You have defeated the [Golem] of the Karite Ranges.

EXP has been awarded.

Argus leveled up twice from this encounter, with the EXP bar stopping at 79% towards level 6. Like in most games, the difficulty of leveling up increases as numbers go higher. This is why doing the traditional grind for trash mobs is highly inefficient if the purpose is to level up. Typically, large guilds would only do this for gold and material farming.

He placed 5 stat points to ARC, 3 to RES and 2 to DEX.

LEVEL 5

STR: 0

DEX: 7

AGI: 0

VIT: 0

ARC: 15

RES: 8

“Yep, looks fine.”

Upon reaching 15 in Arcana, Argus finally obtained his first passive skill.

passive skill has been learned.

This is the true beginnings of a caster in Aefell Online. In summary, there are two ways to cast and/or learn a spell in Aefell. The first and easiest one is through the system UI where one invests a skill point to learn a skill, and then cast it by thought with the help of the system. The second way is by scripting it.

Scripting a spell is very much like writing a code or forming electronic circuits. The script functions as a rule, a pathway, and a medium of spells to exist and function. To learn a spell through scripting, one must first have sufficient enough Arcana. Even if a player already knows how to script certain spells, if their Arcana wasn’t enough, it would be like writing a code that you already fully know how to make work, but the language you’re using is severely limited, or creating a circuit that doesn’t have all the logic gates required. It just wouldn’t work and would end up fizzling out.

Casting a spell through scripting is pretty much similar to learning it. The advantage this has over casting it through the system, however, is its cast time. The cast time of spells cast on script is entirely dependent on how fast the caster can write the script, as well as how much he understands said script. More experienced casters could script complex spells faster because they know certain shortcuts to it. Obviously, these shortcuts are highly secret and no caster would willingly give away a shortcut in a spell that they discovered themselves.

Another advantage is that compound spells can only be created through scripting, and that the actual effects of spells can be tweaked and altered depending on the caster’s proficiency and knowledge. Theoretically, someone who is sufficiently skilled enough in scripting spells could make it so that the spell could have a 1-kilometer radius and deal tremendously more damage that pretty much turns it into a nuclear bomb, however, such a feat, while generally agreed upon to be probable, is incredibly difficult to achieve and no one has yet to achieve something similar over the ten years the game has existed.

Through script, spells essentially become clay that they can mold to their hearts content, provided they know enough of what they’re doing.

Argus is obviously happy that he’s finally able to obtain the ability to script, but the number of spells he can actually script is tremendously limited by his Arcana. For now, he’d decided to leave this be and instead examine the boss’ drops.

Aside from high quality rocks that can be used for building structures, there were three drops that stood out to Argus, one of them he’s expecting as it was the reason why he fought this boss in the first place. It was the [Ring of the Mountain].

After being stationary for 3 seconds, the wearer receives a 5% increase to their resistances. Additionally, a circular stone shield 1 meter in radius spawns at the wearer’s back. This shield floats in the air and can be freely controlled by the wearer’s will as if an extension of their limbs. It will break upon receiving damage equal to 100% of the wearer’s max HP, appearing once again after 30 seconds. It cannot deal damage, and will only push back when hurled at enemies. These effects expire when the wearer moves out of their stationary position.

At a glance, this item could be more suited to tanks as it gives them a physical shield that scales off of 100% of their max HP as well as increase their resistances, however the caveat is that these effects could only activate if they’re not moving from their place. This is not acceptable, as tanks in Aefell, unlike other games, are more than just meat shields. They can’t just stand idly, taking enemy hits as that would pretty quickly kill them, even with their several abilities. Tanks should always be on the move, dodging attacks. Only if the attack is unavoidable should a tank use their shield or defensive abilities.

For that reason, this item is actually more suited to stationary DPS characters like mages or archers, as they can freely control the stone shield as if it were their limbs, meaning one does not have to concentrate to maneuver it.

After equipping the ring, Argus pocketed the other two items for now, deciding to review them later on. The more pressing matter is where he should put the points that he had just gotten from leveling up.

