After leaving the alchemy shop, Rita made a quick visit to the auction house. Just then, she received a message from Shadow.Q.
[Shadow.Q]: "The underwater alien army has landed along the coast. Want to level up?"
She glanced at a skill inside the auction house.
[Bloodthirsty Butcher] (Passive) (S-grade): "Each kill automatically extracts a small amount of the opponent's power source. It can be used at any time to restore health, or condensed into an energy crystal that, when consumed, can recharge the blood source for life-tier evolution, though the effect is minimal."
An S-grade skill for only 20,000 gold coins. The effect seemed weak, but Rita decided to purchase it, emptying all her gold coins and even selling a batch of [Little Fish Kingdom's King] to gather the required funds.
After acquiring the skill book, she learned it immediately and grabbed her cat-shaped headgear. She then flew straight to the coast.
The situation had already turned chaotic. Everywhere she looked, there were aliens and players around level 12. Not many had the ability to fly, but the oak owls were already soaring through the cities, with planes intercepting them in the skies.
Along the coastline, there were groups of random players as well as players from various legions. Each legion had its emblem above their heads, accompanied by a blinding mix of skills, creating a mess of light in the air. The ground was littered with corpses—both aliens and players. Most players were getting more and more absorbed in the fighting, but the players who had reached the front lines were all fearless fighters.
The battle was intense. It was hard to tell who was winning, though the alien forces generally had higher levels. Still, the coastline also had various technological weapons, warships at sea, and planes overhead.
The entire coastline was crowded with fighting, so Rita decided to fly out above the sea, halting 100 meters above the surface. Below her were countless health bars—all aliens, accompanied by the water spirits guiding them, allowing these aliens to breathe underwater as they steadily approached the land.
She quickly consumed some high-level food to boost her attack power and then pulled out [Ember] to start clearing the monsters. She had no intention of hiding her power anymore, nor was there any need to.
Before obtaining [Midnight Exile], if she had faced off against Eclipse Vanguard, she would have had to rely on various potions and the oak owl fruit to supplement her strength. But now, with just her skills and attributes, she could go head-to-head with the entire Eclipse Vanguard.
Hovering in mid-air, she aimed her gun at the sea and fired off [Meteor Shower].
A bullet flew from her barrel, dragging a violent wind vortex behind it. As the bullet neared the water, an invisible whirlwind lifted the seawater, creating a water tornado. The bullet hit the seabed, triggering a storm that swept up countless aliens who had yet to land, instantly draining their health.
There were players shouting for revives or team invitations, but Rita ignored them. She grew more ruthless and cold-hearted in her monster-killing, frightening off many players with her brutal methods.
After clearing an area, she flew along the coastline, continuing her slaughter. She stayed far from the warships, focusing only on the areas where aliens gathered. There was no chance of accidentally hitting a Blue Star player in these regions.
She glanced toward another stretch of coastline and saw Sanchez and Shadow.Q. The two, both with wings, were nearby farming monsters. Sanchez, being a melee fighter, had already landed on the sea, using a snowboard as a surfboard, occasionally diving into the water to kill some aliens and then surfacing again.
Shadow.Q, on the other hand, was using a staff for long-range combat. Rita couldn't help but envy the fact that Shadow.Q had an ability that allowed her to automatically gather loot from her kills.
After obtaining [Bloodthirsty Butcher], Rita noticed that each time she killed an alien, a blood-colored light appeared beside her head. The more she killed, the more light points accumulated, giving the impression that a tiny blood-colored sprite was following her around.
She could draw energy from these points to restore health at any time. It wasn't much—each blood-colored light could restore about 0.1% of her health or mana.
After killing 1,000 aliens, Rita clenched her hand around a blood-colored light orb. It solidified into an irregular-shaped blood crystal about the size of a pistachio nut.
She summoned Nivalis and fed her the blood crystal, eagerly waiting for a response.
Nivalis, meeting Rita's gaze, said honestly, "It's a bit better... but if you want to really recover, we might need about a million of these crystals. Could I help you kill monsters outside?"
Hearing such an enormous number, Rita wasn't disappointed. If it was useful, that was good enough.
She shook her head. "It's not good for you to level up before fully recovering."
Both she and Nivalis had gained some experience in the World Battleground, and after returning, Rita had jumped to level 17. Nivalis was slightly behind but close to leveling up as well.
Nivalis spoke, "I can compress my current experience to boost my advanced attributes."
Rita blinked. "You can do that?"
Nivalis nodded, "Yes, Black Jade must have evolved into a flood dragon this way, continually compressing their strength."
Rita grinned. "Okay, go ahead."
Nivalis didn't make any movements but stared into the void. After a few seconds, she said, "Done," and immediately transformed back into her true form, with Rita standing on top of her head.
They soared together, diving into the waves. Nivalis exhaled a mighty dragon breath, causing the sea to boil as numerous health bars vanished beneath the surface in the blink of an eye.
Letting out a victorious roar, Nivalis looked at Rita and said, "I'm waiting for you to evolve me into the strongest dragon in the world."
Rita felt a sense of clarity and joy fill her as she listened. "I will."
Shadow.Q, meanwhile, had time to message her again.
[Shadow.Q]: "Sanchez has nearly gathered everything, just missing the Candlebeast's flame tip. I'll get it in three days. Do you have time this weekend to help us close the dungeon barrier?"
[Rita]: "Have you figured out the oak owl's specific materials?"
[Shadow.Q]: "Not yet, but we'll bring the complete corpse and try it."
[Rita]: "I can make time."
By this point, Rita had fully recovered from the debuff caused by the soul shock. She was also curious about the rewards for closing the dungeon barrier.
Rita didn't linger at the coast. After about three hours of grinding and accumulating 20 blood crystals to give Nivalis, she returned to her dungeon to continue working on her light feathers.
It wasn't that she didn't want to farm more, but she couldn't pick up any loot from the coast. While she wasn't poor, it was always best to save and spend wisely, especially when it came to items she couldn't gather herself. This was frustrating.
Since that day, Rita had established a routine of farming for two hours daily at the coastline, accumulating blood crystals, and then returning home to continue her work.