Once he stepped into the Abandoned Power Station grounds, the mobs spawning across the surface were all level 1 non-aggressive corrupted creatures, none of which were required for his quests.
Drawing on years of in-game experience, Kairon directed the Shadowwood Panther at his side to weave quickly past the scattered mobs along the way, making a beeline for the entrance to the first basement level.
At the entrance, a colossal monster nearly the size of a sedan completely blocked the only path leading underground.
...
[Fifi the Corpulent]
Rarity: Rare (Unique)
Level: 3
Physical Attack: 25
Physical Defense: 10
Magical Defense: 5
Health: 300
Skill 1: [Bite]: Rends the target with sharp incisors, dealing three consecutive hits of 200% physical damage
Skill 2: [Brutal Charge]: Launches forward with its massive frame, dealing 100% physical damage to all targets in its path and afflicting them with 3 seconds of stun
Description: The rare gatekeeping boss of the first basement level. Only by defeating it can the path underground be unlocked. Its front limbs are almost completely atrophied, and it relies solely on its terrifying charge and bite force to threaten foes. It will not actively attack players who do not provoke it.
...
When he'd come here in his past life, this boss had already been killed by a party of players who'd flocked to the spot, and he'd heard countless players had met a gruesome end beneath its jaws.
Kairon did not rush to attack. Instead, he circled the surrounding collapsed area, scouting it carefully. The place was littered with broken walls and rubble, with two massive reinforced concrete slabs propped up at an angle, forming a narrow triangular crevice.
He stepped forward to test it. The entrance to the crevice was only wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways, narrowing even further the deeper it went, with a warped opening at the far end that led back out.
Just as he'd predicted, the Shadowwood Panther's frame was small enough to pass through with ease.
With the kiting spot confirmed, Kairon backed up to a safe distance and issued an attack command to the Shadowwood Panther beside him.
The panther coiled silently, then shot forward like black lightning, its sharp claws raking hard across the corpulent rat's tail and triggering its [Rip] skill.
An 8 damage number floated up, and the rat let out a shrill screech, its massive bulk whipping around to give chase to the panther that had provoked it.
The Shadowwood Panther's passive [Shadowstep Swiftness] triggered instantly, boosting its movement speed by 30% and letting it keep a perfect safe distance from the rat at all times.
Every time the rat scraped its front paws against the ground, the telltale sign of an incoming charge, the panther nimbly changed direction to dodge it. For any other class with insufficient movement speed, that single charge would have already crushed them down to low health.
After several precise rounds of kiting, Kairon finally led the rat to the collapsed area he'd scouted out earlier.
The rat scraped its hind legs against the ground once more, its blood-red eyes locked dead on the panther before it. This was the telltale warning that it was about to cast [Brutal Charge].
This time, the panther did not dodge left or right. Instead, it leaped forward and dove straight into the triangular crevice.
Kairon had calculated this perfectly. If the panther had dodged sideways out of the rat's charge path, it would have aborted the charge instantly and spun around to give chase. Only by letting it lock onto its target and charge straight into the crevice could he use the narrow structure to trap the massive beast completely.
A thunderous crash rang out as the rat's massive body slammed into the crevice with devastating force. The entire collapsed area shook violently, the two concrete slabs teetering on the brink of collapse, but holding firm in the end.
The charge came to an abrupt halt. The rat's gleaming incisors stopped less than a fist's width from the panther at the far end of the crevice, unable to advance even a hair further.
It twisted its body wildly and screeched, but its enormous belly was wedged tight against the concrete. Its front limbs had long since atrophied, leaving it unable to break free, trapped in place and struggling in vain.
Seeing this, Kairon stepped slowly out from cover and circled to the rat's rear, a position it was completely unable to defend.
He lifted the novice wooden staff in his hand, pale green nature light swirling around his fingertips, and launched his attacks at the rat's tail and soft underbelly, the points where its defenses were weakest.
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His attacks alternated with the Shadowwood Panther's [Rip], the two strikes landing one after another.
-8, -1, miss, -1...
He dodged the rat's wildly thrashing tail with precise movements, all while directing the panther to keep up a steady stream of damage.
The rat screeched in fury under the constant assault, but it was trapped tight in the crevice, unable to advance or retreat, completely helpless to fight back.
Even though the damage from each hit was not high, the rat's health dropped at a steady pace under his constant assault. The occasional heal it triggered could not keep up with the rate of damage it was taking.
Everything went exactly as Kairon had planned, and he began mapping out his next moves in his head.
Should he continue hunting Zareth for revenge alone? Or use the head start from his rebirth to build a faction of his own?
After weighing his options, he realized his top priority right now was to level up as quickly as possible.
Only when he hit level 15 would he unlock the map to the level 5 main city and be able to meet up with players from other novice villages.
Having been reborn, it would be a criminal waste of all the guides and foreknowledge locked in his head if he just camped a fixed spawn point and leveled slowly like every other regular player.
Buried in his memories were countless spots where he could use the terrain to trap and kill rare mobs, elite mobs, and even world bosses. With this information, he could skyrocket his levels at a rate no regular player could match.
That's right. He could bring Lenora along, too. Her class was Ranger, and her ranged damage specialization made her perfect for this kind of terrain-based kiting tactic.
With that thought, he split a sliver of his focus to open the friend menu, typed in the ID [Liora], and sent a friend request.
