Chapter 10

"The Cursed Shard"

Will stepped away from the edge of the roof trying not to lose visual of the rat, which, for some reason, wasn't going anywhere. Having considered all pros and cons, he decided he'd stay where he was and continue ruining the rat boss's day. He switched to holy magic bolts, and pointed the weapon at the beast.

--15

Miss

--13

Miss

The rat twitched and moved a couple yards away, which was fairly pointless. Bolts were raining down on its head and body, delivering pain and causing indignation. Will didn't know how much health it had left, but he knew that the concept of a "sitting duck" was hard for the rat to grasp. He kept shooting restlessly for ten hours straight. It was wearing him out and, eventually, started affecting his fire rate and accuracy.

Miss

Miss

Miss

--10

Raven felt his going numb from all this shooting and reloading. Aim and fire! Reload, aim and fire! He was looking at the rat through the scope knowing that everything was about to end. And right he was. The rat boss trembled, burst into purple flame and slowed down. The monster was bleeding pretty bad, and, two seconds later, it dropped dead.

"Level Up

Level Up

Level Up

Congratulations! You've done the impossible!

You are the first player in the history of Ascension to beat a Viscount singlehandedly.

Awarded the title: Titan Fall.

+4 Luck

+7% Damage dealt to Viscounts

+10% Physical resistance to Viscount rank monsters

+3% Chance of unique drops when killing Viscounts

Skill level upgrade: At gunpoint has been upgraded to Journeyman.

+4% Chance to deal critical damage with ranged weapons."

"Wow! Three levels and four Luck! I'll need that. If that ladder was two inches shorter, I'd be dead for real."

Then he turned to the most rewarding part--picking up loot. The jump off the roof took only 7% of his HP and got Will a four hour sprained ankle debuff. That was a valuable lesson, in case he planned on scurrying away from someone in the future.

He searched the boss's corpse first and then returned to the warehouse. When he was done emptying the bags, he walked out of the warehouse, and logged out. All Will wanted was to go to bed and fall asleep, as soon as possible. It seemed like he had been killing those rats for too long.

He slept through the whole day and the following night. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, of course, he started examining his trophies. Smaller rats dropped teeth, bones, skulls, two pieces of solidified ruby--like drops of cursed blood, several dozen silver coins, one Gold and one Silver item, and a rare recipe.

"Cursed Blood (Rare). Alchemic ingredient.

Cursed Aura (Rare). Alchemic recipe for the potion that casts Cursed Aura on to the player and protects against attacking enemies.

-20% Slowdown

-13% Physical and Magic damage.

Duration: 3 minutes."

One of the two items from the rat boss, both level forty, was completely useless to Raven, and he was going to sell it; the other one was exactly what he needed.

"Flying Dagger (Gold).

This dagger was forged by Salar the gnome for a reputable rogue from the South, who never came back for his order.

Damage: 106--158

+18% Dodge

+24% Chance to stun the target for 5 seconds

+3% Chance to instant kill the target when attacking from the back

Skill: Deadeye's Toss (Active) lets you throw the dagger at enemies without being afraid of losing it. The dagger comes back to the owner.

Damage: 103--135

Weapon range: 33 feet

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Level requirement: level 40

Class Requirement: Rogue."

And, finally, the last item--a cloudy purple stone that was emitting some bad energy. Inspect.

"Cursed Shard (Unique).

This shard is mere a piece of something big. Find someone who will tell you more.

Secret chain quest: Secret of the Shards.

Find someone who will tell you the secret.

Reward: 1000 XP, a unique skill book.

Accept? Yes/No."

Secret quests were almost as important as epic ones as you could get a lot of XP, rare and unique skills and items from them. Raven wasn't going to pass on something like this. He accepted the quest. Not knowing who or where he was supposed to look didn't stop him, there was no need to hurry.