The Grind-Three

From the way they behaved, John assumed that they were at least semi-coordinated into several small groups. If he had to guess, it went one of two ways: teams of either three or four. He hadn’t used Observe on each of the samurai he had defeated. So by that fact, he couldn’t say for sure whether the first one that he had knocked away was a part of the trio that attacked him. There was a possibility that it had acted as a scout, and had actually simply led them to him.

But in reality, John hoped the latter wasn’t the case. For if it was, then that meant it was still out there. And it likely had by now informed the entire Barrier of his location. John went up to the window and looked around. He stared carefully at the grass for any irregularities, and even cast Observe on random spots just to see if it caught anything.

He let out a sigh as he looked away, it seemed he was in the clear. Which meant that more likely than not, he had killed the scout as part of the trio. Or at the very least, that was his assumption based on what he did know. He hoped it was correct, or else the idea he had for a plan would immediately fall apart.

In essence, his plan was this: One, attempt to locate a lone samurai. Two, allow it to know where he was, and then fall back to the inside of a building. Three, test how smart these monsters actually were. If he could hack off enough of the walls and floor around him, John could use the material for Craft and make a dummy crudely in his shape and height. If able, he would also like to grab some grass and dirt to semi camouflage himself into the environment.

Four, in an ideal scenario, he would like to lead them to the dummy and then find a way to become hidden from them. Then it was just the question of if they would attack the dummy and believe it was him. If they did, then five would be to attack them while distracted. Lastly, it just came down to rinse and repeat for the rest of them. But if it didn’t work, it would be back to the drawing board for him.

He immediately went to work. It may take some time, but that was fine by him. He cast Soul Weapon and started with the upstairs wall and floor. All he needed was the drywall itself as material, so no need to worry about being careful. A little damage to fake Barrier walls wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Some time later

John wiped the sweat off his forehead. It had taken him a little bit, but he now had a nice pile of rubble and torn carpet on the ground to work with. He then dismissed his scythe and held his hand towards the rubble. John imagined a rough model of himself within his mind’s eye as he cast Craft.

He watched his mana drop down by quite a bit as the drywall pile began to glow. Moments later, the light faded and he had a drywall mannequin of himself. Next, he recast Craft on the pieces of carpet. He made them into a basic pair of shirt and pants for the mannequin to wear.

Craft level up
Lvl 3 → lvl 4
The cost of Craft has been further decreased slightly.

He looked at his handiwork. Wasn’t too shabby in his opinion. If one looked at it from a distance while wearing shades, they might think it was a person. So when it came to a Barrier monster, he hoped it would do the trick. Next was just the matter of getting it propped somewhere outdoors. Then he could get himself hidden and either find a way to get the attention of the samurais or wait for them to notice the dummy. Either way, the name of the game would still be patience with efficiency. He bent down to grab the fake John and grunted as he lifted it up.

He dragged it outside and then carefully stood it back up on the grass. As he did so, he took a quick glance around for any Grass Samurai. This wouldn’t work if any of them saw him with the dummy.

’Okey dokey, that’s the first two steps over and done with. Now, time for step three,’ John thought to himself. ’So, how am I going to go about getting enough grass for camo, without alerting any of them…’ He focused on the grass and dirt, and tried to cast Craft while it was all still on the ground.

And of course, nothing happened. He hadn’t tried using that skill in such a way before, because logically he had already known it likely wouldn’t work. But still, he didn’t lose anything anyway from that attempted long shot. But in any case, now he would have to find a way to make himself hidden. He could dig up some grass and Craft a disguise… or… He looked up at a nearby tree. Then John looked back down at the scythe in his hand. Or perhaps he could try something else?

A couple of minutes later

He was now in the perfect spot. John squatted in between the limbs of a tree, hidden from anything not directly underneath him. He was willing to bet that they wouldn’t initially look up here. And with the fake John planted beneath him, that only affirmed his belief that the samurai would see and attack it before they noticed him. Which gave him the perfect chance to jump down and hit them with a surprise attack.

And right on cue, through the branches, he spotted a group of Grass Samurai slowly approaching from the street. There seemed to be four of them, with one in front and the other three lined up behind it. John resummoned his Soul Weapon and prepared himself for the right moment.

They had scattered around his dummy and began to attack it. John leapt down and swung his scythe at the nearest one. With its back to him, he sliced halfway through it. And before the two pieces could hit the ground, he had already moved on to the next one. By the time the farthest one from him reacted, he had already killed or incapacitated the others. Then when it was against only that last one, he had no issues and quickly beat it.

+50 exp
+50 exp
+50 exp
+50 exp

From there, like the prior Barriers, John had turned it into a simple game of patience. Wait for the samurai, attack them, reset the mannequin and his position, and then repeat it all again.

Lvl Up!
You have reached lvl 8!

With five stat points to work with, John had some decisions to make. At this point, what he knew he should do is optimize them for the boss fight. Question was, based on what he remembered from the last time he had fought the boss, which stats would be best?

