Level Up

A Guardian who successfully deflects an enemy's attack and lands a counter while using the skill Defensive Stance will learn a skill called Parrying.

In the game, the requirement was simple enough: deal valid damage to an enemy one hundred times while Defensive Stance was active.

The problem was that the no-skill version of parrying—the basic timing window the game handed you by default—was brutally tight. For the people known as button-mashers, it was a notoriously miserable hurdle.

Which was how the Goblin Batting Cage grind was born.

You surrounded yourself with goblin throwers, wedged a coin under the parry button to hold it down, switched off the monitor, and went to bed. Probability would eventually land you enough successful parries that the derived skill Parrying unlocked on its own.

In the game, it had been an incredibly convenient grind.

"Haaah…"

In reality, it was enough to make a man sigh out loud.

"Kerrek…"

"Kerk…"

"Keek, keek…"

For one thing, real goblins were not the brain-dead fodder they had been in the game. The moment they decided a fight wasn't worth it, they ran. So I had tied them to trees so they couldn't escape and set them up to throw rocks at me, then kept using Taunt so their hostility wouldn't cool off.

But unlike the game, stamina was a real problem, and their aim was garbage. Skill proficiency was climbing far more slowly than I had hoped. At this rate, it would take longer than just wedging a coin under the button and sleeping through it—a conclusion I reached with no small amount of regret. There was nothing to be done about it, and that was the frustrating part.

The target has to be hostile, huh.

If not for that condition, I would have just had Bern throw rocks at me…

I gathered stones in a daze and tossed them back at the goblins' feet.

"Kerk?!"

Then, to stoke what little hostility the exhausted goblins still had left, I gave each of them a good smack on the head and used Taunt.

"Woooaaaaah—!!!"

Once. Twice. Three times. Four.

Whish, whoosh!

The goblin pack started hurling rocks again. Their control was still nothing to celebrate, but proficiency was climbing, one way or another.

"Woooaaaah—! Uh—?"

A warm heat bloomed in my right hand, and a green light overflowed from it.

Huh? Ah…

It wasn't Parrying proficiency. I had been so busy counting parries that I had forgotten—somewhere along the way, I had used Taunt more than a hundred times.

I had finished the class-change event early that morning, spoken with my father, and been at the hunting grounds ever since. An hour of Pill Bug Training, then more than two hours of Batting Cage work with Taunt running the whole time. A hundred uses was more than enough to clear.

"Aaaah, aaaaah~"

I had been screaming for three hours straight, and somehow my throat didn't hurt. By rights it should have been raw by now, producing some kind of unholy croak.

So skills really are skills, huh?

A curious phenomenon.

The newly acquired skill was called Battle Cry. It raised allied morale to cut stamina drain and lowered enemy morale to tank their accuracy. Unlike Taunt, using it left me feeling faintly dazed for a moment.

MP consumption.

In this world, they called it the expenditure of spiritual force.

"Kerrek…"

"Kek, keek…"

"Kieeek, keek!"

As a mana-consuming skill, it was far stronger than anything that only ate stamina. But the goblins and I were both Level 1. At roughly equal levels, a Battle Cry wasn't enough to make them drop their rocks in terror, shake like leaves, and wet themselves…

Or so I thought.

Crack.

A heavy weight snapped a tree branch with a sound that was far too loud for Bern, the gamekeeper and Ranger, to have made. I turned my head slightly—and there was a bear.

Its fur was a deep brown, though short on density, and its eyes looked like those of a salaryman who had just pulled three consecutive all-nighters. All that nonstop Taunt for skill proficiency had, apparently, woken a hibernating bear I never meant to involve.

—Hey, you sons of bitches! You all wanna die?! Huh?! Who's the warden?! You, you bastards—get the warden out here right now!!!

That was the look. The same look I had seen in a past life on a production-line worker who did three shifts and was one construction-site racket away from completely losing it. The bear's eyes were a perfect match.

"GROOOOAAAR!!!"

The bear whose hibernation had been ruined came roaring straight at me. I immediately activated Defensive Stance and braced for the charge.

