Fire Hydra

As Wade walked through the passage, he noticed that it was almost night and after a day of rest, he was ready to go back into the game. However, it seemed his phone wanted to ruin the preparation he had. It rang and he picked it up with a sigh.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Hal. We got a job for you. This time its assassination. We'll pay you $100,000 for it. You up?"

"Who's the target."

"A corrupt politician that our boss can't take out with peaceful means. He's using you to take him out this time."

"Fine, send me the info. He'll be dead by tomorrow."

"Alright, good luck."

"Bye."

As Wade ended the call, he received the information on who Mr. King wanted him to assassinate.

The man's name was John Haltion and he was a married man that used many corrupt methods to get to the power he was at now. He had also done many misleading deeds such as bribe, extortion, and embezzlement. Wade didn't really care but since he was a person of benefits, he accepted the job mentally.

His location was in one of the highest buildings in the city. The trade center. He figured it'd be hard to kill him but he could escape undetected if he failed and he had never failed.

Wade reached his home and equipped his custom sniper rifle along with the two dual pistols in his back pockets. He then walked out and pulled out a map. Wade was looking for a suitable sniping area to shoot John Haltion. John had a tracker on him that had been hacked by Mr. King. Wade could see wherever he was in the trade center. He was standing near one of the windows of the trade center on a balcony.

Wade centered his gaze on a small apartment building with a similar height to his own but it had the view of the trade center making it the most optimum spot to shoot Mr. Haltion.

When Wade reached the top of the apartment building, he looked at his tracker and saw Mr. Haltion had moved back inside the trade center. However, recently he had made some modifications to his gun. He had many types of scopes, suppressors, and underbarrel modifications in his gun case.

Wade took out an x-ray scope he had made himself and this was its first test. He had made it when having inspiration in that alleyway when being burned by the tattoo on his back.

He attached the scope to his sniper rifle and as he looked through it, he constantly glanced from his tracker to his sniper rifle as he located Mr. Haltion.

Wade was entirely focused on Mr. Haltion and pressed the trigger. The energy bullet flew through the air, pierced the wall, and unsurprisingly straight into Mr. Haltion's head. He checked the tracker and it had disappeared meaning Mr. Haltion had died.

Wade rushed down the stairs, through the apartment building's door, and into a nearby alley. He rounded the corner and leaned against the wall as he sighed.

"This is just another path to the revenge I yearn for."

Wade pushed another unassuming brick and a passageway slid open and as he walked in, the door closed behind him.

***********************

"Attack now. The monster's stunned."

As the command rang out, a few hundred magic spells landed on the boss monster and a notification appeared as the boss was defeated.

"Damn. Ever since that guild update came out yesterday it's been a few times easier to coordinate everyone and grind bosses together as a giant party."

Rose heaved a sigh as when the guild update came out, the beginner villages were no longer the limit that the players could go to. They could now go farther, into kingdoms and countries and explore the vast world. So many guilds came together and set up headquarters in a few different villages. Some even put it in the middle of the wild where it was isolated from monsters and players.

Rose was the owner of this guild also known as Fire's Vigor. Many of the members of this guild used fire as their main weapon and those who didn't, used other methods of attack to support the guild. Recently, Rose had promoted a friend of hers. They were friends in the real world and her in-game name was Nature's Embrace.

Rose's in-game name was Fire Chaser and they were both in the top leaderboards for levels. When Wade had killed her twice, Rose had dropped two levels and went from 2nd place to 7th place. She had held a grudge against Wade for killing her and dropping her lower in the leaderboards. Wade was of course still on the top of the leaderboard while the second-place spot was owned by Unbreakable Defense and as the fastest leveler, even he was only at level 23.

However, since the guilds had been established it was now easier for them to get experience as they could just charge their way through the Beast Forest, killing all they came across. This strategy was employed by many guilds stationed around the forest and Fire's Vigor applied this strategy as well.

They had recently pushed extremely far into the forest and had met many bosses that dropped skills, armor, and weapons that kept them constantly equipped. They also had a few Beginner Alchemists constantly creating healing and regenerative potions. They had advanced so far that they were halfway through the forest.

Everyone was cheerfully chatting before an energy wave swept across them and many flashes of light appeared. They had been party wiped, no, guild wiped.

[Your party members have all died.]

[Your guild members have all died.]

[You have died.]

"Fuck. What even was that damn monster. We saw nothing before we died."

Rose cursed as she walked up to her fellow teammates.

"Did anybody see what the hell hit us?"

She yelled before a few voices responded.

