He would need to find out.
Eventually.
The two Warriors quickly attacked from the side with a basic [slash], but as he expected, it didn’t do any damage. A large -1 appeared above the [wild boar] and that was it. Their level and Attack Power stat was too low to actually injure such a high level monster.
“Shit! Did my attack really do nothing?!”
“This 1-star enemy is too strong!”
“M-maybe we should retreat…”
That last suggestion from the Priest sounded reasonable, but the [wild boar] had already been attacked and was enraged. Its eyes became madder red as it snorted and ground a heel into the ground.
The two Warriors had pulled most of its agro. This meant they were the unfortunate victims of its rage. It attacked them first, slamming into them with its tusks and sending them flying.
-160; -160!
Adam shook his head as the two Warriors’ corpses hit the ground, bounced, and remained there. The large black numbers that flashed above their heads when they were hit let him know the attack had dealt them fatal damage. It was a one-hit kill.
The remaining players panicked.
“It’s way too strong!”
“Dammit! I knew we shouldn’t have attacked this 1-star monster when it appeared! What were we thinking?!”
“Retreat! Run away!”
The Archer, Priest, and Mage tried to flee, but now that the Warriors were dead, the [wild boar] locked onto them. An enraged squeal escaped its mouth as it flew forward like it had wings on its feet. It speared its tusk through the Mage. The tusk went through the Mage’s back and out of his chest. It was weird for Adam to see someone get impaled and no blood to spurt out.
-300!
The Mage was dead before the [wild boar] even shook him off its tusk. Then it went after the Archer, who tried to fire his arrows at it, though they only did -1 point of damage. Idiot. He was speared through the chest when the 1-star [wild boar] charged at him in a murderous rage, doing another -300 points of damage and insta-killing him.
Because the others had all died and the Priest had not stopped running even to look back, he at least managed to get away. Now Adam was alone with the [wild boar].
He licked his lips. His blood was rising, beginning to boil.
He’d finally found a challenge!
Adam rushed forward while the [wild boar] was stomping its front hooves in frustration and used [thrust] to attack its flank.
-104!
A large number that was in the triple digits appeared above the head of the 1-star [wild boar]. Adam wasn’t sure how much health this thing had, but that number seemed pretty good.
The [wild boar] squealed in rage and pain as it turned around and tried to attack him, but Adam was already moving, darting left as he spun on the balls of his feet and ran away. This angered his enemy. With another enraged squeal, it charged Adam as he ran straight for a tree. Two yards. One yard. One foot. When he was barely half a foot from the tree, Adam rolled away and allowed the [wild boar] to slam headfirst into the tree.
-1
STUN!
The tree snapped like a twig. It fell with a crash.
While the [wild boar] didn’t receive much damage from hitting the tree, it did get stunned. The [stun] affect, from what he understood, should keep it from moving for several seconds. Because those several seconds were crucial and precious, Adam attacked the enemy with a series of [thrust] and [slash] attacks.
-104; -95; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; -104; -95; MISS!
While a lot of his attacks missed, he managed to land four strikes before the [wild boar] recovered. The creature soon shook its head as if ridding it of cobwebs, then turned and glared at him. It stomped its left hoof against the ground, roared like an angry sumo wrestler, and charged.
Adam dodged, turned on his heel, and ran toward another tree.
-1!
-STUN!
Once again, running into a tree caused the [wild boar] to become stunned. Sword in hand, Adam once more attacked it.
-95; -95; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS!
He only managed to hit it twice this time before it recovered, but Adam didn’t let that discourage him. When the [wild boar] recovered, he simply repeated the process, running toward a tree, dodging, letting the enemy slam into the tree and stun itself, and then attacking with everything he had. Sometimes he hit every time. Sometimes he missed every time. However, Adam kept attacking over and over, until, at last, the [wild boar] released a pained squeal and fell to the ground.
It was dead.
Ding!
[You have defeated the monster 1-star [wild boar]! Items dropped: [wild boar’s tusk], [Ring of Accuracy], and 200 gold coins. +1,000 experience points! +50 ability points!]
With the additional experience points, Adam’s experience gauge was now at 1,162/4,800, which meant he could potentially level up if he killed at least four more of these 1-stare enemies. However, beyond the experience gained, what he really found himself interested in was the ability points he had gained. This was the first time he’d acquired AP in the game. It looked like, in order to gain AP, he had to kill these 1-star monsters. They must have been like the equivalent of a dungeon boss or something similar.
Before allocating his AP into his skills, he looked at the [Ring of Accuracy] he had acquired from the 1-star [wild boar].
Item Name: Ring of Accuracy
Item Type: Ring
Grade: Low
Use requirements: Can be used by any class
Description: A low-grade ring made from steel. It has been enchanted to increase a player’s Hit-Rate.
Abilities: Hit-Rate+10%
It wasn’t much, but even increasing his Hit-Rate by a small amount would help right now. He hated how more than half of his attacks kept missing. It was annoying. He slipped the ring on his left index finger. It looked like he could only equip two rings at a time, so now he had the [Ring of Accuracy] on his left hand and the [Brass Ring] on his right.
