As soon as Jisha's foot hit the darkened grass, a wave of discomfort assuaged her body.

*>System message: New biome discovered - Traveling Corrupted Land.*

*>You are the first player to discover this biome! Dispensing rewards:*

*>+1 Silverium*

*Oh?*

1 Silverium had been awarded to her coin pouch for discovering this biome. For the current Fae Sol, this was a ludicrous amount of money.

To put this in context, 100 Copper could be exchanged for 1 Bronzium, and 100 Bronzium could be exchanged for 1 Silverium. She essentially had gained 10,000 Copper.

*Well, I guess it makes sense.*

Synergy incentivized exploration, and the system would give exploration-related rewards quite often.

Traveling Corrupted Land was not a common biome, and it was extremely unlikely for it to show up where it did. Hence, the reward was fair. In fact, it might have even been lacking.

*I forgot about biome discovery rewards. New biomes were so rare in the end game...*

Jisha was going to take everything she could get in this game, including more discovery rewards... and the Boss of this Corrupted Land.

*I wonder where it could be...*

At the center of every Traveling Corrupted Land, there would be a boss monster that was the source of the corrupting miasma. If she could find and defeat it, the system would undoubtedly reward her handsomely.

Jisha continued running deeper and deeper into the Corrupted Land.

-1

*Looks like it's started.*

After entering this biome, Fae Sol was exposed to miasma that was dangerous to normal players. Unlike poison gas, which could only be ingested by breathing, miasma could negatively impact a body just by coming into contact with it.

*Doesn't look like this one's too dangerous, though.*

She had only lost 1 HP after a couple of minutes, so it was clear that this was a low-level Corrupted Land.

*Gotta hurry up, though.*

No matter how slow the HP corrosion was, it was still faster than her natural regeneration. She couldn't idle.

-1

After several more minutes of running, Jisha encountered her first mob in this land.

*>Name: Corrupted Air*

*>Level: 5*

It was a massive purple gas cloud that hung in the air, blocking her path forward.

*The first level 5 mob I encounter is not currently killable. That's fun.*

Though it was called Corrupted Air, in reality, this cloud comprised thousands of small organisms that could float. These organisms thrived on the miasma of the area, making them dangerous to the touch. Jisha would need a stronger area-of-effect attack to be able to wipe them out; it was impossible to do significant damage with pellets slightly smaller than her palm.

Whether she liked it or not, Jisha would have to detour around them.

-1

As she got closer and closer to the center of the Corrupted Land, the grass turned a more vivid shade of purple. She had encountered a decent number of monsters so far, but they were all slow.

*I could have killed them, but I might need all of my ammo for the Boss.*

She had a small idea as to how strong this Boss would be after seeing the levels of the various mobs in the biome. After all, the Boss was the source of the corruption. The difficulty of the surrounding Corrupted Land was directly proportional to the strength of the Boss.

It was still better to save her ammo. The return on investment was much higher for slaying a higher difficulty creature.

-1

The grass was now almost a translucent purple, and the rate at which she took ambient damage was increasing.

-1

Finally, in the distance, through the wilted trees and dead leaves, Jisha caught a glimpse of the Biome Boss.

*>Name: Corrupted Tamaskan Devil*

*>Level: 7*

*Yep, it's strong alright.*

If it was an ordinary level 7 monster, Jisha would have been able to kill it with ease. However, this was not a level 7 common mob, but a level 7 Biome Boss. Despite being described by the same number, the two were not on the same playing field.

*It's also unfortunately hideous.*

If a new player were to see this, they would experience quite the shock. This dog-like creature was not at all like the overly-cutesy mobs Jisha had seen so far. First of all, it was much bigger than an ordinary dog. Even while standing on all fours, it was a bit taller than the current Fae Sol.

It was limping, its fur was falling off, and it was covered in bald spots. Its eyes also appeared cloudy and almost bloodshot. Some of its mouth was torn off, too, exposing its sharp teeth for the world to see.