"It's a damn energy wave. That's all we saw."

"Shit."

Rose cursed once more as her men didn't even see what hit them except that it was an energy wave.

"From now on, avoid the inner forest. We have to prepare before we go fight again. Thankfully, most of our gear remains. For those who have lost a significant amount of loot, we will compensate you by promoting you to the next level as long as you can show proof."

The guild members cheered as she finished and they immediately went back to their default parties and started heading out to the forest to grind once more.

Rose checked the leaderboard and sighed as the anonymous user at level 31 hadn't gone online even once in the past three days. Just as she was about to exit out of the leaderboard menu, the gray offline icon on the anonymous user turned to the green online icon.

***********************

Wade arrived home and decided to go on the game as he hadn't been online for 3 days. He wanted to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened.

[Guild Update has been unlocked]

[Guilds can now be formed. Head to the chief of your village to start a guild. Upgrade your guild by paying coins to your chief. Create guild headquarters by buying the land from your chief then find a City Token. You will then be able to build your headquarters with the materials you have. Good luck adventurers.]

[Auction Menu unlocked]

[Sell your extra gear on this menu and when somebody buys it the money will be sent to you and the item to them instantly.]

As Wade read the notice, he smiled. If guilds were set up that meant if he eliminated them, he would earn mass profit. He could then sell it on the [Auction Menu]. He looked forward to destroying any guilds that annoyed him with [Bloodshed] and [Bloodbath].

He swiped the menu away as he equipped all his gear from his storage wristband. He then decided to sell the gear he got from the girls on the Auction Menu.

*******************

In the Fire's Vigor guild...

"Rose! Rose!"

The healer that had been with her when Wade team-wiped them showed Rose her [Auction Menu].

"Aren't those our items Rose? Also, the person's who selling them is anonymous."

"That bastard. Selling our items after he looted them from us. It's fine Juliet. We won't lose to him next time. He can't take out an entire guild."

"Can he?"

"No, he can't, now Juliet. Go back to what you were doing before. I'll settle our problems with him today."

****************

As Wade walked into the Beast Forest he noticed a lot fewer monsters than before. He also observed many groups of people killing the Wild Wind Wolves.

As Wade walked past them, their eyes flickered as if they wanted help but he ignored all their pleas. There was a saying that he had said once.

'Once you fight, don't go back. Once the fire's in you, it's not going to come out.'

As he mentally repeated these words in his head while he walked, he noticed a large group of fire mages and hunters fighting a large snake with three heads.

It seemed that this was the boss of this area of the forest. A hydra. As it shot fire breath out of its mouth, Wade stared with his eyes wide open.

"What the fuck. Aren't hydras supposed to be breathing poison and not fire? I'm sure we can't use fire to defeat it now either. Those fire mages are in trouble now, hmm."

Wade gasped before thinking seriously on how to defeat this hydra. He used [Inspect] on the hydra.

[Fire Hydra (Rare)]

[Level 30]

[Hp = 50,000]

[Abilities:

Head Duplication (Passive): If the head is cut off, it will regenerate itself as two heads instead of one.

Fiery Blood (Passive): Increase fire damage by 20%]

[Skills:

Fire Breath = Burns its enemies alive. Deals 75% attack stat and sets opponent on fire dealing 100 damage a second for 20 seconds. Usage rate = High

Active Regeneration = Heals itself rapidly by using its own blood. Heals 75% health and take 50% less damage for 10 seconds. Usage rate = When below 10% health. Only usable 3x in its lifetime.

Fire's Fury = Unleashes all the Fiery Blood in itself to cause an extreme self explosion damaging all around it in a 20-meter radius and setting them on fire for 75 seconds dealing 500 damage a second. Usage rate = When below 2% health.]

Wade decided that he would use his katana before the hydra got below 20% health, he would immediately kill it by putting poison on his blade and slicing all the heads off in one go.

**********************

"If anybody has the ability to poison, use it on this damn monster!"

Rose yelled as she launched all her offensive spells against the Fire Hydra. This may be their doom yet again. They met it in the Beast Forest after they once again went too deep. They had found a cave with three eggs in it and after coming too close to the cave, the hydra had attacked and wiped out 10% of their forces while killing another 20% until now.

A few people were able to poison the monster with potions but they didn't have many poison potions left to throw onto the monster's open wounds. They had been able to cut off two heads successfully without them growing back. There were 9 heads currently with each one using its [Fire Breath] at the worst opportune times.

Suddenly, 7 of its heads were cut off by a familiar man wearing a black cloak and bandana.

