MMORPG: Birth of the World's Luckiest Player-Chapter 171: The Cunning Mist Vultures

There was no time to hesitate.

Marcus watched the Headless Grunts and the Mist Vultures close in from every direction. The courtyard of the Mist Veil Palace felt tighter by the second, thick with drifting pale mist and the promise of violence. He activated Insight at once. Every heartbeat mattered now. The battle had already begun.

—

Headless Grunt

Level: 38

Health: 6,000

Description:

The remains of fallen soldiers abandoned on ancient battlefields. Though their bodies perished, their will to fight never faded. War has consumed their reason, leaving behind nothing but a craving for endless slaughter. They exist only to clash and kill, seeking one final baptism in blood that might elevate them into elite warriors or masters and grant them the glory they were denied in life.

When the heretics of the Mist Veil Palace summoned the Three-Headed Black Dragon Knight, these grunts followed in its wake. Headless and sightless, they neither see nor hear in the ordinary sense. Instead, they perceive through vibration and pressure, sensing enemies by the disturbance of air and ground with eerie precision. Any Invisibility skill below the Advanced tier is useless against them. They stand guard at the gates, charged with awakening the Dragon Knight the instant a worthy foe appears.

Skills:

Triple Strike: Rapidly attacks three times in succession with a chance to stun.

Battle Fervor: Increases Defense and Attack by 10 percent and boosts Attack Speed by 1.

Mist Vulture

Level: 38

Health: 5,000

Description:

When the Mist Veil Palace was sealed by the Boundary Stone Needle, several vultures circling above had been trapped within the barrier. Over time, the palace’s pure negative mists seeped into them, warping their bodies and awakening a strange magical affinity. They became Mist Vultures, creatures capable of wielding wind and fog as weapons.

Skills:

Mist Storm: Conjures a powerful gale of white mist, dealing Wind-element damage with an 80 percent modifier. The swirling fog reduces the target’s accuracy.

Vulture Agility: Increases flight speed by 2 and evasion by 20 percent, allowing swift retreats.

—

Both enemy types were Level 38. Marcus was only Level 30.

Under normal circumstances, that gap alone would have been dangerous. Add the strict time limit hanging over the trial, and it became suffocating. There was no room for cautious probing or drawn-out exchanges. If he faltered even slightly, the entire attempt would collapse.

"Kill!" Marcus roared.

"Dragon-Roar Critical Strike!"

The first Headless Grunt lunged within range. Pebble, his Temple Guardian, urged the Nightmare Dragon Steed forward in a sudden explosive charge. Horse and rider moved as one. Their Bat Dragon Cloud Swords rose in perfect synchrony before crashing down with terrifying force onto the lead grunt.

-7,300! -2,700!

The numbers flashed brilliantly. The Headless Grunt did not even have time to retaliate. A critical hit had triggered, and the combined strike erased it instantly.

Marcus felt the rhythm settle into his bones.

His base attack hovered around 1,200. Dragon-Roar Critical Strike applied a triple damage modifier, and the critical multiplier had pushed the blow into devastating territory. In contrast, these Level 38 monsters could only deal around 120 damage to him per hit.

The gap was not just comfortable; it was overwhelming.

’Perfect,’ he thought, forcing himself to stay measured despite the surge of confidence. ’Keep the tempo steady.’

He advanced methodically, cutting down grunts on the ground while keeping an eye on the circling shadows above. The courtyard gradually filled with falling bodies and dispersing mist. Fortunately, the monsters rushed him the moment they detected his presence. He did not even need to waste time activating Taunt. They came eagerly, almost gratefully, throwing themselves into his blades.

This trial was not merely a test of offense. It demanded defense just as fiercely. Without sufficient survivability, facing seven or eight Level 38 monsters at once would have meant instant death, never mind clearing fifty of them in succession.

In less than ten minutes, the final Headless Grunt fell.

Marcus exhaled slowly and tilted his head upward. About twenty Mist Vultures remained, circling high above the courtyard.

"So that’s how you want to play it," Marcus muttered, squinting at them. "Clever. And cowardly."

Once he had slain thirty of their flock, the remaining vultures had abruptly retreated, climbing higher and higher until they were little more than dark shapes against the pale sky. They ignored his Taunt completely. No matter how he provoked them, they refused to descend.

"Damn it."

