Chapter 5 : Novice Dungeon

Chapter 5 : Novice Dungeon

Nash did not waste time with his choice on the free skill offered by the Assassin Master.

He chose [Stun Strike] as his first option.

While [Plunder] may have seemed like the most reasonable to choose among the three and the most overpowered, it just didn't make sense to Nash to have a target on his back.

He just joined the game and was level 1, but that did not guarantee that everyone else was also level 1. Per adventure, he kills a player or an NPC and is attacked by a bunch of level 2s or 3s, then his situation would totally be hopeless.

Nash sighed as he equipped the [Stun Strike].

Moreover, the chance of [Stun Strike] being successful was high enough for him.

Not only does he strike at 150% of his normal attack power, there is also an added stun effect that is bound to startle his opponent. But this applied to players who were the same rank or just a bit higher.

Nash knew not to expect [Stun Strike] to be as effective when he is faced with a player who was 5 or 6 or even more levels above him since he was just level 1 himself.

"Thank you so much," Nash expressed his gratitude to Bismarck with a bow.

With this, Nash departed Bismarck's location having gotten what he wanted but he was going to return for the rest of the skill scrolls before they are no more.

Nash made his way to the western exit of the novice village as fast as he could, heading to a location where he could try out his skills and refresh his muscle memories.

He continued on his journey until he came to a vast expanse of land that was fertile with green pastures.

[You have discovered the green grassland]

[Fame: +1]

Nash smiled.

His fame across Apex Online was gradually increasing.

Sooner than later, this place would be discovered but before then he was going to do what he wanted.

The green land was the location of a novice dungeon.

Novice dungeon held no threats and were almost likened to practice grounds in his past life since most of the creatures and monsters that were in them were level 0 with a few amongst them being a bit higher, having little to no attack or defense power.

Nash explored the land first before entering the dungeon. He was not stupid to feel that he could conquer the dungeon on the get-go just because it was a novice dungeon.

Nash, first, decided to keep himself busy with level 0 creatures before going for the big fish.

Strewn across the land were animals, the domesticated kind—chickens, cows, dogs. The kind of animals one could find at him or among humans habitats.

[Dagger]

Nash immediately equipped his dagger and went for the creatures that posed no threat to him—the chickens.

Using his dagger, he stabbed three of them speedily and in quick succession.

-14!

-14!

-14!

The chickens burst into tiny pixels but Nash was surprised and stepped back to observe.

He looked at his dagger with a confusion in his eyes. He had barely even used half the strength of the dagger, so how could it deal a damage of 14?

Even if he did use the full extent of the dagger, his highest possible attack power with it was 9.

Just as he was thinking about it, his shadow in front of him squirmed.

'Null,' Nash immediately thought.

He looked at the grass, eyes focused on his shadow.

"Null, is that you?"

Following Nash's question, his shadow moved in a wave-like manner to give him an affirmative answer.

Nash was very much excited to discover that he had access to Null even inside Apex Online.

This fact alone changed everything.

He didn't expect that Null would cross over into the game nor did he expect that his shadow would have his exact attributes.

It was now that everything made sense to Nash—if they attacked at the same time, the damage dealt seemed to double.

That explained why the level 0 chickens took on so much damage from a slight dagger stab, while also considering that they had zero defense systems.

Nash chuckled and then punched the air in jubilation.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he yelled, without any care in the world. "No one can stop me now!"

Nash understood the massive advantage that being able to deal two times the normal damage would bring to the game, and this cheat was in his favour.

Following this, Nash continued to kill the animals on the land while also testing Null's ability and how to perfectly blend attacks with him to form a tag team.

He was the only one who could see Null as Null both in the real world and inside the game but nevertheless, Nash did not want to risk it.

Mistakes would probably lead to Null's discovery and Nash wouldn't want that.

Nash sat down on the grass and instructed Null to kill as many chickens as he could and so the black entity ran around chasing chickens who also ran for their dear lives.

*Stab*

-8!

-8!

Null dealt a damage of 8 points whenever he killed a chicken alone

Watching Null ceaselessly attack the chickens, Nash wondered about something and he finally figured it out. He understood how to keep Null hidden from any eyes.

This was simply by overlapping with his shadow whenever they were fighting. If Null wanted to attack, Nash would recreate the same attack pattern to overlap with Null's and make it simple like he was the one doing so.

At worst, people would assume that Nash has very high attack power or is already some high level player. That was better to handle than explaining how your shadow could fight on its own.

Nash and Null killed a total of 20 chickens and for each chicken slain, they received a reward of 1 copper coin.

Since the chickens were level 0 monsters, they did not offer any skills or items as they were too easy to kill.

With 20 copper coins in his possession, Nash was ready to enter the dungeon since his money for the dungeon payment was complete.

Nash located the dungeon point within the grassland called the "Animal Farm".

To enter [Animal Farm], a player had to pay an entry fee of 5 copper coins and the thing about this particular dungeon was that there was no limit to how many a player could enter and clear it.

That was why, in his players, many people used it as an avenue to level up since leveling up in Apex Online was a hard thing to achieve.

[-5 copper coins]

Nash paid the entry fee and with a flash of light he was transported into what looked like a ranch.

[You have discovered the Animal Farm]

[Fame: +1]