Level 9

And so it went.

He walked through the gray-black woods at an unhurried pace.

Little Drill Wind roamed more than a hundred meters ahead, his bluish-black figure blending almost seamlessly into the night.

He needed no commands. Whenever he sensed a Goblin Skirmisher, he would pounce on it of his own accord, finish it with one slash, then search for his next target.

All Su Mu had to do was follow the trail.

It was a strange feeling.

When he played games in his previous life, his favorite way to play had been this kind of "AFK monster farming."

He would find a spawn point, let his pet kill monsters automatically, and do whatever he wanted. Now, that scenario had become reality in another form.

The difference was that there was no screen or progress bar here. The dirt under his feet was real, the smell of blood in the air was real, and every roar and scream in the distance was real.

As he walked, he sensed the slow accumulation of momentum points in his Soul Space.

Each Goblin Skirmisher gave him 4 momentum points. The occasional level-ten Goblin Archer or Scout also gave him 4.

At this speed, he would need to kill about two hundred and fifty monsters to collect a thousand points.

Most importantly, farming monsters this way was not tiring for Su Mu.

All he had to do was let Little Drill Wind farm monsters while he made his way forward at a leisurely pace.

More than two hours passed.

Su Mu did not know how far he had walked. He only knew that when he looked back, he could no longer see the outline of the city wall.

The gray-black wasteland beneath his feet had gradually given way to hard ground mixed with gravel and withered grass. Dead trees grew denser in the distance, and the stench of decay in the air grew stronger.

Over those two hours, he had used Years Like a Blade eight times in total.

Each time, a thousand momentum points evaporated from his Soul Space, turning into an invisible wave that surged into the Dungeon Space and advanced the unseen "years" within the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven.

Eight times.

Eight years.

For a stone that had existed since the creation of heaven and earth, eight years were no more than the blink of an eye.

But Su Mu could sense that after each catalysis, the spiritual light on the surface of the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven underwent an extremely subtle change. Its profound patterns grew deeper and clearer, as though the years were awakening something dormant inside the stone, bit by bit.

His own level had also risen to level 8 over those two hours and more.

Little Drill Wind had reached level 8 at the same time, and his attributes had risen across the board once again.

Besides that, some miscellaneous materials had accumulated in the Dungeon Space.

Goblin fangs, fragments of crude goblin leather armor, several rusty short blades, a bundle of damaged wooden arrows, and more than a dozen goblin eyeballs.

All of it together would not sell for much, but there was a fair amount of it. He could bundle it up and sell it to a material dealer in the city later for some pocket money.

The only pity was that no decent cards had dropped.

In more than two hours, nearly a hundred Goblin Skirmishers had dropped only three F-rank cards.

One [Goblin Short Blade], attack +8, agility +2, an F-rank equipment card.

One [Goblin Leather Armor], defense +10, an F-rank equipment card.

One [Goblin Club], attack +12, agility -3, an F-rank equipment card.

All three were the most ordinary blank-slate cards, each worth no more than two thousand Alliance coins on the market.

Su Mu was not disappointed, though.

Ordinary monsters in the wild rarely dropped cards to begin with, especially low-level fodder like level-ten Goblin Skirmishers.

The official drop-rate notice stated it plainly: F-rank equipment cards had a 2.3 percent chance of dropping, E-rank cards less than 0.5 percent, and cards of D-rank or higher less than 0.01 percent.

These things were meant for ordinary people without backing, whose awakened core cards and dungeon themes were both relatively low-ranked.

They could not afford cards from the shop or farm high-difficulty nests, so they could only come into the wild to kill skirmishers, slowly saving money and leveling up with the low-level cards and materials they dropped.

Though inefficient, it was safe. As long as they did not venture deep into dangerous areas, they would at least avoid losing their lives.

Su Mu continued forward.

As he went deeper, the monsters' levels began to change.

Goblin Skirmishers gradually became scarce, replaced by Goblin Warriors and Goblin Rangers.

Their levels slowly climbed from ten to twelve, and he occasionally encountered a level-thirteen Goblin Overseer carrying a thick whip, with leather armor on its back much sturdier than an ordinary goblin's.

But to Little Drill Wind, they were all the same.

One slash.

If he encountered one with more health, like that level-thirteen Goblin Overseer, which survived the first slash without falling, then it took two.

The second slash cut into the back of its neck, severing its spine in one clean stroke.

Time slowly passed.

Su Mu continued along the trail, occasionally checking the electronic map to confirm his direction.

He had traveled more than twenty kilometers in, drawing ever closer to the marker for the entrance to the Land of Buried Bones.

Along the way, the monsters gradually changed from mostly goblins to scattered skeletal creatures.

Skeleton Soldiers, Skeleton Archers, and the occasional wandering Rotting Corpse.

These undead monsters were generally between levels eleven and fourteen. They gave considerably more kill experience than goblins, as well as more momentum points.

Su Mu could sense that the momentum points in his Soul Space were accumulating noticeably faster.

Time passed.

By the seventh hour after he left the city, it was already afternoon. His level rose to 9.

Little Drill Wind reached level 9 at the same time.

Su Mu glanced at his panel through their soul link.

[Name: Little Drill Wind (summoned form)]

[Rank: SSS → A (suppressed by three ranks)]

[Level: 9]

[Health: 216000/216000 → 29000/29000]

[Attack: 18000 → 2450]

[Defense: 10600 → 1440]

[Agility: 16300 → 2200]

[Combat index: 265000 → 18500]

This was the strength he could display in the outside world.

Su Mu stared at the numbers on the panel for a few seconds.

A level-nine SSS-rank card with a base combat index of 265,000.

That number was enough to put even the creature cards of the top dungeon masters on the market in the shade.

After all, a top-tier level-ten S-rank creature card had a base combat index of only fifty to eighty thousand.

As an SSS-rank, Little Drill Wind would likely be close to three hundred thousand at level ten.

That was the terrifying part of the Journey to the West theme.

And Little Drill Wind's foundation had yet to be fully completed. Though his appearance was already faithful enough, there was still room to expand his equipment, demonic arts, and backstory. Once all of those were complete, this card's ceiling would be even higher.

Su Mu withdrew his awareness and continued forward.