In Black Mountain City, on a huge altar which had a lot of runes engraved in it, there stood several people, discussing how and why they died.
A dozen feet away from the altar, there was a group of four Players with embarassed and angry expressions.
"Ah! I can't believe this, not only did I lose a Lvl, even my precious staff was dropped! That bastard!"
Elena angrily stomped her feet as she felt indignant about that matter, getting more furious the more she remembered the pathetic sight of her death.
That hooded Player was by no means weak. Although they were attacked by 4 apes, he still managed to finish her and her friends in the presence of the attacking Crazy Apes.
"What's going on? Did he perhaps manage to escape from them?"
Sui, the quiet and shy girl muttered those words as she tightly held her bow. She, too, was astonished by that opponent's strength, though it was mostly because she couldn't get used to the common violence in this game.
"What a joke! It's impossible to escape alone from them! In just a bit he'll appear on the altar. Let's wait!"
Chul clenched his fist, his eyes fixated on the Resurrection Altar. As the leader of this small group, he felt extreme shame as he wanted to impress the two girls, especially Elena.
Realmen, the Assassin, mostly remained quiet. He was calmer the other three, nevertheless, being killed like that still made him a bit angry.
The group of four waited patiently near the altar, however, even after two dozen minutes, the person they were expecting never appeared. He didn't die.
"This is ridiculous. Did he really escape from the Crazy Apes? By himself?"
Realman spoke with disbelief. Although that hooded Player was undeniably capable and strong, he shouldn't have been able to escape death.
"I don't care if he escaped or not, we will search for him and kill him outside! I want my staff back. That bastard also used me as a shield and threw me at the Crazy Ape!"
Elena could not accept what happened to her, she was the one who lost the most out of the four of them, so how could she just let it pass and act as if nothing happened.
"E-Elena, guys.. mm-maybe we should let it go. It was out fault to begin with."
Sui tried to appease everyone, but her stuttering and shy didn't help at all.
"Let it go? Not going to happen. That staff was a rare drop! Also, it's not like we actively attacked him. He could've helped us."
"But... we were going to use him to-"
"Sui! That attitude won't work in Hell Gate. You must be resolute and able to do anything to win."
Although she wanted revenge, Elena still felt a bit of unease. That Player killed them due to the special circumstances, so if they ambushed him instead, they could probably kill him. However, what if he was part of a strong group of Players?
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Leiu did not go back to the city immediately as it was still too early. After checking the loot, he rested for a bit to recover his Stamina then continued wandering the forest.
As far as he knew, this forest was split into two parts. The outer region, so to speak, was home of the Crazy Apes, and beyond that, one would find other types of monsters. Furthermore, Leiu learned that there existed a region in the Inner Region of the forest, though he didn't know its exact whereabouts.
Leiu had 2 killing quests and 1 gathering quest. The last unfinished quest required him to kill Bitter Trees, which were described, by the System, as large mobile trees that were hostile.
With a clear objective in mind, Leiu continued venturing deeper. Whenever he spotted a group of Crazy Apes, he would make a long detour to avoid them. He was strong enough to fight against one, possibly two of them, simultaneously, however, they were still dangerous. His class didn't excel in long-ranged attacks, and the finite number of Icicles weren't nearly enough to kill the agile and out-of-range Crazy Apes.
With that in mind, Leiu decided to get a secondary weapon to use against monsters like the Crazy Apes. He didn't have any gap-closing skills or continuously-usable spells, so his only option was a useful weapon such as a small crossbow.
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'No, bows or crossbows would be to hindersome for my playtstyle. I'd have to constantly switch between them and the sword. I need something to use along with White Edge. Maybe chains? That could work.'
Chains weren't commonly seen in games like these. They were somewhat viable weapon, but their attack power wasn't generally high. Furthermore, they were rarely part of the so-called 'Standard loot pool'. If used correctly, chains could be used to bind opponents, allowing him to get close and attack with the sword.
..
After walking for an inordinate amount of time, Leiu noticed his surroundings change. He had entered the Inner Region of the forest. The pine trees were replaced by shorter yet bulkier trees with dozens of intertwining branches, the bushes grew up to 1-meter in height, and the illumination of the place grew noticeable dimmer.
Darkness (Passive Lv2=>3) : At night, you deal 19% more damage.
'But it's not night? Why would it level up so suddenly? Is it perhaps active due to the slightly dark environment?'
Leiu frowned and read through the description of his passives again.
'Did the System give the wrong description? Or is an environment like this considered night? Please don't tell me it's a bug.'
With White Edge in-hand, Leiu scanned his surroundings, soon spotting his first target: It was a 3-meter tall tree, its two arms were actually branches and its two legs were two roots the thickness of a young adult's waist.
It didn't look hideous, scary, or imposing as it moved around at an extremely slow speed, not unlike that of a turtle.
Leiu carefully approached it from behind, he stepped on his tiptoes to not make any sound.
Bitter Tree Lv24
Its Level was quite high, however, that didn't make any difference for Leiu. He slowly sneaked behind it and hid in a thick bush.
There, he waited for the perfect moment and then charged at the tree from behind. It was a rather simple plan, but very effective as the enemy was very slow in its reaction.
[Carving Shot]
The white beam hit the monster's rear, stunning it upon contact.
With it momentarily unable to retaliate, Leiu followed up with [Invisible Strike], dealing as much damage as possible. The tip of White Edge pierced through the wooden and thick body of the Bitter Tree, creating a gaping hole.
After he slashing one more time, Leiu moved back the moment he saw it move its arms. The stun effect, unfortunately, was merely a couple of seconds and not enough for him to kill it with his limited set of active skills.
The rest of the fight was neither interesting nor hard. The Bitter Tree was remarkably slow, so much, in fact, that Leiu had the leisure of circling around it and delivering multiple blows before retreating to safety. It rigid movements reminded him a bit of the Puppet Boss, through this one was a simple and easily-killable normal monster. In comparison, the Crazy Apes, or even the wolves in the Beginning Area, were more challenging.
Bitter Tree roots x2
+140 Coppers
'3% Experience for killing a single one of them. That's not too bad considering it took little to no time to die.'
With multiple passives buffing his attack power, Leiu started his hunt. Not once was he hit by a strike from the Bitter Trees, and in just an hour and a half, he got the achievement!
Achievement Gained! You managed to Kill 75 Bitter Trees : +1 to all stats
Dark Empowerment (Basic Lv2=>3) : For 30 seconds, you gain 26% physical and magical damage reduction and 16% more damage
Cooldown : 9 minutes 20 seconds
Cost : 15 Mana
Dark Sword Mastery (Basic Lv4=>5) : When wielding a one-handed or two-handed sword; You deal 19% more damage
Darkness (Passive Lv3=>4) : At night, you deal 20% more damage
Carving Shot'(Normal); Basic Lv2=>3 : You can heavily swing your weapon horizontally, dealing 145% damage. There is 12% chance of causing the enemy to be stunned for 3 seconds.
Hitting an enemy from the rear will guarantee a stun.
Cost : 10 Mana
Cooldown : 30 Second