Infinite Realm

*Beep*

Sato took a step with his right leg and was about to dash towards when he abruptly moved his body towards his left.

*Phew*

An arrow fleeted past Sato at high speed. If Sato was but a millisecond slower, he would have had an arrow sticking through his face.

'He's fast, much faster than before.' Sato was alarmed but later on he understood the reason why. They had just defeated the boss and everyone had levelled up recently. As a ranger, Dream Tiger would focus most of his attribute points on [Agility] and [Dexterity], with a bit of it in [Strength]. This would not only increase his attacking speed but also his shooting accuracy.

'I haven't even made use of mine yet...' Sato smiled wryly but still kept his attention on his opponent.

After Sato had dodged his first attack, Dream Tiger wasn't disappointed but actually surprised.

'He only reacted at the last moment. It seems that his [Agility] is lower than mine' Dream Tiger grinned inwardly.

Even though he was in thought, his hands didn't stop working as they drew and fired arrow after arrow at Sato.

They say in a battle of experts, one wrong move is enough to decide a battle. In this case, Sato made the wrong move by not properly anticipating Dream Tiger's opening strike. As a result of this, he was continuously on the edge, being forced to only defend while Dream Tiger constantly bombarded him with his attacks.

*Clang*

Sato hacked at an arrow that came his way, deflecting it to his side.

'I underestimated him. His attributes are a bit higher than mine especially his [Agility] stats.'

Even though Sato was able to hold out against him, due to the fact that his attributes were lower, Sato still received damage mostly due his slower reactions, though they were minor damages. However as the damage kept piling up, Sato's health diminished further.

"Hehe. Is this all you amount to?" Dream Tiger chuckled. He drew his bow and used a skill against Sato who blocked the attack but was forced back by one step.

Dream Tiger then made use of that mishap and shot two more arrows at him. Sato managed to block one while the other passed through his defense and pierced him, dropping his HP by 27. If not for the Dawn steel armour he wore, his HP would have dropped further.

Fudo looked worried as he saw Sato having the lower hand of the battle but he didn't interfere. Fudo had faith that Sato would win but the problem was at what cost.

"If you don't win this, I'm asking Miyuki out on a date." Fudo gripped his fingers tightly.

"..." Sato almost puked out blood from Fudo's ridiculous statement but he still kept his focus on the fight.

'I have to balance things out.'

Realising that if he went on with this fight, he would lose as things stood, Sato sent a mental command to open his interface.

In order to give players a slight advantage in a non-conducive environment, the System interface can also be activated via thought. Usually, there is an icon by the upper left of the players that they can click via thought and then a panel appears in front of them. The system interface panel is then usually controlled by contact. However, there can be certain scenarios where players aren't able to operate the system through contact. In such cases, the mental control would prove to be handy.

Sato glanced at the system interface and noticed that he had 10 attribute points free. He had levelled up twice throughout the entire raid but forgot to put his free attribute points to use.

'Let's do it like this then.'

While dodging, blocking and deflecting Dream Tiger's attacks, Sato decided to place the free attributes to his desired stats. This still proved quite difficult as Dream Tiger wasn't a pushover but an expert player. But Sato himself wasn't a pushover either. Sato didn't rush to make the changes but waited for an opportune moment where Dream Tiger would fully drop his guard.

"Hahaha. I thought you were something but it looks like you're only good with fighting dumb monsters or useless players. Hahaha."

Dream Tiger was caught in the joy of playing with Sato. Normally other rangers would be worried about their arrows depleting and so would try to finish a fight as quickly as possible. Dream Tiger, however, didn't have this worry cause as a guild expert, part of his arrows were funded by the guild and this was  a very large amount.

Dream Tiger felt that if he took this more seriously, he would win but he didn't because he wanted to play with Sato. Since the battle began, Sato hadn't been able to land a hit on him. Though there were times Sato had managed to close the gap, Dream Tiger would quickly retreat backwards while still attacking. He believed that Sato was the kind of player who focused more on putting all their attribute points on one feature, like [Strength]. That might barely work for them when facing monsters but against fellow players especially expert level players, it was a taboo to do such a thing as one would surely be doomed to lose.

