《The Summoner of Cuties (Indefinite Hiatus)》 AXIS Online It is the year 2207, Technology had improved greatly solving many problems like global warming and free, renewable energy. However, this was not important. Instead it was the evolution of VR technology, compared to the original products like the Ocul** Rif* or the HT* Viv*, It improveed by leaps and bounds. Instead of helmets, there were VR pods which allowed the body to fully experience an alternate reality. Here the story of a legend began, where one truly learns not ot judge a book by its cover. It was a hot summer afternoon, as our hero of the story can be seen waiting in line under the sweltering heat. It''s been several hours since he lined up and he was getting closer to the end. His name is Aris, and he is currently suffering,but it will all be worth it once he gets AXIS Online, the newest VR game that released today. After several more minutes, he had made it to the counter and ordered one copy of AXIS Online,once he got what he wanted he left the store happily "Finally!", he thought, "I could play this game." He had been thinking about this game ever since it came out. It boasts a 97% realism rate and promises a rewarding experience. However, this was not the greatest aspect of the game, instead it was the world that inhabits this game, Axis. It is incredibly vast and contains monsters of all kinds. Every myth and legendexisted this world from dragons to nine tailed foxes. It was the first of its kind to house multiple fantasies and that was what made it exciting. Furthermore, there was only the one world,which meant that players from all over the world will be put into one giant server. Unfortunately, they will be starting within their respective mythologies before exploring the rest of what this game had to offer. He saved upas muchmoney as possible to get the latest VR Pod to play this once it was announced. Unfortunately, He had a job working at a convenience store. Knowing that it wouldn''t be enough to pay for it fully, and he borrowed from some loan sharks. They were the only ones willing to bring out the huge amount of cash but if he couldn''t repay it all, it''s safe to say that he won''t have a good ending. However, with AXIS Online, he could sell items from the game tomake enough moneyand if he got lucky he might not have to work at all. This was his plan as well as his goal. Arin finallyarrived home to his little apartment and saw the pod in his living room already installed, waiting to be used. He quickly put the game in and booted it up, he entered the pod and put on his helmetm waiting impatiently. Then he heard the magical words. "Welcome to AXIS Online! Please choose your name and create your character", said the female announcer. He calmed down and thought for a bit until he finally thought of a name. "Argus", he said. "Name Taken" "What? Uh...Argus1234?" "Name Taken" "Oh my god! what the hell? How about Lord Rainbow then?" Arin said jokingly. "Name approved, Hello and welcome, Lord Rainbow", said the game announcer. "DAMNIT, YOU''RE KIDDING ME!" Arin tried to change it but he was unable too, a game flaw no doubt, but he could only sigh in sadness. He went to the character creation menu and started making someone that he thought looked cool. It took a little over an hour but by the end of it, Hecreated a white haired young man who had a handsome face, his character was quite slim but there was a bit of muscle there. He gave his character sharp features and tried to make it look like a hero. It was perfect...except for the name but he couldn''t do a thing about it. Arin wasn''t quite handsome himself but he was decent looking, his features were somewhat average but he had a calm set eyes and quite a serious demeanor. His body waspretty muscular due to the fact that he liked weightlifting just as much as gaming. He would play warrior all the time but he soon go tired of it and went onto other classes.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He went to the class selection menu and looked through all of the classes. AXIS Online had over 10 classes ranging from adventurer types to lifestyle types like cooking, apothecary, etc. Of course there were the main 5 classes: Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Assassin, and Priest.Furthermore, once you get into the game, you have to ability to choose a sub-class after a certain milestone. After looking through, he went straight to summoner. This was a bit of a dream for him.Hefantasizedabout all of the cool pets he could havewhen he selected this option. After going through everything and making sure that all was in order, he finally entered the game! A bright light entered his sight as he squinted trying to see what was ahead of him. Then it stopped and he finally saw the world of AXIS. It was beautiful and full of nature, words could not express the amount of detail went into it. All matter of beasts moved around him as the sun shined brightly. A gentle breeze carressed him as he absorbed this sight. Hestartedwalking down a little road until he saw a small village with an old man waiting for him. There were other players there but it wasn''t that crowded. This might seem weird considering the enormous amount of people whoare currentlyplaying but there was a reason for this. The company, GGNORE had prepared for the incoming population, creating multiple mini-servers so that no one village would have too many players. However, once the tutorial stage was done, these players would be transfered to the main server. Arin inspected himself before entering the village. He had some villager clothes and a wooden stick as his weapon. He also pulled up his character menu, it was a clear but had a blue hue to it and showed his basic stats along with his character and equipment slots. Lord Rainbow (Level 1) HP:100 MP:100??????? Equipment: STR:5?????ATK:1(+ 2)? Sad StickLvl 1 (ATK +2) DEX:3???? DEF:1(+ 5)??Cloth Shirt Lvl 1 (DEF +3) MAG:8???? SPD:3??? Cloth Pants Lvl 1 (DEF +1) WIS:7??????????? Straw Shoes Lvl 1 (DEF +1) CHR:5 There were unique icons to symbolize the equipment and an overview of his character wearing it. Furthermore there were several empty slots, which are 4 accessory slots, a mount slot, a cape slot, a helmet slot, as well as a off-hand slot for equiping shields and other weapons. The icons had a white border to symbolize it''s rarity. In terms of rarity, the colors are white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, and finally rainbow where white = common, green = uncommon, blue = rare, purple = epic, orange = hero, red = legendary, and rainbow = mythical. Unfortunately for Arin, he only had the standard crappy gear. In addition, there was a tab on the top of the menu that is meant for pets. On this section,Arinsees the empty stats of his non-existent pet/s as well as their abilities. Arin''sphysical stats were somewhat low while his magic stats were higher but that was to be expected as he had chosen a magic class. He only had 3 skills: Summon(Lvl 1), Strengthen(Lvl 1), Weaken(Lvl 1). Other than these three skills, he only had his normal basic attack with the stick. As for these skills, he could only summon low level creatures while the other two were used for support as they could buff his summoned monsters and debuff his enemies. Each class had a special class skill, these skills were akin to upgrades and were only used whenever they go through a class upgrade or meet some special circumstances. All classes except for the summoner had the option to add effects to their skills such as making it aoe or a stun, etc. This leads to a extremely unique and diverse skill system where everyone had their own playstyle. They could be a glass cannon warriordealing tons of damage but easily killed with a single tap. They could be a healer who deals more damage than they could heal. They could choose anything. For lifestyle classes, They will gain a permanent bonus buff that allows the products that they make to gain an extra buff. In other words, food made by cooks will have more buffs to it, the armor that player make may also gain an extra stat or effect. Thus the things that they make will havea qualitative improvement. However the summoner was different, instead of changing up their skills, they could summon a monster and contract with it, thus they could have more than 1 pet. These contracted monsters stay with them forever. Although, the summoner could not have any skills unique to themselves, with enough chances they could have a whole squad of monsters that could easily replace the roles of tanks, danage dealers, etc. This was the skill thatArin was most excited for as he could already have a contracted monster the moment he entered the game. Immediately, he began to summon his first contracted monster. A grand summoning circle appeared under him as he continued his chant. No one had really noticed the commotion as there were also other summoners doing the same. Suddenly thunder and lightning crashed down onto the circle and everyone looked at Arin as he summoned, curious as to what creature could cause this commotion. As more lightning crashed down, a creatue could be seen on the circle. Then the spell ended with a big explosion and a cloud of dust covered the beast. Arin had finished the spell and waited in anticipation. As the dust cleared up he saw the creature in the middle of the rubble. He couldn''t believe his eyes, instead of an amazing creature like a giant wolf or dragon it was a...cute, little turtle. "You have got to be kidding me?" he thoughtwitha dead look on his face. A Goddamn Turtle After all of that commotion, he summoned a turtle. A normal green turtle that waddled