Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

When it was a little before dusk, in the area around the village, a strange dark fog started to cover everything in its way, giving an ominous feeling to anyone that got near it. The birds flew away in the instant that the fog starts to appear, and the other animal had got away from it as soon as they felt its presence. Three creatures emerged from the dark fog, all of them had the same height as humans but they have red skin, pointed teeth, two horns, and a long but thin prehensile tail with a triangular tip. These three strange beings walked to the village and started to look for people.

Ye Yan saw the three devils enter the village and he tried to decide if he should fight them now or just follow them when they leave. He remembered the drunkard told him that they were gone with the wind, so maybe he could lose them as soon as they leave the village. So, he decided to fight and try to find a way to follow them later. These devils are a part of his job change quest, so they can't be above level 5, which means that he has a chance.

Ye Yan observed the three devils and decided to try to fight with them one at a time. He hid behind some walls and tries to spy on the devils. When one of them enter an adjacent street far from the others, he thought that as a chance and prepared himself to ambush the enemy.

.

[Legion Devil] (Elite)

Level: 4

HP: 500

DEF: 15

.

When the devil passed near him, Ye Yan activated his [Lucky Hit] while jumping on him and stabbed his back with the beginner's dagger. He discovered that sneak attack and backstab give double damage when executed, which made him understand that a player can use a variety of battle technics while fighting in the game, not only skills. As Second Life is the first immersive VR game that ever existed, many aspects of the game are yet to be discovered, and the players need to forget what they have known so far from other games because most of them would only confuse the players and slow their progress. He had discovered that he could use his real-life abilities to dodge, but he didn't though the where or how he attacked the enemy make difference, that's why he only discovered it now.

The Legion Devil was caught off guard by Ye Yan's attack and took two seconds to react. He turns and used his tail to hit Ye Yan, that dodge it and stab the devil in his stomach. The devil used [Tail whip] on him, but he was faster and jump to the left, evading it, making the devil furious. The devil tried to hit him several times, but Ye Yan proved to be slippery as an eel and the devil couldn't even touch him.

In the course of the battle, Ye Yan tried other battle techniques like hitting the weak spots of the devil and found out that they were very effective and give bonus damage.

-8.... dodge..... -12(50% bonus)... dodge..... -12... -8... -8... dodge...

The battle continues without Ye Yan take damage and only the devil's healthy points decreasing. When its HP reached 50 (10%), he used [Summon Ally] and two more Legion Devils appeared. Seeing that his situation becomes critical, he focuses his attacks on the first Legion Devil because he has little HP remaining.

Ye Yan tried to dodge the other two [Legion Devil] that were gang up on him to the best of his abilities, but with three of them, he was having a hard time trying to fight. After 40 seconds, he finally got to kill one of the [Legion Devil]s, but his situation still wasn't very good because there are two enemies with full healthy attacking him.

Yan Yan analyzed his situation and decided that if these [Legion Devil]s also summon more allies, he would give up and escape, and try to found another way to complete his quests.

He evaded the claw attackers of the two, going far enough for him to drink one of the [Novice Potion] that he received when he registered in the Adventurer's Guild, restoring 20 HP and continue his battle.

In the course of the battle, Ye Yan started to use martial arts moves while fighting, even it not being very effective, because attacks that don't use weapons are calculated based on his attack power, not considering the additional attack given by the weapon. And, as the minimal damage that a monster or players can receive when they are hit is 1 even if the defense is higher than the attack, Ye Yan continues to hit them in every part of his body that he could to take a little of HP.

-8... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1.... -8...

The battle turned in a way that he was damaging them more with his kicks than with the weapon, and sometimes he could even kick the two at the same time. The fight against the monster in a game started to look more like a street fight of one versus two.

The devils would only attack using their claws or tails, so after some time he became used to the pattern of their attacks and the fight become easier. Even more, after he discovered that he could 'block' their attacks if he hit a part of the enemy body in a way that would deflect it, like kicking the devil's arm while he tried to use his claws[1].

Ye Yan looked like he was dancing while fighting, using backflips to dodge and kicks the two at the same time, or by following the motion of the devil's tail, he sidesteps and used his leg to back kick, deflecting the tail of one while stabbing the other in the chest. And as the proverb says "Little strokes fell great oaks", Ye Yan, slowly but surely, was hitting them until they fell. Luckily, they didn't summon more allies and he even feels that the battle was easy in the end, because he is used to fighting many people at the same time.

At the end of the battle, he was feeling battle thirst and wanted to fight the other two as soon as possible. The last battle gave him so much satisfaction that he doesn't want to stop anytime soon, so he took the loot on the ground and decided to look for the others.

.

[Mother in law's Tongue] (Miscellaneous) [2]

Description: This item can be a tool of the devil. Can be used in alchemy.

.

Ye Yan: ..........

He put the two items in his bag and looked for the others. He found another one not very far away and didn't try to ambush him as he had done before, he just jumped on him and started the fight. This battle was like the one before, except that Ye Yan started using his martial arts techniques from the beginning of the fight, making it end very fast. The monster dropped only one item and the summons didn't drop anything like the first three Legion Devils.

.

[Potion of Gossip] (Recipe)

Description: A potion that can make monsters or NPCs say everything you want to know after consuming it.

.

The recipe can be very useful in the future when they need information about some treasure or something like that. Ye Yan thought of the drops and started to understand the relations of the two. He still remembers his mother speaking about her mother-in-law, using the same poisonous tongue that she accused her mother-in-law of having.

When only one of the three devils remained, Ye Yan knew that he couldn't kill this one and thought about what he would have to do to find the drunkard family's whereabouts.

He found the last devil near the entrance of the village, taking a young woman with him, so Ye Yan decided to just follow him to where he would take the woman. But it was not easy for him to sneak around, trying to follow the devil without being noticed.

The devil took the woman to a cave in the middle of the forest. Inside there was an array that would teleport them to another place. Ye Yan waited for a little and decided to follow them through the array, hoping that he wouldn't fall directly on the enemy base.

..............

[1] The only martial art that this author had practiced before is 'Capoeira', so I will use some of its moves to describe the fights.

[2] I like my mother-in-law, and I am not saying that all of them gossiped. Some can be a real blessing.