Origin ARS 5 (11 page)

Scott obliged and allowed it to get to its
feet. It was time to enact his strategy. He needed combat
experience. Experience development did not work in the same manner
here as it did on the casual server. Combat experience was derived
through the actual combat scenario, not just from the kill. In
fact, killing these monsters might have been wasteful. Scott was
uncertain of that fact at the moment, but it was possible.

The only thing Scott had to lose was his
life. He'd already lost that several times. It was time to see if
he could leverage that fact into a viable training method.

The hellion snapped. "You damned meat!"
before it picked up its greatsword and began to hack, slash, and
chop at Scott with great speed and power. The sorcerer was hard
pressed to dodge the attacks, much less counter them. He took
several hard strikes that bruised his arms and legs. A decidedly
nasty horizontal swing had gouged through his leather armor and
caused him to bleed heavily.

Scott was unable to dodge another incoming
swing and he was forced to block it with his right arm. He felt the
impact and the stress on his muscle and bone. However, he had
managed to withstand the swing. His unarmed combat bonus granted
him a natural defense of one hundred forty, but his unarmed combat
skill had actually increased it by seven points. He had learned
that his flesh was strong enough to resist some of the blows from
these monsters, though it was still best to let the armor try to
stop some of that damage.

Stopping the monster's attack with a block
had caused serious stress on Scott's right arm, but it provided an
opening that he could exploit. He spun to the side and kicked at
the back of its knee. The monster's leg buckled slightly, throwing
him off balance.

Scott threw himself forward, snaked his arm
around the monster's neck and dropped quickly toward the ground in
a bid to break the hellion's neck on his shoulder. The movement was
successful, but was far from fatal. A shoulder neck breaker could
easily end a fight on Earth, possibly even be fatal, but the
hellion's health durability was simply too high.

The shoulder neck breaker stunned the
monster, however. Scott decided that one professional wrestling
move deserved another. He rolled the beast over, climbed onto its
back and slipped his arm around its neck once more. He used his
other hand to comb back the beast's head and began squeezing his
arm for all he was worth.

When the weakly struggling monster's
struggles stopped. Scott immediately let go. He snatched up the
greatsword and shoved it into his bag, and then began to rifle
through the monster's pockets. He found a few coins, but nothing
too exciting.

Scott left the unconscious monster where he
fell then quickly moved back to the shelter of the safe room. Once
inside he checked the mirror, saw no difference, and sighed. "I
have to wait for the pulse."

He needed to heal and to allow his armor and
gloves to repair themselves. That was apparently the special
function of the so-called special equipment. His noobie armor
self-repaired if he was in a safe location, such as the safe room.
It would be repaired over time, much like he healed when he
rested.

The cot called to him and Scott gladly went
to enjoy his rest. Time passed in the timeless place. Injuries
healed at an accelerated rate. His armor and weaponry were restored
to perfect status. Scott awoke then sat up.

"Alright. Let's see." Scott checked the
mirror and rubbed his chin. He was still level one, but he had
increased his light armor level by one. He saw no changes on his
defense stat. Still, he was certain that it did something.

He went out to fight a little more. While he
was not certain that his tactic would work, it at least allowed him
to train his light armor skill.

Scott pulled his pistol from his bag. The
unconscious hellion was no longer on the floor where he had been
left to lie. That meant that the dungeon had reset. He found the
monster in the same location as before. Since he had not died, the
layout of the monster locations had not changed.

Once again, Scott took a shot at the monster.
Surprisingly, it whipped out another great sword and charged toward
him.

The sorcerer did not make it back to the
point that he had before because he had been momentarily delighted
to see that he could keep looting the same items if he wanted. In
short, he had limited bag space, but he could farm these guys!

"Stop meats!" snapped the hellion as he
whipped his greatsword downward. Scott took a hard cut along the
back that sliced through his light leather armor and caused him to
bleed a little, but he had managed to narrowly avoid being cleaved
in half.

He turned quickly and struck down at the
beast's rising hands with a double downward hammer fist. The
greatsword was knocked from its hands just before Scott swung his
doubled fists upward to slam under its chin. The monster's head was
knocked back by the continuing combination move. Scott turned
counter to his current movement and swept the monster's leg. This
hellion was not an unarmed combatant. That much was certain.
Without his greatsword he was easily knocked around by unarmed
strikes and takedowns.

Still, he did have incredible health and
stamina. The hellion launched a desperate kick that Scott mostly
avoided. He could feel the bruise beginning to form along the side
of his calf, however.

The sorcerer kicked, slapped, and dodged as
best he could to lessen the fallen monster's strikes. Despite his
superior position, Scott had trouble hitting the monster in a vital
spot. The desperate flailing of the hellion's limbs was unskilled
but powerful.

Scott chose to hop back a short distance and
allow the monster to get back to his feet. The hellion was the
perfect opponent at the moment. He had little in the way of unarmed
combat skills, so it was not that difficult to take him down to the
ground. However, he was extremely dangerous with his greatsword.
That forced Scott to act quickly to avoid taking damage.

Thus began a dance with death, the partners
in that dance were a twilight sorcerer and a hellion. The hellion
would swing his blade and the sorcerer would do his best to dodge.
Sometimes the sorcerer avoided the attack. Sometimes he was hit and
paid a heavy price.

Loud shouts began to echo down the hallway
after a few minutes. The sound of the fight had drawn another
hellion.

"This is my meats! You fuck off!" snarled the
hellion before whipping his blade around in a furious arc.

"Meats!" roared the incoming hellion. It
would join the battle soon.

Scott saw that as the perfect time to end the
fight. The next time the hellion made a heavily committed attack,
Scott kicked the blade to the side turned quickly and launched a
fierce uppercut that slammed into the beast's chin. Its greatsword
dropped to the ground as it staggered back.

