Chapter 95: A Reluctant Goal of Advancement

After midnight, the final eight votes are all that remain between me and the goal of three thousand recommendations. Let little Black satisfy his longing for a single day’s worth of three-thousand support. Please, cast your vote.

Falcon knew nothing of the Black Cloud Marsh, not even the slightest thing about the Black Demon Lizard. Fortunately, a few members of the White Day group had once trained in the marsh, and one of them told me that the Black Demon Lizard was a tier-two magical beast capable of using earth magic.

Not only did it have a sturdy body and natural protection, but it could also cast Stone Skin upon itself, greatly strengthening its defense. Even an early-tier-three warrior would find it extremely difficult to kill one, and if one’s magic defense was insufficient, one might even be injured by its elusive Earth Spikes.

A beast that excelled at both close and long-range combat while boasting such formidable defense was the sort of monster tier-two parties feared most. Because of the Black Demon Lizard’s presence, few were willing to go to the Black Cloud Marsh for fixed-point leveling.

But its defense and offense mattered little to me. The Archer Warrior’s specialty was to avoid brute force and strike where the enemy was weakest, winning by speed.

Yet once speed came up, the final crucial piece of information from a White Day friend made me abandon the Black Demon Lizard entirely.

Although the Black Demon Lizard itself was not especially fast, the swamp drastically reduced a player’s mobility.

In that situation, I decisively gave up on the idea.

As for the swamp’s ruler, setting aside whether I could even kill it, the mere fact that the people of the Supreme Mercenary Corps were guarding it made it impossible for me to set my sights on it.

Personally, I did not think that brat from Wolf Pack would swallow the loss in the Blackwind Forest so easily.

That left only one final opponent.

The level-ten boss: the Magic Kodo Beast.

Though I was utterly unwilling to face the Magic Kodo Beast head-on beneath the encirclement of ordinary Kodo Beasts, I had no choice but to make that decision.

Besides, the Magic Kodo Beast respawned once every three days. We had killed one yesterday, so the earliest it could appear again was forty-eight hours later. That gave me forty-eight hours to raise my skill levels.

Right then it struck me: if I was only improving skill proficiency, then experience really did not matter at all.

And since I had already reached the bottleneck for advancement, no matter how many monsters I killed, I would gain no experience anyway... Better to go to Kodo Valley and improve my skills there!

With that thought, I immediately thanked the White Day group, bought a full backpack of arrows, picked up two Magic Candles from the general store, and hurried into the night outside Frost City.

...

In the pitch-black wilderness, where there was no light at all, I could barely make out anything within twenty meters of myself, and that was only thanks to the archer’s Eagle Eye. Other classes would be lucky to see even beyond five meters.

I did not light the Magic Candles to save money.

First, the light they gave off might attract unknown high-level beasts and bosses in the wild. Second, I had never tried fighting while holding a Magic Candle.

And in my current state, as long as I did not run into tier-two beasts with long-range attacks, whether I had a Magic Candle or not made no real difference.

Besides...

Fighting while holding a Magic Candle made it easy for the flame to go out. If it were wasted, the loss would hardly be worth it. After all, that thing cost a whole gold coin.

...

After dispatching dozens of small, weak beasts along the way, I finally arrived at Kodo Valley. Yet tonight, the valley seemed unusually lively.

From afar, I could see dozens of Magic Candle lights, nearly packed together in a long line outside the valley, and inside as well, some twenty or so bright flames flickered intermittently.

I stood there in stunned silence for a long moment before I remembered: this was likely the work of the Gale Wolf King and its pack.

During the day, quite a few tier-one newcomers died under the claws and fangs of the wolf pack. Now that night had fallen, nearly all the wolves in Blackwind Forest had gathered around the Gale Wolf King, and none dared venture there rashly.

But these newcomers did not intend to waste an entire night of leveling. So they had settled for Kodo Valley instead. Novices below level fourteen could still gain some experience by entering the valley and training on Silver Kodo Beasts. It was not much, but it was better than nothing.

Fortunately, I was here to train skills. Whether it was the level-one small Kodo Beasts or the level-seven Silver Kodo Beasts, they were all the same to me—so long as there were enough of them, and they posed no threat to me, they would not affect my skill proficiency growth.

However...

What I had not expected was this.

On my second visit here, I happened to run into the fox-girl Little Love, whom I had trained with yesterday. Even more unexpected was the fact that Little Love’s two bodyguards, Big Bear and Poet, were both absent for the rare occasion...

Dressed in a vivid red magic robe, Little Love looked even more radiant and alluring. Within that blend of coyness and youthful innocence, there was now also a touch of serene grace. Like a lotus fairy untouched by the dust of the world, she made the newcomers nearby hesitate to approach, afraid of profaning such a heavenly beauty.

My arrival immediately drew the attention of many newcomers as well—who could blame them? My silver armor was so completely out of place in Kodo Valley.

Almost instinctively, those newcomers quickly linked the heavenly Little Love with me, who had suddenly appeared in Kodo Valley, and assumed we had come here together.

Especially when we both turned to look at each other at the same time and exchanged faint smiles of surprise and friendliness, they became even more certain of their guess.

What a shame. A fine cabbage had been nudged by a pig.

Some of the newcomers who were still hesitating over whether to strike up a conversation cursed inwardly with all their might.

...

Seeing me arrive, Little Love also seemed somewhat surprised and excited, and took the initiative to come over.

“Are you here alone to level?” she asked before I could even speak. This seemed to be the first time I had spoken to her face-to-face. Yet the reason I spoke first was because this was the first time I had felt the thrill of prying into someone else’s private details: Little Love, level 13 fire mage.

Little Love clearly did not know that within twenty-four hours of their breakup, the Scrap Phoenix had already opened up a full six-level gap between herself and the same-tier player she had once been matched against, her information laid bare before his eyes.

“How would I dare come out here alone? I’m waiting for a few friends from my group... they should be here soon.”

Her answer made everything clear to me. That made sense: for a tier-one mage to be alone at night, anywhere at all, was nothing short of courting abuse.

“I see. Then you all train. I’ll just stay outside.”

“Huh?” Little Love blinked, and very quickly, as though she had guessed something, her little mouth slowly fell open. “You... you’re already level nineteen?”

I smiled faintly and gave a small shrug, tacitly confirming her uncertain guess.