Chapter 7 Chapter 7: The Second SSS-Rank Dungeon Clearer in a Century
In the Shadow Realm, each server is divided by city.
In other words, players from River City will appear in the same instance teleportation space, and after finishing the beginner dungeon, they will be assigned to the same or adjacent starting villages.
That's why Ethan had encountered Derek and the others in the beginner dungeon teleportation plaza.
Furthermore, resources cannot be shared between different regions.
There are no top-tier equipment items from older servers being handed to new players in newer servers.
Of course, this setting also prevents players from older servers from stomping newer players in newer servers.
Unless you enter the tenth domain of the Shadow Realm, which is the only place where people from different regions, or even different countries, are allowed to trade and fight freely.
After Ethan entered the teleportation array, the scene shifted to a preparation space.
Ahead was a transparent wall, and on the other side of the transparent wall was a city that looked like ruins!
The city was filled with smoke and the flames of war.
Giant, mutated creatures of enormous size and bizarre, terrifying appearance roamed through the city ruins!
There was a porcupine with quills as big as a five-person tent!
A giant red-headed centipede, seven or eight meters long!
A large venomous scorpion capable of snapping a person in two with a single clamp!
Upon seeing these monsters, many new players in the preparation area were terrified, their eyes widening and their legs trembling.
Because these people basically grew up in the safe zone, most of them had never seen the true appearance of monsters.
Even though they had seen pictures of these monsters in books before, pictures were just pictures.
When it came to actually facing them in person, no one was unafraid.
No one, that is, except Ethan.
At this point, some people around had already started backing out.
"Oh my God! These monsters are so big?! They look nothing like the ones in the books!"
"Holy crap! I'm terrified of centipedes! I'm not fighting anymore, I'm getting out of here! This is absolutely terrifying!"
"We're already here, what's there to be afraid of? Besides, we can revive if we die in the beginner dungeon. Come on brothers, let's go all out for the reward!"
At that moment, a man and a woman stepped through the transparent barrier ahead of them and disappeared.
The beginner dungeon, the Cataclysmic Front, is a single-player, non-overlapping, independent dungeon, each player has their own private dungeon space.
Others around also entered the dungeon one after another.
Meanwhile, Ethan, who was all alone, also stepped through.
The light of the barrier washed over him.
Ethan appeared in a corner of the city ruins.
A system notification sounded in his ear.
"Ding~ The dungeon is now starting! Please kill 20 monsters in the shortest time possible. Your kill time and damage taken will affect your final dungeon score!"
"New player protection has been activated for this beginner dungeon. If you die in the dungeon, your data will be reset for free. Please start the challenge!"
As the system notification faded, Ethan gripped his SSS-rank Rune Greatsword and walked toward the nearest monster lurking in the ruins.
According to the dungeon rules: to achieve an SSS rating, you must kill 20 monsters without taking any damage within ten minutes.
For most new players, even though the monsters in the Cataclysmic Front were all the lowest-level 1-Star Beast Soldiers, killing 20 of them within ten minutes was simply impossible.
Not to mention doing it without taking a single point of damage!
But that was exactly Ethan's goal.
At that moment, a giant porcupine that had been digging through the rubble noticed Ethan.
HOOOO!
With a roar, the giant porcupine charged straight toward him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Its momentum was overwhelming, and the earth shook beneath its feet!
If it were a normal person facing this scene for the first time, being scared enough to lose control of their legs would have been completely understandable.
Ethan remained calm and composed. He stared at the porcupine and activated the essential survival skill available to all new players, Scout, which consumed 1 mana point and allowed players to view the attributes of any monster no more than three levels above their own.
The porcupine's data panel materialized in front of Ethan as a semi-transparent screen.
[BIO-ENGINEERED WILD BOAR] (Physical-Type, Normal Form)
Rank: 1-Star Beast Soldier
Attack Power: 4 | Armor: 1 | Magic Resistance: 1 | Speed: 1.5
HP: 110
Skill: Savage Charge
Description: A parasite emerged from a dark wormhole and infested a wild boar, causing it to mutate...
---
In the world of the Shadow Realm, monster ranks from low to high are as follows: Beast Soldier, Beast General, Beast Master, Beast Venerable, Saint, Immortal, Emperor, Sovereign, King, and God.
Corresponding to player levels, each major rank is also divided into star ratings for minor levels.
Beast Soldiers are divided into 1-10 stars, Beast Generals into 1-20 stars, Beast Masters into 1-30 stars, and so on.
