Evil Avalon - Volume 2 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: How We Know Each Other

I stuffed the remainder of my bun into my mouth, washed it down with milk, and changed into my gym clothes. Then, I walked toward the third Arena room, where the sword fighting class would occur.

Kirara had annoyed me. My unplanned conversation with her had drained the energy I needed to get through the physical activities of the next class. Since this was our first sparring lesson, perhaps it wouldn’t be too physically taxing. Nitta was as relaxed as they came, so I couldn’t see myself breaking a sweat sparring against her.

If anything, I’d spend the lesson flirting and having fun. I can’t wait!

Thus, my annoyance quickly changed to excitement, I walked the rest of the way with a bounce, having to stop myself from skipping.

***

I reached the third room of the Arena, which had a thick outer wall surrounding it. The intense lighting on the inside was almost blinding. We were in the third biggest of the four rooms in the Arena, but it was still as large as the gym at the high school I’d attended in my old world and had a staggeringly high ceiling. The magic field contained the entire room. Even the walls and floor could withstand powerful impacts, making the room suitable for training with physical enhancements.

“Has anybody not found a partner?” asked Murai as he walked into the room, checking the class register. Any leftover student would have to pair up with him, which seemed like punishment.

It might seem odd that a homeroom teacher was running a gym class. Still, Murai was an alumnus of Adventurers’ University and a graduate of Adventurers’ High in Class A. He was at a higher level with more experience when compared to the average adventurer, so he was more than capable of instructing us. I would’ve loved to glimpse his strength with Basic Appraisal, but I resisted the urge.

Behind Murai were several other instructors and the handsome school Priest. We could rest assured that we’d be okay if any accidents occurred because the Priest could provide first aid and regenerative magic, all free of charge.

The instructors distributed black full-body combat suits along with hard plastic swords. We listened to Murai’s instructions while putting on the suits. In today’s lesson, we’d be striking at our partner with the training swords.

The sword fighting we would practice wasn’t the same as kendo; instead, we would learn how to fight against monsters rather than other people. Monsters varied in size and shape as well as attack patterns and weaknesses, which required very different combat styles from fights against adventurers.

There was no standard weapon for sword fighting class either; shortswords, longswords, katanas, and daggers were all viable. The recommended style was to attack and retreat continuously rather than maintain a fixed distance from your opponent because the ideal distance depended on your opponent and your sword’s length.

However, we wouldn’t use the attack-and-retreat method since we would all use the same light plastic swords. We’d stand still, face our opponent, and strike each other with our swords, similar to kendo practice. The instructors would walk through the groups as we swung at each other and suggest how to improve.

Generally, you’d pick a partner close to your own level. Due to Class E having less than two months of experience in the dungeon, it wouldn’t make a difference who we partnered up with... Or so Murai thought.

Nitta, my partner for the day, hoped to become an Archer, and used a bow as her main weapon. She probably hadn’t practiced much with close-range weapons, and I’d need to go easy on her without making it obvious.

When I looked at her, she waved a little and whispered, “Good luck.”

Good luck to you too! I thought, excited.

Oomiya, a petite girl who wanted to be a Wizard, had paired up with Kuga, who was slender. Plus, Oomiya would learn a lot from a fight against a student aspiring to a different job with a different physique, especially at a much higher level than her. Unfortunately, Kuga was rubbing her eyes and didn’t seem interested in taking the lesson seriously, which was a shame.

“Begin!” Murai instructed.

My classmates began tentatively swinging their swords at each other, getting a feel for combat. Most wanted to become adventurers one day, so they took the training seriously. A few of the students, like Kaoru, had perfect stances due to prior experience with kendo.

As for me... I hadn’t actually checked what Nitta’s level was, but it was likely much lower than mine. Ignoring that, I didn’t want to go too hard on a girl and would let her get the first few hits.

Nitta put a hand on her hip and puffed out her chest. “Just so you know, I’m not too bad with a sword.”

Had she practiced kendo before? It wouldn’t matter, though. Inside a magic field, she wouldn’t be able to beat me because level superiority mattered more than technique.

She’s confident in her ability, I thought, so I need to be careful not to ruin her confidence.

Later, Nitta combed her hair back with her fingers and slowly pulled her sword from the sheath on her waist. The sight of her was delightful, and I let my guard down. But when I looked more closely...

She’d lowered her center of gravity, holding her sword in her right hand in front of her, and kept her left hand back as if ready to cast a spell. Magic Swordsmen favored this stance and was not the kind a Class E student with little raiding experience should know.

But wait, that’s not the main problem.

Warning bells were ringing in my mind for a different reason.

The tip of her sword was swaying ever so slightly in time with her breathing. This sword style obscured the first attack behind a series of small feints...and I recognized it.

