Chapter 13：Risk

2:00:00

When Marius logged in he was greeted by an unexpected surprise.

(Player Midnight Solitude is Ranked 2nd on the Iron Mountain Leaderboard)

(Player Midnight Solitude is Rank 10th on the World Leaderboard.)

"So I've got company," Marius thought to himself.

Looking up the Leaderboard, Marius found the name of the person that had usurped his No.1 position.

Cold Mist - Battlemage.

Marius was surprised to see a Battlemage had come to Iron Mountain City. As a Mage, Fire Mountain City would have far greater benefits than here.

The curiosity nagged in the back of Marius' mind but it was something to ponder another time. For now, he had to find Toudin, the Beast Master.

Marius quickly descended the Mountain, heading towards the level 10-15 map.

All the occupations had their given locations. Pharmacists could be found around clearings filled with herbs. Smiths tended to be near their workshop. So it made sense for a Beast Master to be near the grinding Maps.

It didn't take long for Marius to find the Beast Master. He was an old dwarf, with long grey hair that looked like it would never be tamed. One of his burly arms was bare, with intricate runes engraved his flesh, reaching from his shoulder to his fingertips. He wore strong leather that looked like an assorted shade of dirt than anything else.

"Master Toudin?" Marius asked uncertainly,

"Aye boy. I'm Toudin. What do you want?" The dwarf's tone was harsh, giving Marius the distinct impression he did not like people.

"My name is Midnight Solitude. I would like to prove myself to you and become a Beast Tamer." Marius chose his words carefully. He wasn't sure if NPC's would react in different ways depending on how you spoke, but from his experience, they did have some form of system that controlled their interactions.

"Hah. You? A stinking Night Stalker wants to sully their hands and become a Beast Master? Don't waste my time." Toudin dismissed Marius with a shake of his hand.

Frowning, Marius didn't give up. "Let me prove myself." He urged, not moving from his spot.

"Bah. And why should I bother teaching you the ignoble art of Beast Taming?" The dwarf admonished.

Marius left his anger rise. "Because I'm so pretty," he spat, glaring down at the dwarven Beast Master. If manners didn't work, let's try pride.

"Don't be haughty with me boy." Toudin glowered back.

"Then give me a task," Marius retorted. 'Instead of arrogantly saying I'm unworthy, give me some task to prove one of us right. Otherwise, just teach me and stop being a gnome."

Whether there were gnomes in this world or not, Marius had no clue. Marius felt that he needed a suitable insult without causing too much insult. Gnome just felt like the best fit.

"Gnome?" Toudin growled. "You dare compare me to those vicious little monsters? Fine. You want a task, I'll give you a task. Go kill 100 Stone Gollums, then I'll see if you are worthy of becoming a Beast Tamer."

Marius inwardly groaned. Maybe calling him a Gnome wasn't the best idea.

(Will you accept the quest "Hunt the Stone Gollum?")

Marius accepted the quest bitterly. He knew exactly where he would find the Stone Gollum's and he was not looking forward to it.

The level 15-20 map was a 3 part map. A Valley, a Mountainside and a Cave. There were three kinds of monsters, each situated in a different part.

The Mountain Bear which scoured the valley, The Stone Goat which roamed the side of the mountain edge, then there was the inside of the mountain called the Stone Cave. That was where the level 20 Stone Gollum's could be found.

From what the game released, Gollums would be a particularly annoying monster to hunt. For one, they had a passive skill called (So Precious) which halved any damage done to them. That alone wouldn't be so bad, except they also had high defense and attack.

If Marius didn't have a weapon that could do pierce he would have given up before even trying. He would also suffer a 10 level suppression which would further reduce the damage he could deal.

"Frowning, Marius opened his communication and called Rajan.

"Marius, is everything ok?"

"It's fine," Marius replied. "Just wondering why the Beast Master quest is so...impossible."

"Haha," Rajan laughed "Are you saying that a bunch of Spider Monkies and Iron Hounds are worrying you?"

"No. If I had to fight a few level 15 monsters I wouldn't be concerned. But the Beast Master has me fighting Level 20 Stone Gollums."

