Chapter 13: Etherion – The 3rd Sector of the Meldivar Map
"Someone's POV"
Whew! That was exhausting. I can't believe I had to sprint like a maniac just to escape from those damn red players earlier. What's their problem, seriously? Out of all the people in the area, they decided to target me? Bunch of lunatics.
Too bad for them, they couldn't even catch me. All those traps their archers laid down? Useless. I saw through them all thanks to my unique skill set. Honestly, I should be pissed... but nah, I'm just glad I got away. Still, because of that little ambush, I'm now forced to move to a different area just to level up. I hope the western dungeon isn't occupied. I don't want to get involved with other parties—last thing I need is getting PK'ed while I'm minding my own business.
Oh right, I haven't introduced myself yet. Rude of me, huh?
Let's rewind.
Name's Kaito Sandoval Kusanagi, 21 years old. I'm a solo player here in Enigma Online PH. My class is Elf, and I specialize as a Hybrid Elemental user. I'm a ranged-type with high offensive capabilities and an expert in evasive maneuvers. You could say I'm a professional escape artist.
I'm not the kind of guy you can easily hunt down. In fact, escaping tight situations is my specialty. Just like earlier—I was ambushed while entering a secret dungeon to grind. A whole group of elf players—around ten of them—went for a full-frontal attack while others tried to flank me from the rear.
Too bad for them, none of that worked.
Thanks to my extremely high Sensing ability and my passive skill Blurr, their ambush was a total failure. Blurr renders me invulnerable for a full minute. I turn translucent, and during that state, all incoming damage is nullified—as if I were a ghost. Oh, and during that minute, my movement speed is doubled. Pair that with my booster jet back item, and I'm practically a fighter jet on legs. So long as I've got a straight path, I can engage Hyper Boost and leave them all in the dust. Sonic-style.
And that's exactly what I did. Left them choking on my mana trail. Hah!
PvP? No time for that. Right now, I need to focus on leveling up. The next patch update is just around the corner.
Anyway, I'm currently roaming around the boundary of Etherion, the elven homeland. It's close to Frontier, the main town for human-class players. We're separated only by a vast forest that wraps around Etherion like a leafy cocoon.
There's really no need to move to other towns for grinding since Etherion is home to some pretty high-level mobs—Level 100 to 150 types.
There are remote dungeons here—isolated lairs filled with mini-bosses and top-tier monsters. Perfect for grinding. Well... for me, anyway. Almost forgot—I play solo. LOL.
In-game name?
"Great_Kai"
Level: 165
Race: Elf
Class: Hybrid Elemental
Subclass: Berserk Caster
Armor Set: Purple Lycanian Set (Legendary-grade) — Yep, spent all my game gold on it.
Bought the whole set from an NPC vendor. Super expensive—I practically went broke. Cost me around 600 million gold, including my weapon:
Belphigor Scepter +10
Type: Legendary
ATK Damage: 11,435–14,230
Element: Magma
Additional Effects:
† +2000 HP while equipped
† +35% movement speed
† +50 to all stats
Special Effect:
† Allows user to cast Meteor Shower without consuming MP. Each meteor deals 15% damage per hit.
Not bad, right? The stats on a maxed-out weapon are insane. Now I just need to farm more gold to upgrade my armor. I'll settle for +7 on the set for now. My current defense stat is only around 6,230—way below the 10k threshold needed to avoid critical damage.
The problem? I've only got 30 million gold left. Guess it's back to the gold-farming grind. I'm not strong enough yet to solo high-level bosses from the 100–150 difficulty bracket. I can manage bosses around Level 50 to 80, but those usually have long queues of players waiting to farm them. I don't really want to compete for kills. Not my style.
---
One hundred years later... (okay, maybe an hour)
I finally reached a secret dungeon—the infamous Cave of Terrors, located south of Etherion and just near Cyther Outpost in the Frontier sector.
Luckily, the place looks deserted. No players around. Perfect.
Time to farm.
My plan? Stay for about two hours. Just long enough to gather sellable items and loot gold. The cave hosts monsters between Levels 100–120. Among them are:
Night Argon – Level 100
Black Dragonite – Level 110
Night Terror – Level 120 (the strongest in the dungeon, inspired by a classic DOTA monster)
Each monster drops between 100,000g to 250,000g per kill. So if I stay for two hours, I could rake in around 50 million gold. Not bad, right?
Before diving in, I buffed myself up with my usual five max-level skills (Level 7 is the current buff cap):
Celtic Guard (Lv.7) – Increases evasion by 300. Duration: 5 minutes
Vitality Burst (Lv.7) – Increases HP, MP, SP by 30%. Duration: 30 minutes
Berserk Field (Lv.7) – AoE debuff (10-meter radius). Reduces enemy skill accuracy by 15%. Bosses: -5%, Players: -7%
Range Max (Lv.7) – Increases long-range attack capability to 60 meters. Effectively gives me 100% hit rate up to 360 meters.
Metaloid Body (Lv.7) – Increases defense gauge by 20%. Duration: 5 minutes
Translation: I'm a walking cannon. A long-range reaper with extreme mobility and decent survivability.
I dashed left, spotting two Night Argons—massive reptilian beasts with razor-sharp claws and long spines along their backs. Picture a mutant green komodo dragon with armor-grade scales.
"Water Burst!"
My scepter released a concentrated blast of water that knocked both monsters down, dealing about 40% HP damage.
"Lightning Smash!"
The moment they were wet, I slammed my staff into the ground, releasing a bolt of electricity. Elemental combo tip: Water + Lightning = extra damage. Learned that through trial and error.
Nice. Two hits down. These guys are easy once you figure out their weaknesses. They respawn in three minutes, which gives me enough time to move deeper inside.
Most monsters fell in three to four hits. I just had to stay alert and avoid their skills. No tank here—only pure range and movement.
To be safe, I only lured three mobs at a time. That way I wouldn't get overwhelmed.
Farm... farm... farm...
And so my gold grind began. One shot at a time.