Chapter 10 - Does Grinding for Levels Not Work

“Young master, young master, you are truly amazing,” Prolusius scampered back to the courtyard beside the ruins of the Warrior Shrine and reported joyfully to Lu Hong, who was leisurely lying on a reclining chair, “Nono really defeated that kid Gunnar, and even mastered Bastion Strike beyond his level.

So, isn’t it true that you’re not only skilled in all the warrior’s skills but also all the knight’s skills?” After Nono’s affair, the old man’s admiration for Lu Hong rose to a new level.

“It’s all trivial stuff.

Just keep it low-key,” Lu Hong said, entirely unruffled.

“Yes, yes, yes, these are all standard operations for the young master,” the old man quickly replied.

“I say, old man, you catch on quick.

Remember, this is basic stuff, don’t exaggerate.”

“This disciple understands!” The old man felt like he had learned something new.

Basic stuff and not exaggerating sounded impressive to him.

“Um, young master, shouldn’t we start training?” After Lu Hong had slept through the day in a daze, the old man carefully offered him a lavish breakfast and asked.

Lu Hong was the treasured son of the Warrior Temple.

He might be a gem, but he also needed training to show his worth!

“Train in what?” Lu Hong asked, puzzled.

There was no training in the Sky Realm game; advancement depended on two paths: automatic meditation when offline or killing monsters to gain experience.

What the old man might be referring to was something like meditation, but Lu Hong’s practice in Sky Realm had always been automatic meditation while offline.

To ask him to meditate by himself?

Sorry, that he could not do.

“It’s about absorbing fighting spirit to accumulate power and break through levels,” said the old man concisely.

“How do you absorb fighting spirit?” Lu Hong followed up.

“Circulate the fighting spirit, then absorb the free energy from the world around us and convert it into fighting spirit.

Master, teaching you this small matter is nothing, just follow my lead.” The old man, seeing his chance to show off, hurriedly explained his insights into training to Lu Hong.

Lu Hong was a die-hard practitioner of real combat.

All this theory from the old man made his head spin: “Wait, wait, is there no other way to level up?”

“There is, but you need to get your hands on an Energy Crystal.

You can directly absorb the energy from it, skipping the conversion process, and it’s very efficient.

However, the thing is, it’s so rare that not even the royal family could afford it.”

“Don’t you know what ‘leveling up through monster hunting’ is?” Lu Hong asked.

“???” The old man was clearly hearing this term for the first time: “What does leveling up through monster hunting mean?”

“It means beating up the monsters, like Demon Beasts, defeating others, don’t you have such methods for leveling up?”

The old man shook his head: “No, never heard of it.

I’ve killed countless enemies on the battlefield and have never seen my level automatically increase.

What you’re saying doesn’t sound credible.”

Could it be that this world did not allow leveling up through monster hunting?

Did he really have to slowly meditate?

In the Sky Realm game Lu Hong played before, leveling up through meditation was indeed slow.

You could meditate automatically offline for seven consecutive days and probably still not level up, but if you dedicated yourself to monster hunting, three days would suffice, at least when at a very low level.

Did he really have to rely on training methods like meditation?

When would he ever level up that way?

No, he had to try whether monster hunting for leveling up was possible or not.

Having traversed to this world, many things resembled the Sky Realm he used to play, but there were also slight differences, such as the dilapidated ruins of the Warrior Shrine not far away.

Despite the old man saying that monster hunting was not viable, Lu Hong still wanted to give it a try.

“Old man, is there a region nearby where low-level Demon Beasts roam?

I want to go monster hunting to level up,” Lu Hong said earnestly.

“Young master, this monster hunting is really…

Seventy kilometers outside the city is the Frostleaf Forest, which is teeming with low-level Demon Beasts.” Seeing the seriousness in Lu Hong’s eyes, the old man’s intended persuasion turned into giving directions.

After all, a little monster hunting wasn’t an issue; it was better to let the young master try than to risk upsetting his mood with abrupt objections.

“Shall we set off then?” Lu Hong stood up, stretched his limbs, picked up the broadsword specially made for him by the old man, and began to stride forward.

“Young master, wait for me!

I’ll find a carriage!” The old man followed behind.

Together, they left Kains Academy.

Meanwhile, atop the green tower of Kains, the beautiful Danni watched as the two of them boarded a carriage and left the city.

Prolusius was an elder of the Prolus family.

Seeing how well this royal elder was treating Tukuru, Danni was somewhat anxious.

Could the old general know about his identity?

But that seemed unlikely; even if he knew about Tukuru’s background, the old general wouldn’t act so favorably towards him.

After some thought, Danni concluded that the old general must have his reasons for being kind to Tukuru, but given the old general’s integrity, she wasn’t too concerned and chose not to pay further attention.

