Infinite Realm

"Roar!"

"Hiss!"

A conundrum of noises flooded the nearby area as the team of Fudo, Yato, Seiichi, and Katsuo engaged in a battle with the monsters. Lu Zhen rampaged amongst the monsters further in while Sato took on the monsters in another place.

The monster formation in the basin on the 7th floor could be imagined to be made up of 3 concentric circles. The first one, starting from the smallest as well as the innermost circle, was the monsters gathered around the wooden 'treehouse' precisely at the centre of the basin. It could be assumed that the monsters in this area were the strongest as well as the most difficult to deal with here. Luckily, their numbers were meagre and didn't add up to much.

The second circle was the elite unit of the monsters. A conservative estimate would put them to be a bunch of level 6 Commons and Elites. Compared to the monsters in the innermost circle, they were a lot easier to deal with but had more numbers than their counterparts. These guys could be said to be the main force of the entire monster horde.

The last circle was the outer circle as well as the look-out circle. These were also the forces that Sato and his team were currently facing. It consisted of a third of so of the entire monsters and was the next largest force right after the second circle however, it was a tad weaker than the latter. Also, the monsters here were a bit spaced out from each other making it possible for one to draw a single monster away from the group and take it down. Despite this, Sato and the rest took a different approach to this.

Seiichi, Yato, and Katsuo were all level 8 whereas Fudo and Lu Zhen were level 9. The strength of the group was at least 2 levels ahead of their adversaries.

As they were much stronger than the monsters, the team decided to take a stand in one position while drawing the other monsters towards themselves. This wasn't a difficult problem since Seiichi and Fudo were long-range attackers and each of their moves packed a punch. So much so that the monsters would lose almost a third of their HP with each attack. If it weren't for them having to draw the monsters towards the group, then Fudo and Seiichi might be able to reduce the number of these monsters by at least a half. As for why they didn't do so, this wasn't hard to understand.

While the concentric layout of the monsters separated them, the distance between them wasn't much. Therefore, while it was true that the team could simply dash in and defeat the monsters in the outer circle, they risked the chance of getting surrounded by not just the monsters there but also the ones from the middle circle; who would get alerted from the commotion of the battle as the distance between the two groups wasn't much to start with.

Hence, team Sato had to take a different approach to things. They set themselves a couple of metres away from the look-out squad while the long-range players worked with Lu Zhen to draw the monsters towards themselves. Under the combined assault of Yato and Katsuo, with a few assists from Fudo and Seiichi, the monsters would then be defeated with ease.

Because of the distance between them and the outer circle, as well as that between the outer circle and the second circle, they would be able to defeat these 'patrol troops' without potentially alerting the main force.

In IR, every monster had a sensory range just like creatures in reality. For the majority of them, their sensory abilities were strong at 10 metres but further out, they began to drastically weaken. So much so that the monsters couldn't hear a single sound at this 20 metres mark. As for their visual abilities, it was weakened at the 30 metres mark, where some monsters could only see blurry figures whereas the majority were as good as blind.

All these values had been based on the monsters in Black Grill's Cave and Stone Creek Forest and were derived after countless experiments by different players. The information was then publicly sold by the players as such data was extremely valuable to pro-players, gaming guilds, and clubs.

"Lu Zhen, once their numbers have dropped by half, you will move in with me to the next line." Sato ordered from the team chat.

"Copy." Lu Zhen replied before slicing through the neck of an Earth Snake, decapitating the creature and ending its monstrous life[1].

The formation of the monsters was a circle so the team's reach could only be aimed at one point of the circle. Sato had attacked from another point since he alone was more than enough. Hence the reason why it was only the 5 of them that were positioned in the same area.

Sato planned to eliminate the monsters in the outer circle before they could slowly move in and do the same with the monsters in the middle circle. This was because, while it was true that they were stronger than the monsters, even an elephant would fall when assaulted by hundreds of thousands of ants. If the team got too lax and relied solely on their overwhelming strength, there was indeed the chance that they would succeed but there was also the chance that they would get outnumbered. This was why despite being absurdly stronger than all the monsters here, Sato didn't recklessly dash towards the wooden 'treehouse' but requested the assistance of Lu Zhen, whose class was extremely apt in sneaking in.

'The sub-BOSS fights are usually in levels that are multiples of 5. For one to be here is an absurdity. It's best we don't take too much of a risk.' Sato thought.

"Haha. Die, you vermin." Fudo guffawed as he sent a fireball towards a Ground Rat.

*Boom*

The fireball was too fast for the monster to react and so collided with the Ground Rat, sending it back by 5 metres with an explosion.

-275 (???/??? ???)

"Haha. I haven't dealt so much damage in my entire IR career. This is nice." Fudo laughed.

In Infinite Realm, a player's attacking ability is in respect to an opponent of equivalent strength. For example, if a level 7 [Berserker] has 10 points in [Strength], his Physical Attack power would be 30 points, ignoring whatever bonus he gets from his weapon or equipment. The meaning of this value is that if the player were to attack an opponent of similar strength, which is level 7, supposing the opponent has no defensive ability, the [Berserker] would deal exactly 30 points of damage to the opponent; not taking into consideration the extra damage from his weapon. To put it plainly, the base damage figure of a regular attack of the [Berserker] would be 30 points. However, if the [Berserker] were to face an opponent of either higher or lower strength, the result would undoubtedly be different.

This was like having a teenager face off against another teenager of similar age and then having that same teen (the first one) face off against a toddler, then a matured adult, or preferably, an Olympic Gold medalist in wrestling. The amount of damage the teen could cause with the exact punch against these 3 different opponents would differ, and this is with each punch containing the same force and power as the next.

Against the opposing teenager, if the teen manages to land a punch on his opponent, it would cause them to squeal in pain and lose their fighting ability for a second or more.

Against the Olympic gold medalist, the damage the teen could deal with that equally powered punch would differ by far. At best, it might make the opponent grunt in pain, and in the worst-case scenario, it would do nothing to do the opponent. This was because the strength of the opponent far outstripped that of the teenager.

However, if the teenager were to face off against a toddler, that punch which could diminish the fighting strength of another teenager and make an Olympian only grunt in pain, would cause severe injuries to the little child. If lucky, the child would only suffer a severe head concussion and a few broken bones, which would keep the child hovering between life and death. Otherwise, a baby-sized coffin would be ordered from the coffin-maker for a Saturday funeral. This was simply because the strength of the teen surpassed that of the little child. This was the difference between the strength of the opponent and the fighter, and this very difference was applied in the mechanics of IR.

When the level difference between two opponents surpasses 2, the higher levelled player is like a teenager while the lower levelled opponent would be the same as a young kid or around 14 years old in their presence. The lower levelled player would be capable of retaliating but this was only by a bit. In a life and death battle, the chances of any form of retaliation were too low to exist.

When the difference in level then surpasses 3, reaching up to even 5, the higher levelled player would be like an Olympian participating in Wrestling, facing off against a toddler. There was no chance of retaliation. This wouldn't be a battle, this would be nothing more than an act of bullying, one-sided beating, oppression. Heck, this was just an expression of tyranny and torment. The battle wouldn't even be much of a challenge to the Olympian. It was this very reason why Sato didn't participate with the others as the training would have no point with his participation in it.

'Hai~ Sometimes being too strong is no fun.'