The Grand Duelist

Chapter 109: Return

"Alice, take that one on the right and on the middle. I'll attract the attention of the one on the left. I can only stop that bastard for a few seconds. I'm sure that you know what you must do so I will not talk too much now. Let's go!" Joseph gave a rundown of what they were about to do. 

Standing on the elevated piece of land in front of the entrance of their temporary abode.

Joseph and Alice swept their eyes around and their gazes landed on three Mutated Beasts that looked as tall as a small hut.

The beasts in the middle and on the right had the features of a wolf and a tiger, while the one on the left had the characteristics of a turtle.

Joseph judged that it was probably better for him to face that one with the turtle characteristics for it looked like it wasn't that strong when compared to its comrades beside it.

After weeks of fighting these bastards using Alice's taxi service. I have sufficiently leveled-up, but I still can't beat these monsters alone, especially those offensive-types.

Their firepower is too strong. Even though I can deal percentage-based damage onto them, I still don't see myself winning. Let's not be too complacent.

He made a decision.

This was one of Joseph's rules to himself whenever he was out on a hunt with Alice. He decided that he would play cautiously and without taking substantial risks, especially whenever he had no contingency plans when it came to worst-case scenarios.

But that didn't mean that he just let Alice tank all the damage coming from the monsters.

He also contributed to the battle in his own ways.

"Watch out!" Joseph cried out. His figure vanished and reappeared beside Alice.

His Rapier shone in an inhibited brilliant light and accurately deflected an attack that came for Alice.

Afterwards, Joseph revealed the Vitals of his enemy and struck a weakness.

[You dealt 22,027 damage!]

"Turn..." Alice finally reacted. She whispered a single world and a kick swept past Joseph, landing on the chest of that monster who dared to sneak attack her before she thrust her weapon into the neck of that monster. 

Everything took time to describe but they all happened in a few seconds. Not even taking a break, Joseph turned around and deflected, yet another attack from a monster that tried on capitalizing the opening that Alice created when she assisted Joseph.

"Quite cheeky, aren't ya?" Joseph lightly chuckled. His deflect was successful and he unleashed a series of attacks through the use of Mercenary Skills, Thrust, Slice, and Slash.

[You dealt 10,478 damage!]

[You dealt 10,439 damage!]

[You dealt 10,596 damage!]

"Roaaar!"

The Mutated Beast unleashed a roar that sounded more like the shriek of a banshee. The loud sound disturbed Alice's balance. Joseph was unaffected due to the effects of his passive.

He swiftly turned around and when he found the swaying Alice...

His Rapier flashed, arriving beside her and deflected an attack, protecting her while she was stunned.

"Turn..." Joseph uttered. He twisted his body and kicked the Mutated Beast that had the characteristics of the turtle far-away from the main battle. Joseph saw that the Mutated Beast whom he kicked moved slower than the other two.

By kicking that monster away...

The two of them could have some reprieve until Alice awakened from her stunned state.

Damn the debuffs that these bastards have are really annoying. If not for the fact that I have such a ridiculous title which makes me immune to all abnormal statuses, I would be like Alice right now and if that happened, then I bet we would've died for a thousand times already.

"..." Alice finally recovered from her trance.

She didn't say anything as she responded to Joseph's request to "Turn". 

She turned around, faced the Mutated Beast with the characteristics of a wolf and unleashed a strike that displayed the harmony of heaven and earth.

"The Grand Duelist's Graceful Swordsmanship..." 

She uttered under her breath.

"Harmony!"

Her Rapier temporarily vanished and when it swept past the two monsters.

Their figures staggered, a line made out of a fleshly-wound could be seen on their chests. The damage they suffered was so severe that the bones on their ribcages were now visible, it looked ghastly white and terrifying to the eyes.

"Good job, Alice! Turn!" 

Joseph gave his honest praise, but the two never stopped their movements. Joseph swiftly turned around and faced the severely injured monsters.

A light smile appeared on his lips as he rushed at them and unleashed swift strikes that soon took their life and transformed them into innumerable crystals which eventually disappeared into nothingness.

What was left from the bodies of the terrifying Mutated Beasts were several slabs of meat that looked disgusting...

But Joseph licked his lips when he saw the several slabs of meat.

