Those who knew him

Gerard was enthralled not by beauty, fame, or wealth. But by the cheat ability of the Supreme System. He knew having the system that overseers the game as his system is giving him an advantage, but to think that his understanding of advantage is shallow.

The Supreme System giving him access to information that is not available to players is enough for his jaw to open wide, forgetting the current dire situation of players just a few dozen meters away from him.

With this information, he can avoid wasting skill points. He just needs to ascend every skill to a certain level to meet the pre-requisite requirements to unlock the next available skill!

Outside the house, a few dozen meters away, the monster appears to be very frustrated about not getting what it wants. That is to munch the players in front of him.

Everyone is having a hard time taking a breather. Their breathing is ragged, their body is wounded, and their armor is splintered. All of them are in a messed state.

That is to be expected, facing a Level 23 Intermediate Boss against Level 2-3 Players. It also begs a question, why are these players continue to struggle even if they can't bring down the monster with their own strength?

That is because they placed their hope in a certain someone that asked them to buy him some time to finish his preparations.

Payne Blanc.

The first NPC that gives Lite his first quest.

A gentleman NPC helps Angel in her predicament and gives her a quest. Leading her to meet her new companion, Aliyah, and Lex.

The NPC caught the attention of Sally and her best friend Lina.

They placed their trust in Payne Blanc. They are willing to sacrifice themselves if ordered to. What's the loss of experience and possible item drop if they can continue receiving benefits from Payne Blanc such as quests and rewards? Those losses are nothing compared to the benefits in front of them!

So they keep dancing with the monsters even though their body is shouting to give up!

They have a potion that can maintain their MP and HP but their SP is dwindling down. Without it, they will face death.

Thanks to Payne's previous attack which drastically slowed down the monster and they manage to keep up with the monster. But even with it, if their SP runs out, how can they dodge and run away from the monster?

Whenever the monster gets close to them, they will sprint twice just to barely escape. Sprinting will lose them SP. Every sprint will lose them 10SP. And the worst is the SP regenerates in a very slow phase. And no skill or potions that can increase the regeneration speed of the player's SP.

Another reason that they can still keep up until now is their advantage in number. They will try their best to get the attention of the monster if the latter is just a few meters away from their companion.

And this kind of dance continues making the monster very frustrated and growl in madness!

If this monster can talk, they will surely hear it. "This is bullying! Why not fight me in earnest battle and stop running? Argh! I'll make sure to chew every bit of your flesh and bone!"

But there is no way the monster can relay this message to them, so he put his built-up frustration into growling madly whing chasing every player around him.

If this is an anime show, the audience will surely laugh.

Suddenly, the monster stops on its track. It hit its head on the group several times, and fresh blood started to ooze once again.

They were startled by the scene unfolding in front of them and thought the monster turn completely mad.

After banging its head on the ground, it raises its head onto the sky and growls. The growls of the monster are the same as its previous growls but the sound increases with every second that passed.

But little did they know, the monster just called out for help and it didn't seep into the back of their minds.

After the monster in front of them stop growling, its head turns towards them with fiery eyes indicating the anger caused by them.

And at that moment, the ground shook once more. This time, the shaking of the ground is more severe than the previous one.

"Oh no…." Lina can only mutter before shouting for everyone to fall back!

All that leads to the current situation, where Lina shouted for everyone to fall back.

"Everyone! Fall back!!!" Lina shouted in agony.

Her hair is disheveled, her gorgeous face is grazed with wounds and dirt all over. Her armor was shattered and only what remains of her clothing is the tattered fabric of her garb.

She is not the only one in the same state as everyone else, including Gerard.

As they started to run away, a big shadowy figure suddenly appeared in front of them which made them startled and fear start to shroud their mind and heart as their spine shivered when it produces an eerie roar.

"Oh my god…" Sally can only murmur as they stop on their track when another Deinonychus appeared but bigger than the previous one.

[Monster: Howler Deinonychus]

Category: Hard Boss Level

Level 50

HP: 5,500

MP: ???

SP: ???

[Attributes]

Attack Damage: 1,035

Defense: 80

Agility: 51

Strength: 150

Intelligence: 51

The information prompted everyone. Their mouth went agape as their eyes dilated wide due to shock.

It is impossible! Yes! It is impossible! There is no way they can hold this Hard Boss Level! In just a blink of an eye, they will meet their maker!

It is impossible!

Everyone shares the same thought.

The despair shattered their composure and confidence making their knee trembles. Angel even fell to the ground due to fear.

It is just a virtual game but the fear they felt is making them realize this virtual game is too surreal!

The little Deinonychus they cannot kill immediately went over to Howler Deinonychus and brush its wounded head bathing in its fresh blood on the Torso of the Howler Deinonychus.

It seems these two monsters are a mother and a son.

What a freaking turn of events! If they knew that this ridiculous monster have a mother just around, they wouldn't even blink and flee immediately. But it's too late now. They even forgot Payne Blanc who is also watching from a distance with his mouth open wide.

