The road was faintly lit up by lamp posts. These would serve as light sources when the nighttime comes. The game’s night and day cycle is the opposite of Earth’s. This means that daytime in the game is nighttime in the real world. Leo remembered that this was done to help those with jobs still enjoy the game.

The nighttime doesn’t really affect him at all. Monsters become a bit more powerful and it becomes more difficult to see far ahead, but that’s about it. As long as you pay attention to your surroundings, everything will be fine.

Leo was confident in his ability to sense danger and doubted he would walk into a monster ambush. In his past life, he had heard about and seen many players overestimate themselves and hunt at night in high-level zones only to end up dead from monsters detecting them while they were fighting.

He continued walking and finally entered the mountain range. He walked on the rocky path and found an area with a decent amount of monsters. This entire zone only contains golems of different levels and ranks. The area he had found contained around 12 golems and Leo inspected them to see what he was up against.

Mountain Golem (Common)

Level 10

Health: 6,000

Their health was fairly high but it would still hardly be a problem for someone like Leo. Golems are slow and predictable. He only had a single skill but against such simple monsters that were more than enough.

Leo quickly dashed forward and hit the first golem with his [Spear Thrust] followed by several hits to its upper body.

-98

-97

-180!

-124

His raw attack power was slightly over 200 but the level difference and the golem’s defense reduced it by almost half. Leo launched his spear all over the golem in search of its core. The golem swung its rusty sword towards Leo in a simple arc but only hit empty air. Leo simply moved out of the sword’s way and avoided it with ease.

-124

-125

-187

Bingo! Leo’s last hit perfectly penetrated the golem’s defense and revealed a small blue gem-like core. Once a golem’s core is revealed there’s only one thing to do, destroy it. This was true for almost all golems. The only exception he could think of was high ranking golems with multiple or even moving cores and the golem he fought while locked in the dungeon.

The golem raged and moved it’s left hand to protect the core. Leo elegantly danced around the golem, hitting it from multiple angles and revealing the core once more.

-187

-185

-360!

The golem continued to cry out in pain and sent it’s large foot down on the earth, causing the rocky ground to shake. Leo contracted his body and transferred his energy to his legs. He then jumped towards the golem and planted his left leg at its knee. He quickly jumped once more and bent his entire body in an arc while sending his spear towards the golem’s head.

-136

-92

-94

-96

Several rocky spikes emerged from the ground surrounding the golem but Leo was already mid-air and the spikes simply couldn’t touch him. His attacks landed perfectly and Leo quickly descended back to the ground. The spikes had retracted back to the earth as quickly as they appeared. The golem stood no chance and quickly crumbled to a pile of rocks.

System: Mountain Golem defeated! Awarding 145 EXP!

Leo looked at the experience gained with a satisfied expression. The golem was hardly any more difficult to kill than the wolves in Wasted Mines but gave more than double the EXP. This is only when he fights them alone though. Normally players would fight the golems in a party 3-5, significantly reducing the experience per golem.

Leo picked up the loot which only consisted of a few coppers and a health potion and continued fighting the other golems. It took him a few minutes per kill which quickly added up to a ton of experience.

Minutes turned into hours and Leo finally managed to reach level 10 and invested his attributes into strength and dexterity. He had already lost count of how many golems he’d killed. The loot had been absolutely terrible with nothing but Copper and Bronze quality equipment. He could still use it to make a lot of money but he still needed Iron quality and higher equipment for his upgrades.

Leo looked around the mountainous terrain and suddenly realized how far he had wandered. It would take him more than an hour just to walk back to town. He expected to only fight on the entrance to the mountain range and didn’t bother paying for a teleportation scroll to Leomar Town. Leo now regretted this decision heavily.

Leo let out a sigh and began walking back to town. He suddenly heard the sound of rocks falling and quickly turned his head towards the sound’s direction. He could not see anything and decided to head over to the sound’s origin and figure out if its anything important.

It took him a few minutes to cross the distance due to the terrain. He was met by a gigantic golem completely covered in a reddish type of rock. The golem had two swords in its hands and an evil red colored flame in its eyes. The swords were pitch black like an empty void and gave off a dangerous aura. Leo inspected the golem and was shocked by the result.

Ancient Golem (Lord)

Level 13

Health: 15 000 000

Leo curled his lips into a smile and prepared to take on the challenge of killing a Lord ranked monster. A Lord is one rank higher than a Champion which Leo had previously lost to during his combat trial. Leo still only had a single skill and still needed to invest in upgrading his gear. It would not be an understatement to say that this fight would be gruesomely long.

