It had been two months since the dungeon of Black Beard shattered the will of hundreds and claimed the lives of most who dared to clear it. I skipped the second dungeon clearing until the seventh one, because I thought I was too weak for it, and thought that the first one was just pure luck.
I had become a normal player again.
But honestly, I was just afraid of dying. I mean... who isn't afraid of dying? Hahaha!
So, I spent every day pushing to grow stronger, grinding mini-dungeons, clearing side quests, and finding every hidden EXP route I could, until I reached level thirty. And figuring out the true nature of my class.
And the Easter Egg? Still very much an egg. A glorified paperweight, sealed tight and useless.
Not until I found the material to make it useful. The Hatcher.
I didn't know how or where it would show up.
But the answer came, with glowing red letters that tore across the sky like fire across parchment.
[WORLD EVENT]: [THE HERALD OF THE DEEP HAS AWAKENED!]
[Location]: [Tempest Gulf – Southwest of Arkanos]
[Boss]: [The Leviathan Hermit] – (LEVEL 60)
[Reward]: [Exclusive drop] – [Easter Egg Hatcher]
[Event Timer]: [6 hours]
[Warning]: [High fatality rate expected. Proceed with caution!]
When I arrived at the coast, hundreds of players were already gathering. There were around two hundred or more players present. Most of them looked strong, their levels hovering around forty to fifty.
The water near Tempest Gulf suddenly frothed violently, as if something massive stirred beneath the waves. Lightning danced across the clouds, forming a swirling vortex over the sea. At the eye of it, a rift shimmered blue and black, like a tear in reality itself.
Then it appeared and opened its eyes.
A monstrous, barnacle-covered abomination erupted from beneath the waves. Eyes like sunken lighthouses. A carapace of coral and rusted iron. And tentacles. So many. Each the size of a galleon's mast.
The Leviathan Hermit.
A healer screamed, panic in his voice, "Scatter! Everyone, move!"
Too late.
One tentacle slammed down like a falling mountain, crushing an entire squad of archers in an instant. Red mist and splintered wood sprayed into the air. The shockwave rattled the ground beneath my feet.
I gritted my teeth and lunged. Fingers clenched around my spirit dagger's hilt. I activated its skill: Intangibility. My body flickered, glass-like and weightless, as the tentacle smashed straight through where I had been standing a heartbeat ago. I felt the heat of its momentum pass through my bones.
"Shit, I'm surely a goner if that hit me!" I said.
I landed, rolled, then sprinted toward the monster. Water and sand sprayed with every step as I dodged thrashing limbs and crashing waves. I dove under a swinging tentacle, feeling the wind whip past my face, and slashed at one of its massive limbs near the surf. The beast let out a bone-chilling shriek, and a spurt of brackish water and blood sprayed over me.
"It did that much damage?" I thought, eyes glued to the monster's health bar as it plummeted.
Above me, mages screamed spells into the wind. Below, the sand turned red. A male archer next to me was snatched mid-cast. His scream was cut short as he was hurled out into the ocean like a skipping stone.
A female healer's barrier shattered with a sound like cracking glass, sending shards of protective magic scattering. Her allies barely dove out of the way before the next wave of thrashing tentacles slammed down.
Then, a giant tentacle slammed into the sand. The ground buckled, sand sprayed into the air like a geyser, and I was thrown backward, tumbling end over end. Pain shot through my shoulder as I hit hard, but I scrambled up just in time to see a crumbling rock arch collapsing above me. Reflexes kicked in. I activated Intangibility, phasing through a giant stone as it crashed, crushing two unlucky players behind me in a spray of blood, shards, and shattered gear.
My eyes widened, heart pounding. "THAT WAS CLOSE!" I screamed inside my head.
Then a scream of frost split the air, cold enough to make the hairs on my arms stand.
A male Cryomancer stepped forward. He was tall, composed, wrapped in a robe lined with frostbite-blue glyphs. He pointed his frozen wand toward the Leviathan Hermit, activating a skill: Zero Celsius.
In a flash, the Leviathan Hermit was frozen solid. From the base of its rotting shell to the twitching tips of its monstrous limbs, ice swept upward like a tidal wave in reverse. Crystalline shards erupted across its surface, locking it mid-motion. Even its massive eye, mid-glow, was sealed behind a jagged veil of frost.
For the first time, it looked small. Not godlike. Not invincible.
"Ten seconds!" the Cryomancer shouted. "Hit it with everything you've got!"
And we did.
The sky turned into a warzone. Fireballs. Lightning storms. Barrages of arrows and light-blades. I threw my dagger with all the strength I had, twice, three times, then blinked behind the monster and slashed across the same wound. Ice cracked. Chunks exploded off its limbs.
