As the scouting party continued onward, the sky had gradually darkened. It had also become more shadowy within the jungle.
At this time, the several special items that Zhang Yun had given to the Murlocs began to activate, and all of them shone yellow lights that extended out to 5 meters. He had also used those lights to look at the surroundings clearly.
[Equipment Name: Mining Helmet]
[Rarity: **]
[Limit Break Number: Max]
[Level: Max]
[Equipment Slot: Head]
[Skill: Flashlight (Automatically triggered when entering any dark locations. It shines light and will light up the area within a 5 meters radius.)]
[Summary: Don't ask. My answer is that it's powered by nuclear energy. It will light up the night for all eternity.]
That was just a normal item within the game. Zhang Yun had used it last night, and he had used it similar to how he was using it now, equipping it on the heads of the Murlocs and using them as "lamp posts" to illuminate his surroundings.
As they were equipment, all of them had durability. He would need to repair them after using them for some time, or he would not be able to continue using them.
Therefore, Zhang Yun did not take too many out of Storage. He only took four out. He was using one of them, and the other three were on the heads of the Murlocs being sent out to scout.
He had around 5,000 from his Storage…
He had even forgotten where he got them.
Using the lights, the scouting party had managed to attract a bunch of creatures that lived on the island that were noctural. They hid in the darkness, and suddenly ambushed the Murlocs.
Smack!
With one blade!
The Murlocs had cut down the ambusher!
Smack!
A follow-up attack!
It had killed the ambusher!
Leveling up had never been this relaxing and easy.
As the Murlocs' levels had surpassed the island's residents by around three or four levels as well as having the boost from the classes, it was quite easy for them to deal with these enemies.
"That being said, where is that monster? It came over to kill two Murlocs, and disappeared?" Zhang Yun was feeling quite puzzled. The only thing that he could do now was to follow the scouting party's vision and look out for its trace.
Very quickly, the scouting party had discovered a few of the locals. It was the same as last time. They were finished off in two strikes.
If they could not, then they would give it a third strike, a fourth strike, and strike it until it was dead.
As the monsters kept on attacking the Murlocs, each of the Murlocs had all gained enough experience to level up to level 10. Their profiles also reflected this change.
Name: Tidal Murloc
Race: Murloc
Legacy: N/A
Title: N/A
Level: 10
Experience Points (XP): 0
Health Points (HP): 730/730
Stamina Points (SP): 140/140
Attributes: STR 10, AGI 7, CON 6, INT 1, WILL 0, CHA 0
Unassigned Attribute Points: 0
Skills: Symbiosis (Lv2: Upon death, symbiotic parasites take control of the body to continue fighting. All Attributes reduced by 47%; dying in this condition will be permanent; if not engaged in combat, the body can remain animated for up to five minutes, after which it falls.)
…
Class: Warrior
Class Level: Level 1
Class Attributes: STR 5, AGI 3, WILL 2
EX Skill: Slightly increase physical attack (Increase physical attack by 10%)
Class Skill: Continuous Strike (LV1, continuously attack the enemy three times at the same location.), Yell (LV 1, begin yelling to increase one's own courage, slightly increase physical attack.)
…
Equipment: Rusted Scimitar (ATK +5)
Summoner: Zhang Yun
Affiliation: Tidal Kingdom
Overall Rating: * (out of three stars)
[Summary: A foot soldier of the Tidal Kingdom, able to do battle in the water as well as on land. More agile when underwater. Sentient race, but not much growth potential.]
…
After looking at the Murlocs' profiles after the level ups, Zhang Yun smiled and excitedly snapped his fingers and said, "Nice!"
For the time being, his own level-ups and that of his followers were exactly the same. The skills that they learned and the timing when they learned the new skills were also the same, and there were not any strange modifications to them.
It seemed that the level ups and boosts after this should also be the same as the game. There was no need for him to worry that the strategies in his mind would become useless.
At the same time, he did not need to worry, that as his skills and stats had been modified, he would need to spend extra resources to summon additional followers or repair originally unneeded equipment…
That was why he felt somewhat annoyed that the loot mechanic had been deleted.
'That was too damn much!'
After leveling up, the Murloc scouting party became even more powerful. They would continue onward with little care with the lights on their head, and if they met any creatures that lived on the island, they would either give them a slash or wait for them to come over and then give them a slash.
With the percentage buff from their EX Skill, the Murlocs' attacks had doubled. Normally, monsters would drop after one attack. Even if they were to encounter the Armored Python, they could also pierce through the high defense granted by its scales.
However, because of the existence of the threshold, the experience points that they gained from killing monsters had significantly decreased. Even if the efficiency of mowing down monsters had increased, their rate of level growth had actually decreased. If they wanted to break through these limitations, they had to fight monsters that were beyond level 10. Either that or fight elite monsters that had yet to reach level 10 but were higher in rankings as well as bosses.
However, Zhang Yun had explored more than one-third of the island. Other than the monster that ambushed them, all the monsters did not have high star ratings, or they had low levels.
Even if the unexplored two-thirds of the island had powerful creatures, there would only be a few. Maybe a dozen.
That was why Zhang Yun wanted to level up the ordinary Murlocs all up to level 10…
It was midnight.
The scouting party was still exploring.
Zhang Yun felt tired by just watching them for a long time. He did not pay any more attention to the Murlocs that he had given strict orders to and went back to his tent to have a good night's sleep.
He was not worried that the ambushing monster would attack him at night since there were still five Murlocs guarding him. If he were ambushed, the system prompt would wake him up immediately.
Similarly, if the scouting party was attacked by the ambushing monster, he could easily go and check what was going on over there.
And then, nothing, and the night passed peacefully. Zhang Yun managed to sleep till dawn without interruptions.
He unzipped the tent and went out, and he saw the five Murlocs that were still guarding the surroundings of the tent with their eyes closed, scimitars in hand.
While they looked like they were asleep, in actual fact, they had really fallen asleep. But with their powerful reflexes, it mattered little even if they were asleep. They could react instantly the moment enemies attacked.
On the other side, the scouting party pushed on for the entire night. He had no idea how long they had trekked, and what kind of enemies they had encountered, but they looked like they were still quite healthy.
There were no missing members among the Murlocs, and all of them did not have any limbs missing. However, they did have a few injuries here and there.
As they were too far, Zhang Yun could not see their actual status. However, he could see their levels. All of them were still at level 10. However, he noticed that one of them was quite strange. Its experience bar was much higher than all the other Murlocs combined.
'What's going on?
'I didn't give it any specific commands, why would it feed on all the experience?
'Don't tell me…'
Zhang Yun was shocked as he remembered one of the mechanics that were in the game.
"Can it be that it had triggered Innate Evolution?"