Second World Online

Even though in the earlier message I had told them to prepare, I knew perfectly well that not a single one of those three novice girls truly understood the meaning of a "Level 30 Zone." In Second World Online, a ten-level difference was not merely a gap in statistical numbers; it was a logic gap where the defense mechanics of lower-tier monsters no longer applied at all.

I stepped out of the narrow alley near my shop and walked along the night streets of StoneBrook City toward the Eastern Gate. My appearance had completely changed. My silver hair that always drew attention was now jet black thanks to the Chameleon’s Wind effect from the [Gargoyle’s Visage] covering the upper half of my face. Cloaked in a gray robe with a giant mechanical purple-aura bow on my back, the players who crossed paths with me reflexively stepped aside, giving way with gazes of reluctance mixed with suspicion.

Their Identify systems must have only displayed rows of question marks or a blurred alias when trying to scan my information.

In the distance, near the giant stone pillars of the Eastern Gate, I saw a small party formation that I knew very well, even though its composition looked extremely unusual to other players.

On the rocky ground, a small white two-tailed fox was pacing back and forth restlessly. Its white ears twitched as they scanned the surroundings, while its two fluffy tails swayed left and right with an impatient rhythm. That was Yuuki’s avatar form.

Near that white fox stood Lumina the Elf Priest, hugging her staff tightly. And perched sweetly on Lumina’s right shoulder was Flora. The Dryad Azalea did not appear in a human-sized humanoid form, but as a tiny flower spirit with azalea petals covering her petite body. Because the anatomy of her feet fine interwoven roots made her extremely slow and made long-distance walking difficult, perching on Lumina’s shoulder had become her permanent position whenever they traveled.

I approached them without a sound, utilizing my [Stealth] passive so that my footsteps blended with the night wind.

"Yuuki, are you sure Big Sister Syl told us to gather here?" Flora whispered from atop Lumina’s shoulder, pressing her tiny body closer to her friend’s cloak collar while glancing toward the outside of the gate where the dark forest stretched. "This is the access to the advanced zone. Players under Level 25 are strictly forbidden from entering here by the NPC guards."

"Yes, Big Sister Syl said so in the message! Why would I lie?!" Yuuki replied; the high-pitched voice typical of a teenage girl came out of the small white fox’s muzzle, making her look extremely adorable yet absurd. She stomped her front paw on the ground. "But where is she? She’s taking forever..."

"I’ve been here for a while, Captain," I cut in with a flat tone, standing exactly two meters behind them.

The three party members jumped in fright. Yuuki almost even spat a fireball from her fox mouth if she had not immediately recognized my voice. However, when they turned around and saw my appearance, their eyes went perfectly round. Lumina took a step back, forcing Flora on her shoulder to cling tightly to the Priest’s blonde strands of hair.

"B-Big Sister Syl?!" Yuuki squeaked, lifting her fox head to stare at me with bulging eyes. "What is with this appearance?! Big Sister’s hair... Big Sister’s face wearing that stone mask... and that bow! What kind of bow is that?! It looks like a machine of gears combined with giant wood!"

Lumina swallowed, looking at my gray cloak from top to bottom. "The aura is so terrifying, Big Sister... like an Assassin boss from the dark faction ready to take players’ lives."

I laughed softly; my laughter sounded a little heavier due to the resonance of the Gargoyle mask.

"This is only a disguise costume. After the uproar at my shop yesterday, I don’t want any Guild tailing me while I’m hunting materials," I explained casually, patting the [Titan’s Ironbark Compound Bow] on my back. "And this... this is the new toy I mentioned earlier. Are you ready to see it in action?"

Hearing my confirmation, Yuuki’s ears stood upright again. Her fear was immediately replaced by exploding curiosity. She hopped a little on all four paws. "Ready of course! Let’s go! Where are we going, Big Sister?"

I pointed toward the rocky footpath that split the dense forest outside the Eastern Gate. The darkness at the end of that path seemed to swallow all the light from the city’s torches.

"We will head to the Valley of the Forgotten. Level range 30 to 33. Stay behind me, follow my instructions, and never attack a monster first before I give the command. Understood?"

"U-understood, Teacher!" Lumina and Flora answered in unison with a nervousness that could not be hidden. Yuuki only replied with a small enthusiastic bark.

The journey through the forest outskirts took about twenty minutes. The farther we walked away from the safe boundary of StoneBrook, the more the atmosphere around us pressed on the chest. Green trees were slowly replaced by trees with withered gray leaves whose trunks twisted like the frozen claws of monsters. Thin gray mist crept across the ground, limiting visibility to only a dozen meters ahead.