towards him, letting out a quite yelp. What was he going to do with a turtle? Then a notification popped up. "Please name your contracted beast." Arin didn''t know what else to do. He didn''t want this turtle, he wanted anything else but this turtle. With frustration in his heart, he chose kept with the cute theme of his name and named his pet. "Tuttles", he said. It was great now. He was a summoner named, "Lord Rainbow" and he had a pet turtle named, "Tuttles." Arin couldn''t wait to make some friends like this. After sulking a bit, He decided to open up the menu and at least hope that Tuttle''s stats were good. However... Tuttles Level 1 (Female) HP:100 MP:50 ATK:1 DEF:5 MAG:1 SPD:1 Skill: Defensive Stance(DMG taken decreases by 50%, however target is unable to move), Bite(A normal bite) "Oh my god", he thought as he looked through the menu. These stats were bad, very bad, even worse than his stats. The only thing Tuttles was good for was soaking damage. As a person who didn''t have much offensive power, Arin was pretty screwed. His onlyform of damagewas in his right hand, a sad stick. As sad as he was, he could only accept this and went to the village. "Maybe, I might not need Tuttles to complete these quests", he thought, walking into the village. Itwas small, but had a very relaxing aura. There were small, cute houses everywhere along with a couple of shops that sold miscellaneous items. Both NPCs and players moved around, going aout their day. As he walked through, he saw other summoners with their pets. Some of them had foxes, wolves, birds. One of them even had a baby dragon and all he got was a turtle. He held his hopes high though,she was his first pet and as useless as Tuttles was, she was pretty cute. He walked to the old man and accepted his first quest. The old man introduced himself as the village chief and explained that winter was coming, so they must hunt more monsters to stock up on food and materials to last them the season. According to him, there were some wolves in the eastern part of the forest that Arin could kill for their pelts. Suddenly, quest notification popped up. "Kill 10 wolves and collect their pelts, then explore the forest and forage for edible plants! Difficulty:C Reward:20 copper coins and your choice of a sword/dagger/staff" Quests have a difficulty rating of F to SSS. Furthermore, this game does not give the same quests to everyone, instead it was randomized so that every player could have their own unique experience. The difficulty rate washighand despite the utterly small chances he had, he could only accept it. However, the game was not that cruel, if a quest is deemed too difficult for someone, they would often alter it to make it a bit easier. In this case, Arin was given 50 copper coins by the village chief to start out. This was a big advantage as players started out with no money at all. After accepting, he planned on how he would complete this quest and decided to explore the village, seeing if there was anything he could buy to help him. After all, he wasn''t going to just run in blind. Arin needed a plan.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. As he walked around, people saw him with his turtle on his head. While some people thought it was cute, many others ridiculed him and pointed. Arin could only ignore this and entered what looked like the general store. At first glance, there were no special items. Instead of potions, food was sold as a support item. Drinks like fruit juices recovered HP and MP, while food gave temporary buffs. The prices ranged from 1 copper coin to 15 copper coins. After thinking about it, he bought 5 bottles of apple juice which recovers 15 HP, 5 bottles of grape juice that recovers 10 MP, and a sandwich which grants a recovery buff, healing 5 HP a second for 10 seconds. He paid a total of 25 copper coins and left, heading for the weapons shop. As he walked, he examined his inventory. There were 40 slots in his bag and now 3 slots were taken. When he entered, he was greeted by a muscular man with his arms crossed, waiting for customers. There was a tough look on his face as he stared at him. Albeit a little disturbed, Arin ignored the shopkeeper and started perusing the weapons. Of all the things he saw, he could only afford a wooden shield, which unfortunately was useless to him and he left the store empty handed. As he wandered the streets, he noticed a little rundown stall. There was a woman behind it, organizing her items. While she wasn''t gorgeous, she wasn''t exactly ugly. She had long blonde hair and wore a simple dress. But the most intersting part was that she had scars on her arms. They were huge and couldn''t befrom any thing small. Arin approached the stall and started looking at these items. Most of them were useless as they were too old and very fragile. However, he noticed a bunch of pages that were stacked messily and looked at it. "Repelling Stance: A defensive stance that covers the its target in an aura of spikes, it will both mitigate damage and return part of the damage that is dealt to the target. Requirements: Must Have Defensive Stance" "It''s a skill book!" he thought. While each class has their own set of skills, those were only the core skills, there were many other skills in the form of skill books that were scattered all over the world. Of course, these skills cannot be so easily learned and often had harsh requirements. As for this one, no one but Arin could fulfill this skill''s requirements. While he didn''t have this skill, Tuttles did and he immediately asked the ownerfor the price. She looked at him and said, "50 coppers" Arin only had 25 and he did not know how he would come up with theextracopper coins, he asked her if there was a way to getthe skill for 25 copper. The stall owner saw his pleading look and then replied, "If you really want this skill, then catch 5 rabbits for me and you can have it for 25 copper. ITs going to be winter soon, and unfortunately, I am in no shape to hunt myself" A quest notification popped up. "Get 5 Rabbits and the owner will give you the skill Repelling Stance! Difficulty:E Reward:Repelling Stance " Arin accepted the quest and immediately headed off to find some rabbits. He soon found a clearing with some players and a fair amount of rabbits and beganchasing afterthem. The only problem was...he had no way of capturing them. The rabbits were too fast for him and Tuttles. He decided to look at one of the rabbits and saw its stats. Rabbit Level 1 HP:15 MP:10 ATK:0 DEF:0 MAG:0 SPD:6 It was faster than both of them but at least they could not attack.With no choice he summoned a monster to aid him. The skill took half of his MP and he managed to summon a slime, which unfortunately...was slow too. Arinwas frustrated. "If only I had a way of slowing these rabbits down", he thought. Suddenly an idea popped up, he did have a way of slowing them down! "I can use the slime to cover part of the ground and when rabbits landed on it, they would be stuck!" he thought. Arin immediately put his plan to action and waited until a rabbit was close by. Then he scared it into jumping onto the slime and the rabbit did get stuck. With a successful way to capture these rabbits, Arin was in a good mood. These summons would only last until they either died or a certain amount of time passed. After a little less than half an hour, his summon disappeared and he managed to catch 4 rabbits. However, his HP and MP recovers by itself at 1 point every minute. With only one more rabbit to go, he summoned again. This time he was lucky and summoned an eagle, he aimed at a rabbit and commanded the bird to attack. However, he did not expect the rabbit to dodge so quickly, in fact it was too fast, much faster than the other rabbits. New Skill Once Arin inspected it, he was somewhat surprised. It was an elite monster! Rabbit Warrior (Elite) Level 2 HP:20 MP:10 ATK:4 DEF:1 SPD:7 He did not think that he would encounter an elite monster.Theyare a variant of normal monsters and are separated into multiple categories. There were warrior and lord types, it was even rumored that there was a special elite with the name of god. However, it was too early in the game to find out and even if they did find one, how could anyone contend with them. These elites had a much higher degree of intelligence and have their own personality. Arin wasn''t sure how to handle this and needed to think. However, the rabbit warriorhad already targeted him and rushed towards him. Without a single thought, he got behind Tuttleswho used defensive stance and he casted Strengthen Spell on her, making her 10 percent stronger. The rabbit warror did not care about Tuttles and headed straight for her. It was a warrior! Why would it be scared of a little turtle. But who would''ve thought that when it hit her, it was like running straight into a wall. "Stunned!" The rabbit warrior was put into a stunned state and Arin took this chance to capture it, hoping that the stall owner would accept it since it was technically still a rabbit. As for what had just happened, Tuttles had caused a stunned state due to the Rabbit Warrior running straight into it''s shell which has the defensive stance as well as a buff spell on top of that.The game allowed states like poisoned, stunned, paralysis, etc to happen by either the environment or by player.So it was possible to kill monsters in creative ways such as fire,spiked pits, traps, etc. Arin was happy, he had completed this quest without so much of a hitch and went straight to the stall. When he got there, he exchanged the items for the skill book and immediately learned it. As for the owner, she noticed the rabbit warrior and was stunned