The Leviathan trembled, unable to move, unable to fight back. It was a punching bag. Nothing more.
"That Cryomancer class is broken for sure," I said, dropping to the sand as the boss' frozen body groaned under the weight of our attacks.
I rested. I wasn't gonna waste energy this time. Not yet. I was waiting for the moment that counted. The kill shot. I wanted the loot.
Then, a sound like the world tearing in half entered our ears. The Leviathan shrieked.
Everyone around me flinched, hands flying to ears, spells dropping mid-cast. It was a sound that didn't belong in this world. It shook the air, rattled bones, and pierced right into your mind.
A male healer covered his ears and shouted, "Is this thing supposed to be loud when it's about to die?! I might die because of ear damage!"
The ice around the Leviathan Hermit shattered in a blinding explosion. Cracks raced across its body like lightning. Frozen shards shot out like deadly shrapnel, cutting through the air. Its HP plunged to ten percent, and a shockwave slammed across the battlefield, sending most players flying. I barely dodged, diving behind a massive rock as the force slammed into the sand.
"Now what?" I said, my heart beating fast.
Then darkness swallowed the battlefield.
Then, silence.
The Leviathan sank. Vanished beneath the surface without a ripple. Gone.
"I think it's over, Guys!" an archer shouted, smiling.
For a beat, the battlefield was still. Just steam rising off the sea, the broken hush of a world holding its breath.
Then, explosion. The water erupted. The Leviathan Hermit came back angry. It launched from the sea like a missile, shell cracked, glowing veins of molten red lining its body. Across its body, dozen glowing rusted cannons unfolded like metal limbs, turning one by one to face us.
"It didn't die after all those attacks?" I thought. "You gotta be kidding me..."
Then a system message burned across the sky in huge red letters:
[THE LEVIATHAN HERMIT IS ENRAGED!]
"TAKE COVER, EVERYONE!!!" the Cryomancer screamed and activated a skill: Ice Bulwark, a shield made of ice to protect himself.
But it was too late. The cannons fired.
The frontlines were gone, burned, blown apart, flung halfway across the battlefield. Players who had been standing a second ago were just ash and scorch marks now. Bodies hit the sand in crumpled heaps. Screams drowned in the roar of fire and steel.
I dove behind the remains of a collapsed tower just in time. The explosion blasted overhead, sending parts of human bodies: an arm and a leg. My health bar plummeted to forty percent. I consumed a potion quickly, despite my hands shaking, heart throbbing from the shockwave earlier.
When the dust cleared, there were a dozen of us left. The Cryomancer, three healers, and a party of eight players.
I gasped. "H-H-Holy shit…"
Then, I saw it. The Leviathan's eye. Its massive, milky center was glowing. Faint at first, then brighter. Growing. Vibrating. Charging.
Something big was coming.
I didn't wait.
I took off running, leaping over broken docks, skidding across wet rock, vaulting jagged coral. Lightning cracked overhead. The wind howled like it wanted me dead. The beam started to build. I knew the timing. I knew I only had one shot at this. My dagger's Intangibility skill was up. I saved it for this exact moment.
"H-HEY!" the Cryomancer shouted. "DON'T BE RECKLESS!"
"MISTER!" a female healer shouted, her voice trembling as she stumbled back, eyes wide with panic.
I chose to ignore it and continued charging forward. I wanted to kill this monster. I wanted the item drop.
The eye snapped wide open. The beam fired.
I lunged at it. Everything slowed down for a moment as the beam surged toward me like a sun compressed into a laser.
"NOW!" I told myself.
I activated my dagger's skill Intangibility as I jumped mid-air, making my body turn to smoke, flickering like a heat haze. The beam passed straight through. Then I dropped back into reality above the Leviathan Hermit, slamming my spirit dagger straight into its glowy eye.
It hit like the end of the world.
The creature screamed, this deep, gurgling wail that vibrated the bones in my chest. Tentacles thrashed violently, slamming into rock and sky. The water boiled. Its shell cracked wide open. It was dying. Black mist bled from the wound.
Its body convulsed once. Twice.
The Leviathan Hermit collapsed, disintegrating into foam, broken steel, and pieces of itself scattered across the sea.
"H-He actually killed it..." the Cryomancer thought. "This guy is crazy..."
The boss was down.
The ocean went quiet.
We survived. Somehow.
A system message appeared across the sky in huge golden letters:
[WORLD EVENT: CLEARED]
[CONGRATULATIONS PLAYERS!!!]
[Player 111]: [Lu Ryo dealt the final blow]
A system window appeared in front of me.
[Player 111]: [Lu Ryo] — [Unique Drop Received]: [Easter Egg Hatcher]
The waves gently brushed against my boots. "Lu Ryo…" I said. "That's my name… I almost forgot about it."