Bosses are ranked as bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, and so on. They are nothing like normal monsters.
A 30-level silver boss could easily kill a group of five players who are all above level 40.
John has the Divine Gift talent, which lets him increase physical damage without limits. But his HP is too low. Even a 10-level silver boss could kill him in a second.
The village chief awkwardly smiled and said, "I know this task is hard, but there's no other choice. This task can only be accepted by new players, but don't worry, there's no limit on how many people can do it."
No limit on how many people?
John was speechless. He said, "If a 30-level silver boss could be beaten by a bunch of new players, you would have given out this task a long time ago. No way. The reward is too low. If I'm going to take this on, you need to give me something to keep me alive."
"Um..." The village chief hesitated. He did have some tricks left. That was his plan in case the mission failed. He was going to take on the Twin-Headed Wolf himself.
But then he thought about how John had killed over a thousand goblins by himself. His strength couldn't be ignored.
"Okay, I'll take the risk." The village chief bit his lip and made up his mind. He pulled out a scroll and explained, "This is a basic defense scroll. It's not high level, but it should be enough to block the Twin-Headed Wolf's attacks for five minutes. You have to kill it within that time."
"Why didn't you show this earlier?" John was happy to take it, but the village chief wouldn't let go.
He was annoyed and just snatched it away. He checked the scroll's stats.
[Basic Defense Scroll: A special item. When used, it gives a shield that can block 10,000 points of damage. It lasts for 30 minutes. The shield disappears when broken or after 30 minutes.]
This was a one-time use defense scroll. It was very valuable. Many guilds used this kind of item when fighting bosses.
With this scroll, as long as his physical damage was high enough, John was confident he could beat the Twin-Headed Wolf.
"Village chief, do you have anything else?" He looked at the village chief again, asking excitedly.
The village chief instinctively held his pocket and shook his head. "No, I've given you my last trick. You have to kill the Twin-Headed Wolf for me."
"Got it. You're really stingy." John muttered and, seeing he couldn't get anything else from the village chief, turned to leave.
A 30-level silver boss had around 6,000 HP. Its physical defense was 300 points. That meant John had to get his physical damage over 300 to break through its defense.
If he could get over 6,000 damage, he could kill it in one hit. He might not even need the defense scroll. But that wasn't realistic at all.
John cast a basic physical damage amplification spell on himself. His physical damage was now 244 points.
The basic physical damage amplification skill had a 2-minute cooldown. If he was online for ten hours a day, he could get 300 more damage. To reach 1,000 damage, it would take at least three days.
"Upgrade first, boost HP." John wasn't in a rush to fight. He just left the newbie village.
Outside the village, groups of players were struggling to kill 1 or 2-level goblins.
John glanced around, but didn't see any students from Karlove Academy.
Did they all hide somewhere?
John was confused but didn't care too much. He decided to go to the 10-level area, the territory of bloodthirsty werewolves, to level up.
His HP had now reached 190. As long as he was careful, he could handle 10-level bloodthirsty werewolves.
"Help!" A sudden cry came from somewhere. In a 3-level goblin area, a girl was panicking. Behind her, three goblins were chasing her, waving wooden sticks and snarling.
"Hey, get out of the way." the girl saw John. She had wanted to ask for help, but when she saw he was alone, she bit her lip and ran in another direction.
"This girl is pretty kind." John said to himself. He didn't plan to get involved. After all, in the game, dying wasn't real. It just meant losing one level.
He turned to leave, but his eyes were caught by one goblin. It was bigger than the others. Green face, sharp teeth, and a wooden stick with thorns wrapped in vines.
Boss! A 5-level bronze goblin boss.
John's eyes lit up. Bosses dropped good stuff. He quickly pulled out his sword and ran toward it.
With 20 Agility, he easily caught up to the three goblins. He swung his sword, and two hits landed.
Thud…
-227
-225
The two goblins fell in an instant. They were killed in one hit.
"WOW!" The girl was shocked. She stopped and said in disbelief, "Y-you're John?!"
Her eyes were full of admiration as she looked at John.
"Growl!"
A big goblin roared and swung its huge stick at John.
"Be careful! That's a 5-level bronze boss!" The girl was shocked and shouted.
Bang!
John took the hit and stumbled back. A damage number floated above his head.
-52
He was lucky. His HP could take that.
John wasn't afraid. He swung his sword again.
-209
Blood splashed as the goblin cried out in pain.
"Wow, so high damage!" The girl was shocked and couldn't believe it.
Two more hits, and the goblin had no chance. It was killed in seconds by John.
[Defeated 5-level Bronze Goblin Boss, Experience +100]
A message flashed. The goblin dropped a silver coin and a green common leather armor.
John picked it up and checked.
[Goblin Leather Armor]
[Rank: Green Common]
[Requirement: 5-level or higher players]
[Stats: HP +50, Physical Defense +2, Magic Defense +1]
This was a good piece of armor for a newbie, and he could use it.
He quickly took off his priest robe. His HP went up by 50, to 240. He also got +2 Physical Defense and +1 Magic Defense. His survival rate improved.
"John, are you John?" The girl ran over, excitedly asking.
"Yes." John looked up and felt a sudden surprise.
She was around 15 or 16 years old. Her skin was pale and smooth, her face delicate, with purple long hair flowing in the wind. She looked like an elf, ethereal and elegant.
"Wow, it's really John!" The girl's eyes sparkled and she continued, "John, can you help me level up?"
"No interest." John didn't want to bother. He turned to leave.
"Don't ignore me! I can pay you." the girl chased after him quickly. "How about one gold coin a day?"
John stopped when he heard her words, looking at her suspiciously. "You're sure about one gold coin a day?"
He was really short on money, especially after finding out that people from the academy might be trying to get him in real life. He wanted to hire a mercenary, but even the cheapest ones cost three gold coins a month.
"Sure." the girl nodded, but added, "but you have to get me to level 10 within seven days."
Getting her to level 10 in seven days was no problem for John.
He raised an eyebrow. "Why not just go with the high-level players in the newbie village? And a gold coin a day for seven days is cheap."
The girl shook her head. "They're in a group of five, and I don't like that. Plus, those guys look down on support classes. Oh, by the way, I'm a support class too."
She said it with some pride.
John looked at the energetic girl, who didn't seem like someone with social anxiety.
Seeing he didn't say anything, she continued, "If you don't believe me, I can pay you first."
John shook his head and held up three fingers.
"Three gold coins a day? That's too much, right?" The girl pouted, clearly unwilling.
"No." John shook his head. "I mean, if you want me to get you to level 10 in three days, how much can you pay?"
"Ten levels in three days?" The girl widened her eyes, counting on her fingers. "If you can get me to level 10 in three days, I'll pay you ten gold coins. Right now."
She immediately sent a trade request.
[Beep, Player Aurora sent a trade request. Accept?]
"Accept." John selected, and the girl instantly sent him ten gold coins.
This girl was definitely a rich girl! Ten gold coins was a huge amount to him, and she just handed it over without blinking.