Second World Online

In just fifteen minutes half the time it usually took me walking normally the two of us had arrived at the northern border. The pine forest slowly thinned out, replaced by steep, barren rocky cliff formations that radiated a dense aura.

Below us, a vast gorge lay stretched out, filled with primitive camps made of animal skins and giant bones. Black smoke billowed from their campfires.

Around the camp, dozens of humanoid monsters wandered about. They had burly, thick-muscled green bodies, with tusks protruding from their lower jaws. They were the Orcs. Each of them carried a giant stone mace or a blunt axe.

I hid behind a large boulder on the edge of the cliff, activating my [Eagle Eye] to scan their statuses.

[Orc Warrior - Level 13]

[Orc Berserker - Level 15]

"Perfect monsters," I whispered while pulling the masterpiece Whispering Ash Recurve Bow from behind my back. I stroked my glossy wooden bow, feeling the magical elemental power pulsing within it.

I looked toward Alya who was crouching beside me. Her tail wagged full of anticipation.

"Listen to the strategy, Yuuki," I called using her game ID to build battle focus. "Orcs have high physical defense and thick HP, but their movements and mace attacks are very slow. Never let them get close, because one solid hit from them can put your HP in critical condition."

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: Understood! I will use my running speed to draw their attention.

"Exactly," I took an ironwood arrow with a steel tip from my quiver, then nocked it on the spider silk bowstring. "You run in circles around them, shoot your fire magic to make them angry and keep chasing you. Focus on dodging. Don’t stay still for more than two seconds."

I drew my bowstring until it touched my jaw, letting the wind element begin to gather, swirl, and compress at the tip of my arrow, creating a sharp whistling sound. [Piercing Gale Arrow] was ready.

"While you dance with them... let your Brother’s arrows do the talking from the darkness," I said with a cold smirk.

Alya nodded. With one light leap, the little white fox darted down from the cliff, welcoming the horde of death-bringing giants below. The most brutal Experience harvest session this afternoon had just begun!

Alya’s landing at the bottom of the gorge made absolutely no sound. Her soft paw pads muffled the impact against the dusty ground. She lowered her posture, crept behind the rocks, and quickly approached a patrol group consisting of three [Orc Warriors] who were engrossed in eating a giant piece of roasted meat.

From atop the cliff, I monitored her every movement through the lens of [Eagle Eye]. The gold ring in my iris spun, locking onto the three green targets simultaneously, marking the weak points on their heads, necks, and knee joints with a faint red glow.

"Come on, Yuuki. Show me your four-legged motor adaptation skills," I muttered slowly, holding the tension on my bowstring.

Down below, the white fox didn’t hide any longer. She jumped out from behind the rock, stood tall on all four legs, and opened her small jaws. A glowing red magic rune circle formed in front of her snout. The air around her instantly distorted from a heatwave.

WUUUSH!

A fireball shot out at high speed, striking right in the middle of the group of eating Orcs!

BAM!

A small fire explosion occurred, burning the Orcs’ coarse hair and scorching their lunch meat. Red damage numbers [-85 Magic Damage] popped up above the heads of the three monsters. The attack wasn’t fatal, but its primary function wasn’t to kill, rather for one absolute goal in MMO tactics: Drawing Aggro.

The three Orcs roared in anger. Their eyes turned fierce, glaring at the snow-white furred creature that had just ruined their meal.

"GROOAAARR!!"

With heavy footsteps that made the gorge ground tremble, the three green giants raised their stone maces and charged to attack Alya.

However, Alya didn’t panic. Following my instructions, she immediately turned around and spurred her run. The running speed of a pure Beast was truly terrifying. She darted like a white flash, running in a wide circle, maintaining a safe distance of about five meters from the reach of the Orcs’ mace swings.

Every time the leading Orc swung his axe cleaving the air, Alya nimbly performed zigzag maneuvers. She twisted her flexible body, planted her feet on a rock, jumped, and simultaneously spewed another [Fireball] toward her pursuer’s face.

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: Hahaha! They’re so stupid, Brother! Their movements are like turtles, so easy to dodge!

I smirked reading the party message popping up in the corner of my vision. "Good job, bait them toward eleven o’clock. Don’t let their formation spread out."

