Chapter 21 - The Player

"Damn you're strong. Who are you?" My body aches and my sides are bleeding.

"Ah... You're a beginner aren't you?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You see this arrow in my head? That means we're the same."

"Do you mean..."

"Yes. I'M A PLAYER."

This is my first time encountering a player in this world. We all have the same goals of conquering the world for the 10 wishes we were promised.

"That explains a lot."

"Enough with the chitchat. Let's go!" Tark raised his humungous sword and rushed to me.

"Heal, Great Heal!" With the two casts of my heal my damaged body returned back to normal. I pulled out Devoratrix from my inventory and clashed with Tark.

*Clang!*

The sounds of our huge chunk of metal swords resisting each other. Tark is overpowering me by a bit.

"Damn. I don't want to use this but... Poison Mist!" A blue wave of purple smoke emerged from my hand. I waved my hand to redirect it to Tark.

"*cough**cough**cough* What the hell is this?" Tark was kneeling from the ground and coughing up blood. My poison mist is stronger than the Serpent's so it deals more damage.

30 seconds. That's all I need. I need to survive for that long.

"If I'm going down... I'm taking you with me! Rage, Berserker, Warrior's Pride, Paladin Armor, Breaker! Get ready Player! Aghhhh!"

"That's a lot of spell buffs. Crap."

Tark rushed again and swung his blade. He is swinging it so fast despite it being so big and heavy. I can't block any of it. Every time I try to block with my Devoratrix I get blown away by an inch. And my whole body is aching with every clash.

I pulled out Devoratrix and quickly swapped with my greatshield.

I can barely take the damage from Tark.

Tark tried to hit me over the shield and stab me.

"SPRINT!"

I retreated backwards in a quick second.

[Sprint leveled up to Level 3]

"*cough* *cough*" Tark started bleeding out from his mouth. "Not... Yet... WARRIOR'S LAST STAND!" Tark's body glowed in red and a magical circle formed under him. Then it rose enveloping his body.

"System what skill is that?"

[Warrior's starting skill. If life is reduced by 10% become invulnerable for 30 seconds.]

"30 seconds! That's an insane amount of time. I guess I just need to hold out again."

Tark raised his sword and smashed it down to my shield. He managed to blow me away about three meters and I landed on the distant tree behind us.

"What? *cough*" I started coughing blood. "He got stronger too?"

Tark lost his mind and began swinging his sword everywhere.

I rushed back to Tark using sprint. My family and goblins might be in danger.

Tark looked at my way and jumped through the air and spun around one time and smashed his sword down to the ground. The ground was broken and a lot of debris came flying out in all directions.

"Dark Armor!" I blocked it barely using my greatshield and dark armor.

As time passes, Tark's body had a red aura of light in his body. It also makes him stronger every second.

A flurry of attacks from Tark is pushing me back a lot even with my greatshield and dark armor.

He swung it to the left and right back and forth like a madman and he grows stronger every single swing

"AGHHHHH!" Tark's invulnerability ran out. "Not yet."

Tark swung his sword for the last time.

*clang...*

A silent sound resonated from my shield and Tark's sword. He finally ran out of steam.

Tark finally died.

"Congratulations Zieglind!" Rize, Reysh, Zeta, Greta and Precia chanted.

"We agree lord!" The goblins too joined in.

"Haa... Sorry for displaying such cowardice. I just held out until the poison got to him."

"No don't be. You did a good fight Zieglind considering he was level 50 or more."

"Mhm!" The others agreed in unison.

Haa... That was exhausting. Players are dangerous people that roam around in this planet. And there are about a million of us? This is a lot to take in.

I looked at my greatshield and felt proud that it lasted so long. "I'll name this Greatshield.... Defender." Yep. I'm bad at names.

I sat down and took a look at my status and... I got 16 additional levels. "Wait what?"

[If a Player vs Player happened and the other one was killed, 30% of his level will be given to the winner. In this case, Tark was level 53 and the 30% of his level is 16.]

[Do you want to get the Level 25, 27, 30 and 35 rewards?]

"Claim all."

[Level 25 Reward, allows you to wear any weapon and all stats distributed for strength, magic and accuracy stats will change depending on the weapon holding.]

[Level 27 Reward, upgraded Skill Devourer to the max level. Can now get any number of skills and any rarity of skills]

[Level 30 Reward]

[Fox]

<Show Description>

[Eagle]

<Show Description>

[Wisp]

Gradually heals a large area for about 0.5% of their health per second. Wisp is ethereal. Cannot die except if owner dies.

[Level 35 Reward, the Bottomless Box. Can put anything in this box. If food is in here it doesn't rot. If living beings are in here, -50 Speed and the living being inside will be put to sleep. Cannot be used in combat and will be disabled.]

"I'll get the Wisp familiar. These are a lot of items in one go. And finally, I can use mage skills." I looked over to Tark's dead body. "Devour."