Chapter 5: The Dangerous Elite

The result was that Adam jumped above the charging boar, perfectly unharmed, and the boar was blinded. It couldn't see the sword planted into the ground and thus charged at it. The sword couldn't stop it and was uprooted from the ground, but it still dealt significant damage to it.

-43 HP!

As it was blinded, the boar thought it was Adam swinging his sword at it, and thus thought it was about to hit him, so it activated another skill, one that made his tusks glow red. It didn't hit Adam, and instead hit its fellow boar's butt!

Critical Hit! -183 HP!

Adam opened his eyes wide, he didn't expect the last part. He just intended on making the boar charge at the higher leveled one, but the intent wasn't really to hurt the later. But the level 4 Boar had unexpectedly activated a skill and made a Critical Hit!

And from the looks of it, it wasn't finished. Still thinking it was Adam as it was blinded, the boar attacked the higher leveled boar twice more before recovering its sight, realizing its mistake. Meanwhile, Adam arrived behind it, his sword in hand again, and used Charge against its rear side, stunning it, following by two attacks.

-16 HP!

-10 HP!

Adam moved back and looked at the two's HP bars. They were both more than half empty, especially the Level 5 Red Boar, it was only a quarter filled. That only served to show Adam how much stronger they were than him.

Even monster of the same level had higher attributes than him, so ones multiple levels higher than him were way stronger. That was to cope with players and NPCs' equipment.

After all, monsters couldn't equip Equipment and could only use their own body and skills. That's why they tended to have more powerful base attributes. For Players and NPCs, if they wanted to come close to the monsters, they would need to get stronger equipment.

Back to the fight, the two Red Boars roared, enraged against Adam for humiliating them like that, while the latter smirked. Although he was weaker, he was more intelligent, and that's what would allow him to win.

[You have defeated 'Red Boar'! XP +40]

[You have defeated 'Red Boar'! XP +60]

[You are now Level 2! AP +5]

[Your skill 'Mighty Strike' has leveled up!]

It took Adam four more minutes to kill both monsters. As soon as he was done, he checked their loot, and this time there was something interesting, a piece of equipment.

First, Adam pocketed the materials, they were the same as earlier but in different quantities. Then, he looked at the equipment that dropped.

[Red Furred Cloak] (Common, Level 5)

Requirements: Level 5, Swordsman

Defense: +18

Adam was disappointed when he saw the equipment's requirements. This was fated to be sold at the auction house.

Having put everything in his inventory, Adam went on his way again. He was surprised though because he saw less and less monsters, to the point he was able to dodge all of their aggro, and a few minutes later he saw he was nearing the orange mark. But as he approached he suddenly heard the howls of wolves.

And they were coming from his quest's objective. Adam rushed there and he began hearing fighting noises. He hid in a nearby bush and looked at the ongoing fight. He saw a snake, three wolves and a human fight each other, all three races belonging to different camps. The human had his skin turning blacker every second, it was quite peculiar.

[Scarlet Fanged Snake] (Elite, Level 5)

HP: 650/800

[Dark Wolf] (Common, Level 5)

HP: 250/400

[Arno] (Level 7, Iron, Poisoned)

HP: 300/600

Adam now understood the B difficulty. NPCs were also generally stronger than players of the same level, as they had better stats and access to better equipment, and yet this Level 7 NPC was on the losing ground against the snake despite the difference in levels. It showed how strong an Elite monster was.

And for Adam, even the three wolves were a danger. Despite all three of them having only 250 HP left, they were Level 5, and unlike the Red Boar who focused on Strength and Endurance, the wolves seemed to have the same value for every stat, making them more deadly for Adam.

Moreover, they weren't fighting among trees Adam could use, but on a little clearing free of trees. That's why, Adam didn't immediately jump in, and instead observed the fight.

The snake suddenly striked at one of the wolves, and Adam was barely able to follow its movement. The wolf tried to dodge, but it still got hit, although the fangs didn't enter its flesh.

-50 HP!

The attack was more of a brush than an actual attack, and yet it still took so much health of the wolf, and that's taking into account its higher defense.

Adam looked at his status, and decided how he should put his AP. He put 3 in Strength, and 2 in Agility. Now, why did he do that?

It was obvious that the Scarlet Fanged Snake's main attribute was Agility, so why didn't Adam put his points in Agility? It was simply because of the snake's superiority. Adam knew that even if he put all 8 of his AP into Agility he would still be slower than the snake, so he only put enough point to reach the bare minimum to react to the snake, and sorted the rest into Strength.

He was a Berseker after all, he should specialize in dishing out damage. Moreover, he wasn't alone, the NPC was his target, thus his ally, and he could make use of the wolves.

Making the less noise possible, Adam walked around the battlefield until he found himself behind the snake, and rushed at it. The snake didn't even care about him and just sent a whip strike with its tail.

Adam lowered himself and used his sword to push the tail up. All the strength from the whip attack dispersed in the air, and the snake lost its balance for a moment. Then, Adam rushed behind it and used Charge on its back.

Stunned!

Then, Adam charged his Mighty Strike, which had gained 10% additional damage due to its level up, and slashed at the snake's back. At the same time, the NPC and the three wolves didn't lose the opportunity and attacked too.

-8 HP!

-73 HP!

-42 HP!

-41 HP!

-42 HP!

It was obvious to whom each attack belonged. Adam was shocked at the snake's defense, and glad he had enhanced his strength. If he hadn't he might have only done half the damage, or worse!

Adam didn't attack again and instead moved back, barely dodging the fangs of the snake who suddenly turned around. As expected, like in Lore, higher leveled monster were more resistant towards stuns and other similar effects.

Adam rapidly fell back, he couldn't get hit even once by the snake. The NPC seemed to be his quest's objective, and the time limit should be related to the poison, so that means the poison can even kill a Level 7 NPC. If the poison can do that to Arno, then Adam knew he would die for sure too.

Fortunately, the snake knew who the biggest threats were, and turned back to the wolves and the NPC again.

This time, it was really angry after losing more than 200 HP. It ignored all defense and bite at one of the wolves.

-190 HP!

The wolf painfully cried and moved back. Although it had some HP left, the snake had just released its venom in it.

Moreover, it seemed the snake had activated some kind of defensive skill as it only lost a little more than 40 HP from the other three's attacks, placing its HP at 400.

As the fight between the others continued, Adam rushed at the wolf. The wolf bared its teeth at him, but Adam wasn't afraid. The wolf only had a few HP left, and although its Agility and Endurance were obviously higher than his, Adam was confident in his strength.

The wolf understood it couldn't scare Adam away just by growling, so it jumped toward him, opening its mouth wide, ready to take a bit. This time, Adam didn't dodge but he activated Mighty Strike which cooldown just ended, and smashed it against the wolves' head.

-20 HP!

[You have defeated 'Dark Wolf'! XP +80]