Chapter 26 – Spectre

'60 million plus?' Damon thought at first, seeing his tag number. 'That's some crazy amount of players.'

That was a lot, considering that he was sure that more people would be logging in.

Damon scoffed bitterly realising that the world was playing right into NERVE's hands.

This was exactly what Dr. Joe Neons wanted.

However, he had made himself a promise; a promise to stop NERVE and the only way was to bring this stupid game to its end and crush it.

To do that he became a player.

Damon went on to clear the «Anteroom» tasks very quickly and quite easily, even much more than Beth did.

Ding!

A notification dropped.

[You have slain 7 red goblins]

[You have absorbed 7 red mana cores]

[+70 EP]

[+70 XP]

Ding!

[You have slain 3 orange goblins]

[You have absorbed 3 orange mana cores]

[+60 EP]

[+60 XP]

[You have completed the side quest «Liberate the Pinana Village»]

Ding!

Another one.

[You have completed the side quest «Save the Chief of Pinana Village»]

[Click «Here» to add rewards]

Damon had advanced a little in the world of Nexus, scaling very quickly through the [Preliminary Level: Level 0] and creating an avatar for himself that he named [Spectre].

'Spectre,' he thought, rubbing his chin and basking in the glory of his ability to come up with cool names.

"In the same vein, I will move through their ranks and crush this entire thing like a ghost… plus 'Spectre' is cool to pronounce," he said to himself at the time he was creating the avatar.

Spectre was a tall, appropriately buffed human that looked like a teenager just like Damon.

There were not many differences in appearance between Damon and Spectre since NERVE had perfected the technology behind it.

This feature worked similarly for other players since Nexus Online replicated the real physical features of a player onto his or her in-game character.

Damon was not in a rush after leaving the Anteroom. He focused on building his character and garnering as many experience points as he could before journeying into the next challenge that lay inside [Crimson Spire].

'If it's like the usual games and those level-up stories in the real world, then I have to build up my avatar first to get a hang of this world and my avatar,' he thought to himself after creating Spectre.

.

.

.

After some in-game hours, Damon screeched back on the ground, raising dirt and dust.

Thanks to the edge of his shield that slid over the ground, he was able to halt his movement effectively.

He gasped and his breathing was fast with his heart pounding fast and loudly as well.

A yellow creature lay before his eyes which he was fighting.

The yellow monster that he was fighting was pushed away as well.

It growled loudly with saliva spurting from its mouth.

The monster bore scars all over its body that gave it an unnaturally ugly look.

Seeing how it was bigger and more menacingly looking than its red and orange counterparts, Damon concluded that this larger yellow goblin was the main boss of his current side quest.

Damon and the yellow goblin boss had been at it for several minutes now and Damon gained the upper hand after dealing a brutal damage to its abdomen with a fist plus added health points advantage.

Damon, however, was not without bruises. His left arm was almost giving into the numbness that crept over it.

—––

[Magic Beast]

Beast Type: Goblin

Class: Familiar

Level: 1

Rank: 3

HP: 65/150

—––

Name: Spectre

Level: 1

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

HP: 99/200

—––

The prompts popped up in his head, granting him status updates on himself and his opponent as it concerned their health points.

The yellow goblin had done more damage but Damon had more health points in total and that was his saving grace.

"That's about 65 HP left for him," Damon breathed, glancing at the screen.

"I should finish this soon before it depletes mine even further."

Damon stood erect and dashed forwards immediately, placing his shield in front of him to block any coming attack.

He readied himself for another round of torturous exchanges with the yellow goblin.

However, the beast was getting slower and weaker with time.

Its attacks were no longer as potent as they used to be.

Damon noticed this and counted it as an advantage for himself.

Seeing how easily he was evading the creature's attacks and blocking the ones that he couldn't dodge with his shield, Damon knew that he was close to defeating the beast.

—––

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