Chapter 1 You Can Level Up Here

"You guys keep farming scale frogs to reduce your red names. Once you're done, I'll take you to level 30," Nie Yan said. He had to wait until these team members cleared their red names before they could use teleportation to level up in the Eternal City.

There weren't enough elite scale frogs here, so many people had to farm regular ones.

"Boss, how come you can enter the city with a red name?" Xia Chong Yu Bing asked, voicing his confusion.

"Once your respect with Carol City reaches 30 points," Nie Yan replied. Accumulating 30 points of Carol City respect would probably require completing many difficult quests, which would be too challenging for the current players.

"…That's so hard. My respect with Carol City is only 2 points, and I got that from helping an NPC with a quest that almost drove me crazy," Undying Scoundrel rolled his eyes.

The others agreed. Thirty points of respect was out of the question for now, unless they stumbled upon a quest with a particularly generous reward.

"You guys keep grinding. Get rid of those red names quickly," Nie Yan said. He had bought a thousand area-of-effect magic bombs, enough for them to level up to their heart's content.

The team members went off to farm monsters, leaving behind Nie Yan, Yao Yao, Yu Lan, and Bai Kaishui.

Nie Yan chatted with Yao Yao and the others for a while. Yu Lan had lost several levels and all her equipment the last time she had a red name. Nirvana Guild had given her a full set of equipment, and her level had also been raised to 23. Their team's strength was slowly recovering.

"Thank you for what happened last time," Nie Yan said to Yu Lan and Bai Kaishui.

"Guild Leader Nie Yan, you're too kind. What happened last time was caused by the betrayal of one of our team members. The responsibility lies with us," Bai Kaishui said solemnly.

Yu Lan nodded. The incident had saddened her for a long time, but fortunately, their team's strength had recovered. With Nirvana Guild's support, they were even stronger than before. Being integrated into Nirvana Guild could be considered a blessing in disguise.

"Alright, let's not talk about unpleasant things," Nie Yan said with a smile. He glanced around and asked Yao Yao, "Why haven't I seen Sun?"

"He went to look for elite monsters. I'll message him," Yao Yao said. She had just realized that Sun had been gone for a long time.

"Let's farm monsters first," Nie Yan said, wondering if he could farm a Berserker's Badge.

The group scattered to farm monsters. With their strength, they could easily solo regular level 30 scale frogs, given their gear.

Nie Yan found a corner and settled down to farm scale frogs. After comprehending the essence of Shadow Dance, he began to apply the skills he had learned to farming.

Under Nie Yan's terrifying attacks, scale frogs fell one after another. These scale frogs didn't even touch him, as their speed was far behind Nie Yan's. When Nie Yan attacked, only a blur of his figure remained, making it impossible for them to attack him.

After killing the sixteenth scale frog, Nie Yan walked forward and noticed five scale frogs gathered together in a clearing in the woods. He pondered for a moment, switched his dagger to a forward grip, and crept towards the scale frogs.

Nie Yan suddenly appeared behind one of the scale frogs, delivering a stun to the back of its head, followed by an Assassinate and a Gouge. The scale frog screamed, blood spurting out as it turned to pounce on Nie Yan.

The surrounding four scale frogs noticed Nie Yan and also pounced on him.

Nie Yan's figure was like a ghost, slipping through the gaps between the five scale frogs. A Vital Strike, followed by a few normal attacks, killed the first scale frog.

"First!" Nie Yan suddenly turned around, dodging the remaining four scale frogs' attacks. He delivered a stun to one of the scale frogs' foreheads, then twisted around behind it, landing a Backstab and an Eviscerate, before quickly retreating three or four steps to evade the other scale frogs' attacks.

Under the combined assault of the scale frogs, Nie Yan's steps remained steady, as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.

Their attacks didn't even damage Nie Yan. He was as slippery as an eel, perfectly seizing every opportunity to dodge and quickly evade.

The difference between Shadow Dance and a Great Thief was that a Great Thief could unleash 100% of their power, while a Shadow Dancer could unleash 200%, 300%, maximizing the effect of every stat.

With the same 100 speed, same level, same stats, and same equipment, a Great Thief was trash compared to a Shadow Dancer!

The scale frog that Nie Yan had attacked had a series of continuous damage numbers floating above its head. Its health had been reduced to just over half. After Nie Yan added a few more attacks, it fell to the ground.

"Second!" Nie Yan's skills were exhausted, so he dodged the remaining three scale frogs' attacks with simple footwork, opening cuts on each one before quickly evading.

The three scale frogs relentlessly attacked Nie Yan, with a series of damage numbers floating above their heads. But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't even touch Nie Yan's clothes. It was like a player with 10 accuracy attacking a player with over 100 dodge; no matter how hard they tried, the result would always be a miss.

