The Black Stone Knight charged once again.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Its heavy footsteps echoed in the secret boss chamber as it rapidly closed in on him, shield first. Seeing it draw close to him unexpectedly, Satoshi started laughing.

>

“AHAHAHAHAHA… Come at me bro!”

Royal Road was the first ever Virtual Reality Game with a realism factor so high that the virtual world was almost indistinguishable from reality.

This was all nice and all but when you think about it having high realism in a game was also pretty bad. The starting mobs were so lifelike that an ordinary person couldn’t help but feel guilty about hunting them while other monsters looked like the stuff that would come out of horror movies.

For example, this Black Stone Knight.

In terms of its appearance, it was a suit of armour including a helmet with a visor that only allowed the eyes to be seen. Well, that would be the case if the Black Stone Knight actually had any eyes.

Let me elaborate, the suit of armour was completely hollow.

There was nothing inside it.

Well, except for the eerie red lights glowing through the gaps in the armour.

If he had to make a comparison, Satoshi would have said that this boss monster looked a lot like Berserker from the Fate/Zero anime. With a sword and shield that is accompanied by a ghastly breathing sound that vaguely resembled Darth Vader’s.

Though the question of why such a monster with no interior body would make such sounds was largely unknown. Nevertheless, it did add an air of mystery around the creature.

Thus, as the one fighting such a monster with flickering lighting in a room which only had one visible exit, Satoshi was certain that he would have nightmares about this fight later on. On the upside, after the nightmare season had pasted, the Scary Movie dream versions would start. Probably.

That was just the way his mind worked. Completely ordinary right?

Speaking of which, Satoshi’s appearance wasn’t exactly normal either. Appearing to be in his late teens or early twenties with intelligent face and wearing a white long coat, Satoshi seemed to be the sort of person you would expect to see in a science lab than in a dungeon fighting monsters.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to consider any further this because the Black Stone Knight was about to cleave him in half. Evasive actions!

Reacting quickly with movements that liked like they had been rehearsed, he flicked a white ball which had somehow appeared in his empty hand into the space between the Black Stone Knight’s shield and chest plate.

At the same time, he activated an Explorer’s movement type skill to launch himself backwards shuddering as he saw the Black Stone Knight’s Blade draw close to him.

Different people have different ways of hunting in Royal Road. There were some players with blood knight personalities who would look forward to live combat with relish.

There were also people who tried to imitate their idols and media characters as well. If he had gotten a copper for every time he saw someone charge out and yell “Rasengan!” or “Kamehameha!” then he probably would have made quite a few gold coins by now.

On the upside, he could only ever remember one person trying to use “Oppai Power”. Hah… now that had been an amusing scene.

However, having the mentality of a completely normal person, Satoshi was not one of these battle maniacs.

Pain was pain no matter how you cut it. The ingrained fear of getting hurt was an important part of human nature that allowed them to survive for so long. Fear of pain was the main reason why human first developed and continued to improve ranged weaponry.

Thus fighting an agile, armoured monster in a cave with flickering lighting was more than enough to put Satoshi’s nerves on the edge. However, being a player of Royal Road since the very beginning he did have coping methods for this fear.

The sword of the Black Stone Knight suddenly came to a stop in front of him, its tip a few centimetres away from his face. Close call.

“HAH! Were you expecting that kind of shitty charge to work? This ain’t some shitty turn based battle you know!”

Satoshi’s trick was simple really. All he had to do was remind himself that this was all virtual and then his sense of fear would turn to exhilaration.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, this technique was also one of those clichéd skills which were hard to apply in practice.

Look at it this way, if a bear suddenly attacks you in real life would you be able to stay calm and recite the alphabet backwards?

If an alien appears and tries to abduct you would you be able to recall the list of all the anime you were planning to watch this season?

So if some monster with 100% realism was about to attack you would you be in the right state of mind to break the 4th wa- I mean remind yourself that it was all viritual?

Thus, in the end, Satoshi resorted to just doing something he would never do in reality to remind himself this was a game.

Namely, role playing.

When an enemy is about to attack you or when you’re in a crisis… just laugh it off. Laugh like a lunatic to calm down your thoughts and unnerve the enemy. Satoshi had found that trick quite useful trying to focus his mind at the beginning of a battle. It was due to this habit that people have said that he becomes a completely different person when fighting against monsters.

“…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….”

