After almost half an hour, dozens of health potions and two stacks of Magic Consumables later, the group of One-horned Rhinos almost two hundred strong finally dropped dead beneath my feet. My experience increased by a whopping 5%, and I was currently sitting at Level 116, 99%. I should level up in just a couple more kills.
Satisfied with my current leveling speed, I resolved to hit Level 120 in the next three days. In the meantime, He Yi and Murong Mingyue could manage the guild territory.
……
There were Magic Stones and equipment everywhere on the ground, and I decided to keep any equipment that was above the Silver grade. Surprisingly, the Level 140 shadow-rank mobs dropped mostly equipment between Level 115 to Level 125. Once these items became mainstream in the next half a month or so, I could unload them all at Air Force One and earn both money and popularity!
Next, I aimed my palm at a One-horned Rhino"s body and used Death Plunder!
Swhoos.h.!.+
A heavy horn appeared in my hand. Huh, I wasn"t expecting to get something like this!
Fire Horn: Forging material. A material used to forge chest armor. Chest armor will be imbued with 6% Attack and 10% resistance to fire magic.
……
Tsk tsk, not bad at all! I"m going to collect as many Fire Horns as I can and unload them at Yamete"s place later. He might have a use for this.
I happily used Death Plunder on the bodies one by one, but unfortunately the chances of looting a Fire Horn wasn"t as high as I would"ve liked; only about a 33% chance in general. The better news was that horns stacked, meaning they wouldn"t take many of my inventory slots.
I tallied my overall loot. In total, I had collected almost 40 top-tier equipment of varying types. As the players at the foot of the mountain had mentioned earlier, high-level shadow-rank mobs definitely had a chance to drop a top-tier Outstanding Dark Gold–grade equipment. Two such items were sitting in my bag right now—
Purple Heart Dagger (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★★): Level 115 dagger. 420~585 Attack, Agility +87, Stamina +82, Tactics +9. Increases user"s physical Attack by 14%. Outstanding Property: 9% chance to ignore Defense when attacking a target.
Melody Robe (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★): Level 115 cloth-armor robe. 245 Defense, 180 Magic Resist, Intelligence +75, Stamina +70, Tactics +7. Outstanding Property: Magic s.h.i.+eld tenacity increased by 15%.
Bone Eroding Wristguards (Gold-grade, Outstanding★): Level 120 metal armor wristguards. 275 Defense, 190 Magic Resist, Agility +80, Strength +75, Tactics +10. Outstanding Property: Defense increased by 8%.
……
This one grind had netted me three Outstanding items in total, and they were all the kind of equipment people yearned to get even in their dreams. This 22 Luck of mine was broken alright. The drop rate was heartening enough, but the stats—especially the Purple Heart Dagger and Melody Robe—were even better. At the current stage, Outstanding Dark Gold–grade equipment that boosted Tactics would always sell for an exorbitant price. I could use them as the promotional items of Air Force One!
The rhinos had also dropped Phantasmal Magic Stones and Big Magic Stones but unfortunately, it looked like 500 bag slots still weren"t enough to accommodate my needs, not because I couldn"t pick up all the Magic Stones right now, but because I still had to kill another 800 One-horned Rhinos and 1000 Fire Lizards. With my karma and Luck, it was only natural that my bag would be overflowing with equipment by the end of the grind. Hah, the feeling of returning to the city with a truck load of equipment every time I was done with a leveling trip was so awesome!
Anyway, the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and I continued to sweep through the Dragonspine Basin. By the time we were done, it was already 4:30 pm. During this time, I had successfully killed most of the One-horned Rhinos in the area and fulfilled first of the quest requirements. Right now, the UI displaying the kill count was sitting at 1107 and well over the quest requirement. Moreover, I had leveled up from Level 116, 99% to Level 117, 21%. I was satisfied with this leveling speed to say the least. If there was one small flaw I would like to point out, it would be that I was losing durability, Health Potions and Magic Consumables at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate. Only an extraordinary player could undertake such an exhausting and high-consumption task.
That being said, my extraordinary effort was rewarded with extraordinary return a normal player could only dream of. I"d picked up over a dozen or so Outstanding items in the process, and seven of them were high-level Outstanding Dark Gold–grade equipment. They could all be sold for a good price once I returned to the city. So far, this trip was turning out to be an extremely rich one!
……
I used Death Plunder on the last One-horned Rhino and got a Fire Horn from it. Currently, 324 Fire Horns were sitting in my bag. I was sure that these high-rank forging materials would be useful to Yamete.
I raised my head and gazed to the horizon. The other side of the basin was overflowing with gigantic Fire Lizards, and they were none other than the other mob I had been tasked to kill. Green Dragon Knight Tia was a callous woman for sure; making me run all over the place and kill so many mobs like a tireless worker bee.
As I slowly approached a Fire Lizard, its stats appeared in my vision—
Fire Lizard (Shadow)
Level: 142
Attack: 1670~1850
Defense: 1850
HP: 110000
Skills: Gaze, Crush, Venom
Introduction: As the guardians of Dragonspine Basin, these Fire Lizards are extremely heat-resistant because their diet consists mainly of fire-attribute vegetation. Over time, the fire energy acc.u.mulating inside their body grew into a thick sh.e.l.l that protects them from any weapon.