Nie Yan finally understood why the mages of his previous life, who despised Great Thieves, were so afraid of Shadow Dancers. Because Great Thieves and Shadow Dancers were on completely different levels. In his previous life, it wasn't uncommon for mages to be assassinated by Shadow Dancers, even under the protection of hundreds of people. But no one had ever heard of a Great Thief accomplishing such a feat.

The difference between the two was like night and day.

After the three scale frogs finished taking continuous damage, Nie Yan gave each one another attack, and then they continued to bleed.

After a while, the three scale frogs couldn't withstand the torture and collapsed to the ground.

Yao Yao, Yu Lan, and the others rushed over. They stopped just outside the clearing, stunned. They happened to see three scale frogs fall, having been bled to death! A warrior who could take on five monsters of the same level was already remarkable, but it was basically impossible for a thief, unless they had very good equipment.

Yet Nie Yan had killed five scale frogs and was still at full health! It was unbelievable. Did Nie Yan dodge the attacks of five scale frogs just by using simple evasive maneuvers?

Yu Lan, Bai Kaishui, and the others couldn't hide the shock in their hearts. They had heard rumors of Mad Rogue, but they had never witnessed it firsthand. This time, they had seen it with their own eyes, and the feeling was completely different.

Using Shadow Dance-level skills to farm level 30 monsters was like an adult fighting a five- or six-year-old child—completely effortless.

Nie Yan killed the five scale frogs, bent down to pick up the items they had dropped, and saw Yao Yao and the others. "Is something wrong?"

"Sun said that while he was searching for elite scale frogs, he accidentally encountered a scale frog leader. He was chased for a long time and almost died, but he managed to escape," Yao Yao said. She was also very surprised by what Nie Yan had done, but she was used to it. Nie Yan was someone who created legends.

Nie Yan's heart skipped a beat. After so long, he had finally found another scale frog leader. He wondered what good items it would drop. "Where is it?" he asked.

"The coordinates are 238.282.287. He's watching it over there, telling us to hurry," Yao Yao asked with a slightly worried tone, "Can we kill the scale frog leader?"

"I've killed one before. Let's go together," Nie Yan said.

The group headed in that direction.

As for how Nie Yan had killed the five scale frogs without taking any damage, no one asked. In their eyes, it was like an untouchable myth, perhaps Nie Yan's secret.

After a while, Nie Yan and the others arrived at Sun's location and met up with him. Sun looked disheveled, with only a sliver of health remaining. He was sitting under a tree eating bread to recover his health.

Seeing Nie Yan and the others, Sun quickly stood up and greeted them. "Brother Nie Yan, you're here."

Nie Yan patted Sun on the shoulder. "Good job." At this level, accidentally encountering a scale frog leader and being chased by it, yet still surviving, was something that no more than five people in the entire Carol City could accomplish.

"Where's the scale frog leader?" Bai Kaishui asked, looking around.

"Over there." Sun pointed into the distance. Among the dense trees, a huge scale frog was lying prone, its entire body red, like blood. It was slightly different from the scale frog leader that Nie Yan and the others had encountered before, but it was definitely a leader monster. Different forms of leader monsters had different skills.

It was a slightly mutated scale frog leader, but as long as it wasn't a super-mutated or demonized one, its strength wouldn't be much different from a normal scale frog leader.

"Can we use Mist Dust against the scale frog leader?" Sun asked. He thought that they could use Mist Dust to kill the scale frog leader, just like they had killed the elite scale frogs.

Nie Yan shook his head. "The scale frog leader's vision range is different from that of regular scale frogs." According to the method he and Tang Yao had used to kill the scale frog leader before, they could definitely kill the one in front of them. However, he had some ideas. With Shadow Dance skills, he could solo the scale frog leader! The scale frog leader's speed couldn't compare to Nie Yan's, so Nie Yan's Shadow Dance skills would be effective against it, as long as he was careful to avoid its magic skills.

"Then what do we do? Should we ask Brother Cancan Daoguang to come over?" Sun asked. Among everyone, only Cancan Daoguang could withstand the scale frog leader's attacks. Anyway, they were all nearby, so with more than ten people together, they could definitely kill the scale frog leader.

"No need, I'll do it," Nie Yan said. After comprehending the skills of Shadow Dance, he was fully confident in killing this scale frog leader.

"You alone?" Everyone was stunned.

"One person is enough," Nie Yan said to Sun, who was standing next to him. "Pay more attention to my movements. It will definitely help you."

Nie Yan was thinking that if he demonstrated the skills of Shadow Dance to Sun, with Sun's comprehension, he might gain some insight.

~~Summoning recommendation tickets......