Chapter 89: The Difficulty of Advancement

The Demon Stone Statue, a high-tier summoned beast of level thirty-five, had physical defense so astonishingly high that ordinary attacks from an archer warrior were little more than a scratch. Its speed was not slow; in fact, it was even slightly faster than some agile level twenty-nine archer warriors. As for its attack power, there was no need to mention it at all. A level thirty-five high-tier summoned beast could kill a level twenty-nine archer warrior as easily as swatting a fly.

Falcon told me that his only advantages against it were Dash and ranged attacks.

That was exactly why he had chosen the Demon Stone Statue.

Unfortunately, only after entering the Forgotten Castle did he discover just how absurdly high its defense was. Skills were the only way to deal damage to it, and even then he had to keep using Dash without pause.

The first time he fought it, he assumed that because it had “stone” in its name, it must be slow. In reality, before he could fire a second arrow, the Demon Stone Statue had already killed him outright.

The second time, while using Dash, his accuracy dropped to almost nothing, and he ran out of mana in the end, only to be caught and slain by the Demon Stone Statue.

After learning from those failures, Falcon trained relentlessly to shoot while under Dash, yet he still came away defeated. His mana pool was simply too small; before he had even dealt a third of the statue’s health in damage, he had already lost all ability to hurt it.

And the latest attempt, this one...

Falcon had even gone so far as to assemble an entire set of intelligence-boosting gear. Things were a little better, but while using Dash, his accuracy remained limited, and his mana was being drained at a frightening rate.

In the end, he was killed before he could even bring down half of the Demon Stone Statue’s health.

Hearing all this, I more or less understood that Falcon’s weakness was poor accuracy while moving fast. After a long silence, I asked, “By the way, can the advancement quest be chosen again?”

Falcon immediately understood what I meant and gave a bitter smile, shaking his head.

“You want me to choose the last quest, right? Cough... you don’t know this, but the last option is the most insane one of all. The Demon Stone Statue is at least something I could fight for a while, but the Dark Wizard in the Sunfall Altar... I’ve been there, and I couldn’t even get close!”

“Huh?”

His words left me stunned. Was the Dark Wizard even more terrifying than the Black Wind Demon Wolf King? That seemed unlikely.

Seeing my reaction, Falcon smiled helplessly, still shaken.

“You have no idea. That cursed place called the Sunfall Altar isn’t somewhere humans belong at all. It’s basically a graveyard, full of empowered skeletons around level thirty, and they’re all archers. There are more than a dozen guarding the Dark Wizard. If I went in, I’d probably be turned into a pincushion before I even saw him.”

From his description, I could almost see him racing through a graveyard swarming with archer skeletons, black bone arrows bristling all over his body.

Cold chills ran down my spine.

As Falcon said, among those three choices, the Demon Stone Statue really would be the easiest to deal with. Only...

“Wait. What skill were you using to kill the Demon Stone Statue? What level was it?”

Falcon blinked. “Basic Piercing Arrow. It increases attack by thirty-five percent, and each shot can take about thirty to forty HP off the Demon Stone Statue.”

“An advanced-tier skill? Still at basic level? You kept using that against it, no wonder your mana drained so fast.”

I looked at him speechlessly.

Falcon’s face reddened. “That skill has the highest attack. The others consume too much and deal even less damage. Actually... if my aim were a little better, I could handle the Demon Stone Statue just fine.”

“You’re sure?”

“Uh, of course I’m sure.”

I blinked. “Did you forget to include Dash in that calculation?”

At that, Falcon’s face instantly darkened to the color of liver. He was too embarrassed to speak.

“Uh... yeah, I guess I did forget to count that.”

As he said this, his expression suddenly fell.

“Ha... after holding on this long, do I really have to be like those others before me and delete my character to start over?”

Clearly, after realizing he still could not defeat the Demon Stone Statue, Falcon had finally begun to think about giving up.

“Not necessarily.”

I looked at the light returning to Falcon’s eyes and reminded him, “Actually, as long as you raise the levels of Dash and Piercing Arrow, killing the Demon Stone Statue should become a lot easier. My guess is that you’ve spent all your time grinding levels and tinkering with equipment, and hardly any time practicing your skills, right?”

At my words, Falcon’s eyes lit up at once. “How did you know?”

That one stumped me.

He had literally just told me his Piercing Arrow was still at basic level, and he had been standing in the city for so long without moving that even a fool could have guessed it. I was speechless.

Falcon gave a chuckle, but his mood had clearly improved now that the problem was solved. Not having to delete his character and start over was naturally the best outcome. As for the advancement problem at the fourth tier, that was still far away.

“Good! We’ll do it this way. For the next two days, I’ll stay here and train my skills with you. Out of arrows? Perfect! I just bought a backpack full on the way here... I’ll split half with you!”

I laughed when I heard that.

Heh, not bad. The big oaf had become rather cute.