separation gap. Players who have reached level 30 would be able to learn more skills and even own three different type of pets. Bringing pets in battle would increase their productivity twofold.First of all, I opened the Floating Ice City Ranking board, and surprisingly, I found that the board had gone through a thorough change–
1. Domineering Heaven Blade Lv.29 Occupation: Warrior
3. Red Iron Tablet Lv.29 Occupation: Warrior
5. Domineering Archer G.o.d lvl 28 Occupation: Archer
7. Domineering Mage G.o.d lvl 28 Occupation: Mage
9. Fallen Hero Lv.27 Occupation: Undead Swordsman
……
I had forced my way in and ended with rank 9. The battle between Lin Yi Xin and I had left both of us heavily injured, she could only rank sixth. The first place was now occupied by Domineering Heaven Blade. This person was indeed not an easy one. He was able to level up to level 29 in such a short time. He definitely had a trick up his sleeves.
Furthermore, other than Domineering Heaven Blade in the Domineering clan, there are four other people from the clan that occupied the top ten positions. Hence, amongst the 10 players in the top 10 ranking, five of them were Domineering clan members, it was simply a prestige overkill!
On the other hand, there are two new experts, Rainy Clouds and Red Iron Tablet who were the latecomers to game. It was unmistakable that these two are definitely not ordinary players!
As I was preparing to leave, suddenly a ‘di’ sounded —
System Announcement: Player Red Iron Tablet invited you to his friend list, Accept/Reject?
……
I was frozen on the spot. Did he actually befriended me?
Approving the friend request, after a few seconds, Red Iron Tablet sent me a message, “Fallen Brother, your cooking skill, has it reached level 3?”
“Yes, what’s up?” I replied him straight without pleasantries.
“It’s like this. I want to buy 50 level 3 food items, the ones that adds 300 mana in 60 seconds. I’ll leave the price to you. I need it in one day. Can you do it?”
I muttered to myself, a customer have come on his own, I shouldn’t reject him. Furthermore, this Red Iron Tablet looks like a good person, worth to be a friend with.
Hence, I replied, “Alright, I will find you again in 24 hours. 50 level 3 food items, priced at 50 silvers each. Would that be a problem?”
After around two minutes, I reckoned he had been stunned speechless. I had asked for a sky-high price after all. Nowadays players could not even cough up 10 silvers, but I had actually asked for 50 silvers an item, it was practically asking a mouthful! However, I have my own perspective. A person who asked for so many level 3 food items, would definitely be going to fight a BOSS. Priests level 2 Heals required a lot of mana, it wouldn’t be possible to support the others without using a level 3 food item. If the priest’s mana was depleted, the whole group couldn’t be healed. The loss will be very great that way. Hence, the money spent buying mana potions early was merely an investment for the future.
As expected, a few minutes afterwards, Red Iron Tablet replied, “No problem. 50 silvers each, but it’s not limited to 50 portions. The more, the better!”
“OK, it’s a deal. See you later!”
“See you later.”
……
I thought, I should look for food resources and level at the same time. There is definitely no harm in levelling and earning money at the same time. Yesterday I found out from Shi San that we only have a few hundred yuans left, if we don’t try to earn money now, we would probably have to eat air and drink from the rain soon.
Opening my cooking skill, I looked for the level 3 food cooking recipe —
Green Pepper Meatb.a.l.l.s: Green Peppers x 10, Glutinous Rice x 20, Chicken x 10 & Salt x 15. Restore: 300 mana
I had plenty of stocks for Glutinous Rice and Chicken, the only thing I was missing was Green Peppers. But Green Pepper was a level 4 food item and it require a level 4 Hunting Skill. Coincidentally, after sweeping almost all of the Wildfire Plains’ glutinous rice, which was half a day ago, my Hunting Skill had rose up to level 4!
Actually, my Hunting Skill was not the highest among other players, but I was within the upper ranks of those who had Hunting Skills, and on the top 10 ranks in the overall level. Hence I had the highest Hunting Skill amongst the top ranking players, I was one of the few who was an expert in military and handicraft skills, haha!
Opening the forums, I searched for Green Pepper. It was already announced in the Inventory List, the whole of Floating Ice City area, there were only one place that had Green Peppers — Frostwind Canyon!
Frostwind Canyon was situated within the south of Frozen Forest frontier zone. The distance of this place from Floating Ice City was extremely far, it was around one hour by foot. Along the way, there were various poisonous snake and ferocious beasts. Most players wouldn’t even think of going there, because they would not even reach Frostwind Canyon before being sent back to Floating Ice City by the monsters on the way.
How do you catch the tiger cub without entering the tiger’s lair? Since I was already determined to do this, I turned back towards Floating Ice City and spent 2 Gold to buy Return City Scroll. Dammit, the price was marked up by another 1 gold again!
At the present stage, Return City Scrolls were considered as luxury goods, normal players wouldn’t even be able to afford it. Only people like me who’ve had a windfall would buy these stuff.
