Wraithbloom Titan

Kai hurriedly dodged a powerful, glowing blue root as the tree-like boss monster, Wraithbloom Titan, swung its massive limb. He cleaved through the heads of two of its dozen of weird-looking, child-like, light-blue minions and charged toward the main body of the boss. But just before he could reach the annoying thing, three minions leaped into his path and exploded in a dark blue poison cloud, once again blocking his way.

Without hesitation, Kai used Godstep, teleporting atop a nearby tree branch to momentarily escape the unfair fight.

The full name of the monster was Wraithbloom Titan Lv.20.

Kai had been traveling through the dense forest for more than a day and a half now, keeping his path true to the west as marked on his map. Along the way, he had either killed or avoided monsters ranging from Lv.15 to Lv.25, depending on whether the fights were manageable or simply too annoying to bother with. Finally, he had stumbled upon this hidden boss, which was guarding a weak and old-looking wooden bridge.

Without a set respawn point, Kai couldn't relax. He had gathered plenty of items and had no intention of roaming buck-naked in this dangerous forest if he died. But he couldn't skip this guy either—just beyond the boss, he could see a small village with his own eyes.

The forest ended just past the massive creek over which the bridge stretched. Beyond it, a vast, colorful meadow stretched as far as he could see. The bridge stood at the narrowest point of the creek, and at best, he could probably shoot an arrow across from the entrance. The village itself wasn't large—in fact, it seemed even smaller than the one he had spawned in—but the NPCs there might point him in the right direction.

If he could reach them, he could finally get to Stonebinder City or at least a larger Nexus Kin settlement to level up further and gain new skills.

But first, he had to deal with this annoying bastard of a boss.

The massive tree, its bark a mix of deep blue and brown, slammed its many long limbs against the ground, shaking the entire land below the tree Kai stood on.

The boss's only visible weakness was its core, which was normally white but started glowing menacingly red whenever he got close. Meanwhile, its minions exploded in poisonous dark blue smoke—he still had no idea what kind of debuffs that inflicted, and was in no hurry to find out. His arrows barely scratched the damn thing. His dagger struggled to cut through its thick blue roots, laced with pulsing purple veins.

A fire-related skill would have been perfect right now, but alas, he had none.

"Guess it's time to use BloodEcho," Kai muttered.

His MP was already low. Activating Bloodworld would drain a huge chunk of what little he had left, and keeping its addon skill active would make it usable for only a few milliseconds.

He had to get really close before triggering it.

"Let's do this shit."

Kai inhaled deeply before leaping down.

Instantly, five minions and numerous thick roots lashed toward him. Three minions guarded the boss's core, as always.

Focusing to the limit, Kai dodged the blindingly fast roots with perfect precision and impeccable timing—he had to. He was much slower than them. One misstep meant instant death.

The roots missed. The minions chased after him.

Kai cleaved through the first one's head before it could explode and pierced another's skull with an arrow in his free hand. Before the third one could detonate, he used the dagger and arrow still lodged in the other two and smashed their heads together, killing it instantly.

Still, the two minions in the backline had already begun self-destructing.

Kai rushed to the side, dodging yet another incoming root, then grabbed it mid-swing, using its momentum to swing himself out of the poison-filled area.

As expected, two of the three core guards took the bait and rushed after him, while the boss's numerous roots converged at his location to crush him to pulp.

Kai ignored everything.

With a sharp breath, and utmost focus he loosed an arrow at the last remaining minion beside the Wraithbloom Titan's trunk—a perfect headshot. The minion died instantly.

And then—Godstep.

Kai teleported directly beside the monster's trunk, right as the roots lunged at him.

The world turned red, white, and black—Bloodworld activated.

Target locked.

Kai unleashed BloodEcho, disrupting the boss's senses.

The Titan flinched, its roots hesitating.

That was all the opening Kai needed.

With a smirk, he snatched the bastard's core before it could turn red.

In an instant, all the powerful roots lost their strength and collapsed limp onto the ground.

And just like that, the Wraithbloom Titan was dead.

…And the damn thing didn't drop anything else other than its core.

Kai clicked his tongue, kicked the lifeless husk, and moved on, popping a medicine pill into his mouth as he walked. He was running low on supplies—he needed to restock soon. Hopefully, the village had a shop or something.

[2 levels gained.]

After 35 plus hours of continuous travel and monster hunting, Kai had reached Level 18.

His name soared up the leaderboard, placing him at 15th place.

There were still 14 other insane players ahead of him.

Deimos had dropped below 20th place. Clearly, the grinding area she picked was worse than his.

Seeing her misfortune made Kai smile.

Kai approached the old, broken bridge and nocked an arrow.

He fired it high into the air, watching as it arced before landing successfully on the other side of the creek.

But instead of using Godstep to teleport immediately, Kai fired another arrow at the nearest tree branch and teleported there first.

The reason was simple.

His interface clock showed the real-world time: 5:34 AM.

He needed at least a few hours of sleep before school.

He didn't want to log off, but he had to.

His character also needed rest, so it was a perfectly timed break.

Kai closed Nyxfall, logged out of the headgear in the landing planet, and set it aside.

Then, he closed his eyes and let himself drift into sleep.