With the ring now increasing his Hit-Rate, Adam looked at his skills.
Right now he had two skills: [slash] and [thrust]. Both of them were basic skills and they only required 10 AP each to level up. Since he now had 50 AP, he spent 20 AP and brought them both to level 2.
Skill Name: Slash
Description: A basic skill where the player swings his or her sword and attacks the enemy!
Current lvl: 2
AP needed to reach next lvl: 20
Ability: Causes 110% damage to enemy if it hits
MP consumption: 1
Cooldown time: 0 seconds
Skill Name: Thrust
Description: A basic skill where the player thrusts his or her sword at the enemy!
Current lvl: 2
AP needed to reach next lvl: 20
Ability: Causes 120% damage with a 1.5% chance at getting a critical hit
MP Consumption: 2
Cooldown time: 1 second
Now his skills had both been upgraded to level 2, but he still had 30 AP left, so he invested 20 more points on the [thrust] skill since he, as a spearman, deemed it more useful than [slash].
Skill Name: Thrust
Description: A basic skill where the player thrusts his or her sword at the enemy!
Current lvl: 3
AP needed to reach next lvl: 40
Ability: Causes 140% damage with a 2% chance at getting a critical hit
MP Consumption: 2
Cooldown time: 1 second
Adam grimaced when he saw how little the attack power was raised. Right now he had +95 Physical Strength, which meant if his [thrust] hit, it would do about -133 points of damage. That wasn’t a huge difference. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It seemed these beginner class skills just couldn’t be improved by much. He hoped there would be a chance to change classes after leaving the Village of Beginnings.
The group that had been slaughtered by the 1-star [wild boar] that A
dam killed belonged to a powerful guild called the Rising Phoenix Alliance. While the other members of the party died and reincarnated back inside of the cathedral, the Priest who managed to escape ran toward where the guild master, who had coincidentally been brought to the same Village of Beginnings as him, was located.
His guild master had been really excited when he learned an 1-star enemy had been sighted.
“Are you sure there is an 1-star enemy here?” asked the Rising Phoenix Alliance guild master.
“I’m positive, Guild Master Daniel. Me and my group were all attacked by it! It was a level 10 1-star [wild boar]!”
“Attacked? You mean you six saw an opportunity to take all the experience points and ability points for yourselves, but you ended up biting off more than you could chew, right?” the guild master said with a cold snort.
“…”
The Priest could say nothing as the man hit the nail right on the head.
“Forget it. Show me where this level 10 1-star [wild boar] is.”
It wasn’t just the guild master who was traveling with the Priest as he took them to where the [wild boar] was located. All of the guild members who had been with Daniel were also following along. After all, a level 10 1-star enemy was not something they, with their level 3 powers, could hope to defeat on their own. Even the guild master was only at level 4 right now.
The fourteen guild members plus the guild master entered a clearing alongside the Priest.
“This is where we found the 1-star [wild boar],” the Priest said, gesturing with his left hand toward the clearing.
Daniel raised an eyebrow as he looked around the clearing. He looked left, right, straight ahead, and even behind him, but no matter where he looked, no level 10 1-star [wild boar] appeared before his eyes. There wasn’t even a regular [wild boar] in sight.
“Are you sure you saw a real 1-star enemy here?” he asked.
“Of course I’m sure! It was right here! I swear it was! You can even ask my party members when you go into the Village of Beginnings!”
The Priest seemed to be panicking as he realized the [wild boar] was gone, but he was adamant that what he saw was real. Daniel looked at the Priest, then turned around and looked at the clearing, which was currently empty of even a single enemy. He pondered this for a moment.
“If what you say is true, then the only thing I can think of is that after your party was killed and you escaped, someone came and killed it,” he said at last.
“Killed it? But no… that can’t be. Only a large group of at least ten or fifteen people would be able to deal with such a strong enemy! Wh-what’s more, I wasn’t gone for that long! Even if they were really able to kill it, I don’t believe they would be able to leave before we arrived!”
“That is true…”
Daniel stroked his chin and tried to think about what could have happened. He decided to give this guild member of his the benefit of the doubt, but really, it was hard when all evidence of an 1-star enemy being present was now gone. There wasn’t even a corpse.
He sighed. “Well, whether a level 10 1-star [wild boar] was here or not doesn’t matter anymore. It’s gone now. That’s too bad. If what you say is true, then that would make this the first time an 1-star enemy has appeared in a Village of Beginnings.”
“Been checking the forums again, Boss?” asked one of his men.
“Always. Information is half the battle, after all.”
Since it looked like there was no 1-star enemy present anymore, Daniel turned around and gestured for his men to follow him. They couldn’t afford to stick around in a place with no enemies.
-133; -104; MISS; -104; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; -104!
Ding!
[You have defeated a [wolf]! Items dropped: [wolf’s pelt] and 50 gold coins! +150 experience points!]
