Chapter 18 – Monster Tower

"Leveling up is easy; ranking up is hard—you need to enter the Monster Tower. Next time, the Monster Tower will not appear at Lancelow Plains; Pease still needs to wait." 

The one speaking was Red Bristle Pigman Ruger. It was the first time Su Mo had seen this monster speak.

"Ah, is the Monster Tower going to spawn? Where's it going to spawn this time?" Tiger King Angus excitedly asked.

"Big brother tiger, what are you so excited for? You've only just reached Level 30; you're still ages away from ranking up," Coyote Chief Kado said sourly.

Su Mo listened to the monsters talk as he analysed what they were saying. The conclusion was becoming clearer and clearer: it seemed that monsters could level up as well as rank up. However, leveling up and ranking up were different things; it seemed that monsters had to reach Level 30 and accumulate a certain amount of EXP before ranking up.

There was also the Monster Tower; it seemed to be a place for monsters to rank up. Su Mo wondered if it had to do with the Tower of Heaven.

The Tower of Heaven was something similar to a dungeon in the New World. It spawned every week and appeared in a different place each time. An icon would appear on the map, and players would have five minutes to rush over. After five minutes, the tower would disappear.

Players who entered the Tower of Heaven would randomly appear on one of the levels.

They might meet a monster, a medicinal plant, or a scenario. There was nothing that the game company could not come up with.

Su Mo decided to buy the mount from Omnipresent Brightness not because he felt that with the Boss monster chat group he had become rich, but because if the Tower of Heaven spawned near where he was, he might be able to reach it using a mount.

One of the biggest sorrows in the game was to desperately run to where the marker for the Tower of Heaven was, only to see it disappear.

Su Mo thought to himself as Red Bristle Pigman Ruger said, "That's right, I've been sent to defend the 21st level of the tower tomorrow at 3pm. As such, the Monster Tower will definitely spawn in Avinami Highlands."

"Ai, I envy Avinami Highlands' little friends," Tiger King Angus said out of disappointment.

"Don't be so disappointed, big brother Tiger, you're someone who has entered the tower before. The EXP that got you from Level 25 to Level 30 was all from the tower, right? I wonder how many players you killed," Coyote Chief Kado said enviously.

Su Mo thought of something—not too long ago, Tiger King Angus had indeed entered the Tower of Heaven to be the guardian Boss. The players who reached his level were all slaughtered, and afterwards, this Boss suddenly went from Level 25 to Level 30.

Tower of Heaven and Monster Tower: One seemed to be for players and one seemed to be for monsters.

He wondered if he could enter the Monster Tower as Lafu. If pets could rank up, wouldn't that mean their grades could go up?

Lafu was a trashy Common monster outside a Newbie Village, and he could not even count as a Green grade pet.

That was why Smoke Wine And Flirtation had looked down on Lafu. If Lafu could rank up, he would no longer be as trash.

Su Mo did not dare to recklessly ask questions; he decided to keep an eye out for information like this. Since the Tower of Heaven would spawn tomorrow at 3pm at Avinami Highlands, he would go and camp that area beforehand.

For now, he had things to do!

He asked about the four materials and received information about two of them; even these monsters did not have much information about the other two.

It was very likely that the current chat group he could see were monsters who had not ranked up; perhaps those who ranked up went to a different channel. It was possible that only the monsters who had ranked up knew about those other materials, or it was not time for those materials to appear yet.

Finally, Su Mo asked about taming scrolls and pet slots.

It turned out that pet slots were 'VIP items,' which could only be dropped through the gacha. Su Mo looked at the pet slots on the market and found that they were all around 300 to 380 gold coins, which was an astronomical price.

However, he was able to get some information on taming scrolls.

It was said that a pet of a Beast Tamer in Partridge Camp had run away. After obtaining its freedom, it had run into the wilderness to hide, but before it had run away, it had brought with it some of the Beast Tamer's treasures, which included a taming scroll.

The two materials that Su Mo had been able to receive information on were the Frost Horn and Strengthening Heart.

The Frost Horn required a Frost Unicorn from the Icy Highlands. The client had not been able to get one even after farming for two days, so he sent out a request.

In actuality, farming Frost Unicorns was correct; the key was where to farm Frost Unicorns. Frost Unicorns from different places dropped different things. Within the Icy Highlands, there was Papol Forest, which had a nameless cave. It was covered by thick snow, and inside it was a grave for Frost Unicorns. Elderly Frost Unicorns would go into that place and slowly wait for death, and Frost Horns were dropped from these elderly Frost Unicorns.

It was a long and arduous trek for Su Mo. Even though he had steeled himself to spend some gold coins to use teleportation channels, it had taken him nearly one hour to reach this place.

Icy Highlands was at the northernmost region of the Gaia Continent, and it was a place with beautiful scenery.

One of New World's slogans was that players could see all kinds of beautiful scenery without taking a step out of their houses. If one wanted to see the snowy scenes of the north and south poles, this was the best place to go. There were also beautiful stars and snow creatures.

His target was nearby, and Su Mo would occasionally let out Lafu and occasionally put him away, cautiously advancing as he avoided monster spawn areas. The poor Lafu was used as cannon fodder, substituting for Su Mo to be surrounded and killed by snow monsters twice.

The nameless cave was very hidden, and if he did not know exactly where it was, it would be very difficult for Su Mo to find it.

Su Mo carefully entered the cave, and he looked up as he anxiously checked the cave's walls. The ice crystals had accumulated over the years and formed incredibly solid walls.

Su Mo walked ahead for a while, and he soon found a solitary Frost Unicorn.

Su Mo did not hesitate and shot an arrow over, dealing 111 damage to the Level 30 Frost Unicorn. It seemed that these Frost Unicorns were just ordinary monsters.

With Lafu's help, the Level 25 Su Mo was able to kill the Level 30 monster without any difficulty.

This was the biggest advantage of Hunter-type professions: With pets, as long as the pets could survive, they could kill essentially any kind of monster.

It was a pity that Lafu was too fragile and could only tank ordinary monsters or low level Mini Bosses. If he faced any powerful monsters, he would most likely be insta-killed.

After killing the Frost Unicorn, Su Mo checked its corpse, but he was disappointed to find that it did not drop any Frost Horns, only eight copper coins.

The drops were a bit too stingy; after all, it was a Level 30 monster and did not even give enough money to cover the cost for the arrows. Su Mo sighed and started to collect materials from the Frost Unicorn's body, which were its fur and flesh. Valuable things all dropped as drops.

Ordinary fur could not be sold for much money, but the flesh could be roasted and fed to pets. Not only could it recover pets' stamina, but it could also increase their Loyalty by a bit. Players could also eat the roasted meat to recover stamina and HP.

After dying twice, Lafu's Loyalty had dropped by ten or so points, and he looked like he was starting to slack off.

Su Mo hoped that he would not have to go too deep in the cave; it would be best to get what he needed in the outer region. Otherwise, if he disturbed the Unicorn King in the depths of the cave, he would die a horrible death.