Chapter 5: Early-Stage Combat
In the eyes of most players, slimes were merely low-level mobs that could only take hits without fighting back—even if they stood completely still, they wouldn't die.
The moment one respawned, it was immediately surrounded by a barrage of skills and reduced to a flash of white light.
Although Yueseyiran was fast enough to get her attack in, she only managed to strike it once.
Lixiang watched the surrounding crowd of players attacking, but in his mind, he was replaying the exact moment the slime had appeared. Its cute, plump body had instantly split open into a gigantic mouth nearly as large as its entire torso, and its eyes had turned icy red, filled with cruel, murderous intent.
Though its green spit hadn't landed far, the patch of ground it hit was scorched completely yellow.
This was merely a low-level dark creature, yet it gave Lixiang a jolt, reminding him of the rabid stray dogs he used to see when he was a child. The only reason they looked so pathetic right now was that a single slime was usually attacked by four or five people at the same time.
"Let's go, let's find somewhere else. There are too many people here," Yueseyiran said impatiently, noticing a few more players waiting under the trees.
Lixiang nodded. No matter where they went, there were people everywhere, but they eventually found a relatively deserted corner just outside Sun City. Most of the monsters spawning here were already Level Ten Soul-Rending Spiders. These spiders possessed formidable attack power and high defense, and novices like Lixiang would essentially be killed instantly upon encountering them.
"Whoosh!" Lixiang raised his staff and directly hit a slime hopping toward them with a Holy Light Strike. His solemn expression made Yueseyiran chuckle softly.
-275!
Lixiang checked his damage and was quite satisfied. Even Yueseyiran at Level Eight only dealt around 290 points of damage.
Having two Priests in a party was definitely unusual, but their efficiency was still quite impressive, and they didn't even need to use any potions. Yueseyiran's level was already high enough to party with others to hunt much stronger monsters.
-275!
-270!
Yueseyiran glanced at the slime that Lixiang had knocked back and reminded him, "A Priest's primary role is healing and restoring HP and MP. Skill points are very precious in this game, so don't spend them randomly."
Lixiang nodded, though his staff kept firing off Holy Light Strike after Holy Light Strike.
"Holy Light Strike is just a basic skill; you shouldn't waste all your skill points on it. Good thing you haven't put too many into it, though. When you level up in the future, put all your skill points into Healing Art—that will make it much easier to form parties." Yueseyiran was somewhat displeased with Lixiang's attitude. The effectiveness of Lixiang's attacks clearly indicated that he had poured all four of his skill points into Holy Light Strike; otherwise, relying solely on his Level Four Intelligence, it would have been utterly impossible to deal damage and attack at a speed comparable to her own. Yueseyiran, by contrast, had only invested two points into her Holy Light Strike.
At that moment, Lixiang also asked Yueseyiran about her attributes and her Holy Light skill. Although his face remained expressionless, his mind immediately began to analyze the information.
Intelligence was unquestionably paramount. The amount of Intelligence could even determine the potency of skills enhanced by skill points. This meant that for two Level Ten Priests with the exact same ten points invested in Holy Light Strike, the one with higher Intelligence would undoubtedly deal stronger damage than the one with lower Intelligence. Although the exact calculation formula couldn't be figured out just yet, a formula definitely existed.
Second was that book on the Path of Holy Light; it could truly be considered a heaven-defying existence. Even though the minor attribute boost wasn't obvious yet given Lixiang's low level, a mere single point invested in Holy Light Strike was already able to rival Yueseyiran, who was Level Eight and had invested two points into it.
"Watch out!" Lixiang suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.
The slimes ahead, which had been hopping around normally, suddenly doubled in number. Moreover, every single one of them was moving at extreme speeds, jumping higher and farther as they charged toward the two of them with wild frenzy.
"They're just a dozen or so slimes, it's fine." Relying on her high level, Yueseyiran wasn't the least bit worried; in fact, she was thrilled to see so many slimes appear at once.
Spit! Spit! Spit-spit!