Now, the stage was set. The decoy actor was performing her dance perfectly. It was my turn, the shadow executioner, to drop the execution hammer.

I focused all my senses. My first target was the Orc running at the very front, closest to Alya’s tail. The distance from the cliff to the gorge floor was about a hundred meters. With a moderate wind blowing, I shifted my aiming angle slightly to the left to provide ballistic compensation.

The remaining Skill Points I used to perform a breakthrough on my wind element yesterday would be tested this very second.

[Piercing Gale Arrow] and [Power Shot] resonated within the body of the Rare rarity bow in my hand. Unlike the usual wind drill vortex, this time, the wind element solidified, wrapping the entire ironwood arrow shaft to form a sort of cannon projectile emitting a bright green light. The air pressure around me was sucked in toward the bow, whipping my Elf hair wildly.

"Die."

My finger released the spider silk string.

ZWWAAANNNG!

A small sonic boom erupted at the edge of the cliff where I stood. The arrow didn’t just shoot; it tore through the air, leaving a blindingly bright green trail of light like a comet falling from the sky.

In less than a fraction of a second, the deadly wind projectile struck the leading Orc Warrior’s temple with brutally clinical accuracy.

CRASH!!

[FATAL CRITICAL! - 1,150 Physical & Magic Damage!]

The effect of the Piercing Gale wasn’t just penetration. When the arrow hit the target’s skull, the storm compressed within it exploded outward! The Orc’s head shattered into pieces, turning into digital particles. But that wasn’t all; the wind shockwave unleashed an AoE attack in the form of sharp air blades spreading to a two-meter radius, slashing the bodies of the other two Orcs running right behind the first victim!

[Splash Damage: -320 Damage]

[Splash Damage: -315 Damage]

The two Orcs hit by the shockwave were thrown down, their HP instantly chipped away by more than half. The body of the first Orc, who lost its head, slowly vanished, leaving behind a pile of silver coins and material drops.

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: WOOOOAAHH!! BROTHER!! WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE WAS THAT?! MY XP BAR JUST JUMPED A QUARTER!

Because we were in the same Party, Experience distribution was shared automatically. Killing a Level 13 monster while Alya was still at Level 8 provided an incredibly massive double-level EXP bonus!

I quickly nocked a second arrow. Without bothering to use Power Shot which consumed stamina, I simply used the fast, standard [Wind Arrow].

Swiss! Swiss!

Two ordinary arrows shot out almost simultaneously, embedding themselves in the throats of the two Orcs who were just trying to stand back up due to the shockwave from my first shot. Their remaining HP was instantly swept clean. The three patrol Orcs were annihilated in less than twenty seconds since the battle began.

"This is just the beginning, little fox," my smile bloomed full of hunter’s adrenaline. "Pull more! I have a lot of MP, and a bottle of mana potion left over from my alchemy experiment earlier. Bring ten Orcs to me at once!"

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: Ready to execute, Commander!

For the next thirty minutes, the Northern Gorge truly turned into a one-sided slaughterhouse.

Alya acted like a deadly magnet. With her running speed unmatched by Slow Fighter-type monsters, she ran deeper into the camp area, spewing fire magic in various directions, and dragging mobs of five to ten Orcs out to the open area at the base of my cliff.

Our battle formation never failed.

Down below, a white fox drew zigzag lines across the sandy dust, followed by a horde of ferocious monsters shouting in anger. Up on the cliff, the Elf Sniper fired volleys of death arrows.

One by one, the Orcs fell like dry leaves battered by a storm. [Piercing Gale Arrow] proved to be an incredibly efficient crowd-clearing tool. Every time Alya managed to herd them into a tight cluster, I would unleash a fully charged shot. The area explosion from the arrow would tear through their HP en masse, letting Alya finish off the rest with Fireballs.

[System: You have successfully killed an Orc Berserker - Level 15.]

[System: You have successfully killed an Orc Warrior - Level 13.]

[Party System: Party Member ’Yuuki’ has reached Level 9!]

Ting! The sound of golden bells signifying a level up echoed from Alya’s body down below. She howled cheerfully and grew even more enthusiastically running circles around the remaining enemies.

However, playing with fire for too long will inevitably invite danger.

