Every single attribute point was crucial to a player.
Constitution affected health, Intelligence affected Mana and Magical Damage, Agility influenced movement speed—only Strength was considered mostly useless for a Mage.
Strength affected the damage of physical attacks.
According to past-life experience, no matter what class a player was, the first choice for allocating attribute points upon leveling up was always Constitution. Boosting Constitution meant more health, which greatly increased a player's margin for error.
This was a death game. Every death posed a lethal threat to the player. Lower damage only meant having to attack a few more times to wear down a monster. But if your Constitution was lacking, your low health would make every single enemy strike a deadly risk!
Health was the ultimate margin for error!
The half-life penalty in The Epoch of Endings didn't deduct half of your current maximum lifespan—it deducted half of your total potential maximum lifespan. This meant that even if you used certain methods to increase your life cap, two consecutive deaths would still wipe you out completely.
In this kind of environment, even the boldest player wouldn't dare to constantly walk on a razor's edge. Increasing Constitution was the one safeguard that let players live somewhat peacefully in this world.
With that in mind, Rhys raised his hand and tapped lightly a few times on the system interface, making his decision.
Intelligence: 10 (+7) → 15 (+7).
All-in on Intelligence!
After a faint, pale glow swept over him, Rhys's Intelligence rose to 22 points. His MP count climbed to 220 as well. Even without triggering Efficient Casting, he could now cast 22 Fireballs in a row.
That was a huge power spike!
Choosing to increase Intelligence wasn't some arrogant, impulsive decision made in the thrill of victory. It was a carefully considered move. The chained quest Deity's Ruins was something he'd never encountered in his previous life. Adding points to Constitution would certainly be the safer route—but it also came with risk.
Fireball didn't deal particularly high damage, and Intelligence had a strong scaling factor. With low Intelligence, even a direct hit to a weak spot might not kill a monster instantly. That would expose the Mage's weakness—poor sustainability in the early game.
If too many monsters appeared, and if Efficient Casting didn't trigger often enough, Rhys would be saying "GG" real fast. Based on his understanding of The Epoch of Endings and the demands of this quest, Rhys chose to go all-in on Intelligence.
After handling the free attribute points, Rhys didn't linger any longer in Riverwood. He turned and headed toward the northern gate of Riverwood, ready to begin the first stage of the chained quest: Deity's Ruins.
As soon as he left the city, a gray, decaying stench rushed into Rhys's nostrils. The Epoch of Endings might be a game, but when it came to realism, it was absolutely top-notch. Walking through the withered forest, Rhys could even feel the sensation of wind-scattered wood dust falling across his face.
Wiping the debris from his face, Rhys slowly walked in the direction the dust had blown from. His eyes were filled with resolve and vigilance as he carefully observed each and every tree around him.
The air around him was deathly silent—so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The chirping of insects, the howls of wild beasts—every sound one would expect in a forest had completely vanished. Only the occasional rustle of the wind served to heighten the tension.
Rhys focused all his attention. Though the woods before him looked peaceful and calm, he remembered clearly that this area concealed an Epic-tier enemy that appeared early in the game: the Withered Colossus Tree.
In The Epoch of Endings, Fiends were divided into three categories: Common-tier, Epic-tier, and Boss-Level.
Common-tier Fiends were the most frequently seen roaming monsters in the world. They existed in overwhelming numbers, and even the rarest Common-tier Fiends didn't differ much from one another. Their behavior and abilities were largely uniform, with few surprises.
Epic-tier Fiends, on the other hand, were a different story. They stood out among their kind. Every Epic-tier monster had its own unique characteristics—whether it be special abilities or immense health pools—they were distinctly different from Common-tier monsters. Their rewards were also significantly better.
As for Boss-Level Fiends, they were dominant overlords in their regions. Most of them commanded entire groups of Fiends and possessed even more formidable powers. They dropped vastly greater loot, but they were not something Rhys could dare to provoke at his current level.
The Withered Colossus Tree was already a terrifying Fiend that posed a near-death-level threat to someone like Rhys right now!
