At this moment, within this desolately gloomy map, a young knight could be seen. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and he was clad in gleaming gray armor.

It was Kyle.

Clang!

A clanging sound was heard as Kyle's sword clashed with the Bone Terror's ax.

"You're pretty strong!" he smirked as he stared at the undead's blazing eyes. "However, I'm stronger!" as he said those words, his figure suddenly charged forward with unstoppable momentum.

Since they were fighting close range, the Bone Terror wasn't able to react to the sudden change of pace as the knight's sword struck its head.

[You have dealt 833 damage to the target.]

"Haha!"

Kyle didn't let up as continued with a basic attack after using [Charge]. His motion was as fluid as water as he displayed his magnificent control.

[You have dealt 420 damage to the target.]

Using the motion of his body, he followed it up with a [Chop] as he turned around, his sword flas.h.i.+ng and illuminating the dark night.

[You have dealt 992 damage to the target.]

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With a resentful cry, the Bone Terror's skull was ripped off its skeletal body as the undead collapsed on the ground.

[You have slain the enemy.]

[You have received 18,220 experience points.]

[You have obtained: Bone Dust x20.]

[You have obtained: Bone Terror's Ax.]

"Oh? It's ax dropped?" Kyle was taken aback when he saw the white ax made of bone drop down the ground.

"Nice, now I just need 10 more Bone Terror Axes to complete the quest." he smiled as he glanced at his quest that he received from an NPC in EverGuard.

Clop, clop, clop.

However, just as he finished collecting his spoils, he suddenly heard a clopping sound of a horse's hooves.

Turning around, what welcomed his eyes was a terrifying undead that mounted a skeleton horse.

It was a Skeleton Knight.

Donned in black armor and black helmet, this undead knight resembled that of the black knight told in myths and legends.

Kyle shuddered when met the undead's will-o-wisp-like blue flickering eyes.

He tried to see what monster it was only to find it futile.

[Due to certain circ.u.mstances, your identification skill has failed.]

Identification. It was a pa.s.sive skill that all players had and it displayed the information of whatever they saw, be it an item, a monster, a player, an NPC, or even a plant.

However, at this moment, Kyle experienced the failure of this nigh omniscient skill.

Clack, clack.

'Huh?' Kyle was startled when he heard a strange sound coming from the skeleton knight. It seemed to have said something to him.

Then, he looked around quickly and noticed that he was in the strange monster's way so he immediately stepped to the side.

Clop, clop, clop.

Holding his breath, Kyle's eyes were glued to the undead as he saw it and its mount walk away.

"Phew." when the undead's large figure finally vanished within the darkness, he sighed in relief.

"Thank G.o.d that monster wasn't aggressive and didn't attack me," he whispered. "Wait, now that I think about it, that undead seemed more like an NPC instead of a monster."

As he muttered under his breath, he couldn't help but glance at the direction where the skeleton knight disappeared once more.

'Where's it going anyway?' he thought.

Unable to find an answer, he shook his head and looked for another Bone Terror, wanting to complete his quest as soon as possible.

Meanwhile—

At a familiar desolately empty plain, that skeleton knight dismounted his horse and looked at the surrounding.

"M-master. W-where...?"

* * * * *

Like wildfire within a forest, there was a rumor that spread amongst the players in Camelot.

It was a rumor about a madman with a shockingly handsome appearance, endlessly swinging his sword at wooden dummies.

It was said that he never took breaks or rest-times as he demolished wooden dummies every day, from dawn to dusk.

Some say that the reason was that he has a hidden s.a.d.i.s.tic fetish and a barbarous att.i.tude. Some say that it was because of his love rival in real life. There were even some that said the reason was because someone owed him money in real life but refused to pay it, so he held a grudge and released his frustration by beating up wooden dummies in-game.

Nonetheless, while none could confirm the truth behind these rumors, there was something that they all agreed upon.

It was that this madman had a heart of iron and an unbending will. Hours upon hours, as if he knew neither the words exhaustion or fatigue, he showed no mercy at the helpless and defenseless dummies that had zero to none abilities to retaliate.

And as time pa.s.sed, such rumors were exaggerated and started circulating around Camelot.

Curious players flocked towards the Imperial City, wanting to see what this handsome madman looked like.

Dozens turned to a hundred, and hundreds turned to a thousand.

Players upon players entered the Training Hall and watched the madman's inhumane 'training' as he sweated buckets.

However, one day, this madman suddenly disappeared!

* * * * *

Camelot Empire, in the Imperial City's Tower of Trials—

Oblivious to what had transpired in Ancient Undead Plateau, Sky stood before a stone obelisk that towered up the sky and saw engraved characters and numbers on its surface.

