Nyxfall 7: The Veilbreakers-Chapter 54: Power Leveling

Kai led Zayden and Bella to the inn. Bella already knew how they worked. Kai gave Zayden an empty chest to store his extra things in. Bella bought her own room and stored her Pathwinder beside Kai’s Darksmile in the stables.

Then Kai called Zayden to power-level the guy in the nearby forest. Bella saw them and asked, "Can I come along?"

Kai thought she would be more interested in checking out the markets for equipment and such, but well, whatever she liked. He nodded, and all three of them walked towards the nearby forest, where many players from the town often came for this and that—small missions.

Kai led them directly to the most powerful monsters present nearby. Near the river, in a cave, some orcs always roamed around. They didn’t give much in terms of drops, as they were often naked and had wooden clubs as weapons. They did drop a white blood, though, which Kai remembered was quite important for creating a few effects.

Most people left them alone since each one of them was Level 20. A whole cave of such monsters was still too much for most players. Standing outside the cave, Kai took out his sword and said to Zayden, "Stay behind me. Finish the orcs I injure. We need you to reach level 15 as soon as possible.."

Zayden looked at him with a bit of skepticism but nodded anyway. Then, looking at Bella, Kai added, "Keep him alive."

She nodded, tightening her red hand wraps. Both Spirit Forgers and Earthshapers used their fists for fights. Some could learn a skill that allowed them to coat their weapons in spirit, but mostly, players preferred to use fists and used the SP for more powerful spirit-powered damage skills.

Kai looked at the two behind once and walked forward, coming out of the bushes. The two orcs at the edge of the cave noticed him and immediately came swinging hard with their wooden clubs and simple hands—Kai ducked down, the crude attack missed him. He buried the sword right inside its thigh, making it scream and fall down on one leg. The orc beside it charged forward. Kai tore open its whole belly before the slow-moving hand could reach him. That one, too, staggered and spat blood.

Zayden, behind him, had his eyes wide open in shock. Only when Bella rattled the guy did he wake up. He immediately used his skill and used his gold-glowing fists to pummel the orcs to the ground. Bella also joined in beside him with her red fists (Both has different skills but are somewhat similar—enhancing their base power), and whenever the orcs counterattacked, she increased her speed of punches and saved Zayden from receiving any attacks before the orcs died under Zayden’s hands.

When Zayden and Bella looked up, finishing the two orcs, they saw three more already injured and on the ground in the cave as Kai was fighting two more at the same time without receiving a single digit of damage. This time, even Bella was surprised to see the speed, precision, and the ease with which Kai was going around cutting the orcs left and right. Both Bella and Zayden were using skills, while Kai seemed to really not be using any skills and was just giving the orcs bleeding effects or was making them fall on the ground, restricting their movement with minimum damage.

Bella also stopped doing more than necessary damage and let Zayden deal the most damage, earning the most experience. In less than 10 minutes, the whole cave was cleared, blood splattered all around the cave and outside, but they were done. Zayden was Level 15. And Kai collected a lot of white blood.

He nodded, put back his sword, and told them to follow behind as they all sprinted towards the 10-person dungeon called The Grimhorn Den. They had to run for quite a while but should be able to make it in five to seven minutes. Unlike the Beast Hollow dungeon, The Grimhorn Den was not as crowded.

Other than the fact that no one had cleared it yet, the monsters in this dungeon were really annoying for beginner players. Right now, farming for equipment to deal with Beast Hollow easily was the goal of most groups of players. Still, there were some who had used up all their dungeon entries for Beast Hollow and would come to The Grimhorn Den to try their luck. But there were also many serious groups of players who were really trying to make a name for themselves or their guilds.

There was nothing about making a guild or faction on the forums yet, but a post on the Stonebinder forums Kai had seen recently mentioned how a player needed to be Lv. 40 to be able to create a mercenary group in the city. The top players on the scoreboards of both the whole game server and the Earth server were stuck at Level 35. Kai wondered what the rank-up mission was that had everyone in binds. There was no post about it on the web yet.

Running ahead, Kai noticed some figures in the distance. They seemed to be just standing there in the middle of the path, looking at each other. Some 16–17 people, divided into two groups. Their weapons were out. Kai realized, reaching near them, that it was a standoff.

Kai stopped running. Both groups had noticed Kai and the two people following behind him. Kai also recognized one of the two leaders who were glaring at each other.

Xterminate07.

It would be a really lovely thing if both groups started fighting. Kai would love to get all those shiny equipment and weapons. Now these were the people who had spent some time nicely grinding in dungeons.

"X, see, it’s that name on top of the Beast Hollow record.." One of the guys dressed in shiny plate armor drew others’ attention to Kai’s name tag.

Ah! He should probably hide his name from now on.