Infinite Realm

(AN: I discovered that I hadn't really completed 65. Its now complete. Sorry for that...)

What do you do when you encounter a boss level monster far stronger than you? Retreat.

What do you do then if retreating is out of the option? Fight? Against a high-level monster? No. Simple. You shower the boss with a lot of friendly explosives...

This has been Fudo's motto in most of the PTW games and in games where real money can't be use to buy resources, he spends his in-game money the same way.

Back at Grynx Merchandise store, Sato and Fudo had spent a combined 40 silver coins and 80 copper coins not just on materials but also consumables. They had originally planned to buy equipment but thanks to their gains from the Rare-Steel chest back at the Mansion, they didn't need to.

Supposing they spent half of their money on materials, that leaves them with 20 silver coins and 40 copper coins. If they were to purchase a few edible consumables for food for example a loaf of bread which costs 3 copper coins, 1 Silver coin would be more than enough for them. That means that a staggering amount of 19 silver coins and 40 copper coins were spent on just health potions, Mana potions, scrolls and explosives. If we once again presume that they used half of the money on potions, that left behind at least 9 silver coins and 70 copper coins. A [Simple explosive] that deals an accurate 50 damage points costs only 10 copper coins. With just 5 silver coins, one could buy enough [Simple explosives] to wipe out the entirety of the one-horned troll's HP bar.

Even though Sato and Fudo didn't spend that much only on [Simple Explosives], they did spend it on various other consumables that all produced a similar result, that is dealing damage.

Sato and Fudo spaced themselves apart. Since Fudo was a long-range player and he also experienced a boost when using fire-type spells, he attacked with a mix of his spells and consumables. Sato in the other hand wasn't a long-range player. In other to make up for this, he relied on certain control scrolls and consumables to make you for his weakness.

If they had just relied on their consumables though, they would eventually expend them pointlessly so most of the times, Fudo was tasked with the major role of damage dealing while Sato would sometimes act as a false MT to keep the troll away from Fudo.

Even without the explosives, Fudo's damage dealing ability was very high and might as well be the among the top 10 for Riverdale Town's players. With an Upper tier Mortal rank equipment that granted him +10 [Intelligence] and +20 [Magical Attack Power], Fudo could easily solo the one-horned troll however he didn't risk it. Due to the fact that they had no MT together with the one-horned troll's superior stats in the physical area, Fudo would be dead the very second it recahed him. Nonetheless, using consumables on it was still an overkill, one which Fudo found refreshing.

Of course, part of the reason why they didn't use their superior attributes to battle was because Sato intended for them to hide it from the other players. When in the presence of unfamiliar possible enemies, any hidden card is a trump card.

Because of their tactic of moving the one-horned troll away from the others, they were already at least 20 metres from their initial starting point.

"They seem to be doing well." Kylian smiled bitterly.

He had seen Chesces somewhat shocked while staring at another direction.

Kylian was initially surprised to see their captain stunned in mid battle and so he did the same. Upon looking over to where his captain was staring, Kylian understood why. While they were still suffering with their  own one-horned troll, even before East Crow teamed up with them, Sato and Fudo were almost done with their's.

"It's better that way." Chesces replied before focusing back at the battle in front.

'We just have to be done with ours.'

. . . . .

"Fudo, shield." Sato yelled a she ran towards the one-horned troll.

"[Fireball]" Fudo pointed his staff at the one-horned troll and quickly fired a shot at it.

[-41 ]  (One-horned troll 127/500)

33 damage points for a single [Fireball]. Such figures were ok for an ordinary player as the [Fireball] spell only had 100% of one's [Magical Attack Power] as damage. If you consider that it was Fudo who had used the skill then it was pitifully low. Fudo had an [Intelligence] count of 13 points plus an extra 10 points and 20 points in [Magical Attack Power]. In total, Fudo's average [Magical Attack Power] was capped at 89 points. If he were to use a Fire-type spell, an increase of 30% would occur, making the total [Magical Attack Power]  become 116 points[1]. If Fudo were to use skills like [Greater Fireball] or even [Fire Ray], everything would be over in 4-5 moves at most.

Infinite Realm pursued perfection. Because of this, it was possible for a player to hold back in their attack in such a way that the spell would still succeed but it would be weaker than normal. Fudo had discovered this feature when he was out practicing on his own. He used it to perfectly hide his OP damage skill from the others excluding Sato, who already knew about it.

"Let's finish this."

As the one-horned troll was on it's last leg, Sato ran towards it, this time with the intent to finish it off before it can go berserk. If Rome could lose against the Carthaginians despite having the numbers advantage, then things might as well not go as Sato planned.

As Sato was running, he sensed a malicious gaze focused on him. He didn't know what or who it was, but the gaze made him freeze. In the presence of this gaze, Sato flt as if all his is secrets were made open for view, with his thoughts being accessible to it. Sato felt like feeble and lacking in its presence. Like an ant before a dragon, he felt that the difference between them was insurmountable.

[Gaze of a god]…

Sato felt like he was in a quagmire as he couldn't take a single step forward. He felt his brain slowly become muddled as his thinking slowed down. Sato felt weary and slowly but surely, he was being drained of his strength. As if he had experienced a thousand years in solitude, Sato felt that life was boring and tiring, and so wanted to close his eyes and take a rest.

"Sa...Sat...Sato. Sato! Sato!"

Suddenly he heard someone calling his name. It was initially faint but Sato hanged on to that voice. As he did so, it became louder and using it, Sato quickly recovered only to see a green flaming ball heading his way. He didn't even have enough time to ponder about the prior event before being forced to a corner.

"Sato, Dodge!" Fudo yelled as he tried to keep the one-horned troll away from him. Fudo was shocked when he saw Sato suddenly freeze for no reason but he was still filled with relief when he saw Sato awaken from his trance.

Even if Fudo didn't yell, Sato wouldn't have stood still, idle and waiting for death. Relying on his expert skills, Sato rapidly reacted and jumped away from the green flaming ball's trajectory.

Once he landed, Sato swiftly stood up and stared at the direction the green fireball came from. Right there, about 20 metres away from him, was a 5 foot creature with its green eyes staring back at him.

"You are not allowed to kill my pets in my presence."

AN :

[1] The Heaven System approximates once the decimal is at 7. So 1.7 becomes 2 but 1.6 remains 1. Yes, it doesn't coincide with what they taught you in Maths...

[2] Croesus : Rich man. You can browse the history of the real Croesus. I used the word Croesus' here to imply a gaming style of playing by paying.. You just buy the OP stuffs and beat everyone without any real effort.