*It was probably cute in the past. That sucks.*

In the past, this monster could have been an ordinary Tamaskan dog, and they were pretty adorable. It was a different story now. All Jisha had to do now was put it out of its misery... also known as collecting its loot.

*I'm so kind... I'll hold on to your valuables for safekeeping!*

Killing the Tamaskan wasn't going to be difficult, but it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, either. Jisha would have to focus on this hunt.

Jisha was currently about 100 metron away from the Tamaskan. This creature's number one way of detecting its surroundings was via smell. Its hearing was a bit weaker, and its sight was abysmal, so getting spotted in the traditional sense was the least of her worries.

Though other monsters were roaming the area, they were weak or slow enough to ignore. Jisha could hunt the Boss directly.

*Using the Nightwalker... Is out of the question.*

Jisha couldn't think of a good way of closing in on the Tamaskan without alerting it to her presence, but this fight wasn't difficult enough to warrant using the Nightwalker's overpowered abilities.

*I could just climb a tree and shoot it until it dies, but that's too boring.*

In the dog's current state, there was no way it could possibly climb a tree.

But after a couple more seconds of pondering, Jisha had another idea.

*Haha. This might actually work.*

Maintaining a distance of 100 metron from the Tamaskan, Jisha navigated to a spot where she had an open line of sight on the foe.

*Alright, there's no trees to block this now.*

Jisha withdrew her ultimate weapon from her inventory: the Cinnamon Bun. It smelled delicious. In fact, it smelled strongly enough for Jisha to worry about being detected by the dog at this distance.

*Ugh... I want to eat them now... I'm buying lots more of these next time I see them for sale.*

Jisha hastily equipped the Golden Slingshot and loaded the Cinnamon Bun as if it were a projectile.

*I can't believe this works.*

The Cinnamon Bun wasn't directly categorized as a projectile weapon by Synergy, yet for some reason, it didn't matter.

Jisha pulled back on the slingshot, aimed at the Tamaskan, and released.

The bun was clearly far larger than the slingshot, yet by some absurd logic, the slingshot had no difficulty firing.

Of course, there's no way this would have worked in the real world. First of all, the bun would not have fit onto the launch pad. Second of all, the force applied by the slingshot would most likely just squish the bun, making it lose a lot of kinetic energy. Lastly, air resistance would have altered the bun's flight significantly. However, since they were not in the real world, none of these problems mattered. Synergy was realistic, but it didn't replicate every nuance of reality.

After flying through the air, the Cinnamon Bun landed right next to the nose of the dog sniffing the ground.

*Huh. I missed?*

Jisha thought the low-level Corruption wouldn't affect her performance in the slightest, but in extreme cases, like trying to hit a monster from 100 metron with a slingshot and a Cinnamon Bun, her aim was slightly off.

*Oh, well. It's nothing significant. At least I won't be getting attacked.*

-1

"..."

Jisha observed the reactions of the Tamaskan that had been suddenly assaulted with a strong scent at point blank. In its perception, a strong signal had suddenly shown up right next to it. It was as if something bright had appeared next to a person; it was disorienting.

It was clearly startled, but quickly realized the origin of the scent was not hostile. Could it even be... A delicious scent? Unable to resist the sugar, it gave the source of the scent a tentative lick. After a pause, it quickly devoured the whole thing.

*It really likes them, huh? Let's send in another one!*

While the Tamaskan's nose was filled with the cinnamon-y scent, Jisha advanced 20 metron. She quickly loaded and fired another Cinnamon Bun.

This time, she didn't miss, but no damage was dealt. Rather, the dog happily ate the second Cinnamon Bun. Little by little, Jisha fired more Cinnamon Buns and stealthily approached the Tamaskan. When she had 3 left, she had circled directly to the rear of the dog, yet it still hadn't reacted to her presence.

