Seeing the floating damage numbers, Chu Tian shivered.
His shoes' skill, Swiftness, activated!
With a *swish*, he turned and ran.
He had no choice but to run. In his Cheetah form, his total HP was only 8470, and that single hit had brought him to the brink of death.
Fortunately, the Sweep skill didn't have any additional damage bonuses, or he would have been finished.
And luck was on his side, as this was just damage from a much higher-level monster, not a critical hit.
If it had been a crit, he would have been gone.
He didn't know what would happen if he died in this map!
But for the Wishing Casket, he wasn't willing to take the risk.
It seemed he needed to find an opportunity to transfer the casket, but he hadn't found anyone suitable yet.
Unlike other items, the Wishing Casket couldn't be lent out to others through a contract.
To transfer it, someone would have to kill him and make the casket drop.
This person had to be someone he trusted the most, and preferably a life-skill player who stayed in the city.
Currently, there were only Mo Shi and Qi Xi. Chu Tian was considering who to entrust the casket to.
As Chu Tian fled, creating distance from the Scorched Giant Beast, he transformed into his Ancient Tree form.
He cast Rejuvenation, Heal, and Lifebloom on himself.
Now that he knew its pre-Sweep attack animation, Chu Tian, with his skill, was no longer afraid.
Running was definitely too late, so he had to transform into a Bear and tank the hit.
Previously, his Bear form had a defense of 5295, which was unbreakable. Yet, tanking the Sweep skill now would still cost him about 3000 HP.
However, with his Bear form's massive HP of 29645, he remained fearless.
Using Swipe, Rake, various debuff skills from his Boomkin form, and occasional physical attacks, it took him over ten minutes to finally defeat the Scorched Giant Beast.
[Ding... Killed: Scorched Giant Beast. Level-up kill experience bonus: 2700%. Gained experience: 308,000 (Base experience +5500, Level-up bonus +148,000, God-Tier talent growth +154,000).]
[Ding... System Notification: The nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone, Third Stage Progress One: Kill Scorched Giant Beast: 1/5]
Not bad, killing a Scorched Giant Beast without too much trouble!
Moreover, one monster yielded a full 308,000 experience points.
Chu Tian recalled that a level 55 elite monster should yield around 2750 experience.
That was roughly the base formula for elite monster experience in the Heavenly Dao world: level multiplied by fifty.
And the monsters in this map were giving double the experience of those outside.
Understanding this, Chu Tian was quite pleased. He had initially thought that doing quests here would slow down his leveling.
But upon closer calculation, it wasn't slower than the Verdant Greenhouse, and more importantly, it was much cheaper!
Chu Tian stepped forward and picked up the loot dropped by the Scorched Giant Beast.
His hand brushed against it, and his heart skipped a beat. This feeling was from a skill book.
He quickly picked it up to examine it. Indeed, it was a skill book.
[Skill Book: Sweep]
Attributes: Sweeps all enemies within melee range, dealing 100% physical damage.
Bear Form: Gains 2 Rage for each enemy hit. Maximum of 10 Rage per cast.
Cheetah Form: Consumes 35 Energy each use. If the target has a bleed effect from you, your Sweep deals an additional 30% damage to them, stacking up to 120% additional damage.
Class Restriction: Druid.
Was his luck turning today?
The very first monster dropped a Druid skill book.
He immediately used it, learning the skill with a double palm strike.
He finally had his first AoE skill. The Sweep skill had no cooldown.
In Cheetah form, it could be used infinitely as long as he had Energy, and it dealt bonus damage to bleeding enemies.
This bonus was even stacking. The more bleed debuffs an enemy had, the higher the damage from Sweep.
In Bear form, Sweep had no cost and was instead a Rage-generating skill.
Having mastered the technique to kill the Scorched Giant Beast, Chu Tian quickly took down the second monster.
As he looted the corpse, he was taken aback; it was another skill book.
[Skill Book: Pyroblast (Enhanced)]
It was an advanced skill for Mage's Pyroblast.
This book was worth at least a piece of equipment with top-tier Golden attributes.
Indeed, his luck had changed. Even an advanced skill book had dropped.
After defeating three more Scorched Giant Beasts, he completed the task.
Chu Tian realized it wasn't just him being lucky; the monsters in this map only dropped skill books.
Five monsters dropped three skill books, the drop rate was simply too high.
Not only was the experience high, but it was also a sacred ground for farming skill books. It was incredibly satisfying.
[Ding... System Notification: The nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone, Third Stage Progress Two: Kill Soul Reavers: 0/50]
As soon as he finished killing the five Scorched Giant Beasts, a new system notification greeted him.
The requirement was to kill Soul Reavers, and the monster count jumped to fifty.
Looking around, there were no such monsters in his vicinity.
They were likely in other areas, but he wasn't sure about the progress of this task.
If he completed the progress and was teleported out, wouldn't that be a loss?
Chu Tian really wanted to farm monsters here for a full seventy-two hours.
However, considering the potential consequences if he failed to complete the task within the time limit, he decided to search for the quest monsters.
After climbing a few hills, he encountered a large group of Soul Reavers. He observed them.
Chu Tian discovered that the difficulty of these monsters lay in separating them.
The wolf-like monsters were pack creatures.
He noticed that all the monsters in this map, regardless of type, possessed exoskeletons, making them high in defense and HP.
Using the Examine skill, he found that Soul Reavers were also three-skill monsters.
They had the skills Shred, Bite, and Howl.
Howl was particularly annoying, as it could summon same-type creatures within a 30-meter radius to join the fight.
Chu Tian roamed the outskirts for a long time before finally spotting a lone wandering Soul Reaver. He raised his hand and hurled a Moonfire, a ranged skill.
To prevent its Howl skill from attracting other Soul Reavers, he planned to kill it at a distance.
Unexpectedly, as soon as his Moonfire hit the target.
The foolish creature turned and looked at Chu Tian.
Without moving its feet, it tilted its head back and let out a: "Awooooo..."
With a howl, all the Soul Reavers around it turned their attention to him simultaneously.
Damn it! What the heck!
No way, starting with a Howl to call for backup.
Chu Tian turned and ran. Fortunately, he had cast Moonfire from the farthest distance.
After running a considerable distance, the pack of level 56 elite monsters slowly stopped their pursuit of Chu Tian.
After stopping, the pack of Soul Reavers resumed their wandering.
How was he supposed to fight this? They were all elite monsters. Chu Tian was confident he could handle two at most.
But their proximity was too close. One Howl skill from them could attract at least a dozen.
[Author's Note]
It's nearing the end of the month. As usual, there will be a surge in updates on the last day or two of the month.
However, I have to look after the baby during the day, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to achieve that burst of updates this month.