147 Astonishing Improvements

..... "This should be the place right?" said by a TigerKin Master Berserker while looking at the dense forest few distance away from him and his group. Behind this TigerKin is a Dark Elf Master Twilight. And that Dark Elf replied to the former. "This should be it. But we should also be more careful, based on the reports that we got, our targets are not simple." Then a White Elf Master Archer suddenly chimed in. "They should at least be some powerful Rankers." Behind these three players are a team of one hundred players that are busy scanning their surroundings while advancing towards the forest. And when the entire group entered the forest, all of them felt that their surroundings suddenly became chilly. Their bodies suddenly become tense because of the sudden change of the atmosphere. It is as if they are being preyed by some monsters in the dark. The deeper they got inside the forest the more eerie feeling they got. Until –..... They saw a hooded figure wearing a white cloak covering the person's body. The person is holding a two-meter scepter with a rainbow-colored crystal on its tip with some smaller crystals revolving around the bigger. When the group saw the hooded figure, they immediately take their battle positions. The long-range players raise their bows and guns and aim it at the hooded figure, they are ready to fire at any given time. The TigerKin Master Berserker that looks like the leader of the group, is currently looking at the hooded figure cautiously. He unconsciously gulped a mouthful of saliva while looking at the person. The next moment, the jaw of the TigerKin leader almost dropped on the ground while the eyes of the everyone in the group suddenly turned saucers at what they saw. A bunch of fireballs, icicles, and wind-blades appeared behind around the hooded figure! –"Holy Sh*t!"– is what in everyone's mind when they saw that. "OPEN FIRE!!!" shouted by the TigerKin leader without further ado.Unfortunately, the spells of the other side is much faster than everyone else. The fireballs rain down at them, the icicles pierce through their bodies while the wind-blades slice through them. Bang! Bang! Bang! Swoosh! Swoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! All of the the Human Guardians and Shield Warriors raised their shields and activate all of their protective skills to block the incoming attacks that are coming towards them, and to protect their back-lines. Too bad for them, the combined number of the incoming fireballs, icicles and wind-blades are too much for them to handle. Even if they managed to block most of them, there as still a lot that broke through their defense and landed on their comrades behind. Boom! Boom!! Boom!!! Boom!!!! But that was not the end, because it is just the beginning. When the frontline of the group is about make their move, a TigerKin with a pair doubled headed battle axes on each of his hands appeared on their front and rushing towards them. And rushing together with that TigerKin, is a Human Guardian with a round-shield on his left hand and a longsword on his right hand. The Human Guardian raise his shield in front of him before accelerating forward to change at his enemies and leaving the TigerKin behind. The TigerKin leader of the other group immediately regained his composure and give some tactical orders when he saw the incoming Guardian and Master Berserker. "Frontlines, take on your defensive positions!" "Team A, be ready to jump in anytime! Range and magical players, bombard those two with your skills and spells!" "Support group, recover everyone's healths! Start with those who are in critical condition." The former two groups comply with the orders almost immediately, but the latter two didn't respond at him at all. The leader frowned his brows before turning his head to see what's going on their backlines. And the moment he saw what's happening, he can't help himself but cursed out loud. "F*cking Sh*t!" What he saw are two pers–... No... It is more accurate to say that they silhouettes that are dashing across their backlines and ripping off the lives of their group's auxiliary team with a great speed. Every time those silhouettes brushed passed a player, that very player is just going to fall lifelessly on the groud like some falling leaf of a tree. It is as if those silhouettes are the Gods of Death, and whoever they touch will die. What's more, those melee players that wants to help their comrades are being shot to death by an unknown assailant that is hiding in the dense vegetation around them. BOOM!!! Something happened on the frontlines, and when the leader turned his head once again, what he saw is even more tragic. All of the frontline players of his group are being slaughter by the TigerKin Master Berserker and the Human Guardian. And as if rubbing some salt on the wound, every time the healths of the two 'monsters' fall upon the halfway mark of their total HP, an unknown healer recover their Healths back to full from a place that who knows where. And most tragic part is the white hooded figure in the distance is throwing skills after skills to them. What's more, every time a thief related class tried to get near her, that person is going to get blasted by one of her spells very accurately as if she can see them despite being in their stealth modes. The leader of the group became daze at what he are seeing. When he and his group came to this place, they are thinking that this special event is going to become their steppingstone to greatness, and their way to heaven. Who would have thought that they entered the depths of hell instead. And while the leader is in the state of being in daze, his entire group is being slaughtered by the so-called 'prey' of every player that were based in the Holy City. They can't do anything. They don't even have a little bit of chance. These guys are no players, they monsters in a human flesh and the manifestation of death itself. Those are the final thoughts that the leader had before his head was separated from his body. He managed get glimpse his assailant before his sight turned completely dark. The person is wearing a black cloak with some black feathers on its surface. That person is currently sheathing his sword at the last moment of the leader. And as if noticing the gaze of the severed head, the person turned his head at that source of the gaze, letting the leader to see the mask that the person is wearing. It is a mask that was split in two parts with a crying and laughing expressions on each of its respective sides. .... The entire battle didn't even last for a five minutes before it ended. And the result? Well, it is obvious. Not even a single soul was spared. "Tsk! Another bunch of trash. Can those guys send some people with a little more challenge? 