"Is that De Shen?"
"Can't you see that full set of seven-colored equipment, the god-tier aura all over him?"
"Are you blind? He hasn't even hidden his character name."
"Look at him, he's already at such a high level, yet he's still grinding in an experience dungeon. What are we even doing here every day?"
"What's the point of playing so hard? I come here every day just to chat and mess around."
"No wonder you're such a noob!"
"Who are you calling a noob? Your whole family are noobs!"
"You bastard, I'll kill you..."
As Chu Tian's back disappeared into the dungeon, he remained unaware that his appearance had ignited a battle, a free-for-all, right where he had been. The reason? Supporters of De Shen had gotten into a verbal spat with those who were jealous they couldn't achieve what he had. The argument escalated into personal attacks, eventually devolving into insults aimed at each other's families. This led to the two groups engaging in a fierce brawl, resulting in heavy casualties. If Chu Tian had known, he wouldn't have known whether to laugh or cry.
Entering the solo dungeon, Chu Tian immediately activated his Owl Beast form. The monsters that, in others' eyes, possessed immense health pools were mowed down wave after wave under his high burst damage. As mentioned before, the map layout here was fixed, with monsters surging from a bridge. On either side of the bridge lay a dark abyss. The bridge itself only allowed four monsters of normal size to pass side-by-side.
Chu Tian stood on one side of the bridge and cast a "Sunlight's Fury" at the opposite bridgehead. A beam of light struck the ground, and any monster passing through it was afflicted with a continuous damage-over-time debuff.
-6649!
-15764!
-6846!
-15647!
...
Countless damage numbers floated up like snowflakes. Normal damage was over six thousand, while critical hits exceeded fifteen thousand. This was just the damage from the continuous debuff. Each instance of damage was comparable to another player's major skill.
"Haha, this feels great... Starfall!!" Chu Tian unleashed what he had previously considered a "scratching" area-of-effect skill. The skill had a vast range, and all hostile creatures within that area were battered.
-53467!
-108733!
...
With a rustling sound, starlight poured down like a torrential rain, fiercely striking the ground. The skill's range and the number of falling stars were determined by the number of monsters. The more monsters there were, the more stars were generated. Chu Tian had always felt this skill's damage was like scratching, but at this moment, he no longer thought so. The monsters charging across the bridge were falling to their knees before they even reached the halfway mark. Their corpses turned into white light, and a large number of experience orbs flew towards Chu Tian in a flurry.
However, Chu Tian, who needed only 0.0X% more experience to level up, didn't even budge. Seeing this, Chu Tian pouted. "It's so hard to gain those last few experience points!" The first wave of monsters was cleared the moment they appeared. Chu Tian suspected that even after clearing all eighteen waves, he might not even gain 0.1%... He thought, "The road ahead is still long."
Ten minutes later.
Chu Tian appeared at the dungeon entrance with a dark expression. What others took one to two hours to complete, he finished in 10 minutes, and it was a first clear. In solo mode. The system directly rewarded him with a substantial amount of experience. However... he only leveled up by 0.2%. His experience was previously 99.47%, and now it was 99.67%. He still needed 0.4% more. And before he even claimed the first clear experience reward, completing the entire dungeon hadn't even contributed 0.1%.
"Looks like I need to challenge a higher difficulty!" Chu Tian's reappearance caused a stir among the crowd. A global announcement had just been made.
[Ding... Global Announcement: Dragon Country player, I Am Not A Druid, has first-cleared the Burial Ground, solo mode, normal difficulty, with a time of 10 minutes and 42 seconds!]
The announcement caused a global uproar. Clearing solo mode in 10 minutes and 42 seconds. Was this a joke? Solo mode wasn't something no one had tried. Currently, no one had cleared it; entering was just a waste of the daily dungeon entry count. Damage-dealing classes couldn't even withstand the first wave of monsters in solo mode. Tanks could hold on but couldn't kill them, eventually succumbing to attrition. Healers were even less fortunate.
Those who saw Chu Tian enter or had checked the rankings were incredibly envious. Was a full set of god-tier equipment that powerful? However, foreign players couldn't see the Dragon Country rankings. Thus, they naturally didn't know Chu Tian's level or equipment. So... they started clamoring again. This player, "I Am Not A Druid," had disappeared for nearly two years. Suddenly, he reappeared. Had he returned? The official website of the Heavenly Dao World became lively once more.
But Chu Tian had no time for their nonsense. He once again engaged in dialogue with the NPC upon entering the dungeon. This time, there was an additional option because he had cleared normal difficulty. Expert difficulty was now available. Without hesitation, he chose to enter. Twenty minutes later, he emerged again. Another system notification: I Am Not A Druid cleared the Burial Ground, solo mode, expert difficulty, in 20 minutes and 45 seconds. Chu Tian's experience had now become 0.03%. He had also received the damage reward. The timed data was also displayed. Of course, the first clear reward for this dungeon wasn't fixed. If someone later surpassed Chu Tian's clear time, they could also receive rewards. This dungeon was originally a time-based competition dungeon.
"Holy crap, 0.03%!!!!" Chu Tian was so angry his eyes nearly popped out. Just that tiny bit short, he'd have to clear it again. Since that was the case, he directly chose Grandmaster difficulty. An hour later, he finally passed.
[Ding... System Notification: Congratulations on reaching level 125!]
[Ding... Dragon Country War Zone Notification: Player: I Am Not A Druid has reached level 125, earning the title of Dragon Country's First Warrior and an invitation from the Old Lord of Dragon City.]
[Ding...]
A series of system notifications scrolled across the screen. Chu Tian looked at the quest that popped up. "Finally, I can!" Without a word, he set off. Returning to the city, he went to the teleportation array. He spoke with the teleportation NPC, presented the token given by the quest, and requested to be teleported to Dragon City.
When Chu Tian arrived, the NPC was very enthusiastic towards him. Asking Chu Tian to produce the token was merely a system requirement. Upon seeing the token, he politely asked Chu Tian to enter the array and even cleared out other players from the teleportation array. Under the eager gazes of the people, Chu Tian turned into white light and disappeared.
His vision reappeared, and Chu Tian gazed upon the once-familiar Dragon City. The architectural style throughout the city was magnificent and opulent, exuding a sense of grand splendor. Every building was adorned with flying dragons and phoenixes. However, there were no players within the city, making it appear desolate. The last time he was here was in the later stages of the game, and Dragon City had been bustling with activity. It had a larger population than any other war zone's main city. But this time, it was his domain.