“Quick! Hold her down!” BrightEyes shouted. The group of 30 players moved like a disorganized mob and rushed at Robin. When the first guy was in front of her, he reached out to try to grab her. That was his first and last mistake. Robin, as fast as lightning, cut his outstretched arm. A bright red -810 number flashed on top of the guy. He didn’t have time to figure out what just happened before his vision turned gray and black.
Seeing the front man's body flop to the ground made the rest of the players' freeze.
“What the fu..” They froze but Robin didn’t as she already plunged the Fanged Dagger into the head of the next player. This time a shining -1645 flashed and the player’s body disintegrated instead of falling to the ground.
“Shit! RUN AWAY!” BrightEyes shouted when he saw the player burst into dust. His shout kicked the other players out of their stupor and they all did a 180 and tried to run away. Unfortunately, Robin’s dexterity was too high so she easily caught up with them and took this opportunity to attack their backs.
A multitude of numbers flashed one after the other. Every time a number flashed, a body dropped. It was a slaughter. Before the players could get a dozen yards away, their number already dropped by half.
“FUCK! Scatter! Don’t run in groups!” BlueEyes shouted over his shoulder. He hoped that if the players moved far from each other, Robin would find it too annoying to hunt them down.
He was right of course. Robin frowned when the players spread out and hunting one of them meant the others would probably escape. So she didn’t go after the other players, she went directly for BrightEyes.
“SHIT! I’m Sorry OK. I’ll leave you alone from now on!” He shouted to death's ears. Robin wasn’t going to let him pick a fight and not finish it.
Once he saw that Robin was still chasing him, he decided to make a stand. He turned around and brought out a body-length tower shield and a big broadsword. Both had ornate designs, and Robin was sure that the weapons cost a few gold coins.
“Guardian Aura!” BrightEyes shouted. And a pale blue light surrounded him. He positioned the tower shield in front and the broadsword to the side, taking on a defensive stance. Robin ignored the stance and attacked anyway.
In The World Tower, If an attack doesn't have a piercing effect any shield can be used to block 100% of the damage. This made tanks a very needed member in any party because if they could position their shields in the way of an attack, they wouldn’t lose any health. They allowed healers to become less burdened and let the DPS focus on attacking. Tanks with great battle awareness were extremely sought after.
This way of blocking did come with a big downside. If an attack was more than the physical defense for the shield, the player would fall into a stunned state and won’t be able to move for 2 seconds. Also, if the damage was too much, the shield itself might break and that’s exactly what happened when Robin attacked BrightEyes shield. A gray -750 flashed in front of his shield. It shattered into large metal pieces.
BrightEyes looked shocked. His [Guardian Aura] adds a 50% bonus to all his armor, including his shield. It was the skill he got from his B-Tier background as a Holy City Defender. But his B-Tier effect was just obliterated by a dagger. Before he could say anything else, the same dagger stabbed him between the eyes. He felt an extremely painful sting in his head and could dully see a shining -1480 flash before his vision went gray.
[God Hand (Pick Pocket) Activated - You have stolen Maria’s Tears x1]
“Holy Shit! God Hand works for players too!!! Yes! Sorry for doubting you!” Robin cried out.
Before level 10 the only downside to dying is a loss in exp and a quick trip back to town. If you lose too much exp then your level will drop. No items will drop before level 10 and even then, drops are all luck based much like monsters. But now, Robin has a way to pilfer items from players without killing them.
“Wait does the steal that can be used once every 12 hours affect players too? I don’t see why not as I can target that angel. This… this opens up many MANY possibilities.” Robin smiled a toothy smile. “[God Hand (Pick Pocket)] This seemed to be designed for players instead of monsters. Kekeke with all those rich fucks spending money to get better early gear, why can’t I pickpocket them and take some.”
Robin began cackling to herself as BrightEyes body finally faded away. Little did she know that one of the players who got away was live streaming the whole fight. Even though he only had a few hundred people watching, his chat blew up.
