After daybreak, Lin Yuan found a river outside the orchard.
The river water was drinkable, and the remaining fruit on the withered trees had a taste. They wouldn't truly rot, but eating them could alleviate hunger. Since this world allowed his body to stand here, it also allowed those illusory foods to temporarily sustain this body.
At least you won't have to climb up hungry.
Lin Yuan washed the dirt off his short sword and continued north along the river.
The closer they got to the next village, the more people they encountered on the road. After the first night, some players began to leave the Town of Beginnings in groups. They mostly avoided the deeper parts of the road, only attacking wild boars and gray wolves in areas with open views.
Lin Yuan didn't approach, but chose a higher slope to sit down.
The four players below have just attracted two gray wolves.
The shield-bearer stepped forward first. His wolf claws landed on the round shield, blue light spreading along its surface. The immense impact only forced him back half a step. The spearman behind him seized the opportunity; the tip of his spear suddenly glowed red, and his body was pulled forward by some force.
One step, shoulder thrust, straight punch.
The movement is simple, yet it concentrates the body, weapon, and forward speed all into a single point.
The gray wolf was pierced by the spear, and the red line dropped by more than half.
The swordsman on the other side launched an attack simultaneously. Blue light enveloped the sword. He first sheathed the sword at his waist, then stepped forward and slashed horizontally. After the blade struck the second gray wolf, his body inevitably paused for a moment.
Lin Yuan saw more than just a pause.
Before the light appears, the swordsman's feet are already in a specific position. After the light appears, the feet exert force, the waist rotates, the shoulders extend, and finally the longsword in the hand is brought out.
It wasn't that the sword suddenly became faster.
Some kind of force performed the entire set of actions for the user.
Lin Yuan drew his black short sword and imitated it at the top of the slope.
No blue light.
The body was not being pulled by anything.
The short sword slashed horizontally from his waist, the trajectory roughly the same, but the speed came solely from him. When he finished the first swing, the tip of the sword stopped further than the player below him, and his right shoulder also shifted half an inch due to inertia.
He sheathed his sword and swung it once more.
The second time, the footsteps and waist turn were slightly ahead of time. The sword's path remained the same, but the power was much more concentrated.
The third time, Lin Yuan deliberately withdrew his strength before the sword's edge reached its maximum distance, and at the same time, he took half a step forward.
The system must pause when it finishes performing an action.
He doesn't need it.
The battle below had ended, and the four players changed direction to search for monsters. Lin Yuan also got up from the slope and followed at a distance behind another team using different weapons.
Over the next half day, he saw seven kinds of glowing attacks.
The attack consisted of a single-handed sword slashing upwards, two consecutive thrusts with a short spear, and a two-handed axe using rotation to expand its range. Most notably, a person wielding a curved sword deliberately concealed the blade behind his back when launching an attack, only drawing an unpredictable arc along his side after a flash of light.
Every movement has its most suitable way to exert force, and its trajectory cannot be changed temporarily.
Lin Yuan did not copy it entirely.
The thrusting motion of a short spear requires weapon length, and the rotation of a two-handed axe relies on weight; directly imitating it with a short sword would only disrupt one's balance. He only retained the usable parts: the sudden half-step forward with the feet, the sequence of simultaneous power generation from the waist and back, and the method of using the shoulder to cover the starting point of the sword's edge.
At dusk, he walked alone into a rocky area teeming with monsters.
Three gray wolves pounced at the same time.
Lin Yuan sheathed the short sword at his waist.
His starting stance was exactly the same as the sword-wielding player from earlier that day.
When the first gray wolf came within two steps, he suddenly charged forward. His black short sword slashed horizontally, without any light effects, but its speed was faster than that of the player who was being guided by the system.
The wolf's head transformed into blue light.
Lin Yuan did not pause.
The instant the horizontal slash ended, he deftly concealed the short sword behind his back, his foot already positioned to the side of the second gray wolf. The arc of the curved blade was shortened by half, slashing diagonally upwards from below the wolf's claws.
The second burst of blue light exploded.
A third gray wolf pounced from behind.
Lin Yuan didn't turn around. He leaned forward slightly and used his short spear to thrust at Bu Ran's forward momentum, creating distance. At the same time, his short sword reversed its direction along the wolf's ribs and accurately pierced the wolf's neck.
The three monsters disappeared one after another.
There was still no light on the short sword.
Lin Yuan sheathed his sword and looked at the three steps he had taken.
The system hands over the complete action to the player; the player only needs to assume the correct starting stance to allow that power to take over the subsequent actions.
He has no skills.
However, those footwork, angles, and power generation methods do not lose their meaning simply because they are outside the system.
Lin Yuan drew his sword again.
"One more time."
For players, those are skills that can be activated.
For him, these were just sword techniques he hadn't truly mastered yet.