Ch. 142
Leveling Up
Although the Sawtooth Crocodile was just a level 15 ordinary monster, its HP was very high, even comparable to that of a typical level 20 elite monster. If he didn't use all his trump cards and relied on skills alone, it would be hard to finish it off in an instant.
After contemplating for a moment, considering that there was only one monster here and it shouldn't pose a threat to him, Chen Zixuan charged straight ahead. With three consecutive stabs, he triggered his weapon's passive armor-piercing effect, then began scraping away at the Sawtooth Crocodile bit by bit.
Having fought with the Sawtooth Crocodile earlier and suffered a hidden loss, Chen Zixuan was now more familiar with this type of monster's fighting style.
With each movement, he deliberately evaded the more dangerous head and tail of the Sawtooth Crocodile. Compared to the last time, things instantly felt much easier. Moreover, he kept honing techniques and muscle memory for short weapon combat, never passing up a single opportunity to practice.
Being able to use tools isn't much, but being able to continuously learn—now that's the biggest difference between humans and animals.
-23!
-48!
-67!
A series of damage values floated up in succession. After a minute, under Chen Zixuan's relentless attacks, the Sawtooth Crocodile's hide was riddled with wounds, and its HP finally dropped to 2,000 points. At this HP, it had entered Chen Zixuan's kill range.
"Die!"
Perhaps due to youthful impetuousness, Chen Zixuan had recently taken a liking to this kind of execution—he kicked hard at the Sawtooth Crocodile's tough back, riding the recoil as his body flew backward, and at the same time, threw the dagger in midair, silently watching the monster's HP fall to zero.
Letting out a feeble roar, the Sawtooth Crocodile ultimately collapsed in unwillingness. At that very moment, Chen Zixuan's experience bar suddenly jumped by a huge chunk. With just a single monster slain—and due to the game level mechanism's compensation—he had gained a whole 30% of the experience needed for the next level.
As for Gu Yanxi, her situation was even more impressive. She herself was only level 6, and needed less experience to level up. With shared experience from the team mode, she gained the same experience as Chen Zixuan but instantly leveled up, going from level 6 to 7.
No matter how tough its stats are, it's still just a level 15 ordinary monster. For Chen Zixuan, there was no real difficulty. This time, he finally had the chance to see what loot the Sawtooth Crocodile could drop.
He put away the dagger, approached the Sawtooth Crocodile's corpse, squatted down, and used collect.
"System prompt: You have obtained 5 pieces of [Mutated Crocodile Hide]!"
"System prompt: You have obtained 3 units of [Corrupted Blood]!"
"System prompt: You have obtained 16 silver coins!"
As it wasn't an elite monster, it was hard for it to drop equipment or tools, so all he got were common materials, but that was still better than nothing.
What truly surprised Chen Zixuan was still the experience the Sawtooth Crocodile provided. There was just so much of it.
From making potions to luring the monster and finally killing it, it took about ten minutes in total to slay a single Sawtooth Crocodile.
If nothing special happened, at this rate, Chen Zixuan could kill six Sawtooth Crocodiles in an hour, and reach level 11 in less than half an hour.
What about a whole day? Two days? Three days?
You had to know that there were more than a hundred Sawtooth Crocodiles in this secluded valley!
The knot in his heart was suddenly untangled. Looking at his experience bar, Chen Zixuan let out a long breath. Since starting this game, this was the first time he felt that leveling up could be so easy.
Clenching his fists, he saw there was still some time before lunch. He had to quickly have Gu Yanxi make more bait potions before she logged off.
Ten bottles... No! A hundred bottles!
After explaining his idea to the girl, Gu Yanxi was a bit surprised but, since it wasn't too troublesome, she didn't refuse.
Over the next dozen-plus minutes, they gathered All-Cure Herb wildly in the surrounding forest. Having seen it once before, with keen senses and sight, Chen Zixuan soon found 21 of the herbs.
Although Gu Yanxi was a bit slower, she still found 8 All-Cure Herbs.
Making one bottle of bait potion required 2 units of Monster Blood, and one All-Cure Herb. Taking out 58 units of Monster Blood from his backpack, Chen Zixuan handed them to Gu Yanxi, and the girl immediately began the intensive brewing process.
Since Chen Zixuan wasn't an Apothecary, he didn't know if making this kind of potion was troublesome, but it was obvious that Gu Yanxi's face flushed lightly, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead after only a few minutes.
All he could do was watch, which made Chen Zixuan feel a bit embarrassed.
"Hot? Why not let me fan you?"
Gu Yanxi was in the most crucial step of potion fusion, had no extra attention to spare, pursed her lips thoughtfully, but still nodded gently.
So Chen Zixuan summoned the Darkwing Demon Bat, controlling it to hang upside down on a nearby tree, continually flapping its broad wings, acting as a fully automatic fan for the two of them.
Wave after wave of wind swept away the summer heat, making Gu Yanxi work much faster. After a dozen or so minutes, Chen Zixuan's backpack held more than twenty bottles of dark red monster bait potion.
Excluding rest time, at a rate of one bottle every ten minutes, these potions should be enough for Chen Zixuan to spend the whole afternoon leveling here.
At last, with the last potion finished, it was already past noon.
Gu Yanxi wiped her clean forehead, glanced at her interface for the time, and said with some guilt, "At this time, my mom's probably calling me offline for lunch."
As neighbors, Chen Zixuan naturally knew about the Gu family's living habits. He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Will you be back this afternoon?"
If possible, Chen Zixuan definitely preferred to level up together with Gu Yanxi.
After giving Chen Zixuan a positive answer, Gu Yanxi promptly logged out of the game, leaving Chen Zixuan alone again in the empty forest.
He wasn't the sentimental type, and soon adjusted back to his normal state. He checked his personal interface: his equipment still had about 40% durability, which should be plenty to last until lunchtime.
Now, it was time to keep leveling up.
He put the Darkwing Demon Bat back in his backpack, took out a bottle of bait potion, and strode toward the riverbank outside the forest.
The potion burst near the monster crowd, the scent drawing another peripheral Sawtooth Crocodile out. As it left its group on all fours, the corners of Chen Zixuan's mouth curled up in a cold smile.
At this moment, he felt as if heaps upon heaps of experience were rushing toward him in waves.
.....