by Arthur Stone
Two mobs remained unaffected by the spell and stayed to fight the leprus—the rest bolted in fear, emitting frightful clicks as they ran. Ros didn’t know how long it took the pet’s skill to recharge, but he understood it would take a while. Once the pet was swarmed by enemies again, he commanded:
“Stun!”
It worked—the entire group caught aggro, and two of the quickest thylbits who tried to crawl between the pet’s legs ran into serious trouble courtesy of his talons.
“Hit! Hit them! Use your paws! Don’t hold back! Panic! Stun!”
The skills haven’t recharged yet, but the mobs were no longer trying to get at Ros.
There was another problem, however—the pet’s HP bar started to shrink, slowly but visibly. There were just too many opponents. The only thing working in his favor was that the mobs crowded the area before the barricade. Should he heal? But there was the risk of drawing the mobs’ aggro to himself—they may have objections to someone healing their enemy. Ros would die almost instantly if they got to the other side. And his healing wasn’t even all that powerful.
He was a noob, after all…
“Stun!”
It worked—most of the mobs froze on the spot.
“Panic!”
Those who had eschewed the paralysis effect scattered, knocking over their frozen kin. They would soon return, but the leprus would take less damage in the meantime.
Less damage? The pet’s HP bar shrunk by some ten percent in a blink of an eye!
Ros cast Heal instantly—he wouldn’t survive the demise of the leprus.
“Chew them! Heal yourself! And keep hitting them—don’t stop!”
What the hell?! The pet’s HP bar shrunk again in a fraction of a second! What was going on behind the barricade?!
He healed the pet twice more, but the HP bar shrunk even more than before, even though the leprus was chewing on one of the thylbits and thus also restoring his health. The worst thing was that Ros could not see the source of the damage from behind the pet’s back. It looked like ranged damage, however. Archers? Unlikely—they were wimps who couldn’t deal more than fifty damage even to Ros. It had to be something else.
Ros stopped healing his pet, climbed the barricade, and instantly saw the cause of their trouble. A tall thylbit—even taller than the commander—stood there, surrounded by archers. The creature’s head was crowned with what looked like a crow’s nest woven of metal wire with long nails sticking out in every direction. Clad in grey attire that looked like a poncho and almost reached the ground, the mob could not be identified, which meant that neither Ros nor any other players had encountered its like before.
The unidentified thylbit was holding a short white staff in its right hand, with blue lights sparkling at the tip. The mob waved the staff, hurling something that looked like a large gob of greenish-grey spit at the leprus over the heads of its allies.
The pet’s HP bar instantly shrunk to half or even less.
Ros thrust out his hand and cast Chaos Arrow.
“You hit the unidentified creature for 34 damage.”
The thylbit instantly lost interest in the leprus and stared at Ros, and then aimed the staff at him. He barely managed to duck when another “spit” whistled just over his head.
Ros cast Heal on the pet three times in quick succession, raising his HP bar a little. He heard loud irate chirping from behind the barricade, and then the head of the unknown thylbit emerged. It looked worse than before, with its strange headdress askew and a short stake sticking out of its left eye.
Ros wasn’t going to wait for the thing to climb the barricade and start using its staff—he aimed and thrust his pike in the thylbit’s remaining eye.
“You hit the unidentified creature for 8 damage. Critical hit: blinding.”
Chirping louder than before, the thylbit climbed higher, then raised its staff and hit the spot where Ros had just stood with a spell.
But Ros was no longer there, having prudently jumped aside right after his attack. The mob began casting his “spitting” spell this way and that, hitting some of its kinsfolk that were pushing the leprus out of the passage with their onslaught.
“Stun! Hit them! Hit them! Panic!”
The “spit” hit the rock next to Ros, and a few drops splashed onto his shoulder and cheek. He yelled from the pain—it burned like acid.
“Gorgeous! Grab this one! Break his arms! Strangle! Strangle the mage!”
