A dead body, guards and a large crowd. The first thing that comes into a person's mind is a crime scene, marked by yellow tapes, out of bounds for the public. The guards the investigators, the body the victim and the crowd the witnesses.
Well, except here the scene wasn't marked by the yellow tapes. There was no out of bounds sign. The guards weren't the investigators but the instigators, the body wasn't the victim but the offender and the crowd.....well.....who cares.
This was the scene of insulting a noble. In the World of Parallax and everywhere else, the nobles are the upper class of the society. Offending them, even verbally can get you in serious situations. Every person dreams of becoming one, even a third-class noble has great prestige. But becoming one is very cumbersome. In a small town, becoming a third-class noble requires +40 Reputation Points, a second class noble requires +100 Reputation Points, First Class Nobel like a Baron requires +200 Reputation Point, a Viscount requires +500 Reputation Points, an Earl requires +1000 Reputation Points, Marquee requires +3000 Reputation Points while a Duke requires a staggering +5000 Reputation Points in that town.
Compared to a city, Reputation point are relatively easier to acquire for a town, while the Reputation Points that give nobility status in a Kingdom, Empire or even the whole world of Parallax are extremely hard to acquire. Also the Reputation Points are separate for different towns, cities, kingdoms and empires. For example; a noble in Ever-Green City or Kingdom won't likely be a noble in Eternal Dream City or Eternal Dream Kingdom. Therefore, titles like Cao Huang's [Emperor Of Death's Successor] which offer global nobility status were almost non-existent.
Cao Huang stood there with a big grin on his face. Wherever he swept his eyes, people would dodge his gaze. The Crimson Draught members were dumbstruck, now that they knew Cao Huang's status in the town, nobody would be willing to offend him, in the town at least.
"The offender has been punished, you may go now." he said like a noble known as James Lannister who he had seen on TV.
The guards went to their duties and the crowd dispersed, leaving only Cao Huang, Rolling Sloth and his members.
"Do you want to say something?" asked Cao with an evil grin.
"...."
"Did the cat got your tongue?"
"Your name is Drifting Leaf right? You will regret this." Rolling said and went away with his teammates.
"It is really easy to guess who will be the one regretting." mumbled Cao Huang.
"Now that you are done chitchatting, you should go and try to hunt some monsters." advised Vilariun.
"Vilariun, do you know a way to make some extremely quick wealth?" Cao Huang asked expectantly.
"Hmm, There is a way but it is somewhat difficult for the current you." said Vilariun deliberating.
"Don't worry, I will be careful."
"OK, For that you have to go to the Level 15 map, The Undead Forest."
"OK, but where is the Undead Forest located?"
"It's 10 kilometers to the west of Morning Dew Town."
With a nod, Cao Huang rushed out of the town from the western gate. He was running at full sprint and after an hour he arrived near Undead Forest, he was exhausted. He rested for a while and continued towards the entrance. On the way, he opened his Attributes Window and added 8 Free Attribute points to the Strength Attribute raising it to 14 Points, 6 points to the Ability Attribute making it a total of 12 points, 3 points to the Intelligent Attribute and 3 to the Endurance Attribute raising both of them to 5 points, completely utilizing the 20 Free Attributes Points he had gained from levelling to Level 5.
Now that he had enough Attributes, he equipped both the [Ring of Illusion] and [Ring of Swiftness] raising his Strength to 18 points, his agility to 21 points and Intelligence to 7 points.
His Attack power became 32 points, His Movement Speed became 12 and Attack Speed became 10.
Character: Cao Huang(Human)
Affiliated Kingdom: Ever-Green
Title: Emperor Of Death's Successor.
Category: Assassin (Yet to acquire an advance class)
Level: 5 (Experience: 3000/62000)
HP: 440/440
Physical Attack Power: 32
Defense: 2
Attack Speed: 10
Movement Speed: 12
Attributes: Strength: 18, Agility: 21, Endurance: 5, Intelligence: 7, Vitality: 6.
Free Attribute Points: 0
"Good, Now let's enter." Vilariun Said.
The level 15 map, the Undead forest was still an unexplored map, it was said that two powerful Necromancers battled here, the aftermath of their battle was a forest filled with death and evil energy. The forest was littered with Pine Trees and could be called a beautiful place if the Pine trees weren't withered. The whole place was filled with level 10 Gloomy Skeleton Warriors, Skeleton Archers and Skeletal Mages who roamed these undead woods. In addition to these, there were also monster who had long died and had been turned to undead.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The Undead forest was a level 10 map, meaning that any player below level 8 is likely to die here. Even Level 10 players would have a hard time getting through this forest. This is because the baleful aura here would slowly wither away the player's health at the rate of 8 HP per second. All of his attributes in the Undead Forest would be reduced by 30%. Only a player who had reached level 15 would have a guaranteed chance of clearing this forest.
But to Cao Huang, this place was like his second home.
"Ahahaha, I feel so much alive here." The gloomy forest making his laugh seemingly sinister.
The Undead Forest was filled with evil and death energies which were harmful to all living beings but to Cao Huang who was Emperor Of Death's Successor, this place was heaven. Neither he had to face the withering of his Health Points nor the reduction of attributes by 30%, in fact the Ruler of Death effect his title provided him, increases all of his attributes by 50% in these areas. With this, his attributes were far more than what a Level 8 Assassin should have. Coupled with the attributes reduction and withering of Health Points that another player would suffer from, a Level 10 player shouldn't be Cao Huang's match in this Undead Forest.
