The midnight phantom landed almost soundlessly on the ground covered by patches of grass.

When Ren laid eyes on it, the corner of his mouth twitched in a grimace, and his heart thudded hard against his chest.

The beast was a black panther and stood two meters tall and nearly four meters wide. Its body was so dark, giving it justice to be called the Midnight Phantom. It was almost undetectable with all the shrouding darkness with only the faint light of the twin moons as a source of illumination.

It’s quite beautiful, actually. And right now, its cold amber glowing slit eyes were currently locked on Ren with curiosity.

It began to slowly move towards him in elegant steps. Its graceful stride was indeed eye-catching.

Ren drew his long staff, eyes staring at the Midnight Phantom intently.

The Midnight Phantom’s sleek glossy fur rose in anger upon sensing hostility.

RoOaArR!

“Come.” Ren didn’t move from his position at all. It was useless anyway. His AGI was low, and he couldn’t run from the beast’s speed. If he did, the beast might land a critical hit if he showed his back.

The Midnight Phantom’s body crouch down, fangs baring and fur-raising. It was gathering power and momentum to launch an attack.

WhOoOosSh!

With a leap, the Midnight Phantom charged at an incredible speed that made Ren’s heart tremble.

Ren quickly cast Fire against the Midnight Phantom.

–142 Critical Hit!

[ Midnight Phantom suffered from BURN

–5% HP every minute ]

–20 (BURN)

Ren smiled when the [BURN] status appeared next to the HP bar of the Midnight Phantom. There was also a high chance of [Critical Hit] and [Status Effect] if you attacked your enemy’s weakness. It was the reason why Ren chose the [Fire] Spell early on since most beasts were weak to fire earlier in the game.

However, his smile fell right off his face when the beast just shook off his fur, and the [BURN] status was removed.

Leaping from where it stood, the beast swiped its sharp claws against Ren.

“Urk . . .”

Ren watched helplessly as his HP bar was depleting and flashed red in alarm when it half. Even though his DEF was high, the beast’s multiple attacks were a problem.

Ren immediately consumed [Health Potions] to recover his HP.

[Consumed Health Potion x5

Remaining number of Health Potions: 56]

When the cooldown of his Fire spell was over, Ren cast it once more against the beast.

–122 Critical Hit!

[Midnight Phantom suffered from BURN

–5% HP every minute]

–20 (BURN)

Again, the Midnight Phantom just shook his fur, and the [BURN] status was gone from the side of its HP bar.

The Midnight Phantom attacked once more, and again Ren just healed his HP by consuming potions.

They keep going at it until the Midnight Phantom’s HP bar drastically went down to just two digits.

Ren’s face brightened. He could really win against it!

But just as he was about to bask in his glory, the Midnight Phantom’s whole body glowed red, and its eyes turned Blood Shot.

[The Midnight Phantom entered BERSERK MODE!]

[HP: 74

MP: 100

STRG: 27 +5

DEF: 24 +2

MDF: 14 -5

INT: 12 -5

AGL: 32 +4

LCK: 16 -5]

[The Midnight Phantom activated its skill Moonlight Gift]

[HP: 74

MP: 60

STRG: 32 +2

DEF: 26 +2

MDF: 9 +2

INT: 8 +2

AGL: 36 +2

LCK: 11 +2 ]

The Midnight Phantom attacked once more, and Ren watched in horror when his HP bar flashed red before his eyes.

–12

–15

–10

SHIT!

Ren’s face was white when he was left with just 1 HP. If the beast’s last hit were any higher, he would surely find himself respawning in Euclid Village with an EXP penalty.

The amount of EXP penalty he’d received was equivalent to the amount of EXP he’d get from the Midnight Phantom. Which meant around -5,000 EXP give and take, because of Ren’s high ATP.

It was the game system that calculated the EXP rewards and penalties. It considers the time a player defeats his enemy and the player’s ATP.

Since his ATP was high, and it took longer for him to defeat the Midnight Phantom, the amount of EXP he’d get from the beast was only, more or less, 5,000 EXP. Ren thought.

The player in the past who got the very first blood from the Midnight Phantom achieved a +7, 000 EXP.

However, Ren wasn’t after the EXP. He was after the first blood rewards for being the first to defeat the very first boss in the game.

However, Ren didn’t expect that the Midnight Phantom would be this strong early in the game, even when his DEF was very high at this point in time. It was his fault for thinking that he could take it head on this early with little preparations.

But he was already here, and it was too late for regrets.

Ren immediately consumed [Health Potions].

[Consumed Health Potion x10

Remaining number of Health Potions: 27]

Ren wiped the sweat off the side of his face and grinned. No matter. His next attack would surely end it.

Ren cast [Fire] with great enthusiasm for receiving his rewards of being the very first to kill a Boss. His fire hit the Midnight Phantom, and the beast howled in rage.

–177 Critical Hit!

“Yes!”

Ren beamed and almost jumped in joy when the Midnight’s Phantom HP bar went down fast.

However, his smile left his face when the Midnight Phantom’s HP gauge stood still at 1.

[The Midnight Phantom entered LAST STANCE MODE!

Acquired Skill:

Moonlight Rage

–– Land Critical Damage regardless of enemy’s ATP and position

–– Cost –50MP

–– Single enemy target ]

FUCK!

Ren forgot about the [LAST STANCE Mode]. It was a Boss’s final mode, and usually, they acquire a new skill or spell in this mode.

However, Ren didn’t expect that the Midnight Phantom could also enter it. This mode was only available to high-level Bosses, and the Midnight Phantom was just a newbie Boss. There was also no record that it could enter [LAST STANCE] mode.

Was it because it was his very first boss?

Or was it a bug that he didn’t know?

Whatever it was, it was too late. The Midnight Phantom was about to attack, and Ren closed his eyes, already thinking of what to do once he was back in Euclid Village.

The death penalty from a boss and dungeon fight was an EXP reduction equal to the amount of EXP you’d get from the fight.

Such was the shrewdness of the developer.

There were a lot of instances where players’ ATP automatically went zero from a boss fight or dungeon raid no matter how the EXP penalty was distributed within the group when they died. And most gave up playing because of frustration or recreated their account entirely since their ATP was reduced to zero. A newly created avatar had more ATP than that. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢

It was also one of the reasons why a lot of players preferred to stock their EXP in case something happened. And it was also one of the reasons that guilds only wanted the best of the best within their group because they didn’t want to suffer from the enormous EXP penalty that was enough to make all their hard-earned ATP to zero in a boss fight and dungeon raid.

And since Ren all used his EXP, he was sure to suffer an ATP reduction based on the Midnight’s Phantoms EXP rewards calculation.

Ren could only sigh in helplessness because of his own mistake of underestimating the first boss.

DiinNgG!

A notification prompted Ren’s eyes to open.

[Midnight Phantom suffered from BURN

–5% HP every minute]

–20 (BURN)

The reaming 1 HP of the Midnight Phantom went zero, and the beast howled and dropped dead from burn while it dissolved into white particles and vanished from thin air.