that he had been able to capture it. She looked him, wanting to say something but he was too engrossed with the skill. He opened up the menu for Tuttles and saw that Defensive Stance had changed into Repelling Stance and he was excited. Now, Tuttles did not have to only soak up damage, she can deal some too! After closing the menu, he heard an alarm. It seems that he has been playing for 6 hours and the pod recommended that he go out and stretch his muscles, which he promptly did. The owner could only watch him leave as she wasn''t sure whether to speak or not. When he got out it was night time and the clock said that it was 8 PM. He went to his small kitchen and made some dinner which was some rice and several small dishes containing chicken and various vegetables. Afterwards, he sat down on a small couch setting the food onto a little table that was in front of him. As he ate, he read through the forums on his tablet to see if there was any interesting news. "Hmm, people have already progressed into the main server. The highest level right now is level 11, jeez. Its only been a couple of hours", he thought. It was never his goal to be the best player in the game, he just wanted to play and earn some money. As he scrolled down, Arin learned much of the current situation. There were no official guilds but groups have already formed and are working to find a Guild Token which was essential to creating a guild. Furthermore, some of these groups have backers and were well known by others. Of these groups, there were three guilds that were extremely famous: The Hundred Knights, Fairy''s Call, and World''s End. They were known for dominating the leaderboards in other games for clear times, etc.Furthermore, there are many experts and pros in each group.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Suddenly a new article came out, it seems that World''s End had found a Level 20 Wild Boss.These types of monsterwere not limited by dungeons.Theywould roam around the world and do their own things. Wild Bosses were rarer and much stronger but dropped very good loot. As for this one, it was a Stone Giant and World''s End was not going to let go of it, making preparations to take it down. However, other groups heard about it andwerecurrently closing in on their location. It seems that it was going to be a while before anything would happen so Arin decided to sleep and come back to it tomorrow. After all, it was a Monday tomorrow and he had the morning shift at his job. The next day, he got up at 6 AM and prepared to go out. He had some cereal for breakfast and decided to check on the Stone Giant situation. As expected, while World''s End was fighting, many groups, both small and large were there, even The Hundred Knights and Fairy''s Call came. They eyed the boss like candy and waited until the Stone Giant was low. When the boss had around 2500 HP left, they attacked, trying to steal the boss. However, The leader of World''s End, Black Nova managed to kill the boss and takemost of thedrops. The experience points pushed him up to Level 14 making him the highest leveled character.Everyone else could only leave in frustration as they had waited for nothing. After reading, Arin wanted to play and get out of the Beginner''s Village but he had to go to work. He left his home and entereda little convenience store that''s run by a friend of his. He worked here because it was close by and his salary was just enough to keep him going. He has thought about getting a better job but hated working in a cubicle. He wanted to move around and do somethingmore than to just sit on a chair and look at a computer. When he went in, he saw his friend, Elias, working at the counter and said hello before going into the employees room to change. Thus began his 6 hour shift. Of course it wasn''t too boring, Elias had also started playing AXIS Online and they both talked aboutthe game. "What class are you, Arin?" Elias asked. "I''m a summoner", Arin replied. "Oooooo, what did you get as your first pet?" "I...uh...I got a turtle" Once that statement left Arin''s mouth, Elias started laughing. "A turtle, you got a turtle, hahahaha..." Arin was annoyed but he let it go, after all they had been friends for several years now. "Hey once you leave the village come find me, I''m a merchant named "Avarin." I''ll be in Tenfir City", said Elias Arin nodded and said, "Will do." After his shift ended, Arin went to buy some lunch and went home immdeiately. After he ate, he jumped right into the pod and went to play.When he got back into the world, he was right where he left off, by the stall with the woman. When he was about to leave, the stall owner stopped him. "Wait", she said, "You gave me a rabbit warrior amongst the other rabbits so I believe that you are strong enough for this quest. In the same area with the rabbits, there is a rabbit king roaming round, that beast was what caused these scars and killed my father. If you cankill it and give me its head, I will pass something on to you that may be helpful." The Quest Notification then popped up. "Slay the Rabbit King! Difficulty:B Kill the Rabbit King for the stall owner. If you do, you may get a special reward" Arin thought to himself, looking at the stall owner''sscars, they were huge and gnarled. It was something that not many could recover from. Without hesitation, he acceptedthe quest. The owner looked at him gratefully and thanked Arin for helping her. However, he was still level 1. After all, he didn''t kill those rabbits and that quest only gave enough experience to fill up his experience bar 50 percent. He knew how hard this quest would be so he decided to finish the village chief''s quest and kill some wolves in order to get stronger. This was also a good chance to test out Tuttle''s new skill and so, he headed for the eastern side of the village. Leveling Up Arinleft the village and headed east for the wolves. Hearrived at a forestwhere loads of players around the edge of the forest fought wolves in groups of three or four. Even then they struggled to kill even one. One group was even defeated. This was because monsters had a certain degree of intelligence. They knew when to dodge and when to attack. Furthermore, the game would not help them with fighting, every move that a player makes is of their own judgement. They had to know where to aim, how to attack, timing, etc. This was a nightmare for beginners, who had only started the game and aren''t used to playing yet. Of course there were experts and other pros who adapt quickly allowing them tosolo monsters. Having an expert on your team would improvethe overall strength by a large margin.Butof course they wouldn''t play with the others after all they wouldn''t want to be tied down by these beginners. This was similar to being crippled, the speed at which they would progess would be slower. Arin ignored these groups and went further into the forest until he saw less and less players. This area was a bit more high-leveled but there were less people and therefore he could focus on fighting. He then spotted a wolf that was by itself and locked on to it. Grey Wolf (Level 3) HP:70 MP:10 ATK:9 DEF:2 SPD:8 Arin took in a deep breath, this wolf was stronger than him and Tuttles combined. Furthermore it was a monster with high attack and quick speed. If he wasn''t careful, he could die in several seconds. he would''ve been confident if he was at least level 4 but he was still level 1. He then summoned a monster and hoped that it would be a good one. "Summoned Night Wolf" After looking at what he summoned, he was happy. In front of him, was another wolf, except it was a bit smallerand had black fur. NightWolf (Level 1) HP:50 MP:20 ATK:7 DEF:1 SPD:6 Abilities: Shadow Claw (Hides within shadows and strikes dealing 150% damage) 10 MP He had summoned a wolf and it even had a skill too! Afterwards, he planned out on how he would attack the wolf. Now that he had 2 other "members" in his group, this fight would be easier. After formulating a plan, he set it into action. First hegot the wolf''s attention with Tuttles. He went up to it and started taunting. The wolf noticed him but didn''t care because Arin was too weak. "Oi, dumb dog! Come get some!" he said. The wolf ignored hime but he continued to taunt until it finally faced him. After taunting it, the wolf charged in anger and Tuttles blocked its way, activating Repelling Stance. The wolf had charged too quickly and couldn''t turn in time crashing into her and taking damage. "7, Stunned!" popped above its head signaling the damage taken. Furthermore, it was stunned and suddenly the Night Wolf came out of nowhere and attacked it using shadow claw. Arin had also striked it several times however compared to the Night Wolf''s attack, it was measly. "22!"Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. "2" "1" "3" Fortunately, the Night Wolf''s attack was a critical hit, dealing bonus damage. With half of its HP gone, the Grey Wolf left it''s stunned state and attacked again. This time, Arin knew that his firsttactic would not work again but he was prepared. This time, he used his third skill weaken, which lowered its stats, making it 10 percent weaker. Even with these debuffs, the wolf was still quite fast and right when it reached Arin, it would tear his throat apart. Unfortunately, he wouldn''t let such thing happen and grabbed Tuttles, smacking her at the wolf''s head while she still had repelling stance and the strengthen buff on her. "15! Stunned!" "7" "6" "6" Arinattacked the wolf aiming for its head and managed to get a critical strike and a stunned state. Then he attacked 3 more times, killing it on the last hit. The wolf fell to the ground and turned into motes of light, dropping a pelt and even 2 copper coins. Furthermore, he even leveled up to 2 and his experience bar continued to increase. This was because he haddefeateda monster of a higher level. Since it was level 3 which is 2 levels above, it gave a bonus 20 percent experience. As for Tuttles, she was almost at level 2 only because she shared the experience with Arin and it could only be from killing monsters. He now had 5 free stat points and allocated them accordingly: Lord Rainbow (Level 2) HP:100 MP:125 STR:5(*0.2)????ATK:1(+2) DEX:4???? DEF:1(+5) INT:10(*12.5) MAG:8(*0.1) CHR:5 SPD:4 Afterwards he gathered the loot, picking up the pelt and the copper coins. Then Arin realized something strange, Tuttles had invoked the stunned status way too easily. But it wasn''t because of a glitch, but because he now had a way of activating the stunned state. After all, these status effects can be done by player or environment. Since Tuttles was pretty much a metal bowling ball, surelyshe can stun things if they were to be hit in the correct places like the head. Although the same cannot be said for stronger monsters, these low leveled monsters were very susceptible. With that in mind, he began hunting these wolves in the same manner. Each wolf died from being continuously stunned and attacked. At his sixth wolf, the night wolf summon ended, but he just summoned again, this time he was not as lucky and he got a plant monster. It was a pile of living vines that really couldn''t move so he had to lure wolves into it, and kill it like that, the vines did do some damagesince it hadspikes but it was mostly used as a trap. It was much slower but definitely was not as dangerous. 1hour had passed since he started hunting the wolves and he finally killed the last wolf, and gave in the quest. After completing it, he reached level 5, gained his 20 copper coins and a staff which hadmore ATK and had bonus MAG. He wasn''t sure where to put his free points in. Being a summoner, the stats had different multipliers and also affected different things. STRgave more HP, ATK and DEF, INT gave more MP, and MAG increased the power of his skills. SPD also increased the rate at which he moved around and how fast he could cast his spells. As for, DEX and CHR, he didn''t really have a need for those and chose not to focus his stat points there. Tuttles hadalso reached level 3 and her stats had been distributed automatically by the game. He took a final look at the stats and felt happy. Lord Rainbow (Level 5) HP:200(STR * 2)????MP:187????Equipment: STR:10(*0.2)???ATK:2(+3)? Staff Lvl 3 (ATK +3) +2 MAG DEX:5???? DEF:2(+5) Cloth Shirt Lvl 1 (DEF +3) INT:15(*1.25)??????????Cloth Pants Lvl 1 (DEF +1) MAG:10(+2)(*0.1)??????? Straw Shoes Lvl 1 (DEF +1) CHR:5 SPD:5 Tuttles (Level 3) Female HP:140 MP:70 ATK:2 DEF:10 MAG:2 SPD:4 Although Arin didn''t know what Tuttles would become in the future at least she was stronger than before. After looking through the menu, he went on a questing spree and finished up the remaining quests which only consisted of herb collecting and more monster killing. The herb collection quest was pretty simple, he just had to find some restoration grass for the village chief. Unfortunately he did not level up as much as the higher leveled one became, the amount of experience needed increased greatly. As of now, he was sitting at 91 percent to level 6. However, his skills all leveled up to 2, considering he has been using it nonstop, his skill proficiency went up by a lot. Now, he could summon higher leveled monsters and his other two skills were stronger. Knowing that he could now exit the village, he decided to complete the quest given to him by the stall owner. It was time for him to slay the Rabbit King. The Rabbit King Arin traveled to where he first found the rabbits and started exploring the area. According to the stall owner, the Rabbit King was much larger than any other rabbit and unlike the rabbit warrior, it had a weapon of its own. As he walked around looking for the monster, Tuttles suddenly bit his pants and tried to dragg him somewhere. He didn''t understand where she was taking him but he followed and saw a giant rabbit wielding a sabre. A crown sat on top of it''s head as it hopped around. Rabbit King (Level 7) Roaming Boss HP:1200 MP:100 ATK:35 DEF:7 SPD:12 MAG:2 Skills: Dash Attack, Kick, Triple Stab Arin sucked in a cold breath. This monster was strong, extremely strong and he wasn''t sure if he could beat it. It was a Roaming Boss which had much higher stats than normal bosses. If he had to think about it,Arin had about a 15 percent chance of winning however that was without a summon. This was the variable to could change the situation. He began to summon and hoped for a good one. He might be able to stand a chance against this giant rabbit. "Summoned Great Slime" After seeing the notification, he wasn''t sure if he should start crying. What he needed was damage something like the night wolf but stronger. Instead he got a slime, a great slime at that. The blue goop looked at him waiting for orders. He then looked at its stats and skills and felt that not all hope was lost. Great Slime (Level 4) HP:140 MP:30 ATK:2 DEF:5 MAG:10 Skills:Acid Touch (Level 1)(deals 6 DPS for 10 seconds), Leech (Level 1) ( 3 DPS, gains health equal to damage done) The slime had a poison skill! With this, Arin had a much higher chance of winning, after all if he distracted the Rabbit King and prolonged the fight, he would just have to wait for the poison to kill it. This was extremely dangerous, after all he was going to solo a boss that was meant for a group. With a plan in mind, he slowly approached the Rabbit King with Tuttles and commanded the Great Slime to hide. The Rabbit King turned around spotting the two and eyed them like prey. "This is nuts, I''m not ready, What did I just do to myself?" He thought, panicking on the inside. As it approached, Arin calmed down and resolved himself, this was something that he had started and it must be finished. Tuttles used Repelling Stance and Arin buffed it with Strengthen. Afterwards, He used Weaken on the the Rabbit King. With their preparations done, Tuttles rushed forth with its 4 SPD but was still too slow. The Rabbit King sneered at Tuttles and kicked her away, unknowingly, it had suffered damage from hitting Tuttles.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "12" "16" Tuttles suffered 12 damage while the rabbit king took 16 damage. Afterwards it attacked again. "Dash Attack" The Rabbit King rushed forward preparing to cut down both man and turtle but Arin was waiting for this move! He suddenly grabbed Tuttles and rushed straight for it. It seemed suicidal of him to do this and yet... there was a smile on his face. The moment they were within 10 feet of each other, He slammed down on the Rabbit King''s head with Tuttle''s shell. "12" "Stunned!" This was what he was waiting for! Immediately, the Great Slime latched onto the Rabbit King''s body and simultaneously used both skills, dealing a combined 9 damage every second. Arin and Tuttles also started attacking. This stunned state wouldn''t last for very long and every second could not be wasted. However, Arin wouldn''t let the Rabbit King recover so easily, Every couple of seconds, Arin would hit it on its head with either Tuttles or his staff, sometimes even using both, sending it back into its stunned state. He made full use of this exploit. If someone was to see this scene, they would be horrified. It was a one sided fight but what really made it horrifying was the look on Arin''s face. He was staring at the Rabbit King like it was as pot of gold and the thought of the loot only made him attack faster. After several more minutes, the Rabbit King was killed just like that. It wasn''t even a proper fight but Arin didn''t care, greed had overtaken him, the loot-lovingside of him had truly awakened. Fortunately, the Rabbit King''s drops did not disappoint. Rabbit King''s Sabre (Level 7) (Warrior Classes Only) (Rare/Blue) ATK + 22 SPD + 2 Nimbleness: Increases SPD by 20 percent for 1 minute (Cooldown: 5 minutes) Lucky Foot of the Rabbit King (Level 6) (Rare/Blue) Increases Luck by 5 Lucky Foot:Doubles Luck for 10 seconds (Cooldown: 10 minutes) Of the two drops, he was most excited about the second one, The Lucky Foot of the Rabbit King. This was an accessory that that increased luck! Luck or LCK for short is a hidden stat of the game. It affected things like the chances of landing a critical hit, getting better drops, summoning better creatures, etc. It is mysterious and frankly very powerful. With enough luck, you could overturn any bad situation, a losing fight could easily become a win. Furthermore, monsters might drop better loot. Unfortunately, players start out with zero luck and the only way to increase it was through items. Thus the luck stat isn''t part of the character menu and is regarded as only a hidden stat. As for the sabre, he had no use for it considering that he was not a warrior based class. Both him and Tuttles had leveled up allowing him to equip the lucky foot. Arin set the sabre aside to sell later while he immediately equipped the lucky foot in his accessory slot. Afterwards, he went back to the village and showed the Lucky Foot of the Rabbit King to the stall owner as proof that he slew the Rabbit King. She slowly teared up as she approached him, handing over a stone tablet. "Thank you for helping me avenge my father. I am eternally grateful for you. This stone tablet has been in our family for years. Legend says that this is a map, leading to a source of unending power. I may be unable to find it, but perhaps you have a