Ding! You and [Liora] are now friends. Real-time voice chat is now available.
"Lenora, which novice village are you in right now?" Kairon sent a voice chat request.
Lenora's voice came through a moment later, bright with the excitement of someone new to the game. "I'm in Novice Village 1370. What about you?"
They weren't in the same novice village. They wouldn't be able to meet up until they hit level 15 and made it to the main city.
Kairon spoke in a steady tone. "I'm in 1314. I'd hoped to take you along to level up together, but that'll have to wait for now. Level up to 15 as fast as you can, and we'll meet up in the main city."
"Oh! Alright!"
He ended the voice chat, pulled his focus back, and doubled down on the damage output in front of him.
Minutes ticked by, and after a full half hour, the rat let out one final, feeble screech. Its massive body crashed to the ground, dissolving into a flash of white light, leaving behind only a corpse shrunk down to the size of a normal rat.
Ding! System Announcement: You have slain the rare unique monster [Fifi the Corpulent]. Triggered 200% bonus experience for killing a higher-level monster. Gained 1200 experience points, including +300 bonus for higher-level kill, +600 bonus from [Endless Vitality] talent!
Kairon glanced at his level panel. His experience bar had jumped straight to level 3, 8% of the way to level 4. The experience from a rare, unique monster was already massive, and paired with the double experience boost from [Endless Vitality], his leveling speed was dozens of times faster than the average player.
He stepped forward and looted the monster's drops: 2 silver coins, an Intermediate Enhancement Gem Pouch, an Identification Scroll, a Random Teleport Scroll, and a blue-quality staff.
He checked the description of each item one by one:
Intermediate Enhancement Gem Pouch: When opened, grants 5-10 random Enhancement Stones.
Identification Scroll: Used to identify equipment of Fine quality or lower.
Random Teleport Scroll: When used, teleports the user to a random location within a 10,000-meter radius.
Two silver coins. In the early days of the game's launch, this was an absolute fortune.
The currency exchange rate in World of Eldrath was 1 Gold Coin = 100 Silver Coins = 10,000 Copper Coins. In the first three days after launch in his past life, a wealthy player in the Eastern War Zone's No.1 Novice Village had driven the price of 1 silver coin up to 100 dollars in real cash, buying up nearly every circulating silver coin in the entire novice village.
And a Random Teleport Scroll, no less. This was a priceless lifesaver.
Scrolls like this had an abysmally low drop rate, and only Master Inscribers could craft them, with an abysmally low success rate even then. Later in the game, countless players would buy a Random Teleport Scroll just to have a way out of a life-or-death situation.
But these items were incredibly rare, with more demand than supply. You couldn't get your hands on one even if you had the money. Even late in the game, they regularly sold for over 8,000 Gold Coins at the Auction House.
Finally, he picked up the blue staff and checked its base stats:
...
[Lightsteel Staff]
Rarity: Fine, Unidentified
...
Huh? A Fine quality piece of equipment, no less.
Equipment rarity in World of Eldrath, from lowest to highest, was as follows: Common, Fine, Rare, Epic, Heroic, Legendary, God-Tier, with set equipment available at multiple rarities.
Before his rebirth, the vast majority of regular players were still stuck wearing Common-quality gear. Any piece of equipment of Fine quality or higher requires identification, which would unlock its special attributes.
Equipment with special attributes was incredibly valuable, with price tags far out of reach for regular players. Many players couldn't even afford the cost of identifying a piece of gear in the first place.
Kairon had gotten lucky this time, looting an Identification Scroll along with the staff. He didn't hesitate for a second, using it directly on the staff.
Ding! A pale blue light flashed, and the staff's full stats were unlocked instantly.
...
[Lightsteel Staff (Fine)]
Required Level: 3
Spell Attack: 12-16
Attribute: 30% chance on hit to deal an additional 7% damage.
Compatible Classes: Mage, Cleric
...
A weapon with additional damage on hit. These stats were god-tier for the early game, only held back by its low level and low base attack. Otherwise, it would have sold for an absolute fortune.
He then opened the Intermediate Enhancement Gem Pouch, gaining 7 Enhancement Stones. Staring at the [Wishing Box] in his inventory, Kairon didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately began enhancing the staff.
Ding! Congratulations! Your [Lightsteel Staff (Fine)] has been successfully enhanced to +1!
Ding! Congratulations! Your [Lightsteel Staff (Fine)] has been successfully enhanced to +2!
...
Ding! Congratulations! Your [Lightsteel Staff (Fine)] has been successfully enhanced to +7!
Seven consecutive enhancements, not a single failure.
Anyone who's never played an MMO will never understand the rush of a perfect string of enhancement successes. If he'd had enough Enhancement Stones in his inventory, he could have enhanced the staff straight to +30 right then and there.
The +7 enhanced Lightsteel Staff had its Spell Attack skyrocket to 20-27.
With this staff in hand, Kairon's base Spell Attack had exploded from 2-4 all the way to 20-31.
The damage of the Nature Mage's nature spells and summons automatically scaled with the weapon's Spell Attack, meaning all of his damage output had just increased more than tenfold.
Staring at the skyrocketed attack power on his stat panel, a sharp glint flashed in Kairon's eyes.
Now, what mob could survive a single [Rip] from the Shadowwood Panther?
And if it did? He'd just hit it with another.
