Bulwark Pagoda was startled again. He had been so mesmerized by Liam’s movements that he hadn't even noticed an Assassin creeping toward them in Stealth.
After the initial shock, Bulwark Pagoda reacted instantly. "He’s trying to ninja the boss!"
Liam ignored his companion and turned his gaze toward the Assassin.
The man was already decked out in a nearly full set of gear. His eyes were sharp, flickering with a cold, murderous intent.
This wasn't a casual player. That look—that raw killing intent—wasn't something an average gamer possessed. Moreover, the man had just used his dagger to deflect one of Liam’s arrows.
Such high-level mechanics were common in the mid-to-late stages of the game, but this was only the first day of the server.
"Party up with me. We split the boss," the Assassin said tonelessly. His voice was devoid of emotion.
Liam shook his head. "No."
The Assassin didn't waste another word. He backed away, vanishing once more into the shadows of Stealth.
"Dammit, what’s his problem? Is he serious? He thinks he can just stay in Stealth and steal the kill?" Bulwark Pagoda’s temper flared. "Listen here, kid! I’m from the Pagoda Guild. You’d better get lost, or else—"
"Watch out!"
Before Bulwark Pagoda could finish his threat, Liam’s warning barked out. Simultaneously, an arrow whistled through the air.
Squelch!
The Assassin materialized directly behind Bulwark Pagoda. He hadn't used the basic Backstab; instead, he went straight for a Throat-Slit.
A massive, crimson critical number popped up.
-642!
Bleed: -90... -90...
A heartbeat later, Bulwark Pagoda collapsed into the dirt.
Liam’s eyes narrowed. That was a clean, professional execution. The damage was staggering. Even with a critical hit, the man’s Attack Power had to be well over 300 to pull that off.
The Assassin was Level 8. Even if he had dumped every single point into Attack, his base stat should only be around 80. This meant his gear or some hidden passive skills were providing a massive boost.
Assassins did have passives for Attack, Movement Speed, and Attack Velocity, but every class had similar scaling early on. This guy was an outlier.
Back at the Novice Village’s Altar of Rebirth, Bulwark Pagoda stared at his screen in a numb trance. He had dropped to Level 1 and lost a piece of Level 5 gear.
"What the fck was that? He one-shotted me?" His understanding of the game’s balance was shattering. He was a tank, and he’d been deleted in a single rotation!
Back at the Twisted Treant King’s clearing, Liam stared coldly at the Assassin.
"What now? You want to test your mechanics against mine?"
With ten years of experience from his past life, Liam wasn't about to lose in a contest of skill.
The Assassin beckoned with a finger, then vanished into Stealth again.
Whiz!
Liam didn't hesitate. He drew his bow and unleashed Rapid Fire. Two arrows tore through the air, their trajectories calculated so perfectly that they forced the Assassin out of hiding instantly.
Whiz!
Liam didn't give him a second to breathe. Once forced out, the Assassin wouldn't be allowed to slip back into the shadows. Behind them, the Twisted Treant King began to regenerate its health, but Liam didn't care.
Arrows flew in a steady stream. The Assassin swung his daggers, parrying the projectiles one by one.
Liam remained composed, his rhythm unwavering. Every shot carried over 500 points of damage. While the game allowed daggers to deflect arrows, the sheer force of Liam’s strikes meant the Assassin’s weapon durability was plummeting.
Sure enough, after parrying a dozen arrows, the Assassin’s expression darkened. Facing the next volley, he didn't dare block. He performed a desperate backflip, narrowly dodging the shaft.
"Die."
Liam sneered. Another arrow streaked out, catching the Assassin square in the gut mid-flip. The impact knocked the man back, stalling his momentum in the air.
The follow-up shot arrived before he even hit the ground.
-502!
Two hits. The Assassin died on the spot, his body dissolving into light as he was sent back to the Altar of Rebirth.
Liam’s eyes lit up as a pair of boots dropped from the corpse. At the same time, he noted something interesting: the Assassin’s health had been unusually high. A standard Level 8 Assassin should have been a one-shot kill for him.
