Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 40

Chapter 40: The Forest Deer King’s Staff and the Stars

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Meanwhile, inside the Floating Island game.

In the forest of the second floor, under the night sky, two young women’s silhouettes rapidly weaved back and forth between the trees.

In front of them was a Lv.10 wild hidden BOSS 「Forest Deer King」, with its HP value clearly down to red, in a critical state, frantically fleeing through the forest while carrying the 【Deer Spirit】 BUFF.

Suddenly, its body emitted a green phosphorescence, turning completely into a semi-transparent cyan color, and split into three phantoms.

“It split into three!”

“I can’t believe it had this move…”

Tilia and Cross slid along the ground for a distance, both instinctively stopping at the same time, watching as the Forest Deer King’s spirit body divided into three and ran down three different small paths through the forest, which meant they could no longer continue their pincer attack strategy.

And the three spirit deer looked completely identical, with no visible differences in appearance.

“What do we do? It’s going to escape.”

“Don’t panic.” Tilia closed her eyes, sensing the fluctuations of magical elements, and detected that the deer spirit on the left was brimming with elemental energy, while the other two were merely empty shells. “It’s that one, chase it!”

Wild hidden BOSSes were different from wild elite monsters, they were BOSS-level creatures.

This type of BOSS typically wouldn’t appear in fixed locations waiting for players to kill them, but usually required specific trigger conditions, or appeared during specific time limits, and couldn’t be encountered by everyone, it was a matter of luck and probability.

For example, the Forest Deer King they were currently pursuing would only materialize at sunset, at the so-called “place where light refracts.”

Now in the full darkness of night, the Forest Deer King’s entire body had transformed into an emerald spirit form, with floral patterns drawn across its body. It leaped into the air, its form stepping directly on empty space, nimbly jumping from side to side with each step, quickly moving away.

And with each step it took in midair, it would make a crisp bell sound, allowing players to find its direction even after losing sight of it.

“It’s just too nimble, too fast… and the deer spirit state gives it 100% evasion. Damn it, we’re going to lose it!”

After some time, the Forest Deer King finally stopped jumping when it reached a cliff edge. Its body, several times larger than a normal deer, stood proud with its head held high, its body like semi-transparent jade, and its ears twitching once.

The surrounding forest was completely silent, and seemingly believing it had shaken off its pursuers, it gradually ended its 【Deer Spirit】 state.

And at that very moment.

A cloaked black shadow swooped down from a thick tree branch.

“Now, Cross, give it the final blow!”

Tilia shouted loudly as she herself leaped onto the giant deer’s back, grabbing hold of its pair of antlers.

“Yaaaow—” The giant deer immediately let out a sharp neighing sound, raising its front hooves high.

But no matter how the giant deer twisted and tried to shake her off, Tilia held on tightly to its back, casting 【Gravity Bind】 magic to prevent it from using 【Deer Spirit】 to escape again for a short time.

The Forest Deer King once again emitted a cyan radiance, beginning to stomp and shake continuously in place.

Tilia immediately gritted her teeth, her entire body clinging almost at a 90-degree angle to the giant deer, as if trying to tame a wild horse. If she loosened her grip even slightly, she would be thrown off immediately, and then watch as it jumped away through the air again.

And in the distant grass, a dazzling red magic circle was continuously moving, targeting the constantly shaking giant deer.

Must hit it, must definitely hit it…

If they let it escape again, all their efforts would be in vain…

Cross stood with her slender legs apart, her gaze determined, lips tightly closed in tension. When Tilia’s voice rang out, the boots on her feet immediately dug firmly into the loose soil, a gust of wind swept up her long hair, blowing her light blue magic robe.

“Hyah!” The young woman let out a refined shout.

A fireball that had been charging for a long time suddenly burst forth from the array patterns in front of her magic staff with a boom!

【Basic Fireball】!

【HP-675】!

The fireball crossed through gaps in the forest, burning with flames as it shot straight from the distance.

The moment the fireball struck the Forest Deer King, the remaining less than 5% HP was instantly depleted. Its massive body struggled for a moment before freezing in midair, then with a bang, it shattered into crystal fragments and dispersed into the air!

Tilia, caught unprepared, fell from the air and landed sitting on the ground.

【Congratulations, your team has achieved: the first kill of hidden BOSS 「Forest Deer King」】

【Player Cross gained experience: 7,500 Exp】

【Player Tilia gained experience: 6,000 Exp】

【Obtained items: Deer Skin x12, Rare Deer Antler x4, Basic Enhancement Stone x20, Star Coin x10,000, Title 「I Heard You Can Run Fast?」 x1】

【Obtained first kill reward: Forest Deer King’s Staff (Blue) x1】

“Ow, ow, ow… my butt.” Tilia clutched her bottom as she awkwardly got up from the ground.

“We did it! Tilia!” Cross happily ran out from the forest holding her magic staff, her face full of joy. They had actually managed to hunt down the Forest Deer King, the hidden BOSS that many players had encountered before but always escaped with a sliver of health!

They had spent almost half the night chasing this giant deer through the forest. It was really close, they almost wasted the whole night for nothing.

