As Max located his final prey, he deftly chucked a fireball at it before waiting for the notification.
After receiving the same title, Max gained an increase of 5 stat points in Int and the Mark of Chameleons.
He waited for the Chameleon and set up a few traps, believing that this would be another intense fight, where any mistake would lead to his death.
Max got ready to fight, concentrating as hard as he could, and soon, the Ghost Chameleon Boss arrived.
Max braced for a gruelling battle, expecting the boss to force him to push his limits. Instead, a wave of disappointment washed over Max as he saw an outline of a lizard. So clear, so obvious that it felt almost like an insult.
Max could easily see it, almost like the Boss wasn't even bothering to hide its presence. This greatly irked Max, as he was getting used to being ambushed, not knowing when his opponent would attack.
Instead, all Max had to do was shoot a fireball, and its health decreased by more than half.
It tried to put up a resistance with its spells and skills, to change the surroundings and make it seem like he was surrounded by ghosts, however, they were completely useless, with the illusions completely failing to trick him and even helping to further boost his understanding of illusions.
While Max's talent of the Illusion element was the same as the Ghost Chameleon Boss's, it still had a naturally higher comprehension of it, mainly because it had lived its whole life with it, whereas Max got it less than an hour ago.
Max learned how to properly blend his surroundings and how to make the place seem natural instead of a skill effect.
Each of the boss's actions told him what to do in a fight and even what not to do, by observing every move's strengths and flaws, Max's control improved by leaps and bounds, becoming a pivotal growth period for him.
The Ghost Chameleon unknowingly became his teacher by using its experience to kill Max, while he was just leisurely learning.
The one surprising part of the so-called fight was when it finally got enraged with the pitiful progress it made, and decided to go all out, sending its tongue at him and attacking him with it instead.
The tongue naturally retreated once Max swung his staff at it, proving that he wasn't just a fragile mage.
So, after extracting every lesson possible from his unwilling teacher, Max sent out another fireball, and the Ghost Chameleon Boss instantly dissolved, leaving behind loot and Max, who didn't even bother to check the boss's status.
[Congratulations on killing the Ghost Chameleon Boss]
[You have gained 20 silver]
[You have gained skillbook: Disguise]
[You have gained 2000 Exp]
[All rewards of killing the Ghost Chameleon Boss have doubled due to Mark of Chameleons]
[You have gained 20 silver]
[You have gained skillbook: Disguise]
Level Up
[You have gained 2000 Exp]
[All Talent Effects activated due to killing a Boss]
[You have Plundered 8 Int]
[You have plundered 800 proficiency points of Disguise]
[You have plundered talent, Illusion Aptitude (D)
[2 talents compatible with each other detected]
[Illusion Aptitude (D) is merging with Illusion Aptitude (D)]
[New Talent Gained - Illusion Prodigy (C)]
[C Talent - Illusion Prodigy]
[Talent Description]
[You don't just have a connection with the element of illusion, you are a born prodigy, bound to ascend in the matters of illusion.]
[Talent Effect]
[1. Gives owner of talent 3 random illusion spells]
[2. Gives owner a low chance of creating illusion spells]
[Congratulations, you have received Spell: Cloning]
[Spell:] Cloning - User can create multiple clones of themselves, with them dealing 5% of the user's damage.
Max wished to immediately log out and celebrate, but showing some serious mental resolve, he was able to hold himself back, but still did partake in a little dance on the spot.
While the fight may have been subpar, the rewards definitely weren't, with Max growing a lot stronger from a fight that, quite frankly, was easier than his fight against the first Ghost Chameleon he faced.
Well, either way, Max wasn't going to cry about it. He knew that this would happen more and more often as he grew stronger, so he now looked forward to the next zone, hoping for more of a fight.
---
Meanwhile, in the real world, at the Nexus Ascendants Headquarters…
Murmurs went around the room, "Guildmaster, buying the skill book turned out to be a major success! How did you know what was going to happen?" His officials were amazed at the foresight of their leader, their initial scepeticism transforming into fervent admiration.
"It was all thanks to my talent," Quasar, leader of the Nexus Ascendants, said, not explaining anything more. "Well, as much as I'd like to keep hearing my praises, we have more business to attend to."
"Right, sir, so first on our agenda is creating an official guild in Genesis."
"We have gathered information and discovered that we can't create a guild until we find a guild token, something almost impossible to get in the novice village," another official stated.
"Very well, everyone should now try their best to upgrade themselves to level 10 and leave their respective novice villages, meeting at Moonfire City," decided Quasar.
"Our second order of business concerns the other skillbooks on sale. We need to know whether or not we're buying them, especially after our recent success due to swift dash."
"While we may have become a huge success thanks to our investment, we cannot afford to waste any more of our funding on skillbooks. We have an advantage and must capitalise on it instead of investing even more.
Another reason why we cannot buy more skillbooks is that it would immediately make us a target for all of the guilds, our prosperity is already casting eyes on us, and we can't become an even bigger target just for a skillbook."
While Quasar knew that this would be the best for his guild in the long term, just looking at their effects, only to not have them pained his heart. He only wondered who was supplying all of them and how they were being obtained
"Our third and last decision of the day is that we need to make sure that most of our guild members go to this new academy we've heard rumours about."
"Come on, these are just rumours and there's no proof that it's actually true," one officer argued. "I say we continue playing the game slowly, building up our foundation and ignore baseless speculation."
"Enough arguing, we will prepare our members on the chance that it is true, but don't rush things if they aren't. Everyone is dismissed."
Finally, the meeting was over and Quasar could let a long, weary sigh.
While all Quasar… no, Des wished to do was hop onto the game and enjoy himself, he had multiple responsibilities that he would much rather do without. Des had to maintain his Quasar persona in front of his subordinates, yet as soon as they were gone, he unlocked his true self as a man who simply wishes to play games.
He could finally enter the game and reach level 10, finally taking the tier 1 promotion test he'd heard so much about. He was already level 8, well above the curve, yet knew that there were multiple people with talents much better than his own, requiring him to catch up.
Des still wasn't discouraged, and even while knowing the gap between talents, he knew that he had to keep hope, hope that he would be able to shatter the so-called difference in talent and grow beyond his limit.