Monster Slaying Time

After Ye Luo left, Xiao Jie and I Want to Become Immortal looked at each other in silence.

At this moment, both of them began to consider the feasibility of different professions in their hearts.

Xiao Jie took Ye Luo's words very seriously.

Ye Luo was right; survival was the most important thing. Only by staying alive could one have infinite possibilities. Once dead, everything else was moot.

But his goal was not merely to survive.

If he were truly afraid of death, he wouldn't be playing this game. His purpose in playing was to obtain true transcendent power while ensuring his own safety.

Therefore, planning his development path as early as possible was crucial.

Some things, once missed, were gone forever.

Currently, it seemed that the game's transcendent powers were primarily divided into four categories: God, Immortal, Demon, and Ghost. Beyond these, there were Inner Power Cultivation Methods, Yin-Yang Talismans, Mechanism Beast Taming, and various professional skills, but compared to the transcendent powers of Gods, Immortals, Demons, and Ghosts, these were clearly a notch weaker.

Naturally, he wanted to pursue the top-tier power.

Gods relied on faith, so he wouldn't consider that. His own faith was only 7. Xiao Jie could roughly guess why it was so low: living in a new society and growing up under the red flag, he naturally felt nothing for gods or ghosts, always feeling that they were scams.

Even after encountering such a magical game, Xiao Jie hadn't changed much.

He wasn't keen on ghosts either; they didn't seem like good things.

That left only the choices of Immortal and Demon.

Of course, becoming an Immortal was the best. Just hearing the word felt prestigious and high-end. But as a fallback, if he truly couldn't become an Immortal, learning some sorcery would be acceptable.

As for the choice of professional path, it was nothing more than advancement or dual-classing.

It was definitely impossible to follow the ragtag route of three scattered professions.

Having played games for so many years, Xiao Jie understood one truth: one must never go against the game designers.

If one wants to play, one must play the version's strongest professions.

Combining the skills, equipment, and information he currently possessed, Xiao Jie quickly planned out several routes.

Route 1: Swordswoman—Daoist—Sword Master.

First, suppress his level to 9 to go to the city to learn swordsmanship. After learning it, reach level 10 to qualify for the Swordswoman profession. Between levels 10-19, find a way to trigger a Serendipitous Encounter to gain spellcasting abilities, dual-class as a Daoist at level 20, and dual-advance into a Sword Master at level 30.

The reason for learning swordsmanship was mainly because he felt it paired best with Immortals. The profession of Sword Master also sounded quite powerful. The saying "Riding the wind to travel the Si Hai, wielding a sword to walk the eight wildernesses," transforming into a sword immortal, white robes like snow, sword light like a rainbow—just thinking about it felt cool.

Route 2: Ranger/Swordsman—Daoist—????.

Level up according to the current situation, successfully reach level 10, roll a Ranger or Swordsman profession, trigger a Serendipitous Encounter between levels 10-19 to gain spellcasting abilities, dual-class as a Daoist at level 20, and combine sword techniques with Daoist arts at level 30 to achieve a dual-class advancement.

This route was similar to Route 1. The advantage was that there was no need to suppress levels to learn swordsmanship, reducing early-game risks. The disadvantage was that it was uncertain whether a dual-class advancement could be unlocked at level 30. However, Xiao Jie felt that there wasn't much difference between a sword and a blade; there was no reason why Sword + Daoist arts could dual-advance while Blade + Daoist arts couldn't. There must be a similar profession; he just needed to research it more to uncover it.

Route 3: Daoist—????—????

This route was extremely dangerous. He would need to stack Spirituality before level 10. Xiao Jie felt that he would need at least 30, or 40 to be safe, to have a chance of triggering a Serendipitous Encounter. His current Spirituality was 12, meaning he would need to add 28 points—almost 5 levels' worth of attribute points.

This would leave his early-game base attributes very low, making it extremely difficult to fight monsters.

Of course, once he successfully triggered a Serendipitous Encounter and learned spells, he would take off immediately. It was the fastest route to becoming strong.

As for what he would advance into later, it would depend on his fate, but the advancement of a magic-based path would surely get stronger and stronger; it wouldn't be bad.

This route had risks as great as its opportunities. One slip-up and he would crash; he had to be extremely cautious.

Route 4: Beast Tamer—Shaman/Daoist—Sorcerer.

Xiao Jie felt this route was the safest. He was already herding sheep and feeding dogs; he would arrange for pig feeding later. This way, there was a high probability of rolling the Beast Tamer profession at level 10. Having a pet would naturally make early-game leveling much safer.