The sorcerer scooped it up and raced off
toward his safe room. The sounds of screaming hellions echoed
through the corridor as their meat made a mad dash for freedom.

Once inside his safe room, Scott made a
bee-line for the salvation mirror then checked his stats and
skills. There was no change, but he had not really expected to see
one. His plan would take a lot of time and effort. He also had to
wait for the experience pulse so that his acquired knowledge would
be absorbed properly.

"Man. I hope this is working. That guy was
tearing me apart." Scott was fortunate that his current opponent
was a heavy weapon user with little in the way of skills beyond
swinging his weapon. A gun fighter, or a light weapon wielder,
would have
already
torn him apart by now.

He stuffed the greatsword into his bag then
flopped down on the cot. It was time to recuperate from his battle
once more.

A series of short, but dedicated, battles
began after that. The moment Scott thought that another hellion was
going to approach, he did his best to get an opening in the battle
and then raced off toward his safe room. During those battles he
had run out of ammunition or magic charge, whatever the pistols
used. Scott had resorted to stepping out from behind the corner and
saying random things to irritate the monster that he had used as a
training dummy throughout the day.

He fought the same hellion over two dozen
times, and managed to knock it unconscious three of those times.
His headache increased severely in intensity during this time due
to the heavy usage of his unarmed combat skills, but Scott felt
that the plan had to be working.

There was no way to know how much time had
passed since he had begun training in the way that he had. He felt
like the better part of a day, perhaps two days, had passed but
there was no sense of time in the dungeon.

"Guess I better get back to It." said Scott
with a sigh. Was his plan working? His light armor skill had
increased to three, but beyond that he had no idea.

Scott glanced at the salvation mirror to make
certain that his progress was saved, but then stopped cold. The
mirror told him something interesting!

[Status]

Scott Jacobs

Race:
Lunarii |
Class:
Twilight
Master

Age:
18 |
Max Lifespan:
Ageless

Level:
2 |
Title:
The
Reborn

Attack:
140[147-154] |
Defense:
140[151-159]

Strength:
100 |
Agility:
100 |
Vitality:
100

Intellect:
100 |
Charisma:
100
|
Attunement:
100

[—]

"It worked? Hell yeah! It worked!" Scott
laughed loudly and slapped himself on the thigh. "Damn, I almost
gave up on it."

The thing he was most excited about was his
headache. It was gone. Finally, the constant pain in his head had
disappeared!

"What I have here is a chance to increase my
skills a great deal and farm for a lot of items. Mid was right, I
definitely need to take my time and learn everything that I can."
Time did not pass here in relation to the rest of the universe. He
was slated for the next insertion schedule into ARS, but everyone
scheduled for that insertion would start at the same time since the
gods pretty much did whatever they wanted with local time.

His goal was level five, but it was also the
headache. When he had both reached level five and his head felt
like it was going to split open, he would be ready to move on. That
would mean that his combat level had reached its peak in relation
to his social and skill experience pools.

"That's perfect." said Scott. He could level
to five, bank another four combat levels, and then spend his first
day or two out in ARS proper socializing and learning about the
world. The city alone should be something wonderful to behold.

He left his safe room and went out to find
his training partner. The hellion was in his customary spot. Scott
grinned. It was time to get to work.

~*~

In the parking lot of the headquarters
building that Scott had been assigned, a little red Camry pulled
gently into an empty parking spot. Aria stepped out then sighed at
her car. "Man, can't believe I had to change it to another
car."

While driving with her customary safety
consciousness, she had realized that the state troopers were after
her
for some reason. Normally it would have been fun to be
detained by the police and get booked as a criminal, but she had a
time schedule to keep. She had been forced to quickly change her
car from a pink Cadillac to the next thing on her list, a red
Camry.

Aria pouted at the car. It was fun to drive
it, but she had liked her convertible. Maybe she would change it
into a jeep next? A jeep could be fun.

The vehicularly downgraded goddess locked up
her car then strolled into the headquarters building in search of
the only contact she had. Upon entering, she met with a Lieutenant
James, who called up for Captain Johnson.

A few minutes later the middle-aged captain
came down the stairs and walked over to the duty desk. He glanced
at the lieutenant then over to Aria. "You needed to see me about
something, ma'am?"

Aria smiled brightly at the captain then
said, "Yes. We should go to your office."

"Ma'am, I've got a lot of paperwork to do. Is
this about one of my soldiers or...?" asked Captain Johnson.

"It's about Scott Jacobs. I'm his fiancé."
said Aria flatly.

Captain Johnson blinked. "Scott... Jacobs."
He turned to his duty officer. "Hold all my calls unless it's the
colonel or better."

"Yes, sir." said Lieutenant James before
glancing over to the absurdly beautiful woman. She remembered Scott
Jacobs as a man who was almost too pretty to be real. Now there was
a woman in front of her that could easily match that if not exceed
it. Where did these people come from? Where there any eligible
bachelors there?

Aria followed the captain up to his office.
He locked the door behind them and sat down at his desk. "How can I
help you?"

"I suppose I should get directly to the
point. Just to be clear, you spoke to me a few months ago when my
fiancé made an offer to your government." said Aria.

"Yes, I recall. It's still hard to believe.
Are you really ... You know."

Aria glanced at him then looked over at his
desk lamp. "Is that special to you in any way."

"That lamp? No."

Aria pulled up a menu screen. She manipulated
a few buttons and the lamp shimmered. In its place, was now a
puppy.

"The... That. Did you just turn my desk lamp
into a dog?" asked the man in surprise. The desk lamp dog growled
cutely then wobbled around. It was a Labrador retriever pup, and
quite adorable.