Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 23: Skill Proficiency

The snakes were attacking Ye Yan viciously and without stopping, but he was adapting fast and soon started fighting 2 or 3 at the same time. The difficulty that he was experiencing is because he still lacks good equipment for his level, most of the ones he uses are level 1 or 3. The drop rate of equipment is very low and as he leveled up so fast, there was no time to farm, resulting in his character being very poor in terms of equipment. If his job change quest wasn't of S difficult, the quality of his items would be really bad. His weapon and gloves can be considered a luxury that few players can have access to in this stage of the game, even more, the skills that he got are almost unreachable to 98% of the players.

Dungeons and quests have always been the best way to get good equipment in most games, but some are too difficult for normal players to complete, making the good items a luxury that only elite players can have access to, or to people that have enough money to spend. This situation usually becomes more apparent, the more you progress in the game.

Ye Yan is trying to not use his skills but only basic attackers and techniques as a form of training and it is proving effective because his combat abilities are improving very fast. And the snakes are becoming a very good training partner for him to improve his dodge capabilities. In addition to evasion, he is polishing his attacks and defense with the fan. Ye Yan couldn't be more pleased with the weapon that is reveling to be the most suitable weapon for him, because it not only can be used to attack but it can be used as a shield too. It didn't have the same defensive power as a heavy shield but it can block attacks well. When the snakes attack, he opens the fan and puts his left hand behind it to help keep it steed while blocking.

Ye Yan is fighting the snakes as if he was dancing in a very elegant way. He is dodging the snakes' attacks while keeping his left hand behind his back and using his right hand to open the fan and slashing against them or using his right hand to hold the fan and his left to stead it to defend. He is becoming so proficient in it that his dodges and attacks are pure and simple now, without any excess movements. And every time that he kills a snake, he fans himself leisurely.

After getting used to the snakes, he started to mob them and use his skills to help in killing them and train for when he will be inside the dungeons. He used [Provoke] to lower their defense, so they would take more damage from his attacks.

System: 'You used the skill [Provoke] successfully. You gained 1 proficient point[1]. Every time you use an active skill (Offensive or Defensive) successfully, you will gain proficiency points in the referred skill. Please look at the details of your skills for more information. The system will not keep updating you about proficiency points in the future, so for you to have a more realistic experience in Second Life.'

.

[Provoke] (Skill - Active: Defensive) (Level 1 - Novice)

Description: Come hit me, sucker!

Effect: Lowers the enemy DEF by (3+3*Skill level)% and increases their ATK by (1+Skill Lvl)% for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: (20 - skill level) seconds.

Class requirement: Fighter, Swordman

Proficiency: 1/1,000

.

When Ye Yan discovered that a piece of new information appeared in the skill's detail, he understood that some info will only be revealed after he unlocks certain functions in the game[2].

He continues to use his skills to familiarize himself with them and gain proficiency. When he used [Bash] the damage dealt was very high, but he discovered a not-so-good thing, the skill consumes AP, but this stat didn't recover with time. He probably will have to learn some skill that regenerates AP in the future, until then, he will have to save the skills that cost AP to use only in critical times.

.

[Bash] (Skill - Active: Offensive) (Level 2 - Novice)

Description: You strike hard and violently your foe.

Effect: You attack your enemy with ATK equal to (100+20*Skill level) %.

Secondary effect: Has (1+ Skill level) % chance to Stun the target.

Cost: 1 AP

Cooldown: None

Class Requirement: Fighter, Swordman

Proficiency: 1/1,000

.

After he had killed the 100 [Boa]s, he started to walk back to the city. The game is making the players walk so much that if it was in real life, they would be prepared to run in Marathons. He wants a fast mount or some kind of skill that could help with it, but it seems that only players above level 20 can start the quest to acquire one.

When he was halfway to the city, his [Communication Stone] reacted.

"Hello! This is Ye Yan speaking." He answered the call in the same way that he does in real life.

"Hahaha! It worked! And you even forgot that it is a call in the game and used your real-life name. Hehe. Where are you now? I just registered myself in the Adventurer's Guild and am ready to some action." Tang Yunfan was really excited that now he has the minimum level to do dungeons and he knows that it will be the best way for them to get some good equipment. He is already calculation how many dungeons they could do in a day, and how much surplus equipment they would have to put for auction. He wants to take advantage that their level is high, so they could sell items to other players that are having a harder time leveling. He is even thinking about carrying players to level up for money. Tang Yunfan was so lost in his excitement that he forgot that if he didn't utilize this advantage to get more distance in levels to the other players, he will only waste all his efforts until now.

"I am almost in the city. You need to calm down because it is already too late to do any other quests or something like that today. I will turn in my quests in the guild and logoff. You should do the same because you are playing twice the time that I am." Ye Yan started to play at midnight today, but his friends are playing since before 6 p.m.

"Ok... I will look at some shops before I logout. Second Bro and Little Ling should be finishing their quest soon too. They told me that they should finish it today, so tomorrow we can start dungeoning."

"Do the others are finishing their job change too?" He was surprised that they got a 10 players party almost ready.

"Yes. Even Xiao Xiao that I thought would take a little longer, was almost finishing it the last time I speak with Little Ling."

"Good! I almost can't wait for our party to get together."

....

[1] The proficiency will be a little like in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, in which the damage of the skill (or the numbers of attacks) will increase when you mastered a skill.

[2] I will be updating the Database as the pieces of information are being introduced in the novel.