Nate was simply put, smitten by the skills that Erin displayed during her fight with his friend. The way she fought, her beauty, her sword skills… Sure he couldn't see what she actually looked like, but if her avatar was anything to go by, then she was surely gorgeous outside of the game too.
{Hardsteely has sent you a friend request}
Erin wasn't surprised by the sudden friend request. It was normal in the game to do as if someone wanted to request a fight, they'd have to be friends first.
{IceQueen has accepted the friend request}
Sam and his friend wanted to discuss something together first before he was to fight Erin, to which Erin obliged. With how much experience she got from Nate's friend, she couldn't wait to fight Nate himself for another major boost.
Exiting the arena, Erin went to the white lobby room, while Sam and Nate talked to each other.
"I can't believe I lost even with this cape," Sam said to his friend, disappointed, "We spent so much time gathering the crystals too."
Nate, however, was not paying attention, as he was getting lost in his thoughts about Erin. His eyes were looking off in the distance with hearts in them.
"Nate!" Sam yelled at his friend, snapping him out of it.
"Wha—"
"Come on man, give me some pointers. What should I do to improve my fighting? We got this awesome cape, but I still lost to her."
"Oh uh—" Nate was scrambling to remember what exactly it was that happened during the fight, "You didn't use the cape right. You completely covered yourself with it, blocking your vision."
Sam sighed, "It's tricky to use. I need to be able to attack while maintaining my defenses. When protecting yourself, you normally think about covering your whole entire body," He then looked to the ground, saddened by the loss, "My win streak…"
Nate proceeded to pat Sam on the back before walking to the battlefield, "Don't worry about it, just think of it as playing wingman. With you losing, I get to shoot my shot."
"But what about my battle strategy!?" Sam complained.
Nate requested a fight with Erin, and soon enough, she reappeared. Sam just wanted Erin to beat Nate over the head with a massive stick. As much as he liked his friend, Nate was a blockhead when it came to women. At least if he lost, then he could win the bet the two had made earlier that day as Sam was almost broke from losing.
"3…2…1… GO!"
The two charged at each other, and Erin slashed her sword at Nate. He caught it with his hands creating a loud clang of metal hitting metal
At first she was impressed by his ballsy move, until she saw his hands turn a shiny color. His body began to shift into a metallic color, mostly concentrating in his arms. Erin tried to overpower him, but in this form, his strength had improved.
He threw her sword to the side, and he quickly flung his hand forward, creating a long metal pole. It dug into Erin's stomach, pushing her back.
[- 1 HP]
[- 1 HP]
[- 1 HP]
[- 1 HP]
[- 1 HP]
[HP 20/25]
Erin grabbed onto the pole, and dug her feet into the ground. The momentum of the pole stopped.
"Oh! She's strong too!" Nate said, retracting the pole.
Erin ran past Nate to her sword, and grabbed it, but Nate had formed a metallic liquid around his hands and shaped it into a sword. The two charged at each other, blade clashing against blade.
With a free hand, Erin threw a blood swipe, catching Nate off guard. The hit landed, but only did a little damage. He then changed the sword into a giant gauntlet, slamming into Erin's sword hand, and causing her to drop it.
[- 1 HP]
[HP 19/25]
'I can't keep fighting like this,' Erin thought, 'I need both hands for my sword, but my blood swipe is the only thing that managed to hurt him.'
She was very limited for options right now. Erin only knew how to use the blood swipe, but it didn't feel right using it. She could use her ice powers since she was in the game, but that didn't feel right either, it would've been an undeserved win.
Erin gritted her teeth, and prepared two blood swipes in her hands. She rushed towards Nate and threw them. He blocked by hardening his arms and covered himself, but following right behind the blood swipes was Erin herself. She punched him in the face, and she managed to actually hit his flesh.
'I feel like he should've been able to harden his head just now,' Erin thought.
There wasn't time to think further as Nate created another pole and thwacked Erin, her head thrusted to the side and her body stumbling. At that moment, she saw her sword on the ground, and quickly grabbed it.
[- 5 HP]
[HP 14/25]
As if by instinct, instead of creating a bloodswipe like she normally did with her hands, the red aura formed in her sword. She twisted her body to face Nate, and slashed her sword, creating a red crescent moon shaped slash in the air.
Nate was able to block the first slash, but more soon came to follow. Blocking the blood swipes was child's play for him, but Erin had a different plan of attack.
Continuing her barrage of blood swipes with her sword, she charged him. Once she was close enough, she stopped attacking and dropped down, slicing at his legs. Again, it seemed like he had enough time to allocate his hardening to his legs, but didn't.
'Don't tell me he's…?' Erin thought.
This wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Erin was not an idiot, and knew her beauty often made those she fought go easy on her because of her looks.
Erin jumped back.
"I can tell you're holding back. It's insulting that you're not taking this fight seriously."
Nate looked like he was caught red handed, "W-well, I didn't want to make a beauty like you upset from losing."
