Following Tyrell’s comment, the group burst out laughing, unable to hide their amusement.
Russel, now slightly embarrassed, scratched his head as he tried to defend himself.
“Hey, he just looked like he was having a good time. I don’t want to regress into an ape!”
Astaria having finally got her laughter under control explained what likely happened to Russel.
“He probably was not on drugs, you see, since the game immersion is effectively 100%, especially with the maximum pain settings, the thrill of gaining strength so quickly can give you a natural high. Judging by the looks of that guy, he highly values his personal strength and most likely invested all his new skill points into the STR stat, thus producing a ton of dopamine which led to a similar effect to cocaine. Although I can’t explain the pinecone, that one was a bit random.”
With a nod, everyone quickly understood this new revelation, prompting Roxanne to ask a question.
“So, what you are saying is that levelling up quickly can act like a form of drug?”
With a nod, Astaria expanded on her explanation.
“Some people experience this at the beginning, yes. However, as the body gradually gets used to the sensation of stats increasing, along with the fact that the higher a player's stat rises, the less impact the increment will have overall.”
Shaking his head, Tyrell spoke while his expression held a hint of bafflement.
“God damn, this game is seriously nuts. I wonder what other crazy shit will happen.”
With a sigh, Astaria waved her hand dismissing the matter.
“Nothing, for now, I will talk more about it later. Anyway, let’s get back to grinding. If you guys are confident you might be able to grind against higher level goblins, but don’t overestimate yourself as it will just slow down your XP gain per hour or result in time wasted walking back from a respawn point.”
Stretching her arms as Ash walked up to her, she directed her attention to the magic swordsman.
“Ready to go?”
With a thumbs up, Ash answered her, his attitude showing a rare hint of determination.
“I’m good to go. I have gotten used to the goblin's movements and have become a little more proficient with the sword so can cover you from the front if a goblin gets close.”
Hearing Ash’s comments Astaria let out a short laugh as she led him to the depths of Woodspike Forest.
“I appreciate the offer, but at the moment I don’t cast many spells. It would be too costly on my mana given the clearance speed. Just follow and cover me like we usually do.”
Patting her sword hilt to hint to Ash how she would be fighting, they made their way into the depths of the forest where lv 10 goblins could be found as she explained a few tips and offered some warnings to him.
Apart from the goblin boss, the highest-level goblins in the forest were at Lv 10, meaning that they were the most efficient targets to use to level up.
Unfortunately, due to the level difference Astaria had with Ben, it would have only been worth coming here after he had reached Lv 6, and given the travel time between where the different levels of goblins resided, it was more efficient to stay where they were grinding. Thankfully that was no longer an issue, meaning that Ash could receive the full benefit from killing the high-level goblins.
They made their way through the trees, the atmosphere of the forest growing darker as the canopy above them became thicker. The level 10 goblins came in groups of at least 10 making them hard for new players to handle. Their strength and speed were much higher than their lower levelled counterparts, meaning that if you went in unprepared, the goblins would easily kill you.
Thankfully, however, their increased strength was all they had, as their intelligence and the volume of their high-pitched screams remained the same.
After 15 minutes of jogging, they made it to the edge of the central area and could easily see the glow of a campfire.
Astaria, giving Ash a simple glance, started to move forward and unsheathed her weapons in unison with her companion, the action clearly well practised between them. Entering within a short range of the campfire, the 11 goblins that were around the campfire quickly spotted her, picking up their weapons to rush and attack.
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Starting the fight, Astaria swiftly smashed her staff into the ground to cast [Earth Spike], dealing with the first two that came into range before she returned her staff and started her graceful dance decapitating goblins.
Giving a glance back she could see that Ash had been stunned, and stood still staring at her.
She could see that Ash at this point was captivated by the beautiful girl moving around killing the goblins with ease, and was simply watching. it appeared that he suddenly realised that he was not getting any experience notifications which snapped him back to his senses. He readied his sword, swiftly moving behind Astaria to the left, swinging his two-handed great sword up at a goblin that was moving to surround her.
Seeing that Ash’s brain had started to work again, she ignored the goblin that was moving to her left knowing that Ash would dispatch it, and slashed at the next goblin in-front of her, while sidestepping its spear and moving her feet into a position she could easily swing her sword from.
Quickly finishing off the remaining goblins in a similar fashion, Astaria began looting while reading the notification in-front of her.
