Chapter 4

Robin pounced on the furry Fanged Rodent that was as big as a mid-sized dog. Her two daggers sliced into the rats back and two numbers flashed above its head.

-20

-24

Blood gushed out of the wound as Robin pulled the daggers out. The rat cried out and tried to retaliate but Robin already moved away. Because the rat over extended, Robin was able to land two stabs to its head. She even got a critical hit because she damaged the head ‘It’s weak point’. Blood oozed out of the rats eyes and mouth and its lifeless body dropped to the ground.

-75

-77

[15 exp gained]

“Holy shit! [Dual Wield Expert] is amazing! I can attack twice as fast and deal double the damage. That includes doubling my critical hit damage.” Robin said, ignoring the blood pooling at her feet. In the game, dead bodies and their fluids will disappear after a few moments. These striking visuals were one reason why a lot of people did not play the “game” but since the game did so much good in other areas, billions of people still bought and played it.

The elderly could gain more years on their lives, thanks to the 1:3 time ratio. Blind or crippled people could see and move just as well as anyone else. Those with the worst cases of mental disorders gained a bit of clarity. The politicians and world leaders called this the Miracle game and a lot of people believed it.

Robin continued through the tall grass and found another lone Fanged Rodent. She became more daring as she went straight for the head.

In the World Tower crits don't randomly show up like in other games. The player has to hit certain areas to get the critical hit. This was both a good and bad thing. Since players knew where the weak spot was, they could target it from the get-go. However, the weak point will most likely be in the most dangerous spot on the enemy. Like the head of the Fanged Rodent. A player has to get near its saw-like teeth to attack its weak spot.

-74

-75

The Fanged Rodent screamed out in pain and bit down on Robin's arm. She let out her own cry and frantically slashed her daggers again killing the Fanged Rodent.

[15 exp gained]

“Fucking hell that hurt! Not as much as actual combat with a hell horde but still shocking. Good thing I got the leather armor. That rat only dealt 4 damage.”

Robin decided to not be so crazy but kill efficiently. The next Fanged Rodent died just like the first and Robin didn’t take any damage. But this Fanged Rodent dropped an item. The item glowed with a dull gray light and fell beside the dead Fanged Rodents body.

[15 exp gained]

[Ding~ Acquired Fanged Rodents teeth x3]

“Just the teeth? Come on! I have a 350% luck bonus and I’m still getting common drops? This game is rigged.”

The next encounter was against two Fanged Rodents. Robin did her best to lead them both to the same side. During a sequence of the attacks one of the Fanged Rodents over-extended and was met with Robin’s dagger, a notification chimed and a prompt popped up in the corner of her eye. Robin didn’t want to get distracted so she willed the prompt to disappear and continued to fight with the Fanged Rodents.

When a Fanged Rodent launched at Robin, instead of dodging, she stabbed the inside of its mouth, killing it. She then used its dead body as a shield to block the other Fanged Rodent. When it was distracted by biting its fallen brother, Robin stabbed it in the top of its head. When It still wasn’t dead so Robin pulled out the dagger and struck again ending its life. Robin heard another chime as the Fanged Rodent dropped to the ground. She pulled up the notification history and was shocked by what she saw.

[God Hand (Pick Pocket) Activated - You have stolen Fanged Rodent leather x1]

[15 exp gained]

[God Hand (Pick Pocket) Activated - You have stolen Fanged Dagger x1]

[15 exp gained]

“Oh oh oh! My talent activated not once but twice! See this is the type of luck I want!” Robin exclaimed. She then checked out the Fanged Dagger since she had never heard of this weapon before.

[Fanged Dagger (Epic)

Type: Dagger - 1-handed (Slash/Pierce)

Equip Requirements: 10 Str, 15 Dex

Physical Attack Power: +20

Adds [Weak Rat Rot Poison] to target

[Weak Rat Rot Poison: Deals 5 damage per second for 5 seconds. Can be stacked 5 times]

PAP scale: Dex(C) ]

“Holy Shit! It’s an Epic drop!”

The item categories in the game from weakest to strongest are Common(Gray), Uncommon(Blue), Rare(Gold), Epic(Purple), Legendary(Orange), Mythic(Dark Gold), and Godly(Rainbow). The fact that the first monster in the game drops an Epic weapon would make millions of players question reality and make some spend the rest of their lives farming for it.