……
Mn, it was basically the same kind of mob as the One-horned Rhino. The only difference was that its Attack was a tad higher, but its Defense and HP were much lower compared to the One-horned Rhinos. Theoretically this should be a much easier battle, but its skills made me feel a bit apprehensive. Gaze and Venom, huh? If I wasn"t mistaken, trying to AoE down the Fire Lizards would only be harder than the One-horned Rhinos!
I raised my arm and threw out a Dragon Slaying Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
The green sword aura hit a Fire Lizard in the head and caused it to rush me with a growl immediately. It was extremely quick, so I activated Thunderous Charge before it could get close to me!
Swhoos.h.!.+
A successful stun later, the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and I both comboed it with the most damaging skills we had in store. It had lost nearly half its HP in just the blink of an eye.
However, as soon as the Fire Lizard broke out of the stun, it stared at me with its gray eyes, my body suddenly immobilized. It had applied the Petrified status!
Thankfully, the petrification only lasted for a second, and it could only be performed in close range. Otherwise, it would be practically impossible to defeat this mob!
I hacked away at the Fire Lizard until it was finally dead. A second later, I inhaled deeply because the generous mob had dropped a blood-red s.h.i.+eld! What a pleasant surprise! Judging from the color of the glow of the s.h.i.+eld, it should be a Dark Gold–grade equipment.
I strode up to the drop and tried to pick it up, but my senses suddenly alerted me to danger. I immediately backed away and held my sword in front of me!
The ambusher came from underground. The scarlet ground suddenly swelled like pimples, and the next moment a couple of spikes suddenly pierced my Purgatory Legguards. It hurts!
3894!
WTF is this mob? How did it hit me for so much damage?!
I couldn"t see the ambusher because it was still concealed, so I ran forward until I found a red dot on the mini map. I immediately used War Crush on it!
Boom boom boom!
A powerful shockwave rippled across the ground and caused three damage numbers to rise from a seemingly empty spot on the ground. At the same time, a huge six-legged creature that looked like a giant c.o.c.kroach crawled out of the ground. It had two bladed forelimbs that spun like spinning drills, and I bet that it was the thing that allowed it to come and go underground as it pleased!
The Earth Spike Beast, because this was its name, was a Level 144 shadow-rank mob with 1820~1900 Attack, so it was no wonder that it managed to hit me for so much damage. Moreover, I was certain that its Attack ignored part of my Defense, because if it wasn"t the case it shouldn"t be able to hit me for over 3000 damage. It was just a mob. It could have hidden stats, but it could never equip powerful equipment to boost their Attack and buff themselves with terrifying skills like Martial G.o.d.
In PvE, a player should have higher Attack and at least equal Defense compared to the mob. That was the key to beating a mob whose HP was way higher than the player"s. In fact, the bigger the Attack gap, the better!
……
I met the Earth Spike Beast with a smile and annihilated it with the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf in no time. The mob was Level 144 and shadow-rank, but it was no problem for me. It gave a generous amount of experience when it died.
However, the Earth Spike Beast"s appearance had thrown a wrench into my original plan. I was planning to AoE down the Fire Lizards, but there was no way I could handle the Earth Spike Beasts attacking me from range at the same time. Therefore, I had to clean the Earth Spike Beasts first before I tackled the Fire Lizards.
I pondered for a moment before sending the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf away to bait out the Earth Spike Beasts. The Earth Spike Beasts were far, far slower than the Fire Lizards, so that gave me an opportunity to exploit their weakness.
"Go, little wolf!"
My pet bounced forward at my order and entered the sea of mobs. It wasn"t long before a horde of Fire Lizards started chasing after it with everything they got.
Its tongue lolling beside its mouth, the little wolf ran like its life depended on it until a strange noise suddenly came from beneath the ground. As expected, it had successfully baited out its first Earth Spike Beast. It was soon followed by the second, the third, the fourth… by the time the little wolf had aggroed almost 500 Fire Lizards, seven or eight Earth Spike Beasts were chasing after it as well. I stuck to the plan since it wasn"t an impossible amount of mobs.
Once the little wolf had lured the Fire Lizards a sufficient distance away, I recalled it back into my pet s.p.a.ce!
Swhoos.h.!.+
The little wolf disappeared, and with it, the mobs" aggro. At the same time, I charged into the middle Earth Spike Beasts and stomped the ground with War Crus.h.!.+ After the skill had finished casting, seven or eight Earth Spikes immediately jutted my way in retaliation!
I chuckled and a.s.sumed a Guard stance. I already figured out that the Earth Spike had a cooldown of around 2 minutes or so. It was the only skill that could threaten me, so I could slaughter them with impunity after they used it.
Chiang chiang chiang...
Sparks flew everywhere as the rock spikes. .h.i.t the Heaven-stealing Sword in succession and shook my body greatly. At the same time, a series of damage numbers floated above my head—
673!
231!
1!
46!
……
The amount of damage done depended on how well the player guarded an attack, and a perfect Guard could reduce the amount of damage taken to just 1 damage. That very rarely happened, however.
Despite the focus fire, the Earth Spike Beasts failed to delete more than 5000 HP from my health bar. Not even bothering to heal myself, I zigzagged toward a nearby Earth Spike Beast and positioned myself so that its gigantic size would block its brethren from getting to me, minimizing contact and the amount of damage I would take. Everything else after this was easy!
Swhoos.h.!.+
I resummoned the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and restarted the slaughterfest!
……
Suddenly, I received a message from Beiming Xue: "Big bro, can I talk to you about something?"