"What?" Rajan was shocked "You unlocked the impossible quest? Why did you call him a Gnome?"

Marius was silent. So calling him a Gnome unlocked more stringent conditions for success.

"I should have just called him a bastard." Marius Murmured.

"If you had, you would have been barred from the quest permanently," Rajan noted.

Silently cursing, Marius asked. "Does the impossible quest provide extra rewards?"

"Well, if you succeed you will gain more Reputation and Toudin will respect you more," Rajan replied dubiously.

Sighing in resignation, Marius started running towards the level 15-20 map.

"Are you going to do it?" Rajan asked.

Marius didn't bother answering and ended the communication.

It took him a while to make his way there. There was the level 10-15 map to go through which was packed full of Spider Monkies and Green Serpents, both of which had a speed advantage over him.

Green Serpent - Grey Rank

Health: 200

Mana: 200

Skills: (Poisonous Spit), (Deadly Fang)

Spider Monkey - Grey Rank

Health: 200

Mana: 300

Skills: (Taunt), (Copy Cat)

Marius didn't want to waste any time on these Monsters so he activated Moon Dance to quickly get out of their aggro range or cast Binding Shadow to escape them.

But even so, he still ended up in a few battles where he had to fight his way out. Surprisingly, even with a 2-4 level suppression, Marius still did exception damage due to his 105% pierce damage.

Finally, he found himself at a crossroad. He could either turn right and go into the Iron Hound's Territory or turn left and go into the Level 15-20 map.

A Field Boss list had been released after Marius had unlocked Iron Mountain City. Each Map would have one and they would only appear after a set number of the level 15 or 20 monsters had been cleared. The number wasn't released but Marius was hopeful that it exceeded 100.

Without a second thought, Marius ran into the Level 15-20 map.

Name: Midnight Solitude

Class: Night Stalker

Level: 10 (9%)

Occupation: None

Health: 400

Mana: 370

Luck: 39

Attack: 41

Defense: 21

Intelligence: 37

Spirit:16

Dexterity: 85

Skills: Basic Slash Level 3 (65% Proficiency) (Deals 130% Base damage. Cooldown none)

Binding Shadow Level 2 (40% proficiency) (Binds target for 4 seconds. Cost 10 Mana. Cooldown 5 seconds.)

Moon Dance Level 1 (12% Proficiency) (Increases Dexterity for 20 seconds, leaving behind shadow stream.Costs 5 Mana. Cooldown 1 minute)

Burning Haze Level 1 (23% Proficiency) (Binds a target in a haze that deals fire damage. Reduces targets defense by 5% for 10 seconds. Costs 20 Mana. Cooldown 10 seconds)

Aura Blade Level 1 (35% Proficiency) (Creates an aura around your weapon, increasing the range of attack by 10%. Cost 40 Mana. Cooldown 5 seconds)

Customized Weapon - Silent Night

Level 10 - White Grade (13%)

(refine with 100 Iron Grade items to upgrade to Iron Grade)

Attack: 15

Defense: 12

Intelligence: 15

Spirit: 12

Dexterity; 18

Skills: Unlock at Gold Grade.

Lightning Stone Level 4 (x3) Buff - 105% Pierce Damage, 5% chance of Critical Hit

Wind Stone Level 4 Buff - 30% Attack Speed

Equipment - Grey Wolf Set - Grey Rank (Complete)

Health: 10

Attack: 4

Defense: 7

Spirit: 2

Dexterity: 5

Looking over his stats, Marius couldn't help but laugh. He had come along way since his level 1 Night Stalker, and now he was taking on a Map that he had no business being in.

"I suppose I might as well test myself." Marius mused as a Mountain Bear came into view.

Without a second thought, Marius launched Moon Dance and Binding Shadow.

Mountain Bear Level 17 - Black Rank

Health: 400

Mana: 300

Skills: (Thick Fur), (Bloody Paw), (Bear Hug)

"So the monster rank increases here?" Marius murmured as he struck at the beast.

