A single red potion cost one silver coin, and the trial poison was even more expensive, selling for as much as 10 silver coins! David Bolton spent money like water, buying 10 bottles of basic healing potion and 1 bottle of trial poison in one go, then left the novice village, heading toward the deep mountains to the north of the village.

He remembered that in a certain corner of the mountains, there was a respawn point for refined iron ore, refreshing once every hour, and each time you could mine 2-3 pieces of refined iron! It was the only refined iron ore respawn point in the novice village, and it just happened to be inside the lair of the Black Panther King!

High rewards always come with high risks!

The road was long. David Bolton spent more than half an hour before arriving at a valley, surrounded by jagged rocks of all shapes and sizes.

At the deepest part of the valley, a vein of ore shining with a silvery luster strongly attracted David Bolton's gaze. That was the only refined iron ore in the novice village that would respawn, but right next to this vein, there lay a giant black panther, pitch-black all over, as tall as two people and as long as six!

This was the most powerful BOSS in the novice village, the Black Panther King!

[Black Panther King] (Black Iron-level Boss)

Level: 15

HP: 45,000

An intimidating amount of health!

David Bolton took out the trial poison and applied it to his novice sword. Instantly, the originally rusty iron sword began to glow with a greenish light.

Poison was originally exclusive to the rogue class! However, the game developers wanted other players to experience the charm of poison as well, so they supplied a limited number of trial poisons in the novice village. Since each person could only ever buy one bottle, it wouldn't affect the game's balance.

But this became the key for David Bolton to kill the BOSS above his level!

David Bolton adjusted his state, then directly charged at the Black Panther King.

Charge—stun!

David Bolton swung his sword, slashing at the Black Panther King.

"-6!"

Due to the huge level gap, plus the boss monster's extremely high defense, even though David Bolton had a base damage of 36-38 points, his strike only shaved off a pitiful 6 HP from the BOSS! And because the damage was so low, he only gained 3 rage points, and even with the extra 10 rage from Charge, it was still far from enough to unleash a powerful strike!

Besides, even if he could use a powerful strike, it wouldn't deal much damage. To kill this high-level, high-armor BOSS, he could only rely on the power of poison!

Two seconds later, the Black Panther King woke up from the stun, angrily raising its paw and swiping at David Bolton.

David Bolton remained calm, ducked low to dodge the monster's attack, and immediately swung his sword again, slashing at the Black Panther King.

"-8!"

"Ding! Your attack has inflicted the Black Panther King with Trial Poison (1 stack), causing it to lose 3 HP per second!"

Poison counts as spell damage and can only be reduced by magic resistance!

A hint of joy appeared on David Bolton's face. Although the chance for the poison to take effect wasn't very high, as long as he got one stack, and then added another within 15 seconds, he could keep stacking it up to the maximum of five stacks!

One attack missed, and after being repeatedly damaged by the enemy in front of it, the Black Panther King grew even angrier. Its front paw lashed out again, swiping fiercely at David Bolton.

Dodge!

David Bolton displayed the poise of a true expert, dodging the BOSS's attacks through movement and positioning, never wasting a single opportunity to strike, landing blow after blow with his novice sword on the BOSS.

"Ding! Your attack has inflicted the Black Panther King with Trial Poison (2 stacks), causing it to lose 6 HP per second!"

"Ding! Your attack..."

Very soon, the effect of the trial poison stacked up to five layers, and the Black Panther King was losing 15 HP per second. Although this was ridiculously slow compared to its long health bar, as long as he maintained this state, in fifty minutes, this BOSS would eventually die a humiliating death from the poison!

David Bolton didn't dare to be careless in the slightest! His meager HP couldn't withstand even a single light hit from the BOSS—if he got hit once, he was definitely done for!

One minute, two minutes, three minutes... forty-five minutes!

The Black Panther King's HP dropped to about 10%. Suddenly, a blood-red light flashed over the powerful monster's body, and its already massive frame swelled even larger, with faster and more frequent attacks!

This was what players called berserk mode—a monster's frenzy before death, and only a few powerful monsters possessed it.

David Bolton's nerves were on high alert, pushing his sharp reflexes to the limit, dodging the Black Panther King's attacks again and again with perfect timing! At this point, his character's movement speed clearly couldn't keep up with his neural reactions. Only by investing more attribute points in agility could he maximize his advantage.

In this sense, David Bolton was better suited to play a rogue!

Of course, in the later stages of the game, as equipment quality improved, the proportion of free attribute points in a character's stats became less and less significant, eventually negligible. A good piece of equipment was the true key to boosting a character's stats!

"-15!"

"-15!"

"-6!"

Dodge!

"-15!"

"-15!"

"-7!"