Chapter Three

The library old man's quest was only little among all the interesting quests that laid in the beginner town, Lionel didn't hesitate to head out of the city heading for the outer parts.

"I better stock up with some basic weapons before I get torn to shreds by low level animals."

Lionel flicked his game wrist band and the screen appeared in the air, tapping the weapons section, a long display of cool looking weapons was displayed on the screen each with an amount of coins used to purchase them.

Swiping the screen there was a set of swords, due to his chosen avatar race, the weapons he could view were those that could be used by a human.

He swiped the screen several times before a pair of shiny black twin swords caught his eye. In his past life he'd been a cyborg, so the only weapons he could use were the built in rifles that came with the cyborg avatar. However, he'd always admired sword fighters, so this time, he was giving himself the chance to do that.

Clicking on the twin swords it cost 1500 silver coins. Lionel didn't hesitate to make the purchase, both swords materialized before him.

*Twin flame swords purchased.*

*Player is now equipped with flame sword.*

Sword mastery level: 1

*Player can now level up sword mastery level by causing 5 level damage on opponent.*

Both swords encased in their scabbards strapped onto his back in a crossed manner, only then did he proceed Into the forest.

He walked alone in the dense forest, the sounds of distance birds and his feet crushing dry leaves were the only things he could hear.

The first time he'd played the game in his past life he'd marveled at how realistic everything seemed, it was almost like a new world that had always existed as a mirror of the real world with history and fantasy merged together into a reality. And even in this moment as he breathed in the smell of pine, it felt even more real than the outside world.

Lionel had to walk for sometime before he arrived at a clearing in the forest. The air hummed with the loud buzzing of something familiar, Lionel stopped in his tracks.

"Valerian bees." He'd just muttered these words when he raised his eyes to sight a swarm of Valerian bees which were the size of a fist right on the path that led to the edge of the forest where he was supposed to find the tunnel of despair.

"How come there's so many of them?" Lionel's eyes widened.

Valerian bees unlike ordinary bees from the real world were solitary, it was incredibly rare to be found in pairs not to mention in a large swarm like he was seeing right now.

"Ahh! Somebody help me!" A shrill scream of a female echoed forth.

They were clustered together blocking his view forward, but the screaming voice he'd just heard meant someone must be trapped amidst the cluster of bees.

As some of the bees cleared, Lionel sighted a girl with blonde hair wearing the ordinary attire of a farm girl as she desperately swatted the basket in her hand towards the bees to keep them away from her.

Lionel knew that a single valerian bee was extremely dangerous not to mention a swarm of them, just a single bite would render a person permanently crippled.

The girl who was fighting for her life sighted Lionel in the distance, her eyes lit up as if finding her salvation.

"Save me oh brave warrior!" She cried, "Please!"

She must have sighted the swords strapped to his back, her eyes glanced at him with so much hope.

*Quest triggered. Accept or reject?*

Lionel knew that he'd have to get to the tunnel of despair when it was still bright, glancing up through the dense trees in the bushes he could see that the sun was soon setting beyond the horizon. If he stayed to rescue the girl, he'd be delayed on completing the library quest.

The girl narrowly escaped the sharp stinger of one of the bees, she swiped at it with her farm basket and it hovered upwards, her eyes fell on him again, "Please save me brave warrior! Save me and I'll give you everything I posses."

Even though Lionel knew that she was just an NPC and leaving her there might not mean too much, however the raw emotions in her eyes felt so real, desperation and the fear of death, He couldn't bring himself to ignore the situation and just walk away.

"Accept quest."

*Quest accepted.*

*Quest name: Rescue the farm girl.*

*Quest rewards: 5EXP, 5STR, 5DEX, 5STA, 100silver coins.*

Pulling out both swords from their scabbard against his back, Lionel flicked them in the air.

"Let's take this as good practice shall we."

The minute he charged forward, the bees noticed his presence, lethal stingers with expert precision all turned to aim at him.

Lionel's eyes narrowed, the sharp edges of both swords prepared as the bees rushed over to him, their buzzing getting even louder with closer proximity.

Lionel swung both swords at once, two bees falling onto the floor at once, the damage bars hovering over their heads immediately showing red, he'd inflicted a large level of damage on the bees just from a single strike.

A notification immediately popped up in his view.

*Sword mastery level up!*

*Sword mastery level: 2*

Even though Valerian bees were quite dangerous, they weren't that hard to kill, unless it was the queen bee. The queen bee was ten times larger than the others, her stingers holding ten times more lethality than the others as well.

But it was very rare to encounter a queen valerian bee. So Lionel didn't think too much about it, with each swipe of his sword, a bee fell and in just a few minutes, the swarm of bees had completely vanished, their carcasses on the floor immediately popped into several rewards in the form of EXP, STR, and DEX.

The farm girl's eyes filled with both relief and gratitude, her lips moved seemingly about to utter words of gratitude to Lionel when panic once more surfaced in her eyes as she fixed her gaze behind Lionel, pointing behind him with trembling fingers.

Lionel frowned realizing the abnormality of the situation, "Why didn't I get a notification for quest completion."

At this moment, a buzzing sound more resonant than that of all the valerian bees combined travelled to his ears, he could hear it ominously above his head.

"Shit!"

Tilting his head, a huge bee the size of a donkey hovering above his head with a huge stinger aimed straight to his skull.