Vivan opened his eyes in extreme shock.
"What the hell was that?"
He hurriedly looked into his skills and stats. Everything was fine, nothing changed. Only his HP and MP got fully restored.
"I prepared for everything. With my stat multiplier due to mental stats plus Resolve of the death would have been one hit k.o. for any monster upto 35 billion HP and I died due to a squirrel bite? "
Isaac's voice came, kind and comforting.
"Sir, Strength is not everything. Unpredictability of the ruins makes it impossible at your level. It's not only about stats."
"I get it Isaac. I was being careless. If this was main game then by now.."
He could not finish, Isaac interrupted-
"Let's not think about that sir. You have to complete the evaluation."
Vivan smiled a little then he opened the quest window.
Now there was a new location of evaluation along with The Ruins of Fire Giant.
Sanctuary of Haelis.
Difficulty:- Insane [As per player stat]
Clearance possibility:- 30% [As per player stat]
"Haelis might be new but I'm not done here. If I can break this system once, I'll master it before moving on." – he thought in his head.
"Sir, I recommend…"
But again Isaac could not finish.
[System chime]
Quest accepted: The Ruins of Fire Giant
Initiating evaluation in The Ruins of Fire Giant.
Vivan started in the fire basin once again.
This time it was easy for him to reach to the ascent path. No damage, No hassle and 70 hogs killed along with 40 hogs spared. The feat boosted Vivan's stats to further heights.
The ascent path came inside the boundaries of vision. He looked up remembering his last fall; the hot breeze has just blown past his hair.
Then he used his calf muscle to their fullest extent being supported by the newly gain stats.
"I'm not going to climb slowly like last time. I'm going to climb it in a single run. "
With that thought he leaped upward leaving a huge gust of wind behind.
A **Swooosh** noise and his body was already at the altitude of 700 meters. He quipped his sword and
"Mana Strike"
Plunged the sword in the mountains body. Then he used the plunged sword as his next foot hold by standing on it and leaped again with another **Swooosh**. Midair he unequipped his sword to call it back into inventory.
By the time Vivan reached the peak of his leap, he equipped it back again and another Mana strike helped him to get his second foot hold. By the third leap he touched the edge of mid cliff with his feet.
The view flooded in side. A huge gate made of rock, sparkling by some unknown symbols glowing in red hue, was being guarded by a three headed tiger within 200 meters.
And that's when the system notified.
[New Created Skill: Feather step unlocked.]
[Boss Encounter Initiated]
[Name:- Trinirak, guardian of Embergate.
Race: Tri-Flame Beast
Class: Sentinel-type Semi-Boss]
Isaac voice came with a serious warning.
"Be careful, Sir. That's not a Normal beast. "
"I can see that Isaac from its HP and MP. So I can imagine what its stats will be. Just how many zeros are there behind that 3?"
"18 zeros, sir. And yes! Resolve of the death will be your only option."
"That's the tricky part Isaac. Due to not leveling up in evaluation zone, even with my huge stats and skills my HP is only 1000. So I have to reduce it enough calculatedly to activate resolve of the death."
"But Sir, one hit from him will be game over."
"Let's see Isaac."
Vivan moved forward with careful steps equipping Flamehide vest for the first time. The beast slowly opens its eyes, then a slow yawn and it stood on its four legs. Three pair of eyes glowing in three different colored flame observing him closely.
Trinirak's HP – 3 Quintillion MP – 3 Quintillion.
GhostWalker's HP – 1000/100 MP – 140/200.
Then with a heavy roar the tiger leaped forward and a brutal right swing charged towards Vivan from its flame covered paw.
Vivan activated battle vision then feather step allowing him smoothly dodging the right swing of the beast. He moved left under the swing with a skill full rotation of his body.
Then a vertical sword strike on the paw that charged at him landed cleanly.
"Mana Strike."
[System chime]
- 60% multiplier activated due to courage.
- 60% multiplier activated due to resolve.
- 20% boost in strength due to mana usage.
- 40% fear resistance due to Iron Mind.
Blood flickered from the wound of the beast, the tiger roared in pain. Then the middle head of the tiger glowed in red flame and from its mouth a wide beam fire rushed at Vivan.
[Trinirak has activated Flame Burst]
Vivan leaped above the beam of fire using feather step then a clean full rotation mid air supporting Vivan to land a Mana Strike on the middle head.
[System chime]
- 60% multiplier activated due to courage.
- 60% multiplier activated due to resolve.
- 20% boost in strength due to mana usage.
- 40% fear resistance due to Iron Mind.
The damage was good but the risk is too high as the beast's HP was huge and without resolve of the death it was not doing much.
The beast took a step back. Vivan used that time he earned.
"Isaac! How much damage I'm doing per attack without Resolve of the death?"
"Sir, your every mana strike is dealing 4.397 trillion damage."
"What? That much? I need a better explanation how the hell it works later."
"Sure sir anytime, but a tiger takes a step back only to leap forward." – a rushed warning came from Isaac.
And the beast jumped at Vivan with its paw covered in flame.
[Trinirak has activated Flame strike]
Vivan dodged the strike swiftly by jumping over it.
"How many strike it would take to take this guy down Isaac?"
"682,365 strikes sir without Resolve of the death."
"How many with ROD?" (ROD = Resolve of the death)
"1900 to 2300 strikes sir depending on your HP."