In the fortieth minute of our hunt, a small mistake occurred. Alya, who was too enthusiastic pulling Aggro, didn’t realize she had baited a new monster variant blending in among the crowd.

Suddenly, two figures of [Orc Javelin Thrower - Level 14] emerged from behind a large bone tent. Unlike their comrades who carried maces, these two monsters carried long, sharp throwing spears.

They didn’t chase Alya. They held their steps, drew their right hands back, and prepared to aim at the little fox who was running sideways. The trajectory of their throws had locked onto Alya’s running route!

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: Brother! There’s someone playing throwing games!

"I see them. Don’t stop running, silly fox, duck!" I yelled, reflexively using long-distance Voice Chat.

My right hand moved with a speed that broke the boundaries of normalcy granted by my [Bow Mastery Level]. I drew two arrows simultaneously in one pull of the bowstring. Without time to gather excess Mana, I relied purely on Dexterity and the instincts of my eyes.

Wuuuuut! Wuuuuut!

Two javelins shot out from the Orcs’ hands below, parting the air straight toward Alya’s body.

However, almost simultaneously, the twang of my silk bowstring broke the cliff’s silence. My two ironwood arrows plummeted with artificial gravity accelerated by thin wind magic.

Clang! CRACK!

An impossible demonstration of accuracy occurred. My first arrow struck dead center on the wooden shaft of the first javelin in mid-air, shattering the projectile’s balance until it veered off course and crashed into the ground. My second arrow pierced the chest of the second Orc Javelin Thrower a fraction of a second before he released his weapon, sending his throw soaring aimlessly high into the sky.

The little fox down there survived without a single scratch. She immediately retaliated by shooting a [Fireball] right into the face of the first javelin-throwing Orc who was still surprised his weapon was deflected.

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: Crazy! Is your aim even legal, Brother?! Thank you!

"Focus, Al! Don’t chat!" I smiled in satisfaction, wiping a drop of sweat from my virtual forehead. Deflecting a flying projectile with another arrow truly drained my Eagle Eye concentration to its limit.

A pile of Orc corpses now littered the gorge floor. Loot such as coins, tusks, and coarse leather lay scattered covering the dust. My playtime had been running for ninety minutes.

"Only thirty minutes left," I muttered while opening the status panel. "My EXP bar has already touched the halfway mark to level 15. Meanwhile Alya, she just needs about 15% more to touch the sacred boundary of Level 10. We need one big catch."

As if the system read my desire, the gorge suddenly trembled violently.

DOOONG!! DOOONG!!

The sound of a drum made from giant animal skin beating echoed from the direction of the largest tent located at the farthest end of the camp. A gust of hot wind smelling of metallic blood swept across the entire cliff area, making my avatar’s neck hairs stand up.

From behind the curtain of that camp, stepped out an Orc whose size was twice as massive as an ordinary Berserker. Its skin wasn’t green, but brick red covered in black tattoo paintings. It didn’t wear armor, but a coat made from giant wolf fur, and in its hand it grasped a black wooden staff whose tip emitted the glow of dark element magic.

A purple ID floated above its head:

[Orc Blood-Shaman - Elite Level 16]

"Well, here he is. The camp boss," I hissed softly, pressing my body closer against the cliff rocks. "A Caster-type Elite monster."

Seeing the pile of its clan’s corpses, the Blood-Shaman roared thunderously to the sky. It slammed its staff hard into the ground. A wave of blood-red energy spread out, hitting the roughly dozen remaining living Orcs in the camp.

[System: Orc Blood-Shaman uses ’Bloodlust Awakening’.]

[System: All Orcs in the area gain Buff: +50% Movement Speed, +50% Attack Damage, ignores pain.]

The eyes of the remaining dozen Orcs suddenly glowed blood red. The veins on their bodies bulged wildly, and their body sizes swelled. Without warning, they all locked their gazes onto the only player on the ground: Alya the white fox!

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: BROTHER!! THEY BECAME SO FAST!! HELP!!

Panic was clearly depicted in Alya’s inner voice. The Orcs that previously moved as slow as turtles, were now running at insane sprinting speeds, almost matching Alya’s base speed. Five Orc Berserkers with glowing red eyes chased her from all directions, trying to pin her against a dead-end cliff wall!