In the game Path of Guardians, bears were Level ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠3, with an appropriate hunting range of Levels 1 through 3. I wasn't particularly worried.

The Barrier's still intact. I should be fine.

A Barrier equal to thirty percent of my HP scaled off the player's defense. I had solid armor, and a Barrier ready to take a surprise hit. It was a fight I couldn't lose.

"GROOOAAAAAR!"

A predator's roar rolled through the air, prickling the skin. The bear came at a speed no one would ever expect from a body that violent and heavy. Blink for half a second and the next image in your head was your throat being ripped out.

I dropped my stance lower. Watching the charge aimed straight at my skull from behind the shield, I regulated my breathing and measured the distance between us.

Three. Two. One.

Now!

From the braced posture of Defensive Stance, I turned in one smooth, flowing motion toward its flank. The bear, still charging in a dead straight line, drove its head full-force into the tree the goblin had been tied to.

"Kerngh!"

Instant death. The goblin's belly burst like a balloon, sticky chunks of flesh spraying in every direction.

Sniff, sniff.

The bear staggered for a moment under the impact to its skull, then flared its nostrils and started smelling the air.

Crunch. Grind. Smack, smack.

What had once been a goblin pitcher—now a pancake under that massive weight—twitched. The nerves were still firing. Every time the drooling bear worked its jaws, the body jerked.

"Kekerrek…"

"Ke—k, kuh!"

The remaining seven goblins stared blankly at the scene. Then half their reason snapped, and they began frantically clawing and tearing at the ropes wound around them. They were projecting themselves onto the goblin being eaten alive, nerves still sparking.

Whoa. That's vicious…

A bear that had just broken hibernation and finally gotten a proper meal was a terrifying thing. The fur around its muzzle was matted thick with blood and drool, and something ugly and red seemed to flicker in those half-glazed eyes.

There were still seven more meals laid out neatly around it. And the one thing standing between it and dinner?

Me.

Yes—the bear wanted me out of the way so it could finish eating. It came stomping over to kill me before I could move first.

This was different. It wasn't the mindless charge from before. It raised a forepaw and swung with everything it had, fully intent on ending me.

I charged right back at it, shield first.

"Grraaagh!"

The iron boss mounted dead-center on the shield smashed into the bear's wide-open face. My weight and its weight slammed together in a single blow. The hit must have landed hard—I could see that massive body rock.

"KRAAANGH!"

But it recovered in an instant, and the other paw came whipping around for my side. I scrambled backward and jammed the shield against my left ribs.

CRACK!

A sound like a tree exploding—and my body, over eighty kilograms of it, went flying like a ball and slammed into a trunk.

"Ghk…"

Even after bleeding off some of the impact by catching a little air, that was how hard it hit… A mild concussion set my stomach churning, but I could still breathe and my body still answered me.

Shsssssh.

Something red shattered off me like breaking glass. The passive Barrier granted by Shield of Faith (Lv. 1) had collapsed from a single blow.

In ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one hit? Don't tell me…

A Barrier worth three-tenths of my HP had been obliterated. That meant three more hits like the last one would leave me on death's door—or past it.

This was no ordinary bear.

My teeth clenched.

"GRRRAAAUGH!"

A blood-starved beast does not waste an opening. What had been a tiresome nuisance was now a slightly annoying piece of prey, and it pursued without hesitation. Its jaws, sticky with blood, yawned open and went for my throat.

CRUNCH!

"KRAANGH!"

The iron rim of the round shield drove straight into the space between its eyes. An unexpected counter from a target that had thought its attack had landed clean. The bear grunted and staggered back.

If I'm going to counter, it's now…!

WHACK!

It was covering its brow, but its head was still open. I slammed the edge of the shield down onto the skull—the part I guessed was relatively soft—without mercy.

One. Two. Three!

Whack. Thud. Riiip!

Iron rang against hard bone, and on the third strike something tore. The hide on its head split and blood started to run.

"GRRRRRNGH! GROOOAAAR!!!"

