BATTLE WITH A TROLL

Noctis easily cleared nine floors of the Novice Stage without much difficulty.

This is a piece of cake for me. My weapons, armor, accessories, skills, accessories, and other in-game items are all overpowered. Not to mention the unlimited money bug that only applies to me, and those whom I give an Elite Badge. Way too much for my taste. I fear my father must have overdone things a bit. Not even the other elite players in VRMMORPG Fantasion can boast of a major boost like this. It feels like soaring with ease through the game levels like a falcon, instead of grinding slowly like some old turtle running for his life in the sand. If only the previous games I played were as easy as this, life would have been better.

He noticed a few Game Guardians at the portal leading to the first floor of every stage. He dared not offend the Game Guardians, or even pick a fight with them, knowing full well that they can permanently eliminate a player from the game, or else tamper with the floors and make it harder for the players they disliked to clear stages.

He's now on the 10th floor of the Novice Stage and currently fighting with the mini-boss of the 10th stage, a human-sized troll wearing a richly embroidered green robe, and carrying a finely made wooden spiked club made of Norwegian oak. The spiked club seemed to glow with the power of nature in its left hand, while the troll gesticulating magickally with its right hand.

He scanned the surroundings.

He's in a forest, with tall trees around him.

Noctis nimbly ducked aside as the troll sent a long, enchanted, throwing wooden spear with the tip smeared with hornet venom flying at his God-Class jacket. He preferred to go lightly armored since he is an assassin spell-caster,and as always, he took care to make his armor super impressive, even in battle.

I'm lightly armored right now in God-Class black jeans, jacket, t-shirt, mask, adn combat boots. A pity I hadn't thought to buy God-Class antimagic ones from father in advance. But even God-Class armor like this are bound to have some disadvantages. A full set of knightly armor will offer better protection, but what's the point? Dressing up like some mediavel knight will only slow me down, and the advantage of an assassin is agility, sneakiness, and quick attacks. This clever troll quickly found the disadvantages, the same way I targeted the chinks in Joe's armor the last time we fought. God-Class armor may have a lot of durability, but it won't last forever, and the effectiveness will diminish everytime I take damage.

"Oh Orochi the Dragon God, grant me an extra large dragon-shield force field barrier that will protect me from this troll's attacks."

An extra-large black dragon-shield force-field barrier came into existence, with Noctis in the center of the force-field shield barrier.

" You think that shield is gonna last forever, human? How long will you cover behind some magic shield? Time will tell before the effectiveness of that shield barrier of yours will get reduced to zero. You're a sitting duck in there."

The troll laughed, and taunted Noctis. Emboldened at the sight of Noctis seemingly doing nothing inside the force field, the troll ramped up its attacks, and sent an endless wave of nature magic-infused long range attacks to weaken the defense of the force field shield.

This is not good at all. The troll is right. I'm facing a tricky opponent that is more cunning than the ordinary troll. This troll isn't the dumb type that I always encountered while playing RPGs. So, this is the smart troll my brother and father discussed. This troll has to have some sort of weakness. Well, I also got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.

Noctis got out a God-Class dragon summon scroll from his inventory, and placed it on the ground.

A black hexagram appeared. A full-grown black dragon, with eyes brimming red with a wild fury, stepped out of the hexagram, with tail lashing from side to side, and roared, spitting out dark, black flame with such an intense heat that Noctis had to duck and dodge before he got roasted.

"Nyrorth, Lord of the Dragons, sit down!"

Noctis shouted the command at the dragon. The dragon knew his name. It turned to look at Noctis with fiery, molten red eyes, and blasted dragon-fire at Noctis. Noctis nimbly dodged in time.

This dragon is berserk. The only way to control him, and permanently bind him to me, is with a dragon warhorn. This is no ordinary dragon, but stands at the top of the hierarchy of dragons. Luckily, I'm always prepared for worst case scenarios.

Noctis took a God-Class Dragon Warhorn from his inventory, and blew the warhorn on his lips.

The sound that came out from the warhorn is like nothing human. It was full of fear and wild fury, a wail that drowned all other sound.

Nyrorth finally calmed down, sat down, and let Noctis climb on his back.

The black dragon took to the air. and emitted a blast of black fire, shattering the force-field.

The dragon ducked and darted from the barrage of wooden crossbow bolts, and wooden ballista arrows that suddenly appeared in the air, all aimed at the dragon's belly.