"Damn, my range can’t cover five directions at once!" I cursed, quickly standing up from behind the rocks.

I had to change my shooting position so I could see the entire ambush area. Without hesitation, I channeled my remaining mana and activated [Wind Walk]. High-pressure air enveloped my feet. I instantly jumped off the stone cliff where I was hiding, descending the steep rocks by leaping from one stone ledge to another like a ninja.

Within three seconds, I was already atop a much lower stone pillar, gaining a perfect straight line of sight toward the group of Orcs surrounding my sister.

The Blood-Shaman in the distance began chanting magic from his staff. A black fireball started forming above his head, locking its target on the cornered little fox. If that black fireball and the Berserkers’ axes hit simultaneously, Alya would be Instant Killed with nothing left!

"I won’t let you ruin my party, ugly shaman!" I yelled, planting my feet firmly atop the stone pillar.

I didn’t shoot his minions. My eyes, aided by Eagle Eye, locked dead center on the forehead of the Blood-Shaman who was almost two hundred meters away from me. An extreme shooting range impossible to be reached by an ordinary player.

I drained my remaining MP without remainder, activating the combination of [Piercing Gale Arrow], [Power Shot], and [Vital Shot] simultaneously. The Whispering Ash bow in my hand screamed loudly, its wood fibers emitting a blinding silver-blue light, holding back terrifying resonance pressure. All the wind element around the gorge was sucked into the tip of my arrow, forming a miniature storm cocoon.

Time seemed to slow down. I held my breath. My pulse became one with the blowing wind.

ZWWWWAAAAAAASSHHH!!!! BOOOOOOM!!

As the string was released, it wasn’t just an arrow that shot out, but a vertical mini tornado spinning horizontally tearing through the battlefield. The grass and sand of the gorge parted violently.

The Blood-Shaman didn’t even have time to finish his chant. The arrow tornado slammed into the Elite monster’s face with absolute power.

[CRITICAL OVERKILL! - 1,850 Magic & Physical Damage!]

[Weakness Exploited: Target Casting Interrupted!]

The monster’s head shattered to pieces. The explosion of wind element unleashed post-impact created an area storm that blew the giant tent behind it to smithereens. The leader’s body collapsed, exploding into a truly massive vortex of gold and purple digital particles.

As soon as their Caster died, the glowing red buffs in the eyes of the Orc Berserkers surrounding Alya instantly extinguished. Their bodies shrank, and their movements drastically slowed down again, almost tripping over their own feet due to losing the momentum of the Bloodlust power.

Utilizing the gap of the Orcs’ confusion, Alya didn’t waste the opportunity.

The fox jumped into the air, spewing a barrage of [Fireballs] blindly from close range right into the faces of those confused Orcs, triggering chain explosions that burned away their remaining HP!

One by one, the horde of red Orcs collapsed, turning into digital ashes and coin money falling like a rain of metal.

Silence instantly enveloped the northern gorge which had been completely wiped clean of monsters.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

[System: You have successfully defeated [Orc Blood-Shaman - Elite Level 16] (Party Kill)!]

[System: You gained 1,500 EXP!]

However, the most beautiful notification sound didn’t appear on my screen, but rather from a bright golden pillar of light that suddenly descended from the sky blanketing the body of the white fox down there.

(Party Chat) [Yuuki]: AAAAAA!!! BROTHER!!! LEVEL TEN!!! I’M LEVEL TEN!!!

Alya’s joyous scream nearly shattered my eardrums on the communication channel. She jumped around wildly, rolling on top of the pile of gold coins from the Elite monster’s loot.

I smiled in relief, released the remaining tension from my arm muscles, then jumped down from the stone pillar approaching the shaman’s Loot pile.

There, a dark-colored magic staff glowing blue (Rare), along with a dozen super-quality Orc skins, awaited me.

I glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes left. More than enough time to gather all this treasure and Log out peacefully.

"You did it, little fox. Now, hurry back to the city’s safe zone tonight in the real world, and use that legendary stone. I am very curious to see your exotic race evolution tomorrow," I said with unparalleled satisfaction.

The job of a protective older brother today had been completed with highly satisfying results. The Whispering Forest and the Northern Gorge had witnessed how these two players in the virtual world were slowly weaving their own legends.