----------

Tower of Trial's Leaderboard:

[Rank 1]: Handsome Lunatic (Lv. 35) — 54th Floor.

[Rank 2]: Queen (Lv. 32) — 49th Floor.

[Rank 3]: Spectre (Lv. 30) — 47th Floor.

[Rank 4]: Claude (Lv. 30) — 47th Floor.

[Rank 5]: Leland (Lv. 30) — 47th Floor.

[Rank 6]: Walker (Lv. 30) — 47th Floor.

[Rank 7]: Leonard (Lv. 29) — 45th Floor.

[Rank 8]: TwistedFate (Lv. 29) — 45th Floor.

[Rank 9]: Su Yan (Lv. 29) — 45th Floor.

[Rank 10] Kyle (Lv. 29) — 45th Floor.

[Rank...]

[Rank...]

[...]

[...]

----------

Seeing all those names displayed on the obelisk, Sky muttered some words silently that only he could hear.

Then, he shook his head and took a look at his status.

____________________

[STATUS]

Name: Sky

Level: 1

Cla.s.s: None

t.i.tle(s): [One who Challenges his Limits]

World Reputation: 2,010

Gold: 7,799

Health: 1,610/1,610

Mana: (Locked)

Sword Energy: 500/500

• Strength: 36 (+30) • Vitality: 41 (+30)

• Agility: 29 (+30) • Intelligence: 11 (+45)

• Dexterity: 26 (+30) • Fort.i.tude: 75 (+5)

• Comprehension: 27 • Luck: 15 (+15)

• Fighting Spirit: 20 • Charisma: 0 (+50)

• Charm: 0 (+80) • Perseverance: 15

Stat points: 190

-----

Skills:

[Intermediate Sword Mastery] (Lv. 5)

[Skeleton Summoning — Locked] (Lv. 2)

[Chop] (Lv. 2→3)

[Cooking] (Lv. 1)

____________________

Explosive growth!

That's what happened in Sky's status.

He focused on bringing up his stats as much as possible, before he began hunting for monsters or climbing the Tower of Trials.

While other players might say that it's not worth it or that it's inefficient, such things didn't apply to Sky. Even an inch of advantage ahead of the current players, much less such a ma.s.sive increase in stats.  

After such a long time of extreme training, his stats rivaled that of players with levels multiple times higher than his.

Add that to his equipment and health, he could even PvP players above level 10 with ease, and this was not counting his expertise in combat and martial arts that he had integrated in-game.

Although he couldn't create skills based on his real-life techniques, he could nonetheless execute them!

When displayed, such terrifying techniques would probably horrify their victims.

Such an advantage in the game's early phase would affect his performance in the later phases and give him dominance once his level starts rising.

If you heard people using such ways to increase their stats, then you would wonder why no one else did the same. After all, with higher stats, it's much easier to hut monsters and increase your level. However, take another look.

You have to constantly hit scarecrows for hours without stop. Physical exhaustion and non-stop labor, pair that with the boredom that came, can you handle that?

If you do that for five hours a day, that would add up to 150 hours in one month.

If you do that for ten hours a day, that would add up to 300 hours in one month.

But Sky did it for 21 hours a day. That's more than 600 hours in one month.

He trained for six weeks (in-game). That was more than one month in real-life and nearly two months in-game. He trained relentlessly as if there was no tomorrow. He experienced the difficulties of raising his stats when his stats became higher, yet he didn't stop.

Would a normal person do that?

Would you be able to do that?

However, Sky did agree with the people that said that the increase of stats was too slow. He trained relentlessly for six weeks, after all, so he knew more compared to those players that claimed such. He experienced the difficulties that those people in the forum couldn't even comprehend.

But he didn't regret it!

While he might not be the smartest person in the world, he was confident that when it came to working hard, he wouldn't be inferior to anyone.

And now, as Sky read the names on the stone obelisk once more, he wasn't disheartened one bit.

Flames of determination were burning inside him!

'I will catch up—' he said in his heart, his eyes blazing and unwavering. '—and surpa.s.s you all.'

Trying to calm his spirit, he then went over his status window once more before his eyes landed on the three-digit free stat points that he had.

"As for the 190 free stat points, let's leave that for now and increase our stats when clearing multiple floors instead."

After talking to Queen and the others, they gave him tips and tricks on how to climb and clear the Tower of Trial's floors easier.

Of course, these tips only reached up to their updated cleared floor, which was below Floor 50.

Nonetheless, their info would certainly provide a.s.sistance to Sky as he climbed the tower.

"Let's go!" he said as he walked towards the stone stairway that led to the upper floors.