“You guys continue grinding here to remove your red names. Once you’ve cleared your red names, I’ll take you all to level up to thirty,” Nie Yan said. They had to wait until all the team members had removed their red names before they could use the teleportation spell to go to Eternal City for leveling.
The elite scale frogs here were simply insufficient for grinding, so many players had no choice but to grind on regular scale frogs.
“Boss, how come you can enter the city with a red name?” Xia Chong Yubing voiced her confusion nearby.
“When your reputation with Carol City reaches thirty points, you’ll be able to,” Nie Yan replied. Accumulating thirty points of reputation with Carol City would require completing many high-difficulty tasks. For current players, this was quite difficult.
“…That hard? My reputation with Carol City is only at two points, and I got that by helping an NPC complete a quest. That quest almost drove me crazy,” Bu Si De Huairen rolled his eyes.
Others nodded in agreement. Thirty points of reputation was something they couldn’t even dream of for now unless they encountered some particularly rewarding quests.
“Keep grinding monsters, hurry up and clear your red names,” Nie Yan said. He had bought a full thousand area-damage magic bombs, enough for them to level up until they were satisfied.
The team members went off to grind monsters, leaving Nie Yan, Yaoyao, Yulan, and Baikai Shui behind.
Nie Yan chatted with Yaoyao and the others for a while. Yulan had lost several levels and all her gear after dying with a red name last time. The Cowardly Tribe had given her a new set of gear, and she had also leveled up to level twenty-three. Their team’s strength was gradually recovering.
“Thanks again for last time,” Nie Yan said to Yulan and Baikai Shui.
“Boss Nieyan, you’re being too polite. That incident was caused by the betrayal of one of our team members. The responsibility lies with us,” Baikai Shui replied solemnly.
Yulan also nodded. Such an incident had made her very sad for a while, but fortunately, their team’s strength had recovered, even surpassing their previous level with the support of the Cowardly Tribe. Their integration into the Cowardly Tribe had turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“Okay, let’s not talk about unpleasant things anymore,” Nie Yan smiled, glancing around before asking Yaoyao, “Why haven’t I seen Sun?”
“He went to look for elite monsters. I’ll message him,” Yaoyao said, realizing only now that Sun had been absent for quite some time.
“Let’s start grinding monsters first,” Nie Yan said, hoping to obtain the Murderous Maniac Medal.
The group scattered to grind monsters. With their strength, soloing regular thirty-level scale frogs was more than manageable, given their superior gear.
Nie Yan found a corner and started grinding scale frogs there. After comprehending the essence of Shadow Dancer, he began applying the techniques he had learned to monster grinding.
Under Nie Yan’s terrifying attacks, one scale frog after another fell. These frogs didn’t even get close to him; their speed was far inferior to his. When Nie Yan attacked, his body was reduced to a mere afterimage, leaving the frogs unable to land a single hit.
After killing his sixteenth scale frog, Nie Yan walked forward and noticed five scale frogs gathered in a clearing within the woods. After a moment’s thought, he switched his dagger to the correct grip and stealthily approached the frogs.
Nie Yan suddenly appeared behind one of the scale frogs, delivering a stun to its head, followed by a stab and a slash. The frog let out a piteous cry as blood gushed out and turned to attack Nie Yan.
The other four frogs noticed Nie Yan and rushed toward him.
Nie Yan’s figure was like a ghost, effortlessly slipping through the gaps between the five frogs. With a critical strike and a few regular attacks, he killed the frog.
“First one!” Nie Yan suddenly turned, dodging the attacks of the remaining four frogs. He stunned one of them by hitting its forehead, spun around, moved behind it, and delivered a backstab followed by a bone removal. He quickly stepped back several paces, dodging the other frogs’ attacks.
Despite being surrounded by several frogs, Nie Yan’s movements remained completely unshaken, as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.
Their attacks didn’t even manage to harm Nie Yan; he was as slippery as an eel, perfectly capturing every tiny opening in their attacks and swiftly evading.
The difference between a Shadow Dancer and a regular Thief was that a regular Thief could only utilize one hundred percent of their abilities, while a Shadow Dancer could unleash two hundred or even three hundred percent, maximizing every attribute point.
With the same speed, level, attributes, and gear, a regular Thief was no match for a Shadow Dancer.
The scale frog that Nie Yan had attacked had a continuous damage number floating above its head, its health reduced to a small fraction. After Nie Yan delivered a few more strikes, it also fell to the ground.
“Second one!” Nie Yan had exhausted his skills and was now dodging the remaining three frogs’ attacks with simple footwork, slicing open several wounds on each frog before quickly evading.
The three frogs continuously attacked Nie Yan, their health steadily decreasing with each hit, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t even touch the hem of his clothing. It was like a player with a ten accuracy attacking someone with over a hundred evasion; no matter how hard they tried, the result was always a miss.