The white ball had quickly expanded with a glow of white light, taking the shape of a suit of white stone armour with a shield and sword which blocked the Black Stone Knight’s attack and pushed back a few steps from its sudden appearance.

It was a White Stone Knight!

No, more accurately, it was a Golem Stone Knight Satoshi had made with the monsters in this dungeon as a model. It was also without a doubt, a lot weaker than the Black Stone Knight in all areas as well.

Another trick he found useful when fighting monsters was conducting research. It was thanks to this habit of his that he became quite reputable in the information guilds.

If you know your enemies strengthens and weakness then you will have an inkling of what to expect and what to avoid.

If they don’t like fire then they were probably used to a wet environment or had affiliation with the forest.

If they don’t like water then you could probably expect fire, ground or rock attacks.

If they don’t like tentacles then… well, let’s not go there.

About a month ago (in-game time) he had entered this dungeon, the Cavern Pass, with a party he had met at the entrance.

Back then, he had concluded from the information he had gathered beforehand that the monsters in the dungeon would be highly resistant to physical attacks and thus would be ill suited for the party which was full of physical attackers. He (kindly) advised the party to give up but they had rejected his advice after hearing that his class was an alchemist and charged in blindly.

Sure enough, that party ended up getting slaughtered by the first mob they ran into. Which was a Stone Knight, a weaker version of the boss he was currently facing.

Since then, Satoshi had advanced ahead alone and explored the dungeon, mapping it out and conducting research on the only type of mob found in the dungeon, namely the Stone Knights.

This said research involved kidnaping... er borrowing a few of the Stone Knights and conducting a series of inhuman, I mean, interesting experiments of them such as submerging them in water to seeing if they could drown, pouring acid on them, dropping them from a height, dissecting them, hitting them with blunt objects, testing their fire resistance… etc.

Cough… cough… speaking of which this was something else he would never do in reality. Illegal experiments that would surely violate human/monster/animal rights.

All this research had been jotted down at the time of course. In the end he had organised it into something like this:

Quote:Monster Type: Stone Knight

General information:

Only monster found in Cavern Pass

Rocky colourings

Appear to similar to animated golems.

Appear to be hollow

Drop useful material and reagents for golem making

Does not like it when you kidnap them and shove things inside of them (internal damage???)

Attracted by flowers

Mostly silent mobs apart from their foot steps

Can be further divided into “normal” and “special” types.

Capabilities:

“Normal” types

Appear to have high physical attack resistance, high attack damage but low mobility

It is hard to change their attack target when aggroed

No ranged attacks

Large aggro range

Wire traps don’t work on them.

Have a habit of bowing before starting to attack you

Low intelligence

Do not conduct electricity well

“Special” types

Appear to have the capabilities of normal types + some enhanced abilities. These are semi/mini bosses.

Can be further divided into 4 types:

Type 1 – has high agility and attack power in addition to the abilities of “normal” Stone Knights

Type 2 – has higher attack and defence than “normal” Stone Knights in addition to the abilities of “normal” Stone Knights

Type 3 – has higher intelligence than “normal” Stone Knights and has the ability to spawn “normal” Stone Knights in addition to the abilities of “normal” Stone Knights When this type of Stone Knight is destroyed, all summoned Stone Knights will be destroyed as well.

Type 4 – has all the abilities of the types listed above? Only example appears to be the boss. The boss will be hearby named Black Stone Knight (due to different colouring)

Weaknesses:

Does not appear to breathe but movements will slow down when they are filled up with water from the inside

Relatively vulnerable to blunt and piercing damage (impractical to exploit due to high physical defence)

Dissolves in Acid

Appears weak to most magic (particularly ice and earth magic)

Fall damage

Low AI compared to other monsters of the same level

Eventually, he found the entrance to the boss room which, like batman’s hideout, was a cave behind a waterfall and conducted a few test runs on the Black Stone Knight boss monster to scout out its capabilities.

It turns out that aside from its high physical and magical defence, damage and agility, this boss monster also had another annoying ability as well. However, considering the drawbacks of those abilities, Satoshi didn’t think he was in a position to complain.

His current run would be the last. His inventory was already almost full of the magical reagents dropped by the Stone Knights so all that was left was the Black Stone Knight. The high grade potions of Fire resistance and Ice resistance he drank beforehand would wear off in about 5 minutes so he had to hurry this up.

Okay. No more goofing around, this is the serious bit.

Satoshi braced himself for the moment the Black Stone Knight would unleash it other ability.

