I shot them a glance. The assassin girl was called "Cute Little Naughty", and she was as pretty as her ID might suggest. Her leather armor looked impressive, and her small legguards didn’t do much to cover her smooth, round legs. She wore a pair of leather boots and wielded a dagger. From the way she measured every step even when she was just walking, I reckoned that her potential as an assassin was pretty high.

"Yiyi, look over there. The girl over there is called Cute Little Naughty, and you’re called Beautiful Little Pepper in the past, didn’t you? That is quite the similarity…" I commented with a smile.

Lin Yixin glanced at me and said, "You’re eyeing her legs, aren’t you?"

I felt a bit embarrassed as I defended myself. "What are you talking about? You’re way sexier than she is. I’m not interested in flatboards, you know…"

"Despicable…"

"Oh right, seeing as these people are grinding here, should we tell them about the repeatable quest?"

Lin Yixin shook her head. "Forget it. They’re lacking in manpower and levels. It’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to complete the quest even if they want to."

"Oh, is that so?"

I looked back at the party just in time to see a Corrosive Worm swallowing half of the elf warrior’s body. The poor guy was struggling painfully while Cute Little Naughty pulled at the worm’s tail while screaming, "Get off our leader, you stinky worm! If you need to eat someone that badly then eat me instead…"

Beside her, the priest said, "Naughty, try using Blind on it! It might break the skill!"

"Oh, okay!"

Cute Little Naughty let go of the worm’s tail and cut the Corrosive Worm’s head with her dagger. The stun was successful, and the worm finally let go of their leader’s head. The way his face was completely covered in slimy liquid was extremely hardcore to say the least.

……

I shot them another glance and sighed. "Fuck, what a disaster. The average level of their party can’t be higher than 127, so what drove them into fighting Level 160 ancient mobs? At their level, even Level 150 shadow-rank mobs can give them a run of their money, let alone these Corrosive Worms."

Lin Yixin chuckled. "Well, their fighters look pretty well-equipped,and they do have a bard and a tactician. If they use Iron Wall to drag out the fight, killing one Corrosive Worm at a time shouldn’t be impossible. Also, that assassin girl really has amazing legs, doesn’t she? You wouldn’t stare at them non-stop otherwise."

I turned red as I hit a group of mobs with Burning Blade Slash. "I am not. I just thought that she looks similar to Beiming Xue both in terms of age and behavior."

"Oh? She’s that endearing, huh?" Lin Yixin dished out an Ice Flame Slash before cocking her head at me, her expression clearly etched with ridicule.

I curled my lips. "Can you please focus on killing the mobs? If you’re that bored you should play with the mobs, not me!"

"I do what I want!"

It was at this moment we heard a buzzing noise from the sky. A gigantic venomous bee even bigger than the average Holy Giant Dragon suddenly flew toward us, and the shell at its abdomen area suddenly opened to airdrop a ton of newborn Corrosive Worms and Corpse Eaters. These terrifying monsters let out a low hiss and flooded their surroundings like tidewater the moment they hit the ground.

"Stop them!" I cried.

An angry lightning abruptly shot out of Lin Yixin’s Blade of Violet Lightning and turned into a lightning formation covering an area of 30x30 yards. It ravaged the mobs and dealt between 10k to 30k damage. It was one of the passive triggers of her weapon, and it was ridiculously powerful. She hadn’t triggered it more than ten times up till now, but every time she did, it was a skill that could one-shot most things!

"Don’t worry, these mobs are no trouble at all. Oh shit, your Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf is about to die! Stop it from attacking for now!"

"Fuck…"

I hurriedly halted my pet’s movements while dishing out Thousand Ice Slash to aggro the mobs, saving its life. Dammit, the little wolf attacked fast, but it also caused mobs to aggro onto it too quickly. It didn’t have the HP or Defense to withstand the attacks of an ancient mob either, which was why it was in an awkward position right now.

Unfortunately, this was always the case for all melee pets. In a high-level leveling map like the Dragonbone Mountain Range, pets could be used as damage dealers, but never meatshields. It was because they didn’t have the Defense or HP to tank a high-level shadow or ancient-rank mob at all. Most of the time, the player was better off doing the tanking themselves. This was why very few players let out their pets when they grinded in such places. Of course, there were people who refused to accept reality and let out the Green Praying Mantises, Blue Praying Mantises, Wasps, and so on to help them, but they were wiped out almost as quickly as they were summoned.

The little wolf wagged its tail and let out another yelp of pain before it finally stopped. Despite being an Epic Rank boss pet, it was starting to fall down the power slope. Mn, I’m ditching this idiot as soon as I find a better pet!

……

While the mobs were being killed, I took a moment to check out the other party. The bee had dropped a ton of mobs, and the party was affected by it as well. They were forced to retreat at least a hundred yards away from their original position, and they suffered a lot of damage during the process. But at least they survived.

Pop!

