[Loading single player instance

Exit condition: Kill Baba Yaya]

Gulp.

I’m back in the swampy wood. Whether it’s day or night outside, I cannot tell. Here in Baba Yaya’s world, it’s always dark but for the eerie light that pours from her windows.

I already know she’s inside her hut, so I approach with less trepidation. I find her in the same place, the cutscene with the rattle is the same. The light from her cauldron changes from sickly green to an ominous red as she meets my gaze through the window. She gathers herself and disappears with a definite fart.

Behind me!

“Block!”

I hear the sound of her nails raking the surface of my shield as she lets out a high, witchy cackle.

[Shield durability: 580/600]

Twenty points. My Shield Proficiency skill reduces damage to my shield by 34%. That means her attack deals around thirty damage.

That’s no more than the toads were doing to me. What was I afraid of? Just because the setting is a bit creepy, that doesn’t make her different from the other mobs I’ve faced. I can do this!

Just then I see over my shield Baba Yaya’s evil hag-toothed grin, and something about it makes my heart sink to my gut.

She lashes out, claws tearing at me, not a single scratch as before, but a series of them in short succession. Sometimes partly absorbed by my shield, more often she gets around it, clawing my belly and thighs.

[-29 HP]

[-31 HP]

[-—…!

I can’t even read the numbers they’re flying so quickly. I only see my health is dropping fast. Alarmingly fast!

She’s laughing—her witchy cackle makes me give an involuntary yelp of terror as I break my own rule and lash out with my wooden sword, slapping her hideous claws away like a frightened child.

[Heart rate 155 BPM. Activating relaxation protocol.]

No, no, no!

Dang it!

I find myself on a familiar bench, looking out at the scene I just left. The light is bright and I wince after the dark forest. Frustrated, angry with myself, I punch my leg, but I barely feel the sensation.

“You seem to be in a state of mental distress,” Tina’s voice rises over my thoughts. “Would you like to try a guided meditation to calm yourself?”

“No!” I say, and I jump up, stalking furiously back and forth along the river bank. Out of my mind with irritation, I turn abruptly and splash right into the water, sending a family of ducks swimming away in alarm.

The water is cold, and it brings me to my senses a little. I swim for a minute, then lie on my back and look up at the blue sky, interspersed with fluffy clouds. I heave a long sigh. 

“Tina. Pull up a video of the last twenty seconds before you forced the log off.”

“Accessing Tetra Chronicles data base. File retrieved.”

“Play it.”

Floating down the river, I play and replay my ‘fight’ with Baba Yaya, forcing myself to witness my own humiliation. But not only that. I’m studying her attack patterns.

I’d expected spells, but so far she’s shown me only a clawing attack. The first was a one-off, then she scratched me several times in very short succession. But it didn’t last, and soon she went back to the single attacks at longer intervals. An ability?

I frown, standing abruptly and slogging through the water back to the bench where I plop down, intently focused on the playback.

Yes, I’m convinced it’s an ability. A fury attack, for lack of a better moniker. But how long is the cooldown? I didn’t last long enough to see.

Besides this she also has her teleport ability. Since I didn’t move she only had to use it once, but I wonder also about the cooldown on that one.

“Tina, what’s my heart rate?”

“120 BPM.”

“Can you send me back?”

“I’m sorry, but your pulse is too elevated. Please wait a few more minutes.”

“Pull up my character’s profile.”

Tina retrieves the data for me and I examine the numbers. My health just before I was logged off was down to 363 out of 590.

[Shield Durability: 548/600]

That’s fifty-two damage in ten seconds. My shield will only last about two minutes at this rate. Once it breaks I’ll start taking even more damage. My Shroomlet Aura only heals me five percent of the damage I do, and with just a single opponent, that’s really not much damage to pull from.

I’m discouraged. Panicking, even. Is this not a viable build after all? I put so much time and effort into building this aura character, but at this rate—should I just give up on Revelator?

No. Wait a minute. After I logged back in, I didn’t even activate my Shroomlet Aura. For that matter, I didn’t eat the toad legs either, which also boost my regeneration. Besides, I should have more faith in my Constitution stat. I haven’t been taking all those points for nothing. I check the stat to see its effects.

[Constitution: 28

+280 HP

+5.6 HP/second regeneration]

[Regeneration: 6.6 HP/second

Regenerates 50% of total score in combat.]

If I add the Toad Leg bonus which gives me +2 to regeneration, that’s an additional point of health regeneration in combat. Combine that with what small bonus I get from the Shroomlet Aura…

Maybe I still have a chance. If I don’t freeze up like before and give her a sitting target, if I use my shield judiciously…

“I’ve got to try.”

“To beat Baba Yaya?” Tina asks.

“It’s not the witch I have to beat. It’s myself.”

[Loading single player instance

Exit condition: Kill Baba Yaya]

Keep my wits about me. First, repair my shield to six hundred durability. Eat the Toad Leg to increase my regeneration. Activate Shroomlet Aura. I’m determined I’ll kill her with that alone if it’s the last thing I do. Check my quick slot is loaded with health potions. They’re still low level so they have no cooldown, and no limit to the amount I can consume inside a minute.

Now, I’m ready to face the witch.

Five minutes and thirty-three seconds. That’s how long it will take my aura to kill her. I just have to stay alive for five minutes and thirty-three seconds.