Flora appeared the most uncomfortable. As a Dryad race that was extremely sensitive to the elements of life and nature, she kept rubbing her tiny arms from atop Lumina’s shoulder.

"Big Sister... the soil here feels dead. There’s no life energy at all; my roots feel sore if they touch this air," Flora complained in a trembling voice.

"That’s because we have already entered an Undead and Cursed-type zone," I replied without turning, my eyes sharpened by the Dexterity stat continuously scanning the movements behind the thick mist.

Suddenly, the sound of metal scraping against metal broke the oppressive silence.

From behind the mist at the two-o’clock direction, a large silhouette slowly formed. It was a knight two meters tall, yet there was no flesh behind the rusted plate armor it wore. Only black bones enveloped by a cold-burning bluish-green flame aura. It rode a skeletal horse whose eyes radiated blood-red light.

[Dullahan Vanguard – Level 31]

HP: 12,000/12,000

Defense: Extremely High (Plate Armor)

Type: Undead Knight

Description: Elite troops from a forgotten kingdom. Its plate armor is immune to most low-level slashes and magic.

"L-Level 31..." Lumina’s voice trembled heavily behind me; her steps stopped instantly. "Twelve thousand HP! Defense is Plate Armor!"

In Second World Online, Plate Armor was a nightmare for low-level physical players and novice mages. This armor possessed absolute Damage Reduction against sword slashes, ordinary arrow pierces, and was highly resistant to low-level fire magic because the metal dispersed heat before it could injure the skeletal entity inside.

"Yuuki, try attacking with your best fire magic. Check how thick its defense is," I ordered, still standing casually with both hands in the pockets of my cloak.

The white fox Yuuki nodded. She planted all four of her paws firmly on the ground, took a deep breath until her stomach expanded. A glowing red magic circle appeared in front of her muzzle.

"[Scorching Ray]!"

A beam of blazing red fire shot through the mist, slamming precisely into the chest of the Dullahan Vanguard.

BZZZTTT!

The fire beam struck the monster’s rusted breastplate and spread like water poured onto a hot frying pan, completely dampened by the thickness of the steel.

[-85 Fire Damage!]

[Resisted!]

"O-only eighty-five?!" Yuuki cried in frustration; both of her tails immediately drooped to the ground. "Usually that magic can deal four hundred damage to the wolf boss yesterday!"

That attack, even though it did not deal meaningful damage, immediately triggered the Aggro system of the Dullahan Vanguard. The skeletal knight turned its bone horse’s head, raised the giant spear in its right hand, and began spurring its mount toward us at a terrifying speed. The sound of the horse’s hoofbeats striking the rocky ground echoed like a death knell.

"Fall back! Big Sister Syl, we can’t fight it!" Flora shouted in panic from Lumina’s shoulder, preparing to summon vines from her palms.

"Hold your magic, Flora," I said calmly.

I pulled my right arm back toward my back. My fingers gripped the wooden riser of the [Titan’s Ironbark Compound Bow]. In one smooth motion trained by my natural instinct, I drew that giant mechanical weapon forward to my chest. My left hand quickly nocked a steel arrow [Steel Bodkin Arrowhead] that I had just created that afternoon at the forging hearth.

The bone horse was now less than twenty meters away. Its giant spear had already been lowered, ready to tear through the vulnerable body of Yuuki who stood in the frontmost line.

I opened my stance. My right hand drew the steel cable twisted with troll sinew of the compound bow.

The initial draw felt like pulling a concrete wall. The extreme tension of the Ironbark limbs forced my virtual muscles to work at their maximum capacity. However, when the cable draw reached the point near my cheek...

CLICK.

The asymmetrical steel cams at both ends of the bow rotated past their pivot points. Instantly, the draw weight of hundreds of pounds vanished, replaced by an extraordinary lightness thanks to the [Mechanical Let-Off 70%] effect. I could hold this deadly maximum draw with only two fingers without the slightest tremor. My vision narrowed, focusing the aim precisely in the center of the Dullahan’s armored helm.

"Steel judgment," I whispered from behind the Gargoyle mask.

I released my finger grip.

DZHAAAAAANG!

The sound of that bow’s release did not sound like flexible wood being released, but rather like the boom of a high-caliber rifle explosion! The [Kinetic Snap] effect triggered an instantaneous energy release, completely sweeping away the Attack Speed penalty that had always been my weakness.