Seeing the addition of another enemy, the Black Stone Knight detached its magic resistant shield and stabbed it’s one handed long sword into the shield point first and kneeled.

Registering this signal, Satoshi ordered his Golem Stone Knight to guard the exit which was behind the Black Stone Knight, making more white balls appear in his hands and taking out a small potion bottle as he did so. Having the correct timing in the next few moments was crucial.

The ability that the Black Stone Knight was about to use was not one of those attacks that bosses suddenly use when their health falls below a certain level. In terms of health, the Black Stone Knight probably had over 80% left. This was an ability that the Black Stone Knight only used when facing more than one opponent.

Patterns suddenly appeared glowing on the floor, around the Black Stone Knight, permanently lighting up the darkness.

Then with a flash...

…the room was filled with monsters.

No more accurately, the Black Stone Knight transmuted its shield into 14 other Stone Knights, 6 of them being “special” Stone Knights in a formation with the “special” Stone Knights appearing next to the Black one and the 8 “normal” Stone Knight appearing in front of them.

This set up was similar with the initial set up of chess pieces with the Black Stone Knight being in both the King and Queen positions with the ordinary Stone Knights acting as the pawns.

And it was in the moment exactly before the summoning occurred that Satoshi made his move.

Activating his movement type skill again, he rushed in front of Black Stone Knight which was still kneeling down and summoned 6 golems in the middle of the summoned Stone Knight formation, separating the Black Stone Knight from the rest of the Stone Knights.

These golems were bulker and older models than the Golem Stone Knight which was recently made so Satoshi didn’t believe they had the ability to defeat the Stone Knights.

However, they had high defences that almost matched the Stone Knights so he believed that they would be able to hold out for at least 45 seconds.

Without thinking deeply any further, Satoshi side stepped the kneeling Black Stone Knight ran for the exit, smashing a splash potion of vulnerability on it as he brushed past it.

Thud!

The Black Stone Knight leap after him, its horrifyingly high agility almost allowed it to catch him before the Golem Stone Knight blocked its advance in time for Satoshi to dive at the exit covered by a waterfall.

On the outside of the boss room was a knee-deep pond. Directly at the entrance was a raging waterfall.

Satoshi ran through the waterfall, slipping slightly on the pond. With haste he activated his movement skill again to move to the side of the waterfall. The territorial range of the Black Stone Knight was unusually large for a boss which allowed him to exploit its weaknesses.

Splash!

There was a loud splash as something flew out of the waterfall sooner than he expected. Satoshi caught an glimpse of his Golem Stone Knight lying in the pond, missing both arms. No matter, this was within range of his margin of error.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As he heard the Black Stone Knight approach, Satoshi quickly grabbed 3 vitals of liquid from quick slots on his belt and bound them together.

Thud! Splash! Now!

As the Black Stone Knight became drenched with water at the exit, Satoshi plunged his hand into the waterfall and yelled:

“Construct: Freeze, Burn, Oscillate, Water ? Potion Cast!!!”

Rapid explosions of ice erupted from the waterfall striking both Satoshi and the Black Stone Golem. Long shards of ice continuously formed on the waterfall like blooming flowers, shattering only to instantly reform again.

You lost 123 HealthYou lost 245 HealthYou lost 164 HealthYou lost 201 Health…

It must have been a spectacular sight. Probably something akin to a fireworks display or a flashy game character’s ulti.

Unfortunately, just like the person on the receiving end of a 100 hit combo ultimate attack, Satoshi was too busy gritting his teeth to endure the pain from frozen and struck by ice spikes to care about it.

The Black Stone Knight which had been at the centre of the attack, in an even worse condition than Satoshi though.

Due to being hollow, it suffered from internal as well as external damage as well. The rapid attacks from ice stunned it and prevented it from moving until the bombardment of blooming ice spikes stopped.

Satoshi spent a minute like that, frozen to the waterfall watching his health slowly but surely drop before the effects of his Potion Casting finally stopped.

At the end of this interval, the Black Stone Knight, having endured far more abuse than it should have, collapsed and crumbled.

Level Up!Level Up!Level Up!Level Up!

Panting and shivering from being drenched, Satoshi collected the drops from the Black Stone Knight, and made his way cautiously back through the waterfall and into the boss room, his armless Golem Stone Knight following behind him.

Satoshi quickly relaxed as he saw the room now empty except for 2 of his surviving golems and 14 piles of loot.

