Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

Chapter 169 Expedition: The Green Abyss Part 5

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Another bonus chapter, enjoy!

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/Later…/

It had already been a few minutes since the Raid team left their first Waypoint but Dale was still sulking over it.

"..."

'My clothes are all dirty now… I hate this damn feeling.'

His back being full of dirt and his upper torso being stained with blood, it was safe to say he wasn't feeling very good.

In the heat of the moment, even though Dale tried his best to minimize damage and reduce the amount of blood on him by pushing the bird's body to the side, some still fell on him.

He hasn't drenched in it, but it was still a bother.

/BZZZ!/

/SLAP!/

'These fucking mosquitos...'

Having your collar smelling of iron wasn't a pleasant experience, especially when it attracted all kinds of insects to give it a sniff.

Dale felt like his sanity was being depleted with every step.

Obviously, Dale didn't want this to happen as he tried to clean his chest using a wet cloth, but failed to do so thoroughly since Tina prevented him from using too much water since they didn't know when they would find the next source of clean water.

And despite agreeing with her, that only made him that much more bothered by it.

So he focused his attention on something else… The System notifications.

There were quite a few, his plentiful rewards from defeating a powerful foe over 50 levels above his own:

[+31280% XP]

[You have Leveled up] 

[You have Leveled up] 

[You have Leveled up] 

[You have Leveled up] 

[You have Leveled up] 

[You have Leveled up] 

[+12 to all Base Stats]

First came the many Level Ups, a total of 31280% XP! 

In other words, that was about 310 times his full XP bar.

In a way, Dale felt such a number was odd as given the nature of the enemy he defeated.

Wasn't it supposed to be… Much higher?

Were it to be a Normal Mob, the kind you see everywhere then he may understand, as even if it were much higher Leveled than him, a trash mob is meant to be killed in the thousand before one levels up.

But this was a Boss monster!

However, after he thought about it, he decided to use an example to try and visualize things.

Like before, if he were Level 43 hunting Level 43 Pigs to Level up, let's say each one gives Dale 10% Level XP, thus taking 10 for him to Level up.

By this calculation, for him to accumulate 30000% XP and Level up to Level 49, he would need to kill about 3 thousand Pigs.

And when he arrived at this conclusion, it did feel… Somewhat fitting.

It did seem like a possible number a player would have to hunt to Level up, in fact, it even sounded small.

This was an MMO meant to last years in Real-time which would equate to even more time In-Game, though there was a difference between operational time and the time it took for the top players to go through most of the Major content.

But regardless, that was an imaginary scenario that explained nothing at all!

Would it be fitting to compare 3 thousand Level 43 Pigs to one Level 90+ Boss monster? 

In the end, there were only five possibilities he could think of:

The First one was that Level scaling was extremely unforgiving in this game and that the curve of XP increased rapidly, making it so that the only way of reliably farming XP in the higher Levels would be to challenge monsters stronger or way than oneself.

The Second one is that Hardcore Player Level scaling was harder than that of the Standard player.

However,  there is a chance it isn't that noticeable at the start or that the forums of people complaining about Level scaling have yet to pop off.

Dale himself could not tell if it happened or not since right now, he was over 10 Levels ahead of even the Highest Level player... No, it was close to 15 Levels.

If it's indeed that, then it might be better for him.

Because while other players would have to grind or go through multiple Quests to Level up and acquire gear, he can essentially Power-Level himself, and in the future, the lesser Hardcore players as opponents he has, the better.

Although… Would such a small inconvenience really stop the capable HardCore players of the future from being his opponents? Likely not.

The Third one was that this monster wasn't a true Boss monster.

It may be in power, but not in the rewards it gives.

With the modifier, there is a chance this monster grew stronger without going through the System's Shenanigans, thus leading to its overall XP reward not fitting its Challenge Level.

This possibility, however, was the one Dale disregarded the most.

The Fourth possibility is that most of the XP necessary for Leveling comes not from hunting, but from other activities.

It may be that the intended way for someone to Level up is through Questing while also hunting as a side activity, or through a multitude of things put together to maximize efficiency and keep the players engaged in a plethora of things, whatever they find entertaining.

From making potions to forging, all activities reward some degree of Experience, perhaps out there lies a method for extreme speed leveling, it only needs to be found.

Lastly, like before, there was a chance a portion of his Experience was disregarded or divided with the members of his party.

They may not have participated, but their presence nearby was enough.

... And of course, there was one hidden truth he was unwilling to believe, and that was all of the above were occurring at the same time.

But that is unlikely, given that if all were indeed occurring at the same time, his own Leveling speed would become paradoxical unless he is severely overestimating the difficulty of Leveling Up.