’Hmm, okay. So before it had resistances to whatever is used to clear out the initial Barrier of normal samurai.’ Since his scythe was his main weapon, the boss would likely be resistant to demonic magic, physical damage, or even both. ’In that case, let’s assume it has both, so how can I compensate for that?’ John asked himself. He knew that Soul Weapon had better scaling with Strength than Intellect, so that was the stat he should go for if he wanted more damage.

After taking a little more time to think about it, he came to a decision. To start with, he allocated two points into Endurance. If the boss had strong attacks, it would be nice to at least be able to take a couple of hits. That brought his max HP across the 100 points threshold, to a total of 105. After that, he dumped the remainder into Strength. So now with all that said and done, he could now tank a little more damage and dish out more of his own.

By his math, that would now put each strike with his scythe at around 25 points of damage. Meaning that even without any critical hits, he could two-shot any of the normal samurai.

’So if I were to highball the boss’ health at 500 points like when I was with Blair, I’d still be able to kill it in 20 hits. That doesn’t sound bad, not bad at all.’ Though it didn’t take into account any resistances, it was still good to know. But if he were to assume that the boss was much closer to his level…

’Hmm, what level were the samurai when Blair boosted them? 10? 11? Something like that. Either way, I know the Grass Shogun was level 15.’ In which case, he guessed that there were two possibilities. One was that the boss was 50% higher than the normal monsters, or that it was just 5 levels higher.

He didn’t know how its health scaled with its level in terms of the actual numbers, but it would be safer to assume the worst. If the answer was 5 levels, then that would put the boss around lvl 10. So still 2 levels higher than him. But if it were 50% higher, then its level would be about 7-8, so either his level or actually below him.

With his mana now back to full and his health at 95%, John took a deep breath. He didn’t know for sure what level the boss would be in a solo Barrier, but it was time to find out. He took out the knife from his inventory and killed the final Grass Samurai.

+50 exp
Warning!
A boss monster has spawned.

He cast Soul Weapon and stepped outside to meet the boss. It was in the front yard, about twenty feet away from him. Like before, it was a larger, brown version of the normal samurai. But unlike before, he saw that it was sitting on the grassy ground, its legs crossed. It had its katana on its lap, and looked up at him as he emerged from his shelter. It seemed as though it had been waiting for him. John cast Observe on the boss samurai to see how its stats differed from the last time.

Grass Shogun
Lvl 10
HP: 350
MP: 30
Standing at 2.2 meters in height, the Shogun is the most powerful grass warrior of its type. Due to it being made of tough grass that is magical in origin, it is capable of adapting to its immediate threats.
Due to the nature of its underlings’ deaths, this variation now has partial resistance to the physical and demonic elements.
Attributes: Physical Resistance 1, Demonic Resistance 2
Rewards: $1000, Grass Pods (Common), Grass Jingasa (Uncommon), Grass Katana (Rare)

’Right, since Blair one-shot it before, I never did get to figure out how its resistance worked in terms of numbers. I suppose I should hope it’s percentage-based? With its relatively low resistance and my damage, a 10% reduction would be better than 10 flat points. Ah well, time to find out,’ John thought to himself as the boss began to stand up.

John rubbed his hand against the amulet around his neck. He had yet to actually try out its ability, but if there was ever a time to do so, he figured now would be it. This was his first solo boss fight, so it only made sense to go all out. He gripped it tightly, and triggered its effect.

Prototype Amulet of Enhanced Physicality has been activated:
Stat boost: +5 Endurance
Side effect: All flavors tasted are inverted while the amulet is in effect
Time remaining: ten minutes

John quickly opened his stat sheet. That Endurance bonus had now brought up his maximum health to 130 points. He had hoped that between Strength, Agility, and Endurance, he would have gotten a Strength boost for extra damage. But he would also take the extra survivability.

The Gamer readied his weapon as he watched the boss rise up to its full height. He carefully kept his eye on its katana, still sheathed. Before the monster could prepare to fight him, he knew he needed to take the initiative and make the first strike.

John ran full speed straight towards the boss and quickly closed the gap between them. With his Agility, it only took him half a second to be within melee range. As he swung his weapon sideways at its chest, the samurai tried to block his strike with its still sheathed blade. But at the very last moment before impact with the sheath, John managed to adjust his grip and quickly make his attack into a vertical slash instead.

22 dmg

“Ahah!” he exclaimed aloud. “It is ten percent, thank you, Gaia!” But to cut off his small celebration, the boss monster retaliated. It thrust its sheath into his stomach, and sent John flying away from the **** of the blow.

-13 HP

He crashed into the ground and slid several feet over the grass before he came to a stop. John groaned with pain as he clutched his stomach. But the sound of hissing metal brought him back to reality. He looked up to see the boss samurai drop its sheath onto the dirt beneath it. Their fight had now begun for real.