Idle Upgrade

[Corrupted Fish Spore (Minion)]

Level: 14

Attack: —

HP: 600

Skill: [Alluring Dust: Corrupted Fish Spores release a colorless, odorless dust invisible to the naked eye. Anyone who breathes it in will involuntarily walk toward the nearest Corrupted Fish nest.]

So this was practically an invisible minor monster. No, it should be called a “tiny monster”—in other words, a minion.

They served a monster known as the Corrupted Fish, using their ability to lure prey over to it.

Perhaps they split off from the Corrupted Fish themselves. Otherwise, why would they be called “spores”?

That was probably why they gave less experience than normal monsters.

They usually floated four or five meters above the ground, and since they were nearly transparent, they were extremely difficult to notice.

“But where’s this Corrupted Fish nest?”

Liu Xuan looked around, recalled the direction he had been walking in after first being affected by the skill, then glanced down at the footprints he had left behind. Following their direction, he looked ahead.

At first, because of the word “nest,” Liu Xuan had assumed it would be something obvious, like a cave. But soon, his eyes locked onto a fist-sized hole in the ground not far ahead.

That might be the Corrupted Fish nest.

Before he could walk over, another faint, transparent shadow floated out of the hole.

If he had not happened to be staring in that direction, he might not have noticed it at all.

As soon as the transparent shadow reached the air above him, Liu Xuan’s head immediately began to spin.

“You killed [Corrupted Fish Spore (Minion)] and gained 43 experience.”

“You killed a [Poisoned] monster. Base HP +1.”

“You killed a [Frightened] monster. Intelligence +0.1.”

Sure enough, the things were coming out of that hole.

And judging by the situation, as long as a spore was killed, the Corrupted Fish would keep summoning new ones?

With that thought, Liu Xuan did not continue forward. Instead, he remained where he was.

A few seconds later, just as expected, another spore floated out of the hole.

“You killed [Corrupted Fish Spore (Minion)] and gained 43 experience.”

“...”

The summoning speed was pretty fast, wasn’t it?

An idea suddenly occurred to Liu Xuan. Although these minions did not give much experience, the bonus he received was so high that it was perfectly acceptable.

If they could keep summoning them indefinitely, couldn’t he just leave himself here to level up?

He could even farm HP and Intelligence at the same time.

There were downsides to areas packed too densely with monsters. Once [Corpse Explosion] went off, it was impossible to control the damage.

Besides, most of the map was still being explored, and he had yet to find any dungeons.

The areas that had already been explored and contained dense, fast-spawning monsters were all occupied by other players.

If Liu Xuan went there, no one else would be able to hunt monsters.

This little village was quiet and secluded, but the farming area was too small. If Liu Xuan went all out and wiped out every Corrupted Fish in the nest, he would have to wait a long time for them to respawn.

He might as well only farm the spores that were continuously being summoned.

“Let’s first see whether the spores can be summoned indefinitely. Then I’ll check how long it takes to gain a level.”

Liu Xuan looked around for a moment. Following the clues, he searched for other Corrupted Fish nests.

He soon found another location. A section of earthen wall had collapsed onto the ground, with half a stone pillar lying beside it.

Near the wall were five muddy holes that might be Corrupted Fish nests.

“Now this is a good spot!”

After being attacked by spores several times along the way, Liu Xuan climbed onto the collapsed wall, placed his shield on the ground as a cushion, and sat down against the stone pillar.

Immediately afterward, his head began spinning again and again, little by little, like someone dozing off during class.

At the same time, kill notifications began flooding his vision.

Experience +43. HP +1. Intelligence +0.1.

Experience +43. HP +1. Intelligence +0.1...

He had to admit, the efficiency was pretty good. As soon as the spores above one hole were killed, more began floating out of another.

And even after Liu Xuan had been sitting there for quite some time, the process never stopped.

Then again, they were called “spores.” It was only natural for there to be a lot of them.

