"Crouch down!"
"Yes, yes, I am not blind, you know? Just inform me about the attacks at my back!"
I shouted as I crouched down. A sharp tail just passed from above me.
"Fuck, these guys are annoying."
I cursed out loud as I threw a clone of Eclipse at the monkey-like monster that had just tried to attack me with its sharp tail.
Jeze and I had come to the outskirts of the southern forest to hunt for monsters and increase our level. Unsurprisingly, there was a system to party up with NPCs too.
Kai had tried to stop us from coming here, but when I said that it was for us to get stronger and have a chance to fight the Grivantula, he gave up on his persuasion.
[Party
Players: None
NPCs: Jezebeth (Lv 78)]
Surprisingly, when Jeze said that she was a warrior, she wasn't kidding. She was the strongest ogre in the village after Kai and had quite a high level. She used a spear as her weapon and was quite proficient in it too.
Sadly, her spear wasn't special and was made out of a wooden handle and a rusted spearhead. Nevertheless, she could still contend with these demonic monkeys even with the level gap.
"Bitch! You are dead!"
I said as I generated three clones of the Eclipse at once and threw them all on the white-haired, red-eyed and sharp-tailed demonic monkey.
Kukuku Keeeee—!
[You've hit a weak spot, damage dealt is dramatically increased.]
[Dual wielding is activated, and half of the damage will be replicated from the original weapon.]
[You've achieved a critical hit, damage dealt is dramatically increased.]
[The target has frozen for 0.5 seconds]
[You've dealt 988,788 damage to the target.]
[You've defeated a Demonic Monkey.]
[277,845,982 experience points have been acquired.]
[Your party member 'Jezebeth' had also received 30% of the total experience gained.]
Thud!
The 2-meter-tall monkey who was jumping around fell to the ground with a thud.
"GG Shura!"
Jeze used the gaming slang I had taught her just a while ago as she gave me a thumbs up and slashed down at the half-dead demonic monkey she had been fighting for a while.
The monkey struggled for a while before his body stopped moving.
[Your party member 'Jezebeth' had defeated a Demonic Monkey.]
[You have gained 30% of the total experience gained by them.]
"See, I ain't that weak either."
Jezebeth said smugly as she rubbed her nose. The action would seem cuter if she wasn't covered in blood.
"Yeah, good job."
I praised her as I looked around. These demonic monkeys were considered the lowest-level monsters in the dark forest as they were in the outermost area of the forest. The trees were too big to be normal, their roots spanning more than half a mile outside the forest.
With my current level, I didn't dare to try and go inside the forest. Not to mention, the Demonic Monkeys had occupied the outermost area with huge roots. Their levels spanned from 80 to 90; some of the stronger ones were even 91 or 92. But none of them was more than that.
At the start, it was quite troublesome dealing with them, especially when I had already almost died on the first day we had come out to hunt.
But after that, I was slowly getting used to the hunting speed, and both, Jeze and I were steadily levelling up.
I looked at my status window and a smile formed on my face.
'Just two more levels…'
Yes, after a week of hunting and grinding the same monsters, I was close to my former level. I was already level 92, and I would soon reach my former level. I almost couldn't believe the speed of my levelling, but it was all thanks to the buff.
[A 275% experience boost has been given until you catch up to your previous level.]
The buff from finding a new dimension was already wasted with me being knocked out for more than two days, which was like more than eight days in the game term. But the buff from my level reset was still very amazing, to the point that I had almost caught up to my existing level in 2 days' worth of time, a week in-game time.
It was as amazing as the fact that Abyss was in a dark yet lit-up state 24/7.
"So, are we done yet? I am kind of tired…"
Jeze said, moving her shoulders to get rid of the soreness.
"I say, you go back home first. I will join you in a while. Leave the hunted guys to me. I will bring them with me when I come."
I offered. In this world, Jeze was a living person. Hence, even she gets tired, especially when she is contending with monsters above her level.
"If you say so, I won't join the fight and still be on the sidelines in case you need me. Let's go home together when you are done."
She said as she swung her spear in a circle, got rid of the blood on it, and then hung it on her back. I just nodded, and she jumped from one root to the other until she was far enough from the area of the demonic monkeys.
The only saving grace about these monkeys was that they didn't attack in a group like the piranhas and would only be alone most of the time. Even when the other monkeys saw their kind fighting, they wouldn't join unless anyone stepped in their area.
I looked at the corpses laid around me, which we had piled up in one place. Then I looked at the demon monkey on the faraway root.
***
Phweeeeet!
Jezebeth had just come a bit far away and sat on a large root going upward when she heard a whistle.
It was Shura who had whistled to gain the attention of two of the demonic monkeys sitting a bit far away from him.
Screech!
The monkeys screeched, their lips going upwards, showing their dangerous canines as their hollow red eyes stared angrily at Shura.
This grabbed even the monkeys' attention. They didn't make any moment as they just screeched as if warning Shura not to come close.
