The team continued grinding along the path, and as their coordination improved, so did their pace. The rest of the Rare Wood set gradually dropped, chest piece, leggings, shoulders, gloves, and boots. The set bonus was indeed impressive, adding 150 points of physical defense and 100 of magical defense. Wearing the full set, Dust’s HP had climbed to 3,900. After they finished clearing the tree spirits, three pieces of a second Rare Wood set had even dropped, leaving only the shoulders and boots missing.

Cappuccino immediately swapped into more than half of the new gear.

Everyone’s levels had shifted. The two mercenaries had reached Level 20, Bernita was 19, Don and Lily had both climbed to 21, and Diana was sitting comfortably at 23, though she was clearly close to leveling again.

Just as they reached the end of the open forest, a tree spirit appeared in the middle of the road, its entire body shrouded in wisps of wind-like energy. This one was smaller than the others, only about Bernita’s height, and at first glance no different from the rest. But its attributes were something else.

[Wind Tree Spirit Kirby — Normal Boss]

[Level 25 ]

[HP: 500,000]

[ATK: 900–1,200]

[PDEF: 600]

[MDEF: 600]

[Skills: Combo, Whip, Rapid Whip]

Dust swallowed hard. "Dungeon boss attack power really is something else."

Diana drew her longsword. "I’ll tank. Bernita, heal me."

Bernita nodded. In terms of equipment quality, the beautiful swordswoman was the better choice. With her holding aggro, the pressure on Bernita’s healing would be much lower.

Wind Tree Spirit Kirby reacted quickly. The moment Diana closed within ten meters, it let out a hissing screech and charged straight at her, raising a withered branch and slashing at her armor.

Diana wasn’t a wooden statue. With a graceful arc, she circled around to its flank, her longsword flashing red as she struck.

[Heaven and Earth Strike, 4,032!]

No one was surprised anymore. The beautiful swordswoman’s casual dominance had become routine over the course of the trip.

Diana flicked her sword and called out lazily, "Little Don, stop slacking. Time to deal damage."

"On it!"

Don dashed in, his entire body emitting a red glow as he moved. Killing Intent. Then a Backstab tore straight into Kirby’s back.

[Critical, 6,482!]

Diana smiled faintly. "Not bad. Damage is decent."

Don wiped his brow. "Teacher Diana, hold the aggro steady. Otherwise I’m dead."

"Hehe. Don’t worry."

As she spoke, her longsword traced a beautiful horizontal V in front of the boss.

[1,209!]

[1,304!]

Goaded by the opening flurry, Wind Tree Spirit Kirby went berserk, its two withered branches lashing at Diana’s chest five times in rapid succession.

[209!]

[240!]

[205!]

[209!]

[Critical, 424!]

After five hits, she had lost a quarter of her HP. But Diana didn’t trouble Bernita with it. She simply pulled out a low-grade alchemist’s potion and downed it.

Once the situation stabilized, the two mercenaries and Lily began their attacks. Their team was already stacked with top-tier players in decent gear, especially Dust, who had just swapped into a full Rare Wood set and was dealing absurd damage.

Kirby’s attack power was ridiculous against Don, but it was nothing for Diana in her exquisite metal armor. Her HP stayed safely at 80 percent throughout.

Don remained cautious, especially as the boss’s HP dropped below 40 percent. He switched to the Larsel Bow and pulled back, attacking from range. Bosses had a common trait: they tended to randomly shift aggro once their HP hit certain thresholds.

Sure enough, when its HP neared 30 percent, the giant tree spirit boss went berserk, glowing an eco-friendly fluorescent green and letting out a low roar.

[System: Wind Tree Spirit Kirby has triggered Berserk, ATK and ATK speed +50% for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, Kirby will enter a weakened state with all attributes reduced by 30%]

A boss going berserk was always disgusting. But the fact that it didn’t generate random aggro was a stroke of luck. Kirby was attacking faster now, its Rapid Whip was nearly impossible for Diana to dodge, and each hit shaved off about five hundred HP. Bernita kept healing methodically, only her arm movements growing visibly faster.

Diana’s HP hovered around 60 percent, neither rising nor falling significantly. But Cappuccino’s loose tongue almost ruined everything.

"Thank goodness this guy was kind enough not to deliver a fatal blow," he said, wiping his sweat.

The instant the words left his mouth, Kirby spun around and slammed a withered branch into his chest, sending the agile mercenary flying five or six meters.

[Critical, 2,304!]

Just as everyone was about to laugh, Kirby’s aggro went haywire, and it charged straight at Bernita.

Don knew immediately something was wrong. He moved to block Bernita’s path, suddenly activated Evasion, and as the withered branch hand swept harmlessly past him, he shoved Bernita backward and bolted in the opposite direction.

