The Mother Crab

"Let's farm some crabs!" Draven thought to himself as a manic grin started to form on his face. The general idea was to let them call for backup and wipe them all out at once and then gather all the XP orbs he just had to wait. The river had gotten so wide at this point that one could probably call it a lake now but realistically how many crabs could be in there and how many would show up? Let's find out!

These crabs wouldn't have been scary at level 0 why would he be afraid of them now at level 4? With every passing minute tens of crabs began to pool around Draven he didn't like that he was being surrounded so he killed the ones to his right as they came out with his claws to leave him an escape route just in case. As more crabs showed up the sounds of clicking became louder to his left a sea of crabs had formed easily over a few hundred of them. Draven decided to start the culling. As he released 3 Half-moon blades at them.

Beep! You have slain…

Beep!..

Several messages were ignored as more and more crabs came out of the river within seconds all the crabs he killed were replaced. Draven checked his mana.

Mana: 1438/1500

Ok, nothing to worry about on that end. He thought to himself. This farming spot is a bit too good. How many crabs are in this river/lake? As if to answer his question, a wave of crabs came to shore from all directions except for behind him, which led back into the forest.

This might be a good chance to try out Dragon Breath he thought. He faced the far left side where most of the crabs had formed and summoned a deep fire within his chest that he never knew existed until then and began to spew a concentrated ray of flames from his mouth. And like a flamethrower, he directed his head and started turning towards the right. When he reached the far right side he had to resupply the mana cost and did it again starting from the right and continued spewing fire to the far left again.

The crabs that were hit practically melted under the heat of his breath as the kill messages from the system which Draven tried his best to ignore flooded his mind. As he was about to start a second pass from the left side he could feel the ground begin to rumble all the stones on the shore started to shake. Draven looked towards the lake and a huge wave of water shot into the air revealing a gigantic crab emerging from the depths. Draven activated the mystic eye.

Elite Murky Crab Level 10

Health: 80/80

Mana: 40/40

It's an Elite! And it's level 10! In the game elite mobs were nearly impossible to kill alone when you were below their level and even at the same level there was a high chance of dying. Based on his experience in the game he would normally start running but Draven still had a lot of mana and still had the option to retreat into the woods if needed. Draven stood his ground as the countless regular crabs apparently grew a pair since the boss showed up they began closing in on him.

"That's right stay grouped up and get closer." Draven thought in his mind. Closing his mouth Draven cut off the Dragonbreath as a few flames escaped the side of his mouth still flickering. he crouched down to get a clear image of the earth around him. The boss didn't wait either as it charged forward trampling its junior crabs along the way. Draven was surprised at how fast it could move and decided to release his spell now before it got too close for comfort.

"Earth Spikes!"

He called out as Draven formed countless spikes made of earth to shoot out from the ground until it impaled all the crabs including one larger one that grew out at an angle towards the boss's face. Draven could feel his mana draining rapidly after summoning so many spikes to hit all the crabs. As the last crab was struck Draven started hearing numerous messages from the system ring and all were ignored. The Boss after having been struck shuddered and stopped its charge. Draven quickly scanned it again.

Elite Murky Crab

Health 70/80

Mana: 40/40

10 points of damage that's fair Draven thought the spell wasn't meant to kill the boss just damage it while being strong enough to kill the trash mobs. Draven checked on his mana level as well.

Mana: 900/1500

It took a chunk but he still had enough to play with. The Boss had recovered and began its charge once again. Raising its claw it attempted to smash Draven into a pancake. Draven Dodged to the right to avoid the attack but the Crab's other claw was already swiping at him. Draven quickly formed an Earth wall to give him time to get out of the way but the creature destroyed the wall as if it was made of paper and grabbed Draven in its claw. He could feel it tighten around his waist it wouldn't take much for the creature to snap his body in two.

Draven activated his Wyrmling Scales so that they covered his whole body and the pressure immediately lessened. It was still painful as the Elite Crabs' claws were quite powerful but Draven was sure he gained some time to get out of this predicament before being separated from his lower half. The creature strengthened its grip and brought Draven to its face as a pair of mandibles uncurled and reached out to him. "It's trying to eat me alive!" He shouted as Panic began to set in.

