According to what Sakim had learned, hidden bosses only appeared when a certain condition was met. And that was either to incur its interest or wrath.

But whatever method that any players would use to meet a certain hidden boss, with its rarity, Sakim presumed that chances were no higher than 1%. So it could be said that it was very unlikely for every player to meet a hidden boss.

So how could he, the one who had just started his journey, had possibly met this hidden boss in all of a sudden? Sakim really wondered if this was luck or misfortune.

Escape! Sakim only had this thought in mind. Because he knew full well that his current self was no match against this hidden boss. His equipment was all trash. He was just a level 1 player. He still didn't have any active skills available for use. He still didn't know how to use his ability in actual combat. And to top it all, the hidden boss was a level fifteen monster. How could he possibly win at this rate?!

No matter how hard he thought about it, even if he flipped the heaven and earth, it was very unlikely for him to stand any chance of winning at all.

With that in mind, Sakim intended to escape as soon as possible. He then turned around and left in hurry. He didn't care if that monster was a hidden boss. What was more important now was his life.

However, as Sakim was running for his life, the hologram screen was still in front of him. Seeing that it was blocking his line of sight, he intended to make it disappear. But suddenly, he caught sight of the description of the hidden boss and have a clearer look at it...

[Devil Tree]

Rank: Common

Level: 15

HP: 1 | 7,500

"!"

"I-is this for real?!" Should he laugh? Should he cry? Sakim really didn't know whether to laugh or cry this time! He halted his steps at that moment and pondered deep inside his heart.

He didn't notice it before since he was too shocked by the appearance of the hidden boss. But now that he took a clearer look at it, the HP of the hidden boss was really already so low to the point that it was already on the brink of death. Just by thinking about it, the horror on his face suddenly turned into excitement. A grin then started to shape on his lips for a while but it didn't last for too long as he got serious once again.

How could it be that this hidden boss only had one HP left now? Sakim frowned as he thought about it. Was this a trap to lure him and to make his guard down?

Despite the exciting sight, Sakim's wariness didn't lose a bit and he even got more cautious than before. He warily turned around and fixed his gaze at the hidden boss that he left behind.

However, the hidden boss, the tree where he stabbed his Rusty Sword just recently, was still in there and didn't bother to follow him at all. As if it really was injured and had difficulty moving around.

But all characters in all RPG games didn't lose their stat even to the point of near-death, right? So how could this monster be injured and was having difficulty moving now?

With that in mind, Sakim narrowed his eyes towards the hidden boss trying to figure out what was going on. After a few moments, he shifted his gaze back at the hologram screen and there he saw the HP of the hidden boss was really on the brink of death.

There was only 1 HP left. One hit was all he need to kill it. It might even be possible that one flick of his finger was more than enough. Or at least that was what he imagined.

His Strength stat was just 1 point so he could only deal 10 attack damage. But it was still unsure if he could really deal 10 attack damage since there was a chance that the hidden boss had a high defense that could ignore his pitiful attack.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Hidden Boss, status," Sakim muttered as he tried to look for the other stats of the hidden boss. But to his dismay, there was no reaction from the System at all.

Sakim could only shift his gaze at the hidden boss as one thought floated on his mind, "It's only one hit, I might as well try my luck..."

As he thought of it, Sakim clenched his fist very tightly as his eyes flashed with a cold glint. His intention to kill the hidden boss gained a lot of exp as he was now starting to feel greed working upon him.

Kutob!

Sakim's heart palpitated wildly in excitement. It was going out of control that it wanted to escape from his chest and kill the hidden boss already to receive the bountiful rewards.

So with gritted teeth, as if a soldier marching for war and his death, he ran towards the hidden boss with his fist ready to punch the moment he came close enough.

Aaaahhhh!!!

The nearer he got, the louder his scream became. Every stride he made was shaking the world itself. Or at least that was what he imagined.

So in the next few moments, Sakim finally reached his distance towards the hidden boss. And without any hesitation, he immediately delivered his finishing blow.

Sapak!

Uwak! Uwak! Uwak! A certain crow flew away from that place the moment his fist landed a blow at the hidden boss. As if it was afraid to see such a horrible sight.

Just like that, what Sakim had never expected in his life, happened right before his eyes. There was one crucial thing that he'd totally forgotten causing him to suffer his doom.

Just by seeing the notification window popping up on the hologram screen, Sakim's eyebrows together with the edge of his lips couldn't stop twitching violently, wishing that he read it wrong.

But no matter how he read it, no matter from which angle and how he tilted his head, what he was reading right now didn't change a bit at all...

[Your level is too low to fight the hidden boss. You need at least 10 levels lower than the Hidden Boss: Devil Tree to fight it.]

[You've dealt 0 damage.]

"What the heck..." Sakim really wanted to cry this time because of the misfortune that kept following him nonstop. He thought that he was already lucky enough to face a dying hidden boss. But never he expected that his misfortune would actually fight back and had actually managed to defeat his luck.

He already knew about this rule. After all, he'd received this kind of knowledge upon arriving in this world.

This rule talked about the ten levels cap when fighting hidden bosses. Players should have at least ten levels lower or ten levels higher than a certain hidden boss if they wanted to fight or kill it. Sakim had just forgotten about it because of his greed. He was so tempted to kill the dying hidden boss that he neglected this rule.

So with his hope dying out, and as he readied himself for his death, he turned to look at the hidden boss of where his fist was still intact. Sakim really thought that he was surely dead this time, but what he saw made him see a ray of hope.

The hidden boss, despite what he had done, was still unmoving and didn't bring any hostile action at all. Seeing this, Sakim slowly retracted his fist. He tilted his head slightly for a moment before a slight smile formed on his lips, realizing what was going on.

Sakim thought that perhaps, hidden bosses couldn't attack as well those players with 10 levels lower than itself.

As such, Sakim finally managed to heave a huge sigh of relief. As if he had just overcome some sort of dangerous encounter.