NOVEL WEB Chapter 19: The Appearance of the Boss: Zombie Marshal
Just as he was about to arrive, a notification appeared.
[You Obtained 164,500 EXP!]
[You leveled up!]
[You obtained <Soul Stone – Rank B> x1]
[You obtained <Recovery Potion – Rank C> x2]
[You obtained <Elite Zombie General's Hammer – Rank C> x1]
[You obtained <Skill Book: Drain Energy - Rank B> x1]
[You obtained 250,000 ryō]
Jumping to the top of a four-story building, Tanaka stroked his chin, deep in thought.
The rewards were practically the same. Considering it was the same level and also an Elite Zombie General, it was no great surprise. The only thing that really differed was the skill obtained; other than that, everything else remained the same.
While his shadow clones fought against the zombies, he decided to increase his luck to 151, spending 6 points.
After confirming, unlike previous times, no skill was triggered.
"Well..." Although a little disappointed, he did not let it affect him.
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[You leveled up!]
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"Okay, that came at a good time." He murmured.
INT: 163 (+85%) <(+39)>
Clicking confirm, two holographic pages soon appeared side by side.
[Since your INT has exceeded 200, you have obtained the passive skill [Advanced MP Capacity].]
[Since your INT has exceeded 200, you have obtained the passive skill [MP Control].]
[MP Control (Passive) Max Level]
[A skill that allows effective control of MP.]
[Effect: 10% decrease in MP consumption]
[Advanced MP Capacity (Passive) Max Level]
[Effect: 30% increase in MP-based attacks]
[Effect: 30% decrease in MP consumption]
Taking a deep breath, he didn't even know what to say. Now, he had a 40% reduction in MP consumption.
If Medium MP Capacity hadn't evolved into Advanced MP Capacity, he would have even less MP consumption.
In any case, it was already something incredible. His MP itself had already become quite high.
MP: [4,460/4,460]
'With this MP value and a 40% reduction in consumption,' he thought with a smile, 'I'll be able to use more than five 'Adamantine Sealing Chains' at the same time.'
He was only calculating without considering his MP recovery or any skill capable of recovering MP like life force draining.
[You leveled up!]
"Huh?" Until now, he had ignored all the notifications, but, upon stopping to think, he realized he must have killed more than 50 zombies, and yet, no miniboss or boss had appeared.
Canceling the shadow clones, Tanaka received an absurd amount of skill upgrades.
Among the skills, the one he most wanted to improve was the shadow clone, which leveled up to 12.
Now, he could create a total of 21 shadow clones.
Forming hand seals, the sound of smoke bombs echoed as 21 shadow clones appeared.
In an instant, they dispersed in different directions.
With Psychokinesis at level 13, he could manipulate objects up to 17 kg with a maximum control distance of 30 meters.
"Whoosh!"
When he levitated five shurikens and used Rapid Throw, the speed was so fast it was hard to follow with the naked eye.
[You Obtained 3,130 EXP!]
The zombie's head was pierced in such a way that the body slowed down before turning into goo, then dark smoke.
Be it due to the improvement of other skills, it also helped that the Rapid Throw skill itself reached level 15.
A few minutes later...
[You leveled up!]
The fact that it 'took longer' for him to level up this time was because his shadow clones were replenishing MP before starting to farm EXP by killing zombies.
"TREMBLE!!!!"
A violent tremor.
In an instant, he saw various zombies on the map disintegrated and grouped into a dark ball a few meters off the ground.
His shadow clones, just like him, climbed up tall buildings while looking at the sphere of dark energy mass forming into an egg shape.
Some violent sounds echoed, similar to thunder.
"This time, it has to be the boss," he murmured, his hands sweating a little.
One of his clones punched the concrete floor, breaking it into several pieces. Seeing this, the other shadow clones repeated the action, destroying most of the ground floor into stone pieces and placing the best pieces in the inventory.
When opening the inventory, Tanaka noticed that his inventory had 7 slots occupied by stones.
<?????>
Even when he clicked 'Detailed Information' which he had recently learned to use, nothing but question marks appeared.
'All I can do is wait,' he thought.
"Crack, crunch!"
When the 'egg' expanded to the point of being large enough to cast a huge shadow on the ground, it began to crack. All the shadow clones, as well as himself, withdrew about 30 to 40 stones from the inventory and made them float.
For him, it didn't matter what came out of that 'egg'; the moment he got the chance, Tanaka would go on the attack.
"Crack!!"
The first thing to come out of the 'egg' was a pair of metallic legs at the bottom. Then, on the sides, two arms, one holding a spiked mace that seemed to be made of iron.
When a head emerged at the top with a pair of neon red eyes behind a Spartan gladiator-style helmet, visible behind the helmet was a decaying being with a mouth that seemed to have been glued and stretched, making the appearance of this being even more intimidating.
"CRACK!!"
When the 'egg' fully cracked, this being wore a warrior-style armor covering the entire body with some cracked details on the pauldrons, gloves, boots, and greaves.
<Boss>
LV40 <Zombie Marshal>
HP: [191,800]
'Huh?' Something was wrong; it didn't seem right to Tanaka when he saw the brief information about the boss.
