NamelessAlter

  When I woke up for school this morning, I noticed that my excitement from yesterday was gone.

  Yesterday I hunted and gained a rge amount of levels, and went out on my first ever date. It was so much fun.

  Today was just a normal day at school.

  Shaking off this weird feeling, I get ready for school and head over to Emily's dorm so she can do my hair and makeup like normal.

  After that we head over to breakfast in the dorm and then to school.

  Just a normal day.

  ∴

  And without me noticing, it was lunch time.

  “Nyx?” Rose said, waving her hand in front of my face after I hadn’t said anything.

  “Um, what's up, did I miss something?” I said.

  When I looked over, everyone at the table seemed really concerned about me. OUr table had also gained a new member since st week and I totally hadn’t noticed, Chloe was now seating with us.

  “Css this morning for starters” Emily said. “Nyx what is going on?”

  “I’m not sure.. I’m probably fine” I said, forcing a smile.

  “That's not reassuring” Emily then said.

  “Can we just move on, what were you all talking about?” I asked.

  “Sure” she said, but I lost focus right away again.

  ∴

  Rose noticed it right away.

  She hadn’t seen this since Nyx was very young. Back when she was having problems with leaving her room, she would lose focus for hours on end, not even moving.

  From what any of the doctors that Hardon and Cordelia called when they noticed it, nothing was wrong with Nyx.

  And as things moved forward with Nyx dealing with their issues around the attack, it stopped happening as often.

  From what Rose knew, the st time it happened was over a year ago.

  So when this happened again, she was worried. Rose had been paying attention to everything Nyx had been doing. She had seen the amazing growth she had gone through over the st few days.

  She watched as she dealt with the knowledge eater with Chloe, and as she went into those dungeons over and over again yesterday.

  And she, somewhat jealous, watched as she and Emily went on a date.

  She didn’t know what could be causing this, but hoped she could get help with it.

  So after lunch, she got a message to Emily so they could discuss this ter, after school.

  And she went on with her day, focused only on Nyx.

  ∴

  After Lunch, I went out to the combat training area for my next css. First I had the first year combat css. I changed into a training uniform and headed out with my original sword.

  If I had used dawnbringer, all it would do was draw attention to myself.

  If there were other people from earth in this css, they would all probably know of dawn bringer, and realize that I was another pyer.

  There is also the fact that I didn’t need a sword that gives +25 attack for training.

  As I walk onto the training field, I am told what the training is for today, and get right to it.

  On top of my level going up a bunch, I also increased my sword proficiency a few times, so it was easier to get through everything today than it was before.

  And by the time I finished, I found Aric watching me.

  “You seem different today” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I ask him.

  “You are usually pretty diligent about training, putting your all into it.” he said. “But you seem distracted today”

  “I have some stuff going on…” I answer him.

  ‘Well, then how about a training match?” he asks.

  “Sure” I answered him, thinking that this might be easy. It was kind of exciting to face him here, since I still remember his impossible boss battle in the post game.

  We both enter one of the training arenas and are ready to fight each other.

  He opens with a bst of fire magic, which I dodge out of the way of. I closed this distance with a bde rush, and hit him once.

  But when I try to follow up with a guard break, he steps to the side and bsts wind magic towards me.

  This is when I realized that he was not using low level magic.

  I stand up after the wind magic hits me and grin towards him.

  “Your magic is a lot stronger than I thought it would be at this point? Did you hold back during our first duel?” I ask him, while attacking again.

  “Nope, I just am that good” he said blocking my attack with his staff.

  “Then you went from a proficiency around 10 to around 30 in just 2 weeks?” I ask him.

  “Says you, already at a proficiency of 30 in your sword. How much growth has that gotten in the st 2 weeks?”

  “Only a few levels, but this went up more” I say, making distance from him and shooting lightning magic at him.

  The fact that his magic is so high is not the only issue. The fact that he is matching my strength is bad, since it means his stats are close to mine. WHich means his level is close to mine and I am level 25, way beyond where any first year should be.