chance", she said. Arin accepted it and multiple notifications popped up. "Quest Completed!" "You''ve gained a map of some sort, however, you are too weak to comprehend it!" Arin was both happy and disappointed. He had a map that could give him something awesome but at the same time he could not use it immediately. Furthermore, he didn''t even know when he could use it. He felt sad as he put it into his inventory and said goodbye to the stall owner. With all of the quests done, he decided that it was time to leave the village. He went to the village chief where a prompt showed up, asking if he was ready to enter the world of Axis.Arin looked at it and pressed yes. Afterwards, the village chief led him down a path in a forest and told him to walk down it. Arin walked until the village could not be seen and he continued forward, surrounded by nature. Minutes later, he could see a city in the distance. This was his entrance to the world. Meren City As he continued walking, the city slowly grew in size until he saw a towering gate in front of him. He saw a sign above the gate reading "Meren City", muttering it under his breath and walked in. When he entered and Arin saw what could be descibed as a bustling city, people crowded around going about their day. There were stores of all kinds even stalls lined the streets, selling food and all sorts of items. He slowly walked around, taking in the view and enjoying all of the wonderful smells in the air. After enjoying all the wonderful things, he went on to his first task. It was to find his teacher! According to the village chief, the instructor for the summoner class could be found in the northern part of the city by the city lord''s mansion. There would be an emptyareafilled with grass and a little house should be at the back of the small field. Arin arrived and did see the instructor''s home. As he entered the field and continued to the house, he thought about how out of place this was and thought that his teacher was one of those eccentrics. Little did he know...it was true. When Arin reached the house, he was about to knock on it before the door suddenly opened. An old woman stood in front of him with a kind smile. In her arms was a cat that she petted, "I''ve been expecting you", she said, "Please, come in." He was surprised and entered with out saying much. The house itself was quite small, however, it had a cozy feeling. There was a small fire place at the other end of the house, A pair of spiral staircases were situated on opposite corners leading to the second floor. In front of him was a small wooden table with several chairs.There was another room which seemed to be the kitchen. Soon, he was seated and served a cup of tea. After taking a sip, he decided to get a good look at the instructor. Elis Diont (Level ???) Summoner Instructor ?????????? It seems that Arin was too weak and unable to see anything but the name and class. He wanted to ask about the next step in getting stronger but didn''t know how to break the silence. Suddenly, the instructor spoke. "My name is Elis Diont and I am the current Instructor for all young summoners. You may refer to me as just Elis", she said. Arin, thankful for her speaking, then introduced himself and asked her as to what his next step should be. "There are many things you can do to get stronger, as your instructor, I suggest you go to one of the dungeons nearby. As to which one, that is your choice. Come back to me once you are more powerful", she said. This answer might seem weird but it is quite normal. After all, this game is comepletely open-world, while there is a main quest-line, there are an insane number of side quests and other content when exploring the game. With this, Arin left and began exploring the city until he stopped at a inn. It wasn''t anything special but he wanted to gain information on the city and its surroundings. He entered and sat on a random table, ordering a drink and some soup. He spent some time listening in on other conversations before finding something interesting.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. In another table full of city guards, one of them was speaking about a cave. "To the west of the city is a Black Spider Cave, It had justappeared but already it has claimed many lives, however people are still entering no matter what. There seems to be a treasure of something", he said. Arin found this very interesting and planned to leave for this spider cave. Unfortunately he was reaching the time limit of entering the game and exited quietly. It was the second day and already so much had happened. Before he went to sleep, he decided to check up on the forums and see if anything interesting had happened yet but there was nothing new. People were still searching for guild tokens or selling items. Suddenly he remembered about the Rabbit King''s Sabre and he logged in to his account from his tablet and put up the sabre to sell on the game auction center. He set it so that the highest bidder after 6 hours would get it. With the business side of things taken care of, he went to sleep hoping that the sabre would sell for a lot. Later that night, the sabre caused lots of commotion. After all, it was one of the first few rare weapons to appear and it had a special skill as well. Many groups contacted their upper echelons about the sabre. It was currently one of the strongest weapons in the game due to its stats and skill. After all, players still had white equipment and uncommons were quite rare. As for rares, they could be counted on one hand. Soon the bidding amount soared, even the three great guilds started bidding. Furthermore they started looking for information about this "Lord Rainbow" but could not find much, after all, Arin was still unknown. When Arin woke up the next day, the first thing he did was look at who bought the sabre and how much it was bought for. When he saw the amount, he was amazed by the number. It had been bought for almost 100 gold and if he chose to convert the gold to real-world currency, it was around 900 dollars. As for the person who bought it, the player was named was, "Iron Hand." It sounded familiar to him until he realized that it was the guildmaster of The Hundred Knights group. Arin did not think that such a notable player would buy his weapon. After all, it was the guildmast of one of the most famous guilds. After his excitement went down, he decided to convert the gold to cash and save it to pay for his loans. He quickly went to his work place and changed, evidently he wanted to talk to Elias about it. But who would''ve known that Elias wouldbeat him to it. "That sabre is amazing! It has a special skill and increases speed!" he said, "Why would anyone sell it?" Arin then replied, "Maybe because that person was not a warrior, he might''ve been a mage class. " Elias paused what he was doing and looked at him. "How would you know this?" Arin then replied, "Why do you think?" "You''re Lord Rainbow??" he said. He nodded and looked at him smugly. Elias questioned him about the weapon and didn''t believe him. However, once Arin told hime the whole story did Elias trust him. He sat in amazment wondering how his friend could defeat anboss on his own. At the end of his shift, Arin bought some lunch and went home. He couldn''t wait to enter Black Spider Cave, it was his first real dungeon in the game. However, the moment he entered, he was bombarded by notifications from people wanting to get to know him. This annoyed him and he chose to silence all of it and prevent anymore from popping up. After doing so, he immediately went for the cave, excited as to what he would find there. Black Spider Cavern He left the city andheadedfor the cave. Afteralmost an hourof walking, he finally reached the cave. Players didn''t have access to mounts until level 20 thus he could only walk there. In front of him was a cave, it seemed quite large and was very dark. It was a good thing that he brought a lamp though. Arin took it out, hung it by his belt and entered the cave entrance when a notification appeared in front of him. "Congratulations, You are the first player to discover this dungeon! You get 2x drop rate and exp rate for 4 hours. Would you like to announce your discovery!" He immediately clicked "No" but was extremely happy, It seems that while NPCs may have entered this cave, no players have arrived yet, making him the first. This area had a total of 10 known dungeons.Six were had already been set up by the game while 4 have been discovered by players. Including this one, there were now 11 dungeons that he knew of. There had been other announcements of people discovering new dungeons. The world was huge and numerous people have discovered new dungeons, the number was probably even larger since some might not want to announce it. Each dungeon was a gold mine, there was unique loot to find and other interesting items. These things could sell in the auction hall for tons of money. It was understandable for people to not share. He entered the cave and started exploring. It was very spacious and he took his time looking around. Soon enough, he finally encountered a monster. Black Spider (Level 5) HP:250 MP:100 ATK:3 DEF:3 MAG:12 SPD:4 Skills: Poison Bite(30% chance to deal poison damage- 3 DPS) 20 MP "A magic-type monster!" he thought after looking at it stats. Compared to the past monsters he had fought, this one had the magic stat included. Although its ATK was quite low, the MAG was high and responsible for influencing the power of a spell. Arin approached carefully, casting weaken on the spider while strengthening Tuttles. This time he didn''t summon, Arin wanted to see how hard it would be to fight with only him and Tuttles. The spider noticed him and went to attack, aiming for Tuttles. Not giving it the chance, Tuttle ran forward and rammed into the spider. "14" She was unable to stun the spider but managed to push it back. At the same time, Arin attacked it from a distance smacking it with the end of his staff. He constantly moved away from its attack range while striking it multiple times. "4" "7" "5" This was a common strategy amongst ranged attackers called "kiting". While Arin couldn''t exactly be considered ranged, he was several feet from the spider. He didn''t allow the monster to get close and continued attacking. AS a summoner, his magic was focused on..well summoning, summoners don''t really have ranged attacks. So they could only do physical ones, unless they buy it.