NOVEL NEXT Ch. 44
Leveling Up
After parting ways with the others, Chen Zixuan plunged headlong into the vast, shadowy forest.
The place he was headed next was the "Mired Swamp" recommended by Dawn's Light, located just to the southwest of the main city, and not far from his current position.
These areas would consistently spawn monsters, commonly known as the wild zones.
In the game, villages, towns, and other safe zones didn't allow players to PK or kill each other at will; only in the wild could they attack each other and engage in such activities.
It was said that the monsters in the "Mired Swamp" were generally around level 3 to 5. On the second day after the game's launch, very few ordinary players could even reach this area, but given Chen Zixuan's current gear and level, it should be the most suitable spot for him to level up.
On his way, Chen Zixuan opened the [Pet] interface and summoned his newly tamed pet.
With a flash of black light, a palm-sized black bat instantly appeared in the girl's hand, curiously nuzzling about with its nose.
"Why is it so tiny?"
Chen Zixuan felt a bit disappointed; he had thought world-class bosses were all massive beasts several meters high.
Even if it didn't have much combat prowess, having it as a mount would have been nice...
Despite his complaints, Chen Zixuan still opened up its attribute panel.
Darkwing Demon Bat (Juvenile)
Level: 1 (Each level up: +30 HP, +3 to all attributes, +10 Agility, body size increases by 1.5 times.)
Race: Darkborn / Beast
Max HP: 120
Attack: 15
Magic: 0
Physical Defense: 5
Magic Defense: 5
Agility: 80
Pet Equipment: None
Unlocked Skills: Scout
Mountable: No
...
Although it had gone from a monster with a wingspan of over ten meters to a palm-sized wimp, the Darkwing Demon Bat's growth attributes were still decent—far higher than those of ordinary players.
Perhaps this was the difference between world-class bosses and regular folks.
If it belonged to a big guild or team, they'd probably invest heavily in raising this pet.
Once it matured and its skills were fully utilized, its destructive power would be astonishing.
But for Chen Zixuan, pet gear itself didn't look cheap, and right now he neither had the energy nor financial resources to nurture it.
Leveling himself up took priority.
Still, being able to unlock the mount feature was quite tempting.
If he could have a flying mount in the future, wouldn't map running become a breeze?
After playing with the bat on his fingertips for a bit, Chen Zixuan returned the Darkwing Demon Bat to his backpack and pressed on towards his target location.
In the next ten or so minutes, he encountered two more waves of monsters—one wave of regular level 2 monsters, and another of level 8 elite monsters.
Using his current epic gear to kill ordinary monsters would have been a waste.
Chen Zixuan switched to the newbie short dagger in his backpack and swiftly wiped out the whole pack of forest wolves, picking up a pile of low-level materials as loot.
When he came across the elite monster, he switched back to the [Blood Moon Slayer's Dagger], and effortlessly hacked the thick-skinned Jungle Brown Bear into a dead heap of fur.
"System notification: You have obtained the blue rare equipment [Novice Paladin Greaves]!"
Another piece of gear for a different class...
Players who played Paladin probably weren't short on cash either, so he'd save it for sale in the future.
After putting away the equipment, Chen Zixuan continued on his way. A few minutes later, he finally walked out of the forest and found himself facing a gloomy basin.
Everywhere there were withered rotten trees, the ground riddled with marshes and puddles, and on several tracts of open ground not far off, a few Water ghouls were wandering about aimlessly.
"System notification: You have unlocked the new map [Mired Swamp]!"
As the system chimed, water ghoul information also floated into Chen Zixuan's view.
Water ghoul
Level: 4
Race: Undead
Attack: 25
Physical Defense: 5
Magic Defense: 8
Max HP: 120
...
The water ghouls looked much like zombies from films; all were humans drowned and turned undead, their bodies rotten and sodden, so much so that one glance would send shivers down the spine of the faint-hearted.
If it were a real little girl here, she'd probably be so frightened she'd start bawling at once—"ying ying ying".
Unfortunately, what the water ghouls encountered was Chen Zixuan, the fake loli.
Since this was a higher-level wild zone, there weren't many players around; Chen Zixuan simply took off his vision-obstructing cloak and revealed his full [Blood Moon Slayer] set. He stepped into the Mired Swamp and strode towards those water ghouls.
Ominous background music began to play. A water ghoul was the first to sense the scent of a living person.
It opened its mouth, torn all the way to the ears, as if it had discovered the world's greatest delicacy, and staggered toward the girl.
The soggy, sinking mud beneath his feet caused the silver-haired girl to frown slightly, and the overwhelming stench intensified Chen Zixuan's annoyance.
No wonder hardly any living player came here; as long as you were normal, who'd want to suffer in a place like this?
When the water ghoul was less than a meter away, the silver-haired girl drew her blade, spun, and struck—all in one fluid motion!
The water ghoul's head was instantly split in two, and the sticky, foul fluid splashed all over the silver-haired girl's hands.
"Dare to recommend me this place, Dawn's Light? Next time, don't let me catch you."
Chen Zixuan flicked the filth from his hands and cursed in his heart.
The next moment, the other water ghouls lunged at him. Simultaneously, more water ghouls began crawling constantly out from the swamp muck.
With Chen Zixuan's current equipment, even if he made a mistake and got hit by a water ghoul, his HP would hardly drop at all; his defense was just that outrageous.
However, faced with a constant stream of monsters, Chen Zixuan was forced to get truly serious.
These monsters are just too disgusting—if he accidentally got bitten, he probably wouldn't want to eat for an entire day...
Seven or eight minutes later, after Chen Zixuan had finally slaughtered all the nearby monsters, he crouched down, a bit exhausted, and found a random pond to wash the filth off his hands.
His stamina stat might be high, but even he couldn't endure such constant consumption, especially when being besieged by a group of water ghouls; he had to actively dodge and attack to get out of danger.
There was no way he could get properly clean here; after shaking his hands off a bit, Chen Zixuan opened his personal panel.
The higher one's level, the more experience was required to level up. When Chen Zixuan killed that world-class BOSS, he had jumped directly from level 2 to level 4; the second time he tamed a world-class BOSS, he'd only gained one level.
Just now, after killing 27 water ghouls, his experience bar had only grown by about 10%—and those were level 3 to 5 monsters.
Crunching the numbers, to reach level 6 from level 5, Chen Zixuan conservatively estimated, he'd have to kill nearly 300 more water ghouls.
At this thought, the girl's little face instantly became rather unsightly.
Leveling to 15 in one week didn't seem nearly as simple as she'd imagined.