“I…

I…

say…

say…

how…

how…

much…

much…

farther…

far?” Lu Hong gasped.

“Quick…quick…almost…there!” The old man also struggled to reply to Lu Hong, and the reason for that was Lu Hong’s demand for speed.

As a result, the old man ordered the carriage driver to go as fast as possible, so the driver put all his strength into making the carriage run faster than a person on horseback alone.

Consequently, Lu Hong and the little old man inside the carriage were shaken to the point they couldn’t speak a complete sentence.

Finally, they made it through, and Lu Hong swore he would never be so impatient again, especially while riding in a carriage.

“Young Master, we have arrived,” said the little old man as he and Lu Hong got out of the carriage.

Beside the official road, a barrier constructed with magic crystals stood, designed specifically to prevent sudden attacks from Demon Beasts.

“Let’s rest for a bit.

My cheeks hurt.” The constant rattling of his teeth had left Lu Hong quite hurt.

If he had to endure another trip like this, he thought he might have to resort to a liquid diet in the future.

After a good while, the little old man ordered the carriage driver to stand by, and then followed Lu Hong into the Frostleaf Forest.

“Remember not to take action later, definitely don’t.

Otherwise, the experience won’t be mine,” Lu Hong seriously cautioned.

After all, it wasn’t a game, and he wasn’t sure if he was actually teamed up with the little old man.

What if it didn’t count as a team?

Wouldn’t that mean he’d get no experience at all?

“Yes, yes, I’ll just cheer you on with a ‘666’ on the side,” the little old man hastily replied.

“Good, but also remember that if a second-level Demon Beast shows up, I can’t defeat it.

You’ll need to take care of it immediately,” Lu Hong quickly added, having suddenly thought of something.

He was truly worried the little old man would be too stubborn, sticking to not taking action even when faced with a beast they couldn’t beat.

“Young Master, rest assured, I do have that level of perception.

The moment I see you facing something you can’t beat, I’ll take it down immediately.”

“Perfect!” Lu Hong gave the little old man full marks for his response, and so they cheerfully set off.

They set off, continued on their way, kept going, and going.

“Damn it!” Lu Hong slammed his sword to the ground forcefully.

This was unplayable; all the Demon Beasts they encountered along the way were third-level and above, which he simply couldn’t defeat, so the little old man had to flatten them all into dust.

“Young Master, don’t give up.

We will definitely find lower-level Demon Beasts!” the little old man encouraged.

“Are unranked Demon Beasts and first-level ones really so hard to find?” Lu Hong was deeply displeased.

According to the leveling experience from the Sky Infinity game, if transferred over, he would need to kill two hundred unranked Demon Beasts or one hundred first-level ones to level up from a first-level warrior to a second-level one.

Now, it was so hard to find even one; he might as well level up faster with meditation.

“Help!” Suddenly, a woman’s cry for help rang out not far away.

“Save her!” Without a second thought, Lu Hong instructed the little old man, and they both hurried to the scene of the incident.

They saw two third-level Demon Beasts, Great Frost Bears, treating the girl calling for help as a ball, tossing her back and forth in the air gleefully; at least for now, she didn’t seem to be in any life-threatening danger.

“Friends, please save me!” the girl pleaded, clearly not enjoying being tossed around in the air.

“How did a girl like you end up in this Frostleaf Forest?” Seeing the girl was in no immediate danger, Lu Hong, who was about to have the little old man save her, asked curiously.

“Can you please save me first?” the girl asked again.

“First, tell me why.

Otherwise, you might as well keep playing with those bears.”

“I was hunting in the Frostleaf Forest with my brothers and sisters when we encountered a Land Behemoth.

We all got scattered,” the girl explained.

Lu Hong was well aware of the Land Behemoth, a fourth-level Demon Beast, probably one of the top-tier Demon Beasts in this Frostleaf Forest.

After all, it was at the edge of the Imperial City, where the existence of particularly high-level Demon Beasts wasn’t permitted.

But even a fourth-level Demon Beast was comparable to the strength of a base profession at level twelve before a class change.

Presumably, the girl’s brothers and sisters were a group close to max level, who came to play in the Frostleaf Forest and were scattered by the Land Behemoth.

As for this girl, she was clearly a Priestess, without combat power in the early stages, so the bears turned her into a toy.

“Get her down,” Lu Hong said after getting a grasp of the situation, motioning for the little old man to take action.

However, a surprising thing happened.

Just as the little old man prepared to act, the bears seemed to tire of their game and let the girl go, casting a disdainful glance at her and walked off, shaking their behinds.

They seemed unimpressed with the little meat on the girl, deeming her too lean for their teeth and too bothersome to eat, so they left!