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Minutes later, the spider died, dropping some copper coins. he was a little disappointed but continued exploring the cave, killing more spiders. By the time he reached the middle sections of the dungeon, He had around 7 silver coins and several bundles of spider silk. As Arin continued onwards, he met a different monster. It was a much larger spider with 6 red eyes and 12 legs. Furthermore, there were others around it but they were much smaller and dark green. The smaller ones were extremely weak with only 30 health however the large spider was extremely strong. Demonic Spider (Level 8) Sub-Boss HP:2500 MP:220 ATK:15 DEF:10 MAG:36 SPD:5 Skills: Sling(throwsobjects at the target) 10 MP, Paralysing Bite(15% chance to paralyse target, deals 150 percent damage) 30 MP This spider was a mini-boss/sub-boss and its stats were very high. Arin knew that he would not be able to defeat it with just him and Tuttles. He immediately summoned, waiting for a decent monster to come up. "Summoned Skeleton" Skeleton (Level 4) HP:300 MP:40 ATK:9 DEF:7 SPD:6 Skill: Arm Strike (deals 75% damage, 25% chance to stun) MP 10 In front of him was a skeleton, Its eyes had blue flames and it approached Arin, waiting for his commands. He had an excited look on his face, after all, this was areal monster, not a slime or a wolf but a real dungeon monster. He quickly put the skeleton to good use, commanding it to kill the smaller spiders before moving onto the Demonic Spider. The area was full of these creautures, and while killing them was easy, it took Arin at least an hour to sweep through the room. The good thing was that the experience gained from killing these were a decent amount. After killing the last one, Arin had leveled up once reaching Level 7. He distributed his stats before turning to the last monster of the room. He wasn''t sure how strong the Demonic Spider was and sent the Skeleton to test it out. The Spider saw the skeleton and crawled towards it, preparing to attack. As it drew closer, the skeleton suddenly ripped one of its arms off and smacked the spider square in its head. "12" At this moment, Arin finally understood why the skeleton''s skill was called, "Arm Strike." "These developers have some humour", he thought, snickering a bit. The skeleton continued to attack it until the Spider fought back and bit at it. "14" Suddenly it moved back and grabbed a rock, throwing it at the skeleton and knocking out some of its ribs. With the Spider preoccupied, Arin and Tuttles moved forward and flanked from the left. They started attacking the Demonic Spider''s legs, whacking at them. "9" "13" "6" "32!" That last hit by Tuttles was a critical strike and managed to chunk the Spider''s Healh bar. Suddenly, The spider turned towards them but they retreated and let the Skeleton take the aggro again. However it did not have much health left, the skeleton had already lost a leg and hopped on one foot, its head was cracked and a large hole took place at the right side of the head. Arinwaited for his summon to get off cooldown and quickly used it to get another monster to replace the skeleton before it died. "Summoned Vampire Bat" Arin didn''t take the time to check its stats and immediately sent it to attack. The Demonic Spider had just used Paralysing Bite and destroyed the skeleton. The flames in its eyes disappeared as it crumbled to dust. Thankfully, his next summon was a flying monster which made it harder for the DemonicSpider to attack. The bat flew in and out of the creature''s attack range, biting it whenever there was a chance. Arin and Tuttles also joined the fight to support the bat. Soon its HP dropped to 10 percent and it went into a berserk state. The stats doubled and it became much more ferocious. However, that did not change anything. It only slowed down the process of dying as Arin''s group attacked more cautiously. If the spider focused on one side, the other would attack. It could only suffer as it was unable to attack both at once. Right before it died, Arin immediately activated the lucky foot, doubling his Luck before landing the final strike. His EXP bar surged and he was now 67 percent to level 8, Tuttles had even leveled up too. The Spider dropped 4 items upon its death.He approached it in anticipation, after all, the cave''s bonus effects were still active and he used lucky foot. These drops might be something good. Crimson Demonic Arachne As he approached the loot, he saw a staff, a dagger, shoes, and a pile of fiber. The dagger was made of bone and its edge was jagged, giving it a savage look. The shoes were dark blue but it did not have much decoration and the staff was made of a dark wood. However, on top of it was a red jewel which strangely looked like an eye. Exquisite Silk (Uncommon) ~ This is high quality silk that is hard to come by~ Spider Bone Dagger (Level 7) (Rogue Classes Only) (Uncommon) ATK: +18 SPD: +3 Poison Edge: 10% chance to deal poison for 5 seconds (3 DPS) Shoes of the Demon Spider (Level 8) (Uncommon) DEF: +5 SPD: +2 MAG: 3 Red Eye Stave (Level 8) (Mage Classes Only) (Rare) ATK: +5 MAG: +12 Demon''s Stare: Inflicts paralysis to all enemies in a 10 meter radius for 5 seconds (50 MP) (Cooldown:5 Min) Of these items, hewas most excited about the Red Eye Stave. Its skill, Demon''s Stare was pretty overpowered. But he wasn''t level 8 yet, he still needed a little bit more. He put them into his inventory and went off to level up. Some time later, after killing the Nth spider, Arin finally reached level 8. He quickly equippedthe stave along with the shoes and took a look at his stats. Lord Rainbow (Level 8) HP:200????ATK:2(+5) MP:250????DEF:2(+9) STR:10 DEX:5 INT:20 MAG:20(+15) CHR:5 SPD:5(+2) Equipment:The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Red Eye Stave (Level 8) (ATK +5) (MAG +12) Demon''s Stare: Inflicts paralysis to all enemies in a 10 meter radius for 5 seconds (50 MP) (Cooldown:5 Min) Cloth Shirt (Level 1) (DEF +3) Cloth Pants (Level 1) (DEF +1) Shoes of the Demon Spider (Level 8) (DEF +5) (SPD +2) (MAG +3) Lucky Foot of The Rabbit King (Lvl 6) (Rare) (LCK +5) Lucky Foot: Doubles LCK for 10 seconds (CD:10 min) Tuttles (Level 5) HP:250 MP:80 ATK:3 DEF:15 MAG:3 SPD:5 SKILLS: Repelling Stance: increases DEF by 100%, Reflects 130% of damage (20MP), Bite Afterwards, he moved on to the next area. He chose not to summon a monster but to just practice fighting with just him and Tuttles. After the fight with the sub-boss, he realized that he could''ve died if he had summoned too late. The spider would''ve killed him in the middle of his casting. After all the skill itself had a ten minute cooldown and it takes around 4 seconds for the spell to activate. Furthermore, it isn''t exactly garanteed that the summoned creature would last the full 10 minutes in a fight. Arin needed to learn how to fight without depending too much on the skill. While it may be the core part of the summoner class, it also acted as a major weakness. Without a summon, they would be pretty useless. Of course that weakness decreases, as a summoner ranks up, allowing them to get another pet. In any case, this was a good time to try out the new skill of his weapon. He approached a small group of spiders and used Demon''s Stare. The jewel then shined red as an eye was projected over the monsters. It looked at them and sent down a red beam casuing them to spasm and become paralysed. Arin was amazed at its effect and quickly used it on any and every group of spiders. It made them so much easier to kill. As he continued through the caverns, he came across a chest. "A treasure chest!" he thought. These chests were somewhat rare and spawned randomly. Opening one could give you money, items, even skill books. Unfortunately, the chances of getting something good was low. Most of the time, it was just money. Arin opened the chest in anticipation but he looked in disappointment. All he got was some bronze coins and a potion. When he examined the potion, he felt a bit happier. Rage Potion ~Increases all stats by 20% and recovers 10% of HP and MP every 10 seconds for 1 minute~ This would be quite helpful for later on and he put it into his inventory. After some time, he finally entered the final area. He only had an hour left on the cave bonuses so he wanted to finish this quick. As he looked around, he realized that something was wrong. The rest of the rooms were empty, there were no monsters. He reached the last room and felt some sort of pressure from inside. This could only mean one thing. It was a boss. As he readied himself, he entered the room and felt a chill run down his spine. As he looked up, he found 14 red eyes looking at him. It was the eyes of a giant spider. It had 12 legs and was 5 times the size of the Demonic Spider. What could only be poison ran down its mouth like drool. Its eyes looked away from him and flickered