After using [Howl], the Dire Wolf Andar pounced towards Maria. Its fangs aimed straight for the fallen angel's delectable neck.
Maria raised her wings in front of her and braced herself and sent ranged attacks aiming straight for the pouncing wolf.
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The damage only tickled the field boss. It didn't flinch at all and savagely chomped down on Maria's wings. She felt an even bigger shock of pain coming from her wings than the ones from the previous monster attacks. Those felt like small needle pokes compared to the stinging pain she was feeling right now.
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The monster's attack took a large chunk out of Maria's health bar, but she didn't cower. Instead, she smirked at the pain because her [Angel's Rage] skill had activated. Her black feathers immediately countered the wolf's attack.
Dire Wolf Andar immediately yelped in pain and retreated. Each of Maria's feathers dealt 250 damage to it, taking away a large portion of the field boss' HP. Maria chased after the boss and swung her staff in retaliation.
She kept on swinging and swinging and the wolf's head was beaten into a pighead. It couldn't even regain its bearings to even strike back at the girl.
It was only when Maria's SP gauge zeroed out that the wolf was given a moment's respite. During this time, Maria would back off and run behind a nearby tree. The wolf would chase after her, but she made sure to keep the damage to a minimum.
Her [Angel's Rage] would always activate even at the tiniest bit of damage she received. This girl was like a porcupine to Andar. Even if it had so much as grazed her, the black wings would retaliate furiously by shooting more feathers at its face.
Maria learned about this 'kiting' method through personal experience. She had been combating various monsters throughout her trek through the forest. She couldn't simply rely on her passive recovery to keep her health at safe levels, so she would attract monsters towards her and lead them around a tree, rock, or any kind of obstacle while firing ranged attacks and letting them scratch or graze her.
Her wings would do the rest and her health was kept on safe levels. She proudly commended herself for finding such an ingenious method of hunting!
"Huhuhu~ I bet Lizzy will be so surprised to know that I've managed to kill a boss monster all on my own! But...isn't this guy a little too weak and stupid?"
Maria turned to look at the poor wolf that she insulted. It kept on chasing after her and now its body was in a sorry state. It was full of holes with black feathers puncturing through it.
"Hmmm...[Inspect]"
[Dire Wolf Andar Lv. 10
(Uncommon/Field Boss)
HP: 2,725/10,000
Skills: s***h Lv. 5, Lacerate Lv. 2, Howl Lv. 5, Call Pack Lv. 10]
It was low on health and was about to be killed in another few attacks. It was a good thing that her in-battle mana regeneration was able to keep up with her [Angel's Rage] skill's frequent usage.
Maria was also a little confused as to why the boss still hadn't used its level 10 skill yet.
She didn't know this, but this particular boss monster was not meant to be soloed. It would take way too long and no one would have a unique, high damaging skill like hers from an early stage. Not to mention her absurd natural defense that was pretty high in value. Each race had its own unique stat multiplier, so every race had different starting stats.
So, the only time when the field boss Andar would use its level 10 [Call Pack] skill was when it was outnumbered. Right now, however, it was a 1 vs. 1 so the conditions didn't lead to the boss monster to use that skill.
Maria continued moving around while attacking the boss. It was only after another 5 minutes that she had successfully felled the monster.
[Field Boss slain! 120,000 exp gained]
Normally, 120,000 exp was enough for any other normal character to level up 1-2 levels, but not Maria, however. Her unique race had a different exp multiplier than the rest of the races. It was a disadvantage, but the advantage was that she gained twice the amount of free stat points that the other races got per level.
She also had a higher multiplier for her HP and MP. Of course, Maria didn't know any of this and thought that it was all part of the game, so she just went with it without questioning why it took her so long to level up.
[Congratulations to player, you are the first to successfully kill the Dire Wolf Andar. Display name in world announcement? YES/NO]
"Uhm...no? I don't want to be famous~"
[Congratulations to player XX, for the extraordinary achievement of being the first to successfully solo kill the Field Boss, Dire Wolf Andar. Rewarded: 50 reputation, 1 Silver, 5 free stat points!]
"Hmhm~ this is nice~ I'll go back to the city now and log off! I can't wait to tell Lizzy about my adventures today!"
It took over an hour of in-game time for Maria to finally arrive at the city, her directionally unaware-self had a hard time finding her way back.
"Uhm...should I turn in the quest first?"
Her presence had drawn many observing eyes to her, but the girl was oblivious. She wanted to turn in her quest before logging off, but she couldn't see where the temple was from where she was standing.
"Ah! If finding the temple on foot is too hard, why not try looking for it in the air?"
Maria clapped her hands at the idea. She quickly spread her wings and took flight. The spectacle of a player flying in the sky attracted many astonished pairs of eyes.
"S-she's flying!"
"No way!"
"That's so unfair..."
While everyone could only express their envy to the young girl in the skies, Maria was busy looking for the familiar shape of the temple.
"Ah! There it is!"
She finally found the temple on the northeastern side of the city. She returned to the city using the southern gate so it took her some time to find it. Maria quickly made a beeline for the temple and soon arrived in the air just above the entrance.
She happily touched down onto the ground and walked inside the temple. To the players who were aiming to become priests and priestesses hanging around outside the temple, the awe-inspiring sight of a beautiful black-winged angel flying down from the skies and walking into the temple was like the divine descent of god's envoy.
"Holy s**t! Did you see that?!"
"That was TOTALLY divine!"
"Did anyone get a pic or vid of that earlier?"
"I did, I did!"
"Share please, share please!!"
Her entrance caused a commotion outside, but inside the temple, it was silent and oppressive as usual. Maria saw the pedestal in front of the statue, glowing with white light.
She remembered that the Priestess Instructor had a glow enveloping her when she had finished the tutorial quest assigned to her. Maria reckoned that this was the sign for completed quests that only needed her to turn in and get her reward.
Maria walked up to the pedestal and once more placed her hand on it. Like the previous time she did so, a ray of red light flashed from the statue's ruby eyes and landed on top of her hand.
[Quest Completed!]
*DING* [Level Up! +20 Free stat points!]
*DING* [Received 1 gold and 1 Death's Legacy Box]
*DING* [You have completed your class change quest! Would you like to class change to Dark Priestess? YES/NO]
"Yes, sa~"
Maria quickly tapped on the [YES] and she was baptized by a red light coming from the statue's ruby eyes in the next moment.
*DING* [Class change successful! Acquired class: Dark Priestess]
"Okay! Let's wrap things up for today!"
While there was some sort of fanfare going on in the background by the NPC believers. Maria was oblivious to all this and quickly opened her [Main Menu], she tapped on the [Log Out] button and disappeared from the game.
"Your Grace, Dark Priestess! The Envoy of our Dark God, Dea—eh? W-Where did our Envoy go?!"
"Y-your Eminence, the Envoy suddenly disappeared!!!"
"AH! She was called upon by the Dark God himself! Praise to the Dark God!"
"Praise to the Dark God!!"
"Praise to the Dark God!!"
"Praise to the Dark God!!"
The followers of the Dark God, Death, began celebrating the birth of the new envoy. They completely closed off the temple and suspended all ongoing quests for a full in-game day!
The girl in question however had just opened her eyes in reality, completely unaware of the commotion she had just caused in the game.