The sight of its own blood snapped whatever reason the beast had left. What followed wasn't an attack so much as a thrashing of forepaws driven by pure instinct. Getting caught in that would just repeat the last disaster—except this time, without the Barrier, something on my body might actually get torn open.

Don't get worked up. Stay calm and wait.

My heart was deafening. It felt like it had been bolted to my eardrums. The world went quiet, my breathing frayed, and every scrap of focus locked onto the beast in front of me.

"Hup!"

I activated Defensive Stance.

The heart that had been hammering like mad settled almost at once. The breath that combat-fever had set to racing found its rhythm again. The over-tight, over-wild posture of a body running on adrenaline smoothed itself out in seconds.

"Hoo…"

And then I saw what the excitement had made me miss.

Creeeak.

From the shield that had just taken the beast's blow came a sound like it was about to split apart. If I had kept fighting in that heated state, I didn't need to guess how it would have ended.

Calm down.

I picked up one of the two spare shields I had set aside so they wouldn't get in the way of the Goblin Batting Cage grind. A clean shield in my left hand. In my right, the one that would shatter if it took another solid hit.

"Young Master!!!"

Bern's voice carried from far off. He must have sensed something wrong in the forest, judged it an emergency, and come running. True to a veteran gamekeeper, he was already nocking an arrow to his bowstring at a full sprint, settling into a shooting stance.

"Don't shoot!!!"

I met Bern's eyes dead-on as he drew the string and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shook my head hard.

"UWOOOOOAAAH!!!"

I loosed a Battle Cry, driving spirit into a body locked tight with tension. MP drained and a faint haze settled over me—but it felt like life was flooding back into limbs that had frozen solid.

"Hup!"

Still in Defensive Stance, I leaned forward and charged.

"KRAANGH!"

One of the bear's wild, thrashing forepaws clipped the shield in my right hand. The shield shattered—and those huge, hideous claws came on through.

RIIIP!

Leather armor and gambeson tore away in ragged strips under the claws. But they never reached the skin.

"Hup!"

CRUNCH!

I barely slipped the attack and swung the left-hand shield. It drove home between the bear's eyes.

"GRRRAAAGH!"

The bear twisted and howled like it was dying of pain. I closed on it, dropping into a crouch.

Whooom!

In that split second, something heavy skimmed the air just above my head.

"AAAAAARGH!!!"

Without rising, I snatched a shard of the broken shield off the ground and drove it into the eye of the beast whose stance had dropped while it was swinging.

CRUNCH!

Blood burst out. The bear staggered back.

"Gruh—huungh, grrrlk!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

It reeled, slamming into tree after tree. An opening. I didn't hesitate—I ran in swinging the shield.

None of the blows were especially effective. To put real damage on a bear, you had to aim for the head, and it was guarding its wounds too tightly for that. Still, it wasn't a real problem.

Because what I had been after from the start was—

Fwoosh.

This.

Yes!

Green light overflowed from the back of my hand. The proficiency requirement was met. A new skill was activating.

"GROOOOOAAAR!"

Blinded and fully unhinged, the bear put everything it had left into one last strike. The power in it was nothing like before—even if I blocked with the shield, a grim premonition whispered that I would be torn apart along with it.

But the moment I settled into the Parrying stance flowing out of Defensive Stance, every scrap of that attack looked slow and dull.

In a world that almost felt like time had stopped—

Sliiiide.

—only my shield moved, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shedding the bear's blow as smoothly as water.

CRUNCH!

The shield that had flicked aside that crushing weight as if it were a feather drove into the bear's face and rammed the thick shard of wood already lodged in its eye socket in like a stake.

THUD!

The bear's massive body crashed to the ground. Before long, the twitching stopped entirely.

"Hoo…"

The heat of triumph cooled out of my limbs by degrees. I stood there drawing steady breaths—and felt a faint warmth in my right hand. At the same time, a new stroke appeared across the plain pattern on my shield.

What the people of this world called Overcoming a Trial.

I had leveled up.