Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 73 Anger

Zhang Yuan, who killed Tao Gesi, felt no joy or excitement at retaliating; instead, he felt strange and bewildered.

Whether it was the opponent's sudden attack or his own easy counterattack, everything seemed illogical.

Recalling the other party's attack, which seemed to be a beat or even two beats slower, it didn't seem like a premeditated murder, but rather a gesture, a gesture deliberately put on for others to see.

Ska was right there, but he did nothing. Why?
Too much had happened, and Zhang Yuan, whose mind was in a state of confusion, stood there trying to sort out his thoughts.

"This is his destiny, the fate he chose for himself, and as he himself said, he thanks you."

Ska came over and patted the rookie on the shoulder.

"He deliberately made me kill him, didn't he?"

"Don't think too much about it. Death or life is a warrior's honor, and no one will be blamed for it."

"But why me? Wouldn't it have been more in line with his wishes to die at your hands?"

"Do you think I'd fall for his trick?"

"..."

The rookie was speechless. Just as Ska said, only a rookie like him would fall for such a trick and be provoked into taking action.

Having finally figured out what had happened, Zhang Yuan felt increasingly disheartened. The thought that even a powerful warrior like Tao Gesi had met such an end, despite it being his own choice, inevitably evoked a subtle sense of shared sorrow, like the plight of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox.

Thinking back to the game, to the Ska before him, and to Khalid's fate, he couldn't help but ask:
"Is this always the fate of a warrior? To die with so-called honor?"

"Yes, this is the fate of a warrior. Do you understand that?"

Ska deliberately provoked the rookie next to him.

"You seem to have forgotten that I am a mage."

Someone casually remarked, leaving Ska speechless for a long time, pointing at Zhang Yuan without being able to utter a word.

Although he managed to deal with the Ska problem by mixing in and out, he knew his own situation well and realized that he could never truly live with the spirit of facing death.

After all, just over two months ago he was just an ordinary otaku, so it's already quite remarkable that he's managed to get to where he is today.

His motivation for fighting was by no means for the honor of a soldier or any kind of enlightenment. On the contrary, his motivation was very simple: to live and to live a better life.

It was precisely for this goal that he forced himself to constantly challenge those difficulties and opponents that he used to fear like tigers.

Ultimately, however, all of this was merely a means to an end for him, rather than the ultimate goal and pursuit in the hearts of some.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, he is also a mage, and there is more than one path for him, isn't there?
At this moment, Zhang Yuan finally had the leisure to check his gains for the day, totaling 63 points, with Tao Gesi alone contributing 36 points.

This huge sum of money would probably make him jump for joy on a normal day, right? But the person was surprisingly calm, even wanting to laugh at his own overreaction.

He casually opened his own profile.

Huh? What?!
This time he really jumped up, his previous composure thrown into an abyss by someone.

Owner: Zhang Yuan
Race: human

Identity: Auto Chess Messenger
Class: Sword Saint (Level 4) / Mage
Age: 24
Alignment: Lawful Neutral Strength: 16
Agility: 14 (Acceleration Boots +1)

Constitution: 18
Intelligence: 18
Intelligence (Perception): 10
Charisma: 11
Weapon Specialization: Longsword, Dual Weapons
Combat specialties: Evasion, Rolling,

Skill: Spirit Slash

What made Zhang Yuan jump for joy was not only the increase in his professional level, but also the newly appeared skill bar.

Countless times, countless struggles and attempts, countless attempts to create or imitate various moves in an effort to create or activate a skill, but unfortunately, I have never succeeded.

The skills and techniques learned in training can only be considered part of the foundation. They are by no means useless. On the contrary, these abilities, which are not displayed on the attribute panel, are the foundation of the warrior class. Without them, everything else is just castles in the air and cannot be discussed.

In fact, the higher the rank of a warrior, the more solid their basic skills tend to be.

Of course, this is in comparison to ordinary people. For someone like the Fire Giant Warrior, who is blessed with divine strength, there is no comparison.

Once the warriors have mastered the basic skills, they can then choose different focuses and development directions for in-depth and intensive training based on their own needs, such as weapon selection, dodging, defense and offense, dual weapons, and so on.

This is what we call combat style, or specialty. For example, a shield warrior wouldn't specifically train to use two weapons to acquire a specialty like dual-wielding proficiency.

Skills can be seen as a combination and extension of professional abilities and expertise; it is also acceptable to call them special expertise.

However, skills are more specific and targeted than specializations. For example, even a mage can master dual-wielding combat after a period of specialized training, but it is almost impossible for them to learn Berserk.

Perhaps it can be said that skills and professions are not absolutely one-to-one, but the skills that one can learn in a profession must represent the most critical or distinctive part of that profession.

(P.S. These are actually my personal opinions, and they already have a bit of a secondary interpretation feel to them. But I still think that some powerful feats really can't be simply categorized into the ordinary feat sequence, so I've simply listed them separately as skills.)
The Qi-Boosting Slash used by the Sword Saint is a prime example.

Sword Saints, like Monks, are special professions from the distant Eastern kingdom of Karatu. They both emphasize the use of Qi and focus on meditation and enlightenment in addition to combat training.

And they can't wear armor!
Do they look familiar? These two professions are similar to the knights-errant of ancient China, except one is skilled in martial arts and the other is a swordsman with superb agility.

Ever since acquiring the profession of Sword Saint, this person has been greedily fantasizing about how wonderful it would be if he had learned martial arts and swordsmanship from a young age.

After waking up from his daydream, he still had to face reality. The problem was that the profession of Sword Saint was really rare, and Zhang Yuan hadn't been able to meet a mentor on the path to becoming a Sword Saint.

So even now, this person's Sword Saint class is severely unbalanced, relying on only one aspect. Although his combat skills as a warrior have made significant progress, and the increased level speaks for itself, he has no clue about the Sword Saint's specialties, skills, especially the use of "Chi".

It's like a novice aspiring to become a martial arts master, but only learning external skills and techniques without mastering internal strength. This is undoubtedly regrettable and incomplete.

The reason Zhang Yuan was so excited was that Qi-Boosting Slash was not just a skill; it represented a new kind of power belonging to the Sword Saint system awakening within him and being able to be roughly used.

Realizing this, Zhang Yuan was eager to try out his new skill, but he was disappointed to find that his internal energy was very scarce and not enough to support the use of Qi-Boosting Slash.

What happened? Why does it look like my body has been hollowed out?

Suppressing his doubts, Zhang Yuan continued looking at his panel and noticed several lines of prompts at the bottom:
"Managers are promoted after thorough training and practical experience."

"The administrator awakened the Qi-Boosting Slash skill and killed Togos Kosan."

Well, no wonder I felt completely different when I thrust out that sword. And it really is through training and real combat that I've improved, no different from anyone else. There's no such thing as gaining experience by killing people. There's no shortcut at all, is there? Someone thought greedily.

Thank you, my Lord, for your generous donation!
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(End of this chapter)