Are You Sure This Is an Elite Monster?

"I'm seriously speechless. If this weren't Old Thief's game, I'd have quit right here." Yinzi finally followed the directions and the singing to find the so-called map merchant.

He had originally thought the game had no maps, but when he spoke to a bug named Iselda in the town of Dirtmouth, he learned that he could buy maps from her husband.

And her husband was hiding away in some unknown corner underground.

Geo was the currency used throughout the underground world. With Geo, players could buy the most essential beginner items: the Quill and the Compass.

The Compass marked your position on the map, while the Quill filled in the map after you explored an area.

At the start of the game, you had to figure everything out yourself.

"The map and Compass stuff is especially maddening." Silver complained weakly. He had thought that once he had a map, everything would be fine, but after opening it, he still couldn't find where he was.

It was only after he sat on a bench and equipped the Compass that his current position appeared.

"Won't Old Thief scare players off with all this nonsense?" Yinzi sighed.

He dared to guarantee that a large number of players would rage-quit because of the map and Compass mechanics.

Just as he finished complaining, he saw a comment drift by.

'Thanks for the invite, already quit. Played for half a day and couldn't figure it out. Watching someone else play is way more comfortable.'

'Old Thief just loves tormenting players with these little things.'

'Is this setting really necessary? I think this mechanic is a complete blunder.'

'Maybe there's some deeper meaning to it?'

'Players, stop teaching. The designer has his own ideas.'

The comments quickly flew past. Most of the people posting them had downloaded the game as soon as it launched, only to angrily quit after playing for a while.

Now that they were watching the stream and saw that the streamer couldn't find himself on the map either, everyone was delighted.

They had thought it was their own problem, but looking at this, whose problem could it be if not the designer's?

"Let's keep playing. Now that we have map guidance, it should be much more convenient." Yinzi took a deep breath. Starting a game blind was always the hardest part.

But he had never expected a game to be this difficult.

"There are too many things in this game worth complaining about. You only have five health slots, and getting touched by a small enemy takes away one..."

"And rocks keep falling from above and smacking you on the head for another health slot. Those falling rocks are seriously sneaky." Yinzi complained about the game's mechanics while playing.

Those crawling little monsters weren't enough to kill him, but whenever he let his guard down, he would still get ambushed by the little things.

The feeling was genuinely awful.

With only five health points, every single one felt incredibly precious.

Dying in the game made you lose all your money, leaving behind a black soul at the place of death.

And after dying, the mask that accumulated soul would become cracked. Unless you returned to where your soul was and destroyed it, your mask would remain cracked.

The soul gathered in the mask could be used to restore health. A cracked mask could only hold a little more than half as much soul as an intact one.

"Does this game only have small enemies?" Silver had no idea where he had wandered to. He was simply heading toward unexplored areas on the map.

The moment he said that, he saw a giant bug four or five times taller than his little knight pacing nearby.

"So this is the boss? Damn, it's huge." The massive Husk Guard held an enormous wooden club, its dull eyes utterly devoid of emotion.

When it spotted the protagonist, it merely let out a strange cry and walked toward him.

Based on his previous gaming experience, hitting a monster once should knock it back once.

Yinzi swung the Nail in his hand at the approaching Husk Guard.

The Nail flashed white as it struck the massive insect body, splattering black blood.

He was just waiting for it to get knocked back so he could step forward and hit it again.

Then the enormous club above his head came smashing straight down at Silver's skull.

"Huh?" He had yet to react, and his character hadn't moved at all.

He was still wondering why the monster hadn't been knocked back when the club had already struck him.

Bang!

Two of the five health slots in the upper-left corner vanished instantly.

After the strike, the Husk Guard raised its club again.

Yinzi immediately controlled his character and ran far away.

"Fuck! Two health!" Silver was completely stunned. "So this is a boss? One hit takes two health. If it smacks me twice, I'm basically dead."

Losing one health point didn't feel nearly as bad, but watching two disappear from the upper-left corner at once made his heart ache.

After finding a few small enemies, gathering soul, and restoring his lost health, he returned to the Husk Guard.

"This time, I'm ready." Silver took a deep breath.

He watched the club raised in the monster's hand and took two steps back whenever it attacked. At first, because he hadn't judged the spacing properly, he was still hit twice by that giant club.

But once he got a handle on the attack range, although he dodged miserably, at least he stopped getting hit.

"One, two, three." Yinzi swung the Nail in his hand. Before, he had always been too greedy, constantly trying to land a few more hits while the monster brought its club down, which left him with no time to dodge.

Now he had learned his lesson. He would rather land fewer hits than get attacked.

Two health points hurt far too much. Taking even one hit was almost unbearable.

After he had just stepped back two paces, he noticed that the club had not been raised for an attack for quite some time. While he was still wondering why, a white shockwave rose from the ground.

"So you've got that move too, huh? You've got quite a few attack patterns." Silver hurriedly leaped high into the air, barely avoiding the attack.

During the following exchanges, by not getting greedy, effectively dodging the monster's attacks, seizing chances to go in for a couple of hits, and occasionally trading health while his own was full, he barely managed to take down the Husk Guard.

Under the Nail's heavy blow, the massive Husk Guard burst apart, turning into Geo scattered all over the ground.

"So that was the boss? That's it?" The pale-white little bug picked up every last piece of Geo from the ground, and Yinzi was smug with satisfaction.

He glanced at the comments.

'Sprout Studio next door just started streaming too. They said...'

'This is an elite monster...'

An elite monster? Are you kidding?

Yinzi's first reaction was that the commenter had to be joking. Without any hesitation, he opened Sprout Studio's stream. The one streaming was still that young guy from last time.

The man wore a mysterious smile.

"Isn't it just an elite monster? You can't beat that? No way, right?"

"You can't beat such a simple elite monster?"

"Want me to fight one? Are you sure you want me to fight one?"

"Then let me show you what a real expert looks like."

"This elite monster is seriously very easy~~"