A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (13 page)

Josh shrugs and glances at the sword once
more. He seems amused more than anything else, but there's a
wariness that sits around the edges of his eyes that wasn't there
before.

"Shall we get going? I want to grab a coffee
at the maid-cat cafe after this."

"Sounds like a plan," Josh says.

They step around the corner and the first
thing that happens is they are attacked.

A small sigh spider, about as big as a
reasonable size dog, steps out from behind a rock outcrop and leaps
at Josh. He steps aside and jokingly holds up his ropes as if he's
a matador enraging a bull with his cape.

"Let's see what you can do, new guy. Why don’t
you kill that spider?"

Harry tries to take a swipe at the thing, but
it manages to slip past his blade and latch onto his thigh. He
cries out in fear as he feels the small legs of the spider latch on
to him.

Axel saves him by kicking the little beastie
off, but it’s already too late. His armor is just as raggedy as
before and the little creature has managed to bite him rather
deeply.

"Ouch, that's got to sting. You know some of
these things are poisonous right?"

The beast jumps at him and he slashes out with
his sword. He manages to cleave off its leg, but overbalances and
falls to one knee in the process. The creature jumps onto his face
and begins biting him right in the middle of the
forehead.

Josh cracks up in laughter and Axel gives him
a look that says she is not impressed. The wizard sighs and points
his finger at the spider. A single laser beam chops the spider in
two, but he accidentally chops off the end of Harry's nose in the
process of killing the little creature.

"You're not very good at fighting," he says,
conversationally to Harry, who is holding the pixilated red spot
where his nose was a moment ago.

"He's
no class
. Trust me, he’s better
than he looks,” Axel says, giving Harry an understanding look. “He
lost his Pig Sticker recently and... well... you can see there's a
bit of an adaption going on with the new weaponry."

Josh looks amused and smiles at
Harry.

"I never thought anyone would be stupid enough
to become a
no class
in a test situation, but I guess there
are idiots everywhere.”

"Who are you calling..."

Harry is saved from becoming laser fodder by a
noise above them. They all look up and note the huge spider jumping
down from the roof.

Josh sucks in a breath and yanks Harry
backwards as the creature swipes out at him. Axel reaches for her
bow, but Josh puts upper hand.

"Retreat for now. This one is out of our
league.”

They edge back into the area where the portal
is still faintly glowing in the darkness. The spider disappears
back into the dark and doesn’t follow them.

Josh drops Harry to the stone floor, where he
lies moaning in pain as his nose slowly heals.

"Why did we back out?"

"Some of the spiders here are of a very high
level. It may not look it, but that one just now could have had us
for lunch, even with all three of us.”

"This area doesn't seem very safe," Harry
mutters from the floor.

"Don't worry, you’ll get used to it
eventually," Josh says, patting him on the head. "If we can't get
what I want from this place today then I’m going to put you on a
diet and come back every single day from then onwards."

Harry moans and Josh laughs.

"Don’t worry, I know where to find it. I just
can't get at it on my own unfortunately."

They walk into a nearby tunnel, when Harry is
healed enough to move, and Josh leads the way. Small spiders attack
and, every single time they do, he pushes Harry to the front with
the excuse of feeling a little lazy today.

Harry swings and cuts and slashes with his new
weapon as much as he can. It cuts through pretty much anything and
after a while he gets the hang of slicing with it.

They stop for a break and Josh sets Harry to
practicing strokes with his weapon. Josh and Axel share a few cups
of the brownish liquid and it isn’t long before they're crying
“1-2-1-2-1-2” as Harry tries his best to control the heavy
weapon.

Eventually, getting bored of playing with the
rather poor swordsman, Axel comes over and guides him through a few
basic strokes. Josh even gets involved and proves himself to be
quite an effective sword instructor. After awhile Harry is almost
able to manage a rather basic combination without falling over.
It’s an achievement and even Josh admits he’s a fast
learner.

With Harry slightly better trained, they move
onwards. Twice large spiders attack them and each time Josh urges
them to run. Two hours of grinding after, they find themselves in
an area with lots of smaller spiders. Josh gets more and more
excited as they go and, eventually, he is urging them forward at an
even greater pace down the hallways as whatever his goal is draws
closer.

After many twists, turns and near death
experiences, they finally come to a wall with a small hole in it.
Josh walks over to it and tries to push his hand inside, but it
appears his hand is just too big.

"That’s it? That’s why you need someone with a
skinny body?" Axel says, holding back some laughter.

Josh holds up his hands and Harry notes that
he has big palms and thick fingers. It explains quite well why he
can't get his hand inside the hole in front of them.

Josh looks to Axel, but she shakes her
head.

"I'm not sticking my hand anywhere I don’t
have to. If I know you, there’s a small spider or some trap inside
and it’ll take off my wiping hand."

Josh rolls his eyes and gestures for Harry to
take his turn. His hand isn't much smaller than Josh's, but it is
just about right to get most of the way in. With some forcing, he
finds himself able to grab a small lever at the very end and he
flicks it so that it is in a downwards position.

The wall opens to their left and Josh walks
inside. A burst of flame appears from his hand and the cobwebs
inside catch alight. Harry and Axel can see a small vial sitting on
top of a pedestal in the room that is covered in
cobwebs.

"Human experiment, I need you to go and get
that vial for me."

Axel looks to Harry and shrugs. She has no
idea what he is up to either.