"Noooo! Don't cut its head off. Now we have to fight double its power!"

"What are you doing motherfucker!"

"We can do this without you cutting off like 10 of its heads, man!"

Many of the guild members protested as Wade cut off 7 of its head at once before activating [Edge of the Blade] and slicing through both of the remaining heads.

As the headless hydra dropped to the ground, the guild members were astonished. A full ten seconds passed as the hydra nor the guild members made any move.

"That's our kill!"

"Yeah, it's not yours, man."

"We spent a few hours trying to kill that thing and you just kill stole it."

Wade pocketed the hydra's body and drops before leaving with a smile.

"If you can't kill it, don't blame other people for killing it for you."

Wade left while pointing the middle finger at the angry guild members. After arriving at an isolated area within the Beast Forest, he checked the experience and loot he earned from the Hydra.

Unsurprisingly the loot was somewhat disappointing but the experience was somewhat satisfying.

[3900 Experience gained]

[Level Up]

[You are now Level 32]

[Experience = 902/3300]

[30 stat points gained]

[3 stat points assigned to Agility and 2 stat points assigned to Strength]

He added 6 stat points to every stat before looking at the other loot.

[Menu]

[In-game name = War]

[Level = 31]

[Experience = 202/3200]

[Class = Assassin]

[Sub-Class = Master Alchemist

Intermediate Blacksmith]

[Alchemist Experience = 1000/10000

Blacksmith Experience = 400/1000]

[God = None (changeable at the Temple)]

[Elements = None]

[Universal Weapon Mastery = No Mastery]

[Abilities:

Instant Learning (Passive)

Plagiarize (Passive)

Wind Aura (Passive): Increase move speed by 10%]

Sub-par Wind Aura (Passive): (Boot Ability)]

[Skills:

Inspect: Level 2: 92/200 = Active Skill: Cost = None/Cooldown = None

Stealth: Level 2: 10/200 = Active Skill: Cost = 10 Mana/Cooldown = None

Backstab: Level 3 304/400 (Passive)

Bleed: Level 2 9/200 = Active Skill: Cost = 20 Mana/Cooldown = 15 seconds

Tear: Active Skill: Cost: 20 Mana/Cooldown = 10 seconds (Dagger Skill)

Weak Wind Blast: Active Skill: Cost: 30 Mana/Cooldown = 7.5 seconds (Dagger Skill)]

Fuse: Active Skill: Cost/None/Cooldown = 24 hours

Hidden from View (Weakened)(Passive): (Cloak Skill)

Master Swordsmanship (Passive): Enemies killed 1832/10,000

Shield Bash Level 1 33/100 = Active Skill: (Requires Shield) Cost = 40 Mana/Cooldown = 15 seconds

Block: Level 2 103/200 Active Skill: Cost = 10 Mana/Cooldown = 10 seconds.

Reaper's Breath = Active Skill: Cost = 100 Mana/Cooldown = 10 seconds (Katana Skill)

Edge of the Blade = Active Skill: Cost = 300 Mana/Cooldown = 30 seconds (Katana Skill)

Basic Fireball Level 2 90/200 Active Skill: Cost = 50 Mana/Cooldown = 20 seconds

Vine Trap Level 2 102/200 Active Skill: Cost = 50 Mana/Cooldown = 20 seconds

Damage Increase Level 2 94/200 Active Skill: Cost = 5 Mana per second/Cooldown = None

Defense Increase Level 2 194/200 Active Skill: Cost = 5 Mana per second/Cooldown = None

Upgraded Wind Blast Level 1 2/100 Active Skill: Cost = 100 Mana/Cooldown = 20 seconds]

[Health = 212]

[Strength = 238]

[Agility = 259]

[Magic Power = 222]

[Endurance = 212]

[Stat Points = 0]

[Hp = 2060/2120]

[Damage = 238]

[Movement speed = 1250+5+5+20/Total movement speed = 1295+15%= 1489]

[Magic capacity = 2220 (Recharges 111 mana every minute)]

[Damage Reduction = 212+2+5+5/Total damage reduction = 224]

The equipment from the hydra was decent but everything else was absolute trash in Wade's opinion. He planned to sell it in the [Auction Menu] later.

[looted Hydra teeth x183 = can be used to craft or forge unique weapons that give fire boosts depending on what is crafted and what materials are used.]

[looted Hydra flesh x109 = can be used to cook Hydra flesh that gives a permanent 1% fire affinity boost and a temporary 5% fire damage boost for 3 hours.]

looted [Fire Hydra Teeth Halberd]