"Fuck! Is this a way to treat a human?"
Zamir cursed as another one of the Wild Dogs pursuing him pounced and tried to take a bite of his buttcheeks. He quickly sped up and avoided the fatal wound, all the while cursing the mastermind of this plan, me, who was standing atop the hillock and directing him.
Stivi eyed the man and the four packs of dogs chasing after him and turned towards me, asking, "Should we push the boulder now?"
I calculated the distance in my mind and determined that the dogs could still move out of the way of the rolling boulder. If that happened, we would've wasted our efforts with nothing to show for it.
I shook my head and signaled Zamir to climb up the slope a little more. Finally, he was at the perfect spot.
Hardbro immediately cast the Icy Wind on the pack of Wild Dogs on my signal and stepped aside. The spell did not cause enough damage to attract the hatred of the packs but it slowed them down.
"Now!" I yelled and gave the giant boulder a mighty push. Big Softie and Stivi followed my lead and lent their strength in pushing the boulder down the slope.
The boulder rolled down with a loud rumble. Slowly but surely, it started to gather momentum. As it neared Zamir and the packs of dogs, its speed was too fast to avoid without warning.
Zamir had already noticed the rock coming towards him, and he dived out of its way at the last moment. The packs of dogs behind him were not so lucky.
They paused as they saw their target stop and began to regroup when suddenly, a shadow of a massive object fell upon them.
Woof?
One of the pack leaders looked up and barked with a puzzled expression. Before it could process the incoming threat, the boulder had already fallen on him, crushing its bones and that of its packmates.
The boulder did not stop there and continued to roll down the slope with ever-increasing momentum. Any unfortunate pack of dogs that crossed its paths was flattened into pancakes.
"Now this is Rock 'n' Roll, baby!"
HardBro said with a grin as we watched the giant rolling stone gradually slow down and come to a halt in the distance. A huge groove line marked the path the boulder had taken, and its length neared a thousand meters!
Meanwhile, as soon as the boulder came to a stop, a white light fell on me. Notifications began to ring in my ears, proving that my guess was correct. Since I had orchestrated this whole disaster and pushed the rock, the dogs dying under its impact were considered my kills.
I opened the notification window and frowned upon seeing the amount of exp I received.
[You have orchestrated a disaster. Your disaster has killed an Lv5 Wild Dog. You have received 31 Exp.]
Only 31 exp? How come it is so low?
After some calculations, I realized that I had only received 25% of the base 125 exp a player would receive after killing a Wild Dog. It did not include the bonus exp I received for challenging the higher-level mobs either.
Still, it was a substantial amount, more than the amount you would receive from killing the Lv1 Biter Sheeps.
Most importantly, the notifications for kills did not stop.
[You have created a disaster. Your disaster has killed…]
[You have created a disaster. Your disaster has killed…]
.
.
.
Soon, another beam of white light flashed on me, and I reached Lv4.
This speed was unprecedented at this stage of the game since no one could spam their AOE skills and kill monsters in dozens.
The Dreamverse VR as supposed to be the playing ground of real world martial arts experts, but not even they with their extraordinary control over their bodies would be able to match my speed of level up.
Even if they found out my trick, it was unlikely they could monopolize all the exp. It was only possible for me because I was with a team that did not take away a single exp point from me.
In normal circumstances, the exp would've been shared with BigSoftie and Stivi, who helped me push the boulder. However, since their exp gain was blocked, their share of the exp was also transferred to me.
Truly, if I had refused to accompany them out of pride, then there wouldn't have been a bigger fool than me. A quick look at my exp bar was enough to squash any guilt I felt about enjoying the fruits of their labor.
What surprised me more was that even after leveling up, the exp bar continued to rise. The notifications also did not stop ringing. As I scrolled through them, one particular notice caught my eye.
[The disaster you have created has claimed 10 lives. You have received the title, {Manufacturer of Disasters}.]
{Manufacturer of Disasters: All AOE skills do +5% damage.}
After reading the effects of the title, I could not help but laugh.
Here I did not even have a single skill, much less an AOE skill, and yet I had received a title that would boost its effects. Truly this was like putting the cart before the horse. Still, this title would help a lot when I would change into the Archer Class later.
The AOE capabilities of the Archers were on par with the Mages in Dreamverse VR.
Many AOE skills for Archers are available in the wild, and the Profession's Instructors also taught a few. Archers could even create their own skills, which would be recognized by the system if certain parameters were met.
No matter how the skill was learned, as long as an Archer possessed an AOE skill, he would become the nemesis of the Light Armored groups.
If the Armor Piercing arrows were used, an Archer could also wreak havoc in the ranks of Heavy Armored Tanks and prove just as effective as a Mage in terms of damage.
So, this title was like a cherry on top of the cake. The only thing was I didn't have the cake; That is I had to yet find an AOE skill.
The increase in the exp bar finally came to a stop after rising to 79.7%. This one rolling rock had really given me huge harvests in terms of exp. Now it was time to check the loot that I could share with Stivi and her party.
We quickly descended down the mountain and reached Zamir. He had already marked the dead ones and nearly dead ones.
I quickly put the 4 dogs out of their misery and received another 65 points of exp per dog for my efforts.
Looking at the carnage on the ground, Zamir looked at me with a hint of admiration. When he saw that I had gained a level from this single event, his respect only increased.
The Assassin patted me on the shoulder and said, "I didn't really believe RedQueen when she said that you can cause more damage than us just by relying on your head. Now…"
He simply glanced at the numerous mangled corpses littered on the ground to express his surrender.
Stivi grinned proudly like my achievement was hers. She was even happier than me after Zamir praised my abilities, making me speechless.
I acknowledged the Uncle with a nod and rubbed my hands with excitement for another round of loot. Crouching over the pile of corpses, I started to harvest them.
The very first corpse was a dud. It reduced to dust without leaving anything behind. The same was the case for the second one. However, the third time was the charm. I finally found one White Fang from the third corpse.
I noticed a pattern after searching a few more corpses. Those with their jaws intact left behind at least one or even two White Fangs. As for the rest, nothing was left behind but dust.
When all the corpses before us had turned to dust, I had 13 White Fangs in my hands. These were only the corpses of dogs that Zamir had lured over.
There were also many unwitting victims further down the slopes, waiting for us.
We followed the colossal groove carved in the ground and put the Wild Dogs caught up in this manufactured disaster out of misery.
At the end of our harvest, we had collected 6 more of White Fangs. Including the 3 we found earlier, we had a total of 22 of them.
The eyes of everyone in the party shined with joy. They could not wait to go back to the Village and exchange these White Fangs for a White-Wood grade Shield!
Unfortunately, Stivi and her Party could not enter the Village, since they were on a Penance Quest. Naturally, the responsibility to exchange the Shield fell on me, the only one who could enter the Village.
As they say, sharpening an ax does not delay the chopping of wood. Similarly, upgrading our equipment would not delay our quest. If anything, it would only make it easier.
So, we made a trip back to Village, where Stivi and her Party waited outside the gates while I went in to buy the Shield.