He narrowed his eyes, calculating.

How were other Level 30 players supposed to handle this? That altitude was beyond the effective range of most archers and mages. Without a flying mount or at least a high-tier Taunt skill, this stage would be impossible.

The design was ruthless, meant to filter out anyone who lacked the proper tools. If it had been easier, it would never have remained unfinished.

He silently thanked his sister, Amber, for her foresight in returning the Violet Thunderwing Steed to him before he entered the Mist Veil Palace. Without it, he would be standing helplessly below, watching the vultures circle until they eventually triggered the awakening of the Three-Headed Black Dragon Knight.

The thought made him pause.

While clearing the grunts earlier, he had briefly considered letting the quest fail on purpose. Part of him had been tempted. He was curious about the Dragon Knight. Curious enough to want to see it with his own eyes, perhaps even challenge it alone and gamble on a legendary drop.

But curiosity was not worth suicide.

A Dragon Knight would be at least Level 50. A Boss-tier entity. The gap between Level 30 and Level 50 was not a minor difference in stats; it was an entirely different tier of existence. Outside the sealed palace, he might have risked testing the waters, knowing he could retreat if necessary. Here, inside a sealed domain with unknown death penalties, that kind of recklessness would be idiotic. A level reset was not something he could afford.

’Safety first.’

He issued the command. The Violet Thunderwing Steed materialized in a flash of violet light. Pebble mounted up as well. With a sharp whistle, both steeds beat their wings and surged skyward. Goldie, the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King, followed close behind, its dark feathers cutting through the mist.

The Violet Thunderwing Steed was Level 45. At this stage, it actually outperformed his Divine-tier Nightmare Dragon Steed in practical terms. That fact irritated him more than he liked to admit. The Nightmare Dragon Steed had reached Level 25 and still had not learned a single skill. He understood that high-tier mounts and classes progressed more slowly. Amethyst himself had not gained new skills until Level 30. Even so, a sliver of doubt lingered in Marcus’s mind.

Was something wrong with the dragon steed’s growth?

The twenty vultures reacted instantly when they saw him ascending. They activated Vulture Agility and scattered in every direction, breaking formation to avoid direct engagement.

"Cowardly trash," Marcus snapped.

Fortunately, his mount was far faster. The Violet Thunderwing Steed easily outpaced the vultures, closing the distance with ruthless efficiency. A standard Knight would have been completely helpless in this situation, forced to watch as ranged enemies toyed with them from above. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Marcus was not standard.

"Pebble, Goldie, attack!"

"Desperate Strike!"

-6,500! -5,300!

In one smooth motion, Marcus pulled a spare Level 30 weapon from his inventory and hurled it with Desperate Strike. Pebble mirrored him perfectly. At Grandmaster tier, the skill amplified damage fivefold. Even at eighty percent of Marcus’s power, Pebble’s throw was more than enough to obliterate a Mist Vulture’s modest 5,000 health pool.

One sword became two. One skill became twin bursts of overwhelming force.

The damage output was terrifying.

Marcus could not suppress a grin as another vulture plummeted from the sky. Against low-defense bosses with limited health, this technique would be devastating. They might not even realize they were under attack before half their health vanished.

’I really am built to kill bosses,’ he thought. He was a walking factory for top-tier gear.

If Sanctuary Covenant leveled up further and allowed him to summon additional Temple Guardians, his potential would skyrocket. Gold-tier beasts, even Mythic monsters with tens of thousands of health, could be soloed methodically. Divine Beasts were still out of reach. He would need to be at least Level 80 before daring to challenge such entities. But the path forward was clear.

One vulture after another fell in smoking spirals.

Marcus pursued the survivors relentlessly, timing his movements as he waited for the thirty-second cooldown of Desperate Strike to reset. Goldie, though only Level 27, proved why it was a Grade 9 pet. With a sweeping strike of its wings, it intercepted two vultures at once and held its ground against three without faltering.

The vultures had made a fatal mistake when they chose to provoke him.

Within five minutes, the sky above the courtyard was empty. If not for the cooldown on Desperate Strike, the massacre would have ended even sooner.

Marcus hovered in the thinning mist, watching the last traces of white vapor dissolve into nothing.

"In the end, it always comes down to raw power," he said quietly. "Cunning means nothing. Cowardice means nothing. If you do not have the strength to back it up, you are already dead."