It's been six weeks since Daniel started practicing with the sword. Like usual, he did his image training and swung his sword around, he tried to remember every monster’s vital point and strike it swiftly with the sword. Now Daniel can even do some of the acrobatic movements he used in the game.

By using the breathing technique he learned from the website, Daniel felt he could do rigorous training longer without rest. Happy with the result, Daniel practiced the technique until he could breathe normally using the technique. Now he was breathing with the breathing technique even while asleep.

Back from his training, Daniel browsed the internet for part time jobs. The equipment he sold last time would only last for two more months and it's unlikely for him to find any rare equipment any time soon. He decided to look for part time job to cover his monthly expenses. After a few job applications, he entered the capsule.

***********************************

Capsule System Scanning.........

The log in this time was a lot longer than usual. When Chrono finally logged in, he looked at the surrounding thinking maybe there's a new patch update. But he didn't notice anything uncommon, he then opened Emperor Saga’s global announcement at the user interface but nothing new. Then Chrono saw another weird system message, his surroundings blurred and only one window was visible

Searching System Data....

"(Does my capsule have a problem?)" But Chrono just did the maintenance yesterday, he didn't find anything out of ordinary. He could only wait now since he couldn't even log out. Then the system window changed again.

Finalizing system decision.............

Now calming down, Chrono just sat and waited. "(At least the system is doing something.)" After a while, the window changed once more.

Loading system data...

Finally Chrono surroundings turned back to normal, after a few seconds he heared the system sound, a window popped up.

Trting!ting!!

The system recognize your breathing in the capsule as one of the effective breathing technique. You gain a new skill, 'Breathing Technique'.

Breathing Technique(Passive):

A proper breathing can enhance your body and soul

Reduce the amount of stamina used by 50%

Reduce the amount of damage taken by 10%

A new skill!! Chrono had generated plenty of skills using various ways, but he had never thought skills could be earned this way. "(Which means Seth told me the truth, I should thank him later.)" The skill bonus is great too, the damage reduction is good but the skill’s highlight is the 50% stamina reduction which is great, it could be considered one of those broken skills. He closed the window and went back to his usual grinding.

***********************

Stat Window

Character name

Chrono

title

Butcher

Level

45

Class

Merchant

Health

360

Mana

300

Fame

0

Strength

57(+35)

Dexterity

149

Endurance

29

Wisdom

31

Intelligent

28

Sense

75

Luck

26

Stamina

60

Legendary Sword Stat Window

Sword Name

Grave

Class

Soul Necromancer

Level

45

Soul

10,000

Attack

40~45

Durability

60/60

Cooking skill level Beginner level 6.

Foraging level beginner level 8.

Repair level beginner level 8

Blacksmith level beginner level 5.

Spear Throw(Passive) (Level 1 Intermediate):

Spear throwing will have additional damage, speed and distance.Can knock back enemy with heavy spear.

Damage + 50%

Speed + 30%

Distance + 100%

WOOSSHH!!

Back Stab!!

Critical Hit!!

"Wha?!" The party was startle by the sudden ambush. Then another spear came flying after their comrade.

WOOSSHH!!

Critical Hit!!

And another one on the same person

WOOSSHH!!

Critical Hit!!

You successfully kill a person. -100 fame

Then a man wearing a skull mask appeared from the thicket. "................" Without a word, Chrono held Grave in his hand.

"Wait! We are just passing by, we promise we..." Before the user finished his words, Chrono charged at him and attacked.

Critical Hit!!

"Tch! Forget it, just fight him! We have got 4 people anyway." The other users drew their weapons and attacked him. Chrono engaged the party fearlessly knowing their healer just died and they are 10 level below him.

"(They just got the numbers, I have even hunted wolf packs with ease)" With his enhanced combat ability, Chrono got a lot more fearless than before, he even hunted a party with 5 people. Of course, Chrono stalked them first and measured their strengths and weaknesses before he ambushed them.

You successfully kill a person. -100 fame

Your health restored by 25%

Because Chrono kill their healer first, the party can't heal themselves and died one after another helplessly. On the other hand, Chrono health replenish by 25% every time he kill a person make it easier for Chrono to overpower the party.

