Leo sat in a chair to the right of the old man selling potions. As he suspected, the 50% increase in experience gain significantly increased the need for potions. He had, however, severely underestimated the number of players coming to buy potions.

Although the trades were completed quickly, the few seconds it took rapidly accumulated and forced players to form a long queue outside the Alchemy Shop. It was so overcrowded that Leo had to contact Alex and have him help out with the selling part. If this had been the only Alchemy Shop in the city, he might have endured it to ensure the extra profit, but there were at least fifteen other shops selling potions.

He had watched several players complain about the queue time and leave for another potion shop. Although they would have to pay more, they still did not want to give up the extra EXP by waiting in a line.

The queues settled down after Alex and his Moonlight Guild came to help out. They agreed to take a 5% commission’s fee. Leo agreed due to the circumstances, he did not want to sit here all day and lose out on the EXP event. His wealth continued to climb as the hours flew by.

Leo continued to sell potions for a total of 6 hours before handing the rest off to Alex’s guild members. He simply bought the potions with their money and would receive 25 copper per potion sold. He would need to discuss more with Moonlight whether to continue this business. Leo doubted they would want to settle for 5% when they do most of the work. It worked out this time due to the huge market, but once the event settles down, so will the number of players buying potions in bulk.

He had already shown his cards by giving them the opportunity to see that he can’t handle the workload himself. Leo still had more alternatives than to just use Moonlight, but if he could reach an agreement, it would be beneficial to both of them. He’s not the only one capable of doing this type of thing. Leo had no idea what Happy was doing right now, but he doubted she would ignore the potential for profit once she realizes. Luckily Ferima City is a massive city with close to one million players. Adding another reseller of potions would hardly affect his bottom line. He just hoped she wouldn’t utilize a Guild as he had.

With the business taken care of, Leo walked to the Auction House to spend some of his earned money. He specifically wanted more skill books and Iron Quality equipment if he could find any for a reasonable price. If he could find any gear for his missing slots, that would be a nice bonus as well.

Leo opened the Auction House’s interface and searched for all types of skill books. The skill books do not have a quality rating but rather a rarity rating. The rating goes from Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary. Leo began by filtering the search by rarity. He quickly confirmed that no one had put up any Epic or Legendary skill books. Although it’s not impossible that some lucky player has gotten a hold of them, they would be a fool to sell it this early in the game. High rated skill books will only increase in value, unlike gear which depreciates in value.

There were only three skill books that caught his attention. They were all Rare rated and ranged from 1 gold to 5 gold per. Leo had earned nearly 100 gold from potions and bought the books without a second thought. He currently had a stable source of revenue and still waited for Snow to pay for her weapons. Leo had allowed Snow to try out the weapons for a while to figure out their value. He also wanted to sell a few more equipments to better understand the market before suggesting a price.

Leo looked at two of the skill books with a satisfied expression. Although they were only good on their own, together, their power increased drastically. He immediately used them and now had a grand total of three skills on his character. If only removing skills wasn’t such a pain in the ass, he would have cleared out the Auction House already.

[Death Hail (Rare)]

Restriction: Mage

Unleash a powerful curse on any foe within a 5-meters radius of your initial target, dealing 300% of spell power as damage. Damage is doubled against stunned enemies.

Cast time: 3.0 seconds

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Cost: 100 MP

The magic attack had high damage potential on its own, but paired with the next skill made it much more powerful.

[Concussion Shot (Rare)]

Restriction: Ranger

Launch several arrows towards targets within a 5-meter radius of your initial target, stunning them for 2.5 seconds.

Cast time: 0.2 seconds

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Cost: 100 SP

At first glance it might look like the stun duration is short by a mere half second. This is only when using the skill as is. Leo had no problem learning how to use the magic language for a specific skill and would be able to reduce its cast time. This combination of skills works great against both monsters and players. Due to the magic attack being an AOE, it’s power would become significantly reduced against players.

The last skill book was a very useful passive.

[Iron Defense (Rare)]

Restriction: Knight

Reduce all received physical damage by 15% and all received magical damage by 12%.

The passive would mostly be effective against monsters as some players can use special skills that ignore damage reduction passives. It might not be the best for PVP but for Leo’s need right now, it couldn’t have been better.

Leo browsed through the equipment sections but quickly found that there was hardly any equipment above Bronze Quality for sale. It wasn’t surprising when he thought about Guilds having players stationed here all day and night just to buy equipment. There’s also a lack of good quality gear in general, making players use a higher quality but lower leveled gear for longer.

He managed to buy a ring, earring, and cloak with stats, but their stats were terrible. He had to spend 10 silver on them, but the return was hardly worth it. Accessories simply have a very low drop rate and most players wouldn’t want to sell them until they get an upgrade. It was at least better to have terrible stats than no accessory at all.

With nothing else to do, Leo decided to buy out all the Bronze Quality equipment and transform them into gear. He spent a total of 15 gold and expected to make anywhere between 40-60 gold. He had used more materials than needed to increase the level cap of the gear. Although the gear’s stats hardly rose, the extra levels would make them far more useful long term.

Everything he needed to do in the city was now completed and Leo headed towards the city’s gates. He decided to level in Undead Forest and then complete his quest while he’s in the area. The lower level zone was in the complete opposite direction and he would waste far too long going there just to level up a few levels.

