Ruslow The Assassin (3)

The crazed Assassin ripped off the bandages covering his face. Everyone expected to see a demon-like personage but was met with abysmal disappointment by the face reveal.

"Huh, that's it?" Facebasher, standing closest to the Assassin, was astonished.

"He looks like your average Jimmy." Said a displeased Mille.

"…" No comments from Sightseer.

"Um, well. Maybe he got disbanded because of his average looks? Perhaps he wasn't scary-looking enough?" Evan deduced.

—

[You've Provoked Ruslow the Malicious Assassin with your words because of his insecurities!]

—

"What the hell! I don't even have the Provoke skill!" Evan was stupefied. "Facebasher, say something awful! Quick!"

The Assassin was already on Evan's tail.

Evan threw his boomerang and side-stepped to change the direction of his momentum in an attempt to escape the looming Assassin.

[Parried!]

[Parried!]

[-11 HP]

[Dodged!]

[-5 HP]

—

[Level 1 to 15 Twig-Leaf Boomerang (Unique) has leveled up!]

[Experience: 200/200]

[Level 1 to 20 Oak-Leaf Boomerang (Epic)]

[Experience: 0/200]

—

"Your mother is so ugly your father put you in an orphanage right after birth so you didn't have to see her face!"

Throwing out insults was like second nature to Facebasher. Although it wasn't necessary to use words for Provoke to activate, there was a sadistically fun side to it.

"Keep my mother out of this! Now you've crossed the line!" The Assassin angrily exclaimed.

Everyone but Facebasher nodded in agreement.

The angered Assassin halted and turned back to face Facebasher once again.

"Wait—" Evan pondered. "Sightseer, say something belittling to Ruslow."

Facebasher was dumbfounded. What was Evan up to? He barely parried Ruslow's dagger with his greataxe for the umpteenth time.

Sightseer deliberated what insults she could dish out while rubbing her chin.

"Hey, Ruslow. Cover your face again. Real Assassins might mistakenly see you as a plebeian and mug you." She said.

"Not bad." Evan gave a thumbs up with his free hand while holding his newly upgraded Oak-Leaf Boomerang in the other. "Alright guys, that's our strategy guys." Evan said in the party chat as Sightseer suddenly overtook the Boss' aggro.

…

—

[You've captured: Level 19 Ruslow the Malicious Assassin!]

[+1575 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You've cleared an E-rank [Exclusive] Dungeon!]

—

Once the party's strategy was set, the difficulty of capturing Ruslow had become much easier. They each took turns aggroing and kiting the Boss with their weird insults and slowly but surely dealt one strike after the other.

Of course, the others voted Mille to have the best insults. Hence she had almost died on two occasions and begrudgingly had to simmer down her insults in the latter part of the battle.

The capturing part was new to the party, but necessary, as an important part of the Quest objectives. It would allow them a better Quest rank once they went back to visit Lord Brickwell for the Quest rewards.

To capture an NPC monster or other foes in general, one had to use the Subdue skill where the success rate varied. This was a built-in skill that any class acquired by default. For Common monsters such as Swiney Hogs or Gargoyles, the success rate of Subdue was rather high as long as their HP was below 40%.

When it came to Elite monsters, the success rate of Subdue only became effective once their HP dropped below 15%. This ultimately showed that the rarer monsters were harder to capture.

The party only attempted to Subdue Ruslow when his HP was below 10% but wasn't able to capture him until five or six attempts later. By then Ruslow's HP was almost in the double digits.

Surely, one could attempt to capture a Champion once below the 10% HP threshold, but the odds still seemed to be stacked against the expectations. With much hardship, it wasn't until Ruslow was down to 2 or 3 percent HP that Evan's unarmed Subdue strike finally triggered the desired effect.

In the end, Ruslow's item drops weren't disappointing. He'd dropped his Epic level 15-25 dagger among other Unique and Rare items and a large chunk of Aerth Coins.

Since no one but Sightseer used a dagger-type weapon, she eventually called dips on the pocket-sized sword.

In return, the others gained a larger chunk of the higher-leveled Rare and Unique pieces of equipment that they'd desperately been needing.

After all, the party had started to outgrow the maximum level requirements for most of their beginner's Unique gear capped at level 15.

The whole party was already level 14 and Sightseer wasn't far from reaching level 15. The Dungeon was by all means their saving grace when it came to weapon and armor upgrades. And fortunately, the game designers appeared to be charitable toward players about to reach new item set levels.

—

[Congratulations! You've cleared an E-rank (Exclusive) Dungeon!>

[Evaluation rewards have been raised to D-rank! (Exclusive)]

[A personal Dungeon ranking evaluation is taking place. Please remain logged in...]

—

Albeit no Anomalies, it was time for the party to receive some upgrades to their proficiencies after a successful Dungeon raid!