Chapter 31: Time still flows (3) “The mobile desert ant cave.”
I earned 23 hours of cooldown by enhancing from 8 to 9 before attempting another enhancement this time.
During that time, I spent my valuable time doing various things such as smiling at the Ice Emperor"s Guardian Sword for 30 minutes and acquiring various skills. Nonetheless, I still had a lot of time left. So I surfed the “Revival Legend” homepage and set my heart on the future hunting ground in advance, trying to find one where I could maximize the efficiency of the newly-learned Ice Field, Hailstones, and Ice Blast skills. And I found a place called an ant cave in the desert.
Although it didn"t exist in the third closed beta, it was a hunting ground for those between Level 300 and 350. Monsters there were supposed to move in groups of at least 20, and when they were caught off guard, they would be surrounded by more than 100 ants at any time.
I confirmed that it was not rated as an attractive hunting ground because not a lot of EXP was given because of the grouping, and the miscellaneous items and golden rings they dropped were not good, either.
But it was clear that it was a hunting ground to quickly level up.
Even though the EXP per animal was small, the number of monsters that appeared was huge, to say the least. Anyway, a safety zone larger than the safety zone in the Golem Habitat soon appeared.
But there were some users who were taking a break, and as a group at that. However, there were no so-called traders in the Golem Habitat or buff traders who supplied buffs for money.
Although the set safety zone was larger than the Golem Habitat, only a few users were there.
So, I could see at a glance that it was not a very attractive hunting ground.
Since I came here because of EXP, I didn"t care. Soon I stepped toward the ant cave.
Then, I heard some small voices coming out from a party of 11 people who were resting a little distance away.
“What? Are you alone here?”
“I think so.”
“It would not be easy to hunt alone here. Is he Goreb?”
“With that outfit?”
“Oh, you"re right.”
“Leave him alone. We don"t need to intervene because he is anxious to die anyway.”
My current outfit also made my sister misunderstand me.
Not caring at all, however, I headed to the ant cave. Of course, after I hunt here and find something is lacking, I"m willing to get more items because there is a big difference between Level 0 and Level 100 as well as Level 100 and Level 200.
Anyway, as I kept walking forward, ant caves soon showed up.
Five appeared in front of me this time.
“Hmm. There are differences in the level of difficulty in that order, I guess.”
The entrance to the No. 5 ant cave was the largest, which was also the place where the boss monster, the queen ant, was living.
So, I went into the No. 3 ant cave, which was mid-sized because my hunt this time was also a test too.
Crunch, crunch.
It wasn"t long before I walked into the No. 3 ant cave that I began to hear something crunching.
Then, waving their black feelers, the ants appeared.
“Well… I think they are not just ants, but need some ‘giant" modifier.”
The ants that appeared and waved two feelers were larger than expected, so much so that they went up to my knees. The keratin around their bodies also looked solid.
As if they found me, the ants charged at me, shaking their feelers back and forth quickly.
They were opening their sharp teeth wide as if to break me in half.
Watching it, I also rushed to them and immediately shouted when they were within my striking range.
“Ice Field!”
Crunch, crunch.
I spread the Ice Field on the road where the ants rushed to me.
[The ants" movement speed while entering the Ice Field is reduced by 20%.]
Of course, 20% was the most at this point, but the ants, which were apparently moving faster than expected, were significantly slower than before. And I used the linkage skills on them that I used the most during the second and third closed betas.
“Hailstones!”
“Kehek!”
“Kek!”
“….”
A hundred times or a thousand times? I really used that much.
So I knew that they were very powerful because the ants couldn"t get out of the Ice Field perhaps because of my Intellectual Power, which was much wider than the original 10-meter area of effect. Their hard skin, which seemed to protect them from the pouring hailstones, was smashed. Of course, the Ice Field itself inflicted some damage on them.
Besides, the ants in front of my eyes were the strongest monsters in the Level 300-350 range.
“Hahhhhh.”
At that moment I laughed dryly because I was worried that I had stayed at my current level for too long. Moreover, I did not know how long I had to stay in this state.
But as the most powerful monster I"ve ever faced was easily beaten by one of my skills, that kind of anxiety disappeared.
“Good. Let me use Ice Blast this time!”
I didn"t use the skills during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd closed betas. I was curious about the power of Ice Blast. So I ran forward with a smile. Naturally, I was collecting the golden rings and miscellaneous items like feelers and dead skin cells.
Crunch, crunch.
The ants were rus.h.i.+ng to me, waving their antennae.
However, I ran in the opposite direction instead of confronting them.
Run away? No, I wanted to collect more items. And in less than two or three minutes, I discovered that the description about the desert ant caves on the “Revival Legend” homepage was 100% true.
With over 100 ants chasing me from behind, I stopped right away and turned. And I used one skill towards the charging ants.
“Ice Field!”
Originally, Ice Field could affect an area of ten meters in radius, but the scope of its application was not fixed. The scope and damage by Ice Field increased depending on the user"s Intellectual Power.
Those were the general characteristics of Ice Field, but I have one more, namely the ‘Iceman" trait. This trait increases the performance of all ice-type skills by 30%. And its performance didn"t include just the damage.
Ice Field spread before my eyes with an area of almost 17 or 18 meters in length and width, where more than 100 ants were trapped, struggling to get out.
“Kihek!”
“Kek!”
“Kehek!”
The ants were screeching violently in the Ice Field. Hearing that, I discovered that the Ice Field itself had a great potential of inflicting considerable damage, in addition to its speed reduction power. This was the potent trait of the Level 2 Ice Field, aside from Level 5 or Level 7, which could be upgraded later, and I experienced it again and again while using Ice Field during the 2nd and 3rd closed betas. The ants trapped in the Ice Field were now struggling to get out of it, making painful screeches while giving up charging at me.
Of course, I didn"t stare blankly at the ants struggling to flee from the Ice Field.
So, I shouted for the first time, with a lot of expectations, “Ice Blast!”
Puk! Puk! Puk!
“Kiheck!”
“Kehek!”
I often saw a large lake covered with ice during winter in a movie. The huge ice covering the whole lake smashed instantly when a small crack in the ice spread quickly and broke the whole ice. That happened before my eyes now. However, the ice broke and began to scatter all over the place instead of breaking and sinking under the lake.
Pieces of ice that were sharply thrown away while cracking poked the hard skin of the ants, piercing their heads and chests and other parts of their bodies.
[You have levelled up.]
“Wow!”
Of course, it was clear that Ice Field also inflicted some damage. Nevertheless, I couldn"t help but admire the power of Ice Blast that killed more than 90 ants, except for the ones lying on the outskirts because it was more useful than I thought.