Blake Storm cursed loudly: "Fuck you, you son of a bitch! Are you done messing with me or not?!"

At this moment, Blake Storm's attack speed dropped from 12 to 8, and he was now slower than the skeletons! With a clang, a skeleton swung its blade and knocked off 1 point of his health!

Blake Storm killed the skeleton in front of him again and charged into the room—the BOSS was right there!

—System prompt: You have been hit by the ghost mage's dark spell "Armor Break Weakening." Your defense is reduced by 4 points! Duration: one day!

My defense is high, I’m not afraid of your debuff! The sheer number of spells this BOSS has left Blake Storm speechless!

At this point, Blake Storm finally saw clearly that this BOSS was actually just a ghost holding a magic book radiating black light! And this ghost's stats were just those of an ordinary ghost! A level-three undead unit in its normal form!

—Ghost: Attack 4, Defense 4, HP 16, Damage 2-4, Attack speed: normal speed 8, Movement speed 15, Special abilities: Ethereal Body, Flying unit, Undead creature.

Blake Storm suddenly understood! How could a newbie village mini-boss possibly have so many dark spells? The magic book was the key! As long as he killed this BOSS, the magic book would most likely drop! The magic book itself was an item filled with immense magical power! It might even be alive! The magic book could allow someone with no magical foundation to cast the spells recorded within! How could such a treasure appear in the newbie trial village?

Of course, for an assessment of a god-level hero like me, even if an artifact appeared directly, it wouldn’t be strange!

Excited, Blake Storm swung his blade at the ghost—"Missed!"

—Newbie tip: Ghosts have the special ability Ethereal Body, giving them a 50% chance to dodge physical and magical attacks! If the first two attacks miss, the third attack is guaranteed to hit.

—Agh, pfft! Blake Storm spat in frustration!

Damn! Even if I’m loaded with dark magic, I still have 30 HP, I’ll fight you to the death, you weakling with only 16 HP! Blake Storm slashed again, "-3!"

This time you can’t dodge, right? Only 13 HP left! Blake Storm was brimming with fighting spirit!

At this moment, two more skeletons surged out of the teleportation array and surrounded Blake Storm, hacking at him. Blake Storm endured the attacks from several skeletons while focusing his strikes on the ghost! -4! Missed! Missed! -3!...

The ghost’s HP kept dropping, and Blake Storm's HP was almost gone as well. When another skeleton warrior stepped out of the summoning circle, and Blake Storm's crucial attack missed again, leaving him with only 4 HP, he knew it was hopeless. Furious, he cursed loudly, and had no choice but to turn and run!

At least his movement speed was enough that the skeletons could never catch up. The ghost could, of course, but as long as it dared to leave the skeletons behind to chase, he could still take two hits with his 4 HP—he still had a chance to take it down!

But in the end, that hope was dashed. The ghost mage didn’t chase him out the door.

So close! Just a little bit more! On his way out, Blake Storm was so angry he started hiccuping!

If only—if only I had teamed up with that loser, I definitely would have taken it down, right? This thought only lingered in Blake Storm's mind for half a second before he shook his head and dismissed it. Everything on the ship—experience, equipment, treasures—belongs to me, and no outsider is getting a single bit! It’s fine if I can’t beat it now, I’ll just level up once more and I’ll be ready. I’ll keep killing skeletons on the deck.

It’s just that being loaded up with all these dark magic debuffs that last a whole day of game time is so damn annoying! The rest doesn’t matter, at worst it’s like being back at level 1, but this attack delay is disgusting! Being slower than the skeletons means I’ll always get hit first! Resting to recover HP will waste a ton of time—so frustrating!

But frustration is good! The more frustrated I feel, the more it proves how valuable that black magic book is! I have to get my hands on it!

……

Deserted island beach.

After swimming ashore, David Carter found the nearest sea anemone tide pool, and with his first spear thrust, he scored a great start!

—System prompt: You have obtained the incomplete information card of the Enchanted Venomous Sea Anemone!

—Newbie tip: Incomplete information cards make it difficult to get full rewards from NPCs. Please continue fighting to collect more detailed intel.

So it really is a sea anemone! So that’s its name! Sounds fierce! David Carter excitedly checked the information card.

—Enchanted Venomous Sea Anemone:

Creature type: Small plant;

Attack: ?

Defense: 0

Damage: ?

HP: 11

Attack speed: Very slow

Movement speed: 0

Special abilities: ?

Drops: ?

EXP: 10

Wahahaha, truly a case of slow and steady wins the race! Keep going! David Carter killed dozens more, but there was no further progress.

What’s going on? Could it be because I’m attacking them and they can’t fight back, so I can’t learn their damage info? That must be it—after all, if you’ve never been punched, you’ll never know how much it hurts.

Should I… let one hit me?

No way, that’s just asking for trouble! Judging by its HP and EXP, this sea anemone is about the level of a tier-2 unit, but plant monsters are notoriously weird and can’t be judged by common sense—plus, its name even has "venomous" in it! How could a fragile spearman like me handle that?