Ye Luo had not expected Heavenly Alliance to make such a huge fuss, actually announcing to the entire online gaming world that they were putting a bounty on him. He was not afraid, but he was a little worried that leveling up would become more troublesome in the future. He was also quite grateful for the support from Misty Pavilion and Fine Wine Family, and planned to properly thank them when he had the chance.
As he traveled, he checked the online gaming world forums through the official website system. Sure enough, Heavenly Alliance's announcement to put a bounty on him had been pinned to the top. The declaration was impassioned, first claiming that Heavenly Alliance had turned over a new leaf after entering Heavenly Tribulation and was committed to maintaining the game's stable development, and then accusing Ye Luo of bullying the weak with his equipment and level, calling his actions outrageous.
Below the announcement, some sockpuppet accounts strongly supported Heavenly Alliance's bounty on Ye Luo, claiming it was to eliminate a scourge from the online gaming world and purify the gaming environment. Their words sounded downright righteous.
However, even more people accused Heavenly Alliance of being villains who struck first. Some went further and cursed them as despicable and shameless.
Among those comments, Ye Luo also saw people bearing the identities of Misty Pavilion and Fine Wine Family. Most of them defended him, saying that killing those Heavenly Alliance scum was what truly counted as eliminating a scourge from the online gaming world.
What followed was a war of words between the two sides, with curses flying everywhere as they argued to their hearts' content.
With a smile, Ye Luo closed the forum. He and Yan Hua Yi Leng had also reached the swamp and saw the Bamboo Viper's attributes:
Bamboo Viper (Normal Monster) Level: 20 Physical Attack: 90-100 Defense: 190 HP: 5000 Skill: Snake Venom Assault Description: A normal monster from the Novice Village. Extremely cunning by nature, it excels at poison attacks and is quite troublesome. Snake Venom Assault: The Bamboo Viper's attacks carry an additional 20 points of poison damage and increase its poison resistance by 30%.
Compared to monsters over level ten, level 20 monsters had received a considerable boost in attributes. Even ordinary monsters possessed poison attacks, which was rather troublesome for players.
However, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng did not care. After taking Detoxification Pills, they were not only unafraid of the miasma's assault, but were also completely immune to the Bamboo Viper's Snake Venom Assault.
After luring over one snake to test it, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng felt no pressure after becoming immune to its venom. They did not even care if they faced five or six at once. After all, under Yan Hua Yi Leng's Ice Spirit Power, these venomous snakes had been slowed and were already much slower than the two of them.
Since there was no danger in facing several Bamboo Vipers at once, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng intensified their monster hunting.
With a single Ice Spirit Volley of Arrows, energy arrows rained down from the sky. Damage numbers of over 400 floated above every Bamboo Viper caught within the attack. More importantly, under the assault of Ice Spirit Power, all those Bamboo Vipers became covered in frost, their speed greatly reduced.
He stepped forward two paces and unleashed a combination of Slash + normal attack + Double Strike. That Bamboo Viper immediately lost over 1,500 HP. Ye Luo no longer paid attention to it and instead used Soul Shocking Slash on another Bamboo Viper.
A massive sword phantom appeared, accompanied by the faint sound of a heaven-shaking sword cry that made one's heart tremble with fear. Its might was astonishing.
It truly was terrifying. At the very least, the Bamboo Viper that had been attacked was frozen in place, with a stunned status above its head.
"Tsk, this skill is pretty useful. It has plenty of presence and feels quite smooth to use." Ye Luo marveled. As he spoke, he had already swung the Novice Iron Sword at another Bamboo Viper.
Yan Hua Yi Leng was not idle either. Energy arrows whistled through the air one after another. The Bamboo Vipers struck by them were not only slowed, but were also afflicted by the Jade Poison Bead's effect, with damage numbers of more than 20 constantly appearing.
Although these Bamboo Vipers had 30% resistance, the Jade Poison Bead's venom damage was high. In particular, once several venomous snakes had been poisoned, the venom damage dealt per unit of time became immense, comparable to a small-scale area-of-effect skill.
Before long, that batch of venomous snakes turned into experience energy and was absorbed by Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng. Then another batch was lured over.
Killing monsters four levels above them, and doing so in groups, rapidly filled Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng's experience bars. It would not be long before they reached level 17, and they would likely successfully reach level 20 within the day.
"Yan Hua, why do I feel like these venomous snakes aren't being slowed very much?" Ye Luo suddenly noticed this and was greatly puzzled. "After reaching level 15, you gained three Skill Points. Adding the three from the first kill of the Wolf King, the first clear of the two-player difficult dungeon, and breaking the record, you have six Skill Points. That's enough to raise a skill to its maximum level."
Player skills were also divided into levels. From low to high, they were Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Grandmaster, and God-tier. Those were the only known levels for now; whether there were higher ones remained unknown. Raising a Beginner skill to the highest level required only five Skill Points, which meant Yan Hua Yi Leng could raise her only upgradeable passive skill, Ice Spirit Power, to God-tier.
From Ye Luo's observations so far, each level of Ice Spirit Power added 10 points of ice damage and increased the target's slow effect by 5%. God-tier Ice Spirit Power could slow targets by 30%, but these venomous snakes were clearly being slowed far less than that, which was why he was confused.
