Chapter 52 - 47: An Excellent Leveling Spot, Grind, Grind, Grind

Chapter 52: Chapter 47: An Excellent Leveling Spot, Grind, Grind, Grind

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[Dark Naga Vanguard]

[Level: 9]

[Potential: Elite ★]

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"There’s an Elite Monster. Be careful."

Shen Xing gave a quick warning while taking out his [Mechanical Crossbow].

On the shallows, the group of Naga saw the firelight and realized they had been baited.

A cold, vertical glint flashed in their pupils as they scanned their surroundings, quickly locking onto the party behind the large rock.

"ადამიანის...დაჭამაისინი!"

The leading Naga uttered ancient syllables.

The next moment, all dozen or so Naga opened their pitch-black mouths, as if something was building up in their throats!

"PFFT! PFFT PFFT!"

One after another, compressed water projectiles shot out!

—Water Flow Bomb!

The moment the enemy’s attack came, the two Light Element giants, both over two meters tall, quickly stepped forward and raised their right arms high.

"BZZZT!"

A shield of light unfurled, blocking the Dark Nagas’ entire first wave of attacks.

At the same time, the Light Element Archers behind them all drew their bowstrings, and a dense volley of Light Arrows shot forth!

"WHOOSH! WHOOSH WHOOSH!"

Shen Xing also commanded the Beastman Legion to charge forward.

Faced with this elite force, where every member had an Ordinary Three-Star Potential and was Level 5 or higher, the Dark Naga were forced into a steady retreat.

In the blink of an eye, several Naga had their scales pierced by Light Arrows before being chopped to bits by the Beastmen.

"URA!"

Seeing its comrades die, the Elite Naga let out a furious Roar and suddenly raised the seashell scepter in its hand.

The Black Water River behind it churned, forming a dark vortex.

"SPLASH... SPLASH..."

A Water Tornado rapidly took shape, looking as if it would surge ashore and swallow them all!

But before the Skill could be unleashed, a green figure had already appeared silently behind it.

A Double-Bladed War Axe, trailing an eerie green firelight, sliced through the darkness and viciously struck the Elite Naga’s neck!

With a "THWACK," a head spun 721 degrees in the air before rolling onto the shallows.

The headless body twitched a few times, then collapsed completely.

Shen Xing covered his eyes. ’This game’s combat is too bloody and realistic,’ he thought.

Of course, this was Hellish Roar’s fault.

Whenever that guy fought, he was always lopping off heads and hands, as if he had some sort of special fetish.

After the battle, the Beastmen began to clean up the battlefield.

When Shen Xing saw the profits from this battle, a smile couldn’t help but tug at the corners of his mouth.

A full 24 Soul Stones, 31 Vinar Silver Coins, as well as 17 Broken Souls and 3 Broken Elite Soul Fragments.

Even if they split it evenly, they would each get over ten Soul Stones.

It didn’t sound like much, but the entire battle had taken less than two minutes.

Moreover, thanks to the bait, they could continuously lure monsters up from the river.

"These Dark Nagas really do have a higher drop rate than ordinary monsters," Shen Xing said softly.

"Right?" Xia Wanyin said cheerfully. "I discovered that a while ago. I even brought Guang here and farmed a ton of Dark Nagas."

After that, they continued to hide behind the large rock, waiting quietly.

Roughly every five to ten minutes, a wave of 10 to 20 Dark Naga would come ashore.

Xia Wanyin’s Archers would start with a volley, felling a swath of enemies, after which the Beastmen would charge forward, roaring wildly.

A flurry of chaotic strikes turned all the Naga into spoils of war.

After finishing off the enemies, they would hunker down behind the large rock again, repeating the process.

Although it was a bit tedious, watching the resource numbers steadily increase was still very satisfying.

Time flew by, and in a flash, more than four hours had passed.

Shen Xing glanced at the remaining oil in the Horse Lantern; less than a fifth was left.

"Let’s call it a day."

Shen Xing needed to save enough time for the return trip. Running out of lantern oil in the Fog would be a huge problem.

"Okay."

Xia Wanyin nodded lightly, then added, "But we’ve been fighting here for hours and still haven’t found the Naga that took the bracelet. It looks like finishing this quest won’t be so easy."

Shen Xing nodded. "That’s normal. This Black Water River is so big, who knows how many monsters actually live in it."

"Let’s take our time. It’s not like he gave us a deadline anyway."

"Now, it’s time to split the loot."

Saying this, Shen Xing walked over to the spot on the beach where they had piled up the spoils.

He hadn’t really noticed before, but one look now gave him a shock!

After several hours of farming, the various Soul Stones and coins were piled up into small mounds.

A quick count revealed a total of: 512 Soul Stones, 535 Vinar Silver Coins, 124 Broken Ordinary Souls, and 23 Shattered Elite Souls.

Split evenly, that came out to over two hundred Soul Stones and several hundred Silver Coins for each of them.

Adding in the Soul Fragments, today’s earnings had far exceeded their expectations.

"Wow, so many Soul Stones! This is almost as much as I’ve gathered in the last two or three days," Xia Wanyin said, pleasantly surprised.

A delighted smile also appeared on Shen Xing’s face.

This Black Water River was the perfect grinding spot!

The Dark Naga inside were numerous, yet not too strong, making them easy to deal with.

By farming here for a while, they could acquire a massive amount of resources.

Of course, Shen Xing knew this was only because they had the bait from the merchant, which allowed them to continuously lure the monsters up from below.

Otherwise, they would have to search slowly along the riverbank.

Not only would that be inefficient, but they might also run into unexpected trouble.

Satisfied, they finished dividing the loot, giving his nearly bankrupt territory a much-needed transfusion.

With this, he now had the Soul Stones for his pups to level up.

At that moment, Shen Xing stared at the Naga corpses littering the shore and asked thoughtfully, "What do we do with all these bodies?"

He remembered Xia Wanyin saying before that they couldn’t take the Naga corpses, or it would provoke retaliation from other Dark Naga.

"We just have to throw them all back into the river."

Xia Wanyin explained softly, "I looked it up on the forums. Most of these Dark Naga aren’t born naturally; they’re created from the darkness at the bottom of the river."

"Throwing their bodies back into the river after death is like returning them to their mother’s embrace."

"That way, the other Dark Naga in the river won’t hold a grudge and hunt us down."

Shen Xing understood now. He then commanded the Beastmen to clear the field, having them pick up the corpses on the shallows one by one and drag them to the riverbank.

"SPLASH! SPLASH!"

A series of splashes echoed as the bodies of the Dark Naga hit the water’s surface, then vanished into the river’s depths.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Shen Xing put away the bait and said, "Well, I’m heading back now."

"Mm, see you tomorrow."

Xia Wanyin waved at him, just like two good friends promising to hang out again the next day.

Shen Xing watched her disappear into the dense fog, then also began to move slowly in another direction.

After they left, the black surface of the river churned as usual, its waves slapping against the jagged rocks with a muffled sound.

And beneath the river’s surface, a massive shadow swam by slowly.

The shadow was astonishingly large; its silhouette alone was over several dozen meters long.

It swam for a moment in the area where they had thrown the corpses, then dove toward the riverbed.

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