Evening arrived in the blink of an eye, and Lin Yixin was already at Level 40. After she equipped the Wither Battle Armor, Fire Dance War Boots and Fire Cloud Axe, she instantly transformed from a noob into a beautiful female warrior. The gigantic burning axe she carried on her shoulder especially made her look strong, impressive and very, very cute.
I commented in amus.e.m.e.nt, "Yiyi, you look very cute as a child…"
Lin Yixin turned red and puffed up the pride of her life. "Excuse me? Who are you calling a child?"
"Oh no, forgive me, I was completely mistaken! Anyway, where should we grind next?"
Lin Yixin chirped excitedly, "Let"s go to a high-level map next!"
"Which one?"
"Dragonbone Mountain Range!"
"Are you suicidal!? You"re only Level 40!"
"What"s there to be afraid of? It"s exactly because my level is so low that dying once or twice hardly matters…"
"Well, that"s true. Let"s go then!"
……
Side by side, we travelled to the teleportation formation of Floating Ice City and teleported to Dark Moon City. Then, we moved straight to Dragonbone Mountain Range.
Dragonbone Mountain Range was the most valuable map in the entire Center, so there was no better place to grind up one"s level as quickly as possible than there. Even better, it was a map where I could also level up alongside Yiyi.
I hid my equipment"s visual effects completely and adjusted the l.u.s.ter to the lowest setting possible. I even altered the shape of the equipment so that I could hide my profile as much as I could. After grabbing a couple more Silver-grade items for Lin Yixin, we finally exited the city. To the undiscerning eye, it looked like we were two noobs on their first adventure in this strange, new world. However, our levels were so poor that practically everyone around us could ignore our settings and see our IDs, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Wind Fantasy, the two most famous IDs in the entire China server right now. It was practically impossible to keep a low profile like this.
……
"Oh right! I almost forgot about something very important, Little Cheat!"
Lin Yixin"s sudden halt and turn around caused me to b.u.mp into her, which I immediately turned into a gentle hug before asking, "What is it?"
"You promised to give me the MVP reward of the Nation War, right? Did you even check what it is yet?"
I exclaimed in realization, "Holy s.h.i.+t, you"re right. I completely forgot about it. I sure hope I haven"t sold it to a vendor!"
"You are dead if you did!" Lin Yixin raged cutely.
The first time I scanned through my bag, I found nothing. Thankfully, I spotted rose-colored metal armor wristguards with silver bells attached to them on my second attempt. The bells made crisp, melodious sounds when shaken. It was extremely soothing to the ear.
I removed the item from my bag and waved my hand above it. What we saw stunned the both of us to speechlessness—
Devil Bell (Cambrian-grade Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★)
Defense: 4400
Magic Resist: 3750
Strength: +1100
Stamina: +1150
Agility: +1050
Intelligence: +1000
Tactics: +120
Pa.s.sive: Increases user"s attack power by 50%
Pa.s.sive: Increases user"s max HP by 10000
Outstanding Property: Sure Hit. User"s attacks will never miss.
Slots: 12
Property: Level Requirement nullified.
Introduction: During the ancient times, devils roamed the lands, and an evil beast threatened to upend the roots of the universe. A G.o.ddess was dispatched by the heavens to deal with the evil beast, and in the end, both ent.i.ties killed each other in combat. The G.o.ddess"s crystallized divine soul absorbed the evil beast"s remains and transformed into a Divine Armament after countless years. Today, it is known as the Devil Bell, an item that can disrupt a person"s mind and charm its enemies.
Level Requirement: 200
……
I was silent for a very long time, and so was Lin Yixin.
In the end, I started, "Devil Bell, huh. A Level 200 Cambrian-grade Divine Armament, huh…"
Lin Yixin could barely keep herself from splitting her cheeks. "Is that so? Sounds pretty amazing. Now give it to me. You promised!"
To say that I was reluctant to part with the item would be a ma.s.sive understatement. My hand literally shook when I pa.s.sed it to Lin Yixin. I never thought that the MVP reward of the Nation War would be a top-tier equipment that one could use even during the latter stages of the game, and the fact that it appeared now only made it all the more precious. Its Defense and Magic Resist were so broken that Lin Yixin could wear the wristguards only and still bash faces in without any problem whatsoever!
Lin Yixin absolutely adored the Devil Bell wristguards. It was an extremely beautiful pair of armor, and it had a property that nullified the level requirement, allowing it to be worn by even a Level 1 player. Obviously, this item was perfect for the current Lin Yixin and could only go to her. Moreover, its Outstanding Property, Sure Hit, ensured that the user"s attacks would never miss, meaning that Lin Yixin could always land a hit regardless of the level gap—forced misses in PvP battles were an exception, of course. Long story short, it was ridiculously broken.
Whoos.h.!.+
Lin Yixin whined in happiness when she equipped the wristguard and checked her stats. "Wah, my stats are skyrocketing! I have over 10k HP at Level 40! My Defense is so high…"
I rolled my eyes at her reaction. "Of course your stats are amazing; it"s a Divine Armament! Now come on, your grinding speed will definitely skyrocket with this Devil Bell!"
"Hmm, now that I think about it, what is a Cambrian-grade Divine Armament?" Lin Yixin held my arm and asked as we walked together.
