Chapter 20: [20] : Stealing the Kill, Player V

The Ashen Bog was completely silent except for the bubbling of the mud.

Gargantua lay face down in the swamp completely paralyzed.

Its massive health bar hovered over its head reading exactly 35,000 points.

The boss’s glowing green eyes twitched frantically.

But its severed spine and crippled legs refused to move.

Caldwell pushed himself up from the mud.

His pristine white suit was ruined and covered in gray sludge.

He looked at the downed World Boss.

Then he looked up at the lone figure in the black coat standing casually on the monster’s back.

Caldwell’s eyes went wide.

He didn’t know who this guy was and he didn’t care.

All he cared about was the health bar.

That’s what his brain was telling him but his body was saying otherwise.

He was actually shivering.

"The boss is stunned!" Caldwell screamed as his voice cracked with desperation.

"It can’t heal! The healing mechanic is broken! Kill it! Steal the kill right now!"

The Sovereign Syndicate scrambled to obey.

Five hundred players snapped out of their shock.

"Mages! Dump your mana!" the raid leader yelled. "Archers, aim for the head!"

Hundreds of glowing magic circles appeared in the air above the guild’s backline.

Fireballs, ice lances, and crackling bolts of purple lightning began to materialize.

The archers pulled back their bowstrings.

The tips of their arrows glowed with armor-piercing enchantments.

They were about to unleash enough damage to wipe out the remaining thirty-five thousand health points in a single massive volley.

If they landed the last hit, the system would award the boss kill and the loot to their guild.

Declan stood on Gargantua’s broad back.

He looked at the massive glowing light show charging up across the mud pit.

"You guys are really slow," Declan noted casually.

He willed the Carnage Cleaver back into his digital storage.

He didn’t need bleed damage for this.

He didn’t need anti-heal anymore.

He just needed pure raw immediate destruction.

He reached out his right hand.

The air distorted heavily as the +10 Dull Warden’s Halberd materialized.

The massive unpolished block of dark iron dropped into his palm with a heavy thud.

Declan gritted his teeth as the eighty-pound weight settled onto his shoulder.

His base strength was still too low to handle the weapon properly.

But he only needed to swing it once.

Across the arena Caldwell slashed his hand downward. "Fire!"

The sky lit up.

Hundreds of spells and arrows launched simultaneously.

They arched through the toxic fog like a localized meteor shower.

They were all aimed directly at Gargantua’s massive head.

They were going to hit in exactly three seconds.

Declan didn’t wait.

He planted his spiked boots firmly into the rotting wood of the boss’s back.

He gripped the leather-wrapped shaft of the halberd with both hands and hauled the massive weapon up over his head.

But he was not going to use only his own force.

"System," Declan thought. "Drop the hammer."

He swung the halberd straight down at the back of Gargantua’s skull.

The instant the weapon started its downward arc, the mutated trait activated.

[Trait: Weight of the Warden triggered.]

The mass of the weapon increased by five hundred percent.

Eighty pounds instantly became four hundred pounds.

Combined with the speed of Declan’s swing, the kinetic energy generated by the blunt axe head defied all standard physics.

The halberd tore through the air creating a visible shockwave of warped pressure.

It sounded like a jet engine breaking the sound barrier.

The blunt edge smashed into the center of the World Boss’s head.

CRACK!

There was no resistance.

The four-hundred-pound kinetic strike didn’t just break the skull.

It completely caved it in.

The rotting wood, iron plates, and fused bone shattered instantly under the impossible force.

Gargantua’s massive head was flattened into the mud.

[Critical Strike! 38,500 Physical Damage dealt!]

It actually damaged passed that number.

The health bar hovering over the boss instantly zeroed out.

Half a second later, the massive barrage of Sovereign Syndicate spells and arrows slammed into the exact same spot.

Fire and ice exploded outward completely engulfing the front half of the boss in a blinding storm of magic.

But it was too late.

The system chime rang out in Declan’s head loud and crystal clear.

[World Boss Gargantua, the Rot-Walker Level 15 Defeated!]

[Experience Points Gained: 150,000]

A cascade of golden light washed over Declan, repeating so fast it looked like a strobe light.

[Level Up!] x6

[You are now Level 12.]

The massive forty-foot corpse beneath Declan’s boots began to dissolve.

Millions of bright blue digital pixels floated up into the toxic fog breaking the boss down into nothingness.

Declan dropped down to the solid mud as the body vanished completely.

Sitting in the mud perfectly clean and glowing with a soft authoritative light were two items.

Declan knelt down and picked them up.

The first was a heavy perfectly smooth block of black obsidian.

It pulsed with a faint purple energy that felt warm to the touch.

[Item: Sanctum Core]

↳ Tier: Sovereign

↳ Description: The administrative key to a region. Planting this core into the earth will generate a one-kilometer permanent Safe Zone dome. Monsters cannot enter or perceive the area within. The owner of the core holds absolute administrative rights over the zone’s entry and physics.

"Hello, real estate," Declan smiled.

He immediately tossed it into his inventory.

He looked at the second item.

It was a sleek dark silver ring with a small swirling black gemstone set in the center.

It looked like a tiny galaxy trapped in glass.

[Item: Ring of the Void-Hoarder]

↳ Tier: Mythic 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

↳ Stats: Agility +20, Intelligence +10.

↳ Passive: Expands digital inventory space by 500 slots. Items placed inside weigh absolutely nothing.

Declan slipped the ring onto his right index finger.

He felt the massive stat boost instantly.

He was lighter and faster, and his mind felt sharper.

A Mythic drop on the first day of the Grid was the kind of luck normal players killed for.

Suddenly a massive deafening bell chimed across the entire sky.

It wasn’t just in the Ashen Bog.

This bell rang across every single sector ringing loudly in the minds of millions of players simultaneously.

A massive golden holographic banner unrolled across the bruised purple clouds.

[Global Server Announcement!]

[The Level 15 World Boss, Gargantua, has been slain!]

[First Boss Kill registered to hidden alias: Player V]

[The path to survival is open.]

Across the Grid absolute chaos erupted.

Guilds that were currently organizing raids stopped in their tracks.

Solo players stared at the sky in shock.

Someone had already killed the World Boss? The game had barely started!

Back in the Ashen Bog the smoke from the magical barrage finally cleared.

Caldwell stood at the edge of the crater.

He stared at the empty patch of mud where the boss used to be.

He stared at the golden words fading in the sky.

Then he looked at Declan.

The guy in the black coat was just standing there adjusting his new silver ring.

Caldwell’s face turned violently red.

The veins in his neck bulged.

He had spent millions of real-world dollars setting up this guild.

He had paid for the best gear, hired the best players, and orchestrated a massive meat-shield strategy just to secure that Sanctum Core.

And some random guy had just walked in, hit the boss with a stick, and put the core in his pocket.

"You," Caldwell whispered, his voice trembling with sheer unadulterated rage.

Declan looked up.

He gave Caldwell a lazy two-finger salute.

"Thanks for the leash job. You guys really softened him up for me."

Caldwell completely lost his mind.

"Kill him!" Caldwell shrieked, pointing both hands at Declan.

"I don’t care about his defense! I don’t care what level he is! Lock down the perimeter! Block the exits! Nobody teleports out of here! Peel that coat off his dead body and get me my Core!"

Five hundred Sovereign Syndicate members drew their weapons.

The mages began to aggressively chant, setting up spatial lock wards to prevent any standard escape skills.

Declan looked at the massive army bearing down on him.

He wasn’t going to fight five hundred guys.

He was overpowered but he wasn’t stupid.

It was time to leave.