Chapter 6

As for whether these guys might hold a grudge and accuse him of murder after they resurrected, that was not a problem. The penalty for death is experience loss. 

The state of the revived player might roll back to a few hours before death or up to a few days, depending on the severity of the penalty. The higher the level, the more severe the penalty. 

In short, players often don't know how they died and who killed them. 

Putting aside these greedy players, Dean resumed his hunt and finally reached level 5.

[Unlocked: Quest system

Unlocked: Global chat

Unlocked: Player Market.]

Three new icons faintly glowed on his player panel. His fingers tapped on the chat bubble. 

Messages flashed on his screen. The texts were unrecognizable, but the game provided an auto-translate feature, allowing him to enjoy humor from other Districts as well. 

Most of the chat messages were guild recruitments and players clamoring to join top guilds. Top players were active in the chat, bantering with each other.

Dean closed the chat interface and clicked on another icon. The Quest system.

It currently has one task:

[Kill a level 5 Rift Boss

Rewards: 1000XP, 100 Coins.

Due 1 week

Penalty: -50% stats for 1 week]

He sighed. For others, it might be a breeze to play with a party. But for a solo player like him, it would be challenging. 

"Difficult, but not impossible." 

Next, Dean clicked on the last icon, the one he was most interested in, the Player Market.

He entered the interface, quickly familiarizing himself with the interface.

He checked the price of a fireball diagram.

[Fireball Diagram - 4 Coins]

[Mana Core 200g - 10 Coins]

The currency used by the Player Market is called game coins. One coin is roughly around 1000 union credits.

The Fireball Diagram is quite expensive. After all, a bottle of ink, which cost 10 Coins, could allow him to make about nine fireball diagrams.

He listed 3 regular [Fireball Diagrams] at the price of 3.9 Coins, just slightly lower than the lowest-priced one. He did this so the sorting algorithm would put his products first.

Then he listed 4 [Fire Bullet Diagrams] he hadn't used yet. Pricing them at 5 Coins. 

He had to experiment with the price as this diagram was new. 

On his way back home, he checked the market again. Surprisingly, all the diagrams were sold off.

"That was fast!" 

Still, it was understandable. There were countless players around the world. Almost half of the population. The game market could reach them all.

He got 17.36 game coins after the game took a good 20% commission out of the total sales.

In his room, Dean was checking the Player Market for his needs.

Compared to players below level 10, he was very loaded right now. But he still has a long way to go compared to those high-level players whose transactions could reach a hundred million in game coins.

"Hmm, let me see, a staff? Yeah, what's the use, I can't cast magic." 

"What, a Mewfluff mattress? Things like this could drop? Oh, it's crafted. Looks nice and hypoallergenic, let me take one."

A soft-looking mattress that seemed to be made of white fluffy fur, appeared on top of his bed.

Dean plopped down to it, enjoying a moment of bliss.

"What's this, a Warm Slime Pillow and Cool Slime Pillow? Perfect, let me buy 2 pairs for each." 

" Right, I'll also buy some for mother and father, and toys for the two."

While Dean continued his shopping spree, somewhere in another part of the world, a player named Andrew was attacking a level 9 rift. 

Their party was composed of 2 warriors, 1 mage, 1 healer, and 1 archer. 

Andrew was one of the warriors. After a hard-fought battle and getting through stage gimmicks, they have reached the portal that leads to the boss room. 

At this moment, they gathered around a bonfire. Not far from them was the portal. 

They finalized their strategy and were ready to tackle the boss. 

Andrew checked his inventory again. Health potions, anti-abnormal status potions, mana potions, and buff potions. 

All of them were deemed sufficient. 

He took out one buff potion and drank it. The surge of strength increased his confidence. Others also drank their buff potions, and to top it off, they received an additional buff from the priest. 

"All ready, let's go," Andrew said. 

He was the party leader. Clearing this rift would let them reach level 10, an important milestone for players. Because it was at this level that the first upgrade to their talent would happen.

They were determined to finish it quickly and perfectly, leaving no room for errors.

Andrew was excited, he even bought an expensive diagram just to make sure he had sufficient firepower.

[Fire Bullet Diagram]

- a formation is derived from the Fireball formation. It was modified to increase the heat and pressure of the fireball, and as a result, it now possesses greater explosiveness and can penetrate through objects with its heat. Its effective reach is only within two meters. Could be used 4 times.

The Game World judged that it was stronger than a regular fireball, so Andrew bought it. He trusted the Game World's evaluation.

They entered the portal and the cut scene played.

A huge monster with a muscular body jumped from a cliff and descended with explosiveness. 

It stood more than 2 meters tall, and its arms and thighs were wrapped in muscles. It held a massive double-edged battle axe. Its head was that of a Bull, horns curling on its temple.

It slowly stood up from its landing point, it waved its giant axe, clearing the dust. It took a deep breath and roared at the intruders. 

Minotaur, The Labyrinth Guard.

The cut scene ended. Now the players could move, and the first thing they did was spread out, with the two warriors taking the lead and confronting the minotaur. 

The boss swung its axe, a motion akin to swatting flies, but the 'flies' evaded perfectly and launched a counterattack, drawing the first blood. 

The two warriors successfully drew the boss's aggro.

The Mage could now cast his spells comfortably in the distance. The archer fired arrows occasionally, but each strike would leave the minotaur howling in pain. But before it could track the offender, the two pesky flies would relentlessly attack and trade injuries. 

Just then, the Mage's fireball arrived. Also known as the strongest attack below level 10, the fireball did not disappoint, taking a huge chunk of the minotaur's health and causing persistent burning damage.

The players continued the attack cycle perfectly. They had researched this boss and knew the strategy. Thousands of players had already walked the path before them, and now they too, would "walk" over Minotaur following their predecessors.

The boss's health dropped to 20%. It fought bravely and managed to injure the two warriors, it almost caught the healer too, but she pulled a diagram out and flew away.

That's right, she flew. The Minotaur roared. It lifted its axe and was about to throw it like a boomerang, but a fireball to its head made it reconsider.

When health dropped to 10%'s attack pattern would change. It would enter a berserk state, doubling the damage dealt and received, and increasing the wind-up for each of its attacks while also increasing the hit area.

Early players who were unprepared would have little stamina left at this point, their speed is decreased, making it difficult to dodge the hit area.

Andrew and the others were calm, already expecting this, calming drank stamina and speed potions.

The boss lifted its axe, and a dark red shadow spread on the ground. The players quickly escaped from the shaded area, and the axe struck down hard, cleaving the ground.

Anyone in the hit area would have been instakilled.

After the attack, the Minotaur emitted the sound of heavy panting as it struggled to lift its axe back.

"Now!" Andrew yelled they used their strongest attack,

Fireball, Piercing shot, Thrust

In addition, Andrew activated the Fire bullet diagram, releasing a small bluish fireball, putting almost half of his mana into it.

Its size seemed small, but the heat it released was no joke.

"This, is a fire bullet?" 

The fire bullet easily burned through the minotaur's skin, like a worm digging through flesh. Numerous damage values flashed over its head, and its ho bar was draining visibly.

Then the fire bullet exploded.

"Boom!" 

A massive, dark red value appeared above the Boss's head, denoting a critical strike.

It was the highest damage value he had ever seen in person. 

Three more fire bullets followed after the initial one and all landed on target. The casting time was fast and there were no delays. This was the strength of a formation.