Fatigue. Snap of Fingers.
R aven’s prosthetic arm made a soft, pleasant sound, which wasn’t all that pleasant to his opponents. Five of them stopped dead in their tracks, stunned by the blast, while two glided away with eyes full of fear.
SNAP OF FINGERS
Active skill: Master (5.08%)
+ 34% chance that a Panicked enemy will run away
Duration: 12 seconds
Energy potion. Dice.
+3 Luck
Road Is My Home.
+ 4 Strength
+ 4 Agility
Duration: 3 minutes
Air Knife. Hack and Slash. Direct Attack.
All his moves were perfectly timed, following one another like parts of a precise mechanism. He had long practiced his combos to perfection so it took him just a few seconds to choose and apply the one that was best suited for this situation.
If the monsters he was fighting hadn’t been stunned and two of them hadn’t escaped, he would’ve used a different combo, picking it by instinct.
But he wasn’t the only threat to these fierce but slow mobs that looked like giant slugs riding even bigger wood louses. As Raven attacked them from one side, Hade and Kharses flanked them from the other two.
Hade was still rather weak, although she was approaching level thirty.
Name: Hade
Class: None
Level: 29
Evolution: 4
Skills:
Family strength: 175/190
Family skills:
Cerberus strength: 4/10
Cerberus skills:
XP to the next level: 252,670/661,700
Attribute Points: 0
Skill Points: 3
To the next evolution:
Raven made a note to allocate a greater portion of his XP to her, or she might soon become completely useless.
Over the three days he had wandered between locations, he had only encountered three small groups of players whose sportsmanship was good enough not to attack a loner. Had they done otherwise, Raven would’ve probably killed them, but he was glad he didn’t have to.
He was happy with having already collected six hundred and thirty-eight Influence Spheres thanks mainly to Kharses who could evolve by devouring monster bones.
As Raven had already learned from Zarnitsa, to access the full information about mobs that weren’t your pets, you needed either Legendary-rank Identification, a spell of similar power, or a special item.
Since Raven had neither of those, he could only watch Kharses in action, taking notice of the skills it was using.
In the meantime, Kharses had grown a part of a wing, which made it look like a lame dragon. Nonetheless, Raven saw and appreciated the monster’s tremendous potential.
Five minutes later, after wiping out the abominable Schuloks, Raven was the proud owner of three more Influence Spheres: two pink and one blue, rising the number of Baral’Dag’s Spheres to one hundred.
Green Influence Spheres: 19
Orange Influence Spheres: 35
White Influence Spheres: 28
Violet Influence Spheres: 52
Yellow Influence Spheres: 55
Blue Influence Spheres: 100
Pink Influence Spheres: 31
Black Influence Spheres: 101
Red Influence Spheres: 13
Gray Influence Spheres: 207
Checking the event rating, he saw that the highest-ranking player had only one thousand and fifty-eight Influence Spheres, which meant that he was very close to taking their place. He didn’t know whom he was up against. Player names weren’t displayed on the list.
Regardless, he wasn’t concerned with taking the lead. His goal was to collect as many Influence Points as possible.
The system could reward the winner in the solo ratings but, alas, even the strongest of loners stood no chance against a large clan.
Looking at the map, Raven made sure that he was moving in the right direction — toward the Big Black Hole. Dismissing his pets, he activated Stealth, proceeding toward the chasm in a little arc. He trusted his gut feeling that whispered that he would find something very nice and shiny at the bottom of that pit.
He had been approaching it for almost six hours, making short stops to kill more mobs and collect a few more Influence Spheres. Now he was in the location that had the tall tower and the blazing forest he had spotted earlier, bearing the plain name of The Fire Forest.
He had encountered a dozen of local species, rather combat-effective due to their incinerating aura that prevented him from using his regular tactic of driving the mob into a corner and hitting it until it dropped dead. The fire was doing considerable damage despite his strong defense and magic resistance. As a result, he had to spend far more time than usual on killing each mob.
But he pressed on toward the tower, collecting more Influence Spheres when (after four hours of cleansing the forest) he heard the sounds of fighting.
Still covered by Stealth, he listened to the noise and adjusted his course to come around without disturbing the players. They could think that he was going to steal their Spheres and attack, and he hated killing other players. Had he been assigned to one of the first three Floors as his starting location, he would’ve wandered away from everyone, as deep into the map as possible, to level up there.
If two groups were fighting, he’d rather not get engaged either.
The sounds weren’t coming from the tower so he could just ignore them. Changing his course so that he’d leave them behind him, he moved on, but a few minutes later, he saw a sparse line of players on his left.
Standing at equal distance from each other, they seemed to be guarding something valuable... or someone.
Raven shook his head and hid behind a charred fallen tree, estimating the threat that the group posed. Were they allies or enemies to those fighting nearby?
He couldn’t see any clan signs. Spending about a minute under his cover, he decided to come out and let them know that he wasn’t going to interfere with whatever they were doing. A player using Stealth was viewed as an immediate threat by many. The risk was negligible as he could easily escape if the group proved to be hostile but he didn’t want to waste time.
Standing up, he took a few steps forward, putting on a friendly face. He wasn’t going to attack them, but, as a veteran player, he knew that he should never lower his guard.
Coming from behind the tree, he was detected by two players who immediately pointed their weapons at him and squinted.
“Easy, guys. I’m just passing by.” Raven gave them a disarming smile, but then remembered that he had the mask on.
So much about that...
Both players watched him closely while monitoring their surroundings. They didn’t hurry to answer or to attack. In this event, everyone who hadn’t disclosed their identity previously through videos or talk shows looked like a high-level pro. Even the player’s gear was unreliable as an indicator of strength; many would wear under-leveled gear as a trap for PvP lovers.
They would’ve definitely attacked him if their task were to loot Influence Spheres from loners. However, their true task was to look out for other clans and warn their clanmates in case of danger. They had no interest in individuals.
“Jale. Shine a light over here,” one of them said to no one in particular, his eyes still on Raven.
From behind a tree came another player, previously unnoticed by the rogue. Raising his hand, he muttered a few words, casting a ball of light that soared into the air to illumine everything within a sixty-foot radius.
“He’s alone.”
“I see. Happy hunting.” The speaker, dressed in dark-red scaly armor and armed with a small ax, nodded to Raven, hinting that he’d better leave this place.
“Same to you.” Raven nodded back and moved on, keeping his eyes open. He could take a shortcut by using Wings, but then he wouldn’t be able to kill any monsters and loot them.
As he continued walking in a small arc, he saw more and more sentinels flashing lights behind the trees, which made him wonder why there were so many people around.
His curiosity, though, wasn’t piqued enough for him to go and take a look. Instead, he used Leap and Double Jump to check whether he was moving in the right direction when he heard a scream.
“Burn in hell, motherfuckers!”
The voice was familiar. Falling, Raven stared at the player running right beneath him. Fighting his way through a trio of hostiles, he cast Healing on himself and then summoned a large shield to protect his back from the magic missiles.
The player rolled over, outstretching his hands. Out of his lips came a prayer that enveloped his body in a glowing aura.
“Pak?”
“Eh?” Hearing his name, the paladin looked up — and almost stumbled over at seeing a demon coming down on him. “What the...?”