Chapter 10

The kneeling skeleton had his right hand held forward. As in praying motion towards the king like figure seated on the huge stone throne

That was a statue of someone of an important ‘statue’. It seems that this knight was serving that person. Ar at least that is what Dave thought it was.

“Hurry up.” Saide Stainless steel as he finished drinking more potions.

“Alright, alright” Saide Bone Breaker as he moved forward. He picked up the ancient looking ring and gently placed it on the Knight’s hand.

Boen crusher backed away. And stood near Stainless Steel.

Moments later. A dark aura exuded from the pores and openings of the dark knight’s figure. It was powerful and shuddering, it made people’s scalp tingle. The game mimicked reality, by controlling a person’s brainwaves. It could easily instill fear in a player. The AI was not ruthless to make people lose their minds or make them suffer traumas. Sow whenever the level of danger or mental strain became too high a notification would pop up in front of the player, asking them if they needed to reduce the effects or even cancel them. It was designed to make people feel ‘reality’ without harming them.

The game had an agreement that the player needed to sign before they would start playing. And any traumas inflicted due to their own stubbornness would be their responsibility to handle if they were to ignore the warnings.

Dave had such a notification, though he was not in combat, he still ignored it. Dave truly wanted to feel the rush and thrill of this game. These types of psychic attacks were useless against him.

The two guys didn’t do anything yet, they waited for the cutscene to end as the dark knight stood in the middle of the closed room.

Dave paid attention to everything around him and made sure that he was at least 30 meters away from the Boss. Once inside that range, Dave would automatically enter combat stat and his appearance would be revealed.

That was called the aggro range. Dave made sure that he was at least 20 meters away from the max range of the aggro range. Due to this, he was 50 meters away. This was due to a simple reason. If the fight starts, the tank might start kiting the boss fighting a strange boss head-on is deadly. Especially if one doesn’t know the attack patterns or the enemy. They will start by slowly kiting the boss, and moving around gauging the attacks of the enemy. If they have AOE skills or even some summoning skills. Two players would naturally find it hard to fight such a boss without first testing the waters.

Once the monster stood. It was possible to identify it.

The moment Dave inspected the monster. His face instantly paled

Exiled Abyssal Knight Deadra!

Tier (Etheral)

Level ???

Hp???

Defense???

☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠

Don’t even think about fighting this!

“Holy mother of god!” Said Bone Breaker.

Indeed, this was not something any of them could fight! This was too overpowered! Too much and too impossible!

Not even the best-equipped players could even manage to make a dent in an Etheral tiered boss! This boss is ridiculously overpowered!

An etheral tiered boss is at least level 600! And that was the bare minimum! For the two of them who were level 351, and 322. This was not something they could fight!

The boss looked around and stared at the two before him.

He brought his shield up to his shoulder, and his sword smacked on the shield making a deafening sound.

He did that three times, increasing the pressure felt by the two guys immensely.

“You have awoken me from a long slumber! Ready yourselves Mortals!” said the Abyssal knight.

“Shit!” cried out Bone Breaker.

“Fucking hell! This game is fucked up why put something this powerful in this quest!” said Stainless steel dejectedly.

Dave, on the other hand, was stunned. This was something beyond anything anyone in this game had ever managed to even see, not mention fight!

Indeed, this was rather absurd, the game shouldn't put something like this at this stage of the game. At least, two years later when people are able to fight against etheral tiered bosses, could they ace such a monster. Why would the game make it this hard?

“Let’s just try. If we die it is alright, we should fight it and think of a way to get back here when we are strong enough… we will have to catch that bastard Death stroke too. Crap… without him, we can’t do this quest. And at the same time without us, he can’t finish it either… shit we will have to bribe him to aid us in the quest…” said Stainless Steel.

“It doesn’t matter. Once we are high leveled enough we can force tracking bounties on him until he agrees to help us open the gate. If I knew this would happen I wouldn’t have shared the quest with him. Crap.” Said Bone Breaker.

The Abyssal knight didn’t move. He waited until the two of them moved first.

“Alright, let’s just test the waters.” Said Bone Breaker.

Yet the moment he stepped into the aggro range of the boss. Another cutscene appeared. And the two of them were halted in their steps.

The statue behind the two trembled lightly. Then a deathly aura encroached on it. if the abyssal knight’s aura’s pressure was like a ferocious monster. The aura from the statue was like a giant tidal wave crashing on the three of them. The fear level increased significantly. It was as if everyone was facing an ancient demon!

The statue's eyes shone bright and it even moved its head.

“Deadera!” spoke an ancient! Unholy, deep and savage voice! It was devoided of emotions! Yet still, it spoke with cruelty beyond human comprehension! It was but a word that made everyone shudder.

The AI sure was powerful to induce such fear levels in a humùan’s mind!

The moment the word was said, the knight dropped down, his knees crushing the floor.

“KING!” cried out the Abyssal Knight! His voice was filled with unwillingness and hatred. Hatred against the statue. Or whatever was speaking from within it.

