There were no monsters in the west of the newbie village.
Soon, a ruined palace came into view.
John stopped and muttered, "This must be it."
It matched the village chief's description. The Twin-Headed Wolf was hiding in the altar of the abandoned palace.
John didn't go in right away. He cast another Physical Damage Amplification on himself.
He checked the items on his body.
Several newbie gear pieces had already been sold, giving him 3 gold coins. Now he had 39 gold coins. That was a lot of money.
Besides that, he had two scrolls: Basic Defense Scroll and Revival Scroll.
John took them out and hesitated about using them.
Basic Defense Scroll and Revival Scroll were also buffs. His Divine Gift talent might work on them too.
But he was afraid to try. Both scrolls lasted for half an hour. If they didn't trigger his talent, it would be a waste.
He decided to use them when he met the Twin-Headed Wolf, just in case.
John entered the abandoned palace and quickly found the altar.
But no Twin-Headed Wolf. No monster in sight.
"Did that old man trick me?" John frowned. He remembered the forum had talked about this palace. Early on, many players explored it but found nothing. There were no valuable items and no monsters.
If there was a Twin-Headed Wolf, it should have been found by now.
John didn't give up. He searched the area again, but there was still nothing.
Had the Twin-Headed Wolf left? If so, how would he complete his quest?
John frowned, and came back to the altar.
The altar was old and broken. The statue was in bad shape. He could barely see it was a tall human-like figure. Next to it was a broken, large beast statue.
"Well, something's wrong with this statue."
John noticed something strange. The area was covered in dust and broken stones, but the front of the beast statue had a drag mark. There was also a dried bloodstain on the ground. Unless you looked closely, you wouldn't notice it.
The bloodstain led to the broken statue and disappeared.
John stepped forward and touched the beast statue.
Crack!
He felt a raised rock on the beast's stomach. A soft sound, and the huge statue slowly moved back, revealing a dark underground tunnel entrance.
"Surely there's a secret," John said, looking at the dark tunnel. He guessed the Twin-Headed Wolf was hiding inside.
He took a deep breath and stepped in.
A breeze came, mixed with a stinky, rotten smell.
A soft sound under his feet made John jump. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he saw everything clearly.
The ground was white with bones-lots of monster bones. There were goblins, fang pigs, and even werewolf skeletons.
John felt his hair stand on end. He took out his newbie long sword and stayed alert, moving forward slowly.
The sound of bones breaking kept going. Other than that, there was nothing strange. But as he kept going deeper into the cave, the stench got worse, and more rotten monster bodies appeared.
"Something's wrong," John noticed something strange. He thought these bones were food for the Twin-Headed Wolf, but the few monster corpses that weren't fully rotten were still whole, with no signs of being bitten.
It looked like the monster corpses were just piled here, like some kind of ritual.
John felt a chill in his heart. He bit his lip and kept moving forward.
As he went deeper, the number of monster corpses increased. They were piled up like mountains, some of which he had never seen before.
"Someone's here!" John shouted, and a big stone table appeared ahead. A man in black robes was sitting on it.
He held his long sword in front of him and instinctively crushed both scrolls in his hand.
[Beep, you used Revival Scroll. You can revive once without losing anything. It disappears after use.]
[Beep, you used Basic Defense Scroll. You get a shield that can take 10,000 damage. It disappears after breaking.]
Two messages flashed. His Divine Gift talent worked, and the scrolls had no time limit.
John felt a bit better. He stared at the man on the high platform, who didn't move at all.
Then, four lights appeared in the dark. They were two pairs of glowing green eyes.
Whoosh!
A strong wind blew, and two beams of light-red and blue-shot toward him.
Boom! Boom!
John was sent flying back. Two damage numbers appeared on his head.
-1041
-1033
That was terrifying damage!
John was shocked. He was lucky to have the shield, or he would have been killed right then.
From the dark, a monster stepped out. It was huge, with two heads on its neck.
