One SSS Affix per Level: My Novice Club Can Slay Gods!

[Bloodthirsty Strike]

[Type: Weapon-Exclusive]

[Effect: Whenever you deal damage, restores HP equal to 25% of the damage dealt.]

The corners of John’s mouth lifted slightly as he examined the new affix.

"Finally, some sustain."

Without hesitation, he embedded [Bloodthirsty Strike] into the Novice Club.

Buzz!

Rainbow-colored golden light erupted once again.

John casually swung his club at the remains of a miner that had not quite finished dying.

[-1,024!]

The next instant, his HP recovered slightly.

"Not bad."

"Now I can afford to be even more reckless."

After clearing the first section of the mine, John arrived before an old elevator.

Its iron chains were covered in rust, while the wooden platform was littered with blackened scorch marks.

He pulled the nearby lever.

Creak—

The elevator slowly began to descend.

The situation on the second level was even more ridiculous than the first.

There were no longer just miners.

There were also modified beasts, deformed humanoid creatures, and several mechanical puppets.

Without exception, every one of them had a red crystal embedded in its chest.

The crystals seemed to serve as their power cores.

Some of the monsters still had the insignia of the Blackstone Miners’ Association attached to their bodies.

John frowned slightly.

Had those human traffickers truly captured him back then, he most likely would have been sold to a place like this.

Then he would have been turned into disposable mining equipment with a glowing chest and a tendency to explode on sight.

With that thought in mind, John began swinging even harder.

Half an hour later, he passed through the second level and entered a vast underground cavern.

For the first time since entering the mine, the sight before him made him stop in his tracks.

At the center of the cavern, a massive piece of black ore protruded from the ground.

Dark crimson patterns flowed across its surface like glowing blood vessels.

Above the ore lay an enormous insectoid monster.

It resembled a grotesquely mutated ant queen. Its bloated abdomen constantly writhed, while its mouthparts remained pressed against the black ore as though it were feeding on something inside.

Every few seconds, a fiery red crystal would be squeezed out from the end of its abdomen.

A swarm of smaller ant-like monsters immediately rushed forward, picked up the crystal, and carried it into a distant tunnel.

The process continued without pause.

John fell silent for a moment.

"So that’s where Firecrystals come from."

"They aren’t ordinary minerals. They’re something created after being consumed and transformed by this creature."

"No wonder they can control the miners’ minds."

He raised the monocle over his right eye.

[Scan]

Pale blue data appeared.

[Firecrystal Ant Queen]

[Level: Lv.10]

[Rank: Thousand-Player-Tier Boss]

[HP: 3,000/3,000]

[Physical Attack: 180]

[Spell Power: 220]

[Physical Defense: 90]

[Magic Defense: 120]

[Skills: Crushing Bulk, Corrosive Lye, Firecrystal Spawning]

[Description: A mutated insect queen parasitizing the depths of Blackstone Mine. It feeds on the fire element contained within Blackstone Ore and can produce unstable Firecrystals.]

The ant queen seemed to sense that it was being scanned.

It abruptly raised its head and released a piercing shriek from its mouthparts.

The ants transporting the Firecrystals instantly scattered.

The next second, the Firecrystal Ant Queen launched its enormous body into the air and came crashing down toward John.

Boom!

The ground collapsed.

A shock wave swept outward, carrying shattered stone with it.

John rolled aside in advance, avoiding the crushing impact.

The instant the ant queen landed, it opened its mouth and sprayed out a wave of murky liquid.

The liquid struck the cavern wall and immediately began sizzling and smoking.

[Corrosive Lye]

John’s eye twitched.

"Is that thing spitting lye?"

The ant queen’s attacks covered an enormous area.

But it was slow.

In John’s eyes, the threat posed by this kind of Boss did not come from its difficulty.

It came from how disgusting its attacks were.

He circled around the corrosive liquid and used the speed granted by his newly increased Agility to rush along the ant queen’s massive abdomen.

In an instant, he reached its rear flank.

It happened to be a blind spot in the creature’s vision.

The ant queen’s body was far too large, making it painfully slow to turn around.

John gripped the Novice Club with both hands.

[Overcharge activated.]

[Current Charge Level: 1.]

One second.

That was enough.

With 1,020 Physical Attack, a one-second charge increased his damage by 10%. Striking from behind would then trigger a critical hit with an additional 50% Critical Damage.

The initial hit would deal 1,683 damage.

Cleave dealt 300% of that.

5,049!

