At a glance, the expansive canyon before Kaiden had a weathered feel. Moreover, looking upward the edges of the canyon were covered in a slight layer of frost. However, this didn't take away from the silt and dirt that resided underneath. This canyon didn't look like it was a naturally occurring creation either.
It seemed as if someone split the earth and once split it rose from the ground; as a result, this canyon came to be. This was the Biting Wind Canyon and it housed a combination of various different types of monsters ranging from Lv.59 to 72. It was a step above the Crescent Gale Valley. Granted, Kaiden could've ventured back to the Crescent Gale Valley; however, due to the increasing activity of skilled players whose combat ability existed outside the boundary of their stats, the valley was becoming needlessly overcrowded.
Hence, gathering this information—Kaiden didn't waste precious time heading back there and instead came here. Although the travel time was many times longer, the possibilities of experience to be gained were amazing.
Not to mention, he had the experience buff that he received from the Subterranean Molten Morphing Trial—so he had to take advantage of that. Nearly 1 day of it already elapsed.
Turning his head, Kaiden's eyes focused on a pack of white wolves in the distance. They were slightly bigger than the Ash Wolves from the forest. Their physique seemed more robust, as they walked their backs rippled with strength. However, because they were flesh type monsters, Kaiden held no qualms.
Lv.63 [Frost Wolves] (Elite)
Health: 2,690,540/2,690,540
Attack: 4,450
Defense: 3,985
Skills: [Frost Bite], [Ice Blast], [Frigid Swipe]
Startled, Kaiden blinked. He was able to ascertain the status of their Attack and Defense now! As well as the name of their skills. This meant when going into fights, he would no longer be oblivious to the possible skills they possessed. However, it possessed its limitations.
'Hmm, I can only see skill names. I am still unaware of the exact actions. On the other hand, using the skill names I can hypothesize what the skill will look like.'
Gripping his sword, Kaiden kicked off his back foot propelling towards the pack of Frost Wolves at a breakneck speed. Brandishing his blades, Kaiden coated them both in Searing Sword Force, a light red hue covering both Angurvadal and Nightfall. Striking his sword at a peculiar angle, Kaiden slid his foot forward as he twisted his ankle.
-13,901 [-4,865]
Using the momentum of the strike, Kaiden rotated performing a spinning horizontal slash, building on that rotation he delivered an even stronger attack—he executed Revolving Phantom.
-22,519 [7,882] , -36,420 [-12,747]
Kaiden's attack triumphed over the defense of the monsters. As a result, he dealt his regular damage. Not to mention, his race allowed him to ignore even more levels. As such he could comfortably fight against targets 20 levels ahead of his without experiencing suppression. Moreover, the 30% defense ignore he possessed caused his damage to return to its absolute value.
In
However, these monsters weren't like the previous ones that waited to be attacked. The system began adapting to the prowess of more talented people; this of course caused adverse effects for the less talented population. With the increase in the difficulty of battle, the difficulty of leveling up increased correlatively.
Attacking in a staggered fashion, 11 wolves encompassed Kaiden as the timing between their pounces disrupted the window for Kaiden to take evasive actions. As such, left with no other option—Kaiden began waving his swords in a haphazard manner.
However, if you looked closely you would realize the angles he positioned his swords in dealt with the Wolves who focused on his vital area.
(-598) (-679) (-1,008)
Although only 3 attacks broke through his defensive actions, they barely grazed him. However, their Attack was nothing to scoff at. As such, with a sharp gaze—Kaiden began deploying his Sphere of Influence. That oddity was the previous 3-foot radius sphere had expanded to just under 5 feet.
Moreover, he was able to receive slightly better feedback about the ongoing activity inside this sphere. Though that may be true, there still existed a lack of immediate response. He had yet to truly reach the Hyper Intuition Realm; as a result, there was a delay in the information relay.
Lowering the stance, Kaiden's center of gravity shrunk. In response, his swordplay also changed. As the nearest Frost Wolf raised its paw to swipe at Kaiden, he retaliated with an abrupt upward slash.
-1,050 [-345]
In this exchange, Kaiden had won. It was astonishing but against the Elite monsters, although 20 levels higher than him; he held the upper hand in Strength. Moreover, the damage dealt was only the difference between the intensity of the blows.
