Free Web NovelChapter 3: Chapter3-One-Shotting a Lv. 10 Elite Monster
John slung Soulrender across his back, gave the blacksmith a nod, and turned to leave.
After he was gone, the blacksmith finished forging the equipment in his hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed the beginner clothes still sitting on the rack.
"That brat forgot to take them?"
He was about to call John back, but when he stepped outside and looked around, the young man had already disappeared without a trace.
After thinking for a moment, the blacksmith shook his head.
"Forget it. He’ll be reviving back here soon enough anyway."
...
Meanwhile, John walked along the street in a set of pajamas, the longsword on his back swaying with every step he took.
Dressed in such a ridiculous fashion, he looked exactly like some country bumpkin entering the city with a bamboo pole strapped to his back.
Indeed, players would retain whatever clothes they were wearing upon logging into the game unless they changed outfits.
Many players and NPCs turned to stare at him, their mocking laughter sounding one after another.
"Pfft! Does that guy not even have a set of beginner clothes?"
"What the hell is that thing on his back? A hoe?"
"The game has already been open for a month. There are still newbies who don’t even know where to collect their clothes?"
John walked through the crowd without the slightest change in expression.
That set of beginner clothing only provided a small boost to basic attributes and had no special effects whatsoever.
To the current John, who possessed 100,100 HP, there was absolutely no need to wear it.
He was far more comfortable dressed casually.
As for the mockery of these people, it was even less worthy of his attention.
...
John headed toward the eastern side of Starter Village.
According to the quest information, the Catacombs were located ten kilometers east of the village.
During the early stages of the game, new players had no means of traveling quickly. As a result, it took John a full forty minutes to reach his destination.
Before him lay a desolate stretch of grassland. Amid waist-high weeds, the remains of several broken walls could faintly be seen.
Because no one had maintained the tombs for far too long, even the entrance had been buried beneath the overgrown weeds.
"Tsk. Looks like I’ll have to find it myself."
John shook his head and began searching for the entrance to the Catacombs.
Just as he crouched down and felt around a raised mound of earth, a sudden commotion reached his ears.
"Keep pulling it! Don’t let it turn around!"
"Watch the distance! It’s about to charge!" ƒгeewёbnovel.com
John looked up and saw five players rushing in his direction.
Behind them, a Level 10 Elite Earth Drake was chasing them relentlessly.
John swept his perception across the five players ahead.
Their levels were immediately revealed to him.
Two of them were above Level 8.
One was Level 9, while the other was Level 10.
The remaining three were newcomers who had only just reached Level 8.
The two higher-level players followed along from the side, calmly observing the battle.
In stark contrast, the three new players looked extremely nervous, their foreheads already covered in sweat.
It was clearly nothing more than a simple monster-pulling maneuver, yet the three of them were in complete disarray, nearly getting rammed by the Earth Drake several times.
"It’s about to charge!" the warrior among the three shouted anxiously after glancing over his shoulder.
The assassin beside him snapped, "No need to tell us! Create some distance first, then counterattack!"
Seeing the Earth Drake drawing closer and closer, the only female among the three, a priest, hurriedly cried out, "Examiners, can you help us?"
The two players observing from nearby glanced at each other, both looking somewhat speechless.
One of the examiners frowned.
"The requirements for this assessment have already been lowered to merely killing a monster two levels above yourselves.
"If you can’t even accomplish that, then you may as well give up on the assessment altogether!"
Hearing this, the three newcomers hurriedly shut their mouths and focused on dodging the Earth Drake’s attacks.
...
"A guild assessment?"
John raised an eyebrow slightly.
Some large guilds would set up guild assessments in order to select talented newcomers.
These five people were most likely doing exactly that.
"This Earth Drake already counts as a high-level monster in Starter Village. Its usual habitat is nearly fifteen kilometers from here.
"For them to have dragged it all the way over here, it seems this guild assessment isn’t particularly easy."
Just as John was thinking to himself, the three players noticed him as well.