Leo set out from the north gates and walked for a solid hour before he could see Undead Forest. The forest was devoid of green and he struggled to even call it a forest. The trees were brown with hardly any leaves. The grass had withered and there was no sign of any animals. It truly was a dead forest refusing to give up.

Leo entered the forest and began searching for monsters to kill. It did not take him long to find a group of skeleton warriors. They wore armor made of poor iron and rusty swords. He inspected the skeletons.

[Skeleton Warrior (Common)]

Level 17

Health: 10 450

Although the level difference of 7 will reduce his damage, skeletons are known for being fragile with low defense and high attack power. This is the best type of opponent for him right now.

He sent out a basic magic attack to lure a single skeleton away from the group. The skeleton warrior walked towards the sound without even thinking about it. Its low intelligence made it impossible for the skeleton to comprehend that it was lured away from safety.

Leo used his [Concussion Shot] followed by [Death Hail]. He had not bothered with going to the library to read up on the magic skill and planned to learn the chant by ear. The [Concussion Shot] hit perfectly and stunned the skeleton for 2.5 seconds. The magic attack came late by half a second and could not utilize the extra damage buff for hitting a stunned target.

-497

Considering that his magic attack power is only half of his physical attack power, the attack hit extremely hard. The skeleton cried out in anger and sprinted towards him. Leo decided to switch his attachment into its shield form. The extra damage simply wasn’t worth the risk.

-124

-126

-124

Leo used his [Spear Thrust] skill and hit the skeleton in its head. The skeleton stumbled backward from the impact which Leo used to send out another attack.

-157

The skeleton managed to get back on stable feet and began to swing its rusty sword towards Leo. The attack was fairly fast due to the difference in attributes but its pattern was still basic. The skeleton continued sending out swings from left to right, lower left to upper right in a monotone rhythm.

Leo sent his spear at the skeleton once more and began reducing its health at a rapid pace. The forest was eerie silent with the exception of Leo’s battle. The lack of animal noises and the cold gust of wind occasionally brushing through his hair made for a sinister atmosphere.

The skeleton tried to hit Leo but it was all in vain. It fell to the ground, the sound of bone crashing together following it to its grave once more.

System: Skeleton Warrior (Common) defeated! Awarding 385 + (193) EXP!

Leo picked up a health potion and seven copper. The monster gave a fairly large amount of experience which was increased even more by the bonus from the event. Leo continued killing Skeleton Warriors for about an hour.

An hours worth of killing high-level monsters had only gained him a single level and about 50% towards level 12. Leo allocated his points into strength and dexterity. He was unsure of how powerful Ubras the Mad Wizard was. He could also not guarantee that he gets more than one attempt at the quest. Leo decided to level up to 15 before attempting the quest.

Leo continued to hunt Skeletons for 7 hours before finally hitting level 15. He once more concentrated on his strength and dexterity. Leo learned a lot about his magic skill and could now cast it in 2.3 seconds with a mana cost of 75. The damage also increased by around 15%. Although he believed it was possible to increase the damage more, the cast time and mana cost was most likely at the lowest they could get with manual casting alone.

Leo gazed at his equipment. He had not spent any experience on them since entering the forest. Due to the massive difference in levels, he actually gained more damage output per character level compared to upgrading his spear. This made him realize that his gear needs an upgrade in quality soon.

He had killed more than 400 skeletons, but only gained a few dozen pieces of equipment. Of those, only half were of Iron Quality while the rest was Bronze Quality. This is all too common when fighting low ranked monsters.

Leo prepared to walk back to the entrance and follow the trail towards Ubras’ cave but was hindered by a sudden explosion of loud noises. He quickly ran towards the noise to see what caused it.

He stood atop a hill and looked down towards an open field. In the middle of the field stood a large mammoth. Its skin was cut in pieces and flesh could be seen all around it. The mammoth looked blue and its bones could be seen on part of its body.

Undead Mammoth (Lord)

Level 21

Health: 124 531 443 / 150 000 000

The mammoth was the same rank as the Ancient Golem he had defeated before, but its stats were leagues above the golem. Leo assumed its large health pool made its attack power weak compared to its level. The problem with taking down a monster with such a large health pool is not the difficulty or time requirement, but other players.

Leo gazed towards the mammoth’s feet and saw around 200 players fighting it. It looked like two distinct parties fighting each other for the mammoth. Leo assumed that they represented two guilds but he was too far away to inspect them.

Leo moved closer to get a better view of the battle. As he got closer to the battle, he began to understand the situation more. There were indeed two guilds, but they were not split evenly. The first guild was [Tempest] which had roughly 50 members. The other guild was none other than [Bloodhound]. Leo’s lips turned into an evil grin. Tempest had a clear disadvantage in numbers, but their players were far better both in gear and skill.

This would not go on forever though. There will eventually be an opportunity for Bloodhound to take the initiative and crush them. Although Leo had no relationship with Tempest, he would much rather see them get the kill and snag some of the EXP and loot if he can. Leo walked out from his hiding spot and approached the mammoth. He was quickly discovered by both of the guilds. Leo let out a smile as he approached Tempest.