Chapter 11 Undead Goblins

- 250 HP

Ethan stared forward with his eyes wide open and his fist still outstretched forward. The destructive power contained within for the early stages had actually dumbfounded him.

However, Ethan knew that what had given him that particular effect was the combination of 10 plus stats in Strength as well as the 20 stats in both agility and movement speed as well as the stays in his damage capacity. With such an increase in speed, his damage output had sharply increased enabling him to one hit kill... Whatever that was in the first place.

At that moment, a yellowish light orb flew from the remains of the killed monster. The light immediately shot towards him and entered his body which Ethan didn't even bother to resist.

< You have Killed a Level 3 Undead Goblin. You have gained, +1 stat points >

Seeing the notification, Ethan suddenly had an enlightenment as his expression changed to one of understanding. This was the Undead Ruins so it would be the most plausible setting for the monsters within to be undead creatures.

Since they were undead, their bodies were basically a mass of rotten flesh moving hence.... The rotting smell. Not to mention, a regular goblins defenses were usually low as they were level 1 monsters in the game.

With their low strength, all players needed was to have +8 points in strength to defeat a goblin easily. Since Ethan had a large increase in his damage power, it was no surprise that the outcome of the monster was to be blown into meat paste.

However, as an undead creature, their Health levels were high with about 230 health points, much more than a regular common level monster that only had about 170 health points.

Not to mention that their regeneration ability was many times stronger than normal monsters. They could recover as much as 20 HP every ten seconds

However, despite killing a monster of a higher level, all he got was a single stat point as a reward. This caused Ethan to shake his head as he once again recalled the life-like format of Reverbs Universe.

Unlike other games where one would automatically gain stat points after each kill or level up, Reverb's Universe didn't really dish out stat points as often as other games did.

In fact, it could be said that there would only be a few stat points given in the early stages of the game to help players adapt to fierce battles between themselves and the monsters. As players reached a higher level, the frequency of system awarded stat points would drop further and further.

By the time a player reached level 5, the system would stop handing out stat points completely and everything would have to be obtained through training and the Players hard earned efforts. Not to mention, it wasn't as easy to level up as it was in other virtual reality games.

This was the dividing line that separated the masses from geniuses. It was no exaggeration to say that in Reverbs Universe, the uses of levels were shallow as they were only seen as a title without much use except allowing players to access certain higher levelled maps.

However, such information wouldn't be posted until about a month after the game started. Ethan proceeded to look for whatever was remaining from the undead goblins body as he was hoping to find a treasure or something.

However, much to his dismay, he couldn't even find a single complete limb belonging to the monster and could only sigh dejectedly despite the fact that he already expected it.

Not only were stat points hard to gain, equipment and special herbs were hard to obtain as well. This was also the reason that the whole world had literally gone crazy after hearing that Bloodstorm had actually managed to obtain a Rare Grade mystery box upon clearing the undead ruins.

Treasures, weapons and equipment were mostly obtained from either monster carcasses, dungeon

They were Common grade mystery boxes, Bronze grade, Silver grade, Gold grade, Rare Grade, Platinum Grade, Diamond Grade, Emperor grade, Demi God grade and Deity Grade. Unlike the loot dropped from monsters that were relatively on the lower end, the loot dropped from mystery boxes were much better and of higher grades.

With the loot from the rare grade mystery box, which was a special soul weapon, Bloodstorm had been able to quickly rise up the ranks of powerhouses and during the initial stages and led his guild to become well renowned.

However, such precious treasures were not easy to obtain and could only be found in special areas. However, with his past memories, Ethan would soon be able to access all of these areas.

"Growl! Ethan had not even turned around when he felt multiple presences appear from afar.

"That was quick!" He thought inwardly as he simply side stepped to his left, avoiding the slash of another undead goblin. It seemed like not only did the Sonic Reflexes skill affect his speed and movement, but his perception and passage of time had been boosted as well albeit it didn't show on the system screen.

"Thank God that I didn't bother to turn it off". Ethan thought as he swung his fists towards the Undead goblin that looked like it was moving in slow motion. However, he controlled the strength he used to incapacitate the goblins and not outright kill them.

If the bodies were completely blown away, then there was no possible way that he would be able to get any rewards, no matter how low they were. Ethan was planning on acquiring 20 Grand in only two days so he would need to pull out some stuff to exchange if he wanted to achieve his goal.

BANG! Followed by a shrill scream, the undead goblin was sent flying but it didn't splatter into pieces. Ethan felt completely amazed at the moment.

< You have killed Undead goblin >

The usual yellowish orb floated from the corpse and assimilated into his body and just like he had predicted, there was no alert for a stat point. However, that was the last thing that was currently on his mind.

His speed was much faster than these undead making them nothing but sheep to be slaughtered. With a single punch, the under that was unlucky enough to be hit would be killed on the spot.

"Let's see how fast I can get!" Ethan's eyes burned with fighting intent as he suddenly stopped being passive and actively played the roll of attacking.

<< You have killed... >>

<< You have killed... >>

<< You have killed... >>

<< You have killed... >>

The monsters constantly came at him, however Ethan didn't even have to make excessive movements as he simply swung his fists and punched out. In exactly 3 seconds, he had thrown close to ten punches and increasing.

"Haha!" Ethan dashed forwards as his figure became a blur. He weaved his way between two Undead and and stuck out directly incapacitating them.

It could be said that out of the different types of monsters, undead were some of the most difficult to deal with due to their quick regeneration, higher HP as well as the virus released if bitten.

However, what was happening here right now.

<< You have killed Undead Goblin. You have Levelled up to Level 1, +2 to all stat points >>

Ethan's body suddenly shuddered as a sound akin to a dam breaking could be heard within his body. He rose directly and became a Level 1 player roughly 12 minutes after the start of the game. This could be considered an unprecedented feat as even in his past life, the faster player to reach level 1 had only done so after 3 hours.

