NOVEL NEXT 07 – Close Call
*****
"See? I told you it didn't matter." Vermouth spoke, looking at the shocked archer.
The leader chuckled lowly as she scratched the back of her head. "Well damn, what's a high-level player doing out here in the middle of nowhere disguising as a newbie?"
'This again… I guess I'll just play along with it. There shouldn't be any harm doing that.' Vermouth mused, chuckling internally. 'Right, I can use what that guy said.'
"Out on a mission. There was a PKer preying on new players here. His name was BLCK, all capital letters. I just killed him before we met." Vermouth sorted her inventory, looking satisfactorily at the materials and weapon drop she got.
"There was someone like that here huh, thank goodness we didn't run into him." Said the archer.
Raising a brow, Vermouth spoke. "There shouldn't be any problems, he was only level 80 something, and he was a rogue, with your party, you should be able to take him down unless you got ambushed."
"And before I get going, I'll let you have this since I don't really need it." Vermouth took out the axe she got from the field boss and tossed it to the DPS warrior of their party.
"O-oh! Thank you! This was the reason we were hunting the boss!" She gratefully bowed. "Say, can we add you to our friend lists?"
"If we somehow meet again, I'll send you a friend request." Vermouth turned around before going deeper into the forest, towards the location of her next target. Its nest, to be exact.
"Then, see you!" Vermouth bid them farewell, receiving words and gestures of gratitude in return.
Alone in the thick forest once more, Vermouth is left with nothing to do other than pick up the drops of monsters occasionally killed by her living swords. Until she reaches the field boss' nest, walking through this forest feels quite bland and boring.
"Haa…" Vermouth sighs. "Being so strong while being in the lower-level areas is so boring. I should hurry up and kill all the field bosses here and move to the better areas with stronger monsters. Or better yet, I could get into one of those dungeons."
Dungeons, they're found all over the continent of Curleaf. Be it underground, in a temple deep inside a dangerous jungle, at the top of a mountain, or in a commonly found cave. Their difficulty varies with the area they're found in. Monsters found in dungeons offer three times the EXP that normal monsters outside the dungeon, in turn, these monsters are thrice as powerful, to keep it balanced. Like a typical RPG game, these dungeons have multiple floors, and conquering each will reward you with bountiful treasures. Every five floors, a boss arena is hidden somewhere. Conquering this arena and killing the boss will allow entry to the next five floors. Most dungeons have fifteen floors, while the harder ones consist of more than thirty, and the most difficult of which has more than seventy-five up to a hundred.
"I wonder if there's a dungeon out here…" Vermouth absentmindedly wondered out loud. While she has done research regarding field bosses, she didn't look into dungeons. After all, a new player's concern should be leveling up, getting decent equipment, and finding their desired playing style. Not which dungeon to conquer.
Incidentally, Vermouth could be placed above those new players with the strength of her totemist skill. After all, what normal player hunts field bosses to level up instead of normal field monsters?
"A dungeon is essential if I want to quickly catch up in terms of leveling… I'll look at the forums later." Vermouth continues walking until she hears the sounds of battle.
"No way, are there players hunting it right now?" Quickly running towards the direction the sounds were coming from, Vermouth pushes through the bushes and hides behind a tree to see what's going on.
A six-person party was fighting against the field boss, cockatrice. It had the scaly wings of a wyvern, its body covered in long feathers. Its head was that of a rooster with more profound scales, with slitted eyes. It was being held down with chains similar to the chains Vermouth's Persistent Chains creates, most likely the mages' doings.
The party consisted of a warrior tank, a DPS warrior, two archers, a mage, and a healer. A balanced party consisting of two vanguards, three rearguards, and a support.
This monster's spawn time is an hour, so Vermouth is torn between stealing the monster or letting them kill it and leaving for now and hunting another field boss. Less likely, she could join them and share the rewards, but she didn't want to do that. Not only did she want all the loot to herself, she also wanted to kill it on her own.
Looking at the boss' HP bar, it is less than ten percent. A single wave of five Bursting Lances is all she needs to steal the kill. But doing so is bad manners, and they will definitely spread it on the forums. Plus, Vermouth isn't the type of person to steal someone else's hard work.
