Now level 2, Arthur had 5 attribute points to use, but he had no idea where to put them.
At the moment, his main skills were related to Agility. He was basically a Rogue who could use all types of weapons and armor, but what if he got his second contract and gained access to a completely different class? What would be the best way to use his free points then?
Not that he needed to overthink it too much. It was possible to respec attributes, but it cost money—a lot of it—and there was a cooldown as well.
One week, to be precise.
So Arthur still had to be careful with how he used his free points.
’The Rogue class is probably the best for me in the early game, and I might improve my Beast Taming profession to get a companion... So maybe I should get a Priest class, or something similar, for my second contract?’
He glanced at Suzy for a moment, wondering if he should offer her a contract.
With a DPS class like Rogue, a Priest contract, and a beast companion, his leveling speed would skyrocket, and he wouldn’t need other players anytime soon.
With his first build in mind, Arthur used all 5 points on Agility.
He now had a base Agility of 7, plus another 18 from bonuses.5 came from his Explorer title, 8 came from Shadow Cloak’s contract, and the remaining 5 came from his equipped Iron Sword.
Speaking of Shadow Cloak, even while standing around doing nothing, Arthur was still receiving passive EXP from the contract. Every time Shadow Cloak killed something using his daggers, Arthur earned 5% of the EXP she received.
So even before pulling the boss, he was constantly getting closer to level 3.
’Passive EXP feels way too good.’
After everyone had fully recovered, they got into position to fight the boss.
"I’ll pull it, and we’ll do the same thing we did against the normal goblins," Tower said, once again acting as the party leader. "And Cinder, keep using that skill whenever you can."
Arthur didn’t mind him being the leader. He just wanted to kill the boss and return to playing solo, which was way less stressful.
Tower raised his shield in front of him and used Taunt to lure the boss.
The Goblin Champion roared, much louder than the normal goblins, before charging toward Tower. Each stomp echoed through the forest and shook the nearby trees.
It was a big-ass goblin, standing close to three meters tall and much larger than all the others. Unlike the weaker goblins, the Goblin Champion wasn’t wielding a wooden club either.
It carried a proper iron mace, so large that it was almost the size of a human being.
When Tower saw the creature charging toward him, he immediately became nervous.
Suzy used Minor Blessing on him again, increasing his defense.
"Suzy, get ready to heal," Arthur shouted. "This thing is going to hit hard."
Then he looked at Tower.
"Tower, avoid blocking if you can. Try dodging the attacks instead. Roll to the side."
A tank player could still dodge or sidestep attacks, but they couldn’t do it forever. If the boss kept missing the tank while getting attacked by everyone else, its aggro would eventually shift.
So the tank still had to take a hit from time to time.
"I can’t dodge," Tower said. "If I do that, it’ll attack you guys! Don’t you know that?"
"You can dodge two attacks, tank the third, then dodge another two. Keep repeating that."
Arthur had just casually shared something tank players wouldn’t discover for at least another month.
Most tanks were too scared of messing up and getting the rest of their party killed, so they rarely experimented with dodging. But it was completely possible to dodge two attacks and intentionally tank the third without losing aggro.
Tower looked skeptical. He still wasn’t sure whether he should trust Arthur or not.
Sure, Arthur was a mysterious player, but how could he possibly know something like that?
Suzy and Point Blank were already warming up to Arthur, and this time, it wasn’t Suzy who defended him.
It was Point Blank.
She was already aiming at the boss with her bow, but still shouted from a distance,
"Trust him!"
Tower bit his lip but decided to follow Arthur’s instructions.
When the massive mace came swinging toward him, instead of blocking with his shield, he sidestepped the attack. It was something tank players this early in the game weren’t used to doing.
His movement was a little slow, but Tower still managed to dodge.
The Goblin Champion dealt massive damage, but its mace was basically a two-handed weapon, making its attacks relatively slow.
Point Blank fired Piercing Arrow.
[40 Damage]
The boss had much higher defense than the normal goblins, so her damage was significantly reduced.
Arthur made his move.
He wanted to open the fight with Assassination. The skill had a longer cooldown, so using it at the beginning of the battle was the best option.
"Stealth."
Arthur activated the skill, his body blending into the environment before disappearing completely.
Suzy and Point Blank stared in shock. Tower was too focused on dodging the boss and didn’t even notice Arthur had disappeared.
"I-Invisible?"
They could still see Arthur’s nickname floating above his position since they were in the same party.
Arthur circled around the Goblin Champion and moved behind it.
Rogues had a hidden damage bonus when attacking from behind while using Stealth. The skill description didn’t mention it, but the bonus existed.
It was only 20%, which wasn’t that impressive in the early game, but later on, that number would become much more significant.
The Goblin Champion attacked for the third time.
This time, Tower didn’t dodge. He raised his shield and blocked the massive mace.
Even with the block, the damage was high.
[Attack Blocked, -70 HP]
A powerful hit.
Fighting a field boss this early in the game was no easy task.
Arthur prepared his attack right after the goblin finished its swing. Stealth increased the damage of his next attack by 100%, and attacking from behind added another 20%.
"Assassination!"
Arthur drove his sword deep into the goblin’s right leg.