I looked down and was surprised to find a Corrosive Worm dropping a light blue-colored skill book. When I picked it up, my surprise grew even more—

Intercourse: Two party members attack a target at the same time, increasing its damage taken by 100%. This is a secondary stratagem that can be used together with the main stratagem. Level Requirement: 140. Reputation Requirement: 10000. Gender Requirement: Female.

……

"Inter… course?" Lin Yixin seemed speechless as she stared wordlessly at the skill book. "What the hell is this name… even for the modern world, this is a little too… out of the box …"

I hid a chuckle. "Well, that’s a fantastic name. Anyway, you should take this since it’s female only. Let’s test out the effect after you learned it."

"Oh?"

Lin Yixin turned beet red as she said, "I can learn this, but you’re not allowed to laugh, okay?"

"Sure, sure. I’m a very serious person, you know!"

"Okay."

Swhoosh! The skill book vanished from Lin Yixin’s hands, and a new skill appeared in the stratagem window. It was of course the skill Intercourse. It stated there that both players could attack the same target to deal a combined amount of damage.

I started laughing loudly as that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. An embarrassed Lin Yixin poked me once with the Blade of Violet Lightning and half-cried, "I told you not to laugh, you bastard!"

"Yes, yes!" I suppressed my facial muscles like my life depended on it and said, "Let’s try its effects, Yiyi. It’ll work as long as we attack the same target, right?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay then, let’s attack this full-health mob right in front of us!"

"Okay!"

Violet Lightning and Cyan Netherworld flashed at the same time, and the Corpse Eater we were targeting immediately screamed in pain. Two damage numbers popped above its head—

19082!

16767!

I couldn’t help but shake my head in disappointment. "This can’t be right, this is just the normal amount of damage we do. I don’t see Intercouse working at all..."

Lin Yixin replied, "That’s because you attacked too soon, you idiot! You were about half a second faster than me, so of course that doesn’t count as ‘at the same time’! Let’s do this again, but watch my movement this time!"

"Right!"

Lin Yixin attacked again, and so did I. To my surprise, we had both chosen to use Barrier Break—well, my version was the Universe Break—despite not having discussed this beforehand. This time, the red and cyan cone hit the Level 160 ancient Corpse Eater at almost the exact same time!

Clang!

The two skills abruptly joined together to form a purple-red color energy, and it tore through the Corpse Eater’s body like paper. As the Corpse Eater groaned in pain and collapsed to the ground, a shocking damage number floated above its head—

112838!

Lin Yixin’s mouth fell open. "Wow, what an amazing intercourse…"

I nodded. "Yeah, this is amazing. Not even the strongest magic knight in the world will be able to stop us if our Intercourse is successful!"

"Right!" Lin Yixin’s smile was bright and sweet. "We should practice and improve our rapport as much as possible, Little Cheat. It’ll make killing bosses twice as easy!"

"Oh, sure…" I grinned, but an uncomfortable thought suddenly flashed across my mind. I said, "Yiyi, I don’t want you to use this skill with anyone else besides me, okay?"

"Why?"

"For earth…"

"..."

Seemingly reading my thoughts, Lin Yixin smiled and replied, "Fine, fine, I’ll only use this stratagem when I’m with you, okay? Hmph hmph, even if you haven’t asked, I wouldn’t have the courage to reveal this skill in front of my guildmates, okay? This name is so embarrassing, you know?"

"Yeah!"

I swung the Cyan Netherworld Sword in front of me, and the blade abruptly brightened like the sun. It was the Cyan Netherworld Divine Dragon effect triggering again and slaying all the Corrosive Worms within its range like they were nothing. Man, this feeling is just exhilarating! Also, the fact that Intercourse dropped from the Corrosive Worms meant that it was possible for other stratagem skill books to drop as well. These days stratagems such as Encourage VII or Iron Wall VII were extremely valuable, and they could be sold for a lot of money. Of course, if something like Purple Dragon dropped, then I would deal with it a different way.

Speaking of which, I had sunk a lot of valuables into that tactician, Lu Buyi. Not only had I given him the 5-star Outstanding Earth-grade Burning Fan, I also gave him the Purple Dragon stratagem. That skill book was so amazing that if I were to use it on myself, I could buff all my stats by 72%, which was only a tad weaker than Lin Yixin’s Bombshell. Still, I decided to maximize its value and give it to Lu Buyi. I was sure I hadn’t misjudged his character, and I knew he wouldn’t disappoint me. You weren’t truly living if you didn’t have a dream, and I could see that he was a man of dreams just like me.

……

I was hoping that one of these mobs would drop another Purple Dragon skill book so I could learn it myself, and the hope drove me to fighting even harder than before. Grinding was tough work, but with the Fruit Knife Goddess by my side, I could only feel pleasure.

Suddenly, a new party appeared at the distance, and this one was much, much larger than Cute Little Naughty’s ten-man party. There were at least a thousand of them—if not thousands—and the man walking at the front with a blade in his hand was clearly the guild leader. He shouted at Cute Little Naughty’s party, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ eighth subguild, Waste and Burn, is having a leveling activity at this place! Leave this place now, or don’t blame us for resorting to drastic measures!"