It seems like these summoned Stone Knight still had the trait of self-destructing when the summoner is killed.

“Well that went according to plan…”

Filled with the relief that it was finally over, Satoshi collapsed and lay on the floor, resting for a bit.

Potion Casting.

That along with his golems, and trap setting, that skill had become an integral part of his fighting style.

What he did was something both simple and complex. Something that could only be done in a game like Royal Road where the virtual world obeyed the laws of the physical world.

It was a magic art belonging to the Spellsmith Alchemist class that could only be truly used by someone knowledgeable about the real world.

Magic was defined as the act of structuring mana into circles to cause phenomena. Following that train of thought, the attack he directed that the Black Stone Knight should have been classified as a 4 layered magic spell.

Mages have to construct magic circles through incantations to cast spells. However, what he did was different.

Potion Casting.

This was the ability to amplify the potency of magical reagents and use them as substitute magic circles. In other words, the ability to cast proxy magic spells.

According to reliable sources, this was a type of ancient magic, meaning that as opposed to “modern” magic spells which were the product of hundreds of years of research and experimentation, Potion Casting was more dangerous.

Potion Casting wasn’t without rules either.

The higher the number of layers in the circle he was trying to cast the higher quality of the reagents had to be.

The higher the grade of the magical reagent, the stronger the proxy magic spell. However, this also meant that low grade reagents resulted in weaker spells.

Also, he had to be careful about what reagents he mixed together because the intended effect and the actual result can be disastrously different.

The reagents used in the Potion Casting were also consumed in the proxy magic spell so he couldn’t infinitely cast devastating magic spells with it.

There were also a few other factors he had to consider which stopped him from inventing new spells with Potion Casting in live combat.

Normally, casting a 4 circle spell required at least multiple mages synchronised with each other and/or a very lengthy incantation as well as an absurd amount of mana.

As opposed to this, Satoshi only needed four reagents, all his remaining mana and 3 seconds to cast his spell. Clearly, this indicated that when used properly, Potion Casting could be more powerful and versatile than orthodox magic. Of course an orthodox 4 circle spell could be a lot more damage then he could ever do but still...

The four things he used were:

1. Splash Potion of Freezing III

Potion Casting amplified the power of the potion and converted it to a magic circle for an Ice attributed spell. This was the first layer to the magic circle.

2. Splash Potion of Burning I

Same as the Splash Potion of Freezing. The potion was converted into a magic circle for a Fire attributed spell. This was the second layer of the magic circle.

3. Oscillation catalyst

To prevent the two potions from cancelling each other out an oscillation catalyst was added to the mixture. This catalyst prevented both potions from activating at the same time, instead alternating between their effects at a rapid pace. Additionally, it sped up and amplified the effects of the two potions. This was the third layer to the magic circle.

4. Water

This was the medium for the magic circle and thus the damage dealing component. This was the final layer to the spell.

The explained result:

As the Black Stone Knight walked into the waterfall, water seeped into its body.

As the Potion Casting took effect, the water was rapidly frozen, thawed and refroze, continuously dealing damage.

Unlike most other liquids which become “smaller” when they solidify, water is a substance that expands in volume as it turns into ice.

Thus as the water in the hollow Knight froze, it expanded, causing stress and creating cracks in its armour.

Shortly afterwards, the ice was melted back into a liquid form, only to filled up the cracks again.

Then the water froze. The ice forced more cracks to form and the existing cracks to expand.

The ice melted. The water seeped into the enlargened crack.

The water froze. The cracks grew larger.

The ice melted. The water froze…

A continuous loop that ran until all the reagents were consumed was created.

And then there’s the side where you have to consider the game mechanics as well.

The Black Stone Knight was weak to ice magic so it took damage from making contact will the spell.

During the process of the spell, the Black Stone Knight became stunned which doubled any further damage it received in this instance.

There was also the fact that he had waited for the Black Stone Knight to discard its source of its magic resistance, its shield before conducting his attack.

And there was also the fact that it was affected by the splash potion of vulnerability he had thrown on it which doubled any damage it received.

It was through the combination of all these factors that Satoshi was able to, as a level 133 player, almost one shot a boss monster almost twice his level. This might sound impressive but it had taken him a week’s worth of potion brewing, scouting and preparation to conduct.

After he had sufficiently recovered his health and stamina, he got up, straightened his glasses and took a look at the loot dropped from the boss and its summons. The majority of it were crafting items and magical reagents. There was a strangely shaped key as well but he decided to look at it later.

