Chapter 7: First Boss Kill — Lightning Leap! - My Basic Attacks Permanently Increase HP

Futu Dunshan was startled again. He had been so absorbed watching Lin Tianhao's movements that he hadn't noticed an assassin sneaking up on them under stealth.

After a brief moment of shock, Futu Dunshan snapped back to his senses. "Snow Emperor, bro — he's trying to steal the boss!"

Lin Tianhao ignored Futu Dunshan and turned his gaze toward the assassin.

The player was already decked out in a full set of gear.

His eyes were sharp, carrying a killing intent.

This was no ordinary player.

That look in his eyes — no ordinary player could have it.

And just now, he had actually sliced apart Lin Tianhao's arrow with a dagger.

That kind of move was fairly common in the mid-to-late game, but in the early game — especially on the very first day of the server — it was something else entirely.

"Add me to your party. We split the boss loot."

The assassin player spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

Lin Tianhao shook his head. "No."

Hearing that, the assassin said nothing more. He stepped back and slipped into stealth again.

"Damn it, what's his problem? Did he just log on? Trying to steal the boss with stealth?"

Futu Dunshan was getting irritated. "Hey, brat, I'm telling you — I'm with the Futu Guild. I'd advise you to get lost right now, or else—"

"Watch out!"

Before Futu Dunshan could finish, Lin Tianhao had already shouted the warning.

At the same moment, an arrow flew from his bow.

Slash!

The assassin materialized behind Futu Dunshan. Rather than using the novice skill Backstab, he went straight for a throat-cut.

A crimson critical-hit number appeared.

-642.

Bleeding…

-90.

An instant later, Futu Dunshan collapsed to the ground.

Lin Tianhao's eyes narrowed slightly. Clean and ruthless.

And the damage was insane.

Even accounting for a critical hit, his attack power had to be over three hundred to pull that off.

He was Level 8.

Even if every stat point went into attack, his base attack should only be around eighty.

That meant his equipment — or certain passive skills — were granting him a massive attack bonus.

Assassins had passive skills that boosted attack power, move speed, and attack speed.

To be precise, every class had similar skills in one form or another.

Futu Dunshan respawned at the Resurrection Altar in the novice village. He stared at his character — dropped a level, lost a piece of Level 5 gear — and went completely numb.

"Fuck! What the hell was that?! He one-shot me?!"

Futu Dunshan felt like his entire understanding of the game was shattering. He was a tank — and he'd been one-shot!

* * *

Back at the Twisted Treant King.

Lin Tianhao stared coldly at the assassin player.

"What? You want to show off your skills against me?"

Ten years of gaming experience from his past life — if this guy wanted to go head-to-head on mechanics, Lin Tianhao wasn't going to back down.

The assassin player crooked a finger at Lin Tianhao, then slipped back into stealth.

Whoosh!

Lin Tianhao immediately drew his bow and fired — unleashing Rapid Shot right from the start.

Two arrows tore through the air, instantly flushing the stealthed assassin out of hiding.

Whoosh!

Lin Tianhao didn't let up. Now that he'd forced him out, he wasn't about to let him go back into stealth.

Nearby, the Twisted Treant King had begun regenerating HP.

But Lin Tianhao wasn't worried.

Arrows flew in a steady stream. The assassin player kept slicing them apart with his dagger.

Lin Tianhao remained calm, maintaining his attack rhythm without change. Each of his arrows dealt over five hundred damage.

While the game mechanics did allow players to cut down arrows, Lin Tianhao's arrows hit with tremendous force — the assassin's dagger simply didn't have the durability to keep blocking them.

Sure enough.

After deflecting more than ten arrows, the assassin's expression darkened.

Faced with Lin Tianhao's relentless barrage, he stopped trying to block with his dagger. Instead, he executed a back-flip to dodge an incoming arrow.

"You're asking for it!"

Lin Tianhao let out a cold laugh. Another arrow flew — and struck the assassin square in the abdomen.

The impact sent the airborne assassin skidding back a short distance.

Then the second arrow arrived.

-502.

Two arrows. The assassin player died on the spot and was sent back to the Resurrection Altar.

Lin Tianhao's eyes lit up — the assassin had actually dropped a pair of boots.

At the same time, Lin Tianhao noticed something: that assassin had a surprisingly high HP pool.

Against a standard Level 8 assassin, one arrow should have been enough to one-shot him.

Savage Boots (Elite): Level 7.

Effect 1: +0.5 Move Speed.

Effect 2: +1% Crit Rate.

Durability: 100.

Lin Tianhao's eyes brightened. The Savage Boots' stats were actually a decent fit for him.

The only downside was that they didn't add attack speed.

Attack speed was still the stat he needed most right now.

The faster his attack speed, the more HP he could stack through his passive.

And the higher his HP, the more damage his basic attacks would deal.

He pocketed the Savage Boots and turned his attention back to the Twisted Treant King.

With no one left to interfere, the Twisted Treant King was nothing but a punching bag in Lin Tianhao's hands.

Normally, Thorn Shield — a skill that reflected physical damage — would have posed some trouble for Lin Tianhao.

But with his precise marksmanship, Lin Tianhao kept interrupting the Twisted Treant King before it could even cast any skills.

This was another advantage of the novice village: the bosses here basically had no super armor or crowd-control immunity skills.

Ding. "You have slain the Twisted Treant King above your level. EXP +8,250."

Ding. "You are the first player to kill a boss. A server-wide announcement will be made. Do you wish to hide your name?"

"No."

He'd been reborn. A first boss kill was nothing worth hiding his name over.

Besides — he needed to make a name for himself.

He needed prestige.

Because only then could he one day stand at the pinnacle of power.

To fight back against the Alaite Star System, relying on a single person's strength would be a drop in the ocean.

So Lin Tianhao needed to seize power — to control the entire board!

"Server Announcement: Congratulations to player Snow Emperor for achieving the first kill of the Twisted Treant King! We hereby announce this achievement and encourage all players to keep up the great work!"

Ding. "Congratulations! You are the first player in Ragnarok to kill a boss. Rewards: Free Attribute Points +50, Class Skill Book ×1, Class Main Weapon ×1, Gold Coins +100."

Lin Tianhao's lips curved into a smile. Just as expected — solo-clearing a boss really did come with extraordinary rewards.

All 50 free attribute points went straight into attack speed.

His attack speed, originally 1.13, instantly jumped to 2.13.

That attack speed was, without question, unrivaled among all players.

Lightning Leap (Passive Skill): 1-Star.

Effect: Your basic attacks have a 50% chance to trigger Lightning Leap, chaining to up to 10 target units within a 20-meter radius. Lightning Leap deals 10% of your actual damage.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Proficiency: 0/1,000.

Lin Tianhao raised an eyebrow. This skill was interesting. If the skill level went up, did that mean the damage could potentially scale all the way to 90%?

Could the range and number of targets Lightning Leap could chain to also increase?

Just imagining it made Lin Tianhao shudder.

His damage output was already absurdly high — the only weakness was his inability to farm groups of monsters efficiently.

But now, with this skill, even that last shortcoming had been filled.