"Rustle!"
The sound of whipping branches shot up from beneath his feet. Two withered limbs, as if they had a will of their own, lashed up from the ground toward Rhys, trying to ensnare him.
But Rhys had been prepared for this. Naturally, he wasn't going to be hit that easily. With a quick sidestep, he dodged the attack effortlessly. Then his gaze followed the direction the branches had extended from—and what he saw was a towering tree, its maw gaping with jagged bark and its eyes burning with ghostly blue flames.
"Withered Colossus Tree."
He whispered the name to himself. A status panel appeared in front of him, revealing the Fiend's information.
[Fiend: Withered Colossus Tree (Rare)]
[Level: Lv5]
[Abilities: Born of the Wood, Branch Manipulation]
[Description: A colossal tree tainted by ghostfire, it has developed a mind of its own and swore to devour all living beings who step into the forest.]
"Just as I thought!"
Seeing that his suspicion was correct, Rhys wasted no time. With a flick of his staff, a blazing Fireball shot out in a straight line, hurling straight toward the Withered Colossus Tree's location.
The Fireball struck the giant tree dead-on. Accompanied by a crackling hiss, the massive trunk—wide enough for three people to wrap their arms around—burst into flames right before Rhys's eyes.
Fire was the natural nemesis of anything made of wood. Fireball carried a burning property; as long as there was enough oxygen, the fire clinging to the giant tree would continue to burn until it was completely extinguished. This was a property of fire in the real world—and the same held true in the game.
Yet even as he saw this, Rhys didn't relax in the slightest. On the contrary, the look of vigilance in his expression only deepened. He carefully scanned his surroundings, the weight in his gaze undiminished.
"Rustle!"
The sound of something slicing through the air came again. Two withered branches shot darkly out from beneath the earth, using Rhys's blind spot to launch a fierce, unstoppable attack straight at him.
But Rhys had long since been watching in all directions, his senses on high alert. How could he fall victim to such a sneak attack? With an agile roll—what gamers called a "lazy donkey roll"—he dodged the strike, then turned his piercing gaze toward the source of the assault.
There it was—the Withered Colossus Tree, ghostfire burning in its eyes, its monstrous maw wide open in rage as it glared at Rhys, as if it wanted to devour him whole. It was as if the previous scene of it being set ablaze had been nothing but an illusion.
The crackling fire still sounded in his ears, and the Withered Colossus Tree before him was clearly attacking. Could it be… there were two Withered Colossus Trees in this forest?
That wasn't the case.
What made the Withered Colossus Tree an Epic-tier monster—and even classified as Rare-tier—wasn't just its strangling vines or its ability to drain a creature's blood. The real threat lay in its skill: Born of the Wood.
Before an attack landed, the Withered Colossus Tree could transfer itself to any nearby tree, using this ability to dodge strikes and launch ambushes from blind angles. In his previous life, plenty of players had died just trying to figure out how the Withered Colossus Tree worked.
That valuable intel was something Rhys had never forgotten. And it was precisely because of that knowledge that he'd been able to so easily evade its ambush.
From this, it was clear—the simplest and most straightforward way to kill the Withered Colossus Tree was to use large-area-of-effect skills to utterly raze the entire forest. As a plant-type Fiend, it couldn't move away from the place it had rooted itself, nor could it escape destruction.
But that was something Rhys simply couldn't do.
He was surrounded by a vast sea of trees. If he tried burning them down one Fireball at a time, the Withered Colossus Tree wouldn't even need to attack—Rhys would die of exhaustion all on his own.
So, there was only one option left for him to choose.
Rhys carefully locked his eyes on the Withered Colossus Tree before him. He didn't launch another attack, instead choosing to wait for his opponent to make the next move. As a Fiend, the Withered Colossus Tree naturally couldn't suppress its thirst for slaughter—once again, the rustle of twitching branches rang out.
Rhys saw this and a glint of delight flashed through his eyes.
"Got you!"