A cold breeze swept through, ruffling Skybreaker's hair and carrying a faint chill with it.
He stood in the desolate Twilight Ravine, flanked by four undead girls who all wore the same confused expressions. The atmosphere instantly turned strange and awkward.
"Uh… this… this is probably a game bug. Yeah, a bug," Skybreaker said with a forced laugh, trying to mask the unease creeping into his voice.
But deep down, he knew better than anyone that Dark Scrolls was developed by a team known for their meticulous attention to detail. The odds of a bug slipping through were practically zero.
Taking a deep breath, he scanned the empty ravine. A troubling thought crossed his mind—someone had already cleared out all the monsters here.
His mentor had once told him that Twilight Ravine typically spawned around 258 Stone Golems, with a respawn cycle of about 30 minutes.
With the insane precision of the Twelve Gods, they could even calculate the exact respawn time and location of every single monster.
Skybreaker had never doubted his mentor's judgment.
Which meant there was only one explanation for what he was seeing: some player had managed to kill all 258 monsters in less than half an hour. That worked out to roughly one kill every 5 to 6 seconds.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Skybreaker's mind went blank, waves of shock crashing through him.
He muttered to himself, "Even with my mentor's current gear, there's no way he could pull that off."
A name suddenly popped into his head—Leveling God, Overclock.
Overclock was a player famous for his insane grinding speed. If anyone could pull off something like this, it'd be him.
But Skybreaker quickly shook his head, dismissing the idea. Overclock was a mage, and this place was way too far from the mage starter zone. There was no reason for him to come all the way out here.
"It's probably a big guild farming the area," Skybreaker speculated, starting to piece things together.
He looked up at the four undead girls and said, "This place is probably being farmed by Dominion Guild. They've probably gone back to restock supplies and aren't here right now. Let's wait here for a bit. If they come back, I'll use my mentor's name to ask them to leave us a spot for grinding."
As soon as he finished speaking, the four undead girls erupted into excited squeals.
"Oh my god, you know people from Dominion Guild?!" Evelyn Nightshade stared at him with wide, starry eyes, her face full of admiration.
"Dominion Guild is one of the top twenty guilds in the world! Their guild leader is the heir to Harrington Enterprises—he's worth billions!" Isla Nightshade added, practically bouncing with excitement.
"You're amazing, Skybreaker!" another undead girl chimed in, unable to hold back her awe.
Skybreaker grinned and struck a casual pose, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. "Of course. Do you even know who my mentor is? He's one of the Twelve Gods of the entire MMO scene!"
"Wow, I can't wait! I wonder what Dominion Guild's members are like!" Isla Nightshade's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
The group decided to stay put and rest while waiting for the Stone Golems to respawn. But barely a minute had passed when Isla Nightshade's attention was drawn to a stone cave on one side of the ravine.
Near the entrance, scattered skeletons lay in disarray, giving the place an eerie vibe.
Her curiosity piqued as she remembered the hidden ruins scattered throughout Dark Scrolls.
The game was full of places like this, often hiding treasures—artifacts, Sacred Relics, skill books, pet eggs, or even secret bosses.
Driven by her growing excitement, Isla Nightshade quietly made her way toward the cave. Making sure no one noticed, she slipped into the dark entrance.
"Huh? There's someone here?" Her voice echoed in the cave, tinged with surprise and excitement.
In the faint light filtering in from outside, she saw a figure—a female player. Her silhouette was striking, with curves so perfect they looked like they'd been sculpted by an artist.
Even as a fellow woman, Isla Nightshade couldn't help but feel a pang of self-consciousness.
"This face… it's way too gorgeous!"
Isla Nightshade froze when she finally got a good look at DerpyKitty's soft, delicate features.
Even as a fellow woman, she had to admit—this face was stunning enough to make anyone's heart skip a beat.
The kind of flawless, sculpted beauty paired with a perfectly proportioned figure that seemed almost too good to be real.
"Could she be… a lost NPC?" Isla muttered under her breath, her eyes brimming with curiosity.
Dark Scrolls' immersive design removed the usual health bars and name tags above players' heads. Unless someone was on your friends list, in your party, or part of your guild, everyone appeared as if they were part of the game world.
While this added to the realism, it also made it nearly impossible to tell who was a player and who wasn't.
Because of this, Isla Nightshade had no idea that the "girl" in front of her was actually the top-ranked player on the leaderboard—DerpyKitty.
Her first instinct was that someone this beautiful couldn't possibly be a regular player. I mean, where in real life would you find a girl this perfect? This had to be a hidden NPC!
"Is she dead… or just sleeping?" Isla crouched down, reaching out to gently poke DerpyKitty, trying to figure out her status.
That's when her eyes caught something unusual—the faint green glow coming from the bear-shaped helmet on DerpyKitty's head.
"Whoa, what's this? Green glow? Is this… Uncommon gear?" Her voice was filled with barely contained excitement.
She leaned in closer, inspecting the "NPC" more carefully, and the more she looked, the more unbelievable it seemed.
This "NPC" was decked out in a full set of gear!
Helmet, gloves, necklace, boots, belt… aside from her weapon and clothes, which were still starter items, every other piece of equipment was high-level and rare!
Even though only three of the items were green-tier, their design clearly indicated they were part of the same set. This kind of gear setup was ridiculously extravagant!
"This NPC is loaded!" Isla's mind raced as a bold idea popped into her head.
If she could strip this gear off and sell it, she could easily make a few thousand dollars, maybe even tens of thousands! Even if she didn't sell it, just wearing it herself and posting a few pictures on the forums would make her the envy of countless players.
After all, she'd been playing for ten hours straight since the servers went live and hadn't even seen a single decent piece of gear. She was still stuck with her starter staff and cloth robe.
And it wasn't just her—aside from the big guild elites, most regular players were in the same boat.
In fact, earlier, a world announcement had gone out for a level 5 white-tier glove being sold for $500, and even then, demand far outstripped supply.
So it wasn't hard to imagine how much this gear was worth—definitely way more than just tens of thousands of dollars!
Heart pounding with excitement, Isla reached out, trying to remove DerpyKitty's helmet. But no matter how hard she tried, the gear wouldn't budge.
"Huh? Why won't it come off?" She frowned, her face full of confusion.
Just as she was racking her brain for answers, a sudden shout came from outside the cave.
"Skybreaker! Monsters are spawning! Look!"
Isla Nightshade whipped her head around and saw the other undead girls standing in the ravine, pointing excitedly toward a distant rock formation.
She quickly stood up and hurried out of the cave. Following their gaze, she spotted it—a massive skeleton wreathed in red flames slowly making its way toward them from beneath the rocky cliffs.