-90, -90, -200

The damage he dealt stunned Marius. He thought that the level suppression would have reduced his damage by a much wider margin.

ROAR!

The Bear freed itself from Binding Shadow and swung its massive paw at Marius. Instinctively, Marius leaned back and rolled to a crouch.

Marius smirked. "You can give me some practice Mister Bear."

Marius didn't attack again, instead, he let the massive Bear do its worst. Mindful of the Bear Hug skill which Marius assumed was a Finisher, he danced around the Bears attacks.

At first, he kept a wide distance, making sure he didn't carelessly take damage. But as his confidence grew, he shrunk the distance, to the point where the Bears savage claws were almost touching his skin.

Timing.

He had spent a lot of time, training on the Elemental Squirrels and his most important gain, was timing. Each monster had a different method of attacking, creating a different rhythm for a player to learn and take advantage of.

This was important to Marius as he knew that to get ahead and do what he set out to do, he would need to take on higher-leveled monsters.

According to his research, elite or professional gamers could fight monsters that surpassed them by up to 9 levels confidently. 10 Levels tended to be the limit that would break their confidence.

Marius couldn't afford to lack such confidence.

On average, he played about 4 hours a day assuming his fatigue levels didn't force him to quit early. On average, an elite or professional gamer would be playing around 16 hours a day, assuming they only slept, ate and played. This was also a low estimate, considering how addictive the game was.

This put him at a severe disadvantage.

The only way to lessen that disadvantage was to either raise other elites to help him with his grinding. Or take on excessive risk. In the form of Level suppression.

As a level 10 player facing a Level 7 monster, Any experience Marius gained would be multiplied by the difference in level (17-10), thus if Marius killed the Mountain Bear now, he'd earn 7 times the base experience of the Bears yield.

This was one component that Marius had made into his foundation, and why he had furiously increased his dexterity. Facing higher-leveled monsters meant he had more chances of getting one hit and thus, dying and losing a level. Increasing his defense was not ideal either as he could get equipment for that. So he had to master the art of not getting hit.

Stats wise, this meant increasing his dexterity so that he could either suppress his targets with sheer speed or failing that, be on par with their movements.

Skill wise, he had to refine his in-game ability. Timing, Reaction speed, and game knowledge.

The more he learned how NPC's and Monsters acted in game, the more effective he could interact with them. With monsters, it meant killing them more efficiently.

Reaction speed, that could only be trained by doing. By taking on challenges like the Elemental Squirrel swarm to push his limits and try to exceed them.

Timing though. This was a combination of the two and possibly the hardest to master.

As a young man, Marius had trained in martial arts, but he had never enjoyed using them. He respected the discipline and the confidence it gave to one in sensitive situations. However, whenever he was forced to act, it was always a last resort.

This had refined his ability to React to situations, but not to Time them. So Marius trained.

After some time, Marius felt the Mountain Bear had ceased to be a challenge and wiped out the last of its experience.

(Player Midnight Solitude is the first Player to kill a Mountain Bear. +1 Luck)

Marius had already claimed first kills for most of the monsters in the 10-15 map, missing only the level 15 Iron Hound.

However, Marius cared little for that right now. Luck was a useful stat that increased item drops from monsters but claiming only 1 point wouldn't change the balance by much. Accumulating them, in the long run, would certainly be greatly beneficial, but Marius wasn't convinced.

He just didn't play enough to ensure he could claim them. But, he could compete for the Feild Boss first kills. The monsters like the Boar King were worth much more in terms of experience, coins, and items. In addition, first kills were worth 10 luck.

As the first Player to reach Iron Mountain City, Marius had already claimed a quest to kill such a Feild Boss, the Gollum King. However, that Boss would be Level 25 and far too powerful for Marius to provoke as he was.

But it did bear the question. If his speed was higher than the monsters, with attacks that bypassed defense and spells that both hindered and harmed it. Was it possible?

Marius continued to the Far end of the Map, now dodging Mountain Bears as he progressed.

It was interesting though. A 15 Level suppression was a hard bargain, but the rewards would be very high.

But were they worth the risk?