Crazy Leveling

"System Notification: Congratulations on killing the Shadow Panda. Current Destroy Fallen Camp quest progress: 1/3."

The Shadow Panda's drops were similar to those of the Night Demon Tiger—only a few gold and silver coins, along with several pieces of rare equipment.

The drops from a quest boss simply couldn't compare to those of a field boss.

However, she obtained another Forest Heart Fragment.

Effect Two had been unlocked.

Forest Heart Fragment (2/4)

Item Quality: Legendary

Effect One (Forest's Recognition): Monsters living in forests will be less hostile toward you. When attacked by forest-type monsters, damage taken is reduced to 80% of its original amount.

Effect Two (Forest's Aid): While in a forest, your base attributes increase by 20%.

Effect Three: Locked

Effect Four: Locked

Item Description: One of the Elf Saintess Set. You must collect the other two fragments to obtain the complete Forest Heart.

Effects that increased attributes by percentages would still be useful in the late game.

She had no idea why such a powerful item had never been dropped in her previous life.

Kurumi gathered all the drops from the ground.

A panda in normal black-and-white colors drifted out from the Shadow Panda's corpse—the Soul of Panda Kurupai.

"Have I awakened...?"

The weakened soul muttered in a low voice before looking at Kurumi.

Its weathered voice rang out again. "Thank you for helping me escape that chaotic hell. Through the endless experiments, I lost my mind, and my soul nearly became lost in the world of the evil god."

"I have nothing to reward you with. I can only bestow a blessing upon you. I hope it will aid you in your future adventures."

After Panda Kurupai finished speaking, its soul scattered into particles of light.

They flowed into Kurumi's body.

Kurumi immediately gained a permanent buff: Kurupai's Blessing: Strength +100, Constitution +100.

She opened her status panel.

Attributes (Balanced Development): Strength 738, Intelligence 638, Constitution 738, Spirit 638.

Switching back to her original body, Attributes (Balanced Development): Strength 255, Intelligence 170, Constitution 255, Spirit 170. (Affected by the Gaze of Fear buff, attributes reduced by 15%.)

Her Strength and Constitution had indeed increased by 100 points.

Kurumi had killed quite a few bosses in her previous life, but she had almost never received blessings from them.

"Strange. Is it because this was a first kill, or is it some hidden setting from when the server first opened?"

Kurumi wasn't sure. Even though she had played this game for over a decade, there were still many secrets she didn't know.

If this hidden setting was unique to the server's opening...

Kurumi's heart pounded as excitement welled up inside her.

Kill more bosses and obtain more blessings!

A blessing from an elite boss had directly added two hundred attribute points. For an ordinary player, that was equivalent to gaining the attributes from five levels!

Although Kurumi's own growth surpassed that of ordinary players, and her four core attributes were more than three times theirs, who would refuse even more attributes?!

She just didn't know whether the next two bosses would also grant blessings.

Kurumi was only level 20 now, yet the first boss had already been this difficult. She truly wasn't confident about the remaining two.

To be honest, rankings such as the level leaderboard and equipment leaderboard had yet to open, but Kurumi knew her current position very clearly. Even if her level was the highest among players, she was still merely a bottom-tier figure in Meta World.

There was only one way to quickly kill the remaining two bosses and verify the thought in her heart.

She had to level up as quickly as possible!

For several days straight, Kurumi farmed monsters at the foot of the Green Root Mountain Range.

Since the ordinary monsters were all level 35, killing enemies above her level granted her several times the experience.

Just as Kurumi had expected, her level rose very quickly.

She spared neither a single monster at the foot of the mountain nor a single mine shaft!

After clearing out all the magical beasts again and again, more than a dozen coordinates were added to the mineral resource coordinates for investigating the Green Root Mountain Range, and her level rose to 27!

The Holy Tree Leaf and the Forest Heart played a major role in allowing Kurumi to slaughter monsters so freely within the forest.

At the same time, the system displayed another message.

"System Notification: You have obtained the title: Beast Slayer."

"So it was this..."

An excellent-grade title obtainable by killing large numbers of magical beasts in a short period of time.

Title: Beast Slayer

Quality: Excellent

Effect: When fighting beast-type enemies, your damage increases by 5%.

Description: You are an excellent hunter!

Although it only increased damage against beast-type enemies, it was still a rare and valuable title in the early stages. It also worked against orcs.

However, many players probably already had this title.

Those farming players were so insane that they had nearly crashed the silver coin exchange rate...

Aside from this title, she had gained quite a lot.

But because the silver coin exchange rate changed every day, selling everything only earned her twenty thousand.

Despite dealing with so many magical beasts, there had not been many drops—only a great deal of experience.

Even when equipment occasionally dropped, it was mostly useless white-grade gear.

"Level 27, and my attack has reached 1,299... I can try taking on the next boss."

The Destroy Fallen Camp quest had to be completed within a month, and twelve days had already passed.

Kurumi opened the map and began heading toward the mountainside.

She traveled while killing monsters.

After living in the forest for so long, Kurumi felt as though she was gradually becoming part of it. Killing ordinary magical beasts had become as natural to her as a fish taking to water.

Sometimes, she could even sense which trees hid ambushing magical beasts. However, due to the effects of Heart of the Forest, very few magical beasts tried to ambush her. Even when they did, they were usually beasts with nowhere left to run, easily dealt with.

There's a Mutant Poison Lizard over there.

Kurumi shot the lizard hidden on a tree trunk down with a single bullet, then spent a minute killing it.

"Hiss—"

There was a snake nearby.

Activating City of Eating Time, Kurumi immediately leaped away. A brown snake burst out from the spot where she had been standing.

Under the overwhelming slowing effect, Kurumi easily blew its head apart.

Bang, bang, bang...

System Notification: You killed a Mutant Poison Lizard. You defeated a monster 8 levels above you and gained 2,800 experience points...

System Notification: You killed a Brownleaf Hidden Snake. You defeated a monster 6 levels above you and gained 1,980 experience points...

System Notification: ...

After killing monsters for another day, she reached level 28, and Kurumi successfully arrived at the location of the second boss.

Kurumi looked at the cave before her with some disappointment.

It was not a forest environment, so she could not benefit from Heart of the Forest's stat bonuses.

With Heart of the Forest's boost, her attack reached as high as 1,500. Killing monsters in the forest was no different from shooting watermelons with bullets.

"I'm already level 28. I might as well reach level 30 nearby before going in. And once I reach level 30, I'll gain a new skill, and the world rankings will open..."