“Its stats are crazy good too. AND it adds poison! AND its scaling is C rank!! Is-Isn't this weapon too good??” Robin said, still in shock.

Scaling in The World Tower is extremely important. Even if a weapon has bad stats, if it has great scaling then everyone would use it over a weapon that has good stats but no scaling. In The later stages of the game, even if the weapon only has (E) ranked scaling players would still give it some thought to use over a weapon with just a flat stat bonus. (E) ranked scaling gives a 10% damage bonus. Rank (D) scaling gives a 15% bonus. (C) ranked gives 30%. (B) 50%, (A) 100%, and (S) 200%.

So the iron daggers Robin is equipped with now have an Attack Power of 6. 5 from the dagger itself and 1 from the (E) scaling. Not much now but when her stats rise so will the amount of damage she can deal.

Robin looked at the jagged dagger with a bright smile. She only needed one level up before she could use it. That moment couldn’t come fast enough so Robin tossed the dagger back into her inventory and began hunting down Fanged Rodents with reckless abandon.

Unfortunately, after 3 more kills, she ran into a problem. Players. Because it’s the start of the game everyone and their momma are out hunting in the beginning area. If Robin wasn’t so quick to kill the Fanged Rodents then a few groups of players would have stolen her kill. The other bit of unfortunate news is that Angel’s Grace’s luck bonus wore off. Although Robin wasn’t that upset at not being able to maximize using it, she still felt a bit salty.

“I need to figure out a way to get some Fanged Rodents all to myself. I’ve already killed 8 but I need 100 kills to complete the quest. Should I just steal other player’s kills? Sigh that would be asking for trouble.” Robin was at a loss for what to do. Even so she continued searching for freshly spawned Fanged Rodents. Once she spotted one she would pounce on them like a starved beast. It took 40 minutes to find enough Fanged Rodents to level up. Most of the time was spent watching other parties fight Fanged Rodents. There were even some unsavory players that killed her prey. Robin made sure to remember their Player ID names. She’d come back and teach them a lesson on hunting etiquette.

[15 exp gained]

[Level Up! Acquired 15 free points]

“It’s about time!” Robin yelled. “This S-Tier race is too OP. One level receives three times the amount of free stats as an E-Tier race. Now to add them so I can finally use that Fanged Dagger.” Robin then added 6 points into Str and 9 into Dex. She could feel her body heat up and her limbs loosen.

She flexed her fingers and hopped up and down. “Nearly doubling my Dex all in one go, feels amazing.” Next, she equipped the Fanged Dagger and the Steel dagger she bought in town. She couldn’t hide the smile on her face. The Fanged dagger’s attack power soared from a measly 20 to an outstanding 114. This just shows the power of scaling.

Now feeling about twice as strong, Robin decided to head deeper into the plains. The reason she didn’t do this before is there aren’t any solo Fanged Rodents farther out. They are normally in groups of 3 or more. Even with the armor and her Dex, Robin didn’t feel comfortable fighting 3 Fanged Rodents at the same time. Now however, she figures that she can take on at least 4-5 of them at once.

Before she set off again, Robin sent a message to FlowingPhoenix recounting the events that led up to crossing the light barrier. The only thing she left out was the fact that she stole Angel's Grace. Of course, FlowingPhoenix had many follow-up questions but Robin only answered the ones she thought wouldn’t matter in the long run without giving up any of her own information.

Once everything was said and FlowingPhoenix had no more questions to ask, a chime notification went off.

[Ding~ Soul Contract: FlowingPhoenix - Complete!

Reward: 1 Free Stat Point]

“Oh, that’s neat. I wonder if completing any soul contract will give you a stat point or is based on its difficulty” While thinking about the possibility of wasting billions of dollars on soul contracts just to get free points, Robin made it to the outer edge of the plains. She also added the contract’s free point into Dex to make it a nice 20.

The scenery was much different from before. There was tall grass as far as the eyes can see with trees littered throughout. The main difference is that the number of players in the area had a sharp decline. Not many player groups are willing to brave having Fanged Rodents match them in numbers and in some cases, out-level them. Thus the outer plains are for those try-hard players that have great combat awareness or Whale groups that bought the best starting equipment and can steamroll weaker enemies.