Sighing in defeat, Vermouth moves on and heads for the spawn area of the other field boss nearby. The forest of Muryo had four different areas that were filled with different kinds of monsters, all of which had their own different field bosses.
The first one is in the low-level area north of Lorden City, the field boss Balza, a single wolf monster, which she has already killed. The one she has just killed, the second field boss, Ursa Minor, which could be simply described as a real-life bear but on steroids.
The second strongest field boss monster of Muryo, this monster she was tempted to steal, Cockatrice. An amalgamation of a wyvern, a rooster, and a snake.
And the last one, the strongest monster in the forest of Muryo, bordering territories with the high-level area in the mountain range, the former guardian of Muryo forest, Ragar. He was an NPC turned monster after a group of players failed a quest involving saving him from being corrupted by the forest's natural malice. Although Vermouth did not look into this quest that much, she at least knew that this monster was strong.
He is a humanoid tree monster. Twisted vines served as his limbs, hands and feet covered in a thick rotting withered bark extending to a point, acting as the monster's claws, and a torso covered in a thick layer of moss and grass. It didn't have a head, as the core in its chest functioned as the monster's eyes, ears, brain, and heart all at the same time, as well as the great monster's one and only weakness. It stood at a towering height of ten meters.
It indiscriminately attacks all living beings it sets its sights on, be it harmless animals, monsters, NPCs, or players, it will attack it at first sight. A fallen guardian that has failed to fulfill its purpose, now a mindless beast that endangers those whom it had once sworn to protect.
'A typical gone-mad druid, or something similar at least.' Vermouth concluded.
It's a troublesome monster that focuses on sending roots that will lash out at you in a whip-like manner. Seeds that explode on impact, and release poison gas into the air. Lastly, the most troublesome of its attack patterns, every time its HP drops by fifteen percent, its core will release a ray of bright green light that will hit anything that isn't hidden behind a shadow, dealing massive damage. Her totems aren't spared either. The only way to avoid it is to use a strong enough barrier or have a huge shield that will be able to cover all of your hitboxes, even then, light bounces off of any surface so a barrier is an absolute must to deal with this monster.
It is a field boss with an out-of-place difficulty for the area it resides in.
"If it's bosses like this one, it might actually be fun for me to fight them. They will be able to deal damage to me." Vermouth mused out loud.
The only problem is, that it is hard to come by as it roams within its area much like Balza does. It is never stationary and is always seen running after some poor monster or player. Even more annoying, is that it respawns only twice a day with a twelve-hour interval in between.
"Haa… maybe I should just head into the mountain and hunt some other monster instead of wasting my time finding this monster that may not even be alive?" Vermouth considers in slight annoyance as her living swords sliced through another bird monster that foolishly attacked her.
'But I really want to kill these bosses before leaving though!' Vermouth gritted her teeth in annoyance.
"Alright, I've decided!" Vermouth exclaims loudly, clenching her fist and punching the air above. "I'm not leaving an area until I've hunted all the field bosses in it! Solo! I'll have to come back for that bear later, for now, onwards!"
With this declaration, all field bosses' fate has been set in stone, with time ticking for their eventual inevitable deaths.
Vermouth continues her parade through the forest while keeping an eye on the time for Cockatrice's respawn.
That was when she heard a loud thud coming from her right. Her curious gaze was met with the thick vine legs of the field boss, the fallen forest guardian, Ragar.
[IrregularBoss - Ragar] [Level: 99]
"Uwaaah! The thing is heeere! Why is its level so high!? Wasn't it 79!? What does irregular mean!?" Immediately retreating and creating distance, Vermouth hurriedly starts casting. "Persistent Chains!"
Chains of mana slithered toward the monster's way and wrapped around its legs, aggravating it as it released a loud screech that could be heard throughout the entire forest.
Its hardened wooden claws gripped the chains and immediately turned them into fragments of blue light. Roaring, it drops on all fours and charges at Vermouth. In her panic, Vermouth sends five lances its way, hitting the deranged monster on various parts of its upper body, slowing it down by a significant degree.