Erin scoffed, "and you thought I'd feel better from getting a cheap win?"
Erin ran around Nate, going in circles, inching closer and closer to him. She threw out blood swipes from her sword as she did, keeping him distracted. This time, he blocked all of the attacks, pleasing Erin.
Then right as she ran up behind him, about to deal a devastating blow, Nate twisted around with a hardened kick, knocking her to the ground.
[- 3 HP]
[HP 11/25]
"No hard feelings, please?"
He then proceeded to form a silver sword and stabbed Erin, finishing the match.
In that fight, Nate was able to tell that Erin was learning as they fought. She initially used the red aura slash with her hands, but later on exclusively used it in her sword. It was fascinating seeing someone improve and improvise midfight.
"I hope I can see her at the tournament this year," Nate swooned.
—
Erin was taken back to the white training room. Losing to the Hardsteely guy was a bit upsetting, but only because she wanted the EXP from beating him. Even if she had her ice ability from back then, it would've likely been a close match. However, that fight did tell her something very important, and it was that she needed more types of attacks at her disposal.
If being turned into a vampire gave her the blood swipe skill, then surely there had to be more skills.
Erin sighed, "The blood swipe on the sword is fine and all, but if only I knew more…"
A notification sound was heard, and Erin checked her in game notifications only to find nothing. That was when she checked her built-in system and saw several videos she could watch under a tutorials tab.
When opening the first video she saw, Erin began seeing a platinum blonde man with a face that held soft yet rugged features. It gave off the impression that he was a kind and protective person. He wore a dojo outfit and his long hair was tied back. However, what was the most noticeable feature of the man was his piercing red eyes.
Perhaps if she cared about appearance then Erin would've appreciated this man's beauty more. He then started speaking in a cheerful voice.
"Hello, and welcome to hand to hand combat classes for beginners," The blonde man said, "I don't know how much time has passed but if you have come across this video, that means you're one of us, and I hope that the information that is being provided isn't useless in your day and age."
"I will cover two sets of basic moves, and it's up to you to learn them and figure out how to use them in fights. If you forget, feel free to open up your system at any time and watch the video again."
Erin paused the video for now as she didn't want to spend any more time in the gaming pods than she had already. Sure, she was basically rich, but she had no income, and every hour spent in the gaming pod would cost her.
After leaving the gaming pods, and headed back to her dorm, she continued watching the video.
"The first move is a defensive move; I call it Flash Step. To perform this, if the system has been set up correctly, you will need at least 15 points of agility."
The blonde haired man then crouched down and moved to another corner of the room in an instant, creating an afterimage of himself.
"Now this skill uses up a lot of stamina so even if you have enough agility points to perform this skill, be careful not to wear yourself out. I would only use it when avoiding a fatal blow or going in for an attack. Please also make note that although the move is fast and hard to be seen by the naked eye, at most it can only move you at the distance of five meters."
'Couldn't you have shown me this sooner?' Erin thought to herself. If she had this move when fighting earlier then she could've easily won.
However, something did confuse her slightly. If the move required her to have at least 15 points of agility, then why even bother mentioning it if those were the stats she started with? Either way, she was going to need to practice.
"The next skill I will show you is the Hammer Strike."
The man got into a fighting pose, this time lifting his foot and slamming it onto the ground while at the same time pulling back his left hand and throwing out his right. It was done in one smooth motion, even so much as causing the air to slightly move.
Erin thought it was an impressive feat.
"Cool right?" The man said, smiling.
She began thinking that the man's voice was a little grating with how annoyingly cheerful it sounded. It was only within the video itself, which she could live with.
"For this skill, you will need at least 15 strength as well. That is all for today, when you are ready, the next set of hand-to-hand combat classes will be unlocked for you. If you want a slowed down and more detailed version of these videos, they will be saved in your system. Good luck my friend, and I wish you all the best."
Erin was slightly disappointed that she could only really use one of the skills mentioned. Flash Step seemed very useful, but not the Hammer Strike. That seemed more like Quinn's style with his gauntlets.
Still, there was the question of who that strange man was. If she had to take a guess, he's someone from Quinn's side of the family from a long time ago. The book did come from him after all.
Erin decided to head to bed, and right before she went to sleep, she examined the Flash Step move. Erin watched the video for it very carefully. There were in fact detailed instructions on how the skill worked as well as slowed down footage with detailed commentary. Eventually, Erin wasn't able to keep herself awake, and she fell asleep.
—
Erin wasn't the only one watching the tutorial videos. Quinn himself just got into bed when he realized that he was able to access the newly unlocked tutorial tab. Looking into it, he saw the same video clips about the strangely beautiful blonde man.
As far as he knew about his part of the system, Quinn didn't have stats, so he wasn't sure if he was capable of doing the Hammer Strike, or even Flash Step, but he really wanted to try it out anyways. Quinn carefully watched the videos, memorizing their movements, and rereading the commentary on them. He too fell asleep from examining them.