Chapter 109 107 - Progressing

After closing a gate with Mikael on the team, Milo realized that he still had a long way to go. Mikael's skills at dispatching beasts were legendary and seeing them in action, Milo resolved to get to his level one day. Once everyone had picked their jaws up from the floor following Mikael's demonstration, Milo and the rest of the team logged out of the simulation and thanked Mikael for showing them what it meant to be a high ranked gatecrasher.

After closing the simulated gate with Mikael joining the team, Milo continued his training, closing simulated gates and training with Mikael. He absorbed the techniques extremely quickly and soon could be considered an intermediate level swordsman. Mikael was impressed by his progress and was happy to see how seriously Milo pushed himself to learn. He was on track to be an amazing gatecrasher after he got out of school. One day while practicing Mikael made a shocking proposal.

"How about a spar?" he asked Milo.

Hearing Mikael asking to spar with him Milo was debating whether he should or not. Mikael was unimaginably strong and would easily handle Milo. If it was a real fight to the death, Milo didn't think he'd last for even a second.

It was then that a familiar pinging noise could be heard, and a system screen appeared.

[Notice]

(New Quest Generated): Surpassing your Master

(Description): Defeat your master in a sparring match.

(Time Limit): None

(Rewards): Hidden

(clear)

Hearing the ping and seeing the quest message in front of him, Milo gulped. The system wanted him to fight with Mikael 1 on 1 and even said he needed to win to complete the quest. Milo thought about what he should do, and reluctantly decided to go through with the spar. The two would be doing the spar in the simulation, that way neither of them could be injured in the real world. Milo wasn't sure if this would allow him to clear the quest but figured it'd be safer, just in case Mikael went too hard and accidentally killed him.

Once the two were situated in a closed lobby where no one else could join. Mikael said that Milo could start a countdown. Once it reached 0, the two would begin to battle. Milo was still a bit unsure about all this, but decided to steel his nerves and instead of being nervous, to use this as a chance to learn.

Mikael thought that reading Milo was very easy, as almost all of the time, the emotion he was feeling could be seen on his face. Once he went from a sort of solemn, nervous look to one of determination, he knew Milo had decided to give it his all. The countdown was then started and when it reached zero, Milo charged in, he knew how powerful Mikael's attacks were and thought that maybe if he closed the distance and forced him on the defense, then he wouldn't be able to attack.

The two of them made a promise to not use abilities and instead allow Milo to focus on using the sword by itself. This was important for instances just like the day before where he couldn't use his main ability due to it being nullified by a resistance or type of gate. But also allowed him to train himself not to rely solely on his ability. By focusing on training both his ability and weapon training separately, Milo would be able to use both at a higher level individually which in turn would allow him to use them together at a higher level.

Once Milo got close, he struck out towards Mikael attempting to slash down between his neck and shoulder. Before the attack could reach though, Mikael struck the blade with his own, knocking it away. Milo continued to charge in and strike, Mikael would defend the same way, using his sword to hit the blade of Ghoul's Bane away from his torso. Milo was trying to think of what he could do to break through Mikael's defense and when doing so he paused for a second between his attacks.

Mikael took no time jumping onto the offensive once Milo became lost in thought. He struck out with his own blade, attempting to slash Milo across the stomach. Milo could see where the attack would land and put his sword up to block the slash. Once Mikael's weapon got in close, its direction changed however, leaving a laceration on Milo's arm. Milo was confused at how the attack hadn't been deflected and once again went to block Mikael's attack. Just like the first attack however Milo received more damage. Mikael was obviously baiting Milo into blocking certain parts of his body, so Milo chose to once again push the attack. Milo chose this time to try and combine the techniques he learned from the system with the ones he learned from Mikael. By using the flowing attacks and finishing with strong strikes he thought maybe he may stand a chance.

Milo started by using a rising strike, Mikael dodged it quite easily, but Milo continued pushing. He turned the blade going in for a slash across Mikael's chest, to defend, he swung his own sword, knocking Milo's arm upward. This was exactly what Milo wanted, he then swapped into a strong slash downward. Mikael wasn't expecting this change in style and was unable to block in time, forcing him to parry the strike so it didn't hit him in a vital spot. Milo's strike missed, only creating a gash on Mikael's arm. The strong strike then continued into the ground, causing dust and debris to be sent into the air. Milo hadn't used an ability, the sheer power he exerted in that strike came from the level of his strength stat alone. It seemed like this strike caused Mikael to up his game a bit as he finished off Milo quite quickly after.

After Milo logged off following his loss, Mikael looked at the deep gash in the ground created from Milo's strike and smiled. His arm still felt numb from trying to absorb the blow. In the end all he could do was divert the strike to make it nonfatal.

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"Phew, just how strong is that kid?" he said to himself.

Following the spar, Milo and his team were sent to two more live C ranked gates which were considerably easier after training more and more. They had cut down their closing time quite a bit and Milo was becoming more and more deadly with his new weapon of choice. His decision making inside the gates was much better and his switching between sword and whip modes was much more fluid while in combat as well.

After closing the two gates Milo had leveled up another 3 times and he had also finally plundered Seamus's ability Soul Siphon which allowed him to leech power from the beasts he had been fighting. It worked extremely well and gave Milo an even easier time when fighting opponents.

He had also received more essence cores and commissions for closing the gates. The gates they closed were on the lower end of the C rank so the cores weren't that powerful but that wasn't a big deal to Milo. As long as they were high enough to raise his magic power stat, then it'd be worth it in his eyes.

He hadn't made any major purchases or changes to his equipment, and instead chose to save up the credits he received. There were a lot of expensive things one would need while gate crashing, and if he didn't have a good amount of savings for when he'd need it, he'd be screwed, so saving for now was the best option in his mind.

After the level ups in the gate, Milo had reached level 34 and was soon reaching his goal.

[Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder]

Name: Milo Fenix

Title: [None]

Level: 34

Gold: 175

Armor Rating: 1650

Abilities[4 / 6]:

1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 8)

2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 9)

3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 5)

4 - Hunter's Eye - Allows the user to overlay their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 8)

5 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 6)

6 - empty -

7 - empty -

[Stats]

Free Stat Points: [0]

Strength: [53]

Agility: [48]

Intelligence: [53]

Stamina: [61]

Constitution: [48]

Magic Power: [53]

[clear]

After absorbing the 9 rare cores he got from closing the gates, his Magic Power stat had reached 53, and after reaching level 34 he had gotten one of his stats to 60. His abilities had also increased in level. The final change that came with increasing his magic power, came in the form of opening another ability slot for him to use. Overall, he had gotten another boost, he was one level away from his end of summer goal, and he was 7 points away from his magic power stat goal. Once he had absorbed the cores, he had also revealed another new skill from the system…