It was already clear to Ros that despite the tension of the battle and his pet’s HP bar shrinking by more than half, they would surely triumph. There were fewer than half of the thylbits left, all of them wounded, having suffered numerous crippling critical hits, and dealing a lot less damage than before. It was time to think about trophies. The leprus was strangling the most dangerous of the creatures with one paw while tirelessly beating the remaining small fry with the other. The leader, or whatever the strange creature was, kept kicking out with its feet, refusing to die, but could no longer use magic—the pet had broken its arms first thing. After depleting all his mana healing, Ros grabbed his pickaxe, and started his dance behind the backs of the fighting mobs, hitting their most vulnerable spots.
The unidentified tall thylbit was the last to fall. It was only when all the minions were all finally dispensed with that the leprus could deploy his other paw, and the mob’s neck finally broke with a cracking sound.
Oddly enough, there was no system message at the end of the battle. Ros winced in pain—the burns had taken off about a quarter of his HP—and managed to heal the pet again when his mana regenerated by one point. And that was when the flood of text came.
“You kill the Thylbit Mage. XP received: 9832. Points left until the next level: no data. Attention: you need to unlock your account to be able to raise your level. Attention! You have found a creature that has not yet been added to the world bestiary! You receive a reward: +1 to Defense! You can receive the reward for discovering a new creature at the Academy of Magic. Your Strength grows by 1. Current value: 27. Your Intellect grows by 1. Current value: 16. Your Mental Power grows by 1. Current value: 6. Your Resilience grows by 1. Current value: 6. Your Cunning grows by 1. Current value: 4. Your Monster Specialist stat grows by 1. Current value: 2. Your Summoning grows by 2. Current value: 15. You receive a Summoning level bonus: your spells aimed at healing, buffing, and summoning pets consume 30% less magic energy and are cast 15% faster.”
The boost to Summoning was made sense—his stat had been almost fourteen, and this battle had earned him XP for the entire group and the boss. Or, if not a boss, a high-level mob, at any rate. Resilience was understandable, too—it primarily affected magic defense, and Ros had gotten hit by magic. The damage was tangential, yet the mob was very strong, and so the system raised the stat upon victory. But why did his Mental Power grow so tangibly? The stat had always been one of the slowest to grow.
The answer seemed obvious enough: the stat was associated with magic damage, so using Chaos Arrow on mobs whose level was much higher than his own must have done it. The stat had been weak, and so it had jumped by two points at once.
The leprus had made a real mess out of the thylbits—Ros didn’t even feel like looking through the remains. Only the mage’s body remained more or less intact, so Ros decided to study it first. It may not have been a raid boss, but it was no regular elite mob, either. A mini boss, perhaps.
“Bone Thylbit Mage’s Staff. Item class: good. Magical weapon. Physical damage: 18-26 (crushing). Magic damage: 54-62. Special bonus: 8% extra damage to all non-insect creatures. Additional stats: +11 to Intellect, +5 to Mental Power, +5 to Resilience, 9% faster spellcasting, 17% reduction of fire damage, +1 to mana regeneration per second. Requirements: level 38. Weight: 2.68 kg. Durability: 285/340. Equipping two or more Thylbit Mage items with the class of “good” or higher grants a bonus: 1% faster spellcasting, +1 to mana regeneration per second. Every additional Thylbit Mage item raises the total bonus by the same amount.”
“Enchanted Golden Thylbit Mage’s Ring. Properties: merging. Stats: +2 to Intellect, +2 to Strength, and +2 to Stamina. Enchantment effect: +5% to critical hit chance. Weight: 0.04. Durability: 106/120. Equipping two or more Thylbit Mage items with the class of “good” or higher grants a bonus: 1% faster spellcasting, +1 to mana regeneration per second. Every additional Thylbit Mage item raises the total bonus by the same amount.”
