Chapter 56: Sword Drawing, Upgraded Again—to D Rank!
After Qin Churan, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and the others departed, Lu Ming took Lin Youwei and continued their journey toward their mission destination: the Western Farm.
Along the way, recalling what had just transpired, Lu Ming realized a serious issue.
"Currently, opponents around level 30 represent the upper limit of what the Necromantic Legion can handle. The moment I encounter even higher-level foes, it will start to feel increasingly strenuous."
"It seems I must reach level 20 as soon as possible! I need to upgrade my talent to Level 3 and raise my own upper limit!"
With these thoughts in mind, Lu Ming unconsciously quickened his pace.
Soon, he and Lin Youwei arrived at the Western Farm.
While Lin Youwei was busy preparing lunch at noon, Lu Ming had carefully studied the strategy guides.
The reason he chose this farm as his leveling spot for this afternoon—aside from the fact that there was a quest here to [Collect Tiger Pelts]—came down to one other rather crucial reason.
"According to the guide records, players who slay Saber-toothed Tigers in this farm have a chance to drop Summon Scroll Fragments. Through complete summon scrolls, one can summon elite or even Boss-tier Saber-toothed Tigers."
Before entering the black market upon reaching level 20, he wanted to slaughter more elite monsters and Bosses to accumulate a surplus of gold coins.
Holding this thought, upon stepping into the farm, Lu Ming summoned all of his Necromantic Warriors and issued an order for them to hunt monsters freely.
By consuming soul power, he filled the vacant slots left by previously fallen Necromantic Warriors.
A total of three hundred and sixty Tier 2 Necromantic Warriors were scattered across the vast farm, hunting the ubiquitous Level 30-31 [Brutal Saber-toothed Tigers].
Back in the Barren Wastelands, he had already slaughtered Level 30 Poisonous Scorpions.
Coupled with the fact that Lu Ming's Life Fortress had now been upgraded from F-grade to E-grade, the survival capability of the Necromantic Warriors was enhanced to an even greater degree.
Therefore, fighting these Level 30-31 Saber-toothed Tigers across a 12 to 13-level gap posed no difficulty whatsoever for the Necromantic Warriors.
[Ding! Slain Level 30 Brutal Saber-toothed Tiger, Experience +660!]
[Ding! Slain Level 31 Brutal Saber-toothed Tiger, Experience +710!]
[Ding...]
Accompanied by the frantic flashing of combat notifications,
Through the looting of the Necromantic Warriors, every single Saber-toothed Tiger killed yielded 12 to 15 copper coins and three tiger pelts for Lu Ming!
In addition to those, there was this item—
[Summon Scroll Fragment] (Special Item)
[Description: A mysterious scroll sealed with a massive amount of brutal power. Collecting 100 fragments can synthesize an Elite Saber-toothed Tiger Summon Scroll; collecting 500 fragments can synthesize a Bronze Boss-tier Saber-toothed Tiger Summon Scroll; collecting 1000 fragments can synthesize a Silver Boss-tier Saber-toothed Tiger Summon Scroll]
[Remarks: Fragments cannot be dropped or traded, but the synthesized complete scroll can be dropped and traded. Each player can only synthesize one scroll in their lifetime]
The Abyss World is paved with gold—this statement was not false in the slightest.
Items similar to this were the playthings of the wealthy, while simultaneously serving as treasures in the eyes of ordinary players.
Ordinary players who collected these scroll fragments would find that even if they managed to summon an elite or Boss Saber-toothed Tiger, their strength would be insufficient to kill it themselves, making them prone to being ambushed and robbed, essentially delivering free meals to others.
Therefore, they would much rather sell the synthesized scrolls directly!
Lu Ming checked the market and discovered that an elite-tier summon scroll was worth around three thousand credits.
A Bronze Boss-tier summon scroll could fetch thirty thousand!
A Silver-tier Boss summon scroll was valued as high as one hundred thousand per scroll!