When they saw John dressed in ordinary pajamas, all three of them were startled.
What kind of clueless rookie would run out into the wilderness to fight monsters without even collecting his beginner outfit first?
The warrior immediately roared, "Hey, you! Get out of the way! Don’t interfere with us!"
John narrowed his eyes but ignored him.
Judging from the ragged condition of their clothes, these people had probably already suffered quite a bit while trying to deal with this Earth Drake.
The distance between the two sides continued to shrink.
Seeing that John was still standing there, the female priest grew so frustrated that she nearly started cursing.
"Are you stupid? Hurry up and run!
"You spent a hundred thousand on a gaming pod, yet you don’t even know how to change clothes? Are you here to play a game or to make yourself suffer?"
The two examiners observing from the side also noticed John.
However, they merely frowned slightly and did not say anything.
John’s gaze shifted, landing on their IDs.
[Overlord_Freewill]
[Overlord_Casual] free𝑤ebnovel.com
Understanding immediately dawned on him.
"So they belong to Overlord Guild."
At present, CREED had not yet unlocked the guild system. However, many guilds had already begun recruiting skilled players in the real world.
They would require their members to use the guild name as a prefix in their IDs.
Thus, merely by looking at their IDs, anyone could tell which guild these two belonged to.
At this moment, the distance between both sides had already shrunk to less than fifty meters.
Seeing that John was still standing motionless in the same spot, the three newcomers cursed him inwardly for being an idiot.
The warrior shouted, "Forget about that moron! We—"
Before he could finish speaking—
Roar!
The Earth Drake behind them suddenly let out a furious roar as a burst of yellow light erupted from its body.
The assassin’s expression changed drastically.
"Damn it! It’s about to use its charge skill! Scatter!"
The three of them immediately spread out.
The Earth Drake’s charge skill had a brief lock-on phase before activation, during which it would randomly choose a target direction and launch its charge.
At a moment like this, scattering to dodge was undoubtedly the best choice.
The three players fled in different directions.
As a result, only John remained directly in front of the Earth Drake, still standing exactly where he had been.
The Earth Drake’s bloodshot eyes swept across the players before finally locking onto John.
Thud!
Its hind legs slammed violently against the ground, creating two deep pits beneath its feet.
Its enormous body shot forward like a cannonball!
Its speed was so terrifying that the grass along its path was ripped apart by the violent airflow, leaving behind a long furrow in the earth.
The three newcomers had already stopped running and turned around to look.
The female priest’s expression changed slightly.
"That guy is dead."
The warrior and assassin shook their heads.
"He refused to dodge. He only has his own stupidity to blame."
However, at that moment, they saw the casually dressed young man raise one hand without even drawing the sword on his back.
John spread his fingers and pressed his hand toward the rapidly approaching drake’s head.
When the massive skull was less than a meter away from his palm, he abruptly closed his fingers.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion erupted.
John caught the Earth Drake’s head with a single hand, and its charging body came to an abrupt halt.
The impact force, comparable to a locomotive crashing at full speed, had actually been forcibly stopped just like that.
John had not even taken half a step backward!
Everyone who witnessed this scene felt their pupils contract violently.
He stopped a charging drake with one hand?
[-100!]
A pitiful damage number floated above John’s head.
Confusion appeared in the Earth Drake’s eyes.
It had never imagined that its charge skill could one day be interrupted like this.
Before it could even react, an overwhelming force suddenly pressed downward.
With a single hand, John smashed the head of the Earth Drake, whose body was nearly five times larger than his own, directly into the ground.
Blood, brain matter, and shattered bone exploded outward in every direction.
Even the earth beneath it was smashed apart, cracks spreading out in the shape of a spiderweb.
The Earth Drake’s HP was instantly emptied.
John had killed it on the spot with a single attack!
A system notification sounded beside his ear.
[Ding! Congratulations, player. You have slain the Lv. 10 Elite Earth Drake!]
[As this was a higher-level kill, your EXP reward has been doubled. You have obtained 400 EXP!]