Far from done, Kaiden switched Nightfall in his right hand to a reverse grip. Spinning, Kaiden executed Second Drive on this action, a cold sheen present in his eyes.
*SPLICH*
"AWOOOOO….!!"
That reverse stab horizontally pierced the Frost Wolf's eyes. The spin reinforced by Second Drive was to0 abrupt for it to respond.
[System: Target: Frost Wolf has been blinded for 16 seconds.]
Withdrawing his weapon from the Frost Wolf, Kaiden waved Angurvadal as he executed Illusive Sword Torrent, knocking the other Frost Wolves back.
-208,512 [-72,979]
With one move, Kaiden shaved off nearly 10% of the surrounding monster's health. Creating breathing space, Kaiden centered his attention on the single blinded wolf.
Kicking off his back foot, Kaiden performed an abrupt upward slash as generous amounts of Sword Force pooled into Angurvadal. In response, a wild, unrefined aerial axle struck the Frost Wolf—he executed Sword Wheel for the first time.
The axle carried with it a slight suction effect, each of the 14 attacks caused the Frost Wolf to ascend in the air by a small margin. As this took place, Kaiden raised Angurvadal in the air as a vague image of a translucent long sword emerged.
Dropping his sword, the image slammed on the airborne Frost Wolf.
*BOOM!*
-12,000 [-4,193] -12,100 [-4,240] 21,562! (Critical) [-7,547]...
-509,186! (Critical) [-178,215]
Slamming against the ground, the blinded Frost Wolf's health remained at no more than 30%. What's more, the Searing Sword Force caused scorch marks that stacked and continuously ate away at the wolf's health. Maneuvering elusively around the Frost Wolf, Kaiden executed the Gale Lightning Dance.
Instantly more than 10% was once again shaved off the health of this Wolf. Finding himself satisfied by the fact he was able to render an Lv60+ Elite to such a state—Kaiden determined it was time to end it.
Vanishing, Kaiden's body turned into a flickering shadowy image. However, an instant later he reappeared from the shadows underneath the Frost Wolf. Stabbing his sword at the chin of the monster, he executed a Sonic Thrust with Angurvandal.
This was his first use of Reaper's Strike.
[Reaper's Strike] - Allows you to morph with the shadows and disappear. Within 1 second reappear within a shadow located at most 20 meters away from your initial position. The next strike dealt will be a Critical. If a vital area is hit, a Vital Critical will absolutely ensue.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
As a result, the helpless Frost Wolf disintegrated into motes of light as Kaiden received a message.
[System: You have performed an Over-level kill. Level difference: 10. As a result, a 500% Experience bonus applied. 100% Experience bonus added. Lv.63 [Frost Wolf] (Elite) slain. 68,032 Experience gained.]
Thanks to his bonuses, loosely speaking—the experience gained was relatively immense. It had to be known the base value of these kills was only slightly over 5,600. However, thanks to the 605% experience bonus, it was a small boon; emphasis on small. The absurdity of the situation was that the extermination of this one monster only served to raise his experience gauge by ~0.01%. You can imagine the sluggish leveling state of the others.
It was now understood why quests which rewarded levels at this time were labeled as basic fortuitous encounters—gaining experience was a horrible thing. Granted, these were only Elites so it was to be understood that the experience acquired wouldn't be the greatest.
Eyeing the rest of the Wolves as prey, Kaiden kicked off his back foot as he dashed madly towards the approaching Frost Wolves. However, due to the depletion of his Concentration at a rather quick pace—Kaiden released his use of the Sphere of Influence.
Mowing through monsters one by one and sometimes in large chunks; slowly but surely, Kaiden's experience gauge incrementally rose. Moreover, he became more adept with the use of his increased stats. Nevertheless, there still existed that minute lag when he performed an action. It wasn't extremely noticeable at this point, however, Kaiden knew it was there and wanted to remedy it.
'Is it because of the synchronization rate? Or is it some other factor? Either way, I need to correct this fault as soon as possible. It could prove to be the leading factor to unforeseen circumstances.' inwardly thought Kaiden as his eyes darted back and forth between his targets.
Meanwhile, as he chopped and diced his monsters, an uproar was taking place within the background.