He first had to figure out if the golem had passive health regeneration. Some higher ranked monsters have some form of health regeneration. A monster with this amount of health would be impossible for a single player to defeat if its health regenerated. Normally players would fight a Lord ranked monster in a group of at least 50. What Leo wanted to do was suicidal and he would have to gamble on the golem’s attacks all being avoidable.

Leo’s heart pumped rapidly in excitement. He could hardly remember the last time he had the chance of fighting such an uneven fight. A single mistake would be the end of him. Leo transformed his spear attachment back to a shield. This would allow him more options when avoiding damage.

Leo dashed toward the golem, his spear ready to hit its kneecap. His feet pushed at the ground and sent small rocks flying behind him. His spear danced through the air and found its way to the golems kneecap.

-82

-83

-51

-53

-55

He quickly made two normal attacks and finished off with his Spear Thrust skill. The damage was severely reduced by the golem’s defense. Leo observed its health bar and could barely see a change at all. The golem retaliated by swinging its swords towards the ground but Leo simply sidestepped and avoided both swords.

He once more checked its health bar and could clearly see that it did not regenerate. Leo let out a relieved sigh and turned his smile into an evil grin. His spear continued to hit its kneecap over and over again.

-83

-82

-161!

The golem’s health decreased ever so slowly but this was not the reason Leo attacked the knee. He continued to attack the same spot until the golem suddenly faltered. Its gigantic body fell down and entered a kneeling position. Leo quickly took the chance to hit its back and search for its core.

-82

-84

-86

-175

Leo got lucky and found the core in just a few hits. He continued to assault the core with everything he had until the golem once more stood up. This back and forth continued for what seemed like hours and the golem’s health slowly decreased.

99%

98%

97%

The killing speed was agonizingly long. Leo prepared to hit its knee once more but was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of spikes shooting out from the ground. He had almost no time to react at all and only managed to minimize the damage by turning his body and having the spikes bounce off his shield. Although he had nearly perfect movement throughout the duration of the skill, he still did not manage to avoid them all.

-(30)

-(35)

-(42)

The attacks made Leo’s health bar drop to critical levels and he quickly used a health potion to regain about half of his health. The potion had a 30-second cooldown and he would die if that attack happened again. Leo backed off for a moment and thought about what happened. He could not find any signs of when the attack would come and had to resign himself to fate. Leo could only hope that it was on a set timer or when the golem reached a certain percentage of health remaining.

He decided to continue the attack but his speed was slightly slower as he continuously concentrated on discovering any hints about when the AOE attack would come. The golem continued to lose health at a slow pace.

96%

95%

94.5%

The earth rumbled and spikes once more shot towards Leo. This time, however, the range decreased slightly as well as the number of spikes. Leo managed to avoid the attack far more easily and only took a single hit.

-(27)

The spikes dealt slightly less damage which combined with all the other clues led Leo to believe that its AOE attack is based on damage received per second. Leo shuddered at the thought of what the spikes would look like if the golem received damage from 50 players all at once.

Leo continued this dance back and forth for hours. His actions were still sharp and precise but his mind began to tire. Any normal player would most likely drop dead from exhaustion. Even top tier experts would find it difficult to endure this long when a single mistake could easily cost your life.

The golem bellowed in anger at Leo’s constant onslaught but could not retaliate. Even as a Lord, with its far superior intellect to common monsters, it still could not see through Leo’s movements. Golems were in most cases just a collection of rocks with a magic core. They already had an almost nonexistent intellect level and even a Lord rank golem failed to see through anything but the simplest of patterns.

After falling down on its knees for who knows how many times in a row, the golem finally understood why. Leo tried to hit its kneecap once more but was met with one of its giant swords. He simply backed off and let out a sigh. Leo was honestly surprised it took the golem this long to catch on.

Leo erupted into a sprint and lowered his entire body in preparation of jumping at the golem. His left foot hit the golem’s knee and the momentum allowed him to jump in the air and land on the golem’s shoulder. Leo quickly transformed his shield into its second form and attached it to his spear. He stabbed the golem’s head repeatedly in quick succession.

-64

-65

-63

-102

-118

The golem sent its sword towards Leo but contrary to its expectations, Leo was no longer there. The sword hit its shoulder and sent out a loud explosion as the metal connected with the weaker stone that made up its body.

