Chapter 11

When Ren opened his eyes, it was already midnight. His HP and MP bar was set in full too.

Ren could happily sleep wherever he wanted in this early game since PVP wasn’t introduced yet. Later, Ren couldn’t even rest outside even if he wanted to due to fear of a player challenging him in his sleep.

It was a massive problem in the game before. Players could challenge everyone in their sleep. Even though they couldn’t see the other player’s screen, using the player’s hand to swipe in the air, they could successfully hit confirm.

And the winner of the PVP game could choose his enemy’s list of items made available to him once he won.

It won’t be a global scale problem if the developers fix it.

But they didn’t.

In fact, they admitted that COVENANT was designed that way to torture the players. They even laughed in their announcement, saying that they enjoyed the players’ frustrating faces the best.

Such shrewdness.

But since COVENANT was such an addicting game, and they were already invested in it, everyone swallowed their indignation and adjusted to the game’s system.

Ren looked over at his surroundings. He was actually surprised to find that there wasn’t anyone around. The others must have stayed in the inn since it was already dark.

Some players were actually scared of adventuring in the dark in this early part of the game.

While the others might have gone to the forest since most of the newbie quests’ locations were there.

Ren stretched his arms and groaned to the sky.

The twin moons in COVENANT looked lovely tonight, as well as the [Moonlight Flower] that glowed in the center of the pool of waters.

Ren went to wade the shallow waters and grabbed some [Moonlight Flowers].

[ACQUIRED:

❶ Moonlight Flowers x 12]

Now the [Hidden Quest] for An was finished.

But instead of returning to the village, Ren crossed the dirt road and entered Euclid Forest.

Ren looked at his [Long Staff]. Its durability remaining was 20/30 since he mostly used it to whack those Pelkas.

Weapons and Armours have durability gauge, and once the gauge empties, they would break. It was common knowledge to have it fixed in the blacksmith shop before heading out to battle or buy [Grinding Stones] to refill its durability.

The [Grinding Stones] were only available in large towns and cities, so they weren’t introduced yet in the newbie village.

Ren thought it was because he used his staff to strike those Pelkas that was why the durability of his weapon went down fast.

No matter.

For his next opponent, his ATP and equipment were already enough to defeat it.

Ren continued his way deeper into the forest. The deeper he went, the more ferocious the monsters were. But they were no match to Ren since his ATP was already way above for the beasts in the forest to match. Some even turned tail upon the sight of him.

Ren’s goal was not to fight every enemy he encountered, so if he could avoid them, he would. They don’t provide any EXP anymore, and the Gil they dropped was minuscule, so Ren preferred to conserve his weapon’s durability and health bar.

He aimed to get to the hidden Boss as quickly as possible while only a few players were still logging into the game.

When he finally arrived at the deeper part of the forest where paths forked, he made his way towards a small hidden encampment and rested there. There was no one at the moment, and the forest was peaceful, unlike in the past when he entered late in the game. He remembered how crowded it was, and it seemed like there was a fiesta all the time from the noise and sheer numbers of players.

So far, the hidden treasure chest he opened and materials he foraged were mediocre at best –– things that were common to beginners like potions, grass, twigs, and rocks, but he still stored them in his inventory anyway.

Ren would sell it later to the shops back in the village.

There was no point in storing them in his inventory if he couldn’t use them yet.

As he was resting in the small clearing, Ren’s mind drifted to that Pelka meat once more. Its enticing smell, juicy flesh, and explosive flavors lulled him to take another bite.

Ren shook his head and gritted his teeth. He snatched a [Rabbit Meat] in his inventory and roasted it with his fire spell. His cooking proficiently wasn’t moving the slightest, and Ren expected that much since he was mostly cooking with just a basic fire.

In order for him to increase his cooking proficiency faster, he needed to cook complex food with kitchen tools using [Cooking Recipes].

[ACQUIRED:

❶ Roasted Rabbit Meat x2]

Ren waited until he heard a rustle in the leaves. Pair of amber eyes glowed like the moon only magnified by the night. Ren couldn’t see the full image of the beast since it was dark.

Yosh!

The time had come to face his first Boss.

Ren immediately used [Monocle x1] to gather the Midnight’s Phantom information, storing it in his library.

Later, if he evolved his [Arcanist] subclass into a [Scholar], his passive would allow him to automatically acquire information of everything he [Scan] without needing the [Monocle] anymore.

‖ M I D N I G H T P H A N T O M ‖

Location: Euclid Forest

Description:

❶ The tyrant of Euclid Forest

❷ Only appeared at midnight when the twin moons shone the brightest.

❸ If LCK +20, 40% chance of appearance

❹ If DEF +20, 20% chance of appearance

❺ If any cooked meat dishes are in inventory, 40% chance of appearance.

‖ A T T R I B U T E ‖

HP: 470

MP: 100

STRG: 25 +2

DEF: 22 +2

MDF: 12 +2

INT: 10 +2

AGL: 30 +2

LCK: 14 +2

‖ S K I L L ‖

Passive Skill:

❶ Moonlight Boost

–– Every full moon [STR +2, DEF +2, MDF +2, INT +2, AGL +2, LCK +2]

Active Skill:

❶ Moonlight Gift

–– MP –40

–– STRG +2, DEF +2, MDF +2, INT +2, AGL +2, LCK +2 for 1 min.

–– cooldown 10 seconds

‖ W E A K N E S S ‖

Weakness: Fire & Water

‖ E N D ‖

Ren stored the Midnight’s Phantom information in his library, thinking of selling the information later.

Hidden Bosses had a respawn time of twenty-four hours, while Dungeon Bosses respawn immediately if there was a challenger.

It was harder to trigger a Hidden Boss because you had to wait the next day if someone had triggered it before you. What’s more, those who didn’t know thought there was something wrong with the triggering event if these Bosses didn’t appear and passed it completely.

In the past, kill steal (KS) was rampant among players. Unlike Dungeon Bosses, which the challenger could only kill because they were isolated inside the boss room, Hidden and World/Epic bosses could be stolen from the one who triggered it because they mostly appeared in the field.

However, the stronger Bosses in COVENANT, the Epic/World Boss, could only be defeated one time. There was no respawn once they were killed, and their drops contained Gold items and Platinum equipment, mostly an Artifact weapon or armor, and tons of EXP and Gils. Hence everyone was fighting over them.

Ren then quickly looked at his own stats to compare.

‖ A T T R I B R U T E S ‖

HP: 55

MP: 80

STR: 3

DEF: 59

MDF: 7

INT: 66

AGL: 4

LCK: 126

‖ E N D ‖

This would take longer. Ren thought.

Even though the ATP of the Midnight Phantom was low, for a player that was just starting out, it was a nightmarish beast to defeat. And usually, a mage wouldn’t even think of soloing it this early on.

Ren was confident that he could defeat the Midnight Phantom even though he was a mage since his DEF and INT were higher than the beast twice fold.

Though it would take some time since there was only [Fire] in his list of spells.

In truth, it would take at least a week of grinding nonstop in COVENANT to defeat the Midnight Phantom, but since Ren acquired EXP that was worth more than two weeks of grinding nonstop, he was way ahead from the others.

It would be a long fight. He could land +100 points of fire damage at most with a 100% chance of a critical hit since his LCK was high and the beast’s weakness was fire.

However, since the Midnight Phantom’s AGI was so high, it could land at least four or even seven times more damage against him, whose AGI was only 3.

But Ren already fortified his DEF for that, and he bought a lot of [Health Potions] strictly for this battle.

Yosh . . .

Doing mental preparation in his mind, the Midnight Phantom came to light.

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