about, Arin was nothing but a flea in its eyes. Fear ran through him as he saw the name. ~Crimson Demonic Arachne~ He knew that if he retreated now, he would miss an opportunity to get even stronger. Without hesitation, he moved closer and managed to get a look at its stats. When Arin saw them, he had lost all hope. Raxah the Protector Crimson Demonic Arachne (Boss) (Level 15) HP:10,000 MP:1,500 ATK:25 DEF:22 MAG:100 SPD:5 Skills: Poison Mist(Deals 10 DPS for 30 seconds if affected) (100 MP) (Cooldown - 10 minutes), Rain of Webbing(slows the enemy by 20% in a 25 by 25 meter area) (250 MP) (Cooldown - 5 minutes), Stab (deals 150% damage) How was he suppose to kill this? It had 10,000 HP, he and Tuttles had a total of 450 HP. That''s like a drop in the bucket. This was pretty much impossible to kill with a party, let alone himself. It would take at least a team of 20 players to be able to take it down. He wanted to get away as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the Arachne has not noticed him yet and he slowly calmed down. He began to think about this situation. Was this game that unfair to him? A sub-boss had only 2500 HP but this boss was 10,000 and almost triple the MAG too. The more he thought about this, the more it seemed strange. The difficulty had risen too high, way too quickly. A low level dungeon like this had such a high level boss. This meant one thing, there must be a way to actually beat it. Something in this boss room could help him kill the boss. Arin looked around trying to see if there was anything that could be helpful or out of the ordinary. He noticed a large ball of spider silk. It seemed like there was someone or something inside it, it trembled ever now and then as if they were trying to escape. "That must be it!" he thought. If he could find a way to release whatever was inside it, he might have a chance at beating the spider. Arin knew there was a chance that he was wrong but this was the only thing that made sense. Perhaps, it really was a head-on fight but he still wanted to try. Before beginning the fight, he summon a creature. So long as it could stall the spider long enough for him to release whatever was in that cocoon, he would be happy. He prayed to RNG(Random Number Generator) as the summoning circle appeared in front of him. "Summoned Stone Golem!" "Summon Skill is now level 3!" Arin was filled with joy, he summoned a good monster and his proficiency in the summon skill leveled up too. The golem was larger than him and made of rocks. It had 2 yellow eyes and was covered in moss and vines. He looked at the stats and felt lucky for once.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Stone Golem (Level 10) HP:500 MP:100 ATK:5 DEF:30 SPD:5 Skill: Reinforce(Increases DEF by 150% for 5 minutes) (MP:30) (Cooldown - 8 minutes) With this, Arin should have enough time to reach and destroy the cocoon. He would use the golem and Tuttles to distract it in order for him to get past the arachne and reach the coccon. Whether or not he lives or dies, depended onwhatever was inside that cocoon. With his preparations done, he slowly approached the Crimson Demonic Arachne, using Strengthen on both of his summons and immediately casted Weaken on the boss. Sensing the changes, the Arachne looked towards them, each eye stared intensely at this trio. Then it turned to them and began crwaling towards them. The Golem charged straight at the spider and started attacking at the front, beating it with its arms. Meanwhile Arin and Tuttles moved around it and attacked from under. "1" "4" "6" "2" The damage was painful to look at. The arachne was just too strong but Arin had achieved his goal and the Arachne was now occupied withthe golem and has lost interest in him. He rushed forward and ran towards the cocoon. "This might be easier than I thought" Arin said. Unfortunately, he spoke too soon and a horde of small baby spiders appeared when he was within 10 meters of it. This surprised him but he was not worried, after all he had the Demon''s Stare ability and used it against them, bypassing the obstacle and reaching the cocoon. But then that produced a new problem, how was he supposed to destroy it? He thought quickly, cursing himself for not thinking of something earlier. He only had a couple of seconds left before the spiders recovered from their paralyzed state. "How can I do this?" he thought, "I can''t attack it by myself, the golem and Tuttles are too busy, I have no sword to cut it but even then it would take too long." At this point, the spiders had already started moving towards him. The golem and Tuttles were near-death too. They had been caught in the Arachne''s Poison Mist and began to run away. Arin thought furiously until realizing the answer. The cocoon was made of silk, a fabric, that means that it can be burned down. He quickly took the torch from his inventory and threw it at the cocoon. It burned immediately after touching and started dissipating. Arin ran from the cocoon to avoid the little spiders andglanced at it. It took only seconds for the cocoon to burn up but those seconds felt like hours. The golem had already been destroyed after taking a direct hit for Tuttles, turning into rubble. As for her, she had seen the cocoon burning and ran away, leading the Arachne further away from Arin. The Arachne hadstarted to chase her but noticed the fire and turned back towards Arin''s location. It screeched and rushed for him. Unfortunately, it was too far to do anything and the cocoon had already been destroyed. As the smoke disappeared, Arin saw someone, it was a person covered in armor, wielding a hammer and shield.The armor lookedlike it came fromWarha**** 40K, It was silver and massive. If one had to guess, each piece was at least an inch thick and could weigh hundreds. The hammer itself was white and as large as his head. Its handle was several feet long and decorated with metal inlay. On the offhand was a tower shield, thick and massive. A golden metal lion was attached in the front giving it a heroic look. He then noticed some words above this person, it was a name. ~Raxah the Protector~ Tough Battle As Arin paused looking in awe, Raxah looked really cool.Thehelmet resembled a dragon andthe armor was engraved with golden phoenix. Raxah wielded a hammer that wastaller than Arin and a giant shield. The armored figure saw Arin and charged towards him. "Were you the one who saved me?" A woman''s voice echoed in the cave. Arin was surprised by the sudden question but quickly replied. "Yeah, I burned the webbing that trapped you", he said. The moment she arrived at Arin''s location, she smashed her hammer down onto the floor, causing a huge shockwave and killing the surrounding spiders. She had saved him from certain death. "This one thanks you but before I can properly give you my gratitude. Let''s take care of the task at hand", she said. At this moment, they turned to the Demonic Arachne who was closing in quick. A notification appeared in front of Arin. "Raxah has joined your party!" Raxah the Protector (Level 30) (Paladin) (NPC) HP:4000 MP:300 ATK:50 DEF:115 MAG:80 SPD:9 Skills: Blessing(Heals for 100% health in a 15 by 15 meter radius) (50 MP) (Cooldown:3 minutes) Smite(causes a small shockwave and deals 125% damage) (20 MP) (Cooldown:1 minute) Protection (mitigates 75% of damage and healsthe targetfor 20% of damage blocked for 30 seconds) (100MP) (Cooldown:5 minutes) Passive Skills:Mercy''s Blessing (heals 15 HP every 10 seconds) Raxah had a passive skill! and it was a HP recovery one too! This skill might seem weak but it gives advantages that active skills do not have. Passive skills did not need any MP and they had no cooldown. Furthermore, it was active so long as the user was alive. So, Raxah recovered 15 HP every 10 seconds might not seem much compared to her 4000 HP butthat 15 HP becomes 150 in a minute. Considering that her DEF was at 115 too, it was near impossible to kill her. Players do have an innate skill to recover HP and MP but it was far weaker than this, only 1 HP/MP a minute. Now, Arin had a strong member in his group. Before he could celebrate, The Demonic Arachne was already upon them. It struck down with its leg but Raxah lifted her shield and took the hit head on. The ground cracked under her feet as she threw it off with just raw strength. The arachne fell to the ground, stunned by the impact. Arin looked in awe but quickly woke up. "We should group up, come with me", he said. Arin ran back to the entrance, calling for his pet Tuttles. Raxah saw the little turtle run toward him.