Vermouth runs to a tree and leads the monster to it, before ducking down as the monster hits itself on the trunk of the tree, creating a huge indent on its bark.
From underneath the monster, Vermouth sends multiple waves of lances at the monster's core, dealing massive damage.
Screeching loudly in pain, Ragar raised its arm and slammed it down onto Vermouth again and again with growing aggression, failing to deal damage to her as she kept on sending lances its way.
Roots emerged from under her feet and latched onto her legs up to her knees, effectively holding them in place and restricting her movement. At the same time, Ragar retreats and stomps both its knees onto the ground before arching backward and placing its arms on the ground. "What the hell!? What are those!?"
The emerald jewel on its chest slowly detached from its body and hovered above its body, glowing as it gathered mana from its surroundings, charging up its ray of light.
"Forget it! Here's the first one! Safe Haven!" Her casting ends and a layered blue magic circle emerges from underneath her, conjuring up a blue dome made of pure mana.
A loud screech resounds through the forest before the entire area is engulfed in a bright green light, scorching everything it touches. Vermouth covers her eyes with her sleeves as her barrier held back the mana-imbued light from being able to reach her. It held for a few seconds before cracks formed on the dome of mana before shattering into a thousand pieces.
"Wha-!?" Vermouth gasped in surprise as she started taking continuous damage, her totems no longer protected from the light for a brief moment as the light dimmed.
-5,756 HP1A/N: Please be reminded that Vermouth takes 60% less damage.
-5,756 HP
Thankfully, before she could take any more damage, the light faded and the monster's core was wrapped with vines and was pulled back to its body and slowly rising from its kneeled position. Vermouth took a glance at her health, confirming her current state.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 22,488/38,500 ]
"That lasted for 7 seconds! That's four more seconds compared to the information I got! What's going on here!? Persistent Chains!" Vermouth casts. "I bought Safe Haven to deal with AOE attacks, but what's up with that!?"
Chains wrapped around the body of the monster before it could get up, holding it down and keeping it kneeling. Taking advantage of the monster's vulnerability, Vermouth casts multiple waves of lances toward its way. Explosions occurred over its torso as the lances landed on its core, taking away over a third of its HP.
"More! I need to bring its HP even lower before it can do another ray! Bursting Lances!"
Casting the spell over and over again, Vermouth continued to hit the monster, her efforts bringing the monster down below half of its HP. However, amid her continuous casting, Vermouth had failed to notice the huge collection of roots forming behind her, taking the shape of a drill. It rose to the sky and came dropping down on Vermouth, passing through her as it dug itself to the ground.
"What!? That's not in its attack pattern!" Vermouth exclaimed as she hurriedly climbed out of the small crater the root drill had formed.
'Did the devs do something to this thing!? Why is it acting differently!? Is it because it's an irregular!?' Vermouth hurriedly assumed in her mind.
Once more, roots emerged from under Vermouth's feet and wrapped around her legs, keeping her in place and causing Vermouth to feel indignant. "Tsk, again!? That's cheap! Safe Haven!"
Vermouth's barrier rose from the ground the same moment the monster kneeled backward before its core detached from its body, its glow began to intensify as it floated to its apex.
"I should have leveled this up! Mana Charge!" Vermouth used her active skill for the first time, impatiently waiting for the charging time to finish up.
+3,465 MP
"Again! Mana Charge!" Vermouth casts once more, recovering once more before her totems were hit with the pulverizing light as it faded away.
+3,465 MP
-5,756 HP
-5,756 HP
"I won't last!" Vermouth gritted her teeth in frustration as she saw her status.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 14,681/38,500 ]
"I'm way less than half my MP, and I need that to cast! Screw it, it's you or me! Hold it down! Persistent Chains!" Immediately, chains stopped the monster from getting up from its kneeled position, each of the seven chains creaked as the monster struggled to break free.
"Safe Haven! Persistent Chains!" Vermouth cast her barrier spell before doubling down on the monster's restraints, making it screech loudly as its struggle intensified.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 12,581/38,500 ]
"Mana Charge!" Vermouth shouted, not noticing the difference in the skill's effects compared to earlier.
