Hearing his teammate's words, DarkSaber froze, quickly opening the level leaderboard and saw something that made him feel deeply uneasy.
Ranked first, Blackshade had leveled up to 13, and within just fifteen minutes, had leveled up again!
DarkSaber thought he must be seeing things.
What was Blackshade doing? Was he spending hours without leveling up or suddenly jumping from level 12 to 14 in one go?
This was absurd.
DarkSaber knew that after level 10, the experience required to level up was several times more than before, and with the increase in monster attributes, leveling efficiency should have dropped. How was Blackshade unaffected by all that, and even getting faster?
One of the Shadow Legion members speculated, "Maybe Blackshade wasn't leveling up earlier because he was looking for a good grinding spot, like a monster nest or something."
This player was on to something. It was very close to the truth.
Other Shadow Legion members agreed.
"Now that you mention it, it makes sense. Instead of just hunting monsters everywhere, it'd be more efficient to find a nest and farm monsters."
"I heard Blackshade has an auto-skill that allows him to kill a lot of monsters really quickly. When he was leveling up with Drake before, that's exactly how he did it. His efficiency was insane."
"Too bad we don't know what skill that is, or we'd go farm there too. Who knows, we might catch up with Blackshade."
"Could it be something he got from an advanced class quest? I heard Ivan was boasting on the forums that he passed a hidden four-star quest and got a full set of Silver Grade equipment."
"Damn, a full set? How much is that worth?"
"I want to do an advanced class quest too!"
"Go to bed, you haven't even hit level 5. Focus on leaving the newbie village first."
The constant chatter made DarkSaber feel even more frustrated, and he shouted, "Shut up!"
The Shadow Legion members immediately went silent, but their expressions were full of discontent. Did they still have no right to speak?
DarkSaber's tone softened as he spoke again, "Instead of wasting time talking here, we should kill more wild monsters. Drake's already level 10, I can't fall behind. If that old guy teleports to the 5246 newbie village and secretly buys the Guild Token, we'll be in deep trouble!"
Normally, DarkSaber wasn't so patient, but after the player with LV3 Flare was poached from their side, he decided to be a bit more restrained.
That thought alone made DarkSaber angry again.
Damn Drake, always opposing him.
The Shadow Legion members were now nervous. DarkSaber had promised that whoever created the guild first would get rewards. If someone else beat them to it, they would get nothing.
With that thought in mind, they closed the level leaderboard. No need to care about Blackshade's progress anymore. His leveling speed had nothing to do with them.
Meanwhile, Drake, who had just switched to new gear and started challenging the adventure-level Crimson Tomb, paused and said, "No wonder Blackshade is so strong. Leveling up for him seems as easy as drinking water."
Cleric Sophie remarked, "To level up from 12 to 14 in one go, he must've killed at least a thousand or two wild monsters. Where did he find all those?"
The Archer responded, "That's a question for Blackshade himself."
The Assassin, caressing his Bloodletting Blade, said, "What I want to know is, after he leveled up, did he have any old gear to swap out? I can't wait to take over."
Drake, annoyed, replied, "I know you're talking about gear, but something feels off."
The Archer solemnly declared, "I don't know this guy."
Cleric Sophie also moved a little further away.
It wasn't clear to her that this guy had such habits.
The Assassin jumped in anger, shouting, "What kind of look are you giving me! Do I look like some kind of gear-grabber?!"
The others all responded in unison.
"Yeah, you do!"
It wasn't just DarkSaber and Drake. It wasn't even limited to players from the Valoria Kingdom. All players who had been keeping an eye on the level rankings were wondering the same thing: how was Blackshade leveling up so quickly?
It was either that he did nothing for hours, or when he did act, it was explosive.
At the same time, Ivan, who had just killed a few wild monsters, casually opened the level rankings and was immediately stunned.
He rubbed his eyes to confirm he wasn't seeing things, then let out a loud scream, "What the hell!"
The last time he checked the rankings, he was level 11 and Blackshade was at 12. It had been a long time since there was any change, and Ivan thought Blackshade had finally hit a wall in his leveling.
Now, Blackshade was level 13?!
This speed was outrageous!
As the second player to reach level 11, Ivan knew just how hard it was to level up after level 10. The difficulty was on a whole different level. Even he had to put in significant effort.
So how was Blackshade doing this so easily?
Before Ivan could process all this, he saw Blackshade's level jump again—straight to 14.
"Damn it, those sneaky Valoria players must be cheating!" Ivan thought angrily.
"I'm going to report Blackshade! I'll expose his tricks!"
But then Ivan realized something.
This damn game didn't even have customer service. It was supposedly run by some advanced AI system.
In other words, even if he wanted to report Blackshade, there was nowhere to submit his complaint.
Ivan froze.
This was a whole new experience for him.
Meanwhile, Tristan, unaware of the outside chaos, was solely focused on exterminating the goblins in the valley.
After a series of brutal attacks, the number of goblins had significantly decreased, creating more space for them to scatter. The effect of Rain of Corruption also weakened, as it could no longer wipe out multiple squads at once.
But it didn't matter much.
Bonecrusher had completely lost its composure, its eyes bloodshot with rage.
Some of the regular goblins, terrified, tried to flee the valley, only to be smashed into pulp by Bonecrusher.
"No one is allowed to retreat until that Stealth attacker is dead!" Bonecrusher issued a final, deadly command.
Several Silver Grade goblins inwardly groaned. Their minions had already been wiped out, and even if they killed the Stealth attacker, they couldn't recover their losses.
Bonecrusher wasn't worried. With its reputation, it could easily rebuild a new settlement.
But the Silver Graders weren't so fortunate.
At the moment, they had only one thought on their minds: regret.
If only they hadn't come to this damn meeting. Building a goblin kingdom? Why not just stay as the chief of a monster nest?
But it was too late for regrets. The only solution now was to kill the enemy.
Time passed slowly.
Drake, having just finished off the first boss with a sweat-drenched brow, was about to check what loot he had gotten when he suddenly heard the Assassin shout, "What the hell?"
Drake immediately opened the level rankings.
NO.1 - Blackshade, Level 15
"Shit!" Drake cursed loudly.
Blackshade's level was still going up?!