“Realmnet is harmful for our kids. They’re growing up desensitized to violence and thinking killing monsters is normal behavior! This is why our teens are growing up so violent these days!”

– Has this dumb Earther considered that she should just supervise her kids better? She could take them outside and let them enjoy nature. Away from Earthly distractions. @Leaflegend48 (Verified)

↪Aren’t you the guy that talked about your ancestors being free in nature and shit and you’re still here posting everyday? @Liopoilo(Unverified)

Ryan dropped the knife as the gauntleted hand came up to block his arm, he used his other hand to grab the falling knife in a reverse grip and stabbed. Seffara’s gauntleted knuckles came down to smack the hand, hard. The harsh rap on his knuckles hurt like hell.

He tried a push kick to reset and a fist came thundering down onto his thigh. The impact felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Actually, it was probably worse than that.

“Ow! Seff that was way too fast.”

She had promised to keep her speed at a reasonable realm 2 [Warrior] level. There was no way that was true. Zhenyu hadn’t been anywhere near as fast as this.

“Stop doing fancy tricks, and I didn’t even catch your hand, I’m not going that fast.”

“Man, it’s kinda crazy Ryan can pick things up that fast.” Milo said, watching from afar, “I just showed him that movie sequence like ten minutes ago.”

They were seeing if a sparring session would help with skill activation. Technically [Double Stab] should have been the easiest skill to learn though he was having even less luck with it than [Dangersense].

There was a slow motion camera set up so the non superhumans could watch. Milock and Clara oohed and aahed at the rapid exchange.

Barry wasn’t impressed.

“It’s just a basic [Rogue] physicality. [Warriors] are stronger and [Rogues] can learn things a little faster.”

Clara looked at Milock with a skeptical look. Barry glared at the young man, as if daring him to refute the ex-adventurer.

“Uhh, Barry’s not completely wrong.”

Ryan had to refute that point.

“Barry’s totally wrong!”

“Focus!”

As if to emphasize her point, a gauntleted fist hit him in the stomach, lifting him into the air and knocking the wind out of him. Despite it he managed to barrel roll backwards and out of reach.

Seffara, the abusive instructor, nodded approvingly.

“[Warriors] are absolutely stronger and faster than [Rogues].” She threw a fist and Ryan blocked, then he sliced out with his knife. “Yet this smartass picked [Rogue], why is that?” She grabbed his hand this time, stopping his arm in an iron grip as to prove a point. Seffara raised an eyebrow asking him that very question.

Ryan gritted his teeth, trying to weasel his hand out of the grip. No dice.

“Statistically [Rogues] survive more than [Warriors].”

He dropped his knife. Seffara raised an eyebrow at the repeat move she had just chastised him for. This time, instead of a rap on the knuckles a fist came down at his rising hand. Ryan snapped his hand back, barely dodging the strike. Seffara looked on in surprise as he kneed the falling knife to make it fly at her stomach.

Seffara dodged despite her armor.

It was the first time he’d made her dodge during the entire bout. She was actually impressed this time.

“Good, I’ve been moving at third realm speeds too.”

“I knew it!”

Clara raised her hand.

“Uh, back to the original question, if [Warrior] is better then why pick [Rogue]?”

Ryan’s triumphant vindication faded a little. He’d picked [Rogue] because he believed he hadn’t had much of a choice.

“[Warriors] aren’t faster. In short bursts, yes, they can be more explosive but in any other way they’re slower. Their skill selections are way more restricted too. [Rogues] end up with far more variety. For a solo adventurer, [Rogue] trumps all the other selections.”

Seffara didn’t like her class being criticized.

“Until you get to class evolutions. Even before then you can take passives to shore up your stamina usage.”

Ryan naturally had a counter for that

“That goes both ways. Look the stats say it all, they have less need for acclimatization which is a bigger issue than most give it credit for. All classes can shore up their weaknesses through skills and realm five evolutions. I just wanted to pick something that maximized my odds of getting there. Now? It’s a good thing I did, I can’t imagine being able to survive as a blacklister without [Dangersense].”

Now? [Rogue] allowed him to really push for things, speedrun through Trials, compounding his achievements… snowballing, one could say.

Milock, who didn’t really understand Ryan’s turmoil, just came in with basic information found on the internet.

“But don’t most people say that [Warrior] is the best if you’ve been practicing to be an adventurer your whole life?”

They were all looking at Ryan, that was a truth he was trying to avoid. He’d lost confidence in his own talent years ago. He couldn’t keep up in swordsmanship with the best. At least not enough to beat adventurer’s children.

Even Seffara noticed his discomfort. She ignored Milock.

“Alright, alright, yes Clara. Ryan’s assessment is more or less correct. [Rogues] don’t tend to have an acclimatization period. You’ve seen those videos of [Warriors] tripping over themselves and accidentally smashing things right?”

Clara nodded.

