The cries of high-level Corpse Eaters resounded throughout the valley.

"Big bro, look!"

Beiming Xue pointed to a wilted forest, and there, I spotted a Corpse Eater climbing out of the ground. It was covered in black armor, and its front claws were scarily sharp. It was clearly not your common Corpse Eater, but an enhanced one—

Spirit Valley Corpse Eater (Dread)

Level: 202

Attack: 7900~10500

Defense: 8700

HP: 700000

Skills: Corpse Eating, Bloody Bite, Fatal Blow

Introduction: Spirit Valley Corpse Eater is an enhanced version of a Corpse Eater. Corpse Eaters are usually low-level Night Creatures that are deployed as cannon fodder or civilian slaughterers only. However, when Ovia the Bloody Finger cruelly poured molten steel into their bodies to strengthen their physique, he created the incredibly powerful Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters. For hundreds of years, countless human warriors have perished to the sharp teeth of the Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters.

……

"It’s a Level 202 dread-rank mob with pretty high Attack," I said with a smile. "I’ll aggro the mobs. I wanted to check out my current Defense anyway."

Lin Yixin agreed. "Go. But don’t aggro too many of them, okay? It’s not our fault if you get zerged and killed."

"Don’t worry!"

I spurred my mount forward and fired Dragon Slaying Slash at the mob’s head. It immediately turned toward me, let out a furious roar and crawled toward me at a frightening speed!

"Roar roar…"

The Corpse Eater abruptly jumped into the air and tried to swipe me with its sharp claws. Naturally, I raised my left arm to block the attack. The rune that represented the Mark of the Divine Arm abruptly manifested the Bloody Fortress Shield, and I easily blocked both of the mob’s attacks. As my body shuddered a little from the impact, two damage numbers rose above my head—

3783!

4102!

Behind me, Murong Mingyue let out a chuckle and said, "Very impressive Defense! As long as the mobs are physical-based, Level 202 dread-rank mobs are no longer a threat to you!"

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It would be even better if I had a better shield."

"Less dreaming, more fighting!"

"Yeah!"

We swarmed the pitiful Spirit Valley Corpse Eater and killed it in the blink of an eye. It dropped a worthless magic stone as it collapsed to the ground with both its arms chopped off by yours truly, but everyone saw a clear bump on their experience bar. The Spirit Valley Corpse Eater might be a miser, but the experience it carried was absolutely deserving of its level and rank!

"Continue!"

Staring at the distance, Beiming Xue blinked her pretty eyes before saying, "Big bro, there’s a ton of Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters behind the shrubbery over there. In fact, I’m pretty sure there are more than ten thousand of them. Do you want to kill them all before we proceed to the next area? With Sister Lian Xin around, AoE DPS is not a problem!"

I mulled over the suggestion before replying, "It can be done, but we need to find a reliable choke point first. Don’t forget, the Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters have a max Attack of 10500. It might not be able to hurt me much, but you guys are a completely different story. At the very least, we need to find a place where the mobs can’t attack our three backliners directly."

Murong Mingyue nodded in agreement. "Lu Chen is correct. If even he lost 4000 HP with his current Defense, I can’t imagine how much damage Lian Xin and I would take if we were hit directly. 20k? 30k? At any rate, we’ll die the second our spell shields are down."

Lian Xin also said, "Yeah, my American coach told me that there is nothing stupider than engaging an enemy in melee as a mage. Range is our lifeline, he said."

I smiled. "Well, I don’t know. Before I got this class, I was thinking of playing a close combat mage…"

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes and interrupted me before I could continue my nonsense, "Bullshit! Anyway, look over there. That looks like a choke point we can use, right?"

We followed Lin Yixin’s finger and saw a protrusion of rock at the edge of the forest. It was about ten meters tall, and a huge, fallen tree was leaning against its side. The plant had probably been struck by lightning or something. Anyway, the tree and the rock just happened to form a perfect triangle, and since the tree trunk was at least 4 meters tall, there was no way the Corpse Eaters were climbing over the plant to get us. It was about as perfect as a natural choke point could get.

"Mn, that’s a good find, Yiyi."

I shot her an approving smile before ordering, "Lian Xin, sis, Beiming, head inside and wait for my signal. Yiyi, Kris, the Phantom Wolf King and Thunder Beast will form a line at the entrance. Remember to leave a space for me, okay?"

"Ohh!"

