"Aha, you've finally returned, young skeleton. Everyone else, look at me normally:!"
Sentinel Leader Fark waved his white bone arm and said in a hoarse voice, "Ever since you killed a lot of skeleton soldiers yesterday, the Undead Lord hiding in the darkness has finally appeared. Right now, he's gathered a bunch of skeletons and is provoking us in the graveyard. To defend the honor of Frost Mound, go and kill 200 Cyan Skeletons and collect 20 Cyan Skeleton Fingers. You will be rewarded handsomely if you bring them to me!"
I quickly clicked "Confirm" while rejoicing that I was the only player in Frost Mound. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten such a good quest.
Ding ~!
System Notice: You have accepted the quest [Cyan Skeletons]!
Description: Head to the graveyard next to Frost Mound and kill 200 Cyan Skeletons and collect 20 Cyan Skeleton Fingers. However, you must be careful. The powerful Undead Lord has appeared in the graveyard, and you are no match for him. You must escape as soon as possible.
… …
I was full of confidence. Hmph, 200 Cyan Skeletons? It looks like it'll take me half a day to kill them all. Perfect, Du Thirteen should be out of the starting village in half a day's time. I'll pay him a visit and see how he's doing.
I walked up to Undead Trainer Suren and tried to talk to him to see if there were any new skills I could learn. To my disappointment, there was nothing. Suren glared at me and cackled. "Little skeleton, you might feel hungry, but don't worry. There's a lot of rotten meat in the graveyard. If you want to eat something fresh, that's fine too. There's a human town one kilometer away from Frost Mound, hahaha!"
Hunger?
I suddenly recalled the Rotten Corpse Pool outside Frost Mound. That must be the dining hall of the undead!
Fuck!
My stomach spasmed uncontrollably. This is so disgusting! I swear I'll never eat a corpse!
I checked my character status and confirmed that I had a Hunger bar. Right now, it was 71 points, so I could last a while. Once it dropped below 20 points, my stats would drop drastically. At that time, I would have to eat something!
Forget it, I'm not going to starve to death. I'll go grind first!
…
After exiting Frost Mound, I headed straight for the Great Graveyard. Today, the monsters here had respawned. They were not Level 12 Incomplete Skeletons, but a middle-level undead with green bones — Cyan Skeleton LV-15.
Not bad, a Level 15 monster. At Level 11, I wouldn't have been able to challenge it. But with my Glowing Chestplate, Black Bracers, and Green Blade, I had a fighting chance!
I patrolled the area. Hmm, the monsters on the south side of the graveyard are fewer, so it's suitable for me to train alone.
He silently approached a Cyan Skeleton and launched an attack in an instant!
Slayer Slash!
He let out a low roar and instantly unleashed a skill. A ball of green light enveloped the blade of his sword and pressed down on the shoulder of the Green Skeleton!
“157！”
Not bad, the attack power is still so sharp!
After his first hit, he followed up with two basic attacks. Although the damage wasn't as high as Slayer Slash's, it was still quite good.
"Roar!"
The Cyan Skeleton let out a deep roar. Since it was a high-level monster, it launched a counterattack!
Pchht!
The cyan bone sword pierced through my chest. Unfortunately for me, I have ribs, so you can't stab my heart!
“94！”
A huge damage number rose above my head, but I wasn't as relaxed as I was before. At Level 11, I only had 230 HP, so the Cyan Skeleton could kill me in three hits. The good news was that the Cyan Skeleton's attack power was insane, but its movement speed and attack speed were barely passable. This was one of the secrets of my tactics — speed against slowness!
Crack crack crack!
I dashed around the Cyan Skeleton in a beautiful zigzag pattern. It let out a series of roars, but it was too slow to turn around. By the time it turned around, I was already on the other side of the Cyan Skeleton. This way, I was able to dodge at least 75% of the Cyan Skeleton's attacks.
From start to finish, the Cyan Skeleton only managed to hit me twice, and it took me seven strikes to kill it!
"Roar!"
The first Cyan Skeleton died with a screech, and my experience bar rose by a huge chunk. Not only that, it dropped a 98 Quality Small Magic Stone and a cyan skeleton finger, but it wasn't the end of the fight either!
Not bad, I tossed the loot into my bag and continued my search for the next Cyan Skeleton.
While grinding, I checked Floating Ice City's ranking board and discovered that my Level 11 ranking had dropped to 127th place. Damn, there must have been a lot of madmen grinding all night long while I was sleeping. This leveling efficiency was outrageous.
Wind Fantasy, who used to be the number one player on the ranking board, had dropped to the fifth place. He was now Level 14, so he probably logged off to rest. Gui Guzi, who used to be the number two player on the ranking board, had replaced the number one player on the ranking board. That undead knight had reached Level 16! What a leveling madman!
I couldn't help but smile. Yeah, calm down. Levels don't matter. Killing Cyan Skeletons was actually very fast, and I could probably reach Level 14 or even Level 15 by the end of this quest. Levels were important in the early stages of the game, but equipment was just as important. An expert without equipment was nothing but an empty shell.
