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In sharp contrast to how the situation had been with the [Boar King], getting a clear shot at an enemy when they were furiously entangled with an ally was far from easy, especially for a novice like Crystal. And with her girlfriend fighting an evenly matched enemy, she really couldn't afford to be careless.
Attacks in Arcadia didn't differentiate between friend and foe, after all. If she missed and hit Emilia by accident, it definitely wouldn't be funny.
Fortunately, the ranger skill 'Focus Shot' not only gave her slightly enhanced vision, but it also helped Crystal's aim to be far steadier than usual.
The first light arrow hit the 'Crazed Adventurer' on the shoulder, making him roar in pain and lunge at Emilia even more furiously, only to take the next arrow straight through his knee.
Critical hit!
-767!
Critical hit!
-767!
'I've already managed to shave off a good chunk of his health with only a few shots?!' Crystal couldn't help but be overjoyed.
For all his quick and skillful movements and high level of threat, the 'Crazed Adventurer' had a surprisingly low amount of HP. Of course, her boots, ring, and bow all contributed a lot to how quickly she managed to deal so much damage.
Emilia didn't waste the golden opportunity while the opponent was momentarily disabled and kneeling on the ground, and swiftly lopped off his head in one go.
Well, at least she tried to do so. Her 'Poison Fang' and base attack were clearly not enough to land a fatal enough hit, and only made a fountain of blood erupt from the man's deeply-cut throat.
Critical hit!
-760!
The insane amount of damage could only be attributed to the ridiculous boost provided by the 'Fearless Maiden's Dignified Companion', though it did make Emilia wonder if she'd directly die upon taking a hit. 'I... better not find out.'
Luckily, the immobile opponent made for an easy target, and Crystal had already pelted him with dozens of arrows within seconds.
Emilia clicked her tongue in annoyance before giving him another slash, this time completely finishing him off.
The severed head rolled several times on the ground before coming to a stop, and the headless corpse collapsed in front of Emilia's boots in defeat.
-Killed [Crazed Adventurer]!
-Experience +1000
Looking at the scene in front of her, the crimson-haired girl couldn't help but smile. "How strange… didn't all the monsters disappear after being killed? How come his body is still there? And he didn't drop any loot, either…"
In Arcadia, there were only two situations in which the 'corpse' of a defeated opponent wouldn't burst into particles of light shortly after their defeat.
First, they may not be completely dead. And second… their corpse might be related to a quest.
Naturally, Crystal understood her girlfriend's hint, and generously cooperated. "M-Maybe this encounter was part of a quest or something…?"
Emilia hummed thoughtfully as she stepped forward to search the corpse for any clues, and soon discovered a pouch full of beautiful red gems.
Ding!
Discovered the quest item [Corrupted Blood Essence], hidden quest triggered!
Quest Level - Unknown
Continue investigating, and find the source of the [Corrupted Blood Essence] to continue quest. Possible rewards may include permanent boost to certain stats.
There was no convenient marker on the map showing them where they should go, or even a hint on the next possible action.
'Based on how difficult it would have been for a regular player to survive an ambush like that, I'm guessing that this must be a fairly high-level hidden quest.' Emilia hummed thoughtfully. 'But even if the rewards are sure to be good, it won't be worth it to waste too much time figuring it out right now.'
Despite having carefully observed the previous timeline, it was impossible for her to know of all the possible quests in the game, especially the hidden ones.
In fact, it was entirely possible that no one had even completed the quest related to the corpse of the [Crazed Adventurer] in the previous timeline.
Most players wouldn't be able to deal with a humanoid opponent, and then calmly go through the belongings of the dead, after all. And the newbies could only be more squeamish.
The fact that they had such a strange encounter at just level ten could only mean that they were incredibly 'unlucky'. Had they been careless and allowed the enemy's ambush to succeed, maybe they would have already died and been separated from both each other and lost some of their prized equipment.
But since they were able to defeat the [Crazed Adventurer], the bad fortune turned good, and if they really managed to solve the mystery… it would definitely be a windfall.
Without any clues, though, such a thing could only rely on fate.
'I don't want to waste time searching around right now… I'll just mark this location on the map and look back on it later.' Emilia quickly made up her mind, and turned to Crystal with a smile. "Let's continue heading to the nearest town."
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Meanwhile, Danielle, Sylvia, Robin, and Nico found themselves in a dilemma.
When the four of them had first 'spawned' in random parts of their respective beginner's town, they'd naturally all rushed to get the 'Tears of the Immortal', and discovered to their shock that they'd all somehow ended up in the same zone this time.
Not to mention Nico, the helpless healer who'd been forced to beat her enemies with a stick, even the usually 'moody' Sylvia was ecstatic.
But after they quickly formed a party under Danielle's leadership and collected their spoils from the village chief's hut, they realized that the quarter million experience reward still left them needing three to four thousand experience points to hit level ten.
The group of level-nine players hurriedly left the town to make up for the rest, but that's when the argument started.
"Like I said, the highest amount of experience we need is less than forty-five hundred. Instead of risking it all by confronting the [Boar King], we should treasure this opportunity properly and remain steady!"
Sylvia sneered. "Did you see the crowd that's hunting for monsters in all the regular areas? Even if we can one-hit the monsters, how fast can we really farm?"
Danielle frowned, but frustratingly enough, she realized that the annoying girl was right. But…
"While that might be true, Emilia clearly mentioned that the [Boar King] can squash even level ten players if they're careless, and if we die…"
Many people in the first session had already discovered and publicized the fact that 'death' led to not only a 'detention' for some time, but also a ten percent loss of experience.
And based on the few level-two deaths… the ten percent loss was from the total experience accumulated till then.
Just thinking about losing twenty-five thousand experience sent chills down their spines. If they were wiped out by the [Boar King]… wouldn't they have to kill him multiple times to make up?
And the worst part was that they couldn't even make him respawn without bringing outsiders in, which would definitely complicate the situation.
Danielle's words seemed to have doused Sylvia's rousing spirit with cold water in an instant, but just as she was about to give up…
"Let's go kill that fat pig."
The other three girls stared at their 'team leader' in shock.
Danielle grinned. "I just realized… since we're already about as strong as we can be within this zone, and are also together, if we still can't defeat a beast that Emilia took down by herself… there's no point in catching up anymore."
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