  To block my magic, he creates an earth ball to negate it.

  But this is what I wanted. Charging forward, I nd a single attack on him, but this was my finisher for my combo.

  This was something I figured out about the game being real.

  Since I have the passive finishing plus, my st strike deals extra damage. And now that the combo is part of a game, I can only use the ending strike in my combo and deal that extra damage right away.

  And with that strike, I knocked Aric out of the arena, winning our duel.

  In the moments after I won, I thought about the truth of our duel. I am able to strategize around him, but in what should be an utter victory for me, since I was significantly stronger than him, I was evenly matched where it mattered.

  “How are you that strong?” I said to no one.

  And a smile glimpsed my face.

  ∴

  Emily was worried about Nyx.

  They were so happy together yesterday, but ever since this morning Nyx seemed different.

  Not even after Emily kinda forced her to bed did she have a reaction like this.

  She was distant and not talking to anyone during the day.

  Then at lunch, Rose told Emily to meet with her after school so they could discus what was happening.

  She thought of brining Chloe with her, but then decided against it. She never did get a final answer about how Chloe felt about Nyx.

  But then during the combat css, she saw the fight between Nyx and Aric, and saw the glimpse of happiness in her expression.

  And she remembered the happiness in her eyes yesterday, and knew what happened before their date. She was out in the wild hunting.

  “Is Nyx happy when she is fighting? Is that what made her happy yesterday, and now that that is over, she was sad?”

  ANd for the first time, someone noticed what has been driving Nyx since she was a child.

  ∴

  After combat css I had magic research and combat movement, both of which were normal. I was feeling a lot better after combat css.

  Knowing that even with everything I had going for me with the new game plus menu, and he could still match me.

  It was exciting.

  It was occurring to me that I was dealing with something simir to my past life. I was dealing with it normally with other hobbies like art, but the high from yesterday made me crash hard.

  I needed to refocus on my regur life, not the fantastic parts of it.

  I had a beautiful girlfriend, a few really good friends, and a loving family.

  I had some of those in my previous life…

  I had one of those in my past life.

  And with my next css I had another reminder of that.

  “Nyx” Lilith said when she saw me walking into the training field. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m ok” I tell her.

  “Well, let's get to training” she told me.

  Training with Lillith was a lot different from Aric. She was a lot stronger then me, and was purposely holding herself back to match me.

  But since she didn’t know how much I grew this weekend, she was underestimating me during the first few minutes. But she quickly adapted to my new level.

  “You grew a lot, really quickly” She said. “You could probably handle moving past thornvale”

  “BUt that isn’t allowed” I say, knowing that the school is strictly against having lower css students go to harder training areas. Level 15 was the lowest level for the next hunting area, the Therna expanse, but the school absolutely needs you to be in the second year of school.

  Same goes for the Marefield Coast and the third years, and the unknown Kingdom and the fourth years.

  If I could access them right away, I would be able to get a lot more powerful very quickly. Things like the Astral and Spectral components are some of the best items, and I need access to the Therna Expanse and the marefield coast to get them.

  The unknown kingdom didn’t have anything I needed right now, but they had some of the coolest bosses in the game there.

  “I know, I know. I was just commenting on your growth” she said as we continued to train.

  We continued to train for the whole period. By the end I was exhausted, but was awarded for my hard work.

  *Advanced Swordsmanship Css*

  *Completed*

  *Sword Proficiency Gained*

  *Bonus Proficiency Gained*

  *Sword Proficiency 30 -> 31*

  “You did great today” Lilith said, helping me stand from my exhaustion.

  “Thanks” I said.

  But before anything else was said, she pulled me into a hug.

  “If there is anything going on, you can always talk to me” she said, before letting go.

  “What was that about?” I asked her.

  “I just noticed you were looking down at the start of css, and just wanted to cheer you up”

  But as we were talking, something strange happened.

  “Ms. Lilith, we need to talk” I heard a familiar voice say behind me. Turning to see who it was I saw Emily and Rose walking up to the two of us.