[You've gained, Head feather of the Alpha Opicus X3

  You've gained, Tail feather of the Alpha Opicus x7

  You've gained, Talon of the Alpha Opicus X4I think you should take a look at

  You've gained, Cloud Walk Skill Book 

  You've gained, Tempest Ruler Skill Book

  You've gained, Lightning Barrage Skill Book

]

Next came his rewards, something he read with a smile, but also a slight sigh.

Because in the end, those were extremely few.

However, it's not like he lost much since he still had an entire full body left to butcher.

For further context, a Standard player would normally receive all kinds of items from Swords to Staves to even Armor sets to use, it was the reason why parties farmed the same Boss over and over and why many players fought each other to participate in his 'Protect the Crops' Quest to have the chance to fight the final Boss and get its Unique rewards.

Yet, he only received three types of materials, together with three Skill Books... That was rather lame of a Boss monster.

The materials were certainly valuable, but nowhere near the value of the books.

And yes, it felt terrible to not be able to receive proper gear, but since he was actively trying to develop the Skills of the Villagers, those materials would likely one day be made into the same if not better pieces of armor the players would've been able to get from this monster anyway.

As for his Skill Book, albeit his Skill Slots were close to being full, having more Skills, especially three that already synergized with one another was never a bad thing.

Even if he weren't going to use it, he could still sell it or study the book to copy it in the future…

He could also use them, the problem is that they would likely be sent into his Skill inventory, a unique space that can only be accessed from the Church.

Players can pay fees to change their Skills there, as despite there being a limit to the number of Skills one can have at a time, there is no limit to how many Skills one may gather, allowing them to change it in due course if they deem fit.

However, for now, those books would remain in his inventory as only prospect items.

Because he had a reason for not learning them, the same reason why he learned none during the past Two Weeks.

He wanted to try the Skills he learned himself first before grabbing more from other sources.

Instead of building multiple structures atop his foundation, he preferred to strengthen it, if it made any sense.

He wasn't desperate for quick power as he had many items and equipment, he was allowed to be arrogant.

So instead, he sought ways to improve his proficiency and mastery over what he already had while also growing stronger outside of those 10 Skill Slots.

Not to say the problem of they being sole copies, most of the Skill books in the library were sole copies and Dale had no intent of wasting them before at least having a copy of the original one he grabbed from the Commander's Office.

How was he supposed to explain what happened with the Skill Book for the Core Skill of the Southern Corps? He lost it? His body ate it?

It may be the only one in existence and he destroyed it for the sake of one 1-Star Skill?

Yeah, it was much simpler to just wait for someone to copy the book.

[Your Skill, Spatial Awareness 1.5-Star has Leveled up to 2-Star]

[Your Skill, Fighting Spirit 4-Star has Leveled up to 4.5-Star]

[DING]

[The blood of an exceptional foe stimulates Failure!]

[Failure Manifests a new Skill, Counter Attack 2-Star]

[Increases the damage of the next strike by adding your enemy's current attack damage to it]

[DING]

[In your fight against a Ruler of the Skies, you witnessed what it means to be free atop the Clouds]

[The Skill, Bird of Prey has manifested]

[Your body is not compatible with the Skill]

[The Skill, Bird of Prey 2-Star has changed to Land Raptor 1-Star]

[When confronting a single identifiable target, Movement Speed on the ground X1.5]

Following his rewards from his hunt came his own body's and item's developments.

This was one of his greatest surprises, as he did not expect to gain anything like this.

However, it made some sense.

Due to his Level 40 privilege, all Skill Experience had been tripled, so his confrontation with an enemy many times his Level might've influenced the growth of his more lacking Skills.

Perhaps the act of facing off against stronger monsters and being victorious had other hidden rewards apart from the burst of Experience one might receive.

It was one of the reasons why he wanted to maintain his Level before entering Babilon, as he believed his Level 40 privilege would serve him greatly inside.

The privilege also increased his chances of getting Skills from all sources slightly, though he couldn't confirm how high that was in the first place.

Because so far, there were only a few cases where he did gain a Skill.

Such as when he received Anomalous Status Resistance, Vital Heart, Confluence, and Prime Source.

They can all be considered as Skills he received from "External" situations.

One can even add Mana Conduction to this list as well.

However, all of these Skills have something in common… He worked for it.

Dale did something and got something in return, either being a direct cause for why he received it, or as a reward.

Land Raptor, however, was a new Skill he received suddenly from defeating a foe, something extremely unusual and a first for him.

The only thing that comes close to it was when he received Vital Heart, but that came as a reward for his Quest given by Ju-Arkesios... At least that was the one he believed gave him the Quest...

And this wasn't the same as when he was enlightened as he didn't feel any different as he fought the Giant Bird.

On that note, the sudden text came to him as foreign and very unexpected.

He could only ponder over it in the end.

"..."

'Level 49 already... I may end up returning from this expedition as a Level 60+ individual...'

With a calm expression as he finished processing what he just got, Dale opened his Status:

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Notes