Chapter 1 Leveling Up

At level 21, with a level cap of 5, Lord Grim could get the most experience fighting monsters at level 26. But it wasn't that much more. Each level higher granted an additional two percent experience, five levels giving an extra ten percent. However, the difficulty increase for those five levels wasn't just a simple ten percent. If players leveled up solo, not only would the risk be greater, but the experience gained per unit of time wouldn't show that ten percent advantage at all, and might even be less.

But the situation was special right now. Ye Xiu wasn't fighting monsters above his level to chase that extra bit of experience. He was doing it to find a quiet place to level up, away from the crowds. After packing up his gear, Ye Xiu took Lord Grim to the 23-26 level area: Burial Grounds.

Burial Grounds wasn't just the name of a leveling area, but also the name of a dungeon. It was the same as Frost Forest. The outside of Frost Forest was a leveling area for levels 20-23 with a large number of wild monsters. Walking deeper into the forest, you could enter the Frost Forest dungeon without interference. Burial Grounds had the Burial Grounds dungeon for levels 23-27.

Players at the front of the level rankings, like Blue River of Blue Brook Guild, had already conquered the Burial Grounds dungeon. The first clear team on the leaderboards for Burial Grounds was a team from Tyrannical Ambition. Ye Xiu saw that guy called Ye Weiyang. As for the other three teammates from yesterday, they weren't on the list. It seemed that those three weren't Tyrannical Ambition's top-tier characters. The record for Burial Grounds had already been broken four times, and the latest result was temporarily held by Herb Garden.

As for the three hidden bosses of Burial Grounds, Blue Brook Guild had shown their prowess, snatching two of them. The dungeon records seemed to always revolve around these three major guilds.

Ye Xiu didn't bother with so much. Lord Grim quickly arrived at Burial Grounds and, as expected, there were fewer players here. Ye Xiu's level 21 was the mainstream level for players right now. Most were obediently fighting monsters in Frost Forest, competing with others. There, they might already encounter level 22 or 23 monsters suppressing them. They couldn't handle Burial Grounds at all.

Ye Xiu chose a good monster-grinding spot, and Lord Grim shook the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, turning it into its spear form and charging over. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had eight Dark Night Cat Claws equipped, which was like giving the spear a new spearhead. Adding in the replacement of the connecting shaft, the spear form's level was raised to level 15. Other than that, the other prototypes and weapon forms of other types were still at level 5. Their output effects were obviously incomparable to the spear form.

The monsters in Burial Grounds, like those in Skeleton Graveyard, were dark-attribute undead creatures. Zombies, skeletons, skeleton archers, skeleton mages, etc., ranged from level 23-26. Their main characteristics were high attack and high defense, but slow movement.

With Ye Xiu's skill, NPCs were never a threat. He controlled Lord Grim to charge forward and began wandering around the selected area, killing monsters.

Ye Xiu killed them casually, not excessively pursuing critical hits, combos, aerial juggles, backstabs, or other special attack effects. To fully execute these technical things, he'd need to increase his concentration, explode his hand speed, and strengthen his micro-control. These were all mentally and physically taxing. He was just leveling up, and Ye Xiu wasn't thinking of treating this like the Pro League finals.

Taking breaks between fights, Lord Grim's monster-killing speed wasn't necessarily fast, but it was very stable. Compared to offense, Ye Xiu paid more attention to careful dodging, which allowed him to never have to run off to rest and recover because of low health. He only went to the side to recover after his mana was completely exhausted.

Restorative items in Glory included food and potions. Food had no cooldown, but needed to be used outside of combat. It recovered a large amount and was fast. Potions weren't as good as food, but could be used in combat. They could be a lifesaver at crucial moments, but the better the effect of the potion, the longer the cooldown. Furthermore, potions of the same type shared a cooldown. It was basically impossible to drink several different tiers of health potions at once.

Food and potions were sold at NPCs, but they were only the lowest level and were expensive. Other than obtaining them by fighting monsters, the chef life profession could make food, and the alchemist life profession could make potions. Each player could learn two life professions, but could only choose one to Awaken. That's right, life professions also had Awakening quests. Also at level 50, only after completing the Awakening could life professions continue to improve.

Right now, it had only been two days since the new server opened. Other than those intentionally nurtured by the major guilds, no one had started learning life skills. The chef and alchemists of each guild couldn't even supply their own guild members, and couldn't sell on the market for the time being. Players could only swallow their anger and be ruthlessly extorted by the system. The money earned from grinding monsters, dungeons, and quests was basically spent on medicine fees in the early stages.

Ye Xiu was no exception. These early investments were essential. But with his excellent skills, he saved a lot on health-related food and potions. His main consumption was still mana, which was already quite frugal compared to ordinary players.

After grinding monsters for about an hour, Lord Grim came out of combat again to drink a beverage to restore mana. Ye Xiu also lit a cigarette to rest for a while, and saw a message notification. He opened it and saw a system message: Soft Mist has accepted your friend request.

After an hour, Tang Rou finally discovered Ye Xiu's friend request. A message had already been sent: "Sorry, just saw it."

Tang Rou and Chen Guo really were different.

She wasn't like Chen Guo, who would actively try to get familiar with others. She wasn't too enthusiastic, but she wouldn't make you feel cold either. When you spoke, you felt that she was listening attentively. When she spoke, you felt that she was talking to you. If Chen Guo's way of interacting with people was a wild, Jianghu style, then Tang Rou's was academic: reserved, measured, and polite.

Other than showing some loss of composure with her ten consecutive "One More Time" challenges after losing to Ye Xiu, she was impeccable at all other times.

Ye Xiu believed that this girl definitely had a background. This kind of upbringing and temperament reflected a good educational background. Besides that, there was her hand speed.

When Ye Xiu asked her how she had trained her hand speed, she hesitated. This convinced Ye Xiu that her hand speed wasn't some kind of talent, but the result of practice. This could also be seen from her hands. Like Ye Xiu, she also took meticulous care of her hands.

Ye Xiu could be sure that these weren't hands that had been trained by playing games. Game players' left and right hands weren't completely the same, because game players usually used their left hand for the keyboard and their right hand for the mouse. These were two completely different methods of operation. But Tang Rou's left and right hands were unusually balanced and stable, which instead made her left and right hand speeds uncoordinated when playing games.

If he judged correctly, Ye Xiu believed that these were nimble hands trained from playing the piano.

"It's okay, just message me if you have any questions." Ye Xiu saw that Tang Rou was unusual, but wasn't very interested in pursuing her background story. To be honest, he himself still needed to clearly define his direction!

After closing the chat window with Tang Rou, Ye Xiu controlled Lord Grim, ready to continue killing monsters. Suddenly, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps. Someone flew past Lord Grim, flicking a long staff and leaving the monster that Lord Grim was about to attack hanging in the air.