Wasps could be found at a place called Venomous Wasp Forest on the southern side of Floating Ice City. Venomous Wasp Forest was a scary name, and it didn"t take a genius to figure out that Wasps there were venomous. The reason I chose to capture one as a pet was because of its growth potential, and because a high-level grinding zone like that would help my level at the same time.
About 45 minutes later, I arrived at the edge of Venomous Wasp Forest. I was just about to enter when I heard a voice from inside the forest.
"Boss, are you sure a Level 1 Wasp will sp.a.w.n at this location?"
"Of course. Just keep grinding and be patient. It will show up!"
"Okay…"
I pushed aside the leaves blocking my vision and saw a party of four killing mobs inside the forest. They were all above Level 30, and they had undergone their cla.s.s promotions. Right now in Floating Ice City, the only group strong enough to gather such a powerful party was the Domination Clan!
I could see Dominating Heaven Blade standing at the forefront of the party. He swung his sword twice at a Level 34 Wasp and triggered a violent reaction from the mob. Together, the Wasp"s head and the wings were about as big as a soccer ball, and it buzzed very loudly when flying through the air. It had a venomous sting at its posterior, and when it attacked, it would curl to sting the enemy below. Dominating Heaven Blade"s face immediately turned a shade of poisonous green after being stung!
"Heal me, priest! Thank you!"
Dominating Heaven Blade swung his sword two more times and killed the Wasp. At the same time, a beam of holy light dropped down on his head and restored half of the HP he had lost immediately. The priest was Level 29. He was clearly bred and raised by the Domination Clan.
Crack crack!
The priest also healed Dominating Warrior G.o.d after he killed another Wasp. Unlike Dominating Heaven Blade, he couldn"t quite solo a Wasp yet, so the support was necessary.
"Have you heard what happened yesterday, boss?" Dominating Knight G.o.d asked.
"Maybe, what is it?" Dominating Heaven Blade asked.
Dominating Knight G.o.d withdrew his spear and said, "Yesterday, Mad Dragon gathered nearly a hundred players to defeat the ultimate boss in Greenstone Mountain Valley. However, their raid was destroyed by Wind Fantasy and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand together."
"Mn, I"ve heard of that…"
Dominating Heaven Blade smiled. "Roaming Dragon is such a clown. He actually believes he can fight us with his pitiful amount of possession. It"s almost like he"s trying to run himself down. Hmph, Wind Fantasy and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand got lucky this time. Next time, we"ll wreck Mad Dragon ourselves!"
Dominating Knight G.o.d frowned a little before asking, "Boss, aren"t you worried about Wind Fantasy and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand at all?"
"Worried?"
Dominating Heaven Blade couldn"t hold back a snort. "It"s true that Wind Fantasy and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand are both insanely talented, but neither of them is a leader fit to become a king. Unlike our guild, G.o.ds of Destruction, their group is weak and powerless. How can they possibly hope to fight against us in a game the size of Heavenblessed? Our registered members alone number around 2000!"
Dominating Knight G.o.d smiled, glad at his leader"s confidence. "Your a.n.a.lysis is spot-on, boss. In this game, there is no hope for lone heroes to rise to power. Still, I wouldn"t mind recruiting both of them into our clan, especially Wind Fantasy. Tsk tsk, I just realized it last time, but Wind Fantasy is seriously beautiful!"
"Hmph!"
Dominating Heaven Blade couldn"t help but laugh at his brother. "You"re good at everything except this, brother. You would"ve achieved great things already if you weren"t so l.u.s.tful all the time!"
I avoided the Domination Clan and chose another path. I wasn"t afraid of them, but my goal here was to capture a pet. I had no intentions of delaying my objective to engage in a completely pointless activity like PK.
I headed to the west side of Venomous Wasp Forest. The forest was quite big, and the Wasps there were pretty high-level. They also sp.a.w.ned in concentrated groups, meaning that I could encounter a Wasp for every 2 meters I traveled. A monster"s aggro was triggered when a player came within 4 yards, so aggro was a delicate task here. I couldn"t take action before estimating distance between me and the mob.
…...
I carefully aggroed a Level 35 Wasp toward me. It"s 3 levels higher than me, but I should be able to deal with it.
"Buzz…"
The Wasp was insanely fast. It flew toward me and stung me like lightning!
71!
The good news is, I have more than enough Defense to endure its attack!
I swung the Weeping Fire Blade once and "missed" my target. Then, I followed up with a lightning fast slash and executed a Pardon-empowered Slayer Slas.h.!.+
Puchi!
I felt like I was. .h.i.tting a ball as my blade slammed into the Wasp. A huge number popped into the air—1287!
It was a nice amount of damage. The reason it wasn"t killed immediately was because it had around 3000 HP. Its level was just too high.
I killed my very first Wasp a moment later. However, I was forced to chug a health potion to restore my HP. Thankfully, Regeneration of the Undead was an incredible skill. At Rank 3, Regeneration of the Undead restored 0.3% of my max HP per second, so it looked like it would restore 1% of my max HP at Rank 10. As a result, I would always regain full health in 100 seconds, and don"t even get me started on the amount of health potions I would be able to cut down on thanks to it! This skill was absolutely irreplaceable for any Undead Swordsman!
