"G.o.d Binding Art!"
I unleashed my G.o.d-tier skill with a shout, but all it achieved was a big fat miss. My level was simply far too behind the mob"s.
Swhoos.h.!.+
I took a few steps back and used Thunderous Charge. Again, it was a miss, but this time the Phantom Wolf King nailed the mob in place like a wedge and swiped it repeatedly with its claws. It dealt an incredible amount of damage with its basic attacks and Claw of the Storm.
I moved to the Cave Devil Scorpion"s rear. Then, I thrust my sword into its b.u.t.t and used Universe Break and Burning Blade Slash.
Chiang chiang chiang!
The eruption caused the Cave Devil Scorpion to scream in pain and lose 70k HP in one go. It wasn"t very good damage, however. At my peak, this combo could"ve easily dealt over 150k damage. The level gap was simply too huge!
Despite its pain, the Cave Devil Scorpion reacted swiftly and tried to scissor me with its giant pincers. I immediately withdrew out of range on the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. My resistances might have dropped considerably, but my stats were almost the same as before. My movement speed didn"t affect my control or my ability to move in the slightest.
"Watch out!" Lin Yixin suddenly shouted behind me.
Something sank into my back, and I knew that it was the Cave Devil Scorpion hitting me with its tail. The attack had deleted 30k HP from my HP and poisoned me at the same time.
Some distance away, Lin Yixin laughed at my miserable state. "Little Cheat, you look just like the Hulk right now…"
I shot back. "Doing nothing and laughing at me, Beauty Lin? Just you wait, I"m coming to kick your a.s.s once this big guy is dead!"
The fierce battle continued for a moment, and three minutes later, the Cave Devil Scorpion"s HP was almost empty.
"Yiyi, now!"
"Got it!"
Lin Yixin answered my call without hesitation and dashed toward the Cave Devil Scorpion. She landed Barrier Break + Extreme Break combo on the mob"s neck and dealt great damage—
15277!
11983!
Tsk tsk, Lin Yixin"s offensive power had increased a lot after she reached Level 102. It was all thanks to the Cambrian-grade Divine Armament, Devil Bell, greatly increasing her stats.
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
Lin Yixin jumped to Level 103 right after she landed the killing blow. My own experience bar filled up by 87% in one go. Killing ancient mobs that were 60 levels higher than me was so awesome!
In a party, the distribution of kill experience generally goes like this: The last hitter gets 50% of the mob"s experience, and the rest is distributed by order of DPS. Since I was the one who dealt almost all of the damage to the mob, the leftover experience, which was 50% or so, all went to me. This meant that both Lin Yixin and I were leveling at equal pace, which was good for the both of us.
Pop...
The Cave Devil Scorpion dropped a couple of Phantasmal Magic Stones and a spear. I tossed the magic stones into Lin Yixin"s hands straight away and checked the spear"s stats. It was a 1-star Outstanding Purple Gold–grade weapon called “Strike of Devil Scorpion”, and its Level Requirement was 150. Neither Lin Yixin nor I could equip this for the foreseeable time to come, so I resolved to drop it at a shop later!
We continued forward, but roamed the perimeter of Ghastly Wail Cemetery only. The reason we didn"t dare to go deeper was because three Cave Devil Scorpions or more could easily put us in serious danger. My G.o.d Binding Art couldn"t immobilize the mobs, and the Phantom Wolf King couldn"t tank two Cave Devil Scorpions at the same time. My apparition was also paper as h.e.l.l and could only really be used as bait when we needed to escape to safety.
The Cave Devil Scorpions dropped one by one, entertaining us with the sight of our experience bars refilling again and again. We took over 20+ Cave Devil Scorpions in nearly one and a half hours, and I was now at Level 119, and Lin Yixin, Level 115. It wouldn"t be long before she could partic.i.p.ate in the battle as well.
……
Suddenly, Lin Yixin pulled my fingers and pointed to the distance. "Little Cheat, look. What is that scary-looking thing?"
I looked at the direction she was pointing and saw a gigantic creature deep within the graveyard. It was covered in green moss, and it looked like a giant stone creature that had gone through some sort of surgery before. Its bulging muscles and skin lumps looked incredibly strange, and it looked like it was sewn together using many body parts. Its arms looked like a mountain giant"s, the left side of its head was a ferocious tiger"s, and the right side, a leopard"s. Its torso was swollen, and its chest area was an amalgamation of several different lumps of flesh. It had four claws and a swift movement speed that didn"t match its appearance. It was covered in moss and stony skin. It was a literal Frankenstein of sorts.
Devil Giant LV-175 (Ancient)
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
HP: ???
Introduction: One of the protectors of the Ghastly Wail Cemetery, the Devil Giant is the result of an undead shaman"s experiments; an artificial creature put together using many different monster body parts. It possesses four legs that move with incredible speed, and its powerful arms can crush rocks with ease. It is known as the stone guardian of Ghastly Wail Cemetery.
……
"Get ready. This is a fierce one, and it"ll take too long if we don"t fight this mob together," I said before tossing a Level 100 2-star Outstanding Dark Gold–grade bow and two sets of grayish, rusted arrows into Lin Yixin"s arms. "Here, use these and attack the mob from range!"
