by EA Hooper
??? (World Boss) – Monster Class: ??? | Ageless | Sex: ??? | Respawn Time: ??? | Personality: ???
Spell Upgrade: 55%
“It’s a World Boss,” Vincent said. “That’s all my Scan picks up from this distance.”
“It must be the hydra,” Quinn figured.
“Why is it wailing?” Xan asked, frowning.
“The miasma is slowly killing it,” Quinn explained. “It probably keeps respawning, dying, and respawning again. If the lich wants blood, that’s where it’ll be. Let’s go.”
The Fighter dropped two stories and slid the rest of the way down the crag. Vincent and Xan descended more slowly, and then sprinted after her. It took a couple minutes of running for Vincent to reach close enough to gather more information.
Hydraic the Seven-Headed Divine (World Boss) – Monster Class: B | Ageless | Sex: Female | Respawn Time: One In-Game Day | Personality: Happy, Curious, Mopey, Grumpy, Chatty, Quiet, Lonely
The wails of the hydra’s seven heads grew louder as they approached. It thrashed around the lake, splashing waves in every direction. The miasma in the water had turned black from absorbing its blood, and Vincent couldn’t see into the dark lake.
The three players peered around, but saw no other monsters. So, they waited by the lake for several more minutes until Hydraic’s seven heads finally collapsed at the edge of the shore and died. Several glistening items twinkled from the blackened, shallow water.
“We need its Crystal Heart,” Quinn noted, staring at the water. “I’m going for it. Xan, be ready to heal me.”
Quinn Vanished and reappeared beside the items. She grabbed them as fast as she could, and then Vanished back to her teammates. The woman fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Xan reached forward and cast Healing Light on her hands and legs. It took almost a minute to heal the injuries. When Xan finished, Quinn fell backward and sighed with relief.
“Thanks, Xan,” Quinn said. “Without you, we’d run out of elixirs before we even reached Navrun.”
“I’m just glad I’m useful,” Xan replied.
A cloaked figure swooped overhead, causing Vincent and Xan to duck. The figure floated over the black lake, opened the jaw of its skull, and breathed inward. The blood-infused miasma rushed from the water and into the black-cloaked skeleton’s mouth. It continued to drink the miasma as Vincent Scanned it.
Draxis the Deep Lurker (World Boss) – Monster Class: B | Ageless | Sex: None | Respawn Time: One In-Game Year | Personality: Feisty
“Hey!” Quinn shouted, jumping to her feet.
Draxis stopped drinking the black miasma, and its skull twisted in her direction without moving the rest of its body.
“Get off this world,” Quinn told it. “You don’t belong here, stupid lich.”
Draxis replied with a high-pitched laugh, then unhinged its jaw and sprayed purple miasma toward them. Vincent grabbed Xan’s arm and pulled her away from the smoke, and Quinn dashed away from it.
The lich focused on Quinn and flew closer to her. Its skeletal hands glowed with purple energy, and it unleashed two mana blasts. Quinn Vanished away from her location, and the ground exploded where she’d been standing a moment before. She reappeared below the lich and jumped into the air. She spun her body around while charging her boots with Breaker.
Quinn spin-kicked the lich, hitting it three times with Breaker. Several of its bones shattered, and the cloaked figure fell from the sky. The woman landed and glanced at Vincent. “Void Gun it!”
Vincent approached the lich as the pieces of its body floated and reassembled themselves. He aimed his finger at its skull and fired Void Gun. The top of Draxis’s skull exploded as the negative energy struck it, and the World Boss’s body crumpled to the dirt.
“Did that work?” Xan asked, slowly approaching.
The lich rose off the ground and spewed miasma at Vincent and Xan. They both dove away, but some of it touched Vincent’s arm, stinging him. It felt like a hundred needles poked along his skin, and he saw dots of blood appear across his arm.
The lich’s body put itself back together, however a hole remained in its head where the negative energy had deleted part of its skull.
“Well, this is no good,” Quinn muttered between sips of ether. She dove at the lich’s back, struck it with a flurry of Breaker-charged strikes, and watched the skeleton explode into pieces.