A sudden wave of déjà vu washed over me, and the memory of her came crashing back into my mind—the woman who’d hunted across the world for me in the game.

“Tell me, Souta Narumi—”

Nitta was staring deep into my eyes, watching for my reaction. Her gentle smile was unchanged, yet it looked infinitely more monstrous than it had.

“—you’re Mav, aren’t you?”

H-Holy shit...

The world around her shimmered, and I felt like a gale was blowing me away. Nervousness caused my heart to pound in my chest, and I gulped.

“You are! Your face has given it away! I knew it.” Nitta began bouncing up and down, forgetting that we were in the middle of a lesson. Her way of celebrating was quite adorable.

On the other hand, I felt dejected and about to lose my mind. I’d expected to find some other players here, but why did it have to be her of all people?!

“When was the last time we fought?” asked Nitta. “Devil’s Keep? You took out so many of my clan members in that one.”

“Y-Yeah, that’s right,” I responded. “You got me in the end, though.”

Before arriving in this world, Nitta and I had been rivals who’d fought and competed against each other. More accurately, in our role-play, I’d been a PK*, and Nitta had been a PKK*.

*TIPS: PK is short for player killer. This term refers to players who intentionally attack ordinary players to steal their money or items. People view them with fear and hatred as malign entities.

*TIPS: PKK is short for player killer killer. The term refers to players or organizations specializing in defeating PKs. Although they kill other players, others revere them for slaying the hated PKs.

DEC employed a PK combat system, allowing you to attack and kill other players. When I joined the game, I’d become a PK to seek thrills in fights against plenty of players. Sometimes I killed them; sometimes they’d kill me.

The great benefit of PKing was the ability to loot items and equipment from other players. But the downside was that you’d become a wanted player and get banned temporarily from player hangouts like Granny’s Goods on the tenth floor. If you continued to kill players while in a wanted state, you’d receive the label of “permanent PK” and the Adventurers’ Guild would set a huge reward for your defeat. There was no way to remove this label once they arranged it. No matter how many good deeds you might pile up, PKKs would endlessly hunt you down for the bounty, turning your game life into one of constant fighting. Another disadvantage of PKing was that if you died or got killed while labeled as a PK, they would slash down your level, you’d lose all your equipment and items, and your player name would include an insulting tag. My tag was “The Most Atrocious Villain,” or Mav.

The risks and restrictions far outweighed the potential benefits, so nobody became a PK for their own profit. Only eccentrics and thrill-seekers like me would choose to make PKing part of their daily gameplay.

Nitta had formed a clan of PKKers to hunt down PKs like me, so it was natural that we’d know each other. She’d hunted me, and I’d hunted her. We had stolen, attacked, and killed each other over and over again. That had been more or less where we’d left it before we had come to this world.

I inspected the girl beside me and could only see a cute older-sister type wearing sports glasses. This image was a far cry from the Dark Knight who’d hunted me down with all the tenacity of a wild beast. She used her sword fighting knowledge from the real world to wield her magic sword, shrouded in her jet-black plate armor and massive Aura.

“So, uh, did you pick a custom character?” I asked.

“Yep, this is the real me,” stated Nitta. “Looks like you didn’t.”

I had chosen a random character, which led to me becoming Piggy, a character from the game. Even though I regretted my choice for a long time, I didn’t mind now because my diet was coming along nicely, and I got on well with my family.

Nitta had picked the custom character option but been sent to this world as herself instead of interacting with a character creation screen. It was strange because I’d always pictured the person behind her character as a giant female pro-wrestler with a hideous face. Nonetheless, it turned out she was actually a really cute girl.

“So, how did you know it was me?” I inquired.

I’d only started to use Fake to disguise my stats, so maybe she’d cast Basic Appraisal on me at some point without me realizing. I wasn’t sure how that could be possible.

“Just a feeling,” she said. “The giveaway was your reaction after seeing my ‘pendulum.’”

Pendulum was the sword technique she used where she’d cause the tip of her sword to twitch to confuse her opponent about the timing and vector of her attack. Nitta’s PKK clan had instructed members on real-world sword fighting techniques, and they’d upheld military standards of conduct in training and in battle. They’d been an adept team of swordsmen specifically trained in PVP. Rumor had it that Nitta had trained her recruits personally to raise the clan’s overall fighting ability, even if I didn’t know how true that was.

The Nitta standing in front of me didn’t possess the same huge Aura or suite of sword skills as her game character. My countless deaths at her hands made it impossible not to be wary of her.

She smiled faintly as she gazed at my face with a strange twinkle in her eye. I recognized that look from her Dark Knight character.

Uh, she’s not gonna try to kill me, is she...?