Chapter 29: Assassination 1
Although I planned to kill these Elites around here, I got bored. I needed to kill more powerful monsters with higher challenges. Also, my teammates were weak.
If they are still at level 4 by the end of the assessment, then I must move them to another regular team. I couldn't be biased towards anyone.
This act always drove any army to be fragmented from within. In half an hour we moved from the woods and entered the leveling map.
There were a lot of players here trying to level up rapidly. Many of them were speaking about the Dragon Spear Resistance topic and the next assessment.
I was happy and surprised by all the talks I heard in my way. Although some doubted me and my motive, the majority were supporting me.
This made me feel proud and optimistic. We appeared on a map full of foxes. I remembered my first leveling up here. I led everyone until we reached level 8 maps.
In front of us were huge herds of these beautiful pure white unicorns with silver horns. They were really adorable but I had to kill them. I used my observation skills on one of them to know their stats.
"Unicorn: LVL8normal monster. Common class monster. HP: 3417/3417"
It had good blood. I might take five to six seconds to kill one of them.
"Every monster of those will give each one of us nearly above 90 XP. To reach level 4 each one of you is in need of 67k XP. That meant we needed to kill more than 700 monsters. I suggest grouping many of them and killing them at once."
Although what Shin said seemed nice I noticed the look of horror in the faces of the others. I understood that this was their first time to kill higher levels of monsters. I smiled and said with confidence:
"I and Shin always kill monsters higher than our level with 3 levels at least. This way we could reach our high level in no time. Now it's not the time to be dazed. Grendy you will be responsible for bringing those monsters to us."
Shin rapidly suggested:
"Grendy speed won't make him escape them. Let me do this task."
His words seemed logical especially when I remembered Grendy's level.
"Deal. You bring them and we will do the rest."
"Here I go."
Shin moved with high speed towards a nearby group of unicorns.
He only used his sword to cause small damage to one of them. The rest of the group neighed with high sound and then they moved fast after him.
He didn't come back but continued to move forward in a big arc. Every now and then he hit one group with his sword to follow him like mad horses.
When I noticed the big number of monsters that followed him, which exceeded 50 monsters, I ordered the other teammates in a hurry:
"Don't stand like statues in your place. Let's go back a little."
I didn't stop in my place either and moved backward with them.
I then rearranged them into a long arch with me standing in front of Mony the healer. When the number of monsters neared 100, I yelled at Shin:
"Come here now. That's enough."
Shin heeded by my advice and stopped attracting more monsters. He began to move towards us so I said again:
"Keep moving in circles. We will kite them down slowly."
That was my plan when I noticed his way of moving.
I don't know if he intended to kite them in the same way, but my way was very effective and safe. Shin began to adjust his path to move in a closed circle. I yelled:
"Use your skills and try to help each other."
This time, I alone wasn't enough. Each monster would take me around 6 seconds to kill.
I didn't know if Shin did this on purpose, but when he headed towards me with 100 monsters behind him I remembered those 100 players that I had to face.
He might want to train me in dealing with this pressure. He also might aim for me to know my weaknesses and SSP flaws and disadvantages so I could plan early to avoid these.
When Shin appeared near us, he changed his course and began to move away. He wasn't moving in a circle anymore. This sharp turn helped me and those next to me to have a chance to attack.
The only problem I feared was the Aggro shift to happen. This time I used team chat to order:
"When you hit a monster, make sure you finish it completely."
I then didn't stand silent anymore. I raised my spear and stood in front of those huge monsters. Each monster was more than five meters in length and nearly one meter in width.
They would cause any normal player to feel fear, but for me, I felt the thrilling challenge sensation. I tightened my grip on my spear and directed it towards this huge herd on unicorns and murmured:
"Penta aux skill
Strength aux skill.
Tempest of lightning skill.
Triple thrush skill"
The five spear shadows emerged and filled the entire place in front of me. My widest skill in range was the Tempest of lightning skill. It can cover the 5*5m range.
In this small zone, every monster was dealt with a long row of damage. Each strike was followed by five small shadows that dealt with 50% damage to the monster.
What I didn't calculate well was the nature of these species. They were herd type monsters. So when I attacked some of them, the rest of their groups stopped chasing Shin and went towards me directly.
2 seconds didn't pass and I was a target for more than 70 unicorns. I felt irritated by neglecting this small info. Although it looked tense I was used to these kinds of situations as I used another skill at once:
"Gravity skill."
