Chapter 8: Life Drain, and Players

The group consisted of three men: an archer, a healer, and a warrior tank with sword and shield.

Sebastian knew it was dangerous to follow the group. He was not someone who could deal with three players at the same time. That required strategy and more spells to add variety, and that was something Sebastian did not have yet.

They walked through the forest, finally stopping before a cave.

"This is the place," said the player with a bow on his back. "There are bats inside, which are the first monsters we'll face and the weakest. Then there's a rock lizard, a boss creature."

"A boss? Why didn't you tell us sooner? You know how difficult field bosses are!" the priest complained.

It was not impossible to defeat a boss with three players alone, but it was hard, and it was common for players to die a couple of times before they learned the boss's attack patterns and skills.

"Relax," said the archer. "We'll first grind the bats to get more levels, and then try to kill the boss. This cave is massive, but I think no one else is here."

Sebastian quickly hid behind a tree, and it looked like no one noticed him.

'That was close.'

The group entered the cave, and Sebastian followed them once again. He was somewhat distant from them so as not to warn them of his presence.

After a while, multiple paths appeared: one to continue forward, one on the left, and one on the right. The player who knew about the cave did not know how the place was inside, only where it was located, so he chose a random direction to take.

"Let's go with the right path."

Sebastian did not follow them, but chose the left path. It would be bad if he met them there, and a player-versus-player (PvP) battle could happen.

'I don't want to lose my precious experience points now. First, I need to get powerful enough to face those three players at the same time.'

The cave was dark and humid, and the water dripping from the gaps made Sebastian uneasy, scared of a monster suddenly appearing and killing him.

He kept looking at all the corners, at his back, and stopping his movements after hearing strange noises.

Most noises were nothing to worry about, but Sebastian still checked all of them, and one that he thought would turn out to be nothing, was a bat!

-Bat (Level 5)

It was a bat, just like the archer had said. Apparently that player knew what he was talking about.

Sebastian grasped his wooden staff, casting his Spell Thief spell on the bat before anything else.

'Please have a decent ability,' Sebastian prayed internally.

But before the bat attacked him, Sebastian had already prepared a water ball, moving his staff and aiming it directly at the bat. It flew fast in a speed the bat could not dodge.

30 DMG

The damage dealt was the same as before, even after adding his points into Intelligence.

'My damage increased, but this bat has more resistances too!'

Sebastian did not know the exact hit points (HP) the monster had, but it was possible to see a red bar above its head, and after the first water ball, it diminished by thirty percent.

'Not that hard to kill,' Sebastian thought.

But then the bat flapped its wings, and Sebastian could see a red line leaving his body and moving toward the bat.

-15 HP

+15 HP

He lost 15 health points while the bat recovered 15 health points. It was a good spell, one that Sebastian was eager to learn!

'Life Drain! Man, my class is too strong!' Sebastian rejoiced.

After seeing the spell once, all he had to do was kill the bat and hope for the best.

A fierce battle took place. On one side was a blonde mage casting water balls at a bat, while the bat tried its best to recover its lost health points.

But even with the two-level difference, the bat did not have what it took to finish Sebastian off. After the fight was over, a notification appeared before his eyes:

-Bonus Experience

+125 XP

That was it. Sure, the XP was nice, way better than the Slimes. The base XP the bat gave was higher, and its level was also, so Sebastian got a bonus experience for killing it.

But the thing he wanted the most, his lovely Life Drain spell, he did not learn.

His Sage class was overpowered, but everything had its limits. The class only had a chance of learning the spell. It was not 100%, or else Sebastian would quickly learn everything without having to work hard.

'That's okay,' he thought. 'I would have to kill more bats to level up anyway. I bet I will learn the spell after my grinding session.'

Without much choice, Sebastian continued forward after waiting a while to recover his health points. Now that he had put some points into Wisdom, his mana regeneration was decent, and he could feel the minor improvement.

But health was a problem as well, as he did not have any potions with him or a healing spell. Well, the Life Drain spell would come to improve his life in that regard!

He found more bats inside the cave, and fought against them, killing them, earning decent XP, and doing the same over and over again.

Sebastian leveled up from 3 to 4, and that was a huge boost to his morale! He even checked the rankings, realizing he was ranked 946 in the level ladder.

It was not bad. Increasing one level would make him jump the rankings by many positions, so it was not as bad as it looked.

Also, a game with that many players? A rank of 946 was great!

'The powerful parties and clans are getting all the monsters for themselves in the general area. That's why we have so many people without the chance to level up, tsk.'

The last bat Sebastian could find around him turned out to be the one who gave him the treasure he wanted.

-Life Drain: It does non-elemental damage based on the player's level and gear level (It does not scale with attributes).

-Cost: 50 MP.

Sebastian smiled after reading the notification, but something woke him up.

'Where are the bats? Could another player be here?' a voice echoed from the distance.