CRASH.
The world didn't just shake. It broke.
The Void Spider landed in the center of the plaza like a meteorite made of nightmares.
Eight legs. Each one the size of a telephone pole, tipped with obsidian scythes.
Its carapace was a swirling abyss of purple mana. Its eyes were clusters of red hate.
[Boss Monster: Void Spider (Tutorial Variant)]
[Level: 50]
[Status: Hungry.]
SPLAT.
The Mayor; a fat man who had just been giving a speech about "prosperity" popped like a water balloon.
One of the spider's legs impaled him, drove him into the stone, and reduced him to a red smear.
"SCREEEE!"
The Spider shrieked. A sound that ruptured eardrums.
Chaos.
Absolute, unadulterated bedlam.
"Run!"
"My leg! My leg is gone!"
"Where are the Knights?! Save us!"
The crowd of thousands stampeded. Peasants trampled nobles. Nobles shoved children into the path of the monster to buy themselves a second of life.
I stood still.
Arthur's warm corpse was still at my feet.
I took a deep breath.
Smell that?
That's the smell of opportunity.
In the original timeline, this Spider ate 400 people. It was eventually driven off by the Royal Knights, but not before it crippled half the village.
Arthur had pissed his pants hiding behind a fountain.
Me?
I checked my stats.
[Name: Cain Cross]
[Level: 1]
[Class: None]
[MP: 10/10]
[Strength: 3 (Malnourished)]
I was trash. A stiff breeze could kill me.
But I had something better than stats.
I had the Patch Notes.
"System," I whispered, my voice drowned out by the screams of the dying. "Filter targets. Range: 10 meters. Priority: Skills."
A blue grid overlayed my vision.
The world turned into wireframe.
I saw the Knights rushing in. Specifically, I saw Sir Gowan, the Captain of the local garrison. A Silver-Rank warrior.
He charged the Spider, his sword glowing with white energy.
"Hold the line!" Gowan roared. "Protect the youths!"
He swung.
[Skill: Heavy Slash (C-Rank)] activated.
A blade of light cut into the Spider's leg, chipping the armor.
The Spider hissed and swiped back. Gowan blocked, sliding backward, sparks flying from his shield.
He landed right next to me.
He didn't notice Arthur's corpse. He was too busy trying not to die.
"Boy!" Gowan shouted at me, spitting blood. "Get to the shelter! Move your ass!"
I looked at him.
I looked at his glowing sword.
"Sir Gowan," I said, stepping into his personal space. "Big fan."
I reached out my Right Hand.
[Activation: The Usurper (Touch).]
Blue mist exploded from my fingertips. It looked like liquid starlight.
I slapped his shoulder.
ZAP.
Gowan stiffened. His eyes rolled back for a microsecond.
[System Alert.]
[Skill Copied: 'Heavy Slash' (C-Rank).]
[Skill Copied: 'Combat Step' (D-Rank).]
"What the..." Gowan shook his head, stumbling. "Why do I feel... lightheaded?"
"Adrenaline, sir," I lied smoothly. "Go get him, tiger."
I pushed him back toward the monster.
Gowan shook it off and charged back into the fray. He didn't know I just pirated his life's work. He still had the skills, but I had the cracked version.
Now for the main event.
I turned to the Spider.
The Royal Knights were surrounding it. They were doing good damage.
The "Tutorial Variant" meant the boss had 50% reduced HP and Defense. It was meant to be a scare tactic by the System, not a team wipe.
The Knights were whittling it down.
[Boss HP: 75%]
[Boss HP: 60%]
I waited.
I moved through the chaos like a ghost.
A noblewoman tripped in front of me, clutching a bag of jewels.
"Help me!" she screamed, reaching up. "I'll give you gold!"
The Spider sprayed a jet of acidic webbing. It hit the woman.
She melted.
Literally. Her skin sloughed off her bones like wet paper. She screamed for three seconds, then gargled, then dissolved into a puddle of sizzling goo.
[Dopamine Spike: Violent release.]
I stepped over the puddle. I didn't even look down.
Waste of mana, I thought. Should have used a physical attack.
I kept my eyes on the HP bar.
[Boss HP: 20%]
The Spider was enraged. It entered Phase 2.
"HISS!"
It spun, unleashing a shockwave.
Four Knights were decapitated instantly. Their heads flew into the crowd like soccer balls.
Sir Gowan was knocked back, his shield shattered.
"It's too strong!" Gowan screamed. "Retreat! We need the Mages!"
The line broke. The Knights scrambled back.
The Spider screeched in victory, drooling purple venom.
It was wounded. Green blood leaked from a dozen cuts.
[Boss HP: 5%]
It was limping.
The "Heroes" were running away.
Perfect.
"My turn," I whispered.
I triggered the stolen skill.
[Skill: Combat Step.]
Whoosh.
My mana bar dropped by 2 points.
I dashed.
To the naked eye, I was a blur. I closed the distance in a heartbeat.
The Spider was distracted, focused on the fleeing Knights. It didn't see the Level 1 Porter sprinting toward its blind spot.
I wasn't aiming for the legs.
I wasn't aiming for the head.
I had cleaned dungeon corpses for twenty years. I knew anatomy better than a surgeon.