Nie Yan finally understood why the Magisters of his past had feared Shadow Dancers so much. Because the gap between a regular Thief and a Shadow Dancer was more than just a level. In past battles, it wasn’t uncommon for Magisters to be assassinated by Shadow Dancers despite being protected by hundreds of people. But no one had ever heard of a regular Thief achieving such a feat.
The gap between the two was completely different.
When the three frogs finally succumbed to their continuous bleeding, Nie Yan delivered a finishing blow to each, and they continued to lose health.
After a while, the three frogs, unable to endure the torment any longer, fell to the ground.
Yaoyao, Yulan, and the others hurried over. When they reached the edge of the clearing, they all froze. They had just witnessed the three frogs falling, killed purely by bleed damage! It was already impressive for a warrior to solo five same-level monsters, but for a thief, it was practically impossible unless they had exceptional gear.
Yet Nie Yan had killed five scale frogs and was still at full health! This was simply unbelievable. Could Nie Yan have dodged all the frogs’ attacks with nothing but simple evasive maneuvers?
Yulan, Baikai Shui, and the others couldn’t hide their shock. Although Nie Yan’s reputation as a fearsome thief was widely known, they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes. But now, witnessing it firsthand, the feeling was entirely different.
Using Shadow Dancer-level techniques to grind thirty-level monsters was like an adult fighting a five or six-year-old child; it was completely effortless.
After killing the five scale frogs, Nie Yan bent down to collect the drops, then looked up at Yaoyao and the others: “Do you guys need anything?”
“Sun said he accidentally encountered a scale frog lord while searching for elite scale frogs. He was chased for a long time and almost died before barely managing to escape,” Yaoyao said. She was also very surprised about how Nie Yan had done it, but she had already gotten used to it. Nie Yan was simply a person who created myths.
Nie Yan’s heart stirred. After so long, they had finally encountered another scale frog lord. He wondered what good items this one would drop and asked, “Where?”
“The coordinates are 238.282.287. He’s watching it and wants us to go there quickly,” Yaoyao asked with a hint of concern, “Can we defeat the scale frog lord?”
“We’ve defeated one before. Let’s go together,” Nie Yan said.
The group headed in that direction.
As for how Nie Yan had managed to kill five scale frogs without taking any damage, no one asked. In their eyes, it was an unattainable myth, possibly a secret of Nie Yan’s.
After a while, Nie Yan and the others arrived where Sun was. They met up with Sun, who looked very disheveled, with only a sliver of health left, sitting under a tree eating bread to recover his health.
Seeing Nie Yan and the others approach, Sun quickly stood up and came over: “Boss Nieyan, you’re here.”
Nie Yan patted Sun’s shoulder: “Good job.” At this level, accidentally encountering a scale frog lord and being chased by it, yet still surviving, was something that fewer than five people in all of Carol City could claim.
“Where is the scale frog lord?” Baikai Shui asked, looking around.
“There,” Sun pointed into the distance. In the dense woods, a giant scale frog was crouched, its entire body bright red like blood, slightly different from the scale frog lord Nie Yan and the others had encountered before. However, it was definitely a lord monster. Different forms of lord monsters had different skills.
It was a somewhat mutated scale frog lord, but as long as it wasn’t a super mutant or demonized, its strength wouldn’t differ much from a regular scale frog lord.
“Can we use Misty Dust to deal with the scale frog lord?” Sun asked, thinking they could use Misty Dust to kill the scale frog lord as they had done with elite scale frogs.
Nie Yan shook his head: “The scale frog lord’s vision range is different from that of regular scale frogs.” According to the method he and Tang Yao had previously used to kill a scale frog lord, they could definitely defeat the one ahead. However, Nie Yan had a new idea. With Shadow Dancer techniques, he could solo the scale frog lord! The scale frog lord’s speed couldn’t match Nie Yan’s, so his Shadow Dancer techniques would be effective against it. He just needed to be careful to avoid its magic skills.
“Then what should we do? Should we ask Brother Cui Can Daoguang to come over?” Sun asked. Among everyone, only Cui Can Daoguang could withstand the attacks of the scale frog lord. Anyway, they were all nearby. With more than ten people, they could definitely defeat the scale frog lord.
“No need. I’ll handle it,” Nie Yan said. After comprehending the Shadow Dancer techniques, he was fully confident in defeating this scale frog lord.
“By yourself?” Everyone was stunned.
“One person is enough,” Nie Yan said to Sun beside him, “Pay attention to my movements. It will definitely help you.”
Nie Yan was thinking that if he demonstrated the Shadow Dancer techniques to Sun, given Sun’s talent, he might be able to grasp something.
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