Nie Yan wanted to explore this World of Darkness . It’d piqued his interest and was bound to be filled with rare goodies . Plus, his Return Scrolls were grayed out, so even if they wanted to, they couldn’t leave . They were stuck here . Committing suicide to get out also wasn’t worth it . After all, at their levels, every level required an enormous amount of experience .
Fortunately, the Magisters had plenty of mana . If they stuck to less mana intensive spells, they could last for quite a while . Tang Yao didn’t even have to worry about his mana at all thanks to his Arcane Fairy, nor did Xie Yao whose consumption had dropped by 60% because of the effects of the Earth Orb .
Nie Yan’s team was as solid as a boulder . Assailed by a sea of Dark Hounds, they were immovable .
After grinding for five hours straight, Nie Yan and the others were finally starting to run low on mana and health . They could only rely on potions to keep going .
Thankfully, everyone had stocked up on potions before setting out . They wouldn’t run low anytime soon .
“Sparrow Hawk, cast your Forbidden Magic!” Nie Yan shouted . They really couldn’t hold on much longer .
“Got it!” Tang Yao drank a Specialist Mana Potion, restoring his mana back to full . He waved his staff and started chanting an incantation .
His robes fluttered in the wind as he slowly floated up three meters off the ground .
The Arcane Fairy was also giving off intense mana fluctuations . Seeing the seven coloured radiance around it, only then did Nie Yan notice it had already reached Rank 7 . It was basically a cheat-like existence . The bonuses it provided to an Arcane Mage were incredibly overpowered . They even had a special ability that greatly reduced the cooldown of a selected Forbidden Spell .
The reason Tang Yao’s Forbidden Magic, Dark Brionac Blizzard, came off cooldown so quickly was precisely because of the Arcane Fairy .
Over a minute and a half passed as Tang Yao finished chanting out 10 sets of syllables .
The surrounding temperature plummeted as dark clouds gathered low in the sky . Soon after, black ice shards started pouring down, sweeping through everything in a 500-meter wide area .
A blanket of damage values ranging from 150,000–160,000 floated up into the air . The movements of the Dark Hounds slowed to a crawl as they were covered in a thick layer of frost . As the blizzard was in full swing, they started collapsing in droves, turning into frozen corpses on the ground . The area south of Nie Yan’s team was instantly cleared .
Nie Yan estimated the Dark Brionac Blizzard had killed at least 8,000 Dark Hounds .
Ding dong! Ding dong! Five notification jingles rang out in quick succession, as Tang Yao’s body lit up with a dazzling radiance . He had risen five levels . He wasn’t the only one . Everyone went up at least two levels, fully recovering their health and mana .
“Sweet!”
Everyone was gobsmacked . This showcased once more just how amazing Forbidden Magic was . It could slaughter Elites and Lords many levels higher in droves . One could imagine how much experience this one action netted .
With everyone back to peak condition, they could keep going again for the next several hours .
After casting his Forbidden Magic, Tang Yao slowly floated back down to the ground . The five level-ups in a row left him completely ecstatic .
Even if they died here now, none of them would lose out . Their moods relaxed quite a bit .
“Levelling here is amazing . Let’s stay for a couple of days!”
“Yeah! Boss, this is a hard-to-come-by opportunity!”
“Mhm . As long as nothing happens with the guild, we can stay here . Try to minimize your potion consumption,” Nie Yan said . He still wanted to find Morphest who had to be somewhere in this map . Until then, he wouldn’t be satisfied .
About two days later, Nie Yan and the others had finally cleared out all the Dark Hounds in the vicinity . After roaming around in the wasteland for three hours, they encountered another sea of Dark Hounds and resumed their levelling spree .
The only thing that left Nie Yan’s group feeling depressed was that these Dark Hounds gave no drops . Each of them on average burned through 3,000 gold worth of consumables every day . That was more than 60,000 gold combined! Yet they didn’t even receive a single copper from these Dark Hounds . Thankfully, all of them were silly rich . It was a drop in the ocean to them . If it were ordinary players though, they would’ve withdrawn long ago .
After climbing over a hill, Nie Yan discovered a lot of Dragonblood Grass growing in the area up ahead, an ingredient used to concoct high rank health and mana potions . At present, his Alchemy Master skill was already at a high enough rank to craft Advanced Potions . However, the potions he made could only be consumed by himself .
“Do you guys know any production skills?” Nie Yan asked .
“I’ve learned Alchemy and Tinkering,” Xie Yao replied .
“I’ve learned Bandaging and Alchemy,” Undying Scoundrel said .