You successfully kill a person. -100 fame

Your health restored by 25%

You successfully kill a person. -100 fame

Your health restored by 25%

You successfully kill a person. -100 fame

Your health restored by 25%

By heartlessly slaughtering innocent people, you gain a new title, Blood Seeker.Now you can gain infamy point by doing evil deed.

Chrono searched their bodies, looking for dropped items. All 4 warriors dropped equipment, but the healer dropped a poster.

WANTED

Name

Chrono

Class

Unknown

Level

Unknown

Status

Deadly dangerous

Description

Kill on Sight

Bounty

30 Gold

"(They are bounty hunters? But why were they avoiding me?)" Usually a bounty hunter would attack him when he appeared. But this party, even with 5 people tried their best to avoid fighting him.

"(And they looked like they were in a hurry to reach Dali? Hhmmm...)." Chrono was wondering and thinking of all the possibilities. For the past month, the bounty hunters had been abnormally quiet. They sometimes only observed him from afar without closing in. Chrono managed to kill a hefty amount of them by pursuing them. After a while Chrono opened his eyes.

"(Something is off)"

*****************************

In the Town of Dali, a hundred users ranging from level 20 to level 80 gathered at the town square. A temporary clan created by Jason and James exclusively to hunt Chrono. Some of the users gathered were Chrono’s past victims. The clan name is 'Purpose' because its sole purpose is to hunt Chrono.

"We will surround him tonight and kill him!" Jason spoke in a loud voice explaining tonight’s strategy to his clan. For tonight’s mission, Jason and James scouted Chrono for a whole month. They even send a few people to determine Chrono’s route, hunting grounds and fighting strategy. Both of them devised their plan for a whole month.

After the long speech, Jason and James led the clan to the Forest of the Beast.

*****************************

Anticipating the bounty hunters’ plan somewhat, Chrono forged more spears. In the end, Chrono got 50 heavy spears and 50 javelins. His Blacksmith skill gained one level on the way.

Spear throw or javelin toss are the less popular skills in the world. The skill itself is very damaging, but user needs to either retrieve the spear or have another spear to throw again. Normal warriors can only carry up to 5 javelins, anything more will hinder their speed and mobility. The skill is also hard to use in direct combat, the skill only proved to be effective during ambushes. This characteristic made the skill extremely unpopular and only a few spear users have the skill without actually using it. But with the 'Ancient Merchant’s Secret' skill, Chrono could use all 100 spears he has in his arsenal.

Normal people will run if they know someone was setting a trap for them. But Chrono is not normal, he is a gamer that loves a challenge. Instead of running away, he devised a plan to counter the bounty hunters’ plan. He scouted around the forest to plan his escape route and ambush spot while considering his own strong and weak points.

Chrono’s strong point is his speed while having quick judgement, but to him his best weapon is his stamina. Drawn out fights always made him come out on top and his superior stamina made fighting multiple enemies possible. And Chrono’s weak point is his low health and extremely low defence. He tried to cover it by having the metal arm guard to parry attacks but still, one normal hit from a decent user could decrease his health by 30%.

With his current level, the shadow boots he crafted back then became available.

Shadow boot :

A boot made from black cat fur.Light and soft, its weight almost non existent

Defense : 2 Durability : 30/30

Dexterity : +10 Restriction : Level 45 +

With the Shadow Boots bonus, Chrono managed to cancel out the metal arm guard’s penalty and gain a bit more speed. Using accessory crafting, Chrono made a skull mask just to make users fear him and let them think he is a higher level. Mask crafting material is easy to get, but Chrono thought it was useless to grind accessory crafting by making masks since it takes 1 hour to produce one mask and it doesn't give much experience.

Skull Mask :

A mask made from disgusting skull.

Defense : 1 Durability : 50/50

Now Chrono was ready for anything, trap or not. He pretended he didn't know anything and continued his daily routine.

