Chapter 25
NPCs, like players, also have personal levels. Each time they level up, their base attributes and health points increase. For the villagers in the territory, the groups that need to level up the most are primarily combat professions and practitioners.
Combat professions are straightforward; their strength is directly tied to their combat power. Practitioners, on the other hand, often have minimum level requirements for many advanced professions. Although practitioners can gain experience through proficiency to level up, they are significantly slower than players when it comes to monster hunting. Moreover, practitioners with low levels cannot craft high-level items.
For instance, if Ye Bai were to hand over the Ragehorn Beast hide in her backpack to a practitioner with a level below 5 in [Tailoring], they wouldn’t be able to handle it due to their insufficient strength attribute, which prevents them from working with high-grade leather.
So, when such a good opportunity arose, Ye Bai decided to bring along four NPCs she was preparing to level up to gain experience.
Although Roman wasn’t a special talent, Ye Bai had previously sent him to explore the surrounding territory, which had already unlocked the experience progress bar for his ‘Exploration’ ability. In the future, he could develop into either an [Explorer] or a [Sentinel], and leveling up would enhance his survival skills in the wild.
As for why only four villagers could receive this honor… it was because the village had only five bows obtained after unlocking [Hunting]. After setting aside the one Ye Bai needed, there were just enough for four villagers.
Villagers equipped with weapons would be classified as [Temporary Militia] of the territory, allowing them to share experience from kills. Otherwise, they would remain in their unarmed state, and if any unexpected situations arose, the risk for unarmed villagers encountering danger would significantly increase.
“Thud, thud, thud…”
The furious brown bear approached with heavy footsteps, its speed not matching its fierce demeanor.
The previous traps had already taken nearly a quarter of its health, along with a continuous bleeding effect that drained 30 health points per second, and a slow effect that reduced its movement speed by 60%.
At the same time, due to the close proximity to the scent of the Creation Tree, the elite brown bear received a special buff:
[Berserk]: Damage dealt increased by 100%; damage taken increased by 100%.
Since the traps triggered fixed damage, under this effect, the bleeding from the traps increased from the original 30 health points to 60 points per second.
At this moment, any attack on the brown bear would deal double damage, and conversely, the bear’s attacks would also be doubled.
To deal with a berserk brown bear, the most effective strategy was to use high-damage attacks.
So, as soon as the bear entered Ye Bai’s attack range, she kept her bow drawn.
This wasn’t just for show; after unlocking [Crafty Hands], she gained more ways to use basic weapons. Aside from the shield’s blocking skill, most offensive weapons were essentially [Charged Attacks].
The greatest advantage of charged attacks is that the final damage is determined by the duration of the charge.
Among all the charged skills at this stage, Ye Bai found the bow’s charged attack to be the most useful. Charging requires certain conditions: first, the enemy must be within the weapon’s attack range, and second, the body cannot move while charging. Compared to other melee weapons, the bow, as a ranged weapon, had an absolute advantage.
However, this tactic wasn’t invincible. When the enemy was targeted by a charged bow, they could sense it, and the detection range depended on the level difference between the two. Generally, it created an awkward situation where “attacking low-level monsters doesn’t require stealth, but charging at high-level monsters while standing still is tantamount to suicide.” Essentially, the archer could best exert their combat power only when someone else had drawn the aggro first.
Although no one was currently drawing aggro for Ye Bai, in this special context of leveling up the territory, the effect wouldn’t be too different.
From the moment the brown bear appeared, Ye Bai had been charging her shot!
The bear lumbered toward the Creation Tree, closing the distance—one hundred meters, fifty meters, thirty meters… As it approached within twenty meters, Ye Bai still held her arrow.
The four villagers beside her were tense, their toes curling: “My lord!!”
At this distance, they could almost smell the bear’s blood and musk… Oh, not almost; they could definitely smell it!
