Chapter 16：Giant Strides

1:03:02

Marius still had a lot of time left and now that he knew just how much of an advantage he had, he was going to take full advantage.

Without any more ado, Marius continued his hunting spree, tracking down the 'Lone' Gollums, and wiping out the poor monster and its ambush party.

In less than 20 minutes, he had completed his quest requirements. It had taken him 2 days but in the end, he had slaughtered his way to the Stone Gollums hiding place and killed 100 of the monsters.

Marius idly wondered how the average player would do against these monsters. In reality, there were several factors in play which allowed him to dispatch these monsters so easily.

Yes, he had an overpowered weapon but the most important factor was definitely the Hunter's Emblem. The additional 20% damage on top of his pierce damage made his damage against monsters unparalleled.

He was like a one-man army.

"Well, I guess it's time to go back to the City," Marius was about to activate his Teleportation Ring when a loud rumble thundered through the Mine.

(Player Midnight Solitude has activated Schollic, The Gollum King)

(You have entered Combat. You cannot use the Teleportation Ring to Flee.)

Marius didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The Gollum King's name reminded him of a bygone era which, at any other time would make him laugh.

But being forced into combat was the last thing he wanted to do, especially since he was nearing the limit of his endurance.

Schollic the Gollum King - Level 25 - High Lord Rank

Health: 10,000

Mana: 12,000

Attack: 500

Skills: (So Precious), (Boulder Throw), (Pummel), (Ambush).

Marius glared at the Gollum King. That amount of Health was the equivalent of 20 Stone Gollums and with that skill that halved damage, it was going to be a long fight.

Schollic was much larger than his Stone Gollum counterparts. The only real difference was the Iron Circlet on its brow. And apparently their range.

Marius estimated that there was a distance of about 9 units between him and the Gollum King. Yet already there was a boulder as large as Midnight Solitude's chest shooting straight at him.

Marius lept to the side, feeling the wind of the boulder as it passed him.

"That's definitely a one-hit knockout," Marius muttered as he dashed forward.

He could definitely close the 9 unit distance quickly, but he was wary of the Gollum King's close-range attack. 'Pummel'.

The Stone Gollum's had a range of about 1 which seemed to be the equivalent length of their long arms. But as Marius had a range of 1.7 with Silent Night, Marius had an overwhelming advantage against them.

The Gollum King, however, had much longer arms. If Marius had to guess, then they would be around twice the length of the Stone Gollum's reach.

This meant that Marius had no advantage in terms of range and he did not doubt that he would suffer a fatal blow if those fists touched him.

But he really didn't have much of a choice.

He could take a risk and try fleeing, but if he came across another Gollum ambush and the Gollum King followed him, he might as well just commit suicide.

0:42:43

Marius still had a grace period. Not a long one, but it was definitely enough time for him to try to kill the Gollum King.

Besides, he did have a quest to kill this monster.

With a grim look, Marius accepted his fate. It was either the Gollum King or him.

Binding Shadows flew towards the Gollum King, binding him as Marius began his assault. wary of attack range, Marius began slashing the monster, carefully moving to the Gollum King's flank as he dealt as much damage as he could.

-32, -32, -73 - 32.

Marius was about to launch his fifth strike when Schollum broke free from his Binding Shadow. The moment the spell broke, the monster swung its arm bodily around in a terrifying backhand.

By the skin of his teeth, Marius managed to get back and roll away, dodging the fatal blow.

"That was way shorter than 4 seconds," Marius grumbled. "It was barely two."

Suddenly the Gollum King dashed at him, its long arms descending like twin whips.

Somehow, Marius managed to spin out of the way, slashing at the Gollum King's arms as he passed. Once again, his attacks barely put a dent in the monsters health.

"Well, if restricting your movements don't work, let's try this."

Marius cast Burning Haze and began slashing at the monster. He was wary of attacking the Gollum King's flank after that failed backhand. Not only did it almost kill him, it forced him to retreat right into his combo.

This time, he moved to attack Schollic's back. In theory, if the backhand or another counter-attack came again, Marius would have more time to react and potentially dodge it more effectively.

