The Exchange Area was a place where players could converse with champions and build intimacy, effectively serving as the Champion Management Window. Most matters related to champions could be handled there, including duels.
Players (contractors) could improve their skills through duels if they were unfamiliar with a champion's skills. In Almond's case, it was more about proving his skills to Flashy Blade than improving.
— Dang, dueling with a master level Flashy Blade
— Kyah
— Let's firmly establish some discipline
Currently, the skill level of Flashy Blade Swift in the Exchange Area was about that of a top-tier master player.
If it were Raina at silver rank, Almond would have won. However, he hadn’t played in a while.
— Can Almond do this with his dulled senses?
— Please show some power, Swift...
— It's been a while, so who knows
Whisk!
Swift's two swords and Almond's two swords flew into the air. No one could predict what kind of battle would unfold.
[Blink]
Crackle!
Fizz!
Both of them disappeared simultaneously.
They reappeared, having switched places, grabbed their swords again, threw them at each other, and moved simultaneously with the second sword.
[Blink]
Crackle!!
They threw those swords at each other again. Before the swords could reach each other, the cooldown for another blink was up.
They blinked at their previously thrown swords.
[Blink]
Fizz!
Their positions switched again.
— Dang
— How is this happening?
— Wow lol
— They haven't hit each other yet?
— Looks like they'll clash next?
— Is this a Flashy Blade probing battle? lol
They threw their swords at each other again.
Clang!
'The swords collided in mid-air.'
The swords struck each other in the air.
If both of them blinked there, they would be very close to each other.
The real battle was just beginning.
'Should I recall it?'
If Almond recalled the sword to his hand, he could potentially disrupt the rhythm and charge in.
'No.'
It was just a thought and not a particularly good move. It would only delay the battle.
Almond thought of a better move.
Fzzzt!!!
[Blink]
His form blinked away as Swift also disappeared. "!" "!?"
They blinked so close together that their noses could touch.
'I need to grab that sword first...'
Grabbing a sword after blinking was not easy for first-timers. How quickly one could grab their sword determined the efficiency of their attack speed.
Knowing this, Swift stretched out his hand desperately.
But─ "!"
Thang!
Almond's foot struck the two swords upward first.
"What...!?"
Swift seemed puzzled. The two swords were sent flying into the air again.
Almond, anticipating this, reached out first.
Tap. "!?"
Almond laughed and his grin was reflected in Swift's surprised pupils.
[Spinning Strike]
Whirr.
The sword spun as it sliced through the air. The blade itself was imbued with sword energy. However─
[Blink]
Crackle!
Swift blinked away with another sword and Almond's strike only split the air.
— Close call
— Ahh!
— So tantalizing
Almond did not blink unnecessarily. He waited for the cooldown of Swift’s blink to finish. It would take just two seconds.
As Almond stood still, Swift also took a moment to catch his breath and assessed the situation.
"You're about to die."
Swift made a deliberately provocative statement. It wasn’t incorrect though.
"Do you blink with your mouth?"
— Mouth blinking technique lol
— Mouth blink lolol
— lol lol
'Good.'
The moment Swift responded, Almond had already won.
[Blink]
Almond disappeared. Then─ — ???
— What? How?
— What happened?
Crackle!!!
Almond appeared right behind Swift in a flash of gold. Swift had no time to react.
"How, how did you...?"
One could only blink to a sword. It didn't make sense that someone could suddenly appear from behind.
[Sword Energy]
Almond's sword burst with energy as he fiercely advanced.
Swift hastily threw his sword and blinked away a step too late.
Crackle!
[Blink]
He already took significant damage when he reappeared.
[HP: 43%]
Their health was set quite low for the convenience of the duel. Just one or two more hits would end it. This was serious, but there was a bigger problem.
"Huh?"
Swift had blinked to the sword he just threw. Yes, the location hadn't changed. He had blinked before Almond, who essentially hadn’t blinked at all.
The other sword Almond held actually belonged to Swift. Almond was already executing his spinning strike at that spot. — ???
— What? — ?!!
— Huh?
[Spinning Strike]
Chaaarrrr!!
Charr!
Two swords dealt damage in quick succession.
[HP: 0%]
Thud.
Swift fell and Almond's health remained at one hundred percent.
“Waaaaah!”
Cheers burst from among the champions watching.
Raina, watching from a tree, was clapping her hands like a seal. The viewers also began to grasp the situation.
— OMG
— The swords were switched?
— Ah, did he switch the swords when he kicked them earlier???
— Wow, insane physical skills
— Crazy for real
— Wow, he won so cleanly
— A perfect game lol lol lol
After the duel, the space they were fighting in disappeared.
"It's the first time someone has beaten me so quickly. LazySoldier, I'll remember this," Swift muttered in a defeated tone.
— LazySoldier lol
— No, forget that nickname lol
— Laugh track, what a username lol
"I told you," Almond mentioned again. He was seemingly quite irritated that Flashy Blade had doubted his memory.
— Almond regained his memory, dang
— That grudge though lol
— What am I even saying? lol
— Now talking trash to NPCs too? Lol
"Ha. So it wasn't bravado after all," Swift said and smiled bitterly as he stood up again. "Now that you've won the duel, I guess you have no further need of me."
He turned his back to Almond.
"No, I have a request." "?"
The duel was meant to build enough intimacy so Almond could play Flashy Blade’s story mode. It was time to play the story mode.
For that, he had to say certain lines.
"I've become curious about you. How you've lived."