One should know that in the game, there was only the level bar and there was no EXP bar attached to it. Therefore, players had no idea how much EXP was awarded for the monsters they killed and could not calculate how many more monsters they had to kill before going to the next level.

Killing monsters of the same level were also insufficient to level up. Like stated before, Reverbs universe was very different from other games in another sense that it was not as easy to quickly level up.

To put it in a simple explanation, let's say that the there was hypothetically an EXP bar for players and players needed 1000 Exp to level up. Killing monsters that were Level 0 would only grant about 5 Exp and level 1 would only grant about 10 Exp per kill meaning that one would have to kill about 100 level 1 monsters to upgrade to level 1. While level 2 monsters would give 25 exp and level 3 would give 50 Exp.

With the players basic stats with a maximum of ten points at the initial stages, it was impossible for someone to directly reach Level 1 only 12 minutes after the game started. Not to mention the fact that it was almost impossible to kill one monster every five minutes, time was also needed to search for monsters, recover their energy, stamina and mana.

Not to mention the fact that there were literally hundreds of thousands of players during the initial stages fighting for levelling spots, it could be considered quite good if you were able to level up after 5 or 6 hours.

Ethan looked at the notification without a trace of surprise or excitement in his heart as he considered this type of speed to be expected for the current him. He had killed more than two dozen of these undead goblins and with the combination of his frightening speed and battle sense of his previous life, it didn't pose much of a challenge.

However, he was waiting for something, and sure enough, the system notification didn't let him down and appeared right on time.

<< Congratulations player Neo, You are the first player to level up to level 1 even faster than the estimated time record. You have obtained +20 Mastery points. +1 Free Silver Grade mystery box >>

"Shit! Why are the rewards so generous?" Ethan had his eyes widen as he looked at the flashing mystery box that was giving out a slight golden brown lister which basically signified a bronze tier mystery box

At this moment, a grand system notification appeared in front of the screens of every player that had arrived in Reverb's Universe.

<< Congratulations, Player Neo has become the world's first player to obtain a Silver Grade Mystery Box >>

<< Congratulations to player Neo for successfully being the first player to reach Level 1>>

The appearance of such an announcement shocked all the players who were there to witness it, especially those awakened experts who had come into the game to temper themselves. The game had barely been launched for 15 minutes and someone had already gotten a Silver Grade Mystery Box! This was way too shocking.

Ethan himself hadn't expected to receive a mystery box of Silver grade. In his past life, this notification had also appeared for the worlds first player to reach level one. The one who gained this honor was a female player called Ice Lily who was from a professional S Rank Guild called Black star.

During the later stages of the game, she had evolved to reach the levels of 5th Seal and was also a very popular player albeit a little less popular than the top ten experts of the game.

The rewards for the first level up was a Bronze Grade Mystery Box and 5 Mastery points.

Mastery points were extremely precious in Reverbs universe as they had two main functions in Reverbs universe.

The first and more well known function was that mastery points could directly increase ones comprehension of a certain skill. A single mastery point was equivalent to 10 skills points and currently, Ethan had received 20 such points.

However, what made Ethan excited wasn't the first function but the other unknown function that wasn't brought to light until it was too late for 99.9 Percent of the players of the game. If one had enough Mastery points before reaching level 25, one would be able to directly exchange them for a brand new attribute in the stats column called "Comprehension".

It wasn't until the first player that reached Level 25 that this notification appeared and was giving out such an opportunity, albeit for a limited time rate of 48 hours.

Back then, only a little more than ten players had been able to successfully exchange for this stat which later increased their fighting prowess to a horrifying level.

However the rewards back then weren't as generous as there were now.

"Was it because i reached level 1 faster than she did which simultaneously improved the quality of the reward?" Ethan speculated as he looked at the flashing mystery box.

At this moment.

SWOOSH!

Ethan's ears twitched slightly as he quickly dodged to his left. As soon as he sidestepped, he was shocked to discover that yet another arrow was headed straight for him.

Ethan made an abrupt halt and inclined his body backwards barely skimming past the second arrow. He rolled on the floor and immediately got back up as he positioned himself in a defensive stance.

Turning his head, he wasn't surprised in the least to see that in his former position, there was an arrow embedded to the floor.

Ethan's eyes narrowed into slits as his gaze landed on an undead goblin that was about 210 yards away from him. He had failed to notice its presence as it was way out of his range of perception, however, when the arrow entered within his 10 meter range, he immediately noticed and dodged.

Ethan's eyes blazed with fury at the thought of almost getting killed in the game, however, his back was also covered in a layer of cold sweat. The tip of the arrow was covered with a sticky purplish substance that squirmed a little as if it were alive.

"Undead virus!" Sure enough, the arrows were definitely poisoned with the virus of the undead. "I have been too careless". Ethan cursed himself as he wanted to face palm. The number one rule of any dungeon was to never underestimate it especially a dungeon like this.

If not, you probably wouldn't even know how you died before it happened.

"Thank the stars that I kept my sonic reflexes active". Even till now, Ethan had not once deactivated the sonic reflexes skill as he had the infinite mana passive skill which ensured that he wouldn't ever run out of mana. If not for the fact that his agility was over twenty points, his head was most probably be pierced through by an arrow.

The thought of dying in the game again and possibly ruining his future potential left him angry and fearful at the same time. Sure enough, this was a map that players of his current level weren't supposed to be in, however, Ethan was not your average player anymore.

His eyes burned with fury as he cracked his knuckles.

"You wanna play? Fine, then let's play!" He said as he dashed forwards heading straight to the goblin archer in the distance.