The girls obediently walked into the space between the tree trunk and the rock. Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue moved to the back and leaned against the tree. Lian Xin positioned slightly ahead of them because she was the main damage dealer of our party, and to maximize her firepower she couldn’t hide herself in the deepest corner of the choke point. At the front, Lin Yixin and the Moonchaser Tiger, the Thunder Beast and the Phantom Wolf King formed a wall to block the soon-to-arrive Corpse Eaters. The Ice Dragon Kris had also descended from the sky to stand next to her master like an obedient guard dog.

A single space was reserved for me in the defense line. With that done, all that was left to do was to aggro the mobs.

"Give me five minutes. I’ll be back with a sea of Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters very soon, hahaha!"

I left their side and steered the Armored Ice Qilin Horse into the shrubbery. However, when I passed through the branches and leaves, I skidded to a halt and stared at the scene in front of me with a flabbergasted expression. The site in front of me was the biggest boneyard I had ever seen in my life. There were tombstones everywhere, and I spotted human graves, giant carcasses and even exposed dragon bones. More importantly, the place was crawling with Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters!

"Holy fuck, this is… too much, isn’t it?"

My voice was shaking a little. I could confidently say that I had never seen such a thick swarm of mobs in my whole life as a gamer. The red dots on the minimap were so numerous it was like the Corpse Eaters were holding a party, and their screeching howls were terrifying enough to send brave men running. It would actually take a courageous person to even aggro a swarm of mobs this thick, not to mention that the Corpse Eaters had pretty high movement speed. One misstep, and I might be surrounded and slaughtered where I stood.

"Here I come!"

That being said, I had absolute confidence in my control, so I smiled and rushed toward the horde. As I cut through the small trail of space between the Corpse Eaters, the mobs—so sensitive that even those 30 yards away picked up my presence—immediately roared and chased after me.

Clank clank clank…

My mind was as calm as a lake despite galloping atop a floor of bones and surrounded by a sea of mobs. I was able to predict the Corpse Eaters’ positions in my head and plot several steps ahead to avoid being completely surrounded even as I zigzagged through the mobs with inches to spare. Hell, my mount was probably more frightened than I was, judging from its icy breaths and bulging eyes. If it could speak, it would probably say, "Master you sonuvabitch! Are you trying to kill me??"

Three minutes later, a horde of Spirit Valley Corpse Eater like nothing I had ever seen before was chasing behind me. The ground was literally shaking from the concentrated impacts, and my palm was completely covered in sweat. When the time was right, I abruptly turned a corner and led the sea of mobs—there had to be 5000 of them at least—straight toward the tiny choke point. I was more elated than frightened though. If we could take out all these Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters, I was almost certain that we would level up once or twice. In fact, at the end of this main quest, I fully expected even the highest-leveled player among us to level up between 3 to 5 times. Of course, this was assuming that we didn’t die and drop levels along the way, and seeing as our final opponent was Ovia the Bloody Finger, one of the Nine Sovereigns of the Night Creatures, himself, it seemed very unlikely.

……

"Here it comes! Here it comes!" I could hear Beiming Xue laughing from behind the trees.

"Over here, Lu Chen!" Lin Yixin had ridden away from the defense line temporarily to receive me, but when she saw the sea of Corpse Eaters her face turned as white as a paper. "Holy shit, what is this number? What if we can’t beat them?"

I laughed. "You serious, babe? We have damage dealers, tanks and a healer. These Corpse Eaters are really just walking experience bags!"

"Yes, yes. Anyway, get into position already!"

"Mn."

Skid skid! The Moonchaser and Armored Ice Qilin Horse skidded across the ground and "drifted" into our respective positions perfectly. In fact, Lin Yixin and I worked so well together that even Lian Xin couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, "Damn, that’s some smooth moves right there…"

"Here they come!"

The second I turned around, I was met with the pouncing figures of seven to eight Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters at least. They swiped me with their claws and deleted 40k HP from my health pool instantly. Thankfully, Murong Mingyue had cast a Pool of Life beneath our feet beforehand, so there wasn’t even the slightest chance the Corpse Eaters could kill us.

I executed Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo. Lin Yixin used Ice Storm and Ice Flame Slash. Our attacks caused the Spirit Valley Corpse Eaters to scream in pain, but they were nothing compared to Lian Xin’s Dimensional Storm. Like a forbidden spell, it cut into the undead corpses’ flesh and bones like a thousand blades.

"Roar roar roar…"

Two rotations were all it took to kill, no, massacre, the first group of Corpse Eaters. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they were crushed like ants. When our pets joined in on the attack as well, the Corpse Eaters started dying at a symphonious rate. Mobs kept exploding into equipment, magic stones, items and countless streams of experience light, invigorating us even further. At this rate, the Heavenly Ranking of Sky City would be rewritten in 24 hours.