The arrow tipped with the steel Bodkin shot through space. Its speed could not be followed by normal eyes. Even the air around it formed whitish distortion rings due to the excessively massive kinetic thrust.

CRATASSSHHH!

The arrow slammed into the armored helm of the Dullahan Vanguard. The pointed design of the steel Bodkin specially forged to pierce hard materials split the plate armor as if splitting thin cloth.

Combined with the passive effect [Titan’s Heavy Draw] that ignored 25% Armor, its penetration power was truly absolute. The arrow pierced through the rusted helm, destroyed the blue flame energy center inside its skull, and shot clean through the back until it embedded deeply into a dead tree trunk ten meters away!

The skeletal knight froze instantly. Its bone horse neighed soundlessly, reared its front legs into the air, then the entire form of the knight and its mount exploded into a swirl of blackish-gray dust.

[Lethal Hit! Armor Piercing Triggered! Weakness Exploited!]

[-6,800 Physical Penetration Damage!]

[You have killed Dullahan Vanguard (Lvl 31). Gained 18,000 EXP.]

"O-one shot," Lumina muttered; her legs went weak until she nearly knelt if she had not supported herself with her staff. Her eyes bulged, staring at the remaining dust plume of the monster.

Flora swallowed, staring at the mechanical bow in my hands with a worshipful gaze as if it were a sacred artifact. "That... that was a monster with absolute Level 31 defense... Big Sister destroyed it in one second?"

Yuuki, on the other hand, began hopping again in excitement. Both of her tails swayed as hard as the propellers of a small helicopter. "I TOLD YOU! MY BIG SISTER IS A MONSTER! HAHAHAHA! Take that, you rusty skull!"

I only tilted my head slightly. This was merely an opening.

Unfortunately, Yuuki’s victory cheers and the kinetic explosion sound of my arrow just now invited extremely fatal attention from the depths of the valley.

The echoes of bones grinding against one another began to bounce from every direction. The thick mist surrounding us was slowly parted by hundreds of footsteps. My eyes quickly counted the blue-flame silhouettes that appeared surrounding us.

Five. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.

There were about thirty Dullahan Vanguard and Armored Skeleton Knights that now locked us in a horseshoe formation. They were all above Level 30. The game system categorized this event as a [Monster Horde] that generally required an alliance party of at least fifteen players of equal level to survive.

"Oh no..." Yuuki’s laughter immediately stopped. Her fox ears and tails drooped in panic, pressing against her tiny body. "B-Big Sister Syl... Big Sister’s arrows are really strong, b-but Big Sister can’t possibly shoot thirty monsters at once, right? Big Sister will run out of stamina before half of them fall!"

This was the basic logic and absolute fact in MMORPGs. A sniper-type weapon with massive single-target damage was never designed to clear a crowd.

"Lumina, fall back ten meters behind that large tree. Flora, hold on tightly. Do not use any magic that could draw their attention," I ordered in an absolute tone, leaving not the slightest room for panic.

Lumina immediately nodded, lifted her robe, and ran backward while ensuring Flora was safe on her shoulder. The white fox Yuuki also ran hard to follow behind them.

I sheathed the giant compound bow back onto the sling on my back. I did not need arrows to welcome this horde.

The thirty skeletal knights began tightening their circle. Their footsteps shook the rocky ground. Their plate armor clinked in unison. They were ready to charge and trample the position where I stood alone in the middle of the path.

My right hand reached into the leather compartment on my belt. I took out my newest alchemy masterpiece. A dark gray steel ball the size of a fist: [Frag-Grenade: The Iron Maiden].

I could feel the carved cross-hatch lines that formed small squares on the surface of this steel from behind my glove. The beeswax fuse at its tip dangled, waiting for the touch of fire.

When the front line of the skeletal monsters reached a distance of less than fifteen meters, I lit the fuse using a flint lighter with an extremely quick flick of my thumb. The fuse immediately hissed, scattering small dancing sparks in the dark.

One second. Two seconds.

I did not throw it immediately. I let the fuse burn in my hand, using the calculation instinct from my Dexterity to ensure this bomb exploded right above the enemies’ heads. If this bomb exploded on the ground surface, most of the destructive power of its fragments would be blocked and wasted into the ground or hit the legs of their mounts.

When the fuse was left at less than half an inch, I swung my arm and threw the steel ball in a high parabolic arc, lofting it precisely into the center of the swirling formation of the Dullahan horde.