"It looks like meat will be on the menu again today." He thought to himself, already imagining how he would experiment on cooking these fine pieces of meat on the ground.

"It really is fun hunting these guys with you, Alice. Not only that, but we're also quite lucky today since none of these bastards unleashed that horrifying jet of poison from their throats. Seems like we can come home unscathed." Joseph commented, but Alice screamed right at him.

"Don't say that! You're planting a flag!" She cried out as she evaded an attack from the Mutated Beast with the characteristics of a tiger in front of her. Sweat could be seen on her forehead.

There were at least several dozens of types of characteristics among the ranks of the Mutated Beasts.

But the Mutated Beasts with the characteristics of a tiger was the most annoying one to fight against. They were fast, fierce, and had the predatorial instincts of a tiger along with the unpredictable nature of anything corrupted by dark energy.

They could also shoot a poisonous jet of liquid that was extremely corrosive to anything living.

Even with the passive that gave him immunity to all sorts of abnormal statuses. Joseph was wary against that attack since it always came whenever you least expect it.

"Planting a flag? Wait, where did you learn that word? Did you read that book that I gave to Julie?"

Joseph was astonished when he heard the words that Alice had said.

But in the very next moment, his pupils constricted for he saw the tiger in front of Alice opening its mouth, revealing the depths of its rotten throat.

Whenever a Mutated Beast opened its mouth, it was about to shoot a stream of poisonous liquid that had the force of a thousand men ejaculating at the same time.

"Alice!" Joseph cried out.

His eyes saw the weakness of the tiger's incoming attack and he subconsciously pushed his Rapier towards that weakness in an effort to deflect the incoming attack.

But there was a problem.

Alice was standing on the path of his Rapier.

If this continued, the Rapier would pierce through the body of Alice, killing her along with that Mutated Beast.

Joseph forcefully retracted his attack. But everything happened so fast and with Alice being in close proximity with him, it was far too late for him to cancel his attack.

A look of disbelief appeared on Joseph's face when he saw his Rapier penetrate Alice's back. 

Yes, his weapon went straight through Alice's back and landed on the weakness of the Mutated Beast. Staggering it backward as it forcefully swallowed the poison that it was about to unleash back to its stomach.

"Alice!"

Joseph screamed, he retracted his Rapier but he was shocked to find that there were no traces of blood on Alice's back. In fact, there wasn't even any wound. It was as if what just happened was a mere illusion.

"What the heck?" Joseph was dumbfounded. His eyes landed on his Rapier and he realized that it looked incredibly transparent like it was incorporeal. 

But just as he was wondering about what was the meaning of such a scene. 

[Your weapon has recognized your ally and has become incorporeal.]

"What? This Rapier had that function?" Joseph furrowed his eyebrows.

But before he could even think any further into it...

The Alice who was dumbfounded when she saw Joseph's Rapier going through his body finally recovered from her trance. But she was angry.

It was evident on her expression that had gone cold as she took a stance, raised her weapon shoulder-level and unleashed a destructive [Point] on the tiger, annihilating it.

She was so angry that she forgot to give Joseph the chance to inflict the final blow on the monster.

When the monster finally transformed into several slabs of meat and disappeared from her eyes in the form of light crystals. She turned her head to look at Joseph and said, "What the hell just happened? Did you just stab me?"

Joseph revealed a smile, "That happened, but can you not be so harsh on me? I mean, I just wanted to protect you, and I didn't expect that you'd move to the trajectory of my Rapier."

Yes, Joseph's attack earlier was meant to directly land on the body of the Mutated Beast.

But Alice moved in a panic and she ended up moving on the path of Joseph's Rapier and almost gave him a heart attack.

Alice finally calmed down when she heard what he said. She felt somewhat annoyed, yet also depressed since what he said had made sense and was the truth

She couldn't possibly ignore the truth. Why would she bother? And since she didn't suffer any injuries, why would she need to dwell on that mistake? It was better to move forward.

But...

"What just happened? I thought for sure that I'd die..." Alice said, somewhat terrified. 

Joseph opened up the item information of the Rapier of Grandeur and Beauty and obtained his answer.

[There's a certain chance of becoming incorporeal, passing through any form of defenses in order to deal damage.]

