The duration of the second Sap slowly wore off. Kairon had been on edge the entire time, waiting for his opponent to attack, and by this point, he was absolutely frayed with frustration.

  The moment the crowd control effect was about to fade, a third Sap landed on him with pinpoint precision, the stun duration reduced to 15 seconds this time around.

  In his past life, when he'd been a Rogue, he'd toyed with countless opponents using this exact triple Sap chain. The cocky swagger he'd had back then was long gone, replaced now by nothing but white-hot rage and suffocating frustration.

  He couldn't help but curse the old man in the black suit in his head. If that man hadn't forced him into the Nature Mage class, he never would have been left completely helpless, toyed with like this by a Rogue.

  In that moment, he would have rather BlackMantis just hit him with a Cheap Shot outright than leave him stuck like this, locked down for a full minute and forty-five seconds, unable to move so much as an inch.

  How the tables had turned. He never could have imagined he'd end up nailed to the spot by a triple Sap chain himself.

  The fifteen seconds flew by in the blink of an eye, and his opponent still hadn't launched an attack. The second the stun effect broke, Kairon immediately rolled into a concealed spot.

  Just as he'd expected, the guy had never planned to go toe-to-toe with him from the start. He'd only ever wanted to toy with him.

  Low-level Rogues never dared to pick a straight fight with a target before unlocking a forced combat drop skill like Vanish. Without a survival skill to fall back on, they'd be the ones dead for sure if they picked a fight with the wrong mark.

  BlackMantis, you're gonna pay for this.

  Kiriya felt a ravenous, urgent need for an anti-stealth or crowd control break skill tome, or any piece of gear with those effects attached.

  He crouched in the shadows, his eyes locked on every single flicker of movement around him.

  BlackMantis had opened with a Cheap Shot instead of a Sap on his first strike. That was how Kairon knew the taunting was just a front. The man's real goal was to make him let his guard down after being strung along with back-to-back crowd control.

  In the early game, without anti-stealth skills, you were at a massive disadvantage against any stealth class with invisibility. You never knew if they'd left the area, or if they were still lurking in the dark, waiting for you to slip up.

  And when two stealth-capable classes met, it all came down to patience. The second you broke stealth to grind mobs, or showed even the smallest crack in your defense, death was all that waited for you.

  Ten minutes later, Kairon moved slowly, using the terrain for cover. The faint glow of nature magic swirling around him blended him perfectly into his surroundings, like a plant rooted deep in the shadows.

  This was a trick he'd honed through countless life-or-death manhunts. He refused to believe four years of in-game experience could be outmatched by some brand-new player, even if that player was a top-tier assassin in real life.

  He stared at a patch of weeds at his feet, a flash of resolve in his eyes. His fingertips twitched, and a faint wisp of nature magic brushed over the blades, making the weeds sway gently.

  He then stepped back two paces slowly, dropped to his stomach in the shadows, and sent an order to hold position to his Shadowwood Cheetah, which lay hidden in the dark.

  Less than two seconds after he hit the ground, he felt an almost imperceptible ripple in the air beside him.

  Now!

  Kairon sent an attack order straight toward the source of the ripple.

  The Shadowwood Cheetah exploded out of stealth at once, its sharp claws wreathed in the effect of the Rend skill, slashing viciously toward the shadows.

  Ding! You have been attacked by player BlackMantis!

  Ding! You have slain player BlackMantis! This was a defensive counterattack; no infamy gained.

  In a mere tenth of a second, the fight was over.

  Shaking off the brief stun from the Cheap Shot, Kairon watched as BlackMantis stared back at him with shock in his eyes, before collapsing slowly to the ground and dissolving into a flash of white light.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  That was insane. He was equally stunned in his own head.

  He'd picked up on BlackMantis's trail a split second earlier, seen him moving toward the swaying weeds, and predicted his position to launch the attack.

  But the moment he'd given the order, BlackMantis had sensed his presence immediately, spinning around to counterattack at almost the same time. His Cheap Shot had even landed on Kairon first.

  The system had logged BlackMantis as the initial aggressor, but the result was BlackMantis being one-shot outright by the Shadowwood Cheetah's Rend.

  Even with the kill to his name, Kairon knew full well that he'd lost this round when it came to mechanics and reaction speed.

  In his prime, back in his past life, he might have been able to pull off that level of split-second reaction. But right now, he had to admit that BlackMantis's natural talent was absolutely terrifying.

  The five-second stun faded quickly, and Kairon watched the last of the white light fade from the ground, knowing BlackMantis had chosen to respawn at the graveyard.

  World of Eldrath's respawn system worked like this. Choosing to respawn at the graveyard would make your body dissolve into white light immediately, at the cost of a 1-hour weakened state and a full level loss upon respawn.

