Vertical Leap

A lone red figure was crossing the grasslands far within the Blood Shade Plains, at a spawn point of Level 29 monsters.

There were not many players who could farm monsters at that spot, but Dancing Phoenix had already been leveling here for three hours and 23% from reaching Level 27. Aware that the highest level on the Osland Continent was Level 28, she believed that she would definitely make top five.

But unlike Nie Fan who spent most of his time training skills and searching for treasures, she was using every moment in nonstop leveling to rush towards the peak of top gamers.

Ever eager for victory, she joined the professional scene right after graduating high school although she also ran into many obstacles in her early years. Even so, she founded Phoenix Down Studios through her own ability and claimed some honors for her group, while she herself had squeezed into the top ten of professional gamers. Since she had always played the Warrior-class, players had dubbed her the War Goddess, while countless others proclaimed her one of the Four Great Beauties of Gaming and the goddess of their hearts.

Dancing Phoenix herself was naturally pleased with the title of War Goddess. Still, she did not care at all for being one of the 'Great Beauties' since only one other was a formidable Mage, whereas the other two were all looks and no ability, and she would rather not be compared to them.

Charge!

Dancing Phoenix dashed into the middle of three Dark Goblins.

Shock Strike!

A pillar blaze shot into the skies. After being struck by Shock Strikes, the three Dark Goblins became Dizzy, stumbling backward for a bit before remaining motionless.

Dancing Phoenix followed up her attack with a Whirling Chop on one of the Dark Goblins. A two hundred plus damage value popped up over the monster's head—with her Whirling Chop now at Level 3, combined with her own items being a fine full set of strength-stat buffing equipment that was Copper-grade or above, her attack was quite astonishing.

Amidst the fire and sparks, her red athletic figure was just like her namesake: a phoenix within the flames, noble and dazzling.

With a few chained blows, one Dark Goblin was sent flying and dropped to the dirt, dead.

Then, even as the other two Dark Goblins recovered, they were sent flying by Dancing Phoenix again with a loud crash.

Punisher Chain!

Streaks of blade aura were released, stabbing without end towards the Dark Goblins. Amidst the banging, the monsters were sent hovering in the air, crashing down again after suffering the chain of blows.

Dancing Phoenix's movements were agile and her skills were timed perfectly, not to mention that the way she fought had a touch of delightful elegance. Each of her attacks were determined and her skills were over 70% in completion, and the remaining Dark Goblins finally fell after several skill combos.

Then, she went to a bush to sit and recovered some HP buy eating bread, her voice channel rang.

"Big Sis, we ran into a skilled player outside. Here's my footage of him."

Dancing Phoenix nodded in acknowledgment and soon received the video from Dust. She was confident that Phoenix Down Studios could take Tajit Village, but with some competitors such as Bloodbath Studios and Wandering Souls Studios also paying close attention to that potential base, her faction must be prepared for any skilled player that might appear in their midst.

Nonetheless, she immediately recognized from a single glance at the footage that it was Nie Fan.

Him!

The content of the footage also left Dancing Phoenix's face twitching.

What skill was that—Toxic Miasma? There's no way it could be that powerful! It was basically an AoE spell, but the information she obtained made it clear that the three available in the early game could only be learned at Level 60. Druids would not have such a skill below that level, at most obtaining a few channeling skills which could blow up a limited range in front of the caster, which was a completely different matter compared to an AoE spell.

And yet, that skill of Nie Fan's had nothing to do with channeling!

Dancing Phoenix rubbed her temples. Everything defied everything she knew… Nie Fan must have obtained some ultimate item, or some rare Skill Tome.

"Notify me immediately if any of you spot a player called Dark Night in Tajit Village." She then said into her guild's group chat. She must know which studio Nie Fan belonged to—he appeared to be a solo player from the looks of things, and if possible, she would try to link up with him or even invite him to Phoenix Down Studios… although they had only accepted female gamers so far, she could make an exception this time.

After all, Nie Fan's Toxic Miasma defied all common sense. Given that most players had not even reached Level 30, anyone could imagine the threat one possessed just by having such a skill.

***

Meanwhile, unaware that he had caught the attention of Phoenix Down Studios, Nie Fan was collecting some rare herbs to sell on the market. Although some gaming studios would provide coins, materials, and equipment for underlings and afford them plenty of time for leveling so that they could level up faster than others, self-sufficient players like Nie Fan naturally had less time for leveling.

While he obtained the herbs, he had also opened three normal treasure chests, although he did get some good items including one Druid Skill Tome.

[Vertical Leap: usable in Morphing, evades attacks by jumping. 20 seconds cooldown, no mana cost.]

It was a combat skill used during Morphing for dodging attacks.

Smiling, Nie Fan learned Vertical Leap since it was quite a good skill. Besides that, he had also obtained a Level 20 Copper Mage Robe and a Warrior Skill Tome for Dash and Slash, which could sell for over three thousand bronze coins.

"Xiao Yu, where are you guys right now?" Nie Fan messaged Xue Yu as he was ready to Tajit Village and sell off some of his loot, in turn buying some Druid items or Skill Tomes.

"We're still farming fire goblins. Good news, we just managed to get a pair of level twenty Druid's Copper Greaves: twenty defense, plus five agility and plus twenty MP, you should be able to put it to good use." Xue Yu replied.

In fact, they were lucky to actually get a good item after farming for so long. Most players would farm for hours only to get one or two white items, much less Copper. The reality was that the rate of getting a white item drop from farming normal monsters was just as low as getting a Dark-Enchanted Bronze item from farming Elite monsters—feeling lucky, Xue Yu thought that he could for a lottery ticket after going offline.

"You get that from farming fire goblins?" Nie Fan asked, taken aback.

"Yes."

"Lucky punk." Nie Fan grinned. He would not have been surprised if his friends got a Copper item from opening treasure chests or slaying Elite monsters, but they were simply too lucky to get it from normal monsters.

"I think so too."

"I'm going back to Tajit for some trading before I look around, and see if I can get someone to join us at the Heartlands of the Wood Nymphs' Forest." Nie Fan then told him—in the end, challenging dungeons were necessary for better items, and the Heartlands of the Wood Nymphs' Forest was incidentally a good dungeon. "I'll call you guys when I find somebody."

"Alright." Xue Yu replied.

After slaying a few more monsters, Nie Fan followed the small trail over the grasslands and returned to Tajit Village.