Chapter 65 - Ch 65 : Holystaff Slingshot

[ Longstaff slingshot]

[ A slingshot with a long grip.]

[ Material: 1x wood, 1x rubber, 1000 DM.]

[ The result of the slingshot will depend on the material provided.]

.

As Ray had already decided on what weapon he would make, he proceeded to leave the crafting room. The material would only be ready in another few hours, and there is no use for staying there any longer.

In fact, what Ray currently has on his mind is how to fully utilize his new weapon. Slingshot and rock were good, but the reason Ray chose a long slingshot as his weapon was so he could also do well in close combat.

After a few dungeon explorations, Ray had got to realize that both close combat and long-range combat were equally important. Even though he could just summon his monster and attack from long range, Ray didn't want to use that as a guarantee.

There could be some situations where his summons was blocked or other special situations that might render his summoned monster useless, and he didn't want to be a weak prey if that were to happen.

In novels or games, there were many scenarios in which an extremely specialized job became a burden because he couldn't cope with the situation, which was the last thing Ray wanted to be.

Deducting the purchase before, Ray currently has 18,000 DM. If he takes account of the long slingshot, the usable Dm Currencies on his had was 17,000, less than half of the original amount. Still, that was enough for now.

Ray opened the shop once more, but this time he wanted to find some skill that could help him in close combat. In the last battle with Edward, Ray had realized something.

Other than his summoning skill, all his current skill was passive, which really did not help in battle.

Some people might say that passive skills are better than active skills. However, they forgot that passive skills would only be good if the user is strong too. Ray's current status could not be said as a top powerhouse in this world. Furthermore, his combat experience was far less than other people's, and it has become a fatal weakness to him.

With Ray's passive hawkeye and danger sense, he could easily avoid other people's attacks, but avoiding attack and counterattacking was an entirely different experience.

It could be seen from his previous battle with Edward that even after he tried his best, Edward could still easily catch his attack without using any of his skills. 

Don't underestimate Edward because of his previous battle with Ray, which looked a bit even. In fact, Edward was far from serious and didn't even use any of his skills. Forget the level difference for a bit, Ray with all his stats bonus and passive skill, he should theoretically be as strong as lv. 25 awakener, but even after all of that, he couldn't even graze Edward for one bit.

Back to Ray, he was currently browsing the Dm Shop, and after a few ponderings, his choice eventually fell into these skills.

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[ Pentjak Silat skill (E-Rank, Evolvable)]

[ A martial art from Southeast Asia. A full-body fighting form incorporating strikes, grappling, and throwing in addition to weaponry. Every part of the body is used and subject to attack.]

[ Cost: 2000 DM]

.

[ Energy strike (E-Rank, Evolvable)]

[ Focus energy on one of your body parts, and smash them at your enemy.]

[ Cost: 1500 DM]

.

Among all other skills, Ray's choice eventually fell to these two. The first one was a passive ability that immediately increased his combat experience. In fact, Ray also found some other popular martial art abilities like karate, taekwondo, or Russian MMA. Still, he still decides to pick Pentjak Silat as it reminds him of his childhood memories.

There was some pentjak silat showcase in his neighborhood during his childhood, and Ray and Edward always spare some of their time to watch these shows.

Like every other Asian martial art, silat was very beautiful to watch. Ray still remembered the time when he and Edward tried to practice those movements, only to be scolded by the grown-ups as they made a mess of everything.

Now that he had the chance to master those movements, Ray definitely wouldn't let the chance go and quickly decided to buy the pentjak silat skill.

For the second skill; Well, it's just some old active skill that would deal great damage if used properly. The name was pretty catchy, and Ray could imagine how cool he was when he screamed the name of the move at his opponent.

[ DING!!! The purchase of the two skills will cost 3500 DM. Proceed to purchase?Y/N]

' Yes.'

[ Thank you for your purchase. 3500 DM Currencies have been deducted from the hosting account. Remaining DM Currency: 14500.]

A rush of memories entered Ray's mind as the purchase was successful, and Ray now felt like he was a master of martial art.