Brutal Boots (Elite): Level 7
Effect 1: Movement Speed +0.5
Effect 2: Critical Rate +1%
Durability: 100/100
Liam nodded. The attributes were a perfect fit for his current needs, though it was a shame they didn't offer any Attack Velocity. That was his priority. The faster he attacked, the more Health he stacked. The more Health he had, the more devastating his basic attacks became.
Stowing the boots, Liam turned back to the Twisted Treant King. Without any more interruptions, the boss was nothing more than a punching bag.
Normally, the boss’s Thorn Shield—which reflected all incoming damage—would have been a problem. But with Liam’s Precision Shot, he kept the boss permanently staggered, preventing it from ever casting a skill. This was the beauty of Novice Village bosses; they lacked the Unstoppable status that mid-game bosses possessed.
System: You have killed the Twisted Treant King (Boss). You gained 8,250 XP.
System: You are the first player to kill a Boss. A Server-Wide Broadcast is about to begin. Do you wish to hide your name?
"No."
Liam had lived a second life. He didn't need to hide behind a cloak of anonymity for a mere First Blood. He needed fame. He needed prestige. That was the only way to climb to the pinnacle of power. To resist The Alait System, one man's strength was not enough. He needed to lead, to control the board.
[Server-Wide Broadcast]: Congratulations to player "Frost Monarch" for achieving the First Kill of the Twisted Treant King! Let this be an inspiration to all players.
[Server-Wide Broadcast]: Congratulations to player "Frost Monarch" for achieving the First Kill of the Twisted Treant King! Let this be an inspiration to all players.
...
System: Congratulations! You are the first player in Twilight of the Gods to slay a Boss. Rewards: AP +50, Class-Specific Skill Tome x1, Class-Specific Main Weapon x1, Gold Sovereigns x100.
Liam grinned. Soloing a boss yielded incredible rewards. He immediately dumped all 50 Attribute Points into Attack Velocity. His stat jumped from 1.13 to 2.13. In the current stage of the game, that speed was peerless.
Chain Lightning (Passive Skill): 1-Star Rank
Effect: Basic attacks have a 50% chance to trigger Chain Lightning. The bolt jumps up to 10 targets within a 20-meter radius. Chain Lightning deals 10% of your actual damage.
Cooldown: None.
Cost: None.
Mastery: 0/1,000
Liam raised an eyebrow. This was interesting. If the skill rank increased, would that damage scale up to 90%? Would the bounce count and range increase? The possibilities were terrifying. His single-target damage was already broken; this skill solved his only weakness: lack of AOE.
While Liam studied his new skill, the rest of the world was in an uproar over the broadcast.
"Holy sht! Who is this guy? Soloing a Novice Village boss this early? He's a monster!"
"Frost Monarch? Never heard of him. Does anyone know which guild he belongs to?"
"I thought the trigger conditions for those bosses were nearly impossible. There are ten bosses in the Novice Village, and no one else has even found one yet!"
The top-tier players were the most shocked. They knew exactly how absurd it was to solo a boss at this stage of the game.
Liam didn't care about the chatter. He opened his reward chest to check the weapon.
Thunder-Strike Bow: Silver Grade
Requirement: No Level Requirement, Archer Class only.
Effect 1: Attack +300
Effect 2: Critical Rate +15%
Effect 3: Attacks have a 15% chance to trigger Paralysis.
Effect 4: Attacks have a 15% chance to deal Splash Damage to nearby enemies.
Liam stared at the stats and felt a bit deflated. It was... okay. To him, the Paralysis effect was the only useful part, and the proc rate was abysmal. As for the Attack Power, it didn't matter. Once his Health stacked high enough, his base Attack stat became irrelevant.
It was a decent bridge weapon for the Novice Village, but for a Silver Grade item, it felt like a bit of a letdown.
"Where's my Attack Velocity boost?" he muttered. This felt like the system was trolling him.
