The quests available were bland and mundane, and it would be better to get XP in other ways. Nothing rewarded any reputation, guild reputation, or even rare crafting ingredients. The way to proceed was to hunt and be the first to get to level 15.

I decided to form an 8-man party. The four Tier 4 talents, Kyo, The Bear, Silencer and I went to a level 14 area to power level. Hunting level 14 enemies was easy enough for me solo, and splitting the experience 4 ways was like hunting a level 13 enemy. Meanwhile, The Bear rode a rocket ship, levelling from 6 to 10 in under 10 minutes. I got my level 11 almost right away, and Kyo followed not too far behind. Silencer had his level 10 as well and was a good portion of the way to level 11. The Tier 4 talents got level 10 quickly and level 11 slowly, but nonetheless levelled.

This time I was levelling for keeps. I upgraded my gear, enjoying the small boosts that level 11 provided. We continued hunting until the full team was at level 11 before moving to a level 16 area. I ignored 2.6 levels of suppression and 2.4 levels of suppression was quite manageable with my high damage, incredible HP and robust defense. We soon all reached level 12.

The slowest part of levelling seemed to be walking between the different zones. I calmly proceeded to a level 17 zone and faced 2.2 levels of suppression. Enemies 5 levels ahead of us were worth 2560x as much XP, which was still 320x as much when split 8 ways. Levels 10-14 were designed to take 3 days, so with the extreme gains we levelled up in under 30 minutes. This was mostly due to it taking roughly twice as long to kill an enemy.

I decided to take a chance and proceed to a level 19 zone next. This was largely because my items had levelled up twice to level 16, giving me 3.2 levels of ignore level suppression. I was facing 2.8 levels of suppression, which was more than I’d faced before but I was hoping still manageable. I figured it would be viable to stay in this zone for 2 levels, saving us some travel time. The rate of killing slowed a little, but it wasn’t four times as slow so our levelling grew even faster. Things slowed when we tried to get level 15, because this level took 10x experience instead of 4x. Nonetheless, in under 1 hour all of us were level 15. Ignore level suppression felt like a cheat-code, and I was using it to make our guild talents the highest levels in the game. After getting level 15, I broke up the levelling party and headed back to town.

I gathered up the remainder of the 50 players who had challenged the tower at my expense. The 42 of us headed back out to the level 19 zone. Now splitting experience 42 ways with a single carry is supposed to be slow. But because of the massive level difference, we started out earning experience 6,553,600x as fast as was normal for the level. Divide that by 42 and it’s still bonkers. Suffice it to say the levelling succeeded. After a few hours my guild had a full 50-man team of level 15 players.

I disbanded the party and asked everyone to complete guild quests. I had something else in mind for myself however. At level 15, a new questline opened up in the capital. It was the first main story quest for the Kingdom of Verdure. Main story quests provided exceptional rewards including both rare items and reputation. I proceeded to the Temple or Althas, to talk to the head priestess.

“Hello head priestess. Is there anything I can do for you?” I asked politely.

"Your reputation proceeds you. Perhaps you’ll be up to the task. We need to investigate and stop a demon incursion into our realm. We’ve discovered a small hatchery near the capital and the army is too busy to exterminate it. Could you investigate and destroy this hatchery for us?”

“Certainly. Do you have any information on how dangerous the demons are?”

“As far as we know it should only be demon spawn, the weakest of the weak.”

“Do you have anything that could assist in my slaying these demons?”

“You can face the temple trials. If you’re found worthy there are rare skills and techniques to be gained. As demons are our natural enemy our best skills are demon slaying skills.”

“Thank you high priestess. I would be honored to face the trials.”

With that exchange complete, we stepped into the back room of the temple. In front of me was a portal. I smiled as I entered, eager for further rewards.

I faced a level 15 elite, then a level 15 special elite, then a level 15 chieftain, then a level 15 lord, then a level 15 great lord. Those fights were easy and I had reached the 5th level of the trials. The next fight was a superior lord. I wondered if I was equal to the task. I decided to chance it and keep going.

My enemy was fortunately a physical damage dealing lord, and it was rather slow. Braxus was a barbarian lord. He fought with a giant Warhammer. I cringed at the idea of getting hit by it but was confident in my dodging. Sure enough, he couldn’t connect. His health dropped to 80%. When it did he took out an ornate white warhorn and blew it. A horde of barbarians descended on the fight, 27 normal mobs led by 3 chieftains. I focused on dodging the blows of the elite mobs, letting the occasional normal mob hit me for negligible damage. I carved through the normal mobs like butter. I then took on the chieftains, slaying each in turn.

I returned to fighting Braxus and fairly soon he was down to 60%. He once again took out his horn and this time the army consisted of 18 normal mobs, 2 chieftains, 9 elites and a lord. I focused on the elites first while I dodged the chieftains, lord and superior lord. I took some damage unable to avoid everything the swarm threw at me. My health hit 85% by the time the elites were down. I next took out the normal enemies, enjoying my extreme stats to inflict 1-hit 1-kill upon them. My health stabilized at 78%. I took out the chieftains next as I was worried the lord might have special abilities. Finally, I focused on the barbarian lord.

