Chapter 38

The creature’s triangular head was like the fierce and mighty tip of a spear, and every split of a second, it was inching closer and closer to Roy’s neck, whose eyes were widening.

The illusion of standing before Death’s gate was presented to Roy.

A single second…

A single step…

A single move…

would determine his life & death.

Brushing off the fear of death, he moved, the sword in his hand raising in a way so impeccable that the Sneak Attacker failed to grasp when it had appeared before his neck to act as an impenetrable fortress.

Clang!

The ear-wrenching sound of metal clashing with metal rang out, and sparks flew as the Boneworm’s triangular head smashed the surface of Roy’s sword.

Death’s hands were swatted away. It was forced to come to a stop.

Roy had survived the Boneworm’s assassination. But at what cost?

He felt as if a hammer had smashed his sword-wielding hand and messed up his blood circulation.

He was stunned, temporarily immobilized.

He was at his most vulnerable moment.

Of course, it didn’t escape the Boneworm’s notice.

The failed attempt was immediately followed by another attack. This attack, although far less superior in fierceness, was the only one it could make before Roy recovered from his debuff.

Its tail whipped forward, approaching the right front of Roy’s chest.

“Gah!” Roaring out loudly, Roy forced himself to move.

Blood trickled out the corner of his mouth as he put his hand in the trajectory of its attack.

Clang!

He was blasted into the towering tree. The poor tree shattered. Its only fault was sticking out like a sore thumb in an uncivilized land.

『You lost 3 HP.』

“This shit… If I had taken that head on, I did be dead.” Roy said as he wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and pointed his gleaming white sword at the darned Area Boss, his eyes inspecting its strength and weaknesses.

『Boneworm』

Type: Area Boss

Level: 10

HP: 47/47

MP: 20/40

AGT: 43

STR: 43

Stamina: 28

Endurance: ???

The Boneworm spared a glance at the ruined tree before setting its murderous eyes on Roy.

Immediately, it pounced on Roy. He dodged its frontal assault, slapping its back like an adult spanking a naughty child’s ass.

The two continued to clash, dancing all over the clearing as if they were the best of lovers, seducing each other. The reality was that they were aiming for each other’s life.

It continued to persistently aim for Roy’s neck and chest.

Roy dodged its attack continuously and easily as its thoughts were plainly obvious to him.

Roy’s stats were higher than the Boneworm. He was faster and stronger than it. So… it was easier for him to dodge its attacks and overwhelm it with torrents of blows. His stamina was also higher than it. So drawing out this battle was to his advantage, not the Boneworm’s. He, however, didn’t want to do that. He wanted to end it as fast as he could.

So he held nothing back and attacked it too. Although this caused his stamina to deplete at a faster rate than the Boneworm, he didn’t take back his decision.

Monsters were getting aggroed to this place, and some would arrive in a dozen or so minutes. This was no time to hold back punches!

Each time its attack was dodged, Roy would try to land a hit three inches below its triangular spear’s tip-like head.

The Boneworm had a racial advantage over Roy. Its entire body was covered in protective scales, reducing the effectiveness and damage dealt by Roy’s attack by 70-80%.

But as he continued to do his best to land attacks on a single spot of its body, an opening gradually opened.

“It won’t die from one hit, then what about a dozen?” Roy smiled as he rushed forward to meet it under the sky of the grassland.

His weapon and its weapon-like body clashed in mid-air.

Tens hits of a legendary body-tempering trainee with ridiculous stats created wide spider cobwebs-like cracks on its shell.

Another three shattered it, revealing its soft and squishy insides to Roy.

『Ding! You’ve shattered a hand-wide scale of the Boneworm. Some shards of its scales had penetrated its exposed organs, causing it immense damage.』

『Ding! The Boneworm has lost 20 HP.』

“Gah!” Assaulted by a feeling it was unfamiliar with, the Boneworm roared fiercely and pounced on Roy.

“It’s time I push you in Death’s embrace.” Saying this, Roy rushed forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. He slipped passed its spear-like head and jumped over its tail before landing an overhead strike on it.

Bam!

It was slammed down to the ground.

Whoosh!

“Gah!”

Immediately after, the tip of Roy’s sword thrust inside it through the weak link in its defense.

『Ding! You’ve landed a critical hit on the Boneworm.』

『The Boneworm has lost 20 HP.』

Roy’s eyebrow raised.

“Even that wasn’t enough to kill it. What a persistent bastard!”

Roy’s foot slammed the back of the wriggling and screeching Boneworm, keeping it in place.

Roy scratched his chin, thinking of a way to kill the immobilized and severely damaged Boneworm. “Let’s see… would this be enough?”

Aura charged out of his inner world and used the sword stuck inside the Boneworm’s body as a medium to channel inside it.

Boom!

A muffled explosion was then heard.

Blood gushed out of the scaleless part of its body, splashing on Roy’s boot.

Roy exposed a satisfying smile, for that sound signified that injecting his sword into its body had exploded its organs.

Its insides were in a mess.

『Ding! Congratulations! You’ve killed the Area Boss, Boneworm. You gained no EXP.』

『Detecting error…』

Roy: ???

Roy’s eyes turned red.

This was a freaking Area Boss that was harder to kill than the Winter Wolf and the Luna.

Where was his 100 EXP?!

He urgently demanded it.

『No Error Detected.』

『The No EXP gain is caused by the rune stone in its body.』

『The Rune Stone had sucked out the EXP in its body at the time of its death』

『Ding! Congratulation. You’ve gained the Rune Stone, Fortification!.』

Roy’s eyes widened in realization and happiness. “No wonder it was so hard for me to take it down. It didn’t only have an inherent advantage over me but also a rune stone that boosted it to another level. This rune stone’s name is Fortification. It definitely increases the defense of its capturer.”

Hints of turbulent emotions were seen in his eyes too.

Few too many questions were bothering him, although he didn’t show them on his face.

What was the relationship between Rune Stone and experience points?

Why can a Rune Stone suck EXP out of its capturer?

Would he gain none of it from killing creatures that had merged with Rune Stones in the same way humans merge with Soul Shards?

Just what was EXP?

Why, just like a rune stone, does he get it from “killing” others?

Suspiciousness gleamed in Roy’s eyes.

“Things aren’t as simple as I thought them to be…”

Seeds of doubt were, for the first time, planted in his heart.

This system… no!

This whole thing…

Something was off about this whole thing, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.