Blazing Meteor! Vines of Fate! Storm of Lightning!
Fwish! Boom!
-288,360! -160,344! -173,016!
Every single monster on the street Stark had entered was annihilated in seconds.
Flames tore the ground apart, vines whipped and dragged enemies down, and lightning scorched everything in sight.
When the smoke cleared, not a single creature was left standing.
Ding!
[You have gained 148 Lives!]
Hand of Avarice!
[You have gained 132 Lives!]
He also picked up the loot scattered across the ground.
He was glad his backpack slots had expanded more than before, allowing him to pick everything.
Otherwise, he would’ve been forced to throw away many of these things just to keep the important ones.
That would have felt like a waste.
If he left them here, the [Protection Period] would eventually fade, and someone else would walk by and claim them.
It had been less than ten seconds since the start of the second day of the [First Calamity], but already Stark could feel the shift.
The world itself seemed heavier, the atmosphere buzzing with chaos.
Cities worldwide were probably in the same state: panic, death, and endless fighting.
Still, Stark wasn’t panicked.
The enemies were stronger, yes, but not untouchable.
He could kill this batch easily too.
His arsenal was built for this exact moment.
The only thing he had to truly watch out for was—
ROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!
The ground shook.
Stark froze mid-thought, turning toward the direction of the sound.
A massive roar ripped across the city, rattling the broken glass in half-destroyed skyscrapers.
The sound carried weight, echoing straight into the bones of every survivor still alive.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Damn it, don’t yell, hide! The new monsters are out there!"
"We can’t stop now. We need to regroup and push back or we’ll all die here!"
All across the city, players cursed and panicked.
Survivors who had managed to last through the first day trembled at the unfamiliar sound.
Some thought it was another giant monster.
Others prayed it wasn’t.
But no one had the answer. No one except Stark.
He knew exactly what that roar belonged to.
It was the boss of the second day, the true boss of the [First Calamity].
A mythical-rank monster.
Its cry was both an announcement and a warning: it had entered the city, and nothing would survive unless someone stopped it.
Of course, it appeared in every single city on Earth, destroying everything in its way.
But this time, Stark was ready.
Even if fighting it alone, he would kill it.
He gripped his staff tightly and sprinted forward, his robe whipping behind him.
His expression didn’t shift, but inside he could already feel his blood heating.
The boss always spawned in the exact center of every city.
Stark had already expected that, which was why he hadn’t wandered too far.
Now he was only a few minutes away.
Every passing second meant thousands more dying.
Stark knew the longer he delayed, the higher the death toll would climb.
Without breaking stride, he flicked open his [Friend List].
Ding!
[You have sent a message to "Starfall" and "Ghost."]
[Oblivion: I’m heading toward the boss in the city center. Don’t approach. It’s too dangerous.]
He doubted either of them would listen if curiosity got the better of them, but he had to warn them.
If they walked into this fight, they wouldn’t last a second unprepared.
Luckily, this boss didn’t increase the lives loss rate of the area.
Meaning it always stayed at 100 no matter what.
A response arrived almost instantly.
[Ghost: ...Fine. I’ll hold back. I want to see what’s there, but I’ll stay out of range.]
[Starfall: I-I wasn’t gonna get close anyway! No way I’m running at whatever screamed like that (╯﹏╰;)]
"Good."
He couldn’t stop every other player from charging to their death, but at least his closest allies would stay alive.
The truth was simple: this thing was simply too powerful.
The deeper he ran into the city, the heavier the air grew.
A suffocating aura appeared around, almost like a physical weight.
It was the unmistakable presence of a terrifyingly strong being.
Then, at last, Stark saw it.
’There it is.’
The center giant city square had collapsed into ruins.
Towers leaned against one another like broken bones, and massive craters pitted the earth.
Smoke and fire painted the horizon.
No civilians were left here, anyone that hadn’t fled was already dead.
And in the middle of the devastation stood the monster.
---
[Andregil, Lord of Calamity (Level 25)]
[Rank: Mythical (Special Boss)] ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ noⅴelfire.net
[HP: 1,000,000]
---
The notification confirmed it. The boss had arrived.
This thing had the "special" trait meaning it was a boss exclusive to the [First Calamity]
Andregil was, as his title stated, the [Lord of Calamity].
He was an extremely powerful boss with 1,000,000 HP and tremedous strength.
The monster loomed over the ruins, ten meters tall, clad in jagged crimson armor that seemed forged from blood and shadow.
Its head was covered by a narrow helm, exposing only one glaring eye that burned like a molten core.
Each step it took cracked the ground beneath its armored boots.
Two massive gauntlets, the [Calamity Gauntlets], covered its hands, pulsing with a crimson glow.
They were the source of his destructive power.
Capable of reducing buildings to rubble with a single swing.
Stark narrowed his eyes.
This was the first time in this life he had seen a monster with over one million HP.
Even the [Divine Dual Wielder] and [Iron Maiden], both terrifying bosses in their own right, had barely half that much.
But the difference between legendary and mythical wasn’t small.
It was like standing between a raging storm and a quiet breeze.
Most players, upon seeing this, would have collapsed from fear.
Stark didn’t.
Andregil raised one arm, smashing it into a half-standing building.
The entire structure disintegrated into rubble.
Then as if he sensing his presence, the beast turned, its eye locking onto Stark in an instant.
For the first time in almost a decade, Stark saw its face again.
The memories weren’t clear, time had dulled the details, but the feeling was the same.
Andregil tilted his head, staring down at the lone figure daring to stand against it.
Then, it laughed.
"Hah... hah... a human? Alone?"
Its voice was deep and distorted.
"Bad choice..."
The crimson glow on its gauntlets brightened.
Energy coiled around its fists like threads of burning steel.
"You... will be the stepping stone... to my conquest..."
Stark’s expression didn’t shift.
He lifted his staff and spoke flatly.
"Whatever."
Andregil appeared on the second day of the [First Calamity].
But it took tens of thousands of deaths and massive destruction before people decided ot ally to fight it.
It took hours to bring its HP to half.
But the moment that happened... it entered its second phase!
Yes, indeed, Andregil had a second phase, an actual one, not one that just added a mechanic.
By the time the second phase appeared, most people were exhausted.
And so Andregil killed all of them without mercy.
Luckily, Andregil seemingly couldn’t "evolve".
The reason why was unknown, as every monster could do that by absorbing enough lives.
He must have consumed tens of thousands of them but nothing.
Meaning that he either truly couldn’t evolve, needed too many lives, or... [Eternal Soul] had to lock the boss’ rank to make it even just a little bit fair.
After all, if it evolved into an ancient-rank boss, there was absolutely no way anyone in any city would have survived.
Even the Stark of now couldn’t know if he could take a boss of that caliber.
It was only on the third day that they managed to kill him.
Stark could feel the pressure from the boss as he faced it alone.
His expression remained neutral even with all of that though.
He wasn’t going to be scared of that thing.
"You stand there... waiting for death," Andregil’s eye twitched, "Good... I want to kill..."
Fwish!
The [Lord of Calamity] bent its knees, armor groaning as raw power gathered beneath its massive frame.
Then, with a deafening crack, it launched forward.
BOOM!
The impact of its takeoff left a crater in the ruined square, shockwaves tearing across the city.
The earth itself seemed to recoil as the monster blurred toward Stark, fist cocked back, aiming to crush him into nothing.
Andregil’s first attack was coming straight for him.