The Exam

In the Cloud Sea Forest.

"Remember the original website: "

"Xue Wei, you're incredible!" Zhang Yuanyuan said happily, linking arms with Chen Xuewei. Her voice brimmed with admiration.

Excitement glittered in Zhang Chao's eyes, too. "So this is an Earth-Tier Skill? Its power really is extraordinary!"

"Way to go, Class Rep!" Little Fatty hurried over, grinning as he gave her a thumbs-up.

Chen Xuewei smiled and turned her clear, bright eyes toward Xiao Fan. Her voice was gentle. "We have Xiao Fan to thank for this. If he hadn't warned us in time, I wouldn't have reacted quickly enough."

"Nice one, Fanzi! That was quick!" Little Fatty burst out laughing and slapped Xiao Fan on the back.

Xiao Fan was anything but calm inside, but he smiled and said, "I just happened to spot those three Fierce Beasts."

Three cat-sized rats lay dead in front of the five team members.

Iron-Eating Rats, level-one Fierce Beasts.

The five had barely entered the forest when the three Iron-Eating Rats had set their sights on them.

It was everyone's first time in the game, and none of them had any experience, so nobody noticed the three Fierce Beasts following behind.

Just as the beasts launched their sneak attack, Xiao Fan sensed something was wrong and hurriedly warned his teammates.

Chen Xuewei reacted swiftly, immediately using her Earth-Tier Skill.

The skill dealt Splash damage, and in the blink of an eye, she had killed all three Iron-Eating Rats.

Xiao Fan looked calm on the outside, but he had actually been scared into a cold sweat.

Good thing I put all five attributes up to ten when I entered the game. Otherwise, I might not have noticed those three Fierce Beasts.

Leveling up granted five Free Attribute Points, but the only way to increase attributes beyond that was to spend Core Power.

5 Core Power = 1 attribute point.

Xiao Fan's Heaven-Tier Skill was completely useless early on. For his own safety, he had decided to raise all five attributes to ten first.

When in a party, players could see their teammates' levels. To avoid exposing his secret, Xiao Fan hadn't spent Core Power to buy experience and level up. Instead, he had spent it on attribute points.

His character information had now changed completely.

ID: Jiu Chen

Level: 1 (0/10)

HP: 110/110

MP: 115/115

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Agility: 10

Constitution: 10

Trait: Saint

Skill: Halo of the Saint

Equipment: None

Core Power: 435

Once all five attributes had reached ten, he could clearly feel the changes in his body. His senses had become sharper, too.

That was what had let him spot the Iron-Eating Rats the instant they attacked.

"What's the point of spotting them if you can't beat them? You'd still die." Zhang Yuanyuan rolled her eyes.

Chen Xuewei's expression immediately turned colder. She pulled her arm out of Zhang Yuanyuan's grasp. "If Xiao Fan hadn't warned us, the Fierce Beasts might have killed us just now. You could at least thank him instead of picking on him. That's out of line."

Seeing that Chen Xuewei was genuinely angry, Zhang Yuanyuan hurried to apologize. "Xue Wei, I'm sorry. I'll stop picking on Xiao Fan, okay?"

Xiao Fan rolled his eyes. He couldn't be bothered with that woman. If his skill weren't useless in the early game, he would have gone off on his own already.

"All right, we've seen how dangerous this game is. We need to be careful from here on out and not let our guard down," Chen Xuewei said seriously.

Everyone nodded.

In Cloud Sea, killing Fierce Beasts didn't grant experience. The three Iron-Eating Rats had dropped only three Core Power.

In other words, a level-one Fierce Beast provided just one Core Power.

1 Core Power equaled 1 experience point. It took ten experience points to reach level two, so killing ten Fierce Beasts would be enough to level up once.

At Chen Xuewei's pace, leveling up should be quick.

And it was. In less than half an hour, the team had killed ten level-one Fierce Beasts and accumulated ten Core Power.

"I have an idea." Zhang Chao suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Zhang Yuanyuan asked, turning around.

"This exam is mainly about how many Fierce Beasts the team kills. Xue Wei is our team's main fighter, so I suggest we give her the ten Core Power to level up first. That'll greatly increase the speed at which our team can kill Fierce Beasts."

Chen Xuewei shook her head. "We're a team. Everyone has helped kill the Fierce Beasts, so we should split the Core Power evenly."

Xiao Fan thought Zhang Chao made a good point. "I agree with Zhang Chao."

"Me too," Little Fatty chimed in, quickly raising his hand.

"I agree, too. Xue Wei, you leveling up will make our team stronger, which is a win-win for us. You can take a smaller share of the Core Power later."

Seeing that the others agreed, Chen Xuewei didn't insist. She spent ten Core Power on ten experience points and reached level two.

Chen Xuewei was indeed stronger after leveling up. She threw herself into killing Fierce Beasts with everything she had.

Watching Chen Xuewei kill one beast after another, Xiao Fan had to admit he was a little envious.

He was tempted to use his chance to create a skill right away and make a Damage Class skill so he could slaughter his way through the beasts.

But remembering his single-minded Saint trait, he stopped himself.

Enduring now is the price of becoming invincible later! Xiao Fan told himself.

Three hours later.

"Xiao Fan, it's your turn to level up."

Chen Xuewei sheathed her sword and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Okay." Xiao Fan nodded. He didn't refuse, and immediately used the ten Core Power Chen Xuewei had given him to buy experience.

Chen Xuewei, Little Fatty, Zhang Yuanyuan, and Zhang Chao had all reached level two. He was the only one left.

Ding! Congratulations, your character has reached level two.

Xiao Fan checked his character information. In addition to the five Free Attribute Points he'd gained, his HP and MP had increased. Everything else remained unchanged.

ID: Jiu Chen

Level: 2 (0/100)

HP: 210/210

MP: 225/225

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Agility: 10

Constitution: 10

Trait: Saint

Skill: Halo of the Saint

Equipment: None

Core Power: 435

Xiao Fan noticed that reaching level three required 100 experience. Leveling up from one to two had taken just ten.

It had increased tenfold!

Looks like leveling up gets harder and harder in this game.

There was something else that left Xiao Fan feeling rather frustrated.

His skill, Halo of the Saint, still hadn't added even a single point of MP.

The team was too strong. They steamrolled level-one Fierce Beasts, and even level-two ones quickly fell to their teamwork.

Nobody had been injured so far.

That should have been a good thing, but Xiao Fan couldn't bring himself to be happy. It meant his Halo of the Saint was completely useless.

So having teammates who are too strong isn't always a good thing.

Xiao Fan sighed and was just about to keep walking.

Suddenly, he felt a dangerous presence in the forest lock onto them.

"Everyone, be careful! Something's coming!"

At that, the other four immediately raised their weapons and warily scanned their surroundings.

They had already experienced just how sharp Xiao Fan's danger sense was.