Legends of Orlea

Chapter 18

Zirem felt the hit land before anything. The tail flew back, revealing both the boss' HP and its state. It now looked like a ripped sheet of paper stuck to a spiky wall. It roared, but the tail flew forward again, repeatedly thrashing the cloud of purple mist that was the boss.

The beast screeched, but the tail silenced it for good. Zirem fell to his knees, panting, and the tail retracted. "I... I could do... more..." he managed to get out, until he realised his target was dead. Relief flooded through him. "Wow. How did you do that?"

"I don't know. Anyways, how high are your stats?"

"My lowest is at 967, why?"

"Once all your stats get over 1000, you unlock a special skill. That's how I got this."

"Interesting." Zirem got up painfully, but his legs still shook from both adrenaline and fatigue. Then they failed him, and buckled. He fell with a cry of surprise, but he didn't get up. He lay there, eyes closed, peacefully.

It was as if he hadn't just survived a boss fight on his own. In fact, he probably could have won that alone. However, he still needed a hand to get out of the place. 

-----------1 hour later------------

"Thanks a lot. I didn't know you'd be there so fast; that was amazing!"

"Thanks."

"Are you all healed up? You still look like you were rolling in mud and some of your wounds haven't healed properly."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I added a lot of HP at the beginning of the game, so I'm pretty good. I should be able to fight again soon, but I really need to get more stamina; that thing takes so much!"

"Yeah, but it's very powerful. You were able to take down, in one hit, a whole HP bar!"

"That's true. I can't wait to show this to Akil!" He'd learned that Alicia knew Akil when he'd explained that the blacksmith had helped him defeat Akrolm and that they'd had trouble with it, even with a partner. Alicia had  taken down a powerful boss.

He got up, and sighed. Soon, he'd go back to the frontier as a solo player. He was naturally a bit anti-social, and this game had magnified that feeling, but he actually enjoyed fighting with a friend. It was just a bit relaxing. And even after realising it, he still couldn't bring himself to join a guild.

Groaning, Zirem pondered how he could get himself out of this situation. How did he even become a solo player again? Oh, right. He'd tried to keep a certain guild together, but to do so, he had to leave the relative safety a group gave him.

It was getting to be night, so he decided to get back to his house. When he arrived, Zirem groaned; it was still a mess from when he'd been robbed. It was still pretty messy, but he was too tired to care.

He sunk into his bed, instantly falling asleep. 

The next day was not good. He felt as though all of his muscles had been stretched tight, and he could barely move without grunting. Was this another side-effect of the skill? Moaning, he got up, and thought of taking a bit of a rest. Climbing, climbing, climbing. That was all that they did. Barely anyone was on a floor lower than 50 now, but some had already stopped. The only worry he had was how would he start again?

If he stopped for a day, the next he'd be even more reluctant to clear the floor. He checked his menu, and tried to glean some information on the skill from its description. Instead, he found different types. There was a grid saying Aflune type on top, and with five options beneath it: Fyjune, Edjune, Deijune, Wajune and Kajune. Each had special attribtues that helped them defeat certain types, but would make them vulnerable to another one.