The combined damage was more than enough to send this Thousand-Player-Tier Boss and its 3,000 HP straight to the grave.

The ant queen had only just begun to turn around when the holy club in John’s hands came crashing down.

Bang!

Holy light exploded across its shell.

Immediately afterward, the shock wave from Cleave erupted outward.

[-1,683!]

[Back Attack Critical Hit!]

[-5,049!]

[Cleave Damage!]

The Firecrystal Ant Queen’s body suddenly stiffened.

Its bloated abdomen looked as though it had been smashed through by a war hammer, and the entire Boss crashed heavily to the ground.

[Ding! You have slain the Thousand-Player-Tier Boss: Firecrystal Ant Queen!]

[EXP +500!]

[Gold Coins +5!]

[Several C-Rank equipment items obtained!]

[Congratulations! You have achieved the world-first kill of a Thousand-Player-Tier Boss!]

[A server-wide announcement will now be issued. Would you like to conceal your player information?]

John looked at the prompt and answered without hesitation.

"No."

The next instant, the system’s emotionless voice resounded across the entire server.

[Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player "Endbringer" for achieving the server’s first kill of a Thousand-Player-Tier Boss!]

[Target Slain: Firecrystal Ant Queen!]

[Title Reward: Pioneer!]

[Item Reward: Lucky Potion!]

The announcement repeated three times.

The entirety of Apocalypse fell silent.

Then the world channel exploded.

[???]

[A Thousand-Player-Tier Boss? Didn’t the server just open?]

[Who the hell is Endbringer?]

[I’m still fighting people over rabbit spawn points, and this guy is already killing Bosses?]

[Did someone get access to a beta account that wasn’t wiped?]

[Report him! I’m reporting this!]

Before John could finish reading the world channel, another notification sounded.

[Ding! You have reached Lv.9!]

[Current EXP: 150/2,000.]

[Free Attribute Points +5!]

[Ding! God-Rank Talent "Supreme Evolution" activated!]

[You have obtained the SSS-Rank Affix: Mana Hunger!]

[Mana Hunger]

[Type: Weapon-Exclusive]

[Effect: Whenever you deal damage, restores MP equal to 25% of the damage dealt.]

Another affix related to spellcasting.

John casually opened his status panel and gave it a quick glance.

He had not allocated all the Free Attribute Points he had accumulated earlier.

He now had twenty-five points remaining in total.

Then he turned his attention to the world-first rewards.

[Title: Pioneer]

[Effect: Increases the drop rate of equipment and materials from slain monsters to 20%.]

[Lucky Potion]

[Effect: After use, the next target you slay is guaranteed to trigger a 100% drop rate.]

John’s eyes immediately lit up.

Good stuff.

He had killed countless monsters along the way, yet aside from Gold Coins, equipment and material drops had been pitifully rare.

Clearly, the base drop rate in Apocalypse was horrifyingly low.

This potion that guaranteed a 100% drop rate absolutely could not be wasted.

He had to save it for a Boss whose loot was truly valuable.

As for the pile of C-Rank equipment and weapons dropped by the Firecrystal Ant Queen, John gave them a quick glance before listing all of them on the marketplace.

To other players, C-Rank equipment was already god-tier gear for the early progression stage.

To John?

Gold Coins were far more practical.

After finishing his inventory, John noticed that the dungeon had not ended.

The smaller ants transporting the Firecrystals had already scattered and fled, but a clear trail remained on the ground.

It led deeper underground.

"There’s a second half?"

John rested the Novice Club on his shoulder and followed the tunnel forward.

Before long, an underground structure resembling a workshop appeared ahead.

The sound of machinery came from within.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

John walked inside and saw a grotesque production line.

Corpses and mechanical puppets lay upon rows of iron platforms.

Fleshy tentacles extended from the walls, inserting Firecrystals into their chests one after another.

The platforms then moved forward, carrying these "unfinished products" into the next room.

A low chant could faintly be heard from the depths of the workshop.

John could not understand the language.

It sounded like an incantation.

Or perhaps the delirious mumbling of a lunatic.

He followed the passage and drew closer.

At the center of the room stood a woman dressed in black-and-crimson robes, her back facing him.

She stood before a row of corpses that had already been implanted with Firecrystals, chanting over them one at a time.

Whenever she completed a passage, the Firecrystal embedded in the corpse’s chest would light up with a crimson glow.

John raised his monocle.

[Scan]

The woman’s movements stopped.

Then she slowly turned around.