Chapter 6 Stunning Moments

The moment the countdown ended, Eric leaned forward, his legs bent like a cheetah, and with a sudden burst of energy, he dashed out of the starting line. He had already run nine feet before the sound of muskets went off, bullets hitting the starting line.

Another round of gunshots followed, with six bullets fired, blocking Eric's path forward. His body was covered in green predictive bullet trajectories. If he didn't react quickly enough, he would be riddled with bullets.

Seeing the bullets flying towards him, Eric sidestepped three feet to the right, dodging the second round of shots, and then charged forward. The three goblins kept aiming and shooting, firing back and forth, with bullet casings dropping to the ground, making clinking sounds. Eric, agile like a cheetah, seemed to dominate the bullets, always managing to evade them. As the next round of bullets came at him, he moved forward a few more steps.

"No way, he's already advanced thirty feet so quickly," the male Priest watched as Eric passed the ten-yard line in less than five seconds, twice as fast as Thornheart, and was astonished.

Thornheart remained silent, watching Eric move ahead. Initially, he thought Eric was a rookie coming to the challenge arena for excitement. However, Eric's performance was so swift and precise, as if he had honed his skills in the challenge arena for many years. Each move was simple and efficient, not something an ordinary rookie could achieve. Even Thornheart, after many challenges, admitted he couldn't dodge as well.

However, Thornheart had the pride of a master, believing Eric couldn't be better than him. He explained, "Perhaps this newcomer is an athlete or has trained in martial arts; that's why he's so agile. But once he passes forty-five feet, the goblins' attack style will change, and he won't be able to hold on."

"Thornheart is right; someone unknown even to our Assassin Alliance is definitely not a master. Once he passes forty-five feet, he'll definitely be startled. In the end, he'll be riddled with bullets by the goblins."

"Yeah, once he passes forty-five feet, the bullets fired will increase to twelve, and the goblins won't focus solely on shooting the player. The bullet trajectory coverage will be very wide; dodging left and right won't work."

Other members of the Assassin Alliance expressed their agreement, having watched several challenges like this. When Thornheart first challenged, he passed forty-five feet, but in subsequent challenges, he only reached a distance of sixty feet, showing how difficult it was beyond forty-five feet.

"He passed forty-five feet," a member of the Assassin Alliance said. Immediately, Thornheart and the others focused their attention on Eric, curious to see his performance.

On the challenge field, after Eric crossed the forty-five-foot line, the three goblins became extremely angry, starting to shoot wildly without focusing on aiming. Suddenly, a large area of bullet trajectories covered Eric's path, with only three bullets able to hit him. If he was hit by just another one, the game would be over.

"You finally resort to cheating?" Eric smiled faintly, drew out his novice sword, and charged towards the bullets.

In a past life, Eric, as the leader of ShadowForge Studios, was too busy with work and leveling up to play challenge matches. However, he had seen quite a few and was very clear about the challenge matches. He knew that after forty-five feet, the goblins would change their attack style.

The forty-five-foot distance in the black market challenge could be a benchmark for assessing players' operational skills. Only by passing the forty-five-foot mark for the bronze prize could one be considered to have mastered physical operation skills. This entry-level proficiency usually took most players two to three months to achieve, with a few managing it in one month. Only a very few skilled players could pass it at once, like Thornheart.

Seeing three bullets about to hit Eric's head, chest, and arm, Thornheart remarked, "He is really clueless. There are too many bullets and they're too scattered. He has forgotten to dodge and is foolishly rushing forward," Thornheart saw Eric charging straight at the bullets, thinking he was being foolish. Did he think that being hit by one or two bullets would allow the challenge to continue?

At that moment, Eric's head tilted to the side, and he swung his novice sword, emitting a white light. The novice sword swung perfectly, easily hitting the bullet coming from his chest, sparking a flame. Thus, Eric easily deflected three dangerous bullets and advanced further.

However, the three goblins had no intention of stopping. The muskets in their hands seemed to change, turning into machine guns with a continuous stream of fire. The intervals between each round of shooting were very short, and in an instant, Eric was about to face five bullets. The bullets surrounding him made it impossible to dodge.

Eric quickly wielded his novice sword to block the unavoidable bullets, moving his body to let the bullets graze past him. He even heard the sound of the bullets piercing through the air in his ears.

After just three seconds, Eric passed the sixty-foot mark, with only thirty feet left to reach the finish line.

"Damn! He can actually block the bullets with his sword," the male Priest's eyes widened in shock, finding Eric's performance indescribable. While cognizant of the bullet's trajectory, its interception proved elusive, demanding exceptional precision in judgment and dexterity, with margins for error infinitesimally minute.

Thornheart was speechless; using a sword to block bullets was like walking a tightrope in the sky. One wrong move could lead to a fall into an abyss. Yet Eric seemed unfazed, repeatedly blocking the flying bullets as if they were avoiding his body on their own.