-750

A wicked smile appeared on Leo’s face when he saw that his tactic worked. The smile quickly faded and he turned around in a slight panic. Leo surveyed the area but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. He had been certain that he heard a gasping sound. Leo decided to just yell towards the empty scenery.

“Why are you watching me? Are you trying to steal the kill?!”

Silence. Leo had no choice but to ignore it for now and hope that if there’s someone there, he could detect them once they come closer. The fight continued on and the golem reached 50% of its health remaining. It let out a loud growl and began swinging its two swords in every direction. Leo transformed his attachment back to a shield and began rolling around the area. One of the swords came to close to dodge and Leo barely managed to redirect most of its damage potential.

-(50)

He gulped down his last health potion and continued to dodge to the best of his abilities. He began regretting his decision to take the golem on solo. Leo prepared to bring up his friend’s list and ask Alex for help but was interrupted by the voices of several players. He quickly looked towards the horizon and could barely make out a large party of around 70 players. Did the person hiding before alert them?

Leo gazed at the approaching players with regret in his heart. He could have easily contacted Alex and have him bring some of his guild’s top players. It would still be better to share the EXP and loot rather than lose it all to some random players who just happened to find him mid-fight.

The players approach within 30 meters and a man with full plate armor and large shield approached Leo. He had a rough appearance and a large cut stretching from his temple down to his mouth.

“Oh? You managed to take it down halfway in such a short amount of time. Truly impressive, but I must ask you to hand the golem over to us.”

“And if I refuse your kind offer?”

“I don’t think you understand the situation. Look around you. There’s 80 of us and only one of you. Even with your godly gear, it’s not enough to win. Save yourself some experience and let us settle this peacefully.”

“Peacefully? Is that what you call this? Do you normally go around claiming other player’s kill for yourself?”

“You misunderstand. We have actually been following this golem for hours.”

The man pointed at one of the players close to him. Leo recognized his gear as leather armor and quickly saw two daggers at his waist. A Thief player could certainly have followed the golem while in stealth, but why would he not say anything when Leo began attacking it?

“Hoh. And he just happened to not say anything while I fought for my life?”

“Can you blame him? Who would ever believe that a single player could live this long against a Lord ranked monster above their level?”

Leo sidestepped as the golem’s sword came crashing down and hit it with his spear in retaliation before continuing his chat.

“As you said, I have already brought it down to 50%. Do you think it’s fair to lay claim to a monster you only had your eyes on? Don’t you think your Thief player has failed spectacularly in establishing your ownership of the kill?”

“I admit that he could have been more clear, but the fact still stands. Do you really want to make this difficult? Are you not afraid of angering the [Bloodhound] Guild? Or maybe you don’t realize our power?”

Leo searched through his memory for anything about the Bloodhound Guild. He could vaguely remember a guild by that name but they were so low ranked that he knew next to nothing about them. They might be more powerful in this life but Leo refused to be chased away.

“Bloodhound, huh? So you want to pull the guild card? Does the names [Rising Embers] and [Moonlight] ring any bells?”

Leo could see the man’s face turn serious. It looked like he was seriously considering whether to continue fighting for the golem or not.

“Even if you are on friendly terms with Moonlight, they’re not strong enough to cause us problems. I don’t see any of them here to help you. And what about Rising Embers? They split up hours ago. But you didn’t know that, did you? And yet you dare use their name to defend yourself?”

Leo was shocked by his words. Rising Embers split up? Was that the reason why Snow seemed to be in such a hurry? He realized that this situation could only end with a battle and quickly brought up his friend’s list. Leo continued to dodge the golem’s attack while contacting Alex.

‘So Alex, my best friend.’

‘Uh oh, what did you do?’

‘I might have angered the Bloodhound Guild.’

‘Why?!’

‘Long story short. I found a Lord ranked golem and got it down to 50%. They came and laid claim to the kill and now I’m about to fight them.’

‘I-I don’t know what to say. Give me your coordinates and I’ll see what I can do.’

Leo gave Alex the coordinates but had little hope that he could make it in time. His goal was not to have Alex help him kill the golem but to allow him to resurrect at his corpse. That way he would at least not drop a whole level and instead just 40%.

“If you want the golem, you’ll have to fight for it.”

“You still choose to fight? Very well. KILL him!”