He quickly exited the dungeon and began to make his way back to Facilis, or at the very least, to the Verdant Plains. The dungeon he’s currently at is more than a kilometer away north of Facilis, and since it is located at the Karite Ranges, outside of the Verdant Plains, the city guards would not be able to protect him from any potential ganker that might be prowling the area.

Upon leaving the cave, the darkness of night that’s being illuminated by countless stars greeted Argus. He looked down to the steep steps he climbed up earlier to get to this dungeon and sighed. He can barely see anything due to the darkness, and any wrong step could cause him to slip off and easily lose a ton of HP. If there were any gankers around, he’d surely be easy prey since despite his MP slowly regenerating, it’s still far from being combat ready.

Carefully, he started descending down the rocky steps, taking extreme precaution not to miss a step or land on a slippery part. It was nerve-wracking, and the occasional howls of wolves and caws of unknown birds did not help in the slightest.

Using his staff to reach onto the ground in front of him if there are any gaps, he quickly descended the mountain in approximately 20 minutes without any accidents or gankers, fortunately. During that time, his MP has fully regenerated.

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He was still quite a ways away from Verdant Plains, but the trek isn’t as hard or long anymore. The land at the foot of the mountain was heavily covered with trees, and off the distance he could already see the Verdant Plains’ Outpost.

While walking back as he carefully examines his skill tree, deciding where to put the 2 skill points that he just obtained from leveling up, a peculiar rustle that originated around 10 meters away from him stopped him in his tracks. Not only does the darkness limits his visibility, but the countless trees surrounding him also blocks much of the area, save for the dirt road at that he’s currently following.

He immediately assumed a defensive position and readied his spell , tensing his legs so that he would be able to react to any sudden movements as fast as possible.

“Aaah, he’s good.” A woman’s voice suddenly echoed not too far in front of him, followed by the said voice’s owner coming out of a roadside tree. “I told you to fucking stay put.”

The woman is wearing maroon leather outfit, with a skirt flair for aesthetics. She’s also playing with a dagger with her right hand, with some sort of viscous, green fluid on its tip, possibly poison coating.

“Damn it. Not again.” Another voice, this time of a man, sounded. He came out shortly, on the other side of the road where the woman was. “Well, it’s just a single caster so it’s not really that big of a deal.”

He unsheathes the longsword at his side, wielding it with two hands and assumed an overhead stance, pointed directly towards Argus.

Argus, on the other hand, did not react haphazardly. He observed what the two will do first, despite their blatant intent to kill him and loot his items. He had determined that if anything happens, he should deal with the woman first, as she’d probably the one faster than the two.

What the two gankers didn’t notice, possibly due to the darkness of the night, was that a circular stone had already formed behind Argus, floating in mid-air as if awaiting his commands.

Sure enough, it was the woman that acted first. She sprinted towards him all of a sudden, trying to surprise him as much as possible. The man with the longsword followed suit, although his movements were more reserved as he’s not as much in a rush as the woman.

With a snap, Argus released towards the woman. When a skill shot is cast, there is a window where players would be able to see the spell’s hitbox before it actually materializes. This window is shortened by the caster’s proficiency.

The woman currently dashing towards Argus was able to notice the ’s hitbox, however, she was not able to dodge it as the window was very short and her agility wasn’t enough to actually enable her to dodge it. As a result, she ended up taking the full brunt of the blast, causing her to lose balance and stopping her in her tracks. Her HP has also taken a considerable amount of damage. She rolled thrice on the dirt road before coming to a halt.

“I’ll… I’ll fucking kill you!!” The woman screamed on top of her lungs as she begins to stand up.

Argus wasted no time and began preparing another right after releasing the first one. The other man on the other hand seemed unfazed and continued to carefully close towards Argus as fast as he can.

As soon as the woman stood up, the man with the longsword also rushed towards Argus. Now, two people are currently sprinting at him at full speed.

“Shit, I have to time this right.” Argus thought to himself, beads of cold sweat have started to form on his forehead.

Argus’ position on the dirt road relative to the two gankers make it so that there is a certain point where a single would be able to hit them both, as they have to inevitably run closer to each other as they near Argus. This was the moment that Argus needs to time correctly to him them both.