Exiting Floating Ice City, I killed my way through Frostwind Canyon.
On the way, I encountered level 30 Goblins, level 32 Slime, level 27 Wild Wolves, level 31 Cynocephalus. None of them was a challenge to me, I almost created a b.l.o.o.d.y pathway towards Frostwind Canyon. On the way, I could still see some groups of players training, but as I entered deeper, there were no more players to be seen. There was only me, alone, carrying my sword walking through the forest.
My Weeping Fireblade glowed lightly with fire. This high attack, bronze-tiered weapon with a physical attack of 40 had invited the jealousy of several other players’ eyes. But my player ID was displayed dignifiedly on my forehead, Fallen Hero, a player on the Player Ranking Board. Why would a person with a pair of eyes come looking for trouble with me?
Opening the world map, I saw that the distance to Frostwind Canyon was coming near. It was as most a 10 minutes walk.
At this moment, the scenery in front started to turned into a boundless, dark-looking forest. Far into the distance, the sound of ghosts’ wails and wolves’ howls could be heard. It seemed like a high-leveled training ground!
My heart wavered for a moment. Frankly, with the abilities of my level 27, I shouldn’t be entering this place. However, if I didn’t go to to the Frostwind Canyon to pick Green Peppers, I would probably have some regrets. In the end, taking the risk out of desperation, for wealth and for girls, I bravely stepped forward.
“Ding~!
System Announcement: You have entered a neutral map — Black Forest!
……
Indeed, this was a high-levelled map!
I wielded my Weeping Fireblade, and carefully advanced forward. Suddenly, I felt a bloodthirst aiming towards me. Something was coming!
“Hiss…”
Bathed in moonlight, I suddenly saw a python appearing in between tree branches. It lifted its head, its pair of brown eyes was filled with a cold flash. Its body was extremely long, that it give off a nauseating feeling.
[Forest Python] (Ordinary Monster)
Attack: ???
Health: ???
……
Its attributes wasn’t shown, our level difference was simply too high! It’s too late to run away, I could only brace myself and attack!
“Hua!”
I advanced to it in a straight line and brought down my sword heavily on its forehead. There was only a “Cha” sound as my sharp blade collided with its hard snake armour, producing sparks of fire. A low damage number flew out — 146!
d.a.m.n! It only accounts to 10% of its health?
The Forest Python hissed angrily and its head suddenly charged forward ferociously. Its speed was too fast that there wasn’t enough time for me to dodge!
“Ka cha!”
A sharp pain jolted down my shoulders, I was attacked —
“Di!”
Battle Announcement: Forest Python had attacked you and caused 217 damage!
……
Terrifying, this monster’s defense was almost comparable to a BOSS!
I hurriedly retreated far away, and drunk a bottle of health potion. At the same time, I hastily glanced at the Forest Python who was covered with a green armour from head to tail. Only a part of its body, 7 inch in size, was glowing with a faint silver colour!
That 7 inch part was definitely its weakness!
Not waiting to regain my full health, I immediately charged forward. My Weeping Fireblade was enveloped in a green glow. My [Death Blade] skill came down hard, splitting the air!
“414！”
Forest Python let out a miserable cry as its health fell by a huge margin.
Very good, this kind of attack had really worked!
My feet quickly drifted away and moved in a beautiful arch to the Forest Python’s side. The reason I was doing this was because the Forest Python’s head could only attack a target that was directly in front of it. But it’s turning speed was slow. Now that’s an opportunity.
“Papa!”
“224！”
“219！”
I was attacked by the Python twice once again. As I was going to drop dead on the ground, the Forest Python received four slashes of my sword at its weak point, and finally, it died!
“Hua la!”
It dropped two different things, one was a Large Magic Stone with a quality of 79, and the other was a green coloured small pouch. As I picked it up to inspect it, it seemed useless–
[Forest Python’s Poison Sac]: Level 3 item, contains poison.
……
Apparently it was a special material to create medicine. Since it was useless to me, I just threw it into my inventory. I would see if I could sell it in stores back in the city.
Extending my hands, I used [Corpse Pillage] over the python’s corpse!
With a “Ding”, a black-coloured item appeared in my hands. It turned out to be a spear, a spear that was of a high quality!
[Forest Spear] (Black-tier Equipment)
Strength: +3
……
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Whoever thought that killing monster would not give you equipments, I actually found it while searching the corpse!
I threw the Forest Spear into my inventory. I should sell it when I got back to Floating Ice City. This plaything’s attack was actually not that bad. I could probably sell it for a high price!
When my feelings had calmed down, I looked towards the front once again. There were already level 35 monsters appraring in the putskirts of the Black Forest. Wouldn’t the monsters appearing deeper in the forest be even more terrifying?
No wonder no one could make the level 3 food item. The food material was right behind this Black Forest, but this forest was practically impregnable!