Chapter 58: Successful Taming

Forget it, there’s no use worrying about this unlucky guy for now. Better to focus on grinding monsters and leveling up. Right now, Zhang Shan is carrying four people, so his experience is growing at a snail’s pace, but there’s nothing he can do about it.

He can’t just leave them behind, after all. If he wanders too far off to grind by himself, he’s afraid that Fengyun Tianxia and the others will be swarmed by wild wolves and die in no time. Even though their equipment is pretty decent, fighting level thirty wild wolves is no easier for them than battling a mini-boss. Each kill is a struggle.

It’s only thanks to Wind Chime’s support that they can manage at all; otherwise, they’d be stuck on the sidelines just watching. Without her, the combined efforts of the group probably wouldn’t even match the strength of Zhang Shan’s panda cub.

Hmm?

A beam of light rose from Fengyun Cannon’s body. Zhang Shan thought he’d finally tamed the wolf, but it turned out to be a level-up instead.

“Cannon, you’re shameless—leveling up while lying down,” Secretary quipped.

“Hey, it’s not like I wanted this. I’m not hurting you, am I? Even Artifact Bro hasn’t said a word—what gives you the right? Aren’t you just leeching experience too?”

“Seriously, people who level up while lying down sure are bold.”

“Cannon, hurry up! If I’d known you’d be this unlucky, I wouldn’t have come with you,” Wind Chime complained, clearly frustrated. They’d spent over half an hour running here, and it had taken more than an hour trying to tame the pet, still with no success. Even as a bystander, she was running out of patience.

“Don’t worry, Wind Chime, it’ll be done soon.”

“Could it be because of the level difference? Monsters that are much higher level than players and appear on those maps—maybe the pets are much harder to tame.”

“That must be it. Otherwise, Cannon wouldn’t have been stuck this long.”

“Yeah, even with bad luck, it shouldn’t take this long.”

“Let’s just wait. It’ll work out eventually.”

After another half hour of grinding, Fengyun Cannon suddenly burst out laughing.

“Haha! I finally did it! The cute little wild wolf is finally mine!”

“Pfft, you’ve set a record for the longest taming time. Is that really worth celebrating?”

“So what if it took a while? Good things take time, right?”

“Good things, huh? Are you sure it’s not a trash pet?”

“Share the little wild wolf’s stats so we can see.”

Fengyun Cannon displayed the stats of his newly tamed wild wolf.

Little Wild Wolf (Fengyun Cannon’s pet, unnamed): Level 1, HP 880, Attack 88, Defense 20, Skill: Wolf Clan Talent (Passive).

Wolf Clan Talent: Increases the critical hit rate of all nearby allied units by three percent within a range of fifty yards.

Zhang Shan was a bit stunned by these stats—this was a bona fide aura pet. Its attributes were much lower than his panda cub’s, but the aura was fantastic. When fighting a boss, just release the little wild wolf and everyone’s critical hit rate instantly goes up by three percent. That’s an incredibly powerful buff.

“Damn, an aura pet! What crazy luck,” Secretary said enviously. Even though his class couldn’t have pets, he couldn’t help feeling jealous.

“It’s just so-so. Its stats are way worse than Artifact Bro’s panda, and it only has one skill. Not exactly ideal,” Fengyun Cannon said, though it was obvious he was grinning inside while pretending to complain.

“Yeah right, if you don’t want it, just release it! Stop showing off.”

“Let’s finish up and teleport back to town. We’ve already held up Six Tubes’ leveling for quite a while,” Fengyun Tianxia said. He was proud and hated to take advantage of others. After leeching experience from Zhang Shan for so long, he was probably feeling uncomfortable.

“It’s fine, it didn’t take that long. Getting to level twenty-two takes 1.5 million experience—this little delay is nothing.”

“Ugh, is it already this hard to reach level twenty-two? How are we supposed to level up in the future?”

“Don’t worry about the future—just focus on getting to level twenty first.”

“Let’s go,” Fengyun Tianxia said as he started casting his return spell, with everyone else following suit.

Soon, Zhang Shan was left alone on Wolf Slope, quietly grinding monsters.

Two days later, Zhang Shan reached level twenty-four. As for level twenty-five, now that was a challenge—it required a whopping five million experience. Even with his leveling speed, it would take over a day; for most others, it would be five or six days at least.

Barely past level twenty, and leveling was already this hard? In New World, the level cap was all the way up to one hundred. Would the last few levels require half a year each? The thought was mind-boggling.

It was truly a game meant to be played for the long haul.

By now, quite a few players had already reached level twenty. The top members of their guild were all at least level twenty. But after reaching level twenty, instead of grinding more, they started hunting bosses all over the world.

Zhang Shan didn’t join them for boss fights—it was too time-consuming, and they were mostly targeting purple or orange bosses. They didn’t need him for those; the other guild elites could handle them easily.

Now it was Tuesday, and tomorrow the Demon-Suppressing Platform dungeon attempts would reset. Fengyun Tianxia and his team planned to take another shot at the first floor while they were still level twenty. They hadn’t decided which difficulty to try yet—it depended on how their gear improved over the next couple of days.

Zhang Shan’s level was already too high, so he couldn’t enter the first floor anymore; they’d have to rely on themselves this time. But it shouldn’t be a problem.

Once Secretary hit level twenty, he could swap in a red shield, greatly boosting his health and defense—he’d probably hit nearly thirty thousand HP, a real tank, even stronger than Zhang Shan. The other top players had all upgraded to level twenty equipment, most had orange gear, and a few even had red. Beating the first floor on normal mode would be a breeze for them.

As for the bosses in hard and extreme modes, no one really knew how tough they were yet, so the group was still deliberating.

None of this concerned Zhang Shan much. He could only enter the second floor of the dungeon now, so he planned to level up for a few more days before checking it out alone—just to grind mobs, not to challenge the dungeon boss.

Leveling was the real priority. The second-ranked player on the level leaderboard was about to hit level twenty-two—hot on his heels. That guy, called Flowing With My Heart, must have found some powerful equipment or skills; his leveling speed was almost as fast as Zhang Shan’s. And Zhang Shan had both an artifact weapon and a special spiritual item, with off-the-charts damage output.

In theory, he should be leveling at least twice as fast as everyone else. The world really is full of lucky dogs.

Wait—no, I’m not just lucky. I earned my artifact through skill, not luck. Can’t lump myself in with them.

During his peaceful grinding, Zhang Shan would browse the forums now and then, checking the equipment and level leaderboards. The top ten on the equipment board, apart from his own weapon—Aguru’s Long-barreled Hand Cannon—were all red-grade equipment. In fact, there were already over a hundred pieces of red gear on the entire leaderboard.

Their Fengyun Guild had been pretty lucky, but so had the others. So many players had already gotten their hands on red equipment.