"What the hell did just happen?"
"He can control the mobs?"
"This time Whispering Venom really messed up, losing even a guild elder!"
The members of Thousand-Flowers-Garden were astounded to see how a man and hundred monsters managed to kill off twenty of Whispering Venom's players.
"If we stepped in, the same would have happened to us." The healer that stood beside Golden Lily said. His face was pale with fear.
"We will look for another hunting field for now." Saying this, Lily withdrew her group from the premises of the spiritling-nursery. While she had expected the swordsman to be fearsome, she had not expected him to be this terrifying. She did not dare to loiter there any longer, lest the swordsman changes his mind and attack them.
After Lily left, a group of three players emerged from the thickets nearby. They were a group of people that had begrudgingly left after Leon directed them to another leveling ground. But now, no one had anger in their faces. Instead, there was an expression of astonishment.
"Did you record that?"
"You bet I did."
"We should upload it to the forums. We'll get crazy views!"
Soon the gaming forum for the Golden-Cloud Kingdom had a new trending post.
[Whispering Venom slaughtered by level one mobs and a mysterious swordsman!]
The next two hours were very peaceful for Leon. Although many curious players had surrounded the spiritling nursery to have a peek at the mysterious swordsman, none of them dared to venture any further.
The moment three hours had elapsed on the quest timer, something magical happened. All the will-o'-the-wisps in the field emanated a dazzling blue glow and then flew to the skies, leaving behind an empty ground.
Quest Completed - Babysit spiritlings - C rank.
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Visit White-spirit in the Spirit Den dungeon to hand in the quest.
Leon didn't understand why he had to visit a dungeon to handover the quest. Spirit Den was the lowest leveled dungeon in LegendEra. Even then, one couldn't raid it currently, as even the highest leveled players were only level three. Only when the players have reached level five would they have any hope of conquering the dungeon.
'I will deal with the loot first before handing in the quest.' Leon walked towards the direction of Blackwoods village.
On the way had to take detours through some high-level areas and rough terrain to lose the curious players that tailed him.
'Being the center of attention is tough.' Leon said to himself as he used the void mask and changed his appearance back to Dark Lion. Then he brought out the Blood crystal and used the interface to convert his accumulated blood aurae to EXP. His EXP bar rose and hit level three, but it showed no signs of stopping. Only after he got to level four, and after filling his EXP bar to half did it stop.
'such a godly item!' Leon couldn't hide his excitement as he put the crystal back in his bag.
Then Leon used the void mask to change his level to level three. For now, he decided not to show off his level, as even the experts of the guilds were only at level three now.
Leon walked into the Blackwoods village. Compared to the first time he appeared here, there fewer people in the village center. Even then, the streets felt crowded as many players were hawking their wares on the sides of the road.
Finding an unremarkable NPC merchant shop, Leon walked in.
"How can I help you, sir?" The burly, bearded NPC behind the counter asked.
"I would like to sell these." Leon took out all the loot from killing the players before. In a second, weapons filled the countertop. There were 41 pieces of common wooden equipment and ten pieces of iron-ranked equipment.
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"I can give five coppers for the common weapons and fifty coppers for the iron-ranked equipment. A total of seven silver and five copper. Do you wish to proceed?" The NPC merchant appraised the equipment for a few seconds and asked.
"Yes!" Leon's eyes shined when he heard the words seven silvers.
In Legendera, each continent had its marketplace where one can trade real-world currency for in-game currency. But since there were trade and travel between all the other continents, the value of gold in real-world currency was almost the same in all these marketplaces.
But the fifth continent was different. As it had just opened, the in-game currency was in a severe deficit. Even if one spent a whole day grinding, they would only make about fifty coppers a day. And as such, its value was very high in the real world. Even the seven silvers Leon had earned would be half a month's salary to a white-collar worker.
After selling the weapons, he spent a silver and bought five healer's herbs. These were the most basic HP restoring items in Legendera. While its effects were nowhere near that of a healing potion, it was cheap and effective for lower levels.
Not wanting to attract any attention, Leon decided not to linger any longer in the village and set out to meet the white spirit in the dungeon.
The way to the dungeon was through a forest. The tree cover let in almost no light at all. A layer of fog covered the ground, and one could feel the heaviness in the atmosphere.
Finally, the trees parted to an opening. There was a cave in the middle of the field. The cave was closed with a huge boulder that had runes covering it.
Currently, a big commotion was going on in front of the dungeon entrance. Four separate groups of people were standing there, waiting. And while they waited, they taunted each other, causing the commotion.
"Who the hell decided to place an entree fee to a dungeon? Is LegendEra trying to rip us off?"
"Who is trying to rip you off? LegendEra is fully AI controlled. And the entry fee is only a hundred spirit cores. I guess Hands of Fate guild has fallen so much that they can't even get their hands on a hundred spirit cores?"
"Who knew we needed spirit cores to enter a dungeon? We had sold all those things earlier to buy weapons."
"Don't worry. Our mates are currently on their way with the spirit cores. We will be the first to clear the dungeon!"
"First clear? Dream on!"
Leon ignored the commotion going around him and walked towards the cave entrance. What was he supposed to do now? The quest window had only told him to visit the dungeon. It hadn't told him how to get in.
He tried everything he could, but the boulder wouldn't budge. He couldn't push it or slide it with his strength. He even shouted 'open sesame' the password from an old tale, but without any results.
"Did he think it would open that easily?"
"You need spirit cores to open it, you fool!'
"Did he just say 'open sesame?' Ah, my sides!"
The four groups of players that were at each other's throats before were now united in laughing at Leon. Some were even recording him to share on forums.
"Oh, you are here!" Finally, as Leon was about to give up, he heard the melodious voice of the White Spirit in his ears. Then the boulder moved and allowed him to enter.
Leon walked into the dungeon, and the boulder moved back, once again sealing the spirit den.
"Shit! he got in?"
"Was it the 'open sesame?'"
"I don't know! Let's try it!"
Soon, the many players gathered in front of the Spirit den started pushing and trying to slide the boulder. They were also chanting, shouting, doing all sorts of things.
Leon didn't know anything about the commotion he had caused outside as he was currently following behind the White Spirit into the core region of the dungeon.
Various monsters hopped around the dungeon. There were level one will-o'-the-wisps, level three Spectres, and even level five Shadow Spectres. But none of these monsters had any intention of attacking Leon. Some of them curiously followed behind them, but once the White spirit told them off, they returned.
White Spirit and Leon then walked into a room filled with little specters floating around.
"These Specters are evolved from the will-o'-the-wisps that you nurtured." the White spirit told Leon as she petted a Specter.
"Please accept this as a thank you." White spirit brought out a silver-colored sword and gifted it to Leon.
Leon accepted the sword and inspected its stats.
[Silver Sharp] - Bronze rank, One-handed sword
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Level 1-7
Equipment requirements: Strength 10, Agility 10
Attack +60
Strength +10
What a nice sword! At this stage of the game, not even a quarter of the players had a single iron-ranked piece of equipment with them, but now Leon had two bronze-ranked swords. Only the inner members of guilds would be able to match his damage-dealing ability now.
"After hearing how you helped me, some of my friends wanted to speak with you. Would you like to meet them?" The White Spirit's melodious voice asked Leon.
"Friends? Alright. Let's meet them" Leon nodded his head and followed White Spirit as she walked through the dungeon.
Finally, they arrived at where White Spirit's friends had gathered. Loud laughter and shouts penetrated through the closed door of a large hall. White spirit opened the door and Led Leon in.
As soon as Leon walked into the room, The shouts and laughter stopped and a feeling of suffocation washed over him. Around twenty dungeon bosses were now sitting around the table. Their gazes focused on Leon.
Leon felt that if he made even one wrong move, he would be killed off in an instant.