[YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE NAMED MONSTER {The Monster}]

[20,000 EXP AWARDED]

[CALCULATING NAMED MONSTER REWARDS NOW]

[...]

[CALCULATIONS COMPLETE]

[AS A REWARD FOR BEING ONE OF THE FIRST FIVE PLAYERS TO DEFEAT A NAMED MONSTER YOU MAY SELECT THREE REWARDS FROM THE COMPLETE PRIZE POOL]

"There's a prize pool!" Soze said, drawing stares from several other players in the Kitchen.

"What are you-" Yang's eyes widened as she realized what he was referring to. "From the named bear?!"

Immediately Soze was swarmed by the surrounding players who started bombarding him with questions. Their fervor was understandable, as the rewards for killing a named monster had been a hot topic for weeks now.

It was normal for RPGs to have bosses that gave unique rewards. Some monsters would have special armor sets or drop rare materials for crafting. No matter what, if a boss had a name, it would have rich rewards.

However, New Eden Online was a game with a dynamic world and naturally occurring ecosystems. Named monsters were not placed by the developers, but created by the events within the game or the players' actions. If a boss were defeated it would stay dead, and that meant the players couldn't reap the rewards more than once. This led many to ask the same question.

Would that make the rewards better?

"Can you all back off!" Soze shouted, wincing slightly as he moved his sore arm. "I'll read it out if you're all so curious but can you please just shut up!"

A few players quieted down, but most of them were still trying to pester him.

"Anyone who doesn't shut up and sit down isn't getting dinner," Aman said suddenly from the center of the Kitchen, not looking up as he stirred a pot. He had been silently annoyed about all the injured players being brought to the Kitchen and interrupting their work, but he had tolerated it because this was where most of the Wolf's Boon and HP Potions were stored. However, if people were going to make even more of a racket for no reason then he wasn't going to stay quiet. "Actually, I was testing a new recipe this morning." He looked at them with a knowing smile. "I suppose I can make more of that instead."

The Kitchen quickly became silent as the various players sat down. Those that weren't sharing fearful expressions, as if a cloud of death was rising from Aman's cooking pot, turned their attention back to Soze with eyes filled with expectation.

"Thanks, Aman."

"So? What did you get?" Yang asked, her face was calm but she was fidgeting with barely contained curiosity and jealousy.

"I don't know yet, it says I get to pick three from the prize pool because I'm one of the first five players to kill a named monster."

"So the loot will just be random next time?" someone asked.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"What are the options?"

With everyone's focus on him, Soze turned his attention back to the list of rewards and began reading aloud.

[REWARD 1]

[1x {Burning Rage} SKILL CRYSTAL]

[A CRYSTAL THAT CAN BE CONSUMED TO LEARN THE {Burning Rage} SKILL]

[BURNING RAGE] Lv.1

(Active Cost: 50 SP) The Unique Skill of The Monster. Letting out a mighty roar, any weaker creatures who hear it are stunned with [FEAR]. This Skill becomes more potent based on the amount of HP lost.

[THIS SKILL HAS BEEN MODIFIED FOR PLAYER USE]

Just the first reward made Soze pause for a moment and left several of the listening players with slack jaws. They may not have seen The Monster personally, but they had heard about the debuffs it could give from Yin and Bates, so they understood how powerful this Skill was.

"You can just learn its Unique Skill?!"

"That's so broken!"

The potency of The Monster's Unique Skill was terrifying. As Soze said before, they probably wouldn't have survived if the beast had this Skill from the very beginning. Even if it was made weaker by the system, it would be a potent ability nonetheless.

'I'm more of a stealthy player. Something this flashy and attention-grabbing feels more like a Tank Skill,' Soze thought while rubbing his chin. 'Although, this would help me with performing ambushes, and Fear would be great for escaping. If only the SP cost wasn't so high.'

It was worth considering, but this was only the first reward. Soze continued reading.

[REWARD 2]

[3x {Tough Hide} SKILL CRYSTAL]

[A CRYSTAL THAT CAN BE CONSUMED TO LEARN THE {Tough Hide} SKILL]

[TOUGH HIDE] Lv.1

(Passive) Increase Armor by 5% of END.

