Chapter 44: Rapid Leveling
Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal
A traditional, boring, and never changing style of battle would definitely put someone to sleep. Therefore, having a rapid levelling style would incite an unbelievable fervor into someone even like Little Snow as if she could morph into a dragon and slay the monsters in one swift fire attack! After an hour or so, everyone but Zhang Yang gained a level.
It was almost lunch time, but no one in the team talked about logging out for a meal knowing that a loophole like this could be removed by the game developers at any time! With that thought in mind, they were on a frenzy not to waste this golden opportunity.
“Hey guys, how about we log off once everyone is at Level 20?” Zhang Yang asked. While furiously killing more spiders, Drizzler replied, “Well, I’ll take this as a chance for me to skip a meal. I’m not going to stop here just yet!” Little Snow tried to provoke her even more.
“Little brat! You’re already so paper-thin, your chest would just sink right to your back! If you lose any more weight, I’m afraid that you might never get past puberty!”
“Han Yin Xue, just you wait! While you’re asleep tonight, I’m going to put Little Daisy on your bed!”
Little Snow’s face turned slight pale out of fear. Feeling dazed, she said, “Then I’ll bring a cat home tomorrow!”
Zhang Yang was curious, “Um, is Little Daisy a mouse?”
“Guinea pig! Oh, Little Daisy is so cute and cuddly!” Drizzler began to describe her pet.
“Ew, disgusting!” Little Snow frowned upon her description.
Another hour passed again and everyone gained another level; even Zhang Yang reached Level 20 and gained a skill point. He immediately invested it in <Block> to reduce the cooldown time to a mere 6 seconds! He also swapped his current sword and ring for the new [Silver-Scaled Sword] and [Martyr Ring] and raised his attacks to a whole new level!
[Player: Zhan Yu]
Level: 20
HP: 1,600
Defense: 70
Strength: 106
Dexterity: 39
Luck: 3
Melee damage: 345-367 (Damage formula: [Silver-Scaled Sword] highest and lowest damage + 148 (Strength value)/ 2 (Every 2 points of Strength will increase 1 point of DPS) x 2.6 (Weapon Attack Speed)
Attack interval: 2.6 seconds
Now he was strong enough to kill the spiders in one hit as compared to his previous damage output which took him 3 strikes. Using <Horizontal Sweep>, he could now deal a whopping 700 damage! With Zhang Yang’s increased damage power, Little Snow and the others gained experience a little faster than before but Zhang Yang’s own gaining speed was slower than a snail!
Zhang Yang’s current level surpassed the current Rank 1 in the Level Ranking Board, which was Floating Fire Ball. Fatty Han on the other hand replaced Abradon at Rank 10 with Level 17 at 76% Experience Points. Being the show-off that he was, he definitely was not planning to stay in the shadows. Another hour later and Hundred Shots got enlisted on the board at last place. Once Fatty Han reached Level 18 with 57% Experience Points, he immediately ranked up to the top 3, causing quite a scene for the other players!
It has always been a rat race when it came to the Level Ranking Board. It was not a strange sight to see someone ranked fourth drop to fifth or sixth all of a sudden. However, Slim and Handsome here was too much to handle, as he only took an hour to climb up from the lowest rank to the third! It was truly a shocking yet spectacular phenomenon!
And the ranking war kept on going!
After another hour, Little Snow and Drizzler were also enlisted in the board, ranking at ninth and tenth place!
“Aww yeah! That’s freaking awesome! This Fatty here is ranked second!” Fatty Han smiled from ear to ear, until his eyes became a slit. Floating Fire Ball had now been pushed down behind Fatty Han. Little Snow and Drizzler shared the same excitement as well, with their faces flushed red with the color of pride.
“Tonight, we dine like kings!” Drizzler cried out.
“Get yourself some more Papaya Milk drink!” Zhang Yang jokingly said.
“Huh? Why?” Drizzler’s eyes were wide open, as if she was completely oblivious about it.
“Um…” Zhang Yang was stunned. He did not want to taint the still innocent young girl.
“Don’t mind him. He’s a scrawny rascal! What good advice could he actually give?!” Little Snow stared furiously at Zhang Yang. Her eyes brows was raised and lower seductively, exquisitely, but it was a pity that she did it behind his back so he could not see anything.
“Oh!” Drizzle spoke as if she understood.
With the level ranking race still going on strong, everyone fought tirelessly. Rays of golden light flashed between them. The China server Level Ranking Board was ever-changing and never constant.
“Wow, take a look at those 4 new players ranked in the board! How did they do it?”
“That Slim and Handsome player was only Level 17 in the beginning but my god, is he ranked at first place already? Holy crap! That’s three levels in four hours! It’s beyond logical! It took me one whole day to gain a level!”
“Argh, they must be using some kind of hacking program!”
“Nonsense. You’ve been told many times now that ‘God’s Miracle’ doesn’t have any hacking programs!”
“It that Little Snow and Drizzler? The same players that got the achievement board for killing the Grey-Silver boss yesterday?”
“You’re right! And those guys, Slim and Handsome, and Hundred Shots were in the party that achieved the Bangar Crypt First Clear Hardcore Mode Achievement!”
“They’re all monsters!”
“Hey, doesn’t it feel like they’re taking one step back and two steps forward?”
