Chapter 145 : Level 15
Level 15
After 6 p.m., due to anti-addiction restrictions, player experience and gold coin rewards in the wild would be significantly reduced.
But this still didn't stop Chen Zixuan. With a whole day's worth of massive experience pouring in, he seemed to enter a trance, machine-like, repeating the operation commands for slaughter over and over.
Finally, at 7 p.m., Gu Yanxi was the first to tire out. After agreeing with Chen Zixuan to come again the next morning, she logged off and exited the game.
Before leaving, she thoughtfully cast a Divine Healing spell, helping Chen Zixuan restore the small amount of lost HP, striving not to waste a single bit of resources.
After Gu Yanxi left, only Chen Zixuan remained on the deserted riverside.
Glancing at the 20 or so bait potions left in his backpack, he gritted his teeth and continued to immerse himself in the tense and thrilling hunting session.
Half an hour later, an unexpected situation arose: five Dragon Abyss members came nearby.
Their levels were high, their equipment could be considered luxurious, and their cooperation was exceptionally smooth.
Therefore, Chen Zixuan had to spend some effort before sending them all back to the Main City, with his monster farming plan forced to pause for three minutes.
Luck wasn't bad this time. The five dropped a total of two pieces of equipment, one blue and one white.
After putting away the loot, Chen Zixuan didn't change locations but chose to remain and continue farming monsters.
By this time, night had fully arrived, and players' vision was greatly impaired. Fortunately, Chen Zixuan, with his Vampire night vision ability, was unaffected.
He was certain that despite the numbers of Dragon Abyss, they would definitely not dare to come trouble him at night.
If they did, he'd just kill them all again, no big deal.
Two more hours passed. The remaining bait potions were almost used up, and his equipment's durability was again close to zero. Checking the time, Chen Zixuan finally stopped. At this point, his experience bar had risen to about 30%.
He'd already gained enough experience for today, jumping two levels in a single day. If someone saw this on the level ranking, many players would probably accuse him of cheating.
But Chen Zixuan didn't much care about others' opinions—after all, right now, level was the most important thing for him.
The experience needed for level 12 to 13 was immense, and with potions and equipment durability nearly depleted, Chen Zixuan had no choice but to return to the Main City to repair his equipment, and drop by the abandoned building to learn post-level-10 skills.
As a level 15 monster, using Sawtooth Crocodiles to wash off his red name status was very efficient. Although he'd killed quite a few players today, when he returned to the Main City, Chen Zixuan wasn't stopped by any guard NPCs and smoothly entered the city through the south gate.
Taking advantage of the cover of night, Chen Zixuan first arrived at the same weapons shop as last time, rented the forging room to swap his equipment, and quickly got the gear repaired. After spending 2 gold coins to fully restore the gear's durability, he headed to the old abandoned building in the old city district.
This externally shabby little building was possibly the coldest and quietest professional guild in the entire game. No matter how many times he came, Chen Zixuan still found it bleak. If it weren't for a faint light at the third-floor window, people might actually believe it was a haunted building.
A Vampire living in a haunted building—made perfect sense.
Taking a deep breath, Chen Zixuan pushed open the cobweb-covered, dusty door and stepped inside.
Although he knew that woman's chances of returning were low, he still made full mental preparations in advance to avoid being intimidated again as last time.
To be overawed by a woman's presence—that was truly embarrassing...
In the end, the scenario he'd been hoping for didn't happen. The Aesther left in the small room was still a doll devoid of any emotion. However, unlike last time, this time the doll's smooth skin surface had many fine cracks.
"The situation in the other world isn't optimistic..."
He couldn't be of any help anyway. After hesitating for a moment, Chen Zixuan approached to converse with the Aesther doll, then pulled up the skill panel to begin studying skills.
Currently available learnable skills numbered four, and coincidentally Chen Zixuan had four skill points. However, since he'd soon have to deal with the Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile, he needed to first see which skills would suit the encounter.
Lv.9, [Boiling Blood], active skill. Use on any single target to accelerate its blood flow, increasing attack speed by 30% and granting 20 points of damage block for 10 seconds. After the effect ends, the total blocked damage will be deducted slowly in the form of Bleeding.
Mana cost: 30 points
Cooldown: 180 seconds
Lv.10, [Echoes of the Blood Prison] Active skill. Sacrifice 30% of current HP to unleash a wave of corrosive blood tide, dealing 1.5x Magic damage to all targets within a 5-meter radius and applying a Bleeding effect once. If this skill kills a unit, it can be cast again within 10 seconds at no cost.
Mana cost: 65 points
Cooldown: 300 seconds
Lv.10, [Darkborn Bloodline], passive skill. As a noble of the dark kingdom, you possess a powerful Darkborn bloodline, gaining 30 bonus Attack, 30 Magic, 20 Physical and Magic Defense, and 200 max HP.
