Chapter 24_ Vampire City (2)
Time quickly passed since Lexus had produced the Black Bracelet. During that time frame, Lexus mostly spend his time in the smithy without caring about anything else.
[Your level has risen.]
With a slash, a monster fell in front of him and it turned into grey lights. Right now, Lexus was no longer in Reinhardt. He had left on a journey once again with an intention in mind.
He had revisited or to be exact, he had passed through Patrian again and ventured further than the fortified city. Though great dangers awaited for him, Lexus wasn't afraid as he had two broken unique skills with him not to mention he was packed with legendary skills.
'Unique skill.'
Skills could be used permanently once learned. For general people, the value of a unique skills or skill books was similar or better than the value of a legendary item.
"At least the experience isn't all that bad," Lexus said to himself. Although he had become accustomed to grueling grinding hours in the smithy, being forced to do so would be dreadful. Luckily, the easiest way to circumvent the monotony of grinding levels was fighting above your level.
Granted, this was only possible for two types of people: those with overwhelming attributes or those with above-average mechanical skills, namely reaction speed, mental acuity, etc.
Then what about him?
[Status Window]
「Name: Lexus
Level: 80
Class: Undefeated King's Successor
Second Class: Pagma's Successor
Third Class: Sword Saint
Titles: One Who Became a Legend and 7 others.
Health: 27,314/27,314
Mana: 9,000/9,000
Sword Energy: 1000/1000
Strength: 1,860 Stamina: 1,676
Agility: 1,572 Intelligence: 4,500
Dexterity: 1,553
—–—–—–—
Charm: 1,594 Dignity: 1,394 Insight: 794
Composure: 784 Indomitable: 784
—–—–—–—
Super Sensitivity: 225 Good Luck: 170 Regeneration: 140
—–—–—–—
Stat Points: 800.」
With the determined and nonstop grinding of stats from producing unique rated items, Lexus was sure that his basic stats were already above of what an average level 200+ could have.
Suddenly, Lexus could feel that his Super Sensitivity was sending him some warnings about an incoming danger. Closing his eyes to feel it clearly, he heard that there was a subtle vibration from the ground.
Leaping into the air, in the place where he were just standing, a huge elongated creature came up. It was a centipede. An extra large centipede that had lived for thousands of years.
Kiyaaak!
"Ugh."
The length of the body was well over 10m, and the hundreds of legs were as big as human limbs. They wriggled in a disgusting manner. The centipede was surprisingly agile. It quickly moved its massive body and attacked Lexus who was still on mid air.
[You have suffered 22,300 damage.]
"What?"
It was safe to say that this was the first time Lexus suffered so much damage from a normal monster even wearing a unique rated armor that provided him a great amount of defense. Not to mention that his stamina stat had reached more than thousands, yet he still suffered this amount of damage.
"As expected of a monster which was over level 200."
Lexus muttered but he was surprised and confirmed the details of the giant worm.
[Giant Worm]
Level: 330
A worm that lives in the western part of the Eternal Kingdom. It dwells deep in the earth, and once it detects the presence of creatures, it will emerge through the ground and attack. It is a very common species in the western desert.
Seeing the monster's level, Lexus sighed thinking that how could he forget that the monsters here were over level 300 and not 200.
'Level 330? A monster of this level is a common worm?'
There were such strong monsters in the western part of the Eternal Kingdom, but very few users or people knew about it. Most people weren't able to advance to the west because they couldn't break through the habitat of the monsters.
'The western part is the most difficult area in the Eternal Kingdom. So when creating a character, there are no starting villages in the west. Currently, he was on his way to Reidan, the second-largest city located in the Eternal Kingdom.'
Reidan is a three or four days' walk away from Patrian heading west. However, if monsters are constantly encountered, the journey will be delayed several times.
The reason why he ventured in this very dangerous place was to search for a vampire city. It might sound stupid for why he was searching for one when it was currently out of what he can handle, Lexus did it with an intention to gain something that could greatly benefit him.
Landing on the ground, Lexus avoided another attack and he gripped his sword. Earlier he was struck with its attack because he was on midair which ceased all of his movements but now that he could move despite being greatly hindered by sands, the worm's attack would no longer hit him so easily.
Though he lost a large amount of his health in just a single attack, no worry was seen on his face. It's because his health was regenerating the missing health on real time.
Every point of his Regeneration stat provides 0.1% max health regeneration per second. Then having 140 points in Regeneration stats, Lexus heals 0.14% of his maximum health per second.
Then with Mlang set that enhances his healing abilities by a total of 60%, Lexus was regenerating 0.23% of his maximum health per second.
A special stat of the legendary class is really great. In the short term, the performance was weak if compared to the value of the legendary Sword Saint class. However, that would change later. If he developed the stat properly, Lexus would become an absolute person who will not be killed easily as long as the damage was not enough to kill him with just one blow.
Holding his sword that was still sheathed by the legendary scabbard, Lexus was aware that the monster in front of him possesses millions of health so he knew that he had to attack swiftly and utilized Crazed Rampage's effect that increases his attack speed every time he hit an enemy.
Though, daggers generally possessed the undisputed highest attack speed of all the weapons accessible, allowing for multiple attacks in the time it took a standard sword to be swung once, Lexus was now a Sword Saint so despite the great difference in level, Lexus can still take the monster down.
Pagma's Swordsmanship, Link.
The dozens of blue-white energy blades surrounded his red sword as he made a sword dance.
[Critical!]
[You have hit a vital spot. Additional damage will be dealt.]
[You have dealt 5,000 damage to the target.]
[You have dealt 5,000 damage to the target.]
[You have ...]
[...]
[...]
