Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The BOSS No One Dares to Challenge

***

“Don’t take what that guy said too seriously.”

After Raven left, Kilo walked to Nolan’s side, his broad hand gently resting on his shoulder.

“Thank you, Nolan, for informing us about the important 【Escape】 skill. However, I only started considering the possibility of challenging the BOSS after arriving at Morning Dew Town today and entering the safe zone.”

“Those of us who arrived here first are relatively calm players, or you could say that people who came here still hold a glimmer of hope, not to mention there are even more people still in the Pure White Holy City. I know you wanted to salvage the atmosphere that was rapidly sliding into despair earlier.”

“Thank you again. I believe the day will come when we’ll defeat the BOSS, successfully reach the top, and free ourselves from this game.”

The physically impressive Kilo, built like a true warrior, spoke these words.

His voice and temperament gave people a sense of reliability and steadiness. Even Karl, who had been immersed in the unbearable pain of losing his teammates, gradually began to transform that pain into flames of revenge under Kilo’s comforting words.

Indeed, he had nothing left to lose. Silumi and Jean would never return.

He had only harbored the vision of becoming a true swordsman or hero, which was why he had been so enthusiastic about playing this game. Now, he must become a true swordsman in order to avenge them.

“If you’re going to challenge the BOSS in the future… please count me in,” Karl said with teary eyes and clenched fists.

Until they conquered this game and exposed the mastermind behind it, he had to struggle to survive. The living are winners, the dead are heroes, and the true losers are those who surrender to despair and give up their will to live.

He wanted the creator of this game to know that Silumi and Jean weren’t people whose right to exist should be casually taken away. Even before they left this world, they were shouting for Karl to escape. They were Karl’s childhood friends.

And he could not forgive the person who took his friends away.

Nolan hadn’t been able to inspire those with pessimistic thoughts, but he had indeed given a glimmer of hope to those filled with courage. For most people, that hope would probably only truly revive once someone successfully defeated the second floor BOSS.

After the crowd gathered in the tavern dispersed, some chose to return to the inn to rest, while others continued to wait near the town for monster respawns to claim them first. Some players were already hardcore gamers who stayed up all night playing games, not to mention that under the current high-stress situation, they naturally felt no drowsiness.

The game also had a sleep function. During the closed beta, people had tried sleeping in the game, which was almost identical to sleeping in reality.

After leaving the tavern, Nolan sold the monster materials he had gathered. Some NPCs in town would buy them at low prices, or players could freely trade rare materials among themselves. PVX players typically understood the value of materials better and would offer higher prices.

Now, back to Morning Dew Town, this safe zone town in the first floor area was about one-fifth the size of the main city.

The Pure White Holy City had so many buildings and such a vast area that it was easy to get lost inside. Nevertheless, Morning Dew Town was still quite large, with at least a hundred houses situated within it, mostly two or three-story structures in medieval European architectural style.

The streets in the town were very flat, paved with gray bricks imprinted with patterns. On both sides of the roads were torii-style street lamps and beautiful blooming flowers. At nightfall, the entire town remained brightly lit.

The light source was naturally not provided by electricity, but by magical elements of this world serving as the power source. Even the windmill tower, the tallest building in town, had bright yellow light shining through its windows.

Nolan had stayed in this town for a long time during the closed beta because it was quiet and peaceful, with scenery that was truly immersive.

If not for the unfortunate events that had occurred, he might have taken Cross around town tonight, introducing her to every street, the locations of various NPCs, and the methods for accepting different quests.

“That’s 5,500 Star Coins in total.” After Nolan sold all the monster materials to the general store NPC, a notification popped up on his system interface.

“Thank you for your contribution to our town, Starforger. The number of wild boars and wolf packs causing trouble around town has decreased significantly, allowing residents to travel more safely,” the general store merchant expressed his gratitude.

“Don’t mention it, it was nothing,” Nolan replied.

Although “equipment merchants” and “potion merchants” who provided players with powerful equipment and survival items had disappeared due to the Star Lord’s rules, other resident NPCs and quest NPCs still existed like the original inhabitants.

The residents’ attitude toward players was quite friendly, addressing them as “Starforger” in the same way they might call others “brave hero.”

Perhaps as Starforgers, players were the kind of people willing to solve problems for the residents, accepting quests from them and receiving rewards. Thinking of it this way, the residents’ goodwill toward players made sense.

While selling the monster materials, Nolan also glanced at the general store merchant’s goods.

Although equipment was for sale, the highest quality seemed to be only white-grade. As for items, only the most basic healing potions were available. The powerful enhancement potions he had seen before couldn’t be bought here and would need to be crafted by players in the future.

A Basic Healing Potion cost 20 Star Coins, restoring 5 HP per second for 10 seconds, for a total of 50 HP.

Nolan looked at his attribute panel. His current HP was 400 points, meaning he would need 8 potions for a full recovery. As levels and attributes increased, the effectiveness of potions gradually became insufficient, making it impossible to rely solely on potions sold by the general store merchant.

He spent 1,000 Star Coins to purchase another 50 Basic Healing Potions, and his inventory showed 11,920 remaining.

It would be impossible to have so much money without killing monsters. To accumulate such a sum just by doing gathering quests would require completing dozens of them. The game had already revealed its hidden rules to all players: the more you fear danger, the harder it becomes to survive.

After dealing with these matters, Nolan prepared to return to the inn.

He saw that Cross had sent him several private messages, probably wondering where he had gone since he’d been away so long. After all, Nolan had initially said he was just going to sell materials to the general store merchant and would be back soon, but he had ended up staying at the tavern longer than expected.

“I should head back first. I need to discuss with her whether we should immediately set out for the second floor tomorrow.”

After witnessing what had happened to others today, Nolan instinctively wanted to be more cautious. Going to the second floor was inevitable, but perhaps they could prepare more thoroughly, just as they had been more careful when hunting monsters and leveling up today. They hadn’t leveled up to 10 as quickly as they would have in a normal game, and without equipment merchants, green-quality equipment could only be obtained as monster drops.

If this were still just a game, Nolan would probably have pulled a large group of monsters and defeated them all at once, but today he had basically pulled aggro one by one.

If possible, he wanted to take time tomorrow to teach Cross how to better control her magic staff. Learning magic was different from using ordinary weapons, it relied on the player’s imagination and mental strength, requiring time to master.

And… he wanted to know how the second floor BOSS that no one dared to challenge, 「Minorius」—

Nolan’s expression gradually darkened.

— had been strengthened.