Over two hours pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. It was about 1 am, and I had killed countless Wasps during this time. However, I still hadn"t encountered the legendary Level 1 Wasp.
Beep!
It was at this moment I received a message from Wind Fantasy. The pretty girl asked: "What are you doing, Little Cheat?"
"Catching a pet!"
"Oh, I"m working on that as well! What are you trying to catch?"
"A Wasp. What about you?"
"A lil red hat, hehe…"
"What the h.e.l.l"s a lil red hat?"
"You don"t know?"
"Nope. Do enlighten me…"
"It"ll cost you 1 gold!"
A long silence later, Lin Yixin gave up expecting a response from me and sent over an entry—
Fire Blade
Attack ★★★★
Defense ★★★☆
HP ★★★★☆
Agility ★★★☆
Slightly astonished by what I saw, I replied, "Its attack and HP are amazing!"
Lin Yixin must be snickering to herself right now. "Yeah, it"d be nice if I could catch one that has a base number of 70!"
"Yeah, how nice it would be if you run into it and accidentally killed it…"
"How about I kill you, you Little Cheat!"
I laughed loudly at her response and closed the chat window. Then, I looked around me and froze up like a statue. It"s here! G.o.d f.u.c.king dammit it"s finally here!
Just a few steps away in front of me, a Wasp with a beautiful number floating above its head flew slowly across the clearing: Wasp LV-1.
A Level 1 Wasp had finally shown up!
Overwhelmed by joy, I put away even the Weeping Fire Blade and sneaked toward my target with silent steps. I took out a Sealing Card, locked onto the Wasp and threw the card at it!
Swoos.h.!.+
The Sealing Card suddenly transformed into a giant, magical formation and trapped the little Wasp. It then began the taming process!
A green progress bar slowly filled up until it stopped suddenly—
Ding~!
System Notice: Sealing failed. Process can be repeated 4 more times!
My heart clenched painfully. I only had four chances left. If I failed to capture this Wasp by then, it would automatically level up, and all my efforts would have been for nothing! Heavens, please grant me your blessing! Please let me be extraordinarily lucky today!
I threw out another Sealing Card at the Wasp, but the little insect continued to buzz around without a care at all.
Fail!
I gritted my teeth and tried again. Third time"s the charm!
Fail!
Four time"s the charm?
Fail…
My resolve was failing as I let out a desperate wail, "Please don"t toy with me like this!"
I threw out the fifth Sealing Card, wrapping the Wasp in a six-pointed star array. The monster shrank, grew bigger, shrank, and grew bigger again before disappearing in the last moment. A beam of yellow light flew toward me and entered my pet s.p.a.ce, taking up my one and only pet slot. I could never obtain another pet unless I released this Wasp.
Ding~!
System Notice: Congratulations, you have successfully tamed Wasp!
I hurriedly opened my bag and checked its stats.
Wasp
Level: 1
Attack: 5
Agility: 6
Stamina: 3
HP: 5
Growth—
Attack ★★★★☆
Defense ★★★☆
HP ★★★☆
Agility ★★★★☆
I calculated briefly in my head and concluded that the total base number of this Wasp was 19, the legendary 19. The strength of a pet was determined by two things: growth scaling and base number, BN. Different types of pets had different growth scaling and vice versa, but the BN of a pet was completely random. The higher the pet"s BN, the stronger it would become in the future. That was how the term came to be coined.
Unfortunately, the Wasp I caught only had BN of 19. I didn"t know what to think, so I sent Lin Yixin a message. "Yiyi, what"s your opinion on a 19 BN Wasp?"
Lin Yixin replied, "Sounds amazing. Raise it…"
Slightly worried, I asked, "Amazing how, exactly?"
Lin Yixin sent me a smiley face emoji before replying, "I say it"s amazing because it"ll be so much easier for me to kick your a.s.s if you really decide to raise such a s.h.i.+tty pet…"
"f.u.c.k!"
I turned off the chat window. Dammit, this Wasp is complete tras.h.!.+ What should I do? I had invested too much effort to toss it without a thought, but if I truly wanted to become a super pro then raising a trash like this was completely out of the question. As Lin Yixin had warned me earlier, it would be easy for her to destroy me if I chose to stick with a pet like this.
In Heavenblessed, a player could obtain their first pet after reaching Level 30. Once they reached the next level threshold, they would be able to unlock their second pet slot. If I wasn"t mistaken, a player could have only up to three pets at the most, but only one could be active at any given time. If a pet died, it couldn"t be resummoned for 10 minutes. Long story short, demand for high-BN pets was greater now than it would be in the future.
Meanwhile, the Wasp I caught flapped its wings and flew in circles in front of me. The little thing looked like it was incredibly happy.
Troubled, I was just about to leave when a voice came from my right side.
"f.u.c.k! He caught a Level 1 Wasp!"
I turned around and saw none other than Dominating Knight G.o.d and Dominating Warrior G.o.d. The way they stared at my pet greedily reminded me of the story Dong Zhuo and Diaochan.[1]
1. Legend states that Diaochan was one of the Four Beauties of ancient China who had a romance with the warrior Lü Bu and thus caused him to betray and kill his foster father, the tyrannical warlord Dong Zhuo.