Sleeping Giant Crossing
Evan and his party spent the next week familiarizing themselves with each other. The party had now grown more accustomed to handling larger groups of mobs up to level 14. Anything beyond that and they would be risking a party wipe if multiple monsters broke through Facebasher's defenses.
After they'd reached level 10, the amount of EXP required to level up had increased dramatically. Nonetheless, their EXP farming had become efficient enough to put them in the top 50 regional rankings!
Sightseer was currently at level 14, a level ahead of Evan and the others, and ranked 3rd in the Edin Region! Evan was currently ranked 9th, Mille was 15th, and Facebasher at the 36th position.
To each and their credit, Sightseer had been playing several hours extra each day compared to the others who had daytime jobs or school. Though, playing for more than 12 hours each day with a D-rank battery vial was next to impossible.
With a C-rank battery vial, one could increase this limit by a few hours without physiological and mental harm. So the advertised 'play as long as you'd like' only applied to C-rank and above battery vials combined with the use of extravagant hypersleep pods that could extend the playtime.
This wasn't something every player could afford as it separated the wheat from the chaff and the diamond from the rough.
As of now, there had only been mention of B-rank battery vials held by Jade label Vizor holders. Even then, including hypersleep pods, one had to take a break from the game every other day.
Among the Ranger rankings, Sightseer was ranked number 2, meaning that there was another highly skilled Ranger class in the Kingdom. One they had to watch out for during the New Braves regionals.
The EXP separating Evan, Mille, and Facebasher wasn't that great. Any one of them grinding a couple of extra hours would counteract the EXP of the one ahead of them. The issue was that everyone was leveling up quickly, thus the contest of levels was neverending.
After spending so much time near Azure Lake and other similar locations, the mobs were now offering less and less EXP. Thus it was time for the group of adventurers to move to the next destination.
Talker Mountain was located one day north of Azure Lake by foot. Hence, they had to spend 20 coins each on a Tier 1 teleportation gate.
"Let's just walk." Evan earned himself another whack from a merciless Mille.
Looking around, the party found themselves atop a large platform that could fit several hundred players. Above them and in the middle of the platform was a large teleportation portal standing 20 meters (65.6 feet) tall and 5 meters (16.4 feet) wide.
Evan began to take in the surroundings. The air was unpolluted and clean, the sky dimming, and birds chirping and feeding their nests, almost ready to put their chicks to sleep.
Leading to the entry of Talker Mountain was Sleeping Giant Crossing, a massive bridge spanning 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles).
There hadn't been many players traveling this far out yet. In a sense, Evan's party was the pioneering party at this point. They'd finally traveled out of the Tier 1 Newbie rank areas such as Cobblestone and Azure Lake and entered a Tier 2 Novice rank area that unlocked at level 10.
Any player below level 10 would be unable to use teleportation gates to travel to Tier 2 areas, but they could still head to such places by foot. However, a 30% debuff to all stats, skills, consumables, and everything else would be applied, making it much more difficult to survive in these places for underleveled players.
Sleeping Giant Crossing rested above a large pond that converted into a tunnel leading into the canyon of Talker Mountain. On each side of the bridge were statues of what Evan could only describe as humanoid creatures with wings. These humanoids were far from pretty. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
"You smell that?" Evan said.
"Smell what?" Facebasher and Mille echoed.
"Trouble."
"I agree." The usually silent Sightseer concurred as they tread upon the bridge. "Those statues are fishy."
Evan and his party ran through their statuses and readied their weapons, preparing for any potential danger.
—
[Name: Midnight]
[Level: 13 – EXP: 4760/6000]
[HP: 185/185]
—Player Description—
[Class: Soul Demolitionist – Soul-Meter: 14/24] [Guardian: Raphael (Amber)]
[Active skills: Soul Blitz – Soul Resolution – Ignore Pain (D-rank) – First Aid (E-rank)]
[Combat proficiencies:
Ricochet weapons (C-rank) – Static explosives (C-rank) – Ranged Explosives (C-rank) – Resilience (D-rank) – Heightened Reflexes (D-rank ) – First Aid (E-rank)]
[Specialization proficiencies:
'Rest In Pieces' mastery (C-rank) – Aerodynamics mastery (E-rank) – Pyrotechnics mastery (E-rank)]
——Combat Stats——
[STR: 10] [INT: 2] [SPC: 18]
[DEF: 9] [WIS: 4] [AGI: 12]
[Unspent Stats: 0]
————Other——–—
[Luckiness: 10]
[Aerth coins: 1245]
[Inventory] [Quests] [World Map] [Other] [Log Out]
—
Evan was now pretty certain that he gained 5 {HP} per point to {DEF} and 1 {HP} per point to {STR}, on top of the 10 {HP} per level.
He'd also learned a new class-specific Soul skill at level 10, {Soul Resolution}, that granted him a few time-limited buffs at the expense of Soul-Meter points that had gone from 12 to 24 maximum points.
—
[Active skills]
[Soul Blitz:
Skill-type: Ranged explosive (Steady Hands: Active)
Release (6) energy missiles infused with magic over time.
– Grants +(33) physical damage at level (13), +(33) magic damage at level (13). Causes knockback based on Special stat.
Cost: 12 Soul points]
[Soul Resolution:
Skill-type: Self-buff
– Grants temporary Immunity to all physical ailments for (13) seconds at level (13), and temporary Immunity to critical hits for (13) seconds at level (13). Health regeneration per second for 6 seconds at level (13) based on Strength and Intelligence stats.
Cost: 8 Soul Points]
[Ignore Pain (D-rank):
Skill-type: Self-buff (from Resilience, D-rank)
– Grants +80% damage reduction for 3 seconds (active skill).
Cooldown: 5 minutes]
[First Aid (E-rank):
Skill-type: Single-target healing
– Grants immediate restoration of HP based on skill rank.
Requirement: Bandages.
Cooldown: 3 minutes]
—
The party advanced slowly in a diamond formation with Facebasher in the front, Evan and Mille at the flanks, and Sightseer in the rear since she possessed the longest attack range.
Facebasher had proven to be a reliable tank in the past week. Although he possessed no shield and wielded a heavy 2-handed axe, most of his stats went to {STR} and {DEF}. That combined with his heavy armor, self-buff skills, and Mille's {Bolstera Physicalis}, could potentially turn him into a walking fortress.
Facebasher and the others passed the first pair of demonic statues lining up at each side of the bridge. Nothing.
The second and third lines. Still nothing.
They all instinctively held this dreary feeling as if an imminent threat was inescapable.
"That's it!" Mille impatiently said and fired an {Ice Bolt} at a statue in the fourth line. "Pre-emptive strike for the win!"
The others facepalmed. Was she really suited to be a Healer? She acted more like a Berserker.
As the magic missile struck the statue, cracks started to ripple across the gray and immobile demonic figure. The cracks grew larger and had now formed across the whole statue, possibly confirming that they were alive.
Soon, the statues from the first three lines also underwent the same shift, revealing a deep blue skin underneath the gray husks that had previously been covering them.
—
[Name: Gargoyle
Level: 16
HP: 160/160]
—