Eldrian smiled despite knowing that he was at quite the disadvantage, the slight stinging pain on his shoulder the clearest indication of this.

'Let's see if that will work.' Eldrian thought, standing straight and reforming his stance into one more commonly used for a quarterstaff. Gripping Aoidos with a wide grip, the two smiled as they confirmed the other was ready. Charging forward the next moment.

Eldrian used the wider range of protection to keep Zylric's two spears from reaching him, whilst moving in close and striking back. Unfortunately, he was unable to properly time the attack and distance, resulting in only the shaft hitting Zylric's forearm.

Zylric jumped back with a look of surprise,

"You improved a great deal, how did you-?

"

"By not sitting still,

" Eldrian replied, thrusting forward quickly, letting the spear fully extend before pulling it back and executing a strong but short-ranged swing as he went back into the quarterstaff stance. He kept alternating between the two as fast as he possibly could, keeping Zylric at range with his thrusts and moving into his blind spots with the slash.

Yet, he failed to make a solid hit. Zylric would always manage to move just enough to ensure what hit him, if he failed to block, was the shaft and not the blade.

'What is with this guy, how does he keep doing that?' Eldrian wondered as he jumped back and thought of how easy it would be to end the fight with a spell. Only to shake his head to rid himself of the unnecessary distraction. The distraction was enough for Zylric to charge in and close the gap.

Forced to retreat, Eldrian desperately tried to recreate some distance. Zylric using his spears like daggers, a truly strange manner of fighting but being so close Eldrian couldn't do anything with Aoidos.

'Fuck it,' Eldrian decided to just stopped trying to defend with Aoidos. Letting go he tackled Zylric, one of the spears entering his side but the other harmlessly falling from Zylric's grasp. The pain was not much in these fights, allowing Eldrian to completely ignoring the wound he just received.

Raining down punches before Zylric could regain control of his weapons, Eldrian made sure to pin him to the ground.

Contrary to everything he had expected, he saw the man smiling as his lips burst and cuts opened over his face from the solid hits Eldrian managed to land.

"That's it, put it all on the line!

" Zylric roared as he thrust the spear into Eldrian's side again and also sprang up to give him a hug. Grasping Eldrian with his left as hard as he could while repeatedly stabbing with his right.

Eldrian's mind spun, yet he failed in reaching a solution. He was too weak after his injured to break Zylric's grip. As the fifth strike was about to land Eldrian forfeited.

Zylric him go and laughing heartily, as Eldrian was about to be teleported out Zyrlic sent him a friend invite, along with a few kind parting words.

"Great fight! We should meet up in-game.

"

...

Eldrian woke in his virtual home with a weird feeling. The battle had been gruesome and truly brutal, yet the two had left it without any bad feelings. Eldrian was slightly dejected in defeat, however, he still had a chance to rank higher.

Even if he couldn't reach the top ranks and challenge one of the other players for a chance to claim first, he would still be somewhere between 8th and 16th. He was happy with that, he might not even manage to get a reward as only the top 10 were eligible. Still, he felt it was quite good for someone whose major focus had been on magic and not spear fighting.

"Do I even want to do that?

" Eldrian asked, his question quickly drowned out as he recalled how much he had focused on making the virtual home a place he could train in. Only to then never use it. 'Granted, not much later they gave me an improved headset which allowed me to stay in-game for longer.'

"Still, I think I should make something of this. Let's see,

" Opening his interface Eldrian went about some remodeling. He wasn't planning on making this a place to train anymore, but he felt it might be a nice place to meditate. 'Would it even work?' He wondered but decided to finish his decoration first.

His favorite tree in the estate having lost its vibrant flowers was certainly disappointing. Turning around Eldrian decided to scrap everything.

Starting anew, this time he had a single purpose and he was going to make sure the virtual home felt like a place of relaxation.

"This is going to be expensive, but heck I have no other use for my money.

"

Eldrian didn't have much saved, well maybe that was not quite correct. He had around 20,000 dollars in the bank at the moment. A good deal of his salary had gone to the commune room that he was still renting. It might not be a good use, but it allowed him to know that he had somewhere to go should something happen with Miracle.

Him bringing his issues to the foreground certainly made things less comfortable. While Eldrian knew they had no one to replace him, they didn't really need him. Or rather they only needed him for this one project, and it was not the lifeline of the company. Though at the moment it was indeed the major focus of the company. So he should be safe.

'Right, yeah that is more than enough though.' Eldrian didn't think the decoration would take even a thousand. Sure, he could probably go and ask for some employee advantage. In fact, that was probably what he should do.

However, he didn't want to go open a can of worms again. He had already asked for quite a number of things, and while he was allowing them to monitor his game progress. He had yet to give them anything of worth.

Rather, he had only caused problem after problem. Sure, these were things that they would eventually need to fix and update. But it wasn't like Eldrian helped in fixing them.

'Not to mention me keeping my meeting with Ziraili a secret. It is best if I only contact them as needed.' Eldrian thought while thinking back to when he first came here and so excitedly shared all he knew with Constantin. 'How come he still hasn't managed to succeed?'

Dropping the question Eldrian refocused on creating his safe space. He started with what he called the mother tree. Designing it according to Erik's description of Nerenth.

Flowers of all kinds, adjustable via a setting, sprouted from the tree. All of them letting out a soft glow that lighted the area around the tree in an almost candlelight mood, but more magnificent. For the moment Eldrian had the flowers set at a light purple and had them all take the appearance of Jacarandas.

The setting to be able to change the flower's color and appearance cost quite a lot, but Eldrian didn't care.

In front of the tree Eldrian made a pool of ice blue water, adding both a Yin and Yang koi fish inside the pool. Both of which Eldrian designed himself, using a template but making it up as he went.

Luckily he didn't need to be good with art as the system handled most of the actual art. He just shared his thoughts and confirmed if it was what he wanted or not.

The Yin had jade black scales, with the fins a dark blue becoming lighter the further it was from the fish. The Yang instead had light pink scales with its fins a light purple becoming darker the further it was from the fish.

Each was nearly a meter (3.3ft) long and the two swam around each other peacefully in the ten-meter (33ft) wide pool Eldrian had created. The scene truly giving him inspiration and making him feel that the cost of 200 dollars for the customized request was fully worth it.

Next, Edvard turned the area between the pool and tree into a beautiful grass patch. Lime green grass with just the right height to be comfortable, soft even, but not long enough to be irretating.

'Now, the rest...' Eldrian looked around at the barren land surrounding the pool and tree and he actually half liked the contras. 'But I don't want contras, I want it all to be welcoming.'

Taking his time Eldrian walked the paths he wanted, adding a bridge over the pool and filling the rest of the 100x100m (328ft) area with random trees and plants as he saw fit. The total bill coming to 1,286 dollars and Eldrian happily paying it.

Taking a seat under the tree, Eldrian enjoyed the natural feeling of the grass and the light illumination of the flowers. He had made sure that the entire area was only lit by some type of flower. While none of them were magical, as everything here was fake, it still gave him a magical feeling.

He no longer had a house in his virtual home, instead, he had added hammocks along with the paths and a few pillows decorated to fit in with the surroundings.

Looking at the two fish and wondering if they might be real, or if they were just his own creation, Eldrian started to meditate. Trying to sense the area around him as he could in ANW. He failed, naturally he would. Yet he did not give up, he continued to meditate until the alarm he had set informed him that it was time to log into the game again.