Also, I discovered a familiar ID in Floating Ice City's ranking board — Hot Sun. That's right, it was Xu Yang, the number one elder of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls.
A year ago, He Yi founded Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and recruited heroes from all over the world. Xu Yang and I were invited almost at the same time, and together with the other two girls, the four of us were known as the "Sun, Moon, Star" Four Elders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Xu Yang's ID was Hot Sun, representing the sun, and my ID was Falling Dust, representing the dust.
Time passed, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls rose and fell for more than a year. In the end, they were wiped out by the Martial God guild, Candle Dragon. When the guild was disbanded, there were only five of us left. The guild leader, He Yi, and the four of us. Just thinking about it made me sigh with emotion.
I hadn't expected Xu Yang to appear in Floating Ice City, and he was ranked 21st at that. If there were no surprises, he would be working for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls again!
I couldn't help but chuckle when I recalled He Yi's beautiful face. "Boss, I only have 0.7 seconds left. Just you wait, I'll definitely hold up the sky of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"
I made up my mind. I would make a name for myself in Floating Ice City, then go home and rejoin Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. I would create a new history of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls with He Yi!
… …
"Roar roar …"
Another Cyan Skeleton died. After absorbing its undead soul spark, I felt energized. Suddenly, an idea occurred to me. Oh right, there's a skill I haven't used yet — Death Plunder!
That's right, Death Plunder was a skill that allowed me to search the corpses of the dead.
I lowered my body and spread my fingers. A ball of green light appeared in my palm and enveloped the Cyan Skeleton's corpse. Ding! I found something!
[Broken Cotton Wool] Grade: Poor, Usage: None...
Fuck!
He was just a piece of trash. I casually tossed the cotton away and continued to look for my next target.
After that, I used Death Plunder on every mob I killed. Of course, the Cyan Skeletons here gave me a lot of experience, but they gave me very little. More than 95% of them gave me Broken Cotton Wool, and the remaining 5% gave me nothing at all.
An hour or so later, I had killed almost a hundred Cyan Skeletons, and my level had risen to 47% of Level 13. My leveling speed was impressive, and fans of the book loved to read:!
Kacha!
Another Cyan Skeleton died. After absorbing its undead soul spark, I used Death Plunder again!
"Ding!"
My eyes lit up. It dropped!
[Big Magic Stone] Grade: 41...
Fuck, it's a stone?!
I was grinning from ear to ear. Stones were gold coins, and gold coins were the source of life. This was definitely a good thing. Once the game was open to a certain extent, many workshops would be able to survive by farming stones and selling them!
Big Magic Stones sold for between 1 to 20 silver, and silver was obviously a hot commodity at this stage of the game. There were rumors on the forums that many newbies who left the starting village and came to the big city only to find that they only had one or two silver. In the end, they had no choice but to go out and farm stones without even learning their class skills.
The drop rate of magic stones wasn't high, and I had killed more than a hundred skeletons only to get two of them. Death Plunder, on the other hand, gave me an innate advantage in getting rich.
After the initial joy, I continued!
Not far away from me, I saw a Cyan Skeleton staggering around. I slowly moved closer and was about to attack when I felt a chill in my heart!
Something's here!
Puchi!
I felt a burning pain at the back of my head. I checked my HP and saw that I had lost 207 points in one go. I had almost been one-shot!
I reacted quickly and rolled out of the way. When I looked back, I was scared out of my wits. An Undead Lord that was at least two meters tall had appeared where I had been standing just a moment ago. I couldn't see its level at all, but it was definitely much higher than me. However, its attack power was clearly insane. Even with two Iron-grade items, I was almost one-shot. Anyone else would've died a long time ago. Everyone else looked at me normally.
"Hiss hiss..."
The Undead Lord growled angrily. It was obvious that it was very dissatisfied with me, an "intruder". This place was already part of its territory.
No wonder the quest notice said that I had to run if I encountered an Undead Lord. It looked like this thing wasn't something I could challenge with my current strength. It was probably a high-level boss that was at least Level 20 or higher. If a boss like this was thrown into a starting village, it would be a monster that could slaughter an entire village.
I continued to kill Cyan Skeletons diligently. Right now, leveling up and grinding magic stones were the most important things to me.
Another hour passed in the blink of an eye, and my experience bar had risen to 58% of Level 14. It looked like I would reach Level 15 once I turned in the quest. As expected, my leveling speed was amazing!
I counted the number of skeleton fingers I had. I still needed one more.
… …
I looked up and saw a Cyan Skeleton wandering not far away from me.
I chuckled and charged forward with my sword. However, right at that moment, my entire body froze in midair and I rolled into the bushes at the side.
Another undead appeared in the forest. It was an undead wearing khaki armor and holding a light blue spear in its hand. Its skeletal face looked very ferocious, and a line of words floated above its head — Gui Guzi LV-18 Undead Knight …
Fuck!
The highest-leveled player in Floating Ice City?
My eyes turned cold as killing intent welled up in me.
Gui Guzi looked around calmly before rushing toward my hiding spot and yelling, "Get the hell out here, punk!"