****************************

The clan 'Purpose' initiated their plan as soon as they arrived at Forest of the Beast. The clan divided into two parties, Jason’s party and James’s party. Jason led his group to close in from the north while James’s party closed in from the south-west. They had studied the forest for a month, their route did not encounter any monster lair on the way.

Using his 'Fear Death' skill, Chrono knew he was surrounded. 'Fear Death is one of the passive skills that doesn't level, but the sense stat improved the skill’s effectiveness. Now even with the 'predator' skill, Chrono could feel the bounty hunters’ presence and he could even pinpoint their exact location.

"(3...4...5... more than I expected)" Chrono counted the number of bounty hunters closing in. He ran in the direction he anticipated had less bounty hunters. Whenever a user was isolated from the group Chrono closed in on the user and attacked with Grave.

Critical Hit!!

Chrono just attacked once and moved on without killing the user. Fighting a user would be time consuming and besides, isolated users may be bait to make Chrono preoccupied with fighting a user while the others close in. Chrono kept on running without stopping, he needed to reach his destination before he got completely surrounded.

"(It's Friday, it will sleep at that cave.)" Chrono planned his route in his head so he could reach the cave without encountering many bounty hunters. On the way, Chrono sensed one bounty hunter on his right side and one to the front. He decisively threw a heavy spear to the hunter on the right side.

Critical Hit!!

Knock back by 100 meter

With all of his experience fighting users, Chrono could strike the human and elf vitals without even looking.

Then, he charged at the bounty hunter in front of him with Grave. He managed to attack two times.

Critical Hit!!

Critical Hit!!

He actually wanted to move on, but the hunter gave him an unexpected opportunity. The hunter fell to the ground defensively from Chrono’s dexterous and strong attack. Chrono took this opportunity to finish him off with Grave.

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

Your health restored by 25%

Chrono continued to run, when he sensed another 4 users in front of him. "(What? Is there another party? How many actually come after me?)". Chrono made a quick decision by planning a new route in his mind.

"(I need to take a detour.)" Chrono then ran in another direction, he encountered more bounty hunters this time, but Chrono managed to pass by them somehow. He injured some of the bounty hunters but nothing fatal until he finally reached a swamp.

To reach his destination, he needed to cross the swamp. Unlike normal terrain, the swamp would take more stamina which is fatal in Chrono’s current situation. But he decided to take a gamble and cross it anyway, he jumped to the swamp and tried to cross it as fast as possible. Thanks to the swamp’s thick fog, Chrono didn't become an easy target for archers.

When he finally crossed the swamp, he ran as fast as he could to his target location. Finally the target location was visible to his eyes, a cave. But in front of the cave’s entrance, there were 30 bounty hunters waiting for him and Chrono sensed another 20 lying in ambush. Instead of pursuing Chrono, Jason took his party to Rydon’s cave and waited for him.

"We were right, he wanted to use that old cheap strategy."

"It's Friday night, Rydon sleeps here."

"Luring us to the monster and using your 'Fake Death' until we are in critical condition and finish us off is a strategy you used too many times". Multiple bounty hunters spoke simultaneously when finally Jason came out.

"We also anticipated you luring us to the Rydon’s cave would be one of your underhand tactics." Jason smirked as if he had already won.

Without a word, Chrono sheathed his sword. Now everyone knew his plan, no need for him to say anything. He summoned a portal and took out a javelin. With all his might, he threw the javelin to the cave.

"GROAARR!!"

A cry came out from the cave. Rydon’s cave is quite simple, only a hundred feet from the entrance, the cave ended and Rydon would be there in its slumber every Friday night.

"Stay away from the entrance!!" Realizing Chrono had aggravated the boss monster, Jason ordered his comrades to stay away from Rydon’s cave.

But Chrono unsheathed Grave and charged at the panicking party.

Critical Hit!!

Critical Hit!!

Critical Hit!!

"Argh!! Just fight him already!" Jason and his party retaliated against Chrono’s attack. A few seconds later, Rydon came out and attacked Chrono and Jason’s party with his huge area of effect attack, 'Earth Smash'. Anticipating Rydon’s action, Chrono activated.

