Martial Online.

[You lost 23 HP!]

[HP: 1/30]

'I can't breathe...' Ambrose gasped greedily for breath. He felt like he was hit by a moving car. 'How... am I still alive? This attack felt much stronger than anything else before.'

Behind the trees, a wild hog huffed and puffed while stomping on the ground. It then noticed two players struggling to stand. It rushed forward.

The blond-haired young woman looked stunned and had no time to move out of the way. The sharp tusks impaled her chest. She immediately saw her vision turning dark and her body turning into pixels.

"Alecia!" The light brown-haired player shouted. That was a mistake. The wild hog turned its red eyes towards the screaming player and chased immediately after him.

The player stood up quickly and began running away.

"..." The brown-haired player watched as his companion ran away with a wild hog chasing after him. "Useless. I should really join a better party."

He shook his head and looked in the direction where Ambrose was sent hurling.

'He must've died. I should pick up his dropped items and go sell them.' He thought and first picked up the fallen wooden sword of the dead blond-haired woman and then started looking for the black-haired young man's dropped items.

However, he couldn't find any of them.

'He didn't drop anything? Should I have added more luck?' The brown-haired player clicked his tongue.

At that moment, a wooden sword appeared in his peripheral vision.

"Basic Slash!"

The brown-haired player panicked and hastily placed his wooden sword into the block. However, the wooden sword wielded by the black-haired young man was far more powerful.

'His strength isn't vastly above mine, but why is his attack so strong?' The brown-haired player's knees buckled, and he almost fell to his knees. He barely managed to block the attack.

'I have only 1 HP left. I can't get hit!' Ambrose stopped trying to overwhelm his opponent with strength, as he didn't expect to be able to do that. Instead, he took a step back and raised his sword above his head.

"Basic Slash!"

'Eh, why did his lips move but I couldn't hear anything?' The brown-haired player frowned and grabbed the wooden sword with both hands before putting it in front of him.

Ambrose's non-existent muscles slightly bulged as he held the wooden hilt until his palms turned red. He then bent his knees, leaned slightly forward, and smashed the wooden sword down.

The wind whistled as the wooden sword slashed through the air.

The brown-haired player placed his wooden sword as a block. However, as the other wooden sword got closer, he realized that he wouldn't be able to block it!

'Why is his attack so strong?' The brown-haired player panicked and dropped any idea of blocking. Instead, he put all his strength into his leg muscles and jumped backward.

He crossed a distance of one meter with that jump.

The wooden sword missed his body by a great deal.

Ambrose started sweating as his attack missed. 'Ah, I can't overuse the skill; my stamina gets drained otherwise.'

The brown-haired player hesitated to make any moves. However, when he checked his health bar, some of the confidence returned. He also remembered that the black-haired player got hit by the wild hog.

'He must have low health. I probably need only one strike to finish him off. I can do this!'

He charged forward with both hands on the wooden sword. He moved the sword over his right shoulder and made a quite large swing. The attack seemed amateurish, but it had quite a lot of strength behind it.

Ambrose's eyes shook as the wooden sword approached him. He felt a great deal of pressure. His mind also froze, and he couldn't think of any good strategy to avoid getting hit.

The wooden sword got closer and closer until it stopped right before landing on his face.

The brown-haired player didn't finish his attack. Instead, he frowned and pulled his sword back.

"Hmm, killing you is not worth it. Let's party up. I lost my two party members, and surviving here alone is simply not possible." The brown-haired player rested the wooden sword against his shoulder. "So, what do you say?"

Ambrose breathed heavily and looked at his shaky hand. 'My body completely froze. Shit. Joining his party sounds good on paper, but can I trust him? Of course not. However, I can't reach level 2 alone.'

"I know your health is low. If you join, I will give you this." The brown-haired player took out a half-eaten sandwich. "I ate half of it, but the other half is enough to increase your HP by 10. I don't want you to die immediately after becoming a party."

Ambrose looked at the sandwich, which had already gone cold.

"How are the XP and items split?" He asked first.

"Fifty/fifty for XP, and the one who deals the finishing blow gets the dropped item." The brown-haired player said. "I will reach level 2 soon, but I will also help you reach level 2. Then we split ways, deal?"

'He shouldn't have needed to say that he is level 2 soon, except if it's his way of showing sincerity by being honest.' Ambrose thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine."

The brown-haired player nodded. "Party."

After saying the word, a light blue holographic screen appeared in front of him. He removed his two previous party members, then sent an invitation.

[Player RedBand sent you a party invitation!]

'So, that is his player name.' Ambrose thought and accepted the invitation.

RedBand looked at the party window.

[Player Ambrose has joined your party!]

'Ambrose, huh.' RedBand nodded and said. "Here."

He tossed the sandwich over to Ambrose.

Ambrose caught it clumsily and started munching on it without wasting any time.

[10 HP Restored!]

[HP: 11/30]

After finishing eating, Ambrose checked the party window and saw that the split of XP had been put at fifty/fifty before the party was created.

'It must have been a 33% split in his previous party. That is a pretty cool system, but I need to be careful in the future that my future party members don't abuse the system to make unreasonable splits. That is, if I join any party in the future.'

"Let's go after the wild hog. It mustn't be far away." RedBand said and walked in the direction where his former party member fled.

Ambrose followed after him with a wooden sword in hand.

...

In the depths of Crow Forest, wild hogs ran through the forest.

They were chased after by dozens of players, who found the breeding ground of wild hogs. There were many wild hogs, but they were at a numerical disadvantage.

A light brown-haired young man ran while screaming. He was being chased by a red-eyed wild hog. He then noticed that he had arrived at a place that was far from safe.

'More wild hogs? Damn it!' He quickly halted, but forgot that he was currently being chased.

Without even having time to run around, the wild hog stabbed him with his tusks.

The light brown-haired player lost his footing on the ground and flew a small distance before falling neck-first on the ground. He let out a groan before disappearing into pixels.

The wild hog huffed before turning its red eyes to other running players, who were chasing after its kin. It looked angrier than before.

On the outskirts of the wild hog's breeding ground, RedBand and Ambrose arrived and saw the scene.

"This is very good; we can reach level 2 here." RedBand smirked and said. "We have to fight together. As you can see, everyone is working alone, even though most of them are probably part of a party.

"It doesn't matter if we kill wild hogs alone or together; the XP would still get split."

"Got it..." Ambrose said. 'Except the items. I shouldn't become greedy and just follow his lead. If things go well, I can reach level 2 soon.'