Chapter 67: Silverfang Wolf Levels Up

He farmed all the way until past 11:00 at noon. Only when his stomach started growling with hunger did he finally finish clearing out the skeleton mages in this mining area.
In total, he killed 542 Skeleton Mages, leveling up to LV22: 92038/500000.
He gained another 80 HP, 40 MP, and 4 Agility, along with 20 attribute points.
He also obtained 3 pieces of Black Iron equipment, which he listed on the auction house.
His Undying Physique increased by another 542 points, bringing his total HP up to 14,277.

“Leveling up and grinding Undying Physique is really fast here, but talents can’t be farmed. That tiger has a full 200,000 HP. With my current 540 poison damage, applying four stacks of poison only does less than 130,000 damage in a minute.
And with that attack power, I’m not even sure I can apply four stacks reliably.
If that’s the case, I’d need almost twenty minutes to take it down—kind of long. Still better to grind for talents,” Wu Shaochen muttered to himself.
“Forget it, time to log off and eat. After that, I’ll see if I can directly enter the area with Level 27 monsters.”

After logging off, Wu Shaochen took off his headset and habitually checked his bank balance.
Seeing a full 720,000 yuan, his eyes practically lit up with RMB signs.
That amount could buy a decent apartment in SZ city… maybe he should look into property?

“Better not, I’ll focus on building up strength these next two days. Once I kill that tiger, I can take my time house-hunting,” Wu Shaochen thought to himself.

Back at the restaurant, there were even fewer people than before. It was quiet and deserted.
Wu Shaochen ordered a full table of dishes and ate heartily, then packed dinner to bring back with him so he wouldn’t need to go out again.
Afterwards, he stopped by the supermarket to buy some snacks and instant noodles in case he got hungry at night and didn’t want to log off to find food.

Back home, he put on his headset again and continued grinding.
Once more, he appeared in the Abandoned Mining Zone.
He checked the rankings: he was still far ahead at Level 22.
The rest were close behind—except for the fifth-ranked Godking at Level 19, the others were all at Level 18.
Two new pets had appeared on the pet rankings, but the freeloader Silverfang Wolf was still at the top.

He walked forward a bit, emerging into an open area with no skeletons in sight.
There were two tunnels on either side, and in the middle was a staircase leading down—likely to a lower floor.

Wu Shaochen thought for a moment and decided to head downstairs.
The monsters on the next floor should be a bit higher level—time to grind talents again.

The lighting on the fifth floor was even dimmer. Wu Shaochen carefully moved forward.
He hadn’t gone far when a sudden shriek made him jump out of his skin.
He quickly looked toward the source of the sound and saw a pale ghost floating in the air, white eyes rolled back, tongue lolling, screaming at him.

“Damn, seriously? That’s terrifying,” Wu Shaochen patted his chest.
If he hadn’t been desensitized by farming skeletons all morning, his soul might’ve flown out just now.
“Can’t this game at least censor things a bit? If someone with a weak heart plays this, who’s responsible if something happens?”

Seeing the ghost floating toward him, Wu Shaochen cast an Insight spell.

【Ghost】
Level: 28
HP: 85,000
Physical Attack: 900
Physical Defense: None
Magic Defense: 610
Movement Speed: 180

Passive: Ignores physical attacks

Skill: Soul Seize – The ghost floats in front of the target, locking eyes and dealing 150% spirit damage that ignores defense.
Range: 3 meters. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

“Crap, the higher the level, the stronger these monsters get.
This ghost’s skill ignores defense—that’s deadly.
I can handle two or three, but more than that? Forget it. And it ignores physical attacks too.
I wonder if poison damage still works,” Wu Shaochen muttered, stroking his chin.

There was only one ghost in front of him, so he wasn’t too worried.
He slashed four times—

Immune!
Immune!
Immune!
Immune!
-2160

Four large “Immune” words popped up above the ghost’s head, followed by four stacks of poison damage.

Seeing that the poison worked, Wu Shaochen relaxed.
If poison had been immune too, there’d have been no way to fight.
Normally, he didn’t bother kiting regular mobs—he’d just leech life and brute-force them.
But not with this one. Hitting it didn’t even cause any damage.

The ghost was quickly poisoned to death…

“Ding! You’ve slain 【Ghost】. Gained 896 EXP.
Poison Damage increased by 1. Undying Physique increased by 1.”

“Finally, I can improve talents again,” Wu Shaochen said, satisfied.
Fighting monsters six levels above really gave a lot of EXP.
He glanced at Silverfang Wolf’s EXP—it was already at 96%, almost Level 20.
Once it leveled up, he’d check for any changes.

Wu Shaochen continued hunting ghosts.
The lighting was so dim that he had no idea how big this fifth floor was.
He only knew the tunnel kept getting wider, and he could occasionally hear the ghosts shrieking.
He followed the sounds to find monsters.
Judging from the frequency of the screams, there were plenty of ghosts down here.
Thankfully, they weren’t too dense.
Otherwise, if he accidentally kited into a ghost horde in this darkness, they might literally drag his soul away.

Killing as he walked, after slaying the 9th ghost, Silverfang Wolf howled—it had reached Level 20.
The entire wolf suddenly grew taller, now reaching Wu Shaochen’s thigh.
He patted Silverfang Wolf, and a light sparkled in his eyes as he suddenly mounted it.

“Not bad. All furry and comfortable.
Finally, I don’t have to walk everywhere myself.
Even though Silverfang Wolf isn’t faster than me, as long as I don’t have to walk, I’m good.”
He checked Silverfang Wolf’s current stats:

【Silverfang Wolf】 – Pet
Potential: A
Level: 20
HP: 42,000
MP: 2,100
Physical Attack: 760
Physical Defense: 620
Magic Defense: 310
Movement Speed: 120

Skill 1: Burst Speed – Increases attack and movement speed by 50% for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
Skill 2: Inspire – Howls to boost self and allies’ damage and defense by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

“Oh? Not bad. Maybe it got tired of freeloading and decided to step up with a useful skill?” Wu Shaochen’s eyes lit up.
This skill was pretty cool.
He had been considering ditching it, but now it seemed rather promising.
A skill that buffs the whole party was really handy.

Looking at the Silverfang Wolf’s eager expression, Wu Shaochen felt a bit reluctant to let it go.
It had been with him for so long, and was clearly trying its best.
Still, being just an A-rank talent felt a little unworthy of him.
He pulled out the Bloodline Potion dropped by the Green-Scaled Python, hesitating.

The potion clearly stated that the higher the compatibility, the higher the success rate.
Silverfang Wolf and a snake had zero connection.
The compatibility was probably awful, and using it on Silverfang Wolf might have a 90%+ failure rate.
But if he didn’t use it on Silverfang Wolf, he could only sell it.
After all, the potion could only raise a pet to S-rank max, and Silverfang Wolf was already A-rank.
If he really wanted to switch pets, he’d go for S-rank or above.
So, either sell the potion, or give it to Silverfang Wolf.

“Sigh… the success rate is just too sketchy.
Losing the potion is fine, but what if it messes the wolf up?” Wu Shaochen shook his head.
“Forget it. It’s been with me for so long.
If I do change pets one day, I’ll release it properly.
No need to put it through unnecessary risk.”

He was about to put the potion back into his inventory when—
chomp—the usually obedient Silverfang Wolf suddenly gulped it down…