Chapter 129: A Huge Secret
Chapter 129: A Huge Secret
“It’s that Hunter the boss mentioned, and a Silver-grade monster! Hehe, really lucky!”
The newcomer was an Assassin Player from the Six Paths Guild. He spotted a figure from afar and walked over to see if it was a companion from the Six Paths Guild. Unexpectedly, he encountered Chen Mo along with a Silver-grade monster.
Chen Mo was alone, not wearing any armor, and was clad in the System’s basic cloth outfit. The Assassin Player saw this and couldn’t help but feel overjoyed.
Killing this Hunter Player would earn a hefty reward from the Six Paths boss, and the earlier he killed him, the greater the reward. After killing this guy, he could also slay the Silver-grade monster and obtain a Silver-grade crystal. It was an absolute windfall. The previous two trips to the Hunting Grounds hadn’t yielded as much as this one!
He quickly closed in on Chen Mo. Knowing that Chen Mo had already noticed him, the Assassin activated Stealth right in front of Chen Mo, not even trying to hide his killing intent.
In his view, someone who had been stripped of all their gear and came to the Land of Exile without any armor couldn’t possibly be a match for him.
After discovering the Assassin, Chen Mo pretended to struggle and tried to flee from the Crimson Giant Ape. Otherwise, if the Assassin saw the damage he dealt, he would likely be scared off immediately.
Chen Mo had no intention of letting anyone who wanted to kill him get away.
After sneaking up behind Chen Mo, the Assassin moved forward to attack.
His target was a Hunter, so it was highly likely there were Traps on the ground, but he wasn’t afraid at all.
If the Hunter had a higher Level and more Traps, it would be a different story. But before Level 20, a Hunter’s Traps were nothing to fear. Even if he was revealed by a Trap, he could still easily kill the Hunter.
If he was lucky and didn’t step on any Traps, he could chain his attacks and finish off the Hunter in one go!
Boom!
As he approached the Hunter from behind, the Assassin Player felt the ground shake. He knew he had triggered a Trap.
However, he was mentally prepared and immediately gave up on the surprise attack, deciding to kill the Hunter Player head-on instead. Hunters were useless in close combat; once an Assassin got up close, it was a death sentence for the Hunter!
Boom! Boom!
But as soon as his figure was revealed, two more Traps were triggered one after another beside him. The Assassin Player realized that this Hunter Player, who wielded a weapon but wore no armor, dealt way too much Damage. Three Traps, including one low-damage Shockwave Trap, had taken out more than half of his Health Points in an instant!
The Assassin Player was horrified and knew he had run into a tough opponent.
He had only stepped on one Trap, yet three Traps were triggered at the same time!
Escape!
Just as he tried to flee, a Poison Crossbow bolt hit him, and then what seemed like a ball of green light pounced on him from behind. The Assassin saw his remaining Health Points drop to zero in an instant.
When he came to his senses, he had already respawned at the lowest level of the Land of Exile.
What happened? How did he die?
The Assassin Player was stunned, completely baffled by how he had been killed.
“What a pity, only one piece of armor dropped.”
In the Hunting Grounds, Chen Mo looked at the single piece of armor dropped by the Assassin Player and felt a bit regretful.
When Blacklisted Players died and came to the Land of Exile, it was already the biggest punishment. In this land of Black Names, dying wasn’t as severe as in the outside world. They wouldn’t lose all their gear upon dying once. Instead, they would always drop at least one piece of equipment and lose 50% of their current Level’s Experience Points.
It was a Level 13 blue pair of shoes that increased movement speed by 1 point. It was better than nothing, and since Chen Mo had no armor, he unceremoniously put them on.
Beside him, Sesshylow had already resumed fighting the Crimson Giant Ape after killing the Assassin Player.
Several tens of seconds later, the Crimson Giant Ape died, dropping a silvery-white crystal.
Crimson Crystal (Silver-grade): A rare crystal that can be exchanged with Morris to reduce Crime Value and gain a 10% Experience Points reward.
Just as expected!
Chen Mo put the Crimson Crystal back into his backpack and continued searching for Crimson monsters.
He needed to collect enough crystals within these six hours to level up to Level 15 in one go!
In the Hunting Grounds, the most common monsters were Bronze-grade monsters. The Bronze-grade crystals dropped by Bronze-grade monsters were not very valuable, only slightly better than Beast Cores. It took 5 Bronze-grade crystals to reduce 1 point of Crime Value, and exchanging Bronze-grade crystals with Morris did not yield any Experience Points reward.
However, regardless of their grade, the Health Points and Attributes of the monsters were almost the same. Killing Bronze-grade monsters was a waste of time for Chen Mo.
Iron-grade monsters, however, were worth killing. Each Iron-grade crystal could grant a 1% Experience Points reward. With Sesshylow by his side, Chen Mo only needed a little over a minute to kill an Iron-grade monster. However, finding Iron-grade monsters was not easy, as they were much rarer than Bronze-grade monsters.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Chen Mo kept moving through the Hunting Grounds, completely ignoring Bronze-grade monsters and only engaging Iron-grade monsters when he encountered them.
Even so, he had only killed ten Iron-grade monsters in total.
As for Silver-grade monsters, he hadn’t seen a single trace of them. The fact that he encountered one right after entering was purely due to a burst of luck.
Along the way, Chen Mo encountered quite a few Players. He had no intention of meeting them and always used Camouflage to slip away.
