Chapter 147: Instantly Becoming Strong

Vortex Trap (Novice Level): A trap with a radius of 0.5 meters, mainly made from Dark Magnetic Stone Powder. When triggered, it dealt 200% direct trap damage to enemies within a 3-meter radius. After activation, the Dark Magnetic Stone Powder effect took place, forming a magnetic vortex that exerted a strong pull on enemies within an 8-meter radius, drawing them toward the center of the trap. The magnetic vortex lasted for 3 seconds, and enemies within a 3-meter radius of the vortex center suffered 100% attack damage every second. The skill’s Cooldown Time was 5 minutes; each time the level increased, the skill’s range and duration improved.

Before this, the trap skills Chen Mo had learned were very small, only occupying one body space. They were so tiny that he could place them on stones, allowing him to throw the traps.

But the Vortex Trap alone had a radius of half a meter. After the trap was triggered, the skill’s damage range reached a radius of 3 meters, and the magnetic vortex range was even larger, making it a truly wide-area trap. Moreover, even at the Novice Level, its damage was quite decent. When the skill level increased, the damage would become extremely impressive. The only downside was that to set up the Vortex Trap, it had to be prepared in advance. Such a large trap would likely be hard to use during combat with others.

However, everything had its pros and cons. If such a powerful trap could be deployed casually, other professions would stand no chance. Plus, he had two skills, Trap Manipulation and Trap Chain, which, when combined with the Vortex Trap, could definitely turn it into a formidable weapon.

After learning three skills, Chen Mo also equipped two Level 20 Purple Equipment items: the Strong Hand Crossbow and the Mermaid Ring. The Strong Hand Crossbow had a base Physical Attack Power of 99–132, and the Mermaid Ring added +40 to base Physical Attack Power. Both were items that increased base Physical Attack Power.

In addition to the Mermaid Ring, Chen Mo had two green necklace and ring pieces. These two items were Level 15 equipment, and together they added 20 points to base Physical Attack Power.

This brought Chen Mo’s base Physical Attack Power to 159–192.

In terms of Strength Attributes, the Strong Hand Crossbow gave +35 Strength, the Mermaid Ring gave +20 Strength, the two green accessories gave +20 Strength, the five pieces of armor gave +30 Strength, the First Generation Grandmaster Title gave +30 Strength, and the Perfect Master passive title gave +10 Strength. Chen Mo, as a Level 20 character, had almost all his free attribute points per level invested in Strength. Starting from Level 2, each level added 7 points of Strength, giving his character 136 points of innate Strength. This brought Chen Mo’s total Strength to a whopping 281 points!

A player’s final Physical Attack Power was determined by their base attack power and total Strength. The higher the base Physical Attack Power and the higher the Strength, the more powerful the player’s attack became.

Especially the increase in base attack power would have an extremely noticeable effect on the player’s attack power.

After equipping the Level 20 Purple Weapon and the Mermaid Ring that added base Physical Attack Power, Chen Mo’s base Physical Attack Power saw a huge boost, and the final attack power increase was astonishingly high.

Chen Mo looked at the attack power on his attribute panel, which was the final attack power combining base Physical Attack Power and the player’s total Strength. He couldn’t help being greatly surprised.

Attack Power 381–731!

This attack power was even slightly higher than that of the boss Sesshylow!

It was so strong! Chen Mo wondered if the System had made an error, but after plugging the numbers into the attack power formula he found on the Forum, he realized that this was indeed his attack power!

The attack power formula had long been worked out. The formula for Physical Attack Power upper limit was Base Physical Attack Power (1 + Total Strength / 100), and the formula for Physical Attack Power lower limit was Base Physical Attack Power (1 + Total Strength / 200).

The formula for Magic Attack Power was the same, just replace Physical Attack Power with Magic Attack Power and Strength with Intelligence.

However, it wasn’t too strange that he had such powerful attack power. For a Level 20 player, Chen Mo’s attack power had almost reached its limit.

What determined attack power was base attack power and Strength. Base attack power was only provided by weapons and accessories.

His weapon was a Purple Weapon; the next step up was Dark Gold. So far, Chen Mo had only seen the Level 10 Sailor Gloves as a Dark Gold Weapon. Besides that, he hadn’t even heard of any others, showing how rare Dark Gold Weapons were.

For accessories, he only had one Purple Equipment piece and could still change two more, but Purple accessories were even rarer than weapons, and the improvement wasn’t that significant.

In terms of Strength attributes, weapons and accessories only provided what they had when equipped. Without focusing on these, it was hard to increase Strength. The Strength attributes on armor were very limited; armor mainly provided Defense and Health Points.

Titles could add attributes, but Chen Mo’s active and passive titles already gave him 40 points of Strength, which other players couldn’t match at all. If Chen Mo wanted to make a breakthrough with titles, he would have to switch to the Heinous Crime Title.

So, although Chen Mo wasn’t fully equipped with Purple Equipment, his attack power could be said to be the limit for a Level 20 player. It would be very, very difficult to improve further.