The forms of monsters, from low to high grade, are divided into Normal Form, Lord Form, and BOSS Form.
At the same rank, the higher the form, the stronger the monster!
HOOOO!
Just as the porcupine was about to collide into Ethan with full force —
With his speed of 2.2, which was 0.7 higher than the wild boar's speed of 1.5, Ethan sidestepped perfectly and completely avoided its charge!
At the same time, the Rune Greatsword in his hand suddenly burst into flames with a whoosh!
Flame Slash!
With the permanent instant-cast buff active, Ethan bypassed the 0.8-second casting time entirely, swung his greatsword, and unleashed a blazing sword strike at extreme speed, slashing directly into the wild boar's flank.
The next moment, a blood-red damage number jumped up above the wild boar's head.
-34!
After obtaining the SSS-rank Rune Greatsword, Ethan's attack power had reached 8 points.
The Battle Mage's white skill Flame Slash carried a damage coefficient of 125%.
On top of that, the Level-1 White Rune added 5 bonus damage, and the SSS-rank greatsword's special effect added a further 20 flat damage, a combined bonus of 25 points on top of the base calculation!
This caused Ethan's single sword strike to tear away more than a quarter of the wild boar's total health.
While other new players in the dungeon could generally only deal four or five points of damage to beginner monsters, Ethan's damage output was on a completely different level.
Having missed its target and taken a heavy hit instead, the wild boar wheeled around toward Ethan and let out a furious roar.
Immediately, it charged again!
Although it had a powerful presence, it was still a Level 1 beginner monster.
For Ethan, this Bio-Engineered Wild Boar was far too weak.
With another sidestep, he easily dodged the boar's second charge, then slashed down with a normal attack.
-27!
Then, continuing to dodge the wild boar's attacks while counterattacking in the same motion, one damage number after another appeared above the wild boar's head.
-27!
-27!
-27!
After several strikes, the boar's health bar was fully depleted. With a mournful roar, its massive body crashed to the ground.
"Ding~ You have eliminated a 1-Star Beast Soldier [Bio-Engineered Wild Boar]. EXP +1!"
The drop rate for beginner dungeon monsters was pitifully low. Not a single copper coin appeared beside the wild boar's carcass.
However, after the wild boar was killed, specks of silver light gradually rose from its corpse and flowed into the Shadow Realm Bracelet on Ethan's wrist.
This was energy absorption.
In the world of the Shadow Realm, players who kill monsters can use their Shadow Realm Bracelets to absorb the energy contained inside the creatures. That collected energy is then transferred outward to reinforce the protective walls surrounding human cities, strengthening them against monster invasions.
The higher the level of the monster killed, the more energy is absorbed.
The first battle was over.
Ethan immediately locked onto his next target.
The monsters inside the beginner dungeon, the Cataclysmic Front, were all 1-Star Beast Soldier level beginner monsters.
For brand new players just entering the Shadow Realm for the first time, they were still extremely difficult to handle.
But for the former king of the Shadow Realm's first server, it was nothing short of child's play.
To guarantee an SSS dungeon rating, Ethan moved through the ruins with masterful precision, using his superior speed and combat awareness to ensure that every single engagement ended the same way.
Zero damage taken.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Sword strike after sword strike, each normal attack dealing 27 damage and each Flame Slash dealing 34, reaping the lives of one monster after another in quick succession.
And above Ethan's own head, throughout every single fight, only one word appeared over and over again.
MISS. MISS. MISS.
---
While all the new players were fighting their way through the beginner dungeons of Zone 12 across the country
Inside the high-level conference hall of the GDI headquarters in Washington D.C., several senior officials of the Global Defense Initiative sat watching the constantly updating statistics table on the massive display screen before them.
One of them leaned back with a sigh. "I'm hoping that this time, our country can produce an SSS-rank dungeon clearer."
Another official, adjusting his glasses, shook his head. "It's incredibly difficult. In the past hundred years, our country has only ever produced one SSS-rank beginner dungeon clearer, the Phantom from Zone 5, who gave his life eight years ago. Looking at the entire world, SSS-rank clearers are even rarer!"
"Don't say that," another official cut in. "Don't forget, we have a newly awakened SSS-rank ability user in Zone 12 this cycle. The first one in thirty years. They have a very real chance of achieving an SSS clear."
"I hope so," the first official said quietly.
As soon as the grou
p finished speaking
On the statistics panel on the screen, a line of flashing text suddenly appeared.
"Congratulations to the River City node Zone 12, for producing an SSS-rank beginner dungeon clearer!"