“Damn it, at this rate, I won’t reach Level 15 by the end of the night.”
The Hunting Grounds had diverse terrain. When he first entered, it was a hilly Grassland. Now, he was walking through a sparse, dry forest.
Ahead, shimmering reflections caught his eye. Chen Mo walked over and saw a deep blue lake.
The lake wasn’t large, and there was a small island at its center. When Chen Mo looked over, he couldn’t help but freeze.
Holy cow, I’ve hit the jackpot! It’s a Gold-grade monster!
Chen Mo couldn’t contain his excitement!
A Gold-grade monster dropped a crystal that could reduce 10 points of Crime Value and grant a 50% Experience Points reward!
If he could kill this Gold-grade monster, even if his luck was terrible for the rest of the six hours, he would still be close to reaching Level 15! Even if he fell just a bit short, he could spend some Gold Coins to enter the third layer and farm some Beast Cores to level up!
Chen Mo immediately jumped into the lake and swam toward the island.
“I need to hurry! Someone else has spotted it too!”
Halfway through his swim, Chen Mo noticed that someone on the opposite side of the lake was also swimming toward the island.
The person was clad in black battle armor—it was the mature beauty Xue Ye Hua.
This woman was not easy to deal with!
Although Chen Mo had never fought Xue Ye Hua, the mere fact that she could establish herself in the Land of Exile and compete with the other two major Guilds to recruit members made him wary of her.
With a thought, Chen Mo quietly summoned Sesshylow.
Sesshylow was now in her Water Element form. After being summoned, she blended into the lake water so seamlessly that even Chen Mo couldn’t tell where she was.
Chen Mo was slightly faster than Xue Ye Hua. After reaching the shore, he immediately ran to the Gold-grade monster and launched an attack.
With Chen Mo’s Damage output, as long as he attacked first, Xue Ye Hua wouldn’t be able to steal the Gold-grade monster from him unless she killed him first.
Xue Ye Hua soon arrived. She didn’t attack Chen Mo but instead targeted the Gold-grade monster, hoping to claim it by out-DPSing him.
Chen Mo had been prepared to teach this mature beauty a lesson if she dared to attack him. Seeing that she didn’t make a move, he decided not to have Sesshylow, who was hiding in the water, attack her.
After all, with Xue Ye Hua helping with the Damage, it wouldn’t take long to kill the Gold-grade monster.
Xue Ye Hua noticed the Damage Chen Mo was dealing without wearing any armor and was shocked. Then, she looked at Chen Mo and smiled, “Little brother, how about letting me have this monster? I’m just a bit short on Crime Value to cleanse my name.”
Little brother, my foot!
How dare you make assumptions without even seeing me? Be careful, or I’ll sue you for slander!
“I’m not familiar with you,” Chen Mo said unhappily, bluntly refusing.
There were plenty of beauties in the Game. If it were Yang Liu, the beauty from his class, he might have considered it. But this Game beauty he’d only met twice? Forget it. Who knew what she looked like in real life? And even if she were a real-life beauty, it had nothing to do with him.
“We weren’t familiar before, but if you do me this favor, won’t we become familiar then?” Xue Ye Hua said with a playful smile.
“Ahem, beauty, that won’t do. You can’t catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. If you’re generous, find a secluded place where we can have an open and honest exchange. If I’m in a good mood, I might agree,” Chen Mo deliberately put on a lecherous act.
“Get lost!” Xue Ye Hua’s face turned cold as she shouted.
“Heh, I’ll get lost as soon as I kill this monster,” Chen Mo chuckled.
The Gold-grade monster’s Health Points dwindled further. Chen Mo remained cautious, wary of Xue Ye Hua suddenly attacking. Her equipment and Damage were quite impressive, and if she had any burst skills, she could deal significant Damage.
However, Xue Ye Hua showed no intention of ambushing him. Only when the Gold-grade monster’s Health Points dropped to 30% did she suddenly say, “If you let me have this monster, I’ll tell you a huge secret related to the Land of Exile and the other two major Guilds!”
“What secret?” Chen Mo asked curiously, sensing that Xue Ye Hua wasn’t lying.
Xue Ye Hua wasn’t the type who enjoyed PvP. Under normal circumstances, people like her and Qing Tian shouldn’t have come to the Land of Exile.
“So you agree?” Xue Ye Hua naturally wouldn’t reveal the secret so easily.
“I need the Experience from the Gold-grade crystal. But if you tell me this so-called secret and I think it’s worth it, I can give you 10 Iron-grade crystals,” Chen Mo thought for a moment and said.
“Fine. Hurry up and kill this monster, then I’ll take you to a hidden place. You’ll see for yourself whether what I’m saying is true or not,” Xue Ye Hua moved her hands, speeding up the process of killing the monster.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll trick you?” Chen Mo couldn’t help but ask, seeing how readily she agreed.
“Do I have any other choice? I’d like to kill you, but I have a feeling that if I fight you, I might end up at a disadvantage,” Xue Ye Hua shot him a glare.
“Hehe,” Chen Mo chuckled proudly.
“What’s so funny?” Xue Ye Hua asked irritably.
“Praising you for your foresight.”
…
Over half an hour later, Xue Ye Hua led Chen Mo through a maze of thorns and arrived at a high cliff.
“Come here, hide here. Be careful not to be spotted.”
Xue Ye Hua grabbed Chen Mo and made him crouch beside her, looking down from the high cliff.