NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Keliodus serpents
Although the snakes had low defense, they were still a bit troublesome to deal with. Zyrus couldn’t deal with them en masse, so he had to finish them off one by one.
He thrust his spear towards a snake that was baring its fangs at him.
-95
‘It’s great that I got an attack and Crit increase from the passive skill’
*Sweep*
-5
Exp +180
He was pleased with his damage output. The snakes weren’t nice enough to just let him farm Exp though, so they changed their strategy.
They coiled around one another and whenever Zyrus made his move, they hid their necks. The others would use this chance to get close to him, but Zyrus wasn’t an easy opponent either.
He moved back and forth along with the snakes' rhythm, wielding his spear like a painter's brush.
Kyle and Lauren saw him as he fought against a dozen snakes and they couldn't help but admire his fighting style. Yesterday he was fighting against the golems like a barbarian, and now, he looked like a noble prince fighting in a tourney.
His movements had a certain artistic charm to it. The clear water and the green island acted as a canvas for Zyrus, every thrust and slash of his spear painted the surroundings with crimson blood.
*Slash*
-4
*Thrust*
-5
Although Zyrus wasn’t able to attack their weakness all the time, his normal attacks were enough to whittle down their HP.
*Sweep*
-4,-5,-5
He waved his spear like a fan and kept slashing them. Whenever the snakes moved close to him, he would change his movements into either a thrust or slash.
They were still the basic moves of spearmanship, but with his battle instincts, they were transformed into deadly strikes for these level 5 serpents.
*Thrust*
-10
“What’re you gawking at?” Zyrus glared at Kyle and Lauren after dealing a critical hit.
‘What the hack! Am I a monkey or something?’ Zyrus grumbled as he attacked the snakes with a backhanded sweep.
“Ahh! We were about to attack,” Lauren replied while fidgeting while Kyle had already moved with an embarrassed look. He had a calm and steady temperament but when it came to combat, he was no different from the energetic Lauren.
Before he could reach one though, Lauren had already thrown her knife.
*Slash*
-4,-5
“I told you to survive, sure, but don’t just stand there.”
Kyle and Lauren attacked with all they had and moved forward, pulling the aggro from a couple of snakes.
They were embarrassed as instead of helping Zyrus; they just stood there watching him. However, it wasn’t all that bad. They had figured out the way to deal with the Keliodus serpents.
-95
Exp +180
The serpents were distracted by the arrival of new opponents, And Zyrus wasn’t one to miss any chance to attack their weak spots.
-47
“Attack their mouths; they have a tenfold weakness multiplier. If you can't then attack anywhere on the head and you’ll still deal half the damage.” Zyrus shouted after killing the third Keliodus serpent.
-47
Exp +180
‘Three more to level up, but why aren’t they leaving behind any drops?’ Zyrus fought with a sour face as he looked at the disappearing corpses.
Leveling up was important to him, but getting the poisonous essence was essential for his plan.
Except for the final boss, the slain creature’s corpses would turn into light fragments.
‘That big guy tastes delicious as well,’
“Look I got something!” Kyle shouted as he ran towards him.
Zyrus was speechless as he looked at the bead-like object in his hands. It was as if Kyle had switched personalities with Lauren at this moment.
“That’s great. Keep up the good work” Zyrus tapped his shoulder and moved ahead.
-10
*Thrust*
-90
Exp +180
'I'm not mad. Definitely not.'
.
.
Exp +180
.
‘Damn it! I killed five but didn’t get any, while they ganged up on one snake and still got the essence.’
He took out his frustration on the snakes and swung his spear even more vigorously.
‘Really? Wasn’t the drop rate 50%? Maybe I remembered it wrong. It should be 10-20%'
Zyrus doubted his memories after he killed two more Keliodus serpents. At least it was better to accept than his terrible luck.
Unfortunately, his wistful denial was shattered in just a breadth.
“I got one too!” Lauren shouted as she ran towards him,
“Ha-haha Good. Good. Just keep them with you. We should focus on fighting now.” Zyrus turned around with a stiff look and moved away from the duo.
‘Forget it. It's mine anyway. Who wants to collect the stupid loot? Yes, that’s right. It's not befitting for someone of my status. I should leave these tasks to my minions..’
-47
Exp +180
[Level up!]
[+1 to all stats]
While he was going through different stages of grief, he finally leveled up after killing the last snake of the second wave.
Without getting any poisonous essence of course.
‘I’m fine. Really. I even leveled up.’
Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, the third wave of serpents showed up immediately. They didn’t even have any time to catch their breaths.
*Thrust*
-10
*Sweep*
-4,-5
Zyrus moved back and forth and bit by bit, he was reaching the threshold of level 5. Kyle and Lauren leveled up as well, reaching level 3 in one swoop.
