Chapter 48 - A Little Too Late  

While Liam was completely engrossed in his own world, the two world announcements which chimed in one after the other created an uproar throughout the game and all the players within it currently.

Somewhere near the royal city…

Three figures dashed around in a huge pit of considerable depth. If one looked closely, these three figures were only moving around using the rocks and tree roots protruding from the walls of this pit.

They were particularly very careful not to step near the center of the pit and for good reason.

At the depth of the pit laid several chopped-up green snake corpses, and at the dead center was an enormous green boa eyeing the humans with its sinister slit-like yellow eyes.

HISSSSS!

The boa moved at an incredible speed aiming for the red-haired girl, but before it could strike her, a huge metallic shield was rammed against its head.

Haa! Alex grunted taking the full brunt of the attack. "Rey, what the heck? Why are you so slow?"

"Ahh… Sorry, sis!" Rey stuttered and quickly shot two arrows one after the other. However, his aim wasn't all that great as he had hastily made the attacks.

The boa managed to recover and struck again, this time first spewing a cloud of deadly poisonous gas.

Alex jutted out her shield again. Her movements were visibly slowed down because of the paralyzing effect of the poison.

"Damn it, Rey! The damn thing is almost dead. Why are you screwing up NOW?!"

"Fuck." Rey was more scared of the woman than the realistic anaconda-sized serpent.

He quickly prepared to shoot the next arrow, this time activating the booster effect for extra strength and precision. The arrow zoomed across, slicing through the air.

Fortunately for Rey, his aim this time was accurate. However, unfortunately for him, the boa moved at the last second, dodging the attack with its superb agility.

The beast raised its head again to attack the paralyzed tank. "Ah fuck. I am so screwed today." Rey cursed under his breath.

The beast they were up against was actually a field boss with an irritating regeneration ability.

If they don't finish it within the next couple of seconds, then the fight was basically going to be reset and they would have to fight with it all over again.

And of course, he was going to be blamed for it. "Alex is going to kill me!" Rey shivered.

He watched the giant boa as a green light enveloped its body, slowly covering all its injuries and bruises. However, just as the light was spread another flash of light appeared and the boa's head was cleanly severed.

"Divine Retribution." Mia's voice rang out calmly.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Giant Poisonous Boa. You have gained 13000 Experience points]

[Ding. You have leveled up]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have reached Level 15]

[Ding. Congratulations. Your fame spreads far and wide. You are currently at the 15th position on the world leaderboard.]

Alex smiled contentedly at the fruits of their hard work and collapsed on the ground tiredly. "Huff huff… Thanks, Mia. You timed it really well."

She paused and threw a threatening glance at Rey before adding. "I would have killed someone if I had to restart this stupid fight from the beginning."

Rey took a step back and dug around the corpse for loot, pretending as if he hadn't heard her, though his shaky hands showed that he was very nervous.

But Alex did not let him be. She threw her shield at him and muttered in annoyance. "Why were you so distracted?"

Ah… Rey was speechless. "Did you both not see the world announcements?" He looked at both his scary party members.

Alex and Mia shook their heads. "Unlike you, we actually turned the notifications off during the fight like a sane person would do." Alex scoffed.

Rey chose to ignore that remark and shamelessly replied with a smile. "He He. You will be shocked. Check it fast."

"My big brother unlocked the leaderboard and killed a field boss! He got side-wide announcements for both!"

"Blehh… Useless. That guy won't even talk to you properly and yet you are calling him big brother. You are such an idiot." Alex scolded him while gazing at the two back to back announcements.

Though there could potentially be other people with the same name, they had no doubt that this was the same person with whom they had partied.

"If only we had killed this thing sooner, we could have gotten that announcement. Damn it. I can't believe that asshole beat us to it by just a few minutes."

Alex gnashed her teeth in anger, mentally imagining pummeling the guy with the hateful smile on his face.

Mia, however, remained silent as if it had nothing to do with her. She bent down and took the skill book which had dropped from their field boss kill. "Rey, here. This skill book is yours."

"Oh, nice! Tame skill finally! Sweet." He kissed the skill book and gave out a fist pump. "Let's go. Let's go. I need a cool pet now!"

"So you decided to become a beast hunter?" Alex frowned.

"Yes. Of course. Liam advised me to stick to the training hall class recommendations and I am going to do it." He proudly declared.

"Idiot." Alex kicked his shin, making the guy yelp in pain. She then ignored him and started discussing with Mia. "Shall we log out? We need to at least get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day."

On hearing her words, Mia's usual calm and composed expression slightly faltered and she nodded.. The two of them then logged out while Rey decided to stay back and explore a bit by himself.