Chapter 6: 6 Legendary Hazing
A basic ranked kill quest generally involved dispatching a dozen low-tiered enemies. The player was supposed to locate the targets, kill them and collect proof of his kills, such as ears or heads. To complete the quest, he had to return to the militia HQ to claim his reward, a few coins and faction relation points. This process could easily take up to half an hour to complete. If it when according to plan... it generally did not, especially during the first few hours of the launch of the game. The sheer amount of players made the simple task of finding low levelled enemies, increase exponentially in difficulty. A large number of the other users had by then completed the necessary steps to acquire the Militia badge, granting them the right to leave the settlement. The surrounding areas were packed with eager... suicidal madmen, swinging their crude melee weapons around. All, but a few. These few, fought orderly in formation and maintained a watchful eye on any stray player who attempted to KS (kill steal). They were members of guilds in other games, who had decided to conquer the world's first VRMMORPG.
Simply headed deeper into the forest.
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An hour later, his search ended, promptly retracing his steps back towards the settlement.
Bursting out of the forest at breakneck speed, he shouted in panic.
"HELP THERE IS A WORLD BOSS COMING!"
At the words 'world boss', all the players swiftly dropped their tasks and converged toward the fleeing newbie. After all, a world boss was a valuable existence in MMOs. Its drops were top level and gave an enormous amount of experience. Only fools would share it with others.
Fools, yes, but then again who but fools would dare venture into disaster-level maps?
"You see, my dear viewers, that this bad boy is at the bare minimum twenty levels higher than anyone here. So high in fact that there is no information apart from his name."
Simply had quietly slipped into the sea of players. The first to reach the boss had easily taken the aggro for him. Finding a nice spot, apart from the commotion he proceeded with his militia quest now that the field had been left deserted. Rapidly attaining the required amount of kills, he went to claim his reward.
[Quest completed]
You have contributed to the safety of Eternal Landing by slaying the surrounding threats. 12cp, Militia Experience +10.
Simply inspected his militia badge.
[Eternal Landing Militia Badge] (Iron rank) (10/100)
User restriction: Simply Umbra
The Militia Badge is the token of your rank within the Eternal Landing Militia.
"Let the grinding session begin."
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While, Alex was busy going to and forth between the field and the Militia's HQ, the rest were having a bad day, an awfully bad day.
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"Tanks in front, shields up, prepare to intercept tango. Archers, standby for a volley."
Twelve players broke off from the group forming a V-shaped shield wall with a small gap in the middle. The ranged players drew back their bowstrings and prepared to bombard within the V-shape. The remaining players, wielding spears and other two-handed weapons stood behind the shieldmen. Everyone was still.
Rushing towards them, a fellow comrade dashed through the small opening which was promptly closed off by a massive shield-warrior. Behind, Topper roared his battle cry, which was promptly answered by a volley of shrieking arrows. The battle had begun.
The volley consisted of twenty arrows that had been buffed with the snipe skill which dealt an increase of 200% physical damage and added a higher penetration. This concentrated attack dealt 400 damage at the minimum or a nice 1000 damage if it hit critical. Furthermore, it was devastating against armoured opponents due to the added penetration. Simply put, it can one-shot a level 10 enemy or badly wound a boss of the same level.
But for the current boss, not only it wasn't a low-level creature, its skin gleamed as if it was made of metal. It possessed the damage immunity to piercing attacks. So, the lethal volley turned into a joke against this tiger-like creature made out of jet-black metal. It did not possess any eyes but seemed to enjoy a highly advanced sense of smell, that allowed it to sense the surrounding environment.
Shock appeared for a few moments in the eyes of Topper but was quickly dismissed.
"Stand strong!"
The boss clashed against this formidable defence and... It simply shattered them. The attributes between the two sides were clear: the boss was in a completely different realm altogether. Everyone in the grinding field watched, horrified, as the corpses, yes corpses few twenty meters away from the point of contact. The boss had just one-shotted seven players with a simple clash.
---
"No way!"
"That's no joke!"
"To think that SFW, a first-tier clan, got destroyed so easily. This is a special event right!!? Like a strong NPC will come in and kill that Monster.... right?"
The entire levelling field was fearful of the world boss. Those who had rushed in to grab some 'free loot' realised how overconfident they had been.
The monster began slaughtering everyone on the field. It slashed players in two, crushed their heads and bit their limbs. No one could get away from this calamity. It emitted an aura of fear, so strong that everyone in the vicinity had been frozen in fear.
This event would come to be known as the most abusive hazing of all the initiations, putting all of the universities/colleges to shame. The game's death system was by default set to 50% realism, making the simple yet gory sight of your body detaching in two, pretty disturbing. Also, this particular boss was a demonic beast. Demons absorb a part of your soul when they kill you, resulting in the loss of five levels and a 24hrs respawn timer.
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Level 3 (10%)
Name Simply Umbra
Race Human
Health 130
Mana NA
Stamina 137 (130) (+5%)
Intelligence 5
Wisdom 5
Dexterity 5
Agility 5
Vitality 5
Strength 10
Perception 0
Magic Resist 0
Defence 0
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone