At Lu Ming's current level, he could manually upgrade to level 16 anytime he wanted and head straight to the second floor of the Nether Ghost Tower.
However, before that, he needed to ensure that Lin Youwei also reached level 16 to meet the entry requirements for the second dimension.
Grinding the Nether Ghost Tower was primarily for farming Soul Stones to make money.
If the primary goal shifted from making money to leveling up, then clearly the Nether Ghost Tower was no longer the most suitable place to conquer.
After all, the highest level monsters on the first floor of the Nether Ghost Tower were only level 15.
With Lu Ming's current strength, he could easily slay monsters over level 20, thus gaining higher experience points.
Therefore, Lu Ming took Lin Youwei directly to the level 24-25 wild area north of Starlight City: the Cannibal Ant Nest!
Upon arriving at the Cannibal Ant Nest, they saw an endless expanse of a massive dark nest filled with giant black ants the size of cows, with only a few players scattered around.
The Cannibal Ant Nest was reputed to be the place with the highest density of monsters around Starlight City.
Moreover, according to guides, the monsters inside, the Cannibal Ants, could drop a special item called [Ant Acid]. Collecting Ant Acid and submitting it to the biologist Lilith in Starlight City could earn task rewards!
It's similar in nature to the Soul Stones in the Nether Ghost Tower.
The difference is that Ant Acid is non-tradable and can only be used by oneself.
And the corresponding task can only be submitted once per person, with no repeat submissions.
Thus, unless players were there for the task, they would rather go to the third floor of the Nether Ghost Tower to farm undead, instead of coming here to farm Cannibal Ants.
After all, at the same level, the Soul Stones dropped by the undead in the Nether Ghost Tower could be sold for money, whereas the Ant Acid dropped by the Cannibal Ants had no such value.
"Few people, lots of monsters—it's a paradise for the Undead Legion."
So, Lu Ming immediately formed a team and brought Lin Youwei in.
They stepped into the dark, damp nest.
As expected, two players at only level 15 entering a level 24-25 map immediately drew the attention and suspicion of nearby players.
"What are those two level 15s doing here?"
"Grinding monsters 10 levels higher? That's bold! Even if someone carried me, I wouldn't dare, afraid the monsters would one-shot me! You should at least weigh your own strength before carrying someone!"
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However, the next second, those players mocking Lu Ming were slapped in the face.
Lu Ming chose a spot.
He summoned three hundred Undead Warriors through his thoughts.
At the same time, he planted his longsword into the ground, releasing formations.
War Tread—
Life Barrier—
Two super formations with a radius of a thousand yards instantly enveloped the entire Cannibal Ant Nest.
Following Lu Ming's command, the Undead Warriors began slaying monsters.
Monsters at the level 24-25 stage were still quite strong.
Reconnaissance showed that level 25 Cannibal Ants had over 1000 attack power, 600+ armor, 400+ speed, and 13000+ health points!
Judging by the attributes alone, they were over ten times stronger than the current second-tier Undead Warriors at level 15!
But it didn't affect the Undead Warriors slaying them like chickens.
Although the Undead Warriors themselves only had 47 attack power, with the War Tread buff, their attack power soared to 2979!
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
Within the Shared Vision, four [Soul Shatter] attacks dealt 3462 damage each.
A full-health Cannibal Ant was instantly dismembered by four Undead Warriors!
[Ding~ Killed level 25 Cannibal Ant, experience points +330!]
Compared to the 90 experience points provided by the level 15 undead in the Nether Ghost Tower, it had to be said:
"The experience from these level 25 monsters is really sweet!"
High rewards come with high risks.
Unless it was like just now, where four Undead Warriors simultaneously used Soul Shatter to instantly kill the Cannibal Ant before it noticed.
But in reality, the Cannibal Ants, with speed attributes seven or eight times that of the Undead Warriors, weren't so clumsy as to wait for the Undead Warriors to attack them.
Based on the Shared Vision, Lu Ming could see that more often, nearby Cannibal Ants would suddenly catch the Undead Warriors off guard!
And with their 1000+ attack power, they could easily deal massive four-digit damage to the Undead Warriors!
At this point, Lu Ming's Life Barrier formation played a crucial protective role.
A shield of 1310 points per second granted the Undead Warriors the ability to continuously and effectively withstand the Cannibal Ants' damage.
Otherwise, with the Undead Warriors' own 625 health points, let alone killing Cannibal Ants, they might have already been wiped out!
The slaying speed wasn't as fast as when killing lower-level monsters.
But under the onslaught of three hundred Undead Warriors, the battle notifications in Lu Ming's ears continued without pause.
[Ding~ Killed level 25 Cannibal Ant, experience points +330!]
[Ding~ Killed level 25 Cannibal Ant, experience points +330!]
[Ding...]
Lin Youwei also wanted to kill monsters, but Lu Ming stopped her: "You go pick up the items, stay away from the monsters."
Because even the Undead Warriors, if caught off guard and surrounded by several Cannibal Ants, could easily be one-shot, with no time to stack shields.
Let alone Lin Youwei.
The Undead Warriors could be resummoned if killed.
Lu Ming could be resurrected if killed.
Lin Youwei only had one life!
Fortunately, Lin Youwei was very obedient to Lu Ming. She quickly put away her staff and obediently went to pick up the Ant Acid dropped by the Cannibal Ants.
Grinding higher-level monsters indeed sped up leveling significantly.
According to Lu Ming's original calculations, if they continued grinding on the first floor of the Nether Ghost Tower, it would take Lin Youwei at least four to five hours to reach level 16.
But in the Cannibal Ant Nest, in just under three hours, Lin Youwei leveled up to 16, bathed in golden light!
This didn't even include the Ant Acid collected along the way, which could be submitted back in the city for additional experience rewards.
Meanwhile, Lu Ming's level also reached 16, at 68%!
Leveling up was fast.
But the earnings were too poor.
Even with Lin Youwei's triple drop rate bonus, they only collected 28 Silver Coins, equivalent to just over five thousand yuan.
Even adding the twenty-plus whiteboard equipment dropped, the total was only over six thousand yuan.
The higher the level of whiteboard equipment, the less valuable it became.
Level 24-25 whiteboard equipment was only worth a few dozen per piece on the market.
This overall profit was far less than the twenty thousand they made in half a day at the Nether Ghost Tower yesterday!
The triple drop rate merely increased the Ant Acid yield significantly.
Others could only get one Ant Acid per Cannibal Ant killed.
Lu Ming could get three per kill!
Thus, even needing to collect for two people, in just three hours, he and Lin Youwei each gathered the maximum amount a single person could collect: one thousand Ant Acids!
They could have collected more, but one thousand was already the maximum requirement for the tenth tier of this task!
At eleven in the morning, the two headed back.
In Starlight City, they found the biologist Lilith, and Lu Ming submitted one thousand Ant Acids, receiving the task reward.
[Ding~ Congratulations on completing the task "Great Biological Contribution" tenth tier, reward: experience points +300000, Silver Coins +8, Bronze Equipment: Cannibal Ant Hat +1!]
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