[Lv 10 -> 11]
[All Attributes +1]
[+5 stat points]
[+1 skill point]
Over the fight, Astaria had accumulated the remaining 68.7% XP she needed to reach Lv 11 and was now 7.2% on her way to reaching Lv 12. She had also gained 29 more skill points, all added to the stock she had already accumulated.
Coming out of her thoughts as Ash walked up to her, she started to loot the next goblin.
“Sorry, I missed some of the XP at the start. Honestly, you looked like you were dancing through those goblins, it was amazing to watch!”
Looking up, Astaria responded with a smug grin.
“Well, due to the way I build my class, I don’t have much strength, so when fighting monsters like this I use my movements to produce more force in my swings, so I guess that is what gives the impression I am dancing.”
Hearing Astaria’s response, Ash nodded, deciding to help her by dragging some of the corpses over to speed the looting process up.
Astaria looted the remaining goblins nearby, then moved towards the next group with Ash close behind as they started running through goblin camps with no restraint. Since Ash was covering her back, she could fight more freely, clearing camps at a speed no new player could hope to manage.
After 3 and a half hours of grinding goblins, the message they were waiting for to let them know that everyone had finally hit Lv 10 came through. Astaria and Ash had managed to kill the absurd number of 798 goblins by running from one camp to another and killing every goblin, each group only taking them a few minutes.
They were able to sustain this pace with the 5 fatigue reduction potions they had both prepared beforehand, maintaining the quick clear time for the entire grind. Astaria had also needed to use 2 mana potions during the grind, her consumption being eased by her new [Mana Heart] skill that couldn’t currently handle the rate she used her limited amount of mana.
The number they killed in this short time was thanks only to the potions that sustained their stamina allowing them to kill without needing to rest, once again proving just how valuable potions were.
Astaria looted the last goblin and then called out to Ash, breathing quite heavily after all the running and fighting.
“The message just came through how are you doing?”
Ash who was leaning on his sword looking slightly less worn out than Astaria, also replied through heavy breathing.
“Ha, finally a chance to take a break. That was way too intense…”
Shaking her head, she walked over and sat on a large tree root nearby.
“What is your XP at now?
Not bothering to find somewhere to sit, Ash just flopped to the ground, lying on his back.
“Lv 16, 77.6%. You?”
With a nod of satisfaction, Astaria replied as she leaned against the tree.
“Lv 16, 79.2%. Congratulations on being the 2 highest ranked player in levels.”
With a light laugh, Ash gave a thumbs up.
“Thanks, although the 0.2% XP per goblin is killing me.”
With a sigh, Astaria inwardly agreed with Ash.
“Just wait till after lv 20 and class awakening at 75. The XP gain slows down quite harshly. At least you now have a lot of skill points, you should have gained over 200 right?”
Sounding quite happy, Ash exclaimed aloud, his voice regaining some energy.
“Yeah, it feels like so much!”
Feeling a bit bad, Astaria poured cold water over Ash’s expectations.
“Well, to max out a regular skill and all its addons takes 200 skill points, so if you want to max out all of your class's pre-awakened skills you will need over 2500 skill points. After class awakening, depending on what you choose, you may require more than an additional 5000. And of course, the XP requirement increases after every 50 you gain.”
Hearing Astaria’s words, Ash raised his head to look at her, his face showing utter dismay. She let out a laugh at his expression, deciding to give him some words of comfort.
“Don’t worry about the details too much. I know all the perfect places to grind, so you should be able to easily max out all of your skills in no time.”
Standing up now she was feeling a little less tired, Astaria walked over to Ash and stretched out her hand. Grasping Ash’s hand, she helps him up.
Dusting off his armour, he looks at Astaria.
“Thanks. Let’s go.”
With their short break over, they sluggishly moved to regroup with everyone else at the edge of the central area of the forest. By the time they all arrived, the sun was starting to set in the distance. Sitting down, everyone was now quite tired so took some time to recover and eat some food.
As everyone was quite tired the conversation was quite sparse, as they took the chance to update their status pages.
Astaria who has gained herself 6 more levels was quite pleased. Remembering back, the highest-level player by the official launch was Lv8. He was a sword instructor of HEMA, Historic European Martial Arts, and had been quite lucky entering the world near an area where Goblins spawn. He apparently managed to find some competent team members and had spent a long-time grinding.
Turning her thoughts back to her status page, she started to read through and update it.