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. "What an interesting companion! A normal creature, yet it has some power", she said. Seeing as both Arin and Tuttles were injured, she casted Blessing on them. A shining light showered the two as warmth surrounded their bodies, healing them. Now that he had a chance he would not waste it. He recastedWeakenonthe Arachneand asked them to stall while he tried summoning again. Even though he had such a strongNPC with him, It would take too long to kill thearachne with its 10000 HP. Raxah was a tank at her core, while she could deal damage, she wasbetter at taking it. Arin summoned, hoping that he would get some sort of attack-based creature. Once he finished chanting, the notification he waited for came. "Summoned Goblin Archer" Goblin Archer (Level 6) HP:120 MP:40 ATK:14 DEF:3 SPD:6 Skills:Snipe(Aims at an enemy''s weakpoint, 50% Chance to deal 200% damage and 20% chance cause a DEF break) (MP:10),Triple Shot(Shoots 3 arrows and deals 50 to 75% damage) (MP:10) A small goblin wielding a bow and arrow stood in front of him. Without hesitation, he commanded to Goblin to attack the Arachne and support from behind. Now he had two tanks: Raxah and Tuttles, a DPS: the goblin, and a support mage class: himself. Arin was excited, he had a chance. The fight continued to rage on as Raxah, Tuttles, and the Goblin Archer attacked. Raxah and Tuttles attacked constantly, one used a hammer to smash at the boss, while the other rammed into it. The Goblin Archer shot arrows non-stop, occasionally using Triple-Shot letting it shoot three arrows at once. It often aimed for the eyes but kept missing. Arin stood at the back supporting them with his strengthen and weaken skill. Unfortunately, while Strengthen was not a single target skill,it only buffs all of his summons, giving them a 10% increase in their overall stats. NPCs and party members weren''t effected. "6" "32" "3" "2" "7" "1" Of the three attackers, only Raxah managed to get double digits but she didn''t attack as fast as Tuttles and the Goblin Archer. The Arachne''s HP slowly decreased as time went on. They took around 100 HP every 10 seconds, meaning that it would take around 15more minutes to kill it. However, this was only if they attacked non-stop, they still needed to dodge the boss''s attacks. However that was fine, after all Raxah''s skills completely countered the Arachne''s. Any damage done was healed back by Blessingand she had Protection and a passive healing skill. But the Arachne was smart and tried to focus on the other members, it used Rain of Webbing sending spider webs all over everyone and slowing them down. It immediately went for the goblin archer since it did the second most damage. The Arachne raised its leg and thrusted at the goblin, aiming for its abdomen. Arin wouldn''t let such a thing happen and used the ability Demon''s Stare to try to paralyze it or at least slow it down. The leg was signifiantly slower but was still fast enough tosmash the goblin.Itfelt fear and dodged as quickly as it could, managing to only get grazed by the leg. The Arachne was in dismay but before it could attack again, a figure jumped into the air. It was Raxah and she raised her hammer high aiming for the head. "Haaaaaaaah!!" She yells out as a light covered the head of her hammer from using Smite and she slams it down onto the Arachne. "124! Critical Strike! Stun!" "BOOOM" Three words popped up as the impact created a huge explosion of light. Motes of light flew fron the impact as Raxah fell back to the ground, landing on her feet. The giant creature buckled and fell to the floor. Not only did she land a critical hit, but she stunned it as well. The amount of force in that strike was enormous. Everyone took the opportunity to attack as much as possible before it recovered. Arrows flew as sounds of repeated strikes landed on the Arachne. Seconds later, they retreated as the Arachne recovered from its state. The HP was now a little over 60%. That stunned state had given them enough time to deal 10% of its health. The fight continued until they managed to get it down to 10%. From there, the arachne went into a berserk state, dealing twice as much damage and attacking three times as fast. It was starting to get more and more dangerous, even Raxah was barely able to keep up with the damage. The Arachne attacked with even more ferocity, the ground was riddled with holes. The team''s breathing was ragged while the boss didn''t even rest for one second. If they continued fighting like this, there was a good chance that they could lose. The Final Stretch The Arachne''s HP bar slowly decreased as time passed. 10% 9% 8% 6% The Goblin Archer had already died from the non-stop attacks and the rest of the group struggled to even stay alive. The Arachnethrusted at them in an unending rush. There wasn''t even enough time for Arin to summon something. At this rate, They really woulddie and all of this work would be for nothing. "Like hell, I''m going to let that happen", Arin thought. He quickly looked around the cave thinking of a way to help them. But there was nothing. It was just them and the boss surrounded by rocks and darkness. While he was thinking, the Arachne attacked him, sending one of its legs down. Arin reacted too late and couldn''t dodge but Raxah charged at him and tackled him away, barely missing the leg as it slammed down onto the floor and caused numerous tremors. "What the hell are you doing!?" she said, looking at him like he was insane. The Arachne''s leg had went into the ground too deep and struggled to take it out, giving them some breathing room. However, that would not last, everytime, it pulled, the cave trembled as its leg started loosening. "That''s it!" Arin shouted. A look of excitement covered his face. He then looked at Raxah before saying something. "If we are going to defeat this monstrosity, I am going to need you to do something", he said. Arin quickly told her his plan and she looked at him like a madman. "Please, trust me", he looked at her with determined eyes. Then without hesitation, Raxah left the group and ran away from them. The Arachne had already freed itself from the floor and approached Arin, now that Raxah was gone, he was going to be easy to kill. It looked at him, lifted one of its legs and brought down upon him. But Arin didn''t budge, instead he took Tuttles and took the force of the attack head on. But he did not die like the Arachne had thought. "54" "13" "63! Crippled!" The first two damage numbers belonged to Tuttles and Arin while the last one was dealt to the Arachne. The Arachne fell to the floor, one of its legs was bent in an unnatural way and it dropped to the ground, unable ot move. How could this have happened?The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. What the Arachne didn''t know was that Raxah had casted Protection on Tuttles who also used Repelling stance on top of it. Thus Tuttles could tank any hit that the Arachne dealt. Arin only took damage due to the force of the strike. They laid on the ground somewhat exhausted from taking that strike directly. It was well beyond their capabilites but they did it. Now itwas crippled, not only was the leg now useless, but its overall stats had decreased because of that. However there was not enough time for it to recover from its shock as there was a blinding light behind it. The source of that light was Raxah who ran behind the Arachne and waited for it to attack Arin before charging and jumping over the Arachne. By the time, it realized that she was behind it, Raxah was already within several feet of its head. It was too focused on Arin to have noticed her. She struck down with her Smite skill, pummeling it to the ground. "94! Stun!" None of them waited for the Arachne to recover and started attacking as much as they could, resulting in Arin''s first boss kill! As the Arachne fell to its demise, it began to disappear into thin air. Several things were dropped and Arin faced three notifications. "Congratulations, You''ve defeated the Crimson Demonc Arachne solo!" "Congratulations, You''ve completed the Hidden Condition: Free Raxah" "Congratulations, You''ve completed the dungeon within 4 hours" "You gained 2000 gold coins, 150 reputation points with Meren City, 100 reputation points with the Church of Light, and a Demon''s Chest" Arin''s experience bar skyrocketed sending him to level 11, Tuttles also leveled up and reached level 8. Now, he was somewhat close to being the highest leveled on the game which was level 14 at the moment. Every ten levels, the amount of experience needed to level up increased exponentially, just reaching level 20 could take at least a month. Arin quickly looked at the items and almost exploded in happiness. On top of actually defeating the Arachne, it even dropped a ton of items. Most of them were materials, which he would sell later on but there were 8 pieces of equipment, 5 of which he couldn''t use but might sell. The rest he could not use yet due to level restrictions, but that didn''t matter because these items were on the point of being overpowered. Dark Arachnid Robes (Level 12) (Uncommon) (Mage Classes Only) DEF +7 INT +7 MAG +8 Spider God''s Ring(Level 17) (Epic) (Summoner Only) MAG +16 Spider God''s Minion: Summons a Demon Spider to help the user (150 MP) (Cooldown: 10 minutes) Poison Mist Staff(Level 14) (Uncommon) (Mage Classes Only) ATK +6 MAG + 20 Toxic Air: Spreads a toxic mist in a 5x5 meter area dealing 4 DPS for 15 seconds (75 MP) (Cooldown: 3 minutes) Of the three items, the Spider God''s Ring made Arin''s mouth drool. The ring was a bright silver, and had a webbed pattern etched on it. This item gave him a second pet! Furthermore, it had no time limit meaning that as long as it would stay with him as long as it was alive. This was a major advantage as he essentially had two pets now, enhancing his power as a summoner. The Dark Arachnid Robes were black and made of a soft fabric, possibly spider silk and the Poison Mist Staff was made of a dark green wood. It was extremely well made and the wood had been carvedinto writhing snakes coiled up with each other. The staff was pretty useful with its effect, Toxic Air, which would greatly increase his offensive ability. But Arin liked the Demon''s Stare ability more since it had a better crowd control effect and had more utility. After putting everything into his inventory, he went over to the Demon''s Chest. It was jet black and had no straps or handles. However, he noticed a lock on it, vaguely shaped like a human heart but larger and slightly morphed. As Arin approached the object, he felt a shiver down his spine. The chest emitted an aura of death causing fear to rise in his heart. Once he was close enough to inspect it, a notification appeared. ~Demon''s Chest~