"I reached the top 200 already? It seems not a lot of people resorted to killing other players immediately."
That was a pleasant surprise. Based on what Andrew knew of human nature, people would have gone after other players first before facing monsters.
But it was equally possible that people had tried and failed to kill others. After all, everyone had buffed stats.
Around the middle of the third day, humanity finally evolved enough to have a second person with a profession, and the shop number turned to 2…before more and more people hit level 10 by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, Andrew had already hit level 15 and acquired the Beginner's class rank.
[Congratulations. You have ranked up to level 15. You have acquired a new class. Unranked->Beginner]
[Player Name: Mark Dawson (level 15)
Title: Killer of Gods, Killer of Goblins.
Skills: Spell Casting Level 2
Profession: Archmage
Strength: 4
Speed: 10
Intellect: 12
Luck: 5]
[You can choose two new skills now. Available skill list is present.]
Finally, Andrew had a chance to choose his skills, and he wondered if he would get the same ones as last time.
There was not much he knew about his current situation, but he did know that not everyone got the same skill choices, even if they chose the same class.
For now, he wanted some defensive capabilities because he lacked the strength to protect himself. Having a way to mitigate damage would be good…and luckily, the list had just the skill he wanted.
[Barrier Art level 1 [A]]
As the name suggested, Barrier Art could be used to defend against any attack from any direction…as long as its power did not exceed the user's strength stat.
His strength stat was pathetic, and that was where his next skill came in handy.
[Stats Share level 1 [Unique]]
This was a special skill that allowed the user to copy one stat for another temporarily. It had a 5-minute cooldown at level 1. So, in theory, he could copy his intellect stat and buff his strength up to 12 as well.
It sounded like a cheat, but the 5-minute cooldown did not allow it to be of much use. The main reason he was getting this combination was for emergencies.
Since he was in the survival stage of this game, he wanted to go for the hidden boss. It would not only give him tons of points but also reward him with money.
And in the early stages, money was the most important thing. It could fulfill any role you wanted, be it buying support items or healing items.
In other words, money was the only cheat code that anyone would get without getting lucky with drops or class.
"Hmmm. Preparations are now complete. Now, let's go and take down the hidden boss."
The sphere map did not mark the location of the hidden boss, but it was not hard to guess where the hidden boss was.
After all, why else would there be an arena right in the middle of the forest if not for a boss fight? Or maybe Andrew just understood this game better now because it was his second time.
He walked toward the hidden arena, and the forest started to thin out until he could not see any trees. There were no markings around the area, but he still had a feeling he had come to the right place.
[Warning: You have entered a hidden arena. You have 1 minute to run out before triggering a hidden boss fight.]
The system warned Andrew, which surprised him a little. He did not recall the system ever doing that…
"Ah, this must be because I am currently on the third game. It must be a feature to make sure players don't die at low levels while they still cannot take care of themselves."
Not that Andrew had long to check things out, as he got attacked. As soon as the timer hit zero, a huge body propelled itself out of the ground, and Andrew immediately cast a shield around him to protect himself.
The boss noticed this and immediately clashed itself against the transparent shield Andrew had cast, and the shield cracked at the first contact.
The hidden boss came back, raising its head high to bash into Andrew, but he was ready this time.
[Stats Share level 1 activated]
[Strength 4->12]
[Buffs activated]
[Strength 4->12->17]
This time, the shield held against the attack. Since this was the third game, the strength of the hidden boss should be around 14 or so. But he could not be sure because he had no skill to see additional information.
He wasted no time attacking the boss once it was thrown off by the sudden appearance of the shield.
With his buffed magic, Andrew was able to blast the boss before it could come after him. His magic hurt the boss enough to slow it down, and it tried to retreat back underground.
"Tsk, it's not going to be that easy."
Andrew immediately created a barrier around the boss, not allowing it to retreat. That distressed the boss and made it confused about what it should do…and it gave Andrew enough time to launch his counterattack.
"It's time for you to go down now, you monster."
The boss let out a hiss as it was attacked point-blank by Damian. All the buffed stats did their work, and the combined damage the monster received caused it to perish.
[Congratulations, you have cleared the hidden boss. You can now choose one of the following rewards]
[5000X Gold]
[Skill- System's Eye level 1 [Special]]
That made Andrew pause as he looked down. He had expected gold as a reward, but the appearance of the skill was not something he expected.
Especially a skill as useful as this. The skill allowed him to check an opponent's, boss's, or item's information…to a certain degree.
'Wasn't this what I just complained about? Is this some kind of luck…or a trap?'
Andrew really wanted the 2000 gold. That was worth so much equipment and potions. But the skill…
"I can always earn more gold later. But this skill…I can't say when I would be able to come across it again…."
The skill in the system shop cost around 10k at the start, and some could only be bought with special items. Choosing a skill here was the right move to make.