The Dark Knight of Aincrad

Chapter 4: Truth

Date: April 5, 2023
Location: Mondstadt

Currently, it was already evening in Aincrad. Tons of players have already conquered another floor or two. Diluc can be seen walking down Mondstadt alone, looking up to the sky. He sees the stars, shining brightly. The red-haired teen took a deep breath and exhaled, he then took out his claymore.

"Let's go."

Running off to the forest near the city, after swinging his sword and killing some of the animals for food, he ran towards another location. It was in front of a dungeon gate. Looking around, there weren't any enemies that spawn and Diluc entered the dungeon. As soon as he materializes inside the dungeon, he was met with tons of monsters.

"Well, time for all of you to die." He declared as he rushed in. His claymore started glowing in the color red and he stabbed the ground creating a small tremor causing his enemies to be stunned, he quickly took his claymore again and swings it as the enemies were still stunned.

'{Tremor}, I need this when I'm surrounded.' Diluc made a mental note.

After finishing off the last monster deep down in the dungeon, Diluc sat down and used an item to ward off any enemies that would spawn in. As he rests, he fiddled with his skill info, swiping from the bottom to the top, looking at each skill he gained over the course of a few months.

While scrolling down all of the skills he got, he noticed a new skill. "Huh? What is this?" tapping on the skill Diluc began to read out loud. "{Sol} It allows the user to recover Hp equal to the amount of damage done to the enemy. Whoa... When did I get this? Is this for real? Or fake?" He asked himself. Scratching at the back of his head, he sighed. "Well, only one way to find out."

Placing the incense back into his inventory, Diluc started hunting down monsters, and after a while. He did find them. And there were more than he could handle. "Nope, nope, nope. Not risking it." He raised both of his hands to the air and left the area to look for other small enemies.

When he did find a small group of enemies that he can handle, he un-equipped his claymore appearing it behind his back, and walked towards the monsters. "No pain... No gain!"

The monsters saw Diluc and they all started attacking him relentlessly, as they swing their swords, their axes, and daggers, and some even unleashed their pets to attack Diluc, his health bar decreasing with every minute. As the green zone goes lower and lower, and it hits the yellow zone. Diluc took out his sword and swings it around with no regard for space whatsoever, as soon as the blade made contact with the enemy. He lopped off their heads and as soon as that happened, his health bar started rising up from the yellow zone to the green zone all the way up to full Hp.

"This... Is awesome!!!" He said so excitedly.

After that, he rushed out of the dungeon and headed back into town. When he arrived, he was greeted by Koharu who was sitting alone on the bench near the town's fountain.

"Koharu? What's the matter?"

Koharu shot up as she was surprised to hear Diluc's voice. "Oh! Diluc! I'm sorry, I didn't notice you back there."

"It's fine. You look down."

"It's nothing really."

"Come on, you can tell me. Am I not your friend and ally?"

"I mean... Yeah, I guess that's true... But, I don't know..." She was lost for words. Diluc sat down next to her and Koharu was surprised. "I guess... But are you sure? I don't want to waste your time on my problem."

"Come on, you helped me before and I want to help you this time. So, what is it?"

"I didn't really want to say this but... Diluc..."