BruiserBear was exactly what his name suggested—a towering brute nearly two meters tall, thickset, and built like a freight train. He looked like the kind of guy who bench-pressed steel for fun in real life.
Without hesitation, he charged at Isaac with his Hyenaman Club raised high.
"Boss, huh? Let's see how you like this!" BruiserBear roared, bringing his weapon down with full force.
CRACK!
A single number popped up above Isaac's head:
-1
Everyone fell silent.
"…What the hell?! Just 1 damage?!" BruiserBear stared at the Hyenaman in disbelief. "What is this guy's DEF?!"
"Wait a second, is that… 1150 HP?!"
Compared to their own puny 300-400 HP, Isaac's four-digit health bar looked absolutely terrifying.
Isaac's physical defense was 28. The average level 5 player, armed with a 1-star Hyenaman Club, had an attack stat of around 20-23. The -1 was basically the system's minimum forced damage.
Fortunately, White Jack, the team's leader, still had his head on straight.
"That must've been a low roll," he said quickly. "His defense must be around 19 or 20. It's high, sure, but it's manageable. We've got healing potions. Rotate aggro, share damage, and keep healing—he'll go down eventually. Stay sharp, team!"
"Yeah, we're the highest-level players in the newbie village, and we all have weapons," another added. "With good teamwork, we can wear him down!"
"We're the strongest! Let's do this!"
All five charged in together.
-1, -1, -1, -1…
"…Why are we all hitting for 1?" White Jack's face drained of color.
Isaac narrowed his eyes slightly. These people were… idiots.
Low rolls? No, they just weren't breaking through his defense.
Sighing internally, Isaac figured—well, might as well do his job. He gave a weak "grrgh" like a low-intelligence monster and casually swung his club at BruiserBear.
-52
The guy's defense was probably 5. And this wasn't even a crit. Just a regular hit, but still a serious chunk of HP.
"WHAT THE—?!" BruiserBear staggered back. "That one hit took off, like, a quarter of my HP!"
"Pot!" someone shouted.
BruiserBear quickly popped a healing potion: +20 HP instantly, followed by +10 per second, healing 100 HP total over time. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Just as he started to feel a little better, Isaac's second swing came flying in.
"Fools! You dare challenge me, mortals?!" Isaac muttered dramatically, putting on his best boss act. Hey, it wasn't weird for bosses to have lines, right?
-57
Even with the potion, BruiserBear's health dropped sharply again.
"This boss is cracked!" he yelled. "Too much damage! He hits fast, too!"
"Hold formation! Don't panic! Manage your aggro and movement!" White Jack shouted.
But all five continued attacking.
-1, -1, -1, -1, -1…
-54
-1, -1, -1…
-116 (CRIT)
BruiserBear nearly coughed up blood. In just a few seconds, the boss had taken 279 HP off him—and even with healing, he was down to about 150 HP.
Three more swings and he'd be toast.
"This guy's damage, crit rate, defense, speed—he's got everything!"
"We can't win this. Retreat!" White Jack yelled.
They turned and ran.
But Isaac had much higher Agility than any of them. His movement speed outpaced theirs by far.
WHAM WHAM! BruiserBear dropped first.
"HE'S TOO FAST!" Seductress shrieked as she turned to run, only to stumble right into a pack of nearby Hyenaman.
Of course, Isaac had been herding her that way.
Now with the mobs stirred up, chaos broke out. The rest of the team got pulled into the fight. Within moments, the entire party was surrounded.
The last to fall, Muscleman, screamed, "NO—I don't wanna go back to the village!" before he collapsed under a hail of clubs.
All five members of Crimson Pact were dead—sent back to respawn at the newbie village.
Isaac just shook his head. "Don't blame me, guys. If you ran into the real Daffino, you'd have been completely wiped."
"As payment, I'll just take these potions off your hands," he added with a wicked grin.
He bent down and scooped up 27 healing potions.
Since BruiserBear was the only one Isaac had personally killed, he received just 25 XP Orbs.
"…No reputation points, either?" Isaac frowned. "Guess the level gap's too big. Half XP, no rep, no mats…"
Didn't matter. A single Star 3 Talent Shard could be traded for 100 reputation points. He wasn't hurting.
And now he had 76 healing potions in total—plus the four he already had. That made 80.
Better yet, he finally understood why players were wandering into this area.
They'd seen the item description for the Cragstone Hyenaman Club, which listed Greedy Daffino as the drop source. So naturally, everyone was hunting for the boss.
Problem was, none of them had the power to actually beat him.
"So… I still have this place to myself for a while," Isaac said, relaxing.
Time to go find Red Team and keep leveling up on the ridge.
Somewhere in a pro esports training facility…
Inside a small office, White Jack and his teammates sat in silence. No one said a word. The air was thick with frustration and defeat.
Finally, Jack spoke.
"Don't let it get to you. That was a boss, and he was three levels above us."
"Yeah, but our attacks couldn't even break his defense…" Yuri muttered. Just like his in-game character BruiserBear, he was a hulking two-meter-tall man. But right now, he slouched in his seat, deflated.
"His damage was busted, too," said Seductress. In reality, she actually looked decent with makeup on—not exactly seductive, but passable. "One club swing nearly takes out a whole bar of health. Who can survive that?"
"There were so many mobs around. We accidentally aggroed them in the middle of the fight," said Zhang Jie, aka Muscleman.
Jack nodded. "We'll get stronger. Once we level up, we'll be able to farm him. At least we know where the boss is now."
Yuri shook his head. "It's not just that we got wiped. We've been wiped plenty of times before. That's not it…"
"What I don't get… is how the hell did LoneMadness beat that thing? I seriously can't wrap my head around it."
Jack had no response.
Yeah…
How the hell did LoneMadness beat that boss?