*Slash*
-100
Exp +165
‘Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.’ Zyrus was slaughtering snakes left and right while murmuring Buddhist quotes, unaware of the reason behind his misery.
The culprit was watching the fight with a bag of candies in her hand.
“Why don’t you act cool now, huh? Acting mysterious in front of me? Humph! Stupid Zyrus.”
…
When the trio were preparing for the third and the final wave, the situation in the boss area took an abrupt turn.
First of all, the team led by Hajin Choi was in shambles. His armor was corroded by poison and more than half of their group had fallen.
In the meanwhile, Another team had also arrived at the area. With a whopping hundred members no less.
Although it was good to have numerical superiority, in this case it was simply courting death. Their riffraff group of level ones and twos was no match against the level 5 snakes.
When all three teams were engaged in their respective battles, that’s when the real tragedy began. The leader of the third group was a heartless cunning bastard. He used all the level one players as meat shields while a dozen of their elites dealt the final hits.
If it was all he did, then his actions were still somewhat understandable.
After all, it was survival of the fittest. If not for this strategy which helped their elites level up, everyone in his team would’ve corroded into puddles of blood and flesh.
But he did something that was far worse than that, he kicked out all of the injured people once his elites had leveled up!
What could exhausted level one players do against the elites of the level three?
And much to the dismay of Hajin Choi, They did the only logical thing.
They ran.
Towards him.
He wanted to curse at them but he didn’t even have time to breathe properly.
‘Despite the freaking warning, you trash still came to fight. I know you guys were used and betrayed by your leader. Fine, I understand. It sucks.’
‘But why the fuck would all of you come towards me for protection? Don’t you see that bastard over there? He is simply toying with the snakes!’
What he didn’t know was that the survivors obviously wanted to join Zyrus’s team, but after watching him fight they decided otherwise.
‘That guy is scary’
‘See how he looks at us! he’s more frightening than the snakes chasing us’
‘That knightly looking guy looks better’
‘Yeah he seems like a righteous guy. Look at his golden armor’
.
.
And so with their biased and unfortunately accurate judgment of Zyrus, they all decided to join Hajin Choi. Along with the dozens of serpents chasing them.
A total of 57 men died because of the third teams' cruel decision, while the remaining dozen had somehow survived with Hajin Choi.
He obviously didn’t like the new ‘members’ of his team, but with the present situation, he had to swallow the fly.
The ones who benefitted the most in this fight were the elites of the third group. All 20 men in their team became level 3!
“It’s your time to shine buddy.” Zyrus tapped Kyle’s shoulder as he looked at the leader of the new team. This was a fast-paced battle where there was no time for a strategy. He wanted to check the coordination of his team and see how they fought in a group fight, and the enemies came at just the right time.
‘To think that I would meet them here, The hydra gang.’
That was an infamous bandit organization in the third ring. They feared the strong and bullied the weak, typical scum of humanity.
‘I don’t see their leader.’
He remembered this team because he had slaughtered more than half of them when they were around level 80.
“What do you mean?” Lauren looked at the new group with wariness.
“Have you already forgotten what I’ve told you?” Zyrus shrugged nonchalantly and started cleaning his spear
‘I hope it doesn’t break before the boss fight,’
“Oh, About the danger from humans? But what does that have to do with Kyle?”
“Hehe.. you’ll know when the time comes.”
Zyrus didn’t speak anymore, but Kyle knew what he meant. He had already noticed the newcomers looking at them with malice.
Kyle felt his blood boil when he saw their leader looking at Lauren. He was all too familiar with that disgusting look.
“Are you okay?” Lauren looked at him with a concerned look. It could be said that she had known him for half her life, but it was her first time seeing him like that.
She knew that he had a lot of secrets that he hadn't told her, but she didn't mind. Everyone had burdens that they wanted to carry on their own, she was the same.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kyle replied in a tender tone and looked away from the third group.
He had a lot of questions regarding Zyrus, but he didn’t dare ask them.
‘Did he know about my real identity? It can’t be. Even the president doesn’t have the right to look into our squad’s information.’
But all of that was irrelevant now.
“Get ready, the final wave is coming,” Zyrus shouted as he ran ahead.
Kyle ran after him, but he was different this time. He was using dual swords instead of one. He didn’t want to hide anymore.
Blood red light shined on his swords as he fought with his real strength. The tough scales of Keliodus serpents were shredded like papers in front of his attacks.
Lauren looked at him with a dumbfounded gaze, but Kyle was already lost in the heat of battle. Only a single thought, a lone desire kept his sanity at this moment.
‘I’ll annihilate anyone who dares to harm her. It doesn’t matter who or what they are, I’ll kill them all without mercy.’