Blade Skill Online: With Trash Job ‘Summoner’, Weakest Weapon ‘Bow’, and Rotten Stat ‘Luck’, I Rise

[We’re Playing Tag, Kirika-chan!]

“—Stop right there, you little!”

“Just catch me if you can!”

A few minutes after reuniting with one of the assassin players, ‘Kirika of the Asura Realm’.

We were playing tag in the ‘Beginning Town’.

I hopped from roof to roof, running away from Kirika, the ‘it’.

“What a coincidence, though. I never imagined you’d come to learn the newly added ‘Special Action Art’, too.”

“Hmph, I must improve myself to defeat you!” Snorting, Kirika leaped at me. I barely dodged her outstretched hand, dropped down onto the back alley, and then resumed running.

Yup—we were playing tag to learn ‘Special Action Art’.

It could only be learned by those with melee jobs. It allowed you to use some moves useful for traveling and dodging, e.g. high jump and swift step (※ Zansword told me all this. What a nice guy).

By the way, although my jobs—‘Summoner’ and ‘Craft Maker’—weren’t melee jobs, ‘Battle Maker’—the evolution of ‘Craft Maker’—apparently could be both a melee job and a long-range job, depending on the types of weapon you chose. Since I had picked the sword, my ‘Battle Maker’ was also considered a melee job now. Way to go, me!

“Still, talk about an interesting quest. A game of tag of all things.”

Unlike the usual acquisition quests where you just had to deliver the requested items, the Special Action Art’s wasn’t a test so much as it was a mini-game.

The game started once 50 players wishing to learn it gathered at the master NPC’s dojo.

Half of them became ‘it’ and the other half became the runners. If all the runners were caught within 15 minutes, the ‘it’ team won, and if even one runner managed to survive until 15 minutes were up, the runner team won.

Only the winning players got to learn the art.

“Incidentally, skills and arts are unusable during the test. Moreover, everyone’s Agility is fixed at 100, meaning both teams have the same speed, so the runners have a slight advantage… or at least we should, but…”

“““Stooop!”””

…When I glanced behind me, I found several players chasing me.

It was all Kirika’s fault.

Most of the other runners had been caught by that slasher/courtesan.

“She’s super good at controlling her avatar. Everyone’s Agility is the same, but her movements are too efficient…” I muttered while dodging a pursuer jumping at me from the side.

I then proceeded to kick back a trash can in the back alley with the back of my heel, and the players behind me screamed “Uwaa?!”

I took advantage while they were stalled to make a mad dash and got away from them.

“I’ve been fighting so many battles ever since I started playing BSO, so I’m pretty good at controlling my avatar now, but I still can’t match up to the baldhead and Pendragon…”

It was one of the issues I had to solve.

I mean, I was a Summoner with a bow as a weapon, so it would have been strange instead if I was as good in melee as those who had been playing melee since like forever, and since my favorite skill ‘Arms Barrier’ had been nerfed, limiting the number of weapons it could summon, I’d likely often be forced into melee going forward.

That was why actually I had had Zansword teach me swordplay and was working hard to acquire ‘Special Action Art’.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・One minute left until the art acquisition test ends!

Remaining runner: 1.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“Whoa, almost over, huh? Or rather, I’m the only one left?!”

I frowned seeing one of the messages that appeared every minute.

It meant that I was now being pursued by 25 players.

…I wondered why I’d always end up in one vs many situations.

“Hmm, I can win if this keeps up, but…”

Muttering that, I turned around the corner in the back alley.

And there…

“Do forgive me, but this is the end of the road for you, Yuri-han!”

“Geh, Kirika…?!”

She’d predicted my route and been lying here in ambush…!

I’d expect no less from an assassin hailing from ‘Sengoku Rokudo Online’, a game so brutal most of its players quit. How cunning.

“…Ah, look, Kirika! Zansword is dancing naked behind you!”

“Oh dear, who would fall for such a cheap trick? Moreover, I’d prefer to see him naked with his stomach cut open andhis insides spilled out.”

“You’re still as scary as ever, huh?!”

…Kirika slowly approached me, ignoring my words.

Her gait was fascinatingly elegant–just like the real courtesans I saw at the processions of courtesans–but she showed completely no openings.

“The people you have shaken off will be here soon. Your escape routes will be completely blocked then, no?”

“Fuck…”

Cornered, I glanced at the second hand of the clock tower standing in the middle of the ‘Beginning Town’.

There was really only a little time left until the test was over.

“23, 22… tch. Just 20 more seconds, and it’s over, but that’s too long…”

“Fufu. I’ve told you, this is the end of the road for you. Although I must say beating you at this little game doesn’t please me much.”

“Scoff, not very convincing with that grin on your face. …Say, how about we keep chatting like this for 15 more seconds?”

“Please don’t ask the impossible, you are going to win, then.”

No sooner had Kirika turned down my proposal than the players I’d shaken off earlier appeared behind me, blocking my path to retreat.

Furthermore, a voice came from above, “There she is! We’ve got her cornered!”. My face twitching, I looked up, and there I saw other ‘it’ players lined up on the roofs…

“12… 11… dammit there’s still 10 more seconds and these guys are all gathered here…!”

Just then, Kirika sharply gave out her orders.

“Don’t be hasty and open a hole in the encirclement! Five of those above come over to my side! Those behind Yuri-han! Open some space between you so that you don’t hinder each other! On my mark, we are all going to jump at her in unison!”

[R-roger that!]

Reluctantly listening to Kirika’s orders, the players perfected their encircling net.

The end of the test was just around the corner, but I was as good as a rat in a trap!

“She can’t escape anywhere! 5 seconds remain, now, get her!”

“Shit, bring it on, oraaa–!”

The moment I shouted with my back drenched in a cold sweat, the 25 players jumped at me all at once!

Ah, I got nowhere to run. In front, behind, above—the players were approaching me from all sides!

Just as their outstretched hands were about to touch me, however—I puffed out my chest and declared my victory.

“Well, sorry guys, I win.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・Time’s up! One runner survives! The runners win!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[H-huuuuuuuuuuuuh?!]

The players screamed in shock seeing the message windows pop up in front of them.

Now that it was over, I casually slapped their hands away and got out of their encirclement.

“Wha—w-wait a minute, Yuri-han! There should have been a few more seconds left until the time was up! Y-yet, what is going, hold on… ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh?!”

Kirika screamed after stopping me.

It seemed that she realized it in the middle of her sentence.

“Look… looking back, you started counting the remaining time out of nowhere, but that was all just a ruse! The remaining time you stated was inaccurate?!”

“Right-o. Even if you had looked at the clock tower’s second, the difference was only two to three seconds. No way you’d notice.”

The moment I revealed the truth, Kirika… slumped to the ground.

Then, she released a deep sigh “Haaa~~~…!” and glared at me with a completely annoyed look on her face.

“You cheater~~~! You tricked me! I refuse to accept this, I demand a do-over!”

“Shuddup, anything goes for the W.”

“Gasp, what a high Dead Rate line…!” Kirika blushed, for some reason. Yeah, she was a weirdo, alright…

Well, that aside…

“You said this was just a little game, right? Well, unfortunately for you, I’ve vowed to myself to never lose again, even in little games!”

I’m gonna beat all challengers, whomever they may be…!