In Etherveil, the ninth to tenth dungeon key is dropped by a specific special monster. And for five months, we have been searching all over the first haven for that monster, and have had no luck.
We thought of giving up, but something unexpected happened today.
The Enchanted Gnome, the monster that drops the ninth dungeon's key, was spotted running in the woods near the Undead Lair's location by a male scout whom a mysterious world rank player hired.
"MADAM!!!" the scout shouted, firing a signal flare into the sky. "I FOUND THE GNOME!!!"
The scout's voice caught everyone's attention, their heads snapping upward as the flare hissed and painted the trees red.
"He found that pesky gnome, huh?" a female assassin covered in a violet cloak said, pushing off the tree trunk where she had been resting. She twirled a dagger between her fingers, smirking beneath her hood.
"What are we waiting for?" a warrior dressed in steel armor yelled, slamming his gauntlet into his palm with a metallic clang. "TIME TO MOVE!"
The moment I saw the flare, I bolted through the woods, weaving between trees.
"I wonder what this gnome even looks like…" I muttered under my breath, slashing away hanging branches. "Hopefully it drops something good."
Suddenly, a bright pink streak shot across the sky like a missile.
I slowed my pace, raising an eyebrow. "What the hell was that?"
"You pesky gnome!" a woman yelled from somewhere ahead. The ground shook beneath her voice, and I almost tripped.
"That must be the world rank player..." I said, maintaining my balance after nearly tripping. "...A female world rank player???!!!"
Pink orbs began raining from above, chasing something fast that darted between the trees.
"I'm not letting this woman hoard all the loot!" I shouted, activating a copied skill: Frenzy. My vision sharpened, and the forest blurred around me as I sprinted faster.
"Almost there!" I coughed, choking a little on the dust flying up as I ran.
When I finally broke through the last row of trees, the clearing exploded into view. The air was thick with ozone and the acrid scent of burning grass.
Above the scarred ground floated a woman draped in a vibrant pink robe. Her hair whipped violently in the wind as she extended both arms, launching searing pink orbs that carved through the air with shrill whistles.
Her target was the Enchanted Gnome.
The Enchanted Gnome was a pint-sized figure, dressed in vibrant orange-red colors, topped with a pointed hat that had a tiny red square at its peak. Its face was humanoid, and it had blocky, bright blue eyes locked forward in panicked focus as it sprinted for its life.
"Eeeck!!!" It shrieked.
My jaw dropped. "That's the Enchanted Gnome?" I whispered, hiding behind a massive tree. "No wonder we couldn't find it… it's so small."
The Enchanted Gnome continued sprinting in a dizzying, unpredictable zig-zag pattern, dodging the attacks with inhuman agility. Each time an orb streaked toward its head, it vanished, slipping out of the impact zone the way a fly disappears from your sight the moment you try to kill it.
My eyes widened in surprise. "What? Did the gnome dodge that naturally, or did it vanish to dodge it?" I thought. "...What's going on?"
The woman kept on firing the same attack until she realized she had enough. Instead of orbs, she launched a giant, humming laser beam of pure pink energy that didn't streak but swept across the ground, burning a wide, smoking path directly toward the frantic gnome.
I shielded my face as the air heated up. "That's it for the gnome…" I thought. "I'm getting nothing but air pollution after all that running..."
But as the beam swept over where it should have been, the gnome simply wasn't there. It suddenly reappeared five feet to the left, having evaded a blast of impossible scale with a movement that was barely even a flicker.
I realized that was it. That was the trick. Blinking.
This monster wasn't insanely fast. It used short-range, instantaneous teleports. I also realized that its blinks weren't random. Its blinks followed a simple and predictable pattern of evasion.
I smirked. "So that's how you stay alive, huh?" I said, pulling my spirit dagger from my hip.
I focused and threw my dagger, aiming not for the gnome but for the empty space where its frantic sprint would end, a spot dictated by the woman's sweeping laser.
As my dagger cut through the air, I activated its skill: Intangibility, making it invisible. The gnome wouldn't see it. It would only feel the ground where it intended to appear.
The moment the dagger hit the predicted location, I activated its skill: Ownership, channeling the dagger's bond to me.
My vision tunnelled, the sound vanished, and I teleported, snapping into existence right beside the dagger's hilt, just as the gnome blinked into place.
And before it could even process the shift in location, before its blue eyes could even widen in surprise, I lunged.
My pupils dilated out of excitement. "Got ya!"
My hand closed around the dagger's hilt, and with the momentum of the instantaneous jump, I drove my dagger straight into the gnome's unprotected back as it shrieked in pain.
"Hey! That was my kill!" the woman yelled, landing nearby with a gust of wind.
"Oh… my bad," I said, rubbing the back of my head.
"Whatever!" she sighed, crossing her arms.
When the Enchanted Gnome shattered into fragments, a detonator suddenly appeared in my right hand.
I stared at it. "What's this?"
"DON'T FALL FOR THE GNOME'S DETONATOR!" a raspy male voice echoed from a distance in the woods. The sound of boots and armor followed, growing louder.
I looked at the device, my finger hovering over the button. Then I laughed. "I don't share treasure chests."
"DON'T!" the woman screamed, reaching toward me.
I pressed the button.
The click echoed.
Then, the world changed.