Trinirak was agitated by Vivan dodging all his attacks.
All three heads roared together in anger, 6 eyes burned in blue, red and purple flame respectively from the left.
[System chime: Trinirak has activated Apocalypse burn]
Then all the three heads launched beams of Flame in respective colours towards Vivan.
Vivan activated battle vision but even with that he could only see a single opening, not to attack but to dodge only. He hurriedly activated Feather step.
**Swooosh**
The Flame pillars landed on the ground, melting the fire mountain like glass, missing its target.
He barely dodged the world burning pillars of flame to his right. His chest was moving up and down in rapid speed due to fast breathing.
But that attack had a passive damage condition, Vivan felt it. An extreme burn through his whole body.
[System notice: Player status burnt. Burn duration 60 seconds]
Vivan's HP dropping rapidly by 92 per second. Then another system chime-
[10% HP recovery per second due to high empathy]
The tiger was looking at Vivan as if it was shocked to see someone who can dodge even this attack.
"What's going on Issac? Why is it only looking at me and not attacking?"
"Sir, apocalypse burn has a cool down effect of 60 seconds. That's why it is not attacking. I recommend to charge at it now till it's stuck due to cool down effect."
Vivan leaped towards the tiger unleashing violent strikes of his sword at it.
"Issac! how much time I need to activate ROD?" – Vivan's determined voice came sharp as steel.
"3 more seconds Sir."
And then the skill glowed activate able.
Vivan roared a battle cry.
"RAAAAAGH!"
[System chime]
-Criteria met – HP below 65%
-Unique skill: Resolve of the death activated
-Stats are being multiplied by current HP for skill resolve of the death.
Vivan lost count of seconds, strikes, everything. Only one thought kept circling in his head as he landed blow after blow.
"Do not stop! Keep going until the beast goes down."
After a clean vertical slash from the head of the beast as Vivan switched to a horizontal slash, Trinirak's body broke into particles like fractured glass and then got dissolved in thin air through fragments.
[System chime]
Guardian of the Embergate has fallen.
Analyzing rewards….
Vivan fell down on the ground by his back, gasping.
The Ember gate opened in front of him giving him a glorious view of the ruin of the fire giant.
[System notice continued]
Huge achievement detected.
+ 400 Courage for defeating Trinirak, the guardian of ember gate.
+400 Resolve for defeating Trinirak, the guardian of ember gate.
+400 Blood thirst for defeating Trinirak, the guardian of ember gate.
New Unique skill: Chrono Severance unlocked – allows user to perform a chain of 1000 sword strikes in a second.
Created skill: Feather Step upgraded to Wind Walker – Allows user to step in the wind.
+1000 stats for all general stats.
1 million gold coin added.
Title: Master of Trinirak achieved.
New Learned skill: Call of flame unlocked – allows user to summon Trinirak with its 10% capabilities.
Loot acquired: Coat of Ignis , High boots of Sylph, Vambrace of Dwarth.
Achievement threshold exceeded….
Analyzing….
Vivan could not believe. He hurriedly opened his stat window to see the details.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General stats: Mental stats:
STR – 3030 Courage –1000
AGI – 3030 Resolve – 1000
INT – 3120 Blood thirst – 700
LUK – 3020 Empathy – 100
SPD – 3030
HP – 89/1000
MP – 0/200
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stat boost dropped his jaw in shock of joy. But only for a moment.
[The system voice notified again]
Power Imbalance Detected.
Threshold exceeded…
**Initializing Living Morality Engine**
And again the ground beneath him dissolved into a black void, leaving only a single circle of light where he lay.
The surrounding got trapped inside multiple screens surrounding the void like memory fragments.
From above, streams of luminescent code cascaded down like rain, each symbol pulsing as it passed through his body, igniting fragments of his past decisions in ghostly flashes.
The deeper, older voice returned with its calm and judgemental tone.
[Living Morality Engine Online]
Analyzing power threshold…
Comparing current world capability…
The golden scale materialized. One side of it carrying Vivan's stats and the other side held the world view in a small screen.
Extreme imbalance detected.
Preparing….. adjustments.
Vivan was quietly watching the Living Morality Engine as if he was trying to figure out how and in which situation it gets activated.
Adjustments complete…
All general stats have been reset to 20.
All unique skills have been nerfed with appropriate cool down.
The seal has been applied.
The void began to shatter like glass, the pieces falling upward into the sky. The opened ember gate started radiating its heat again, the warm breeze of fire mountains touched Vivan's skin.
Vivan sat up and shouted in frustration.
"What the hell!!! I thought you adjust player rewards as per their efforts. What have you done with my hard earned stats?"
[System notice]
New Innate skill: Override unlocked – allows user to activate his true general stats for 20 seconds. Cool down – 24 hours.
System protocol breach detected.
Real world memory fragment recovered [1/1000].
Congratulation GhostWalker! For clearing evaluation with extreme success.
You will be transported to beginner's valley. Please prepare to start your official journey.
And with that Vivan was transported back on the green grasses of the Beginner's Valley. The cool wind gave him relief after a long heated battle. The fatigue came back. As Sleep took him away on the windy beginner's valley for last time Isaac's voice was heard slowly fading away.
"Living Morality Engine maintains the balance of the world Sir. So I recommend please do not judge a book by its cover."
…..To be continued.