Draxis’s pieces continued to glue themselves together with magic, and its cloak lifted around its body. Quinn grabbed the cloak and ripped it in half before smashing the skeleton again. However, the cloak also reformed along with the bones.
“Stay down!” Quinn shouted, smashing through the lich with a chop.
The boss’s hand reformed and pointed its palm at Quinn. A blast of purple mana hit her in the chest, throwing the woman backward.
“Quinn!” Xan shouted, hurrying to her. She held out her hands and tried to heal the fighter as the lich continued to rebuild itself.
The lich gathered more mana into its floating limb and aimed it at the women. However, Vincent had finished chugging an ether, allowing him to blast the lich’s hand with another Void Gun. It tried to rebuild its hand, but found itself missing two fingers and part of its palm.
Draxis looked at its malformed hand and release a confused whimper. Its skull twisted to face the culprit and sprayed another wave of miasma at him. Vincent sidestepped the initial blast of miasma and circled away from the women as miasma followed his trail. He equipped another ether and tried to chug it while running.
After she finished healing Quinn, Xan ran toward the lich. She reached forward and cast Light Drain. “This might slow you down!”
Draxis’s floating bones shuddered and convulsed. It twisted itself toward Xan and opened its mouth wide to release miasma, but Quinn tackled the young woman out of the way.
Xan held her hand up, noticing light still pouring into her palm from the air. She glanced at the lich, which still twitched and convulsed. “Hey!” she shouted. “I think I found its invisible tether. I can drain light from it.”
“Hold still!” Vincent shouted, tossing his empty bottle aside. He dashed toward Xan and aimed his finger in front of her palm. “Right here?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
Draxis released a high-pitched growl, and it gathered sparking mana into its still-functional hand. It aimed the mana at them, but Vincent fired Void Gun through the air in front of Xan’s glowing palm.
The lich froze, and its jaw fell off the skull. Draxis whimpered as its bones crumbled into dust, leaving three item crystals on the ground for Vincent to grab.
Crystal Heart – A crystalline and still-beating heart taken from a majestic or divine being. You can feel tremendous magical energy with each pulse.
Lich’s Cloak – Material Rating: 5 | The cloak of a lich. It smells like bones, but you can feel residue dark magic within it. | Hover – The user can spend mana to float short distances.
Draxis’s Pocket Watch – This watch counts backwards, so it’s only correct at midnight and noon. You get an eerie feeling when holding it.
“Did we just get two Crystal Hearts in one day?” Quinn asked. “That’s insane.”
Xan sat on the ground, looking at the dust. “I helped beat a World Boss.” A huge smile spread across her face. “I can’t believe it. I need to tell my dad and sister—even if they get mad that I left.”
“I have to rub this in Jim’s face,” Vincent said. “He’ll be so jealous.”
>Vincent: You’re really missing out, Jim. We just picked up two more Crystal Hearts.
>Jim: Two? How’s that possible?
>Vincent: We found the hydra while it was dying from miasma. The lich showed up to drink its blood.
>Jim: Void Gun worked?
>Vincent: Not really, but Xan’s Light Drain worked on its tether. She found it by accident, and I voided out the tether. Without a connection to its relic thing, it died instantly.
>Jim: Hopefully I’ll fight a World Boss so
on. I was just asking people about Gazal’s whereabouts. Might bring two or three guys with me—let them keep the horns. Maybe split the Jump Crystals after we get the heart converted.
>Vincent: Or you can be cool like me and one-shot him.
>Jim: Man, I’m starting to regret telling you to play this game. You’re making me look bad.
Xan lowered her heard, and Vincent heard the young woman whimper.
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked.
“My dad is freaking out. He’s mad I left and worried that I’ll get hurt. He’s begging me to go home. I feel bad. It just kind of kicked in that I might not see him or my sis again for decades or even centuries. Maybe I didn’t think this through.”
Vincent and Quinn flashed worried looks at each another.
