Ares had no idea what was happening in the real world. At the moment, he was feeling a bit frustrated with the red glow surrounding him.
This glow made him a target wherever he went, attracting attacks from both wild creatures and players alike.
Though he wasn't afraid—he could one-shot anything that attacked him—the constant barrage of attacks was getting on his nerves.
Moreover, he noticed that while he still got drops from players, the quality of the gear was getting worse.
He didn't understand why until he realized that as he killed more players, the red glow intensified, reaching a critical point where his interface updated.
The most noticeable change was his name turning blood red.
[Name: Ares]
[Race: Human]
[Status: Skeleton]
[Identity: NPC]
[Faction Hunt: Human Players: 100]
[Reputation: Human Faction -1000, Undead Faction +1000, Demon Faction +0, Divine Faction +0, Dragon (Black Dragon) Faction -100000000]
[Note: Killing a player from a faction decreases reputation by 10. Helping a faction's players with various tasks can earn reputation points. The lower the reputation, the higher the hostility from that faction, reducing the chance of gaining experience and loot. Conversely, higher reputation increases loot chances.]
Attributes:
[Level: 6]
[Attack: 2221]
[Strength: 4437]
[Defense: 5]
[Agility: 3437]
[Magic: 1221]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Health: ∞]
[Inventory: Available Space 2/10000]
Body Evolution:
[Golden Bone Sword: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Right Arm: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Left Arm: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Right Leg: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Left Leg: Tier 6, 100,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Skull: Tier 6, 100,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[White Bone Spine: Unlocks after Golden Bone Sword Tier 8, Golden Bone Right Arm Tier 7, Golden Bone Left Arm Tier 6, Golden Bone Right Leg Tier 6, Golden Bone Left Leg Tier 5, Golden Bone Skull Tier 5]
Traits:
[Talent 1: Infinite Evolution (UR Grade)]
[Infinite Evolution: Leveling efficiency decreased by 99.99%, but defeating enemies grants evolution points to enhance personal strength.]
[Talent 2: Invincible (GR Grade)]
[Invincible: Personal strength receives a boost equal to 2 raised to the power of the level.]
The flames in Ares' eye sockets flickered.
So he had already killed 100 human players? No wonder that ice mage could accurately state his kill count. No wonder the quality of the gear he was getting had dropped.
Wait, what was with the [Dragon Faction Reputation -100000000]? When had he ever killed a dragon creature?
Ares was puzzled. But then his gaze fell on the wild creatures charging at him.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
These creatures didn't wait for him to get close; they attacked as soon as he was in their line of sight. Such intense hostility...
Could they be dragons? But they didn't look anything like dragons.
Ares thought about the wild creatures he'd been killing lately—there were indeed a lot. But he couldn't figure out why other players didn't have the same issue. Was it because he was special?
Unable to find an answer, Ares chalked it up to his unique status. After all, he was human but also a skeleton, a strange state that seemed one of a kind. A few more peculiarities seemed understandable.
Oh well, no point dwelling on it. With Mordred dead, all the wild creature experience was his. Even though his talent made experience conversion extremely low, after a night of grinding, he finally got his experience bar to 99%.
Just a little more, and he'd reach level 7.
In this level 20 zone, he had no opponents, and he was tired of just hacking away at creatures. He was eager to move to higher-level areas and encounter stronger foes.
He was curious about the players in this small world and wondered how strong the most powerful faction was. Could they withstand a strike from him?
The more Ares thought about it, the more excited he became. Seeing the wild creatures charging at him, he grabbed his sword and dove into the fray, slashing wildly.
Ten minutes later, a golden light flashed, and his experience bar reset to zero after reaching 100%.
He finally leveled up to 7.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ares turned and headed straight for the level 30 wild zone. Sure enough, the barrier was gone!
Ares excitedly crossed into the level 30 zone and received a notification.
[Warning: You have left the newbie zone]
[Warning: At level 7, you are in great danger outside the newbie zone]
Ares ignored the warnings and continued deeper, but soon stopped.
He had spotted a big one—a massive nine-tailed fox, comfortably resting its head on its tails, sleeping in the wild.
Ares opened its panel.
[Beast Race: Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox]
[Level: 999]
[Health: 999999999 (100%)]
[Normal Attack: 10000, interval 3 seconds]
[Passive Skill: Charm. Area attack, stuns for 5 seconds, cooldown: 1 minute]
[Skill Attack: Fox Stench. Area attack, poisons, -99 health per second for 10 seconds, can stack with stun, cooldown: 5 minutes]
[Skill Attack: Heavenly Fox's Wrath, area attack. Consumes half magic, shakes the ground for 10 seconds.]
The area attack didn't list damage values, but it was undoubtedly formidable.
Ares rubbed his chin, feeling a bit surprised. A normal attack dealing 10,000 damage might not seem like much, but with stun and poison stacking, the damage would be significant.
Ares wasn't sure about the average player level or health, but he doubted it was higher than this fox, which was as big as a basketball court.
Ares pondered, "Could this be what players call a wild boss? But this is a level 30 zone, so the wild boss here shouldn't be too strong, right? Maybe I should try a few swings? If I can't handle it, I'll just run. My health is infinite, after all..."
As Ares considered how many hits it would take to solo the massive Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, he heard a rumbling sound in the distance. Looking up, he saw wild creatures charging at him again. Most were in their thirties, but he even spotted some in their forties.
There were hundreds of them.
Ares raised an eyebrow. The numbers were different from the level 20 zone. In the newbie village, wild creatures were relatively few, only a dozen or so at a time.
Ares felt a surge of excitement, gripping his sword and standing leisurely.
These were all evolution points! Each one was worth at least 6 evolution points, totaling a thousand or two.
His need for massive evolution points was finally being met!
Initially annoyed by his [Dragon Faction Reputation: -100000000], Ares now thought: how delightful!
With a swift motion, his sword flashed, and amidst the countless screams, evolution points flowed in like a river.
His experience was also slowly climbing!