  Choosing to run back to your body as a ghost would leave nothing but a skeleton behind, with only a 20% experience loss for your current level and 50% of your max health restored on respawn, a far smaller penalty.

  He bent down to grab the items BlackMantis had dropped on death, and his breath caught when he saw what they were. A ring.

  The system had logged BlackMantis as the initial aggressor, turning his name gray. Players with gray names were guaranteed to drop one piece of gear on death, while white-named players only had a random chance to drop an item.

  The second he saw the ring's name, his heart skipped a beat.

  Could it be...?

  He immediately opened the ring's stat panel.

  [Ring of True Sight]

  Quality: Common [Upgradable]

  Attack: 2-5

  Attribute 1: Increases stealth detection chance

  Attribute 2 (Inactive): Active Skill True Sight, reveals invisible units within 3 meters for 10 seconds. Unlocked when the item is upgraded to Uncommon quality.

  The second he read the stats, an uncontrollable grin spread across his face.

  This was the very core piece of gear that had made BlackMantis famous in his past life.

  He remembered it clear as day. BlackMantis had eventually upgraded this ring to Epic quality, expanding True Sight's detection range to 30 meters with a 5-minute duration. It had been called the bane of all stealth classes, and Kairon had been taken down more than once thanks to this very ring.

  He was absolutely over the moon to have this item in his hands now.

  The same piece of gear that had given him endless headaches in his past life was now his. The frustration of being toyed with by the triple Sap chain vanished into thin air in that moment.

  Even if the ring was only of common quality for now, jewelry had an abysmally low drop rate in World of Eldrath. Any piece of jewelry was a rare, coveted item.

  He couldn't help but wonder what insane luck BlackMantis had to get his hands on this piece this early in the game launch.

  He slipped the Ring of True Sight onto his finger, spun on his heel, and headed straight for the quest area.

  Two hours later, he had finally cleared all four quests in the area.

  These kill quests required an absurd number of mob kills, which most normal players cleared in parties. Even with his serious damage output, he'd still had to clear the mobs one by one, and it had taken him a fair chunk of time.

  When he resurfaced above ground, the outer perimeter of the abandoned power station was already filled with players grinding levels, most of them around Level 2. Kairon, meanwhile, had reached Level 4, 54% of the way to 5.

  The four quests had incredibly generous rewards. Once he returned to SilverMoon Town to turn them in, he would hit Level 5 and unlock his new summon, the Moonfeather Owlbeast.

  He made his way forward at a brisk pace with the Shadowwood Cheetah at his side, drawing more than a few curious stares from the players around him.

  This was the human starter zone, after all, and the vast majority of players were running starter classes like Warrior, Mage, or Rogue. A Nature Mage with a summon like his was practically unheard of this early in the launch.

  He'd barely stepped out of the power station's bounds when a shrill, terrified scream rang out ahead.

  Kairon looked up to see that a Level 5 Corrupted Rat King had spawned a short distance away. It had most likely triggered the area's mini-boss spawn mechanic after players had killed enough of the Corrupted Rats in the zone.

  A female player in starter cloth armor was pinned beneath the Rat King's claws, a single bite having left her health bar sitting at a mere tenth of its max.

  Help! Someone please help me!

  The female player thrashed desperately, but her level was too low, her strength completely overwhelmed. She couldn't break free and could only scream in despair.

  Stay back! I've got you!

  A loud shout rang out, and a young player wielding a one-handed sword and wooden shield came charging in like a hothead.

  He was a Protection Warrior, and he roared at the Corrupted Rat King. Hey, ugly rat! Over here!

  He'd tried to cast Taunt, but the skill had failed to land, and he'd only succeeded in enraging the Rat King completely.

  The Corrupted Rat King immediately abandoned the female player beneath its claws, leapt through the air, and slammed the Warrior to the ground. Its sharp incisors sank into his neck in a single bite.

  -30, -4, -4, -4...

  The single bite had triggered a Bleed effect, and the Warrior was one-shot instantly, dissolving into a flash of white light before he could even scream.

  The Corrupted Rat King shook its head, then turned and charged once more toward the low-health female player.

  The players around them all cast Reveal spells, and once they saw it was a Level 5 boss, and watched a Protection Warrior get one-shot right in front of them, they all went scrambling backward, no one daring to step forward.

  She was a stranger, after all. Even if this was just a game, they'd spent four hours since launch grinding to Level 2. Dying even once would cost them 20% of their experience, even if they ran back to their body, flushing a full hour of grinding down the drain. It just wasn't worth it.

  The second the Rat King was about to catch up to the female player, a black shape exploded forward, slamming hard into the Rat King's side and bringing its charge to a grinding halt.