Evidently, the monster of the third zone was a ghost, but even though he was looking at it through his own two eyes, he had trouble comprehending the monster's existence.
Max rubbed his eyes, and once he came to grips with the fact that it was indeed a ghost, he prepared for the fight, summoning his staff and preparing to cast fireball again.
Max used his fireball, aiming smack-bang in the middle of its torso, expecting to deal lots of damage, maybe even finishing it in one more attack, yet was perplexed when his attack simply went through it instead.
The ghost didn't dodge it like the rat, but instead, the attack simply went through it.
Max was sure that he had indeed done 65 damage to the ghost when he first hit it, but couldn't do it again for some reason.
Even after failing with his first fireball, Max fired multiple more, yet none of them hit.
He instinctively took a step back, believing that maybe this zone wasn't for him, but that's when he realised, the ghost wasn't attacking him either.
It was an instinct for monsters to attack humans, and no monster in any game could deny that, not even Genesis.
Yet for some reason, this ghost was just staying still, not moving even an inch.
He then recalled his first fireball, and decided to remember what happened very carefully.
After throwing it at the place with the densest amount of smoke, it exploded in an area near the ground, not up high where it would hit the ghost.
Max now decided to go up close to this 'ghost', looking to test his new theory, but whenever he advanced, the ghost would retreat. After playing this game of cat and mouse for a few more minutes, Max activated swift dash and lunged towards the ghost.
Imagine his surprise when he just flew through the damn ghost and skidded along the very uneven path.
So Max looked for the mist instead this time, just like he did before, and threw a fireball in its direction.
-65
[You have killed the Ghost Chameleon]
[You have gained 15 copper coins]
[You have plundered 4 Int]
Max finally saw the name of this monster and was extremely happy when he saw the plundered attribute.
He finally plundered the attribute that was actually useful to him as a mage instead of a completely random one.
Max could now save his attribute points and use them for more urgent activities, such as investing in luck and vit, instead of having to use them on Intelligence.
Fixed with a new purpose, Max was re-energised and enthusiastic to hunt the Ghost Chameleons down.
He also wanted to see one with his own eyes, instead of just killing it, in hopes that he could check the monster's status panel out.
So he ventured onward, looking for as much smoke as he could and shooting fireballs at them.
Once he figured out the trick, Max was easily able to get kills. Of course, he was occasionally damaged, but it was easily fixable with a few health potions.
---
[Ghost Chameleon]
[Talent:] Illusion Affinity (E)
[Health Points:] 80
[Mana Points:] 250
[Stamina:] 100
[Speed:] 8
[Attributes:]
Vitality - 8
Strength - 10
Agility - 8
Endurance - 10
Intelligence - 25
Perception - 14
[Skills:] Disguise - Level 2 - Once activated, user can disguise itself by changing the surroundings for Int x 10 seconds - Consumes 20 mana - 90 second cooldown.
---
The chameleons didn't really have any strong suits except for their talent, probably being the reason for their lower-than-average attributes.
Max plundered Disguise too, letting him pull the same tricks as the Chameleons, however, his weren't as realistic..
He assumed it was because of the Illusion affinity talent and couldn't wait until he obtained it.
So Max did the obvious thing, he hunted madly, rushing to kill any unlucky monster that crossed his path.
By now, Max had already killed 35 Chameleons and wished to obtain the talent before reaching 100, believing that fighting the Chameleon boss would be too disadvantageous if he didn't have it beforehand.
So Max continued his hunt, and luckily for him, he was able to gain Illusion Affinity on his 48th kill.
[E Talent - Illusion Affinity]
[Talent Description]
[This talent increases your connection to the illusion element and is very helpful for deceiving people.]
[Talent Effect]
[1. Gives owner of talent 1 random illusion spell]
[Congratulations, you have received Spell: Sound Mimicry]
[Spell:] Sound Mimicry - User can store sounds in Sound Bank and release them when they wish. Sound Bank: 0/5
Max realised that he had just unlocked another section underneath his skills, called spells. He quickly went onto the forums, looking to find more details about them and received an answer.
