Chương 25: Accumulated Strength Explodes

Attack Range 130. If you went by range alone, Xiao Chen actually counted as a proper boss-level player.

"I've been saving up guild Contribution Points forever. Time to spend them all." Years of grinding -- and he'd only amassed about five or six hundred thousand Contribution Points. Converted, that was roughly five or six hundred gold. Xiao Chen exchanged it all for stat-boosting items. Cheap potions, snacks he'd never tried before -- he sampled everything. Plenty of basic items were surprisingly affordable. He'd just never had the time to hunt them down deliberately.

"You consumed Osmanthus Cake. Constitution +2."

"You consumed Soul-Binding Pill. Spirit +2."

"You consumed Strength Fruit. Strength +3." Six hundred gold for several hundred points of stat gains. Solid value.

"The buildup's pretty much done. Time to push past Lv60." His Soul-Bound Weapon gave a 30% EXP bonus, but he had to share 40% of his EXP with Little Strong. His leveling speed would still be on the slower side.

"Little Strong, you lot go farm Lv40 mobs!" Without a healer, Little Strong's team could at least rack up kill counts. Lv40 mobs dropped decent loot too. Over the course of a day, the coin and materials added up. Xiao Chen, meanwhile, leveraged his extreme attack range to stand still and DPS from a fixed position. A mob of monsters surrounded him, and the HP he lost was replenished by his lifesteal faster than they could burn it down.

"EXP +216, Kill Count +1, Silver Coin +20."

"Power Strike -- 35, 965."

"--17, 693." This explosive damage -- and it was all unbuffed, baseline output. The boost from one Gold equipment piece was terrifying. The effects from his Soul-Bound gear were pretty sick too.

"Once I hit Lv60 and switch to a Silver set, my base damage will easily clear twenty thousand." As long as he wasn't comparing himself to rich kids like Liu Man, Xiao Chen's damage output was seriously eye-catching. Solo EXP -- his leveling speed was faster than ever before.

"Sharpening the axe won't delay the firewood cut. Absolutely true!" Every day his EXP bar skyrocketed. One wave of seven mobs -- a single attack rotation netted over 1, 500 EXP.

"This doesn't even feel like pushing to Lv60. My leveling speed is more like back when I was hitting Lv30." Guild members usually ran Tier-6 dungeon raids. Solo mob grinding like this was rare. Very few people could solo farm. Most needed a party. Xiao Chen's performance was way too flashy to go unnoticed. Even Chen Zhan at Lv90 was curious: "Xiao Chen, where'd you get that lifesteal ability?"

"Boss, you get an Achievement after ten million kills. This is the Achievement reward!"

"Ten million? That's genuinely impressive. Want me to promote you in the guild, make you the poster boy?"

"Hell no, Boss, please don't do me like that." Xiao Chen was used to keeping a low profile. His strength didn't really allow him to go high-profile anyway. People several years younger than him were already in their sixties. His level wasn't anything to write home about.

"Xiao Chen, your summon is Silver Grade now? Public summons rarely get developed to that point. You hit the jackpot recently?" Stolen story; please report. He had, in fact, scored a major windfall. Counting the Gold necklace, make that two windfalls. Of course, Xiao Chen kept it humble: "Accidentally picked up a Lv60 boss."

"Sounds like the guild needs to allocate more resources to you. If you're interested, you can join a high-level boss hunting team." Honestly, Xiao Chen was tempted.

"Thanks, Boss."

"Once you hit Lv60, I'll get you a spot." The "high-level bosses" in Chen Zhan's book had to be Lv70 at minimum, right? Having a team or not didn't matter as much anymore. Xiao Chen could handle plenty on his own. Other Awakened might out-damage him by a fair margin, but at his level, no one could solo Lv50 elite mobs like he could. With extreme attack range, combined with 【Blink】 and his lifesteal, Xiao Chen could now whittle down a Lv50 elite by himself. These abilities worked together.

Remove any one of them, and the whole thing fell apart. As long as he found Lv50 elite mobs, he killed them on sight. The payout from Lv50 elites was solid -- at least a hundred gold per kill, sometimes one or two thousand if luck was on his side. For now, though, his main focus was stationary farming. Once he hit Lv60 and swapped his gear, he'd get another massive power spike. Days and nights of endless mob grinding.

His kill count and EXP climbed fast, and the coin drops weren't bad either -- over a hundred gold per day. While Xiao Chen was grinding away, a bombshell announcement rocked all of Tiannan City. 【Planar Announcement: The Teleportation Array between Tiannan City and Wushuang City has been completed. Wushuang City has now established Teleportation Arrays with ten cities. 】 What did this mean? Everyone could travel through Wushuang City to reach any of the other connected cities.