-34, -34, -77, -34, -100 -77, -34 -77, -34, -100

The slight increase in damage made Marius happy. Even the Fire Damage was something he was surprised to see.

This was actually the first time he had noticed it because everytime he had used it in the past, he had managed to kill the target before the Fire Damage had triggered. As such, he had never observed how much Fire Damage the 'Burn' status would do. From the 100 additional damage, it appeared that 'Burn' dealt an added 1% damage. from how often it triggered, it looked like every 2 seconds. Burning Haze would last for 10 seconds which meant he could grind 5% of the Gollum King's Health away with each cast. And the cooldown time was 10 seconds.

Marius quickly took a Mana Pill out of his inventory and used it to regain some Mana. This would be the first time he heavily relied on using magic to win a fight. Marius was beginning to get a little giddy because of it.

The damage he was dealing with was truly monstrous. He couldn't help but give the Gollum King a savage grin.

However, before he could chain any more slashes on the vulnerable monster, the backhand came.

As Marius expected, he saw the attack coming with plenty of time to react.

Instead of retreating, he decided to duck below the Gollum King's backhand while slashing at its torso and arms.

By the time the Gollum King had completed its counter-attack, Marius was at his back again, slashing at him with renewed energy.

The Gollum King would attempt the Backhand once every 5 seconds.

If Marius used Binding Shadow to bind him every 5 seconds, he could increase that lag time between Backhands by an additional 2 seconds. This gave Marius plenty of time to renew his Burning Haze and Binding Shadow.

His only real problem was that the Mana Pills he had on hand were low quality and did not match his Mana consumption. The Mana Pills on hand would restore about 50 Mana with a 30-second cooldown.

But if Marius chained his two spells, he was easily burning through 90 Mana in that same period.

The 40 Mana difference may not have been too extreme, but Marius only had 445 Mana. Which meant that he could only keep the Gollum King in this state for about 11 rounds before he would be out of Mana.

Marius was very aware of how Dangerous the Gollum King was and was worried about any special moves. He had learned his lesson from the Boar King. As such, keep the Gollum King is a state that prevented him from getting a clear shot was vital.

Fortunately, Marius could deal close to 725 damage in a 5 second round. With Binding Shadow increasing the round to 7 seconds, it allowed him to deal an additional 280 damage with Critical Hits which meant that at his current pace, he could beat Schollic in just 10 rounds. So long as he got those Critical Hits.

Otherwise, he would run out of Mana in 11 rounds and would need another round or two to finish the Gollum King without his spells.

It would take precision and timing. Marius relished the challenge.

If all went well, Marius would be able to kill the Gollum King in.

84 Seconds.

84 seconds of intense concentration and precision. to an already fatigued Marius, this would be a challenge. But he plunged into it.

He took every opportunity to deal damage. Weakened his adversary when he had a chance. Timed his recovery periods and combined evasion with his offense. And.

85 seconds later, the Gollum King fell.

The moment Schollic became a stream of light, Marius hit his limit.

He did not register is rewards, nor did he care about the notification that rang throughout the Shattered Land. He didn't even care if a monster killed him in a vulnerable stage.

he could only log off, and fall asleep with the headgear still on his brow.

15 Hours later, Marius logged back in. He was still feeling the effects of the high-intensity battle between Schollic and himself.

He almost expected to log in and find himself back at Iron Mountain City. But, to his surprise, he was still in the Stone Cave.

With a smile, he activated the Teleportation Ring and returned to the City.

It was his first time using the Teleportation Ring. It felt much like when he had been transported from the Beginner Village to Iron Mountain City.

After returning, he dashed through the now crowded City. In the time he had been away, the Leaderboard had become filled with level 10 players.

There was a sturdy population now, but Marius did not pay them any mind. He made his way to Oudurin's City Hall, talking to every NPC he needed to.

During his travel to and from the Stone Cave, he had collected a large number of items and materials which were required to complete side quests.

As such, it took him close to half an hour to make his way to Oudurin.

But he also gained a lot of rewards, mainly experience and coin, but also items and Map fragments that could be used to unlock underground areas.

