Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

The atmosphere had grown tense. At last, Windblossom lowered her bow.

“Ugh—” The Death Knight’s HP had been fully depleted, and even his skeleton horse collapsed where it stood.

However, the system did not issue a notice.

Zane knew what that meant. Undead-type creatures like this one tended to have resurrection mechanics. As long as the wraithfire within them remained, they could revive endlessly.

He had already encountered this once while fighting the Skeleton Warriors.

Starry stepped up to the Death Knight and leveled her Autumn Moon Sword at the faint green flame flickering within his eye socket.

“Don’t kill him!” Windblossom cried out and immediately activated Wind Dance, dashing toward them.

The Autumn Moon Sword hovered, poised above the boss’ head. Windblossom came barreling over. Then—

*‘What…?’*

“Hurry up! He’s about to resurrect!”

Zane jolted at the word ‘resurrect’ and quickly accepted.

“Alright, go ahead and finish it.”

Grateful for the permission, Starry plunged the Autumn Moon Sword downward without hesitation.

The ghostly green flame that had been struggling to reignite was completely extinguished. With a flash of golden light, both Zane and Starry reached level 20. Windblossom, having died earlier, regained level 19. The rest of the party had already been sent back to the city upon death and thus received no experience.

But that wasn’t all. Reaching level 20 seemed to unlock new features—the system notifications were flooding the screen.

Meanwhile, the party chat erupted.

“Windblossom!??? What’s going on!” Endless Sea cried out in shock.
“Zane, did you guys seriously kill that Death Knight?” Shiu asked, noticing their new levels.
“Welcome to the team!” YoyoPink clapped cheerfully.
“…”

…

Windblossom looked a little annoyed, pouting as she spoke. “If you hadn’t interfered, I could’ve handled him myself.”

*‘Interfered? So she was the one who had brought the Death Knight to the brink of death!? All by herself???’*

“You look like you’re doubting me,” Windblossom said, her expression sobering. “I’ll admit, you’ve got some skill. Honestly, when I saw you hadn’t changed class yet, I thought you were just some leech.”

A leech meant someone who let others weaken monsters to low HP before swooping in to deliver the final blow, leveling up quickly without taking any risk.

She paused, then drew a fiery-red longsword and pointed it at Starry. “Let’s duel. If your strength matches your spot on the rankings, I won’t claim any of the loot.”

*‘What the hell is this logic? Lady, I’m the main DPS, okay?’* Zane thought, exasperated.

At the same time, Windblossom sent Starry a duel request.

Duel mode had two types. The first was Friendly Sparring. In this mode, both sides had their HP and MP fully restored, all cooldowns reset, and the match began after a three-second countdown. The duel ended when one side either died or surrendered.

In Friendly Sparring, there was no penalty for dying; no level loss or gear drop. In contrast, Death Match mode allowed no surrender, and death came with the usual consequences: level reduction and a chance of dropping equipment.

However, outside of PvP status, the drop rate for gear was negligible.

Zane wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t see the point of a duel. They had just taken down a boss and were exhausted. Now’s the time to collect the spoils, not waste energy on unnecessary fights.

Starry waved dismissively. “I don’t need to prove anything to you. I never asked to be on the rankings anyway.”

Windblossom furrowed her brows, clearly irritated. “Are you looking down on me?”

*‘Ugh, this girl is seriously a handful.’*

“How about this, once you hit level 20, we’ll duel then.”
But Windblossom shook her head. “No need. Let’s start now.”
Starry sighed. “I’m dead tired right now. There’s no way I’d win like this. Tomorrow’s better, okay?”
After thinking for a moment, Windblossom looked up and nodded. “Fine. Deal.”
Zane walked over just then. “You pick the drops first. Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to take this boss down.”

Although she was a little curious about this gray wolf turning into a beautiful girl, loot came first. Without hesitation, Windblossom strode over to the boss’ corpse.

The Death Knight had been a formidable opponent, and the loot didn’t disappoint. A quick glance showed at least six pieces of gear! Windblossom’s eyes practically turned into money signs. The shimmering glow of the gear seemed to pierce right through her heart. She wanted them all.

But she knew better. There was no way she could’ve soloed this boss. What she said earlier was all bravado. She had even been solo-killed by him once, and that was with a strange, unexplained misstep.

Besides, this wasn’t a case of kill-stealing. When she found the boss earlier, it still had over 13,000 HP. That meant it likely healed to full during the time she was dead. If that assumption held, then she was technically the one who interrupted their fight. Her biggest contribution had been two arrows, nothing more.

Her face flushed red. What was she even thinking? First she hijacked their boss, then challenged them to a duel?

Come to think of it, she’d only been a sliver away from hitting level 20 when she got wiped by that explosion. Frustration had clouded her judgment, and she’d assumed they had just swooped in to finish what she started.

That wasn’t like her at all. But still…

Her eyes locked onto a sky-blue necklace. She couldn’t look away.

She reached out and touched it. Its stats appeared.

There was no doubt about it, this necklace was tailor-made for archers! Even mages could use it! And since Rangers were practically an advanced form of Archer, she had to have it. No matter what it took.

“I want this one,” she said, eyes sparkling as she posted the item’s stats to the party chat.

“…”

For a moment, no one said a word.

“I can pay the difference if it’s not enough! Just don’t toss it in the auction!” Windblossom blurted out in a panic. If it went to auction, her allowance would never keep up. Dreamscape was full of rich players.

But clearly, she’d misunderstood.

What shocked the group wasn’t her request, it was the necklace itself. No one had ever seen an item that added all five core attributes with such high numbers. And on top of that, it added 75 attack power and came with two explosive passive effects. The total ranged damage boost was effectively 126%.

If they put this on the auction board, it could easily go for hundreds of thousands at this stage of the game.

“You can have it,” Zane said, his heart aching even as he forced a smile. Without Windblossom, they never would have gotten any of this. Fair was fair.