"Why would it give you three crystals?" someone asked. "You can't learn a Skill multiple times."

"It probably means Skill Crystals can be given to other players," Soze guessed.

"So this option is for three people to learn the Tough Hide Skill," Yang said. Then her eyes widened slightly. "That also means Burning Rage can be given to someone else!"

Several of the players around Soze turned to look at him pleadingly, not even attempting to hide their greed.

Even so, he wasn't about to reject them outright. The [TOUGH HIDE] Skill was an incredibly powerful one, granting a lot of passive damage reduction. Most players didn't bother with the Skill [STALWART] because unless you were a Tank or above Level 20, your HP was too low for the 10% reduction to matter much. The amount of damage that most players were taking was either too minimal for the Skill to even register, or the damage was so great that they would be in critical condition with or without it.

But unlike [STALWART] which was percentage-based, [TOUGH HIDE] gave them armor, which was a flat damage reduction. Weak attacks could be completely negated, and while strong attacks could overwhelm it, most players weren't facing those kinds of threats.

'I can usually avoid getting hit entirely, but this would be a huge deal for a lot of the other players. Tanks especially would see a lot of mileage from this.' He squinted. 'I also couldn't avoid damage against The Monster...if more enemies are going to be that strong and fast, I may need some more defensive options.'

Moving on, Soze quickly read through the next three rewards, each of which were items of impressive quality.

[REWARD 3]

[1x {Monsterous Helm} ITEM]

[NAME]: Monsterous Helm

[RARITY]: 4

[TYPE]: Equipment(Head)

[DURABILITY]: 1000/1000

[STATS]: 18 Armor

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: 10

[SKILLS]

[MONSTEROUS VISAGE] Lv.5

(Passive) Cause enemies below Level 25 to be inflicted with [FEAR] when within 35 feet of you.

[DESCRIPTION]

A helm formed from the head of The Monster. The unbridled rage it felt in life was so strong it can be felt even after death.

[REWARD 4]

[1x {Monsterous Cuirass} ITEM]

[NAME]: Monsterous Cuirass

[RARITY]: 4

[TYPE]: Equipment(Torso)

[DURABILITY]: 5000/5000

[STATS]: 40 Armor

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: 15

[SKILLS]

[MONSTEROUS VISAGE] Lv.1

(Passive) Cause enemies below Level 13 to be inflicted with [FEAR] when within 10 feet of you.

[DESCRIPTION]

Chest armor formed from the flesh and bone of The Monster. The unbridled rage it felt in life was so strong it can be felt even after death.

[REWARD 5]

[1x {Monsterous Jacket} ITEM]

[NAME]: Monsterous Cuirass

[RARITY]: 4

[TYPE]: Equipment(Torso)

[DURABILITY]: 2000/2000

[STATS]: 25 Armor

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: 10

[SKILLS]

[MONSTEROUS VISAGE] Lv.3

(Passive) Cause enemies below Level 19 to be inflicted with [FEAR] when within 20 feet of you.

[DESCRIPTION]

A jacket formed from the hide of The Monster. The unbridled rage it felt in life was so strong it can be felt even after death.

"...Does anyone else think those sound even more broken than the actual Skill?" someone asked.

"A little, yeah."

The passive [FEAR] effect on the items may be limited by Levels and not having the additional debuffs, but being able to have such an effect at all times was already quite powerful.

'Right now, a large swarm of Iron Ant Drones is one of the most dangerous things we could face, but this counters them completely!'

Iron Ant Drones, while having powerful Skills and greater stats than their Level would suggest, are never higher than Level 10. If Alexx, Yang, and Zed had this when they went to Ziege Basin, those ants would have been practically paralyzed the moment they got within range. On top of that, the version of the Skill on the Monsterous Helm could affect enemies up to Level 25, which could include the stronger Iron Ant variants and maybe even weaker Demon Bears!