His confidence ever increasing, he smoothly glided through the forest with quick movements. With his +12 movement speed he was faster than even purely agility based Assassin.
Soon he saw his first target,
[Skeleton Warrior] (Normal Undead, Level 10)
HP: 950/950
Cao Huang activated the Silent Steps ability of his Ring of Swiftness and silently arrived 20 yards behind the Skeleton Warrior. Due to their low Intelligence and awareness, they only had a detection range of 20-yards. Cao Huang activated the Rapid Acceleration skill increasing his movement speed and attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
With the Daggers in his hand he quickly covered the last 20-yards and before the Skeleton Warrior could react, used stab at it's head.
_Peng!_
A damage of - 40 appeared over the Skeleton Warrior's head but Cao Huang's Dagger and the hand which held it was still vibrating from the impact. It felt like he was striking a steel wall. His dagger's durability also dropped by 1. The stunned Cao Huang was too late in responding to Skeleton Warrior's incoming sword strike so he could only hold his daggers in front of him in an attempt to block it.
_Clank!_
He was able to somewhat block the attack but was instead sent flying by the powerful strike. His health decreased by - 90 points and dagger's durability decreased by another 2 points. He rolled, straightened in the air and pierce the daggers in the ground to stop himself from flying any further. A long line of 2 meters was carved from where Cao Huang had pierced his daggers in the ground. From this scene, a person can realize the power the Skeleton Warrior had placed behind this sword strike.
"What are doing getting stunned like this in the middle of a fight?" berated Vilariun.
"I was stunned from how hard the Skeleton Warrior's body is. My hand is still trembling from the strike I delivered. Also how was it able to send me this far while consuming this much of my health?" asked Cao Huang while standing up.
"The Skeleton Warriors are known their high Defence and high Attack Power. Striking it with this Level 0 Broken Dagger is like smashing an egg against a hard rock."
"Then.... What... Should I do?" Asked Cao Huang while successfully dodging it's over head strike this time and retreating to a safe distance.
"Your daggers aren't going to be much of a use here, so you should try attacking it without them." advised Vilariun seriously.
"Are you asking me to attack it with my fist and kicks only!? Are you out of your mind?" Cao Huang shuddered at thought of attacking a steel wall with his bare fists.
"That's why I am asking you to use a skill. This is a perfect time to check what the [Force] skill is all about." explained Vilariun.
"Ahh! So be it. Here goes nothing." Said Cao Huang as he once again rushed towards the incoming Skeleton Warrior.
First, as he was fully aware of the Skeleton Warrior's attack, this time he was able to easily dodge it by side stepping. He then proceeded to use the Force skill and punched the Skeleton Warrior on it's head.
_Crack!_
The sound of the bones breaking could be heard loud and clear. A damage of - 57 appeared on top of Skeleton Warrior's head. Cao Huang was stunned to see the damage which more than what he did with the daggers. The Skeleton warrior was sent staggering and entered the fainted state for a total of 3 seconds. Realizing this, Cao Huang started mounting one attack after one, a right hook, a right elbow followed by a spinning kick to the chest -52, -50, -61..... Soon Cao Huang was using the Skeleton Warrior as a punching bag to familiarize himself with the usage of force.
If the Skeleton Warrior could speak, it would have surely cursed Cao Huang for ruining the dignity of the Assassins. Even a Berserker wasn't this violent. Instead of being an elegant fight between sword and daggers, it was more of a street brawl. The Skeleton Warrior the victimized next door kid and Cao Huang the local bully of the neighborhood.
A minute later the Skeleton warrior only had 133 HP remaining. The Skeleton Warrior initiated it's final berserk skill [Reckless Overhead Swing], which dealt the double of the damage the Skeleton Warrior had suffered and stuns the opponent for 5 seconds.
Cao Huang knew of it's berserk skill from Vilariun and was already prepared for it. When the Skeleton Warrior initiated the skill, he ducked underneath the swinging sword and used Force to land an uppercut, right beneath it's chin.
- 59
This sent the Skeleton Warrior flying a few yards away and it landed onto the withered ground back first. The Skeleton Warrior had suffered from many broken bones so it was slow to recover and stand up. Seeing this, Cao Huang had an idea. He retreated twenty yards back and used the Rapid Acceleration Skill to increase his Movement Speed and Attack Speed. When the Skeleton Warrior was half standing, Cao Huang used Force to kick the ground beneath his feet.
_Bang!_
Using the Force to repel himself from the ground, he for a moment got an extreme burst of speed. Using the same skill and technique he continued to gain momentum. If a person focused, they could clearly see small, faint cracks forming on the ground wherever Cao Huang stepped upon. In the blink of an eye, like a lightning bolt, Cao Huang was already in front of the half standing Skeleton Warrior. Using all the momentum and power he had, he delivered a jumping knee strike to the Skeleton Warrior's head.
_Splat!_
_Bang!_
_Crack!_
With a banging noise, the Skeleton Warrior was sent flying several metres back. It's skull that split apart with a cracking noise was severed from it's shoulder. A force of 400 Kg multiplied several times by the extreme momentum was no laughing matter. The remaining force carried the Skeleton Warrior's headless body towards the withered trees which broke under it's impact. Like this, several trees broke and only then did the body came to rest.
"What... a godly... Force Skill." exclaimed Cao Huang who was slightly out of breath.
System: You have killed the [Skeleton Warrior]. The Level difference is 5 so the Experience gained is increased by 500%. Gained 1000 Experience Points.