-Holy crap! Did you see that damage!-
-Hacker confirmed-
-shockedemoji-
-What was her name? She doesn't look as good as other women but damn she's strong!
-What race is that? Looks human but the hair looks too black
On and on it went. Also, someone clipped a section of the stream and posted it on a forum with the title "Crazy strong woman wipes out 30 players". This post immediately became the number one post. Even beating out the "100 best looking players" post.
The person in question didn't know her battle kicked up a storm on the internet, instead, she was frozen in place staring at the Maria’s Tears she stole from BrightEyes.
[Maria’s Tears (Rare)
Slot: Necklace
Equip Requirements: Level 9 or lower
Luck +100%]
"Yessss! Thank you BrightEyes!" Robin said as though he personally gave it to her. "With this [God Hand] should activate more. Unfortunately like all the other high-priced gear, It only lasts till level 10."
Robin thought back to the whistleblower and how he explained that the leaders of the world negotiated for high-powered early gear. It was just another tactic they used to widen the distance of power from the poor people. They thought that if the poor would gain enough power to rival their own, then they would rise up and take over.
"Maybe I should check out the auction when I return to town. I might not be able to buy much with just 14 gold coins but I should be able to get something. Or I can just reach level ten while fighting the goblins and not even bother with buying items that I'll out-level in a day. Yeah, that sounds about right." With an idea brewing, Robin continued her trek back to the starting area but instead of going to the forest, she traveled to the weakest part of the plains. Previously Robin was too weak to hold down the Fanged Rodents but now that her Str is 20, she felt like holding them down while punching them will be a lot easier.
Once she reached the beginning plains, it only took her 2 minutes to find her first victim. Of course, it wasn’t alone and was surrounded by a bunch of new players. Robin however stabbed one player to near death with the wooden dagger and dared any of the other players to try something. They reluctantly walked away.
The sought-after Fanged Rodent was quickly subdued with a grip on its neck with one hand. Robin then punched it in its ribs dealing 17 damage with each hit. On her tenth hit, the miserable Fanged Rodent died. Nothing dropped and [God Hand] didn’t activate but Robin was satisfied with how easy it was to capture and kill.
“10 hits per Fanged Rodent should net me a sizable chance to get the Fanged Dagger. And since I can nicely ask players for their rodents, time spent looking for one is drastically reduced.” While feeling absolutely nothing for the players she’s going to bully, Robin looked for her next victim.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She spent the next hour finding and beating Fanged Rodents to death with her hands. She also spent that time beating anyone who wouldn’t give up their rodent. Sometimes things would escalate and entire groups would die because they wouldn’t share… That’s what Robin thought anyway.
She quickly became infamous as groups of players would willingly follow her to see if a group of players would give up their prey or not. Her fame online exploded again but this time in a bad light.
During this hour [God Hand] activated a dozen times and on the last Fanged Rodent, a familiar chime sounded in Robin’s ear.
[God Hand (Pick Pocket) Activated - You have stolen Fanged Dagger x1]
“Fucking finally! Geeze, I must have attacked like 200 hundred times. Who could guess how long it would have taken if I didn’t have Maria’s Tears? I should really thank BrightEyes for his generous donation. Ah! Speak of the devil!” When Robin was basking in her achievement of getting another Fanged Dagger, she saw BrightEyes walking toward her. This time he had about 100 players with him and many of them were wearing expensive gear.
“Listen you… no name. Give me back Maria’s Tears and I can let you off. Then we can go our separate ways.” BrightEyes said in a hard tone.
Robin however ignored BrightEyes and equipped the first and second Fanged Dagger. She saw how much her physical damage rose and let out a bright smile.
Seeing this, BrightEyes, frowned and snarled “Give me the fucking necklace Bitch! You do not wanna make an enemy out of the Golden Eagle Company!” At this, the 100 players behind BrightEyes took out their weapons. The players with more fancy armors also had fancy weapons.