Although he was constantly being stunned, at least it was comfortable.

At this rate, he estimated that he could gain a level every dozen minutes or so.

Liu Xuan leaned against the pillar, his head spinning over and over until he was almost lulled to sleep.

He had no idea how much time had passed when a slot machine suddenly appeared before his eyes and began clattering as it spun, jolting him awake.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 18 and gained 37 free attribute points.]

[You have a new skill available.]

Liu Xuan shook his head, pulled the lever, and waited for the new skill to appear.

[Fire God: Whenever you are attacked, inflict the “Burning” status on the enemy. Cannot stack.]

[Note]

[Burning: Every “315/(the inflictor’s Agility + 100)” seconds, deals 100 physical damage. Lasts 15 seconds. During this period, each instance of “Burning” damage reduces HP regeneration and healing received by 1%.]

“Huh? Isn’t this [Burning] the same effect that the mutated Destroyer had?”

It was another passive skill based on reflecting damage. Liu Xuan himself was not especially interested in it.

He was not lacking in damage at the moment. As for the reduced healing effect, he had already roughly calculated it the last time.

After adding the 37 attribute points he had just received from leveling up, his Agility was now 285.

That meant it would deal 100 damage roughly every 0.8 seconds, for a total of 18 instances over 15 seconds—only 1,800 damage.

At the same time, it would reduce the target’s healing received by 18%.

So both the damage and the effect were fairly ordinary. With Liu Xuan’s current Agility, he was still a long way from making this passive truly powerful.

But!

The [Fire God] passive looked almost exactly the same as [Source of Plague] and [Nightmare Incarnation].

Liu Xuan could not help imagining whether he might later obtain another passive that, like [Voodoo Heart] and [Heart of Fear], provided related attribute bonuses.

If he really managed to draw one, he would be able to farm Agility like crazy afterward.

Unfortunately, drawing skills from the slot machine was entirely a matter of luck. All he could do was leave it to fate.

If he had not drawn a skill like [Source of Plague] that could deal damage, he would most likely have been forced down another path of development:

Mindlessly stacking Agility, then relying on his class traits to kite low-level monsters while slowly leveling up, all the while praying that he would eventually draw a powerful passive and turn things around.

That route was playable too, but compared to his current efficiency, it would certainly be far worse.

After drawing the skill, Liu Xuan sat back down, leaned against the pillar, and continued to “AFK.”

This place would remain highly efficient at least until Level 20.

He could gain two more levels, and it would only take about an hour.

Now that was comfortable.

...

“Now that’s comfortable!”

Elsewhere, Zhang Meng, who was hacking away at the [Destroyers] in the city with great effort, could not help exclaiming as well.

At first glance, it looked as though they were being chased around by the monsters one after another, but in reality, this was their battle strategy.

They slowed the monsters and kept them under control. Once their armor had fallen away and become negative, everyone would swarm them and chop them to pieces.

“Ever since entering this battlefield, I haven’t fought such an easy battle,” one of Zhang Meng’s teammates said with a laugh.

“Boss Liu Xuan’s skill is seriously overpowered.”

“Speaking of which, Boss Liu should be leveling up too, right? With the experience bonus active, he’ll probably reach Level 20 soon.”

“Why are you worrying about him? Just look at the rankings—he’s already Level 18.”

Listening to everyone’s discussion, Zhang Meng couldn’t help joining in. With a teasing grin, he said, “You can’t put it that way. He may kill monsters quickly, but let’s be honest, he still can’t compare to how cool he looked in the other games he used to play. His efficiency is definitely higher than ours, but a reflect-damage build is basically just taking hits, isn’t it? Who knows if he’s having it as easy as we are.”

A thousand miles away, Liu Xuan, who was lying down and leveling up on autopilot, scratched his hair and shifted into a more comfortable position against a stone pillar.

The sunlight was warm, and the breeze was gentle.