After using his identification skill on all the drops, Satoshi put as much as he could into his inventory and sorted out the remaining drops which he used to repair his surviving golems. He looked hopefully at his 4 destroyed golems but saw with dejection that their cores had been damaged beyond repair.

Having done as much as he could, he reverse summoned his golems and started looking around the boss room in case it had another hidden room or door. He didn’t have to look for long. Directly opposite to the entrance was an inconspicuous door which he hadn’t noticed in his previous runs on the Black Stone Knight. Maybe it only appeared when the Black Stone Knight was defeated.

The door was the same colour as the walls and had a strangely shaped keyhole.

After carefully using his trap scanning skill on the door, confirming that it was free of traps, Satoshi tried to push the door open but it didn’t budge. Figures. Obviously there was no such thing as an unlocked door in this kind of dungeon.

He was about to resort to picking the lock on the door when he remembered the key that was dropped by the boss.

He took it out and shoved it in the keyhole. A perfect fit. How convenient. Moreover, what a lazy development. It was almost as if the person who wrote this scenario couldn’t be bothered to add an extra secret stage after beating the boss. (Author: *Sweat*)

As he turned the key and opened the door, the key suddenly glowed and dissipated. Looks like it was a one way ticket.

He looked beyond the door and saw a circular room with a gem in the middle of it. Circular patterns of runes surrounded the gem.

Looking at it, Satoshi could only find one way to describe the room.

Suspicious…

There was no way this room wasn’t booby trapped.

Yep. Without a doubt, this was one of those times you see in movies and anime when something is definitely going to happen if I touch that gem. Maybe a giant rolling boulder or something is going to pop out. Or maybe some kind of gooey glue is going to gush out leaving me to be captured by a tribe of ancient fire benders.

That thought ran in Satoshi’s mind as he stood in the door way.

He scanned the walls for any signs of hidden doors or weapons which would inevitably activate when he entered the room. There were none.

Cautiously, he took a step into the room and quickly jumped back. Nothing happened.

Well, you can never be too careful.

After confirming that there were no hidden traps about to assault him, Satoshi made his way into the room and entered the magic circle on the floor.

That gem had attracted his interest. Although he didn’t intend to take it, he wanted to observe it up close. He wanted to try to discern its composition and if possible, develop a replica.

As his inner mad scientist started to awaken, Satoshi felt the floor inside the rune circle give way by a few centimetres. The symbols on the floor began to glow.

A pressure plate? Ahhhh crap… this is where curiosity kills the cat.

Satoshi readied himself for the sharp jolt of pain that would come when some hidden trap would activate and kill him.

He waited for a moment. The pain didn’t come.

Instead, his surroundings flashed and changed dramatically.

Ding!

A new quest is available.Defend the Frontier Towns

A monster army has been spotted close by and appears to be making its way towards the nearby town of Naidiriv. Due to mysterious disappearances of the scouts in Naidiriv, the presence of this army was not detected until a few days previously.

A defence army was formed to repel this monster force. However, due to running into some unforeseen circumstances, the defence army has taken large casualties before intercepting the monster army and no longer have the power to stop its advance.

Scouts have been sent out to track the progress of the army and have confirmed that the monster army has advanced to far deep into to be stopped before they reach Kallamore’s twin frontier towns of Tellap and Naidiriv.

Therefore a simultaneous siege of both Tellap and Naidiriv will occur.

As someone currently in the town of Tellap, it is your duty to contribute in defending the frontier towns.

Estimated time before the monster army reaches Tellap town: 5 hours

Difficulty: Unknown

Restrictions:

Must have accepted the Defend Naidiriv quest or be in town during the siege period.

Penalties:

This quest will fail if one or both of the towns fall to the monster army.

Rewards:

To be determined by your contribution in defending Tellap and Naidiriv

Dafuq just happened?

Satoshi looked around. He seemed to be in a town square of some sort. People, both players and NPCs alike were bustling around hurriedly.

So maybe it wasn’t a trap but an old teleportation portal? Then where was he now?

The Kallamore Kingdom?

---------------

Word count: 4,617 words

Thus another comic relief character enters the stage. For those who don’t remember, this guy first appeared near the beginning of vol 1.

My writing style tends to change depending on the perspective of the character I’m writing from. A warning in advance: None of the interlude chapters this volume contain Godou in them.

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