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Although the two of them had killed a few more monsters since leveling up, both Emilia and Crystal were far from reaching level three.
Normally, it would have been the obvious choice to submit the main quest item to the village chief first and gain some experience to level up, and maybe even get some decent items, and only then challenge the [Boar King]. But Emilia knew that this was no longer possible for them.
The moment they submitted the [Tears of Immortal] and completed the quest with the highest possible reward, the experience they get would instantly push them both past level ten, and the monsters within the beginner's zone would then no longer drop experience or items.
Emilia wasn't sure if this was to discourage players from staying in this 'friendly' area for longer than they needed to or something else, but she couldn't afford the risk of not having killed the [Boar King].
After all, while its experience and drops might be quite bad compared to most other 'Elite' monsters, it was still the only one of its kind within the beginner zone, and also one of the few that a player was absolutely required to have 'killed' to obtain one of the best titles in the game — 'The Rising Star'.
In the previous timeline, the hero had obviously been the one to get this title, since no one even knew such a thing was possible until then. But while he did have many unique advantages over her, Emilia thought that she should still have some chance of beating him to it.
The crimson-haired girl didn't know how the hero and the world will communicated, or how much he knew, exactly. And while it might be true that the hero probably knew a lot of things she didn't, wasn't that true the other way around as well?
They'd already been lucky enough to obtain two pieces of equipment, so killing this 'Elite' boss with just the two of them wouldn't be as difficult, even with their low levels.
Arcadia didn't have any stupid 'level penalty', after all. And while there would always be a difference in stats between players at different levels, it wasn't really a chasm of despair that could be considered impossible to cross. There were many ways to make up for that kind of gap.
The two of them had already identified the boots and the skirt they got from hunting monsters, thanks to an appraiser in the town. And while they weren't anything special, with Crystal's [Swift Boots] giving her +5% movement speed, and Emilia's [Short Skirt] giving her +3% attack speed, they were still much better than expected.
Crystal may not feel it now, but Emilia definitely knew just how rare it was for monsters to drop any equipment at all. And for it to come with decent stats too... hoping for such a thing to happen was like praying to win the lottery.
It was much better to focus on other things and simply buy what one needed from other 'lottery winners' instead.
But since they were the lucky ones this time, Emilia was quite happy.
Maybe even at level twenty, there would be no need to find a replacement for these items.
She grinned while easily avoiding the heavy club of the [Boar King], making it roar in frustration. "Since this guy is so stupidly big, he must drop some good stuff too, right?!"
Standing at nearly twenty feet tall, the somewhat humanoid 'Boar' stood on two thick, hooved legs, and carried a heavy tree trunk embedded with sharp metal spikes.
Emilia didn't need to see its actual damage to know that it would definitely pulverize her in one hit if she was even a little careless.
The crimson-haired elf easily weaved around the 'clumsy' monster, her [Beginner's Sword] inflicting 27.5 damage each time it flashed.
Crystal smiled in response as she shot an arrow right through the monster's thick neck. 'Yes! Critical hit!'
-440!
The [Boar King] had a rather thick hide to protect itself, so blade attacks that failed to dig deep enough only dealt about a fourth of the damage they should have.
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to kill the Elite, as its HP bar was still at around 95%, thanks to its enormous health, and disgustingly high regeneration rate.
'If not for those mana potions Emilia bought from the town, taking this beast down would be such a chore!' Crystal sighed, firing off another [Focus Shot], dealing only 220 damage this time.
The [Boar King] did not have any particular elemental weakness, so imbuing the arrows with [Light] element only served to convert them into magical attacks, which was quite wasteful considering it cost one mana each time, but the blonde girl didn't regret it.
Continuously shooting off her full-powered arrows while aiming for the beast's head and neck, Crystal waited until her mana hit zero before pulling out the tiny blue crystal bottle from her inventory and gulping it down.
It restored about a third of one's total 'lost mana', so with the blonde girl's measly eleven points at level two... it gave her just three mana per bottle.
After serving as the 'Prime Arbiter' of Blue Dawn and witnessing their war with the Alliance, she understood that time was usually worth a lot more than any amount of money.
The few minutes they saved here might be what pushed them ahead of millions of players later, after all. Thinking of it like that, ten copper coins per bottle was a cheap price to pay.
Of course, Emilia didn't have the luxury of stopping and downing the mana potion like Crystal, being the prime target of his rage. If she dared to pause, the [Boar King] would definitely pulverize her in an instant.
For the sake of efficiency, her mana points had to be used carefully to score critical hits.
Emilia continued attacking and taunting the [Boar King] while dodging its attacks, and it didn't take long for one of Crystal's light arrows to pierce right through its nose… at the exact moment that it had swung down its 'club'!
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