Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, your pet “Xinran” has gained a talent boost in the Netherworld and an item, “Skeletal Wristguards”!

……

“Huh?”

I was stunned. The little skeleton slowly walking out of the summoning formation was still Level 1, but her bones had become a lot more complete than before. Besides that, I could see high-quality black wristguards around her wrists...

Once again, my common sense was being challenged. Since when could a pet gain items in the Netherworld? W-was this a bug or something?

But I quickly thought better of it. Xinran’s quest was an SSS Rank quest after all, so I guessed that a bit of unusualness was to be expected.

However, the fact that her level was still one proved that she could obtain equipment and even increase her talent in the Netherworld, but not levels. She would need my help in that department.

I gave the skeleton a nod and greeted her. “Hi, Xinran?”

But she simply stared at a distant Chaos Snow Cat and growled menacingly. She seemed to be aware that the Chaos Snow Cat was a very dangerous foe, and she wasn’t wrong. The Chaos Snow Cat could definitely send her back to the Netherworld in one hit.

I ordered the Dark Wasp to fight the Chaos Snow Cat. In a 1v1 situation, it only took 20% HP for my pet to kill the Chaos Snow Cat, but of course I wasn’t going to let it do all the hard work on its own. Without a priest, even a calculated battle of attrition wasn’t sustainable if the HP loss was quicker than anticipated.

Two Chaos Snow Cats and a shoosh of golden light later, Xinran had reached Level 2. As I thought, her stat growth was far higher than the Dark Wasp’s!

I went back to grinding. Low-level pets tended to level very quickly, and Xinran reached Level 7 in no time. However, she didn’t respond to my orders at all!

Me: “Xinran, can you attack that cat to the right?”

Little Skeleton: “...”

Me: “Xinran, can you give me a smile?”

Little Skeleton: “...”

Me: "Xinran, have you forgotten about me?”

Little Skeleton: “...”

In the end, I gave up. Maybe this extremely egocentric skeleton wasn’t the gentle and kind-hearted loli I knew at all. Maybe she had moved on after I killed Suren and took revenge for her.

I shook my head and went back to the grind.

Each player could learn one type of production skill, and while I was lucky enough to pick up two, a third one was truly beyond my reach. Therefore, I had no choice but to give up on the rich minerals that filled the entirety of the first floor. What can you do? Sometimes some things on the path of life are just destined to pass you by!

After an hour or so, I had cleared out all the mobs on the first floor, and my experience bar was 47% full. Considering that I had accumulated nearly 25% experience in less than two hours, it shouldn’t be too difficult to hit Level 62 before the day was over.

The end of the first floor was a staircase made out of ice. I walked up and reached the second floor without a hitch.

“Roar roar!”

My vision turned dizzy all of a sudden. It was because a Frost Polar Bear had punched me the moment I entered the second floor! Still, I supposed that I should count myself lucky. Not everyone gets to “eat” a legendary dish that was meant only for the rich, you know?

298!

Once again, Ghost Deity Armor proved itself to be an incredible skill. Despite having a higher level than me, the polar bear couldn’t even hit me for 300 damage. Right now I had almost 1700 HP, and I couldn’t feel any pressure fighting against an enemy who couldn’t take away more than 20% HP in one hit.

The Dark Wasp charged forward, poisoned and flurried the polar bear’s ass like it had done this a million times in its life. I took my own revenge by imbuing my weapon in green energy and eliciting a yelp from the polar bear with Slayer Slash.

The polar bear died in the blink of an eye, and it dropped a quest item, a Polar Bear Claw. I supposed that my luck was pretty good right now. Unfortunately it wasn’t a food ingredient. I wish I could make a Bear Paw Soup or something that instantly restored 10000 MP!

The Frost Polar Bear was a Level 68 monster, so it offered even more experience than the Chaos Snow Cats. Naturally, I was full of motivation. Sometimes the mobs would drop a Big Magic Stone or two, but I didn’t pick them up. As a Cooking God who thought ahead, there were only two things that could capture my attention right now: cooking ingredients and beautiful women. Everything else was as ephemeral as the fleeting clouds to me.

Around seven or eight dead Frost Polar Bears later, I reached the center of the floor where I discovered a lot of food ingredients. Unfortunately, there were a lot of Green Peppers and Garlics, but no Fish Meat. Without Fish Meat, I couldn’t create more Steamed Fish Soup to sell. What meaning is there to life if it doesn’t involve making a lot of money?

Swhoosh!

I used Death Plunder and looted the pelt off the Frost Polar Bear. It was a Rank 6 pelt, meaning that Yamete could use it to create Level 60 cloth armors.

Another hour or so passed in the blink of an eye, and I had reached the end of the second floor. I had added over 200 Rank 6 Frost Polar Bear Pelts to my backpack, and I had collected the Polar Bear Paws necessary to fulfill the quest a long time ago. As I looked behind me, I noticed that a lot of polar bears had respawned on the floor. It would seem that the map’s respawn time was pretty short. It was a great map for leveling.

Unfortunately, I was equally certain that this map was a key area that many ambitious players would like to take over as soon as possible. It would be wiser to take what I wanted and move on!

After foraging all the Green Peppers and Garlics, I left the second floor and entered the third floor!

The third floor of the Chaos Ice Cave was populated by Level 70 Frost Battle Wolves. They were ferocious animals that were as tall as a human, and their Attack, Defense and HP were high enough to drive anyone mad. Unfortunately for them, their pelts were also Rank 6, so I had no choice but to leave none alive.

As I was progressing forward, I suddenly received a message from Murong Mingyue.

“Lu Chen, you there?”

“Mn. What’s up, sis?”

“Do you know any map that we can grind for high-level ores? Gold, silver, etc. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls needs a mine so that Xu Yang can upgrade his Mining skill, and a colleague of mine his Blacksmithing skill.”

“Hmm…”

The numerous ores on the first floor entered my mind, so I replied, “Form a team and come to the edge of Silver Moon Forest. The coordinates are (27854, 19833)!”

“Wow, that’s pretty far…”

“Yeah, it takes about an hour of travel from Floating Ice City. But you should come over because the first floor of the map—it’s called Chaos Ice Cave—is filled with ores. It should be enough to push a miner all the way from Rank 4 to 6.”

“Really?”

“Really. Why would I lie to you?”

“In that case, we’ll head there immediately. Are you there right now?”

“Mn. I’ll come out and help you once you arrive!”

“Okay~”

Excited by the news, Murong Mingyue left the chat to prepare while I went back to killing Frost Battle Wolves and collecting wolf pelts. Since Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had Xu Yang and a blacksmith, weapons shouldn’t be a problem for the guild in the future. I might as well spend the extra effort and help Xu Yang rank up his Mining skill as much as possible!

I observed the third floor for a moment and found a ton of unusual plants. Too bad I didn’t know how to gather herbs. However, I knew exactly one beautiful woman who was an expert in this department!

I sent a message to Lin Yixin: “Herbalist Lin, how interested are you in a super herb gathering spot?”

Lin Yixin’s reply came quickly: “You know one?”

“Yep. The coordinates are (27854, 19833)!”

“Okay. Just gimme a minute. I still have two stacks of potions to sell!”

“...”

Dammit, she’s busy with business? What a waste of my gesture of love.

I stopped conserving my pots so I could clear out the third floor as soon as possible. Less than two hours later, I reached Level 62. During my grind I had collected over five hundred Rank 6 pelts. It should be enough for Yamete to improve his Armorsmithing skill.

It was time to turn in my quest, but I soon realized that the way back was clogged by monsters. This is the time I use my ultimate skill! I shouted, “Divine talent—Map wipe!”

Absolutely nothing happened at all. Fine, I’ll do this the mundane way instead. I muttered “Earth Escape” and went underground. Then, I slowly crawled my way back to the first floor!

By the time I reached the first floor, the density of mobs had become a lot more threatening than before. I carefully weaved my way to the entrance before revealing myself to the NPC, Soldier Hanson. Then, I turned in the items necessary to complete the quest: 10 Cat Claws, 10 Polar Bear Paws and 10 Ice Wolf Teeth!

“Ah!” Hanson rose to his feet agitatedly while clutching the quest items. “Young warrior, you are amazing! I can’t believe you actually killed all those powerful monsters! Come, this is the reward you deserve!”

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the quest [The Evil of Chaos Ice Cave]. You have gained 150000 EXP, 700 Reputation and the quest item, “Chaos Necklace”!

“Oh? A necklace…”

I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting an A-rank quest to reward me with a necklace!

I hurriedly opened the backpack and found a shining necklace. It had a blood-red heart for a pendant, giving it a murderous appearance. I waved my hand, bringing up its stats screen. I was shocked.

Chaos Necklace (Silver-grade)

Strength: +27

Stamina: +25

Passive: Increases the user’s Attack by 4%

Level Requirement: 60

……

Cool! A necklace that adds Attack was top-tier to say the least!

In Heavenblessed, the chances of a necklace or a ring dropping were incredibly low, much less an awesome one that added a whopping 4% to Attack. Most people were incredibly disappointed when they discovered that their Bronze or Dark Steel–grade necklaces had useless bonuses like 4% fire resistance or 3% accuracy. In my case I hadn’t even seen the shadow of one even though I was past Level 60 already. It was a testament to the item’s abysmal drop rate.

The moment I equipped the necklace, my stats skyrocketed to a whole new level!

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Class: Undead Swordsman (Silver Swordsman)

Level: 62

HP: 1900

Attack: 378~621

Defense: 402

Magic Resist: 228

Reputation: 20895

Luck: 0

……

At the current stage of the game, 621 Attack, 402 Defense and 228 Magic Resist should be pretty impressive. If I threw in Enhanced Bones and Ghost Deity Armor into the equation, then my actual Defense was probably around 800 points or so. My sky-high stats were enough to make most melee players wail in despair!

It was almost time for my “guests” to show up, so I left the Chaos Ice Cave and appeared next to the Green Giant.

I looked pretty impressive in my blood-red cloak, my shining armor and my Ghost Ice Soul, if I do say so myself. Holding my head high, I waited for Murong Mingyue, Xu Yang and Lin Yixin to arrive.

Unfortunately for me, another group of people had shown up first!