I had rested enough. I put on my helmet and entered 《The King》 to continue my journey.
With a flash of light, I appeared at the place where I logged off. After checking my bearings, I ran towards the woods in the northwest corner of the beginner village.
I hadn’t run far when I saw a player skirmishing with a demonic hedgehog. This demonic hedgehog emitted a faint blue glow, and its attack and movement speed were extremely fast. Clearly, it wasn’t an ordinary monster.
The player was a mage. Unable to defend against the demonic hedgehog’s attacks, he could only circle and fight around it. But this demonic hedgehog could shoot steel quills from its body, attacking the mage from a distance. These steel quills also had a freezing effect, slowing the mage’s movement speed. So the mage was struggling badly, not only having to constantly drink potions, but also having few opportunities to launch fireballs at the demonic hedgehog.
Using Inspect, Demonized Hedgehog King： Leader of demonized hedgehogs, level 12 normal boss, 1500 HP, skill： Freezing Needle, adds 3 seconds of freeze effect.
So it's a boss, no wonder it's so tough, but this mage has good skills and technique, actually able to weave around under the boss's attacks.
The main characteristic of the mage class is offense, high single-target damage, wide area-of-effect attacks, making it the absolute dominant force in party play and city wars, but the fatal weakness of mages is low HP and weak defense, making solo boss kills not so easy, though when fighting bosses in a party, the mage's offense is indispensable.
"Need help？" I wouldn't do something like stealing kills.
"Help quickly."
"Stone City, player Tianhuo Lenghun has sent you a party invitation. Accept？" The system prompted.
Party up.
"I don't have much red potion left, you tank the monster, I'll handle the offense." Tianhuo Lenghun saw me wearing level 5 equipment, figured I must be decent, so he left the dangerous job to me.
"Sure, no problem." I charged straight at the Demonized Hedgehog King.
After all, I'm planning to train as a knight, my advantage lies in defense and HP, my main job is tanking monsters, no—tanking bosses.
-50, -60, good, the damage stabilized here. To hide my strength and keep Tianhuo Lenghun from knowing how overpowered I am, I held back half my power, so the damage to the Demonized Hedgehog King wasn't great.
Miss, -40, Miss... A series of prompts appeared above my head.
No way, the agility bonus from Dudu Rabbit's mask, boosted by my luck stat, made my dodge fully effective, causing most of the Demonized Hedgehog King's attacks to miss.
Even trying to hide my strength is hard, I was so frustrated and started regretting helping this mage.
"Dude, are you planning to train as a knight or an assassin? How are both your defense and dodge so strong?" Sure enough, Tianhuo Lenghun started asking me.
"Training as a knight, but this mask of mine is a good item, it adds dodge." Of course I couldn't tell the truth.
As I spoke, I became even more careful to hide my strength, trying my best to make myself look ordinary.
"Oh, be careful, the Demonized Thorn King's skill damage is doubled, with a freezing effect—hard to deal with." Skyfire Cold Soul found it a bit strange. The Demonized Thorn King's normal attacks dealt at least 70 damage to him, while the skill "Freezing Thorn" did over 150 damage, dropping his HP to nearly zero.
This player wearing the rabbit mask had way too strong a defense, and his attack didn't seem low either. He knew that even he, a high-damage mage, could only deal 80 damage to the Demonized Thorn King.
"No worries, I brought plenty of potions, I can handle it." The Demonized Thorn King's skill "Freezing Thorn" only dealt 80 damage to me—not much of a threat. But the skill's 3-second freeze effect was really annoying.
A true expert is known the moment they fight. Skyfire Cold Soul was definitely an elite player—impressive strength, rich experience, and solid technique. Our cooperation was absolutely flawless.
The Demonized Thorn King was nothing in the face of our combined attack.
"Someone's coming, Skyfire, hurry up." Seeing the Demonized Thorn King had less than 100 HP left, several figures rushed over from behind Skyfire Cold Soul. I quickly signaled him.
Timing it right, after Skyfire Cold Soul's fireball attack, the Demonized Thorn King was left with only 40 HP. I delivered a Slash, landing the final blow on the Demonized Thorn King.
My luck is high—gotta make the most of it.
With my final blow, the Demonized Thorn King let out a howl, showing -60 above its head. Its HP dropped to 0, and it fell to the ground, dropping a golden staff glowing with yellow light and 2 gold coins.
I casually picked up the golden staff and 2 gold coins. Heh, knights may suffer the most while tanking, but they're often the first to claim the loot—and the joy at that moment is irresistible.
"Congratulations, Stone City, for killing the boss Demonized Thorn King. Reputation increased by 10."
Credit goes to the player who lands the final blow. Look at this golden staff I picked up.
