The jungle was dim, quiet, and desolate. Occasionally, the low chirps of insects broke the silence. This place was rarely visited by others, and no other players had dared to come here yet. In his previous life, Nieyan often saw small groups of players coming here to hunt monsters and level up. Among them were even some red-name players. Whenever an elite or sub-elite creature appeared, players would rush to fight for it, resulting in many deaths.
In fact, although leveling in Faith was difficult, if one kept playing nonstop, one could reach level 180 in at most three years, or even exceed level 200.
However, due to frequent deaths in player killing (PK), raiding new dungeons, challenging elite monsters above their level, and participating in fortress sieges, leveling up became much slower for players. It was precisely through repeated deaths that players became truly skilled. Later on, with the increase in various skills, having only high levels and good equipment without matching abilities would make one vulnerable to being defeated by lower-level players, which was quite normal.
After crossing a forested area, Nieyan and the others finally reached the spawn zone of the scaled frogs deep in the jungle.
“What’s your current mana level, and how many mana potions have you brought?” Nieyan asked Tang Yao. Without the Arcane Sprite, insufficient mana would become a serious issue.
“Adding the ones Sun brought, I have thirty slow mana recovery potions and ten basic instant mana recovery potions,” Tang Yao replied. Although it seemed like a lot, it was still far from enough if they were fighting elites. Mana potions had cooldown times and couldn’t be used continuously. During elite fights, they had to pause periodically to recover mana before continuing to deal damage, which slowed down their monster-hunting speed.
Suddenly, Nieyan remembered something and turned to Yaoyao. “Did you learn the mana transfer skill from the Holy Word Mage class?” Mana transfer was a skill of Holy Word Mages, allowing them to transfer their own mana to others, although usually only fifty to sixty points of mana would be received for every hundred points transferred, making it quite inefficient.
“Yeah, I did,” Yaoyao nodded. As a Holy Word Mage who often joined teams, mana transfer was a must-learn skill. Sometimes, Holy Word Mages had to sacrifice their mana to heal priests. Holy Word Mages were the strongest damage-dealers in a team, even surpassing Elemental Mages and Arcane Mages. Without mana, their damage output would stop. However, sacrificing high magical damage to ensure the team’s survival was often worth it.
“Good. If Tang Yao runs out of mana later, you can transfer some mana to him,” Nieyan said. Mana transfer had a cooldown of two minutes. Without interruption, it could transfer up to 200 points of mana. This way, Tang Yao wouldn’t have to worry about running out of mana. As long as he didn’t use high-mana-cost spells like Meteor Fall, with Yaoyao’s help and mana potions, maintaining continuous damage output wouldn’t be a problem.
“Can’t I do any damage?” Yaoyao asked in surprise.
Nieyan shook his head. “No, your level is too low. You can’t deal any damage to the scaled frogs.”
“How long does it take us to kill an elite scaled frog now?” Tang Yao asked.
“At least an hour. For a sub-elite, probably about half an hour.”
Seeing Tang Yao’s disappointed expression, Nie Yan gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Cheer up. We need to level up quickly, otherwise Potian will catch up to us. The Triumphant Empire is keeping a close eye on us. Our guild members can’t even wear their guild emblems while leveling in other maps now—we have to stay hidden because we’re not strong enough yet. But once we become powerful enough, we won’t have to fear the Triumphant Empire anymore.”
(Note: “凯旋” is translated as “Triumphant” based on common gaming localization conventions for empire/guild names, assuming it refers to an in-game faction. If it’s a proper noun, “Kaixuan Empire” could be used instead.)
Nie Yan came to a deeper realization: the reason the Triumph Empire dared to openly besiege and attempt to kill him and Tang Yao was simply because their own strength was insufficient. If the Bullmen Tribe possessed the power to make the Triumph Empire think twice, would they still have the audacity to attack Nie Yan and Tang Yao so recklessly?
Upon hearing Nieyan’s words, Tang Yao’s eyes burned with profound resentment. He swore to himself that he would one day make the Triumph Empire pay for everything that had transpired this day.
(Note: “凯旋” is translated as “Triumph” to convey the meaning of victory/glorious return, which is a common interpretation for this term when used as a proper noun like an empire’s name. The phrasing emphasizes Tang Yao’s vengeful resolve while maintaining natural English flow.)
Tang Yao finally stopped looking so dejected. He gritted his teeth and cursed, “Damn the Triumph!”
If Tang Yao had become discouraged, it would have dealt a heavy blow to the Bullmen Tribe. However, seeing him regain his fighting spirit, Nieyan sighed in relief.
They finally arrived at the spawn point of a sub-elite scaled frog. Nieyan first used Dust of Mist. Once the mist formed, Tang Yao started casting spells to attack the scaled frog.
“Is this even possible?” Yaoyao and Sun were both stunned. They never expected Nieyan and Tang Yao to kill monsters above their level using such a method.
For ordinary players, killing monsters above their level was very risky. They generally avoided fighting monsters with levels higher than theirs, especially leaders or above, because it was too dangerous. Now, Tang Yao seemed to be able to kill a sub-elite monster without taking any damage, which completely overturned Yaoyao and Sun’s understanding.
