Passive: Nightmare Incarnate

About an hour later, with a flash of light around his body, Liu Xuan finally leveled up to level 7.

During this time, he had killed at least a thousand rats, and his base health had increased by over a thousand points as a result!

Looking at his status panel, his health had reached a whopping 13,870!

He was an absolute meat shield.

Other people were at most around level 2 or 3 right now. If they hadn't added any points to Strength, they probably only had about 70 health points—just a fraction of his.

Relying on the 1% equipment drop rate bonus from the [Lucky Rabbit's Foot], these thousand-plus rats had contributed over a dozen pieces of [Rough] quality equipment.

But it was the same as always: they only provided armor and had no other attributes.

It seemed that [Rough] quality gear inherently lacked additional stats.

But every little bit helps. Liu Xuan replaced many of his snake skin and rabbit fur gears, boosting his armor directly to 20 points.

"Skill draw!"

Liu Xuan pulled the lever of the slot machine, and a new skill popped out.

[Nightmare Incarnation: When you are attacked, inflict the 'Fear' status on the enemy.]

[Note]

[Fear: Immediately take 'Intelligence x 3' magic damage and lose control of oneself, fleeing outward for 2 seconds. A single enemy can only be affected by this effect once every 30 seconds.]

Oh? This is pretty good. Now Intelligence can actually be of use.

Although his Intelligence wasn't very high... wait!

Although his Intelligence stat wasn't considered high, currently sitting at only 24 points.

But the most useful part of this passive was the crowd control effect attached to [Fear].

Previously, when he poisoned monsters, the poison took 3 seconds to tick for damage, and he would take many extra hits during that time.

But now that the monsters were [Feared], he could reduce a lot of incoming damage.

Losing less health meant less time needed to recover afterward, which indirectly increased his farming speed.

Not bad.

Liu Xuan was quite satisfied with this new passive.

After drawing the skill, he looked at his current attributes:

Name: Liu Xuan

Faction: Human Empire (Blue Star, Huaxia)

Class: Pacifist

Level: 7

Strength: 31

Agility: 24

Intelligence: 24

Armor: +20

Health: 13870/13870

Mana: -/-

Experience: 12/3300

Skills: Giant's Blood, Source of Plague, Corpse Explosion, Voodoo Heart, Medicine Jar, Nightmare Incarnation

As for the 5 attribute points from leveling up, Liu Xuan thought about it and decided to start stacking Agility.

First, he wasn't lacking health right now, so there was definitely no need to add to Strength.

Second, he felt that the monsters' stats were inflating a bit too fast. If he didn't increase his Agility, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to outrun them later.

That would be bad for pulling aggro.

Because of [Corpse Explosion], he couldn't easily let himself get bitten by monsters while pulling them.

Otherwise, if one monster died and its explosion killed other unpoisoned monsters, his health wouldn't stack.

Liu Xuan scratched his head: this was what happened when all your skills were passives; he had no way to control when they triggered.

Otherwise, why would it be called an experimental troop class?

Coincidentally, after reaching level 7, the level 4 [Woodland Rats] gave exactly 1 experience point, and leveling from 7 to 8 required 3,300 experience points.

This gave Liu Xuan a bold idea:

He might as well grind another level right here!

By then, his health should reach over 40,000, and a single tick of [Poison] damage would exceed 2,000, totaling nearly 10,000 if it ran its full course!

Given the current health growth rate of the monsters, anything under level 10 definitely wouldn't be able to withstand it.

He would finish grinding this level, then speedrun the main quest to push his rating up!

No sooner said than done, Liu Xuan continued to farm rats in the bushes.

This time, he grinded for two whole hours.

Along with a pleasant notification chime, Liu Xuan leveled up once again.

"Skill draw!"

[Troll's Blood: In combat, your natural health regeneration remains effective, but the effect is only 50% of the out-of-combat rate.]

In-combat health regeneration!

Although it was only half the usual effect, but...

Liu Xuan looked at his current status panel, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curling upward.

Health: 46750/46750

His health was as high as over 46,000 points!

His out-of-combat natural regeneration was 467 every 5 seconds!

And in combat, it was over 230.

Compared to Liu Xuan's current maximum health, these 200-plus points didn't seem like much, averaging only about 40-plus points recovered per second.

But one had to realize that the monsters' attacks weren't high right now either.

Take the [Woodland Rat] for example; its panel attack was only 42, and that was before factoring in Liu Xuan's 20 points of armor damage reduction.

In other words, Liu Xuan could stand completely still and let a [Woodland Rat] bite him until the end of time, and it still wouldn't be able to kill him.

"That's comfortable. Now I can go do the main quest."

Liu Xuan put his 5 attribute points from leveling up into Agility again, which would also make traveling faster.

He then began to walk through the bushes toward the depths of the woodland. As the trees grew taller, the surroundings quickly turned into a dense forest.

There was an abandoned road in the woods leading deeper inside.

"It looks like this road should lead to the logging camp."

Since he had decided to speedrun, Liu Xuan naturally wouldn't wander aimlessly, and immediately advanced along the road.

However, not long after entering the woods, he was hit on the forehead by a stone.

"-60!"

Then, a dark shadow fell from the tree.

Liu Xuan looked down and saw that it was a monkey.

[Mischievous Monkey]

Level: 5

Attack: 55

Health: 500

Skill: [Throw] Throws a stone, dealing 80 physical damage to the enemy.

"What a disgusting monster,"

Liu Xuan couldn't help but complain. This monkey hid in the trees at first, and when someone approached, it threw a stone dealing a full 80 damage.

If an ordinary level 5 player came by without any armor, a single stone would leave them severely crippled.

Moreover, it was up in the tree; before it jumped down, melee classes like soldiers couldn't even hit it.

Fortunately, Liu Xuan now had the [Nightmare Incarnation] passive. The monkey threw a stone at him and was immediately [Feared].

It first took 72 points of magic damage, then fell from the tree, lying dizzy on the ground for two seconds before waking up.

Not only that, but the [Mischievous Monkey] was also afflicted with [Poison].

Its life was already nearing its end.

"The combination of [Source of Plague] and [Nightmare Incarnation] is simply flawless."

The monkey was controlled for two seconds. Just as it woke up, it bared its fangs and brandished its claws, ready to pounce on Liu Xuan, but immediately after, the [Poison] damage burst out.

"-2337!"

An instant kill.

"Killed [Mischievous Monkey], gained 3 experience points."

"Killed [Poisoned] monster, base health +1."

The [Mischievous Monkey] dropped a few copper coins on the spot. Liu Xuan was just about to step forward and pick them up when, right as he reached the corpse, several more stones smashed into him.

Then, like dumplings falling into a pot, four monkeys dropped from the surrounding trees, all dizzy on the ground because of [Fear].

In no time, they all died to the [Poison] damage, and after one of them triggered [Corpse Explosion], it surprisingly blew up two more in the adjacent trees.

"If the spawn density of these [Mischievous Monkeys] was a bit higher, wouldn't it cause a chain explosion and clear out all the monsters in the entire forest?"

Liu Xuan suddenly thought.

But he could only dream; that was impossible.

If the density was really that high, other players wouldn't be able to enter at all.

He would be stoned to death alive.

To grind for a high rating, Liu Xuan had no desire to get tangled up with these monsters. He pushed his speed to the absolute limit and sprinted wildly down the desolate road.

Most of the time, before those [Mischievous Monkeys] could even throw their stones, he had already dashed out of their attack range. They were left behind in the trees, waving their arms and screeching in impotent rage.