I aimed for the Spiracle; the tiny breathing vent under the thorax.
The only spot without armor.
I gripped my rusted apple knife.
I pumped my remaining mana into the other skill.
[Skill: Heavy Slash.]
The rusty dagger glowed with a pathetic, flickering white light. It wasn't much. It was barely a glow stick.
But it was enough.
I slid under the massive, hairy abdomen. The smell was atrocious; rotten eggs and ozone.
"Open wide," I grinned.
THRUST.
I drove the knife upward.
It sank into the soft, pulsing flesh of the vent.
The Spider froze.
It was like sticking a fork into a toaster.
CRITICAL HIT!
[Fatal Strike!]
The monster convulsed. It tried to scream, but I had punctured its lung sac.
It collapsed.
Tons of chitin and muscle came crashing down.
I rolled away, using the last of my stamina.
BOOM.
The Spider hit the pavement. Dead.
Silence returned to the square.
Dust swirled.
The surviving Knights stared. The crowd peaked out from their hiding spots.
They saw a boy. Covered in blood. Holding a bent, rusty knife. Standing over a corpse the size of a house.
"Did he..."
"Did that porter just..."
I ignored them.
I walked up to the Spider's head.
My Left Hand began to glow.
Not blue.
Red.
The color of arterial spray. The color of greed.
[Trait: The Usurper (Kill) Activated.]
I placed my hand on the Spider's massive, many-eyed face.
"Mine."
[System Notification]
[You have slain the Level 50 Boss: Void Spider.]
[Level Difference: 49.]
[Experience Multiplier: x5000%]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
...
[You are now Level 15.]
The rush of power was orgasmic. My bones density increased. My mana circuits forcefully expanded. It felt like injecting pure caffeine into my veins.
But I wasn't done.
[Target Dead. Harvesting Talent...]
[Harvesting Stats...]
I felt the Spider's essence being ripped out of its corpse. A stream of red energy flowed into my arm.
[Stats Absorbed:]
[+20 Agility]
[+15 Strength]
[Talent Acquired: 'Web Weaver' (B-Rank).]
(Allows creation and manipulation of mana threads).
Garbage. I'll fuse it later.
Now... for the Real Prize.
In the normal game, drop rates are 0.01%.
Legendary items? 0.00001%.
People spent their whole lives farming for a chance at a Rare item.
I looked at my SSS-Trait.
[100% Drop Rate.]
I kicked the corpse.
PING! PING! PING! PING!
The sound of loot dropping was like a slot machine hitting the jackpot in heaven.
Golden light erupted from the body.
A pillar of orange, gold, and purple text blinded everyone in the square.
[Item Obtained: Void Fang Dagger (Epic)]
[Item Obtained: Carapace Armor of the Night (Rare)]
[Item Obtained: Skill Book 'Venom Spit']
[Item Obtained: Skill Book 'Shadow Walk']
[Item Obtained: Void Core (Legendary Material)]
[Item Obtained: 5,000 Gold Coins]
Items cascaded onto the pavement. It was a mountain of wealth. A king's ransom.
The crowd gasped.
"Gold! Look at the gold!"
"Is that... is that an Epic Weapon?!"
Greed.
I saw it in their eyes. The fear was gone, replaced by the primitive urge to take.
Sir Gowan stepped forward, his eyes locked on the Void Fang Dagger.
"Citizen!" Gowan barked, trying to sound authoritative despite his injuries. "Step away from the monster! That is Guild Property! The Knights weakened it, you just landed the final blow! By law, the loot belongs to the Crown!"
I picked up the Void Fang Dagger.
It was beautiful. Curved obsidian, dripping with purple smoke.
[Attack: 450]
[Effect: Ignores 50% Armor.]
I swung it. The air whistled.
"Guild Property?" I repeated, my voice calm.
I turned to face the Knight.
I let my Killing Intent; honed by twenty years of torture leak out.
The air temperature dropped ten degrees.
"I killed it," I said. "I looted it."
I pointed the dagger at the crowd, at the Knights, at the world.
"If you want it..."
I smiled. A jagged, feral grin that made the Knight take a step back.
"Come and die for it."
Gowan hesitated.
He looked at the dagger. He looked at my eyes.
He saw something there. Something that shouldn't exist in a Level 15 boy.
He saw a Predator.
But before he could answer, the System Screen glitched.
It turned Red.
[World Announcement]
[First Blood Achievement Unlocked.]
[Player 'Unknown' has killed the Tutorial Boss in under 5 minutes.]
[Ranking Updated.]
[Global Rank: 1.]
[Reward distributing...]
A chest fell from the sky.
It wasn't wood. It wasn't gold.
It was made of black bone, pulsating with a heartbeat.
THUD.
It landed in front of me.
The energy radiating from it cracked the pavement.
[System Warning: Item Grade exceeds planetary limits.]
[Item Grade: ???]
Everyone froze.
Even the Knights stopped breathing.
They knew what this was.
A Mythic Drop.
I reached for the lid.
Gowan drew his sword. "Stop! In the name of the King, I order you to—"
I opened the chest.
Shadows exploded outward, swallowing the light of the sun.
And from the darkness, a voice; soft, feminine, and terrifyingly amused whispered into my ear.
"Finally. Someone interesting."