At that moment, Diana arrived like cavalry, her longsword glowing bright red. She slashed diagonally at the Wind Tree Spirit. It was time for the mature swordswoman to put on a show.

[Critical, 9,904!]

Don gasped. "Wow! That almost broke ten thousand!"

Dust kept his head clear despite the chaos. He quickly moved to flank the boss, and the two of them naturally formed a protective barrier in front of the squishier members.

Lily, meanwhile, was a little dumbfounded. Her impression of boss battles was still stuck in the NES era. She held her crossbow loose at her side and stared blankly at the chaos.

"Lily, you stupid girl, stop watching and get over here!" Don snapped.

Lily finally snapped out of it, her face flushed, and pulled the trigger. "Waaah! I was so nervous, I was just watching you guys."

"It’s fine. Once you’ve killed more than ten bosses and cleared five dungeons, you’ll have experience. People are made through practice."

"Brother Don, I really think you’re a master."

"What kind of master? At best, I’m just an old hand."

But Diana chose that exact moment to chime in, "Stop trying to fool the kid, Star."

Cappuccino was astonished. "Star? Sister Diana, you’re saying Don is Star?"

A chill ran down Don’s spine. How did Diana know his old ID from Battle Online? He hadn’t been particularly famous in that era. And given her usually mature, steady personality, why would she expose his real identity right now?

Cappuccino glanced at Don with a look that was almost reverential. "Let’s take down this boss first. I’ll worship the god afterward."

Dust and Bernita were both completely bewildered, while Lily was essentially oblivious to everything happening around her.

Don just smiled faintly and kept dealing damage.

The three-minute berserk made Kirby genuinely powerful, like a donkey on Viagra. But when it expired, the boss completely fell apart. With all attributes reduced by 30 percent, it couldn’t even scratch the three armored players, let alone hurt Don.

The previously busy Bernita finally got to rest, a mischievous smile on her face as she unleashed a Sea Breeze that ripped two thousand HP from the boss in one shot. Lily, meanwhile, got incredibly lucky and landed a knockdown shot, her arrow struck the joint where the boss’s withered branch met its body, severing the limb cleanly.

Kirby let out a wail and collapsed, its body crumbling into a pile of debris.

A golden light erupted from Diana, propelling her to Level 24. Bernita reached Level 20. The others didn’t level, but they all gained a substantial chunk of experience.

Lily couldn’t stop grinning. "Hehe! My experience bar jumped 51 percent! Don, how much did you get?"

"Thirty-five."

"Huh? Didn’t you set the experience to even split? Why do I have so many more points than you?"

"Because the player who lands the killing blow on a boss gets an extra experience bonus. Fifty percent more."

"Hehe! I’m starting to fall in love with bosses."

"Alright everyone, let’s sweep the loot."

Cappuccino raised a hand. "Wait a moment. I have something to ask Don."

"Cappuccino, you’re dwelling too much on the past." Don walked over to the boss’s corpse, trying to change the subject. "Hey, there’s a lot of good stuff here."

"Under the bright stars, during the heyday of the Family era, there was a mage whose skills ranked in the top five of Battle Online. Proficient in both water and fire magic, with exceptional positioning. He repeatedly staged victories against overwhelming odds on the US-Mexican border. On October 1, 2997, in the final battle of Battle Online, he defeated the Demon Lord Airoshu with a single Fireball. After that, his whereabouts became unknown."

It seemed Cappuccino knew Don’s history very well.

Dust was now staring at Don as if he were some kind of mad scientist.

"My idol," he murmured almost reverently.

Don looked at Diana with an innocent expression. "Sister Diana, why did you tell them? Why bring up my old identity? That’s all in the past now."

Diana smiled and said nothing, but a private message slid into Don’s chat window. "Don, Reincarnation is a good team. All three core members are good people."

Don understood her meaning. Sword Song and Reincarnation were drawing closer now, and they might even form an alliance in the future. With his reputation, if he joined Reincarnation, he’d inevitably become one of their key players. But he hadn’t considered that at all right now.

"Sister Diana, I’m working as a trainee at a studio at the moment. I’ll only consider invitations from other guilds if the studio doesn’t hire me on permanently."

She seized the opportunity. "And if the studio doesn’t hire you, would you come to Sword Song?"

To be honest, Diana gave the impression of being a very approachable older sister. Sword Song Cloud Wind and Sword Song Ice Condensation also seemed decent people. For a professional player, having a seat on the Sword Song team would be a significant honor.

But Don wasn’t particularly keen. "Well, I’ll have to think about it."

"You’re a bit different from most. If it were anyone else, they’d be overjoyed."

"You wouldn’t have said that to anyone else."

They looked at each other and smiled, neither pursuing the topic further. For two people who weren’t entirely naive, there was no need to spell everything out.