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--- Chapter 515 ---
Stepping deeper into the dark passageway, Mu Xi's heart thrummed with high anticipation. Even so, she remained vigilant, her hands keeping a firm, steady grip on her heavy greatsword.
Beside her, Han Yuan strolled casually, resting his disguised martial soul, the jet-black dark fishing rod, over his right shoulder. His sharp eyes scanned the shadows until a soft, pale glow greeted them at the end of the tunnel.
Crossing the threshold, they found themselves in a massive, enclosed square chamber.
The rough, uneven rock of the cave had completely given way to smooth, polished white quartz. Eerie blue torches flickered along the perimeter walls, casting cold shadows across the floor.
At the far end of the hall sat a massive throne constructed entirely from jagged bones. Perched upon it was a monstrous humanoid spirit beast, a copper-skinned cyclops.
No, it wasn't your typical cyclops. It was a twin-headed cyclops, a rare variant renowned for its terrifying combination of brute physical strength and oppressive mental force.
Judging strictly by its massive size and muscle density, Han Yuan and Mu Xi estimated the beast to be around four thousand years old in real-world terms.
Unfortunately, real-world age meant little inside DND Online, where power was 'naturally' governed by numerical values and level.
Sure enough, as Han Yuan and Mu Xi raised their gaze, a dark red system display materialized above the creature's heads.
[Boss Display Name]
[Twin-Headed Cyclops - Level 25 (Elite Wild Boss)]
"L-Level 25?! That's insane!" Mu Xi gasped in disbelief.
Most spirit beasts roaming the beginner area were well under Level 10, with Level 10 variants already classified as powerful elite monsters that required organized raid parties.
Yet here, hidden away in an unmapped cave, sat a Level 25 Elite Wild Boss!
Calling this Twin-Headed Cyclops an impossible monster encounter for early-game players wasn't an exaggeration.
The vast majority of players hadn't even broken Level 5 yet, and even Mu Xi, after her relentless XP farming by the riverbank and in the cave, had only managed to reach Level 9.
At this stage of the game, a Level 25 boss could effortlessly steamroll an entire army of new players.
Han Yuan glanced at the nervous girl and smiled faintly. "Are you afraid, Sister Bride?"
"D-Don't call me that!" Mu Xi blushed despite her anxiety. Although they had agreed to use each other's in-game names, being addressed like that in a moment like this was still embarrassing.
"Alright, at least you're not panicking anymore. Now, focus on the boss. We can't afford to drop our guard," Han Yuan chuckled softly. "Don't you want loot? Let's take it down!"
"But... that's a Level 25 boss, Xiao Yuan," Mu Xi mumbled, her confidence wavering. "I'm not strong enough yet."
Han Yuan reached out and gently caressed Mu Xi's cheek. Her entire body jolted at the warm contact as she looked up into his calm, tender gaze.
"Believe in me..." He said softly.
Just like that, all her doubts and hesitation melted away.
Mu Xi took a deep breath, a smile returning to her face as she tightened her grip on the greatsword's hilt. "Alright."
The moment they stepped fully into the area, glowing red system text flared in the air before them.
[WARNING! You have entered a Special Dungeon Boss Room!]
[You cannot exit the room until the boss is defeated!]
[Defeat Penalty: Severe Exp / Attribute Loss upon death.]
[Defeat Reward: High-Grade Chest & Rare Boss Drops.]
[Proceed with caution!!!]
Han Yuan and Mu Xi exchanged a calm, knowing glance and stepped past the barrier together.
ROAR—!
A deafening, mind-shocking roar echoed off the quartz walls. Fortunately, both Han Yuan and Mu Xi possessed extraordinary mental fortitude, easily shrugging off the psychological pressure.
The Twin-Headed Cyclops reached behind its bone throne and ripped out a massive, spiked bone club. In the next instant, its tall, massive frame blurred.
Han Yuan reacted instantly, pushing Mu Xi aside as he swung his fishing rod in a sweeping arc. The surrounding air pressure shifted violently as the two weapons collided mid-air.
BANG!
Mu Xi watched in shock—the Cyclops was unnaturally fast for its size! Yet Han Yuan stood his ground without a single trace of strain, perfectly holding back the monster's overwhelming force.
"Come on, Mu Xi, you can do this!" She mumbled, pumping herself up with fighting spirit.
Arcing white electricity erupted from her body, crackling along the length of her heavy blade. Spun by her own momentum, she whirled across the polished floor, letting centrifugal force build higher and higher before leaping into the air for a devastating downward smash.
Nevertheless, the Cyclops' second head tracked her trajectory. The spirit beast leaned back, causing the lightning-coated greatsword to miss by inches.
BOOM!
The heavy blade slammed into the white quartz floor, sending fractures rippling outward.
"So damn fast!" Mu Xi gritted her teeth in frustration.