The ring had no level requirements, so Ros immediately swapped it with one of his old rings that only added one point to Stamina. The new ring added two, and had other bonuses besides. The class of the bracelet or the ring wasn’t specified, but the purple text in the information windows testified that they, too, were of good quality, and gave a triple bonus when equipped.
Ros put on the bracelet and took the staff in his hand. A message immediately popped up telling him that all his stats were reduced by three points each, and that equipped high-level items would not give any extra bonuses.
He was a level zero noob, after all. Such items wouldn’t do him any good until he removed the lock—the penalties were too severe.
What a pity there was only one mage, as the dungeon appeared to have ended. Had there been more of them, he may have found more of these rings without a level requirement. Or perhaps he should count his lucky stars for finding just one.
Ros stopped admiring his trophies and turned his attention to the pet. The leprus had already removed the arrows in front, but couldn’t reach the ones sticking out of his back, which made him look like an overgrown hedgehog.
Chapter 27
Ros had been gravely mistaken, to put it mildly.
The crater at the center of the hall where he had found the thylbits’ camp was indeed a lot like the one in the copper mine. It also had a narrow path meandering all the way down, and the second level lay some two hundred feet below. Ros descended to find that there were no tents. There was, however, the gaping dark maw of another tunnel that Ros felt reluctant to explore right away—he’d had enough adventure for one day, and his pet needed to replenish his health besides.
Ros wandered around the thylbit camp, using his mana for healing while looking for things he could use. He was overjoyed to find a barrel of water, having finished off his flask in the morning. Behind the tents stood a stack of crates filled with both low- as well as high-quality copper ore. Unfortunately, there was way too much of it—he wouldn’t be able to carry so much as a tenth.
He also found wooden bunks in the tents. There wasn’t even a hint of any bedding—these thylbits lived like Spartans. Then again, a bunk sure beat a cold rock.
Oh, but why settle at all? He had lots of looted capes, and he didn’t care that most of them were torn.
* * *
Ros started on the second level of the dungeon the following day. Using his experience from day one, he cleared it before dusk despite the mobs being stronger. He didn’t encounter any new mobs until the very end, with every intersection being guarded by the already familiar mages assisted by commanders. Thankfully, he didn’t run into any large crowds anymore—the fights were already quite tough, causing him to sweat on a few occasions.
Ros would start by bidding the leprus to attack the mage—without the support of a mob of smaller thylbits, the commanders did not manage to deal the pet any serious damage.
At the end of the main tunnel Ros fought three thylbit raiders at once. They did not use any magic that the leprus was vulnerable to, but proved very efficient with long and wide-bladed scimitars. He received around twenty percent more experience for them than he did for mages, and the loot was decent, too: three good items and an excellent belt.
Ros was starting to suspect he’d have to leave behind many of the enhanced items looted off the regular mobs—he just wouldn’t be able to carry everything.
As he reached the third level of the dungeon, he encountered no more scouts, and the archers became replaced by crossbowmen. It took them longer to shoot, but they had high accuracy, and a single shot would take a hundred hit points off Ros. One of these “snipers” became his four hundredth kill of his achievement, ushering in another stage thereof.
“Achievement completed: Giant Punisher. Achievement bonus: 3 undistributed primary basic stat points, 3 undistributed secondary basic stat points, +125 to magical energy. Bonus effect: permanent. Achievement unlocked: Giant Vanquisher, Part Two. Kill 1000 monsters whose level exceeds yours by thirty or more without any help to complete the achievement. Achievement bonus: random. Achievement completed: achievement database error. Achievement bonus: 4 auxiliary stats unlocked: General Memory, Learner, Seer, and Sage. Ultra-rare ability received: Chaos Aura. Achievement unlocked: achievement database error. Kill 1000 monsters whose level exceeds yours tenfold or more without any help to complete the achievement. Achievement bonus: achievement database error.”
Yet again, the reward was rather odd. Not that he had any reason to complain about his Chaos Arrow, but he’d enjoy it much more if he kept getting boosts to stats like before instead of the rather obscure auxiliary stats and a new skill whose description didn’t seem particularly promising. It did not deal any damage whatsoever, merely lowering the maximum HP by a few percent, and the effect was rather short-term.