Funnily enough, Robin fits in both categories. She dived onto a Fanged Rodent, plunging both daggers into its back but immediately kicked off it to evade the attack of one of its brothers. A chime notification rang in her ear. She briefly noted that the rodent she just attacked was now poisoned but the next second her mind skipped a beat as she did a double take of the notification.

[You applied [Weak Rat Rot Poison] to Fanged Rodent]

[Your skill [Poison Mastery] Activates! [Weak Rat Rot Poison] evolves into [Deadly Rat Rot Poison]]

Much like everything else in the game, poisons have their own ranking system. From low to high they are ranked Weak, Intermediate, Strong, Deadly, and Extremely Deadly. So [Poison Mastery] upgraded the Fanged Dagger poison by three ranks.

“Holy Shit!!! Ow! Fucking rat can’t you see I’m reading here!” While Robin was distracted by the amazing notification the other 2 Fanged Rodents attacked her. She was fighting a group of 4 rodents at this moment.

[25 exp gained]

Before Robin retaliated, the Fanged Rodent that she attacked already died. Robin refocused on the attacking rodents and swiped at the one on the right. She only used the Fanged dagger to attack and relegated the steel dagger to defense. It would be better if she had a shield but she wouldn’t get the [Dual Wield Expert] skill bonus.

-201

[You applied [Weak Rat Rot Poison] to Fanged Rodent]

[Your skill [Poison Mastery] Activates! [Weak Rat Rot Poison] evolves into [Deadly Rat Rot Poison]]

[20 exp gained]

A string of notifications popped up one after the other.

(That one must have been weaker than the first rodent) Robin thought as she kicked the third rodent and slashed at the fourth. This one didn’t die immediately but something amazing popped up again.

[Your skill [Poison Mastery] Activates! [Weak Rat Rot Poisoned] evolves into [Deadly Rat Rot Poison]]

…

[God Hand (Pick Pocket) Activated - You have stolen Fanged Rodent Teeth x3]

“HOLY SHIT! Poison damage triggers God Hand! TOO OP!!! Ouch! Fuck! Can’t I celebrate in peace!”

Robin stabbed the rodent that bit down on her leg in the head. A bright -420 number popped up and the Fanged rodent died a fool.

[24 exp gained]

The last rodent didn’t care about its fallen brothers as it jumped at Robin with its mouth open. Robin ducked out the way but made sure to slash at the rodent's hind legs at the same time. The rodent didn’t die and attacked again. Robin dodged again but didn’t retaliate, content to let the poison kill it.  After 2 seconds the Fanged Rodent dropped and a notification chimed.

[26 exp gained]

“Tesh~ [God Hand] didn’t activate. Ah well, there are more rodents to kill anyway.” Robin shrugged and looked around to see if anything the rodents dropped anything and that was a resounding no. She then looked at the description of [Deadly Rat Rot  Poison]

[Deadly Rat Rot Poison: Deals 5% of targets max HP as damage per second for 5 seconds.

Can be stacked: Stacks only extend poison duration]

"Hot dang, that's amazing. The level 2 and 3 Fanged Rodents only have about 200 to 250 health so if I hit them once they will most likely die before the poison runs out. This will also give more chances for [God Hand] to activate. Alright, let's get grinding!"

Robin spent the next 15 mins on a killing spree. Again most of the time was looking for Fanged Rodents to kill. She wanted to maximize the chances of [God Hand] activation so when she finally found some rodents, she would jump into the pack and hit them all once each then run away. The poison would tick every second so [God Hand] would activate 3-4 times per Fanged Rodent.

Players could see a line of Fanged Rodents chasing Robin. Some laughed, some asked if she needed help, and a small group wanted to jump in and steal the kills. Before they could get close the Fanged Rodents dropped to the ground, dead. Robin wanted to double back and check if there were any item drops but the number of players scared her away. She made sure to do her best to remember their names because there wasn’t much else she could do.. Right now anyway.