"Once the skill reaches Master-tier, it can no longer be upgraded. The system told me my rank is insufficient, and I must wait until level 120 after the Third Advancement before I can continue upgrading it." Yan Hua Yi Leng explained calmly.
"Uh, there are restrictions like that? That's really troublesome." Ye Luo was slightly stunned, then gave a bitter smile. "Doesn't that mean you have three Skill Points left over now too? Still, that's much better than me. At least I haven't used any of my six Skill Points."
"Based on my guess, upgrading a skill after it reaches Master-tier will produce a substantial increase in its effects, so restrictions like this are normal." Yan Hua Yi Leng's tone remained as calm as ever. "As for the remaining Skill Points, they'll be useful sooner or later. Maybe you'll even think you don't have enough Skill Points in the future."
Not taking it to heart, Ye Luo continued hunting monsters at high intensity.
Aside from providing considerable experience, Bamboo Vipers also dropped quite a few more coins. They were also venom-type monsters, so under the pull of the Jade Poison Bead's venomous power, they could condense Jade Poison Bead Fragments. This gave Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng something to look forward to.
However, perhaps because Bamboo Vipers had strong resistance to venom, their drop rate for Jade Poison Bead Fragments was not high, far lower than that of Demonized Scorpions. It often took more than ten snakes to drop one fragment, ruining Ye Luo's plan to quickly raise the Jade Poison Bead to Tier 4.
"Sigh, it looks like if I want to advance the Jade Poison Bead, I'll still need to kill venom-type bosses." Ye Luo sighed, then swept his gaze around. "The game has been running for over a day, and only Yan Hua and I have come to the Poisonous Swamp. There should be a boss here, right?"
Thinking about how high-level bosses could not only drop high-tier Jade Poison Beads, but also high-level equipment, Ye Luo became even more energized while hunting monsters.
After killing several Bamboo Vipers, Ye Luo obtained the snake gallbladders Aunt Li's mission required, as well as several portions of Bamboo Viper venom. He then finally refined Rotten Skin Powder. After applying it to their weapons according to the instructions, their weapons were stained a glossy green, and their attacks against Bamboo Vipers gained the Venomous Assault effect.
Under the combined venom effects of the Jade Poison Bead and Rotten Skin Powder, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng killed monsters even faster.
"Rotten Skin Powder's effect is quite good, especially against targets without poison resistance." Yan Hua Yi Leng said, then changed the subject. "I wonder what effect mutated Rotten Skin Powder will have. It should be even stronger, but unfortunately none of the batches you've refined so far have mutated."
"The Purple Gold Medicine Cauldron only has a 3% mutation chance, so it isn't high. We would need to refine at least dozens of batches before a mutation could possibly appear." Ye Luo said this, but he was also looking forward to seeing what mutated Rotten Skin Powder would be like.
An hour later, a flash of white light surrounded Ye Luo as he finally reached level 17. Yan Hua Yi Leng leveled up shortly afterward as well. Their strength improved slightly, allowing them to kill Bamboo Vipers even faster and obtain more Bamboo Viper venom.
"Yan Hua, at our current leveling speed, we might reach level 20 before you go to sleep." Ye Luo suddenly said as he looked at Yan Hua Yi Leng. "Should we lock our experience bars when we're close to reaching level 20 at level 19? After all, once we reach level 20, we won't be able to enter the Demon Ant Calamity dungeon anymore."
"No." Yan Hua Yi Leng replied calmly. Seeing Ye Luo's confusion, she asked, "Do you still need the set equipment dropped in that dungeon?"
"Uh, I've already completed the set, so I don't need it. As for you, you wouldn't be willing to give up the Flying Snow Robe, so there's no need for you to enter that dungeon either." Ye Luo said, then smiled bitterly. "We don't really need equipment, but the Male Ant and Ant Queen can drop Jade Poison Beads. If we're lucky enough to get a Tier 2 one, it would save us quite a bit of trouble."
"You also said that would only happen if we're lucky. Based on our dungeon runs and Sister Feng's group's experience, the probability isn't very high. We'd have to kill the Ant Queen seven or eight times just to get one or two Jade Poison Beads." Yan Hua Yi Leng said, then changed her tone. "Although the Jade Poison Bead will become stronger after reaching Tier 4, rather than waste time on it, it would be better to quickly raise our levels, kill more high-level monsters, and obtain stronger equipment. That is the proper path."
"Besides, the Tier 3 Jade Poison Bead is already fully sufficient for our current monster hunting, even if we encounter a level 20 boss." Yan Hua Yi Leng added.
After thinking about it briefly, Ye Luo understood. Killing a level 20 boss would bring far greater gains than killing those Ant Queens. He nodded. "Mm, I understand. Let's keep leveling quickly."
As he spoke, Ye Luo checked the level rankings and found that the leaderboard was now filled entirely with level 19 players. Long Teng Tian Xia had even reached level 20 already, making Ye Luo feel some pressure.
Ding~! System Announcement (China): Congratulations to Dongfang Mingzhu for completing the Heavenly Tribulation Trial Mission. She has successfully taken up a Hidden Profession in the Mage Class—Ice and Snow Mage. This announcement is hereby made. She is specially rewarded with one General Skill Book, 1 Skill Point, and 100 Reputation.
A system announcement suddenly rang out, echoing throughout the entire China Server.
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