'Spells are like skills, but are more flexible than skills. They can be put into spellbooks to save for other people, however, it requires a great cost currently unknown to me. Learning from a spellbook isn't instant like skillbooks and requires study to actually achieve.
For example, when you get a skill, you can't change it, you can't direct it; the only thing you can do is use it and level it up, however, to learn one, all you have to do is press a button and it is automatically saved.
On the other hand, while spells are more versatile and adaptable, they can only be learnt through talent or comprehension of the spell, making them much harder to learn as well.
The MP cost of spells changes depending on the frequency of usage and what the spell entails as well.
Both ways of obtaining a spell are efficient, however, spells are only for mages, healers and summoners, while the other, non-MP reliant classes have equivalents known as techniques.
Spells and techniques don't show up on the monster's status, so don't be surprised when you don't see them.'
This post was made by a person called GandalfTheMage, and Max couldn't help but thank him inside for his help.
While Max couldn't change his spell for now, due to his low E-rank talent, he was sure that he would be able to do so much more once he upgraded it.
Max's new goal was to reach 100 kills as fast as he could, starting to lose the patience to slowly grind after finding out about the powerful effects of his Illusion affinity talent once it grows.
So Max continued to hunt, he had already increased his Int by 60 and was now getting more skill proficiency; however, on the 88th Chameleon, something unexpected happened.
[You have plundered Illusion Affinity (E)]
[2 talents compatible with each other detected]
[Illusion Affinity (E) is merging with Illusion Affinity (E)]
[New Talent Gained - Illusion Aptitude (D)]
[D Talent - Illusion Aptitude]
[Talent Description]
[This talent is proof of your innate connection to the illusion element, and you can fool people easily with you understanding of the art of deception.]
[Talent Effect]
[1. Gives owner of talent 2 random illusion spells]
[2. Gives owner a very low chance of creating illusion spells]
[Congratulations, you have received Spell: Blur]
[Spell:] Blur - User can make themselves look blurry, making it harder for anyone to perceive the user clearly and lets a limited amount of a certain type of attack roll off the user.
"Yessss!"
Max almost couldn't contain his happiness at upgrading his talent, as he will now be able to get a C-rank talent after killing the boss.
This will finally put his talent not only in the top 25% of the world, but even higher, maybe even 10% thanks to his other plundered talents. Maybe even making him better than people with B-rank talents.
When he looked at it, he realised that he only received 1 spell, but assumed that he only received Blur due to already having Sound Mimicry.
With newfound vigour and a great talent, Max was starting to defeat the Chameleons without breaking a sweat, finishing the 99th within the hour.
Max again went to the village to restock on supplies and check out how his auctioned items were doing.
While expecting their price not to inflate as much as before, Max was still hoping for a high price.
What he found instead, was that his skills were more expensive than before, with values at 6 gold and 3 gold and 35 silver for the Swift Dash and Bite skill books, respectively, with 5 hours to go.
The reason for the drastic difference in prices was because of the more relative usefulness and versatility of the first one.
The guild to buy the first skillbook, Nexus Ascendants, had shot through to success, with swift dash playing a vital role for their speed and monster luring ability.
Their quick conquests of the level zones from 1-5 were a crucial factor that expanded their fame and increased their recruitment tenfold, their advancements causing the other guilds to regret not purchasing the skillbook instead and instead envy their triumphs.
Most guilds had hesitated on spending too much on the first skillbook, believing it was only the first of many, yet even after a day, there were no other books on sale.
Their saving grace came when the same anonymous user posted 2 new skillbooks and this time they were fully committed to buying them, even ready to splurge their entire budget.
Whatever the reason, Max was beyond happy for the guilds to spend more on it, even thinking of boosting the price himself, before deciding not to take the risk.
Now that Max had plenty of funds, he could easily buy as many HP and MP potions as he wished.
Wishing to continue his no-death run, Max decided to buy a grand total of 30 HP potions and 100 MP potions, costing 50 silver, which, while not a low amount, wasn't too much for Max if he was able to get another skill from the boss.
So Max set off yet again; however, this time, Max was accustomed to the pathways and walked inside the graveyards without a second thought, even cheerfully, long since becoming immune to the mind tricks of the Ghost Chameleons.