This game didn't restrict what weapons players could use. He could perfectly combine a bow and arrow with a beast pet, and use a blade for melee. He would be capable of both long-range and close-quarters combat, with both a meat shield and damage output.

Leveling and fighting monsters would be absolutely formidable, and it would maximize his safety in the early game.

Trigger a Serendipitous Encounter between levels 10-19 to gain spellcasting abilities, dual-class as a Shaman or Daoist at level 20, and dual-advance into a Sorcerer at level 30.

Although the name "Sorcerer" sounded a bit unpleasant, it should be on par with an Immortal Cultivator and definitely wouldn't be weak.

As for other professions, Xiao Jie didn't really consider them. Perhaps there were more powerful ones, but the one that suited him was the best. The difficulty of this game was so high that sometimes one had to learn to adapt to the circumstances and not force things.

After calculating the pros and cons of these four professional paths in his mind repeatedly, Xiao Jie suddenly sighed.

The first one he eliminated was Route 3, the pure magic advancement path, which was also the one he longed for most.

The reason was simple: it was too dangerous. Without adding base attributes before level 10, he would be extremely fragile. If he encountered a slightly stronger monster in the wild, he would likely be done for.

Xiao Jie was not the type to harbor wishful thinking. Placing his hope on not encountering strong enemies in the wild, or hoping to escape successfully every time he did, was not his style.

He wasn't the protagonist of a YY novel; doing that was definitely a death wish.

Next to be eliminated was the Sword Master.

Running to the provincial capital to learn swordsmanship was indeed more stable, but there would be dangers on the road, and learning sword techniques would cost money—and it certainly wouldn't be cheap.

If he wanted to follow this line, there were too many uncertain factors and it would consume too many resources. Moreover, he felt there wasn't much difference between a Swordsman and a blade-wielder; it was just a little bit cooler, and it wasn't worth taking the risk for that small value.

That left the Swordsman—Daoist—Unknown Dual-Class, and the Beast Tamer—Shaman/Daoist—Sorcerer routes.

Neither of these paths required any special maneuvering; he just needed to keep playing as he was. Since he would be using his swordsmanship and Dog Training anyway, once he mastered the latter, he could head out with his dog and blade to grind levels. By level 10, he would likely unlock both the Beast Tamer and Swordsman classes, meaning the two paths didn't conflict before level 10.

He could simply see which of the two skill sets proved more useful and make his decision once he reached level 10.

Besides, his current plan might not necessarily go exactly as intended. If he were lucky enough to trigger some other serendipitous encounter and unlock a hidden class he'd never even heard of, that wasn't entirely impossible either.

With his mind made up, Xiao Jie noticed that I Want to Become Immortal seemed to have reached a decision as well.

"Brother Following Wind, what class path are you planning to take?"

"Swordsman or Beast Tamer. How about you?"

"I want to cultivate to become an Immortal."

Xiao Jie was rendered speechless. "The problem is, among the classes Ye Luo mentioned, there isn't an Immortal at all. The various advanced stages of the Daoist might barely count, I suppose."

"No, there must be one! There has to be! Only by becoming an Immortal can I resurrect my brother. This game has such a high degree of freedom; it's not impossible to cultivate immortality." I Want to Become Immortal said with ironclad certainty.

Xiao Jie couldn't help but sigh inwardly, thinking that the other man was completely disregarding reality.

If resurrection spells truly existed, how had no one seen them in the three-plus years since the server launched?

Once such a thing appeared, it would definitely be common knowledge. Anyone possessing such a spell could simply sell resurrection slots, and people would likely be willing to pay any price in money or gear.

Moreover, since death was a mechanic in this game—though he didn't know if it was intentional by the designers—Xiao Jie had a feeling that the developers certainly didn't want anyone to escape the game's death penalty.

Besides, even for an Immortal, bringing the dead back to life wasn't exactly easy, was it?

However, looking at the determined expression on I Want to Become Immortal's face, he didn't say anything.

"Since that's the case, let's go grind levels. You can't achieve immortality just by thinking about it."

I Want to Become Immortal nodded. "You're right, Brother Following Wind. Let's go grind levels together."

The two of them looked toward the area outside the village. After the crisis they had experienced that night, they were finally going to step out of the village's safe zone once again.

Perhaps they would encounter unknown risks, but for the sake of their respective goals, both had made up their minds.

It was time to fight.