If one city came under threat, powerhouse Awakened from the other cities could reinforce it. Thanks to this Teleportation Array, Tiannan City's defensive capabilities had been massively enhanced. All eleven cities in the network had top-tier powerhouses stationed within them. Tier-10 raid dungeons already required hundred-player teams. Many cities couldn't tackle Tier-11 or Tier-12 dungeons because they didn't have enough strong fighters.

Now, with so many cities connected, the strongest individuals on this world could finally join forces. Blue Star's top-tier power would experience explosive growth. 【Blue Star Awakened have cleared a Tier-130 dungeon for the first time. All Awakened receive All Stats +10, Gold +100. 】 【The Awakened Qin Haotian has slain a Silver Grade Abyssal Overlord. All Awakened receive Defense +10. 】 【Xiao Yan has led his team to seal a Void Rift. All Awakened in Tiannan City receive All Stats +10.

】 For a while after that, Xiao Chen saw one piece of good news after another, racking up massive rewards. Every Awakened's strength was rising rapidly. The death rate of Awakened outside Tiannan City dropped dramatically. For the first time in the centuries since the Game Invasion, humanity began pushing the front line outward. The progress was slow, but it was an unmistakably positive sign. Xiao Chen had started from the bottom, but he'd actually lucked into good timing.

In an era where Blue Star Awakened were powering up at breakneck speed, his own strength was surging right alongside them. After two straight months of relentless grinding, Xiao Chen finally broke through to Lv60. Every ten levels brought a significant boost, and this was no exception.

"Level +1! All Stats +10, Free Attribute Points +20, Attack Speed +0. 1, Attack Range +10 meters, Base Attack +1, 000." After hitting Lv60, Xiao Chen spent another dozen-plus days farming elite bosses of various levels to scrape together enough gold for a full gear set. This time, it was a Silver set, naturally. Even Little Strong was getting outfitted with a full Lv60 Bronze gear set.

"One Silver piece runs under a thousand gold. After selling my old gear, I'll still need about four thousand." He was more than willing to spend it. He'd dumped tens of thousands not long ago, after all. 【 Radiance Battle Armor -- Silver Grade -- Lv60 Strength +60, Agility +60, Constitution +60, Defense +300, HP +2, 000. 】 The stat bonuses on Lv60 Silver gear were substantial. 【Acquired Radiance Helmet. 】 【 Acquired Radiance Bracers. 】 Six pieces purchased. Xiao Chen was practically a new man.

【 Radiance Set Bonus activated: HP +20, 000, Defense +500. 】 【Xiao Chen: Lv60 (2. 4M EXP) Total Stats: 24, 236 | Attack Power: 26, 006 | HP: 63, 000 | Defense: 2, 725 Attack Range: 120 meters | Attack Speed: 1. 21 | Movement Speed: 23 Skill 1: Sevenfold Shot Skill 2: Armor-Pierce Arrow Lv2 (Damage +20%) Power Strike: 10% chance for double damage. 】 After reaching Lv60, Xiao Chen was far stronger than even he'd predicted.

"This is what accumulated strength exploding looks like." Base attack hitting twenty thousand -- he could go toe-to-toe with a B-Rank Archer now. Twenty-four thousand total stats. That actually put him ahead of rich kids like Liu Man by a considerable margin. With Little Strong's gear upgraded too, his overall power had risen significantly. 【Undead Skeleton: Lv60 -- Silver Grade. HP: 160, 000 | Attack: 12, 001 | Defense: 2, 352 Skill: Summon (Lv4) -- Each clone inherits 40% of base stats.

Advancement Requirement: Undeath Flame (Silver Grade) x2】 【Your level has surpassed 60. Planar Vault reward: Gold +3, 000. 】 Another massive windfall! He'd been nearly broke after buying his gear. Now he had enough to purchase another round of items. He'd already used one of his five Black Iron skill books. Four remaining. Rare extra funds -- might as well grab more skill books. 【Your Attack Range +10. 】 【Multi-Shot +1. 】 【Your Attack Range +10. 】 【Multi-Shot +1. 】 Xiao Chen was used to it by now.

Not getting a new skill was fine. Honestly, these upgrades might be even better for his current build.

"Attack Range 150 meters. Ninefold Shot!" Either one of those abilities would make any Archer green with envy. And for Xiao Chen's farming style, Ninefold Shot was basically broken.