Two streams of experience flew toward me and Lin Yixin. A flash of golden light later, I leveled up to 55, and Lin Yixin leveled up to 58. Just like before, we led in the Heavenly Ranking of Floating Ice City, but our advantage only widened!

“So?” I asked while staring at the loot on the ground.

Lin Yixin sent a Thunder Blade Guard flying before answering, “You can keep them for now. We’ll talk about distribution after we enter the fourth floor!”

“Okay!”

I quickly tossed all the Phantasmal Magic Stones and equipment into my bag before rushing to Lin Yixin’s side. Clicking my tongue at the sea of monsters all around us, I asked, “So, how are you planning to get me out of here?”

Lin Yixin blinked once at me before replying, “I’m going to Knockback Slash to cut a path through the enemies. Just stay close to me!”

“How fast is the traveling speed of your ‘Knockback Slash’?”

“Just be quick on your feet…”

“...”

I had a bad feeling that I couldn’t quite put a finger on. For some reason, Lin Yixin was staring at me like she was mourning a dead man’s portrait on an altar.

“You ready? Here I go!”

Lin Yixin turned around as a shower of light burst from the Snow Shadow Sword. She swung at a row of Thunder Blade Guards and knocked them backward, and at the same time she glided through the temporary hole she created in the encirclement like a beautiful meteor. The speed at which she was traveling clearly wasn’t normal. She was using a skill!

“What about me? Don’t leave me alone!”

Panicking, I ran out of the encirclement too while waving madly at Lin Yixin. “Save me, Beauty Yi…”

However, Lin Yixin herself was busy running for her life with a long, long tail of monsters behind her. I could only rely on myself this time!

I shouted, “Earth Escape!”

My body transformed into several rays of bloody light and entered the ground. Now that I was Level 55, monsters could no longer detect me as easily as they had done before. I cautiously made my way to the staircase leading to the fourth floor while sticking to the edges of the walls.

By now, the orange dot that represented Lin Yixin had already disappeared from my map. There were two possibilities. One, she was killed by the monsters. Two, she had entered the fourth floor. Since the chances that she got killed were incredibly tiny, it must have been the latter.

Unfortunately for me, a group of Thunder Blade Guards was surrounding the entrance to the staircase. It took me a while before I finally found a way to get through. If I wanted to, I could’ve touched the monsters as I moved beneath their feet. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement.

Thankfully, the Thunder Blade Guards never detected me. I let out a sigh of relief when I arrived at the staircase!

Swhoosh! A white cloak suddenly flew out of the entrance to the fourth floor. It was Lin Yixin. She was only at half health, and her Fire Blade had disappeared as well.

She turned around to stare at the empty staircase. After sniffing the air once, she smiled and said, “Come out! I know you’re here!”

Swhoosh!

I burst out of the ground and regained my human form. I asked, “How did you know I was here?”

“Because you stink, that’s why!”

“...”

I glanced at the entrance to the fourth floor and Lin Yixin’s HP, grinning. “Heh. What happened to you? Are there a lot of monsters on the fourth floor?”

“What? No!”

Lin Yixin stuck her tongue at me. “A lightning strike caught me by surprise, that’s all. You know, I came back down on purpose to rescue you. Don’t you think your comment is a little too heartless?”

“There are no monsters at the entrance to the fourth floor?”

“Nope. I’m a puppy if I lied to you!”

“Okay!”

However, the moment I stepped on cold, hard granite, goosebumps immediately crawled all over my body! A dozen or so spear wielding, eyeless monsters were guarding the entrance, and their empty eye sockets were terrifying to say the least. The undead creatures raised their spears and attacked me the second they noticed me!

“You liar! What the hell are these things?” I berated Lin Yixin in the party channel, and she replied. “Arf arf arf arf arf arf…”

In that moment, I felt like taking my own life to cleanse the shame of having fallen for such an easy trick. After summoning the Dark Wasp to tank some hits and still getting hit 4 times in succession, I finally escaped back to the staircase.

Lin Yixin stared at my HP—I only had one-third left—and giggled happily. “You did well to survive, Lu Chen!”

I glared at her for a moment before asking, “Be serious. What should we do? The way up is chock-full of monsters.”

“Easy!” Lin Yixin puffed up her chest proudly. “We send our pets up first to tank a few hits while we focus fire on a mob or two. The we rinse and repeat until a way is clear. We should do it within 3 tries. Our pets will probably die a couple of times in the process, but it doesn’t matter. They level up pretty quickly after all!”

“Alright, I’ll take the lead!”

“Okay!”

Thanks to the Ghost Deity Armor, I was without a doubt the better tank between the two of us.

The Dark Wasp entered the fourth floor and sped past the monsters’ heads using its flight advantage. While they were distracted, I attacked a Thunder Blade Guard and drew its attention to me while Lin Yixin charged it from behind. Moonlight glowing from her purple pupils, she unleashed Extreme Break on the enemy after switching to a dagger!

1904!

While the Level 62 Thunder Blade Guard was staggered by the massive blow, I leaped forward and unleashed my own killer combo!

Pardon!

MISS!

Desperate Gambit!

Desperate Gambit had reached Rank 5, so its attack damage was boosted by 50%. It was much stronger than Slayer Slash!

Crack!

The reddened Ghost Ice Soul slid across the mob’s neck with a soft noise. The damage it dealt however, was absolutely stunning—3827!

“Roar…”

Two skills and one basic attack later, the Level 62 monster shamefully perished under our combined might!

Lin Yixin’s eyes widened at the success before she smiled brightly. “That’s amazing! We truly are unrivaled if we work together!”

I nodded in agreement. Extreme Break already lowered a monster’s Defense by a lot, but combined with Pardon, another skill that lowered Defense, it wasn’t that surprising that Desperate Gambit, a powerhouse of an offensive skill in its own right, was able to deal almost 4000 damage to a Level 62 monster.

We took the opportunity to kill another two Thunder Blade Guards. My Dark Wasp had long since fulfilled its duty and perished, and I didn’t dare send it too far away for fear that it would bring even more Thunder Blade Guards toward us. It would achieve the exact opposite of what we were trying to do right now.

“Our HP is running low. It’s time to retreat!” I said while knocking back a Thunder Blade Guard.

“Yeah. Let’s go!”

The two of us backed into the staircase in unison and rested. The staircase between the third floor and the fourth floor was technically a zone of its own, and the mobs were programmed not to enter a foreign zone. What this meant was that the mobs on the fourth floor wouldn’t try to go down to the third floor, and vice versa. It was a common bug in the game players often exploited to their own advantage. Actually, now that I think about it, it probably didn’t count as a bug. It was common sense to anyone who had played a VRMMO before.

“Let’s wait until my Dark Wasp can be resummoned!”

A pause later, I took out the loot we got from the Level 60, axe-wielding boss we had killed earlier. We might as well check it out while we waited for our cooldowns!

The boss dropped a total of 6 Phantasmal Magic Stones, so I gave three to Lin Yixin and kept the remaining three to myself. Besides that, the boss also dropped Silver-grade wristguards and a crimson cloak.

Barbaric Wristguards (Silver-grade)

Defense: 65

Strength: +15

Agility: +20

Passive: Increases user’s attack speed by 1.2%

Level Requirement: 55

……

Bloody Purgatory Cloak (Silver-grade)

Defense: 70

Strength: +18

Stamina: +15

Passive: Increases user’s evasion rate by 3%

Level Requirement: 55

……

Two Silver-grade items? It looks like our combined luck wasn’t bad at all!

Both Silver-grade pieces of metal armor in my hands, I asked, “Yiyi, both of ‘em are Silver-grade, so let’s take one each, okay? Which one do you need?”

Lin Yixin thought for a moment before answering, “The wristguards I’m currently wearing are Bronze-grade so I guess I’ll take the wristguards!”

I nodded. “That’s perfect, my cloak is also Bronze-grade. I would’ve changed it out a long time ago if I could. This Bloody Purgatory Cloak is mine then!”

“Yep!”

Lin Yixin equipped the Barbaric Wristguards the moment I gave them to her. Her pale, delicate hands and even her fingers immediately became wrapped by elegant-looking metal. Whoever designed Heavenblessed clearly knew what they were doing. The same equipment could accentuate entirely different qualities depending on the gender of the person who was wearing it. To quote a line from a song, “The sun-kissed lad looks as strong as a mountain, the powdered lass looks as pretty as the water.”

Just like Lin Yixin, I switched out my Cyanfire Cloak and equipped the Bloody Purgatory Cloak immediately. My image instantly became much graver. My metal armor was black and red to begin with, and the bloody cloak only made me look that much more imposing!

Of course, my appearance wasn’t the only thing that was upgraded. It was a Silver-grade piece of equipment after all.

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Class: Undead Swordsman (Bronze Swordsman)

Level: 55

HP: 1420

Attack: 326~525

Defense: 295

Magic Resist: 175

Reputation: 5840

Luck: 0

……

My HP had increased to 1420, and my max Attack was a whopping 525! The power of an all-Strength build on an undead melee class was starting to show, not to mention that I also had 295 Defense. It was a huge step toward becoming an unkillable monster!

Lin Yixin was admiring her own new equipment. The Barbaric Wristguards were a surprisingly perfect match with her small, tender hands. They provided great protection to her hands, but didn’t cover her arms and shoulders. Once again, the genius of Heavenblessed’s designers was on full display. On a pretty girl like Lin Yixin, the mere sight of her exposed arms was enough to make any man or woman shiver with anticipation!

My eyes shifted a little, and I stared at the metal-covered mounds beneath her shoulders. The ravine between her pale breasts was like an irresistible abyss that made the imagination run wild. Sigh, my eyes suffered, and my soul writhed in agony every time I grinded with Lin Yixin!

“Hello, my eyes are up here.”

Suddenly, Lin Yixin noticed something and watched me with wary eyes. I immediately looked up and said, “Tonight’s moon is so beautiful…”

Finding my reaction funny and exasperating, Lin Yixin hit me once on the shoulder as punishment before saying, “Alright, time to get back to work and sweep through the fourth floor. Our new equipment should make our jobs a lot easier. Be careful though, the mobs on the fourth floor aren’t that much stronger compared to the ones on the third floor, but there are definitely more danger zones and lightning strikes than ever before. One misstep and it’s a free trip back to the city!”

I nodded. “Okay. It’s 4:30 pm right now, so let’s try to take down the boss on the fifth floor before 10 pm. If we finish in time, you can treat me to supper at Happy House…”

Lin Yixin couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “How dare you. I’ve never met a guy who makes a girl pay for his meals like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Is your face made from diamond or something?”

“You pay too much attention to the unnecessary details. Come on, let’s get to the fourth floor and kill the boss already. I can’t wait to get my Hero’s Token!”

“You want to build a guild too?”

“Nah, I just want to get one, that’s all. This one’s mine since I gave you the last Hero’s Token, okay?”

“Fine. There’s no guarantee that a Hero’s Token will drop though. The chances of a Silver Rank boss dropping a Hero’s Token are less than 10%. We got lucky last time, but who knows? Hehe~”

“It doesn’t matter even if it doesn’t drop, we still get a lot of experience out of this venture. Level 60 should be within your reach once we take out the next two bosses!”

“Mn!”