Yaoyao and Sun were basically there to gain experience. Yaoyao’s job was to transfer some mana to Tang Yao when he ran out, while Sun was responsible for collecting the loot. Nieyan could use the time while Tang Yao was hunting monsters to search for the next elite, determine its location, and return just in time to gain experience when the current scaled frog was about to be killed, thus saving a lot of time.
After a while, the sub-elite scaled frog fell. The generous experience gain caused Sun to level up twice, reaching level 9. As for Yaoyao, she advanced from level 10 to 11. Although Nieyan and Tang Yao didn’t level up, their experience had also increased significantly.
“Leveling up is so fast! I actually gained two levels!” Sun exclaimed in delight, somewhat disbelieving. Previously, it had taken him at least two days to go from level 7 to 9, but now it had only taken half an hour.
Yaoyao was also amazed by the speed of leveling up. So this was how Nieyan and Tang Yao managed to level up so quickly, no wonder they had rushed to the top of the leaderboard. How could others’ leveling speed compare to Nieyan and Tang Yao’s?
“Nieyan, how did you come up with this leveling method?” Yaoyao asked, her bright eyes filled with confusion.
“There are detailed monster attribute guides in the library. Just find their weaknesses,” Nieyan replied with an excuse, deliberately changing the subject. “Sun, what equipment dropped?”
“One battle armor and one paladin hammer, both unappraised.”
“Bring them over. I’ll appraise them.”
“Okay.” Sun handed the collected equipment to Nieyan.
Nieyan appraised the equipment. The armor was silver-quality, and the paladin hammer was gold-quality. Both were good, but they were level 30 items, which no one could use yet. They would be stored in the guild treasury for now and would definitely be useful once players reached level 30.
Players needed at least 1000 guild contribution points to take a level 30 silver-quality item from the guild treasury, and at least 3000 guild contribution points for a gold-quality item. No one would claim them for now, but displaying so many level 30 items in the guild treasury would greatly motivate the players.
After defeating this sub-elite scaled frog, Nieyan and the others continued toward the spawn point of the next elite scaled frog.
“Nieyan, why haven’t we obtained the Murderous Maniac Medal yet?” Tang Yao frowned. According to the logic, their red-name value should have met the requirement by now.
“I’m not sure. The drop rate of the Murderous Maniac Medal is low. Let’s keep trying. If we get it, we’re lucky; if not, it’s our fate,” Nieyan replied. After all, the Murderous Maniac Medal had excellent attributes and was the best accessory at the early stages. In his previous life, the price of a single Murderous Maniac Medal was equivalent to that of a sub-legendary item, reaching the level of “legendary gear” in players’ eyes. It wouldn’t be easy to obtain.
“Alright, let’s continue.”
The turmoil stirred up by the Triumph Empire and the Holy Roman Empire gradually subsided, becoming a casual topic of conversation among players. However, another event captured the players’ attention: several videos that went viral on the official website in the Greenland region propelled Tang Yao’s reputation to new heights.
Nieyan, Tang Yao, and others casually glanced at the comments below: “Awesome players!” “This is a legendary figure, confirmed.” “Come and witness the awesome player!”…
Nie Yan and Tang Yao couldn’t help but smile as they read through the posts. Fortunately, when Guo Huai released Tang Yao’s videos, he deliberately omitted some footage involving Nie Yan. Only a fleeting glimpse of Nie Yan’s back was visible as he swiftly took down several Triumph players one after another. As a result, many viewers were left wondering about the identity of the thief in the corner of the video, who effortlessly dispatched enemies like slicing through radishes. Yet, no answers surfaced. Neither the Triumph Empire, the Bullman Tribe, nor the Holy Roman Empire disclosed any information, keeping Nie Yan’s identity shrouded in mystery—perfectly aligning with his usual low-key demeanor. However, the players of the Bullman Tribe all knew that aside from their top-ranked and seemingly invincible leader, Yaizi, there was another formidable leader who was a thief. Though he never made public appearances, his reputation as a mysterious powerhouse remained unquestioned.
The Bullmen Tribe became famous overnight, turning into a legendary story passed around among players. Many high-level players, hearing of their reputation, joined the Bullmen Tribe, rapidly expanding its strength. The tribe recruited a large number of elite players, growing to a total of ten thousand members. Although not as large as the major guilds, it had already gained a certain level of fame among second-tier guilds.
The Triumph Empire’s attempt to suppress the Bullmen Tribe was no longer that simple. Moreover, due to the video incident, the Triumph Empire’s reputation suffered a heavy blow, and they were overwhelmed with various issues, leaving them no time to deal with the Bullmen Tribe.
At the same time, the Triumph Empire’s elite teams began leveling up frantically. Potian broke through to level 16, directly targeting Tang Yao, the current level leader. They also dispatched numerous thieves to search for Nieyan and his companions’ whereabouts, intending to create obstacles for Nieyan and Tang Yao’s leveling progress. However, their efforts were clearly in vain, as the thieves they sent could never find their way to the level 30 maps.
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