Countless disgusting globs of mucus came flying through the air. Lixiang had been prepared and took two steps back, his staff pausing briefly with every cast of Holy Light Strike. He noticed that Yueseyiran was standing far too close to the front.
Ah!
Yueseyiran let out a piercing scream, her face turning deathly pale. A massive red damage figure of -570 appeared above her head. Right in front of her, a slime was relentlessly pounding away at her body with its own.
Lixiang hurriedly cast a Healing Art on Yueseyiran.
By this time, Yueseyiran's health pool was plummeting in huge chunks, and even Lixiang's immensely powerful Healing Art couldn't keep up with that rate of depletion.
"Why aren't you running?!" Lixiang roared anxiously from the back. Yueseyiran was panicking completely, frantically gulping down her dwindling supply of minor red potions while spamming Healing Art on herself. Only upon hearing Lixiang's voice did she snap back to her senses.
Lixiang shot a Holy Light at that specific slime and called out, "Clear out the surrounding slimes first!"
Although this slime was only slightly larger than the others, it had a title floating above its head: "Slime Squad Leader · Elite".
Monsters were divided into many tiers: Normal, Elite, Boss, and Overlord.
Given that kind of offensive power, Lixiang had initially thought a Boss had spawned. Now he realized it was merely a slime of a higher tier. But if a mere Elite was already this formidable, what must the final Boss be like?
Holy Light Strike!
A ball of white light the size of a fist was shoved directly into the slime's mouth. The intensified force knocked the slime's body right out of midair, and the sheer power of the light even scorched green fluid out from the creature's gaping maw.
Roar! Lixiang could actually feel the oppressive, violent aura radiating from the enraged slime. It didn't look like a slime at all; it resembled a small demon.
With a spit, a glob of green liquid landed squarely on his clothes.
The white fabric was instantly melted through, leaving a large hole. At the same time, the spot where the liquid hit felt as though someone had pressed a hot clothes iron firmly against his skin—a burning, agonizing sensation. Now he finally understood why Yueseyiran had screamed earlier.
Lixiang had originally thought that a game set to five percent pain perception wouldn't be a big deal, but now he realized he had overestimated himself. This miserable sensation was no better than being bitten by a dog.
"Heartless Parting, it's coming toward you, run!" Having recovered somewhat, Yueseyiran felt deeply embarrassed recalling her panicked state just moments ago. For reasons unknown, she suddenly felt concerned for Heartless Parting. Seeing the vicious, terrifying slime, she immediately shouted a warning. She was safe for the moment, but she had retreated out of combat range.
In contrast, a boundless, wise light flashed in Lixiang's eyes, just like the moment he grasped the solution while cracking a difficult problem.
He already knew the slime's attack speed and movement speed, as well as his own. Without moving an inch, his expression resolute, Lixiang steadily held his staff aloft and attacked it strike by strike.
Watching Lixiang, Yueseyiran felt deeply moved. It was obvious that Lixiang had stood in front of her to take the brunt of the danger because he was afraid she would get hurt. Even though Heartless Parting looked somewhat frail and scholarly, his backbone seemed no less impressive than her older brother's. Especially since Lixiang was only Level Four—to remain this calm and refuse to take a single step back was incredible.
Little did she know, Lixiang wasn't considering her at all; he had simply calculated that he possessed the capability to slay this slime. In particular, Lixiang was already mapping out the slime's jumping trajectories and his own path of retreat.
The result of this calculation was simple: the moment the slime leaped up, a white ball of light would strike it directly, forcing it to drop back down. If it jumped, Lixiang knocked it down; if it didn't jump and tried to spit instead, its short stature meant its attacks could only barely reach Lixiang's feet.
After a few rounds of this, even Yueseyiran began to see the trick to it. "Heartless Parting, I never expected you to be a micro-management pro player."
"Yeah, pretty much. Just getting some practice in. Besides, even if it spat on me, I wouldn't die from it," Lixiang replied. By now, he was feeling a great deal of a sense of accomplishment, especially being praised by a beauty right by his side. This feeling was even more satisfying than being praised by a teacher.