+6,930 MP
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 19,511/38,500 ]
"Time for spam fest! Bursting Lance! Bursting Lance! BURSTING LANCE!" Vermouth shouted with all the vigor she could muster, wave after wave of lances hitting the monster's core, as it screeched in pain.
Moss and wooden splinters soared through the air, further exposing the monster's core for Vermouth to destroy.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 16,886/38,500 ]
After the first chain snapped, the rest immediately followed. The monster stood up, free from its constraints. Its HP has dropped to less than twenty percent, prompting Vermouth to throw more and more lances at it.
The monster let out a loud screech before it kneeled backward, its core detaching from its body, glowing ominously, light leaking out of the cracks that had formed on its surface. Vermouth continued to shoot lances at the floating core as it reached its highest point, releasing the murderous light once more, further scorching the surrounding area.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 13,886/38,500 ]
"I'm gambling now! Bursting Lance!" Vermouth continued to cast without pause, encouraged by the small cracks and indents that had formed on the monster's core, just as cracks started forming on her barrier.
The monster's HP fell to 7%, further pushing Vermouth to cast with even more vigor and speed.
At the same time, her barrier is almost gone, its surface full of cracks. The same could be said for the already halved core, the boss monster's HP dropping below 1%.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 12,011/38,500 ]
Her barrier shattered into fragments of light as it flew all over the place. Vermouth managed to cast Bursting Lance one more time before she was hit with the light, conjuring five lances to soar through the air.
-5,756 HP
-5,756 HP
The five lances exploded upon impact and pushed the monster's HP down to zero, the core completely shattering into green fragments, its body withering before turning to nothing but a black cloud of smoke.
Vermouth fell on her rear as the wind carried the smoke past her. Her hands trembled from the fading adrenaline before clenching it.
"I DID IT!" She shouted, raising her wand into the air before she fell backward, laughing out loud while holding onto her stomach.
As she calmed down, Vermouth glanced at her HP and MP bar, making her laugh out loud even more.
[HP 0/2,100 | MP 124/38,500 ]
"What the hell! I almost did not survive that! Wahaha! That boss was crazy! AHA!" Vermouth laughed giddily, bumping the tip of her staff at the ground to vent her laughter. "M- pfft! M-Mana Charge!"
Vermouth watched in satisfaction as her MP bar replenished, with her repeated use of Mana Charge, to full before healing herself with Healing Radiance, making her Mana Charge skill level up once more.
"Phew, had that not leveled up, I would have died, wouldn't I!?" Vermouth exclaimed out loud.
Having recovered herself, Vermouth looked at the notifications to get a summary of her results.
[Casting has leveled up!]
[Magic Mastery has leveled up!]
[Chain Cast has leveled up!]
[Mana Charge has leveled up!]
[World - Player Vermouth has slain Irregular Boss Ragar, as a solo! Bounty reward, 1,000,000 Rof]
[For defeating a monster 50 levels higher than yourself, rewarded Ragar's Golden Heart!]
[For defeating an Irregular Boss all by yourself, rewarded Bangle of Muryo!]
[Obtained x16 fragments of Ragar's Heart]
[Obtained x4 Ragar's Life Essence]
[Obtained x8 Ragar's Solar Vines]
[Obtained x6 Ragar's Lunar Moss]
[Obtained x 4 Ragar's Eorthe Log]
[Level up x24!]
[Mana Charge has leveled up!]
[Mana Boost has leveled up!]
"Very nice! That's a lot of improvements. A million Rof, I would not settle for less with that boss' difficulty!" Vermouth exclaimed before closing the interface. "I'll check them out later, what time is it?"
Opening the main interface, Vermouth determines the time. "Nine forty-three, huh? I've been playing for three hours already? Ma should be awake and cooking by now, right? Guess I'll log out once I'm back in the city."
"This time too has been quite productive! As expected, hunting bosses is much better than hunting normal monsters!" Staff in hand and with a satisfying sense of accomplishment, Vermouth left the scorched area and headed back to the forest entrance. Completely unaware of the uproar her achievement has caused.
*****
