Alon vanished right before their eyes leaving a sparkle of electricity to where he had just stood. The Goblin Shaman was taken back in surprise as it suddenly couldn't detect its opponent's presence. Alon appeared right on the Goblin Shaman's face with his fist charging right through the goblin.
Tsuuuv!
The sound of his fist was like a ballistic gun being triggered at point-blank range. It rippled through the air causing the hard walls to crack open from the impact.
-1,000
'An illusion huh?'
Alon stared at his bloody fist and realized that the Goblin Shaman was simply an illusion as it disappeared in thin air. He quickly found the Goblin Shaman behind the other goblins, while covering itself using the Hobgoblin's massive stature. It seemed as if it was trying to use the goblins as meatshields to stop Alon from getting near it.
Flash!
Alon activated the boots skill again and disappeared and reappeared right at the unknowing Goblin Shaman's face. In front of him was the real deal seeing as the Goblin immediately tried to activate the transparent barrier to protect it from the incoming attack.
"Die!"
Gritting his teeth, he threw a powerful punch right at the Goblin Shaman's face destroying the thin barrier while his arms got bloodied as a result of the repercussions from the barrier. It shattered like glass and although he lost 20% of his health, his punch managed to hit the Goblin Shaman's ugly face shattering its skull as it flew and crashed to the walls.
[Critical strike has been inflicted! Doubles the damage]
-97,800!
Crash!
With very low physical defense, the Goblin Shaman's health immediately fell to 10%. In its critical state, the berserk mode was activated.
[Goblin Shaman has gone Berserk!]
The berserk state would activate once a boss monster's health falls by 20%. In this state, they would have a sharp boost in their status for a short amount of time with the price of losing one's sanity. After the duration of the berserk ended, they would be weakened making it easy for players to kill them. The best way to deal with a berserk monster was to avoid confronting it at all costs and only would you retaliate once the berserk has ended. Alon's case was different, he wanted to attempt fighting the shaman while in a berserk state. Although quite reckless for him, he'd be rewarded for this since defeating a boss monster while it was in berserk mode gave more drops than the regular way of defeating it.
High risks, high rewards.
The shaman that once had a frill and weak body mutated. Its limbs bulged and expanded as its entire body underwent a huge change. It mutated into a 12 feet giant muscular monster that had red burning skin. Its health had increased by a whopping 500,000 HP.
Graaah!!
The berserk shaman lunged itself at Alon with all intent of ripping him to shreds. Alon was calm and didn't falter from its overwhelming pressure as he let out a huge amount of air from his body. Posing a martial stance, he gathered his qi (Internal Energy) through the center of his body and let the energy flow to his right arm.
Boom!
Before the shaman could assault an attack, Alon threw a powerful punch right at its abdomen. The punch penetrated right through the gut and with the internal energy being released, it exploded inside its body obliterating the shaman's insides.
[Critical strike has been inflicted! Doubles the damage]
-679,000!
Ting~
[You have slain the Goblin Shaman]
[Level difference 19; experience gain +380%]
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..
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[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
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[Blood Earing (Tier 0 Epic) has been obtained!]
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[Tier 1 scroll has been obtained!]
Ting~
[System: Congratulations! You are the first player to instantly kill a Berserk Lord-ranked boss monster of a higher tier by only using one's pure technique. You have been rewarded]
[Lethality (1)DMG/BUFF: If an opponent's health drops by 20%, damage dealt to the target is increased by 60%]
Cough!
A series of window panels appeared in his eyes as he slump down to the ground coughing up blood. Using too much internal energy in a single go had taken quite a toll on his body.
'That technique drains a lot of my stamina, I can't even lift my arm anymore.'
Alon sighed in thought. There were still a hundred goblins left and a sub-boss to defeat but his body couldn't move anymore. If he didn't do something, he'd most definitely die.
Realizing that their leader had died, the goblins were placed under fright but when they saw that Alon was currently weakened, their mind brimmed with killing intent.