Blackstone Staff： Golden weapon, effects unknown, cannot be used.
"Here you go, it's for mages. A golden piece of equipment - you've hit the jackpot. We need to go back to the village to appraise the specifics."
"You hold onto it. We'll talk after we get it appraised in the village. If it weren't for your help, I would've definitely died here."
"I was just helping you out, no need to be so polite. Besides, it's exactly the weapon you use." I'm certainly not that generous, I'd want a golden piece of equipment too, but I was indeed helping him out, and I was unlucky that it dropped mage gear. If it had dropped warrior gear, I'd have to discuss how to split the loot.
"Alright, then I won't stand on ceremony." An old-school player wouldn't bother with fake pleasantries.
"Second Brother, we're here. Where's the Magic Porcupine King？" The figures that were here earlier arrived, and the one in front recognized Tianhuo Leng Hun (Skyfire Cold Soul), quickly greeting him.
So they're Tianhuo Leng Hun's people. I immediately understood the situation.
Tianhuo Leng Hun discovered this Magic Porcupine King. He couldn't handle it alone, so he messaged his friends to come help. He just didn't expect the Porcupine King's skill "Frozen Needles" to be the bane of mages. He couldn't hold out until his friends arrived, so he asked me for help.
"I couldn't hold it off alone and couldn't wait for you guys to get here. Luckily, this friend came by to help, and we've already taken care of it."
"What dropped?"
"A golden staff for mages. Needs appraisal to know the specifics."
"A golden piece of equipment? Second Brother, that's so awesome. Let me see."
Tianhuo Leng Hun handed the golden staff to his brothers, then said to me, "Stone City, thank you. Let's go back to the village to appraise it."
Since Tianhuo Leng Hun and I were in a party, he knew my name.
"No thanks, I just came out of the village. I'm going to level up."
"Alright, I won't beat around the bush either. Let's be friends. If you ever need anything, just tell me directly."
"Alright."
After adding each other as friends, Tianhuo Leng Hun and I continued heading toward the Black Bears in the northwest corner of the newbie village.
Damn, I didn’t expect the beginner village to be this big. After running for over twenty minutes, I finally saw the forest where the black bear was. But when I got to the edge of the woods, I found five demonic mountain wolves roaming around, blocking my way.
Looking closely, the demonic mountain wolf in the middle had pure white fur with no mixed colors. It was tall and mighty, with sharp, gleaming eyes that revealed a hint of brutality.
Definitely a BOSS. I used Inspect：
Mountain Wolf King： leader of demonic mountain wolves, level 15 BOSS, 2000 HP, skills： Bloodlust, Phantom Shadows.
The other four were ordinary level 8 demonic mountain wolves—no real threat.
The Mountain Wolf King actually had two skills. Looked pretty tough, but since it’s a BOSS, I have to kill it. Besides, now I have Dudu Rabbit’s mask with the added skill Leg It. If things go south, I’ll use the skill and fly away.
-140, -150. I used the skill Slash, and the ordinary demonic mountain wolves went down in three easy hits.
I quickly killed two demonic mountain wolves. The Mountain Wolf King ran up to me and attacked. -60, -50. Not bad, I can take the Mountain Wolf King.
Ignoring the Mountain Wolf King’s attack, I went after the other two demonic mountain wolves first—cleaning up the minor mobs.
-310, -350. High agility, high luck, high critical hits, as expected. Under my relentless attacks, the other two demonic mountain wolves quickly died under my sharp blade.
Only the Mountain Wolf King was left. I checked my HP—lost over 200. I drank a small red potion and started dueling the Mountain Wolf King.
No real threat. My average damage to the Mountain Wolf King was 100 per hit. Watching its HP slowly drop, victory was in sight. The player’s advantage is being able to drink red potions to restore HP and grind down the monster.
“BOSS, Black Tiger, come quick.”
I turned around and saw three players walking toward me.
Mountain Wolf King still has half health left, can't finish it off quickly, so I quickly drink a small red potion and get on guard. In games, stealing monsters and PK are just daily routines, so it's better to be on guard.
"Stone City, you have been attacked by Storm Yellow Tiger of the Storm Tiger Squad. You may legally retaliate against members of the Storm Tiger Squad." After -50 damage appeared above my head, the system immediately sent me a notification.
As expected, they're here to steal the boss. The three who came were two warriors and one mage. The one attacking me, Storm Yellow Tiger, is the mage.
After the mage Storm Yellow Tiger attacked me, the other two warriors shouted "Move aside." and charged at me ferociously.
Damn it, trash actually dares to steal my BB （that's the boss）. I'm going to make my first kill today and make you guys lose levels painfully.