"Thornheart, he has already reached seventy-five feet. He's definitely going to pass the finish line now," the male Priest watched Eric move forward like a dance, occasionally sparking flames in front of him, completely shocked.

"No need to remind me," Thornheart responded impatiently, deeply attracted by Eric's movements.

Just as Eric passed the seventy-five-foot mark, the goblin at the finish line exclaimed, "Perish, challenger," withdrawing a repeating musket from his garb and unleashing a hail of gunfire toward Eric. Instantly, the number of bullets per round increased to twenty-four, and at a super short distance of fifteen feet, making it impossible for players to avoid.

"Damn, this is cheating!" Thornheart couldn't help but shout. Seeing this scene, the hearts of the remaining players all began to tighten with nervous tension, cursing the goblins' shamelessness.

Facing such a dense barrage of bullets, Eric became serious for the first time. Although he knew that the goblins' attack style would change again at seventy-five feet, facing so many bullets head-on still made him nervous. Bending his knees, Eric leaped like a cheetah, moving towards the least dense area of the bullet storm, reducing the area where the bullets could hit him. He then gripped his novice sword tightly, swinging it wildly as if four white lights flashed at the same time. After a burst of sparks, Eric passed through the torrent of bullets.

As he landed, he braced himself with one hand, then stood up with another forceful movement, rushing past the finish line in a flash. With a total time of fourteen seconds, he broke the preset record of eighteen seconds for the bronze prize.

"This fragile body is somewhat uncomfortable," Eric thought. With a physique of over 100 levels, performing a quadruple sword strike would be very easy, and he wouldn't feel as exhausted as he did now.

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, let us cheer and congratulate this swordsman on his successful challenge," the goblin administrator announced loudly.

System: [ Player Kai Blackthorn is the first to pass the bronze challenge and break the record, rewarding him with one silver coin and the swordsman skill: Thunderbolt. ]

"No way, to reward such a rare skill like Thunderbolt, a skill that not even a swordsman of over 100 levels can obtain!" Eric thought he was hearing things, but when he saw the skill book for Thunderbolt in his backpack, he was truly shocked.

Thunderbolt, an action skill that requires a sword, rapidly delivers three sword light attacks to a distance of 30x2 feet in front, each attack causing 130% damage, with an additional damage enhancement effect that increases the damage of the next attack by 20%. The cooldown time is thirty seconds.

Since he received the skill, Eric didn't hesitate to click on it to learn. The swordsman class primarily focuses on single-target damage skills, lacking powerful AoE damage skills. Thunderbolt could be said to be one of the few super powerful AoE skills for swordsmen. Being able to learn it early on was definitely a big advantage over all other swordsmen.

After learning Thunderbolt, Eric felt like he had some semblance of a swordsman. "You have fun; I'm outta here. Don't forget my fifty bronze coins," Eric looked at the dumbfounded Thornheart, bid farewell, and left the black market.

Thornheart nodded indifferently.

"Thornheart, he's gone, and he took the reward with him. Shouldn't we go after him?" the male Priest asked.

It wasn't until Eric left that Thornheart recovered from his shock, glaring at the male Priest and scolding, "Are you an idiot? We should be buttering up a swordsman of his caliber, not making enemies with him."

"I need to report this to the guild leader. Luckily, I added him as a friend. Was it Kai Blackthorn? A swordsman of this caliber, and I've never heard of his name. Could he be a master swordsman in disguise?"

Thornheart admitted that he couldn't achieve what Eric did so magnificently, especially the round of attacks after seventy-five feet, which seemed like cheating. How could players resist or dodge that? Yet Eric managed to do it.

In the trading area, Eric found the master alchemist Kevin and spent 120 bronze coins to purchase twenty exploding berries, significantly reducing his wealth to only thirty bronze coins. However, for rapid progression, he was willing to spend.

With the exploding berries, Eric left Willowbrook Town and ran westward. All the current players were at level one, engaging in the slaughter of level one monsters outside Willowbrook Town. However, there were also some proficient players who had formed teams to hunt down level two wolf pups. The warriors held the front line, the ranged attackers delivered their output from afar, and healers mended wounds. Despite the shared experience amongst several participants, their efficiency remained remarkably high, with minimal creature stealing occurring.

Eric had no intention of competing with others for monsters. He ran past the level one monster area and even the level three monster area all the way to the level five monster area in Willowbrook Forest, where no player had ventured.

At this stage of Divine Realms: Legends, no player dared to challenge level five monsters. The level suppression, robust health, and vast difference in attack power allowed level five monsters to easily crush level one players. Even a six-person team couldn't defeat a single level five monster. Players faced heavy penalties for death, losing a level of experience and skill proficiency. No player dared to take risks lightly, as hours of hard-earned experience and proficiency would be wasted.