...

Swoosh!

Shin appeared in the middle of his room at the Mayor's Residence of Calderock Town. And the moment he materialized at that spot, the first thing that he did was to take a look at his surroundings before checking out equipments that he was currently wearing and the items inside his inventory space.

"Seems like everything is fine," muttered Shin before walking out of the room. And of course, he switched the current equipments that he was currently wearing with his other set. This time, he was going to use his other identity.

Considering the conversation that he had with Arthur earlier, he could use an alias to register on the Shadow Ranking Cup.

And based on the quality of the players that Arthur had mentioned, it was better for him to use the 'Nameless Swordsman' persona; especially that the skill set that he had for this identity was quite solid.

Moreover, all of the Legacy Skills in his arsenal were usable for this identity; it was a 'Magic Swordsman' identity after all.

"Alright, everything seemed so fine now. I guess it is time to do some warm up for my new set of skills," muttered Shin to himself as he thought about what he was going to do next. "Hmm… From what Arthur had said, it would be better if I get my Awakening Skills before the Shadow Ranking Cup can start."

Then he paused for a moment to take a look at his experience bar before continuing. "But first, I need to grind two more levels before I use the Experience Coupons that give me extra levels."

After that, Shin walked out of the town to look for a good grinding spot for levels.

...

Thud!

A giant racoon fell lifelessly on the ground with a loud. In front it stood a hooded figure while holding a pair of swords in each of his hands; and this person was obviously Shin, who had gone into mountains to look for a good leveling spot.

Shin took a look at his experience bar and saw that it was only filled with 75% experience points despite grinding here for almost a day already. He clicked his tongue and muttered to himself. "Tsk! I guess leveling up is really like hell once you get past the level-100 mark."

Then he released a helpless sigh and added. "I wish the Holy City would get more events like the last one that took place. Those kinds of events are like Heaven for a player just like me."

After that, he took a seat on a nearby boulder before opening the online forum of the game while mumbling. "Looks like I need to look for a more decent leveling spot so that I can level up faster. But I also guess that is easier to say than done since there are very few high-level maps that are discovered around this City."

While he was browsing in the forums, he came across a leveling map that caught his interest. "Wild Blue Forest? Hmm… This one look interesting. Let's see what are the monsters and the drops that they give in this place."

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Wild Blue Forest – a newly discovered map that was good for high-leveled players.

Average Level of the monster present: 125-140

Monster types present on the map:

-Blue Demon Bird

-Azure Flame Lizard

-Forest Demon

-Sapphire-eyed Serpent

Known Item drops (aside from the material that can be harvested from monsters):

· Azure Demon Set (Level 125 Four-piece Platinum Equipment Set)

· Blue Dragon Twin Blades (Level 130 Weapon Set)

· Heart of Abyss (Special Material drop by the Boss monsters)

The others were still unknown.

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"Well, well Look at what we have here. I did not expect that the place where I can find the material that I am looking for is just nearby. Looks like I am in luck this time," muttered Shin to himself while stroking his chin.

After that, Shin hopped down from the boulder that he was sitting before summoning Whitie. Then he mounted on his pet's black before rushing towards the direction of the 'Wild Blue Forest'.

It took Shin a whole hour before he arrived at the map; it was because the location of the map was quite far from the previous map that he was farming earlier. And when he arrived at his destination, he was immediately greeted by a bunch of groups of players coming on this place.

"Eh!? Now this is a problem. Due to the last event, there are a lot of players that managed to get past the level-100 mark. And because of the same reason, there are also quite a number of players grinding in high-leveled maps such as this one," muttered Shin to himself as he realized his mistake.

He then clicked his tongue and added. "Tch! Looks like leveling here is quite troublesome. I guess I need to go a little deeper on his map, where there are few players grinding for levels."

After that, dismounted from the back of his pet before unsummoning it. Then he started walking towards the deeper part of the map.

And as he walked further from the main leveling spots, the number of players that he encountered were turning less, just like what he had expected. But at the same time, the number of monsters along the way were also becoming fewer and fewer.

...

"Tsk! Looks like these spots are not good for grinding levels. From what I have seen so far, the previous spots are the best even though there are a lot of players present on those spots to grind," muttered Shin as he killed yet another monster.

He took a deep breath and looked ahead before saying to himself. "Let's move further ahead, if I still encounter a few numbers of monsters in there, then I guess moving on the nearby map is not a bad idea."

Just like that, Shin continued at moving forward while killing more monsters along the way. And he kept saying that he was going to go on another map if he encountered a few monsters, but he actually stayed on this place for 5 more hours in the end.

It was because the monsters that he encountered so far gave Shin a decent amount of experience points even if they were quite few in numbers. And it was majority due to them being level-150 monsters with Special Elite Ranks. From time to time, he also encountered some monsters that were in Chieftain Rank.

This also meant that he was already quite far from the usual spots of the Wild Blue Forest Map; especially that the monsters on this area had higher levels than the monsters from the known leveling spots.

Given that, he already filled the required experience points to reach the Level-118 mark together with 15% extra experience points to reach his target, which was to hit level-119 before the end of the day.

At the same time, Shin also got quite a number of decent equipment while grinding in the area. Most of them were parts of the Azure Demon Set that was quite famous in this leveling map; he managed to get 5 full-sets in total. And Even if he couldn't find the pair of [Blue Dragon Twin Blades], he at least found 3 out of 5 'Heart of Abyss' that he needed while grinding.

Shin took a little break to figure out his next moves. "Hmm… with this, reaching my original goal might be a little more troublesome than what I have expatiate."

"Hunting a single monster at a time consumes a considerable amount of time and stamina. And even if they give quite a decent amount of EXP and some good items, I am still not sure whether I can hit level-119 at the end of this day or not (In-game time)."

"Even with the help of my Clones to grind more levels, it seems to be not enough. Moreover, I can't summon my Reaper's Retainers since they are in the middle of assimilating with the new strengths that they got when I crossed the Level-115 mark."

Then he paused for a moment before adding. "What's more, I also need to end the Awakening Quest before the end of the other day at most. And based on what Arthur had said, even if that quest is just a duel with my mirror image, it will at least take 12 hours to finish before I can clear that special quest."

"Tsk! This is becoming a drag as more time goes by," complained Shin as he reached this point.

Then he released yet another helpless sigh of the day before proceeding to grind more levels. "Alright! Let's work a little harder and see if I can reach my current goal at the target time."

With that, he resumed hunting more monsters in the vicinity. And even if he was already familiar with the monsters in this area, it still took him almost 12 hours just to fill his experience bar with an additional 50% EXP.

Hou~

"Alright! At this rate, I can at least hit my target Level a little earlier than what I am expecting," cheered Shin as he took a look at his status bar.

He was about to go back at hunting when he suddenly heard a very loud roar of a monster from a distance.

ROAR!

Shin suddenly halted his tracks when he heard the roar, and turned his head at the direction where it was coming from. And when he heard yet another roar, his lips couldn't help but curve upwards. "What a great timing! Let's see what we got here."

After that, he started running towards the direction of the roar with an evil grin under his mask.

...…