She did however have great luck with activating [God Hand]. During the 15 minutes, she killed 14 Fanged Rodents by way of poison. This lets the poison deal damage around 30-40 times. Out of those 30-40 hits, [God Hand] activated six times. So near half of the Fanged Rodents Robin killed gave her an item. If other players knew about this, the amount of salt they would produce could cure a whole cow. The only bump on an otherwise smooth road is that she only stole Common items. Furs and teeth. She prayed for another Fanged Dagger to drop but the gods just laughed at her.

The reason Robin took a short break was that she leveled up and needed to allocate her stats. She didn't need much time because she just dumped 5 into Endurance and 10 into Dexterity. Thanks to the scaling of the Fanged Dagger, a higher Dex would mean she can kill things quicker. Sure [God Hand] won't activate as often, but leveling up should be the main priority. At least that's what Robin thought.

With an extra 10 Dex the Fanged Dagger now deals around 360 damage per hit thanks to its scaling and [Dual Wield Expert]. This can one-shot any Fanged Rodent that she would come across.

With the hype of stronger stats, Robin continued hunting Fanged Rodents. She needed to kill 100 for the church quest and she already killed 32, so 68 more and she could move on to the Tri Horned Boars.

Robin found her next victim soon. A group of 3 rodents. She didn't bother sneaking and trusted her ability to dodge and attack. The first one went down fast with a -355 damage number flashing above its body. Going back to her usual style, Robin used the steel dagger to fend off one while she slashed the other with the Fanged Dagger. In under 10 seconds, the last two Rodents died. They didn't drop anything but Robin didn’t mind since this entire encounter only took 15 seconds.

Robin left the bodies and sought after more prey. Time flew by and after 2 and a half hours of running and killing, Robin finally reached 100 Fanged Rodents kills. Of course, more time was spent trying to find them than actually fighting. So the next two times she leveled up, she added 5 into Endurance and 10 into Dexterity. This allowed her to keep running and take fewer breaks. Robin looked at her stats sheet with a satisfied smile.

Player ID: 1250320995 “Edit”

Race: Greater Shadow Elemental

Class: None

Level: 4 (95/1440)

HP: 53

MP: 160

SP: 185

Vit: 5

End: 18

Str: 10

Dex: 50

Int: 10

Spr: 15

Physical Attack Power: 10 (300)(50)

Magical Attack Power: 10

Physical Defense: 2(11)

Magical Defense: 5

Free Points: 0

Talent: God Hand (Pick Pocket)

Active Skills/Spells: None

Passive Skills/Spells: [Dark Vision], [Dual Wield Expert], [Stealth Mastery], [Evasion Mastery], [Assassination Mastery], [Poison Mastery]

Active effects: None

If an A-Tier player wanted her Dexterity then they would need to dump all of their stats into it. She however had 5 extra free points to do with as she pleased. Also because she fights solo, she gets 100% of the exp, instead of spitting it up between 4 or 5 players. So at the end of the day, she might be the highest level in the area. Maybe even the game.

While looking at her stats screen Robin couldn’t help but frown. The Active Effects row was empty now so the S-class luck bonus ran out. She already sort of noticed it when [God Hand] stopped activating. Before it would activate every 5 or 6 kills but on the last 25 kills, it didn’t activate once.

"Sigh, maybe I should switch to the steel dagger. I can get more hits in with that or better yet, just use my hands. They only deal 7-9 damage per hit. I can kill all but one of the rodents, hold down the last and punch them like 20 times."

While debating on whether she should bully a Fanged Rodent or not, Robin received a message. Although the user name was unfamiliar the ID number looked familiar.

"Fucking finally." Robin snarled. She clicked on the message and opened up the video call feature. "Mia, what… Holy shit! You look amazing!"

The face on the other end of the call was a bronze goddess with long white hair that had gold highlights. She had bright gold reptilian eyes and her eyebrows and eyelashes were the same flawless white as her hair. Even though she wore the starting clothes, Robin could tell that there was an amazing body underneath with a breast size double what Mia has in reality. The most noticeable feature of her was the two gold horns jetting out the top of her head. The way they reflected the sunlight made it seem like they were glowing.

"Sorry, I'm late. I spent 3 hours tweaking how I look" Mia said with a smile. "What do you think?"