look like an ungrateful greedy pig? You just brought me a mountain of experience! I'm not sorry to spend a few hundred experience points on you. You're certainly becoming like a samurai. The Japanese have a speech like the Germans. The rough and rude language of stern warriors."

"You want a sample of beautiful poetry? I know good poetry," Tom swung his katana and recited a few lines.

"We are alive.

And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark.

Our souls and spirits rise

To carry the fire and light the spark.

To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

We are alive."

Tom laughed.

"We shall surely fight shoulder to shoulder again, my friend. But for that, I'll play along with the nice dumb zombies for a while," the clone winked at the player and sprinted into the crowd of the dead.

Dan shook his head.

"Insane suicide. He wouldn't even change his old armor," the player looked at the skeleton with a two-handed sword in his hands. "Hello, dead man. Goodbye, dead man."

The young fellow began a new fight with a new opponent.