'Shadow Ghost'

BOOOMMM!!!

The attack hit all of Jason’s party, but Chrono in ghost form couldn't be hit by any physical attacks, the attack just passed through his body. On the other hand, a few of the users in Jason’s party were in critical condition from Rydon’s attack.

Ignoring Rydon, Chrono attacked the bounty hunters in critical condition. He also threw his spear to the further target.

Critical Hit!!

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

25% of health restored

Critical Hit!!

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

25% of health restored

Critical Hit!!

Knock back by 100 meter

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

"Kill him!!" Annoyed by Chrono’s action, Jason ordered his party to attack Chrono and ignore Rydon. The remaining bounty hunters hiding in the thicket came out to help. But Rydon’s damaging attack is something they couldn't ignore. The party took heavy damage from Rydon alone. Chrono was attacked by Rydon too, but he managed to dodge its attacks with flair while attacking the bounty hunters.

Rydon is a level 300 boss monster. Its strength is out of place in the Forest of the Beast but its usually a tame monster that will never attack unless aggravated. While it is wandering around in the Forest of the Beast, a user can even touch him without getting attacked. But when he attacks only a few survive. A normal attack from a 4 meter tall stone golem is no joke. Its area of effect skill is also formidable, it can wipe out a party without proper preparation.

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

25% of health restored

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

25% of health restored

Chrono managed to finish off a few more bounty hunters in their 3 way fight. With all the fighting and running earlier, Chrono’s stamina had 40% left. At this rate he would never win, but he still got another plan. At this time, James’s party came out of the swamp, they were puzzled by the current situation but they engaged in the battle anyway.

"Our priority is to kill THAT guy, just attack him even if he seems dead!" Realizing there was no way Chrono could get out of the current situation without using his 'dirty' trick, James ordered his party to kill Chrono at all costs.

But Chrono had already anticipated this situation, he used the strategy too many times to fool the bounty hunters. He sheathed Grave and jumped around to Rydon’s back in the confusion.

"I will show you my enhanced strategy!!" For the first time, Chrono’s voice was heard.

As a stone golem, there are many holes on Rydon’s body. Chrono observed Rydon a few times before. Because it was usually tame, Chrono had even inspected the body in detail. Now he knew everything about Rydon’s body.

Chrono reached the top of Rydon’s head instantly, with Grave in its sheath Chrono had his hands free thus making it easier for him to climb to Rydon’s head to oppose to his pursuers. Chrono jumped to one of the biggest holes in Rydon’s body.

"You fool!!" The hole can fit a person but nothing more, plus the hole will get smaller and sandwich Chrono if Rydon notices a user in the hole. Bounty hunters dashed to Chrono but what they saw in the hole was a 'corpse'. When they tried to finish off Chrono’s 'corpse', a big giant hand came from the side. Since Chrono is a 'corpse' Rydon didn't notice him and the hole didn't get smaller, another one of his cheap tricks!!

"Just focus on killing that bastard!!" Both Jason and James shouted. In reality, they were starting to panic. No archer or mage could target a specific hole to hit. And Rydon would retaliate against anyone who attacked its body. It turned out Rydon was now Chrono’s guardian.

"We have more than 90 people, let’s kill this thing first!!" Realizing their initial plan’s failure, Jason and James changed their plan. They started to fight Rydon seriously.

***************

BAAMMM!!!!

It's been more than 3 hours and the fight with Rydon got fiercer than ever. Learning from the wolf pack, Jason and James ordered their party to let users in critical condition rest at the back while users with a good condition fought on the front line. Both Jason and James with their exceptional skill, stayed on the front line the whole time coordinating and attacking with their party without rest.

But there was another reason Jason and James copied the wolf pack strategy. A party with more than 90 people under normal circumstances should be divided themselves into smaller parties. Usually normal leaders would divide it into 18 parties that have 5 people each, which consist of 4 attackers and 1 healer. But for some reason, Jason and James recruited no healers.

"Why do not we have any healers?" Realizing the situation, a clan member asked his comrade beside him.