The critical played a vital role as well since it was challenging to inflict. In Satisfy, there were only two ways to achieve a critical hit. The first was through the blossoming hyper-reality aspect of the game, where the attack simply needed to overpower the opponent's defense to the point where even their natural defenses couldn't withstand it.
The alternative option was to increase one's critical rate. If the maximum hit rate was reached, then one could virtually unleash a critical attack with every attack. However, they would only be basic critical attacks at best unless said player possessed absolutely monstrous attributes.
Together with the Crazed Rampage's effect that increases his attack speed by 5% per stack, it synergized well with the passive effect of his skill Link that allows Lexus to slash 20 times which made his attacking speed mich faster.
Even the monster were over level 300, Lexus is now a Sword Saint and there's nothing a Sword Saint can't cut. Also considering the characteristic of being the Undefeated King's Successor and the stats he grinded with the characteristics of being Pagma's Successor, Lexus dared to face them head on, aware of the combined capabilities of the top tier legendary classes.
Lexus wasn't really delighted with the fact these sand worms were all normal. One of the reasons he moved so deep into this place was to encounter Elite monsters at the very least. Sadly, up until this very moment, all of the monsters Lexus observed were just Normal monsters.
Lexus desired elite monsters because they rewarded more experience than Normal monsters and had higher chances of dropping equipment above the Uncommon grade. As one ascended the monster ranking spectrum, the chances of increasing better gear increase proportionally.
Granted, Boss monster drop rates eclipsed regular monsters, but they appeared in a relatively smaller volume.
Nevertheless, monster ranks played a significant role in determining how much Experience was rewarded to a player. Generally speaking, an Elite monster would reward at least 50% more Experience for the increase in difficulty. It was even typical for this number to increase under certain condition.
Though it doesn't really matter what the item drop were, the thrill and excitement of seeing a loot popping out from a slain monster was something Lexus really liked.
Since there wasn't much he could do, Lexus could only suck it up and deal with the enemies before him. At least, the considerable level difference would neutralize some of his complaints.
Lexus' white sword materialized in his hands as he switched it with the sword inside the sheath and he immediately released a blue haze of sword energy. Then, Lexus fearlessly charges to shorten the distance between him and the nearest worm. Afterward, he swung his sword downward.
[Due to the option effect of Brilliance, Complete Sword Mastery has increased by 5 levels.]
BOOM…!
The violent sword energies of Brilliance that was held by the Sword Saint appeared around his weapons as a frightening noise echoed throughout the surrounding place. While the attack imbued with sword energy greatly reduced the worm's defenses, resulting in more damage, the attack simultaneously triggered a Critical Hit!
[You have dealt 550 damage to the target.]
After factoring in all of the effects, including the monster's defense value, and the level difference, the damage dealt by his sheathed sword is really quite small. Granted, worm-type monsters were known for their defenses, but it was fairly easy to overcome their defense values as long as the attacker's Attack Power sufficed.
Still, accomplishing this against a monster hundreds of levels higher than oneself was an admirable feat.
With this small amount of damage, why does Lexus insisted on keeping his sword sheathed? It might be stupid but he just wanted to be cool. He was now a sword saint so he decided to be against on unsheathing his sword against a normal mob despite he won't receive the bonus attack damages from his sword mastery and other skills.
As a Sword Saint, he will only release his blade if the opponent he would be facing would be a worthy one that needs a sword to be taken down.
After a while, the worm was left in a weakened state after losing a tremendous amount of health in a short timeframe, so Lexus tried to injure it further with a simple thrust through its body.
Suddenly, he slashed his sheath downward, leaving a massive gash on the back of the worm that sprang towards him next. It was a legendary sheath after all. Despite not being designed to be a weapon, the Undefeated King's Sheath could still be used as one to ravage the monster's body.
Lexus' nonstop attack consumed nearly 10% of worm's health after factoring in its high defense. Despite this matter, Lexus intended to dispose of the monster with relative ease by incorporating the Pagma's Sword Dance four fundamental skills— Wave, Link, Kill, and Transcend. While using these skills, Lexus unleashed a string of basic attacks in a fluid chain, depleting the worm's almost half the health bar in a matter of seconds.
A small smile appeared across his face as he looked towards the numerous worms appearing from the sands in the distance. Although they numbered more than a dozen, Lexus didn't mind.
He had infinite stamina during combat situations so Lexus wasn't worried of tiring himself.
[You have invested 140 points in strength. Is this correct?]
"Yes."
[Once the points are invested, it can't be reversed. Do you want to proceed?]
"Yes."
[You have invested 428 points in agility. Is this correct?]
"Yes."
The warning statements popped up and his strength and agility greatly increased.
[Strength has permanently increased by 140.]
[Agility has permanently increased by 428.]
Accordingly, Lexus' Attack Power increased and with the increase in strength and agility, Lexus felt a great difference. Aside from he felt his body becoming stronger, his body felt completely lighter. Increasing his Strength, Agility, in unison in a 1:1 ratio allowed him to exude their physical prowess at maximum efficiency.
Allowing a single stat to fall behind the other combat-oriented attributes would negatively impact a character in the long run. The wider the disparity in these stats, the harder one had to compensate when controlling the character's action. Hence, a higher agility factor lightened the mental load.
And with both strength and agility stats reaching 2,000 points, Lexus had finally achieved one of his goals that he planned and that was to have his stats in golden ratio.
The golden ratio that was known as a 1:1 ratio of strength and agility. The effect was only present when strength and agility were above 2,000 or intelligence and stamina were above 800.
As a result, Lexus leveled up.
[The giant worm has been destroyed.]
[2,000,000 experience has been acquired.]
[Your level has risen.]
[Your level has risen.]
[….]
[...]