Chapter Six: A flower amongst... corpses?
Three days later.
Jihan poked the hobgoblin with a concerned expression. The poor thing had died of fear before he could even attack it. Watching ones subordinates explode, burst into flames, and claw out their own eyes would probably do that though.
Jihan shrugged, taking note of how much his leveling speed had slowed. After killing goblins for three days, his level had only risen once.
[Player ID: 'Ghost'
Level: 53
Health: 230/230
Stamina: 323/350
Mana: 100/100
Skills: Backstab, Critical hit, Smokebomb, Blood explosion, Blood manipulation, Blood field
Weapon: Shattered Blade (S)
Stats-
Vitality: 10
Strength: 5
Agility: 42
Intelligence: 5
Magic: 5
Distributable points: 36]
"Hmm..." Jihan stared at his stats, weighing their uses and ranking them in the order of most to least beneficial to raise.
[Strength has been increased to 25.]
[Vitality has been increased to 26.]
[Health 230 -> 598.]
[Player ID: 'Ghost'
Level: 53
Health: 598/598
Stamina: 323/350
Mana: 100/100
Skills: Backstab, Critical hit, Smokebomb, Blood explosion, Blood manipulation, Blood field
Weapon: Shattered Blade (S)
Stats-
Vitality: 26
Strength: 25
Agility: 42
Intelligence: 5
Magic: 5
Distributable points: 0]
Once again Jihan felt his consciousness grow, feeling his strength triple in an instant, as well as a newfound sense of vigor.
His heart beat fiercely in his chest, a flicker of gold trailing from the man's right eye.
Though his leveling had almost stopped, Jihan had made incredible progress in the last week, far more than any other player.
[Leaderboard:
1. 'Ghost' (Thief) [53]
2. 'Godblade' (Swordsman) [41]
3. 'Cecilia' (Warrior) [37]
4. 'Behind_you' (Thief) [34]
5. 'Hidden_Info' (Dark Magician) [33]
...
Jihan's level was not exactly fairly earned, though using an overleveled npc to clear dungeons far beyond your capability wasn't explicitly cheating either. It was if anything an exploit, and as such Jihan felt no regret. It was the developers' fault, not his.
"Shameless? What's that?" Jihan looked at Zeref with a sleazy expression, before returning to the leaderboard screen with a sigh.
To think that Taek Jinsoo would actually come close to his leveling speed, what a monstrous player.
Jihan hoped to eventually form an alliance with the 'godblade', but such an opportunity was likely to be impossible without incredible luck.
There was another option, though it seemed ridiculous to attempt, let alone to pull off.
And that was to overpower Taek Jinsoo so entirely he either joined hands with Jihan, or quit playing Synchronize forever.
But was it really so unimaginable? Jihan had a cheat-like weapon, several skills of equal value, and an incredibly powerful npc at his disposal.
Even so, Jihan was not entirely confident that he would win against Jinsoo, fearing the man's utterly unnatural skill and game sense.
Boom!
an enormous chunk of rock flew mere centimeters above Jihan's head, crashing into the hobgoblin corpse, which exploded under the immense weight.
"What the hell...?"
A woman appeared from the clearing behind him, who had cleaved a fifth of the forest in half in an instant. Trees that moments before stood tall now lied parallel to the ground, each and every one cut cleanly at the same height.
Behind her lied a large pile of stone, the remnants of the world boss 'Stone Sentinel'.
Jihan's jaw dropped, recalling the monster's Stats. The Sentinel was a level 90 boss, and would instantly one shot any player at this level it came into contact with, its powerful blows dealing significantly more damage than players had health.
"Ah, the rubble from the boss almost killed you, I apologize!" The young woman who had decimated both the surrounding area and the boss wore a concerned expression, her white hair moving gently with the breeze, her orange eyes glistening in the sunlight.
What was surprising was the massive sword that she held on her shoulder, made of stone and spanning nearly two meters long.
Jihan did not remember any player this strong that utilized a greatsword. "Who are you?" He asked, puzzled as to the identity of this player.
She put the enormous blade away, and walked over to Jihan. "I'm 'Cecilia', and you must be 'Ghost'." She spoke rather cheerfully, as if she was excited to meet him here.
"How did you know who I was at a glance..." A drop of sweat ran down his forehead. Sure he had been rather bold since returning, but surely he hadn't been caught onto quite yet.
Cecilia's left eyebrow curved upwards as if he had said something stupid. "Your profile isn't hidden you know. It says your name right here."
She pointed at the name 'Ghost' that was clearly displayed above his head, along with the rest of his stats and level.
"I-I see..." His cheeks reddened slightly from embarrassment, it seemed that even after ten years he could make such basic mistakes.
But it wasn't important either way, Jihan thought as he set his profile information settings to private.
Cecilia seemed rather taken aback by his information suddenly disappearing, only his level remaining visible on the window.
"Oh, was I not supposed to be able to see that? Cecilia asked rather sheepishly. She seemed rather young, apologizing for something so small instantly.
"It's alright, at least now I know it's hidden. But I have a question." He eyed the girl, glancing back at the pile of stone.
"How did you manage to kill a boss twice your level without taking damage in the process?" He stared at her profile window, clearly displaying the level 39 beside her ID.
Though it seemed she had leveled up twice from killing the Sentinel, to kill a world boss first try with such ease was...
"It was slow. Much slower than you." She spoke, the implications behind her words further shocking Jihan.
Not only had she killed a boss hundreds of feet away from him without him noticing, she also managed to observe him during the fight.
This girl was a genius, maybe even on par with Taek Jinsoo. So why had he never heard of the player 'Cecilia'?
"You must have a lot of questions, but I have to go now." Cecilia waved at Jihan, her body slowly dissipating in front of him.
Jihan lied back on the fallen tree that he was sitting on, staring at the status window before him.
[Friend request from: 'Cecilia' received.]
It seemed that others could freely log in and out of the game. How intriguing, Jihan thought as he scrolled through the girl's profile.
...
"Fuck, what are you doing?! Healer!"
"I'm trying, give me a-"
"Shit! The healer died, what do we do now!?"
"You all really... how embarrassing. One small mishap and you've already lost your wits?"
A man wielding a strange sword scolded the fellow raid members, pulling the knight's blade out of a gargoyle's chest.
"Here, try to keep up with it next time." He returned it to the level 25 knight, who sighed.
"Is this really a dungeon we can clear?" He asked, looking around at his party members. Most were at less than 50% total health, and many had exhausted their stamina.
The man who commanded them merely laughed, unsheathing a blood red sword.
"Of course we can clear it, with a small change in plans."
"And that change of plans is-"
Khuk!?
The blade impaled the knight's armor, stabbing directly into his heart.
"You all are better off dead anyway, this dungeon isn't a place players of your caliber should be anyway."
The shocked players who had been paralyzed by the sudden murder between party members were all killed one by one, even those who tried to escape were quickly killed in a similar fashion.
[You have leveled up!]
The man sheathed his blade, glancing over at his now blood red name.
[Player ID: 'Ares'
Level: 35...]
Though someone had actually cleared that dungeon before him, a beta player, they failed to acquire the weapon from the boss of the dungeon, 'Blood saber'. Ares found the first clearer's lack of thoroughness almost intriguing.
For such a strong player to not find such an easily hidden item, did they just steamroll the dungeon all together?
That would be impossible... right? He thought, continuing down the dark stairway of the dungeon.