When the barbarian lord hit 80% health it went into an extremely fast, extremely mobile axe whirlwind. I was hard pressed to dodge the shifting AoE and was hit thrice. My health dropped to 64%. I decided to potion at this point and continued to fight the lord. Knowing what was coming at 60% health I was better positioned and was only hit once. At 40%, I figured out how to avoid getting hit at all. There were no problems until the lord berserked. I wasn’t about to worry about what the berserk skill was and instead used my skills and techniques to burst it down quickly.

With the lord down, I focused on Braxus once more. At 40% he summoned once again, this time 9 normal mobs, 1 chieftain, 2 lords and 18 elites. Fortunately, my potion had fully healed me. I burst down the elites, each elite taking 2 hits to kill. Normal mobs died to single hits after. The chieftain took a good deal more work, but I was no longer taking damage by the time I fought it. Fighting 2 lords and a great lord during the AoE berserk remained a challenge and I was hit a few times. I potioned when I reached 60% health. Eventually I finished one lord. The other was no longer challenging. Braxus alone couldn’t hit me and I whittled him down to 20% when my health recharged to full.

At 20% health he summoned 27 elites and 3 lords. I quickly fell to 60% health, but my potion was off cooldown and an intermediate health potion was equal to stabilizing. My swords struck quickly, and my rapid blows sliced down elites in 2 hits. Fairly soon only lords were left. I did take some damage trying to dodge during the AoE’s but other than that things were fine. Soon there were 2 lords, then 1 then 0. All that remained was Braxus’s berserk.

Fortunately, his berserk was slower than my burst damage. As Braxus fell I smiled. I had passed the 6th level of the temple trials. I wasn’t going to attempt the 7th level, whatever awaited would simply be too strong. During the fight I received two notifications.

Congratulations, Wave Chop has reached level 1.

Congratulations, Pierce has reached level 3.

For passing 6 levels I received 6000 temple points to spend. I also received an additional 1500 points for beating all levels within the time limit. My 7500 points enabled me to buy a wide range of skills and techniques but one stood out in particular. The rare passive skill, demon slayer cost 7500 points and gave me +25% passive damage vs demons at level 0. Since the entire quest line involved demons, I thought this ability would be quite valuable.

I looked over my character as I readied myself to head to the hatchery.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 10: 99% of level 11

Str: 2895 (base:25)

Agi: 2960 (base:70)

Con:2895 (base:25)

Int: 889 (base:25)

Cha: 889 (base:25)

Lck: 313 (base:25)

Cnc: 313 (base:25)

Sta: 313 (base: 25)

Qi: 313 (base: 20)

Soul: 313 (base:20)

Air Affinity: 313 (base:20)

Fire Affinity: 313 (base:20)

Water Affinity: 313 (base: 20)

Def: 9347

MDef: 7203

HP:54910/54910 (base: 1000)

MP:18802/18802(base: 1000)

Gear:

MW: Epic Tier Level 18 Longsword, +288Str +288Agi +288Con

Base Damage: 360-432, Def 432 MDef 360 Durability 569/576, Requirements: 576 Str

OW: Epic Tier Level 18 Shortsword +288Str, +288Agi, +288 Con

Base Damage 294-360, Def 360 MDef 294, Durability 570/576, Requirements: 576 Str

MA: Epic Tier Level 18 Plate, +288 Str, +288 Agi, +288 Con

1152Def,1152MDef, Durability 574/576, Requirements:576 Str

LA: Epic Tier Level 18 Plate Cuisse, +288Str, +288Agi, +288Con

1152Def, 1152MDef Durability: 575/576 Requirements: 576 Str

G: Epic Tier Level 18 Plate Gauntlets +288Str, +288 Agi, +288 Con

1152Def, 1152MDef, Durability 574/576 Requirements: 576 Str

B:Epic Tier Level 18 Plate Boots +288Str +298Agi(10 Gemstone) +288Con

1152 Def, 1152MDef Durability 574/576 Requirements: 576Str

H: Epic Tier Level 18 Helm, +288 Str, +298(10 Gemstone) Agi, +288 Con

1152 Def, 1152MDef Durability 575/576, Requirements: 576Str

RR: Epic Tier, Level 18 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+288 All base attributes, +288 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Epic Tier, Level 18 Ring of Elements (+288 All base attributes,

Ignore 3.6 Levels, Ignore 3.6 Equip Levels

AM: Epic Tier, Level 18 Amulet (+288 All base attributes)

Skills:

Spatial Slash, Legacy, Tier 0 Level 0

Haste of the Warrior, Legacy, Tier 0 Level 0

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Air Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Earth Manipulation, Special, Tier 0 Level 9

Fire Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 8

Water Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 8

Dragon Fist, Martial, Tier 0 Level 0

Qi Blade, Martial, Tier 0 Level 0

Demon Slayer, Rare, Tier 0 Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wave Chop, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 2

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 3

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Techniques:

Rapid Blow

Vanishing Steps

Mana Drain

Health Drain

Stamina Drain

Strength Drain

Agility Drain

Endurance Drain

Flicker

Precision Dodge