“Do you need to go back?” Quinn said with a sigh. “We’ll take you to the Jump Gate if you don’t want to stay. Although, I really appreciate how much you’ve helped us so far.”
Xan stood to her feet and dusted off her clothes. “No, I’m not going back. I knew this would be difficult—that I’d miss them. That I’d be afraid and even get hurt. Let’s hurry to the branch. Once I set a new spawn on Navrun, it’ll be easier for me to keep moving forward.”
Vincent checked Draxis’s Pocket Watch and reversed the time in his head. “It’s about to get dark and we’re still a few hours away from the world’s stem. Should we wait at the stem until morning?”
“Nah, there’s no point in stopping,” Quinn replied. “If we jog the entire way, it’ll take a few weeks to reach Rann. We’ll be on the branch at night, regardless. Might as well get used to it sooner than later.”
Vincent nodded, checking his compass, and then they continued north.
Chapter 12
Player: Noble Vincent
Location: Fountmell (World) | Northern Wetlands (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 32
Spirit*: Lv 38
Resolve: Lv 35
Perception*: Lv 45
Agility: Lv 37
Strength: Lv 32
Vincent, Quinn, and Xan struggled to avoid puddles of miasma as they journeyed across the wetlands toward the world’s stem. Even though the lich was dead, the miasma had only started to dissipate. Several times, they had to knock down trees to create paths over creeks of purple water.
The land became dryer as they neared the stem, and they walked up the steep hill toward the branch that connected Fountmell to the World-Tree. The sturdy branch looked about three miles thick. Vincent had seen the one on Teramor up close a handful of times, but he’d never bothered to venture up it.
The slope twisted higher toward the branch, and the three players felt the gravity shift as they walked. Before they stepped onto the wood path, Vincent stopped to Scan it.
World-Tree Wood – Material Rating: 900 | Incredibly powerful world magic flows through this wood. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Nine hundred? The only thing I’ve ever seen stronger than this is the Daiglass Tower. So, even players of the highest level would struggle just to scratch this stuff.
“Come on, Vince,” Quinn called back. She and Xan had already jogged a hundred paces up the path, and Vincent had to raise his eyes to see them.
He hurried to catch them. Despite the wood’s strength, it felt like normal wood as he walked across it.
“You didn’t waste mana Scanning it, did you?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah, I kind of did.”
Quinn sighed. “You do know you can’t recover mana while on the branches, right?”
“It’s only a miniscule amount,” Vincent replied.
“Why can’t we recover mana?” Xan asked. “I know I have to touch the ground or something connected to the ground to recover mana. Is there a reason for that?”
“The World-Tree grows out of the bottom of the skybox,” Quinn explained. “Its roots can access an unlimited amount of world energy from the skybox. That world energy goes through the trunk, the branches, and then into the worlds. Players soak up minuscule amounts of that world magic and convert it into player mana. Your Resolve determines how fast you can convert world magic into mana. As a Cleric, you should really know that.”
“Oh, I think my sister told me that once,” Xan said. “I kind of forgot about it, though. It’s not really useful information.”
“Learning about the game’s rules and physics is always helpful,” Vincent told her. “That’s how I developed my Void Gun, after all. Your Class is the most connected to the World-Tree’s greatest power, so I wouldn’t disregard that information. There’s nothing in this game like world magic. It’s the antithesis of negative energy.”
“So, why can’t we draw world magic out of the wood?” Xan asked.
“The wood channels the world magic toward the worlds,” Vincent explained. “I’d imagine there’s a way to interrupt that process—I’ve heard of players trying and failing to. Maybe a high-level Cleric could figure out how to make mana while traveling the branches or trunk. That might be something for you to keep in mind when we get that far. Your Light Drain ability might even be a good starting point for that. Experiment with it during our travels, but only with extra mana you have leftover when we’re near a world. You don’t want to spend all your mana while we’re traveling.”
Xan nodded. “Alright.”
They followed the path farther from the world as the skybox brightened for the morning. Sometimes, Vincent would look back and see Fountmell’s ground far behind him. He could even feel the gravity of the world tugging at him, slowing down their jogging speed. However, after a few hours of travel, Fountmell’s pull diminished.
