Read My Vrmmo Life :: Curing boredom ..... Finding your desire(Part two)

<Health, stamina, and mana will not be enabled during Basic combat tutorial>

Aspir wondered why a game that focused on skills as its mainstay would then proceed to disable all skills in a tutorial. Maybe so that players couldn't cheat and practice skills to high level in the tutorial or have an unfair advantage other over players who haven't opened the tutorial.

In front of Aspir's eyes were options of Armour ranging from wooden armours to cloth and steel, his choice was to select a light leather armour that wouldn't impede his movement as much and allow him to react accordingly before getting used to the combat system.

As for weapons he selected a basic iron sword and shield combo that allowed for stable attack and defence.

The opponents were rather lack lustre in Aspir's eyes. He was expecting humans or beast-men clad in armour swinging around towering maces or hurling devastating magic , not the apparent runts of the litter.

Across the room from Aspir a small waist height green goblin spawned in a flash of light. A torn loincloth and a rusty dagger were its only items. It's foul odour swiftly filled the room making Aspir want to gag or get the system to block his sense of smell at least.

Aspir decided to name the goblin Stench.

Stench was watching Aspir, it's ragged breath streaming through its pointed teeth , his nostrils flaring in anticipation.... it hadn't tasted manling in so long. The knife suddenly felt lighter in his hands , at the prospect of tasty meal. He pounced forward, dashing across the room licking his lips with every step as his mouth curled into a veracious smile.

Aspir was stunned by the goblins shocking speed as it dashed over, he hadn't expected it to be so decisive and commit straight to an attack. In his delay the goblins knife drew an arc as it slashed against his chest, scoring the leather armour, causing Aspir to lurch backward. Bolstered by Aspir's slow reactions Stench once again pounced forward, this time aiming for the meaty thigh before his eyes, already expecting that warm bloody sensation as he sunk his teeth into it and ripped the muscle out.

Unfortunately for stench, he was welcomed with a hard sensation of his teeth crunching and shattering on an iron shield. In Aspir's haste to save himself from being bitten he had lurched his leg back resulting in his shield arm penduluming forward and being bitten by the goblin.

Stench's miserable howl filled the room with its wailing cries , as he sprawled backwards. Not wanting to miss this chance Aspir stepped forward and swung his sword with all his might, aiming to kill the goblin there and then. Stench squealed in panic tossing himself to the side, only to feel blistering pain envelope the side of his head. His pointed ear left where his head had previously been.

Stench's eyes filled with red as it grew angry , how dare this tasty looking manling attempt to kill Stench. How he wanted to grind this manling into a meaty bloody pulp. In it's rage Stench hurled its rusty knife towards Aspir's face , once again dashing forward madly.

Aspir now fully prepared for the goblins attacks , raised his shield to block the incoming projectile and stabbed forward with his sword from underneath. Stench in his rage continued to throw himself forward , succeeding on impaling himself on the sword.

With his last dying breath, stench clawed his way along the sword, drawing himself close to Aspir and hissing fiercely before dissolving into cubes of light.

Aspir was stunned, regardless of how he had started the fight he knew that he had committed fully and tried his best. Maybe because he hadn't fully utilized his equipment properly or the fact that the goblin impaled itself on the sword in its rage, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd have won if the system hadn't restricted the goblins intelligence.

Aspir could see a transparent outline of the Goblin grinding its teeth, and staring at him. Its hands clutching its dagger and drawing lines in the air as if already deciding how it would dissect him.

Aspir decided to keep the same equipment as he was already familiar with it, and that knowing the goblins attack patterns he would have better luck getting a better combat evaluation.

The goblin respawned in a flash of light, but this time with improvements. Its original bareback and unprotected skin was now hidden behind a layer of crude animal leather, its knife replaced with a sharp half sword and on its left arm it sported a short iron buckler. Moreover, along with its fresh equipment, it had grown to just under Aspir's shoulder height, and its smell had somehow gotten worse.

What followed was a fight similar to Aspirs first one. The goblin once again dashed in and swung his sword, this time Aspir began by using his shield to block the goblins blow and strike again from underneath. However, he hadn't expected the goblin to duck under his sword, using its lower height to its advantage and hack into his leg causing him to limp and stumble backward. What followed was the goblins brutal victory as its used its body to ram Aspir to the ground, pin him there, and pierce its sword through the leather armour into his heart, nailing him to the floor.

Aspir was shocked he had lost so fast. He may have used the same tactic but to still lose so quickly astounded him, maybe skills truly made such a difference to everyone's game.

Pushing himself up from the floor. Aspir once again saw the transparent outline of the goblin, this time with a smug grin on its face, as it slowly ran its tongue over the edge of the sword. Savouring the taste.

Still contemplating his loss Aspir ignored the system prompt. He understood that he had been complacent by relying on the confidence from his precious victory, but perhaps his personal skill also came into it. He wasn't trained in the way of weapons or fighting, he may have been used to combat from other virtual games but that didn't make up for his lack of skill. The more he thought about it, the more he began to believe that perhaps 'Second Coming' had no system in place to aid or correct players during combat. Rather than help guide him to step back from the goblin's sword, he had froze not knowing how to react, this wasn't the system intervention it was his negligence and lack of experience.

He had to test this out and see for himself.

...

Once again a flash of light followed by a horrible stench that filled the room, this time tinged with the smell of iron. Stench stood there bold and astute , assured of his repeated victory, leering at Aspir.

What followed was a frantic melee of man and goblin, green and red blood intermixed in the air splattering onto the ground. Screams of pain displacing the eerie quiet of the white room.

Aspir now firmly believed it, despite his best efforts he ultimately didn't know how to use his equipment, that the system didn't aid the player in combat at all. It was all up to the player themselves, so maybe skills augmented the abilities that you had but were useless in the hands of novices such as himself. This tutorial was a lot more beneficial than he first believed.

The goblin's outline slowly faded away, its sword stretching forward and muscles tensed, it didn't like having to work for its previous meal.

Aspir couldn't help but mutter "Just wait I'll be back for you," for he had a plan. But first he had to open up some old game files and find a certain first gen game, that only now seemed to have a purpose.

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Aspir once again found himself floating in virtual space, this time not bored but exhilarated. Despite his defeat at the hands of the goblin it had been fun , it had awoken a fire in him for more , he wanted intense fights more battles. It had awoken his bloodlust.

"SYSTEM! Open Application 'True Virtual Warrior Training," his voice echoed throughout the virtual space, like that of a deity declaring his rule.

YES

'True Virtual Warrior Training' was an early first generation application made for virtual reality, on release it was hailed as the first true marvel of the era virtual reality, but later its reputation declined to be the worst. Until almost forgotten and impossible to obtain unless you already had a copy, luckily Aspir did.

The reason for its bad reputation was that despite the advanced control and movements in the application, it was too brutal. Its purpose was to train a person in the way of combat, by unrelentingly throwing the user into fights where the chances of surviving were slim to none. At first it would be small one on one trainer fights to learn the use of a weapon, but after that you were put into great battles in forests or seas, fighting for your life. In the end the main cause of its bad reputation was an incident where an armed group of people held up a supermarket store.

A man stepped forward believing in his skills from having trained in the App, and was brutally killed after having himself killed two of the robbers himself. Following inquiries after it was deemed the App too dangerous to be allowed to be continued, so it was withdrawn, but they couldn't take it from people who had already downloaded or tried the App unless they themselves removed it.

Aspirs goal was this , temper himself inside the App and learn how to fight , if 'Second Coming' truly depended more on player skill then he would end up with a big advantage.

Aspir smiled to himself, he was gonna get that goblin back.