At 6:00 the next morning, Ye Luo got up according to his daily routine. He trained without fail for half an hour, then washed up and ate breakfast. Seeing that there were still ten minutes until 7:00, he entered the game together with Zhi Yue.
His figure flickered faintly as Ye Luo appeared in the Novice Village. After just one night, the village had become much more complete. Its population had grown considerably, and all kinds of buildings had been erected, giving it a rather prosperous appearance.
Seeing that Yan Hua Yi Leng's icon was still dark in his friends list, Ye Luo headed toward Tailor Zhang's shop. The cloak he had ordered according to their agreement was ready, and he was going to pick it up.
As he hurried along, he checked the various rankings. When he saw the level rankings, he was stunned:
1. Long Teng Tian Xia, Level 16 Blazing Swordsman
2. Yi Nian Cheng Mo, Level 15 Berserker
3. Dongfang Mingzhu, Level 15 Mage
4. Nangong Yunlong, Level 15 Mage
5. Ru Ying Sui Xing, Level 15 Assassin
6. Hongxing Erguotou, Level 15 Swordsman
7. Jian Nan Chun, Level 15 Mage
8. Ban Ye Tan Qing Lou, Level 15 Mage
9. Zhan Tian Xia, Level 15 Berserker
10. Yi Bei Wuliangye, Level 15 Archer
Before Ye Luo had gone to sleep, the highest level on the rankings had only been Level 13. Yet after merely a few hours, someone had reached Level 16, while everyone from second to tenth place was uniformly Level 15. How could he not be shocked?
"There are really a lot of leveling maniacs." Ye Luo smiled bitterly, then studied the rankings. "Long Teng Tian Xia has a Hidden Profession. His stat growth and skills are absurd, so reaching Level 16 is understandable. But how did everyone else level up so quickly?"
"Mages make up nearly half of them. It seems mages have a huge advantage during the early stages of the game." Ye Luo muttered. After thinking about it for a moment, he understood. "Mages have Area of Effect Skills. Those are monster-killing weapons in the early game, so it's no surprise so many of them occupy the level rankings."
After checking the level rankings, Ye Luo looked at the equipment rankings.
There were many categories on the equipment rankings, such as weapon rankings, armor rankings, accessory rankings, lifestyle item rankings, and special item rankings.
It was no surprise that Long Teng Tian Xia's Blazing Sword occupied first place on the weapon rankings. What delighted Ye Luo was that Yan Hua Yi Leng's Bronze Wolf Fang Bow had also made the list, ranking fifth. On the accessory rankings, his Wolf King Ring ranked second. Yan Hua Yi Leng's Flying Snow Robe ranked first on the armor rankings, while the Purple Gold Medicine Cauldron unsurprisingly ranked first on the lifestyle item rankings—and it was the only one of its kind.
In addition, the Tier 2 Jade Poison Bead occupied first place on the special equipment rankings, and both the first and second entries were listed as belonging to Ye Luo Zhi Qiu. Aside from the Jade Poison Bead, there were other special pieces of equipment, but their attributes could not be viewed. Ye Luo was quite satisfied with that, since he did not want the Jade Poison Bead's attributes exposed.
Having several pieces of equipment on the rankings between himself and Yan Hua Yi Leng gave Ye Luo even more confidence in taking the first clear of the difficult instance.
Afterward, he checked the reputation rankings. Because he had killed the Toad King, become the first player to complete a lifestyle class advancement, and claimed the first kill of the Demonized Wolf King, he had 210 reputation points and ranked fifth. The top four players were only slightly ahead of him.
As he looked through all this, Ye Luo arrived at the tailor shop. After paying the service fee, he obtained the cloak he had long dreamed of:
King's Cloak (Cloak—Bronze) Physical Defense: 40–40 Magic Defense: 40–40 Strength: +10 Additional Effect: Increases the wearer's evasion chance by 10% Equipment Durability: 150/150 Required Level: 10
Unlike equipment such as breastplates, helmets, bracers, leg guards, and shoes, cloaks were not divided into heavy armor, leather armor, or cloth armor. The same applied to accessory-type equipment such as rings, talismans, and necklaces, so they could all be used universally.
Although the King's Cloak was one tier below the Flying Snow Robe, it was still much stronger than ordinary equipment. Ye Luo hurriedly equipped it. His attack rose slightly to 247–256, his Physical Defense became 142–143, and his Magic Defense increased to 85. It could be said that he now possessed both strong offense and defense.
After casually accepting several quests, Ye Luo headed toward the meeting place he had agreed upon with Yan Hua Yi Leng. As he passed a tavern, he bought four roast chickens. Each one restored 10 health per second and 5 mana per second, making them much more effective than bread. However, they were also expensive. Each chicken cost him 50 silver coins, practically an astronomical price.
However, Ye Luo knew that if they could truly secure the first clear of the instance, everything they spent would be worth it.
At 7:00, Yan Hua Yi Leng logged in on time. When they met, she immediately noticed Ye Luo's changes, and her tone shifted slightly. "Your custom cloak is ready. The ring on your right hand and your shoes seem to have changed as well."
Knowing that Yan Hua Yi Leng had an exceptional memory, and having no intention of hiding anything from her, Ye Luo sent her illustrated descriptions of the cloak, shoes, and ring.
After just one look, Yan Hua Yi Leng had memorized the equipment attributes. "Your attack is much stronger than mine now, and your defense is quite good as well. It seems we have a better chance of pushing through aggressively."