"KUUUUUUAHHHHH!"
With a roar, the Zombie Marshal began to emerge the instant it lost support from the 'shell.'
"BOOOOM!"
As soon as it fell, the impact made the ground tremble slightly as the Zombie Marshal's feet sank into the ground.
"Whoosh!! ..."
Tanaka didn't see which shadow clone started, but as soon as one of them shot five stones at once towards the Zombie Marshal, the rest did the same.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! ..."
Seeing the increasing damage and noticing that most of it was between 200 and 400 damage, his blood ran cold a little.
"What a robust defense." Tanaka murmured quietly, "It seems that armor he's wearing isn't just for show."
However, in less than 5 seconds, the Zombie Marshal's life was already nearing its end without even having time to take any action.
When Tanaka thought he was going to kill the boss just like that, the Zombie Marshal roared, but it was a different roar from before.
"KiiAaaooOOOoooo!"
A line appeared in his vision shortly after.
[You are being affected by the skill 'Provoke' of the Zombie Marshal...]
However, immediately after, another notification appeared.
[A Player's mind resisted the skill 'Provoke'!]
It didn't even have time to affect him really, and at the Zombie Marshal's roar, besides causing 'Provoke' which gave him a thirst to attack even if only for a millisecond, it also had another effect which was to make 10 level 40 zombies start emerging from the ground.
They were just 10 zombies, not worth giving much importance to. The main focus of the clones was on the Zombie Marshal, and under their attack from all directions, even when the Zombie Marshal used the mace to try to defend itself, it was useless, and soon its life reached zero.
"Is that it?" Tanaka was a bit skeptical. It seemed too easy, even easier to kill than the Elite Zombie General...
However, the EXP reward etc. never came, and he saw a kind of shockwave being produced when the Zombie Marshal's life reached zero.
'Fus Roh Dah!'
Tanaka scratched his face, sheepishly, for thinking of those words when he saw what the Zombie Marshal did when its life reached zero.
However, his gaze turned serious when he noticed that the old life bar of the Zombie Marshal was replaced by a new one, clearly different from the previous one, making him realize why the previous one felt so strange...
<Boss>
LV40 <Zombie Marshal>
HP: [383,600/383,600]
The Zombie Marshal's life literally doubled. That wasn't all; the presence of a / indicated that possibly either the Zombie Marshal had a very high HP regeneration or a skill that could recharge its life. Whatever it was, he didn't wait to find out and attacked along with the shadow clones.
"KIIIAAAaaOOOoOOOH!"
At his roar, Tanaka saw something terrifying. All attacks, both his and his clones', were halved, dealing a maximum of 200 HP per attack, and he saw the Zombie Marshal begin to emit a bubbling red aura around him, reminiscent of the aura he remembered seeing in the Naruto anime when transforming into the Kyubi, and he saw the Zombie Marshal's life decreasing by 100 HP per second on its own.
"Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Running while holding his mace with both hands, when he got close to the three-story building where two of his shadow clones were, he saw the Zombie Marshal start spinning like a top with the mace, attacking the building that was almost his height.
"Bang! Bang! ..."
The two shadow clones jumped high in another direction, but then the Zombie Marshal stopped spinning and, with an incredibly fast charge, attacked the two.
"Bang!"
With two consecutive sounds of a combination of "poof" and "pop," the two clones were 'killed,' and the Zombie Marshal's life restored a bit.
"BOOM!"
When the Zombie Marshal landed heavily on the ground, creating cracks with his enormous weight, the stones continued heading toward him, making him lose life quickly although the damage received had decreased.
And, by the way, when his clones were hit, one of them suffered 778 damage, and the other almost double that amount while the Zombie Marshal recovered about 150 HP from each of them.
"Huh?"
Tanaka was confused. The Zombie Marshal didn't head towards him or his shadow clones but instead ran very quickly towards the zombies from before and then...
"Ahhh!"
A bit too late, Tanaka understood the Zombie Marshal's intention.
Spinning like a top, the Zombie Marshal plowed through the zombies, recharging the lost HP, now with his HP bar full again.
After stopping spinning, the Zombie Marshal roared again.
"KiiAaaooOOOoooo!"
At the same time that the familiar line appeared in his vision, Tanaka understood the Zombie Marshal's intention.
Another 10 level 40 zombies began to emerge from the ground.
"Tsk." Clicking his tongue in disdain, Tanaka formed hand seals and created two shadow clones, and meanwhile, the other shadow clones finished off the ten zombies as they emerged from the ground, then shifted focus back to the Zombie Marshal.
With an arm in front of his face, the Zombie Marshal ran like a bullet train towards him, perhaps noticing that there were three now that he had created two more shadow clones.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! ...!"
The stones thrown by him and the clones melted the Zombie Marshal's life so fast that when he reached him, half of his life had already been reduced.
At this point, the aura around the Zombie Marshal disappeared, making him slower.
However, this didn't make Tanaka underestimate him because he saw something special in the attack the Zombie Marshal used to kill his two clones earlier.
And, as expected, the instant he was just 10 meters away, the Zombie Marshal jumped and almost instantly arrived in front of him.
||- Note -||