He tried some of the movements he could never pull before, and he was immediately amazed at himself.

Elbow strike, Palm strike, movement skills, evasions, and deflection.

Ray's movement now was so fluid as he tried some of the pentjak silat's basic move. He now had tried most of the pentjak silat's move, only leaving some of the techniques that incorporated weapons on its attack left to be unpracticed.

One other reason that Ray had chosen pentjak silat over other martial art like karate and taekwondo was that Pentjak Silat also had some basic knowledge about cold weaponry.

Different from Karate or Taekwondo which the practitioner trained only their body to be as hard as steel, Pentjak silat was also used during the Indonesian war, and that was also the reason why some of the silat moves uses weapons on them.

Now that Ray had purchased the two skills which would help his combat ability the most, Ray decided to spend the rest of his time sparring with his monsters, trying to get used to his new skill as much as possible before tomorrow's dungeon exploration.

. . . . . 

- 10 hours later -

Ray, who was in the sparring room now, was face to face with Freed on a friendly spar.

He held a long white bamboo in his hand, and sweats covered his show body.

Then, without any foreshadowing, Ray disappeared from Freed's view the moment he moved, before reappearing right in front of his nose even before he had the chance to realize it.

"…!!"

*Swoosh*

A strike with the bamboo staff was launched at Freed's direction. 

However, Freed's animal-like instinct kicked in, and he successfully dodged that one strike. With a slight movement of his head at the right moment, the bamboo staff only grazed Freed's hair a bit. Still, Ray won't let him go that easily.

Some follow-up moves quickly followed as Freed dodged the first attack. Ray held the bamboo staff tightly and continuously attacked Freed.

Three straight thrusts were issued without any delay, and one of the thrusts directly hit Freed's body, making him take a few steps back.

" That's enough, Ray. You finally get a hit on me."

" Yeah, thank you, Freed."

Ray and Freed stopped their spar as Ray had achieved his target for today. A smile appeared on his face, and he sighed some relief.

After the holy bamboo matured, Ray decided to harvest it first and tried to spar while wielding it.

And thus, the result was as expected. Ray's hit rate significantly decreased as he needed to familiarize himself with the fighting style of wielding a staff. Even in the few spars with Freed, Ray slipped and hit himself in the face because he was still unfamiliar with the staff on his hand.

Ray then put the holy bamboo back into his inventory while going in the direction of the crops rooms, ready to harvest the holy rubber to finish all the material needed to craft the slingshot.

The plants themselves should have matured a few minutes ago. However, because Ray still hasn't landed any clean hit on Freed, he decides to postpone the harvesting for a bit and continues the spar.

Now that he has finally launched a direct hit on Freed, Ray quickly harvested the holly rubber and went to the crafting room.

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[ DING!!! it was indicated that the host wanted to craft the following item]

[ Longstaff slingshot]

[ A slingshot with a long grip.]

[ Material: 1x wood, 1x rubber, 1000 DM.]

[ Proceed?]

.

A notification appeared in front of Ray as he had collected all the material for his weapon.

He didn't want to waste any more time and quickly chose yes, completing the formality for the craft of the item.

[ DING!!! The DM has been deducted from the host balance. Starting the crafting process.]

The sound of irons hitting each other appeared in the crafting room, and sweats started to appear on Ray's forehead. The crafted item's quality was random, and Ray could only hope that he would get bronze or higher rank item.

Time passed and Ray's forehead now was full of sweat. It was only five minutes, but Ray's heart was beating faster than ever, maybe only a bit lower than when he was with big sis.

Suddenly, a new notification appeared and Ray could not help but gulp his saliva.

He prayed to the God once more before eventually opened his eyes to check the quality of the item he had forged.

[ DING!!! The Crafting process has been completed.]

[ Holystaff slingshot (Silver grade item)]

[ Passive: Automatically imbued the attack with holy energy, dealing half of the damage as light-type damage.]

[ Effect: Str+5, Int+5, Dex+3]

[ A slingshot imbued with holy energy.. You can throw a stone at someone else while saying that it was a holy baptism.]