The first floor of the Arctic Ice Cave was filled with these Level 85 elite mobs called Ice Charms. The entire first ring was covered in these mobs. Fortunately, our party's DPS was very high, so we were able to kill them quickly.
But even so, by the time we reached the end of the first floor, 4 hours had already passed without us noticing!
The Level 85 mobs gave me a lot of experience, so I leveled up to 68. Ling Yue also leveled up to 65. Ling Xue, Bing Cha, and Qin Yun all leveled up twice. Ling Xue was Level 63, Qin Yun was Level 61, and Bing Cha was Level 59. The rest of the girls had leveled up due to their low DPS.
A lot of equipment had dropped. All of them were Frost Weapons. Frost Spears, Frost Shields, Frost Battle Axes, Frost Daggers, and so on. There were a total of 12 Silver-grade equipment. I put them all into my bag. I would appraise them later and sell them in the shop for a good price.
As for my Sin, I could remove 500 or so Sin every hour with this kind of high-intensity grinding. That was why the names of Bing Cha and Summer had turned white. Only Ling Xue, Ling Yue, and my names were still red. Ling Xue's DPS was too high, and she had killed more people than me. It would probably take a long time to wash her name clean.
Tap tap...
Ling Yue used the Scepter of the Snow Goddess to hit the giant block of ice at the end of the first floor. It was this giant block of ice that blocked the way to the second floor. Unfortunately, the little mage's strength wasn't enough to move it at all.
Ling Xue smiled. "Big sis, let me do it!"
Ling Yue nodded her head and took a few steps back. Ling Xue stepped forward and suddenly swung her Thunderous Sword. A dazzling radiance flashed past and with a "Keng" sound, the ice block that was the size of a small mountain trembled a few times. Many cracks appeared, but it was not completely destroyed.
"Eh?
It's so sturdy … "
Ling Xue slashed a few more times, but she only managed to cut off a lot of ice and snow. It was such a big block of ice, and it would take at least an hour to clear it.
Thus, I went forward and said, "I'll do it, I'll do it. Ling Xue, come closer."
Ling Xue understood and walked to my side. I lightly raised my Flame Spear and in the next moment, a golden shadow broke through the wind and directly hit the ice!
Boom!
In the midst of the loud sound, the ice that had been ravaged by the Profound Ice Sword Qi could no longer withstand such an impact, and immediately broke into pieces, many of the ice pieces also fell down. At this time, Qin Yun walked to the side of the frozen wall, stretched out her hand and pressed on a protruding frost stone statue, suddenly a hidden frozen staircase appeared on the right side!
"Hey, how can you find the mechanism like this …" Qin Yun snapped.
Ling Xue and I exchanged glances with each other before smiling. "This … how did we know that the entrance to the second floor was here?
We used a bit of force, but it doesn't matter! "
After saying that, I walked at the very front and walked down the icy stairs. The top was very slippery, and I had to use my Flame Spear to pierce through the ice in order to stand firm. Ling Xue was the same as me, using her Thunderbolt Sword to support her body as she walked down the stairs. When I looked back, I saw that Ling Yue was awkwardly standing on the stairs. Her staff wasn't that sharp, and couldn't pierce through the ice at all.
Thus, Ling Xue immediately went back to pick up her sister. I also walked back and helped Qin Yun down. Qin Yun smiled very sweetly. Bing Cha pulled Xia Xia Tian down with one hand, and Zi Yue and Luo Yu Soundless walked forward hand in hand.
When all of us stood on the second floor, we were shocked by the monsters in front of us. They were actually crabs that were half the height of a person, and they walked sideways!
These crabs were transparent and bright, as if they were made of ice. However, their two frighteningly strong front claws made people flinch!
【Crystal Crab】 (Elite Monster)
Level: 88
Attack: 1120-1350
Defense: 400
HP: 50000
Skills: 【Ice Flurry】, 【Lifesteal Attack】
Passive: An evil crab that lives in extremely cold caves all year round. Its Flurry and Lifesteal Attack are terrifying.
… …
I shared the Crystal Crab's stats with the party. Ling Yue immediately frowned and said, "Such high Attack. Scholar and Snow, you have to be careful. When there are more than 10 of these monsters, I'm afraid it'll be difficult to block them all!"
I replied, "Yes!"
Ling Xue stuck out her tongue and said with a smile, "This reminds me of that restaurant on Guanqian Street. They have a Crystal Crab Roll. It's really delicious …"
Ling Yue smiled exasperatedly and looked at the time. She said, "It's only 11 pm right now. We definitely have to pull an all-nighter today. When we wake up tomorrow, we'll go there and eat. Last time, I sold the Soul Dagger for 500 thousand, and I haven't touched it yet. It's best to use it as the workshop's operating funds."
At this time, Silent Rain had already lured a Crystal Crab over with an Ice Arrow. I immediately blocked it and used Total Annihilation to pull its aggro!
“2101！”
“2247！”
“2315！”
I instantly took out 6000 of the Crystal Crab's HP. At the same time, the Vampiric Ring absorbed 4% of the Crystal Crab's HP and my HP rose by 240. After another Shield Break Slash, the Crystal Crab lost another 3000 HP.
However, this Crystal Crab was not easy to bully. It immediately raised its large pincers and swung them at my chest armor twice. Yellow light flashed on the pincers, and I was immediately hit for 800 HP!
Then, the Crystal Crab waved its pincers again. A bloody light flashed, and while the attack dealt 500 HP to me, it also recovered 100 HP!
Damn!
It's sucking my blood!
Qin Yun chuckled and healed me back to full health with a wave of her staff. At the same time, Ling Yue's [Fire Dragon Spell] covered the Crystal Crab's body. After being burned by the flames, the Crystal Crab immediately writhed in pain. At the same time, the damage it received was shocking!
“3847！”
It wasn't a critical hit!
Ling Yue's mouth fell open. She said in shock, "My magic attack, is it really that powerful?"
Ling Xue said with a smile, "Sis, your fire attack definitely counters the ice monsters here. That must be it. Why don't you try the small AoE skill, Scarlet Sea of Flames?"
Ling Yue nodded and immediately waved her staff. The Crystal Crab in a 10x10 area was immediately engulfed in a sea of flames. Although the area of effect of this spell was relatively small, its attack power could not be underestimated. The Crystal Crab in the sea of flames almost took over a thousand damage every second!
After a moment of chaos, around a dozen Crystal Crab's aggro was immediately pulled over. I quickly switched to my Star Chasing Bow and threw a Thousand Blade Arrow at the group of crabs. In a short period of time, my Thousand Blade Arrow's damage was higher than Scarlet Sea of Flames. In the end, the Crystal Crabs immediately swarmed over. After a messy combo and lifesteal attack, my HP immediately dropped to around a third. I was so scared that I retreated.
Ling Xue raised her Thunderclap Sword to block. She raised her hand and used a [Profound Ice Attack]. Along with Ling Yue's [Scarlet Sea of Flames], the Crystal Crabs in the flames were all stunned by the [Profound Ice Sword]. In the end, under the powerful combination of the twin sisters, the Crystal Crabs started to fall. Gold flashed everywhere, mixed with a few pieces of equipment.
I just used my Star Chasing Bow to deal damage. After Qin Yun healed me, I switched out with Ling Xue. The two of them took turns to be tanks and were able to block the attacks of the Crystal Crabs.
Ten minutes later, the Crystal Crabs on the ice path in front of us all fell to the ground. After Ling Xue swept around like a whirlwind, all the spoils of war were collected. Not only did she get nearly a thousand gold, she also got four pieces of ice equipment, all of which were weapons. Without a doubt, this place only dropped weapons. But it didn't matter. Right now, what players lacked the most was weapons, especially high level Silver Tier. Those were in high demand. After all, Gold Tier was already considered high-end equipment. Not everyone could have them.
The second floor of the ice path was filled with crabs. The densely packed Level 85 elite monsters made us grin from ear to ear. Ling Yue said, "The leveling map we found today is really good. It's all elite monsters. I think I can at least reach Level 3 in one night. The gap between me and Hellfire will continue to grow!"
I nodded. "Yeah, after the level gap grows, there's no need to grind day and night like this. I can't even guarantee the regularity of three meals a day."
Ling Yue smiled faintly and asked softly, "Scholar, will you get tired of this kind of life?
Sometimes, you can only eat one meal a day? "
I stilled and said with a smile, "Just tired, but definitely not tired..."
At the side, Bing Cha smiled meaningfully. "You won't get tired. It's not a game, it's a person, right?"
I smiled and nodded. "That's right. What, beautiful Bing Cha, do you have any thoughts?"
"I... don't have any thoughts!"
Bing Cha smiled exasperatedly. "Hurry up and grind. The sooner we kill all the monsters in this ice cave, the more your red names will be gone. Otherwise, we'll all have panda eyes when we log off, and we'll have to put on light makeup when we go out. Troublesome ~ ~"
As far as I could remember, the girls in the workshop didn't put on makeup. They were all natural beauties, and makeup was a waste on them.
And so, we continued to grind. In order to maximize our leveling efficiency, we lured around 20 Crystal Crabs each time. Then, Ling Xue and I would tank the monsters separately. When Ling Xue tanked the monsters, I acted as the damage output. Thousand Blade Arrow's damage was pretty good, and Ling Xue's Profound Ice Sword Aura became the ultimate skill to control the situation. After a group stun, coupled with Ling Yue's Scarlet Flame Sea, the Crystal Crabs were in so much pain that they wanted to die.
Around three in the morning, Flying Fire sent me a message: "Scholar, the people I brought have all cleared their red names. Do you have any more quests?"
I replied with a smile, "No. Rest early, brother. When you log on tomorrow, continue to bring your thousand-man party to grind experience. It's safer that way, and you can also gain a lot of guild experience. Let's try to get Snow Moon to Rank 2 within a week!"
"Yes, alright!"
Flying Fire excitedly logged off. Not long after, Melancholy also came to report that his hundred-man party had all cleared their red names. Melancholy was a very good leader, so I comforted him a bit and expressed my appreciation for his contributions. After that, Melancholy logged off in satisfaction.
After so many years, I had come to understand that a leader must know how to comfort their subordinates in addition to selecting talents and appointing talents. A word of praise was enough to make a person work for you. This was a very simple matter. A word of praise and affirmation wouldn't waste a lot of saliva, so I definitely wouldn't be stingy.
The people of Sword Fire didn't need my comfort at all. Instead, they told me to take it easy and not die before their red names were cleared. After that, Dragon Soul, Ghost Flame, and Judging Sky led the experts of Sword Fire deep into Moonlight Forest and found a leveling ground called Flame Demon Encampment. After accepting the quest, they happily grinded mobs and leveled all night long. It was probably the same situation as Xue Yue Studio.
After arranging all the matters of Snow Moon, I let out a deep breath. Only now did I realize that my prestige on Snow Moon was so high that it was even higher than the guild leader, Ling Yue. When Dragon Soul and Flying Fire had any problems, they only needed to report to Ling Yue. As for the solution, it was all up to me.
Seeing my expression, Ling Yue smiled sweetly. "Scholar, thank you for your hard work."
I glanced at her and said with a smile, "Don't you think that's a little insincere?"
Ling Yue said, "How about I bring you along when I take Ling Xue to eat seafood?"
"Of course. Even if you don't bring me, I'll go with you."
Ling Xue looked back and said, "Ranged DPS, what are you doing?"
"Oh, oh..."
So we continued to kill mobs.
Unknowingly, we continued to kill mobs along the ice path. Since the edges of the ice path were extremely slippery, it was easy to fall into them. Therefore, our group pressed against the wall as we pushed forward. As more Crystal Crabs died, our experience bar rose rapidly. Almost every time we burned a group of mobs, our experience bar would rise by around 3%!
When it was past 3 am, all the Crystal Crabs on the second floor of the ice cave had died. We had traded them for enough experience to level up and generous item rewards. There was no need to mention gold, and a lot of Frost Equipment had dropped. However, they were all weapons and no armor. I threw all 27 Frost Equipment into my bag. Once I cleared my red name and returned to the city to sell them, I would return them to the workshop.
In a short four hours, I had reached Level 68 with 97% experience. It looked like reaching Level 70 tonight was no problem. The beautiful mage Ling Yue, who was ranked second on the Heavenly Ranking, was Level 66, two levels behind me. Ling Xue had also reached Level 64, firmly occupying the third place in the China server. At this point, the twins and I firmly occupied the top three spots of the China server...
This time, I didn't impulsively try to cut the ice. Under Qin Yun's guidance, we activated the mechanism to go to the next floor. We walked along the ice stairs to the third floor. The monsters on the third floor weren't as many as on the second floor, but they were definitely much larger. They were all towering stone giants!