Chapter 14：To Accept a Challenge

2:00:00

Marius had taken a large risk when he had last logged off. With the time he had to spare he had found a spot at the base of the mountain and viciously killed a Mountain Bear.

By utilizing all of his skills, Marius had wiped out the Bears health in moments, leaving it no chance to defend itself.

After collecting his rewards, he waited for a few seconds, letting the system register he had left Combat. This was a feature that Marius had never been concerned with before because he had always continuously killed his targets before returning to a Safe Zone to log off. A Town or a City was such a place and Marius had yet to find any other substitutes.

But this time, he couldn't afford the wasted time. If he chose to Teleport back to Iron Mountain City, he would have to waste far too much time getting back here.

So, he decided to risk it.

Once he left combat, Marius checked to make sure there were no wandering monsters around before stepping up to the boundary between the Mountain Bear and the Stone Goat territories.

After a player logged off, it would take the system about 20 seconds to register and make the Avatar disappear.

Meaning that Midnight Solitude would be vulnerable for 20 seconds and could be attacked. Being attacked would place him back in Combat and without Marius being online, would result in certain death.

This was why it was recommended to log off in a City. It was a safe zone and players couldn't kill each other there.

But as luck would have it, Marius logged on in the place he remembered and quickly began scaling the mountain.

A savage Roar behind him failed to make him stop, as he used his high dexterity to jump from ledge to ledge, quickly ascending the Mountain.

Dexterity was a special stat as it supported various game options.

For one, it allowed players to move faster, such as for running. This was one thing that was particularly addictive to Marius and was his favorite part of the game.

In combat though, it increased attack speed. The higher ones attack speed, the more attacks they could launch a second. This was what made Marius so dangerous in the early game as he increased his Dexterity like a madman. Each time he increased his speed, he was nearing the point where he could launch multiple attacks a second.

It could be also seen when he started his mass slaughter of the Elemental Squirrels and when he tested himself on the Mountain Bear.

With increased Attack Speed, obviously ones fine motor skills would be increased, making the Avatar move more efficiently. But this also put an increased strain on the player.

Decision making was key and even if the player could move faster, it meant nothing if their choice of movement was a waste.

This was an early lesson for Marius and a key reason why he had been incapacitated after playing for 6 hours straight.

When he first played, he had easily managed to acclimatize his mind to the extreme speed of the game But when he logged out, his mind hadn't slowed down, trying to make his old body try to react like his otherworldly avatar. This essentially put his body and mind into a mild form of shock.

The shock, along with the exertion and the cold was what had truly done the damage.

Thus why he was careful with his in-game training.

But he had to admit, being able to scale a mountain like this by effortlessly jumping? It was a dream come true and well beyond human capabilities.

But, he had to be careful of the Stone Goats. Like any monster, they were territorial. However, they also attacked in herds.

So, Marius was wary. But even being wary didn't keep him from a Stone Goats Herd.

Stone Goat Level 19 - Black Rank

Health: 450

Mana: 300

Skills: (Fleet foot), (Headbutt), (Charge)

A Herd of three Stone Goats appears before Marius could escape their aggro zone. A moment later the three Goats were charging at him at high speed.

Marius watched in dread as the Stone Goats bounded at him and knew that their Dexterity would likely be equal to his own. Also, their attacks were supposed to be enough to one hit a Mountain Bear.

There was a logic to how the Maps and monsters were laid out.

Mountain Bears were powerful with huge defense. But in the game's storyline, they were afraid of the Stone Goats because of their massive speed and attack advantage.

However, the Stone Goats were essential a glass cannon. They could deal huge damage at high speeds and though they had higher health than the Mountain Bear, their defenses were extremely low.

But that didn't stop them from being an extremely dominant monster. In fact, the only reason they were not found in the Stone Cave, was because of the Field Boss.

In theory, the Stone Goats could sweep the Stone Gollums, however, if such a thing were to happen, the Feild Boss would slaughter the Stone Goat. Thus the Maps were balanced.

But that didn't help Marius.

Activating Moon Dance, Marius attacked using Aura Blade and Basic Slash.

Stone Goats and most monsters had a small range of attack. A physical class such as a Stone Goat only had a range of 0.5. In short, Marius had 3 times the range and as long as Moon Shadow was in effect, he got a bolstered attack speed.

Choosing the Goat at the back, Marius also launched Binding Shadow, binding it for 4 seconds.

2 v 1.

Moving in a zig-zag, Marius struck, slashing the first Goat.

-102.

Before the Goat could change direction Marius targetted the second, dealing two slashes on the monster as it passed.

-102, 220.

Surprised by how much damage he did, Marius charged at the third Stone Goat, casting Burning Haze.

The Stone Goat screamed as a Haze surrounded it, causing Fire damage and lowering its defense.

Without Mercy, Marius launched himself at it dealing three savage slashed to it.

-119, -119, -250.

The combined damage was more than enough to turn the Stone Goat in a stream of light, earning Marius a bounty of experience and 80 bronze coins.

(Player Midnight Solitude is the first Player to kill a Stone Goat. +1 Luck)

Ignoring the notification, Marius turned and attacked the other two Goats again. A moment later they also turned into streams of light and Marius collected his rewards.

"That was rough," Marius grumbled looking at his skills on cooldown.