I thought for a moment before answering, "I haven"t gone online for the past couple of days, so all I did was read up on info regarding Heavenblessed. From what I remember, Immortal is the next grade after Heaven, and Divine Armament is the next grade after Immortal. Divine Armaments can generally be split into three categories, namely Basic Divine Armaments, Average Divine Armaments and Advanced Divine Armaments. However, advanced ones aren"t the strongest. There are another four grades above that which are called Cambrian, Ancient, Archean and Hadean. Long story short, this Devil Bell is almost some of the best of the best equipment you could have…"
Lin Yixin nodded and caressed the wristguards lovingly. "I"m going to wear these wristguards you gave me until the end, Little Cheat…"
"Mn mn!"
The bells of the wristguards rang melodiously as the two of us walked through the forest side by side. It sounded as crisp as we were happy.
……
We encountered several Level 130 Wild Bears at the foot of the mountain, but they were all taken out with ease by the Phantom Wolf King. I easily rose from Level 70 to Level 81 thanks to it. My pet didn"t gain much experience because the Wild Bears shared almost the same level, but in my case, it was the same as killing mobs 60 levels above me. Naturally, the experience reward was absolutely incredible.
We also encountered a group of Sky City players who were attempting to a.s.semble a full 10-man party on an open plain, but neither Lin Yixin nor I were interested in joining them. Using the forest as our cover, We sneaked our way up the mountain without being noticed. The higher we climbed, the higher the mobs" levels were. However, it still wasn"t enough to satisfy our demands. In fact, Lin Yixin was so ambitious that she insisted on challenging Level 160 ancient mobs with her noobish Level 50 character!
We eventually entered a maple tree forest somewhere on the mountain range. It was currently autumn season in the game, and the falling red leaves looked incredibly beautiful.
I had the Armored Ice Qilin Horse out, but didn"t ride it. Lin Yixin had her tiny Ice Dragon Kris out as well. Having to restart from zero just like her master, the little female dragon was Level 37 and the size of a millstone right now. She soared in the sky like a small black crow and sounded almost as shrill as one.
I asked, "Can the ice dragon carry you, Yiyi? Dragon knights, man!"
Lin Yixin shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. It"s a pet, not a mount!"
I curled my lips and was about to say something when the ice dragon suddenly swooped down from the sky and bit my arm. I couldn"t shake her off no matter what I tried!
"Huh. Why does it look like she holds a grudge against you?" Lin Yixin asked in surprise.
I blushed, but I dared not bring up the time I dug out a Qilin Stone from her pet"s a.s.shole, so I said, "Maybe she just can"t stand how straight-laced I am."
"You think I"c believe that?" Lin Yixin giggled a bit before pointing to the front. "Look, Little Cheat! That looks like a high-level mob. What level is it?"
I activated Dark Pupils and shook my head. "I can"t see its level. It must be at least 60 levels higher than me!"
"In that case, it has to be a Level 150+ ancient mob. Let"s go!"
"Okay!"
The mob was a brawny mountainous giant lizard. It looked a bit like a dragon, except it was smaller and lying between a pair of hills with its eyes closed like a crocodile. It was actually quite scary especially since I was only Level 80 or so. The mob"s level was literally twice my own.
"Go, little wolf…"
As usual, the cannon fodder goes first. The Phantom Wolf King was Level 150, so it didn"t suffer any level penalty and wouldn"t miss its attacks. It was safe to have it roleplay the pillar of the party!
After I used my pet to launch an attack, I attacked from the side at the same time!
Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash, go!
Thud thud thud! A column of damage numbers popped above the Mountainous Giant Lizard"s body—
27832!
MISS!
MISS!
19283!
My damage wasn"t bad, but it was nothing compared to the time I used Resurrection Art repeatedly and stacked attack boosts like a madman. That version of me would"ve dealt over 100k damage per hit, and sadly, I still missed 50% of my attacks!
The good news was that the Phantom Wolf King had no such problems.
It wasn"t long before the ancient mob"s health dropped to rock bottom.
Thud thud thud!
I backed away and stopped the Phantom Wolf King from attacking at the same time. Then, I shouted to Lin Yixin, "Now, Yiyi! Just use your strongest move…"
Lin Yixin didn"t have a “strongest move”. What she had was the strongest combo. She immediately pulled out a Dark Steel–grade Level 40 dagger at her waist, activated Moon Gaze, and executed an Extreme Break + Barrier Break combo!
9828!
5827!
It was just enough to delete the mob"s final sliver of HP. She actually did it!
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoos.h.!.+
She gained 3 levels in a row. It was an incredibly efficient way to grind, and I foresaw that leveling past 100 before the day was over was no problem at all.
……
And so, we grinded Mountainous Giant Lizards in Dragonbone Mountain Range.
The Phantom Wolf King was the main character who carried the heaviest burden of the grind while the two of us leechers fought to out-killsteal each other. Whoever got the last hit, got the last hit. We left behind a long trail of Mountainous Giant Lizards and collected a ton of magic stones and equipment during this time. It was smooth sailing all the way.
We continued grinding until 9:30 pm or so, and I had risen to Level 110, and Lin Yixin, Level 102. She was flying through the levels because I had given up most of the experience to her. From the looks of it, both of us would be catching up with the average player level in a week or so.
Chiang!
After Lin Yixin hit a giant lizard in the head with her axe and killed it, Lin Yixin looked at me and said, "So hungry. I"m starting to miss you, Little Cheat…"
I nodded knowingly. "Wait for me. I"m coming over to eat supper with you right now!"
"Good. Show up soon!"