Nem opened his eyes and exhaled slowly. It felt as if all the world’s stress could be relieved through that one breath. Nem had been farming for the past 3 hours. He had gotten through most of the subquests and is now on what he believed to be the last one.

The last quest insisted of killing 50 Stoners. (Uh I swear judge it’s not what you think.) Each Stoner was 10 meters tall and 5 meters wide. They were huge slabs of rectangular rock that wandered aimlessly until a foolish man approached them. (See told you so)

Nem had already slain 49 and only needed to finish off 1 more before finally leaving the Green Plains. During this time, Nem had acquired several items that he used throughout his journey. Of the items he received, he had 6 health potions, 50 mana potions, and 376 pink shards remaining.

To Nem, this moment was a big step forward. If the Green Plains are considered the true beginning of the game, then leaving it would signify the beginning of that person’s journey to becoming strong.

Although most players can casually walk through the Green Plains without shrugging, Nem wasn’t as fortunate and had to slowly and painfully fight his way into the end. Now, Nem faced the final stoner that stood between him and this big step. Throughout the 3 hours of playing, Nem hadn’t wasted a single moment. As he dodged and slain monsters, he had honed his observational skill to the point where he could tell the attack pattern and weakness of most enemy attacks after 1 battle. To be honest, it wasn’t that hard of a thing to do. Even though monsters have several attacks, once they’re all shown, it isn’t hard to memorize them. As for their weakness, strangely all the monsters had a pink shard located somewhere on their bodies to hit.

This stoner was no exception. Once Nem had reached a certain distance from the stoner, it suddenly jerked to a stop. Slowly, it rotated it’s giant rectangular body to face Nem and… jumped?

That’s right, the giant 10 by 5 meter giant slab of stone jumped! Being as large as it was, it didn’t get far. After reaching a small distance in the air, it leaned forward and let it’s giant body fall towards Nem, aiming to squash him in the process. Nem looked at the stoner indifferently as he stepped to the left. Although this sidestep seemed simple, more experienced players would be able to see that Nem had perfectly timed the step to just barely dodge the giant’s attack at the last second.

As the giant hit the floor, it left crack lines that spread as far as 50 meters in all directions. The instant the stoner’s body hit the floor, it made a giant WHOMP sound. Luckily, the game had an auto terrain (land) repair system, else Nem would be surrounded in nothing but craters at this moment.

As the crack lines swiftly approached Nem, he jumped into the air and dodged both the crack lines and the massive storm of dust and rubble flying towards him. Spinning gracefully in the air, Nem landed on the edge of the stoner’s body. Without a moment’s delay, he started sprinting at full speed towards the center of the stoner. In the stoner’s center, on its back, is a fairly decent sized pink crystal that was already full of several cracks. Nem had repeatedly hit this crystal several times already. Just as the stoner showed signs of moving again, Nem clutched Bo Fai and slowly drew it backwards.

Swiftly, like an arrow that was just launched, Nem jabbed Bo Fai forward and borrowed the momentum from his spear strike to launch himself forward. Just when the stoner started getting up, making everything on its back slide off due to the huge incline made from its body, Bo Fai’s tip touched the pink crystal and soon after completely pierced it. Nem lept into the air as the stoner’s body exploded into numerous rock pieces that would slowly disappear. When he hit the ground, he approached a piece of pink shard that was left behind.

Regardless of the original crystal’s size, the shards would always drop in the same size. Nem picked up the shard and stored it, just like he’s done 376 other times. Nem had a strong feeling that something was going to happen when he turned in the quest.

Not wanting to delay himself, Nem pressed the quest finish button, resulting in a sudden feeling of giddiness in his body. Suddenly, a strange force built up in Nem’s body and exploded out in all directions. Then, in a strange font, words appeared. These words seemed a little foreign to Nem and he didn’t understand what they meant at first (due to the shock of course), however, one thing that Nem did register was that one of the words undeniably read “Breakthrough!”