By now, the experience bar had swelled to 550,000; just looking at it made one’s scalp tingle.
As a melee class, his physical attack and agility were surprisingly the lowest, while his highest attribute was magic defense.
“Hmm…
these stats are quite bizarre.” However, even Rowan’s lowest attributes were difficult for others at this level to achieve.
Skipping basic classes to directly enter advanced and rare classes provided an overwhelming advantage.
Reaching level 23, which is the Fourth Tier—while it looks low in terms of level—actually places him among the elite of humanity, counting as having stepped into the Adamantite Rank.
In the human world, his level is roughly comparable to the Empire’s Four Knights, Gagaran, and the leaders of Eight Fingers, and slightly lower than the Ogre Ruler of the Tob Forest.
However, in terms of strength, Rowan estimated that without using the ultimate skills of his two rare classes, he could trade blows with the Hero Rank Clementine, the unit of measurement Warrior Captain, and the Genius swordsman Nail Clipper.
If he used his two ultimate skills, he would have no rivals at the Hero Rank, though he wasn’t sure about the Anomalies above the Hero Rank.
Although it had been tiring this past month, the harvest was plentiful.
Over this period, the surrounding area had been cleared out; the high-tier Undead had all been killed, and the yield here was getting worse by the day.
“Still not good enough.
Relying on these few wild Undead is far from sufficient; I really need to farm them myself.” If only I could raise over a hundred thousand high-tier Undead to grind for experience.
Moreover, although he had turned the core area upside down, he still hadn’t found the special source causing the mass production of Undead.
During this time, he had encountered a few other squads and exchanged intelligence with them.
But there were still no clues whatsoever.
“This is really troublesome.
The Scout Raven is only a first-tier reconnaissance spell and lacks high-level search capabilities; I’m just not good at scouting.” “Forget it.
If I can’t find it, I can’t find it.
If I still can’t find anything in a few days, I’ll just go back and grind monsters in the Tob Forest later.” The monster farming situation also needs to be put on the agenda.
As for this place, I’ll just let it rest for now and come back to harvest next year.
…
“Great!
The entrance really is here.
If we resolve the source, we’ll definitely get the highest quest reward, and our squad will surely be promoted to Orichalcum Rank!” exclaimed Kreek, the leader of the Flame Devourer Squad, with a look of pleasant surprise.
His Flame Devourer Squad was strictly a gold-digging squad; their only goals were to level up and earn money.
The squad had some fame in the Kingdom.
Their leader, Kreek, was quite strong, and the squad’s name originated from his innate ability: Fire Immunity.
This innate ability gave him a huge advantage when dealing with fire-type monsters.
Under normal circumstances, they only took on quests related to handling fire-type monsters, but the reward for this quest was too rich, so they decided to come and give it a try.
Unexpectedly, they were very lucky.
Not long after entering the core area, they discovered an unusual cave entrance.
According to the squad mage’s reconnaissance, the aura of the Undead inside this cave was exceptionally dense.
Unlike the Destiny Squad, which had wealthy members, their squad was composed entirely of commoners, so they valued money above all else.
“It would be great if we could get the one-thousand gold coin reward.
Once this quest is over, I want to go back to my hometown and get married.
The money I’ve earned over these years is enough for me to live comfortably for the rest of my life,” said the squad’s defender, a middle-aged man holding a shield, with a happy expression.
The young magic caster behind him laughed, “Uncle, getting married is fine, but isn’t it too early to retire?
Once we complete this quest, our reputation will definitely rise again, and we’ll be able to earn even more money in the future.” Learning magic is very expensive; the youth could be said to be the one who cared about money the most in the squad.
Beside them, the cleric girl wore white clerical robes.
She wasn’t very old, but her strength was not weak, though her personality was rather timid.
At this moment, she said weakly, “Isn’t it a bit too early to talk about this?
We should be more careful; we don’t know how many Undead are in this underground space.” The leader laughed, “Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
No powerful monsters have ever appeared on this plain.
With our strength, we are more than capable of handling this place.
We are a Mithril-ranked squad, after all!” The leader led the squad members downward, holding torches to illuminate their surroundings.
“Come to think of it, this underground space is quite orderly.
Huh, these stairs were manually carved, weren’t they?
Could it be that this place wasn’t formed naturally?” The middle-aged man’s eyes lit up, “It’s man-made!
Maybe it’s a ruin!” “A ruin?” “That’s right!
Maybe we can find treasures left behind by our predecessors.
We’re going to strike it rich!” the man said, his face full of excitement.
There weren’t many ruins within the Kingdom, but quite a few people who discovered them had become wealthy.
For a moment, the words ruins, treasure, and striking it rich flooded everyone’s minds, and various adventure novels they had read in the past came to mind.
The leader said urgently, “Hurry up!
Many squads have accepted this quest.
It will be troublesome if other squads find it first.
Let’s get our hands on the good stuff quickly.” The group rushed forward excitedly, fearing that if they were late, other squads would compete with them.
The path was very wide, enough for twenty or thirty people to walk side by side.
After turning left and right and walking for a distance, they entered a pitch-black hall.
Plunged into darkness, they were somewhat uncomfortable, as the torches could not illuminate everything around them.
“Hmm?” The torchlight didn’t reach very far, but he could vaguely see quite a few bone frames around.
Perhaps influenced by the light, those bone frames began to stir uneasily, and the creaking sound of bones rubbing against each other echoed around them.
The leader’s expression changed.
“Quick, use a lighting spell!” The mage apprentice behind him hurriedly cast a light spell forward.
It was as if a small sun had risen in the underground space, illuminating the entire area.
The four of them gasped.
The surroundings were densely packed with bone frames.
Moreover, these were not the lowest-level Undead skeletons, but Skeleton Warriors and Mages—powerful Undead that had reached the Second Tier or higher, with many even at the Second or Third Tier.
Densely packed, there were an estimated tens of thousands of skeletons crowded here.
The faces of the four turned green as they saw red flames appear in the eye sockets of the skeletons, all looking toward them.
The leader whispered, “Retreat!” However, at the entrance of the underground space, someone—no, not a person, but an Undead—was standing there, seemingly out of nowhere.
It was a very tall Undead, holding a broken blade in its right hand and a large black shield in its left, with crimson flames burning in its eyes.
At this moment, all four of them turned pale.
“A Death Knight!
Are you kidding me?
That’s a monster capable of destroying a country!
Why is there a Death Knight here?!” the leader shouted.
“Leader, hurry and think of a way to escape!” the mage said, looking anxious.
The cleric girl gritted her teeth.
“I’ll draw its attention.”
Maybe it’s not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”