“Woah!” Tilia had just gotten to her feet when she was suddenly knocked back to the ground by Cross pouncing on her. Seeing how happy she was as she hugged her neck, Tilia also smiled and said, “Good job, that really wasn’t easy.”

This damned deer, even during the closed beta, Tilia hadn’t been able to catch it. The main issue was that at low health it forcibly entered the 【Deer Spirit】 state, gaining 100% evasion, making all attacks miss. Therefore, it necessarily became a chase battle, and in the complex, forking paths of the forest there were all sorts of obstacles.

But tonight they had finally taken it down with Cross.

It really was easier with two people working together; alone, one might more easily give up due to waning willpower.

“Let’s see what it dropped. After all our hard work, if it doesn’t drop something good, I’ll have to complain about this game’s drop rates.”

“Okay, let me see!” While still lying on top of Tilia, Cross hurriedly checked the dropped items and saw that she had successfully obtained the first kill reward, a blue quality magic staff!

【Forest Deer King’s Staff (Blue)】

【Magic +200, Critical Rate +5%, Evasion Rate +15%】

【Special Effect: Can activate special magic skill 「Phantom: Giant Deer Stomp」, dealing 500% wood attribute area damage. If not in combat, the skill changes to summon a Forest Giant Deer mount, greatly increasing movement speed, continuously consuming MP while maintained】

The special effect is actually a skill, and with a 500% multiplier!?

Cross thought about the magic she currently knew, which was basically just 【Triple Magic Bullet】 and 【Basic Fireball】. The former had a 180% multiplier if all hits landed, while the latter was 200%.

“It’s good that you got it.” Tilia sighed in relief.

To be honest, it was precisely to get Cross a powerful weapon that Tilia had thought to try their luck, camping here for three nights before finally encountering it. She remembered seeing from the official website catalog that it did indeed drop a staff-type weapon.

But as for what exactly it was, the catalog had only shown a question mark silhouette at the time.

But it was truly exhausting, this hidden BOSS was essentially a mechanics-based creature.

At low health, it would definitely trigger an escape mechanism, and its speed was so fast that players below Lv.20 absolutely couldn’t catch up. Plus, it was extremely sensitive to surrounding movements, the slightest rustling would make it run away, always leaving pursuing players to sigh in disappointment and return empty-handed.

“Are you really giving this to me? It feels like such a rare piece of equipment.”

“Yes, although I’m also a magic user, my weapon isn’t a magic staff, so I can’t use it. I came here specifically to get equipment for you.”

“Then, then I’ll accept it, thank you so much, Tilia!!!”

After closing the equipment menu, Cross once again clung to her like a little cat, hugging her. Tilia, exhausted and lying on the ground, didn’t have the energy to resist, half-closing her eyes as Cross happily nuzzled her cheek.

“My face is very dirty, you know. I just got a face full of dirt earlier, I’ll need to take a bath when we get back.”

“It’s okay, I’m the same, hehe…”

“Are you really that happy? Looking at how excited you are, we just defeated a hidden BOSS and got a nice piece of equipment.”

“Of course! This is blue quality, and it has a special effect! Tilia might not know, but in all the time I was teaming up with Nolan before, I only saw blue equipment once. I feel like I can use this until I finish the game!”

“That’s an exaggeration. You’ll definitely need to replace it later. But… indeed, this staff has very good attributes, you can use it for a long time.”

“When we get back, I’ll enhance it to +3 right away! It’s a shame that intermediate enhancement stones drop so rarely, so I can’t get it to +4.”

If they wanted intermediate enhancement stones, they would need to defeat more high-level elite monsters.

But for tonight, they should head back. Chasing this deer had taken at least two hours and was truly exhausting, both physically and mentally.

“…” But Tilia blinked, looking at the night sky while lying on the ground, yet making no move to get up, suddenly wanting to rest there for a while.

“What’s wrong, Tilia? What are you looking at?” Noticing that the girl beneath her had suddenly become very quiet, Cross propped herself up on her arms and asked.

“Looking at the stars.” Tilia lay on the ground, her gaze passing Cross’s cheek, with the brilliant stars reflected in her dark pupils.

“Eh? Stars?” Cross, still lying on top of her, was stunned for a moment, then also raised her head to look at the starry sky. Seemingly too tired to stand up, she simply rested her head on Tilia’s arm, also lying on the ground close beside her.

Cross widened her eyes slightly. “How beautiful. Since entering this game, I’ve never paid attention to what the night sky looks like.”

“Mmm… it’s a sight that you absolutely cannot see in the real world, something that can only be appreciated here.”

Looking directly at the twinkling starry sky before her, this world’s stars were like colorful paint gently poured onto the canvas of the night sky. A colorful Milky Way streaked across the sky, beautiful enough to induce hallucinations.

For a moment, it made her momentarily dazed.

How beautiful.

It couldn’t help but remind her of childhood memories, lying on the grass with her sister, counting stars. If it were this splendid starry sky, the stars would definitely be too numerous for her to count, and her sister would certainly be very happy too.

It was precisely this beautifully unreal sky that made her realize, in this incredibly real world, that she was currently in another realm, inside a game.

And thus it drew out more of her thoughts in this moment.

“I wonder… what is Yueli doing now?”