“Well, even [Mages] have that issue, [Rogues] don’t. They try once or twice and then they learn it, it’s also why they tend to have higher staying power in long fights. Each of their attacks tend to be highly efficient. Later on, they start learning precursor skills faster, are experts in every type of weapon and can have the most variety in their skill selections.”

“That actually sounds much better than a [Warrior], doesn’t it?” Clara asked.

Barry snorted.

“Strength always matters in the end. Training and time can make up the difference for a [Warrior], older [Warriors] that have honed in on a speciality or a weapon art will beat older [Rogues].”

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Ryan raised an eyebrow and Barry paused, then relented.

“In most fair fights.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not giving fair fights to anyone then.”

Ryan went back to trying to stab Seffara. Stab, roll, dodge a fist then twist to dodge an airsoft round that Milock shot at him.

His friend really thought he’d missed the gun.

–

Everyone sat around in a circle throwing rocks slowly at Ryan. He was still trying to recapture the feeling of his [Dangersense] activating, and this was the method they’d settled on. Sometimes he’d open his eyes and dodge, and other times he’d try to close his eyes and anticipate it.

None of it was working, which to be fair, was normal.

“There’s an update on Artigan by the way,” Milo said.

Ryan frowned, “a new video?”

“No, but look.”

All of them huddled around Milock’s phone. There was a stunningly accurate hand drawn rendition of his fake identity. A silver haired elf that looked like someone had spent far too long with the character editor.

Clara oohed and aahed. “Whoa, Artigan looks pretty.”

Seffara whistled. “Better than what we’re working with, for sure.”

Barry snorted. “Looks like a pushover, I thought perfection lost its appeal a few decades back.”

Ryan wasn’t sure if Barry’s comment was an insult or a compliment. He took it as the latter. Milock decided to come in as the last of the peanut gallery.

“Thought you said it sorta looked like you, it looks nothing alike!”

He nudged Milo, they were practicing talking in a way to avoid incriminating themselves with Artigan. Funnily enough it was Milock and not Clara that seemed to be having the hardest time with it.

Clara’s eyes went wide, finding an angle to tease him.

“Ooo, I bet Ryan wishes he looks like this, that would make sense. I didn’t know you wanted to be so pretty, I always took you as the rugged guy.”

He shook his head, refusing to rise to the bait, Milock swiped to the next image, it showed the silver haired half elf in full gear with a menacing grin looking straight ahead. A sinister glee in their eyes.

Clara clapped her hands in excitement.

“Okay, I see it now!”

Barry frowned at the photo. “Huh. I see it too.”

Ryan groaned. He wasn’t sure why he’d even made the comment that the Artigan mask even looked like him. He really was an idiot.

Milock swiped to the next page. The words made him choke on his own spit.

Artigan’s Bounty: 9842 realmcoins.

Half payable on confirmation of first death. Remaining amount paid upon confirmation of second death. Full amount if captured alive.

Note to all adventurers in the leveled zones of Ulverra, extreme caution is to be advised.

Known capabilities.

• An Epic fear skill. Passive and Active
• Unknown stealth ability. Turned invisible in the middle of Ulverra.
• An alert category skill, likely [Dangersense].
• [Instant Dodge] confirmed.
• [Double Stab] confirmed.
• Two handguns, was missing in the most recent encounter, advised to assume he has them.
• Two crossbows
• A soulweapon with at minimum the [Minor Sharpness] enchantment
• A shield, confirmed to be Avale the Strategist’s shield. Toughness is estimated to be the equivalent rating of R4.

Despite the rumors on realmnet, the blacklister is highly competent and skilled. He is likely to have some form of external help outside of leveled zones. Strong possibility of being a spy or being in league with other blacklisters.

All Realmers and Earthers can donate to the bounty by clicking this link.

“What the fuck?” Ryan was horrified by the ballooning bounty, “Nine thousand realmcoins already? Are they crazy? Artigan’s just a realm 2 [Rogue].”

Seffara put a hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t see a team gunning for Artigan even with a ten thousand coin bounty. No team’s equipped to handle that skillset. Not until the fourth realm. Zhenyu’s team was considered one of the better adventuring teams and Artigan tore them apart.”

Zhenyu’s team? Really? They were supposed to be good? That made no sense. What he was really having trouble with, was the idea that nobody would come after him for the bounty.

“I’d consider turning in Artigan for ten million dollars.”

Ryan meant it too. If someone dropped ten million dollars in his lap right now he’d seriously consider giving them the mask.

Seffara scoffed, “adventurers have too much money these days, it isn’t worth risking a firefight with someone that might have a stealth skill and an Epic at realm two. It’s only ten million, even lower realm grinders can make that in a few years.”

Ryan wasn’t sure how to feel about that, he was still having a hard time accepting that the Witch herself believed adventurers were just rebranded Trialists. That the creator of the Adventurer’s Guild herself thought it was nothing but a useful pawn.