Lol. How funny. The dragon's belly is not the dragon's weakness. This will only tickle the dragon, and make the dragon angry. The only effective way to kill a dragon is to target the eyes, or use an advanced anti-magic gun or anti-magic bomb.

Noctis wracked his brain on what he remembered about Norse myths.

Trolls are said to be angry with anything that is connected with Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church. They are also said to be deeply fearful of the thunder element, as Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, hunted trolls whenever he saw or come across them, and smite them with his hammer Mjolnir, with thunder crackling in the sky.

He did a quick read on what's written in the system.

Hybrid Forest Troll Variant

It is a shapeshifter and much smarter than the ordinary forest troll, and more dangerous.

It has the ability to channel powers from nature and understands human speech.

It's weak to thunder, and items with the mark of Christianity in them.

The dragon ducked a wooden ballista arrow that nearly pierced its eye.

Whew. That was close.

“You've been targeting me and my dragon with wooden sticks for a few minutes already. My turn to finish you for good, not-so-clever troll.”

Noctis mocked the troll.

"Celestial System Skill Activate: Holy Rain"

The skies darkened, and it began to rain hard.

Magic runes with the cross in the center of the runes appeared in the sky, immobilizing the troll with celestial magic. When the rain came into contact with the troll’s skin, the troll screamed in pain, effectively reducing the troll's Hp to just half of it's original hp.

He then landed the dragon on the ground.

"Oh Orochi, the dragon-god, grant me the power to smite down this troll with dragon-thunder."

The sky darkened, and the rumbling of strong, crackling thunder could be heard.

The thunderbolt struck the troll hard with such a force it closely resembled Thor smiting the giants with his hammer Mjolnir, fatally injuring the troll, and paralyzing it.

He took out a pair of God-Class black daggers with the mark of dragon-thunder imprinted on the handle of the daggers.

"Dragon Dance 20th Form"

While the troll is transfixed in place, unable to move because of the effects of the double damage, Noctis's speed increased beyond the speed of sound, and he finished the troll with a quick flurry of short, sharp blows with his daggers.

.

The troll vanished and gradually faded from existence, leaving behind a spiked wooden mace good for offense, a full set of armor that greatly boosts defense, and a

pendant that greatly boosts nature-based spells.

He put the three items on his inventory.

He then looked at the Notifications on the system.

“You leveled up - Level 10

You leveled up - Level 11

You leveled up - Level 12

You leveled up - Level 13

You leveled up - Level 14

You leveled up - Level 15

Your mastery of the passive system spell Celestial Rune Magic reached 15 percent. It will upgrade to Celestial Super Rune Magic when you reach 40% Mastery.

Your mastery of the active system spell Celestial Holy Rain has gone up to fifteen percent. It will upgrade to Celestial Holy Downpour when you reach 40 % Mastery.

Your mastery of the active Assassin Spellcaster skill Dragon Dance reached 40%. It will upgrade to Dragon Hyperspeed Dance at 80%.

Your mastery of the active Assassin Spellcaster Dragon Thunder spell reached 20%. It will upgrade into Dragon Thunderbolt when you reach 60% Mastery.

Your mastery of the passive Assassin Spellcaster Dragon Force Field Shield spell reached 20%. It will upgrade into Dragon Mega Forcefield Shield when you reach 50% Mastery.

Your mastery of the item God- Class Summon Scroll reached 30%. You will get a 50 percent chance of a docile Nyrorth when you reach 50% mastery.

Your superior performance has landed you in the top 1 rank in the top 15 ranking for Novices. Please keep a consistent splendid performance to stay in the top 1 rank.

Because you successfully cleared the 10th Mini-Boss of the Novice Stage, 5,000 Yen has been successfully deposited into your bank account. Please check your email to confirm.

Noctis exited the system notifications, then checked his in-game messages.

Meh. Nothing much, except for Takara sending me a copy-paste of Joe's real info. She shouldn't have bothered to do that. I already copy pasted his info when I bought those healing items to heal him.

Noctis added Joe in the game, and left a quick voice message.

"Hey Joe. I already added you, both in-game and in social media. I already sent you an elite Dragon Badge, so you won't get mistakenly attacked on sight, and I had Takara obtain an extra Necromancer Badge for you, so you'll avoid suspicion. I even sent you a brand new God-Class armor, shield, weapon set, and a huge amount of money. Use them wisely. All you need to do is approve all those items pending on your inventory. I hope you notice. "

Noctis temporarily paused VRMMORPG Fantasion, climbed out of his gaming capsule, and went to his bedroom to sleep. He'll have another busy day tomorrow.