Robin wasn’t worried since she was sure that none of those fancy-looking weapons dealt anything near as much as her Fanged Daggers and besides “Why would I give it to you? No matter how much you kill me, the necklace won’t drop.” Robin said playfully.
BrightEyes actually bared his perfectly sculpted teeth and growled “If you don’t give it back we’ll kill you back to level one! We’ll keep killing you! For days or months if we have to.” He shouted and most of the other players echoed his stance. Numerous threats were thrown at Robin but she smiled. Seeing her so unbothered, BrightEyes pulled out his weapon and new less shiny shield. As he was about to give the order to attack, a player from his crowd stepped out and stopped him.
This newcomer was one of the players who had better looking gear than the rest, he was also one of the only players who didn’t take out their weapons. He was a tall and lean man. Unlike the mass majority of other players, he didn’t go for amazing looks. Instead, his looks were much more mature and wizened. Like the strong butler type. He was also wearing black mage robes with no trim. The only reason Robin knew that it was expensive was that she knew the starting town didn’t sell anything like that in its normal markets.
“Hello Miss. My name is BlueShadow, an executive for the Golden Eagle Company. How about we buy back the necklace? Surely you wouldn’t need it after you reach level 10. I can assure you that the Golden Eagle Company will buy the necklace back at near market price. What do you say?”
“What do you mean by this Darius? The President said that I was in charge of this matter!” BrightEyes snapped at the tall man.
“Firstly BrightEyes, I expect you to not call me by my real name. Do it again and I’ll petition the heads to replace you as the poster boy for the company. There are plenty of rising stars willing to take your place.” The tall man said coldly.
“Secondly, can’t you see that she doesn’t care about the 120 players surrounding her? She clearly has the means to defend herself or at the very least has already contacted allies for reinforcement.” At this, Robin's smile grew. The surrounding players began whispering to each other and some even began rubbernecking around to see if there were any allies coming. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be sure if the players that were watching the show were Robin’s allies or just spectators. BrightEyes for his part looked like a scolded rebellious 10-year-old, that was just told that he was grounded.
Robin looked at the tall man and nodded “You’re right BlueShadow. I don’t need Maria’s Tears after I reach level 10. As far as selling it, I think we could come to an agreement. To be honest, although I really REALLY want to try out my new weapons on you all, I’m not sure the time wasted would be worth it.” She looked at BrightEyes, still smiling. “So how about this, you add me to your contact list and after I reach level 10 I’ll sell you Maria’s Tears… above market price.”
“You Bitch!” BrightEyes yelled. “Do you know how much that necklace cost?! You want us to buy it at that price twice!? You’re out of your fucking mind!”
“Do you still matter in this deal?” Robin asked plainly, losing her smile. “This is between me and BlueShadow.” She turned back to BlueShadow. “So how about it? Do we have a deal?”
Before BlueShadow could answer one of the players from the Golden Eagle Company charged at Robin from the side. His action spurred the hot-headed players on and soon more than 30 players rushed Robin.
“Stop! Nobody move!!” BlueShadow tried to say but the roars of the charging players drowned him out.
Robin answered their roar with her own and dashed towards the closest player. Thanks to her extremely high dexterity, Robin's reflexes were many times higher than normal humans. All the stats in The World Tower affect hidden parameters. Vitality+Endurance affects passive HP regeneration. Strength+Dexterity affects speed, Intelligence+Spirit affects elemental resistance. There are other combinations like Vitality+Intelligence affects charisma and what Robin is using Dexterity+Spirit, Perception.
Thanks to her high dexterity, both speed and perception are much higher than normal players. Even though strength and spirit aren’t that high, the skewed number of dexterity offsets them. This is all to say that before the first player swung his sword a bright -745 flashed above his head and his body dropped like a rock.
Some players froze at this but there were some who ignored it and charged forth. Robin rolled out the way of a speeding arrow aimed at her head. Then without pausing slashed behind her, intercepting a blow from a hammer wielding warrior.