Just a blink later, and the moment had finally come.

“It’s now or never!” With a flick of his finger, a ball of pure orange flame materialized between the two gankers currently running at full speed towards him. Like the woman earlier, they tried to avoid the blast by shifting their body weight away and maneuvering their legs, but it was all for naught.

The explosion sent them both flying at the respective direction that they were originally intending to dodge towards, partly due to the fact that they caused themselves to be imbalanced in the first place in their futile attempt to dodge. If they had just stood straight and steeled their footing, they would have been able to resist the force of the explosion, though the damage would still be there, the effect wouldn’t have been as severe as to flung them rolling.

The man took roughly the same amount of damage as the woman did the first time. Her, on the other hand, now have her HP at around 45%.

From those exchanges alone, Argus was able to deduce that these gankers are pretty new to the game. Not only were their attacks severely telegraphed, they were very straightforward as well, lacking any coordination and tact. If they had just circled him and attempted a pincer attack, it would’ve been much harder for Argus. As it stands now, he might not even need to use the stone shield currently hovering at his back.

He began casting another as the two are simultaneously standing up.

“Good thing these gankers are total noobs.” Argus inwardly sighed. If they were a least bit experienced, he wouldn’t be able to hit every single that he cast, and would probably have to wait another year to play again.

Still, he shouldn’t celebrate yet. The two are now dangerously close to him, and it would take a second for them to run and stab him after standing up. He readied the stone shield, making sure he’s fully capable of controlling it just in case.

The woman stood up first, and, after picking up her poison-coated dagger, did a single, long stride towards Argus, placing him in her striking distance.

With all her might, she thrusts her poison dagger towards him, a sinister smile beginning to form in her face. Yet, despite her best efforts, her attack was ultimately deflected sideward. She flushed all thoughts of confusion and regained her footing in order to strike again, but when she looked towards Argus, what covered her view was a circular stone that’s rapidly approaching her.

It struck her, but to her surprise, it dealt no damage. It merely pushed her back 2 meters.

Argus was about to finish casting the when he realized he had made a grave mistake. By using the shield to push away the woman, he had left himself defenseless. To his other side was now the man with the longsword, hands raised up high and on the process of bringing down his sword towards Argus.

“Fuck!” Argus’ eyes widened. “I underestimated his recovery time.”

The man brought down his sword with swift, furious movement, aimed at Argus’ pathetically exposed face flooded with a look of confusion and desperation.

It’d only take a split second for the sword to connect, and the critical hit from a headshot would surely kill Argus instantly as he doesn’t have any headwear on.

“AAAAAAAAAGGGH!!” The man shouted with intensity that it echoed throughout the forest, causing the nearby nocturnal birds to fly away in panic. When the sword was just inches away from Argus, a sudden force tugged at the man away, jolting his body backwards, causing the sword to miss Argus and hit air and dirt.

“What?” Argus was similarly confused as the man that was just attacking him.

Another person stands behind the ganker who’s now lying on the ground as a result of the pull. This person is wielding what looks to be a miniature scythe, with chains connected somewhere underneath their sleeve. The darkness of the night and the shadow of the trees obscuring this person's figure, and all that Argus could see was their silhouette and other hand retrieving a dagger from their waist and plunging it down the ganker’s exposed throat.

The ganker tried to resist by reaching for his sword, but all strength within him appeared to drain away instantly. He grabbed the person's hand that’s still holding the dagger embedded into his throat and squeezed it as hard as he can, before finally disappearing into a puff of blue particles of light.

“NOOOO!!” The woman screamed in utter horror. This prompted Argus to snap back to reality from his trance. He released the onto the woman who tried rushing towards her companion. The force of the explosion interrupted her and subsequently set her ablaze.

“AAAAGGGHH IT HURTS!” She cried dreadfully while rolling on the dirt, attempting to put out the fire. Just seconds later and she, like her companion just earlier, disappeared in a puff of blue particles, leaving behind all her equipment and items.

Argus paid this no mind and immediately casted another preparing for whatever this new person would do.

He glanced up to see their name.

‘Mephistoz’.