Ye Luo nodded and traded some roast chicken, Strength Pills, Major Blood Recovery Pills, and the Tier 2 Jade Poison Bead to Yan Hua Yi Leng. This surprised her slightly once more, especially when she saw the mutated Strength Pill.
"Yan Hua, your cloak should be finished around 10:00, so there's still plenty of time," Ye Luo said, his anticipation faintly evident. "A cloak made from Toad King Skin already has attributes like these. A cloak made from Wolf King Skin should be even better, right?"
"Perhaps." Yan Hua Yi Leng replied blandly. Then, remembering what she had discussed with Sister Feng and the others the previous night, she looked at Ye Luo. "Ye Luo, Sister Feng and the others have agreed to recruit you into Misty Pavilion, together with Fei Tian Yue. Are you willing to join us?"
"They agreed? That's a good thing. Then I won't need to worry about Yue Er anymore, and I can tell she's very happy being with Sister Feng and the others." Ye Luo chuckled, then seemed to think of something. He shook his head and said half-jokingly, half-seriously, "Let me think about it a little longer. At the very least, I need to wait until I complete the Heavenly Tribulation Trial Mission. I still don't know what punishment there'll be if I fail. It would be bad if this account became useless. Misty Pavilion wouldn't recruit a useless player, would it?"
Yan Hua Yi Leng's smooth brows furrowed slightly, and she gently shook her head. "You won't become useless. Your title as the number one alchemist alone would be of great help to Misty Pavilion and make you worth recruiting."
It had to be said that Yan Hua Yi Leng was not someone who knew how to comfort others. Hearing her words, Ye Luo could only smile bitterly. Still, he knew her personality, and it was already rare for her to say so much. He nodded. "Same as before, let me think about it some more."
Though she was faintly disappointed, Yan Hua Yi Leng did not dwell on the matter. She looked at Ye Luo. "Let's go hunt wild bulls. They're north of the Novice Village, north of the Demonized Scorpions. They're Level 18 monsters. We should be able to defeat them together, and it'll let us get used to the intensity of brute-force monster hunting."
"Yan Hua, those are Level 18 monsters." Ye Luo frowned slightly. Seeing Yan Hua Yi Leng's faint confusion, he hurriedly explained, "It's not that I'm worried we can't handle them. I'm worried that we'll level up. They're six levels higher than us, so they give a lot of experience..."
Through Yan Hua Yi Leng's introduction, Ye Luo had learned that instance monsters would have their attributes increased based on the average level of the players entering the instance. The higher the players' levels, the harder it would be to complete the Instance Mission. The best approach was to increase their strength without increasing their levels.
Quickly understanding Ye Luo's concern, Yan Hua Yi Leng said, "Don't worry. We can set our character panels to lock the experience bar. That way, we won't gain experience."
"You can lock the experience bar?" Ye Luo was startled and hurriedly checked. Sure enough, as Yan Hua Yi Leng had said, he found the option to lock his experience bar. He found it rather amusing. "That's interesting. If my level is higher than yours in the future, I can lock my experience bar so that all the experience goes to you..."
"I'm afraid that won't work." Yan Hua Yi Leng interrupted him. Seeing his confusion, she explained, "Unlike before players advance, when they cannot absorb energy experience, once the experience bar is locked, the energy experience they absorb cannot enter the Soul Crystal and is simply wasted. Otherwise, a group of people could lock their experience bars and help one person farm monsters, quickly creating an expert. The game wouldn't allow that."
"Uh, that's true." Ye Luo nodded, then carefully examined his character panel. "So there are limits on team experience distribution too. One person has to receive at least one-third, just like us now."
Yan Hua Yi Leng nodded and urged, "Let's go. We need to get used to high-intensity monster hunting."
Without further nonsense, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng set off. Along the way, they casually dealt with monsters blocking their path while gathering herbs. Before long, they found the wild bulls and saw their attributes:
Demonized Wild Bull (Normal Monster) Level: 18 Physical Attack: 72–75 Defense: 140 Health: 4000 Description: An ordinary monster of the Novice Village. Its temperament is fairly gentle, but once enraged, it becomes quite violent and attacks in groups.
Level 18 monsters had rather formidable attributes. Even with Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng's defenses, they could only withstand eight or nine attacks before being overwhelmed. However, compared to their defenses, their damage output was even more formidable. Ordinary attacks alone could deal nearly 400 damage, not to mention that they could use skills.
In other words, working together, they could kill a Demonized Wild Bull in just a few seconds. In that time, the bulls could only attack four times. Combined with their evasive techniques and medicinal supplies, there was practically no pressure at all.
"Ye Luo, your Slash and Combo have reached the advanced level, right?" Although she was asking, Yan Hua Yi Leng's tone was quite certain. She muttered to herself, "Advanced Slash deals 150% damage, while Advanced Combo attacks three times, dealing 70%, 60%, and 50% damage respectively. Its attack power is very strong. One full combo from you can almost take 1,500 health from a monster. With my attacks added in, we can nearly finish one within five seconds, while we'll only be attacked twice in total. That doesn't even count evasion, so the pressure won't be too great."
"How about this? We'll only use ordinary Strength Pills, ordinary Major Blood Recovery Pills, and bread. Let's attack." Yan Hua Yi Leng said as she was the first to draw her long bow and attack.
Before you continue