"I don't know, my friend is a healer but the clan leader refused him from joining the clan."

"Now that you mention it, my friend also wasn’t allowed to join the clan."

"Now I realize there's no healer in our clan."

Hearing their underlings grumble, both Jason and James shouted in sync.

""A true man needs no healer!!!""

"WHAT?!!" Everyone answered in unison. In their minds, Jason and James’s ideal led to the current state of disaster. Most of them thought they should leave the clan after it's all over.

But even without healers, the clan took no casualties when fighting Rydon. Thanks to Jason and James’s extraordinary skill and coordination, Rydon was only left with 10% health. But this was when the real fight began.

GROAARR!!! The stone golem’s body turned dark grey ,now his physical and magic defence rose by 500%.

"Now it's like we have to fight him with full health." The bounty hunters tried to struggle, but even with their best skills, Rydon took little to no damage. Currently the hunter clan had several people in critical condition and not even one user with full health. When the situation turned grim, a user came out from the golem’s hole and stood on its head.

"Here comes Chrono." With a skull mask no one could see his expression, just his blood red chaotic eyes.

********

Chrono threw a javelin before he jumped down from the golem’s head. The light spear hit one of the users that in critical condition at the back of the party.

You successfully kill a person. + 100 infamy

As soon as he reach the ground, he unleash another spear.

Critical Hit!!

Knock back by 100 meter

He ran to the nearest thicket while dodging Rydon’s attack and attacked a few bounty hunters on the way.

Critical Hit!!

Critical Hit!!

When he reached the thicket, he disappeared. Since the bounty hunters had been fighting Rydon for the last 3 hours, they had almost forgotten about Chrono, his surprising re-emergence startled them.

"After him!!" After a few moments, Jason and James finally grasped the situation, they both ordered their party to go after Chrono instead of fighting Rydon. Fighting Rydon while Chrono was scheming something was too risky for them.

When they got near the thicket, a spear flew through and suddenly hit a bounty hunter.

Critical Hit!!

Knock back by 100 meter

With the thick fog, the spear looked like it appeared out of nowhere. The bounty hunters ran in the direction the spear originally flew from. They didn't even sense Chrono with their predator skill but they already know Chrono has the 'Walking Dead' skill that will make him untraceable but it requires mana and will wear out eventually.

The bounty hunters ran after Chrono but there was no sight of him even after running for a while. "Search thoroughly!!" Jason and James ordered their party to spread out to search for a trace of Chrono. But because they were near the swamp, a thick fog covered the whole thicket making it hard to search for someone while avoiding Rydon and strangely their predator skill couldn't trace anything.

"The thick fog makes it easy for him to ambush with his spear, be careful"

"I know he has a skill that makes him untraceable but that requires mana and this is too long."

"It's strange, something’s off." Jason’s instincts were right there was no trace of Chrono, Rydon’s chase made their thought process a lot slower and they couldn't search for Chrono properly. It was then when they all received the same quest message.

TTrtingtiing!!

Bounty Hunter Sudden Quest : The Red Eye.

A chaotic user rampaging through the Forest of the Beast!! Someone stop him!!

Reward : Extra 50 gold if caught the user red handed.

Their eyes widened, this kind of sudden quest only appeared when a chaotic user had killed at least 50 people in less than 48 hours. It's a system that makes chaotic players restrain themselves from killing too many other users in a short time interval. Even for experienced bounty hunters, it's hard to get this kind of quest.

"(Is it him? I remember he only killed less than 10 people......Wait!!)" Jason and James realized something as they both shouted in unison.

"Rydon’s cave entrance, NOW!!" Now they realized the injured users left at the cave entrance were unprotected.

"(Damn, why didn't I think about it earlier.)" Both Jason and James had the same thought. But searching for Chrono in the thick fog while avoiding Rydon is not an easy task. When they finally reached their destination, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped as they saw what was in front of their eyes.

CARNAGE

And one man wearing a skull mask standing in the middle of the users’ dead bodies under the crescent moon, Chrono stood triumphant.

"OWNED"

********