Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

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/CLANG!/

/SLASH!/

"Arg!"

/Sparkles…/

/CRACK!/

"S-SHIT!"

/SLASH/

"I slipped!"

/Sparkles…/

/FWOSHH!/

"How fu%^$& unfair..."

/Sparkles…/

Between The Village and the Horizon Woods stood the green fields, the only patch of fertile soil the farmers could use to grow crops and raise cattle.

At least, fertile while being safe enough...

It was also the lowest level 'Field' within the entirety of Resko's outskirts and the only place for new players to Level up.

This was due to the only monsters being the famed "low-level pests" such as the flying spiders, the occasional woodland rats, snakes, and so on…

(The spiders were called Bone Mice, CHAP 46 and a few others)

It was a relatively safe place where Players could farm items between the Levels of 10 and 20 without much trouble, giving them enough of a boost to try harder areas.

Albeit few have reached that stage so far...

And albeit, despite only a few minutes having passed since the start of the Event, the chances of Exceptional rank monsters appearing have increased significantly and the upper levels of the monsters within the surrounding areas have also increased, so much so that multiple parties around the perimeter of the Green Fields have been eliminated by these mutant monsters...

Like a certain party that was wiped by the sudden appearance of a Level 25 Boss Forest Spider...

And since it wasn't a 'Field' Boss, under normal circumstances, it would disappear within the grass if no one fought it for long, turning any efforts into smoke…

However, with the recent changes, monsters weren't 'despawning' remaining around the area for long periods of time before retreating somewhere unknown.

This unusual movement in the monsters' patterns has caused quite the chaos among the players.

But while some cheered, a few cried...

Still, at the end of the day, even with the recent forest even, the Green Fields would remain mostly unaffected, which in turn would raise their importance to the player base in the future as everywhere else was nearly impossible to hunt.

But that was a matter for another time...

/Boom... Boom.../

Yet, in such a simple zone occupied mostly by low-level players, a large and intense fight was currently taking place between dozens of players and a single Giant humanoid creature wearing some kind of rough leather armor and a massive metallic cleaver.

The cleaver was at least 4M long and its sharp edge gleamed under the sun, it was surprisingly well made compared to the clothes...

Just by gazing at the combination of the cleaver and the monster's muscles, any normal-headed man would understand that this wasn't a creature that was supposed to be crossed lightly…

Yet… So many players had gathered already… Items pilled on the floor like rain as party after party were defeated by the hands of this strong monster.

Archers in the back, dealing as much damage as they could, screaming curses as their arrows came to an end...

Tanks holding their shields… Or at least trying to since they all broke down with a single swing of the beast's mighty weapon...

Swordsman tried to strike, only to leave a white scratch on the creature's thick skin...

And the very very occasional magical abilities that were released upon it.

As Dale mentioned before, the players within Resko were unable to gain special Classes or advance theirs' further, so they had to make with what little they had…

So to have something like this, they were either very lucky in the Tutorial, getting a decent Skill book...

Or during their character creation by choosing a random start, since random characters start with random Skills and an extra Skill slot...

There was the faint possibility they were just lucky during their hunts and exploration of Resko, getting Skill books to drop or a Skill to be rewarded from some Unique Quest they completed.

But those were far in between...

"HA!"

"Take my Ultimate move that can deal 350% damage and pierce up to 30% of your defenses!"

"HEAVY STRIKE!" A player blurted out as he swung his large claymore down in the air

He looked pretty cool as his claymore cleaved through the air, leaving a green streak across the sky…

His gear was also rather Unique, meaning that it was likely rare and probably, pretty expensive.

The man was definitely a decent player, one that worked hard to be where he currently was...

/CLANG!/

/SMACK!/

But in a show of mastery, agility, and power, the giant warrior swung his cleaver backward as if swatting a fly before jumping and kicking the player in the chest, the sound of metal bending and breaking could be heard very clearly as the player flew away like a rocket towards the sun…

"AHHHH! DAMMIT! MY LEVELS!" He exclaimed as he flew away

In the sky, he turned into sparks of light, and not long after, a few items fell onto the ground like comets in the sky...

/FWOOSH!/

The warrior was in a streak, killing the players all around, each swing would take a few players depending on how close they were to each other.

And he did all of it with a sickening smile, thrilled to be in such a euphoric fight!

"HAAA... Damn!… I knew I shouldn't have come… Fuck you Tyler 2.0, you and your damn ideas…" A player said as he turned into speckles of light

/Sparks.../

"NO! He killed Kenny! YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

One of the players almost seemed to cry as he rushed forward with his twin blue daggers!

One of the other players of this strange party screamed historically:

"Noo! Edward! Retreat!..."

/FWOOSH!/

"ARG! MY ARM! Avenge me, brothers!"

/Sparks.../

And he turned into light…

...

"FUCK!"

But one of the players was more annoyed at them than at the monsters…

"Stop screaming you sons of bitches! It's not like it hurts!" He said out loud as he touched his forehead

'Damn idiots!'

/THUD…/

Another player fell close to him, raising his middle finger to him as he turned into light.

