Strength Rune Stone

This is crazy.

Forget a C-Rank Shield Guard—even an S-Rank Shield Guard couldn't fight like this.

Wasn't he just trading blood for blood with the beasts?

But what baffled the two of them was that the man in the clearing didn't look the least bit worse for wear.

If anything, he was getting more and more fired up.

Was this normal?

At that moment,

Chen Ming also noticed the two people not far away.

He looked over, and the instant their eyes met, he saw them both jolt.

"Um, do you need help? You look..."

One of them asked tentatively, trailing off.

By now, they weren't even sure the other person was human...

"Thanks, but I'm fine."

Chen Ming answered calmly while swinging his blade.

"Okay... okay, then."

The two hesitated for a moment, then slowly backed away.

They didn't leave, though. Instead, they rested at a distance, quietly watching him.

They were just too curious about how this C-Rank Shield Guard planned to handle three beasts attacking him at once.

But even after waiting for a good while, they still didn't see Chen Ming use a single skill.

The entire time, he relied on nothing but plain, ordinary attacks!

He traded blows with the Level 2 Spike Roller Beast, one strike at a time.

At the same time, he took the attacks of the two Level 1 Spike Roller Beasts behind him head-on.

"What kind of fighting style is this? It's ridiculous."

"I've never seen anyone so willing to risk their life."

Most importantly,

even after taking so many hits, the man didn't look seriously injured at all.

"Holy crap, it looks like he's about to win!"

"That Level 2 Spike Roller Beast is worked up. It's going to use a skill!"

The two watched the fight in the clearing, tense.

They were afraid they might miss some detail.

[-34!]

After a relentless assault, Chen Ming finally exposed a weakness in the Spike Roller Beast.

His blade fell, striking its weak spot!

Just as expected, the Level 2 Spike Roller Beast immediately went berserk.

Gusts of wind whipped up around them.

The Spike Roller Beast activated its ability, turning into a dark blur as it charged wildly.

It was fast.

In the blink of an eye, it had already hit Chen Ming twice.

[-1!]

[-1!]

Chen Ming didn't panic. He kept up the same rhythm as before.

[-34!]

[-34!]

But when the two people watching from afar saw this, they were dumbstruck.

"No way. He's taking those hits head-on, too? This guy's a lunatic."

A Spike Roller Beast's desperate final attack was extremely dangerous.

It was fast and hit hard.

If an ordinary Class Changer took several hits, they'd probably be killed outright.

The standard method taught in class was to kite the Spike Roller Beast and dodge its attacks, then finish it off once it ran out of strength.

[-34!]

[Spike Roller Beast (Lv. 2) killed, Experience +15!]

Finally, after Chen Ming relentlessly struck its weak spots, the Level 2 Spike Roller Beast was killed.

It hadn't taken much longer to kill than a Level 1 Spike Roller Beast, but it had yielded more than twice the experience.

"Just as I thought. I need to hunt higher-level beasts. I'll level up after just a few more."

Chen Ming let out a sigh of relief.

A faint glimmer flashed before his eyes.

[Obtained: Spike Roller Beast Core (Lv. 2)]

[Obtained: Strength Rune Stone *1]

[Rune Stone: A special material containing the energy of laws. When used, it can enhance attributes.]

"Hmm... A Rune Stone dropped?"

Chen Ming's face lit up.

Rune Stones were precious treasures that enhanced equipment attributes.

Equipment was really just a vessel for Rune Stones; the Rune Stones were what truly boosted a Class Changer's attributes.

Equipment of different ranks could hold different numbers of Rune Stones.

For example, a first-tier ordinary piece of equipment could hold at most ten Rune Stones.

The [Strength +4] blade he'd bought from the guild had four Strength Rune Stones set in it.

Beasts rarely dropped Rune Stones when they died.

It seemed his luck was pretty good.

Without hesitation, Chen Ming used the Strength Rune Stone on his blade.

The translucent, pale-brown stone crumbled bit by bit, then a glimmer of light flowed into the blade.

[Strength Rune Stone used successfully!]

[Common Long Blade: Strength +5!]

Once he was done, Chen Ming still paid no attention to the two Spike Roller Beasts attacking him relentlessly.

He checked his current Constitution.

[Constitution: 573/600]

"Killing a Level 2 beast uses up about a tenth of my Constitution. At the same time, I can recover 55 points automatically each hour."

By that calculation, he could focus entirely on hunting Level 2 beasts.

There was no need to waste time tangling with Level 1 beasts.

Having made up his mind, Chen Ming set off deeper into the jungle without another thought.

As for the two remaining Level 1 Spike Roller Beasts, he chose to ignore them.

They weren't worth his time anymore.

Elsewhere,

after watching Chen Ming kill a Level 2 beast with their own eyes—and then walk deeper into the jungle as if nothing had happened—

the two members of the team exchanged a silent glance.

They were too shocked for words.

They'd never seen anyone grind monsters like this before.

He'd taken the beast's attacks with his own body and worn a Level 2 beast down to death.

One was a B-Rank Assassin, the other a C-Rank Knight. Even working together, they'd only managed to kill a Level 1 Spike Roller Beast while keeping themselves in decent shape.

Did that guy have an endless supply of health or something? How could he take so much damage?

"He hasn't even used a single skill, but he's absurdly tough..."

"He's basically a superhero."

What kind of C-Rank Shield Guard was that? That was an SSS-Rank Humanoid Titan!

Time slipped by.

In the Breeze Jungle, Chen Ming repeatedly searched for Level 2 beasts and killed them.

[-1!]

[-35!]

[Spike Roller Beast (Lv. 2) killed, Experience +16!]

[Obtained: Spike Roller Beast Core (Lv. 2)]

[Flying Leaf Rat (Lv. 2) killed, Experience +14!]

[Obtained: Flying Leaf Rat Core (Lv. 2)]

Three hours later,

[Congratulations! Your level has increased to Level 2! (200 experience points remaining until the next level)]

"I finally leveled up."

Chen Ming let out a long breath.

His body had already started to feel tired and weak, but the instant he leveled up, it was nourished.

He was full of energy again.

He looked at his class panel.

[Name]: Chen Ming

[Class]: Shield Guard

[Level]: 2

[Strength]: 25

[Constitution]: 871/1200 (20%)

[Recovery]: 112 (12%)

[Agility]: 20

[Spirit]: 238 (19%)

[Skills]:

[C-Rank · Battle-Hardened (Lv. 2)]

[SSS-Rank · Absolute Defense (Max Level)]

"My Constitution went up by 600 points. That restored a huge chunk of my health."

"Battle-Hardened leveled up, too."

Skill levels increased through repeated use.

At Level 2, Battle-Hardened's recovery efficiency bonus had already reached 12%!

"Reaching Level 2 in less than half a day... In all of Cloud Sea City, only Qin Zhixue, that SS-Rank Class-Changer, could probably level up this fast."

Chen Ming was quite satisfied with his leveling speed.

It had even exceeded his expectations a little.

His ability to lock his health was ridiculously powerful, but the rest of his abilities still left a lot to be desired.

His attacks were weak, and he had few ways to fight.

He'd originally thought he'd be content to match the solo-hunting speed of an S-Rank Class-Changer.

But now, his plans had changed.

Today, he was going to reach Level 3!