Versatile: Alternate World

Chapter 62 - Horde

In the first two difficulties, the players would only meet the enemies as they proceed further into the dungeon. However, in this situation, they will start gathering up. If you are in a party, you can immediately gather your bearings as your tank will be the first one to quickly act as the decoy and absorb the damage, meanwhile in solo, especially when you are first-timer, you won't be able to get on your bearings before you get overwhelmed by the enemies.

I am quite prepared for what will happen so before the first attack will occur, I transformed my Versatile Weapon into a Magic Sword and immediately swing it to my back.

"SQUEAK!"

-You dealt 10,000 damage! Critical!

A big rat with flaming fur was the one who received it. Although the attack was critical, it didn't kill the monster in one hit. The damage is not enough to kill it in one hit.

[Hellfire Rat]

Level 30

HP: 7,500/17,500

Attributes; Beast, Fire

Not only this enemy, but there are also others and some of them are undead and ghost attribute monsters.

[Burning Soul]

Level 30

HP: 15,000/15,000

Attributes: Ghost, Fire

[Suffering Damned Corpse]

Level 35

HP: 25,000/25,000

Attributes: Undead, Fire

Not only that, but there is also a need to avoid the mini-boss' attacks that are added on the fry of this annoying mob.

[Skeleton King](Mini-Boss)

Level 40

HP: 100,000/100,000

Attributes: Undead, Knight, Fire

The Mini-Boss hits hard and is the bane against Tanks. Therefore, to last longer against the horde, you need to defeat the Mini-Boss. Killing the mini-boss also stops the spawning of the mobs endlessly. For those who plan to finish the dungeon in the least time possible, it is recommended to kill the mini-boss first so that you won't get held up with the smaller mobs. The longer the fight is, the more exhausted you will be. And since I am planning to beat the time that Kazuki and the party are trying to accomplish, which I have rough estimation, I will have to defeat this boss in the least time possible due to my knowledge in the past timeline.

I slice and rush forward to the Mini-boss. Just killing it will stop the spawning of the smaller mobs allowing me to fight it without worrying for endless monsters pouring here and there.

The Skeleton King, despite being a skeleton packs a whole lot of defense. Hitting it with brute force is not enough to destroy and kill it. You need strategy and defense penetration to immediately dispose of it before you are overwhelmed with the smaller mobs. AOE attacks and magic skills also work well with the boss. Healing and Holy Magic do not work with this boss so spamming healing magic or any kind of magic that involves healing won't work. It can only be killed with brute force.

The small mobs are in the way and will always try to block your way to the Mini-Boss.

"Get out of my way!" Swinging my Magic Sword, I hit them and throw them aside whenever the chances present themselves.

The hit the smaller mobs received are not enough to kill them but will reduce a little bit of their HP. Reducing their HP like this is enough because killing them will only multiply the number of enemies trying to stop you.

When I got near the Skeleton King, I changed my weapon to shield and spear, the weapon of choice of the Paladins, the main tankers. I am fine with the Magic Sword but I want to also raise the AP of the Paladin so that I can learn some skills for the class like a few passives it possesses.

"GRAAAAAAHHHH!"

The Skeleton King pounded its rusty armor using its greatsword before hitting me. Of course, I blocked it with a shield. The attack is very strong and I barely managed to block it but thanks to my expertise in handling this boss allowed me to reduce the strength of the attack.

After the greatsword attack, I gripped the spear and poke the Skeleton King's armor. If the Versatile Weapon has the ability to reduce some defense of the monster, then I can at least reduce this mini-boss' defense.

-Inflicted 3,250 damage. Defense was reduced by 5% for 30 seconds.

The 30% chance activated! When the debuff activated, I quickly changed the shield and spear into a hammer and quickly bash the Mini-Boss with it.

BANG!

-Inflicted 10,000 damage! CRITICAL! Defense was reduced by 5% for 30 seconds.

Another stack which means the defense of the Mini-Boss has reduced to 10%. And based from the damage inflicted aside from the critical hit, I am sure the defense penetration activated, allowing me to inflict more damage.

The HP of the Mini-Boss will not last at this rate if the skills of the Versatile Weapon continue to activate. But the mobs are starting to gather now. To avoid being ganged up, I retreated from the boss and let the mobs follow me away from the boss. The Mini-Boss has slow movement and will only attack whenever you are in his 2-meter range. If he is far from you, he won't bother to follow you.

I kite around the mobs to make sure they won't be gathering around the Mini-Boss. It was successful and the mobs followed me and ready to clobber me. I didn't bother hitting them since I already hit them earlier too much and if I hit them again, they will die, causing a new spawn of enemies multiplied by two and I don't want that many hindrances to appear.

Dodging every mob and enduring their attacks that reduce my HP bar slowly, I drink potions whenever I get low in health before I continue. After a few seconds, I managed to shake off the mobs. Back to the boss again but this time, I used another strategy.

Instead of shield block, I decided to rush using the hammer instead of changing it to shield. Why? Because the enemies in Alternate World are somewhat sentient and can remember strategies did to them. If you keep repeating the same pattern, twice, the enemy will remember this and will immediately use a new way to counter your strategy, destroying it on the process.

While heading to the 2-meter distance of the Mini-Boss, I activated [Berserk] immediately, raising my attack power tremendously but reducing my defense too much now that the Versatile Weapon has now the ability to enhance the power of the Berserk Status and also reduce your defense further.

"EAT THIS!"

Swinging the hammer with all my strength on the Skeleton King's skull, I expected the defense to fall further but I didn't expect to hear a sound when the hammer struck the skull.

CRACK!

I paused and saw the Skeleton King crumble to dust after that and the interface showed me the notification.

-Got 25,000 EXP(Additional 25,000 EXP for Instant Kill)(Additional 5,000 EXP for killing a Mini-Boss)(Title Effects activated, 55,000 EXP gained)

-Got 15 Paladin AP

-Got 30 Berserker AP

[Congratulations! You were awarded the title: Skullshatterer!]

[Skullshatterer]

Type: Unique Title

How to acquire: Inflict 500,000 exact damage to the Skeleton King while hitting the weakness which is the head.

Effect: Basic attacks and skills has 2% chance to inflict stun that would last for 5 seconds. The effect cannot be stacked. The effect continues even if not equipped.

Note: You smash heads like melons easily, now, are you willing to smash eggs too?

----

A/N: Someone asked me if all the unique titles that Manato obtains in the game continue its effect despite not equipped. Well, the answer to that is no. As you recall his title [Early Billionaire Tycoon], despite being a Unique Title, lacks the "Effect continues even if not equipped" description on its effect. Which means it needs to be equipped to activate. In the future chapters, there will be similar Titles that will lack that description. So don't immediately assume that all his Unique titles will immediately have an effect even if he didn't equip the same title.

As for the stats of Manato, I noticed that many of you complain about showing his stats panel frequently so I decided to remove it for now. I will reveal it from time to time to show his progress but I won't be bothering to show it all the time because you are reading a story, not a statistical novel.

On the side of killing Kazuki early to avoid future trouble, don't worry, we will reach that part but let's not be too hasty. Remember that death is just mercy for people like Kazuki, so why don't you enjoy his pain first in the later chapters? Muahahahaha, isn't that much better? Taste revenge to it's finest. Anyways, good day to all and happy reading.