Cyberserk & Vampiress

Zangar Castle

Dan found himself in a strange place. He immediately summoned Tom.

"How quiet it is here," the phantom immediately noted the peculiarity of the new place. "The dragon lives modestly and poorly."

Tom looked around. The castle made a strange impression. The walls were composed of light-colored stone. On the surface of the walls were many different images of strange runes. Chains of ancient gnome runes ran in a continuous band that decorated the place where the walls passed into the ceiling. There were magical lights on the walls. They gave enough light to see that there was nothing and no one in the large room except uninvited visitors.

"Where're all the belongings? I can't believe the dragon ate all the furniture and all the pictures off the walls," Tom tried to joke. The clone took a step to the side and poked the wall with his finger. Then Tom pointed his finger at his friend. 

"There's a lot of dust here. But no smell of rot and decay. It's a strange place. Why are you frozen like a pillar? Call out the hobbits and let's go meet the monsters," Tom smiled.

"I have an unpleasant message, brother. I've been assigned a new revival point. A temporary revival point," whispered Dan. He couldn't take his eyes off the unpleasant writing in front of him.

[Warning. You have visited the enclosed location of the Castle of Zangar. You receive a temporary revival point. You can choose a new revival point when completing the Kill the Dragon quest. Have a nice game!] 

"And what's the big deal about that? We knew about that condition. I have another suspicion. Check the action of the auction," Tom looked with a smile at his friend who is about to receive unpleasant news.

Dan's face turned sad.

"There is no auction. The game store is up and running. How did you figure it out?" Dan wanted to know the source of Tom's ingenuity.

"Having an auction is a connection to Grossroads. You can send things and signal your relatives in the city. But without an auction, we have no connection to the world beyond the castle walls. If you die, you can accumulate experience from daily charity quests and shop in a simple player store. Losers eat modestly and rarely."

"Where are the losers? Why is it so quiet? Are all the losers sitting in different dimensions of this location?" Dan took a few steps toward the passageway. Then he stopped and called out to the hobbits.

The hobbits began to look around. They didn't like the place at first sight. Dan bought the braves a traditional treat. The hobbits didn't pretend to be modest and started eating and drinking beer.

Tom stood and waited for Dan to praise him for his cleverness and foresight.

Dan had upgraded his level this morning. At level 14, he distributed all available points to increase the Body. Level 14 artifacts were purchased at auction. Each artifact gave +5 to an attribute. Level 13 artifacts were purchased to increase strength and speed. Tom was confident that with a set of simple swords from the in-game store he would get excellent damage with a single attack using the Rage of Ars skill. A normal sword allowed to inflict 15 to 25 points of damage, but if you hit with two hands the damage was equal to 30 points.

[Character: Dan (Human)

Affiliated Location: Earth 

Title: Baron

Profession: Мечник. Кузнец 

Level: 14. 6272800/176200

Attributes: Strength 9 (+4+3), Speed 9 (+4+3), Intelligence 7 (+65+35), Body 17 (+4+7). 

Free Attribute Points: 0

HP: 1700/1700

MP: 1050/1050

Weapon Mastery & Skill: Weapon Mastery: 7. Magic skill: 5. Expand Skills.

Free Skill Points: 13

Profession Talent: None

Achievement: Boss Killer Rank 2. 32/100. Dungeon Explorer Rank 41.] 

It took him half a day to hide and use the hobbit summoning skill to replenish his mana supply. A monstrous amount of new mana allowed him to summon 105 phantoms to slay the dragon boss. Tom was certain that this number of clones would be enough to fight any boss of this world.

The hobbits ate and the whole team went in search of enemies. But there were no opponents in this castle. There was an eerie system of rooms that adjoined each other. There were short empty corridors between rooms. The friends walked through the entire first floor and up to the second floor of the castle. Tom walked boldly ahead of the group with a n***d katana in his hand.

After only an hour of exploring the empty castle, they found the dragon. Tom opened another door and peered inside another room. He immediately took a step back from the door and turned his face toward his friend. It was immediately clear from the delighted face of the clone that the boss had finally been found.

Dan Raven threatened his fist in the direction of the hobbits. Then he took three cautious steps and peered into the room with the dragon. It took him a few seconds to get an amazing impression of his encounter with an unusual enemy.

The dragon was enormous! It lay against the far wall of the great hall, and there was a great distance to it. But the size of this monster was admirable at first sight. Blue scales glittered on the monster's large body. The whole body shimmered in the light of the magical lamps. On the big head of the monster, there were visible bone protrusions that looked like a crown. 

[Lord of Fear. (Dragon.)

Big Boss

Level: 14

Life: 3500.

Damage: 300-500. 

Defense: 100.

Skills: 

The gaze of Fear. Deprives all sentient opponents in the dragon's range of vision of any activity. Duration: 60 seconds. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Dragon Strike. Damage increased by 300%. Cooldown: 1 minute. 

Lord of Fear is a dangerous dragon, who can disable any opponent with his gaze and destroy with his powerful attacks. Fear the dragon's gaze!]

Dan stepped away from the door and beckoned Tom after him. They took a few steps back and had a meeting.

"I wonder if I could fit in his mouth if he wanted to eat me after I died?" Tom was seriously preoccupied with this question.

"He won't have time to eat you. You'll be disappearing faster than the dragon can bite you," whispered Dan. "What's the latest? What's the plan of action?"

"I don't understand," Tom admitted. "Using Rage of Ars will do 156 points of damage. The second rank of Boss Killer turns everything into 362 points of damage! Boss Defense destroys 100 points of damage. One phantom deal 262 points of damage. It takes 13 phantoms to destroy this dragon. It will take me 7 seconds to get to it. A minute and a half is enough time to destroy this boss. Too easy. What's the catch?"

"I don't get it either. Why didn't the elves send a team of 12 assassin masters to kill him? Twelve assassins sneak up and strike the most powerful blow on the monster at the same time. It's possible," whispered Dan.

"If the elves have a clock in their interface then striking at the same time is realistic. A player can wear 16 artifacts. The maximum number of attributes a level 19 artifact can have is 12 points. The total set is enough to gain almost 200 points of power. When doubled from a combat skill, this will give 300 points of pure damage. Enough to kill this eyed monster. The elves have sent several expeditions and all the eared lovers of attacking from invisibility have stayed in the castle."

"This paranoiac reacts to the first blow and instantly all opponents in the hall get hit in the brains. Then the dragon quickly and easily destroys a group of assassins in a minute," grinned the young man.

"We won't take any chances and you go around the corner. Then there's no way the dragon can see you. Listen carefully. Immediately summon a new phantom as soon as you hear the clang of the sword striking the dragon's body. By the way, it's a long recovery time for a mental skill. I'll have time to make a couple of attacks in normal mode. I might even be able to make three attacks before I die. In any case, get ready to fight through hearing for a couple of minutes," Tom laughed softly.

"I hear you, vile creatures," came the dragon's voice. "Brave warriors, come closer so I can see you and fight me."

Dan put his finger to his lips and shook his head in a negative gesture. The monster's silly provocation made no impression on the player. But Dan didn't want Tom to start loudly mocking calls for battle from the naïve monster.