In an area of 10*10m, the gravity changed slightly. Speed and Attack Speed of these monsters decreased massively by four times.
This was my first time using this skill. The pressure on me was relieved partly by this skill. When the skills of my teammates fell upon these monsters, they helped me to reduce their HP.
The one I took note of was Grendy. This guy has an AOE skill like mine. It was a tempest of swords. In just five seconds, I used my spear like a whip to strike all these monsters without any mercy.
"Stab, Stab, Stab, Stab, triple thrush, stab, stab, stab…"
My skills didn't stop falling on these monsters. Although there were many of them, in ten seconds I managed to kill all these 70 plus monsters that were attacking me.
Although I lost nearly my HP thrice by their attacks, but Mony helped me in critical timing and kept my HP in a safe zone. The remaining 30 or fewer monsters were killed easily by the seven of us.
After this battle, my HP was nearly a half. I used one potion to restore HP to full. At the same time, Shin and others were collecting the spoils of this battle.
I needed more than 100k XP to reach level 5, so what I got from killing those monsters was a drop in the bucket. What these monsters dropped was some trash equipment of level 8.
I wasn't interested in any of these. There were also nearly 350 copper coins that dropped from each one of them. That made us gain 35 silver coins in one go.
If we kept this rhythm then we could earn our first gold coin soon. When we finished recuperating we moved to kill the next wave. This Shin's wave idea was great.
In less than two hours we managed to kill more than 1000 monsters. Goda and the others gained one level and reached level 4 finally. I and Shin needed less than 15k XP to reach level 5.
As we had nearly an hour and a half till the assessment, we went on and kept killing these unicorns. In another hour we killed another one thousand of them.
We reached level 5 finally and needed 125k to reach level6. If we continued this leveling speed and efficiency we could reach level 10 in less than four days.
I understood by then the importance of a team. Although I and Shin could kill a lot of monsters in one go, that number was far less than the number we can kill with the team.
Our small wealth enlarged to reach more than 750 silver coins. We were near to get our first gold coin. The only regret was the equipment grade. They were all trash equipment.
These over 300 trash grade equipment were stored by Shin who would sell them later and get us more coins. Although we would get a small amount by selling these, we didn't have any use for them.
Trash equipment with or without stats was trash equipment. After we rested a bit, we started our journey back. When we neared the village gate we noticed a large number of players were heading in the same direction as us.
I asked Shin in our private chat:
"Why do I feel everyone is happy with our resistance?"
"That's normal. These aristocratic families are very arrogant.
Their arrogance made them insult a lot of people and small families. It won't be an exaggeration, but I predict there will be more players than you think."
"Really? I believe we could get nearly 50k players this time, what do you think?"
"50k only?! You are underestimating people's hatred towards those aristocratic families.
These people were looking for anyone to raise the flag of resistance to join him. This would be one of the main reasons why these families deal with brutal retaliation to any Guild Master rank player.
I believe we will gain more than 100k and may reach 150k players. If you were in a town or a city then you could get much more than these numbers."
"I depend on other village players to join our cause before the upcoming battle."
"That would work too. But the distance between Novice villages is wide. You may gather some enthusiastic players from the nearby 10 villages."
"Any addition would be very helpful to us."
By then we reached the village gate. I noticed the entrance was crowded to the prim with an endless flood of players.
That was a good sign. When we entered, Shin led us to a nearby wide street that was adjacent to the big market. This street was a living area for NPCs in the village.
It was spacious and quiet. The most important thing was that it was empty from any player. All players were crowded in the big market and the street that leads to the village gate.
Shin gave me a nod. I equipped myself with a cloak and earrings. I then raised my spear high and used my famous skill:
"Dragon head skill"
At once there was a dragon that appeared on the tip of my spear. I waved my spear and released the skill up to the sky.
Although it looked awesome, I didn't stop for even a second. I canceled the skill at once and ran towards the opposite side of the street.
I entered between rows of buildings and hid there. In a few seconds, I heard the trembling of the ground followed by the massive number of players.
I felt tense as I watched Shin stands in front of that huge army of players and yelled:
"If you want to join our resistance, then queue up in lines in front of the five of us.
Anyone who was accepted to join us will be added as my friend. I will send a message later to him telling him more instructions. Now let's begin."