Chapter 213-1: Child, When You Grow Up, You Will Fight for Dawn City (Part 1)

Giant Valley.

Li De had no idea that players had already appeared in Green City, nor that the Crimson Mage Tower and the Dark Pact already bore traces of their presence.

He had just made an offer of two pigs to win over Kosso, the Bronze Cyclops. In order for the Whispering Bats to evolve into Dawn Bats, they required the bloodline of a Bronze Cyclops.

And this big guy wasn't just unopposed to blood donation, he was actually interested in it.

In fact, Kosso had inquired multiple times at the Medical Department about whether he could also participate in blood donation.

Having undergone ideological education and become part of the new generation of Dawn City residents, the Cyclops had an impressively high sense of civic duty. Seeing humans donate blood to contribute to Dawn City made him want to contribute as well.

Unfortunately, each time the Medical Department gave him the same firm answer: No.

Because of their unique physiology, Vampires could only consume human blood. Only human blood contained a special energy that other life forms' blood lacked.

And this special energy was exactly what Vampires needed to sustain life.

So, even though Kosso was eager to contribute, and the blood of Cyclopes was rich in energy, the Medical Department still wouldn't accept it.

After all, useless blood only took up space.

Now, with Li De personally asking him to participate in this glorious act of blood donation and being rewarded each time with two rare pigs. Kosso was over the moon.

The big guy was more than pleased, grinning stupidly as he rubbed his hairless, wrinkled head.

Seeing this, Li De said no more, only marveling once again at how this gluttonous race was truly something else. As long as they had food, they were up for anything, they could almost rival the food-lovers of China.

He turned around and ordered the nearby Vampires and Whispering Bats in the camp to prepare Kosso for transport back to Dawn City.

Earlier, when Kosso was in a fierce fight with Castro, the Vampires in the camp had stood idle, entirely on Li De's instructions.

Otherwise, no matter how powerful Castro was as a First-generation Primal King Bat, the Vampires would never have simply stood by and watched.

Kosso, covered in horrific scars, and Castro, whose wings were nearly torn to shreds, exchanged a look when they heard Li De's command.

By now, all their hostility had dissipated. In fact, there was a hint of mutual admiration between them.

A powerful comrade deserved respect.

Li De, however, was a little speechless at this. Castro's combat experience was too limited, he had actually let Kosso drag him into close combat.

If it weren't for his powerful bloodline, he would've been torn to shreds.

Still, it clearly demonstrated how strong this system-named Primal King really was, an aerial unit could actually go toe-to-toe with a Cyclops, a ground-dominating beast.

The match-up looked bizarre, but it revealed a lot.

Also, seeing Kosso awaken his bloodline mid-battle and have a massive surge in strength made Li De quite tempted. This big guy's potential hadn't even been scratched.

A Bronze Cyclops was a formidable being born from flames, whose ancient bloodline was activated in temperatures hot enough to melt steel and turn rock into magma, with a body infused with tons of molten steel.

If Kosso's potential stopped at this level, Li De wouldn't believe it for a second. But tapping into the power of a bloodline usually took a long time.

Since evolving into a Bronze Cyclops, Kosso had been in a strength-growing phase, but the process was slow.

Li De hadn't had a good way to speed up Kosso's bloodline awakening, so he had just let him train naturally.

But today's battle had sparked a new idea. Ordinary training was too slow, he needed Kosso and Castro to fight regularly. Combat was the best teacher.

Kosso instinctively shivered, glancing around in confusion. Why did he suddenly feel a faint, unsettling presence?

Half a sun-hour later.

Most of the scars on Castro's body had already scabbed over, and some of the lighter wounds had fully healed. The Primal King had recovered his ability to fly.

Kosso was about the same, the gashes Castro had inflicted on him were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. He was about 80 percent recovered and could fight another battle without issue.

The terrifying physical resilience of these two exotic beings left Li De speechless again. They were just too tough. If he had this kind of physique, what danger would he ever need to fear? He could bulldoze through anything.

Half a sun-hour later, Dawn City.

Castro and Kosso had been sent off to recover. Li De returned alone to City Hall.

Only now did he have the time to check his upgraded attributes.

Over the past few months, he had racked up quite a bit of experience.

Thanks to the Vampire Progenitor talent, he received a monthly batch of experience just from the vampires. A steady profit.

He also got bits and pieces of experience from things he barely bothered to track anymore, like when the mage apprentices at the Crimson Mage Tower were promoted to Formal Mages, or when the Whispering Bat population increased.

As long as his forces grew, he gained experience. Some gains were big, over a hundred points. Others were small, just a point or two. But with so many things going on, Li De rarely paid attention to the minor stuff. Only major boosts caught his eye.

Like when he turned Stanley into a Vampire or when he created the new race, the Dawn Bats.

That latter event alone gave him 3,000 experience points.

Which directly leveled him from 13 to 14. Now, he was just one step away from reaching a pivotal transformation point of Level 15.

Level 15 was a massive milestone. No matter what your class was, hitting Level 15 made you an undisputed powerhouse in Glory.

Even a priest who only knew support magic could unleash terrifying power at Level 15.

Transcendent-level beings were extremely rare and almost never acted. So Level 15 was already a "boss tier" level of strength.

Of course, as long as you didn't go looking for trouble.

Li De Kachar

Race: Vampire (Progenitor)

Legend Rating: 7 (+1) Renowned far and wide. Legend Rating 8 while in the Underground World.

Level: Mage Lv14 (1220/50000), Warrior Lv5

Mana: 882/882

Other: (Omitted)

In Glory, a level-up might not feel like much just by looking at the stat panel. There weren't visible attributes like strength, intelligence, or endurance like in other games, so the changes weren't obvious.

It only looked like mana and level had increased.

But only Li De knew just how much a level-up actually boosted him.

Every level-up was like a soul-level evolution. It improved his mana control, recovery rate, physical strength, constitution—everything.

It was a sensation that affected his body directly. Subtle, but unmistakable.

And Li De loved that feeling, that subtle but undeniable sense of getting stronger.

If he had to estimate his combat power: at Level 13, it was around 800. At Level 14, it reached 1000.

A big leap.

But what left Li De feeling helpless was the jump from Level 14 to 15 required 50,000 experience points, more than all the experience it took to get from Level 10 to 14 combined.

Even at his current rate of earning experience, he couldn't guarantee hitting that within two years. The number was just too absurd.

"When Dawn City has one hundred thousand Vampires, and I can lie down and earn 100,000 XP per month without lifting a finger, that's when I'll truly be at the peak of life. Just imagining that is exhilarating."