“Piece of cake,” I tell myself, marching right up to her window. I watch the cutscene play out. She catches my eye. Farts, disappears in a green cloud.

Now!

I’m already running. I hear her somewhere behind me, laughing her shrill witch laugh, footsteps scrambling to catch up. I glance back to see she’s just a few steps behind. Enough to keep her in my aura. But she can’t catch me. I’m faster than her!

Just then, I hear her rip a big one, a sound that makes my blood run cold.

She appears right in front of me, but I’m ready for her.

“BLOCK!”

She screams, scratching with her fury attack. The Block skill took only the first hit, the rest land here and there. But my shield absorbs enough of the damage, and I manage to change my trajectory, so already I’m running another direction. She follows after me, laughing, screeching all the way.

What the heck was I scared for? I hardly took any damage at all! I actually laugh out loud at the realization. But it’s too soon to celebrate. The witch may yet have another attack up her sleeve.

A timer counts down in the corner of my vision. I set it to start the moment combat began. I watch it now, measuring the time between her farts. After two or three, I can safely say her teleportation cooldown is ten seconds. And since she knows she’s slower, she can’t do anything but teleport directly in front of me if she’s going to get in even a single hit, an easy attack to intercept.

Already four minutes and thirty seconds have passed and she hasn’t shown me even a single variation on this attack pattern. I watch her health being eaten slowly by my aura. Aside from the few blows she lands in her initial teleport, she hardly touches me. I haven’t had to drink even a single potion!

I’ve actually made a playable character! I think as I count down the final minute. I’m slow, but effective. Even, dare I say, strong!

But what’s this? Five minutes and thirty-three seconds have passed, and Baba Yaya still isn’t dead. Her health is low—it’s still going down, but why is she still alive? I can only think of one reason…

In the end it takes me an extra thirty-nine seconds to kill her. Before I stop to even inspect her loot, I pull up the TC forum.

Typing my question, I check the first few responses and get the same general consensus.

Boss monsters are not affected by any kind of negation to their regeneration. That means my Shroomlet Aura skill, which is supposed to stop the enemy from regenerating, doesn’t work on Baba Yaya, or any of the boss monsters.

Good to know.

I move to the witch’s fallen form and stare down at her a moment.

To think I was so frightened of this pathetic creature, I even considered giving up on Revelator. I worked so hard, farmed day and night to be able to beat her, and in the end, she could hardly touch me.

I bend to check her for loot.

[+3 Rough Linen Cloths

Crafting item, value: 6 cp]

[1 sp]

That doesn’t seem like much loot, even for a starter area boss. I glance over my shoulder. I wonder if there’s more in the house.

Inside, besides creepy Halloweenish decor, I find the boss’s chest. It opens with a creak.

[Doree’s Boots of Heavy Lifting level 5, sturdy leather boots.

Armor: 23]

[50 cp]

“Now, this is more like it! Gear I can actually use!”

I remember Dooker said he got my belt from farming the witch, too. And this amount of coin is nothing to sneeze at. I wonder, should I farm her for some more loot?

After all, I’m about to step into a whole new area, with monsters that are bound to be far tougher than any I’ve faced until now. I should head into it with the best gear I can, with as many health potions as I can stock up on.

With that, my mind is made up. I’m going to kill Baba Yaya again, as many times as I can stand it, before I go crazy.

Excitedly I run down the path and leave the instance, only to turn around again and head right back in.

[Loading single player instance

Exit condition: Kill Baba Yaya]

Let’s do this.

Stockholm, Greater Scandinavia.

A dark room, high above the city, minimalist but deeply sophisticated, an interplay of luxury and cutting edge technology with walls of smart glass, stretching from floor to ceiling, offering a panoramic view of a glittering night skyline alive with hovering vehicles, neon airways and floating digital billboards. The floor is a single slab of black marble infused with luminescent nanotech veins that softly pulse. A silent kinetic sculpture is suspended from the ceiling, ever shifting, reforming itself into shapes pleasing to the eye.

In the center of the dark room a levitating desk made of polished obsidian floats a few inches above the floor. Holographic feeds run above it in mid-air at their lowest opacity, numbers that are practically invisible. Presently the desk’s occupant has no interest in the stock exchange. His gaze is fixed downward, on the surface, a window to a crude fantasy swamp, and a single rag-tag player.

He smiles to himself, his smart glasses reflecting the light of his screen, so focused on the game that he does not hear the clip of his secretary’s six inch designer heels approaching.

“Mr. Nordahl,” she addresses the CEO of SMark company, and the brain behind the hottest game on the planet, Tetra Chronicles, in a clipped voice. “It’s past ten o’clock. I shouldn’t have to remind you about the signing first thing tomorrow morning? The acquisition of P Company? And after that you have an interview for Executive Journal. Their reporter Ms. Eklund asks tough questions, are you sure you should be—”

“He’s interesting.”

“Sir?”

Mr. Nordahl chuckles to himself, his glasses still reflecting the eerie light as he taps the surface of his desk with a restless finger.

“I wonder…will he be the one to release it?”

“Mr. Nordahl…” his secretary sighs with marked weariness, her patience with the boss’s usual antics stretched thin.

“I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one, Miss Kruse. A very close eye…”