MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Raid
The winds of the winter had passed, and the warmth of spring enveloped the land.

In Dawnwatch, at Crimson Hound’s villa, sweat flew as mercenaries sparred and trained tirelessly.

Smack, smack, smack!

At the corner of the central courtyard, Adam held a wooden sword in one hand, facing a stuffed doll that served as his opponent.

He then lunged forward, slashed his training sword across the doll’s chest, and repeated the move until the doll was in tatters.

Ding, ding!

A strange dinging noise echoed in Adam’s ears, stopping him in his tracks.

[Progress: 100%]

[You’ve learned Basic Blade Handling!]

‘Finally,’ Adam thought to himself. ‘It took longer than it should’ve, as I had put most of my effort into learning Kiryoku, which I still hadn’t managed to do.’

Adam looked at the training sword in his hand and started doing simple slashes. Yet, there was something different about the way it felt in his grip today.

It felt smoother and more natural.

‘That’s much better.’ Adam’s lips curled into a slight smile.

He was very pleased.

Some newcomers ignore the basics as they are mostly focused on more powerful ones. However, the basics were the foundation of everything, and Adam knew their importance.

‘Now that my swordsmanship has improved, learning new sword skills will be much easier.’

“Everyone, gather indoors!” Dutch shouted.

Everyone stopped their training and rushed inside.

‘Oh, what’s going on?’ Adam, with curiosity, entered the small dojo and joined others to see what the commotion was about.

Dutch stood in front of the students, but he was standing strangely. He looked upright and tense.

Usually, he would look bored and even lazy. His back was barely straight but instead curved as if he were having back pain. Now, his whole demeanor was different.

The students immediately realized why and also straightened their backs.

The sliding door of the dojo opened and Digby, the guild master of Crimson Hounds, entered with a stern expression on his face.

Nowadays, he was rarely seen by other students because he was busy overseeing the operations of the guild and teaching Adam the ways of Kiryoku.

Knoxx and a few others felt very annoyed by that because they felt like Adam had special privileges even though he was only Mercenarymen.

They, as Ordergivers, thought Mercenarymen as less important and undeserving of special treatment.

Even though the difference was only one rank, there could be a difference of multiple levels. Even a single level at the lower levels would make an immense difference.

At this point, Adam was still level 1, as he hadn’t left the compound yet.

Digby walked to the front of the dojo and said, “We’ve received information that the boss of Floor 10 has finally respawned.”

Knoxx’s and a few others immediately looked excited.

“Knoxx, you’ll lead this raid, as usual.” Digby said.

“Yes, sir!” Knoxx said energetically, with a smile creeping up on his face.

‘Floor 10?’ Adam’s mind began running, and then his eyes brightened. ‘Right, that place has a golden opportunity!’

It took him some time to remember it, but once he did, his heart started beating rapidly.

‘Right, that golden opportunity will be discovered soon from a member of the Richers Guild. It would happen within a month, so this might be my only chance to get this golden opportunity.

‘I’ll have to participate in this raid somehow…’

He looked past the dozen students and straight at Digby, then he slowly raised his right arm.

The few students in his vicinity glanced at him briefly.

Digby looked over to him and nodded, allowing him to ask his question.

“May I also join the raid?” Adam asked.

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t entered floors 6, 7, 8, or 9 yet. He could even enter floor 50 if he wanted because the “door” there had already been cleared.

Every floor has a door, and once it is opened, everyone else can step through it.

At the current moment, humanity has reached floor 73. They had been working hard and tirelessly to clear floors towards the ultimate goal—floor 100.

“Oh?” Digby rubbed his chin thoughtfully and looked at Knoxx. “Knoxx, you’re the raid leader. What do you say?”

“Absolutely not!” Knoxx firmly shouted. “He doesn’t know our tactics and strategy. He would just get in the way!”

Adam frowned silently. ‘This, Knoxx, has not been very friendly to me. He has some kind of animosity toward me. That’s troublesome.’

“Hmm.” Digby mumbled under his breath and said, “Adam, do you think you are ready?”

“I am at the bottleneck with Kiryoku.” Adam said. “I believe with combat, I can overcome that.”

“Is that so…” Digby nodded. ‘Adam has insane combat talent. His body has started to react by itself, trying to dodge my attacks. It’s like his body is already predicting my moves before I even make them.

‘Still, that’s not Kiryoku, but it is close. In the past week, I have seen his lack of progress, and it could be because of the bottleneck. It was pretty impressive of Adam to realize his own bottleneck.

‘A proper life-and-death battle could prove useful to him…’

“The raid on floor 10 isn’t a game!” Knoxx shouted, his face turning red. “We’re about to face a dangerous boss!”

“Hmm…” Digby looked at Adam and asked. “What role would you like to take in the raid? Most roles have already been filled, such as damage dealer, healer, and support.”

“Not tank?” Adam questioned with a slight smile.

“We have a tank!” Knoxx looked to his left and patted the shoulder of his friend, who looked slightly timid.

His friend wasn’t tall or muscular; he was lean and short. He had a look of uncertainty in his face.

It wasn’t his choice to be a tank. It was Knoxx’s because there was no one else for the role. It was also an extremely dangerous role.

He didn’t want to be a tank, as he had already almost died because of it. It was his duty to keep the bosses busy, and he didn’t have the skill set to become one.

Digby looked at the young man and slightly shook his head. He could tell that he was one of the “forced role” takers, as there wasn’t anyone else to take the role of tank.

At that moment, Adam said, “I can be the tank, if the current tank is fine with it.”

Knoxx scoffed loudly. “Hah, we’ll be just fine with our current tank!”

“Well, are you?” Digby looked at the uncertain-looking young man.

The young man felt the sharp glare of his friend, Knoxx, but he gulped loudly and lowered his head before whispering.

“I-I am fine giving away my role as tank.”

Knoxx gritted his teeth and asked, “What the hell are you doing? You were doing just fine!”

“I don’t want to fucking die!” The young man shouted back. “This is floor 10 we’re talking about; it’s vastly more dangerous than floor 9, where I almost died. After the battle, I only had 5 health left!”

“Are you fine with being a tank?” Digby asked Adam with a worried look. “It is extremely dangerous.”

“I am confident,” Adam said with a smile.

“Alright then.” Digby nodded. “You all will depart in the morning. Prepare for the journey ahead.”

“Yes, sir!”

Adam was about to leave the dojo to get his things sorted, but at that moment, he heard a ding in his ears. It was a different-sounding ding from his previous one.

He had received a message.

It was from Serah.

It was possible to send a message from the real world to Mortal Online with a specific messaging app, which Adam downloaded on Serah’s phone so she could contact him at any moment.

After checking out the message, Adam quickly returned to his quarters.

Serah was asking for the rent payment for the following year.

‘Right, it has already been a month since I came here. I’ll get that over with, and then it’ll be time for the raid.’ Adam thought with excitement.

He had almost forgotten about the excitement of going to new raids. Even though he had cleared the floor 10 long time ago, it still felt like a fresh experience.