"Cover your ears!" I shouted while turning my body, at the same time pressing a mechanism lever on the guard of my cloak’s sleeve, activating passive wind elemental magic to form a dense air wall in front of me and my little sister’s friends.

Behind me, Yuuki flattened her small body, covering her fox head with both paws, while Lumina covered her ears and bent over to protect Flora.

The steel ball reached its peak point exactly three meters floating above the sea of rusted plate armor. Its fuse fire touched the extremely compacted mixture of gunpowder and peat gas inside the steel core.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The sound of the explosion produced was not merely the boom of a previous mud bomb. This was the sound of a scream of metal tearing under extraordinarily high pressure that shattered the silence of the valley. My restraining air wall trembled extremely hard holding back the shockwave that instantly swept the mist clean within a thirty-meter radius.

The explosion light burst brightly in the air, illuminating the night. Yet what was far more lethal was what accompanied that flash. The specially scored steel plate casing I had carved shattered into pieces precisely along its structural paths, spewing thousands of sharp-angled steel cube fragments (shrapnel) in all directions at bullet speed.

The storm of steel fragments swept the sea of undead like a metallic meteor storm.

TANG! TANG! CRASH! CRASH! CRATASSH!

The sounds of sharp metal fragments slamming, tearing, and piercing plate armor echoed brutally. The [Shrapnel Storm] effect triggered consecutive penetration power. The Level 30 armor that had been feared until now because of its immunity to sword slashes was now riddled with holes like an old sieve.

Hundreds of maroon-colored damage numbers exploded covering my interface screen simultaneously, forming a sea of text in the air.

[-3,500 Physical/Piercing!]

[-3,850 Critical/Piercing!]

[-3,400 Physical/Piercing!]

[Heavy Bleeding Triggered: -50 HP/sec]

[Maim Triggered!]

The horde of skeletal knights that had earlier threatened our lives was now torn to shreds. Giant bone horses collapsed into scattered calcium fragments. Their helms and breastplates were punched clean through by the merciless flying shrapnel bullets. Not a single one of them had any remaining time to attack. The mass physical projectile effect of my metallurgical masterpiece annihilated an entire battalion in a matter of seconds.

Deafening silence immediately reclaimed the Valley of the Forgotten as the smoke and gunpowder dust were slowly blown away by the night wind.

In front of me, the footpath had now transformed into a shallow explosion crater with a radius of more than ten meters. The surrounding area was filled with broken bone pieces, scattered rusted armor fragments, and piles of glowing loot from the thirty Level 30 monsters that had died instantly.

The system notifications in my eyes blinked at an unreasonable speed.

[Your Party has killed [Dullahan Vanguard] x30!]

[Gained 540,000 EXP (Over-level Bonus)!]

[Level Up! Yuuki reaches Level 22!]

[Level Up! Lumina reaches Level 21!]

[Level Up! Flora reaches Level 21!]

[Level Up! Syl reaches Level 26!]

Lumina, Flora, and Yuuki slowly opened their eyes and dared to peek from behind their protection. They stared at the massacre crater in front of them with jaws dropped to the ground.

No one dared to speak for a full ten seconds. Their novice brains refused to process the absolute damage anomaly that had just been presented before their eyes. Someone had annihilated an entire Monster Horde battalion that was ten levels above them... simply by throwing a steel ball.

"T-Teacher..." Lumina finally muttered; her voice was almost a whisper. Her staff slipped from her grip and fell to the ground. "Did... did we just witness the arrival of a War God in disguise?"

Flora, still on Lumina’s shoulder, covered her tiny mouth with both of her leaf-like palms.

Yuuki did not hug me this time. The small fox stared at me with eyes radiating pure religious fanaticism. She walked closer to me, then bowed her head until it touched the ground, exactly like a gesture of worshiping a god.

"Big Sister Syl... please... let me become your holy follower for the rest of my life. I’m willing to clean your shoes every day," Yuuki said in a tone that was extremely serious, in stark contrast to her teenage personality.

I could only exhale a long breath from behind my Gargoyle mask, holding back an amused smile at the comedy drama they were putting on. My prototype weapon and Frag-Grenade masterpiece had proven their unmatched value. I waved my hand casually.

"Holy follower, my foot," I answered lightly, breaking the frozen tension. "Quickly take all the coins and loot. My inventory bag won’t be enough to hold all that rusted iron. After this area is cleaned, we will move deeper. I need poison materials from the area boss."