The Iron Mountain City was built along a great mountain range. As such, there were many Mines that had been dug, so as to take full advantage of the mineral-rich environment.

However, many of those Mines had come under siege by Golems and other such monsters like Demons.

Finding those Mines and clearing out the Cities enemies would earn the Player(s) a great deal of Reputation and rewards from Lord Oudurin.

Marius would raid them when he had a chance but first, he had a lot of rewards to take.

"Brother Solitude. You're finally back online!" Marius looked at the message that came up and raised an eyebrow.

"Hello Super Nova, why do you sound so excited?" Marius asked.

"Why? Why wouldn't I be excited? You're the top player in the game."

Marius was confused for a moment. Distractedly, he opened the Shattered Land World Leaderboard and saw his name at the top of the list. At level 11. Shocked, Marius quickly opened his stats

Name: Midnight Solitude

Class: Night Stalker

Level: 11 (86%)

Occupation: None

Health: 470

Mana: 455

Luck: 55

Attack: 51

Defense: 27

Intelligence: 47

Spirit:22

Dexterity: 100

Skills: Basic Slash Level 5 (4% Proficiency) (Deals 150% of base damage. Cooldown none)

Binding Shadow Level 3 (54% proficiency) (Binds target for 6 seconds. Cost 10 Mana. Cooldown 5 seconds.)

Moon Dance Level 2 (88% Proficiency) (Increases Dexterity for 25 seconds, leaving behind shadow stream.Costs 5 Mana. Cooldown 1 minute)

Burning Haze Level 2 (44% Proficiency) (Binds a target in a haze that deals fire damage. Reduces targets defense by 10% for 10 seconds. Costs 20 Mana. Cooldown 10 seconds)

Aura Blade Level 3 (64% Proficiency) (Creates an aura around your weapon, increasing the range of attack by 10%. Cost 40 Mana. Cooldown 5 seconds)

Marius was stunned silent.

He had gained so much experience from killing the Gollum King that he had leveled up. With a lot to spare.

"Haha. Looks like I got lucky," Marius replied.

He finally made it to City Hall and quickly redeemed his quests, collecting all his rewards and placing them in his inventory.

"Brother Solitude. How do you get that lucky?" Super Nova asked.

Marius dodged the question. "Have you left the Beginner Village yet?" he asked.

"Yup. I'm doing an occupation quest at the moment. By the way, what occupation are you?"

Marius laughed. "I'm trying to become a Beast Tamer."

"What? But that occupation is impossible. It's all over the Forums. Attempting to pass is just begging to lose your levels."

"Super Nova, do you really think that the game designers would create an occupation that couldn't be obtained? High barriers for entry usually mean that something very valuable is on the other side."

"But isn't being a Beast Tamer redundant at Level 30?" Super Nova asked. "I mean, when the pet system comes out then anyone can do it. There is no real point in it, right? And you can just get the beast Master in town to upgrade your Pets for a price."

Marius laughed. "Have you checked how much that upgrade will cost?" He asked.

"Well, that hasn't been released yet."

Marius finished his business in City Hall and ran towards Toudin. It was time to become a Beast Tamer.

"Super Nova. What occupation are you going to do?"

"Gatherer," he replied. "Everyone will need materials for crafting so I'm going to go to as many high leveled places as I can and harvest them. Then sell for a premium."

Marius nodded. "Are you playing to earn money?" Marius asked.

"Yup. I'm going to use this to pay off my University fees."

Marius took a moment to consider how to broach the topic.

Ideally, Marius wanted to get Super Nova to be his partner in the game. The reason for his change of mind was the Stone Cave.

The game had too many unknowns and Marius was not eager to suffer due to being unprepared again. Those Stone Gollums, though he had found a way to slaughter them easily, fought in a way that he had not expected.

If he had been a little slower, it was very unlikely he would have survived.

Let alone surviving Schollic.

He needed back up and the young Assassin had piqued his interest.

Besides.

Marius was intrigued by the young man and his plan to raid high leveled maps.

It seemed like their interest and direction were pointing in a similar direction.