Although Yueseyiran still felt it was a pity that Lixiang had invested all four skill points into Holy Light Strike, watching his positioning made her feel that his future development might lean toward a Violent Priest—a concept that had been proposed on the forums.
Every now and then, additional slimes spawned around them, all of which were easily cleaned up by Yueseyiran. Meanwhile, the surrounding players had taken notice of Lixiang constantly attacking a single mob, which immediately drew their attention.
Lixiang instantly felt a surge of intense anger. What kind of people were these? Not only did they steal kills, but now they were eyeing the Elite he had been fighting for ages!
The moment those players saw the word "Elite," their eyes lit up instantly. Four or five of them immediately launched an attack. Lixiang noticed in particular a girl named Yanwu Xiaomei; instead of attacking the slime, she raised her staff and aimed it right at him.
After gesturing with it for a moment, Yanwu Xiaomei muttered, "Can't do it, it's just a novice who hasn't even hit level ten."
These players were already Level Thirteen or Fourteen, routinely farming the surrounding Soul-Rending Spiders. Smashing a slime to pieces would take them only a few hits. However, they also knew that Lixiang had been fighting this slime for a while; if the accumulated damage he dealt exceeded theirs, then even if they landed the final blow, the ownership of the dropped loot would still belong to Lixiang. Therefore, this female mage named Yanwu Xiaomei had been assigned the task of eliminating Lixiang.
"You want to kill me?" Lixiang realized instantly—this girl simply wanted to murder him and steal his loot.
"Forget it." With a complex expression, Yueseyiran tugged at Lixiang's sleeve. She had heard of Yanwu Xiaomei; the girl was ranked in the top one thousand of the leaderboards, and seemed to know her brother and his friends.
Yanwu Xiaomei cast a dismissive glance at Lixiang, her look clearly conveying: So what if I kill you?
"Fine. Even though you're a girl, I will definitely kill you in the future." Although this was just a game, Yanwu Xiaomei's actions were completely unacceptable to someone who had just stepped into the gaming world. In Lixiang's mind, this wasn't as simple as stealing a mob; someone was attempting to murder him, making her a mortal enemy.
He had to admit that Lixiang took playing games just as seriously as he did his studies.
Lixiang quickly spotted a piece of equipment lying quietly beneath the slime's remains. It was a pair of shoes that looked just like the straw sandals he'd seen at the night market—crude and practically identical to slippers.
Still, equipment drops in this game were exceptionally rare; even Elites didn't necessarily drop gear every single time.
Lixiang slowly walked over. A tall warrior leaning on a greatsword looked at Lixiang coldly, feeling extremely depressed because he felt certain he had whittled that slime's health down past the halfway mark.
"Yueseyiran, these are pretty good. They actually add one percent movement speed and ten points of health," Lixiang said, picking them up to take a look. Although it was a white-tier, lowest-level piece of equipment, it was still the first item he had ever looted with his own hands.
Looking at the shoes traded over to her, Yueseyiran smiled and said, "You should keep them. I'm already grateful enough that you accompanied me to do quests, and besides, these shoes look way too ugly anyway."
Both of them were still quite excited; after all, scoring an equipment drop was something worth celebrating. Neither of them paid any more attention to that group of players.
"Kid, big brother will be waiting for you past level ten," the warrior said before he and the others turned and walked away, wearing cold, mocking, and disgruntled expressions.
Once the group had departed, Yueseyiran immediately put away her staff and said to Lixiang, "Wuxin, those people are all Level Twelve or Thirteen. You need to be careful from now on."
More slimes were beginning to bounce around them again. Lixiang fought as he replied, "Them? Heh, no matter how high their level is, it doesn't mean much."
Seeing Lixiang's attitude, Yueseyiran suddenly felt a weight lift from her heart. "That's right, why should we be afraid of them? At worst, we'll just have Heartless Parting join my brother's guild." A smile returned to her face.
"Walking in these shoes really feels different," Lixiang muttered, taking a few steps while fighting monsters. His curious expression made Yueseyiran roll her eyes. Just a moment ago, she had regarded him as a mental fortitude and micro-management expert, so how had he reverted to this attitude in the blink of an eye?