Chapter 18 Leveling up the Arcane Sprite

Nie Yan led two Bone Kodos, clearing the surrounding respawning Bone Kodos while occasionally using the Undead Sacrifice skill, trying to continue summoning Bone Kodos. Obviously, the success rate was very low, but there was no harm in trying.

Since Bone Kodos didn't respawn in groups but were scattered around, Nie Yan crushed everything in his path with his two Bone Kodos, killing over a dozen. He actually managed to summon another one.

Three Bone Kodos would be enough to meet the requirements of this mission.

Tang Yao was completely stunned by the three Bone Kodo summons.

"How much experience do you have now?" Nie Yan asked.

"57%."

"You'll level up soon. I have something to do later. Once you reach level eight, turn on experience sharing and let the Arcane Sprite have it all! I'll get the Arcane Sprite to level two, and then I'll find a good leveling spot for you," Nie Yan said. Leveling the Arcane Sprite from one to two was quite easy, but from two to three required a hundred times more experience, and three to four or four to five was even more ridiculous. That was why Arcane Sprites were so difficult to raise.

"Okay," Tang Yao nodded. Although he wanted to level up a few more times, he didn't want to bother Nie Yan since he had things to do. There would be plenty of opportunities to level up together in the future. Leveling up with Nie Yan was just too awesome.

"Where am I supposed to level up?" Tang Yao asked in surprise. With his strength, leveling up here would be suicide.

"There's an area to the east where level 19 Skeleton Soldiers spawn. You can level up there. I'll take you there later and you'll see," Nie Yan said.

Tang Yao was a bit puzzled. Could he really handle level 19 Skeleton Soldiers at his level? But since Nie Yan said so, there must be a reason.

Nie Yan charged around with his three Bone Kodos, sweeping everything along the way. After a while, he got a system notification and leveled up as well.

Level 10 was the perfect time to allocate attribute points. Nie Yan opened his character stats, which showed seven free attribute points and two free skill points.

In order to wear the Sogoth Shadow Boots as soon as possible, Nie Yan unhesitatingly put all seven attribute points into Strength.

Looking at his Strength, it was now at 53 points. 130 points seemed far away, but it was actually within reach. He had many ways to increase his Strength. The reason he chose to get the Chapter of Freedom earlier was because it added a lot of Strength. It would be so cool to wear the Sogoth Shadows.

As for the two free skill points, Nie Yan put one into Intermediate Shooting and the other into Novice Dexterity. Intermediate Shooting would allow the Thief to deal more damage when using crossbows, with a 1% chance of armor penetration. Novice Dexterity would allow the Thief to switch between different dagger attack modes nimbly, backhand, forehand, and the like, increasing damage by 2%. It also provided an additional bonus to the Steal skill.

The Steal skill was a way for Thieves to increase their income, but it wasn't very useful for leveling up in Nie Yan's opinion. However, there were a few interesting quests related to the Steal skill, which were exclusive to Thieves, and the rewards were top-quality items for Thieves. The quest rewards were so generous that most Thieves would be envious. Once Nie Yan obtained the Chapter of Freedom, he could do them.

Since he got two free skill points every five levels, Nie Yan's skill point allocation was relatively arbitrary. As long as the skill was useful, he would put a point into it.

After a while, Tang Yao reached level eight and turned on experience sharing, giving it all to the Arcane Sprite.

The Arcane Sprite's experience bar skyrocketed.

The number of Undead respawn areas in Calore City wasn't very large. Once they reached level 20 or 30, there wouldn't be any suitable Undead grinding areas. If he could raise the Arcane Sprite now and have Tang Yao increase his arcane damage, learn a lot of high-damage arcane magic, the output of an Arcane Mage with an Arcane Sprite would be terrifying, and leveling would definitely be fast.

Nie Yan took Tang Yao to grind for almost half an hour, and the Arcane Sprite finally reached level two. Leveling from one to two was very simple, but leveling from two to three would be difficult.

"What are the Arcane Sprite's stats now?" Nie Yan asked Tang Yao.

"Magic recovery speed +300%, magic cooldown time -40%, magic casting time -40%, spell damage +10%, ignore monster level difference +2." Tang Yao paused when he read the last stat.

"Good, that's it! Ignore monster level +2, so you should be able to handle level 19 Skeleton Soldiers," Nie Yan said. The reason he wanted to help Tang Yao get the Arcane Sprite to level two before letting him grind alone was for this reason.

So Nie Yan had already planned it all out.

He led Tang Yao eastwards, towards a series of rolling sand dunes with many Skeleton Soldiers roaming below.