“Carry me!”
The server channel once again began to be filled with players chatting about.
…
When it was almost 5pm, a flash of golden light shone around Drizzler’s body as she levelled up once more. With that, everyone in Zhang Yang’s party had achieved Level 20!
In the current team, Zhang Yang was Level 22, Fatty Hand and Hundred Shots were Level 21, and Little Snow and Drizzler were Level 20! Since Zhang Yang decided to be out of the ranking board, Fatty Hand and the rest claimed the first, second, third and fourth rank in the Level Ranking Board. The original leveling king, Floating Fire Ball, has been pushed down to the fifth rank!
Zhang Yang used <Horizontal Sweep> to kill his way out of the monster swarm and used <Charge> to rush towards the Broodmother’s front to swing his sword and deal a huge amount of damage on it. The boss was unable to move nor retaliate as it was busy spawning its minions. With Zhang Yang’s impressive firepower, the boss’ HP dropped from 10% to 3% before Little Snow and the others reached his side. The boss was then defeated with only a few hits.
‘Ding! You and the party members around have killed Broodmother. Obtaining 6,050 Experience Points (50 points party bonus)!’
“Come on, reward! Reward!” Drizzler cried as she went ahead to loot the money dropped from the boss.
‘Ding! You have obtained 5 silver after distribution!’
“Tch! Stingy ass!” Drizzler scorned as she counted her money.
[Spider’s Long Spear] (Green-Copper, Two-Handed Spear)
Weapon attack: 172 – 192
Attack interval: 3.5 seconds
DPS: 52
Level requirement: 20
“Little brat, this one belongs to you!” Zhang Yang giggled towards Drizzler. She curled her lips as she spotted the spear in the shape of the Broodmother’s leg. “Yuck! Gross!”
“Holy crap, it’s really ugly!” Little Snow nodded in agreement.
Most common male players would inspect the equipment specifications, but female players paid more attention to the appearance.
“Just take it!” Zhang Yang gave up his roll and opened the corpse for the second equipment.
[Broodmother’s Leather Chest Plate] (Green-Copper, Leather Armor)
Defense: +4
Vitality: +23
Strength: +5
Dexterity: +12
Level requirement: 20
“Fatty, Hundred Shots, take the roll!” Zhang Yang spoke in the party channel as he gave up his roll for the equipment.
“Hundred Shots, you take it! My current equipment is much better than yours!” Fatty Han was smart enough to let him claim the equipment as he knew that Zhang Yang wanted to get Hundred Shots to join his side.
“Haha! Don’t mind if I do!” Hundred Shots cleared Hardcore Mode only once, so his current equipment was all over the place, being much inferior to Fatty Han’s. He really needed a change of equipment to prevent himself from becoming the team’s weakest link.
The boss was quite the scrooge, dropping only two equipment and a few random Etc. items that could be sold.
“Guys, tonight, we’ll take down the Bangar Crypt Hardcore Mode and tomorrow we’ll raid the Marzerway’s Lair and claim two of the five-man dungeon first clear achievement. Is everyone okay with that?” Zhang Yang inquired the team, to which they responded, “Agreed!”
“Alright, let’s take a break!” and Zhang Yang tore a [Teleportation Scroll].
“Ugh, I’m starving!”
Hundred Shots sent a private message to Zhang Yang to properly express his gratitude, “Thanks, Zhan Yu! Someday I’ll surely return the favor!” He was just a regular player that enjoyed a casual gameplay to release stress. He never thought that he could actually be enlisted in the Level Ranking Board. After all, it is a game, and you can never run far from competition, otherwise there would not have been so many different achievement boards! Who would not want to get first place? Imagine putting on a Celestial-tier equipment and claiming every single dungeon first clear achievement and be famous for it.
Zhang Yang and Hundred Shots were complete strangers, but after sharing a moment of friendship in the Bangar Crypt dungeon, the trip down to the Hardcore Mode, and now getting himself listed in the ranking board, there were no words to express his level of appreciation.
This player is now in my grasp! Zhang Yang laughed to himself. To think that someday you could be the Dragon Hunter; it would be the greatest help you could offer. Even if it was just a speculation, if you just believed in the team to fight in the professional league, you would not be disappointed nor regret it!
Back in the city, Zhang Yang received mail that contained 50 stacks of [Iron Plate] from Mining Specialist. After paying the fees, Zhang Yang went to the bank to withdraw the remaining 10 piece of [Plain Copper Ore] and began smithing 10 shields at the Smithing Shop.
After putting up a shield for sale with the same setting and price, he began to hoard all the [Brassica Weed] and [Gingko Flower] once again from the auction house. Because of the same actions performed yesterday, the price of the two ingredients raised from 20 silver a stack to 25. There were some that were placed at 40 silver a stack. Zhang Yang did not care much about it and bought all with a reasonable price.
For this round, he collected over 300 stacks of herbs and only paid 100 gold pieces for it! “Materials sure are cheap now. Until Marzerway’s Lair gets popular…” Zhang Yang shook his head. He then went to the Alchemist Shop and bought empty potion bottles and made some potions.
He managed to use all the material to craft the potions at 6:30pm. Zhang Yang then logged out in a hurry, bought his meal and scarfed it down like a glutton.