Ye Bai kept her eyes on the bear’s health bar. As it approached, its health had dropped from over 3,000 to below 2,000, now at 1,860.
Just as the bear was within ten meters of them, Ye Bai finally spoke: “Carly, go!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Carly, who had been prepared, took an item from her hand and blew into it.
“Woo—!”
[Ragehorn]
Attributes: Item
Level: Legendary
Effect—Dragon’s Might: Causes a dispelling effect on beast-type creatures within 500 meters; inflicts a ‘Dread’ effect on enemy units within 50 meters—during the Dread, enemy units cannot attack or move. The duration of Dread depends on the level difference between the user and the enemy unit. During Dread, living creatures take 80% more damage, while non-living creatures take 20% more damage.
Consumption: 100 spirit energy or stamina
Remaining uses: 4/5
This was the material Ye Bai obtained from the Nightmare dungeon boss, the Ragehorn Beast—specifically, the horn on its head.
The Dragon’s Might effect exists because the Ragehorn Beast evolves into the [Ragehorn Dragon] upon reaching level 20. In the fantasy world’s lore, any creature with ‘Dragon’ in its name is not to be trifled with.
The Ragehorn’s horn, which is a guaranteed drop, embodies the essence of the beast, and the horn at the level 20 transformation stage already carries dragon-related effects.
If it were the horn of a higher-level Ragehorn Dragon, both the number of uses and the effects would be enhanced.
With this item, a lord in the early stages of territory upgrades would generally not face significant danger. The monsters encountered during the initial territory upgrades are mostly local beasts, and the ‘dispelling’ effect is a perfect counter.
At this distance, with Carly at level 40 using the Ragehorn, the brown bear, due to the level difference, was subjected to a full 22 seconds of the [Dread] effect!
Among the villagers, Carly was the only one suited to use this item, not only because she was the highest level but also because others would need to expend stamina to use it, while she had spirit energy.
“20, 19… 4, 3, 2, 1!”
Ye Bai counted down, still charging her shot from ten meters away, holding it until the very last second of the Dread effect.
“Whoosh!”
-1540!
With a thunderous crash, the massive body fell heavily to the ground. A level 15 character dealt damage that shouldn’t have been possible with a regular longbow, a single shot that pierced through.
This was the quadrupled damage from the berserk state and the Dread effect, combined with the damage achieved through prolonged charging.
As for the accuracy issue?
Ye Bai effortlessly retrieved her bow… within ten meters, who wouldn’t have the confidence to hit their mark every time?
At that moment, the battle was declared over. In today’s fight, Ye Bai was the damage dealer, Carly controlled the battlefield, and the four villagers served as the atmosphere group, gaining experience.
“My lord! Miss Carly! You were amazing!”
“Oh my gosh! My heart was racing just now!”
Ye Bai smiled, opened the territory panel, and saw that Carly, being too high-level, didn’t gain much. However, the four villagers all leveled up to level 5, and as the main damage dealer, Ye Bai’s experience pool increased the most, enough to level her up to 17.
A morning star lit up in the sky, signaling the end of the night. The flowers on the Creation Tree quickly withered, falling to the ground and turning to nothingness, causing the territory’s control range to expand from 600 meters to 700 meters.
Villagers who had been hiding in their homes began to emerge, discovering that the territory was unscathed, with fresh beast corpses scattered everywhere. For a moment, the entire Baiye Village was immersed in the joy of harvest.
Ye Bai didn’t touch the beast corpses but instructed the villagers to gather them and send them to the hunter’s cabin where Sean worked.
In dungeons, monsters killed by players would have their bodies disappear, turning into various collectible standard drops that entered the player’s backpack. However, in a non-dungeon environment, after killing beast-type creatures, players could choose whether to expend stamina to use the life skill [Skinning] each time they approached a corpse. The quality of the meat and leather drops would depend on the proficiency of the skinning skill.
As the lord, players also had an additional option—to let the NPC villagers in the territory handle the corpses.
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