Hmph, a level 7 monster—no wonder it hurt so much when it hit me. But in an instant, I had already figured it out: the green mantis has extremely high attack power, but its movement and attack speed are both very slow. There’s a full 4-second interval between its attacks. From this, it seems I have no problem soloing this level 7 green mantis.

With a swift step, I slid in a smooth arc to the mantis’s right side, raised my sword, and—crack!

“31!”

Not bad damage, mainly because the green mantis’s defense isn’t too OP. Otherwise, with this crappy sword, I’d be lucky to even break its defense.

A level 7 monster, with less than 300 HP, can be whittled down pretty quickly.

“Hiss hiss…”

The green mantis screeched, slowly turned around, and swung its twin blades for a combined attack.

I suddenly retreated, my footwork flowing like water, moving behind the green mantis. “Slash, slash, slash”—three consecutive strikes. The strong rhythm put me in the zone; it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this kind of smooth grinding. Heh, after being tormented by a 3-second delay for over half a year, now I feel like a fish in water.

I kept weaving in and out, constantly adjusting my distance, wasting the green mantis’s attack opportunities, while I kept slashing with my crappy sword. Even though the green mantis is two levels higher than me, it’s still going down.

In the dense forest, one person and one mantis perfectly demonstrated peak-level grinding efficiency and tactics. Killing monsters four levels above me, yet I felt completely at ease.

“Pfft!”

Green blood splattered. After being attacked more than a dozen times, the level 7 green mantis finally let out a wail and collapsed. With a plop, it dropped a small magic stone. I picked it up and saw it was the lowest grade, quality 14, probably worth about 140 copper coins. Not much, but at this stage, every bit of money is precious. After all, before level 10, you have to save up enough to learn skills. Otherwise, it would be so frustrating to see those flashy skills but not be able to learn them.

I tossed the small magic stone into my bag and noticed my experience bar had jumped up a good chunk. Killing higher-level monsters really does give a lot of experience. I continued deeper into the forest, looking for lone green mantises to hunt.

In nearly two hours, I killed 87 green mantises and leveled up to 7. I added 20 points to strength, bringing my attack power up to 22–37. Killing level 7 green mantises was now a breeze. Unfortunately, the deeper I went into the forest, the higher the monster levels became. When I encountered my first level 10 green mantis, I was almost instantly killed, so I had to retreat to the outskirts to hunt level 8 monsters. Playing it safe was the priority.

The death penalty in Skyler is very harsh. Once players reach level 10, dying means losing a level and generating a soul. The soul revives next to the corpse, costing you one level. Alternatively, you can revive in town, but that costs three levels. The Morning Light Forest is at least a 20-minute journey from the newbie village, and I really don’t want to waste time running back to my corpse.

Checking the time, it was already past 4 a.m., but the server was still crowded. You can imagine how many people were online rushing through the newbie village.

“Hmm, tonight I’ll try to reach level 10. I’ll log off after unlocking my class skills!”

I silently cheered myself on, wandering alone in the depths of the Morning Light Forest, killing green mantises one after another, just waiting to reach the required number to turn in my quest.

As I was grinding, suddenly I heard voices in the distance—clearly, other players were coming!

I quickly grabbed a small magic stone from the ground and leapt into the thick foliage to hide, leaving only my eyes exposed—or rather, not even eyes, just the two black holes of a skull’s eye sockets.

With the sound of rustling leaves, four people emerged from the jungle, all around 25 years old—three men and one woman. The woman was a level 7 Chanter, the others were an 8th-level Magic Knight, a 7th-level Warrior, and a 6th-level Strategist. A very standard grinding party. Of course, before the Strategist and Chanter learn their skills, they’re not much help.

“The Third, are you sure the Green Mantis King is at these coordinates in the Morning Light Forest?” the Warrior complained. “We’ve been killing mantises for half an hour, and these level 6 mantises give crap experience!”

The Magic Knight looked calm and said, “The Boss, it’s right here. An assassin friend of mine was one-shotted by the boss here half an hour ago. He didn’t dare come back to revive and had to respawn in town—lost three levels, over two hours of grinding wasted.”

The Warrior nodded. “Hmph, I hope so. If we came all this way for nothing, you’re buying us late-night snacks tomorrow.”

“Ha, no problem!”

……

The group moved quickly through the forest. In less than half a minute, the Magic Knight suddenly raised his hand and shouted, “Careful, it’s really here! Hahaha!”

Through the tangled leaves, I saw it too—a massive green mantis up ahead, waving its twin blade arms, its green carapace gleaming with a golden light, looking truly imposing.

Instantly, I regretted it so much I wanted to slap my thigh. If I’d just walked a few steps further earlier, I might have seen this boss! But then again, even if I had, I’d probably just die, since I can’t even see the boss’s level.