Harem Online: My Party Is Full of Beautiful Celebrities-Chapter 14: Martin’s Development
It was the end of the weekend.
Martin had spent half of it drilling his new moves, and the other half throwing himself at the lake monster. Night settled over both the real world and the Forest Hidden Monster Hunter Academy. The first week of the game was almost over, with roughly an hour and a half left.
Back in the dungeon, Martin pushed through the forest, drawing wolves and luring a handful of them to the lake. With the same practiced route, he herded the monsters to the shore and awakened the lake boss. Water burst upward as its tentacles rose into the air.
[Level One Dungeon.]
[Solo Run.]
[Time: 57:53]
[Current Ranking: 10th in Damage Taken (7391)]
[Weekly caretaker issues remaining: 0/4]
Rain hammered down on Martin and the wolves. For a moment, everything went still.
Martin stood still, glaring at the tentacles and replaying his training. Every last caretaker issue was gone, burned on practice and runs. All he had left was a shield and a sword. Once those broke, this week’s runs were over.
Did I really want to finish the week in 10th?
Hell no.
The more he practiced, the more damage he took, the deeper the movements sank into his avatar. And the more he wanted to climb. He was never satisfied for long.
Come.
The tentacles reacted as if the lake boss had heard him. They slammed down along the shoreline, and one came straight for Martin.
[You have perfectly blocked 100 Damage.]
BANG! BANG! BANG!
On either side of him, other tentacles crashed into wolves and ground, kicking up dust into a thick smokescreen. Wolves crashed into the dust, their HP dipping into the red all around him. At the same time, tremors rippled through the trees, and a fresh wave peeled out from behind, marching toward the lake.
He had seen this scenario enough times to know its rhythm. This time, he was ready.
Using the dust as cover, Martin sprinted to the farthest tentacle and stopped among the low-HP wolves. When the dust thinned, their eyes snapped to him. Teeth bared. Bodies coiled to lunge.
With a quick sidestep, he slammed his shield into the nearest wolf.
It wasn’t a skill, just a basic shield bash he could repeat freely in an immersive world. It cost no mana and no durability, as long as he kept striking with the center of the shield.
[You have perfectly blocked -37 Damage.]
[You have perfectly blocked -39 Damage.]
[You have perfectly blocked -37 Damage.]
[You have perfectly blocked -34 Damage.]
Another loophole he had found during his training runs. He practiced it until it felt effortless, and now it paid off.
The bash itself wasn’t the trick. The trick was the read. He’d learned the cues, the order, the timing. He knew which wolf would go first, which would follow, and which would hesitate.
With that rhythm in his hands, he broke their timing and forced them into each other’s lanes. Their movements became easy to read. The dance belonged to him.
A heavy shadow washed over him. Martin raised his shield without hesitation.
BANG!
You were puppies before... but now I’ve got you trained.
He pivoted.
A tentacle loomed like a wall and struck once. Martin knew what that meant. Over there, fear and submission had already spawned a new army of wooden wolves.
It was the biggest pack possible here because he had sprinted to the farthest tentacle and given the boss room to work.
Was it intentional? Of course.
You’re my puppies. Ten, twenty, thirty... I won’t die.
The tentacle lifted, revealing the real count. The lake churned as if the boss laughed. It hovered its tentacles over Martin, waiting for him to struggle against the wolves before finishing him off.
The army surged toward him, snapping and crowding in. Martin ran the same dance again, keeping himself the clear lead. Still, numbers mattered, so he let them compress in close. The circle tightened, exactly like he’d drilled for.
When they finally stacked the way he wanted, he drove forward with his shield up.
Shield Dash!
As he ran, he kept his eyes locked ahead. His shield knocked monsters off their lines, but it also exposed him to others. Mid-sprint, he adjusted, catching perfect blocks while he moved.
The moment he found a pocket of space, he slammed a shield bash into one wolf. He tilted the shield, drove a sword thrust into the gap, then finished it with a slash through its wooden frame.
DING!
DANG!
[You have perfectly blocked -31 Damage!]
[Critical Strike!]
[-57 HP!]
[-34 HP!]
The perfect-block ring and the critical-strike chime blended into one thrilling, intoxicating sound. Martin sneered, his eyes flashing with excitement.
Shield Dash and Sword Thrust weren’t skills. They were movements he’d drilled on his own, with Chaosgraphy, and with NukEncore. Now they finally produced results that made his blood boil.
His lungs burned. He kept the sprint-and-block rhythm anyway, burning stamina on purpose to burn the timing into muscle memory.
[Level Synchronization Active]
[Level Restored: 1]
Stamina came back in a rush. Exactly what he wanted.
With it came the tentacle’s shadow.
Martin looked up.
About time.
Now I feed you to the wolves and turn this into the real fight.
The shadow swallowed him.
