*Thud* *Thud*


    The golem strode towards Steve intending to kill him. His heavy steps sinking within the desert sands.


    "I am pretty fucked up."


    How was he supposed to fight this thing now that his stats were a measly 30? His Dark Berserk skill was already exhausted and was on a cool down.


    Even utz who had his stats nearing 50 had to use traps to demolish this monstrosity. It was not a foe that was meant to be defeated by the newbies, rather it was supposed to be the guardian of the portals that prevented participants from passing to the next ind.


    And fair enough from the very beginning, Steve was stuck on this ind which had the desert biosphere. He was lucky enough to spawn in front of a small water spring to restore his water reserves but that was it. With open vast stretches of sand, it was far easier to spot others and kill. This was by far the best ind out of the four when ites to killing others.


    [Kills: 48]


    "With so many kills, what would be the point if I die here?"


    Steve had bathed himself in blood as he was first killed and he strode through the dead bodies. He was always a weirdo whose actions made little sense. Even his killing meant little sense, all he had in his mind was the ''prize for most kills''.


    He was no sadist and had no intention to kill people. But with this quest, he killed as if he was popping soap bubbles in a childish race as to who would pop more.


    But, unlike utz who was only aiming for the prize of thest survivor, he was someone who chose to try a hand for both the prizes.


    Everything was going well until he met this golem. Being already exhausted from the 48 kills he had little hope of beating this guy.


    But his brainstorming somehow got him an answer.


    "Wait, there is also that thing left!"


    He opened his status screen.


    Name: Steve Larrison


    ss -> Dark Berserker


    Strength: 33  Agility: 26


    Stamina: 29  Defence: 27


    [Devil''s Aura: 20]


    Devil''s Aura, was a weird and new stat he had got. It had started with 10 but Steve realized that drinking monster blood had a rare chance of increasing it. He was not sure what the odds were though.


    The weird part was that drinking blood didn''t faze him. Steve was indeed a weirdo.


    Why did he even drink monster blood? Of course back at the tutorial zone, when his water supplies had run out he had drunk it. Blood was half water anyway. [1]


    Not only him, but many were also dying out of thirst and followed his example no matter how weird it was, only to throw up the blood in disgust. Those who were desperate enough to gulp it down… half of them ended up with stomach aches. The trick was to allow the blood to coagte first before drinking.


    But s there were no monsters at this stage. But even in this extreme desert, he had refrained from cannibalism. That was the little bit of morality he would like to keep to himself. Instead, he had relied on his own shit to survive in the desert.


    Steve had yet to find out that independent of his research utz and Selena had found a different way of increasing this mysterious stat which they probably won''t want to share. He had no one to do it with anyway. The girls thought of him as aplete weirdo making his score a big zero in all of their eyes.


    Simrly, utz had never resorted to drinking blood. He had the [Adam''s Ale] which gave him 10L of water every day. So he never got to know of this method Steve had discovered.


    If Steve had found gluttony, he had found lust... were there more to be discovered? [2]


    "If I use this, I might have some chance against the beast!" he imed. And Steve had some ideas on how to use this mysterious stat.


    "Unleash the Devil''s Aura!"


    ***


    *Thud*


    The golem copsed and utz fell to his butt taking deep breaths as he panted for air. The fight was long and exhrating and utz could feel his blood boil. What''s more? This was the first golem that utz had defeated without using any traps… indeed he had reserved the traps for n B.


    [Congrattions!]


    [You have defeated the guardian golem of the Ind of Teerh]


    [Greatest contributor: utz]


    [Prize: Bracelet of Fortification]


    [Golem''s core]


    "Here catch this," utz threw the bracelet of fortification to Verona. utz already had the [Death Worms Breastte] and the [Bracelet of Fortification] for his defence. He didn''t need another one, especially considering that the effects didn''t stack.


    But seeing utz pass it onto Verona, Selena could one pout as the bracelet had romantic importance for her so much so that whenever she remembers it, it had caused her to blush. She had received a simr bracelet from utz and didn''t want Verona to receive one.


    ''Idiot!'' she screamed in her mind.


    *Crack* *Crack*


    The portal to the next ind opened up as it shot a yellowish re above that touched the heavens. It was the portal to the fourth ind, the ind which had only dunes and sandhills to showcase.


    "Three down, one more left," utz mumbled in his breath as he looked at the distant fourth ind. That was where he had to go, his final destination.


    But much to his dismay almost as soon as he ended his little reminder, another yellow light flickered and shot from the adjacent ind, the fourth ind, as it touched the skies.


    utz''s jaws fell ck in shock. His incredulous stare refused to move from the far away portal.


    ''Someone just defeated the golem of the fourth ind!''


    utz couldn''t believe his eyes. He didn''t even refrain from giving his eyes a rub and looking at it again. Now, four different yellow portal lights had shot to the sky which marked the defeat of all four golems.


    ***


    Author:


    [1] Here''s the big reveal for those who wanted to know.


    [2] Guess what it might be.