'For now, let's endure this beating.'
The only thing he could do was defend. It still took time for his stamina to regenerate and unlike the health attribute, there were no potions that could heal the stamina attribute.
The enraged goblins started throwing a barrage of strikes on Alon. Alon on the other hand deflected any attacks that could hit any of his vital points. With his innate skill: Fortified Body, the damage he received was absorbed and in turn converted into stamina and now his empty stamina started filling up. His health fell at a visible rate so Alon quickly drank health potions as soon as the cooldown finished to maintain its percentage from falling into a critical state.
The Hobgoblin followed in pursuit and started slamming the giant bat that he retrieved from his other arm.
-2,680!
-3,240!
.
Even with Alon's steel-like body, his health still rapidly fell from every swing of the giant bat. With one heavy swing from the Hobgoblin, Alon was flung in the air crashing into the walls that covered his body with blood and piles of debris. His health had fallen by 5%.
As the smoke and dust slowly dissipate from the collision, a silhouette of a man appeared in their eyes. It was Alon who had been badly wounded but despite the wounds that covered his body, the aura he emitted struck fear in their ugly hearts.
'Now I'm brimming with energy!'
A bloody smile etched his face. Alon grabbed a rock in his hand and threw it at the torch immediately extinguishing the flames. Without any source of light, everything was pitch black.
As soon as everybody's vision darkened, Alon vanished from their sight. They could hear their companions scream in pain but without anything to help them see what was going on in the dark, they were placed under a blind assault.
Fearing that they might be the next victim, they start crowding around the Hobgoblin. The Hobgoblin was also afraid of getting ambushed so it hurriedly led the goblins to move to a corner of the cave's walls so that Alon couldn't attack them from their behind.
'Just as planned.'
He grinned at the sight of the frightened goblins and stood face forward at them. They didn't even know that Alon was right in front of them. They could not sense his presence nor any movements from the ground. Checking his battle posture, he stomped his legs and pose a squat position.
Machine Gun Blows
Punches flew toward them like a machine gun. Not knowing what was happening they tried to defend their front with their weapons but it was futile. A Single punch managed to penetrate one goblin to another while the after images bombarded those from the farthest point. Each blow dealt a critical hit increasing the duration of the attack. Every goblin on the front had long turned into mush and gore while those at the back were in their final breaths. The Hobgoblin wasn't exempted from the bombardment because due to his huge stature, he had received the majority of the punches and his health fell rapid rate.
After his health fell to 20%, his berserk mode activated but with the effect of Lethality, the added boost in attributes became a futile endeavor since the damage he received had increased by a massive number and right after the duration of the skill ended, the Hobgoblin died before it could even put up a fight.
Ting~
[You have slain the Hobgoblin!]
[Level difference: 15; experience gain +300%]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Blood Brace (Tier 0 Epic) has been obtained]
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A series of notifications appeared in his view. He fell to the ground panting as he truly had overstrained his body. His health was still in critical condition and he only had 8 lesser healing potions remaining. He still had to kill a few more sub-bosses and the dungeon boss so he couldn't have the luxury to waste another potion.
He stood back up and started munching on the goblin corpses. After eating all the goblins, somehow the attributes he should've gained from the goblins had fallen to a certain amount but when he ate the humanoid goblins, he still obtained a constant number of attributes. From the hundreds of goblins, he ate he only obtained 6 points of Poison Element and 10 points of free status attributes; 4 intelligence, 5 strength, and 1 agility while the humanoid goblins who only numbered 25 units gave him 4 points of Poison Element and 13 points of free status attributes: 5 agility, 5 strength, 3 intelligence.
'So eating the same type of meat would eventually slow down the points I gain until I can't get any points anymore. It seems that I can't store the same meat in bulk since it would lose its usefulness. Well, that is only fair considering that eating the same thing over and over again makes my taste buds bland and I can't take advantage of this effect even by eating the same type of meat as the system won't allow it. I have to expand my palate and eat other types of monster meat.'