There was definitely something fishy about these rewards…
* * *
It took Ros eleven days to reach the seventh and lowest level, where a pleasant discovery awaited him—a small lake with crystal-clear water. His reserves in the barrel were already beginning to smell stale. He’d also been thanking Shoto the chatterbox in his mind—he still had some “elite meat” left, for the orc had been very generous in supplying Ros. The bag helped keep the food fresh, and was impervious to the grease—this wasn’t real life, after all. He tried to be frugal from the start, having no idea how long he’d have to stay here. And he just couldn’t bring himself to eating thylbits.
The lower he descended, the stronger and more varied the mobs became. On level four Ros encountered a thylbit that was an elemental mage. Waiting for him at the end of a tunnel in solitude, the mob took more than half of the pet’s HP in the course of the battle.
Mages were pure evil.
The final mobs at the end of level five were a duo of thylbit assassins, and they managed to get to Ros. One was intercepted by the pet, but the other nearly did away with Ros, leaving him with only 114 HP, all his running and dodging notwithstanding. His Stamina really came in handy—if he’d had only thirteen points less, he’d have to face a rebirth.
The “pleasant surprise” found at the end of level six was a thylbit archmage. The mob also managed to take off around half of the pet’s HP, and the leprus ended up leveling after the battle. Until then Ros had no idea that pets could level up, too.
The victory also yielded another rare achievement.
“You kill the Thylbit Archmage. XP received: 20988. Points left until the next level: no data. Attention: you need to unlock your account to be able to raise your level. Attention! You have found a creature that has not yet been added to the world bestiary! You receive a reward: +1 to Essence of Things! You can receive the reward for discovering a new creature at the Academy of Magic. Achievement completed: Monster Researcher. Achievement bonus: +2 to Reason, +2 to Perception, +2 to Arcane Knowledge, +100 HP, +100 to magic energy. Random auxiliary stat unlocked: Fire Master. Achievement unlocked: Monster Researcher Grandmaster. Discover fifteen monsters that have not yet been added to the world bestiary to complete the achievement. Achievement bonus: random.
This who
le bestiary business was a nice touch. All the other achievements rendered the earlier feats null and void, while this one accounted for every monster vanquished personally, starting with the very first one.
Other achievements were also being completed steadily, further unlocking new tiers. And his stats kept on leveling. Ros was prepared to agree with Pup: this world had never seen a weirder noob. By the time he reached the end of the seventh and final level, he had amassed 190 base primary stat points on top of those initially allocated during character creation. This made him roughly equal to a level thirty-eight player. Yet he wore virtually nothing—no proper equipment or weapons. Also, whereas leveling came easy for regular players—once your level rose, you received five undistributed stat points, Ros had to sweat and toil, getting a few measly points from combat, and earning one achievement after another.
Incidentally, Ros was no longer “naked.” He already had seven rings that gave a bonus to the player’s level, apart from other stats—one or two for each ring, and one that added a whopping three levels. His virtual level reached eleven, and he could finally don enhanced archer trousers, a common belt, two good bracelets with similar stats and an amulet looted off thylbit mages. Three of his best rings had also come from them. Now he could restore three mana points per second just with these accessories, which alleviated some of the complications experienced back on level one.
Unfortunately, despite the items’ similar stats, mana regeneration bonuses were rare, and mostly given by high-level items that Ros could not use. Otherwise he would have collected a set that would make his magical energy reserves almost inexhaustible.
Ros understood that his stats were leveled rather disproportionately. Initially he’d sought to raise his Strength, and then Stamina. The strategy resulted in a tough noob that even the thylbit archmage had failed to dispose of in one hit, after taking off nearly two hundred and fifty HP. In return, Ros couldn’t hit the mob for more than single digits from behind while the leprus was strangling it.