Josh sits down on the floor in a cross-legged
position and begins to chant with his hands together. A bluish
light surrounds him and Axel as Harry walks over to the vial. He
reaches out and picks it up and the room starts to
shake.

With a mighty crack, a wall falls inwards and
one of the largest spiders they have seen so far hops through. It
has a nasty red line running down its back and it immediately
starts to chase Harry around the room as he holds the vial out in
front of him.

"Care to help me with this?" he
yells.

Josh puts his hand over Axel’s arm as she
reaches for her bow.

"We are way too weak to defeat that thing,” he
says. “However, it is a great opportunity for him to learn a little
magic.”

He waits until Harry comes close and then
yells out to him, "Harry, the secret to magic in this game is the
same as the secret of meditation. Do you remember meditation from
history class?"

Harry narrowly avoids being bitten and yells
back that he does.

"If you can calm your mind and focus on an
item fully enough, you can send a message to the game that allows
for a spell to be cast," he says. "The most basic spell, and most
useful for you right now, that I can teach you is from the fire
mage line. All you need to do is believe that your blade is a
flaming rocket as you strike at the creature and it will become
just like one.”

Harry gives him a concerned look, yet tries
his best. There was a whole lecture series that lasted six months
on religious activities when he was two years old and meditation
techniques had been easier to understand than the other weird stuff
human’s used to do.

He steadies his breath and focuses on the
length of the sword. It immediately becomes heavier in his hands
and he nearly has to drag it behind him.

Struggling to continue running, he focuses on
the blade becoming gleaming red hot and a burst of fire coming from
it. Nothing happens, but as he spins and cuts out at the creature,
a small red line appears at the tip.

Josh claps his hands and cries out in
excitement. Even Axel seems pretty impressed.

"I never expected you to be able to actually
do something, meat pack. Just make it bigger and stronger and
you’re there!”

Harry turns back to the creature and stops
running. He lifts his blade as the creature slows on seeing him
ready for it and focuses as hard as he can on it. The weapon
becomes unbearably heavy and he struggles to keep it up, but he can
feel something happening.

Trying his hardest to imagine the red flame
that he saw rushing from the weapon earlier, he strikes forward
with a reasonablely well aimed thrust that slams straight out from
his body. As he does, something in the sword snaps and suddenly his
life trickles down to zero.

Last Dance
Activated
.

He slips past the creature with a gigantic
roaring fire flowing behind him in line with his strike. The wave
of heat is enough to burn the spider to a crisp and follows on to
do the same to Harry. He dies immediately and wakes up in a strange
looking circle, which is apparently only a short distance from Cat
Town.

A portal opens right next to him and Axel
jumps through, her red hair on fire and her clothing blackened. She
rushes over to Harry and yanks him upwards to look into his
face.

"What the hell did you just do?"

Josh steps through with his robes burning and
what looks to be severe burns on his body.

"That's quite a weapon you have there.
Whatever you just did add amplified the spell a few dozen times, if
not more. You melted the walls and the spider with it. We barely
survived, even inside a Rank 10 Protective Spell, which is no mean
feat.”

He smiles broadly and casts a quick spell that
heals his body and Axel’s. His robes are still a mess, but they
both look a lot better.

"You are going to make for a wonderful
experiment, sword fighter," he says, leaning down and patting Harry
on the head in the same way that one might pat a small white rat
before it is injected with a death serum.

Harry sighs. He can already sense the pain
that is coming and he’s not half wrong.

*****

The cafe is quite a surprise. It's a weird
sort of place with fluffy eared cat girls dressed in maid's
uniforms, which seem slightly too short. Harry has been staring
since he got into the place, and perhaps he is starting to
understand the appeal of Cat Town.

"So the problem is you've gone into the game
as a no class. If you had chosen a class earlier on then none of
this would be a problem, but there's not much you can do about it
until level 20," Josh explains.

"Level 20?"

"Yes, at level 20 you can choose to change
class. However, it's probably not a good idea in your case as you
will lose all of the skills and experience that you have already
obtained. The game will basically delete everything you've learnt
on your own and you'll have to start training all over again, which
takes time."

"So, in your opinion, what would be the best
thing for me to do to up my survival rate?"

"Well aside from buying some new armor, which
by the way is a very important thing, I would focus on a
consolidated approach."

"That was what I was thinking too," Axel butts
in as she sips on her coffee and watches in amusement as a rather
fat geeky looking man stares longingly at a particular beautiful
cat girl.

"How would I go about that?"

"Well, it's fairly simple. Basically, I would
focus completely on improving your sword work, while working to
learn magic that enhances your weapon abilities."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Has
anyone done it before?"

"You wouldn't be the first and you probably
won't be the last. I don't think we'll have any problems in getting
you up to speed. It'll only take about a month.

"A month?"

Axel and Harry look at each other across the
table. They share a concerned look.

"Is there any way to do it faster?"

"Yes, but it's highly unsafe."

Highly unsafe
sounds bad, yet what's
waiting for Harry outside in the real world is much worse. He is
ready to try anything.

"How much can we cut down if we do the unsafe
method?"

"I'm not really sure. It could be the same
amount of time or it could be less. It is all up to
you."

Harry sits back and for the first time takes a
sip of his coffee. He has a thoughtful look on his face and for
once he's feeling a little bit more confident in himself and his
ability to survive this game. With the help of Josh it's quite
possible that he can survive long enough to make the money he needs
to pay off his gambling debts. If he can only try hard enough then
he'll make it through.