"I'll send you up the sand dune. You can level up there. Don't come down, the Skeleton Soldiers won't be able to attack you," Nie Yan said. Skeletons had poor mobility and couldn't climb sand dunes. "Leveling up there will be no slower than leveling up with me. You can level up a few more times there, but it's best to give all the experience to the Arcane Sprite first, after all, the Arcane Sprite is too important for you. Those Skeleton Soldiers are level 19, and you're only level 8. Leveling up against monsters 11 levels higher will grant a terrifying amount of experience. The experience bonus caused by the level difference will also be directly added to the Arcane Sprite. After grinding for three days, your Arcane Sprite will be able to advance."

The Arcane Sprite's method of gaining experience was slightly different from that of players. Leveling up against higher-level monsters was the fastest way to level up the Arcane Sprite. If he leveled up the Arcane Sprite like an ordinary player, even if he shared all the experience with the Arcane Sprite, it would take at least a month to level up, and it was hard to say what would happen during that month.

In his past life, someone used a similar method to grind for a month and get the Arcane Sprite to level four. But when leveling from four to five, no matter how much they grinded, they couldn't level up, because when leveling from four to five, the Arcane Sprite needed PK value, not grinding experience.

However, most of the Arcane Sprites that were grinded out were eventually killed by the Arcane Mages' enemies. Those who walk by the riverbank often get their shoes wet. Even the strongest people could be ganked or killed.

"This place is not bad. I'll get the Arcane Sprite to level three, and then we can grind together," Tang Yao said. A level two Arcane Sprite already had such strong bonus stats, a level three Arcane Sprite would definitely be even more terrifying.

Ordinary Arcane Mages would only be able to have level three Arcane Sprites at level 40 or 50, or even higher. If he grinded out a level three Arcane Sprite now, it would be like wearing an item that was far ahead of its time, and its power would be quite astonishing.

"You can practice here first. You shouldn't lack mana with the Arcane Sprite. I'm leaving now. Contact me when you want to go back," Nie Yan said. He checked the cooldown time of the Bone Kodos. The first Bone Kodo he summoned only had less than an hour left.

"Okay, don't worry, I'll definitely complete the mission within three days, but don't come looking for me within five days," Tang Yao said. If he could get the Arcane Sprite to level three, he would level up here for a while longer to increase his level.

"Your equipment is a bit behind, but with the Arcane Sprite's spell damage bonus, it's fine to level up to level 15 before getting new equipment. I'm leaving first."

Tang Yao went up the sand dune and started throwing spells at the Skeleton Soldiers below. Most of his spells were single-target skills, and only Meteor Fall had considerable damage, but even so, his leveling speed was still not slow, because he was constantly outputting, never stopping!

Nie Yan said goodbye to Tang Yao and led the three Bone Kodos away.

Nie Yan's figure gradually disappeared into the vast desert. Tang Yao glanced at Nie Yan's back and began to grind non-stop.

He would spend the next three days in this sand dune area.

"Life is lonely," Tang Yao sighed, opened his chat list, and started looking for beauties.

"Hey, beauty, what are you doing?"

"Leveling up."

"Chat with me."

"No time."

"I told you I'm really a master. I'm leveling up in a level 20 grinding map. I'll take you back with me."

"No one believes you." The beauty hung up, and a busy tone came from the voice chat.

Tang Yao smiled bitterly. Why did no one believe him when he told the truth? He continued to click on an avatar, harassing the next beauty. Leveling up, harassing beauties, entertaining himself, and listening to the sound of the Arcane Sprite burbling bubbles next to him, he was quite happy and didn't feel that time was difficult. If he wanted to become a true master, he had to endure loneliness.

Nie Yan gradually entered the Himes Wastelands. The wind carried yellow sand, flying wildly. Almost no plants could survive here.

The sky was as dim as ever, and the monotonous scenery made it difficult to tell the direction.

Nie Yan looked at the coordinates. His memories from his previous life were a bit blurred, but the direction should be right.

After walking for more than ten minutes, Nie Yan finally saw an endless cemetery in the yellow sand, with countless tombstones scattered or broken in the desert, stretching endlessly to the horizon.

This desolate cemetery had experienced countless years, telling the world the loneliness of death.

Looking into the distance, a dilapidated building stood among the tombs in the endless yellow sand. It was the entrance to the underground tomb.

It was the tomb of Abraham the Necromancer, the terrible demon who had once controlled the undead army to rush out of the underground, bringing death, fear, and plague to Greenland. After his body was purified by the Archangel, it was forever sealed in this barren land.

Some Thieves had tried to enter the tomb and steal Abraham's necklace, but they failed and left the Chapter of Freedom in the cemetery.

As Nie Yan tried to approach the tomb area, a dark force spread out little by little in the sky like a ripple. One, two, hundreds, thousands, densely packed Skeletons broke through the soil beside the tombstones and crawled up from the ground.

Endless, all Skeleton Soldiers as far as the eye could see, like a sea.

At this moment, Nie Yan realized what a Skeleton Army was, and he could vaguely imagine the magnificent ancient battlefield.