*It should have noticed me by now, but I guess those Cinnamon Buns are just that good. Maybe the threat of a level 5 player is outweighed by that deliciousness.*

However, the sugary sweetness wasn't the only reason Jisha had decided on Cinnamon Buns as a weapon.

Suddenly, the Tamaskan stopped eating and keeled over.

*Now!*

Jisha approached the monster, mounted it, and started firing pellets at its head at near point blank.

-103

-127

-142

-138

...

*This is hilariously stupid, but it's actually working.*

Though cinnamon wasn't toxic to dogs, overconsumption would undoubtedly leave them with stomach problems. As if on cue, the Tamaskan vomited.

*Haha, that's gross. It's probably disoriented, too, with everything that's going on.*

Its movements were sluggish, and Jisha was easily able to maintain her position atop the monster.

*Don't they do this in the Far West? It's quite exhilarating.*

As if she were one of those bull riders with the large hats, Jisha shouted excitedly while slugging the poor creature with pellets nonstop.

...

After 32 shots, the Tamaskan helplessly toppled over, exploding into white. Jisha had accumulated 10 HP of damage, none of which were from the Boss she was just fighting. However, even those measly points of damage didn't matter, because...

*>System message: Level up!*

*>System message: Level up!*

*>Name: Fae Sol*

*>Class: Slingshotter*

*Level: 5 -> 7 (+2)*

*>HP: 107 -> 111 (+4)*

*>MP: 107 -> 111 (+4)*

*>Atk: 11 -> 12 (+1) + 50*

*>MAtk: 53 -> 55 (+2)*

*>AR: 0*

*>MR: 0*

*>AS: 0.5*

A single level-up was enough to full-heal her, much less two level-ups. She had soloed a Biome Boss that was two levels higher than herself. Though it was only a dumb level 7 monster, Jisha was proud of her equally dumb tactic that actually worked.

When the white light cleared, Jisha saw a singular purple item sitting on the ground.

*Ah, is that what I think it is? Crap, my inventory's full.*

A Biome Boss usually dropped multiple items, but this one only dropped one, so it was likely more valuable than normal. Jisha dropped the useless Twigs from her inventory and picked up the purple item to examine it.

*>Name: Shard of Corruption*

*>???*

*A corrupted shard!*

It was a valuable material that could be crafted into a variety of weapons or armors if you gathered enough of them.

*What a find.*

*>System message: Congratulations! You have liberated a Corrupted Land Biome.*

*>+10 Karma*

*>System message: Calculating First Kill Bonus...*

*>+1 Silverium*

*Hmmm...*

As the system messages popped up, the purple grass slowly started turning green where the Corrupted Tamaskan had died. The circle of green expanded slowly, and as it did, life was breathed back into the earth. It was truly a sight to behold.

However, Jisha paid no attention to this beautiful sight. She had expected the First Kill Bonus but had forgotten about the +10 Karma she would receive.

Karma was another genuine hidden stat in Synergy, and it represented one's "alignment". Positive Karma was usually related to "good" beings, and negative Karma was usually related to "evil" beings. Being good-aligned wasn't a bad thing, but Jisha had a small problem with it. If you were good-aligned, you would be punished for killing players. Meanwhile, if you were evil-aligned, the system wouldn't punish you for doing such things.

Jisha was still unsure which direction she wanted to take in this new life. Of course, in her previous one, she had been good-aligned. It had naturally protected her from PvP battles in the wild. Two good-aligned players were discouraged from fighting each other. If you were good-aligned and met an evil-aligned player in the wild, a fight was inevitable, though evil-aligned players were far rarer.

The color of the player's name above their head represented their alignment. If it was some shade of green or white, they were good-aligned. If it was yellow, orange, red, or black, they leaned towards evil.

But Jisha had Shahar's Nightwalker. It wasn't possible for players or NPCs to glean her alignment at a glance.

*I'll have to think about it some more.*

There were many advantages and disadvantages to being evil-aligned, so it would take some time to make a decision.

In the meantime, there was nothing she could do but continue walking towards Inkling Village.