"It's not that this guy is fast," Han Yuan remarked, spinning his fishing rod to deflect another heavy club swing. "Having two heads gives him double the field of view and overlapping spatial awareness."
He narrowed his eyes playfully. "We either blind his vision, or we cut those heads off one by one."
"I'll handle all the tanking and crowd control," Han Yuan stated, deflecting another heavy smash. "You focus purely on dealing damage."
"Is that okay?"
Mu Xi stabilized her breathing, white electricity crackling across her lithe body. "Mhm, let's do this!"
The Twin-Headed Cyclops went wild, rapidly bombarding Han Yuan with a relentless barrage of heavy club strikes. Han Yuan parried and deflected every single attempt with effortless precision, drawing the giant beast's full aggression and creating wide openings for Mu Xi to deal some damage.
However, as the battle dragged on, both of them noticed something strange about the boss.
The Cyclops' movement speed gradually slowed, but the weight and destruction behind each strike multiplied exponentially.
BOOM!
Han Yuan was forced back a step as a crater shattered open beneath his boots. The fishing rod in his hand vibrated with intense friction.
"Oh?" Han Yuan raised an eyebrow, amused. "Is this a specialized boss passive? A rage-type stat boost?"
He looked up at the towering monster and smiled. "But... don't you think you're focusing a bit too much on me?"
Above the creature, Mu Xi's blurred form danced through the air. Whirling with the momentum of her heavy blade, she aimed a lightning-infused arc straight at the Cyclops' left neck.
"Take this!"
SWOOSH! SLASH!
The heavy greatsword sliced cleanly through flesh and bone, decapitating the left head in a single brutal swing. Virtual crimson mist sprayed wildly across the room.
Yet, as if driven by pure fury and instinct, the Cyclops' last head roared as its torso twisted mid-air, sweeping its massive bone club straight toward her.
Mu Xi's eyes widened. "No way!"
BANG!
She hastily pulled her greatsword back to guard, but the sheer force of the colossal club was too much. The impact sent her flying backward through the air.
CRASH!
Mu Xi slammed hard into the quartz wall, sliding down to the floor with a soft cough as her breath caught in her chest.
Warily inspecting the now one-headed Cyclops, she pushed herself up and then grinned.
"Hehe... for a monster with two damn heads, you're pretty slow on the head," she giggled mockingly. "You shouldn't have given my Xiao Yuan a chance to attack."
"He's... much stronger than me."
Only then did the Cyclops realize its mistake. It turned its remaining eye back toward the black-haired youth it had bombarded into the crater moments ago.
It had assumed the human was pinned and exhausted, if not crushed to the floor.
It was dead wrong.
Standing within the crater, Han Yuan raised his dark fishing rod. A murky, pitch-black aura erupted from his frame, distorting and warping the space around him as gravitational force condensed into a shadowy cloak.
"Underworld Qi: Dark-Cloaked Slash."
As Han Yuan's calm voice echoed through the chamber, he swung the fishing rod downward.
SCHWING!
The world seemed to lose its color for a split moment as a thin, void-black seam split the room down the center—passing straight through the Twin-Headed Cyclops.
Space itself was cut.
The Cyclops froze in place for a beat before its massive, towering body split perfectly in half, disintegrating into a shower of shimmering virtual particles.
DING! DING! DING!
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!]
[Congratulations to players True Whale and Xiao Yuan's Bride Sister for earning the World First Kill on Unique Elite Wild Boss: Level 25 Twin-Headed Cyclops!]
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!]
[Congratulations to players True Whale and Xiao Yuan's Bride Sister for earning the World First Kill on Unique Elite Wild Boss: Level 25 Twin-Headed Cyclops!]
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!]
[Congratulations to players True Whale and Xiao Yuan's Bride Sister for earning the World First Kill on Unique Elite Wild Boss: Level 25 Twin-Headed Cyclops!]
Gnosia's monotonous, echoing voice boomed three times across the sky of every server in DND Online, sending shockwaves through the entire player base.
[World First Achievement Rewards Granted:
+5 Levels
30,000 EXP
10 Gold Coins
1x Unique Skill Book
1x Unique Weapon Voucher
Title: [Giant Slayer]]
[Keep climbing, young diamonds. At least two of you have begun to display their true potential.]
"..."
Across every meadow, plaza, and forest, thousands of players stopped dead in their tracks, staring blankly up at the golden notification banners floating in the sky.
A few unlucky ones were immediately swarmed and killed by wild mobs because they were too stunned to move.
A collective, resounding thought echoed in every player's mind.
WHAT THE HELL?!
A Level 25 Elite Wild Boss?! Defeated by TWO PEOPLE?!
Most of us haven't even broken Level 10 yet!
Xiao Yuan's Bride Sister?!
True Whale?!
What kind of pair of absolute monsters are they?!