Gerard tried to brush his eyes hoping that he is just hallucinating, but he is not. He saw the same series of information with additional information that players don't have access to.

[Available Skill]

[Skill: Fear] A dragon-like roar induces fear in a nearby living being within a 10-meter radius.

[Skill: Berserk] When the HP threshold reached down to 20%, it will automatically activate giving additional 20% Attack Damage, Movement Speed, and Durability for 30 seconds. As a repercussion, once the skill is diminished, the state will be weakened drastically and rooted for 5 seconds.

Gerard sighs seeing the [Skill: Berserk]. If this absurd monster went into berserk mode, he cannot imagine what would happen to them.

The only way to escape that gruesome scenario is to kill this monster in one hit.

But can he do that?

Helpless, he asks for help.

"Supreme System is there any way to defeat that absurd monster in one hit?!"

[Yes, but the Host will suffer a backlash.]

"What kind of backlash?" He worriedly asked again.

[The Host will lose 50% of current experience.]

Current experience? His Exp threshold only amounts to 47%. Does it mean his level will revert back to 1?

[Yes, the Host level will revert back to Leve 1 with 97% Experience and freeze your Experience Threshold for 24 hours. Even if the Host ascended to the next level, the Host would not receive the usual rewards such as +5 Mastery Points and +5 Skill Points and additional attributes. Reminding the Host that it can be used once every 72 Hours.]

Gerard clicks his tongue but he has no choice. If he cannot defeat the monster in front of him, the probability he will die in gruesome death is 95%!

"Okay! I understand. Please help me kill that absurd monster in one strike!"

[Understood.]

[Please use the skill of your Spell Blade [Skill: Tactical Strike] and aim at the Howler Deinonychus.]

Gerard immediately went into action and took a stance.

The moment he took a breath in, the surrounding somehow become calm. He didn't know why but he thought this is the other effect of Spell Blade.

He put his left hand to grip the handle of the sword, lowering his posture and ready to cast the [Skill: Tactical Strike] at any moment and just waiting for the Supreme System to inform him.

While in that state, a powerful aura or MP surges into his body and flows in a single direction, to his right hand, and is immediately absorbed by the Spell Blade.

The air seems to focus on his location and blows around his body surrounding him completely, the fallen leaves and litters dance with the breeze and become a decoration surrounding him.

[Now.] The Supreme System informs Gerard.

At the moment pull the sword on its scabbard, a powerful explosion of mana and MP occurred from his body which made Lina and others, and even the monsters in front of them glance at Gerard's location.

The moment the tip of Spell Blade leaves the scabbard, dense mana accumulated on hidden Sapphire Ore releases a powerful pulse of the wave to the Spell Blade creating a ripple in the air.

The moment the pulse of the wave released, the air breezing around Gerard exploded and create a shockwave that sent the fabric clothing of everyone to flutter wildly, even the disheveled hairs of ladies were not an exception.

When the [Skill: Tactical Strike] reaches its target, the monster duo can only shriek before dropping them with their bodies sliced into two and becoming a fragment of light that dissipated in the air.

The moment it dissipated, coins exploded on the ground along with a few items and equipment. Creating a small mountain of loot.

This is to be expected since the two monsters are at the boss level. So the coin drop and others should amount to this.

Since they are at a party, the experience was shared equally.

Lina who is currently at Level 3 immediately ascended to Level 5.

Sally and others ascended to Level 4.

Giving them appropriate rewards such as mastery points, skill points, and additional attributes for ascending.

Except for one person.

Gerard reverted to Level 1 with a 97% Exp Threshold that is currently in the frozen state for 24 hours.

Well at least, I can live another day. He consoled himself while wryly smiling inside. But the truth is, he was bitter.

He can clearly see the wounded faces and bodies of the players in front of him vanish in an instant.

That is the beauty of ascending. All the wounds and Base Points will reach 100% Immediately except for the Exp threshold.

Gerard sighed before treading forward to everyone.

"Thank you for holding back."

Hearing him speak, all of them return to reality and gasped for air.

Because in front of their eyes, Payne Blanc did it again! The damage it registered didn't appear on the monster's head. It means the skill damage far exceeded the HP of both monsters.

Then their eyes beam with reverence once more, they were saved once again and even ascended to the next level!

Ah! What benefits to following a Legendary Elite NPC!

"Okay, let's split up the loot altogether."

Then they shifted their gaze from walking Payne Blanc to a small mountain of loot from defeating the boss.

Naturally, the loot should belong to Payne Blanc alone but when they heard him split up the loot for everyone, they felt a pang of pain in their hearts. It is even moist Angel's eyes before wiping them with her fresh and free-of-wound hands.

No wonder he was blessed by heaven in this virtual game. Angel thought to herself and follow suit to her companion who started walking towards the mountain of loot.