10 100 Gold

Seeing that the Horned Boar was about to cast its third <Trample> Devin tried to dodge but unfortunately, he was still hit by the boar and was stunned for 5 seconds. This caused him to receive damage. Now being on the back foot, he could only try and kite the monster again.

"Tisk, It's really hard trying to do this on my own."

Thinking about how many times it took him to try and kill his first Rabid Dog reminded him of his current predicament. With a sigh, he could only look forward to the end of his skill's long cooldown.

After a decent amount of running and launching attacks every now and then, he saw a glimpse of the starting animation for <Trample> and quickly used <Endure> to try and weather through another 5-second stun.

Thankfully, although the Boar has done him damage enough to put him back onto half his health, he had also done the same with the Horned Boar having 165/300 Hp left. It was at this time that he decided to gamble it all as he used his other skill <Lethality> which increased his attacks significantly. Battling it down, he continued his torrential stabs and slashes. Likewise the monster's continuous decline in HP, so was his as it was now reaching critical levels.

Devin was dealing much damage up until the Boar was down to a hundred of health left as it activated its second skill <Bulk-up> It has reduced his attacks significantly. Facing this now almost lost-cause, Devin saw how the slowing effect has impacted him significantly as he kitted the Monster down to 50/300 HP.

"Just a bit more! Come at me you pig! Lemme show you who's boss!"

As the Horned Boar reached 10/300 HP. It also began madly dashing towards him as it was if it was the end of its life using <Trample> on Devin. As he was battling the monster, Devin was already looking at a cooldown of one specific skill. It was his <Leap> skill.

As the Horned Boar's head was about to touch him, the counter on his skill reached 0 and he immediately utilized it to his advantage, dealing the boar damage and dodging the last <Trample>.

"Whoa... Damn... I just did that? Am I cool or what?"

After chuckling Devin quickly sat on the grass and started resting. He was just a few more hits from dying with his measly 12/100 HP left from the previous battle.

"Hehe, It's now looting time!"

Elated, he started taking the loot from the Horned Boar corpse, proud that he had managed to kite out the Horned Boar till the last moment. However, because he had focused too much on killing the monster on his own, he wasn't able to get a clear look at his surroundings. Devin had strayed too far and was now sitting down on the floor trying to recover his HP when he found another Horned Boar directly looking at him.

"Wait... I haven't attracted its aggro yet, right? No! Don't chase me!"

<You have died.>

Seeing that notification he could only helplessly revive and once again return near the gates. Thinking how many times he has already died in the game.

Remembering the fact that he had got himself some copper coins from the previous adventure outside the village, an idea popped in his head.

"I wonder if... Well, I guess I can only try.'

Running away from the Temple, he immediately stopped at his destination and opened the door as he entered with an expecting look on his face.

"Welcome! Dear customer, what services may I offer you today?"

"Hey there! I remember you telling me about the effect of this badge. If I remember correctly, I can use it to browse for some items that wouldn't be offered to just anyone, am I right?"

The shopkeeper nodded and proceeded to go out from the counter and headed towards a bookshelf, she took out one book and suddenly a door that was hidden suddenly appeared.

"Please follow me, sir."

Devin was expecting to some extent that he may be wrong but seeing that he had actually guessed right made him excited.

When he entered the room, he saw various items that were on display, but those items didn't catch his attention. His eyes were looking at a female player who was also inside the same room as him. As he was staring at her, the other party also stared back at him. With a scoff, she rolled her eyes on him and immediately went back on browsing the items. He immediately saw that despite her having a low level, her items were quite different from what the usual clothes that everybody was given the very first time they log in the game.

'Wow, what's with that attitude?' He would have said it out loud but due to being more flustered about the fact that he didn't have a monopoly on the hidden part of the shop then he could only mind his own business.

While looking at the items, he would also give her some side glances thinking of ways to start a conversation with her as he wanted to know if she had also been a member of the clinical trials.

Devin's line of thought was that if he was given the badge after paying 100 gold, which was currently out of the reach of all players at this stage then she must've also been in a similar case. But, he still didn't know if it was the only way to get a badge to enter here, or if a badge was the only requirement to enter here.

While thinking for a solid 5 seconds, he had unwittingly been staring at the female player. Feeling creeped out, the other player soon took notice and approached him.

"What? Got a problem?"

"Uh... I was just wondering how you've been able to enter here. Did you, perhaps, I don't know, maybe spent, like, some money around 100 gold or something?"

*******************************************

On a certain office with countless people constantly tapping down on their keyboards. A man with glasses sighed as he stretched his tired arms upwards.

"Man, I really don't want to break the balance of the game but that damned department insisted on giving away gold to those who were included in the clinical trials."

"Dude, we can't help it, our boss has already decided it out on the meeting because they were convinced by that sly tongued woman."

"Ah, if only they get to do the work of fixing any imbalance that it will cause."

"Come on man, that's the plan, they want people with disabilities to get famous for a temporary imbalance during the early game so they can advertise it."

"I mean, they could've told us earlier before the game's launch. If they did so then we wouldn't have to be stuck here for the rest of the night trying to implement it successfully."

While the two of them were talking, their supervisor had arrived after going to the bathroom overheard them.

"Hey, you two! If you put the same energy that you put in your chitchat to your work then we would finish this earlier. So, stop yapping and start working."

Going back to work, the man could only hope to finish it earlier so he could go home.