"OMG…" Lin Yixin"s mouth fell open. "Where did you even get this bow? Also, these arrows are way too terrible. The steel arrows Qingqing bought are +250 Attack at minimum…"
I curled my lips. "Don"t be picky now. Be a good girl and control the mob from range…"
"But I don"t have any ranged skills…"
"It doesn"t matter, I just need you to control the mob."
"Fine."
I charged the mob and s.n.a.t.c.hed the Devil Giant"s aggro with the Cyan Netherworld Sword with ease. Then, I worked together with the Phantom Wolf King to chip away at its HP. The Devil Giant possessed great Attack, and every basic attack dealt over 20k damage to me. The level penalty was simply too great. The good news was that I had used the Bloodknight Card and increased my HP by 40%, so I wasn"t afraid of its offensive power. Plus, the little wolf was the tank of the party, not me.
The Level 110 Ice Dragon Kris was also firing icy breaths at the mobs from above, but what really surprised was the fact that it dealt over 20k damage per hit. It was almost unthinkable that this was the damage of a Level 110 pet. It could"ve easily one-shot another pet of the same level.
Lin Yixin was standing above a giant rock and firing a bunch of arrows at the mob. To my surprise, she possessed impressive archery skills despite playing a melee character all this time, and her accuracy could put over 90% of existing archers to shame.
Once I figured out the mob"s weak point with Dark Pupils, I shouted, "Yiyi, the Devil Giant"s weak point is its right eye! Shoot it with everything you got!"
"Got it! You should attack its weak point too, Little Cheat!"
"It"s too tall for me to reach…"
"You shortie…"
"Come on, the d.a.m.n mob is three meters tall. How the h.e.l.l am I supposed to reach its right eye…"
Lin Yixin giggled. "My angry Little Cheat jumped into the air, but he was only tall enough to hit the stone giant"s knee~~"
"f.u.c.k f.u.c.k f.u.c.k…" I sweared incomprehensibly.
Thanks to the combined strength of two top-tier players and their two pets, we were able to delete 97% of the mob"s HP in around 7 minutes. I stopped attacking, and Lin Yixin rushed over with her giant axe and smashed its head apart like a barbarian princess!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Just like that, I rose a level. Grinding at this place was seriously awesome.
……
Pop!
The Devil Giant dropped a ton of magic stones and a cyan card. When I picked it up and gave it a look, I couldn"t help but break into a grin—
Devil Giant Card: Increases max HP and Defense by 30%. Duration: 90 minutes.
……
I said with a smile, "d.a.m.n, this card is good. I"ll be using this, Yiyi! If more Devil Giant Cards drop, I"ll give them to you!"
"Sure!" Lin Yixin replied while checking her own stats. "Hmm, it"s a shame that I only have 100+ Tactics points right now, or Bombsh.e.l.l could be pretty useful here…"
I asked, "How much Tactics do you have exactly?"
"184…"
"Mn, that"s still a 71% boost to all stats. Here, I"ll give you the party leader, and you can use Bombsh.e.l.l. This"ll boost my survivability and allow us to challenge two Devil Giants at a time!"
"Okay!"
I gave Lin Yixin the party leader and watched all my stats go up by a whopping 71% under the effects of Fruit Knife G.o.ddess"s signature stratagem. Add the Devil Giant Card into the mix, and my stats were starting to look OP again. I now had a max HP of 160k, and my hidden Defense was also increased by a lot.
"Haha, this Devil Giant Card is seriously great. If we can collect enough of them, they"ll be incredibly useful in arena or guild battles. It"s almost like empowering oneself with a powerful stratagem."
"Yeah, that"s true. Anyway, let us continue!"
"Alright…"
……
We continued forward, aggroed the Devil Giants, killed them together with our pets, and were rewarded with a generous amount of experience. It was always a delight to grind high-level mobs with low level but amazing stats.
Chiang chiang chiang…
There was a time I was sent stumbling backward by a Devil Giant, and I immediately pointed my palm to the sky and launched a golden seal. The Ancient Sword Seal crashed on top of the Devil Giant with such force that it was nearly knocked off-balance. A huge damage number floated above its head—78379!
……
"Wow! Is that your Divine General Skill, Little Cheat?" Lin Yixin looked at me in astonishment. "It"s so beautiful…"
I smiled. "Yeah. The Ancient Seal is an active offensive-type Divine General Skill. It was the reason I managed to keep the Northern Alliance at bay until you arrived."
"Hehe, it"s a beautiful skill. I envy you…" Lin Yixin said with a pout. It was because she was a Divine General herself, but her Divine General Skill was unusable.
……
I was about to console her when the sound of thundering horse hooves suddenly entered our ears. A short while later, a troop of cavalry riding on Fire Greedy Wolves appeared and surrounded the two of us in the blink of an eye.
The Greedy Wolf Cavalry walked up to us and declared solemnly, "Excuse me, but the Ghastly Wail Cemetery is now Thunder"s leveling map. Leave immediately, or we won"t be showing any mercy!"