Following Tyrell's comment, the group bursts out laughing, unable to hide their amusement.
Russel, now clearly embarrassed, scratches his head as he tries to defend himself.
"Hey, he just looked like he was having a good time. I don't want to regress into an ape!"
Astaria having finally got her laughter under control explains what likely happened to Russel.
"He probably was not on drugs, you see, since the games immersion is effectively 100%, especially with the maximum pain settings, the thrill of gaining strength so quickly can give you a natural high. Judging by the looks of that guy, he highly values his personal strength and most likely invested all his new skill points into the STR stat, thus producing a ton of dopamine and leading to a similar effect to cocaine. Although I can't explain the pinecone, that one was a bit random."
With everyone showing their understanding of Astaria's revelation, Roxanne raises her head to ask a question.
"So, what you are saying is that levelling up quickly can act like a form of drug?"
With a nod Astaria continues her explanation.
"Some people experience this at the beginning, yes. However, as the body gradually gets used to the sensation of stats increasing, along with the fact that the higher the players stat gets, the less impact the increment will have overall."
Shaking his head, Tyrell comments.
"God damn, this game is seriously nuts. I wonder what other crazy shit will happen."
With a sigh, Astaria waves her hand dismissing the matter.
"Nothing for now, I will talk more about it later. Anyway, let's get back to grinding. If you guys are confident you might be able to grind against higher level goblins, but don't overestimate yourself as it will just slow down your XP gain per hour or result in time wasted walking back from a respawn point."
Stretching her arms as Ash walks up to her, Astaria calls out.
"Ready to go?"
With a thumbs up, Ash answers her.
"I'm good to go. I have gotten used to the goblins movements and have become a little more proficient with the sword so can cover you from the front if a goblin gets close."
Hearing Ash's comments Astaria lets out a short laugh as she leads him to the depths of Woodspike Forest.
"I appreciate the offer, but at the moment I don't cast many spells. It would be too costly on my mana given the clearance speed. Just follow and cover me like we usually do."
Patting her swords hilt to hint to Ash how she will be fighting, they make their way into the depths of the forest where lv 10 goblins can be found as she starts to explain a few tips and offers some warnings to him.
Apart from the goblin boss, the highest-level goblins in the forest are at Lv 10, meaning that they are the most efficient targets to use to level up.
Unfortunately, due to the level difference Astaria had with Ben, it would have only been worth coming here after he had reached Lv 6, but given the travel time, it was more efficient to stay where they were grinding. Thankfully that is no longer an issue, meaning that Ash can receive the full benefit from killing the high-level goblins.
Making their way through the trees, the atmosphere of the forest grows darker as the canopy above them became thicker. The level 10 goblins come in groups of at least 10 making them hard for new players to handle. Their strength and speed are much higher than their lower levelled counterparts, meaning that if you go in unprepared, the goblins will easily kill you.
Thankfully however, their increase in strength is all they have, as their intelligence and the volume of their high-pitched screams remain the same.
After 15 minutes of jogging, they make it to the edge of the central area and can easily see the glow of a campfire.
Astaria, giving Ash a simple glance, starts to move forward as they both unsheathe their weapons in unison. Entering within a short range of the campfire, the 11 goblins that are around the campfire quickly spot her, picking up their weapons to rush and attack. Quickly smashing her staff into the ground, she deals with the first two that come into range before she returns her staff and starts her graceful dance decapitating goblins.
Giving a glance back she can see that Ash is standing stunned while staring at her.
Ash is standing still, captivated by the beautiful girl moving around killing the goblins with ease, and simply watches. He suddenly realises that he is not getting any experience notifications which snaps him back to his senses. Readying his sword, he quickly moves behind Astaria to the left, swinging his two handed great sword up at a goblin that is moving to flank her.
Seeing that Ash's brain is starting to work again, she ignores the goblin moving to her left knowing that Ash will dispatch it, and instead slashes at the next goblin in-front of her, while sidestepping its spear and moving her feet into a position she can easily swing her sword from.
Swiftly finishing off the remaining goblins in a similar fashion, Astaria begins looting while looking at the notification in-front of her.
