So the genius plan I had formulated was to sprint toward him and surprise him with some attacks. Simple, yes. But very effective. I shouldn’t waste more time.

It was time to test everything I had learned and achieved in the last five years, and I hoped it was enough to beat this monster.

I made my way slowly toward the Lich King, regenerating the last of my mana.

You might think I had been wasting time planning only to prolong the inevitable. But you see, there are always two sides to a coin. And in my case, all that planning and thinking hadn’t been for nothing. My mana after speedrunning the dungeon had totally depleted, and fighting a boss monster at that caliber? I couldn’t really do that without mana. I had been waiting for my mana to regenerate entirely, and now it was nearly time.

My face turned serious as I realized that my mana hit the max capacity, and I tightly gripped the handles of my daggers. Now it was time!

I dashed toward the Lich King, nearing him at an incredible speed. The hundreds of meters between us diminished at a fast rate, and I was close to being in his proximity.

Ding—!

A familiar sound resounded in my head, and without looking anywhere else, I knew exactly what would be shown to me in a few moments.

System: You engage in combat with the Lich King.

A notification I had gotten to know quite well the last few years popped up in front of my eyes.

These notifications were the backbone of any player. They notified you whenever something new happened or if you entered a new domain. They were handy, especially when you didn’t know what you were doing.

I haven’t actually mentioned how it works, though I should be getting back to the story. However, to quickly summarize: the only thing you had to remember was that the System ran everything. Anyway, I was now very close to the boss!

Looking in front of me, I saw the Lich King just sitting completely still and not even bothering to chant any spells. “Quite confident, aren’t you?” I said aloud, smiling because the Lich King was stupid enough to let me attack him. Why was I even scared to begin with? It didn’t seem like this would be any hard fight.

Now! I jumped high into the air when I was a few meters away, and, aiming my daggers at his throat, I went for a fast kill.

Huh! What’s this? Something weird happened as I was about to hit him.

My daggers were only an inch away from his throat, but my body froze in the air. Did he cast a spell? But I didn’t see or hear anything—

Ding—!

My thoughts were interrupted, and the familiar sound once again resounded in my head. But this time, it surprised me.

System: The Lich King denied your request for combat.

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What? I reread the surprising notification to be sure I hadn’t read it wrong. But no matter how many times I read it, it didn’t make sense whatsoever.

Did he deny my request for combat? I’m not even requesting anything! It was definitely the first time I had seen that notification.

“Don’t be too hasty, human.” A coarse and authoritative voice echoed throughout the dungeon, interfering with my thoughts.

Can he talk? It boggled my mind, and it took me a while to get back to reality.

I knew that some high-ranked monsters had intelligence like humans. But the only one recorded in history so far was the S-rank dragon a few years back. And when the Nine Pillars fought against a Lich King, it couldn’t talk. So pardon me for getting a bit surprised.

I tried putting all the pieces together, but nothing seemed to make sense. One thing I did get out of the one sentence he spoke—it didn’t seem like he was aggressive. His tone was more friendly than I would have otherwise thought. Maybe talking things out could be an option? Despite me trying to kill him just a moment ago.

“Um, hello,” I said quietly. My body suddenly started floating upwards, and I was brought to eye level with the Lich King.

“Player, what do you seek?” he asked with pressure on a whole other level than what I had previously thought.

He was so much stronger than what I had calculated! When he talked, my hair blew to the side. I didn’t know he would be this strong. I based my calculations on what the Nine Pillars fought against. But this Lich King was clearly on a different level!

If I recalculated my chances with the new information I had, my chances would be…

“Zero percent chance of winning,” I mumbled.

“Correct, player. You’re too weak. I won’t fight against a weak human like you. If you want to fight me, come back when you are stronger.”

What does he mean by that? His remarks aggravated my mind.

He didn’t know what I had been through to get to this point! I fought against monsters that nearly killed me. I had been on the verge of dying of various wounds and poisons. I spent the majority of my time in the dark woods or the cold mountains. For what? So a monster could talk down to me? Hell nah!

I couldn’t do more than I did, so what if a monster was stronger than me? If he knew so much, why didn’t he teach me the ways then? Almighty being.

“How can I get stronger then?” My voice was cold with anger.

The Lich King didn’t answer. He immediately started laughing, and to be honest, it made me a lot more upset.

He leaned toward me. “You want to get stronger? Do you want to sacrifice everything you have earned so far on your journey? If so, I might be able to help you.”

He was now entirely in my face. The Lich King was so big that both of my eyes only locked with one of his through the black aura. It was a bit intimidating.

Though I could only think about how enormous and strong he was, I tried unscrambling my thoughts.

Sacrifice everything I had earned so far? Did that mean all my levels and equipment? If so, that was only a small price to pay if I could become stronger. Because if I wasn’t strong enough to beat this guy, who was? And since I was the strongest player at that time, and my progress had stagnated for a while, I was a bit desperate.

But can I trust him? He was a monster, and I had never met a friendly one before. So I was a bit hesitant.

“I know what you’re thinking. But do you really have a choice right now?”

I looked down at my body. And true, I was floating high above the air, and I couldn’t move either. So…

“Yes, I would. I would sacrifice everything,” I answered him hastily, though I had felt forced to do it. Something about this monster was weird.

“Good.” He smiled.

Ding—!

System: Rebirth request. Do you agree? Yes or No.

A rebirth! I didn’t know this world had that. I got a little confused about the notification, but at the same time, it reassured me about something.

This Lich King wasn’t a monster. It was a non-player character. That explained the abnormality between that one and the one the Nine Pillars fought. But it also meant that everything I had been through the last few minutes had been for nothing. My life had never been in danger. But I guess that was a good thing.

“Yes!” I said with confidence in my voice.

Now that I knew he wasn’t going to harm me, I didn’t have to hesitate anymore.

Ding—!

System: Rebirth in progress… Please wait.

Another notification I hadn’t seen before popped up in front of me. But it didn’t surprise me that time. I had predicted something like this would be shown.

However, this is surprising!

I looked at my hands in shock. They were transparent! And they were slowly fading away! I hated this is part of the rebirth process.

I saw the face of the Lich King, but it was becoming to blurry. I could only make out a slight smile.

“Good luck. I will see you again.”

I heard a faint voice, but my vision faded into a bright light, and I could no longer feel anything. All my senses suddenly disappeared, and only the light persisted.