Leo stood frozen in awe, darting over to Lucas. "Boss, that was nuts! You took on five guys and didn't take a scratch!"
"Just a bunch of chumps. Wiping them was child's play," Lucas said casually, brushing off the feat.
"But your spells are nothing like other mages! I've seen casters nail Fireball in 3 seconds, and theirs are way punier than yours," Leo pressed, still fired up.
"I'll tell you, but this stays between us," Lucas replied, lowering his voice. "That big spell was Pyroblast—hits 50% harder than Fireball. Normally, it's a 5-second cast, so no mage wastes it on mob pulls or skirmishes. But I got lucky early on—learned streamlined incantations. While others fumble through 5 seconds of chanting, I cast it in 0.7."
"Whoa!" Leo's eyes widened. "That's practically instant!"
Even a newbie like Leo got the gravity—while one mage squeezed off one Pyroblast, Lucas could unload seven. His damage per second (DPS) alone matched a full party of seven mages.
"Tempted to switch to mage? I'll teach you the simplified incantations," Lucas grinned.
Leo's eyes flickered with longing, but quickly hardened. "No. I'm sticking with Warrior."
He'd chosen Warrior to stand in front of Lucas—no one would hurt his boss without going through him first. He couldn't say the words, but he'd live them.
Lucas didn't push. Gaming was about preference; some loved casting spells like him, others thrived on the thrill of swinging a sword.
"Suit yourself. If you ever change your mind, I'll teach you all my fire mage shortcuts," he said. Leo nodded, and Lucas gestured to the corpses. "Let's check the loot. See what these guys dropped."
Gideon and his four goons were all flagged players. Per system rules, flagged characters drop all backpack loot on death, plus a high chance of losing equipped gear.
Leo knelt by the bodies. "Boss, they've got tons of good stuff!" The ground glinted with potions and bronze-tier equipment.
Lucas's expression soured. "The Black Blood Covenant is ruthless, alright. This gear must've come from ganking dozens of low-level players."
Black Blood thrived on griefing—killing newbies for loot to flip on the auction house. It was a scummy tactic, but it drew PK fanatics, fueling their guild's early growth (though many later bailed over their toxic ethics).
Leo sorted through the spoils, pausing at a glowing green orb near Gideon's corpse. "Boss, what's this weird orb?"
Lucas's eyes blew wide. "The Venom Spheroid? How the hell did they get this at their level?"
"Venom Orb?" Leo asked. The game's lore gave no details on rare items—players had to discover their uses.
"You just hit the jackpot, brother," Lucas said, voice brimming with excitement. Only the Firestarter Staff and Demon's Heart ranked higher among early-game relics.
"No wonder Black Blood rose so fast last time… they had this gem early on," he muttered.
"Last time? What do you mean?" Leo pressed.
"Nothing," Lucas waved it off. "It's an upgradeable relic. Even in its base form, it spawns a 10x10 AoE poison cloud—10 damage per second for 5 minutes, 2-minute cooldown."
"That's overpowered!" Leo gasped.
"Against players, they can heal or flee the cloud. But mobs can't," Lucas explained. "Whoever holds this is set for god-tier leveling."
"So we'll level like crazy?" Leo beamed.
"Absolutely. Hold onto the orb, equip this bronze Warrior set, and let's grind," Lucas said. He'd ditched his Troll Camp quest—with the Venom Spheroid, the Orcish Outpost was far more efficient. As they headed northwest of Saint Galen's City, they had no clue Black Blood's fury was already spilling over.