Swift stared at Almond for a moment before asking back, "Did this curiosity arise while crossing swords?"
"That's right."
"Fine."
Crackle!
Swift suddenly blinked away and offered him a fruit. It appeared that he picked it from a tree. This was something only users with significantly high intimacy could experience.
"Your mouth must be dry. Let's talk while eating," Swift said as he took a big bite of the peach. "Funnily enough, it all started in a dark forest. That's the beginning of my memories."
"... Were you born in the forest?"
"Well... if memories count as existence, then I suppose so."
That was when the story mode appeared.
[Would you like to enter the story mode?]
Almond nodded. Soon, Swift's voice faded as the world turned pitch black.
— Everyone, spoilers are coming
— Spoilers are banned from now on
— OMG
— I didn't know this, sounds so cool
It was a dark place.
"A cabin?"
To Almond, it seemed like it could be a cabin. It wouldn't be odd to call it a tent either.
"It's too dark."
Although his eyes were adapting to the darkness, it was still quite dark.
"There's a fire."
Tatatat... Tack...
A feeble campfire burned in one corner of the tent. Almond moved toward it. Empty bottles clattered and rolled around his feet.
"What's with these bottles...?"
Then, something else appeared in his field of vision.
Ding.
[Clear Conditions]
★: Last floor
★★: Memories
★★★: Icarus
"Ah. The clear conditions."
The window displayed the clear conditions for each level. Like during Ran's story mode, the conditions were hard to decipher from the text alone. Wasn't there a saying that even a temple dog could recite poetry after three years?
Having experienced the story mode for the third time now, Almond could make some educated guesses.
"First, let’s focus on a one-star clear until it makes sense."
Achieving just the one-star clear would reveal the bulk of the story. Therefore, concentrating on that would likely lead to situations where obtaining the other stars would become possible.
In other words, even though the three-star clear was the most difficult, the most important condition was the one-star clear.
Thus, Almond mulled over the text for the one-star clear.
"Last floor..."
What could the last floor mean? It could be referring to something like the floors in dungeons he had seen in RPGs that he briefly played in the past.
"Is this a dungeon?"
Given the darkness, it seemed plausible.
"Then, what's this tent for?"
The RPG dungeons he played didn't have cabins set up inside them. Perhaps because it was the story mode, the design looked more realistic.
— Hey. Almond. You're on stream, you know.
— Knock knock? Mr. President? Where did you go?
— Why are you staying silent and not saying anything? lol
— Ah. Mon. D.
— Bark bark bark
Complaints flooded the chat as Almond remained silent and pondered internally. He had been ignoring their continuous requests to speak.
"Ah... I didn't hear you. Everyone." — ??
— You’re not supposed to be able to hear the chat lol
— Are you saying we should donate to get heard? lol
— Attention-seeking dog
— Speak up!
Ahem.
I was silent because I was contemplating."
— Contemplating?
— Oh
— What were you contemplating? lol
— Walnut high-speed spin
"My guess is that this is a dungeon. Reaching the last floor seems to be the most basic clear condition."
He sneakily glanced at the chat to see if his deduction was correct.
— Eh
— Checking the chat is so annoying lol
— Ah is a genius! Ah is a genius!
— "Ah"gatha Christie, dang, truly one of the Ah family
— Kyah
— Detective Conan Dog
— "Genius Dog"
Although calling it a deduction was almost embarrassing given how basic the knowledge was, the viewers lifted Almond’s spirit after considering his unfamiliarity with games.
— The corners of his mouth are rising lol
— What's with that expression? lol
— Ah is so cute
Above all, his deduction was only half correct. Did that matter? As long as he enjoyed the game, that was enough.
Almond hummed to himself as he wandered around the cabin.
"If this is a dungeon, shouldn’t items come out of chests or something..."
He looked around to see if there was anything to gain, which made sense. He'd have to hunt monsters in a dungeon, but he was given nothing to start with.
"Is this it?"
Almond found two suspicious chests in a corner. One was open and the other was still closed. He checked the open chest first.
[Potion×1]
It contained a potion.
"Oh."
It seemed the player received a basic potion at the start. Then, his gaze shifted to the unopened chest.
"This chest looks suspicious. I'm going to open it."
— Dang, Almond's first unboxing on stream lol
— Here it comes, it's going to explode now
— Trap card! Activate!
— You Just Activated My Trap Card
— Please be a bomb
"Bang," Almond jokingly made an exploding noise. Nothing of the sort happened.
— What's with the bang? lol
— Lololol
— He really bluffed lol
— Lol, boss, I'm dead lol
It wasn't a bang, but rather...
Wooosh...
"Huh?"
A bright light leaked from the opened chest and three items appeared. Rather, three choices came up.
[Rune]
[Weapon]
[Potion]
— Oh.
— Ah. So, it was that lol
— Ah, of course...
— What is it?
— What's a rune? What to do...?
Some viewers caught on to something, but Almond had no idea.
"Oh. Seems like something's about to start. What's this...?"
— Read the description
— There's a description
— Check the description gg
Despite the chat suggesting that he read the description, they were a step too late as usual.
[You have selected Rune.] — ??? — ?
— No lol
— Ah!
— lol lol lol
— Manly choice: Just picks the first option
— This is it. This is Almond's stream.
— Description? Read that after you die.
[Beginner Tip: In the survival battlefields, terrifying monsters and treacherous foes lurk at every turn. However, beneficial rune boxes await you as well. Rune boxes always offer three choices. Choose wisely according to your situation to survive!]

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