Any form of defenses? So obstacles also count? If I can calculate the success percentage rate of this ability then this will prove quite useful on launching attacks that my enemies could never expect.

Joseph decided.

He'd spend some time later on calculating the success percentage rate of this additional effect. 

What's more important to do now was to explain to Alice.

"Well apparently, this weapon can sometimes go through any obstacles in order to deal damage,"

Joseph explained.

Alice raised an eyebrow: "Sometimes?"

Joseph nodded, "Yes, there's a certain chance of it working. Though I am still not so clear about how big of a success rate does this additional effect has."

Alice frowned: "Why do you look so calm explaining that additional effect? Don't you realize that you almost killed me? What if that additional effect didn't take effect?"

Joseph turned to look at her and said, "Of course I know about that, I'm feeling guilty too. But can we really just spend our precious time brooding over something that had already happened and cannot be changed anymore? If you were mad about what I did then fine, but even if we turn back time, I will still do what I did if it means that I can save you!"

Alice was taken aback by what she heard. She froze for a few seconds and when she awakened, she turned her head away, not daring to look directly at Joseph as she crouched and started collecting the slabs of meat that they would eat today. 

It was unknown what she was thinking about...

Joseph sighed in relief after seeing that Alice understood what he meant. He focused his eyes on a system notification that floated right in front of him as a smile of excitement appeared on his lips.

[Congratulations, you leveled up!]

[You are now Level 98!]

Within the past few weeks... Joseph spent all the time that he had on leveling himself up in this utopia for players that wanted to do some power leveling.

Joseph carefully took advantage of the fact that he had a Level 150+ NPC named Alice to assist him.

If not for the fact that Julie and Hulie were waiting for their return, Joseph reckoned that he would've set up a tent near the spawn areas of the Mutated Beasts so he could easily locate and kill them.

But despite all of these, after only spending a few weeks within this place perpetually hidden from the sun. Joseph was now Level 98. If someone from the outside world knew that he was only a Level 15 player several weeks ago, they would've questioned their reality and their leveling speed.

A Level 15 player could level up to Level 16 after spending a few weeks of grinding quests and killing monsters.

But Joseph?

He did what an average player could do after months of constant grinding in just a few weeks. It was unbelievable that you'd probably be branded as a retard if you bragged to another player about it.

But this was the reality and it was an undeniable truth.

Joseph did reach Level 98 in just a few weeks of grinding.

And as a player whose class was half-step to Mythical, he was definitely strong.

But why was he so afraid of fighting against these Mutated Beasts? 

Well, it was because he discovered that these monsters were at least Level 200. A sheer difference of 103 levels from him and at least 50 levels from Alice. If he was alone then he reckoned that he would only be able to kill a single beast after several hours of constant fighting.

Of course, the Experience Points that he acquired from last-hitting these monsters were extremely high to the extent that Joseph doubted his eyes when he first saw the amount of Experience he received for the first time

Although happy and excited, Joseph never underestimated the might of these monsters. Even though he was an immortal and could revive, he cannot die for he would most certainly respawn back to Reinhardt. When that happened, it could be considered as doomsday for Joseph.

Thankfully, Alice was here...

Her refined techniques and swift decisive strikes that accurately struck the weakness of these monsters became the reason why Joseph considered her as the strongest taxi driver in the entire world of Victory. 

She inherited the Divine Art of the Grand Duelist from the Legendary Blacksmith Krid so she could deal percentage-based damage on these monsters like what Joseph could do. In other words, she could do whatever Joseph could do, and vice-versa.

But if that was the truth, why was Joseph relying on Alice's strength instead of facing these monsters by himself?

Well, the answer to that question was simple.

It was because of efficiency.

Joseph's leveling speed drastically increased while he was with the more experienced Alice. And so, why would he not take advantage of the fact that she was willing to be her taxi service in exchange for being a chef that would cook delicious meals for them every day?

It was a win-win situation, and Joseph didn't find any reason to refuse.

Joseph lightly smiled, he opened his Player Profile to distribute the stats that he had just acquired from leveling up according to the ratio that he had been using after Ezreal's guidance.

1. If you are wondering, these damage numbers aren't just numbers. I have a sheet that let's me calculate how much damage Joseph deals, cross-referenced with the Mutated Beasts traits.