37. Slaying the Level 8 Boss

"Let's go, let's go! Forget leveling, let's get a party together and run a dungeon!" Red-Eyes Black Dragon stowed his longsword back into his inventory and said with excitement.

"What is it this time?" The gorgeous beauty Winged Dragon cast him a side-eye. "Did that guy called Nemesis arrange another task for you?"

"How did you know?" Red-Eyes Black Dragon’s body stiffened.

Before Winged Dragon could respond, the little loli Sky Dragon nearby giggled and chimed in, "We can tell who you're chatting with just by looking at that sycophantic expression on your face, Uncle Red."

Red-Eyes Black Dragon: "..."

"Besides," the little loli added, twisting the knife, "you've never been this proactive with the tasks the guild leader gives you!"

Facing the mocking gazes of his teammates, Red-Eyes Black Dragon couldn't hold his ground any longer.

He waved his hand dismissively. "Alright, let's head back to the village first."

Ignoring his teammates, he took the lead and headed toward the beginner village. While walking back, he opened his private chat interface and forwarded his conversation with Nemesis to his boss, Emperor Blood Slaughter.

At the same time, he added, "Leader, I don't think our guild should continue down the 'Chaotic Evil' path."

"I've discovered an excellent opportunity to cooperate with Nemesis. We'll have far more options if we stick to the 'righteous' path..."

...

Meanwhile, Su Yu arrived at the area inhabited by the Level 8 monsters, the Woodland Brown Bears.

The Level 8 monster zone already had a few scattered players.

These players were the "hardcore grinders" who had logged in at midnight and had been grinding straight through to ten in the morning. Some of the top performers had already reached Level 7, two levels ahead of Su Yu.

Su Yu didn't mind, though. Since everyone only had 12 hours of gameplay per day, it didn't really make a difference whether one started early or late.

He wandered through the monster zone, found a spot hidden from other players' view, and began killing monsters to level up.

Compared to before, Su Yu’s leveling style had become much more aggressive.

Previously, he had killed monsters one by one, which offered decent efficiency. Now, he could lure three or four bears together and wipe them out using "Chain Lightning" combined with spell scrolls, increasing his efficiency exponentially.

The only downside was that the Woodland Brown Bears were spread out, causing Su Yu to waste most of his time pulling them. If he could stand perfectly still with a constant supply of monsters in front of him, he could level up in a minute or two. As it was, due to the luring process, it took him nearly 40 minutes to go from Level 5 to Level 6.

...

40 minutes later, Su Yu successfully reached Level 6.

His spell power naturally rose, reaching 63 points.

Su Yu didn't stop to check his interface; he continued luring and killing. He planned to reach Level 7 before moving on to the Level 9 monster zone.

...

Another 20 minutes passed when a massive bear roar echoed through the forest—the volume was several times louder than that of its peers!

"Here we go!" Su Yu's eyes lit up.

He looked toward the source of the roar.

A giant bear, entirely dark brown and a size larger than a normal brown bear, appeared in a clearing slightly to his front.

[Woodland Brown Bear Leader, Level 8 (Excellent)]

HP: 1200

Another Excellent-quality boss!

Su Yu focused his attention and began to deal with the boss.

...

At that moment, the roar of the bear boss reached the entire monster zone, and all the players grinding there heard it.

Except for Su Yu, everyone grinding there was a hardcore grinder. The players looked toward Su Yu’s location with "ethereal" expressions.

"Huh? Which unlucky soul triggered a Level 8 boss?"

"Haha! If you trigger a low-level boss, you can call for help, but if you trigger a Level 8 boss, there's no way to escape. That’s half an hour of game time wasted for nothing."

"Yeah! Pour one out for that poor guy."

The grinders chatted casually while continuing to attack the brown bears in front of them.

-13

-15

-17

A string of numbers popped up above the [Woodland Brown Bear, Level 8], and their health bars slowly dwindled.

But after waiting a while, the grinders noticed something was wrong.

The bear's roaring hadn't stopped!

"Wait, why hasn't that player died yet?"

"Not only are they not dead, but I can hear the boss wailing in pain? Monsters usually only make that sound when 30% of their health is depleted in a very short time!"

"My god, who is fighting the bear boss?"

*Awoo—ooo—*

As the grinders were discussing, the final whimper of the dying bear boss reached them.

The grinders were stunned. One by one, they stood on their tiptoes, looking toward Su Yu’s direction.

"What on earth happened?"

"It's been less than 8 seconds! The boss is down?"

...

"Could someone be using a hack to one-shot the boss?"

Because of the distance, they couldn't see what was happening on Su Yu's side.

Many of the grinders stopped leveling and ran over toward Su Yu's location.

When they arrived, they only saw the corpse of the [Woodland Brown Bear Leader]; there was no sign of any other player.

The players circled the carcass, examining the traces left by magic, filled with disbelief.

"What’s going on? Did the game system glitch, and the boss just died from a bug?"

"Could it have been killed by a player? I heard the big shot 'Nemesis' is in Beginner Village No. 6. Could it have been him?"

"I don't think so! Even if Nemesis killed the boss, we should at least see him, right? Did you see a player named 'Nemesis' or an anonymous player passing by?"

"No."

"Neither did I."

"Didn't see anyone."

The grinders shook their heads one after another.

...

At that moment, Su Yu canceled his [Invisibility], his figure appearing behind a large tree several dozen meters away from the players.

"Nosy players are such a hassle. I'd better head to the Level 9 zone."

Su Yu sighed softly and headed toward the Level 9 monster area.

Just moments ago, he had engaged the bear boss head-on. With his 63 points of spell power, it should have taken less than 3 seconds to kill a 1200 HP boss. However, during the fight, the boss had used [Iron Mane] to reduce incoming damage and [Frenzied Recovery] to heal a large chunk of health, dragging the fight out to 8 seconds.

Regardless, Su Yu had managed to finish off the boss successfully. After the boss died, he saw the nearby players rushing over, so he had cast [Invisibility] and left the scene.

He departed, leaving no trace behind, hiding his merit and fame.

What made him happy was that, being a server-first kill, the loot dropped by the bear boss was generous.

Cloth Armor [Van-Wind Tunic (Excellent) Level 8], Mail Gloves [Dreadscale Gauntlets (Excellent) Level 8], Skill Scroll [Frost Nova (Excellent)], Skill Scroll [Slide (Common)], and [Woodland Brown Bear Leader’s Paw (Excellent)] x1.

Su Yu could use both the cloth tunic and [Frost Nova]. [Slide] was a skill for the Archer class.

Su Yu casually learned the [Frost Nova] scroll and upgraded it to Rare quality.

[Frost Nova (Rare)]: Strikes all enemies within 15 meters of you, dealing 100% spell power as Frost damage and freezing enemies for 4 seconds. Instant cast, 30-second cooldown, 30 mana cost.