Chapter 9: Defender of the Dunes
Sunset was rapidly approaching when Coop left the safety of the fort, crossing the wooden bridge and following the sandy trail where they had claimed the civilization shard. Instead of looking like a zombie apocalypse survivor with his machete and duct tape armor, he thought he looked a lot more like a legitimate warrior. He had changed his color scheme to what he had christened ‘beach camo’ and was wielding a six foot spear with a round shield the size of his entire torso.
He planned to do some initial testing on the familiar Ancient Defenders along the western beach before retiring for the night. He’d even get to enjoy another sunset over the ocean like the before times.
Coop didn’t have to waste any time finding a target, as the mechanical monsters were all over the sandy dunes. It was lucky they didn’t seem to ever become aggressive. He supposed it was due to still being within the settlement territory. They were like starter mobs outside of a noob town. It meant there was a relatively controlled environment for the residents of the settlement to get some levels.
He wasn’t sure if there were diminishing returns on experience, as there was no experience bar or notifications indicating that he received experience at all. Without diminishing returns, he could imagine an overly cautious hero defeating millions of the weak mobs to continue leveling in relative safety.
[Ancient Defender (Level 3)]
Coop jogged toward his target. Once he was about 20 yards away he threw his spear as an opening attack and kept running toward the creature. He planned to force it off balance with his thrown spear, then use his set bonus to summon the spear back to his hand before it could recover and finish it off with a thrust to the red light.
His spear flew through the air like a missile. When it landed it did devastating damage… to the sand a few yards behind the creature.
Returning it to his hand worked flawlessly though, so he followed through with his assault. Keeping his shield ready, he thrust the spear at the creature. The creature raised its leg in time to block the attack.
When the spear tip collided with the shin guard the shin guard was smashed, splintering into several pieces. Coop repeated the spear attack blasting the leg out of the way for a third, final attack to the red light of the creature.
The Ancient Defender evaporated into smoke that rapidly dispersed as it rose toward the sky. Coop felt incredible while he was disabling the monster’s defense, and it wasn’t because he had defeated yet another simple enemy. He couldn’t really understand why, but it was like his brain had been flooded with endorphins as he fought. Could he be turning into some kind of battle junkie? Was it yet another mana phenomenon? Maybe his ethereal set rewarded him for proper technique? His throw was bad, but the spear thrusts felt right.
Whatever it was, it might be addicting. He already wanted to find the next monster to fight, but first, he checked his notifications.
[You defeated Ancient Defender (Level 3)]