The 80 Bloodhound members dashed toward Leo with a greedy expression on their faces. Leo quickly unequipped his ring and cloak in order to avoid losing them. This is something he could only do before the first attack from the players could hit him. Once the fight begins, there’s no way for him to unequip or change his gear.

An arrow came flying towards Leo. He could immediately tell that the Ranger had used the guided mode for projectiles. Leo easily sidestepped the arrow and allowed it to gently bounce off his shield, receiving no damage at all but still making it count as an attack.

System announcement: You have been attacked by the player [Bloodborne] and their party (total of 80 players). You can freely retaliate for 30 minutes without receiving a penalty.

Leo’s lips curled into a sinister smile. The 30-minute timer would be reset every time he received an attack from their party from now on. The timer would go to 0 if he formed or joined a party and the attacking team would be given a 30-second window to stop attacking.

Leo had continued to dodge the golem’s attack throughout the whole encounter with the Bloodhound guild. He quickly dashed toward the attacking party and lead the golem directly to them.

“Watch out he’s trying to lure the golem here!”

“Kill him! What are you aiming at? He’s right there!!”

Leo danced through the rocky wasteland while avoiding all of the attacks from the Rangers and Mages. He could only thank his lucky stars that they weren’t familiar enough with the game to use manual casting. Although shooting arrows and casting magic is harder on manual mode, it gives the player far more control over their attacks. Even just using AOE attacks on him would make it almost impossible for Leo to get to them before dying.

Leo weaved his way through their ranks and attacked several players along the way. His spear moved like it had a mind of its own and perfectly hit their least protected areas. A Ranger got a solid hit to his Copper Quality helmet while a Mage was hit in her unprotected legs.

-107

-112

Both the Ranger and Mage died instantly without knowing how. Leo could not help feel their pain. He would also be pissed off if someone killed him like that. In the end, it’s their fault for attacking him while still missing good protective gear. Even a Legendary chestplate won’t help them at all if the attack is directed at their head. Ekalius Online has an absolutely brutal learning curve and anyone seeing him do these types of things would instantly think it’s due to his weapon.

Leo continued attacking the party with everything he had. He danced around the golem to make their attacks hit it as much as possible. The Bloodhound members began to panic when they saw their comrades die one by one to a seemingly overpowered weapon. It did not occur to any one of them that they could reduce the incoming damage by blocking with their weapons or shields. Why would it? They had never played a game where the gear’s defense is not applied to the entire character. The game had no tutorial at all. They choose their class and entered the game without any direction.

“Get into defensive formation! Focus on the golem and only attack in unison when he gets close!”

Leo let out a sneer. Why did the party have to include someone with a working brain? Their formation made it far more difficult to attack. He had only managed to take down 30 of them and even getting close would now be a problem.

With nothing else to do, Leo resigned himself to attacking the golem. The golem’s health fell rapidly and Leo suddenly leaped up to its shoulders with a few jumps using its leg as a stepping stone.

“Everyone get 10 meters away!”

Leo locked eyes with the Priest shouting out commands. He inspected him but could not remember anyone of importance with that name.

Name: Teluris

Guild: Bloodhound

Level: 13

Class: Priest

He let out a laugh when the party retreated to 10 meters. Sure, if only he attacked the golem that would be enough, but Leo had already established that the amount of damage per second is the driving factor for the AOE’s range, damage and number of spikes. They could only blame their useless Thief for not seeing through that when he watched Leo take it down to 50%.

The golem quickly lost its health and neared death at a rapid pace. Leo tried to increase his damage but it wasn’t enough to ensure that the AOE instantly killed them. This pattern continued for a solid 30 minutes and Leo could see the Bloodhound members begin to return and resurrect at their bodies. They were like an endless swarm of cockroaches, brushing off anything he threw at them as they madly pushed forward for the kill.

The golem neared 0.1% and Leo turned deadly serious. If he managed to get the last hit, he would gain the full amount of EXP. He had, after all, been the one to initiate the fight and taken down more than half its health. As long as he continues to attack without any major break, his first hit on the golem will still count and earn him the right to take 60% of the experience. The last hit will give him the remaining 40%.

15,000

12,378

9,621

Its health quickly went from five digits to four then three.

1,375

957

610

257

127

Leo ceased the opportunity and sent out a rapid attack at its now fully exposed core. He had constantly attacked the core to weaken it all for this very moment. His spear weaved its way through the air and hit the core with deadly precision.

