First Boss!

Arthur looked at the quest window that had just popped up.

>Quest Updated!<

——

Quest: 1. Investigate the sewers. [Completed]

2. Inform the village head about it or release the Sluice gate. [Completed]

3. Report to the village head about the Skeleton in the reservoir and bring him proof.

4. Kill the Giant Dire Rat and report back to the Village head with proof.

Info: 1. You have chanced upon the sewers of the Kestrel Village. Search and see what secrets it hides, but also beware of the dangers that lurk within it.

2. You chose to open the sluice gate and released the pressure. Some new areas might now be available to explore for you.

3. You have found a skeleton in the reservoir of the sewer. Why has the skeleton appeared here and who does it belong to? Bring the Skull back as a proof.

4. You have discovered the boss of the Kestrel Village Sewers, the Giant Dire Sewer Rat. It can pose great danger to the structural integrity of the sewer and might collapsed it. Kill it and bring back its tail as a proof to the Village Head.

Grade: Uncommon

Difficulty: Intermediate

Reward:???

——

The fourth and final quest objective had finally appeared and it was what Arthur had been waiting for.

"Let's see what we're up against, first shall we…" Arthur muttered before using Inspect on the creature.

~DING~

>Inspect Successful!<

——

Target: Giant Dire Sewer Rat [Boss]

Rank: Uncommon

Level: 5

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

——

"Huh… it's lower than what was in the guide." Arthur was a bit surprised seeing the boss's information.

According to what he could remember, the guide had mentioned that the Giant Dire Rat was a boss that was level 6. But from what Arthur could see now, it was clearly a level lower.

'Does its level grow over time?' Arthur wondered.

It wasn't something that was impossible either. In Morpheus Online, there were dynamic changes all the time, whether it be the environment, the NPC's or the enemies. All of them could change over time and it was influenced by many factors.

The best examples were monster subjugation quests or large scale war quests.

If one failed in a monster subjugation quest and their numbers exceeded a certain amount, these monsters would then attack various settlements. This could either result in the destruction of the settlement and the death of NPCs or retaliation from the NPCs and death of the monsters.

Both factors would depend on how the players handled the matter.

While in the case of large scale war quests, it was a lot more complex. Not only could the very territories change, one could even lose access to many areas they were able to visit in the past. Of course on the other hand, one had a great chance of obtaining a lot of items and skills as well.

How things progressed in Morpheus Online depended on the actions of the players, but their inaction could also bring forth unseen events.

The Giant Dire Sewer Rat boss could be considered one of them.

'The guide was made several months after the launch of the game. Perhaps that time was enough for the boss monster to grow another level.' Arthur reckoned.

"Still… this just makes things simpler for me." Arthur was pleased by this surprise.

But he didn't attack right away. He first assessed the area, making sure that there would be no unpleasant surprises.

"Hmm… there are no supporting enemies along with the boss." Arthur verified. "Guess the one's I killed earlier might have been them. The number of supporting enemies also used to be higher according to the guide." He recalled.

Originally this fight was supposed to be against the boss and its minions. It would involve the Giant Dire Sewer Rat and several Large Dire Sewer Rats and the basic Dire Sewer Rats. It wasn't a fight that was meant for a solo player either and was intended for a party of at least three players.

This was something that would have been difficult for Arthur too, but since he had the Black Tear Short Sword he had the confidence in going against the boss.

"It should give plenty of experience points too…" Arthur said before taking a look at the torch in his hand. 'It won't last that long. I'll need to finish the fight before that. Fighting without illumination spells is a pain in areas like this.' He thought.

With the level of immersion that Morpheus Online offered, there were no lack of dark areas. The players would need to explore these areas as well as fight mobs there. But the biggest obstacle for many was the lack of light there.

This could be mitigated by using items like torches or lanterns of course but they had their own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that they were very cheap and could be made by the players themselves without needing any special skills.

The disadvantage was that they would take up an equipment slot and might hamper the actions of a player.

Of course, there were other more efficient methods to mitigate these too. The best and most used being none other than illumination magic!

It was learned by most magic class players and was an integral part of any party. Of course, there were other methods to use it too which could even be utilized by non-magic class players.

These were none other than single use items like scrolls, talismans and many more. These could be used to cast these spells and were also relatively cheap. But for Arthur they were out of his choices.

It wouldn't be much later that these objects would become available. After all, it was just the start of the game and Arthur had gone out of his way to come to a high leveled area like this.

"I'll have to divert its attention and strike first, only that way will I have the upper hand…"Arthur raised the torch before throwing it to the left of the Giant Dire Sewer Rat!