“It’s crazy looking back as the world shrinks,” Vincent noted.
“Yeah, and the gravity feels lighter now,” Quinn said. She jumped into the air, flying two meters higher than she normally would.
“What happens if you jump too high?” Xan asked. “High-level players should be able to escape the branch’s gravity, right?”
“I’ve heard of some players trying to take shortcuts that way,” Quinn replied. “However, if you don’t have the proper gear and shielding, you’d end up going splat. Not to mention, once you get to the high-tier worlds, there are angel monsters that guard the branches. If they spot you, they’ll chase you relentlessly. They’re super strong too. S-Class, I think. Between them and the trunk wyrms, players pretty much have to navigate the maze of Jump Gates in the high-tier.”
“And that’s how it was before the update,” Vincent noted. “Barely any players had reached that point except the high-tier mods. From what I’ve heard, even they could only travel by using World Teleport. It was too dangerous. But since the update, monsters have been reproducing faster. They’re more aggressive and attacking cities more often too.”
“The update stripped the mods of their powers too,” Quinn said. “Except for one low-tier mod I heard about. So, those high-tier players must feel trapped. There’s no way they can leave their cities without getting wrecked. Hopefully, there’re still NPCs in those cities to help defend them.”
“Those poor people,” Xan said. “Maybe if we get strong enough, we can help them.”
“You think your Void Gun can take down an angel?” Quinn asked Vincent.
“I don’t know,” he said. “By that point, I’d like to have something even stronger.”
“We’ll all be stronger,” Quinn said. “Ready to take on any challenge that ARKUS can throw at us.”
The ground rumbled, and they glanced at a nearby cave. A massive white wyrm slithered from the tunnel. It rose higher and higher, towering thirty meters over their heads. The wyrm’s pale, grotesque body had no constant features. Its skin warped and twisted. Mouths with rows of teeth appeared and disappeared across the wyrm’s body.
“Maybe I spoke too soon,” Quinn said, grabbing Vincent and Xan’s arms. She sprinted toward the side of the valley, dragging them with her.
/> Several mouths formed on the wyrm, and each spat a ball of green fire. The green flame exploded wherever it struck, and explosions shook the three players as they raced across the valley.
“Hurry up!” Quinn shouted.
Vincent handed Xan an Agility Potion, and he drank one too. The party members hurried away as the wyrm thrashed around the valley, launching more exploding fireballs in every direction.
Vincent couldn’t help but look back and Scan the wyrm.
Branch Wyrm – Monster Class: A | Age: 108 | Sex: None | Number of Offspring: 14 | Personality: Territorial
The wyrm disappeared in the distance behind them as they crossed a hill and dove into another winding valley. Soon, the three players slowed their pace back to a jog.
Vincent sighed in relief. “That was only a branch wyrm? How big are the trunk wyrms?”
“I’ve never seen one,” Quinn said, “and I hope not to until I’m at least hundred levels higher.”
“How often will we see those things?” Xan asked, nervously.
“We got a little unlucky seeing one so soon,” Quinn replied. “Or maybe they attack more frequently since the update. I actually don’t know.”
“Maybe we should’ve tried to get a caravan together,” Vincent said, lowering his head. “We could’ve gathered three or four separate parties and had designated survivors, so each party can connect Jump Crystals to reach Navrun after they died.”
“Only one of us needs to reach Navrun,” Quinn noted.
Vincent handed Quinn one of the Crystal Hearts. “Then take this. If we can’t recover each other’s items, then we’ll still have one if the other survives.”
Quinn put the item in her inventory. “Good thinking.”
“So, what should I do if you both die?” Xan asked. “Try to grab one of the hearts and run the rest of the way?”
Quinn smirked. “You can try. But if we’re dead, you’re probably a goner. No offense.”
“None taken.” Xan paused and stared into the distance. “My father and sister are still spamming me with messages. If I die, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to jump to Navrun. Assuming that happens, I apologize beforehand.”