Martial Online.

Near the entrance to Amaterasu, light blue pixels were scattered across the ground as players avatars were slowly disintegrating into nothingness.

Red-eyed bunnies hopped across the wheat fields while players chased after them with their wooden swords and wooden spears. There were even wooden arrows flying across the air, hitting both players and a few bunnies.

There were also madmen swinging their fists around, hoping to hit everything that was moving.

Ambrose arrived at the entrance and saw the mess. There were also players who avoided the mess and instead headed towards the forest, which loomed in the distance.

However, it was clearly a more dangerous area than these wheat fields, where only innocent-looking animals resided.

'I can't see that brown-haired player anywhere. Did he also die?' Ambrose looked across the wheat fields.

At that moment, he saw a wooden sword on the ground. None of the players had taken it for themselves yet.

The wooden sword could be sold to merchants and earn a little bit of silver.

Ambrose looked around, and there were players standing on the sidelines, but most of them focused on the battles that were happening in the wheat fields.

He focused his gaze on the wooden sword and took a deep breath. Then he lunged forward and ran as fast as he could.

However, since he wasn't used to running, it looked quite awkward at first.

He was still approaching the wooden sword quickly.

At that moment, a wooden arrow whooshed across the air and hit him in the back of the head.

Ambrose tripped forward and crashed head-first on the ground.

[You lost 18 HP!]

[HP: 12/30]

"Argh..." He rubbed the back of his numb head and looked in the direction where the arrow came from. There was a female archer placing another wooden arrow in the bowstring of her wooden bow.

'Archers seem to have a huge advantage in the early game.' Ambrose thought and stood back up. 'They have the strongest starting weapon.'

The female Archer looked at him and released her hand on the bowstring. Another wooden arrow flew quickly towards him.

Ambrose dodged it, but it hit his shoulder instead of his chest.

[You lost 8 HP!]

[HP: 4/30]

'One more hit, and I am again dead!' Ambrose glanced at the wooden sword on the ground and quickly rushed towards it. Another arrow flew from the side, but it greatly missed the mark.

The female archer clicked her tongue. "This is so hard to use!"

Ambrose grabbed the wooden sword from the ground and ran straight back to the city of Amaterasu. He remembered the brown-haired player's words.

Attacking fellow players and NPCs inside the city was forbidden!

Before the female archer had time to fire another arrow, Ambrose had already entered the city. He didn't stay behind to linger at the entrance and instead ran down the main street.

After the entrance was out of his sight, Ambrose stopped running and tried to catch his breath.

"Ah... my stamina is at 10 points, yet I am already exhausted!" He leaned his back against the wall and breathed heavily. "At least... I got the wooden sword."

He looked at the light wooden sword in his hand with a small smile.

"I won't be as helpless next time. I have to be careful of other players; they only care about experience points currently. I should also try to become stronger quicker.

"The longer I wait, the stronger other players will be, and it will make things far too difficult."

Ambrose looked at the wooden sword in his hand and thought about what he should do. He scratched the idea of going to the wheat fields, but he also didn't want to go to the forest.

'Wait, leveling up isn't the only way to become stronger. There are these dojos and fighting schools; can't I go learn a few basic skills?'

He turned his head towards the entrance of the bustling dojo. There were only NPCs training inside the dojo, and they happened to be training swordsmanship.

Ambrose smiled and tossed the wooden sword back into his inventory, then headed straight to the dojo.

After stepping through the entrance, he saw young men and women using wooden swords while sparring. None of them were very skilled, but they were better than most of the players.

"Hello, who are you, and why have you come here?"

A large shadow appeared in front of Ambrose.

"Uh..." Ambrose lifted his gaze to look at the tall figure standing before him. "I am Ambrose, and I am here to... learn swordsmanship?"

The tall figure narrowed his eyes and crossed his muscular arms. He scanned Ambrose's arms, which lacked muscles, and his unathletic body. He wasn't fat by any means, but he wasn't fit either.

"I am obligated to offer every newbie one-time training. However, it is up to you whether you learn anything from it.

"To become an official pupil of my dojo, you need to be far stronger. Do you understand?"

"Yeah..." Ambrose nodded and read between the lines. 'So, I am too low of a level to be taught more, but game developers made it so that the master of this dojo is required to teach one skill. It is up to the player whether they can learn it.'

"Follow me." The muscular figure said and walked to the corner of the yard. There was a wooden training dummy that had scratches across its torso.

Ambrose followed behind him.

"The skill is called "Basic Slash". You raise the sword above your head, bend your knees, and slash diagonally."

"Alright." Ambrose took out the wooden sword and saw the muscular figure step aside. He was clearly saying that he should try doing it against the wooden training dummy.

Ambrose took a step forward and remembered the instructions.

He raised the wooden sword over his head, bent his knees, and then slashed it diagonally towards the training dummy's chest.

The wooden sword left a small scratch on the torso.

[Basic Slash: Completion Rate - 3%]

'Only three?' Ambrose's face bleached slightly.

"No, no, no!" The muscular figure shook his head rapidly. "Have you not used a sword before? Twist your shoulder more, grab the sword harder, and hack it down with more power!"

"I understand." Ambrose nodded, then moved the wooden sword over his head, twisted the shoulder more as he was instructed, bent the knees, and then grabbed the hilt of the sword as hard as he possibly could.

And then, lastly, he hacked the sword down diagonally with a powerful swing.

The wooden sword slashed across the training dummy's chest, leaving a bigger slash mark this time around.

"Haahh... haah..." Ambrose breathed heavily and glanced at the completion rate.

[Basic Slash: Completion Rate - 30%]

'That is better.' Ambrose glanced at the muscular man, who was still frowning. He still didn't seem pleased.

'I guess I will have to do this better and try to reach 100%.' Ambrose focused on the wooden sword and the training dummy. Then, did another slash, which was even more powerful this time.

However, instantly afterwards, he did another slash.

Clank, clank, clank—a sound of a wooden sword smacking against a wooden dummy resounded across the training yard.

After a while, Ambrose lowered his wooden sword, sweat falling from his forehead. He was quite surprised to see that he could also sweat in the game!

At that moment, a notification appeared in front of him.

[Basic Slash: Completion Rate - 100%]

[Basic Slash Learned!]

[You can now use Basic Slash!]

"Still quite poor, but passable." The muscular man said sternly. "You can use the ability in battle by saying the skill name out loud. Your training has ended; you may return once your swordsmanship has improved. Until then, these doors are closed for you!"

Ambrose watched as the muscular man returned to teach other students of his.

'Well, this definitely didn't increase my self-confidence.' He turned his gaze back to his wooden sword. 'At least I have a skill now. I guess I can try returning to wheat fields now...'