He could accept that adventurers weren’t heroes. That was what was so good about them, they were pragmatic, greedy, but relatable.

But ultimately they were supposed to step up when the time came.

…not that Artigan was a truly heinous threat to be stepped up to, he had avoided seriously disgusting behavior.

It still felt wrong.

“Look at the comments,” Milock pointed, snapping Ryan out of his thoughts, “lots of people are simping now that his looks are out.”

Milock started scrolling through a site that talked about realm news.

– Dude went hard on the character customization, what a cringelord, must’ve been ugly before. @Metalius2 (Realmer)

↪Why did adventurers trend away from actual good looking elves again? @ Indiegogo (Realmer)

↪Because this isn’t good looking, it’s uncanny valley. @Metalius2 (Realmer)

↪Most of the Tyrants did it. @Milococo2 (Unverified)

↪Yeah but they’re the og. They have class. This is just a crazy elf. @Metalius2(Realmer)

↪Hey, don’t call him an elf, we don’t claim him. @Leaflegend2020 (Realmer)

Most of the top rated comments were things discussing the bounty and the looks. Then the replies did as all realmnet conversations did and went completely off track. The top commenters weren’t wrong, there’d been a slow trend away from impossibly perfected looks to more natural race looks. Of course adventurers made themselves look as attractive as they could, but nobody really tried to make themselves look completely perfect anymore.

Meanwhile on the more Earth centric sites…

– The Realm needs a good villain these days. When was the last one that appeared so early? Go on Artigan! Let’s see how far you can go! @Witchybith

– He took out Zhenyu’s team, look them up. They’re legit competitors. Manager probably picked him to shake things up. – Metropolisman

The more Milock scrolled, the more outraged Ryan got. There were far too many people cheering him on for his liking. He punched the ground

“Artigan’s supposed to be the bad guy! Stupid Earthers treating all of this like a joke!”

He ignored the looks everyone was giving him and stood up and started pacing. He no longer wanted to look at the offending comments. There had to be something he could do.

Clara was completely confused by his reactions

“Isn’t treating you like a joke a good thing?”

He paused, blinked, then realized she had a point. He was worked up because it was his life and he knew the stakes. But from another perspective… Adventurers avoiding him because they were cowards was a good thing. People on the internet treating him like he was a joke was a good thing.

Let them treat him like he was someone else’s problem, it would make his life easier.

“One step at a time,” he muttered, it was starting to become his mantra, “I don’t have to deal with the adventurers or even the bullipede, but the Trial outpost, I have no idea how to solve that. And also the third Trial is going to be a clusterfuck.”

How the fuck did the Witch Tyrant expect him to survive again? The Second Trial outpost had guns, a tower, even a turret. The Trial? It was going to be so messed up.

Ryan was so worked up that he didn’t care about the stares he was getting while pacing in the circle.

Milock threw a rock and it dinged him in the head.

“You said you killed both the human and demon leader of the second Trial right? That’s going to make it complicated.”

“It was messed up the moment the Strategist saw me kill the others. It’s going to be something like a swarm Trial or an assassination one. Maybe even both.”

The Trials would take everything into account. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that the Trials effectively timeskipped between your Trials. The worlds they were in would be fast forwarded until a crucial moment where you could contribute. Normally if you followed standard procedure, found out which combination of Kings or Queens you got then looked them up, you’d be able to roughly map out what the possible Trials would look like.

He knew which of the Kings it was, General Dupoire meant Human King Farin, Strategist Avale meant Demon King Arctus. Only… it didn’t really matter.

With how he’d completed the second Trial, all bets were off. He wouldn’t be surprised if the Human King had already met with the Demon King and agreed to make his life a living hell. They were like the Skeleton Lord in that manner. The more you stood out, the worse it got.

“I really must have been out of my mind killing Dupoire like that.”

He kept pacing. Then he narrowed his eyes, there wasn’t a way to make his Trial more predictable but he could ‘dilute’ his overall impact in the Trial.

Maybe there was a way after all.

Seffara sipped her juice and nodded her head.

“You can just see the moment when a lightbulb goes off in that little head of his.”

“I know, right?” Clara also nodded, taking a sip.

Ryan scowled, realizing he had completely forgot about his peanut gallery.

“Out with it,” Barry said, “what have you come up with?”

“I lost it when I got interrupted.” Ryan said.

“Sure you did. Oi Seff.”

“On it.”

Ryan tried running. The blacklister did not get far at all.

–

A busy Saturday had gone by, and for the third time in less than a week, Ryan was physically exhausted. However, unlike other times, he felt mentally fresh. He’d come up with parts of a plan and things were starting to look feasible.

They all sat around Seffara’s stupidly large dining table.

It was late night and they were finally going to go through something Ryan was the most concerned about.

Learning how to manage [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation].

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep