"Earth Mouse is a Level 90 magic-type elite mob with the Meteor skill."

There was a bloody wound on Lin Yixin’s delicate shoulders, but it disappeared immediately after Murong Mingyue healed her to full health.

I smiled as I stared at the Earth Mouse. "It looks like we’re going to be dealing with mice next. Tsk tsk, look at that magic attack. One Meteor is probably all it needs to send Yiyi to heaven…"

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes at me. "Tch, you’re the one who’s going to heaven!"

"Now, everyone ready? Here I go!"

I locked onto the Earth Mouse and activated Charge!

I appeared in front of the rodent in the blink of an eye and swung the Purgatory Sword twice. An icicle appeared at the tip of my sword as Ice Ray exploded on my target!

3762!

3895!

Mn, this Earth Mouse was a magic glass cannon, as I expected it to be. I had only hit it twice, but it had lost more than half its HP already. With a third hit, its HP was in the red!

"Squeak squeak!"

Fearing for its life, the little mouse waved its tail and caused gusts of wind to surround it all of a sudden. It was the skill animation of Meteor!

No way I was going to let it cast it though!

I swung my sword horizontally and hit it with a basic attack again. This time, the blade of my sword turned golden, and the Earth Mouse suddenly froze in its tracks and turned golden as well. It was the paralysis effect of my Paralysis Ring! Very good, I liked that this status effect could interrupt channeled spells as well!

One last hit later, the Level 90 elite mob dropped to the ground and died. The kill yielded an incredible amount of experience even for me, a Level 84 Undead Swordsman, not to mention the girls who weren’t even Level 80 yet. Whenever a player killed or partook in killing a higher-leveled mob, the experience they got was much bigger as well. It was a welcoming reward to say the least.

However, the Earth Mouse didn’t drop any items. That was a bit frustrating.

Thus, I pointed my palm toward its corpse and cried out, "Death Plunder!"

Ding~!

System Notice: You have obtained "Earth Mouse Pelt" x4!

……

I gave the 4 pelts that magically appeared in my hands a look. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were a Rank 7 material. Pelts had always been the bottleneck of crafting metal and leather armors, and this one was even more scarce, being of such a high rank! I should try to collect as many of them as possible and give them to Yamete later. He would be happy to use them to upgrade his Armorsmithing skill!

We moved on and saw a lot more Earth Mice inside the valley. These green-haired mice were practically all over the place. We would’ve preferred to lure them to a choke point and kill them en masse, but they were ranged attackers with incredible magic power. In the end, self-preservation won over greed, and we dealt with them one at a time.

We readjusted our party a bit to maximize efficiency. Lin Yixin and Beiming Xue were our first "mini-party”. Lin Yixin would use Extreme Break to lower the mobs’ Defense, and Beiming Xue, Evil Spirit Volley and Frost Arrow to end the mob’s life. He Yi and I were the second mini-party. Thanks to the new assignment, our grind efficiency was almost double that of before. Finally, Murong Mingyue would stand between our mini-parties and heal whoever was low on health.

There was little to no danger after the adjustment. Meteor was a channeled spell, and both Lin Yixin and I had enough explosive power to one-shot the enemy almost every time. As a result, Murong Mingyue wasn’t under too much pressure.

"Be careful with your aggro! It will be a troublesome fight otherwise!" I said.

"Oh really? What do I do if I accidentally aggro too many of them?"

My eyes widened when I saw seven or eight Earth Mice chasing after Lin Yixin. The girl actually looked excited. "Sorry, but they were just too close to one another! Help me!"

"Fuck!"

I felt like spitting blood, but there was nothing I could do except engage the mobs. I stunned one with Charge, drew the attention of another with a basic attack and kept the third busy with the Dark Wasp. That was all I could do though, any more than this and I would die under the assault.

MISS!

6724!

Luckily, my attack was incredibly powerful. I cut down the first Earth Mouse with Pardon and a basic attack. Then, I jumped on the second Earth Mouse together with the Dark Wasp. At the same time, two Meteors hit me squarely at the head!

387!

393!

That wasn’t too bad! Sitting at 4420 HP, I was an absolute unit compared to other warriors. Even the best magic knight who had dumped all their stat points into Stamina to boost their HP shouldn’t be much tankier than I was!

A chaotic moment later, we ultimately managed to suppress the impudent mice. I used Death Plunder on all their corpses while the girls took a moment to restore themselves. Lin Yixin gulped a health potion while Murong Mingyue ate a Magic Consumable to restore her MP.

"That was a bit of a harrowing fight. Our party is strong, but not even we can deal with more than 10 Earth Mice in one go without risks…" Lin Yixin stuck her tongue out at me with a smile.

I smiled back. "You can try!"

Murong Mingyue said, "Alright, let’s get back to business. This is going to be a bit of a slog since we can’t kill them en masse. We need to work faster, or we may not be able to finish this Hundred Flower Valley by the time morning arrives!"

"Yeah!"

We went back to the grind. To be honest, it could be a bit boring sometimes, but thankfully I was accompanied by four gorgeous beauties. Killing Earth Mice was very boring, but killing them while enjoying the serious expression on everyone’s faces? That was a lot more interesting.

I continued to hack away at an Earth Mouse with the Purgatory Sword. Three hours passed by in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it it was past 5 pm.

Crack!

13764!

A Pardoned Desperate Gambit was powerful enough, but the Earth Mouse in front of me was unlucky enough to suffer a critical hit as well. Its HP dropped from 100 to 0 before it realized what happened!

Pop!

I smiled. Looks like it finally dropped something!

Then, my eyes widened suddenly. Am I seeing right? It’s a goddamn purple skill book!

The girls also goggled at the item. "Eh? What is it? I didn’t know elite mobs could drop skill books!"

I picked up the book and spread it open in my palm. The next moment, its stats appeared as a hologram.

Hellish Rockfall: Summon a large amount of meteors in a 10x10 yard area to strike down at the enemy. Skill Requirement: 500 Magic Attack. Class Requirement: Mage, Priest, Bard, Tactician. Level Requirement: 75!

……

"Ah…"

He Yi’s mouth fell open. "An AoE magic skill? And it looks really strong too…"

I shot everyone a look before saying, "I don’t need to tell you girls how valuable this skill book is, do I? I checked the database just now, and the chances of an Earth Mouse dropping this skill book is 0.0001%. Our karma must be off the charts today. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the first Hellish Rockfall skill book in the entire game, so what should we do with it?"

He Yi looked at me and Murong Mingyue before a bit of playfulness entered her eyes. She said, "You know, why don’t we use this opportunity to create a priest with high Magic Attack? We all have potions, and we don’t really need too much healing…"

Beiming Xue nodded. "Yeah, Sister Mingyue should learn this skill book. She still doesn’t have a powerful offensive skill, and Discipline is not something you want to use forever even for a priest."

I agreed with them, but the Frost Cloud workshop wasn’t the only one who was grinding this map. I should also check with Lin Yixin and see if she would like to partake in the loot.

"Yiyi, what do you think?"

Lin Yixin pursed her lips before replying, "Let’s give it to Sister Mingyue. It is what we need right now anyway. If we get a chance to grind the mobs en masse, this Hellish Rockfall will definitely be useful!"

"Okay!"

I pushed the skill book and 20 sets of high-rank Magic Consumables into Murong Mingyue’s hand. "Sis, use this to your heart’s content, okay? Try ranking up this skill as quickly as you can!"

"Mn!"

Murong Mingyue nodded while beaming like the sun. During the early game, it was difficult for a priest to come by an offensive skill, let alone an AoE skill. In fact, 99% of the time, this privilege was reserved for mages only. Therefore, this was a really happy coincidence...

A flash later, Murong Mingyue had learned the skill. I immediately turned around and charged an Earth Mouse, saying, "Sis, use that skill now! I want to see how good it is!"

"Okay!"

Murong Mingyue giggled and waved her staff as I asked her to. Milky white energy surrounded her as a small patch of the sky suddenly turned dark. Then, countless tiny meteors fell from the sky and hit the Earth Mouse and the surrounding area! It was an incredibly beautiful animation to say the least!

347!

328!

331!

I couldn’t help but laugh. "A triple-hit skill? That’s awesome! You should grind it as much as possible especially since your Magic Attack is stronger than an average mage’s! Oh right, what is your Magic Attack right now?"

"524~747. Why are you asking?"

"Holy shit, that’s high…" I was a bit shocked to hear that, to be honest.

Lin Yixin’s mouth also fell open slightly. "Yeah, that’s seriously amazing. Even our best mage, Shadow Chanel, only has a maximum Magic Attack of 780. To think that a priest would almost beat her…"

Beiming Xue giggled. "Well, Sister Mingyue’s equipment is pretty amazing!"

"That’s true…"

……

That was true. Murong Mingyue had accompanied us on many journeys already, and we gave her every magic equipment we got. It was no wonder that her equipment was amazing!

"Anyway, let’s finish this as soon as possible, it’s almost dinner time! At the very least, we need to clear this area of Earth Mice completely. I don’t want to grind this map until tomorrow morning!"

"Yeah!"

We met almost no challenge at all as we made our way forward. Murong Mingyue spammed her Hellish Rockfall at every opportunity to rank up the skill, and the fist-sized meteors made life a living hell for any Earth Mouse that crossed our path.

Half an hour later, Murong Mingyue was greeted by a delightful ding from the system. She puffed up her awesome chest and said proudly, "Hoho, my Hellish Earthfall is Rank 2 now!"

"Show us!"

She waved her magic staff and summoned a hail of meteors. The meteors were much bigger this time; they were about the size of a soccer ball. Naturally, they hit the mobs even harder than earlier!

The girls chatted happily with each other at the back while I scouted ahead. It looked like we had killed all of the Earth Mice in the valley because I couldn’t see any after our last kill.

Suddenly, I froze in my tracks when I parted a bush that was blocking my sight.

I saw fire, but nothing was burning. Maybe it was more accurate to say I saw a beautiful mouse with fiery fur.

……

We finally ran into a boss!!