“Eve, you’re finally here!”

Murong Mingyue gracefully walked over from a little path in the forest with a staff in hand and shot He Yi a smile. “Me and that animal Xu Yang are already Level 30 and you’re only Level 0!”

He Yi looked at the shabby sword in her hand. “Mingyue, do you have a beginner weapon? This sword’s attack power is only 0~1. It’s too weak…”

“Oh.”

Murong Mingyue took out a black spear from her bag. “Here, an Iron-grade weapon you can use at Level 5. Attack power 5~12, want it?”

He Yi’s gaze swept over the spear before she shook her head. “No.”

“Why not?” Murong Mingyue was perplexed.

He Yi smiled. “Lu Chen once said that swords were the king of weapons in games. Nimble with various forms, they have strong penetration and are good at breaking defenses. Even though I am a Magic Knight, I’ve already decided to only use swords.”

“Lu Chen…”

Murong Mingyue was stunned. “Eve, don’t be like this… always unable to forget him. We still have to continue with our lives, right?”

He Yi nodded. The corner of her lips hooked up, revealing a sweet smile. “Of course we have to continue with our lives, but that doesn’t mean we have to forget Lu Chen, right?”

“Uh…” Murong Mingyue was a bit speechless.

He Yi lifted her snowy face. Seeing the sky filled with moonlight, she said with a faint smile. “That guy said that he would accompany me to the end so even though he’s not here anymore, I still feel like he’s by my side, watching over me!”

“Really?”

Murong Mingyue checked out the surrounding forest and smiled. “Lu Chen, you brat, you there? Come out if you are, we all miss you!”

No one answered.

He Yi scolded with a smile, “Alright, don’t speak crazy, you silly girl. Come grind with me. I’ll heal and you attack!”

Murong Mingyue had a face of disbelief. “What are you using to heal… I’m the priest, okay!”

He Yi laughed. “Oh… my bad. You heal, I attack…”

“...”

Murong Mingyue then said, “Wait a while longer, Xu Yang will be here in five minutes. With his damage output, we’ll save half the effort.”

He Yi nodded.

Rustle...

Alongside the shaking leaves, a black figure sank into the night.

…...

I swiftly advanced forward with my sword, arriving back at Wild Pheasant Ridge not long after. I released my Dark Wasp and began my slaughterfest. Pheasants fell one by one beneath my Weeping Fire Blade and my Dark Wasp leveled accordingly.

In three full hours, my bag was already stuffed with Pheasant Meat. After a streak of golden light, my Dark Wasp was finally Level 30. I looked at its stats and saw that it had become much stronger than before—

Dark Wasp

Level: 30

Attack: 342

Defense: 225

HP: 1024

Agility: 505

Growth—

Attack ★★★★★★

Defense ★★★★☆

HP ★★★★

Agility ★★★★★☆

Shit, my own Attack was only 273. As expected of a boss-tier pet. 6-star Attack was no joke. Not only was its Attack 342, its Defense was a horrifying 225, higher than mine by 60 points! Its HP was also above 1000, making it a high Attack, high Defense and high HP blood-sucking machine!

My Dark Wasp was only Level 30 too. It still had a lot of untapped potential!

I grinned. My combat strength soared with my Dark Wasp at my side and my leveling efficiency was at least doubled with its assistance!

Since my Dark Wasp had finally grown up, there was no need to hide it anymore. I casually brought it with me to Floating Ice City.

After arranging the ingredients, I began to continuously make the Rank 3 Magic Consumable, Green Pepper Meatball!

Meatballs repeatedly appeared in my bag until a soft sound suddenly rang—

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, your Cooking skill has reached Rank 4!

Nice! Finally Rank 4! Now I can make Rank 4 food!

I opened the Cooking window and the ingredients of the Rank 4 Consumable came into view.

White Cut Chicken. Requires: Chicken Meat x20, Salt x10, Fresh Ginger x15. Restores 400 MP.

I still had a bunch of Chicken Meat in stock and Salt could easily be bought. I only needed to gather some Fresh Ginger now.

I remembered that I also had to gather Fresh Ginger for Hunter Yellowfire’s quest back then but that area clearly didn’t have many of these. It wasn’t enough for me to mass produce White Cut Chicken, so I could only go look for another source of these cooking ingredients.

…...

After a long search, I finally got a hit. There was a large quantity of Fresh Ginger growing in Butterfly Forest. A grinding zone like Butterfly Forest spawned a kind of magic pet, the Purple Butterfly. It was 3.5-star Magic Attack pet, and the Level 1 kind only spawned near Floating Ice City.

Many tamers in the forums complained that Butterfly Forest had been “reserved.” It was occupied by none other than the Domination Clan, the core group of the guild Gods of Destruction. Dominating Heaven Blade had already ordered three 15-member grinding teams to lock down Butterfly Forest two days ago. They were all fighters of Level 30 and above. Ordinary players simply couldn’t contend against them and as a result, Butterfly Forest had been taken over, just like that. However, it seemed as though the Domination Clan had yet to capture a Level 1 Purple Butterfly.

Hm, Butterfly Forest it is then. I’ll head there in a bit. Hmph. Didn’t the Domination Clan want to reserve it for themselves? Then I’ll head there and take them on for a while. Bloody Mercenaries had already fallen out with them anyway. Dominating Heaven Blade had also declared war against Bloody Mercenaries and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, so I couldn’t avoid this battle. Besides, I was also looking forward to it since Dominating Heaven Blade, Dominating Knight God, and the rest of their group had some skill too. Sometimes I felt better fighting actual opponents.

I sent Du Thirteen a message: “Come over to Floating Ice City!”

Thirteen soon appeared. I traded him 110 Rank 3 Consumables. “Go and sell them for 40 silver each. No discounts. Send the gold to my account in the afternoon and get ready to exchange it for money.”

“Mn, mn!”

Du Thirteen nodded happily. He was pretty much an expert at this kind of thing. Back in university, he went by the name “Sly Merchant” and had once dragged me along to sell school movie tickets. We made more than 800 RMB in one day just from doing that but I heard later on that many of those movie tickets were fake.

I bade Thirteen goodbye and continued to leisurely stroll around the plaza. I suddenly heard someone hawking, “Selling a pet skill book, come buy if you need it!”

My eyes lit up and I quickly rushed over. I saw a little Level 25 warrior setting up a stall. that only had a light green skill book—

Flurry (Phantasmal Creature): Instantly deals multiple fierce hits. Consumes 10 MP. Every attack deals 75% basic attack damage. The higher the skill rank, the stronger the damage. Pet requirement: Level 30.

It really is a skill book, a pet skill book!

In Heavenblessed’s system regulations, pets had their own skills. Level 1 pets had blank skills and only during their growth period did they have a chance to learn them. The other way for pets to learn skills would be through a purchased “phantasmal creature” skill book.

Flurry seemed like a good skill for a physical attack pet. It was totally suitable for my Dark Wasp!

And so I walked forward and said to the little warrior selling the book. “Bro, how much are you selling this pet skill book for?”

The little warrior looked at me. “50 gold!”

“Too expensive. Even learning skills from a mentor would only take 50 silver and you’re selling a book for 50 gold. It’s even a pet skill book too. You trying to cheat me?!”

“Uh, then how much?” The little warrior was obviously feeling a bit guilty. A pet skill book really wasn’t worth 50 gold at all.

I held up five fingers and smiled. “This much!”

“5 gold?”

“5 silver!”

“Ah?!” The little warrior’s mouth dropped open. “Too underpriced. I’m definitely not going to sell for 5 silver!”

I shot a glance at him, noticing that he was wearing a low-level Common-grade legguard. I took out an Iron-grade metal armor legguard and said with a smile. “Then 2 gold plus this Iron-grade equipment for your skill book!

The little warrior’s eyes brightened the moment he saw the Iron-grade legguard. He hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. “Alright, I’ll make the trade. I can’t use this skill book anytime soon anyway. Tamers are such swindlers, wanting a dozen gold for just one trashy Wasp. What a rip-off!"

I smiled. “Don’t worry. There’ll be a ton of tamers reaching Level 30 soon. Pet prices will naturally fall once that happens. BN 15 or higher Wasps are decent enough to level.”

“Mn.”

The little warrior opened the trade window and the exchange was successful a moment later. I used 2 gold and a trashy legguard for a pet skill book, nice! Even if this book wasn’t worth 50 gold, it was worth at least 10 gold!

I opened the pet window and selected “Learn Skill”. The skill book then disappeared and “Flurry” appeared in my Dark Wasp’s skill window. The details revealed that it truly was a powerful skill—

Flurry I: Hits target 2 times with every hit dealing 75% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry II: Hits target 2 times with every hit dealing 75% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry III: Hits target 2–3 times with every hit dealing 80% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry IV: Hits target 2–3 times with every hit dealing 80% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry V: Hits target 2–4 times with every hit dealing 85% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry VI: Hits target 2–4 times with every hit dealing 85% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry VII: Hits target 2–5 times with every hit dealing 85% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry VIII: Hits target 2–5 times with every hit dealing 85% of the user’s basic attack.

Flurry IX: Hits target 3–6 times with every hit dealing 90% of the user’s basic attack.

Thunderswift Flurry: Hits target 4–7 times with every hit dealing 100% of the user’s basic attack.

Now that’s power! The skill in its early stages was not bad, but it would become amazing at Rank 5 or higher. It had a chance to deal 85% basic damage four times. That was 3.4 times the damage! It could be considered a one-shot skill. At Level 10, Flurry’s name would change to Thunderswift Flurry and could hit 4–7 times at full power. On a lucky roll, it would deal seven times the normal damage. Good thing it was a pet skill though, it would be an instant one-shot kill move if it could be used by players!

Of course, Rank 10 skills could only be used by players over Level 100. I was only Level 30, so I was a ways away from that point!

With my Dark Wasp having a skill now, going to Butterfly Forest to gather Fresh Ginger was now safer than ever. Even if the Domination Clan came to make trouble, I could at least put up a fight!