'Cause if not, this hunting game is going to get boring." said by Lawless after killing the group of fifty people. Faker who is busy cleaning up the battlefield suddenly said. "Those guys are still gauging our strengths. You can't expect them to charge at us without having a complete idea on how strong are we, right?" "Tsk! What I mean is this hunting game is going to become too boring if the powerful Guilds didn't make their moves sooner." said by Lawless while stretching out his waist. "Don't worry, anytime now, those guys are going to send some groups of Official Rankers and High Rankers next. If they don't, then they are just a bunch of idiots." said by Hayden who is currently helping Faker to pick up the loots. "Heh! Of course! We already proven to them that no matter how many Elite Player Groups were sent, they are jut going to get slaughtered by us no matter what." said by Morgan. And while the group are busy cleaning up the battlefield, Shin is in the sideline and currently slacki–..... Eh!? I mean, thinking on something. This battle is their twenty-seventh battle since the start of the 'Special Event', and a little two hours had already passed since then. And during those battles, Shin is closely observing his comrades. Especially Faker, Lawless, and Charlotte. Those three are doing some things that are beyond Shin's gaming imagination. It is as if he was watching a battle of some Martial-Arts and Mentalist in Real World. And because of that, Shin managed to learn a lot of things and tricks from the group. First, he learned what is the Mana and Magic affinity are for. Just like before, Shin is treating the Mana inside his body as Internal Qi while the Mana in his surroundings are the 'Force of Nature'. And because of his Mana Affinity is in 45% his Mana sensitivity is quite high. And from what he observed from Hayden, Faker, and Lawless, they are using some breathing techniques inside the game. He managed to see it by utilizing his 'True Sight' skill to the limit. Actually, Shin is also using a breathing technique, but that is only when he is not fighting, especially when he resting to recover his HP and MP more faster. But unlike him, the three are using their breathing techniques like it is their second nature. They are utilizing their breathing techniques to hasten the execution of their skills and combat techniques. At Shin's first attempt, he tried to mimicked them for a few times but he kept failing every single time as he can't achieve the result that he desired. He only managed to discovered the trick at their fifth battle. He don't need to blindly use his breathing technique while executing his skills. He need to use it to control the Mana flow inside his body before using it as a guide while executing his skills and combat techniques. And the result of the trick gave Shin a huge surprise. Not only his execution of skills become more easier and much faster, it also improve his understanding of his skills, and making his skill completion rate to rose up with a great margin. His combat technique executions are also become more flawless and perfect. That's not all, because as he become more familiar with this trick, even his control on his body movements become even more fluid. And if what Shin have learned from the three melee experts are physical techniques, then what he got from the girls, Charlotte and Stephanie, are magical ones. If Mana Affinity is for Shin to have a high Mana sensitivity, then Magic Affinity are for him to improved his Elemental perception. The Magic Affinity helps a player to sense the elements mixed in the surrounding Mana more accurately. And this Elemental perception varies from person to person, especially with their class. And since Shin's Class is related to ice and fire elements, then can perceived the water, ice, and fire elements in his surroundings more clearly. And this time, Shin treat the Elemental Mana as 'Mental Energy'. And learning from his experience on controlling the Mana inside his body by using his breathing technique, he did a similar trick on controlling the Elemental Mana on his surroundings. First, he is going to absorb it towards his body before releasing it with the magical/elemental skills that he are going to execute. And the result? It is similar to the effects that he got when executing his physical skills. And with all of these, Shin's improved by leaps and bounds on the great speed. What's more he suddenly got a feeling that his virtual body inside the game and his actual body in the Real World don't have much difference. Naturally, the others on the group can see Shin's rapid improvement, they are all experts after all, so they can feel that Shin is observing them when battling and studying every little trick that he can learn. But what left them baffled is the speed of his improvement is way too fast. It is as if his mind is like a sponge that is absorbing everything that he learned while his body was able to digest those knowledge by fighting and engraved it on his bones during his battles. And given all of that, Shin gave them an impression that he is going to catch up with them sooner or later. And it also giving them some mixed feeling of being pressured because someone is running towards their backs with a great speed, and being excited for having another strong rival. ... When Lawless saw Shin standing on the side while having a deep thought, he can't help himself but clicked his tongue and said. "Tsk! He is at it again. I wonder what kind of trick did he learn this time." Meanwhile, Charming is looking at Shin curiously while thinking to herself. 'What kind of Enlightenment did he achieve this time?' After few minutes of thinking, Shin raise his head and looked as Charlotte's direction. The latter retracted her eyes and diverted her gaze somewhere. Then Shin started walking towards her, making her to become a little panicky as if she was caught by her teacher cheating on the exam red-handed. And when Charlotte is about to open her mouth to asked what he needs, Shin already beaten her to it and asked he with polite tone. "Can you teach me something?" "Eh!? What!?" Charlotte was startled at Shin's question. Misunderstanding what she said as 'what is it?', Shin continued. "Teach me how to properly use magic." This time, Charlotte become completely shock while looking at Shin blankly. –"A Swordsman wants to learn how to use magic? Is this guy insane?"–. .....