The chest armor couldn't be discredited either, as they also provided impressive amounts of armor. Both were better than anything they had that wasn't made from solid wood, and the Cuirass was almost as tough as The Monster itself!

"You've got to pick at least one of those!" Yang said. "Even the Level 1 passive would be insane for hunting ants."

"Yeah, I'm definitely getting the helm," Soze said, highlighting it in the menu.

Yang looked at him mildly surprised. "Not the jacket? I get that the cuirass sounds like heavy armor, but an armored jacket seems flexible enough for you."

"True, but I don't think high-quality armor is going to be such a big issue anymore. Remember, we now have two whole Demon Bear corpses thanks to this thing and Loran. There's also all the Iron Ant carapace Zed brought back."

It had completely slipped Yang's mind in all the excitement about the named monster rewards, but he was right. The Workshop had just been given a massive supply of rare materials and have been itching to get to work. Some of it might not be on the same level as these rewards, but a single piece of armor was nothing compared to getting such a powerful passive Skill.

Soze continued.

[REWARD 6]

[5x ENDURANCE CRYSTAL]

[A CRYSTAL THAT CAN BE CONSUMED TO PERMANENTLY INCREASE YOUR ENDURANCE STAT BY 10]

[REWARD 7]

[3x STRENGTH CRYSTAL]

[A CRYSTAL THAT CAN BE CONSUMED TO PERMANENTLY INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH STAT BY 10]

[REWARD 8]

[3x ABILITY CRYSTAL]

[A CRYSTAL THAT CAN BE CONSUMED TO INSTANTLY GAIN 5 ABILITY POINTS]

"Stat boosters? I guess that's...okay, that is pretty good."

Although there was less excitement compared to before thanks to how flashy the items had been, getting additional stat points as a reward was extremely valuable.

Every time they leveled up the EXP costs grew, but they would still only get 5 Ability Points. They had no idea if New Eden Online had a Level cap(1) of any kind, but Zed and Alexx were only in the early and mid-30s respectively, and their leveling costs were almost at 10,000 EXP. A single Ability Crystal was an entire Level's worth of Ability Points, so its value only went up the higher Level you were. The other two crystals were more limited but gave even bigger boosts if they were the type you wanted.

It wasn't too important now, but all of them could tell that would change in the future.

"Okay, last one and...it's actually a little lame."

[REWARD 9]

[300,000 EXP]

"It's just a bunch of EXP?"

"That...wow that sucks."

The amount of EXP was certainly astronomical, enough for anyone in the village to gain at least 30 Levels instantly. However, gaining that many Levels presented its own problems, as Alexx and Zed had learned recently. On top of that, picking this would mean having to give up on the other, significantly better rewards. Players could always gain more EXP, but some of these rewards would never come again.

'But should I do it anyway?'

Alexx and Zed were mostly complaining about having leveled up too much because they were bored and couldn't get more EXP. While it did present a problem with learning and leveling up new Skills later on, it could make you extremely powerful in the short term.

Just doing some quick math in his head, Soze figured he could go above Level 50 with that much EXP.

'That's over 150 AP right there. If I dump most of that into Agility, use the rest to make sure my body doesn't tear itself apart like it almost did for Alexx, and add on some of the iron equipment that the Workshop will be producing soon, or even just a Soldier Blade... couldn't I be the deadliest thing in the valley?'

The Iron Ant Soldier had already demonstrated that being too fast to react to was incredibly overpowering. If he could match or even exceed that speed, there probably wouldn't be anything in the valley that could pose a threat to him or anyone else in the village.

It was incredibly tempting... but the more he thought about the other rewards, the more he realized that he had better options.

'Alexx, Yang, Zed, and even Loran managed to get over 100,000 EXP by hunting Drones. It may take longer, but I can gain just as much EXP just by spending some time hunting. Besides, this new helm will make hunting Drones unimaginably easy. No need to waste such good rewards.'

Soze stared at the rewards as he came to a decision. "Alright, I'll pick the helm and the Skill Crystals."

(1) A Level cap refers to the maximum Level players can achieve in a game