With the goblin meat losing its value, he disregarded all of the goblin meat and organs but still saved the bones since he could still make use of it. He collected the bones of the humanoid goblins and turned them into throwable stakes. Not only were the bone stakes contain a harder material, compared to the bone spikes that had one-time uses, the bone stakes could be used multiple times before they could start to crumble and break.
Alon proceeded to munch on the dead hobgoblin. As soon as he swallowed the meat, a stinging sensation spread through his stomach and he quickly puked a mouthful of meat.
Ting~
[You have been inflicted with Toxic Poison!]
[Health rapidly decreased by 1% every second. 15-second duration.]
"...!"
Unlike the other goblin meat that poisoned him by points of his health, the Hobgoblin meat decreased his health by a percentage. Thankfully, as his Poison Element had reached 18 points, the effect had been greatly lessened. The poison effect would have been far stronger if he didn't have a good amount of resistance to it.
High risk, high return!
Alon sped up his consumption since he was currently in the race of time. His health remained at a pace where the healing and poisoning had balanced out. He'd use an antidote to cure the poisoning but since his antidote could only cure lesser poisons, it was useless for a Toxic Potion since it's rated as a high-ranked poison. He'd need to buy a basic antidote to cure it but basic antidotes could only be found in cities.
As fortunate as he was, the Poison Element he gained from eating the Hobgoblin meat granted him 2 points every time and the status attributes he gained didn't drop lower than 2 points. The stronger the type of monster, the better the attributes that were given. With the constant increase in poison resistance, he was finally able to battle the Toxic Poison and after he finished eating the entire hobgoblin, he gained 12 points of Poison Element and 25 points of status attributes: 9 strength, 8 agility, 8 intelligence. His Monster Eater proficiency reached 12% and a window panel appeared in his view.
Ting~
[Serrated Knife has collected one type of monster meat (1/50)]
[+1 Poison Element]
[Poison Element: 30
+150 magic resistance
+30% Chance to inflict Poisoning effect for 1 second
+30% Chance of dealing with Bleeding effect for 1 second
+150 Poison-based magic damage
+60 Poison Resistance]
[Your Poison tolerance has made you immune to lesser poisons and lesser venoms]
Alon was quite satisfied with his gains. He wasn't in a hurry to consume the shaman as he started collecting the useful bones of the Hobgoblin.
'With these thick and sturdy bones, I could turn this into melee weapons. Huh? What's that?'
Near the chest cavity of the Hobgoblin, he could see a small glowing orb, with the dark surrounding, the orb's glow stood out.
Ting~
[Berserk Chieftan Monster Core (0)
Type: Material
An ingredient that can be used to craft equipment and alchemy
+5% chance of crafting Epic Equipment
+5% chance of brewing Advanced potions
+2% chance of applying a skill to the product
+10% increase in product effectivity
+2 Poison Element]
'A monster core? Weird, I didn't get any monster cores from the goblins. Maybe boss monsters are the only ones that dropped them but Keith said that majority of all monsters had a core in them. The only way a monster cannot form a core is if it is artificially made or there is something wrong with how they grow.'
Alon wondered about it but he couldn't make up an idea since he was still new to the game. He wanted to check out more information after he entered the city but for now, he placed the monster core back in his spatial inventory.
After collecting all the useful bones from the Hobgoblin's corpse, he started to devour the Goblin Shaman. As soon as he bit through its red skin, he was surprised at how tasty it was, after swallowing the meat, his body started to heat up uncontrollably causing Alon to cough up smoke as if he had just swallowed an ember of coal.
Ting~
[You have been inflicted with a Burn Effect]
[Burn Effect depletes 300 HP every second and decreases attributes by 2%. 30 seconds.]
"Shit my taste buds have been burnt."