Swift Blade was currently frowning. Though what he said earlier was a joke as he had to obviously support his guild-mate plus he knew Dream Tiger's strength, he was still indeed hoping that Sato would give Dream Tiger a tough fight. At the very least that would reduce Dream Tiger's pride. But if Dream Tiger won now, especially in such an easy way, his pride would even increase all the more.

'*sighs* looks like I have to tell boss to send this kid back to the moral training centre.'

Sato, on the other hand, was still focused in the fight that seemed to be a losing game from a 3rd person view. Slash after slash, arrow after arrow. Sato held on till he once again managed to close the gap between them both. This time however, Dream Tiger wasn't in a hurry to create space between them but decided to take his time.

There was a space of 4 metres or less between the two. Sato slashed at an arrow and dodged the other but advanced forward in the process.

Using the space between Dream Tiger's attacks, Sato, who had already decided where to place his free attributes, quickly made the changes.

[[ [Strength] : 13 >> 15

[Endurance] 8 >> 10

[Vitality] 12 >> 14

[Agility] 8 >> 10

[Dexterity] 7 >> 9

[Intelligence] 1

[Willpower] 3

A total of 10 free attributes from the two level ups (from level 5 to 7) was enough to raise Sato's strength by more than one level. Dream Tiger, who was unaware of Sato's changes, was about to retreat when Sato suddenly closed the gap at a rapid pace. Because Dream Tiger was already used to his previous speed, he couldn't react in time and Sato's attack was only a few centimetres away from him. Dream Tiger was indeed worthy to be hailed as an expert as he reacted quickly by placing his bow in front of the strike but he underestimated Sato's slash.

-37 (Dream Tiger 83/120 )

The force of the slash was quite impressive that not only did it transmit to harm Dream Tiger but also because Dream Tiger had blocked in a hurry, his movements weren't fluid, so he didn't properly block the sword slash; part of it still got to him.

Sato didn't stop there though. The force from his attack had interrupted Dream Tiger's motions, propelling him forward. Sato, with better improvement to his movement speed, dashed at Dream Tiger and slashed out again. Dream Tiger tried to dash away and retreat but Sato chased after him. Normally Sato still wouldn't reach him but because Dream Tiger had earlier lost his balance, Sato caught up quickly and hacked out again. Disinclined to lose the battle, Dream Tiger tried to use his bow and fend off the attack but how would a bow be compared to a sword?

Dream Tiger was destined to be loss the match and he made things even worse. There was no long story in this matter as Sato ended him quickly. Of course as the battle was recorded under a bet with the system, Dream Tiger revived almost instantaneously about 20 metres away. He also didn't lose any experience or equipment.

Swift Blade stared at Sato with a hint of shock and he was quite impressed at his strength that he was tempted to invite him to their guild. But upon recalling that Sato not only rejected a super guild but also had a heated encounter with his guild-mate, he left out the idea.

"Satisfied?" Sato smirked at him. "I hope you fulfill your own part of the deal."

"Hmph. You don't need to worry. I may have lost but it's just a mortal rank weapon." Dream Tiger harrumphed.

"Upper tier Mortal rank." Fudo walked towards Sato while grinning wildly. He didn't forget to glance at Dream Tiger with unrestrained gloating written all over his face.

"Hmph."

Dream Tiger retrieved the bow from his bag and threw it over to Sato. After that he turned around and headed back in search of another entrance. He was truly incensed and didn't want to stay with the duo any longer or else he might not handle Fudo's mocking look.

"A free Upper tier Mortal rank weapon. I see a good business opportunity here bro." Fudo's eyes glistened as he stared at the exquisite handcrafted bow.

"Not listening. Either way, let's go. We still have a lot to do."

"Ok."

On the other side...

After they had walked for awhile, Swift Blade stared at Dream Tiger who looked really vexed and shook his head.

'At least this should damage that his pride a bit. He has to know that he isn't the best around.'

Dream Tiger, on the other hand, was thinking of how to get revenge back on Sato when suddenly his eyes flashed with a strange light of realisation and he smiled strangely.

'Just you wait.. Even if I can't defeat, I doubt that you can handle the whole town's players.'