"What? Are you guys so scared that you couldn't even move?"
Shura taunted as he spat. In [Mayhem], gaining a monster's aggro was a task that was both easy and hard. Most monsters were easily attracted to the weakest people, as their instinct told them to kill the weaker ones first.
Which was pretty dangerous during a team fight, as a healer could get injured. That's why, in such games, there were always some roles for people to fill in during the team fights.
A tank was a taunter and aggro taker. Tanks were players with a defence-type skill set that allowed them to have much higher health than normal people with higher defence and a highly pitiful amount of offence. In addition, most tanks had crowd control (CC) and stun skills to delay their enemies for a while.
After the tank, there were the close-range damage dealers. They would deal as much damage as possible while trying not to take the aggro of the opponent. Behind them would be the long-range damage dealers like archers and mages. And at the end of the lines were healers and supports who would buff and heal the team from the backlines.
A tank could take the aggro of an opponent in many ways. But the best way was always the generic one: to insult them. As long as they could make out people's body language or understand human language, the tank's job would be considered as good as done.
Right now, Shura was doing all the jobs alone. Of course, many solo players did it. But even the solo players won't try to invite more than one monster at a time by themselves as it would be troublesome.
The two monkey's started running towards Shura, using their sharp, steel-like tails as a spring to bounce their bodies further. However, as soon as they got close enough to Shura, his body suddenly disintegrated into the surroundings, and he disappeared.
Gibber! Gibber!
The monkeys were threateningly shouting while trying to look around and see just where the human suddenly disappeared to.
Jezebeth, who had watched everything from afar, giggled, seeing the monster's reaction until that refreshing human's grinning face slowly started appearing again from behind the monkeys, who were now crying in agony as two short blades had been dug deep into the back of their necks.
Shura twisted and turned his blade until both the monkeys finally dropped dead. Since he was already level 92, it was getting easier and easier to deal with the demonic monkeys. But, of course, it had also gotten harder to level up.
Shura wanted to get back to level 94 before returning to Rewan village. Since he would lose the experience boost anyways, he wanted to catch up to his previous level as soon as possible.
After that, Shura kept taunting and calling more demonic monkey's toward himself as he killed them with different methods every time. Sometimes, he would throw a blade on a monkey's forehead, which instantly dug deep and killed it. Sometimes, he would slit their throats.
When the cooldown of his [Camouflage] was reset, that's when the monkey's died without knowing how.
Jezebeth watched all this with her chin on her hands, her eyes a bit dreamy.
***
Phew!
After 4 hours of continuous grinding, it was finally here!
[ Name: Shura
Level: 94 (0.1/100)%
Jobs: Night Alchemist
Race: Human (Partial)
Class: Dulwak's Heir
*The probability of dealing additional damage while hitting a weak spot has increased.
*All blade-type items can be equipped with some penalty if level requirements aren't met.
*Magic and Physical power can be used simultaneously.
*Grants a special job (Night Alchemist)
Titles - (Legend)
*Resistance from all types of status conditions.
*NPCs will easily recognize you.
*A rebirth after every death.
(Dimensional Duke)
(Gluttonous Fiend)
Health: 4615/4615. Mana: 1560/1560.
Physical Attack: 4982
Magic Attack: 1585
Physical Defence: 874
Magic Defence: 717
Stats
Strength: 132
Intelligence: 70
Vitality: 85
Agility: 117
Dexterity: 34
Wisdom: 10
Special Stats
Luck: 16
Perseverance: 5
Sharpness: 5
Sensitivity: 2
Dignity: 2
Undying: 1
Insight: 2
Heroic: 1
Divinity: 1
Remaining Stat Points: 420]
Now, this is what you call fantastic!
'Can I fight with Zultan now?'
If I invested all my remaining stat points, then maybe. But the stances were still dubious, and I didn't want to win barely. I wanted to trample on him.
"I need to level up a bit more to fight off the Grivantula."
According to the villagers, the Grivantula should be around level 140 to 150, the same level as Zultan. But in a fight, it would be Zultan's victory. A monster usually had more health and defence than a player or NPC, but their major drawback was their monstrous bodies and dull brain.
NPCs and humans can be quick-witted and come up with various strategies. The power gap could easily be reduced by using tactics during the battle. Hence, in a fight between a same-level NPC and monster, it would be the NPCs victory unless the monster was a mini-boss or above.
Boss monsters were different, and people would have a shit ton of trouble dealing with bosses even below their level.
Anyways.
"It feels good to be back where you ended."
Although the level was the same, the power difference was extraordinary. Even three of my older 94-level versions would find it difficult to deal with me now. That's how big the difference was.
Since I was done with my goal, I stored all the bodies in my inventory, began one root after another, and reached Jezebeth.
"Are you done?"
"As you can see."
I replied shortly to Jezebeth's question as we started heading back home.
I had a lot of stuff to do, and the most important of it all was the Alchemy.
..
//DreamNote//
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