Chapter Fifteen: The Ultimate Secret of Leveling Up Through Monster Hunting (Part Two)

After reaching level 40, Li Ren found monster hunting even simpler and more enjoyable. A hundred zombies at a time could no longer keep up with his killing speed, so after circling the area, Li Ren began his journey of luring monsters. It’s worth noting that upon advancement, his HP had been significantly enhanced again, reaching a terrifying eighty thousand points. With this enormous health pool and the defense granted by the 500-point attribute boost to constitution, a zombie’s claw attack, which once dealt 300 points of damage, now only inflicted 180. He had also equipped a new shield, which further increased his defensive attributes.

He first located a favorable spot, attacked a zombie from there, and then quickly left the area. Along the way, he slashed at every yellow-named zombie he encountered. The zombies gradually became enraged, chasing after Li Ren but never quite catching up to his speed. Eventually, a monstrous wave began to form behind him, creating an imposing spectacle.

Seeing that the situation was almost perfect, Li Ren hesitated to lure any further, fearing he might accidentally draw out the elite monsters from the second stage within. It wasn’t that he couldn’t fight them—if push came to shove, he wouldn’t necessarily be afraid. And if he couldn’t defeat them, surely he could still escape. However, battling those elites conflicted with his original plan to level up here. Leveling remained his top priority.

Guiding the horde of green-skinned zombies toward one side of the canyon, he faced away from the valley and hacked at the monsters before him—a peerless method for sweeping through groups. Of course, if he could simply face two or three attacks from the front while continually slaying masses of monsters behind him, that would be exhilarating as well, but such a luxury belonged to ranged classes like magicians.

Now, after his advancement, Li Ren was truly unstoppable. A single powerful slash could instantly kill even the thick-skinned, high-defense zombies. With the Half Moon Slash active, the monsters behind the zombies were left with only a sliver of health, so another casual swing would see the whole group fall in glory.

He harvested blood crystals by the handful, and experience points surged as Li Ren delighted in the slaughter. The corpses piled ever higher, and with a simple transformation, the entire ground was glittering with crystals. The pace of monster hunting wasn’t slow; before long, he had cleared the area. Leisurely, Li Ren began collecting the processed blood crystals, absorbing them all into his body.

Experience soared, increasing by nearly half in an instant. Truly, his leveling speed was fearsome, matching the daunting difficulty of gaining levels. It must be noted that he was now fighting monsters well above his level—true farming, not just fighting. The bonus experience from over-leveling, combined with the brief time needed to kill an entire horde, still required considerable effort to gain even this small portion of experience. It seemed he had a long road ahead to reach the next level.

“What’s this?” Li Ren stared in surprise at his attribute panel. He had intended to check how many attribute points the blood crystals had provided, but upon inspection, he was stunned—not only had he consumed so many blood crystals without gaining a single attribute point, but a new row of text had appeared beneath his original attributes: Number of souls absorbed: 478.

Absorbed souls? What were souls for? Li Ren was puzzled, and carefully reviewed his attributes and skills until he discovered something that astonished him.

Skill: Summon Skeleton Guard (Guard attributes are 30% of the summoner’s attributes. Each summon consumes 100 souls. Duration: 1 hour. Maximum summoned: 10. Can be upgraded.)

Seeing that he had over 400 souls remaining, Li Ren immediately summoned four Skeleton Guards. These guards resembled ordinary skeleton soldiers, but with a notable difference: they carried no shields, wielding only bone longswords.

Li Ren examined their attributes: each of the four core stats exceeded 300, and their HP reached around twenty thousand. With such strength, summoning ten at once would easily allow them to handle a hundred zombies independently.

Accompanied by his four minions, Li Ren picked a sparsely populated zombie area and ordered his guards to attack the nearest zombie. They rushed forward with astounding speed, swarming the zombie and felling it instantly.

As more zombies surged forward, the four skeletons fought valiantly, engaging the enemies without hesitation in close combat. An ordinary zombie had about three thousand HP, and a swipe at these skeletons dealt over five hundred damage. Yet each skeleton boasted roughly twenty thousand HP, never holding back, striking with full force. Each slash carved out nearly fifteen hundred HP from a zombie. Luckier ones died in two strikes, others in three at most.

What amazed Li Ren even more was that these skeletons inherited his ability to transform blood crystals. Each time they killed a zombie, they instantly converted it to a blood crystal, absorbing it into their bodies as HP recovered—though the recovery was much less than Li Ren’s own 200-point restoration.

Li Ren watched his minions in awe, his experience steadily climbing, albeit more slowly, and occasionally his soul count increased by one. His grin stretched wider and wider.

After careful comparison, Li Ren found that zombies slain by his minions yielded about half as many souls as before, and experience hovered around seventy percent. The remainder was lost somewhere. His summoned guards lasted only an hour, and judging by their killing rate, they could absorb roughly a hundred souls per hour—perhaps a few more, provided there were enough monsters to slay.

Watching his tireless minions battling, Li Ren grew spirited, hefted his broadsword, and charged into another horde of green-skinned zombies. As he swept through the vast Corrosion Canyon, monsters respawned as soon as he finished one side, so he moved back and forth, repeating the cycle. When he finally gathered enough souls to summon ten guards, he holstered his weapon, leaned against a nearby rock, and watched his minions slaughter endlessly. All the while, his experience bar rolled forward like a river, never stopping—summoning a new batch every hour, his experience flowed continuously.

Bone Burial Wasteland.

Led by Soren, a ten-man squad was fiercely battling. Legend held that the Bone Burial Wasteland was once the site of a war among the gods. Countless divine beings and demons fought here, rallying human armies and demonic forces alike. Their clashes darkened the skies and drenched the earth in blood, while innumerable souls wailed and raged, imprisoned here forever.

Ultimately, humanity paid a tremendous price to win the war by the narrowest margin. Yet the resentment and energy left by the battlefield were so intense that the site could only be abandoned.

After countless years, the wasteland before them had come to be.

For unknown reasons, the Bone Burial Wasteland was now filled with skeletons—human bones and all kinds of beast remains. Legendary heroes wandered endlessly in the perpetual death aura.

Soren wielded a longsword, its blade shimmering with holy light. Before him stood a massive skeleton, assembled from the bones of some unknown beast, swinging a giant bone club with ferocious strength.

Soren held his sword one-handed, his movements elusive and swift. The clumsy creature never managed to land a single blow on him, dying a death most unworthy.

On the vast plain, the ten men worked hard to clear all visible undead creatures.

Ordinary undead were easy to deal with, equivalent to level-30 monsters, but what Soren had just faced was an elite monster, a level above regular ones.

Yet, on the wasteland’s outskirts, such elites were rare, so clearing them wasn’t particularly taxing. To maintain efficiency, these elite monsters were usually left for Soren to handle alone.

Still, ten men against ten thousand monsters was daunting—each needed to slay about a thousand. Fortunately, despite the environment’s discomfort, they carried antidotes and weapons coated in holy potions. With divine blessings, they felt little ill effect.

Experience was gained much faster here than elsewhere, though the investment was considerable—ordinary adventurers would surely balk at the cost.

As for equipment, they had collected quite a bit. For an established guild, more gear was never too much. Soren gathered all the loot and stored it in the guild warehouse, both to equip future members and to showcase the guild’s strength. With his exceptional luck, slain elite skeletons dropped several blue-quality items and even a purple-quality leather armor, which Soren donned immediately.

The other blue items were placed in the warehouse, their exchange value set according to guild contributions. This first guild quest proved a substantial boost for their organization, strengthening their foundations considerably.