As it turned out, all of them had learned and raised the ranks of one or two production skills during their class advancement quests, especially Alchemy . This was an essential skill for everyone . Since an opportunity to use it rarely presented itself, they never mentioned it until now .
Nie Yan rubbed his chin . Since everyone at least knew Alchemy, they could supplement their potion consumption with the medicinal plants they found here .
Everyone continued grinding in the World of Darkness, steadily raising their levels .
After Nie Yan’s level broke through 140, the levelling speed slowed down to a crawl . The amount of experience required was more than 10 times higher than before . Under normal circumstances, it would take him four days or even up to a week to raise one level . Thankfully, nothing happened in Asskickers United during this time . So, they could stay in the World of Darkness .
Xie Yao, Tang Yao, and the other Mages levelled up at a relatively faster pace . The lowest of them had already reached Level 142 . However, every next level up took longer and longer . As for Bladelight and the others, they were like Nie Yan, stuck at around Level 140 .
The World of Darkness was extremely vast, a wasteland stretching out as far as the eye could see . There were large hordes of Dark Hounds everywhere .
Nie Yan had recorded down every area they passed on the map . They had explored quite a bit, but Morphest was still nowhere to be found .
“I just received the Adjudicator title,” Tang Yao excitedly said after looking at his notification window .
“Is it a high rank title?”
“It seems pretty high . It increases my Influence in the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire by 60 . ”
The group found a secluded spot to sit down and rest . They planned to wait for their health and mana to recover before continuing their grind .
“I wonder if we’ll be able to reach Level 150 in two months . Levelling up after 140 is too hard . The amount of experience required for every level up increases by 70% . Can you imagine just how much we’ll need to reach Level 150?” Tang Yao said . He specifically noted down the amount of experience required after each level up and discovered this trend .
Listening to Tang Yao, everyone sucked in a cold breath of air . With this calculation, the amount of experience required to reach Level 150 would be more than 100 times that of 140 .
Nie Yan chuckled . “This is only the beginning . Wait until we reach Level 150, and then 160 . We haven’t experienced real pain yet . ” For the sake of shortening the gap between players’ levels, Conviction made levelling up incredibly difficult when you were in the top percentage of levels . The amount of experience required for every level up reached extremely frightening heights . At the later stages of the game, when everyone’s level reached the soft cap, a difference of two or three levels between players meant an astronomical amount of experience . It was precisely because levelling was so slow that many players placed more importance on gathering better equipment . With better equipment, not only would levelling become faster, but they’d also be more of a force in PvP .
“Boss, how is that something to laugh about?” Undying Scoundrel wryly smiled .
“It’s fine . So what if levelling is a bit slow? No big deal,” Nie Yan said . In the previous timeline, he had reached Level 180 . He had already experienced it all . So, he didn’t mind it too much . Back then, the level difference between players wasn’t as great as this time around . Those with average skills were all around Level 150–160; those who were decently skilled and hardworking were around Level 170–180; and those at higher levels, from Level 180–190 or even up to Level 200, were all extremely overpowered existences . They were composed of all Masters, most of whom were powerful Magisters .
In his past life, Nie Yan had taken two years to grind from Level 1–140, three years for Level 141–160, and five years for Level 161–Level 180 . This showed how incredibly slow levelling up became at the later stages .
Nie Yan made a rough assessment . His levelling speed was 10 times faster in this life . Honestly, it would be even faster if he didn't have to spend so much time dealing with guild affairs . He could no longer hole himself up in one place for several months at a time like in the previous timeline . If he continued on at the pace he was going at, it would take him about three years to reach Level 180 . As for the levels after that, thinking about the experience required gave him a headache . Reaching Level 200 like those Magisters of his past life would be an enormous undertaking .
However, with Nie Yan’s current levelling speed, it wasn’t impossible to achieve .
Hearing Tang Yao talking about reaching Level 150, Nie Yan recalled the Tyrant Abak Set . He was only two pieces away from completing the set . This was a Legendary-grade set with a powerful set bonus . He wanted to quickly reach Level 150 so he could equip it .
Nie Yan started wondering if they should stay here until Level 150 .
There was no guild that could pose a threat to Asskickers United right now anyway . They also required the foreseeable future to consolidate their position in the Viridian Empire . They couldn’t keep going to war, or else their foundation would become unstable .
Nie Yan thought for a moment before making his decision . He would level up a few more times in the World of Darkness first . When he reached Level 148, he would continue searching for the remaining pieces of the Tyrant Abak Set . By the time he found them all, he’d be Level 150 .
However, word of them being in the World of Darkness definitely couldn’t be leaked out, or else Angel Corps would come looking for trouble .
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