Shaking it off, he turned back to the boss’s corpse for the real loot.
System: You obtained [Necklace of the Treant King].
System: You obtained Skill Tome: [Resurgence].
System: You obtained [Helm of the Treant King].
System: You obtained 5 Gold Sovereigns.
System: You obtained [Heart of the Treant King].
Liam scanned the items. Aside from the gold, nothing seemed immediately useful until his eyes landed on the skill.
Resurgence: 1-Star Rank
Effect: Restores 1 Health per second. This effect is not interrupted by taking damage.
Cooldown: None.
Cost: None.
Mastery: 0/1,000 (Mastery equals current Max Health. Note: This skill has no Star-Rank ceiling.)
Liam froze. He looked at the Mastery requirement again. A slow grin spread across his face. Was the system finally giving him a break?
His innate talent, Hand of Heavenly Punishment, allowed him to stack infinite Health. This skill scaled directly with that. Passive health regeneration that couldn't be interrupted was, in many ways, even more broken than Life Steal.
"Learn."
Resurgence (Passive Skill): 3-Star Rank
Effect: Restores 50 Health per second. Not interrupted by taking damage.
Cooldown: None.
Cost: None.
Mastery: 25,130/100,000 (Mastery equals current Max Health.)
Perfect. With this, Liam’s survivability had just skyrocketed.
"Hurry up and get back here. Don't you want to level?" Liam sent a quick message to Bulwark Pagoda, having already muted his private notifications and friend requests from the public.
Then, he went back to the grind.
Whiz!
Liam equipped the Thunder-Strike Bow and sent an arrow screaming into the core of an Elite Twisted Treant.
-1,524!
A massive red number erupted. Critical hit! Simultaneously, an arc of electricity leaped from the target, jumping through five nearby Treants.
-152! -152! -152!
Six Treants immediately aggroed and began lumbering toward him. Liam didn't blink.
Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!
Critical. Critical. Critical.
His crit rate was now 16%, which was respectable for the early game. Combined with his ability to hit weak points for bonus damage, the Elite Treants—which used to take twelve arrows to kill—now went down in four.
Thanks to Chain Lightning, by the time the first Treant died, the others had already lost 608 Health each. He began kiting, pulling more and more Treants into his orbit.
"Chain Lightning is a double-edged sword," Liam noted as he watched the growing mob behind him. "Pulling this much aggro... if I can't tank the hits, I'm dead in two seconds."
But with his staggering Attack Velocity—four arrows every two seconds—he cleared them with ease. As the chain lightning thinned the herd, the Treants at the back only required two or three arrows to finish off.
System: You have reached Level 7. AP +5.
He dumped them all into Attack Velocity. It climbed from 2.13 to 2.23.
"I'm back!"
Bulwark Pagoda finally arrived, panting, only to stop dead in his tracks as he watched Liam’s terrifying clear speed. "You've... you've gotten even stronger."
Liam sent a party invite. The split remained 90/10 in favor of the tank.
For the next three hours, Liam focused on completing the contract. With a 2.23 Attack Velocity and Chain Lightning, he boosted Bulwark Pagoda all the way to Level 10. Along the way, he managed to drop the full Treant Set he had promised.
Bulwark Pagoda equipped the set, his jaw dropping as he saw his new stats. "This... this is insane!" The set bonuses were bordering on game-breaking for a Level 10 tank.
"I also have two Black Iron pieces that dropped from the King," Liam added. "They won't break your set bonus and they'll boost your stats further."
"How much?" Bulwark Pagoda asked. He had spent enough time with Liam to know how this worked.
"Fifty thousand each."
Bulwark Pagoda winced. Liam was definitely a shark. "Fifty thousand for Black Iron at this stage... fine. Deal."
He was wealthy enough to afford it, even if most players would never dream of spending a hundred thousand on gear that would be obsolete in a week. But for that week, he would be an unkillable god.
Once the transfer went through, Liam’s smile widened.
"Pleasure doing business. I'll probably have more gear soon. Let's keep in touch."