Adam frowned as he cut down another level 5 [wolf]. He’d been walking through the forest for what felt like hours now, and he had yet to find a single sign of Trader Wilkins’ missing son. Well, he supposed that was why he was called “missing.” At the same time, he was really beginning to wonder if this quest of his could even be completed.
He shook his head. It had to be something a player could complete. There was absolutely no way the developer for Age of Gods would create a quest that could not be completed.
Since it looked like sticking around in the level 5 area of the forest was not yielding any results, Adam began traveling deeper into the forest. The scent of wood and the feel of grass and gravel underfoot accompanied him as the lights from the canopy above disappeared. He looked up. The canopy was getting thicker, blocking out the sunlight, to the point where it was becoming harder to see where he was going.
Adam frowned as he wondered what he should do. Go back? No. He couldn’t go back when he hadn’t completed the quest.
Thinking for a moment, Adam decided to try something. He furrowed his brow and concentrated, searching for the energy present within every person. He was looking for a stream of power inside of himself, a well-spring of energy that emanated from his chest.
This was not his real body. It was something that had been created by the game, but his “soul” had been implanted into this body according to Lim, the fairy who’d helped him create his character. He had a theory that if his soul was present in this game, then it should be possible to use his esper powers, which were also a part of his soul.
It took several minutes, but his expression eventually cleared as he discovered the stream of energy flowing through his body. A smile lit up his face as he channeled that energy to his eyes. This caused his green eyes to become so bright they began glowing in the dark like a predator with night vision. Aside from the cosmetic change, his vision also became much brighter.
Which allowed him to see the giant mouth lunging for his face!
Adam’s reflexes kicked in. He ducked and swung the sword above his head. There was a strong feeling of resistance as the blade cut through something. The sword was nearly knocked from his hand due to the power of whatever knocked into him, which caused his fingers, palm, and wrist to go partially numb. This shocked Adam. He knew this game boasted an almost impossibly realistic setting and physical sensations, but how could anything feel this real?!
-104!
Scrambling to his feet and turning around, Adam found himself face to face with a jungle cat of some kind. It didn’t look like a panther or any of the rainforest predators found on Earth. It actually looked like a normal house cat, but it was three times bigger, covered in bristling black fur, had vicious yellow eyes, and fangs so sharp they could probably rend flesh from bone with ease.
The words above its head identified it as a level 8 [feral cat].
Goodie.
Adam didn’t wait for this overgrown house cat to take the initiative. He rushed forward and attacked it with a [thrust].
MISS!
The [feral cat] dodged his attack by leaping to the side, but Adam was not deterred and attacked several times with the [slash] skill before the one second cooldown time for [thrust] ended and re-initiated another [thrust].
-133!
Adam had learned through trial and error that combat skills gained in real life could be applied to combat within the game. A person would not do the same amount of damage if they simply swung their weapon without activating a skill, but basic skills like [slash] could be continuously activated no matter which angle a person swung their weapon from. This meant every time Adam swung the sword in his hand, [slash] was activated, which allowed him to release a constant stream of attacks.
MISS; MISS; MISS; -104!
Of course, Adam was not a swordsman. He was proficient in wielding a dagger and a spear. Even so, his physical prowess allowed him to easily swing the sword in his hand without worrying about tiring.
-104; -133; -104; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS!
His battle against the [feral cat] continued as the two traded blows. This enemy was particularly agile and didn’t just rely on sim
ple one-dimensional attacks like the 1-star [wild boar] had done. It took to the trees, leapt from the branches, and attacked Adam with a powerful pounce. Had he been someone less experienced with real combat, he would have been hit. As things stood, he was able to leap away from the [feral cat] before it could reach him and attacked it with another [thrust].
-266!
Ah! He got a critical hit! A fierce grin appeared on Adam’s face as he continued to dodge and attack the [feral cat], until its HP at last ran out and it died.
Ding!
[You have defeated a [feral cat]! Items dropped: [durable cat fur] and 150 gold coins. +300 experience points!]
The amount of experience points wasn’t that much, and Adam didn’t even know what to do with the item it dropped. Only the money seemed useful right now.
He continued traveling after killing the level 8 [feral cat], heading deeper and deeper into the forest. Several other [feral cats] attacked him, but they were all dealt with the same way he killed the first one. Even when they ganged up on him, Adam didn’t flinch. He mowed them down and increased the experience points he had, until his experience gauge was at 2,930/4,800.
Adam had lost track of the time. It was easy to do when roaming through a dark forest. However, after traveling deeper and deeper, until the enemies became level 9 instead of level 7, he finally found something that he thought might be a clue as to the whereabouts of Trader Wilkins’ missing son.
He knelt and picked up the object he accidentally kicked while walking. It was a leather boot, the kind he’d seen the villagers wearing. Adam could not imagine many villagers were willing to travel this deep into the forest. He was positive this boot belonged to Trader Wilkins’ missing son. Perhaps whatever algorithm this game ran on had decided he’d walked enough and was now giving him a clue?
There was one way to find out.
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