[Lv 10 -> 11]
[All Attributes +1]
[+5 stat points]
[+1 skill point]
Over the fight Astaria accumulated the remaining 68.7% XP she had needed to reach Lv 11 and is now 7.2% on her way to reaching Lv 12. She also managed to gain 29 more skill points in this time, all adding to the stock she has already accumulated.
Coming out of her thoughts as Ash walks up to her, she moves on to looting the next goblin.
"Sorry, I missed some of the XP at the start. Honestly, you looked like you were dancing through those goblins, it was amazing to watch!"
Looking up, Astaria responds with a smug grin.
"Well, due to the way I build my class, I don't have much strength, so when fighting monsters like this I use my movements to produce more force in my swings, so I guess that is what gives the impression I am dancing."
Hearing Astaria's response, Ash nods, deciding to help her by dragging some of the corpses over to speed the looting process up.
Looting the remaining goblins nearby, Ash follows Astaria as she starts running through goblin camps with no restraint. Since Ash is covering her back, she can fight more freely, clearing camps at a speed no new player could hope to manage.
After 3 and a half hours of grinding goblins, the message they are waiting for to let them know that everyone had hit Lv 10 finally comes through. Astaria and Ash managed to kill the absurd number of 798 goblins on their rampage, only taking them a few minutes to kill every goblin in each camp.
They were able to sustain this pace with the 4 fatigue restoration potions they had both prepared beforehand. Throughout the time spent grinding Astaria had also needed to use 4 mana potions despite her mana consumption being eased by her new [Mana Heart].
The number of goblins they killed in this short time was thanks only to the potions that sustained their stamina allowing them to kill without needing to rest, proving just how valuable potions are.
Looting the last goblin Astaria calls out to Ash while breathing quite heavily after all the running and fighting.
"The message just came through how are you doing?"
Ash who was leaning on his sword looking less worn out than Astaria replies through heavy breathing.
"Ha, finally a chance to take a break. That was way too intense…"
Shaking her head, Astaria walks over and sits on a large tree root nearby.
"What is your XP at now?
Not bothering to find somewhere to sit, Ash just flops to the ground, laying on his back.
"Lv 16, 77.6%. You?"
With a nod of satisfaction, Astaria replies, leaning against a tree.
"Lv 16, 79.2%. Congratulations on being the 2 ranked player in levels."
With a light laugh, Ash gives a thumbs up.
"Thanks, although the 0.2% XP per goblin is killing me."
With a sigh, Astaria inwardly agrees with Ash.
"Just wait till after lv 20. The XP gain slows down quite harshly. At least you now have a lot of skill points, you should have gained over 200 right?"
Clearly sounding quite happy, Ash exclaims.
"Yeah, it feels like so much!"
Feeling a bit bad, Astaria pours cold water over Ash's expectations.
"Well to max out a regular skill and all its addons takes 200 skill points, so if you want to max out all of your class's pre awakened skills you will need over 2500 skill points. After class awakening, depending on what you choose, you may require more than 5000. And of course, the XP requirement increases after every 50 you gain."
Hearing Astaria's words, Ash raises his head to look at her, his face showing utter dismay. Letting out a laugh at his expression she gives him some words of comfort.
"Don't worry about the details too much. I know all the perfect places to grind, so you should be able to easily max out all of your skills in no time."
Standing up now she was feeling less tired, Astaria walks over to Ash and stretches out her hand. Grasping Ash's hand, she helps him up.
Dusting off his armour, he looks at Astaria.
"Thanks. Let's go."
With their short break over, they sluggishly move to regroup with everyone else at the edge of the central area of the forest. By the time they all arrive, the sun is starting to set in the distance. Sitting down, everyone is now quite tired so take some time to recover and eat some food.
As everyone is quite tired the conversation is quite sparse, as they take the chance to update their status pages.
Astaria who has gained herself 6 more levels is quite pleased. Remembering back, the highest-level player by the official launch was Lv8. He was a sword instructor of HEMA, Historic European Martial Arts, and had been quite lucky entering the world near an area where Goblins spawn. He apparently managed to find some competent team members and had spent a long-time grinding.
Turning her thoughts back to her status page, she starts to read through and update it.