Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge

Each Death Sand Crab gave Ryan a modest 140 experience points. That was far less than the bulkier level 24 monsters, but these crabs were also slower, weaker, and easier to kill.

On average, he could wipe out a cluster of them every fifteen seconds, netting about 1,800 experience. That meant over 7,200 experience per minute, an absurdly fast pace for grinding.

To jump from level 21 to 22, he needed only 250,000 experience. At this rate, it would take just over half an hour—barely thirty-four minutes of steady killing—to hit his goal. It was light-years faster than slogging through dungeons or running tedious quests.

He already had a good chunk of experience saved up, so it took barely twenty minutes before the golden flash of level 22 lit his screen. The Bloodfang Stone Forest, where the Guardian's epic battle still sat frozen in time, remained untouched.

Shaking off the level suppression that had been slowing him down, Ryan opened his talent window—then groaned.

He hadn't spent the points from level 21.

"No wonder something felt off," he muttered. One of the core skills in his Protection build, a vital part of his defensive setup, had been sitting there unused. The mistake made sense; in his previous life, his main character had been a Paladin, but one built for Retribution, not Protection. Back then he'd focused on raw damage, not survival.

This time, after hitting level 20, he'd unlocked Resilience Armor through the deeper talent tree… but had completely forgotten about Hammer of Justice, one of Protection's cornerstone abilities.

Feeling a little stupid, he quickly put a point into Hammer of Justice, then dropped his new level 22 point into Foresight, a fresh third-tier option.

—

Hammer of Justice: Instantly strike nearby enemies with your one-handed weapon, dealing 30% weapon damage plus additional Radiant damage that scales with your attack power. Applies your enchanted weapon's effects. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Striking three or more enemies grants one Divine Power.

Foresight: Increases your dodge chance by 1% (1/5).

—

With Hammer of Justice finally in his rotation and the level suppression gone, he could, with a bit of luck, wipe out an entire pack of monsters in under five seconds.

His leveling speed spiked even higher. He lost himself in the rhythm of monster hunting, his energy humming, until a sudden uproar in the guild chat pulled him back.

The messages were chaos: The factions are at war!

Several of the larger guilds had converged on the Guardian's location, hoping for a shot at the loot. Their first move had been to wipe out opposing factions, clear out lone wolves and small guilds, then settle the fight between themselves.

It looked clever at first. But as the battle dragged in more small guilds and unaffiliated players, the original attackers found themselves overwhelmed—hammered down by even bigger guilds that had arrived later.

Now the Guardian's location was a dead zone. No one dared to get within a hundred yards. Anyone who even came close was cut down instantly by roaming sentinels.

By the time the guild's shouting had fully broken his focus, more than two hours had vanished.

Bloodfang Stone Forest had turned into the Arid Plains' fiercest warzone.

The Flowing Light guild, following Ryan's earlier advice, stayed far from the chaos and quietly worked on quests in safer zones. Every so often, a Dark Horde player would try to gank them, only to find themselves quickly overwhelmed. The Flowing Light members weren't just good—they were far above the average player. Unless they were swarmed by sheer numbers, almost no one could stand against them.

While the war raged elsewhere, Ryan had done more than just fill his level 22 experience bar. By the time the dust began to settle, he'd banked over 900,000 surplus experience. If he wanted, he could cash it all in and jump straight to level 25, reclaiming the temporary crown of the world's top-ranked player.

He owed much of that speed to the Death Sand Crabs. Their small bodies meant he could pull them into tight packs, cutting through them like a harvester through ripe grain. In the open world, monsters couldn't pass through one another, so with larger creatures, he'd have been boxed in and slowed down. But the crabs clustered neatly, letting him clear them with brutal efficiency.

There was, however, a cap on surplus experience once your bar was full. In the game's first release, that limit was one million experience. Beyond that, killing monsters did nothing.

Ryan watched his surplus creep past 900,000 and decided to push for level 25. When the dust settled, he found himself just 70,000 short. Scowling, he launched into another flurry of kills, grinding the last bit he needed before finally seeing the level-up notification flash across his screen.

Level 25.

Then he looked at the experience needed for the next level—440,000 points—and his chest tightened.

The curve wasn't steep, but it was relentless. Leveling from 22 to 23 took 280,000 experience. From 23 to 24, 320,000. Just forty thousand more each time, but by the time players pushed from level 39 to 40, they'd be staring at a staggering 1,450,000 experience requirement.

After firing off another warning to his guild's hotheaded members to stay away from Bloodfang Stone Forest, Ryan glanced at the battlefield around him. Monster corpses were everywhere, strewn like driftwood after a storm. In the open world, slain creatures eventually faded into nothing, stacking invisibly like in dungeons. Without that mechanic, the sheer number he'd killed would have created a mountain of bodies.

The ground glittered with loot—a carpet of shells, gear, and scattered weapons. He knew there had to be a pile of Uncommon greens and even a decent collection of Rare blues mixed in. But the thought of spending time sifting through it all made him grimace. In the end, his laziness won. Without a backward glance, he walked away and started pulling more crabs.

Being the highest-level player right now wasn't enough. Sooner or later, someone from another region would overtake him while he was busy with other things. If that was going to happen, it wouldn't be today. He planned to stay here until he physically couldn't earn another drop of experience.

By his estimate, that meant staying until evening at the latest.

Not far away, Moonlight Beauty and her team were ready. The instant Ryan left, they'd swoop in with several small squads to power-level. After all, spots where monsters respawned instantly were treasures rarer than hen's teeth.