Chapter 7: Alice Starfield, The Star Archer

Alice was currently among the top players of Universal Descent, her growth almost matching Alex's.

Somehow, she perfectly knew how to use her bow, even though she had only taken one or two archery classes in real life (which her father forced her to take).

Her life was pretty dull and easy, being the daughter of the CEO of the "Syndicate" group pretty much set the difficulty of her life on easy.

And yet…

'This is fun!' once she entered Universal Descent, she actually had fun for the first time in a while, she saw a purpose in what she was doing!

Everything felt so real, and it probably WAS real, since this game would apparently affect reality, so getting stronger felt great and the thrill of fighting was omnipresent.

Her father's money could actually be useful to herself for once as well, as it meant being able to gather equipment very fast!

She kept advancing further inside the forest, trying to see just how far it would go for a novice village area.

But suddenly, behind her appeared a massive figure.

"Growl!"

She turned around and…

"Oh."

[Bear King Boss - Level 5 (Elite)]

In Universal Descent, bosses were spread across eigth categories: Elite, Epic, Superior, Legendary, Mythical, Demigod, Divine, Universal.

This boss was from the first category, which meant that it obviously shouldn't be that strong.

And yet, even though it was only level 5, a boss was still a boss.

Bear Claw!

Star Defense!

The bear king swung at the archer, who immediately created a star-shaped yellow barrier in front of her while crossing her arms.

Fwish! Boom!

But the barrier only served as a way to reduce the damage and impact, and so it still shattered, sending Alice flying toward one of the trees, hitting it with her head.

-126!

Her vitality stat was at 21, meaning that currently, out of the 210 HP she had, only 84 remained.

'Argh…' but just like the thrill she had been feeling by hunting those monsters, the pain was just as real too.

She struggled, but still got up as the bear charged at her again.

That thing was twice as big as her, its fur black and its eyes burning with a crimson color.

As an archer, she should have noticed that thing before it got too close to her, yet that thing somehow only made noise once it was close enough, and so now she ended up in this situation.

Star Shot!

She shot one of her arrows at the charging bear.

Boom!

-74!

But they didn't do that much damage at all?!

Of course they didn't.

[Bear King Boss - Level 5 (Elite)]

[HP: 176/250]

Bosses of course have better attributes than normal monsters, meaning that this particular one's magic resistance was currently at 27, being able to resist most magic attacks you could throw at it!

And so, this also meant that the star arrow hadn't stopped its momentum at all, the bear king still charging at the girl.

"Ah…" she sighed, "First death, here I go," she was sad that she would be forced to go back to level 4 after such a good first run, but you couldn't do anything about it.

At the novice village, the level of the players was low, so dying mostly meant reset back to square one if you were under level 3/4, though you keep your skills and equipment, as well as technique, meaning that getting back to your original level shouldn't be this hard.

"…" Alice closed her eyes, expecting the impact at any time now.

But instead, she heard something else.

Fwish! Boom! Boom!

The giant black bear was hit by a fireball and red crystal shard, the mix of these two attacks actually canceling its charge on the girl.

-69! -70!

Alex appeared behind one of the trees, having noticed the figure of the giant bear from a distance as it roared and made a lot of noise.

"GROOWLLL!" the bear was hit by the attack, but it still had a bit of HP, which it used to immediately dash toward Alex, trying to close the distance.

But it wasn't fast enough.

Fwish! Fireball!

-69!

The fireball hit the bear king right in its face, causing it to roar in pain and fury as it lit up, and so it fell to the ground right before reaching him.

Ding!

[Please select something to extract!]

"Lucky me!" Alex smiled.

[Bosses have a 100% chance to activate the 'Extraction' prompt.]

"Oh," I guess it made sense, since someone with a talent like his should obviously be rewarded for defeating a strong monster, right?

Alex focused on the options that appeared before him.

[Bear King's Fang (Uncommon)

Bear King's Chest Armor (Rare)

'Charge' skill (Common)]

"Hmm…" he pondered for a moment, his eyes scanning through the list.

He hesitated between the [Charge] skill and [Bear King's Chest Armor], and to be honest, he had almost chosen the former by sheer instinct as he had been a warrior before.

But now, as he was a mage, this skill didn't serve any purpose to him.

And so he selected the better option.

[Bear King's Chest Armor (Rare) has been selected!]

[Description: grants 11 points of magic resistance to the wearer.]

"Oh!" this was way better than he thought.

Ding!

[Killed level 5 Bear King, gained 75 experience points.]

But alas, this wasn't enough to level him up as he now required 500 experience, since every level up added 100 experience points to the needed amount.

[Do you want to equip the "Bear King's Chest Armor"?]

"Yes," he nodded, and it immediately disappeared from his hands in a white flash before appearing on his chest, "Very usesul."

This little system made it possible to switch gear in battle, and thus also change strategies depending on the monster you faced, which is why always having a backpack or storage ring with useful items was important.

"Are you okay," he then turned his eyes toward Alice, who was looking at him with widened eyes.

"…Who are you?"

Oh, right, Alice in this world didn't know about Alex.

They hadn't been particularly close to be honest, Alex knowing most things about Alice from her father as he sometimes at night would keep telling him and his companions about how sweet of a girl she was before being killed.

The only time he had interacted with her was when they killed some monsters together in the first city, but other than that… she died rather quickly.

So quickly in fact that Alex suspected that something had happened in his first life to cause this.

Each powerful families and groups had several beta testers among them, so it was pretty normal they fought each other for power since this game would become more and more important as time went on.

"The name's FateBreaker," Alex pointed at himself while smiling, "But you can call me Alex," he reached his arm to help her out.

Alice looked up, and she couldn't deny that this man had saved her, and also that he looked particularly handsome, so she grabbed his arm which helped her get up.

"My name's Alice, and that monster took me by surprise…"

"Yeah, they do that sometime, smart bastards," he sighed, these creatures could really become devious at times, especially at the upper levels.

But before Alex could say anything else…

Ding!

[Player StarPillow invites you to join a party!]

'Oh wow.'