“How are you so strong!!” The warrior yelled when he failed to push Robin even a little bit. Other players took this time to attack her but she already slipped past the hammer player but made sure to slice his legs on her way by. Killing him.
“SHIT! Everyone back away! Archers and Mages attack from a distance!” Robin heard BrightEyes yell.
“NO! EVERYONE STOP!” BlueShadow screamed frantically but the other players didn’t care. Arrows were let loose from bows and a myriad of spells were flung at Robin. Although she could dodge most of the arrows, some spells still grazed her. She frowned when a -22 flashed above her.
(Shit! I didn’t have time to go back and get better armor! If I don’t take out the casters first, I'll be in trouble!) Robin thought as she used the fleeing melee players as cover. In The World Tower friendly fire is on, it’ll only deal 20% damage, so Robin couldn’t use the ranged players to kill the melee players but it was enough to make the ranged players hesitate.
Although Robin needed to use some players as shields, she still saw fit to kill a few when their backs were turned. Many -750 to -810 numbers flashed and amongst them a different chime player was in her ear. Robin quickly glanced at the notification and a smile bloomed on her face. Using the quick equip function Robin switched out her weak leather armor for a steel breastplate that she just stole.
[Steel Armor ‘Torso’ (Uncommon)
Equip Requirements: 18 Str, 10 Dex
Physical Defense: +40
PD scale: Str(E)]
Although the armor fit her like a glove it was still a bit bulky and affected her maneuverability a bit. Right at that moment, an arrow hit her in the shoulder. A dull red -2 flashed above her head. The smile on robin’s face turned sinister and she used one of her health potions which put her back at full HP. Even though she didn’t need to worry about the arrows anymore, the mages were gearing up for their next attack now that their spells were off cooldown. Robin sprinted forth, bypassing the melee players, and dived into the group of mages.
“Shit! Spread out you idiots!” A player yelled as Robin reaped the life of the first mage. Robin didn’t stop and slashed and stabbed at such a frequency that the 10 mage players that were together all died in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, the rest of the mage players spread out already so a volley of fire bolts, earth shots, and wind cutters rained down on her.
Robin didn’t have any nearby players to use as a shield so she ducked and dodged as much as she could while chugging down health potions. When the spells were on cooldown, Robin made a B-line to the nearest mage and cut her throat. She then kicked her dead slowly disappearing body towards an oncoming warrior and ran to the next mage.
On and on it went until there weren’t many mages left to bombard Robin with spells and she could easily dodge them along with the stray arrows. By this time, the melee players jumped in, looking to attack her in any way they could before she cut them down. With Robin’s battle awareness, she was able to dodge most of the hits but some either snuck through or needed to be taken in order to avoid a headshot.
When Robin stabbed a melee player in the eyes with both daggers and an exaggerated -1580 -1523 flashed above his head and his body blew up into a dust cloud, she saw that she had no more enemies. More than 60 players died in the span of 15 mins.
“She-she’s insane!” A player cried from the crowd.
“She’s too OP! She must be hacking!”
“I recorded this fight and will be reporting it to the admins!”
“You re*ards are fu*king stupid! Obviously she has a high tier race. Hell I wouldn’t put it past her to have a high tier background too.”
“Shut up! Do you think having a high tier race will let you kill 50+ players in 15 mins!”
More players voiced their opinions on the matter as the woman in question was scrolling through her notification history. Thanks to Maria’s Tears, God Hand activation was much better. Out of the 60 players she killed, it activated 4 times. Including the steel armor. Out of the 4 items there was an uncommon ring among them.
[Caesars Might (Uncommon) - Ring
Slot: Ring
Equip Requirements: Level 9 or lower
STR +10]
Like most of the items bought from the beginner auction house, the ring could only be used below level 10. Still, Robin felt that this was a great win and immediately equipped it. With the ring equipped, Robin was able to also equip the Tri Horned Boar Leather Boots. With her new items equipped she looked at BlueShadow and BlueEyes. Both had a face as though they saw a ghost. Robin ignored them and walked towards the town.