Just as Lu Ming was browsing through this information, he noticed that in just this brief moment, his inventory had already accumulated several dozen scroll fragments!
Having Lin Youwei's 200% drop rate bonus felt amazing!
Other players had to kill three to four Saber-toothed Tigers just to drop a single fragment.
Lu Ming basically obtained a fragment with every single kill!
Before long, the fragments in his inventory were already enough to synthesize an Elite Saber-toothed Tiger Summon Scroll!
Recalling his past life where he worked himself to the bone, grinding for 18 hours a day, only to sometimes earn a mere few thousand credits at the end of a month—
Yet right now, these three thousand credits came by with such effortless ease.
This made Lu Ming deeply realize: hard work is utterly worthless in the face of talent!
Lin Youwei, as usual, wielded her staff to kill monsters and loot copper coins, steadily padding her own small treasury.
With the Necromantic Legion around, Lu Ming was forced to slack off whether he wanted to or not.
The only thing he could do was draw his sword once every minute.
Swish!
[Ding! Sword-drawing skill proficiency +1!]
Swish!
[Ding! Sword-drawing skill proficiency +1!]
As Lu Ming repeated the drawing and sheathing motion over and over,
He did not know how much time had passed.
Finally... it felt satisfying!
[Ding! Congratulations, your sword-drawing skill proficiency has reached 1000. The skill quality has automatically been upgraded to D-grade!]
As the pleasant system prompt faded,
Lu Ming eagerly opened his skill list.
[Sword Drawing] (Unique Skill, Level 18)
[Grade: D-grade] (Growable)
[Skill Effect: When drawing the sword, releases a sword shadow, dealing (220% Attack Power + 138) points of true damage that ignores defense to a single enemy within attack range; and increases own attack power by 20% for 10 seconds]
[Cooldown: 60 seconds]
[Skill Consumption: 98]
[Proficiency: 0/10000] (Automatically gains 1 proficiency point each time the sword-drawing skill is used; upon reaching max proficiency, it can be upgraded to C-grade)
The damage coefficient had increased from 150% to 220%. Combined with the twenty-fold enhancement from the comprehensive amplification, it was effectively an increase from 30 times attack power in true damage up to 44 times!
What a terrifying amplification!
Of course, for Lu Ming, a Support-type Array Diviner, the most important thing wasn't the increase in the skill's raw damage.
It was the subsequent attack power boost effect!
Rising from the original 10% attack power increase to 20%, for Lu Ming, this meant that after drawing his sword, he would gain an astonishing attack power bonus of up to 400%!
Targeting a newly respawned Saber-toothed Tiger ahead of him, Lu Ming eagerly tested out the D-grade sword-drawing effect.
Slash!
A lightning-fast silver sword shadow pierced right through the body of the Saber-toothed Tiger.
-17808!
The visual effects were even cooler!
The damage was even more explosive!
With a total health pool exceeding 22,000+ points, the Saber-toothed Tiger's health bar plummeted by 80% in an instant!
Lin Youwei, who had just finished killing another Saber-toothed Tiger nearby, happened to witness this scene and gasped with her mouth wide open.
"Oh gods, Brother Nether, your damage has increased by so much again!"
In truth, this wasn't even Lu Ming's peak damage.
Because right before drawing his sword just now, his attack power had still been resting on the previous round's E-grade sword-drawing bonus of 200%.
And now, having used the D-grade sword draw, his attack power had jumped from 342 points up to 570 points!
This meant that the next time Lu Ming used sword drawing, that would truly be his peak damage output for this stage!
Therefore, ordering a Necromantic Warrior to finish off the remaining health of that Saber-toothed Tiger,
After waiting out the one-minute skill cooldown,
Lu Ming targeted another Saber-toothed Tiger once more.
Slash!
D-grade Sword Drawing—
-27840!
[Ding! Slain Level 31 Brutal Saber-toothed Tiger, Experience +710!]
One-hit kill!