“You have no right to walk the lands! You have betrayed me! Die once more!” said the king and a small skull appeared on top of the undead knight.

{-100 000hp!}

{-100 000hp!}

{-100 000hp!}

{-100 000hp!}

{-100 000hp!}

{-100 000hp!}

…

The boss began losing Hp like a ruptured dam!

However, even with the enormous amounts of Hp being drained at every second, his Hp bar was barely being emptied!

Dave inspected the Abyssal knight once more and was surprised to see a debuff appearing on his status screen!

Exiled Abyssal Knight Deadra!

Tier (Etheral)

Level ???

Hp???

Defense???

☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠

Don’t even think about fighting this!

(Cursed!)

Dave then inspected the debuff.

Curse of the Death king!

For every second lose 0.5% of the target Hp until they die!

What a powerful curse!

“Oh, thank god! We have a chance now!” said Bone Breaker with glee.

The statue’s aura disappeared and the cutscene was over.

“Damn it!” roared The Abyssal Knight as he stared at the two before him

“It was because of you!” cried out the Monster.

He really did have ‘emotions’ Dave could only praise the game’s AI for making this so realistic.

“I shall not die alone! At least I will bring you all with me!” he said as he charged forward. His aim was the priest. Probably due to his ‘holy aura’ that was irritating him.

“Oi! Bone Breaker! Pull him away! Pull him away!” cried out Stainless steel as he saw the giant sword coming down on him.

“{Anchor Hall!}” cast Bone breaker

{Anchor Hall} was one of the paladin/tanks main abilities besides {Block}.

Anchor Hall would increase a tank’s threat level by a huge amount. It gave him 200% basic weapon damage as a threat value. Even without damaging the target he would still gain the aggro value with ease.

The moment the threat Level of Bone Breaker increased, the attack target was instantly changed. And Bone Breaker was the target.

Bone breaker played for several years in this game, and he knew well that if he were to take the etheral tiered boss attack head on, he would either die or be very close to it.

Bone Breaker totally gave up on fighting the boss. There was no way he would be able to deal even 1 damage to the boss. Mainly due to the boss having more than 200 levels above him! That was more than enough to make the boss totally immune to Bone Breaker’s damage so he had to remain alive for the time that the boss would die from the curse.

That was the only way! Anything else would be idiotic.

The game wouldn’t make a quest impossible to achieve. This quest was meant for people of these two guy’s level. And having them face an etheral Tiered boss this early would be a mistake on the game’s behalf and also an insult to the powerful AI.

The overbearing Abyssal knight struck down with a powerful attack, strong enough to crush the earth. However, Due to Bone Breaker’s experience in the game. He retaliated with skill!

{Block}

Block. A simple skill, it aides the user in fully negating the damage from a physical attack. It is useless against ranged attacks or magic. But swords? They can’t deal anything with this skill no matter how strong the weapon is.

However, there was something interesting that happened later. Knockback effect.

the difference in strength is influenced by the attack of a weapon. this was implemented in the game due to the nature of Tanks standing strong against powerful enemies without flinching. Now if two targets have different strength levels, the one with the more strength can actually knockback his enemy if his attack lands.

And this happened right now. Even if Bone Breaker managed to defend, he was sent flying twenty meters to a nearby wall.

Block is not an omnipotent skill. It uses multiple variables to defend.

First, was stamina consumption. If a player uses block, their stamina is consumed based on the damage dealt. Furthermore, if the power of the attack exceeds the stamina bar of a player, strength takes place to protect the blocker. If the strength value is still vastly different, then the knockback effect takes place.

This just means that the knight managed to destroy Bone breaker’s stamina bar and even knock him all the way to the wall.

This was added due to the nature of tanks, they could take in strong bosses with ease, but with the knockback effect, they will be forced to run back to the fight every time they are thrown away.

Block was a powerful skill back in the early days of the game. A player can actually use Block rather consecutively. But, it was ‘Nerfed’ later on. Block’s minimum cooldown is 5 seconds now. And moreover. If it was not timed correctly. A second too slow and the attack would fully land on the target. A second too early and the block effect will disappear and make the shield nothing but a decoration in front of the wielder.

It could still net a percentage of the damage, but nothing like the actual skill.

Bone Breaker clearly knew of this, and still decided to block. His objective was not to win the fight but to survive long enough for the boss to die from his cursed statue. So he began shielding himself with the shield and drank a healing potion. Even if the boss didn’t land a hit on him.

His friend then immediately began to fanatically heal him up. The boss’s damage even under the damage reduction of the shield held forward was still immense. Bone Breaker didn’t attack, he only huddled like a turtle behind the shield, and cast {Anchor Hall} every time it was available. If he didn’t do that, then the priest’s aggro value would increase tremendously and he would switch to him if a priest dies first, the tank would naturally follow.

so the two began to fight night, not against the boss. But against time.

While Dave remained motionless at the corner of the room. Waiting, expecting, and anticipating…