Infinite Realm

"So close. Just a few more kill and I will be level 8." Lu Zhen smiled.

"How come? I know we have been killing Rock Golems for awhile but the Experience points still got shared between us. Even though each time you landed the last blow on a monster and got a higher amount of Experience points than we would if we do the same, you still should be some distance away from level 8."

As a level 7, the amount of Experience points Lu Zhen received would naturally be higher than Sato and Fudo but in the case of party, the distribution is quite complex. Usually, experience points are shared between the members of the party and the Experience points would be based on the highest level of the player present.

For example, imagine a party that has two level 7s and one level 6 players. Let's also presume that they encountered a level 5 monster. Individually, the level 6 player would receive more experience points, if he takes on the monster than any of the level 7 players would if they do the same. Keep in mind that this is on the condition that they battle the monster alone. Let's say the level 6 player gains 100 exp while the level 7 player gains 70 exp from the same monster.

Now, when these players face the level 5 monster in a group, the amount of experience points they would share would be based on the amount of experience points the highest levelled player would gain + 20%. In other words, they will have to share 79 exp(70 + 20%) among themselves based on performance. In the case where the monster they battle is more than 2 levels lower than the highest levelled player but only 2 levels lower than the lowest levelled players( in this example, that would be level 4), they would not get any experience or rather, would only receive 5% of the original experience points the lowest levelled player would gain from the monster.[1]

Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had been grinding level 5 and level 6 Rock Golems for hours now. The amount of experience points they gained was calculated as what a level 8 playe would gain from a level 6 Rock Golem+20% of that. As for the level 5 Golems, Sato and Fudo left those to Lu Zhen to handle alone and before he did so each time, they removed him from the party so as to increase the amount of experience points he would gain.

Despite so, the amount of experience points Lu Zhen had gained was still small after all, he didn't battle monsters of equal level as he was. It was even worse for Fudo and Sato as the experience points they gained was very little. So it was surprising for Lu Zhen yo say that he was close to reaching level 8.

"Hehe. I didn't really mean I'm close but if we keep killing level 8 monsters like this guy, I would be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel." Lu Zhen smirked.

"...Ha. I wonder when I will level up eventually."  Fudo sighed bitterly. Apart from a few certain locations, one couldn't easily find level 8 or above monsters so easily.

"Since we found one here, then it's better than nothing. There might be a few more if we explore further." Sato said as checked the loot.

"True but coming here is quite stressful. At least 1 hour from Town to Black Grill's Cave and 5 hours from the entrance to this floor. What kind of evil producers made this stuff anyways." Fudo complained.

"...hey Fudo. Is your luck glow still on?" Sato asked with a weird expression.

"My luck glow? What do you mean?"

"Are you with a duck that's carrying a leek then?" [2]

Fudo yelled exasperatedly "No. Why the hell would I be with one and tell me what happened?!"

"The very second you complained...just take a look at it yourself." Sato sent the data on the Kobold's loot to everyone. On the system interface was a weird rhombus shaped rock with runic symbols all over it.

[[ System notification :

You got x1 [Teleportation Rune]

Teleportation Rune : Durability 10

Record a location in Black Grill's Cave and instantaneously teleport to the recorded destination upon activation in Black Grill's Cave.

]]

"A teleportation rune? That's a first but it really helps."

5 hours. This was the amount of time Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had spent reaching this far. To make things worse, they had spent 4/5 of that time at the Outer region despite avoiding a majority of the monsters present. With this one could imagine how huge the distance is from one point to another. When majority of players finally reach as far as they did, these players might consider dropping Black Grill's Cave from their destination. It should be remembered that it takes at least 1-2 hours by feet from Riverdale to Black Grill's Cave. Adding that up, it would be 6~7 hours from Riverdale Town to the 4th floor on the Middle region and this is on the condition that the player is a level 8 or level 7 player avoiding a majority if the monsters in the Outer region. No one would like to spend 7 hours just to reach their destination. Eventually players would start avoiding Black Grill's Cave and head to Kiro mountains.

The discovery of [Teleportation runes] would solve the issue of distance and maintain the appeal the resource map had on players. However, the condition of killing a level 8 Wild Kobold was really something.

"This feels weird..."

"Huh? What does?" Lu Zhen glanced Sato.

"Didn't you notice it?" Sato then explained. "Black Grill's Cave is supposed to be just a huge cave but now we've discover that it has a teleportation formation built within as most types of Teleportation runes require a bigger formation. And this isn't the only strange thing. Earth Golems are nothing but puppets. In other to be here, someone or something must have made them and placed them here.

"First is the Earth Golems and now this teleportation rune and formation. I feel like there should be some secret hidden here."

"...now that you mention it, it sounds reasonable enough to be true." Fudo nodded seriously.

"Even if you're right, I doubt we can find that out." Lu Zhen suddenly said.

"Why?" Fudo asked.

"Simple. Where do you think the core of this whole facility would then be in?" Lu Zhen asked with a weird smile.

"There can only be one place and if it is, we can only forget about it for now." Sato smiled before shaking his head.

Fudo thought for a bit before replying with a gleam in his eyes, "The last floor?...*sigh* you're right, let's just forget about it."

Black Grill's Cave was segmented into 3 regions; the Outer region, the Middle region and the Inner region, with each region having at least 10 floors. The Outer region was exactly 10 floors and the Middle region was 22 floors. That's a total of 32 floors!

The last floor would be at the Inner region and this region hasn't even been fully explored by NPCs and no player has even stepped foot in here. Floor 4 of the Middle region's 22 floors already has level 6 Elites, with the group already encountering a level 8 Kobold. Supposing the last floor would be floor 10 of the Inner region, one could only imagine the strength of the monsters that would be there.

"But it shouldn't be like that though? Isn't Black Grill's Cave a level 5 resource map? Why the hell would there be something above level 10 here?" Fudo stated.

"Who knows. But one thing I'm sure of is that we can't reach the 15th floor of this region much less the last floor of the entire Cave." Sato replied.

"Let's be going. We only have one [Teleportation Rune] and there are 3 of us. We still need 2 more."

"Alright."

With that over, the trio walked deeper in search of the Exit point to the next floor.

. . . . .

Elsewhere at the 4th floor...

"Damn. If I knew this would happen, I would have left back then. Who am I kidding? I had already guessed this would happen. No use cursing. I might as well try to take some of you down on my own."

Xue Yan held her staff as she faced 2 reptilian creatures in front of her. They were level 7 Kobold,  both equipped with machetes in their hands and leather clothes.

"There was no information about Kobold's whatsoever. Did that Player who reached the 5th floor not encounter them?" Xue Yan bit her lips. She was barely able to keep these foes at bay but that was all she could do. Their defenses were high for her and their movements were swift. Xue Yan could barely react in time to dodge some of them while the harder ones she blocked with her staff. This lead to the durability of her staff dropping down and also it's efficiency doing the same.

In Infinite Realm, as your weapon or equipment is damaged and it's durability drops, the weapon/equipments abilities will also weaken till it is fixed.

As a mage, Xue Yan's [Agility] wasn't worth talking about when compared to an [Assassin] of the same level much less Kobolds that were one level ahead of her. So the option of retreat wasn't really an option.

"I can't and I won't go down without a fight. There has to be a way. I can't just lose my experience points like this. Father and everyone else depends on me.." Xue Yan bit her lips even tighter as a tiny of blood became visible on them.