He had used them all, leaving him with only his Basic Slash. If there had been four, he would likely have taken a hit. Though, he was glad his mana hadn't taken too much of a dip. He still had about 70% which was quite good considering the 9 level suppression.

"Well, at least I'm grinding massive amounts of experience," Marius murmured as he continued his climb.

As it was, each Goat hade given him 1,260 experience. This was a huge amount but was just a drop in the ocean to what needed. Leveling up both his Silent Night and his own experience made this amount of experience negligible.

Then there were the strategic issues.

The Stone Gollums wouldn't be as fast, but Marius knew his challenge would really begin with them. Even if he could deal with the Goats, the Gollums would be another level of difficulty.

He spent the next hour climbing the Mountain. According to the Map information, the Stone Cave entrance was near the top. In actuality, it was also the path to a dungeon, but the entrance would be much lower than where Marius was planning on going.

Stone Depths was a Level 20 Dungeon which would yield a huge amount of resources that would make a Smith scream in delight. The experience was also said to be excellent and the benefits of completing it would increase a Player's Reputation in Iron Mountain City.

The reason for this was because Gollums and the Elite Monster, Golems were the sworn enemies of the Dwarfs. As such, killing a vast number of them would make a Player well respected.

Unfortunately, dungeons were made for team battles. A solo player could potentially clear a dungeon, but the time it would take would be well over two hours which was time Marius did not have to spend.

That didn't even take into consideration the Dungeon Difficulty. There were 3 levels of difficulty ranging from easy, to normal and ending in hard. The rewards would increase as the difficulty increased, but so would the risk of dying.

On the positive side, you did not lose a level if you suffered a team wipe. One would only lose 20% experience.

But that wasn't Marius' concern. The time to complete was simply beyond his ability and other than the experience and equipment, Dungeons had nothing that Marius wanted.

Dungeon Bosses would be weaker than Field Bosses and did not give a luck boost. As such, it wasn't worth Marius' limited energy to attempt.

On his ascent, he had faced off with several more herds of Stone Goats, generally in groups of three. Marius took extra care to dispatch those herds, reaping an impressive amount of coin and experience.

He also tried different strategies, leaving his binding skills as reserves as he attacked primarily with Moon Shadow, Aura Blade, and his trusty Basic Slash. Thanks to Silent Nights ability, his Proficiency with these three moves skyrocketed, bringing Basic slash up to Level 4 and Aura Blade up to Level 2.

Level 4 Basic Slash increased his attack to 140% of base damage while the Level 2 Aura Blade increased range by 15%. It was a small gain but it would make a huge difference to his survivability.

Silent Night also managed to get to 100%. Now all he needed was to reach level 15 and it could be leveled up.

Another thing that made Marius happy was the dropping of loot.

Stone Fork Level 15 - Iron Grade

Attack: 25

Defense: 20

Spirit: 20

Dexterity; 45

The weapon was vastly superior to Silent Night, giving higher attack and speed than he had expected. However, with Silent Night bound to his right hand, he was unable to equip any other weapon unless he unlocked a two-handed ability, allowing him to dual wield. Assassins natural had this skill at Level 0 and Swordsmen would activate it upon promotion.

To Marius' knowledge, no other classes could gain the ability, but that suited him fine. He still needed a free hand to cast spells. Besides, when Silent Night was upgraded, he'd be able to increase its Intelligence stat. A vital stat that Stone Fork lacked. Let alone wasn't able to equip any equipment or weapons that exceeded his level.

So, even though Marius couldn't equip the Stone Fork, he still held onto it. They would make good refining material for Silent Night.

The drop rate for the Stone Fork was quite good too. It appeared that for every three or four Stone Goats Marius' killed, he'd get at least 1 Stone Fork. He had already earned 43 after just an hour of climbing and slaughter.

0:29:04

The timer was more than a quarter done.

Marius was nearing the entrance to the Stone Cave. He was both eager and little timid about entering it and confronting the Stone Gollums. His chances of success wouldn't be zero, but he had to admit that it didn't fill him with confidence either.

10 levels.

Pausing, Marius looked down from his vantage point. Below, he could spy several Stone Goats and Marius felt a small trickle of greed slip through his mind.

"If I keep grinding on Stone Goats, I'll be able to farm more Stone Forks and upgrade Silent Night," he mused out loud. If he could increase his weapon's rank, it would definitely improve his chances of surviving the stone Cave.

Not to mention, he'd be a little closer to Level 11.

In the time he had been climbing the Mountain Marius had observed several players entering the Iron Mountain City Leaderboard. The Battlemage Cold Mist had even made it to Level 11 already.

"I should have completed those quests before coming here." Marius admonished himself. In his eagerness to complete the Beast Master quest, he had forgotten that he'd already completed at least one of Oudurin's quests. Not to mention a dozen side quests which required him to talk with certain NPC's. Though those quests had follow-on conditions, he had actually satisfied Oudurin's requirements for completion

Putting aside his lack of foresight, Marius made his decision.

Until his time ran out, he would slaughter as many Stone Goats as he could.

He had accepted the challenge to take on the Stone Gollums, but before he could complete it, he needed to be amply prepared.

After all, what was the point of risking failure in the short term when you could improve your chances and lower the risk in the long term?