With his attack power now comparable to Sesshylow’s, Chen Mo looked forward to Sesshylow even more.

Before he reached Level 25 and changed to a new weapon, his improvements wouldn’t be significant. But Sesshylow was a Degenerate Form; her Degenerate Form was equivalent to a player’s strongest state. When she recovered to her non-degenerate form, her attributes would definitely increase greatly, and he wondered how powerful she would become then.

After learning new skills, equipping new gear, and looking at his attributes, Chen Mo finally felt a bit powerful. Before this, he mostly relied on his Pet to fight; now he could finally be strong on his own for a while.

Returning outside Eastern Sea City, the Sea Clan’s Monster Siege showed a trend of intensifying, and the battle lines gradually contracted toward Eastern Sea City. However, Chen Mo didn’t pay much attention to it. Instead, he found a monster, summoned Sesshylow, and started fighting.

Holding the Strong Hand Crossbow, Chen Mo shot an arrow at a fishman, and a damage number over 600 appeared!

“Hahaha!” Chen Mo laughed heartily.

Darn it, this was too awesome! Before changing equipment, he only dealt a little over 300 damage. Now the damage had doubled completely, putting him on par with Sesshylow!

Previously, killing a fishman took about 30 seconds. Now, with him and Sesshylow attacking together, it took less than 20 seconds!

“What kind of insane damage is this!” The Players around who were killing monsters were stunned when they saw the damage from Chen Mo and Sesshylow.

They were doing well to deal two or three hundred damage, but this guy was dealing three times their damage!

Plus, with that powerful strange Pet, this one person’s output was higher than a whole team’s. It was truly a case of comparing people and getting angry.

With such a huge boost in output, Chen Mo’s Points, of course, skyrocketed.

After one hour, the Points Chen Mo obtained reached over 3,000, finally pushing out the 11th and 10th place, and he entered the top ten of the Points Ranking.

“Really, how did those guys in the top ten get so many Points?” Chen Mo couldn’t help muttering.

But thinking carefully, if the players ahead also had Purple Weapons and Purple accessories, their attack power wouldn’t be much different from his. In fact, due to different professions, their attack power might even be better than his. So, it wasn’t strange that they gained more Points than him.

In a Main City, having over ten people with Purple Weapons and Purple accessories wasn’t strange at all. In fact, with so many Players in the Huaxia Region and countless wealthy people, money wasn’t an issue as long as the items were available.

Chen Mo had started a bit later than the other top players. Now that their output wasn’t inferior to his, it was hard for Chen Mo to catch up. Even with Sesshylow, since they had such a big lead from the start, even if he gained more Points alone, catching up wouldn’t happen quickly.

However, Chen Mo knew that his Points gain speed wouldn’t be slower than those ahead. Given enough time, catching up was just a matter of time.

It was already past 9 p.m. Chen Mo calmly focused on killing monsters, and his Points kept increasing. By a little after 10 p.m., his ranking reached 8th place. At 11 p.m., his ranking reached 7th place.

His ranking was rising, but the speed was much slower than Chen Mo expected.

“Are those guys using some other method to increase Points?” Chen Mo thought curiously.

Even if the output of the players ahead was similar to his, he had Sesshylow with him. Sesshylow didn’t take away any Points, so in terms of total output, those ahead shouldn’t match him.

Of course, it couldn’t be ruled out that there really were such super freaks with special output methods, making their output better than his. But it was impossible for all six of them to be like that. The fact that he couldn’t catch up to the top six meant something he didn’t know about was happening.

By midnight, the total Points Chen Mo obtained reached over 7,000 (usable Points over 5,300), but he was still ranked 6th. Clearly, the people ahead definitely knew something he didn’t!

It was getting dark, and the Monster Siege continued, showing no sign of ending soon. But unlike usual nights, as the sky darkened, a thick sea fog drifted in from the distant Sea of Miracles.

The unusual sea fog put many Players on guard, but this sea fog seemed to only reduce Players’ visibility further, without causing any real impact on the Players in Eastern Sea City.

However, just then, a voice sounded in all Players’ ears.

“City Lord Announcement: Sea Clan Invaders have appeared in Eastern Sea City and its surroundings. Killing the invaders will grant a large number of Points rewards!”

Sea Clan Invaders?

Chen Mo was puzzled. Were they Players who had joined the Sea Clan?

As he thought this, Chen Mo suddenly looked up sharply and moved swiftly. In the thick sea fog ahead, a red figure appeared, and an arrow shot fiercely toward him!

It was a tracking arrow. By the time he noticed it, it was too close to dodge!

Chen Mo’s Health Points weren’t much higher than other Players’, just over two thousand. If he encountered a strong Player, three or four arrows could kill him. He dared not let this arrow hit him.

Sesshylow!

As Chen Mo moved, Sesshylow also acted. She moved in front of the incoming arrow, blocking it.