Evening Game

Chapter 7

A boar ran through the woods, desperately trying to escape. It tripped on a branch, crashing down to the ground.

It never got up.

A merciless strike sliced it straight in the center, an ax struck the ground. The boar let out a final scream before breaking into small shards. It floated away into the skies, never to be seen again.

The game would probably make another copy of it, but for Ethan, it was as good as gone. Ethan brought his sights back from the fading shards to Chione, who pulled the beginner ax off the ground, Calista slowly clapping behind her. She sat on the ground not far from Ethan.

"Nice strike."

"Thanks."

Ethan leaned back on a tree, refusing to say anything.

"What do you think?"

Chione directed the attention toward him.

"Next."

He uttered. She opened the inventory and switched weapons. Ethan had been asking her to continuously swap weapons and swing them at a tree. She had tried a couple of weapons before. By the time it got to the ax, a boar passed by, unaware of the fate that would fall upon it.

Unlike Ethan, Chione didn't know about the weapon switch feature. Monsters in the game had an understanding of the weapons players use. Like the lion that he defeated, it could understand that a bow meant a long-range weapon with slow reloading speed. It jumped at Ethan, hoping to catch him when he was still in the process of loading the second arrow. The weapon switch allowed Ethan to switch weapons into his spear at the final second and catch the lion off guard. In essence, it was basically a system that allowed a player to call their weapon in advance and let it appear in their desired hand at an exact time, a technique that would catch their enemies by surprise. Not only was it effective against monsters and NPCs, but skilled players also used it against other players.

It was a skill that was not registered in the game's database, its existence kept secret from the public. He only knew of it after overhearing a conversation when he waited in line in the guild, and would later ask his sister to teach him. It took him time to practice, as it required not only an understanding of the game's mechanics and timing, but also an understanding of the weapon, so despite Calista insisting that he taught them how to do it, he refused.

Chione, meanwhile, went through her inventory, swapping her ax for her last weapon, a bow. The beginner's bow, like all other beginner's weapons, was made almost entirely from wood. But unlike the other weapons, It didn't have any metal piece on it, and the arrows that came with it had sharp wooden tips. They fare well against low-level monsters and could deal damage to medium-level ones, but they could do little against high-level monsters.

Chione walked back toward where Ethan was standing and put an arrow on the bow and pulled. She aimed at a small hole in a birch tree that stood twenty meters from her. It had endured several strikes from her different weapons. She let go of the string and the arrow zipped through the air, landing straight in the center of the hole, sticking itself to the tree. Calista gasped as she saw the scene unfold.

"Nice one!"

She excitedly said.

"So, which one?"

Ethan asked, although based on what he saw, he could already tell which one she would choose.

"The bow."

The marksman.

Ethan then turned toward Calista. Calista wordlessly got up, her finger going through the empty air. She brought out the beginner's sword. She stood before the tree, which still had the arrow stuck to it. With her first swing, she started her trial.