"Fuck you… Long live… Roleplay…"

/Sparks…/

"..."

[All players from the associated party have been killed]

[The party has been disbanded]

[As part of the short-term contract, a total of XXX Zulls will be transferred to player's Silent_Echoes! Account ]

As the messages played in his head, the man frowned.

"..."

'Damn it all! These useless guys… What a waste of money.'

'They baited me with their gear and levels, but they were just a bunch of...'

/Chaos…/

Tragedy continued as the player watched in front, he seemed to be a leader as he remained in the backlines, trying to coordinate the players, succeeding to some degree…

"I need to focus."

'Its health bar is surely decreasing, 1/20 has already gone down…'

'But that matters little, Field Boss monsters usually have high regeneration when they are outside of combat, and they have several stages, at least 2.'

'If we get wiped, and he stays out of combat for even half a minute, he'll regenerate that within a minute, wasting 20-30 minutes of hard work.'

He looked around, many more were arriving… It seemed they wouldn't lack reinforcements any time soon.

'Money is not a problem... At least to employ these low-level guys.'

'But do we have enough people?'

'Coordinating the players is ideal, I need to reduce our Clans losses as much as possible so we can get the final reward…'

'If those Scarlet Bastards arrive… Things will get tense, so we'll need as much personnel as we can…'

'However, how long till these players lose their patience with me? It's not like all of them are stupid like those guys just now, only a single motherfucker with a decent brain is necessary for the plan to come falling down.'

'We already suffered considerable loses, and we haven't even triggered the Boss monster's phase change.'

This player was more interested in self-profit than in the experience of the players in front of him, even if their pain configuration was the lowest possible, no one wanted to be cut in half…

Even though, for normal players, they couldn't get such injuries, the feeling of having a massive cleaver passing through your tummy wasn't a good one.

In the lowest configuration, they wouldn't feel much, and in an average setting, they would feel like someone kicked their stomach.

There is a reason why they call players that have a high pain configuration masochists…

So he looked at the people in front of him, a group of players wearing armor stamped with an emblem, they were all part of the same Guild/Clan/Group.

He opened his mouth, saying, "We have to move." as he scratched his head.

"So soon? The Boss still has a lot of health left… And even for me, I don't think I can tank even a single hit." Said a man with a skinny face in front

'I trained my control for years in the Cyberspace, but there is a limit for how well I can do against that... 3-4 minutes is the most I can last.'

He was wearing heavy armor and holding a tall door shield. He was this party's tank… One of them as there were 5 here.

"Just by taking a look at it… I can safely say that this is an Event and not entirely meant for us to partake in."

"It's likely some sort of community effort, as unless everyone gathers, it won't fall."

The tank shrugged as he said that, waiting for his leader's reply.

"I know, I can see that far, the problem is, whatever it is, we need to get as much of its health down as we can before those Scarlet Bastards come."

"You are the Boss, I just gave you my opinion." The Tank said as he adjusted his helmet

The leader nodded, he perfectly understood his words, so he had to tread lightly…

"Let's move, at least the second phase… Let's go!"

'If we can do that, as long as the Scarlet Clan fails to do the same amount of damage, we'll win in the publicity fight.'

'But we cannot allow them by any means to complete the Raid!'

[Karkavan Warrior Muddan

Challenge Level: 1??-???

*Elite*

*Field Boss*

*Special*

Affected by:

#Vitality Outburst

]

'Just… Why the fuck is such a thing appearing in a beginner Village?!' The man thought to himself as he massaged his head 

He suddenly stopped.

'No… Resko isn't a beginner Village…'

'Yet... How am I supposed to deal with this?!'

He closed his eyes to ponder.

"Stop!"

"Heh?"

Everyone stopped their march.

"We... We're turning back." He said with a dark expression

'Publicity or whatever, it would be too much of a resource waste to fight.'

'If we charge ahead and suffer immense losses, what if the Scarlet Clan decides to just not join? They could use the excuse that it's impossible to challenge it.'

'And if we weaken it significantly to bait them in, then they might pull some of their secret cards to finish it off, and then, they'll take everything...'

'It's better to step back and prevent them from even being able to challenge it, to alter our positions...'

'Because they could be watching us right now!'

"Finally! You're listening to us." Someone said from the side

"We'll stay in the back and wait, see what happens, it won't be too late to join if something happens."

"Didn't you say that might damage our reputation with the players?" Someone asked

"Yes, but only if something good is happening and we step at the wrong time, I won't let that happen…"

But just when everyone was turning back and calling their companions...

"Hum?"

The Tank with the skinny face gazed at the sky, he could see a black figure flying quickly toward them…

He couldn't see very well due to the strong sunlight, so he asked:

"Hey Gum, use your scout Skill to see what's in the sk…"

/BOOM!/

Like a meteor striking the ground, Dale landed in front of the giant, Great Karkavan Warrior!

Fully armored and holding Caladgolg in one hand, and a strange nameless spear in the other, he raised his head to gaze at the masked green creature.

He looked pretty cool.

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