-348!

His hit connected at the very last second and Leo smiled in excitement.

System: Ancient Golem (Lord) defeated! Awarding 87 520 EXP!

Leo let out a mad laugh at the amount of experience. It would normally be split with around 50 players making the total for each player significantly lower, but he had tricked a full 80 man party to help him kill it. In their greed to kill him and snatch the golem for themselves, they failed to recognize that Leo could still get the last hit.

He quickly snatched up the loot while the members of Bloodhound madly dashed towards the golem’s corpse. Leo had been fighting the golem up close this entire time and none of them dared enter within his range.

“It’s over. You’re surrounded and outnumbered 80 to 1. Hand over the loot and we might still let you live.”

Leo laughed loudly at the blatant attempt at extortion. They no longer had a way to get the loot and Leo had intentionally taken some of their attacks with his shield to keep the timer going. He was not a fool. Even if they were completely new to the game and lacked his level of experience, there’s just no way for him to fight his way through their formation.

He had no problem avoiding their ranged attacks when they were in a straight line, but this time was different. Leo prepared himself for death and dashed toward the weakest part of the formation. He would at least take down as many as he could.

“Use AOE attacks!”

“But that will kill our own party mem-”

“I don’t care! USE it!”

Leo frowned at Teluri’s command. He had no way to counter dozens of AOE attacks right now. Leo moved through the formation, hitting everyone he could.

-94

-98

-214!

The party quickly found their members die one after the other. Leo managed to take down 10 of them before the AOE attack came in full.

-(15)

-(17)

-(19)

-(22)...

The AOE attacks did low damage individually but their range and number made up for it. He almost made it through when one of the Mages managed to hit him from behind. The spell took his already low health down to zero and he quickly fell to the ground.

(-45)

System: You have died! Experience reduced by 40% of current level. You can walk back to your body or incur another 60% reduction in experience by resurrecting at the graveyard.

“Haha! That’s what you get for stealing our kill!”

“I hope he dropped his OP spear. I bet it’s at least Epic Quality!

Teluris made his way towards Leo’s corpse with a wide grin on his face. They had lost hours of progress and even the loot from a Lord ranked monster due to his actions. It would all be worth it if they could get his weapon. Teluris lowered his body and initiated the looting process. His face instantly darkened when he saw the system notification.

System announcement: The target does not contain any items.

“How? How can he not have dropped anything!?”

Teluris screamed out in anger after finding out that their hard work had meant nothing. How could he possibly have known that Leo’s armor and weapons were bound and could not drop? Had Leo been the one to initiate the attack, he would at least drop a large amount of coin.

‘Leo how’s it going? I have a party of 70 players about 5 minutes away.’

‘I got the kill and loot but died before escaping. If you could chase them away from my corpse that would be great.’

‘I don’t know if I should be impressed that you still managed to pull off the kill or that you can actually die.’

‘Don’t make me sound like a monster. I’m not invincible you know.’

‘Could have fooled me.’

Leo walked towards his corpse and saw the original 80 players had turned to 70. Their appearances had also changed, confirming that they were not the previous Bloodhound members.

Leo confirmed that the group was from Moonlight and resurrected on the spot. He thanked them for guarding his body and obtained a teleportation scroll to make his journey back to Leomar Town faster.

The experience he gained was enough to bring him directly to level 12 with 47% towards 13. 40% was taken away from his death and Leo ended his adventure at level 12 with 7%. He would normally be almost level 14 with that amount of experience from level 10, but his class simply drained too much experience. Leo felt a headache appear when he thought about the fact that with his gear also needing experience he practically needed 5x the amount of EXP per level compared to others. This would only become more of a pain the higher he leveled.

Leo tore the teleportation scroll and quickly found himself in Leomar Town.

Behind a rock back at the mountain range stood an unknown woman with fiery red hair. Her face was slightly egg-shaped with a rounded jaw and red lips. Her skin was slightly tanned, presumably from constant exposure to sunlight. She had thin black eyebrows and deep brown eyes.

Her height was slightly above average with a slender body. Her muscles were not prominent enough to define her appearance but it showed that she had an athletic body. She had a bright smile on her face as if she had just seen something exciting. Her gaze was directed at the fallen golem Leo defeated just moments ago. She quickly tore a teleportation scroll and appeared in Leomar Town. Excitement filling her face to an almost unnatural degree.