In the end, this guy was just a player. And after all, this was a real world. In a game, taking just 1 point of fire damage without any special effects would amount to little more than, "Oh, I took 1 point of fire damage." It was the sort of thing you could shrug off.
Unfortunately, this was the real world. To put it bluntly, taking 1 point of damage was like having lamp oil splashed in your face and set alight. The oil wouldn't burn all that fiercely, so really, it just hurt quite a bit.
That was why, even though the price was a whopping 15 Gold Coins—when a regular dagger cost just 2, and even a flashy longsword cost only 8—Lin Yun was willing to spend 15 Gold Coins on the Lantern Staff. That was the difference he was paying for.
And now, the effect was clear.
Next, it was worth mentioning that in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, ordinary commoners had 6 HP to start with. Their Constitution modifier could add a few more points, while those with poor Constitution—well, think of the sickly.
This so-called life didn't mean that you died as soon as it ran out. It was a little different from an ordinary game. When your HP ran out, you only entered a dying state. In real-world terms, it was more like collapsing from blood loss.
Of course, if nobody saved you, you would eventually die. But if someone could save you, they could restore you—and might even wake you up right away.
By the way, a Priest had 8 HP to start with, and Lin Yun had a Constitution score of 18, giving him a Constitution modifier of +4. That meant Lin Yun had 12 HP, which was something to be grateful for. At least he was pretty tough.
"What are you doing? We're trying to save you, and you attack us?" On the other side, the Female Fighter, who should have been following behind Lin Yun, frowned as she watched the player writhe on the ground in pain from the flames on Lin Yun's Lantern Staff. She delivered a righteous rebuke.
But just then, the face hidden behind Lin Yun's helmet furrowed into a frown. He strode forward and stamped down hard.
The player, who had been lying on the ground screaming, screamed even louder. Lin Yun's boot came down on the wrist of the hand holding his sword, and a metallic clatter rang out as it hit the ground.
"Mr. Silent?" The Female Fighter looked confused.
"Cut the chatter. Prepare to fight," Lin Yun said in a low voice. He gave the player's head a hard kick with his boot, then quickly turned around.
"D20+2+2+4=26, hit." Attacks against a prone creature received an additional +4 bonus to hit.
"1+2=3." He wasn't a monk, so under normal circumstances, an unarmed attack dealt only 1 point of damage, plus his Strength modifier at most.
As he turned, a horde of charging goblins came straight toward him.
Lin Yun raised his shield. Peering around its edge, he saw goblins carrying little knives, small stone axes, and small Stone Spears. They chattered as they charged at him.
The Lantern Staff illuminated an area about as large as an ordinary oil lamp—roughly 4.5 meters at most. The light gradually faded with distance, becoming invisible at around 9 meters. But the cave was full of obstacles and surfaces that blocked or reflected the light, so by the time Lin Yun spotted the goblins, they were already within about three meters of him. In game terms, they were right in his face, just 10 feet away.
Lin Yun braced his shield and thrust the Lantern Staff out past the edge of his heavy wooden shield like a spear, aiming at the foremost goblin, who held what counted as a long spear for a goblin: a Stone Spear.
Reality wasn't a turn-based game. Both sides moved almost simultaneously.
The goblin thrust its spear in the direction of Lin Yun's shield, too.
"D20+4=13, hit."
Perhaps goblins were simply better at fighting than "Adventurers" like Lin Yun. The goblin's spear struck first, before Lin Yun's staff could land. It seemed to have hit just as Lin Yun had extended his arm past the shield, leaving it exposed. The spear struck the unarmored part of his arm.
It was baffling. The scale armor had come with steel gauntlets, and Lin Yun had put them on, of course. But the armor had no vambraces, only gauntlets, so the spear still managed to pierce his arm.
Lin Yun's hand jerked, and he nearly dropped the Lantern Staff. Fortunately, he still managed to thrust it forward. He deliberately aimed for the goblin's head. Goblins were short, after all, so its head was just the right height for him to reach with a thrust.
The goblin had been about to dodge Lin Yun's attack. But when it seemed to realize that its spear had struck him, a wicked grin appeared on its face. It hesitated for a split second as it dodged, and Lin Yun's Lantern Staff struck it squarely on the head.
"D6+2+1=7"
The moment the Lantern Staff hit the goblin's head, the lamp oil on it splashed all over the goblin. It frantically covered its head and screamed, then abruptly fell silent and collapsed to the ground.
Lin Yun's brows lifted beneath his helmet. He hadn't expected to score a One-Hit Kill. He remembered that goblins didn't have much HP, but this was the real world, and under certain special circumstances, this goblin might have been tougher than usual. He just hadn't expected to take it down so easily.
Seeing their companion suddenly fall to the ground, looking as if only one breath remained in him, the goblins charging forward began to hesitate. But they hesitated for only a moment before continuing to charge at Lin Yun. They had clearly lost some of their momentum, though.
Seeing that the goblins had lost some of their nerve, Lin Yun relaxed a little. If he remembered correctly, charging also granted a +2 bonus to hit.
But before Lin Yun could fully relax, his hand began to itch, then grow numb. He jumped in alarm, but soon—
"D20+4+2+1=19, save successful." Because he had learned about poisons and how to resist them from a master Thief, Silent had some resistance to toxins that weren't particularly potent. This meant that when Lin Yun resisted poison, he could add his proficiency bonus as well as his Constitution modifier. And that wasn't all. As a subdomain of the Protection Field, it also granted Lin Yun divine power, giving him a +1 resistance bonus to all saving throws.
That only made Lin Yun more cautious. The goblin's attack had dealt an incredibly low amount of damage—just 1 point—but Lin Yun had only 12 HP in total, and there was more than one goblin here.
"Mr. Silent, are you all right?" The Priestess noticed that Lin Yun seemed to be hurt and asked without thinking.
Meanwhile, unlike the Priestess, who could only spare a moment to check on him for now—
The Female Mage had already reacted. She was a little tense, which made her a beat slower, and she was especially stunned by the sight of that player attacking Lin Yun and getting knocked to the ground with a single blow from his staff. But she finally recovered. After Lin Yun was struck, she raised her wand.
The wand had a brilliantly colored Ruby at its tip. She placed one hand on it and nervously closed her eyes, trying to focus that way. Then she muttered, "N-nock... nock and... fire, Flame Arrow." She seemed so nervous that she almost forgot the incantation.
But in the end, she managed to cast it. Flames erupted from the wand and formed into a fireball that shot toward a goblin beside Lin Yun, which was about to attack him with a stone axe.
"Gah!" The goblin, completely caught off guard and focused entirely on Lin Yun, somehow wasn't hit by the Flame Arrow. But it seemed to have been startled by it, and in its distraction, it accidentally swung its stone axe into the scale armor beneath Lin Yun's cloak. Metal clanged against metal. Yep, our attack failed to pierce the enemy's armor.JPG
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