Mana cost: none
Cooldown: none
Lv.12, [Blood Sacrifice], active skill. Consume 10% of your current HP to manipulate blood, dealing 4x Attack as Magic damage to the designated target and restoring 10% of your max HP. If the target is slain by this skill, you will receive double the healing effect and extract 10% of the target's attack power for 20 seconds.
Prerequisite: [Blood Drain] must be at Lv.2.
Mana cost: 40 points
Cooldown: 70 seconds
......
Judging by their effects, all four skills were powerful, and Chen Zixuan wanted to learn every one. Especially the level-10 major skill [Echoes of the Blood Prison], which was currently the AOE damage skill he most lacked. With it, his upcoming leveling would undoubtedly become much easier and more efficient.
Normally, he would have enough skill points to learn all skills, but he noticed one thing: to learn the level 12 skill [Blood Sacrifice], he must first spend a skill point to upgrade [Blood Drain] to Lv.2.
This skill's effect was simply too strong. Not only did it deal damage and heal, but when killing monsters, it also granted a 10% attack bonus. With the Sawtooth Crocodile's 220 attack power, killing one with this skill would grant him a 22-attack-point bonus, lasting a full 20 seconds.
After deliberation, Chen Zixuan finally decided to give up [Boiling Blood]. He spent a skill point to upgrade [Blood Drain] to Lv.2, then used the remaining three skill points to learn [Echoes of the Blood Prison], [Darkborn Bloodline], and [Blood Sacrifice].
He already had a buff-type skill, so he could learn [Boiling Blood] later if the chance arose.
After leaving the abandoned building, Chen Zixuan found an inn nearby and logged off the game.
He'd farmed more than enough monsters today. The constant and intense fights placed a huge burden on both body and mind.
Although it didn't show on the surface, by now he was utterly exhausted. Returning to reality, he didn't even bother having dinner. After a quick wash, he collapsed onto his bed and quickly drifted into a deep sleep.
Life seemed to regain its calm. In the days that followed, perhaps learning his lesson, the Dragon Abyss members never came to seek revenge.
While the rest of the players remained keen on exploring and scouring the world for world-class bosses, Chen Zixuan's daily routine simply involved running between three locations and endlessly repeating the process of farming Sawtooth Crocodiles with Gu Yanxi.
After learning two new active skills and a powerful passive stat-boosting skill, Cecilia, who was already formidable, became even more of an unstoppable force.
Previously, Chen Zixuan could only handle one Sawtooth Crocodile at a time, but now he could draw in two or even three at once, dispatching all of them with ease within five minutes, his leveling efficiency upgrading by more than one tier.
The previous side quest [Hunter's Revenge], which required 50 Sawtooth Crocodiles, was long finished. Only the Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile remained, still hiding deep within the Mutant Jungle, quietly awaiting the day when players would kill it.
However, even though his monster farming speed had increased, the higher his level got, the more experience was required for each level, and, in the end, the amount multiplied rapidly.
With a week's deadline looming, time grew ever more pressing.
One day.
Two days.
Three days...
While Chen Zixuan devoted himself to leveling, the world of Legend of Kaloran kept spinning, and there were many unusual headlines outside the Mutant Jungle as well.
International servers reported world-class bosses being defeated one after another, but the Chinese server remained deathly quiet. This made domestic players more anxious, and they swarmed away from the Main City, looking for clues about the new world-class boss.
Soon, as players' explorations spread further, two new maps—Desolate Village and Hillside Prairie—were unlocked. The former suited levels 6–9, while the latter suited levels 10–15.
For Chen Zixuan's current level, farming monsters in the Hillside Prairie would be most appropriate, but he'd already found a map with better experience, so he stayed in the Mutant Jungle.
In addition, on the second day, Dawn's Light and Yuewu also contacted Chen Zixuan, delivering the materials he had previously asked them to collect.
Among these materials, several were extremely rare. Even with their connections, it had taken considerable effort to gather them all.
With the Natural Snow Silkworm Silk Chen Zixuan already obtained, at this point, all the materials needed for crafting the [Rose Maid] set were basically acquired.
Ever since then, the sneaky team in the Mutant Jungle grew from two to four.
Over the next three days, wave after wave of Sawtooth Crocodiles respawned in the Mutant Jungle. Chen Zixuan nearly wiped out his own eyes from all the killing, and finally, with just five hours left before the deadline, managed to reach level 15.
The moment the system announcement rang out, every player in the world was stunned and amazed.
Before he could even celebrate, Chen Zixuan's world suddenly shattered and collapsed!
He...was disconnected......