It was the Silver Boss, the 30-level Twin-Headed Wolf!
"Roar!"
The wolf howled and rushed at John.
John didn't dare to be careless. He held his sword in front of him.
BANG!
-550
He felt a huge strength hit him, and he was thrown backward.
The Twin-Headed Wolf saw John wasn't dead yet and rushed in again.
"Dammit!"
John was angry. He quickly steadied himself and swung his sword at the two heads of the wolf.
A flash of cold light. Then he took another heavy hit in the chest and was thrown back again.
The Twin-Headed Wolf wasn't doing well either. Two damage numbers appeared above its heads.
-771
-748
John's Physical Damage was now at 1205, enough to threaten this thing.
"Roar!" The Twin-Headed Wolf howled in pain and became even more violent. Both heads raised, and two more beams of light shot at him.
BANG! BANG!
-1051
-1042
John lost over two thousand shield HP again. If this kept going, he couldn't block ten more hits.
He had to end this quickly.
Luckily, the powerful beams were magic attacks and had a cooldown.
John steadied himself, didn't back down, and rushed toward the wolf.
The Twin-Headed Wolf knew his attack was dangerous, so it quickly dodged.
"Damn, that's tricky!" John was angry and kept chasing.
The wolf's HP was around 5,000. He had to kill it fast or his shield would break, and he would die.
One man and one wolf fought fiercely together.
The Twin-Headed Wolf was huge, but it moved with incredible speed. Its movements were smooth and quick, putting huge pressure on John.
Soon, his shield dropped below 2,000 points, and the wolf's HP was less than 1,000. Both were in serious danger.
"Roar!" The wolf howled, and both of its huge mouths opened, glowing with power.
"Same move again!" John panicked, rushed forward, and managed to swing his sword once-but he didn't kill it. At the same time, two beams of light shot at him.
Boom!
He felt like he was hit by a huge weight. The shield blocked one beam, but then the second one, a blue ice beam, hit him directly.
"Time to go all in!"
John bit his lip, let go of his sword, and threw it straight at the wolf.
Boom!
The blue beam hit him. He felt like he was thrown into an icy cave. His HP dropped to zero.
[Beep, you were killed by the Twin-Headed Wolf]
[Revival Scroll activated, you are revived on the spot]
[You have defeated a 30-level Silver Boss, the Twin-Headed Wolf. You have now reached level 10. No experience points will be given. Please complete the advancement as soon as possible]
A few messages flashed. John fell to the ground, still shaken.
"Close one. Thanks to Aurora's Revival Scroll," he muttered to himself. He moved forward to check the items the wolf had dropped.
A staff, a map, and two Basic Skill Upgrade Stones.
[Ice-Fire Wand: Blue item; can be used by level 2 Mage class...]
[Abyssmere Kingdom Treasure: Special item; only the princess of Abyssmere Kingdom can open it]
"An item only NPCs can use?" John frowned. He had never heard of something like this before.
The Ice-Fire Wand was for mages, which he couldn't use.
He picked it up and put it in his bag, still not letting his guard down. He looked back at the figure on the high platform.
The person was sitting cross-legged, no movement at all.
Was he dead?
John picked up his sword, still careful, and climbed up to the platform.
It wasn't a person at all. It was a shadow, hidden under a black robe. You could barely tell it was a human shape.
He felt a dark and dangerous presence from the figure, but it wasn't fully formed yet.
It looked like this abandoned altar was used to bring him back to life.
John gripped his sword tightly and stepped forward, driving the blade deep into the figure.
-1205
A damage number appeared above the figure's head.
This thing had HP, and no physical defense. It didn't seem to fight back at all.
"I'll see what you are," John grew bolder and kept attacking with his sword.
The shadow flickered, and more damage numbers appeared.
-1205
-1205
...
"Lowly worm, stop!" A sudden, angry roar echoed out.