With his arms locked in place Draven turned his head as best he could towards the creature's face and released another dragon breath resulting in its mandibles burning to a crisp. The creature reared up in pain and released Draven from its claw. Draven landed face-first on the rocky shore. The Elite Crab took a few steps back while it reared up until it regained its balance landing back on its legs. Draven's waist was incredibly sore and he didn't want to run around in this condition if he didn't have to so he began to summon a Fire arrow he didn't trust the wind to cut through the Elite Crabs shell.

However, before he could fully manifest his spell, a stream of water came gushing forth smacking him square in the chest which sent him flying backward into the forest crashing into a tree. The air was knocked out of his lungs as he lay on the ground struggling to breathe. He checked his health while forcing himself to stand up.

Health: 15/40

Draven padded his chest and noticed the leather armor had been torn and cut from the last attack revealing his deep red scales underneath. Draven looking down could see the Scales were dented inwards where the water had struck him leaving gaps in the scales that cut into his skin allowing blood to steadily seep out. Looking towards the lake he saw the crab moving towards him but not nearly as fast as before. Checking its stats again Draven noticed it had used up all its mana in that one shot.

Draven summoned the Fire arrow again and poured some mana into it making it as long as a vaulting pole and hurled it at the Boss with all his strength. The arrow lodged itself in the space underneath its head where you would expect its chin to be after digging through its flesh it lodged itself halfway into the creature's head. Smoke could be seen coming from under its shell as it collapsed to the ground.

Draven started walking towards the crab but noticed the system hadn't called out his victory yet, meaning the Boss was still alive. Not taking any chances Draven formed a ball of fire twice the size of a bowling ball and threw it at the crab. The Ball struck the boss in the face and it launched its body upwards before crashing once again into the ground while twitching crazily until it went still.

Beep! You have slain Elite Murky Crab level 10

"That bastard was playing dead!" Draven yelled shakily pointing a finger at the Crab. "I didn't think they were intelligent enough to even do something like that!" His anger quickly subsided as he remembered all the Xp he was about to get! Full of excitement Draven moved as quickly as his body allowed him to as blood was still dripping through the dented scales in his chest. After reaching the Elite Murky Crab he hit loot all without looking and continued to make his way back to the shore.

There he found some wolves had begun circling the corpses of the crabs. Draven dealt with them quickly throwing out some wind blades. He then proceeded to go to each crab and hit loot all there were at least a few hundred corpses littering the shore. Draven activated Draconic Aura to keep the riff-raff away. The entire process took Draven a few hours but other than the random wolf here and there smelling the burnt crab meat buffet nothing dared to approach Draven. After Draven had finally looted all the crabs he handpicked a few that seemed to be roasted just right in the back lines and stuffed them in his storage to eat later. Draven then used his claws to climb a tall tree and lay down on a branch.

After realeing his Wymerling Scales skill he could see the large deep bruises that showed as black underneath his deep purple skin. The bruises went around his waist and the large circular bruise was visible square in his chest. Thankfully the source of the blood came solely from his scales cutting into his skin. Overall he was ok but now that the adrenaline had faded he found himself shaking a bit as these life-and-death situations were taking a toll on him. he knew it would be a while before he would get used to it and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he distracted himself by opening his status screen to check his Inventory.

21 copper and 2 silver coins

Linin Cloth x7

Dagger 7x

War Club 1x

Roasted Murky Crab 10x

Clam 322 x

Large Clam 1x

Novice Xp Orb 308x

Novice Veteran Xp Orb 14x

Iron Xp Orb 1x

"I hit the motherlode!" Draven yelled out excitedly. "This is Power leveling at its finest." he thought to himself. His wide grin began to fade though as he remembered that he had to eat all these orbs. "Is there such a thing as overdosing on XP?" Draven decided to throw in a handful and wait to see if there were any negative side effects. After consuming roughly 30 Novice Xp orbs Draven waited a moment and then the system rang out.

Beep! Congratulations User has Reached Level 5.

Congratulations User has met the requirements to reach the next Rank.

Initiating advancement to Novice Veteran.